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king_5c670e17-987e-4ab9-83c3-17387b581b8d	Or our committee of the whole for Monday, July 15th. Madam Clerk, would you be kind enough to call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember County Junior Councilmember Kendall Skinner. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. Yeah. Councilmember Cohen. Councilmember Lambert here. Councilmember of the ground here. Councilmember one right there. Here. Mr. Chair. Sure. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Councilmember Garcia, would you be kind enough to introduce the delegation from China visiting us today? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. When Councilmember Johnson is taking his place. I'd welcome a motion to approve the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the adoption of the minutes of our July 1st meeting. The July 1st meeting. Minutes before I see no discussion. All those in favor, please say I oppose nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. About two or three of us, all of you now have had the opportunity over the years serving as King County Council members to visit and represent our people and the People's Republic of China, as well as in other locales in the Far East. But this afternoon, I'm honored because we have a delegation of politicians like us from China shape provincial people's government that are visiting us today. And it gives me a great deal of pleasure and honor to have us recognize them in the work that they're doing and their leaders. Is Mr. Walsh Armstrong, any incorrect pronunciation is a problem in my mind, out of my heart. I know somebody is interpreting that. So I if it's all right, Mr. Chair, I like Mr. Wu just to say a couple brief words about why they're here. Thank you, Mr.. Oh, come on up to the mike. It'd be better. No, we got to do it in. Interpret a deer chair and a deer. Ladies, gentlemen, it's my honor to speak a few words to represent Shaanxi Province. Well, I am the director general of Foreign Affairs. Office of the Shaanxi government says your government. From China. You take this opportunity to welcome everybody here to come to Shanxi Province, China, anytime. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you so much. We're glad you're here with us today. The committee, the whole church. We will now move to public comment, will limit public comment to 2 minutes and public comment should be addressed to one of the items on today's agenda. Public comments may not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition and should not include obscene speech. If a speaker fails to abide by these rules, they may be ruled out of order and they may be asked to return to their seat. With that said, I believe I have six people signed in for testimony today, beginning with Mr. Zimmerman. Alex Zimmerman, followed by Ron Solomon, either Sanchez Vella and Kasey Pilarski. Z Kyle, my dirty Führer Z Kyle. I'm not a Gestapo. anti-Semite with Animal Farm Animal Farm My name I Zimmerman in the way and speak about agenda number five. How about judges? What is V choice today when come to my brain? What judge I think is supposed to be honest, smart, professional. Is from one. Side and from another side is attorney and statistic in America for attorney very close to car dealer. So I'm totally confused about it. How is this possible? You're absolutely right. So I go in court for the last 35 years, approximately a couple hundred times, and they cannot find the one. And this judge and system is. Very. Make me sick mentally. Yeah, I have experience with Soviet Union judges, you know, I just mean it's old communist, Soviet communist, Soviet judicial system right now. Supposed to be separate this forum. I know this too, but you don't have the cover right now. All three. System is work for a government of all workers who are on the roof. Is this Roma not a social democratic mafia, progressive Gestapo principle? That's exactly what you did with King Country in Seattle. So I'll give you a classic example. What is experience I up in 2008 district court judge make decision so Alexei Merriman cannot go to small claims court in make up like Conklin yes 400 bucks 200 bucks five bucks is existed for 11 year this decision half lifetime. Expand it. Expiration something that is never seen before in my life. They'll go to somebody, kill somebody. Come 25 year in prison this time you know what this means. So from 2008, I never have time for expiration. I cannot go to court. Stand up, America. Thank you, Mr. Southern. Followed by Mrs. Sanchez Villa. Mr. Chair, is it okay to talk? I didn't realize that it was supposed to be something that's on the agenda. But is it okay to talk? It's better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chair, King County Council. My name is Ron Smitherman, and with me are Angie Meier and Yvonne KUPERBERG. We represent hundreds of Babylon residents who have said the King County Council banned personal fireworks from Bashan. As you know, Bashan is a small island that is rural and in unincorporated King County. We need your votes to ban the personal fireworks. For the last five years have been the hottest on record. Global warming isn't a joke, and it's happening. And the projected trend is to continue. With warmer and drier summers. We feel that more and more people are coming to Vachon. Since 25 cities were thinking county of banned fireworks, 70 cities statewide have banned fireworks or restricted fireworks severely. And it all only creates danger due to the dry conditions. It puts an extraordinary fear of the residents, veterans, animals on the island when the fireworks are discharged. Other than the 4th of July during the 4th of July this year, we had seven firefighters total on the island the days before and after. We only have three. Any fire that would break out on vacation. Fire resources from King County, or at least an hour away. And on the 4th of July, we expect them to be longer than that with all the different calls that the fire departments are having on the other side of the pond. 25 cities in King County have banned fireworks, over 70 cities statewide. We have set the King County Council on the fire marshal that consumer grade fireworks on bash on B band. We have a public show that's put on over a quartermaster harbor that we feel is sufficient for the public and for the safety of the island. We feel that it should be banned. We have a petition with over 1600 signatures from the island. We also have a letter from the Bashan Island Fire Commissioners asking that you ban fireworks on the 4th of July. Thank you much. And if you want to submit your materials to the clerk, well, it'll be part of the record. We'll all get a copy. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Aida Sanchez Vella and I am from Federal Way. I am a member of Saltwater Church and the Southern Alliance, and I'd like to request a minute to talk about pasta again. Forgiveness is better than permission. Keep talking. So thank you so much for including the language of physical activity in the amendment for for the pasta the pasta amendment and for recognizing the positive impact that it has in learning and keeping children and youth engaged in school. Now acknowledging the great value of all the propositions. I am here to say that an original thought about pasta was that the light rail extension projects where negatively impacting vulnerable children and youth by displacing their communities along the way, the light rail was being is being built, so the pasta tax was established with the idea to give back to those communities a measure of reparation, even if an imperfect one. So please, when determining the percentages for fund distribution, keep those children, those vulnerable youth and children in mind and and establish an equitable distribution of funds of 30% for every age group. Thank you. Thank you. Cassie. Followed by Kiss Thornaby. Hello. My name is Cassie Polaski, and I'm a King County resident and a University of Washington, master's of public health student and a member of the health equity circle with Sound Alliance. I want to speak in support of equitable distribution of the of funds for all age groups. The purpose of these funds is to address the upstream factors of health to impact as many kids as possible. In K through 12, I want to advocate where there is clear data on the benefits of physical activity, on academic performance, behavioral issues and overall health. These are key determinants for not only our younger population but our future adult population. We know that low education attainment leads to unemployment, poverty and chronic stress. We have the ability to support the future of our population so they can be as happy and healthy as possible. If not, we're setting them up for failure. I have two nephews, ages three and six, and both are active in gymnastics, soccer, baseball, other activities like that. And I've been there when they haven't had the chance to exercise and they act like completely different kids. They're unruly, they're easily upset, and they just can't focus. And but they are fortunate to have the opportunities to create healthy habits. And every child should be given those same opportunities. So please do this for the. Future of our. Population. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. She says this is a perfect storm of low, low self-esteem in that her dearest closest of facts in intent and it's a ground piece for disco that's the list surround the major and stressors related medical condition like. To uproot this notion that we a national program that will let. Well for her in kind of simplement physical logically concealing counseling to the those who are lost missing or have this lost their homes is in 1990 needed or community hospital police academy medical st perhaps family fees guns and the community maintenance since that is should be pre prepared in a special special with food the special P poulton the home for solace. It is printers. Drank. Drank. My 16 years, I think. Tracy think peace secretly working with the many people fixing the financial. And this source off our affiliate Hood, who places the same hand. Do you follow it? Thank you. Thank you. I believe that concludes public testimony for today's meeting. Is there anyone else who would like to offer public testimony? Yeah. Anyone else. Then we'll close the public hearing and we'll move to item seven on today's agenda. The county's Children and Family Justice Center will be opening later this year. This ordinance, ordinance 2019, 210 would name the building itself and the resource center within the building after two prominent local jurists, Patricia Clarke and Bobby Bridge, both of whom had a tremendous impact on the improvement of services provided to juveniles within the juvenile justice system . Here to brief the committee on the legislation is Patrick Hamacher. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council members, for the record. Patrick Hamacher, council staff. The discussion of this ordinance begins on page 28 in your packets today. And as you noted in your introduction, Mr. Chair, this ordinance would name the facility, the Children and Family Justice facility after Judge Patricia Clark. It would name the resource center within the facility after Justice Bobby Ridge. Just by way of background towards the bottom of page 28. Patricia Clark served as a King County Superior Court judge from 1998 until 2015, and she served as the chief judge of the Juvenile Division from 2000 to 227. During her time on the court, Judge Clark received many awards, some of which are the Vanguard Award from the King County Women's League, Women's Women Lawyers, the 2005 Voices for Children Award from the Washington State Children's Alliance and the Trailblazer Award from the National Black Prosecutors Association. She also served as a member of the Superior Court Judges Association, Board of Trustees and the Superior Court Judges Association, Family Juvenile Law Committee. Moving to page 29, in your staff reports, she chaired King County's disproportionality committee and the State of Washington's Committee on Racial Disproportionality. Judge Clarke also led the county's implementation of Dependency Family Treatment Court, and it was instrumental in the Reclaiming Futures Treatment Court and Family Treatment Court. The ordinance would name the facility formerly would formally name the facility. The judge, Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center Justice Bobby Bridge served as a superior court judge for ten years. Four of those were as the chief judge of the juvenile court and two years as a presiding judge of the King County Superior Court. In 1999, she was appointed to the Washington State Supreme Court, where she served until 2007. After leaving the bench, she served as the founding president and CEO of the Children for excuse me, as a Center for Children and Youth Justice. As with Judge Clarke, Justice Bridge also received many awards throughout her career, a sampling of which is the David W suck up Speak Up for a child from the Washington State Association of Court Appointed Special Advocates and Guardian Ad Litem. Jurist of the Year from the Washington State Bar Association and Judge of the Year from the King County Bar Association. Justice Bridge also served as co-chair for the Supreme Court Commission on Children in Foster Care. The chair of the Domestic Violence Child Maltreatment Statewide Protocol Project and chair of the State, a task force. Judge Britt Justice Bridge contributed to the establishment of a Unified Family Court in King County and in establishing a child care facility at the Mailing Regional Justice Center. Moving to the very bottom of page 29, the proposed ordinance would name the Resource Center after Justice Bobby Bridge and just four by way of further information. The Resource Center at the Children and Family Justice Center actually includes a large number of services, including a full list that's on page 29 and 30. Some of the more important of which are the housing coordinators, transportation support, legal resources, community based services, and behavioral health services for the families and the children involved with the criminal justice system and having interactions at the Children and Family Justice Center. As I noted, the ordinance would name the Resource Center as the Justice Bobby Jay Bridge Resource Center. That concludes my staff report, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. See? No questions of Mr. Hamacher. I would invite Judge Bill Bowman and Michelle Clarke to join the presentation table. Councilmember Lambert, you want to speak from there or during the presentation table? Well, it's okay. Of course. Put the ordinance before us first. Yes, please. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to move. Proposed Artist 3019 020210. Councilmember Lambert has moved adoption of Ordinance 2019 210. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I'm very excited about this day that we're getting. We've gotten here when I actually thought at this point we would already be in this courthouse. So took a little longer than. We had expected. And I'm very excited that today we're talking about naming it for these two wonderful women. Judge Patricia Clark used the power of hope, compassion and seized opportunities to improve the lives of youth in their families. She was a strong advocate for prevention programs to help young people out of the detention system. She was truly a pioneer for change. I went with her on a trip to Illinois to look at juvenile justice best practices. She was truly a leader, and then during her time, the number of incarcerated youth dropped dramatically. New children in Justice Center will soon be a place where children and families will be treated with them utmost respect and access to a wide range of services, as Pat just talked about. The facility will include child care for families on court business, additional space for youth and family services, and a resource center connecting youth and family with the services in their communities. And I just like to tell you three times that stick out in my mind with Justice Clark. I met her when I was the legislator and we were doing a project. We went across the state looking at different courtrooms and trying to decide what made the best judges the best judges. And she was one of the three judges in the state that I chose as being the best judge. And the reason for that was she had great interaction with the people before her. She had great compassion, and she expected the best out of people. And when I was giving a report in front of a clear continuing education for justice guy in front of members of the bar, she was in the audience when I was talking about this wonderful judge, and everybody started looking at her and I went, Oh, there she is. So that was fun. And it was fun to have her peers hear all the different things that she had done because some of them they hadn't heard of. One of my favorite meetings with her was where we were going out to lunch and she was wearing a a pink outfit. It was not my favorite pink outfit. And when Blackman was waiting in the waiting room and he was there by himself, and she went up to him and she said, Can I help you? And he said, No, you can't help me. And she said, Well, why not? And he said, Well, that lady of there supposed to have helped me an hour ago, and she isn't doing anything to help. And so she said, Now tell me what the problem is. And so the boy told her, and she called clear across the room to the clerk and said, Hey, when is that going to be ready? And she goes, Oh, Judge. Just a minute. And the boy looked up at her. His eyes were like saucers. And he said, You're the judge. And she looked over at him. She said, not only mad, the judge, I am the presiding judge. And yes, we will get this. And I have one more thing to tell you. Never underestimate the power of a black woman. And I just thought that was so amazing. He was very impressed that and that she was there to help him. And she truly did. And she also got the law and the Bar Association Award. And it was really nice to be there that night and hear all the wonderful things and compliments that other judges and attorney had to say about her. The other part of this is that the resource center is going to be named after Justice Bobby Bridge. And we just heard her background. She also is the woman who's the visionary. And not only did she help establish the first court based child care center in the Pacific Northwest at our center, and if you haven't been able to get in and see that it is so child friendly and appropriate and has all these great safety precautions. She also most people don't know this, but she was the guiding force between the on the legislation and the family unification law. And she and I worked on that when we were I was in the legislature. So she had a guiding force in family unification to make it even possible that you could unite those kinds of cases. So I'm very excited that this court is going to be named after these two amazing pioneer women. And as soon as we hear from two other great speakers, I'd like to that we have a yes vote on this ordinance and to thank the many co-sponsors who have made this possible. And so with that, I would like to introduce as to the listening audience, because we all know and love her, Michelle Clark, her daughter, followed by our assistant presiding judge, Judge Bowman. Michelle, if you don't mind, Councilmember, we're going to flip that order. Oh, okay. Judge by members. Okay. Thank you, Judge. Good afternoon, everybody. Judge Bill Bowman. I'm the assistant presiding judge for the King County Superior Court. In behalf of the King County Superior Court, I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to speak in favor of this ordinance. I actually had the honor of appearing in front of a judge, Patricia Hall Clark, when I was a lawyer and then working with her as a colleague for a number of years. And I think everybody here knows that she was a fierce advocate for the kids in our community. Some may not know that she had a career in social work and youth services before she ever attended law school. In fact, it was at age 40 when she obtained her J.D. and her master's in public administration from the University of Washington. And then she had another career with the King County prosecutor's office, where she was a deputy prosecutor and worked her way up to be a senior deputy prosecutor in 1996. She brought all of her passion and experience from decades of working with youth to our bench as a commissioner. At first, her focus then was on at risk youth and children in need of services cases. She became a Superior Court judge in 1998 and continued working as a champion for families in our dependency and juvenile offender cases. She served among her many roles in our court as chief juvenile court judge for many years, and I'll use the same word that Councilmember Lambert did. She was truly a pioneer in juvenile justice reform. She was committed to collaborating with the community in an effort to approach juvenile justice issues as a team. She was acutely aware of and worked hard to address the disproportionality of kids of color in our system and was in fact one of the earliest voices to advocate for incarceration of youth and to and worked to provide viable alternatives to detention. And finally, she was a proponent of examining the juvenile justice process from the child's point of view. Her vision has served as a driving force behind our current approach to restorative justice. Justice Bobby Bridge has spent an entire career in and out of the courtroom advocating for kids as well. In her ten years, a superior court judge, four of which I think, as you mentioned, she served as our chief juvenile court. She led the creation of the Juvenile Justice Operation Master Plan, which many of you know is Jay Jump, which effected significant changes in juvenile offender court practices and led to a significant reduction in the number of kids in detention. She also led the effort to create juvenile drug court and chaired the Oversight Committee for the Parents Representation Project, which improved representation for parents in abuse and neglect cases. And as a Supreme Court justice, she was co-chair of the Commission on Children in Foster Care and chaired the Beckett State Task Force and led the Committee on Adolescents in need of long term placement. When she retired from the Supreme Court. She founded the Center for Children and Youth Justice, an organization that advocates for system reform to benefit kids. On behalf of the King County Superior Court. We can't think of two more appropriate namesakes for the Children Family Justice Center, where we will continue to collaborate with our communities and partners to provide the therapeutic and culturally responsive services to all youths and families. Thank you. Thank you. So I think that it would be appropriate not to speak of my mother as a judge, but as a mother. She spent her life fighting for children that other people didn't think were worth it. So as a social worker, as a prosecutor, as a judge, she served as a mentor to young women, young lawyers of color, new judges on the bench. But she never lost her focus for her kids. And they want me and my brother. Her kids are the kids, actually. So some of her innovative sentences were to sentence kids to book reports the book or to sends them to book reports to have them come back and share with her the times that they went to the library, what their reports were, and whether or not the kids wrote the reports. It was a success for going to the library, doing the research, coming back, and then she would serve as their cheerleader. The other thing that she thought about children were when kids end up in juvie, it's not because they have failed. We have failed them. And so she would be greatly honored to see that the county is now working toward zero youth detention and recognizing that with the Unified Family Court, that when your kid is in crisis, your whole family is in crisis. And so we need to look at it from a family systems if we're going to do so. This is a great honor for my family and my mother would be proud. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Can I ask Michelle, will you tell us about the picture in front of you? Maybe I can. Maybe. Okay. So this is a picture that the kids at end juvenile detention is a mural that they made for her when they found out that she was retiring. So in this picture is a kid with a backpack in the rain and a woman in robes. That's my mother in the rain. And she is holding the umbrella over the little boy. She is getting wet, but she is protecting him. So that's what they did for her when she retired. A fitting tribute. Thank you. Thank you for the discussion. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had the pleasure of working very closely with both of these women. Even though Bobby Bridge shared, I was the chairperson of the Juvenile Justice Operation Master Plan. I was one of the lead county council members that worked to figure out a creative way based on best practices, that we could dramatically reduce the number of kids in juvie because we were very fearful that we would have to build another youth. Yeah, we had just been told that if we did not do anything at the adult novel, that we would have to build another new jail by 2008. That was the nature of growth in both our adopting the youth populations. Bobby Bridge and Patricia Clark both served and played leadership and innovative roles. So I think it was appropriate that some of my colleagues and the judge earlier mentioned, I referenced these women as pioneering because they were indeed pioneering. I also had the pleasure of going to college in the mid 1960s at the University of Washington, where Patricia and a couple quarters I had classes with her and she noted that I like to play with her maybe a little too much. So she just took it upon herself to holler. And I'm glad, Larry, it's time to go to class. And, you know, I had to get on that and go to class. But that showed me that she cared about me being successful at the university. And when Bobby Bridge left the court, she was so committed to youth services that she served on some of the broader youth justice conferences and commissions and committees that we set up here in King County. And some that the state set up. And Olympian always played a leadership role based on her judicial experience. Our commitment to you and I cannot name the number of African-American youth and Latino youth and just poor white youth who have come to my office with stories about Patricia Clarke, Judge Clark, and how she handled down in court. And half of those stories came from their parents who just observed her interaction with their kids and with them. And I think that's an example when Margaret and Patricia Clarke, one of the most difficult cases that we ever had to handle here. Martin Luther King, Jr. Connie was the killing of Mr. Robert Thomas senior, and it was extremely controversial. And the alleged shooter was a King County sheriff's deputy, and the African-American community was extremely upset. Rod Sims was the executor. He couldn't he couldn't pay a judge to handle this case. And finally, Patricia Tarrant I will handle it. And she and earning the respect of the families involved, the police involved, you know, judicial leadership and our government and our extremely hard manner, a difficult situation to earn respect from all these parties because three or 400 black people took over the freeways one day, but she stayed calm. How about the inquest? So I want to invite them. Both of these women's extraordinary leadership as judges and as human beings absolutely warrant our support for them. Judge Clarke, having a whole facility named after her and Judge Bobby Bridge having the learning center, which is going to be used a lot named after her. And I genuinely hope that we follow through and support both of these nominees for these extremely important and symbolic and inspirational positions at our new children at Valley Justice Center. Thank you. Thank you. With that, I'd ask the court to please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Baldacci. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember of the crowd. Councilmember one right there. Hi, Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is a 99 zero no's. Thank you. Haven't received the required majority. We have. We've given ordinance 2019 210 a do pass recommendation. We will send that to full council and I would suggest we could put it on consented for council. We expedite and we'll expedite to Monday to Wednesday's agenda. We can't expedite to tomorrow's because there is an ordinance and needs are to Wednesday. It needs a public hearing and hasn't been recognized. So we can do it next week, though. Then we'll do it regular course and we'll put it on consent. Thank you. Thank you very much. That takes us to items five and six. The King County District Court, Northeast Division currently has two openings to the incumbents being appointed to the Superior Court by Governor Inslee. Pursuant to King County Code, I instructed staff to coordinate interviews with all of the eligible applicants, and that subcommittee consisted of myself and council members Baldacci, Dombrowski and Lambert. We conducted six interviews on July 8th and July 10th and are recommending three candidates as finalists to be interviewed today. The county code requires a procedural motion to select the finalists to be interviewed, and I wish to call on Councilmember Dombrowski to make that motion now. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's my pleasure to move that. The King County Council take up the appointment of the two open seats for Northeast District Court, and that we consider the recommendations of the select committee that you mentioned Kevin Peck, Jill Kling and Michelle Gilson, and conduct interviews here today and make a recommendation to the full council if that is the motion you were looking for. I believe it. I believe in fact it is. Discussion Council Member Gossett. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask Councilmember DEMBOSKY does that mean we are filling two positions today or just one? Two positions? Oh, thank you for that clarification. Yes, I see no further discussion. All those in favor, please say I oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. Thank you. Today, the full committee will interview. The three finalists, will provide about 15 minutes for each finalist. And until the finalists are before the panel for the interview, I'm asking that they be sequestered in the actually in a conference room in the administrative offices of the council. Grant Lemon will facilitate that, and that allows us to interview each candidate in open session and allow each one of them to be hearing the questions and participate in with as much warning as the others. Sam Porter is here with counsel staff to answer any procedural questions and point out anything I may have overlooked. No one seems to think I've overlooked anything, Mr. Lemon. We have names of the applicants, but the paper randomly at first will be back, followed by Will King County Television is not happy. The clerk of the show again. You don't. Know how where they. Go. Oh, General, I would just go with that. Everybody has, right? No. It's not. Appropriate for you to be. Against it. You have to apply their word. But they have made it their personal. Yeah. I mean, you know. Yeah. All right. We gotta go. Yeah I've been feeling you know I we have not pre assigned who asks the questions and will be making that up as we go along. So let me begin actually by welcoming Kevin Peck and ask you to briefly introduce yourself. Describe your background and why you'd like to serve it as a district court judge. Thank you, and thank you for the honor to address the entire council today. My name is Kevin Peck. I served as a trailer in King County for the past 36 years, and I've been honored to serve as a pro-tem judge in the King County District Court for the past 29 years. At age 14, I began working at McDonald's in Chicago. I graduated high school a semester early and took a position as a law clerk in a Chicago law firm where in my spare time I would go to the courthouses in Chicago, either the federal court or state court and watch trials. And it was there at the age of 17, I began my love and fascination for our legal system. I moved to Seattle 41 years ago, where I worked in the shipyards and as a vendor at the kingdom in order to help pay for law school and graduating from law school. I immediately took the job full time as a public defender in King County for three years, where a guardian significant trial experience in representing indigent clients and communities of color. I also advocated for caseload standards for public defenders that that based on the overwhelming caseload we were being presented with to make sure that being provide adequate representation . After I was served as a public defender, I was then hired as in-house counsel to the hotel and restaurant employees. I served in that position for two years where I negotiated collective bargaining agreements for fair and sustainable wages, safe working conditions, and work to try and eliminate sexual harassment, which was rampant in that industry. I subsequently went into private practice where I've now been for 31 years, where I continue to represent indigent defendants in federal court, criminal proceedings, and continue to practice employment law representing over 200 individuals in employment matters based on discrimination of race, sex, national origin, religion, disability and sexual orientation. I've been honored in that position to also sue a case all the way through the U.S. Supreme Court, a criminal case where the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a statute based on free speech. I've come up with some ideas. I started serving as a pro tem judge in the district court 29 years ago. Over the past 29 years, I've made it over the time. It was until just a second ago. Over the past 29 years, I've presided over hundreds and hundreds of proceedings, criminal cases, civil cases, trials, jury trials, every type of case that comes before a district court judge. There's not a day that I filled in as a district court judge that I haven't relished and love the opportunity. I find the work intellectually stimulating, and if I had my choice, I would do this work every day. The rest of my life, the lawyers that appear before me, the lawyers that appear before me advise me. They feel respect. It's okay. I'm sorry. Oh, pardon us. No, that's okay. Over the past 29 years, until the end, as a district court judge, the lawyers that have appeared before me advised me they feel listened to, respected. They appreciate. I get to the heart of the matter quickly and I have good judicial temperament. Two years ago, in the lobby of this courthouse, a lawyer stopped me and said he had appeared before me a month before on a motion hearing in Shoreline District Court. He said he lost the motion, but he wanted me to know my decision was well-reasoned. I didn't know this lawyer, he said. He wanted me to know my decision was well-reasoned and he was uplifted when I announced the decision. He said, You should run for judicial office. We need more judges like you. Three years ago, a claimant appeared before me in District Court on what's called a tow hearing, trying to get reimbursement , alleging his car had been illegally towed by a property owner. I showed him the statute and said the way the statutes written, I couldn't order reimbursement for him. But I said, here's the copy of the statute. You can go in the back of the courtroom and when you're ready, I'll recall the case and we can discuss it further. When he came to the front of the courtroom, he said, You're right, the way the statutes are, you can't order reimbursement. But I want you to know this is real justice and I really appreciate this opportunity. So those are some of the stories to people who've lost their hearings in my courtroom, but still appreciated the type of justice that I was able to provide. And I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. Thank you. We have a volunteer to ask the second question. Councilmember up the grove. Yeah. You're making me put my old man glasses on. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for being here. Thank you. You touched on this very briefly in your introductory comments, but maybe you could flesh it out. Could you describe your understanding of the racial inequities in our justice system and our judicial system? And describe how you've worked to address these issues in your career and how you could seek to address them in a position as a permanent district court judge. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Do I feel sad that there such a racial inequality in our justice system? As I said, I've dedicated a good part of my life to pursuing discrimination, so it's not esoteric to me. I deal with it every day, people in the workplace being treated differently based on race or gender. But I also see it in the criminal justice system. The communities of color are well, overrepresented, unfortunately, in the criminal justice system. And that's actually why I'm honored by my reading by the Latino Bar Association, exceptionally well-qualified and by the Lawrenceville or Mars Bar Association, exceptionally well-qualified, because I think they recognize the work I've been doing on behalf of communities of color over the last 36 years. And I think we can do a lot to change and reduce the inequities in the criminal justice system. Actually, some of some of you, if it's okay, if I pass out the. Call, do it for you. My cousin. Thank you. What I've come up with is based on my experience of 29 years as a pro tem judge and 36 years practicing in in court is a trial lawyer. I've come up with some ideas and some of the ideas I think would help reduce the racial inequity in the district court system. So I quickly go through those ideas. The first pages ideas and the second piece pages, a criminal case timeline. I know some of you are familiar with criminal case timelines. Others perhaps it would be a help to. But some of the ideas I have to reduce the racial inequity we have way, way too many people miss court hearings and warrants are put out for them. You know, when a warrant is put out for an individual, not only is that judicial time and public defender time and prosecutor time and police time and share of time, you know, then once they're taken into custody, they have to stay in jail potentially overnight and then come back and be brought before the court the next day. Transportation time, it's mass cost to the district court system. So and what it does to the individuals is the individual that is has to stay in jail overnight or perhaps longer. They can't support their family because they're in jail. They might lose their job. They might have to miss school. It can create havoc for persons. And at least based on my experience, I see it affects persons of color to a greater degree. And I think what we need to do is work to reduce warrants. So my first idea is we put out text notification to individuals the day before their court hearing. Too many people miss court hearings. As I explained to the subcommittee, when I need medication, Costco sends me a reminder. I press the text. It's it's time. Yes, I want to renew my medication. And then they tell me when it's ready so we can send that same notification out. And as part of the notification, I also put in my ideas that we can describe the type of court hearing and again, my representation of persons of color for 36 years and interdependence. A lot of people don't come to court because they're afraid to come to court or they don't understand and they think they're going to end up in custody and they can't afford to lose their job. They can't afford to lose their housing. They need to take care of their children. So I think we can reduce those inequities. And you can help describe what happens in an arraignment hearing, simply a plea of guilty or not guilty. You can describe what happens at a pretrial hearing so it can reduce those inequities. But the second you can have agreed pretrial continuances in an arraignment hearing, as I said, I've been protesting for 29 years and on an increasing, frequently based, frequent basis, I think the court steps know that I'm willing to do the work. I can get the job done in an efficient manner and provide the type of justice that's needed. And I'm willing to drop what I have to show up to protest. So when you go to an arraignment hearing, there's 60 to 80 people be arraigned after the arraignment hearing based on the timeline. The second piece of paper is the pretrial hearing. What happens at the pretrial hearing? You either have worked out some arrangement to resolve the case or there's a plea or the case is going to get set over to another pretrial. So 80% of the cases are set over at the pretrial to another pretrial. So all that happens. It's a minute hearing people come before me. I asked them, did you go through this speedy trial with the attorney? And you understand it's a knowing decision, volunteer decision, educated decision. You understand by signing this, the prosecutor is going to have until March 2020 to try you. Is that okay? Yes. They signed a waiver. We presented to the clerk. I said, I want to see the clerk. We can give you another hearing in six weeks. So that whole hearing was completely unnecessary. If based on the person's criminal history, which hopefully there is none. But if there is criminal history, if they've shown up for court in the past, you could agree with the prosecutor, the defense attorney and the prosecutor can agree in advance that if the person files the waiver seven days in advance of the hearing, that hearing can be stricken. You can have hundreds of less hearings in King County district courts every week. It's completely unnecessary. What does it do? It would save persons that are low wage earners, potentially persons of color from having to come to court. Transportation costs, child care costs, missed a day of work. So if you could equal some of that, create equality in some of those situations, approximately 30% of the people that appear in an arraignment hearing are eligible for what's called a deferred prosecution, meaning if they enter into alcohol treatment or drug treatment or some kind of behavioral health treatment, they can have their charge put off for five years. And then if they're successful, it can be ultimately dismissed. So in the arraignment hearing, again, when there's 60 or 80 people in front of me, we can in advance, if people are willing to do so voluntarily, come and tell their story. You know, I was arrested seven years ago on a DUI or whatever the case. I went through a deferred prosecution. I went through treatment. I successfully completed it in my life is much better now. My case was dismissed. You know, it can be a two minute recitation or five minute recitation voluntarily. And hopefully the audience is going to listen to that person much more. They're going to listen to a public defender, which they're not going to the public defender's not going to talk to him about it until the next pretrial, which is six weeks later . And then they might talk to him about it for 10 minutes. And then when they think, oh, that's a possibility. No, said it over another six weeks to get the alcohol evaluation. So if you get people thinking about a deferred prosecution earlier, you can save again and reduce these unnecessary retrials. And it also reduces the cost, the hidden costs, I call it. Again, I was public defender years. It reduces the hidden cost of public defense increase because you don't have these unnecessary pretrial hearings occurring again in terms of the equity. You increase the use of video hearings in the district court and there is a lot of video hearings occurring, but there can be more. Most of the defendants are held at the facility, the score facility it's sitting in, if I'm protesting in Bellevue, Redmond, or whatever the case may be. It's a video period. A person was taken into custody on a warrant. Then you determine whether or not they should be released and you can introduce the inequities in the court system. Like one of the last times I filled in, there was a gentleman that it was a video hearing. I was in Bellevue based on his history of failure to appear for court. He probably should potentially receive some type of bail. But the prosecutor and the defendant was pleading. He said, Your Honor, I just got out of jail. I just got out of prison. 90 days ago, I served a three year sentence. I now have a job. I know I have a place to stay. So do you know how hard it was for me to find that job because he was an African-American gentleman? He said, you know how hard it was for me to be able to find that job. He said, I miss my court hearing. I know I missed my ordering, but my job, me, if I wasn't there for the first 60 days, I would lose my job. So I think those type of situations, inequities have to be taken into consideration. The prosecutor wanted thousands of dollars of bail. I let the man out, no bail so he could keep his job and hopefully appear for court. So I think a judge in district court has that capacity. The same thing that just the defendant's out of custody. Instead of someone coming, driving all the way from Auburn to Redmond to appear at a pretrial for a few minutes, why not have a hotspot or head of a video location where they can appear for court? And then again, it could save transportation time. Unnecessary missing of work, child care, unnecessary expenses. We can equalize these things. I think these are just some of the ideas. And I should point out, when I in my pursuit of this position, I met with the prosecutor. Please continue. In my pursuit of this position, I met with prosecutor Dan Theodor burg, went over my ideas with him. He said if you get a chance to hear from the county council, go over these ideas with them. He liked my ideas. He endorsed me for the position. I also met with the county executive. He said When I went over my ideas, he said, Where have you been? We want you for this position. He endorsed me for the position. And he said, We need to keep this dialog open. So thank you. Thank you. And with the next question, Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Peck. Handling a mistake can reveal a lot about a person's temperament. And I would like you to tell us about a time you've made a mistake and how you realized you made that and what made you change your mind and did you correct yourself or reverse your mistake? So kind of a lot of questions there, but I hope you get the idea. Yes. I think it's a very good question. I think based on my experience as a pro tem, I've learned to be very, very careful before I make a decision. And I've learned to listen carefully to the evidence. If I need further research on a matter, I can ask the parties to present further testimony, either oral argument or research , or I can take a break, go do research myself. So my experience as a pro tem and in one of the most difficult cases I had filling in as a pro tem is the individual was it was approximately a year ago now that I tried the case in individuals driving in Bellevue West toward the sun it right at sunset they turn left into an intersection. And fortunately there was an elderly person in the intersection. They hit the person and unfortunately the person died. There would have been extensive pretrial in litigation in that case, I wasn't part of. I was called again. I think it was an early morning call. Can you fill in today? First Judge So-and-so, whatever the case may be. I was called it turned out to be a three day trial. Extensive exhibits, very, very difficult decision to determine whether or not the person was negligent. But I learned through that decision. I took my time. I went through all the exhibits. I finally came to the decision. And in response to your question, whatever decision I made, I think I wasn't going to be satisfied with because it was such a difficult decision. And I found the person was not negligent. They were they were found responsible for a lesser traffic infection, but not the higher traffic infraction. But what I learned from that is just to be very, very careful. And if I do make a mistake, which I hope we don't, but there's an appeal process available to people. But I always am very, very careful about my decisions. And I think actually that the matter was so difficult that the sitting judge actually apologized to me. When they came back, they said, oh, I didn't mean for you to get stuck with that statute. I said, No, I appreciate it. I do. I really appreciate the opportunity to experience. Thank you. Thank you. Opportunity for follow up questions from members. I would ask I would ask you to provide your closing remarks. Thank you. And thank you again for this opportunity. I sincerely appreciate it. Over the past 36 years as a trial lawyer, I've represented hundreds of individuals in either criminal cases, civil cases or employment cases. And what I've done over those past 36 years is try to find justice for individuals and improve their lives. And I'm proud that I've been able to help people improve their lives. When we leave court, either as a citizen or a lawyer or a litigant, what is it we want? We want to feel respected, listened to and received a decision that's fair and impartial based on the facts and the law. And I think, based on my experience filling in as a pro tem judge, I provided that type of justice. The mission statement for the King County District Court is to provide fair, understandable and efficient justice in a dignified and respectful manner. And I respectfully submit that that's what I've been able to do over the past 29 years. As I said, I love the position. I love filling in as a pro tem judge based on the fact that I love the interaction with the individuals in court. Many people call the district court the People's Court, and they call it the People's Court, because I think if if the odds are a person has interaction with a court in King County, it's most likely the district court. In addition to serving as a pro tem judge. I've represented communities of color, indigent, indigent clients for the past 36 years. And again, I think it's based on my experience representing those communities. Again, the Latino Bar Association and the Laura miller Bar Association gave me the highest rankings, exceptionally well-qualified. And I think it's because I work with those communities. I understand the unfortunate issues that they face and I work to try and improve some of their lives. In specific, I've worked with individuals that are unfortunately afflicted with addiction to either heroin or methamphetamine or. Alcohol or. Cocaine. I work with individuals that are homeless, that don't have a job, don't have any family support, have little education, may have little hope for the future. And what I've been able to do on behalf of those individuals is provide them hope and work, work with them to get through the system and hopefully get out of the criminal justice system or the cycle of the criminal justice system in getting individuals out of the cycle of the criminal justice system. It not only helps that individual, but it helps all the citizens of King County. It betters King County for all of us. So if I had the opportunity to serve as a pro tem judge, I would love the opportunity. As I said, I don't I'm not applying for this job as a stepping stone. I love the district court. I love the People's Court. And if I'm so honored to be selected for the position, I plan on staying. If I had the opportunity, I would do this work every day the rest of my life. I relish this position. This position is a dream job to me. Essentially, I have 29 years of intermittent on the job experience in this position, and I would like to be able to continue to put my skills and ability to work on behalf of all the citizens of King County. I commit to you that I will work as personally humanly possible, work as hard as humanly possible on behalf of the citizens of King County. I want to better the citizens of King County. I want to work collaboratively with you and the judiciary to improve the judiciary and the administration of justice. I've been honored not only to be endorsed by and what's interesting is 36 years of practicing criminal law on one side of the aisle. But I've been endorsed by King County Prosecutor, Dance Theater Bird, and I've also been endorsed by the former U.S. attorney, Jenny Durkan. So I think it shows these people understand my ability to be fair, honest and impartial. We had a discussion the other day in the subcommittee, and I think those are in practice law. Know that you as a lawyer, you can file what's called an affidavit to have one judge removed if you don't think hypothetically you're going to get a fair trial. So over my 29 years of filling in as a pro tem judge, only once ever did someone file what's called an affidavit to have a different judge. And that was only because that case was tied into essentially 29 other cases. And they wanted a sitting judge to be there over the next few months to be able to resolve the matter. So I'm proud that the lawyers that appear before me, as I said, they like my judicial temperament. They feel respected, they appreciate I get to the heart of the matter quickly. And I would relish again the opportunity to be able to continue to provide justice on behalf of the citizens working on your behalf. And I would work tirelessly not only in the courtroom, not only in the courthouse, but I'm willing to commit to work and go out in the. Community and publicly speak. Tell individuals. Tell public school events, community meetings. If you're gracious enough to invite me to a constituent meeting 10 minutes as a guest speaker, I'm happy to speak on what new laws there are out in the community. My example is I said to the subcommittees, there's distracted driving laws that have been in effect for two years now. 30% of the drivers, unfortunately, suffering fatalities in King County, in the state of Washington on the road, it's now related to distracted driving. 25% of all serious accidents are related to distracted driving. So I'm willing to go to community meetings and at least as a judge say this is what the law is. Just so you know, this is what's legal under this is what's illegal. And if each person there just tells one or two of their friends, the word can spread and hopefully we can save lives or protect lives. So thank you very, very much for this opportunity. I sincerely appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll take a moment to invite in. GMs Clang, clang, clang, clang. Thank you very. Much. Thank you. Swing back. Yes. Good afternoon. Welcome back. Thank you. I would ask you to please introduce yourself, describe your background and why you would like to be a district court judge. Thank you very much, Councilmember, and to all the honorable council members, thank you all for being here today. I'm exciting. And I want to start just by thanking you all for all of the hard work you do for King County and all of the time and commitment that I know that you've spent in making this really important decision today. It's very much appreciated by myself as a citizen of King County, as well as the candidate I. As you know, my name is Jill Kling, and I am King County District Court Judge Pro-Tem. I have been a Judge Pro-Tem on King County District Court for five years. For three years that has been my primary occupation, as well as many of the municipal courts in King County, including Renton, Issaquah and Taboola Municipal Courts. My primary employer is the King County District Court. Last year I covered for 23 of the 25 current and recently elevated King County District Court judges. I have sat in every branch in King County except for Vacation Island, which I understand only meets once a month. So they haven't got me out there yet. And and I love I love the job is a job that I feel is very close to my heart and it's something that I love going and doing every day . I have also lived on the East Side since 1996. My husband and I have raised three children on the East Side and sent them to the public schools there. And my community involvement has been heavily centered in the East Side, particularly in Bellevue and in Issaquah. I worked for 13 plus years as a prosecutor for the city of Redmond, so my work experience is on the east side in King County District Court in Redmond previous to being a judge. So my experience and involvement on the East Side and my qualifications for this position with respect to my experience, speak for themselves the many judges, staff members and community members that have written letters on my behalf. I am humbled by the support that they've given me and they have they speak for me as well as the King County pro-tem. I've been exposed to this job far beyond the day to day operations of the courtroom. While my position involves working in the courtroom. I am there behind the scenes, in the chambers and in the hallways nearly every day. And I've had the opportunity to be exposed to all of the facets of what it means to be a King County District Court judge. The judges and staff in King County are some of the hardest working people I know, and they work tirelessly to improve and maintain the quality, accessibility and efficiency of justice in King County. I have spent many afternoons talking to Judge Finkle in Redmond about the therapeutic courts, particularly mental health court, which is his passion, and the new community court, which we've just begun in Redmond, and the workings of those and the benefits that we're seeing from those therapeutic courts I cover for Judge Chapman in Seattle on Thursdays when the Case Management Committee meets in his chambers and they are about to roll out a new electronic case management system that will make us essentially paperless and frankly catch us up to many of the municipal courts that I work for that are already completely paperless. And I sit as a fly on the wall in those committees and listen to how they operate. I have also discussed with Judge York in Auburn the importance of a stronger district court representation in the District and Municipal Court Judges Association, and is something that I would be very interested in contributing to. So I understand the multifaceted nature of the job of King County District Court Judge, and I am yearning for the ability to make a larger contribution to King County. Thank you. Thank you. Everyone here for the second question. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Jill, for being willing to move forward in a very competitive position. I have a question that deals with you, as requested of you, that you describe your understanding of racial inequalities in our judicial system. And we'd also like for you to talk a little bit about how you might have worked to address racial inequality or race related issues in your career, even if it's in other arenas. And then lastly, how would you seek to address some of the issues relative to racial disproportionality as it may exist in the district court? There's a lot of questions that I'm going to address each of them, so I hope you'll be patient with me. Councilmember Gossett, first of all, it's good to see you again. I thank you for meeting with me last month. And and I had a nice time chatting with you then. And I hope that I can expand on some of the things that I told you then about these issues. First of all, we're very fortunate that in King County there is no shortage of conversation about access to justice, about implicit biases, about racial disparities in the criminal justice system. It is a topic that is widely and vigorously discussed, and there are ample opportunities to go to workshops and go work in committees, read articles and learn about what the issues are and how we can possibly contribute to solving them. There is certainly a disparity in our criminal justice system and it has many causes as a criminal justice system as a whole, that the racial possible racial biases, the implicit biases can come in at every level, starting with who gets arrested and why they get arrested to who the prosecutor charges with the crime and what crime they charge them with, to how that case then plays out in court to then ultimately what sentence, if any, is imposed in that case. So this is an issue and just in the criminal justice system that needs to be attacked at many different levels, not in the courtroom, and it needs to be addressed holistically, which is why the conversations need to keep happening between all of the players. Beyond that, there are further social issues that are that these these criminal justice issues are rooted in other social issues that need to be addressed as well. And so there's many, many players that need to come together in community to solve what is a continuing problem in the in the criminal justice system. As a judge, I have some abilities to affect the outcome of cases in my courtroom. I have the ability and I'll just give one example, because there are several. One of the big things that we're all talking about right now is who's on a jury, who gets picked to be on a jury and who gets thrown off of a jury and whoever even gets called to be on the jury. And when they are called, who shows up for jury service? And the the factors are many. But the result is we do not have enough diversity on our juries, and it is affecting the outcome of cases in negative ways. Recently, in the last few years, great work has been done in this area. There was a symposium at the Temple of Justice in Olympia that discussed this issue, and it resulted in the Washington Supreme Court justices passing g r 37, which changes greatly the way that we select juries in our state. And it has helped judges it has given judges some tools that we can use to make sure that candidates for being on a jury are not being dismissed improperly. And it is more power than judges had previously. So that is one thing that I take very seriously and have looked into. I also recently read an article in Northwest Lawyer magazine about the social sciences of a juror who says that they can be fair, even though they've had an experience in the past that makes them feel, you know, biased and this social science. A study discussed. When a person says, even though this happened to me, I can still be fair in this trial. The question is, can they really and will they really be fair? And our attitudes are changing about that. And the way I approach that situation in the courtroom as a judge is changing because of the changing awareness and social sciences that are happening in our community. So one of the things that I'm doing is trying to stay educated, trying to talk to as many people I can read as much as I can learn as much as I can, so that I can apply these concepts in my courtroom to make sure we get the most fair outcomes possible. You also asked what I am doing in my community to address issues of racial disparity and race relations. My community service is focused primarily outside of my profession. And at first blush, it may appear that my community involvement has little relation to my work, my career. I believe that's not true. My community involvement focuses on trying to reach young people of disparate communities before I ever have to see that in the courtroom. And that is how I believe it's related primarily. My work right now is with Village Theater in Issaquah. I'm on the board there and a primary mission that we have is arts, education and outreach to underserved communities. Last year we reached over 40,000 young people. One third of that programing was free or subsidized. And the purpose is to expose young people of underserved communities to the arts and arts education, which studies have shown result in positive community outcomes and less kids ever happening to see me in the courtroom. So that's something I'm very passionate about. I also serve on the Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee at Village Theater, where we are trying to identify barriers that exist in getting more diversity in the arts, both on our board, our patrons on our stage, and the people who support us, identifying those barriers and figuring out how to break them down. And I think that those themes really cross over into many different societal areas, including our criminal justice system, a barrier in one areas, often a barrier in the other. So I bring my education and experience from that field to my work as a judge. And in that way, I think it's very relevant. Thank you. Thank you very much. Third question. What's up. Council member Carl Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms.. Kling, how people handle a mistake can tell a lot about their temperament. And we'd like to have you tell us about a mistake you've made and how you realized you made that mistake and what made you change your mind. And did you correct yourself or reverse your mistake? Kind of a lot of questions. Yeah, there. But now I appreciate that question. Obviously, I do make mistakes and the struggle with being a prosecutor or a judge is that a lot of what my job is about is making judgments. So there's legal mistakes where you think the law is one thing and then you made a mistake and it's something else. And that's a little bit easier to identify and correct. And then what you think might have been a mistake in judgment. And so as a prosecutor, I had the luxury of speaking to juries after jury trials. And win or lose, I always took that opportunity to have a conversation with the jury about how they perceived the case that I had put on. And it taught me a lot about my judgment, my perceptions and theirs. And I learned a lot about how everybody might not see things the way that I see them. And I needed to be aware of that and learn from that. So there were times when I would have particular cases and the outcome would result in a way that I was concerned that I made a mistake in judgment. And in those times, I would talk to as many people as I could that would have some perspective on that situation that would be different than mine and try to learn what that perspective was so that I wouldn't make that same mistake in judgment again. Now I have a similar issue. Being a judge, I have to make judgment calls every day, and I don't know if I'm making a mistake or not. But being able to question that regularly is important. I did have a situation come up recently or I made a ruling in a case it was just about a month ago. So I need to be careful because I think the case is still pending. So I don't want to say too much specifically, but what happened was it was a motion to suppress evidence. And I made a ruling. And after I made the ruling, but before we left the courtroom, I had a moment where I was not confident that I had made the legally correct ruling. And what I did was I called the case back up. We went back on the record and I said to the attorneys, I'm having a moment, and I'm not 100% confident that I've made a correct ruling. I'd like to invite both of you to further brief this issue. And if you would like and so we can talk about it further, because I'd like to reexamine that decision that I've made. So I wanted to make sure that when I had that moment of not being confident that everybody had an opportunity to think about this a little bit more. And in criminal court, it is extremely rare for a judge to take a case under advisement. I have done it. Nobody likes it very much. It takes time. It means everyone has to come back to court. The attorneys want an answer because they want to be able to move on with their case. So it's not great, though I have done it. But in this case I didn't because I gave instead I gave the attorneys the choice if they wanted to bring that back before me and further argue it. So that's one way that I handled what was a potential mistake. I have not been appealed as far as I know, so I don't know of any specific legal mistakes that I have made. But if I truly made a ruling that was adverse to a part of the party and in particular adverse to a defendant that I later learned was an incorrect legal decision, I would undoubtedly have to make a suicide motion to reconsider, reconsider that. I would give the attorneys an opportunity to come back in and argue some more before I changed my ruling, because I don't think it would be appropriate for me to just go back into chambers. Guilt. You know what? I think I changed my mind and give everybody another shot at it, but I would take affirmative action to correct the mistake. I would never let a ruling lie that I felt was adverse to a defendant. That was incorrect. Thank you. I don't know if other questions come to mind about the group. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for being here. I've enjoyed listening. I was not one of them on the interview panel. I've had the opportunity to get to know everyone. Right. As well. So I was going to ask you to focus very much on your professional career. And I wanted to ask more of a personal question just to get to know you. Growing up in, you know, early in your life, maybe you could speak to any experiences that were formative and helping shape your values. And then secondly, people, you know, those are two very kind of different things. But were there moments in your life or experiences you had growing up that have shaped that particularly stand out as sort of shaping who you think you are as a person and the values you bring to life and as well as what individuals in your life have and how have they shaped your values. All right. Thank you for that question. So I grew up in a middle class, primarily white neighborhood in the East Bay of California. I did not have a very diverse upbringing. We were pretty homogenous group out there in Alameda County. And I went through life pretty comfortable. I had a family that was a whole family that never that never broke up in any way. My parents are still married after 62 years. I think it is now. They are still married. And and I and I had it, I'm going to say pretty easy. And the most formative times for me was when I started law school. And when I went to law school, I went to King Hall, which is named after Martin Luther King at UC Davis. And that is where I started getting the most exposure to different people and different ideas. And it was a good time to get it because it was in an environment where people were thoughtful, they were passionate, they were smart, and they wanted to talk about these issues. And I really started forming a lot of my feelings and opinions about the world and people and who I was throughout law school when I went to law school. I will admittedly tell you that I at 18 years old, I decided I was going to go to law school and I didn't know why I was going to law school. It just seemed like I would like it. It would be good at it. I was I liked to talk. You might have noticed, you know, I was a talker. And so it seemed like a good fit for me. And it wasn't until I got to law school and I started meeting people and speaking with people that it really started forming who I was as a person. And now, looking back, that's not surprising when you're 18 to 22 years old. And I now have kids that are 21 and 24 years old, and I get it, you haven't formed that quite yet. So I started meeting people who are particularly influential in my life, and I would say that many of them were women and they were women who were strong women in the legal community who introduced me to opportunity. At that time we were doing pretty well. I think we were about one in four attorneys were women. So it was still we're still in the minority, but I wasn't the only one. And I had significant role models that were women. And I had one internship as a young woman in law school with a private attorney who had her own practice in Davis, California. And she really empowered me to believe that I could do this and that I could be good at it and that I could live in what was still primarily a man's world. And then I had an internship with the Sacramento Prosecutors Office, and in that job, many of my supervisors were women. Many of the people in power there were women. And I worked in the domestic violence unit, and I was an intern and I wasn't a graduate of law school. And so my duties were limited. And what I primarily did was was provided support to victims and witnesses in domestic violence cases. So I would walk them through the process and help them understand what was going to happen, sit with them and talk with them about their stories. And that was the the day that I understood why I had gone to law school. Everything happens for a reason, and I hadn't figured out what it was yet, but that that internship woke me up to why I was meant to be there. So I did go on then to get my dream job, which was at the Alameda County Prosecutor's Office in Oakland, was one of the best respected. Prosecutor's offices in the country. And I was so fortunate to get to work there. There again, I had fantastic role models. My direct supervisor is now the elected district attorney in Alameda County. She's a fabulous woman. Fun fact. One of the women that started with me just a year apart, one year older than me was Kamala Harris. And we worked together for many years at the prosecutor's office. So so those were really special times. And I was surrounded by very strong, dynamic women who were able to teach me how to be not a prosecutor that goes for a conviction, but a prosecutor that seeks out justice. And one of the reasons that Alameda County was so respected is the diversity that we had on our team of prosecutors and the perspectives that we all brought. I also had the opportunity to work in Oakland for six years as a young, white, skinny prosecutor who did not come from that world at all. But I lived in it and I worked. I didn't literally live in it. I lived that world of Oakland, California. They were my witnesses. They were my victims. They were my defendants. And I learned so much about people during those six years and people who come from different places than I have since I've gotten to Washington. Some of my greatest influences have been the women who serve on the bench, particularly in King County, who have mentored me and encouraged me to seek this appointment. And it's those women who have told me that I can do this, that I am good at this, and that I am well suited for it, and that I should put myself out there to try to do it. So so I would say those would be my greatest influences are a combination of fabulous women. And of course, my mother, who had her first baby at 18 and her and me at 27 and I was the third by 21, she had two babies and she did a two year community college stint to become a dental hygienist. She had a loving and supportive husband. As they told you, they've been married 62 years. And and she also, of course, always through my life, was one who told me that I could do anything but maybe don't get pregnant when I'm 18 like that. Thank you. Our last question would be an opportunity for you to provide any closing remarks. Thank you. I will. All right. So by now. I think most of you probably know a lot about me. A lot more. Than a lot of my friends do. Probably you've heard about you've read my application, you've heard from me, you've heard from judges who I'm so humbled by the letters that they have written on my behalf. I believe that you've heard from staff that I work with. You've heard from ratings committees, you heard from community members. So you know a lot about me, what I do, who I am. So I would like to just leave you with some bullet points of why I think I'm uniquely qualified for this appointment. I would like to return to the theme that this is a very multifaceted job, and I have a breadth and depth of experience that I think fits well in the job of 15 years in the King County District Court, both as an advocate and as a judge. I have strong connections with the East Side communities. Bellevue was my home. Redmon was my workplace. I worked for the city of Redmond, and in that capacity I worked on committees. And Redmond is one of King County District Court's clients, if you will. They were they contract for that service. And so as an employee of Redmond, I sat on committees with the King County District Court representatives and with the mayor's representatives and with representatives from the prosecutor's office and other places in the city. And we work together to find solutions to issues that would come up. And we worked together to figure out how to King County and Redmond, the city of Redmond, would work together. So I have experience with that. I have relationships there, and I understand the complexity of that relationship. I understand budgeting. I worked in Redmond with the Budgeting by Priorities Initiative. Every year we had a cut where in the prosecutor's office 20% sounds like a lot, but 20% of our work force was cut when we had two full time and one part time prosecutor and the part time job that cut and that's an extreme cut . When you now go to only two full time prosecutors, it was myself and Larry and. And we figured out how to make it work and we had to revise our budget and we had to work with the mayor and his committee on figuring out how that was going to work. I went through the lean process in Redmond where we went through each department and figured out how we could work more efficiently to save money. As president of Village Theater, which I will start my term as president elect in September and then followed by a three year term as the president of that organization. Not only will I lead 30 very diverse board members, but I will oversee a $14.4 million budget which our board sets and approves and enforces every year. So I and arts are notoriously underfunded, so I understand doing more with less. I understand budget cuts and I understand finding creative solutions to budget issues. So I want you to understand that I am obviously qualified to do the courtroom work. I do the courtroom work every day and the judges that I work or who have spoken on my behalf and made that clear. But I want you to know that I'm also qualified, prepared and eager to do all the other aspects of the job of King County District Court judge. And not only am I prepared and qualified, but I'm excited. I hope that you will decide to appoint me to this position, and I will have so much more to contribute as a full time sitting judge. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. We appreciate it. We do it. Yes. Thank you, everyone, so much. All right. It was a brief pause as we wait. Michelle Goldston, who? If you let me go here. All right. I. Let's see what. Kids yours. First. Your second. The second one in there? Yep. Our third one. Good luck. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. First to discussion. Welcome. I'll start off with the first question, and that is to ask you to briefly introduce yourself. Describe your background and why you'd like to be a district judge. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kent County Council members. My name is Michelle Gelfand. I am a Bothell, the municipal court judge. Can you hear me okay, Councilman? About that? Thank you. Being a judge enables me to make a difference in people's lives. I am seeking the King County District Court position because King County is at the forefront of innovative restorative justice programs such as community court, mental health court and Veterans Court. Those programs make a difference and they are a solution. And I want to be a part of the solution by bringing my skills, experience and dedication and commitment to improving justice. My legal experience began in King County as a special deputy prosecuting attorney. I then was hired by Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office. I was a prosecutor in the criminal division for four years, and then I was in the civil division for three years as a mental health prosecutor. During that time, I also was a pro tem for three years, and in 2010 I was appointed to the Berkeley Municipal Court bench as the sole judge. I have been there for nine and a half years and I have presided over approximately 35,000 cases, 45 jury trials and hundreds of motion. In addition, I also am in charge of the management and operation of the court. I manage a court team and they are an amazing court team of seven and I operate $1,000,000 annual budget. I also believe truly that a good judge is not only in the courtroom, but is in our community and in our neighborhoods. And I have volunteered thousands of hours in local elementary, middle school and high schools teaching civics. And I also saw a need when I was very early on the bench that we needed a ball for youth court. And I created the Bubble Youth Court. I created a bottle probation department, as well as assisted in establishing a mental health court in Snohomish County. I have a track record of leadership. I am the President elect at this time of the District Municipal Court Judges Association. That association is composed of 200 of my colleagues, fellow judges, and I am slated to be the President next year. I want to make a difference in our community, and I hope to be on the Austin 16 bench of King County District Court, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Question two. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Michelle, for being willing to go through these grueling interviews and going out and getting community support. I had the opportunity to read many, many letters of support that you've gotten and you got them early on. That was significant. Interesting to me. But I'd like for you to describe your understanding of racial inequities or the way in which racial injustice or injustice works in our judicial system. And you can determine whether or not you think it works. And then secondly, I'd like to know if you've worked on issues, on cases in your career relative to conflicts based on race and class. And then lastly, how would you seek to address issues related to race or class inequities if they should arise and the district court that you have that you preside over? All right. First of all, I think the first question is racial inequities and racial injustice. Injustice. And I don't think racial inequities exist. No, I'm not going to correct you. Unfortunately, they do exist. And there, as we know, that our system penalizes, I believe, people of color and low income because of the incarceration rates that we see in our county pretrial. And so what I'd like to do is how would I address those issues? I've addressed them in Bothell as well under the as we've seen from the Gender and Justice Commission. And the study that they have completed is that I believe that we have 14,000 people sitting in jail, 16, 500 awaiting trial. And that just does not correlate with the presumption of innocence. This is pretrial. And we know that the people that are incarcerated are much higher numbers of people of color and poverty. And I think that as a judge, to address those issues, you have to be questioning the prosecutor. I'm constantly questioning our prosecutors on 3.2, and that's the criminal rule when the jurisdiction and why you cannot hold or release somebody. And I think that as a judge, that's how that's one of the things that you can do to address that issue. And I think that we have to do better and that we can say I think that the the I know that it's stated in the article that you could say save up to $12 million by releasing people pretrial. Now, of course, you have to keep into consideration the public safety aspect as well. And so that is what I do every day is weighing public safety with personal liberty. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Michel. Judge Gilson, rather. Welcome. Thank you. And so again, how an individual handles a mistake can reveal a lot about that person's temperament. So we'd appreciate it if you could tell us at a time in which you've made a mistake and how you recognize that, how you handled it. Did you correct yourself or reverse the mistake or just give us a feel for how you handle have handled that or would handle. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Definitely over my legal career and as a judge, I've made mistakes. We are not infallible. We are not perfect. And I think that what we have to do is absolutely recognize the mistake and correct it. And a judge does that either by making having the parties come back and change their ruling. But I can't give you a specific example of something that I did on a sentencing. And I had a judge. Woman in front of me who was in custody. And I truly believe that that in a district in and use of a court and as a municipal court setting as the People's Court, it is the judge's job to try to get somebody to change behavior. And you're always looking for the sweet spot as a judge. How much time do you do you have to give jail time? Is there a different is there a least restrictive alternative that you can give to get them to change behavior? So I had a gentleman in front of me. I he had substantial criminal history. I gave him a high end sentence. And you could tell it had completely deflated him and he stopped listening. And I believe the sentence was on a Friday. I thought about it all weekend, and I had him brought back. I had a discussion with him, dialog with him. He had a he didn't have enough time to really tell me what had brought those issues in his life. And so we created a plan. And so I said, I want you to do, you know, get treatment. I want you to do this. I want you to do this. I'm going to see you in 30 days. If it's not done, then we're going to start with a 60 days jail. You're welcome. Thank you. Councilmember Cool. Are there any follow up questions that I would ask you to share, any closing remarks? I just want to just briefly as well to follow up on Councilmember Goss's question as well. So I think that we truly we really need to look at our least restrictive alternatives that we now have, which is the SCRAM bracelet, the GPS, DV unit, those sorts of things to keep people out of custody and keep our community safe. Thank you. You're welcome. Well, again, I want to thank council members for having me here this afternoon. As I stated, I would really like to be appointed to the King County District Court because I have a desire to make a positive difference in people's lives. And I think as a judge, you have an extreme amount of power to either make a positive difference or a negative difference. I have nine years of judicial experience plus three years of protesting. I have created innovative programs, and I have a track record of leadership. I have been acknowledged by my peers from Snohomish County as winning judge of the year, from Washington woman lawyers. I by winning the Vanguard Award or being given the Vanguard Award and also am on the Legal Education Flame of Democracy Award. These awards reaffirm that what I'm doing in the community is making a difference and inspires me to do more. I am passionate. I have a strong work ethic. I am dedicated to improve our justice system, and I would be honored to be appointed to the King County District Bench, which it is such an esteemed bench. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll now invite the first two interviewees to join us. And why is it the committee's desire to have a few minutes in executive session then before we actually invite them into the room, will excuse everyone from the room. And to do that, we will have executive session under CW 4231 ten. The committee is going to an executive session to evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment. We will be in executive session for approximately 10 minutes and until approximately 344. Now I'm asking the public to leave the chambers at the time, as well as any kind of employee not directly necessary for these discussions. Thank you. That's the big theme to the dedication. Good afternoon. We're coming out of executive session. This is a committee of the whole continuing our Monday, July 15th meeting, and I would entertain a motion on item five on today's agenda. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On proposed motion 2019 0307.1. That's position number two. I move. Adoption Council member Dombrowski has moved adoption of Motion 2019 307, making the appointment to position two of the Northeast District District Court. Councilmember Dombrowski Mr.. Online 25 where the is a blank space I move that we insert the name of Michelle Gilson. It's been moved in seconded. We amend motion 2019 307 to have the name of Michelle Gilson speak to speak to each member. Dombrowski. Just very briefly, Michelle was the strong choice coming out of the select committee. Her background and experience impressed us and me as a representative of the Boston community. She comes before us with the strongest of recommendations, including many from our friends to the North, with her roots in Snohomish County, putting their prosecuting attorney. She has served the city of battle extremely well in terms of administering justice, but also in running the court from an administrative perspective. Her work has been recognized with the awards that she noted here. Frankly, unusual for a municipal court judge to be recognized in some ways. And that caught our attention. Our bar rate ratings are also impressive. I tend to look at those and weigh those heavily. I think as many members do in this process. And I just think she will serve us very well on the district court and encourage my colleagues support for her. See no further discussion. Councilmember Gossett. I'd like to second Councilman Dombrovskis recommendation. I first time I met her, I was so impressed with the wide variety of letters that she's gotten from legal as well as community folks and politicians. And still, at the end here, when I look at all the support letters and comments for all three candidates, the quality and the number are just amazing for her. So I look forward to joining Councilmember DEMBOSKY and supporting this extremely well qualified person for this position. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd also like to say that I support this. I believe that Michelle is very innovative. I really liked reading all the letters, and it was clear that she's done a lot in the community and dealing with restorative justice. And she also has starting the youth court. And during the interviews earlier we she talked about how there were many changes and adaptations and things to improve that, and I really respected that. She continued her perfected work going on and on. And I know in one conversation we were talking about some ways to help children, and she followed up with me afterward to say, Tell me more about children and their vision problems and how that impacts. So I was very impressed with the idea that when she heard an idea, it just clicked. So I support this. Thank you, Councilmember Bell, DG. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's not a really good time in the agenda to say this, so I'm just going to say it now. If we had three openings, these are all three extraordinarily well qualified candidates. So I just wanted to say that at this moment before we start picking people to be appointed and and I hope that it comes through to the public and to everybody who's following this process, that what we have here are three people who are really committed to strong judicial practice. They've given years of their lives to working on the bench. And that takes that takes a little bit of that takes some sacrifice. You can't have a completely unlimited private civil practice or even criminal practice and and pro tem the way these folks do. You have to give up some stuff to do that. And so and they all come with strong recommendations, a great deal of relevant experience, and importantly, a civic record of working outside the court just to make the community a better place, which I think reflects well on their on their abilities and what they will bring to the courtroom. So I just wanted to say that before we started picking and I agree with my colleagues and everything that's been said about Judge Gilson, you know, we ask questions. And one of the questions that I had was whether a municipal court experience translates directly to a district court experience. But from everything I've been able to judge, from talking to folks who have worked with Judge Gilson and others, that they believe very strongly that she would be able to make that transition very well. And I was exhausted reading her her application materials, and she's done all of that stuff. So I think she's going to work very, very hard to make sure that she she is a strong district court judge. And I look forward to voting yes on the motion. Thank you for the discussion. Others in favor of Councilmember Dombrowski is amendment. Please say I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The motion as amended for the discussion. Councilmember Dombrowski, just to close the story from Judge Wilson's application materials, she's a hands on practitioner of restorative justice practices, and she described the youth court that she founded in the city of Bothell and observing a difference in the outcomes based on whether it was a young man or a young woman in a justice circle, a peace circle, if you will, where the conduct, as she described it, of the young woman warranted perhaps a more lenient sentence. It was reflective of the young woman's understanding of the infraction and her ability and willingness to do better versus the young man who was a little less sympathetic. But it turns out the result was different. So she took that experience to heart, reflected on whether or not they were really practicing the principles of restorative justice and changed the system. I thought that encapsulated all that we want in our judicial system today awareness, a willingness to implement new practices and a willingness to continue to revise and improve them. Her initiative and not just saying she's doing it, but actually doing it and doing it well, really struck home with me and confirmed everything that we've heard about her. I'm excited to see her join the district court. Congratulations. Thank you. Madam Croak, will you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Balducci. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember done. Councilmember Gossett, I. Councilmember Caldwell's. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Bond right there. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero no's. Thank you. We have given a do pass recommendation to motion 1219 307 as amended. We'll send that to full council and regular course on on consent without objection. That takes us to item six in today's agenda. Congratulations that exist item six on today's agenda. Motion 2019 308 Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to move. Propose motion 2019 0308. Councilmember Lambert has moved adoption of Motion 2019 308. Councilmember Lambert I'd like to move an amendment for Lane 25 and insert the name juggling. Councilmember Lambert has moved that we amend motion 2019 308. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Well, I'm I agree with what Councilmember Balducci said. We have a strong group of candidates that we were able to interview among the strongest group of candidates that we've ever had. And so the decisions are difficult. But I feel that Jewell's solid experience, she's effective and efficient on the bench. She has a very caring manner and looking to people and how to make people's lives better. And she also has experience that's going to be particularly powerful right now as we transition to the new computer system. And so I thought that that would be helpful. She's also known and highly respected in the community, and I think that that's important, that the judges be respected in the community. And I think her transition for many reasons will be very smooth. And I look forward to her being on the bench on the east side. Thank you for the discussion. Councilmember Gossett I just wanted to have the opportunity to concur with my colleagues that all three of these candidates were and are extremely well qualified. I do. But before we close, I did want to say about Kevin Peck that his excellent interviews that he had with the Latino and African-American bar associations, I was thought that I pay particular attention to, and that is the articulation of issues relative to social justice. And this community in this society are ones that, you know, if he doesn't get elected, I hope that he will continue to stay involved in looking for a judicial position or a leadership position in the judicial system, where he can even more effectively carry on the kind of understanding, experience and skills that that he has. But I agree with everybody. All three of these candidates are superbly well qualified. Thank you, Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. What Councilmember Bell did, she said, was really very poignant and very significant. And a number of us have known Kevin Peck for a long time and have the greatest respect for him. And when she said and a couple of others implied that, that we really do hope that the third person in this case , Kevin, will apply for the next opening. And I think there would be a lot of support. You never know. But I certainly would encourage that. Thank you. Thank you. See no further discussion of those in favor of the amendment. Please signify by saying i. I those opposed nay. The ayes have it. The motion as amended. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I just want to say a final passage to say that we have great candidates. And I think that Joe will do an awesome job representing the east side of the county. I know that they rotate around the county, but I think her demeanor and her caring attitude will be useful and helpful to people changing their lives. Thank you. But Councilmember Belushi. I know I should stop at this point, but I'm very I'm very excited to support Judge Kling becoming that full time seat at the table, person getting involved in helping to make change in our courts. But I really, really do hope that we get an opportunity to elevate Judge Peck as well, because I was very impressed with your deep, lifelong commitment to equity and justice that comes out in everything that you do and everything that you say. And and frankly, these proposals, people should steal them and do them anyway. And then you should get the credit. And I hope that you don't give up. I hope that we see you here again. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you. Forgive me. A little cold here. Just wanted to say thanks for your your interest in this. And you guys all ran the gantlet. It's really challenging to get this appointment. It's the first time I've seen three really, really outstanding candidates come before us where there was very little to create gaps in terms of how to rank order the cabinet. You and I had a chance to litigate against each other back in the day when I was a federal prosecutor. And you had a fantastic job for your clients. And I will tell you this. This is an interesting job because we get to see people again and again come up at appointments that occur for positions that we might have another one at six months or three months or eight months. And so I've seen many times where so it did get get the gig that they came forward a few months later and got it. And it has a part to do with your continued commitment, but also we're familiar with you. We like you. There's a lot of good stuff that was said here about you today. So I'm just really excited that all three of you are here in our county, work at various capacities. Look forward to supporting the nominees today, and we'll take great interest if you decide to play again. Thank you. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Bell. Duty Council member Dombrowski. Council member. Done. All right. Council Member Gazette. Council Member. Coles. Council member. Member. Council. Member of the group. Council Member one right there. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is 990. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to motion 2019 308 as amended, and we will send that to full council in regular course meeting a week from Wednesday on consent. Without objection and without congratulations. Thank you. In knowing of no other business to come before the committee. We are.	AN ORDINANCE naming the Children and Family Justice Center Building the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children Family Justice Center Building, in honor of the late Patricia H. Clark, Superior Court Judge and revered community member; and naming the new building's resource center the Justice Bobbe J. Bridge Resource Center, in honor of Washington State Supreme Court Justice (retired) Bobbe J. Bridge, courageous juvenile justice services leader.
king_9582ce49-2328-4ad6-822c-338c9995f658	The Committee, the whole bidding for February 3rd, 2021 to order. And as we begin our second meeting of the year, I'll note that I'm giving the public health emergency. The governor has issued an emergency order suspending the section of the Open Public Meetings Act, the requires with a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. And as we begin today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands, the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their rich cultural ways of life to our region as well. As you know, from carefully reviewing the agenda, we have several items on today's agenda. We have our regular briefing from director Dave Lee on the county's COVID 19 response. We will go slightly out of order. So in order that we'll take it up today, we'll take a look. Legislation appointing members to the Landmarks Commission in the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. And then we'll take the ordinance relating to the health through housing implementation plan. Couple housekeeping notes. As we begin to help us manage the meeting, we'd ask that you, the members of the public, as well as council and executive staff, please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. Additionally, if you're going to connect to the meeting via cell and you wish to provide public comment, please connect if at all possible through the Zoom application. We have troubles, sometimes amusing people to be able to speak and with the time lag if they are connecting by cell phone rather than the Zoom app itself. Without Madam Crooked as you please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci here. Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember Cole was there. Councilmember Lambert here. Councilmember up the ground here. Councilmember Bond right there. Here. Council members online. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. And in the chain of motion to approve our minutes of the January 20th, 20, 21 minutes. So move, Mr. Chair. Thank you. The Minister before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor, please signify by saying hi. I oppose me. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Adam Cole. Do we have anyone in the room for the on the line for public comment? Mr. Chair, it looks like we've got one person so far. Excellent. In fact, someone raised her hand, probably acknowledging that, possibly acknowledging that very question. So let me review our rules and procedures for public comment, for virtual meetings that. We have no confusion. We can handle it. Having an entirely remote meeting, it's still relatively new for us. First, some ground rules. Public comment should be related items on today's meeting agenda and not used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. It should not. It should also should not include obscene speech. And if the speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, they may be ruled out of order or required to leave the virtual meeting. Now, the process our members of the public is that you join the meeting today, you are automatically muted. We can see the last three digits of your phone number or your name if it's in the Zoom application. When we open public comment, the clerk will call your name or your the last three digits of your phone number when you are called staff or your line. If you've also muted your on your end, please unmute so we can hear you. And and before you begin your testimony, perhaps just say your name and then wait to be acknowledged so that we can confirm that we can hear you. Many people would begin by saying and spelling your name for the record so we can capture it accurately for our record. You know, 2 minutes time, you'll hear the timer go off in 2 minutes, wrap up your current thought and then will allow time for the next person to speak. If you're listening to the meeting on TV or streaming, please turn off that volume, that sound during your testimony or get feedback. We've learned a lot and now 12 months of remote meetings and we ask you to hang up and watch the remainder of the meeting on King County TV Channel 22, or to stream online so that we can better manage the meeting after your public testimony. And you can watch online at WW W Dot King Connect, go back, slash counsel and then click on the ever popular Watch US Live button. Madam quote I'll turn it over to you. Think in this picture, Stacie, I've asked you to erm you know, please go ahead and unmute yourself and give us your full name. Good morning, Stacey. Alan Suelo and I do live in Kenmore. Can I proceed? Yes, but could you spell your last name? V is and Victor A l e and as a Nancy C isn't zebra u e. L a. Thank you very much. Go ahead, please. I am speaking today in regards to health through housing, and I think this is great. However, purchasing the hotels is one important aspect, and I do believe that it's important to reward and help the organizations that are already doing some of this work and doing it to successfully. And some of those are Mr. Smiley from Hands Up Project Camp, Unity, Mary's Place and St Vincent's. And all of these places are using the funding that they get for the residents first that are homeless. Now, a lot of them are working homeless. So it's very important that we are doing this work now. Another issue that we have here in Kenmore is that we're losing some of the seniors that are being priced out at especially one mobile home park that they are receiving tax consent contingencies on a 55 and older park. And right now we have several of them that have left their homes and are unable to sell them because the requirements for a new person moving in is too high. And the credit. Rate or credit rating of the person is request to be too high. And they're looking at having an income at a 55 and older part of 3400 a month. Which who has that? Somebody retiring just recently might. But a lot of elders do not. And it's sad that they're losing their equity each month. And we need help. Kind of like what King County helped in Redman with Friendly Village of helping the seniors. And the homeowners purchased the park so that they can continue to live in age in place. And I'm hoping that somehow we can get help for some of these homes. I do not live in a park that needs that help, but my neighbors do. So it would be very helpful. I guess my time is up. Yes, that was the timer. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I believe I've called everyone on the line. Thank you, Madam Chair. Will you please unmute everyone so we can briefly confirm there's no one else on the line who'd like to offer testimony? I have asked everyone to mute themselves. If anyone else is on the line and wishes to give the public some of the comment in today's meeting. Would you please say your name? We're hearing no one. Madam Collins. I'll be ready to unmute myself if you re mute everyone on the line. Everybody is. Okay. We're good. You're good. Excellent. I'm. I'm adequate. You're excellent. That takes us to our brief in. The first item on today's agenda is our regular briefing with Dwight Daly, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr. Jiverly, we appreciate these opportunities. Good morning and welcome and morning to all of you. Thank you for having me again. For the record, Dwight, I believe the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget and I have five things this morning to give you an update on. First, as as kind of becoming traditional. We're going to start with FEMA. It looks like we're pretty close to done with calculating the FEMA reimbursement we would expect for 2020. So for last year and as of the end of January, those figures were $78.5 million. That is the amount we expect to get. That's not the amount of eligible expenses. And that is assuming we are at the 75% reimbursement rate barriers, as we've talked about before, the potential that ultimately it will be 90%. So we're being conservative and assuming we're at the traditional 75% reimbursement, a second part under FEMA is we do have now the project set up to track expenses through April 21st of this year, which is the current date at which the COVID emergency expires. I think we all expect that that will be extended. But for now, that is the projects, as they're called, that the Office of Emergency Management has set up to track the eligible expenses that we are incurring. A third part of my FEMA update is that we are at $33 million of eligible expenses for the flooding that was going on almost exactly a year ago pre-COVID. And we're still working through the process with the state of providing all the necessary documentation for that. And then once that's done, we will go through the federal process. And as you know, we all know from prior experience with FEMA, it is likely at least a year before we will get reimbursement for that. And of course, the biggest county government recipient, there will be the road services division in the Department of Local Services. And finally, so for King County entities, which includes other governments, have incurred about $5.3 million of costs for the big windstorm in January of this year. If there are more costs that are submitted that qualify, we need to reach a $7 million threshold. And if we reach that $7 million threshold, then we would potentially be eligible for FEMA reimbursement of some of those costs. And again, the road services division is by far the largest county government claimant there. There also is a statewide requirement. You have to reach a level. I think it's about 11 and a half million dollars statewide from the windstorm. So it isn't clear at this point whether those thresholds will be reached. But if they are, then we will potentially have some reimbursement from FEMA for the windstorm expenses from a month ago and as our our usual practice clause there. And see if there's any questions on FEMA before moving on. I'm seeing none. Oh. Yeah. No, I'm seeing none. Okay. So part two, the all the grant programs that we put out last year using in almost all cases, federal money are drawing to a close. We're trying to complete essentially the accounting work on those at roughly the end of January. So the end of last week, there's still a few that are we're still working on, but by and large that has been done and a huge amount of work by staff in many departments, the accounting staff in our finance and business operations division, our consultants. And so it looks like about 90% or maybe a little higher than that of the grant money that was allocated ultimately actually will be spent. There are many programs that spend every penny or very close to every penny. There are some others that look like they're going to probably significantly underspend. I don't have a final list yet. Probably by the time of our next meeting I will. Generally where there is underspend is where a amount was allocated to a particular agency and they were ultimately unable to get all the money out the door or that they were allocated. Most of the programs that went through our departments that things like rental assistance, virtually all of that was able to get out. So some variability there, but ultimately a really strong result of getting that money out into our communities. Just to remind everyone, the underspend is not lost in the sense that we have to send it back to the Federal Government. We have plenty of eligible counting expenses that we can charge to whatever the underspend is, and so we will be. That's the kind of a final phase of this is once all of those grants are closed out, we know where there is underspending. We will then take those resources and repay the county for costs that it incurred in 2020. So we'll be working through all that and probably in 2 to 4 weeks, all of that should be absolutely finalized. And I will pause there. Questions about the grant funds. To Chair Council Member Lambert. The grip on. On the grant funds that were for the unincorporated areas in the county. There are some businesses that are very much in need and we need to get a new allocation for any underspent. Or were there any underspent? So does environment. I think you received the briefing from Department of Local Services on that set of grant programs maybe ten days ago, and there was some underspend in those programs that will be working through. Because the federal eligibility was extended. Previously, we thought it all had to be spent by December 30th. If it is of interest to the executive and council to reappropriate whatever that underspend is in the next COVID supplemental that you'll be getting this month. That would be possible to do. There would probably have to be another program run through deals to allocate that money. So I talked to tell us and they said that they could use the same format they used before. And I would very much like to see that. New things have surfaced recently that I know exactly where there's a big need. Thank you. Okay. You're welcome. Senior others, please proceed. Okay. So kind of the back end of what we just talked about is where does the general fund end up at the end of 2020, having now been able to charge costs to the federal money for things like our corrections officers, jail health staff and so on. And you all remember when you adopted the 2122 biennial budget, there was an expectation of what the year end 2020 fund balance would be in the general fund. And we clearly have achieved that. And there it looks like there will be a meaningful amount of additional fund balance in the general fund at the end of 2020. We don't have that number yet, but it's certainly in excess of $10 million, probably in excess of $20 million, and that will be money in part that we might need for the work we are doing today to continue vaccination programs, continue the shelter, the intensification of pending whatever action comes about at the federal government. So it's good that we ended up there because depending on what the federal government does and the rules around it, we may need that some of that extra money to cover what we have spent so far in 2021 on those programs. And we should have more information about that in about a couple of weeks. And it will be something I'll be talking with Councilmember Coe Wells about, about whether we want to think about the timing of the COVID six ordinance to have more certainty about that before we transmit it. And I think tomorrow she and I have a meeting and we will talk through the kind of the options there and come up with an agreement between the executive and council about the timing for that. And I saw a thumbs up from Councilmember Caldwell. So I appreciate that. And one from Councilmember Lambert. I'm waiting to have my speaking part. One question, colleagues. Sea. None ready for item for this long game. So this is our friends in Washington, D.C. So many of you probably already know this, but I think just so everyone has the same information, yesterday, both houses of Congress passed what they call a budget resolution. And it is interestingly the 2021 budget resolution, which in theory should have been passed in about May of 2020, but never was. And so Congress proceeded with their 20 fiscal year, 2021 budget that started in October without a budget resolution, which happens a lot these days. The significance of passing the budget resolution is that it now allows the process of reconciliation to proceed. And for those of you that are not familiar with the nuances of the federal budget process, reconciliation is a process where appropriations are brought into alignment with the budget resolution. And you can't use reconciliation unless you have a budget resolution. Hence the reason that they passed a budget resolution yesterday. The budget resolution, I went and actually looked at the bill, which is totally understandable, unless you really know how the whole thing works, what the what they passed as the budget resolution is solely to allow them to vote on the $1.9 trillion COVID response package that the president has proposed. There is no other content to the budget resolution, which typically there would be. They are very forthright about. This is this is exactly why they did it. And what the reconciliation process allows is to close debate in the Senate without requiring 60 votes to do that. So reconciliation allows a majority of the Senate basically 51 votes, including potentially the vice president's vote to pass an appropriation through the Senate without being subject to the filibuster. So the reason they did the budget resolution and they're very transparent about it, is to allow them to have such a bill brought forward and be voted on very quickly without that process being potentially stalled by a filibuster. I spent about an hour this morning looking all over the various websites of congressional committees to actually try to find a copy of the actual bill that they would vote on with no success, which maybe that just I didn't find it. It's also entirely possible that it's not there. And so I was trying to find whatever rules they would put around the money that they're going to send to state and local governments. And because I couldn't find the actual bill, I don't know what those rules would be. So as best I can tell you today, it appears that they will be acting on that $1.9 trillion bill or something very similar to it. Very quickly. My guess is they'll try to do it this week. Since the impeachment trial begins next week in the Senate. But at this point, we don't know, or at least I don't know what the rules around that money for state and local governments will be. I did see a reference to some questions that were asked of a spokesperson for the president, and they were not very forthcoming about whether you can use it to offset lost revenues. It seems pretty obvious it'll be able to be used for at least some of our COVID response work. But what that will actually be, I think we need to see a bill before we can answer any questions about that. But it does look now that the kind of procedural barriers to them passing the bill have pretty much fallen down. So let me pause at that point and see if there are any thoughts or if any of you have more information about that. Mr. Titley, I really appreciate your explaining for my colleagues the budget resolution. Its purpose and reconciliation is for those of those of them who haven't had an excellent instructor in their graduate programs and budget process. Colleagues, any further questions? All right. Item five. Okay. Last thing on my list. We obviously have a variety of county programs that are going to have to recover from COVID. You know, I'm not here today to talk about the criminal justice system, but obviously, as many of you know, there are lots of things there that have changed and, you know, backlogs and so on. The one I wanted to mention to you today, just because we're talking about it on the executive side is the recovery for Metro Transit. And we have a lot of conversations to have. But the key thing I think, for the council to start thinking about is we are looking at the September 2021 service change as the key time where we will start to bring back some significant amount of Metro's service. And a nuance that I didn't appreciate until a conversation with Metro yesterday is since they do service changes twice a year. The next big change wouldn't be until March of 2022. And so there they in Metro are thinking, what service do we need to have in place in March of 2022? And at least the vast majority of that is what you need to add. Back in September of 2021, they have the ability to add a little bit of service between big service changes, but very much at the margin. So we're really looking at a time horizon of more than a year in thinking about what's going to go into that service change. And they then also pointed out something that I, I hadn't really thought about as well. Is that. If they're going to add a significant amount of service in September, they have to actually start bringing back drivers and or hiring new drivers much sooner than that because you can't train a whole bunch all at once in a six week period. So. So it's a it's a long lead time process that we have to start thinking through as we're doing it. I think it's important for you to know that Metro is doing a lot of outreach with major employers, particularly those in places like the University of Washington, downtown Bellevue, downtown Seattle, where there are a lot of folks who take public transit to get to those workplaces. And I would summarize what they've heard is. A lot of organizations who really are uncertain what to do until we get more information about how quickly people get vaccinated. A lot. I think we're hoping for a midsummer return, at least partial return to a more traditional way of operating. The slowness of the vaccine rollout is making many of them question whether that's realistic. So now I think we're hearing more about September instead of June or July. Again, I think if the federal government manages to accelerate the production of vaccines and we are able to distribute those locally, which I think we would be, I might move up a little bit again. So it's a there's a lot of uncertainty out there, but Metro is having a lot of conversations to make sure we have the information we can. Dwight. I missed something. I missed the connection. I think you were trying to make the service change in September of this year would be the first time Metro would seek to restore a substantial amount of service. But you were saying something else about planning for the next one. There being two a year. Then it's one in March 2022. And I missed the connection you were trying to make between September and March. Yeah. And this is of this is something that I hadn't thought about either. And what's the point Metro is making is since they can't add a meaningful amount of service at any time other than those two times a year, they're not really planning for the demand in September of 2021. They're planning for the demand in March of 2022 because they need enough service available to get us that far before they could add more service in any significant way. So the reality is we would probably add service in September of 2021. That would be more. At that point because we're really trying to make sure we have enough for six months later. Did that help? Yes, that. And to put it in other words, less putting words, we might in September, October, November, December, see ourselves with more service than demand would otherwise dictate, because it would be ramp service. Demand would be ramping up and we wouldn't want to be extremely short in March. That's exactly right. And we couldn't do a huge jump even if demand stayed low until March, which it's not going to be one steep cliff climbing a cliff. But if it were, Metro couldn't add a huge amount of service in one service change either. Just like you're saying, it takes time for them to train drivers and be called drivers back and be ready. Yeah, that's exactly right. Thank you. Other Columbus Council member, Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, thanks for that update. In today's Seattle Times, there's an item that you may have seen from Nordstrom saying that they will not be returning to 15 floors. Basically, one of their buildings, about a third of their downtown square footage. While they will not become an all remote working headquarters. They are going to continue working technology for a large portion of their workforce. My sense is that it's just the tip of the iceberg. When I talk to my former colleagues in the law business, which a lot of downtown office spaces use there, they're working remotely and expect to do that. Have we do you know, are we are we talking to BOMA, the Building Owners Association or GSA or others or the chamber who may be doing a survey to try and gauge the need, notwithstanding a vaccine and the ability to do it, whether folks will do it, given the changing ability to work remotely. I mean, I'm not sure we're going to see the old peak morning and evening like we had. And that presents some opportunities to restructure our transit system. That could be pretty exciting if a coupled with light were coming online. I share your view that what we had in February of 2020 will not recur for any anytime in the foreseeable future. What Metro is hearing from the big employers they're talking to is exactly that, that, you know, many of them had some work from home previously, but they all expect they'll have more than they used to. There is they have talked with DSA. They have talked with the Greater Seattle Chamber. They're working very closely with them as they talk with, you know, employers throughout the county. And so I think you're absolutely right that we will end up with a mix of service that's somewhat different than we had before with the potential that we don't need to staff quite as much as the peaks, and we'll have more resources available for the rest of the day. So those are all the things that go into the very complicated planning that Metro needs to do very similar things. And I guess I neglected to mention we don't have to look any further than our own family for that trend as well. Big moves at the DRP. So thanks. Mr. Chair? Council Member Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I tried some good news and I'm not certain on the budget implications. This, I think was in the or perhaps we got news yesterday that the all the clusters, the entire fleet will be carrying their mask dispensers with masks on board. We had close to that and we acquired it and they started out with 100 busses, as I recall. But they're now going to all busses in the fleet, which I think is really terrific, since I don't recall what the budget was on that. Do you now? I do not know. I have heard the same thing and I understand that this is actually now going to be a Federal Transit Administration requirement to make the bus have a mask. And so that's, I think, what's motivating Metro to do what you just described. We did get approximately $240 million more of federal money in the December bill. So Metro actually has plenty of resources to do what you're describing. Thank you. And that Councilmember Dombroski had worked on that. So it was really pretty. Hear me out from. Thank you. Councilmember Jim Belushi. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah. I do want to follow up on the point that Councilmember Dombrowski was making, because it comes up frequently. I mean, when we're out talking to employers, cities in our jurisdictions, etc., there's this question of does transit demand and service therefore look the same after COVID, or does it look very, very different? Some additional data points just for the collection of learning that we're all doing at the same time that those trends that can sort of mask and you are both talking about are real and are growing, at least here on the east side. The permanence for big new multi storey commercial construction are through the roof. At the same time that Facebook and companies like it are saying, you know, we're going to we're not worth the same. They're buying and building new buildings. So so there's definitely a crosscurrents. And I think that Metro is smart to be inquiring with folks who are close to the ground and those, you know, some of the organizations that are, you know, close to building rentals and building. But it's I think the picture is still pretty unclear about what things look like. The data out of Washington shows that although it's not as pronounced as it used to be, there's still an peak, there's still a PMP. And so I think, you know, I was a few months ago sort of in the we could drive demand cab like we should be getting ready to push service out there because we can help influence what happens. But now I just don't know. I don't think we know what we don't know yet because things are evolving so quickly. So I just wanted to share that I had heard from the mayor of Bellevue this week that they had their biggest year for permits ever before. And will they all get built? Who knows? But it is definitely an indicator of something. So I just wanted to put that out there. It's a fascinating time that we're living through, and who knows what it will look like come out the other side and it's got major ramifications for transit service. So thank you for letting me put some more information into the discussion, remember. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. So I, too, have seen and heard that about it. She was just saying that more businesses are moving these big businesses, as well as a lot of new, smaller businesses opening up. So my question is, I realize that we do two times a year. I'm very much for the system changes. But since that system of life is changing this year, I wonder what would happen if we moved this September. So like November and March, you know, a little further into next year so that we have a better picture. I hate the idea of having, you know, from September to March, a lot of unused capacity where we would have more appropriate if we move those to dates. So what is the possibility of trying to adjust the realities of COVID here to the system? And I can talk to Metro about that. It is a it to begin with, bargaining with the union because that is all tied to when people get to choose different routes and seniority. And there's all sorts of complexities there. There's also I mean, they have a whole planning cycle that's involved with doing things. I think what they would tell you for sure is that if you delayed September, you would have to delay March. But they can't do two that close together. You might remember they used to do three and it really was chaotic when they tried to do that. So let me ask them about that. I think ultimately the the response will be that it's very, very difficult to do. But it's a fair question and it's worth checking on that. Well, I agree completely. It was chaotic before, but I think it could be chaotic if and maybe in 2022. But, you know, if we move that on to July, maybe we wouldn't even need another one until much later. But we don't have all the facts because we don't know what they're going to be yet. And so whatever they decide on September is is probably not going to be accurate in December or January. So it may make it easier just to wait until you have more facts and see what's happening. Like you said, with COVID, but also with the business community, as things open up, you know, where are they going to open up these businesses? And, you know, lots of people are saying that they want to work from home. I mean, so they don't have to get dressed. But then other people are saying, I would like a separation between my business and my home life, so I want to go back to the office. So that's going to work also. So right now it's a novelty, but I think that the novelty may wear off when your house looks like the office. No, thank you. So one of the things on that and I would confirm this with Metro, the University of Washington is a big player here in the infamous Cambridge service changed. Obviously, there were students not on campus. The amount of service we provided there is significantly less than it traditionally is if the university decides to bring back. Many or if not all, in-person classes. I think Metro would have to do a service change in September because of the need of the routes that go to UW. But let me confirm that with them, that that's not our that's in here at this moment and this is Rod. We also need to do it because link light rails coming off the two stops in that is a major piece of our network that's going to. All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Dave Lee, as always, appreciate your briefings. We will look forward to seeing you two weeks from today. Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you, colleagues. We're going to move quick for a minute. As I said, we're going to take the Landmarks Commission next item on your agenda, items ten, 11 and 12. I'll turn it over. We have three appointments to the Landmarks Commission to hand over briefly to Ms. Crackles office for a staff report. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Council members. Leah crackles off the council staff materials for this item for the items ten through 12 begin on page 41 of your packet. The items were confirm appointments to the King County Landmarks Commission. For Adam, also Brooke Deen, alias and Candace Parker, Barbara Brooks, Tucker, me, all of whom are here today. Jennifer Meissner, the King County's historic preservation officer, is also with us. The landmark commission was established to ensure the preservation of King County's historic places, material culture and traditions for future, all future generations. It's a nine member commission comprised of volunteers with broad expertize in areas such as architecture, art, land use, historic preservation, archeology, education and history. And staff has not identified any issues with these appointments. But there is an amendment and title amendment for item 12, and I will turn it over to the chair for the interviews of the appointees. Thank you, Mr. Buchholz. I'll be with that. I'm going to move to invite Ms.. Brooks Tucker to introduce herself and speak to her background, which would be interested in bringing to the Landmarks Committee. And I want to acknowledge two from my colleagues from the beginning. They know that Ms.. Brooks Tucker has a time constraint. And so if you are brief, we will understand and I acknowledge you will need to leave shortly after you read your introduction. Thank you, Chair. I so appreciate the flexibility here. So so all of you know why my youngest has returned to school this week and it has been an emotional rollercoaster and so exciting for all of us here. So thank you for the flexibility because I have to run to pick him up from his shortened adjusted day. It's a new schedule for all of us. So a little bit about me. I am from Southern California. I moved up here to Washington with my husband as he was active in the Navy. Let's see, gosh, that was about 12 years ago and we lived on Whidbey Island. My background in education is in architecture and historical preservation. I grew up in a small town of Redlands, Redlands, California. It's a significantly historical town. And I, I really do feel like I got a lot of my values from that upbringing. And it's made me extremely interested in how architectural systems and how they relate to strong historical relevance and how that really shapes an economy. I think that's really made me obsessive, possibly about how we how we shape our communities through environment. And that's that's completely what's brought me here to the Landmarks Commission, among a few other things. Do you have any questions for me? Thank you. I would open with a question if in fact I invite the subsequent appointees to address this, as well as the county works to improve our in continuous improvement around equity and social justice, and particularly around Indigenous peoples being on the traditional lands, the Puget Service peoples. And you speak to how the Land Committee can be mindful of a broad set of landmarks and not to one population. My initial response is is advertisement. I don't feel like there's enough knowledge that we exist. And I think that if that putting us more out there to the public, I think is a great start. I think that so I'm also I'm chair of the Planning Commission of Maple Valley. So it's been a fantastic experience watching you work. And first and foremost, what I have learned from that experience is that we are here to listen to the public. We are their voice and their liaison. And I think that that is also a significant step in bringing about equity. Thank you. Mindful of time. Any colleagues have further questions. Mr. Scheer. Council member. Belushi Not a question, but since we have the applicant here and you've taken your time to speak to us, I just want to say I really appreciate people bringing their passion, their expertize and their their hours and labor to these volunteer positions. It really helps to make so many good things happen in King County to have people like yourself who are willing to volunteer. So thank you very much for your willingness to serve. Thank you. Speaking as the kindergartner who was in a panic, if my grandmother couldn't be seen to pick me up after school from the classroom windows. I want to make sure we look. We let you out in time. Anything else you wish to share with us before stepping out? Not as of right now, but I look forward to coming back to all of you and seeing all of your faces again. Thank you so much for joining us and making today work. Thank you. I'm Mrs. Meisner. I see you've turned your screen and you wanted. Are you just watching? Would you like to make a few introductory comments about the Landmarks Board and the appointees before us today? Yes, thank you. Thank you. Councilor McDermott, I just wanted to chime in to say how thrilled we are to welcome these new members to the King County Landmarks Commission. Each and every one of them brings such a passion for our work for preservation, for equity and vast experience. And I did want to note that that our program is in the middle of an equity and inclusion project in which we are doing additional research into some of our properties that were designated as landmarks many, many years ago. And their nominations did not really tell us an inclusive story. So we are getting ready to basically review those nominations and have they come back before the Landmarks Commission and and basically make sure that the full story of our committee members or community members are told. So we're very excited about that and help to spread the word and and encourage more nominations of properties that represent underrepresented groups. So thank you. Thank you for for taking the time to speak with our appointees today. Thank you, Mr. Chelios. Councilmember Dunn, did you have a question or comment? Just a quick. Comment. Jennifer, good to see you. I hope you're well. I just want to let you know and others know, Dana, in particular. I was just at the Black Diamond Historical Museum there along the old railroad tracks, and they were just a Chris was just yesterday, Dave Forester. They were just incredibly complimentary on the work that your group had done and helping them. They I walked through it and they just keep getting better and better. Lots of fantastic leveraging of local resources and it really is quite a facility that they put together. And they were very, very high praise of you, Jennifer. And folks, your work is wanted to say thank you because it's the kind of place that I'm eager to take my my kids to as soon as it opens back up again. So thank you, Jennifer. Oh. Thank you so much, Councilmember Gunn. And Mr. Chair. Councilmember Tomasky. Well, we're adding thanks. I, too, want to join Councilmember John thank Jennifer for her department's assistance in the city shoreline with helping designate with their landmarks commission the new not the new, but the the old Naval Hospital Chapel, which is tucked in there, a beautiful piece of architectural accomplishment that is now protected . And I know that the expertize and the findings from from our department there really help them. And the community's very excited. So we appreciate the contractual work you do for many of our citizens. And I want to call that out today and thank Jennifer Lamberti. Councilmember, we have two more applicants. Are you very popular? Is very popular. And so I too want to join in and say thank you. The Aurora coffee shop. I'm sorry. The Aroma Coffee shop has brought new life to both city. It is just amazing and beautiful. So thank you for all your work on that and not giving up when there were issues that had to be overcome . And it's definitely worth it. And then I know that there's another bone that is completing the restoration on the Bone Again program. And every time I drive through the valley, these beautiful bones, I think, yay, Jennifer and her team. And then I have a little prayer that I got. I got to get Jennifer out here to see this one. So thank you for all your hard work in that year. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chelios. The floor is yours. Good morning. Welcome. If you could offer a few words of introduction and speak to your interest in the Landmarks Board. And now you know what coffee shops bought Barnes and other landmarks with benefit mentioned. Mean if you're trying to secure votes to win confirmation. That's right. Well, good morning, council members. Thank you for having me. My name is Dean Priors. I'm currently a principal at Smart Architects where I've been there for 21 years. And our focus is design of affordable housing as well as preservation and adaptive reuse of existing structures. My background, I have an undergraduate degree in archeology and my graduate degree from the University of Washington with a minor and historic preservation. So this is definitely a passion project for me as well. I recently served a six year term on the Pioneer Square Preservation Board, where I served as vice chair and chair, and I was looking for kind of a next opportunity to use my skills and interest in applying it to the community. And, you know, I've just been really amazed at the capacity that buildings and places have to be repositories of a community's history and culture and traditions and how they can really serve to activate communities and, you know, just, you know , spark revitalization and interest among. Among the groups of people and to. Chair McDermott's comment about looking at a variety of different landmarks. I think it is true that, you know, historically landmarks have been kind of viewed through a lens of kind of western your Eurocentric perspective, particularly with regard to the architecture itself and kind of looking more at a high architecture style as well as a that's more Western focused. And I know that for culture and the Landmarks Commission and other organizations are are currently very active in exploring how other communities, interests and and landmarks can be viewed as well. So I'm excited to to begin. Thank you. Questions and Mr. Killian's. Thank you. I ask Mr. also, Brooke. Do not offer an introduction and speak to your involvement and interest. You get good points on your background. And those of you who have had an opportunity to read some of my credentials are aware of my experience, my very, very deep experience that I've had with the King County Courthouse, which was launched in two phases during the first several decades of the 20th century. But I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Adam also. I'm a registered architect and also architectural historian, and I'm currently working at Willamette Cultural Resources Associates, which is a cultural resource management firm that has offices in Portland and Seattle. Adam, if I can interrupt, can you maybe move your microphone a little closer to your scratch in little thing? We can hear you, but we can. Can you hear me better now? Yeah. Okay. No, I think that I think there was some noise in the background. I apologize for that. Can you can you hear me better now? Yes, very good. Okay. Thank you. My name is Adam, also Brook. I'm a registered architect and architectural historian, and I'm currently employed by Willamette Cultural Resources Associates, which is a archeology and architectural history cultural resource management firm with offices in both Seattle and Portland, Oregon. And I am a relatively recent transplant to the Puget Sound region. I moved to Seattle in November of 2014 from Texas, and I'm a graduate, 24 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. And I after my graduation, I work, you know, very traditional architecture firms, you know, designing houses. And then I ended up I ended up working for the Texas Street Design Office, which is a part of the Texas Historical Commission, which is the Texas state and actually the state Historic Preservation Office. The Historic Preservation Office for the state of Texas. And I work in the Main Street Design Office for just over a year, and then I transferred to another division within the Texas Historical Commission, where I reviewed federal projects under Section one or six of the National Historic Preservation Act and also rehabilitation tax credit projects, and also administered a state preservation grant program, and then also applied at Texas State Historic Preservation Regulations, which there are several different varieties. So after working for the Texas Historical Commission, I decided to I wanted to work at the city level and ultimately ended up in Seattle after my. Got a job up here. And so I. I followed. But I my first experience with. King County. And Mark's commission was when I was working on the Logical System Replacement Project at the King County Courthouse, where I was employed with part bonds architects, part design group, and a commission was extremely helpful in reviewing the proposed. Changes, too. In this case, it was a historic fabric in a hallway to make way for that much needed infrastructure replacement project. And so I also have previously served on the Pioneer Square Preservation Board with the you know, so Dean and I know each other from from there. We reviewed a lot of already projects after a while while on that board together. And I look forward to bringing my expertize to the. Mr. also, Brooke, I think you froze. Oh. There we go. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Questions for Mr. Also Brook. I want to thank all three of the nominees for joining us today and for speaking to the interest and truly passion that you bring to landmarks, historic preservation and the cultural identities of our region. Seen no further discussion. I'd entertain a motion. We will take these separately as there is a motion to correct a spelling error in one of the motions. So the entertainment motion to approve 2020 108. Some of. You. But 2020 108 is before us. See. See new discussion over Zoom. Madam Croke, if I can ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Baluchi I. Council member dombroski. I. Councilmember Dunn II. Councilmember Coles. I remember I. Council member of the growth. Councilmember Bond right there. Council members online. I. Mr. Chair. I. Mr. Chair, the vote is 7i0 no's. Council members on the ground in Penrith are excused. Thank you for your vote. We've given it due to past recommendation two motion 2020 108 and we will send regular schedule to full council in place is not consent. We will do the same if there is a motion for a motion for motion. 2109. More summer. Motion 2109 is before us. No discussion, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember Hi. Councilmember Done. By. Councilmember Coles. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember up the ground. Councilmember upon my power. I. And I. For the previous. Thank you, Councilmember. Council members only. By. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight zero now. Council member of the group. Excused. Thank you. And I'd entertain a motion to give a to pass recommendation to motion 2111. Ms.. Brooks. Tucker. Mr. Chair. The nomination of Ms.. Brooks Tucker is before us and in the changing motion to adopt Amendment One, correcting the spelling of her name. Moved. Amendment one is before us. All those in favor please signify by saying I. I am. Opposed. Nay, the ayes have it might entertain a motion to approve total amendment to one. Then moved to one before us. All this favorite. Please say I. I, i. I'm opposed. No, the ayes have it. The title amendment is adopted and final passage on motion 2021 11 as amended. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before I cover, if I could just clarify on oh nine, was that to go on the consent agenda? Yes, please. Thank you. Councilmember Belfort, you. I. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Council member done. By. Councilmember Kowalski. I remember. Linda, I. Council member of the girl. Councilmember Bone right there. All right. Councilmembers Ally. All right. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 18 zero inches council member after Grant excused. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to Motion 2021 11 as amended, and we'll place that on the consent agenda for Council on regular schedule. Colleagues, you're welcome to give me a call this afternoon and I will share the history of the Smith Tower part of my virtual background right now. We open on July 4th, 1914, just to whet your appetite a little bit. Then we'll go back to item six and today's agenda for this item, we have an ordinance related to the health through housing implementation plan. This past autumn, the Council passed a 1/10 of 1% additional sales tax to fund housing programs and related services known as Health through housing. This ordinance would outline the content to be included in the executive's implementation plan for the spending of these tax proceeds, as well as the approach the executive should take in developing the implementation plan. The proposed ordinance was amended by the Regional Policy Committee that received the ordinance as a mandatory dual referral and passed out of the committee on January 13th with a do pass recommendation. It is their amended version that is before us. Today we have April Sanders and Sam Porter from policy staff to provide a briefing to Sanders. Ms.. Porter. The floor is yours. Hey, thank you. Good morning. For the record, April Sanders Council Policy Staff. The materials for item six begin on page eight of your packet. Proposed Ordinance 2020 338 would require the executive to develop and transmit an ordinance for counsel consideration. An implementation plan to guide spending of the housing sales tax revenue generated by the sales tax announced or enacted by the Council. Last year, this item was given a mandatory dole referral to the Regional Policy Committee and the Committee of the Hall and passed out of the Regional Policy Committee last month with amendments as a bit of background. During the 2020 legislative session, the Legislature passed House Bill 1590 related to a sales and use tax for housing and related services. Previously, this housing sales tax was required to go to the ballot for authorization from voters before enactment, but the House bill provided the option for the tax to be council. Manic House Bill 1590 gave counties until September 30th of 2020 to impose the tax countywide. After that date, cities could impose the tax either by ballot or by a council meeting vote. Before County Council passed the housing sales tax legislation, eight cities had imposed the sales tax. State statute specifies the activities and services for which the tax may be used. At least 60% of proceeds must go to constructing affordable housing and behavioral health related facilities and funding operations and maintenance of various facilities. Remaining funds must be used for operation delivery or evaluation of mental and behavioral health treatment programs and services or housing related services. State statute requires that certain population groups at or below a 16% area median income may be provided affordable housing and facilities providing housing related programs generated using housing sales tax revenue. Those certain population groups are listed on page name. The County Council passed ordinance 19179, which imposed the sales tax. And given that there will not be an implementation plan in place for 2021, revenues will be spent in accordance with state law and the 2021 2022 biennial budget. Once an implementation plan is adopted in 2021, the plan would inform expenditures in 2022 and beyond. With that, I'll hand it over to my colleague Sam Porter to discuss the proposed ordinance in discussion today. Thank you, April. Sam Porter Council of Policy Staff I am on the bottom of page 12 of your packet excuse me. Proposed Ordinance 2020 0338 would require that the executive transmit an initial implementation plan for the health through housing sales tax. The plan transmitted to Council would be required to include goals, strategies, performance measures, reporting requirements and an annual spending plan for 2022 through 2028. The proposed ordinance would require the executive to consult with the Affordable Housing Committee and the CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. In order to develop the implementation plan. The required goals to be included in the implementation plan include the creation and ongoing operation of 2000 units of affordable housing with related services. An annual reduction of racial and ethnic demographic disproportionality among persons experiencing homelessness in King County and the creation and operation of a mobile behavioral health intervention program with access for its clients to be created, operated or otherwise funded by proceeds. The proposed ordinance would require the implementation plan to be transmitted with a companion ordinance establishing the health through Housing Advisory Committee. The committee's responsibilities are. Or to be described in the initial implementation plan, and the membership would be required to include representatives of the following demographics individuals who experienced homelessness, racial and ethnic communities disproportionately represented among people experiencing chronic homelessness. Residents of cities with populations greater than 60,000 residents of the unincorporated area, and representatives from county, city and subregional boards, commissions or committees pertaining to King County Human Service Investments. The proposed ordinance would require that the implementation plan outline the process of siting affordable housing and behavioral health facilities funded through the sales tax revenue . This process would have to be done in accordance with state law and would be required to involve the use of an equity and social justice impact review process. The eight year annual spending plan to be included in the implementation plan described in the proposed ordinance, would be required to include the following for each year a forecast of bond debt service associated with the bonds issued and an allocation of proceeds to fully cover the debt service. An allocation of 9 to 13% of each year proceeds to be spent on behavioral health treatment programs and services outside of those provided within affordable housing or behavioral health facilities supported by proceeds of the proceeds remaining after items one and two. And just mentioned, no more than 5% could be used for administration, no more than one and one half percent for evaluation. And at least 1% would go to support and build capacity for community based organizations to deliver programs and services eligible for the health through housing proceeds and communities that are disproportionately represented among persons experiencing chronic homelessness in King County. In addition to the initial plan outlined in proposed Ordinance 2020 0338, the executive would be required to transmit a proposed eight year update to the implementation plan every eight years, beginning in 2027. As my colleague mentioned, proposed ordinance was amended at the RBC meeting on January 13th. A technical amendment and a title amendment were passed and seven additional amendments. I will briefly summarize. Amendment 1.1 changed the date of the transmittal from June 30th to August 30th, and then at 1.2 required that the advisory committees annual reporting to include information of the amount of sales tax proceeds spent in each jurisdiction. Amendment 1.3 change the number of affordable housing units to reflect revised revenue projections. No unit projections for the revenue from the sales tax decreased from 2000 units due to the loss of approximately 25% of sales tax revenue. New planned unit projections are 1600 units. Amendment 1.4 stated that the funding may sometimes only be required for operating and support supportive services, and this amendment also required the plan to include a process for the executive to work with jurisdictions funding affordable housing to align sales tax allocations with those efforts. Amendment two required the plan to require a process between the county and cities where facilities are proposed in order to jointly agree on locations to be purchased or constructed. Amendment three required the plan to include a communication and partnership plan and a last amendment require the plan to include a forecast of annual expenditures. And that concludes now that. Before the amendment to requires the if the proceeds are to be used to purchase a facility in a incorporated jurisdiction, that that jurisdiction has to agree on the location. It would require a process in order to jointly agree on locations. For each. Breach versus breach facility? Yes. Thank you. Dear colleagues, questions of Central South Council member Lambert. So I'm looking on page 11 and 12, the sales tax revenue projections, so it makes sense that there would be a difference in the amount of sales tax. But one of the things we're trying to do is to get equity across the county. And when I look in the east part of the county, you know, one of the cities in the district is $42,000. One gets 119, one gets 121 get seven skycom geico gets $7,000. It really not a whole snoqualmie gets $292,000. When they're other groups, they're getting 4 million, 2 million, 1 million. So in the past, when there's been a lot of disparity in the spectrum, we put a floor on that. You know, this group will get at least X amount of dollars. I don't really know. Skirmish is going to do a whole lot with 7000 donation. They can't do a whole lot with 42,000 affordable housing. And yet both of those cities need help. We looked at all about having some floor so that there's a meaningful amount of money going in each city so that they could do something because you can't do much for housing on $7,000. So Councilmember, those are actually if I may, those are actually projections of what would be collected. So those aren't expenditure projections. Okay. So where is that? So we don't have an expenditure plan for 2022 and beyond that would be included in the implementation plan that would go to council next year, later this year. Okay. So my suggestion would be that we do the same thing as we do in others, that there be a minimum one so that every every one of them is the parties can do something and that we figure out what that force should be. Thank you. Councilmember WG. Thank you. I've got two questions, but before I do, I just want to state a respectfully contrary view. The goal of this entire program is to house up to 1600 or so people. The number has grown because the projections have grown by purchasing or constructing single room occupancy type housing developments. And there's a certain number that you need in order to to house that many people. And that number is not 39. We're not going to build one or buy one in every single jurisdiction in King County. It's just it's not feasible or they're not necessarily available. So the idea of getting a benefit, the benefit is to get people out of homelessness and really make a dent in homelessness in King County. This is not a peanut butter program where each jurisdiction gets some amount of money to spend on whatever is local. The cities are an opportunity and as you see, many of them took it to hold on to the sales tax adopted in their cities, and they're going to do what they do with that. But this is a regional program and I think it needs to remain that way. That's part of the reason why I wasn't in favor of the idea of kind of consolidating more funding to hand over to other cities. Because the impact we can have here is a regional impact. And I think that we should stick with that. But let me go to my my two questions. The first one is, we're still working on legislation that makes it clear that purchasing of properties is allowed with this funding. Is that correct? Yeah. So the state legislature is working on clarifying some of the language of that produced ambiguity, including around purchasing of hotels or other things. Does the does the direction that this ordinance would provide to the executive to provide an implementation plan account for the fact that that's likely to be adopted after we vote? I say it's silent on it, so it doesn't it doesn't preclude the implementation plan, including hotels or other or other purchases, assuming the legislature does act. But it doesn't it does it requests specifically that the implementation plan include it, which is probably fine because we asked for a report to include certain things, doesn't mean they can't include lots of other things. Like we don't tell them, do not say anything else. Okay, so that was thing one. I just had a request from our constituent jurisdictions this morning about ongoing operations. So by its nature, these buildings will be made to be operated into the future. They'll need to be maintained. There will need to be some ability for King County folks to have resources to interact with the host communities, if you will, and be able to, you know, maintain the relationships and respond to two issues as needed. Is the does the implementation plan, as requested, make sure that we're asking for information about maintenance and operation being adequately funded. I my, my, my fear is that you put all the focus or an undue focus on the capital. Aspects of this. Program and that we make sure that we're going to plan for the kind of operation and maintenance dollars that will be significant that will be needed on an ongoing basis. So the implementation plan or this ordinance does not specifically request that, but it is within the scope of of the state legislation to allow operations and maintenance of those facilities. Well mentioned that the first goal of the required implementation plan is the creation and ongoing operation of the units of affordable housing, which really is the address on the call today. Why now? Okay. I'm just going to assume they heard what I asked and that that is something that I think is important and that we don't have to really look at closely when we see the implementation plan rather than trying to amend this, which then sets off procedural loops. So thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And welcome, colleagues. That's typical Lowe's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For our staff or for cowriter Mark Goldberg who are on the line? Well, how. Does the the current just care program fit into all of this? I mean, their goals seem to align at least somewhat here with what is contemplated. And would it make any sense for the implementation plan to, I think, consider proceeds to reduce the need of existing shelter facilities to vulnerable populations who are. Experiencing. Chronic homelessness and where there are some behavioral or other issues. It just seems like there's some overlap here, and I'd appreciate your letting me know more about that. I'm happy to kick it off and then hand it over to Mark and Kelly if they have additional comments. So certainly certain components of just care would would could apply to these proceeds, including the operation of delivery or evaluation of mental and behavioral health programs and services and housing related services. I think some of those hotel purchasing questions also go to counseling about duties, question about about what the state legislature is possibly doing this year. But certainly some components could apply. Thank you very much for. Is there anything else, anybody? I think the only other thing that I would add, Councilmember, is that I think the population for just care and the population that we are looking at for the health or housing program are very similar, if not identical. So I think there is a fair amount of overlap in that place. One of the pieces that we kind of the lines that we need to walk and be clear on here is the difference between the housing and the shelter way that we're kind of implementing these two programs. And obviously just care moves folks into hotel type settings on a temporary basis. And I think we need to kind of tease out there there's how that kind of overlaps. So but I think from a population perspective, you're right on as far as identifying the commonality. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I ask one more question. Thank you. Whether it be makes sense or even be needed to have an amendment brought up that would. Include. Specifically just pure or just pure life type of program to be included? Or would that already be covered in the language of the legislation? Councilmember This is Kelly, Writer for the record, Don, manager with Department of Community and Human Services. Thank you for the question. Obviously, DHS would defer to the Council on deciding what amendments you would like to add. We feel like there is sufficient flexibility in the ordinance as it stands to be able to continue our ongoing conversations with the Public Defenders Association. As Mark said, there's a lot of consistency and alignment with the population that PBA has been serving and the type of approach they've been taking. And I think the ordinance gives us the broad level direction of being able to think through in the permanent supportive housing framework, how we would continue to serve that population. Thank you. That's exactly what I was interested in, ma'am. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. On page 14, I think has some really good language that we're talking about, where the spending plan is in compliance with the ICW. That requires a minimum 60% of revenue to be used for constructing affordable housing, mental or behavioral health related facilities. So I think that's right, right up there. And so what I'd like to add to that is that as one of the other covers has said, that it'd be ongoing, that there be like a navigator, so that as issues come up in the long term, that there's a place for people to call and make sure that everything's okay. And then I do agree that we're trying to get this done regionally and trying to make sure that we help people as quickly as possible to get into appropriate housing, not tent serve or other. That may not be as appropriate, but I do believe that we need to not leave the cities out. The cities are dealing with homeless people and just getting them to the right place will cost them money. So I think it's a combination of both. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Making sure that we have the ability to move people experiencing chronic homelessness throughout the region into housing summary in the region is imperative and I hope cities are permissive of opportunities to purchase facilities in successfully housed people as we have seen, for example, that had such great success in the Red Lion in Renton. DEMBOSKY Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a return to Amendment Two, which I voted against at the RTC, although it carried otherwise, and it was described by staff here today as establishing a process to work with the city, which I think is good. But my concern, if there is a possibility, was that it ultimately would allow the city to veto our ability to appoint or property as a county government. And I want to understand that that is a fact, because because I think that goes a little too far. I think cities do have their tools in terms of zoning and fundraising. To be able to control our government's ability to acquire property is very unusual, if not unprecedented for. Yeah. But I think your, your summary is correct that the siting process would, would be directive where the cities could hypothetically say no to citing a facility in their jurisdiction. Thank you for that clarification. That seems contrary to even what Councilmember Lambert was just speaking to the the need to be able to have facilities to support this population across the county. Hello. Council members. Hello. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we all know, there are certain populations that are overrepresented in our homeless population. Black people and Native American people. And I know the tax has explicitly stated goal of reducing racial disproportionality. Can someone speak a little bit to whether part of that strategy of reducing and eliminating the racial disproportionality involves partnering with organizations that are led by those groups to provide housing and to address the other needs that are associated with homelessness. That is not explicitly required in the implementation plan ordinance in front of you today. Thank you. And can someone from DC speak to why that is? I can thank you, Councilmember Dollar, and I realize I didn't introduce myself for the record. So Mark and I broke from the department community and Human Services. As far as the implementation plan, including or the proposed legislation discussing the implementation and implementation plan, including that language, I can't speak to whether it's inclusion or not, but what I can speak to is the department's commitment on this and how we expect to do this work. I think you're Point Council member is exactly right. We have a lot of strong nonprofits in this community, in this region who are excellent at supportive housing. And we have a lot of nonprofits that have deep cultural roots or deep ethnic roots serving certain populations. And what we really hope to do through this program is try to bring those together where we get both the expertize on the operations side and the expertize and the disproportionality and the cultural side together. And I would point to an example of where we've been successful in doing that is the project that we work with both Catholic Community Services and chiefs, Sierra Club in Seattle, where we actually had a program where we brought those two. We work together with those two agencies to work on a program that really targets American-Indian, Alaska Native Homelessness. And this is a project that's on Metro property on Sixth Avenue South and really have ended up in a place where Catholic Community Services has stepped out of the operation of that facility. Chief Sierra Club has really stepped in to meet that disproportionality need that we know is represented. And I think we are hoping to build on that model with the rest of health or housing as we kind of move that forward. So I think we have that expectation, expectation and intend to build that into the development and implementation plan. Now. Councilmember, let me first set aside, for lack of a better word, in number nine to be at the very end of the ordinance, does talk about 1% being used to support and build the capacity of meat based organizations to serve a demographically disproportionately represented populations. And our intent is certainly to use that funding to support buying for community of color led organizations in being able to engage in providing services and really need the work in these housing developments. So are there any organizations that you think we should be reaching out to and conversations that we would certainly love to add them to our list? Thank you, Kelly and Mark. Concern that I'm hearing a lot of our intent is to and our plan is to, but it's not in the legislation. And so I would want to create an amendment for something along those lines. Mr. Chair, can you help me understand the procedure for doing that? Is it possible to bring in an amendment before for council, or does that have to be something that's done here today? Council members. Hello. Indeed, because this is a mandatory dual referral. We could adopt an amendment here or presumably at full council and it would be referred back to the Regional Policy Committee. And so. I guess I. I'm thinking as I'm speaking, which is maybe not brilliant. It doesn't matter where it would be done. An amendment today or an amendment in for council would be appropriate. We would then send the legislation to the Regional Policy Committee. Okay. Thanks a lot, Mr. Chair. Further discussion. I be adoption of the ordinance. Councilmember Jean Vasquez moved adoption of Ordinance 2020 338 discussion. Met. Madam Clark, would you please call the wrong. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council. Balaji, I council member Dombrowski. I. Councilmember Stern. Hi. Councilmember Kowalski. Hi. Councilmember Lambert. Hi. Councilmember of the girl, I. Councilmember one right there. I found some members of my high. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. But it's 19 zero noes. Thank you. By your vote, we've given it to pass recommendation in ordinance 2020 and 338, and we will send that to full council staff. There's no reason to expedite, is there? No, I don't believe so. All right, well, send in the regular schedule and we'll place this on consent. And our final three items, we confirm executive appointments to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. The appointments are Leah Tischler, a public interest representative. Wendy Welker. A as a representative of waste management. Waste Management. And. William Louis. As a citizen representative. Application materials were sent out to council members prior to the meeting. Tara Rose from Council South will provide a brief staff report on the purpose and makeup of the committee. Then we'll hear from the potential nominees. Intern Tara Rose. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Tara Rose, Council staff, as the chair noted, agenda item seven through nine concern appointments to the King County Solid Waste Advisory Committee, or SWAC. And the materials for these items began on page 29 of your pocket. I'll provide some very, very brief background on the committee and then turn it over to the council members. State law requires each county to establish an advisory committee to assist in the development of programs and policies concerning solid waste handling and disposal, and to review and comment upon. Proposed rules, policies or ordinances. Prior to adoption. King County, SWAC was established in the mid 1980s and per King County Code. The SWAC is composed of at least nine and not more than 20 members representing a balance of interests, including citizens, local elected officials, industry representatives, environmental representatives, among others. Code also required that the committee shall include one representative from each of the two bargaining units representing the greatest number of solid waste division employees, as well as at least one representative who resides within a. Mile. Of the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill. Staff have not identified any issues with the proposed appointments and they appear to be consistent with the requirements of King County Code and state law. As the Chair noted, the appointees have been invited today and we also have Pat McLaughlin, Solid Waste Division Director, for questions, and that concludes my remarks. Thank you, Mr. McLaughlin. Any opening comments, introduction on your part? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to say that, as you know, the work ahead for solid waste regional system is significant and we're on an exciting path. Towards zero waste of resources and. The candidates before the Committee for Consideration. Ms.. Weicker, Ms.. Tischler and Mr.. Lui each are uniquely. Qualified to lend experience and expertize that will really help inform and advise the Council, the executive and the division in important policy choices and important exploration of tools, techniques and partnerships. So I'm excited about the prospect of of these candidates. And I'll let I'll let you and the rest of your council members get to know them more directly. Happy to answer any questions. Should there be any? Thank you. Let's start with Ms.. Record. Can you please introduce yourself, share a little bit about your background, your work in the field. Hi. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your time. It's Wendy Weicker, not Welker. So Weicker, I like your chair. McDermott Thank you very much for remembering that. And to confirm, I work for a public service, not waste management. So I do represent industry and I think most of you are probably familiar with Republic as we serve 19 cities and King County from residential or commercial recycling and solid waste services. We're a national company. We're in 42 states with 36,000 employees. We operate trucks, transfer stations and landfills. We know this business inside and out. We've been doing it for over 30 years as Republic Services, but our big important work that we do is really locally and in our neighborhoods and in our communities. So safety is our number one priority in managing through difficult, challenging times, whether it's national disaster or COVID pandemic. Our employees are essential service employees just like yours. And we do what we have to do to to keep the work going. Our motto is, we'll handle it from here. And that is, we're simple solutions. We're good partners in this work. And we appreciate the long term partnership we have with our cities, our unincorporated areas and King County. Part of our core work is also responsibility around the environment and climate action. So we are committed to that work, as is the county. Our recycling facility center down on third and Lander has been handling recyclable materials for over 30 years. It's the largest murf west of the Mississippi. We are committed to recycling even though it's challenged with China sword. And now COVID impacts its core to what we do and its core of what we believe as employees. We like to say we work for Earth as well, and part of that work is also tied to being a good employer. So we are a certified great place to work. We are in the Barron's list of most sustainable companies, are on the Forbes list of best employers for women and innovators. And what I'm particularly proud of is Republic recently joined the Washington Employers for Equity Initiative at the Roundtable and Challenge Seattle put together in the last year. So we are proud partners in this. Racial justice and social justice work personally have been working with Pat and his team at the King County, SWAC and Municipal SWAC. For the 18 months I've been at Republic Services, I'm keenly aware of the work we have to do around zero waste and the rate restructuring to make sure that that work is sustainable while we figure out how to do more reduce, reuse and recycle. I understand the county's work also through the sustainability goals and how that has to match with economic realities and the tolerance that our rate payers have in managing this work. And so it's going to take a partnership to navigate through all the challenges that Pat alluded to you earlier and that maybe some of you who care about this climate action work and materials management that we do for this industry and this partnership. A little bit more about me. I've been doing this public relations work for the last 25 years through public, private and nonprofit sector. I've been at Republic for about 18 months, and before that I worked at Puget Sound Energy. So I understand essential services, I understand utilities, I understand ratepayers, and I understand education, outreach to use carrots and sticks to get consumers to help us understand the balance we need to do in implementing good policy regionally and globally, as well as locally and here in our homes and businesses to do the right thing for everyone in our society. In my spare time, I'm working to get my college kids through their COVID crises and management, working and learning online. And my husband is a Bellevue High School teacher, so helping him get through online and managing all the challenges we have in our education system as well. I also am an elected official in an east side city and part of the SCA board and a b c board in Solid Waste Association of North America Board. I volunteered for k4c before it was public, and now I'm intimately involved with that for my city work in their public work because recycling is a key part of what k4c is trying to do. So I balance both hats and trying to do what we can to keep this partnership working in that system, moving forward and adapting to the changes ahead. So with that, I appreciate your consideration and I'm really passionate about this governmental work and happy to bring my public, personal and professional experience and expertize to the table as well as all the expertize the Republic can offering doing this work nationwide. Thank you, Ms.. Like her arm. Questions? Member Council member Lambert. Thank you. Oh, it's good to see you as always. So I have a couple of quick things to my knowledge. Quickly, let me know if this is still not changed, that these meetings are not reported. And over the years, there have been issues with the minutes having some concerns. And when I have called for the tape to reconcile, the two tapes don't exist. And now that we are able to to record things on Zoom, I think it would be a good thing for the new members to look into making sure that the meetings are recorded so that if the minutes have some issues that we can get back to what was actually said, I my staff or I have attended most many of them, most actually for at least a decade of these meetings. And I have not seen a lot of forward progression on what the future should look like. The. I'm glad to hear you're talking about re-use and recycling and abuse, which I think is a very exciting thing. I'm very pleased about the abuse commit plan where you go and you can have your things fixed and change them into all kinds of other kinds of useful things around your house. That's been really successful. The last thing is landfill mining. Landfill mining is now something that is useful in Europe. And I would like to see us turn out almost 900 acres of garbage into a mining place where we can get the garbage out and not leave 900 acres of garbage for our children and our great grandchildren. So could you tell me how you will help us to move forward in things like landfill mining and other technologies on this committee? I will do my best to work with Pat and his team on long range planning and working with the comprehensive plan that the county has to optimize that landfill longevity and optimal ability to full resources where we can and extend the life as long as possible, and also look for alternatives when that landfill does fill up. Thank you. I would like to see the. Raptor. Greatly reduced in size because we have technology that won't require that it has with the neighbors yet. Yes. The neighbors would love that if. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember by Mike Bauer. Oh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just more of. An observation than a question. Yeah. I had the privilege of being in the state Senate and chairing the Joint Solid Waste Committee of the House and the Senate. And when we developed this original legislation and I will say that when you pitch that incredible proposal that we hope to have every county have a person with her commitment , her background or experience, and, quite frankly, her commitment. I don't know how you have time to do all the things you do, but thank you for being willing to do this because you fit the profile of what we need in that in that group. And as someone who works on everybody, she and I and Councilmember Dombrowski with the Argot Committee do a lot with solid waste. And we're blessed in this state and this county with with our director. And I want to thank him for all the service he does. I mean, this is a very tough job, as Councilmember Lambert knows, because of her district. There is nobody's ever happy. Republic has done a great job, in my opinion, and reaching out to people in John King County. You have a lot of good leadership within the agency that are involved in King County, not the least of which is the mayor of Compton. And we appreciate you. And I want to thank you for your commitment and willingness to serve. Thank you. Further further questions. Say none. Thank you. We'll move to you and Mr. Louis. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. And we'd welcome an opportunity for you to introduce yourself and share your interest and work in the field. Morning. Yup. My name is William Louis. I go by Bill. Fairly new to the area. I grew up in New Jersey. I went to Tulane University in New Orleans, the Army ROTC. So I graduated and went into the Army. Was going to finish my obligation and leave. But September 11th. Happened and just. Felt wrong to leave. So I ended up doing a whole career in the Army. And I retired in 2017. To this area, to. Redmond, Washington. An Army reservist connected me with the C, the Seattle VA Hospital and the facility section. So I became a general engineer here doing construction projects here at Seattle VA Hospital and American Way campus. My interest in this is primarily just getting involved in the community. Now that I kind of settled down with the family here. I started off by volunteering with the. Northeast Recycling Transfer Station Committee. And then somebody reached out to me about joining Solid Waste. They sound pretty good. I don't really have a lot of experience in that. In one of our deployments. We had to close our base and. I got involved with the closing out of contractors that did the trash, the sewage. And incinerator. So we were kind of water based, so we kind of figure out our own trash schedule, their own stuff, and it's body. I don't have the kind of experience that Wendy had. So that's a tough act to follow. Excited to be here. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.. Then we're very glad to have you here as well. I'm colleagues. Any questions? Councilmember Bellevue Chee. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Lui, I believe I'm your council member in District six. I represent part of Redmond, along with Councilmember Lambert. I think you might be selling yourself short a little bit on the information I have here. It says we also have degrees in chemical engineering and geological engineering. Is that correct? Yes, I graduate a chemical engineering degree, but I never. Used in the army, so I can't talk about it. Too much. And I also says here that you served on the Northeast Recycling and transfer station siting advisory committee. Yeah, I'm a. Volunteer on that. Committee right now. Right. I think that you I think that you bring education and real world experience and familiarity more so than most people who are new to the area would have with our system. And I, I just would not to argue with you, but I think you bring a lot of a lot a lot to the table and appreciate your willingness to serve. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Councilmember Balducci. I'm seeing no more questions. I will ask Ms.. Tessler to introduce herself and speak to your interest in Sabrina, the committee. Yes. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I'm sorry if I'm out of breath. We just had a fire alarm and I had to relocate on very short notice. So sorry. My name is Leah Tischler and I am currently the sustainability manager for SBM on the Microsoft Puget Sound campus in Redmond, Washington. I currently handle all of the waste that's produced on campus and the educational outreach that is produced for the campus, and then also our zero waste certification. My formal background is in environmental management. I have a degree in environmental management from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. And I began my career actually in the county of Hawaii on their solid waste. I'm sorry. I mean, there's always office either recycling office, actually handling the container beverage deposit program for the county here in Washington. I have worked for both Republic. I've worked for Republic Services and now that I'm here are at Microsoft O SBM on the Microsoft campus handling their waste. I am a true zero waste advisor from GB, C.I. and I have. I'm working basically with Microsoft in first and foremost holding their zero waste certification on campus. They have been certified since 2016 and actually through even our low occupancy times, we have been able to increase our diversion here on campus through a number of initiatives that were implemented during this unprecedented times. I also, as a true advisor, have helped certify their largest hackathons, my largest hackathon, which is a yearly event. We were able to certify our gold in 2018 and then in 2019 we're actually platinum. And unfortunately this year it was canceled due to COVID restrictions. But I'm hoping that next year we will definitely be as successful as we have been in further in previous years. So passionate about solid waste and especially in the diversion sector, circular economy and also the ability to work with stakeholders for businesses on reducing their their solid waste production and increasing diversion as much as possible, even during times like we have at these days. Thank you very much. Well, the three seats that are before us today all have different specifications about what qualifications should fill them. It really does lead us to a very diverse and very well qualified group of people to consider nominations today. Are there any questions of Ms.. Tassler in particular? I would entertain emotion. Councilmember Coe Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I agree with you, all three seem to be exceptionally well qualified. I've noticed this since the vote in my district, and I'm just wondering what the public said. A public interest group report. Yeah, I will be. I'll be representing true the FBI. Okay. Thank you. And thank you for applying to. Yes. Thank you for the opportunity. Yes. If it is reached with approval from the committee, I would entertain a motion from all four to approve all three in one vote. So she sounds like it's already been moved. All right, then we have before us. Motions 20, 20, 21, 13, 14 and 15 appointments to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. There are no amendments to any one of the three motions, so I see no further discussion. Madam. Madam Clerk, would you please call the. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci, I am asking. I. Council member done by Councilmember Cowles. I also member Lambert. High Council member of the CRA. I. Councilmember one right there. I'm. Council members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 990 nos. Thank you. By your vote, we were given a do pass recommendation to motions 20, 21, 13, 14 and 15, and we will advance those in the normal course of business to council, to the full council, and place them all on the consent agenda. That concludes our meeting. Madam Clerk, are there any votes that were missed in the technical difficulties we should try to catch? Yes, Mr. Chair. On items 2020 100809 and 11 Council member was excused. Mr. Chair, council member. Up the growth, up the girl votes. I am those items. Thank you very. Much. And with that, I want to thank everyone for their participation in today's meeting. And we will. We hereby adjourn the committee of the hall. Thank you.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Adam Alsobrook, who resides in council district two, to the King County landmarks commission.
king_dd9eda9a-bcf3-4f1c-9d5a-1495ca0184d4	It is time now that we begin the committee of the hall. This is the meeting of February 17th, 2016, and so will the Kirk please call for the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Bellevue here. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossage. Councilmember Caldwell. Councilmember McDermott here. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember Robin Wright. Madam Chair, here. Okay. Councilmember McDermott, would you put the minutes of the February 3rd meeting before us? Madam Chair, we move adoption of our February 3rd meeting minutes. Thank you. Are those in favor of the minutes as written? Please say those opposed. Nay, the minutes are approved as written. I think we are going to go to our briefing and then save number four for a little bit later. So let's go to Briefing and it is Briefing 2016, Briefing 29. This is the Bridges and Roads final report. And so John Risha will be giving us the presentation. And with us today, we have a number of wonderful people from the task force and from our own staff. So, Theresa, would you like to begin? Councilmember My goal is to get out of the way. So I'll do this very quickly before you. As a briefing today on the recommendations and final report from the Bridges and Roads Task Force that convened to look deeply at the issues associated with bridges and roads in unincorporated King County, and to bring forward a variety of recommendations and ideas on how to approach some of the funding and management challenges of the assets out within the unincorporated area. Joining you today is Brenda Bauer, the director of the Road Services Division, as well as Louise Miller and Van Anderson, who are both members of the task force. And with that, I'm actually going to step aside and let Mr. Bauer kick this off for you. Excellent. And then if you're going to leave, let's have Jay Osborne come on up, too, so that I have all the people that we can ask questions from immediately in front of us. Ms.. Bauer, would you like to begin and thank you. Thank you again. Brenda Bauer, I'm the director of King County Roads, and I'm very happy to be here today to present this report. It was a very significant effort by the part on the part of a lot of different stakeholders in our community. And we're trying to come up with suggestions and an approach to address some really dire circumstances on King County Road. So with that, I will ask Louise to start a presentation of our task force findings. Thank you. Well, our charge as a task force was to recommend financially sustainable and equitable strategies to deliver an unincorporated road system that supports people's transportation needs, local and regional economic development and quality of life. We had 21 regional leaders and we met between August of 2015 through January of 2016, and it really was a broad based group that included, you know, mayors and representatives from cities and some legislative representatives, people from the rural area, people from the urban area, all different kinds of folks. So it was very broad based and the discussions were sometimes very interesting. We agreed that our charge was to recommend these financially sustainable ideas and it was tough work. But we did get some really in-depth presentations by various staff members. I particularly remember Dwight Devery and all of the information he gave us, all the background on the funding situation, but also sort of all of the things that have happened over the last, I'd say, decade and a half that really restricted the ability to pull in the revenue needed to keep even basic infrastructure running. So the challenge was the revenue gap, we were told, and it looks like depending on the year between 90 million to may be a hundred or 110 million is what the county's road tax is going to bring in. And basically, the county's road tax is only paid by those living in the unincorporated area. And we're now down to about 250,000 people. But it's by household because it's a property tax. So. And what we're looking at is the need for anywhere between 350 million to 500 million in order to really not only take care of the public safety needs, which is about all that 90 million will cover, is if we have a real emergency or a real safety issue for one of our bridges or a flooding issue or a road infrastructure itself, that's about it. So there's a big gap, obviously. We had an outside consultant who. Review the assumptions that were given to us about the kind of revenue and what was needed and what we were going to get. And they actually thought maybe we're a little bit conservative. But, you know, the report was vetted, I believe, so that they could tell us, no, these are the things you ought to be looking at. Yes, they they've done their work. And we also you'll see this chart. I love this chart. But it's it just tells you, what can we do at 90 million, which I just told you was basically public safety and serious emergencies. Then what can you do if you get 110? What can you do to get to 200, etc.? So you can look into the detail of that is just indicates that there are levels and it was helpful during the presentations by Dwight Dave Leigh to think about this because he could tell you what kind of revenue would be generated for what particular method of funding. So this chart was interesting to look at as you were thinking about what were the items. So what's happening? Shrinking revenue. Our system has not been revised for 30 years in terms of funding for maintenance, operation, replacement of bridges, etc. And in the nearly three decades that we've been gaining annexations, we've also had declining gas tax revenues . And also, I think we all know, particularly in local government, that the impact of initiative adoption by the citizens and what that's meant to our ability to really pull in the revenue that you need for your basic infrastructure. So there's another thing that people don't think about, but we think about it, and this slide shows you that the right of way not only provides critical connections for travel, but also allows for the delivery of utilities. And and, you know, it used to be maybe the the water line and maybe a main sewer main or something . It's a lot more than that. Now it's your natural gas, it's your fiber optics. It's many things that go in there right away. And it would be extremely and prohibitively expensive if you had to go through private land to do that. So the roadways are very important. Bridges and road use 1 million trips a day, of which half of those on high volume roads come from cities and other counties. It's not just the people living in the rural area, it's really everybody depending on what they're using the road for. There's 2 million residents in King County, and again, we pointed out that only 250,000 would be eligible to have that property tax for the roads. And you're at the max now. You can't really go any higher than where you are right now. So we have to preserve those 1500 miles. To put it in perspective, there is about 1200 miles between Canada and Mexico as the crow flies. And you're talking about taking care of 1500 miles of road with a million trips a day. It's very, very important to keep that infrastructure in working order. So that was the challenge. Thank you. And for the record, would you say your name and your name is Louise Miller. And I was a member of the Transportation Task Force and a former member of this body and a former state legislator and a former water sewer know. And I know about the sewer lines and the water line. Yes, in the right of way. And we're very big shoes because she's my district and I got to follow her to the legislature and here. So thank you. So I wanted to talk a little bit about operationally how we've reacted and some of the things that we're seeing. And there there are not a lot of additional efficiencies that we could undertake to address the shortfall. We continue to make efforts to try and appropriately respond to the decline in funding, but we've already cut 40% of our staff, as you can see in this chart. And we've worked with our unions to get more flexible job duties. We stopped performing a lot of general road work for cities because we found that it was conflicting with our ability to get work done in a timely way. On county roads, we consolidated office space and we closed a lot of our maintenance facilities out in the county and consolidated staff. We redrew the work districts that our employees work in and try to maximize travel efficiencies. And we've certainly we've been partnering with other county agencies and also with washed out to try and come up with shared facilities or efficiencies. However, even with all that effort, what we're expecting for the future is that at least 72 miles of road that we're aware of are at risk of restriction or closure. 35 bridges, and that about 65% of our stormwater system is at risk of failure. So these things come to the end of their useful life and they need to be replaced. And a lot of them are really at that point. The other thing that we're very concerned about is if you don't do the kinds of preservation activities, if you're not funded to do the preservation activities on your roadways, it really ends up costing you more. Your infrastructure doesn't last as long. You have to replace it sooner. And so you're really not getting a good lifecycle cost out of it. So would you explain that a little more for the listening audience at home? A good example of that that most people can understand is if you had a hole in your roof and you didn't fix it, what you might experience is, you know, water inside of your house that damaged your drywall, your carpeting, your personal possessions. So all of that could create a more expensive problem for you if you don't patch your hole in the same way. We have bridges and roads and as if they don't get regular maintenance, if they don't get preservation activities, they deteriorate much sooner. And you've got a much bigger, much more expensive problem. So in the last slide, if you bring that slide back up again, if you. Think I lost control of the okay. And if you don't repair it within a certain time, they're at 90 points out of 100. It's about. Yes, thank you. It's about some of the numbers we thought was ten $97.97 a square foot or square yard. And then if you wait until it gets down into the four, that same goes into reconstruction and you're spending 5 to $10 for that same amount of space. So it it is a huge difference in whether you take care of it. Like you said, when the leak starts at the roof or you wait to repair it until all the sheetrock and the rugs are all damaged in the furniture. So at this point, many of our roads were down to the sheetrock and the furniture being destroyed. So it's an important chart. So thank you. All right. One of the things we've been doing is really identifying what is the important infrastructure that we're responsible for and should be caring for. And through the many decades of annexations and formation of cities in our county, there are little road segments that have been left around that we refer to as orphan roads. Small stranded road segments in urban areas. And they're very difficult for us to access and maintain from core county service areas. There are also about 130 what we call islands or groups of streets that for one reason or another didn't get included in an annexation. And finally, there continues to be urban areas that are potential annexation, areas that haven't yet been incorporated into cities. So you can see in the yellow the areas that are urban and for the most part have incorporated the little red lines or the stranded road segments. Doesn't really show the potential annexation areas in the islands, but we're driving from our core service area into the cities or through the cities to try and get to these little road segments to do pothole patching, to manage the vegetation so it doesn't block the traffic signals to do all the kinds of work that needs to be done on typically a piece of road that's less than a half a mile long. And that's just really not efficient. And it means because we have a limited number of people who are working every day, that if they're driving 45 minutes or more to take care of a small half mile segment that's in the boundaries of the city, and then driving back to our core service area that things are not getting done on core county roads. So that's really an opportunity cost for us. That is of great concern because there's a limited number of trucks that we have and a limited number of people who can go out every day. So I think you said a couple of really important things. I think you should talk about how much fewer trucks we have and how that impacts other people. And you mentioned that these were done during Annexations. And my favorite one, and I say that in quotes, is that there was a pig farm. And because you couldn't have a pig farm in the city, they left that section out to be unincorporated. So the pig farm could continue. So the decisions were made back then that today we may not make those same exact decisions. And it's time that we go back and I don't even have the pig farm still there, but the road is still there. So I think that's important. And then when you talk, which just happened in the legislature, as we tried to fix this. We did have a bill before the legislature. We've been talking with the cities for some time about our concern, particularly about these small road segments that are stranded. And we had a bill in front of the legislature that would allow the county council to transfer them to the cities. And they expressed concern about that so that that portion of our efficiency bill in front of the legislature I don't think is going to be moving forward. But we're going to continue those conversations. We've had cities take a number of stranded segments already, and there are some small cities that truly feel stressed. By taking an additional road segment, we hope that we can figure out a way to make that work. That was very generous of you. We did bring an example for you, 145th Street between Shoreline and Seattle. The areas that are within the circle are partly county owned and partly owned by the cities. And that's obviously a very important roadway for our region and one that needs to get maintained and kept open and operational. But as you can tell, it's really not related to the Eastern Service area where we do most of our work. And with that, I'd like Van to talk a little bit more about how all of these problems lead to task force findings. Well, I'd like to go back for just a moment to the task force charge and have you look at that through the eyes of a potential business coming here that wants their people to come in on good roads and be there happily at work. So and I also want to touch on the revenue gap, because I don't think we can hear that often enough when you think you've got $90 million. And when the outside group was brought in and reanalyzed that they went up to 500,000 rather than the 480. So I think that's a very significant point. I didn't want us to miss that. Oh, I've lost my page here. Excuse me. Here. Where do you want me to go? Because we've touched a lot of work. So the findings were validation, validating the significance of the problem acknowledged that the county has responded effectively. I think that's very significant. They've taken off 44% of their crew and they're still trying to maintain these roads and bridges and identified the need for high impact solutions and determined that additional solution must come from collaboration with cities in the state and advise the county to make increased efforts to communicate with stakeholders and the public. Bear in mind that these roads in King County are being utilized by other entities coming in here to work. And there's no revenue gotten from, for example, Pierce County residents who live and work in King County and use our roads. But there's no money there and no way to get it. We've gone over that. The infrastructure solutions that are needed are these stranded orphan roads. We already have addressed that. There's good coming out of this task force already that I've invited the county folks to come and give a presentation to the Boundary Review Board. And we've now put a microscope on our actions where we I'm a member of the Boundary Review Board and we can't force them. We only have a criteria that we're allowed to follow, but we can point out things like saying, are you leaving any orphan roads? Which we weren't cognizant that we were doing, so we're trying to recommend that. So there's good coming off this task force already. There needs to be further tax study for the fee based on the vehicle miles traveled. What are the solutions here? That's one of the things the task force was looking for. The high impact recommendations and the outreach were more communications to elected bodies, other agencies, media and the public. And one of the things that I was hopeful would come out of this, and obviously is because we're sitting here, is that those of us that were so well educated and so well informed as a result of being on the task force, that we go out and be ambassadors to the community and point out to people, because I don't think people have any realization whatsoever about what has happened to the taxpayers that they're supporting this. So here we are speaking and we're agreeing to share findings with other networks. And we want the county to work with regional partners on high impact recommendations. And I want you to go back one more time to that picture of the roads. Can you find that for me with that strand? No, the the what's underneath each road there? Right here. This one. Right. That was an eye opener to me, and I think it should be an eye opener to every one of you because I'm sure many of you aren't road engineers and don't realize all the things that the roads impact the the fish passage, electric wires, sewer, fiber optics, gas and drainage. And and when they're dealing with some of these roads, they're going back to roads that are based on logs and they've never been able to overcome those. So it's a big job and and we need to address it. Thank you. And with that, we would be open to questions from the committee. Thank you. A couple of things I wanted to make them. Thank you, sir. First of all, I'd like to thank King County executive for calling for this task force. He made some wonderful remarks at the task force, which I will always remember and cherish. So I appreciate his doing this and choosing really wise people to be on the task force. Elsewhere, to thank Triangle Associates for their great work and bringing a group of people who didn't have a lot of knowledge based on this topic from the very beginning to the end point. And as a former schoolteacher watching the beginning to the end, I would have said A-plus on the knowledge base of what what happened there. 152 recommendations came out. And so there are a lot of things, but it did boil down to you can't do what you need to do at $500 million, which leaves about a $400 million yearly gap to be able to do what we need to do. You know, the state in their transportation package over the next 16 years gave $350 million to the entire state to share for roads, for local roads. So our county alone could use that in one year. So when you say that we need to partner with them, they also need to be partnering and realizing that what they put in their budget for the next 16 years is grossly inadequate, a drop in the bucket of what we need. So this is a huge problem and I'm really thankful that educated people and people are coming forward to say this has to be solved and can't just be kicked down the bucket. The thing down the road. The interesting thing is that when the Growth Management Act was passed in 1990 and I think my staff are going to the archives and finding the the House and Senate debate in 1990s, which took them a couple of days to figure all that out. But I wanted to hear what did they say in 1990? And then our own Fred Jarrett. And I don't know if you were on the task force and the task force for this. No, but Fred Jr was and then Olympia, he did this. And then our own Larry Phillips was on the task force. And I have 45 minutes of Larry on tape. And our own Rebecca Cusack, who was the staff to the report, they worked 18 months and came up with a measly 639 pages. And I say that is a joke. 639 pages where they talked about that this was not going to work unless it was a county wide funding source. So they knew that in 1990. And so for us to be surprised in the year 2016 that this is a problem is very disconcerting. So and the I understand there are two copies of that report left. One, it's now been scanned and is on the Internet so that it will never be lost, because I think a lot of knowledge has been lost as to what that task force said. So thank you to all of you. Questions from anybody on the committee. Councilmember Docherty, have a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair, and a question. I was just remembering back to being on the campaign trail last year and I was talking to a group of business leaders who asked me what is the biggest problem that we face at King County that we're not talking about? And and I told them it's this. It's the rural roads and bridges. It is a huge challenge and one that absolutely has to be solved. So I was really pleased that last year to read that this effort was getting underway. And I want to, first of all, thank you all volunteers for spending all your time working on this. It's not very sexy. It's not very exciting. It's a huge challenge ahead of us. And you took the time to embrace it and help us. To start to address. It. So thank you all very much and all your colleagues. And it's nice because I've also sat on the Transportation Policy Board at Peace r c for a number of years and, and listened to Councilmember Lambert. Be kind of a lonely. Voice for we have to do something. We have to do something, have to do something. And I think now it's incumbent on us with this information and these recommendations is that we all have to become advocates, too, because it's a big lift, but it's a list that we have to start educating people and getting them on board for. So that your point about going out and speaking to people is really well taken. I think it's incumbent on all of us to do that. I also think we should be looking for partners. Surely we're not the only county with this problem. In fact, I think other counties are probably suffering even worse in some ways than we are because of a lack of tax base. And that might help us with advocacy in Olympia, frankly. But my question is, what are where do we go from here? What are the next steps for King County? And maybe this. Is. For the director. If you could. Sort of trace out what happens after this good works that we start to make it real. So we we already are having an active effort to get out and fulfill the communication recommendation and talking with others. We've been talking with the cities for some time about the challenges we face. And I think with this additional task force report, we have the basis to have some more robust conversations with the cities, to come up with a collective solution that we can take forward. And we really do need the cities on board with us. This is not just an unincorporated problem. The cities rely on these roads and it's a regional network. So having that collaboration with cities is important, and that is certainly a focus of our next steps. And I hope you'll let us know what we can do eventually. As a body to support that. Thank you all very much. And I do thank you for your work on that and for noticing that I was feeling very lonely. So thank you. Councilmember Murphy. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for the report and presentation then. Call our attention again to the slide that noted the different uses. And we're going to have another briefing here on the East Side rail corridor. Then that notion of these not as roads but as corridors, it is very kind of compelling to me, particularly when you begin to understand the value, the real tremendous value of a corridor, hard to get, hard to replace that lost and increasingly valuable in a densify and urbanizing area, even though we're talking mostly about railroads. And the recommendations, did you we charge a franchise fee, right. For some folks who use in the roads. I think if we don't, should we be did the committee look at the task force, look at or investigate intensifying ah, our monetization of this asset which we are treating as a cost mostly today and what was the work around that. So we didn't try and get a decision about very specific taxing authorities, although a couple did come up as recommendations, what the task force decided was to suggest some principles for any additional revenue resources. And those principles were that any tools should be tied to inflation, sustainable and long term that should benefit both the cities and the county and not be regressive. So those were the principles they thought we should apply in kind of working with the cities and working with others to try and come up with some new revenue resources. I know that we are certainly paying attention to our franchises. Our franchises are not big revenue producing for us at this time, but we are paying attention to the use of the roadway and utilities and how all of them work well together. So I'm seeing some materials here. I don't know if they were up, but there were ideas. All kinds of revenue generate is a mechanism that crowdsourcing a lottery. I mean, you got yes, it looks like you explored every item on. What we committed to this. We committed to recording every single idea that came up in evaluating each of those ideas. Some of them are more feasible than others, but certainly there was a plethora of ideas that came forward from all of the different task force members who had wildly different perspectives. There was dairyfarmers, there was former legislators, current legislators, people that were in industry who were in the public sector. We had the unions president. We had lots of different people with different perspectives, bringing different ideas to us. And we're committed to exploring all of those. Right. I just do we let me ask if I can afford to have we inventoried and we inventoried all of the users in our rights of way, the utility districts, the cable providers, the gas companies. Do we have an understanding of who is out there and where they are and how many lane miles they're occupying? I again, we seem to be aiming at taxing the surface user. Right. But you're on to something with the notion of what's under the road, right? It's that that right. I mean, if you want to use a BNSF railway right away, I sound transit or a fiber optic company where they can come in for a nominal fee . The answer is absolutely not. You know, there's real value there, I think. Right. Our roadways were developed over more than 100 years and a lot of those utilities that were built were not well documented. I think the utilities have a better idea of where their utilities are, but it's extraordinarily complex. I have pictures of underneath the roadway where private property owners have hooked into stormwater lines without perhaps asking. And there's some really complicated networks under there. So we don't we have an imperfect understanding of what's under the ground, but we certainly know who's under the ground. And when you have a utility in the right away, you do have a an agreement with the county that if your utility has an impact on the right of way, that you're responsible for that impact. If I might just have one more time. Just in real simple in plain English water district wants to put in a water line and I understand we make them repair the surface of the room, but do we charge them anything for using the right of way? Today there is a nominal franchise fee depending upon the different agreements that we have. We have quite a few different water districts and. Emissions magnitude and order of magnitude. When you say nominal, is that $100 or is it $100,000 on what time is? It's very small. It's so small that it's not something that we count on for revenue currently. And no, it's more of a management of agreement fee than it is a fee for their occupancy. I would just suggest, Madam Chair, we have well there's a liability associated with this. It's an asset, it's a tremendously valuable asset. And if we have the statutory authority, I understand that you would need to know about dealing with our fellow governments because of the implications. But I think it's something worth perhaps exploring how to monetize the value of this asset. In a $40 billion asset that unfortunately is being devastated. And that's as far as I can see at this point. There's only putting the finger in the dike and as comfortable member of our duties so wisely said, it's going to take everybody saying that this is a priority. The issue that as Anderson brought up the 200,000. And people who pay into the road tax pay $2.25 per thousand of assessed value. And because the property during the recession went down in assessed value, that then the rate went up. When that happened, we ended up hitting the 2.25 cent cap, so each house paid $90 less per year than they had before. So we had fewer people and less per household and we're not getting enough. So it is a perfect storm for a disaster. And so I think looking at at all the assets and all the opportunities is really important. So I think you can remember quite well. Thank you, Madam Chair. When I was preparing to take office in January, I had met with former council member Larry Phillips quite a bit and about various sessions. And this was one that he really emphasized with me hearing a lot about how we live, of course, in the urban district in Seattle. But one of the things that really made an impression on me was the exacerbation and effect of the rural roads when drivers are driving between work and home. In 520 I-90, the Bell Ring Road, the road between is the quiet and Maple Valley, whatever it is, are jammed. And so they cut around, detouring on smaller roads, rural roads. And so those roads are getting a real beating, not from people who live around there, but from others. My question is, did you look at the level of awareness on the part of drivers in terms of how they're contributing to the problem? Let me answer that. They don't know when they're going between Redmond and Woodinville and whether Woodinville is an unincorporated zip or an incorporated zip. They really don't know. That's our point. There's there's a million trips and people don't know where they're crossing. That's why we have to communicate with everybody. We have to work with the cities. We have to work with the state legislatures. And my advice to you on looking at trying to deal with this at a county wide level and really looking for the resources. And, you know, you've got another idea. Maybe we didn't explore that much. You need to have somebody and it's probably Dwight Diversey who can say, okay, for this particular amount, at this particular position, this is what it will raise because this is a heavy lift to get where you need to be. It's not another couple of million dollars a year. You need multiple millions of dollars to keep the system running. And believe me, if some of these bridges and some of these roads actually get shut down or very, very limited, then people will begin to know where the line is. Then they will understand. So I continue. Yes. Thank you. As a follow up, Louise, you mentioned earlier, too, that the citizenry vote and initiatives that don't help in the long run. They don't help the local and state governments. They don't help their own situations. And so we can talk with Dwight David, we can talk with legislators and all of that. But I think there's got to be some type of campaign, however, that might be executed on public information campaigns. You know, on television and wherever. And that can take money as well. But I think, you know, so what happens we developed some funding means that goes to the ballot. How much are people going to really know that they're the ones who've been contributing to many of the problems? Well, I don't know whether they'll get into that mode, but I think you would have to be more talking about, you know, I mean, I saw legislators look totally startled when I said, you know, we have more miles of road than from here, from Canada to Mexico. You know, they kind of. What what? So there are some things you can do to educate them. But mainly if we can get the leadership, whether it's volunteer leadership or elected leadership throughout the county, all sort of on the same page and all understanding where it is we're trying to go together. Then that's the kind of campaign you can utilize to get people to understand what will happen, that that will make your life much more difficult. If we don't aren't realistic about there is no free lunch. Thank you. I want to thank you for taking the time when you first come on to this job, just like a can of a firehose that you spent that much time. And you're right, he is quite an advocate and was very helpful in talking about roads. So thank you for carrying that on. That one thing I think is an issue that we need to know about. King County took the GMA and did exactly what the law said. And so because of that, about 12.5% of our counties unincorporated, the next county in the state is about 23% unincorporated. Everything else is in the forties and above, so they don't have the same problem we do because the tax base is nearly half of their county . It's only because ours is only 12% of the county that it is tipped so far that it isn't working. And our people that wrote the GMA knew that and warned us about this. And so that's what's frustrating for me is if the warning was written in 1991 and now we're just seeing, as you said, the potential that roads and bridges are going to be closed or whatever, because the heavy lifting of everybody together still has not happened. So thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? This, I'm sure, will not be the last report we hear about this, but we are all better educated. Oh, certainly. Thanks for your service on this. And everyone who was on the committee, I mean, this is one of the most significant issues facing King County. It just is. And sometimes as frustrating, I feel like we're putting our emphasis in other areas, maybe areas that we're launching off to that maybe we've never done before, failing to take care of what is really a basic responsibility of government. But we're all going to have to do some heavy lifting. Many of us have done that for many years down in the legislature to get the additional authority, we need to find a way to maintain this infrastructure moving forward. I mean, it's just critical. So thanks. Really good work on this. Appreciate it very much. And I think for the listening audience, it was disappointing to me when I think it's Section four, Section six of the bill was taken out that helped with our orphan roads to the bill, which is fine, but the meat of it was taken out and we couldn't even get that part fixed this session. So I think it's important for people listening to contact their legislators and say, Hey, I want a road system that's continuous throughout the county. So anyway, thank you, Mr. Osborne. Thank you for all your work on this task force. Did you have anything that you see that we missed? I don't think so. Okay. Thank you. I want you to know, you, as all of you were a huge asset. And I so appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Let's move up to number four again. Thank you. We're finished with that already in this meeting and for sure came in late. And we're moving to agenda number four, proposed ordinance 2016 and 95. And this ordinance will expand the list of appointees eligible to represent the King County Council on the leadership group, the enhanced 911 Strategic Plan Scoping Committee. So with that, we could have. Greg Minor. There you are. Thank you, Madam Chair. Greg Doss, counsel staff here, filling in for Lisa Kay today to talk about proposed ordinance 2016 0095, the staff report for which can be found on page seven. By way of background, the County Council approved on October 26, 2015 Ordinance 18139, which defined a governance structure to oversee the development of a King County regional e911 strategic plan. The structure has been unanimously recommended by both the King County Regional Policy Committee and this committee. Of the whole ordinance, 18139 created a leadership group that is charged with finalizing the recommendations that will be included in the Strategic Plan Process Report. This report will be submitted to the Regional Policy Committee, the County Council and the County Executive by May 31st of this year. The leadership group is made up of three county council members, various city council members, elected public safety officials and several peace up representatives. A table on page eight will outline the membership for you ordinance 18139 also identified as the three King County Council members, the chairs of the Budget and Fiscal Committee, Law and Justice Committee and the Council Vice Chair of Regional Coordination in support of this ordinance, the County adopted on December 14th Motion 1448, which officially appointed these members to the leadership group. This brings me to the ordinance before you today. As the chair mentioned, this ordinance would add the. Vice chairs of the aforementioned groups to the list of individuals who can be appointed to the leadership group. The voting structure of the leadership group would not otherwise change if the County Council chooses to pass this ordinance. It may need to make a change to the motion that makes the appointments the Council introduced yesterday. Such a motion 20 60111, which has been referred to the Law and Justice Committee. That motion and the ordinance before you now could both be expedited by their respective committees and passed by the full council as soon as March 13. This timeline would allow the new members, the vice chairs of the leadership group or of the aforementioned committees, to take their place on the leadership group and vote with that group before or when the first meeting occurs sometime in mid-March. Now, take any questions you might have. Excellent. Okay. I don't see any question is pretty straightforward. Council Member DEMBOSKY Would you put this before? I think, Madam Chair, move adoption of proposed ordinance 2016 0095. Okay, there are no questions. Will the clerk please call for the vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Council Member. Cole Wells. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Bowen. Right. Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the vote is six days. No no's and council members. Dunn Gossett of the Grove. Excused. Okay, great. So we will expedite this so that it can coordinate and and put it on consent also. That'd be great. Okay. That takes us up to item number six. This is our Eastside Rail quarter quarterly update. And so we have our Eastside Rail Corridor people here is briefing 2016, Briefing 18. And there's a lot of action happening with this corridor. And so we get to hear about it quarterly. So welcome as Eddie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council members. As you know, we give a quarterly report to you on all things GRC. There have historically been three council members, and there will be, again, who are most directly involved with this project through their service on the East Side, rail corridors, Regional Advisory Committee. Today, we're going to tell you about three things. One is the summit that we had on January 9th. Erica Jacobs from the AARP will update you on the trail master planning process, and then I will come back and talk to you a little bit about our work plan for 2016. So last year, Regional Advisory Council approved an event that was designed to bring public governments, private sector and nonprofit groups together to kind of assess how far we had come in bringing this asset into public ownership and development and to plan our next steps. We had a sellout crowd. We filled our rooms at Maiden Bower Center with 200. We had about 12 gatecrashers, but those were that's actually a good situation when you have more people than you expect. And notably, more than 90% of the people who attended stayed until the end. Was that because you had the doors closed? Because we had the doors the the breakout groups in the afternoon were sufficiently engaging. The so the speakers were apparently sufficiently inspirational. And this project is of considerable interest to keep people's attention. The agenda is in your packet on pages 435 to 438, so you can see how the day developed. Part of why you say rail corridor is so exciting is because it is more than just a trail. It has parks and recreation opportunities, of course, but it also has impact on our transit system and can have enormous impacts on redevelopment of adjacent land. To say nothing of the fact, which I always do, that the East Side Connector, the biggest piece of sewer infrastructure on the East Side, runs down most of this right of way for which all of the citizens are grateful. This was a jointly sponsored event by the owner governments. But I want to call out especially. The underwriting that was done by the Cascade Bicycle Club and the Trust for Public Land. They chipped in almost 60% of the funding for this thing, and that allowed the other governments, owner governments, to come in at a much lower level , making it less painful for all of us. We did bring in the city of Renton, in the city of Bellevue that are not owner governments but are adjacent to the corridor and hugely impacted by it. The speakers presentations are posted on our county website. Each one is about 30 minutes and I would love it if you would take the time to listen to them. Since I know, however, how busy you are, I'm going to give you the brief takeaways from our three featured speakers. I'm going to start with Ryan Gravel, who is the young architect whose master's thesis was the vision for the Atlanta Beltline. Ryan is also an urban planner, and his remarks went primarily to the fact that the repurposing of these former rail corridors with multiple uses anticipated can have a transformative effect in the cities in which they are located. So it is much more than just a trail. It impacts economic development, transit oriented, development of housing. So it has broader impact than just giving people non-motorized transportation facilities. He scared me to death when he sent his slide deck of 128 slides and he had a 30 minute slot and he assured me he could get through them and he did. So if you want to see 128 slides in 28 minutes, you can watch Ryan's presentation. He made the point, by the way, that these things because this is not a normal redevelopment activity in urban areas, that these things are messy. He in his book on a survey of about 30 different rails to trails projects nationwide, brings up the fact that we haven't done these before. They require multiple partnerships across the private sector, nonprofit sector, and that they are not linear. As all of us who have been in public service know, we like our capital projects to be linear. The this these these sorts are not. Cathy Woolard, who was president of the Atlanta City Council during the original years of the Beltline development, emphasized the fact that these are essentially streets without cars, that we are repurposing this old infrastructure in a way that replicates the the public way but does not. And it includes bikes, pads and transit, but it does not include cars. Adrian. BNP is senior vice president with the Trust for Public Land, and Adrian focused his presentation on management and financing. These sorts of projects do not lend themselves to simply a parks levy vote. They are huge undertakings that can, if done correctly, attract enormous private money to your project in addition to public money. It can't be done on public money alone. He emphasized in particular the fact that there is, even in these tight times, quite a bit of programmatic federal money that can be tapped for things. And I will give you an A for instance, like retrofitting the Wilbert and Trestle. But we have to be able to not only put these projects together, but to effectively advocate them for consideration as part of federal program program funds. And I call that out as being different from, as Adrian did the old days when if you had a really effective congressman or senator, you could get that that that little earmark . Those days are over. So now we have to be a lot smarter about how we do how we do that, piecing together the financing. Adrian also pointed out the importance of having a group of stakeholders, citizens, communities outside of government that will keep the story alive, as he points out. And we are all aware. Mayors come and go. Legislators come and go. And you need that community behind the project to keep it, to keep it alive. So to that end, you will notice that in On the Agenda we had the announcement of our own nonprofit alliance, a collaboration among the trusts for public land, Cascade Bicycle Club , Mountains to sound Greenway, Washington Trails Association for Tara, Transportation Choices and Future Ys as forming the core of this alliance. But they don't plan on stopping there. Okay. The idea is that this group of nonprofits will grow over time and help us educate the public about the utility, the public value of developing the Eastside Rail Corridor. We have some of those folks in the room with us today. Courtney Landale from the Trust for Public Land. McKayla Dunfee from Cascade Bicycle Club. And then some of you may know Bill Finkbeiner, who is a businessperson on the east side and is representing the alliance in a lot of meetings with us here and with other government owner governments. So. Ryan Gravel wrote a blog post the other day about his trip to the Eastside Rail corridor and what was notable to me about it. When I first saw the blog post was he he his title was City Stitching. And at first I couldn't figure out what he was. What was he trying to convey? What he was saying is that in most of the places that he has researched these sorts of redevelopment attempts, it's been largely in a single city or a city in a county. In this case, what he thinks that we are doing, that it makes it interesting but also harder, is that we are attempting to stitch together multiple cities in our region. And it was a it was a complement. He and Kathy Willard were very complimentary of the fact that we had so many elected officials who showed up at a 9:00 on a Saturday morning for an all day affair. And I think that that that reflects well on us. The recommendations, by the way, that came out of the afternoon. Breakout sessions are in your packet but just to hit the high points. The group, not surprisingly on the multimodal front, wants to make sure that the corridor is well connected to sound transit facilities and to transit generally. They also recommended that we put a high priority this year on on preparing to compete for federal funds on the Parks and Recreation side. The recommendations focused on incorporating the historic elements such as the Wilbert and Tunnel or trestle into the design of the hall and to in keeping with many of our partners goals, making sure that the corridor remains a way for the citizens to connect with the natural environment in land use and development, of course. Not surprisingly, the group focused on the making available adjacent land for transit oriented development and for affordable housing. So that's it. For the summit. If there's any questions right now, I will take them. Or you can wait until I come back and talk about the work plan. Okay. Okay. Then I will turn it over to Erica. Thank you, Deb, and good morning, council members. Happy to be here to give you an update on the status of the NRC Regional Trail Master Plan, which is going to be released at the end of this month. So I'll focus the briefing today on the the content of that masterplan that you can anticipate and the rollout timing , as well as the timeline from its release to the point at which later in the year you'll have an opportunity to vote on the final masterplan, the adoption of the final masterplan, that is. Okay. So I'm going to click to the overview of today's briefing. We'll go into the the sort of high level look at what the real alternatives are consist of, including the benefits and impacts of those alternatives. And we'll do that by looking at the major considerations for these for the segments, for three major segments of the corridor and how the alternative considerations differ a little bit in each of these segments, we'll talk about the opportunities for making connections to our regional trail system between the cities on the east side, as Deb was mentioning, and two transit opportunities. We'll get into the high level planning cost estimates for development of the trail and look at those in terms of both both of the various both of the alternatives we're looking at in the masterplan type town. A little bit about community and stakeholder outreach we've done to date and those opportunities that are upcoming in the next month after we release the master plan and we'll talk about that timeline for the release of the plan. And again, as the timeline as as it unfolds after the plan comes out and and refinement of alternatives and bringing that forward to a final master plan later this year. Okay. This slide looks at the provides an illustration of what it's like for these two different alternatives. One is an on rail bed alternative for the placement of the regional trail within within the corridor. And one is an off rail bed alternative. The purpose of the on rail are the the gist of the on rail about alternative is that it takes advantage of the gentle grades of the rail corridor. It's the least cost investment for placement of the trail. However, in the context of other uses that may come into this corridor in the future, such as transit or utilities, it does provide the a less well lesser degree of flexibility for placement of those other uses and could result in the need to move the trail. However, the off rail bed alternative while it's more expensive to place because we end up having to place the trail on steep side slopes or over wetlands or with greater impacts to natural areas in the corridor. It actually does allow more flexibility for those other uses and has the lesser chance of needing to be relocated in the future, albeit at a higher cost of of implementation. So I'm going to back up and give a little bit of a geographic orientation before I mention what these three segments of the corridor are. And I'm not actually going to I don't know if this is logistically great for this format, but maybe it can help me. Thank you. I do have a larger map here. It's the same one essentially that's on the screen. But what I want to do is just explain back up and explain that the east side rail corridor is a 42 mile corridor form a rail corridor in its rail being port portion, which I will explain. But it's essentially a 42 mile corridor that goes from Renton up to the city of Snohomish. And we are doing trail master planning in what is the rail banked portion from milepost five in Renton at the north side of Jean Cullen Park, all the way up to milepost 24. And Woodinville is a location we refer to as the why. That's a place where the main line of the corridor comes together with with a rail spur together at near 175th in Woodinville by the Sammamish River. That segment, Israel banked as it was sold to public agencies by Burlington Northern Santa Fe. And in that context we have formerly rail banked it and it is now set aside for use as an interim public trail and among other uses that are going to be envisaged or envisioned by partner owners. Okay. I think we can thank you, Deb, probably that, Don, for now, we can pull it back up as needed. But in that planning area for the regional trail, we have broken it down into the Lake Front segment, which is from Milepost five down at Jean Cool and Park up to I-90, primarily a residential lakefront area of the trail. The Warburton segment goes from I-90 up to 108th Avenue Northeast, which is the end of our the county's ownership area and the beginning of Kirkland's ownership area and is the place at which the southern beginning of the Cross Kirkland Corridor, the Valley segment. So skipping past Kirkland, we're not planning trail in Kirkland as they have already done that themselves. But the Valley segment does go from just east of Totem Lake on the main line up to that milepost 24 in Woodinville. And then from that milepost 24 down on the spur to 124th, where the Redmond ownership area begins, or Redmond has. In that portion, Redmond is planning and developing their own trail, called the Redmond Central Connector. Okay. Now, in the context of looking at trail alternatives for the Lakefront segment, this again is the most residential portion of the corridor in this sector in this segment. The rail corridor passes behind residential lakefront, a residential area, mostly lakefront homes on narrow lanes that access these properties. And it is between these lakefront homes and either Lake Washington Boulevard or I-405. So it's relatively constrained portion of the corridor. We also have a condition of very steep slopes, slopes going down from the roadways above or the freeway above down to the homes. In this case, placement of the trail on the rail bed is is by far the least cost alternative. The neighborhood impacts the neighbors are are supportive of the trail or trail being placed there, but they are a little bit concerned about some of the impacts such as privacy or traffic impacts in the neighborhood. So placement on the rail bed does place the trail a little bit closer to the homes. However, we have also heard strong interest from the communities along this segment to leave the corridor as natural as possible in placement of the corridor. Our placement of the trail off rail bed in this segment would require placement of steep retaining walls, walls and lots of a great deal of vegetation. And that is shown in the bottom right depiction on the screen. So I think the one thing we need to be aware of there is everything you said is true. However, because this is rail banked, a person, an entity could come back and claim the rail banking and then whatever we did would have to be moved. So I think we need to be looking at the numbers of what it would take then to remove it again and do it a second time. So my concern is that we do whatever we need to do right the first time. So it doesn't have to be minute because rightfully taxpayers get upset when you do something and then later after move it ten feet or have to redo it. So I think we really need to look at the long term implications with decision making and not just the. Okay, well, this is the cheapest today. If ten years from now, it's not going to be the cheapest. So I think we need to be looking at those numbers and see how we can make the best decision for the long term. Thank you. Thank you. And that is very true. And some of the considerations of these alternatives that are going to come out in the draft master plan will look at the the public investment in either on rail or off rail bed in relation to the longevity of the investment in relation to, you know, the potential likelihood of those other uses or freight reactivation coming to play in a near term timeframe versus the long term timeframe. And that'll be something that we analyze as we analyze the alternatives and refine them. And I do want to make clear to that when this draft master plan comes out, it is simply explaining the alternatives, providing the providing schematics and the tradeoffs and the benefits, but not not going to the point of making any recommendations at this time. Yeah. Okay. Now in the Wilbur ten segment, moving north to Bellevue from I-90, again, up to the northeast, 108 rooms I'm sorry, 108th Avenue Northeast. This is our most urban and commercial segment of the I.R.S. It is where we face the need for the greatest investment in infrastructure. And it's the type of infrastructure that rises to the level of transportation investments versus strictly the typical type of investments that we see in our regional trails. And we need to plan for safe crossings at major roadways and Bellevue, some of which will need to be grade separated, meaning we will need to build bridges to cross these roadways, such as at Northeast Fourth Street, which has recently been extended in east of downtown Bellevue and Northeast Eighth Street, which sees over 50,000 vehicle trips per day, by far the most high volume street that will cross this corridor. And it will require a bridge that we actually are starting to envision now in partnership with the city of Bellevue in sound transit and looking at ways in which that bike pedestrian crossing of northeast state can integrate very, very well with Sound Transit's Wilbur Twin Station that they're putting in for the East Link light rail right there behind Whole Foods. In addition to those grade separated crossings, we need to update and and retrofit the I-90 bridge, which is an old steel truss trestle that crosses the I-90 area just southeast of downtown Bellevue. And we also need to face reinstatement of a bike pedestrian crossing over the southbound lanes of 405. This area is known as the Wilbert ten Gap. It formerly had a train crossing there, but when the freeway was widened several years ago, that crossing was removed the right of way. If the property is still in the corridor, it's intact. In terms of property ownership. We just need to build that bridge in partnership with Washington State. DOT And then moving north of Wilmington Trestle just north of that area is the iconic 100 year old plus year old train trestle that is over 900 feet long and 75 feet long and will one day serve as part of the trail. We need to keep moving. Okay. So in this corridor, sound transit has its ownership of four light rail and we will not be considering placing the trail on the rail bed in their ownership area just to make sure that we are not in conflict with their light rail development. But on the other hand, some of the structures we've discussed will need to have the trail go over them as the single alternative for trail placement. We wouldn't consider building parallel structures to something such as the Wilbert and Trestle, for example. Okay, in the Valley segment, this includes two portions of the corridor, the mainline and the spur. We look, we're looking at a lot of opportunities to connect between the mainline spur and the Sammamish River Trail, which is already in existence and very popular. These three pieces of corridor are very, very close to each other and can serve different purposes and go to different destinations. And the connections between the three could serve both recreational and non-motorized transportation purposes. Now on the mainline, we have some steep cross slopes. The trail goes through a forested, steep forested area that has some wetland seeps on it, both on rural that and off our bed will require retaining walls. However, the off rail bad places that well further away into the slope and really would need much more, you know, extensive investment in these retaining walls. The spur is relatively flat. It does cross several commercial driveways, though, and it does not have much financial difference between the on and off rail bed. But it would actually be more beneficial to keep it off the rail bed and closer to the commercial businesses along State Route 202 just to provide for some safer crossings across the numerous driveways that serve the white industrial area there. Okay. And again, opportunities to connect the East Side are numerous. Not only does this Eastside Rail corridor serve as a new spine connecting all of the existing regional trails and planned future trails into one comprehensive network, it also provides a great non-motorized opportunity for transportation and connecting to multiple transit centers, as well as the new Eastlink light rail on the East Side. As a network on the East Side alone, it connects over 350,000 people to this network. And when you consider the connections across the lake, such as on the 520 trail or the I-90 trail, it can connect over a million people to this opportunity. Okay. Now getting to the cost estimates for that on rail bed versus off rail bed alternative by segment, the differences vary, but in the lakefront we're looking at an investment of 33 to $79. In in Wilber ten because of the more extensive structural investments that we need to make between 97 and 112 million in the Valley on the mainline. Given the difference in the infrastructure for the retaining walls and structures, 23 to 53 million for on and off. And then in the valley on the spur, as I mentioned, the infrastructure investment is really not varies does not vary based on on or off. So we're looking at an $18 million investment there for development in total, 171 million to 262 million. Now, I do want to really clarify that the alternatives are not black and white, and they may actually wind up we may end up with preferred alternatives that look like a hybrid of both on and off in various segments and under various considerations. For example, in the North, in the in the Valley segment, there is consideration of potential for excursion rail service, and there may be a greater drive for being off real bad up in that area where, you know, in the Wilbert an area there's quite a bit of light rail use already planned with Eastlink and maybe potential in the future with Sound Transit's SD three planning and much more likely to be off rail bed there. However, in the Lakefront segment, it may be the case that an on real bad alternative might be preferred just because of the expense of development and the impacts to the neighborhood and the less lesser likelihood of sound transit using that area in the near term. That is these costs. I should be also noted that these are in development as the master plan will be developed released at the end of this month. There might be some minor adjustments to these numbers. So but very close when you see the plan come out, this is just something we were able to produce in time for this briefing, but might be slight tweaks by the end of the month. Any questions on Fasano? And I think we're up to our time limit anyway, so. Okay. I would you like to conclude, Madam Chair, with the timeline? I think we can meet it. Okay. Very well set out. So thank you so much for all the hard work you've done on this. And we will hear from you very soon. Okay. Thank you. Very much. You very much. Yeah. Oh, yes. I know. We're very late. Yeah. I just wanted to underscore what a great event, what a sort of galvanizing Saturday we all had. Quite a few of us were there. And there's this incredible opportunity in front of us. I just want to say on record, I'm really looking forward to working through. The next steps and to doing this sort of not. Trying to be too linear. About it. If I may, because I think there are ways that we can. Start to. Open more of the trail to the public and really get people to use it at the same time that we're doing. More of the long range planning. And and there's. Just so much opportunity here and so many partnerships to be, you know, to be made and to really invest in this incredible link. And by the way, when we complete this trail, there will be a way to get all the way around Lake Washington and most of the way around, maybe all the way around Lake Sammamish. I haven't tried it myself. So it's a great, great thing. And I'm really looking forward to working. With you all on it. Thank you. I want to thank you for your emceeing the event. It was a great event. And I want to thank you for all the hard work, too, putting it together and all your research. It really was an amazing event and I'm really excited about what will happen and the day where we will all get to celebrate . Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Our last one is a short one, but a very important one. I've been here 14 years and I have never had a briefing on this topic. And so I'm guessing that probably nobody else has either. So if you'd like to come on up and this is on executive orders and I appreciate it, the executive is revamping his procedures, which highlighted the fact that when I was reading that email, I realized we don't really know what the old procedures were because we haven't really dealt with them. So please begin. Thank you so much for having us. This is Michelle Allison with the Executive Office. I'm going to turn it over immediately to Caroline Whalen, who knows way more about this than I ever probably. Well, so knowing that your take on this is the beginning for me is pretty low here. I'm waiting to get educated, so I think it's great. Thank you, Madam Chair. Caroline Whalen, Director, Department of Executive Services. So, you know, kind of a quick overview. I'm going to. Pose a question and then answer it. So, you know, one question is what's the authority or executive orders? And that is implied in the County Charter Section 322 oh Powers and Duties of the Executive. And one question that I asked, I'm very satisfied with the fact that when Executive Constantine came into office, one of the things one of the first things he said is. I want a complete review. Of existing. Executive orders to make sure. That, you know. We need to rescind the ones that are out of date. So we did a real refresh. In that 2010 timeframe. And as we were doing it, you know, I asked a simple question, well, what's the difference between an executive order and executive policy? And it really wasn't clear as written. And so that is really what began. Our work. That culminated in our. Issuing. The revised statements in. 2016. That I think sparked your interest. Councilmember. Lambert. So the difference an executive order is a formal statement that issued by the executive mainly for the purpose of delegation of authority and responsibility. And it's often to. Establish a value. Or set a direction or to require action for something that may not be a. Legal mandate. So a good. Example of that is we used it to set standards for capital project management. So that was very important to the executive, and we did that by executive order. An executive policy is a directive that's approved by the county executive for broad purposes and intended to achieve. Or. Reinforce compliance with established mandates. And it's used by the Executive Branch to provide. Clear guidance to. The workforce to ensure compliance with the mandate that already exists in county code, state law or another legal authority. And so a good example of that is we have financial policies that guide how we do things like cash management. So that's already set out. In Title four. But the clear direction to. The workforce is established. By executive. Policy. So another question you might. Ask is how can people find out more about these executive orders and policies? And they're published on our website, and I'll send a link to you and follow up to this briefing. How many are there? Well, right now there are 46 active executive orders, and they date from 1987 through 2016. Since 1987, when the previous system was established, 118. In total, executive orders have been enacted and rescinded. Executive orders are available on our Archives website and I'll also provide that to you. Once they're signed, they're published on the website and we circulate a notification of the order to a. Z group. And we're happy to add any council. Member to that to be added that would be interested. So that. That's sort of a quick outline of some basic questions and I'd be happy to answer any other questions. You have. Well, I think you did an awesome job of educating us because when I got the thing, I tried to do the link and the link didn't work. So then I was trying to figure out on my own how to paint it and and okay, it's got to be easier. So thank you for explaining it. Now we know there are 46 of them, so we can get a copy now from the Z group, which would be great. But what happens if we decide that a executive policy actually should be in emotion or that we don't agree with it? What is the council's role in that? Well, the council has the authority to issue a specific direction by ordinance or by motion. So if you look at executive order youth, you think, well, that's a great policy. We would like. The entire government to use that, then that an ordinance would be the appropriate vehicle for you to do that. And for some and I know it's a difference between the policies and the directives. Some have an ending date no longer than five years. But but some of the policies can go on until they're rescinded. That's correct. So I guess it would be up to us to keep an eye on this one from maybe 1998 or something that we now look at and say, you know, we don't really think that's appropriate anymore. That that's correct. So, you know, any time that the council wants. To implement. Broad. Policy, you can do that by ordinance. So if you disagree with the executive, then you also have the ability to to. Correct your. Disagreement by ordinance. So an ordinance then when you support the executive order and that would make it go away. Okay. Well, I think that was interesting. And now I can say that I actually have had a briefing on this topic. So thank you for doing that. And if you look at the clock, we ended 4 minutes early. So if there is no other business to come before this meeting, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.	AN ORDINANCE adding the vice chair of the budget and fiscal management committee and the vice chair of the law and justice committee to the list of persons eligible to be appointed to the leadership group of the E-911 strategic plan scoping committee; and amending Ordinance 18139, Section 2.
king_20861c63-94b6-47e1-9615-6dbd5d3fdad3	Good afternoon. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott calling the council's committee of the hall to order for Monday, March 4th. If I could ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci, Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn here. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Cornwall. Council Member. Lambeth Council. Member of the Council. Member one right there. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you up a corner. Thank you. I know other members will be joining in shortly, but we have a long agenda. 22 items. So I thought we should get going this this afternoon. We have a we have public comment. The committee of the hall allows public comment for items on today's committee agenda. I would ask people to limit their testimony to 2 minutes and to remind you that public comment may not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure and should not include obscene speech. If you fail to abide by these rules, you may be ruled out of order and your time may be concluded. With that, I have a sign up sheet with about 78 people signed up in advance. We'll go through that listing and ask if there's anybody else who who would like that for public testimony. The first three would be Alex Zimmerman, followed by John Stokes and then Casey Zombie. Mr. Zimmerman. Kyle my dirty if you're Dombrowski. Yeah, I don't know who you are. A criminal, a psychopath. My name? Alex Zimmerman. Everyone speak about 2022 about equity in social justice. What is you talking about? Equity. Social. Jessica, come to this chamber. How much? More than 2000 time? I never see this in my life. And I give you a classic example about equity in social justice. Consult Dombrowski for the last five years, in every meeting, I repeat in every meeting. Trust me. Five. Here I come to you. Everybody who's meeting in his trust, plus me in every meeting for five year. What does this mean, guys? Is this social justice or are you a bunch of psychopath and nine calls who cannot stop in on man who mentally sick? How is this possible? You know, it's nightmare. You're talking about equity socialized. I think it's make me sick. It's probably start make me sick right now 2 million people call it is in another point what is a one delivery you choice commissioner and I give you my personal experience because I mean commissioner meeting probably couple of hundred times for the last ten years. So I know everybody know who you choice in my question to you very simple. Can you choose somebody who different than you? I never see race. One man could difference in you. So what the everybody who choice for commissioner only same go like you be nice and make a career in government or close to government. Guys, my question to you and number two can you stop and a do due to create inner city situation nothing change for us equally in social justice in I live in this city Conte County for 33 years about what is you talk and you freakin idiot is exactly who you are stand up America and you Ukraine's this dirty chamber. Thank you very much. Good afternoon and welcome. Good afternoon and thank you for having me here. My name is John Stokes, and I'm here today on behalf of the city of Bellevue to urge your support for the 2019 Solid Waste Comprehensive Plan. I also serve as Vice Chair of the Regional Policy Committee and Chair of the ACA Caucus. Last week, the RBC voted unanimously to approve the plan. Bellevue is encouraged to see this plan move towards adoption after many, many years of work. And we're ready to get across the finish line. Several recommendations in the plan are critical to maintaining a balance of solid waste services across the King County regional system. Two are especially critical to Northeast King County investing in the Cedar Hills landfill to extend his life to 2040 and investing in a new transfer station in Northeast King County. Extending the life of the landfill as the most cost effective solution for our ratepayers at this time and reflects the county's commitment to cities and the Solid Waste Interlocal Agreement. I also strongly support rigorous examination of waste energy for the future and the other alternatives, and I'm glad to see those both in the package. Bellevue also supports the recommendation to build a new Northeast transfer station before the Houlton transfer station closes. The factory transfer station cannot not be the only station in the entire northeast area of the state of the the county. Only having one station in that part will really result in unacceptable service levels in a lot of areas. The key recommendations in the plan are cost effective, good for ratepayers and provide flexibility for the future. One area that we need to really focus our attention on, and we're very concerned about this in Bellevue and I think on the SCA, the changes at international level make it important, more important than ever to ensure we get the recycling right and move away from which cycling. This plan also shows how much we can accomplish when we work together, and I really appreciate the work with the county and with that. McLoughlin I look forward to seeing this plan approved and fostering the positive working relationship we have with King County. Thank you very much. Thank you. RMS Entity. Good afternoon. Peace, please. And this petition of one seven no is a con concept painted to this level of wins as some. Something to something that is compensable. Competing interests. This. Because biological peace can be important to the people only. Peace leaders sometimes discern that confessions through compliments and generosity. The small Gus, Gus, Gus. Tips of three three calendar actually journal recently have been shown in peas. Now logically ukuleles chirps through often result in large living this of recent basically generosity and that it even but the very first circles of Dennis generosity. So to be benevolent at the center surpluses before can even in the valley become I be firm so my become a listing for pieces for improve fight relation between individuals and groups of people. Peace takes often start without premeditation and but is safe in that notation because are more. Than. Just look they know thing. Thank you. Thank you. Next will be Janet Dombroski, Leslie Morgan and Kathy Sweeney. Is it Easton Easter? Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Janet Dabrowski, and I would like to ask this committee to please delay a vote on the approval of the the 2019 Solid Waste Comprehensive Plan in order to schedule a town hall or a council meeting. So you may hear from the citizens that are actually impacted by expanding the landfill. We have lived there for bourbon next to it for 50 years. And I just think it's very important that people eat the people that are making a decision and voting on something that will affect our community and our lives for 20 years or beyond should at least hear the voices of these people, hear their stories, hear their comments. It's a working class neighborhoods there. They have kids. They can't come down to meetings like this during the day. Some, you know, are living paycheck to paycheck, so they can't take time off. So I really would encourage you to try to get some kind of meeting with all of you, if possible, at least with some people to come listen to us and see how this landfill truly affects us. Nobody knows. Most people don't care. It's out of sight, out of mind. And just an example of some of the stuff that the landfill does affect. It handles daily 9 million gallons of toxic leachate, 24 acre feet of stormwater runoff, 15 million cubic feet of landfill gas. All this stuff is going on up there. How safe is it? There is no testing, none whatsoever of the particulates, chemical testing of the particulates in the air that's emitted from the odors. Why that's not required, I don't know. I'd like to have something like that and I don't know why it's such an urgent area. It was designed and constructed in five and a half years. If I could ask you to conclude your comments. Yeah, just just they have 8 to 9 years before it's full. Six months waiting for the feasibility study or delaying the vote is not that critical. Thank you. If you or anyone else has written comments that you want to share with this in writing as well, you're welcome to submit that to the committee clerk and copies will be made for all of us as Morgan. As the process continues for managing our waste stream, I'm hoping that you will give this process one last pause before moving forward with the decision. The community has concerns over the proposed plan regarding both the landfill expansion and taxpayer funds being directed to the nuisance compost facility. In concerns to the compost facility, I would like to address a recent amendment to the current plan. Solid Waste has put forward a compost marketing and development plan to spend $500,000 to expand and enhance the regional market for compost. The goal of this pilot program is to increase the market for compost. Solid waste claims that the compost odor issue is due to the lack of market for the process compost when in fact it's due to both raw materials decomposing in a substandard facility and the finished product. Cedar Grove Compost has been and continues to be one of the largest nuisance offenders in King County. 90% of all odor complaints to the Clean Air Agency in eight years have been filed against Cedar Grove Compost. That's nearly 13,000 complaints in eight years. The putrid compost odor regularly affects residents in a 7 to 9 mile radius around their facilities. This council has an opportunity and an obligation to only move forward with organizations that demonstrate the willingness to make the necessary expenditure expenditures to comply with operational permits, clean air standards, and be a good neighbor. I ask the Council to consider allocating allocating these funds differently by either striking the amendment or allocating funds to help improve Cedar Grove substandard substandard operations to help alleviate the burden of the community. The Council must commit to social justice and equity for our community. And I also would really encourage each and every one of you to please give our community the opportunity to meet with you in a town hall meeting where more people can express their concerns and maybe we can come up with better solutions. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Sweeney, Easter followed by I believe it's Don Partridge, Kevin Kelly and Penny Sweet. Okay. Good afternoon. Thank you. Yes. What I want to say basically is has been said somewhat. But I do want you all to come. I mean, I'm sorry, but it's your job. And I know it's not necessarily a fun part of your job to go out and talk to all the people who are affected by decisions that are made. It's easier to talk to somebody in an office who is. Addressing you in a certain way that makes it. Easy to and you'd know them and you'd like to agree with them. I mean, this is the other thing. You know, these people and it's nice to agree with people. It's nice to be friends. But when if you come out to the community and talk to us. There are a lot of people out there who know a lot about this. Things that you may not know. These folks have told you some bits and pieces. Of information about what not only what the landfill and the waste management is going, what is going on now, but they know about what the possibilities are. And I know this gentleman over here suggested, oh, yeah, some place time in the future we could do a waste to energy plant. But you know what. The future is now? Who is? I don't understand why we don't know that. I mean, my. Okay, because change is difficult. I understand that grandpa. Plowed with a mule. My dad plowed with a mule. Therefore, I'm going to plow with a mule. But you know what? It's not effective anymore. It's. We've got to change. And as difficult it is, is to make a change and go with something that's new. That's what human beings do. If things aren't changing, then you're dead. Thank you. Thank you. Representing a few of my neighbors who were not able to come. The waste site is built over an aquifer in an area of seismic activity. They already did spill out into the bath and beyond and contaminated a pool beyond it and had to end up buying out people's houses around the area because of the damage they'd done. They're also being sued for people who have sicknesses and died and had to pay settlements and they never gave disclosures on these things. What's going on out there and what's being released? It's absurd to think that the data that they have provided to counsel is accurate, even in the minutes of the last meeting that I was at. These are inaccurate. They've been doctored up to make them look better than they were. I was at. The entire meeting a few years ago. They had air studies and put out some expensive machine and equipment on different properties around the area to find out what was in the air, how much of it, how far to extend it out. When we asked them about this, they can't seem to find the results of the studies they spent all that money on. So that's either some very unreliable mismanagement or possibly criminal activity, because they certainly did not want us to know what the results of those air quality testings were and what could possibly be contaminating the ground. So I just want you to be aware of that. Take it into consideration. Take your time. What you've been fed may not be fully true. Recently, they agreed to another feasibility study to be done by a third party, only with no involvement from solid waste because they can't be trusted. And now they want to go ahead and rush into doing more expansion rather than waiting for the feasibility study. It's in September, and what they might find actually is they actually could generate revenue back to the county by doing a waste to energy program. And if they can do this, they can cover up a lot of the problems that were maybe discovered in the in the study. They settled they settled lawsuit stipulations that they couldn't go above 70, 80 feet, 70, 80 feet. They're doing that. They're going beyond that and need any more information. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair McDermott and members of the committee. My name is Kevin Kelly and I am the general manager for Recology in King County. But I am here today in my capacity as chair of the King County Solid Waste Advisory Committee. The Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan or Comp Plan was developed by King County in close coordination with SWAC. The approval of the comp plan is a priority that merits prompt attention, as it is an integral part of essential services that protect both human health and the environment while supporting a strong regional economy. The comp plan update is a credible plan that is ready for council action. SWAC has spent nearly two years working with the Solid Waste Division to develop the comp plan update. We consist of interested residents, representatives from the solid waste industry, public interest groups, a marketing expert, labor and local elected officials. On May 7th, 2018, the Department of Ecology commented on the draft comp plan by saying We found it well-written and beautifully produced. We commend you as well on your early and widespread public involvement process and the division's. Responsiveness shown. To the variety of comments and opinions expressed. The plan focuses on key priorities, such as a disposal decision that is needed now. A delay in the comp plan update and decision about the disposal methods puts our ability to provide long term disposal at Cedar Hills at risk. Additionally, it provides for service level continuity. King County will begin accepting waste in Area eight soon. Passing the comp plan will allow for developing the last cell area nine to begin without interruption. As a holder, I am committed to providing service to my customers and I know King County is committed to doing so as well. We appreciate your support as a partner for providing these important services and outcomes for the people of King County. We hope the Committee of the whole will consider this and pass the plan now so we can move forward in 2019 with an approved plan. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Honorable Council members. My name is Penny Sweet. I'm the mayor of Kirkland. Over the course of the last two years, the Metropolitan Solid Waste Advisory Committee, which I chair, has worked hand in hand with Solid Waste Division and the Solid Waste Advisory Committee in the development of this comprehensive, solid waste management plan, which is before you. The plan has not been updated since 2001, not for lack of trying, and we are facing critical decisions that will be guided through this updated plan. The council and city adoption process that will follow is very time sensitive. This comprehensive plan update is credible and ready for council action. It is the result of two years of collaboration among the cities, SWAC and the division. It has been embraced by the vast majority of our city partners. We are eagerly awaiting your approval. There are many topics addressed in this plan, but an important consideration is that it zeroes in on uninterrupted garbage disposal services to its customers by extending the life of the Cedar Hills landfill. Cedar Hills has provided cost effective disposal over 50 years. It is a unique local asset that can provide many more years of disposal at the lowest cost, while producing reliable natural gas that will heat and light over 19,000 homes and brings in revenue to the county to the tune of $8 million a year. Furthermore, Cedar Hills represents the lowest environmental and financial impact options. Taking into consideration as much value as possible should be extracted from the landfill. Before we shift to a more expensive long term disposal, this comprehensive plan addresses the issues of the Northeast. King County has operated the hotel transfer station in Kirkland since the mid-sixties. Not only is it one of the oldest stations in the county, it is also located in one of the fastest growing areas of the county. A new northeast transfer station addresses regional inequities and maximizes service options for us in the Northeast. Please take action on this as soon as you can so that we can move forward. Thank you very much. Thank you. That concludes the people who signed up in advance. Is there anyone else present who would like to offer public testimony today? Anyone else? See, no one will close the public hearing. And I would ask Councilmember Gossett if you'd move the approval of the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I like to that we adopt the minutes from a special meeting we had on February 13. But not December 5th. We usually do one thing. Oh, this one. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. On December 5th, 2018. There's for some the new committee of the whole has met 2019. Yeah. Okay, we have the minutes before us, you know, for the discussion, all those in favor of approval of the minutes, please say I opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Thank you. We have 15 items on the consent agenda today. The first two of those items are appointments to the King County Landmarks Commission and the following 13 members whose items are members to be appointed to the Immigrant and Refugee Commission. I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved. It's been moved that we adopt the consent agenda. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I don't mind you and consent people we know that have been before us before or that are up for re re statement if we, you know, have met them. But we're doing a whole new commission and I don't know any of these people. So it's difficult for me to just say yes to something. I haven't even met any of these people and this is an important commission, so I'm feeling uncomfortable about that. So I hope that this isn't the precedent. As I said, if we know the people and you know, we've experienced their working styles and their objectives in the past, I'm fine with that. But a whole new commission that we've never met before, I feel really uncomfortable about Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I feel the same way as Councilmember Lambert. I don't know how we can have a new committee, new set of people on them, and not have the opportunity to briefly review them as we have heretofore always done. The only time that we do consent calendar is when it's people on the committee that have already served in or been offered as re appointments. I don't know of any precedent that says we just accept everyone else. The Re for members information reappointment do not actually go to committee re appointments, go straight to a council agenda itself. And the 13 members of the Immigrant and Refugee Commission that the Council created by ordinance in February of 2018 are before us today. They've been nominated in awaiting confirmation and actually been doing work as a as appointed, not confirmed commissioners to date. And the very next item of business today will be a report from the co-chairs of the commission on their work. And and it would it would not be the chair's intention to routinely have large bodies of consent agenda items. But I'm in that they have been serving as acting commissioners in the absence of our action to date, and that we are awaiting the report of the work that they've done to date. And I thought it was particularly appropriate to make sure that we could deal with the appointments today and then hear from them as a commission. Okay. I just want the record to show that I think that that is unwise decision because it establishes a bad precedent of just telling people that they are confirmed because they all come on a day that people didn't know that they are going to be here. So that's my opinion. I'm and I will note for the record also that the these items were on the agenda for the committee for the discussion. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, and I appreciate my colleague's concern. But I do want to note that I think these names were transmitted by the executive in September of last year, and they've been doing the work. And so there has been time to meet with folks. Folks are always willing to meet with you. I will say that last year colleagues know that the committee of the whole got extremely overwhelmed with the number of items, and that's why we did some reallocation of work this year. So I'm comfortable moving forward, having looked at this pretty incredible group of folks who are standing up to serve the community. And I also have a lot of confidence in my colleagues, each of whom has sponsored a number of these folks. And that's important to me as well. So I would be I appreciate the concern expressed, the folks who might have said don't get to know members, but I think those factors for me make me comfortable moving forward today. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. White. I was one of the sponsors of setting up this committee, this new commission. And I don't recall of allowing each of the prospective committee or advisory committee members to be to represent our county that all nine of us would at least know one of the people. This is not like that. Two or three county council members recommended some of these folks, but we didn't recommend the others. They might have been the executive or someone else that thought that they would be good. And Councilmember DEMBOSKY, just because it took us months and months to get to this, I don't see why that would be a justification for not giving them due consideration as we do all other committee members. And again, I would note that following the consent agenda, we have a robust presentation from the co-chairs, staff and members of the Commission. Mr. Chair, just a thought. Would council member gossip be more comfort if we proceeded with the presentation than the work that the committee's been doing before taking up confirmation of the members and have them give them an opportunity to ask some questions about how it's going? Yes. We're going to defer the action on the consent agenda and move to item 20 on today's agenda. Our first briefing is briefing on the work program for the Immigration and Refugee Commission. As I mentioned earlier, in February of last year, over a year ago, the council passed an ordinance establishing the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission. This permanent body is committed to integrating, strengthening and valuing immigrant and refugee communities. So I can reinforce that. In upholding the county's commitment as a welcoming community. The Inaugural Commission is composed of 13 members who reflect the range of ethnicities. Reflect a range of ethnicities, professional backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses and places of origin across the county and represent the county's immigrant and refugee communities. Today, we welcome Boka Gonzales, the immigrant and refugee policy advisor in the executive's Department of Equity and Social Justice. Here to brief us on the commission's work program, and she is joined by three acting commissioners who are before us today and the co-chairs Minal KHODA Goswami and fellow co-chair Nimmo Boulay and Commissioner Acting Commissioner Hamdy Muhammed. I welcome all of you before us today and look forward to your presentation and thank you for for your work to date on behalf of the county and the almost one in four King County residents who are foreign born. Thank you. Thank you for making time for all of us to be here today and and including us in your agenda. We look forward to this discussion with you. I just want to go back a little bit in time and remind you about the task force report that in December of 2016, we brought to you a task force representative of the immigrant and refugee communities from all districts of King County came together and we held about 25 community meetings and interviewed about 500 members of the immigrant and refugee community and brought to you their recommendations, the top problems, the top solutions, issues that they felt really were significant in their communities. And one of the top solutions proposed was that the King County would create a first time immigrant and refugee commission that would really act as a bridge between King County and immigrant communities and act as a hub that would really centralize resources and services and connect with community members. We then went about by actually I wanted to clarify that we actually had an open call for applications and did a very, very broad outreach to accept applications. Kim Selection Committee from members of the council, staff, executive staff and community members came together. We received over 32 applications and we really carefully examined all of the applications and identified 13 incredible people, representative of ethnic communities, languages and also professional backgrounds, gender, sexual orientation and as well as districts and King County. The commission came together about five months ago. As you mentioned, Councilmember McDermott, we've been meeting for five months now. And we're going to be you're going to be hearing from the co-chairs and about some of the work that's been done. I just want to briefly, before I turn it over to the co-chairs, refer to the packet that you've all received in your packet. I just want to walk you through some of the pages from pages three and tell page 11 are some of the issues, the top problems and solutions that we heard in the community meetings that we held in 2016. And then in pages 13 through pages 17, sorry, 19 are the photos and bios of all the Commission members. Pages 21 two. Pages 28 are the bylaws and that shape the work of this Commission and commitments that we hold moving forward. And then the last page is the workplan. I'll turn it over to Menno Isamu, who's the co-chair of the commission. Thank you for hearing us today. We really want to thank the the council as a whole for creating our commission with the passage of Ordinance 18653. And we're really as a group of 13, I think only one of us is absent today. All 13 of us showed up. We are super proud to be a part of members of this community and we all are really committed to the. Idea that we should all be created equal. And a fundamental. Part of that community is immigrants and refugees, and they deserve dignity and respect. And we hope to, you know, push forward with that during this really turbulent time in our history. We want to take that representation and advocate for immigrants and refugees. And really be more inclusive, not less inclusive. And really. Address the barriers. That immigrants and refugee communities are in. Terms of affordable housing, transit, access. To health care. Economic opportunities and strong childhood development. We are a diverse membership. If you see my colleagues seated both beside me and behind me. We come from a variety of ethnicities. Professional backgrounds, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity and place of origin where we were born. We each. Either come. From. Africa and refugee communities or represent through immigrant led organizations. And we are really committed to meeting regularly and we're meeting throughout all of your districts. So we are making sure we're engaging with each of your constituents. And that's. That's really one of our. Biggest goals is to engage with the community as a whole so that we are seeing what issues are happening present day, what kind of challenges folks are facing. And you'll hear more from my colleague Hamdi about one of those larger issues in just a moment. And we just really want to strive to become advisors to you all and be a regional partner with cities and making sure that all immigrant and refugee issues are being addressed and that the county is responding appropriately. So with that, I want to pass it off to my co-chair, Adam Cole, who's going to talk about our work plan specifically. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for having us. If you refer to your packet as well, there is a workplan that I will be getting into and describing in further detail. As a commission, we've identified four subcommittees and areas of work that will be that we will be focusing on. The first is equitable community development, with area of focus being among many displacement of small businesses that are starting with Sea TAC. And again, my colleague Hamdi will be speaking in more detail to that. For our second subcommittee, we are focusing on immigrant rights and social justice, where we'll be, where we will be focusing on that said Census 2020 and the Legal Defense Fund. For our third subcommittee, we are focusing on capacity building, building a regional resource hub for immigrant refugee communities to be a critical and unified voice force. We'll be focusing on relationship building with key constituencies from across the county, including local government, elected officials, philanthropy, labor, law enforcement, academics and etc.. For our fourth subcommittee will be focusing on priority populations, services and opportunities to leverage and support as well as inform existing strategies that may include employer employee relations for a King County with immigrant and refugee communities. Sound Transit, connecting with an engaging all across the commissions and boards across our county as well. And with that, I'd like to introduce Hamdi to speak more about equitable community development and the work the commission has been doing with the SeaTac business owners that are being displaced in SeaTac. Good afternoon and welcome. Thank you. Thank you guys for taking the time to meet with us. I am honored to be a part of this. This body is a very unique body. I can share a little bit about myself in light of what folks have said already. I was born in Somalia, the youngest of ten siblings, and I've lived all over the county. I've lived in very. And I've lived in yes. Nestler. And now I live in SeaTac, Washington. And I think that is what makes our group really unique. We have lived all over the county and we are from all over the county and hoping to take on really important issues that are affecting the immigrant and refugee community. That said, on February 20th, executive Dow Constantine and the commission met with the SeaTac City Coalition, a group of immigrant business business owners who are affected by the redevelopment of the Sea-Tac Center. As you guys may already know, the city of SeaTac owns the property or the business. The businesses lease space, and the city is currently planning to sell that space to a private developer inland. That private developer is from Chicago and owns spaces in Spokane as well. And Inland intends to build build housing there with commercial space at a market rate that is going to displace just about everyone who is there. One of those business owners have already faced eviction and have been evicted since. The majority of those business owners are women who are from Somalia, folks who came to this country to seek refuge and who have the American dream, just like we all do. And so one of the things that they asked us during this meeting, they asked the executive and the commission is if we would buy into the idea of an international market, a market that's like Chinatown, you know, something that looks like Pike Place Market. And Executive Dao Constantine said he supports that idea. He supports the idea of an international market, and also we do as commissioners. One of the most important thing about this, this particular group that we're talking about, is they formed a community there, right. When I was living in Gessler, I used to go to SeaTac to buy my products that I needed from the community. A lot of folks who are here on this commission also are from all over the county, but go to that space to buy buy stuff and it's very culturally specific things. And and I think the most important thing is to not split that community, to not displace them in any sort of way. And if we are you know, we're hoping one of the things that the executive said is he's interested in supporting efforts around relocation. And he's actually assigned a several several members of his staff to meet with the coalition as well. And they are going to start thinking about ways to basically help help that community relocate and not split them apart. And as a commission, we also support that. And one of the things that we want to do is also be a bridge between the council, the community and even the executives office. We want to be able to serve as a body that advises you guys on information that you guys can come to us and ask us questions, what's happening on the ground? This is such a hot topic in our community right now in the immigrant and refugee community. It's a very sensitive topic. We are talking about a very vulnerable population. And so we want to make sure that, you know, you guys also know what's going on and that we can serve as a body that can let you guys know what's happening on the ground and something, if I could say. And so one of the other things that we actually had was we wanted to ask you guys, if possible, at some point, if we could meet with you guys with the coalition and see if there's any opportunities to assist, assist with relocation or even just hear them out and hear their stories. I think it's very moving. The immigrant and refugee community make up this this community. That's our economy. And I think you guys all want to see them part of the community and feel like they're supported. And I think one of the ways to do that is to give them a space to be heard. And I think that's what this body is interested in doing, is making sure that we create spaces where community can come and share their issues with us and we can relay that over to the Council. If I could just add that that the Commission really feels pretty strongly about equitable community development being one of our focus areas , because we see that with the increasing cost of living economy, gentrification, communities of color, immigrant communities are being pushed further. Further out of this city and even South King County and East King County. And we really feel that Sea-Tac provided a tremendous opportunity to kid to engage in this work. But it's definitely not the only place where this is happening. We want to begin to engage people and bring people together around this issue. And we would really appreciate your attention and engagement around this as well. Before we close, then see if you have any questions, I want to ask all of the members of the commission who are here to stand up for you to meet them in person. Do you want them to say names, say where they live is about help or you just want to take one minute? We'd be delighted to do that, and we'd love to be able to make sure that the TV audience can hear you as well. So if you wouldn't mind stepping over and using the microphone. Yes. If you could, one by one, stand at the podium and introduce yourself. My name is voting Lou. Oh. I'm in District six and I'm so honored to be a part of this commission. Thank you for the opportunity. Hello, everyone. I'm little Paula and I'm in District six. Thank you. And I represent the Indian-American community of Greater Seattle in western Washington. Good afternoon. My name is Isadore. I live in District two. And also to be in this commission. Thank you. Ashley. Hello, everyone. My name is Muhammad John. I live in this thick fife and I represent International Rescue Committee, a lead organization of immigrant and Refugee Commission. We didn't hear what community you represent. Sorry. What community do you represent? I represent specifically Afghan community and not only Afghans organization as ILC. We serve Somalians, Ethiopians, Congo, Pakistanis. A lot of different communities. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. My name is tonight Nick. Goofy and I grew up in White Center, so District eight, but I currently reside. I'm a new resident of SeaTac so district five. Yeah Councilmember up to go be careful. Some of SeaTac is in district eight two. You need to wait for the punch line. When you're recording. So and I represent the East African community so Ethiopia, Eritrea. Ah, but really I work out in Pierce and King County. So I believe in being an advocate for all immigrant refugees, undocumented groups, those seeking asylum, refugee. So. So that's me. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Hey, look. Yeah. I slightly Mohamed back from District six. I represent the Bellevue Bellevue Diversity Advisory Network with zero Bellevue and also the Muslim Community Neighborhood Association at the East Side. I'm also part of the founding of a PTO for immigrants, which just started like two weeks ago. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Madeline Gaeta and I am from Federal District seven. I am on the commission from Albany. So we work with refugees from all over the world. I represent all the refugees that I can have the opportunity to spend like today and speak on their behalf. So I. I don't have. A particular group that I'm representing, but I'm originally from Chad in Central Africa. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. My name is Andrew Kitteridge and I'm a refugee from former Soviet Union, specifically Ukraine. I represent former Soviet and Ukrainian, specifically communities. I'm working for a Ukrainian community center. And beyond, serving. On the people from former Soviet Union. We expanded services to many different refugee and immigrant communities in Kent County, and I'm proud to be part of the commission. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Happy to answer any questions that you might have for us. Thank you very much. This got some in your opening remarks. You spoke about wanting to make pointing out that we were all created equal. And I think that really part of the work that the council wanted to address in creating the commission was to make sure that not only we recognize that everyone is created equal, but that everyone has equal opportunity and recognizing the special needs and ways that the county can interact with members of our community who are immigrants and refugees. I think you'll find that every one of us, perhaps in different specific ways, but every one of us wants to work with you in the commission on the issues that you bring to us and advocate as much as we can. And I have already met with businesses on this in SeaTac that are being displaced and found visiting them, particularly in the community, was really valuable and would welcome the opportunity to do so in SeaTac as well. Yeah. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that you just indicated you've been out there and I know you've been out there more than one time. Councilmember of the Grove has also been out in the SeaTac area investigating what's happening with the small third world, our East African businesses in the community. So Hamdi, I had a question for you. How has the City Council of SeaTac or any of the predominantly white business groups located out there? It's been an olive branch or a helping hand or financial resources or anything that would enable the businesses out there to have that. If they can't stay there, they have a fighting chance of getting another space that's affordable. Anything like that happen? Well. Any political or economic support from the people out in that area? Well, the city of SeaTac actually is sending out eviction notices, and one of the businesses actually has been evicted. And there is a current lawsuit where the business owners are requesting some assistance for relocation. And so, as far as I know, as of now, no. No, no help from political or business groups that are indigenous to that part of our county. That have not received any help. There are folks who care, for instance, from a muslim community, is interested in doing some fundraising events. We know of that. But no, not the city of SeaTac or any other businesses in that area, any indigenous groups in that area have not provided any help. All right. Well, the reason I ask that. Well, over the no pressure put on them where they did provide two or $5,000 to all the small East African businesses in their town that got this place. But that was through a lawsuit. And, you know, these guys, the folks in SeaTac have filed a lawsuit as well. And I don't know the details of that last year. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I want to thank all of you for coming. It makes me feel a lot better to get to see you and hear you and not be able to say, I voted for somebody, but I had no idea what they look like or where they are or what their background is. So having your resume is in here, which I just finished reading, is very impressive. So thank you very much. And my point is one of the co-chairs, so I knew that that would be in very good hands when I realized she was one of the co-chairs. So much of what is in here. First of all, it's very well done, very comprehensive, very helpful. But it also is very similar to what we hear from people who are poor. So much of it is standard type, poverty type things. And so when this boat rises, everybody's boat can rise, which I think is really exciting. The one that stands out to me of all of these that I just wanted to comment on, is the one on page four where it talks about lack of technical. Yes, lack of materials in multiple languages, lack of cultural competencies. So we have 178 languages in this county. And so it's really hard to get things into 178 languages. And one of the things is we keep getting more and more requests, and I think we're close to $2 million a year. I would swear to that number. And I think we're close at facilitator costs. So we could use people to get trained a facilitation. To come help us as a county to translate things, to help us through the court system, to help us through a lot of other things. So that's an area because 178 languages is really hard to cover that we can really use your help. And lastly, the cultural competency. I know that when I travel and if I'm going on with certain groups, I go to Africa and others, I usually get a briefing. I'm going into this country. Here are the things you need to know. Here are the things that are particularly important. These are things that make people happy. These are the things that make people sad. So that when I walk into the country, I have some ideas and they call the protocol list. I would love, you know, a protocol list of what kinds of things that we could do better day after tomorrow in our departments, that if somebody comes in and says they're from X country, that we would know we need to ask this question that way or we need to be, you know, whatever so that we could be more helpful. So for me, that's the one that sticks out the most. What can we do tomorrow or day after tomorrow? We have to bring it up, get it up to make our agencies and our departments more culturally competent. Thank you. Thank you for those comments and question. I just want to add that the Office of Equity and Social Justice this year has approved a position for language equity access, a centralized person who will be working with departments and agencies to really build on the strengths that we have in translation and interpretation, to look at what exist, how to coordinate and centralize much more, to make the process efficient and to continue to improve. But you're right, it's very, very challenging and complex work. Thank you. Council member of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair, of a comment that an unrelated question one is. A. First comment is how what an impressive group this is. I had the opportunity to sit down with the folks from South King County, IMCO and Hamdi and Muhammad. And apparently we have one more addition to the council district. But I hope to use not just the commission, but those that are local as a sounding board and resource, and hopefully they feel the same way. Reaching out to me and to us in my comments to build on what you said booked about. We have the situation with in SeaTac that's very specific. But I think you're right that this isn't the only situation. It's not going to be the last. And I feel like as public policymakers, we kind of have we're not good at solving it, but we all understand and recognize kind of the housing gentrification. We kind of get our head around that. We get that as folks move out of Seattle to find more affordable housing. People, you know, as communities improve, the costs go up. I don't think we've got our head around that same type of impact that's happening to small businesses. And I don't think we have public policy strategies and policies and funding in place to deal with it. And I think it impacts disproportionately immigrant and refugee business owners. I think in part because you see that entrepreneurship as a strategy employed by a lot of recent immigrants and refugees, low capital start up businesses. And I would love to see the commission get to get specific about achievable policy strategies. I know there's interest on the Council and elsewhere to not. Just continue to. Engage in SeaTac and how to help those business owners, but just how are we going to wrestle with this as a region where the like I said, housing has been elevated, but the small business displacement hasn't. So I'm really excited about that question. As I said unrelated, you mentioned the language access work. Is the plan. For the commission to help. Prioritize. You know, we're going to have limited money and a lot of agencies to continue to implement language access plans by agencies. And I think we're going to be looking to the commission somewhat to help us identify where is the best place to target limited resources. First, to get the most bang for the buck or where the most need is, is the plan to provide some guidance to the executive and then in turn the Council around budget priorities, around agency language access. Are you going to get that specific, do you think, as they I understand as the agencies develop the required plans that under the ordinance we passed, they're going to come to you and then we have to we then begin implementing those. And can you help us prioritize? I think that's right there. As you all know, King County has an ordinance in place currently that pretty clearly and strictly defines the type languages that we are obligated to translate everything in. And they have a second tier of optional and a county demographer on a quarterly basis. There's a report of languages based on, I think schools report a number of other criterias and we continue to look at those languages. But I think your question is so so we yes. Around translation to those top languages but also then how can the commission and other staff of King County continue to do outreach effectively to identify where communities are in need of support and to continue to lift those issues? Yes. I don't know if you want to add to that. I think. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you very much. I just wanted to join my colleagues in expressing my appreciation and just actual joy for seeing the work that you're doing. When Councilmember Gossett and I worked up the motion that started the task force in 2015 that said, let's listen to the community to see what it needs and wants. And the commission was one of the recommendations coming out of that. I don't know, because we're adults and because we were doing it. You co-sponsored it. I don't know that I envisioned this level of quality and proactive leadership and this caliber of commissioner. So it's just really awesome to see. And I'm excited about the work. We need your help. We do because oh, we just we have to be more connected to communities and we are much more diverse communities in King County than than we have historically then. You know, in November of last year, I was invited, but the name like Dombroski, you get invited these things to the centennial of the Polish home society here in Seattle. And they've been for here for 100 years. And they formed their own group, much like a lot of immigrant communities do back then, because the government really wasn't helping or listening or participating to as much a degree in the needs and helping address the needs in their community. And looking back at 100 years, you can see the power of that. I'm excited that King County, while not perfect, is trying to be better. And we are going to look to you to help us be better in the areas that you're working on. And I want to make sure that, you know, that I'll take seriously your work and your recommendations going forward to make sure we have a government that represents all two and a quarter million people here. So thank you. Councilmember Balducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I will not waste your time repeating, but this is very, very impressive. And it makes me feel. Hope. For the future of our region, to see that we have people like you all who are here and so articulate and so forceful about the needs of the community, because we need to hear that. So one of the things so when you bring up the issue in SeaTac, I'll join Councilmember Up the Grove. These things tend to present to us like emergencies, but that's because there hasn't been planning. If there was planning upfront, we'd have fewer emergencies and and the emergencies are harder to solve. And so I hope that one of the things that we can do together is look to where needs are growing and where they are moving. Because people like I've heard a number of people say, I moved, I lived here, I lived there, people are moving around. And a lot of that is because of the cost of housing. And so if we can together think forward and plan better for what the future looks like, the near future and the further term future, I think we will see less of these kinds of people being displaced and businesses being displaced because we do a better job of planning for what might occur. And that's harder. It takes a longer time. It's not as much fun as writing a big check, but it is it is better for the community in the long run. I'm a big believer in building capacity and I was really happy to see that that was a focus of one of your segments of your work plan is building capacity in community members, community organizations and frankly, within King County to work better with the community. So I was also really pleased with the one that talked about engaging with the other boards and commissions, because I think it makes a lot of sense to have a board like yours that is focused on the particular experience of immigrants and refugees. But every single board and commission we have in this council and everything we work on affects every person that you represent. And so to have that sort of cross across, you know, working, if you will, cross-fertilization is, I think, very, very important. And I appreciate that. That came to the forefront. Just a couple of pieces of suggestions for me. The couple the things that you have on the agenda, up in your agenda are fairly time sensitive. So if you want to have input into the charter commission, I hope you're working on that right now because they're working on their recommendations right now. So to be effective in putting in input into that process that that's a now thing slightly less time sensitive but still and then I wish thing is the sound transit three child care centers early learning we have had a lot of input from community members about the importance of creating those spaces for early learning , near light rail stations in buildings with affordable housing. And so I think that it's been raised to the attention of the council as we think about how to spend that resource that's coming in. But if you have. Particular recommendations that come from your position on this border commission? Please, please, please let us know as soon as you can. And thank you so much for your work and for volunteering on behalf of our community. It means a lot to me. It means a lot to us. And we're here at your at your disposal. I've already. I wanted to say earlier not to brag or anything, but I've already met with my representatives and I will continue doing that because they're wonderful. But I'm happy to speak with anyone here that I can be of help to you. So thank you so much. Thank you so much for the presentation gave us today. But more importantly, the work that the entire commission is engaged in on behalf of King County, truly working to improve the lives and the experience of everyone in King County, which I really appreciate. Thank you. Thank you all for your work. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, we will go back to the consent agenda items five through 19, again to Historic Preservation Board members and 13 members of the Immigrant and Refugee Commission. The motion is before us to approve the consent agenda. Councilmember Gossett. I thank you. Mr.. I want to make one more comment on on the King County. I'm a great immigrant and refugee commission. I concur with all the members of the King County Council who made comments about the quality of the experience and what it is that the members of this board will bring to our county and the immigrant and refugee communities that they represent. My reason for raising concerns about not having opportunity to interview each of them is that I just think we're better served when we have the chance. Anybody that's not good enough to actually interview them for a few minutes before we vote to confirm them. This has been a steady requirement and duty that we have had. I've been on the King County Council for 25 years, and I think there's only about four times that we did not accept the person recommended. So 95, 97% or the chance. We always concur, but there's been like ten or 15 people who we confer confirm that I learn things about them in that interview and other matters. I had the opportunity to go back to them and ask them about problems and challenges that arose in our community that they were able to help me with. And had I not interviewed them, I would not know them at all. So I hope we all consider our way of continuing to actually have interviews for new people at our boards and commission. But this is a very talented group. Thank you very much. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I agree. It really helped me a lot. And I did know my person and I had a delightful time visiting with her and getting to know her better. My person, I had no doubt has any worry that I will be listening to her because she would not let me not listen to her. And of course I would want to. So that's great and I appreciate that. This gets back to a systemic problem we have here at the council is the way we appoint people to boards and commissions. I do all my own interviewing of the people for my boards and commissions so that they know when they come talk to me who they are. And if we had a system where we we interviewed our own person and put them in rather than coming over from the executive staff. And sometimes when the names come over, we know them. Sometimes we don't. So before I vote on them, I make sure that I do. But this is a problem that we've had for years. We've talked about it before. And Mr. Chair, I mean, Mr. Gossett, I think and this is this is a good example of an I don't call online people, I don't have time to call all nine people , but I do get to know my person. So if each of us knew our own person and put their names forward, I think it would simplify and we would get things done more quickly than the process that exists right now. So I just put that out as something we might want to talk about at our retreat. Thank you. Speaker two Please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Felder, Councilmember DEMBOSKY, Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Gossett I Council member. Commonwealth Council member. Member I. Council member of the group. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is seven A's. No nos. Thank you. Haven't received the required majority. We'll give it to pass recommendation and send to full council and expedite the consent agenda. And with that, we'll be at a brief recess so that we might take a photograph with the Immigrant and Refugee Commission. I'm going to ask I'm going to ask them to step to this end of the podium. I'm going to ask members to step to this end of the dais so we can all arrange and have a quick photograph taken. Thank you. We'll come out of recess and we are now item. I'm sorry. I know that staff has a question for me. Yes. For those consent items, is it okay. If they go regular course rather than expedite? Yes. I'm reminded that on our new schedule, expediting would be to the day after tomorrow's meeting. The news agenda is already out, so let's not expedite meeting. That would be in full council a week from Wednesday on the consent agenda. And with that, we'll move to item 21, which is the adoption of the 2019 Solid Waste Comprehensive Plan. This plan has had a lot of regional and council discussion over the last several years and was passed out of the Regional Policy Committee last week when he sue, who is here to present the staff report on behalf of herself and Tara Rose Mr. Who. Good afternoon. Thank you, Wendy. To who council staff. Tara Rose is the primary author of this document and she did really an awesome job. So I just like to only take credit for any errors that you might find in the staff report, so. That can be arranged. Thank you. So proposed ordinance 2018 0375 would adopt the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan as amended by the Regional Policy Committee. This is the first update of the plan since the 21 comprehensive plan, and it sets the strategies for managing solid waste in King County for the next six year planning period with consideration of the next 20 years. So turning to page 63 of your packet. I'll just talk very briefly about the comprehensive plan development process. The development and approval process for the comprehensive plan is governed by state law, county code and interlocal agreements with the partner cities. Developing this plan has involved coordination with the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and the Metropolitan Solid Waste Management Advisory Committee. Its work, the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, includes representation by interested citizens. Waste Management Recycling Group or excuse me. And Waste Management and recycling groups in this work is made up of partner city representatives. Both of these groups are charged with advising the county on solid waste planning and policy setting, and both of the advisory committees have issued advisory notes expressing support of the plan. The plan also requires a public comment period and CPA review as well as Department of Ecology review. Turning to page 64 of your materials, just to highlight briefly the approval process, the per the into local agreements with the partner cities. The plan is adopted when it's approved by the King County Council and also by cities representing 75% of the population of jurisdictions that are party to the ALA. So after the council approves the plan, it would then need to be approved by some number of of the cities that are participants in the system. Then after that, the final plan would be submitted to the Department of Ecology for formal approval. And if there's no questions, I'll actually move to the analysis of the plan on page 70 of your staff report. So at the bottom of pick 70 and on to page 71, there's a very high level summary of the contents of the plan. There's an introductory chapter. This chapter doesn't contain any goals or policies or actions, and so it's not further discussed in the analysis portion of the staff report. Chapter two focuses on the existing solid waste system. Chapter three covers forecasting and data. Chapter four is focused on sustainable materials management, and this chapter focuses on waste prevention and recycling. Chapter five talks about the solid, solid waste transfer and processing system with some discussion of the transfer network planning in Northeast King County, which I know is a topic of interest. And then Chapter six focuses on landfill management, solid waste disposal with consideration towards the long term disposal of the county's waste. And then Chapter seven focuses on solid waste system finance policies. So turning to page 72 of your packet, I'll start with chapter two. As I mentioned, this chapter focuses on the processes, infrastructure and programs that comprise the existing solid waste system in King County. And it sets four policies related to the existing system policy. Yes, one recommends that the existing combination of public and private facilities remain in the future. As you're all aware, the solid waste system is a mix of public and private facilities and partners. There's an inner local agreement with 37 partner cities. Under that agreement, King County is responsible for the transfer and disposal of solid waste. The cities are responsible for managing solid waste handling within their jurisdictions. And generally speaking, the city's contract with the private sector for curbside pickup and transportation, and then for recyclables and construction and demolition waste. Those portions are operated entirely by private companies. So again, yes, one recommends maintaining this existing combination of public and private partnerships. And this policy is consistent with previous policy, including the 2007 Solid Waste Transfer and Waste Management Plan. Turning to page 73, the next policy in this chapter is S2, which recommends continuing and working with the division's advisory committees. The Cities in the Solid Waste in our local forum, which under the I L.A. it's the Regional Policy Committee policy is three identifies incorporating principles of equity and social justice and a solid waste system planning, which is consistent with other county policies such as the Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan, is for considers climate change impacts on sustainability when planning for facilities, operations and programs, and that is consistent with the county's Strategic Climate Action Plan. And I'll talk more about some of those elements as I go through the through some of the other chapters. So turning to page 17 for the next chapters, Chapter three, which focuses on forecasting and data. This chapter addresses policies and recommended actions focused around monitoring and reporting largely related to collecting, reviewing, standardizing and reporting data to support future planning and decision making for the solid waste system. These policies and recommended actions are consistent with other adopted policies related to solid waste. And I would just note that all of the policies and recommended actions in this chapter broadly address gaps within the current data collection processes, and so relate to standardization and and other actions to try to try to ensure that the data and forecasting methodologies are able to inform and support that policy making work. So at the bottom of page 75, this portion of the staff report talks about Chapter four, Sustainable Materials Management, the policies and recommended actions in Chapter four to support a goal of zero waste of resources by 2030, with an interim goal to achieve a 70% recycling rate through a combination of efforts in priority order that includes waste prevention and reuse, product stewardship, recycling and composting in beneficial use. And so some of the key policy themes in this chapter are around planning, implementation and infrastructure improvements. Mr.. Who if we can interrupt. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I have two questions. I want to make sure I heard what you said a minute ago about the gaps in in the data. What is that, chapter three? Yes, that's in part three. So how long have we known that there were gaps in this data? I'd like to defer to the division and happily answer that. Question when they come up. I would like to know if there's gaps in our data. I would prefer that they not wait for a plan to do that, but they bring it to us separately and say, you know, this is what we want to do for our data because we shouldn't be having gaps. And then on page 75, a goal of zero waste resources by 2030. And we can't even keep up with our goal of 50% right now. And the agency put out a report in the Normandy report about a year and a half ago that they intended to have a no not intended, that the the calculated calculation would be that we would have a 50% recycling rate by the year 2040. So I don't understand why we're looking at a 70% recycling rate, which is what we've been saying all along. But we've only been getting to 50 and I think it's 53 or 56. And then in the Normandy report, the calculation was put at 50. So it's really hard to get data that makes any sense if every time, which just gets. The problem in chapter three. So can you tell me why they're saying that they're going to achieve a 70% rate by 2030 when that's not what they wrote in the Normandy report? Well, so actually, council member, it does say that they would support a goal of zero waste of resources by 2030 with an interim goal to achieve a 70% recycling rate. And I will note that I was going to get to this later. But the Strategic Climate Action Plan, which the council has previously adopted, actually sets a deadline of 2020 to achieve that rate. And so there is a little bit of a difference here in that this plan doesn't actually repeat that they're going to make that deadline and instead specifies that it's an interim goal. But I would defer to solid waste to talk more about what their plan is in terms of that longer term goal of zero zero waste of resources. Was just confusing when the Normandy report says that it's going to be 50% all the way out to 2040. But one report says that to 2040, we're going to get 50. And that's what you can calculate on. And in this report to 2030, we're going to get 70. So I agree with what you said earlier, that the calculations are issues. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Would you like a solid waste staff to come to the table at this time in order to answer questions as we're going through? Mr. Mclauchlan, we can invite you forward now. Good afternoon and welcome. Thank you. For the record. My name is Pat McGlothlin. It's my honor to serve as your director of Solid Waste. And with respect to the questions on recycling, we have for some time had goals of reaching a 70% recycling rate and have made good progress over the years but have stalled. So we have looked, with the help of our cities and our regional partners and identified a roadmap that we believe could restart our recycling engines, if you will. But it will take very certain policy actions, not just by the county, but by individual cities who define the service levels and the recycling programs across our region. And if, as a unified body, we adopt those policy actions and these are outlined in the comprehensive plan, then we can obtain a much higher recycling rate. But for the purposes of planning, we've not assumed that to be a default planning factor. We've used a more modest recycling rate. Our current recycling rates about 54% in our region, which is good. And we're not assuming that we're going to hit to 70%. We're going to keep it as an aspirational goal and again, promote certain actions that are outlined in the plan, working with the cities to take a more harmonized approach . And and if we're successful, I'd like to believe that we will be successful. That will reduce the amount of waste that we have to put through any of our disposal options in the future. Thank you, Mr. Hill. Sure. And I think just speaking or writing. Councilmember Goss, did you have a question? Yeah. Councilmember Gossett. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is for Mr. McLoughlin. On the 57% aspiration. But we had 54. Okay. Why would 70% be aspirational if we know or we think we're not going to achieve it? It's just something that worked for we did the same thing for, you know, affordable housing. We have an aspirational goal. We hope that we get close to achieving it, but we don't know yet. But I wanted to ask how when we set goals for 70% and someone raised questions that we'd never gone above 50, why would we just say that's the aspirational goal? Is that not an intent to achieve it? No, we are intent on achieving a 70% recycling goal. We've taken off a date specific buy, which is going to happen because it is reliant upon both you as a council taking certain action to effect the service levels in the unincorporated areas. And each of our 37 member cities also have to take independent action to change their service level approach for recycling. And so it's it's a complicated task ahead of us. We have laid out multiple strategies that will get us there. And we believe that these strategies will work. And in fact, we know they will work because various municipalities in our region have deployed these recycling strategies with success. So we see that they work, but they haven't been deployed across the county consistently. And again, it's going to take independent action by each of the municipalities in order for us to achieve a 70% goal. And that's going to be challenging. And so we took a date off of the plan and left it as an aspirational goal. And we will continue to to push ourselves as a regional Solway system to get better and better. Okay. Thank you. Council member. Lambert Thank you so. Yeah. I think you were at the meeting in Mercer Island where we had all of the waste haulers there, and we were talking about chain of sawed and they said the purity level of the current recycling rate is a 10% impurity level. And in order to be sold in China, it has to have a 0.5. So half a percent, and we're at 10%. Every single person there said unless there's a change in the bin sorting system, that is not possible to happen. And when we asked about the bin sorting system, which is what we used to have, they said it would make a difference in all the bins in the entire county. How many truck loads there had to be and their trucks. So when you say that there would have to be some independent action. Oh, my goodness. It would have to be a total revamp. So tell me, what city has done a 70% recycling and what they're doing? That isn't part of what I just said. You raise some very good points and I don't have the city listing in front of me to to share with you, but I will certainly after this meeting, provide you with a city by city account. But I can express cities who have taken action, such as the city of Renton, who have changed their garbage service to every other week and kept recycling and organics collection that every week. And it has driven increases in their total recycling. That's an example of a strategy that has successfully been deployed to achieve higher recycling rates. The challenges brought forth by China's import policies are real. But I think what's important to realize is that 86%. Of our recycling tonnage is not affected by the China sword. 86% is not affected. It's really the mixed paper and mixed plastics, which is about 14% of our recycling stream which have been impacted. And we've been fortunate that our private haulers and processors have found alternative markets for those materials. But it has certainly been difficult for them, and they have reported significantly lower commodity prices for those items. And I think that's something we have to keep in mind in our recycling programs going forward. But again, 86% of our recycling tonnage is being processed and here domestically and being put back in to our local economy. At what purity level? The the contamination rates that you cited are approximately accurate. Thank you. All right, Mr. Hill, I'm going to ask you to continue in and with an eye toward that in you present the staff report asking members to limit questions until you're done to clarifying questions about the staff report you were giving and then open it up for more dialog with Mr. Mclauchlan. Okay. Sure. So on page 76, I won't get into too much detail here, but there's a detail in each of these paragraphs about the types of specific actions that are recommended related to planning. For example, Mr. Mclauchlan referred to on policy work that might need to be done, such as regulations for green building in construction waste, or policies to make recycling convenient for mixed use and visitor facilities. Those are just some examples, as well as policies specifically related to implementation, such as improving public operations and sponsored events, developing a process to amend the designated recyclables list and so forth. Various infrastructure improvements. Just as an example, developing infrastructure to increase food, scrap recycling, or considering service improvements in unincorporated areas, and then education programs such as programs in schools, providing technical assistance to external agencies and so forth. So just to give an idea of the range of recommendations related to improving recycling. And then as I briefly noted in response to Councilmember Lambert's question, the policies here are consistent with the county code provisions, including the Strategic Climate Action Plan. Although, as I noted, the Strategic Climate Action Plan establishes a deadline for 2020 in terms of achieving the 70% recycling rate, whereas Mr. McLaughlin has spoken to the rationale for why this plan doesn't include that particular date. So I'm going to actually move you to page 80 of your staff report and move to Chapter five. This is the chapter that addresses the county solid waste transfer and processing system, and it does so focused around two themes infrastructure, which the current infrastructure includes eight transfer stations and two rural drop boxes and then environmental sustainability. There are policies in this chapter that essentially call for recommending building and operating transfer facilities using green building and sustainable development practices. I would note that the policies, most of the policies here reflect past decisions around modernizing the county system. The most notable policy in this chapter is the recommended action one Dashti, which calls for siting and building a new Northeast transfer station and then closing the station. And with that, I'll turn you to page 84 of the staff report, which talks about the fiscal implications of of this particular recommendation. So as you're all familiar, the transfer station network is supported through the solid waste rates because most of this network is already built out or is in the process of development. The only transfer station policy recommendation that's incorporated into this plan that has an impact on rates is the decision about how to proceed with capacity in Northeast King County. The draft plan analyzed three options for the northeast area and estimated a total cost per ton, including both operating and capital cost in 2029. And those three options are shown in the middle of page 84, as is the total station would have a $2 and 39 cent cost per ton, whereas the northeast station would have a $13 cost per ton. And then a combination approach would be a little under $10 per ton. The plan does note that only the new Northeast Station option would meet all six key level of serious criteria which our time on site cycling services offered vehicle. Average daily handling capacity space for three day storage and the ability to compact waste ensued. That is the rationale that is discussed in the plan for moving forward with that recommendation. So turning to page 85, Chapter six focuses on landfill management practices and solid waste disposal. This chapter includes policies around operating theater, hills and the closed landfills to meet or exceed relevant laws and standards, and also for updating the debris management plan in coordination with state and regional authorities. So those are focused around the current disposal practices. And then there are also policies for long term disposal policies, D2 and D4 and these direct the county to maximize the capacity and lifespan of the Cedar Hills landfill through further development and also to plan for disposal after its ultimate closure. In order to ensure that there's no gap in service, recommended action. 1-d proposes not specifying the next disposable disposal method in this plan and recommended action. 2-d provides for continuing to evaluate disposal technologies and to regularly update the county's advisory committees. I would note that the two alternative disposal options that were considered were waste, export and waste and building a waste to energy facility. And then I would actually turn you to page 86, which focuses on consistent consistency with adopted policies and plans. So policies D1 and D3 which call for operating questions. Councilmember Dombroski Thank you, Mr.. The Solid Waste Division pays rent for Cedar Hills to the General Fund, and that issue was litigated and the county prevailed. Does that rent obligation cease once we can stop using it for filling, or is it go on in perpetuity given the presence of the landfill on the general funds land and and if that's a legal lead, debatable thing that you want to answer here, that's okay. But I'm kind of curious to understand the fiscal impacts of these issues around Cedar Hills to our general fund, because I don't think it's an insignificant rent check. Meg Moorhead, strategy communications and performance manager for King. County Solid Waste. I believe. That the rent would no longer be paid if we. Stopped using it as an act of landfill. And what do we pay in rent annually to the general fund? We've been the solid waste. I would have to get back to you about that. Yeah. Yeah. We don't have that number with me. Okay, that's important. It seems to me, for not only decision making today, but planning, because our general fund is quite constrained. I mean, we hunt and peck around for $25,000, sometimes or less. Right. So it's I believe the rent check is in the multiples of millions per year. Mr. Hu. Okay. So on page 86, again, the first set of policies call for operating theater hills and the closed landfills to meet or exceed laws and standards related to public health and environmental protection. And so that is consistent with adopted policy around the plans for long term disposal policy. D-2 and part of Recommended Action one D Support Maximizing the capacity and lifespan of the Cedar Hills landfill through further development. Policy decisions over the last decade have been based on analysis indicating that keeping the landfill open for as long as possible is the most economic alternative for waste disposal. And there's a policy draft for I'm now on page 87, which supports not siting replacement and landfill in King County, and that is consistent with the previously adopted policy in the 2001 comp plan and then recommended actions one D and 2D support not specifying the next disposal method after Cedar Hills reaches capacity and closes in order to be able to account for technological advances. And instead, these recommended actions call for tracking and evaluating other disposal technologies for future feasibility. And this represents a departure from adopted county policy, which currently expresses an intent to initiate waste export into the next disposal method. So the policies today would say waste export is the next disposal method. And this plan essentially leaves leaves open what the future method will be. So turning to page 88, I'll just very briefly highlight that the plan does talk about in terms of environmental considerations, greenhouse gas emissions for the three disposal options, and those are shown in table one in the middle of page 88 with essentially with this page 88, with annual greenhouse gas emissions that are comparable for further development of Cedar Hills and waste export, and then significantly greater emissions for a waste to energy facility. Sorry, Miss Chair. Can I ask a little bit about that chart on page 266 where materials that your staff report is summarizing? Page 88 is where I'm speaking. From your reference. You're summarizing the report? Yes, I'm looking at tables 6-1 comparison of key disposal option characteristics further develop Cedar Hills $41 a ton. Export out of county landfill 55, waste energy $136. And then the emissions which you were just talking about, further developed Cedar Hills, 91,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, about the same for export, and then 1.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year on a waste to energy. That right, a factor of almost 12 or 13.13. Yes, we use the regulatory models that we obligated to use. These are from the Environmental Protection Agency. And these numbers that you see here for landfilling are easily calculated. We report these regularly to the Department of Ecology here in Washington State, and the estimates you see for waste to energy were actually calculated by the hired third party experts who presented that study. You got two models. You got the EPA's warm model, which is not the one I was citing, but the numbers are different, similar in terms of scale. But then you've got the EGR TI EPA model. So that's two ways of calculating the same question. I ask you this. If you if we were to adopt the waste energy model, could we meet our council mandated direction to you to be greenhouse gas neutral by 2025? Or is that something different? This would substantially add. Challenge that effort? Yes. Yeah. Okay. I mean, this I'm interested in that. Having worked on that legislation to make you guys be carbon neutral or emissions neutral by a certain date, you stepped up and committed to it. So and I'm looking at these options. Cost is important, but the emissions profile of the technology we're choosing is important to me. Don't interrupt. I want to interrupt with a administrative update, and that is, given the length of this conversation and in my management of the meeting to date, I'm letting Mr. Evans and Ms.. Sanders know that we will be postponing the conversation about the equity and social justice workgroup for the legislative branch to our next meeting March 18th . With my apologies and Mr. Kim. Thank you. And with that, we'll continue our work on the solid waste plan. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to respond to Councilmember DEMBOSKY. The Kyoto protocols, the first country in the world to comply with the Kyoto protocols was Germany, and they have ways to energy plants. And one of the things they told me was that the reason that they thought they could comply was because their waste to energy plants were so much better for the air that that's how they felt that they had made their protocols. The warm model. When I was back in D.C. last year, as you may remember, I went and visited with the EPA and they are updating the calculations of the warm model. So we'll be seeing coming out fairly shortly. The calculation that was just discussed from the Normandy report was based on a formula that was given to them by the department. So they did not let you say that. So in the new study that's being done, this is going to be redone so that we have a more open discussion on that topic. Thank you. Mr. MCLOUGHLIN, if you need to. I just have some supplemental information to an earlier question. The rent payment for Cedar Hills in 2018 was slightly over $3 million with. And to continue the staff report. Mr. WHO? Thank you. Just making a note of that. Okay. So as Councilmember Lambert alluded to, the plan talks about fiscal considerations related to the capital costs of both waste to energy and waste export. But as Councilmember Lambert noted, the council did add a proviso which the entire text of that proviso was provided on pages 91 and 92 of the staff report in the 2019 2020 budget that would fund a study that would look at both of those options in detail, both in terms of the operating and capital costs, as well as the environmental impacts. And that process is currently in procurement right now. And so that that work is expected to be completed in October. So turning to page 92 of the staff report the solid waste system financed this portion of the staff report is on page 92 and the policies are generally around assessing customer fees and supporting the keeping fees as low as reasonable while recovering the cost of the system and upholding system priorities and then managing rates through smaller, more frequent increases and then also broader financial planning. Several of the recommended actions relate to the management use of certain reserves and funds. And I would just note that the the policies are are consistent broadly with prior adopted actions as well as the county's comprehensive financial management plan or policies. And I would just note that there are a couple of recommended actions for F and 11 F described on page 94, which suggest consideration of alternatives to the current rate structure and for managing solid waste rates through smaller and more regular increases. These are new approaches for the solid waste system, but I would point out that in adopting the plan, neither of these represent specific proposals and would require further council action at a later date to actually implement any of that direction. And so that concludes my remarks. Unless you have any questions for me specifically, otherwise, I'd be happy to defer your questions to the director. Questions of Mr. Who? Questions of the department. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions. The amount of time that cell H will be available has changed from 2025, from 2028 to 2025 in some papers. Which is it, 2025 or 2028? Landfill capacity is estimated to be available through us till about 2028. However, when you identify the sources of that capacity, the newest cell, which is Area eight, will be consumed by about 2025. And so to get the additional two and a half or three years, we'll be looking at going back at older portions of the landfill and putting additional layers of waste on existing portions of the landfill within our permitted limits in order to get until about 2028. So I have a letter letter here that I can distribute everybody from the Department of Ecology establishing the baseline greenhouse gas emissions that have been ordered to be mandatorily phased reductions of the greenhouse gas starting in 2035. Are you familiar with that order? It was the letter that was sent to you. Yeah. Let's see. It was sent to you by Ben Blank, the Climate Policy Section Manager of the Department of Ecology. And I'm assuming it was this year. Oh, yes. December 18, 2017. If familiar with the letter. Not specifically recalling the letter. Well, anyway, basically what it says is that in 2028, Cedar Hills lanta will be a county for nearly 100 metric tons of CO2, which is 33% higher than what would be allowed under the ecology mandate. And because between 2013 and 2016, emissions at Steiner Hill have continually increased. So the the amount we're supposed to have is about 70,000. And we appear on one of the list of 150 most polluters in the state. So how do you plan to comply with the mandatory reductions, which is, I believe, in the first couple of years, 1.7%, but then it I think reduces to 1.4 later on. How are you going to make those targeted reductions? We have begun that work already through modifying our operational protocols and exploring alternatives in managing our gas collection system. So the use of daily cover, the early implementation of our gas collection system when we're designing or actually using the cell at its earliest phases. And as I said, exploratory methods around refined control of the gas collection system are all making a very measurable difference in both the quality of the gas that we're able to collect. Because, remember, we're not just collecting and then destroying this gas. We are now having it converted into renewable energy. And so we're very, very conscious to not have gas just horribly emitted into the into the atmosphere. Of course, we don't want that even more. So we want to be able to create a renewable fuel with it. And we've been very successful to increase the amount of renewable fuel and the quality of that fuel through these operational practices. And we are continuing to explore ways to even drive those numbers higher. And so we'll continue to do that. And I think that will in turn reduce the accounting of greenhouse gas emissions under EPA's regulatory model. So the clean air rules are going to go before the Supreme Court on March 19th. So if they uphold the clean air rules, don't you think it would be smart for us to wait before a major planning document and talk to the courts since it's only a couple of weeks off made a decision? So we know if they can comply. Well, these these rules, these models that we're referring to are the same models that allow us to compare and contrast waste, export and waste to energy, to local landfilling. And what we know is that local landfilling has the least environmental impact, particularly in terms of greenhouse gases. So providing we continue to operate with excellence the way that we are and pursue better practices and manage our waste locally there at Cedar Hills, we'll be in the best position to comply with any such order. So today's newspaper on B3? Yes. Had a whole top page. Rising methane levels are worrying the scientists and in this article for the first time. Normally they say that methane is 28 times worse than CO2. But I've been hearing from scientists in other places in the world that that is a low number. And in today's paper, our Seattle Times says that it's 32 times more dangerous. And so I think that this is a really important issue. And in the documents that we've been looking at, you're saying that you collect about 90% of the methane coming out of sea, out of Cedar House, which then ultimately means that there's 10% that is not being collected. And I haven't seen any calculations to what that 10%, that 10% comes out to. I have other questions, but I'm going to take them off line. The one thing that I want to also say is there is great concern to me that the solid waste advisory committees, which we had a gentleman come in and speak to, unfortunately know he's still here. Those are one of the few, maybe only public tests, public meetings that are not taped. So there's no way when people call me and say the minutes do not reflect what happened at the meeting, including my own dearly departed staff that we all knew and cared about. We come back from the meetings and say, You know what was in the minutes from the last meeting when I remember hearing. And so that's why I asked you to see if we could start taping those meetings so that I could see if the minutes jived with the the minutes. And as far as I know, you're the only committee that doesn't have audio, and that is of great concern to me. I just want to put that on the record. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to hearken back a bit to the testimony from several people who are concerned about. Our. Waste to energy and whether or not we can achieve our goals. One of the things they said is that they do not believe some of the ones who said they are scientists or they know scientists that if we add eight years away, if we go back to 2000, 2000, 28, they don't believe that the landfill is adequate enough to haul all the garbage that will come. It was very helpful to me to hear you say just a few moments ago that we probably will be filled by 225. But the last three years, we should be able to add something to our older landfill areas that would allow us to take another 300 tons of garbage . What was that that we'd be adding to this area that would allow us safely to continue to dump a lot of garbage in there for three years. And it's an old part of our existing. System. Yeah. If we don't have a new cell ready by 2025. Then new cell with an audience. Right. So. So to go back. Area eight is our newest cell will begin placing waste in an area eight later this year. Okay. And these are all projections, right? These are all forecasts of predictions based on the economic and recycling figures. As best as we can plan for that cell will last till about 2025. Okay. And providing that we are going to continue to landfill here in the county is as has been proposed. We have the ability to go back to other areas at Cedar Hills that have not been fully closed and put additional layers of waste on top of those cells. Those cells have gas collection systems and leachate management systems in place. Okay. And those are available to us. It does not buy us a tremendous amount of capacity. We actually need to get busy very quickly on developing a full cell, what we call Area nine, in order to ensure that we have no disruption in service. And the area for those last three years of already existing waste areas. Does it involve putting some material on top of the current material that would then take the garbage in? Yes, sir. Because they seem that residents seem very concerned that the environmental impact caused by that is going to be deleterious to their health. But we hear that a lot, but we also hear a lot from the and this industry. Is that out there that they don't grow compost? Yeah. No, no, no. Asphalt. What's it called? And this. What kind of energy? Lakeside. Yeah. They say the same thing about Lakeside and the sand, and I'm neither spot. Do I see what the nature of the concern is? Because we've consistently get it about what we're planning as well as what Lakeside is planning. So I'm hopeful in Buffalo areas I'll be able to get some additional information to help me appreciate that we can make it and why it is that the residents are so confident that neither will work. We'd be happy. Your part. What what's your response? Well, we believe that expanding Cedar Hills not only provides a local solution, but we can do so while being a good neighbor and being attentive to the concerns of those around us. You know, I look back at 2018, okay, at the Puget Sound Cleaning Clean Air Agency, the records for odors. Okay. Zero complaints were registered from Cedar Hills. Is that right? Not a single complaint. And I attribute that to the operational practices that we have in place. The fact that we cover the waste at the end of each shift at the in the evening, and we cover that waste to prevent the emission of odors or landfill gas that we have staff onsite 24 hours a day, seven days a week to immediately respond should there be the recognition of an odor or a concern. And and we're out in the community regularly. We do odor checks six times a day driving through those neighborhoods so that we can identify an odor without having to be called. We do it. I know that we got some equipment. We actually have specially trained that. This sounds silly. I'll admit they're called nasal rangers and work. And they use they do use special equipment to calibrate their nose and to be able to identify the idea. The key is to not just identify that there is an odor, but to know what type of odor it is and what the intensity of that odor is. And this is a standard by which we operate, and then we get to the root cause where at all possible. Certainly if they're related to our own operation and we're responsive as best as we can to the concerns that are raised. But I just thought it would be important when you think about the regulatory body of the Clean Air Agency here in the Puget Sound area, know we've got a tremendous track record that was just for 2018. You can go back in previous years and, you know, less than a percent a year in total reports of odors. So I think it's a testament to the work that's being done up there. And and look, we will still be responsive to the neighbors interests and the concerns. You know, the regional aquifer is not at risk from our operation. We are not contaminating that regional aquifer. The water is cleaner leaving our site than it is coming on to our site. We actually monitor wells all across the landfill. And keep in mind, there is a Superfund site, Queen City Farms, just to the south of us. And when we measure the quality of the water coming on to our site, it's problematic. But by the time it's processed through our landfill and it it's naturally moving underneath our landfill, it's cleaner than when it came on. And it meets or exceeds the standards for federal drinking water. So we do take our environmental responsibilities seriously and will continue to do so as we consider the options for developing our landfill further. Thank you, sir. Mr. Magoffin, could you speaking to from the previous question about some of the concerns expressed by the community. Can you speak to us about the outreach you've done in the community and any meetings or events? Thank you. Yes, I would love to do that. We we have regularly for years, over a decade have hosted and continue to host semiannual community meetings. We invite our neighbors out into the community and meet with them on a regular basis every six months. In fact, April 30th is our next community meeting and we said we've done that for over a decade and those have been very, very good, healthy discussions. We had the opportunity to participate in Councilmember Gunn's town hall and have very open, real dialog with the community about their concerns and their interests. We held in preparation for this comprehensive plan the beginning of 2018. Really the entire first quarter was open into interacting with the public. We had a 60 day public comment period. We hosted a online engagement tool to interact with those who perhaps couldn't come out to a physical open house. And we continue just in the daily activities of running our business. It's not uncommon for my deputy director, for instance, who spends a lot of time up at the landfill herself to go and meet face to face with the neighbors and go to their homes and talk about the concerns that they have, or sometimes just go to coffee and talk. And so we have a continual commitment to be available and responsive to our neighbors, both in a structured and unstructured format. And one of the very good things that Councilmember Gunn administered a little while ago was the introduction of a a place at the table, if you will, for a representative of our neighborhood from the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill to be on our solid waste advisory committee. And in fact, the advertisement for that is going out this month. And we hope that through that advertisement and through our semiannual meeting that happens next month itself, that we'll be able to bring one of those voices around the table to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee to even benefit from continued and a higher level of engagement and representation. Thank you, Councilmember Dunn. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good dialog on this, Pat. Thanks for coming today and your comments on this. I, I really appreciate your coming to that town hall, I guess it was almost a year ago now, give or take ten months ago anyway, something like that. And I, I decided to do a town hall because of the growing sort of interest and concern about the landfill and the continuing expansion of the landfill. And I sent out a postcard and Tommy might remember was there about 300 people showed a big number for a town hall, at least at this level of government and, you know, very interested in the work you did. And and, you know, walking into those town halls is it's a little bit uncomfortable. I mean, because, you know, there's a lot of folks who are fired up and there's a distrust that exists between citizens and government. But I think by the end of it, you and I had sort of, I think, defang most of the concerns or criticisms or distilled them down to, you know, what sort of legitimate words based on bad information. And and I heard I just heard your call to summarize some of the public outreach you've done, which I appreciate . And and it's actually my my sort of whole pitch today is not for solid waste to do more public outreach, because I think you've done quite a bit, and that town hall was part of it. It's actually for my colleagues to hear that public outreach for themselves, they get a little bit a little dose of it today and they've had a little bit in past meetings. But, you know, you know, we preside over as a county an ever shrinking number of regional services and for a variety of reasons, they've shrunk. But one of the things that is one of our core responsibilities is handling garbage. Solid waste is one of them. Obviously, wastewater is another one. And it's really important and all of that good stuff that I've thrown away since I was a child, most of you have as well has ended up there in District nine, right in the middle of my district, right next to the one of the country's largest composting facilities, and right next to a proposed cement plant. So you can understand why asphalt plant. Scuse me. There is a difference. You can understand why there's a lot of concern out there. And sometimes these issues are conflated. But we are talking about expanding a major landfill. And so I guess what I what I'm here to say is sort of bouncing this off to my colleagues is, first of all, I hope we don't vote on this today. And second, I would. He's going to call on either the chair of the council or perhaps chair a committee of the whole, either in total or at least a delegation of members to consider coming out to District nine, somewhere near the landfill, to hold a hearing, to just hear from folks who so many of them are living paycheck to paycheck, just like everyone else. And hard to take off work and come down here in the middle of the day just one time. It's such a significant regional issue, which is what we're focused on to hear what they have to say in advance of us taking a final vote to pass this out through full council. So that's what I'm asking for. I did commit to doing a town hall again on this subject this spring, which I plan on doing. However, if we can have a hearing and it would probably be part and parcel together. So that's my thought. And I wanted to make the ask, but I certainly hope at least we can hold the vote today. And I'm asking. Please pretty please. Well, thank you. Councilmember done, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so, you know, when the citizens come in and speak, they have said over and over that they've made calls and complaints. And then one of them even said, I've complained. But then when the statistics come out, they don't say anything about our complaining. And so it would be interesting because it's hard when you say, you know, call the EPA. You know, who do you call the EPA? Even getting an appointment for me, an April to go visit with them again is difficult. Who do I call? Eeny, meeny, miny, mo. It's a big place. So I can understand why. They may not know, but I understand that many of them have begun calling the police department and the fire department to complain. So it would be good to find out from our police and fire department they're coming because they are getting because we should know how many citizens are calling and complaining because they said over and over when they've come to public testimony. So and then there's been conflicting information about the I was told that we couldn't get some data because people wouldn't let them on their property. And when I told the people, if you really want to know if you know what the things are on your property, you should probably allow those meters on your property. And they said, nobody's asked me to put it on my property. So, you know, I think it would be good to go out to the people so that when, you know, there's two sets of answers to the same question, their opposite, at least we can get some clarity because someplace between this answer and this answer is the correct answer, and I'm not sure where that is. So I think that something this big and something that, you know, we're talking about this on a 20 year plan. This isn't a 20 year plan. This is a 70 to 100 year plan. This decision is going to be a long term decision because if we don't have an asset that belongs to us in the year 2040, when all the cities can decide whether they want to partner with us or not, we are going to have a very big decision and I don't think it will be pretty at all. And so I was here for the for the end at the last major plan and was able to talk to the county employee who's now retired as of a month ago on how that all went down. And sometime you should go to coffee and hear all about that. So I think it's a great idea to have a meeting where we're talking to the people and we're also smelling the very thing that the people have complained about. Councilmember Bell duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. More than nature of comments, if, if, if our colleague needs some additional time to work up potential amendments to the plan, I think we should find a way to do that, whether that be in committee or in between committee and council, because the IT we are making a long term commitment. I ran for office in 2015 when the last plan aspects of the last plan were a hot topic, the last I should say the last proposal, because it didn't go anywhere. The executive branch has proposed more than one updates to the solid waste long range comprehensive plan since 2001. We are many years past due having a long range, solid waste, comprehensive plan. They've conducted studies, they've done outreach. I can tell you from the city point of view where I used to sit, there was a lot of engagement with the communities and there were of course the negotiations around the solid waste of the solid waste contracts with the cities. We have commitments and an obligation to make sure that we have a long range plan for how we're going to collect, transfer and. Ultimately dispose of all of the solid waste that this very large county generates. I feel that there has been more than enough review of our long range options. There may be differences of opinion about which ones we should select and how we should transition to another future beyond Cedar Hills. There will be a B on Cedar Hills, but I think that the issues are ripe. I think they should be put before us, and I think that we should move to a vote. If not today, then relatively swiftly, because it's really time. And I want to say the suggestion that I heard at least twice today that it would be too scary or too uncomfortable to sit in the community and hear from them . I dare any one of you, my colleagues, my my dear, respected colleagues to trade stories of community meetings that we have sat in and been yelled at and how big they were and how angry they were and how important the issues were, because they're always big, important issues. That's why the emotions are high. Emotions are high because these are people's lives and it matters to them. Of course, we're capable of doing that. But let me ask you, to what end to the end of an amendment that will change the plan? I mean, we got to legislate. And what are we going to. What is the what is the alternative? We've done listening. We've done outreach. The as as has been said, the department has done a tremendous amount of outreach this time and last time and probably times before that. So I'm not sure where it's going to say, let's pause and do more process, pause and do some legislating. Okay. But I think it's time to be moving this towards a narrowed set of decision points that we can take up, debate and vote upon so that we can get our job done, which is to have a long range plan that meets the economic community and environmental needs of this county. So I'm ready to move forward, but I understand if people aren't in need a little bit more time, I could I could understand that. But not to just throw the whole thing wide open and go back to interests. We're past that. We're well past that. It's time to start moving towards decisions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Member Bill G. This is the first time that the com planet solid waste comprehensive plan has been discussed at the committee. The whole I hear interest in making sure that we are moving forward. I hear that a request that we not vote on it today in particular. And I do take to heart the point Councilmember Belushi made about working on amendments. And it is my desire and my intent to make sure that we do that kind of work in committee to the best of our ability. Is there an interest in holding this in committee and taking this up in our next meeting, presumably with amendments to be considered? That would be two weeks from today on the 18th of March. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, As chair. Could staff help us understand, were there amendments here how that would work with respect to the Regional Policy Committee, which has heard this a couple of times and advanced it forward, do we have to go back over there or is there a way that's been amendment to the plan? Are there are there notions that could be done in the recitals, perhaps, of the adopting legislation that don't go back? Or is it we change it back, we go. Oh, if if this committee or the full council were to drop an amendment such that there was a new version of the legislation that the Regional Policy Committee had not considered, the full council couldn't actually take that up. It would have to go back to the Regional Policy Committee if, for example, if this committee were to pass an amendment creating a new version, it would be version three that would go to the full council. The full council could take up version one, which is the transmitted or the transmitted ordinance than plan. It could take up version two, which is what's right before you right now, the version that came out of the Regional Policy Committee, it could take up either of those and it could pass version one with six votes because it's not the version that was recommended by the Regional Policy Committee. It could pass version two with five votes because it is the recommended version by the Regional Policy Committee. Or if it again, if its choice was to recommend version three, that would have to go back to the Regional Policy Committee. Okay. Well, two comments. One, we got some work to do in our charter on this process, maybe to make sure we collect regional input, but be able to govern on a pace that's, you know, maybe a little faster because we run into this a lot. But to I guess I'm I'm sympathetic to Councilmember Dunn in the interests of his neighbors and in his district there. It it's not pleasant to live. Sometimes thanks to this facility, it's despite our decent track record. Just you're next to the landfill. It's not nice, but Councilman Belushi makes a pretty compelling point that we've been working on this in my six years here at the council. And I don't think anything I haven't sensed that there is a major alteration to the plan. The language in the plan that would garner five votes on an executive signature. Right. That's important. I think the plan, I guess, you know, I think it does a good job analyzing. I'm comfortable with the general approach of of completing Cedar Hills to the best extent we can from an economic and environmental perspective. I think we're real short on time, actually, real short on time to figure out what happens after Cedar Hills. I mean, it's not that long. I think I threw out a potential ten year, you know, facility siting. If you were to do a garbage burning plant, it could be longer. We could look around and see what they're taking, but planning for even waste export will take time and those options are all in this plan. So those colleagues, I think, that say, well, I like this particular solution after Cedar Hills or this one, I'm not sure why adopting this plan forecloses that. I guess I don't see that it does. So I'm I'm prepared to support the plan when my colleagues are ready to do it. I voted for it in the Regional Policy Committee, and I've listened to folks carefully and I read it, and that's kind of where I'm at. All right. We are going to hold the current planning committee. It will be on our agenda for March 18th. It will be the second such substantive item on the agenda following the report from the Equity and Social Justice Work Plan of the Legislative Branch. Knowing of no further business can be before the committee. We are.	AN ORDINANCE related to solid waste management; adopting the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan as a revision of the 2001 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan; amending Ordinance 14236, Section 3, and K.C.C. 10.25.010 and Ordinance 14236, Section 12, and K.C.C. 10.25.100, adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 10.25, adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 10.08 and repealing Ordinance 14236, Section 4, and K.C.C. 10.25.020, Ordinance 14236, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.25.030, Ordinance 14236, Section 6, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.25.040, Ordinance 14236, Section 7, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.25.050, Ordinance 14236, Section 8, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.25.060, Ordinance 14236, Section 9, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.25.070, Ordinance 14236, Section 10, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.25.080 and Ordinance 14236, Section 11, and K.C.C. 10.25.090.
king_cff908e6-8573-4464-85bc-e1a7f58c35b8	July 7th, 20 2021, a meeting of the committee of the whole to order. And as we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. In light of the public health emergency, the governor has issued a exemption to the Open Public Meetings Act section that requires we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings . We will is now is our habit to conduct this meeting via the Zoom application. And we have several items in today's agenda. Our regular briefing from director Dave Lee on the county's COVID 19 response, followed by a discussion and possible action on two charter amendments that, if approved by the full council, would be on the November ballot . And we will take up legislation related to the sale of county property in Bellevue. Brief Housekeeping Issues to manage the meeting. I'd ask that everyone except for council members themselves keep their video off until just before they plan to speak. And if you do plan to offer public testimony, I would urge you to connect, if at all possible, via the zoom out and not by a simple cell phone connection. I'm eliminating a lag and some issues in meeting we have experienced occasionally. Without Madam Clerk, I'd ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bellucci and Councilmember Dombroski here. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Coles or Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember up the grill here. Councilmember Vaughn right there. Council members online. Dear Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell's your. Your unmuted. I would ask you if you make a motion to approve the minutes of our June 23rd meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Summer. Thank you. The minutes of our June 23rd meeting are before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes. Please say I am opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. The minutes. Madam Clerk, I do believe we have people here for public comment, so I'm going to jump right into ground rules and instructions for how we manage public comment in this virtual meeting. Public comment must be related items on today's meeting agenda and should not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any persons to any office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. Let me be clear. We have charter amendments on the ballot, on the agenda today. They are very much within the purview of of testimony today. I'm not the campaign's per say around them, but certainly the policy making before us today on testimony should also not include obscene speech. And if the speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, they may be ruled out of order and ultimately may be required to leave the virtual meeting. I now will describe the process as members of the public joined the meeting. They were automatically muted. We can see the either your name or the last three digits of your phone number. Our committee clerk will call names or numbers, and when your name or the last three digits of your phone number is called. Staff will unmute your line. Please also unmute on your end if you meeting yourself as a courtesy. And please do not use the raised hand function. The clerk will go through the participants and call on everyone in the meeting. Raising hand only makes people jump around in that order and further complicate. And also by way of explanation, if you're here only to listen and you're doing so by the zoom out and the clerk will call on you. Simply say, pass or no, no testimony. No need to. Offer more explanation than that. And again, if you're connecting by cell phone, we strongly encourage you to use the zoom out. And as you begin your testimony, if you might say your name and then pause so that we can acknowledge that we can hear you. And then if you can begin your 2 minutes of testimony by saying and spelling your name. So we have it accurate for the record, at the end of 2 minutes, you'll hear a timer go off. Certainly wrap up your thought. Basically conclude your testimony. So we have time to hear from the people I'm following. And with that, I think I've covered everything, Madam Clerk, and I will add one more thing down. Help us manage the proceedings after you testify. If you have the ability to help, if you would watch the rest of the meeting via either K.C. TV, King County Television, which is Channel 22, or to stream the meeting online, you can follow the meeting online from the council's website. WW W dot King County dot gov that such counsel and then you would click on the ever popular watch us live button. With that momentum click. I do think I've covered everything and I'll turn it over to you to manage public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is Marilynne Robinson. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thank you for. The opportunity to speak in support of the partnership between Bellevue and King County to help create the Eastgate housing complex, which is expected to be ready for resident occupancy in 2023. We so appreciate the county's support of this project through the sale of property in Eastgate. The sale will facilitate the. Creation of nearly. 300 affordable housing units. 80 units of transitional. Housing for. Those coming out of homelessness. And a 100 bed permanent men's shelter, which has been a city priority for several years. This is great. Housing Complex offers an opportunity to welcome and support our neighbors facing housing challenges the city and our local shelter provides. Providers share the goal of making homelessness a rare brief and one time occurrence whenever possible. Affordable housing is critical for the future of Bellevue. We are focused on creating the full spectrum of affordable housing in our city. Together, the city and the county are working to address this problem will be so effective. With this facility completed and Bellevue's Affordable Housing Program done, I think that will be preventing homelessness while we are also addressing the current homelessness problem. It's this complex is going to be a pivotal tool in achieving that success and increasing the human potential for residents throughout the county. So thank you for your partnership. And dedication to this cause. Thank you. The next person. Is Brad Perkins. Please go ahead. Hello. I'm Brad Parkins. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I am Brad Falcons. I am a resident of King County. So why am I excited about ranked choice voting? Because I want more than two options. I like our current system guarantees that will only be two options on the ballot in November, and that's when it counts . Now, I grew up listening to my mom complain election after election, about not being able to accurately represent herself on her ballots. But ranked choice voting can deliver has the options and the ability to express our preferences between them. That would help people like my mom feel like there was a point in voting and engaging with politics again. I believe that ranked choice voting is a simple evolution of how we run our elections that will help deliver the healthy and productive democracy that we need. I urge you to put ranked choice voting to the voters this November and to implement it as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Brett Mullen. Hello. Brett Mullen here in Seattle. E r e t t amu alam. Thank you. Go ahead. Great. I have been an advocate for ranked choice voting for several years now because it's a simple, elegant change to the way our elections are run. The meaningful, positive impacts by now assume know the benefits of ranked choice voting. But very briefly, voters can vote their preference without needing to vote strategically. Candidates from across the political spectrum, in turn, can run without fear of being labeled a spoiler. Incentives to make campaigns more civil because you want to appeal to your opponent's voters to be their second or third choice. And while campaigns get opened up to new ideas and perspectives, there's the candidate whose idea has garnered more than 50% of the vote that wins get majority outcomes. RACV ranked choice voting won't solve all of our problems, but it's a simple, elegant change that can have wide ranging benefits. Lastly, I believe it to be an intuitive change for the voter. My kids, for example, rank things all the time. They rank which ice cream flavors they want after Little League games and which movies they prefer to watch on family movie nights. They even rank things they probably shouldn't. Like when the informed manner that she was the fourth most favorite grandparent. But now it is a champ. And speaking of as a wonderful person, she and I actually disagree on many things political all the same. We both agree that ranked choice voting would improve our elections. It restructures the incentives to allow more ideas to be heard, but only the truly popular majority ideas will win the day. If you don't vote yes on this charter amendment for me, do it for my nana and do it for my kids. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Carol Sullivan. Unable to thank you, Chairman McDermott, for the opportunity to speak. I'm Carol Sullivan. C. ar0. L s u. L l i. V. And I'm trying to start the video, but it doesn't want to, so I guess you're not going to see me today. I'm a King County resident. Speaking in support of ranked. Choice voting for King County elections. My main reason for support of this. Ordinance is that I can vote for my favorite candidate. Might not be everybody's favorite, but in the end, most likely my vote is going to count towards the winner. My vote and my voice will be heard. If, like many of my friends in the February 2020 presidential primary, you marked. Your ballot for your favorite candidate and then promptly return that ballot. You might have seen your candidate withdraw from the race due to results in other states. Well, you were disappointed twice. Your candidate. Did not. Move on and your vote in the primary was quite literally wasted. You had no voice. In the final outcome of the Washington State primary. Well, being somewhat of a procrastinator, I saw what. Was happening elsewhere. And I was able to make my ballot count in that presidential primary. But I didn't get to vote for my favorite candidate. Had ranked choice voting been in effect? We could all have voted for our favorite candidate, then put a backup plan in place with our second, fifth choices. And as The New York Times stated recently, just like hard drives. Saturday night and June outdoor wedding. Plans, it never hurts to have a backup ranked choice. Voting puts that backup plan in place, and King. County voters would. Feel it. Their voice was heard. I urge you to pass this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. The next person. Is Carolyn Gilbert. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Great. I'm Caroline Gilbert, and I am a resident of Kane County. I support. I support this. Amendment because I. Think since I can. Remember having voted, I've really struggled with thinking that our system and the two party system especially felt really restrictive as a community member, as a voter, as a woman. And I think that ranked choice voting really appealed to me because of giving voters more choice and allowing them to vote for candidates they don't like. That they. Actually support, that they feel represented by and not just against the. Candidates that they opposed most. I think. All of us are familiar with hearing. Voting. For the lesser of two evils. And I aspire to see a voting system for the United. States that exists in where we don't have those conversations anymore and that we really feel our democracy is. Strong and allows for a diverse set of political viewpoints and candidates backgrounds and demographics. I think that's so much more representative of the people in this country and in this community, especially in King County. And so I would ask. That you all consider amending to utilize ranked choice. Voting for county officers just to further strengthen. It adds. To our democracy. And allows for. More voices to be heard. I think this really easily supports that. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is c f h host. If you could provide us with your full name and then proceed. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Clare, Mo c l a r e. A last name emoji as chair for Congregations for the Homeless. I am here in support of Ordinance 2020 1-0237 relating to the sale of the surplus property located at 13 6020 Southeast Gateway Belleview. The surplus land sale is the culmination of nearly a decade of planning and investment. Your approval would be a huge milestone along this journey. I've been a resident of King County for more than 32 years, and I've spent over 20 years working as a community volunteer to promote solutions for our community members in need of shelter and affordable homes. In 2016, I chose to serve on the Board of Directors of S.F. H because their mission and commitment of their mission and commitment to men experiencing homelessness and because men deserve the same opportunities as anyone else to rebuild their lives. On any given night, an estimated 12 to 1700 men, women and children experience homelessness on the east side. 90% of those have roots in King County. Roughly two thirds of adult men, the majority of whom are black, indigenous or men of color. Eastside residents have been coming together for 30 years to implement solutions that work for the men and the community. We are the only program on the East Side focused on helping adult men experiencing homelessness. Because we do not have a permanent structure for our emergency shelter, we have had to move to seven different locations in buildings that were not meant to be shelters, including our current location, where 100 men share three showers in a building that is reaching the end of its useful life. We must move into a permanent shelter so we can continue serving the men and our community. Our new shelter will give 100 men a safe place to go every night and will bring all our services together under one roof. Our shelter, along with the additional permanent homes being built on the campus, are part of the solution to the homelessness and housing crisis impacting our cities. There will always be a need for an emergency congregate shelter on the east side. People can and do become homelessness homeless in our community, and a shelter provides quick access to safe, stable place with the services needed to create a path from homelessness to stable living. With the council's approval, the campus partners are ready to proceed with moving forward and meeting with our community. Thank you so much for supporting this ordinance. Thank you. The next person is Cindy Black. Please go ahead. Hello. My name is Cindy Black. Cindy? Why Black? Good morning. Thank you. Chair MacDermid and council members for allowing me to speak today again. My name is Cindy Black. I'm the executive director of Fix Democracy. First, we are a statewide nonpartizan pro-democracy organization with thousands of members and supporters in King County and across Washington state. I'm also a longtime resident of King County, currently residing in Shoreline, Washington. We strongly support ranked choice voting and would like to see the council members put this measure on the November 2021 ballot for King County. In the research and polling we've seen, ranked choice voting allows for more diversity, provides more choice, increases participation, and lets voters feel that their vote and their voice really matter. Ranked choice voting is already being utilized in many places nationwide, so there is valuable insights and data from those who have implemented RACV in cities and municipalities currently where ranked choice voting is being used. We are seeing more equitable representation, less negative campaigning and increased voter turnout. It's a simple reform and polling shows voters really like it. I urge the council members to support ranked choice voting and allow the voters of King County to vote on this reform in November. The time for trying alternative voting options which can strengthen and expand democracy is now. Please move ranked choice voting to the ballot in King County this November and let the voters decide. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. The next person is Dave Duberstein. Hello. My name is Dean Debuffs. Dean. We heard you introduced yourself, but immediately after that, your mute went back on. And asking him to a new again. There you go. So again, I'm dying to ask you. Be both. Ask why? I'm speaking on behalf of the. Ordnance to truck to to sell the land on East Gateway to the Inland Corporation. I have been involved with homelessness for the last several years and believe if we did not do something immediately, we will have the problems that we see in Seattle all over the county. And I would like to see this not happen. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Diane Gordon. Hi. My name is Diane Gordon. Diane E Geo Radio and I live in King County. Maryland, which is Durham, Ashland. Thank you, Chairman McDermott, and council members, for allowing me the opportunity to testify. I'm here to ask you to adopt the ranked choice voting measure and allow the voters of King County to make the decision whether or not to adopt ranked choice voting. I believe we need change in our democratic systems. Over the past two years, our top two system has been shown to have many flaws. I think we are due for an upgrade. Ranked choice. Voting is one avenue to. Fair more democratic elections. With free. Choice voting voters can rank candidates in the order they. Like, and the winning candidate will have the support of a broad coalition of voters. This means Washingtonians will feel better represented by their representatives. Evidence shows that when voters can rank candidates. They elect lawmakers of more diverse backgrounds with more diverse. Views. Ranked choice voting lets voters. Cast an honest vote without having to. Worry about whether their favorite. Candidate is electable. The benefit of this is that. Independent and minor party candidates. Will have a fair shot. A final benefit of ranked choice voting is that it can be used to refine. The primary and general election into one more. Efficient, higher turnout election in November. This gives more voters more. Say in the outcome assurance campaign cycles, making it easier for more people. To run for office. This is why. I think ranked choice voting makes sense for King County and Washington and why I support King County. Council member Carmi Myers efforts to. Bring it to the county. And thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. The next person is Harry Ma. Hi. My name is. Hey, Monica. So. And the h. E r. R and I live in King County, and I'm here as a volunteer organizer representing. The Transit Riders Union. And we unanimously support that choice, voting for all the reasons that have been mentioned and will be. Mentioned, I'm sure. But I want to acknowledge that it requires some page on behalf. Of the Council to make this change. But at the same time, I think communities and campaigns. Have the most to gain from this. And and credit to Mike Griffin from Minneapolis for the start. But when you're out canvasing the community if you're not going to draw and somebody answers and is supportive of your of the opposing candidate, that's sort of the end. Of the conversation. And so. You just sort of say thank. You and the conversation and you move on. And but with ranked choice voting, that can be, you know, the end of the. Beginning of the conversation. But you can still have a conversation with that person to sort of get some insight as to why why they support that other candidate and sort of work to become their. Second choice potentially. And I think in the natural state of the world, we sort of work together as communities to solve problems and we're doing choice voting. We have that opportunity to continue. Conversations when we're out of campaigning in. Communities. And I think people are complicated. And have preferences. That are or to know. And so giving. Them the freedom. To express that about it would be great. So thank you. Thank you. The next person is Heather Kelly. Country in mourning. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Good morning. My name is Heather Kelly. Last name. Spelled K. E l.y. I'm the president. Of the Seattle King County League of Women Voters, and I'm here to speak in support of agenda item six, amending the. Charter to. Call for ranked choice voting. The league's mission is to empower voters and defend democracy, and that's why we support ranked choice voting. It's the antidote to voter cynicism, which in a lot of ways is posing one of the biggest threats to our democracy today. In 2011, I was living in San Francisco working on a campaign, one of the mayoral campaigns. And I had an opportunity to. See ranked choice voting in practice. And it was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life as a young activist. Canvasing. Like the earlier speaker said, canvasing didn't begin and end with a one sentence question about who voters supported. It was a longer conversation about values and representation and the level of engagement of the folks that I was speaking to on the street was higher than I've ever seen before. People really believed that there was a chance that the candidates were running as their authentic selves and not some more electable. Version of themselves. And voters really. Responded to that. Turnout was high. People were really engaged with the process of. Waiting, sort of with bated breath, to have the the winners announced. And it was a really powerful experience of how we can create a more vibrant and healthy democracy. So on behalf of the league, we support ranked choice voting and will do our part in helping to educate the electorate in what that means. Thank you so much for the opportunity to comment. Thank you. The next person is Kelsey Monaco. Good morning. My name is Kelsey Monaco. I see why I'm on NATO. Good morning, council members and Terry McDermott. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Kelsey Monaco and I'm here on behalf of Washington for Equitable Representation as a statewide coalition coordinator. The W e r is a predominantly people of color made coalition consisting of 27 community based organizations, including the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Washington Conservation Voters, Asian Pacific Islander, Americans for Civic Empowerment, the American Muslim Empowerment Network , the League of Women Voters and the Transit Riders Union. Our coalition is focused on achieving equitable representation through electoral reforms that are to encourage voting and proportional representation. We support this measure to implement RC B in King County because we've experienced firsthand the ways in which our current system implicitly disenfranchizes voters of color. In the 55 years since the passage of the Federal Voting Rights Act. King County has only elected four people of color to its council, despite communities of color making up more than a third of the public. Our current top tier system primary system benefits the fair to the detriment of our democracy. Ranked choice voting is a crucial first step. We need to move us toward a multiracial democracy and ensure every voter in King County has representation and every vote matters. This is a 21st century voting rights issue. A vote against this ordinance is a vote against a more representative and accessible government. Data has shown that increased voting benefits our communities and encourages a more civically engaged and empowered electorate. Today, you have the opportunity to give voters a choice in our future. Please vote yes on this ordinance and let the voters decide. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. The next person is Logan. Put on mute yourself and provide. Your full name. Hello. My name is Logan Bowers. Thank you for the opportunity to address you and thank you for your work on voting reform. I am a big fan of voting reform, but I think this ordinance is a little rushed and a little prescriptive. And I'd ask that you please slow down and give this a little more time. The big reasons for that are, number one, this is a once in 100 years kind of reform opportunity that we're doing here. I think rushing an ordinance through in three weeks is a little fast ranked choice. Voting is is is one option among many voting reforms. It has serious downsides that have not been discussed or explored. It does have when another city, for example, Saint Louis, when they wanted to increase equity in their elections, they did not choose ranked choice voting when they reform their voting system. And I think it's important for the county to carefully consider all of the different options and work a little a little slower, a little more deliberately, and a little more in concert with with other jurisdictions nearby, simply because we really only get one shot at this in a century and we should make sure we do it right rather than rush it through in three weeks. So I'd please ask that you just take a little more time on this one before taking this to ballot. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Margaret Bonilla. And good morning. This is my girl. And they are too young to be similar as I am. Thank you and good morning, members of the council. My name is Michael Spindler and I'm a King County resident and a member of the Washington Equitable Representation Coalition. It's a statewide, multiracial group, ensuring a fair representation. For a Washington. That works for all of us. And so I'm here to talk about how it's time for King County to act as it relates to implementing electoral reforms, reform so every person's voice can be heard. So I'm here that go all the sentiments of the benefits of ranked choice voting and why we need. That's why I'm also here to take a look at other states success stories. So, for example, this research was done on the recent New York City mayoral elections. So common cause for New York City and right to vote. New York City conducted an exit poll highlighting that in New York City, 95% of voters on the ballot to be simple to complete. 83% of voters ranked more than one candidate, and 77% want to use ranked choice voting again and with ranked choice voting giving you the option to rank candidates in order of preference, it gives voters or gets voters accustomed to the idea that second choice, a broadly more accepted candidate, can become elected, creating this sort of baseline consensus for voters. Additionally, primary turnout hit its highest in 20 years. A traditional runoff election would have cost taxpayers in New York City another $15 million with much lower turnout. So in summary, we believe that choice voting is the solution King County must implement to turn out more people in an election. And that also reflects more candidates of color and race, which is showing that and we want to ensure better representation in our communities, like many of this call have spoken up. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is in the California. Hello. My name is McKenna Parness and my name is P.A. and he asks, Thank you so. Much for allowing me to speak today. I live in King County and I'm here as a member of the public to share my support of ranked choice voting. I moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Seattle to begin a psychology residency, and I would say in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I saw the benefits of ranked choice voting for increasing diversity of candidates and valuing community voices. In Cambridge, I also saw that candidates from historically excluded backgrounds were regularly. Voted in and voters were able. To see their, I would say, first through third choices elected. Often as many other people have said, ranked choice voting listens to the majority of voices and gets approval from the community as someone that serves the community and the work that I do. I often see that the families that I work with don't feel represented and I feel like ranked choice voting is a nice way to allow for more diversity of voices, to better represent the people being served, and also allowing for more social justice causes to be moved down around so many younger people I often see or feeling discouraged from voting as well, and discussions of votes being canceled out result in apathy. So I ask that you consider implementing ranked choice voting to listen to the majority of voices and to incentivize voters to choose candidates that support their values rather than people who have a greater chance of winning. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next person is listed as dear. If you could provide. Your full name and embassy. That's S.T.A.R.T. are. Okay. I will move on to Sydney Ladi. Now. Hi. I'm Sidney Larry. I am 16 years old. I live in. The Kirkland Highlands and I. Attend Seattle Prep High School. I'm here to talk about reading, choice, voting, and why it's important for King County to pass the charter amendment in support. Of this vote. Things as we live in a democracy. And that should mean that. Voting your conscience never feels like a risk. Receive eliminates this worry by always creating backups. Naturally, as humans, we arrange everything. We always have a backup. We naturally have second choices and an election is no different. Our CV matches us and thanks for allowing you to vote. For who you want without feeling like your votes going to waste. If your. Number one candidate drops out or gets the least amount. Of a choice, you can be assured that your vote will be automatically go. I will automatically go to your second choice. There is no perfect election process, but I firmly believe. That. RCP has the lowest opportunity cost. Making it an immediate. Upgrade from our current system. King County is a strong and advancing county. I want my county to be in the front at the forefront of. Democracy in. Washington. Issues important to me because. Every other issue I'm passionate about can only be changed through legislation and politics with an unfair system. There is no. Hope for change. Additionally, especially through the. Lenses of this year's racial disputes. And tragedies, a system that boost. Diversity and equitable representation is necessary in helping to. Mend the imbalance or receive the straw is a small shift towards a better system, which is why I urge you. To pass a resolution, support or amendments. Supporting Green Choice voting. Thank you for. Listening. I appreciate your time and the work you do. Thank you. And next person is Taylor Cramer. Oh, my name is Taylor Cramer. T a y l r c r m NPR. And I'm a resident of King County District four. I want to thank my councilmember, Carl Wells, as well as Councilmember Councilmember Ally for sponsoring the measure for ranked choice voting and its use in King County. I'm excited about ranked choice voting because it produces more positive, issue focused and collaborative elections. It can also help achieve more equitable representation by opening a field the candidates may not run otherwise. I loved hearing about the recent mayoral race in New York City in which one candidate, Yang, actually encourage their voters for another with their second ballot. That kind of co-operative politics would be an amazing change from the divisiveness we've focused on in several years. I heard that some of you have concerns about maintaining the important discussions that occurred between voters during the current primary process. I also find these conversations really valuable. Primaries come traditionally, but in the place where voters were able to meet a diverse selection of candidates and engage with local issues in a more nuanced and thoughtful way. My hope is that ranked choice voting will bring the same atmosphere to the King County general elections. General elections usually see larger voter participation, but offer a more restricted set of choices and discussions. By bringing that diverse and issue focused atmosphere of the primaries to the general election, ranked choice voting will allow more King County residents to take part in this kind of productive conversation. Thank you for considering ranked choice voting for King County elections. I hope you'll get a voter's opportunity to approve this measure in November. Thank you. The next person is John Tao. Hello. My name is Yuan Tao. Y you a n p.a. and I am. A resident of King County. Thank you for considering. Ranked choice voting today. I strongly consider you to implement ranked choice voting in King County. It is well-known that young people do not vote as regularly as older. I know my friends are young and Asian and they do not vote however, or at least they don't vote regularly. However, in the many hours I've spent wheedling them to vote, they really only got excited when I told them that there are certain improvements that people are looking at, including ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting would give them and all of us a chance to genuinely feel like their vote will actually count. Because then otherwise, if their vote doesn't count, there's no reason for them to take the time to do research to get involved in their community. And as a result, they just don't vote and they don't get they are not civically engaged. I also know that as was mentioned and in some of the other people's testimonies, we've all really been watching how ranked choice voting is being implemented in New York City. Something incredible that we saw in that election that would have never happened without ranked choice. Voting was the coalition building between two major candidates. Without ranked choice voting, a voter might have voted for one without considering the other. However, ranked choice voting encourages cooperation and coalition building. I believe that over time this will lead to a less divided community as we talk more about what we have in common instead of what makes us angry about the other side. I also think that I also think that voters that will come into an election to only vote for a singular candidate will or will be more open to voting for other candidates and buying into our political system, into our community, because they have the choice, they are able to make more choices without sacrificing their first vote. Thank you. And I. I strongly recommend that you implement ranked choice voting. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Troy Davis. Hi. I'm Troy Davis. TR o y. Davis, thank you for the time to talk today. I love that King County Council wants to make elections more representative and considers it urgent. I have a simple request, though, for every city council member or county council member, rather, and for anybody else here who's passionate about making elections more representative . My request is that you go Google for voter satisfaction efficiency and spend a few minutes reading. I think like me, you'll discover that there's a way to measure how good an election method is at capturing the opinions and the preferences of the electorate. And that's the whole point of the election. If you Google for voter satisfaction efficiency, what you'll find is that ranked choice is is better than our current system. And I say this as a past donor to ranked choice campaigns. However, you'll also find that it's nowhere near as representative as a system called approval voting. Approval voting is much simpler to understand. It's easier to implement, it's more representative, and it works well with or without a primary. St Louis just adopted approval voting last year, successfully used it this year. And I'd like my council to to learn why I want my council to make elections more representative, whether that means ranked choice or approval or something else. But we don't need to rush this. We need to do it right. Any problems that come up with ranked choice voting later would be attributed to King County Council rushing this legislation today. This is going to take longer than three weeks to do right. I ask that you table this ordinance long enough to explore the questions. Which voting method best serves King County and our primaries beneficial? After the Council has actually answered those questions, formulate formal legislation based on the answers and put that to the voters. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Zachary Macaulay. I am Zachary and calling. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Thank you. I thank you all for letting me speak today. My name is again Zachary Macaulay and spelled zfc h r y last name M.C. Q Alleyway. I am a volunteer with Ferryboat Washington. I started volunteering last year in the summer. I'm a public school teacher in Federal Way Washington, which is one of the most diverse districts in our state. In my time working there, I found how much need there is among our students and their families in the communities there. And as part of that. I've come to support the amendment becoming the county charter for ranked choice voting in our district. We have so many families who are underrepresented and underrepresented and not listened to or not heard by that lack of representation and ranked choice. Voting has the capacity to bring more equitable representation to those families who are often the most in need. I feel that franchise voting can help minimize political division. We've seen in the last few years that political division has become a bigger issue nationally. We may feel insulated from that in parts of Washington, but we've seen how that has been bleeding into more local politics over time and creating more division and blocking cooperation and building across political divisions. I see this in my own family, and this has been hugely personal for me, as some of us have been very close and have stopped talking to each other as it's gotten more intense. And we can't actually talk about the issues because as another speaker mentioned before, I often becomes more about what's making us different rather than what we can work together on. As we've seen, the coalition building between candidates in ranked choice voting elections. I think that has a lot of a lot of potential to bring in a more equitable, more robust and immediate. Yes, it is. Okay. All right. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Zoe. Good morning. And everybody hear me? All right. You're kind of thing. If you could speak up a little, that would help. Okay. My name is Zoe Williams. Zoe w i l l I am Ms.. Good morning to council members and community members. Ah, you see her pronouns. I'm a fellow at the Washington Bus and I am a resident of King County Council District five. I am testifying in support of the King County Charter Amendment to implement ranked choice voting into our into our King County election cycles. So there is a lack of equitable representation within our electoral systems in a county where over 30% of the population are black, indigenous and people of color. Only 11% of our council or one out of nine council members is a person of color. Voting should be a space where people can choose the candidates. They want to represent them in public office. Voters are discouraged from doing so in our current system. That only allows you to choose your single top candidate. This type of zero sum system fosters the mindset of picking a candidate based on who will likely win win, which detracts from the purpose of our democracy. Splitting the vote within a community is a real concern among people in desperate need of equitable representation in their governments. Ranked choice voting addresses political polarization and empowers more community members to run for office. Ranked Choice Voting raises the threshold of victory for candidates and winners chosen with ranked choice voting have more support from a majority of the voting population. There are far too many instances of laws undermining voter access all across the country, supporting ranked choice voting as a small but hopefully transformative catalytic step in making our electoral process more equitable and functional. Thank you for considering my words. Thank you for your time in this period of public testimony. I urge you to vote yes on the King County Charter member ranked choice voting. Thank you. The next person is listed as Housing Development Consortium. If you could provide your full name and then proceed, I'd be very. AQ Sharon. This says Patience Malabar with the Housing Development Consortium of zero ten County and I will keep my remarks really short. I am here in support of Ordinance 2020 10237, which is the sale of the surplus land in Bellevue. This is a sale that will not only support the creation of affordable housing, but really advance the King County Strategic Plan goal of increasing accessible housing for people with the objective of providing resources for communities and individuals to really meet the needs of where they are. We know that the project that will be created on that specific site, that is the partnership of the Congregation for the Homeless cement housing group Horizon Housing Alliance. And in the end is going to be not only creating housing but creating a path for people to get out of the street and be stably housed long term and increase public safety overall. I am here urging the Council to move forward and I think first before urging you, I do want to applaud you for the great work in moving this purchase agreement forward. And I do ask that today you swiftly move it out of committee and advised to the Council for Council discussion for a vote before July 18th. With that, I want to conclude by thanking you once again for all the work that you are doing. Thank you for your comments. Mr. Chair, I believe I've called everyone on the lawn. Thank you. To make sure that we haven't missed anybody. In a moment, I'll ask the clerk to ask everyone to unmute their lines. And then I will ask if there's anyone here who still wishes to give public comment. If there is, simply say your name. I'll take the names down and then we'll call anybody else who we may have missed. Just to make sure we haven't missed anybody for public comment. So it won't be chaotic for a moment, but I'll take names if Madam Courtney will now unmute everyone. Mr. Chair, I've asked everyone to unmute themselves. Thank you. Is there anyone on the call who did not give public testimony? Would like the opportunity to do so. Anyone who would like to offer public testimony that hasn't had the opportunity. All right, Madam Clerk, I guess I don't hear anyone, so I will ask you to remove the lines. Mr. Chair, everybody is muted. We've advanced. You managed to do that without needing me in the process. And with that will close public testimony. And we'll move to the briefing from Dwight David, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr. DeVere, the line is yours. Good morning. Council members, for the record, Dwight Dave Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Good to be with you, as always. In the interest of time, I'm going to try to do this pretty quickly. I have five things I thought I would cover today, and obviously I am happy to answer any of your questions. So first, let's talk about the status of the national emergency related to COVID. So as of today, that emergency extends only through July 20th. The current rumors are that the Department of Health and Human Services will extend the emergency through the end of September, which coincidentally is also the end of the federal fiscal year. And if they were to do so, then it is almost certain that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would also extend their emergency aid through that time period, which is what they had previously committed they would do with the 100% funding from FEMA. So our current expectation is that the emergency until the end of September, although that is not a certainty at this point. But I think depending on the status of COVID in the country at that point, it may not get extended further . So we need to start thinking about are there any programs for which we are currently counting on FEMA funding after September 30th that maybe would not be eligible at that point? And the largest one that immediately comes to mind is the vaccination work we are doing that has been funded through FEMA. So if perchance that emergency ends at that point, we may have to think about how we're going to pay for vaccination if we need to continue it past September 30th. So let me pause there and see if anyone has questions about that item. Colleagues. Please proceed. Okay. Thanks. So I am too is also related to FEMA. This is really not COVID related, but we've talked about this several times. We have several, frankly, very old claims in with the state and with FEMA that finally are being processed. And I want to single out our folks at the Office of Emergency Management for their persistence with this. The oldest one, we are still expecting about $280,000 for the winter storms in 2011, which is now ten years ago. And it does appear that we're going to get that money very soon. And similarly, we're expecting a little over $2 million from the 2017 West Point treatment plant flood. And so just a bit of good news that after many, many, many years, finally, some of that money that we saw, it is going to break out here in the next few weeks. Let me pause there. All right. Go ahead. Hearing none. So item three is one that we've had lots of discussion about. I want to give you an update on it. And that is the process that we have to go through with all of the individual programs that are funded with the Federal American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA money that you have appropriated, particularly in the seventh, the COVID supplemental appropriations ordinance. So we, as I think you all know, have to go through essentially two processes with each of those programs. First, we have to go through a federal eligibility process that involves consultants and attorneys to review whether or not the program is eligible for the ARPA funds. Many of them are pretty obvious that they are. Some of them are a little harder to figure out whether they qualify because the rules keep being added to. So it's not like it's a very clear starting point that we have. And then after that, in most cases we have to go through a procurement process because unlike in 2020, the federal government did not waive competitive procurement. So unfortunately, having to do these two sequential processes means that it's taking a while to get through everything and get the money out working the way you intended. So just to give you an example, in these DHS, they have about 40 new programs that they are doing. Their current expectation is will be through the eligibility review process for those by the end of this month. And then we're starting to procure some others will take longer to go through procurement. And so, as I mentioned before, it is unfortunate but true that it may be late in this year before some of those programs actually start being able to get money out to their intended recipients. This is as applied to essentially a prioritization criteria of things that are in direct COVID response. So like isolation, quarantine facilities, homelessness, the rental assistance program that you're going to be briefed about soon in child care are their highest priorities. And so they're trying to get those programs going first. And some of the other ones are going to be a little further back in the queue. I know council members are very interested in the specific programs that each council office is going to help manage. And so next week these DHS is going to reach out to each of the council offices with some ideas about how we can speed those up by using council staff to help with some of them by narrowing the focus so you have fewer programs that fit within our larger categories. So it simplifies procurement and so on. So you should be looking forward to an opportunity to talk with DHS staff next week about how to move those council programs faster than otherwise might happen. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Holly's questions, particularly about the COVID seven RPA work that we might be trying to facilitate within our districts. Councilmember member. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Don, for providing us with these important considerations. With the procurement process following what appears to be the review that the particular programs would be eligible, that we made procurement if we had submitted projects that had been our single source ones, and some of those would be expedited if they were deemed eligible , they would not have to be a proximate process. So if it can be demonstrated that there is really only one entity that would qualify in a particular category, it does facilitate going faster. Or on a follow up question, if we were to submit, say, three or four projects, programs that were all worth all the ones in our districts, such as having for food banks, for senior centers, or for health plans. Even though there are more than one, it could still be considered so. So as it were demonstrated, they were the only ones in the district. Yes. Say that segment a different way. They wouldn't really be sole source, but what they would be is that every entity that qualifies within a district that meets a certain criteria is going to get funding that'll facilitate the process because there is essentially no competition that is required. Great. Thank you. But her. Those are questions. Back to you, Dwight. Okay. It's already just to follow up a little bit on Councilman Caldwell. So just note that we in some cases are going to have to make choices at a leadership level to simplify some of the requirements and simplify some of the processes. So I think, frankly, around the council proposals doing things like what you're proposing, Councilmember Caldwell's is an example of how we can avoid going through some lengthy and time consuming processes that otherwise we might have to do. So that kind of creative thinking and decision making at the highest level is something we're going to be encouraging here in the next few weeks to speed this stuff up. Okay. So the last two items are both good news. So I've been giving you regular updates on hotel occupancy. And the latest figure I have is the last week of June and across the county we were at 64% occupancy, which is obviously the highest we've been for a very long time. It's still different. Parts of the county have little different experiences. Sea-Tac continues to be the one that's best there at about 75% occupancy. Downtown Seattle is up to 57%, which is is quite good. The east side is at about 55%. So everywhere is improving. But so far, Sea-Tac is the one that is the most improved, probably not surprisingly, given the uptick in air travel. So that's that's good news on the hotel fronts. A long way to go, but it's significantly improving. And the tone of everything I'm hearing from that industry is increasingly positive around conventions, around cruise ships, around tourism. And so a ways to go, but still a significant improvement. We just pause and see if there's questions on that. Let's remember Lambert. Okay. You. All right. So the last item, also good news. We have the latest sales tax information. So this is for the month of April. And as you might remember, we decided that it made more sense to compare 2021 to 2019, because obviously in April of 2020, the taxable activity went way, way, way down at kind of the the peak of the shutdown. So the numbers I'm going to give you are percentage changes from April of 2021 compared to April of 2019. So two years ago, and I know it's hard to remember, but we had a booming economy two years ago. So if we're better off than a booming economy, that's a really good sign. So overall. In April of 2021, we are up 10.9% from a year ago. Obviously an outstanding very different depending on what is going on after your in just as examples of things that have grown much more rapidly than that, our big box stores are up 38%. Building materials and garden centers are up 33%, as I think we've talked about several times. Everybody seems to be remodeling and doing stuff in their yard. Motor vehicles, sales and parts are up 28% from two years ago. Electronic sales are up 24% from two years ago, and this was a rapidly growing category in the past. So to be 24% above that is is really remarkable. And then on the flip side, restaurants are still down 25% from April of 2019. And in April, hotels were down 68%. So the segment of our economy that is still lagging, even though it's improving, is the hospitality industry that is still well below where they were two years ago. But the vast majority of the rest of our economy, at least as measured by the sales tax, is doing really well. We will be getting a new revenue forecast, I believe, next week. And I believe since we couldn't find time to get in the forecast council physically together or virtually together, I think we're going to do a an email vote. But we should have information next week on an updated forecast of the county's revenues. And that's the last time I have. So I'm happy to answer questions about that or anything else you might have. This teacher. As a member goes. Into rescue chair Dwight. Again, thank. You. And a question about the importance of conventions, delivering information on that, because we've covered three, I think we put quite a bit in for trying to help the tourism industry be poised to respond. And of course, a very large factor was the cancelation of conventions. Do you have any information on that? Yeah. So the last information I have seen is that the cancelations have stopped and there's basically a they fall into a couple of categories generally. So there are conventions that essentially happen every year here. And so those generally have rescheduled to start again in the next year or whenever that happens to be where they fall on the calendar. So that now seems to have stabilized. What is still more questionable are the big national or regional conventions that come here, you know, infrequently, every five years, every ten years, whatever that is. If those canceled in many cases, they had already committed to other locations for the next few years. And several of them, from what I've heard from people in the industry, several are like, we're not quite sure what the future holds here. You know, our if we typically had a convention that attracted 10,000 people, are we going to get 5000? Are we going to get 15,000? Because people are have been cooped up and really want to do something. So those type of entities have been cautious about rebooking and often have if they have rebooked the rebooked several years in the future because of the you know, they've already committed to other locations for several years. So the good news is the cancelations have stopped and I think that's a positive sign. What is a little less clear is some of the gaps that are now in the calendar. Will those get filled in or not? So I will actually follow up over the next month and see if I can get some more specific information. So when we do this in a couple of weeks or four weeks, maybe I can come back with some more specific details for you. Thank you. And may I continue, Mr. Chair. Please? Thank you. Duane, you had mentioned things were looking up and with the cruise ship starting up and soon went outside my window. That's left now. But do you have any information on how many of those are coming in? I know that's a mixed bag. Some people, environmental groups that have been coming in, but with revenue coming in, it could be positive. Yeah. So the what I know one thing I saw from the port is they're expecting a little over 99 zero cruise sailings starting in mid-July and going through essentially the end of October. At this point, they I think they have a pretty clear sense of that. It would be difficult, I think, to add to that logistically at this point for the cruise lines. And so that's obviously a smaller number than in the past, but pretty good considering we're not starting until mid-July. There are a couple of notes about that. The projections that the court is hearing from the cruise operators is that the earlier cruises will probably have something like 50 to 60% capacity. So, you know, much below what they normally have. But they're hoping and I think they have some reason to believe that by the ones in, let's say, September and October, they're going to be more like 80% capacity. So from a tourism perspective, not as good as what it normally would have been, but still a significant economic impact on the economy. And interestingly, the other thing that I have seen is that a new cruise line that has never been here before, Silversea is going to be here this year. So in addition to the ones that I think most of us are familiar with, we'll have a new cruise line here over the weekend, given where I live. And in fact, I drove downtown, there were actually three cruise ships in port temporarily. And then I believe they're out rehearsing essentially because they were gone and then came back and so on. So that's the latest I have on the cruise season for this year. And one more question that has to do with rental cars. Yeah, I have not actually seen data on that. Just coincidentally, Rueben and I were talking about that this morning. And so we're going to follow up at the rental car sales tax forecast in what we see next week. I think you. Colleagues for their questions of Mr. DeVere. See none. We thank you very much and look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. That takes us to high school around. I'm six on their agenda, which would place a proposition on the November ballot that, if approved, would amend the King County Charter to allow the use of ranked choice voting for county elected positions, including King County Executive, King County Assessor, King County Director of Elections, King County Council members , the King County Prosecuting Attorney Brenda Wilson and from the Council South will provide the briefing is less than I'm the one is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, members of the committee. For the record, Randall is in with council staff. I'll note that the materials for this item begin on page eight of your meeting packets for today. I'll start with some background information. So first, regarding the election of county officers. Section 610 of the county's charter. Currently directs that the nominating primaries and elections for the offices of the county executive assessor, counsel and Prosecuting Attorney shall be conducted in accordance with general laws governing the election of nonpartisan county officers under current practice. The winners of single member offices in jurisdictions throughout the state are determined using the plurality system in which voters select one candidate and the candidate who receives the most votes is declared the winner. And if there's a tie, then the winner is chosen by lot. So regarding ranked choice voting, ranked choice voting is a system of voting that allows voters to rank candidates for a single office in order of preference. So first choice, second choice, etc. The votes are tallied based on the first choice on every ballot. If a candidate receives over 50% of the first choice preferences, then that candidate will be declared the winner. If no candidate wins a first round majority of votes, then the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and another round of vote tallying would then commence. If a voter's first choice is eliminated, then their vote is transferred to their second choice preference. And then this process repeats. And the last place candidate is eliminated in each round until one candidate receives a majority and win the election. So when ranked choice voting is conducted to elect one candidate, the result is similar to traditional runoff elections. And in those situations the terms are ranked choice voting and instant runoff voting are used interchangeably. And there's a few illustrations provided in your staff report materials illustrations one through three, starting on page ten that provides some hypothetical scenario examples for this process at the request of members from last month's briefing. So in each of these scenarios, I'll just note that it would entail four candidates vying for one office. So you'll note in scenario one on page ten of your packet that of the four candidates, Candidate B in this situation receives the majority of the first choice preference preference votes in round one of vote tallying and would therefore win the election. In other words, no additional rounds of vote tallying would be necessary in scenario two. Also, on page ten, no candidate, none of the four candidates in the situation receives a majority of the first choice preference votes in round one of vote tallying . As such, the candidate with the fewest number of votes in round one, which in this illustration would be candidate D would be eliminated and candidate these votes are redistributed based on the voter's second choice preference. And as you'll note in the second bar, in the second round of vote tally, candidate B receives a majority of the votes and wins the election. And then in scenario three, on page 11 of your packet materials, in this situation, of the four candidates, no one receives a majority of the first 4/1 choice preference votes in round one of vote tallying. As such, again, the candidate with the fewest number of votes in round one is eliminated, which would happen to be candidate D and then the candidates votes are redistributed based on the voter's second choice preference. So in the second bar, no candidate receives a majority of votes in round two of vote tallying, and similarly, the candidate with the fewest number of votes in round two in the situation, candidate seat is eliminated and their votes are redistributed based on the voter's second choice preference. Or if that person, that candidate has been eliminated, then it would be their third choice preference and the third bar. You'll note that in this situation, Candidate B receives a majority of votes in round three of vote tallying and would therefore win the election. So again, those are just hypothetical illustrations, but kind of explains how that process would work. So regarding use of ranked choice voting in the United States, municipalities in several states have used ranked choice voting in the U.S. elections. One state, Maine, has used ranked choice voting in statewide and federal elections. Additionally, Alaska voters approved a ballot measure last year that will require the use of ranked choice voting in state and federal elections beginning next year. One example that's been in the news recently is the city of New York. The city beginning this year is using ranked choice voting for primary and special elections for the offices of the mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president and the city council. And this is due to an amendment to the city's charter that was approved by voters in 2019. So a little closer to home in Washington State, the city of Vancouver voters in 1989. Approved an amendment to its city charter that allows the city council to authorize single election, instant runoff, voting for the election of city officers. Additionally, Pierce County voters approved an amendment back in 26 to its county charter on phrase ranked choice voting, which was subsequently implemented in the 2008 and 2009 general elections for county elected officers. I'll note, however, that this authorization was later repealed by King County voters in 2009. The question had come up during last month's briefing regarding proposed state legislation. So multiple bills relating to ranked choice voting have been introduced in recent years in the state legislature that would have expanded the use of ranked resulting in the state. Most recently, during the 2021 session, House Bill 1156 was introduced, which would have permitted ranked choice voting in elections for offices in counties, cities, towns, school districts, fire districts and court districts, and also would have established certain requirements for ranked choice, voting, ballot design and vote tabulation at a high level. The bill would have allowed implementing jurisdictions to either eliminate or hold a primary when using ranked choice voting to narrow the list of candidates to appear on the general election ballot. Ballot two five. Additionally, for offices in which there is more than one position with the same name, district number or title, the bill would have allowed implementing jurisdictions to choose whether the positions would be addressed as separate offices or as a multi-member office. If the former. A separate office says the bill directed that ranked choice voting would be conducted using instant runoff voting if the latter as a multi-member office. The bill directed that ranked choice voting would be conducted using the single transferable vote method just by way of status. Ultimately, the legislation did not advance out of the House of Origin during the 2021 session. So moving to the King County Charter Reviews, Charter Review Commission's recommendation regarding ranked choice voting and this was something that was mentioned during last month's briefing. In the 2018 2019 term, Hughes Commission's final report to this council ranked choice. Voting was an issue recommended for further study as described in the report. The Commission did invest significant time during its deliberations regarding a proposal to move the county to ranked choice voting for county elected offices. But ultimately, the commission could not reach a consensus on whether the move should be pursued or what model should be implemented. Specifically, the Commission recommended in its report that the Council study the issue by forming a task force to determine if it's in the best interest of the public. So moving on to a potential for impact of ranked choice voting on underrepresented populations or communities. So a study in 2016 analyzed the candidates running for office after implementation of ranked choice voting in four different cities in California. The study found that the voting structure increased descriptive representation for women of persons of color and women of color. And just for context, descriptive representation refers to the idea that a body of elected representatives should reflect the outward characteristics such as occupation. Race, ethnicity. Of the populations they represent. Just for context, the study analyzed races in 11 California cities for various citywide elected positions between 1995 and 2014, including the four cities that did implement ranked choice voting and an additional seven cities that did not implement the new structure but were similar in terms of population size and racial makeup and income. I won't go through the highlights of the study findings just for sake of time, but I will note that those are discussed in your staff report on page 13 of your packet materials. So moving to the topic of ballot exhaustion, so an expressed concern regarding ranked choice voting is the potential for ballot exhaustion. And this refers to when a ballot is no longer countable in a tally such as when there are still remaining candidates, but all the candidates that a voter ranked have already been eliminated. So just for illustrative purposes, in the case of the 2009 election of the Pierce County Auditor that was conducted using ranked choice voting and the algorithm results showed that about 3% of ballots were exhausted in the last round of vote tallying. Just to highlight the potential for full range for this issue, another example is the 2011 San Francisco mayoral election. I then also conducted using ranked choice voting, and the results showed that approximately 27% of ballots and due to ballot exhaustion did not rank the final two candidates who reached the last round of vote tallying. So again, just for illustrative purposes to highlight potential range. So now turning to the analysis section of the staff report and this starts on page 14 of your packets. As noted, the proposed ordinance would place on the November ballot a charter amendment proposal to utilize ranked choice voting for the election of county officers, including the county executive assessor, director of elections, county council members and the prosecuting attorney. If approved by voters and subject to Council's adoption of an ordinance approving protocols for ranked choice voting, the amendment would take effect on January 1st. After Council's adoption of the Ranked Choice Voting Protocols Ordinance, the ordinance directs that be that ranked choice. Voting again, if approved, would give voters the option of ranking candidates in order of preference and would be conducted in rounds in each round. Each voter's ballot would count as a single vote for whichever continuing candidate the voter has ranked the highest and the candidate with the fewest votes after each round would be eliminated and the eliminated candidates votes would be redistributed to the next ranked continuing candidate. The process would repeat until one one candidate receives a majority of votes for all remaining candidates. Per the ordinance, that candidate would be deemed elected at the time of election certification. Additionally, when ranked choice voting is conducted, there wouldn't be a primary for the impacted office or offices, and all qualified candidates would appear directly on the general election ballot. Lastly, in a scenario where there were no more than two candidates that have filed for a particular county office, the ordinance the ordinance permits that the election for that office could either be conducted by a ranked choice voting or according to general laws governing nonpartisan offices. So just regarding some implementation, timing and cost considerations, according to the county's Department of Election staff, approximately 3 to 5 years is the estimated time frame needed for the department to prepare for ranked choice voting implementation. Staff note that the time frame is primarily driven by the amount of time necessary to develop, certify and test updates to its ballot tabulation system capable of handling ranked choice voting, including extensive internal testing by the department. While a comprehensive cost estimate for implementing ranked choice voting isn't available, staff expect and again this is subject to change that the media costs associated with implementing or CEV ranked choice voting would entail the following. So updating the ballot tabulation system, voter education campaign, potential costs relating to multiple page ballots and then potential additional staffing needs. I won't run through the itemization of all of these items, but for sake of time. But we'll just note that they are discussed on page 15 of your packet materials. So turning to potential policy issues, a summary of some potential policy issues is provided in the staff report. I will run through them very quickly. The first relates to effective dates as currently drafted. The proposed charter amendment, if approved by voters, would take effect in January following council's adoption of an ordinance approving ranked choice voting protocols. It's important to note that the proposed ordinance is silent regarding when or whether the council would be required to adopt that ordinance. So hypothetically, as currently drafted, if voters were to approve the charter amendment but the Council didn't adopt an ordinance approving request voting protocols and the charter amendment wouldn't take effect. The effective date for the proposed amendment basically presents a policy choice regarding definitions. I'll just note that the proposed ordinance currently lacks a definition section which presents another policy choice for the Council as to whether to keep the language, as is to include a definition section in this proposed ordinance or to provide some sort of direction in this ordinance regarding specific terms to be defined in the protocols ordinance. Lastly, regarding the direction for the Protocols Ordinance, the proposed ordinance currently does not provide direction as to the process for determining whether ranked choice voting would be conducted in the event that only two or fewer candidates were to file for a county office. This presents another policy choice as to whether to provide this direction in this ordinance or wait to address this issue in the protocols ordinance. I'll just note also that it's important to note that a proposed ordinance just generally does not provide direction on specific issues to be addressed in the ranked choice voting protocols ordinance. Last. I'll just note some important next steps and a key information. So basically, in order to place this potential charter amendment on the November ballot and the last regular council meeting for adoption as a non-emergency, it would be the July 20th council meeting. Lastly, very last thing. There are amendments. Amendment one was included in your pocket materials. It's on page 22. And then additionally, Amendment two was emailed to members yesterday morning at 11:45 a.m.. Mr. Chair, I'm happy to brief those amendments or concluding remarks here. Let's conclude there, and I'll invite the prime sponsor to make remarks if he chooses, and then fill the questions on the presentation. Council Members. Hello. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Also, thank you, Miranda. I know you said lastly multiple times, but it's a complex the legislation and I know there's a lot to analyze there. But thank you so much for all the exceptional work colleagues. Our state continues to be at the forefront of voting innovation. At every step we've taken in that evolution has created a better system and allowed more people to have their voice heard. The next step of our voting evolution can address not only who's able to vote, but also how we vote. Right now, we have an either or electoral system where voters are limited to choosing just one candidate. And too often, people have to resort to voting for someone they're not that passionate of, passionate about. Winner takes all, voting is at the heart of many of our political problems. It creates negative partizanship and polarization, where the different candidates and their supporters attack each other in hopes of becoming the one candidate who's selected. And also, voters don't have their full voice or their full preference or enter ranked choice voting. This system has a lot of benefits. Number one, it captures more of a voter's preferences because they get to rank their candidates. It makes candidates campaign to everyone rather than just their base. It helps better capture the will of the electorate, since someone who appeals to broader coalitions is more likely to want to win than someone who just campaigns to their base. It incentivizes coalition building among like minded candidates and communities rather than toxic infighting, as Henry Mar from Public Comment mentioned. Imagine you're a campaign volunteer. You're knocking on doors for your candidate. A voter opens their door who's supporting someone else. Under our current system, that voter might end the conversation immediately because your candidate comes at the expense of their own. Under ranked choice voting, the conversation continues because your candidate doesn't come at the expense of theirs. This voter can continue supporting their favorite candidate and still hear you out for a second place vote. In this way. Ranked choice. Voting helps us listen to each other, helps us show empathy and helps us form coalitions. Additionally, ranked choice voting makes more candidates viable and thus a more competitive race, which leads to higher voter turnout. As Carol Sullivan, someone else from public comment pointed out, that in our current system, if your candidate doesn't make it through the primary, that might have a depressing effect on the general, where people are less excited to turn out to vote for someone that isn't the most exciting candidate for them personally. Imagine if everyone in November comes out and gets to vote for their candidate, the one that they're most passionate about, and they also get to vote for their second and third choice candidates. That could increase voter turnout. It would increase the excitement about about our democracy. It would make people feel like their voice and their vote really matters. Finally, my last point, just to remind my colleagues that we wouldn't be making this choice unilaterally. We would be putting this on the ballot. We would be asking our constituents if they want to head in this direction. And so even by voting for this ordinance, we would be giving voters more choice. So thank you so much. Happy to have this conversation and continue the dialog. Questions of masking to. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you very much. I thank you very much for the remarks. And Miranda excellent staff report, as always. You know, it's really the first time I'm looking at this with my legislative cap on watching some of the stuff that's happening in New York and trying to understand what the effects on the ground would be. I see good things and bad things. The question I have here is, you know, there are still no matter whether you agree or disagree with them, there are still political parties that exist out there. And I'm kind of I'm a little worried about the idea of eliminating a primary that windows down the field. And here is why, in a scenario where, for example, let's say one political party, super well organized, decides to run just one candidate from that political party for an office, and the other party has five candidates running. And maybe that one political candidate from the one the strong party ends up getting 47% of first place votes, but a whole lot of second place. What does the filing that occurs and the lack of a winnowing primary create a situation where the political parties can control largely the outcome by filing their one preferred candidate. Any thoughts on how that might work? Within the language of the ordinance would be appreciate. Well, as you said myself, thank you, Councilmember Dunn. So I will note that in the States RC ws that primaries are required for partizan elections, but in the counties charter, the county offices are described as nonpartisan positions, and currently the elections are conducted in accordance with the process for nonpartisan elections in general law. So I don't think that the proposed ordinance would kind of. Be impacted by the scenario that you just explained it, if that makes sense. Well, yeah, I appreciate the response. I just as a as a reality. Yes. They're nonpartisan races, of course. But as a practical matter, I think everyone on the dais knows that parties play heavily in those races. And so I'm just trying to understand a little bit more about whether there can be gaming of the system, and I'm happy to discuss it more fully. And then the second question, last question and I'll stop is again the timing of this. We have how much time until we have to make a decision on this? My police. The July 20th Council meeting would be the last to act on the issue on the item as a non-emergency. Thank you. And Reagan. One thing I wanted to respond to your initial question, Miranda, correct me if I'm wrong, but nothing in what we're voting on today requires us to eliminate a primary. We could talk through that in the subsequent protocol ordinance that Miranda described. Is that true, Miranda or. So in a situation where there were two or fewer candidates who have filed for a county office, the ordinance provides a choice essentially for either using ranked choice, voting or whatever is currently prescribed in state law regarding elections for nonpartisan officers. However, barring that scenario, the ordinance would direct that there would not be a primary for impacted offices. Just in one scenario. Got it. Thank you. Yeah, and I'm glad to hear that. I'm more than happy to talk about that. I'm just. Just a little history lesson on right power and others will remember Lambert. We have this Montana primary system. And initially what happened was the the parties were able to begin to hold nominating conventions to determine their preferred candidate. It would be then sent forward to the King County Council. And and. And so what you got during that process was a candidate who was strongly preferred by their party in a very small nominating convention. And there was this one guy named Reagan Dunn, who barely lost his nominating convention. It was like 51 to 49 or something. And then the federal judge threw it out and allowed for the top two system to come through. And so you just got to be mindful that parties will do what they can to control the outcomes no matter what we want to do. At the King County Council. I was fortunate to win that election years later. But anyway, that's a little factoid that I just want us to be a thoughtful of as we move through this process. I just want to point out for the record, we were while the legislation was informally here, we prepared for briefing. We had a briefing on the topic and knew the legislation was introduced last time. The committee of the whole met for the questions discussion. Dombroski on the point of the primary. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was a little confused by the last answer. I apologize, but I was reading lines 38 and 39 of the ordinance, page 19 of our materials. And as I read it, it says When ranked choice voting is conducted, there shall not be a primary for impacted officers and all qualified candidates shall appear directly on the general election ballot. I think, you know, the issue of a primary is one that's of interest and concern to me. So again, it seems to me and I'm unclear as to when there wouldn't be a. Primary or when there would be a said only when there's two candidates, or is that an open question in and of itself? So thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski. So currently the proposed ordinance directs in a situation where there's two or fewer candidates that have filed for a county election, that there's a choice to either use the ranked choice, voting, telling a system or defaulting to state law regarding elections for nonpartisan offices. I will note, though, just for a little bit of context, that per state law, primaries can also be held for nonpartisan offices, except when there are two or a few fewer candidates that have filed for the position. In that case, the names would be on the general election ballot. So I think essentially the net effect would be the same and that makes sense. I'm sorry, it doesn't. I'm confused and it's probably just me. I guess the basic question is how would you use ranked choice voting when there's only two candidates? You said there's a choice to use it or not. There is. Yes. Would ranked choice voting work with two candidates in terms of having a potential different outcome? It would essentially it would be similar to if there's a last round of vote tallying and there's only two candidates, whoever has the majority and the vote tallying wins would win. I'm not sure if I'm making this clear, as my. Guess is how. Would that be different than our top two system today day the general election where we have two candidates. Sure. So I don't understand. Sure. So essentially the net effect would be the same councilmember. Those two names would advance to the general election ballot and would appear on their ballot. So it'd be kind of the same in process. It would be those two names that would be on the general election ballot. Okay, let me put it a different way. Under ranked choice voting with two candidates, is it possible to have a different outcome than we would have today with no councilmember WG shaking her head okay, she gets. I didn't think so. I was trying to figure that. Is there's a huge write in. I mean there have to be like you need to inject a third thing or else you get 50 somebody gets 50% plus one and there's only two. Okay. Thank you. I mean, it's just math, I think. I mean, I could. I could be corrected. You sound right to me, Claudia. Thank you. Okay. Further questions. I have a I have a quick question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Please. So as we discussed at the last briefing, one of the concerns that I have, so I feel like for those listening because there's so much interest in this topic, I just want to say a quick thing. I'm very intrigued by this option. I think it works. It does achieve a lot of the goals that the folks advocating for it suggest. If you haven't, I will circulate. There's a podcast that I'm forgetting which one, but it walks all the way through arranged choice, voting election day in Ireland. And it's well worth listening to because it's hard, I think, to grasp how it works until you've walked through it once. And if you've walked through it once, then it makes perfect sense. But but there's a lot of a lot of hope that there will be great outcomes in terms of increasing voter choice, increasing the number and diversity of candidates, and making people feel more connected and like their votes count. Responding to racial imbalance. I mean, there's a lot of claims here, but I don't know that we've dug into very deeply to know whether they pan out in all ways, in all places. I really think the jury is out on the New York City experiment because the problems may not have been due to ranked choice voting as a system. They certainly were. They certainly did occur in the context of doing a big change and in running the test ballot that came along with the new voting system. Things went awry, as far as I can tell. And so you do take a risk in shifting. And I just want to say on behalf of King County that our founding method works really pretty well. I mean, we have had record turnout votes in a couple of recent years. Including in including. In 2017, I believe, which was an odd numbered year. So that's that's quite something. So I'm intrigued by the potential and do not want to break or do anything to our current voting system to cause confusion. And I'm also a little bit concerned because I'm hearing this new but growing interest in a slightly different form of choice voting, which is the approval voting we heard about today. And so for all of those reasons, my hope was that if we put this out to the voters and I absolutely agree that asking the voters to be the ones to tell us they want voting, evolution and, you know, and different and more flexible ways of voting, that we not lock ourselves into doing something, making a promise that we will do ranked choice, voting at a certain time. Because I think we should take the wisdom of our charter commission, who advised us that we should convene a diverse and inclusive task force to examine implementation of ranked choice voting and issue report and findings. I think we should do that. So I want to make sure that if this gets put on to the ballot that it clearly, clearly says it allows for this system doesn't require or commit to the system so that we can do the work that we need to do in order to implement something new. I really heard the testimony of some folks who said there's been not much process around this. I know in Seattle area we have a reputation for over processing things and this has not been processed. It's not been over processed. It's barely been processed at all. So I would love to have that opportunity to have that happen if this is to go forward. I know there are different thoughts on this, but it was really important to me. So all that to say when I look at the language itself. If you read it closely, it says we shall go to ranked choice voting after after adoption of piece of legislation. It doesn't say we must adopt that legislation, but I think it implies that we will and potentially sets up an expectation in the voters minds that if they vote yes on this, they are going to definitely get ranked choice voting and it's going to happen, you know, relatively soon. So I just want to ask Maranda, what is your reading of that section? I can point to the line, but you could probably find it. It's not a long piece of legislation. I would love if that were a little clear. Like I would love that shell was a me because I really think that that's just speaking for myself as one of nine. That's what I would be looking for. So, Miranda, can you. I can point to the line your viewers are. Oh, sorry. I made myself there. Thank you, Councilmember. So I think that's one of the policy choices for the council. So, as I've mentioned and as currently drafted, you're exactly right. Regarding effective date is that the proposed amendment would go into effect by January after council's adoption of the ordinance approving rancorous voting protocols. What the ordinance is silent about is the the when and the whether that council would approve that ranked choice voting protocols ordinance. So again, just hypothetically, if the voters were to approve the proposed charter amendment but council didn't approve the protocols ordinance, then the charter amendment would not take effect. So kind of council with the impetus would be on council to approve that ordinance. But the ordinance does not specify when or whether council would need to do so. I hope it helps. It does help. And so it says what I what I thought it said and that's helpful confirmation. Thank you. But I guess I will just say to my colleagues. Again, just speaking from my own position here, I would prefer that it be clear to the public that what they were doing was a stepwise process and step one would be sending the signal via the charter amendment that that they wanted to see us move towards ranked choice voting with the understanding that there was more work to be done. And I think that this might need a little a few more words, which I will if if we get past this point today, I will propose that final adoption. Thank you. Madam Chair. It's not me today. Sorry, I got used to it, Mr. Chair. No worries, council members. Hello. Thanks, Joe. I wanted to ask for central staff if they could provide some clarity on the process for what language goes on the ballot. We're voting on an ordinance, this exact language that's in the ordinance with no explainers. Go into the into onto the ballot. If this were to pass or could we do what Councilmember Balducci is suggesting and provide more clarity in a lead in language that says, hey, if you if voters if you pass this, this is just step one of two. And if this would not happen, we would not have ranked choice voting immediately upon your vote to approve that you would be giving the council the green light to implement a protocol's ordinance. Sure. So thank you, Councilmember, for the questions regarding your first question. The language that would appear regarding the language is that it would appear on the ballot that is outlined in the proposed ordinance in section two, which starts around 940. So that's basically the substantially the language that would appear on the ballot itself. Regarding your second question, if the council members wanted to offer an amendment to add to make a change to the proposed ordinance, you could certainly do so at full council as well. So that is an option for the council members. Thank you. Councilmember Balducci, I would support a clarifying amendment for Section two that would actually clarify for voters that this is step one of two and step two is not guaranteed something. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. I would work with your office on that. And after we see what happens here. Thanks. Emotion point. Number. DEMBOSKY. Thank you. Just engaging in this kind of dialog here with colleagues, I to read the Charter Review Commission special memorandum on this. And looking back when we had what Councilmember Dunn talked about, the turmoil around the litigation and our PARTIZAN primaries and that kind of stuff. Then Secretary of State Ralph Monroe traveled the state and had nearly a dozen community meetings to talk to voters about what the new system should be. And I think that's kind of the recommendation that the Charter Review Commission gave here. Ultimately, by the way, our voters approved a top two system in King County by 55%, 60% statewide. I think we've got to be real careful about making changes to that, particularly when there's a lot of open questions in this ordinance. Goes to this two step notion I have concerns about. Turning over, if you will, the details of developing the final system to US politicians. I would be much more comfortable with a public process that comes forward with a more specific recommendation on how to do either rank choice or the the other the other varieties of voting. But I'd like that explored more in dialog with the community as recommended by the Charter Review Commission. And so then go to the voters with a more specific proposal that they knew what they were buying, if you will. I feel like we're kind of talking a little bit about an advisory ballot here. And by the way, our charter allows for that. One option. If we wanted to take the pulse of the voters, might say, hey, on an advisory vote, would you like us to convene a commission and develop a ranked choice voting system or other system that has been talked to, to send forward? That might be something we could consider. Bigger picture. I really want to commend the advocates for this because I see their motivation and I agree with it. And I think it's even broader than this system of voting. I think we ought to look at issues of public financing. And campaigns. We ought to look at issues of whether or not we expand the right to vote beyond citizenship, since a lot of folks who aren't citizens pay taxes and are subject to our systems of laws here, and I wonder if we wouldn't be advised to convene this this workgroup here and have them look at these broader issues. I think there's also value in putting a charter amendment of this magnitude on an even year ballot when there is more participation by a broader set of the electorate. In our off years, we have traditionally lower turnout and we would be listening to more voices if we did some more work between now and a year from now and maybe send these questions to the to the voters, then I have some concerns about the substance. I like our primary system. I think there's real value in winnowing. We going to have ranked choice in a way it's not as precise. But I think there's value in debate and vetting candidates between our primary and general, and I am concerned a little bit I'd like to know more about in terms of having voices heard this San Francisco experience where 27% of the voters in the final count there had no say. Right, 20, 27% didn't make a choice in the top two. They were gone with our top two that that doesn't happen. So those are kind of some of my concerns, but I am very, very intrigued by the possibility that the system could achieve some of the results in terms of increased diversity of candidates. But ultimately and I think everybody she articulated this better caution for me is the word here. We have built, I think, the best election system in the country. Do not forget the governors election where that led to these reforms, where it was not good, we were not performing well. And that public distrust that grew out of that and that stayed with us for a long time, it's hard to overcome. So I think, you know, we've got to be careful here when we're doing these changes. They should be done in consultation with the public in our elections. Expert I see Julie Wise has joined us and I think if this comes to Washington and maybe Julie could talk to this director, talk Douglas, I think we ought to do it here in King County because I have confidence that we'll do it well. But there, I think, remain for me a bunch of unopened specifics that I would like the voters to weigh in rather than give us a general direction and have us figure it out in an ordinance. So that's kind of where I am. I wouldn't be prepared to proceed today and would prefer that we have a further public process and explore some of those broader issues. From the discussion. Lambert Council member. LAMBERT Thank you, sir. Well, I too agree with the things I've been hearing from the last two speakers. I believe that we do need to do this cautiously and that we do have a very good system right now. And, you know, the people are mostly feeling confident in the good work that our elections people do. But it is confusing as you listen to this system and how do you audit it and. I think that when you start putting on some ballots, some things that are ranked and some things that are not. It becomes even more confusing for the voters. And I was on the canvasing board for a year and I did see and hear a lot of things about voter being confused and such. Even with turning the ballot over and making sure that there was marks on that. So we we really need to be cautious about how confusing we make this. And I look at the costs and just with the very basics, you know, 30,000 foot level is over $1,000,000. We have a lot of needs in this county and $1,000,000 is a lot of money to be putting into something. But we couldn't even implement for 3 to 5 years anyway. And we're spending a lot of time on right now. As was mentioned earlier, the situation in New York recently didn't go smoothly. And so in many things, I like to be at the front of the pack, but this is one I think that we should allow the other areas in the country who are doing this to work out some of the bugs. So that being the 13th largest, it's much easier to figure out some of the bugs when you are that 2,467th largest county in the United States than it is to be the 13th largest. So I think this is this is something that I think we should look at. But study and I don't see any rush to get it on by November. I do have a question. Do we know why Pierce County repealed it? And then in looking on page 13, where are they able to have went over the ballot exhaustion in reading that section? It's a little confusing about the nearly 3% that were exhausted. And if we could go over that and then you, our candidates reach the 12th round of vote tally, how in the world would you be able to audit back for 12 different rounds and how long would it take? Okay. So thank you, Councilmember. Regarding your question on oh, actually, let's start with your question regarding, um, Pierce County example. So from what I read, there were a number of reasons that were cited. I think a couple that stood out are in 2008 five members were recall, I think. I believe that was the same year that the state Supreme Court reinstated or upheld the state's top two primary system. If members will recall, there was a period in the early 2000 that there there was a partizan primary that was used. And then in 2008, the top two primary was reinstated, which coincidentally was the same year that ranked choice voting was implemented in Pierce County. So that was one thing that was mentioned. Another is, if I recall correctly, the way that it implemented is that in Pierce County, when ranked choice voting was implemented, voters, I believe, received two ballots in the mail. So one, regarding the ranked choice voting impacted offices, and then another ballot for all of the other offices or measures or etc., everything else that was on the ballot. So that was another thing that I recall reading in terms of the potential confusion for voters. But again, there were a number of things, issues or variables that were cited. Those are just a couple of examples. On your other question relating to ballot exhaustion. So as I mentioned, ballot exhaustion occurs when a ballot is no longer countable in Italy. So, for example, if there are multiple rounds and a person, all of a person's ranked candidates have already been eliminated, then hypothetically in the final round of vote tallying, if all of a voter's ranked candidates have been eliminated from their ballots would not be counted in the final round just because they wouldn't still have a candidate ranked candidates in the in the results, if that makes sense. Another reason could be if a voter just decided not to rank voters ranked candidate if they just selected their. Top. Candidate and that was it, then that would only be factored as long as that candidate was still a continuing candidate. So those are just a couple of variables that could factor into ballot exhaustion. I hope that speaks to your question, Councilmember. Excellent. Point of order. Thank you. And I'm sorry to to just get on to procedural stuff, but we do have another very important, very time sensitive item from my district on the agenda today, and I really hope we can get to that. And just as as the council chair, I would offer that if we can't vote one or more of these charter amendments out today, we have multiple options to continue moving them forward and meet our timelines for the November ballot. We can pull them from committee. We can we can do an emergency if we don't make the deadline for the maximum processing time. Well, we can allow for less than the maximum processing time and we can do an emergency. I'm not suggesting any of those are ideal, but I really do hope we can get to the land transfer, purchase and sale agreement today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilmember? No, she makes a good point. The chair is very aware that we have another charter amendment and a landfill that is essential. We do take up today or would need to move to full council in and and take action at full council next week without with or without committee work. And I believe that members would want the briefing and committee work and exposure to the issue, to the. Further discussion action on this item. Mr. Chair, council members, all. I, I just wanted to put out there an option. I think the next item on the agenda is also one that I'm sponsoring. I would be happy to move it down and the agenda or hear it at another point. If that means council member do cheese legislation gets to be heard sooner. Great. And thank you. We have been briefed on ordinance 2021 232. Is there further discussion, further action? I would like to move to. Discuss members of life. I would like to move the legislation. Is that in order right now? Yes. Okay. Council members are hereby has moved adoption of ordinance 2021 to 32 council members. Hello. Do we need to. Listen to the amendments to the legislation before we vote on it. We will take it, brief them and take them up. Yes, to the ordinances before us. If you wish to speak further to it now or brief amendments now. We can brief amendments now. My last concern, if you can bring us amendments one and two for sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Amendment one, it's included in your packet on page 22 that would correct the reference to the election date and the ordinance just to align with state law regarding general elections that are held an odd number of years. Additionally, it would make a technical correction when referring to a scenario where there is no more than two candidates that have filed for an office by changing the verbiage. Only two candidates have filed two. Two or fewer candidates have filed. That is Amendment one. Amendment two, again, that was emailed to members yesterday morning. That relates to effective date. What it would do is change the effective dates from January 1st following council's adoption of the ranked Choice Voting Protocols Ordinance to January 1st. Following the Council's adoption of that ordinance or January 1st, 2026, whichever occurs first. That's Amendment two. And that completes. Thank you. So the ordinance is before us. Amendments would be in order. I move both the amendments. Mr. Chair. Council member has always moved adoption of Amendment One. Further discussion. I believe this is just a technical one. All those in favor of Amendment one please signify by saying I. I am. Opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. Amendment one is adopted. Council members all. Way I move. Amendment two. Mr. Chair. Amendment two is before us. Discussion. Mr. Chair, according to our King County Elections Department and their technology vendors, it would take 3 to 5 years to get the system up and running. So this amendment would give us a timeline at the top of that range. If we really do want ranked choice voting, I think it's important to have a timeline to give us more of a sense of urgency. The alternative of no timeline, which I have for the record, I would still support. The alternative would be asking our communities to invest a lot of time, energy and resources into getting something passed with no reassurance that we're actually going to act on an ordinance. I understand all of the concerns that my colleagues have shared, and like I mentioned before, even if this amendment doesn't pass, I would still move forward without a timeline either. But I think it's important to at least attempt to have a timeline for this. Thank you. Thank you for the discussion. Dombrowski Councilmember Dombrowski. Because this seems to implicate implementation in our elections department and we have Director Wise here. Would it be appropriate to have her views on this timing issue? Ms. ways. I don't. Ed Sheeran was there. We go his ways. Mr. Chair, council members, it's great to see you this morning. For the record, Julie Wise, County director of elections. It is true we believe a 3 to 5 year implement implementation timeline is necessary. Mostly due to that, we want our current vendor clear ballot or tabulation system to add ranked choice voting to that system and software. So they have given us that timetable as they need to develop it, implement it into their system, test it thoroughly, and get it certified at the federal and state levels prior to us implementing. Parallel to that 3 to 5 years, we could do voter education and outreach and make sure we have all of the resources in in-house to successfully conduct ranked choice voting. Thank you for the discussion on Amendment two. A group council member of the group. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is I apologize. Just getting some clarification. This says it will be implemented by 2026, even in the absence of ordinance by the council. Is that correct? Miranda That's correct. Council member at the Grove. I'm sorry. I need some clarity on that question and answer. If this amendment is adopted and the charter amendment is out with this amendment is adopted. It doesn't require ranked choice voting by a certain date. Certain? Yes. Councilman McDermott, essentially it would say that ring true if if the charter amendment were approved by the voters and ranked choice voting, it would direct that ranked choice voting would be implemented by no later than January 1st of 2026. Thus there would be binding a future council to take to adopted an implementation ordinance, or would be left with resolving what to do with the implementation ordinance and a requirement in the Charter. So it wouldn't it would not require council to adopt the protocols ordinance. However, if council did not do so by January 1st of 2026, then ranked choice voting would still take into effect. It would still be implement. Thank you for the discussion. Asking councilmembers in Belsky. How would that work? Given the open questions in the. Ordinance here if there's no protocol ordinance adopted. And I think there are some legal questions about binding future councils. Sure. So thank you, Councilmember Tobolowsky. So the directions that are included in the ordinance right now in terms of voting won't be conducted in rounds until one candidate gets a majority of the votes that it would default to that direction. In addition, if Department of election needed to adopted public roles regarding to the administration of ranked choice voting, then perhaps Director Wise could speak more to that. But that may be required as well in the absence of a specific ordinance that would lay out those details. Mr. Chair, council members outlined the intent of this amendment is only to provide the communities and the supporters who want to see evolution in our system some reassurance that we're actually going to act because it's going to take a lot of energy resources, public education, to actually inform voters about what ranked choice voting does, and a lot of energy and resources to ultimately not get anything if the voters approve it. And we don't act on that. So that's the intent of this. But if it's if it's not doing what the intent is for my colleagues, I would be happy to table this one and discuss further at another time. So I'll go ahead and withdraw the amendment amendment to withdraw. And we have ordinance 2021 232 as amended before us. Discussion. Mr. Chair. Sorry, this is Miranda. There is a corresponding title amendment that would be needed. Title Amendment 81 members can find where Ms. less than in. Page 23 of your packets and start. On page 23 repack council members. Hello. These are without surgery. Taiwan is before us. I've seen no discussion of this in favor of adopting Taiwan. I oppose. No, the ayes have it. Ordinance 2021 to 32 as amended. Discussion. Councilmember Carl Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to mention my support and glad to be a co-sponsor of this ordinance. I had worked on this issue for many years while in the state Senate. One of the biggest advocates for it was Krist Novoselic from Nirvana Band. And John became was extremely engaged over many years. And in many delving into this issue, I found that there are so many reasons to have ranked choice voting that could be very helpful, especially when there are a lot of candidates and people otherwise can become very disappointed with the person who came in first and would have preferred to have the opportunity to support their second choice. And it could be even a third choice, but I think overall it provides for and promotes a greater participation in our democratic system. And I think we're taking a very good approach on what we're doing here. And I look forward to seeing councilmember member delegations amendment, which I think could be very helpful. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the discussion. DEMBOSKY Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you, Mr.. For the concerns I've raised before, particularly the rushed nature of this, the open questions and the elimination of the primary. I can't be supportive. Today, I'd like to have more dialog and more specificity, particularly on an issue of this magnitude. So I'm going to be a no on this. And I just it's very regrettable to me that we would. Rush this on this schedule and and not follow the recommendations that were a charter review commission. I just think there's a lot more work to do. This has some promise and I'm interested in it, but not on this not on this kind of approach. Thank you, Councilmember Gardner. Thanks. It's an interesting area in subject matter and I am always looking for improvements in the process. But my concerns are twofold. Your first is is it does feel rushed. And there's there's some work that I think we can do. Basic questions that need to be asked in ways to mitigate this amendment. This is coming pretty fast. I appreciate, Mr. Chair, that we had a briefing out of this. That's good. But this is a heavy piece of legislation. Yes, it is. We kind of work at the county level in improving our system of elections, going all the way back to that critical election. Okay. So how did the patients get this stuff? Too much just yet. That really thoughtful process. I'm intrigued by some of the concepts that are here and that I can't support it today, but we are committed to that things. Thank you, Councilmember again, Councilmember Balducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I find myself in the really unenviable position of agreeing with pretty much everything everybody is saying, I there's nothing that has been. I particularly want to acknowledge Councilmember Dombrowski is concerned and his thoughts and ideas that he's expressed today. I feel that a vote against this today would put a stop to the discussion right here and now. And I know that we're on a very tight timeline. I also feel that there hasn't been as much process as one would like. However, I want to continue to allow the opportunity to move the discussion forward today. So I'm going to vote yes today, but I do believe that there is work to be done between now and getting to the place where I could vote for this to go on the ballot on final passage, as I've said, but as I've said previously, I won't reiterate those concerns, but I look forward to working with a couple key colleagues here, the sponsor and possibly Councilmember Dombrowski, to see if there is something we can do that would be responsive to the really good and legitimate work that's been done around voting. I keep saying evolution because I don't believe we need reform. I don't believe I voting system is broken, but it can always grow and improve. I really want to advance that work and support the folks who are doing it. And maybe there's a there's a way to do that while not risking the system that we have. That really does work pretty well here in King County. So I will vote yes on this today, but I think there's work to be done before final passage. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the discussion. Sure. Council member Von Rector. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate all the comments that have been made. I think that we're all coming from that. Each one of us is coming from a corner of the room. But I think we all want to get to the right position. It is a frustrating issue because the arguments have been extremely well outlined by the proponents. I just want more time, but I'm going to take the to route and move forward the motion, the action to the next full council meeting. But I feel very strongly that we need some more input and more discussion and hopefully a lot more work. Thank you, Councilmember, for the discussion. Council members are allowed to close. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to thank all of my colleagues for all of these thoughtful and very valid, all the thoughtful and very valid feedback. I think we're going to get the ordinance to a much better place because of your input, and I look forward to doing that work if this passes out of committee today . So thank you again for listening and I look forward to working with each and every one of you on this. If this were to pass, I urge your support to send this to full council so that we can continue to sharpen and make it better and deliver a much better system of voting, in my opinion and in the opinion of many for our constituents. Thank you so much. Thank you. And with that, Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, DG I. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. No. Councilmember Dunn. No. Councilmember COLAs. Councilmember Lambert. So. Council member of the Grove I. Councilmember Bond right there. I. Councilman Brazile. Mr. Chair. I. Mr. Chair, the vote of six ICE Council members, Dombroski Dunn and Lambert voting no thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2021 to 32. We will advance into full council and I believe, expedited to next Tuesday's meeting. With that, we will advance to item eight on today's agenda. This item would authorize the executive convey of surplus property owned by the Solid Waste Division and located in Bellevue to three buyers. Through a negotiated direct sale to rose from the council staff would provide the staff report. Morals. The land is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Terra Rose Council staff. The materials for this item begin on page 36 of your packet. As the chair noted, proposed ordinance 2020 10237 would authorize the executive to convey a 9.81 acre surplus property owned by the Solid Waste Division and located at 13620 Southeast East Gateway in Bellevue to three buyers through direct negotiated sale for nearly $18.89 million. The buyers are proposing to develop the property to contain a men's shelter, as well as workforce housing and affordable housing as described in more depth later in this briefing. But the legislation has some time sensitivity due to a provision requiring council approval within a specific period and executive staff's indication the buyer's desire to close on July 30th. I'm going to start with some background on the property, brief background and the negotiations surrounding the transaction as well as descriptions of the buyers. So I'm not trying to page 37, the Eastgate property is bordered to the north by the factory, a recycling and transfer station with office development along its west and east property boundaries and southeast east gateway to the south. It was purchased in the early 1990s for a potential transfer transfer station location using solid waste funds and accordingly proceeds would accrue to the Southwest Division Operating Fund. The sale has been assumed in the adopted solid base budget for the biennium and in the proposed solid waste ordinance that has been transmitted to the Council. The recitals to the Purchase and Sale Agreement or PSA indicate that in 2019, the County and Congregation for the Homeless entered into an agreement that provided congregations for the homeless the exclusive right to negotiate for the property congregations for the Homeless in King County also previously entered into a purchase and sale agreement as of September 2019. However, executive staff indicate that congregations for the homeless have to secure project partnerships in order for the project to be financially viable. The Transmitted PSA Attachment Age. The proposed ordinance was executed by all parties on or before June 4th, 2021, and would replace and supersede both previously described agreements. Executive staff note that in order to situate a shelter and affordable housing on the site, the proposed buyers completed a binding site plan with the city of Bellevue to authorize the construction and operation of a shelter. And according to the PSA, the binding site plan would also segregate the Eastgate property into three separate properties, each to be acquired by one of the three buyers. I'll now provide some brief background on the proposed buyers. Class at Eastgate is described in the transmitted documents as an affiliate of the Inland Group, a high density residential development and construction company that specializes in income restricted multi-family housing. The Lawrence would acquire the personal identified in the PSA as the workforce housing parcel for the anticipated construction and operation of Affordable Workforce Housing. The Second Buyer Horizon Housing Alliance, or HHC, as described in the transmitted documents as a California nonprofit housing benefit corporation with a mission of producing affordable housing inclusive of support services, HHS would acquire the personnel identified in the PSA as the Affordable Housing. First of all, for the anticipated construction and operation of affordable housing is also anticipated in the PSA that HHS may be replaced by Plymouth Housing Group, a local nonprofit provider of low income housing in King County. Before the sale. Closes congregations for the homeless. The third buyer, or CCH, is described in the transmitted documents as a Washington nonprofit corporation and faith based community organization providing a continuum of services to help men transition out of homelessness. CSA would acquire the parcel identified in the PSA as the shelter personnel for the anticipated construction and operation of an 80 to 100 bed overnight shelter, a drop in center for individuals experiencing homelessness, according to the property summary. The development of this property with a men's shelter would provide the first permanent shelter on the east side of Dane County. Moving ahead to the analysis section of the staff report on page 39, table one on page 39 summarizes the code requirements related to the sale of surplus properties and the status of these requirements for the Eastgate property transaction. I'm not going to go through each one of them and instead and I'm instead going to focus on the appraisal and the use of direct negotiated sale. Negotiated sales will be floating ahead to page 41 for the appraisal. Two approaches were used to determine the value, ultimately culminating in an estimated fair market value of $21.435 million in an appraisal dated October 16th, 2020, which was then validated by a review or. Reasonable, dated March 16th, 2021. The proposed purchase price in the PSA of $18.85 million is equal to the amount of the appraised fair market value less 2.55 million, which the property summary indicates is the estimated cost to remediate the environmental contamination of the property to meet current regulatory criteria, the executive is proposing a negotiated direct sale with the buyer's siting authority and or King County Code that provides that the Council by ordinance may determine that unique circumstances make the sale in the best interests of the public, and also a separate provision in King County code that allows direct sale but is deemed to be in the public interest to restrict the use of a project for the provision of social or health services. The proposed ordinance in front of the committee today would serve as the council's determination, stating that unique circumstances are present because of the community partnerships needed to complete the sale and create a permanent adult shelter to serve the east side of King County. The proposed ordinance would also authorize the executive to convey the property to the buyers consistent with the transmitted PSA. And Table two, beginning on page 42, provides a high level summary of key terms and each section. And again, I'm not going to go through each section of the table, but will instead highlight a few things that are discussed in more detail in the staff report. So now moving on to page 46, you're following along. Article three of the PSA provides terms for and a schedule outlining the percentage of net profits due to the counting should any of the buyers lease or convey their respective parcels within a certain period of time. The percentage of net profits that would be due to the counting decreases over time. As you can see on table three on page 47, with profit sharing for convenience, for sale of a personal going away after the fourth anniversary of the closing date. However, the PSA also provides that the profit sharing would terminate for the two housing entities when they receive their financing and when construction begins on the shelter for FH, executive staff indicate that the financing for the two housing entities has not closed yet. But if everything goes according to their plan, the memo memorializing the profit sharing would only be recorded for CFO H. Moving ahead now to page 47 to describe the use covenants. There are three used covenants that are included in the proposed PSA, one for each of the respective parcels. I'll summarize the key terms of each for the shelter project, CFR each covenants and declares that during the term of the covenant, the use of the person shall be restricted principally to the construction operation and maintenance of a low barrier shelter, but may also be used for the administrative and business operations of CFS and its assigns. The covenant is to be in place until the 20th anniversary of the date the covenant is reported and it automatically terminates upon the expiration of its term for the Workforce Housing Project. The Covenant specifies that each housing unit for the project will be both rent restricted and occupied by individuals whose income at the time of initial occupancy is 60% or less of area, median income or army. Additionally, the Covenant requires Burrus and its successors and assigns to pay residential prevailing wages for the initial construction of the Workforce Housing Project and also shall have an apprentice utilization goal of 15% in importance for King County Code. The covenant shall be binding on all successors and assigns of Florence and is to be in place until the 20th anniversary of the date the Covenant is recorded. The Covenant includes a provision that in the event that Florence successor is in a science, is prevented from building or operating the workforce housing project. During the term of this covenant due to circumstances beyond its control, King County agrees to release and terminate this covenant and in the third use covenant for the Affordable Housing Project. The Covenant specifies that each housing unit for the Affordable Housing Project shall be both rent restricted and occupied by individuals whose income at that time of initial occupancy is 50% or less of am-I. This covenant also has prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements similar to those I described for the previous covenant. And likewise, this covenant will be binding on all successors and assigns of HHC and is to be in place until the 20th anniversary of the date the Covenant reported. Similarly, this time, it also includes language that King County agrees to release and terminate the covenant in the event that HHC or its successors and assigns is prevented from building or operating the affordable housing project during the term of this covenant due to circumstances beyond its control. And so, in addition to these three covenants included in the PSA that I have just described, attorneys representing the workforce in affordable housing entities have confirmed that the Washington State financing for such housing will require similarly restrictive covenants for a period of, not less, 38 years. Executive staff also have provided draft versions of the anticipated covenants between the Department of Community and Human Services or DHS and each of the proposed buyers as a condition of funding. The Versions Council Staff Review. Currently, state attorneys 50 years and executive staff note that DHS awarded funding through their annual competitive housing capital request for proposals for all three proposed developments on the escape property. Specifically, that includes 3.8 million of these. Each SL and RHD funds were awarded to congregations of the homeless. 8 million of total funds were awarded to Polaris and 5.7 funded by the ISO and 2331 funds. Were awarded. To Horizon. On this, I'll move ahead briefly to discuss the easements and the time sensitivity in addition to conveying the Eastgate property. Article one and exhibits H through M of the PSA would also grant five easements related to the property adjacent to and immediately north of the Eastgate property that is owned by the county and refer to parcel A in the PSA. These easements which comprise of two sewer, one storm drainage, one temporary shoring and a temporary construction easement are summarized on page 49 and then finally moving ahead to the time constraints. As I mentioned earlier, the transmitted PSA includes a provision that the PSA is subject to approval by the council, and this contingency would be. Despite its importance, becomes effective on or before July 15th, 2021, or during a one time extension of 30 days allowed under the PSA executive staff to indicate that the buyers have expressed strong interest in closing on July 30th, noting that if they cannot close by that date, one of the buyers would need a funding extension with the Washington Housing Finance Commission. That would potentially take few weeks. Executive staff have reported that a unilateral extension will be exercised with the hope that the Council will take this proposed ordinance at the July 13th meeting so that the ordinance can be effective in advance of the July 30th closing date. And I would defer to Christopher. Update on whether necessary steps to closing are on track for July 30th. That concludes my remarks. I'm happy to take any questions. And we also have executive staff on the line. You have Tony right, FMD Director. Additionally, Mark Ellenbrook, Director of the Division of Housing Assistance Development of DHS. Jackie Moynihan Assistant Division Director. Is there any questions on DHS funding or their relationship to the project? Thank you, Ms.. Rose. Council members questions on the briefing on the matter before before us. Councilmember Dombroski. Are you seeking to be recognized? Oh, I was just going to inquire about whether an amendment would be in order on this complicated deal. Very impressive work, and I look forward to supporting it. Councilmember Bell. DG Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is a motion in order? It is. I move adoption of our move recommended with the do pass recommendation for ordinance number. And I'm just trying to get myself to. 4137. 2020 10237. Thank you councilmember about the she's moved we give a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2021 to 37. This issue sure can come to number one right there. I would like to second the motion. 1/2 chance in order, but will note your support can further. Do something to me. Member. As the prime council member. Belushi, you want to lead off? Very briefly. I know we're we're sort of out of time here, but the projects that this purchase and sale will support has been in the works for at least seven years. I remember very clearly the meeting of the regional coalition, a regional coalition for housing, our arch, where the mayors of Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland at the time shook hands and made an agreement that we would develop a full suite of emergency shelter for people in homelessness on East Side. This is the biggest, hardest and last piece of that deal to be to be created. We have supported as a county the women's and family shelter that's opened already in Kirkland. There is a youth and young adult shelter in Redmond, and this would be a men's shelter in Bellevue. But it's turned into so much more than we dreamed of at that time. This proposal, with the services, transitional housing and permanent supportive housing all on the same location, was really going to be a game changer for helping to serve people in the most need in East King County. It's a fantastic project. We're really doing our part. Truthfully, I would have been happy to give the land away. But, you know, we have legal and fiduciary obligations. I think this is a pretty good deal for everybody involved. And I really, really need to thank our POW and facilities management division and and our own central staff, because this is, as has been pointed out, a complicated deal, a lot of moving parts. It took it took the time it took because it was so challenging and technical, but they did a great job. And what's it before us today? I can recommend wholeheartedly and with no reservations, and I hope we will pass it up today. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Well, I know we don't second, but if you did, I would third. I want to thank three people. And this, as people have said, has been a long time in the making, finding this land, putting together the coalition, getting the demographics together. The list goes on and on. Talking with the communities, just amazing. So I want to thank three people. One is mayor about chief who was part of the championing early on, as was just stated, Kevin Wallace on the council at the time, who has followed through with this and taken a big leadership role. And then somebody that many of you may know, I may not know Steve Roberts. I met Steve many, many years ago, and he came to me and said he wanted to do something really important for the community. And he was one of the early starters of the men's shelter and he has retired in the fairly recent past , but I don't know, a decade, decade and a half. He was such a champion and I watched how he negotiated with these people's lives and put people's lives back together day after day. And so on this big occasion. I would also like to call out Steve Roberts for the work that he did, too, because there was lots of good work behind the scenes from lots of people. But those three I wanted to acknowledge. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you. First of all, I want to thank the two individuals in particular that Cathy mentioned. One is Mayor Baldacci and two is Kevin Wallace. They proved that to people who were coming from different parts of the room to come together to create a house. And they worked together on that council and they had different views on the world, but they had a centralized view of how they work together, and both of them deserved the credit from the East Side and of the East Side. I just want to recognize that in federal way, the Horizon Housing Alliance has had a very successful senior housing built here. And this organization, which has roots in Eastern Washington, is their executive director. Someone I've got to know and I will tell you flat out, it takes a partnership. And we made the great and the best partnership with this organization. They are committed to providing quality housing in a good environment, and I think the East Side will be beneficial with that relationship and that partnership. And again, I want to thank both Mayor Narducci and then Deputy Mayor Wallace. Thank you. Further discussion. See none. Council member Belushi to close. I urge everyone support and I really did only do the internal things. And so I'm not going to belabor the external things, but let's just say it takes a village and there are many partners externally to make this happen as well. And starting with the city of Bellevue, who came today and the partners that we're working on this purchase and sale agreement with, I do urge everyone support. Thank you, madam. Quickly to please Cotterell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember and party to Councilmember Dombrowski. I come from member done. By. Councilmember Colwell Councilmember Lumber High. Councilmember Oscar I. Councilmember one right there, I. Council members I. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is nine zero now. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2021 to 37. We will expedite that to full council this coming Tuesday. It is now 1206, unless there is objection. The chair would intend to adjourn the meeting and take up the remaining ordinance, either the next not having consulted the timelines carefully, either the next town meeting, or would be very supportive of taking this to full council. Is there interest in. Some discussion this hour. To the next full council would be great with me. Mr. Chair, if that's permissible. But it. As chair of the committee, I'll have I'll be supportive of relieving the committee of it, bringing it to a full council. Thank you. All right, then with that, I want to thank everybody for their time and attention today. And the committee of the whole is adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE proposing to amend the King County Charter to utilize ranked-choice voting for the election of county officers, including the King County executive, the King County assessor, the King County director of elections, the King County councilmembers and the King County prosecuting attorney, effective January 1 following the council's adoption of an ordinance approving protocols for ranked-choice voting; amending Section 610 of the King County Charter; and submitting the same to the voters of the county for their ratification or rejection at a special election to be held in conjunction with the November 2, 2021, general election.
king_bdce5f83-5a96-4aaa-86b5-56b6af17ffc2	A meeting for July 29th to order. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott. I serve as chair of the committee of the Hall. I want to welcome everyone to our meeting this afternoon and ask the court to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bertucci. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. Yeah. Council member. Cornwall. Council member. Lambeth Council member. Up to go here. Council member one Right there. Mr. Chair. Sure. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. I know Council Councilmember Caldwell's is here as well. The only item on today's agenda is the the legislation regarding the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Act, affectionately known as Motion 2019 245, and will begin with public comment. I have a list of at least an initial list of some 27 people have signed up for public comment. I would ask everyone to limit your comments to the motion at hand to limit your comments to 2 minutes. Not use your testimony to promote or oppose any candidate for any office or any ballot measure. And if you fail to abide by these restrictions, I may rule you out of order and may end your testimony. So with that, we'll begin the list of people signed in, as I call your name approach, either one of the two podiums. And if you begin by identifying yourself and I'll try to say two or three people ahead of the list as we go through testimony. First is Jim Theophilus, followed by Erin Lovell, followed by Judge Shoshana Weinberg. Should I begin, sir? Pardon me. Should I begin? Yes, please. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee. My name is Jim Theophilus, and I am the executive director of Away Home Washington, which is a public private partnership to prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness. We believe young adult homelessness is solvable. And we believe this is a unique point in. Time in the state of Washington and King. County to build a true yes yes system which the federal government calls functional zero. It's when young people say, yes, I want to come inside. That local community has the resources, the capacity and the political will to say, yes, come inside for safe housing and a path forward. I'm appreciative of this opportunity to speak to this esteemed body on this once in a generation, opportunity to improve the educational outcomes of children and youth who are involved in the juvenile justice, foster care and homelessness system. Thank you in advance for please considering two key points. First, we hope to keep the focus on children who are involved in the foster care, juvenile justice or homeless populations. And we ask that you keep keep them at forefront. We believe this is a way to address equity in these systems. Secondly, to focus on what we want to achieve, the outcomes we want. Not necessarily overly prescriptive strategies. The young people I have had the honor to serve over. The past 40 plus years have an enormous amount of experience with. Major trauma, emotional distress, unanticipated transitions and institutional racism. As a result, they often. Experience some of the worst educational. Outcomes in our community. I remember a few years back when I received the call from a legislator excited to tell me about Posta, the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Act. It was clear to me then that this was a remarkable opportunity to make significant outcomes and gains in the educational outcomes for our most vulnerable youth. In my role, in a way, here in Washington, I'm pleased to see the extent to which this motion has carried, and I encourage. You to retain this. Focus as you move forward. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Hi. My name is Aaron Lovell and the executive director at Legal Counsel for Youth and Children. We provide legal representation to over 500 youth annually in King County. In all of your districts. We represent youth throughout King County who are involved in the foster care system, juvenile justice system, youth who are at risk of homelessness, and immigrant youth. We serve youth as young as toddlers all the way to their 25th birthday. We see firsthand that at all age and educational levels, these young people need additional supports. Both the state statutes and the King County Council's own motion identified the children and youth that we work with as the intended beneficiaries of these funds in all three educational groups. Behind me is a vision of the future graduates in caps and gowns representing the 12,000 children and youth experiencing homelessness. Foster care are involved in the juvenile justice system every year in King County. We're pleased that the motion requires early, early learning facilities are programs funded through pastor to designate new child care slots, to improve kindergarten readiness for children in foster care families and those experiencing homelessness. We're pleased that the motion ensures that K through 12 services funded through Pastor have specific and targeted interventions designed to improve high school graduation rates for youth in foster care, experiencing homelessness are engaged in the juvenile justice system. Finally, we're pleased that the motion mandates post-secondary scholarships and barrier removal to reach young people who have experienced foster care, homelessness or the juvenile justice system in order to improve their secondary access and completion. This motion goes a long way towards honoring that intent, and we urge you to maintain this focus. Thank you. Thank you. And following your testimony will be any. Black. Black lander. Mercy. Dumb Iranian. I'm Devin Beckman and Laura DeSanto. Good afternoon, councilmembers. My name is Shoshana Weinberg, and I'm here today on behalf of Youth Care. If your supports approximately 1500 youth and an adult experiencing homelessness in Seattle and King County every year through a range of services including shelter, housing, education and employment training. The young people we serve at Youth Care are incredibly resilient and full of potential. But there's no getting around the fact that homelessness is traumatic and creates barriers, particularly regarding education. In the 2016 2017 school year, almost 10,000 students experienced homelessness in King County's K-through-12 public school system. 82% of students experiencing homelessness in King County or students of color, and other students experiencing homelessness a little over half graduated within four years, compared to 81% of how students, which you can see on the handout that's been distributed to you in a vicious cycle. Homelessness can lower academic outcomes, and then lower academic outcomes can lead to higher risk of homelessness. A national study recently found that young people without a diploma or high school GED had a 346% higher chance of experiencing homelessness. Fortunately, the Puget Sound tax taxpayer provided Cal a path that offers us an opportunity to disrupt this cycle. Because youth of color are significantly over represented in these populations, the council will be impacting the most vulnerable youth by focusing on foster homeless and juvenile justice involved youth. I urge you to retain this focus as you finalize the cost of funding allocations. Thank you. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Annie Blackledge and I have the privilege to be the executive director of the Mockingbird Society. We are an youth advocacy organization and we work with and partner with young people who've experienced foster care and or homelessness. Investing in these young people is a critical step in achieving the county's goal of ending homelessness by 2021 and zero youth detention. And it complements the county's current investments and best start for kids. How do we know this? Because the young people that we work with every day have told us this. On average, 46 youth are in King County juvenile detention each day over a year. 82% of those young people are people of color. We're specifically pleased that the motion includes language that makes clear the council's intent to improve education outcomes for the named populations in the early learning. And the King County Promise Program K through 12 through higher ed. We would urge you to continue to make clear your intent to improve specific graduation outcomes, including kindergarten readiness, high school graduation and degree or credential completion in the implementation phase. We really would urge you to make sure that you involve community and community voices, specifically youth and families from the named populations. On behalf of the organizations working to center the 12,000 children and youth experiencing homelessness, foster care or the juvenile justice system every year. We want to thank you for the work you've done so far, and we stand ready to continue to support you. Our most vulnerable children and young people are counting on us. Thank you. Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Mercy Daramola, and I'm one of the lead staff of the Puget Sound Educational Service District supporting the King County Promise proposal. On behalf of this proposal. We thank you for your extensive work that identifies high impact and legacy investments for the past of funding. We're really excited about the substantial investment identified in the current Stryker before the Council today. After me, I have representation from community based organizations, students and partners of the proposal who can talk more about the need and a solution that the King County promise responds to in our community. I myself have one point to underscore. What we're facing are systematic challenges that the underserved people in our communities are impacted by an education system. King County promises. A systematic response to that systematic challenge to existing promise proposal is designed by both higher education, K-12 community and student advocates who are identifying the needs and and solutions to those needs. We've centered on providing culturally relevant services, increasing staff capacity and resources so that underserved students receive the support they deserve and need as they obtain their post-secondary credentials. Thank you for considering it, and please listen to the rest of our team following me. Hi. My name is David Beckham and I am the I was fortunate to be CSF school based advisor working with the ninth and 10th grade class at our Inner Beach High School. Part of programs like CSF are extreme assets to students in schools who do not receive similar mentoring or college increase exposure than others. There are certain schools and communities that may not need as many college and career advisors as others, depending on the academic culture and the circumstance that the students are placed in. However, I work at Rainier Beach High School, where all 700 of these students need the extra support. But my CPA partner and I have our own capacities and this allow us to be able to serve every single one of them. There are tons of brain students that walk up to my desk and ask for help, but they aren't on my caseload and I have to unfortunately turn them around. When the kids see and can vibe with your energy and your mentorship, they genuinely gravitate to us. We have the sole responsibility and the opportunity to not only teach students higher education literacy, but also real applicable life skills like networking, people skills, financial management, etc. and is one of the most rewarding positions I've ever had. However, with limitations, we are letting so many slip through our cracks, which inevitably repeats the process to the next generation. Fun. Find the post-secondary proposal so that students I am privileged to work with and so many more have opportunity to have the access that is critical to their success. Thank you. Afternoon. I'm Laura Disaster. I'm the executive director of Seattle Education Access. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. Seattle Education Access provides low income young people, individualized support and advocacy as they navigate the complex systems of higher education and financial aid. Our students are primarily racialized youth who are persisting through barriers and systemic oppression related to homelessness, foster care and intergenerational cycles of poverty. We serve about 1000 students a year. Yet we know that there are over 21,000 opportunity youth in our county. I think we'd all agree that in an ideal world, every young person would have the opportunity to achieve an education that meets their individual needs and goals. However, we know that many low income young people in our community experience a multitude of barriers to accessing education. Like my own personal journey, many youth don't have built in social capital in their families that can help them access re-engagement and post-secondary pathways. They supported access to supported access to post-secondary education transforms lives. The post-secondary attainment rate in our county is currently 40%. Yet we know that 90% of living wage jobs in the next five years will require some college or training beyond high school. This means that too many of our young people in our region are not poised for self-sufficiency unless we intervene. NCAA and other community based organizations or the connective tissue between marginalized, vulnerable communities and our educational systems. A recent external evaluation of our state's College Navigation Services found that opportunity youth receiving our services were three times more likely to enroll in post-secondary education, and that boys or young men of color were seven times more likely to enroll in post-secondary education. We know what works, and we know that there is an overwhelming gap in services. It's essential to have a sustained commitment to King County promise and foster investing in our post-secondary transition and the community based organizations that are doing this work to ensure that all of our young people can access pathways to living wage jobs. Thank you. Thank you. Laura will be followed by Guadalupe Torres, Warren Wilson and John Welsh. Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. My name is Guadalupe Guitarist and I'm a US citizen. Daughter of an immigrant, former farm worker, first generation college graduate. And today I stand here before you as the executive director of College Access now. Can college access now help students in Seattle and South King County Access enroll and graduate from college? And by college I mean two year colleges, four year trades and certificate certification programs. Our programs are in high school, and like so many of my peers here doing important work, we could not be doing that to people didn't believe in it. And if it didn't work, it works. Our students, 90% of our students get into college. Why? Because they believe in themselves. That's what's kind of missing the piece that they. They don't believe in themselves. They don't believe that they belong. And they don't have any guidance. Structured strategic planning for a plan of action for their next career move and education. So I'm here today to advocate for you to send a message. And that is you belong. You belong in higher education. We need you for a more inclusive, equitable and educated community, because that's what this does. Thank you. Hello. My name is Warren Wilson and I am currently attend Green River College and I'm here to advocate for the King County promise. Now, coming up in high school, college was always the predicted next step for me. I always wanted to go. But when it came time to apply, you know, I wasn't really sure where to go, where to go. I'm a first generation college student, so I can really get that support from from home. And at the high school that I went to, Kenwood, you had to go through hoops and loops to get to the counselors and get to the to the guidance that that you needed. So I decided to go to Green River College, and when I went there, I was able to meet some great advisors who came to me, who came straight to me and said, We want your help. And through that, I was able to be a peer navigator and help students who have been historically underserved. And through that work, I was able to help students. And as a result of helping students, it made me realize the importance of that and how important that that is that they're seeing that they're coming directly to you now . The strength of that, of seeing people who look like you, who act like you, who are around the same age as you come to you. That speaks volumes. And it makes it so much easier for a connection. And through seeing helping these people navigate college and see them succeed and go past that has been so gratifying for me and so gratifying for them. So the importance of advising and counselors who come to you, you know, who are willing or easier to access. I can't explain you the the the loops and balance that I have, how important that is. Thank you for your time. Well, I mean, Mr. Walsh is M.e.n. I'm Dayna Henry and Jessica Werner. Jim McDermott, members of the Council. I am John Welsh, first generation college graduate and superintendent of the Puget Sound Educational Service District. I'm here on behalf of the Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness, for which I serve as the co-chair, along with Kevin McCarthy, president of Renton Technical College. You've just heard from fellow advocates in support of the post-secondary supports proposal. This group has been leading the collaboration of a coalition of educational leaders, students and advocates and partners for the past two years to design the vision for the King County promise. We are ready to significantly impact, expand our impact, and we know this works. Data from wraparound college access and success programs show improvements to retention, especially for students who are first in their families to attend college and students who are most impacted by poverty and institutional racism. This can and should be expanded countywide. As you're aware, Washington State has now stepped up to cover tuition. Now, King County can invest in a proven strategy, high quality, individualized supports from caring and knowledgeable adults, from schools, colleges and community based organizations all focused on supporting underserved populations. We greatly appreciate the Council's understanding of the strong role community based organizations play in helping vulnerable populations get the support they need to get into and through college. By creating a highly supportive and more integrated high school to post-secondary system, we can and will demonstrate what is possible when King County students receive the support needed to access and complete their credential. After successful implementation and investment of positive funds. Our region's college access and completion system will be among the strongest in the nation and will serve as a model of an equitable and highly supportive system for students success in this country. We appreciate the work the Council has done throughout this process, and we stand ready to collaborate with other groups to implement a more aligned and supportive system for young people in our region. We stand ready to make the King County promise a King County reality. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Amy Yang. I'm a physician that serves an immigrant and low income population in East King County and a member of the Sound Alliance. I've been here previously to testify on behalf of equity in physical education and activity. And I wanted to thank the Council for creating a striking amendment that reflects what you have heard from community members in past public hearings. What I'm advocating for today is more equitable distributions across the continuum, with at least 30% of the cost of funds allocated to each of the priority areas. That is early learning, K-through-12 and higher education. As a family doctor, I take care of the largest spectrum of patients with regards to age ranges. So I take care of newborns and I take care of elderly citizens. And I'm really excited to see how this funding can be used in so many different ways to impact the lives of all of my patients, ranging from the infants and toddlers that are going to benefit from early learning to the young adults and beyond who's going to receive services for higher education. And so with pasta, we have an incredible opportunity to serve. So I support a variety of critical and creative methods that can be employed to improve many different educational outcomes. But this large breadth of improvements can only happen if the funding is more equitable. And so we need to make sure that we have adequate supports in all different sectors in order to make this work. So I believe that the funding needs to be more fairly distributed again, with 30% allocated to each of the priority areas. Thank you. Hi. Good afternoon, council members. My name's Dana Henry and I'm here today representing the Sound Alliance and Shape Washington. I've been teaching elementary physical education in federal way for the past 23 years. First, I want to thank all of you for the time and the energy that you've put into creating an intentional, comprehensive proposal to support our young people. As a teacher who works to support students every day in the minute to minute work to support learning. It's heartening to know that everyone in this room is working in a multifaceted way to support our kids. As an educator, I understand the need to frontload support for our students, to provide supports early on, to lay strong foundations for learning. And while I look forward to a day when most of my students have had early learning supports, I'm also keenly aware that my current students aren't going to benefit from the early learning portion of this funding. KING Currently, King County currently has 289,951. So 290,000 students in the K-12 system that have already moved past the bulk of the proposed pasta funding. Students spend at least 13 years in the K-12 category. So it represents not only the largest group, but also the group that will spend the longest amount of time in that category. I want to encourage the Council to consider having a more equitable percentage of the funding shift towards K-12 learning, since nearly 300,000 of our students are already in that part of their education and they need our support now. On behalf of the Sound Alliance and Shape Washington and my students, I want to thank you and all of you for all that you're doing to support our young people. Improved educational outcomes for disadvantaged youth is critical. Thank you very much. Following Miss Werner will be Colleen Lang, Ruel Landry, Michael Byron and Emma Kent. Kattegat could luck. Greetings. King County Council members. I'm Jessica Werner, executive director of White Ark, a coalition of more than 100 nonprofit youth serving organizations. First, we want to thank you for the fair and deliberate process that you've gone through over the past couple of years to decide the best use of this pastor funds. The framework you establish now will have bearing across nearly a generation of young people in our communities. And we believe that it's essential that you support children and youth across the continuum from early learning through college. However, early learning gains are virtually eliminated by third grade. If there are not ongoing supports provided to young people during their school years, could spend nearly 80% of their waking hours throughout a year, not in school, while they're attending kindergarten through high school. A Harvard based policy research group called Opportunity Insights released a report just last week that reiterated that investment in children and youth through young adulthood or their early twenties results in continued benefits. Government policies to, quote, target children throughout their middle school years, high school years and all the way through college have had quite high returns, if not higher returns, than some of the most positive preschool programs and the current striker before you. While we would love to see explicit language for 33% of the funds to K-12 ages, we appreciate that the sports for K-12 aged youth are included in the promise bucket, and we respectfully request that you ensure all K-12 resources are available to community based organizations that support young people from low income backgrounds. We request that within the 50% going to early learning facilities currently to please add back language for mixed use, multipurpose facilities and facilities that would serve licensed school age programs. Additionally, we believe that 10% of funds off the top for infrastructure and evaluation is too high of a percentage and ought to be decreased to 5% with the intention of leveraging the infrastructure established at the county already to deliver on the best starts for kids investments and other efforts. I'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Chair McDermott, we're going to go out of sequence, if that's okay. So good afternoon, counsel. My name is Michael Beyond. I'm the executive director of Asian Counseling and Referral Service and on behalf of the Racial Equity Coalition, comprised of 16 people of color led organizations. We are here because we do not fully accept the latest Stryker dated on July 25th and ask you to delay the vote. The current plan severely under invests in well, well-proven approaches for community based organizations specifically and people of color organizations who focus on positive cultural identity work. In order for our youth of color to be successful, we must see a minimum of 10% of the total cost of resources directed towards this effort that is outside the promise bucket. For example, at ACR, us, our young. People face a host. Of challenges where college or post-secondary education is the last thing on their minds. Stress associated with navigating by cultural identity parents. Grandparents reliance on them to. Interpret on important household issues being bullied or not accepted. Because they are limited. In proficient in school. This is why positive cultural identity approaches, which are well researched and demonstrated, should be. Considered to. Ensure the greatest possibility and chances for young folks. The Racial Equity Coalition requested a minimum of 10% of total pasta. Funding to. Services for vulnerable youth of color students led by people of color, community based organizations. For Council. To achieve this, please amend the current. 10% set. Aside in pasta. For evaluations and. Administration and technical assistance. Current BSC infrastructure is already in place to address these areas. We recommend that it be reduced to 2 to 3%. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Miguel, my son. I'm with El Centro de la Raza, the Center for the People of All Races. And we join those here to respectfully express strong disappointment with the council's drought striker for pasta funding. We oppose it because it does not equitably address the needs of vulnerable students of color, does not sufficiently invest. In. Community of color led strategies and organizations to support these students, and that the county's racial equity analysis is limited. We are calling for a minimum of 10%. Of. Total pasta funding dedicated to community of color organizations. We are united in our conviction that. Your proposed allocation of less than 10% of funding for community. Based responses is completely insufficient and unacceptable. Community based organizations must be given the resources to address the racial disparities and crisis our youth face. We know council members have expressed deep concern for vulnerable students. However, this proposal subordinates all the community based work to the King County Promise Strategy, which is an institutional strategy guided by large mainstream organizations. There must be investment in communities of color directly. We insist the Council delay. The committee of the whole vote. On the striker. Until a more. Racially equitable proposal clarified. Is. Developed. Thank you. Where? Good afternoon, council members. My name is Emma Cattani from the Filipino community of Seattle and also a member of the Racial Equity Committee. I'm here also showing you the disappointment that we have, because we've been working for this issue for the last few weeks and we still haven't been able to get the reasonable result that we were looking for. We please make sure, if you could, to split that money equally and fairly. And I think for me, as more, Filipino community is one of the only organization that serves Filipinos, immigrants, newly immigrants and limited English speaking. And we acted like SARS and El Centro. We are organization that really provide the services that is culturally and linguistically appropriate. And if we don't get the money that we need, we won't be able to continue to provide those services to our youth, and they will not be able to continue to succeed in the future. So we were asking you, please, that be fair. I just want to say that for some reason we always have to beg and beg for the things that we deserve. And I hope that you look at us and, you know, treated us fairly as everybody else. Thank you. Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Joyce Saba. I'm the advocacy and civic engagement lead at open doors for multicultural families. At open doors, we support and empower and partner with individuals culturally and linguistically diverse individuals with disabilities and their families. We support individuals with disabilities and and their families from birth to life. And what we have found is that our students are struggling very early on. They're struggling to learn how to read and write and add and subtract. Even in the elementary school space. And we also know and I've spent a lot of time advocating at the school districts in schools and city county in Washington state. Our advocacy has recently led to the passage of a Language Access Bill to support both federal and state mandated language access for students in schools. And what we know for certain is that currently the systems that are in place now, the institutional systems that are in place now are not working for our students. But what does work is partnerships with community of color led organizations that are embedded within their communities and experiencing the hardships and the marginalization and the racism within those communities. And so we asked that you increase funding for community of color led organizations to create a more equitable distribution of funds. Thank you very much. You. Good afternoon and thank you, Mr. Chair, and council members. I'm calling Lang, the Associate Director of Planning Public Policy with the United Way of King County. United Way supports positive investments in all ages along the age continuum, from early learning to K-12 to post-secondary. I appreciate all the hard work that you've been doing on this Stryker, and I. Wish I could say that I was here to support it today. But United Way and our partners in the newly formed. Racial Equity Coalition. Have grave concerns about this motion. The Stryker under invest significantly in community based organizations and more specifically in community of color led organizations. We're asking that you delay today's vote to take a racial equity analysis of the Stryker and look at what investments are needed in communities of color and. Whether this Stryker. Meets those needs. We're specifically asking for no less than 10% of US investments in positive cultural identity development for youth. Delivered by community of color. Based organizations. That share. The lived experience of the youth who are being served. We're concerned that the Stryker seems to subordinate all the community based organization work underneath the more institutional proposal of the revised promise proposal. And we think that this work, by all the community based organizations. Should stand. Alone in its own bucket and not be. Reporting to or have an extra layer of administration through a proposal that's more focused on higher ed. In summary, I just want to say that communities and schools working together will create the most optimal outcomes for youth, and that the partnerships that embodied. In this positive cultural identity. Development will deeply integrate racial equity into the planning, into the delivery. And into the evaluation. Of our work. And we hope that you can take a look at that and change the Stryker before you vote today. Thank you. Hello. I am Ruel with the United Way of King County. I'll wrap up our advocacy, but I wanted to say thank you so much for doing the work that you've been doing on pasta, but also listening to our organizations speak from their heart and the wonderful work that they're doing. I'll say this every time a young person reaches academic success, it's an exception, not a standard. I can't say that loudly enough. The education opportunity gap between students of color and white students persists. Despite the decades of investments and institutional effort across the nation, public school systems have never been appropriately, adequately staffed, equipped or researched to serve communities of color. Let's be honest Washington State is not the top performer in our nation's education system. Yet because of our thriving high tech economy, we enjoy the most educated populations in the country. How do we achieve this? By importing engineers and other highly educated professionals from all over the world. Our local communities of color are being left behind. Today, we are being outcompeted globally in our hometown because of the deficits in our education system, poor support and the skyrocketing, skyrocketing costs of King County. This makes achieving the same level of success for youth of color as their white counterparts a statistical miracle. I want you to take a look at the group of folks that we've been convening and that we've been organizing. And their voices have been true to the work that they can do and will do and will change for youth of color. I want you to say I want to I want to say thank you again for the opportunity to advocate and that we recommend highly, if not the most, to not make a decision today on your Stryker. Thanks. Next will be servant of old Hamdi Abdul and Vinnie Duffy. Good afternoon. My name is Sarah Novella and I'm testifying as chair of the King County Women's Advisory Board. I wanted to thank the King County Council for investing 55% of the one time positive funds towards early learning and the current proposed path to Striker. We appreciate the increased investment in early learning, but want to continue to urge the King County Council to make a more significant investment, particularly in early learning facilities. The WAB is concerned that the current striker does not allocate all of the 55% funding into early learning facilities and the significant shortfall of quality early learning sports in King County disproportionately impacts vulnerable communities. As many of these communities cannot access early learning slots, for example, each providers in King County frequently have to reject children due to lack of space. These set of rights for early intervention and the 20% for home based childcare providers could lessen the county's ability to make a targeted investment and to more early learning slots to these populations. So the WAB urges the King County Council to make a legacy investment this one time investment in early learning facilities, as it is the most effective way, in our opinion, to improve long term educational outcomes for vulnerable populations for generations to come. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Hamdi Abdul. I'm the director for African Community Housing and Development and also a member of the King County Women's Advisory Board, as well as other members of the board as well. I would like to thank you very much for that. The King County Council and the chairman, John McDermott, for giving us this opportunity to see what we need to see in front of you. King County cannot have thriving community with the existing shortage and the lack of availability of early learning facilities in our county without well equipped environmentally up to date facilities. It will be difficult to expect satisfactory outcome for our children, let alone thinking about excellence as successful children or students. Investment in early learning facilities will prevent such unexpected gap that is causing the existing disproportionality in King County that is affecting mainly the community of color. We believe that investing and. Almost 70% of the funding towards the creation of a new early learning facilities is the most effective and meaningful way. Our ask will be a king. County has to create for all our children for many years to come and something that we can call an asset. We are struggling a lot. Even though there are available funds in different ways, such as Buirski, our main struggle comes from lack of facility. And when there is no facility, then there is no hope. But when there is facilities, then there will be a longer wait. Hope. Not a hope that can take us a long way. That can take out. Out the fear that says, where should I conducted the program that we are talking about? Where should I conduct? So I am urging that we delay this decision today because there is more to think about. And thank you very much for the time this year. Vinnie, followed by Nicole Flores, Sarah Brady and Kiss Zenobia. Okay. Hi. We're Roslyn and Vinnie Duffy. Together, we have over 80 years experience in early childhood education, most of it on Capitol Hill, but also beyond. So renting, buying or upgrading a center is moving out of the reach of the great majority of providers who are already struggling financially. We need substantial capital investments in early childhood education facilities now. We'll never make progress on providing early childhood education to all King County children without past the capital investments in facilities now. In my early childhood incarnation, I'd say, as soon as your eyes are all on me, I'll be ready to talk. Thank you. And I think. Thank you. Raise your hand. Right. I think it's heartbreaking that we're all here fighting over the same money and that in this rich city, all children aren't seen as an investment. But the reality is, there aren't very many people standing behind us because they're all taking care of your kids. If they weren't doing that, all these other programs couldn't exist. You wouldn't have workers. Most of us wouldn't be here. So we need places to care for kids and where people are moving to and living. It's out of range for people to either rent places or keep the places they have. In our research, nearly every center in the central area in the Capital Hill area, rather, was losing money, struggling to keep going. So, you know, the bottom line is, without child care, no one's going to be here. Thank you. Yeah. Good afternoon. My name is Nicole Flores, and I'm a former preschool teacher and a current family engagement specialist at Child Care Resources. I work with a really incredible program called Kaleidoscope Plan Learn that brings together family, friend and neighbor caregivers to connect, to learn how to children, develop, get resources on things they can do at home, and provide a safe space for them to grow and learn. The caregivers that come to see these playgroups are sometimes parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles, siblings or a trusted family friend. This informal care situation is preferred care option for many families in our community. Many others are stepping up short term to support the child during a work transition to fill in for a day when the child is not in formal licensed childcare, or while the family waits to get to a child care program. Low income children and kids of color are often even more likely to be involved in care, with these programs being the only support they experience in a group setting outside their family. They are so important to ensuring children are ready to succeed in school. What's so great about these programs is how versatile they are. They meet in church basements, afterschool programs, spaces, libraries, malls and outdoors. But we frequently struggle to find adequate, free and low cost spaces to meet regularly, especially in some areas of King County. The opportunity to have formal license, childcare facilities and flexible multi-use spaces that can be used for a number of early learning and community needs is very needed not only for the families in our programs who would want to be in a formal licensed childcare setting if they could find one that's affordable, but also to have more mixed use spaces that could be used for play and learn groups. As a previous teacher and facilitator of a kaleidoscope placement group, we were fortunate to have a space available to us. But I know from experience that it's not the case for everyone. We urge that the implant implementation planning stage consider funding flexible mixing spaces. Thank you for your time. Thank you, councilmembers. My name is Sarah Brady and I'm with the Early Learning Facility Stakeholder Group. For the past two years, you've heard from parents, early learning providers, professionals who connect homeless families with childcare and who support families from all over King County and finding care. You've heard from affordable housing providers and developers, from business leaders, from other elected leaders at the state and local levels. You've heard it in community listening sessions, gotten many letters with hundreds of signatures, phone calls and emails. And the consistent message you've heard for two full years from this wide range has been invest early, invest deeply, make transformative change with these dollars. The proposal we submitted and presented to you in December recommends targeting funding for facilities and early learning access deserts, geographic areas with lack of access that disproportionately impacts communities of color. We support the development of criteria and implementation to be intentional in prioritizing children and families that face systemic barriers and challenges such as homelessness and child welfare involvement. We all urge you to invest at least 60% of these funds in early learning facilities and look forward to working with you to make sure that all kids and families in King County have what they need to thrive. And I want to turn your attention to the letters that you have there that is signed by over 150 members of the community and decorated by the amazing creative minds at Community Day Center for Kids. Thank you. Thank you. He's going to be followed by Lisa Greenwald, followed by Alex Zimmerman. Snoop. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Geography in this meeting stated oh that asunder it is future that I'm additionally geography has been among us so that we with color to color through thick and the last names are through many groups. I tried it in therapy and the color to look. This is not was a mean prude proves this geographic city a space and then through morally to the opposite distribution of through many processes and the future has a will has the enthralled cetacean of human us and their their environment, because space and the plus affect it very to be topics such as economics. NZ could I mean plant and animals geography is high intruders many in the in that it is firmly of natural of geography approach deepen this answer at different needs to the relationship between physical and human being. Woman And it is this by the ocean. Patroness Thank you. Thank you, Ms.. Greenwald. Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Lisa Greenwald. I'm the CEO of Kindling. Kindling as a not for profit neurodevelopmental center, providing an early intervention for children with disabilities, as well as early learning and family support programs. So I want to thank you so much gratitude to you for so clearly defining early intervention and including, excuse me, early learning facilities and including early intervention facilities. Alongside those early learning facilities. Early intervention is an essential part of the early learning system and supports our most vulnerable children. To be able to access these early learning programs, including early intervention facilities, ensures that the very target population you are trying to support with these funds will not be excluded . As so often has occurred throughout history children with disabilities, those in child welfare, children of color, and those who are homeless. At least 13% of our young children have disabilities, yet less than half of them are currently receiving the supports that they need that they need. And even fewer are in child care programs. These early intervention facilities have specific programs dedicated to supporting children in early in early learning facilities, infant mental health programs, supporting all the children, infants and toddlers throughout King County who are in foster care and homeless outreach programs. In our homeless outreach programs and our cherish foster care programs, almost all of those children qualify for early intervention services. There are no other public funds available to support the capital growth needed, and excluding early intervention from this definition would systematically exclude the very target population these funds were intended to support. So we commend you and I thank you for recognizing this. And we're intentionally including the target population in your definition by including in early intervention facilities. Thank you. Thank you. Is he a kind of makeup in Nazi fascist Nazi Gestapo pick from my team of fire? An anti-Semite. My name. I like Zimmerman. Yeah. I'm not the executive director. I'm a senior citizen who I see here. Speak. Executive director. Where is this? Thousand. 10,000 poor children like this. You ask for money. It's very interesting. So don't give this money to this executive director part. I see it as fascist and democratic mafia. Give to the real children and they give you a couple example. Average salary teacher hundred thousand dollars plus king country code. So hundred $50,000 salary quadruple for last 20 management half salary $350,000. King Country employees 60% each make more than $200,000. Seattle employee last month asked for more money. More money? Where is it? Poor children. Where is poor senior citizen who don't have enough money for food? And where is this tiny? You pretend that people who make less than $10,000 per year executive director who make a hundred grand, where are you? So you need to stop in this crook and give money to real people in first when it cleans its dirty chamber from this Nazi pig. Democrat could do this for many a year. You're not care. 1000 people dying every day. Poor people? Yes. Do you mind to people who are dying every day, who don't have my new poor bread? Who children who sleep in street. Give money to them? Not your executive director. Not to your pocket. You with your hundred thousand dollars salary plus. So right now it speaks to everybody. Listen to me. Stand up, America. It's a group. That includes the people who signed up in advance for a tough protest. But is there anyone else who'd like to offer testimony today? So if you'd please approach either the two podiums and begin by introducing yourself. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Angelica Alvarez, so thank you for having us. Council Members Here I am a school board director in the Highline Public Schools and I'm here in support in order for us to provide support to our students. I am one of the students who struggled in to be able to get a secondary or a college degree because I didn't have any support. Many of our students look like me in our region. And so I'm here to ask, you know, you've heard from a lot of, you know, advocates from different parts advisors, advocates, students. But I also urge you to think about how this implicates many talked about our future. What is our future entail? If we can't support our students, they're not going to be able to be able to have a job and be able to support. But one of the things we're ready to significantly expand our impact. We know this work. We have data that supports that. Some are urging you to really think about how this all creates supportive environments, integrated high school into post-secondary systems, how this works. Together, we've demonstrated what is possible when King County students receive the support needed to access and complete their credentials. We heard from some of the students today. So I thank you again for considering that urge you that you pass it today. I urge that you fully support the partnership of the post-secondary support. Also, I wanted to speak on behalf of Dr. Susan Infeld. She's a superintendent of Highland. She's also been working behind the scenes in calling to our lawmakers to be able to support this proposal. So, again, thank you again for considering and I'm here as a witness and as a example, what happens when you get support? I didn't get it immediately. It took me a long time to get my degree, but it was because someone didn't give up on me. So I'm asking you today. Don't give up on our children. Thank you. See, no one else to offer public comment will close the public hearing. And that leaves us with one item on today's agenda. That's Motion 2019 245. This is the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Act, which, as you know, directs $318 million to King County over the next 15 years due to spent on the educational needs of students in and youth in King County. I want to highlight the population that we are seeking to support and in fact are clear in the legislation before us today, in our previous work about who we intend, the past funds to support that would be children and youth of color, children and youth from families at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Children and youth who are homeless in the in the foster care system, in the child welfare system, are involved in the juvenile justice system. Children and youth with disabilities. Children and youth who identify as LGBTQ or otherwise vulnerable. Children and youth. Those populations have really been at the focus of our work and our analysis over the last two years, where we've held over a dozen committee and council meetings, 21 public listening sessions with over 650 public participants, and had more one on one conversations than I think any one of us could count. It's truly a significant body of work, and today is the point where we'll be fully engaging and taking up legislation to bring all of that input together. I've shared a Stryker with my colleagues last week striking an amendment, S-1, that I proposed as a place to form and begin our conversations and. I could. Let me not go. Let me stop there only to introduce Jeff Mumm, our chief policy or to policy officer, to speak to S-1. And also let me introduce the concept of striking amendment as to since S-1 was released on Thursday, there are primarily some technical and grammatical and some clarifying of intent has been needed. And so that is shaped in as to there's no intent to have a policy change in as to. But I'll ask Jeff to present on particularly as to and the other amendments before us. Mr.. Ma'am. Great afternoon. Chair. Jeff, Ma'am. Council Staff And so yet, as you said today, only briefing the committee on the strike, an amendment as to which is substantially the same as the amendment that that you shared with your colleagues on Thursday. And as I go to the briefing where there are changes, I will I will call those out and explain them so that we're all on the same page. So the staff report begins on page seven of your packet, but I think we can probably skip to page nine. The pages prior to that are all the background information that you've already been briefed on. So on page nine, we can start with the with the analysis. And as you'll recall, the committee was briefed on the Interline Motion, which set out three educational areas for to provide future positive proceeds to those being early learning K-12 and higher education. But that that motion left these allocation percentages blank. It also called out the target populations, which you just described. And then it also asked for the executive to come up with an implementation plan that includes things such as governance, structure, financial plan, policies around facilities and evaluations. So the striking amendment makes changes to the underlying motion. And first it adds in and clarifies as more specific needs of the targeted populations. Specifically, it calls out. It also adds children or youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered to the target populations. And then it also refines the definition of low income to mean kids in families that have incomes below 200 200% of the federal poverty level. And so a family of four, that's about $50,000. Next, the striking amendment allocates future pots of resources, and at first that it allows up to 10% of the funds to be used for evaluation administration. Mr. Mom, for clarity, I'm you're addressing striking the amendment as to. That's correct. As I go I mean they're very similar in as were there are differences I will specifically call those out and hopefully that's a smooth and that's confusing way of doing things if if you want to follow along at home and if you look at the piece, if you look at the chart on page 11, this shows how the striking amendment allocates the funds. So you'll see that first there's the up to 10% allocation for evaluation, administration and technical support, and then it allocates 55% of the remaining funds to early learning programs and facilities. And included in that is facilities for early interventions. Now, of this of these dollars, the the the striking amendments, they they specify that for effort for facility. If you're just use it to build an early learning facility those facilities have to serve a population that is at least 70% made up of kids of from low income families . Of that 200 families that are at or below that 200% federal poverty level and also says that these facilities should be in access deserts, which is a term that the amendments ask the executive to more precisely find later on in the motion. And if we can interrupt. Councilmember Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Jeff. On the 70%, what was that on this staff report? I'm not seeing that number. Oh. Page ten. Yes. The chart just simply is a. Shows the allocations and then the definitions are in the stack. So how would it do that? My question on the 70% is that would use the support facilities that are comprised of at least 70% of children from families with income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. So how would we determine and or and or force that? What are the practical implications of that? I understand generally we want to aim these funds towards some communities or families or children. Narrowing it down so that who can't otherwise afford it. So how do we how do we do that? Why are we picking 70% as opposed to some other number? I have some concerns about the rigidity of that with respect to the long term share nature of these dollars and making sure that they're we're not putting unnecessary barriers to deploying these facilities and services in communities that really need it. So the motion says to the extent possible, and then do this, and then it asks the executive that come up with the way to figure this out. So it's not simply individual. But individual pre-K facility have to have 70% of its enrollees at or below 200%. Is that the intent of. That's the desire? Yes, I see. Okay. I need to share with my colleagues then that some of the feedback I've heard about that is a question about whether that works in the marketplace. With respect to having enough, I'll call the market rate children who are paying close to full tuition make it work economically. So I would want to have some more dialog with the community about whether that is practical. I share the goal of prioritizing these resources to the children and communities that need them most from an economic disadvantage perspective. But the specificity of that gets my attention. Councilmember Debusk If I can add in striking the amendment as to line 69, it does say to the greatest extent possible. And then later when we address the implementation plan, it asks as to be returned as part of the implementation plan. Thoughts on how to do more specific proposals on how to ensure that children are being served by those facilities are the target populations and at what balance. I see, that's helpful. And can somebody help me understand the choosing of the 70% numbers that in some of our client and some of our consultants recommendations or. Councilmember up the Grove? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm one of those who have been pushing for as strong of language as we can, because I have some concerns that this is that that it will not be targeted as effectively at our target to be focused as effectively in our target population. And quite frankly, I got the 70% recommendation. I was recommending 70% in part because of some communication I had received from the coalition saying they serve 50 to 70%. So it's and then the language here is soft enough that my desire is to push, I guess, into if we have multiple opportunities to invest, to prioritize those that best serve our targeted population. Would be the goal. But I so I. Might have been responsible for the magic 70 figure and it came from a rough the high end of a rough range that came from a representative, the coalition. They were not advocating for that, but that's where that number at least came from. If I might, I want to express publicly that I share your objective there and just want to make sure that we're not unnecessarily tying our hands or putting barriers by choosing that number. So I would be happy to engage and work on that. If there's some way with that, with the community that's focused on this part of the puzzle, if there is a way to achieve that objective effectively. One more question, Mr. Martin, before you continue. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. When you were talking about who this applies to. You didn't mention faster kids. But at the bottom of page nine, it lists all of them. So did you just leave that out or did you mean by to a page? And I'm still unclear. I just made a mistake. You know, you can make mistakes, but make sure that's okay. And then you said access deserts. So are you talking about this having a county wide impact or just where there are access deserts or access deserts having the priority? So the the way the motion is structured, it would say that we put these facilities in access deserts and then it then later on in the plantation plan and asks the executive to come up with them and to work with them, be working at all sorts of take all this, but to come up with the definition for access desert. So I think the idea is to put the facilities and the places of the highest need. But the motion then. Sort of. It doesn't define it and is asked for that definition to be developed later. So I would suggest that there are kids all across this county who have high needs and to to discriminate, that there would be places in this county that wouldn't even be eligible is probably not that appropriate. Thank you. In, Mr. Mom, I misspoke, but I'm sure not for the last time today. Another question, this one from Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jeff, back to the 70 or at least 70% and with regard to the supporting facilities, is that about the percentage that would like be the maximum without including private paid families? Because my understanding has traditionally has been that there has to be a certain amount of private paid facilities that those who can afford the full cost in order to make the center survive financially. I don't know the answer to that question. I can look into it further. I can tell you that the consultant in the report that the council commissioned from Ken Thompson in the financial analysis, it contemplated facilities that were more of a 6040 split or 60% of low income and then and then 40% at market rate. But I don't know where between 67, where that where that threshold is. But I can give as much information for you as possible. Thank you. And maybe you addressed that already. I stepped out to talk with staff for a moment. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. If my memory serves me right, in one of the reports that we got from that gentleman that was doing the studies, it talked about that. But I thought he gave us a range of what was viable. And I don't remember the range, but I think it was like 50 to 70% needing could be market rate. So you might want to look there to some extent. Yeah, I'll call Ken and I will call Ken the consultant. And that's when Mr. Mumm. Mr. Chair. Let's see. So we're still in the early learning bucket and just wanted to ask and you need to also call out that within the and that's the striking amendment. It sets aside 20, 20% of these funds to be for in-home care providers. And facilities there. Okay. Now, moving on to the the remaining funds of the remaining 45% of the funds. These would go to support services in K through 12 and higher education and 40% would go to K through 12 age kids through the King County promise. And this is one of the differences between S1 and S to S two makes it clear that these funds need to go through the King County promise. It was unclear under S1, but this clarifies and then also that groups that that apply for these funds also have to bring matching contributions. The same goes for the higher ed, the 40% that's allocated to higher ed and that this this as to have that going through the King County promise and then also makes a requirement for matching funds in the remaining funds which is the 20% of the of the 45%. And as that chart on page 11 makes us a little more clear, I know it's a little hard to follow. 20% would go to community based organizations that are integrated with K to 312 system. And here are a couple of differences between one and two in S2. It makes it clear that the community based organizations only need to be integrated with the K through 12 systems. In the first strike, it also had post-secondary. But this makes it clear that these funds are to go just to K through 12 activities or community organizations that help keep the 12 youth. And then it also, Striker two makes it clear that these community based organizations need to work with the target populations in it in any of the target populations. And then finally, the striker sets for ask the executives to bring an implementation plan back to the back to the council. It asks for a governance structure and a small change between its two points. One is that the government, this governance structure only requires one advisory group. The first strike contemplated multiple. It asks for a process to allocate funds and ask for strategies to ensure that funded programs are culturally appropriate and trauma informed and asked for a financial plan and ask for policies when especially specifically related to facilities which we just talked about a little bit earlier. And in that, it asks for that definition of access dessert and asks for policies to align with current county investments and priorities. So like best starts for Kids Youth Action Plan, things like that. And then it asks for policies for post-secondary system alignment and opportunities to leverage state and federal funds. And then it calls for periodic evaluations of the outcomes. The report is this implementation plan is due back to the Council in eight months, which is also a change from the original speaker, which asked for six months. But I think that this is going to be a pretty detailed body of work for the executive to undertake. And those are that's the briefing of the strike. Are happy to answer questions. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a couple questions, and I want to start on your last set of comments when you were clarifying the differences between a striker as one and as two, you said as two makes it clear that the committee wants 45% of the money to go to King County, I promise. And I interpret that to mean nothing goes for K 12. But then when you explain how the 45% that's going to King County promises 40% of it goes to programs that improve the quality of education. K to 12 And then earlier during the testimony, I heard that the King County promise is only being asked to support programs that work with high school age youngsters through 12th grade. Completely leaving out k. Okay. Yeah. So what is the truth? What is the. I'm not clear. What is the recommendation that has been proposed in terms of the 45% and the 55%? And so. Let's see here, trying to defy a council member. But yes. Of that, 45%, 40% would go to, as you accurately pointed out, higher ed activities through the King County promise. And then 40% would go to K through 12 activity to the King County promise. And as but as you're as I understand my understanding, the campaign promises similar to yours is that it's primarily focused on that high school population. But I would like to get some more information to see if there's junior high or elementary activities conceived within the King. Counties then and there just focus on the high school. So I don't know why we do a proposal where no money goes to the well and that's 45%. Well and then 20% of that. So there's there's a 45% bucket that's divided into three buckets. 40, 40 and 20 and 20% would go to community based organizations to help out that serve youth and the target population. And that would be k k through 12. K-through-12. And we don't make any distinction between minority community orientation or immigrant and refugee and other kinds, do we? In terms of the community based organization. Right. I think they actually let me know. I don't I don't believe so. But I want to I want to read the language language in Stratford a couple of times. So I need to read it to. To answer your questions with. All right. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Well, looking up, I think I. Didn't look in answer to my question. I had two questions when they're ready. Councilmember Lambert, if I can, council member Balducci has a comment on that point. To Councilmember Gossage point, if I may, Mr. Chair. Please. Thank you. I don't I'm not sure exactly how we're going to walk through this, but some of us brought some at least attempts at amendments. And I have some half baked but proposed amendments to try to call out what you're talking about. I read it the same way you did. Councilmember Gossett and was concerned that there was not I was not seeing elementary school or middle school programs and that they might get lost the way this was written. And so when we get to that point, I'm going to be proposing to my colleagues that we actually call out elementary and middle school as somehow separate from the high school promise work and the post-secondary promise work. I just wanted you to know that that was in a green folder somewhere to be distributed sometime. Thank you. He's got it. I got it. Yeah. And. And if it helps. The intent is that of the 45%. 40% is for the King County promise work in high schools. It's worded K-12, but the assumption is it would be primarily in high schools. 40% would be king having promised work in colleges. Yeah. And 20% would be community based organizations supporting K-12. And we have correspondence. We have correspondence today inquiring about a match. No, there would not be a match required for that 20%. And. But there was an even better question about that, that this is keeping me at the moment. But even listening to you, Mr. Chair, all three categories how that emphasis on helping people to get into post-secondary. If I said that about the 20%, I was mistaken. That's not the emphasis of the 20%. But it would be managed by King County Province. No, in fact, that's. Thank you. That's the question I wanted to respond to that we have in writing as well. The 20% is not subordinate to the King County Promise program. With administered off, but. It would be allocated through the executive branch in grants. Like. Like we do another applications. It would not be overseen and run by the King County Promise Program. It would not be subordinate. Subordinate to King County promise. All right. And that was the other question I couldn't recall. Mr. Mom, were you looking for something and we were stalling for you? Or am I? Yeah, I think I believe. Customer Gauthier was also curious about whether the the nature of the organizations were combat. But it's really the nature of the work that the organizations provide. Leadership, leadership, makeup or things like that are not called out. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I appreciate the clarifications, because they're much more clear now. Thank you. So two things. So in the 20%, there's no requirement for matching funds. But in the other 40%, there's matching funds. If this be from, organizations would have to do that. Are we talking about school districts? When you're talking about the 40 in the 40 on the bottom of page ten where both of them require matching funds? I think it would be any of the any recipient of the grants through those two parties would would need to provide matching funds. So for some of the smaller organizations, providing matching funds would be really difficult. So I'm concerned about that. And then on the next page, I like the idea that we have flexibility most of the time. But if we're going to be putting money into a capital asset and a place wants to do a mortgage on their capital asset, it would be very difficult if in a subsequent year we changed the percentage formula and then they don't have the equity, not the equity, but the collateral that they had before. So how are we going to preserve the ability of the people who might be wanting to build the facilities to be able to qualify for a mortgage? Sounds like something that should be worked out in the policies identified. And I think it's part five of the employment implementation plan for facilities. Yeah, I think that's going to be really important that we allow them to do that because that's what it's all about to get these facilities built. But that is a concern that we have to prepare for. Thank you. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kind of providing a little bit of response to my colleague in terms of the matching. Funds the. King County promise. The significant part of it is student support counselors in our college system, in our K-12 system, targeted at the student, at the high need population, in the high need schools. And the folks who developed it propose using the Lapp funds, the learning assistance funds from the state that go to high needs schools. Their intention is to leverage these dollars with those state funds and match it. So that's where they envisioned the match coming from to fund the student sports. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. That is very helpful because some of this is, I believe, a state responsibility and really concerns me that we're starting to do things that the state is supposed to do. And I like that answer. But I thought you also said that an organization that would get that money would still have to have that, too, if it wasn't a school. It's correct. So, Councilmember Grove, if we could tighten the language, you said I like what you said. They didn't like what he said. So we can make it changed a little bit. That would be better, I think. And just work your councilmember. To. Clarify. It. No one. Confused. If I may. Council member left it left. Within the 45% bucket. There's 20% for community based organizations at all age levels K through 12. Does that require a match? No. Okay. Okay. Say that again and again. I want you to say it again. For the funding that's provided to community based organizations in the striking amendment. Does that require a match of any kind? No, it doesn't. You know, getting better. Mr. Mom, did you have more on as to. I do not, Councilmember. All right. We'll take a we'll take more questions on this, too, but then we will move to the amendments as well. And I'll look for some advice from the committee about whether you want to be briefed on all the amendments and then take them up in turn or be briefed on them as we take them up. Meanwhile, any more general questions comes up or questions particularly? And as to Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This may be a rhetorical question. Excellent. On page seven, D under D 2d refers to a draft implementation plan being developed and reflecting the priorities identified. And one of those would be for a governance structure. So two parts to my question here. One is, I have heard that some of us have discussed the concept of having the Children Youth Advisory Board and become the governance structure, which would make some sense. And I wondering if there have been other suggestions made when this was being developed. Are we thinking more a brand new board? Is that just totally open to whatever they are? Are you asking me? Totally open. Striking and totally open. Okay. And the second part of this really is to reminder the the draft and the implementation plan that will be worked out with council staff and executive staff and others will be coming to the council. So I want to just make sure everybody knows that that there will be a final vote by the council to approve any implementation plans. So there's still a lot of room in the next few months, regardless of what we do in terms of how all of this will be implemented. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. See no other questions. Now, Mr. Mumma, if you would, walk us through the amendments to the striking amendment as to what colleagues I would propose that we go through. We have a presentation on all of the amendments so we know what's before us and then take them up in turn. Councilmember Bell, do you see a. Couple of points of order? First one. Are we going to get the green folders? I don't have one. I don't know if anybody else has one. There's no green folders. You should have this. Okay. It's the packet. Yeah, yeah. Separate us to. To compare. Thank you. Second point of order. Since I have a number of amendments, they're not all in order. And they sort of are meant to go together. And I don't know if I'm prepared to offer all of them. I would love the opportunity to just speak for a moment before or after we ask staff to brief them to and to explain what I was trying to do with these amendments. What would be most helpful to do that is as we take a beach amendment or free rein for a moment. Right now. I would I will take the opportunity to preface if that's okay, because this is my amendments are on here as one, two, three, four, five, seven and eight. Yeah, I know. It sounds terrible. That's why I want to. That's why it's not as bad as it sounds. I have questions. Circles around four of those. Just ask you. Please tell me about the intent of those. It's not as. Bad and how they work together. So thank you, Mr. Chair, for giving me a moment to to sort of explain my thinking behind these. There's a few themes, and I just want to start by, first of all, thanking you, Mr. Chair, for taking the laboring or of taking all the different ideas and concepts that we have had up and down this dais and that we've heard from the community and trying to put them together into a proposal that could move us forward so we could debate it, amend it, etc.. I know I've heard you say many times, this is not the McDermott Stryker, this is the Council Stryker for us to work on. And I know that's hard to do and put your name on it. So I want to thank you for doing that. Thank you. Okay. I have these these proposals hang together, I believe, with a number of teams. First and foremost, they are not fully baked. I'm still working on a lot of these ideas. And so they may not do exactly what I say they intend to do. So I want you to know my intent. The next one is, I think I agree with those who have said we should reduce the amount of money going to administration. I think there's good justifications for that, which we can talk about when that comes up. The second theme is since the beginning, since our very first public discussion about this at our. On our. Call meeting in Kent two years ago, my hope was and I was very pleased that the council seems to agree that we would take this money and it sounds like a ton of money, but when you lay it out over a series of years, it actually isn't as much as you think. And so what I wanted to do is make the most use of this money by having a small number of areas of focus that get deep investment and deep attention so that we can move the needle. It's enough money to move the needle in a few areas. It's not enough money that it could like not just disappear if we try to spread it all over everything. So that's a theme that I will talk about. And I think some of the ways we need to maximize this is by focus, not peanut butter in the money, making sure we support all levels of education. That has been a theme of ours throughout this entire discussion, and that's pre-K K through 12, but not just high school and then post-secondary. I think it's important that all of the investments that we make are laser focused on educational outcomes. And there's three of the major educational outcomes that I think we should be focused on kindergarten readiness. High school graduation and post-secondary credential credential attainment of some kind. And it's been said here before, that's not just college to your college. It's also trades. And I think and then the last theme is that throughout this complicated piece of legislation, I want to make sure we're focusing on the target populations, but not having one target population predominate over others. So that's by way of preface. And then I'm with with that, I think I, I will want to pipe up again when you get to Amendment four, if I may. Thank you. Jeff. Counselor. So we've already talked about striker team momentum. One would it's as you see, it's sort of a place within it when it contemplates reducing the amount of money that is dedicated to administration and evaluation. However, the reduction is left blank. Mr. Chair. Council Member about duty. I thought you were going to speak when you got to four. Well, this is my topic. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you look at some of our other county administered funds, 10% is a little high. I think 5% is a little low. To tell you the truth. We don't normally we're not able normally to do the kind of evaluation and administration we want to with that. But I think we should work further with the executive branch to see if we can come up with a number that's more ambitious than just allowing up to 10%. I don't know if it's worth moving an amendment with a blank in it, but I want like sort of putting my colleagues on notice that I'm looking for a number to fill in there. The average from conversations with the executive branch, I understand the average administration valuation number for best starts for kids, veterans, seniors and Human Services levy in mid is seven and a half percent and with these beans on the high end of that range of the three and this the thought was that this was closer to BSC than the other two and therefore that's why a ten is in the striker. Yes, that's less than an ardent offense of 10%, but an explanation. Understood. And it's not an unreasonable number. I mean, I'm not suggesting an unreasonable number. I just think we could be I would hope that the administration is less complex than best start for kids, because the whole concept of being focused and targeted is that there should be fewer sub buckets. They shouldn't be a couple of dozen different programs with multiple different reps per program. That's not what we're looking for here. We're looking for very targeted chunks of investment. And I hope that that takes less administration. Right. I'm amendment. To I think we have a couple more comments on one a process question. Council member up there. We're going to say the substance the discussion for if we take action or do we want to discuss are you is the intent to discuss the amendments now. Or I would hope to combine it confine our conversations now to what the amendment would do and have the debate on it if it's offered. Questions about what Amendment one does. Senate Amendment two. It's quite all right. Councilmember Gossett has distributed four draft amendments as well. So we're trying to figure out what the new perfecting order is so I can get you a new distribution. Okay. So while we're working that out, a brief overview is understood. We may jump to gossip amendments that would have come earlier, but we will continue with this list as we have it before us now. Okay. So I will. So you. I'm sorry, Mr. Schrader, would you like me to brief a moment deeply to amendment to offer by Councilmember Banducci and would remove early learning programs from the eligible use of funds in the early learning set aside? Mr. Chair. Councilmember Balducci. The key word is programs not early learning, not trying to remove early learning from the proposal. It's trying to focus this particular bucket on facilities. The idea has been that we would invest a significant portion in early learning facilities, not programs. And that is my proposal, and I would offer that amendment. I'm clarifying questions. I see none. Amendment three. Thank you. We don't have the legislation before us. Right now we're briefing. Yes. Perfect. We look forward to you offering it. Amendment three would remove the requirement to invest the 20% of funds in the home based care facilities inherent in home based care for home based care providers from the from the motion so that there would no longer be that requirement. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was going to ask staff to distribute two related. Amendments at this point. I mean, okay. Them before it seems like it's related to three. That's just what just reminded them. I don't know if we were taking action today, so I was going to wait to distribute them. But to more surprise. Great. So, Mr. Chair, to clarify, is the plan to brief the amendments here and then do the ones that are being distributed? I would think so, because that's we're prepared with a list in front of us and then we'll pick up the loose ones. Okay. Armed with a question. Council Member Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jeff, I a number three which would eliminate the 20% funding of early learning for home based child care. Seems to me this is more programmatic than facilities. So if a number two were to be approved, adopted, then it seems to me number three would be out of order. Is that correct? If I believe in if number two were to be adopted and if three wasn't adopted, then three, then that language would be inconsistent with the rest. The memo would be inconsistent because if we're saying we are going to only permit funding for facilities and not programs, number three, I don't think would be on facilities. Would it be more on. If you. Programs. You would have a situation where if you adopted number limit two and didn't up three. Then that would be clear. But it's just I don't know that three would be in order if it's includes reference to supportive services training. But for Councilmember Caldwell's, it's actually removing what I think you're describing as programmatic. So it would maybe be, in your opinion, more imperative to offer and adopt. Well, or. Then rule it out of order. Well, maybe not out of order is the right term, but if we've already adopted language that says this funding will only be for facilities, not for services and programs, it seems like number three then would change that, but only for home facilities. Okay. Mr. Chair, if I. May, council member Balducci. Referring back to my first thing, which is there is a not at all not not all entirely fully baked the target of these two amendments, from my perspective as the offer is not to single out home child care providers, but to make sure that this bucket is particularly focused on facilities. My understanding is that we can't really effectively subsidize home based facilities. If we wanted to talk about a separate section that somebody else could insert that would say some amount of money would be dedicated towards improving educational outcomes via investments in home based early learning. I would certainly consider that amendment, but I think that this bucket was meant to be about early learning facilities and that my my intent with both of these amendments is to return this bucket to that focus, not to exclude, although it has the intent of excluding at this point. Thank you. A moment for. I'm sorry. If I might think the. Ones that I distributed were identified as three, a one and a two. It might be appropriate time to brief them if they've made it around yet. They haven't made it around yet. It was going to be just my recommendation since they're directly relevant to that last one. You're right. All right, Mr. Muhammad, can you address Amendment three, a two and three A1? Yes, I can. 3a1 would reduce the 20% set aside to 10%. This is for the home based care providers. And then three two would reduce it from 20% to 5%. So two different meats, two different reduction levels. Okay. So, Amendment four. Mr. Chair. Amendment four. And the percentage a c this would reduce the King County promise percent from 45 to 30% of the available funds after evaluation administration expenditures. Councilmember Bell Dutchie. And. Can I ask you to comment on it seems to me amendments four or five, seven and eight are all adjusting percentages and wow, check that out. She has a color chart down there. I think we're all going to get a copy of it in a second. Mr. Chair, I will be happy to speak to those four amendments because you are correct. They do all sort of hang together. I hope I can describe in words because I don't have copies of this picture. Okay. But the idea is to ensure that we are funding programs that improve educational outcomes for all the target populations at each level of education. And it does that by calling out early learning stays the same. But then what is now? Just a second bucket that is entire all of K-through-12 and post-secondary together breaks that out into three areas, which is elementary and middle school. The Promise high school and the promise post-secondary. And for purposes of discussion awaits them all equally. At 15%, a piece of the funds is left over after you take out administration. That's the intent. I am not married to this approach, nor to these numbers. But I was trying to find a way colleagues to make sure that there was elementary and middle school kid aged youth called out in the program so that kids at that age level who meet the target populations could be addressed. And one of these buckets, maybe elementary, middle could be a place where you call out the community based organizations. But these amendments speak just are meant to speak just to making sure we have elementary and middle school kids defined as a level that is funded for some programing that is related to the purpose of this fund. Does that make sense or should I have copies of the pie charts made. Make sense to. Make copies of the pie chart or have them. Oops. There goes. Thank you. These were made by my office. They are not official in any way. Thank you. Except for their official documents of my office. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Just clarifications. And are they copyright? I'm getting so in that bucket. You had 315, so that's 45%. Where's the rest going? 55% to early learning as as previously stated in the motion. Okay. And then the 5% is in increased strategy. So the way the math works and there's three different pie charts in it, so it stated three different ways. You take we were at this time considering 10% for administration and evaluation. If you take 10% off the top, what remains of the fund, 55% to early learning, which is the current proposal in the Stryker, and then 45% to the remainder broken out in three equal buckets of 15% each to elementary, middle, high school and post-secondary. That said, I'm not married to those numbers and I want everybody to know that. I'm just trying to I was trying to propose a counter-proposal, I guess, because there is a proposal, a way to make sure that every level of education is being addressed. For the further questions discussion on Amendment 457, eight. All right. Mr. Mum, should I be asking you to breathe a sigh of yours? Councilmember Gossett. I'd be happy to do anything. Five A's offered by Councilmember Gossett, and it would require 30% of the funds to be invested in improving educational outcomes for vulnerable and underserved K-through-12 students rather than the 40% funds to be focused on K-through-12 age, children and youth in the King County Promise Program. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Mr.. Could you say that again slowly? I'm sorry, I'm reading it, but I want to try and share. Councilmember So ID it would require that 30% of the funds be invested to improve educational outcomes for vulnerable and underserved K-through-12 students. This is instead of the 40% of the funds that are focused on the K-12 age children through the King County promise. All right. And would that equate if I'm tracking math here to a basically the 30% under Councilmember Baldacci is the effect would be 30% of elementary middle and promise high school dollars if you're amendments were adopted. Is that is that how that would correlate? Or are we dividing the pie differently here? This would take. Yes. Is Councilmember. And your question is, is this the same? It is the 30% and this the same as the 30% contemplated under Councilmember Dickey's amendment? Yeah, her amendment, which would do elementary and middle 15% after overhead and promised high school, 15% after overhead. And the 30% that seems to match. Yes, that 30% here. Would be the same again. Okay. All right. Yeah, maybe there's some agreement there. And I remember Gosset. And I want to comment about due to their math and I agree with their just completed assessment. It's about the same concern about those you put before us. Yeah. Just to repeat it. At the risk of repeating, it looks like Councilmember Gossage Amendment five allocates 30% of the dollars outside of pre-K facilities. And it looks like you're some combination of your amendments allocates a 30% to the same population with the remaining 15% going to promise post-secondary. Yeah. So I think there there may be agreement at least on the percentages. Unless. There's some overlap. I see that. Yes, I think that's right. I think it's because we all do very simple math. Three divided by three. Yeah. I thought it was because great minds think alike. And. Right. I remember I. I have not known how her great mine was. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Brubaker. Thank you. Mr. Chair. The effects statement was very much generalized, it said, improving educational outcomes. But does this require some very specific body of work? And if so, could you enumerate that for the record, where the funds would. Yeah. It it and then. Does it tie up other funding for school districts also in any way. So this amendment strikes a bunch of language that's in there as to now starting at 997, on page five strikes all the language through to the next page on line 114, and then instead has the 30% that's focused on examining the multicultural curriculum and inclusion in history, science, arts, extracurricular activities, etc. Looks at reforming discipline, precede policies toward a restorative justice model, inhibits ongoing military training for teachers and administrators, and finds anti-bias training of staff at early childhood and kick off systems and then requires to access any of these funds. The districts agree to all elements of this legislation and subsequent work plans of the advisory group. A clarification to access funds for these purposes or to access any pastor funds they would need to. It's a sub under this so it's for this fund these under. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you I'm looking at the language online 15 subsection C. If you look up at line eight, it says the procedure precedes shall. And then in C number line 15, it does implement ongoing mandatory training for teachers and administrators and it gives the list that's pretty much done at the state level, ongoing training. I realize that each district can do their own thing, but in the existing language it says may. And I think it's important that each district decide what they want for their teacher training. And I like the May language and the existing language better than the shall. So I just want to point that difference and. I'm going to make an attempt to have our questions confined to understanding the amendments before us. But remember, we have no legislation before us at this point. We have just covered Amendment five a. If we can address the Amendment six. Amendment Six would dedicate at least 5% of the funds for improving educational outcomes for school aged students. For training of kinship care providers. All right. Questions on that. Councilmember Lambert, if it's. Oh, and explain kinship care. When we were working with calling people to see various ideas, one of our providers said, You know, it's really sad that family, which is kinship care in the foster system, gets $0. So when other foster kids, foster parents get information on and all kinds of different things like how to form an IEP , where to ask for an an ISP, which is an individualized education plan. You've never been through one of those before. It's voluminous and in a variety other things that they get training. So almost half of the foster parents in our state don't get that training. And so that's how I found out about it. And that's exactly what it does, because they currently get zero. Amendment seven. Seven would increase percentage of funds that are dedicated to higher education from 40 to 50% within the King County Province allocations. I think it's part of the suite of amendments that Councilmember Belge spoke to earlier. Seven a. Yeah. Seven eight would reduce the percentage of funds dedicate to higher education from 40% to 20%. Yes. All right. Okay. Amendment eight, the last of the quadrennial. I know what a trilogy is. What's for? It's a lot. Yeah. All right. And then they would dedicate 15% of the pastor funds to community based organizations to work with K-through-12 students to close opportunity gaps. Very good amendment. Amendment nine. Amendment nine would add represented representative from each council district to the list of people the executive will work with when developing the implementation plan. Amendment 9.5. This amendment would add criteria for the Advisory Board to have experience in racism, systemic racism, multicultural curriculum, childhood trauma, and best practices in corrective action. Restorative Justice. Amendment ten. An Amendment ten would add a lens of geographic equity to the criteria that the executive would follow in developing policies for funding facilities. Thank you. With with the amendments briefed, I would entertain a motion to put the legislation in striking amendment S1 before us. Councilmember Raquel Welch. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I proposed motion number 2019 0245. Councilmember calls this move to adopt motion. We give it to pass recommendation to motion 2019 245. Councilmember Caldwell's if you move striking amendments to. Thank you. Chair And I mean I know the striking amendment has to. Strike an amendment as to is before us. Are there any amendments? Councilmember Bell duty. I would like to move Amendment one with the number 7.5%. Councilmember Bell duty has moved adoption of Amendment One with the verbal amendment inserting 7.5% as the percentage. Councilmember Bell duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did discuss this a little bit during the briefing of the amendments. There was a blank in the amendment. I have verbally added 7.5% because that is a number that is consistent with administrative overhead for some of our other funding sources. And that, I fear is I feel is pushing as as we said we should without pushing too hard. But I would welcome further amendments further on down the road. I just think that this would be a nice placeholder. Thank you. Pence Member Garcia. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilman, about the issue, does that still include funding for evaluation? I will submit to a question. And yes, this doesn't change any of the language. It just changes the number. Okay. Councilmember approve. Thank you. I think it's a great idea. I'm open. As we get to full council to even considering a smaller number, perhaps in part because this is one time funding the role of evaluations a little bit different when we have best starts for kids or these levees that we want to renew and do on an. Ongoing basis, that. Evaluation. Piece becomes more. Critical here for providing funding for a defined period of time. It's great to get some lessons learned from it, but it isn't as if that evaluation is necessarily going to shape our investments because this investment, this funding stream stops. So there may be an opportunity to do some cost savings along the way. And I also, depending on how the money is driven out, some of our partners may also be able to provide some of their own evaluation back to us in terms of outcomes. So that I'm just sort of arguing for this being 7.5 being a maximum as we move forward. Councilmember Dombroski, thank you. I want to echo Councilmember up the Grove's comments. I would lean and there isn't a lot of science to this, but toward the 5% number, the rationale there being a good percentage of these dollars, 55%, it seems, are more will be for capital grants to early learning facilities. And I think that that is inherently compared to programing requires less evaluation and perhaps less administration. Those are probably going to be fairly significant grants. I think that there should be and probably are some efficiencies that have that we can take advantage of in our best starts for kids evaluation system, which the advocates have said. And I've also heard from providers that as part of the contracts, you know, that evaluation and reporting is built in. So I would I would lean for those reasons toward an initial 5% goal. I think if it turns out we needed to adjust that in the future, if it just was squeezing us too hard, we could. But I wanted to put my cards out there on the table for five 5%. Maybe Councilman Belushi would consider that as a friendly amendment, depending on what colleagues thought. Mr. Chair, I would prefer to start high and push lower than to start too low and have to come back higher. I just that as feels better to me so. But I'm also getting better. We may not be ready to vote on this amendment right now, so but I would just say, why don't we put 7.5 in and then work on making it smaller? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for the discussion. All those in favor of Amendment One please signify by saying I name. The ayes have it. With that I'm taken as to amendment to a. Councilmember Gossett I just want to remind you that two a conflicts with 233. A1 and three dot A2 if two A is adopted, then you cannot take action on the rest of the four point of order. Councilmember Balducci. Which which amendment comes first in perfecting order two? Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett, do you care to offer Amendment two? I wanted to offer two because I thought that the 5050 5% amount that could only be used for education outcomes for early learning was too high. Given the limits of the amount of money we have available and the very significant needs we have in K-12. That's why I am presenting this lower number. And I think in the passing out of amendments, this is one we did not brief earlier. Right. Erin or Jeff could speak to it. This would reduce the 55% number and to 40%, I believe, is you correct to the amendment customer? Yes. It also modifies the where what it can go to. It strikes line 66 through 84 on page four of the S-2 and replaces it with investments in improving educational outcomes for early learning age of vulnerable and underserved youth identified in Section eight. And then there's language that ensures geographic proximity to areas of particular need are achieved when investing these funds. Demographic data of areas with highest need based upon race, income, foster care, childbirth and juvenile justice system involvement and lack of early childhood educational services will be used to prioritize the investments. And I thought these emphasis are the same ones that the original providers of this of past put forth. They put forth four or five specific categories that mirrored the ones that you just named. And I don't I'm not understood why 55% of the total needed to go just for the zero, the five. I think that 40% is higher than the other two areas and is more reasonable than the 55. And that's what I wanted us to debate. Thank you. Discussion, Councilmember Lambert. Just clarification. What is geographic proximity? I know geographic equity, but I have never seen geographic proximity before. I know what both of those words mean, but I don't know what they mean together because I've never seen them in the law together. I'd have to defer to the sponsor of that. That's an issue. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett The difference between I didn't really understand our question and Mr. Chair, the difference between geographic proximity angiographic by proximity has to do at how close you are to the affected parties. Equity is what we're trying to achieve in spending these new government funding so that we move closer to a fuller support for these population groups that have been. Or. Are currently excluded from having these equitable opportunities. And I keep thinking about all of that when I wrote it up. This point of clarification, the summary sheet that some may be working from, has it listed at 50%? It is 40%, actually. Okay. Thank you. It's it's not 55. The striker the striking amendment as to is 55%. Your amendment would move it to 40%. Yeah. All right. Thank you for the discussion. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not planning to vote for this today, but I am very open to it, kind of depending on how the rest of the package comes together. I appreciate the the way in which it's focused around that geographic areas with the highest need. And I would be open to reducing that amount potentially in order as the puzzle pieces come together. So I just didn't want to think my no vote wasn't me. I'm open to this as it moves forward. Councilmember DEMBOSKY Hey, Mr. Chair, I'm not going to be supporting Councilmember Goss. It's well intentioned amendment today. I've just done this particular set of funding. Given it's a one time nature, I have a strong desire to ensure an investment in a very strong and deep way in capital facilities to benefit generations of young people in King County. I take a lesson from the forward thrust investments made 50 years ago and their continual return on investment to community after community, generation after generation. And I think my dear colleague, Councilmember Gossett, I appreciate where you're coming from on this, but on that particular piece of this pie, I'm pleased that I was hoping to get we can get to 60%. I'm pleased at 55. And and I want to make sure that we do that the the language in here about prioritizing particular communities in need. I'm particularly interested in as we move forward and making sure that we get that right here for all of these investments. And I appreciate your advocacy there, but for those reasons. So I'm going to not be supporting this particular amendment today. Councilmember Gossett, that's the process. Thank you, Mr. Chair. In recent years, about two and a half years ago, we had a measure that came forth and the leadership of the King County Council, and it was in the cultural area where we said we're going to get a windfall profits. I think it was like $80 million or something. And in the wisdom of the county council, we said we want it all on a very large portion of the money to go for capital investments, maybe new facilities or improved facilities to provide the cultural services. But I raised and I'm raising again now when you are just focusing all the money on building and you're asking that the parties that apply for the money invest some themselves year by year nature of how our economic system works and urban America, disadvantaged minority communities and other disadvantaged communities who don't have the agencies, for the most part don't have very much money to put into building expansion, building development. Matter of fact, 88% of them rent facilities for cultural purposes. I don't know what the percentage is for child care, and I just don't think that much of this child care money will go to build the facilities that benefit the poorest of the poor, like the originators of this pot for money have consistently indicated. I just don't see where they end up in middle upper middle class agencies building bigger facilities. And then asking a few, oh, families with lower income kids to come in. And I don't think that's the intent and I don't think that's something that we have been very good at achieving here in our government. Thus, that is why I put forth this amendment. Others in favor of amendment to please signify by saying I oppose name no. If the amendment is not adopted amendment to Councilmember Bell duty. Amendment to. Councilman Bill Duke's moved adoption of amendment to Councilmember Bell duty. Just as a reminder, this is intended to, I believe, restore language from an earlier version that focuses the early learning segment on facilities rather than programs. And again, I want to signal a willingness to work between now and final passage on language and what might end up being a side fund of some sort that could fund things that are left out. But in keeping with our theory that we want to make strong as make strong and deep impact in each of these areas, I think that the intent here was for early learning facilities, not for programs for home based childcare. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Dombroski. Hey, Mr. Chair. So speaking in support of the amendment, in addition to the reasons articulated just a moment ago in response to the amendment to a in my discussions with advocates and experts in the earlier, I feel it's my understanding that the state is making significant investment in operational resources in this space. In addition, the City of Seattle has a particular levy for early childhood education to fund operations. And I believe, Mr. Chair, as we move toward renewal of BSC, that there will be a space and an opportunity to talk about countywide operations funding to help organizations run the space. I just kind of want to set that out there that it is hopefully an ongoing and renewable revenue stream. Again, the quasi one time nature of these, I think, provides a very special opportunity to build facilities that will invest in in multiple, perhaps even seven generations of kids in this county. And so I think this amendment is well taken, and I like the direction. I'm happy to support it. And thank Councilmember Modiji for bring it forward. For the discussion. Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I may be outnumbered on this one. I'm going to, even though I agree with 90% of it, I'm going to be a no vote, in part because I think my primary interest is in the family home, early learning programs. That's where I see a lot of the immigrant refugee families in my district and a lot of families get there early learning and get their child care. And while they have significant capital needs, we can talk about that at the future amendments. I think there also are some missed opportunities to make investments, you know, through B, s K, we invest in one of the strategies that the child care health consultations that writes culturally diverse coaching and training to child care providers. And I think we could enhance some of that with this work. And I appreciate the comments about if we can enhance our with this work and maybe continue to look at best starts for kids that is that gets renewed as well. So my preference in part because of my interest in the family child care space would be to keep some flexibility here. But I certainly understand the other arguments as well. Councilmember Gossett And then Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be joining Councilmember of the Grove on this amendment because the overwhelming majority of the child care facilities available more easily to African-Americans, immigrants, refugees and low income inner city people are the home based child care centers. And why we can't dedicate a minimum 20% of the funds for that portion of the child care providers is very difficult for me to understand. Yes, easier and better. If you have a institution that's big and not just based on the house you own. Or. Or in your own. Eric able to keep six kids, but collectively this is a large percentage of the current child care providers and I would like for them to have more funds available for their development to. Therefore I will vote no. On. Amendment number three. Okay. Thank you. I thank you. Councilmember Gossett. I will call on myself now. And I have this I did bring this up earlier when we first started discussing amendments that I was concerned that if we voted for amendment number two, that we would be forgoing any ability to provide any amount of funding for home based early learning programs. And I'm wondering, Councilmember Bell, do Chee and by the way, I also support completely what Councilmember DEMBOSKY said. However, I'm wondering if we could amend you have a friendly amendment to your amendment number two, and that would have the effect of this, including home based programs without giving any amount. Councilmember Upton Grove has amendments coming up that would lower the amount from 20%, which I would favor. I'm not sure what I'm being asked. Can you say one more time, please? If we were to amend your amendment with the friendly amendment for language that would exclude home based, early learning, family, friends and so forth, so that we would eliminate remove early learning programs from eligible use of funds so that we would have only capital funding. Can I try? Yeah, because it seems we're conflating who gets the money with what kind of money, and that's confusing me. Sorry. So that's right. Looking at the striker as to you on page four. Customer Duties Amendment is on line 68. So I think what you're saying has overt goals is that the investments would be for facilities that support early learning and early interventions for children, King County and for programs and facilities for home based providers. Or it could be words differently, excluding vending for home based. But I think I could be convinced to support one or both of councilmember up the clubs amendments but still want the what I think of as the child care early learning centers rather than the home based ones to be strictly used. The funding would be strictly used for the development and construction and so forth of the facilities not providing programs, not me, not providing any funds for operations and programing. My amendment is intended to direct 55% of this funding towards early learning facilities period. And you're suggesting that there would be some unspecified as yet carve out for facilities and programs for home based learning? And that is, I think, contrary in part to the intent of the amendment. So I would not consider a differently amendment. Thank you, though, for attempting to be friendly semantics here. Yeah, that may be different, but further discussion. Anything to close? Which which? No. My amendment to all those in favor of amendment two, please say I oppose. Nay. No, no. A division has been called for all those in favor of Amendment two. Please raise your hand. All those opposed. I'm reading right now. I see you, Reagan. All right. The amendment carries. With the vote 4 to 5. Yes, sir. Okay. Amendment three. Councilmember Belushi. November three Council Member Bill duties moved adoption of Amendment three. Council Member Bill BTP. To go. Ahead. Point of order. Point of Order. Council Member up the growth. Would adoption of this amendment preclude consideration of a different amendment on the same topic? Yes. Oh yeah. Is there. Is it. First come first served for motions. It's perfecting the order is the order in which we're going through. Councilmember Bell duty touches line 80 and you touch line 81. Mr. Chair. Council Member Bell Duchy. This may be for staff. It's a procedural question and it may actually be for a council member up the grove. It's like negotiating in public, which is always fun. I, I would be willing to hold this whole topic for further discussion as opposed to trying to resolve it now by a 4 to 5 or 5 to 4 vote, if you would be willing to do so. And I would yield my pole position, if you will, in order to try to figure out a way to deal with Homebase. Because I don't want the record to reflect that I am opposed to funding home based programs. I just don't think it belongs here. So if you'd be willing to do two reserve three for our next meeting, I would be as well. Council member of the Guild. Short answer. Yes, thank you. And then to, as they say, home a few bars so people understand my interest and we go on to the next next phase. As I mentioned, you know, there's a lot of a lot of families rely on these family day care providers and family home early learning programs. And I think one of the advantages of investing here is we can very much target focus at our targeted. Population, where. We can maximize our investments in the most vulnerable. And many of these family child care license providers have had challenges meeting some new state requirements that are necessary to even sustain their businesses. Things like dedicated water heaters, new enclosed spaces, and other requirements that require large capital investments there. Also, you know, our challenges meeting, training needs, there are operational costs. But I did want to be clear that these smaller family home programs have capital needs. In fact, the state of Washington funds at about an 8 to 1 ratio there, capital investments in early childhood facilities for about every 800,000. They invest in large grants to the big facilities. They spend about 100,000 on minor repairs and renovations for these licensed family based providers. So they take about 11% in terms of a benchmark, about 11% of their funds for capital upgrades and maintenance go into the smaller providers. And so that's sort of the strategy I'm interested in continuing to discuss whether it's focusing in on just the capital, whether it's a lower amount, what the amount is, what that balance is. And I'm not flexible. I just wanted to. Kind of keep that. Topic under discussion as we move forward. And in the interest of I mean, if you bars or sharing sharing interests, I'm not opposed to and might be interested in providing funding for some of the home based care. But I'm have concerns that 20% of this bucket of this allocation is significantly large, in my opinion. Councilmember Demovsky name is Chair and not having given this piece of a lot of thought candidly, but I my reaction is this the interest that I have in in kind of the child care centers and the investment in them is the semi permanency of them and the ability, again, to handle thousands and thousands of youngsters to use an old term over the course of their life. The intriguing piece of the home based system which is integral to delivering this is it can be closer to neighborhoods, right? It's barriers to starting them up can be lower and they can, in cases, provide more culturally relevant and responsive care to our individualized communities that want that. So if there were a piece of this funding stream that could help stem that up, I'm not categorically opposed to it, but I would want to see some parameters around protecting the public investment in terms of time, you know, if you're going to buy some capital improvements, you want to see in our in our grantmaking and be interesting to see what the state has, that we get a return on that investment. It wouldn't have to. As long as a dedicated child care facility. Right. But something something to address that particular piece of it. There you go. I think a free pass. Councilmember Oh. Gee, I want to retract amendment number three. Amendment three is withdrawn. Do I understand that three, a one and two will not be offered. Amendment four. Councilmember Councilmember. Mr. Chair, I am prepared to not offer amendments four, five, seven and eight on a similar theory that I withdrew Amendment three because I feel like these are major changes to what's in front of us, that people have somewhat similar ideas that they're working on, but they're just a little bit off from one another in terms of some of the expenditures, and the community hasn't had an opportunity to react to any of it. So I would like to suggest that maybe in terms of making changes to the allocations that we reserve that topic for our next meeting, whether that be another committee meeting or the final council meeting. I'm a little nervous about this because once again, because I submitted my amendments for a change on time or earlier, less, less late than my colleagues. I get annoyed about that one. Okay. No time like the. I'm giving up my pole position here. But I would like to ask that we work together with our staff between now and the next meeting to try to figure out what changes. I think we've had some good discussion about changes to the buckets that are in order, and we've heard some good testimony today, and I would like to take those into account before moving four, five, seven or eight. But I'd also like to ask my colleagues who have five A's and seven A's and whatnot, to join me in holding off until we can work through some issues. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett, as the maker of five and seven A, are you willing to hold off as well? I concur with Counselor about that. She. All right, then. Lightning speed run to Amendment six. Councilmember Lambert. 600. Thank you, Mr. Chair. End with Amendment number six. Councilmember Lambert moved adoption of Amendment six. Council Member Lambert. Thank you and dedicates to one of our groups that's important to all of us is our foster care children. And it dedicates at least 5% of the 25% for improving educational outcomes for school aged students. So for school age, students that are in kinship care with prospective foster parents provided are undergoing training and licensing. They receive training on how to shepherd the children through the K-12 system. This includes learning how to get children into the individual education program, which I said earlier is an IEP. If you haven't seen an IEP, it's not easy. And a lot of times minority parents get overwhelmed. Everybody gets overwhelmed, actually, sometimes, including the teachers, by how voluminous these things are. And so if you don't have somebody shepherding you through it or helping you, it's very difficult. And with 45 to 50% of the foster children who are placed with family members in kinship care, they get $0 zero help from the state and they have to figure this out on their own. Well, 15 to 20% of these families do seek licensure. Many kinship care providers do not. And there is no requirement they need to because it's family members taking care of families. So I feel that we need to support family members taking on the responsibility of caring for children that would otherwise be placed in regular foster care homes. Not familiar and providing funding for kinship care, educational advocacy training will not only provide necessary support to kinship care providers, but will also lead to a noticeable difference in their educational outcomes for these children. So I was really surprised to find out that these kids get nothing and they're providers. And as a a parent or grandparent, if I were to get new children coming into my family, obviously coming from a situation where they were in stress, taking on new kids with issues and starting all over again and then finding out that I wasn't able to get any help would add more stress to the situation. So I hope that we will be able to support them with about 5% of the money. Councilmember Belge Mr. Chair, thank you. I don't I don't know, frankly, whether I support this or don't support this. Obviously, I support the idea and the and the the work that needs to be done to make sure that kids in foster care have well-trained foster care parents. We also just need flat out more foster care parents. I mean, you could put a whole lot of money into foster care and still not meet the need. But this funding is targeted specifically at increasing educational outcomes for foster care youth. And I just don't know enough sitting here today to know whether these programs do that. And so if it's offered today, I'm going to have to vote no today, also, partially because I don't see any other places where we're pointing out specific, smaller, targeted programs. We're trying to is we're trying to focus on the big impacts like early learning facilities and the promise program. And and this just to me is it moves in the direction of targeted call outs, which looks like we're starting to peanut butter the money. And it also I'm not sure that it meets the goal of the money. If it wasn't offered today, I would certainly spend more time learning how it might fit or if it might fit. But if it's offered today, I'm just reluctantly going to have to be a no on this amendment, I'm sorry to say. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question for our staff. I have historically been a frequent visitor to the Atlanta Street Center programs. One of their primary programs over the last 12 years that they've been noted for is their kinship program. And when I last visited it a couple of years ago, just generally thinking back, about 60% of the grandmothers and grandfathers who were, for the most part in kinship providers were getting foster care money. The other 35 to 40% were not. So my question to you is, we already have foster children as a designated group that can receive these funds. Is that do we not have any knowledge on whether or not the kids were in foster care, but being raised by their grandparents or other relatives are included and eligible for foster care consideration and this funding. I'll have to get back to you on that, counselor. Then I have the same concerns about that you raised, though. We need to get a clarification as to whether or not this class of people are already eligible and they're off the fence. You know the question about the effect statement. I know we have a lot flying around here. Is this delegates at least 5% of the. It says 25%. I believe it's 40. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Lambert, thank you. Well, first of all, the research that we did in calling the state was that these these children and their families, kinship families, get $0 for the training to do their IEPs and help them with whatever they need help with. So if you have a child that's in a foster licensed foster care, they get certain services. And if they're with their families, they don't get those services. So that is of great concern to me. Also, I think that we could put this together with the issue that we're talking about with home daycares, because you can kind of consider kinship a home daycare, although it's longer term with more issues going on. So I'm willing to pay for this, but I would ask that we look at that as part of what we put together with the home daycare issues. Is that okay with that other. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So six is withdrawn. Okay. Taking us to nine. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you very much. I need amendment number nine. Councilmember Lambert moved adoption of amendment number nine. Councilmember Council member Lambert. Thank you. And the stroke of this executive is directed to work in consultation with council staff, service providers and stakeholder representatives. This amendment adds that they will also work with a representative from each of our council districts and that will make the process much smoother between the executive development and transmittal to the council. That way, council members can provide more formalized feedback throughout the process. I urge your support. Council Member. I apologize, Mr. Chair. I am just not clear on the is it with in our council district or with our staff. I just didn't follow the. Yes. That they work with us to make sure that we have somebody that we assigned to be on the committee to report back to us. Yes. I may need staff to reorient me. Then I apologize to the committee. Which committee? This is who the executive is required to consult with on creating the implementation plan. I think so is the suggestion that we. Appoint. A committee made up of representatives from each of us? Is that what the sponsors? I don't know if there was an existing committee or. This is part of when you do the implementation plan that when we get to the next step and on the implementation plan, that they will work more closely with our individual offices. With our offices. Okay. I think. Councilmember Dombrowski. Just speaking briefly in support, but I think it's a clarifying amendment on line 148 where we're already working or the executive will work in consultation with council staff, which typically refers to our central staff. So I think offering the opportunity for individual office staff to participate makes good sense and I look forward to supporting it. Okay. Councilmember Gossett. No, I'm cool. Okay. I know you're cool. I thought you had something to say. No, I don't have anything. Okay. Councilmember Library. Would you like to add the word office after district to clarify? Others in favor of Amendment nine. Please see, I. I oppose nine. The ayes have it. Nine is adopted. 9.5 Councilmember Gossett. Okay. Point by. A 9.5 is one of the later amendments that I put forth, and that is that the advisory group should have expertize to areas of race, systemic racism, multicultural curriculum, childhood trauma and best practices and corrective action and restorative justice. These are the kind of inputs based on best practices that I've seen work best and coming up with evaluation and operational programs aimed at serving the most at risk excluded populations in our community. And that is one summit that the advisory group members or a large proportion thereof have this kind of expertize comes. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. In looking at that. The way it's written, it looks like that's all the expertize is and there could be more expertize. So I'm wondering if online, but we could say instead of the word IRB use the words such as expertize in areas such as and then the list rather than because that makes it look like that's all the list where we may have other skills that we'd like. How about including. Ink? So it requires all of those and is open to even more. Alike, such as better. Because you may have somebody that isn't familiar with one particular area but is really good in all the others. So depending upon their skills, I'd like to see that more broadly, such as. And Mr. Chair, I'd like to follow your advice and I'd be open to including. So I hear you. I hear you change accepting and friendly amendment or change in line five of your amendment to be areas including. Race and and in the others I have listed here. Yes, they're very good. So can I ask for the. Discussion, Councilmember. Lambert? Legal question. So it does including make mandatory or does it make general. Are you asking. That? Well, we're not lawyers, but this is a motion. So. Okay, this is the attorney with their hand up where? Oh, no, I'm an attorney. I start paying my burdens this year. Yes, I know. Mr. Chair. Councilmember, the. Way I would read that language is that the when you look at it in context, is that the advisory group must include this expertize, not that each and every single member of the advisory group must have this expertize. And I agree that it would be very important that the group have this expertize at the table. So I think it's a very fair amendment and I'll support it. And that was my intent. Council member Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Perhaps to staff just the way I'm reading the amendment and the original language and striking amendment to appear on line 153. It says the governance structure to include but not be limited to two. So it seems to me that that is more inclusive of other examples. But I would for example, my concern is when we used raised systemic racism, racism, multicultural education and so forth. I mean, we may want to look at ethnicity or individual representing individuals with disabilities and so forth. So it could be much broader. But I think given that we have the language but not be limited to, we would not be proscribing any other group from being changed, being not included. Is that correct? And I think. Pat shaking his hand. I'm not sure we followed the question, but the report, the governance structure that's called for, needs to be an element of the executive's report that comes back to the council. So that would just be a recommendation. Back to you. Yeah. Then that's fine. Okay. Thank you. Councilor Dembele. Mr.. Speaking in support of the amendment but also taking the opportunity to say at a just state that as I understand this language in the striking amendment, even as amended, we don't specify or require that this be a new group and that in fact it would. And that being the case, I would hope we could look at our Children and Youth Advisory Board as the entity that would take on this work. And I think there could be some some synergies there. Understand that there may be a deficiency of expertize in the promise area. We might have to add some awareness to that. But just want to flag that for our colleagues as we move forward, maybe have some refinement there. Councilmember Dombroski, I think you were listening in to the whispered conversation council members Caldwell's and I were having a moment ago. There wasn't, but it's a rare moment of great me like again. And. Mr. Chair. Council Member Well. And just to note, I had brought that up earlier as one possibility, we would have to add language relating to postsecondary higher education. But I think the Children Youth Advisory Board is a good place to look. Thank you. All those in favor of Amendment 9.5, please say I opposed nay. The ayes have it and 85 is adopted. Amendment ten Council Member Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for backing up. I'd like to move Amendment number ten. And now from member Lambert's moved adoption of Amendment ten. Council member Lambert thank you. This amendment at the line within the policy for funding early learning facilities that will lead the implementation plan development process to utilize a lens of geographic equity doesn't mean that you have to divide things in nine districts, but a lens of geographic equity when considering considering potential sites. There are many needs for early learning facilities throughout the entire county, so geographic equity should be a consideration when moving forward. Doesn't mean that it has to be equal, but it should be a consideration. So I urge your support. Further discussion, Councilmember Dombrowski. I want to make sure I understood and maybe staff confirm this, that this would be an additional lens in addition to the other focused language in the legislation. It would not and would not be given any weight beyond the others. Is that is that how it reads if adopted right. In specifically for early setting the early learning facilities? What did you think. Its limited to the early learning facilities? Okay, I'll just say I'll support this. I think it's in a factor and I may be open to refining as we go forward, but I think it's a factor that is not unreasonable to take into account as long as it's not overweighted or predominant. Speaking for myself, I'm going because this is particularly because this is to early learning facilities. I'm not going to be supportive. I believe we've already spoken to a geographic need by addressing service deserts and don't want to. I don't want to overlay or conflate broader geographic equity with service deserts we're trying to address. For the discussion. Councilmember Gossett One of the concerns that I have is that our discussions around equity have frequently entered the arena of members saying, how come none of these programs are in my district? And the foundational basis for some of the issues we've dealt with like that are that we want to target groups that we think have been significantly disadvantaged. And if that group is not in some people's districts, that's used as a basis for objections, I'm trying to figure out how to have the broadest definition of equity possible, but that it not be significantly confined to geographic. And I don't really know if it's avoidable, but I have some uneasiness with geographic equity and there's part of our proposal that we're considering. Thank you, Mr.. For the discussion. Others in favor, please signify by saying I oppose nay. The ayes have it. That takes us to striking amendment eschew division. I'm not sure they did division. All those in favor of Amendment ten. Please raise your hand. And Reagan is on the phone. I'm raising. All right. I see you, Reagan, and all those opposed. Mimicry that takes us to strike an amendment as to as amended discussion. Others in favor of the strike. In amendment as amended, please signify by saying i. I opposed nay. The striking amendment as to was adopted that has motion 2019 245 as amended before US discussion. Councilmember Belushi. I want to suggest that whatever we do, this should be without recommendation because we left significant work on the table. But, you know. We. The the motion was made, I believe, with recommendation, with the makers permission. We will the motion would be to move it to full council without recommendation. Yeah. And I'm right, I would anticipate that being before the council three weeks from this coming Wednesday, which I believe is the 29th, but I shouldn't be guessing calendar dates in my head. 21st. 21st, if I might. Mr. Chair. Argument. Council Member Dombrowski. Just for education or knowledge, but for awareness. That would be the first council meeting after our return from recess. And I would suggest that the Chair, given the timing of that and the significant nature of this work and the opportunity for refining that a one week courtesy delay would be granted and that you could expect action on the tape if we do it at a regular council meeting and not a special. So just for to give colleagues and the community time to understand the schedule and what somebody has strong objection to that, but I'm seeing the same thumbs up for that schedule. So we would shoot for the 28th after the traditional one week courtesy delay in this chair while I have the floor. Thank you for your leadership here in the committee of the hall to advance the ball. And I feel that you've done it in a very balanced way with letting all members in the community participate openly. And we've made a little sausage in front of everybody, which is not how we always do it. But I feel that you've moved this ball forward at an appropriate pace and wanted to thank you for it. Thank you. See no further discussion and with acknowledged significant work in some key areas to be done. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member. Banducci Council Member Dombrowski Council Member. Done. By. Council Member. Gossett I. Council Member Cornwall Council Member Member I. Council Member of the Grove Council. Member one right there. Mr. Chair. All right, Mr. Chair, the vote is nine eyes no nos. Thank you. By your vote, we have advanced motion 2019 245 to full council without recommendation. It would be on the regular agenda on August 21st, but one should expect a courtesy delay with it coming up for action in full council a week following the week following the 28th of August. Council member Lambert Thank you. If we do what we just said, then we'll have a lot of people here on the 21st to speak to it. But you can't say a courtesy to either Kirstie Hall for a week or eight to a date certain. And I'm thinking if we say to a date certain, then it won't show up on the 21st, be on the tape. And I think that sends a more clear message to the public. The Chair is certainly amenable to that. If that's the will of the body here, I'll defer to the chair of this committee to clarify the motion timing and when it will be heard. What would members be willing to expect that we would take action on the 28th and not then have a11 week courtesy delay on the 28th? Yes. Advancing it to the following week. I'm seeing head nods. Councilmember Dunham Senior had nod, too. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right, then. Then we will move. Motion. The motion out to a date certain of August 28th. Full council and expect action on that day. And with that accomplished and no further business can before the committee.	A MOTION relating to identifying the future allocation of Puget Sound Taxpayers Accountability Account proceeds to priority educational areas and requesting the executive to develop plans to allocate proceeds within the priority educational areas.
king_fe800dd1-e29a-4a73-8470-12ca3a4f23c9	Right. Then we're going to call. I'm calling the Committee of the Home to order for Tuesday, October 20th. And as we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that one of the traditional lands of the Puget Sound is peoples past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community in light of the ongoing public health emergency. The governor has issued an emergency order suspending this section of the Open Public Meetings Act that requires we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. This order has been extended by the leadership of the State House of Representatives and Senate. Today we'll start our meeting with two briefings, first from the executive branch on the county's COVID 19 response and then from our cultures. Executive Director Brian Carter on the organization's 2021 2022 Budget and Plans. Following these briefings, we'll have two wastewater proviso responses on the consent agenda. These were passed out of the Regional Water Quality Committee last month, minimal closed meeting with two items for discussion and possible action. An ordinance related to the lease to a lease with the Department of Transportation for land and Facilities on State Route 520 related to Metro Service and an ordinance that would authorize the Executive to extend the Interlocal agreement with the King County Flood Control District through next year. Two housekeeping issues as we get started. To help us manage the meeting, I'd ask the public as well as executive and council staff, Please keep your video off until just before you come to speak. Additionally, if you're connecting to the meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment, please connect to the meeting through the Zoom application. If you're connected without the Zoom application, we may not be able to unmute you to speak and or there may be a significant delay. And we would have called on you and then called on someone else. Subsequently, before you would speak up, we would hear you speak up. With that housekeeping out of the way, Madam Clerk, I'd ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member founded by your council member. Dombrowski. Here, you're council member. Done one council member Commonwealth or the member here? Council member. Oscar. Council member, Yvonne. I council members online here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell, you were the last one with your video on. Would you be kind enough to move approval of the minutes of our August six meeting? Yes, Mr. Chair. So moved. Thank you. The October six meeting minutes are before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes. Please say I am opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Item four and our agenda is public comment. Before I go through our procedures for public comment. I'm wondering if there's actually anybody on the line who wishes to offer public comment. And frankly, I believe the call is so small, the zoom screen is so small that I see everyone. It occurs to me that it is possible that someone could be on the phone wanting to speak, but I think we would still see their phone number. And so I would ask if. Madam Couric if we could unmute everyone. And if you're here for public comment, if you could please speak up now. If you're here for public comment, if you can, please say your name. All right, then I'm going to determine. There is no one here for public comment. And Madam Clerk ask you to remove. Remind everyone. I'll be myself. Ivory muted everyone, Mr. Chair. And afforded you by. I'm muting myself. So with no one here for public comment, I'll turn pages through my notes. And that takes this item five. That's the briefing that is now a standard feature at the beginning of our account meetings on the county's response to the COVID 19 pandemic and as usual, to provide the briefing is timely. The Director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, Mr. Dave Lee. Welcome. Hey. Thank you, Councilmember. It's a pleasure to be here, as always. For the record, Dwight, I believe the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, and I actually have five things that I thought I would share with you here this afternoon. So, first of all, last Thursday, the executive did transmit to the council the fifth and presumably final COVID related supplemental appropriation ordinance, which is a large and fairly complex ordinance that I know your staff has already started looking at the. I'll just give you a couple of highlights. The idea of one big part of the ordinance is to make sure that we have appropriated all of the federal COVID response funding that we receive the the $262 million that we call the Coronavirus Relief Fund. And so you will see in there appropriations for county staff, expenses for additional purchases of things like PPE, for additional testing, and a variety of other things, with the goal being to have everything appropriated and then to be able to spend as much as we possibly can by the December 30th date, which is when all of that money has to be spent or we return it to the federal government. And so you'll find that that I guess the second thing to note is there's some pretty complicated interrelationships between the general fund budget for the next biennium. So the budget you are now considering and how this federal money works in the current year. And basically, to give you a very simplified version of that, the A, we have an ability to take some of our existing 2020 budgeted costs and shift them over to the federal money in compliance with the federal rules. In doing so, we free up existing resources in the general fund, which we used then for a variety of purposes, notably to provide our expected match next year for the theme of money that we expect to get from the federal government, which is a whole separate process, and we will need to have a match for that. And so by freeing up resources in 2020, we make them available next year for that match. We also have used some of the money as consistent with the executive's proposed budget to build additional fund balance this year that you will be spending next year to continue programs. And then finally, we believe there are some costs that we originally thought could be charged to the federal funding, which now probably are not eligible. We've been working with outside counsel without consulting firm. And so we've identified some of those costs that we think we will actually need to have general fund money available for rather than the CARES Act money. So all of those complicated interrelationships show up in this final ordinance. We got lots of explanatory material that we have shared with your staff, and I'm sure they'll be doing a staff report that will capture all of that and more. But I just want to kind of give you a quick overview of some of the complexities that you'll encounter when you start looking at that ordinance. And so I will pause at this point and see if there's any questions about that. Thank you, Mr. Hively. I would ask, given the interrelatedness to the current fiscal year, is there any timeline by which either the accounts you would expect the Council is required to act by or would be optimal for the Council to act by on this? I believe that by the end of the year. Yeah. I think our plan is to have this done in early December, which will be fine. It's just will be important that whatever decisions you made about the general fund for the 2122 budget, which will get made sooner than that, need to be at least reasonably consistent with your final action on this COVID related supplement. You know, there's always a margin of flexibility there, but those two things just need to be kept in mind. But otherwise, you know, early December will be fine. Thank you. Any other questions on point one COVID supplemental hearing? No, go ahead. Okay. Thank you. So my second thing I want to do, and I think I do this every two weeks, is give you an update on some of the grant programs that the council has funded in previous COVID supplementals. And I've got some information on more of these, but I've picked out five of them that I know are of interest to at least some of you first. And this is very timely because you're going to get a briefing from Brian Carter here, right, as soon as I'm done. We have reached agreement with four culture and have transferred the original money to them that you appropriated. What is it now three months ago? So that's one that we have actually completed. And so, again, I'm sure he can give you an update on the status of that now that it is in their hands. A second one to note. You will remember that we did two different kinds of grants to community based business organizations, so chambers of commerce and similar organizations. And every one of those agreements is now done and signed. And that was the fairly large numbers. So those are all done. I thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Not all the money has been dispersed, but we're well over half way in getting the project first as well. So that's going very, very well. The funds that were allocated to cities, which they in turn are going to use to also do business support in their communities. Our estimate is about half of that has been spent today and there's no reason to expect it won't all be spent by the end of the year. So that one is going very well as well. There's a variety of funds that have become available for eviction prevention that the Department of Community and Human Services is administering. And they have a tool right now of $41.4 million or is available for that, and they have 30 billion of that under contract. So they have moved very quickly with these funds. And again, there shouldn't be any reason that we won't get all the money allocated and spent by the end of the year. But I know that was one that was a high priority for several council members and that one is going very well as well. A fifth one I will note is you provided funding for the survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, which at least domestic violence, unfortunately, in the COVID era has gone up. As many of you do are aware, you allocated $1.75 million for that, and so far we've actually placed 1.8 million. So somewhat more than half. And again, there should be no reason that we don't get all of that money spent by the end of the year. And I actually should mention a couple others that I didn't have in my original list. But let me add two to that. Recently, you approved funding to support restaurants as they go through the reopening process and kind of the survival process. That money went to public health, but they are working with our Office of Emergency Management to actually disburse those funds and they are just now getting to the point of where they're going to launch this program. They call it the Aid to Restaurants Mitigation Fund will be announced this week. And what they're going to do is they're going to support restaurants in buying equipment, PPE, outdoor heaters and so on, things that will support them in their operations going forward so that they have more opportunity to survive. As everyone knows, that restaurant business is one of the ones that has been hit hardest by COVID. And then finally, I know of particular interest to some of you where the county has cited an isolation and quarantine facility or a shop altered that has been spread out out of the traditional congregate shelters. You broadened our ability to support not just the cities where those are located, but businesses in those cities if they are adversely affected by having the facilities in their communities. And the Office of Emergency Management now has contracts in place with three of those cities, and they're working with the executive's office on outreach to businesses. So if a business has a cost that has been occurred because of our presence in that community will be able to offset that cost later this year. So that was a quick run through of seven of them. You know, of course, there are many, many more than that. But that's a quick sense of how well we're progressing. I will say it's consumed a great deal of staff time across the government. And we have staff who have never administered grants before, who have now learned a whole new skill set. And folks have really stepped up. They're getting awfully. Tired, I will just say but I really stepped up to get this money out into our community is and it's as far as I can tell is going very, very well . Thank you. Councilmember up the grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, on that last point, it sparked a question of concern that's been raised with me as we extend some of the isolation quarantine sites that the intensification facilities beyond the end of the year using temporarily using non cares act dollars. I'm interested in ensuring that we also find a way to handle the mitigation beyond the end of the year that cares dollars. I think it would be a very small cost. Given my experience with the uptake. But I know my staff is kicking around ideas, whether it's a supplemental budget appropriation or I don't know what it is . I just want to flag that as an issue that's been identified at least by some businesses locally. So, Councilmember, I'm going to presume that the Council does what the executive recommended, which is to appropriate one more months of those facilities using money from the rainy day fund. If you do choose to do that, I think what I would suggest is that you might add that something like $50,000 to the amount we proposed, because that amount was not calculated to include any mitigation costs, which I agree with you should be modest. So I think a small budget increase. And then if you wanted to make a statement through my proviso or something, that we should continue to provide the mitigation as long as we're operating those facilities, I think that would be good policy guidance from the Council. Thank you. I'll talk to the budget chair. Thanks. Anyone else. Councilmember Dombrowski Oh, thank you. Chair McDermott And I just wanted to give some appreciation to Dwight for developing that restaurant program. I know he probably got tired of me harping along with our budget wells all summer about we got to help the restaurants we got out, the restaurants they really impacted. And I really just want to say it sounds like you've hit the right mark at the right nexus between, you know, county government and that industry that we play a role in, in terms of our public health departments of a much appreciation. Thank you. Well, I will accept your thanks on behalf of public health and OEM. It was not my work, but I appreciate your persistence and clearly an industry that needs our support. And I think they did come up with a way that works in that it actually actually helps the restaurants and it gets the money out the door quickly. Yeah, it was not an easy thing to figure out how to do it and do it. Lon Yeah, some of the obvious things that you would think we could do just because of the nature of the federal act, we couldn't. So it took creativity on their part, but I think we got there. So to all the restaurants out there, we want to keep you open so we can come enjoy your fine food and tip your workers and come come to the county. We'll help you out. Thanks. Like. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Dunn on the line. Justify all this. Welcome. Questions for Mr. Lively. Further questions. Council Member Col Wells. Madam Budget Chair Unmute yourself and let Dwight have it. I will go over it. Is that start coming out of your colleagues mouths this time of year are very interesting to hear council member go Wells. Okay and note that I'm talking my cat is not right now my noisy cat. Ah anyway I you mentioned that $30 million is under contract for eviction protection. I missed the total amount, but you said. The total amount that is available for that is 41.4 million. Gordon, thank you. And you know the timeframe on approximately when the rest will be going there. They are me. I'm glancing at my lengthy document here. So the last segment of this program, which you might remember, was direct aid, plus aid to small landlords plus aid to larger landlords. The last part of that is to close on October 23rd, which would be this Friday. So that portion then, by the time you work through those details is probably mid-November would be my guess. Thank you. Precautions. And remember Lambert. And people still apply for this money for the the. Um. Let me see what I know. Tell me. Councilmember Lambert, this may be the first time I've ever seen Mr. Dave. We have to stop and look something up and know it off the top of his head. This is not the first time. Councilor McDermott. Said. Marketing history because it doesn't happen very often. So how come I remember the information I have from DC? HS Is that the remaining amount, the roughly $670,000? The department is talking to several organizations about allocating that money to them. I That would imply to me that if an organization is not in contact with this. HS And they got in contact very soon, there might still be an opportunity to do that. It's. Follow up on that. And see if if you have an organization check to see whether they're engaged and if they're not, they should reach out literally in the next day or two to these tests to see if there might be an opportunity to get some of the remaining funding. Thank you so much. Is helpful. Thank you. Colleagues. Mr. Devlin. Okay, I have two of the things, and these will be quick. So an update on money we are getting from FIMA. I think I let you know that we actually were very pleased just to get full approval from FEMA for the initial investments we made in our isolation and quarantine facilities and related facilities. I know costs were questioned, which is a great, great sign there. We actually expected we would have funding in place received by today. We don't quite yet. The information I got this morning from the Office of Emergency Management is that the state says it will be a few days before we actually receive those funds. And for those of you that have worked for the federal government, a few days may not mean exactly what we all would think it would mean. But nonetheless, it's still very, very fast work by the federal government compared to traditionally the two or three year time lag on FEMA reimbursement. So that still remains a very good story that the money is coming in quickly. And then just kind of on an unrelated theme, I know we might all remember we had some winter storms. It's hard to think back that far. And I mean, it's only, what, eight months or something like that. But we have significant costs and we incurred in places like roads and parks. And our current estimate is that we will eventually get about $6 million from FEMA for all of those storm related expenses. So just file that away. That one is probably on a more traditional payment schedule. So we would frankly be lucky to get that money next year. It might even be 2022, and we have not budgeted that in any way at this point because we don't have a full assurance that we'll will get it. And that's what I have on film. I'll pause and see if there's any questions before going to the last point. Looks like we have clear sailing on 2.5. Okay. Because the you're getting very good at looking around the screen and checking your oblique. So something will actually perfect this and they will never have to have in-person meetings again. Okay. So last point and I save the really good news for the end is I think you all know we are selling bonds next Tuesday and so you'll be actually hearing that in your council meeting. And we, of course, then have to go out and meet with the bond rating agencies in advance of that to get our ratings. And, you know, given the circumstances there, there are some risk that we need to be downgraded or they would give us what's called a negative outlook , which is a process where they say, well, we're going to keep the same bond rating, but we may not see that staying that way in the future. There's some risk to that. So we'll give you a negative outlook. I am very pleased to report that we have received all three of our rating agency reports and they all reaffirm the county's triple-A rating with a stable outlook. So there is no looking negative for us at this point. And they they did that acknowledging, you know, all of the impacts of COVID on our finances, acknowledging the very limited revenue flexibility we have under Washington state law. But they noted, you know, the underlying strength of our economy and very prudent financial decision making and financial management that the executive and council have been for a very long time, and noting the very complex and detailed financial policies that we have that this body has adopted. So it was very gratifying to see those reports and the information that was included about it, sort of subtly comparing us to some other jurisdictions that maybe aren't doing quite as well. So anyway, I just want to share that information with all of you because all of you have an important role in making sure that bond rating stays intact. And of course, the benefit, just as obviously I think everyone who's on this call with the benefit is we borrow at a very, very low interest rate and that saves a lot of money for our taxpayers and our utility ratepayers. And that literally is in the hundreds of millions of dollars when you do it over decades. And that's the end of my report. But I'm happy to answer questions if folks have them. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Cobos. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank you for your report. And besides having had transmitted the COVID budget last Thursday, the fourth omnibus supplemental was also transmitted for the current. I understand this is not very extensive, and our plan right now is to take that up at the same time as we take up our new biannual budget, but give anything we want to comment on going that budget. I think can't really characterized it accurately. It is a very short, very simple set of necessary budget adjustments. None of them really have any significant impact on anything else you're doing. There were also a couple of expenditure restrictions and provisos that we've asked you to change to keep it shorter. There were several other provisos that. You know, largely because of the delays due to COVID and aren't going to be met precisely. But none of them are actually gonna create a spending problem, an appropriation authority problem for the relevant agency. So we just listed those in a cover letter and didn't ask you and your staff to change them. So I think you will find that particular piece of legislation is very straightforward, very simple. And I absolutely agree with you. You should be able to do it in parallel with the 2122 budget, but. Thank you. See no other questions. Mr. DeVere, I want to thank you so much not only for joining us today, for the presentation, but for being the face of everyone in the executive branch, doing the hard work to get the grant funds and other work done to address the pandemic. And maybe as budget director, we think of you as the face of the people doing the grant funds. But as you present on behalf of the executive branch, also all of the isolation and quarantine sites, the entire public health department and public health response, all of that. Work. Thank you. Thank you. That takes us to item six on our agenda. A briefing from Foreign Culture on the organization's proposed budgets and budget and plans for 2021 through 2022. From Executive Director Brian Carter and Deputy Director Josh Shine, I want to welcome Mr. Carter and Mr. Hyde. Before I turn it over to the two of you via Qualcomm's copy of Council, Central Staff will provide a brief background. This is quite possibly. Good afternoon, council members. I'm Leah. Crackles off the council staff. The materials for this item begin on page nine of your packet. As you know, for culture is King County's Cultural Development Authority administering cultural programs for King County. In 2018, the Council passed legislation requiring that as a condition of the transfer of lodging tax revenues to for culture, that for culture must transmit its budget for the following fiscal year to the executive, then must transmit it to the council. That has happened this year. And additionally, county code also requires that for culture meet with the committee committee of the whole to discuss the plans and proposed expenditures for the following year. So at today's briefing for Culture is Executive Director Brian Carter and Deputy Director Josh Haim will present for cultures budget and that will fulfill both those requirements. I will now turn to Mr. Carter and Mr. Hine, who will be working from the presentation you see shared, which is also on page 13 of your packet. Well, good afternoon, all. Thank you for having us. Council members. Nice to see everybody help. Everybody in their families are doing well and staying healthy. I know it's a tough time. Before you today to talk about our 2021, 2022 budget and the direction of the agency as it relates to that particular budget. But I wanted to take a quick minute. First, I think it's important for you to talk about where you're going to talk about where you've been. So just a really short, maybe two minute recap about what 2019 has been and how that has led us to our excuse me, 2020 has been and how that has led us to our next budget in 2021. The last time I came in front of this group, I talked about the utilization of our COVID 19 framework, and that included new funding programs to respond to immediate emergency relief, to provide funds to organizations, artists, other cultural workers that were beginning to work again and to go back to work. And then some of our longer term recovery strategies and to be able to fund those, we had a reassignment of a reallocation of a number of our 2020 funding programs to these response initiatives. We also implemented a hiring and a salary freeze so that we can make sure we're putting as much money into the field as possible during these uncertain times. And then a thank you to the council, to the executive, the executive staff for the additional $4 million that was given to for culture, such that we can give that out to the field in this just incredible time of need. So thank you to all of you for making that happen. It's so incredibly important. I also wanted to take a moment just to highlight the implementation of our equity investments to cultural workers and organizations located in King County's designated communities of opportunity, as well as individuals and organizations located outside the city of Seattle. And these investments, as we discussed before, intended to correct a historic under investment in culture within these geographic areas. And I've been on a lot of panels and talks where people say, well, what do you what do you do in COVID and the double pandemic that we're facing as we grapple with this entrenched racism in our country ? And I think it's codifying these policies that bring about more equitable outcomes. So that's something I'm really proud of that we've been able to start during these COVID response initiatives, in addition to those funding programs that we've been able to get off the ground really, really quickly. And all credit to my staff for how hard they're working and how diligently they're working to make that happen. We're trying to do our part to support the use of arts and culture strategies to aid with public health directives. And I think our support of amplifier is a great example of that. So this community partnership with AMPLIFIER was a part of a global campaign to share images that promote mental health, wellbeing and social change work during these stressful times. And as part of that campaign, ten artists from King County were selected to share their vision. And you can see that in the second slide. I mean, you're looking at some of those examples and some of those examples are also up on the windows of our building as well. We just thought it was important that we step up in this particular moment with with the power and the space that we have. I also wanted to just highlight our COVID hub, and this is a digital platform that provides resources, information and useful advice to the cultural sector as it continues to weather this storm. And that has really grown since March and been really a kind of one stop shop, we hope for the cultural sector to go when they're looking for questions to be answered about reopening the different phases, what funding is available to them, what the public health directives are at that moment, and other funding sources that might be available to them. So that's something we're really proud and that's all credit to our communications department for taking that up and also keeping it fresh and making sure all of the information out there is current. So now what I want to do is turn the presentation over to my deputy director, Joshua Haim, to give you a overview of the 2021 2022 budget. And I just wanted to say that we have done a good job over the past 12 to 18 months in keeping the council involved. My government affairs manager, Claire Mitchell and I, we had a chance to talk with you all individually on a number of occasions about what direction the agency was going, what that budget would look like. And I think importantly, what this new budget process actually means for all of us. So there was hopefully a high level of not only transparency, but communication between us as we move into this new period of kind of oversight and governance, governance and our relationship with the King County Council. So hopefully it went as smoothly as possible. And I will turn it over to Josh now, who will run you through the next set of slides. And I'm here for questions at the end, so thank you all. Thank you for muting me. Sorry about that. For some reason I can't do that. Nor can I share my screen. So if someone can enable the share screen function. That would be great. But you should have your presentation in front of you. So we're going to start following along on let's see, it would be page six of the presentation in your packet, which begins with budget themes and jars. Let me let me just jump in here for a second. I have looked I don't know that I have the authority to allow a host or allow them to share screen. But if somebody can do that much appreciated. I think he should be able to share a screen from his own computer. Okay. All right. There we go. Josh, we see you're talking points now. You've hidden your talking points and we just see the presentation, I think. Great. Wonderful. Here we go. So thank you. My name is Joshua Heim. I'm the deputy director. And I thought I would just begin with the same way that we began our conversation about the budget, which are these budget themes? Because overall, I believe our budget should reflect our values. And I just want to make sure that you're able to read for cultures, values in the numbers and then the spreadsheets that you have before you. So beginning with the overarching theme that has framed our budget conversation, which is the economic uncertainty. And we recognize, for instance, that the economic downturn that's with us today will likely follow us throughout the whole biennium. Already we know that there's no reason to expect lodging tax to be stable, which is why this budget prioritizes continuity, which means we've chosen to delay growth of new or expanded programs in 2021. That said, because of uncertainty, we've created several scenarios that deal with either further shortfalls or a hopeful rebound. And we also recognize that the COVID 19 pandemic will be with us for a while, which is why we're prioritizing our response. We know the pandemic has already deeply affected all organizations, big or small, and this year we were able to make real impact in partnership with you. Moving forward, our strategy is to adapt core programs to help cultural organizations and workers withstand the economic downturn. Help them reopen and then recover. And despite the economic and cultural and the public health crisis, I want you to know that we continue to advance equity. You know, communities we're already seeing are experiencing COVID 19 are disproportionately impacted because of historic and systemic racism. And we commit to redressing those inequities by increasing our investments in areas outside of Seattle and in communities of opportunity. Now, this isn't to say that we will abandon our newly adopted strategic plan, which was transmitted to you earlier this spring. In fact, we make progress on the strategic plan by phasing in new programs and expanding others over the next three years. And finally, we will adapt and retool for the response. You know, already we've convened a recovery task force of team members throughout the community to help us develop a sector wide recovery plan and an internal recovery team looking at how far culture can retool our systems for to facilitate a faster and more equitable recovery when the timing is right. So I'll pause here to see if there are any questions about our budget themes, which is really sort of how we framed the numbers and sense. I'm hearing no questions. And as Josh was going through his slide presentation, members will need to speak up and say their names. I don't have the full gallery view. During one. Go ahead. A council member. So we submitted to you our program of work. And the thing I want you to know about our work is this Our programs will be the same, but more equitable and responsive in 2021. So let's take our core funding program as an example. And these are sustained support for arts, heritage and preservation, special projects and cultural facilities. So these budgets will remain the same in 2021 as they are in 2020, except for sustained support. And sustained support is the only program that will receive a 5% increase next year. And this modest increase will be directed toward equity investments in areas outside of Seattle and in communities of opportunity. Now, I mentioned earlier that we are prioritizing our COVID 19 response, and you see that here in two ways. Through sustained support and through special projects. So our plan for sustained support is to extend everyone's 2020 award into 2021. That way, we know that organizations are sure to have the resources they need to operate when it's safe to do so. And our approach to special projects is this Each department is looking at how these programs can be adapted to best support individual cultural workers and community based organizations during the crisis. And of course, our cultural facility program continues to implement the next phase of building for equity as planned. Now providing grants to cultural workers and organizations isn't the only thing that we do it for culture. We will continue to work with our county partners on making extraordinary places through public art. And I'm thrilled to say that we will begin to support cultural education again after a couple of decades hiatus. And I'll note that cultural education is an example of one of these new programs in our strategic plan that will begin to get phased in over the next three years. A notable other program, the preservation side, is Baan again. And all of this work is supported by a great administrative team that gets resources out into the community as quickly as we can. I believe Brian had already mentioned to you that already $2 million has gotten out through our cultural relief fund and a $2 million is about to go out over the next month. So in total, we're running a nearly $34 million operation over two years with 30 full time employees. And I'll pause here again to see if there are any questions about our program of work. Council member, Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You have good X-ray eyes. And so I'm really excited to hear that you are expanding the strategic and historic preservation account by 5%. That's great. We have talked about in the past many occasions raising that to a minimum of 15% of the budget. We have done some five pieces in the past and the the amount of needs and projects that have come in that far exceeded year after year after year. What goes into historic preservation and the interest? Historic preservation, as we all know, is that is all I can say. They don't want any of my antiques because they're old and I know some. That's the purpose of antiques because they are old, we cherish them. So anyway, you did mention the Barn Again program and I don't know if people realize that the second year that was running it won a national award, but still we haven't funded the needs of that program. Can that program apply for public art as another avenue for getting some more help into that category? Oh, that's an interesting question. You know, right now, public art is very separate from our funding programs. And I would have to talk to our directors of public art and historic preservation to sort of see how they interact. But I will mention to you that if you if you haven't received yet a update on our Preservation Action Fund, that's an incredible story. And so I know that this year was the first year that we've completed a full rehabilitation of a of a house using those funds. And so and that is a subset of our Building for equity program, and that is going to be continuing as well. Because, as you know, the the mechanism for that funding is we provide the capital for projects to get rehabilitated. Those projects are sold. That capital comes back to us and then we're able to push that back out into a new project. So like I said, we just finished our first cycle and we're sort of planning for the next iteration, so that's really exciting on the preservation side. Oh, could you call me later? I would like to talk to you about another project and also that picture you showed us early on. And the house, I think your one on there then. That was amazing. Where is that? That first picture you showed us? That was amazing. So thank. You. Sure. And we'll get back to you. Thank you. Well, there are no other questions. I'll go ahead and now transition us over to our financial plan, which you which you have, which is based off of biennium. It not only includes both the 2021 biennium as well as the 2020 324 biennium and 25 and 26. And we've worked very closely with the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget on this outlook. And as you know, the logic, this is a really big year for us next year because we enter the lodging tax stream again after nearly a decade of spending down our reserves. That's been our primary method of supporting our programs. So I'm just I say that because I'm really grateful for all the work our four cultures past leadership exerted because they left us with a fairly healthy reserve going into 2021. And it's these reserves that are enabling us to continue our service levels next year. It's also how we're navigating or going to navigate economic uncertainty over the biennium by the end of 2022. You see, this is the second to bottom line, Roe excuse me. It's called the Reserve Fund. So we will have about $3.2 million left in the bank. Now, this is after these next two years, and we're going to be reserving those funds in order to, again, withstand potential further shortfalls in the lodging tax. And I just want to note that this does not include our reserves from our public art fund. We keep those two reserves very separate and. I'll move over to our revenue forecasts, which again our two main revenue sources are lodging, tax and percent for art. And our revenue forecasts are provided by PSB. And we've been working very closely. It's actually been we built our internal budget team to include not only for culture staff but also King County staff. And as I mentioned, we begin to receive lodging tax proceeds again in 2021, which is why you don't see past funding from this past biennium, because we were still reliant on our reserve funds and our projected lodging tax revenue is estimated to be somewhere around 7.5 million in 2021 and then 11.7 million in 2022. And I mention this because this is to say that we're not taking risks with our budget and our financial plan is as conservative as these conservative forecasts for our revenue. Similarly, the amount projected for our 1% for our contributions is about half of the revenue that we received over the 2019 and 2020 biennium. And this is a function of the county's cap. So we're working very closely with the executive's program on this, which is also to say why you don't see further forecasts out past 21 and 22. But it's important to keep in mind that the funds here that you're looking at, our revenue, our projected revenue, 4% for art are are for new projects that are coming online. We have several multi-year projects that were initiated this year or last year. And these projects will continue and will keep our public art staff fairly busy for the foreseeable future. Now pause here for questions about our financial plan. Colleagues. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you, Councilmember McDermott. And we've sort of reached the the end of the presentation. I'm happy to take further questions. I already have some follow up for Councilmember Lambert here and. I guess we can open up for for general discussion. I'm at a advantage, as are two of my colleagues as a one of the three council members who serves on the For Culture Board in an ex-officio non-voting capacity this year. And I want to emphasize what Brian led with, and that is how much the agency has led into the pandemic, recognizing what it was doing to the arts, heritage, culture, segments of our community, not just to our economy and how to sustain and support through these trying times. And that's been true this year and true in the budget you're building for the future. I want to acknowledge that and thank you. Thank you. A member of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks to Brian and Joshua. I was just a comment, not a question. I appreciate the information. I want you to know the lack of questions isn't due to a lack of interest. It's due to a Brian said at the beginning the amount of good open communication that's occurred during this year. I've appreciated the chance to meet one on one with Brian and to have good, good follow up information from your staff, getting questions answered in it. And I didn't want you to think that silence meant a lack of interest. It means I think you did a great job of communicating beforehand and I very much appreciate the budget you put together and support the work you're doing. So thanks. Thank you, Councilmember. The. Hello? Council members are also pleased. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just waiting to be acknowledged. Don't want to speak out of turn. Brian, Joshua, thank you so much for your presentations. Just want to ask a little bit more about the equity portions of our cultures mission. Bryan, you and I have talked a little bit about this before the world turned upside down. But in terms of all of the good that art can do to advance so many other goals, whether it's related to the criminal legal system or mental health or poverty. Can you talk a few about some of the programs that are going into, you know, for example, supporting our youth who are underserved, tapping into their interests in art and music and dance and all these other things that could can be so beneficial for them, but maybe they don't know about for culture or see it as relevant to them. Are there any partnerships with youth organizations, for example, or public schools where for culture could be, or maybe it is more integrated into serving underserved populations, especially youth? Yeah, I'll tackle that one councilmember. I think that for cultures grant programs, I know over 15 grant programs on average in a typical year and those are going to fund I mean, the majority of arts and culture organizations come to fort culture for funding. And so organizations that work directly with students, work directly with school districts, provide in classroom or out of classroom cultural experiences. I mean, those run the gamut from the big museums, the big theaters, which typically have programs to Langston, which has programs to want to worry to KOAT central to path with our Arts Corps. I mean, so I mean, those the number of groups, right. And the variety of groups that are tackling those particular issues that you brought up, I think is pretty vast. So our support of those organizations allows that that goal to be achieved. That's our funding side. On the other side is what we do individually. I think, you know that we were the originator of the Creative Justice program. Really happy that that's now been able to spin off and that came directly from our public art department has been it was fun to spin off and do that great work that you're talking about, where culture meets the social justice movements and the action that's required at the moment. Towards that end, there's something that we started really quite recently, and we're calling it our social justice movement action team. And it's really a question. And the question for the organization is, with all the social justice movements that are occurring around us, whether that be around housing or whether that be around the environment or that be around criminal justice, reform, labor, all these different issues. What is for cultures role to do a better job in bringing, as you said, the power and the possibility of creativity to those issues and providing solutions? And this group has got together and it's really it's really looking at three things. One of them is, what are those social justice movements that we are best poised to help support arts and culture interventions intersect better with? The second question is what can we do immediately and rapidly when things that are as big as the recent inconsistent rash of police violence against black folks? What can we do in the moment that's more responsive and it's not simply solidarity, but is instead what we do, which is dollars out the door to arts and culture. And thirdly, what would it look like for us to have a more consistent program that sort out and actively develop relationships with organizations and also with individual cultural workers that are within movements fighting for social justice. And it's somewhat new to our organization. We've had a commitment to racial equity for a while, but it was always within the silo of arts and culture. And now for us, as we think more broadly, it's how can we be more strategic in recognizing the power and in bringing into greater proximity those wonderful cultural workers and the artists and the poets and the preservationists and the historians into concert with folks working within social justice movements. And I think that that's a growth area for us within 2021. And I think the action team, which is composed of our staff advisory committee and board, is a testament to the commitment we feel to that particular area. Thank you so much, Brian. Yeah. Further questions. DEMBOSKY Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you as chair. Not really a question, but just a compliment to Bryan and to Joshua for all that they're doing, the way they have led through 2020, in particular, bringing the mission that was adopted in April of 2019 to life, which is for a reminder, with a focus on racial equity, we fund support and advocate for culture to enhance the quality of life in King County. And it's been amazing to see Brian put that into action this year and to hear him speak and lead from the heart. And I just wanted to acknowledge you today, Brian, and say what a privilege it's been to see a little bit of you up close in action . Thank you. Yeah, we got the right guy. It's. We're very fortunate. And, Joshua, your budget presentation, both the content and the way it was presented is the most beautiful budget I've seen in seven years on the council in terms of style, but also content. And your delivery made it very understandable. And it's a pleasure to be able to see it brought forward in that way and support all the work you all do. And so thank you very much for how you've worked through this new process. It's been really appreciated. Thank, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Belushi. Yeah. Just really briefly, I wanted to acknowledge also that this is the first time we've done this this way. I think in the last budget process, I was one of the council liaisons to form a culture, and the organization's always done a really professional, thorough job of managing their money, looking ahead, projecting what resources are available, making sure that they're doing the most they can. They're very scrappy with their money. And they they get a lot done with not a whole lot sometimes. And so I also didn't want the presentation to go by without acknowledging the good work that's been done, the trusting relationships that we have had and continue to build with our culture and the great work we get. Thank you letters all the time. I hope you're aware possibly you caused these to happen, but we get thank you letters all the time saying thank you so much for the support of some major event or really wonderful arts program. Their educational, their cultural, they advance equity and community. And of course, we're not doing hardly any of it. So let me pass those along to you. All right. Now through the screen and say all the credit goes to for culture, for the work that you do. And I'm very happy to support this budget. Thank you. Thank you. Can't remember them. Well, do you suggest something? It never occurred to me that Brian and Joshua and others might suggest that they relay their thanks to us. Other comments. We're running out of questions. Any other comments? Every night. I want to thank you both not only for the presentation today, but as we have all alluded to, the work over the last year and the planning and what scope of work you have before us for the coming biennium. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next two items on our agenda are the consent agenda through vote proviso responses that were passed out of the Regional Water Quality Committee in September. One concerning the Kenmore Interceptor Project and the other about biosolids. I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. So my Mr. Chair. Has been moved and seconded. Madam Clerk, do I need to ask you to read it into the record? Mr. Chair, that would be your choice then. Then to make Councilmember Belushi feel good that I had to stop and do that. I will ask you to do it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Motion 2020 0162. A motion acknowledging receipt of a report providing information and analysis regarding the design and placement of Section two of the Kenmore Interceptor and the impacts thereof on sedimentation and fish populations as required by the 2019 2020 Biennial Budget Ordinance. Proposed Motion 2020 0278. A motion acknowledging receipt of a report on the management of biosolids, including a description and value creation of alternative options for the use of biosolids prepared in accordance with the 2019 2020 Biennial Budget Ordinance. Thank you. Emotion before us is to approve the consent agenda. Madam Clerk, we need to have a roll call vote. Yes. Mr. Chair. Would you please call the wrong. Council member Belge? I Council member Dombrowski. I council member Dunn. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Coles, i. Councilmember member. Councilmember of the grove i. Councilmember Yvonne. Regular i. So members. Hello. All right. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 18 zero now as Councilmember Dunn excused. Thank you. By your vote, we have give it. We have advanced both on a do house recommendation. And we will expedite, expedite both of those items and place them on the council's consent agenda. That takes us to nine. This is for discussion and possible action. It's an ordinance that would authorize the executive to execute the airspace lease agreement with the Department of Transportation for land and facilities in the state. Route 520 Interchange at Montlake for Metro Service. Mary Bourguignon of Council Central South is sure to provide the South reports on the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, I'm Mary Ferguson from the council staff. And the materials for this item began on page 363 of your packets. As you noted, Mr. Chair, this lease is for part of a long term Washington State Department of Transportation project, which is the reconstruction of the state route five. 20 bridge portions of the bridge began opening back five years ago, and currently Washington or the Department of Transportation is out of the final portion of the reconstruction, a project that is called the rest of the West or the portion of the bridge that is closest to the University of Washington and the Montlake area to prepare for that construction. Two years ago, the council voted to close what are called the Montlake flier stops that had been serving five Metro Transit bus routes because washed out needed that area for construction. With the work underway, the plan has been that washed out will be constructing a lid at the edge of the bridge and that lid will serve three metro transit bus stations, one going eastbound on five, 21 going westbound on 520 and then one serving Montlake Boulevard traffic going northbound. The proposed ordinance that is in front of you would approve a 20 year lease agreement between King County and washout with 220 year extensions for Metro to operate and maintain those transit stops. And I'll note that this lease does not require any payment for King County. Essentially, the county's payment would be to operate and maintain the transit stops. In addition, Metro would be able to obtain the use of a bike parking area just north of the Montlake, led in return for operating and maintaining two of washed out parking areas near the new Northgate Link Light Rail Station. So if you turn in your packets to page 366, you'll see two tables that summarize the condition of the proposed lease. Table one shows the square footage that would be occupied about 3000 square feet on the Montlake lid for these three bus stations. The base rent again, no rent payment for Metro to agree to maintain and operate these bus stops. And then again, the addition of the bike parking area, the term 20 years with two options for 20 year additional extensions. And then finally the commencement date, which will not happen until washouts work is completed, which is estimated to be in 2023. You can then see on table two the estimated fiscal impacts, which again because there are no lease payments, would be the cost to operate and maintain stations in this area, as well as the planning work that is underway now to prepare for those operations. That concludes my staff report. Mr. Chair, we do have Fran Juliano from Metro on the line, if you want to talk more about this project. But again, this is just one more step in a long term planning process for this area and for the transit service to serve that area . Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Colleagues questions. See none at entertaining motion will approve ordinance 2020 103. Movements detect ordinance 2021 of three years before us with the departure recommendation. See no further discussion. Minimum quote I'd ask you to please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Baluchi. Also remember about duty. I don't remember, Dombrowski. I don't remember. Done. Councilmember Coles, I. Council member Lambert High Council member of the ground. I. Councilmember one right there. Councilmember one right there. Council members are high. But. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 790 knows council members done and by Mike Barrow excuse. Me but by your vote we've given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 103. We will expedite that to full council a week from today and without objection we will put it on consent as well. Councilmember one Right there, where are you registering your vote on 20, 21 or three? Councilmember Yvonne Rockefeller. Hi. Hi. Thank you. By unanimous vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 103 and that will be on the consent agenda next week's full council meeting. A final item of the day is an ordinance that would authorize the executive to extend the duration of the Flood Control District's Interlocal agreement through the end of 2021. Tenino Council central staff is here to provide the staff report. Michelle Clarke. You may be familiar with is the executive director of the Flood Control District, is also here to support this issue. Ms.. No, the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. China Central staff. The materials for this item begin on page 419 of your packet ordinance 20 20.0305 would extend the Interlocal agreement between King County and the King County Flood Control District through the end of 2021. The current agreement is set to expire on December 31st of this year. The district and the county were in negotiations over the terms of the Interlocal agreement at the beginning of this year. However, there have been delays due to the COVID 19 pandemic. An extension proposed under this ordinance would provide an additional year for the parties to come to an agreement at the October 14th flood control district meeting. The board took action to extend the agreement an additional year consistent with this ordinance. Michele Clarke from the Flood Control District and Megan Smith from Woollard are here to answer any questions you may have in the chair. That concludes her remarks. Thank you. Colleagues questions. See none. Council member at the Grove. Motion to approve. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move. That proposed motion is a 2020 0305. I don't have in front of me. Yes. Be recommended to the Council for approval. Catherine McGrath. The Grove is moved. We have a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 305c, no further discussion. And ask the court to please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci and Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Council Member Wales I Council Member Lander A Council member of the ground. I. Councilmember Vaughn right there. I council members all high. All right. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote has 18 zero noes Council member. Dismissed. Thank you. Have you received. We've given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2023 of five. We will send that to full council expedited. So it will be on council's agenda next week. And barring any objection, we'll put that on consent as well. Councilmember Baldacci. My notes from staff indicate that expediting was a good idea because we anticipate next week's agenda to be rather short. But I'm afraid that by putting everything on consent, I didn't help you out, by making you feel like you had any media or a meeting. With that, Madam Clerk. Mr. Minister, were there any missed votes today? Yes, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Dunn was excused for all four votes. I do not see him on the screen. I do not either. We will not go through our reconsideration notes. However, Council Member Dunn will have the option of pursuing following up through the end of the day as our revised rules for virtual meetings would allow. That would take us to other business. And I just have one thing to mention under other business. As members may realize, the council is accepting applications for a vacancy in the Southwest District Court for a judicial vacancy in the Southwest District. The application deadline closes on October 5th and we only received one eligible application. So unless there's objection, I would suggest and anticipate that we should be open applications for this vacancy under King County Code 217 0202 and the deadline would be a deadline needs to be extended in 45 day increments, at least 45 days. And so we'd notice for an additional 45 days, and the extension will be noticed in the same way that the original notice of the vacancy was noticed. With that. I would think everyone for participating in today's meeting, particularly staff who makes chairing and running a virtual meeting looks so easy now that we've got the hang of it . I am still convinced it is far easier to make it look easy than the work staff put in, but that we are adjourned. And I thank everybody.	A MOTION acknowledging receipt of a report providing information and analysis regarding the design and placement of Section 2 of the Kenmore interceptor and the impacts thereof on sedimentation and fish populations as required by the 2019-2020 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 18835, Section 108, Proviso P2.
king_2babb97d-e4cd-4065-a99b-96ef303a7aac	2021 special meeting of the committee of the whole. Everyone who attends these meetings knows that they're all special, but this one happens to not be a regularly scheduled meeting. As we begin today, I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional land to the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. We were having a virtual meeting today due to the COVID 19 pandemic. The governor has waived in the sections of the Open Public Meetings Act to require us to have an actual physical place for the people, for the public to observe our meeting. We are conducting this meeting on Zoom, and I expect that we will have significant numbers of people here today who want to offer public comment on our one item on today's agenda, which regards just cause and tenant protections in four tenancies in unincorporated King County. For people who don't wish to testify for public comment but want to track our proceedings and follow us, it would assist us if you were willing and able to track the meeting by watching online or on TV. King County Television, that is King County TV is Channel 22. Or you can watch us live online. The stream is at WW w dot King County Gov Council. Then you would click on the ever popular Watch US Live button. I share that because of the significant number of people in the Zoom meeting. It will be easier to manage the call if people who are not intending, offering testimony are able to follow by other means thereby though certainly not mandatory. Your participation in observance is always on the ground in principle here. I would ask members, I would ask staff, both executive and council and the public to keep your video off until just before you plan to speak, to help us manage the call in with that. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilmember Banducci. Here. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember Cole was here. Councilmember Limber. Yeah. Councilmember up the ground here. Councilmember one right there. Council members by. Mr. Chair. I hear. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Council member denied entertained a motion to approve the minutes of our June 16th meeting. Move approval of minutes of June 16, 2021. Thank you. Vice-Chair Done. The minutes of our June 16th meeting are before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor please signify by saying hi. I. I opposed any. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. I want to let everybody know from the beginning of our meeting today that, as I said, we're here to address one issue on our agenda, the just cause tenant protection legislation that is before us. And we have a significant number of people here for public comment. We also need an opportunity for the council to be briefed and then debate and discuss elements of the legislation and the amendments that have been brought to us today. And we have a hard stop for this committee meeting at 4 p.m.. We are in another meeting begins that multiple members of the council are also expected to be at. So we have a hard stop for given given the need to hear from the public and the need to be able to discuss and work on the legislation . I'm going to suggest that we have as public testimony to be limited to one minute and if necessary, evaluate how many people are still waiting to speak at 2:00 and evaluate at what time we might conclude public testimony shortly after to. So if you are offering public testimony, please realize that I'm asking you to limit your testimony to one minute and that you be as concise and offer insights and new insights as possible. If we've already heard the issue that you want to off and present, perhaps you could mention that briefly and either address new information or let somebody else offer their comment as well. With that. Opening. Let me also be clear that public comments should be related to the item on today's agenda not assist a campaign for election of any person in the office or for the opposition or promotion of any ballot measure should not include obscene speech. And if the speaker fails to abide by these rules, they may be ruled out of order and their test, meaning testimony, may be concluded or asked to exit the virtual meeting. Now, if they're expecting, you've got to happen. But I'll lay out the ground rules from the beginning as you joined the Zoom meeting. And and let me also be clear. If you intend to offer public testimony in your anonymous zoom out, I would encourage you to do to join the zoom out at all possible. When you did join the zoom out, we can see either your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Please do not use the raised hand feature within Zoom. The clerk will go through all of the participants inviting people to offer public testimony. If you were not wishing to offer a public testimony, don't be surprised when the clerk calls on you. You can just simply say, pass. If you want to offer public testimony, please begin by stating your name and pausing so the clerk can confirm that we can hear you in the audio is functioning. And then if you could spell your name for us saying spell your name so we can have it accurate for the record. You'll hear a timer one minute and certainly conclude your thought. But do wrap up so we can hear from the next person and it will enable us to manage the call a little bit more efficiently if you are able to then watch the rest of the proceedings after your testimony again on Channel 22 TV or by streaming from the Council's Web page, I believe I've covered all of the instructions and so for public comment. So I will open public comment and ask the court to begin calling people for public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first name is Amy Kangas. Please go ahead. Hello. My name is Amy Kangas. And why can gas. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you. Hi. My name is Amy Kangas. I am a social worker at the Housing Justice Project and I'm calling in today to ask you to support the Just Cause eviction ordinance. In 2019. Unincorporated King County saw more no cause evictions than any other jurisdiction in King County. 19.8% of all no cause evictions were in this area, despite only 6.9 of all evictions occurring in unincorporated King County. This ordinance would require landlords to have a just cause before evicting a tenant or refusing to renew the lease and considering the disproportionate number of no cause evictions filed in this area. This is a much needed tenant protections. Furthermore, 54% of all eviction filings in unincorporated King County were against Bipoc tenants. So it is even more important that we prevent no cause terminations that could be due to discrimination or racist behavior. This is a racial justice issue, and I urge you to support tenant protections and this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Ariana Liriano. Hey, Arianna. Luciano. Hey, I am a a you are e a no. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm an American living on disability and co-chair of the council, the Grand Coalition. I'm calling in support supportive ordinance 0131. A year and a half ago I was hit by an Uber because I lost my side job. I also lost my home a hundred only and a few months prior, after being homeless, I spent two weeks during the holidays, a 2019 couch surfing and struggling to patch together multiple sources to charity to meet the $4,000 it took to get into housing. We pulled it off and managed to get into a dingy, moldy basement apartment with roaches, rats, no working up and failing electricity and only a few short minutes of semi hot water. My landlord is abusive, violating our rights on a regular entering without notice, permission yelling at us. When we complained about the leaks and flooding, we didn't know moving in that we were signing up to spend over a year with an abusive predator. We were just trying desperately to get housed. It took another $4,000 and more charity to get out of the situation. When they next raise our rent at our new place, we will have to move again. This is a very costly, vicious cycle and I hope you all move aggressively to address this by not watering down the legislation renters have fought so hard for at the bidding of corporate landlords. Thank you to the council members. Who sponsored this bill. Thank you. The next person is Ashley Allen. Go ahead, please. Yes, my name is Ashley Allen. As h l e y l e n. I'm a role nine intern from. The Housing Justice Project. I'm calling to speak in support of these tenant protections today. I think that a common theme that I've noticed during these meetings from the landlords is that they don't really understand why some of these protections are necessary. I would just like. To point out that it's very important for us to. Look at this issue in proper. Context. This is about tenant protections. It isn't about trying to undermine landlords. If you're a landlord, that doesn't affect people. That does what you're supposed to do, that hasn't had a lot of the issues that. Are addressed in this bill. And this bill is not for you. It is for tenants. Like the person that just spoke, people who are being abused. And are being oppressed by a lot of the issues that constantly arise in Seattle with tenants and their lack of protection. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is like Serrano. Hi, my name is. Blythe Serrano l.y thp C.R.A. and I'm a renter in King County. I'm calling in today to urge the King County Council to pass a full slate of renters rights legislation that's on the table today with no loopholes and no watering down. Democrats control the King County Council by a 6 to 3 margin, and at least five of them are self-described progressives. They don't need a single vote from Republicans to pass this bill, and therefore, they don't need to make a single concession to corporate landlords. Councilmember Baldacci, you wrote an article recently proudly highlighting a public tracker for important statistics on affordable housing. How much more data do you need to understand what hundreds of thousands of your constituents have been experiencing for years? A housing market that has worsened affordability while making untold profits for corporate real estate. You and other council members have the political and moral responsibility to support the basic rights of struggling renters and people of color, not the greed of corporate real estate and big banks. Buy on a big, ambiguous, unambiguously supporting these renters protections in their strongest possible form. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Bruce Becker. Please go ahead and mute yourself. Okay. The next person. Wait, wait. I got it. You're. It took me a while to get to the right man. Oh, my. My name is Bruce Backer Brucie, BBC, KTAR. And I'm a small landlord in King County. And I have a couple of comments here. First of all, the issue with Social Security numbers is really critical because in order to do an accurate credit check, you need to have a Social Security number or or some some other work around . The penalties are really onerous for especially for a small landlord like me. And the talk is about corporate landlords. Everybody thinks that landlords are big corporate organizations. But most most housing, I understand, across the country is provided by small landlords. They just have a couple of a couple of units like me. And and the penalties are really onerous. I've got a comment about the the rent increases I want to hear is an amendment that applies. A man has paid in full then in addition based on shortage of rent. And I think I can improve that as a as a change that makes sense. The other thing is this is my little ax to grind in. Council for tenants. And I've done county operated helplines that include a helpline for both tenants and landlords and counsel for indigent. Tenants and. Landlords. You'd be surprised how often an engineer, a landlord, needs any legal help. I actually know someone who is not in that position who had to borrow money, thousands of dollars to get into his own house by his primary residence. And so those are my comments. I think there's a lot of changes. Most of these things actually work against. Tenants because they're. Anti landlord. Landlords are your friends because they provide housing and especially small landlords like me that provide quality housing at a very affordable price. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Casey Bishop. Yeah. Hi there. This is Casey Bishop. I'm a small landlord, and I'd just like to echo what the guy for me just said, that, you know, a lot of these things are geared towards big corporate landlords. And I want it to be understood that there's a lot of us out here who are not mega millionaire landlords here . We we run this is our our day job. It's our it's our business. And I hate the fact that we constantly get grouped in with, you know, this this witch hunt for these awful, huge corporate landlords. That's that's not who the bulk of us are. You know, I'd like to just also point out that the oh, not only myself, but other landlords I know have been getting somewhat taken advantage of on well, really taken advantage of on some of these these during COVID times when people don't have to pay rent. Now, I for one, if someone really doesn't have the income to pay, of course I'm happy to allow them not to not to pay to get through this crisis we're in, but to have no income verification, no verification whatsoever. I, for a fact, have one tenant who is basically laughing at me driving around in a mercedes Benz and not paying is around it. And there's absolutely nothing that can be done for that. So I want to let everybody know it goes both ways on this and and just more stringent rules like this. What it's going to what it's going to continue to do if this kind of stuff keeps happening, is no one's going to want to know. Landlords are going to have any incentive to take care of their buildings or to keep them up and are only going to have to do the bare minimum. Mr. Bush, I believe the timer has gone off. If you could please conclude. Okay. Well, anyway, we have we have these are erroneous regulations. It's too much. It's too much. That's a. Thank you. The next is Nathan. So. Hello. My name is Nathan Caverswall. That's in 88 and c h h e r s.r.l.. I'm a renter in Seattle, a law student and an intern at Housing Justice Project. The primary argument that was levied against this package kind of came at least in the R and then sorry, the local news came in two op eds, recently published in the Seattle Times, which were heavily referenced by property owners online there. And it was suggested that alleged small time mom and pop landlords are fleeing the business in mass because they cannot adjust to democratically established rules and regulations aimed at protecting less wealthy renters. I'd say that both op eds argued that renter. No, they did. They both argue that renter protections negatively affect the rental housing supply in the aggregate. Interestingly, neither op ed supported that claim with any evidence. Instead, permanent renter protections were conflated with COVID emergency measures, painting an untruthful conclusion for readers. And it seems like the primary argument levied against this legislation is raised by those who claim to worry about low income renters. But that argument is not substantiated anywhere that I can see. At least the argument for this legislation is clear on its face. It will help people prevent people from being evicted. There are around 1.5 million vacant homes in the U.S. and around 550,000 unhoused people. I know that's not a local necessarily problem, but I mean, you can see how it it is. Please pass the legislation and keep King King County on a path that recognizes that housing is a human right, not a venue for profit. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Cecilia Black. Please go ahead. Hmm. Cecilia cece0ie in black c k. Thank you. Go ahead. My name is Cecilia, and. I'm a disabled King County renter calling in. Support for the transformative. Renter protection. Package. And I'm especially calling to urge you. To pass the ordinance with a striking amendment. As to. Incorporate is at no more than 1.5% of monthly rent. The final report of the Regional Affordable Task Force. Co-Chaired by Councilmember Baldacci, found that renters. In King County are twice as. Are twice as likely to be severely cost. Burden than homeowners. So these are renters that have to pay more than half their income towards housing. That's over. 70,000 severely cost burdened renters in King. County. These, again, are renters are twice as likely to be. Fairly concerned. Aren't cost burdened, not small landlords. For these renters, the difference between 15 and 15, 15 and $50 in late fees can make it impossible to. For daily household. Needs, let alone get a. Hand in next month's rent on. Time. To put this in perspective, a study. That was cited in the same report. From the journal Public Affairs said that for. Every $100 increase in rent. Homelessness increased by 15%. So these fees, raising the. Late fees from 1.5% in monthly rent to 5%, are not nominal. And for. Even small mom and pop landlords, a $35 cut. In late fees should not mean the difference between managing their business. On their investments. But for renters. These actually can be catastrophic. I'm calling as a disabled. Renter, which is a community that is often. Overlooked. And according to the last U.S. Census housing. Costs survey last. Week. Washington State respondents. I think she muted herself. So I'll go on. The next person is Chris Grace. Please go ahead. Hi. My name is Chris Gray. I am a resident of Shoreline and a I reside in King County Council District one. I'm a staff attorney at the Housing Justice Project. a.S.A.P supports Ordinance 2021, passed zero 131. In its entirety. King County is one of the most expensive rental markets. And in. Average rents four studios, three, four, three bedroom units are anywhere from 1500 to 30 $200 for studios, up to three bedroom units. Many people live paycheck to paycheck, and if a landlord wants to raise the rent on their unit, renters should be provided the opportunity to look for alternative housing to avoid eviction. Or homelessness. In a rental housing market. As hot as King County, it could take months for. Locating housing, especially if you are lower income, as there aren't very many affordable units in the area. With the ongoing wealth gap and income inequalities between race and gender, most folks can afford to relocate on short notice and Bipoc and immigrant community members may not have working parents families to fall back on. Landlords are fighting back, saying they can't predict what their costs will. Be, so they shouldn't be. Required to give longer notice for increasing rent. Yet somehow renters around the country are expected to plan for and be able to pay an unknown amount in utilities every month and increase rent for the sake of their landlords business. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Corey Brewer. Yeah. Hey, thank you. On c0r ibrd w e r Windermere Property Management representing over 1000 mom and pop landlords throughout King County. And I'd like to echo some of that. Bruce Becker said some of the things that I was going to say, so I'll move on. Ariana's story is a troubling story here that strikes me as a supply problem. She didn't have much to choose from, and I am also the author of one of the op eds that another caller referenced. And what I was writing about there is all about housing supply. I think that is really the key issue that we should be focusing on here. In particular, single family houses compared to apartments and multifamily. We see what is leaving the market is more of your single family, family style housing. And yes, there are lots of new rental homes under construction being delivered to the market, but they're not the same. They're they're small, you know, one bedroom apartments that are not a suitable replacement for single family housing and COVID has driven the demand for single family housing up. Significantly. As people need to get more space. We need that extra bedroom because their kids aren't in school, they're working from home. They don't want to be too close to their neighbors, all kinds of things. And so with this this very expensive slate of things built into this ordinance, first of all, a lot of it duplicates what is already in existing landlord tenant law or recently our state law particularly just costs. But I'd like to ask the supporters what tangible progress has been achieved by similar progressive type. Mr. Brewer, you were on mute in the middle of that. Thank you. Am I back? You're back. There we go. You finish that last stop, please. What tangible progress? Progress has been achieved by similar progressive type of housing legislation that's been passed in the city of Seattle over the past five years. Because anywhere you look, you will see studies showing that homeless population is up. And affordable housing supply is down. And what's most interesting about that is for the last year and a half, evictions have largely been prohibited across the board. So a rising homeless population correlating at the same time with a time where evictions aren't happening. I think we really need to look at the idea that evictions are causing homelessness. And finally, this shouldn't be a fight. You guys, we need to partner together. There's way too much, us versus them. Housing providers are crucial to the community and that these types of things are unfortunately pushing them out. Thank you. And keep going. If you want me. I can give you the offer. I'm going to let Miss Daley call him the next person. Thanks again. But Mr. Chair, it looks like we may have lost the day. Really? So give me just a moment, please. I will. And I will to the. Next person. And the next caller would be Dan McGrath. Please go ahead. Hi there. Hello. Council members my name is Dan McCraw, NCC. RW And I'm a member of Share Seattle organization that provides shelter every single day to men and women experiencing homelessness. And often these people come not from Seattle, but other cities and towns in King County, desperately seeking shelter and other resources here in Seattle that aren't plentiful in their hometowns. I'm taking the time to call them because I've seen firsthand the trauma that people from all over Dane County go through when they are evicted or otherwise lose their home. I cannot count the people I have met over the years whose quality of life only evaporates once homelessness strikes. And I'm saying the following because the science of research shows that the vast majority of people evicted experience, housing insecurity or outright homelessness after being evicted. Given the trauma that must be dealt with, countless people turn to whatever avenue provides comfort in such circumstance. Without these tenant protections, it is already known that people find it harder to get by, harder to maintain employment, more likely to seek comfort in substance or alcohol abuse, more likely to live in domestic violence situations, and naturally, far less likely to have a home. Something so many people take for granted, but which is actually, in my opinion, the key condition to further progress in life. It is so hard to live a life according to our aspirations and values when that keystone is taken away, the content of misery we are finding if we don't protect people. Having that basic need is astronomical and there's just no way to calculate foster ness. And above all, see what I seen. I beg you to think about preponderance of women with children who are more likely to be evicted due to circumstances out of their control. The radical. Landlord like. Go ahead. So anyway, thanks for listening. Please do the right thing and help protect renters in King County. Thank you for your comments. The next. Speaker. Would be Corey. Brewer. Please go ahead. I've already gone. Thank you. Thank you for declining, Cory. Next speaker would be Dave Nagel. This guy had. Mr. Chair, can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, let me say it is an honor and a privilege to be able to talk to you today. Second, I am not a good public speaker and I might freeze up. So I'll say thank you and and, you know, move on to the next person. But I am a small housing provider. I have eight units in Seattle that provide housing to 13 adults, both young and old. And I am opposed to a large number, 20210131 for many reasons. And I have sent a letter to each council member explaining the problems that a small housing provider like me. Age 66 in our community. And now this this. How do I say this? This new law to me shows that the small housing provider was not welcome to the table to negotiate this law. They were excluded. And and other thing I want to say to the council members is generally when you when you listen to a small housing provider like myself, we're very poor public speakers. And I think the reason is we pull weeds, we paint, we clean, we fix, but we're not good public speakers. And if you'll notice on your side, thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Doug Trump. Go ahead. Gunslingers. I'm done with the evidence, and I urge you to back this package of common sense tenant rights protections and oppose any efforts to water it down or strike it. I think it's really a sensitive time, and the needs of long term tenants really outweigh some really kind of convoluted arguments about supply and demand. And, you know, who was consulted at what point? You know, we're really facing an eviction wave. And I really hope we stand up for people who need it most and really stand up against this effort that seems to have got a little bit more in check itself, spreading a lot of misinformation about what this package really does . I don't think we should reward that kind of behavior. And I really hope that we help fight this eviction rather than from our gasoline on the fire. Thank you. The next person is Emily M Can you please provide your full name and then proceed? Emily? M Yes, my name is Emily McArthur. M i l y. AMC Air t h You are. I'm a South. King County renter and a member of. Socialist Alternative. I am calling for a support of strong renters rights with no corporate loopholes. The rental, the Regional Housing. Act, sorry, regional affordable. Housing task force, which. I can't. Remember about, actually played a big role in. Highlights basically every. Single piece of this package as an essential. Protection for renters in order to prevent the tsunami of evictions that we see as. Coming. I agree with the previous speaker who identified all of this data that we're able to track, including that 25% of black families are severely rent burdened. That's the data that we need to be hitting. And that means not raising the cap on late fees. That means including not just the. Person. Making all movement fees have a six. Month payment plan. I think that it's outrageous that Corey Brewer was given extra time while he investigated the actual issue at hand, that we've gone through the most massive economic upheaval of our entire lives. That's why there's more evictions and homelessness happening, not because there have been more tenant protections put in place. I think we should not allow small landlords to be used as a subterfuge for these. Corporate landlords include including Essex property trusts with 10,000 properties and King County Inmate $569 million, which is a 30% increase from the previous year. Thank you. The next person is listed as goats pepper chocolate. Please go ahead if you have a different name, if you would provide that, that'd be great. Hi there. Yes. Karen Taylor. Hey, r e n t y ello. Aloha. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm calling in. Support. Of these rental protections. You know, there's a lot of details we could go into, but something. That struck me was when the landlord mentioned that he. Was someone who pulls weeds or. Something. And I think there's a misconception. That renters don't pull weeds. We don't have gardens. You know, we don't. We don't contribute. We're not loving friends. Neighbors that we that we don't contribute in the same way that landlords do just because they're like providing housing. So I just want to throw in there to remember to think of us as community members. We're not just renters and being evicted, having. High movement. Fees. All that stuff is is hurting members of the community, not just this class of renters. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Greg. If you could provide your last full name and then proceed. Greg. Okay. Oh, go ahead, Greg. And I will move on to. Hannah Swoboda. Hi. My name's Hannah Swoboda. And. Hsw0b oda. I'm the King County renter. I'm calling s in to ask the council to. Vote yes on the whole suite of renters. Rights protections. Up for discussion today without any. Loopholes, without any watering down. Throughout the. Pandemic. And recessions. Corporate landlords have been making profits hand over fist at the expense of struggling renters. In fact. One third of Washington renters were behind on rent live in King County. How every council member. Vote today will make it extremely clear whose side they're on. Will it be working. Class renters, homeowners and small landlords? Or will it be. The corporate real estate. Industry and the big banks who have already profited far too much. Off over the pandemic? These renter productions are aimed at. Slumlords who squeeze vulnerable tenants to make super profits. Not mom and pop. Landlords who aren't exploiting their tenants. Evidence shows that corporate landlords. Are the most evicting and exploitative landlords. We can't. Allow corporate. Landlords to use small landlords as cover. So again, please vote yes on the street. Renters rights protections. No watering down. Thank you. Thank you. Did Greg want to speak? You're a muted now. Okay. Well, I'll call on Hillary. Rose. Please go ahead. Hi. My name is Hilary Rose. H i l l a r y. I'm a renter in the University District of Seattle, King County, District four. First of all, I would like to note that being a tenant is not a choice while being a landlord is low wage, renters have no choice. I don't have an issue with landlords in general and they have supported my landlord in maintaining and improving our community. Not only do I support this ordinance, but it. Is absolutely crucial that we hold each party accountable in this housing crisis, or we will face devastating consequences in the form of increased. Homelessness and. Insecure housing for. Essential workers. I ask that you support this ordinance and oppose any amendments that would weaken it. As a social worker, I tried to find suitable housing for someone in my caseload. He was a member of the Oglala Tribe and a descendant of Crazy Horse. The last time that I spoke to him, he was living in Skyway and in a crowded home with disruptive roommates and minimal space or privacy. He was also disabled and in pain most of the time, but he started to attend physical therapy and was still holding. On to hope. That he could recover his health and find stable housing so that his daughter could come and visit. Not only could I find nothing that he could afford, he's not even protected by Seattle just cause ordinates. He suggested that he. Could live in his car. Or pitch a tent so that he could save money. Is this what our sense of justice looks like? Is this where we have landed in our social contract? Please do the bare minimum. We face the demands coming up with three times the rent. I have a master's degree and work full. Time. And I don't always have that. We need to consider the effects of cumulative fees on people who live paycheck to paycheck. We need to cap these fees, allow for reasonable repayments, and. Ensure reasonable. Notice to pick up and move. The. And your family in these shoes. Imagine how hard it is to make ends meet. Much less progress. Ms.. Rose, if I could ask you to conclude, please. All right. I just, I, I thank you all for hosting this, and I hope that you you pass RINNA protection and increase this so that we don't face waves and waves or more homelessness. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is James Sandberg. Hi. My name is James Sandberg. I mean, that's tr brg and I'm a staff attorney at the Housing Justice Project a.S.A.P supports ordinance 2020 10131 NS entirety. I would like to stress how important it is to move in cost for renters. King County is one of the most expensive rental markets, and depending on the unit size, the average rent is anywhere from 1500 or 30 $200. It is not uncommon for landlords to require first and last month's rent and a security deposit as just as much, if not more than one month's rent. That means in order to move, because gentrification is pushing up communities of color or you're being evicted, you need to have 4590 $600 to find somewhere more affordable. In a country where the average person doesn't have an extra $600 safety net. How can we expect folks to come up from seven on, several hundred, several thousands of dollars to move, capping, moving costs and a longer payment plan is a reasonable protection to give tenants. This relieves a strain on social services funding, who are often footing the bill for moving costs for low income families and domestic violence survivors to flee their abusers and find safer housing. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Jake Phillips. Please go ahead. Hi, my name is Jake Phillips and I'm the intake and support coordinator at the Housing Justice Project. HRP as a whole supports Ordinance 20210131 in its entirety. I would like to address the misinformation and confusion around the use of Social Security numbers for screening purposes. First, this bill does not prevent landlords from requesting a potential tenants Social Security number. It does make it so that the landlord cannot require it. Credit reports are, in fact, obtainable without a Social Security number. Of course, the accuracy of these reports is improved when a Social Security number is included. But there are other details that can also increase the odds of a match. Middle names, former addresses, former employers, etc. Requiring a Social Security number largely impacts immigrant communities and folks who are undocumented. Currently, many landlords choose not to require a Social Security number and have been able to manage without it. Credit scores do not guarantee that someone will be a good tenant or about them. Again, I would like to stress that you can still request your credit report without a Social Security number. If you don't believe me, poke around experian's website for yourself. Thanks. Thank you. The next person is Jason Austin. Hi there, Jason Austin. Jason, a U.S. team. Thank you. Go ahead. Hi. I am a renter living in King County District eight. I am a member of the Seattle Transit Riders Union and I am calling to in support of Ordinance 2020 10131 as is. I want to thank Council members Zali Caldwell as an up the Grove for championing this legislation and I want to urge the Council to vote for this package as is without any loopholes or restrictions. As a former housing case manager and someone who has personally experienced homelessness, I understand firsthand the value of tenant protections in giving people the stability they need to be successful. I know the fear, anxiety and trauma that comes from not having a roof over your head, as do the 15,000 or more people currently experiencing homelessness in King County. If these protections are not passed, our community is going to experience a tidal wave of evictions that we are simply not prepared for the untold billions of dollars in downstream services from rental assistance, legal costs, health care costs, etc. are going to balloon if we don't nip this problem in the bud. Sometimes the right thing to do isn't the cheapest solution. In this case, it is do the right thing, help people and save money in the long run. By supporting this measure as it is with no loopholes or restrictions. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Jasmine Smith. My name is Jasmine Smith, Jay-Z and Miami. The usual way. I'm a renter in District four on the lower Manhattan uptown neighborhood, and I am calling for my support of. This package. And asking again to oppose any amendments that would weaken it. And yeah, as a renter, I had to collect thousands and thousands of dollars to pay. Every time I've had to move, I've had to move almost every year on the dot because of exorbitant rent increases. And I'm someone who, like as a teacher, has a little bit more of a stable income, steady paycheck and everything. But for low income families and people who are having to flee unsafe living situations. Then these. Kind of barriers are absolutely monumental and really push people into homelessness. And when you push people into homelessness with all these fees and with all of these requirements. And. Hoops to jump through, then it makes it just that much harder to keep people house and prevent them from being on house in the future. Yeah, I. Think. Yeah, a lot of great things have already been said, so I'll keep it concise, but thank you for your time and then thank you to councilmembers. That was Wells Valley and off the ground for sponsoring this legislation. Thank you. The next person is Jessie Murray. Hi. This is Jesse Marie. My name is spelled J. SS. I am. You are a white. Thank you. Go ahead. Great. I'm speaking today in support of this measure. I'm a renter in District eight in Capitol Hill. And I want to thank the sponsors and champions of this legislation. I wanted to just talk about my own experience with late fees briefly. So at the very end of 2014, I was living in Capitol. Hill. And I had been in my building for probably two years at this point when there was a major issue with the pipes, my bathtub basically started spewing foul smelling sludge out of the drain. I was really cooperative with my landlords. I said they didn't have to put me up in a hotel, anything like that. Even though the smell was bad enough that I couldn't sleep in my bedroom. I slept on my couch. A couple of days later. My rent was. Due. By January 3rd. In the hectic ness of dealing with all of this, with the holiday, etc.. I missed. The Friday at 5 p.m.. Cut off for the third. Ended up putting my check in the. Box on site on the fifth. Over the. Weekend. On the sixth I got a. Call from my building manager who said that even though they had my check in hand, he had to rip it up, he had to rip it up and serve me a notice for a late fee. And because the original check did not include a late fee, he also had to serve me a three day pay or vacate notice. And those additional fees ended up being another $175 on top of my rent, which was at the time about 60% of my monthly rent. I was able to pay this, but a lot of people would not. And this was. For giving him a check that he had in hand that was then ripped up. I urge you to please Kathy's late fees and support this legislation. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Jim Henderson. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. Counsel. Thank you. I'm here today to ask you to vote no on this ordinance. Just. I'll make five quick points. These policies impact all landlords. Especially the small landlords, to housing. Authorities do more evictions in King County than. Any other. Landlord, and this policy doesn't restrict them. There are these policies. Are outdated and have been replaced by by the state legislature in the past three years. A few examples. We currently statewide have installment payments on move that cost rent cannot be used toward paying late fees. There's a five day grace. Period before late fees can be charged and we have a 14 day notice to pay or vacate for points. These policies will create more barriers and reduce housing choices for residents. I will. Acknowledge that the Council has listened. About the requirement of a Social Security. Number. It's my. Understanding that there's been a. Change, that they are now changing the language. That reduces your ability to inquire. Into requesting it. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is JJ Bartlett. Please go ahead. Hey there. You hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Absolutely. Hey there. I'm calling in full support of this measure. I'd like to first extend thank you to councilmembers Caldwell's Wells and Grove for sponsoring this legislation. Yeah. A lot of people have said a lot of statistics and a lot of things, and what it really comes down to is, are you standing with renters or not? And I believe that as council members, your job is to pass legislation in its strongest form. A big problem we have with a lot of legislation that we attempt to get passed and why our system doesn't really work as well as that. Things continue to be watered down when they shouldn't be. Don't water down just cause eviction protections. Don't remove or raise the cap on late fees. Don't remove or raise the cap on movement fees. Ensure that renters without Social Security numbers are not penalized. Make sure renters have plenty of notice for significant rent increases. The list goes on. The bill was built. With those things in it because they're needed. Thank you for the thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Joe 0757 at hotmail dot com. If you could provide your full name and then proceed. Joe Joseph want to go last names Val La and a Gigi Al. The first thing I want to touch on is the Social Security number. I think someone earlier hit the nail on the head. You can't accurately identify somebody without a Social Security number. So I think that's really bad. I guess it says you can request it, but if someone denies you of that, you can't accurately identify that person or actually get their credit information. And it makes it more difficult as a landlord to screen people. And I don't really hear anybody saying that they really want that part of the law. So I don't see why that is so important to. The other thing that I see is in this bill, there is a pick your payment date where you're requiring me as a landlord to be responsible because I will get to pick my date. I pay my taxes or my utilities or my mortgage. So I don't know why you're saying a tenant doesn't have to be as responsible as a landlord. Late fees. It takes a lot of time to collect late fees. So there has to be some compensation for that. In general, it takes three or four or five days, hours and sometimes days to collect round from somebody that's not present, if at all. There has to be some level of compensation for work, and I guess that's my time. I think there's some good parts of it, but I think we should get rid of the bad parts of it and just put in the part that does provide actual protections to tenants instead of making it harder for landlords. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is John. Please provide your full name and then proceed. My name is John Adams. j0h any D.A.. Thank you. Go ahead. Hi. I'm a renter in Seattle and calling in support of this ordinance. And I'm asking you to oppose any amendments that would weaken it. I'd like to remind you that the whole point of this ordinance is to provide protections to a class of people, renters from another class of people, landlords who have power over them, landlords own property, and they're making their money by already having money and using it to make more money. They do not, for instance, need the same access to attorneys that this ordinance would provide renters. According to the ACLU, 90% of landlords can afford an attorney where less than 10% of renters can. That's a big power differential. So adding that as an amendment would make things just as inequitable as before. And remember that people who are already marginalized are more likely to be renters because of existing inequities. So as you consider this ordinance ordinance excuse me and listen to the calls, but the landlords who are complaining about a potential financial inconvenience and the renters who are talking about life and death, please think about who has the power in this situation and who you are trying to protect by passing this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is John Stovall. Good morning. This is John Stovall, Jr in Stowe Valley. Thank you. Go ahead. Good afternoon. Councilmembers. My name's John Stovall. I'm a renter in King County, and I'm here on behalf of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. We are weighing in with strong support of this ordinance and ask that you pass it in strong form today. The county has right now the opportunity to take real action in advancing our stated regional goals of housing stability. The original Affordable Housing Task Force report specifically recommends several of the policies included in this proposed ordinance, including just cause eviction protections, extending notice of rent increases, expanding civil legal aid and more. So every single one of the elements in this proposed ordinance is important. But I want to share one quick story about rent increases in particular. So I recently spoke with a tenant in King County who's making 783 per month on Social Security. Her husband lost his job during the pandemic, but has some short term cash benefits. They're able to cobble together the rent currently, but are spending about 90 to 95% of their income on rent and they use SNAP to cover the food expenses. With 60 days notice, they might be able to make a 3% rent increase work, but not a five or 10% increase. So that would be catastrophic for them. And there are over 600,000 people in King County currently who are caught up on rent, but who are draining their savings or selling assets in order to just meet their basic spending. Though there are many, many more people who are in this cost burden situation right now, and we just need to make sure that they're protected. So thank you for passing this bill. Thank you. The next person is Joshua Johnson. Well, thank you so much, folks. My name is Joshua Johnson. I'll be real brief. I'm a community organizer with UFC 21. On behalf of 47,000 working, working Washingtonians, I'm urge you to pass this legislation that protects renter protections for the simple fact that working people are already had the stacks odds against them. And you don't make it more difficult. Please do the right thing. Have a good rest of your day. Thank you. The next person is Caitlin Heinen. Good afternoon. My name is Caitlin Hanan. I live in King County and I work as a staff attorney for the Housing Justice Project. I'm calling to support the just cause. Bill being considered today. And specifically, I'd like to highlight that. This bill prohibits rent. Increases if the unit is condemned as. Unlivable or uninhabitable or. Is in violation of RTW 5918 060. Which is a subsection titled. Landlords Duties. This is in line with legal principles of fairness. Of course, a landlord shouldn't raise the rent. Just to. Pay for repairs he's already required by law to do. One of the hardest things parts about my job is when I have to explain how few legal options there are for low income renters in order to hold landlords accountable in. Our court system. Especially when it comes to conditions. Of repair. Because the threat of eviction due to nonpayment of rent is that dire. As an advocate, falling into homelessness is what I'm trying. To prevent first and foremost for. My clients. Because that is the worst consequence. But what good are. My efforts if my clients have to remain in substandard housing that's hazardous to their health or safety. This bill is just. A small step. In and balancing the equity is at play and so I encourage all council members to pass. Without any changes. Thank you. Um. Clark, can I. It is 2:00. Can I inquire how many people are still waiting to testify? Mr. Chair, there are just. Over 30 people. Remaining. Okay. I'm going to remind people that we've heard testimony for not quite an hour yet and most people keep their testimony tight one minute and then we have a hard stop medium to have time to breathe and counsel work. So we'll continue public testimony for maybe another 15 minutes or so. And thank you for the time, Chuck. Mr. Chair, would you like us to mute after one minute the person speaking or. Not. I'm not ready to do that, but I'm going to interrupt quicker. Okay. Thank you. The next person is Katie Wilson. Please go ahead. Katie Wilson kewi0 And. I would like to share a message from Will, which operates two shelters for homeless. Women and stands at Women in West Vigil. Whenever a homeless person dies outside in public or by violence in Kent County this afternoon, they are standing vigil for four of our homeless neighbors, including the man, Bradley. Irby, who. Was murdered. In our house park last Thursday. His death brings the known total of deaths this year in King County to 67. Here's what we all have to say. One of our sisters is here because her landlord made persistent sexual advances and retaliated when she refused him. We know people who are. Living in tents, who work and could pay a monthly. Rent but have not saved up enough to pay enormous movement fees. Other women have become homeless after their rent jumped by 50% in one month. More evictions will mean more homelessness, that more homeless people will be unsheltered with increased risk of death. King County also needs to extend the eviction moratorium, and that's the message from we all. We urge you to keep this legislation. Strong and also add emergency protections, including an eviction moratorium for renters. In unincorporated King County. Thanks so much. Thank you. The next person is Craig Heck. Go ahead. Breakneck speed ahead. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Thank you. I'm Craig Park. I live in District three, and I'm a landlord. I've owned two rentals in Rod's district for over 20 years. I'm a landlord asking you to support the ordinance. There's nothing in it that harms landlords. It provides tenants with the certainty and stability they deserve every bit as much as homeowners. Landlords should not be able to evict people at the end of their lease. Most people want to buy rather than rent. To get stability, you have to have it once you have kids because kids must have the stability of their school and childcare. Here's what has to be understood by each of you on the council. Owning a home in the Seattle area and getting that stability is now out of reach for most tenants. The state law fails to protect tenants at the end of a lease. Until that's corrected, tenants will live without stability. And for most, that means they're permanent, second class citizens. Now, why would a landlord evict someone at the end of their lease if they pay their rent and are a good tenant? I'll tell you. Apartments are small villages run by a manager. If a manager has a friend who wants to move in, her favorite tenant wants your apartment. You can be removed at the end of the lease. And if the manager doesn't like your politics or your lifestyle, you risk non-renewal. This arbitrary power is the reason we still use the word landlord. It's medieval. And this arbitrary power is not needed to protect the interests of property owners. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Laura michelle Kirk. Hi. My name is Laura Kirk. Elena, you are an. AK, I. Thank you. Go ahead. Um, yeah, I'm a homeowner, and these are district five. I support. Renter protections. I'm also an intern at the Housing Justice Project and speaking in support of Ordinance. 2020 10131 in its entirety, many low income. Renters are seniors living on fixed income due to disabilities or other various reasons. When we talk about small mom and pop landlords, they're using rental income for retirement purposes. We are neglecting. The larger population of. Seniors who rent because they can't afford one house, let alone another, to use this extra income. And HDP, many of our clients have faced eviction because their public benefits were wrongly terminated or past due to an error. Or missing paperwork and they weren't notified. The process is riddled with bureaucracy that can sometimes take weeks to fix through no fault of the tenant. If you can request a specific due date for your credit card and mortgage payment. Renters who are on a fixed income should be able to as well. Renters who are on a fixed income. Shouldn't have to worry about being charged late fees when they don't have control over when their income arrives. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Lisa J. Please provide your full name and then proceed. Hello. My name is Lisa Johnson. L i. S.A. j0h and. SL. Thank you for making time for me. I am a. Small mom and pop landlord. And I'm asking that you vote against this ordinance. I understand the societal concerns around affordable housing. The reason we hold a rental is for our families planning for a special needs son. We are trying to provide him with stable housing for when he is an adult. I am terrified about an ordinance that would not let me change the use of my property without selling it, either to support my son or even my aging parents. I would like the county to consider a couple other ways to support. Small mom and pop landlords. And allow them to support tenants such as providing a break on real estate taxes. For small landlords. Who hold. Properties as rentals. And I don't just mean a deferment, but I mean like don't make it cost so much a month for the $100 a month of my. Mortgage goes to. Rent or goes through insurance and taxes. And I would also include the county's guarantee program. Similar to the loan guarantee program run by the US Small Business Administration. I know I'm at home, but just as a tenant can apply to the county. Yes, I do need to ask a different question. We have a chance to hear from more people. And if the county the if deemed creditworthy, the county could guarantee rent to the modest landlords. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Madeline Olsen. Please go ahead. Madeleine Olson. I made Ally any lesson. Thank you. All right. I'll try to be as quick as possible in calling in today to ask you support renters productions without loopholes, no watering down, requiring a legally valid reason for an eviction and requiring basic safety in units for any rent increases is common sense is. Used to. Landlords against those protections. If you are guilty of the abuses we're hearing about from renters, I don't understand why you're so concerned about. These basic protections. I don't understand how it's any sense to allow a landlord to raise their hand when a simple, essential repairs are being neglected. In my account, if it's correct, the prices on the Council can pass these. Protections without any support of Republicans. They only need support of fellow Democrats. So what's stopping you? Seattle has. Passed protections, these protections and. An eviction ban on evictions. To schoolchildren just. During school year. And this. Wasn't done by brokering backroom deals with corporate landlords who we. Know are the biggest offenders when it comes to these unfair practices exploiting their renters. It's through building a grassroots movement for renters rights that we've seen these land protections. The council has a responsibility supporting and passing these basic rights for struggling renters, which is why you should support these renters protections. No loopholes, no watering down. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Malik. Please provide your full name and then go ahead. Yeah, my name is Malik. As, like, busy. I'm a person of color, second generation immigrant. I'm also very small mom and pop landlord as. As father. And now I guess I personally don't know any corporate landlords. As has been alluded to by some of these staff attorneys that are pushing this agenda. I would ask that you guys vote no on this. It is extremely important to know who I'm renting to because I need to ensure the safety and security of the other tenants in the building as well. If I don't have some of the Social Security number, I don't know if they have an extensive history of domestic violence , of abuse, of criminal activity. How am I supposed to provide safe and comfortable housing if I don't even know who I'm renting it to? I would also like to point out that landlords raise rent because all these taxes are increasing and the last time the waste management wanted to increase their fees, I emailed all of you guys and I asked you to contact the Washington State Utility Commission to say no on and I didn't hear back. It's not because of faucet breaks or a door gets busted because of the constant increases that mom and pop lenders are facing. And I think it is a good idea that you give us a break so that we can pass that on to the tenants. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Margaret Stewart. Hi. I'm actually reading a comment for somebody else who has to leave the call early, Sonia Posner. She's a working mom living in King County suburbs, also a member of Socialist Alternative and a landlord herself. She says you should absolutely vote. Yes on the full slate of interest rates without loopholes, but that's not enough. Renters need a full bill of rights, including rent control. Rents keep rising, but income does not. This pandemic has been horrible for us all and. Spotlights the inequality we face in society. It's shameful, but not. Surprising that corporate landlords are pushing hard to weaken, if not outright kill, these renter protections up for a vote. I don't agree with these landlords claiming that renters rights we've passed in Seattle is the source of their troubles or that they're onerous with actually onerous. 40 are forking over 4 to $6000 for movement fees. These bills are. Supported by thousands. The fact that capitalism. Is pushing out small landlords. Not renters rights. It's the system doing that and people will settle. For many reasons. These objections raised are about a threat to their profits and nothing more. Landlords are making tons of money and rents are rising here. At 2.5 times the national. Average. I just don't think I'm alone in seeing my profit, in seeing my profits increase for the past few years. There's a very small minority of landlords around to who may have an issue and they keep plenty of resources to help them. But renters do not. Landlords do not needs a special carve out and that corporate landlords will exploit that. I understand one of the amendments that Democrats are proposing is increasing the percentage that landlords can charge for late fees. This makes no sense. It cannot get blood from a stone if somebody is late paying their rent. It's because they don't have enough money. Additional fees don't solve the problem. It's just another penalty for being poor. So I urge you to publicly declare your support for the Full Renters Bill of. Rights as you take action on the legislation before you today. Thank you. The next person is Mark. If you could provide us with your full name and then proceed. Mark. Okay. Am I? Oh, hi. My name is Mark Epstein. M r k e p s t e i n and a King County home owner and a landlord of one unit. And I this is a humanistic issue. This is a human rights issue. It's erroneous to say that there are equal sides. And as a volunteer, a case manager for the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, I've spoken with over 1500 people since last April when the pandemic took its economic costs. And that. Left index people, in. Particular essential workers. Who've been on the front lines, and they've paid the highest cost of COVID in our state. I want to call one man, Francisco, I spoke with last week. He said, please, no, I did not come here trying to find free food. I've never asked for assistance in this country, but I'm feeling desperate. Rising through the Work Assistance Program had over 120,000 undocumented people in Washington state who tried to get some help in the last year. We have we were able to help 80,000 and the regional affordable housing task force recommendations were good. And that's what we need. We need an eviction moratorium. And why not do what California is doing? Let's pay our rent or debt. And move forward. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Mary Coughlan Patterson. Please go ahead. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm calling from Damascus District and in support and strong support of 0131. Without any weakening amendments. I'm dedicating my advocacy for it to my Irish and Scottish ancestors who rented homes and apartments all their lives, faced evictions as a result of poverty, colonialism and income disparity. And I just want to address some of the concerns that some of the mom and. Pop small time landlords have raised, indicating the difference between them and corporate. Landlords, asking them to share the difference also between themselves and their renters in many, many cases. And I'd also like to add to acknowledge the need. For adversaries to have meaningful. Spaces, to work out differences. Events like this, calls like this give us an opportunity to each other. But other formats, like peacemaking circles, might be better in the future for working out differences between renters and mom and pop landlords. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Matt Smith. Hi. Yeah, my name is Matt Smith. I think the spelling is up there. I'm a rancher in King County. I want to speak, first of all, against the decision by the chair to cut all the comments short. The chair allowed several landlords who opposed the bill to go for the one minute time earlier in the meeting, even waited for one of them to come back in after he muted himself. It's not like there's 100 people up on this call. I think there's one, maybe a dozen. I think we deserve to hear from them. They came on this call to time out of their day and I think deserve to speak on this. All renters deserve these protections. We're facing a dire housing crisis in King County, a third of all renters in Washington who are behind on rent live in King County. Meanwhile, corporate landlords are making have seen profits. Someone said they don't know any corporate landlords. One of them is Essex Property Trust, which was mentioned earlier. Another one, Equity Apartments, has almost 10,000 apartments throughout King County, including a lot in the suburbs. Just reported $963 million in 2020. Profits boasted to shareholders that their balance sheet has never been in better shape. Yet we're seeing those same corporate landlords oppose every renters rights bill in the state and region over the years. We're seeing them raising rents. We're seeing them drive to the beach in crisis. This is not the behavior of people who want to be friends with renters. It's the behavior of people who are driving a housing crisis for the sake of profit. I urge you to vote yes on this this legislation without loopholes, without watering down support renters, not the profits of big corporate landlords. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Matt. W if you could provide your full name and then proceed. Hi. My name is Matt Wilder. I'm a renter in Kane County and I want to I'm going to speak in favor of the just cause I just sorry the end of a just cause we call it advance notice for rent increases and caps on fees with no corporate loopholes. I think ultimately what's what this comes down to is the question of whose side are you on or are you on the side of the working, the working class movement and renters rights struggle or side of big corporate landlords? I think there is no middle ground here and any attempts to ah to, to pretend like we can work this out in a, in a way without actually building a movement. Fighting back is kind of utopian in a way. I think it's super important if there's any many genuinely small landlords here who are listening to this. I think generally, generally these these corporate landlords are not on your side. They want to use you as a human shield to fight to fight back against renters. And there's land giant corporate landlords here saying that evictions don't cause homelessness, which is absolutely ridiculous. I think that should be clear to everyone that evictions do cause homelessness. But fundamentally, we need a fighting renters rights movement to push back for more victories and beyond. So I'm in favor of all these measures with no corporate loopholes to water down. Thank you. The next person is Matthew Lang. Hi there. Thank you. My name is Matthew. Lange and Mitzi, H.W. L.A., Angie, and a King County renter who grew up in unincorporated land mostly. And I've done a great deal of work or lived in every district throughout my life, including work with the amazing women at the Sophia way of Bellevue. We need consistency across the board, right. Folks who are living in unincorporated lands in urban centers are so often missing out on services and resources that are not available to them because the county hasn't made a consistent law, that that means it is consistent with how an urban center should be running. Right. So I think we should be consistent also with our values. Right. We have a stated racial and social justice initiative here at the county. So as more and more black and indigenous people of color have been displaced out of urban centers into unincorporated land lose services. I want everyone on the council to ask themselves, Are you holding consistent to the values of those are SGA goals and consistent to what you need to be doing to keep the land consistent in itself? Thank you. And please pass this measure. Thank you. The next person is Michelle Jones. Thank you for your time. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Go ahead and make the hellej0nes. I am a renter in King County, case manager with the Tenant Law Center and have worked with people excuse me experiencing homelessness in the city for about five years. Speaking in favor of the passing of these rental protections and especially a capping of the movement fees because it's so extremely important to so many people. I myself have lived in Seattle for 20 years. I've hitchhiked to Seattle as a homeless youth at age 18 and was able to get my very own first place. 20 years later, two years ago, at age 39, thanks to the capping of movies and things like, excuse me, other rental protections that will be sweeping , it's not the landlords who are suffering right now, it's the people. And just cause evictions, please, let's move things only landlords just making up reasons, pretending they're going to move into properties to really just get someone else in there who will be more money. It's brutal and, you know, mean spirited. I, the Fed. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is on Bender. Oh, my name is Owen Vanderpool. I'm a King County homeowner and a landlord of a single rental unit. I'm here to voice my support for the tent protection laws being considered today. Greater protections don't provide landlords from offering housing. They prevent renters from becoming homeless landlords and pro landlord media mouthpieces. Like certain Seattle Times op ed writers consistently promote the narrative that greater tenant protections will cause a collapse in the rental market. Getting reality that isn't true. Despite these alarmist claims, available rentals have been increasing over the years, even while greater tenant protections were being enacted into law. Rental owners who are now making the decision to sell are making that decision based on the unprecedented depreciation of home values in King County, not the theoretical difficulty of having to evict the tenants in the future . The bottom line is that the evictions are the leading cause of homelessness. Increasing renter protections decreases evictions, and fewer evictions means less homelessness. That is the crisis. That is the goal. Please consider voting for the proposed tenant protection bills being discussed today. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Peter Houk. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. H o. U c k. I'm calling in support of a strong version. Of the ordinance. I want. To quickly correct some misinformation that's. Been spread. About this. Ordinance. Last council meeting, I heard a lot of landlords concerned that if this passes. If they take rent from. A renter, they're not. Going to ever be able. To end the lease or evict them and landlords are going to be left. Holding the bag. That's totally not true. And I think that's misinformation that's been spread around. Instead, what the ordinance is going to do is it's going to. Stop landlords. From taking rent when someone gets caught up and then turning around and evicting them for something else that's happened in the past. This ordinance stops landlords from doing that and. It helps both tenants. Get caught up and it gives tenants an incentive to get caught up in pay back landlords so that it's a common sense protection. It helps both sides, and it's what we desperately need as we're facing an eviction tidal wave. We need to help renters get caught up. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Rene Butler. Please go ahead. Hi. My name is Renee Blue and I. Oh, sorry. I'm an attorney with Housing Justice Project and a renter in King County. And I'm here today to express my support for the proposed tenant protections, particularly for the protections providing financial security to tenants, which include capping late fees and moving costs and providing several months notice for significant rent increases. Rent is most people's biggest expense, and large increases in rent, as well as excessive fines due to late fees, can create massive financial setbacks and cost housing instability. We need to remember that landlords have an economic interest in keeping rents and expenses related to rent high and without any sort of regulation. This can carry on unabated, seemingly forever and to the detriment of our community. I have seen exorbitant late fees during my work at AJP, particularly from corporate landlords in South King County. So I'm charging as much as 25 to $30 a day. Also, as an aside, we really need to change the way we think about housing and this issue. For a tenant, housing is a basic necessity for a landlord. This is a for profit business. It is insane that we would prioritize the rights of individuals within well or two income over the rights of low income families. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Sarah Champion, our. These go hand. I want to call in to speed against weakening anyone whose rights proposal is being discussed today, especially around caps on online rent fees. And the just cause legislation, I think should be a human right. And there are real predatory. Big, big. Landlords that take advantage of the lack of affordable housing in the city. And they're increasingly taking over the rental market, saying that every proposal, watering down proposed protections on already burdened renters is is. You know, saying that it's to protect small landlords. Giving ultra rich estate developers cover. Like. Real estate developers and real estate investor landlords. It's giving them cover. And it's a really destructive pattern that I continue to hear. And we need to take we need to take this situation on with a. More fighting approach. It's completely normal for people making even good, stable wages to be paying 50% of their income in rent. That's a crisis in itself. Without even talking about the tens of thousands of people in King County lacking any kind of housing, the human need for housing is being wildly exploited for record big business profits, and we have to fight it. I heard someone on the call say that most housing in the US is provided by small landlords, but most evictions are corporate, especially large real estate investment groups. This is according to a 2017 study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta that found that large landlords are the top executors. Yes, of course. We need to. Include. Small landlords trying to fight, trying to stand out against corporate rental property. Investment companies should do something to fight against the corporate takeover of. The rental housing market. I agree we should work together on that. Thank you. We miss daily, if you will, continue calling people till 235 more minutes. When I will interrupt again and we will conclude public testimony at 230 sharp. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next person is SGA. Jennifer, can you provide your full name and then proceed? We're like, Oh, wait. Okay, I'm unmuted. Okay. I'm Jennifer. James Jaymes. I'm a renter in Greenwood, District four. I urge supportive 2020 10131 to protect renters, oppose any amendment that weakens it. And I think council members polls will say, hey, look, it's a healthy and up the growth for sponsoring this legislation. I have been contacted by renters of King County on Facebook. I'm a member and I just want to my personal I'm on a fixed income and my son lives with me as a journeyman fishery worker, a social worker. Neither of us can afford to live alone. Our situation is delicate and I hope that if there is any. Is there. There is going to be in a coming eviction crisis. Normally a landlord evict. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Shaun. See? Please provide your full name there. My name is Shaun. Casey and Casey. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm a renter in King County, District two in Seattle, Central District. I'm also a member of the Seattle chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. I'd like to voice my support for this legislation, and I urge all council members to oppose any amendments that would water it down. We had a housing emergency in King County before the pandemic. It's even worse now and starts to become worse still. Unless you act. This legislation would be a good first step towards preventing an explosion of aggressions and homelessness for poor and working class residents of King County. Meantime, time I have lived in King County. I've moved every 1 to 2 years, not always because I wanted to. I've been prevented from moving into some apartments because I couldn't afford to live in peace. I've had my rent increase to an unaffordable price with little notice. If I had been required to give me four months notice, I would have had time to properly prepare, to move or to fight the rent increase. That timeframe can make a huge difference to renters. All the measures in this package will help prevent infections, especially among the vulnerable residents of King County. Keeping people housed should be a top priority for each and every one of you. If you need a financial motive, well, actually more expensive to rehouse people once they become homeless than it is to keep them housed in the first place. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Sebastian Stockpile. Good afternoon. My name is Sebastian Stockpile. I'm a staff attorney with the Housing Justice Project. No cause evictions make up a staggering volume and percentage of evictions every year in King County, they act as a catch. All that allow landlords to make an installment, buy eviction, even if there's no cognizable legal basis and the tenants have done nothing wrong. Please note and here elicit nothing in the statewide legislation recently passed prohibits local cities or counting counties from strengthening the existing protections. That is what ordinance 2020 10131 does. Requiring landlords to have a legal basis for eviction does not weaken landlords freedom or ability to rid their property. It strengthens renters rights and protections and ensures renters aren't made homeless without any cost. Read the ordinance. I understand the ordinance. It is not duplicative and even if it was, it would not be detrimental to landlords. Further, if you are a good landlord, tenant protections should not scare you. Having a reason to evict somebody to make somebody homeless should not worry you. We've heard the difficulty some landlords and property owners have described as learning new laws. This is not an excuse for having no reason to evict someone. Does this council want to prioritize landlords losing some money on some properties of some tenancies or prioritizing that over human lives and people having homes? Evictions make folks homeless. That's the effect of evictions in King County passed Ordinance 2020 10131. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Shane Warner. Hi. My name is Shane Warner. S.H. An e w e r n e r. Go ahead, please. I am a staff attorney with the Tenant Law Center in Seattle. We provide free legal services to low income renters in Seattle and King County who are at risk of losing their housing. The Tenant Law Center supports passage of Ordinance 2020 10131. These are foundational tenant protections that will help level the playing field between landlord and tenant. In accordance with the testimony from several of the landlords we've small landlords we've heard from today. These are actually rather basic protections that any landlord operating in good faith will have little trouble complying with. We must address the reality that our communities are faced with a looming eviction crisis when the only safety net being a homelessness system that is already stretched too thin. These protections are vital to averting disaster for thousands of King County families. I want to thank the Council for considering these crucial protections to keep tenants housed and especially this legislation. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Here it is, 230 and I will interject here. Miss Daley, thank you very much for managing public comment and with regret. I am going to close public comment now at 230 so that we can take up discussion and work on the legislation itself. Item five on today's agenda is Ordinance 2021, 131 that would provide additional tenant protections for renters in unincorporated King County. After being introduced in March 16th and marked on June 9th, 2021, the Community Health and Housing Services Committee voted to forward the legislation to the full council without recommendation on June 15th. The full council was briefed on the legislation and striking Amendment One. Though it is striking the amendment at the time and the Council chose to refer the legislation to the committee of the whole for discussion and work. That action is what we are taking up today. And with that, I will turn to our central staffer, April Sanders, who is staffing this legislation in it from our central policy staff to provide a briefing on the underlying legislation as introduced. And I've asked it to then also proceed into briefing the current striking amendment as to the sponsors. Councilmembers Caldwell's and Xilai have brought to this meeting today. With that, Ms.. Sanders, I invite you to brief on the underlying ordinance, in fact, an amendment as to. April, are you present? April, your sound's not coming through. I see you, but I don't hear you, April. I'll give you a good shout out when I can hear you. I suspect she who has exited and is rejoining. To restart audio. Not prepared for me to have to do her speaking at some point in. Welcome back to the Sanders. You, you're still muted. Okay. You can hear me now. We can. Perfect. All right. It's bound to happen every once in a while. All right. Good afternoon. For the record. April Sanders council policy staff must warn as 2020 10131 would establish just cause provisions and additional protections for residential tenants in unincorporated King County. The materials for this item begin on page six of your packet, and an additional materials packet was distributed by Marca this morning. Councilmembers requested a crosswalk between the proposed ordinance striking amendment to state law and other jurisdictions. This crosswalk can be found on page 34 of your packet. This council is or this item was last presented to full council last Tuesday. The ordinance would establish just causes that a landlord must satisfy in order to terminate a month to month tenancy failed to renew a fixed term lease or begin eviction proceedings. The just causes are listed on page nine and ten of the packet, but include causes like a landlord wanting to occupy or sell the unit, a tenant failing to comply with the pay rent or vacant notice, and a tenant or their guest engaging in criminal activity on the premises. In addition to Jessica's policies, legislation would establish additional tenant protections. First, it would cap movement fees and security deposits at one month's rent, with the option to pay movement fees and security deposits incrementally. It would also cap late fees or costs that can be charged to a tenant due to nonpayment of rent at 1% of the monthly rent. The legislation would also amend King County Code Chapter 2.60. That section of code deals with the duties and scope of the Department of Public Defense and would be amended to allow the department to represent tenants whose leases have been terminated or are subject to unlawful detainer actions in violation of any King County ordinance when funds are available. Currently, there is not funding in the biennial budget dedicated to funding public defense access for tenants. Legislation would also repeal King County Code 1247, which currently requires landlords to prevent criminal activity and evict based on criminal violations of the tenant or tenants guests. 447 also requires landlords to report suspicion of criminal activity to the King County Sheriff's Office. If a landlord does not report suspicion of criminal conduct or prevent criminal conduct. They can be charged with civil infractions. With the repeal of 1247, a landlord would no longer be required to report or prevent criminal activity, but would still be able to evict a tenant under the just cause dealing with criminal activity. In addition to the provisions I have already listed, the legislation includes several additional protections and I'll go through a bit more quickly. It would require a landlord to give between 120 and 180 days notice for rent increases greater than 3%. It would prohibit landlords from engaging in unfair or abusive practices and deceptive acts of practices. It would state that acceptance of rent by landlord waives any right to declare forfeiture or seek eviction solely for any prior breaches of the rental agreement. It would prohibit a landlord from increasing the rent if the dwelling unit has defective conditions, making the unit unlivable or unlivable. It would require rental agreements to include a provision allowing tenants to adjust the due date of rent payments. If the tenant has a fixed income source that is incongruent, a fixed income source that the tenant receives on the date of the month incongruent with paying rent on the date otherwise specified in the rental agreement. An example of this is if an individual receives Social Security on the second of the month, they may elect to pay rent on the third, but also prohibit a landlord from refusing to enter into a rental agreement with a prospective tenant who will request such accommodations. It would require landlords to include language on a payment or vacate. Notice that the landlord may allow you to pay rent after the 14 days in lieu of initiating eviction proceedings. And lastly, it would prohibit landlords from requesting a Social Security number for the purposes of screening a prospective tenant. That brings me to the end of the protection, so I'll move on to damages. A landlord found in violation of any of the provisions in the proposed ordinance would be liable to a tenant in a private right of action or double damages, or four and a half times the monthly rent, whichever is greater in court costs and attorney's fees. The exception is the use of a tenant Social Security number for tenant screening. If a landlord is found in violation of this provision, they will be held liable up to double damages or one month's rent, whichever is greater in court costs. Attorney's fees. The Superior Court would act as the enforcement mechanism for the provisions included in the legislation. If a tenant believes a landlord has wrongfully initiated eviction proceedings or wrongfully refuses to renew a fixed term lease, the tenant may bring the landlord in court. Lastly, the legislation includes a series of directives to the executive. The executive would be required to develop the central phone number within DC address for tenants who believe their tenancy was terminated or their fixed term lease was not renewed. Wrongfully, the executive would be required to transmit a Tenant Protections Access plan with accompanying legislation to codify recommendations in the Landlord Outreach Plan by August 2021. The Tenant Protection's Access Plan would include recommendations on providing information about tenant protections in King County and access to those protections to residents with limited English proficiency recommendations on providing tenant protections to undocumented residents who may have a fear of accessing the court system and know your Rights Campaign with the objective of spreading awareness of the new provisions in the ordinance. Utilizing partnerships with community organizations and the King County Immigrant Refugee Commission, and recommendations on ways to provide free legal representation, advice, and other legal assistance to tenants facing eviction, harassment, disrepair, and other housing related issues, including an analysis of the right to counsel law through the New York City's Legal Representation program. The landlord outreach plan would have the goal of expanding knowledge of tenant protections in a King County code to landlords. The legislation, if adopted, would take effect 90 days after the effective date of the ordinance. And now that brings me to the end of the underlying ordinance. I'll move on to study amendment as to. In your digital materials packet, you'll find an amendment matrix. Striking Amendment S-2 begins immediately thereafter on page four of the packet. It would require landlords to provide at least 30 days written notice to a tenant when evicting, terminating, refusing to or using to renew a tendency for a just cause unless a longer notice period is required by state law. It would add a just cause for tenants who knowingly allow a vicious animal, as declared by the director of the Regional Animal Services Section without written consent from the landlord, or if an animal is declared vicious during the terms of the rental agreement. It would exempt subsidized tenancies from the one month cap on security deposits and move in fees. It would amend the cap on the fees from 1% to 1.5% of the monthly rent. It would require at least 120 days notice for rent increases over 3% instead of between 120 and 180 days and would amend notice requirements for subsidized tenancies to 30 days notice. It would amend damages to three times monthly rent or double damages plus cost of attorney's fees instead of double damages and or four and a half times the monthly rent. It would clarify that the provision regarding acceptance of rent does not waive a landlord's remedy for nonpayment of rent if additional rent is outstanding. It would amend language that a landlord may request, but now require a Social Security number from a prospective tenant. It also adds that a landlord shall not refuse to enter into a rental agreement with a prospective tenant because the prospective tenant does not agree to provide a Social Security number. It would amend the requirement for the executive to develop a central phone number within the DHS and instead make it an item the executive to report on the Tenant Protections Access Plan and require the executive to develop a standard notice in ten languages for landlords utilizing a just cause, an eviction information, tenancy or failure to renew a fixed term lease. It would clarify that if the executive is already conducting the work required in the access plan, the Executive should shall describe the work being done in the funding mechanism to accomplish the work, and how it addresses the goals of the plan would amend the due dates for both the Tenant Protection's Access Plan and the Landlord Outreach Plan to June 30th of 2022. Instead of August of this year. It would eliminate the effective date provision making the legislation effective in the normal course. It would add a severability clause. And lastly, it makes technical corrections to correct terminology, customizer edits, fixed class references and align language and provisions more closely with state law. There are additional line amendments I'd be happy to brief, unless there are any questions on the underlying or the striking amendment. I do suggest we pause here to take questions on the underlying ordinance and strike amendment that Ms.. Sanders has briefed. Assuming they are some. Councilmember Belushi. I asked out one more time because I think you said this, but it it all went by very, very quickly. And there's plenty. Of time. For context. Some of us were not on the committee that this legislation was sitting in. And this, for us at least, is the very first time we're ever going through the substance of what this ordinance contains. So it went by super fast. My top goal for myself with this meeting was to really educate myself about what's in the ordinance. And I can't say that I've achieved that yet because it was just too quick. But so could you once again state the key components of this ordinance? If you like it, it creates a just cause requirement. What constitutes just cause? It puts it just. Is there a short list somewhere? I'm trying to look through the chart. The chart is very long. It's just. Can you help me take it all on board somehow in a simple, enumerated way? Yeah, absolutely. So on page 11 of the packet, I will pull it up now as well. It is enumerated in a slightly easier manner and for the just cause provisions. But let's hold for just a minute, make sure that we're all people who are looking forward to finding the right page 11, because there's the regular packet and then there's the supplemental packet. Yes. And this is page 11 of the regular packet. Thank. I'm there. Okay, perfect. So everybody everybody else who wanted wants to catch up there. Yes. Okay. Games proceed. So all of the Jessica's provisions are listed between pages 11 and 12. And these are you know, I gave a few examples, but they include a tenant failing to comply with a parent or vacate notice, an owner electing to sell an owner seeking to do substantial rehabilitation in the building. So if any of these just causes or satisfied, a landlord will be able to either evict terminated tenancy or failed to renew a fixed term term lease. So any question specifically on just cause provisions that I can clarify? Come in follow up, Mr. Chair. One of the things that we heard in public comment was if an owner of a building is renting it out in anticipation that they will at some point rented to an adult child or to an a senior relative would. I would now like to rank this to my family member. B Just cause. Yes, being able to rent to a family member is, is just cause. I think that would be that would create the ability for the landlord to fail during the tendency to terminate and C to rent to that individual. Thank you so much. All right. And moving on to additional. Restrictions. Chair. S member, Dan Belsky. Thank you. I would like to also respectfully request that April, if at all possible, for just a slow learner like me, slow down just a little bit. It's very complicated. And I've been trained in real estate and practice real estate law, and I really work and understand it, particularly with the new state provisions. I have two questions. One, a specific one that heard from a constituent under the just cause provisions here, where we basically, as the government would say, when you would have to renew or wouldn't have to renew a lease. So I'd just about evictions. Understand it. Could somebody who owned the place next door to an aging parent and wanted to have a caregiver at move in residence? Would that be allowed either under this proposal or the state law? I'm so sorry. Sorry. Let me interrupt. I'm not aware of that being a just cause, other than if it were if that aging parents lived on the property. So if it were that individual's personal property, then then a landlord could utilize the just cause and remove the previous tenant to allow for a caregiver to live on their property if it was their primary residence. But not an adjacent residence. If it were a different parcel. No. No, just clauses in our proposed ordinance for that. I see. And then the other question is, it looks to me that many of these proposed just clauses mirrored the new state legislation that was adopted. That applies in some but not all cases, but not all tenancies. And I'd like to understand what kind of get going this would be and whether there is a difference in the enumerated just causes with the state legislation. And I suppose if we know the Seattle legislation, one thing that I am interested in, I want to share this with colleagues because I served on the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force co-chaired by Councilmember about Dutchie and Mayor Baker of Kenmore. If you if you look at our recommendations, we did suggest that there was a need for tenant protection legislation. And this is on page 27 of the 60 page report. I'm not sure which number it is, but it's one of the things we wanted to do was have some consistency and we started at the state and then had, you know, regional stuff. And I want to share a concern. I'm not saying that there's no room for for regulating in this space, but we have 39 cities in King County and unincorporated would make a 40th jurisdiction with police power. And I am applying a bit of a lens here to make sure that the regulation that we would be adopting really brings value such that when compared to the risk of and I do think it's a risk of providing dozens and dozens of different sets of rules around the county that folks have to figure out. And the reason that's a concern to me is because I do believe a regulatory structure like that does increase costs because you've got to figure out how to comply and increase costs. And providing housing is a problem. Right. That leads to higher rent. So I'm sorry I have drifted there and a little bit of thinking out loud, but I want to share that. That is a lens of looking at. So if you can help me understand a broader are just this proposed legislation just cause enumerated items versus the new state law and maybe Seattle? Sure. Absolutely. So not to make you jump around in your packet, but on page 34 of your packet, there is a crosswalk between the underlying ordinance, the striking amendment and the state law. With the House Bill 1236 Incorporated and Federal Way in Seattle are included as well as a comparison. So in the proposed ordinance just causes seven, eight and ten C are those that are not specified in state law. No, the exact verbiage varies because we draft legislation where we are drafting techniques are slightly different than the state, but the remaining just clauses in our ordinance model those out of the state law as far as applicability for the just causes. In the ordinance. The proposed ordinance would apply to months of maintenance tenancies, fixed term lease lease renewals and evictions. In the Washington Residential Landlord Tenant Act is a little bit more complex, so I'll go through the three scenarios. The first are fixed term leases that include a clause converting the lease to a month to month at the end of the initial lease term. If that clause is included in the fixed term lease, no cause is needed at the state level for a landlord to enter the tenancy at the end of the lease term. If there is a fixed term lease without that clause, converting it to a month month initiated the end of the initial lease term. The landlord may terminate without cause, but only if the lease term is for 12 months or more and the parties have entered into a successive rental agreement of six months or more after that initial lease term. And the tenancy has never been a month to month basis since inception of the tenancy. In that case, no cause would be needed. All other tenancies at a state level, including month on month, you may not terminate tenancy without one of those enumerated just clauses. So everything else would be would require. That just follows. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Lambert, do you mind if I just follow up there? Yeah. And then I'm sorry Joe asked me to chair as opposed to go ahead. And run right here on the right track. I did not understand what she just said, so that's why I interrupted. Okay. No, no. No problem. I've read a dozen times and I think I'm starting to get there. But April, maybe could you help us understand if we know the policy basis behind the state choosing the different kinds of tenancies in which they would apply that just cause I understand, I think this legislation would get fill, if you will, to cover kind of all tendencies. Correct. I don't know the policy intent behind why those fixed term term leases were exempted from requiring cause. And it was done fairly late in the session. And I, I didn't review those those meetings. To. Sort of get a gauge for the conversation. And instead, if my explanation of the state law was unclear, I'm happy to review again. You know, I. Think it was clear it's just complicated. And if you couldn't, then I'll stop on this line of questioning. You indicated that this proposed either in the striking amendment or the underlying legislation would add additional cause, just causes seven, eight and ten. See, and I didn't see those in the crosswalk, but maybe I. Could you tell us what those are? Yes. Let me go back to. I'm scrolling through an amendment packet here. Okay. And then the additional one would be the vicious animal, just cause that is in that a striking amendment. So in eight. So there's the discontinuation or discontinued use of a dwelling unit after receipt of a notice and order from the Department of Local Services . That is is not in state law. There is. Oh, it looks like I was. Oh, I was looking at the underlying ordinance. The numbers have changed, of course. Just a second. Okay. Reducing the number of occupants to fit with King County Code is also not one that is in in the state law. So reducing occupants do not exceed the legal limit. And then the last ten see the owner seeks to evict a tenant if they're in a single family dwelling unit and the owner resides in an accessory dwelling unit on the same lot. So I guess the primary residence concern that I spoke about previously. Okay. Thank you for that orientation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I do have some familiarity with this ordinance, but it was me. The. 12 months. I get that a fixed amount and then you must. Do a one month to month lease. But you can't break the one month lease unless you do a six month lease, which then has to be followed. By a one month lease. Why? Could you explain. That to me a little bit more how that works? Sure. So we're talking now about the state law and the applicability of the just cause provisions on a state level. So the first is a fixed term lease that includes a clause where it automatically goes to a month, a month pendency at the end of the initial lease term. So make sure you got that. So you have a year. And then you can go to a month. The month after that it was written in the contract originally. So if you then had it and you said, okay, well I only want you in this unit for another two months, so. We're going to have two events. And then at the end of the second month, you know, you're done. Right. And a landlord could hypothetically, at a state level, evict or terminate tenancy after that after that second month. For any reason. No reason for no cause. Okay. Okay. So go ahead. And I got that. So then what happens? And it doesn't have to be. You mentioned 12 month lease is just state's fixed term lease. So do not would not have to be that full year, but it would have to have that that provision that creates a month to month after the second is a fixed term lease without that clause. So the clause that would convert it to a month, a month at the end of the initial lease term and the landlord could terminate without cause if the initial lease term is for more than. 12 months and. 12 months or more, rather, and the parties have entered into a successive rental agreement of six months or more. So at minimum 18 months of lease. So that first 12 months lease or more and then six months or more of a lease renewal. And if that is the case and there's never been a month to month tenancy, then they would be able the landlord could terminate for no cause. Let me make sure I understand what you just said. So if you have a fixed place and maybe it was even two years, at the end of two years, you say, okay, now we have to go to a month to month. So you go to a month a month. If it was more than six months. Then you could just say no cause it was less than six months because. So we're not talking month to month tenancies in this provision. It is a fixed term lease that is 12 months or more, and they enter into a successive agreement for six months or more after that. So it wouldn't be a month, a month for six months, it would be a six month extension or more. And if a landlord wanted to terminate tenancy after that point, under the state law, they could without. Cause. Mr. Chair, may I ask a clarifying question? Council Member Cole Wells Thank you. And I'm sorry to interrupt that, April, and I'm getting confused now with the explanation that you just two council member Lambert applies to state law or the striking. Amendment before it is state law. So this does not apply. You are striking amend or the striking amendment. Thank you. I thought that was the case, but I wasn't sure everybody understood that. That's a good distinction, councilmember Caldwell's. The conversation was about state law and not the ordinance before us this afternoon. But so how does that play with our state, with our county governments? How did they do. In the proposed ordinance? It would not have that distinction between types of fixed term leases. It would apply equally to all and month to month tenancies. Fixed term lease renewals and evictions. Thank you. Okay. Do I have any more questions on just cause specifically? So. Hello, council members. Hello. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much, April, for helping us navigate through this complex legislation. Really appreciate you. I'm just taking notes of concerns from colleagues just so I can work through them as one of the prime sponsors. One of the things I heard from Councilmember Dombroski is the issue of jurisdictional differences and having dozens of different rules everywhere. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, may you just elaborate a little bit about that? I'm actually just taking notes. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Thank you. Comes from Rizal in our original affordable housing task force. One of our strategies was to, quote, preserve access to affordable homes for renters by supporting tenant protections, which is what this is about to increase housing stability and reduce the risk of homelessness. Strategy A says propose and support legislation and statewide policies related to tenant protection to ease implementation and provide consistency for landlords and then, you know, enumerate them. So what we were doing there as the Affordable Housing Taskforce was saying that frankly the state of our tenant protection laws under the Residential Landlord Tenant Act was pretty weak and we didn't have a just cause statute statewide, unlike the city of Seattle did. And we were also acknowledging, though, that there is this concern about a whole bunch of different rules and regulations that could be adopted. Jurisdiction by jurisdiction. I thought, you know, my sense was and we're trying to balance those to strengthen or have consistency so they can be implemented relatively easily. And so that's kind of my interest here. At least one of the lenses in which I'm looking at this. I really think the state did make great strides in this last legislative session by adding this protection. And I want to make sure that this proposal, to the extent it goes beyond that or as is, is different in some of those same areas, really is going to deliver. Needed and necessary protections such that if it ran, if we ran its course, when we start to have a variety of these around the county, you could have 40 different versions that that, you know, that gets pretty cumbersome to comply with. And for practitioners in the space to understand, on both sides representing tenants, representing landlords, you know what rules apply developing the forms. Right. That that are used oftentimes. So that's my interest there. We did a lot of work, a lot of great work in the region, affordable housing task force. I really believe we're possible we should when we set those plans, try and be consistent with them because we convene folks from across the spectrum there and brought folks to the table and worked for many months to come up with that. And that is one of the recommendations. So it's not necessarily binding. There's some wiggle room in there, but I'm trying to look back at what we did and and honor it. Thank you. Yeah, I was looking for clarification on the point about if it ran its course and there were 40 different rules. I just want to make sure everybody listening in the audience knows this only applies to unincorporated Kane County, so it would not affect the 39 other cities. There would not be, based on this ordinance, 39 rules. This only applies to unemployed. Now, whether or not other municipalities are also creating their own just cause ordinances, that, of course, can end up having many different rules for people to apply in their jurisdiction. But this ordinance would not be the cause of multiple different rules outside of this one additional impact in unincorporated Kane County. I just want to make sure that all the valid things you said don't. End up with confusion and audience members thinking that we're proliferating many different rules here. No, no. In fact, of our structure of government, we're different. We can have that consistency. We can have it can be, you know, uniformly King County. Right. Thank you for that clarification comes from Brazil. I appreciate the opportunity to dialog that. Mr. Chair. Council Member Caldwell's Thank. You, Mr. Chair. The question of the floor. I just to make sure and correct. It's been mentioned by several opponents or those who have concerns about the legislation that for landlords that they if they say a one year lease or month to month tenancy, then there's one year. Is that, for example, that they would have no right to terminate? They would have to go along with the continuation or renewal of the lease. My understanding is that the owner can or a landlord can provide a new rental agreement or lease with different terms, different length of the term and different amount of rent. Is that correct? Yeah. There's nothing in the legislation that would preclude a landlord from amending or providing a different lease when that fixed term lease renewal option option comes up. And for the raise or the rent increase, it would have to be more than 120 days notice for that rent increase and for the legislation. But there's no obligation for any landlord to continue with the same one year lease as had been the case. No. Thank you. Just to remind everybody where we are in our conversation, Mr. Sanders is walking through a briefing us on the ordinance and striking amendment that is before us and has just highlighted the just caused eviction provisions within it and would anticipate moving on to other parts of the ordinance as well. Are there any more questions about just cause in particular? I'd invite you to proceed misandry. Great. So I'm going back to the committee packets, not the additional materials, but the committee packet to get back to your concern about this question about what else is in the ordinance other than just cause since I frequently went through, you know, about 20 things that are included in the ordinance. I think the easiest way to go through the the additional items is in that matrix that compares the striking amendment and the underlying with the residential landlord tenant act because that goes to sort of a summary version of a lot of these items. So this is on page 34 that this begins and we already spoke about just cause and the applicability. And enforcement, of course, is the court system. I mentioned that. So I'll go to fees for moving peace and security deposits. They'd be capped at one month's rent and a tent may elect a pay move in fees and security deposits incrementally. And in the striking amendment, it would exempt subsidized housing units where rent is based on income from that one month cap. For late fees. It would cap late fees at 1% monthly rent in the underlying ordinance. And then you get to the striking amendment where that is capped at 1.5% monthly rent. A notice of rent increase. So in the underlying ordinance, it would require a landlord to give between 120 and 180 days notice for rent increases, a present and then a striking amendment. It would require landlords to give at least 120 days notice for rent increases above 3%, and it would require landlords of subsidized tenancies to give 30 days notice of rent increases greater than 3%. So it changes that that requirement for subsidized tenancies specifically. And this is moving on to page 35. QUESTION Mr. Chair. Councilmember Balducci, thank you. The range is is my question. So if you are required to give 120. To 180. Days notice, you're basically required to give 120 days notice unless there's some. What does that mean? A range doesn't make sense to me. If there's a minimum number, then that's the that's the minimum. Sure. And you'll notice in the striking amendment that's changed to at least 120 days, there's not that range. They can cause some problem. And that makes sense. Thank you. Ms.. Sanders, if I can ask if. Would there be anything to preclude an immediate rent increase of, say, 3%, which doesn't require 120 days or more notice and and been implemented at the same time as a subsequent notice for an additional 1% rent increase? No, nothing would preclude that. We didn't hear it today. But in other testimony, we heard about the if if costs had gone up, landlords wouldn't be able to catch up. It'd be delayed by over 120 days on make change in expenses. And in this in my point is that they could implement the 3% immediately and an additional say 1% or an additional amount in excess of 3% later. Sure. And just to phrase it differently, so I know that I understand your question. Let's say your landlord chooses to increase and increase rent 2% immediately and then give notice of that in 120 days, the rent will increase by 4% or 5%. They could hypothetically impose that rent increase and provide the notice. Nothing in the ordinance would preclude that. Thank you. All right, Mr. Chair. Dombroski dombroski on the run increases. I guess that prior discussion, I assume that all would be on a month to month tenancy because in a lease. Typically the rent is set for the term. Yeah. So but if the if you if the landlord was planning on renewing that lease end of the lease term, they would also be required to provide that notice. Okay. But this notion of costs went up. So I'm going to next month raise give you another 1%, which follows a three. I don't under a longer term fixed term lease. I don't know that that is possible unless the terms of the lease which I think would be unusual, provide for mid. Lease rental adjustments. Yeah. Councilmember Chair McDermott's example does pair best with month to month tenancies, but if a lease term, if you a landlord gave 120 days notice that there is going to be a 5% rent increase once the lease was renewed at the end of the lease hold, the lease could hypothetically state that, you know, three months later it would go up 1% or whatever the lease specified. I see. I guess while we're on the topic of rent increases, is is there anything in this legislation that would prevent upon renewal the setting by the landlord of any sum of rent? So you're at 1500 a month comes up for renewal. You don't have a just cause eviction right or termination of their right to renew their landlord jump at $2,500. And if it were going above 3% of that increase, it would have to have that 120 days notice. Give the notice that raise the rent. Correct. So raising the rent would if it were above 3%, the landlord have to provide that notice. And in 20 days or more in advance. Oh, okay. Thank you. All right. So moving on in that matrix to acceptance of rent. And so the underlying ordinance states that acceptance of rent waives any right to declare forfeiture of or seek eviction solely for any prior breaches of the rental agreement. And the striking amendment clarifies that the provision does not waive a landlords remedy for nonpayment of rent if additional rent is outstanding. Okay. Moving on. I got to talk. To your uncle second. What bank accounts for about the gymnast thing? In my view of default, usually you've got monetary defaults and non-monetary defaults. And if I read the underlying call, it s one, the base proposal and concerns from from some from my own property. They said, well, if you accept rent, there's a reading that all defaults are defaults are waived. I'm not sure if this changes that it doesn't look like it. But could you help me understand this? The answer to this question under either the any version that's before us here S1 as or the base if I'm if there are non-monetary defaults safety issues the you know whatever it might be go to maintain consistent with the release if they accept rent after issuing a notice of default is the lent are those defaults deemed cured or waived and non actionable? I'm correct. Non-monetary would also be included in this provision. Non-monetary items are breaches, and if a landlord accepted rent, they they cannot go back in and utilize those prior breaches for eviction. Or I'll just express my concern with that. And some of the lends here I have, as you know, as some of you call them, home mom and pop landlords, but someone who's got a house with a mortgage on it. And if you've got a series of non-monetary defaults where the tenant may not be complying, if you are if you accept rent and those are gone, that really can be problematic. And there's you've put the person in a bit of a jam if they've got a mortgage payment to make or they're paying our tax bill which, which we want paid on time. And if you can't, if that's waived upon accepting the rent, you lose your right to get a cure there. That's to me, I'm just going to be blunt non workable I don't believe. I think the common law is appropriate when you accept rent that should waive and I'm happy to support legislation that codifies that. If you accept rent, you should not be able to allege that you've got an ongoing default there, that that should be deemed cured and not actionable. But the mixing of accepting rent and waiving non-monetary defaults, I think is a real challenge with this proposal. Okay. So moving on, if there are no other questions on acceptance of rent. I saw some unmute, so I'll give it just a second. Okay. So it comes from members all. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we have heard of concerns about this one as well. I just want to give some of the policy intent behind it and also that sharing once I once I share that some of the policy and to the fact that there are some there is some movement to create changes to this one. So the policy intent behind it is the idea that a landlord should not be able to continue accepting rent. And then one day say, hey, one year ago you violated this thing. You know, you brought a vicious dog to the house one year ago. I didn't say anything. I kept collecting rent. But now I'm going to use that as an excuse to evict you. That's a huge problem. That's a huge problem and something that does happen. So but the concern you're bringing up, Councilmember Danowski, is very valid because we also don't want to create a situation where we put landlords in a bind, where they have to choose between, you know, do I not get rent to pay my mortgage or do I continue living with this bad situation that, you know, these violations that are issues for? We don't want to put people in a bind for that. So I do think there are workarounds where we can address both scenarios. And I look forward to working with with with each of you on that. If I might, Mr. Chair, customers all I. That's super helpful. I definitely would be supportive of efforts to get rid of gotcha defaults unnoticed gotcha defaults that you know we're pulling these things out and using them to get at the tenant. And maybe it should be if there's been, you know, a notice of default given and secure ride demand secure that there's a way but I. That's helpful to hear the goal that you're trying to achieve there and I concur with your your objective. In a notice is something that we've discussed. And there was some issue with state law possibly supplanting that so or preempting that. But correct me if I'm wrong, April, but we're currently discussing that. Is that right? Right. We're we're going back to the POW and discussing options with them that we can bring back to you. Thank you so much. Please proceed. So moving on, this is still on page 35 of the packet and two defective conditions and the underlying ordinance and the striking amendment makes no changes to this would prohibit a landlord from increasing the rent if the dwelling unit has defective conditions making the unit unlivable. The only change is in sight. Word choice to uninhabitable in the in the striking amendment to track more closely with with our are the language that we have in the Department of Permitting or before many division. Payment due dates. The underlying ordinance required rental agreements to include a provision allow. I'm sorry, I question and notice the Seattle ordinance on that defective conditions has an office, presumably the office of Housing that is tasked with probably their inspection program, which we don't which we don't have either the office or the inspection program. And so whether the unit is uninhabitable is determined by by that office, under that program, presumably in Seattle, I don't know as much about it, but how would it be determined whether the unit was uninhabitable under our ordinance? Is that just something to be litigated? If somebody attempts and it attempts to collect, render tax intervention and then there would be litigation that would ensue? Correct. It would have to be litigated since there's no comparable enforcement mechanism like the city of Seattle. All right. Thank you, Beck. That's member Lambert. Thank you. Could you explain on that? So the. State law. Requires that you. Keep the premises fit. For human habitation. So. If that's a requirement. I'm sure there must be something in law that does not allow you to raise rent if you weren't even able to have it. Not a human habitation. So how did those two coincide? Sure. So the state law specifically prohibits or requires, rather, the landlord to keep the premises fit for human habitation. But it does not directly state, to my knowledge, that you would not be able to increase rent. And then of the proposed ordinance 0131 would prohibit that rent increase if the dwelling unit has defective conditions. So there's sort of two sides to the the defective conditions. Thank you. All right. So payment due dates. If there are no more questions on the effect of conditions, the underlying ordinance requires rental agreements to include a provision allowing tenants to adjust the due date of rent. If the tenant has a fixed income source. Incongruent with with that duty. And there is a state law that was passed that has a similar provision. So the language was amended to just. Add to. Reflect the provision in state law that allows the tenant to request a new due date and a landlord has to comply if certain certain circumstances are met. Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry to keep asking. House member Belden. See. Now. My understanding of the intent behind this provision in state law and in this proposal is that like suppose I'm somebody on a fixed income or even somebody with a job and I and I get I get my pay and I live and I live on two months. I'm paying. And the paycheck to paycheck or benefit checks a benefit check and I get my checks on the 15th, but the rent is due on the first. This would allow to move the payment for rent to be do concurrent, you know, so to the 16th or whatever so that I have the money in hand. Does it allow a continual changing of dates or is it meant to be that consistent? Because I know that the state law has got some things in it that talks about regularity, but ours doesn't seem to. Sure. So in the state law, the tenant may propose the date, but it has to be within five days of the original due date. And the landlord is required to agree to a proposal if it is submitted in writing, and the tenant can demonstrate that his or her primary income is a source of governmental assistance that is not received until after that due date. And again, it has to be within five days. So the the proposed ordinance in the striking or the striking amendment specifically is meant to basically affirm that that state law. So this provision under the striker would be exactly the same as the current state law. Word for word. It is not identical just from a drafting perspective, but the the intent should be is meant to be aligned. I can get an exact side by side between the two of that's helpful and likewise later. Yeah I would love to follow up on that prior to final passage. There's just something it's I think they beat it into you in law school. There's something about having something that's just got a slightly different language that just it kind of makes my brain hurt and makes me worry about whether there's unintentional meaning changes there. Thank you. Yeah. Well, try that. Brain hurt is one of the plethora of reasons why Council member Lambert and I did not go to law school. Like an ice pick right here. I mean. SANDERS Or maybe I'm asking one of the proponents of of the legislation, is there a reason why we would articulate what the payment due date flexibility if you received a fixed payment rather than just rely on state law, that I presume would cover the tenancies already. I will prejudice sponsors on that one. The sentences this hour. Our hours apply to more tenancies than the state law. I know it would be okay. I would like, but we do draft legislation differently. So there are some word choice changes that I will send out to the council. Thank you. I'll look out for that. Those word choice differences, April, and go from there. Thank you. Thanks very much, Mr. Chair. To the extent state law covers this, I think consistency would be good to just, you know, let that control. On the substance, I'm supportive of it. Big, big companies, they've got cash flow flexibility. And I think most small landlords that have a mortgage now, even the mortgage companies say, when is it good for you to pay on a monthly basis? So I think there's flexibility and this makes a lot of sense to setting up a pattern, whether it works for folks on timing when they can based and reduces the risk of them getting behind by just a few days because the cycle is off. So I really appreciate this proposal on and I'm supportive of it. Ms. SANDERS So moving on to page 36 and continuing in that that crosswalk. Pay rent or vacate notices. So the underlying ordinance and this is not changing the striking amendment would require landlords to include language, unhappy rent or vacant notice to include that the landlord may allow you to pay rent after the 14 days in lieu of initiating eviction proceedings. And then we get to Social Security numbers in the underlying ordinance. It would prohibit landlords from requesting a Social Security number for the purpose of screening a prospective tenant and striking amendment as to it would allow a landlord to request but not require a Social Security number from a perspective, tenant and landlord would not be able to refuse a tenancy if the tenant does not provide a social security number or prospective tenant would not provide that social. All right. Going on stage. There. I got to go. Sorry to jump out. I got a comment on this. Just in the spirit of working, like feel like we have a little bit of a working session here. I had some concerns about this, but I think what the goal here is from a perspective, landlords perspective, is they want to be able to do sometimes two things one, a credit check and two, a background check, which I think has become more common than maybe it used to be. Sometimes those terms are being used interchangeably, but there can be two reports. My goal would be to make sure that the that receiving those reports is obtainable. And I understood while at the same time protecting those that don't have a Social Security number in term in terms of getting access to housing. So this language is getting closer, maybe even does it. I think a landlord should be able to ask for a Social Security number, but they should not be able to exclude anybody from qualifying for tenancy just because they don't have it. I think the test should be whether or not they can obtain the required credit check and or background report. I've done some of my own personal research on this. Well, it's not as easy to do it. I believe that that it can be done with other identifying information. And so I hope that we can get the language to the point where the landlord should be able to get the information they need. And not discriminate against anybody who may not have a Social Security number. That's kind of where I am on that. And I think that's maybe where this is headed. But I want to share that with the sponsors. Thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski. And you're right, we're having sort of a work session as we go through this at the same time as Chair. Let me interject that it is 326 and we have a number of us have another meeting that begins at four. So we have a hard stop. That said, as an individual member of this committee, let me also comment that I have concerns about this section for the very reasons you are articulating that I want a prospective landlord to be able to do a thorough check, including background and credit. But I do not want to set up a system wherein people who do not have a Social Security number cannot secure housing, or at least the wrong intended tendency of housing. And my concern in the language, even in this, too, is that a landlord is able to ask for it. A tenant can decline. A landlord can then not decline to rent to that tenant because they did not provide a Social Security number. And it comes with no assertion that they do not have one, just they chose not to provide it. You raise a good point. Also, that clarity about what kind of reports can be obtained without a Social Security number is fundamental to the questions we're asking right now. Is a Social Security number required for the reports? I don't have I don't have definitive answers on that either. But that's I want to lay out my thinking as well. ZARRELLA Councilman Brazil, hello. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to point out that undocumented immigrants, for many reasons, don't. Often don't want to be revealed as undocumented immigrants. So requiring people to say that they don't have a Social Security number could be dangerous for them. And so just saying that it's not required, but you can ask is a workaround for that. And I will also add that, as I understand, a lot of people don't want that. We've heard from many landlords and landlord associations about this Social Security number issue, and people are saying many different things about what you can and cannot do in terms of credit report. I invite anybody on this call to just do any level of Google searching to find out what the answer is here. Experian itself one of the largest credit and credit agencies. They have entire blogs about how it is possible to get a credit report without a Social Security number. I call. The second is like the second search return customers. Of friends union myself. I got the same answer. I called Equifax. I got the same answer. And one of the reasons is that the federal government, through the IRS, recognized that if certain people don't have Social Security numbers, they won't be they won't pay their taxes and they won't do plenty of things that are required. As for somebody who lives in the U.S., so they have something called an ITIN individual taxpayer identification number that's used by foreign nationals as well as undocumented immigrants who don't have a Social Security number. And if you send in that number, that itin in writing to any of these big three credit agencies and many others, you can get a credit report. And so the misinformation that's been going around saying that this ordinance, quote unquote, seeks to ban the use of credit credit screenings is wrong. It's it's wrong, technically speaking. But it's also wrong because when you say we're seeking to ban credit histories, it sounds like it's saying that our intent is to ban credit screenings. Our intent is not to ban credit screenings. Neither is the reality that we're banning credit screenings. Our intent is to protect undocumented people who are at high risk of homelessness. And so hopefully we can pass this legislation and protect this vulnerable group of people. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you. I did one as well, but I know that our staff are non partizan staff. April Sanders also said that she had looked online and found some. Is that correct? Correct. I found similar data to Councilmember Zala in the Barsky indicated. Thank you. All right. If there are no more questions on that one, I can go to Access to representation, which is continuing on page 36. Towards the bottom, the legislation. And this does not get changed in the striking amendment as to allow for the Department of Public Defense to represent tenants when funds are available. Moving on to repeal of King County Code 1247. So King County Code 1247 would currently requires landlords to prevent criminal activity and evict based on criminal violations of the tenants or tenants. Guest Property seven also requires landlords to risk or report suspicion of criminal activity to the sheriff's office. Currently, the landlord does not report suspicion of criminal conduct or prevent criminal conduct. They can be charged with civil infractions. The legislation would repeal 1247. So a landlord would no longer be required to report or prevent criminal activity, but would still be able to evict a tenant under the just cause. Dealing with criminal activity. That is the last item on page 36. Moving onto page 37 damages. And in the underlying legislation, the damages are a double. Damages are four and a half times the monthly rent, whichever is greater court costs and attorney's fees. The exception is that use of a Social Security number and in the striking amendment as to it would be double damages or three times monthly rent, whichever is greater, plus court costs and attorney's fees. And with that lower number four for the Social Security number. Noticing in the striking amendment, it would require landlords to provide at least 30 days notice to a tenant when terminating a tenancy or refusing to renew and a tenancy for just cause to 30 days unless a notice is a longer notice as required by state law. And the last provision on this matrix are executive reports, which you'll notice in the crosswalk obviously does not have a comparable in state law. It would require a tenant protection access plan. With the accompanying legislation and the landlord outreach plan, it is amended in the striking amendment and amend the requirement for the executive to develop a central phone number as instead of being a requirement, it would be an item for further study within the Tenant Protections Access Plan and it would amend to require the executive to develop standard notices for landlords evicting, terminating tenancy or failing to renew a fixed term lease or just cause. It also amends the due dates until June 30th of next year. And that brings me to the end of that matrix. Any further, any questions available regarding the underlying ordinance and striking amendment as to come from a ruling number? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Three quick ones. Earlier on, you talked about the number of people that could be in a unit that was over the limit. So could you go over there real quickly one more time? Sure. So there is a just cause dealing with occupancy limits in code. So if a if in the current ordinance, if a tenant had more individuals on their premises than is allowed in code and a notice of notice and order from permitting is received notifying that they are in excess of the legal limit, then the landlord could utilize that as a just cause for treatment, terminating tenancy or failing to renew a fixed term lease. Okay. And then also the second question is. Suppose you're a landlord. And you have 100 units. Conceivably you could have people saying, I want to pay 30 different dates. Of the month. So, you know, having been a bookkeeper at one point in my life. Having everything at the same. Time is an economy of scale. So we said that. That only applies to. Us like under five units. Is there any limit on that? Because that seems like that could be a nightmare. Or bookkeeping costs. For a corporation. State law sets that the new due date has to be within five days of the original due date in the rental agreement. No, there is no threshold in state law for the number of units that a landlord possesses. So the one that is being proposed is to still comply with within that five days? Correct. Okay. The my last question. And it was brought up today that. About. 10% of landlords. And despite several times today. About 10%. Of the landlords also have needs to. Potentially get help with an attorney. So is there some way that in this code we cannot be. Discriminating against those 10%. And make sure that they, too, can apply for. Any. Legal help that they need if they set a certain threshold. Because some landlords. Are just making. It by retirement. So is there a threshold for that 10%? Are we just going to leave them out? And there is nothing in the legislation that speaks specifically to that 10% you're referencing. Okay. I think that's important. I think everybody should be treated fairly. Thank you very much. Mr. Chair. Council member follows. It. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The question of April regarding late fees and the due dates and capped fees and so forth, and I have actually an amendment I've been working on that that is not on our list. That would be to have a gradual phasing in of higher late fees percentages. Depending. On when the rent would be paid. But I understand that there is a state law that essentially landlords cannot charge late fees until after five days. Correct. Okay. Explain that, please. Sure. Under state law, late fees cannot be assessed until five days after the due date in the rental agreement. So any imposition of fees them cap or not cap, would not begin until the sixth day. Is that correct? Okay. Thank you. We have gone we have gone through the ordinance as introduced and striking amendment S-2 and briefed carefully and had some conversation and dialog about concerns and attempts as we did that. We also have a matrix of a relatively small number of amendments that might be proposed. Would it be the body's desire to. Have the legislation put before us and brief amendments as they might be presented or to go through all of the amendments now. Mr. Scheer. Council member Belushi. Is speaking as the person who gets to run the special council meeting next week on this. I think it would make sense that we make sure to vote the legislation out of committee without recommendation if necessary, just to keep us on track. And since that special meeting has really this is the only substantive item, there might be a consent item or two that sneaks in. But we can certainly spend the time in that meeting to do amendments there if we need to. Of course, with the forbearance of the public, because we're not going to call a hard start. We can't at a full council call a hard stop to public comments. So we. Will hear everybody. Until we're done. And then from that point on, we have the full meeting to work on whatever amendments are available and hopefully get to a final vote. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is my it would be my intent if the committee willing to move the legislation out with or without recommendation today, I would entertain a motion now and debate amendments as time allows before we move, before we would take a vote on the legislation. I'm in committee today, so I would entertain a motion. By Mr. Chair on a procedural question first. Please. I understood and I had some questions of a legal nature that there might be an executive session for us to consult with counsel. And I wondered. If that is best occur to occur here or at full, full council. I'm Councilmember Dombrowski. How do you know if Legal Council has the answers to your inquiries or would it be presenting the questions? I think they have some of the inquiries. I don't know if they've had time to. Compare responses. I know they've done, I believe. I don't know. I said they've done some work previously, which I haven't been briefed on. Okay, then let's step into executive session so that we can at least make sure questions are surfaced for legal review and do that thoroughly before a council. Next week we will be in executive session for 10 minutes and the grounds for executive session under are CW 4231 ten. We discussed with legal counsel the legal risks of a proposed action when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal and natural consequence to the county committee. The whole will be in executive session for approximately 10 minutes until about 350. The committee will be off Zoom after the Zoom call for the executive session, together with only those county employees directly necessary for this discussion. With that we are members will leave to join the executive session link. We have separate. Thank you. We are back now from executive session and council member Col Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move proposed ordinance 2020 10131 and I'm not certain if we see a striking amendment now or just that without recommendation. Council member Caldwell's has moved he has moved to rescind ordinance 2021 131 two for council without recommendation and that is the underlying ordinance. Council member calls, if you'd like, if you wish to offer a striking amendment as to today, I would entertain that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, striking amendment to. Ask to is before us on. Discussion on as to. There are line amendments. If we're going to take it up, I think we need to allow the sponsors to give their own amendments. I. I have light. I have a line of them in the green folder. I'm I will choose not to offer in discussed my linemen amendment today given time but know that the issue is is one that would bring to full council next week. I don't know if other members feel the same. From Damascus. Mr. Chair, from my perspective, I'd be prepared to vote yes to advance it to the best underlying ordinance to full council without recommendation. But it seems like there's a fair bit of work to do, and I'm not sure the value of advancing the striking amendment at this time. I think it's got some work to be done on it. So that's up to Councilmember Caldwell's, I suppose. But it seems like we can advance the legislation and work it up next week at council. I it doesn't matter to me. I would just like to get this taken care of before many of our members have to leave in 4 minutes. So perhaps council can advise us after April, but I think we should get this recommendation or whatever form is going to be workable. MAZARS And I will just remind the sponsors of the striker that it is too late to change it through your own amendment. DEADLINE So if you don't vote, striker it me as it is the other way. You clarify what you just said? There is no opportunity under the rules for the amendment deadlines to offer a different striker. Before council it will have to be the same exact sticker. Councilmember Caldwell's I would like to go ahead and move my strike in amendment number two with that recommendation. So at least we have it before it. Gets to us before us. Councilmember Caldwell's. I. I would like to take the vote. I'm not sure what you're asking, but I would like to take up the vote on striking them until it is before us, and then we can take it up in our special council meeting next week and have amendments at that time. Thank you, Councilmember Bellucci. I would just I would I would be willing to vote in favor of the striking amendment on the theory that even though I might not agree with everything it says and it might not be there, this is almost like the sponsors are just shaping up what it is they want to present for us to then amend and vote at the next meeting, and in that spirit to move things along. I would vote yes on the striking amendment so that we have the full intent of the sponsors in front of us for next Tuesday. Further discussion on as to. It was, I'm going to be a no on it just because I've got some concerns about its content. And I know we're we're stuck in a procedural versus substantive issue here, but hopefully we can get the legislation worked up through our process into something that works for a majority. Mr. Chairman. I understand, Councilmember Dombrowski, and like I said, I have concerns as well, but believe that has to is a further step in addressing at least some of those concerns, though not fully. Student Council member Col Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I understand this, we would. Be moving out without. Recommendations, so I'm not sure what a no vote would indicate in such a motion. Would that mean that we want to hold Councilor Hrabowski by to hold it in the committee? No. Madam Chair. Mr. Chair. Councilmember. Cause I'm just by a no vote, signifying concerns with the striking amendment, I will be voting yes on the underlying ordinance as amended, assuming that striking amendments to carry and it goes forward with them, you know, without recommendation. We have struck an amendment as to before us on a underlying motion without recommendation, all those in favor of adopting striking amendment as to please signify by saying I. Am. Opposed. Nay, nay, a name. The ayes have it. And as to is adopted, we have ordinance 2021, 131 as amended before us without recommendation to go to full council at a special meeting scheduled for this coming Tuesday. I see no further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before I call the roll, if I could ask for clarification on the. Striking amendment vote. I have council members Dombrowski and Dunn voting no on the. Same as anybody. Else. It's been voted no. But now, Mr. Steadman, it's my understanding that we took an oral vote and division was not requested. Division? Division has been requested. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll on Striking Amendment S2? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci, I. Councilmember Dombrowski. No. Councilmember Dunn. No. Councilmember Coel's I. Councilmember Lambert. No. Councilmember of the. Grove. Councilmember Bond right there. Nay. Council members online. I. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is 6 hours for council members. Dombroski Irishman Wales ask done land in one write for. Five literature for. Duly noted. The vote is 5 to 4 in favor of Amendment two. We now have Ordinance 2021, 131 as amended before us. Same. No further discussion. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bellucci. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn? No. Councilmember Coles. I can't remember a number. No. Council member, the I. Councilmember Bone right there? No. Council members on line item. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the bow to six eyes, three nose council members. Dan Lambert and one rank bar. Thank you. By your vote. We have advanced ordinance 2021 131 to full council without recommendation. It will be expedited and appear on the council the special council meetings agenda for this coming Tuesday. I want to thank everyone for participating. Having no other business in this special meeting. We are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE relating to tenant protections; amending Ordinance 383, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.60.050, adding a new chapter to K.C.C. Title 12 and repealing Ordinance 16223, Section 3, and K.C.C. 12.47.010, Ordinance 16223, Section 4, and K.C.C. 12.47.020, Ordinance 16223, Section 5, and K.C.C. 12.47.030 and Ordinance 16223, Section 6, and K.C.C. 12.47.040.
king_0d1b33ce-ae67-4fa9-b812-1946af843efa	Now called the order the committee of the whole the December 1st, 2021. I'm Joe McDermott chair the committee to hold this year. And as we start I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional land of the future service peoples past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who lived here and continued to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who brought the cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. You know, full agenda. Today, I've asked members to have extra time at the end of our usual committee window so that we might go over a little bit. We will start with a briefing from director David Lee on the COVID 19 pandemic response here in King County. We'll take up an appointment to the King County District Court West Division. We'll have our annual for culture briefing, where we'll take a discussion related to the state legislative agenda and relating to hazard pay. A couple of housekeeping notes as we get started. Help us manage the meeting. I'd ask the members of the staff, both legislative and executive and members of the public, to please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. And additionally, for connecting to the media, maybe with your cell phone and you wish will provide public comment please if at all possible, connect your Zoom application to the maybe some known publications in our meeting and delay. With that, the last two blues rule. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member. Velveteen Ear. Council member. Domestic here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Council member Cologne's Air Council member Lander. Council member of the ground air. Councilmember one right there. Here. Council members are so high here. Mr. Chair. Sure. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you very much. And as we take up our agenda today, I would also like to note that today being December 1st, it's World AIDS Day, the day that we remember those we've lost to the pandemic of HIV AIDS, those living with the disease today, and our work to eradicate HIV AIDS from our community. Councilmember Dodd, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes. He seems to be frozen at the moment. Number one restaurant in your new challenge will the adoption of the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move a couple of minutes. Thank you. The minutes of our November 17th meeting or before us senior discussing all those in favor of approving. Please signify by saying I, I, I think was nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That takes us to public comments, Madam Court. Do we have people here for public comment today? Mr. Chair, we might have one person. Do you mind if I chat? First of all, proceed. Great. Thank you. There is a holly chaser or chaser here. Are you? Can you tell me if you're here for public comment? I am. If I might address the council this morning. Yes, Miss Cheever, just a moment. I will. Given that we have one person for public comment, and I believe that was she is a has experience, often public comment to public bodies, I'll forego a page and a half of instructions and simply ask that you make sure you're speaking to something on our agenda today and limit your comments to 2 minutes. And with that was just if you proceed. I would be happy to. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and the members of the committee. For the record, I'm Holly Chisholm. I'm here on behalf of the. Northwest Grocery Association, and I simply want to thank the Council and acknowledge your willingness to have a conversation about the ongoing mandate for hazard pay for retail. Grocery stores in King County in the unincorporated areas of King County. When council chose to pass hazard pay and require us to pay an additional $4 an hour for our employees, at that time, the vaccine was still in development. We did not have federal guidance on vaccine mandates for employers over 100. And there were other. Considerations at play when council made that choice. As we approach January, King County will have been a 225 days in a mandate for hazard pay. All the while, other businesses within the county are now open. Restaurants are open, hotel industry is open. And we are the only employers still. Required to pay. And only some grocers, not all. So we asked the council, please do consider creating a sunset for hazard pay at this point. Bainbridge Island, Snohomish County and Federal Way have. All either repealed or set an end date for their hazard pay. Requirement. We would ask the same of the county. Thank you. Thank you so much. If there is anyone else on the line who would like to offer public comment, if you might either turn your video on or otherwise indicate to us that you would like to offer public comment but try to catch you. Going through and only seeing Councilmember Balaji moving on the screen. I will assume she does not have public comment today and will go to our briefing with Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. We'll update as the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Good morning, Mr. Lively. Good morning, Councilmember. Thank you, as always, for having me. We are coming to the end of another year where we've been doing these briefings. It's just remarkable how long this has gone on. So for the record, Dwight Avelino, director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, and I have six things this morning that I thought I would share with you. And some of them have some parts, as we often do. So let me just start with the first one, and there's always a pause after each item and see if people have questions. So first of all, some good news from our federal friends that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, they have extended the federal emergency with 100% FEMA reimbursement for eligible expenditures through April 1st of 2022. I suspect that will not be the last extension, but that is what we have to this point. So all of the costs that we know are FEMA eligible will be covered 100% with federal funding through at least the end of March of 2022. So things like our isolation and quarantine facilities and our vaccination efforts will all be fully covered. So let me pause and see if there's any questions on that. Collins. Yesterday at the beginning of this process and for several months, we peppered you with many questions you've clearly, clearly identified over the pandemic, how to support our questions and answered everything we might be thinking of. That's. That's great. We'll see if I can continue with that trend. I think I may have just worn you down and maybe the real explain. So. All right. So the second item also related to FEMA. So just to remind you that we thought there were some costs in 2020. So right this year, but last year that we're not going to be eligible for FEMA. We learned several months ago that they actually were. And so both public health and the Department of Community and Human Services, DHS, have gone through a bunch of the costs that they incurred in 2020 that we thought would need to come from our ARPA funding, the first federal relief funding for COVID that now should be able to be covered by FEMA facilities management division. FMD has identified about six months of its 2020 costs that are now eligible for FEMA. They still have to do the last six months. Once all that is done, we will have a good estimate of how much ARPA money that we thought we needed is now freed up because it will actually be able to be paid by FEMA. And so as part of the COVID nine appropriations process that we'll do in the late winter, we'll be able to bring that to you with proposals potentially of how to reallocate that money that now will be paid from FEMA. So I just want to keep giving you updates on that as we get those figures in, because that's going to be a meaningful amount of money, multiple millions of dollars that will will now have flexible money. And because we're going to be able to charge FEMA instead. So it's just a quick update on that issue. Was today really are we talking dozens of hundreds, tens of hundreds, hundreds of millions. Certainly not hundreds of millions. But my guess is it's going to be an extend, certainly in excess of $10 million. Thank you. And do we have an approximate expectation of when we would receive the COVID 19 budget. And the COVID 19 budget? We need to negotiate with whoever you choose as your budget chair. But our current thinking would be to get it to you probably in March, if that is acceptable to the chair. Okay. Colleagues. Other questions. Mr. Donnelly. All right. So third one, this is really not COVID related, but since we're on emergency management and of particular interest for you, Councilmember McDermott, our Office of Emergency Management, our Department of Local Services, just yesterday submitted an application to the governor's office to get the federal disaster declaration for the September fires in White Center, similar to the ones that had been already received for the ones that happened earlier. And so if approved by the governor and the federal government, this will provide Small Business Administration loans for those businesses that were adversely affected. So just an update on another emergency management activity that's going on. When asked me not in trouble. Related Responses Into Your Public Presentations. Mr. Lively. Yes. All right. So back to Calvin. I've been giving you sort of hospitality industry updates every month and a couple of things of note. So always the case in the fall hotel occupancy falls from where it was in the summer just because of the nature of the tourism industry. And so in October, King County Y, we had about 54% hotel occupancy, which is still below what would be normal for that period of time. Usual pattern. The SeaTac hotels have the highest occupancy. Downtown Seattle and Salt Lake Union were next. The east side is still the lowest. The good news, maybe by comparison, is that Seattle hotel occupancy is actually higher than any of the other West Coast cities. So while we're not anywhere near back to normal, we seem to be recovering a little quicker than many of the other cities on the West Coast. And then similarly, the convention business is slowly recovering. There are, you know, numbers of conventions that are actually happening now in King County. On average, the attendance at the conventions is about 70% of what those organizers expected pre-COVID. So that may be an indicator of people's willingness to travel and attend conventions. You know, a significant portion of people who otherwise would have come are coming, but there is still a lower attendance than had been expected. And so I think that suggests, as we look at things like our lodging tax forecasts, we're going to need to expect that convention attendance will ramp up somewhat slowly and we're not going to get back to pre-COVID levels immediately. So as we think about that revenue forecast, we'll look out again in March. That I think is a factor that we need to consider is not just the number of conventions, but what the attendance at those conventions is going to be. So that's my and lodging tax update. One other thing just to note, assuming it sticks, having the US Canadian border open is expected by many in the industry to be really beneficial for us. A lot of folks from Canada who will be interested in coming down to the King County area, so let's hope that that doesn't change. But now that that border is reopening, that I think would be a really good sign. Any questions on the lodging of the. Dombrowski Just with maybe a comment in the form of colloquy, Mr. Chair. COUNCILMEMBER Thanks, Dwight. The business travel may the conventions, you know, may take a little while to take back. But what I'm seeing out there in terms of kind of news reports is that the leisure travel is really strong. People have this pent up demand to go, you know, see places. And I think Seattle still is, and King County generally is a pretty good draw there. So that may fill some of that gap. I don't know if you have any data on that. Yeah. So the information I saw that it would support exactly what you said Councilmember Dombroski there. And it's an interesting demographics. So it's typically people in their forties and above who seemingly are more comfortable with traveling. Maybe younger families with kids are a little less willing right now to travel. The everything I'm hearing about the cruise industry for next cruise season, they continue to say they expect more people than in 2019, which was the all time record for our area. So that would also support that, that view. And the other interesting thing that I continue to see is there are a lot of people coming in for hockey games. So at least for a while the novelty of the Kraken seem to have boosted our tourism business significantly recently. Councilmember Coles and I and one of our former colleagues gathered socially and in District four, and I was early for one and struck up a conversation in this venue with a couple of gentlemen, and they were visiting and I said, Oh, are you here for a convention? And they said, no. And one was from Alaska and one was from Florida. I said, Well, what brings you to town? They said, Well, we're here for hockey. That's amazing. Yeah. All right. So let me move on to the sales tax. We got our September sales tax results the day before Thanksgiving. So our Office of Economic and Financial Analysis, Dave Reich, and his team have not had a chance to go through all the details of it. But at least at the high level that we have so far, it continues to be good news. So as we've been doing now for many months, we're doing comparisons to the pre-COVID levels. So the September 2019 level compared to now September 2021. Sales taxes are up 10.2% in that two year period. Construction continues to be a strong driver of that, up 9.3%. We only have the aggregated retail, so I can't break it down by the subcategories, but retail as a tool is up 19.2%. So people are continuing to buy a lot of stuff that is subject to sales tax and the hospitality sector. So this is restaurants and hotels combined was down about 19% from two years ago. And as we know from when we get into the details, the restaurants are down less than that. The hotels are down significantly more than that. So really just the same pattern we've been seeing now for several months that there continues to be overall strength in the sales tax. A lot of strength in particular retail segments. And then, of course, the leisure industry, the hospitality industry is the one area that is still really lagging. So that's my fifth item if people have any questions or comments on that. Oh, and those numbers are hollow. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, have we seen any notable dips in commercial activity based on sales tax from when the new regulations around vaccination requirements and or negative COVID test have been implemented? We have not, but I think it would be too early to see that in the September data. The first time I think you might have any inkling of that would be October, and I think much more likely you'd see it in November if it happens at all. I sort of just word on the street. I haven't heard anything that suggests that those various mandates have significantly had an impact, at least in King County, and might well be true in other places. But given our very high vaccination rates, my gut tells me it's not likely to be something will ever be able to see in the sales tax data. Got it. Thank you so much. All right. And so my last point that has several sub points. I thought I would give you an update on several of the major county programs that you have appropriated here this year for various aspects of COVID relief. And obviously, there's a lot more. I'm not going to cover everything, but I picked out some that I know are of particular interest to council members and they just run through those quickly. So probably our single largest program is the Rental Relief and Eviction Prevention, the app ramp program. And as of right before Thanksgiving, they had disbursed $83 million to landlords to keep people from losing their occupancy. They have $52 million remaining of existing funds and they're putting out money. It's something on the order of $90 million a week on average. So they'll be through the remaining money probably around the end of the year. And as you know, we expect that there will be additional funding that will be coming in for that same purpose, you know, pretty soon after that. So that it took a while to get ramped up, as you well know. But once they finally got all the kinks out, it's going out quite quickly. And it looks like we have now a very stable program for doing rental assistance. A second program, I know of interest of council members. You set aside $7 million for childcare vouchers. DHS has entered into a master contract with one organization to manage all of that, and they are now accepting applications. So the child care funding is now out there and available to people who need it. A third one that I know is of interest and came up in the last budget ordinance that you did was a procurement for tiny house villages and DC Egis expects to have their procurement out this month, in the month of December and be able to select providers for that probably early next year. A fourth one, the arts and culture funding and the festival funding. That 20 million for arts and culture, 2 million for festivals. All those applications have been received. They are all reviewed or in the process of being reviewed. I expect to see probably by the end of the week the proposed list of awardees for the arts and culture funding. The festival funding is just a little bit behind that. I just want to make sure that people are clear. That doesn't mean that people are going to get money this month. It means that the awards will be announced. And then there is a lot of documentation, particularly for the arts and culture awards that are around lost revenue that will have to be provided by organizations and reviewed by our staff or consultants to make sure it complies with federal requirements. So funding will probably go out starting at some point in January, but those awards will actually be made this month. A fifth one I wanted to mention. You might recall that you set aside money for small business assistance for businesses that are affected by our COVID response facilities, like our isolation quarantine facilities. The Office of Emergency Management has announced the availability of that funding. They've essentially put out a request for proposals, so businesses will be able to apply for that over about the next six weeks. And then OEM in late January will make allocations of that and it'll keep the the fund open essentially as long as money is available . I think our expectation is, is that the amount of requests will not use up the entire $500,000 right away. So if you know of any organizations, any businesses that fall in that category, please direct them to the Office of Emergency Management. And then the last point I thought I would mention the jobs and housing program. Again, this is the program we're trying to identify either county jobs or jobs through nonprofit organizations for people who are experiencing homelessness. And then we're also linking them up with the housing opportunities and in some cases with other services. It's going pretty well. We are still identifying a lot of additional county jobs that people could be eligible for. The biggest barrier right now is essentially bottleneck with human resources staffing in departments. We have a lot of vacancies across the county, you know, as people are retiring or leaving. So our folks are really busy and this is right on top of all that work as well. I will give you a story that I think maybe has lots of different implications of it. We put out a request for proposals to nonprofit organizations that provide employment opportunities for people who are homeless. And we're all familiar with some of those like Uplift Northwest and Fair Start and Goodwill and some others. And we got very few applicants. And even though all of those organizations and many others actually received through kind of the normal channels an announcement about this request for proposals. And so with the approval of our folks in procurement, some of the staff reached out to those organizations and said, why didn't you apply? We thought you would be an obvious candidate for this. And the universal response was we didn't even know it was open. They are all so busy right now with COVID response. Even though they received emails and notifications, they didn't know those organizations essentially even opened the email. So the lesson we learned there, I think, is that everyone is busy, not just county employees. And so we're going to go through another round of procurement where we're going to go outreach not just through emails, but, you know, actually talking to staff and executive directors. And the expectation is we'll get a lot more interest when we do it that way. So unfortunately, that's actually going to delay the opportunity to do some of that hiring through nonprofits by about two months. But I think it's an important lesson we've learned about how busy everybody is right now trying to respond to the pandemic. And so with that, I'll stop about county programs and happy to answer questions about any of that or I have some information on other programs that I can share if you have questions or anything else you want to ask about this morning. Ever want to remember longer. Thank you. Two things. How do you go about accessing the childcare moneys? So for that person listening. How would they go about doing that? Let me pull up that document council member and let me see what it says here. Thank you. Okay, so this is a document I have from DC. Yes. The contract is with child care resources. And it actually has relevant for your district council member. It has a special emphasis on rural areas. They have. There is an application length. I'm trying to think what the best way to share this would be. Since I have it on a different computer, I can't probably put it in the chair. Or maybe I can. Let's see how good I am here. You have great confidence in you and. You have more confidence than I do. Council member. Um. Let's see. That did not work. Why don't. Why don't. After I'm off here, I will send to them. I've sent all council members. I will send a link of how you apply for these resources. I think I did it here. I can't move it from one computer to the other. Could you give us that? It's probably a360786 number. That might it's. Not a I don't have a phone number. I have a link to a website that is the child care organization's website and a particular link where there's an application that you can file with them. So I don't have a phone number for the organization. Okay, baby. Great. And then the other thing was the kinks in the system. What what could we have done earlier? Because I understand that in our surrounding counties, we were the slowest. And I was actually contacted by an organization that was offered to help us get things distributed faster. What would you say were the two main kinks that we should know about for the future in getting this money out faster? So that's a great question cause Warren and I actually would give you two answers, so I'm glad you asked for two. So one that applied to essentially all of our programs is we. We King County, were more conservative than many other organizations in doing the eligibility reviews upfront. And so it frankly took a lot longer than I'd say any of us in leadership expected to get the federal rules and then work through them with our consultants and our attorneys to make sure that a program complied with the rules before we put out a request for proposal. And so, you know, you can debate whether that was the right choice to be that conservative. I think two years from now, we'll decide it was the right choice, because when the auditors show up and we have all the information and maybe some of our other jurisdictions do not, I think we'll be happy we did it that way. But in the you know, in the moment when we were hoping to get resources out into our communities faster, the fact that we took that conservative approach and I think we did not have a reasonable expectation about how long it would take. That was the one significant thing. And then specific to rental assistance, we decided and you know, the first round of rental assistance, we essentially did manually. We just threw a whole bunch of county employees out. It did everything in a very old fashioned, almost handwritten way and on a scale. King County, when we got the new federal money for rental assistance, you know, the decision was made. No, we have to automate this. We have to build a new IT system. And I you know, in retrospect, you can debate whether that was the right choice. I think realistically, we didn't have enough people to do anything other than that. But it took longer to do that system and get it stable than we expected. And so that slowed down the rental assistance. That was only the rental assistance. It was affected by that. We're hearing now that some of the jurisdictions with rental assistance who went faster than we did are now realizing they don't have documentation. And so, again, we made the choice to make sure we had good documentation before we handed out money. Some other jurisdictions chose a different way. There's pros and cons to that. But again, down the road, we're going to be happy from an audit perspective. We did it our way. But whether that was the right policy choice, I think is debatable. Thank you. I have heard from a number of people on moneys that maybe will or will not pass audit inspections, as I think it's really important that people know that we are going to be auditing, so that I think that knowing that helps to keep down some fraud. And with what we've seen at the state level, it's really important that the taxpayers feel that we're being really responsible with the money. So thank you for all your good work. Yeah. And I have to say, it's not my good work. There are, you know, hundreds. And I mean, I'd literally and probably if you actually counted out this over a thousand county employees in public health and DHHS and local services in KC, I.T. and everybody in PSB. And I could go on and on and on with other agencies, the prosecutor's office, who are you're spending way more than the hours they're paid for making sure that this is working. So the thanks belong to all of those employees and the contractors who are doing this. Not to me. I just get to sit here and report on it to you at once a month. When you know you're at the helm of the system in the rest of the hands on board. Mr. Chair of the Medical World. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you both for your presentation. And I had three questions. One was when Cathy Councilmember Lambert asked about charges of banking, but also with regard to small businesses grants through OEM . Do you have something that you can get to us for that as well? Because in newsletters that we send out and perhaps we could get something in those and the same for the jobs and the housing loans. So that's a little different, but we could certainly notify groups with which we work. Thank you. Don't have the I also have the faith for the OEM small business, so I will send that in the same email. I will ask the jobs and housing team when they re-issue the RFP to send it to each of the council offices. So they're aware of it as well, that that is going to be probably at least a couple of weeks from now. Okay. Thank you. Dombrowski. I'll just. I'll jump in. It looks like Maestro for a second. Blake, thanks for the presentation on the FEMA emergency team extension, if you will. Is that is that just on the basis of the ongoing pandemic and its impacts that they're going to April, at least for now? Yes. So the I mean, I'm not the expert on FEMA, our staffing or EMR, but essentially what that is an acknowledgment by the federal government that the emergency the public health emergency is not is not going to be over soon. And that if we want to be able to continue a lot of the programs that we're doing to provide relief, realistically, the federal government needs to be the one to pay for that and then turning to the county and the implications for us and our workforce. The executive has a standing, I think, emergency order in place. Is there any thinking on kind of the conclusion of that or the termination of that and also how that relates to our return to work for for our employees generally? Yeah, those are two different questions. So I don't believe we I'm certainly not a party to any conversation right now about the executive either changing or ending his declaration of emergency. You know, while it's obviously true that King County is in better shape than lots of other parts of the country, we continue to have hundreds of new COVID cases diagnosed every day and still have significant use of our hospitals for COVID patients. So, you know, the pandemic is not anywhere near over. So I don't think we've started any conversations about potentially ending the executive's declaration on a return to work for executive departments, not obviously not the legislative branch. We still have the official return to work day of July six, 2021. So but the reality is, is that very few people have actually come back to work who don't need to be here all the time. And so we actually did a FMD was able to pull door counts of people coming in and out of the Chinook building and King Street Center. And if you compare before July 6th and after July six, there is absolutely no difference. So even though the return to work date has happened, almost all departments have continued to allow those workers who can to work from home. And so in terms of kind of a practical effect. You know, we continue to do relocations of agencies that were vacating the administration building. That's still on track for essentially April of 2022. And other departments are going to be in their new spaces by that point in either King Street portion or. My expectation is that of the people who are teleworking today, on any average, day less than half will be back in the office even when the pandemic is over. Most of our executive departments that have office staff and that office is very different from people who are driving busses or doing wastewater treatment or whatever it is. But for the office, staff have discovered that they are just as efficient, if not more efficient with people teleworking. And so I think we're going to end up in a sort of permanent hybrid situation where we have significantly fewer people on any day in the county offices than we had before the pandemic. And so that kind of return to work is almost now an artificial concept. I think, obviously for the Legislative Department, you have a decision to make about when you want to start returning to chambers and things like that. That's that's entirely your business. The other separately elected branches in our courts are obviously in a completely different situation than any of the rest of us are. But like the assessor's office and elections are operating very much like the other executive departments with people essentially teleworking as much as possible. So that's kind of a very long answer to your question about return to work. We don't have a different date. I'm currently thinking from my office from PSB that probably the earliest will be any of us will be physically back in the office is probably March, but that's just speculation. Thank you. And finally, I think we've gotten some emails from executive Konstantin around our labor contract negotiations and retention pay for representing the unrepresented workers. Could you just give us a highlight of the few of the touch points there on what we're doing with respect to our coalition bargaining, where that stands and our workforce in general, with respect to, you know, hazard pay, for example. We're going to talk about that later here from one industry. What are we doing with our nurses and their frontline workers in the course of our labor work? So I'm going to try to do this as simply as I can. So the Office of Labor Relations reached an agreement with the Coalition of Unions, which, as you know, does not represent all employees, but a very significant portion of our employees. They reached a tentative agreement with them now, one three weeks ago for wages for 2021. So the current year, 2022, 2023 and 2024. And so for represented employees who are in the Coalition, the wage agreement is one and a half percent retroactive for 2021. 3% for 2020 to 3% for 2023 and 3% for 2024. So one and a half followed by three 3% over that for period. In addition, there is a bonus that is not characterized as anything other than a bonus that is $4,000 essentially for employees who are compensated less than $100,000 a year. $2,000 for those who are compensated between 100,000 225,000 and $1,000 for those who make more than 125,000. And so that's the that's the coalition wage agreement. The status of that is some of the unions still have what they call their small tables open where they are bargaining. Typically, it's working condition issues that are specific to a particular union. The current expectation is that will not be finished for all the unions until January. And the Coalition has said they will essentially come to what we would call a final agreement until all the small tables are done. I think it's just to be truthful. It's possible that if some of the small tables, a couple of them really bogged down, the coalition might say, well, we're going to proceed with everybody else. So roughly in January is the current expectation that there will be a final agreement with the coalition that then would go on for ratification for those unions that require a ratification vote by their members? Once that occurs, that agreement would be transmitted to the Council for your approval. And so I think realistically that's February or March for the Coalition employees. So now let me switch over to the non represented employees. So what the executive has proposed is essentially to extend the same financial terms to non represented employees. But because of guidance from the prosecutor's office about what state law requires for non represented employees, the structure of the agreement, it looks different even though the financial consequences turn out to be the same. So for the non represented employees, the ordinance that I believe you already have, I think we transmitted it right before Thanksgiving would award a 4.5, four or 5% wage increase for 2022. Which is the compounded one and a half percent for 2021, plus the 3%. So in other words, it would put the. The nine represented employees on the same page schedule as the represented employees, the Coalition employees in 2022. And then we have the 3% for 2023 and 3% for 2024. That is not before you now because that's in the next by any. The executive then proposed that the one and a half percent retro for 2021 that the coalition employees will get. Will be characterized as a retention bonus for employees who are essentially here at the end of the first quarter. No unrepresented employees would then be paid out after that. And then the the graduated bonus, the 4000, 2000 of them would be paid out in the fall of 2022 to non represented employees who are still here as a retention bonus for continuing to stay with accounting. And again, the financial consequences by the end of 2022 for a non represented employee and for a Coalition member turned out to be exactly the same to the dollar. But the timing and the characterization is different. And if you want to delve into the details, I recommend you talk to the prosecutor's office and they can explain the whole thing in infinite detail, which I don't know if you're interested, but I see you are not Counselor Dombrowski, but that that is the reality of what's going on. So finally, to your question of hazard pay, none of what is being proposed by the executive, either for the represented employees or the nine representing employees, is characterized as hazard pay. You know, if the employee wants to think of it that way, they can. But that is not legally how any of this is being described. That's really helpful on the overview, Dwight. And just on the final hazard pay issue. My recollection was we did something with some of our workers, like our our nursing staff or public health staff on that order was a general kind of a boost, but that is the rationale. But maybe I'm misremembering or we wrapped that up or it's folded into this new agreement. Help me helping refresh my memory on what we saw. I remember one thing and I don't remember another thing that I think I remember, but I'm not sure I remember so well. I know this is the first. Yeah, I'm forgetting 4.4 or five 4% gap. I mean, your memories crisp. So the one thing we did do that you'll probably recall is when we started the isolation and quarantine facilities and some of the other facilities where we assigned the county staff just asked them and it was a different job than they really had what we agreed to provide. I don't think we actually called it hazard pay, but we provided incremental additional compensation. If you were either volunteered or were assigned to that work, which was different than your normal work, if we did legislate an appropriate funding for that. What I don't remember is I believe there was a labor agreement with the Washington State Nurses Association, a which I believe was a regular wage increase for them. That happened sometime earlier this year, if I remember correctly. And I, I think there was essentially a pay and equipment that in part was in recognition of what they were having to do. Again, I don't believe was characterized as hazard pay. I would urge you to reach out to the Office of Labor Relations, because my memory of that one is very vague and I may have that completely wrong. That's okay. That's a appreciate it. Thanks for the time, Mr. Chair. Because that's number one. Thank you. I, I have some concerns about how much hybrid there is, so much that goes on in the hallways and the, quote unquote, water coolers. Not that we have water coolers anymore, but where. People are. Talking about what they're working on and and people volunteer that some of their expertize or their concerns. And I'm. Seeing things show. Up that haven't really circulated the way that they used to circulate when we were on the same building or walking by. And overhearing parts of a conversation. And, you know, then getting involved and that casual input. And collegiality is missing. And I am concerned about the fact that somebody may not serve the campus for a month and the cross training that is to go on, especially our central staff. That was really very valuable. You know, it's not quite the same. Virtually as. It is. So I am concerned that whatever the decision is that we really take that variable party, which is kind of nebulous, but it's an important variable of communication. More seriously. My question is. Having to do with the jail. I have heard a number of things from people in the last two weeks about the RJC closing half of the building. And then I heard that there is going to be a transfer and a plan to close part of the tower jail and that the RJC jail was built to different specifications than the tower jail. So I would like to talk to you or somebody about that off line, because I think there's some issues that we need to be aware of in that situation. So could you just tell me at this point and I may start up, but I know half of the parties is closing this week or next week, and I think it's 120 being moved to the tower. What's happening with all that? So I've heard the same thing about half the RJC. I have no idea. So what I would encourage you to do is reach out to John Diaz, the director of DJT, and he can give you all the details of this. But the shorthand version is, as you know, council member, there are about 60 vacant corrections officers positions as a consequence of that overtime and mandatory overtime are at levels that none of us think are acceptable, whether it's the union, whether it's the employees or whether it's management. Right. And so the JD wanted to find ways to reduce the number of posts they have. And they did look at closing a floor in the downtown Seattle jail. They also looked at closing two housing units at the RJC and determined that while it would actually save more posts if you closed the four downtown, the security consequences were unacceptable, I think, to John Diaz. And so they found a way by closing a couple of housing units at the RJC and moving people to the downtown jail. That would save about 20 posts and therefore significantly reduce over time without having what they thought were meaningful security risks as a consequence, either, you know, physical security or common security. So I know there are rumors about closing half the RJC. That just isn't true. And so I would encourage you to reach out to John Diaz and he can go through the details with you. It was not ideal. I think all of us would agree it isn't ideal, but it's a way to try to, in the short run, manage the fact we have so many vacancies. John told me yesterday they are expecting have about ten new people in the academy in January and they're doing a lot of efforts with recruiting. You all just approved last Tuesday additional recruiting resources for the aged, which will really help. We appreciate that. So that's that's kind of what's going on with jail occupancy right now. The other thing, just a quick comment on your observation about the WaterCooler as we've surveyed employees, and that is the one thing that comes through by and large is the biggest downside of telecommuting is the lot the lack of that informal interaction. And so I know several of the teams that when they are back in the office, they've agreed that even if that team is mostly telecommuting once a week or once a month or once every two weeks, they're all plan to come into the office on the same day for exactly that kind of interaction that you're describing. So it's not as good as, you know, if you're there full time, but at least a way to try to calm. A little bit of that thing that we're going to lose. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for spending all of 2021 joining us regularly to brief this on the pandemic response and. More importantly. Than joining us to present to the response or presenting the work, the hard work of the county in doing our best to respond to and support people throughout the county in surviving and perhaps even thriving when possible during the pandemic. So thank you very much for joining us, but most importantly, for the work that it represents in serving the people of King County. Great. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. And I presume I'll see you next year. Indeed. Thank you. The next item on our agenda today is making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the King County District Court. Members will have received the application materials most recently this morning. I believe the email was sent at 933 this morning. So I will call your attention to that. And a few minutes before about the questions that I referenced before we got rolling this morning. So you might have both of those materials open. The council advertised the judicial vacancy and accepted applications until October 4th, 2021. We received applications from five eligible candidates during the application period, and since there were five eligible applicants, a subcommittee process was used to narrow the final list to be interviewed by the entire committee, the whole councilmember council members. Caldwell's, Zala and I held interviews for all five candidates. I'm a member of 15 and 19 to narrow the field to the two candidates we have invited to join us today. At this point, I would ask Councilmember Caldwell's perhaps for a motion this to select Rebecca Robertson and Jennifer Cruz as the finalists to be interviewed by the committee consistent with inclusion code two 1720. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And some. Thank you. Motion is performed in Nova Scotia, and all those in favor please signify by saying I oppose name. The ayes have it. Thank you. Before we proceed further, I'd like to provide members and attendees with an overview of how this process will work. Members have received the application materials by email. Most recently, as I said this morning, these materials were central to your email. At 933, it would begin today's proceedings with a brief staff report on the proposed motion from Erica Hanuman of council staff. And after the staff report, the committee will interview each candidate one at a time during the candidate. I'm sorry. During the interview, the candidate not being interviewed will be placed in a zoom waiting room as do not get an advance on the interview questions or the other candidates responses. Once each candidate has been interviewed, there's interest among the council. The people go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of candidates for appointment, and then we will rejoin this Zoom meeting and take up any action in the legislation if there are questions. Are there any questions on how this process will work, either for members or from the candidates? Before we get started. See none. I'll introduce Eric Newman of Council Central Staff, who is supporting us through this process with women. The line is known as. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Eric Newman Council Central Staff The items for proposed motion 2020 10434 begin on page eight of your packet. The applicant packet includes the judicial ratings, which start on page 14 of your packet. Are you aware the District Court of the Council for the Limited Jurisdiction and has responsibility for processing small claims and misdemeanor criminal offenses? The court handles a $250,000 annually throughout the four divisions, which are the north, south, east and west divisions. The proposed motion is to Opposition three and the West Electoral District, which was made vacant by the retirement of Judge Arthur Chapman. Under state law, the County Council has a legislative authority to fill district court vacancies. As you mentioned, there are two eligible applicants to be interview that weren't yeah that will be interviewed today and the selected candidate will fill the remainder of Judge Chapman's term ends in January of 2023. In its current form, proposed motion 2020 10434 has a blank for the name of the person being appointed as able in a will be needed to insert the name of the selected appointee. Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks. Thank you. Are there any questions for Ms.. Newman? All right. I interviewed to say roughly 20 minutes and I'll ask the candidates to provide opening and closing remarks, each to be limited to 2 minutes. So we will time and you'll hear a timer. 2 minutes for the opening and closings and we don't have a timer running. But ask the candidates to be mindful of time and perhaps aim for the responses to the other questions not to exceed 2 minutes. Members have received this morning a set of prepared suggested interview questions. In accordance with best and worst practice, I'll ask members to volunteer to read the interview, the prepared interview questions and will use the same questions for each candidate. Candidates will be encouraged. I'm sorry, I'm afraid I. But now I'm reading from my script. So we would ask you to attempt to keep your responses to the untimed questions, also to 2 minutes. And before the meeting we randomly assigned the order of interviews. And we'll begin with Jennifer Cruz, followed by Rebecca Robertson. I mean, that's the only questions are now asked the club to place Mrs. Robertson in the zoom waiting room is reminding reminded to members and staff, please let the current staff admit people from the waiting room and avoid the very hard temptation to click the admin button when it appears on your zoom screen. Madam Court, can you confirm when Ms.. Roberts is in the zoom waiting room? Yes, Mr. Chair, she has. Thank you. Is crude from my screen. And I want to welcome you to the committee as a whole and again, to thank you for your interest in serving on the King County District Court, the time you've taken the interview and the materials and look forward to this conversation with us today. I will begin by asking you to share a two minute opening statement, opening comments with us. Good morning. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be before all of you again. And I'm very happy to be here. Again, my name is Jennifer Cruz and I am applying for the open position of District Court Judge in the West Division. I have been a pro tem for King County District Court now for over six years, and I have worked in every division of King County District Court and handled every type of hearing that there is within the jurisdiction of District Court. So I'm very familiar and can step into district court. Additionally, I have also pro tem and continue to pro tem in other jurisdictions such as the city of Kent, the city of Tukwila, the city of Normandy Park, as well as the city of Des Moines and Federal Way and Kirkland. In addition to this. One of the things I wanted to let you know is that I am a lifelong member of King County. I was born and raised in Rainier Valley, and I am the daughter of immigrant parents. My father came here in 1929 when he was only 18 years old, and he only had a third grade education. He worked as a migrant worker and he followed the crops and continued to do that as long as he could. And then he eventually served in the military after World War Two. I grew up in Rainier Valley attending school, and I came from a very small family. I was the first person to graduate from college, as well as the first person to graduate from law school. My family instilled in me the value of hard work, the value of education and the value of service to community. And I have continued on with that in terms of my trajectory for my career. When I was in college to help pay for college, I did work. I worked as a work study for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office as a victim advocate. Later on, I was a well known intern for the city attorney's office. And then I began my career as a lawyer, as a public defender, working for several different agencies. Before I opened up my own office and I have now contracted for over 20 years with the King County Department of Public Defense. And I have represented indigent clients. So from that broad base of experience and knowledge and my community, my community involvement. I'm hoping that you will consider me as a candidate for the West Division. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll lead off with the first question and perhaps councilmember roles will be ready with the second question. First question would be what? What about district courts interests you the most? Thank you. Yes. What about district court? That interests me the most is it is very much a people's court. It is the first line and sometimes the only line of court interaction that the general public has with the court system because of the fact that we see so many different people and we handle cases where it would not be something like a felony, it would be more something like a traffic ticket. And I think that it's important that the general community, especially the community that we serve, have a good experience with the court system, since it is the only system a lot of people experience. And in terms of that, I think that it's important for people to see the diversity of our community represented in individuals who work in the court system. And I don't think that we have enough of that. And I think that it is important to have people who are capable, who have knowledge and who have the background and a passion to want to help the community and help them understand the different things as they navigate a lot of times, particularly in small claims courts. They are individuals are not represented by attorneys. And so they are coming to the court not knowing what to expect. And I think that it's very important for the judge and the court community to set that tone so that they feel that they're being heard as individuals in the community and are being processed in terms of a fair and fully being heard. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Miles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And good morning, Ms.. Cruz. Good morning. Congratulations on making it to this round and so much. I have a question for you, which is how do you approach judicial matters with which you are unfamiliar? And when that happens, what resources do you seek out to help? Thank you, Councilmember Colwell. When I'm unfamiliar with a particular issue, the first thing I do is I turn to the law. And so I look to see what is the issue? What is the law? And I call that out. And then I look at that. I look at the cases that relate to that. And then I also take a look and see what what is coming before me. Is it emotion? And if it is emotion? Have both sides filed briefs? And if they have, then I turn to those and I look and see what the arguments are in each of the briefs. I carefully read both of them and I pick out what the cases are that they're relying on in terms of the law. And if there's any new law that I am not familiar with, I will go and seek out those cases. Then what I do is I will also listen to the arguments of the parties. Obviously, each side has a different take on what the law is, and I take a look at that, and then I apply that to the law and apply it to the facts of the case, because each case is very different that there's no two cases that are the same. The law, however, is normally the same. It it does change. And so I want to be aware of what the basis of the law is, the policy of the law. If I have other questions. I also will turn to other judicial colleagues who have been familiar with the issue and see how they feel about it. Although I would use my own independent judgment, I did. I would also look to see as to how they've ruled in the past if this is something that is a district wide policy in terms of how we rule or if it's something where I can use my own independent judgment and look at the law and the arguments of the parties. And so I will take all of those things into consideration. And then I can also do my own independent research. I'm familiar with using Westlaw and all the other resources that we have. We have a lot of great resources, but I would also rely on my other judicial colleagues for advice. But ultimately it would be up to me and looking at the law itself. Thank you. Thank you, colleagues. Volunteer now. Question number three. I got your job. Thank you. Goodbye. What is one change you think the district court can take to further the goals of equity and social justice in the legal system? One change that I think that can be made is and I think that it is already being made in in some form is due to COVID, is that we are trying to make the district court more accessible to individuals. And by that, I mean there's a lot of Zoom hearings. The law has changed in terms of when individuals have to appear. And in terms of if they can let their attorneys appear on their behalf. And I think that that really helps because a lot of individuals who are coming before district court do have challenges in terms of economically and financially and just getting there in terms of being in court. I think that having Zoom helped that where people do not have to take time off work, when they don't have the time to take off work, they don't have to get child care. If they are able to access Zoom, that's great because then they can log on or they can let their attorney appear on their behalf. More cases where they're not doing anything major, where they're just continuing the hearing and and getting a new date. I think that that that is helpful. I think that we do need to be more mindful because even though we do have zoom of the fact that there are some challenges, obviously there's individuals who do not have access to to getting Internet. And that is something that we need to take a look at. Where do we have access to justice for all individuals, as well as the fact that it is difficult on Zoom with individuals who English is not their first language, it is very difficult to have an interpreter interpret when they're on Zoom as opposed to as in person. But I think that because of this change, although COVID has very much affected everyone and and it it has been something that has been a challenge. I think some good things are coming out of it because district court really is taking a look at how do we really access and help individuals access the court system. And are there other different ways where we can make it easier for people to appear before the court without them having to have the challenge of finding travel, taking off work and doing all of those things? So I think that that is one way where we can continue to do that and continue to look at it. And it sounds like just in terms of listening to Mr. Digi, that this hybrid model is something that is going to happen with not just the courts, but all all over in terms of King County. I think that that may be very, very important to remain in terms of access of justice and helping people to access the courts. Thank you. Thank you. COLLINS But unfortunately, we now have a volunteer for question number five, and I'm looking for one, four, four and six. So, Councilmember Banducci, last question. Number four. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning and welcome today. Have you encountered a challenging ethical dilemma in your experience? And if so, can you describe what it was and how you approach to resolve the situation? Yes, thank you. I was thinking back in terms of an ethical dilemma, and this is when real recently, maybe in the last year or so, I was protesting on the bench in district court and I had an individual who needed an interpreter and this was all via Zoom. So this kind of Segways into my last answer, but we were all via Zoom and the individual interpreter was via Zoom. The person who needed the interpreter actually had appeared in court with a family member and the other parties appeared via Zoom. So there's a hybrid of everything going on. And one of the things that happened is, as the case was proceeding as we were, the interpreter was interpreting. And I noticed that there was a lot of commotion from the individual who was in court and their family member, and there was a lot of talk back and forth. And so I stopped the proceedings and I said, What's what's going on? You're not paying attention to what's going on, is there? Is there an issue? And what came out of it is the family member said, yes, there's a problem. The interpreter is not interpreting word for word. They're not interpreting correctly. And so then I asked the individual who was there for their particular hearing, not the family member. I said, Are you understanding? And I couldn't really get a sense from them whether they were either afraid to answer that because of the fact that they had the interpreter there and they didn't want to be disrespectful to the interpreter or if they really, genuinely did not understand what was going on. And so then I had this the family member kind of telling me what was going on, but obviously they're not a party to the whole proceeding. And so that was of concern. The other piece that was of concern to me was the fact that there's this interpreter and she's interpreting honestly and there's an issue with not understanding. And so I had to also speak with her and say, you know, there's that there's an issue. Can we discuss this a little bit further? And it became very, very sticky in terms of everything. And what I eventually did was I did take a recess so that I can continue to consult with presiding. I wanted to find out more because I had not seen this interpreter in my court before in any of my other proceedings. It turned out that this interpreter actually was not someone who we wanted to have come interpret because they had had that problem before and not interpreting one for work. And so in terms of that, I would not have known that had I not after presiding because as a pro tem, you just kind of get put in situations. But it was an ethical dilemma in terms of how do we make sure that this individual who's here is on one side of a case, is actually understanding the proceedings and is being told what actually is going on? And so I was able to handle it. What we did end up doing was we did it. We were able to not have that interpreter. We were able to bring in another interpreter, actually recess for a while, and we were able to proceed forward with the proceeding. The individual who needed the interpreter did feel a lot better about the second interpretation and was able to present their case in a timely manner. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the volume of cases at the district court level is significant for the judge. How do you approach managing multiple high priority. Matters in front of you at the same time? Thank you. That's that's a great question. And and I am. As a program, I have been in quite a few courts where there is a high volume caseload. I think in terms of priority, you have to take a look at who you have before you. Obviously, there are people on Zoom. There are people in the courtroom. And then you have to take a look at who else is there. Is are the public defenders ready? Are the private attorneys ready? And do we have interpreters who are waiting because everything is based on time? Obviously, we don't want an interpreter waiting around for two or 3 hours. So those matters take priority and we want to get those done so that individuals will have a chance to talk with their attorney, with the interpreter. And so I think that it's really about trying to manage and make sure that you match up the parties and you see where you're going in terms of things. And take a look at if you know ahead of time what the issues may be. And that's what I always try to do is look at the calendar. I am told ahead of time that I'm going to be in a court. I try to prepare and read through the dockets and read through the cases so that I have an idea of what may be coming and can anticipate. Oh, this case may take a little bit longer. This case is going to be a continuance. And so I know we can take this first and try to manage so that we don't have a courtroom full of people waiting for hours and hours, but rather we're able to move smoothly, even though it's not normally at a pace that sometimes people want. I mean, people want to come in and out very quickly. And while I would like to do that, when you have 20 or 30 people on the calendar, that's just not possible. But to acknowledge that people are waiting to acknowledge and say, yes, I know that you're here. Just give us a chance. We'll get to you. And I think that that's the important piece of it, is to make sure that people know I know you're here. I know you're waiting. I know you have a case and we will take it. I'm sorry that it's taking so long, but I think that even that piece of acknowledgment makes people feel better and makes people feel heard and that they're not just a number, but that somebody knows their case is coming up. And so it is quite a balance. And I think that I, from my program experience have been able to meet that balance and that I can continue to do so if I am selected as the U.S. district judge. Thank you. Thank you. I'm customer service. Mr. Chair, for lack of other persons, I'd be happy. To do that. What do you see as the most significant challenge facing the district court and how do you think it should be addressed? Well, the most significant problem currently is obviously our backlog of cases due to the COVID 19 pandemic. And I think that we are taking steps to address it in terms of trying to add additional individuals, programs and commissioners who can take on cases and get through the backlog. I think adding additional calendars, adding night court or weekend court are ways that we can do that, because obviously there are a significant amount of cases, particularly small claims cases where individuals have been waiting a long time to have their day in court. And it is difficult to make sure that they do get their day in court. That is what the whole process about being in district court is. It's a people's court where people come and they bring their problems that are considered not felonies that are minor, but to individuals. They are major, their major things that have happened to them. And we need to be mindful of that. And I think that that's the hard part where a lot of people are feeling due to the shutdown of from COVID 19, that they were forgotten about, that their their individual case was not heard. And I think that we need to work to try to get back up to speed with how we are processing the processing the cases and making sure that each individual person we touch base with them and say, hey, I know it's been X number of months and we have not heard your case yet. Here we are now. We're trying to process this. And I think that it is going to have a lot to do with coordination with all of the the different divisions in district court to get there. But I think that it is possible. Thank you. Thank you. And unless there are follow up questions from colleagues. And I paused for a moment. I would invite you to share your closing remarks with us. Thank you so much. Again, Council members, I wanted to thank you for your attention and for having me here again. I'm pleased to be here. As I had stated, I do have the experience, the knowledge and also the temperament to handle the court and to handle the deposition as West District Court judge. I have been a committed member of King County. I have grown up here. I continue to give back to the community. I work very closely. I am on the board of the Filipino Community Center of Seattle, which is very important to me, where I help with both of the programs that I am the chair of, which is the Programs Committee Chair for the Senior and Senior Housing, as well as the Youth Development Committee. And those are very important to me because I think that it is important to give back to the community. I also think that as a judge, it is important to be visible and to be seen. In terms of my experience as a judge, I have been a pro tem for over six years and I have over 20 years of experience as an attorney. I take that experience with me having been able to work with individuals who are marginalized, who are people of color, and also who do have issues such as mental health issues, alcohol, drug issues. And I think that that experience and sets me apart from other individuals where growing up in a household as an immigrant daughter and in a community where we didn't take vacations, we had to work for everything we had. I think that that helps me make a connection to the people that I would serve in district court who are individuals just coming before the court for things that are simple matters, which we would deem a simple matters. However, those are very important matters to them. And I see those individuals as extensions of myself because I can see myself and my family in them and I want to help the community as well as help King County as a whole by serving as a district court judge. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms.. Cruz, for sharing more of your experience and passion for serving on the bench with us this morning. And again for your interest in serving on the district court. We very much appreciate this opportunity to talk with you and learn more about you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it as well. Thank you to everyone. And Madam Kirk, if you might excuse Ms.. Cruz to the waiting room and invite Ms.. Robertson back. We will have to ring shortly, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. I would remind everyone that in zero two please do not use the admit. But we are excusing this cruise to the waiting room intentionally as we had Ms.. Robertson and so to please only have the clerk's office be using the admin button. And with that quirk, I believe we have Ms.. Cruz has moved to the waiting room is Miss Robertson and with us? That's correct, Mr. Chair. We are ready. Was Robinson, welcome. Thank you so much. I should let you know, I was accidentally admitted for about 15 seconds. I understood that. That's why I was reminding people not to do that. Okay. No concerns. Thank you. Thank you. There. And now Jim has you someplace I can see you. Welcome. Thank you so much. I want to thank you again for joining us for this interview and for the work you've done to express your interest in the fight for the position in King County District Court and for the work you do in serving the people of King County already in your career. We have, as I think you know, about six questions, an opportunity for you to share opening and closing remarks. But this we look forward to this conversation. With that, I would invite you to share your opening comments with us. Good morning and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak with you again about my qualifications for the District Court bench. I've been a judge and Federal Way Municipal Court for 12 years. I believe I have two unique qualifications that are critical to the district court right now. A dozen years of daily judicial experience and a proven track record of inclusive leadership. The judicial system is transforming itself to meet the changing needs of the people it serves, addressing every day the overlapping challenges of mental illness, substance abuse, homelessness and systemic racism. We are reevaluating and reimagining every day. There are many moving parts and stakeholders in the justice system. I have had years of experience building coalitions in my own court and statewide to create real results. And I will continue to do this at King County as president of the District and Municipal Court Judges Association. I have worked with judges and other stakeholders who eagerly embrace innovations as well as those who don't. I have experience collaborating with all of them to create meaningful solutions. The courts must take progressive actions to help people get the services and treatment need must is. Well. It's based approaches to increased public safety. Yes. Vibrates in your headphones for just a moment there. I apologize. Okay. I'll go ahead and start. Start again. Throughout my career, I have addressed the burden of legal financial obligations, encouraged the creation of therapeutic courts, helped create caseload limits for public defenders, adopted new technology, created pretrial release and jail alternatives, and advocated for judicial independence and court security. In 2018, I spearheaded the creation of a community court in federal way with no funding to address issues that cause people to commit crimes. We provided people with mentors, intensive support and quickly quick linkages to treatment and housing. The courts must be able to provide immediate resources to people to empower them to address their issues. What I have learned from the successes of Community Court can be and has been applied to all other aspects of the justice system. I have the experience and the leadership skills to help King County to continue to move in this direction. And I would be happy to answer your questions. Thank you so much. Our first question would be, what about district court? It was you the most? I am from King County. I live in Seattle. I am very passionate about the justice system and I'm very passionate about my community. And I would love to be able to serve my community in a greater way through King County District Court. I know that King County is on the cutting edge of innovations for how we address legal problems that people face in the community, either criminal charges and their struggles with what causes those criminal charges to happen, or their small legal civil needs, which the King County District Court can also address. We have a real ability to help people redress their problems when they have been wronged and to interrupt their cycle and downward spiral into criminal behavior by intervening with assistance, with help, with accountability for them. I know that King County has been working towards progression on how to progressive, meaningful ways to address these issues. And I would love to be a part of that community. I also think I can bring my 12 years of experience in federal way and statewide to bring new and fresh ideas to King County and how to innovate, how to be more highly efficient, and how things maybe a little bit differently than they have not thought of before. And I can bring my experience in doing those things to King County. Thank you so much, Councilmember Cole Wells. No, I knew. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And good morning, Judge Roberts, and congratulations on making it to this round. Thank you so much. I have a question for you, which is how do you approach judicial matters with which you are unfamiliar? And when that happens, what resources to seek out? I'm so sorry, but you cut out a little bit, so I didn't quite hear the question. Okay. How do you approach judicial matters with which you are unfamiliar? And when that happens, what resources do you seek out? So I approach it as my opportunity to learn and to grow in my legal knowledge in my career. First, I would identify what issues it is that I'm going to have to be learning about. I would seek out assistance and mentorship from other judges who have lots of experience dealing with those issues to assist me in framing them. I would go to the numerous bench books that are available on a variety of different issues to assist me with that. And I would also let the attorneys teach me about the law. Often the attorneys are there to educate the judges on the various areas of the law, which with which they might not be familiar. We can often ask attorneys to brief to certain issues so that they can frame it in the way that they would like the judge to decide it. And I find that incredibly valuable, an incredibly valuable way to. Learn the. Law is constantly changing, both in the criminal and the civil world. So we always have to be adaptable and be willing to learn and to be willing to understand that we are constantly in a state of learning and to really keep up with the changes in the law. We do that through reading new case law, being familiar with the new court rules, etc. So I have constantly tried to look at this as a learning opportunity for me. Thank you. Thank you, members online. Thank you. What is one change you think the district court can take to further the goals of equity and social justice in the legal system? So I think one change that they could utilize were is an audit system that is starting to happen in the District and Municipal Court Judges Association. There is an organization that will come into court as sort of a secret shopper. They won't be won't know that they're coming. They'll come in as a court user and they'll analyze the entire court system as far as how easy it is for court users, what their interactions are with even the signage on the door, with the people greeting them at the front door security, with the court staff, with the judge , with the attorneys, and how they are treated as a person. I think this sort of audit could really inform the courts of things that they need to be doing better. Often we are so caught up in our high volume how things have always been done, our knowledge of the system that we don't realize how difficult it is for people to come into court and navigate that system and how difficult it might be for them to understand the languages used to. To understand all the complicated processes that there are to be treated like a number instead of a person. And that is a complaint that I take very seriously. People have to be treated like they're a person. Like this might be the most difficult day of their life. And to ease that process for them to make it less complicated, to make it more equitable. There may be things we don't see or realize that are causing an equitable or racial racially inequitable. Beside that, we don't understand that we're doing because we are so immersed in our own system. So I think having an audit this organization come to audit King County District Court could really inform the court and all other courts of what kind of improvements could be made in all ways and all systems. And that could be fairly easy changes. I volunteer Federal Municipal Court for this audit and I truly hope that the other courts are going to do that as well. We've already adopted Zoom so that court is more accessible to people, but I think we need to go much further than that. Thank you, Councilmember. WC Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome. Good to see you again. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here. My question is, have you encountered a challenging ethical dilemma in your experience? And if so, can you describe that for us and how you approach to resolve? I have you know, judges are bound by the judicial canons. We have to be very careful. And what we do say and how we advocate, we don't normally get involved in policy issues or realms of the executive or the legislator would have. But we also can see how some things that other branches do can affect the criminal justice system and people's rights and lives. In my particular case, we were using a jail in federal way that was giving wholly inadequate medical care and mental health care to defendants. We knew that it was a problem. It's not the it's the police department's in the executive's bailiwick to handle what is in the jail. But we could see systemically that this was becoming an issue. I how we got involved is was an ethical quagmire for the courts. I called John Straight, who was an ethics professor at the Catholic University, to ask him exactly what and how can I go about doing this? Because it was a systemic issue affecting so many people, not just the people who appeared before me. We discussed how I could do that. And so we I contacted the jail itself. I contacted our mayor. I explained to them these are the issues we're facing. I am literally not putting people in jail who should go, because I'm afraid that the jail is going to kill them. And that is the situation that we are facing right now. We met with the jail. On numerous occasions to discuss how things could be improved. It took a long time for them to understand and realize that there really was a problem. We also met with disability rights Washington, which came in to the jail and forced and made some significant changes. They actually sued the jail. And I'm happy to report that the jail, that particular jail is now one of the best jails to be set if you have mental health or physical issues that need to be dealt with because of the changes that were made, because of the advocacy that I provided and that the other judges provided, because of what we saw on a day to day basis. But it was a very difficult we can't tell the executive what to do and or how to do things. So it was a very difficult legal quagmire, but I made sure that I got the appropriate advice and I approached it in a way that I knew would be the ethical way under the canons to do so. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. And Mr. Chair, welcome. And my question is, the volume of cases facing the district court judge is significant. How do you approach managing multiple high priority matters in front of you at the same time? So I also work in a very high volume court and about a third of our caseload criminal. Criminal caseload is domestic violence. So those are always very high priority. What a judge needs to realize going in is we are the face of justice as we walk in the courtroom. Our demeanor, how calm we are, how we handle things, really flows down to how everyone feels about the experience. If it's a very high volume situation, I explain to people, we have a lot of cases here today. Everyone's case is important and I'm going to hear everybody's case and handle all of their issues. We need to have some patience. And I really appreciate your patience and thank you for working for us. And once people realize I'm going to be heard and my case is important, they usually feel much better. We handle the cases that are an absolute we must do this today cases first. So I work with the attorneys to determine what cases need to be handled today, what things could be maybe set to a different day, and really what narrow it down to what is it that I need to know to make this decision? I've interrupted attorneys and said, I need you to answer this question for me so I can handle this case. This is what I need to know. This is what you need to tell me. Sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes we have to go through lunch and you just have to do that to make sure that the people who are there before you are being heard, that's the most important thing in their day. It might be another case to everybody else, but to them it's their life. So just understanding that, also understanding how your decisions on a particular case might affect. The cases might affect the administration and the back office is very important. Some people might not realize that every single decision we make has a flow through out the court system. And so to kind of understand how the systems work, to make sure that you're not creating bigger problems as you go through. But I've had a lot of experience in this in federal way, which is very high volume and triaging cases and getting down to what you really need to know in this case and what you need to do while making sure that a person is heard in every single instance. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there another volunteer to ask question number six? Same? None. I would go back to Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Be happy to do that. What do you see as the most significant challenge facing the district court and how do you think it should be addressed? So I know a lot of people talk about COVID. We are addressing COVID. We know what we need to do. And I appreciate the council giving the district court money to keep addressing that. But one of the most enduring challenges that all courts are going to face is how we unravel. Systemic racism in the justice system, both real and perceived. So that we can do a better job of treating people equitably. Of addressing racial injustice. So this is going to be an ongoing problem, an ongoing issue for all courts to address and really deciding how far we are willing to go to address this. As I talked about, I think the audits are a first step in addressing the racial inequities that we may not even see in our courts on a day to day basis. Continuing to educate judges and on race, the problem of systemic racism and how racism and how we address that. Really working with the attorneys and. The prosecutors, the defense attorneys, so that they have that knowledge as well. And to make sure that as we handle cases with unrepresented defendants or unrepresented persons in, say, a small claims court, that we are really viewing all of this and making sure that we understand how they may view the justice system and how we can address that and make it better for them, and to acknowledge people's different experiences and craft individual responses to any of their issues for them so that they realize we are looking at you as an individual and a person with all your past experiences, etc.. Yeah, I think that is one of the more important issues facing the justice system right now, and we are making Herculean efforts on that in the statewide judiciary to address these issues through education, through audit systems, through continuing to make changes in the justice system where we can to make sure that we address these. Issues with the end goal that everyone voices a just justice system that works for everybody so that we can really be more effective. What we want to do is make people's lives better. And if they don't feel that, we are acting equitably. That's going to be more difficult for us. So it's a it's a long haul for us. And I think it is the most important thing we need to be working on right now. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And he wants to follow up questions from the council members. I would invite you to share your closing comments with us. Thank you all again for your questions and the opportunity to speak to you. King County District Court needs someone with both judicial and leadership experience. Someone who can build coalitions among all the justice system stakeholders to continue to move this court forward and continue its mission of practical, sustained and compassionate accountability and helping people overcome their barriers to success, both systemically and individually. In my years of experience working one of our county's busiest municipal courts, I have seen many opportunities to respond and adapt to a changing community and continual changes in the requirements of our justice system. I know what works and what hasn't. The courts have such an amazing opportunity to interrupt a downward spiral and help people out of it, improving their lives and increasing public safety. Additionally, we have the ability to fashion civil remedies for people who have been taken advantage of or wronged. I have learned from the innovations of courts statewide and nationally, and I will use these connections and experiences to provide fresh ideas and leadership in King County. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you very much. Cause I'm home with this today in this conversation and your interest in serving on the court. We really appreciate the chance to talk with you today in your interest. With that, Madam Kirk, I can invite you to invite Ms.. Cruz back to the board meeting. And colleagues. I believe we'd like a moment or three in executive session. And so we will have we will move to executive session. The committee will go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office, will be in executive session for approximately 10 minutes until about 1125. For me, it will be all this Zoom call for executive session together with only those 20 employees directly necessary for the discussion and the conclusion of executive session. We will return to this Zoom meeting, which will continue without. We are in executive session. Thank you. All. The chair has asked me to let the listening public know that the executive session will be extended an additional 5 minutes. Right. But. Back to order. And we're back from executive session. And colleagues, I would entertain a motion to adopt a motion. 2021 343. Mr. Chair, so most. First member of our most power is moved. We give a do pass recommendation, the most we adopt most most in 2021 434 Council member Andre Fowler. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also move to amend 2020 10434. Please proceed. I'm moved to amend it by adding the name Rebecca Robertson. Thank you. The amendment is before US Council member Van Roy Fowler. Chair members of the council. I believe these are two outstanding. And before us today, I think I share this with my colleagues that we are extremely pleased by the commitment. And the experience and the background of and have come before us lately. And it's really been, from my perspective, reassuring to see so many qualified candidates come before us who are interested in serving in this capacity. I believe from my personal experience in Federal Way and my experience on the County Council, that Judge Robertson would be a very successful candidate for this position. Not to take away from the. Presentation of the other candidate. But is my personal experience with Judge Robertson talking to others in the community and King County at large, that she will bring the right. Elected to this position at this time. Thank you. Further further comments on the amendment. Mr. Chair. As a member of the House. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had the pleasure of sitting on the subcommittee and taking part in the interviews to the five applicants, and I was very pleased to have both Mr. Robertson and Mr. Crews be back to our committee, the whole today. And I think that both were very strong candidates and I am going to support Mr. Robertson for the position to advance that name to the full council. But I would like to say that I found Ms. Cruz very compelling and very, very involved, engaged in her community, which I thought was very strong. And I would encourage Ms.. Crews to see another opening that comes up in the future. But I am very, very strongly supportive of Judge Roberts and. The numbers are hollow. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is one of the most impressive top two that we'd ever had. It was an incredibly difficult decision because both people were amazing. And I just want to speak quickly to Ms.. Crews. You know, I thought your interview, your materials were amazing. And on a personal level, I'm also a first generation college student and grew up in South Seattle. So hearing from you was, on a personal level, just a wonderful experience. And I encourage you to apply again, if I'm not mistaken. Judge Roberts, and I think this is your second go around. And you came back. Yeah, you came back and you didn't let the first round put you down. And now you're going to hopefully be our next judge here out in federal way. And so I just wanted to take a moment to say that to Mr. Crews. Please, please do come back and and apply again, because you were you were awesome and so was Judge Roberts. And I'm very happy to support Judge Roberts today. Thank you. Member was local member. Thank you. I too think we have two stellar candidates and it's a blessing to have that. And I know the people of the county will be, well, appreciative of the fact that both of them said that we need to treat people in our court system as people, and not just a number or not just a felon or a misdemeanor, but a person and really getting to know what their issues are and bringing the resources of the county to help. I really liked how this person said that we need to have a just justice system and that we are the face of justice, which was the words that normally we set and it is on the plaque in the courthouse. So I think that's important and I really. Appreciate the hearing that. I also appreciate the idea that she brings innovation not only from the state and her many contacts there. But also nationally. The Court of the Future and the national think tank reports are really important assets, and I am very hopeful that in the future we will continue to draw even more heavily on those resources because there's a. Lot of exciting things that other places are doing that we could. Learn from as well as we can teach them too. So I am very appreciative of the fact we have two great candidates and that there will be more opportunities for other appointments in the future. But I feel really good about where we are today. Thank you. Thank you. The comments. All those in favor of the amendment to remove. I'd like to add Ms.. Robertson's name to the amendment. Please signify by saying i. I. I. I. Those opposed nay. The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Further discussion on the vote on the motion as amended. Oh. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you so much. I am so grateful for this appointment and honored. Well, that's out of order and we'll see if we carry a little passage. I didn't know quite whether to get it. What? I'll write. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member. County Chief I. Council member. Dombroski. I council member. Done. I. Councilmember Coles and Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember of the. I. Councilmember one right there. I don't. Council members. I. Mr. Chair. Oh, Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero notes. Thank you. By. By your vote. I'm given a do pass recommendation to vote in 2021 134, as amended. Mrs. Robertson, congratulations. Thank you so. Much. We will expedite this to full council and put it on the consent agenda here on the council's full agenda for next Tuesday. I'm concerned that we wouldn't anticipate conversation or question, but expect it on next Tuesday's agenda. I want to congratulate you, thank Ms.. Crews and look forward to continued contributions to our criminal legal system and our civil legal system. Thank you. Thank you so much. That advances those two items. Seven On today's Agenda for cultural for cultures, annual report and budget as required by code. The high I'll from council staff will provide an initial briefing and then we'll have a presentation for culture staff. I misspoke. Please proceed. Thank you. Good morning, council members. I'm very proud of the council staff. And with me are Bryan Carter, executive director of for culture, and Josh Heim, deputy director for Culture. The materials for this item begin on page 17 of your pocket. And for today's briefing, Mr. Carter and Mr. Heim will present highlights from the Ford Culture Annual Report and also from four Cultures Budget and plans for 2022. This briefing is required each year by code. And just a really quick reminder, as you know, for culture is King County's cultural public development authority, and it administers King County's arts and heritage programs, and it is funded through dedicated hotel motel tax revenues. And also, our culture oversees King County's 1% for the Arts Capital Projects Program. With that introduction, I will now turn to Mr. Carter and Mr. Hine for their presentation. Thank you, Lia and Mr. Chair, for having us. And nice to see all the council members. It's been a long time, but it's good to be back in front of everybody. Hope everyone's doing well this. Year, Mr. Carter. Thank you very much. Glad to be with you again. And today we will. And I'm moving to slide two here and. In. Lee, are you are you going through the slides or is this something I'm going to do on my own? As for you. Okay. Let me share my screen here. Okay. The authority doesn't already have permission to do that, if we could make sure he does. Yes, Mr. Chair. But. And can we see it all right now? Can everybody said yes. Okay. Let me just go and started here from the beginning. All right. There we go. Beautiful. Yeah. Okay. So as Leah said, Joshua Heineman, my deputy director, is here and we're going to tackle this in two parts. First, part of the presentation, which I'll handle, is a review of our activities in 2020. And then part two will be a look at our 2021 budget and our forecast for the 2022 calendar year. So the first slide that you see are the three year financial totals listing our revenues, expenditures and fund balances. We have recently implemented a new budget review process that has a lot more involvement from the county council. So no surprises here. Ex-officio members have seen this. And we also set up with Claire, our government relations manager, a process by which we try and make sure everybody is informed of where we're at financially and where we're going . So hopefully that has been successful with this new relationship between for culture and the county with the budget, and if not, love to hear ways in which we could make that a little bit better. All right. So oops, 2020. It was an exciting time. We had finished up the King County Cultural Health Study. We had finished our strategic plan. And as our ex-officio members know, we had just approved our strategic plan. And then the COVID pandemic hit it. And I don't think I have to go into the details of the chaos that ensued. But the financial losses, financial hardships, folks losing jobs, lack of earned income, the cultural organizations and cultural workers were experiencing. It was a real dire situation for the cultural field. I think even more challenging, as I've said before, the council before the cultural sector is undercapitalized historically and it was historically excuse me, it was undercapitalized before the pandemic hit. So it was acutely felt by cultural organizations throughout King County, especially smaller organizations, especially Bipoc ran or Bipoc led organizations, especially those organizations that were in rural or unincorporated areas. So with that really kind of daunting task in front of us, which is how do we best care for the cultural health of the entire county? We came up with our response framework. We wanted to make sure that the activities, the choices, the strategies that we were using in 2020 had a rationale that we believe led to a long term recovery. And so there were three parts of the response framework. The first one was relief, and that was just to mitigate the harm that these cultural organizations and the workers, cultural workers, these are artists, these are heritage professionals, historic preservation professionals were facing because of all the layoffs, because everything on stage in the gallery was being canceled. We knew that we had to step in as quickly as we could offer relief to the to to hopefully compensate for some of the losses the folks are experiencing. And we weren't the only player at the table, but we knew as the county's cultural development authority was important, that we lead from that moment. So that was really 2020 was about relief. And then we also knew at that time that there was going to be a period when things started to open back up, the economy would open back up. There would eventually be I mean, we didn't know it at the time, but we'd hope that there would be a vaccine . And we knew that artists, heritage professionals, cultural organizations of all types and sizes throughout the county were going to be reopening their doors. But it was going to be a very new world that they were attempting to operate in with different needs, different sensibilities from their audiences. They were going to have a lot of staff that had left and perhaps weren't necessarily willing to come back, volunteers, a lot of older volunteers within the cultural sector who might have concerns about coming back. So the way in which the cultural sector was operating was going to be different. So we knew during that reopening days that we had to be addressing the specific needs that the cultural sector had as it tried to reopen. And then finally, looking forward, we knew, right once that we have a chance to reopen and get back to business, that there were going to be deficits that were going to be losses , people, strategic plans, people's operational budgets were going to require a really close review and change and added the losses that people face. Well, talent wise and financially, we're going to be a long path towards recovery. So from the beginning of early 2020, we said we've got to be there through relief, through reopen, and we've got to be very strategic in the way we deploy our funds and our resources towards helping the cultural sector and King County recover and to to make it through the economic downturn that is going to be hitting the cultural sector for years to come. Those are the three areas of our response framework. And what I'll do is just go through specifically for 2020 what we did. So to begin with this, one of the things I'm most proud of at Fort Culture we sent our staff home was February like. Everybody else. And we stood up a new program or cultural relief fund by April one. And just to give all credit to staff at Fort Culture. This is not something that typically happens within cultural grantmaking. It'll typically be a year, maybe 18 months before a program is set up. But again, we needed to have immediate relief. And so we set up the Culture Relief Fund that was to support the organizations and individuals and just think that the CARES Act, the funding came through and all thanks to the Council for their support of our Culture Funneled Cares Act dollars to us to further support the Cultural Relief Fund. We were already taking existing programs reprograming dollars to go to that culture relief fund. But those millions that came through the CARES Act were just they were incredible for for culture to be able to have a part in meaningfully addressing the losses that people were facing. So that Culture Relief Fund, 4.6 million to over 1000 organizations and cultural workers. And these are I mean, you guys know, these are not million dollar grants. These are right. This is the lifeblood, the sustainable, predictable funding that for culture is known for. And people really rely on this. And I feel like we were able to step up in that moment. We also did something else in 2020 for relief. There's a sustained support program which provides operating support on a yearly basis. And again, it's predictable. And what we said is we're going to extend that sustained support for a third year. Typically, if you get that award, it's for two years so that, you know, the money is coming in predictable each year. And we said in this particular moment of crisis, we need to guarantee folks that they're going to be able to withstand everything that the pandemic's throwing at them. So one of the ways we're able to do that was through extending sustained support. And then lastly, what we always we're always there to help, whether that's consultation, whether people have questions they need, advice they want. As for cultural will serves as a nexus to connect people to resources or other individuals that might help. So we really try to step up in that moment and deploy the tremendous resources that are contained within our staff that help where it was called for, whether that was individuals, cultural organizations or a lot of umbrella organizations that efforts that were under that were happening at that time. So that's relief. We also I mean, re-open is a sticky one, right? It wasn't a clear cut. On this day, everything is reopened. Has been so much back and forth in 2020 with so much back and forth. But there were organizations that were trying whether that was moving towards digital programing. They were having outdoor events. Artists were trying to get back to work. And so we were able to run a program entitled Reopen, which gave cultural organizations and historic properties the help they needed to reopen. So this could be like a lot of folks were trying to get as far as facilities go, like what would it look like that plexiglass if we made additional seating our outdoor opportunities to be able to get that cultural product out there we need for in a lot of help augmenting that volunteer support which had previously been free. A lot of those volunteers weren't willing to come back because of age or because of concerns over the pandemic. And so there was a lot of capacity that was needed. Folks also needed help with readjusting their operational plans, their budgets, their strategic plans. So that reopened fund was really an opportunity to say, all right, we've identified what the needs are that people are going through as they're reopening. Some of it was a full reopen, some that was a quarter reopened. So it was a digital reopen. But how can we help these organizations and these artists get back to work? Because, I mean, if nothing 2020 revealed the importance of culture in helping to sustain our just our sanity, our humanity throughout that pandemic. So I thought that was also a crucial role we were able to play. And then recovery recovery is something that it's kind of really long. It's kind of really long tail. We're going to be seeing this concept of recovery and what for culture's role in it is for the next decade, I think we'll still be feeling the impacts of the pandemic on the cultural sector. So for us, the question was, well, if we if we look a little bit beyond reopening, where where's the cultural field going to be? And one of the ways we tried to find some answers to that was by participating in a statewide cultural and Creative Economy recovery survey. So we partnered with 13 other funders, cultural organizations, to better understand how people experience the pandemic. The particular challenges that we're facing, whether it's based on geography, budget, size, discipline, and to try and better understand what they were going to need for long term recovery efforts. Putting a finer point on that same intention is there was a fort culture COVID 19 recovery task force. So we pulled individuals, we pulled folks that were familiar with large cultural organizations, small cultural organizations, artists, heritage practitioners, brought them into a room on a regular basis and said, Hey, we want to be there for the cultural sector during this period of recovery. What does that look like for you and your network? What does that look like for your community? And out of that recovery task, that's a really great framework that we're now working to try and implement with, whether it's an adjustment to existing programs or the creation of new programs that really address the challenges that organizations, artists, cultural practitioners are going to face as we now start to reopen, as we try and get back to the business that we're at. I think one of the one point that I just want to highlight from the Recovery Task Force, I think those lines up really well with our mission, with our focus on racial equity, is that the pandemic was not experienced equally by all people within the cultural sector or all organizations. Those that were undercapitalized, underinvested in before the pandemic really fared much worse. The recovery period, the timeline for them is going to be much more challenging. The needs of change within the cultural sector, I think became more or became they were surfaced in ways that this recovery task force helped us to better understand that we were not trying to get back to what was what we were trying to build a cultural sector that was more equitable, it was more fair and for culture stepping up to the mark as far as its responsibility. So that was, I thought, an important part about that task force work that I wanted to address. And lastly, I want to talk a little bit about our racial equity work. As you know, when I came to foreclosure, I was really clear that grantmaking, cultural grantmaking for culture and outside of it needs more racially equitable outcomes. The internal processes and the operations have got to change, but at the end of the day, the outcomes have to change. And that's something I was very serious about during my candidacy for this position and something I've been very serious about as I've led for culture over the past three years. Just a few things that I wanted to share that I think highlight our commitment. One of those is that we've done so much work internally that for culture through hiring, recruitment, internal working groups, trainings, adjustments to our programs, and also the way in which we practice the work of grantmaking and cultural development. And we believe that we should be a leader in this area. And it's very difficult to lead if you do not have a platform where you can share learnings, where you can share best practices, where you can share your challenges. To be honest, hey, these were difficult moments. There's still difficult concepts that we're working through, but we believe in them. So one of the ways that we did that is we set up a web page for culture that really spelled out what our racial equity work looks like. And it's not perfect. It's not by any means do it exactly like this that we do believe it's a learning opportunity and a stepping in to our leadership role in this area. Another facet of this work is that our equity investments were implemented across all of our funding programs. So this is both CARES ACT funding, ARPA funding that we have underway now, but also our bread and butter programs that people have counted on us for a long time. And I've been before the Council before and shared with you the the way in which these equity investments are happening. But again, it's acknowledging that particular organizations, particular individuals have been historically under, invested in and we were looking for ways in which we could put more dollars to those organizations, into those communities. And so we have the equity investments which are based on the communities of opportunity. So those communities of opportunity that we've identified as being historically underinvested in from a cultural philanthropy standpoint have additional funds within each program that are reserved specifically for folks who live and work in those areas and organizations that are located. And then we also recognize that not only have for culture historically, but the majority of federal, state level, individual corporate philanthropy has a focus on metropolitan Seattle, too, where the majority, the largest organizations are. It's where the majority of most cultural organizations, just from a member standpoint, but there's an equitable distribution based on geography. So the second facet of those equity investments is that additional dollars are reserved and go to organizations and individuals who are working or located outside the city of Seattle. So those are the two parts. Looking at communities of opportunity and also looking specifically at organizations of individuals outside the city of Seattle. And this is new for us, but we realize that in this moment of crisis and I know I got asked this a lot if I was going to say what's happening with the cultural sector, where where are you going? What are you doing? What's going on? What's next? And I talked about we have a commitment to more equitable outcomes with our funding choices. And so what a wonderful opportunity to make those and not only to the federal dollar supported grant programs, but to our bread and butter core programs that we're known for as well. So instead of it being a really special, a particular program that's over here, it was an integration, right, of this ethos of equity into our overall operations. So those are the equity investments. And then we also, I think like everybody where we're struggling as an organization, in the wake of George Floyd's murder, the protests were happening both on a national and international scale and really asking ourselves, what is our role, what's for culture's role, to support social justice movements? And for us, it's always, well, what are the intersections where arts and culture and social justice? And they are many and they are ample and they are there. Where are those nexuses, where that comes together? And how can for culture better support, whether it's technical assistance or funding? So to be able to answer that question, we created a social justice movement action team. And what we wanted to do is identify those areas where arts and culture interventions are operating with social justice movements, organizations, individuals, communities that have been at this for a lot longer than four culture has. And to try and determine how we can better support those efforts with funding or technical assistance. So that works underway. But the action team has already come up with three initiatives that we're looking to roll out in 20. 22, which I think, you know, instead of just we express our sympathies and we hope for the best, it's what can we tangibly do that might look different than what four culture has done in the past? I think that action team has helped with with generating ideas and also really we call them the action team because we didn't want it to simply be the words. We want it to be a plan of attack, where we jump into this function and say we believe in supporting social justice movements. How can we best accomplish that? And the last one is we're also involved in a number of programmatic efforts where we we worked with these are performers who were part of our touring arts roster. And there was a virtual concert series looking at police violence, racialized police violence, and trying to address that issue through their art and through their craft. So just a couple of examples of some of that racial equity work. But again, core, fundamental, foundational to who we are and where we want to go. And what I want to do now before I turn it over to Josh is just really I want to thank our ex-officio members. It's Councilor McDermott, Councilmember Coles and Council Member Councilmember Boesky, who have been there next to me throughout the entire pandemic. When there were federal dollars they said, Hey, what can we do? What's for culture need? When there are opportunities for additional dollars in budgets? They stepped forward and said, What do you need? How can we help? So I just I appreciate that support from the ex-officio members and more broadly from the entire council. It has been a challenging time for our staff, for the cultural sector, and I know it's been a challenging time for you as well, and I appreciate the partnership. I never felt alone in that relationship with the council. I just want to take a moment to say thank you for that. Really appreciate it. And now turn it over to Josh. We'll talk about the 2021 budget and moving forward and then we'll have time for questions at the end. Thank you. Thanks, Brian, and good afternoon, Mr. Chair and council members. My name is Josh Lime, deputy director for Culture, and I'll provide you a quick update on our 2021, 2022 biennium budget as well as our program of work. And you can also find this information in the several documents that are in your pocket. Don't hesitate to ask if you have questions because there's a lot in there. So let's start with the budget. It's strong and stable. That's the core message and it remains largely unchanged since we submitted our biennium budget to you about this time last year. There are two notable exceptions that I just wanted to highlight for you and both concern our revenue. So the first actually is an increase in revenue from the ARPA federal funds that you all added allocated to for culture to administer in our recovery efforts throughout the King County's cultural sector in the amount of about $9.4 million. And so you'll see that recorded in our financial plan as new revenue. And then the second change I'd like to highlight, of course, is a decrease in our lodging tax revenue. And so as you all know, we get updates twice a year. And to the most the most recent update has been August, this past August. And so overall, between 2021 and 2022, we are looking at a $1.67 million, a decrease in projected light tax proceeds that will come to for culture. And then if you are looking at the financial plan, there are some marginal differences, mostly increases actually in our percent for art, which as you know, is tied to your own capital budget. And so there is there's a marginal increase there as well as our annual building for equity advance. So that sort of really rounds out the major budgetary changes on the revenue side. It's worth noting that because of the decrease in lodging taxes, we also did some cost savings in 2020 and in 2021. So together between those two years, we were able to save about $2.7 million. And within 2021 and within this within the biennium budget, in the financial plan, you'll see most of that concentrated in our special projects expense line item. So I will, but I'll just say that between the additional revenues that I just outlined, the cost savings that we implemented, we are on track to have some very healthy reserve fund going into the next biennium in 2023. So I'll just pause here to see if there are any questions about the budget. Labor Council member Lambert. Thank you. Could you tell me what the percentage is. In each. Of those four categories? I know that in the past there's been a lot of discussion about. Heritage and preservation. Maybe not getting as much money as some of the others. So what is the percentage breakdown in those four categories? Okay. So I will get I have to get back to you on that. Member. Is that okay? Sure. Great. I just want to make sure that we don't lose some of our historic things because it's underfunded. And so, anyway, I would love to see our process in that. Yeah, I will say actually. So, you know, doing presented with this decrease in funding. One of our strategies was to move our lodging tax back cultural facilities programs and move that over to be supported by our buildings for equity programs, including our historic preservation programs, our landmarks capital program, as well as their emergency programs. I just wanted to let you know that rather than those programs facing cuts, we actually backed those by a different revenue source. So they were unchanged this year. Thank you. Mm hmm. So we can advance why you did that? I'm sorry. Back one. Back to their projects. Okay, so I'm going to talk about our program of work. So within our charter, we have seven programmatic areas that are called out. And here you're looking at four of them sustain support for the arts, sustain support for heritage preservation, special projects and cultural facilities. Our work program is unchanged for our sustained support programs in arts and in heritage and historic preservation, as I just mentioned. There was a change in our special projects portfolio of programs, largely because when we entered 2021, we had already entered with funding obligations out into the field. And so we had to go through the process of cost savings because of newly reported lodging tax decreases. That's where we focused our effort. Now, we didn't cut any of those programs. What we did is we just did a across the board reduction in those grant funding programs. Cultural facilities. On the other hand, as I was just mentioning to Councilmember Lambert, there was actually an increase in the budget there, largely because, like I said, we increased our annual revenue from building for equity to back our lodging tax programs, excuse me, to back our cultural facilities programs that are backed by lodging taxes. And so that's just a minor sort of back of the back of the house detail. But within the program work, that's what you'll notice. You'll notice the change in the revenue there. There is no change to the actual work. It's just how we're recording the support, the revenue support. Next slide, please. After a 20 year hiatus, we were poised to launch our cultural education program this year, and not only because of coming off our CARES Act programs, but also launching AKA as well as a decrease in funding. What we decided to do is postpone the launch of our cultural education program until next year. And so that was when there was a big change in our program of work. And then of course, the biggest change in our program of work for this biennium is our recovery program. And so, as you all know and thank you again for working with us and being partners in facilitating our by federal funds. And we are facilitating $9.4 million and that will go into a cultural recovery fund. And we are going to be supporting both cultural organizations as well as individual cultural producers. Now, the first of these programs for cultural organizations has already begun. The date has passed, and we are now in panel review. And so those awards will be announced in the first quarter of next year. The second funding program is directed towards individuals, individual cultural workers and individual cultural producers, and that program will launch in January. So that's the big update there. And that, again, it is the biggest change to our program of work. And again, I'm happy to take questions, if you have it, about any of these changes. Colleagues. Joshua. I don't think we have the questions of the time. Great. Thank you. Were you. Was that your conclusion? I think that's my conclusion, although. Yes, it is. Okay. You know, again. That Josh and I, it was you that did a write up of Josh and I in our work, and also Jacob Phillips, our colleague at Fort Culture. So they did an illustration. So just our way of saying thank you from our illustrated faces. Well, thank you. We want to thank you for the work you have done for joining us for this annual report to the council. And, you know, there's no action required, but the presentation in the annual report is anticipated every year. Thank you for doing it. Brian, you particularly spoke to 2020 and much of early, maybe 2021 being about regionally. And indeed what I observed before the culture was largely about relief, but it was more than that. I want you to make sure you take some credit for also sustenance, for maintaining and allowing cultural institutions of various descriptions and sizes throughout the county to not only just have some temporary relief, but to have sustenance and be able to survive and thrive post-pandemic at a time when we realize how much we need the creative and artistic endeavors of our community to be available for all of us. That's right. Thank you. Thank you. No action on this item. Colleagues, any more comments? Thank you so much. Brian, I would invite you to end the screen sharing. Thank you. And that takes us to item eight. And today, I want to thank members for sticking with us. We have two more discussions to take up and I think we can do it efficiently. Our next item is the state legislative agenda for 2022. We received an initial briefing in their last meeting and staff going update us on progress since then. Matt Nicholson is Council's staff here to provide an update. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council members, nice to see you. I can be rather quick. We don't have a new document for you yet. We have been working with the executive to draft, but my counterpart, the exact opposite is taking some time out from Thanksgiving holidays. We haven't been able to nail down the draft yet. We took the suggestions that we got during council last week, along with some members who have reached out in the in the time in between to ask for a consideration of some other items. So we have those that can certainly run those through for you. We should have a draft here in the next day or two, but I can send around that to all of you so that you can see where we're at right now. Now help me set the stage here. Is it? Would it be helpful, even though it is not finalized for us to be moving the legislation so it is in full council poised for action before the end of the year? Rex Council Member To move the motion that would adopt and attach the legislative agenda, recognizing that it's a large scale meeting. And looking into making sure that it's all very clear for all of us. As I enter in Councilmember Balaji. If it's appropriate, I'll put a motion to move it forward without recommendation. Council member Belushi has just moved that we advance motion 2021 for 16 to full council without recommendation discussion. Councilmember Balducci, you had a treatise on the value of this legislation that has no attachment. Well, I mean, I'm one of the council members who has been in touch with Mack about specific proposals that are now starting to bubble up and whether our agenda covers them. Our agendas, General, doesn't say, support this legislation or this other legislation. And so I know that he's working on the final document. And I've learned in my. You know, lengthy. Years here on the county council that this is how it comes together. And so I think we'll be ready when that when we are now we are at full council. And I really appreciate Matt's work and the team's work on this because it's you know, it's complex. There's nine of us and there's about a million issues. And so getting it all into a single document that people can read and take on board and that is effective is is a skill and been a lot of work. So I recommend your support of this very minolta's motion. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Val Duty, a very eloquent remarks to my smart our question. Thank you, colleagues. So anyone else? Mr. Chair. As a member of the. Well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question mark. I have been following to some extent the activities of our county district committee. I was attending last night. This another I think the last meeting was at 3:00 today and then the final vote is next week. And what I had been alerted to a couple of weeks ago was that by statute, the committee is not allowed to address diversity. When as a factor and I'm not sure if it's diversity or very specifically race as a factor in its deliberations. And I find that rather odd. And I can understand likely when the Citizen Initiative went forward and was approved by the voters to set up redistricting every ten years, that that was likely in the vein of to be colorblind. But I think now at this point in time, it seems bothersome. And I've heard that the committee is going to seek a change during the legislative session. Now, do you know about this job? Anything you could add? I don't have much to add. I have been aware of some of the discussions happening. I know at the state level, redistricting, what they're, I guess, a failure to meet their deadline. Some legislators are talking about taking a whole look at the redistricting process. So within that larger discussion, there might be opportunity to also talk about what factors redistricting commission can and can't look at when redrawing your district. So it's certainly something we can pay attention to and and keep you informed as it goes forward. Thank you. Other questions. DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Tomasky. Thank you, Mr. Chair. In my early meetings with Mack and our contract consultants and putting together the draft agenda expressed a strong interest to see if we could not include in our agenda a search for some revenue to continue expanding our investment in our health through housing initiative, which I think has been incredibly successful to me. I've seen more progress more quickly and bring in more units online than in any initiative for that segment of our need than in any initiative in my eight years here on the Council. So I've been very impressed with the work of the executive and the offloor and his team. Of course, that's funded with the 1/10 of a penny sales tax that the Council adopted to provide for the acquisition and then the operating funds. And so, Mack, I know I think I signed the draft agenda for our legislative agenda prior a reference to to some work in that space. I had thought perhaps we could do a. I mean, look at the real estate excise tax, you know, for capital funding expansion up to maybe 2% or something like that. But I'm wondering, are you getting any and I appreciate I appreciate you putting it in there. And I wanted to surface this for my colleagues attention to put a little more clarity on what that is. Sometimes our language is fuzzy. So I'm interested if other folks are interested in this. And I'm wondering, Mack, if you or our consultants, if we're hearing any chatter or talk in kind of the pre session work that goes on about whether an opportunity there or how we might advance that work. Yes. Thank you, Councilmember. The chatter we're hearing really is about on the housing front is trying to get at some of the state's unused ARPA funds to kind of due to sort of similar work trying to get some rapid rehousing, tried to purchase some some underused properties and turn them into permanent supportive housing and having some of that either flow through local governments or have the state do that. That's where most of that conversation has been happening, just because I think there's sort of, you know, a big pot of unused money that the state has ARPA funds. But I think there would be some interest in pursuing more more dedicated funding, more options for local governments to kind of do that. So I think it'll be a good session to kind of start those discussions. I don't know that in a 60 day session we'll see much, but it's certainly worth getting that idea out there. So I think my recollection in talking to Senator Frakt is active in some of that discussion on our list there, about 400 million of federal dollars at the states plus distributed. I think he's interesting and I know our formal housing committee that comes from other teachers and some other kind of a I think a pretty comprehensive list of action item requests in that regard. Correct. Yep. The 4 million range is what we're hearing. Well, I can be helpful in that space and other colleagues are interested. I'm happy to chat or help with that work. Thanks, Mac. Thank you. Further discussion. Then we have a motion before us to advance motion 2021 for 16 to full council without recommendation. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember County Chief AI Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I remember again Councilmember Caldwell's. Councilmember Member I. Councilmember off the ground. I. Councilmember one refer. Councilmember Yvonne Richter. Council members online. I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 89 zero now as council member on recorder excused. Thank you. By your vote, we have moved a motion 2021 for 16 the full council without recommendation. And we will expedite that to next Tuesday's full council meeting. That takes us to item eight on our agenda. I want to thank everybody for sticking with us. And this is ordinance 2021 to 90, which would end the current requirement for grocery stores in unincorporated King County that meet certain requirements to provide hazard pay to their workers. Very pregnant from council social staff will provide the staff reports is please go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, I'm Mary Bergeron from the council staff. And the materials for this item begin on page 72 of your packet. Back in March, the Council enacted our King County enacted Ordinance 19247, which, as you noted, Mr. Chair, required hazard pay for grocery workers in. Large. Stores in unincorporated King County. That ordinance stated that the hazard pay would expire upon the expiration of the executive's proclamation of emergency or at such time as the Council, deemed it appropriate to take other action in this ordinance before you proposed ordinance 2020 10290 would amend that earlier ordinance to add additional findings to the legislation about the vaccination progress that has been made in King County and then add a termination date. And I will note that there is an amendment in your packet on page 80 which would add additional findings about recent vaccination progress, including the ability of children from ages five up to be vaccinated and would incorporate two dates into the legislation January 10th, 2022 or the expiration date for the hazard pay, and then January 10th, 2025, three years later for when recordkeeping requirements for hazard pay would end. That concludes my report. Mr. Chair. Other comments? Questions. Okay, colleagues. Seem that to entertain emotion. Councilmember Barghouti. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move approval of proposed ordinance 2020 10290 with a do passed recommendation, and I commend the amendment as well. Like Councilmember Banducci amended, we're going to do pass recommendation most in 2021 to 90. Councilmember Bellucci Passing of Amendment one. Amendment one on page 80 of our meeting package before it starts. Member Bellucci Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think our members are keenly aware that we adopted this hazard pay earlier in the pandemic at a time when grocery workers were in the private sector, some of the most critical workers that never, ever got to step away or work from home or do any of the things that that many of us could do to protect themselves because they had to supply us with our food. Much has changed since then. As we heard earlier, some of the jurisdictions, there were a handful that adopted this have already sunset or rescinded their hazard pay. I understand the city of Seattle, which is, I think the largest other jurisdiction that has this now has got a similar action working its way through their legislative process to sunset primarily on the justification that we vaccinations are in a very different place. Mask compliance remains good. We seem to have gotten through the Delta wave, but all, most to all businesses are now open in public. And so the justification for having this special requirement for one one sector doesn't seem appropriate any longer. That doesn't mean that there isn't something to be done, but it would probably be a lot broader than what we have now. And finally, we have kept in close touch with the representatives of the CW who were key advocates for this provision on behalf of their members. They understand we're taking this up. They have not raised any objections to us doing so, and they've been very helpful, informative and cooperative as we move to sunset this at an appropriate time. So I would urge our support at this time. I really am glad we did this. I am glad that that this county council stood up for the folks who are some of the most vulnerable and the most important and often not very well respected for the jobs they do. But I do believe it's time and we're ready to move on. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have the Amendment one before us for the discussion. Well. Dombrowski That's number ten. Musky Thanks. Mr.. I think I'm still comfortable with the original legislation that had this Concur as the primary decider with the declaration of the emergency. That was the basis on which I thought it made sense to provide this. And so I understand different views may differ on that, but I think that it's why I asked earlier about the status of our local emergency order. And and I think this is these folks are doing essential work on the on the front lines. And I think from my view, the policy is is grounded in that, not necessarily from any one particular advocacy group. So I'll be a gentle note today. A further discussion was my rapid growth. I also wanted to get some clarity about where we are in the process here in terms this is. And Amendment two, or is this comment on final passage? This is Amendment one is before us. I'll reserve my comments for final passage. Thank you and that others in favor of amendment one piece by Bible saying I. II and. Those are both way under the I's habit. The amendment is adopted. We have a motion 2021 to 90 as amended before us. Further discussion. Up the Grove. House member up to no. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Speaking in favor. I want the first thing I want to say is I'm really proud of us as a council for what we have done to support employees at a time when the rest of the economy was shut down and they were essentially required or needed to perform a function of ensuring that people could get food at a time of the lockdown. This was certainly never intended to be permanent, and I think that's evident by the other other jurisdictions that are closing it down. Things have changed significantly. All parts of the economy are open now. And I'm very sympathetic to a colleague who spoke previously the results. I'm just I think there's a chance that that declaration of emergency could be extended as long as possible due to probably the state's interest in obtaining federal funds. And. WHEREAS, the actual. A threat facing those workers relative to the rest of the economy, I think has been reduced dramatically. So I'm comfortable using a new date specific criteria. Generally speaking, I would like to see wages keep up with inflation. And but I don't think it'd be appropriate to use a backdoor tool. If we want to do that, then we ought to take up a minimum wage ordinance that applies to not just groceries, but to other businesses. And we have some challenges with that given our we only have unincorporated areas. So I'm I think it's the right thing to do and happy to support it today. Amber That's Number Lambert. Thank you. I'd like to ask a question and I've been going back and forth on the the amendment we just passed. I understood all but the last word. And I'm trying to figure this out, because how does the vaccination. Rate. Of five year olds have to do with this? And why is that record keeping going on for three more years separately? Well, I think public health is already doing that. So could you explain to me the effect statement on the attachment to the last page of our of our package? Thank you. Council member. So the recordkeeping requirement was in the original ordinance, and it's not about vaccination rates, but it's rather for the employers to provide to have records available on hazard pay that was paid. And that requirement in the original ordinance was to extend for three years beyond the termination of the hazard pay. And so the dates in the amendment would do that. They'd set the date for the hazard pay to end and then a date three years later when record keeping or the records would no longer be required to be kept. In terms of the findings about the vaccination, as Councilmember Balducci, who sponsored this legislation, have noted back in March when the council adopted the legislation originally there were a number of findings in the legislation about the fact that at that point, only high risk and older adults were eligible to be vaccinated, meaning that most of the people affected by this ordinance and their families were not able to be vaccinated at that time. Since then, all adults and then ages 12 and up and then ages five and up have been eligible to be vaccinated. And as those facts are material to the health and safety of the workers, those were included in. Findings in this new ordinance. So, Mr. Chair, may I follow up on that? Oh, yes. They do. So who does this? Does public health do this? Or does the grocery workers do this? Who is. Doing this? So Councilmember, unlike in the city of Seattle, which has an Office of Labor Standards which enforced their hazard pay requirement, King County does not have an enforcement mechanism. And so the original ordinance that the county enacted in March was based on essentially what is a private right of action. Where a grocery worker who. Felt that they were entitled to hazard pay because of where they worked and what they did but was not receiving it, had the ability to take action to secure that pay. The recordkeeping is a requirement of the private companies. So it's not something that public health would be doing. So this is a little troubling. So I realize that it was already three years, you know, but. We're working on it. I mean, we have the opportunity to discuss it. You know, we are actually extending from September 30th, 2024 to January 10th, 2025. I'm wondering if if we really need to be doing it for that long as putting in that kind of extra paperwork on a individual business is burdensome. So I just want to throw that out. That wasn't what I heard in the briefing I hadn't heard. That was I was reading and I was like, We're aware of this. So anyway, I throw that out for the discussion of the body to see if we want to change that date by oral amendment. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. So the general rationale behind requiring some record keeping is that if there is any dispute as to whether a particular employer paid the required the legally required wages during that period of time, that dispute might not ripen for some period of time. And that's why we have a statute of limitation and all those sorts of thing. So I don't I think that employers routinely keep and retain records of the wages that they pay the better for lots of good reasons. But I am very happy to if we if we move this forward to final two to council, I'm very happy to do a little bit of digging as the sponsor of both the the original ordinance and the sunset to do a little digging and make sure that there's a good rationale and that it's not unduly burdensome. Thank you. I appreciate that. I think we should at least know that. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Councilmember Baldacci, just to chime into the conversation I'm not afraid of. I've been expecting employers to maintain records. They already have to ensure compliance. Other other discussion. Would you please call them all? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci, I. Councilmember Dombrowski. Oh. Councilmember Dunn. I. Council member Wells. I remember I. Council member of the group I. Councilmember one right there. Something in personal life. I. Mr. Chair. Oh. Mr. Chair, the vote is seven. I Council Member DEMBOSKY both new and Council member one my third excused thank you. By your vote we have given a deposit recommendation to ordinance 2021 to 90 as amended. We will send that to full council on regular course of business on the regular agenda. And in a moment, Madam, I will ask Mr. Chair, Councilmember Banducci, I'm. Sorry to jump in his regular comments, put it on the agenda on December 14th. Yes. Thank you. For this. My understanding, staff, is welcome to correct me, if I'm mistaken. That is correct, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Tracy. Hey, now, in a moment, I'll ask staff that we've missed any votes. And I know we did, so we. We'll be prepared for that. But even at this late hour, I just want to very quickly acknowledge that this is the last meeting of the committee of the whole for the year. We have done some outstanding work due to significant implementation plans, but large pieces of work. The county is undertaking the best targets for kids levy renewal and the health through housing implementation. Funds have come through committee. We've taken up our legislation regarding discharge of fireworks in unincorporated King County, a facial recognition down to charter amendments. But we've put it on the ballot and the voters have subsequently approved protections, legislation, hazard pay for grocery workers and no fewer than six appointments to the King County District Court as we have done all this work. I want to thank Marcus Steadman and Jade Tracey, our lead staff for the Committee of the Whole, for their work throughout the year. Anything I have done right and been well put forward because I'm very eager and happy to work to make sure that we were on top of things and with that. Are there votes we have missed that we can try to catch? Mr. Chair, council member John Boehner was excused for the votes on 2020 10290 and 2020 10416. Council Member But right now, are you able to unmute at this time and cast those votes? Not seeing or hearing him unmute. We know that he has the ability to record those votes for our remote operations bills to by email and by the end of the day. And with that, I do want to thank everyone for their work in the community throughout the year. Jake and Martha and I wish everyone a great holiday season end of the year. And with that, we are adjourned.	A MOTION making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the west division, west electoral district, judge position number three of the King County district court.
king_496329e2-1ce8-427a-bdd7-d15d6fd89b72	Good morning and welcome to the February 7th, 2018 meeting of the King County Council Committee of the Hall. Today, the Committee will be discussing the second of four ordinances to make the King County Code gender neutral. And then we will be going into an extended studies executive session for two items one, regarding the convention center sale, the other regarding the implementation of ordinance 18403 would set compensation fees and costs for using county right of way. And we will probably not come. I I'm predicting at this point we will not come out of executive session. I will just adjourn from executive session. So those are the topics on the agenda for today. I will skip the role until we have a few more people and go right to public comment. I think, as you all know, the committee of the whole offers the public the opportunity to make comments on any item on today's agenda and just talk through what those are . Each person will have 2 minutes to speak. Public comment must address an item on today's agenda. Public comment may not be used for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition and must not include obscene speech. If a speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, I will rule them out of order, require them to return to their seat. So with that, we have one person signed up to give public comment and that's Mr. Alec Zimmerman. Good morning. Welcome. All right. My duty at that period. And that's how Social-Democratic my fair, progressive Gestapo principal. My name is Zimmerman and I am president. I stood up about stand up America. I won't speak about this agenda because agenda this make me absolutely don't understand. Understandable. So you're right. No change from vagina. In fairness to somebody who a ordinary man. I'm totally confused about this. It's a huge Nazi. Like a hundred probably. Yeah, it's good changes. My question right now, very simple. When you have fundamental changes like this will have fundamental changes for 30% tax as well as you cover only for one calendar year now. I don't think so. This happened before. So when we change from men to woman to something people, you know, it is I mean, it's okay to me. But how we can change to 30% taxes is I cannot in their this if you're talking about billions and billion dollars so you need pay right now for sound transit's hundred billion dollars Ponzi scheme when you pay right now for teacher $5 billion, I know they're not real changes in boy $9 billion right now in another billion in billion dollars even ever changes to normal situation. And when you changed from men to woman into people, I understand this, but when you cannot change hundred billion dollars, what is you stolen from us? Like a criminal, like a gangster, like a killer. I cannot understand this. Small change is very good, too. What we need right now. Come back to America. What is my president, Donald Trump talking about this? And he called you a lowlife. Mr. Zimmerman, are you going to speak to something on the agenda today? You exactly. I speak about this. I'm not hearing a single thing that's related to getting things. The can have too many changes, but you never have a fundamental change. What does make us lives better? Fundamental changes that make our life better is not only to stop America. You're out. Of time. Thank you. All right. I understand that we have one other person who would like to speak, and that's Kasich. Zainab, welcome. I'll ask you also please speak to something on the agenda today. Oh. That's what public comment is for. So if you could please try to speak to something on our agenda. And the items are about gender neutral code, the convention center sale and compensation for fees and costs using King County. Right of way. Thank you. If. And. Adding no further, claiming this on the same night as this mighty sea. If I sit in one place, we'll in an uncertain location. Between enjoying a warm, sunny afternoon in general on late nights, this is right to have temperature climbing, meaning concern. Who is that? SUV. Oh, that is a full $0.60. So some of us are autumn and winter eloquent. But does that say in accurate. And he went with the put confinement for the month of. Luis could live in Mediterranean climate was hot and like summers. And with could we that's what fit her yeah and the cooling center tropical is so well temperature and the high and it'll all you in general I think chill out colder in the northern part of the country in winter months in this house but even. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We're going to move on. We were also passed over item four and approve the minutes where we have a quorum and move to item five, which is proposed ordinance number 2018 0068. It's our continuing work to establish a gender neutral language in our code. This one has a number of titles which I assume will be listed out. I have them here, but I'm not going to list them out. And it's the second of four planned ordinances that together will make the entire King County code gender neutral. As we last year had the went to the voters to make the King County Charter gender neutral. We have King County Central Staff Aaron Osnes here to present. Welcome. And please go ahead and give your presentation. Good morning. Aaron Osnos, Council Staff. The materials for this item begin on page nine of your packet. Proposed Ordinance 2018 0068 is the second in a series of four ordinances that would make changes to the King County Code to remove gendered pronouns and historically gendered terms wherever possible. This ordinance, this ordinance includes the titles of the King County Code that collectively are the county's development regulations, which do include titles nine, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, a 23, 27 and 27. No substantive legal or policy changes are proposed to be made as part of this ordinance, but other drafting corrections are proposed by the Code Advisor and have been incorporated into the proposed ordinance. By way of background, in July 2016, Motion 14680 was passed by the Council directing the Clerk of the Council to develop options for how to apply gender neutral references throughout the King County Code the same day. Related Ordinance 18316 Place an item on the ballot to amend the charter to make the language of the charter gender neutral. That charter amendment passed by a majority of the voters in November of 2016. This proposed ordinance is consistent with washing with existing Washington state law and county code to be written in gender neutral terms. In the proposed ordinance, gender pronouns such as he, him, she or her are replaced with the title of the actor in impacted sentences, for example, in sections that refer to the director as he or she. The proposed ordinance changes the gendered pronoun to the director, thereby naming the title of the actor and disregarding the gender. Table one on page ten of the packet contains a sample of other proposed changes to historically gendered terms. A comprehensive list of the gendered terms addressed in the proposed ordinance is available in attachment two of the staff report, which starts on page 159 of the packet. Executive staff that were consulted regarding the proposed changes and their feedback has been addressed and incorporated into the proposed ordinance in attachment three on page 163 of your packet is the timeline for the future ordinances. There are two additional ordinances that will be presented to the Council and that will then complete the review of the remaining titles of the code. The entire project should be complete by May of 2018. That concludes my report. As with the previous ordinance, it's important to recognize the work of Russell Bethel and Bruce Ritson from the clerk's office on this project. Thank you. Thank you, Erin. And you as well. The staff has been doing an amazing job on this. It's a it's a lot of detail work, but I think it's it's really working to have a better code at the end of it. I really appreciated the portion of your report that talked about some of the detail that goes into this and the practicality where we had proposed changing manhole as a manhole covers to like utility access or something point. But apparently out on the streets and in documents, it's there are abbreviations all over the place and say major. So we came up with maintenance hole so that now people will know what Mage means is. A good example of incorporating the executive staff's comments. So that was their request. So I appreciate the level of effort that's going into making this work. Well, any questions or comments? Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Sharon and all the staff, thank you for all your excellent work on this. Two things I'd like to bring up on the top of page ten, just so we'll have accurate information here on the second line. Additionally, in 2007, basically the state legislature passed Senate Bill 56, 50, 63. That was the first year of I believe it was six years. We had legislation each year and it took a long time to go through all the codes. So it was done through all through all the ICW. So it was done during the interim when the legislature was not in session. But you might check that just for accuracy. Second of all, and table one on the same page and the existing term journeyman changing it to journey. You might want to check that. When we did the the whole ICW, you know, all of them, we found that there were several terms that were official terms and they had not been changed in the federal codes chapters and we did not change those. I'm thinking that Journeyman was one of those, so you might well look and I think we could always amended and. Yes, there will be an amendment at full council on those because there's other ordinances that are coming along should that are will be adopted first. Again. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember, any other questions or comments before we move to a vote? I'll just observe that I have heard in common usage, people refer to journey level. I don't know if that works in the context that you were looking at. And I appreciate you taking a look out before we take this up at full council. So this is on for action today. If we are prepared to do so, I would entertain a motion to approve Ordinance 2018 0068 with a do pass recommendation from a group that's been moved and seconded by two of my male colleagues. Thank you so much, gentlemen. All those in favor. Oh, I'm sorry. No amendments. Any other comments before we move to vote? Will the clerk please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garcia, Councilmember Colwell, Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember McDermott, a councilmember up the grove Councilmember Bond right thigh. Madam Chair II and chair the vote is seven eyes, no no's, two excused. Right. The motion passes and will be on the regular course to give some time for those amendments to catch up. Not on consent. Not on consent, and actually is required to have a public hearing now. So it'll be out. A few weeks there again. All right. Let's go back to item number two. And if you're ready, Mark, could you please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Hi, Councilmember Gossett by Councilmember Cole Colwell. You're here? Yeah. Yeah, somebody started us out from Manhattan. Good morning. Good morning and welcome to the committee of the whole year. Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember McDermott here, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right down here. Madam Chair. Here, Madam Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. And Councilmember McDermott, would you please move approval of the minutes for January 17th? Some of Madam Chair. It's been moved. It is before us to approve the minutes of our General 17th meeting. Any comments or changes? Seeing none. All those in favor please signify by saying I, I and the oppose. The minutes are approved. All right. That brings us to the last two items on our agenda, both of which will need to be discussed in executive session. The first is an item on the convention center. The second is on the implementation of Ordinance 18 403, the grounds for the executive session under RTW 42.30. .110 are to discuss with legal counsel litigation or potential litigation to which the county is or is likely to become a party. When public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the county. Will be an executive session on these two items for approximately 90 minutes until about alleged as call it 93 minutes until about 11:00. So I did the math all wrong. We're going to until about 11:00. Let's just leave it at that. So I'm going to ask the clerk to post the doors to that effect. We're going to have to ask the public to leave the chambers at this time. And since we're going to take up the convention center first, I'm going to ask anyone not directly related to that discussion to also please leave the chamber until we move on to the next agenda item. So let's move in to executive session. KASICH I'm going to have to ask you to step out, please. Mr. LIBBY Hi. I'm going to have to ask any member of the public to please step out. We're going to executive session. Thank you. Thank you for coming today. Of. Million. The public knowledge of the discussion could have an adverse effect on the county's consideration of the matter. Thank you. Very well. So that's for the convention center. And the reason I stated previously will be the grounds for executive session on ordinance 18 403. We're going to do them one and then the other, and then we will adjourn from executive session. So at this time, let's post the doors and go into executive session. Thank you for helping me clean up the record. All right.	AN ORDINANCE clarifying Title 9, Title 13, Title 14, Title 16, Title 17, Title 19A, Title 20, Title 21A, Title 23, Title 27 and Title 27A of the King County Code, establishing a gender neutral code and making technical corrections; and amending Ordinance 9163, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 9.04.020, Ordinance 11616, Section 14, as amended, and K.C.C. 13.24.140, Ordinance 4895, Section 7, as amended, and K.C.C. 14.28.030, Ordinance 6254, Section 5, and K.C.C. 14.30.050, Ordinance 4099, Section 14, and K.C.C. 14.46.140, Ordinance 4099, Section 16, and K.C.C. 14.46.160, Ordinance 12560, Section 55, as amended, and K.C.C. 16.02.170, Ordinance 12560, Section 13, as amended, and K.C.C. 16.02.370, Ordinance 12560, Section 54, as amended, and K.C.C. 16.04.490, Ordinance 11923, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 16.04.890, Ordinance 11923, Section 3, as amended, and K.C.C. 16.04.900, Ordinance 7853, Section 1, as amended, and K.C.C. 16.04.980, Resolution 21284, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 16.05.124, Ordinance 12560, Section 120, as amended, and K.C.C. 16.14.220, Ordinance 12560, Sect
king_1ce9cc00-ca1e-4ef3-a2f6-2d01c55c44f3	Good afternoon. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott. I'm calling the council's committee the whole meeting for Monday, September 16th. The order and the clerk. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member, DG Council member. Dombrowski. Council member, Dan. Counter to that there. Council Member Caldwell Security Council Member Lambert Peter Council Member of the group here. Council Member One writer here. Mr. Chair here. Mr. Cherry Everyone, thank you. As we begin today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank those caretakers of the land who have lived here and continued to live here since time immemorial. I would also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enriched our community. We begin with public comment according to the agenda, but I'm going to separate public comment out today for each of the two items on today's agenda as we take up each item . So to begin with, the first item we will take up is the annual report of King County's Cultural Development Authority for Culture. We had a sign up sheet for people interested in testifying on the for cultural for culture annual report. I have one person signed up after that person. That testimony, if anyone else is present, would like to offer testimony. We will have that opportunity and then we will have the report and then we'll have testimony and then take up the winery ordinance. And with that, let me remind people that for the for culture testimony, we will have a limit of 2 minutes. Public comment may not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition and should not include obscene speech. If you fail to abide by these rules, you may be ruled out of order and you may have your time concluded and be asked to return to your seat. With that, the one person signed in advance or this item is going to be miserably. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. For culture. Culture studies in. Concern that with the meaning and the practice of everyday life, these practice plays the way where people do practical things, such as watching television or eating out in giving culture. It's also a state this the meaning this and you use is people are trained to commit to violence, violence and politics, especially spiritually , culture and. Violence. And violence, those meaningless and practice held independently of reason, watching television in order to feel in public, but as a pretty one so thoroughly ever event, should not be. Part of his culture and in essence, remained in the through the medium of television itself. Watch me have been select culture. Oh, then who is the school children watching television after school with their friends in order to feed in color thoroughly colorful places since there is now good rounded results. For. One of. The. Three deficient in these three practice. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else you'd like to add for public comment on the For Culture Annual report? See, none were closed. Public comment and the county's foreign cultural development authority is for culture. This organizations provides support to all types of artists and cultural organizations throughout King County. Today, we'll have a chance to hear their annual report and performance for May for culture supported artist. We'll begin today by hearing from Erika Newman of her staff to present the annual report and then turn to Brian Carter, the executive director for culture, and Ben Hunter, the artist I believe you have with you. And Heather is here as well. Good afternoon, Erika. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Erika Newman, council central staff. Joining me at the table is Brian Carter, the executive. Director for Full Culture. At the podium, we have Mr. Ben Hunter, who's an artist, and he will. Provide a song for us today. I'll go ahead and brief you and then Mr. Hunter can perform the items for briefing 2019 146 Begin on page five of your packet and September of 2002, the King County Council adopted Ordinance one for 42. Which created for culture. King County's Cultural Public Development Authority to support, advocate for and preserve the cultural resources of the region in a manner that fosters excellence, vitality and diversity for cultures. Name was derived from its four cultural programs arts, heritage, preservation and public art. King County called regard, which requires the authority which is for culture, to submit an annual report to the executive and the County Council. The report should include a summary of accomplishments expenditures for the current fiscal year, a summary of the cultural programs, public art projects, and other projects and activities. Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks. I will now turn it over to Mr. Ben Hunter. And then after that will be Brian. Mr. Carter, do you want to introduce I. Keep pushing buttons. There you go. I'll get it one of these times, I promise you. It's my honor. It's my honor to be here. And I just wanted to provide an introduction for Ben. He's an internationally touring multi-instrumentalist and composer, social entrepreneur and community activist. In 2011, he founded Community Arts Create, a small arts and community development organization that uses creativity as a stimulus for intergenerational, intercultural social engagement in 2013. He co-founded the Hillman City Collaboratory, and it's just a real honor to have him here today. He is an awardee of for culture. And I think even more importantly, he's a friend of the organization, and he came to perform at one of our board meetings. And when we were going to come before this body, I thought we had to bring Ben back. So when there are no further ado, Mr. Ben Hunter. Thank you, folks. The song I'm going to perform is a song called Possum. It's a Creole folk tune out of Louisiana. Positively stands for Father Winter. Father Jan. And it's a lament. It's a song that a young man is singing to Father Winter for. For taking his his love away from her in the cold of the winter. And it it offers. It's particularly poignant right now because I just listened to one of the podcasts of New York Times 1619, which talks about the responsibility of of where the history , rather, of our government and health care in this country. And there were scores and scores of people in Louisiana that died because of lack of access to food, clothing, heat, shelter and obviously health care, too, for preventable diseases. So the song has a lot of weight. And and here it is. David. Needed. Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee. Ponsonby don't mind Pauline all horny horniness does not bother me. Still I game was Jimmy. I thin I think he was. Aiming on to be. But don't be. Home of all the rom from primordial seed. Okay. More zombies. Zombies? Bonnie. Morning. My Sharpie. Bonnie. Came on the mall to. Did. Marvin Gaye. Doom Patrol. Doom how? Although, ma'am, if you. Who's Madbouli? Volume gave. To clear the pool. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Board. Who's your. Leading. And so. Why, thank you, Mr. Carter. We appreciate your report. We'll move on to the next item. Yes. All right. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us here this evening. It's evening this afternoon. My name is Heather Truscott. I've been involved with permaculture for many years. As most of you know, I am honored to currently be serving as board president. And so I'm just going to do a little bit of an introduction of what the presentation is going to be. And then I will cover a few, few of the items and then pass it over to Brian. So we're very excited to share with you the work and accomplishments of our culture over this past year. We'll walk through the organization's new mission. Vision and Values will discuss our 2019 budget, as well as the core. Activities of the agency. This past year. We'll share the status of some recent projects, including the Ordnance Task Force and our Cultural Health Study. We'll finish this presentation by highlighting some of the transitions that we've recently had within the organization and provide you an update on some exciting new projects that four culture is embarking on, including including a strategic plan, strategic planning process and our Building for Equity Program. So this past year for Culture embarked on an agency wide effort to rewrite our mission, vision and values. The work began in October 2018 and concluded in March 2019. And as part of the agency's ongoing commitment to racial equity and embedded within a year long series of trainings for board staff and advisory committees, we worked with equity consultants Scott Wynn and Norma TIMBERG throughout the process. And to arrive at a new mission, vision and values the staff, the Board of Directors, Advisory Committee members and community stakeholders among us. Among them some of the council members here today. We spent nine months critically examining King County's public art, heritage, preservation and art ecosystem and the ways in which four cultures work strives to serve and support the myriad of individuals, groups, institutions that make our region so culturally vibrant. It was essential that our new mission, vision and values clarify the boundaries of work for the organization while articulating core beliefs that reinforce not only our rights but our responsibilities towards King County's cultural community. We mindfully focused our mission statement around racial equity because it provides for culture with the tools necessary to dismantle all oppressions. We believe that our new mission, vision and values. Strongly positioned. For culture to continue our important work supporting the existing arts, heritage, public art and preservation environment, while of course simultaneously working to build up and evolve that infrastructure that is currently our cultural ecosystem. So I'm going to turn it over to our sort of not new anymore. Executive Director Brian Carter. Yeah, I've been at it for a year. I figured it all out. We're good. Good. From here on out. Oh, yeah. The next slide that you see is our 2019 budget with revenues on the left side and expenditures on the right side. And just as a reminder for everybody, the difference between the two pie charts is the same that you've seen in the recent past. As for culture continues to draw down from its special account, which was created to sustain our efforts and activities until lodging tax revenue is available to us again in 2021. And I think of note is just the 1% for art money and that's the largest public art allowance for culture has received in the past ten years. And this just allows that wonderful PR department to help artists create and place their work in public spaces for all the county's residents to enjoy projects like poetry on busses and the rush hour event that they had at Northgate, the ongoing Picturing Trails Part project, which touches all of King County and the recently completed King County King County Passenger Ferry Terminal at Common Dock, featuring the work of artist Leo Burke, which if you haven't had a chance to see that yet, it's incredibly powerful. I want to talk with you a bit about some of our a sampling of our activities and and initiatives and programs. What you see in front of you here is a photo of our Ark artist fellowship recipients. And here are the 2019 fellows. And this particular program provides operational support for individual artists as they pursue their creative work and the program. Eligibility requirement changes annually in consultation with the art of the artists themselves. During its first year, eligible applicants were artists with physical, developmental, cognitive, intellectual and or emotional disabilities. And to me, I think this program demonstrates for cultures commitment to asking itself vital questions like who has been historically marginalized from cultural funding opportunities, and how can we partner with new communities to support and learn how to better support their creative endeavors? Next up, I wanted to share with you some of the findings from the task force that had met in 2018 and into 2019. And there are just four points that I wanted to highlight. I know there was a full briefing on this report earlier this year, late last year, just for findings that I wanted to highlight. The the Ordnance Task Force looked at comparable funding agencies around the country. And I think what you'll you'll read in the report findings is if our culture is a leader in its practices and approaches to cultural grant making. But with that said, I don't think that we are perfect by any means. I think there's always a desire for us to expand our geographic equity such that we're touching all cities and unincorporated areas in King County. I think there's a real desire anytime I get outside of the Office of the Staff, when we ask cultural practitioners and organizations what they're looking for, it's greater visibility and it's help with that visibility. How do you compete right against the movies and how do you compete against Netflix and how do you compete against all the other entertainment options and looking for support in that area around visibility? And then lastly, is that your culture has to continue stepping up as a leader when it comes to racial equity. And specifically, one of the findings of the taskforce was to really look at capacity and leadership development, whether that be cohort based or seminars or workshops. What are we doing countywide to help people understand what a commitment to racial equity looks like? Next up, I want to talk about the King County cultural health study. Last, I think it was August, right when I sat in front of you discussing my candidacy for the position. I was honest that we had to do a better job in capturing and gathering data related to cultural vitality and health of the entire county. And we've done some wonderful work in this area at the city level. We've been conducting this cultural health study now going on over a year. And what we hope to do is illuminate King County's cultural ecosystem, allowing for more informed responses to the field by for culture and also other funders. So we've worked with a number of partners, including the Evan School at the University of Washington, to look at cultural planning at the city level. We've conducted 39 listening sessions, and thank you to all of you for your help in either coming or steering people towards those listening sessions such that we can hear on the ground what cultural practitioners and what stakeholders are looking for. We've started a cultural asset inventory and we're just generally looking at the landscape in which our culture exists so that we can better serve our constituents. And as Heather mentioned, we're moving into strategic planning. And I think to me, why do strategic planning, why at this moment? I think strategic plans are just vitally important because they codify the direction of an organization while concretely outlining measurable goals. So what we intend to do is take the findings from the ordinance task force, take the findings from the Cultural Health Study, and fold those into a strategic planning process. Then we'll end with a three year strategic plan for the organization, complete in quarter two of 2020. And all of this comes amidst a bit of change for the organization that everybody's aware of. I am. I guess it was a new up until today, no longer new. We also have a new government affairs manager, Claire Miccio, which I know each of you have met with and your staff and chiefs of staff have met with. And then I'd like to also just formally introduce Joshua Heim, who's the new deputy director for culture and replacing my existing deputy director, Deb Twisp, who, if I could just take a moment and just say thank you to Dad for her years of service to the organization. This would be the last time that she's coming in front of the council in this role, and she has been just instrumental over the past year and over the decades at for culture. So I think her. And lastly, with the transitions, as everybody here is aware, that there was a change to how board members appointed to the Fort Culture Board. So we've had a number of new board members come in to the organization. So that takes orientation and it takes training, it takes bringing them up to speed on our commitment to racial equity. So it's been a real season of change for us. But it's my firm belief that culture can be a common ground, especially during these turbulent times. Culture tells us not only where we have been, but where we must go. Arts, heritage, public art and preservation are simply the department titles that allow us to cultivate, nurture and support cultural production, innovation and collective empowerment. That's possible through creative experiences. And I'll even go one step further and suggest that for culture itself can be a common ground where the intersections between culture and community issue areas can be explored and potential solutions collaboratively approached. And one example I'll give that I think in that vein is the Building for Equity Program. And there is a photo of all of us. I'm a fan of the of the red sweater vest. As you see, it's a favorite of mine. The Building for Equity Program acknowledges that cultural spaces are at a premium in the face of rising land costs and skyrocketing construction costs. The first phase of funding awarded over 8 million to 73 different organizations throughout the county from the shoreline, Historical Society to the Enumclaw Expo Center from the Northwest Rail Museum and Snoqualmie, to the Museum of Flight's historic Boeing Red Barn. This program supported cultural organizations of all sizes who faithfully explore and celebrate the many forms that culture takes from the Black Diamond Museum to the Eritrean Community Center from the Pacific Bonsai Museum in federal way to this, a marriage heritage society's reared house. And it's a program that I think we can all be proud of supporting the need for cultural space protection and renovation and creation throughout the county. As we discussed before, there are seven organizations who received significant awards, 250,000 and above. And each of those organizations will be required to provide free cultural space for community based organizations so that rehearsals or meeting space or performance space and we're underway getting them under contract for that space usage requirement. And now I think it's a really exciting time for us as we turn to phase two. And they were hard at work developing an on ramp that will build capacity for organizations throughout the county. It will prioritize organizations effectively serving communities that have historically faced barriers to purchasing and stewarding cultural space due to institutional institutional oppression. The vision of the program is to broaden county, reach, deepen connections and increase support for communities of color organizations in rural areas. Organizations with small budgets. Organizations serving immigrants and refugees. Organizations serving communities that are low income. And some of the activities that you can expect from this will include workshops, skill building seminars, mentorship and technical assistance . And we're in the midst right now of actually building this program. But I think it's it's an answer to those questions about who has been left out and who needs to be brought to the table in. This is our answer. So building for equity will build space to share this common ground that I mentioned. And for me, it was really built with all of your help. So I just want to take a moment to again say thank you for your support of that initiative. Thank you for your support of me as executive director over the past year, and thank you for your ongoing support for culture. And now I'll turn it over to Heather. Yeah, I would just like to conclude, make a remark to say, I think how important and significant the improved council relationship has been and it's been such a benefit to for culture, for who we are and where we want to go. And I know you are all believers, as am I. And the importance of strong relationships and partnerships and those partnerships between the Council and for culture are essential to our long term success and effectiveness. So thank you very much for having us here today. Thank you. Thank you. We're delighted to have you here for the annual report. And I want to recognize the work and leadership that you've provided in your tenure already, Brian. You've hit a number of issues in just a couple of minutes already today from the equity lens that you spoke of a year ago before the council as the candidate for the position to the work you've already done with building for equity and the investments and requirements that you're bringing to to those investments within our region to make sure that equity is strongly enforced, included involved at every level. And we heard that in your conversation about the strategic plan and really shaping the direction the agency is going. I'm really pleased with everything in the report and compliment you and your work. Thank you. I want to thank Ben for your opening piece. Very much inspiring to be able to share. And those of us who were watching country music on PBS last night know that fiddle has a rich history from a lot of places. Thank you for sharing the small piece of that with us today. And before I turn to colleagues as well, I'd also like to recognize Dimitrescu's work. Deb, I served on the board, as you know, in two separate stints in my tenure and have seen you there in your work for the agency for the many years I've been involved, but even longer. And I also know your work is far from confined to the boardroom or the office. But I run into you on vacation. I run into coffee shops. I run into you at events all over the community. Truly invested in delivering for art and culture throughout King County. Congratulations and thank you. Colleagues. Council Member Gosset. Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, I would like to also, Bryan, express my appreciation to your leadership as well as to the new board's leadership, because a couple of years ago, when the proposal was made that we needed to examine and review for culture and perhaps make some structural changes, we, the King County Council, got a lot of criticism, very broad. It was from many parts of the county and it was particularly from various aspects of the culture. Our community said, Why are you people doing this? But the reason I particularly was pleased with the report that you gave today and the written document that you all submitted to us a while ago. Because in my opinion, because, you know, I can't speak for anybody else, even though I'm a politician. In my opinion, the color and hue of the board culture program has begun to change and ways in which I think will be more healthier to all aspects of our community, particularly the diversity, racial and class and other diversity of this county. This county is 38% people of color. And last year the demographers that work for King County government told us for the first time ever, 50 plus 1% of all the youth under the age of 18 in Martin Luther King Junior County are nonwhite. And I thought those were significant remarks by which the judge, you know, the behavior and the programing of our government. And first, among that since it happened over the last couple of years has been that changes that we brought about. And for a culture where we're involved a little bit more now and the development of the board and we are challenging the staff to be more responsive and open and reaching out. And when we heard been today but actually for me because I'm one of the three ex-officio members on the board when their ban and all the other cultural artists at the beginning of every meeting that we now have, I was smiling inside because I thought, Yeah, man, maybe I can articulate it before when Councilmember of the Grove led our effort to change things that far culture. But it is definitely reflective of a road on which our culture development in this county, I think, is is going to become more and more creative, responsive and supported by broader sectors of our population. So for all of that, I wanted to be one of the councilmembers that thank you all for the work that you're doing, and I look forward to continuing to work with you as we develop your agency. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, first of all, I want to thank you for your countywide emphasis. The idea that you went out into the unincorporated areas and had meetings was wonderful. People were happy to hear that that had happened. And I had one of your panel say, I've never been here, but I might even consider moving here. So that was very nice to see. Countywide involvement and then input. Also like to thank you for their work in the Barn Again program and how powerful that has been. And I have heard that more than one Christmas card as one of our barns in the background from people from all across the county. And it is a huge part of keeping the ambiance of the rural area and making sure the barns are standing upright and that they are preserved. And there's so many things that I've learned about barns that I never knew. And some of them have very specific living sheds and milking sheds and all kinds of things that, you know, the average person wouldn't know about if those barns weren't still up. So that's really powerful, and I'm really excited about that. More people are getting to enjoy them and know how important they are. The last thing is your art panel that you put together for a very. Civic building was not easy. I would tell you that in going through the building, the arch that has been selected and is up so far is beautiful and inspirational and I'm very excited to see the rest arrive. And then we will continue to look at more art so that there are a lot of white walls right now that we want to see even more art on in the future. But the first step is a good step, and there were days when we were concerned about that. So thank you for making it as as beautiful as it is becoming. So I appreciate it. And all credit goes to my director of Public Art Kelly Paycheck and her team on that particular project. So I just want to give them credit where credit is due. But thank you for the compliment. Thank you. And I appreciate that came to our 735 meeting. In the evening. Councilmember Dombroski Thank you, Mr. Chair, and sorry for joining late. I was listening in in the side room. I just wanted to take a moment to Echo Councilmember Gosset comments and thank Brian you for your leadership and for culture organization for during the last year getting out into the communities all around King County. I've had many meetings up in the North End, for example, but I know you've been everywhere listening to folks, listening to what they are hoping to have in terms of cultural development services, whether it be history or art or music. And I know that folks living up in the district and the communities that I represent are much appreciative. I also appreciate your specific investment and prioritization in traditionally disadvantaged communities, in traditionally underserved communities, I believe and I know we had a rocky time, you know, just a year and a half ago on some of the government stuff . But I think what the listening that's been done and the increased connection and depth of connection to community that you are fully ready in charge to go next year back to the county to seek that big investment in arts and heritage. And I look forward to supporting you on that and you and your board's leadership. So I'm very excited about what's to come in the coming months. So good work. Thank you. Got some member. And with that, I want to thank you very much and look forward to your continued good work. Okay. Thank you so much, Mr. Cohen. Councilmember Cowles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm of adoption of the minutes of August 19. The August 19th minister before us see no discussion. All those in favor. Please say I oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. Minutes were approved. That takes us to the last item on today's agenda. An update to the counties development regulations regarding wineries, breweries and distilleries will take public comment on this item. We have 25 people signed up to testify. I will ask you to limit your testimony to one minute each, and when I call your name, I'll try to call about three people at a time. You're welcome to approach either podium. The same rules apply that applied earlier to not campaign for or against any one or any ballot measure and to avoid obscene speech. With that, I will apologize in advance for any mispronunciations. And we'll begin with Susan, Bernie Sanders, Ryan Ervin and Dominique Jorgensen. Shall I go ahead and start? Yes, go ahead. I'm Susan Bounty Sanders. My remarks today should be taken as those of me individually, not in my role as one big city council members. I want to thank you for the fixes so far in Councilmember Bell due to strike. That's presented today, but I urge you to go farther in your fixes. The goal, as I see it, is to preserve irreplaceable agricultural land and to honor the Growth Management Act and to make that that urban growth boundary as bright a line as possible, rather than eroding the urban growth boundary. Wherever you see someone or interact with a landowner that you like, rather than making. Your. Decisions based on the public policy questions and the specific fixes that I would ask for are first, eliminate overlay. A second, sharpen up the definition of winery so that it is not prone to abuse. And third, I remove the provisions that grandfather people who are currently in violation. These problems still leave the door open for land speculation and environmental degradation, and that's why I'm asking for their removal. Thank you very much. You have your own Ron Irving of Fashion Winery, and I'm here to support the amendment to the ordinance. And I'll make it short. I wanted to tell you some of my background and I maybe have enough time, but there are a couple of great exceptions and I worked on both of them. The Pike Place Market is historic district from the city of Seattle, Seattle, and work with the Pike Development Authority and also in 1976, the Save the Farm Lands. And both of those have been really critical too, to us. Vachon is very unique and right now we're struggling with people coming over because it is so unique. And and I think that I hope that you can see that and making an exception will work and it'll keep me in business. Thank you. Thank you. And following don't Dominique will be then it's but it's going below. Melissa Earle and Cliff Otis. This striker is still terrible. We should all be ashamed of King County, of how bad, how corrupt, how inept and discriminatory our whole system is, especially permitting businesses like ours have been claimed as being harmful to the environment. You know, King County's lack of good infrastructure has left billions of gallons of raw sewage dumping into Puget Sound over the last three years alone, yet were the ones that are claimed to be damaging the environment. We don't have good infrastructure, period. Yet you're pushing for rural businesses to go into urban where you can't even support who is already there. I am so ashamed of our county and flabbergasted that it can be so blatantly hypocritical. I honestly believe if Dr. Martin Luther King were here today, he would be ashamed to have his name associated with this county. We all have a dream. We won't be able to live equally, be successful, and be able to enjoy family, friends and life itself. Well, this is not a dream. This is a nightmare. And King County has nobody to blame but themselves for the issues we have today. Issues like this are exactly what people hate. King County. We're the worst county in supporting agriculture, local business and residents. We have no accountability. We have no recourse. We are wrong and we have no recourse. When permitting doesn't follow their own code as WDM or even state law, the current Stryker breaks multiple state laws now, sir, to be completely thrown out the window. You want accountability from the people. How do you start with the government? Have accountability first, this ordinance initiated from a study that represented only 0.0 1% of the entire unincorporated areas, yet then will blanket the other completely unrepresented 99.99%. Do you realize how ridiculous this doesn't results from such a minuscule area to affect everyone else. This would be like conducting a random medical drug study where after one person the results are in. So let's not take it to the rest of the population. Thank you. And I recognize that people perhaps came with expecting a longer amount of time to testify. If you have written testimony, by all means you can provide it to our clerk and copies will be made and distributed to all of us. Good afternoon. Afternoon. My name is Dan Scrambler and I'm an owner of Horse and Brewery. Just wanted to let everyone know. Four agricultural farms throughout Kent Valley in 1882 1891, hops were planted throughout the entire valley. So we are completely agricultural businesses. But, you know, I have a real big problem with this grandfathering clause where it says, like, you have to be in compliance as of the date of the ordinance passes. Just that verbiage is against state law. And can you explain how difficult this is? We've spent over $20,000 to file a 1400 dollars permit and that it's just crazy how hard it is to get any sort of permit. When departments can't talk to each other functionally. So I just I it's really hard to make this ordinance better because it just started wrong and it really, I think it just to waste any more time, money and effort, it should just be thrown out. And if something needs to happen, it needs to start with the fresh start. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, counsel. My name is Melissa Earl and I'm. One of the owners of Lumber House Brewery in Hobart. I'd like to state for the record that our various parties have not been notified of these swift scheduled ordinance hearings from the beginning all the way to now. We've never been notified and we've put our information down. We've been told we were going to be communicated with. And we've never been told about these. And they always end up being really quickly dropped. And most people can't take off work to come here and do public testimony with a few days notice. The most recent version is not clear on grandfathering or vesting businesses. Please make sure to review vesting state law. We do not believe that this is in compliance with state law, nor. Is. Licensing the sale of alcohol, which again is only regulated by state and federal law. This ordinance proposes that we can make but not sell our products, which I don't think that's a very successful business model for us unincorporated breweries, which in turn has forced us to move our businesses. Actually, I had to separate mine, leaving my brewery in Hobart and taking part of it to Black in the city. Yeah, I came with a two minute long speech, I guess from a show of hands. Can anybody else in this room say majority? We don't support this ordinance. It was like that last time when we came here and did public testimony and most people here said they didn't support it. And I think that today we're pretty much in the same boat. Following Mr. Harris will be Paula Waters. Brianne Ebsen in any Magrath Hello. My name's Cliff Otis. I'm the owner of MATTHEWS Winery in Woodinville. So greetings. Several of the changes that have been identified in this Stryker will have a very negative impact on our ability to run our business and sustain our winter operations at the current location. Both the new 15% tasting room limit and the parking changes have really caught us off, you know, off guard and surprise. So we're we're suggesting that you guys just take a little bit more time, because structurally this doesn't make any sense. 15% of the tasting room space is not enough to run our business. And the parking, if you index that with the top, if you're having a tip for 150 people or 250 people we would have the most of at WB the two eight parking spots to be the three of 17. How are you supposed to do an event of 125 people or 250 people on eight parking spots and 17? If we don't change the parking stuff inside this to a minimum, you're going to have a mess because you're going to have people parking on arterials and side streets all over the county. And I don't think you want that. So really think through the structural pieces of this ordinance because there's some big deficiencies in it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Paula Waters. I'm speaking today to you also as an. Individual, not as a city council member, and wouldn't vote in 2013. I ran for city. Council specifically to protect the valley. From the threat of annexation of parcels that was. Being considered by the city, parcels in the action being considered by the city council. At that time, we were able to forestall that threat. But regrettably, the threats now of land speculation and environmental and environmental degradation will not be solved, I believe. By this legislation, but perhaps even enshrined. So I get. It. We've been looking at this for a long time. It's very hard to manage competing interests. But I just want you to know that if this legislation gets passed as it is, I will be deeply disappointed. Thank you. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Amy McGrath and I'm the executive director of the Washington Brewers Guild, which represents the state's small and independent craft breweries. There are currently 400 breweries in our state and 111 of those breweries are located here in King County. We continue to have concerns regarding the proposed ordinance requirement that breweries obtain an adult beverage business license to be issued by the county, and the state would require or the stated reason for requiring this additional licenses so that the county can better track these businesses operating within unincorporated King County and then provide regulation for compliance. And the state already is required to notify the county if these businesses come up for a new brewery license or a renewal. And we're also required to do monthly reporting to the state on production and taxes paid. And so it's very easy to track active licenses further where we're concerned that the requirements attached to this license go into the territory of regulating the manufacture of beer in the state, which we believe is regulated by the state and the TTB at the federal level. We're very highly regulated and are concerned about the overall reaching precedent that this could have for other local jurisdictions that would implement their own licenses and their own enforcement structure for this very important business for our state. Thank you so much for your time and work on this. Thank you. Following Brian will be Barb, Larimer, Greg, Lill and Larry Savage. Hello. I am a resident of District seven. Of unincorporated King County. I'm pretty much here just to. Do my public testimony of loving my community and loving the brewery that is walking distance for my own residents and enjoying the the kind of sanctuary of having my neighbors being able to to relax after work and kind. Of get to meet your neighbors and. Stuff like that, as well as the agricultural. Affects of it as well, like the selling of eggs. Say you want to bake a cake, you can go to your neighbor and get some eggs. And I just think it's positive. I kind of industry in our. Small neighborhoods and like bring the community together and stuff like that. Yeah, I know. Is the whole thing. Thank you. You the. Ah, Barb. Hi, I'm Barb Larimer, a longtime resident of King County, which I love and I'm attending today on behalf of Forager on Settlers. We are a Walla Walla based winery and operate three tasting rooms across the state. We've operated successfully in the Woodinville area for over six years, and our business is very dependent upon the ability to sell our product and access residents of King County. We are very pleased to see the renewed attention to this very important matter, and we thank you very much for your efforts. We respectfully request more time to review and clarify the questions concerning the latest proposed or amendment and how it impacts all of us at the wineries and tasting rooms in King County in particular, we'd like to have the opportunity to discuss some of our questions around parking requirements, event definitions and hours of operation. In general, some of us, many of us feel that the latest Stryker amendment has come together rather quickly without a lot of time for us to review and consistently provide input from all sides. And we'd like to ensure that there's sufficient time to review those prior to sending this amendment to the full council. Thanks very much. Thank you. Hello. My name is Greg Lill and I'm the owner of a family. Owns a nearly ten acre parcel of property on the Windmill Redman Road that we call our family farm and we call Chateau Lill. We have been there since the early eighties, so we are a long time resident of the area. I also helped start the Little Cellars back in 1992, which I'm still part owner of, but we have moved that business to the old red hot facility to repurpose that because we needed more space and more room and we really didn't want to take away from the great pastoral kind of setting we have at our chateau in Woodinville because of the size of our property and the grounds we've been able to offer it for our customers. Our wine customers have special events, their birthday parties, celebrations, just lovely lunches in the gazebo. It's a it's a wonderful place to be. You know, so far I've been excited to see how the county council is working together and for really trying to solve these issues that we've had. You know, but to have this all of a sudden change as of late took us all, I think, a little bit by surprise. We'd like to see this worked on a little bit longer and come to some new resolutions that will change what we see in the strike agreement. Now, we hope that this will bring about a collaboration so we can still be our farm. We have alpaca, we have sheep, we have goats on our property. And if we were to be limited and could not do our events and continue on with our winery as we use it now, it probably would lead us to have to sell the property to a real estate developer, which is, by the way, less than we all want to see. So thank you. Thank you. Is there a Larry sandwich? I'm having trouble with the handwriting will admit. Following Larry will be Delia Darby, Patrick O'Connor and Darlene Dare not seen Larry. Larry have to deliver. The lower. There is privilege. Yes, that's exactly what's written here. I see it now. My name's Larry's privilege and the property owner of the cave winery tasting room. And over the A and another property overlay. I would you know, this has been going on for us for close to three years now since this came up. And I'm just asking for a little extra time since his stroke limit came to be. We need more time to understand what it is and seems like it's very, very enforcement oriented and we don't know what the rules are. There's question zero, how certain things can be enforced. As example, the outer space is limited to 500 square feet and we have half an acre there. If someone wanders off with a glass of wine outside to 500 feet away in violation, I don't understand exactly how that's being forced to just like a little more time so we can look at it, understand it, let you guys know how it's going to impact us so you guys can make a good decision on which way to vote. That's it. Thank you. Thanks. Hi, I'm Delaware Derby, and I'm representing the Castillo family, and I wish to acknowledge council member Val Dutchy for her recent work. But what happened to the work that was done from the Local Services Committee that was fully vetted and passed on March 11th? Out of that committee, I'm concerned that the new version language of requiring creche and for many could actually harm the APD and forcing development of industrial uses on rural land. It could negatively impact down gradient areas, and the 15% square footage and associated parking limitations are close to home occupation businesses, which are also proposed to be eliminated through the ordinance and would surely eliminate the existing small businesses. Is this the goal? I thought the goal was supporting burgeoning wine businesses and protecting the APD, and I'm a proponent for both. I think there's common ground in our shared love for agricultural land. Let's meet in the middle. Let's meet in that place by supporting the the March 11th version that was fully vetted and passed out of the local services committee. As Martin Luther King stated, we can make a way out of no way. So let's not reinvent the wheel. We need to get on with the business of restoring harmony to the Sammamish Valley and to King County. Thank you. Thank you. Hope ADAMS Patrick O'Connor I'm the farm manager at MATTHEWS Winery. In the past few years, a farms in the valley, both in the APD and in the buffer area. And I'm certainly an advocate for for more food production in the Valley and the current version of the Striker. I, I don't believe will necessarily have the intended effect of supporting agriculture in the valley if it especially some of the portions that they're acquiring the the products sold necessarily be have a percentage, you know, you know, from from the area. Because honestly, like a lot of the farmers there who grow fruit and flowers and and other products do with do do do bring in produce some other areas. And it's really important to have year round sales. So. And and really tasting rooms are not the most high impact land use. So I do think there there are ways to to have ethical water use and and not be polluting the farmland and and and for the majority of of the apt in in in Woodinville there there's drainage systems where so so so most of the runoff that come from Hollywood Hills and throughout go through the bio drainage. So it is a water quality issue for the salmon. But in terms of polluting the actual farmland, that's not it's not entirely accurate. So it's been presented as such. So, um, thank you. Thank you for following. Carla will be Laura Cherry, Sarah Wolsey and Cheryl Lovatt. Hi, council members. I'm Carla Da, the guest manager for MATTHEWS Winery. And its new version is the game changer. Several of these new proposals will strangle existing businesses and rural King County, including hours. Jobs will be lost, sales tax revenue will be lost. The whole farm to table culture that we have worked so diligently to create will be lost. You are potentially destroying a place the people flock to, a place to gather with friends and family, to talk about life and to celebrate life. Please carefully think this through before implementing ordinances that would be so detrimental to these existing businesses that may result in our closing our doors to employees and visitors alike. I strongly request that you not approved the revised strike or amendment as a minimum. Please take more time to assess its impact on these businesses and the community at large. Please work with existing businesses to find a balanced solution that both preserves the rural character of the area. The store fulfills our farm to table destiny and promotes Washington wines. Thank you. Cheryl had to go. Okay, now, my name is Laura Terry, and I'm the owner of Dragon's Head Cider on Passion Island. And today I'm here to voice support for the amendment that Councilmember McDermott has proposed to the ordinance. We're part of a community of farmers and beverage producers on Passion Island. There are five wineries with tasting rooms and several others that are small producers that don't have tasting rooms. When the county began looking at ways to remedy the issues in Sammamish Valley, most of us on vacation didn't believe that any ordinance changes or recommendations to the county council would have an impact on our businesses. After all, there were no stakeholders from Fashion Island ever involved in any of the conversations with the county as they developed recommendations for the ordinance. There was no analysis done on any aspect of the businesses or community on Fashion Island. So imagine our surprise when we learned that these ordinance changes would be applied to our businesses as well. None of our businesses have ever had any of the kind of complaints, environmental or traffic issues that we hear about in this mama's valley. And when it comes to the local alcohol beverage industry, fashion island is nothing like Sammamish Valley. Wineries on Bastion Island are integral to the community on the island. They contribute to the economy, a very fragile economy, in very special ways. Our tasting room visitors and wine club members, they visit our wineries and then they go into town and they eat in the restaurants and they shop in the stores. King County needs to find better ways to support small business development on Passion Island because of our very fragile economy and not shut down existing businesses or create more decline in the economic activity of our constrained community. Thank you. Thank you. Following server will be Bryce Yeadon, Chase Kilborn, followed by Janet Bryant. Hello. I'm Sarah Tankersley at I. Managed Police Winery on Vachon Island. There aren't more of us here today because we're getting our. Fruit in and we're. Making our beverages. But we're this is very important to us. Our company. Small. Very small. Five. Remember Wine Club? We've been around for 18 years as a cottage industry. If this ordinance passes without McDermott's proposed. Amendment, then we will have to shut down. There is no way that we can comply. There just isn't. We've been in operation for a long time. We're solid business, but there's just no way that we can do that. And when we shut down, that ripples out and. Affects. The economy of our island. It's a small ecosystem, very small. There are a limited number of businesses, and when one fails, the others fail. So I hope. That you will support Councilman McDermott's proposed amendment to Ordinance 20 1802. For one. Thank you. Chair, members of the committee Brazier Aden here today on behalf of feature wise. We'll start off by saying thank you. For the updated drafts by council member about. The issue. We think it's gone a long way in resolving most of our concerns that we've had it. It is a lot better than what we said during the last iteration and the. Last council hearing. I want to say thanks regarding the removal of demonstration area. Be including the. One acre limit on. Agricultural land. Those things are extremely important to my organization. I did want to point out a couple of things that we would like to see changed or tweaked a little bit. The first. Is allowing distilleries, these facilities, twos and threes in the rural. Area. We think a change could occur in which the majority of product could be found out of King County or the surrounding counties. And that would solve one of our issues that we have. The other one has to deal with Group B water systems. We know that three's was great. That threes. Must connect to a group A We think that that's important. We also think that that too should connect to a group as well. And I'm happy to take and help respond to any further questions after the hearing and would like to work with anybody else who. Needs further clarification of our comments. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. My name is Chase Killebrew and I work at Blue Lane, an engineering and land use planning consulting firm based in Kirkland. So we're Blue Line. I've been working with Matthew's Winery regarding proposed ordinance number 2018 0241 and helping them determine the potential effects of the proposed ordinance on their operations. Today, we would like to specifically address the draft striking amendments submitted by Council Member about Dewji ahead of today's meeting. The moment seems to contain a few conflicting standards for the newly defined Winery Brewery Distillery. Use this so we are seeking clarification for the WB, D2 and WB D3 users than the A&R reasons. Onsite tasting retail sales would only be allowed to occupy 15% employed area of the WB facility if a WB D2 is built to its maximum, a building size of 3500 square feet and only 525 square feet of the building would be allowed to be occupied by tasting rental sales. This would essentially make it with the new proposed parking standards the only minimum of five parking stalls required and the maximum allowed would be eight parking stalls. This number seems especially low and consider in conjunction with the proposed event standards with a temporary use permit, WPT to facilities would be allowed to host an event with a maximum of 125 guests. And, you know, it's just like they would have to either provide the parking on site or through a managed parking plan. And so that just doesn't seem to be feasible at this time. And then also the with only allowed 15% of the floor area to be dedicated to tasting retail sales. It's just like how would they be able to accommodate up to 125 guests? We just believes that with the maximum building size, maximum permitted service and setbacks, some of these might, such as a proposed parking standard and the tasting and retail sales space for minimum are just redundant. So we just we appreciate your guys effort and we hope that some of these things can be clarified before it's passed. Thank you. Janet will be followed by Mike Michael Tomasky, Barbara Lao and Serena Glover. Hi. I'm Janet Bryan with the State Winery. Once again, I'd like to thank the council for sharing an incredible amount of information and input on this issue. The issues are complex, and each of us in this room has a different have different interests and desires. Our cave B tasting room is an overlay we learned of the new Stryker last week and are still working to understand all the details as it applies to tasting rooms. I'm here asking that you give us a little more time to fully review and comment on the newest proposal. After learning of the Stryker last week, I attended the town meeting in Warrenville last Wednesday evening. A lot of information about unincorporated King County was provided, and during the question and answer period I became concerned about the permitting piece as it might apply to our tasting room. I would ask that the new tasting room regulations, when they become final, that they so that the information associated with those with that is made available to us clearly, so that we know our expectations and limitations. We want to comply and avoid violation. The concern is that without clearly understood definitions, mistakes happen and our business wants to continue in its current location. We want to get along with our neighbors, comply with the rules, and sell our products. We need to know the details and definitions of what's expected of us so we can be successful. Anyway, I'll just cut it short to say that we continue to be a family friendly business. We're quiet. We have. We've always operated within the recommended business hours that are now within the proposal. And this winery proposal has been a challenging one for all of us. And we thank you all for your hard work and continuing to listen to all the stakeholders. Thank you. Hello, I'm Michael Tankersley. And over a quarter century ago, when I moved into the rural area of King County, no knowing nothing about most of these issues. But at that time, wineries, breweries, distilleries were not legal in the rural area at all. And so 20 years ago and we worked and supported the ordinances that began to allow these here, we did think this was a great idea and the vision was boutique wineries. Obviously, there's a bunch of limitations on how big these could be for reasons you and I tend to go into here. We had a vision of that and we supported it. Perhaps we opened a Pandora's box in the first time because you know that this seems to be a bit of a mess. However, I think there's some things we agree on. 20 year old ordinance needs some upgrading for sure. And also we really need to get past this issue. There's so many things we all need to work on. This is a deeply flawed ordinance still, and I think it's sad that you guys were saddled with this. The way it was written from executive in the first place was and such a surprise. Goodell and his staff have been really good on most of these issues. You guys were handed a real bad piece of ordinance and it's really gotten only more complex. The fact that it's so hard for you to understand is kind of evidence right up front that this is deeply flawed. It should be simplified, clarified, and the loopholes should be removed from it. That let us stick with the original vision of Yes, we can have boutique wineries in the rural area without compromising our neighborhoods, our farmlands and and keeping the urban sprawl from spreading across rural King County. So I hope we can stretch out this suddenly very accelerated schedule on this a little bit. But hopefully we can also get past it because there's lots of other things we need to work on in the rural areas as well as your urban areas. Thank you. Thank you. Ha. Hi, my name is Barbara Lyall and I'm a surface water hydrologist and a representative from Climate Reality. And this latest version of the ordinance still does not protect our farms or rural areas from environmental degradation in land speculation on Friday, people around the world will be striking because of the climate emergency. You'll be asked on September 25th a vote for a climate emergency in King County and the farmers in Sammamish Valley are really feeling it. The corn, the squash crop failed this year because of blossom timing versus bees versus versus whether this corn was grown on Harvey's land, which I gave Claudia before last year. It's still delicious. But he grows his corn right below a grassy slope where 200 cars park on every event. That grass slope has car grease, oil, all that stuff going on onto his property, into the soil, into the sammamish valley, sammamish river where our orcas depend on it. You need to strengthen our environmental protections and stop the degradation that the wine industry is providing here. And they don't need their support. Your children and grandchildren need the support they will need to eat. We need to keep this land for them, for the future because. And soon Serena will be followed by Jo Chan. Hi. Serena Glover, executive director, Friends of Some Average Valley. There have been some positive changes in this new striker, but there's still two very serious flaws. The key issue here is not about real wineries brews the stories. That make product. Those are all in eastern Washington or in the urban areas. This is about where these. Businesses put. Their retail outlets. The ordinance is seriously. Flawed in two ways. The first is they put these retail outlets in demonstration project overlay. It rewards five of our eight Sammamish Valley violators and opens another eight new. Parcels to. Urban use development. The second problem with the ordinance. As we still have. Opaque definitions of would be these that are riddled with loopholes and it will allow these sham bids to really operate as retail outlets in the rural area. These urban uses cause two huge problems for the farmland in the watershed. The first is toxic runoff. You've heard a lot about this already. The second is land price speculation. You've also heard a ton about that. And it's getting worse, not better. And so any ordinance that skirts. The. GMA rewards the violators is only going to. Increase speculation. Increase environmental. Degradation. And create more public. Health and safety issues. And because of that. We will fully challenge any ordinance that violates GMA and allows these urban use businesses in the rural area of the Sammamish Valley. It's only two miles long and one mile wide, and it cannot. Take. This kind of development if you want to preserve the farmland and the watershed. Thank you. Thank you, cousin members. My name is Joseph Chan, I. I live right in the valley of Sammamish. For a long, long time. I'm here to bargain for the essential right for life. And I'm begging for a. Essential economic department. You know, any kind. I'm not just limited to the winery, but this winery, Jack. Too long. And it has a negative impact to my property and to property price increase, my property tax increase. And even the impact my exemption I heard was because of this ordinance. Please have an essential like the complain the introduction. The key point is that equity in other words have an equal opportunity of economy development, every essential development. So to me the concept is wider. You know, the niche of the valley is the tolerating anything related to have people enjoy life. I would encourage but anyway these these development the new striking whatever is winding here and there and getting worse. Thank you. Bet. Thank you. That includes the people who had signed up in advance. Is there anyone else present who would like to offer testimony? Anyone else who'd like to offer testimony, then we'll close the public hearing. And the issue before us is ordinance 2018 241. The Council has been working on this ordinance for more than a year. It was taken up first by the Local Services Regional Roads and Bridges Committee. When that committee finished its work, the legislation was sent to the full council where it was determined that more work was needed and that all nine of us should be involved in that work. And therefore it is before the committee of the whole at this time. Today we'll have a hearing, a hearing, a briefing from Aaron Osnes of Arts Council central staff on the legislation and amendments. And it's my hope we'd be ready to take action today. Ms.. Osnes. Sorry. Good afternoon. Aaron Austin's council staff. The materials for this item in your packet began on page 35, but we're not going to use it, so don't bother looking at it. You also have a larger supplemental packet that looks like this. This has the Stryker and other amendment materials. You also got public comments that were received today as a packet and a smaller amendment package that includes some amendments from Councilmember Lambert of the New Matrix. So again, the big packet, the center does have a bit of background in it, but I'm not going to go through it today unless you really want me to, except to say that my daughter is three years old and I was pregnant with her when the executive started this. One. Just to graduate from high school. I don't know. What does she think of this legislation? She would like me to drink less. And mommy to be home more. Yeah. So I'm going to go through what starts on the back page of the big supplemental packet. Your your copies have a purple column. So that's what you're looking for. This matrix is organized. It includes two columns. One is the legislation that came out of the Local Services Committee or version two. I'll refer to it either way. And then the purple column is what is in striking amendment S1 and I. The bigger subset of items are first and then there are several pages we probably won't get to. There just have more clarifying changes or tactical changes that we can answer questions about. So starting at the top of page two of your supplemental packet as recommended by the Local Services Committee, the ordinance would prohibit weeds, which is winery brewery distillery facilities and remote tasting rooms as home occupations and home industries. The version two of the legislation allowed for some grandfathering that gave these businesses one year to come into compliance with the zoning requirements for home occupations and home industries. In the striker S-1 there, the changes to that proposal include removing the 12 month period to come into compliance and replaces it with a 12 month period to demonstrate their previous compliance with the with the code as it exists today, but will no longer exist after it's adopted. If it is adopted. It also tighten some language to avoid unintended consequences and loopholes. And that removes the 12 month compliance period for home industries because those always require a conditioning instrument which are they don't have an ambassador application, they won't be able to arrest. Masters. What's the difference between a 12 month grandfathering period and 12 months to demonstrate the previous compliance? So under the S1 proposal, a business that is compliant today will have non-conforming status. They have a year to prove that they were conforming on that day versus what's in version two is they get a year to come into compliance with what is in the code today. That makes sense. Okay. Next item, the business license version two carries forward the exact proposal to require an adult beverage business license for all production facilities and remote tasting rooms as well as non-conforming home occupations. The. S1 adds language requiring existing businesses attempting to demonstrate that past compliance by submitting some documentation with their first business license. It allows a single six month county business license to be issued to such existing businesses that are demonstrating their compliance. It would be extended for an additional six month without charge if they have demonstrated they were making substantial progress to prove their compliance and then subsequent county business licenses would not be issued unless that they have demonstrated their legal nonconforming status. They have again made substantial steps to prove compliance or they comply with the zoning regulations that are in the proposal. And it also adds a provision so that the permitting division can deny a business license if they do not, if the business does not comply with the zoning code and modifies the appeal period for the license to provide consistency with other types of zoning appeals. Moving onto page three of the packet, page three. Questions, Mr. Chair, as we go on. Yes. On point questions. Yes. Council Member Debates. Thank you, Mr.. I'm sorry, I don't know this, but does the county require, like many cities, a general business license today? No. All right. We require some business licenses, mostly for tracking purposes, but also have some dependent. Is it just industry specific? Thank you. Okay. The next item on packet page three. There is one demonstration project now proposed by this ordinance. It is a remote tasting room demonstration. Demonstration project. A I'm not going to go through every single specific item on the left side, but I will talk about the changes. The striker would clarify the purpose statement and the business license requirements. It would eliminate the fashion rural town, CB zoning and the fall city rural town CB zoning from the demonstration projects and instead would make permanent zoning modifications to allow remote tasting rooms in the S.B. zones of Vachon Rural Town and Falsity Rural Town. It also clarifies the limitation on events, which is two per year maximum of 50 guests. No two permit required for is for all proprietors of a single site within that demonstration project. It also makes some substance substantive changes to the evaluation language. That was done in consultation and coordination with the executive staff to make it a little bit more manageable. Going on the next page. Page four of the. Mr. Terror. Packet went to. The mosque. I think you I don't know if this is appropriate for central staff is going over a factual assessment or or summary. But could could you help me understand with respect to the changes there on the rural town centers? What what's the rationale for. For taking them out? Yeah. So. The. Remote tasting rooms are being added to the permitted use tables for the first time. That wasn't a use in the code before. So since. It is a new use and the piece of explanation or adios for the falsity investment in real town list specific uses out. It was its added to those users to be consistent with the underlying zoning for the rest of the county for those for the KB Zone. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell. Maybe since the question went to the reason for the including this, I could just say a word. The idea was that in the previous versions, I think all of them Vachon Town Center and Falsity Town Center were included as part of what's called overlay a as a demonstration area. And because these are real town centers with businesses in them, like including bars and things like that, it seemed like it wasn't really a major change to the area to allow tasting rooms in those areas. So we just went ahead and made it a permitted use instead of having it be part of a demonstration project. I hope that was. Very helpful thing. Okay. Going to a packet page for the version to the legislation included a second demonstration project, which was special events demonstration and Project B, the S-1 removes that from the ordinance. Moving on to page six. There is an additional efficacy evaluation that is in version two. The Stryker makes modifications to that efficacy evaluation, remove some of the requirements that had been in there before and then add some requirements for evaluation of the regulations on existing businesses and recommended code changes on a number of the development regulations and then ties the public comment period and transmittal of that final report with the one required for the demonstration project. Okay. Turning on page seven is the development condition modifications that are proposed by the striker. If I go too fast, just slow me down. These are also spelled out more clearly in the tables below, but I'm not going to go through each table individually. So the substantive changes to the permitted use tables and the development conditions associated with them in the striker include eliminating facility ones in the agricultural zone as an interim use, so the smallest facilities would not be allowed in the zone. It eliminates the allowance for 8000 square feet of underground storage for facility threes, both in a and free zone. So the maximum size for those facilities would be 8000 square feet total. For all facilities in the A and R zones. It limits impervious surface to a maximum of 25% or whatever the underlying zoning allows, whichever is less. It requires facility threes and the agricultural in our zones to connect to a group, a water system, eliminating the option to connect to a group B water system. For facility ones in the rural area zone. It prohibits onsite testing and retail sales. For facility twos and threes in their a an hour zone. It limits onsite tasting and retail sales to 15% of the aggregated floor area for facility twos and threes in the zone, it limits conversion of agricultural land to less than one acre for nonagricultural accessory uses for all facilities in a no zones, it requires one. The version two requires at least two phases of production to occur on site. This goes further and says that one of those phases has to be either crushing, fermenting or distilling. For our facilities, it removes the option to reduce the setback from rural area and residential zones with a C up to 25 feet. So the setback would be 75 feet in such instances, four facility ones in the RC zone. It allows once one onsite parking stall for the use. It eliminates a provision that had been added into version two that would allow for some grandfathering of existing parking spaces and then for facilities, twos and threes in a and ARI zones that modifies the maximum parking to 150% of the minimum required. I have another. Thing. Mr. Chair, another kind of reason question if that's okay. And with respect to the WB, D1 is also the smallest of the three, right. In terms of their production. Could could someone help me understand the philosophical reason or the land use rationale? Maybe to put it in central staff terms for discouraging, if I'm reading this correctly, the small facilities on the ag lands. What's what's. The. I'll speak to what happened. And then I read that he can take over the exact. As opposed to the big ones, which would seem to be. Permitted. The executives transmittal did not include the facility ones in the ASM. The version two added an interim facility. One use in the ASN. They would have had to go away or convert to a facility to within five years. And I'll speak to Councilman Bolden to speak to why the Hershiser takes it out. But so this goes back to what the executive proposed. Just another word on the executive proposal here. One of the big challenges with current code and with enforcement of current code is the home occupations. And it's just really hard to do fact finding around what is truly a home occupation versus what is not. And so our understanding from the Department was that a big part of the WB ones was a sort of a replacement for home occupations to be better defined and better able to be managed. And I see a little nodding. So that makes me feel better because I'm speaking to their rationale, the idea for and those were never proposed to be allowed in the ag zones. That would have been an expansion of uses from what we currently have. The idea for having the WB ones in the ag zones was as an incentive, if you will, for farmers. Those of you who who represent farmers or know about farming know that the challenge of making a living as a farmer is such these days that many of them are branching out into side businesses or to other activities in order to support their farms. And so the idea was that if you could try out the sales of something before you had to commit your fields to growing the necessary crops, you could discover whether it was financially viable and then commit your fields to growing. And it was a way of giving farmers a step up into a new business, if you will. When we proposed this as part of the combined striker last time at Local Services, after that went public, I have to say there was not a single person who expressed any support for this idea. Farmers didn't like it, businesses didn't see any need for it, it just didn't do anything. And some people thought that it was a foot in the door to really expanding commercial uses in the ag zones. And that's why I proposed taking it out, because it didn't solve anything for anybody that I heard from. If there's somebody listening now who thinks it solves something, please let me know. But I haven't heard from anybody like that, and it did cause concerns from people who cared about the ag zone. So I just took it out. Think that the thing else that Christine wanted me to mention is that the current code requires that 60% of the products be grown in Puget Sound counties for the A zone, it's proposed to be changed to 60% grown on site. So the facility ones would have a maintained that Puget Sound counties it was a as because member mentioned it it was kind of like a starting point for those smaller facilities. Can I also say the other thing we heard the thing we I heard from farmers, they actually and I asked I said, why doesn't this do anything for you? And what we heard was it takes a lot longer than five years to establish a crop big enough and in a sustainable enough way to be able to really rely on it as your business crop. And so to just say, here's five years, see if you can grow enough wheat to have a brewery. Right. Wasn't. It wasn't helpful. It was an attempt to be helpful. It didn't hit the mark. And so we backed away. That's all I was going to present on so I can take questions or speak to the line amendments if you like. Questions on the striker is striker from committee or the striker before us. The striker would be proposed today by Councilmember Balducci. What would members find helpful to continue discussion of the line amendments to take up the ordinance line amendments? Let's brief on the amendments. So now we're going to go to the smaller packet. There's some odd numbering here just because of how amendments became public today. So bear with me. 0.18 would remove the 15% square footage limitation for onsite tasting and retail sales of products for facility twos and threes in the eight and ARI zones. A moment 0.2 B for all facilities for properties that do not about an agricultural zone. It would add the option to reduce the 75 foot setback from residential and rural areas on properties to 25 feet, with a signatory as permit and with screening. Amendment one. A Before we question about the amendment, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I'm not sure that everybody both here and the listening audience understands what a conditional use permit is, how much time it takes, and what the cost is. So if you could give a little conditional use permit one on one, that would be helpful. We'd have Johnny pull it up. It is a type two land use permit, so it requires public notice, environmental review and it a written decision by the permitting division. It is appealable to the hearings, amateur and then to superior court. And as an Internet. What is Mr. Adobe? Well, I. Think. You did great. You did? That's what I'm saying. Needs Internet. Who needs to look something up? You just did that. I think it costs somewhere between six and $8,000, depending on what they use it and how. Long it usually take. I don't know. Yeah, it really depends. I have an answer sitting in that back corner I saw, but I don't library very well. 62 months. Six, 6 to 12 months. Sometimes it feels like 62, so it was 6 to 12 months and could be 6 to $8000. So this is not something that is willy nilly. And I think it's important for people to understand that this is this is a process, not a crackerjack. I got it in the cracker jack box and I got it. Okay. Amendment one A would make some changes specific to Basho Mori Island only in the gray zone and only for facility two. It would for historic properties set the minimum lot area at two acres would allow up to 7000 square feet of aggregated floor area for historic properties would exempt existing businesses from the minimum lot size requirements from the arterial access requirements. And from the 75 foot setback, four from rural and residential zones also would remove the 15% square footage limitation on tasting and retail sales for that's for existing businesses and for historic properties only on Russian Maria Island. One, B, E and G are alternatives to one a. If the first two pass or don't pass a moment. Two would modify the minimum parking ratio for the tasting and retail areas of production facilities to one space per 150 square feet of tasting and retail area. And there is a tidal limit. So we would have a structure before us. We, as it was referred from for council, we have another striking amendment before us and then just one page of amendments. Yeah. You have a version to then a striking amendment. That's an 18 out. Colleagues. Council Member Belle du Jour. Questions in order about the line amendments right now or should we wait until we walk through the process? Yes, we took questions on the structure. I think it'd be appropriate to take questions on the line amendments now as well. If I may. Yeah. On Amendment one, a just generally sort of I have a technical question and a background question. The background question is how many businesses are we talking about? And based on Moray Island and a lot of email. But how many businesses? Less than ten. Analyst Okay. And if I'm reading this correctly, it exempts historic. Properties and existing businesses as to most of the requirements. But what about the 15% square footage limitation? Yeah, there's a typo in the matrix. It's the 15% limitation on chasing your cells again is only for existing businesses and historic properties. And the technical question is, with existing businesses leaving historic properties aside for a moment, that would be existing as of. January 1st. January 1st of 2019 this year. And it would what happened if those businesses wanted to expand. They would be considered legally non-conforming. And then the requirements for legal. Non-Conforming, there's a certain amount of squish, but not a whole lot of squish, as I recall here. Not the legal term. Okay. Thank you. I like. Council member Col Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a clarification question. I was the for both the striking amendment and the line amendments was the striking amendment and have been these amendments today. The line amendments been provided to people online. I guess at the time. The striking amendment was online. Last week. They left Monday so we could go. But these are. New, not correct. Thank you. Well, Councilman McDermott has been sharing his amendment. And I know for the broader community. They were not published. No more questions on the linemen line amendments. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll just take that opportunity to say I have a lot of questions, but I don't frankly have the ability to ask them in an intelligent and an integrated way with the other stuff, because they're so new on this coming forward here today. And this is I know we spent a lot of time, a whole baby's lifetime working on this. But and I think we are making substantial progress. And I want to commend those who have taken the lead on it for their hard work. But I would just want to note, you asked about process, and I heard you say that you'd hope we can move forward today. I'm not prepared to move forward today. I won't be able to support any of this today. I might be able to get there after I've had a time to think about it and to look at it because a lot of it's new. I think we do our best work by sharing the information and I credit customer about that for publishing a schedule and sharing her advice. Striking an amendment. Last week, it was helpful to be able to look at the chart and I'm still digging in. But our public also, as we heard in public comment today, deserves, I think, the opportunity to have these materials provide input. We have delivered us here, I don't know, 40 pages of 62 page pages, a public comment from September 13th through the 16th. I've not been able to read it. I know that we have time after a hearing, but one thing that would help me would be just to spend a little time with, I think, where we stand today on this on these items. And I know you, Mr. Chair, have made time on your schedule, so all of my members can weigh in on this committee. And I know it's very limited. Just a thought. We do have a five week month here. And that fifth week, as we know, is available for special meetings or one. If members wanted more time and there was availability Monday, the 30th could be another opportunity and folks had time to do additional reflection. But that's kind of where I'm at. I'm going do the best I can today day. But I will tell you, I would like to be more familiar with the materials than I am and the public input on them than I'm able to be today. But thank you. Further dialog input from members. This legislation was introduced at least a year and a half ago, I believe well over a year ago, has gone through the committee process and made its way to full council and has now been referred back to the committee of the whole so we can all do work on it. We've had a striker out since last Monday for all of us to have a chance to review if there is interest in moving today, we could take up amendments and vote. If there's an interest in having more time to make sure we've got a good handle on the legislation before us and there would be value in that , then I would make time at our next count, our next committee, the whole meeting to take this up. After that, it might get challenging, but it'd be my expectation that we would all, to borrow perhaps an overused phrase, lean in and be in a position to come ready to take up this work in an earnest sense at our next regular council meeting. Is with an interest in moving it today on my part to have the committee calendar open up again. Councilmember Lambert. I agree with Councilmember Dombrowski. There is a lot of changes to what we had been talking about for over a year. It came out of committee. There was a task force nearly four years ago now, even before your baby. So. I have worked on legislation that has been national with fewer hours and weeks and months going into it. And so I think that what it comes down to and is do we want to have a place that businesses can thrive, that the ambiance of the rural area can be preserved? People who live in the rural area and go out to the rural area want to see the farmlands. They want to see the beauty of the area. Rural people like to meet together. When you drive by this area, there are happy faces there. Places are full. People are having a great time. We have put together something here today where as it was testified to, there could be 7 to 18 parking slots. So with some of the changes that certain kinds of fermenting and such would need to be done on site, that would mean that there have to be extra employees , which would also cut into the profits of the business, which are also cut into the idea that there would be parking available. So if two couples decided, I'd like to go out and have a drink with you tonight, let's all meet at X place. They would get there and if there were seven parking spots that would be four cars. Hopefully there'd be somebody there to wait on them. So that could be two or three. So now there would be no other parking spaces for anybody else to come. I would guess that at least when I owned a business, if I didn't have any parking spaces for my customers to come to, I wouldn't be in business very long. So when we talk about rural character, we need to be looking at not killing all of the places where people want to go to congregate. This is a place where people are happy to be there. This place would not have thrived for this many years if it weren't some place that people like to come to that 15%. I don't even know where that number came from, but it has huge impacts and people say, well, they can park on the arterials or the arterials, that there are two main roads, there are no places to park. They said, Well, you can take a bus. That would be really nice that there were busses saying that you were going to prohibit on site sales. They can do it in the industrial area. I went door to door to I don't even know how many industrial areas and asked them how many slots they would have per month for sales from another tasting room. And almost to a person. They said, Oh my gosh, I get so many phone calls about this, I can't even keep up with the demand. So that's not a viable option. And over and over in demonstration, a two events per year with a maximum of 50 people, you're allowed that in your own backyard, in your own house. And it's not even even a real route. It's not even a business. You know, when you look at one of the amendments on one of the amendments, it says to preserve historic properties that I agree with, completely historic properties should be able to continue on with those kinds of things. But then it says to be exempted from the amendment requirements. We worked really hard on adding minimum requirements so that it couldn't proliferate and the value in the valley. We talked about arterial access as opposed to some flexibility with rural access. We talked about the idea, the setbacks and having some flexibility under a C u.p. And last but not least, I'd like to show you the chart Fiji poll that showed up on the wall. I have it here bigger for people in the audience. No. Everything in green on this chart. I get my stats, all that up for me. Everything in green on this chart has been preserved already by. By either our farm preservation or our agriculture production. Just we have some kind of claim on everything in green that shows you that we care about this. This part right here is where they want to build a 22 acre parcel, which originally was going to be called the Wine Village. Thank you. So with all of that green area, it's clear that we are trying to get the balance between between protecting our farmlands and also keeping rural, rural lifestyle in many places in the country . Wine tasting is considered an ag use. So we tried to get the balance over a year of collaboration with I don't even know how many hours of your time and other legal staff. For people who don't know, we have a very extensive legal team in King County, and I think they probably all have ulcers from dealing with all this over and over. So I think I think there's two things we as a council need to decide. Do we want to put all these businesses out? And if that's what the council wants to do, then let's just say that if that is not what we want to do, then we need to say, okay, how are we going to make them viable and how are we going to then have a a rich rural lifestyle where there is balance? This is not balance. This is putting them out of business just about. And I'm sad that after all these years of working and trying to come up with a compromise, that today we're sitting here with something that will put these businesses pretty much out of business. And then my next question after that, myself, at 3:00 in the morning, when I woke up and wrote the speech, was what will happen? Yes, I will go to three in the morning. Yeah, I did go to sleep all night long. What will happen to these businesses? These are small little houses where people have turned them into very delightful places for people to congregate. And for the record, people have said that I am trying to get this compromised because I spend so much time out there. For the record, I drink very little alcohol in my entire life. So the idea that that's the motivation is blatantly inaccurate. But moving on from that. So we need to decide what we want to have. And if if we take and say, okay, no tasting rooms, no wineries here, no anything, then what's going to happen to these businesses? We're going to have a section leading up to a 22 acre industrial, commercial, industrial, commercial place that is going to be vacant. And is that what we really want? Or could we find a way of making an ambiance that is compatible with what is going to be there? And what I would say is already there. When you talk about, say, Michel and Columbia Winery and the the tourist district of wouldn't those so I agree we should put this on at a future meeting and we need to get everybody in a room to decide, are we going to continue to have real lifestyle out here or are we going to completely get it? And I think that's where we are today. So I hope that we will make a decision to come together with a more reasonable plan. Giving you discussion of the details, I thought we were ready to take action and make decisions. Councilmember Bell Duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Question Point of order. Did I hear you say that there is room on the September 16th call for this or there may be room on this? Councilmember Bell Dutchie, I'm really glad you are sorry. Today is. No, no, no, no. You know what? I'm don't interrupt the chair. I guarantee you, there is action in the committee, the hall on September 16th. Okay. Let me rephrase. Is there room on the agenda at the next council meeting to work on this, or is it something that is not not yet determined? We can make sure I can make room on the October 7th next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee of the whole. To take this up so that it would. Be with the it would be tough to do so anytime after that. Right. Given the committee's workload for the rest of the year. Okay. In that case, just stating my own opinion with regard to the timing. If members feel that they need some more time to have more committee discussion and we can do it within the next couple of weeks, that makes sense to me. There is or there should be a 30 day comment period after we pass it out of committee again, which we've done before, but we should do again. So that means that we're not seeing this for final action at the earliest until late October, early November. I just wanted to point that out. So people are aware because there's been some conversation about this being rushed through, that's that's not going to be the case between now and the end. I would say if you don't take action until October 7th, you're not seeing this in full council until December because of Thanksgiving. So it gets pushed quite a ways back. I would be willing to move this item forward without recommendation today in order to get that notice out there and to get it moving. But it means taking up substantive amendments at full council. So I want to pause and see how people feel about that before making any kind of motion. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. A little earlier, I was going to say that I concurred with Councilman DEMBOSKY and Councilmember Lambert that we wait. But Cathy made a case for taking certain kind of positions and that extended that a little bit more. But it just added to the questions that I had. I really think that I'm in the camp that we need to wait a couple of weeks. I was struck by the fact that it was both representatives of the industry, the winery industry, as well as people here who are here to protect what they deem to be the real character of the affected area. And they really were kind of surprised about the latest set of amendments to what we have been working on a year. And to me, it's reasonable that they would get an opportunity to vet what is being proposed and a bit more from both the side of the industry as well as of protecting the real character of the affected areas. And then lastly, Mr. Chair, I was surprised that all of this impacts Bash on either in looking at the amendment that you presented, I, like some of the folks that spoke, did not know that what we were talking about would have such a profound impact on bass and island. And maybe I should have and I'd like to have time to look at that. So I'm hopeful that we'll be able to put it off for two weeks and not even make a vote on it without recommendation today. Thank you, sir. Councilmember of unranked power. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to thank you for taking a leadership role on your amendment. It was something that I know you've been working on over the last seven days, in particular, trying to find a even balance between the concerns have been raised countywide and but recognizing the uniqueness of Ashe on island. I really do want to thank you for doing that. People don't truly appreciate how unique fashion is and how you can. By applying a county view, sometimes you do bad work, hurt a very fragile economy and a fragile part of our county, which has not benefited from the growth and development of other portions of King County, but is very much a part of King County and wants to be a part of King County. But sometimes when you try to apply Bellevue. Tactics to bash on Allen they backfire. And I'm upset that both Councilmember Dunn and now do cheers from Bellevue. But the reality is Virginia is a very unique area. And I want to thank you as somebody who actually is still a taxpayer from based on our. That said, Mr. Chair, I think just as wine ages. Well, so should this legislation age a little. Well. And I want to thank Councilmember Baldacci, who has taken a hard lot of work on this issue, trying to find some balance. And it's a very difficult one given not only here own philosophy, but also on his her district. So I'm hoping we can age this process a little bit, give it a chance for it to settle in and have a chance to digest it properly. Council Member one Mike Bauer I am all for a well-aged wine. I'm concerned about vinegar. And I also point out to you that contrary to what Councilmember Lambert said, that she is not someone who has drank a lot of wine. I cannot make that same claim. Thank you. Okay. And that I'm going to intervene and point out that we have that the waiting period, the the comment period that would be announced would be a 45 day wait comment period. I would suggest that would happen from time of of committee action prior to so a 45 day period between committee action and full council action. And the comment was made that if we took it up and I would be clear at the next regularly scheduled council meeting, not in two weeks, but three weeks would. There would need to be committee committee work. I would suggest there needs to be more than committee work, but work among members to have conversations about the legislation . So we are ready to take action at a committee meeting at the next regularly scheduled committee of the whole meeting on this legislation. And with that, I would suggest it would be best handled by taking it up, leaving it in committee, and taking it up at our next regularly scheduled council meeting. Councilmember Bell Dutchie Mr. Chair, may I ask the indulgence of my colleagues for just a couple of minutes to explain what I did and why, since we're not doing this here today and since we've had a lot of discussion. So I'm just going to thank you. I'm just going to go ahead and do that, please. So with apologies again for the repetition. The current code was written in 2003 prior to the proliferation of the winery brewery distillery industry that you've seen in the last 15 years in our cities and in unincorporated King County. The code did not adequately predict this future, and therefore it's ambiguous. It doesn't match the reality we're seeing today, and it's been hard to enforce. The ambiguity has made it hard for people who want to follow the rules in established businesses to figure out how to comply with the code. And we've heard a lot of that. It's also meant that there's been a lack of enforcement in places where there probably ought to have been enforcement. We've heard today, and I've personally met with people who've spent thousands of dollars trying to comply with the code and they can't quite get there. So my pitch to my colleagues between now and the next meeting is we should pass something. I'm not one to be overly attached to every detail of something that I have personally proposed, but we should pass something because leaving things the way they are now is is kind of an untenable situation, I think, for everybody. So in recognition of this fact, the county committed to updating the code some years ago, prior to Councilmember Caldwell's and I coming on, the council and the executive entered into settlement agreements with businesses that had not been able to be permitted or that were violating code. 20 businesses, I understand, signed letter agreements. This is all in the Sammamish Valley. They agreed that they would not expand their businesses or change operations while we went through the code update process. There are dozens more that are not subject to agreements but have been in limbo for years and will continue in limbo as long as this is pending, as pending, as is the community not knowing what the rules are going to be. So as we all know, the executive convened a winery's study. It was focused on the Sammamish Valley. That's correct. That we heard from some of the Vachon and other folks. It was not really focused on county wide, although there was some study of countywide trends and impacts within the the adult beverage industry. That was not the focus. However, this code proposal has been focused on all of King County since at least April of 2018 when we received it. So it's not a new thing that this is a county wide code. It's just that as we get towards the end here, the changes that are made to apply countywide and are are new. I will recall to everybody that Councilmember Lambert and I worked hard on amendments to the executive's proposal after we received it, and we tried very hard to get to a place of real compromise. That meant that she compromised on things that were important to her, and I compromised on things that were important to me. We put together a proposal that was an attempt at a good balance between proposing agriculture, preserving excuse me, agricultural land and the rural character, and providing clear rules under which businesses could know how to operate and successfully operate. In some ways, that proposal was more restrictive for businesses and more protective of the environment than the executive's proposal. In a few ways, it was more flexible. We went to the full council with this proposal. We, after hearing it at the Local Services Committee and we heard in between there and at the meeting from many, many people and there was a lot of folks on both sides who thought they didn't like it. We didn't hear a lot of support and there was not support on this council to pass that proposal. So it was referred back to committee and not back to the smaller committee, back to this large committee of all of us, because that was the level of importance and focus that the council body, in our collective judgment, felt it needed. So when people ask what happened to that prior proposal, that's what happened. There wasn't support on this council to pass it, and so we had to do something. So in response to the extensive comment and Councilmember Lambert and I also had a big public meeting, we went out at night into the An Amish Valley. We listen to over 100 people. I've made visits. I know she has and others to to folks all over on all sides of this issue to try to grasp and understand the issues as best we can. So in response to all of that, I had been thinking about this for a very, very long time, and I prepared this new set of amendments. That's how we work here. When you've got a piece of legislation in committee, we, each of us have the ability and the right to propose amendments. And I've done that. What I tried to do was to further protect agricultural lands and, yes, tighten up the definitions and the rules for the businesses. That's correct. That's what I attempted to do in order to make it clear what was allowed and not allowed and to make sure that there isn't an opportunity, which we heard a lot of fear about expansion of these businesses in the unincorporated areas. So you heard a lot about I'm not going to talk about what the striker contains. We've already had that all briefed. But one of the main features of this was that it was meant to limit the amount of ongoing activity and expansion in the unincorporated areas. That was the goal to make sure that this wasn't something that could expand and continue to provide. To to put in place more impervious surface, more activity, more parking, more more things that impact not just the rural areas, but also the agricultural valley below in the sammamish valley. So just. I'm almost there. But let me just say, I want to be very clear what this code does and doesn't do this whole code, not just this proposal, not just my amendment, not just this code, change the code addresses, uses the state grants, licenses that allow people to produce alcohol. We are regulating only unincorporated King County. So when people say this will wipe out the industry, untrue, the industry is flourishing, flourishing in the incorporated areas just across the street in a ceramic valley and in other places the business. But this will this code. Regulates where businesses can be located and to some extent how they operate. So there are still life safety rules, building codes, critical areas, regulations, shoreline management, Endangered Species Act requirements, storm water, water requirements, surface water standards. Public Health Code. All of these continue to apply to every single one of these businesses, regardless of whether we pass this or not. So the impact of those businesses is being managed through a number of different codes, not just this use code. I just say that because I want to make sure that people are aware that King County is committed to the health and safety of our residents and the preservation of agricultural lands and rural character in more ways than just the use code. I also want to say that I'm committed and I hope we all are committed, that when we update this code, no matter what it says, no matter how it impacts businesses and residents, we should make targeted investments to help businesses come into compliance if they can. And we should make investments to make sure that there's code enforcement for those who won't or can't come into compliance, because not enforcing the code has been part of the problem that grew in the Sammamish Valley, as we heard. I want to say, I've heard from the people on Virgin Island and and I've heard from Councilmember von Reich Brower, who I did not realize was such a version, a proponent of, you know, maybe you could work together a little bit there. And I'm happy to learn more about what's going on on Bastion Island. And the number of businesses is quite small. It doesn't have the same growth and expansion and therefore impact that we've seen in other places. So I look forward to talking to Councilmember McDermott about his perspective. But but I think we need to move forward and we need to adopt something in 16 months that we've had this in front of us. We've heard from hundreds of residents, dozens of businesses, organizations, and we're reaching the end. I think we should take some time to understand what we're doing, but if we're going to act at all, we should act soon. The current situation isn't sustainable and it isn't working for people. So I look forward to us finding a way through within the next few weeks, and I thank you for your time to let me say some words, Mr. Chair. COUNCILMEMBER Louder. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, we worked really hard on this, both in our committee and then individually. And at the beginning, many of you said, Let's have two people go out and find it. They could come up with a compromise bill that was good public policy and there were many compromises being made. And, you know, as it came over originally, it was supposed to close at 5 p.m. tasting rooms close by PM. I don't even get out of my last committee meeting until after 5 p.m. many days and then an hour, hour and a half to get to get home again, change my clothes. They would be closed every night of the week. So should I want to join Councilmember Von Right Barua? He drinks a glass of wine. It would already be closed. Wine or beer? Maybe two to as many as you want. I'll be your designated driver. I'm good at that. You know. Happy to do that if you want. I'm happy to just. About get into that, though. And we we many people on this council said it's complicated. Let's two of you go up who have a vested interest because it touches your district and come up with good public policy. And public policy needs to be clear defined rules and it needs to balance the things that we hold dear. And what we hold dear is protecting the agricultural land. And we also hold dear the idea that there needs to be a rural lifestyle and a rural lifestyle includes places where people can go and congregate and be together. And yes, if they would like, they can have a glass of whatever they choose to drink. And code enforcement, we talked about repeatedly in the budget where we are adding new employees to make sure that when the rules were passed that they could be enforced. You know, I really respect the requests of Bash on Island because in fact, that's what we all would want exactly what the request is. But I would say that all the county should be given that same opportunity within limits. And we set those limits. We said there had to be a minimum acreage requirement so that they would not proliferate. We were very clear on what ours needed to close and. We made sure that it was at least in line and even stricter than the noise ordinance when we heard things about the parking problems. We started out with saying, hey, look, let's just not get into that because it's a complicated formula. Let's leave it at one car for every 50 square feet of commercial area. And then it went to 150 feet for one parking slot. And now this new one says 300 square feet. We do need to pass something, but it needs to be something that is balanced. What we have before us today is really to say wipe it all out and it doesn't need to exist. And I would guess that on any weekend there will be so many thousands of people or hundreds of people driving to, say, Michele's Saint Columbia, to Jill's new place to theaters anziani all within the same block as and including in 22 acres at the end of the street that is going to be there. This could be a very vibrant place that we could be symbiotic to and complement. As opposed to saying that we want this to be an empty, deserted place. Well, going into wouldn't there. So I hope that as we go forward in the next couple of weeks, we will balance that, in fact. Wine tasting is a rural use and a rural thing that people like to do, including urban people who come to visit. So it needs to have balance. And I'm willing to work with whoever it like to to make some changes on the underlying bill, not the one that's before us today, because I believe that completely wipes out the industry. But let's work for something that makes sense to everybody. The two speak. If we're speaking to legislation and putting issues out before us. I'd like to also speak to the fact on an amendment that I have drafted and as Councilmember Balducci and Ms.. Osnes have alluded to, this comes from the entire ordinance before us, comes from a study that was done in the Sammamish Valley because of issues that had been identified in that community, and the ordinance attempts to address some of those issues. At the same time, those issues don't exist on baseline. It is a small number of existing such businesses and those are the issues that are being addressed in this mama's valley. Don't exist on the island. The. Amendment that I bring would allow would apply only to existing wineries, distilleries and breweries on Bastion Island. Would not. Would not change land. Ongoing land use code for the island would. It would apply to existing businesses. Any new businesses seeking to open undersigned would have to apply with whatever code we adopted and existing businesses, should they do a significant expansion would also need to comply with the new code as we adopt not a free for all or an exemption for VAT on. And so I want to I'm sure that as I've advocated with my colleagues over the last week intensely with the amendment and in conversation over the last several months as we've talked about the ordinance itself with that seen no one else would comment council member von Reich Bauer. Thank you. I just urge my colleagues and anybody in the audience if they have a chance to read the Bible first. Timothy 523. Thank you. Knowing of no other business to come before us, we are.	AN ORDINANCE relating to planning and permitting; amending Ordinance 1888, Article III, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.01.150, Ordinance 10870, Section 334, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.08.070, Ordinance 10870, Section 335, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.08.080, Ordinance 10870, Section 336, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.08.090, Ordinance 10870, Section 407, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.18.030, Ordinance 10870, Section 536, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.30.080, Ordinance 15606, Section 20, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.30.085, Ordinance 10870, Section 537, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.30.090, Ordinance 10870, Section 547, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.32.100, Ordinance 10870, Section 548, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.32.110, Ordinance 10870, Section 549, as amended, and K.C.C. 21A.32.120, Ordinance 17485, Section 43, and K.C.C. 21A.38.260 and Ordinance 13623, Section 37, as amended, and K.C.C. 23.32.010, adding new sections to K.C.C. chapter 21A.06, adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 21A.55, adding a new chapter to K.C.C. Title 6, repealing Ordinance 15974, Section 5, and K.C.C. 21A.06.1427 and pre
king_7e151f8c-4c3b-4aa2-a8e6-658ae93544b7	Order in the committee to hold meeting for Wednesday, April 7th, 2021. And as we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Serious peoples, past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. We continue, as you know, to meet virtually due to the pandemic. Today's agenda consists of a briefing from director Dave Lee of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget on the county's COVID 19 response. And then we'll take up legislation relating to renewal of the best streets for kids levy. As we get started, I'd ask that everyone except for members keep their video off until just before you're planning to speak, to streamline our ability to manage the meeting and to if you're connecting the meeting during your cell phone and you wish to offer public comment, please do your best to if you're able to connect to the Zoom app as it will make it easier to do and eliminate a possible lag in a delay in time. With that, Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member WG. Councilmember Demovsky. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember Coles Council member Lambert. Council member up to go here. Council member van right there. Council members. All I. You're Mr. Chair. You're Mr. Chair. You have a quorum. Thank you. I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes. Council member done. So move. Mr. Chair. The minutes of our previous meeting are before us. Seeing no discussion. All those in favor. Please signify by saying hi. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Well, now to turn to public comment, I know we have people on the line for public comment, so let me go through our procedures and rules for public comment. First, some ground rules. Public comment should be related to the item on today's agenda and not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. And it should not include obscene speech. And if you fail to abide by these rules, you may be ruled out of order and required to exit the virtual meeting on. And now the process as people joined the Zoom meeting, you are automatically muted and we can see your name or the last three digits of your phone number . Our committee clerk will call it the names or numbers when you're late, when your name or the last three digits of your phone number is called, staff will on your line, please, only on your end if you've muted yourself as a courtesy as well. And. It would assist us if you actually did not use the hand raised function. The clerk will go through every one the in the. Meetings. Asking them to if they wish to offer public comment. And before you begin your testimony, when you're called on in your own muted events, please just say your name and then wait for a moment so we can acknowledge that we can hear you. And then begin by saying and spelling your name so we can have it accurate for the record. And with that, we'll have a two minute timer. So when you hear the timer, please finish your thought, but wrap up your comments to allow the next person to speak. And if you're listening on TV or streaming the meeting, please turn that audio off so that we don't have feedback on the line. With that, madam, I would turn it over to you to manage public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is Jess Galvez. Please go ahead and mute yourself and you can speak. Sure. Good morning. For the record, my name is Jessica Galvez. And Jesus. I see a gal breezy. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you, Chairman. General, an honorable members of the King County Council for the opportunity to provide a statement this morning in support of renewing the best starts for kids. Levy. My name is Jessica Galvez, and I'm the Washington state manager for Save the Children Action Network or Scam to Make It Shorter, which is the political advocacy arm for Save the Children. We're building bipartisan support to ensure every child has a healthy start in life. In King County, we have 3000 online supporters, an active community action team with adult volunteers and student ambassador programs at the University of Washington High School. And, any rate, boys and girls schools in Tacoma. In 2014, scan contributed to the Best Search for Kids Levy campaign, and if given the opportunity again this year, we're excited to help renew what is now considered the most comprehensive child development approach in the nation while maintaining the current levy allocation levels. Proposed Ordinance 62 would also advance a bold new approach for child care in the county. Children like access to child care for many reasons, with the cost and availability being the primary contributing factors. As many of you know, the pandemic has also exacerbated the problem, as many providers are currently closed their doors due to low enrollment, in part due to parents having lost their ability to pay tuition paired with the provider costs almost doubling as these additional widespread closures have perpetuated our society's vast inequities, further disproportionately affecting black, indigenous and people of color. Your support for Proposition 62 will go a long way towards improving children's lives and those who would provide essential early learning opportunities. It would establish a new subsidy program to reduce our fully subsidized child care costs for families with low incomes. Again, that will be harmed by the pandemic and then launch a demonstration project to gauge how our living wage would improve recruitment and retention of early care and education professionals. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you. The next person is. Is Aaron Haik. But go ahead. Good morning, council members. Aaron. That's e r i n h a i c k i representing SEIU 95. And just so you know, I actually don't have the ability to start my body or I guess that hostess stopped it, and now I can. Thank you. So I like I said, Aaron Hike here with SEIU 95. I want to speak also in support of the renewal of the best arts for Kids Levy. Corbett has shown us what a critical piece of infrastructure to a functioning economy childcare is. Folks just can't go back to work without a safe place for their kids. And unfortunately, our state and our county just lack enough childcare providers to meet that need. The Childcare Collaborative Task Force of the State estimates that our state loses about 2 billion a year due to employee turnover and missing work due to childcare arrangements that fall through. And without enough licensed providers, families are going to end up using unlicensed care or one parent. Often women are going to have to drop out of the workforce to provide that care themselves. At the same time, childcare providers work and live in poverty. Our members are a super majority of women and women of color, and because this is a fundamentally broken market, they make less than dog walkers and pet groomers while raising the next generation. We cannot keep maintaining a system that depends on keeping black and brown women poor in. Order to work. That's why we're so excited to see the inclusion of a wage demonstration project, and that starts. Reams of research will demonstrate that the best start for a child involves a long term, stable relationship with a caregiver. And we think that this demonstration project will help us figure out how to address that 50% turnover every year that you see in the average center based care setting. Like I said, we're very supportive of the levy that's in front of you. If we want to see an equitable recovery from COVID, our state and our county need to make major investments to make childcare work for both families and providers. By investing as this levy does, and expanding access to affordable child care for families and helping providers stay in business. We can jumpstart our economic recovery. These are the right investments and meet the moment we have to pass this levy to voters swiftly. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Chiara. And how? My name is Karen. How h0we. And I'm a cancer volunteer who just happens to serve on the CPA board. And I'm speaking in support of the FDA because I see as a cause to volunteer exactly how every single one of these services affect foster kids. So these are kids that are at the lower end of the spectrum that really need the support and help. These funds are dramatic in terms of what they're able to accomplish for these children and for each of the individual groups that are in their get these their get these funds. It's astonishing, you know, because I can see their I can chart their progress actually from the day the they started to these services. And when they exit, these are profound changes. So I just end there and give back time to the group. And you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Everybody has been called. Thank you. To make sure we catch everybody and haven't had any mistakes. Madam Clerk, will you please unmute everyone and I'll ask if anyone else wishes to offer public testimony. So if you could ask everyone to unmute their lines. I just ask everybody, don't you, Mr. Chair? Thank you. Is there anyone on the call who would like to testify and offer a public comment and has not had the opportunity to do so? Hearing no one. And then, Madam Clergy, if you re mute everyone if necessary. Think we're good now, Mr. Chair. I do too. Then we'll close public testimony and move to item five since I took item four out of order already. And that is to our briefing with Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr.. Mr.. Devlin, good morning. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me easily? Very well. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. So, for the record, Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Always a pleasure to be with you. I had six items I thought I would cover this morning. I don't think it'll take too long, but I think they were of interest to the council. So the first one is in fact, the first two are response to questions you asked me when we last got together, which I believe was three weeks ago, the first one on kind of the status of the Metro Transit financial position. And second, the status of the Road Services Division's financial position in response to COVID. So let me start with Metro Transit. So it obviously was a very strange and complex year for Metro's finances, huge decrease in their sales tax revenue, although ultimately not as much as we originally forecast a very significant loss of fare revenue, both because ridership was down. And then of course, there was a period where we suspended fare collection. And as a result of that, in the year 2020, fare revenue was 72% below what had originally been projected. So that was a very, very substantial loss. On the other side of the ledger, of course, the federal government came through twice in 2020 with additional resources for public transit agencies. Metro got approximately $245 million from the CARES Act and $258 million from the December bill. That is now going by the acronym Clarissa. And so between CARES and Clarissa, there was about $500 million of additional revenue that came in to Metro. And there will be another amount this year from the ARPA bill was passed earlier in the year. The exact amount of that is still being worked out through the Puget Sound Regional Council. On the operating budget side, costs were down but only a little bit. Most of the service continued to be operated and of course it was only about less than half of the biennium that was affected by COVID and the costs that were saved and reduced routes were almost all from having fewer part time operators. So the operating budget was not down anywhere near close to what the revenue was, and it was already actually below budget for the biennium by about 2%. Our capital spending, however, was down a lot more for a whole variety of reasons. So the bottom line is, and this is preliminary, but it should be very close to where it ends up at the end of 2020 that Metro has all of the reserves that are required by its financial policy. So the fleet replacement reserve, the revenue stabilization reserve, the capital reserve and so on. And then beyond that, their unreserved fund balance is about $640 million, which obviously is a very healthy amount. And the consequence of that is after we restore service to levels that existed before. You will recall that in the adopted budget the assumption was that roughly in 2025 the unreserved fund balance would be used up because our ongoing costs were higher than our ongoing revenues. And so there was approximately a 500,000 our planned service reduction in roughly 2025. All other things being equal. So no new revenue sources, no other changes in operations or revenue. The consequence of this large or unreserved fund balance at the end of 2020 is that that class, that decline in service is some combination of smaller or later. That obviously is going to be ultimately a policy judgment for the elected officials to make. So, you know, in a sense, what you can conclude is, despite what happened in the COVID pandemic recession, the additional federal money means that Metro's financial position is actually somewhat improved from where it was before COVID. It's an. Issue of point. Where your service can be maintained indefinitely at the pre-COVID level. But we are in a place where that reduction in service is either smaller or later than we had assumed pre-COVID. So let me pause there and just see if there's any questions about Metro's financial status. Colleagues. Council member Belushi. Yeah, I'm trying to frame up a question, and I may not be able to do so, but. But as you probably know, there's a lot of discussion going on with our jurisdictions and others about how and when we bring back pre-COVID levels of service. And of course, there's always the tension between the tension between bringing back what was and evolving into what is planned, which can be different. And there's just a lot of anxiety around whether or not we're going to bring back levels of service and when that's going to happen. And so I guess maybe the question is, am I hearing correctly that we have all the resources we need to bring back COVID levels of pre-COVID levels of service? Council Member I think that's a fair way to characterize it. So I spend a lot of time talking with Terry White, General Manager at Metro, and I think our consensus view between us and our staffs is that Metro service restoration is now constrained by demand. You don't want to restore service that nobody's going to use. Right? And by the ability to ramp back up, I mean, there's only so much you can do. So many people you can hire, so many people you can train. So those are really now the constraints, not the money. So as Metro is able, as demand comes back and as Metro is able to hire staff, they will then be able to restore service. And the financial consequences of that are not in the near term, a barrier. Okay, well, that's good news. Thank you. Yeah, it is very good. And, you know, we can very much thank our friends in Washington, DC for giving us the opportunity to do that. All right. Well, that will send a thank you note to Secretary. Mayor Pete. The Demovsky cast member Dombroski. Thank you. Hey, Dwight, thanks for the very clear and understandable update. Would you also comment? We did not include in our budget expected revenues from the prop one in Seattle. And what if, you know, is the additional positive impact of over the budget of those funds coming in? Yeah. So Councilmember, we didn't include either the revenue or the expenditure. And so and that is a on balance is basically a wash. There is no net gain, although obviously there's more service that is provided because that ballot measure passed. I see. And so are you accounting for that in the can, the five plus years service. Our provision assessment as well. Okay. Yes. That's implicit in that to say that one of the things that I think we're just going to have to think about is since that was not included. It probably makes sense in a future budget ordinance, maybe the mid biennial ordinance to actually include that appropriation, even though perhaps arguably Metro already has enough appropriation. Authority, I think just is something we'll need to talk about. But just a kind of transparency would be to recognize that revenue and add that expenditure at some point later. And then finally, does your accounting also include the forecast increase of 100 plus million dollars that we recently talked about? Yes, it does. Great. Thank you, Joy. No further questions. See none. Procedure. So item two, I believe, was Councilmember Lambert asked about the status of the Road Services Fund, and it turned out that COVID had almost no effect on roads and certainly had effect on how they operated. But in terms of the financial effect, it was almost nonexistent. So as you know, by far the largest revenue source for the roads division is the property tax that was really not affected by COVID. A gasoline tax, which is the second largest revenue source, was down by $2 million. But other revenue sources, things like work that roads does for cities, were actually up by about the same amount. So on balance, roads ended up very much as if COVID had never happened. Now, obviously, there are long term financial position is still disastrously bad, but in terms of the impact from the pandemic, I think we can say it is basically nonexistent. Questions on that. Colleagues. More clarity, no more questions. Right. Okay, good. So the third item is one I just thought I would share because I know all of you probably have some interest in this. So I asked Jason Scarano on my staff to do a little research project on how cities in King County were affected financially by the COVID pandemic. And I thought I would just share some of the kind of general results not going city by city, but just kind of get general sense of how things happened. One thing that was probably not surprising is that the impact was highly variable. Cities that had very large sales tax bases were hit pretty hard on the financial side. So Bellevue, Seattle, Tukwila, Auburn places that rely a lot on the sales tax saw significant decreases in that as a result of the pandemic. Other cities that don't have big sales tax bases and are basically dependent on the property tax or utility taxes as their principal revenue source generally had less impact because those revenue sources weren't affected in the same way. So a lot of our smaller cities actually didn't see a lot of negative impact because of that. Just using as an example, Normandy Park said, you know, basically we ended up where we thought we would be pre-pandemic. So a few of the things that were pretty common that cities did and many did, at least for some functions, either a wage or a hiring freeze or both. And so that was probably the single most common response was a hiring freeze. And then where they had the ability to not increase wages, they chose not to do that. Secondly, many of them did something that we did, which is a voluntary separation program where they provided financial incentives for employees to retire. That seemingly was successful for many cities. It was actually pretty wildly successful for the county. We got way more people interested in that than we expected. A third thing was use of fund balances. We are kind of the flip side of that, not contributing to other funds at the levels that they had anticipated before COVID. So quite a few cities said we deferred a contribution to a capital fund or we deferred a contribution to a vehicle replacement fund. So those kind of onetime financial transactions were fairly common. Interestingly, you all will recall that at County we in the General Fund and a few other funds, we did draw down our reserves somewhat, but we also did not defer any of our contributions to other fund. So like vehicle replacement, technology replacement. We continued to fund those things. And then a fourth thing that was much less common, although some cities did it, were either furloughs of staff where they had days off that they didn't get paid for or layoffs in a typically pretty narrow area. So one of the things that happened in a few cities is their building activity declined pretty substantially at the beginning of the pandemic. And so they're in their permitting functions. They actually had a reduced staff and there were a few cities that did more general staff layoffs and just in order to balance their budget . But that was not very common. So compared to the Great Recession, for example, the number of government employees who actually lost their jobs was significantly less than we saw, you know, ten, 11, 12 years ago. And then I guess the final thing I would share, the cities reported that their incremental costs were covered by money that came through the state from the federal government. So you might remember way back at the beginning of COVID when we were first doing an appropriation. One of the things that we included was money the county received from the federal government that we plan to share with cities as needed. And it turned out there was almost none of that that was necessary. Several of the cities at the beginning said, we want these bills. But ultimately the money they got from the state that came from the federal government was more than sufficient to cover those things. So on the cost side, in the budget similar to the county, the cities actually didn't have to spend their own money to cover incremental COVID related costs. So that's just a quick update on that research, and I'm happy to try to answer any questions if folks have them. Councilmember Banducci. That's a comment. I think that's really interesting and fascinating research. I hope you're sharing it with with the cities themselves, because I think they might find it interesting to see what others have done. Good. That's a great. I had not thought of that, councilman. Right. Will make sure we do that. Thank you. Colleagues. Mr. DeVere. What else? Okay, so three other things that should go pretty quickly. So I want to give you a update on the close out of all of the grants from the CRF, as we call it, the Coronavirus Relief Fund. This is the CARES Act, money that through various appropriations, the council used a portion of it to do grants. Just to give you a sense of the order of magnitude, we ended up with 97 categories of grants. So things like grants to cities or grants to chambers of commerce or food grants, things of 97 different categories and over 1300 separate grant recipients, so that the scale of doing all of this tracking and closeout work is immense . And again, I just have to recognize the staff in PSB, the staff in the Finance and business operations division, in the prosecutor's office, and in all of the agencies that did grant programs. With very few exceptions, we did not add more staff, and yet we put this whole extra work on them to, you know, allocate the money , do the contracts, administer the funds, do the follow up, comply with all the federal rules. And so that was just a phenomenal effort that folks did. Our intent had been to get all that closed out last week. We did that mostly. There are a few areas we are still working through, getting the appropriate documentation and I'd say generally the ones that been hardest to get documentation from are the ones that aren't used to doing it. So, you know, the agencies, the nonprofit organizations that routinely get grants, they know how to do it. They've done all their documentation. Some of the organizations that typically don't get grants, including the cities, are having to work harder with them because it's something new. So probably, I believe, Councilmember, we have another committee of the whole in a couple of weeks. I think I can give you a pretty clear near-final outcome of those grants in a couple of weeks. I hope we could do it today, but we're still not quite there. So let me pause and see if there's any questions on that. Mr. Dagli, we look forward to you. Screen sharing the spreadsheet with all the things. No, you don't. It's actually I was looking at it earlier this morning. It's about ten tabs. It is beautiful. It's got lots of colors on it, but it is really difficult to track. I like a good spreadsheet. Okay. Ever since I took budgeting in my master's program. Councilmember Lambert and I know you had a phenomenal teacher in that program, and so Professor Diabaly as well as our director. So I just got some very interesting news like 5 minutes ago. We all put in a list of what we wanted for the infrastructure package for going to Congress. My assumption was that the compilation then would go in with all of our requests, and I was just told by somebody that it was not put in that way and that it was mostly this passage issues and not more infrastructure issues. That is of great concern to me. I know we need this passage and I know we have several accounts of dealing with that. But I had hoped that this would be more general projects. Have you heard that yet or do you know anything about that? That is unfamiliar to me. Councilmember, I will follow up on it. Did you get that from your federal relations staff? I will talk to you about what I just got from what I was just told, but that's only part of I was told. So we should probably talk. Okay. Yeah, I'm not familiar with that, but I'm happy to talk with you about it. Great. Thank you. Go ahead, Dwight. Okay. So item five and Councilmember Wells and Councilmember Dombroski are already awareness because I shared it with him last week. I think I have mentioned that we have a our most of our county insurance as an annual renewal date of April 1st. That always has struck me as ironic in a way, but nonetheless, that's the date that it renews. And it was a very difficult insurance renewal. And so our not surprisingly, given what's going on with COVID, what's going on with now all kinds of other things that insurance companies have been losing money about. And so we ended up being able to get the same amount of coverage that we've had in the past for reliability. But it cost us about 42% more than it did last year. And that's not a big surprise. We had a a similar challenge with our cyber insurance unit for information technology exposures. Again, higher rates for basically the same amount of coverage. Also, just so you know, not surprisingly, most of the insurers have removed any coverage for anything that's related to a pandemic. So they that was not something that was routinely excluded in the past. Now it is routinely excluded. So the the insurance situation, we're still fine from a coverage perspective, but the cost went way up. We don't know yet whether we're going to need to adjust the budget for that. That's part of a much larger fund, maybe. Okay. But I just wanted to give you a sense that, you know, we've been able to maintain our coverage through great work by our Office of Risk Management Services, but the cost of it was a lot higher. Questions on our insurance. And can you. Please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you put that in context of, like, what it means for overall cost trends? I mean, that's one thing, and it's an expensive thing that we buy. But what was it? What does that do to our financial position? So the the incremental amount of money was, if I remember correctly, about $1.7 million. And that is handled through our risk fund, which has money not just for insurance, but also for a lot of the other risk exposures we have so claims and so on. It's a relatively modest portion of our total risk fund. So that's why I'm not sure that we actually are going to need to do anything. And then that risk fund is allocated across all of our funds based on their historic liabilities. So, you know, Metro, obviously, because of bus accidents, is the single largest source of liabilities for the counties. So they get the biggest portion of the insurance bill. So that gives you some context about the order of magnitude we're talking about. All right. So then the last thing, the six thing I had, I wanted to just give you a quick. Preview. Of the upcoming first omnibus supplemental appropriations ordinance. So this is not a convincing, but I did think it was appropriate to just share it with you right now. I again have talked already with Councilmember Wells and Councilmember Dombrowski about this. You'll be receiving this next week. It is the same thing that you always get a few months after the end of a biennium. And this is almost entirely technical. So I don't believe it'll take a huge amount of councilmember time or staff time. I did want to tell you that it's going to look like a pretty large amount of money. It's over $300 million. But two thirds of that is to re appropriations of large amounts of money that at the end of the biennium the appropriation lapses or goes away. So the largest by far is $140 million from the flood control district. That is for capital projects that the county does on behalf of the district. But because of the way the district budgeted, said it's an operating expense so it doesn't roll over in the county's budget. So we have to reappropriate that every two years. And then similarly in the housing fund, there's about a $75 million reinterpretation. So two thirds of what's here is just these technical appropriations of very large amounts of money. And then there's lots of other small technical adjustments and another small group of appropriations that you'll see. The one substantive thing I did want to mention, since I know many of you are working on this right now, is, you know, I think it's fair to say many of us did not expect the charter amendments related to the sheriff's office to pass. So the adopted budget did not reflect anything along those lines. And as the work has started up this year to make that transition, we have some needed expenditures and labor relations. We have needed expenditures related to a payroll transition, some support for the groups that are working on that transition. So you will see a series of appropriations that are in support of the transition of the sheriff's office that will take place at the end of this year. So that's one of the very few areas that are really a policy item. We did feel that given the timing, it was appropriate to include it in this upcoming ordinance. And that was all I had. Mr. Chair, unless people have other questions. Questions on this or I think Mr. Lee just left himself open for anything else. I have a question. Councilmember Bell duty. Thank you. Can you? It feels like things have been shifting on the plan for the supplemental budgets, both COVID and omnibus. And can you just say as best possible, what the schedule and order of events are planned to be for this coming year? Yeah. So I just will note at the beginning that this is something we negotiated with Councilmember Ko while. So she obviously has a say in it to where we are at the moment is the council has already approved COVID six. COVID seven is before people now and we've got lots of good questions from your staff and answered most of them yesterday. I know they are busily working on their staff report. We then are going to transmit next week this first regular omnibus that I described a moment ago. Beyond that, all current thinking, subject to negotiation is that we would do COVID eight in probably June with the hope that the council would complete action on it prior to your taking your August recess and then the mid biennial ordinance, which is required by the charter. We are tentatively thinking would come to you in September. With the goal of action before the end of the year, and that will be a fairly substantive ordinance. So just to give you a sense of a couple of things that you're likely to see there. I mentioned earlier the adding the Seattle Transit Service, that would probably be the right time to do that. That would be a significant thing. Given the improved financial position for the general fund and some of our internal service funds, we probably will have some process to see if there are reductions that were made that those agencies would like us to reconsider. And so we'll do that process on the executive side this summer and then give those ideas to the council in the mid biennial ordinance so that adjustments can be made before the end of the year. As you will remember, there are some 2022 budget reductions that. Let's just say they were, you know, two years out in the future when we adopted the budget, they were fairly speculative. We do want to revisit some of those things. So it would be a pretty substantive one. And then depending on where we are with federal funding and you know what the council does with COVID seven and COVID eight. I think there's probably a covered name this coming fall. That's the hardest one to predict. I think we may be pretty much appropriated everything or we may be in a situation where there's still some unmet needs and unused money. Maybe there's additional federal money that has come in. Just now, when I think is very much up in the air, whether there's actually a COVID 19 later in the year. Thank you. It's helpful to hear it laid out like that. When you think about COVID eight, when you talked about transmitting in June, is that like how does that compare in size to COVID seven? Much smaller. Yeah. Okay. Because it seemed as if COVID seven was seeking to appropriate most of the ARPA, I suppose, is what we're calling it now funding. Is that correct? Yeah. So, I mean, obviously this is speculative because the council hasn't taken action yet on COVID, say. Right. But let's say you do something that is at least fairly similar to what the executive has proposed. Then it's COVID seven will have appropriated the state money that we think we're getting to support vaccination and other public health responses . That ultimately is federal money. But it's coming through the state. We are we've proposed appropriating most of the ARPA money. We are not in COVID seven looking at the unused CRF money from 2020. We're still working through how that's going to interact with general fund expenditure. So I think there's a possibility that in COVID eight we'd be looking at either that or some general fund money. And then the probably the area that we haven't looked at yet that would be in COVID aid is the request that we're going to get from the criminal justice agencies around the backlog and some of the state Supreme Court decisions and some of the possible actions by the state legislature to change laws around drug crimes and some other things. All of that's going to create various burdens on the judicial system. So they are working together now on proposals that would be coming into my office and then to the council, presumably related to that set of costs. And that's probably going to be the largest item to consider and called it eight. I'm speculating now because I don't know what they're going to submit. I don't know what the executive is going to do. I really don't know what the council's going to do. But that's probably as a category to this thing because we pretty much know, I think we've dealt with rental assistance, we've dealt with food assistance, we've dealt with homelessness as best we can in COVID seven. So I doubt there will be a whole lot more in those areas. At some point. It's nice to have a sense of the route we're planning, even if we choose to drive a different way because so we know what to expect. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Mr. Chair. Council Member Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to report on what were our plans. So that dovetailed very much with what Dwight has brought out. And by the way, I'd spoken now with seven out of my nine. Well, I'm not counting myself, sir. Six of the other members on the council, we have our one today and the last one tomorrow and one on ones to go over the budget and the timing. We will be sending a memo out. But just as a reminder from an earlier memo, a couple of memos that was sent out, we will receive, first of all , a staff report on COVID seven from Andrew Kim, the staff coordinator for the Budget Fiscal Management Committee tomorrow. And so, as I've mentioned before, you can take that and read it over during the spring recess. Then we will have our meeting on Budget Fiscal Management Committee on April 20th, and then a final vote is planned for at this time in the council meeting on May 11th. Did I say May 11th earlier? No. April 20th and then May 11th. And we will guide you through the process of amending amendments. Then the first omnibus coming out with what we think. April 13th, according to Dwight. And we will take that up in the BFM Committee at our May meeting and plan on voting it out in full council in June and then COVID aid again coming to us in June and likely a July vote. So we're going to be pretty busy, maybe not as busy as last year, but we'll come close. So thank you. Thank you for further questions. Conversation with Director Lively. See nothing, Dwight. Well, thank you very much. And we'll see you at our next meeting. Okay. Thank you very much. That takes us to actually the last item on today's agenda. It's an ordinance that would renew the six year property tax levy and replace it on the November 3rd ballot to support the Best Kid Best Start's for Kids Levy. This ordinance was a mandatory dual referral between the Regional Policy Committee and the Committee of the Hall. It has already been approved with the by the Regional Policy Committee on March 26th with amendments. And so Miranda Ruskin and Wendy Sidhu from Policy Staff will provide this report. That report will focus on the amendments adopted by the Regional Policy Committee. And as members were briefed ahead of time, I'll remind everybody that if we were to adopt further amendments, it would necessarily necessitate a referral to back to the Regional Policy Committee for their consideration, not advancement to full Council for consideration. And with that, I'll turn it over to a much less. And Mr. Who. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning, members of the committee. For the record, Miranda less concern with council policy staff and the materials for this item begin on page nine of your committee packet for today. As noted by the chair, I proposed ordinance 2020 162 is a proposition to fund the Best Starts for Kids initiative by replacing an existing property tax levy that is due to expire at the end of this year. The executive's proposal would create a new six year levy with an initial levy rate of $0.19 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2022. As noted, this item was referred first to the Regional Policy Committee as a mandatory referral B and then to this committee, the committee of the whole. The proposed legislation was briefed in the r p c on February the 10th and March the 10th. And in this committee on February the 17th, the proposed legislation passed out of the P c on March 20 marked the 26th as amended and is currently before the committee. A summary of the C adopted amendments is provided in the staff report on page 29 of your packets. I'll run through those quickly. In total, there were six amendments and a title amendment adopted by the r p c. There was Amendment One, which was a largely technical amendment to replace the term local hospital district with public hospital district and made other various technical corrections. And it also deleted attachment age with the proposed ordinance, which was the Escape Blueprint Report. There was Amendment five B, which created A, which creates a capital grants program of up to $50 million over the levy period, subject to total levy revenue projections being at least 822 million. The program would be for facility and building repairs and expansion and to support the construction of new buildings and facilities that'll serve children and youth. Program funding would be subject first to reduction if the total levy revenue projections were to fall below 872 million. The amendment identifies that buildings and facilities that serve children and youth would include but not be limited to housing and child care and early learning and recreational facilities of note program details would be identified in the implementation plan to be translated transmitted later this year, as well as included a policy for prioritizing capital investment in new buildings and facilities as compared to investments in existing buildings and facilities. Next amendment was Amendment six. This adds language relating to eligible expenditures on programs and services that promote social and emotional well-being and mental health. And this was two Section four B, and then it also adds mental health challenges to the examples list of negative outcomes. Next, there was Amendment seven. This added $5 million to the $235 million first allocation for a total of at least $240 million over the levy period and would require that $1,000,000 annually would go towards a grant program to be described in the implementation plan that would support capacity building and developing infrastructure in areas lacking either services or services infrastructure. Next was Amendment eight B. This directs that in the implementation planned that it would require annual reporting, Olympia expenditure services and outcomes, including total expenditures of levy proceeds by program, area by zip code and the number of individuals receiving services by program, area by zip code where the individuals reside at the time of service. There's Amendment nine or note in the staff report there's a typo. So the description should read that the amendment requires the executive in developing the implementation plan to ensure that residents throughout King County and in any city in the county can access levy funded strategies regardless of the availability of similar programing and services already provided by their city or in their community. And then lastly, there was a title amendment which essentially conformed the title of the ordinance to the body of the ordinance, as amended by the committee adopted amendments. I'll note that included in your packet materials for today, just for illustrative purposes, is a copy of the current version of the proposed ordinance as it passed. R.P. C That shows where the ARP adopted amendment language appears in the proposed legislation, essentially to track changes copy of the current version of the proposed legislation relating to next steps and key dates. As I mentioned earlier, this item was referred first. To the Regional Policy Committee is a mandatory referral. And then to this committee, as noted by the Chair, assuming this committee passes the legislation to the full Council for its consideration and either this committee or full council works to amend the legislation, thus creating a new version, then the legislation would need to be referred back to RTC for its consideration before it could move to the full council for a possible final action. On page 30 of your packet materials is a summary of the key dates this year by which the IPC and Council must complete their respective review processes and by which the Council must pass legislation in order to place a renewal of your proposal on the August ballot. Lastly for the Committee, I will note that an amendment packet for today's meeting was emailed to members yesterday morning at 9:37 a.m.. Mr. Chair, that concludes a staff report. I will note that we are joined by executive staff if there are questions. Thank you. Thank you. Questions on the legislation as it arrives here or the. Including the amendments adopted by the Regional Policy Committee. Council member Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And two quick questions. I don't see anything in here on the transition at year six to closing down this levy so that people are prepared that this levy was originally to be a jump start in in organizing and training people on these issues. It wasn't in my mind at the time going to be a permanent levy. So how are we going to provide for that? And should we have the language to say that they need to be doing that and who they should be sent to? Many of these things could be done by school districts and by other groups. So coordinating so that we have a a positive handoff from handoff at the end of the levy amount. So that's my first question. I think I would defer to executive staff to speak to, you know, what the plans would be to to transition. For example, if there wasn't a subsequent levy after after this upcoming proposed levee, and maybe they could speak to any planning around that. So just. Hi, Sheila Constante, director of the Children, Youth and Young Adults Division and Lead for Best Start's for Kids. If I could just ask a point of clarification. Are you talking about if this renewal were to be placed on the ballot and would not pass, what would be our transition plan or. Okay. But my question and thank you for specifying is at the end of this next six years. So after doing this planning and organizing for 12 years, if if the choice is now, we've organized for 12 years, now it's time to move on. What is the plan for being prepared to ramp down so that people are just left hanging? Mm hmm. So I actually, at this point, I'm not prepared to talk about what happens in six years for ramp down. But I can speak in very general terms about some of the points that you made around where funding comes from . Our funding landscape is very dynamic and already is. Funding streams come in to King County. We are talking about how do we leverage different funding streams within our county. We also know that coming into our community or funding streams from outside that we also are keeping a close eye on and leveraging the programing that we do with what those different funding streams are intended to do. So what I think is that in the next couple of years that we will be begin to look at that again. It's very dynamic right now. We need to look at sort of thing what recovery looks like from this pandemic, what requirements and needs are of our communities over the coming years, and what types of funding streams we have coming in, in addition to BSC, to begin to think about how does all of that come together to form a whole, and what will our plan be for the next time around? That's great. And I think looking to the school districts are really where are some of these responsibilities. That. Under Head Start and others belong to them so that we can begin to say we organized it now, this is years. And then the second question is, because of the levy rate originating at 14 and then going down to 12, 11 point, I think two or three. But there was growth back up to the base of 14 when they said they were going to redo the levy. And we knew that the assumption was that it would renew it the same amount we did last time. 14 So how did we decide on 19 and I know there was an amendment in RTC to change it to 17. What is the extra? Depending upon how you're counting $0.78 or $0.05, depending upon where you. She's the base to be. What is that going to be allocated for that we didn't have in the first? Is that for me as well or is that for you? Yes, it is. Okay. So with the additional dollars, we would. So, first of all, we've been assessing sort of pandemic impact and what are the needs around us and the needs of different around us. So part of what the additional dollars allow us to do, which we were excited about before and are really excited about now because of the pandemic impacts, is to deepen our investments in our 5 to 24 investment area, so deepening for 5 to 12 year olds to receive out of school time services, deepening around our school based centers and deepening around what we call our transitions to adulthood, which is really that 16 to 24 year olds, how do we help launch them into a successful adulthood around education, employment support? The biggest chunk of the additional dollars, however, that the executive proposed was for childcare subsidy program, and that has been an issue for years. People's ability to access good quality childcare. It has become a particular crisis as an impact under the pandemic. So best starts for kids will be able to leverage our dollars if this passes with other funding sources that are coming in state and federal, and to really begin to do some repair work and then create an infrastructure for childcare that works for everyone. And. We need that in my district too. So I'd like to talk with you about something. Thank you. Okay. Councilmember Dunn. I was talking my wife there. Thanks, Terry McDermott. And thanks to everyone who has been working on this. I think my question maybe for Miranda. So I understand the timeline or the procedural history of the legislation as its worked its way through. And that let me just make sure. So on the if I'm off, let me know. But on January 28, this was transmitted to the King County Council, the package on February 2nd, February 2nd, it was introduced and referred to RBC and then CAO. And we all know how we all know how full committees get. And so as I understand it, the on February 10th and March 10th, it was not taken up by the Regional Policy Committee, but there was, in fact a special committee on March 26th of the RTC where it passed out in the current form before us today . Is that is that accurate? Brandon That's correct. Counsel Okay, so I just want to, I guess, just make sure I'm not on RBC and six of the nine members of the council aren't. So this is really our first chance to take a look substantively at this legislation and the committee structure here today. I just want to make sure I didn't miss a meeting if I'm not on our PC. Councilmember Dunn Yeah, I would point out that we while it was the legislation, was formally in the Regional Policy Committee. We had a full briefing on the legislation earlier. Yeah, we know we had a briefing, but I meant the opportunity to move amendments is what I'm getting at. Sorry. Okay. That's just all I want to have. Okay, great. Appreciate the work that was done and we'll have more discussion on it a little bit later. Thank you. Other questions of staff on the presentation, on the legislation. Actually none. Mr.. FORD. Counselor. Mr.. Sorry. Yes. I just did want to clarify a point from your opening remarks. And Miranda did cover this, but I did want to make clear that if this were to pass out of committee today, it will then go to full council and then go back to the Regional Policy Committee. So I think the possible schedule we had considered would be if it gets passed out today, that it would go to full council on April 20th. And then if it did need to go back to the Regional Policy Committee, I think they would be looking at scheduling a special meeting sometime between April 21st and 26 or so . Thank you. Then if there are no further questions, I would entertain a motion to to give a do pass recommendation to the ordinance 2020 162. Some of Mr. Chair or Energy. 2020 162 is before US Amendments. Member Dunn. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate that. I would move at this point Amendment one to proposed ordinance 2020 10062. Version two. Amendment one is before US Council Member Dunn. Okay, let me just summarize this amendment. It is very simple. It's just two paragraphs, and I appreciate my colleagues willingness to hear this essentially on page nine, after 1998, after the Turner boards, we would also insert some just additional language to address substance abuse and in young people and youth. It would insert programs and services that are provide, expand access to or provide and expand access to substance use disorder, supports for children and youth, including but not limited to awareness campaigns on substance use. It also inserts on page 16 quote In developing the best starts for kids implementation plan, the executive shall identify strategies related to prevention , outreach and early intervention to address mental health and substance use impacts in children and youth ages five and all over, which have been exacerbated due to the Corona Virus Disease 2019 pandemic. So it's pretty, pretty straightforward on substance abuse for for young people. And so it's, I think, pretty, pretty straightforward in terms of what it does. And it also takes into account the the recent stat just stat a. Statistics that we have 40% percent of our public population in general suffering from anxiety and depression. We have a double digit increase in substance use disorder cases for drugs and alcohol. And so, as I mentioned earlier on, I know that this has been a process that is compressed and compacted. And so we have been prepared to engage my staff and myself on this since it was introduced, preferred to full council. And while action was not taken by the Regional Policy Committee on the scheduled action date, it sort of had the effect of setting our entire timeline back. And I know committees get super busy and staff make choices on what needs to go where. But we still do have time to send this back to our PC, even if it is amended here today at full council. And so, you know, our job, I think, is as policymakers, is is not to let the burden of procedure interfere with the job of maybe substantive improvements in the legislation that might ultimately make it better . So as I indicated, RBC deferred on February 10th and March 10th. And so we really are only hearing this for the first time today. As it currently stands, the levy and this first time for amendment excuse me, procedural amendments or changes to make this legislation better. This levy, as it stands right now, does not, I don't think, have the necessary provisions to deal with youth's youth in the post-pandemic world relating substance, mental health disorders. They are, of course, not new problems for youth, but have been significantly exacerbated due to the stress and trauma caused by this pandemic. I believe that the current form of the scale levy does not go far enough to directly address the significant struggles that youth and young adults are facing in King County. As you know, this is an issue close to my heart, and it's not, I think, something that that is. You know, it's not easy for me really to talk about it, but we know that a huge percentage of of young people, youth and early teens struggle with these challenges. We also know that people later in life begin to struggle through their thirties and forties as well with these challenges. And we also know statistically that substance use and mental health are some of the most significant problems facing young people today. And according to the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and 80 other studies on the topic, social isolation and loneliness significantly increase the risk of depression and anxiety in previously health and healthy children and adolescents. The median age being just 15. We know that depression anxiety could correlate through a dual diagnosis with various addiction. So the conclusion of that journal was that because COVID 19 and the forced isolation that it caused impacts clinical services, it should offer preventative and early intervention where possible, and be prepared for an increase in mental health problems, unquote. A 2014 study done by USC, a 476 adolescents, the mean age of 14 years old. Depression levels directly associated with an increased likelihood of lifetime use of an A+, prescription painkillers and many other substances. Their conclusion was simple Targeting depression levels with preventative efforts may be useful in reducing risk of lifetime use of substances. The negative statistics, of course, go on and on. I won't bore the counselor with this. So. So all of the studies basically say the same thing. We have an opportunity to do something about these threats to our younger generation of people in King County across the board. And I think we can act now through this vehicle to get some very important programing put forward. So that's why I'm urging all of you to pass this amendment. It's quite simple. We have the unique opportunity to act and support the next generation. I thank all of my colleagues very much for hearing me out on this, and I would just urge you're strong consideration of this. Thank you. Thank you. Discussion. That's the question. Council member do do out and. She thank you. This is obviously a very real long standing, but also currently very pressing issue. It came up at the Regional Policy Committee. There was an amendment proposed and adopted proposed by the Sounds Cities Association representatives and adopted that expanded the Levy's allowance of uses for funds to include being used for this kind of behavioral health type response. Can somebody explain to me the difference between what was amended into the program at our PC and this amendment? Miranda, do you want to see. What staff take that on and then I'll speak to it. Thank you. Oh, I can speak to that. Thank you. Councilmembers. So, Councilmember Bell Dutchie, you are correct in the our p c on March the 26th, there was an amendment that was adopted that added language in that subsection four B regarding eligible expenditures, regarding programs and services that promote social and emotional well-being and mental health. And then in 4b2, it also added mental health challenges to the list of negative outcomes relating to prevention and early intervention on negative outcomes. So that is the language that was adopted in R.P. C on the 26th of March. Great. Thanks. And just to speak to that, if I might directly address the terrorist question. So the mental health challenges that you just spoke to. What this does is it's certainly not at all inconsistent. I think it adds to and further refines the work that was done there at the good work of the Regional Policy Committee. So it supports very specifically in Naomi, just use the words of mine, better access to substance use disorders support, which is a subset, I think, of mental health challenges most people think for children use including but not limited to awareness campaigns and substance use so that awareness campaigns, substance use is added in their strategies to relating to prevention and intervention in early intervention to address mental health, which is there and substance use impacts in children, youth ages five and older, which are been exacerbated due to the coronavirus pandemic. So it further pushes the discussion into substance use disorders, which as we know, is addiction and recovery, as well as one of the key issues that we know is that awareness and education, particularly for young people, is important and allows for that awareness campaign within the legislation. I can ask all that. Mr. Chair. Council member, please. Thank you. And this is to Ms.. Campus, Danny and the executive staff. I think as I look at the language that's adopted and the breadth of it and what's being proposed here, that. We would be that it would be within our rights as so what we're setting. Let me reframe what we're setting here is the language of the ordinance or go will be what informs the ballot measure that the voters are asked to vote on. And so if it's not in the ordinance, if if an allowed expenditure is not in the ordinance and the voters approve it, it's not in the package. And so that's I think the risk here there is that we're facing is if we don't specifically call out these kinds of programs, that it will be outside the scope of what the voters approved and therefore not eligible for funding. We had this discussion very deeply on some capital matters, but this is for for services and operating programs. So my question is. I believe that what we have in the ordinance already allows the expenditure of funds on the types of programs that Councilmember Dunn is advocating for. Do you agree with that? Yes or no? Yeah. That's directed at me or somebody. I mean, you can find it, but I'm asking somebody in the executive branch. Okay. I can say that a lot of what has been spoken to by Councilmember Dunn is incorporated into our busy frame already with our expert program, which says screening for intervention and referral to treatment and that ended up trauma informed work. We have already brought a community mental health and wellness project that was a part of each back and a response to the and we decided needed to be a yes came moving forward because of the trauma that has been caused by the pandemic so it's incorporated already asked for an opinion on the amendment. We definitely refer to the council on this one and I just wanted to explain sort of what our programing is already built into the proposal. That's moving forward. Yeah. And I'm not I definitely would never ask. I think it would be unfair to ask for our executive staff to opine on an amendment on camera. But. But I am interested to know whether there's a real difference here, what it is. So so I hear what the council member is saying about this is the opportunity that council members have to offer amendments. And that should be a real opportunity. We should be able, as council members, to amend ballot measures and legislation that is a mandatory referral to the Regional Policy Committee. That shouldn't be something that we hesitate to do because that takes away our current step in the process, if you will. However, I also don't see the point in going back to our NPC to do something that doesn't make a substantive change. And so that's why I'm asking. I'm asking is this a substantive change? Does it allow for new expenditures that are not otherwise allowed for if we didn't adopt it? And I'm really still not clear on that question and I will plan to make how I vote. So can you try one more time? To me, I would refer to legislative staff on the legal aspect of whether we are prohibited from doing anything that's been outlined. From my perspective in terms of implementing this and coming up with an implementation plan, I actually am very grateful to the Council member for bringing this forward and this is something that has been deeply on all of our minds and was a part of our putting this ordinance together to begin with and the work that we're doing right now and the implementation plan. So the type of programs that have been outlined here are the types of programs that we would have implemented moving forward under the current legislation that you have before you without with. So whether the amendment further allows us to do that or not, I would say that I would defer to legislative staff on that. But everything that he's outlined are things that we have been concerned about that we've implemented so far under the current BSC this year. We took it over from the Mack work and we continue to move forward with the proposal for the coming year. So again, I if I could punt that back to central staff to see if there's anything that would be legally prohibitive of what we think we're able to do under what we're doing. I think I heard Ms.. Capistrano say that she's not aware of anything that in the amendment before us that that couldn't be done, though the amendment would highlight the work. Does council staff have further information on this? No, I would agree with that assessment. I think Member Dunn's amendment adds some specificity around the kinds of programs that might be considered. The one thing I will say is that the amendment would require the executive to identify strategies relating to mental health and substance use issues. However, there isn't anything that in the underlying ordinance that that would prevent the executive from doing that without that requirement being there. Miranda Would you agree with that? Would concur with that, Wendy. Collectively. That is all very helpful. Thank you, everyone. Councilmember was that councilmember caldwell's? I didn't know it was him. I'm sorry, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. So one question that I have is the new thing that's happening in the legislature, where potentially the Senate is saying that you can have your own supply of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, much like we do with marijuana. And then the house is saying that you should be able to have whatever you want. And so that dilemma is playing out right now. If they collectively decide that we can have more hair in their houses and more cocaine and more methamphetamines, then we need a strategy to help educate kids on, you know, this is going to be in your house more than it ever was before. And so how are we going to deal with that? So if this does go forward, I would like to see that be one of the questions that we deal with in the information that we are doing to educate kids, because I am very concerned with more Schedule one , narcotics being in people's houses than ever before. DEMBOSKY Oh. Is there in response needed to Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. A turning back to the previous dialog, I think of popes, correct me if I'm wrong, but behavioral health is kind of a collective term for both substance use disorder challenges and mental health challenges. And in the in the RTC, the amendment that was brought forward by mayor back as the vice chair supported unanimously added mental health because that was identified by staff that that frankly was either removed or wasn't as clear in the legislation in the renewal. We wanted to put it back. But Councilmember Dunn's amendment here, as I understand the thrust of it, when it talks about mental health, it really seems focused on the other component of behavioral health . The substance use disorder pathways really led across a number of of policy areas. In that in that regard and in listening to Sheila, I heard you talk about our expert, which I think is, you know, middle school mental health assessments. But where are we specifically on the substance use disorder campaigns and education and work with respect to the levy language? Does it say specifically in there that we can fund substance use disorder programs using that term or collectively behavioral health, the umbrella term for both mental health and substance use disorder. Councilor Dombrowski I can speak to that a quick so in the proposed ordinance that's before you in subsection four two and this is relating to eligible expenditures regarding to prevention and early intervention on negative outcomes. There is a list and it's a non-exhaustive list that relates to prevent and intervene early on negative outcomes including but not limited to. And these are the list of examples that are provided poor birth outcomes, developmental delays, chronic disease, social emotional isolation, mental health challenges, substance abuse, dropping out of school homelessness, domestic violence, and effects of systemic racism and incarceration. And again, that's a non-exhaustive list, but those are the examples that are currently identified in the proposed ordinance language. Miranda Thank you. What page of our materials is is that the individuals? So this is attachment one to the staff report. It's the proposed ordinance as it passed out of our P.S. It is on page 40 of your packet materials for V two language starts on line 191. Okay. That's page 40 of the materials. That's correct, Councilmember. All right. So number two there it's it's for be okay to I'm just sorry I'm catching up to read it. Rather to say anything about the substance use awareness campaigns or anything. It doesn't cover that with that level of specificity in this authorizing use of expenditures, it does say that all charges come at substance abuse. It's kind of an old term, frankly. I think we should be using substance use disorder or substance challenges, but that's technical dropping out of school homelessness. Diva and systemic racism, incarceration. So I think that it may take on that is that it is an authorized expenditure. The details of your amendment, as I understand it. You know, you could put them there. They can also be in an implementation plan. I would like to see that work done. I'm supporting Councilmember Dunn's, you know, goal here. And. It is somewhat just kind of the procedural. I want to call it a headache. Additional, additional process. All right. Thank you. I also want Mr. Gunn's support of the legislation. I think it's important that with this magnitude of legislation, that the extent we can, we send a unanimous message out to our voters to to that we're that we want it. We want that this is important. We want to do this. Mr. Chair, real quick. Council member. Done. Thank you. Just in the interests of trying to not bog up the system, would you be willing, for example, to work with me on a motion that would come before the full King County Council? A companion motion? Yes, the motion that, along with this break, would show support for the principles stated in this amendment. I would I would say that with me. I would I would co-sponsor it. And we could ask that it be included in the implementation plan. Yeah. Okay. So if I withdrew this amendment, you might be willing to work with me. And hopefully other members of the council might be willing to support a motion. That would be a companion motion along with this. Let me be very specific. I would I would co-sponsor a motion that includes your exact language in there. And if we want to refine, we could. But I won't commit to that here. Okay. Okay. But that's great. That's enough. That's what I needed. I needed that a little bit because I'm really close on whether I'm going with the thing overall and with that, it tips it in favor of support. So. Mr. Chair, I will withdraw. I will draw Amendment one and look forward to working with my colleagues on a motion as a companion motion to the underlying, be it S.K. ordinance. Thank you. We have ordinance 2020 162 before us. Further amendments. Amendment to council. Number of the growth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The adoption amendment to. Amendment two is before US Council member up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a lot of folks know. We've had challenges in this region with not just housing displacement, but we've seen displacement of commercial properties, particularly very small businesses, and particularly immigrant and refugee communities. We've seen a lot of it in South King County. There were some high profile situations where actions of city governments resulted in large displacements of East African community members and within the best starts for kids ballot measure previously. And this ballot measure is a section called Communities of Opportunity, which is a more holistic look at communities and has historically included looking at ensuring that we have, you know, economically thriving communities that support everyone in that and in the current best starts for kids ballot measure. The department was able last year in 2020 to fund the design and development of a commercial affordability pilot program. And it partnered with a national nonprofit called the National Development Council. And it set a number of goals and objectives that I think this council would agree with. As I understand it, they were to influence systems. And. Policy change and investment practices, to assist micro small businesses to remain open in their community, to benefit from development, revitalization, investment, and to contribute to the economic stability and resiliency in these targeted communities. It was also designed to increase access to capital by communities where the current lending products and models haven't been available or acceptable, and also to create tools that address the needs of micro and small businesses to access capital and leverage resources for things like feasibility studies, tenant improvements, capital investments, as well as providing technical assistance to those businesses. And finally, to identify barriers and solutions to public investment to support these strategies. And, you know, I think we spent a lot of public attention and there's been a lot of policy thought given to housing displacement. And we need to do a lot more work looking at what happens to communities when we see this kind of small business displacement. And the purpose of this amendment would be to clarify that economic thriving communities are eligible within SEAL. Oh, and also to make sure that we are including capacity in the SEAL program and the planning work to allow what is a pilot program right now to become an ongoing body of work. I think that's important. And I think this this is work that can be done in the implementation plan. It's work that I'd like to ask my colleagues to join me in and our supplemental budgets and are perhaps even COVID budget. So some COVID assistance. But I think we need to partner with our immigrant and refugee task force and and provide significant more action and policy attention in this area. And because we have some of those other strategies, because I don't want to be the one to send this back to our P.S. I'm going to at this point would draw a minute to thank you. We now have ordinance 2021. I had to make sure I wasn't muted. 2020 162 before us. I'm final passage as the sponsor of the legislation. I would comment and offer that when we first implemented this initiative, this levy six years ago, I said that it was the most progressive piece of legislation I had worked on in my career, and that includes marriage equality. I meant that as a very significant statement, and I hold that today. Because best rates for kids is transformational. It was intended to be transformational to make those early investments and make sure that youth had their best start possible within our community. And it is intended to be those early investments that we talk about when we look at the need for social services, that when we look at the criminal legal system, when we look at negative outcomes within our society and how we would like to affect. Positive change earlier in people's lives. Best for kids is exactly doing that. Making those early investments to make sure that people have the best start in in early in their youth and then are sustained that through school. In his councilmember at the grove was just speaking to in community and sustaining it as well. The last six years of this levy have indeed been transformational for kids, for families and for our entire community. The proposal in front of us stays the course on strategies that we know are making a difference. Supporting caregivers of young children, ensuring that youth and young adults are connected to opportunity and creating robust, upward communities. The proposal in front of us also brings a new focus on child care that we recognized over the course of the levy. It has been compounded during the pandemic. We have an opportunity to continue this forward progress, continue this progressive intervention and support for youth and families. And we do this informed by the last six years of our work. I ask members to join me in supporting the renewal of the best search for kids levy in our committee today and sending it to full council for their discussion. See Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Childers. Make this very brief. I think this is utterly compelling. We have heard I've heard nothing but positive about best acts for kids during that time because of this current levy. And I look forward to voting on this here and at the council. I know it has had a profound effect on so many people's lives, so many children's babies, parents, others lives. And I really appreciate the way that we are expanding it with what we have before us. Child care, we hear over and over and over again about its incredible need that families have because of the pandemic. But before that, it's something I've worked on throughout my professional career and I'm just. Thrilled. That we are including it in this levy renewal also with regard to increasing the rate. I mean, we need to do more. This is a very, very popular program with the public, and I anticipate that we will have a positive outcome at the ballot. But it's something that is needed. It just basically is this is needed. And I appreciate everybody who has worked on it and all of the enormous number of groups and organizations who have contacted us and want to get going in supporting this lovely renewal. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the discussion, Councilmember Balducci. Thank you. Really briefly, I'm going to save my more detailed words for final passage. But today, this is a really big deal. This is a big program. It's the first re re approval of that program. So it's still a pretty new program. And the level of support for it is really remarkable given that. And I just really wanted to take a quick moment to thank and appreciate the folks at the Regional Policy Committee, our city partners, our chair, Councilmember Van there, who led this process, and then all the councilmembers here, because we are bringing real issues and value to the table, looking at our communities and the way they've evolved in some ways very significantly over the last six years. And I look forward to working with my colleagues to meet those needs in the implementation plan, which is coming later this summer, because that'll be important work as well. But I'm I've always been a supporter of this levy. I supported it on the campaign trail before I was on this council, and that's usually not something you do. There's kind of a political rule of thumb that you don't campaign for other things while you're campaigning for yourself. And I did that because I believed in this levy. And I think it's proven itself, and I'm very, very pleased to join in voting yes, to move this forward to full council and ultimately onto the ballot for the voters in November or in August. So thank you both at the right time. For further discussion. See none. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member. Founder. Chief. I. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I. Councilmember done. I. Councilmember Coleman. Councilmember Lambert, i. The Council member of the group. I. Council member. Yvonne, right there. Council members. ALL Hello. I. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote is 18 zero, notes Council number one. Mike Bauer. Excused. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to Ordinance 2020 162 and send that to full council to our next council meeting. Madam Clerk, I don't believe there were any votes missed today by members who are present at the moment. That's correct. Mr. Chair. Then with that, that wraps up the business before the committee of the whole today when I thank everybody for their participation and look forward to joining you after spring break. With that, we are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE providing for the submission to the qualified electors of King County at a special election to be held in King County on August 3, 2021, of a proposition providing for resident oversight and authorizing a property tax levy in excess of the levy limitation contained in chapter 84.55 RCW for a six-year consecutive period at a rate of not more than $0.19 per one thousand dollars of assessed valuation in the first year, and limiting annual levy increases to three percent in the five succeeding years, all for the purpose of funding prevention and early intervention strategies and a capital grants program to improve the health and well-being of children, youth and their communities.
king_3dfb0c4c-f5f2-43a6-a753-42e0c084b98c	The Meeting. September six, 2017. Of the Committee of the whole, the meeting will come to order. Clerk Will you please call for the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member Dombrowski. Council Member. Dunne. Council Member. Gosford Council Member. Commonwealth Council. Council Member McDermott. Council Member of the Grove. Council Member one Right there. Here. Council Member Baldacci. Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair. You do not have a quorum. So we'll wait on the minutes and we will take public testimony. I don't have. Here's the list. Okay. We have one person who knows the rules by heart. Okay. Who needs the rules by hearts? Mr. Zimmerman, when I get up for your 2 minutes of entertainment. Last time I doing it. I believe fewer Nazis social democrat with progressive Gestapo principles. My name. I like Zimmerman and I am president of stand up America around spoke about agenda number six. It's a culture we don't have more culture in this country. Under my eyes for 30 years you bring to special culture what there's a culture fascism with the ideological base you go something doing but it's very typical German Nazi to change culture empire disappear Soviet Union change culture empire disappear you change culture now America will be disappear. Is this exactly what this will be happen? Yeah, but it's very simple and I'll give you a couple examples. So you understand what they mean exactly about culture. Last week, you all of it so publicly under camera. So I cannot use the word Nazi in America. Freedom of speech doesn't decision of for 400 years freedom of speech started be cut. You did this because you by definition you are a combination of a special monster, a degenerate idiot who destroy biggest richest in more democratic republic. What is I know is this exactly what this happened? Now what? For another example, I have a trespass from Seattle for Nine Country Day only because I speak different. So where is America now? Why have you have a pure fascism here? Look, right now it's a meeting and nobody come. We don't have a quorum. And I can speak without quorum in. Nobody cared about this. So you did. From 2 million people. A pure frickin idiot. This is exactly what is we have. So right now I speak to everybody who listen to me. Stand up, America. Stand up America for republic. For Constitution, for freedom of speech, clean. Right. Entertainment for sure. So let's go on now and start with our briefing and it'll be briefing. 215 174. It's four cultures annual report. And so, Ms.. Grigsby, would you please begin? And Jim Kelly and his team, if you'd like to join us at the table, that'd be great briefings. Yes. I just want to let you know, I'm going to have to step out for a little bit and a few minutes, but I will be back. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. I was going to make a joke, but it was such a bad joke. I'm not going to. Okay. This guy. So. People. Good morning, council members. I'm Leah crackles I be council staff. And with me is Jim Kelly, executive director for culture. The materials for this item begin on page 21 of your packet, and I'll begin with a brief introduction of the topic, and then we'll turn over to Mr. Kelly for the briefing. As you know, King County, created for culture, King County's Cultural Public Development Authority in 2002 to administer the county's arts, heritage, preservation and public arts programs. And then in 2015, facility facilitated by the early payoff of the lodging tax backed kingdom, bonds, King County and for culture partnered to use the excess bond capacity to implement building for culture and building for culture is a $28.5 million program to build, maintain, expand, preserve and improve new and existing cultural facilities. Today, you'll hear from Mr. Kelly about for culture's 2016 annual report and a little bit also from that 2017 Building for Culture Progress report. And in 2016 for Culture awarded just under 4.6 million and cultural grants. And they also expended 1.6 million on public art and 13.65 million on building for culture. As of June 30th, 25th or 20 1747, building for culture contracts had been completed. 20 projects had made substantial progress. 32 projects had signed contracts but were not yet started and one contract had not been signed. And now Mr. Kelly will provide some of the more more deeply. I didn't hear the amount you said had been spent on preservation. I didn't have the breakdown of just preservation. And the total cultural grants was 4.6 million. Okay. At some point, I'd like to know how that broke out into historical preservation. Great. Mr. Kelly, welcome on board. Great. Thank you. Madam Chair, members of the council. I'm Jim Kelly, the executive director for culture. And I thank you for this opportunity to give you the latest report on our recent activities. I'm going to focus a lot on 2017. We just produced our 2016 annual report, but here we are in September, and I want to make sure that we touch base on some of the things we've done in 2017. So my report today will highlight projects that we've supported this year. To give you and your viewing audience on television. A sense of the work we do today is about stories more than statistics, because it's the stories that reveal the real impact of our work. We will highlight projects large and small, major building projects and smaller community generated projects that speak to the breadth of four cultures. Efforts to advance community through arts, heritage preservation and public art and support the hundreds of organizations and individuals in King County that bring arts, heritage and culture to their communities. So we'll start with a project in Kirkland, the True Blood House. True Blood House is a preservation success story, successful because of a collaboration between for culture, the city of Kirkland, historic Seattle, Washington Trust for Historic Preservation Nicholls Brothers. House Movers and individuals, sellers and buyers who saw value in saving a piece of community history. The True Blood House was constructed in 1889 by Kirkland founder Peter Cook and housed Kirkland's first Dr. Berkeley Kurt Trueblood. It was one of eight houses built by the Kirkland Land and Improvement Company in 2016. With its family growing in size, the owners of the True Blood House decided to build a new house on the property and recognizing the House's historic significance, significance offered to sell the house for $1 to any buyer who would remove the house from the property and relocate it to another site. The house was purchased by Dan and Kim Hartmann, who are themselves doctors, and they valued the house as a remnant of Kirkland's middle past the house. Was picked up, moved for six months to a church parking lot while a site was prepared and then resided on a new parcel of land about a block from its original location. The City of Kirkland was instrumental in working with the owners on permitting and sighting issues, and the House lives on today for culture provided a grant toward the costs of moving the House. Do you remember that? I was thinking about buying that one time. Yes, we did. That's what the Preservation Action Fund had we needed to use, it could have done. But it's always a better solution when the private property owner steps up and says, We'll do it. Yeah, no, I was going to pay for it. So I watched this and I think I wonder if that would have still looked like if I had followed through on that one. The dollar's hands good. The moving in the same cost. The problem that I got to. Yes. Right. And Civic Theater began life as a 1920s movie theater. In the 1980s. The Civic Theater founders leased the then boarded up building and converted it to a performance facility. Its first musical was Grease, which opened on February 25th, 1987, and it's been in continuous operation ever since. Over the years for Culture is awarded many grants to rent civic theater for creating backstage bathrooms, emergency repairs to bursting plumbing lines, operating support, project support and a facilities grant. Most recently to redo the lobby, which you see here. Right. And Civic Theater brings vitality and audiences to renton's downtown core. The Baton Corregidor Survivors Association and their Families first came to Fort Culture through our Open for Culture program. It's a small sort of entry level, 1500 dollar grant program, and they've continued to stay informed about and take advantage of our granting programs and additional offerings like conference stipends. The organization is all volunteer and occupies the small yet extremely respectful museum out of the Filipino community center in Seattle. The museum commemorates the Filipinos in Washington who fought in World War Two and participated in the Bataan Corregidor Death March. They received funding through heritage projects to install additional shelving units to showcase artifacts from World War Two veterans who chose to reside in the great state of Washington. After the Great War in the Pacific, the Luminous Garden, an electric sky was launched with a tech specific grant from Fort Culture. It's a light activated sculpture. It was created at a three day art and tech camp athon at the Sky College Ball Field. It represents the intersection of art, technology and community exploration and engagement that is becoming an annual event that brings people to the sky komische every summer. This is art serving economic development. And I know Councilmember Lambert, you can tell us many other stories about projects in Chicago on which the fort culture is supported. Do you know what time of the year that is? I don't remember. It was it was actually three weeks ago. Okay. Just happened. This was going to be a video. We had a video that was sent to us by World Relief Seattle, which is an organization that works with refugees, new arrivals, and it a story about Sabri Muhammad. It's a one minute video. Unfortunately, we can't show the video. So I'll tell you what you would have seen. Sabri came here from Afghanistan about 11 months ago. He was a refugee in Afghanistan. He was a jewelry maker. In fact, there's a photo in the video of Sabri standing between two American soldiers, and there's a sign behind him that says King of the Jewelers. He really was a successful jeweler in Afghanistan. So he came here, settled in Kent, and he decided he wanted to basically share his jewelry, jewelry making traditions with local people. And he got together a bunch of Afghani women, which you see here. And he taught them jewelry making, passing on his tradition to a new generation of immigrants here in King County. And it's a wonderful little story. Sabri is a very happy, pleasant young man. And it's a story, again, about a 1500 dollar grant impacting somebody's life. And then beyond that, the community in which they chose to live. Sabri Muhammad The Federal Way Performing Arts and Events Center is a classic story of community persistence. A dedicated corps of February residents have tried for more than 20 years to build a performance hall, which will finally have its gala opening this Saturday night. While the image you see here is an architectural rendering, the facility looks exactly like that. The glass wall faces south. With Mt. Rainier looming in the distance, Fenway Performing Arts Center is a recipient of King County building for culture grant money. It's a 716 seat two theater theater. And it'll accommodate theatrical musical dance and spoken word performances from the region and around the world. Mayor Jim Farrell said the Performing Arts and Events Center is so much more than just a building. It's an investment in our future that will provide new and exciting opportunities, making federal way the best place to live, work and play. And I congratulate Councilmember Von Reich Bauer, who was instrumental in the development of this facility, which, by the way, is at the corner of 316th Street and von right, by our way, south. I just wanted to know, do you know how to spell that street? The Fall City Hop Shed received the landmark Capital Grant for the preservation and structural stabilization of the structure, as recommended in the 2006 Condition Assessment, which was funded by a for Culture Preservation Grant. It's the last remaining structure in King County that is a tie to the hops industry. In the 1880s, King County was the largest supplier of hops in the country. The hop shed preserves the historic identity of Fall City, as well as representing a successful partnership between the Falls City Historical Society and King County Parks on whose property the hop shed stands. I think a way to think of the hop shed, Councilmember Lambert, is it's a barn for hops. So and it is, as you just said, very much neglected for many reasons for a long time. Will this get it off the ground and will it I mean, obviously is an empty space. Is. Will it be able to be used for anything? It's mostly a remnant of a past that doesn't exist anymore. So you'll be able to see it from the street. It'll be preserved so it doesn't collapse, which we see happened too often in rural wood structures. So it's here for the long term, but it's not really functional. Okay. And the, you know, bottom foundation not quite hitting the ground all the way around. So all that will be secured. Yes. Great. Thank you. All right. Our next story is Auburn. The Auburn Arts and Cultural Center. In August 2016, as City of Auburn finalized the purchase purchase of the original Auburn Post Office, a historic building built in Auburn's downtown in 1937. The new arts and cultural center adjacent to the Auburn Avenue Theater will become a hub of activity for the downtown area and serve Auburn and South Sound with unique access to quality arts opportunities. The building purchase was made possible with funding from the city of Auburn, but a portion of the overall renovation is funded through a $200,000 building for culture grant. The Arts Center in the adjacent theater create a new cultural center very much in alignment with the county's desire to see cultural centers and their attendant economic activity in areas outside the the city of Seattle. Nordic Heritage Museum is building a new home on Market Street in Ballard. The Nordic Heritage Museum is presently housed in a structure built in 1907, a Seattle public school which the public school district is taking back because of the increasing school age population. Museum leaders have long recognized the need for a new purpose built facility that will allow the organization to realize its potential as a modern museum and thriving community center. This facility will not only enhance the museum's programmatic offerings, but will ensure its future. The new museum design is organized around a linear fjord that weaves together stories of homeland and the Nordic American experience. Here, bridges across the fjord intensify the experience of migration connecting Nordic and Nordic American exhibits. The fjord walls will be composed of faceted White Plains, evoking its glacial origins, along with the core exhibition galleries, active social areas, a café, store, auditorium and classrooms will expand the museum's capabilities and audiences. Historic trail map markers in Newcastle. The city of Newcastle applied for project the new signage. They will do six interpretive signage signs around the city of New Castle that really are meant to inform residents of the coalmining history of the town. Content for the signs was provided by the New Castle Historical Society. Coal mining began in New Castle in 1863. In the next 100 years, more than 10 million tons of coal were extracted from the earth in Newcastle. In the 1890s. Newcastle was King County's second largest city, albeit with a population of 3000. Coal was the first commodity shipped from the Seattle ports. In fact, the birth of the ports is often credited with the fact that they needed to ship the call out of the Newcastle coalfields. The sign in the image here is about the New Castle Cemetery. The original miners were from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, followed by Finns and Italians, whose names are etched on the headstones in the cemetery. After installation of the signage, a brochure will be produced for walking tours of Newcastle. The Voice of Ash on Low Power FM 2017 was the last year of a three year initiative by For Culture to fund low power community FM broadcast equipment. The FCC granted nine community groups licenses to broadcast in very low power range in a process that began in 2015. Seven of the nine licenses are here in King County, in Ballard, Central District, Duval, South SeaTac, Sandpoint, Raynor, Valley and Bastion. Voice of Bastion has received numerous, numerous grants through for culture, including mobile TV equipment, as well as support for their air broadcast audio broadcast station. It's a way to use old technology, low frequency radio waves to link a community gather. Now, most of these stations only have a range of 2 to 3 miles, so it really is a community based voice. Spawning grounds diminished to the brink of extinction. Kokanee, which are little red salmon significant in ceremony, song and cultural teachings in the tribe. Tribal culture was almost officially a. Extinct in 2008, primarily because of large scale scale development around Lake Sammamish. Tribal stewards from the Michael shoots of Snoqualmie Community, government leaders, including King County executive and council ecologists, anglers and private landowners worked together to save the Kokanee, which are culturally and ecologically important fish. For over 10,000 years, the shores of Lake Salmon Sammamish have been an important perennial destination for the tribes. The documentary film was made to increase awareness of the Lake Sammamish Kokanee among local audiences and inspires stewardship around restoring and protecting the lake and the watershed. Funded by a heritage grant. Jim, can I just. Sure. Maybe four more minutes? Yep. Okay, great. Thanks. Got it. Next project will be another Open for culture grant recipient. It's called the Just Humanitarian Project. George Legacy, based in the city of shoreline, led by first generation African immigrants who are accomplished musicians, performers and artists. Then they call King County Home the founder, Eban Hobbs, from Ghana. He has an MBA and works in finance for King Pierce County Transit. He came to us through the Shoreline Lake Forest Park Out Arts Council, seeking a 1500 dollars open for culture grant to produce his cultural legacy festival in Shoreline. Since then, they've secured a community for culture grant and equipment grant for instruments and sustained support. And Evan is a member of the for Culture Arts Advisory Committee. Moving right along. Soto Track. The track is an icon in the making transform the portal to downtown Seattle, a two mile transit corridor traveled by over 50,000 daily commuters and visitors every day in an imaginative race way of art in motion and now will move quickly to some budget information. It's nice to talk to you a little bit about our 2017 budget. Our revenues this year were $3.4 million. Remember, we don't get any lodging tax until 2021 again. So we basically live off fund transfers. So our actual revenue was 3.4 million, but our expenditures will be almost 15. Most of the expenditures come off the balance sheet for public art and the lodging tax special account. And then I just wanted to mention a couple of honors. It's nice to get recognized for our work. American Institute of Architects in Seattle gave for Culture this year its Allied Organization award that they give to an organization that is not an architectural firm but has an impact on the built environment. The middle photograph is Kath Bruner, our public art director, who this year received the American for the Arts Public Art Leadership Award in recognition of four cultures innovative approach to public art. And the image on the right is Brian Carter, our Heritage Staff Lead, who this year was elected president of the National Association of African American Museums . Hello for Culture is a program we launched this year. We send staff out to Lake Forest Park, Third Place Commons and to Tuckwell, a Kent Library, and they spend 4 hours at a table basically to answer questions for anybody who wants to come learn more about pop culture. And then, speaking of the future, one of the things we will be doing, despite the fact that access for all Proposition one did not pass, one of the things that you and hope we do or four sub area plans, we're going to begin that work by mapping where all the cultural facilities and organizations are in King County to get a sense of what is the current lay of the land. And then our heritage program did a survey of heritage organizations to assess their most common needs. And we'll be moving forward with what we learned from those recommendations. And finally, we have a photograph of our board of directors, 15 people who are nominated by the King County executive, confirmed by the King County Council. We have two openings coming up at the end of this year. We're looking for candidates from districts one and three. I would point out that we did have board members from one in three. Kirsten Halligan, who's right in the middle of that photograph, lived in District one when she was elected to the For Culture Board. She and her husband moved to District four, and immediately to her right is Robin Abney, who was elected to the board from District three and during her term moved to District six. So now we're looking for people from districts one and three who intend to stay there, and that's the end of our report. Madam Chair. Thank you so much for I will try to help you with that. And, you know, I'm looking through on pages 42 at 60 on all the different projects, and I've been to many of these kids. Question Bellevue's amazing and the Northwest Railroad Museum. And so those are so many different ones. And the town of Skye Komische and what you're doing to revamp what goes on up there is just amazing. So it's been easy to see. A little bit of money or a lot of money, whichever, can really change a huge community and it being something very special. So we're a small community in the case of Skye College, so that's great. Thank you very much. Are there any questions from anybody? All right. Well, good luck on living off the investments until it changes around and, you know, things will be really good. Well, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for all the support you've had for our office over the years. Thank you. It's always fun to see things come together, including this picture out in the valley, on the farm. And it looks really nice. Yeah, yeah, it's great. Okay, now we will go back up to the topic because I think we have a quorum. And so let's see Councilmember Bond right there. Would you be willing to put the minutes of August 30th before us? Thank you, Madam Chair. I move the approval of the minutes of August 30th, 2017. Thank you very much. Those are the minutes of our special meeting on page three. Others in favor please say I, i, others opposed. Nay, the minutes are passed. Okay. So that takes us down now to proposed ordinance 2017 0301 and item number five, the ordinance creating the route through Emergency Leadership Program. And so this is sponsored by councilmembers Dombrowski, McDermott and Heidi Puppy. Chuck, would you begin? Thank you, Madam Chair. Heidi Papa, our council staff. The staff report begins on page seven of your packet proposed ordinance 2017 0301 would create a new fellowship program and King County Government to honor the late Ruth Woo for her dedication to public service. To provide some background on Mrs. Woo. She was born on November 28th, 1926, in Kalispell, Montana. To Tom and Ricki Oya. Her father, Tom Oyer, worked on railroad gangs in Montana. After her father died, the family moved to Seattle, where the mother worked as a seamstress and later to an Oregon farm. In 1941, World War Two began and led to the internment of Japanese-Americans. In 1942, Mrs. Wu's family was banished first to the Tool Lake internment camps in California, then to Camp Mini Doka in the Idaho desert. She she graduated from Hunt High School while interned at Camp Minnetonka. After camp she married Hiroyoshi excuse me, only Yama, whom died in 1960. They had two children, Teresa and Janice. In 1975, she married Benjamin Woo, an architect and influential leader in the Seattle Asian community and a father of five. Mr. who died in 2008. In the late 1950s, Mrs. Woo worked as secretary for the city of Seattle Mayor Gordon Clinton. After working as a secretary, she moved to Olympia to work as a receptionist for then Governor Dan Evans. When Governor Dan Evans ran for a third term in 1971, Mrs. Miller offered to campaign for him. Mrs. who managed her first political campaign for Mr. James Oliver in 1975, whom she had met while working at the governor's office while he was running for state Supreme Court Justice. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. who managed Mr. Douglas Stewart's campaign for City of Seattle city attorney. She eventually held a succession of administrative professional positions for elected officials. Mrs. Will passed away on July 13, 2016, in Seattle, Washington. At the age of 89, Mrs. Woo was well known in the Asian-American community with a talent for organizing political campaigns. Mrs. Moon was created credited with shaping the careers of a cadre of notables from both political parties, including former Governor Gary Locke and former King County executive Ron Semmes. The fellowship program that would be created by proposed ordinance 2017 0301 to honor Mrs. Wu would award one person who has demonstrated a commitment to public service a full time paid term limited to a temporary position in King County government. For a term of one year, the fellow would be an employee of the Department of Executive Services, Human Resources Management Division or h.r. D The fellow would be assigned to work in various county agencies for periods of 3 to 4 months at a time, working on projects such as following a piece of legislation through the legislative process, preparing briefings and assisting with outreach and executive branch policy administration. Each agency would reimburse h.r for the cost of the fellow for the period assigned to that particular agency. A selection committee will convene annually to review the applicants of the for the fellowship program and to recommend an applicant to be appointed as the fellow to h.r. The members of the selection. A committee will be appointed by the county executive and the chair of the Council. Council staff and Council's legal counsel has identified technical corrections to the proposed ordinance for Council consideration, which includes the striking amendment in a title amendment starting on page 15 of your packet. The striking amendment S1 would insert the new section of the fellowship program in Chapter 3.12 of the King County Code instead of Title two. The title Amendment one would confirm to the effects of this striking amendment. Executive staff in the Office of Labor Relations recommends that as the Fellowship Work Program is developed, an ongoing dialog regarding the program should commence with the labor unions that represent the employees of King County. Madam Chair, that concludes my staff report. We have three of Mrs. Woo's friends in the audience this morning. It's Ms.. Dolores in Bangor. Ms.. Joan, Yoshi, Tommy and Mr. Frank Rae. Thank you. Can I ask you a question on line 23 on the S1? What is that? On the word most. I've never seen us do that. I think it's just a citation since it's not capitalized and because it was a particular issue, speech issue in a quote. So that is there is a quotation and then with the persons of M. Since it's not capitalized, I would presume and we can it's just different. I never seen that before. Okay. So with the three friends want to come up to the table if you like to make any comments, would you like to come on these microphones? You have to pull very close to your mouth and it's the bottom line. And please introduce yourselves for the record. Good morning, Madam Chairman, and members of the Council. My name is Josh Utomi. I'm Dolores Bonga. Hey, would you like to make any comments about this? I guess Ruth Wu had a extensive network. Everybody shaking their heads so could tell. Everybody has touched with her. Been touched with her at some point or another. She always was great about trying to find young people to fill positions that she would hear about how she found that out. And none of us really knew. And then she on her campaign, she always looked to have young people be involved. And I believe, although she never articulated it this way, that it was her way of introducing young people to public service and government service. And she was very successful over the a lot of us are in those positions because of that. So I urge you to pass this legislation today. Thank you. Do you want to make another comment? Yes, please. I want to. Thank all of you for taking this magnificent step. We were thinking of a way to memorialize Ruth's life, and we could think of nothing better than to help young people become part of government. The beauty of this bill as well is that this fellow will be able to go to three different departments and I'm hoping their finance and budget and policy and operations, because then that individual will be able to, as Ruth did, influence many, many others to join government and to be a contributing member. This also fits in beautifully with your equity and social justice legislation, and we're very, very thankful for your doing this. Thank you. I think I have a clue. I want to use tricks. I met Ruth in December 2011 and she called me because she'd been watching me on TV and she wanted to give me some information. And it was one of the most pleasant meetings of meeting somebody knew. And her expertize, her kindness, the kinds of things she said and how much she knew, she'd been watching a lot of television. So I was really impressed with her ability just to see and know so much. So I, too, along with everybody else, will miss her a lot. And I appreciated her phone calls. So this was framed by two members of the committee. Do either of you want to say anything with it? Okay. McDermott. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. The staff report outlined Ruth's political work, but Ruth also ran the licensing agency in Rainier Valley. And I was actually home from college. Grew up here in Seattle, was the women's college in Spokane, and home for a college break when someone else who had done some political mentoring of me told me I needed to go meet. Did I know Ruth Wu well? No, I didn't know Ruth. Well, you need to meet Ruth. I'm going to call her and tell you to come in. You need to go by the licensing agency, introduce yourself and have coffee. I didn't quite understand why at the time. Only later did I understand how important and valuable that coffee, that time with Ruth would be. And Ruth was somebody who did, in her small way, mentor me and in much larger and more direct ways, mentor so many other people. And like Mr. Banga said, really invited and prompted many people to think about a career in involvement, whether it was a queer or not involvement in public service that they wouldn't otherwise have done. In addition to the people already introduced, they see that Judge alum Dean LAMB has joined us and I suspect you here for this item , not for something else in our agenda. Ruth Ruth's reach is deep, and this is a way of continuing that legacy, of introducing people, involving people in the public process, in government. And I think it's much the way Ruth would have done it herself. Thank you. Councilmember Dvorsky. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Want to echo Councilmember McDermott's remarks and really thank former Councilmember Salonga. And Joan Yosh, tell me, former deputy county executive, I think that was your title here in Lake administration for really bringing this forward. I think it's apropos of Ruth that it was this is a community based and community driven proposal. And that was what Ruth Wu and then her husband were all about, community based and community activism. And I think it's important I want to emphasize in here that Ruth was bipartisan and she may have been more Republican. The Democrat. I don't really know. I don't know that a lot of people knew she worked for Republicans and Democrats, but I think her driving force was inclusion and opportunity and making sure that those who were not always easily in the system or had access to the system or put into places and opportunities and connected with folks so that they would have those opportunities. And that's the goal of this program. As much as it's a tribute to Ruth, well, it really is about making King County more responsive and a better government to serve the diverse community of King County that we have today at 2.1 million people. We don't just go around making tributes to folks. That's a secondary benefit. And I think it's something that Ruth would appreciate and never like credit. She didn't want attention. I think she skipped an event that was set up to honor her one time. Right. But many times, yeah. And so she might be a little reluctant to have her name on this, but I have no doubt that she would be supportive of the thrust and goals of the program, and that is to bring rising stars into the government, train them up and ensure that we get the benefit of their service here to the county and that the county is able to better serve their communities in a reciprocal way. So I'm pretty excited about this. I hope that at some point it will succeed and its success will generate more positions, that the fellowships will be on be grow beyond just one. And I really want to thank Dolores and Joan for bringing this really good idea forward and then your advocacy for it. So thank you. Thank you. Okay, so which one of you would like to be okay? Oh, sorry. That's a member of our right there. Thank you very much. I had the privilege of first meeting Ruth when I was chair of the Transportation Committee of the State Senate. And I had not a lot of knowledge about some agents, and I was one of my colleagues in State House. Gary Locke said, Yeah, I had to meet Ruth to understand and appreciate some agents because we had legislation before us to eliminate some agents. And of course, Ruth took a keen interest in that issue, and I first got to know her through that process. And then when I became a member of the King County Council, the added privilege of getting to know Ben and Ben was an incredible partner, friend and mentor to everybody as well. And. Ruth, Ruth Seattle is very long, but Ben did his work as well. He did and should not be forgotten. I think it's nice to point out how nice she was, but she was tough. Certainly there was a certain state representative who thought it was his turn to become to the King County Council. And there was another person in the community that he thought he should be on the King County Council when a vacancy occurred not that long ago. And and she made it very clear her who her choice was. And her choice was eventually appointed to the King County Council. So, Ruth, as a person who not only was kind and a mentor, but she was a tough political person who understood which fit the district best, in this case, the South Seattle district. And she, as a person who has a great legacy and so many people in so many places, and this is a great continuation of her endearment to so many people by helping others. Thank you. Thank you. I like how she reached out. You know, it was it was really important that she would always take the time to reach out. Councilmember Would you like to put this before us? Councilman McDermott, would you like to put this before us? I'd move that. We give a do pass recommendation. To ordinance 2017 3001, the Ruth Ruth Fellowship. Okay, so before us, we have 2017 301 before us and I'll go down to the other. Would you councilmember or like you strike. That's one striking. In my look at a strike has gotten on page 15 others in favor of striker one please say I right those opposed nay and council member making. The title amendment. Okay and title amendment number one impeach 19 all those in favor title them one please. They I I you're now on the underlying as amended. Any comment? You got them. Okay. Would you please call for the votes? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Caldwell's council member McDermott. High Council member of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne. Right, member I. Madam Chair. Councilmember Ritchie. Madam Chair, the vote is five eyes. No nos. Great. I don't think we'll put it on the consent count because I'm assuming people want to speak on it. So we'll just put it on the regular course. And thank you so much. And Madam Chair, would it be possible to expedite it? To expedite it? Okay. We can expedite it. Nope, nope, nope, nope. I guess we have scheduling. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Very much. Good thing they have staff that knows how to do arm signals. Okay, we're good. All right, so it'll be on the regular course. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you. All right. So now we will move on to item number seven, which is 2017, briefing 172. It's a sustainable and competitive total compensation. And Pat Hamrick is here with Whitney Abrams and Megan Peterson. So welcome. Okay. Okay. If you want me to discuss it. The committee's committed to a series of briefings this year on King County as an employer who needs to recruit and attract high quality employees in one of the most competitive labor markets in the country. Today's briefing will be a third in the series, and today's focus will be on sustainable, competitive, total compensation. So, Ms.. Abrams, would you like to begin? Yes, please. And good morning, Madam Chair. And Council Members, we are here to reorient you on the employee experience, our investing in You strategy. As we've discussed previously, this initiative incorporates the complete employee experience, the compensation and benefits they receive, their workplace culture, our commitment to equity and social justice, and really doing this systemically to where we are not reacting to problems but strategizing for future solutions. King County success depends upon the strength of its workforce. We want to have highly engaged, diverse, culturally responsive employees. With this, we expect higher productivity, better customer service, and a commitment to innovation and results to the communities we serve. As we've discussed before, we have six areas that we are focusing on in this strategy, which include workplace culture, health, well-being and safety, learning and growth, racially diverse and culturally responsive workforce at all levels in the county. And what we are here to talk about today. Doing all of this within a total compensation framework. And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Megan Peterson, the director of the Office of Labor Relations, to discuss this topic. Good morning, Madam Chair. And Council Members Megan Peterson, director of the Office of Labor Relations. So as Whitney stated, this is one of the pillars within the Investing in You initiative. And the goal of this pillar is to ensure that our total compensation package, which we define as wages, benefits, leaves and retirement contributions, are competitive, sustainable and equitable. So the way in which this pillar aligns with the other pillars within investing in you is total compensation methodology and the master labor agreement bargaining that we're engaged in now ensure that labor contracts reflect the values at the core of investing in you, including equity, employee growth and development, sustainability and innovation in the interest of improving services to the public. So how do we get there? We're currently involved in a number of endeavors that will help bring better alignment and increase our total compensation package to make it a more attractive package for employees. So we're negotiating a 20 1718 total compensation agreement, and that covered wages and other monetary payments, including leaves and benefits. We're working with our labor partners to develop and bargain the master labor agreement. As you know, we are supporting you all, the King County Council, in updating labor and compensation policies. And we're getting our own house in order in the executive branch by developing a framework for total compensation, by defining what we mean when we use that term. We're also developing policies and practices that support work life balance, such as paid parental leave. So you may be wondering how will we know if we are successful? So really there are three ways that we are going to measure our success. The first is employee feedback, and we will do that in the in the context of the current employee engagement survey. We have a question in the survey this year and it asks employees to say whether if they were offered a similar job with the same pay and benefits, they would stay at King County or would they choose to leave? We also have added a question. This isn't in the slide deck, but we've added a question to our onboarding survey of new employees, and we're asking them to indicate whether the total compensation package in part led them to employment with King County. So the second index or measurement that we will use are labor costs. So under Dwight Dyer, please strong leadership, we are looking a lot at this formula of inflation cost, which is measured by the CPI index plus population growth. And so there's the strong marching orders from Mr. Davey are we need to not exceed that because that would not be sustainable. So third, the measurement of participation of the number of unions who are engaged in master of labor agreement bargaining, as well as the number of provisions within the master labor agreement that are standardized across the Coalition. So can I ask a question on that last one? Sure. So when you're talking about sustainability and you're talking about population inflation, so say say we have a I'm going to make up the number 2% population increase. And I know it's more than that because we have 266 people moving here today. So what would it be, a better number than 2%? Should that be like 3%, 4%? The typical percentage that we use is three three. Okay. So 3% there. And then inflation has been running about, what, two and a half? Okay. So that's five and a half. And we are kept under the initiative at 1%. So when we're talking about sustainability, that isn't really sustainable. No, it's not. And so we're really looking at the market basket and what other employers are giving for similar jobs. Mm hmm. So inflation is one component. And certainly I think you would agree we need to pay employees in King County so that they can afford to live in King County. But we can't do that at any expense. We have to also consider what is the market and what can we afford. And I think it's good for citizens to know that when you're talking about, you know, what, we just came up with approximately 5.5% as a yearly increase in costs that with the cap of 1%, that doesn't work. And it's been there for, what, ten years? So there are issues around that. Okay. Thank you. Sure. So moving on, the priorities for this year are two complete bargaining, which is underway now with the King County Coalition of Unions on the first ever master labor agreement that introduces standards across all of the coalition, develop executive branch guiding principles for wages and working conditions to increase alignment across the county. And we are looking at standardizing working conditions and total comp casting for all of our labor agreements. So not just the coalition bargaining units, but all bargaining units in King County. Good. That would be great. Coming up to 79 different contracts is kind of silly. That's right. So finally, the last slide details our timeline. So there's a lot of information here. But what you need to know is that we are currently engaged in master labor agreement, bargaining with a goal of getting it to by September 14th. And then from there, we will wrap up what we're calling the individual small table bargains by October 2nd in time to transmit to you all in December. Can you tell me what a mall table bargain means? Great question. Yes. So the master labor agreement entails bargaining over provisions that are common to all of the bargaining units in the coalition. So something like bereavement leave is a good example. Everybody has bereavement leave. Individual small table bargaining would be matters that relate to specific working conditions in that bargaining unit. Okay. And we'll keep those as small as possible. That's right. So the goal over time is for the master labor agreement to get bigger, to have more and more articles that pertain to everyone and those individual CBAs to become smaller. And, you know, the likelihood is we will always need individual collective bargaining agreements because of the unique operational issues for each bargaining unit. And, you know, the one that I, I choke out. The donning and doffing agreement. I think as we go forward, we need to get rid of some of those special kinds of agreements like that . So anyway, this is going to be a good thing. Is there a way that when we finally get through this process and by the way, you guys need Halo for all this hard work. So thank you for all your. Thank you. Not that I want you to be in heaven quick, but heavenly. So at the end, whatever two years, where it's now proven and everything, if we have an outlier group, can we have a surcharge for all the work that needs to be done separately from other employees? I think that's a fair question. Under the total compensation methodology, you really are looking at the employer's costs. And if a group costs more money because of, you know, the way in which we have to administer their agreement or they have unique h.r. You know, policies and we would want to look at that and factor that in. I would like that. I think the motivation to be the last one on board rather than being the first one on board to be helpful is not okay. Yeah. Thank you very much. Sure. Thank you. Great job. Great job. Well, how many unions do we have? We have 100 and or 101, I believe. One. Okay. 101. Different unions and nine and 79 different bargaining agreements. Is that right? That's right. So if we could get that down to one, that would be something that would make life a lot easier for everybody. And I think it would also build camaraderie that we're all treated the same. So good work. Thank you. Thank you very much. So there's Mr. Hamburgers. Anything you want to add to that? Okay. Okay. We're here for you. Our last item for the day is briefing 2017, briefing 173 on the Ballard Locks report. And if Mr. Wasserman and Mr. Cassano and Mr. Chapin would like to come up to security, that would be great . And you can introduce yourselves when the time comes, because I'm sure I didn't do as well as could be done. So, Mr. Hamacher, would you like to begin a briefing? 173. So I said. Okay. Sure. I'll begin. Madam Chair. Just a few. Introductory comments on the impact of the maritime industry in Washington State. I think everyone is aware that it's a major industry, although I'm not sure that the scope of that industry is as widely known. The most recent data that's publicly available dates to 20 2015. Over 2% of jobs in Washington State were directly related to the maritime industry. I've been 5% of the total jobs were supported by the maritime industry. The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard alone employs over 13,000 civilian workers, the fishing and seafood industry over 16,000. Maritime logistics and shipping employ over 22,000. The Northwest Seaport Alliance moved 3.5 million tons. That's a typo. 20 foot equivalent unions units in the staff, port and ferries and cruise ships in Puget Sound will carry over 23 million passengers, and cruise passengers will exceed 1 million trips is projected for 2017. So major industry. One key element of that is the Ballard Locks, which a lot of the focus will be on today. It supports 40,000 transits annually, which makes it the busiest in the nation. 7500 of those are commercial vessel transits. It provides 1.1 million tons. Of shipping transits. And is key to supporting over $1 billion in economic activity. So the panel today is Mr. Wasserman, who's the president of the North Seattle Industrial Association. Peter Chapin is the director of government affairs for the Northwest Maritime Trade Association. And Chris Costanzo is the Vice President for the Pacific region for American Waterways Operators. And I actually don't know who the fourth person that came to the table was, so they all need to introduce themselves. Okay. Well. Board Seattle, my colleagues, your friends here are excellent. Okay, it sounds great. I like that. Go ahead. I just like to thank you for having us. We were a group of us were here last year to talk a little bit about the maritime industry. And then at that time, we told you we'd come back to discuss the barrel lock study, which we put together. This is a major effort by the Port of Seattle City, Seattle King County and the various public private sector groups that use the logs. So it's interesting that we're here today as Hurricane Irma goes to Florida and right after what happened in Houston, we're very concerned about the status of the locks and the maintenance of it, and we actually been proactive about it along with our partners. And we wanted to update you on the study and some of the activities we've done to try to get funding to fix some of the maintenance needs of the locks. So with that, I'll turn it over to Charlie. Thank you, Jean. My name is Charlie Costanzo. I'm the vice president for the Pacific region. For the American Waterways Operators. The American Waterways Operators is the National Trade Association for the U.S. Tugboat, Towboat and Barge Industry, as you'll see. See, as we get into the presentation, tugboats and barges are a significant user of the Ballard Locks facility and marine freight. Transportation contributes a significant amount of economic activity, jobs and revenue, and is highly reliant on on the infrastructure and the fresh water, mortgage and maintenance that's in the Lake Washington Ship Canal at Lake Union itself. So without without further ado, I'd like to echo what Eugene said and thanking the committee, Madam Chairwoman, for the opportunity to to present to you today. This has really been a collective, a powerful collective experience as we've come together to highlight the value of the Ballard locks and the needs around the Ballard locks. And ultimately, what I'm what we're here for today is to pitch your additional support. King County Council has been generally supportive. This letter from the Sound Cities Association with Dow Constantine's signature on it has been tremendously valuable. I can recall when Senator Janie Coles was in the Senate giving providing a tugboat tour through Western towboat, one of the American waterways operators members. The blue and yellow tugs that you see in Elliott Bay and in the Ship Canal. And I recognize that you guys have been extremely supportive and committed to this effort. Let's give a quick sense of the economic impact area that we're talking about. It really is the industrial recreational waterways. Of the interior waters of the metro Seattle area, including all of Lake Washington, all of Lake Sammamish. The low connection of the Waterbody. You'll also see the ship canal, obviously, and the Duwamish, the tremendous, the linkage between the Duwamish industrial waterway and the Ballard Locks can't really be overstated. There's in terms of vessels that tie up their service providers that are operating in both areas, and we'll get into that a little bit. Very quickly, a more micro view of the ship canal in the vicinity. The businesses that are there, really, it's the locks are the key infrastructure, the locks you sort of it's best to think of them in a classic infrastructure sense, like a major highway, a major bridge or an airport. And what we're asking now is for the council to participate, help put the shoulder to the wheel with the rest of this community in a really ongoing advocacy effort for this particular infrastructure portion. Some of my members that operate in this area include Fox Maritime. They have a shipyard there, one of the largest and oldest towing vessel operators on the West Coast, western tugboat. Blue and yellow tugs that I referred to earlier. Without those blue and yellow tugs, virtually the cargo to southeast Alaska can't move. That's really how southeast Alaska gets all of its cargo through barges that are moved by Western Tugboat Trident Seafoods, one of the largest seafood operations in the United States, is located on the Ballard on the on the lake Washington ship Canal Kirby off offshore . Another AWOL member is a publicly traded the largest tank vessel operator in the country as well. In addition to that, there are dozens upon dozens of service providers, yards, electricians, plumbers, all connected to the maritime industry and driving upwards of $1.2 billion in total locks related economic activity. And how do we know that? We know that because. This group spearheaded an effort to get an economic impact study done. An economic impact study had never really been done on the locks and the ship canal and everything that the maritime industry and the locks bring to that area and to into the Puget Sound region. Generally, the Army Corps of Engineers works under a somewhat mechanical system called value to the nation that prioritizes the funding of their infrastructure based on their lock and dam infrastructure, based on the amount of tonnage locking through the individual locks system. So if you're an important threshold is 1 million tons, if you are below 1 million annual tons, locking through your deprioritized under the value to the nation formula. It's driven mainly by cargo tonnage. We've understood that the value to the nation of the Ballard Locks is not connected to tonnage, has never really been connected to tonnage. The vessels passing through the locks the commercial vessels aren't typically loaded, not like the way a vessel or barge or a ship passing through a lock somewhere along the major river system that would have a lot more cargo. So something on the Mississippi River that's locking through with barges is going to easily exceed that million tonne threshold. But the Ballard Locks would never really has has a hard time even getting to that million tonne threshold. It was there with some of the components of the 520 bridge, but consistently it's right around that level. And we realized that we needed to tell the story to the Army Corps of Engineers and to Congress in a different, more narrative, more robust way. And that's why we came together to to create this study. The study was done by the McDowell Group, and you can see their letterhead on these slides. They were helpful enough to put together these slides for us in anticipation of what's really been a roadshow. The roadshow is to government partners and private partners and anyone who has any sort of advocacy or influence in Washington, D.C. This message needs to go to the Army Corps of Engineers in their Northwest District headquarters in Portland, Oregon . It needs to go to their national headquarters in Washington, D.C. and it needs to go to the congressional delegation from the from the U.S. West Coast, particularly Washington. And we've got them very much on board the Washington delegation. Certainly the Puget Sound delegation, House and Senate members have been extremely helpful and sensitive and receptive to our message and our mission. But we also need to get this to Alaska, and we need to get this to the rest of the country, because this is a nationally significant piece of infrastructure. The locks are a hundred years old and they need between 30 to $60 million in new investment to make the major systems reliable and safe. It's a fairly decent sized window there in terms of 30 to $60 million. It's project specific, and each project has a bit of as a bit of a delta in there. And we'll go into that and discuss, you know, answer some questions about the specific projects and why they're important. So let's talk a little bit about the community. This is the maritime business and industrial community. It was brought up earlier. The Nordic Heritage Museum is one of the cultural institutions of Ballard. They support this project. Cities support this project. We'll get into why these cities support this project. Major fishing organizations support this project. Freight supports this project. Recreational vessels. Shipyards. The Port of Seattle. The Labor. We have the Maritime Trades Department from the AFL-CIO. Local Ballard businesses. The Ballard Alliance, which is the ballot. The Improvement District that used to be the Ballard Chamber of Commerce. So we have a very, very strong coalition. And as well as the Sound Cities Association, Mayor David Baker of Kenmore has been instrumental in that and as well as the regional collaborative of RHIAH eight, which is the Lake Washington, Sammamish, Cedar River, Water Quality and Salmon Recovery Organization. So they've been supportive of this as well. The issue is that the money that has come in for the Ballard locks as part of the president's budget has been really too meager and piecemeal to address the issues that are needed in a 100 year old, 100 year old piece of infrastructure that's never truly been renovated and updated with with sort of a major concerted push. It's. Had to be done a little a little at a time. One of the big concerns, too, is that the Ballard locks as the only Army Corps facility that connects freshwater to saltwater. We're lucky on the one hand, because that saltwater incursion forced the Army Corps when they were building the locks to really over engineer it in 1917 when it was completed. They built something that was essentially, you know, saltwater proof because they were aware of the challenges that the corrosion in the saltwater would create. It's given us the benefit of having a very well-built piece of infrastructure that has stood the test of time for 100 years. But everything has its limits. So that degree of saltwater incursion also makes the needs more urgent. Now that things are starting to corrode, things are starting to fail. Things were built with really long term, long term viability in mind. Those are now starting to get compromised. Additionally, the money that the Ballard Locks receives has to be above the regular operational funding. So of the 12 million or so that's been available over the last several years in the president's budget, Congress has essentially dedicated 3 to 4 million to repairing or replacing the major components. This means that the major components have been replaced in a sort of piecemeal fashion, but it's also eaten into the amount that's available for regular operations. The advocacy pitch that we need to give to Congress and that we need help from the King County Council has to be that the chunks come in larger amounts so that the work can be done more quickly, so that the locks will experience less downtime, because downtime equates with real operational hardships for the businesses that operate behind the locks. Specifically, the cost of the annual projects. The large block emergency closure system is underway that we need a new crane for that the locks needs a new crane for that. It's a 1922 era crane with cables and pulleys, and it really looks like something out of a truly, truly another era. It looks like 100 year old piece of machinery. It is aged out for regulatory purposes and in order to close up the locks, were they to fail in the up position, this crane would have to insert gates manually into the locks to keep Lake Washington from draining out. Lake Washington would actually drain out fairly quickly in the event of a lock failure. It would have severe impacts on water levels, which would then in turn have severe aspects on regional transportation. You have floating bridges that would no longer float and would be structurally compromised by resting, not on the pontoons on which they were built to rest on, but on the cement structures that hold up those pontoons. And it would really be a fairly catastrophic situation if the locks were to close in the up position. Now the locks have failed in the and the failures have become more frequent. So we need to do something about this. Another urgent piece is the filling culvert valve for filling culvert barrows. The locks don't fill an empty by pumps. They it's just an artesian process. It's gravity that fills and lowers the water level. The filling culverts are old. They let water in in a fairly a in a kind of a rough way that new filling culverts would minimize. It would be more complete and less dangerous to fish mortality. Juvenile salmon are, you know, sort of meh tagged around in the current culvert valves and that causes a higher mortality rate than we'd see with newer culvert valves. So there is a fish health, a habitat interest in this in these repairs as well. You can see the list. Here's the here's the delta. Some of the projects range between six and 10,000,005 and 10 million, depending on how quickly they can get done. But that accounts for the difference in the 30 to 60 million that are required for the Ballard locks. And we recognize that there will be several budgetary cycles that will need to pass through in order to obtain this money. But what we need to do is keep up the constant drumbeat and make sure that the advocates who are communicating with the delegation in Washington, D.C. have the opportunity to reach out to the Corps, know about these about these needs, and are constantly raising them. And, you know, it really it really is it really is going to take a community effort over a long period of time to get this done. Before you go in that. Well, I have a question on that slide. So is this fully a corps project to take and pay for? Is that pardon me? Is this a federal. Federal practice is fully federal. There's no county money involved in this. There is no county money involved in that. And we'd like to keep it that way. Really? Yeah. No, no, of course not. And I think it's I think it's in the best interests of, you know, the United States to have these federal facilities over federally navigable waterways, managed and paid for fully by the Army Corps of Engineers . In the president's budget, you know, so we're not talking about any sort of additional funding. We're not talking about any kind of public private partnership at this point. Really, it's the federal government needs to do its job. And we expect that, you know, in the in the current administration that has, you know, talked a good game about transportation infrastructure, that maybe this is the time that transportation infrastructure. And up to now, we've been faced with this value to the nation formula that has been pretty mechanical, fairly inflexible. An Army Corps of Engineers that, with all due respect, you know, they they build things well. But they in terms of making the case and sort of setting up the formulas that would make the case for why something's important, they needed help from the community on this one. So I'm really concerned about is it possible to go back one or not really? Absolutely. I'm really concerned about how many things we're doing that the federal government should be doing. I completely agree things that we're doing that the school district should be doing and how many things we're doing that the state should be doing. And while they're all good things, I'm not complaining about any one of them, but they are in our job and they make our job much more difficult. That's right. I'm glad to hear what you're saying, but I think what we're having here is the same problem we're having on bridges and that the federal government used to have a chart whereby they figured out which bridge would come to its 50 year life span. Mm hmm. What they thought in based on some year, I don't know what year it was, but some years, real dollars, what that would be, and then how much they had to put into the bridge count to be prepared for that when it happened. Right. And that blew up a couple of years ago. And they they didn't do that. They took that money and instead wrapped it into the new transportation budget. So there's no call out where there's transparency anymore. And it's easy to say, oh, well, they're going to take care of that. And so I'm very concerned what's happening with bridges. But this is the same exact. Same exact thing. Same exact thing. They should be allocating whatever. You know, you're going to have $50 million at this point. It should be they're putting in 10 million for this or 20 million, whatever it is. Because I the longer, as you know, that you don't repair something, the more expensive they become. And I like to think that Senators Cantwell and Murray and some earmarks would have gone a long way towards helping address this problem as well. But we don't have earmarks anymore either. So we've got it. We're stuck with the presidential budget process that we have. But we're fortunate that we have a congressional delegation that's very closely aligned and agrees with us about who's priority and who needs to take the responsibility for this. So I'm wondering, council members, what you think about adding this to our legislative agenda or is it on there already? Okay. I'm I'm I'm asking for it. I guess we're asking for it to be prioritized. And I would imagine that, you know, you don't have you don't have favorites on your legislative agenda, that they're all just things that you want to get done and you've got to get them all done. But it's Councilmember Cole, his favorite. Yeah. Yeah. And I. And it was. Larry Phillips favorite. Before. That makes sense. And I'm glad that it's somebody's favorite and that we that we know that it's that it's council Caldwell's is that that's what that's fantastic and I think we kind of knew that but we will continue to leverage that and we'll continue to I mean, we've got the Sound Cities Association behind this and we have a lot of entities that are influential who are making this a major priority, and that's why we're here today. So thank you for adding that to the legislative agenda, and we look forward to getting this done over the course of the years as it as it moves forward. So all of us go once a year back to D.C. and we have our briefing books and then we talk about what's important in the books. So this presentation for me is very helpful. So all of us are prepared to be advocates, even if Jane is not. In the room and there's Jane. And there's, you know, we could ever replace her. So when you when you go print glasses and leave behind these, okay, we'll provide these with you. You can you can reach out to me or to Peter or Eugene or to Ryan, any of us, really, to to help inform your message. Clarify the message we've been really. Grateful to have huge backing from the Port of Seattle and the city of Seattle. From the very beginning on this and the economic impact study, we believe gives us the opportunity to change the narrative and maybe drive the Corps into a more more creative thinking about about how to prioritize their their projects. Go ahead, Eugene. I think one of the more we don't view this as a Seattle centric process, you know, project. If you look at the map, it involves almost all your districts. And when we had the press conference, we invited people to speak from throughout King County mayors and stuff. So we was like, that's a good example of everyone in King County working on the same project and moving ahead. And the North Pacific Fishing Fleet is home ported behind the locks. So that's, you know, 80, 80% of the vessels fishing in Alaskan waters. And that's, you know, what, half of U.S. seafood or something like that, half of our U.S. seafood coming in. I mean, the numbers the numbers are huge. I'm not sure that those are the exact numbers. But those fishing vessels for and FOSS Maritime recently delivered you know fire boat for Los Angeles Long Beach for the Port of Los Angeles, Long Beach or Quebec. Quick Jack Marine is building San Francisco ferries to alleviate traffic congestion in the Bay Area. So the maritime businesses are exporting Seattle Maritime to the rest of the country and the world. It's the maritime. The maritime industry is not a localized industry anyway. I mean, the nature of it being, you know, are projected throughout throughout the country and and really the world. Can't afford to have it finished. I want to have Peter talk a little about the recreational boating industry. Go ahead, Peter. Hi, Peter Chapin, Northwest Marine Trade Association. We represent the recreational boating industry in the Northwest, have seven and 25 member businesses and there's no greater concentration of our member businesses than around the Ballard Locks. We probably have 60 to 70 member businesses in that. That's fine right there. Marinas, boatyards, welders, painters, they're all concentrated right in that vicinity. And this issue to work on has been a real galvanizing force for us to bring together our members, to bring together the entire maritime industry. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. And we're out hustling. We're meeting with whoever will. We will see us be in D.C. or around the area about the importance of the Ballard Locks. And I just wanted to echo what Charlie said around two points. This is a priority for an MTA, a priority for the maritime industry, and we have consensus around that priority and are moving forward in a real nice, concerted fashion. And we're so thankful to have Councilman Coles leading us with you all and looking forward to working on this together. To make. Sure we're right. Okay. And just very briefly, Ryan Macfarlane, Port of Seattle. I think the reasons why the Port of Seattle supports this effort have been are probably very clear to you. They've been well articulated by everyone else. Just to highlight a couple of things. We we do see ourselves as one of the stakeholders. The Port of Seattle has facilities behind the locks. We say Seattle's the home of the North Pacific fishing fleet. And to a large part of that, those vessels are moored at Port of Seattle Properties, the Fisherman's Terminal and the Maritime Industrial Center. So those those vessels defer the around 700 or so commercial vessels behind the locks. This is their harbor. And the other reason, I guess, more generally that we support the this effort is and the locks is because of the port's economic development mission, which I know the county also has that same mission. And just I mean, just you drive over the Ballard Bridge and you can see how important it is that's not well understood in Washington, DC. Or you look at the map that Charlie showed in the slide. So we do fully support this effort and thank you for your time in listening to us today. Thank you. Any other parts of your presentation? No, thank you. Did you want to say something? Good. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And I'm very sorry I had to step up for a little bit and miss most of your presentation. I don't know. I was brought up earlier, but the Council did have a recognition of the won the centennial celebration of the port. And Councilmember Lambert and I went on the historic vote on that on 4th of July as well. Thank you. And on the day it was Centennial. Okay, go ahead. There we are. Picture. That's Councilmember Lambert's vote. I like it. We both had one take. And I think the photos were exactly the things that were standing next to each other, taking some but the fire boats and then the boats. And we were on the lotus. And thank you both for organizing that. It was a really amazing day to be able to go out there and see and to see, you know, the maritime and then all the industrial and commercial things, right? So close behind the fire. It was really fun to watch, too, by the way. That was good. I just hope we don't have to use it for anything soon. There's enough fires around, so thank you. Okay. Thank you for being here. You're quite welcome. Thanks for having us. Could the two of you stay afterwards? And then I want to ask about some questions. Yeah. Great. Okay. Thank you. That was really, really good. And I appreciate that. One page handout will make sure that our lobbyist gets that, too. Okay. So that takes us down to item number nine, which is other business. And let's see, our next meeting will be September 20th, and we will anticipate discussing Harborview Medical Center's annual report. The King County Library System and the Puget Sound Taxpayers Accountability Account. And then elimination of an unnecessary report that should be tantalizing. So there's no other good things for the order of the business. This meeting is adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE creating the Ruth Woo emerging leaders fellowship program; and adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 3.12.
king_ed8aa1df-49d1-454b-823c-b20cdd07995a	For November 28, 2016, will come to order. All right. We will dispense with the roll call until more people have arrived and start into our our legislative briefing. And so that is. What number is that? That is number five. So as proposed in motion 2016 zero 5 to 7 and we have a yes, ma'am. I'm certain about that. I think I'd suggest that we talk about this. But beside and when we have our, when we have more people. Yeah, because this is really important. It is very important. But so is everything on the agenda. And so that's why we've waited 20 minutes for people to arrive. And let's see. Well. It's here to stay. Okay, let's do that then. Then we will go back up. Sorry, Mac. It's paid. All right, we're going to get a quorum stand. That would be great. All right, then. Let's start with 9 a.m. number four, and that would be the SJ strategic plan. And Mike Reid is here to brief off on that. Mike, would you begin? Thank you. So our meeting is being disturbed again by our frequent flier. So, Mr. Zimmerman, I'm very pleased you attend and thank you very much. But you're out of order and you need to sit down. Okay. Got to go. Mr. Zimmerman, you are out of order. The meeting will go to recess so he can just. It is back in order again. Thank you so much, Mr. Reid. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is briefing number 2016 b0196 and this is the equity social justice strategic plan that was called for by the Council's approval of a work plan on the Office of Equity and Social Justice. That work plan was approved by the Council last August, I believe, and prominent among its elements was the requirement for the preparation of what I'll call a road map for equity efforts by King County, basically a strategic plan. So the strategic plan, according to the council, approved workPlan, was to first prioritize equity and social justice goals. It was to identify metrics and systems of accountability to advance equity and social justice goals. It was to establish systems to engage county employees in equity and social justice in their daily work. It was to define the county's role in the regional and national equity and social justice efforts. It was to recommend updates to the County Code to advance these goals and to outline a timeline and resources to implement the strategic plan . The planning process was to involve the Council in the Plan Development material as well as who's the Director of the Office of Equity. Social Justice is here to present a briefing on the plan. Madam Chair. Great lecture van induction. And I think one of the important things to mention is what is in the budget for this for this biennium. So I believe up for this biennium there's a an increase of about a $900,000 approximately. So a close to a $2 million budget, about a $1.9 million budget. I'll look to Mathias to confirm that. Okay, great. Thank you. Welcome. It is. Yes. Hi. Good morning, Madam Chair. Yeah, well, just to your to your question, yes, there is an additional right now and the existing 2015 2016 budget, there's a 2.5 FTE. So that has been increased by 1.5 FTE for the next biennium. Also there is funding for Immigrant and Refugee Commission, so one FTE for that work. And also there was some reorganizing that happened during the budget process, two in which from two of the civil rights investigators from what have has been the Office of Civil Rights and Open Government, those two investigators are going to be moving into my office next month. Thank you very much. So please tell us about the plan. Great. Thank you. And as Mike had said, yes, this was something that was approved and based on the work plan that the council had approved last year, I think for for this process, the planning, the plan development was extremely important. We engaged close to 700, over 600 of our employees in the development of this plan starting last year, including at that phase. We did do workshops and we were calling them SWOG strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges. And we also did we did it with every single department and agency, including we had a group, the SJ legislative group also did a workshop. Similarly, we convened a group of people in the county who do work with community partners, and we spread out and spoke to over 100 organizations. These were geographically dispersed and also diverse by issues and by ethnicities. We produced two reports as a result of that engagement process. I think that community engagement report is in your packet. We also did an employee engagement report and really I think what we heard and how deep we went to the community and also with our employees was important because then our strategies are actually based on and really grounded on the experiences of our employees and our community partners. As we developed this plan and earlier this year, we a when I presented the annual ESG annual report in the spring, also gave a preview of some of the key elements in this plan, which included talking about the general strategies and goal areas. Also during the summer, I met with many of you and your staffers and incorporated the input from those meetings and also met with all departments and agencies during late spring and early summer. So really this plan builds on our experience that we've had with social justice, which now I think is quite extensive. And really the plan basically further operationalize this how we are going to be carrying out equity and social justice and gets quite specific. And that's one of the key elements of the plan too is, is the section which I don't think you have in the packet, but it's the. The whole reports about 80 or the whole plan's about 80 pages. And there's a section that really talks about a theory of change. And I think that section is very important because it really talk specifically about how we are becoming pro equity in our work. And key is and we've continued to define what we talk about when we talk about the streams upstream and downstream. Often when you look at the what we call the unhealthy stream and this is on page 12 of the of the report or the plan, we've tended to really focus on the downstream, the individual and family level and the results of really inequitable conditions that we see in our communities. And these are due to things both better in the community and then even further upstream in terms of the policies, systems and structures that kind of perpetuate these unhealthy conditions. So really what this plan is very focused on is really the upstream, the the the left side of that stream are really focusing upstream of the equity policies, system structures and processes and how to what does that actually really look like? And operationalizing that and different areas of of government, we further explore and explain how some key programs have already started to incorporate this approach. There's a term, for example, targeted universalism, which really is how we're trying to get universal outcomes for everybody in particular areas and really highlight how the best structure for kids work is doing that . Also highlighting how we are trying to dismantle systems and structures that aren't working at favor but new ones that are much more effective. I think the work that we're doing in human resources is extremely important there. For example, how we are now recruiting and posting for positions and some of the things that new systems that we created . And then also actually putting some things like before we would be putting a lot of emphasis on educational experience and those are being replaced with things, things such as competencies. That's really a great example of how we are kind of not doing the things that we know are not advancing equity. Also key in this prior equity approach is about is focusing on people in places with the greatest needs. I think the work around or left is extremely important as an example of that. Me Stop you right there. We have a councilmember that has the question, but also after his question, explain how that or what you're going to say about or collect and how that impacts Councilmember Demovsky. Day Madam Chair, back to the H.R. issue. Mathias And recruiting one of the issues that the Council had done a little bit of work on or at least had some dialog on with respect to recruiting was on salary history. And this is in particular now it comes up in the gender equity and equity area, but also I think across the board and whether or not we should continue to ask salary history as a means of determining current salary here at the county or recommended salary, was there any work done on that or where does that stand expected? Yeah, that's a that's a good question. I'm going to have to actually follow up on that one and see exactly where that that that issue is. I mean, the general focus, I think, is focusing more on things such as competencies and other things and less on the salary history. So I will follow up with that. Right. And it's not necessarily as it relates to qualifications, but when someone is hired because they're qualified, there can be a tendency, if someone is at a fair lower salary at prior positions, to again pay that person at a lower scale here. Yeah. That's that's the issue. Yeah. I think that's a great point. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. So let's just ask about that, though. You're right. We look at the salaries that they've had before, but if you're going to a position that has this as a step on it, then you should be on the right step range. Or are you saying you may be lower on the steps based on based on the prior. Okay. Yeah, there's some discretion there on a hiring manager and terms of where they get placed. So yeah, I think that's an important question. Okay, great. So really thinking also this focusing on people and places where their needs are greatest. So there are already examples such as with Oracle List. When we think about a rate change and the effect that this is going to have a low income communities, I think that's a great example of focusing on people with some of the greatest needs. And really, it's not just about equity in terms of thinking about burdens and benefits, but really thinking about inclusion. And this is both and creating inclusive processes and this is both in our work with our community and then also how we work with our employers. I think the development of this plan was a great example of a very inclusive process. And also we have some great community examples like the work that's happening around communities of opportunity in which we are working closely with, with partners, really the. The strategies that we highlight in this report are that we are basically come down the floor, that we're working upstream and where needs are greatest working and community partnerships and employees and with transparent accountable leadership. So I'm already talked talk a little bit about upstream or where needs are greatest in community partnerships. We when we especially talked with our our community organizations, we heard a lot that they wanted to develop other kinds of relationship with the county that were actually deeper, were more significant, that were more relationships, not just these episodic, you know, times when we go out, we get information from community and we never go back to them again. So and also saying that in terms of, you know, communities were asking to for us to further support them, to be able to them solve their own issues and problems. So really, our our our strategic plan pushes us in that direction in terms of employees, also a big emphasis here in terms of really think about our employees as our greatest assets, almost 14,000 employees that are our greatest assets. So how do we actually make sure that we're equitable in terms of the both the workforce and the workplace at all levels? And then with transparent and accountable leadership as the strategy and the plan that really and these strategies cut across all bulk or local areas that we have. And this is also both from conversations that we had with the community and with our employees saying we often say that we're going to do certain things and necessarily don't see it or we don't also actually show measures in terms of the the the work that we do and whether we're actually making a difference. So I think this we're not only having, I think, a very aggressive plan here in terms of how we're implementing equity and social justice. But our goals have very much most goals, goal areas have smart objectives. And what we're going to be able to measure the progress that we make and in these areas for the next six years. So we'll first I can have a couple of questions on page 11 of the staff report where it talks about that less than 4% of the increase in population has occurred in income brackets, between 35,000 and 125,000, which is a huge range to finding a shrinking middle class. So how is what we are doing going to address the idea that people who are between 35,020 5000 income can afford to live here? Well, so that's that's a very complicated question, right. There are a lot of factors that go in there. And I think there are a lot of partnerships that are happening right now, including, for example, some of our economic development advisor working with the chamber, the Seattle Foundation, for example, and working on some efforts to actually increase access to middle wage jobs. I think that's extremely important. The other thing, too, I think in terms of how it relates internally, we are thinking more and more of our own workforce and our and the work that we do as an important also economic development tool in terms of getting more people into good paying jobs as well. So very much built into our plan and our own workforce is how do we actually especially given the fact that we tend to be more white and less diverse in our leadership positions and more diverse in our lower paid positions, how can we actually develop those pathways to make sure that our employees are really developing and growing throughout there within the organization and getting to higher paid positions and eventually to manager and supervisor positions. So really thinking about further developing kind of those pathways and I think there's been some great examples already in which that has happened in some of the departments as well. But I'm thinking of that too, in terms of how we can actually get more people into those those jobs even within the county. And then, you know, you said something a minute ago that's really powerful about making sure people feel like they're engaged on a regular basis anytime they want to be engaged. So one of the things that is an amazing tool is that most people have access to computers and email. And I asked for there to be a study that our demographer worked on for a while, and it turns out that information is very difficult to get. But I know the courts are doing some really good work in emailing people and texting them about court times and such. So one of the things I think would be good is as we meet with people to get their email address. So number one, we can figure out what percentage of the population has access. And number two, that for those that do, which was over 75% by some formula that was raised a couple of years ago. And I bet it's higher than that now that if we can get that many people engaged on our Facebook page or whatever. It's an easier way to keep people engaged. And then on page 12, where you're talking about the institutions like the U. Dub watching a recent equity initiative focused on bias and racism, as well as engagement with communities. One of the things that I would like to see as part of this council is for us to be really clear that one of the communities isn't just ethnic, but geographic. And that would be to look at how do we as a local government compare to every other local government in this county and the opportunities that people who live in the incorporated area have to access their government, the kinds of services we provide in comparison to others. And I realize they won't be straight across the board because it's unincorporated. But there are some huge disparities that are beyond what I think should be. So I think having some data for that would be really important. Yeah, it's kind of interesting too. One of the areas that is we have eight policy areas as part of this work, which I was going to talk about in a little bit, but I brought it up. One of the areas to their capacity around digital equity is is a growing issue too, that they're trying to take on not just internal and access internally, but it's actually in the community and they already do some work there. And they actually are setting the goal to reduce the percentage of households that don't have access to broadband from 6% to 10% in the county. So very much. And that's going to be through some public private partnerships and working more regionally with our regional convener role as well. So that's one of the things a lot of the elements that are in the policy agenda are things that a lot of you will recognize, whether it's around best start for kids or whether it's around transportation, climate change. But one of the newer things there is around digital equity, and I think that's it's a really positive position that KCET has taken to actually try to further this. And so at the conference last week, I had lunch with a company which will be unnamed at this moment because I'm not sure I can say which company it was, who is doing that. And if you're a low income family, that you can sign up with that program for a very, very cheap amount. And so maybe at a later date, we can get a briefing on how KCET is doing that, and then we can be briefed so that we can tell our constituents about that, so that they could sign up. Yeah, that's great. Great. Okay. All right. Thank you. So the strategies that I was referencing really are laid out into and implemented into six areas of governance. And these are really kind of the guts of the plan, and it gets very specific. And then there's a whole implementation plan for the next two years in terms of how we're actually doing this. And the six school areas, our leadership, operations and services plans, policies and budgets, workforce and workplace, community partnerships, communication and education, facility and systems improvements. And each of these goal areas actually has a, a current state, an explanation of how we will be making a difference, some goals that to them, for the most part, where they can they are smart, they have smart objectives. And then some minimum standards or some things that we know are working quite well and are already starting to be implemented in certain parts of the county. We sets the minimum standards in which we say we want everybody to be doing some of these things. So for example, I mean, we've been talking some about hiring. We do some anti-bias training, including some departments have started to show a video that we have developed around this, and now we're trying to make that really a standard for every department and agency to be doing this as part of their H.R. practice. So really just highlighting a couple of the examples or areas and what we're doing around leadership operations and services and how we're measuring, which I think is extremely important. We will be measuring. So for example, through our employee survey, which we just completed about such things as to what extent people have supports, apply equity and social justice in their work. So really that's talking about the work that managers and supervisors are doing to help to support their employees. And also, we'll be measuring to what extent employers have the skills to to incorporate equity and social justice in their own work. And we're also doing a lot of work around training and other things to actually back up that work also around workforce and workplace, which I think is one of the more significant goal areas here. We are defining some very real or very specific kind of objectives and and direction of where we're going here in terms of really developing and retaining a racially diverse staff at all levels. And part of the things that are too is actually we're calling out, especially since we know that in leadership and manager positions, we are. That's racially diverse, really putting some and still working with the limitations of 1800 by setting some very clear directions or terms of where we want to be there. And really the other thing, too, is and this is the deep engagement work that we did with our employees. We heard that a lot of the employees, especially those are in the lowest paid positions, don't often have opportunities to grow and to develop. So really wanting all employees to have at least the opportunity to have a professional development plan and have support to actually grow within the organization. Besides the goal areas which I've been which I just talked about, we have eight policy areas, child and youth development, economic development, jobs, environment and climate, health, human services, housing, information and technology , justice system and transportation mobility. I already highlighted one of the newer things, for example, around digital equity that's happening and there are other things that you will already recognize. Like some of the work around tech start for kids or even the work that is multiagency around the Juvenile Justice Equity Steering Committee to address to support reality in there and the justice system. The the there's also a segment and you had mentioned the University of Washington, too, in which we talk about the importance of not just focusing on what King County is doing, but working further with some key partners. And that section is called the Regional Equality Collaborative. And we've been having meetings with some of the major philanthropy in our area with learning institutions such as the University of Washington or also Puget Sound, ESD. Also some of our key community partners and coalitions like the Regional Equity Network, to see really how we can advance regional equity together, knowing that if we work together as different, either both community partners, institutions and government and philanthropy, that we can actually make a better and bigger impact than if we work independently. And this is really coming to light now as we increasing emphasis in all of these organizations and institutions around having a strong equity component in the work. And I think a lot of them too, at the same time are also looking at the some of the good work that the county is doing as as the models for how we can work together. Also, we're in the phases, too, of actually convening early next year, starting to convening a lot of our local cities to more and more cities in our and and, for example, shoreline has a new diversity inclusion person. There are people out there, some of the cities out in the east side as well, some itself, King County, as well as Renton and others have have done some work around this. So really saying, okay, at the end they want to have forums to share and to learn around this and seeing what kind of work we can do together. So that's all around the regional equity collaborative work and seeing how we can more effectively partner, partner around some of these issues. So just to be there for a second. So one of the things when you travel with the government, they will give you a protocols list. These are protocols to be aware of. It would be really nice to have a protocols list so that people who want to do business or interact with different groups, you know, certain things . I know from being on a board, there are certain foods that we were offering the food bank and in a certain culture that was considered pig food and people were really upset by it. But it's something that, you know, most people in this country eat on a regular basis. So you'd have really no way of knowing that that was an insult. So I don't think people want to be offensive. But if you serve some food that's on the shelf in every grocery store and that offends somebody, you should know that. So how is there a list of, as we put together, a list of protocols or things to be concerned about or words that are offensive or changing in the vernaculars that are being used so that you have an idea of what you can do to help make things easier for people, or even a list of dates where things are significant. For instance, when is Denali? When is this? When is Ramadan? When is so that when you're planning something, you know, these are dates that may or may not be appropriate. And even like for instance, we were planning something and then that area during the height of harvest season. And when I said way, did you plan that in the middle of harvest season? Of course this was not going to work like, oh, we didn't know it was harvest season. So it's like, okay, so do we have a list like that? Or Yeah, so there are and there's some calendars that exist. Actually, the Office of Civil Rights has a link, and to some he asked. Innovations and holidays and things that people should keep in mind. But I think maybe making those things more prominent and visible would be important and actually sharing those. But if you send it to me and I'm going to send it out to my constituents to say this is a piece of information that might be helpful to you in your business or daily dealings. Yeah. So if I didn't know it was even there, I'd bet other people didn't either. So. Okay. Good. Thank you. Thank you. So one of the things, too, and actually I just got a note that because I suspected that Human Resources was actually addressing this, but I didn't want to say until I actually had some confirmation. And I and apparently they are working on eliminating the salary questions on the forms. So I thought that was the case. I just didn't want to speak without being sure. So yeah, so really moving into the next phases of implementation. I think right now all departments and agencies are working on two year plans for equity and social justice. So the real work plans for what they're going to be doing in each of these six goal areas that I have outlined. Also, we are working on a public reporting system to show our progress and the work and to highlight this work. I think that's going to be extremely important to do this now that we have a plan and working with our Office of Performance Strategy and Budget very closely to actually do show how we can show both by department, how we're doing and also as of Count County as a whole, how are we doing what we're doing on all these goal areas as well as how we are progressing in the policy areas? And finally, I just I do look forward to continue to work with, as I have so far to continue to work with both some of you individually and as a council on as we look to implement this plan. So I think that the idea of how you report is excellent, by the way. It's very interesting and laid out and it lends itself to the format that the mid users on how they report their outcomes. And for me I can't speak for everybody else, but for me that the mid report is so easy to read and so easy to figure out where we need to be and where we are succeeding and where we need help. But I highly recommend looking at that as a format for bringing this data forward. So will we have annual updates or. Yeah, I think at a minimum I'm going to be having some annual updates. I think there's some things, especially as we measure as we get like our from the employee survey, for example, that we can do on an annual basis. There's some things that we can actually do and maybe a twice a year ago, but at minimum at least once a year I guess. Okay, I like the idea of at least twice a year because there's so much data here. And and the sooner we can do the right thing, the better. So Councilmember Cole Wells and then to Becky. Thank you, Madam Chair. Matter. Thank you. I think this is really well laid out and organized. And I can tell that there's been an enormous amount of thought and effort, work time put into this. And I think it will go a long way to be of assistance throughout our country. I do have a couple of comments and suggestions. I believe it was a few months ago when you provided an update or proposed what you were working on. And I brought up something that still bothers me and that is how terms are used. And I appreciate that there appears to be a lot more in here on use of communities of color, for example. However, I do think there are places where you might include ethnicity in addition to race. I don't think race is a side. I know it's not a scientific term, but it use is very common. But there are some communities of color who I perceive do not think that they are really appropriately included in the term race. It may be Hispanic, Latinos, that could be Asian Pacific Islanders and so forth. And so, for example, on page 21 and the first paragraph that says and so we're all positive trends mask widening and troubling disparities in our county by race and place accurate. But I don't know that that captures all of the troubling disparities in our county. And I'm also concerned more recently, we've had incidents across the country after the general election results of what could be hate crimes, but are certainly very. Very, very concerning. I heard on NPR this morning of a young student who's Muslim and from North Dakota who is attending University of Washington and had a bottle thrown at her head , which could have been very, very serious. And she was interviewed about this. And we know there are reports across the country of swastikas and other things. So I think that's appropriate to be addressed in here as well. So what we could be viewing is ethnic groups or religious groups. I suggest that we do add in here at some point. I hate crimes. There are a few places in here where there's reference to explicit racial equity in our criminal justice work as an example and page 37. And I just urge you to broaden that to be ethnic equity just so or for all people of color in our community. You can find a way to do that. I'd be glad to help and thank you. I hope you take this in the spirit. It's not to be negative, but to be more inclusive here. And I will continue to actually we'll continue to have this conversation, too, about how that actually can look within some of the things that we say. Because, yeah, I mean, race is a that's considered a social construct that necessarily goes to some more specific cultural elements often. That's right. And sometimes geographically based as well. But how do we kind of capture things succinctly, too? And I think our narrative, for example, around race and place has been to really pinpoint or get a particular understanding of some of the general trends. But at the end, it's not an exact, you know, exclusive of all the other things that are actually happening. I mean, some of the issues by, you know, by gender, for example, or other issues are LGBTQ issues and all those kinds of things. So I think we've tried, especially even in the individual section of the report, to the plan, to really kind of lay out how we're being very you know, what, we're being laser focus at the same time, we're being comprehensive as well. And I think that in terms of some of the, you know, the counsel to initially ask for an immigrant refugee task force and now we're going to be having a commission. I think there's new urgency around not only thinking about kind of more of the long term, how we can actually better serve our immigrant refugee communities. But actually, I'm really seeing about with this new staff person how we can meet some of the very immediate needs that we have in the community. So there's no luxury to actually wait and kind of do planning and see what comes out of commission. I think that still needs to happen, but also how we can actually be supporting our communities during what many are feeling is a pretty challenging time, especially immigrants. Thank you very much for that. And just perhaps a little bit more of that explanatory narrative at the beginning in terms of the use of terms could be helpful. Maybe I missed it when I was trying to go through this spell. Thank you. Thank you. Come from over domestic. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And Mathias, thank you for the presentation today and your report here, which is a very strong start, I think. I'm wondering I want to understand the process. I don't see that this is before the Council for Action today. Are you are you expecting at some point the council to adopt this document that. It was just that there wasn't a there's no motion connected to this. It basically was you know, the process has been, I think, inclusive throughout from early on to, you know, meeting throughout the process to with with council and then as well with all other departments and agencies. At this point, there isn't anything to any any legislative action. You know. You can tell there's a lot of interest on the dais. And I think some of this work started in August of 2015 when the council adopted the SJ work plan. And at that time I ran an amendment requiring that that you, as the director more specifically seek involvement of the Council through participation of council staff, briefing of individual members and updates to the Committee of the whole. And you've described some of that outreach. Yeah, I know to Mike from my colleagues that we have 40 pages here entitled A Pro Equity Policy Agenda. And I think as many of you will know, I am a strong believer in the province of this council under the charter to be the policy setting body for the county. And this is a very significant set of policies here, a tremendous undertaking, I think really good stuff. Although I'm not the voices, I'm not sure it's quite complete, but I do think that the council should protect its role as policymakers. And when we have 40 pages of of a pro-equality policy agenda, we ought to affirmatively weigh in. In my view, I think it brings everyone in the government together. It blesses the plan. It confirms that it is the policy of this government, the things that are set out in here. And it ensures from the, I think, council's perspective that it's complete. So my interest is in exploring and maybe I'll see, you know, work with my colleagues and you and the executive branch to determine whether or not the council should adopt this or take further, further action on it. Just a couple of things of note. You indicated, for example, I'm looking at the justice section. I don't see where Oleo is called out. The Office of Law Enforcement Oversight. Were they consulted in your process? And what's the feedback there? Yeah, it was more directly with actually the sheriff's office. I've had some conversations with the director at Olio. He did have some conversations. Some conversations? Yeah. During this year around there. But some of the specific things that they're doing wasn't incorporated into this plan. Do you think that that might be an omission or just something that should be included? Potentially. I mean, in the conversations, I didn't hear of anything that should be included from, you know, from from that office. But she specifically, the director, asked to comment on the draft plan. No, not specifically. I think that's an example of something at least that's really important to me on an SJ plan at the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight would be affirmatively consulted with an aspirin quote and that their work be included in the justice section. And that's to a large degree where a lot of word. Yeah. When she started you know basically the plan was pretty far along at that at that point. And I did meet with the new director once she had started. About this plan. But no, no more specifically around just equity and social justice more generally and also the work that she's doing and how I can support that for her. Yeah. And I mean, you do terrific work and you are a wonderful resource here at the county and your office is. And I don't want to leave you with the impression that that's one of what I'm saying. I think and another item that caught my attention, both in the environment section and the transit or transportation section, there is no mention of kind of our greening of the fleet legislation and the work that's going on there. Obviously, that's of interest to me and particularly the motion that the Council adopted there required an ESG analysis of the carbon neutral or zero emission fleet, including maintenance of service levels and assessment of public health and air quality benefits to those communities most negatively affected by poor air quality. That's something that I would be interested in seeing in the plan. Our diesel fleet emits a fair bit of particulate matter, as you know, and oftentimes that occurs in more of our disadvantaged communities. And I think that is a piece that we could integrate here. I mean, there's some there's some other items that I would like to see. And Councilmember Caldwell's, as mentioned and and Lammers seems I think I will tell you, getting the draft on the Friday before the council goes on a recess for summer doesn't give an opportunity to really give good, timely feedback, particularly with a short deadline. So I think you've done great work here. I think that there could be some enhancements. And I think with respect to cementing this work, which again, I think is terrific into the policy structures of the government, the Council for Council involvement, an affirmative adoption of the policies in here by the Council could be helpful. One more just area. For example, as chair of the Board of Health, as chair of the Board of Health, when we adopted our work plan last year, one of the three things that we were focusing on was reduction of disparities in outcomes in your health section. You mentioned that, for example, the ten year lifespan difference between folks in South County and folks on the east side. But I don't think you go far enough. I don't think you're bold enough in this point. And I think King County should be a nationwide leader on reducing and if not reducing, if not eliminating those disparities. And I'd like to push this government from a policy perspective. And I think at the Board of Health, we have our regional partners at the table. We could do that there. So with respect to the policy regarding here, I'd like to see it go further in that area. So there's just a few examples of of some enhancements I think, that could be made. And I think we should continue to work on this to make it even stronger. So thank you for those comments, too. Yeah, I think that we did get a draft of the plan out actually in June, so early summer that went out to very broadly. So I think that we and then have many meetings with staffers and then with some council members to. Specifically on it. So but I agree. And the plan, especially the proactivity policy area, I think for the the the goals are very comprehensive, very specific. And what we're trying to do, I think the priority policy agenda is not necessarily comprehensive. Everything that we are doing. I think if that's what we're shooting for and also really I would welcome also some efforts actually even have some more teeth or maybe even bolder. So I would kind of welcome continue to have that discussion about how we can move forward around the whole equity policy agenda. So, yeah, thanks for those comments. Okay. And our last speaker will be cardiology. Thank you. I just my my appreciation and compliments on this work. Mathias has a really incredible body of work that you put together here. And I know this is the culmination of work over time. It's not just something that you sat down one day earlier this year and decided, let's just write it all down. And so I appreciate that this is going to be an evolving and living document. I do. I am intrigued by my colleagues comments, Mr. Dombrovskis comments about council blessing and and ownership in some sense of this, making it an even stronger potentially. But I would I would hate to see that slow anything down or I think that because it is an evolving living document, you're going to go forward with this plan. There's definitely some areas where there may be interest and we might want to work in an ongoing way together. I think that that would be my my input at this point. But I had a couple of thoughts along the lines of things that jump out at me as potentially really challenging inequities in in our county and in our communities that I know we can't do everything here. And there seems to be a focus on things that we actually control. But I will say that I don't know how in our state, in our in our communities, we are ever going to be able to do everything we need to do. If we don't focus on tax fairness, we can't fix that. But just, you know, sort of having come off of the significant effort to pass a major transit initiative with some fairly regressive tax sources, as all of our initiatives are funded with fairly regressive tax sources, I think that it's going to be really important for us as a county to be on the leading edge of supporting some of our legislators and frankly, talking among ourselves about what we're willing to do to encourage that. You did a great job in here of laying out the stark reality that as the population grows, we're growing more and more economically. We're being torn apart economically. The growth is all in really high end earners and really low end earners, and the middle class is truly disappearing. And so I think that we contribute to that with our inequitable taxation system, and that's something we need to be talking about more frequently. I don't know that that's a to do. I just thought of it as I was reading through your report is something that's really important to me and to us. Yeah. And the second thing is on the issue of mental health, and this is something that we do much more about, it's covered in the sense of talking about inequities in populations in our community and in demographics and locations where there's higher levels of mental health problems than in other areas. But I think the the state of being of having a mental health problem, which puts a person into a world of inequity that runs from being far more likely to end up in jail, having a hard time getting basic services, holding down a job, getting the treatment that you need as compared to people who have physical health problems. And so I just think that that's something that I as as the document lives and evolves. There's a lot of good work going on within this county on those issues, and I would just encourage that we think even more broadly about issues of mental health and and it in a related way developmental disabilities. So thank you for that. That's all I really want to say that. And just finally, we talked about Bear Stearns for kids a great deal here and and some of the other things that we'd like to see done. I really want to stress the staff reports falling out of the need to develop over time measures of success so that any effort grows when we show success and it depends on the words, we'll all sort of really sink in if we can show this is working. And that's something as we go forward that I'd really love to work on with with you all about how do we figure out what does it mean to be successful? Yeah. Because I think we will be and I want to be able to demonstrate how we are. Yeah. And I think is I mean, one of the things I said, we, we want to develop this reporting system for this. I think that'd be a great place to actually involve counsel. Thank you. Further, in terms of how that would look. Great and great work. Thank you. And also the in our policies, plans and budget goal area. Also, there is some mention there about. Working with partners and broadly around the tax system as well. Yeah. And when you're talking about putting together a collaborative, that is also, I think a great a great thing to talk about with the collaborative of King County and external external stakeholders who have a perhaps different kind of influence than we do. Thanks. Thank you. So the good news is we've read it. The bad news is we've read it. So. And that happy. That's good news. That's good news. So. But I think you see that there's support for you. Yeah. And so that's always nice to know that people really care about your work. And so I think that's important for me. Three quick things I've made. You have things that you would like me to share when I go out in the community. If there are things that you think are new information that people should know. You know, maybe every couple of months, you know, here are two or three things that you should be sharing as their constituents so that we keep it in front of us. You know, we're talking a lot in here about what the government's going to do for the people. But there's nothing in here that I saw that talked about what contracts, social contracts are we going to make with different groups to show what their part of the bargain is going to be? So what are some of those things that communities can do for themselves that we can encourage them to be doing? And then for our employees, the Secretary of State has an amazing amount of information for training on their website, and they will come out and test for us to give certificates to people who have done the online training. So I think looking at some of the online training that our employees can do on their own time if they would like to move up, I think there's some really great resources that we haven't tapped into. And last but not least, I've enjoyed my visit with you and I look forward to the next one. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. With that, we are going to move on to item number seven, which is proposed merger 20 1605. Yes, I'm sorry. I think we could we haven't done it. Do a roll call. I know we have at least one member participating by phone and let's get that on the record. Okay. Before we jump to the next. Okay. We could do that on quick. Would you please call for the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. As a member of your council member. DEMBOSKY You're council member. DUNN Air. Ferguson, Councilmember Caldwell. Here's Councilmember McDermott up the Grove Councilmember by our air. Madam Chair, here you have a thorough thank you very much. And since we have a quorum. Councilmember Dombrowski, would you be willing to put the minutes of November seven, 2016 before us so moved? Thank you so much. All those in favor of the minutes as written. Please say I, I, those opposed. Nay, the minutes are approved as written. All right, that's great. So we finish in strange order, but. No, no, no problem. Thank you. So now let's go on to number seven. And this is proposed motion 2016 0530. And this is the appointment of our Department of Transportation director Rob Gannon as general manager. Rob is no stranger to us and we are so pleased to have you here. And Mr. Wagner, do you want to begin? Thank you, Madam Chair. Nick Wagner, council staff. And as you well know, to my immediate right is Rob Gannon, the general manager, designee of Metro Transit, and to his right is Rhonda Berry, who is deputy executive for operations. The staff report on this motion begins on page 101 of your materials. Last year, Metro delivered 121.8 million passenger trips, which constituted more than 75% of all transit boardings in King County. Metro's operating budget for the 2017 2018 biennium is $1.58 billion, with almost 4600 FTE. Additional information about Metro services are provided on the first page of the staff report and in Attachment five, which is it? Pages 117 to 123. As Metro General Manager, Mr. Gannon will be responsible for Metro's operations, planning and budgeting. He's been serving as interim general manager since March 19th of this year. During that time, according to the executive's transmittal letter, quote, Mr. Gannon ably demonstrated that he will be a leader in reaching our shared goals of increasing mobility in the region, improving outcomes for residents and employees by increasing opportunity and equity, addressing climate change and instituting meaningful reforms that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of King County governance. Before becoming interim general manager. Mr. Gannon served for about three years as Metro Deputy General Manager and for about two years as human resources director for the entire Department of Transportation. His other work experience is listed on page one or two of your materials. Mr. Gannon's appointment is supported by letters of recommendation from the director of the city of Bellevue Transportation Department, the executive director of the Puget Sound Regional Council. The Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation. The executive director. Of the Transportation Choices Coalition and the Chief Executive Officer of Sound Transit. Copies of those letters are in your materials at pages 125 to 129. Mr. Gannon has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a master of public administration degree from the University of Montana. That concludes my staff report on was there any questions? He went to another little, little school besides the University of Montana. He did attend a program at the Harvard Executive Education Program. Yes. And the Naval Academy in Annapolis. So that's pretty impressive, too. Thank you. Great. That's a great recommendation. And, you know, it's exciting to me when employees come in to briefing on various subjects and they say things like, we love our new manager. He is wonderful. He comes around and talks to all of us. He cares about what the employees are thinking. He listens to us. And it's really exciting to hear employees talking about their manager and that way. So I want you to know that the people who work for you are just saying wonderful things and that's really, really exciting. So thank you. You're welcome. That's very welcome. It's nice to have you with us. And would you like to comment? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council members. I appreciate the opportunity this morning to offer a few comments on behalf of Executive Constantine as you consider the confirmation of the appointment of Rob Gannon as the next general manager of Metro Transit. Every day, Metro carries about 400,000 riders to destinations throughout the region. That number includes about two thirds of all commuters to downtown Seattle. Our region continues to grow, and as our region grows, so does the demand for transit. In order to meet these needs. Executive Constantine has stated that he wants to give riders more more service, more choices, more ways to make the writer experience even better. King County Metro's long range plan fulfills this vision by creating 26 rabbit ride lines around the region, by growing our network of express busses, running every 15 to 30 minutes all day, and by creating more local service that meets community needs. We will also make investments such as bus only lanes that will create fast, efficient and reliable transit throughout the system. There's a lot of work to be done and to make all this happen. Metro needs strong leadership as the executive set out to find the next rental general manager. He used some pretty straightforward criteria. He wanted someone who knew transit and appreciated its vital role in building strong communities. He wanted someone who could listen and lead, someone who could forge partnerships and bring people along to fulfill common goals. Someone who respected our employees and whose wisdom and judgment would engender the respect of others. In short, he wanted someone who could take the best transit system in the nation and make it even better. Based on those criteria, executive Constantine selected Rob Gannon to serve as Metro General Manager. Rob has the experience and vision to ensure Metro meets our transit needs now and into the future. When the general manager position became vacant. Transportation Director Hill Taniguchi and Dao talked a lot about what should be included in the job description as they listened to stakeholders and began to pull together goals and requirements. It became increasingly clear that Rob was the leader we were looking for. His knowledge of Metro operations and the needs of the organization helped inform Metro's budget, including capital investments, service hours, technology projects and staff development. Rob's work with our nationally recognized partnership to achieve Comprehensive Equity or PACE sought to improve communications among employees and create a workplace that respects and embraces diversity. Rob helped bring together law enforcement, youth advocates and judicial leaders to address youth fare enforcement. He is committed to driver safety, as evidenced by his advocacy for video cameras to be installed on our busses. And he has visited neighborhoods to talk to customers about bus shelters and other metro issues. And I had the pleasure of being with Rob and Harold in my own neighborhood as they talked about those things that my neighbors still asked me about have every other day. Rob's past included experience at Amazon and dovetails with our focus on improving the customer experience by improving internal systems. So in closing, I'll just say that whether it's integrating Metro Transit Service with sound transit and other partners or making sure bus shelters are clean and welcoming, Rob will lead the effort to ensure Metro is known for customer service second to none. You have in your package letters of support for Mr. Gannon, and I look forward to council confirmation of his appointment. I also look forward to working with him to forge the future of Metro Transit. Thank you very. Much. Thank you. That is a huge undertaking, but I think we have broad shoulders here to do it with about 4600 employees to help. And so, Mr. Gannon, would you like to share your vision for your priorities? I would. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the committee. Good morning. Thank you for inviting me here today and for considering me for this important position. I want to start my brief remarks by saying thank you to all of you for your support extended to me during my time as interim general manager. All of you were patient, but you were also made clear. You also made clear the demands our customers place on the agency. I look forward to working with the Council to ensure we always keep our customers needs at the forefront of our planning and our implementation. My thanks certainly go as well to executive constantly. It is a great honor to lead Metro Transit, but it is an equal honor to be part of the extended leadership team at King County. I'm committed to meeting the executive's high standards and expectations and reaching them as best possible to deputy executive Rhonda Berry into our department director , Harold Taniguchi. Thank you both for your leadership. You've always been generous with your time. Your encouragement and your thoughtful counsel. I have successfully navigated many a narrow and potentially hazardous path by way of your timely advice. I will continue to rely on your mentoring, and I want to say a special thanks to my many friends and close colleagues who have run King County, especially within Metro. The people of the agency have helped me understand where our challenges lie and what it takes for us to overcome them and be successful. In all honesty, I'm not here today in front of the council without all of them and the tremendous work they do each and every day to make Metro a vibrant part of our community. So I want to say just a few words about what being the general manager means to me. As I stated earlier, it is truly a great honor to lead such a fine transit agency and I hope that hard work the patience to listen first before taking action, remembering always that we are a service organization made strong by more than 4600 people, and that relationships and partnerships do in fact matter, that those things will continue to guide my path as a leader. Our power to do more for our community lies in our commitment to service. And that, in just a few words, is my grand vision for Metro. We are fortunate to have many wayfinding points that guide our efforts and set our direction. Our business plan for the biennium helped shape the budget you recently passed and my deep gratitude for that and that business plan sets a course for our near term. Our six year capital plan provides the early milestones of our journey, and Metro connects the truly visionary document created by the contributions of many stakeholders, jurisdictions, dedicated staff, and all of you show us where we should be heading. And in addition to those core planning documents, we are flanked by the guidance of the Strategic Climate Action Plan and the Equity and Social Justice Plan that you just heard about. Altogether, this framework will position us to increase transit service by more than 70% over the long term, removing as many as 300,000 vehicles from the roadway, and ensuring that an even greater portion of our low income and minority populations have access to frequent service at Metro. We are an organization with a clear and compelling vision through the leadership of both the Executive and the Council. We know where we are headed and my task as the leader then our imperative as an agency in truth is pragmatic, effective, coordinated execution. So from day one. And each day thereafter, my charge as the leader is this to keep our system safe and make it even safer for our employees and our customers. Deliver great service today while also working relentlessly to improve reliability and extend our capacity for tomorrow and to make Metro a great place to work. During my five years with King County, I have interacted with many people at all levels operators and mechanics, service workers and shelter cleaners, electrician and linemen, supervisors, chiefs, planners and senior managers. I say in all candor and from my heart, they all share a devotion to making Metro a great transit agency. And I see my job as helping make that possible, which is to say my role as a leader in this organization of dedicated professionals is to work with them to provide the best service possible to the public . Under my leadership, we will be dedicated to becoming an industry leading safety organization so that our customers can feel safe no matter the time or location they choose to engage the services Metro offers. We will work to improve our on time, performance and the overall reliability of our network, whether through corridor improvements, working with our partners at our start, expanding service to the new areas, working with surrounding jurisdictions, or even more effective integration with our colleagues at Sound Transit. We will optimize our current service while we build while we build the capacity to do even more for our region. I believe today Metro is a great place to work and I now want to ensure that all of my colleagues feel the same and that each and every one feels safe and respected. We need to devote more resources to training, more for our operators and mechanics, more for our up and coming managers and supervisors. We have outstanding talent that we can develop, and we need to continue to attract the region's best and brightest. More than any other concept, I believe that our path to service excellence lies in the trust that we build with our workforce. And that is the same trust that we must build with. Our customers are routinely challenged by colleagues to remember. Always, we serve our neighbors and our families. We transport our friends and we help them get to where they need to be. Yes, we provide mobility for the region, but Metro is an essential part of the community that connects people to opportunity and knits together our growing cities. In our expanding region, we help sustain the connections. People. A place and place to people that make us more than just roots and stops on a map. Metro transit must itself continue to be a community 4700 people strong serving the larger community that is King County. So again, my sincere my sincere thanks to all of you for inviting me here today and for considering me for this position. I am both overwhelmed and invigorated by the support I have received. I am confident that our agency, our community of people dedicated to providing outstanding service to customers is equal to the challenges that lie ahead. I look forward to working with you as a partner and a colleague and serving as your general manager. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that was wonderful. And I just want to make a couple of comments. Your Metro Connect's report is fabulous and you're people are energized about it. And the idea that so many people have bought into that vision is really important so that we're all going in literally the same direction. So that's really wonderful and I really appreciate that. I appreciate how that report has diversity of modes, where they were going to be in a van or we're going to be in a bus or we're going to be in an alternative minivan, whatever. I think that it helps to have the entire county covered with different ways of getting around. I think it's very helpful for us that we've gotten to know you over the last couple of months better than even before. And your comment about leading by serving is truly been noted and appreciated by so many. So I really appreciate that. Most people don't realize that we are the 10th largest transit company and the nation, and that's a huge undertaking. And so we know that you'll be an excellent leader. The only thing I don't get on my bus in the morning is my latte, which I have to stop on the way to to get so that I will be fine for my rides. The one thing I want to say, and I don't know how to do this, but when I grew up in San Francisco, if there was a person in those days, I think anybody over 50 was old. I don't think that anymore. But in those days, if somebody was over 50 and I was like nine, I was taught that you get up and left, that let the older person have the seat. And I see, you know, especially on really crowded routes, that there are people in their 80 standing and there are teenagers sitting. And I'm wondering what happened that we don't see that same kind of thing of somebody knowing, you know, I'm 15 and that lady over there is 92. Maybe I should get up. And I'm wondering if we need to do a little campaign about the fact that it's a nice gesture to let people who are older have the seat, especially when it's a crowded. So anyway, that's just one thing that I was thinking about the other day as I gave up my seat to make sure somebody older than 50, way older than 50 had the seat. Anybody have any comments like to make Councilmember Balducci? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm very, very pleased to support the appointment of Mr. Gannon to this position. I've known him for a number of years, first from the executive side. And I have to say, I feeling a little bit of sympathy for your position at this point as being a non jailor who got to run the jail system for a while. You were a non or a formerly non transit person, but not not a transit person by birth who is who is now going to bring. And I think that one of the benefits of that and I don't say this to pat myself on the back, is that you have to understand that in any activity, the substance of the activity kind of is what it is, right? Jailing people, you run the jail or running the transit system, you drive people around. But what makes it work is how well you serve people and how well you work with the people that you work with. It's all about the people. All of our jobs would be much, much easier if it wasn't for all the people. So we need. All right. And a bus system certainly would be a lot easier. Just be lines on a map and some busses to maintain and fill with gas or hook up to the electrical system. But and I think that the one of Rob's really outstanding characteristics that anybody who's met him for any amount of time knows is that he he is fundamentally respectful, humane leader, that he works with people. He truly values the people that he works with. He truly works hard to help those folks have have a work environment where they can do their best and that serves the public best. And so I think that that is going to really serve you well in this challenging position that you have somehow been talked into accepting the job. I do want to say that, you know, as as RTC Chair, we've already seen Rob at work at the Regional Transit Committee and how he is, you know, innovating in how the agency will work with. Communities to implement the long range plan to implement new bus service. We are in a fortunate period where we are adding bus service and that's a whole lot nicer than removing bus service, but it's a similar challenge. How do you do it? Well, especially the things that people rely on every single day when they walk out the door, like those of us who ride the bus rely on the busses. Any change is is challenging. And so being able to walk people through the emotional reactions to change, even if you're adding more service, if things move around, it's hard for folks which we saw with the adjustment to the new light rail lines, which are a wonderful thing but require people to change how they interacted with the transit system. Communications will be critical, absolutely critical. How we explain what we're doing, how we involve the community, how we here, as you said, listen and lead, not just lead and how we speak and explain what it is that we're doing as experts in the field who need to explain it to the people that we serve who are not experts in the field. I know that you will do a wonderful job at all of those critical tasks, and I'm very, very excited that you're willing to be here. All joking aside, you are going to be a wonderful addition in this role. And I am I'm happy to work with you. Thank you very much. Council Member Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Mr. Gannon, for being willing to take on this job. I am pleased to co-sponsor the motion for your confirmation here today, and I want to note that this is an historic piece of legislation. It's the first time that the County Council has confirmed a director of the Metro Transit Division since Metro Transit was merged into the county in 1994. And that's because of work this council did to require confirmation. I think we're seeing the benefit of that now to get to have some dialog with Mr. Gannon, who is a tremendous candidate for the position. I wanted to echo Councilmember Belushi's remarks as they centered around two things. First, your demonstrated, humane and compassionate leadership style, which I saw firsthand when attended the press conference over at the South Base here on Rob Rome. Our many, many dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of your employees turned out from the folks who I think are mechanics to drivers to just clean up the base. It was still your top leadership. It was really you could feel the warmth and affection for you that you've garnered. And that doesn't come without investing the time and work and having the right approach. So I think customer, although she was right on the second angle with respect to people, I think it is important to remember the history of Metro. The voters created Metro in 1972 and approved its funding with a 3/10 of a penny sales tax. And the voters again approved its merger in the King County government in 1992. And I think that we owe the voters of the region and our riders kind of the utmost deference and respect. And I think your reputation as a listening leader will play very well and serve this community very well, who has a 40 plus year connection to this transit agency and without whose continued support, we wouldn't be able to deliver 125 million boardings a year and continue to grow and expand it. And I have confidence that you will have, as a guide star, the voters and the taxpayers of the region as you manage this very complex system. I could say more, but I want to just give you a little positive feedback. A couple of weeks ago, my older son was goes to Roosevelt decided he wanted well he has a temporary worker card has a regular income we won his youth worker card and I thought, well, what does that take? So I called up here, line off the website. So now I get it. Youth worker card and very helpful customer service rep said, just bring down his student I.D. or birth certificate, come down to King Street and they just set up instant answer. No way, it was great. Went down to King Street, was ready for a long line, was ready for a lot of dialog, literally within 3 minutes. Terrific. A front desk person there behind the window, got the card, answered all questions. And I just thought it was a very good experience from a kind of other users perspective with respect to, again, people. And I thought those were great examples of people. I hope as we continue to go forward and restructure this system as light rail expands throughout the region, that we will pay particular attention to the riders input . And I'm as you know, I've got a piece of legislation that we've been working on here about public process, which is important to me. Governor Baldacci described the restructures as wonderful, and I think probably from a strategic systems perspective. To be fair, I described the light rail as wonderful. Rail. I thought you were saying the restructuring. Are some of my constituents who've gone through those big restructuring are these might not agree with wonderful but I, I think event because it's very it's painful it's disruptive to people, as you know who get accustomed to terrific bus service kind of. But it is the future. And I. Hope that we can build on Metro's strong public outreach process and input process to see if we can strengthen that further and make sure that folks, as we continue to implement Metro connects or when we when we start to implement Metro connects, that folks feel that they've had an opportunity to participate in that process because it's so personal to them. Transit for many people, it's their everyday experience. And then and I think that cements and build support for our system when we do that. I just have confidence that you'll do that based on your reputation as a leader. And I want to thank you for serving. Thank you. So I. I hope that this hasn't been painful. When we had the process and we changed the rule. Many people said it was going to be a painful process to directors. So I hope it wasn't painful and that I used to have a draw of all the nice things my students said about me and the days when they didn't have their homework done and they weren't being nice. I pull that draw out and read my nice notes to remember, so I hope you never have to look at your nice notes that every day will be a pleasure and that you know that we appreciate the good work your being you're doing. Councilmember. Councilman, did you want to make a comment? Okay. Councilmember Gossett And then. Q Oh, okay. Councilmember Gossett Followed by Dan, and then I'm going to ask Katie about if she'd like to put this before us since she's a transportation. Are your transportation okay? Would you put this before us then? And you're also the co-sponsor. Great. Okay. Councilmember it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah. The question I get asked frequently about Metro is about rising cost and working lives. And if we can afford we reimburse, I mean, not putting a no amount of money and for their arca less car each month, it's easier for them just to pay the dollar quarter and hope they have the money that Amy. Is there anything they were going to do in the future to be able to drive down the cars for very low income riders? Last week for the transit union, we were able to lower the bus ticket cost to agencies that helped them by cutting the cost and how. But we were not able to increase the number of bus tickets available to those agencies. What's your thought on this issue? Councilmember Garcia, thank you for that question. I think in broad terms, any agent of the government, especially perhaps a leader of a transit agency, has to keep an eye on costs. We have to be efficient with the way we deploy our dollars, our service and our resources. But we also have to be mindful that our transit dependent population cares less about agency cost and much more about their personal costs. I think that the forklift was an important step in a very good direction to improve access to transit, especially for those in the low income category. I think there is more that we can do and can continue to explore how to extend that resource, whether it is looking to see what is the right level for our Human Services ticketing program or exploring another version of a low income fare. It's also making access to those fair media even more accessible, if that makes sense. So I think in the coming weeks we are going to launch a mobile ticketing pilot, which will make it easier to travel without an orca card. And I think that's another important step that we will able to be we will be able to engage. I think in the end, what it takes, however, is a wide range of choices for our customers so that they can figure out what works best for them. And that as a government, as an agency, as a transit leader, we're always mindful of what is the impact of our fare structure on some of our most vulnerable users. So I'm committed to continuing to keep that front of mind as we look at how our revenues are being deployed, how our service structure is extending to the various areas of the region and really to some of the earlier comments from council members do always keep in mind what an individual rider faces when he or she boards our transit system. Thank you. Councilmember Dunham. Mr. Gannon, thanks so much for being here. And, you know, I've. Had the privilege of chairing the Regional Transit Committee for seven years, working very closely with. Kevin Desmond and Victor Basso and all the transit leaders. And it's a very well-run organization and one of the best agencies, in my judgment, in King County government. And the public sees that, too, if we do survey. Work around the community. Metro rates very high, but you do come in to fill big shoes. Kevin Desmond is one of my favorite managers here in the county. But what I'm seeing with your outreach to the community and what I've seen so far with your work on the Regional Transfer Committee, which I serve now, helping out. Baldacci is. Really a great approach to engage in the community, what you're talking about with Mr. Gossett. So no tough questions for me to day. Look forward to supporting your confirmation and we'll say this is the first time we've done it. But I do I grant the executive great deference in this process and think I think unless there was some substantial problem. I would never overrule the. Executive's judgment on this. And it's not even close here. You're you're going to be great. And I'm really glad to be able to support your work, your nomination. Thank you very much. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. I also like to bring out the accolades here, reinforce them. I'm very pleased to be supporting in favor. I would like to also mention that with regard to the issue of transit for low income riders, I believe we did include a budget proviso in our budget that we approved two weeks ago to have King County that should conduct a study on that. So that's something that I think most all of us care about. So let's see what is forthcoming. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. With that councilmember Tabasco, I should like to. Make the motion to share any problem to expedite this till this afternoon to this afternoon's council meeting. That's good by me. Let's see what legal stuff says. Can we? We can. Okay. I don't believe we can, but we can expedite it to the next meeting and. Do not take action this. Morning and review the threat. Okay, but we can have it at the next meeting and we can even put it on consent and get it. Done this month or I mean, in December. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You met Chair happy to move adoption with a do pass recommendation of pardon me, a proposed motion number 2000 60530, which would confirm the Department of Transportation Director's appointment of Mr. Gavin as the general manager for Metro Transit. Excellent. Thank you. With that, the clerk, please call for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council member. About the. Councilmember Dombrowski both councilmember done. By. The members opposite by Councilmember. Colwell i. Councilmember mcdermott, councilmember of the grove councilmember Vaughn right there. I have chair I. Know knows councilmembers McDermott and out of the grove excuse. Well Mr. Cohen and that was a real squeaker. But I'm glad that you pulled it out and we're very excited about working with you. And we wish you decades of good success in your new job. So with that, we will put it on the expedited for next week. And I'm thinking since we already talked about it, that we might just because of the timeline, but I can see that. Is that okay or do people want to have another opportunity to talk about it now? What's going on? Okay. Well, let's put in our consent to start with and then that way your ears won't have to ring next week, we'll just vote on it. And so we'll start with that and somebody wants to talk about it, then we can pull it off. All right. Thank you so much and have a great day. Thank you. Okay. Now we're going up to item number six. And I'm glad you brought your fan club. It's a good thing. And I'm sure there's 4500 other people back at work. 4600 willing to congratulate you, too. Number six is the 2000 60391 roads in a local agreement template for city contracts. And I'm sorry we've had to keep you waiting this long, but the agenda today just got moved around. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Lisa Kay on council staff. This item proposed ordinance 2016 0391 is before you today. The staff report is on page 61 of your packet. I'm joined with join by Road Services Division Director Brenda Bauer to my left. This legislation would allow the executive to use the contract template on page 81 of your packet for road maintenance agreements with any City and King County Council currently approves those contracts individually. Rhodes has existing contracts with 29 cities for a variety of services. The list of cities is included on pages 93 to 95 of your packet. The existing contracts in the new template provide for forecast recovery to the county for cities are currently seeking new contracts with King County. That would be Bellevue, the city of Medina, Normandy Park and Euro Point. After executing those contracts, words would expect to transition contracts with the existing cities over time. They adopted Strategic Plan for road services that you updated in 2014, directs roads to ensure that contract services do not materially reduce the capacity of the division to provide services to the county's network. According to executive staff, Rhodes has moved away from providing generic services to agencies that have capacity to do that work in-house. They adopted biannual budget, for example, anticipates $3.7 million in revenue each year from the contract cities, which is a reduction from historical levels which have averaged about $5.8 million between 2012 and 2015. You can see those figures on. Table one on page. 64 of your packet. Staff have prepared the technical amendment on page 79 of your packet, as recommended by Council's legal counsel. The amendment revises wording about Council's authorization of the use of the template. That completes my report, Madam Chair. Great. Thank you very much, Mr. Brower. Welcome. Do you like to talk about this work? Yes. Brenda Barrow, Road Services Division Director. Thank you for considering this change. It would provide a standardized template that is consistent with the work of the office and the Council's attorney to identify a template that would be a smart template that we could offer all cities and would expedite the work there, would reduce the amount of time we spend negotiating individual agreements with agencies, and that would create a lot of efficiency for us. It would also create a lot of certainty for us to have consistent terms for all the different cities we have moved away from. Providing, as Lisa said, generic services to most of the cities with a reduced workforce. We didn't want to provide services that would be in conflict with work on county roads. So very generic services are we've moved away from and we're focusing our staff on county roads so that that is not an issue for us. We're continuing to provide services where we are kind of a regional service provider and it's difficult for the cities to get those services on their own. For example, we have a lot of engineers who are experts in both bridge design and bridge repair staff, and we want to continue to provide that services for small cities that may be just have one bridge and don't have the capacity within their existing smaller staffs to have someone with that kind of expertize. And that's the kind of work we can also work around our own bridge work. So we're continuing to provide some regional services to cities, but both focusing through a standardized agreement and focusing on things that aren't in conflict with attending to county roads. Thank you. So I'm going to say that you have an amazing head engineer. Every time I call with questions, he's got the answer immediately. And I sit on the statewide crab board and they always talk about how lucky King County is to have our engineer. So I had no idea until serving on the crab board all the duties that an engineer has, the head engineer for the counties. So when you say generic, what which ones are you moving away from? When you say you're going to just generic, just the everyday kinds of like overtopping. A good example would be street sweeping. We ran into some issues where, you know, the leaves all fall at the same time and everybody wants street sweeping in the same couple of weeks. And we were running around trying to fulfill commitments to cities to sweep their street when the leaves were caking on two county roads and we were having to make multiple passes and the roads at county were not getting addressed. So it's something that easily can be done either with a limited public work staff at a small city or contracted out. There are plenty of folks who have street sweepers who can do that sort of work for cities. So that's the kind of thing that we've moved away from, where it would be in conflict with taking care of county roads first. Okay, great. Okay. Well, this looks good. And I think it's great that we have a contract that is continuous so that people know what the terms are, unlike some county contracts. We had one particular situation where we had five contracts for the same thing and they were all different and it was kind of crazy making. So this is great. I'm glad that you have that. Are there any questions, Councilmember Gossett? Thank you, Madam Chair. Contract out street cleaning to cities. We always hear that we're short of money and roads. Why are we able to do this? Why are we able to do. Contract out speed cleaning rather than do it before us to have to do it ourselves. So we're not. Is it budgeted in your budget? We are doing our own cleaning of county roads. This is a contract with the cities to provide services to the cities. All but not street cleaning services. Not necessary. That's an example of services that we're moving away from providing to cities. We had relied on cities to. We we used to do sweeping of city streets and county forces and county equipment. And we're moving away. From that city through sweeping the unincorporated streets. Thank you. Yeah, it would be 43% fewer employees at this point. Roughly. Yeah. We're going up a little bit in this next budget cycle. Think thanks to both additional revenue and the work at the council rate. We appreciate that. Councilmember Budgeting. Segment Share. Similar question and this is new to me the idea of cities contracting with the county for road services. And when I see three of the cities in my district, which I believe are all entirely incorporated, with maybe a tiny exception, what is it that you would what is it that you're talking about doing with Bellevue , Medina or Yarrow Point? What would the contracts be for? By the way, I'm totally in favor of a standardized contract that's been preapproved. It makes life easier for absolutely everybody, but it just raises a substantive question that I'm not familiar with. So if you could work with a regional service provider to a lot of the cities, for example, we have a materials lab, we have one of the only two public materials labs in the state. And they do things like if you're doing overlay services, we test the materials to ensure that they meet the specifications, that they have the right ingredients, that they are sustainable. And another example would be bridge engineers. The city of Bellevue might be large enough to have some bridge engineers, but they probably don't have a public work staff. That is a. Who knows how to do the repairs to bridges. So we have we have both a bridge engineering team and a maintenance team that does bridge repairs, and it's really dependent upon what the city's needs are. So each individual city has different needs. I could find out with the city of Bellevue. Yeah, the curiosity. I'd be interested to know at some point in the, you know, due course. Thank you. Okay, great. So, Councilmember Taberski, would you be willing to put this before us? MOVE Ordinance 2016 0391.1 with due pass recommendation. Any questions? All right, Clark, would you please call for the vote? There's an amendment in your packet. Oh, that's right. I don't remember that one. Yes. And this is a clarification that the staff asked for on page 79 of your packet. Good. Thank you very much. That helps. It's Amendment One and it makes technical corrections to the recital section and in a local agreement template. All right. So all those in favor of item attachment number one mean I'm sorry, amendment number one, please say I was opposed. Nay. Now we have the bill before us as amended. Clark, please come for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. By council members. And I've. Done. All right. Councilmember Gossett. I. Councilmember Coleman, I. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember the Grove. Councilmember. Born. Right, our. Madam Chair, I am chair of the Board of six. I is known of council members McDermott up the grove and van. Right. Very excuse. Excellent. And thinking about putting this on expedite and also on concerns that okay with everybody okay let's put a expedite and consent so you'll have your forms ready as soon as possible. Thank you for all your good work. All right. Ah, and thank you to the attorneys for all your good work. Good. Good to see you again. All right. Now we are onto our last item, not because it is the least important, but because we have everybody here and it was asked to be the last so we could get everybody's input. And our very able director of government relations here, major come forward and does and if to do want to come forward to or or not. Okay, great. Thank you very much, Mr. Nicholson. Thank you. There is this proposed motion 2016 zero 5 to 7, our 2017 state legislative agenda, and we would like to have this ready for our meeting with our state legislators, which is one week or two weeks, one. Week, December. 5th, December 5th. Okay. And you may vacate. Thank you. Thank you. So before you as the draft agenda, based on conversations with both the executive office and then with council members office over the last couple of months, I know that there's been a limited time with with kind of council focusing on the budget, but hoping that we touch base with everybody at least once or twice. Or ten times and I guess. To to work on finalizing the agenda. So on the front page of the agenda are the two main priorities. One is the 1% cap replacing that. The other is a foundational public health service funding request that's kind of made in conjunction with public health jurisdictions across the state. On the back, we tried to categorize in three ways. One is homelessness and affordable housing. Which is confronting. Homelessness and opioid crisis in King County and seeking state partnerships to both address the immediate emergency and the root causes of homelessness and affordable housing challenges. Looking at a local roads and infrastructure piece which will see partnerships with the state to protect and develop the infrastructure needs in King County. And then looking at a community piece which will provide a safe and sustainable community, successful justice and voting systems and equitable opportunities for all residents. So that's the agenda piece. This is kind of the game plan for what the government relations team will be advocating for. Yes. In in downtown Olympia. And then the follow up piece is the the state by state policy. And this is a more comprehensive document that we will use to guide how we can weigh in on other issues that aren't necessarily on the legislative agenda, but that will inevitably come up during session and gives us some direction. With the added caveat that if significant issues arise, become relations time, we'll be sure to check in with council members. And if we know that you have specific interests on issues, we will certainly check in on them as those issues arise during session. Great. Thank you. So I think the logistics of not logistics, but the presentation is fabulous. And I'm going to hold it up for the listening audience. It's on two sides of one piece of paper, so the legislators will be able to pin it up easily in their offices. So that is our hope. And at the bottom where you've made it very clear what our asks are hard to miss that. So that's really important. Okay. Question City Council Member But did you fall gusset. Wanted to state a couple of things. Not so much a question if that's okay. Sure. Chair. A this is a very, very good legislative agenda. I do appreciate the efforts that Mac went through to make sure that we were all personally briefed and understood what was in it and had our chance to give input. I feel that my my concerns are reflected and it really closely supports our priorities. The county, as reflected in our recent budget, which is, of course, where where your real priorities show through the clearest, we've committed to making our county one where all residents have the opportunity to enjoy the great quality of life we have here with , you know, protecting and expanding existing funding for homelessness, response, addressing affordable housing, you know, investing in our chronically underfunded county and regional roads. These are all the things that this county really does the most for and cares the most about. I am particularly pleased to see the priority on the East Side rail corridor to complete the funding for the next important investments in making that available to the public. As as our former specialist on this debate used to say a highway without cars and amazing I think it also addresses some of the issues of the day that are really important. I'm glad to see funding for the Alaskan Way Viaduct construction mitigation being requested. I don't know how optimistic we are about that, but it's important to stay committed to it and they should do it. It's going to help keep people moving through this very constricted pinch point in our entire regional transit bus network system . I wish Rob was still here. We could talk about it some, but and and they committed to do it. I'm pleased to see that we're elevating issues like hate crimes and ensuring that we continue to have affordable care, health care in our communities regardless of what may be happening throughout the nation. I do have one concern and I just want to put it on the record because I understand that I am an outlier on this and it is a very good agenda and I'm going to support the agenda. Despite being an outlier on this issue, I am concerned that we are asking the state to authorize unaccompanied minors as young as the age of 13 to make the decision to share what is quoted here personally identifying information when they are receiving homelessness services into our regional homeless management information system. Our HMS. Don't get me wrong, I am a big supporter of data driven decision making, a big supporter of knowing what we're doing and who we're serving and how well we are succeeding at that. I don't know that we need to know the personal identification of minors, their name, their birthdate, their Social Security numbers. In order to do that, we can have de-identified information from those young people and not have them creating a record of themselves in the system. In this way, it's possible that I am reacting very strongly to this out of, you know, sort of a, I don't know, a silly and outdated concern about privacy that we can't really protect any longer. Or as the mom of a soon to be 11 year old, who I can guarantee you when he's 13 years old, is probably not going to be I would not feel comfortable with him making decisions for his future in this way. So I just I wish we weren't I wish we were advocating to make our information system more respectful of people's privacy while still collecting the data that we need to perform our functions well as a region. But I understand that this has been on the agenda for a while and there's a reason for it. And so I won't I won't I won't try to change it at this late date. But I would hope that in the future we think about protecting privacy, especially for young people, especially for young people who are our most vulnerable young people. Thank you. So I'd like to respond to that is okay, you get to the root of a very serious problem and that is that under current state law, parents have no legal rights on a child. 13 over four their medical care. So when your child's 13, you are left out. And when my 13 year old came out of the doctor's office with a prescription that would have killed him because I wasn't in there to tell the doctor that he's allergic to that medicine, I was very upset. And so it is in my mind as a mom is very decision. Asserting that my children or grandchildren would not have the benefit of what I know about their bodies from the time they're 13 on. So I totally agree with you on the fact that 13 year olds should not be in the position where they're in charge because 13 year olds, while they may think they're brilliant. Having been a teacher of 13 year olds, I know there's some margin for growth, but so that's the problem. But the next problem is that we're trying to address here is that we want everybody to have continuity of care and we have no way of knowing whether Johnny got service A, B or C and that being able then to monitor that with that problem X when I'm sure his problem is that services A&E actually turned out to be the way it worked so that the next time we have somebody coming in with similar backups that we know A&E So it's like you said, really important data driven and we've worked really hard for the last at least eight years to get HMAS now moved to this county. It wasn't done here before, it's now been moved here and we have done tremendous work at trying to make that safe, secure and if there is just like a few people that we just aggregate the information so nobody can say, oh, I, I know a mom with two kids that lives in that area, so that must be their data. So there's been a lot of work done, so hopefully that's helpful to know some of the background on it. But I agree with you on the 13 is being crazy. But as the existing State Law Council member taberski details that he wanted to share. I think, Madam Chair, and there are some things in here which maybe I don't necessarily agree with 9% either, but this 13 issue is of interest to me. And between now and full council, I'd like to get a little more educated on it and an ongoing interest in and concern about privacy. We worked on that with our customer service system here with case it to protect personal identifying information as people entering the government. We saw that the public cares about it too with respect to our animal services and kind of when people feel their privacy is being invaded by the government, they get concerned, rightly so. It's like, if you could, Mac, help me between now and council adoption, understand the importance of this to the extent that such a precise issue rises to one of the bullet points in the agenda and whether or not there are any protections that could be added to the extent that this is necessary for minors. So thank you for raising that government duty. If you're ready, Madam Chair, I would put this before us. I have one, two more members and then I'd appreciate that. Sure. So, got that. Followed by chorus. Thank you, Madam Chair. On a front page, Mac, on protecting public safety. And just as we have the. Size, I need two. Local governments need local control to protect public safety. And just as well as I'm trying to figure out what that means. Thank you, Councilmember. What that's getting at is on the 1% issue that cap prevents local governments, the council from addressing local government needs, particularly general fund programs from expanding or creating more revenue for them. Essentially, your hands are tied by the 1% cap. And so what that's getting at is recognizing that the general fund, about three quarters of it goes to public safety and justice issues. So courts, prosecutors, defense, sheriffs, officers. Three quarters are general revenue. Of general funding. Right. So that's kind of what that that's exactly what that that piece is getting out. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Kobus. Thank you, Madam Chair. So thank you, Madam Chair. I have two points I'd like to bring up. And again, as has been said, I think this is outstanding and I really appreciated all the inclusiveness in terms of developing the agenda on the first page under stabilized local public health services. I think it would be helpful to add in the request to the Legislature for increasing funding for LED testing, especially given what's been found in many of our schools, King County, as well as in Pierce County and likely elsewhere, where young children are consuming water that has been found to be high in lead and also the screening for young children. We did get some funds in our budget for that, but I'd like to have that added. So just for consideration by the time we've got. The full council. And the second point, which I understand is not likely to be included, but I did want to bring it up. I think it is important and you may have noticed in The Seattle Times today the editorial had to do with encouraging or requesting the legislature to adopt or to take action through legislation on the recommendations that came out last Monday by the Joint Legislative Task Force on the Use of Deadly Force in community policing. I have we have distributed to you the Seattle Times editorial, as well as a news article that also was published in today's Seattle Times, a list of the task force members, as well as the list of the recommendations. Again, these just came out last Monday. I think it was the almost evening when they came out. So we haven't really had time to bring this up before us. But the main recommendation that you can find on the second stage of the handout on the Joint Legislative Task Force recommendations is to amend state law to remove the phrase without malice and with the good faith belief that such is justifiable pursuant to the section and then add in language. And what's being addressed here is the state law that does not hold public officers or peace officers criminally liable for using deadly force. And we know that there have been a series of of individuals dying from being shot by police officers around the country, including here in the state of Washington. And apparently, we're one of the outliers states in terms of how we hold our law enforcement officers criminally liable. We also have to be very aware that law enforcement officers get shot and get killed. And very likely many law enforcement officers are very jumpy about putting their themselves and their well-being in harm's way. It's a very complicated issue, but this task force delved into it very thoroughly. There will be legislation introduced for the coming session to try to come up with something that will find a common ground and in which the legislation will be able to pass the legislature. I know it's really too late to bring this up without people having a full understanding, but I wanted to bring this to your attention. CHAIR and members of the Council. So toward. What end? Pardon me? Toward what end? I would have liked to have had this included in our legislative agenda, but I don't think that is realistic at this point, that we could certainly have our lobbyist know about our concern and be able to address that in legislation, hearings and so forth. We have until Monday. If somebody wants to have this included in the legislative agenda, they can certainly talk with me and others. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. So as the council member just said, this is new. It was an extensive task force and we haven't been briefed on it. And there were 14 of the 26 members of the task force that voted for it, which means 12 did not. So, you know, there's a lot of parts of this that are important to be looking at. And so in the past, we've always tried to make sure that we were all well versed in what was in the package and that we were totally united and prepared for when the legislators asked us questions. And because we haven't been briefed and because there wasn't unity on the task force or even close to being unity. I think that this is something that we can individually talk with our council member, our senators and our House members. But on the other part, on the the toxicity led toxicity, I think on the front page, right where it talks about reduced outreach have reduced obviously people who may be infected with syphilis, hepatitis B protesters and gonorrhea and might be able to add right there and improve. Services on lead poisoning or something like that. So that might be an easy place to put that. Do you see any other place where that could be added or just maybe even is there another category? Certainly add language. I think one thing to keep in mind is I believe the Department of Health, the State Department of Health has a separate budget just for around LED testing in schools. I can confirm that and get back to you. But I think that they will have you know. I think that you were absolutely correct. As usual, the Foundation for Public Health Services does talk about that. And we're asking for a $54 million down payment on the statewide system, and that, I believe, is included in that. So I think we could check to see if it's included in that. I think it is customary before the Board of Health passed a resolution pertaining to this and to make that recommendation to the legislature, Councilmember DEMBOSKY would know more thoroughly. We also did pass a motion in the Health, Housing, Human Services Committee and I believe by the council as well. Thank you. So it may be in the in the foundational way because we have passed all those and the state has put a foundational package together that I think I make 80% year in there, but I'm not positive. Stuffy Tech Councilmember Gossip. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to comment on your comment on the deadly force in community policing and listening to you. It seems that you're kind of putting down majority rule. I thought we lived in a community in society where a majority vote, whether it's ten, nine, 14 to 10, it's still you don't lose the gentleman. Let the gentleman say because it says that vote majority usually rules. I understand why you say we got there. That is correct. But the fact that the task force had come to a unified voice was what I was trying to bring out. It's not a unified voice. It is the majority. And so it is going forward. And so that's the point I was trying to make. Okay. Anybody down there cuts a member? Belushi and then Taberski. I'll just add that I really appreciate Councilmember Caldwell's in bringing this issue forward. It is a very important issue. It is definitely an issue that is worth while engaging with. I think the point about there's a task force that appears to have not fully completed its work or maybe the task force has, but the legislature, the legislative committee, has not fully completed its work in terms of coming forward with a final compromise. I would like to see a bill worked up and how it looks, and then perhaps we might want to take a position on that bill as opposed to in advance telling the legislature what the bill ought to say. It's this is a this is a challenging issue. And I, I, I, I have to say that as somebody who was a civilian, who worked a lot with law enforcement, uniformed law enforcement officers, it is very challenging to put yourself into their shoes when they are faced with a situation that can be life or death. And I had some of my officers face those kinds of situations. Most of them were unarmed, but they had to fight. They've had to fight for their lives. It has happened. At the same time, we know that there have been these terrible, terrible incidents throughout our country, including in our region where people have been killed for really no good reason. And we need to balance those two things. It is a challenging balance. We absolutely need for people to feel that their law enforcement, law enforcement officers are protecting and serving the community. And they need to feel that they are not at risk from those officers. But likewise, we need to support our officers with the kind of training, the kind of, you know, internal cultural support that the officers in their agencies need that are some of the recommendations, some of the plurality recommendations in this report are those sorts of things. So I think that it's a there's a probably a path forward here for us, but it would need some discussion. And I think it's going to be easiest for us to just respond to a proposal rather than try to, in some sense, draft with the legislation. I hate to say ourselves, because then we'd have to kind of replicate all the work that's already gone on. That's just my not knowing this was coming today. That's my off the cuff reaction. But I think it's a very important issue, and we should grapple with it and engage with it as it goes forward at the legislative level, as a law enforcement agency, as the law enforcement agencies that sit within this county and that we have responsibility for. Come from every domestic. Pain mountain move approval a proposed motion to the 16 0527 with to pass recommendation. And I think I saw Councilmember Gossett hand. Okay, Councilmember Garcia, thank you. I want to make one further comment. Councilman about duty. Thank you. The state of Washington, as I understand, has the. If they are at least protective of the citizenry. Our policy on the use of deadly force by police officers and the country because it has yet to prove malice or evil intent. Right. You got to prove the officer doesn't like black people or something like that. There's no way that he could ever be found guilty of anything anywhere in the state of Washington with that kind of burdensome criteria. So I don't understand why it's difficult or hard to move forward on something fairer and more just. I just don't understand. Okay. So one more change, and that is that we're going to be voting on this this afternoon. And in order to do that, okay, we have to. And so I'm. Withdrawing my motion and we'll. Be leaving. Yes. Thank you. Where we leave it? We were I knew that, but I forgot. So I'm sorry for asking for that. So we will leave it here. And then we've had the discussion. So we will be able to bring it forward this afternoon to the council so that we can vote out there and then have it for our meeting next week. So that being the case, Madam Chair, I'd like to revise and extend my prior remarks on the 13 year old issue, and that is perhaps, Mac, if we could if there's a potential to have any kind of language noting with appropriate protections for minors or something like that, since we don't know what the book, I don't know enough about it, but that's seems to me a fundamental principle we might be able to agree upon. We might want to look at what's existing before we say it's not adequate. Because I know that people in the department have been working on this for years. And I'm not sure what I didn't say. I don't know what's I didn't say it's not adequate. There may be something in there already that fits, quote, with appropriate protections for minors. And I just don't know enough about it. I'm getting some nods from Ms.. Putney. So. Okay, I know it's late, but. Yeah, no, it's great. I think it's a nice thing. Thank you. So Mr. Hackney knows and we can get Kacey over here to see what they're already doing. That would be great. All right. If there's no more. The one thing I love about cow is you never know all of the things that are going to be on one agenda. This went all over the map. We got it all done. And with 15 minutes to spare from our staff, thinking we could get it done. So with that, this meeting is adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the King County department of transportation director's appointment of Robert Gannon as the general manager of the transit division of the King County department of transportation.
king_da602054-97bd-4317-b9ce-1442d5e976d6	I'd like to call this meeting to order of the Committee of the Whole for Wednesday, June 15, 2016. Clerk Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Balducci here. Councilmember Gamble's here. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Colwell here. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember on the phone. Thank you. Councilmember Brown right here. Madam Chair. Here. Okay. We have a quorum. We do. Okay, great. All right. Mr. Vice Chair, may I have approval of the minutes, please? Move approval of the meeting. Minutes of our June 1st meeting. Thank you very much. All those in favor of the mat as written, please. That I I those opposed. Nay, the minutes are approved as written. Thank you very much. We will begin with our first briefing. This is one of our local government briefings, so we will know more about what happens in the unincorporated area for which we are the local government. So much as a surprise as it is, some days we are the local government and this is our effort to get better at that job. So this section is going to cover our Water and Lands Resources Division and our King County Conservation District. We are taking each of the departments and as we go through this year talking about what is their duty as a local government and how we are doing it, that so with that staff, Heidi, would you check would you please begin the briefing? Thank you, Madam Chair. Heidi, pop attack council staff. The staff report begins on page seven of your packet. As you mentioned, Madam Chair, today's local government update will be provided by Water Inland Resources Division in the Kane Conservation District. The update will focus on the Agriculture Drainage Assistance Program and King County's flood and drainage projects. The King Conservation District is responsible for collaborating with private landowners, member jurisdictions and nonprofit organizations to provide services in forestry, farming, food and farming shorelines, habitat education and administers to land owner incentive program. Today we have CD CD Staff Eric Nelson and Josh Monahan here to begin their presentation on the Agricultural Drainage Assistance Program. The presentation begins on page 33. Of your packet. That concludes my remarks and. Eric Nelson and. Josh Moynihan. This morning. Good morning, council members. Thank you for having us here today. As I said, I'm Eric Nelson. I work as an outreach consultant to the Kane Conservation District. I'm here today with Trish Monahan, senior project planner, project manager for our food and farm programs. Also with us today from the conservation district. Behind me are Chair Dick Ryan and Vice Chair Bill Knudsen. And another person that we work very closely with at the conservation district is Cynthia Kress, who is the director of the Watershed Improvement District that was just created by the council this past year. Here to talk a little bit today about the combined programing between the conservation district and the county in helping agriculture landowners address drainage needs on their properties. It's a huge need. We've known inherently for a long, long time, but we never did truly have a handle on how great the need really was. So back in 2014, the Conservation District submitted a grant request to the fire control district for some funding to do a couple of things, three things, in fact, to do a needs assessment, which we worked very closely with the county on developing a survey tool that was sent out to over 600 agricultural landowners in King County. The Times will get into the results of that survey when he does his presentation. We also know that from previous history, working within drainage programs and working with the county in their aid program that. Although the county does a lot of great things to bring down the costs for landowners, it's still a very, very challenging and expensive to do these kinds of projects. So we we asked for some consular assistance money so we could assist landowners in paying for their share of helping to get their drainage needs met. Another thing we've noticed over the years is that the need for greater landowner coordination. We've had people come in our county as our people come into the aid program and it's kind of a shotgun approach, kind of take the first person that comes through the door and is ready to go. What we've found, though, is just doing one landowner at a time oftentimes doesn't that doesn't work, because unless you address the whole system and all the landowners in the system, you might get one property taken care of, but then the next property downstream is causing a bottleneck. And so we have staff on hand now at the Conservation District to do that landowner coordination and try to trying to put more and more to a landowner multiplier so projects together and forth. One of the great things that we're seeing come out of working together and the eight hour program is when we do these projects, we help bring farmland that's currently cannot be farmed or farmland because of its size. It's so wet or farmland that is in great needs of having its land strain. Better to have more productive farmland. We we've seen that by helping them with their drainage and bringing land into production. That way we go a long way towards getting to the goal of King County's kitchen cabinet and the Farm Initiative, bringing 400 new acres of production into production every year. So this is probably, although it's an expensive program, probably the most cost effective way of getting more land into production so more people can be farming it and so that we can have more farm farm products coming into the cities. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Josh. He's going to go through the drainage needs assessment with you and then we'll turn it over to the county. Awesome. Thanks. Thanks, Eric. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, counsel, for having us here today. Heidi, thanks for the great briefing you put together. I'm going to share with you the results of our needs assessment. And before I do, I just want to describe to Bobby Linda Molder, who runs West Valley Beef. Many of you may know her. She raises and sells grass fed beef. And Duvall follows sustainable livestock practices, sells healthy beef, healthy food to local farms, local markets, direct market customers and their farms been in production for generations. Chuck's parents, Bob's husband, Chuck's parents dairy there until they retired, and then they passed the farm down to Chuck and Bobby to manage several. The fields on the farm have been slowly becoming wetter over the past 30 years, as field drainage waterways fill up with sediment and the buried field drain lines begin to get blocked. This is what we're talking about when we talk about farm drainage management. So they've long been interested in getting involved with the County Eat Out program and with ag drainage maintenance. But the family has been reluctant to move forward with working with with government. Last summer, Bobby finally was able to convince her relatives, her family, to work with the partnership with the Conservation District and with King County on a project with a combination of her persuasive berry pie and help from the Conservation District Project Coordinator. And so the project was completed. She's really thrilled about the project. And she says that the partnership that that she experienced with the county agricultural drainage program and the conservation districts project coordination was really vital. And I just share that anecdote. I'm going to share the needs assessment, but I think it's helpful to think about a person as we think about these kind of data points. So this first graph shows kind of how the roles play out, and that really speaks to the partnership that that Bobby experienced. I'm not going to go through all the details, but in this chart you can see that the conservation district and the county are partners and we divide out responsibilities playing to each organization's strengths. This next slide The picture shows a beaver dam. When we did this, the needs assessment last year, we heard from many, many farmers that maintaining beaver dams, taking beaver dams down a little bit is a key part to making sure that farm state farmable on many, many farms. What the pie chart shows is that we had over 3000 folks respond to our survey and say they have needs for drainage. I mean, 3000 acres I'm sorry, 3000 acres of need. And last year, the the team of the county and the conservation district worked with five farms. And through that work, we were able to bring 75 acres back into production that had not been able to be produced, farmland that just kind of had gotten to at the farm last couple of years. And. Over 400 acres. That was really limited by by by drainage is now more productive. This next picture set of pictures, the top picture. These are the plants that are going to go in at Bobby's place, actually went in and Bobby's place last fall. Part of the program is to replant or to plant native plants along the the agricultural waterways after the project. And then the picture in the bottom right. Is a steel plate going in. One of the key things that we do on these projects is make sure that fish are safe. And so the steel plate is a key tool used to work on the project site, remove the fish from the project site and keep it keep the project going forward and protecting fish. The graph shows that in the last few years we've we've made some progress on helping farmers manage miles of drainage. This past year, about 2.5 miles of drainage, which is a lot. But if you look at what our our survey responses are telling us, we are just scratching the surface. There's 24, 24 and a half about miles of waterways that we know that folks have contacted us that need drainage maintenance. So stop there for a second. So this is the snapshot of the percentage of people who filled out the survey, but there's a lot more people that didn't serve the survey. So this is probably what would you say, a third? We think this is about a quarter. Your your staff have done a nice analogous analysis to look at, you know, this survey, how it compares to all of the farms that have agricultural waterways that might need maintenance. And so our projection is that this represents about a quarter of the the estimated need. So this is a really, really important thing. And, you know, of course, it depends on the topography and the flow of the water and a lot of other things. But what would you say is the average time that you would want to maintain your ditches in between these cleanings? We we think it's probably in at least about a seven year cycle, but we've got a lot to learn in this area. And so that's where we're starting from. And you'll see notes further in the slides that speak to that. So we need to be able I mean, we we did do some last year finally, thank goodness, but obviously not enough. But we're going to need to get caught up so that we can get on a regular cycle. And so I hope you'll be talking more about how we get caught up so that we can get on that cycle. Thank you. Thank you. So we're scratching the surface of of the need out there this past year. This next chart. Well, here's Cathy in a visit with one of the landowners we work with last year. And the map shows where we heard the need. So you can see we did the survey with the ag production districts. There is a tremendous amount of need in the Snoqualmie. It's concentrated more in the north. Then there's the cloud. There you can see, and this pie chart represents the people that we heard from. And when we did the survey, we had about 135 folks that got on our waiting list. The Greens are the version of the numbers of people we helped in the last few years and we have more than 150 now on the waitlist right now in that ballpark. Yeah. So we're we're now the waiting list is bigger than you see in the slide, but it's about 150 now. So here's some pictures I want to share with you at Bobby's project, one of the challenges that she saw was a crushed culvert that was impeding flow. Crushed culverts are also fish blockages in many cases. So the bridge in the top picture is a bridge that we put in to help with this fish passage and also help with Bobbie's drainage on that on West Valley Farm. And one of the things, just talking with Bobby and preparing to visit with you guys today, she said she was so surprised. He knows the land, she knows the waterways really well. But when she got out there with the roads fishing crew to remove those fish, she was surprised to see the little fish. I mean, there was almost no water in the in the waterway when they were doing the work. But there were little sticklebacks in the in the in the waterway that they moved out of the project site. And it was pretty neat for her to see and learn about the fish in her project. Next slide. I talked briefly when you asked the question, Madam Chair, about the survey and how it represents what we think is about 25% of the need out there. In this chart, we're looking at that how we took the reported survey responses and projected that out to our additional estimated need. So if we think that based on our analysis that there are 98 miles of waterway, of agricultural drainage waterway and King County that need maintenance, and that would serve about 530 farmers and landowners that are managing farmland. This chart basically shows the flood control district's investment in the work that we've done in the last couple of years at the Conservation District is just part of the puzzle. And you can see that in the the orange, the light orange in 15, we had a little bit more money. We were awarded through a competitive grant process. And then this year it's a reduced amount. And those are some of the activities that we invest in. And this chart shows really how the dollars broke out in that pie chart that I shared with you at the first slide I had. This is looking at how much does it cost per linear foot for the work that we do. It has come down when we did this analysis, you might know this time we did this analysis about five years ago. It was maybe double this. So it is a lot per linear foot. We'd like for it to come down more, but we've reduced it significantly through program coordination and efficiencies and we've added more support for landowners , which is new. So I see the planting is almost half of the costs. Is there any way that we can partner with any of the colleges that have horticulture programs to get some of their plantings so that we can break that cost down a little bit more? Doing it? Yes, sure. I'm sorry I came up to the table. John Taylor, assistant director, Water and Resources. We have really tried. Under the new programmatic agreement with DFW to limit the amount of planning that we're requiring of property owners where we do. We've also the county has, after working on this for several years, decided that the best approach is to actually have us do the planting. The property owners typically don't want to do the planting and they don't want to be responsible for the maintenance or the planting. And so that's why we do it. We use WCC crews to do it. The cost of planning, I don't believe it is the cost of the native plants. The native plants are probably a very small part of that. It's the labor. It's getting WCC crews out there to do the planning and to send the crews out repeatedly to make sure that the plants are established, because under the permit we have with DFW that we actually have to ensure that the plantings are established. If they're not established, we're in violation of our programmatic agreement. Okay, great. And are we still planning on both sides or are we planning on the side where the sun comes over? We're planning on both sides. Councilmember Okay. So I think that's something that we can look at, you know, when we're looking at water temperature, I know some of at the time is to hold the embankment, in which case that's a different issue. But there might be different plants going to be used on different sides depending upon what side the sun's on. I think that one of the things that came out of the fish farming flood process that Josh was very involved in and I was very involved in, is a commitment to undertake a complete revisiting of the programmatic agreement we have around ADA and seeing if there's a better way to move these projects forward. We've made tremendous strides. We've made tremendous strides because of a lot of hard work on the part of county engineers. But I think we're really where you see these numbers increasing, where there's really been a troubling, almost a quick toppling of the linear feet of ditch. We're doing it because of the addition of the CD to our team and the fact that the city can go and have conversations with landowners that we can. They're really a trusted partner. They do great work out there, and they're the ones who really knit together some of the agreements that have made these projects move forward at the scale that we've never seen before and at a much reduced cost per linear foot. We have some I did an analysis when I arrived in this position looking back at some of our ADA projects from before 2008 when we had the programmatic agreement and we had projects where the cost per linear foot were hundreds of dollars and in one case a very small project, thousands of dollars per linear foot because of the because of the amount of staff involved and a whole bunch of other things, we'd dramatically reduce the cost of this program. And I want to thank you for that and the partnership that you have, a CD and web and your willingness to look at what was a nearly impossible system. I went to cleaning school and I was shocked. I think you need at least three PhDs to get through that class. And I. I was really shocked. So I'm glad that we are making this a much easier process than it needs to be. I won't be putting on my experiences of life. Ditched cleaning school, but it was one I will never forget. So thank you for doing what you need to do to make that better. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. This is the last slide in the presentation. It shows are estimated projection of total cost to do all the work we have knowledge of on the waiting list and then projecting it out to the total cost. If we were to do all the work with the estimates that the team did for total need. So what this shows is that with 98 miles of waterway, if we apply the current per linear foot rate, so 98 miles when you run into linear feet is that number on the screen. And then the linear foot piece that I just showed you on the last slide that runs out about $22 million to do everything we know if we had to do it all in one year. What we're looking at here is if we break this out into, as we talked about earlier, a seven year cycle, that comes down pretty significantly, but it's still a lot of money to think about. And and so the challenge that we invite you to figure out how to work together with us and with the Watershed Improvement District to identify ongoing funding to address these these drainage needs, because they're really critical piece of the work that the local food initiative wants to accomplish about bringing food production acres back in. And it's also a critical piece identified, as John said, a priority out of the farm fish flood work that happened in the Snoqualmie. So thank you. So as you guessed from the picture, I was there and I think that the collaboration and cooperation was fabulous. I was really impressed by the quality of environmental concerns that were all being addressed and being monitored as they went. And then I started walking down the row as the machine was cleaning and all of a sudden I heard the sound much like a waterfall. And I turned back and it was the water that was draining from that field that I had just passed by. And I was shocked by how fast that water showed up. So I think it's really interesting. It was interesting for me to see how much water was there in the ground and no wonder we're having trouble keeping it dry if that much water was that readily available. So I thought. Excuse me. You saw that? Yes, that is the case. It is person following our presentation and John's presentation, we do have some packets that we'd like to hand out. I'll get to the clerk and out just showing some of the work the city is doing in your districts. So thanks for that very much for the opportunity for the district to be here today. Thank you. Thank you. And I know that from the task force, which many of us served on, how long was that task force? Two years. Two years that now we are have a countywide system. So every district benefits in addition individually, but in addition to making sure we have plenty of places to grow our food chain, would you like to begin? Yeah. I mean, I just want to before I start on the our portion of the presentation, I just want to say a few things about A&P. I think what you see with Ed up is a fundamental shift in how we've approach the program within King County, and it's emblematic of a lot of the work we're dealing with in water and land with with respect to our assets. So I would say four or five years ago we were much more reactive to the failure of stormwater facilities and we were very reactive with respect to A&P. Eric alluded to this in his opening remarks. What we are trying to do as a division is identify the magnitude of the need that is out there for all of the things that we're responsible for. Identify what facilities need to be repaired or replaced or worked on most urgently, and then prioritize that. So you'll you'll see that when the surface water management rate comes to you and our budget. And with respect to A&P, what you see here is we've actually gone out and done this needs assessment. I think we have a long waiting list. I think we need to think about how we move through that waiting list to achieve the goals of the local food initiative. Some of these projects will yield much more benefit in terms of restoring farmland than others, and that's the way we want to look at this. But for the uninitiated, a wet field is a field you can't farm. If a farm field doesn't drain, you can't get equipment out on it, you can't plow it. You can't seed it until it dries out. And we have fields out there that are wet until July that is unworkable for a farmer. Bobbie Linda Mulder's farm cherry about I mean, almost a hundred acres that was unfathomable for years she can now farm that that's good for her as a business person it's good for us as a county because we have a goal of getting 4000 acres of land into production in the next ten years. So we can support this local ag economy because it's the local ag economy that keeps land open. Farmers who are productive and are making money keep land open. That's their that's one of their major values to us from a public policy perspective. So that's one of the reasons why this program is so important. So with that, I'm going to take over for Mark Isaacson. Can I steal the clicker thing? He had to leave town unexpectedly. And so I'm subbing in. And, you know, we're going to talk a little bit about river flooding and lake flooding and local drainage flooding and what we're doing to address it. It's not called water and land for nothing. About half of what we do relates to water, actually, probably more than half of what we do relates to water. So this was a big flood year. We had six floods in the county and we had about 43.33 inches during a six month period. That is one of the highest amounts of rain we've ever had. Significant impacts on the Snoqualmie Valley. We had several phase four floods with wall to wall flooding in the valley this winter. And I think what you'll see reflected in the recommendations that are coming out of the Fish Farm and flood task force through the flood control district is real concern about that and a lot of things that are intended to mitigate flooding, but also make sure that the county is working better with county residents to alert them to flooding and respond to flooding concerns and be proactive about dealing with flooding. And those are all recommendations that we work with them on. And welcome. So, as I said, big winner, the flood warning center was open for, you know, almost two weeks. I mean, a tremendous amount of time this winter. We had probably one of the busiest years that I can recall in my short time here, lots and lots of folks activated. We had flood patrols out repeatedly. And, you know, we actually did some really good work and sort of a one King County way with road service division where the flood control district actually agreed to subsidize road service division so they could keep maintenance. Facilities opened, six maintenance facilities open so that they can distribute sandbags to people who had flood concerns. I think it was a really challenging winter for our staff, but I think that they really showed. We have a great staff and they did great work this winter. With all the events. I want to say, since I represent the Snoqualmie Valley individually, what you just said was so incredibly powerful and yes, it was one of the worst. And I want to compliment both you and Rhoads for your amazing work. But many, I would say. And in addition, many of you stayed out for days, and that's kind of above and beyond. And I know that there was a team at Squamish for almost a week, so that that is something really appreciated by the citizens that when we get there in an emergency that we're not saying it's 5:00 , we're going home, that we're there for the duration and that we really appreciate it. So thank you. As I said, we have a really dedicated staff and it isn't just the river staff. It's folks who are plucked from every part of water and land who they love going out on flood patrol. They really love that aspect of public service. And and the people who manned the flood warning center, they're there. You know, I've come in in the middle of the night and just checked in and they're sitting there manning the phones. They take it very, very seriously, as they should. So, Sky Commish, this sort of an unusual event, very intense event in that drainage and skycom, which got hit quite hard. And we saw it happening as it was happening and warned folks, but the water came up tremendously fast. So in response to that, we are we've implemented a number of repairs to facilities around Squamish and we're making some changes to the Beijing Working Partnership with Corps. And we're also going to be doing some modeling so that we can have better predictive tools when we start to see that water coming up. So and then we have some longer term projects we're going to be working on in around Squamish. White River. So sort of the depositional material coming down, that system is just filling up that reach of the White River right around Pacific. And the consequence is that the river just jumps out of the of the channel during these big flood events in 2015 and 2016, we went in and erected this this flood wall using harsco baskets. And we're working on a longer term solution to large projects. One is the county line project and the other is the right bank project on the river right there that will mitigate these flood impacts. We're also doing some buyouts of homes that are repeatedly impacted, which is a strategy we use frequently to mitigate flood danger for folks who are living in places where they just can't get away from flood waters. I just I would hasten to point out that those type of large projects, County Line Project is a is a big project funded through the flood control district and before the creation of the flood control district. That type of project wasn't even we couldn't even contemplate it because of the size, the magnitude of the dollar amounts. And you've done a number of projects like that, acting as the King County Flood Control District. And I think, you know, those are things that have a huge positive impact on people's lives and mitigate real risks to life and property. So. So to put numbers on that before the flood control districts, the annual budget is about 3 million. Yeah. And after the flood control district, the annual budget is 36 million. So that gives you the magnitude of how long it would have taken at 3 million to get where we are. Well, the county line project is about a $20 million project. Right. Bank project? Actually, I'm not going to say because I cannot recall, but it's a big project. Similar call Cinemacon. The Snoqualmie Valley is a $60 million project. You know, all of these projects are to do them well and to do them right and meld together. ESEA benefits and flood protection benefits is challenging and expensive, but it yields tremendous results when we do these projects well. So it isn't just river flooding. We deal with a lot of lake flooding. Lake flooding is sort of challenging because it's sort of a slow motion disaster. Water levels rise, people's property gets inundated, and they become very upset, understandably so. Just what you're looking at there is the view of Lake Sammamish and the Willow Moore Project, a large flood control district funded project, and one where we've done a lot of work with community and we've modeled a number of alternatives. I think the flood control district is going to be making some sort of final determination on that next week. But, you know, that is whatever that project ends up looking like, the result will be the same, which is it will reduce the lake level and it will provide some significant SCA benefits in the transition zone and in the summer system. So a good project. Again, another project probably not doable before the creation of the flood control district of Horseshoe Lake. So Horseshoe Lake is a small lake and sort of just outside of Black Diamond. It isn't a lake that floods because of river or stream flooding coming into it in floods because groundwater just rises . And during particularly rainy years, the groundwater floods this lake and it rises and it is people's property. Episodically, we've had to go in, put in large pumps and pipe and find outlets to pump that water out. With the year of redevelopment in Black Diamond, we've reached an agreement with the developers that is going to provide a permanent solution to the folks who are around Horseshoe Lake in the county. And we will have a sort of a permanent in the ground pipe and a pump, and we will pump and discharge to a fixed location. The developer sharing part of that cost. So it's about a $400,000 savings on the total project cost to the to the county Allen Lake Lake that floods backs up. It's got an outlet channel that's very clogged and filled with sediment. We're doing a couple of things in the short term. We cleaned out some culverts, we removed some beaver dams. We've excavated out this channel and we've done some native plantings. Heidi just gave me the high signs from the start doing my Evelyn Wood speed talking, you know, and just generally I would say I'm going to rip through a couple of creek and small lake projects, one that involves the city of Seattle. And I'm also just going to say the other thing we do is a lot of maintenance and inspection of stormwater facilities that are out there. This is an allusion, again, to our asset management program. As a premier requirement. We have to inspect those and maintain them. And you're going to be seeing an asset management plan from us in the budget that will talk about how we maintain those facilities over the next 50 years. Byrnes Creek Small Creek, right outside of Auburn, we had some sediment creation and a landslide into this system that blocked up the creek and knocked out a road to it. That was the sole access for a number of homes. We went in very quickly, excavated that out, opened up the creek and we moved about 300 yards of sediment out of there and made it much better. That was sort of one of our emergency responses. We already talked about ADAPT, so I'm not going to touch on that slide show The Pond. This is an odd stormwater facility right on the boundary of the city of Seattle. It manages stormwater from Seattle and King County. We went in in 2015 and doubled the size and that doubled but increased dramatically the size of this facility and put in some flood gates on some culverts that drain to Seattle. It's had some benefit to the city of Seattle, but the reality is that there's still flooding and residents are still concerned. And we're working with the city of Seattle on a long term solution. You may be hearing more about that over time. One of the solutions would be discharging the water, the overflow from this to seal the creek. We need to find a way to do that without causing landslides because we don't want to absorb one problem and create another. And May Creek. This is a project from 2014, but we're still working on it. This was a large project. So very quickly, eight app allows us to go up to a size of agricultural drainage ditch where we can manage the bypass with a four inch hose, large creeks like this that are in the middle of agricultural areas . We have to do under a separate permit. This was a very expensive project. It required a lot of work with the state. The mitigation and design was about 1.5 million about. Construction was only about 450,000. So it's sort of a it tells us we need to do a better job of working with the state on permitting requirements . And we are having that discussion independently and as part of fish farming flooding. And with that, that is my presentation courtesy of Mark Isaacson, who wishes he was here. I'm sure he does, especially if he's had an emergency. Thank you. So thank you for your presentation and all your work on fish farming, but and on the commission and generally keeping the people of this area safe. So please thank your team for all those things. Literally, there are times when it's life and death. So thank you, gentlemen. And we will be looking forward to getting those 24 miles up and running so that they'll have more production and more good food for us to eat. Thank you so much. We'll now move on to item number five. This is a charter amendment and this is charter amendment number 2016 0044. And it would be to make the office of the King County prosecuting attorney nonpartisan and provide for filling vacancies in that office in the same manner as vacancies in other nonpartisan county elected offices . Mr. Wagner, did you want to make some beginning comments? No, Madam Chair. I gave a staff report at the committee's last meeting, and I don't have anything to add unless there are any questions. Okay. So we did have the presentation, like you said, two weeks ago, and we had our prosecutor speak. We had a member of the legal staff for the county. Answer some questions. So today we are ready potentially to take the vote. And so I am open for somebody to put this before us. Councilmember Gossett, would you be willing to put this before us? Okay. When you say but this before. Or since 2016 0044. Okay. I'd like to know that we had ordinance 2016 0044 or four. And as Councilmember Lambert said, we had a very robust discussion on this issue at our last meeting. But, Councilman Lambert, I think that it would be helpful to members if the staff or somebody kind of indicates and reiterates what the issue is, because we have a different listening audience today and then recommend that we vote. But I'm putting that before us now. Okay. So you want to give us like two sentences or a very brief rendition again, of what this does? Sure. There are basically two two effects of this amendment. One is that currently for Partizan offices, each candidate's party preference is listed on the ballot. If the if the candidate so requests or each candidate's party preference is listed. If this office were made nonpartisan. That would not be permitted. So each candidate's name would be on the ballot. But there would be no indication of party preference, party endorsement or anything like that. The second effect has to do with the way in which vacancies in the office are filled for a partizan office. The the council is required to choose someone to fill the vacancy from among. First of all, it has to be someone from the same political party as the person who previously occupied the office. And the replacement has to be chosen from among three persons nominated by the County Central Committee of that party. For nonpartisan officers, that is not the case. It's entirely up to the council's discretion who to choose to fill a vacancy. Those are the main differences. Thank you. Councilmember Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm going to urge members to vote for this measure and remind or reinforce the fact that what we're doing is presenting an amendment to our charter or our county constitution that would essentially make put the King County prosecuting attorney in the same state as of every other elected official here in King County . And that is make him nonpartisan. I believe that the majority of people in the community who are eligible to vote will come out and vote and vote positively for this measure, because it's a progressive measure that I think will serve the community really well. Lastly, I mentioned this last meeting, but I'd like to mention that again, I think it is particularly beneficial to African-American and other people of color communities who have the perception, rightly or wrongly, here in Seattle and King County, as well as and just about every other urban area across the nation that, if they are at the prosecutor , is have a party, they will like Republicans and that he or she is going to think a certain way or if he or she is a Democrat, that that he or she is going to think a certain way. And that certainly is not always been the case. And I mentioned that our last meeting, there are lot the two prosecutors that I worked under have been very responsive and accountable to all of our people, all of our communities, not always in a way that I would like. But I think taken as a whole, they've been very responsive. And I mentioned a damn saddleback in particular, where some of the most challenging cases, those dealing with three strikes, has shown significant insight has been beneficial. And I just think that this measure is important and that this is the time to pass it. And I hope the members will join me in putting this on the ballot this fall for our voters. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. I'm sorry to see you here, Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. We'll have a charter review in two years overseen by the King County Charter Review Commission. And that would seem to me a good timeline to have this conversation about making this charter change. I would also point out that all the all 39 counties in the state have a partizan election for their prosecuting attorney . And therefore, I'm going to oppose this today and ask members to join me in voting no. We can take this conversation up as part of the charter review in two years. But I also want to be very clear that my vote today is in no way a reflection on the excellent work that Mr. Sandberg does every day in this office and has brought some very innovative programs and to the office, and I commend his work highly. It is not at all a personal reflection, but a concern about when best to have this conversation. Councilmember WG So I also had some questions about the timing. And Nick, maybe you can help me out here. How long has this office been? Partizan Since 2008. The press. Oh, no. I'm sorry. Not sorry. I was thinking of a different question. I'm not sure the answer to that question. But as long as we can. Remember, at least 50. Years. Okay. And these positions have been nonpartizan since the vote in 2008. That's what you were thinking, right? And so the next regular vote is in two years, is that correct? That's what actually the county charter requires the executive to appoint a charter commission every at least every ten years. And the ten years is up in January of next year. By January of next year. Right. I'm just kind of wondering why that is. So if we're going to start looking at charter changes in January of next year, why are we doing this particular charter change now? Because I'll tell you, when we first arrived here and I was sworn in, I was and then I was given my notebook full of the charter and all the information. I noticed that it referred to the the office of councilman. Right. And I'm not a councilman. I'm a council member. So I thought, okay, that seems like a fairly easy thing. We should just change it. And I talked to staff and so we should just change that because it's obviously out of date. And I was told, well, yeah, but we will take it up at the next charter change and that makes sense to me. And so I just sort of held back on making that change, which is admittedly less substantive than what we're talking about here. But why take this one up now? What's the what's the the impact of taking it now versus waiting until we do the charter as a whole? I think Councilmember Gossett might want to say something. Councilman Gossett. Thank you very much. I would like to respond to councilman about dirty, if I may, Madam Chair. Last year, after discussion with our chair, our councilmen, our fellows, he and I decided to put forth a change in the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight and submit that to the voters for a charter change. And my response is that both what they are and what the prosecuting attorney is in the criminal justice arena, that throughout our nation we've inherited some really difficult times, creating a more solid, open and and and fair relationship between criminal justice officials and oversight entities and the communities, all particularly the African-American communities around the country. And I just think that it's time to lead. We, we think, were successful with all our Office of Law Enforcement Oversight. And I'm just I just think it's time that we should do it with the only nonpartisan elected position in our county that's central to the operations of our criminal justice system. Yesterday, when we were in our Law and Justice Committee, it was pointed out that, you know, in King County, we're about seven times more likely to refer African-American youth to consideration for having charges filed against him or her than we are white youth and other year. And I just want to create the fair environment possible. And not having our prosecutor be partizan is a significant step in that direction is not a revolutionary step, but it's a significant step in the right direction, in my opinion. And I think we should do it now rather than waiting in two years and hope and hopes that the commission would take this issue up. Madam Chair, though, that, in answer to my question, completely remarks. Thank you and then will be followed by Councilmember Van Barrow. Thank you, Mr. Gosset, for your answer. And look, clearly the voters prefer to have these positions be nonpartisan. I mean, I think that's an obvious fact. They've made the council nonpartizan, they've made the executive nonpartisan. In fact, the only remaining partizan position we have here in the county is the prosecuting attorney. So I think it's a matter of, you know, sensible organization of the county and and organizing in a way that the voters support. This proposal makes some sense, but the timing of it to me, I'm not hearing a compelling reason to do it right this minute. I'm not hearing you. Compelling reason not to do it. This minute doesn't cost us anything. There's already going to be a ballot measure it there's always going to be a ballot to go into the general. Right. As you know, in the general election. Is that correct, Nick? Yes. No, but but the idea that that somehow changing the partizan or nonpartizan nature of the prosecutor now would somehow affect people's perception of the fairness of the office. I haven't heard particular problems around the perception of the fairness of this office. In fact, I think this office has a tremendous reputation for fairness and justice. And I also don't see any connection between whether this is a partizan office or a nonpartisan office and the disproportionate referral of African-American youth to the criminal justice system for charges that I just don't see that tie at all. What it is, is it's about how the voters perceive the office when they are casting their vote. And I think, quite honestly, the reason the change is now is because there's an election next year. Let's just be honest with people that that's the reason why we're doing things. I don't necessarily have to stand in the way of it, but I think the claim that there's some big problem we're solving here today, personally, I will admit I voted no on the on the, you know, in my personal ballot on the changes to the partizan nature of this body and the exact elected executive. Because I do think that party affiliation is shorthand that a lot of voters rely on for some types of values that an O candidate brings to the table. However, the voters didn't agree with me. The voters decided to make us nonpartizan. So I'll tell you, I'm torn about whether to support it or not. I think probably this is the wave of the future, regardless of what we do. And and therefore, maybe it's time to get it over with. But I think that we should be open and honest about the fact that we're doing it now because there's an election next year and it's going to be easier. For elections next year. I don't know. I just think, you know, what election. The election for the prosecuting attorney, it's. Not next year. When it 18. Well, then why don't we just wait and do? Okay, well, then I'm going to vote no along with Councilmember McDermott, because I was misinformed. I'm sorry. I was. I misunderstood. So because I think we could wait until we do it along with the rest of the charter update. So I'll step in there for a second and then Councilmember Vaughn. Mike, there are some of them, right? And I go after you. I'm going to pick up. Okay. No, no, no, no. Quite. You've been. Wait. Okay, Councilman, go ahead. Okay. So that's polite people here today. That's okay. You know, when you look at the fact that we are home rule charter and the people have already voted, as Councilmember Balducci said, for having a nonpartisan people representing them. I think that this is consistent with that. You did mention the only remaining office that is not nonpartisan, and I think it's important to do this. The Charter Review Commission takes a year or more. And I think, you know, a lot of people like to have things, you know, not quite so many things on the ballot all at once. So I think it's a good idea to be able to have this brought forward now. And I think the idea that the people who are coming forward, we have with us today a former prosecutor, Chris Bailey. I believe I've been told that Jenny Durkan will also be supporting this. So we have former prosecutors that are supporting this, and I think it's a good time to do this and there's no reason why not to. So Councilmember Caldwell's next. Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, you said just about everything I was going to say, but I as I understand, Jenny Durkan, you as former U.S. attorney, will be on will be one of the voices on the ballot in support of this measure. I wrestled with this a lot, too. As I understand, the charter review can take a year, yes, to two years. And so that plays into my decision to support this proposed ordinance. I also believe that of all of the positions that are elected in King County, the prosecutors should certainly not be a partizan office. I mean, there should be nothing partizan about law and justice. And we I think the people of King County would like to know overall would like to know that there are not partizan issues coming up for this office. So although I've wrestled with it, I am going to support the proposed ordinance. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. And right there. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to thank customer Raquel Welch for articulating why I'm going to also supported by the privilege of sponsoring the original. Legislation that was eventually passed through initiative to make King County Nonpartizan. We wanted to make this position Nonpartizan, but we were restricted by state law at that time. Council member duties correctly said that the voters have spoken loudly and clearly on this issue in a bipartisan fashion, and I think. That this is an opportunity for us to follow up on what Councilmember. Gossage said. We've been very fortunate in the history of this county to have an incredible number of individuals serving both as prosecuting attorney and also in an office. And they've dealt with issues that have evolved from the original time that we got involved beyond Ferguson in particular, and very sensitive to a number of issues in this region . And we have had prosecutors we've been blessed with who have evolved and responded to the changes that have taken place in King County. And I think if we're going to recognize that the voters of this county wildly called for nonpartizanship, we should finish the job. I don't think we're overwhelmed by work right now. I think we can do some of the work that could precede what the Charter Review Committee is going to review. But I'm prepared today to take action and support with the public guilt by initiative in King County. And I want to thank Councilmember Gossett and Caldwell in particular. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With that, I will. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I've been listening carefully to the debate and discussion here with an open mind. And I've had the opportunity to meet with prosecutor Senator Byrd a couple of times on this and, in fact, speak with former prosecutor Bailey at a recent event about it. And, you know, I think my cosmetology torn on it when I was out door belling, you know, people saying, well, is it a Democratic or Republican? They say it's nonpartisan. They say, well, what are you. You know, they kind of want to know your philosophy a little bit. And that party preference, remember, we don't run in this state anymore on a party ticket. You prefer a party. Now, that's a and it's a distinction to preserve our top two primary system. But I think it does give a little information. And the staff report pointed this out to the voter, at least an initial clue. And most folks still, I think, vote the person, not necessarily the party, and will do further investigation if they're interested. I appreciate the arguments about wanting to not have justice be a partizan issue, but I don't think stating a partizan preference brings partizanship into the administration of justice. I just don't. And I know I've certainly not seen that in Prosecutor Söderberg nor his predecessor, Mr. Mailing in Mr. Mailings predecessor Mr. Bailey wrote a terrific book addressing some of the history of the office. But I do think that the prosecutor's political philosophy matters and the parties matter a little bit, whether you're for or against the death penalty. Whether you are more in favor of sentencing reform initiatives, diversion initiatives. Our prosecutors led, frankly, by example with the programs like Lead and 180 and has really been a leader on these issues. And as Councilmember Garcia points out, is looked back at some three strikes cases where you felt justice in the in hindsight was not ultimately served and has gone and petitioned the clemency board to do justice. And so I have the highest degree of respect for Mr. Chabot. That's not what this issue, in my view, is about. But I don't think taking off the label eliminates Partizanship. And I think, in fact, you can see it right now in our state Supreme Court races where they are nonpartisan, but there are three challengers to three sitting incumbents. And to be quite blunt, there is a partizan bent to those challenges. There's been some frustration that some of, I think, are more conservative friends about some of the rulings of the court. And and I believe that generally one political party is supporting some challengers. I mean, I'm just being candid that taking off a partizan label doesn't take politics out of politics. So I don't think that that argument here is a compelling one necessarily. It doesn't mean we shouldn't do this or that the voters want do, but I don't I'm not convinced by that argument. On the process, it is true that we have sent charter review amendments to voters out of the regular cycle. We did that last year and cast member Lambert's point that sometimes there's value in not overwhelming voters, which I remember I think is a good one. In this case. I'm surprised that kind of the lack of input we've received. I think one of the values you get from a charter review process is you have the Municipal League and the League of Women Voters and civic leaders come together and debate in a robust way these issues of governance, structure and what reforms should be undertaken. And we could have had a little bit more of that here in the process. I did some of my own research. I reached out, talked to people I trust like Hugh Spitzer. He's the kind of an expert on Washington constitutional law. And I don't think he would mind me saying he agrees with the prosecutor that this should be nonpartisan. So I would have liked to had a little more input on it. And to be honest, I'm still torn on on what to do here. But I want to share my my thinking on it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Well, I agree with you also. He's true. And I don't think that whether you're for or against diversion as any relations, whether you're already I know others and I know does that agree with that? So and I do know that the book that Chris Bailey wrote talked about a time when there was Partizan ism in the office. And as citizens get the opportunity to vote on this, hopefully this year they will have plenty of opportunities to read more about it and to properly vetted. So with that, the clerk, will you please call for the vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. Customer of duty. Now, Councilmember Dombrowski. No. Councilmember Dunn by. Councilmember Gossett, I recall. Well, Councilmember McDermott. No. Councilmember of the Girl Council member. But I know. Quickly. I'm sorry. Captain. Until it was on the farm. Yeah, he's on the phone, but he can't vote and. Yeah, it's not recorded. Yeah, understating my preference. Councilmember. I. Madam Chair, I am sure the voters by those three, those that's voting no are council members duty Dombrowski, McDermott and council member of the Rivers excuse. Thank you very much with that. The motion has passed ordinance just passed charter amendment. And is there any objection to expediting it to this week? It will not be on consent, obviously. Is there. Needed for. That? Well, we need to have it done before the end of the month in order to get it on the ballot. So I think since we've had the conversations there. Like right. Now, I don't it does have to be on the you know, to take final action before the end of this month, but before the August recess. Oh, okay. I thought it was the end of this month, not the end of July. Okay, well, then it doesn't matter. Okay, well, that would be great. Okay. Thank you. And thank you very much for your being here today, both of you. All right. That means is item number six and make it by paperwork here. Item number six is proposed ordinance 2014 zero 3 to 0. This is one we've been talking about for a number of time. This will not be voted on today. This is purely a briefing, although it does say possible action at the top. It is purely a briefing to talk about where we are, get some background information, and then during the next week or two weeks, people can decide what they want to do and we will move from there. So, Mr. Wagner, will you please brief us on this issue? Thank you, Madam Chair. Nick Wagner, counsel. Staff. The staff report on this item begins on page 67 of your materials. This proposed ordinance addresses the issue of when council members are permitted to attend council meetings by telephone or other electronic means, which I will refer to shorthand as remote attendance. There is a proposed Amendment One, which is that pages 81 to 85 of your materials that makes several non substantive wording changes in the operative section of the ordinance. On the recommendation of the code revise or so in my staff report, I'll be referring to Amendment One. And a red line has been distributed to each council member this morning that shows the changes that Amendment one would make in the original ordinance. And I should make clear that the changes that Amendment one would make are in red. There's lots of underlining and crossing out, which is in the original proposed ordinance, Amendment One makes only the changes that you see there in red. I'd like to begin by describing the current county code provisions governing remote attendance, and you can find that description on page 68 of your materials. Currently under Section 1.24.14 or five of the county code, remote attendance at full council meetings is permitted in three situations. First, in an emergency as defined in section 12.50 2.01 area of the county code. And here we're talking about a public emergency, not an individual council members personal emergency. The second situation is if if there's a special council meeting convened during the council's summer or winter recess. And the third situation is if a council member declares to the council chair before or during a meeting that the council member is unable to attend the meeting in person because of urgent circumstances and the term urgent circumstances is defined to mean either of two situations. First, inclement weather that poses an immediate life health or safety risk to the member. If the member were to travel to the meeting and the examples given are a flood alert or snow in the member's district or in an area that the member would have to travel through to get to the meeting. And the second situation is a medically related emergency or urgent need for assistance that makes the member unable to attend the meeting. And the emergency. The emergency or urgent need for assistance must must be either the members or that of the member's immediate family, which is defined as you see there in the middle of page 68. Pardon me always. A member. The definition of family member. I think would be helpful for the listening audience to know what is meant by immediate family. Currently under the code, it includes a spouse or domestic partner, a child, a child of a spouse or domestic partner, a parent. And that would be the member's parent, the parent of a spouse or domestic partner of the member, the grandparent or of the member or the grandparent of the member's spouse or domestic partner. Those are all the categories that are included. Currently, only three meetings per calendar year may be attended remotely on the basis of urgent circumstances. As I said before, the current rule limits remote attendance to meetings of the full council. There is currently no provision for remote attendance at council committee meetings such as this meeting today. The changes that the proposed ordinance would make are described on pages 69 to 71 of your materials. And as I mentioned, I'll be referring to the language in proposed Amendment One, which is attachment to pages 81 to 85. First, the ordinance would allow a council member to attend up to three meetings of standing committees of the council each calendar year, as well as three meetings of the full council to provide context for that change and the other proposed changes. There is a table attachment six which follows page 92 of your materials. It compares the meeting attendance rule rules of King County and nine other government or government related entities. Eight of those nine entities allow remote attendance in some form, and none of those eight distinguishes between meetings of the full entity and meetings of its committees. Six of the other entities place no limits on the number of meetings per year that a member may attend remotely. One has a limit of six meetings, and one has a limit of four meetings unless absent for medical reasons. The second change that the ordinance would make is to allow remote attendance at more than three full council meetings and three committee meetings per year on the basis of urgent circumstances. If a majority of the members present at the meeting vote to allow the member to attend remotely, and if it were a full council meeting that we were talking about, the ordinance would permit remote attendance only if there were a quorum present at the meeting. The other eight entities that permit remote attendance that are listed in the table that I refer to. One makes remote attendance contingent on approval by other members of the entity, and seven do not. The third change would be in the definition of urgent circumstances, and that change is shown in the red lining at the bottom of page 69 and the top of page 70 of your materials, as proposed in excuse me, inclement weather would justify remote attendance if it made it difficult for the member to attend the meeting. It would not need to be so severe that travel to the meeting would pose an immediate life, health or safety risk for the member, and a medically related issue or other urgent need for assistance would justify remote attendance if it made it difficult for the member to attend the meeting. But it would not need to be an emergency and the member would not need to be unable to attend in person. Of the eight other entities that permit remote attendance. Five do not limit the circumstances under which is permitted. One permits it only under extraordinary circumstances such as emergencies, illness, accident, being away from the agency's region due to official business or similar circumstances, and one permitted only for emergency meetings. It was clear the fourth proposed change would require a member attending remotely to have the member's voice be audible so that the public can hear the discussion and voting process. Six of the comparable entities listed in the table have a similar requirement. And fifth. And finally, the proposed ordinance would add the following notice provision quote to facilitate connection to the broadcasting system. Requests for participation by telephone or other electronic means should be made half an hour in advance of the meeting when possible. And, quote, five of the comparable entities have no notice requirements for attending remotely and three have some form of notice requirement. There are three proposed amendments in your materials. Amendment one, as I mentioned, which is attachment two at pages 81 to 85, consists of non substantive changes in wording. As shown in the red line that you have in front of you Amendment two, which is attachment three at page 87, would permit remote attendance when a council member would have difficulty attending a meeting because of the council members need to attend a meeting of an outside committee to which the Council member has been assigned under the council rules. And I should mention that both Amendment two and Amendment three, which I'll describe in a moment, are amendments to Amendment one. Amendment three would expand the definition of family members. That's because the individuals whose urgent need for assistance would warrant remote attendance to include all immediate family, as defined in section 3.12 .010. g g of the county code. And that section specifies the family members for whose death King County employees are eligible for bereavement leave under Section 3.12 point 210 of the county code. And those additional family members are the member's daughter in law and son in law, and the siblings and grandchildren of the member or of the member's spouse or domestic partner. And that concludes my staff report, unless there are any questions. Council Member Goss. Thank you, Madam Chair. Where is this list of eight jurisdictions that you keep referencing? What page? There's a table following page 92 of your materials. 92 and at the top right here. Right. Yeah. There's always has to top this here. Okay. And there I could see some of these changes being necessary if we had a problem with member attendance. Belichick It's been 13 years since we haven't had a quorum at Cairo and 21 years since we weren't able to get five people at a regular county council meeting. I'm trying to figure out what is broken that would be fixed by allowing this kind of flexibility. And I do see now that there are other jurisdictions that do it, but why most jurisdictions don't do this. And I just think it's so much more responsible when you have a rule that one has to be here and there are serious emergency reasons for one not being here in order to vote. May I answer my question? Okay. Let me answer that one. All right. Unfortunately, I've had more opportunities probably than most people to want this to happen. First of all, I think it's important for us to come into the 21st century. And what does that mean? It means we use the technology that's available to us. As you can see, all of these other entities make it available. There have been occasions when I have been out at a Nako convention doing county business of which, you know, I'm assigned to that committee and while I'm out doing county business, I'm marked absent from county. So I don't get any any credit. And it looks like I wasn't doing my job when in fact I was doing my job. But it doesn't appear any way. And in one occasion, I did go and listen to the part of the meeting so that I could put comments in so that I was attending back and forth to meetings at the same time. And I'm sure we're all aware that there are many times when we need to be in two places at the same time. So having the ability to use this technology is important. There was a time when I called because there was a huge snowstorm in my district and the person from the county said There's no snow here. And I said, well, that's true. There may not be any snow in Seattle this morning, but there is in my district and I chose to come in, but it was not a safe driving environment. And I was driving and thinking, what the heck am I doing? Although those were the exact words I was thinking because it wasn't safe. And so there needs to be opportunities because it's a very large county. There can be things happening in one part of the county that are not happening in the other. And the third reason is even more important is it brings the voice of that district that is available because you are available to the phone, to the conversation. Should that community voice need to be heard on any and all topics? So I think it's important that we allow and encourage all the members to be here in whatever way they can be here. Obviously, it's the best possible for us to be here personally, but when the circumstances are either dangerous or you've had a family emergency or you're in one case, I was on the phone when my husband was in surgery. And, you know, it was good for me to be concentrating on something that wasn't quite as nerve wracking as what was going on in the operating room. But I was here. I was making the conversations that needed to be for my district and hearing what needed to be done. So I think it's important, and that is why all these other jurisdictions are already doing it with much more flexibility than we're talking about here. We have had this available to us in our council meetings, not in our committee meetings for years, and it has not been abused. So I think it's time for us to move on to the next step. So, member Dunn. I think there's going to be some questions relating to this. I, I support this in principle. We might need to smooth that just a little bit because I think it will actually approve, improve attendance as opposed to early. And I think it's always good for us to be able to connect in as having lived having served on the council, lived in Maple Valley where, you know, traffic was a roughly an hour and windstorms and trees down. I think there's a lot to be said about this just provided that it's not abuse. And I'm very confident it won't be this without a similar provision in place for a while. And it certainly hasn't been abused by the members. But I would mention that a few of us have called in. In fact, our council by Roger goes on the phone right now. And if you've done that, you realize that the acoustics are not good. And we need to, if we're going to support this, make a commitment to and and and those TV that we will. Improve the system so that we can hear and communicate well. It is sometimes difficult to hear the chair and other members of the committee for a variety of reasons. So I just wanted to add that that thought. Thank you. I think that's really important. And I know I listened to it a lot. Even committees when I'm not on, when I'm driving and there are certain members who speak right into a microphone, you can hear every word and there are others you cannot. So I think as a politeness that we all need to hold each other up to saying, Hey, I don't think you're speaking as a microphone. Councilmember Bell, D.C.. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I possibly stand alone as coming from a jurisdiction where we did have a rule allowing this sort of thing. When when I was at Bellevue. And in fact, our rules are listed here and similar to what Councilmember Dunn was just saying, it wasn't used all that frequently. I recall using the rule myself. For example, when I was on vacation, it wasn't a family emergency of any kind. I was enjoying the beach with my family, but that was for scheduling reasons that couldn't be avoided. That happened to be the week of the meeting when the council was going to be debating some very big and very contentious issues around the light rail project that I had been working on very, very diligently for a long time, and I wanted to participate. And so I did. And it was challenging. I mean, it's not easy to have that kind of a substantive discussion when one of the members is on the phone. But I feel that it was important that I had the ability to do that, and it was important to the ultimate outcome of that issue for the people of the jurisdiction that I represented at the time. So I understand the value of this. And frankly, there's a lot of regional bodies that allow for phone calling, sound transit allows for it. And we have members here who have taken advantage of that. It's on transit. Others have. I think that it's important that we have everybody we're stronger body when the entire body is represented, whether it be a committee, whether it be the full council, whether it be this committee of the whole. And so I think in general, reducing barriers to participation is a good thing. And for that reason I'll support this. However, it is logistically very challenging in this chamber. I really appreciate what Councilmember Dunn just said, and I had it noted that I was going to say something as well, that if we're going to move to having marginally or even substantially more frequent phone participation, we have got to do something about the setup. It's just okay. The heavens have spoken. Wow. That's great. Yeah. We've got because they've got the acoustics in the chamber are not just for the people who are calling in, for the people who are in the room listening to the person talking. They're not they're not the best. And so we I think we'll have to look at a budget item possibly to upgrade our system, you know, as we go forward. So I think it makes good sense. As Council Member Lambert said there, we have had the ability to do this with committees and I haven't noticed that people take on do advantage of it. And so it seems like a really it seems like a common and not at all controversial thing to me to do. We just have to make it work. We have to commit to each other that we're going to make it work. Thank you. Thank you. And I think the courtesy is going to be really important to, as far as, you know, letting somebody know that you can't hear. And also at the end of each section to be able, say, you know, council member at the Grove, do you have anything you need to say so that, you know, the person on the phone knows that they don't have to be interrupting? Hello. Hello. So that they know that they'll have some opportunity to make input. So I think, you know, some minor adjustments to making this work will be needed. Council Member Oh yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a comment and then a question and I appreciate what's been said thus far. And in fact, I think as Councilmember Dunn said, it can increase attendance or participation even if telo telephonically. I recently last month was chairing a commission meeting in another state and tuned into the Health Housing Human Services Committee , which had Vice Chair Lambert chaired. And I went through airport security besides parking the rental car going through it that my husband did that and I was on the phone through all of that, through airport security, through waiting at the gate, boarding the plane, and was on for the whole time of the committee, except the last few minutes. So my partner said it was very difficult and I think it would be nice if, you know, I'm going to that amount of effort to participate that I could be able to vote a vote or an action were needed. My question is on amendment number two and two questions on it, actually, and this has to do with the A members. I'm looking for tenants at a meeting of an outside committee in which the members service would make it difficult. Now, in my case, it was an outside commission of north of Western State. But if that wouldn't be included, I would not think. Are we talking about an outside committee that's in a formalized committee that council members are assigned to? My intention in drafting the amendment, council members council member Lammers direction was to refer to the the provision in the council rules that provides for the chair to appoint members to various outside committees. And that was my intention. I don't know if that council member, Lambert may want to explain her view on that. Now, we were trying to find something that would be a guideline, and so that's what we use as our official list. So my example was it being at Naco and not being able to participate, even though I was on the phone and I, I could have so. I can understand that with Naco, but I don't think other committees would be meeting the same time. That may be an exception. I bet. Well, Mr. States, if I. So in transit or, you know, whatever outside communities that. Have found transit is actually listed on that resolution. Oh, I know it is. And I'm just in. I can't I'm trying to think of circumstances where outside committees would be meeting the same time as our council meeting, which is the designated time. So if you want to amend that, add something or it's fine. I was just trying to get the idea that we shouldn't be absent from doing our duties if we're actually doing our duty. And that's why we're absent. Commissioner Make absolutely no sense. Councilmember Bassett. Thank you, Madam Chair. Nick, what is the current policy for being marked absent from attending our meeting? Well, the clerk may want to elaborate on this, but my understanding is that if you're permitted to attend under the current rules, then you would be marked present. And if you're otherwise, you need to be physically present. And anything you want to add. Well, so members are either present or excused. There's no. No, we don't. What about the from. So right now, for council meetings, if a council member participates by phone, we're required to. The chair makes that announcement at the beginning of the meeting, and then we note that in the minutes that the member participated telephonically. You know what goes on the record? Well, then they're there. Then for council meetings, members who participate telephonically are considered present for purposes of the quorum. And then they their votes are counted when we take the oath. What about for the committees? For the committees. There's no that's what this I think this ordinance does is extend that rule that applies in the council meetings to the committee meetings. And make some other technical changes. But essentially now there is no provision for participation in a committee meeting by telephone. He keeps the Sony C one. Madam Chair, one of the additional concerns that I have, again, and reflecting back upon our history and there's been the concern Don needs to hear this. There's been two political races that involved members of this body running against each other where attendance at meetings became a key issue. And there's been three other meetings where King County Council members were running against others in the community that are not concerned with where it was raised, their attendance. And in all five races, attendance at meetings became one of the two or three more important issues that members of the general public considered. So I would need to know whether or not being able to call and make you present or not present at a meeting. It would make you present. You were present if you are here telephonically or if you were here in person as you are during a council member under existing rules. But you are not allowed to be present even if, as Councilmember of the Grove is present at this moment, is not considered present for this meeting because it's a committee meeting and not a council meeting. So if you are telephonically at a council meeting, you are present as if you were here in the body. And this is also expanding non emergency reasons that you could call in. Right. Those concerned about duty used an example where she was at the beach and she was able to call in and Bellevue. Yeah, I really do not go that far. I'm on another committee and in one meeting they were able to say anybody can can be attending remotely any time they want in one sentence, as long as everybody can hear them. And and I had to laugh as I voted on that. But, you know, they can do it in one sentence. And here we are, months and months and months later at several pages long. I think the most important thing is that everybody has life around them, whether it's happy circumstances, death, bad circumstances, illnesses, traffic accidents. And there are ways of getting here, you know, whatever happens, you know, rainstorm, snowstorm, sleet, hail, whatever. And we have to deal with those. And we're professionals. And as has been said in doing this at the council, it has not produced any problems. Nobody's abused it. And I think that we need to take in in my mind, this is the next baby step. It's not even as robust as five out of the eight surrounding jurisdictions that have no limits on the reasons and six out of eight that have no limits on the number. So this is a very, very modest step, but it does allow each of us to participate and have our individual citizens be able to participate through us, no matter what the weather is or what other issues are being faced. And so that is your question. Yeah. Essentially extends what we currently have to all of our committees and makes the criteria. One can use a more flexible and broader. Yes. In the fact that you can go to other council approved meetings and not be considered absent and that there are more family members such as grandchildren and in my daughter in law as the son in laws that should they die, you would be. Is this sick? Well, I think it's been. A little traumatic. What it would do is the amendment you're referring to would expand the group of immediate family members whose urgent need for assistance would justify attending remotely to include all of the categories who currently if if they did die, the member would or a county employee would be entitled to take bereavement leave on that account. So it uses the same just the same categories of, of individuals for this purpose, as well as for the categories that are currently makes someone eligible for bereavement leave. So you are only talking about bereavement then. See, I thought Cathy said the relative would have to be dying in order to be able to call that. No. No. It uses those categories. It borrows those categories. Category categories, the. Bereavement category. The relationship categories, and. Number of bereaved means about to die. I thought. Right. Certain category if someone in a certain category, certain relationship to a county employee dies. The county code provides that they can take bereavement leave. Right. This proposed ordinance would use those same categories and say if any of those individuals has an urgent need for assistance and I'm paraphrasing now, that that would be a justification that would constitute urgent circumstances, justify a council member to attend remotely by phone or other electronic means. All right. Thank you for that clarification. So just to make sure I'm clear on the language. What does amendment number three mean? That you could be marked absent if you have a sick family member? But does it also mean if your family member died, you would still be marked present if you participated? Well, if a family member died, I guess I haven't. Thought about under that category. That is. That would. Be urgent. There'd be an urgent care category. Well, yeah, it's I guess it doesn't really fit the definition that the proposed ordinance would use it, which is that there has to be a medically related issue or other urgent need for assistance that makes it difficult. So you might want to clarify that if that's what your attention is. Well, medically urgent, I guess, with death is considered a pretty medically urgent issue. But if anybody's questioning whether death is considered medically urgent or not. Then it's all over. Yeah. Council member Belushi. See what happens if we just. We still don't know what. We're going to replace it. Just a confirmation. As I read this, you basically have three discretionary times when you call in for whatever reason, which would cover not only a death, but my beach vacation or I mean, we don't do that every year, by the way, but so you'd have up to three times as I read this as a councilmember to choose to call in. No, no, that's. Currently, there are three different categories of reasons why. I'm talking about with the amendment, but they're new with the. New rule. Okay. All that would do it would address the urgent circumstances as a ground and it would modify the definition of urgent circumstances. But it would not create it would not give members the right to attend remotely in the absence of urgent circumstances is. So I would go further. I don't. Know. That's what I was hoping somebody would say that I would like to do a new striker that took in the fact that we have. For. That we have four amendments before us because this has been here for so long that some of the language has gotten older and that we do keep the three for no reason and then we go into the urgent. Um, so anyway, this is up for a briefing because there are obviously some various opinions about how this would be implemented, should be implemented. It just boggles my mind that other groups can do it on one or two sentences in one meeting. But anyway, here we are. So during the next two weeks, if you would like to bring amendments, let me know and we will go for that. Council Member Duncan. I have to make this point because of the record on it. With all due respect to my good friend and colleague, Mr. Goss, our districts are different and yours is is right here and close. And I know you don't do a lot of skateboarding, but if you wanted to, you could skateboard to work. My friend. My district goes, Do you know that my district goes all the way to where King County borders, Yakima County and Natchez Pass. And I have people that live out there and I am frequently out there and it is in elevations up to 6000 feet. Kath has got places, I've got almost 8000 feet. We are out there doing a lot of work and sometimes things happen and I had a situation where down at the state of the county last year and I got in a really bad situation in terms of traffic and and just missed the meeting and then of course, you know what happens there, but if I could have called in, it would have been fine and I would have attended. So I just I want people to remember that we all come from different circumstances. When I lived out in rural, unincorporated King County outside of Maple Valley, and it took at least an hour to come to work in traffic, that's that was really hard on my family and my children because of the amount of commute times going back and forth. These are choices we make. But I'm urging my colleagues to remember the diversity of our districts and what challenges may exist, especially relating to weather, where the big windstorm with 29 trees around it couldn't get anywhere and power was out. So anyway, just just to chew on food for thought and always with great respect. Mr. Gossett you had to stop that skateboarding came out. You. Mr. Guys. But what are we, uh, I mean, other examples are that Councilman DEMBOSKY there's a way out north, and for three years he's been on the county council and never missed one meeting being physically here. Mr. Dombrowski is is. I was doing so well, you know, in avoiding this conversation. He's always sat right at the front of the class to give that kind of guy. A halo came with it. Position. I appreciate the comment there. I was just but I you know, last week I was out in Reagan's district at his invitation to look. Get some of the marijuana growing issues and and income and coming back. I was reminded, you know, we were coming down the valley highway and the traffic there, it it it is a long way out there. And these are big districts. And I, I think very often every day when I'm coming down either on the bus or in the car or now sometimes on light rail, how easy it is for me from Northeastern to get here to participate. I mean, it's it's easy and I'm lucky then. So I, I'm not sure we'll look at these from this perspective. I've supported these interest in having a little more flexibility here. I think it's a pro participation measure. I want to make sure we do it the right amount so it stays a pro participation measure. There is a lot of value in face to face dialog and in that I want to preserve that. It's one of the great things about this body, I think, is that we're here and can see each other and the debate is richer. We've got to fix if we're going to be more flexible, we've got to fix this technology because frankly, today it's more disruptive than it is helpful when you're here in chambers on the call. And it just is. But I think there's solutions to that. I think there probably are solutions to that. So I look forward to working with you, Councilmember Lambert, I think to see if we can get this to the right spot for a little more flexibility while preserving the really tremendous value of being here and working with all of you. Face to face brings. A lot of thank you and I appreciate that too. I think, like I said, we have work balance. We have very large districts, my district, 1007 square miles. And it's a little different to be commuting if you have a meeting in the morning and frequently I do. I have a mayor's meeting at 7 a.m. at North Bend sometimes and getting back in here on time and sometimes I listen to the meeting on the way in, so then I'm prepared when I get here. And it does help us that have large districts to be able to be in two places at once. And as Councilmember Caldwell said, lots of times we are scheduled from more than one place at the same time. So all of these things are helpful to us and we need to be able to get to that. This is a robust discussion and so I look forward to hearing from you as to exactly what you would like to see. We will try to get a compromise. Everybody has very different ideas and so not everybody's going to have 100% what they want in it. But I think as long as we can keep the flavor of getting this done and moving on, it will be great. So we have now moved the other two items for today off to the next meeting. And so at that, this meeting will be a.	AN ORDINANCE proposing an amendment to the King County Charter to make the office of King County prosecuting attorney nonpartisan; amending Section 610 of the King County Charter; adding a new Section 649 to the King County Charter; amending Section 680.10 of the King County Charter; and submitting the same to the qualified voters of the county for their approval or rejection at the next general election occurring more than forty-five days after the enactment of this ordinance.
king_cf29a306-af32-45d3-828e-8bce9a70f97b	For March 30th, 2016, we were waiting for some of our members to show up. So we will start on briefing number four and then go back up and when we get a quorum. So this is briefing 2016. Briefing 56 is the ESG annual report. And with us today, we have meetings, though, in ways that were way left. Thank you. Who is the director of the SJ office? So would you like to begin, Mr. Reid, in briefing us. Although a quick staff report. So this is the equity and social justice annual report. As you've indicated, this report is required by ordinance 16948, which is. Known as the Equity and Social Justice Ordinance. This that ordinance requires, among other things. An annual report to address the status and trends in equity in King County. The report has been published, I believe, annually by the ESG office since the year 2012. The current version was published in December 2015. Your staff report goes. Through the key elements. Of that report, including first highlights of progress in county county provision of services with an ESG LIMS segment. Secondly, the equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan, which is the roadmap. That the ESG office is preparing to define direction for. Equity source of justice services in over the course of the future. Thirdly, the staff report discusses progress on determinants of equity, which are. The key parameters that define whether we are making progress in. Equity terms. And then fourthly. The staff report notes that the ESG report introduces an equity and. Social justice dashboard, which is an online. Meter. Of key ESG parameters. As you've indicated, Mathias Valenzuela, who's the director of the Office of Equity and Social Justice, is here to present that report. Madam Chair. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So as Mike talked about, I'm going to be mainly focusing on the work that we did and those highlighted in a 2015 ESG annual report. But also, I'm going to go beyond that and provide even some of the because that report covers work that was done between November 2014 through October 2015 . But there's also been significant work happening since then, especially as it relates to our equity on social justice strategic plan. So I wanted to brief and update the Council on that as well. So 2015 was quite significant for us since it was the first year that we had our equity and social justice office and the role of our offices to lead in many areas of equity and social justice. So developing tools, trainings, presentations, convenings, we do a lot of work and supporting and facilitating the work that departments are doing and providing technical assistance or facilitating groups such as various equity and social justice teams, the inner branch team. We do a lot of work with our leadership in terms of Cabinet and operations cabinet, which convenes all our deputy directors, including those from separately elected agencies, and also tracking and supporting their work plans. We last year brought in, I was happy to have for the first time staff to support this work. There's a lot of things that we need to do and brought in a program manager who supports with tools and supports the departments. She is very focused on some of the internal functions, especially around human resource issues and making sure that we are diverse and inclusive at all levels of the organization and advancing strategies there. And then we have also halfway through the year last year, brought in and hired our inclusion manager who focuses on more external issues and community partnerships. She was also a staff member, along with council staff of the Immigrant Refugee Taskforce, which council had asked for. Key in the work that we do is also supporting key initiatives that are underway in King County. So we get involved, for example, especially early on in designing and making sure equity lands are strong in our efforts, for example, very involved early on in the disproportionality the justice system work, including the Juvenile Justice Equity Steering Committee, also been very involved in the launch and the framework that was created for best starts for kids. And then some of the elements within that, for example, as communities of opportunity, I was personally involved in the governance team early on to make sure that that both the process and the focus was in line with our equity and social justice. Values and principles also get involved in some of the major plans and policies that we work on. For example, the comprehensive plan which has equity integrated throughout, and also the Strategic Climate Action Plan. A lot of our work to. Internally focused and as an organization and working a lot with human resources and moving forward a more diverse and inclusive workforce. So working on issues of employee recruitment, development and promotional opportunities. A lot of the work also has to do around building capacity within our organization. So we do a lot of in the area trainings and events. About a little over a year ago we brought in Rachel Godsil from the Perception Institute and we had several hundred employees attend a session on implicit bias and develop a training to look as a result of that. That's also been done and used in various work settings. We've expanded on some of the lessons. That she's done. The implicit bias training is available for employees online. It is available with employers. There's a whole toolkit that's available for employers or and it's only for us. We actually had, for example, I think childcare resources and community organization, some others have reached out to us and have been using that particular toolkit. So it's available online under our resources. Yes. Okay. So you sent us a link to that. We're happy to do that. Yes. I'd like to see that. Thank you. Great. Thanks. Also, we in this last year, we expanded the number of trainings that we offer around equity and social justice. So now we have a set of four. So beyond our basic training and the training that we do on microaggressions, we develop an equity tools training and also race power of inclusion training in the areas of community and partnerships do a lot there. But some of the highlights is and some of you council members attended this. We organized last year the governing for racial equity conference. In June. We had over 500 people attend that conference from various jurisdictions and including King County. We had about a quarter of the attendees. So about 150 attendees were King County employees that attended that particular conference that was held at the Washington State Convention Center really is a place to share the work that we're doing and other jurisdictions are doing around racial equity. We also work on supporting regional equity efforts and coalitions such as the Regional Equity Network, a lot of work around presenting and training local and national groups and convenings. I get asked and my staff do as well almost on a weekly basis to present and be part of webinars. I do a lot of trainings here, not only with King County staff that we're doing all the time and with King County leadership. But I regularly train large organizations here, other local governments and also many significant philanthropies too, that are interested in advancing this work. So that's an important part of our effort in terms of data. And the staff report already was mentioned of some of the the some of the tools that we've developed there. Last year we established we did our first Determinants of Equity Report, which is almost 200 pages actually documenting the, the 13 determinants of equity that are more community facing. One of them is on our organizational practices but really documented are our community level conditions. And that report and that document can be used to support equity review processes, plans, budgets, performance measures. Also, we were included and worked very closely with our performance strategy and budget group around an equity and social justice online dashboard to publicly be able to track how we're doing around these issues. So they started there. Yeah. Councilmember Gossett has a question for. Thank you, Madam Chair. A little earlier you talked about micro-aggression, and that is a term that I've been you, I mean, not using I've been hearing a lot about in recent months. What exactly does Microaggression mean and how does that apply to equity and social justice? That's a great question. Council member Gosset there. You know, increasingly to I mean, I think there are situations now in which issues around race or even acts of racism in words around racism are overt. But I think a lot of the overt ness is a thing of the past. And the way that many of the actions happen, especially at the individual and group level, are more either implicit or a little bit more with with a softer tone, I would say. But they're still aggressions or acts of, we would say, of race in an individual setting or interpersonal setting or group setting. So it's really giving people a heightened awareness of that. We work in a place in which we have broader, you know, structural and system levels, you know, inequities around race, around gender, around a number of different issues and how these can actually play out in the workplace in terms of how a, you know, supervisor might be acting or, you know, are treating a particular employee or how particular employees might treat each other. So this can be, you know, play out in terms of race that might play out in terms of gender in which a particular individual might get left out. And, you know, in a meeting and a process which should be inclusive and where everybody should be able to bring their whole self and really contribute. But in fact, you have a dynamics that gets played out in which kind of traditional and dominant ways of kind of exercising power get played out. So really looking at that, at the very much organizational team level. So is the micro. Measure. As being in opposition to macro. So that the micro means a lower level and more indirect but still difficult form of racial oppression and discrimination. Yeah, I mean, they're all part of the same equation. Right. And I think that's the macro is also can be thought about as a structural, which is how all the institutions work together and, and in a system to create some conditions. Right. Yeah. And then micro. Is what. Micro is more what's happening at the individual level and how that plays out or at the interpersonal level. And many times it's, you know, unintended. Many times it's not that even, you know, parent, but what somebody is the recipient of those microaggressions, they very much know it, right? If you're a person of color or you're a woman who is being, you know, not included in a particular process, who's been dismissed, whatever it may be, it becomes very clear to them. So usually the people that are more in the positions of power are very blind to these things. So it's really how do we make people aware of those particular actions and how they play out? And so they then change their behavior. Well, Madam Chair, I'd like to hear my caree to send me an article or something on the concept of microaggressions so that I can better understand it as a time, because a lot of people are using that more. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay, great. So really, now then moving forward into the work that we have been doing right after this report was this report covers through really little late fall. So really in November and December of last year, we produced two reports as part of our strategic plan work and those are also available online. So it was we engaged in work with about 600 of our employees, approached all departments and agencies to really look at for King County, both as a service provider, as an original partner and as a workforce workplace. What is working in terms of tackling social justice? What is and what are the things we should expand and what are the things we actually should stop doing? So we took kind of those frameworks and really had these discussions with our employees and and leadership similarly. And about 600 employees participated in that process. Similarly, we we went and had meetings with organizations and met with over 100 organizations. And this wasn't just the Office of Equity and Social Justice, but other folks who meet and work with with partner organizations and the results of both of those engagement processes, the internal and external engagement process. I covered in those two reports. What we are working on now and we're on track to really release soon a draft of our strategic plan and we want to transmit it to council by by late spring. Is our the equity in social justice plan itself. So in your handouts, I think you have an overview framework that really covers the key concepts as they are right now. What we're working on and expanding on our strategic plan and really what this you can see here in terms of the shared vision of really all people in King County have equitable opportunities to thrive in terms of our theory of change. And this is really if the idea that if we create pro equity policies in our workforce, workplace and key areas of governance such as partnerships, communications policies, plans, budgets, operations, programs, deliveries, facilities and infrastructures, then we will create more equitable conditions, social and equitable, socially just and equitable conditions in the communities. So the really that's kind of the big driver and the theory behind what we're pushing the the key strategies that this plan is going to be focusing on. And this is, again, built on the information and engagement process we build with our employees and with community are that we will invest in employees. We will invest in community partnerships that will invest upstream and where needs are greatest. And we will do this with accountable and transparent leadership. I have a picture here. One is this. It's an attachment, an attachment. There's a number of work pages that. I believe Matthias is referring to. This last page. 41.49. Yes, it's page 41. I like it or not. Yeah, okay. Sorry about that. I hope I'm. Going to have your packets. I don't know exactly which. I'm glad you got it now. So really. Those those four strategies about investing in employees and community partnerships upstream where needs are greatest and with accountable and transparent leadership, there are elements that we are incorporated into our six goal areas. And this is quite exciting because you know, for a long time we have been doing that around social justice work but really and using the tools. But this is really going to be an opportunity to say, okay, what are going to be our key goals and our measurable objectives in these six areas? So workforce, workplace policies, practices and processes, partnerships and collaboration, communication, education plans, policies and budgets, operations programs and services and facilities and systems improvements are really thinking about Where do we want to be? What's your ten year vision here? What are going to be our six year goals as what we are establishing and objectives and then setting out some short term we're going to have in terms of our plan and implementation plan too, which is going to be looking more for the next two years of how we're going to be doing this work to advance it so that we can we're scheduled to be releasing in the next few weeks a draft of that report that's going to be available to all. And we're going to be posting on our website. And then our hope is to transmit that that plan to council by late spring. By when? By late spring. Late spring. Yeah. So I think, I think with that is just an overview of we've been quite busy and the Office of Equity and Social Justice as you can see and, and really excited about the work that's to come to and how kind of the possibilities and especially the focus that the strategic plan is going to offer us. And how many people are on your strategic committee? Again. The strategic committee. So we have a core team of about eight people that are involved, which are folks in my my office. So I have two people in my office. They're part of it. And then key leads in in some of the areas. So have people from at least from one department, from the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget as well. And also somebody from Executive Services. I can't get the member. Got it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Who is the person who works closely with their leadership group representing the legislative branch of government? So in terms of in the inner branch team, we have a number of folks that are represented in the inner branch team. We have, including to your your staff, Larry Evans and Cindy Domingo are included in the inner branch team. We also have Carmela Ennis. Mike Reid has also been part of some of the efforts, both earlier efforts and her remarks, our strategic plan. But then, Mike, are you the man I'm trying to figure out? Are you, as John or somebody has appointed you to be the lead person in terms of equity and social justice from the legislative branch? So my role has been mostly doing more, more recently as I've taken on some other responsibilities, have been mostly doing the. Analytical and evaluation work for legislation that the Council's. Considering. I have in past months been active in attending the the IBT. And working. With Matthiessen on this topic. But frankly, more recently, as I've. Done as I've done other. Taking on other responsibilities. That part has declined somewhat. I'd still remain involved, but I am less involved in the day to day. Meetings that they do. Do we have a lead person? And that's like our Miller iness is is largely taking on that responsibility. So she she's a little bit more active in that sense than I am. I think John Resa has a comment on that. Mr. Fisher. Oh. I'm sorry. Council members. John. A Policy Staff Director to County Council. Yes. Mike Read is our analytic lead for. Equity and social. Justice issues. However, Carmela Ennis has been designated the participatory and functional lead for the council or the legislative branch as equity and social justice functions. So Mike works on really the analytic framework on how you. Analyze and. What you're analyzing well and may participate as an. Individual in some of the other functions, but. He really is our analytic. Lead and remains in that nonpartizan, non-biased role conducting that analysis. Well, Carmela has a different role on behalf of. The legislative branch. And does that help Councilmember? Okay. Did you know that? Yes, John and I have talked and I do have that understanding. Yes. Okay. Mr. Matear, all the major goal areas, I can't figure out where I would love or. How at home and. On. Our criminal justice system, because that is where it is the most difficult and challenging to our government in terms of doing something about the disproportionality that exists. You have like 40% of the people in our King County jail are African-Americans and 55% of our youth are African-Americans. Where do I look to see if we're making any progress given our commitment to equity and social justice? Yeah, that's a that's a great question. So there there are two parts, I think, to that answer. One is that this plan is focused is focused on really the organizational change and building that capacity so that we can be more thoughtful and strong as we do those particular areas of work, whether it's criminal justice or any other one. But also one of the elements of our strategic plan is going to have and this is also built on a lot of the engagement that we did, especially with community, as we were going to be, including a proposed policy agenda around a number of different areas really built on the things that we heard both, you know , in terms of the vision where we want to be, in terms of King County in this particular area and the where we are right now. And what are some of the strategies that can help us move to that vision? So we are going to be including in the strategic plan around a number of different issues, which include the justice system. There's going to be a policy segment that talks about the justice system. And also similarly, it's a there's going to be a segment on that around health and human services, around job and economic development, around housing , around building natural environment, around transportation, around digital equity. So it's not only going to be an internal, focused, you know, plan on how we need to build that capacity internally. But it's going to actually play out an agenda on key things that we want to move forward. Was going to have all that. What are you talking about? What plan that. You're going to put together for April. Or. Yes. Yes. The equity and social justice strategic plan is going to include a policy agenda with with segments in each of these areas and including on criminal justice. And would that be ready? That's going to be ready. We're going to have a draft that we're going to be sharing late this late in April and then it'll be transfer. The whole report can be transmitted to council by late spring. So lastly, because I know that they're going to say other people have to participate, but I don't know what you meant then that you said these are six main policy areas. But are you talking about something much more broader than what I'm talking about? If so, what is it that you're talking about when you said our six broad areas? So there's there's two pieces. The one is the goal areas, which are the ones that you see there that are more on these. Particular. Areas, the government that the way we run government. And then there are policy areas and it's going to have both of those elements. So the plan is going to focus on including on criminal justice. The section on criminal justice is basically going to lay out both a vision of where we want to see King County, but then also our current state of where we're doing well, where we're not doing well. And then what are some of the key policy areas that we're going to be we should be moving forward in the next few years. And will be that it'll be easy for us hopefully to see these policy areas that then we can find out how we're doing because you're going to have some kind of independent evaluation or. Yes, I mean, around all of these things, one of the things that we don't have where the plan is going to have measures, especially for the six goal areas. So really in terms of the progress that we make around workforce workplace, there are going to be actual measures there. We haven't gotten to the point in terms of actually in these other areas of having kind of actually objective goals and measures. Yet we're not at that point yet. But we are going to be there about it. Yeah, April. Well, no, actually, that's going to take longer. So we are going to be setting out this more broad, the policy agenda on this particular area, including including for criminal justice. But that's going to take the effort to actually set some of those measures and goals is going to take longer. And working with some of the key folks that are leading that work, both in the county and in the community. And we you guys have decided they by which the actual goals and objectives are going to be completed. As the last question, how. The goal the goals and objectives, for example, for criminal justice. Yeah. Not yet. That's going to be a goal that we're setting out that we need to we're going to say we need to do that within the strategic plan, but we don't have dates for that yet. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. You're welcome. The six things that you talked about, I don't see them in here with Paige, with those beyond. They're not included. This is just a summary document of some of the key or the key framework. So I would like the list of those six that you just said. Those are really good. And then in the list, we're talking about equity and social justice. Are there any white males or rural people on the committee advisory advising? Yes, we actually have. I'm trying to think in terms of the group you're talking about our core group. Mm hmm. Yeah. The in terms of males, I'm the only male of color. We have two other males, and they're both white and trying to think in terms of other people there than we have women, which are we have one white woman and the other women are of color. And you have a body rule. These are staff. So are you saying do they, the staff member themselves live in rural areas? Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm not I'm not certain. I know some of them. They don't all live in in Cook County. Any one person lives in Kitsap. I know, too. So. But I think it'd be good. You know, there's a lot of people that live in rural King County and and need to have their voice put into these things to serve. Their needs are sometimes discriminated against. Yeah. Yes. Great. Yeah. Okay. So one of the things to as as and we can provide more information on this, but one of as we did, our outreach to community as part of the community engagement of the strategic plan, we did a geographic breakdown as well. So trying to think not only by issues and not only by people, but also making sure that geographically we were covering different areas of the county. So that was part of our strategy to to cover kind of a broad sector of of our region. Great. Thank you. I started this then again. Sorry. Councilmember Jacobus. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for your presentation. And I have a question in on page 32 where it mentions what we're doing, recruitment. And I haven't read through the whole document yet, but it does indicate that I will be ensuring diversity of race, gender and age on interview panels. And that was just addressed. And also on page 41, on the chart at the bottom with the shared values racism is mentioned, which of course is key to everything we've been looking into and critically important. And with the race being included on what I just read for the recruitment paragraph, there are many communities of color that would not be considered racial difference. They're more ethnically different, and I shouldn't even say different, but they're ethnic, their ethnic groups more likely than what would classically be considered racial groups. And I don't see them in here. I mean, race indicated and racism indicated to include all communities of color and ethnicity or what? Yeah. I mean, the way that we think, I mean, really essentially race is a is a, you know, social construct, in fact. Right. Consistency, you know, so we know it, right? So we use it as a term that actually covers kind of more more broadly race and ethnicity, too. So it's beyond that because for example, Latino within our particular like census categories, it would not be considered a separate race, but it's actually of ethnicity. So I think it's a very broad I mean, it's broader than that. One of the interesting things, though, too, is that and we're going to be in our ESG ordinance, it's actually called out. And just given the data that we want to focus on, low income communities, communities of color and immigrant refugee populations just given the need. But I think also part of the feedback that we have heard also from community and from employers is that we also need to establish something that is, you know, an umbrella that is broader than those groups to. So how can we actually have an intentional focus on on race and that be a key driver. At the same time, not exclude other issues which we know are also very important, such as gender. Right. And such as LGBT issues. And, you know, so I think the our strategic plan is is going to actually offer a broader framework that is still focused, but also at the same time inclusive. And I think it's it's exciting and that that that regard. Me and follow up and I embrace that. Thank you for that response. And I'm glad to hear what you have to say that I do think it would be preferable and perhaps less confusing to people and more inclusive if you came up with the broader term, because race, I think, indicates a certain social construct that you said that it will not cover all the groups. So I encourage that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Now, I want to respect that. You told me you needed to be out of here at ten and it's 1003. So how are you doing? Maybe a couple more minutes, too. Yeah, I'm sorry. I have. I had already this this presentation got postponed from the last meeting, and I'm facilitating about a go green conference this morning. So I'm running from here. I'm. So how are you doing? I have a couple of more minutes. Okay. Yeah. So you just let me know when you need to go, okay? We will start at the end. Okay. Go ahead. Please proceed. Well, I'm. You're done with. Your question for my. Yeah. Any questions? Any other questions from the panel? Well, then I guess you will get to your meeting almost on time. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. It's been a very and a very good presentation with lots of information. So thank you. Okay. So let's go back up to the start now, since we wanted to get him right on so quick, would you please call for the arrow? Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member. Banducci Council Member DEMBOSKY Council Member Dunn here. Council Member Gossett. Yeah. Council Member Caldwell Council Member McDermott Council Member of the Grove Council Member Van right there. Madam Chair. Speak about social justice. It's very important for people. They speak about. Socialism. Right now. So could you please sit down? It is not the time. Right now we have a very bad agenda. It was good. Thank you. Could you please be seated? As a matter of fact, we're going to take a recess. Would you please sit? Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. The next order of business is approval of the minutes from March 16, 2016. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you, Madam Chairman, of approval at the March 16, 2016 meeting minutes. Thank you. Any comments? Others voting. I appreciate i. I as opposed nay the minutes approved as written. Takes us up to number five which proposed ordinance 2016 0187. And this is an ordinance extending the required completion date for the final report of the task force to make recommendations on the creation of the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission. This is a pretty straightforward issue and just changing the date. So, Mr. Reid, would you like to talk to us about that? Okay. Very briefly. So you are aware and have been. Actively involved in. Leading the council discussion for the. The county's discussion on. Issues related. To the increasing numbers of immigrants and refugees. In King County. And you recall that. In those discussions, the Council has indicated an interest in exploring the potential for a commission, an immigrant. And refugee commission, to help address other. Needs of these incoming residents. In that context, you expressed interest. In receiving input from community voices in helping to shape any such commission. And so last year through Ordinance 18085, you established an immigrant and refugee task force to make recommendations regarding. Our Commission membership duties of the Commission and the mission of that Commission. That Task Force has been. Meeting since October one of 2015. And has transmitted a status update on February 1st. That status update is included as part of your package to. Effectively carry out its work. The Commission. I'm sorry. The Task Force has undertaken a series of of robust outreach efforts to to the various immigrant and refugee. Communities it has undertaken what's. What are referred to as community conversations in various locations. Throughout the King County. Region with immigrant and refugee communities. The commission is about halfway through that process. So they have scheduled 20 outreach sessions, at least 20 community conversations. Nine have happened. I believe 11 are. Yet. To go. I'm sorry, 11. Have happened. And they are yet to go. And it is noted that the existing reporting deadline, which is May 31st of this year, will be a challenge to meet with that robust outreach effort. They, in that context, have requested. An extension of about. 37 days to July eight of this year. The legislation before you does accomplish that, that revision extends the reporting data for. The Immigrant and Refugee Task Force to July 30. And July 8th of 2016. Madam Chair. Thank you. All right. Well, I think that's pretty straightforward. And they're halfway through, as you said, they've had 11 meetings. They have nine more to go. And I think that's great that they're working so hard on this. And I also thank you for the background data on page 43 that it was quite interesting. So if there are no questions about that, I would take a motion. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, would you like to make a motion? Be happy to, Madam Chair, move approval with a do pass recommendation of proposed ordinance 2016 0187. Thank you. There are no other questions or comments. Please call for the vote. I'm sorry. Wait a minute. I didn't see your hand up. I'm sorry. I had a question on the Immigrant and Refugee Task Force when we had a particular day by which they were supposed to provide certain information. And as I understand it, they asked for an extension. And I was talking to the counselor, and I can't remember whether or not you talked about that yet. So they did have an interim report that was due on, I believe, February 1st. That interim report was transmitted and. Actually it is included as part of your packet. So you want to look at the latter part of. Your package, you'll see that interim report. So there is a final report that is. Due according to the. Ordinance that approved last year. Final report due May 31st of this year. Again, that that date is the one that is going to be a challenge for them to meet. So they request an. Extension of that date to July 8th of this year. And did you already talk about that? Yes. Yes, we can talk about. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I favor giving them that. It's, you know, extension because I want them to have an opportunity to do the very best job they can and articulating and laying out what they think would be most helpful to the immigrant and refugee communities of Cancun. Thank you, Manager. Thank you. And that is exactly what this does. Okay. Thank you. Okay, so we have it before us. And so, Kirk, would you please come for the vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Baldi. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Member by Councilmember Gossett. Hi, Mr. Caldwell. Hi. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember up the road, Councilmember Yvonne Bauer. Madam Chair, I am Chair. The vote is seven. I is no nos and council members, unlike Robin von Erichs. Excused. Excellent. Thank you very much. And that takes us up now to item number six. And this is proposed motion 2016 0117, a motion approving the fourth quarter of the 2015 expenditures for emergent needs and anticipated projected costs. Summary Report Prepared by the Road Service Division and the Department of Transportation. As is required, there will be an amendment. This is the fourth quarter report and the report says it's the third quarter report. So there will be a technical amendment. So with that, this. Okay, would you begin? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Lisa Kay for the central staff. For the record, my staff report begins on page 53 of your packet. As you mentioned, proposed motion 2016 0117 would approve the fourth quarterly report from the Road Services Division on emergent needs and unanticipated project costs. Council approved a budget proviso requiring these reports in response to an operational shift in roads from planned investments. That is to say, programing projects through the CHP, individual projects to reactive system management, which pooled funding in a number of response oriented programs, including emergent needs and quick response. This budgeting change was a response to the roads funding shortfall, the experience with emergency roadwork expenses, and a desire not to cancel capital projects if emergency repairs required additional revenue. This fourth quarterly report shows the transfer of $98,000 from the Quick Response Project for a slide repair project in Preston, and about $1.2 million in transfers from emergent needs to supplement three unanticipated grants for risk reduction from the flood control district as the fourth quarter report. This report also then shows the cumulative expenditures in these programs for the first year of the 20 1516 biennium. You'll see on table five of the staff report, which is on page 57 of your packet, that both programs have large balances. Halfway through the biennium there's approximately $11.11 million remaining in quick response and approximately five and a half million dollars in emerging needs. As you mentioned, Amendment one to this motion, which is on page 67 of your packet, would correct a typographical error. That concludes my report. Road Services Director Bauer is in the audience. Okay. So both of these accounts have money left in them. But then I look on page 55 on the projects deleted is this was done as first and then 2000 1314 VIP. So is this just to give us some background that these projects have been deleted in the past? What's the purpose of that chart here? Now, this this chart carries forward from the very first quarterly report, which basically shows the projects that were stricken from the CFP and in favor of shifting to this operational response in these pooled funds. So now that we have some money that we didn't expect to be in there, can some of these things go back on on the agenda? I would like to defer that to Director Bauer, please. Okay. And there's one on here, the Miller Bridge replacement, which the federal government. This was destroyed in a flood. And the federal government has chosen not to replace this bridge. Which absolutely breaks my heart. And the 2.5 million is not the total cost to replace that bridge. But in my mind, FEMA should still be taking care of that. But we also see some other bridges that are in dire need. So there you are. Brenda, would you please go ahead and Mr. Bauer and talk to us about why there's money left? And can we go back and reimburse some of these accounts to do some of this work that needs to be done? Brenda Bauer Road Services Director The challenge that we're facing is, is that we have unpredictable levels of failure and also want to take advantage of some opportunities like the grant opportunities we had, which allow us our money to go farther. A couple of years ago, we had at least $7 million worth of failure, destroying the winter season. So we can have a very high dollar's worth of failures. And we are increasingly seeing a greater level of failure in our system because we're not able to preserve and maintain it at an appropriate level. So what we will be doing is in the development of our budget process, taking a look at whether there are carryover funds that we didn't need to use in this last biennium that would be reprogram for a different purpose. And what that purpose would be, it might not be these specific projects. Okay. Although the some of the projects on this list are very serious. That's true. We have a lot of we have a transportation needs report update that's coming out through the comprehensive planning process that lists very significant needs. And I think, you know, the average citizen may not realize how severe this is. Could you again and you did an excellent job a couple of weeks ago saying how many roads we should be overlaying for maintenance and then how many road maps we're planning to do this year? We're planning very few road miles, really a lot of carryover work. From the prior. From the prior year that the contractor wasn't able to get to and a few others that we had some matching funds for. We should be overlaying. So there's an ideal amount and then there's amount associated with the fact that we have a failing road system. Most of most of our Tier one and Tier two roads could use reconstruction and not just overlay. So we our problems are more extensive than a standard road system. So I think that's really important for citizens to know. And I think if I remember correctly from the chart that if you maintain a square foot schedule of $2.97, a square foot reconstruction is 159. That was by a 19 for 2014 chart. Right. And there are a variety of estimates for different types of roadways for how much additional money you're spending. But the reality is, is if you if you don't maintain your asset, then you're replacing it sooner and that results in the higher cost. And part of maintaining our asset is that seal that we put on the top of the road, which is the road. Surface. And we are not able to have an adequate program to even resurface roads. However, a lot of our roads are aging and need to be rebuilt, which is a major capital investment for the county. Okay. And early news is always informative. Thank you. All right. Are there any so. Yes. Councilmember Member Gosar. Thank you, Madam Chair. But are we do we have any specific strategies from the executive that are being utilized to identify the possibility of future funding to increase our commitment to our more critical road needs? Well, we as I reported recently, we completed a Bridges and Roads Taskforce effort, which identified kind of a strategy for what kind of revenue would be equitable and appropriate to address the roads issue. And now the effort is to sit down with city partners and work with them to identify quite specifically what sort of revenue tool would be appropriate. The challenge is, is that we have a declining number of people living in the unincorporated area, and it's just really not enough people left in the unincorporated area to adequately fund a network that serves the entire region. So we need the cooperation of our city partners and their resources in order to address this. Problem and that effort. Is that underway? Right. That effort is underway. All right. Thank you. And away, but going at a glacier speed, according to my clock. But it's underway. So I'm I'm happy it's at least underway. It's a $40 billion asset that citizens should be very concerned is being destroyed day by day because we don't have because of the state formula that is broken and we don't have the capacity to take care of properly. So it doesn't look like a lot happened to help us in this last legislative session. So. Okay. Yes. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you very much. Just think I'm going to keep bringing this up because I'm kind of curious about and I talked to Ms.. Bauer in the last presentation on roads that we had. But this notion of our franchise fees and really their modesty for folks are using our rights of way. Mm hmm. What? How can we if there was consensus on the council of an interest in exploring that issue, is there interest in the road services division and looking at whether our franchise fees are set at the right amount and what mechanisms we might have to adjust that? I mean, what's the process there? Would it be on a budget proviso? Would you like a motion? Can we just do it with you? So franchises have been negotiated not directly with. By the road. Services division. This is something. That is undertaken by the. Executive and facilities management. So we're not involved in the process. Of. Negotiating those agreements. I know that the executive has been taking, you know, paying close attention to our franchise agreements. And they they're probably it it's probably good to have a conversation with them about the approach that they're taking on that. That's helpful. So it's not your department. It is not our department. Who does the franchise agreements, although we might benefit from them. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. It is a very good question and I'm glad you keep asking it. And so it's a good thing to keep in front of us because we're going to I was going to say we were going to get desperate. We were desperate four years ago. So we're desperate. We get that. We're we're going to have to start looking for things like that. Okay. So with that, I could use a motion to put this before us. Councilmember Taberski. Okay, Madam Chair. Happy to oblige with a motion to approve proposed motion 2016 01171 to do. Recommendation. Yeah. Thank you very much. When you put amendment number one on page 60, 74. I offer Amendment one. Great. And this is the one we talked about. This is a type of graphical error and moving it from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. All those in favor of amendment number one, they say I those oppose any number one is passed. So that takes us to the underlying as amended. There are no questions. Please clear call for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member Banducci Council Member Dombrowski Council Member Done. All right. Council Member Gossett. High. Council Member Cole Wells Hi. Council Member McDermott. Finance. Council member of the group that's a member of on right there. Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the vote is seven is no nos and council members of the broken bone. Right our excused. Thank you very much. And thank you, Ms.. Boro, for being with us today. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is that do pass or consent. Honey? Was that do pass or do you pass consent? I miss that, yes. And let's do it for both number five and number six. I think both number five and six could be put on their consent agenda. They're pretty straightforward and let's expedite both of them. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. That takes us up to number seven. And number seven is going to hold its place for a future meeting either at this body or at the full council due to some amendments. And so we'll move on now to briefing number eight. This is briefing 2016, briefing 63 on animal control issues. And we are within 3 minutes of being on time. So that's good. So if our staff could please come forward and also the people from the roles in Animal Control, if you'd like to come up, that would be great. Okay. Would you like to start briefing? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Committee for the Record, Miranda Luskin in with counsel staff. Joining me at the staff table today are Norm Ahlberg, director of Records in Licensing Services Division within DHS. Dr. Jean Mueller, Regional Animal Services Manager and Shine Review Finance Administrator with D. S As noted, today's briefing well, today's briefing will provide an overview on regional animal services and upcoming Interlocal Agreement contract negotiations in terms of format, I'll get things started by briefly providing a bit of general background information about regional animal services, focusing chiefly on animal services, history, the regional partnership structure and scope of services. Before handing the microphone over to Jean, Sean and Norm to provide further details about the RASP program and the upcoming Interlocal agreement Islay Contract Negotiations. I would note that materials for this briefing begin on page 81 of your packet. With that by way of background, King County has provided animal services to much of the county since 1972, when King County Animal Control, which was Ross predecessor, was established for years. Animal services focused on animal control outcomes, yielding a high annual animal euthanasia rate. However, policy changes beginning in 2007 aimed at improving county animal services, efficiency and animal welfare outcomes, led to a dramatically decreased annual euthanasia rate, as well as a significant increase in the number of animals rehomed or adopted each year. Chart one located on page 82 of your packet shows the annual shelter euthanasia rate for cats and dogs between 2003 and 2015. Additionally, the model for providing animal services in the county also changed during this period. Specifically in 2010 Regional Animal Services of King County. Roske was formed as a partnership between the county and more than two dozen cities to improve animal welfare in the region. The Ross Regional Partnership covers a total service area of more than 1100 square miles, with just over 1 million residents. Rasps stated mission is to provide the county with sustainable, cost effective services that protect people and animals while providing humane animal care. According to the Joint City's County Workgroup on Animal Services, in a 2010 briefing, benefits of a regional animal services system addressed increased public health issues, tracking and public safety, improved animal welfare, streamline customer service and services, efficiency and economies of scale. Ross provides regional animal services, including animal control, field response sheltering and pet licensing to unincorporated areas of the county and 25 contract cities via Interlocal Agreement. Or I'll be current. I'll continue through the end of 2017 and a list of current partner cities is provided on page 83 of your packet labeled as Table one. And if I may, I will now briefly walk through each of these service areas, starting with animal control field response. These services include the operation of a public call center, the dispatch of Animal Control officers in response to calls and handling of field calls by animal control officers, including the collection and delivery of animals to the Kent Shelter or other shelters included in the Ely Animal Control Field. Animal Control Field Control services are divided into three service districts within the total regional service area, which are shown in Image one, also located on page 83 of your pack. It important to note unincorporated areas are represented in each of the three service districts. Animal control officers are assigned to each service district, and contracting cities may opt to enhance animal control service within their jurisdiction for additional costs. And through a separate agreement, Executive's staff state that Rask utilizes best efforts to ensure a call response for the more than 5000 animal control services field requests received each year are within the guidelines set by the Joint City County Collaboration Committee, or Jaycee for a table two on page 84 of your packet shows the call types for 2015 by priority code response call and the percentage of calls that meet those call response goals. For context, high priority calls include calls that pose an imminent or emergent threat to the community, including humans, which are priority one and animals priority two. While lower priority calls include non-emergent service requests for issues such as possible leash law violations or barking dogs moving next to shelter services. These include the general care cleaning, medical care nurse ment of owner released lost or stray animals in preparation for returning them to their owner or placing them in a new home services or provide. I did year round, chiefly at the county's animal shelter located in Kent. It should be noted that four of the partner cities contract with progressive animal welfare society paws in Lynwood rather than through ask for shelter services for most of their dogs and cats. That said, services to these four cities for quarantined animals and animals determined to be vicious farm animals and domestic pets other than cats and dogs are provided by Rask, as these animals are not accepted at the PAWS Shelter. The RASK Shelter program is supported by more than 500 volunteers who contribute thousands of hours to the RASK Shelter Services Program each year. The Shelter Program also received support from volunteer foster care providers who provide care for kittens that are too young for adoption and for sick or injured animals until until those animals are ready for adoption . Over 1200 animals were placed with volunteer foster care providers in 2015. Additionally, the RASK Shelter Program maintains a veterinary clinic that provides incoming animals with needed medical attention for contact. For context, the RASK Clinic performs over 2000 spay and neuter surgeries each year. In addition to caring for the day to day medical needs of resident shelter animals. Turning next to licensing services, these include the operation and maintenance of a unified system to license pets in contracting cities and unincorporated areas of the county. RASK annually licenses over 100,000 cats and dogs, working with more than 450 contract sales partners, including city halls, licensing agencies, pet stores, veterinary clinics, animal shelters and grocery stores. Moreover, Rask engages in a variety of efforts to increase licensing revenue, such as providing city partners with customized marketing support, maintaining a strong presence at community events, as well as maintaining a robust web and social media presence. One specific example of these efforts is the Rask Neighborhood Marketing Program, which is commonly known as CANVASING, where seasonal RASK staff walk door to door informing residents about the benefits of pet licensing and issuing temporary licenses when appropriate. Rask staff states that it makes efforts to inform residents of upcoming canvasing dates, such as through providing advance notification through local media and municipal newsletters. Canvassers themselves are identifiable through RASK labeled shirts and or jackets, county ID cards, business cards and pet licensing documents. Canvas canvassers do not issue a citation when an unlicensed pet is identified. Rather, the canvasser provides the pet owner with a free temporary license, affording that pet owner time to purchase a permanent license. In total, Rask has an overall average license compliance rate of nearly 23% for 2015, which is actually on the higher end of compliance rates nationally and for unincorporated areas of King County. The estimated animal license compliance rate for 2015 is even higher at 29%. Rask staff report that in 2015, for every dollar spent in neighborhood outreach, a little over $2 GROSS was earned. Rask also maintains a number of partnerships with community organizations, animal related businesses and nonprofit animal providers. These relationships amplify the level of regional animal services provided by the RASK program, which Jean, Norm and Sean will discuss further in the next part of the briefing. Turning next to program revenues, animal license fees provide a major source of revenue for animal services, with payments from contract cities for services not covered by their licensing revenue and the county accounting for the other main revenue sources. And aside from licenses, income from donations, enhanced services to contact cities. Fines and other fees also contribute to animal services revenue. Table three, located on page 86 of your packet, actually provides a summary of these revenue sources. In the adopted 2015 2016 BI annual budget, the county allocated 5.26 million for the entire biennium. In general, fund support for animal services, with approximately 1.6 million being the net cost allocated for RASK services in unincorporated areas of the county 1.8 million paying for credits to support large high shelter intake cities and South King County and 1.8 million paying for items not included in the RASK Partnership model to enhance shelter outcomes and cover cost increases. Outside of the I'lie cost allocation model, the county has identified financial sustainability of regional animal services as an area of interest. In 2014, the Council required RASK to prepare an operational strategic plan for a 2013 2014 budget proviso. In that plan, Rask identified three operational strategic goals, including financial sustainability, service excellence and regional leadership. Most recently, the 2015 2016 adopted budget ordinance contains a proviso requiring the transmittal and acceptance by Council of a Regional Animal Services Financial Sustainability Report, identifying principles and strategies for the next ILEY. Contract negotiations that include how to lead the county closer to full cost recovery and decrease reliance on the general fund in terms of status. The executive transmitted the Financial Sustainability Report in the motion to accept the report to Council on February 22nd. The proposed motion, 2016 Dash 0138 received a do pass consent recommendation on March 22nd from the Government Accountability and Oversight Committee and is currently scheduled for possible action by the full Council at its April 4th meeting. So next Monday. Lastly, as noted earlier, the current ilay is expire at the end of 2017. Early discussions with partner cities regarding a new lay have begun and the contract negotiations process will continue into 2017 until a new agreement is finalized. A list of anticipated negotiation milestones is actually located on page 88 of your packet. The Financial Sustainability Report, submitted in response to the 2015 2016 budget proviso outlines principles and strategies in preparation for upcoming Interlocal agreements. Contract negotiations organized in alignment with the three Strategic Operational Goals identified in the 2014 Operational Strategic Plan. Examples of negotiation principles and strategies RATHKE has identified and intends to follow include reducing costs to the County General Fund on an ongoing basis, providing equity and social justice support to areas needing it while working with all partners to improve animal licensure rates. Maintaining or improving the quality of animal outcomes currently achieved by Rusk. Maintaining or improving service levels for public and contract partners, including additional cities, ensuring outcomes in services are maintained and cost impacts can be mitigated, utilizing other facilities to enhance effectiveness, efficiency or capacity of animal care and sheltering in the county. Simplifying the cost allocation model. Allocating county funded credits to mitigate impacts to changes in the allocation model, particularly for jurisdictions below the average county median income levels, using revenue from any jurisdiction in excess of their cost to offset the county's general fund or those outside of the model expenses. Working to ensure equity of service in an animal care is provided across the county, working to ensure all participating cities remain in the model and actively engaging the county and all 25 partner cities in the negotiations process. With that, that concludes my staff overview. If there are no questions at this time, I would again like to introduce Norm, Jean and Sean and pass the microphone over to them for the next part of today's briefing. Thank you. Okay. But I have a question for you before we move on. Miranda, is this your first formal presentation before the council and still in. Single digits, so still. Relatively do as the first one I've heard and I'm very impressed. So welcome to our team. Thank you so much. Would you like to begin? Yes. So a normal director of records and licensing services. I'm just going to speak for a few minutes about the benefits of a regional program. We have lots of discussions with our partners and policymakers. About the financing. And about the service. And you'll hear a little bit more about those two topics from Jean and Sean. But in discussion with our partners, they've encouraged us. In collaboration with them. We've focused on some salient benefits of having a regional program because it's easy to lose track of those kinds of things. So the equity and social justice piece that Miranda spoke to, I think it's important and valuable for the county to make sure that the same care and level of service are provided in lower income county areas as well as in higher income areas. And that's what Regional Animal Services Program affords us. The centralization aspect can't probably be overlooked either from a citizen's perspective. Having one place to go to look for a lost. Animal or. Contact a centralized database instead of having 25 different areas to have to go contact. And then I think a big thing that our jurisdictions appreciate is we are organized and set up and have the expertize to be a single point of contact, whether it's for animal advocacy groups, media, public disclosure requests, legal issues. We handle all that both for our unincorporated and our partners. So those are and I think similarly working with one entity, the public health has us to work with and set up a bifurcated network. So I think those things are easy to get lost are not as tangible. So a lot of the things are and we want to make sure that those are in the forefront of your minds and our partner minds as we move forward in our negotiations, because they they provide value to the county. And value to our partners. So I think. He is going to touch a little deeper dove on the three service areas, the field licensing and shelter. Chantal touched briefly on the funding and three payments. And I'll close with some timelines on our local agreement negotiations. I'll turn over Gene. Madam Chair, council members, thank you for your time. My name is Dr. Jean Mueller. I'm a veterinarian that has the honor of working for all the people at Regional Animal Services. I'd like to briefly touch on some of the questions that were raised as we worked with Miranda on the report. We wanted to talk about field service and how the distribution of calls the creation of districts. We have between 5006 thousand requests for service each year that come into our call center, distributed throughout the RASP jurisdiction. We have three districts, District 200, which is far north District to 20, which essentially runs the 90 corridor and District 500 . The largest is South King County. We typically have four animal control officers that are distributed in those those districts. And essentially those districts were created with the help of the Joint City County Collaboration Committee, so that they were in approximately equal number of calls in those districts over the course of a year, with District 500 essentially having twice as many and having to call to animal control officers in it. There was a question regarding how are the service calls prioritized? And again, this was part of the discussion with our contract city partners and with their help, we created these priority levels where animal control officers who are receiving this information over the airwaves to their their trucks on their computers can see calls that have the highest priority. They're responding to police and fire assistance, individuals who may be threatened by animals. And there's been a serious bite or injured animals. And we make those our priority to go through the district and get to those locations as soon as possible. There was a question that was raised about how does Rasp respond to exotic animal calls? We do pick up exotic animals, reptiles, small mammals, and it can be for public safety with reptiles or animal welfare, small mammals and birds that may be out at large as well. We do receive calls and make referrals regarding our native wildlife and we work closely with the Washington State Fish and Wildlife to respond regarding bears, coyotes and their native waterfowl for our shelter. We're very, very proud of the work that all of the employees of regional animal services do each day helping animals. We're proud to have worked over the course of this last ten years with the assistance of counsel in the direction to improve outcomes. So we are focused on high positive outcomes from our animal shelter. One of the questions that had been posed is how is the euthanasia rate calculated? And that is for dogs and cats only. That's typically what is included in shelter statistics regarding euthanasia. It's a total dogs and cats euthanized over the total live dogs and cats handled in the shelter. It excludes deceased animals, animals that were hit by a car that were brought in deceased. There was a question whether there's an alternative calculation possible. And it is not unusual for animal shelters to remove owner requested euthanasia from their their calculations. We do include it and we feel that it is important for us to continue assessing animals that are brought to us for their viability and being replaced into a home. So just because you bring us an animal for euthanasia, you will sign it over to us and we'll gladly accept that animal. Our veterinarians, our staff members will assess the health and behavior of that animal, and often we can redirect to another resource. All Dog Haven is a wonderful rescue that we have a partnership with so they can help with elderly animals. Sometimes it's a medical issue and we can help with our benefit. Bequest fund donation funds largely funded through donations from our. Employees through the employee giving program as well as are wonderful individuals who license their beds as well can give donations. And that's the money that helps those animals that have additional extraordinary medical needs. And we place those animals into homes. To me, it's w and that was a question, too, that I had on that. Go ahead. Oh, it's just a question, first of all. As well, I just want to make a comment. As the executive casting mentioned yesterday in a state of the county speech, work on euthanasia rates going down. It's just incredible. I remember when we had, you know, Councilman Patterson was pushing this issue. We were around 40%. And I was really obviously, you're never going to vote against a no kill policy for pets, but I'm like, what are the costs? And is this realistic? And you know, what's going to happen and what do you know? About 13%, 14%. So currently we're at 12%, including owner euthanasia. That's just awesome. I mean, you don't get a lot of good news up here, but that is one of them. And I just think you guys are doing such a great job, so stay with it. I want to make that call. Thank you. I'm glad you did. And, you know, having been down there and seen, you know, the radios on with certain kinds of music and certain kinds of places, so that certain kind of animals are happier and are. But latest research that I've used to pick out which animal likes which music, it was just like, Oh my gosh, this is really wonderful, but your story is even better than 12% because, you know, there's a percentage of that that are dogs that are at the end of their use, end of their life, or, you know, eventually people get old and dogs get old. So, you know, I think it would be a good idea maybe to pull out, you know, which are the animals that people brought in and said, this animal is just too old now and has all these medical problems about humane anymore? And then do you ever have anybody that brings a dog in that you know, that they say, you know, this dog's got 47 things wrong with it and it's humane at this point to just let it go to sleep. And then you say, oh, no, no, we're going to take it anyway to a haven. How often does that happen? We can actually go through the data and show the number of intakes that we had for owner requested euthanasia and then the number that we actually fulfill that request and I can send that to your office. It's not that unusual for us to be able to assist with an animal that maybe has a chronic medical disease and someone doesn't have the financial wherewithal or an animal that is brought to us by a state an individual has passed and the guardian of the estate brings us the animal with the thought of, you know, this cat's really been a great friend to my mom, but now that mom's passed, you know, maybe it's just time we're able to have the conversation with them, be open and transparent about will evaluate this. And if our veterinarians agree, we'd be happy to fulfill that request. But we do have the possibility of placing this with one of our our great rescues meow cat rescue all dog haven. We work very closely with Paws in Lynnwood as well as Seattle Humane. There's a whole network that we're engaged with to try and help animals for the best. And as a veterinarian, I certainly recognize that are animals that it is most humane to humanely put to sleep. But animals that we can help. We will help. Would you let the owner know that then? You know that we've evaluated and we don't think the dog is that sick and so we are going to put it out. And then if the person said, well, if they don't, it's not really that sick, then I want it back. Absolutely. And they can come back and adopt. And typically we let them opt in for that type of information. They can call for a confirmation of what the disposition is or or if they want to refer. You know, my mom's best friend was really interested in Lucy the cat. We'd be happy to work with them. So we're interested in getting the animal out alive. Okay. Thank you. I just want to congratulate you on your 12%. That's quite an accomplishment. Thank you. It's probably one of the highest in the country, isn't it? What? We looked at some 2013 data for public animal control organizations in Washoe County in Nevada is at a 93% live release rate and worried about 88%. So we have more that we can do and more that we can learn and will continue to do that. We're interested in being as progressive and transparent as we can be, and I want to thank the Council for having the vision seven or eight years ago to redirect. The activity of the organization. The employees have always wanted to help the animals and we have with continuous improvement and lean thought and the empowerment from council been able to turn them loose to help animals. And we thank you for that. Thank you. We have lots and lots of partnerships, particularly with the shelter. We have Pima Medical Institute, which is onsite training veterinary technicians using our shelter animals as practical subjects for their bandaging and drawing bloods. We work with so many nonprofits South Basado, Safe Haven, Northwest Spay Neuter Clinic for providing public spay neuter at reduced cost. We work with South County Cats, Puget Sound working cats, feral cat assistance and trapping for helping our community cats and feral cats out in the communities. We work with several emergency veterinary hospitals who will accept stray animals and injured animals after hours or during the day so that those animals can get care. And our residents have a resource to place those animals. We work with organized veterinary medicine, the Puget Sound Battery Medical Association, the Washington Federation of Animal Care and Control Agencies, whole cat and kaboodle, and Redmond, who helps us with specialized cat adoption location, being able to adopt out special needs animals. Animals that may have lost a limb because of a traumatic incident with a car or other medical issues. And they help us place those animals at no additional cost to the county. It's a fantastic opportunity. As many of you know, we have the offsite adoption location in Kirkland at the Petco, where we're doing between 20 and 25% of our adoptions in the north cities rather than just located down in Kent, which is a great opportunity both for adoptions and for volunteers who want to help animals be able to have another location where they can help. We also had some information requested regarding the shelter and improvements to enhance animal comfort. And because of the support of council, we've been able to resurface all the dog kennel floors and walls for greater sanitation. We replaced most of the chain link kennel doors with tempered glass and opaque barriers to reduce lunging and cage fighting and reduced barking. It's better isolation for the animals, and we've replaced all of the floor heating elements in the dog kennels so the dogs can make a decision about how warm or cool they would like to be by choosing which area of the kennel that they're in. We contract for sanitized towels so all of the animals have clean and sanitary bedding. We've created an additional cat colony room where the volunteer and staff have gotten together to fundraise and they've created a patio, which is an outdoor enclosure that allows the cats to make the choice to go outside and enjoy some of the, you know , the sun and fresh air and the beauty of the green space behind. Regional animal services down in Kent. We continually ask staff, how do we do better? We continually ask our community partners, how can we do better? How can we do more? How can we help you do more so that we have this safety net for animals that we're very, very proud of in King County? And I couldn't be more pleased to be someplace helping animals than right here. Thank you. I'm sure the listening audience has a pretty good clue of how we got so much better we hired you. So thank you very much for the enthusiasm and the expertize that you've brought and the changes that you've brought. Thank you, Madam Chair. Shawn Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the committee. My name is John Boffa, acting deputy director of Rolls by Day and finance manager by night. It's always hard to follow, Jeanne. Very impressive. And now I get to talk about the boring things like numbers. But King County Regional Animal Services operates on an annual budget of $7 million. We have an inner local agreement with our 25 cities where we negotiated a cost allocate cost allocation methodology that that allocates costs based on usage and population. 20% use 20% population and 80% usage. Our cities are allocated in the aggregate 3.7 million or about 70% of those costs. Unincorporated King County, about 30% of those costs. In addition, the allocation methodology includes the opportunity to offset those costs using pet licensing that comes from each of the jurisdictions. So the cities have about 70% of the licensing revenue, and that offsets their costs. And the county has the remaining 30% of those revenues, and that offsets our costs for cities in the allocation methodology as part of the negotiation process. There were certain cities that had a very high intake, particularly above the average intake per capita within the program. And for those cities to help them continue to participate within the RASK program and benefit from all of the great work that we do, we included what we call credits within the the or the cost allocation that offset those costs. Those credits are funded from the King County General Fund. They represent about $900,000. And those go directly to offset the cost for mostly South End cities to participate in the program. And then we also have a licensing support program that allows us to work with those cities who are requesting additional support to increase their licensing compliance by additional marketing efforts where they get the benefit of increased licensure. We get the benefit of reimbursement from the initial fees gained from that additional licensing sale, and then they get the benefit of any residual licensing revenue beyond that and they get the renewals and in the following years. Okay. So I have some questions about what you're just saying. That's okay. Sure. So I'm looking at page 86. And when we're talking about 30% of the unincorporated area being charged, there's only 250. Well, now there's only 200,000 people in the unincorporated area. And in these 25 cities, I'm guessing there's probably 1,000,005. So how did you come up with a third of the cost or almost a third of the cost going to the unincorporated area? One that's probably not a third of the call volume or a third of the population. That's a very good question. In specific numbers, unincorporated King County represents 24% of the million ten residents within the RASK program. Our usage, however, is about a third in terms of both calls for service in the field, intakes into the shelter and licenses issued. And those are the three usage sort of bases that we use for cost allocation on the usage side. So our usage is higher on a per capita basis than than some other cities. In an appropriate area. That surprises me. Okay. Because when I saw the data before it, it was South County and the data was much smaller in East County. So this is this is different then. Okay. That's that's good. And then you're talking about the credits and going to South County. But then in the original contract, which was 2012, I remember correctly, there were several cities that were given stipends to stay in in the new contract. Are we going to be paying cities to stay in or are services so good now? We don't have to do that anymore. Madam Chair, I believe what you were referring to is our licensing support in the hand service, and particularly with City of Bellevue and Kirkland, where again, we could do additional marketing. We were provided within the EYLEA guarantee up to essentially what we had as a goal within the first couple of years. We we easily met that goal. We anticipated that we would easily meet that goal and then continued to provide the licensing support where the revenues derived from the additional work within those cities pays for the cost of that work. So the cities, those two cities in particular are benefiting from licensing support, but we're not giving them any sort of credit or offset associated with that. Okay. So then so there was more cities than those two. There's a whole bunch of cities. There were more cities. There are, I think, nine cities to begin with. The remaining cities were essentially South End cities. Some of those cities have come and gone in terms of licensing support. It's an annual request that they have to make at this point. All of those other cities, all of the cities they're doing, I think there are seven currently. They have to elect to receive licensing support. We identify an estimated amount of revenue that they want to receive from that licensing support. We determine what it will cost us to achieve that support and then they agree to it when we do the reconciliation. We recover our costs out of that additional licensing revenue that they've received before we finalize the cost allocation for reconciliation. So for me, and it may be different for other people, but I don't think we should be paying any city to to take our services. If they're taking our services, we shouldn't be paying them to stay part of the team anymore. So that was difficult for me to vote for in 2012. So I it will be more difficult if that's in the next contract. Okay. Please proceed. That actually that was okay. Anybody have any questions about the contracts? Remember? So I'm a little new and the information that I have about animal control is either very old back from when I used to negotiate your contracts or very, very news. I apologize that there's a gap in there. Right. And I'm really impressed with the things I'm hearing about services and sort of the innovative things that you're doing and trying to do. What I hear about in my district when I talk to the cities about animal control is that they have a hard time justifying continuing to contract for the service because it's regional it's a regional service and it works better as a regional service, but it's not a mandatory county service. So these counties, the cities all have an option and they can decide to go in with other cities, they can do their own. And so they do look at this in dollars and cents terms. They look at it as, here's the amount of service that I use and here's the amount that I pay. And they see other cities paying and using more service. And, you know, and they may do that calculation. They do that balancing. And that is the challenge that we are going to see in District six jurisdictions that are seeing that they are paying more for a service than they feel they could pay if they bought it for themselves another way. And that's just a reality. And so we have to deal with that reality. And I know that you are working on dealing with that reality because if you don't, then you have this sort of circling the drain effect where you have people wanting to do things differently and then it becomes more expensive to provide the base services to the folks who remain in the system. So know that I will be looking for ways to support us to, you know, maintain the regional system. But this is just a really it's just a real challenge that we have. I know if anybody wants to speak to that, but I want to lay it out there for you. Councilmember Balaji, thank you. I think in part we addressed that in the 2012 negotiations for the current ALA. Prior to 2012, the cost allocation methodology was 50% based on population and 50% based on usage. And so given the issues and the interests that you just raised, we worked with the cities to reduce down the population component to 20% and usage to 80%, which I think went a long way to addressing that concern. And if I may center allowed that at that time, also from from the cities perspective, because that's where I was at the time, I think it was really helpful to ask the question whether the service, the alternate services they were considering were were realistic. There's some some offers and some promises that were being made that just had never been tested and looked on the face of them like they might not really pan out that way. And so I think it's hard to do because you don't want to criticize agencies that are out working for animal welfare. I mean, it's a it's a common goal that we share. But you do want to make sure that people are aware of really what it takes to do this kind of function. And we had a similar discussion around district court, frankly, where the cities had to ask themselves, do we really know what it takes to start up and run a municipal court? And some do and some don't. And so ultimately, the things being close to equal, you go with a known quantity. If things are way off equal, then you might want to be willing to take a chance and try to do it yourself. So thank you for that additional information as I just want to share. Back when I was working with Animal Control, this was man over ten years ago now we were talking to the the union about whether they would even allow volunteers and to see where the volunteer program has come with support and working together with the staff . And you talked about them working to fundraise together. That's just that's a really great news story because we've come a long, long way from those days where people saw volunteers as a threat. Now they see them as a partner. That's fantastic. Thank you. And a yard where you can take the dog or cat out and play in the yard is really fun and gives you good exercise. Councilmember Dombroski, they. Came out chair and this is my questions are kind of along the lines of yours and councilmember about duties. And I want to begin by first saying that I've adopted a cat years ago from the shelters and it comes from my duty. And I were up here sharing cat photos. Well, not to be competitive, but I have to look and cuter. So it's, you know, what the work and the mission of your organization is dear to many people's hearts, but so are a lot of county functions. And so I think the scrutiny that I'm interested in applying to the general fund subsidy of $5.26 million for the biennium, we got to be comfortable that this is the right thing to do and the best thing to do with those dollars compared to all of our other general fund demands. And, you know, we'll have that discussion this fall. And this is sort of a predicate to it and the work that you've done up to now as a predicate. And so the more information and you're talking in very specific, very specific language there, you know, licensing support, that kind of stuff. And I confess I don't understand it yet, but I would be interested in in getting some data on the trend of the general fund subsidy. And I think that's what it is as we've adopted a policy of no kill and having a regional service system here, and we've achieved some some very good objectives there. But at what cost? And I want to combine the achieving of the actives with the cost we're paying, because I think that general fund subsidy is helping us achieve those objectives. And so you don't have to provide it today. But I would be interested in a, you know, a four or five, six year, whatever the appropriate time on the trend line is on the general fund support. I'd also be interested in some jurisdictional specific data. I have the cities of Kenmore, Kirkland Lake, Forest Park. I share Kirkland with a representation of Kirkland with Councilmember Doug Shoreline and Woodinville. Councilman Robert Belushi has some Woodinville as well. But I would be interested. And and. Kind of understanding the financial model that those cities in my district are looking at in terms of payment in, services out, because that's an issue of conversation. I like Councilmember Dutchie Eldridge has with her, as I have with mine. So that would be that would be helpful. Finally, just a question. I've heard some in the presentation, a discussion about fund raising. And this is an area that a topic that generates a lot of, I think, private philanthropy and I see it here, I guess, as a $280,000 is is on the chart on page 86. Is that the extent of kind of private fundraising or is that something else that's a that's a biennial number and it represents the donations that we receive through a variety of different sources, in part the employee giving campaign. But in large part actually it's the few dollars that are added on to purchasing a pet license where that comes in from and it represents we have considerable growth with respect to that and I think in part it's a reflection of all the great work that Rask does, but that number is on an annual basis. In 2015, I believe it was 157,000 in donations. Is that an area where you see potential for enhancement in terms of revenue from private philanthropy and so on? It is in a way to offset some of the otherwise applicable costs or an outcome of cost is or is is. This is if I can not share just on a different but related issue is this what is the public health? I heard it mentioned what's the public health nexus that many of us here serve over on the Board of Health? Is there a public health nexus with this function that falls within the jurisdiction of the Board of Health? We work very closely with Dr. Beth Lipton. We deal with zoonotic disease issues or novel novel animal diseases. Canine influenza was recently diagnosed. It certainly was a big epizootics in Chicago, then Atlanta, then Houston, etc.. And with Dr. Lipton's assistance and our engagement with organized battery medicine, we've been essentially creating an active surveillance network. And it was actually identified for the first time down in a boarding kennel in Kent, and Dr. Lipton was apprized of that. They're the entity that licenses dog kennels, categories, things of that nature. And that was shared with us. It was particularly important for us to let both our shelter staff about a mile away from the location where it was originally identified, as well as all of the regional shelters, to become aware that the concerning canine influenza had been identified. And quite frankly, from my perspective as a veterinarian, as someone trained in epidemiology, it was that early warning notification, the engagement with public health and Dr. Lipton that got the information out that we have not had a much larger epizootics here in King County or the state of Washington. And I do recall the discussions over the last couple of years about the rabies issue and the research that the department did and proposals considered with respect to kind of licensing around that I might be interested in. Yeah, and I guess our licensing angle, we kind of have we kind of have a user pays system somewhat, we have them, but we also blend and support that with general fund, meaning everybody pays. And I guess some interesting thing about the right balance and whether or not there aren't other user pays revenue mechanisms that we could seek out, much like you were trying to do what we are trying to do with the licensing program. But you know, this industry, you can you can you know which products support it and which in terms of pet foods and things like that. And I just wonder if there's in a way within existing authority to obtain some revenue to support your mission or from a more targeted audience. We have to talk to you about that offline. You're great. Thank you. Council Member So this is an animal control is always a topic that has great input and response because it is so important. So we're thankful that things have changed so much in a positive way. But as Mr.. Yes, okay. As Mr. Zuckerberg said, when other municipalities were starting to look at going off on their own, they weren't including all the costs, none, the least of which was dealing with freedom of information requests, which can be unbelievable. So having it all the costs is a really important thing. So I think one of the things that I'm hearing is response times. Do we keep response times? Data. So we could tell that in each of the three zones, this is your average response time. Exactly. We do run reports and it's actually shared with the 25 cities about their jurisdiction alone. So, yes, we keep all of that. We track that month to month. Okay. I would like to ask you about one particular city's response times. Okay. I'll do that offline. And then lastly, you know that I absolutely hate the CANVASING program out in the unincorporated area. We're not used to having people walking around that we don't know and looking in windows and other things which they're not supposed to do . But I get phone calls on a regular basis. The canvasing man was doing X, Y or Z, all of which is not supposed to be happening. But I get enough phone calls that drives me crazy. So I think that if we could have some other marketing tools besides that, the unincorporated area that would make this councilmember a whole lot happier because that's where I get most of my complaints. Councilmember Colwell. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you all for your very enlightening information to be new at the County Council. I have a kind of a related issue, but nothing directly specific to what you brought up when I was in the legislature. Several years ago, I worked on legislation for about three years pertaining to what the state county's local jurisdictions can do about puppy mills and kitten mills. I'm sure you know what we're talking about. And the issue was brought to me by two middle school students in Ballard, and they worked so hard every year, and it actually turned out to be very difficult legislation to get enacted. But we did and it provided a lot of information and rules state in the state works to the local jurisdictions. Now, that wasn't mentioned here. I'm just wondering if if we really succeeded in what we had enacted at the state level or if you or your officers are seeing any of that going on now? It's very, very heartbreaking when it does come up. I thank you very much, Councilmember. We have in King County one of the lowest shelter euthanasia rates in the country. And part of that is limiting unfettered reproduction. And we we have a limited number of kennels. There's one licensed dog kennel in the the in King County that has puppies and kittens available. We have one pet store that we're aware of that actually sells puppies from neighborhood breeders rather than puppy mills. So we're fortunate in limiting the access and maximizing the use of shelters and rescues to save animals lives. The biggest intake to the county for new animals are rescues, bringing them from areas of high euthanasia. Western watch excuse me, eastern Washington, Western California and Northern California. And bringing them to our area to nurture and to place for adoption. Myself as a member of the Washington Federation of Animal Care and Control Agencies. We're interested in expanding the model, the concepts from King County to our bordering counties and then eastern Washington to help all of the animals in the state of Washington. And your your legislation absolutely has impacted the the source of animals from being breeding for profit to rescuing animals that are in the shelter system. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for that good work both at the state level and here. Thank you. So I appreciate your hard work and thank you for being with us today. And our last item has two parts to it. And we are going this is the overview, the chance, the convention place center. But I think we're going to hold it until next week. But well, we have Mr. Hamacher here. The second part of that is very important. We want to thank your mother for the hard work she did X number of years ago on this day, 37 years ago. I wasn't going to ask that she feels like it was longer or you feel like it was longer. Okay. So at this point, I'd like to wish Mr. Hamacher a very happy birthday and part of your birthday present as you get to go back to your office and put your feet up for 30 seconds. Thank you. Happy birthday. But that the yes. The central agenda in which. Are we to care that earlier it was held over because some amendments have to be done on it? Yes. Thank you. I was going to give a quick report on local government. Some very significant things have happened in the last couple of weeks that I need to let you all know about. But I'll let you know at the next meeting and the judge interviews. We will know the data on how many tomorrow. So I will be contacting you tomorrow. It looks like next week we will need to plan interviews and then be able to figure out how we're going to get our schedule done this month as requested as opposed to next month. So at that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.	AN ORDINANCE extending the required completion date for final report of the task force to make recommendations on the creation of a King County immigrant and refugee commission; and amending Ordinance 18085, Section 3.
king_c73ef801-5577-4ff6-a898-4b15fd0e088b	The May 1920. Members of the committee of the whole order said today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional ends of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We want to thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I would also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians. Who. Have brought their cultural ways of life here in our community. Today, we'll have our usual as much as anything in a pandemic as usual. Our usual update from executive staff on the county's pandemic response will then get a preliminary briefing on an ordinance ordinance that would place a capital improvement bond on the November ballot that would be directed towards health and safety improvements at the Harborview Medical Center. Following that, we'll take up a proposed ordinance that would set rates and charges related to a sewer disposal that would go into effect in 2021. In light of our public health emergency, Governor Inslee has issued an emergency order suspending this section of the Open Public Meetings Act that requires that we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. This order has been extended by the governor and leadership of the House and Senate with us while meeting remotely in this fashion. We are limited in the matters that we can take up to those that are necessary, in routine or necessary to respond to the COVID 19 outbreak and the current public health emergency. The matter is on the agenda for brief interaction today have been determined to meet these criteria. One final housekeeping note as we get started to manage the meeting, I'd ask the public as well as executive and council staff, please keep the video off until just before you plan to speak with that. It asked the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Gallucci there. Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Council member done. Here. Council member. Cole Wells. Eric. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember Lambert is waving. And. We can unmute her on our end. Councilmember of the grove here, Councilmember Yvonne. Mike are. Here. Council members are high. Dear Mr. Chair. Chair and Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember Lambert. I can monitor my own off and on, so please do keep me muted. That was like I. Yeah, I actually didn't do anything, so I don't know what happened. Thank you. Thank you. We have everybody present and entertain a motion to approve the minutes of our last meeting from May 5th, 2020. So again. Remember that Councilmember Dennis move? We approved the minutes of our previous meeting, seeing no discussion. All those in favor, please think the scene eye. I. I. I. Those opposed nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved or through public comment. Madam Quirk, do we have we have people who are on the line wishing to provide public comment, correct? Yes, you do, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Having an entirely remote meeting is a is unusual for the King County Council. And I want to be sure that everyone who is called in understands our procedure for how we will manage public comment. First, some ground rules. As usual, public comment should be related items on today's meeting. The agenda may not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. It must also not include it also must not include obscene speech. If a speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, they can be ruled out of order in a testimony concluded now. Now, to move to the process, as all members of the public joined in the meeting, they were automatically muted. We can see your names or the last three digits of your telephone number. Our committee clerk will call the names and numbers for those who have signed up in advance for public comment and or on the line that we don't know to be staff. When your name or three digits, the last three digits of your phone number is called, staff will unmute your line. Please make sure that you are also unmuted if you have muted your phone. And before you begin your testimony, say your name so we can acknowledge that we hear you. And then we'll ask you to spell, say and spell your name so we can have it accurate in the record. You'll have 2 minutes to speak and you'll hear a timer go off and you've reached your 2 minutes. By all means, finish your thought. But we will ask you to wrap up your comments to allow the next person to speak, if you can, much past 2 minutes, maybe muted and ruled out of order. If you're listening to the TV or streaming the meeting, please turn that function off when you're providing testimony so there's not feedback . And once we conclude once you conclude your time, we would invite you to monitor the rest of the meeting, either through QC, TV, community television or streaming online on the Council's website in order to be able to better manage the Zoom call with fewer participants. With that, I'll turn it over to the clerk to seek public comment and clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first caller is Clayton Lewis. Go ahead, Mr. Lewis. You are muted. Good afternoon. Clayton Lewis. Clay. Why? Tone and Lewis let us. So I'm here today representing the Harbor View Board of Trustees on that matter, before you and I wanted to share that the proposal before you has the unanimous and very strong support of the board. We'd like to express special thanks to Councilmember McDermott and Council member Tim Boesky for the countless hours they invested as members of the Harder Harborview Leadership Group. Their leadership and insights were critical in developing this proposal, and I doubt that I'm very honored to be a councilmember. McDermott appointed of trustees. Steve, what's become painfully obvious over the past few weeks, there could not be a more important time to make an investment in the medical center, as each of you has seen firsthand. The medical center's facilities are outdated in terms of modern practices for infection control and privacy, and the older buildings on campus would pose a life safety risk during a major earthquake. In addition, given that Harborview typically operates at close to 100% occupancy, we have virtually no capacity to surge in response to an emergency, be it a pandemic, manmade or natural disaster. As I spend time out in the community talking with the residents of King County, I continually hear that they're very proud of Harborview, and it gives them peace of mind because they know Harborview is there in case they or a member of their family has an emergency. Harborview is there to respond to disasters or mass casualty events. And they take great pride and are serving the vulnerable residents of the county and the mission population. It was impressive to watch the Harborview Leadership Group work for over a year on thoughtfully developing this proposal. And what I personally found most striking was that this very diverse group of stakeholders reached 100% consensus on the recommendations before you this trustees, we very much appreciate the partnership we have with the Council, the executive and the stakeholders from across the community to develop this proposal and Council Chair about the future. We appreciate your consideration of moving this forward. This proposal provides the critical investment required for Harborview to continue to serve the residents of King County going forward for decades to come. We appreciate your consideration. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. And we're happy to have arranged to have this meeting online so you didn't have to try to get out of West Seattle. I'm sorry, Mr.. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our next caller is Lindsay Greg. Go ahead, Mr. Greg. You are on muted. Thank you. This is Lindsey Grodd and DCI Grady. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And council members. I'm happy to be speaking with you this afternoon. Mr. Lewis immediately before me, did a great job of laying out the broad stakeholders and the alignment that we found in more than a year's worth of work trying to assess the needs of our community. I can only say that as we're undertaking the strange times due to COVID 19, it feels really good to be part of a community that took that methodical time to plan for our future means. And when it comes to behavioral health, public health surgery and trauma or emergency preparedness, our community truly does need the measures that were recommended in this bond levy. We have a chance today to together take action to ensure that no matter what befalls individual families or community members or our region as a whole, that we will have a public mission oriented health care system that's there when we need it, whether it is a young child who suffered tremendous burns, whether it's people who need to be airlifted into our community from across. The state, across. The region or even other states. Harborview is there. We need to make sure that it's seismically sound. We need to make sure that it has a building and a campus that actually provides for the most medically sound way of delivering care rather than an outdated model. And we need to make sure that we're delivering truly integrated care and planning for the workforce of the future so that that's what our union believes we accomplished in this project, together with stakeholders from Harborview, from UW and from the community. And we strongly urge this council to look at this great product. And we we hope that you will recommend it to the ballot. Thank you. Thank thank you, Ms.. Crabtree. Appreciate the work that your members do in our review every day to make it the outstanding center that it is. And a great. You didn't have to leave Seattle either, Ms.. Daly. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our next caller is Nicole Grant. Go ahead, Ms.. Grant. You are muted. Thank you. Council chair and all council members. Nicole Grant and ic0ejr and t. And I'm pleased to be communicating with you all today about how strongly the Labor community values the remodel of Harbor View. I cannot think of a more relevant or timely project, and I cannot think of one that has a greater unity of purpose from the labor movement. We are committed to supporting the project through to the end and ask you for your support today as well. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Grant. Our next caller is Monty Anderson. Go ahead, Mr. Anderson, you are a Newton. Monty Anderson. Mr. Anderson, you are a muted, if you like, to comment. Yes. Is that work? Yes. Thank you very much. Go ahead. Great bunch. M.A., Anderson, A&E, E.R.. So when I talk to People Valley Highway here, so I don't have to cross the West Seattle Bridge so I could testify today. I want to let everybody know, I think that where the building trade stands on this kind of issue. King County has been at the forefront of community hire. This job would be covered under the treaty higher. That means the most vulnerable men and women here in King County will have an opportunity to work at a facility, build a facility, first class facility, get middle class wages and benefits. It's going to lift all boats here in the community and it couldn't be stronger behind it. And I appreciate all the hard work you're doing. I know these meetings are tough to put together. I'm on a lot of these things and I just want that, you know, King County is doing an excellent job. And we appreciate all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, Mr. Chair. I believe I've called everyone on the line. All right. Now, would you please unmute every everyone on the call for a moment, please? Everyone is now on mute in a chair. Thank you. At the risk of being chaotic, if you're on the line now and haven't had a chance to offer testimony and wish to, if you please say your name and I'll take a list. During No one. Having no one. So I'll close public comment. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Ms.. Grant, we look. That takes us to item five. The first business item on our agenda is to have a presentation from Dwight David, the director of the Department of Performance, Strategy and Budget, to give us an update on the county's pandemic response. And Mr. David, I'm sure, titled The Line is Yours. Thank you. Pleasure to be here, as we seem to be doing now every week or every two weeks. So I had six things that I thought I would share this morning or this afternoon. I think they'll go pretty quickly. There's bits and pieces of good news, but there fortunately is a lot of bad news. And what I need to share with you. So let me start with number one, which is an update on the general fund financial situation. So I believe, as we all have discussed previously, that, you know, that our budget gap for the 2122 biennial budget for the general fund is about $150 million. That is still obviously a very early estimate. It could get worse. It could get a little bit better. There are some ways to help cover that significantly, including the rent for the right of way that the county council approved several years ago that the state Supreme Court upheld fairly recently. We have not counted revenue from that against that number. So that would probably be significant. Tens of millions of dollars of reduction to that number depending on the choices that the executive and council make about using that money. But having said that, even the things that are relatively painless are only going to be a relatively small portion of that total. So later this week or early next week, we will be sending out budget reduction targets to the internal service agencies such as KKR and FMD and to the general fund overhead agencies such as Department of Human Resources, so that they can start thinking about ways they could potentially reduce their budgets. And then probably at the end of next week or early the following week, for all the direct general fund departments so that criminal justice agencies, for example, elections and the assessor's office, we will be sending them their targets as well. I just conceptually and this is not to say that this is exactly what we're going to do. We are looking at something like 5% in 2021 and another 5% in 2022. We want to have a strategy where we try to phase this in as much as we reasonably can, given the high degree of uncertainty about the economic forecast, about what the legislature might do, etc.. So just to give you a sense of order of magnitude, that's what we are looking at at this point. So I will pause here to see if there are any questions about the general fund situation and the current approach we are taking. Colleagues. Of the three. Councilmember Belge taking care of doing. Good to see you. I wonder if you all are looking at capital differently than operating at all. There is some value, as we were just hearing in public comment, to keep capital programs going, not just to maintain the things that we need to maintain, but also to provide stimulus in jobs. And so. Is that something that you're looking at? Yeah, and it obviously varies councilmember by fund. So we are very much hoping that in DRP, with particularly wastewater and solid waste, we can keep going with those capital projects that are in the pipeline. We don't have a large capital program and roads, but we're hoping to do the same thing there. I think in Metro it will be inevitable that we're going to have to reduce the capital programs that we had expected. I think everyone knows. Our plan had been to very substantially ramp up Metro's capital program, and that just doesn't seem possible given their fiscal situation. So we're probably not cutting much there, but we're not growing it in the way we had hoped to in the general fund. There really aren't very many capital projects because we can't afford the debt service on on the projects. We do have our major maintenance projects in the facilities management division and we will be looking carefully at those probably more and looking to see that whatever we've appropriated actually can get spent on schedule. So one of the more general things we're doing is we're looking at moneys that have already been appropriated and in some cases we may be able to recapture those because it doesn't appear that the project will actually proceed on the schedule we had originally assumed. So yeah, we are in at least some areas looking at capital different than operating. Of the growth and number of the growth. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hi, Dwight. Kind of along the lines of capital, but a little bit different. Do you see a scenario given what's on the horizon where we might. Is an approach that we normally wouldn't, which is using one time funds to fill an ongoing hole. In other words, borrow money to meet next year's expenditures, you know, using bonding as a tool to. Close some of that gap. So let's let's just focus on the general fund. I think I would say. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, let's set aside for a moment the potential that the federal government will come in with significant support. If that happens, that's great. But let's set that aside for a moment. I think it was very likely we will be using one time money to help balance the 2122 budget for the General Fund for Metro and for MID. And that's really using the reserves that were built up in the good times to help us through some of the bad times we have in. For example, in many funds we have something we colloquially call a rainy day fund. I think most of us would agree it's raining pretty hard right now, so I think we'll be using reserves on that basis. Our policies would basically forbid us from borrowing money to cover our operating costs. It would be extremely difficult to go to the market to actually do that. So I don't foresee recommending, nor do I actually think it's realistic to assume we could borrow money for operating costs. What I think is worth a conversation, particularly if we had a belief that we might get a new revenue source relatively soon, we might think about borrowing for capital investment and the job creation that it brings. You know, very similarly to the idea of the Harborview Bond issue, where we might be looking to expand capital programs with the expectation that we would have a future revenue source that we could use to pay the debt service. That's an area that I think I know the executive is interested in, and I think we should explore in more detail and thanks. And don't take my question to be a recommendation by any means. Oh, no, I appreciate that. I mean, I think we just need to have very frank conversations in this time about all the ideas. You know, no one has a monopoly on good ideas. So let's let's keep having these conversations and, you know, we'll come up with stuff that might work really well. Thanks. Any other questions? On your next item, Mr. Daley. Okay. Item number two is the mental illness and drug dependency finder mid fund. You know, I briefed you before that. This is the one that we actually have an immediate crisis with because we're going to take a very substantial revenue reduction this year. So the Mid Advisory Committee meets next Thursday and currently my plan is to go to that committee meeting, describe the financial situation which will be clearer by that time, and I'll get to that as my very last point today. And then we are actually going to be looking to start to reduce mid spending this year, not waiting until 21, 22. And we're going to focus that mostly on money that we don't think would have gotten spent this year or programs that haven't really ramped up yet. So we're trying to minimize the amount of actual cuts to currently funded programs, but even that I don't think is fully avoidable. So I'm actually going for anyone who would be interested. I'd like to offer the opportunity. I'd like I have a one on one conversation with any of the council members who would like to, and we'll talk about some of the ideas we have, and I'd like to solicit some feedback about those. I don't want to we don't really want to do it in this meeting because there's a lot of things that I think we're really looking for early feedback on before we want to announce that we're doing it. So for those of you that are interested, if you can just reach out to me and let me know that you'd like to have a conversation in the next week or two, I'd be happy to do that. I do want to just let everyone know that it doesn't seem like there is a path to postponing at least some mid reductions until 2021. So let me pause at this point and see if there are any questions about that. Colleagues Council Member Carl Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, you and I have conversed about this. So as we cannot backfill mid funding with any CARES ACT funding and I brought up the idea of perhaps creating a new grant program that would be for mental illness, behavioral health and so forth. That would be COVID related. I understand we can do that, but we would have to expend the funds by the end of the year. Correct funds? That is correct. Yeah. Under the current rules from the federal government, it has to be something that's new and caused by COVID. And then all the money has to be actually spent, not just committed, but spent by the end of December. Now, those rules could change, but at the moment what you just described council member is exactly correct. I think we may explore that. Mm hmm. Other questions. I'm glad. I'm sorry. Okay. Item three and Councilman Caldwell's had a good introduction to this. Just as a reminder, we do have originally we've spent some of it now, $262 million of CARES Act money. Again, the parameters on it is it has to be for COVID related costs. It can't be for lost revenue, has to be spent by the end of the year. And it has to be things that were not in an appropriation by March 30th. So it has to be things that you choose to appropriate after that. We have had conversations with the executive about kind of where on executive side we believe the kind of priorities for that are. One of the things that I kind of a new piece of information to share with you all is our current estimate. And again, it is a very preliminary estimate is that something like 50 to 60% of that money is going to be needed to cover the county's costs of response. So things like our share of the things that are otherwise eligible for FEMA. Incremental salary expense in some of our departments related to COVID response, things like that. And so the remainder, again, roughly something like 40% is available to share with our partners to do programs in the unincorporated areas such as the business assistance that you approved last week to do programs with our partners in the suburban cities against that , like the business assistance and the Chamber of Commerce assistance that you approved last week. So I know the council members are working with Council Member Wells this week to come up with kind of your own ideas and your own priorities. We are looking forward to hearing that. And I thought it might be helpful to just give you some context about roughly how much we think we're going to need internally and then how much might be available for partners use. The other thing I want to just kind of put in the back of your mind is we have a a timing challenge here. So we want to make sure that we have enough money in the fall if we have a significant increase in COVID expenses, that maybe by that point the federal government says, hey, we've tapped out FEMA, we're not going to be able to fund you at 75% anymore. So we want to reserve flexibility, but we also want to make sure that we get as much of that money spent if we have legitimate expenses to use it for. So I'm starting to think of, you know, like contingent plans where we might have things that we know could get spent quickly, but we don't commit to them right now. We have the money set aside for potential use in, let's say, September or October, where we would have cued up a program that if we have money to do it, we would do it. But we've also reserved it in case we need it for counting expenses. So as you're thinking about priorities in that if you can keep that complex thought in your mind about it's not just what, but when, if this is an unusual thing to balance. And so I'll acknowledge I'm still trying to think my way through it. I appreciate your thoughts on it as well. And so I will pause at this point and just say, we're looking forward to getting your feedback, I believe, by the end of the week. All right. Councilmember Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, we will have that information to you likely on Friday. And working with my colleagues, as well as with our new COBRA leadership team, which is comprised of council members due to Dunn and Dombroski and myself. But a question on this. When we when you were talking about what your needs are for some of the funds to go, what about the public health infrastructure? How would you see that? Would we would that be something you would want us to consider coming up as priority priorities? Or is that something that you were already planning for, that the legislation you're going to transmit on June 11th? So the public health situation is complex because they also have access to different funds. So like funds for testing and so on that we are working with them about. We are certainly envisioning using some of the 262 million for investments in what you labeled as public health infrastructure. You know, whether that's PPE or whether that's contact tracing, you know what all those things could be. And those might also be some investments that we could make now that would pay dividends in future years, you know, be that equipment or training or things like that. So, yes, we are thinking about that as one of the categories of county costs within that kind of 50%. But to the extent that that's a priority for council members to emphasize, it would be helpful to know that. Thank you. That's number one. Hello. Good morning or afternoon. I guess it is now is afternoon. I messed up too. And I know five things like when I'm long day and so I'm interested in the one on one. So let me know when you have time. I let you know is as we are planning, the governor has made very clear what it is for each business to reopen. Has there been any direction on what is required for governments to reopen? Are we on our own to figure that out? So my understanding is we are pretty much on our own to figure that out, but the same kind of general rules would apply. So as I understand, for example, the phase two where several counties have now gone to the public health guidance would be that you still wouldn't have gatherings of more than five people for unrelated or even been together in this time. So that would obviously restrict how the county would want to operate. You know, we've made our own rules a little bit as we went along about road crews, for example, and some of our construction projects. So I think we have more flexibility but still should be complying with those general standards that the governor has outlined that are really driven by public health guidance. I know that's the view the executive has. Okay. So for things like we might need to acquire like hand sanitizer, automatic machines and things like that, are we thinking about what kinds of equipment we need to buy so that when we do that, already be there? Yes. And so that's in most of our facilities that's done by FMD and they are very much on top of that. You might I don't know if I told this story, but we actually had very early on before COVID really hit a large order place and confirmed for that kind of hand sanitizer in the stands and everything . And mysteriously, that order got canceled after it had already been confirmed. So I don't think we ever got to the bottom of exactly what happened, but we should have had all that stuff two and a half months ago. And somebody else. Thank you. Other colleagues. Mr. David. All right, so the last three should go quite quickly. So item four in my list is just to confirm we're still on the schedule. We negotiated with Council member Cole Wells for the third omnibus COVID supplemental to be transmitted on June 11th. And that will have a mix of our own costs and also other programs that we're looking to fund, things that are really with our partners out in the community, and so that we're still on schedule for that. I think we need to have conversation about when the subsequent one would be. My personal sense at this point is that we would wait till August, but I think that's something we will talk with Councilmember Caldwell's about the kind of schedule for that. And just as a reminder, you're also going to have the regular third omnibus supplemental, which we have trying to make as short as possible with you here at the end of May. So unfortunately, you're going to end up with two appropriations ordinances at the same time, but their content is actually quite different. So how you choose to kind of manage and coordinate that I think is something you'll need to have a conversation about. And so I'll pause on that one. Grove. Councilmember Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry I'm so chatty today. Well, obviously, one of the strategies that is often employed with a recession is to start making reductions sooner. So you don't. Have to often reduce as much. If you start reducing sooner, you mentioned that the mid-year omnibus is going to be fairly modest. Is are we not to the point yet where we're looking at some of the big hard decisions, making some of those earlier so that they affect the second half of this year. So, Counselor, that's a very fair question. What may give you two answers? One is in the this year omnibus, we believe we have included only things that we really have no choice about. And I'll just give you a preview. There have been some costs for medications in jail, health that have been far higher than anyone anticipated when the budget was adopted. They are medications we have to provide. We don't have any choice about it. And so we need the additional appropriation for those things. So we have basically said no to a lot of things that are probably good ideas but are optional. And that's why the second response I would share is we are sort of informally starting to save money. So Department of Human Resources is looking at every position that is offered and making sure that we really need to fill those positions. And departments are actually operating this way already. The number of positions being filled has just tumbled from February to March to April. So a lot of departments are already managing that way. We we entertained the idea of trying to do midyear general fund budget cuts. And I just have to say it was my opinion that to try to do COVID mid-year cuts and the biennial budget all at the same time was frankly, I think, beyond our capabilities to do. Or I maybe I'll just say if it was beyond the executive branch's capabilities to do so, we are trying to do the sort of informal thing of slowing down hiring, not filling positions, looking at ways to find efficiencies and save money this year. But in terms of actually trying to legislate general fund budget cuts this year, we just decided we could not make that work. And we also don't know if we're going to get the federal funds. So we may end up. I wouldn't want us to do something rash and then find. Out we're getting some help for a year. Or two. Correct. Yeah, that was that was another consideration that went into it. And again, we can't count on that. But as it were to happen, I'd hate to have, you know, laid off 200 employees and then say two months later, I'm sorry, you can come back. Thanks. Donald Trump's never done. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, thanks again, as always, for appearing here. You know, I'm hearing, you know, this is a very, very significant recession and potentially borderline. The term the D word, the D word is used. And I don't mean Dallas. I also don't mean divorce. But it is obviously serious economic consequences here to this situation economically. And I heard you say I think I heard you say a 5% reduction in the general fund this year and a 5% next year. So 10% over a biennial budget season. Why aren't we? Instituting a full hiring freeze immediately early retirements and considering layoffs right now. Why aren't we attempting to try and manage this in the direction we know it's going to go? And so customer to me and maybe at least three responses to that. So first of all, I want to make sure it's clear to all the council members that these 5% reductions I talked about, again, are just estimates, but the of themselves are not going to fill $150 million. So those are on top of a bunch of other things, you know, including, you know, ramping down compensation growth, including using reserves, including the rent for the right of way, all of those things. So the overall amount of budget changes we're going to need is way more than just 5% in on average across the general fund each year. A second response around the idea of a hiring freeze as we sort of de facto already have that with what is happening with departmental behavior and what the Department of Human Resources is doing. In my professional career, I have administered five hiring freezes. I have found them to be very blunt instruments because I think, as everyone knows, there are a lot of positions that realistically can't be included. So if you think about for the county, all the 24 seven positions, so sheriff's deputies, corrections officers, wastewater treatment plant operators, 911 dispatchers, all of those kind of positions. If you freeze hiring, then you're just paying overtime and you don't save any money. Then there are all the positions where people have good, plausible arguments about why you want to fill them. So you have to create an exceptions process. So, you know, anything that brings in revenue, arguably, you need to create an exception for. So in my experience, the amount of work it takes to actually do the hiring freeze and have committees to review applications for exceptions, frankly, dwarfs the savings you have if you're just managing well instead by being conscious about the positions that you fill. And then the third response to your observation to do layoffs now, at least in like the general fund would necessitate the council making a bunch of budget decisions about what your priorities are. And this comes back to my conclusion, at least on the executive side, that we weren't really in a place to be able to do that right now. And so, you know, the trade offs between funding for public health versus funding for the sheriff's office, the tradeoffs between funding for homelessness versus, you know, what we don't know about the future of our jail and what the jail population's going to be when the justice system kind of gets back on its feet. It just felt like to try to go in and say, well, let's find 200 people to lay off right now without clear policy guidance from the council, which I don't know how you would do right now. We didn't feel like we were in a place to do that. Now there are a couple of funds that we may be to that place right away, and it's funds that we don't have a lot of flexibility about. So one is mid given that it only has the sales tax as a revenue source. We're going to have to deal with that sooner, as I mentioned earlier on this call. And then the second one that I think I've also mentioned in the past is the permitting division of Department of Local Services, since they are fully supported by revenue from the permits that are sought by applicants. If the volume stays down as much as it has, we will be in a position of needing to do one of two things, which is to reduce staffing either through furloughs or layoffs or a combination thereof, and or backfilling them with general fund, either as a grant or as a loan. And frankly, we are right at that position now, and you will probably in the June 11th supplemental be confronted with that decision unless permitting volume suddenly spikes back upward, which I don't think anyone expects it will. So long answer to your question, Councilmember, but I think we are doing in the funds that we really need to do it. We're taking more immediate actions. And in the funds where we have a little more time to think our way through, like the General Fund and Metro, we're trying to save money now without really going into the big deep cuts right now, given all the uncertainty we face in those programs. And appreciate your response. I know that's not the easiest question that you can be asked, but I think, you know, with the salaries and benefits being such a huge portion of our overall budget across all the agencies, I just wanted and I felt I needed to the final follow up question, which chair and I won't ask another after this is simply this why is there an upper limit that you in the Executive Office are prepared to spend? Dealing with the homelessness housing issues right now related to the pandemic response. We said it is kind of a bright line there where we just spending what we need under certain circumstances. Thank you. Yeah. Council member. So there's two answers to you and they. They vary depending on the time. So this year, because that kind of activity is eligible for CARES Act funding, we haven't set a bright line, but we have a lot of capacity to do that. I don't think we're going to do a lot more of it than we've already done, but we do have the financial flexibility for that densification work. Assuming we don't get additional federal money. What we're going to be able to do in 2021, in 2022 is clearly more limited than that. So DHS and many other partners are thinking about how can how can we not go back to what we had, but how can we do something that's affordable that also has as minimal community impacts as we can come up with? I think, frankly, this is going to be one of the hardest issues that we struggle with on the executive side. And then you're going to struggle with this fall in that in the council phase of the budget is what do we do with shelters and homelessness and housing if we're in a place where we're really reliant only on our own existing funds and there are going to be some very difficult tradeoffs in that policy area. Thank you both for your responses on both. And Councilmember Diane, I noted that was your last question for the meeting. Very good. Your Honor. Anyone else. Council member, Mr. Davey. Okay, last two things. So last week you approved funding to the Department of Local Services, $4 million, most of which to go to unincorporated area business support. And I just wanted to let you know, I talked to director John Taylor today. They are very close to having the outlines of how they actually want to do that, the criteria for awards and so on. And so they will be reaching out to council members, probably starting 3 to 5 days from now to run those by you. For those of you who are interested, and then they will proceed once they get that feedback to actually deploy that program. So I was I was very impressed with the work they've already done. And I think you will be too when you hear from them. And then my very last point on my list is on Friday of this week, we will get our march. Figures from the State Department of Revenue. This will be the first actual post COVID financial data we have. So March will obviously be the the first month that was really affected by the stay home orders, by the shutdown of many of our businesses and other kinds of economic activity. And so that will actually ground us in a real number as opposed to just the estimates that we've made so far. So on Friday, our Office of Economic and Financial Analysis will get that information and obviously can share with anyone who is interested. And with that, I have finished my report for this afternoon, unless there are further questions. Colleagues. Has been nothing of. Thank you. It's a busy day for me. And guess what? You mentioned the local government was getting ready with their criteria to administer those things. The phones that are outside of the unincorporated area. I know there is an intent to consult with council members. Should we just be proactive if we had suggestions or do you anticipate something that's a little more formal? Will someone be reaching out to us? That's a great question. Council Member So what we are doing. So there are two different grant programs that you funded in my office budget. So the one you referred to, which is the basically Suburban Cities Business Assistance Program, and then there's also the, the funding for art, science, arts, education, science and live music venues. We're similarly developing criteria for both of those funds, and we'll be reaching out to council members probably late next week. With that, so you're welcome to proactively send us your thoughts. But we also will have a process of checking in with council members about each of those programs if you're interested. Okay. So emailing currently would be the best sort smart decision. Yeah, sure. That that will work fine. And get it to the right people. Right. Currently we are planning that, Kelly Carol, who most of you know will actually be the project manager for the arts, education, science and live music venue program. And then Michael Jacobson and a team that is set up within public health will probably take the lead on the business support program in the suburban cities. Thanks. Further questions from Mr. Hively. Council member, Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We've done any estimation about how we could help with some of this by bringing on some of our businesses, slowly but surely, so that we can have income starting up as some of these other things are hitting us. Other than the business support programs that you approved in last week's supplemental, I am not aware of anything else that we are doing just in general with business. There's a lot of conversations between executives, office and business groups where they're talking about things. But in terms of like an actual county program, I don't believe we have done anything. You know, as you know, Councilmember, other than one staff person in the in my office and one person in of local services, we don't have an economic development program because we don't have enough money to do one. Yes. And you hold on just 1/2. I'm going to get you a website that I would like you to. For everybody who has a business across the county. I have permission to say that you can borrow liberally from this website. It's called Back to Work Toolkit and App to Work Toolkit. It was a version of what things you need to think about as a business to go back to work. And it was highlighted from one that was done by the city of Seattle, which were larger businesses, and then they adopted it for smaller businesses. And the writer of that list has said anybody can use it. So I was very impressed with that list because it gave you things to consider that you might not consider without having somebody else, that if you think about that, as are so many things. So that's what it is out there and I hope it helps people. But when I look at that list, I think that the sooner we can get people sharing some of these things and opening up some of these smaller businesses who can comply with the state as that revenue comes in, they'll be less and less businesses. And over time that will have to be holding up because they will be able to hold themselves up. So I'm looking forward to that helping the balance there of opening up and adding tax revenue to it AS And Fugro has been very busy. We've been on the phone with them regularly. Thank you. Further questions when we have Mr. Daley, I'll be here for your next two topics as well. So. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate your briefing. And that takes us to item six. Our next item is proposed ordinance 2021, 76, which would place a 1.7 $4,000,000,000.20 year capital improvement bond on the November 2020 general election ballot for health and safety improvements at Harborview Medical Center. In order to put the item on the ballot for US regular council meeting to adopt the proposed ordinance with maximum processing time is July seven. Today. We'll get a preliminary briefing to begin our deliberations. Undecided. We have Sam Carter and Nick Bowman from council central staff in the meeting to brief us and answer questions. There's Carter. Mr. Bowman. The line is yours. CHAIR Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Policy Staff. I am on page 11 of your packet. As the Chair mentioned, proposed ordinance 2020 20176 would place a 20 year $1.74 billion capital improvement bond on the November general election ballot, the proceeds of which would go toward new construction, renovation, seismic retrofitting and other health and safety improvements of Harborview Medical Center facilities. Attachment of the proposed ordinance provides a high level overview of the improvements which may be funded with levy proceeds. These improvements were based on the Harborview Leadership Group recommendation report that was transmitted to council on April 8th of this year. This report, requested through Council Motion 15183, provides background and detail on the Harborview Leadership Group efforts and summarizes the size and scope of the bond recommendation. Under the proposed ordinance, this bond would result in an average rate of approximately $0.08 per thousand dollars of assessed value over the life of the bond. According to executive staff, a median value home would see an average increase in property taxes of approximately $68 annually over the life of the bond. In order to meet the Elections Department deadline to include the proposed fund on the November ballot. The last regular council meeting to adopt with maximum processing time, which is 25 days, is July 7th. As you know, Harborview was founded in 1877 as a six bed King County hospital in South Seattle. It is now licensed for 413 beds and is located on the western edge of Hurst Hill in Seattle. Our review is the designated disaster control hospital for the region and it serves as the only level one trauma center in the four state region of Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana. Our review prioritizes serving the non-English-speaking poor, the uninsured and underinsured people who experience domestic violence and sexual assault. Incarcerated people in King County jails. People with behavioral health illnesses, particularly those treated involuntarily. People with sexually transmitted diseases, and individuals who require specialized emergency care, trauma care and severe burn care. Our review is owned by King County, is governed by a 13 member county board, county appointed board of Trustees and operated by the University of Washington . Our reviews capital facilities have evolved over the years, and while Harborview has funded much of its smaller capital improvements through annual budget and capital facility planning, as the owner of the hospital, King County has provided for major capital facility improvements and expansions through voter approved financing. The most recent, which occurred in 2000 and that was $193 million bond to fund seismic and health and public safety improvements for the facilities. As by way of background. In July 2018, the Harborview Board of Trustees sent a letter to council identifying six areas for focus for a capital plan and acknowledged that there needed to be a need for a wider planning effort. In response, Council passed motion 15183, which created a planning process for a potential bond to support capital improvements at Harborview. That included composing a leadership group. The Harborview Leadership Group consisted of representatives from county executive's office, county Council, Harborview Medicine for the first Hill community and her review's mission population. The leadership group fulfilled their charge when they transmitted their final recommendation report after 13 months of analysis and deliberations on the issues outlined in the motion. And they are they appear on page 13 of your packet and include an evaluation of the size and scope of a potential band effort, exploration of the possibility of private philanthropy, and evaluation of inclusion of the needs of the Department of Public Health and evaluation of Housing needs for the Mission Population. Evaluation of the needs for the Involuntary Treatment Act or court. And evaluation of how best to address behavioral health needs. Whether bond proceeds should be invested in public health facilities beyond the campus of Harborview. And whether bond funds for other public safety infrastructure needs should be included. The final recommendation report was approved by the Harborview Leadership Group, the Capital Planning Oversight Committee of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Trustees themselves, and the King County Executive, in accordance with motion 15183. It was transmitted to council in April and provides background and detail on the efforts and summarizes the size and scope of the recommended bond. Table one on page 13 of your packet outlines the different components recommended in the Harborview Leadership Group report. And they I can go through each one of these and then and then I will hand the presentation over to my colleague. So the first item on this table is a new bed tower. This would increase the bed capacity, expand and modify the emergency department, meet privacy and infection control standards, disaster preparation and the plan infrastructure in this would be $952 million. The next one is a new behavioral health building. This would house the existing behavioral health services and programs and the new Behavioral Health Institute. These would be under one building, and this is proposed at $79 million. Next line is existing hospital space renovations, which includes expanding the idea court and the most appropriate location move and expanding the gamma knife program, moving labs and moving the public health, tuberculosis and STD clinics. And also modifications to the medical examiner's office and a number of other offices. This would be $178 million. The next line is Harborview Hall, which would include seismic upgrades and improving and modifying the space and creating space for up to 150 respite beds. This would also include maintaining the enhanced homeless shelter in the most appropriate location. And this would be a $108 million. Next would be the center tower. This would include seismic upgrades and improving and modifying the space to be used for offices. This would be $248 million. Next line is the Pioneer Square Clinic. These improvements would be seismic and code improvements and modifying the space to allow for better clinic space and office space. This would be $20 million. $9 million would go toward demolishing the East Clinic building and $146 million fall under site improvements and miscellaneous expenses. Those are outlined in the last line on page 14. And attachment to the proposed ordinance provides a high level outline of the improvements which may be performed with from bond proceeds. The contents of Table one, which I just went through, are reflected in an attachment which can be seen on page 31 of your packet. And now I will hand things over to my colleague Mekonnen, who will provide you more detail on the financial analysis and the timing of the proposed ordinance. Afternoon Council members again. Nick Bowman, for the record. As Sam stated earlier, the proposal would place a $1.7 billion capital improvement bond on the November general election ballot. The executive envisions issuing a series of 20 year bonds over several years to finance the proposed improvements to the agents. Council staff analysis finds that the average rate across the life of the bond would be approximately $0.08 per $1,000 of assessed value. This translates into an average increase of $68 annually annually on a median value. Again, those are averages over the life of the bond. The actual tax rate in each year of the repayment period will be based upon the annual debt service for the outstanding bonds. At the beginning of the project, the rates will be comparatively low as the debt has not been fully issued yet. At the end of the repayment period, the rates will also be comparatively low as the initial step would be nearly repaid. During the years when construction is at its peak, the debt service load, and therefore the debt service costs will be at its highest, and so will the annual rate. While staff estimate has estimated that the average annual rate will be $0.08 per 1000 hours of assessed value, the actual annual rate will vary between less than $0.01 to 12 and a half cents. Additionally, as the debt would be issued in a series over several years, the levy will remain in effect until the principal on the last series of bonds has been paid in full. Current estimates from the executive envisaging the last series of bonds being issued in 2029, as the proposed ordinance limits any bonds issued to a maximum duration of 20 years. The rate may continue in effect until 2049, though the proposed ordinance does not prohibit the early repayment of bonds or the issuance of debt maturing maturing earlier than 20 years. Table two on page 15 of your package shows the estimated debt issuance schedule and its impact on the annual tax rate. As the table below shows under current estimates. Interest payments over the life of the bond would be approximately $643 million, bringing the total debt service cost to approximately 2.4 billion. Table three on page 16 of your packet illustrates the estimated change in rates over the repayment period. You can see in table three that the rate rises in line with the issuance scheduled to peak at about 12 and a half cents in 2029 and then gradually decreases as more of the debt is repaid until the final several years where the rate drops off considerably. It should be noted that these estimates are based off of the August 2019 Norwegian forecasts. As such, the economic data does not include the financial impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic. The financial analysis for the proposed bond will surely change as the economic impacts of the pandemic are realized and accounted for. According to the executive, an updated with a forecast will be available in late May or early June, and the revised fiscal analysis could be provided to the council by June 15. Before I move on from the financial analysis it was, are there any questions you'd like me to go over? Colleagues. Counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So a couple of things. The 2000 bond for $193 million. What is the payoff date on that bond? The it was last payment. Was made. 1/2 here. So is this then taking us to $68 above what people were paying back then or is it on par? Plus, it's going to be 3.2 as opposed to 193 million. Is it $68 more or can we subtract what was part of the payment before? My understanding is that we are in the final year of the repayment period for the initial 2000 bond, and so this would be additionally $68 on top of that. But as you look at the table, the the actual I think the average impact to the median home value the first couple of years is in the first five years combined is less than $100. And then so that initial 2000 bond will be completed and we will start paying on the new taxes will start paying on the new bond for the approved development. And then as people achieve 5% interest, still the best interest rate even at this point post-COVID. That is my understanding from executive staff. But expand upon that should be like. Okay. And just one last thing on the medical examiner's office, I'd like to know more. I am concerned about the fact if co-located the birth certificates, it's very difficult for somebody that's going in to get a certificate for their child to be standing next to somebody without seeing their baby getting a birth certificate. I'm interested in surge capacity and also proper storage, which I believe is not up to what we're detected. So I more information on that. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Dan Belsky. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Following up on Councilmember Lambert's inquiry that the table shows a three and a quarter percent interest rate, which that on top of the principal drives the estimated mill rate per thousand assessed value. And I'm just wondering, I was looking at the case for the Conference Board and Financial Report and our current portfolio looks like it has a range of two and a half to 5% for bonds. I'm wondering what Dwight or our central staff sees. I know it's hard to predict that far out, but what do you see today, given that that was last fall's estimate? What do you see today on on borrowing costs? I think we would defer to Dwight. He's available. Yeah, I've. I've been unmuted. You know, I'm you. Okay. So obviously, right now the interest rates available in the market are significantly lower than that. You know, we're looking at interest rates probably on 20 year bonds of less than 2% if issued today, particularly for voter approved bonds. Now, over the life of several Bond series that we would be issuing, as your staff explained, it's unlikely that rates will stay that low. So three and a quarter was kind of conceptually an average over that period of time. It probably is a little higher than we would do it if we'd set out to do it today. But still, something like 3% is probably a reasonable average. So the results would be a little lower than what you're showing here, but probably not a lot. Further questions. Please proceed, Mr. Bowman. Okay. Moving on to bond, timing and voter turnout requirements. Table four at the top of page 17 in your packet provides the November 2020 general election processing deadlines. At the last regular council meeting to adopt the proposed ordinance with a maximum processing time of 25 days is July seven and with minimum processing, time of ten days is July 21st. Under state law, a general obligation bond ballot measure requires at least 40% of the turnout in the preceding election and a 60% yes vote to be approved, according to the King County Elections. Validation Summary for 2020 bond measures, a turnout of approximately 180,000 voters would be needed to meet this 40% participation threshold. Lastly, I just wanted to touch briefly on the construction timeline and permitting Table six on page 18 of your package shows the executive's estimate of project phases and timelines should the voters approve the bond measure? Phase one Selecting the project management and design teams would occur in 2022, 2021, Phase two and three, which involve design, space planning and sequencing as well as permitting, would occur in 20 2021, 2023 and phase four construction would begin in 2023, though it should be noted that these are just initial estimates and all timelines are subject to change. That concludes the staff report. A staff and legal counsel analysis is still ongoing. And with that said, we're happy to take any questions. Thank you very much. It was really my honor and pleasure to be able to serve with Councilmember Dombroski on the Harvey Harborview Leadership Group that, as Mr. Lewis said in his public comment today, initially gathered information about various needs and priorities, weighed those, and unanimously made a recommendation to the Harborview Board of Directors Board of Trustees who has made the recommendation to the executive that is now before us. While we always knew that seismic upgrades and some of the other work included in the proposal was going to be vitally important. We know now, in the middle of a pandemic, even more about the life saving work and imperative need that Harborview provides to our community every day, in particularly infection control and in converting hospital rooms to single patients so that they don't lose access to some number of licensed beds for infection control purposes. We've seen since we finished our work in Leadership Group exactly how imperative that is. And we were very mindful of the eight year court and her would be hall on providing those rested beds so that again the maximum capacity of the hospital was preserved probably remains a gem in our community and this is a great opportunity to brief and introduce the bond measure to us and then look for surface questions. Staff indicated staff work and research is still going on with the goal of taking action on this in time for the November ballot. Councilmember Bousquet was a pleasure to serve with you on the Harborview leadership team, and I'd be happy to turn it over to you for any comments, questions as well before we open it up generally to our colleagues. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and the privilege of serving with you as much appreciated and really enjoyed the joint collaborative work. I want our colleagues to know how serious this group of experts under two took this work to be over an extended period of time. We really went and got the best help we could get. We brought patients and clients to the table in a meaningful and equal way. Frankly, some of their comments and inputs were the best. From my perspective, they really helped shape this package. It was a very impressive process. We use some outstanding consultants to help cast this out. What this does is it brings this critical piece of infrastructure into the 21st century and will prepare it to carry on for the number of decades ahead that we need it to. It is the only level one trauma facility for the whammy, right. The Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana area. So if someone's hurt seriously in those areas, they come here. As you know, we have the incredible burn unit there. We have the wonderful clinics. What's exciting to me about this is a number of things, but it is I want to highlight for you the investment in the Behavioral Health Institute. It sets us up to have really the leading comprehensive system of clinical care and research in the behavioral health arena in the country. It's a great partnership we have with the University of Washington Medical School, and I think it's a really key point. I thought a lot about Councilmember Dunn and his leadership in this area as we worked on that and and this institute, I really commend it to you to look at it builds on the investment this council has made in recent years and getting Harborview Hall, the old nurse's dorm, partially open, as Customer McDermott noted. This COVID crisis has really demonstrated the need for this resource, for example, on the going to single patient rooms, but also for handling folks who are at the edges coming in or out of the medical care system. We've used the shelter space in our view hall for surge capacity. The where the leadership group made a recommendation to preserve 100 shelter beds, which is what about what we've delivered there? About 85, but about 100 shelter beds in the most appropriate location, but then add 150 respite care beds. In our research, we identified respite care and that's folks that are coming out of medical care but don't really have secure housing or stable housing to go to that respite care that transitory bed need as a high priority. So they don't fall back into the cycle of needing the more costly medical care that takes up beds and emergency room space. We put 150 respite care beds into this proposal, and I think it will really pay dividends. There is a new tower here, a new emergency room, and it preserves the Pioneer Square Clinic a very important footprint. So it's a it's not a small tab. I think there is a silver lining here in that the timing, while I would normally be reluctant to go in this time where we have approaching 20% unemployment and serious economic disruption, go to the voters with a request for more revenue. The revenue on this and the charts important doesn't really come on for three or four years. I think Nick noted the first three or four years, the total impact might be $100 cumulatively. So that's that's something to keep in mind as you assess this. And I really want to again wrap up by saying the whole process was robust. I have a high degree of confidence in the results, and I encourage you to look at it as hard questions tested against your values and goals, and I think it'll come out favorably. So thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank. Thank you. As I said, a pleasure. Colleagues Questions for Ms.. Porter, Mr. Bowman now. Questions we can bookmark for a future committee meeting. Right. I think they love our work. They're speechless. I I'm not that. I'm not. I'm not that ready. Are optimistic. I think they're just preparing the hard questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Member Lambert. Thank you. Yes, we were speechless. But I want to say also that I really appreciate the fact that you put in as a dedicated caregiver in the room. I think that is a very important thing. And I think that many nights in a chair, in a hospital, I mean, dedicated caregiver space where you can actually lay down is a very good thing. So I think you really part of that whole needs of the people being cared for as well as the people caring for the people who care for them. Thank you. Thank you. All right. See no further discussion on this item today. We will look forward to taking it up further. And that takes us to item seven on our agenda. Finally, the proposed ordinance 2020 186 with rates and charges related to sewer disposal. That would go into effect in 2021. We been like read of council staff with us to brief us and answer questions. Mr. Reed, the meeting is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mike reached out for the council. So this is on begins on page 317 of your packet of about a little bit of context first. So the slower rate pays for the operations of the wastewater treatment division and for capital construction as well as for the repayment of debt of past capital construction. So a rate is actually set in coordination with the 34 cities and school districts or partners in the system. Those entities actually collect the school rate from ratepayers and forwarded to the county. They also assess a local rate. In addition to the county's rate, the sewer rate for 2021 is proposed at $47.37 per residential customer equivalent or RC, which is basically just a flow volume measure that is the expected amount that the average single family residence will generate in a month. So the $47.37 is about 4.5% higher than the 2020 rate of $45.33. Now, this rate is actually revised downward from the rate that was initially proposed when the agency first surfaced. The rate proposal, which was that rate proposal, had been 9.5%. And some of you may have heard about on it, refer to table one on in the packet and that's on page 318. That shows the pattern of rate increases in recent years and the projected increases in coming years. So in the bright water years, so bright water actually completed construction, I believe in 2012. So in those years and the years immediately afterwards, the rates were averaging in the 10% and higher range. And the last few years they've been quite modest. So 2.5% increase for 2019 and 20 0% in 2020. 2021 is a 4.5% increase and you'll see that on the table that it's projected that we're going to be returning to the 10.5% or 10.25% and higher rate increases in 2023 and forward. Those are ultimate increases. So the second year of the two year rates would be a 0% increase. So very briefly that the increases in in the current year and future years are driven by a couple of key factors. One is there is a management asset inventory that needs to be addressed because of the aging physical plant that the agency manages. And then secondly, there's a need to complete the combined school overflow projects by 2030, and that's a deadline that's mandated by court. A court mandated consent decree referred to table two on page 319. That's the capacity charge table. So the capacity charge is assessed for new connections to the sewer system. The proposed increase is 3%, up from $66.35 per RC to $68.34 per RC per month. That level is consistent with increases in recent years and our future projections are at the same level. So the staff report also notes that that ratepayers are people, the county and the local city or school district rates. So I included in the staff report some select some examples of selected rates for local agencies and they range and these are just examples but they range from $13.97 per seat per month to $35.70 for those selected examples. I've got a table for on page 321 of your packet and table. Table four provides information on the revenues of the wastewater treatment division. So those revenues are increasing by about 4.1% in the coming rate period, the 2021 rate period. It's important to note that because we are facing the COVID 19 emergency and the economic impacts related to that emergency, there are potential for impacting the the revenues for the agency. So the potential impact could could include the fact that the flow volumes will be coming more from industrial and commercial accounts I'm sorry, less from industrial commercial accounts with the shutdown of businesses and. And much of commerce of the region. And more. More from residential accounts. Residents. Your accounts are at a flat rate, whereas industrial and commercial accounts are at a rate based on volume. And so we're going to see a rate or revenue impact from that. Also, you heard director Dave Lee mentioned the impact of lower interest rates. Lower interest interest rates naturally mean lower return on investment income for the agency, but it may be offset by lower interest rates on bond issuance that the agency initiates. Thirdly, there is, as you know, a decline in building permit applications and construction activity, and those declines may result in fewer new connections, meaning lesser lesser revenues from capacity charge or if not lesser than lesser, a lesser increase in growth. These changes will play out over time. They have not had enough time yet to incorporate those into these rate projections, and so we will see those over time. I would refer you to table six on six and seven on page 332, which shows the upgrading in capital expenditures. I'll note that those are that while there are some notable increases in operating structures, capital expenditures are more erratic, with increases up as much as 33% and 26 2026 and decreases in 2024 and 2025. Those capital expenditures are heavily driven by the status of individual capital projects, whether they are in the planning, design or construction stages. Now the staff report does list a number of major capital projects that are underway. I'll take you to table eight now and it's on page 324. So that table highlights a difference in rate projections from last year versus this year. You'll see, for instance, that and I to take you forward to 2030. So last year, the rate projections indicated that the rate for 2030 would be 61.80 $0.04 this year. The 2030 rate projection is projected at $74.83. So significant difference in the rate projections for the future. The executive has noted one key driver of the rate increases is the inventory, as indicated earlier, of asset management projects that need to be undertaken. So just for context, you'll recall that the value of the wastewater physical plant or the treatment plants, the interceptor pipelines, the pump stations, regulated stations, is estimated at about $4 billion. And that's those are plants on the ground or in the ground. The staff report cites the code section that mandates that the agency keep up with needed repairs and upgrades to the system. A chart one on page 325 of the packet is a map of the sewer interceptor network by page. You'll see that the lines covered in red are the major interceptors that were put in about 50 years ago or in the 1960s. And you'll see colors of tan and yellow. Those were all preceding in 1970. So they are at or nearing 50 years of service life. Table nine shows on the next page shows that about 53% of the system is 40 years old or older. Well, there was, as you know, associated with the Lake Washington clean up and the start up of Metro. There was a construction boom. Both the treatment plants were in the early 1960s and many of these interceptor lines were built at the same time. And so they're aging at about the same rate and are going to require service in one way or the other at about the same time. So so chart number two on page 326, that shows that there's about a there's an inventory of about $700 million in priority asset management, unfunded inventory. The report notes that. So that's the other key piece. But there's one other major driver and that is that that and staff report discusses the need to meet the combined workflow overflow decree deadline of 2030. And there are a number of major projects remaining which are again addressed in staff report and those need to get underway pretty soon in order to meet the 2030 deadline. But I'm note that there is a letter from the Metropolitan Water Pollution Abatement Advisory Committee that's on page 37 of your packet that that new pack letter notes that the committee would have preferred a 0% rate increase for 2021 in light of the economic impacts of the COVID 19 emergency. And they also are requesting extensive consultation in preparation for the 2022 rate. A note about timing. So as noted by local agencies, the rate is required to be effective by June 30 of each year to accomplish that. A public hearing and possible action date is scheduled for the May 26 council meeting, with a fall back action date for June nine. I have talked with wastewater treatment division staff, noting that the committee may have questions this afternoon and they and I will attempt to answer as many of those as possible. We will take notes on the other ones, and I've indicated that they will need to turn those around rapidly if there is an intent to be ready for the May 26 Council meeting for action. And finally, I'll note that there is one technical amendment and that would correct an error in the financial plan. And that that's kind of one piece. 335 that that technical amendment was distributed to members and staff this morning. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Reed. Questions of Mr. Reed. Here. I might also note that that white lively paper check the financial manager and Mark Isaacson, the director of deputy, are also on the line and available to respond to questions. Councilmember Dombroski Oh, thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mike, thank you for the staff report and the excellent tables and graphs. This is a very complicated budget given the role of rates and debt service and policies. But you've mentioned two times in your staff report the need under the consent decree to complete the CSO facilities and the combined sewer overflow facilities have. Gone. Wildly over our estimated costs. And it was my recollection that we have put kind of a freeze on or were slowing down the construction of those to kind of reassess our strategy. With respect to complying with the consent decree to determine whether or not there weren't more cost effective ways that we can achieve our Clean Water Act goal and obligations, goals and obligations. And so I'm just wondering, is that still kind of our strategy? Do we still have to meet the 2030 deadline? Is there any effort underway to go back to the federal government and say, listen, we want to have more flexibility on how we meet it and also on the timing such that our cost profile to get there might be different. That may be a mark question or I don't know. It is my question, but let me say quickly. So. Yeah. There have been active communications between the wastewater treatment division and I believe the State Department of Ecology and of the federal EPA on exactly that question. That is, if we were to try and achieve the highest the highest impact on water pollution is the best way to heart hold to these hard dates or to move those out a little bit and potentially look to some some alternate approaches towards meeting those water pollution control goals. I'll let Mark add to that, Mark. Afternoon. Thanks. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Members of the community. Thank you for the question. Council Member Dombrowski. Yes, we are. Well, there's there's really two parts in an answer to that. First. We have briefed the RW QC and are working with New Pack and working with our community representatives around creating a clean water plan. We plan on transplanting, transmitting that to council by the end of 2021. And it will look at a an array of issues of which one of them would be the regulatory components. Around the CSO. Program. And just as Mike said, you alluded to not necessarily wanting to back away from the commitment for clean water, but. That those. Those requirements were put. In place around 2012. There may well be better technology. There may well be better strategies that achieve the outcome for less cost or for better costs that are better investment for that and the receiving water bodies. As to the adjustment to the 2030 timeframe, we do not have any provisions to adjust that time frame through that clean water planning. We are asking the question because it is the single largest component of our capital budget and is driving many of those upward costs that you see in the outyears, especially from 2025 to 2030. We are actively engaging in a negotiation process with the Department of Ecology, the Department of EPA, Environmental Protection Agency in the Department of Justice , who administers the federal consent decree. So we've just begun those negotiations. We want to conduct them in parallel, and we'll be briefing council on any changes to that goes what we are asking for. There is more flexibility to adjust our spending plan for some of our immediate milestones on at least one or two of our projects. But we are also asking to parallel that with. Some of the. Work we're doing on the Clean Water Plan regarding some flexibility and some adaptability regarding changes to climate conditions, adjusting for cost increases that have come into play, especially around construction and real estate as well as the new technology. So I hope that answers your question. I'd be happy to go any further detail that I can, but at this point, the 2030 deadline has not moved. I thank you, Mark. I understand it has a move, but do you expect that it will mean the negotiations have been going on for some time? I mean, we're only asking what are we asking the federal government as a as a as a local government to do in terms of time? Are we asking for five more years, ten more years? We have not specifically put this specific request on the table for them. We have specifically asked them through our initial letter these interim milestones, and we've got interim milestones for establishing a facility plan, going out the contract, having substantial completion for a couple of two of our big projects or two of our smaller projects down in the dual area. And the reason we want to actually move those out is because we've got one really big one that's due with by the end of 2030 and we think that we could achieve a better water quality outcome if we combine. Some of those projects. City of Seattle is also involved in those discussions at that table with us. They have projects in the area we may well be able to be more efficient with the public's dollars, have less impact to the community down there, and a better, better investment if we coordinate that through. But it would require some changes. We have mentioned the 2030 timeframe as something we want to look at. And. We got head nods around the table saying, we understand. That you would want to look at. That. But no commitment. Maybe if I might, Mr. Chair, one or two more follow ups, and I'm as I indicated in the Harbor View deal, I'm reluctant to at this time advance a rate hike on small businesses and renters and homeowners, as we would be hopefully in either getting through or maybe starting to come out of this. COVID induced recession with near 20% unemployment rates. And I know we have you're asking for 4.8% this year. The move back is recommended zero. I'm wondering what the impacts Mark would be of of going zero this year. And I know we were zero last year and doing the four and a half percent in 2022. And I know when I say this year, I mean 2020 one's rate because that's when this would apply. What is the status of our rate stabilization reserve? Don't get us through. As the department undertaken any cost cuts, what would the magnitude of those be? Could you get there if we wanted to? Instead of going zero in 2020 to go zero, 2021 and four and a half, 2022 or some hybrid. I know we like to keep it even for two years under. Our partnership program. Right. We have asked for. A one year rate. The executive is asked for a one year rate increase and then evaluate really what's going on with the asset management program, which is a big part of our drivers with our new pack agencies and with council and the RW QC. But your question, I'll take it a couple of fold. I didn't write notes, so if I didn't get to something, remind me, please. Okay. You know, the department is, as Dwight had mentioned early on, we are looking at all of our vacancies. You know, any cost cutting we can do, any discretionary spending, which is. Large. On our component, on our budget, our vacancies. I have to say, I'm hesitant to go a hiring freeze on that for for some reasons, I have virtually frozen all of the administrative positions that we have in the division that are vacant right now. But our but are. Maintenance and operators. I have. And. To keep a I. Would say a. Full deck or a. Full bench in place right there for reasons why we have weathered through the COVID crisis. And I'm crossing my fingers and my legs here that we have. Not suffered. Illnesses or in fact, our absentee rate is quite low. People are quite committed to it and taken the safety precautions. I cannot be a guarantee that and I want to keep that full bench to ensure that if we should get hit at the plants by some illnesses. Heaven forbid. We want to do our absolute best to keep it fully staffed so that we can protect the public health that we are in charge to do for the 24 seven operation. So that was that piece. And what we're looking at, we've also, you know, to do the work of my colleague Heidi and her team, they've done some interesting work around debt service, annual debt service savings rate. We put in $720,000 in savings just for refinancing. And then some interesting work on that. We've also gotten some grants, energy grants and such. But your second part of your question or maybe it was was the first part and what would be the impact of zero in 2021? One of the, you know, those charts that Mike had, I don't have them in front of me here, but they do show significant increases in the out years of investments in part to what we spoke about with the CSO program. In parts of what we haven't spoken about is we are also expecting some increased costs due to. Nutrient caps. Put on by the Department of Ecology on all 17 wastewater treatment plant operators into the go into the sound. That would be an extremely costly venture for us and hit us in those out years. We do not have cost estimates, nor do we have a definitive element of that from Department of Ecology. They started out with a five year planning effort and now have gotten down to actually planning to put into. A cap. The impact of zero. What would that mean? Our team has done some initial look at that. We would estimate the deferral of 12 about a dozen projects, I would say 10 to 12 capital projects that are currently going on. Our 4.5% rate increase is maintaining the status quo. It is not any additional new projects. We would have about a dozen. Projects that. Are about that would be delayed. I don't. We don't cancel. Projects. We delay them. I have canceled them. When the subject matter, experts say we no longer need this, we can achieve it another way. But that's not often we've got projects. That was mentioned by Mike regarding our. 4 to $5 billion in assets. We've got over 55,000 pieces of equipment in that asset program. And so we're continually upgrading, refurbishing and replacing that equipment. Those 12 projects, we're not in the budgeting phase yet. And once we have our direction from council, the policy direction on the reg, we will do that budgeting. But those projects are on the. Books and ready to go or in either engineering or for construction. They are all projects that are. Critical towards. Preserving the integrity of the system, whether it be a conveyance project or whether it be a pump station or whether it be a facility at the plant. I've got several projects that I think it was mentioned, the seismic upgrades to the hospital with that seismic upgrades that would be delayed both at South and West Point should they be hit by a large earthquake. Would make those both those plants. Inoperable without getting those projects. Underway and going. Those are quite. Important. So those are. The kinds. Of projects that we're looking at. We've got a number of. Of. Generator replacements that need to be done on. We all know during the storm events, many of you. Have experienced this in your districts. Where major storm events and the power outages, our power plants at I mean, our treatment or our pump stations and sorry are all run on backup generators for major projects is to upgrade the aging backup generators as well as the electrical systems. And finally and I can get into more detail, people ask questions about that one. But finally, I'd like to say on the operating side, early estimates are about somewhere between five and $6 million of operating costs would have to be reduced. I, I, I would not be able to necessarily find that in travel expenses, of course, but or vacancy positions. And so we would be likely reducing some positions could well be staff positions on the operations and maintenance side on that, depending on somebody had mentioned the voluntary program for early retirement, it would be something we would be looking at. We would of course be looking. At vacancy positions, but we. Haven't done that detailed budgeting. I think I saw an estimate where 5.8 million results in about if you were just to take it in positions about 30 or 35 positions. So that's a a thumbnail on my. Impacts of zero. Which is why we want to go to 4.5. Mark, thanks. Just real quickly. 12 projects out of how many projects how many capital projects would. 12 would be great. I'm going to hazard a guess on this one. And, you. Know, I would say half of about. 65 projects and how many haven't? How many millions of dollars would be delayed? I'd say about a year out of millions on the books. Give me a give me a magnitude here. I'd like to give you back. I'd like to get back to you with that magnitude. We better. I think we're estimating somewhere between 50 and $100 million in projects would have to be delayed for 2021. We spend what is what is four and a half percent generate in terms of revenue. Yeah. And that, Heidi is on the line and she'll show respect to that. I see her smiling on that one. I would say our capital program spends somewhere between 250 to 300 to 350, depending on where the projects are in their staging. We spend more during during the course having trouble understanding how because it's not a $100 million of rate hike, how that delays $100 million of projects by year. And then finally, I don't want to take too much more time here. Someone I would like them to address the status of the rate stabilization reserve to be able to kick it a year. Right. We've got some real reserves. I think Heidi's prepared to talk about that. Yes. Thank you, Mark, and thank you, Councilmember and asking for your questions. Heidi. Papa Chuck Wastewater Treatment Division Financial Services Manager So with the Rate Stabilization Reserve, we've historically have maintained a $46 million threshold. And as Mike mentioned in his staff report or Mr. Read, we don't know what the COGAT impacts would be far as our revenues to the utility we're monitoring as that information comes in. And and mind you, with our billing methodology, we are delayed by for the fourth quarter rolling average of how we build our contracts to our agencies. So we won't see the real impact of the COVID 19 impacts until next year. Some time, however, we have formed a project team with NWT to closely monitor those impacts as they come in from when just working with the sewer agencies and just understanding the impacts that are working that are happening with them at this time . And then your other question, it was released on the operating side for me just to confirm. Well. I'm not sure, Heidi. Nice to see. And thank you for the answers. But I'm trying to understand the four and a half percent just real. Basically, how much money does it generate? Oh, that's this for the first year? Yeah, for the first year, it's about $20 million. Got it. And the starter and the range that was reserved, known as 46 and a half million in it. 46 in a quarter. 46 and a quarter. Okay. All right. And we don't it's a final very interesting point. I assume we've talked to some of our larger partners like Seattle Public Utilities or the Red Wastewater Treatment Utility. They must know here, March, April, they've had a couple of billing cycles. They must know, say, on commercial accounts, whether or not they're not, you know, whether or not the volumes are down and to what degree. I mean, do we have any intel on that? Because you're concerned, if I understand you, about just direct revenue reduction from the current account base and what that means. Correct. And yeah, so we should have that information coming in since it's, you know, May 19th. So we'll we can certainly get back to you regarding what that looks like. Okay, Mike. I mean, seems like that would be interesting and whether it's a blip or whatnot. So my concern is, colleagues, that these are unprecedented times that these things are going on. And I don't I think we should take a hard look at this and determine whether or not it's an absolute must do or whether there are some things we could do to to ease the burden on our businesses coming back online and our homeowners and renters who are paying the utility bills. So I don't want to do anything that would damage the finances in a way that they can't be repaired. But we've got a pretty. Know, we've got reserves and there's timing issues. And when you pack, as our partners are saying, go zero. I mean, that's a knowledgeable base and we've got to step up here because this has not been referred to the Regional Air Quality Committee because of the stand down. So I think it's important we take our time and make sure we get this right. Mr. Chair. I'm sorry, Mr. Titley. Are you raising a hand of the suspect? Yes. If I had a final thought for a council member. Dombrowski, if that's appropriate, please. So one other consideration to think about is wastewater is going to be going to the bond market this summer. Both the refunding is to save money and to borrow new money. And if you read the rating agency reports, one of the most important factors in the current very high bond rating that the wastewater utility has is the council's demonstrated willingness to raise rates. And so, A, they will see four and a half percent this year and 0% next year, very differently than 0% this year and maybe four and a half percent next year, particularly given all the financial uncertainty around the revenue that wastewater will get from commercial accounts. So, you know, if there's a if there are thoughts about doing something that's significantly less than four and a half percent for 2021, I'd just encourage you to think about how the bond market will react to that. Just coincidentally, last Thursday, we had a meeting with our county financial advisor and he was talking about this very thing . And so it might be of interest to some council members to hear from Mr. Shelley about this issue. If if you would like to add or you or I'm happy to discuss it more, but I do want you to be aware that that's another consideration you need to keep in mind as we go into this. All right. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. That's those are I'll remind colleagues the same financial advisors who are about a year ago said we've got to speed up paying cash for our capital projects because we're on our watch. And that was going to lead to a 10% hike in rates, which was the original proposal. I do credit revision with dialing that back in recognition of this, but I don't know, Dwight. I know there are jurisdictions around the country right now that can't sell municipal bonds, that the market just won't have them. And I think there's going to be an appetite for now. I'm not I'm not in the my business every day, but I have a sense that we are well rated and that doesn't seem like a deal killer to me. But anyway. So it's a helpful thing to keep in mind. I mean, let me be clear. I'm not implying that if there were no rate increase, the bond market would not purchase wastewater debt. But I think you would see a change in the rating very likely, and therefore higher costs that are not confined just to the near term. As you know, once you have your rating go down, it's really hard to get it back up. So I just want council members to be aware that that is another factor in this. Again, not to the point where you would say, well, the market will close this out, but it would have potentially some long term impacts . And we also have a bond coverage, a separate account for for almost like insurance. They're right. In addition to the rate stabilization reserve. Yeah, you're right. We have to maintain a coverage ratio. And one of the things that rates were like two and a half times the service amount or something. Yeah. With if I remember I is one and a quarter is the issue and they've done some work about that. But one of the concerns again about doing a zero rate increase or a much smaller rate increase is you lose that revenue from that calculation. And if some of the more you know, if like the hotels they shut down for another three months or the commercial office buildings are largely out of operation and water volumes really go down that much and therefore the revenue for the division goes down that much. You can get very close to those ratios, which would be very problematic. That's that's where you might not be able to access the debt market. So that's why I'm surprised we don't have some quick reads on that from our big utilities ready to go now so we can understand that. I mean, that's a big that that would be important. So I would appreciate it as possible. This is your recommendation. I know, but what are the options that the council has move back to recommend the zero. But a chart that says if you did this, these are the pluses and minuses. You know, we're we're now faced with just your recommendation and surrounding facts and rationale. But we may it's a difference between saying approve or make a decision on options. And right now it's approve or don't approve it. So I think that's a fair request. And conceptually, what we might be able to bring back to you is if you're approved to rate proposals now one for 21 and one for 22, what would that look like? Lambert. Lambert Thank you. As you know, I'm the committee, the Regional Water Quality Committee that oversees this. So prior to the pandemic, we were very deeply involved in the very questions that Councilmember Dombrowski was asking. And the rate that was coming over at that time was 9%. So when we got pushback from our partners, the amount was cut in half to four and a half. So I think it's important for us to know that. I'd like for Heidi Pepitone to come back on Monday and answer two questions. What is the the amount of money per month that you're talking about? And just 2 hours and $0.36. But I want Heidi said what the correct answer is. And then also, Heidi did a very extensive research on what really would need to be done to be very prudent in making sure that we're keeping up with the maintenance of our pipes. And we've had a number of issues with some of our pipes that because of corrosion, have actually asked. And we had an issue last year and often where we had a 20 to 30 foot drop in the road and we had to go in and redo 172 feet. So luckily nobody was in the road at that point. But if Heidi would tell us those two things, I think that would be very helpful information for people to have. Heidi. There still is. Council Member So I will speak to the monthly the monthly amount that you asked about for the sewer rate and then I'll defer to my colleague, Director Isaacson, regarding the other question on that. So with the executor's proposed sewer rate, the monthly rate will be $47.37, and that's a $2 and four cent increase. And that our contract sewer agencies would see, since we are the wholesaler, we will charge those to our contract sewer agencies. And they will then pass it on to their customers. So there's a few cents. So that's $2. And $0.04 is what we're talking about different from what people are paying today. And while I realize there's a lot of stress going on in the life cycle of not doing what needs to be done and letting it get worse and causing more damage, that is very helpful. I know you said to pass it on to the director, but the list that you showed me, the top projects that needed to be done and. Do you remember how many projects were on that list? Just remember. Are you referencing our asset management? Yes. Yes. So I will defer that question to Director Isaacson. Okay. Okay. And the asset management program, I think we had a list that we wanted to start beginning the initiation of our projects in 2021. And that was the original proposal, the 9.5 that included about 40 projects to initiate. That is not the complete asset management program of 700 million. Those are the most critical ones. And there were 17 in the conveyance program, six projects at our offsite facilities and about, I would say 19 to 20 different projects at our treatment plants , West Point and South Plant. Now a little bit on those are you know, you referenced the project, the emergency project that we did down in Auburn, I believe, on M Street in the downtown area of Auburn. That is a part of our is a part of our ongoing asset management program. Asset management is really part of a it's got a maintenance component that's done every single day from our staff that work on our. Projects as well as a capital. Program. On the maintenance side of that, we have an inspection crew that goes out and they take our conveyance facilities and they look for essentially they look for what I like to say. They look for facilities that are degraded. It's a highly toxic environment down there. And this was a part of one of our older facilities and I think it was the hydrogen sulfide had built up enough that degraded it enough. They did an emergency repair. I think you referenced about 90 feet of that. We will go in and do a further repair on that about 2 to 3000 feet later this summer. I would minor correction. We didn't see the drop yet. This TV crew saw that it was about to and we placed a steel plate over the intersection until we could make that repair. But that's the part of this that a good example of our program. That program, I would say, has been significantly upgraded under the council's leadership. They asked us to after the West Point flood, we really took. A look hard look. At our strategic asset management plan, and that really came out with a completed inventory accurate condition assessment and then a framework for the refurbishment and replacement and repair of our of those 55,000 assets that I spoke of since that 2018 work since West Point, we started that list, the vast majority of the initial. High priority. Projects were completed. We still have that list that you see today or what we've included in that $700 million component. I would say that we evaluated the projects that came through by a series of teams under our US and our advanced teams. As well as our. Maintenance folks, as well as our planners and our operators. And they prepared a risk portfolio based on four factors, which I think are really important. The condition, the reliability, meaning, is it within two years of its expected life, the risk of failure and that consequence of that failure? That's a bit of a judgment call on that. But then we have the professionals on that. The one that's intriguing to me the most that caught my attention is obsolescence. Those initial projects that we identified were all projects that either. Had the most wear and tear on their conveyance system or the. Parts for the the pumps in the facilities that are plants. Were obsolete. In fact, that their parts could not be purchased. And so that we were trying to make maintenance repairs on something that we needed to replace the entire piece. Because as time goes on. The parts are hard to repair. And sometimes when. You bring in a new part, it isn't compatible or copacetic with the rest of the. Facility or the rest of the. Piece that it's working. From. And then finally, this one's interesting to me, as well as from an operations guy, is that it's the demands on staffing. We have key performance indicators for our maintenance crews. We have targets and what we expect them to accomplish on maintenance. We also measure a planned work versus break in work or. Versus unplanned. Work, and that's when we have a lot of unplanned work on a piece of equipment that is called break in work. I mean, is taken away from our preventative maintenance work. We start to see that that piece of equipment needs to be replaced or repaired, and we have a reliability engineer. So that's the that's the essence. Of of the program and what's generated that list that you speak of and why we wanted to initially get that going under the 4.5 in 2021, we would delay them and start really delay them by a year depending on our work. I would also say we look forward to working with our new component agencies. They were aware of asset management. They were not aware of. The details behind that. And for that, they should be and they have every right to know that. So I hope that answers your question. Thank you. So I think what I'd like to say is that this total would be less than $25 a year increase. And what it would accomplish, if you look at part two on the backlog of the asset management inventory that is unfunded, that needs to be completed. I think it's really important. And from my opinion, you know the thing anyways, Tom Bush and I would adopt that in this situation say pennywise ton foolish because we absolutely have to get this taken care of and the sooner the better. And I think looking at all the projects and I just want to call out the great work that Heidi did. If you would like to know more specifics, the chart that she did was awesome. And of course, we won't say it was that she was trained in our department, but she was good before and great still. So anyway, I think that that is very insightful of what it is that needs to be completed. And when you see what it is, the sooner we can get started, the cheaper it will be. It will only get more expensive. And we are talking about $2.04 a month. And well, I realize we are in tough economic times. We just talked about putting up a $68 a year bond. So and then something needs to be done. It needs to be done. And as again, this is less than $25 and it is very different than what was originally proposed at 9%. And because part of this will be a clean water management study, which will be, what, two years and completion? So how long will be about two years. The end of 2021. We expect to have it transmitted to council, so we'll have lots of discussions going on. But this is a baby step and getting to the right place because we have lots of other questions that are very extensive that we will be needing to get into. So this is an exciting time to be dealing with this, but it's also a lot of work ahead. So thank you for bringing this forward and I look forward to working on it more. Thank you. Further questions. Mr. Chair. We're done. Go ahead, Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Market share and Councilmember Dabrowski his comments and concerns and and I want to see some scenarios that look at more of a flat rate or nearly a flat rate and then look at cost pushing back to year to and beyond. I am also very concerned about any kind of a rate increase this year. So I'd like to see those scenarios as well. Thank you. You know. You know. Who's our. I'm sorry. Councilmember Bell to Jake. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I could have just gone ahead, but I wasn't sure if you were okay. But I just want to I want to ask, I guess a similar make a similar. Request to. What's already been made. And that is I sitting here today couldn't really articulate the crisp, like full list of things that are what this rate is buying us. This rate proposal is buying us versus says if we did a different rate proposal, I heard a lot of different things and it all kind of but I heard like sort of long term stuff mixed in with short term stuff. And it would be really it would be much easier to address the concerns that we're hearing if we could get a better explanation for the difference between, you know, the real difference between 4.5% and some lesser number. I'm not sure that that's been well communicated. And, you know, the the contrary argument, it's a financial crisis that people are seeing. How could we put even a couple of dollars a month on to them more? Is that's really compelling argument. Right. So we need to explain what our proposal, as you know, as a wastewater treatment division is, why that's compelling. And I'm just not quite hear that. And it might you might need to follow up with that. But that's the ask I have. Thank you. All right. So we've heard that from we've heard a couple of concerns and series of questions, more information from our colleagues. We have legislation in committee now and would have noticed and would anticipate bringing it to full council next week. We? Instead of moving it to full council or being open to the idea of council relieving it. Of well, just believe in it from this committee next week. Council member You're the prime sponsor and you've got your camera and your microphone askew. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm prepared to make a motion, if you so wish. Waiting to hear the pleasure of the chair and the body. The chair is one guy in this committee. The chair? You have to make a motion. They say you want to chime in? Yeah. Just from the perspective of council action. My understanding is that while we are scheduled to get scheduled, time to take this up next week if if members feel it really could use some more briefing and explanation. I understand that it is possible to do one more round of committee meetings and still pass it on time at council, and I'm not recommending that I would be fine. Based on what I understand of our meeting next week to move it forward to next week. But I understand it's not a drop dead thing to get it out of committee today. Look. They'll do it. You might read. That is correct. So you have the option of either acting on May 26, I should say that a public hearing is scheduled for May 26. You could either act then or you could act basically two weeks from that date, which is the June 9th meeting. That would be the last date that you would have to look forward on with a regular schedule. Mr. Chair. Captain America was. Another option would be to lose it without recommendation to the Council. I think you're right. And if we were in chambers now, I might see heads nod or heads not nod in that I only see a couple of head as I saw him nodded. And I'm not sure how if I if we should read that ism kind of the body count remember Caldwell's or not to bull by the horns and see what happens. I'm saying the same thing you are. I can go ahead and make that motion. Okay. With that, I'm the proposed ordinance 2020. There are when they think they're going to rates and charge for sewage treatment and disposal. I've been given been passed to the council with a recommendation. Council closes when we map ordinance 2020 186 out of committee without recommendation. Is there a discussion member? Mr. Chair, we do have an amendment. Which is technical, regarding the Financial Planning Council. Oh, well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move Amendment eight, which would swap out the incorrect financial plan for a revised one, is we were. Alerted this. Morning. It needs to be done. Thank you. Councilman Michael Wells. Is the move to adoption of the amendment a see? No discussion. All those in favor, please. As I say, I. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Discussion that the motion as amended. The ordinance as amended. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I just wanted to point out that the water department, wastewater department has put a very long time of work and effort into analyzing exactly their needs and came out with a number. And then when things started happening, they with our partners, they kept that in her and said that that's what they thought was prudent. If you look at their work, I believe that it is prudent and we've had two of our budget experts talk about that. That's what they believe is prudent. So I think that when we go against the people who have studied something for years and believe that this is the best, it's it's worth our time to get into that the numbers. And so I definitely support the idea that I am very thankful that experts have done this good work and have been willing to present it. So if you haven't had the presentation privately to get into that, please do, because I think it will be very insightful. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Further discussion. Councilmember Dombrowski I am as chair and I understand this is without recommendation, but I believe there are too many unanswered questions and not enough choices to be advancing this today. I appreciate all of the excellent work that the wastewater treatment division has done, but their mission is to look at the waste water disposal and clean water needs and financing what they need to run their program. Our job is different. Our job is to do that, but to also account for the other public factors such as the economy, the need for businesses to recover. We're not talking just about $2 a month on a on a residential unit, although that's not insignificant. We have we have no data before us on the impact to small businesses, restaurants, coffee shops, manufacturing plants that need to pay the bill and what it would mean to them. I'm just I just don't think we should be advancing this at this time without options to realize the other issues that this council should take into account. And so I'm not going to be able to be supportive today. Maybe those questions will be answered between now and the election at the Council. Thank you. Council Member Further discussion. Can someone recall? What? Now. All right. But I would ask the court to please call the wrong. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember, about reaching. I can't remember. Dombrowski. No. Remember. Done. No. Member Coel's I was a member, Lambeth Council member of the Grove. I was a member of our North Tower. Councilmember Bond my car. Couple some members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. chairman about a six I's council members Tim Volsky and done know and councilmember number one right now are excused. Councilmember Dunn are you online at the moment. As one makes our. Favorite color. I see him in the Zoom meeting. All right. By your by your vote. We have advanced ordinance 2020 186 as amended to full council without recommendation. Thank you, my. I'm looking to Councilmember Bell duty here and maybe Councilmember Caldwell's regarding the need to expedited to full council next week. Chair. Thank you. Please come to my rebellion sheet. I have a. Question and then I'll defer to Councilmember Colwell. I heard Mike Reid say that we have a public hearing scheduled for next week. Yes. That's correct. We are required to give a ten day notice of a hearing that's published that we've done, that the public hearing that we targeted was the May 26th date. Does the item need to be on the agenda in order to have that public hearing? I believe you could you could pull it from a cow to do a public hearing and then return to Cal. He chose to. But yes, it has to be, I believe. Well, that's my legal question. So I'm going to defer to the legal staff. My rough understanding does need to be in council before a public hearing. But I would again look for final answer from the legal staff. So I'm guessing that it might have to be expedited in order to make the public hearing be legitimate. That was my the reason for my question, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Balducci, because one day I will see if I can move it out. Today, I believe you would want to expedite it, otherwise you would not be able to take action until that following mid-June council meeting. Right. I mean, we might we might end up doing that. Anyway, my question is really about the right. So there's two issues. I'm sorry. Let me say the state is definitely issue. One is whether we need to expedite to have the public hearing. And I'm hearing that may be the case. Issue number two is if we don't expedite, we lose the opportunity to act next week. We don't have to act next week, but we will lose the opportunity to act next week if we chose to. Right. Get the facts out there. Councilmember Caldwell's in Mr. Chair I move that we expedite proposed ordinance took us 0186 to the council for its May 26 meeting. Without objection. We will we will expedite to preserve the legislation being in full council for the public hearing on the 26. See? No objection. So ordered. What if that is Councilmember one? Right. So are you unmuted? I received a text from Councilmember Von Bauer that he was working to unmute on his end. Councilmember. Mr. Chair, this is what he again and I will just note again that you do have the ability, under the council rules, to email the clerk an affirmative vote in favor of the majority recommendation. If we computer. Technical difficulties. I have a I have just received an email from Councilmember van gelder addressed to me, Melanie Pedroza, the clerk of the council, and then Angelica Calderon, one of the clerks for the committee that was paid. Please record my vote as know for the vote that has happened. Additionally, please make sure that I'm unmuted and you're in as I am unmuted on my end, but apparently can't be heard. And remember, I'm right there with you. You are not muted on our end. But we have received your email and recorded that information, Madam Clerk. But beyond that, it at the conclusion of our agenda. We wanted to make sure that technical difficulties didn't stop any council members from voting. Were there any members excused from books? No, Mr. Chair, there were not. Very well done. Then having nothing else on our agenda, I want to thank everyone who participated. I particularly thank our council and committee staff who make running online meetings virtually seamless for members. And I know there's a lot of behind the scenes work, particularly managing public comment and the logistics of organizing and hosting the meeting itself virtually . So I extend my appreciation and thanks for that work. And what about the community as a whole is adjourned and we may hang up. Thank you.	AN ORDINANCE providing for the submission to the qualified electors of King County, at a general election to be held on November 3, 2020, of a proposition authorizing the county to issue its general obligation bonds in the aggregate principal amount of not to exceed $1,740,000,000 or so much thereof as may be issued under the laws governing the indebtedness of counties, for the purpose of providing funds to pay for public health, safety and seismic improvements for Harborview Medical Center.
king_98105374-1ad2-4ab4-b477-e72141f0747e	July 14th two 2020 Meeting of the Committee of the Whole. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott serving as chair of the committee the whole this year. And as we begin I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples past and present. We thank these caretakers of the lands who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and enrich our community greatly as well. Today, as we have throughout the pandemic, we have a very full agenda. We're beginning with an update from executive staff on the county's pandemic response, followed by the annual presentation from Forum for Culture and two for Culture Appointments. Next, we'll have an ordinance related to reporting on the Electric Scooter Electric Scooter Pilot Program in Motion declaring racism as a public health crisis and two charter amendment ordinances related to the county sheriff. In light of the public health emergency, the governor has issued an emergency in emergency order, suspending the section of the Open Public Meetings Act that requires us to have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. This has been extended by the leadership of the State House and Senate and housekeeping item to help us manage the virtual meeting. I'd like to ask the public, as well as executive and council staff to please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak with that. Madam Quirk, I'd ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilmember Bell, do you hear council member Jim asking here? Council member done. Here. Council member Cornwall here. Also member Lambert here. Council member of the group. Council member of the girl. Councilmember Vaughn right down here. Council members. ALL Hello. Here. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, you have the quorum. Thank you. Council member of the Grove in the Zoom call. I'm sure they'll be participating shortly. Council member? Don, can I call on you for a motion to approve the minutes of our June 2020 meeting? Yes, I will. And so move, Mr. Chair. Thank you. The minutes of our June 30th meeting are before us. See no debate. All those in favor of approving the minutes please signify by saying I. I am. Opposed. Nay. The minutes are approved. Thank you. That takes us to public comment, Madam Kirk. Do we have people on the line wishing to provide public comment? I presume we do. Yes, you do, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms.. Daly. Having an entirely remote meeting of the King County Council is still relatively new, so I want to ensure that everyone who was called in understands the rules for public comment and how we manage the process. First, our standard ground rules, which I will apologize in advance if you're hearing them for the first time, is they can sound overly harsh. The. Public comment may not be used for the purpose of purposes of assisting the campaign for the election of any person to any office, or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition . It must also not include obscene speech. If a speaker fails to abide by these restrictions or rule, the speaker out of order, require the Speaker to conclude her testimony or perhaps exit the virtual meeting. Now, the actual management process itself is all members of the public joined the meeting. They were automatically muted. We can see, reconsider name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Our committee clerk, Ms.. Daly, will call the names and numbers when your name or the last three digits of your telephone number are called, staff will unmute your line. Please make sure that you have also unmuted on your end if you've made it as a courtesy during the meeting. Before you begin your testimony, please wait to be acknowledged so that we can hear you and then start by saying and spelling your name so we can have it accurate for the record. If you wish your video to be turned on for your public comment, please request that as your beginning. You will have 2 minutes to speak in all your time. You've reached your 2 minutes. You can certainly finish your thought, but please wrap up your comments to allow the next person to speak. If you go too much past 2 minutes, you may be unmuted. If you're listening on cable TV or streaming, please turn that function off. Otherwise, we'll hear feedback on the line. Though I don't expected it to be. What is disruptive of the meeting? We may need to terminate your participation in the call. Please hang up after you've provided your comment to make it easier for us to manage the call. You can follow the rest the remainder of the meeting on King County TV, which is Channel 22 or Stream online. The link to stream online is on the council's website. W WW W dot King County dot gov backslash council. We would click on the watch us live button will now begin the public comment reminder to wait to win your what's your name or number is called please wait to be acknowledged so we can be sure to hear you and spell and spell your name for the record. Madam Clerk, please begin. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is Angela Donaldson. Your third. Go ahead. Thank you. I'm the current president of the Fall City Community Association, and we're concerned about the proposed changes to the sheriff's office, as well as. Future funding for the sheriff's office due to COVID, which is not on the current agenda. But we do feel that the sheriffs need to be provided the tools for their job, as well as the authority for their jobs. And we're concerned that the proposed amendments may affect it adversely. We also have sheriffs that live in unincorporated King County that are distressed at this time. And I've personally heard of three sheriff set of put in transfers to move to other areas such as Spokane County because of the negative culture that they're at their workplaces and right now. And so I'd like to just show our support for our sheriff's office and. And hope that we can find a good solution for unincorporated residents. And thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Sonya Hellman. Please go ahead. You are muted. Hello. My name is Anya Hellman. I am pastor in Canmore and I'm also a member of Leo. I am joining just express my support for the amendment for the King County Sheriff's Office for the sheriff to become an appointed member. I know I have heard before some concern with those who feel that that would mean the sheriff would no longer be accountable to the public. And I just wanted to state I believe they would be accountable to the public as they would be accountable to the council which which is full of appointed, I'm sorry, for elected offices . And I believe that the way things are set up right now, the general public is not aware, not not able to watch as closely occurring things that are happening or how things unfold or policies and so forth. But by having the council appoint, they would be able to do more oversight, have more communication and if needed, but hopefully it would not be needed to even intervene when needed. So I just wanted to express my support for that amendment. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Glen Wallace. Go ahead, please. Your muted. Thank you. Hi there. This is Gwen Wallis, spelt Jolie and Lacey. I'm against the proposed ordinance to put this charter amendment on the ballot. In recent weeks, we only have to look at our nation's capital on Seattle's Capitol Hill to see the drastic impacts of senior law enforcement officials being directed by the executive branch with an agenda beyond the safety of the public. Making the sheriff appointed moves the accountability further away from we the people we like, the council members, the sheriff and the executive. We expect you to cooperate, collaborate and partner in the safe functioning of King County. Making the sheriff subordinate to the executive dilutes the will of the people, even though the voters already belong to the same question almost 25 years ago. I acknowledge much of this change in our society that many of the same problems still exist. Given that the council members from districts one, two, four and eight is sponsoring this, I assume that the intent is to address the very real need for police reform and very real needs of the residents in our urban core around Seattle. However, the reality is that the sheriff's direct jurisdiction of this area is narrow evictions, courthouse security into unincorporated urban areas. Whyte, Center and Skyway. Might it make more sense to examine annexing these areas with Seattle, Ramsey and Burian to align the local policing with areas already experiencing the same types of issues? The needs of the residents of White Center are very different than the needs of the residents in Fall City. But as a Democrat, I believe that Black Lives Matter and I support the reform of policing and reasonable use of force policies. But this change must be thoughtful and must include much more community engagement, not this heavy handed effort from the council members. Sheriff Joe Hanke has quickly ensured that the sheriff's office use of force policies comply with they can't wait. I'm sure if the court find bad deputies without input or oversight from the executive and many times is at odds with the union because of it. The sheriff's independence from the council an executive for key reasons. They could operate this way with full accountability to the voters. We already have a civilian office of Law Enforcement Oversight. The council already controls the sheriff's office budget. There has been a statement to the media from one of the charter commissioners that the candidate pool for sheriff needs to be expanded beyond King County because of the shortage of candidates. I strongly disagree. Washington state law does not require a sheriff to be commission law enforcement officers, only that they complete the basic academy within the first year of office. We have 1.7 million potential sheriff candidates in King County, the ultimate civilian oversight and path to reform baby to elect a civilian sheriff candidate if one steps forward and the voters embrace them. The election of the sheriff is not a barrier to reform if the voters want the reform. I know many of you and I value your efforts to make King County a better place. I believe this effort is misplaced and a waste of precious time and money to put to a vote when we have other pressing issues pandemic homelessness and a dwindling economy. Thank you. Thank you. The next person on our line is Joseph Shoji Lachman. You can meet yourself and go ahead. Well, council members, thank you for this opportunity to get public comment. And again, my name is Joseph Shelby Lockman, and I'm here on behalf of Asian Counseling and Referral Service as their policy analyst. And I'll say I'm here this this time to speak, in support of the amendment to change the new point, the sheriff's office to appointment incentive election and supporting also 106 proposal. And in reviewing some of the reasoning that the Charter Review Commission gave for changing this, we believe that this is going to be a more effective way of ensuring that the communities that are most disproportionately affected by police misconduct and violence have a way of pushing for accountability. And while elections in general are are can be a way of holding folks accountable when we actually see the effect of the volume. I'm sorry. Council member Is there is there an issue? Attorney who is unmuted. But, Joe, so I apologize for the interruption. Please continue. Oh, no, no problem. Thank you. Just Councilmember Von Bauer came on for a second. So we feel that the appointment process have actually allow for better candidates to be chosen, not always time to be rank and file. Increasing accountability for the residents, especially the communities that are most impacted at this time. Based on the comment from the sheriff's office that we've seen during recent issues over the inquest, and we've seen an inability so restrictions on council's ability to ensure that the sheriff's office and deputies are held accountable for misconduct. That has affected our community members. And we feel that in inviting the internal strife, contested election causes is apparent. But most importantly, the appointed sheriff is more accountable for performance and complying with county ordinances and policies. And this was in light, of course, of the considering the sheriff's office, a lawsuit against the county over the inquest process , saying that there was a lack of interest in truly complying with the inquest process in terms of its in terms of the spirit, but also the letter and ensuring accountability for the communities and especially, for example, the families of Tommy Wade. To Mary Spence, as I know that now, we've seen particular impacts on Southeast Asian communities and Pacific Islander communities and in in addition to other communities of color, disproportionately affected by police misconduct and violence. And we believe that the Charter Review Commission's recommendations, combined with Councilman Tim Vasquez proposal, would help to create a system that would reach and office more accountable, not just to all the voters necessarily, but to the council and to the communities that are most impacted by the content that we're concerned about. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Carrie Grady. We hear a muted. Carrie Grady, would you like to speak? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Good afternoon, Counsel. The duties of the sheriff are defined by state law. They are designed to act autonomously from the county council, to provide balance, to be able to provide a voice for the communities they represent. We are taking away the voter's right to choose. What kind of representation will we have when seven of the nine council members have districts within municipalities to include the city of Seattle, and only two council members have the majority of unincorporated King County. They are constantly voted against with regards to budget and other motions, including the Sheriff Charter. Removing the authority of the sheriff to remain separate from this unbalanced representation is deliberately obtuse. At the very least, there is already tension at the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, a resource used by the County Council, which is reform itself. How can we trust the Council to appoint the correct person in this position when only our president herself is under investigation? This charter was intended to hold our deputies accountable to the very social issues we have at hand. Now, watching what MLK Council did this to the city police field and how this Seattle City Council reacted to the chaos that ensued on our streets should give pause to the County Council. Is now really the time to make these decisions or are we being rash? There is a need to have representation at the table for all voices to be protected and preserved from rash judgment. The sheriff acts as a voice for the interests of his communities and has a proven track record for being accountable to its voters and progressive in our efforts to support social equality, training and reform. I ask you to keep the right people at the table and to keep the people's voice preserved and protected. Thank you. Thank you. The next person on the line is Joss. Josh Castle. Excuse me. Go ahead, please. Your family. Hi. I'm Josh Castle with Lehigh Valley, please. We would like to work with the council and the executive on shelter solutions that can quickly and cost effectively, get more people inside and protected from COVID, providing relief from congregate, shelter and the next step for people who are moved into hotels. We currently operate 12 villages in Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia that serve a thousand people a year. Recently, in response to the COVID emergency, our staff built and opened three sites in four weeks, creating 95 new shelter beds for people experiencing homelessness, which were in fact the only new beds created in Seattle this year. We are now able to set this up in weeks, which can be in place before and well after the pandemic and at a fraction of the cost of temporary hotels. We want to ask, what is the next step for the people who are moved from congregate shelters into hotels? It would, of course, be inhumane and dangerous to send people back to congregate shelters. The villages can be a part of the solution as they are particularly effective in keeping people protected from COVID. Each tiny house is a separate four walled unit, allowing residents to have their own privacy and not share physical space or air with others . Services, including meals, are provided on site, allowing residents to stay in place and not have to leave. Each village has high quality hygiene facilities providing bathrooms, showers and laundry that is sanitized by our staff hourly. A recent funds allocated to King County through the state's shelter grant program and the Federal Cares Act can be used to stand up more of these villages quickly and get more people inside and drastically reduce exposure to the coronavirus, helping both the shelter residents and the broader community in the fight against COVID. Over the last several months, we've been working closely with the Word of God church in Skagway, who wish to host a tiny house village with a meeting with the Skyway Coalition neighbors, businesses, schools, faith leaders and others. And there is enormous support for this with a little bit of funding provided through COVID relief funds. We can get over 50 people inside at this site alone in just weeks. We have also been working closely with community partners in Renton, North Bend and other cities in the county who wish to host villages. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person on the line is Kathy Taylor. Go ahead, please. Muted. Kathy Taylor, would you like to speak? You are muted on our end. Kathy Taylor. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Please go ahead. Oh, okay. Sorry about that. Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Kathy Taylor. I am a minister at the Seattle Word of God church. That just was just referring to. We believe that it is the responsibility of the church to service the community. I just really believe in the passage of scripture that talks about that you are your brother's keeper in lines with that thought. We are very interested in providing a tiny village for the homeless in this go week community. We have property that is available at this date and time to be able to assemble a tiny village where we would be able to be a part of providing crisis housing that's needed to protect the homeless from the COVID 19 pandemic that's taking place. So I'm just urging you today that with the emergency funds that are available, the state shelter grant funding that is available, that we are very much in support of having a portion of that money that we might be able to set up and operate a tiny village on our church property. We have others that are in collaboration with other pastors in that area, churches that are in that area. Some of the neighbors that reside in that community that are also in favor of supporting this effort. So I would just ask you today that you would consider the tiny house village on our property at the sight of Word of God church. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Pastor Curtis Taylor. Go ahead, please. You're on mute. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Okay. You know, massacres tend to languish in those other areas, mostly when we look at news and media and see the increase in members of our communities that did have this disease. And we have an enormous community and neighborhood support. I went to Skyway Coalition Council in the early eighties and along with the Skyway Coalition, that's happening and we want to get some of the funding from the state shelter group that is in existence right now to support and set up tiny village properties. And that will help them do kind of commission to do that. And less fortunate than others and provide them not just a means of being more productive in society, but to take the first steps of having so many hands on service and sustained winds and rain, being homeless as they are. And in that situation, they won't be able to be in the community and give this disease to other folks that might be just walking around the house somewhere with shelter. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next person is Cathy Allen. You are muted, our aunt on our end. If you'd like to meet yourself and speak, go ahead, please. Yes. I apologize for my messy house, but I would like to say is, first of all, I was in the room when it happened. The last time, indeed, we voted on this. In fact, I was hired by King County elections to do a series of focus groups throughout the entire King County area when it relates to an elected or appointed sheriff. And the same was true in regards to an elected or appointed elections officer at the time. And I must say that not only did it did the elected pass in every election district, it was particularly heavy in South Seattle, west Seattle and Southeast Seattle that the numbers and the actual statements from folks after we put them through the focus groups to find out what was going on, they were very clear about the fact that they wanted a direct relationship and hiring, not an indirect one. They were also very angry at the thought that that we we hadn't done it before now and were very clear that they wanted to see that direct line where they thought they would have much more direct relationship to be able to have meetings with the sheriff . And indeed, since that time, there's been a 240% increase in the number of meetings that police officers hold with, I should say, sheriff's deputies hold with the community. Actually, these are the kinds of things that have happened for most of the ethnic communities. These communities have been among the first that we have we had in focus groups then and in the recent focus groups. Well, I'm not I'm not allowed to tell you whom I'm polling for, but it should be pretty evident about what, as I explained some of the numbers that we're seeing right now, and that is the current actions of the city council currently are likely to move more of the voters, particularly in greater King County, to vote, not to move this to an appointed position. Indeed, the actions and here are some direct quotes. I have permission from the people who are doing the focus groups to actually mention that some of the direct quotes have you with the fact that what they believe is that what you see is exactly what happens when you put something as important as police into doing the actual defining of what the job is and then how it should be interpreted. Actually, they look at that as much more influence of politicians and politics. What we've seen so far is that they're very concerned about the what they are calling the councils, city councils, power grab and being able to decrease the actual number and the protection. But I just look up and I would just simply say that what most people are likely to tell you is that I'm not going to waste the shot because indeed I want to stake electing the sheriff who was supposed to be protecting us. Who will take responsibility for that? Can I ask you to conclude, please? I'm done. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next person to comment. Go ahead, please. You're unmuted. Hi. My name is Teresa Homan. T s e r s h.O.H. Man And I'm so proud to work for Lehigh as the team's House Village program manager and superstar, I supervise the site managers at our villages. So regarding COVID, I'm asking that you build tiny house villages because the model works really well to keep people protected from the coronavirus. And it could be a good solution for bringing people from the congregate shelters in hotels as they wait to be housed. We've tested our 11 villages and no one tested positive. We can build a village in a month. They're in there an inexpensive option and provide safety from COVID with four walls, good spacing, locking doors. Plus, we practice social distancing and wearing our masks to keep everyone safe. We've transitioned over 800 people into long term housing, and we're working with partners in other cities who want to open villages. As importantly, our tiny house villages give people a place to think, grieve and heal as they move toward being housed permanently. And to keep people safe. So we want to be part of the part of the solution. On the problems that Colbert has introduced. And we thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person has a phone number. Area code 360. Last three digits, 943. Go ahead. You are unmuted. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Please go ahead. Can you state your name? Oh, great. Yes, my name is Deontay Damper. That DEA you can see. Last name, camper van PR. And I'm a part of the King County today at the LGBTQ tower. I hope everybody is having a great day so you can't see my face. But I just wanted to kind of just touch base with you guys with an article that I read previously and I know that you are meeting is declaring racism as a public health crisis. I would have to agree when I look at the spaces when it comes to our only olio representative, Miss Deborah Jacobs, and that and creating that toxic work environment where she's not only discriminating against the LGBTQ community, also being part of the community herself, especially with the things that have been happening with our transgender community. I find that very hurtful. I find I stand by my my my AAPI community as well with the. Toxic, toxic. Statements that she's made towards them, towards our community members, as well as even our own law enforcement. Now, I don't know about you guys, but my mama always told me, now everybody get in line on you. So with all of that being said, especially with everything that is impacting our faith, this is blatant, blatant toxicity. And as a representative of the community advocate for request the City Council, please bear this in and remove Miss Deborah Jacob out of the position. I mean, at the end of the day, we have to show zero tolerance of racism of any kind. Sexism, misogyny, any of that of any kind will not be tolerated. And for Miss Jacob to even think that that that Seattle will let her get away with that here is out of the question. We put you in the position for for a reason, and it's time to start showing up. And when people like mistake does that that it hinders our community. And I would love for our city council people to show up and at least believe a statement on what type of toxicity we will not tolerate in this debate. I would just want to take the time out to show my support for Lehigh as well as the church out there in Gateway. I think that that is great. And I thank you guys very much for your time. Thank you. The next person on the line has the phone number. Area code 513. Last three digits. Five, five, two. You are needed. Please proceed. Hello. I am back. I think s last name f I am K yes I work so we here with the tiny house program asked that you consider allocating funding towards the development of tiny house that is King County, specifically in collaboration with the Seattle Word of God church. We have lost so many to our shortcomings in addressing homelessness, and I know that we can do better. As Josh Castle and many others shared previously, the villages have a proven success record and are quick to set up these saved lives. I really appreciate all of the council members true leadership in these difficult times, and I look forward to working alongside you to do better. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe I have called everyone on the line. Thank you, Mrs. Daley. Let's be certain there. There's nobody on the line who would who is waiting to testify. And so I'd ask you to unmute everyone on the call, and I will ask if anyone would like to testify who hasn't had the opportunity. Mr. Chair, everyone is unmuted. Thank you for your indulgence, everyone. Anyone on the line who would like to testify on items on today's agenda and hasn't had the opportunity to do so? I'm hearing no one. I'm very no, I'm so close public testimony. I ask you, Mr. Lee, to re mute everyone in the line. I'll be ready to unmute myself. Mr. Chair, I've muted everybody. And I have unmuted myself rather than you. Mr. Chair. Of the meeting with Mute Button on it doesn't work so well that way. That takes us to item five on today's agenda which is. The rehab of Dwight David, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, to give us an update on the county's epidemic response. Mr. Dave Lee Good afternoon. Introduced him so warmly. Do we see Mr. DeVere on the call? No. This time, Mr. Chow. There he is right now. Yes. All right. So he's logging in and we'll be turning his audio on. And meanwhile, I will just further introduce that we've benefited greatly from regular briefings from Mr. DeVere, and sometimes he's joined by guests on the county's pandemic response to our call meetings. Since we have been working remotely. And so, as Mr. Daly, let me know when you're on and ready, and we'll turn the video over to you. Here we go. Thank. Financier. I'm married. I'm not here, though. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Yes. Okay. I don't know why. I have a completely different screen look than normal. And so, unfortunately, I don't see a way to get my self. Oh, let's see. Here. Hold on. There we go. Looks like your video is turning on solid black square, but it's not in there. Yep. Looks like it. So a black square, though. Okay. Well, you know what I think I'm gonna do? Why don't I just start doing this briefing without the video? And if it works, it works. And if not, we'll go from there. For those not familiar with Mr. Garvey, he's as handsome as Matt Damon. That would not be true. But I can put a tie on for all of you, so. Okay, well, let me just start. I have in. Given how long your agenda is, I actually have a pretty brief briefing with only four things that I wanted to cover. So the first one is we potentially are coming up on the deadlines for when we are eligible for FEMA reimbursement for our COVID related expenses. There's two potential deadlines under current federal designation. So first, there was a public health emergency that was declared by the Department of Health and Human Services at the federal level. And that emergency currently is scheduled to expire on July 24. And if that is not extended, then that would be the last date on which we could incur expenses that would be potentially reimbursable by FEMA. It seems obvious to most of us that that deadline needs to be extended, since obviously the public health emergency is not over. But until that actually happens, we can't be sure that that's going to happen. So that's one possibility. The second possibility, if that is extended, then that on September 19th, we would reach six months after the original FEMA designation of an emergency. And under normal circumstances, at that point, the eligibility for FEMA reimbursement would end. So that also potentially could be extended. But we may be in a situation in the next couple of months where any costs beyond those rates would no longer be eligible for FEMA reimbursement. And we would be relying solely on the Federal CARES Act money, our state money, or our own resources to continue to pay for those costs. So I'm going to pause there and just see if there's any questions about that. Colleagues. Mr. Chair. Council Member LAMBERT. Thank you, Mr. Dingley. I learned something the other day that might be helpful to you if you have another previous meeting. Either Skype or Zoom in any way open on your computer. It's a black box if you have any at all. Open, closed that and you will reappear with your charming face. Okay. I don't have anything else open, but that's good advice. Thank you for that. You're welcome. Councilmember Lambert, the tech wizard. Practice makes perfect. Can't remember I think of. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, could you get the. Just to be really brief, a sample of the types of things we're funding with FEMA versus cares currently and where it could become a problem and specifically or any of our isolation quarantine or the intensification sites at risk because of loss of potential loss of FEMA funding. So as we've talked about many times, there's a real big overlap between what's female eligible and what's CARES Act eligible and. Our goal, obviously, is to get as much FEMA reimbursement as we can. So the things that we know are I shouldn't say no. The things that we very much expect to be eligible for FEMA are all of the facility expenses that we've incurred. So the isolation and quarantine facilities, the ICRC facilities, excuse me, things like that would be eligible. Also, many of our public health expenses are potentially FEMA eligible AS or even some of our administrative expenses, like our Office of Emergency Management's incremental expenses would be FEMA eligible. So those are some of the things that we are trying to make sure that we keep FEMA eligible for when FEMA ends, whenever that is. It would be when we would have to switch over those things. The CARES Act and I don't foresee any risk to our facilities for the rest of this year. We will have resources to continue to pay for those for this year. Although, Mr. Chair, if I may, please thank you for a lot of these in our previous COVID budgets, we have, I think, and making assumptions or kind of doing our internal budgeting, assuming CARES Act funding, is that correct? So is there a potential that as we get near the end of the year, if these are FEMA reimbursed, that we could have significantly more CARES ACT funding available than we currently are internally budgeting for? Yes, Councilmember, that's exactly right. And that's one of the things that makes this so complicated. So something I wasn't going to talk about today, but I'm happy to share it, is we are starting to think about things that we could do in, let's say, late fall before the end of the year where we could put a very significant amount of CARES Act money out into useful purchases near the end of the year. If it turns out that we still have a significant amount of cares act money left. And so an example of that which we really haven't pursued in any meaningful way yet, is there may well be costs that our school districts in King County are facing. And I'll just use a simple example for masks for kids that they don't have the resources to do. And if we have lined up a bulk purchase that we could make in late November or early December, that would help them. Those are the kind of things we want to have as contingency plans. Thanks. Seeing no one else. Mr. Gravely Okay. Item two that I was going to cover a few of the things in the next COVID omnibus that we already know were coming in. I wanted to share with you. So proposals from agencies are due to us on July 22nd. So that's next Wednesday. So obviously there's still time for further ones to come in and we will then send this to you in mid-August. A few of the things that we already know are going to be submitted by the Department of Community and Human Services, got approval yesterday from the executive to seek extension of our hotel leases and hotel vouchers through the end of the year. And we're working on what those numbers are at this point. And so we would be including that in what comes over to you in about a month. A second category. We've been incurring some significant legal and consulting costs that we want to use the federal money to reimburse. And particularly in HHS, with the grant programs that the council added to the last covered omnibus, they need some temporary staff to help them administer that. So we will be including that. A third thing we already know about the Superior Corps work with the Facilities Management Division to enter into a lease at Maiden Power Center in Bellevue to conduct civil jury trials for the rest of this year. Obviously, with the courts not operating for several months, there's a big backlog. It didn't seem possible or reasonable to do any kind of criminal cases outside of our regular courthouses. But by finding an alternative location to do civil cases with juries, that seemed like a very good idea. I'm sure the center was welcome in the business, given that we don't have any convention business right now. So of course we got a pretty good deal on that. So you will see that included in it. And then finally, I think John Taylor from DLS has probably spoken with some of the council members about this in the second COVID omnibus. There was a small business branch program for the unincorporated area which deals is administering, and the response to that has been less than we had hoped for and expected. And it turned out that some of the language in the expenditure restriction was pretty narrow, and way more than half of the businesses that have sought assistance don't meet the eligibility criteria that is written into that ordinance. And so we're going to be seeking your approval to broaden the language a little bit, particularly around the size of the business and a couple of the other things that were in that. And the idea is to be able to get more of that money out and working in the unincorporated area. And I'm sure it is going to be a lot more things that we will have at that point. But those are more than I was aware of today and thought I would share. Thank you. Councilmember up the grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry to have so many questions today. Do I. Did you just say that the leases on the hotels for that are isolation, quarantine and the intensification sites are all going to be extended until the end of the year. And if so, have the jurisdictions been notified or is this the notification? It is my understanding that DHS is speaking with all of those jurisdictions. So in essence, simultaneously, and I think at least in one case, I don't know any of the details. There's some negotiation about maybe starting to look for alternatives. I just want to make sure that communication was taking place, that they're not hearing about it in this meeting, because I'm sure some of them are listening in right now. So thanks. Amber. Customer number. Thank you. Are we you said are we going to right size? How many we really need in that? I think we've had this is 26. When we brought in the 30 from Ellingham, it was up to 56. That is it still that we have a thousand beds or are we going to right size that to a smaller number? So, Councilor, there's a different set of facilities. So let me be clear about the details here. So what I was speaking of already, hotels that we have leased in hotel vouchers that we've entered into that are being used to intensify homeless shelters. And so these are not for people who have called in. Okay. What you were speaking to was the isolation and quarantine facilities and the CRC facilities. And you are right that we built a lot of capacity and ultimately never needed at all. So we've already started to dismantle the Shoreline facility, for example. We have not opened the Belleview facility, we have not opened the North Highline facility. And so we are maintaining those in a contingent status. Given that caseload is going up a lot now, we fortunately may need them. But yes, we have started to cut back on that. For example, the motel in Kent is not currently staffed and we don't have anyone in it. We have the ability to kind of reactivated on about 72 hours notice if needed. So right now for the facilities you were referring to, we are operating in insofar and on Aurora, in Seattle. And that's meeting our needs right now. So I just want to make sure that we weren't over supplying, as you just said, that there are increased cases and we certainly hope that we never get to needing the numbers that we thought we might need. So that will be important to make you. Hotels and a number of hotels. Thank you, Mr. Chair. DWIGHT Similar to what the situation is with deals with fewer numbers of businesses applying for the grants. As you and I have talked, it appears that some of the chambers also have not in place. Could you please describe what you're doing now to be able to ensure that they know that the grants available and with appropriate a way to apply for it? Yes, Councilmember. So what we have done in that case is to basically do a second round of those applications, as I think most of you know, there was a list of potentially eligible chambers and other organizations that we used originally. And it turned out, not surprisingly, that list was not all inclusive and we were contacted by some other organizations subsequently. And so rather than stop and delay what we already had in place, we just decided to do another round of groups that were all missed in the first round. So that is currently underway. And you had also said that there was some issue about the with some people viewed as the owner and application materials. And that's that is universally true. So that's true of the business grants. It's true of the chambers grants that we were just speaking of. The you know, the federal sub reporting requirements are very detailed and, you know, we are obligated to try to make it as easy as we can, but we're still obligated to tell people the information that they're going to need to give us. And I you know, I think, frankly, there's other organizations that make rational decisions that that's just too much work for the amount of money that they could potentially get. And that's not within our control. That was something that was not in the very original rules we got from the feds. But pretty quickly they said, Oh yeah. And by the way, all the standard sub reporting requirements apply. So unfortunately, there's not much we can do about that. Actually. Other questions from colleagues. Seeing none. Back to you. Right. Okay. So item three on my list, I just thought I would give you an update on where we are in the process of developing the 2021 2022 budget. And where we are in that process is we got our proposal from agencies on July six, which everyone was on time, which is great that they were. And just to give you a sense of the magnitude, we have over 1600 different and unique, what we call decision packages that have been submitted by agencies. And so these are budget reductions or budget additions. They are, in some cases, small restructurings of things. And so that's the burden of work that we are facing now. And of course, new issues get created during the process. So we are very, very busy with the 2122 budget. Obviously in a few months you will be too. I just wanted to share that with you. I will also just note and I'm not going to get in any details today, but I have to say some agencies did a fantastic job meeting what they were requested to do to reduce their budget in the funds that are struggling and others did not do as well. It just is not unusual. But if we did not get universal support and everyone said, yeah, I get it, I need to make sure my agency does its part. So we're going to have some challenges working in some places as we develop the budget over the next few months. And in some cases I may want to actually talk to individual council members about that. So I just wanted to give you that little status report on where we are. Obviously, we're not in the point where the executive has made decisions yet. We're just still assembling all the information and let you know that's kind of where we are in the process. Oh, well. Excuse me. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I thank you for that information. And I. This is not a question, but I'm hopeful that our input to you on our priorities is going to be very helpful to you. Yes. And I share that actually quite broadly. So I shared it with the cabinet. So all the department directors shared it with all the budget staff. And I will say, without exception, the response from everyone was to be very appreciative of the Council providing that in. Information. I think Councilmember, as you yourself noted, that most of it is maintain or add to things. It's not so much to reduce things, although I do appreciate there were several of you that offered ideas in that space as well. But it was still a very good communications tool and helpful to us as we started looking at budget options. Thank you. Council members are highly. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much. Do I really appreciate all your work? This is an issue I've brought up before, but I'm just trying to get a sense for how much community community engagement is done in the executive budgeting priority process. You know, we've all we've talked with your office about setting up community budgeting workshops just to get people's feedback on the budget. And I know COVID kind of disrupted the usual process, but we are in touch with your office about hosting some of those kinds of events to get community feedback and setting the priorities, especially for marginalized communities. It feels like we're a bit late in that process now in terms of setting the priorities, is the Executive's budget for the actual biennial budget? Is that process? Are we pretty locked in that process already? Is there still room for community feedback? And also, how can we find out what kind of engagement has already done by the various agencies in the executive branch and what kind of equity lens has been used in getting that feedback? I'm thinking primarily of areas like Skyway, how, how, what kind of engagement process has been done to make sure that their priorities are baked into the budget that's going to come over from the executive's process? And how late in the process are we for doing that moving forward? So, Councilmember, let me give you three different answers, because there's different aspects of the question you ask. So first of all, I believe I have on my calendar with you. An evening. Meeting and a weekend meeting coming up in your district for that purpose. And I really appreciate you organizing those. We are happy to do that with other council members as well. If you are interested and in the unincorporated area, the Department of Local Services has outreach to its various organizations that it works with. So you mentioned Skyway is an example. So the list is actually working with each of those areas and getting feedback about what they're interested in. That tends, as you know, to mostly be about things like roads and the share of things that are of meaningful nature to the corporate area. We tend not to get as much feedback about public health or some of the other departments we have, but that's a second avenue. And then the third thing I would note is we have a couple of different task forces that were set up really under the guise of helping us respond to COVID that are inclusive of community in a way that we have not done before. And those task forces have both appeared and has been much appreciated. To also give us some feedback about the 2122 budget, not just in the COVID space, but more generally. We also have an anti-racism group that has been established, which is all in this case, county employees, that is giving a lot of feedback about the budget, and we've never had anything like that in the past. So I would say we are doing way more than we have. I would also say we are doing way less than we used to it and we started too late in doing it. And I'm frankly more than a little frustrated about that. I will just share that with you. And we've got to figure out a more effective way to do this in the future on the executive side. And obviously the council has its own set of processes, but we're improving. But at best, I think we're at about a C-minus. Thank you so much for that. Two quick follow up questions for the community budgeting workshops that we have scheduled with your office. My question is, is it too late to have meaningful input? Are those kind of just educational or in? Are we too late in the process now to actually have impact on those priorities that come over? We are not too late. So in I think I can. You know, they predict reasonably well what some of those concerns are going to be from community, some of the ideas from community. And those are all going to be things that are like the last set of decisions the executive is going to make. You know, we're working through some of the easier things that tend to be more administrative in nature. Some of the internal services we get those out of the way first and then the really hard stuff that public health, human services, community development, the public safety, those are always the last things that get decided because they're the hardest and they need the most discussion. So, you know, I think that the timing of the meetings you have set up is still very appropriate. Thank you, Dwight. And then on the task forces that you mentioned for feedback. Can we get more information on that? Who's on that job force? Yeah. Thank you so much. Absolutely. I will give that to you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Colleagues. Dwight. Okay, my very last thing. This will be very quick. I think you all are aware that in the normal course of events, we would be submitting a solid waste rate increase to you right about now . And I just we're not done yet, but I wanted to share some good news with some really good work by the Solid Waste Division and the AARP more generally. We are getting very close to being able to say we are going to submit a 2021 rate increase. No promises yet, but I think we're within a few days of knowing whether or not we can accomplish that, which I know you would welcome and I know your constituents would welcome. One of the principal reasons for that, and this is COVID related is typically in a recession, we see the demand for solid waste services go down significantly. There's just less stuff coming into our transfer stations. I mean, that. Happened at the beginning. Of COVID, but the decline is actually that much less than we originally expected. And when you have a system that is pretty close to a fixed cost system, if your tonnage stays higher, your rates can stay lower. And so that helped us a lot. And then the Solid Waste Division has some very creative ideas that still continue the critical programs we want to do, but doesn't. It looks like we can make their way without doing a rate increase for 2021. So probably within the next few days we will be able to give you a definitive answer on that. But I did want to finish with a little bit of good news. Good news is always welcome. Call it Councilmember Bell duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to pass along my appreciation, Mr. Daley, to Solid Waste Division, if you would, when they came around and did the briefings on the early analysis they had done around the rates they had done. Even by that point, a really good job laying out possible partial alternatives to the full. Well, great proposal that they were then thinking about, which made it really easy to have the discussion around. If you can move certain things around or do certain things differently, could you avoid for one year avoid a rate increase? And and I sent them away with that request, but they made it very easy to have that discussion, which shows that the groundwork they laid to to move towards what you're suggesting was something that they were thinking about already. And I wanted I want to say how much I appreciate it, because a lot of jurisdictions across King County are forgoing rate increases this year, despite the high costs and fixed costs of providing utility service and despite capital needs to maintain these critical systems. And for us to try to do our part, I think will be very much appreciated. So thank you and thank them. Okay. I'm happy to pass that along. Thank you for sharing that and. Anything else from colleagues. Dwight again, a much appreciated and informative briefing and sharp time. Thank you so much. Thank you. You bet. Our next item is a briefing on the Ford Culture Annual Report. We have Lior Zaki from council central staff, as well as Brian Carter, the executive director for culture here today. Ms.. Clarke Zaki. Mr. Carter, the line is yours. It help if I unmuted it? Afternoon council members I'm Leah crackles off the council's staff. As you know what our executive director, Brian Carter, is also here. And I'm just going to give a brief introduction and then turn over to him. The materials for this item begin on page six of your packet, and for the public that's following along, you can find the meeting packet through a link on King County Council's committee of the whole web page. This item is a briefing about four cultures annual reports for Culture is King County's Cultural Development Authority responsible for administering King County's arts and heritage programs. And the annual report and this briefing to this committee are required by King County Code. Here to present is or culture is Executive Director Brian Carter. Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, fellow council members, for the invitation to present. I appreciate it. And I didn't I didn't wear a tie, but I put on the jacket and I think I should get credit. Despite Mr. Diebold going so overboard with the dress, with the time I have, I want to share with you some of the work that 40 for Culture has been engaged in during the 2019 year. But I really want to spend quite a bit of time talking about our COVID 19 responses, what we see on the horizon, what we're doing currently, and where we need to be going. So I will direct you to slide number two within your packet, and I think it was a 17. Is that what Lia said, where it starts? I mean, there you'll see on that second slide around some outreach efforts that for culture is undertaken as a lot of you know, because you serve as ex-officio members. When I came on as executive director, I thought it was really important that we get out into the field and that we talk with cultural practitioners and we talk with cultural organizations around what needs they have and around what opportunities exist. And we use a lot of that information that we aggregated to create a King County cultural health study that gives a nice landscape survey of where the cultural sector is. Now, that landscape survey allowed us to then move really quickly into our strategic planning process, which we completed in April of this year and was approved by the board. And thank you to many of the Council members who participated and gave their insights. But what was crucial to that strategic plan emerging and our upcoming 2021 2022 budget was, I think, exactly what council members largely had said is that we wanted to be responsive in both our strategy, our tactics and our budgeting. So that outreach was crucial. And then we just want to give you a sense of the amount of outreach that we did where we went, the types of outreach. I mean, there were focus groups, stakeholder convenings, there was original data gathering, there was aggregated aggregation of existing data. And it really helped us start future research and ensure that I think we can all be really proud of. And then I'm going to move to slide three now to through the 2019 financials. And I'll just this is just a quick summary. The annual report has much more detailed numbers, but I'll draw your attention to the bottom line around total fund balances. And what you'll see is the continued drawdown of the reserves the culture has been engaged in as we wait for lodging tax to resume, which it will do in 2021, you can see our total revenues and our total expenditures for the previous three years. The discrepancy, I think this you'll note of revenues between 2017 and 2018 are due to the public art budget. And when that comes to for culture within the county's biennium budget, I will now move to slide number four. So the minute we finished our almost finished our strategic plan, the COVID 19 pandemic hit and it was really contingent on for culture. And because of its role, I think in caring for the entire sector of arts and culture throughout the county, that we create a framework that would allow us to respond to the needs that we were hearing. And I mean, I think I've talked with most of you about is we are seeing financial losses and hardship in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And depending on how long patrons and theatergoers and museumgoers are unable to come back and doors are unable to open, those losses are simply going to continue to mount. And it's having a serious and critical impact on the cultural sector. It's something I've never seen the depth of of the of the difficulty that the sector is facing in my 17 years working within the cultural sector. So it's important that our response framework address this particular moment. And so there are three portions of this response framework that I wanted to, to, to highlight for you. The first component of the response framework is belief, and that occurred between April and late June. And the goal there was that people were just they were punched in the mouth by the pandemic. They were forced to close their full support to lay off workers. They're forced to negotiate kind of complex loan processes. And so what we wanted to do was to identify the most immediate needs that the cultural sector had, both organizations and cultural workers, such that we could try and mitigate harm to the field that would stem from layoffs, cancelations and closures. And out of that came our cultural relief fund. And a thank you, a public thank you to all the council members for the additional funds that they put into that portion of our response. And as we move into the summer, we're beginning now with our reopening program. And the idea of this program is that eventually the world and society will reopen and it will be done in phases. And there might be a lot of back and forth with those phases. But we want to be prepared for the cultural sector reopen. They're going to be particular needs when it comes to equipment. They're going to be particular needs when it comes to greeting guests, managing guests, adhering to social distancing requirements put forth by public health. And they're going to be costs. So the new way in which cultural organizations are having to operate. So we want to be prepared for that. And that is what our reopened funding program is attempting to do at this particular moment. The final phase of this response framework is that there will be inevitable recovery. It will be long. It will be protracted depending on how long this recession last. And we know that we have got to be in it for the long haul. The cultural sector was already undercapitalized, as I've said. I think every time I've been before this body, it's grossly undercapitalized. And especially for posse led organizations and often a lot of smaller budget organizations that didn't put a lot of capital in the bank, that were not, you know, bringing in millions of dollars. They're going to really struggle to reopen. They're going to really struggle to get their patients back. They're going to really struggle with an aging volunteer corps to have that lifeblood of labor that so many cultural organizations rely on. So we realize that as we move past really into the recovery phase, we've got to be poised and ready to align both our strategies and our budget towards the long term recovery goals of the sector. So that's the framework. Now, I wanted to get into some of the strategies behind that framework. And I've listed them. I won't read them all out here for you. But the idea was how could we collaboratively work with our partners in the field, with other funding partners, so that our response, our recovery, our reopening strategies were as equitable and rooted in our racial equity goals as possible. And now I'm going to move to Slide six and talk about the first funding program that came out of the really excuse me, the COVID 19 response framework. And that was our cultural relief fund. And there are just some statistics on here about the number of applications. We received a total of 264 applications from organizations, 595 from individuals. And I only show this slide to say there was an overwhelming need that was expressed through these applications that far outstrip the amount of funding that we had available for culture in which the King County Council was able to give us. But I think one of the wonderful things about this funding program is that we were able to implement our equity bonuses. And I'll talk with each of you individually. These equity bonuses are to bring us in, I think, much closer alignment to our focus on equity and specifically on racial equity. So as you know, we chose to reserve extra bonus funds within this program as something we're going to be doing with all programs moving forward that would be specifically reserved for organizations who are who are in operation outside the city of Seattle, also individual cultural workers outside of the city of Seattle, and also those cultural workers and cultural organizations that are located within communities of opportunity. And our goal was to increase the amount of funds that went to those by 30%. But as you can see from the chart, it's 72% of total organizations were eligible for those equity bonuses and 65% of total individual applicants were eligible. So I'm really happy the way in which we were able to pilot these equity bonuses, to move funds to those individuals and organizations that had been historically and really traumatically marginalized from cultural philanthropy opportunities. Am I now want to turn to some of the upcoming efforts that we have. Everybody is aware of the building for equity. We were all partners in the creation of this program. And the idea here with the Building for Equity program was that it is really difficult for small, for suburban, for rural, for policy led organizations to acquire, to secure and to sustain space. And so the idea of this program was to make sure that for culture, we're stepping up to the mark when it came to helping these organizations protect and to expand and to acquire cultural space, which is so vital. So the program is now underway. Phase one of funding went out and now we have these learning circles and a cohort program. And the idea here is not simply that we can just give the money, but we must also provide a forum for dialog and help in professional development. Capacity building, such as these organizations can go down the path towards whether that be sustainable, permanent cultural space for their own use. Moving to Slide eight, I want to talk about one collaboration that I think is important. There's an organization, a local organization called Amplifier, and we were able to support the amplifier organization with some grant funding that they used to work with King County artists. And these artists were selected to create artwork that would help with the public health messaging and with the help society make sense of this pandemic and what it meant to be at home and how you could make your way through it. And so something was really proud of. There were a number of artworks that are free and available through the amplifier website to ask you to take a look at those. You'll see those soon displayed on the for culture, on our windows, at our office. But the reason that I brought this up was a wonderful collaboration. But I think it also demonstrates the important nexus that exists between arts and culture in moments of great strife and struggle. And I was just really proud of the agency of our staff in seeing the opportunity to help with the messaging that's trying to come out of public health means or people are staying home to make sure that people are socially distancing. So just the importance of art in this moment. Next, I wanted to share with you that we have an upcoming Landmark's capital program. And this is another a traditional program that we offer that we're pivoting in this particular moment. So some of the funds were taken from this this particular budget and to go specifically to our relief and also reopen fund and the other remaining funds within this program are being used for those most urgent repairs, including emergencies and projects that just can't wait as we try and align our work. And this is all going to have to be done in 2021 as well, that we align it to the struggles that people are going through as a result of the pandemic. And I will move us on. Now, let me scroll up here. Lastly, what I wanted to talk about before opening up any questions that you have is that our organization, I think, like the county and society in general, is really grappling with the murder of George Floyd and the ongoing protests both here locally, nationally and globally. And what that means and what responsibility we have in that moment, I think, is something that our board I think it's something that our staff and that our constituents are taking very seriously, asking what is our responsibility when it comes to supporting social justice movement? And I just want to give a thank you to Councilmember Dombrowski, who really stepped up after our I think it was our June board meeting to facilitate some dialog around this particular issue. And some of the outcomes of that dialog, both at the board staff and advisory committees, is that there was a statement of solidarity that was issued on June 2nd by Fort Culture, acknowledging some of the flaws, some of the really troubling aspects of the criminal justice system and police brutality against black bodies. As I said, there have been ongoing discussions with the board, the staff and the advisory committees, and we are now in the process of forming a action team. And the goal of the action team is to find ways that our culture can better support social justice movements. And the question is, well, how do you do that? And is that within your mission? I think absolutely that's within our mission. Well, we have got to find are those points of intersection where arts and culture and social justice movements intersect. And we've got to find better ways to identify and support those efforts. And I feel like that is our role to help in that area, that there's a role on this moment. And the solidarity statement was fine, but for me it was the activity of the agency and our potential to align what we do to our values that are so crucial in this moment. So I wanted to touch on that because it's been such a trying time for all of us before culture intends to live up to its mission, to live up to its vision and live up to its values as we support the cultural sector throughout King County. So that that concludes my presentation of I didn't go too far over time, Mr. Chair, and happy to take any questions that folks might have. Mr. Carter. I was following along and not keeping track of time, so I have no worries about the line in time. Once that time, I want to thank you. I want to thank you. And I want to acknowledge, as you did, Councilmember Dombroski, for the attention, the work and acknowledgment of continued work that's needed to address racism in our community, in our society, and within our culture and how we engage it. It's very much we will later in this meeting be considering a motion declaring racism a public health crisis as a council that the Board of Health has already adopted a similar motion following statements declarations by the Executive and Public Health Director. In this kind of work, I believe needs to persuade and pervade all of our work throughout our communities. And I want to thank you for so, so graciously and effortlessly guiding and shepherding for culture through beginning in engaging in that work and continuing. Culver City Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Look, I really appreciated the response that four cultures had in the of the church toward killing. But I want to I have to know credit or recognition that goes to board member Vivian Phillips, who had the courage to speak up and share what the impact of that incident has had on her as a human being. And those of us on the board got that email that was so compelling that I think all of many of us not all reached out to her and but she started the current conversation. And I want to recognize and honor that. And I, I want to say that it's up to four cultures credit. The the conversation around racial justice came before George Floyd and its most recent incarnation in the work sessions that Mr. Carter convened to kind of develop a vision centered on racial equity. And so it was ahead of its current time, if you will. And I just think that what I've come to really learn recently here is that art and expression are critical, are essential in helping. Just as human beings understand more and understand more deeply and authentically to heal more and to end to become a more healthy community . And I, I want to correct Mr. Carter, who I think said maybe maybe you're correct. But he said he made an information that perhaps some would say that engaging on racial equity and justice and civil rights is not in for cultures mission. And we talked about that as a board. And I think that's really can be the core of its mission. It's maybe one of the best suited and best situated, best equipped. Organizations here to help us come to terms with and address the terrible racial injustices that are present in our country and help us make better play, at least. So that attention belongs on another member. And I am so grateful to be a part of the board at this time. I have held off serving on the board for many years, but the meetings that we have had and the discussions we have had with various people have been personally enriching and deeply involved. And I am very grateful. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. More discussion from colleagues. Mr. Carter as one of the ex-officio board members this year in four cultures board representing the council. It's a pleasure to be working with you and the agency in its overall mission body of work, and particularly in 2020 when we're dealing with not only a pandemic and supporting and maintaining the arts, heritage, culture, community as much as possible, and but also as the Black Lives Matter movement reaches, maybe the level of attention that should have continuously had in our community. And so significant moment in four cultures work. And it's a pleasure going to be working with you at this time. Thank you for presenting the annual report. Councilmember Caldwell's Thank you, Mr. Chair. Also being on the an ex-officio member for the Port Cultural Board and having participated in the selection of our director, Brian Carter, I like to say that I think he was a wonderful choice for sold to a need and that the appointment by the executive and our involvement with it, I think Brian has been superb. He's not only so knowledgeable and tremendously experienced, but he's got a very engaging personality. And I think I know he inspires enthusiasm as well as support. So thank you, Brian. Thank you for your kind words. Other council member, Balducci. There's been a lot of good and very meaningful and deep discussion. And so I'm going to take us off of that track for a moment and say, Mr. Chair, I really can't believe you're going to go on letting Director Carter think that you could see Dwight's tie. Ha ha ha ha ha. There's part of me listening. Dwight couldn't get enough of anyone. So? So it was only by his word. We believe he's wearing a tie. You know the honor system? Yes. Councilmember Baldacci. I thought you were going to introduce your favorite thespian. We haven't we haven't gotten to that level yet. Okay. But I will say this and I will say this because you can't do one more thing. That we've talked a lot about the importance of art over the years and today in the. In the midst of some of the most challenging discussions and sort of the rightful demands that we change the way we do things. I continue to believe, as others have said, that art and culture is a critical means to engage with that discussion in a really human way and in a way that can be very effective. But let's also not forget in the middle of this, in the middle of this crisis that we're all living through based on COVID. It's keeping us sane. And I really appreciate the work that for culture has done to keep these organizations alive. So that because they they do a lot of very real work to the extent that people look at art and culture and history and heritage and think that that's a nice to have or an extra or not something maybe that government ought to be inspiring itself with. I think COVID has taught us, among other things, that it's actually a critical life necessity. All of these things are to keep us sane, to keep us together and to keep us going. So thank you for the moment to just say a few nice words. And I really it's good to see you. Mr. Carter. Tyler, no time. Nice to see. Thank you all. And if you're if you're looking for another way to engage with the arts and be creative during the pandemic, I might refer you to the Seattle Shakespeare companies or wander the interactive adventure online. So go to check out Shakespeare's or Wonder scavenger hunt for the summer. With that, we will go to item seven on our agenda, which is proposed motion 20 2073, which Quinn which would confirm the executive's appointment of Kimberly Deering Durango, a resident of Council District 2 to 2 for culture as an executive At-Large representative. I'm April Sanders is here to brief us on the motion. Ms.. Sanders, the line is yours. Thank you. For the record, April Sanders Council Policy Staff I propose motion 2020 0073 would confirm the executive's appointment of Kimberly Mariana, who resides in Council District two to the King County Cultural Development Authority as an executive at large representative for a term expiring on December 31st of 2022. And I'll bypass a little bit of the background since we heard quite a bit about our culture previously. But but for culture is governed by a 15 member board of directors who are required to have a demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of cultural resources, be active and experienced in the community and, and have concerns or have the ability to evaluate the needs of cultural constituencies in the region as a whole. Directors are to represent a range of talents, experiences, backgrounds and viewpoints. Mariana is resident of Council District two, and if confirmed, would serve as an outlier as representative. She earned her Master of Architecture degree from Savannah College of Art and Design. And throughout her career, she's worked as an architectural engineer designer, working on projects in tribal communities throughout the county. She currently works at the Hawk Artist Collective and serves as an indigenous design consultant to the city of Seattle. This appointment, it appears to be consistent with the criteria established in the Fort Culture Charter, as well as the process established in the ordinance by council in 2018. Mr. Yana is on the Zoom call today to answer any questions you may have, and we have a couple representatives from Fort Hood today. I see both Fran Carter and Claire McHugh on the line to answer any questions as well. And that concludes my staff report. Thank you. Questions of Ms.. Sanders. Welcome, Mastriano. Would you like to make? Make some opening comments and introduce yourself. Stern. Hi, everybody. I'm Kimberly Brianna. I'm man Dan and the doc said those are tribes in North Dakota. I'm a third generation urban native, so I grew up in Bozeman, Montana, and have been in this region in coastal territories for about seven years. My husband grew up on the east side and we're planting our roots in this area because we love the multicultural, vibrant, vibrant ness of this area. And yeah, thank you. Intro Thank you. Have you. Have the opportunity to attend some foreign cultural board meetings today. Can you tell us a little a little bit about your work with or knowledge of your culture? Yeah, it's for culture, definitely. So I've attended all the board meetings for this year so far, or I missed one. But I just I'm learning about the role of the board in terms of how we help the staff make sure that they're honoring the roles of this sacred this sacred organization and the the responsibility we have to our community and cultural cultural vitality. And so I. I'm still learning a lot, but I think I've attended some of the some of the panels where like you're where you're choosing applicants for the different for the different funding grants. And so I feel like I have a you know, I'm getting a better overview of all the different aspects that our culture and many different aspects that our culture supports our community. And thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. You. Thank you very much for your service. And I see that you are and have a master's of architecture degree and that you are working around needed things. So as you're going out to some of the native areas along the way, you'll see some barns and the barns and the and the agricultural areas that are important for the work that goes on, I mean the work that goes on, but also for the history and culture. So I hope that you'll get to see the barns that we have already installed and then barns that need to be restored as we go forward and look at that as a project. Thank you for calling behalf of grain elevators in Montana. Everybody. Concerns are really important to preserve. So I understand significant. Other questions. I would entertain a motion to approve the motion 20 2073. So moved, Mr. Chair. I believe that was Councilmember Dunn has moved to the approval that would give a do pass recommendation in motion 20 2073. Is there any further discussion or debate? Saying No, Madam Couric could ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member, Belgium. Two High Council Members on duty. Both II. Council Member DEMBOSKY II. Council Member DEMBOSKY BUT Council Member Dan. I come from number ten both by councilmember. I Councilmember Caldwell supports I Councilmember Lambert. I count Lambert. Both I. Councilmember after grant. I. Councilmember after Grant both. I. Councilmember one right far. Councilmember Bond. My fellow council members. Our High Council members are. Hello, Birdseye. Mr. Chair. Hi. All right, barcodes. I remember on my phone reports I missed the chance. Bogus 980 noes. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation. The motion 20 2073. Well, I'll send it to all council. And unless there's objection, we will expedite and put it on the consent agenda. Seeing no objection. That's what we shall do. And that takes us to item eight, another Ford Culture Appointment Motion 20 2075 to confirm the executive's appointment of Regina Roux, who is a resident of Council District two as a full culture, another executive at large appointment. Ms. SANDERS. Thank you. So the materials for this item begin on page 45 of your packet. Reverse Motion 2020 80075. What? Confirm the executive's appointment of Eugenia Roux, who resides in Council District two to the King County Cultural Development Authority as At-Large representative, with the term expiring December 31st of 2022. So you're going straight into information on the applicant. Ms.. Will resides in Council two and has earned her Master of Urban Planning with a Certificate in Preservation Planning from the University of Washington. Since 2009, Ms. Mu has served as the Director of Preservation Services for Historic Seattle, which is an organization dedicated to preserving Seattle and King County's architectural legacy. She also currently serves on the Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the call for Historic Preservation Advisory Committee and the Documentation and conservation of the modern movement of Western Washington. This appointment appears to be consistent with the criteria established in the foreclosure charter, as well as the process established in the ordinance passed by council in 2018 and Ms. who is on the call to take any questions. And that concludes my staff report. Thank you, Ms.. Little. Good afternoon. Welcome. Thank you. Would you like to introduce yourself? Sure. Well, April did a great job. And I just want to say I'm so honored to be considered for this appointment. And I love for culture. I've been involved with the organization in. Various. Capacities as a grant applicant, recipient review, brand new panelists and on the advisory committee. And to be part of the board is very much an honor. It's a. Great board. And the under. The. Leadership of Brian. Is. He's just really taken the organization to a whole other level. And the all the horticulture staff are great. I've known many of them for many years. And and. Having. This culture as an entity exists in King County with all your support. Is is so. Unique because I've done a lot of work. And every every. County in the state and. Is so unique and. We're so fortunate to. Have our culture. So I just want to thank you and say I'm a very urban person. I'm a city girl. But also I love rural resources and Councilmember Lamour. I love Barnes and previous work. Preservation Consultant I do a statewide Barnes survey, so. I. Think all our rural. And small town. Resources are just. As important as are as our urban ones. Thank you. Thank you. Questions from as well. I've entertained a motion to approve ordinance 20, 2075. Mr. Chairman, I move. I make that motion right now and expedite on consent. Councilmember Douglas moved adoption of Motion 20 2075. I would be remiss if I didn't say that given historic Seattle's work in supporting and preserving seeing coffee, I want to commend you and your organization's work on behalf of preservation and particularly CBP coffee. A local treasure in what? Other other comments. Madam Clerk could ask you to please call the roll in. Mr. Chair, Council Member Bell dg i w t votes i Council Member Temp basket. By. Councilmember Dombrowski votes i council member dun. I. Council Member Dan Lothian Council Member Commonwealth II Council Member Cornwell's GROSS II Council Member Lambert High Council Member Lambert Woodside Council Member of the High Council Member of the Ground Folks I Council Member. Upon return. I. Remember one of eight Council members members online. I council members are liable for I missed share eyes. Mr. chair, votes i the vote is 9i0 nos. Thank you. By your vote we have passed recommendation to motion 20 2075. Congratulations as well. And this will be on the consent agenda and expedited to our council meeting a week from today. Thank you. Thank you. That takes us to item nine. Proposed Ordinance 2020 307 237, which will adjust the start and reporting date for the Electric Scooter Pilot Program established by Ordinance 18989. Miranda Le Lone Askin will brief this on the item. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. And for the record, Miranda lessening with council staff. The materials for this item. Item number nine began on page 53 of your packet. Just a brief background. Last October, the Council adopted ordinance 18989, which required establishment of an electric scooter share pilot program in the North Highline urban unincorporated area of the county for a pilot period of up to one year beginning in January of this year. The pilot program would be developed, implemented and administered by the Records and Licensing Services Division of the Department of Executive Services. With regards to program reporting, the Executive is required to report to council twice during the pilot period regarding program implementation. Each of those pilot reports would include the most current information available on program feedback and usage and costs. Turning to the proposed item before you proposed ordinance 2020 0237 would amend ordinance 18989 to adjust the start date and the reporting due dates for the pilot program to reflect additional needed time for program development and implementation. Under the proposed ordinance, the program's start date would correspond to the date upon which the shared scooters became available for use instead of a date certain. Although the proposed ordinance does include a recommendation for the program's start date to occur by the effective date of the proposed ordinance. Due dates for program reporting would correlate to the program's start date as well, meaning the date upon which the scooters became available for public use and would continue to continue to be do six and nine months respectively from the program's start date. Lastly, the expiration date of ordinance 18989 would also be updated to correspond with the start date of the pilot program expiring one year from the date upon which the scooters are available for use. All the other program provisions would remain unchanged. Mr. Chair, that concludes my staff report. Thank you very much. As was explained, we've already adopted the Scooter Share pilot program. And when we did so, we had no idea pandemic would come in. And so the dates were our calendar dates for the start. And when the 6 to 9 months before it started, 12 month pilot project would be. So here we are about to implement and they'd already be late in the first report. So that was supposed to come at six months. So that's what's before us today is moving. The report dates to 6 to 9 months out from the actual start of when scooters would be available. Questions from members. See. Not I'd entertain in motion to approve the ordinance. Don't move, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Councilmember Dunn is moved to adoption of Motion 2023 237. Further discussion? Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi, I don't remember telling you about the council members and asking why. Council member Dombrowski Bow tie. Council member Done. I Council Member Dan Goldstein Council Member Coal Wales. I remember Colwell spoke to Councilmember Council Councilmember Lambert Goldstein, Councilmember of the Grove High Council, member of the group outside Council Member Monmouth. Ah I. Council member one. Right. They were both council members. Hello. I'm council members on full time. Mr. Chair. Hi Mr. Chair. Votes I vote as nine zero noes. Thank you. By your vote and pass recommendation of ordinance 2020 237. And barring objection, we will expedite that in place that I consent. So it would be a next Monday, next Tuesday's Council meetings consent agenda. See no objection so ordered. That takes us to motion 2020 240, which would declare racism as a public health crisis. Sam Porter will brief this on the motion. I believe that we have guests from Public Health, Seattle, King County here, as well as Porter Gomez, yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Policy Staff documents for this item begin on page 63 of your packet. Proposed motion 2020 0240 would declare racism a public health crisis and make three related commitments and a recognition that the elimination of institutional racism requires engaging and being responsive to those communities and residents impacted by racism. The three commitments of the King County Council included in the proposed motion include a commitment to implement a public health approach to address institutional and systemic racism across government. A commitment to use the Council's authority to enact anti-racist policies and practices. And eliminate practices and policies that are designed to oppress marginalized people. And a commitment to implement and advocate for policies and procedures to ensure residents impacted by racism, especially Black and indigenous communities, are not subject to violence at the hands of law enforcement. On June 10th, the King County executive and the director of Public Health, Seattle King County, made a declaration of racism as a public health crisis. This was followed by the passage of King County Board of Health on June 18th, which passed Resolution 20 zero eight declaring the same. Page 64 of your packet includes a list of other jurisdictions across the country that have recently passed similar declarations. There is a title amendment to one that appears on page 73 of your packet. This amendment changes the title and just clarifies the intent of the motion as a declaration by the Council and also an endorsement of the declarations by the Public Health Department. And in consecutive. That concludes my remarks. Mathias Valenzuela and Celia Jackson are present to offer remarks as well. Jackson Mr. Venezuela. Yes. Good afternoon. Welcome. What would you like to know? Are you prepared to make comments or were you available for questions? Either it works for me, whatever works for you, or I also want to make sure. Do we have my piece as well? Yeah, I'm here too. Great. Thank you. Great. We're happy to go in and give an overview. If you'd just like to ask questions, we're happy to answer as well. If you'd like to speak to the the value and what statement must be made when we call, when we declare and state that racism is a public health crisis and what we might be responding to. Yeah, absolutely. I think we're all aware that we are in an incredibly important moment and that. There is need for change in King County. We, like any other system, must recognize that we have historically been complicit in perpetuating racism. And so it is our job to begin to dismantle that and to do the arduous task. Of. Untangling all of these issues. And as mentioned prior, the executive commitment to action and accountability and to do some hard work of listening. Reflecting. Disrupting business as usual. And showing how we can stand, especially for our black and brown King County residents, to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to thrive. And so this work has begun. And the values. Behind it are truly in the values and vision, are truly rooted. In. Creating a King County where all people have an opportunity to thrive. We know that historically that has not always been the case. And it's again, it's time to really lean in to that and the values that have begun to guide this work and are around being racially, just being inclusive and being diverse and people focused. We will have to share power and work with community and community to find issues using community driven solutions and that are co-created by the folks that are most impacted by racism, that lives within our system. And we have to work across sectors to establish shared, measurable accountability. That's what success looks like. Community leaders and organizations will be provided resources to co-create these solutions. We must begin to resource community just as we would any other consultants that are bringing their subject matter expertize to the table. And we will very much rely on that as this work moves forward. And we we've made this commitment because we know as we lay the foundation together, we'll have a holistic. Better, stronger. Community. And so part of how this work is begun is that we have been working with a team of folks that have been instructed to begin reviewing what it begins to look. Like to develop an anti-racist project. And I would. Like to thank counsel. We've been we've read through your priorities, and they've been incredibly helpful in guiding this work. And it's very clear that there is much alignment. And I think that that is a really. Important piece, is that we will be able to work moving forward. Some of the things that we're were. Hearing and seeing are important where we're working to. Use. Data and information that community has already given us. Many of these issues are things that community has been loud and clear about for years, and so we want to be mindful and how we are responding to that and really show that we're listening by coming with something that. Addresses. They come up with recommendations that address needs that community has already voice and then asking what's next and. Again, as we look at the budget, we need to kind of re-imagine and re-envision what an anti-racist system could look like. And these are I'm going to give just a couple of examples of what this could look like to get us there. And again, many of these will touch on priorities that you all have provided, which is amazing. And so we want to begin to transform the way that our county views public safety. We want to reinvest in black, indigenous people of color, communities that have been most. Harmed. By systems rooted in oppression. And we know that we must drive resources to where they're needed the most, as indicated by those in the community. And again, that goes back to the. Piece where we're really utilizing community voice to develop these solutions. Another important piece is as we move into recovery from the pandemic, we cannot allow for the same mistakes that happened in the 2019 recession that systematically stripped. Household wealth. Wealth from black and brown communities who have yet to recover from that recession. And as we enter a new one, and as we are looking at providing. Services, we want to make sure that that is something we're mindful of as well. And I would like to turn it over to my audience, who is going to talk a little bit more about some of the policy areas, ATSIC over there. Yeah, great. Thank you, Celia. And thank you, Mr. Chair and Councilmember, I think this is a strong partnership between the executive, public health, all our executive departments, and it's great to be building on the action that the Board of Health already took and now that council is taking. So thanks for this discussion on this action that you're taking today. We it's very clear for us in public health that we are dealing with two crises, right? We have COVID and racism. And one of these has been with us for a very long time. So this is an opportunity to really actually ask ourselves as an institution and also our partners is why did it take you know, and why have we responded to COVID, which such resources efforts and a bigger when we haven't addressed racism with the same energy and focus. And I think that this is what's really about why the historical moment of doing this now is so significant. I think talking about this from a public health perspective, it means that we need to be both broad and very specific. We're talking about both acute and chronic or acute issues such as violence, such as things that are part of also police violence, for example, those things that are more chronic. We know that there are things that are much more slower moving, that are also taking healthy years, lived out of the lives of our black and brown individuals . As we just look at, you know, 12 years, for example, in terms of disparities for many of our communities, that is, those premature deaths are tragic. And we need to be really focusing on those in the very long term. So there is that dual focus. And also thinking about as we think about this is public health. We also think about it's the systems, the structures. It's not something that we can say it's for, you know, due to individual behaviors that these things are happening there. Actually, there's some very deep root causes. I think really significantly. We are at a moment where we have done a lot of work in King County. We are 12 years into this work in terms of our we launched equity and social justice. We have an ordinance that council passed back in 2010 and we have probably the most ambitious and specific strategic plan in the nation that leads with racial equity. So I think really right now, by declaring racism as a public health crisis, it's really a time for action. It's not we are have been doing the education and the things that have set us up for this moment to really succeed and go further. There are things such as our determinants of equity, our strategic plan, all those things that really allow us to use a public health approach that's thinking about both the quantitative components and then the qualitative in terms of community voice, all those kinds of things. And we know and we're in the early stages of this, but we are going to be working with across sectors, government, community, business, philanthropy and others to develop this work. But I think really importantly, as Celia was talking about it, that really does begin with community and that's in addition to the work that we're uplifting from community in terms of how we in our own apartments and work that we're doing around the budget. We're also going to be asking our our executive departments to work on anti-racist action agenda really that is focusing on such things as the criminal legal system, economic development, not just jobs. And focus on small businesses, but. The burden of that, for example, that we saw after the last recession, thinking about infrastructure and built an environment around mobility, around digital equity, around climate justice, health, well-being, housing, human services, those areas, although that's also we're in the early phases of developing those that work and should be able to share those with time here with council as well. But most of all, I just wanted to thank the council for taking these actions. And we look forward to working with you as one King County. Thank you. Are there questions for Miss Jackson or Mr. Valenzuela? Member Council member LAMBERT Thank you. I was very troubled as we look at the demographics you're talking about. And I know that we sent out a mammogram and a couple of years ago with the board I was on, and the proportion of women of color who had said they'd never had a mammogram was very frightening. So I would because somebody called me as the chair of the committee that oversees health in what we are doing or the percentage of people that are either insured or uninsured in various demographic areas of this county, so that we can start putting together a program if we haven't already done that. So I look forward to that. It. Why do you want to speak, daughter? I can speak to it as well. You're muted. But Councilmember, thank you for your question. I think it's an important one because something that I think is easy to forget in a moment like this is that. The. And besides, I do have a lot of different areas of discrepancy. And health is a really important one. And that the exact thing that you mentioned are the pieces that we'll be looking at. And we would love your partnership and those moving forward. And those are the exact kind of things that we want to elevate and discuss. And something that was so great about the van is we learned that when we bring folks. In, we bring. Services to folks and meet them where they are. It's a lot. It's incredibly effective for some communities. So I'm glad that you raised that health and other issues outside of the legal system are incredibly. Important to this work. And so thank you for bringing that forward. And my fiance, if you have any other pieces and please feel free to add. Yeah, I mean, I think that some of the things that we need to really think about in terms of in terms of breast and cervical health, for example, there are things that have been underfunded and are supported in King County that we've had to do, use some federal grants sometimes to be able to piecemeal some programs together . But when we talk to community, that's those are the kinds of things and services that people want to see and that what we want to prioritize. So it's thinking about how can we actually create a budget as well that actually begins to and programs that align with our values. So I think fundamentally I remember this is what this work is about and the insurer and uninsured, we already knew even before the crisis of COVID started, we knew what the outcomes were going to be. Unfortunately, we knew the disproportionate impacts of communities of color in certain geographic areas. We knew that what was going to be happening and now it's just playing out because we know who is uninsured, who doesn't have access to health care or who has those barriers or who has to actually be essential work or being out and exposing themselves when compared to other populations. So these are very much protectable. They're not, you know, and they don't go away once COVID goes away. So I think this is an important commitment that we're all making to think about this in the long term. And to make it a ongoing part of the committee once we get the committee going again. So I'm planning for that. Thank you. Sin. See? No further questions. Council member of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to ask the clerk to add my name as a co-sponsor, please. I will do. Thank you. I would entertain a motion. The approval. We give a duff House recommendation. Is an amendment. In 2020 to 40. And I really appreciate the opportunity to bring this motion forward. The legislation is a statement from our counsel to the people of King County declaring that racism is a public health crisis and declaring that our commitment to actively work to address the harm that racism does in our community. Locally, our county executive and Public Health Department and the Board of Health have all made this declaration, and I believe that it's important that we, the County Council, do as well. This motion recognizes the many ways that racism harms people, recognizes the role that institutions like government have in creating and maintaining racist systems, and calls on us to take a proactive role to undo these systems. I also want to be clear about this. Well, this motion declares racism as public health crisis. This effort is not confined to the work of the public health department. This work needs to touch every aspect of the work that King County does, whether it is, for instance, transit planning , land use or housing. It is not simply for think of as a public health issue, but it's recognizing that racism is a public health crisis. Public health is affected in almost every policy we do and work on. And we need to recognize this is systemic racism inherent in so many of our systems and actively work to undo that. It's a pleasure to be able to work with my colleagues in this work every day and to be able to so forcefully make this declaration and reaffirm and recommit to this body of work today. For the comments. To Chair. Bowles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm pleased to support this and sponsored as well. And as was noted, the Board of Health also has also resolution and we have a little project going on and I think it will be shown on the Board of Health website. Mr. Chair, shortly with all of the members holding up a small poster with the same friends, that racism is a public health crisis. So I look forward to that. Thank you, Mr.. Further discussion. I believe there's a title amendment, tier one. It means Porter anything further than the title amendment itself? No, just the title amendment. But he. Wasn't there to entertain a motion to approve the title amendment to on. The chairman of approval of a title amendment to one. Councilmember ballot, which has moved adoption of the title amendment. All those in favor, please say I. Am. Opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. Title is adopted and any further discussion with I ask the court to take the role. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member Belushi I. Council Member Buddy Sheep. Outside Member Dombrowski. I. Council Member Dombrowski Book Signing. Council member Done. Council Member Done. Council Member Caldwell's I. Council member Caldwell spoke to council member Lambert. Council Member Lambert. Woodside. Council Member of the club. I know some member of the group outside. Council member born right there. I council member gone. Make their votes. Council members are flying high. Council members are Helane Voci. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. Votes. Mr. Chip and Zero noes council member John. Excused. Thank you. By your vote, would you pass recommendation to motion 2020? 240 will expedite that to full council next week. The next item on our agenda is proposed ordinance 2020 205, which would submit to the voters an amendment to the county charter to reestablish the county sheriff as an appointed position. Nick Bowman will brief us on the ordinance. We also have a presentation from Keenan Williams and David Heller from the Charter Review Commission. Their presentation is not in your packet but was sent to members prior to the meeting and I hope that Mr. Bowman can tell us when the email was sent, because I know I don't have that at my fingertips without Mr. Bowman. Nothing like setting you up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe the additional materials were sent out yesterday, so let me pull that up for you. Yes. They were sent out yesterday at 8 a.m.. Or this morning I'm sorry, this morning at 8:58 a.m.. Thank you. All right. All righty. Good afternoon. Council members, for the record, Bowman Council Central Staff. The materials for agenda item 11 begin on page 75 of your proposed ordinance 2020 0205. I would submit to the voters of King County an amendment to the County Charter to be placed in the next general election, which would reestablish the county sheriff as an appointed position. Under the amendment, the county sheriff would be appointed by the executive and confirmed by the County Council. Imminent would also designate the executive as the bargaining agent for the county related to any collective bargaining negotiations with representative employees of the Department of Public Safety, also known as the King County Sheriff's Office. For a bit of background, from 1802 to 1969, the King County sheriff was an elected position that operated more or less independently of the three county commissioners who exercised both legislative and executive power in November 1968. The voters of King County approved a home rule charter which replaced many quasi independent elected officials, including the sheriff, with appointed positions subordinate to the executive. For the next 25 years. The top law enforcement officer in King County was appointed by the executive as the director of the Department of Public Safety as the sheriff's office was issued under the charge in May 1996. Proposed ordinance 90 5755 was adopted by the County Council. This ordinance submitted to the voters a charter amendment to establish the county sheriff as a nonpartizan elected official with a four year term. The ordinance maintained the Department of Public Safety as an executive department and also maintained a civil service employment status of the department's employees. In November 1996. Charter Amendment number two Establishing a King County sheriff as a nonpartisan elected official was approved by the voters with 57% voting yes. In November 1997, Dave Reichert, Evader, a veteran of the county police force, was elected sheriff. There have been a total of five elected sheriffs against Sheriff Richards first term in 1998. Turning to the ordinance before you, as I said, proposed ordinance 2020 0205 would submit to the voters an amendment to the King County Charter, reestablishing the county sheriff as an appointed position. And this would be placed on the ballot for the November 2020 general election. As an appointed position, the sheriff would be appointed by the executive and confirmed by the Council. The proposed amendment would also establish the executive as the bargaining agent for the county with respect to collective bargaining with represented employees of the sheriff's office. Table one starting on the bottom of page 76 of your materials, provides a crosswalk of the changes to each charter section under the proposed amendment. In the interest of time, however, I won't go through each of those unless you would wish me to do so. Okay. If not hearing no desire to hear that, I just I'll move on quickly to cover the general election timing requirements in order to place this November 3rd ballot and effective ordinance must be transmitted to the Elections Department by August 4th. Therefore, the last regular council meeting the council meeting date for adoption is July 21st, 2020. August 4th 2020 is the last special council meeting date to adopt this ordinance as an emergency. There are amendments to this item and if there are no questions to the underlying ordinance, I'll move on to those. Eric. Yeah. Okay. Amendment S-1, which is found on page 85 of your packet. Would make several technical and substantive changes to the proposed charter amendment. First, the state of the sheriff's deputies shall be prescribed by ordinance rather than general law, and removes the language prohibiting the sheriff's office from being abolished or combined with another executive department and from having the department's duties decreased by the County Council. Second, it would require the executive and the Council to consider stakeholder input before appointing and confirming a sheriff, and that the stakeholder process shall be prescribed by ordinance. And third, it would make technical language and phrasing changes as recommended by the legal counsel, by legal counsel's legal counsel . And there is also Amendment T one, which is on page 91 of your packet. And this conforms the title of the proposed ordinance to the changes made by Amendment one. Lastly, I just wanted to note that proposed ordinance 2020 0231, which is the next item on today's agenda, would establish the duty sheriff and the structure and the duties of the King County Sheriff's Office by County Ordinance. However, this ordinance would retain the county sheriff as an elected office. Therefore, in the event the Council were to adopt those Ordinance 2020 0205 and proposed Ordinance 2020 0231 there would be competing charter amendments on the November 2020 general election ballot one which would establish an appointed county sheriff and one which would retain an elected county sheriff. That concludes my staff report. As the chair mentioned on the line today, our charter review commission members Ken Williams and David Heller, who I understand will give a presentation on the Review Review Commission's decision to recommend both charter amendments. Mr. Chairman, that's a procedural question. You're a council member about this. Thank you. And it might not be appropriate at this time, but let me put it on the table. I guess I don't fully understand why we need to make these two proposals competing. Why could you not have one proposal that addresses the method for appointing or electing the sheriff and one that addresses how you change the duties of the sheriff? That seems so much cleaner to me. And so what I'm concerned about is it listening to people talking. It seems to me that there's going to be a fair split opinion on the question of whether you elect or appoint the sheriff. And if you merge the two topics together this way, I think we're likely to lose both of them. And I would really like to see the second one pass. So is it possible to keep them separate? Can we do that today or when we get to full council? That's my question. Chocolate and peanut butter. Can we separate them? To great taste. The taste. Great Tibetan beauty. Then you either get chocolate and peanut butter or neither. I want the chance to have at least one. It's just absurd with. I was going to ask if you can respond to that with more than a advertising jingle. So with the way the tickets are currently drafted, it would set up a competing ballot. Measures were adopted. Now is obviously a policy choice of a council. Which ordinance? If you want to adopt one or the other. My note only if all are adopted and both questions are provided to the voters. Is there any reason why they need to be drafted this way? Well, I think I'll let this ask. You might have an answer. I'm sorry. I don't mean to interrupt you. Councilman Mickey Mouse. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilman Belushi, I think your point is well taken. I believe that the reduction of duties as and have been established by ordinance this this proposed amendment that's coming later was developed maybe after the election of the sheriff won. And what I would suggest. I think you're right on and was thinking the same thing. That if it advances to full council that we should remove that alteration of duties language from the appoint the shearer amendment and have that be a separate standalone item to determine if the voters want to pick and choose. They may choose. They can then adopt them both. They would not be competing, or they could adopt one or the other and they would not be competing. So I would pledge to make those changes affordable council. If we advance this out today so that they would integrate together, and I believe that's entirely possible and makes much more sense. I think it's just a timing issue, developing the second one by other members. Yeah, that all makes perfect sense. Thank you. I appreciate that. I think it's also clear to the voters they have a yes or no on X and a yes or no on y is much easier than competing, I think always confuses people. Thank you. I'm pretty sure I think that most of the if I could just one more before we're going to just resolve one thing I did want to include in this writing them was the notion of establishing a consultation process with interested stakeholders in the appointment of a sheriff. And that that's important. But I think. Hello. Oh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci, I fully agree with you that they should be two separate things, and we actually tried to work on that. But maybe, Nick, can you talk through some of the challenges of separating them? You know, when when I tried to talk through that, it sounded like, you know, the scope of one amendment would capture the other change. And I'm trying to explain it in the right way. But basically, there is no way to do a line item amendment to just the specific sentence you want to remove. You have to change the whole section. And that section encompasses both changes that we're trying to make. Did I describe that right? Well, I won't I won't way too much into the legal without legal counsel coming to save me. But what I will say is that the where the meaning become, where the amendments would become competing is strictly that one ordinance has the sheriff being appointed and the other ordinance has of being elected. And so despite what else is in the ordinances, those two are in direct competition. And so in particular, if both ordinances were put forward on the ballot, which would set up the competing amendments. So if I believe I understand what happened, she was asking, is it could we separate or could you all ask me to draft something to separate the question of the sheriff's duties, separate from the issue of whether or not they are appointed or elected? The answer is yes. Okay. Thank you. My understanding was that there was an issue with doing that. But we can talk to our legal counsel after this. Up the grove as a member of the Grove. Thank you. I was just going to echo councilmember off allies and then I had received similar feedback from legal counsel on this exact question. So I'd encourage us to and I want the same resolution that everyone else has suggested here. Thanks. Thank you so. Mr. Bowman, you have you returned to our charter review commission, correct? That's correct. And I also just wanted to say that we have Undersheriff Gary Colton from the sheriff's office here to answer questions as well. Remember you. Did you explain to me a little bit more on page seven? I've been under the influence of Section one. Exactly. What does that mean? As I read it and a general view all across the state, you have a sheriff's office that cannot be abolished or combined with any other executive function. If we take that out, then are you saying that the sheriff's office could totally be abolished and also it could be embedded in some other organization that says. Also general law referred to in some parts. General law refers to state law in general, which is RTW 3628. So those are the duties that are listed in state law for county sheriffs and which the charter that refers to as the general duties of the sheriff and their deputies. The line specific to the charter, the King County charter states that the sheriff's office shall not be to be combined or abolished with and abolished or combined with another executive department, and their duties shall not be decreased by the County Council. Removing that as my understanding, the intent of the sponsor would allow the Council to determine what the duties of the sheriff deputies are, as well as the structure and duties of the Sheriff's Office. If there was a proposal to completely abolish the sheriff's office, then back then this might or might. I would say that would require legal review and the rest of it might allow that. I think the other aspect of it is the if certain duties that are done by the sheriff. Now, if the council chose to have a different department do that, there is a barrier in the charter right now to doing so, and this would remove that barrier. When I read that it is a glass breaking great shot. And one of the things that I've always thought about government is providing for the peace and safety is the number one value. And so how would that fit with the other duties of being a local government? I don't know of any local government. I've never heard of local government didn't have a law enforcement branch. So how would we comply with the basic duty of a local government? Not thinking regional government. Right. I'm talking about local government. I wouldn't be focusing on a local government duty. I'm sure there must be some other RTW that requires local governments privately service. Hello. I got you. Well, I guess I don't want to go, because I don't want to go down to the hypothetical, as there is no proposal before us to abolish the sheriff's office. And I would not deem to figure out in my, first of all, what the wisdom of the council might be in the future. But yes, but you don't write a love that opens a huge trap to go into and not realize you're doing that. So I think it's important that we look at what the potential ramifications of this are. So. Okay. And so anyway, answer was yes. That is what it says. And I have very big concerns of the idea of what that means as well. And if that falls in with the municipal code to be providing local services such as the chair, if you. But Pedro, I understand that our legal counsel, Kendall Moore, would like to make a comment, but was having trouble being unmuted or being recognized. Kendall. You're unmuted on the Zoom feature. Can you hear me? We can. Super. I just want to point out that. That there are distinctions between the. A striking amendment offered by Mr. Dombroski and the. Proposal by Mr. Zala that that go beyond just the difference between if one is appointed and if one is elected. So what I what I was hearing from Councilmember Balducci is. And correct me if I'm wrong Councilmember is could we have a choice between is the sheriff elected and appointed and then a separate charter amendment on the the duties. And I think that's what I was asking. And I heard Councilmember Tim add that he also was trying to include in the selection of the sheriffs and a process requirement of including community, which I support. So it seems like you could take just the two topic areas and separate them in the best interests of the voter you can. There would just have to be concurrence on the what I'm going to call the duties portion of the. On the. Charter amendment. So this would kind of be bifurcating those issues. Because right now the the charter review. Version only changes that the sheriff will be elected. That's the only thing it does, really. I heard a fair bit of support to keep the chocolate and the peanut butter separate, so perhaps we could try to find a way to do that. I don't think this will not be a Reese's peanut butter Reese's fan. We all are. But I hope to be more s'mores numbers. Hello. Thank you for asking to be recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kendall, I just want to clarify one more time. There is a way of having proposing a charter amendment that addresses appointment versus election that is silent on the duties. And then separately, there is a way to have proposed a charter amendment that is fully silent on elected versus appointed, but removes the duties section. Is that right? We can have two separate ones that are silent on both issues and don't require us to implement the other thing. I think. Yes, you can do that. Your the the concern I have councilmember is yours does not do does not go as far as council member Dombrowski is striker. With regard to removing the sheriff as the bargaining agent as an example. So there would have to be some agreement as to what's in the what I'm calling the duties charter amendment versus the whether the sheriff is elected or appointed. Oh, but I think I think it can be done. Look. I'm happy to connect with anyone on this to try to resolve this. Thank you. Thank you. We've identified a concern. A number of members have an interest in separating the two, and we're in the process of introducing Mr. Williams and Mr. Heller from the Charter Review Commission to speak to the their recommendation of the Charter amendment to make the Sheriff appointed. Mr. Heller. Mr. Williams. I turn it over to you. There are two. Good afternoon, Mr. HILLARD. I believe that's you speaking. We have to go. It's Mr. Williams speaking. Mr. Williams? Well, we really hope all your audio is very garbled, and I suggest you turn off your video. We don't hear you at all now, Mr. Williams. Oh. Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams seems to have frozen up. And may now be logging out to log back in. Mr. Heller, would you be prepared to take in? I can start. Thank you. So we prepared a PowerPoint, which I understand was not sent to the council until this morning. I certainly don't want to read it to you, but I would urge everyone to take a look at it. It. It lists some of the reasons why we did what we did. I want to start by telling the council that we studied this issue for more than a year. It was not something that we did lightly or precipitately. It is not targeted at the current sheriff or any sheriff. It was the view of 21 of the 23 members of the commission that this structural change should be made. And I've heard a lot of public comments about a power grab by Seattle. I don't live in Seattle. Mr. Williams doesn't live in Seattle. There were commission members from Seattle and there were commission members from outside Seattle. The first concern that we have and none of the proposed amendments seems to address it. And let me just say that the commission did not studies proposed amendments, so I can't speak for the commission about those amendments. But the first concern that we had is that we believe that changing the sheriff to an appointed position is, in this case, actually more democratic than what we are doing now. The reason is that the percentage of the county population that is in unincorporated King County and must be policed by the sheriff is 11%. So the voters of unincorporated King County, when it comes to choosing their sheriff, are outnumbered by a factor of 9 to 1. Even if you include the people who are being policed by the sheriff voluntarily through the cities that have contracted with King County for police services, it still only represents 25% of the population. Three quarters of the voters in King County. Are not being policed by the sheriff. And under the current system, those folks have the ability to impose whomever they want to be sheriff upon the people whom the sheriff actually polices. We don't think that's democratic. On the other hand, seven of the nine council members have at least some unincorporated King County in their districts. So we believe that the input of the Council on who gets to be sheriff would. Be more democratic and would enhance the input that the unincorporated areas have. A lot of our PowerPoint shows, graphs and lists of populations that illustrate that point. David, this is Kim and Williams. Oh, you're back. Hopefully the chair. The chair can hear me. Yes, I've been listening to you. And thank you for filling in on that first part for me. One of the things that I wanted to point out is that yesterday there was a town hall, and during the hall, Councilmember Lambert had expressed some questions and concerns regarding qualifications. Right now, you don't have the ability to determine the qualifications of the sheriff by those members of the county council that represent the unincorporated areas would be able to weigh in, at least we envision them weighing in during the proposal, much like you or is appointed, reflects the values and quality of the sheriff that you want, who's going to be also policing, primarily policing the unincorporated areas. We think that that's an important factor. The other question would be because it does allow you a little bit more oversight in the situation. Councilmember Well, did she basically summarize this was sort of an ultimately a choice between who actually sets a policy for policing. Is it going to be the executive and the county council or is it going to be the sheriff at that point? I think part of what we were hearing in the comments yesterday, as well as the comments today, is that there is a small disconnect in the electorate in the county believing that they are the only ones that vote on the sheriff when the reality is, as Mr. Heller stated, was that the largest voting blocs in the county come from cities who do not have their primary policing. As far as the sheriff goes. Thank you for letting me interject, David. Oh, sure. Do you want to go on or do you want me to resume? Sure. Sure. Once you go ahead and resume. All right. I'll let you take the lead. Okay. Thank you. The second issue that concerned us was flexibility. And as Mr. Williams pointed out, he did the part of the PowerPoint that has a picture of Russell Wilson. It's not a great idea to limit your candidate pool. And someone pointed out that there are 3 million people living in or almost 3 million people living in the Puget Sound area. Mr. Hiller. Yes. If it helps you. We do have members did receive a link to and would have access to the PowerPoint you're referring to. Oh, excellent. All right. Well, that number does help members. That was the PowerPoint that Mr. Bowman's that was sent. What was it? 858 this morning. It's 848 this morning. And it has both a PDF copy and a link to a browser copy of the PowerPoint that the. You can certainly go back and use more material. The picture of Mr. Wilson is on page 14 of the the last page of the PowerPoint. That is the single attachment to that email. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So Mr. Williams likes football. I like baseball, and I see that almost everything in life ultimately comes down to baseball. Someone pointed out that we have millions of people who live in the Puget Sound area. Surely we have a big candidate pool here. But as Bill James, the guru of baseball statistics and sabermetrics, pointed out many years ago, the population of Kansas City is approximately the same as the population of London in the 1600s. But Kansas City has not produced even one William Shakespeare in all the years. So the fact that there's a lot of people here doesn't necessarily mean that the right person is available. And again, it may be that the current sheriff is the right person. But if at some point the council and the executive believe that there needs to be a change in who is the sheriff? Why would we restrict ourselves to someone who's already in the office? And since we acquired an elected sheriff in 1996, no one has been elected to the office who did not come out of that office . Sometimes you want to promote from within, but sometimes when you want to change a culture, you need to bring someone in from the outside. That's really not an option that's available under the current system. And connected with that. One of our concerns was the election process and the divisiveness that it can cause sometimes where you have a competing either an insurgent candidate or if the office is open and you have two candidates running for the open office and something that it's in the power point, it just came out. So we stuck it in right at the end of the bottom of a page where it's kind of squeezed in. There was a situation in Missouri where the sheriff was gone and there were two people running, one who was a deputy and one who was not a deputy and the one who was a deputy told the other deputies, If you don't support me, you will lose your jobs. And this person won the election, fired the deputies who hadn't supported him and the deputies who hadn't supported him, sued. And the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal court in the Midwest, just came out with a ruling that the sheriff could not be sued for suing the deputies, even though he had blatantly told them that they would be fired if they didn't support him. And I found that kind of shocking. But that's least that's the law in the Midwest now. I'm not, again, suggesting that anyone who is or has been sheriff would do such a thing. But I found it worrisome and troubling with respect to the current situation. We came out with our recommendations a year ago or last year, rather, before either viruses or the current protest wave had occurred. But we were concerned about bias policing and use of force in all police departments. There's certainly been a lot of publicity about the Seattle Police Department, but I don't believe that any police department can be assumed to be immune from those problems. And we hope and believe that the current sheriff is taking steps and that those steps will be good and appropriate to start changing some things. But if at some point, some sheriff did not make some of the changes that the executive and the council believed were necessary, then it might be appropriate to change the sheriff. And in the current moment, when something that has been going on literally for centuries may finally be being addressed. We believe that the council and the executive would want to have at their disposal every possible available tool that it might need to use to help to address these problems. And this would provide a tool which would allow you to address the problems. The last thing I wanted to mention. With respect to one of the proposed amendments. And again, I can't speak for the commission because the commission didn't ever study it. I have a couple of questions about it. I am a lawyer, but not in the field of municipal law. If you have an independently elected. If so, I merely pose the question if you have an independently elected official, if the sheriff remains elected. Would the county council be able to instruct the sheriff in policing policies or would that not be legal? I don't know. But I posed the question, and the only thing I wonder about related to that is what would the enforcement mechanism be? We have had a situation where, at least according to the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, there's an ordinance that authorizes Oleo to issue subpoenas. And according to some people at Oleo, the subpoenas are not honored, even though it's the law. So what's the enforcement mechanism if you have an independently elected sheriff and the county council? Issues are an ordinance requiring something to happen or something to not happen. I don't know how that would work, but I think it would be something to consider. In any event. As I said at the beginning, we studied this extensively. We came to the conclusion that this was a structural change that should be made. It enhances democracy. We believe it improves accountability and the the quickness of accountability, if quick accountability is necessary. And and this is why we proposed it to the council. I will turn it back over to Mr. Williams if he has anything to add. And the only thing I will say is after that, if the Council has any questions, we would be happy to try to answer them. Thank you. Thank you, David. A couple of things that I would like to point out on our PowerPoint beginning on page six. It actually shows what has happened to the population of the county in the last few years. First, first, you'll see that in 1976, 74% of the county lived in cities. Now that is down to now that 89% of the population lives in cities. I also if you notice, if you look at the decrease of the population of unincorporated King County, that continues to decrease. On Pages nine and excuse me, they slides nine and ten. You'll subtract cities that are being served by the sheriff. But again, those are going to decide who they want to have as their chief of police appointed. And they follow they follow a couple of phone calls. Finally, I guess I would like to point out the fact and use my last slide of my presentation with Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson. And I look at a sheriff as a professional and someone that we should be able to do what you should be able to as elected officials, select the most qualified person regardless of the location. We have a lot of baseball players, football players, whatever, throughout the Puget Sound region. Yet even at the college level, we always look for the best. The eye is the most talented and most importantly, in former Coach Peterson's view, there is what he called the okay, he's our kind of guys, the right fit that Pete Carroll describes to look elsewhere. We are a world class county, and being a world class county means that we are part of a world. And they love our organization. And so we have to be able to look around the world to find the person that's going to be the best fit. And it's going to reflect the values and policies that we wish to incorporate only by having an elected and appointed sheriff. Will you be able to do that? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for not only your presentation today, but for your work as a member of the Charter Review Commission. Both of you. Mr. Bowman, any further, anything further from a staff report perspective? Sir. Counts as the prime sponsor council member Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Here's what I would suggest we do. I'd like to move adoption with a do pass recommendation of the ordinance to send it to full council. I would suggest that we hold on the striking amendment and refine that to take out the duties language. I would want to bring that forward with the stakeholder process at full council and that we do the duties issue in the separate charter. So I do move adoption of the recognition of ordinance and the basis and rationale for it has been set forth in the town hall and by the commissioners today and in the hour. I will not give a speech in favor. Councilmember Dombrowski is moved that we give a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 205. Further discussion. Now the question for legal staff. Council member Lambert. Thank you. So earlier when the gentleman was speaking, I think you completed two issues. You said that the ordinance says that the only director will have the ability to subpoena. And that is accurate. And the statement that it is not happening is also accurate. The thing in the middle is that it has not been bargained. And there's been years of discussion about that for a number of reasons that have come forth why that has not happened. But the subpoena power we've had for as long as I know and it has never been used. I've been on the council. So I think the part that was not said is that it is bargained upon and it has not been bargained. So it's not a matter of a problem with either one. It's a matter of bargaining situation is what it is for a variety of reasons. So I wanted to point that out legally and then object or of the hand at the very first. And the very first thing where it talks about this will be impartial and not aided by politicians. And I'm not going to look for an answer on this because it's kind of recoverable. But in watching the news in the last couple of weeks, the idea we've had a appointed chair I'm sorry, an appointed place to stand before us and say she doesn't know or made the decision that the briefing was going to go away and. And many decisions were made very politically. I think that we've seen it played out where the statement on first line of number four hasn't really worked. So I just want to clarify that there's a couple of things in here that are completely. Well stated. So anyway, those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you, colleagues. Further discussion on the motion before us council member up to growth and Mr. Chair at our committee of the hall meeting we had was out yesterday. Time flies. I think I kind of laid out the lens through which I'm weighing my decision on this, and it really is whether or not it's going to help or hurt our efforts to deliver justice for black, indigenous and people of color. Help ensure public safety. Help us address institutional racism throughout the criminal justice system. And. I see a lot of opportunity with this. My jury's out a little bit, but I think. Even if we're going to be successful in advancing an agenda that has been really developed by the community, we are going to need every tool at our disposal and I think it is we at least need to keep this conversation going at this point. So I'm supportive of putting this on the ballot so that we can continue to have that discussion. And I'm going to continue to do my, you know, analysis and understanding of getting my head around. To what degree will this help or hurt? But I, I think it is important for this to move forward, and I would encourage placing it on the ballot. Thank you. Councilmember Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I. I have a lot of thoughts about this. And I said some of them yesterday, some of them were quoted again today. The the there is definitely the possibility that you can switch from one method of selecting to a to another and find that you have similar problems or even the exact same problems in slightly different ways. There are pros and cons to either method of selection, and today's been fine because I've been going down personal memory lane on a number of these topics. This one is the one where I remind everybody that I've served as both an appointed head of a criminal justice agency and as an elected official. And there are pros and cons you are. You can be stronger in some ways on hard public issues when you elected with a term of office than you can when you're appointed. However, in I am convinced and listening to the presentation yesterday and today that the Charter Commission get a great deal of deep thought and has a really strong set of recommendations and rationales for those recommendations. I am also convinced that we're in a moment now where people are looking for change. And that can mean I mean, even a change that could be more neutral or isn't guaranteed to have the policy outcome you want shakes things up in a way that enables you to to try. And I think that we owe it to the advocates and the folks who want to try to make try to drive transformational change in public in public policy. They have the opportunity to vote on it, and so does everybody else. And so I am supportive of moving this out with a recommendation to put it on the ballot, as I am with the next one. And then we have the ultimate Democratic debate over what to do and the people decide. And I think that that is correct and fair thing to do. So I'm going to vote for this. I'm going to vote for this measure today. Thank you. For the debate. Seeing Mr. Bowman with Councilmember Dombrowski not moving the striking amendment. There is no amendment or title amendment in order. But I think that if yes, then Madam Clair covered, as you recall, the role. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member WG. I found about 90 minutes. I remember Dimasi. I don't remember to ask you about the council member. Done. No. Councilmember Dunn votes no. Councilmember Caldwell's. I don't remember. Colwell, but I can't remember. Lambert. Oh. Council member, Lambert. No amount of snow comes out of the ground. I can't remember off the ground, but I can't remember if I'm right there. No. Councilmember Yvonne, right. There were votes now council members online. I also. Members. ALL Hello? Votes. Yes, Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. Votes. I'm. Mr. Chair. The vote is six eyes. Three numbers are your vote. We have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 205. We will expedite that to full council one week from today. On the next item on the agenda is the ordinance 2020 231, which which would submit to the voters of King County a charter amendment. To allow the County Council to establish the duties of the sheriff by ordinance. Mr. Bowman will brief face on this measure as well. Mr. Bowman. Mr. Chair, Nick Bowman, again, central staff. For the record, the materials for item 12 begin on page 93 of your packet. As the chair mentioned, a proposed ordinance 2020 0231 would submit to the voters of King County an amendment to the county charter to be placed in the next election, which would allow the County Council to establish the duties of the county sheriff, as well as the structure and duties of the sheriff's office. I ordinance. Under the King County Charter. The sheriff is the administrative head of the Department of Public Safety, also known as the King County Sheriff's Office, whose duties are specified by general law, specifically RTW. Chapter 36.28. RTW 36.2 8.10 provides the general duties of county sheriffs and states. The sheriff is the chief executive officer and conservator of the peace of the county and execution of his or her office. He or she and his or her deputies shall arrest and commit to prison. All persons who break the peace or attempt to break it, and all persons guilty of public offenses shall defend the county against those by who, by rider, otherwise endanger the public peace or safety, shall execute the process and orders of the Court of Justice or Judicial Officers when delivered for that purpose according to law. Shall I execute all warrants delivered for the purpose by other public officers, according to the provisions of particular statutes, shall intended to sessions of courts of record held within the county, and obey their lawful orders or directions, and shall keep and preserve the peace in their respective counties, and quiet and suppress all a phrase riots, unlawful assemblies and insurrections, for which purpose, and for the service of process in civil or criminal cases, and in apprehending or securing any person for felony or breach of the peace, they may call for their aid, such persons or power their county as they may deem necessary. The charter also declares the Department of Public Safety to be an executive department subject to civil service, subject to the civil service personnel system, which shall utilize the services of the administrative offices and the executive departments and which shall not be abolished or combined with any executive department or administrative office or have its duties decreased by the County Council. Now proposed ordinance 2020 0231 would submit to the voters an amendment to the King County Charter to be placed on the ballot in the November general election ballot, which would allow the County Council to establish the duties of the sheriff and the structure and duties of the Sheriff's Office by county ordinance. Specifically, the amendment would eliminate the charters reference to the duties of the Sheriff being specified by general law under ACW Chapter 36.28 and instead allow the sheriffs duties to be established by county ordinance. Furthermore, the amendment would remove the charters restriction preventing sheriffs, the sheriff's office from being abolished or combined with another executive department or administrative office, and would further remove the restriction prohibiting the County Council, prohibiting the County Council from decreasing the duties of the Sheriff's Office. Under the proposed amendment, the Sheriff would remain an elected position and would remain the bargaining agent for the county with represented sheriff's office personnel. The general election county requirements are the same as the previous item, so I want you to go over that. And with that stated, that concludes my staff reports. There are no amendments that I'm aware of for this item. And again, we have Undersheriff Patty Coats and all from the sheriff's office who is available to answer questions. That concludes my remarks. Questions. Questions of Mr. Bowman are underserved coal terminal. Similar questions, I would entertain a motion. Mr. McDermott, may I interrupt for just a minute? Ms.. Moore. I just want to make sure that members know. That there that we should pass these in case my enthusiasm of trying to segregate the appointment versus election. Is not possible because I'm looking at it now and I'm trying to formulate it. But that way we have both of these pieces before you next Tuesday in case we have to. Okay. I mean, is more you're suggesting it might be. If we want to entertain both ideas, it would be advantageous to move both pieces of legislation out of committee to. Yes, sir. Okay. Hearing. No questions. I would entertain a motion. Up the grill by move that the performance be adopted comes a number of to go to some of deduction that we give a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 231 council member to go. I would defer to the prime sponsor if he wanted to go first. I was just helping us mate with the motion. I would welcome anyone who wanted to speak. Council members are alive is the pride. Happy to. Mr. Chair, thank you so much. The New York Times reported recently that the Black Lives Matter movement is the largest movement in the history of our country, and millions of people are rising up and saying one central message, and that is defund the police. And a lot of people, when they hear that position, they think that people are saying promote lawlessness, eliminate accountability, decimate public safety. That's not what people are saying at all. It is a catch phrase that means let's invest in better systems of public safety. Let's reimagine policing as a whole. Some of the examples that I gave yesterday, we do not need armed police officers responding to all kinds of situations and challenges that we see on the ground. We don't need armed police officers as a default managing traffic. We don't need armed police officers as a default responding to our homelessness crisis or to people who are having mental health crises on the ground. We do not need armed police officers as a default, responding to noise complaints and all kinds of other issues that don't require that. If we had a better system where we divest from this current system and move into a system that tailors our response to the challenges that we see on the ground, we could be in a much better position. And currently, we have so many legal and structural obstacles as a council to implementing this better vision of public safety . We have a charter that says that as a council, we cannot reduce or amend the duties of a sheriff's office. That's a structural issue. We have union issues. We have oversight issues which are on the ballot that require oversight to be bargained through the union, which is a huge conflict of interest. So what we're trying to do with this proposed charter amendment is to address some of those structural barriers to having a more efficient and better system of public safety that responds to all of the movements, the anti-racism movement that we're seeing around the country. This is just one of those proposed changes. It would give the voters of our region the opportunity to vote on this and see if they agree with us. And that is that we we want a system of public safety where the council and the executive can instruct some of King County Sheriff's Office policies and duties around public safety. And hopefully we can have all of our council colleagues approve this amendment to give voters a chance to weigh in and make their voice heard on this issue. Councilmember of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's my pleasure to join Councilman Xilai in bringing this forward. I think this is, well, kind of a wonky sounding proposal, one of the most important pieces of action we're taking this year in terms of a first step to respond to community voices. I think the purpose of law enforcement is to deliver justice and make sure everyone feels safe. And that's not happening. Everyone doesn't feel safe. And one of the most promising visions that's been elevated in this current movement is the notion of reimagining what the delivery of public safety can look like. And that, yes, that might mean redirecting some resources from the traditional form of policing into other strategies that are proven to not to be effective and to ensure that everyone is feeling safe. All this charter amendment would do would give us, as the policymakers, the ability to have that conversation. The decision, what that looks like would be up to us, informed by the community and hopefully by the community that has suffered from the injustice. And I trust this body to do that in a thoughtful manner. I think we should lean into this and embrace it. I think we have a moment in history where we have a chance to think outside the box and and make some meaningful changes. But we won't be able to do that if we have tied our own hands through our charter. And so. We shouldn't be afraid of this. We should embrace it. And then we should take those best practices work. Not with law enforcement and with the community. I hear from a lot of law enforcement officers who would be happy if some of those duties were taken off their plate. There's some things sometimes one or two officers do that, but they'd rather free up their time for more important aspects of their job. So it's critical that we give ourselves the flexibility to have that important discussion and have that discussion with the community. And if we can't fix this restriction in the charter, then we're not going to be able to have that conversation and move forward. So I really encourage us to put this forward on the ballot, and we'll really be encouraging the people of King County to support it. I mean acknowledge that there's a member of the public in New Zealand participant list who has raised their hand. We take public comment at the beginning of our meetings. We're not in the habit of taking it during council debate and vote. So I want to just acknowledge that as that feature was used in a Zoom call. For the debate from colleagues. Now, Madam Clerk, I'd ask you to please call the Royal. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member, Belgium. I council member belted. She votes II. Council Member Dombrowski I Council member Dombrowski votes council member Dunn no. Councilmember Dunn votes no. Council Member Cornwall Council Member Cornwall Scouts I. Council member Lambert oh. Council Member Lambert now councilor above i council member of the group i council member on my fellow. Councilmember Yvonne right there. Councilors. Only Art Council members are alive and signing. Mr. Chair, although Mr. Chair votes on Mr. Chair, the vote is six eyes to nose council member bond rating. They were excused. Thank you. We've given a do pass recommendation to Motion to Ordinance 2231. We will expedite that to the next council. Next week's council meeting. And that concludes the action items on our agenda. Before we move to other business, however, I'd like to make sure that any technical issues didn't prevent council members from voting. Madam Clerk, were there members excused from votes today? Yes, Mr. Chair. On Item 2020 00240. Councilmember Dunn was excused and 2020 0231. Councilmember Conrad Thorne was excused. And you should hear Councilmember Dunn, you. My phone had a juice there for a little while and I had to plug it back in before it reset. Can you tell me about what brought on this? Madam Clerk, do you have the titles at fingertips for those audience numbers? I certainly do. The one that Councilmember Dunn was excused for is a motion declaring racism a public health crisis. And the one that Councilmember von Right they were excused from was the last vote on the sheriff's duty there. Okay, good. Mr. Chair, if you might allow me to give 15 seconds of remarks on that specific issue and cast my vote, I'd be grateful for that chance to take 15 seconds. I'm going to go for it right now. Okay. Thank you. I believe that racism is one of the most serious challenges facing our country and our state, and we need to take great steps and strides to continue to attack it. We've done a lot of work and my time in the council will continue to do so. However, declaring a public health emergency for racism is something I can't support unless we include sexism and in many of the other types and forms of discrimination and bias that exist. And I think we need to preserve things like a declared public health emergency for medical related issues, pandemics and other large scale health related issues. So for that reason, I'll be voting no. Thank you. Councilmember one right there on the last motion regarding duties of the sheriff. I don't know. Mr.. No. Mr.. EDMOND We're both of those words. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Or to borrow, I assure Councilmember Dunn, voting no. Oh, two, three, one. I shall council member upon my thorough voting no. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Lord. Council member Balducci. Before we draw mascot, I guess it was a point of order or just a procedural question. Yes. Can somebody remind me what the deadline is for voting charter amendments out of full council to put them on the ballot in November? Is there someone on the line who can definitively walk us through that? It's. Billy Hamacher. Hi, this is Billy. The other deadline, the very last time you can vote to send something to elections is actually August 4th, but that would require your declaration of emergency. Your last regular meeting is the 21st. So you could do a also do a special meeting sometime between the 21st and when you might go on to recess. But in terms of your last meeting that's regularly scheduled, it would be a week from today. What's the deadline to do it without an emergency, regardless of whether we have a meeting or not? I was afraid you were going to ask me that. I believe it is the 28th. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. I was informed. Yeah, let me confirm that. But I think it's one week later than the regular schedule. And just figuring out if it turns out that we need time to work on amendments based on the discussion that we had earlier about the two issues being conflated. But then we have a lot of flexibility and the answer generally is no, not a lot of flexibility. Yeah, definitely does not support that plan. You're a crook. Yeah, he's a he's a born analyst. You go, Billy. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. And then I was like a Republican. I think Bill is a Republican. I heard that the way he's going to win, and it sounds very good. Mr. Jarrett, this is Jeff, ma'am. On the staff. Mr. Mom? Yes. Yeah, I just pulled up the clerks. The Clerks election men memo for this year, and I just wanted to confirm the date for. For the better presented council member. I did use request and it looks like. But yeah, that that Patrick is correct that oh, no, not a regular council meeting to pass as an emergency in 728 in the last regular council meeting with the minimum processing time in 721. And of course those dates came out before COVID. So then the 28th is no longer a regular council meeting, it would be a special council meeting. But that's the two parts of the emergency date. So, yes, they go up for the city as well. Thank you. Any other. The order reports from outside counsel. You don't get to do that. Having no other business to share. Is there an easy meeting? There he is. Councilmember WC. We do have an easy U.S. meeting right after this one. And if I may, before we adjourn, would people like to take a break until 430 and then convene an AC or just go right into. Power through. Power. Through your power through. A three minute break. Yeah, I was going to ask for a break, too. No, it's okay. Let's do it. Madam Chair, can Mr. Chair, a council member vote right now? I was talking to council member Val Tucci, council member about duty, where you yield to a question and. Let's hear it. I'm currently at the courthouse. I'm going to be going down to my car so I can call in. So I just want to give you a heads up. That will not be an issue right away, but I will call it. Okay, judging all the input taken. Let's take a five minute break between the end of this meeting and the beginning of the next so people can reset. Go to the bathroom, do whatever we need to do. That sounds good. All right. And with that, knowing of no other business going before the committee, the whole. We are adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Kimberly Deriana, who resides in council district two, to the King County cultural development authority (4Culture), as an executive at-large representative.
king_11f512b1-721a-4ccd-9c1b-f6bb205ca17d	Numbers. They tell us that everyone months. Mr. Chairman, dear. Councilmember Darcy. Yeah. Councilmember Coleman here. Here. Here. Here, Mr. Mr. Terrier. We're talking about. The Shura Council was the first. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I. Okay. Now we turn. Thank you. Can anybody hear me okay? All right. So this is 2014 for this new supplemental budget of $10.3 billion. And just by way of background, you call that the budget for the wastewater treatment division is focused on capital projects, which is the basis of the projects. How much does it cost to promote projects? The 2019 rate proposal included a proposed direction for use of an incremental funding $143 million that would be used to avoid expenditure on new bond funds issuance in the year 2020. They would have been helped actually prove that reputation. It's quite a proven. In the meantime, the Piper Jaffray made recommendations to use that money in a different way. They had recommended that because noting that there are enough people to say about $21 billion, I think it recommended to use that money to actually purchase new bonds and to not use the money to. On Capitol. Okay. So I'll cut you off. Yeah. Yeah. So. So inside. The initial proposal can be used on unemployed $2 million and all the way you could get it back on $125,000. New $7.3 million Million. To avoid the expenditure on capital projects in future years 2018, 2019 and 2020. The expectation was that money was going to be used to avoid expenditures on capital budget. What would be what is now being proposed, however, is to actually to issue new bonds instead of. Instead of. In the amount of $1.3 million as a way to save basically about $21 million. That would come because, as you said, it's going to go instead of the issuance of. The proper use of capital funds must be more. Before joining the team expenditures in 2018 20. 2028. One thing to do is, is issue bonds a low interest rate and that interest rates meetings with the end result contained. About $1 billion. I'm looking for something between now and 23 to. So it's something that's the both business, the supplemental budget appropriation that we would. That saved us $41 million. High interest savings. Should we be getting out of the encampment wastewater treatment division and the. We're going to be need to help you the questions. He likes Rico. Okay. Good morning. My name is Rochelle and we play together and we serve as the special advisory. And I stay for the. What did. They say growing up so surprised. When the industry had. But with health industry analyzing. Their interest rates, it seem. Right now you do have the county wastewater treatment plant outstanding. Trace 5 to 5 and a half percent range. And so that is something where you're able to fund without the proposal. Plus we used to pay off those bonds. Instead he would end up issuing new. To find out of the program. They have an interest. In the neighborhood of 4% of. Exactly. Cash to be applied to 60,085. One of the things we were trying to. Currently 36. So there. Will be three productions that started in. 2006. Well, the rates are already. To be 2020. All these savings. And they're not just making. This thing started sometime in the 1920s to go on for about a dozen. And there's a chart of 41 apartments here. Yeah. You see it chart. I see the microphones are on the chart on page up. Page 41 of your materials does have a column that describes rate impact. And so you'll see that, that the rate impact ranges as low as two $0.02 and as high as $0.23 between now and 2032. That's against what were expected rates. So reduced against the rates that you've seen projected in the rate rate proposal for that came out in June of this year. So there are reductions in in not the not the absolute number, but in terms of what was expected, what was projected. To I'm sorry. Customer Biology Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm looking at this chart. What it shows is the rate impact, which I believe would be the difference between our current rate, which I'm assuming is fixed, and a projection of what we think the rate will be into the future. Is that what that is? Yes. So you recall it during the discussion about the the the the rate the sewer rate for 2019 that we provided. You and I have numbers available, I believe, provided you the numbers as to what the proposed rates were expected rates were going to be over the next 10 to 15 years. These are the rate impact that just listed here is a reduced reduced against that amount against the sewer rates. Not not the interest rates. No. Sorry. These same words, I mean, two different things. I'm sorry. But this column is talking about the sewer rate. That's correct. So it's good. Point to me where the analysis is that we can I want to understand how we think we're going to save money, because I'm with Councilmember Lambert. It seems to me that rates are going up and it seems to me that we're projecting that when we bond in the future, it will remain a lower rate than the bonds we issued in the past. So how does that work? So the rates, I guess maybe two things on that front. Interest rates that have been getting the headlines that as far as interest rates going up, that has been primarily due to the Federal Reserve actions. And what they're doing is they're raising short term interest rates and that actually ends up helping you from the standpoint of paying off this debt. So it's something where, as Councilmember Dombrowski noted, this is a defeasance where you actually end up setting aside the funds and you end up paying off those bonds in three years. So 2022 is the final year. You would end up paying those off. So you would be investing those funds for the next three years. So that actually helps the cost of the DEFEASANCE. And one of the reasons why we ended up making the recommendation at this point is because the Federal Reserve has raised rates basically three times since the last since the March , June and September. And that ends up helping the investment rate that you would end up getting between now and 2022. The long term interest rates that you're talking about as far as those have not moved very much at all. And that's one where you would actually be borrowing for your new capital program at those long term interest rates and would be doing so within the next hour. Anticipation is that we'll be back to you in November with borrowing for we do the defeasance where we'd end up paying off your existing bonds at those higher interest rates . And we do that sometime in October. We would actually come back in November with locked in interest rates for long term borrowing. And those long term rates actually haven't moved very much at all. Those have been very, very, very stable. And so that's where you end up having that tradeoff, where the headlines certainly are interest rates are rising, but that is on the short term and that's where it actually it's kind of counterintuitive, but it actually helps the defeasance because in that transaction, you're an investor, right? And you want the rate to be as high as possible. So that actually helps you, right? I get it. So in the short term, our money is making more in the bank than it is paying off the debt. In the long term, we're going to be able to borrow at more fair and more favorable rates. And so in the entirety of that calculation means that we have $21 million more to spend on capital projects in the long term. That is exactly right. Are you feeling very confident about that? This is a bit of a state of events is going to continue this way. Well, there is there I think there is a reason. It says approximately 21 million right now. It certainly looks like it's going to be a substantial amount of money, but it will not be locked in until that the borrowing takes place in November. Okay. So but are you feeling confident? We're feeling fairly confident, yeah. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Customer reality and the prior plan had us just using these funds, the settlement funds, to pay cash for capital projects. Right, exactly. So but you're saying because the short term rates have gone up, it makes more sense to invest those dollars and then retire our high interest debt that's maturing here in the short term. And then. Issue. Cheaper, long term debt. Even through all that, it makes more sense than paying cash somehow. Yes. Yes. Because you have those higher and straight bonds still out. And if you didn't. Have those, then we should pay cash. Exactly. If you do not have those, then there would be no, I guess, opportunity to reduce your overall debt service. All right. Two other members have questions, council member calls. Would you like to put this before us for approval? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I move post. Ordinance. Think you're Mike? We're working on. It. So they've got to join. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm a proposed ordinance number 2018 0424. All right, that's before us saying no further questions or debate the critical call the room. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Balaji Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember von Richter. Mr. Chair, hi, Mr. Chair of the Board of seven A's, no no's to excused. All right. We've given a do pass recommendation to that. Should we expedite that and can we do? Yeah, I should note that there actually has been a little bit of movement in interest rates in the last couple of days, and so that actually reduced the amount that we were expecting. There's going to be 20 million instead of 21 million. So it's about interest rate environment. And so it would make sense to expedite this. Can we expedite to this afternoon or do we. The better off you need. The better off to relieve the committee. Okay. And do we want to do that? In my communications with the agency, they have always expressed interest in moving it as quickly as possible. I should note that we had actually thought this was going to be acted on earlier. And so they urged me to encourage you to to move as rapidly as possible. Okay. So our counsel, Mr. Hoover, is suggesting that procedurally it might be better to let this sit in committee and then this afternoon move to relieve the committee and take action because of our agenda publication and things like that. And is there any problem from a bonding perspective with respect to notice? And there is. No. All right. You would. You would. All right. That's all right, Mike. Sorry, Mike Hoover, counsel for the council. There would not be a notice problem, but you would need to take testimony this afternoon if you chose to do that. All right. Well, now that I've called a vote, I have not announced the results. But where do we stand here? We want to leave it in committee. You you could just set it down for now and just move on to the next item. With gender, you can't actually report it out. We could suspend the rules. There's another way we could do it. If you want to. If you want to put this down for a minute, we could. Let me take a look at some things. We come back with the best way to get you where you need to be. So you could just you could just move that it hold its place on today's agenda in the committee and then move on to the next item. All right. Councilmember Caldwell's, does that meet with your approval? Would you make that motion. During the week to make a motion in Spain? Make do we need to make a motion to set it down? I think the chair could just say, you know, with you know, without objection. Unless there's objection, will lay this item here on the table. If subject to further action, the committee or the full council this afternoon, see what you've done. Thanks for being here and for helping us understand this. Mike, thank you very much for thank you for your work on it. All right. Now let's return to order. Here we have a consent agenda and councilmember calls. Would you be willing to put our consent agenda items five, six and seven before us? I thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the consent agenda be adopted, and that would include proposed motion number 2018 0459. I propose motion number 2018 0460 and proposed motion number 2018 0461. All right, clerk, I'll call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Duchin, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garza, Councilmember Caldwell, I. Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember of the ground, Councilmember von Richter. Hi, Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is seven A's, no no's, two excused. All right, we've given a do pass recommendation on those. We'll put them on consent and expedite them up to four council. It will help me to understand here, and I'm sorry I don't. But with these Monday morning meetings, whether or not when we expedite, that means it goes on this afternoon's calendar or the following Monday. I just don't know. So if somebody could help us figure that out, be great. You think it's this afternoon? Okay. All right. Turning to item eight, item eight pertains to the confirmation of Jay Osborne as the first director of the King County Department of Human Services. Unless that was once a department in the past, I don't know. But we recently created the new Department of Human Services, and Jay Osborne has been serving as the director of the Division of Human Resources. What am I saying? Services are human resources. We are joined by Sahar Fonti, who will give us a story on this. And Jay is here. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So how about the council central staff? For the record, the materials for your staff report can be found on page 19. Proposed Motion 2018 0398 would confirm the executive's appointment of Jay Osborne to be the director of the King County Department of Human Resources. The King County Charter provides for the Council to confirm or reject appointments by the county executive. Mr. Osborne has worked for the county in a variety of roles since 1988. His resume can be found on page 29, and the answers to his question to the questions posed by the Council can be found on page 33, and he's served in a variety of roles since 1988, including as the director of the King County Human Resources Division. And he's helped establish the new Department of Human Resources, which the Council approved last week. He is in the audience for the council's questions should the motion move forward? There is an amendment on page 25 of your materials that would make a technical change, inserting the enacted ordinance number for the new Department of Human Resources. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Sahar. What was the last item about in. A packet. What materials are there? The amendment on page 25. Okay. What would that do? That just in inserts the enacted ordinance number for the new department, because you just end with that number beforehand. Right. All right, Jay, would you like to come forward case members have questions or comments. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you. Do members have a question or comment for Mr. Osborne? It seems like we should all kick us off. You've been the director of the division. How's it going? It's going pretty well. You know, it's interesting, after 30 years in the county to have an opportunity to do something from the seat of human resources and all of the work that the chief people officer, Ms.. Abrams and the exac have done the stand up investing in you and move the ball forward. Quite excited to work with the Office of Equity and Social Justice and all of the folks to make a difference in the lives of our 15,000 employees. So thank you. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask you the same question I asked when he was in my office. I think that that is helpful. Historically speaking, we've had human resources or personnel offices in each department, and we would call them and they would give us direct hands on information about openings or whatever it is we wanted to have. How is it going to be better having a centralized personnel and human resources department, in your opinion? Well, I think that part of the issue is that every department has a different funding structure, so some of them have more robust H.R. teams than others. Standing up a department and having the H.R. manager for each one of those departments report directly to me ensures we're having some consistency of practice, investigations, hiring sort of protocol, and then we're better able across the county to sort of lean and be more efficient in how we do the hiring and training of our workforce. Would you characterize that as the major reason for the consolidation into a single department? I think it's twofold. One is the ESG plan and sort of the work that we're getting ready to do throughout the county and institutionalizing some of that work. We're going to be coming back to you next year with updated code and personnel guidelines and really looking at our practices across the board for how we manage the workforce , consolidating some of those, making it cleaner and clearer for our employees and what their practices. For our listening audience. Can you tell us what ESG means and what you mean by updating it in a more comprehensive manner? I think so. It stands for equity and social justice, and it is the county's commitment to provide opportunities for all of our citizens in an equitable way. And there are a lot of practices that we're doing throughout the workforce for that. One of the budget proposals before you is also a central role in my office to work with the recruiters throughout the county to make sure that we're reaching out to the right communities and spending some time doing some quality recruitment for all of the positions. We hire about 1200 employees every year. So we do have a lot of movement within our ranks as well. And in terms of the racial makeup of our county work force, Howard won. Find out how the last couple of years we've been doing in each department or overall in terms of maintenance and have numbers of employees from various people of color communities. That is a benchmark we're tracking. Tracking it by department down to work group for the last few years. We can provide that information. You can provide that information to me. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Garza, Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And congratulations on your appointment. J Thank you. I question I have is you really have a stellar long background experience in the county. I'm sure you know it inside and out, but your experience has mainly been in roads and parks, and now this is a new challenge, new policy area for you or not policy, but just new area for you. And I have no doubt you can do it and have been doing it well. But I was looking at your background and you have a B.A. in social work and in in psychology, two different ones, which may be really more suitable to this new endeavor that you're undertaking. And so I'd just like to hear a little bit more about what you are bringing to this role, what you'd like to accomplish, given that you don't have the specific background in human resources. I think for me, part of it is having been a long term county employee and understanding how things work within the county and how you can get something done, standing up a department, going from a division to a department, sort of the framework around that. We've done some things like looking at how we provide support to work groups in crisis and really emphasizing some of what we're able to provide in a more consistent way. I think what I bring personally in here is just the ability to create an organization that can be functional, remove some of the roadblocks, have some of the conversations that need to be had and be able to create a framework so that our employees in h.r. Are the best trained and most productive employees they can be. Thank you, Councilmember Balducci and then Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Jay, congratulations. And thank you for being willing. This is one of the challenging roles in King County government. We we can't do much of what we do without our people. And so making sure we have the right people in the right place with the right training is critically important. One of the interesting things about King County is the way it's changed over the years. There was a centralized department, then it was expanded to put the h.r. Managers in the operating departments. And now we're talking about sort of tying them close more closely back to the central department. And I, i see the I see the evolution there. It's a service to the departments and making sure their needs are being met and we're being responsive in h.r. To the department. At the same time, you want to have standards and performance metrics that are consistent. How are you going to balance that? That tension of making sure that the departments are getting what they need. And let me just give you an example. Some of the departments are really struggling with hiring and how to fill all the vacancies that we have to do these critical jobs. How do how do we help departments to have a quick, efficient and yet effective hiring process address sets out and address the the things that are stopping us from being able to hire the people we need and and do all that with a more centralized focus. Just as an example, you can pick a different example if that one doesn't work for you. And that's a good one. There's quite a challenge that we're having in some circles too, and I think so. Every department has a senior manager who's been doing this for a long time. They've risen through the ranks. They've got great experience that is working as a kitchen cabinet to some degree with folks within H.R. to really look at the policies, the barriers, what we're doing. They've got some great ideas and tapping into this group in a dynamic way to start to address some of these things. There are different needs for recruitment. It's hard to find jail guards on a job as officers. Let me just stop you right there. Yes, correctional corrections officers. Thank you. Thank you. First day on the job. I know you're newbie. I got working on my dialog here, so. And finding appropriate ones for this market in the housing market, where we are, what that looks like and it's a stressful job and what can we do to sort of help the stressors that are around there to make sure that the workforce that's there can have productive careers as well as get more folks in to help deal with the timing issues. There's that's a really good example of an area we need to focus on and sort of look at practices nationwide as well as things that we could do to stand up. We have a lot of folks going out from some of the departments to recruiting events, having a more comprehensive recruiting process for all the places we have. Needs, I think will make a big difference as we stand up the department. Thank you. And anything that we can do to help with these challenges, it's they're really critical to the county providing services to the public. So we're here to try to help. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember actually, Councilmember Lambert. Yes. Yes. So and following up with the last question, the process is of hiring is so long and cumbersome that sometimes some of the best candidates drop out. So making sure that we can be nimble is going to be a really big deal. So thank you. What my question is, is and first of all, I'd like to thank you. I have already seen some of your good work in the fact that when we had an employee die in my office, not in my office, in the hospital, but an employee of my office, I guess a better one. Your counseling, your planning transition and your grief counseling for our team and the entire floor was very, very helpful. So thank you for all the good work that went into that. It was it was not easy. So thank you for helping you make it easier. My question is the session planning? Some people are getting older. I don't know why they do that, but some people are. So how are we going to deal with that? When you look at the average age of people in various departments, how are we going to maybe overlap? Because I my fear is that a lot of really amazing tricks than ideas. Then history is walking out the door and how do we make sure that there's some way of tapping into that other than telling them, you can't leave ever. There's a few that we should say that to. Yes, I know. I do think, you know, one of the things in the code that will be coming back to you in the personnel guidelines would be an inability to let us double slot people for a few months and have some transition time. We're also been looking at succession. Planning at the highest level. So Whitney Abrams and I have been meeting with the department directors and talking about their timelines and sort of in the appointed ranks. How are we doing all the way down through the agencies? We also have a changing workforce and we're tracking some of that. The way we do work is changing and evolving. So how many people you need in different areas varies and how do we still make a commitment to retool, retrain and help those people be successful in other areas as they go? We have one of the things that I'll say from Rhodes, we have some very senior people know every crack of every roadway and where to go, when and how that knowledge gets passed on to the betterment of the citizens is also a key part of what we look at as we pass down that knowledge. So I, I also when you think about roads, water inland, Tom being, I don't know, just historic roads or she retired, you know. I don't know. Okay. Well, anyway, Tom Beam knew every inch of every river in his entire county. And you could just say this one is kind of over here and has a band. Oh, that must be over here at milepost such and such. And, and, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. So when you have employees like that, it's really hard to lose them. So ah, and he may still be here. I think he retired, but I'm not sure. So I really like the idea, the overlap. And it's not possible to just hand the baton over to somebody and say, Here's my 30 years of experience, good luck without walking alongside that person. So thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Councilmember COLAs, would you be willing to put the motion before us? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move. Propose motion number 2018 0398 confirming the executive's appointment of Jay Osborne as the director of the King County Department of Human Resources. That's before a seminal column. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Have had the opportunity to work with Mr. Osborne as he was in Rhodes. And I'd just like to say a couple of things. There are many things to respect about him. One is he's very levelheaded. He sees things in a very practical way. He can deal with controversial issues and be the person that just can handle all the different things and get people together. He's knowledgeable on so many different areas and if you look in this room to all his coworkers are here to support him. You don't see their pompoms, but you see their smiles. They are here because he was really good to work with. The only thing that I would complain about is he's not allowed us to clone him. I think we could use a lot more just like him. But until then, I'm really glad that we have him where he is. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Anything else? All right, we have an amendment. Councilman Coles, would you move the amendment? The amendment inserts the ordinance number that created the Department of Human Resources. It's Amendment One. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move Amendment one. All in favor. Say I, I. And he opposed. All right, turn to the underlying ordinance as amended, and we'll call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belge, Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett, I. Councilmember Colwell, I. Councilmember Lambert, hi. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember of the girl. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is eight eyes, no no's, one excuse. Okay. We've given a unanimous do pass recommendation to you, J and four. This ordinance will expedite it, and I think we can place it on the consent agenda. Our council is telling me that that means it'll be on next Monday's agenda, which I guess makes some sense because. Congratulations and thank you. Thank you all for being here and for your work for King County. All right. That takes care of our action items today. We have two briefings, one on the solid waste comprehensive plan update the other on the 2016 to 22 Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan. Are both those items ready? All right. We'll start with the item ten, the 2018 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan update. We're joined by Pat Magoffin, the Solid Waste Division Director. Thank you for being here, Pat. This is, I believe, the committee's first overview of the plan, which has received support from Ms.. Wack and your other advisory committee, the SWAC boy. Not sure if it's good or bad that I know those acronyms, but congratulations on getting that support. Alicia, do you have anything on this as our staff know? All right. All right. So this is an it will be next time. All right. So this is an initial briefing on the contents of the plan to get members oriented and first staff to be able to hear members questions and concerns, to be able to prepare feedback ahead of the next time we take this up. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Okay. I have new mikes there on when you have the red. Thank you. The red dial that. All right. Well, again, for the record, my name is Pat McGlothlin. It's my honor to serve as King County's Solid Waste Division director. I'm joined by Meg Morehead, who is our manager of our Strategy Communications and Performance Group and actually the author largely of this plan and in concert with many stakeholders, as I'll talk about here in a moment, I know that the Council is regularly faced with a variety of important policy issues to ensure that King County remains in the forefront, that our people are healthy, that our economy is prosperous, that our environment is clean. And the topics that I'm going to be exploring with you today all make important contributions to those same very goals. Our comprehensive, Solid Waste Management Plan has undergone significant overhauls over the last two years. We have worked diligently with our city partners, with our private haulers and processors, and with the community at large to really understand their priorities, the challenges and the options that are facing our regional solid waste system. And as it turns out, we are quickly approaching some critical decision points. And yet our existing comprehensive plan hasn't been updated since 2001. As a point of reference, gas was a dollar $0.40 a gallon. Wikipedia had just launched. Napster was just shut down. And it was cyber cafes as a means of communication because Twitter and Facebook hadn't even been thought of yet. So it's been a long time. I think you get the point. We need to benefit from an updated framework to guide these key policy decisions. And so today I'd like to focus on three specific areas. There are others within the plan, but I think these represent the most critical decision points in some of the most time sensitive as well. So we'll talk about disposal, transfer services and recycling and think to set some basic context in each of these areas. I'd also like to cover very quickly a baseline tonnage forecast, which is really a big driver in our decisions because it's this tonnage forecast and the assumptions behind it which indicate how busy our stations will be or how quickly our landfill will reach its capacity. This forecast was developed based on the Con-Way report, based on the Puget Sound Regional Council forecast. So it's rooted in the same economic indicators that the county uses as a whole, but it's translated with respect to garbage and reflecting both the economic forecast as well as population. So what I'll draw your attention to, to begin with, is the lower yellow line on the graph that represents our baseline planning assumptions that were established back in 2016. This was the basis of the rate that we had passed back in 2016. That was the basis of our budget and our core business plan. And yet the lines above it all represent relative increases over what we now know to be a more probable forecast. The dashed gray line represents the most conservative forecast in terms of population and economic conditions. I'll point out that based on King County Auditor recommendations, we now doing our forecast include a range of probabilities, and this gray dash line represents the lower end of a probable forecast going forward. If we look at the upper orange line, that's the more perhaps aggressive look at forecast when you consider our population and economic conditions. And we've settled somewhere in between represented by the solid blue line accounting for moderate population growth and even moderate economic conditions, including a modest recession. And we believe that this midpoint gives us the most probable basis to predict the impacts within our system and what we need to be planning for the most time sensitive and and perhaps most significant policy choice overall within this comprehensive plan is with respect to where our garbage will go. As you know, for over 50 years, we have manage our waste locally through the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill, and that served as well. But it's built capacity will be exhausted by 2028 based on the forecast data I just shared with you. So we have contractual obligations to 37 cities through our INTERLOCAL agreements that require us to provide a disposal solution through the year 2040. And yet what I've just shared with you is we will run out of that local capability by 2028. We do have options. We could maximize Cedar Hills through the development of another cell. We could also put our waste on a train and export it to an outer county landfill. Or we could site a incinerator or a waste to energy facility to process that waste. All three of these are ultimately viable options. The question is, which is the most sensible in terms of the priorities and needs of our county, particularly with respect to the time timeline? We have to put them into place because we have less than ten years to ensure that there's no gap in our disposal services. This next slide provides a very high look in comparing those three options side by side. Of course, there's additional details and analysis within the comprehensive plan and its various appendices, but at a high level, this represents both the financial, the environmental and the implementation risks of each of these options. And it's important, I think, to point out that in King County, I would argue that nobody knows landfilling in our region better than the county itself, given our experience factor of doing this for over 50 years and not just doing it, but doing it well and operating an award winning landfilling operation. So when it came to pulling together financial, environmental or risk information for that profile, it was really quite easy because we have such a broad experience. Even looking at waste, export, we have the benefit of looking regionally and very locally at the city of Seattle or Snohomish County to understand the contracts and the operational framework and to assemble that data for comparison. But I have to say we didn't have that same level of insight when it came to waste to energy. And so we retained the best experts we could in the nation to help us understand not just what would be the best fit technology for waste energy, but what would be the financial, environmental or other implications that we'd need to understand in order to have such a side by side comparison. So I want to point out that the data for waste to energy is not the county's data per se. It's really the data that came from the independent work of the third party experts that were hired. And Pat, would you take questions as we go along here? I'd be happy to. It's Councilmember Lambert. So I would like to put on the record that that I have some concern about that last statement. The number that you see for waste to energy is a raw number, but it does not take into account what can be subtracted off of that in the way of putting power on the grid, which we could sell, and also various nutrients and chemicals like hydrochloric acid that could be sold to pharmaceutical companies, as well as fly ash, which could be sold to the concrete industry. So in that report, there were a number of byproducts and we see it all across the world. There are many, many byproducts and the others do not have byproducts that can offset that. So that number should have an asterisk after it and then a estimate of what we see. And my favorite plant is the one in Hamburg, Germany. Is there a percentage that they are able to sell so that that number is more reasonable and has the integrity of being an apples to apples comparison? Thank you. Thank you. And Pat, are you going to go through these numbers here? I'll briefly touch on them. So at least to make sure there's some clarity over what what they represent. You know, this not just a financial decision. I think that we have to look at this more broadly than just financial. But that's the first series of data that is up there. The costs per ton that are reflected are a portion of the costs that we actually charge our ratepayers, because we charge ratepayers based on our waste prevention activities, the transportation services we provide and the disposal services we provide. This is looking at just the disposal element of the total costs that we charge. Just the tipping. Fee. Just a portion of the tipping fee, yes. Just a. Portion. Right. The tipping fee for 2019, for instance, as recently approved by the council, is just over $140 a ton. And so this shows $41 a ton of that support. 140 is the disposal element of what does it cost for us to put that into the landfill and manage it responsibly compared to putting it on a train and exporting it? There are additional costs, both just transporting it because you're going to have to move that waste a few hundred miles to an out-of-county facility. And you're also reasonably going to be having to pay profits to the private industry. Who's going to be managing it on her behalf? And so it's a little more expensive than than us managing it locally. The waste energy costs are largely reflective of the capital investment. It reflects operating costs as well, but it is largely swayed by the amount of capital required to launch it. And to clarify the council members rightful interest to make sure that these numbers are accurate. This does reflect offsets associated with the sale of energy for this plant. So that is reflected as well as the sale of additional recyclables that are sifted through the ash and sold to the market. So that does soften and brings the number to the 136. There are to the council members point additional things that could happen if we change state law or if we developed new industries or had a variety of partnerships that could make for other opportunities that would generate more revenue and further offset costs. But what we took from a planning assumption was the current conditions with respect to state law or regulatory requirements. But we, fortunately, through the consultancy report, have a list of alternatives that could be explored should waste energy ever be pursued. I think there are additional elements worth considering in terms of a state law or private partnerships and product development that could further soften the the overall cost. What's the estimated capital cost to build that kind of facility? What's the range? It was estimated at the time to be about $1.4 billion. That was based on the 2016 forecast. And as I shared with you, are now forecast is is measurably higher than that. And so we would estimate this to be closer to $1.8 billion. That includes financing costs. It does. Councilmember Lambert. So, Mr. Chair, I know that I'm having a meeting next week to go over the many things in this report that are very different from the plants around the world that I've seen. As well as the one that the executive and I went to see about a month ago in West Palm Beach, Florida, because some people were saying that this can be done in America, and obviously that's not true. We just went to West Palm Beach. The numbers for the cost of the plant have vacillated everywhere from various reports as we've gone along in the last year and a half. Everything from 1.1 million all the way up to 1.8 and the size of the plant has been greatly changed over that period of time. When I showed the report to people in Denmark, they were like, What are you talking about? So there are different thoughts about this. The West Palm Beach said that they could build their plant, which is very similar to ours for about 800 million. So we could build something around 800 million. And we're being told that this will take 1.8 billion. So there is a huge dichotomy in exactly what the facts are. So I just want to point that out. Okay. And we look forward to sitting down with you, Councilmember two to discuss any perceived discrepancies there and make sure that we can address those with you. Environmental impacts are estimated in two different ways, both using our regulatory models. So the Environmental Protection Agency is is our ultimate regulator, and they have to authorize models that we operate under today. So those are the models we used. One is a kind of event based, an annual measure. It's called the AG RTI. It's the second one listed there. But we also want to look at the lifecycle impacts of these three different disposal choices. And so what this reflects is the range of impacts associated with the landfilling as well as with the waste to energy relative to greenhouse gas emissions. And you can see that the Sea Turtles landfill, because of both the operational protocols we use, as well as the advanced gas collection and conversion system that we have in place actually under lifecycle has removals of greenhouse gases because we're not having we're avoiding the use of fossil fuels as a result of the clean energy that is developed. That is similarly true but to a lesser scale assumed at the of county landfills because they they also have gas to energy systems in place. However, with waste energy there are just through the natures of combustion there are emissions. And so when you're looking at it from a greenhouse gas perspective, that's what is being reflected in terms of the the those releases, be it over a lifecycle or over a single year. And again, this this data for the waste energy was was based on the independent work of the consultants. And finally, I mentioned that there's a recycling benefit actually to waste energy. That is worth pointing out when materials brought to our system today, it is largely just disposed of. And sadly, most of what's brought to the landfill every day could be recycled and it is getting buried. The advantage that waste energy does offer is that you can sift through the ash and recover metals, and that's very difficult to do actually once it's just in a big pit. But that actually is estimated to bump recycling rates by about 2%. And again, that is also reflected in a revenue offset. There are challenges to any three of these options. Certainly extending the life of the landfill by maximizing its capacity would have to benefit from a super process and the new permitting process as well. And there will be inherent challenges associated with that. The primary concern in terms of risk of the rail system is not really about the county landfill capacity and not even necessarily the local rail yard capacity. But the rail in between those two destinations is already facing congestion and is forecast to continue to be challenged. And then the primary concerns with respect to waste energy are both the siting and the sizing of the facility. From a sizing perspective, because we have a new forecast, we would be facing the need of a waste energy facility that can handle about 5000 tons per day. And presently there isn't one anywhere in the world that that's big enough to handle that much volume. I will say that we've learned that there are a few that are being designed and developed, one in Shenzhen, China, and another in Dubai that are of similar size. So we would be in good company, but there's definitely some some challenges associated with that as well. The Executive has recommended in light of those factors, that maximizing Cedar Hills is the best option for now to ensure that we don't have a gap in service in 2028, but that we also keep the other options of waste, export and waste energy open because expanding the life of the landfill only buys us so much time. So we think it's the right thing to do now. It's the lowest cost per ton option has the most favorable environmental impacts. It allows us to continue to manage our waste locally and keep our jobs local. And it has the lowest risk in terms of our experience. And as the chair it pointed out, it such path is also endorsed by both of our advisory committees. I do propose, though, that we again have to continue to keep our eye on the other alternatives, and particularly from a technology standpoint. And we would expect that that technology will continue to evolve and that may in turn make that even more favorable going forward once Cedar Hills has fully been exhausted. The second policy area I wanted to I'll pass. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, can you go back to the slide before this one? I know the livestock of our greenhouse gas emissions. Why are the amounts and parentheses and the one on a waste of energy is not in parentheses? I'm trying to figure out how to better understand what this means. COUNCILMEMBER I'll take that. I'll take that question. The parentheses mean a net offset of greenhouse gases. And as Pat described, the reason why our efficient landfill gas collection system results in a net offset is that we're collecting landfill gas, refining the gas, and then selling it to displace fossil fuel derived gas. Now what will happen on their ways to energy as far as we know it now? What is the world, the 80,000 empty CO2 e. Me or me? And then the scenario. That shows that we assumed that all of the modern air pollution control systems would be in place to protect human health. So this isn't about human health. This is about carbon dioxide equivalents. And when you combust garbage, you would be creating a net emission of carbon dioxide equivalent. And we don't do that with landfills, given the kind of technologies that we currently use. Correct. Were not combusting. Correct. And lastly, what mtco two E actually means. Metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. That's what I thought. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, first of all, the collection of methane percentages that you're using is, what, 90 what 90? What percentage of the methane is being captured at Cedar Hills? Approximately 90, 95%. Okay. So that's important for us to know because and the rest of the world that has weighed in on this, which is Denmark and Denmark, Germany and Holland, they have told me that less than 50% can be recaptured, and especially as we have had in the past, broken pipes, we don't really know that we're getting all of the methane. And so they say that that's probably less than 50% that we're actually capturing. So, you know, if we're using a 90% and the accuracy numbers below that, I realize we're using the warm model. But when we were back in D.C. and lobbying Congress, as you know, I went to see the EPA and they are revamping the warm model and updating it. I don't know how they're going to update it, but they are aware that it's not completely accurate. And I think it's got even more problems, you know, when they're talking about the equivalent of CO2. The other to have more methane. And here on the waste energy plants, it's more CO2. I realize that their equivalents but when you're producing more CO2, more trees can help with that as opposed to when you're releasing methane into the air. So some of this data I have real problems with. So again, I wanted to point that out. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn. Thanks very much. Great to see you. And I appreciate the briefing. I just wanted to let you know if you haven't received word, we've decided we're going to a town hall out there on October 10th and members of the state legislature from the district are going to be out there. And it's really I just want make sure you have a good heads up. It's really just a chance for me to do some more listening from the folks who live in and around there. We get, as you know, a lot of. Constituent work from areas around both the landfill and also Cedar Grove composting. So we're doing some listening. You're more welcome to come if you'd like and just want to make sure you're aware of it. And it's not a surprise to you. You know, we'd be happy to be there as well, to listen. And certainly if there's questions we can answer, will be prepared to do that. Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Okay. All right. So let's spend about seven more minutes, wrap this up at 1115. And so I may have to hold other questions till the end or comments. I don't know how many more slides you have, but I do want you to be able to get through them. Thank you. Appreciate that. The second key area I wanted to cover with you is with respect to our transfer services. We again have some choices. This is particularly focused on the northeast part of our county, one of the fastest growing parts of our county. We considered the options of keeping out and as is replacing it with a new facility or using some combination thereof. This is a topic that has been explored for over 25 years. We looked at it in the 1992 and 2001 comprehensive plans. Again in 2007, when we did the Waste and Transfer Plan Update and we held workshops in 2014 2015 looking at demand management options as well. And now this comprehensive plan again collectively provides us, I think, with a robust analysis that indicates the need to address some equity issues in the Northeast and ensure that our service levels are also being addressed by modernizing the station in the Northeast. I'll point out to you that Houlton is the current station. That's the 1960s arrestation. It's the. Third busiest in our network. Regardless of whether you're measuring it by tonnage or by customer transactions, it's a very, very busy station, and yet it recycles the least. It just does not offer the capability to recycle resources, as our other facilities do. Our constituents in that area are paying the same price everybody else is, but they're not benefiting from a modern and closed facility with advanced environmental controls or a full suite of recycling. And it's time to address that and bring them a higher level of service, as well as address other key levels of service criteria which we're currently failing to meet. So our region collaboratively have established the sort of service that we expect of ourselves, if you will, of being able to handle the tonnage in terms of the waste coming in and the vehicle traffic being able to compact that waste and lessen the environmental impacts of from traffic or greenhouse gas emissions being prepared for emergency storage. And we've had to do that on a number of occasions, be it for storms or other equipment challenges. And again, addressing our environmental and recycling goals. And quite honestly, Holden fails all that criteria. And the best option here is to provide a modern facility that will provide those services and contribute to our environmental goals. Quite honestly, the onsite recycling that happens at transfer stations will be the single largest contributor to bring our division to carbon neutrality by 2025. We're making great strides, but here is one of our fastest growing areas and one of our busiest stations, and we are recycling very, very little there. So the recommendation is to proceed as affirmed by our more recent studies and even a direction from council to proceed with siting and building a new northeast station. It is supported by the region. It is projected to cost less than a dollar a month to the typical single family household. So very consistent with the other modern stations that we've replaced. And we believe it's it's a sound next step and important moving it forward. The last area I'll cover with you is in terms of recycling. The plan calls for a continued focus on recycling, but it also sets the stage for a more harmonized approach. There's a lot of confusion around recycling, and it's that confusion is bred by some of the changes internationally, where China has put heavy restrictions on the recycled materials that they are willing to buy anymore and the lack of local markets for them. But as we've studied this further, we've seen both the ability to take regional action. Our recycling rates have stalled. This chart in front of you shows that we've long had a goal of saying 70% of the materials should be recycled. But the reality is we're sitting at about 54% and it hasn't changed dramatically since 1995 or so. And what happened back in the nineties was that we moved from a multi stream recycling approach where we had multiple cans and bins to a single stream recycling. The whole region got on the same page, and in doing so, recycling rates doubled in less than five years. So a similar approach needs to be taken to drive to a more uniform recycling approach. We've heard about the challenges of the China sword, but as you study it, the China sword and the restrictions from China impact a minority of our total recycling stream. So 85 or 86% of our recyclables are not even impacted by that. So the message is we must continue to recycle, but we've got to keep it empty, clean and dry, and then continue to pursue local market development for the mixed paper and plastics that are impacted by it. But in reality, I think the best and most important action that we can take is to work as a region to harmonize our recycling policies, which today are very different depending on where you live, work or play. And we need to remove that inconsistency and drive contamination out. And the quality of our recycling up. Finally, the status of of timeline for this planning process. As we've been two years in the making, we believe that the plan that's before you from the executive is a really, really good, solid plan. It's reflective of the voices of our regional haulers and processors and 37 cities and. Some of the most time sensitive and critical policy choices that we need to benefit from now moving forward to ensure no gap in service as well as continued progress in our environmental goals. This county adoption process and the this hearing today is a really important step in the process. The adoption of this comp plan really begins with you as a county council body and would follow by the cities. So once your deliberations are complete, the city adoption process would begin. And then it's followed up with a kind of a formal seal of approval from the State Department of Ecology. Our hopes are that we can continue this process going forward and be happy to meet with any of you individually to address questions or concerns and welcome the opportunity to return at committee level as well to support your deliberations. Thank you very much, Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chu. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks, Pat. Given the final approval isn't until 2019. Assuming the council acts this year, is there anything that needs to get sent up with our two year operating budget as we sort of deliberate towards the end of the year? How does that mesh with how did the decisions we make in the comp plan, given it's not approved officially by the cities in the state until next year? How do you recommend? Are there items need to be met, sent up in the budget and how do you recommend handling that given the final. Approval is not till next year? That's a great question. And really we started this process as we presented you our rate proposal. That rate proposal, which included our low income rate, also provided funding to move forward with the policy framework that I've presented before you. It happens to be really the lowest cost path, for instance, on disposal. So if we wanted a different path, we would have to pursue a different rate. The budget that has now also been put before the Council reflects the funding requirements that we need to continue moving forward. So, you know, a next step will be through this budget approval process to ensure that we have the operating budgets to continue moving forward. And, you know, that really sets the stage. Yes, we still need a formal adoption, but because of the time sensitivities on the disposal side, if our budget is adopted, we will continue to plan within the confines of and the direction of our comprehensive plan, because we just don't have the luxury of time to wait even months to ensure that there's no gap in service. Thank you. Other questions or comments, Councilmember Lambert? Thank you, Mr. Chair. So. Right now we're working on developing cell number eight and that's the one that will be done by 2028. Right, that we feel by 2028. It will be yes, it will become active in early 2019 and is projected to reach its own capacity by 2028. So then that would mean we'd go in to sell number nine. And I understand that you're working with cell number nine as the head of the pit. Oh, it's it's the ninth one on the property. So and cell number nine, I've seen a huge range of costs. So I've seen as low as 286 million for that. So all the way up to 500 million. So what is the cost and how long would that cell be operational? So. What we have presented is is a range of alternatives. We've done a site development plan that identifies a number of ways to design and build additional capacity at Cedar Hills. The actual design, location, elevation, etc. has not been established. And once that design is fixed, then so too would be the cost. So what we've been able to do is provide you with a range from a planning perspective. And again, as reflected in our in our rate and our budget proposals. But until the design is actually finalized, we couldn't provide that number. Mr. Chair, my final statement on this is that many times we have been given in the past on the others, a 30% design number. And in looking at the chart, that shows the difference in the 30% design and then the ultimate, they are very different. In addition, in order to do number nine, we would have to move some buildings. And and so the high number that I'd seen in the past when we were brief was 500 million. And at that point, we were told that it would last about seven years. So I think that's a perspective we need to be looking at. And as soon as I find the chart in my drawer, I will forwarded to everybody so you can see it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Pat, very much and Meg, for your work on this. Just from my perspective, you touched briefly on the recycling issue, and that's something that I'm particularly interested in. And I am not sure what the plan does to actually move us toward achieving our adopted 70% goal. And that's going to be an area that I'm going to ask our staff to work with yours to see if we can't find some paths to it in the plan moving forward to look at options to get that get that up. I feel a little bit this isn't a criticism. I feel a little bit like we're punting. We've analyzed the situation. The market's changing. I think you know what the options could be to kick that rate up. And I guess I think that we should at least take some time to think about whether we want to do a little bit more of that heavy lifting now to get that ball rolling now. Maybe I'm wrong and I'm happy to be educated on that, but I know you are particularly interested in that topic and I spent a lot of work on it. And I know that, you know, there are things that we can can do, but that's just an area that I haven't dug into enough yet. But it's of interest to me. And I want to make sure that that we're doing that in part because if if continued disposal to landfill is our option, which I don't have a particular problem with from a cost perspective, we can lengthen that lifetime of the landfill by getting the recycling rates up. And while it may cost some work to do that now, I think long term for our ratepayers, there's an advantage to rates to having a competitive option in our landfill when we're looking at other disposal options. So that's just you know, you can your one respond to that. But I want to flag that for you and colleagues. I think it would be great to explore that further. And I agree with you. And I would add that there's no single action that we could take to extend the life of the landfill that would be more impactful than just to stop burying the resources and to divert those earlier on in the waste stream. Right. Very good. And I'm also interested in kind of closing the loop. You know, we run a 15,000 person government. We heard earlier today that that purchases a lot of materials. And you might wonder if we could do some in-house loop, loop closing and purchasing and perhaps even infrastructure building in terms of not being reliant on industries in distant countries that shut down demand when when policies changed. So anyway, we're looking forward to working on it's a complicated issue, but thanks for your work so far and for being here today. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We'll turn to our last item today and we're joined on this item, which is our annual update on the 2016 2022 ESG strategic plan by Andrew Kim, our central staff for Andrew, I don't know if you have an opening presentation on this. You do not. All right. You're here for questions. Mathias Venezuela, the director of the Office of Equity and Social Justice, joins us as well as I run some. BOTERO Am I getting that right, Arun? Help me out. OREN Thank you. I'm not pronouncing the emphasis correctly. OREN Thank you for being here. You are the manager, the strategies manager, equity strategies managers in the Office of ESG. Thank you both for being here to present on this item. And before you start, I just want to let colleagues know with respect to that bond measure, which I think you have signed on the advice of counsel, we are going to stand with with the board as as we did it, where we expedited it. It will be on next Monday's agenda. We could have we would have had to add an emergency clause to take it up today. And something seemed it was a more straightforward approach just to proceed and in the ordinary course. All right. Welcome. It is. Thank you. And thanks for having us. I do this reporting. I think we're quite excited by the new ways that we're reporting on an equity in social justice work and really eager to show you the new ways that we're doing it and actually being increasingly transparent and accountable in the work that we're doing. So I find that some of the good news category we're going to be doing, doing this pretty presentation, talking about really the transparent, accountable leadership and the importance of those public reporting. The platform where we are and will guide us through that really provide an overview of what the progress and the gaps by the key for strategy areas. Then hopefully I have some time for comments and questions. Really. Also, in terms of our first strategy in our equity and social justice, strategic plan is transparent, accountable leadership. And really in the past years we have done hard copies of annual reports that have been very stagnant, that they have been 28 pages or something. And it's really been a highlight of the work that we're doing and kind of propping up the good work that we do. But I think one of the commitments, as we mature as an organization doing this work, we have committed to do much more comprehensive reporting, both kind of wide how we're doing across policy areas, how we're doing internally in different goal areas, how we're doing our strategy areas, and then how particular areas are doing it, such as Health and human services or transportation or in the criminal justice area. I would say from our experience, a lot more jurisdictions are doing this work nationally. I think we now have the most extensive public reporting system anywhere, and I think this is true to our values of equity and social justice as to putting it up there. So our community and our employers can can really see where we're doing well. We're we're making some advancements and where we're we're not. Also, I, I think that key in this process, too. And in 2017, we did start our progress on being very explicitly focusing on racial equity and racial justice, just knowing that it was not enough to actually have a more universal approach and just saying we need to actually focus on those populations where we have the greatest needs. And you'll hear a little bit about where we're going in the next phase of that particular work. And for us to for our and myself, I think this is also part of our commitment for the design process that we had with our community. We talked to over 100 community community organizations throughout the county. We talked to close to 1000 of our employees and the development of this plan. So I think we always feel the weight of those voices, of what they told us and what they wanted to see improved. So that's really beyond the measures. And the goal is really what actually motivates me are those voices that we've heard when we engage really deeply with community. So just as a kind of a level setting in terms of what we're trying to move and the four strategies that we're reporting on, I know a lot of you are familiar with this, which is the stream metaphor that we use, the reality that King County has often done our work in other jurisdictions and philanthropy is really in that upper unhealthy stream model in terms of really investing on the right side of that stream downstream, very much at the individual and family level to address the conditions, the conditions that we see in communities and really driven by such as things of structural racism and other forms of discrimination and class and gender bias, etc.. And really moving to I think is a quite a radical idea. But we are moving along this way and also working with a lot of other philanthropic organizations and others to really push the work upstream and thus create this healthy stream where we are advancing pro equity policies. So then we can have those conditions where everybody can thrive and we can actually alleviate some of the work that we're doing downstream and get things really from preventive upstream approach. So really that's the key. Invest upstream, our needs are greatest is our first strategy that we're reporting on. The second one is invest in community partnerships. During our engagement, we heard a lot about the episodic nature of the work that we do with community. We go there when we need them. We don't necessarily resource them and really try to address that systematically. So we actually are much better and doing that also invest in employees. We heard and looking forward to doing a lot of work with Jay Osborne. We already work very closely and the employee side of things. But really when you look at us both in terms of racial diversity, we're not very diverse in the higher paid positions, but also when you think about the workplace culture and even who has opportunities in the organization, actually the higher paid positions and people are higher in the hierarchy tend to have a lot more opportunities, access to training, etc. And those who are lower in the organization are much worse off. Also in the employee survey that gets reiterated that those are the ones that feel less respect, that is valued within the organization. So that's really one of the areas we're trying to. Uplift, too. And then the final one is transparent, accountable leadership, really trying to make sure that this this is an example with a public reporting, but really actually that we're walking the talk and really actually being consistent with this goal of being more racially justice, more equitable in the community and then within the organization. So aren't going to walk us through the platform itself, which is online. Yes. So I just wanted to share. Before our and before you jump in, this is, I think at least the second time I've seen the the stream, the Theory of Change Stream, which I think we're all familiar with, the tree, right, the deterrence equity tree. But I really like this stream. And at some point in maybe one of our presentation on this topic will delve into the stream. Olympic has a pretty powerful diagram of the concepts because when we're. GOSSET Thank you. Mr.. I quickly add to that, and this is from our listening audience that's on TV. They said, well, it's, you know, the language sounds pretty good. The Java is in, but we don't really understand it. It would be helpful some time today, a little bit maybe investor stream people don't know what that means if we but I know that if you all gave two or three examples of what we're talking about, yeah, particularly people having this advantage would get a deeper appreciation. So we need to be cognizant of that. Would you like to say a few things really quickly? Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, so the way government and all governments really have worked this way and other organs, social service organizations, even at the philanthropy, we've actually tended to focus downstream, really at the individual and family level, things that you see there in terms of incarceration, in terms of the ill effects and bad health outcomes, so things such as obesity, etc. and that's where we put out such issues such as homelessness. So this is really about moving being very actually it's really also the business case for why this equity work is so important is putting the money and the more upstream and the areas where we can actually make some more impactful, sustainable long term impacts. So the way that this can think about is one of the things we often think about is prevention. Right? So think around in homelessness, how we've been the chef. But to answer it, well, homelessness is a downstream condition. But you would think that one of the things, too, we can continue to, you know, invest in shelters or invest kind of addressing really what we see, which are the poor outcomes of are the things that are happening. But how do we actually think about some of the permanent long term solutions? And that's really thinking about prevention as a key part of that, or even thinking about the criminal justice system. What do we do things when we get people already, you know, in the jail, whether it's a youth or an adult, it's really too late . All the things within the system have already have been, you know, gone wrong. So how do we actually think about it in terms of other things that are happening within the community? Thinking about the schools, the work that we do, the school, the disciplinary policies, for example, in the schools, all those things that actually lead to those are those. That's more of an upstream approach, even early childhood development and all the things that you should have access to. And also one of the other ways of thinking upstream is also actually thinking about the life course, for example, what the life course. So thinking about younger or very early in life, for example, versus, you know, the more that we can actually invest early in life like we're doing with best starts for kids, it's shown actually show some very significant impacts in terms of, you know, return of our on on our investment. So those are some of the different ways we can think about in terms of upstream. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And are and I'm sorry for jumping in on you here. I want to just call. Speaking of upstream, my colleagues and your attention to an article in today's New York Times and the upshot and the headline is detailed New National Map Show How Neighborhoods Shape Children for Life. If you haven't seen it, it's it's fascinating. And it talks about some places lift children out of poverty. Others trapped them there. And it's decades of national data. And they the lead neighborhood is actually in my district just east of Northgate. And it talks about how children growing up in poverty there have a higher than average chance of coming out of poverty. And for example, the Seattle Housing Authority is now helping folks with children move into the neighborhood. I think it's consistent with our communities of opportunity concept, where we look at a place based, multidisciplinary approach to investing in communities to make them healthier and provide more opportunities for folks to climb out of the shackles of poverty. So I just wanted to it's a very fascinating and long detailed article, but I think it's consistent with the King County approach to making these kind of investments. And but it should give some additional, I think, support for that. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Arne. Well, I just need to know. The website. Yeah. So I just wanted to give a very quick overview of how we have designed our website. It is a dynamic website and it allows you to explore sort of how King County's equity work started. And you can scroll through the various stories. Councilmember Garza, you'll see yourself there and walk through how the the ESG work started at the county and sort of where we are currently. It also has where we house all our past annual reports. So people are really wanting to delve into the progress we've made since starting this work. They can browse through our online PDFs. Sorry, I'm like no struggling here. They can download the plan, but most importantly, it's really focusing how we're doing on progress on our strategic plan. And we're doing our reporting in three different ways. So the ways that we're going to going to talk about today are by our four strategy areas investing upstream where needs are greatest investing community partnerships and employees and with transparent, accountable leadership. We're also looking at it by agency levels, the departments and agencies along key indicators and metrics as well as by our strategy. And before the end of the year, we'll also start looking at it by our goal areas. We have six different operational goal areas which are very much internally focused. And so when you go to the one of these different slices of how to look at it, essentially it tells you what investment area we're looking at. We have a compilation of a story around why it's placed in that investment area and to also provide data relevant to that story, particularly disaggregated by race and geography where it makes sense. So this one is around youth and family homelessness, preventing youth and family homelessness and how we're doing that this year and the progress that we've made. And that's another one. It's more by geography around transit oriented development in areas of South King County. And so audience can click through the different aspects of the strategy areas and learn about the work that we're doing. It's really focusing on the story as well as the data and where we're trying to impact, have positive impact. And the other side will be that we've already started working on is by agency level information. So DCH has information technology and natural resources and parks are three of our first agencies out the gate. And when you click on their site, you'll see. Similar to the enterprise level, what are their approaches and what are they doing in each of these various investment areas? And ultimately, we're really striving to make sure that we have a balance of stories, stories that are not just low hanging fruit, but things that are demonstrating how we're making some substantial changes in the areas that were wanting to make these investments. And I think the most prescriptive area about where we're asking departments to report on are the ones are on investing in employees. We have some key indicators and metrics that we're tracking and that's where we've been really strict about. Yes, you do need to report on these spaces. And I think one of the more innovative areas that we're doing the work in terms of reporting is in this space, we're releasing. Something that's for. Releasing information on our workforce, releasing information on how our employees are doing, in particular indicators far more so than probably any other jurisdiction. Jesus whose. Sorry series interrupting. Oh three. I don't know who that was. So that was an overview and I would welcome you on your limited free time to go and explore the types of stories that we have on there. And as I quickly mentioned, some of the key things that we're looking at in each of these areas. As Mathias mentioned earlier, we have three distinct parts of the strategic plan. A major part of the plan is what we call our pro-equality policy agenda, which is across the various types of services we provide, like health and human services, detention, housing. There's nine different areas. So if an agency is working in that policy space, they're expected to report on the types of activities and efforts that they're working on in the investing upstream strategy area and the community partnerships who are tracking contracting, particularly contracting opportunities for smaller contractors, whether they be women owned businesses or women and minority owned businesses. There's different categories that we're tracking in terms of the types and amounts of contracts that they're getting and the goal of increasing more of those. We also in the investing in employees, these are the very measures that we're tracking. So I know with when Jay was up here, there was an interest in understanding racial diversity. That is one of the measures that we're talking about, particularly in the highest pay arrangers. And we are expecting departments to report on those numbers on an annual basis in terms of how well they're performing. We also have employee survey questions that we're measuring and seeing how well we're doing in terms of employees feeling supported, employees having equitable learning and growth opportunities and then transparent, accountable leadership. We have employee survey questions around department leadership, accountability and transparency and then community voice and decision making. One of the pieces that we really want to emphasize the county in moving is incorporating community voice in decision making earlier, more frequently and meaningfully. So the extent to which departments and agencies are doing they're doing that in their policy design and their programmatic design. And how they deliver services is a space where we're asking folks to talk about their work. And finally, we'll be doing the goal area comparison. And this is an area where I think we have an opportunity to be really transparent in terms of who has been engaging with doing and engaging in the yesterday strategic plan and who has not been doing that work. And it will follow a similar narrative and pathway as we do with the strategy area as well. All right. So now I'm going to get into those four strategy areas and just provide some general highlights on the progress that we've been making or actually not also sometimes not the progress we've been making because there are some areas where we are not making progress on. This is also use this opportunity this year to also look at the gaps. And then also in terms of now that we're in the budget process, I'll highlight some of the connections to the 2019, 2020 investments. I think it's significant that we are moving the county significantly on this road to be more equitable in terms of our budget. But I think it's important and you'll see that within the budget that goes over from from council. But we're very far from actually being either internally or from the from from externally in our services, from really actually having a budget and an organization that truly is reflective of the equity principles that we that we have. So I think sometimes people around the country talk about the great work that we're doing. I think the deeper you go and you begin to do actually reporting and seeing the needs that you actually have and the gaps, it actually just reinforces all the work we still need to do. So really this is the first strategy in terms of investing upstream of where needs are greatest. This is we report on some of the progress in preventing youth of family homelessness, the commitment to zero youth detention. And again, this is this is for the 2017 years so really focused on those things also and council played a lead role on this too and as much appreciate around the protecting the rights for immigrant refugee communities both with a resilience fund that we did with the Seattle Foundation and then the Legal Defense Fund, the Seattle Continuing Legal Defense Fund to defend those in at risk of deportation. And then the really significant work that we have done in open space equity, which I think is extremely important in actually preserving green spaces, but especially with a very strong equity lens in those communities that tend to have lot less access to green spaces. Some of the themes that we have identified and that are also going to be pushing forward in terms of into the next couple of years too. Is that among certain populations, as we no longer are looking just generally how, you know, such things as people of color are doing or getting very specific, really the gaps and the deeper and deeper inequities we continue to see among us born African-Americans and native communities and across. You can see all those particular measures or outcomes and then also the language barriers and actually how we could be doing a better job in providing translation interpretation services throughout the county. So that's connecting to 2019, 2020. Those are some of the key things that we're supporting is moving forward with a more explicit focus on African-Americans native communities. You've seen the roadmap and some of the funding that has as going towards the roadmap to zero youth detention. Also a position to actually support the increasing language access, which is key because everybody is actually following different standards and we do actually know where we want departments to go. We just haven't got the capacity to support that happening. Continue to expand voter voting access and voter registration, such as such things as prepaid postage, and continue to address the homelessness crisis. Councilmember Gossett had a question. Yeah, if you don't mind, Mr. Chair, on the first chart, I wanted to ask you something specifically on the commitment to zero youth detention. Is your office doing anything specifically on the school to prison pipeline? Do we have any? Programs that you can look at and see how well they're doing. And are you promoting those anything out things specifically? I've going to present pipelines because I think that's one of the major. I two things I'll I'll start and then I'll actually leads an internship program that's something my office that will be I think is worth talking a little bit more left over youth. But the other one is I mean I was part of the planning team and also the branch team around the zero youth detention work. And there is a position that's part of best start for kids that actually is focusing specifically on turning that school to prison pipeline. I think everybody else is actually generally focusing on that. But there's also with Zach Davis on the work that he does that DCH has it specifically with that focus. But I want to maybe talk about that. Zach has a specific. Program. Is it specific? And I don't know the job title off the top of my head, but something along, you know, ending the the school to prison pipeline as that's basically his his work. And we're doing some funding in that area. Yes. All right. Go ahead. So one of the spaces that we have been working on, specifically on ending the school to prison pipeline, we launched an internship and mentorship program last year. So we just completed our second year and it's really focused on encouraging youth who have had some exposure to the justice system to learn about King County government and what public service actually looks like in a hands on way through mentorship and employment. So we recruit from community partners like choose 180. We have interns coming in from Superior Court, the Juvenile Justice Community Operations Offices, and then we also have youth coming in from youth source from their open doors. And the common thread is they are either at risk or currently involved in some way or form within the justice system. They're working in various aspects of King County governance. I think you've had a couple of interns have come and talk to you about the role you play as a councilmember so that they're coming from our programs. And do you know about how many youth that has been over the previous two years? We have served ten youth each of the past two years with and I have aspirations to grow the program if we have enough resources to do so. And then my second last question is on the third, on the on the immigrant and refugee community during the Civil Rights Commission that we just set out every already gone out to the immigrant and refugee communities and talked specifically with them about what they would like to see in this expanded commission and how it can best work to affect them and make life better for them. And we so that that just came over to council and we're just actually just now appointing the lead position. So they haven't we hope to convene that group by the end of the year. That's our timeline. And we hope to actually continue to advance the work that we've been doing. And then there's the other effort that we have, which is a revamping of our existing Civil Rights Commission, which is to make it a more effective. Can my question or are you going out to those communities and asking what would this is what we have in mind? What do ya think this in terms of being helpful as a commission, our big government advisory group, they help us out. So around the immigrant refugees. Yeah well that that was based on some very deep and you know the commission is based on the task force report which included representatives from the community. Plus each of those representatives also actually held meetings within their own community. So that that commission is based on that particular work. Yes. And the new civil rights I can't think of a name, civil rights, common equity and. Well, we haven't been engaging with the current and. That's what Civil. Rights Commission and what's also some argue to actually revamp our existing Civil Rights Commission to also make it inclusive of equity issues, equity and civil rights issues. But it hasn't been built up yet and it's too early to talk about it going on in the community. Yeah, we will continue to we've done some talking with some community groups around that, such as Puget Sound Stage, Community Leadership Institute and others. And we've been engaging also repeatedly with our existing Civil Rights Commission on that issue. And we hope once we work through this with some of you to be able to have that discussion here at council. Yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you. We have got to wrap this up because members need a little break before noon meeting. So so I'm going to ask folks to look at the slides on their own. The last three slides, Councilmember Lamour had one brief final question, and Councilmember Caldwell says one brief final question. Thank you. This looks like a lot of good work. And the one thing that I'm concerned about is missing, and that's a geographic equity. And as we look forward to having a Department of local services, the idea that the branches, the ratios of officers to citizens is very different in different parts of the county. And there are eight officers in the southern and mid part of the county per shift and six in the northern part. So just that is the big problem. So and then comparing that to cities is even a bigger problem. So are you going to get into any geographic inequities? Well, yeah, that's I mean, part of the work. A lot of the work that we do is very much focusing on data geographically or by place. So one of the things that we do is look at those areas of the county where you have the most need and the most inequities. So that is definitely part of the work that we do. So really we always talk about when we do our work, we talk about how we the inequities by race and place. Really drive our work. So we we do that. Yes. So it maybe in the future we can have it as a regional government and then as a local government, since we're going to be that now officially and so that we can be able to see where the inequities are as our services a local government. Thank you. Councilmember Coates. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is really exciting and I'm looking forward to just exploring it all on the web. But I've something I've brought up in the past, as Mathias knows, is the term race and racial and racism. Those three terms, I don't think cover are as inclusive as they could be. I notice you've got on a couple of pages after this one. Community employees of color, you know, looking at them that many people don't identify as being of a given race. They think more of ethnicity or national origin. And I'm not sure in what I can read in this very, very well-done PowerPoint is to what extent are you using race or racism or racial justice or whatever more inclusively to include ethnicity and so forth? Or are you strictly placing a priority on racism, which is valid, totally valid in our county. But I just want to make sure that if we're we're really working on equity and social justice, that we're being inclusive. Yeah. I mean, one of the things around this is we want to focus on the different definitely the different inequities that we see by race, by gender, etc.. Yes. But we also draw a very clear distinction, and this is some of the things that we cover in our training that we are reading, leading with racial justice and racial equity, given that's what shows where we're having some of the gaps and the differences and that there is a distinction between this and that's based on history and systemic issues as well, that the definition of race per se and the fact that there aren't actually really historical or genetic or biological differences and that it is a social concept which is really and there's some dominant we talk about five dominant racial narratives in the country that really have deep impacts in terms of outcomes and how at the system structural, institutional, interpersonal level versus race versus ethnicity and culture, which is is a different concept. Right. And when we talk about that, it is around, you know, we can talk about, you know, from different places where people are and we talk about foods and those kinds of things that there is a clear distinction on those things. And we are very clear that we are focusing on on race and racism. And I just would like to get more of an understanding of what is included in that. We have a lot of immigrants and refugees coming in who might not consider themselves of a biracial group and then not understanding that they would be covered here. Right. And that's why I still as we deal with racial justice, we still have and this is what the audience has, is that we focus on people of color, low income communities and immigrant refugee population. So I think that's that's. For people who were to see this. I'm not sure they'd pick that up entirely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming today. Appreciate it.	AN ORDINANCE authorizing a supplemental appropriation of $143,000,000 from the water quality revenue bond fund; and amending the 2017-2018 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 18409, Section 131, as amended.
king_159f806e-9119-416f-b404-4b0c5cb0831f	Then I'd like to call to order and welcome everyone to the August 18th, 2021 meeting of the King County Council's committee, the Hall, as we start today. I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. I know. Skip the housekeeping notes. And with the exception of encouraging anyone who is online today to offer public comment on our agenda today. If at all possible, to use the Zoom app to connect to the meeting. We have technical problems on occasion in getting people hooked up and audio running. If you're only using the phone app, if you're only dialing in by telephone, if using the app, we are much more glitch free. So as you point out for testimony, please, if at all possible, use the Zoom app. And with that, Madam Clerk, I'd ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Pelosi. Here. Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Colwell or Councilmember Lambert? Council member of the ground. Air. Council member. Van Right member. Council members are high here. Mr. Chair. Sure. Mr. Chair, you have the. Great Council members. All I can I call on you to act, to move approval of the minutes? Perhaps so. Move, Mr. Chair. Thank you. The minutes of our July 21st meeting are before us seeing the discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes please signify by saying i. I. I. It was opposed a. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Madam Clerk, I believe we have some people here for public comment. Is that your understanding as well? Mr. Chair, I am not seeing any members of the public online. Okay. Everybody is here for the appointment because. For appointments then. That's correct. Right. Then unless somebody raises their hand or otherwise gets my attention, I'm going to presume that we don't have anybody for public comment. Everybody is here to speak actually as part of the presentation of each issue. If you're here to offer a public comment, this is your time to get my attention. Not seen that. That moves us to item five on our agenda already. That is our briefing from Dwight David, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Welcome. Good morning. Council members, welcome back from your recess. I hope people had a chance to relax and we'll have a very busy summer and fall. So for the record, Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, I had eight things to cover this morning. I think they'll be pretty quick and most of them are pretty good news. So that kind of continues the theme of our recent discussions. So first of all, yesterday the president announced that the theme, our emergency for COVID has been extended through December 31st of this year and previously had been set to expire in September. And so, not surprisingly, has been extended, which is great, that the president further clarified that that means all eligible expenditures will be reimbursed 100% by the federal government. And they also clarified that that 100% reimbursement is retroactive to the beginning of the pandemic, which they have now decided was, let's see, January 20th of 2020. So we already knew that many of our FEMA eligible expenditures would be 100% reimbursed. But there were actually a few that were prior to President Biden's announcement in January that we still were uncertain whether we were going to get 75% or 100%. And this means that everything that is FEMA eligible, we will get 100% reimbursement for them. Unfortunately, we have not heard anymore clarifications about what is eligible and what isn't. We have, you know, applications that are are waiting with the state and with the federal government. But the good news is, is that anything that they approved will be 100% reimbursed. And so let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Alexx. I think we're going to take the money and run directed ably. I think I agree. Absolutely. Okay. Item two. In July, we received the sales tax that was based on May activity. Just to remind everyone, there's a two month lag from the time that consumers actually make purchases to when we actually get the money from the state. And as always, we are comparing comparing 2021 to 2019, because, of course, last year was the midst of the pandemic once the stuff was shut down in May. And so comparing 2021 to 2019, our sales tax revenue was up five and a half percent, which is a little less than had been, but still pretty good news. As usual, there were some categories that were very high and some that were pretty low. So the the big growth continues to be in things like big box retailers, which were up 32% home furnishings. This is actually one that hadn't been on the upper lot list, but now is at 20% up and building materials continues to be up by 19%. Everyone continues, at least in my neighborhood, to remodel, build fences, build decks. So the building materials companies are doing really well. And as usual, that the entities that were still way down in May were hotels, which were down 64% from two years before, and restaurants which were down 23%. That obviously has improved since then, but that's the last data we have on sales tax. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions on that. Seen none. Okay. So as always, I want to give you an update on hotel occupancy, because that, of course, was the single industry that was most adversely affected. And so in late July, which is the last date I have, hotels on average in King County had 70% occupancy, which is no below what they would normally have in the summer, but still much improved over anything else. And the good news is we're seeing that now spread everywhere in the county. You might remember that for a while Sea-Tac was the only place that was doing reasonably well. Every region of the county was at least at 60% occupancy. So we're starting to see that industry come back as it's starting. I don't know if you've seen their stories about their difficulty in getting staff and so so they're actually struggling a little bit to operate at the capacity that people want to book. So let me pause and see if there's questions on that item. Say? None. Okay. One of the things that you often asked for. So the fourth thing that I'll mention today is an update on convention booking. I don't have anything for Maiden Bauer, but I do have for the state convention center in downtown Seattle. And they're reporting that a lot of conventions that canceled are now actively looking to rebook, which is really good news. This is the first time that that that's happened. And there's even some entities that were not scheduled to be here that with the expanded convention center, are now contemplating coming here in the next few years. And so that actually is the first time that the convention folks are feeling more optimistic about rebooking conventions and booking some additional conventions. And the cancelations have essentially stopped. So we're probably have hit bottom and are starting up a little bit. They report there's still a lot of hesitancy because people don't really know how this is all going to play out. You may have noticed this morning that the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has now decided that in order to attend, you have to be vaccinated. And so that's a big step forward that might see some other conventions doing. And that was basically under the direction of the governor of Nevada, who said that the only way you can not have masks inside for a convention or football game is if everyone is vaccinated. And so of all the teams that it would seem not to fit their image. I read this morning that the Las Vegas Raiders are going to require all of the fans attending their football games to be vaccinated. This is totally out of the radar context, but probably very good from a public health perspective. So that convention update. Mr. Chair? Councilmember Banducci, I think I know what you're going to say. Well, I was going to say, on behalf of my Los Angeles relatives, I just want to say, well, how very dare you, Mr. Stereotype, their football team in that way. On behalf of my New York relatives, of course, we agree completely. Thank you for. Mr. Chair. Council Member Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question, Dwight. Do you know of any potential action for the Seattle Seahawks? I have not heard anything like that. I would speculate that that's probably something they are very seriously contemplating. But I have not heard that they have made any decisions or actually even in consultation with the state or anybody else at this point. My understanding is there's 60,000 tickets sold for this this coming upcoming game. And I have been starting to hear from constituents about their concerns. So. Thank you. Mr. DeVere, did I hear you run? What team is requiring? The question is this Raiders. I'm sorry. The Who? The Las Vegas Raiders. Formerly the Oakland Raiders are now in their new palatial stadium. That last year they didn't have any fans in. I heard you right. You were correct in your city. And and in the last month or six weeks, I've become a fan of the Raiders. Still, my deepest loyalties do lie with the Seahawks. Let's be clear. Any other questions about football or pandemic response on convention bookings? Yeah. So one of the things I thought I would mention this morning, because it has gotten a lot of attention, is the inflation rate both nationally and locally really spiked up in June. And so if you look at there's various measures of inflation. I'm looking at IU. There's also CPI w that the nuances aren't very important. The CPI you for our region was up five and a half percent in June compared to June of the previous year. And that's the highest, you know, one year change that we've seen in a very, very long time. And there's a lot of debate among economists and finance people about whether this is a short term aberration or whether this is a harbinger of things to come of higher inflation. A few of us on the call are old enough to remember, you know, 10%, 12% annual inflation. That was not a pleasant experience for most of us at the time. So I thought I would just share a little bit of what's driving that five and a half percent in our region. So this isn't necessarily always true everywhere in the country. I picked out three things that were the highest percentage change in price and the one that was up the most was used cars was up 47% in one year. And partly that was, you know, the demand for cars because people are afraid to be on public transit. But also with all the supply chain problems and new cars, people were looking for a vehicle often couldn't find a new car. So they went to a used car instead so that the price of used cars was up nearly 50% in just one year. The second big growth category, which probably most of us have experienced, is gasoline. Gasoline was up 44% in one year. Obviously, a year ago, very few people were driving or people were staying at home. And so the demand for gasoline was very low. Demand for gasoline is much higher now. And so the prices of that have spiked up. And then the third one that I haven't seen any attention to, but I don't really have a good explanation for other than I think demand is up is alcoholic beverages were up 12% in price from last year. And so those are some of the reasons that the total number was so high was that there were these particular market segments that kind of, for their own unique reasons, were way out. It's true. There were some other things that were up five, six, 7%. So some food commodities were up, but things like housing and energy in that or not. So at least my opinion, and that's all it is, is that this particular pattern suggests that we're not going to see continued 5% inflation in a month after months out into the future remains to be seen. But it does feel to me that there's a lot of just kind of one time events that are driving this this peak. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Owings. You're too clear today. Do. Oh, well, I'm trying, so. Okay. Item six. Just a quick update on unemployment. And these are two the actual figures. The state does a process they call seasonally adjusted, which I'm not going to use those numbers. These are the actual figures. So our county unemployment rate in June, which is the last data we have, was 5.2%. And just to give you a comparison, a year ago, in June of 2020, we were at 10.6%. But if you go back two years and you look at June of 2019, we were at 2.6%, which is about the lowest unemployment that you can imagine. So what this is telling us is that while the economy has improved, a lot of people have gone back to work. We're not at that. You know, totally booming economy we had two years ago. I think we all know there are still segments of our communities that are struggling to find work or are very hesitant about going back to work for a variety of reasons, including childcare and health concerns. So just as a sense that our economy is improving, particularly in employment, but still has a ways to go to get back to where we were. Interestingly, our county figures and the state figures are very similar. So some of the really stark differences that we saw during the peak of the boom where, you know, King County and Sonoma County were doing so well and some of the more rural counties were doing very poorly actually in employment. We don't see as much of that right now. Everybody is more or less in roughly the same place. So that's also an interesting dynamic compared to what we had a couple of years ago. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Why do you have any demographic breakdown for the unemployment rate? You know, in the document I was looking at yesterday, I didn't have that. But let me see if I can find some data on that. It does exist. So that's a great question. I will follow up with you because you referenced communities that are in at the same level of employment or unemployment, and I think it'd be interesting to see that by demographics. I will track that down and I will send it to you. Thank you. Anyone else. Back to you. Okay. Last two items are schedule issues. So item seven on my list, we will be transmitting. You can either call it the mid biennial ordinance which is required under the county charter or the second omnibus supplemental appropriation ordinance. The same thing. I will be transmitting that to the Council on September 30th. I've talked to Council member Cole Wells about that. We are not getting final proposals from departments and agencies until this Friday, so I can't tell you a lot about the content of what's likely to be in there. I'll know more the next time we have a briefing and I can just share some of the big categories. As always, there are a lot of what I think you can call technical assessments. So capital projects that have been completed that we have to decide properly. The remaining money capital projects that need additional appropriations and in some cases, new capital projects, we get grants that need appropriations and so on. So there's a lot of that. But I will tell you, there are also many, many substantive requests coming in from not every department, but many of the departments looking for additional funding, particularly additional general fund to make up for cuts that were made in the proposed and adopted budgets, or because they want to expand services in particular areas. So just a heads up that I think decision making around general fund ads will be one of the things that you will have to deal with in the fall because there isn't going to be nearly enough general fund resource to come close to meeting the number of requests. The one area that I think we've talked about and has recovered essentially completely is the mental illness and drug dependency or medicine. And so I think another area that probably will be less contentious is a lot of the cuts we were forced to make in mid we will be proposing to restore and will be taking that set of proposals to the mid advisory committee later this month. So for those of you that have representatives on that or on that, you'll, you'll get to get a little preliminary view of the mid proposals. I think those will be less contentious because we have frankly enough money to restore everything in the middle. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that, that schedule. I probably can't talk a whole lot more about content just because we haven't gotten everything yet. With a teaser about mid content certainly comports with the way you introduced your eight items as being good news. Yeah. Back to you. All right. So the very last thing I want to mention, so as you all know, we've done eight COVID related ordinances and we had tentatively thought about doing a ninth one this fall. And for a variety of reasons, we're not going to propose that at least given what we know today. A couple of reasons. One is we don't have any additional federal money in and therefore are not likely to have additional federal money anytime soon. As you know, we've essentially appropriated everything we received. Another reason is that a lot of the programs that you've already appropriated, it's going to take us months to get them deployed. Just given the complexity of all the federal requirements. Third reason is the budget team in ISB is pretty tired. And one more. And it's about all I think we've got in us. And so we would like to postpone it into next year. And then I also know that your staff is in the same place. So our current plan would be to do a COVID nine, probably in the late first quarter of 2022. And that will be, you know, anything that we need to adjust. There might be new money or additional money probably from the State Department of Health. And so we're that's our thinking about the ninth COVID supplemental as we put it on for next year. I will say that with the continued prevalence and resurgence of COVID because of the delta variation here, you know, of course, everywhere in the nine states, but particularly in our region, public health, the DHS and PSB are starting to do some contingency planning if we have to continue response past the end of this year, which seems sadly likely that we will have to do that. And so as we do that planning, we'll be thinking about does that mean we need to come in with COVID 19, propose additional appropriations for things like testing and vaccination and so on. So just so you are aware, we are starting to think about that. It's not something we're rushing into, but it is something that you should be aware. We are starting to have those conversations about what those needs might be and about how we would pay for them. You may remember that we have some money reserve for that purpose. Whether that's sufficient for what we're going to have to deal with, is it sitting here today is unclear. So that was my last item about being in a band or anything else you might want to cover. Thank you. Questions for Dwight. About the Grove Councilmember of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks to I this is a on a topic that you didn't address, and it has to do with some of the planning for our the facilities we've been using for isolation and quarantine. And in particular, the county purchased a hotel in Kent. That's my understanding that today, right now, we're not needing to utilize for its planned purpose. And I heard just this morning that world relief and can't has been swamped with families presumably from Afghanistan and are looking for emergency short term housing. And so I'm wondering if there are opportunities and what the timelines are for the repurposing, some of those facilities and specifically what process I could go through with that one on in the short term. So Councilmember Rigby, your question is very timely and unfortunately probably doesn't work for what you were proposing. So you may recall that our principal isolation and quarantine facility for many months has been the Issaquah Hotel that we leased that leases up at the end of August, and the owner wants it back. And so this DHS has been in contact with the City of Kent about shifting isolation and quarantine to the motel we own in Kent starting at the end of this month. It's also the case that because of Delta, we have seen a significant uptick in the number of people needing isolation and quarantine, and we've been down to single digits for a while. We're now up into the thirties every day. And so the at least a very significant portion of that Kent Motel is going to need to be our isolation and quarantine facility starting in the next couple of weeks. So there might be some possibility to share it. I think that would be challenging. So unfortunately, that probably doesn't work. But my suggestion would be you could reach out to Leo for and just see if there, you know, the bad option exists or, you know, potentially and I again, I'm not sure if this would work any of the health through housing facilities that we're acquiring might be available on a short term basis. And so I would encourage you to work with Leo and DC just, just to see if there's any options. I'm not at all surprised that we are seeing a significant uptick in immigrants at this point. Thank you. Does your member. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On that very same line. I got a phone call last night at midnight from a friend who was working with the people who were in the house that is burning that I'm sorry, the apartments are burning down and they are meeting shelter. The Red Cross is helping temporarily, but we can add that to our lists of people that are needing emergency capacity at this point that be great. Good. Thank you. I had wondered about that. I hadn't heard anything, but I had wondered if there was a fairly significant number of people who were displaced. Yeah, I'd like to call you about that later today. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. But the questions. Then. Dwight, I'd like to thank you for your briefing today and your continued excellent work on behalf of King County. Thank you. It's always a pleasure to be here. See you in a couple of weeks. Great. That takes us to items seven and eight on our agenda, proposed motions 2021 to 15 and to 227, which would confirm the executive appointments of one needlessly to Selena Aguilar and Brian Aden to the Immigrant and Refugee Commission. Other application materials were sent out to the council members by email separately yesterday, branded less than ten from the council staff will provide a brief staff report. Then we'll hear from the nominees who were on the zoom call with us. Ms.. Luskin in the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And good morning, members of the Committee for the Record, Randle asking the council staff, the combined staff report for these two items, six and seven start on page eight of your packaging materials, as noted by the chair. These two items are proposed motions to confirm the executives appointments of the following persons to the King, LG, Immigrant and Refugee Commission. Juanita Saldana Aguilar, who resides in Council District five. This would be for a partial term expiring at the end of September of next year. And Bylon Aden, who resides in Council District eight for a partial term, expiring at the end of September of this year. Just as a quick bit of background, the Commission was established in 2018 to serve as a central point of contact, communication and coordination, to encourage coordination and efficient intersection of the work of stakeholders serving and engaging immigrant and refugee communities and residents to achieve greater impact. Additionally, the Commission focuses on understanding and addressing challenges faced by immigrant and refugee communities living in suburban cities and unincorporated areas of the county. Currently, code appointments to the Commission are subject to council confirmation. As such, approval of these proposed motions would fulfill that requirement and in step and some staff has not identified any issues with the proposed appointments, which appear to be consistent with the requirements of the county code, as noted by the Chair. We are joined by both appointees as well as Renee NASIR, who is the staff liaison for the Council to the Commission. Mr. Chair, at that concludes my remarks. Thank you so much. Are there any questions of Miss less than two? Great. Then I would like to welcome and introduce Miscellaneous Aguilar and Mr. Adan. Miscellaneous Aguilar Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, your interest in serving on the commission? Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much, members of the committee. Thank you so much for having me this morning. I am both humbled and honored to have been invited to join this commission in service of immigrants and refugees in our community. For the record, my name is Juanita, Selena Sila, and my pronouns are she her a little bit about myself. I'm the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants who were one of the first few Salvadoran refugees to come to the Pacific Northwest fleeing the dictatorship in El Salvador during the 1980s. They were both heavily involved in the anti dictatorship movement and did much organizing and their experiences and stories instilled a great sense of justice and social activism. Growing up, I was born and raised here in Seattle and grew up in the South Rainier Valley area and was raised in a very traditional Central American household. Over the years in our community, I've seen the Central American population grow dramatically in our region, and I'm both excited and empowered to bring their voices to the table and ensure that all of our immigrant and refugee populations have equitable and culturally appropriate access to services, supports and voice at the county level. My extended family also lives lives in this region, both undocumented and documented. And these experiences of my community and my people have also helped drive my passion and commitment towards supporting the greater immigrant and refugee communities in our county. I'm also very passionate about access to quality education for families and economic empowerment, especially for women of color. I currently work with the Washington Early Learning Loan Fund, which provides grants and loans for early learning providers in our state. And the early learning field is dominated by mostly women, women of color and immigrant and refugee women. So through this work, I'm really honored to work with many immigrant and refugee women to help grow and expand their businesses in our county and ensure access to quality, culturally competent services for our families. I'll stop there and would like to say thank you once again for having me and I'm very excited to be a part of this important work. Thank you. And Megan, I apologize for my mistake a moment ago. Miss Aiden, if you'd like to also introduce yourself and talk about your experience, background and interest in serving on the commission. Certainly. Thank you so much. I'm both honored and excited to be appointed to the Refugee and Immigrant Commission. I my name is Delilah, Aiden and I was born in Somalia and have lived in the greater Seattle area for the last 20 years. And I consider this city to be my home, even though it's been hard to go. Cities growing up and I have been extremely passionate about the intersection of affordable housing, food, access and economic development in our region. And I've worked in various capacities to bring quality programs from cradle to and serving our elders. And I'm just excited to be here. Thank you very much. Thank you to both of you. If you're interested in serving miscellaneous spoke about being honored and humbled I believe for the nomination and truly I think we are that you're that you're each willing to devote your time and resources to the work of the commission and the people of King County colleagues. Questions of the appointees. Would someone be ready to make the motions to approve motions 2021 to 15 and 227. A move. Mr. Chair. Council Member Lambert has moved and Madam Clerk is all right with you. We will consider that a motion for both 20, 21, two, 15 and 227. Both appointments. That works for me, Mr. Chairman. And both nominations are before us. Councilmember of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If comments would be appropriate, please. You noted that Ms.. Hayden lives in District eight, but I'm going to claim her. She works in District five, and because of that, I've had the opportunity to work closely with her as she does her community work. And we are indeed lucky that she's lending her time and talent to King County. She comes from a very civically active family. She puts her heart and soul into the community. She's one of those people that's very easy to work with and gets along with everyone and is solution oriented. So I just wanted to put in a good word and and say, we're claiming her for District five. I'm not going to surrender so easily. Arm wrestle your councilmember up to go. Although she got me to come. Hang out in your district the other day at the Dell Ridge Farmers Market. I missed you by minutes there, I understand, because member of the. City. Councilmember Belushi, they will interrupt this inter-district fight. Briefly. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can't claim either applicant for District six, but on behalf of all of us, I want to say thank you to both of the applicants for bringing their personal experience, their significant energy experience, and good thinking. We make better policy when we are advised by people who understand the needs and impacts on the community. And so I really want to just in advance thank you both for your willingness to serve the community in this way. And this is a very active commission. And we we engage with them more directly sometimes than with other boards and commissions. And so I really look forward to working with both of. You on this commission to. Continue to improve our services to immigrants and refugees in King County. Thank you so much. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. I was going to say that in listening to her priorities, that I will take her and then that we all need to have. An arm wrestle. Nice try. I'm saying no more discussion. Madam Quirke, would you please call the role? Oh, very, Mr. Somebody. I'm sorry. Now. Go ahead, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Balaji I Council Member Dombrowski. I am councilmember done. By. Councilmember Cohen's. Councilmember Coleman's. Councilmember Lambert I council member of the girl. I am. Councilmember by my time. I. Council members online. Hi, Mr. Chair. By the vote is 880 now. Councilmember Cole was excused. Thank you. By our vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to motions 2021 to 1527. Oh, well. Councilmember Caldwell's. Sorry. I got cut off on Cowell's votes, so. We will record that vote. And we now have a unanimous nine no vote in favor of a do pass recommendation to appoint both when he was sworn in as Aguilar and Bylon Aden to the Immigrant Refugee Commission. Thank you both for your willingness to serve, your commitment to the community and the work you will continue to enrich our community with. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I may have missed this, but was that on consent? And yes, we'll put that on consent in regular order at the time. Thank you. So it will be on the consent agenda for council that takes us to our next set of appointments. Proposed motions. 2021 221 222, 223 and 224, which would confirm the executive's appointment of Kelly Carroll, Johnathan Fowler, Temple House convener in one Bernardino Luna to the Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force application materials were sent out to council members separately by email yesterday and Sam Porter from the Council South will provide a brief staff report. Then we'll hear from the appointees who are on the call with us today as well. Ms.. Porter, the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me? We can. Great. For the record, Sam Porter, council policy staff. The documents for these four items begin on page 17 in your pocket. These were proposed motions would confirm the following people to their gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion task force. Kelly Carroll, representing the King County Executive's office. Jonathan Fowler representing the King County Council, capital City Byner, representing United Territories and Pacific Islanders Alliance, which is also known as Utopia and Juan Fernando Luna, representing country L.A.. These appointments would last through the expiration of the task force, which is 60 days after the reporting provisions outlined in the enabling legislation are completed. This task force was established through motion 15162 and June of 2018 in response to the Washington State Board of Health ruling allowing for a third option for designation on birth certificates to indicate a gender other than male or female. The six primary objectives of the task force are listed on page 17 of your packet and include reviewing the Board of Health ruling and determining any changes that the county may need to make in response. Consulting with county departments and community groups to assess county administrative processes, including but not limited to forms, questionnaires and interviews that include requests for information relating to gender identity and sexual orientation. And identifying administrative processes that could be modified to increase gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion. Table one on page 18 of your packet shows the current roster of Task Force membership with the organization. Organization stated in motion 15162 identified and board. The group has been meeting in accordance with the initial framework adopted through motion 15613 and is anticipated to complete their work mid 2022. We have three of the four appointees on the call today. Unfortunately, Mr. Fowler was unable to join us and that concludes my remarks. Thank you, Ms.. Porter. Questions of of the presentation. Seeing none. I turn to Ms.. Carroll to introduce herself and talk about your background and interest in serving on the Commission, the task force. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Members Kelly Kilpatrick. And I'm delighted to be here in this capacity. I am honored to be selected to serve on this gender identity and Sexual Orientation Task Force representing the executive's office. I've worked for King County for 25 years, if you can believe it, and it has given me an incredible and unique perspective , as well as the skills to serve on this task force. When I came out as a lesbian 30 years ago, it wasn't safe for me to be my authentic self at my corporate employer. The managing partners made jokes. I was told that I needed to wear makeup, so I looked more approachable and nice and less angry. And I was told I could not bring friends, friends to company, corporate family events and took a pay cut to go work for an AIDS service organization. So I could be me, I could be seen, I could be safe and be my authentic self. I couldn't legally marry my wife until just a few years ago and 2012, and my marriage wasn't recognized across all 50 states until six short years ago. And let's be clear. I'm highly privileged. I'm a white woman. My black, brown, gay, lesbian, trans and nonconforming family suffers threats and violence much, much more than I have ever will due to the massively compounded inequities because of structural and institutional racism. Because of these reasons, I'm honored to use my voice, my experience, my skills and my power to serve my community and help make King County government a place where all of us can thrive and be safe. No. Thank you, Miss Carol. This minor. But we invite you to introduce yourself and speak about your interest in serving on the commission. Task Force be consistent in our mistakes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And good morning to all the council members. My name is Sarah Viner. I serve as the program director of Heads Up in Washington. I issued her proposals. I identify as a philosophy name and I am from the islands of American Samoa. What's presently known as American Samoa. And I. It's such an honor for me to be. Also, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to serve on this board. When I was first invited to sit on this table, I looked around and I didn't see anyone else. That was Pacific Islander. I didn't see a lot of indigenous trans binary nonbinary folks. And for me, it was the encouragement for me that I need to continue to be present in spaces like this so that my community, someone represented and so that I can at least help to bring this ability to my community and also for that visibility to hopefully empower more Pacific Islander trans women, to take up spaces, to take up the mantle in effecting change and why it's necessary so that policy, so that services are truly grounded in community priorities. I would say that's my life experience, my lived experience as a trans woman, as if I'm fostering a component with my cultural barriers. Living in America has prepared me to be on this table, has given me the necessary tools with the resilience that I had to exhibit to endure all that I had to endure to live authentically. The way that I am right now has helped me and prepared me to be on this table. And I find that it's my responsibility to make sure that not only my community is represented and visible in these businesses, but that I can also help to bring them back so that they are more active in this work. There's right to thank you. And I'd invite Mr. Luna to introduce himself and share about his experience, background and interest in serving on the task force. Sure. Good morning. Everyone. First of all, it's an honor to be appointed for to collaborate with this commission. My name is going to London to regionally promote and support and people living in the island for the last 20 years. I have dedicated my career as a social worker and to work for the rights community of the Latin community in different France. I'm also a theater artist. I think that that. Creating the information and these. Words. And providing civility and inclusion to sexual minorities and minorities in Seattle. Is very important. I may speak as a social worker. And as civic engagement specialist. I. Promise that I will work hard and collaborate with all the actors in this issue to improve the lives of the Latinx community and other people of Puerto. Thank you. Thank you. If I may, if I might just reflect on the comments of all three of the applicants, the nominees who were with us today, that it can be as a member of the community myself, it can sometimes be too easy to be complacent. Ms.. Carroll referenced that her marriage has been recognized for six years. Mine just shortly after that as marriage was legal. In that time, some might think that the work of the LGBTQ community is done and that we've achieved our work and the points each one of the three of you have made underscored how that is not true and how much more work needs to be done in the vigilance we need to continue to carry. It was acutely aware, acutely aware of damage 21 years ago when I was first elected to public office, and one was one of two openly members of the LGBTQ community serving in the state legislature at the time, two white men identifying as gay. The diversity we have within this very council, two members of the community serving on the council and the Council, creating the task force and supporting this work. And the fact that yesterday I filled out two health care surveys for two different organizations that had provided me service in the last six months, and both listed only a binary choice for gender identity health care organizations. One particularly aimed with questions around behavioral health really underscored for me that work. And then last night I and. Picked up some mail that had come in and read a newsletter from a national private college that addressed gender identity and transgender youth in particular that I found quite concerning. The work of this task force is carrying on the work that very much is vital in. And each one of the three of you have spoken to the passion, the personal experience and the work that you bring to it. I want to thank each of you. Are there questions or conversation from my colleagues? City Council member Lambert. I think we should ask 2500 questions to Kelly to make sure that we know her fully. Welcome. So good to see you back. For those who may not be aware, Ms.. Carroll used to work for the council's central staff. So we're delighted to have her filling this role. Knowing her well. Colleagues. Mr. Fowler was not able to join us today. I would entertain a motion to approve all four if members were comfortable doing that of the motions before us today . Mr. Chair? Council Member Dunn. I would move approval of all of the applicants for the position as present today. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Dunn, this moved we do have a do pass recommendation to motions 2021 to 20 1 to 22, 22, 23 and to 24. The appointments of Ms.. Carroll, Ms.. Viner, Mr. Luna and Mr. Fowler. Any further discussion? Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I want to just express my appreciation to all the nominees who are willing to serve without any disrespect to the other, to extend my personal appreciation and gratitude to Ms.. Carroll to her remarks and her service to Cook County for so many years, her leadership and her friendship. Kelly, I love you. And thank you for being such a wonderful human that you are. Councilmember Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to again share with all of the nominees here appreciation. This is a commitment of time and energy and knowledge that will help us to adopt better policy and to be more focused on how we effectively serve and support the communities within King County. Your personal and professional experience is just irreplaceable and will help us to do a better job and continually improve how we support, you know, people of various gender identities and sexual orientations throughout our community. And thank you for sharing. Your personal stories. It's it's very meaningful. So and thank you for your willingness to serve in this way. We appreciate you. My record. Will you please call the Roll. Inc, Mr. Chair? Councilmember Barghouti. I think. Councilmember Gideon Barsky, a councilmember done. By. Councilmember coles i. Councilmember Lambert, i. Councilmember of the girl i. Councilmember von richthofen. All right. Council members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Everybody's 980 now. Thank you. By our vote, we've given the unanimous House recommendation to motions to 21. I'm sorry. 2021 to 20 1 to 20 2 to 23 and to 24. We will put those on consent at full council in regular timeframe. That brings us to the final item on today's agenda, an ordinance that would amend regulations relating to the dispensation of land or unused county owned property and require a creation of a publicly accessible database of these properties. Randy Vina from Council South will provide a staff report. Melvina, the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize. My internet connection is a little bit squirrely this morning, so I am afraid to use video and audio at the same time, so I will not have my video app. For the record, Randy may not have council central staff. The materials for this item both began on page 33 of your packet. As Mr. Chair just said, the proposed ordinance would make changes to King County Code related to a publicly accessible database for and the disposition of vacant or unused county owned real property. As background, King County Code establishes requirements and guidelines for the disposition of county owned, real and personal property. The requirements include inventory, documentation and procedures related to the disposition and sale of surplus property. Code requires the facilities management to the division to maintain and update the current inventory of all county title real property along with detailed information as to which county department or agency is and is the department or custodian of that property. These requirements apply to surplus property. However, there is no requirement that the inventory be made available to the public. County code further requires that each departmental custodian submit a report to the Facilities Management Division no later than April 1st of each calendar year that describes the status of all real property under the department's custodianship. The report must document any changes in use or status of the real property and justify the retention and continued custodianship of the property. In declaring real county owned real property surplus. There are a series of steps that must be taken before the Facilities Management Division can make that declaration. First, a department or custodian must justify its retention of the real property. It cannot do so. Or if the custodian determines that it no longer needs the property. The Facilities Management Division must determine whether another county department or agency has a need for the property to provide to provide essential government services. Second, if the property is not needed for essential government services, the division must then determine if the passable parcel is suitable for affordable housing. If it's not deemed suitable for affordable housing, then the division must determine whether any other department or agency has any other need for the property. Finally, if no other department or agents who can demonstrate a need for the property, the division can declare the property surplus. Code provides for different uses of county owned real property that has been declared surplus as an example. Code does require that the Facilities Management Division recommend to the executive uses for county owned surplus property that includes uses by nonprofits for public purposes. And also of note county code does accept the sale at fair market value of surplus property that will be donated or sold to a bona fide nonprofit organization that provides services to the poor and infirm. The proposed ordinance would require that the Facilities Management Division conducts a surplus. Property analysis on any county owned real property that has not been leased occupied are used for a period of two consecutive years or longer. It would also require that the division establish a publicly accessible database of surplus real property owned by the county. There are a few things that the ordinance does with relation to reporting requirements, time considerations and the surplus property database. On page 35, again information about all of those different things. And I'll start with the reporting requirements. As I mentioned earlier, King County Code does require all departmental custodians to submit a report to the Facilities Management Division no later than April 1st of each calendar year. And that report describes all of the real property under the department's custodianship. It's supposed to document any changes in the use or status of the real property, and it should justify the retention and continued custodianship of the property. According to Facilities Management Division staff. Not all departmental custodians comply with the current provision requiring this amount of the report, and so the proposed ordinance would therefore add a requirement that the division maintain and update a list of the department, all custodians that have not submitted the required report. Under time considerations, according to FMD staff, until a departmental custodian has declared to FMD that it no longer needs the property. The property is not under control of FMD and they cannot unilaterally, unilaterally decide that a custodian is no longer using our needs property. This sometimes results in property sitting vacant or unused for long periods of time because departmental custodians have indicated that they no longer need them. The proposed ordinance would therefore give the Facilities Management Division the ability to conduct a survey plus property analysis that is set forth in county code where a county owed real personal county or real property has been vacant or unused for two consecutive years or longer. Additionally, departmental custodians do have control over leasing decisions of property that is under their custodianship. So the proposed ordinance would require departmental custodians to work in conjunction with the Facilities Management Division and other county agencies or departments to determine whether a property or portion of a property can be leased to a bona fide nonprofit organization that provides services to benefit the public. And this provision would be required where the custodian has not made use of or occupied a property for a period of two consecutive years or longer. Finally, with regards to the surplus property database, the proposed ordinance would require the Facilities Management Division to create and maintain a publicly accessible database of all county and real property that has been declared surplus. And it must include details such as the address dimensions and zoning restrictions for the parcel. That concludes my remarks on this proposed ordinance. I'd be happy to answer any questions. We also do have Anthony Wright, the director of the Facilities Management Division, here to answer any questions. Thank you. Council members a hello. This is your audience. Did you want to offer opening comments? Sure. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Really excited to increase Tony Wright's empire. No, I'm kidding. I just wanted to throw a little joke out there and make him uncomfortable. I'm excited to put forward the Surplus Land and Buildings ordinance today and get the feedback of my colleagues. As we've all been seeing, demand for safe indoor spaces has never been higher in our region. Not only have gentrification and displacement been making it harder for people to stay indoors, but so many pressures are making it harder to even be outdoors. Temperatures outside are either scorching or freezing. There's smoke clogging our air. The pandemic has come roaring back, gun violence is spiking and so on and so forth. So all these issues tell me we can leave no stone unturned to increase indoor options for the public. If King County owns buildings or land that isn't using for long periods, we should make those spaces available to our communities. Organizations could then use those spaces for housing, health clinics, office space, after school activities, and I'm sure all of my colleagues can vouch for this. But every week I hear from organizations that want to serve their communities and really important ways, but they don't have the physical space to do so in a region that pushes so many people out. I would say that's the thing that I hear from my constituents about the most. We want a physical space to either do our work, provide housing, provide care for our communities, but we just don't have the space to exist anymore in this region. So my legislation would require King County to conduct a surplus property analysis on county owned real property that it hasn't been using for long periods, at least two years . And then it would establish a publicly accessible database of surplus property owned by our county so that communities or organizations could check to see what's available. I hope this ordinance plays a part in getting people indoors and using our existing resources more effectively. And I look forward to hearing thoughts, concerns and ways to improve the legislation for all of my colleagues. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Question comments. Questions from colleagues. Councilmember Banducci. Yeah. I want to first say thank you to Councilman Rizal. I have for thinking about ways that we can continue to use the resources that we have to support this really important work. We know that we have a housing. We had a real housing challenge prior to COVID, and it's only gotten more challenging since then. So I think that knowing what tools we have in the toolbox and being transparent about that and, you know, holding up to the light, anything that we might be able to do is a really valuable exercise. And so I just wanted to say that up front, there are definitely reasons why the county might want to retain property that it is not currently using. And but I think that having a full inventory of what our properties are and which ones we're holding on to for reasons and what those reasons are would be a very valuable thing to do. Just to give an example, and this is a hypothetical that I'm actually generalizing from a city that I know you can hold on to surplus property sometimes for a very long time because you think, for example, that you may need to expand your solid waste capacity or your wastewater capacity and you're holding onto property because you think you might put a facility there someday. And it's you know, it saves you a great deal of cost when you need to do that. And those are also really important priorities for the county. So I wouldn't want us to rush headlong into let's get rid of all our property. But this is I understand it is a let's understand what all our property is, where it is. Make sure that is public and that we are being intentional about when we're hanging onto property for important reasons and thinking about how we can use the property we really, truly. Don't need. More quickly and more effectively. So if I understand that correctly, I think this is a really good a really good proposal, definitely in line with other policies that the council has pursued over the last several years. But I would love to hear what Mr. Wright has to say about the expansion of his empire that would be of interest to me. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Empire Commander. Right. You're on mute. Yes. And I'm I'm following our inside county buildings policy with the mask. So you can't see me smiling and laughing at the comment. So I. But that's good. I, I, I think this is a this is just clarify something. I think the ASP, especially the aspect of the database, I think the database to track all of this because of the history of the county and how it was formed in the merger with Metro and stuff. There's a lot of complexities to the property. We have portions of the the county that can acquire property but can't dispose of it. So having a consolidated means for us to track these and fine tuning the reporting system which we already have underway, I think is going to be really, really helpful. The the evaluation of need, I think, is is an important aspect. And leaving that discretion for facilities that we that may be needed five or six years in the future because they have a clear plan that's moving towards that. But but identifying that means you have five or six years where that that facility might be usable. Being able to capture those particular elements, I think is going to be very useful. I look forward to asking for more money in order to do this database and expand my empire. But no, I think we support this supports legislation. And. The Security Council members. Hello. Thank you. Thank you so much for that, Tony. And I also wanted to just build on what Councilmember Baldacci was mentioning, even if it's not to completely transfer or quote unquote, get rid of surplus land in in the period where we're not using it. The public could get great benefit from being able to use buildings or space in the interim. You know, five years is enough to provide, you know, a safe place for people to go for five years, for organizations to build out their capacity until they can find their own permanent location. Just being able to use these spaces more efficiently is something that I think is beyond valuable. Thank you. You're welcome. Are there further questions? Is there a desire to have the opportunity to take this up in committee in the future? Is there an interest in emotion today? I would like to move it today and most our colleagues want to discuss it more in committee. I would be happy to wait as well. People have more thoughts they want to work through. Councilmember Bell, DC, you're off mute. Are you telling me some? You want to be talk? I just will state my support for voting today if you need that. Thank you. Councilmember Ismail. I think you should make a motion and take your chances. So move. Mr. Chair, I would like to move the legislation. Thank you. Motion Councilmember Zelaya's moves. We give a to pass recommendation to ordinance 2021 to 57. Any further discussion? Madam Couric, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Biology Councilmember Dombrowski. Hi. Councilmember Dunn. No. Was a member Kowalski I council member Lambert. Coffman Lumber I council member of the call. I council member one night that. I found some members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight I's Council Member ten voting no. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2021. 257 will advance that to full council on the regular calendar and in regular timeline. Madam Clerk, did we miss any votes today? No votes were missed, Mr. Chair. Great. Then that concludes our meeting. We have completed our agenda. I want to thank everybody for your engagement. And with that, we are adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Juanita Salinas-Aguila, who resides in council district five, to the King County immigrant and refugee commission.
king_27132741-4e38-4e35-a02e-fa5e15a91570	And I'd like to call to order the committee, the hall for the King County Council as we begin our October six, 2021, meeting. And as we begin, I'd like to acknowledge that we're in the traditional arms of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue it since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought through cultural ways of life here in great leverage our community. And as as has been the case for over a year and a half, in light of the public health emergency, we are meeting virtually today. And the governor has responded to a portion of the open public meetings about the importance of a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. We have several items on our agenda today of, first of all, children for drunk driving. The report on Clay's response to the COVID 19 pandemic. And then we'll take a few pieces of legislation, one relating to construction and demolition waste in City Hall Park, and then the county's Disability Equity Action Plan to help us manage meeting. I'd ask members of the public and staff, both executive and council, to keep the radio off until just before you to speak. And if you plan on providing public comment, I would urge you, if at all possible, to make it a Zoom application rather than simply by telephone to eliminate some possible issues in a meeting and time delay to facilitate being able to call on you and to hear your public testimony. With that, could you please call the law? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member felt duty. Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Member calls her council councilmember Lambert. Council member of the ground area. Council members on my staff will here. Councilman John. Is here. John is here. Thank you. Council members online. Earlier. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. And I understand low volume may not be terribly good. Maybe it's better now. I will proceed. We get more messages about my volume as needed. I would entertain a from the minutes of hours until September 15th meeting. So move, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Council member done in the minutes of our meeting or before us? Seen no discussion. All those in favor of approving the ones we signify by saying I. I opposed many. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. I believe we have a small group of people here for public comment. Madam Clerk, I'm going to give you a streamlined version of sharing our procedures for public comment. And I trust that people will roll with the punches quite well this morning. I will call on everybody. I will call your name or the last two digits of the phone number, which depending on what we can see here in the Zoom application. If you wish to offer public testimony, please. So you name and then pause or can confirm what you hear you and it's a meeting on both ends and then you'll have 2 minutes. We do expect that it is regarding something on today's council, today's committee agenda, and you'll hear a time or 2 minutes, please wrap up. And with that. Mr. Chair. At the end of public comment, also, we would ask people to use the raised hand feature if you've been missed and you'd like to provide a comment that is new that from our previous procedures. So the point being right now, don't worry if you missed, we're going to catch you at the end of public comment before we close of the comment. Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So to interrupt, but I just got notified that my computers then should be shut down, but I need to do something. And that was not supposed to happen today. It happened to me last Wednesday. Supposed to be only done on Friday morning so that if I disappear, I'll be back as soon as I lets. Let's back on. We'll look forward to you joining us. Thank you. Okay, Madam Court. And yes, Mr. Chair. In public comment over to you. Thank you so much. The first person is Kimberly Nick. Good morning. My name is Kimberly Mack. My last name is MVC K. I am the executive director of the Alliance of People with Disabilities. And I'd first like to thank the Council and the Executive for moving forward on disability access, equity and inclusion. There have been several steps forward in this process, including the promise to add disability to future iterations of the equity and social justice strategic plan. The Disability Action Plan, the DRP, is another step in this process. The DRP was conceived and written with authentic and direct community involvement and outlines seven recommendations for continuing the work of disability access, equity and inclusion. The DRP represents an ongoing commitment to continuing the funded work of disability access, equity and inclusion. I'd like to specifically address several recommendations. Recommendation three Hiring two new FTE ADA coordinator positions and six transitioning the TLT position from the Neosho Grant Project to a permanent FTE at the conclusion of the grant would require appropriation legislation. And when the time comes, I ask that the Council is accepting of the budget requirements for funding these positions as proposed in the Executive's budget. Recommendation five Reactivating the Section 504 88 Advisory Committee is essential in ensuring continued community consultation on disability access, equity and inclusion. The 504 Area Advisory Committee has been part of King County Code for years, but not only has it been inactive for the past several years. In its current design, it provides only advisory on minimal compliance of 504 ADA within the county enterprise. Redesigning the Final four ADA Committee will require an amendment to the King County Code, and this must be done with the disability community in Lee in the lead through robust, authentic community engagement. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Mark Johnston. Hi, my name is Mark Johnston and it's a great day once again to be in stable. Can you hear me? Yes, please. Go ahead. I rise once again to oppose the idea of managing the county's public safety budget, as in the proposal in this agenda to perhaps even purchase City Hall Park and to increase the public safety at the county courthouse. Now, that doesn't mean I don't approve of public safety at the county courthouse, but it should not be done in a vacuum. When I brought this issue to the attention of my community, one of the first responses was a question of whether the county's response might even be to relocate some of the troublemakers to communities like mine and Skyway and others like White Center and Top Out that are also located right on Seattle's doorstep. And it's not surprising that community members would have this as their first concern, really, despite the fact that the unincorporated population in this county is the second largest of any municipality larger than Bellevue, larger than Kent. Few elected representatives actually live in the nick or braided area or are subject to its local government policies, its ordinances, or its codes. And this is the elected de facto community council for my community and 250,000 other citizens of King County. What would it look like for Bellevue or Kent to have that deficiency in elected representation? Further, the executive policymaking and service areas of King County are also short of unincorporated residents in the ranks of actual county government . So when the unincorporated policymakers at county want to get their way, they are more likely to be able to do that by default. Consider the current proposal by the county in my community for only housing at the very place where the headwaters of Taylor Creek, once important, simply become. What I'm doing is simply pointing out patterns of local government legislation and policy for which special interests at the expense of the very large, unincorporated citizenry are important. I urge you to show us difference. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person listed is King c. C. H. crtw817. If you'd like to speak, please go ahead and unmute yourself and provide us your name. Okay. This person is not amusing themselves. So, Miss Judy. Oh. I'm so sorry. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if you can hear or see me. This is Judge Shawn O'Donnell with King County Superior Court. Thank you. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak this morning. And it's in support of Councilmember Wells and Councilmember Belushi's striking amendment to propose the motion 2020 10318. And of course, this has to do with the future of City Hall Park in the courthouse vicinity and security in this area. Let me just first, on behalf of the court, thank the entire Council for your focus on this issue over the years. It really is. Rewarding and comforting to know that we have such a strong ally in making sure that there's a safe place for jurors, for employees, and for the people who want to access their courts safely. We support this striking amendment in full. The studies that are contemplated in here seem entirely appropriate. I mean, I think it probably goes without saying, but it would be a colossal mistake for the city to move forward with reopening the park without considering these important issues that you've outlined that you're asking the executive to consider. So totally support that. Appreciate all of the all of the funds that you have appropriated for courthouse security in recent years. They've made a dramatic difference. We hear this from employees. We hear it from jurors. And I think really we're at a critical point here in what to do for security and safety around the courthouse. Going forward, hopefully, we're going to be able to open up and have more jurors come to the courthouse for trials, which you all know we have a significant backlog. So we support this plan. We applaud you for taking the lead on this and remain committed to helping in any way we can to support you in this effort . And I'm I'm not sure if you want to ask me questions, but I'm happy to answer any if if that's helpful. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I believe I called everyone on the line. Thank you, ma'am. Now, just to ensure that anyone remaining on the line who wishes to provide public comment has been able to do so. If there is anyone on the line who would like to offer public comment and has not had the opportunity to do so, please raise your hand using the Zoom feature or press star nine . If you've joined by telephone. This is our new procedures. So giving everybody a moment. If you'd like to offer a public comment and haven't had the opportunity to do so, please raise your hand. Feature or press star nine on your telephone. You can join by phone. I'm not seeing any further requests. And so I will close public comment. You see we are joined by our co-chair promised the. And now we go to item five on our agenda a briefing with the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr. Daley, the line is yours. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Excellent. Thank you. Pleasure to be here. For the record, Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Nice to be back. Nice to meet you, co-chair. Very interesting. The presentation. I see. So I have four things I thought I would cover today. All of them basically in the in the flavor of good news. So as usual, let me start with our friends at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, and our continued interactions with them. Based on some guidance we have received from the State Emergency Office. We have revisited some of the costs incurred last year, so in 2020 that we did not think were eligible for FEMA reimbursement and instead used other federal funds for loans. And it appears that about $8.7 million of things we charge to other federal funding is likely eligible for FEMA reimbursement. So we will be pursuing that. It does require, unfortunately, a lot of retroactive paperwork as the books were already closed and the audit was already done for 2020. And we'll have to revisit all that. And so I apologize to our accounting staff who we're going to have to redo all of that. But for $8.7 million that we can free up. It seemed like a good investment. So that's good news. Similarly. We think that. As much as $43 million that has been appropriated this year, so in 2021 from other federal sources may be eligible for FEMA reimbursement. That's a much more speculative amount for please don't start counting on that. But the kind of more liberal rules that we're hearing from the state would potentially allow us to submit that much for reimbursement . So there's a lot of work still to be done there on the 43 million, but it's likely that at least a portion of that will be FEMA reimbursable and again, would free up other federal money that you've appropriated this year. And then finally, on the FEMA front, as I think everyone knows, the amount of paperwork it takes to document all the expenditures, to submit it to the state, to have the state review and to submit them to the federal government have been reviewed. It does take a lot of time. And so we are not expecting any significant cash from FEMA for any of the things that we have filed until next year or until 2022. And so we are going to have to start paying attention to the cash flow issues. But again, as we talked about several times, the county has a very significant cash reserve. And so any of that should be manageable as long as we start to receive payments at some point next year. So as our is our kind of standard practice and we pause there and see if there's any questions before moving on to item. Colleagues. Similar questions, Glenn. Okay. So the second thing I wanted to cover is some progress on programs that the executive proposed and the council approved earlier this year in the various college spending appropriations. As I think everyone knows, the federal rules that applied to the art of funding, the funding we got this year were more stringent than the rules that had applied to the money we received in 2020 and therefore required a lot more upfront work checking for eligibility, working with consultants, working with attorneys to make sure they were eligible. And so I think it's fair to say that many of us, including I know council members, were frustrated about how long it took to get some of these programs going. But we are now making rapid progress in getting those approvals and getting the programs underway. So just to give you a sense of some of the things that have actually started since the last time we had this conversation about seven weeks ago, there is money has been now made available for hygiene and health at encampments, particularly in South King County. You might recall that $7 million was appropriated for child care programs. That program is now under way. You might remember we had money appropriated for a temporary sobering center. That sobering center has been cited. It's near the especially adjacent to the large shelter. We were operating near airport, way south of downtown Seattle. And we have leased a facility there. And FEMA is in the process of doing the necessary tenant improvements so we can create a temporary sobering center there. And then the $20 million of arts and cultural funding that you approved, the request for proposals is out on the street and will be closing in a couple of weeks. It's closely going to be followed by the For Culture program for smaller organizations and also the $2 million for festival restarts that you had approved. So those are that's not a comprehensive list, but it is an example of where some of the programs that you approved several months ago now are actually getting out into the community and providing funding for our residents to respond to the effects of the COVID pandemic. I got some information from the Department of Community and Human Services a couple of days ago. They expect to have 21 more programs functioning in the fourth quarter of this year. So very rapid progress on that. And that includes the ideas that are generated by the individual council offices that have been submitted to them to actually go through and make sure they're eligible for funding. So it took a while, but now I think we're making rapid progress on program deployment. And so let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Following. Coulson under WG. And thanks to I you going to talk in one of your four items or is this the item to just any kind of update on the rental assistance program? That's been one that has had a lot of attention and a lot of concern about making sure we get the funding into people's hands as quickly as possible. And I know there's been a lot of work on TCHC, but any update on where we're at? Yeah, let me give you that update. It was actually not on my list, but it should have been, frankly. So that program is called Improve Victim Prevention and Rental Assistance Program, as I think all of us can say, we have deployed it more slowly than we wish we had. And so a couple of things that I want to share with council members that I think some of you know, but maybe not all of you know, the program really has two parts. And the part that has been slower to deploy than it should have been is the rental assistance portion where we're working with landlords and working with tenants. They actually provide the funding to pay that back rent. And for a lot of reasons, particularly around the technology we decided to deploy, it's taken longer to get that done than we had wished to. And I'll come back to that in just a second. But I want to note there is the other part of the program that has gotten less attention, which is the eviction prevention portion of the program, and that is funded and ready to go and is actually working. So if a tenant ends up in court with an eviction notice, we have contracted attorneys who are there to help them and provide the money. So then they're actually not ejected. That's not is as good as doing it upfront, but it does provide a backstop to make sure that anyone who is eligible ultimately doesn't actually get infected. That part of the program is in place and is working. So we do have that incentive ready to go. Coming back to the rental assistance portion, what VHS has done is about two weeks ago, they put out a plea to the rest of the government saying, can we get people who are essentially going to volunteer to change jobs for a little while, to help us have more people , to actually process all the applications we've received? And I have to say, it was very gratifying both to the employees who volunteered and for their department directors who were willing to essentially loan them the VHS that we have several dozen additional employees who are now being trained in order to speed up that process. And so this just because now they have all those additional staff available as a schedule of much more aggressively getting the money out. And every week it is growing in how much we're actually distributing. I don't have that scheduled sitting here in front of me, but I can definitely get it from the floor, so I'll just be frank. It's taken us longer than it should have, but I think we've now deployed all the resources we need to make sure that that ultimately works. Mr. Dudley, when you speak about the investments and arts and culture and the work, both by PSB and for culture, I'm concerned that some organizations may be getting falling through the cracks , lost in the middle. The council had worked to include language that the PSB funds were not exclusively for large organizations, but in fact that smaller organizations would be eligible as well for culture funding is for uncovered expenses, not lost revenue. And so we know at least one organization that has been lost in the middle because they are not large enough to work with PSB but have documented lost revenue but not expenses. And I'm concerned that they are falling through the cracks between the two, particularly given the intent that PSB funding not be exclusively for large organizations. I don't know if you can comment about that and I can certainly follow up later with specific concerns. An organization I know is falling through the cracks. But yeah, so like your money. But that's why I'm making sure that we're not losing others as well. So I I'd heard that concern and I think we missed a step as we set this up. But let me just explain what we did and why, and then I think I may have a solution for you. When we did arts and culture funding in 2020, it was also split the same way some were, some was done through for culture. And what happened is because we didn't have a clear delineation, there were some organizations that were funded in both pots of money, and it created a very substantial audit problem with federal funding because in some cases it was legitimate. We were covering two different expenses, but in other cases it appeared at least that we were paying for the same thing twice, which of course was not the intent. So the agreement between PSB and for culture was use this $1 million dividing line that for culture was below a million PSB was above a million of revenue that an organization gets in a year. And it did create, I think, this gap that you're identifying a smaller organization that has revenue loss but doesn't have an annual budget of $1,000,000. So my suggestion is if you or your colleagues are aware of any of those organizations, if you can email me directly with the information about the organization , I will I will put that into our hopper and see where we are with the amount of claims on the money. And if at all possible, we'll try to find a way to get them in. We may have to do a little retroactive amendment to the RFP process depending on how many organizations there are. But I'm sympathetic to the problem that we created, and if you can send me that information, I would appreciate it. Likewise, if you or anyone else hears from other organizations in the same situation, please send them directly to me. Thank you. I'll be in touch and make sure that others are aware of how to address the issue. And I hear the concern that one of the line was drawn. But again, I'll reiterate that I think some council intent was lost and in implementation as well. Other questions? All right, third item. Okay, item three. So I've usually been providing an update on the sort of hospitality sector, which I'm going to do here. Now, the Washington State Convention Center had its first post-pandemic convention in the week of September 20th. So the convention business is back, albeit slower than it was before. The particular organization had expected about 2500 attendees. They actually ended up with 3300 attendees. So the attendance was actually more than they had expected, which I think is a good sign. And so many of the conventions have canceled are now rebooking obviously further out into the future. But it is a good sign that the convention business has restarted. The mid-September information about hotel occupancy was about 61% countywide, down somewhat from the summer. But that's typical as you get out of the summer travel season. It was fairly even across the county, a little higher in SeaTac, a little lower on the east side. But but most were generally within a few percentage points of that 61%. And interestingly. And this is different than earlier, that was almost exactly the occupancy average for the 25 largest hospitality locations in the United States. So the average occupancy in the 25 largest owned in New York's the San Francisco as the Las Vegas the Chicago's was at 61% as it was in King County. So earlier on in the pandemic, we were actually well below the average and now we're back up to the average, which is a really good sign. And so that's my update on the hospitality sector and happy to answer any questions of people have them. See none. All right. Last topic as usual. We have sales tax information. So just to remind everyone, the sales tax is lag by two months. So this is the revenue we got in September, but it's really from July. It's sales activity in July. And as we've been doing, the comparison I'm making is to two years ago, so to 2019. So pre-COVID. And the overall sales tax revenue was up 11.1% in July of 2021 compared to July of 2019. So again, we're seeing continued strong economic growth in the sectors that are subject to the sales tax. A very similar distribution of the winners and losers of that. And just to give you a few examples. Apparently everyone decided they needed new electronics because the electronics sector so cell phones, computers was up 57% from two years ago. So then what actually shocked me, I was surprised it was anywhere near that high. Other large growth building materials is up 23%. Again, everybody seems to be remodeling in the price of a lot of building materials has gone up a lot. The big box stores are up 22%. Motor vehicles continue to be very strong, up about 18%. A lot of that is really price related, not volume related construction. Somewhat surprising to me was up 14%. Again, most of that, I think is price related because a lot of the costs of construction have gone up substantially. And then, as usual, the two significant sectors that were down were restaurants, but they were only down 9%, which is much better than it had been earlier during the pandemic. So restaurant revenue is gradually recovering back to where it was before the pandemic. And then, of course, the lodging sector, hotels and motels is still by far the hardest hit. They were down 41% in July, again, better than it had been, but still nowhere near back to where it was pre-pandemic. So overall, that that information on sales tax was very favorable. As you all know, that goes into four different places in our budget. It goes into our general fund, it goes into metro transit, it goes into the med mental illness and developmental mental illness and drug dependency fund. And finally, it goes into the health through housing fund. So sales tax growth is helps us in a lot of places in our budget. And I will pause there and see if there's questions about that or about anything else that you'd like to ask me. A broad opening is a grand opening. Colleagues, questions about sales tax or anything else you want to ask Mr. DeVere about? Getting off easy again. Guns like it is. Ron, I've got a question for him. Councilmember Tomasky. Hey, thanks, Dwight. We put a lot of money into the health department to respond to the pandemic, and I know we've tried to overdose that in a good way. Any any intel on the take up on that spending, is there going to be extra there? Yes. A lot of public health will have unspent funds this year. But what we need to know is, is that when we're doing all these appropriations back in the winter and spring, I think we all have an expectation that COVID would largely be gone by the end of the year. And clearly, that is not the case. So we are working with public health to make sure that they can extend their current funding through June of 2022 if we need to. And it looks like they will be able to do that, partly because they will get additional money from the state for all of the vaccination related work. And so I would I would say there it's unlikely there will be money that we can free up to use for other purposes. But I think it is very likely that we can at least make a good down payment on continuing all of our critical public health COVID work into next year when we didn't expect to have the money to do it. Just to remind everyone, we have appropriated all of the federal money at this point. I am not hearing anything from Washington, D.C. about another round of COVID related funding other than from FEMA. So we're going to have to make some careful decisions about how we use our existing funding, given that COVID is clearly not going to be gone by the end of this year. Thanks to Ed. That's super helpful. Appreciate you. Further questions. Mr. Jibril, thank you for spending time with us briefly once again today and for the good work and allow you to go back and continue working on all of the projects we're trying to deliver for the people. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. This takes us to item six, an ordinance that would make changes to the county's construction and demolition, or C and D code, as well as authorize the executive to enter into agreements with C and D receiving facilities using an updated agreement template. As I think she will present the I have asked for some amendments to be drafted. I'm going to strike an amendment as one can be prepared. Ms.. Rose You can do your full briefing and you and I can take team on speaking to the striking amendment as you wrap up or however you want to proceed. Sounds good. I will follow your lead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Terra Rose, Council staff. The materials for this item begin on page nine of your packet, but I'm actually going to start from page then. If you're following along just some brief background. Construction and demolition waste or Sandy waste results from construction, remodeling, repair, or the demolition of buildings, roads or other structures. Examples of Sandy waste include cleaned, painted or treated wood, dimensional lumber, concrete, asphalt, and other aggregates, among other materials. Sandy Waste loads under Kane County Co can be characterized as non-recyclable, recyclable or mixed, which means the load is comprised of kiddy waste containing both recyclable and non-recyclable elements that have not been separated since 1993. The county has banned Sandy Waste at most of its facilities, except for in incidental amounts or in limited circumstances. And those are where the county owned transfer stations comply with the recycling requirements in the Sandy code, or collect and transfer the materials to Sandy receiving facilities that have agreements with the county. I am now moving on to page 12. King County Code outlines requirements for Sandy Waste Processing and disposal states that the purpose of the Sandy Waste chapter is to assure that there will be Sandy disposal facilities to serve King County in accordance with the Comprehensive Salt Waste Management Plan. Sandy is recycled to the maximum extent feasible that the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill may continue to be dedicated to receiving municipal solid waste and that Sandy disposal is subject to King County's environmental controls and quote, So the way the system is set up, you have different responsibilities for different parts of the system. You have the generators, handlers and collectors of the sea and waste. In other words, those either making it or transporting it. And then also the facilities that accept the waste by agreement. So similar to a typical curbside service where garbage goes one place and your recyclable materials go to another. The different types of sandy loads are to go to different types of facilities. And I'll first start with the generators, handlers, collectors. Current King County Code requires all generators, handlers and collectors of mixed and non-recyclable sandy waste generated within the county's jurisdiction to deliver or ensure delivery to a designated Sandy receiving facility. Recycling recyclable sandy materials, on the other hand, may be transported to any sandy recycling facility or to a recycling market in or outside of King County. Next requirements for the Sandy Receiving Facilities Ordinance 18166, which was adopted in 2015, allowed the county to enter into a uniform agreement referred to as the designated facility agreement or DFA with any qualified transfer facility, material recovery facility or Merv. Sorry, there will be a lot of abbreviations today or combination Murphy and Transfer Facility and the DFA between the facilities and the county set forth the terms and conditions under which it may be received, processed, recycled and disposed. And so for if you are interested in more specific information about the terms, some of the terms and the existing DFA that was approved by Ordinance 18166, I will refer you to Attachment six to the staff report, which can be found on page 145. Additionally, I'd note that King County Code requires the Solid Waste Division Director to develop, publish and update on the division's website a list of recyclable sandy materials that are banned from landfill disposal by the Sandy receiving facilities. And that list is found on pages 12 and 13 in your pocket. I'm now going to move on to how enforcement works with the existing system. Enforcement of Sandy rules is handled by a Sandy enforcement lead within the Solid Waste Division, who initiates enforcement activities on both generators, handlers and collectors of Sandy Waste as well as the Sandy receiving facilities that accepted executive staff, indicate that enforcement activities for generators , handlers and collectors include outreach and education in the field, monitoring new construction permits and reaching out to contractors, as well as monitoring shipments of Sandy on the highways or Sandy receiving facilities. The specifics of conducting enforcement depend on the type of facility. In other words, it's slightly different. For a. Murph compared to a transfer facility, but both involve on site inspections. And I'm now moving ahead to page 14 in your pocket. King County code allows for the Salt Waste Division director to determine when a facility is not in compliance and may suspend the owners rate to accept mixed and non-recyclable Sandy waste during the period of noncompliance and executive staff indicate that since 2015. Facilities have had temporary suspensions. Civil penalties may also be involved in the enforcement of safety regulations under King County Code and Title 23. The civil fine for a violator with no previous similar code violations is $100, and for a violator with two or more previous violations of King County Code Title ten, which is a sideways title within the past 12 months, the civil fine is double the rate of the previous penalty. Moving ahead in the staff report, I'll note two other relevant features of the Sante system before moving on to the proposed ordinance. The adopted 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan, or ESCAP, included targets and a series of priority actions related to Sandy Waste Management. And specifically, I'll point you to performance measure GHG 20, which states by 2025 achieve an 8480 5% Sandy materials diversion rate for building development sites across King County, excluding Seattle and Walton County service area, and by 2030 achieve zero waste of sandy materials resources with economic value. And according to the 2020 US cap, the county wide recycling diversion rate of the material in 2017 was 80%. And then the second feature I'll point out is that the county imposes a $4 and 25 cent per ton fee on the disposal of Sandy waste generated in the county's jurisdiction. And that's for the purposes of funding additional costs to manage the Sandy recycling and disposal program. So I'm going to now move ahead to the analysis section on page 15 of those audits, 2020 0243 would primarily make changes that can be categorized in three areas. And the transmittal letter indicates that the Department of Natural Resources and Parks engage with stakeholders in the sandy industry, including contractors, haulers and landfill operators of recycling facilities. An input from all parties was incorporated into the proposed legislation. So I'll start with the first area. The proposed ordinance would add language to the Sandy Code, placing explicit responsibility on the generators, handlers and collectors of sandy waste to send Sandy loads to the proper facilities and including in code conditions upon which generators, handlers and collectors may deliver loans to transportation specifically as well as intermodal facilities and landfills. And the latter two of which I will discuss more in a moment. As noted previously, current code language requires all generators, handlers and collectors of mixed and non-recyclable Sandy waste to be delivered to designated Sandy receiving facilities. However, code does not specify any other obligations of generators, handlers and collectors. Executive staff indicate that mixed sandy waste loads are intended to go to a material recovery facility or murf or a transfer facility with recycling capabilities so that the recyclable materials may be sorted out. And so the proposed ordinance would add language to the Sandy Code that a generator handler or collector of mixed sandy waste generated within the county's jurisdiction may not deliver or cause delivery of a load of mixed sandy waste to a transfer facility unless certain criteria are met. And those criteria are for the generator handler or collector to ensure that the load contains no more than 20% of the readily recyclable Sandy material banned from landfill disposal. Or. Confirms before upon delivery that the transfer facility shall transfer the load to or otherwise manage the materials appropriately belong to the second area of the proposed changes. The proposed ordinance would expand the definition of Sandy receiving facilities to also include intermodal facilities and landfills. And I'd like to clarify a statement made in the staff report. The staff report says that in current code, only Murphy and transferred transfer stations or a combination facility can become a Sandy receiving facility. It would be perhaps more accurate to say that the current definition of Sandy receiving facility and code only specifically calls out Murphy and transfer stations for a combination facility, but that there is some ambiguity on whether other facilities can be designated by the division director. So apologies for that inaccuracy. The proposed ordinance would then explicitly allow intermodal facilities and landfills to receive Sandy waste under certain circumstances. And so under the proposed ordinance, only an eligible Sandy demolition project may use intermodal facilities and landfills for the disposal of non-recyclable Sandy waste and only in accordance with the waste diversion plan approved by the division and the proposed ordinance with limit eligible Sandy demolition projects, projects where buildings and other structures are demolished within a contained contiguous property, or the plan of consolidation and the square footage of building and structure space that will be demolished exceeds 6000 feet. Additionally, executive staff have confirmed that this legislation would not change what is allowed to be delivered to county. Facilities and that the division has no intention of allowing Sandy Waste to be directly disposed half of Israel's landfill and then moving ahead to enforcement of the use of intermodal facilities and landfills. The proposed ordinance would allow the division director and their sole discretion to prohibit any processing violates the requirements for direct, direct delivery of non-recyclable sandy waste to intermodal facilities or landfills from using those facilities for a period not to exceed six months. The staff report identifies two enforcement issues that potentially may occur with the legislation as transmitted. The first concerns potential use of intermodal facilities in landfills by unauthorized or suspended users. The transmitted DFA would not explicitly require an intermodal facility or landfill to check that they were accepting waste from an eligible Sandy demolition project. With an approved waste diversion plan, they would be required to submit to the division a monthly report that provides information about each direct shipment received from demolition projects within the county's jurisdiction. And additionally, the transmitted DFA would require the division to notify the facilities on suspensions of generators, handlers or collectors. And the facilities would then be responsible with comparing their customer lists on a monthly basis and alerting the division if any suspended users are using the facility. So thus, in either case, enforcement against the generator handler or collector could occur only after disposal has already happened. And then the second potential issue concerns the potential disposal of recyclable or mixed Sandy waste. As noted previously, the proposed ordinance would only allow non-recyclable Sandy waste to be delivered directly to an intermodal facility or landfill. However, once waste containers are taken from a job site to the intermodal facility or landfill, the containers are typically not opened until the final disposal destination. Therefore, if a container included recyclables and waste, it was not only limited to non recyclables anyways in the contents it may be difficult to know it was disposed. Executive staff indicate that while they do not have jurisdiction to enter job sites Inc. Cities Site access to view container contents does not been an issue in enforcement efforts to date. Additionally, executive staff note that they expect many of the eligible Sandy demolition projects to be owned by public agencies or public companies, which are typically cooperatives in working with the division to ensure compliance. And then finally, the third area of proposed changes that would be made by the ordinance. The proposed ordinance would authorize the executive to enter into agreements with Sandy receiving facilities substantially in the form of attachment a to this ordinance, which is an updated DFA template containing provisions for intermodal facilities and landfills. And I would again refer you to Attachment six to the staff report, which provides additional details about how the terms of the transmitted GFA differ from the existing GFA terms. And Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks on the proposed ordinance. Would you like me now to brief the amendments? Yes. And I'm going to be Councilmember Caldwell's will have sympathy for me. I just got a note from a fossilized brain that Windows was going to try to close in 10 minutes. I will address that in a moment myself. So if I'm absent for a moment, my apologies and I'll be right back. And meanwhile, am indeed, as Ms.. Rose is about to discuss, we identified some inconsistencies in both the and the code as well as the transport ordinance. I'm agreement to use the facilities that receive C and D waste. And so I've asked for an amendment as one to address some of those macros. If you would, please address that and I will address my Windows issue. Got it. Understood. Striking amendment S-1, which is included in the packet and can be found beginning on page 76 with me clarifying edits to both the existing C and D code, and the proposed ordinance that were developed in collaboration with executive staff. S-1 would replace the transmitted DFA, which was dated May 22nd, 2020, with an updated GFA date of June 14th, 2021, and that was also developed in conjunction with executive staff. And additionally, as I noted in my earlier remarks, the transmitted DFA did not explicitly require an intermodal facility or landfill to check that they were accepting waste from an eligible Sandy demolition project with an approved waste diversion plan. And so Streicher, as one would add clarifying, would also add clarifying language that intermodal facilities are approved to accept Sandy waste only from eligible Sandy demolition projects. And if that facility has confirmation of an approved waste diversion plan either from the division. Or upon. Receipt of a copy prior to accepting waste. As one would also require the executive to file a report with the Council that describes the C and D enforcement activities undertaken by the division in the first year after the ordinance is effective. And additionally, it would change the effective date of the audience to January 1st, 2022. Attachment six is a summary matrix and compares the existing Sandy system with the changes proposed by proposed ordinance 2020 0243 as well as striking the amendment. S1 And I will note that there's also a title amendment, one that would not conform the title to the changes made by striking amendment. S1 And that concludes my remarks on the amendments. We also have a solid waste division director Pat McLaughlin and environmental programs managing supervisor Jim Neely here from executive staff, in case there are questions . Thank you. Questions. Question. Lambert Council Member. Lambert Thank you, Mr. Chair. So where are the mayors? I know there's one in Woodinville. I think there's one in Bellevue. Where are the other mayors? Customarily referring to the construction and demolition works. Yes. So there was a list on page 12 of your packet that lists all of the client designated facilities for C and D waste . And I would defer to the executive staff if they want to call out specifically which are persons transport facilities, because that's going to be important that we differentiate between the two in the murf and wooden boat, which is the only one that by me. I don't know how Sandy would go through that because the machinery is more for papers and bottles and newspapers and cardboard and glass, not for cement. And in our transfer stations, how much work do we have allocated for this? Because some of them we don't have enough floor space, so that kind of thing. And to come in, they'll have one more question after that. So my name is Pat McLaughlin for the record service. You're always division director. And I want to just thank council. Member and staff. Carol Rose did a tremendous job in terms of both your staff report and identifying some improvements to recommended changes. I'm accompanied by Jim Neely. Jim has been with the division. For over 20 years and for the better architect of this program. I'm somewhat sad to say he's also approaching retirement. I'm happy for him, sad for us. This is a pretty big milestone and we're grateful for his leadership that got us this far. Councilmember Lambert, Jim, could could speak directly to your interests in terms of the nature of the facilities that actually processes waste. It's not the King County facilities that process this waste. It is the private facilities which are more properly designed for a girl like Jim. Expand on that. Sure. Thank you. I'm Jim Neely as commissioners. Me so the facility Councilmember Lambert. That you're speaking of in Woodinville is a MSW that. Collects recyclable materials. From the curbside and processes. Those. It does take seemed, but it only. Transfers it to disposal. So it is not a material recovery facility. However, we have eight. Of those throughout the region. There's three up in Snohomish County nearby. One of them's an unincorporated, well known fact and that. The sole purpose of those facilities is to recycle C and D. They have the sorting lines. They have the people that pick materials off of them, magnets, those sort of things. And that's that's all they do, basically. So as I said. There's three up north there. There's one, two in Seattle, one in Renton, and one down in Tacoma. Two in writing. Excuse me. So. Obviously Sonoma County is out of our county. And I know that they in the past have also been interested in their capacity being able to keep up with their county's needs. And same with the. So it seems like there would be added costs to the Sandy distributions because these are big trucks that need to go far distances which adds to greenhouse gases and hurts the roads. So am interested in that and then your appeal process. Is there an appeal process for somebody being told that they're in noncompliance? Six months is a really long time, and I know many of the job sites have had to do a triple waste facilities outside their construction so that they can sort. And the business have been very careful about making sure which bin is which because they don't want to get in trouble. But is there an appeal process? Should that contractor believe that they actually did try to get them well separated into the various streams of garbage? During the summer. I was just as a council member. So the six months suspension process is just for the contractor to use direct delivery to intermodal facilities and landfills. There's always division, I can confirm, but my understanding is that they would still be permitted to use other facilities, but they would just lose the benefit of the direct delivery during that period, which then adds how many miles to the issue of how far they have to take it. Well, they would still be permitted to use some of the other facilities that are listed on table one within the county and Squamish County. And what motivated this massive change for the necessity for this change for the addition of intermodal facilities and landfills? Yeah. And the total costs incurred because they don't think that same cost is put on non unincorporated area in the projects. Or is it? I know from division staff that this the request to be able to use intermodal facilities and landfills came as a result of the the input from contractors and other entities in the candy sector is not answer your question. I'm not quite following. So the agencies themselves, the private sector is is happy with this or not happy with this. I haven't gotten any calls from any of them telling me they're happy or not happy. I do what I can to stop on their outreach process. Thank you. Cast Member. In developing this legislation, we engage a. Wide variety of stakeholders across the industry. That included contractors, haulers, landfill operators who are also operating the recycling facilities through their work. We were able to influence the direction of this legislation and as Terry mentioned, this specific element of being able to divert right from the job site was a specific interest of both of those stakeholders. So there's been a really being responsive to the interest that has was expressed during her outreach. Thank you. Appreciate all that information. Thank you. I believe that our council member, McDermott, has been kicked off the call. Okay. Well, he asked me to take over if he and Vice Chair Dunn were both unavailable, so I will do so. Are there any other questions on this item? Okay. I'm not hearing any. If we are prepared to move this out today, I understand that it could move out, but it doesn't have to move out. But if we're prepared to move this out, we could entertain a motion. A move adoption. Okay it's bound to do pass recommendation. Moves the striking amendment. S1 has been it has been moved. Are there any questions? Uh, any questions on S1? All those in favor of us. One Please signify by saying i, i. I, i. And any oppose. Please say nay. The striking amendment one carries. There's a title amendment. Councilwoman Nebraska. Sure. Move to one, Madam Chair. Thank you. Two, one is before us. All those in favor of the title amendment. Please signify by saying I. Any opposing nay. Nay. I really mean to say. May I say I. Title amendment carries and I see that Charlie Kaufman is back on. So I'm going to hand the virtual gavel back. Thank you, Councilmember Balducci. But I may need your help because I'm working only from an iPhone screen at the moment. So that said, with the we have the ordinance before us as amended. Is there further discussion? Hearing? None. Madam Kirk, would you please call the Royal? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Carlucci, I. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, I. Council Member Dun. I. Council Member Coal Wales Council Member Member I. Councilmember October I. Councilmember one right now. I. Councilmember Zelaya. Order. Mr. Chair. I. Mr. Chair, the vote is 9.0 notes. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to market. Would you please help me out? Ordinance 2021 is 2020 0243. Mr. Chair. Thank you. And we will send it to full council on regular schedule. That takes us to our next item on the agenda, a motion sponsored by Councilmember Caldwell's address in City Hall Park. And given that I don't have my electronic notes before me, I will ask the central staffer who was going to present on it to begin the most. Councilmember Caldwell's would like to make a few introductory remarks. Thank you. Thank you, madam. Mr. Chair. Yes? I would like to make the couple of remarks, and this is pertaining to the motion 2020 1031. The process has to do with potential acquiring of the park by the county. But in the city of Seattle and there is you will find in your park a striking amendment and a line amendment. But we also have a second scoping amendment, which I would appreciate that we addressed directly and which Brandon then on our staff will go back. But just very quickly and I would like to retain the right to speak for once we have the staff report completed, but very quickly the motion and particularly to the striking amendment. I will go over the request to the Executive to provide options to the Council on acquiring City Hall Park. And secondly, my recommendations in the way of options to the Council addressing safety concerns in City Hall Park currently and for quite a long time. What might be some suggestions to the council and what could be done to address those safety concerns? With that, I would like to turn it over, Mr. Chair, to Brandi Milner. And I do know that Karen Gill from the executive's office is here with us as well. Messina. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Brandy Vino with council central staff. The materials for this item begin on page 160 of your packet. The proposed motion would request that the executive transmit a report to the Council, which would include an exploration of options related to acquisition of City Hall Park by King County for Future County uses and a plan for relocating any occupants of the park. Any current or future occupants of the park. Just as quick background throughout 2020 and 2021 City Hall Park, which is owned and operated by the City of Seattle and is adjacent to the King County Courthouse, was the site of an encampment. An encampment of people experiencing homelessness in county appropriated approximately $50 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to support emergency homelessness response and related behavioral health services. And the county also allocated funding to the local Just Care Alliance to resolving campus encampments in public space by providing non congregate, dignified emergency housing options like tiny homes and hotels. As of August 12th, 2021, Just Care placed a total of 65 people who had been living in City Hall, Park, in shelter and emergency housing that they voluntarily accepted. The City of Seattle has since temporarily closed City Hall Park. So I'm now going to brief you on the underlying motion. And then afterwards, if you'd like, I can brief you on the striking the two striking amendments. So the underlying motion proposes a request that the executive explore options for acquiring City Hall Park from the City of Seattle for purposes of using it for county purposes, and to also transmit a report that includes all financial, operational, legal and use considerations for the park. The report must also include a plan for relocating any occupants of the park, and it must be transmitted to council by November 15th, 2021. As previously mentioned, there are two striking amendments are striking amendment S1 with a line amendment amendment one. And then there is striking amendment as to and I can brief those all of those for you if you'd like. Okay. He was striking amendment S1 one here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I'm wondering, for time purposes, it might be better to just go right to striking amendment number two. There's no need to read this one. Okay. Thank you. So striking amendment as to add requirements to the contents of the report requested of the executive that relate to crime statistics, mapping of nearby homeless shelters, and a plan to address safety concerns. It also included a request the executive add to the plan safety concerns around the courthouse and in City Hall Park and include locating permanent supportive housing for any current or potential future occupants of the park as needed. Additionally, striking amendment to makes an assessment of the options for acquiring the park from the city of Seattle contingent upon whether the county and the city come to an agreement on the acquisition of the park by December 31st, 2021. Therefore, if an agreement is reached by that time, the assessment of the acquisition options is no longer needed. That concludes my remarks on Striking Amendment S2. There is also a title Amendment T one that would reflect the changes and striking amendments to and be happy to answer any questions unanswered questions. My book, Oil Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know we're all very aware of many of the concerns that have been expressed quite a while now, for many years, and further regarding the safety and security issues in City Hall Park owned by this by the city, but adjoining our courthouse. But not everyone who may be watching this will be fully aware of everything. So I'd like to go over a few. Before the pandemic struck over a year and a half ago. There have been efforts to clean up the park. And I want to especially command Councilmember Wright and Baskin's former city council members Sally Bagshaw and Caroline Williamson with FMG for all that they did. And it was wonderful too to view the food trucks music playing. We saw there were bathroom facilities and the courts in the court, city car park generally that's really looking pretty good. There is still issues pertaining to the Third Avenue entrance, still hearing many jurors being afraid to come to the courthouse. Many employees being actually attacked upon leaving the courthouse. But when the pandemic struck, we saw some big changes, as particularly as the street traffic diminished because so many businesses and including our own council and other courthouse offices had their employees go home and work remotely. There was there was less visibility of people just around. And as a result, we started seeing people camping out in the park and it resulted in a very large encampment. And much of that to do because of the extreme lack of affordable housing in the area and throughout the town . But it became really very, very severe. And in terms of violence, a two year old little girl being and we don't know if she was abandoned or what, but inside that encampment, there was also an employee of the courthouse attacked, sexually attacked, and one of the bathrooms inside the courthouse. We've heard from the judges and I appreciate Judge Darnell speaking the day Judge Rogers is the presiding superior court judge emailed me and said, I'm sorry, I can't be there, I'm sick and I'm in Montana, but I know all the judges support this motion. They've had to put up barriers and windows, bulletproof glass because of shots coming from the park area. And I could go on and on with this, but it's been very obvious that something that's needed to be done and that has been juxtaposed, the severe lack of police officers and the Seattle Police Department, as I understand, they're down about 300 officers. So they've had to triage and make decisions on priorities. And too frequently we have found that they don't come to the park. This is before it was all closed off recently. They don't come around Third Avenue. So we've had to put in our budget funding for our sheriff's deputies and most of them have had to do this over time to just kind of keep track of what's going on. Also with the FMG officers, we shouldn't have to be it and we don't they don't have authority to take action when needed within the park . So the situation has done worse and worse and we didn't prove quite a lot of funds for the Public Defenders Association and other partners in the community to help out people in the encampment with the Just Care program and get them on the way for permanent supportive housing or whatever it would be that they would need. But as Baby said, what happens when the park fences come down? It's my view that the county is the one that should own this park. And the plan had been for so long for that to happen and it's time that it happened. Now we need to have a situation where we are in control of the park and we can determine what goes on there to protect the public. To protect employees of the courthouse so they feel comfortable coming to work to protect them as leaving the courthouse to after work, to protect the public from accessing this center of government for all King County and the center of access to justice for all of King County and beyond. Contrary to what an individual said in public comment that this should not be done because there are other areas of the county that need public public health, public security, public safety. This is the center where people come to access justice, and that should be open and it should be safe. So I have been working with the consecutive and with the mayor of the city of Seattle. It is my understanding that the signal to Seattle is agreeable to transfer ownership to the county. In fact, the mayor of Seattle said, You have a dollar. The Park Insurance. Executive has been working with the mayor to actualize that. And I believe we need to take hold of this opportunity that we have and grab it and have control of our own destiny and protecting the public and protecting everybody from being able to access county government and access to justice. The judges are all for this, and I know that many of you are as well. And I appreciate Councilmember Peter Van right there for holding a briefing on this and heads up the Government of Government Accountability and Oversight Committee. And Councilmember Lambert doing the same in her community Health and Housing Services Committee. Another factor here is that of the entrance to the courthouse since we own the park. One thing we could be able to do would be to change the entrance and egress to the courthouse, to its original entrance, that being on Jefferson Avenue. And John and my staff is just a couple of slides to show, and we'll make it quick after that. But is John able to share screen? When the courthouse was built back in the 1800s, the front courtyard of the building fired into the park. They complemented each other. This is obviously not a photo from back then, but the point being is that the the courthouse. And City Hall Park were meant to be together. But in 1982 and you can see this old photo from 1917. In 1967, this entrance was converted into a loading dock, which is currently full of supplies and dumpsters. The original extravagant Alaskan marble inside the building is preserved. Well, the marble on the original entrance has been damaged or covered in a layer of concrete. Very unfortunate and likely would be costly to restore. But that could be done and can be determined in terms of overall priorities for our expenditures. This historic entry way would lead to more foot traffic in the park and less off of Third Avenue, where there's also been so many high profile instances of violence. So you can see these things then and now. Images, a lot of reports have been done on this, including from the University of Washington and architects that we could take advantage of and be able to really scrutinize whether public safety and access to the courthouse could be and could be improved by opening this entrance and closing the one on Third Avenue. John, are there any other photos to show? Apparently not. Okay. So before you this this morning is a striking memo that I developed in collaboration with Councilmember Belge and again, with input from our judges and other staff in the courthouse, it would remove a specific reference to the possibility of developing affordable housing in this space from the original motion. However, it remains an option that the executive could pursue. But my objective is to make this report as flexible as possible to ensure that most creative ideas are considered. And we must not forget that the problems plaguing our parts are the result of a severe lack of housing inventory. The striking amendment also requires to plan to address safety and security concerns around the courthouse, including the park. The plan aims to take a holistic look at the problem and provide a recommended course of action, which could include an assessment and analysis of approaches to not only address safety and other concerns, but also recognize that productive discussions are ongoing between the executive and the mayor to chance through the park. If that were to happen, the park were transferred, were to be transferred by the end of the year, which could just be a land swap. And from what I've learned, there is a lot of surplus land that we own that could be provided to the city and c r the city of Seattle easily. But if that were to occur with a well received ownership of the park by the end of this year, then of course, that language and the striking amendment would no longer be. Would no longer be an effect. I think it's the time to take control of this part and transform it into something that we can all be proud of. And I think we can all envision a day when we hear fewer sirens, sirens, screams, cries, and less about inadequate safety, and instead go back to hearing the sounds of birds and music and people laughing and having a good time, even buskers in the park. The main point is we need to do something. I think this makes sense and I believe that will help all of us, the public, the residents around City Hall, Park and the courthouse, the businesses, employees who can go back to work. Our employees and above all, for me. Access to justice and all of our common services. And of course, it could be used as part of what we look at long term in the configuration of our common civic campus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry went on for so long that this means a lot to me. Once a member of Parliament. I think you find it means a lot to many of us. Would you believe I would entertain a motion? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move because motion 2020 10318. Thank you. Motion 2021 318 is before US Council member Cole Wells. I've spoken to this and I support and I would like to amend striking amendment number two. As to as before this discussion on striking an amendment as to Councilmember Bell duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to say a few words about my contribution to this. Maybe they've turned itself off. I want to thank Councilmember Cole Wells for being willing to work with me to include some broader thinking about safety in the area generally beyond just City Hall Park, although the focus of this action is on City Hall Park. And I just want to call attention to some other things that this motion does that I that I advocated for and that I appreciate being included. It asks for us to take a deep look and a quick look at the key factors that have driven the violence and disorder that we've seen around the courthouse , including prior efforts to address the problem, because there have been some and I believe you always need to start with a good problem definition and some sense of what can be done to address the specific problem before you. The it requires that we come back with a plan to address safety concerns in and around the courthouse, including city hall park, taking a holistic look at this problem and recommending a course of action that could include something like crime prevention through environmental design approaches, which is part of what was going on with the previous activity to activate the park. That that's that's part of that kind of thinking that you create safety as opposed to just responding to a lack of safety that we talked about a description of ways in which the county will engage with the city of Seattle to address crime around the area, a plan for relocating any current or potential future occupants of an encampment if they if they come back. And as you can see, if you go down to the courthouse, this is the problem with relocation as a as a sole strategy. If all you do is relocate people who are living in tents on the ground, the tents come right back somewhere else because people need to live somewhere, that they have nowhere to live. They're going to go someplace else. And many of the tents are now just around the corner under yes or the yes or overpass. So it is a it is only a temporary and it is not a complete solution and in many ways not always a humane solution, but we need a more holistic total solution that includes public safety, human resources, smart street activation. An end to COVID would be nice. That would help a lot. And then it goes on to talk about a cost benefit analysis of restoring the original courthouse entrance. I got to tell you, I've been around long enough to have been through a couple of spins through that particular wheel about restoring the main courthouse. It's never made any sense from a financial perspective to me. I'll just say for myself, very expensive. What has what was done to the front of the courthouse was a crime against architecture and humanity and the history. But it was it was a pretty thorough damn job. And and to undo it would be extraordinarily difficult and expensive. I really think we should be we're already bringing up the discussion that we had been having prior to COVID about the future of the campus. So much has changed in our campus started. Let's just start with the fact that it looks like the administration building will not be reoccupied again. If that's the case, then really sort of puts, I think, a fire under the discussions around what is the future of the county seat for our campus. And then finally, if there's an agreement with regard to City Hall Park, an assessment of options for the acquisition, which is what Councilmember Caldwell spoke to in detail. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that I really think it's important that we think broadly and that there's a number of different things required in order to create safety for our employees, for people coming to the courthouse, to access justice for jurors, for people who live in the area. And so I think this is a good step, and I'm glad that we are willing to think a little bit bigger and broader and come back with a holistic approach to the area. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Mr. Chair as well. Thank you. I'm very sorry that I did not mention earlier the second sponsor, legislation council member Ragan Dunn. I was going to thank Martha and I thought she would be talking many cheers. But he's been very involved with discussions about public safety in the park ideas and what to do with it. And I really appreciate that he's been so supportive. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Further discussion on striking amendments to Councilmember Dunn. But thanks and thanks for your kind word. He make me want to vote for Ingenico. Well, because everything you said in your introductory remarks was exactly what I would have said. And it's powerful and it's bipartisan. And yeah, I was proud to propose that first piece of legislation. I think the confirmation legislation, which I knew probably wouldn't pass but would get the conversation started at a regional level. What were you're going to do with this courthouse to take, to take, to take the people's courthouse back from the lawlessness that had ensnared it and find a compassionate way to get folks into the wraparound services that they need out there and to be a better solution for everyone. And and then Jeanie took the ball and morphed it from sort of a almost a. Inflammatory attempt to get the dialog started to, I think a more thoughtful piece of legislation that is going to result have a better result which, which I appreciate very much and , and think there, there really is a way to solve these these problems. I mean, we were talk about $1,000,000,000 into our homeless problem globally since the crisis was declared by the executive in the mayor. And it is now not unreasonable, I think, for folks to start to at least appreciate the need to move the encampments that are around our public spaces into the wraparound services the taxpayers are paying for. And City Hall Park is. Is maybe the first leading example of how that process might look into the future. So I wanted to thank you, Nicole Wells and Claudia Valdez, you for their continued leadership on this. And I would just mention that about ten years ago. And Jeannie, this is free information. We have had a lot of one on one meetings in person because we're we're separated. Bob Ferguson and I talked about about ten years ago, he sponsored legislation to reopen the original entrance of the courthouse. And, Kathy, you'll remember that you were involved with that, too. And and so I think there may be value in see, it's weird architecture is symbolism in government and you see it in Washington, DC more than anywhere. But you see it our state capitol, capitol buildings across the country and the county seat as well. Sometimes it's indicative of the long term sustainability of a democracy. I think there's value in architecture and I think there's something to be said about if we are successful in moving individuals from city hall parking to wraparound services and get them the addiction treatment they need, the mental health counseling need, the job training they need, and the housing they need. And at the same time, we beautifying City Hall Park and perhaps spend a little money to open up that courthouse entrance. It says something about our ability to solve our community's problems, especially in an area that has been dogging local governments, not just here in King County, but across the west coast of the United States, which has about two thirds of America's homeless population. So all that is to say that I want to thank Councilmember Cole Wells and Balducci for their bipartisan leadership in this issue. And I would urge my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation. Further discussion on it as to. Lambert Council member. Lambert. Thank you. Well, first I want to say this is really good legislation and thank you to everybody who contributed to it. It is a topic that has come up many, many times over the years and has been followed by promises from the current owner, but unfortunately have not been kept. And so it is a really good idea for us to be able to take this back. One of the problems that we've had is that our queue lines getting into the courthouse have been so wrong. And so if we were able to sneak it into the park so that it wasn't interfering with the main pass through and we could potentially put an awning so people wouldn't get wet. And there's more space on the Jefferson side to maybe have some more magnetometers to get people into the courthouse more quickly. I really appreciate all the things that were said by the previous speakers, especially on the idea of it's not humane what's happening in that park. And being able to get services is a much better way. Councilmember Banducci was very correct that they did an excellent job of destroying a lot of architecture, which is very unfortunate, but it does tell a story of what was valued at that time and what wasn't. I had the opportunity to go down and travel in that area of the courthouse, which is pretty much been locked out for years. I was surprised by how much space there is down there that I had no idea was that big and what the potential of that is. So I know that we have done several reports and yes, they were astronomically expensive, but hopefully there could be some grants. Another state has a courthouse restoration grant program. So I am excited about this. I think cleaning it up has been everybody's goal for a long time and I especially like the extra, whereas it's being put and I don't know how I got my name added to that, whereas but the one that says that we are very concerned about the safety of our employees since I had an employee injured also so and was at the march and heard and saw many things that were happening. So thank you for this good piece of legislation and I'm looking forward to voting for. Further discussion on striking amendment as to. I reserve my comments for final passage, seeing no further comments, notes to all those in favor of striking amendment as to please signify by saying on. I. Those opposed nay nay. The ayes have it as to is adopted. Is there a title amendment? There is not. No, there is the title amendment. Title Amendment one. Councilmember Nicole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Title amendment t one. Two, one. As before I see no discussion paper. Please signify B.S. on those opposed. No, the ayes have it. The title amendment is adopted motion 2021 318 as amended and final passage. Question. Mr. Chair. Council members on the line. I heard a few times references to permanent supportive housing, but when I look at the legislation, I see that it references moving people in encampments to temporary housing and shelters. Is there somewhere else in the legislation that I missed that discusses permanent housing? It can answer that. Mr. Chair council members I. In striking amendment as to. Along with temporary shelters, there should be a line that says. Or permanent supportive housing as needed. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a little bit. That language doesn't sit well with me because it still sounds like we could be moving people to temporary housing and shelters, which are not the most effective way of dealing with this situation. I don't think anyone disagrees with the fact that we need to have free, clear and clean, accessible parks, that our employees deserve to be safe. The question is whether we address the symptoms of homelessness, the symptoms of homelessness, especially at the expense of the people who are suffering the most from it, which are the people who are living in the camps? Or do we address the root causes of it? And to me. Moving people from one bad situation to another. Bad situation is not addressing root causes. And so that that's just one red flag that I wanted to point out that doesn't sit well with me. Mr. Chair. As a member. As a member. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, to address that. Thank you. Const members. Hello. On page 15, my mind 56 and 57 that says in cost benefit analysis of concern across line of 54 and 55. Temporary housing and shelters or permanent supportive housing and small. But again, these are requests to the executive to come back with options for us as part of particularly what Councilmember Bell she added with me and to the striking amendment to look at the root causes, to look at this whole thing holistically, not just in a simple fashion. It's broadly approached and broadly rec, broadly examining what can be done with all that's going on in the park currently, what has been? So I share that concern of yours. I hope that you will look at this holistically and know that affordable housing is needed. Period. But if we have people who start camping out in the park individually or forming encampments, we have to get them the services and the help they need so that they can get permanent supportive housing as needed. Thank you. Speaking for myself, I'm concerned that legislation like this contributes to a narrative about homelessness so far and dehumanizing to people experiencing homelessness. For instance, I have am concern about the reference to cleaning up in this situation because it doesn't address people in the people with needs and people who are experiencing crisis. I'd much prefer we use language like addressing issues of. They dehumanizing the legislation like this can lead to does it doesn't acknowledge the need for housing, for treatment for support to make sure that people are successful. The conversation is too centered around public safety and concern around one blot. It doesn't even acknowledge the robust efforts led by the Alliance for Puget Sound. The Alliance for Playing Square, which offers a vision for this, the northeast corner of Pioneer Square. They are bringing the city of Seattle County officials, residents, business leaders, other community leaders into a workgroup and visioning what they see for the northeast corner of things where it doesn't seem to be acknowledging that as well as significant body work by a leading community partner. I'm here in my district. I think the overall work of this legislation contributes to a false sense of security. When we talk about public safety around within City Hall Park exclusively, particularly as we talk about people coming and going from the courthouse, our employees, people coming in to do business with the court jurors. They are not originating their trip from city hall part of the block to the path and the courthouse sit on the trip originates from somewhere else in the county. They have they travel through pioneers where they travel through downtown Seattle to get to that block. Going to the courthouse with the public safety concerns that exist and are real exist beyond see how park itself and the block the courthouse sits on to engage in a city significant effort around one part at the exclusion of the neighborhood around it. I do believe it contributes to a false sense of security. And brings me to my next point. This is inside an incorporated city. Our responsibility is to provide public safety needs in unincorporated Kane County cities, provide public safety within our unincorporated areas. If the county has the resources to address public safety needs, I can make it work. Any of those that are needed in unincorporated areas in my district include other, in fact, other neighborhoods within my district. This neighborhood being within my district, for instance, White Center has had at least six firings over the last year and is in crisis. Constituents are continuously concerned about road safety and wanting safety improvements for roads in white summer. We don't have the financial resources to address. We don't have the financial resources to address the fire in the way the community would like to. There aren't the resources to address other issues, Anderson, in my district either. And those are just two tiny pockets of unincorporated King County across the entire county where I can delineate and identify places. I would make different expenditures. But we are responsible, unlike, you know, in incompetency. So whether we can acquire relief for a dollar that also doesn't account for the capital and operating costs that would be invested and spent over time again in a city. And yes, the courthouse is the county seat is where the courts and the council and the county does its business. I understand what happens if you don't access to justice. So people in the unincorporated Kim County need that same access to justice and justice living in safe, supported, empowered communities. And this is an exchange that I think shortchanges that access to justice in other places in our county. And so I would I will be voting no today. Mr. Chair. Council Members ALL Hello. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I'd second everything that you just said, especially the point about unincorporated King County and our responsibilities there with respect to public safety. Second, I just want to go back to my point about affordable, permanent, supportive housing all around King County, especially in Seattle, whatever, quote, unquote, sweeps are done. People's issue is not the opponents of that. Their issue is not that people are being connected to services and that our our parks are becoming more accessible to other people. The main issue is that we don't have the permanent supportive housing options to connect people to. So I don't understand what is being done here that's different. The issue is that we are in a housing crisis broadly. So if those resources to send people to have existed at the. Abundance and rate that have been needed to solve this crisis. Why is focusing on one specific block? Going to change that issue. We are in an overall housing crisis. That is the problem. So to me, this feels like. Codifying a sweep legislation next to where we are, where our building tends to be, whereas people all around King County have been have been crying about this issue for a long time. So there's no new revenue attached to this. King County has no progressive revenue options. What are we actually doing here? Further discussion. But Mr. Chair, I'll just say one one. Thing about energy. And in acknowledgment of the points that that the former speakers are making. When I first came on the council, we were doing our first biannual budget since I was a council member. We identified homelessness around the county complex as a really key issue that we wanted to do something about. We found some very creative ways to increase a significant amount of funding to support shelter and services around the courthouse, specifically because it is our it is our county seat. We are the county government. This is our neighborhood where we work. And we felt a special responsibility to the challenge as it was presenting right here in our front yard. And so everything that both you and council members have said is true and fair. But we have taken a special interest in this area because of it being our county seat and because of feeling a responsibility to the people that we invite here to do business with us and to work for us and to the people who have to come to receive certain very important county services. So just an explanation as to why I believe that although this is not my district and it's not incorporated King County, this is a location that is worthy of some special action and and care from the council. Thank you, Mr. Chair. See no further discussions until you suppose. Mr. Chair? Yes? A number of to close. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've been listening very intently, and I find myself thinking about some comparisons here. Number one, just as we are the county seat located at the White House. The City of Olympia. Is the seat of government for our state yet? It's not the Olympia police. That have responsibility and authority for maintaining public order and public safety on the Capitol campus. And I want to it's the Washington State Patrol. Just as in Washington, D.C. And we, of course, know about the January 6th riots that took place there, the rebellion the Capitol Police were trying very hard to control . Order, order. It was a mess. But that impacted. The access to our national and federal government that people cannot go into the building. And it became terribly unsafe not only for our members of Congress, but for all the employees. I see this as a very urgent issue, but I do not see it. As blocking many of our work on affordable housing. I'm working with the Alliance and Pioneer Square. In fact, I've had conversations too, and I've found them very supportive of what we're doing here. I do not see that in a motion, a motion, not an ordinance that we are removing our work or ignoring our work in terms of affordable housing in the Pioneer Square area, but around the whole county, including, of course, the unincorporated part of our county. People from all over the county come to Pioneer Square for services or from King County to the courthouse up till recently to the administrative building to the section of the building and elsewhere. And they should feel safe. Jurors are saying they're not going to serve because they're afraid to come to the courthouse. This is a motion asking the executive. To provide an analysis. In fact, many. And now she's addressing these very, very important concerns. Certainly part of that is public safety. For constituents from White Center, for constituents from Skyway, for constituents from Maple Valley and from all the rural areas, and then corporate income, they come here for a reason and they should not be afraid to come to the courthouse. This motion also asks. The executives to determine options for acquiring the park, which makes all the sense in the world to if we own the park and we have individuals who are houseless currently and want to sleep in the park, then we can take part. And the decisions and what to do with that. We are already working a lot on this and we need to do a huge amount more. But this motion does not assuage any of this from going forward with our doing more. We're putting money into white sand or putting money in the sky with just to name a couple. I know I'm the budget chair. We've done a lot. We need to do a lot more. This is not an either or situation. And it's not meant to be dismissive or to lack care in providing. Needed assistance to those individuals who are houseless. We're having an increase in the number of people who are experiencing homelessness, and we're working. You all know that we need to do a hell of a lot more. But this motion will help us get to that point. There's nothing about it that is meant to be in long. The opposite is the case. I'd like to remind everybody to this is the committee of the whole. There is opportunity for amendments to be introduced, to be offered. By the time it comes up to the full council. But to not go forward with this motion, I think, is to turn our back on opportunities for the county. To have direct responsibility and authority for what can be done with the park. Rather than leave it in the hands of the city of Seattle, which has not done much at all for way too long. So that's my pledge to you to pass this vote, to approve the striking amendment, as we did, and now the legislation, so we can get on with what we need to do for the park, for public safety, to figure out from the executive what use is would be viable for the park. It could be affordable housing that we could get. It could be retaining at a spur. That would be up for the executive to provide us with options that we can address. And I think that's moving forward. That's progress that is not turning our back on the needs of so many people and our 2.3 million person. Come to. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Adam Kirk, please call the room. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell duty. Hi. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I. Councilmember done. I. Councilmember calls. I. Council member Lambert High Council member of the ground. I. Councilmember Vaughn right there. Hi. Council members online? No. Mr. Chair. No. Mr. Chair, the vote is seven eyes to the nose. The council member softly and McDermott. Thank you. By your vote, you've given a deep House recommendation to version 2021 318. The next item on today's agenda is proposed Motion 2021 to 82, which would acknowledge receipt of the Disability Equity Action Plan. It was required by a proviso on the 2021 2022 biennial budget. I'm sure Receipt is our newest council central staffer, and I understand this is her first presentation to the committee. Ms.. I want to assure you that I'm saving my hazing for new central staffers for the next new central staff presentation that we have shortly in council. And with that, I would welcome you to the committee of the whole and invite you to present. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sherrie Sue, Council Staff. The materials for this item begin on page 171 of your packet. The oppose motion 2020 1028 to acknowledge receipt of the Disability Equity Action Plan required by the 2021 2022 biennial budget and background. Council included a proviso in the 2021 2022 biannual budget ordinance with an associated expenditure restriction requiring that the executive provide a Disability Equity Action Plan with the following An assessment of county staffing needs for ADA coordination. A plan to coordinate ADA and disability equity functions with efforts to establish the King County Human and Civil Rights Commission. A proposal for ongoing engagement with the disability community. A prioritized list of recommendations for action with cost and timeline for each and any legislation necessary to implement the recommendations and the action plan. This plan indicates that it was developed by OSHA in partnership with disability community advocates. I will walk through the plan's responses to each provide the requirements jumping to the analysis section on page 175. There is additional background that I'm not going to cover, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Provides the requirement. A This is on page one. 75 is an assessment of county staffing needs for ADA coordination and disability equity functions, and recommendations for how those staffing needs will be met. The plan outlines area associated staffing across the executive branch, including eight existing FTE and two TLT positions. The plan recommends adding two additional FTE ADR coordinators and converting one grant funded TLT disability specialists to a county funded FTE. Currently, the TLT disability specialist position is funded by a grant from the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Provides a requirement. B is a plan to coordinate ED and disability equity functions with efforts to establish a King County Human and Civil Rights Commission as background in 2019, Council adopted Ordinance 19047, which would have created a new Human and Civil Rights Commission that would have assumed the current ADA related responsibilities of OSHA Civil Rights Program. The ordinance would have taken effect April 1st, 2021, only if by that date the executive transmitted a status report on the status of the feasibility study. If the executive transmitted a feasibility study and recommendations establishing a human and Civil Rights Commission and a motion approving the feasibility study. And if a move and if the motion approving the feasibility study was passed by a council. Opposed Motion 2020 10089 was introduced in council and referred to committee to approve a feasibility study and recommendations regarding the Human and Civil Rights Commission. This motion has not been adopted by Council and the timeframe for this ordinance to take effect expired on April four, 2021. Therefore, as the plan indicates, that coordination with the proposed Commission is not applicable and is not addressed in the plan to revise the requirements. E is a proposal for ongoing engagement with the disability community in carrying out ADR coordination and disability equity functions and provides a requirement be is a priority with a recommendation. The plan jointly addresses these two proviso requirements because it notes that the proposal for ongoing community engagement is also a recommendation, starting with community outreach. The plan outlines recent outreach activities to the disability community, which resulted in their recommendation that the county reactivate its Section 504 ADA Advisory Committee with an updated scope. Some background on the committee and the King County Code established the Section five or 488 Advisory Committee, which is intended to serve as the advisory body to the executive in developing strategies, systems and guidelines to implement the ADA Work Plan. According to executive staff, this committee has been inactive for approximately ten years. The plan indicates that committee members and disability advocates recommended that King County Code be amended to formalize the purpose of the Committee to Advance Justice and Equity and not just address legal compliance matters. Developing potential amendments to code would require further community engagement, and OSHA would continue to meet with advocates and leaders to address these needs. Moving on to recommendations, the plan includes seven recommendations and these are summarized in the table on page 178 of your packet. I can answer questions about any of these, but in the interest of time, I'm going to get to the ones that require further legislation in response to provide the requirement and list. Analysis starts at the bottom of page 178. The proviso requirement is any legislation necessary to implement recommendations in the plan, and the plan indicates that appropriation legislation is needed for recommendation three and six. Recommendation three calls for funding two positions. One of these positions was established but not funded in the 2021 2022 budget. The staff report notes that a request to fund two FTE is expected to be included in the 2021 mid biennial budget supplemental. And just as an update, since the time of this report, the Executive has transmitted the budget proposal with this request to fund a 32 FTE recommendation six calls for creating and funding one disability specialist, one active disability specialist when funding for the nature grant and in according to executive staff, this request may be included in the 2023 2024 proposed by annual budget. In addition to these two recommendations, five calls for reactivation of the Section five or four added advisory committee. The plan notes that developing potential code amendments would require further community engagement. The first motion 2020 1022 as transmitted appears to meet the requirements of the proviso. Thank you. I'm happy to answer questions. And we also have a saying pair and Farley and Anita Whitfield from executive staff here to answer any questions. Thank you, Michel. Are there are questions? We have a strong through breaking. I've entertained a motion to accept the report. The plan of approval, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belden, she has moved adoption of Motion 2020 122 seating. No discussion. Mr. Chair, House Member Dombrowski. Thank you. And I'm supportive of the motion, but Sherry mentioned kind of the nexus, if you will, on the outline in this report to our work to strengthen and renew our Human and Civil Rights Commission, which resulted from an extensive process with community and the Korematsu of Seattle University School of Law. And you it was a while back, you may recall, but there was a request for some additional public process on that, which we did put in the legislation and COVID hit, which delayed the reporting back of the assess and the process and the and the council's opportunity to approve that we have worked with. And that's why we don't have today, at least, I believe, the kind of new enhanced, strengthened human and Civil Rights Commission that members supported. We've worked with for years from my colleagues and the public's understanding, we worked with legal counsel on the executive branch and others to see what could be done. And it appears that our only recourse is to introduce a fresh ordinance to bring that work into effect. And Christina Logsdon on my staff has been working with the executive branch to make that happen. So if that's of interest to folks and you want to work with us on that, let me know. But it is my hope that we can achieve the vision that was set forth in that legislation and work out the amount I would call relatively minor. Couple of things that the executive had requested be done a little differently and bring that to life. Because today, I mean, we're in Martin Luther King County. We've got incredibly pressing issues around civil and human rights, whether it be communities of color or immigrant refugee populations. We need a strong voice that's consistent with our history in the space, and I think there's an opportunity to do a little better there through that legislation, and I hope we can bring it to life. And I wanted you to know, since it was mentioned today, that we haven't forgotten about it, it's my hope that it doesn't just get put away and left out and left behind because it's too important. And I do hope to be bringing it back very soon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. So the discussion. I'm sorry about the orange shirt. I didn't mean to blind you. I thought you were just early for gun safety awareness. Right. I'm off by a week. See? No further discussion. Would you please call the roll. And Mr. Chair, Council member, Baluchi High Council member Ambassador. High. Council member Gunn. High. Council Member Cole's High Council Member Lambert. High. Council Member of the branch. I. Council Member one right there. I. Council members on the line. I am. Mr. Chair. Are. Mr. Chair, the Buddhist No. Nine ceremonies. Thank you by your vote. And you have given a do pass recommendation to version 2021 to 82, and it must there's objection. We will place that on the consent agenda. And it will be on the consent agenda. That concludes the items we have on today's agenda. Madam Burke, was there any are there any votes missed during the meeting? Mr. Chair. There were no votes missed then. I thank everyone for participating in today's Committee of the Hall and look forward to our next meeting. We are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE relating to construction and demolition waste; authorizing the executive to enter into agreements for the disposition of construction and demolition waste generated within the county's jurisdiction; amending Ordinance 8891, Section 3, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.04.020, Ordinance 10916, Section 1, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.30.010, Ordinance 10916, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.30.020, Ordinance 10916, Section 6, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.30.040 and Ordinance 10916, Section 7, as amended, and K.C.C. 10.30.050 and prescribing penalties.
king_60665ae0-4138-481c-91ea-7a329713a12f	So the meeting of a committee of the whole for December 7th, 2016, will now come to order. So the clerk, will you please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. You do the minutes. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Caldwell's here. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne Bauer. Madam Chair. Here, Madam Chair, you do not have a quorum. Okay, well, in that case, we will have to wait the minutes until we do, and hopefully that will be shortly. All right. I think we're just going to go in order today. Our first briefing will be briefing 2016, briefing two or five. And this is the district court, a follow up from the conference. And we have our very own presiding judge, the district court judge, John Tucker. And we probably call. You know, the answer to that question. So if you'd like to, you can go out in the hall and answer it yourself. Thank you. Mr. Curry, would you begin? Good morning, Madam Chair. Members I'm Clifton Curry of Council Staff. Your materials today begin with a very short staff report on page seven. But rather than going through that, I would note that on September 7th you had a briefing from the District Court related to their early plans to develop a community court process, which is a type of problem solving court that has seen a lot of success around the country. They noted at that briefing that they were going to seek funding for planning as part of your budget work this year. You appropriated $100,000 as part of the mid to plan that allowed of $100,000 of planning money to go to the court, towards the community court. And today, Madam Chair, Judge Tucker, the presiding judge of district court, is here to bring you up to date on where the court is in its planning and what you might expect to be able to see in 2017 related to this new project. Excellent. Thank you. Welcome, Judge Tucker. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I'm excited to be here to talk about one of the things that I'm really passionate about, and that is our plan to start working on developing within the King County District Court. Problem solving community court. I want to thank you for your support in providing us funding to start that planning process. And I would like to report to you today as well that we have been in contact with the Center for Court Innovation in the Center for Court Innovation has received grant funding from DOJ to provide us technical support at no cost to the county to assist us in our planning process over the course of the next nine months. So I'm really excited that the Center for Court Innovation was excited to come out to the court. They have had success all around the country in getting community court set up and they are excited to be partnering with the King County District Court. So I did want to share that good information. People ask me oftentimes, what do you mean by community court? What is it? Well, it's a problem solving court. And the concept is that criminal justice systems, rather than simply responding crime, should take an active role in working with our communities to solve the problems that are causing community problems. So part of the MRU and the intent with the Center for Court Innovation will be to engage the community stakeholders that will have a a role in what it is that our community courts will look like. We haven't said this is what it's going to be. We're going to engage the community to say, what is it that your community, this community needs to work with the problems that you're seeing in your community related to crime. And what can we as a community, including business leaders, community government leaders, the prosecuting attorneys, the defense attorneys, the local law enforcement agencies, community health and resource service providers, also to engage potentially peer support groups and mentor programs to help us develop. What is it? Well, we look at all of the issues that are going on. We can identify where we can have an impact first. The council has asked us to look at starting at least two locations. My ultimate goal is that every court in the King County District Court is operating in this kind of a process. But we want to start where we can be successful and show the communities that we can be successful. And so the goals for the Community Court is to have improvement in general areas for the offenders. We're looking at providing reduce substance abuse, reduce mental health crises and reduce recidivism is the ultimate goal of of this type of problems. Solving for the neighborhoods. It's to work on better public safety and relationships with the community and the government. And we see that in courts and communities that have established this type of of a court, that they have a better relationship with their business leaders and their government leaders because of the way that the court system is set up so that there's neighborhood improvement. The expectation as well is that there will be improvement for the county, in the municipalities that we serve, because the ultimate goal is reduced costs for criminal justice. That would mean reduce costs in all levels of criminal justice if we're reducing recidivism and we're helping to help people not get into modes of crisis in terms of substance abuse or mental health. Then we should be able to reduce jail costs, court costs, prosecutor, public defense costs, law enforcement costs, and that we should also have a positive impact on public health if we're doing our job right. So that is the the ultimate goal that we're looking for and how we will measure whether or not we have had success. Our intent in setting up the community court is that we also measure what we're doing to make sure that we're having success and that we're using good the the funds that you've provided to us and that you're going to continue to provide to us. I hope that or that we read about the funds we already have to these sources. I think that that's a possibility, too. And to use the resources that are out there, one of the things that we know has have helped programs that have been successful around the country is that they all have close association with social services, meaning that they have close associations with and availability of counseling, be that substance abuse, mental health or behavioral health counseling that the these courts are also actively participating in meeting basic needs, meaning that we're helping or contacting, putting individuals into contact with basic needs, be that help with food , housing, health care, transportation, also education, training and employment. And so the courts that have been successful all have connections and relationships with these groups of people to help us in and providing successful partnerships with a broad base in the community to help produce outcomes. One of the big things for me is that this type of court also promotes what is oftentimes referred to in the legal system as a procedural fairness or procedural due process, meaning that it helps to rebuild communities faith in the courts because it starts to administer justice in the intent. And the goal is of individualized justice for everybody who comes into contact may be that the the offender who comes to the court or be that a victim who comes to the court, that the goal is that we have everybody who is treated respectfully. Everybody can see that the process is actually providing individual justice as opposed to what I call widget or cookie cutter justice. And so the expectation is, is that when you do that, that the community has more respect for what's going on in the successful community. Courts have seen that they have a much more active participation, that people actually do come to court. Many of these community courts have people who don't even have a case in court, who come to the community court looking for help and resources, and those courts have open themself up. You don't have to have a case in the court to come in and to get the same type of service that you have. So one of the things that we've seen be successful is that location to services is really critical. And so we're looking at our current resources. And are there places within our current they're currently called courthouses, but I want to call them justice centers that where we can bring in providers who can help. And so we're looking is that an option? Some courts have moved their locations out into the community. So I have also had a conversation with public health. Do you have space within your locations that we might be able to locate a courtroom or a courthouse where we could conduct? And so we're going to have all of those conversations going to have to happen. I don't know what's going to come of it, but what I do know is that it's really important and we're not going to be successful if we just set up at a courthouse and we don't have services readily available. I'm really excited because I think that the county already has a an incredibly good foundation. And I think this is part of what's called the Center for Court Innovation in their ability to get us grant funding to help us in. In planning is that King County already has a really great foundation to start moving on. As many of you know that the county years ago went through what they called a jump, which was to take a look at jail alternatives. And it's been it. I mean, I think that I've been told and Mr. Curry could probably give you the real details that King County uses jail alternatives incredibly well, and that we have one of the lowest jail populations in the nation, because we've done a really good job of doing that. And so work crew, I think, will be a likely an integral part of this court concept, as we'll see CAP and the reentry services that are currently going on at the county. As you know, the the court years ago started a relicensing court and we're really close to getting a regional relicensing to include all the courts, a limited jurisdiction, so that individuals who don't you don't even have to have a current criminal case pending to be able to come in and to get help. In terms of relicensing, the court has set up mental health court in and we're operating a successful mental health court and regional veterans court. And I would indicate as well that I have since my last briefing before you, many of or several, I should say, of the city partners who who asked district court to provide their case services, had contacted me and said, we would like you to come talk to us about community court in that they're excited about the possibility that we might house a community court concept in their communities. And some of them are really ahead of the curve, if you will. And I'm just going to call out the city of Redmond, who already has service providers coming to the Redmond Library, which is right next door to the courthouse. And I was very excited to hear that in there. Folks are coming there on Mondays and Tuesdays. And it is those are our busiest days at the Redmond Courthouse location. So I'm like, wow, you know, we may be able to start there without any any additional planning. No, I'm just kidding. But it's a great foundation for us to start. And in that regard, and for 2017 and my planning of judicial assignments, I have made certain that at each one of the King County District Courthouse locations that I have assigned a judge that is has passion about this type of justice. And as soon as we can get implemented, I'm confident that the judges that would be assigned to those locations will do an outstanding job in setting setting them up, make overseeing the set up, making sure that we have good work in that we will be successful wherever we decide to locate. You've asked us to set up, too. Well, I'm going to ask the Center for Court Innovation to give me a good plan to get to all of my locations, whatever that might be. But I do want to indicate that we're very excited. I think that King County has a great foundation. I've already had some conversations with community health providers in King County, and they've indicated to me that they just don't want me to lose sight of the fact that they would like to see more diversion. And I'm perfectly excited about that, too. You know, it's like if you can find those cases as a part of our community court concept and you can convince the prosecutors that these should be cases that don't even come to us and they get diverted out. Absolutely. We don't if if the community is ready to divert those cases, we should be diverting them. But I'm looking forward to us moving forward into a process where we are actually helping to reduce recidivism by addressing the needs, the got the individuals that are in front of us in a constructive fashion. And so I want to thank you for your support of that and also looking at whether or not before we even get there, that I might be able to use some of the space that we have to start looking at the court being in place for. And I've seen other community centers have done this successfully where we can hold GED classes or we can hold emeriti classes or we can hold peer support group and and or have a place for restorative justice practices that some communities really want to engage in. And I think that we may have the ability to do that and a couple of our outlying locations with some minor modifications of our physical facilities on on at least a limited basis. So we're going to take a look at that, too, in 2017, and maybe we can get that started before my plan gets finished, because I think it's really going to be helpful. And, and part of the mission of having district courts out around and among our community. So thank you very much. And I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any questions. Thank you. I have a couple of comments to make and then I'll open it up for questions. So. You were just reelected for another two years as presiding judge justice I want so congratulations. Thank you very much to us. Condolences to you. Congratulations to all of us. And so we're very pleased that you will be in this position. And I thank you for your willingness to be innovative and look at the whole person, and that's really exciting. The Together Center Are you familiar with the Together Center in Redmond? It's two blocks over from the library and it has all the social services. There's, you know, got like a little triangle hub right there. And so I'm glad the library is helpful and their meeting rooms to thank you for going out and getting the courts to come in and help us with that, because I do believe we're leaders nationally and that the things that you're doing will have an impact. Have we looked at the Australian model, the wraparound model? I know Judge Clark used to do that, where she would come down off the bench, sit a roundtable with everybody involved, the victim, the perpetrator and her, and just talk about what happened. Why did it happen? What are you going to do to make recompense? What do you need to be made whole and have a conversation? It was delightful to watch this where people are taking accountability for their actions. Well, and I think that the answer to that is yes, I have thought about that and I have seen those models. And that's one of the reasons that I'm looking at changing us from, you know, the Redmond courthouse to the, you know, Redmond Community Justice Center, because that's the type of justice center that we could have where it doesn't even have to be necessarily it doesn't even have to be a judge involved. Right. I mean, it could just be some of the community members who do come together. So there are a lot of things like that happening. I'm not sure that that will be our first focus as a part of this, but having space and having judges able and willing to conduct justice in that way, if that's what needs to happen. Absolutely. I think that that's within I'm not saying it will happen now, but it's definitely something that would be discussed as a part of this whole planning process. You know, in a couple of years ago, that law school said we don't train judges like this. And so making sure that we get back to the law school and help them see what we're doing, because there should be some different curriculum in the law school to be able to prepare judges for this kind of thing so they feel more comfortable. Well, you know, I think the reality is and I have to acknowledge that there are still judges, even within my own system, who are uncomfortable being problem solvers. You know, they're decision makers. And so it's just well, you know, it is it is a different set of skills, but it's also taking a, like you said, a more holistic approach to how we're doing, doing things. Councilmember Balaji. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I'm very excited about this direction. It's one of the things that we've talked about many times. And within the criminal justice system, a number of the challenges that we see. There's this attempt and I think it's really exciting to think about criminal justice in a different way, as opposed to thinking of there's a rule, a rule has been broken and therefore we shall apply the prescribed punishment from the charge. You think about the community. The community wants safety and peace. That safety and peace has been harmed. And how do we restore the safety and peace of the community and then ensure that it persists into the future? And that I mean, it doesn't sound like that big of a shift, but it really drives systems in a different direction. And your the way you speak about community courts and the community involvement in the courts and community standards driving what the courts do, I think is very much in keeping with that sort of different framing and more community focused, outcome focused framing. So I'm very excited. You said you said the word that I wanted to hear, which was resonant, because I know that they are they are primed and ready. They are really moving in this direction very intentionally. Yes. And they are they are advocating to want to get to, you know, to do this kind of work. So the sooner that can happen, I think they could be a great test case that will then help to, you know, sort of then grow it out to the rest of us to show how it can work to all the district and all the district courts. And you have a question about just case processing. Do you envision like because this kind of a transition is hard, you can't just one day say, stop doing the old way and start doing everything the new way. You haven't there's a there's a there's a movement that has to happen. I'm envisioning specific types of cases or maybe there's a couple courtrooms in one courtroom. How are you envisioning making that turn or is that the work you're going to do with the work I'm going to do with the Center for Court Innovation? They've been doing it around the nation for about ten, 12 years now. I think that, you know, one of the things that I'm going to call upon them is their expertize in helping me to identify, you know, what case types is that we have to we have to identify what? Important that we have in the community, you know, because that could drive a lot of it, too. It's like, what is the you know, what is the community support? What does it look like? And so I guess I'm leaving the book open to all potential options. I see that that this planning process could help some of the prosecutors find diversion opportunities that won't even come through here. That's a possibility. I see that we could have pretrial diversion type cases, meaning cases file, but we're going to divert it out in terms of regular processing into, you know, problem solving right away, if that's what the defendant elects to do in. His or her attorney. It could be even I think that it's even within the realm of possibility that those people who have gone through the regular system and now say, you know, I really do have issues and problems that I'd like help with and I would like to opt in now. So that even post-conviction that I see it as a is as a sentencing matters. So I think it could be all of them. I don't know. I'm not going to preset what it's going to be or how it's going to look. And it may be different in different communities based on what they're looking at. That's I think that level of flexibility will serve the process very, very well. And to piggyback a little bit on what Councilmember Lambert said, having the together center and all those services so readily available is another reason why this is a great location to work together to try out something new. Also, I think it helps with that. Are you in the criminal justice system or not in the criminal justice system? Barrier people who haven't violated the law don't need to have to go to court to get these kinds of services. So the more we can be a place to send people to the place they need to go before we have crime victim, you know, the harm part. And the more we can avoid harm, I think the better off we're all going to be as well. And the courts can have a role in being part of the community fabric, but they don't have to run everything. And I know that you can't because you don't have the resources. And that's a really good point. We do not have the resources to do everything, so we're going to have to have real partnerships with people who do have the resources, who can provide that. But one of the really critical success factors in the the court being able to help their individuals is that the court actually have close connection and access to those services. You know, it's like right now I can have a person in front of me, I can tell that they have real issues and I just tell them, go take care of your issues. But I'm not giving them any direction on where or how or when they're going to be able to get that right. It's just doesn't happen. And so they go out and they're like, they don't know what to do, right? And so this this hopefully will change that model. And in Spokane, where they've started community court, they have actually found that people who don't have problems come to their day of community court at the Spokane Library because they know that there will be service providers there who can help them get what they need to get because they've heard it from their friends who are in the C.J. system. Yeah. And so to be able to have a court with a reputation that you can come and you can get help, even if you don't have a problem, it really helps people to think, Wow, the court is in place trying to solve problems and resolve community issues . And so the person doesn't actually come into the court, but they come to the day of court because the services are there, not because the court's going to do it for them, but because the service people are there and it's having that connection that's really help. And building respect and confidence in the system because it is a system that provides value to the community, is a beneficial cycle that we want to start. So this final comment and this is more just to sort of put a marker down than anything, the dispute resolution function that we have in this county can be a really critical part of these kinds of efforts, helping people to learn how to solve their own problems before they blossom into civil lawsuits or even criminal disputes. And we have a real challenge with maintaining the level of service that the dispute resolution centers have been historically providing. And it's something, I think, as a council we're going to have to engage with in the New Year. But there's more to come on that. Thank you. I'm very interested in that because I know judges have retired a certain age, 75, I believe. That's correct. So, you know, at that point, you still have 15, 20 years of ability that to help. And I know a lot of retired judges have gone into that. And with their experience, I think that's really good. So whatever we can do to encourage people to do it for free, yeah, be awesome. I wasn't thinking for free, but you know, having I hate to see good experience going out the door is is not a good thing. So thank you. I also want to announce that she is going to a conference next week, which I was also going to. But unfortunately, Dempsey rescheduled their meeting in the middle of the council and the conference. So I am not going to go so I am going to be asking Judge Tucker to brief me. But she's going to the Court of the Future Conference next week, and I've been to two of them. And you come back feeling like you've been to see The Jetsons. It is so cool what's out there and what we could be doing that I kind of wish at some point we would all go, because when you see what's possible to do tomorrow, if we all were on the same page and put the money towards it, it is amazing. So I want you to know that in January or so, I hope you'll be back to tell us what you saw and heard the court of the future. I'd be happy to do that. Thank you. And I'm really sorry that the meeting got canceled because I really wanted to be there. All right. Thank you. Thanks so much for coming in. Thank you. All right. So let's go on to our next. Let's go back and get the approval of the minutes. Councilmember Validity and approval of the minutes. Thank you very much. The minutes of November 28, 2016 are before us. All those in favor say i, i as opposed nay. Minutes are approved as read written. Okay. We're on to number five. This is proposed ordinance 2016 0119. It's an ordinance accepting an agreement between King County and for culture and the Preservation Action Fund will be administered and governed. And with that, let's bring in. Good morning. Every morning for the record Mary Bergeron from the council staff and the materials for the site and begin on page 11 of your packets. As you noted, proposed ordinance 2016 0119 is a proposed agreement between King County and for culture that would allow for the implementation of the Preservation Action Fund. This fund is a $2 million component of the 28 million plus fund, the Building for Culture program that the council approved last year, largely due to the early repayment of the King Dome. What the Preservation Action Fund would do is to allow for the preservation of and I will quote here from the work that you did last year, the acquisition stabilization or redevelopment of significant but endangered historic properties. You will see on page 13 of the materials a description of the components of the Preservation Action Fund as outlined in the agreement. And I'll focus on three areas in particular. First location. This program is designed to serve properties that are located outside the city of Seattle. And so that means essentially three areas are properties in unincorporated King County properties in the 20 suburban cities that have agreements with the King County Historic Preservation Office, or the cities in King County that have their own historic preservation function. Second, the partners that will be participating in this effort, the Preservation Action Fund, has been designed and the agreement is structured as a collaboration among four culture historic Seattle, the King County Historic Preservation Program, and the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation. And third, that leads me to the mechanism of how this program is proposed to work and how the agreement would implement it. And that is that the partners would identify a priority property. Historic Seattle would then acquire that property, use funding from the $2 million Preservation Action Fund to renovate the property. Historic Seattle would then place a permanent historic easement on the property and would sell it, returning the funds to the Preservation Action Fund for Future Use. With that description, I'll turn to page 15, which begins the analysis of this agreement, and I will note that staff and legal counsel identified several issues that I will outline briefly. First is just a technical clarification. The approval of the agreement, the council at the time that you approved the Building for Culture program for I proviso this fund and required that an agreement be quote approved by the council the transmitted ordinance would accept it. And so you'll see that both Amendment one and title amendment one would change the language to the required approved. Next issue is historic. Seattle's ability to work outside Seattle, as I described this program would function in that historic Seattle would essentially be an agent of for culture doing the work needed to renovate the target properties. Historic Seattle is currently a public development authority that is chartered to work within the city of Seattle. And as a result of questions about historic Seattle's ability and authority to work outside the city boundaries, we reached out to historic Seattle and their legal counsel there is attached in your packet a letter from legal counsel from Historic Seattle , and the relevant components of that letter are summarized on page 15 of the Stafford. Report, noting that the city of Seattle would have to take action by ordinance to allow historic Seattle to work outside the boundaries and in addition, would need to authorize historic Seattle to enter into an agreement with either King County for work in unincorporated areas or with the relevant city for work in a suburban city. So on that, do we know if city council has decided to take this ordinance up? We do have staff here from historic Seattle, and I can defer that question to Mr. Kelly. Okay. And I want to say that I was on this board for a culture, and it was a fun board to be on. But at one of the meetings, I did not. But and at one of the meetings, historic Seattle stood up and said that one of our projects was so exciting that they had specific expertize they were willing to share with us. And it's wonderful to have partners stand up in a meeting and say, This is so exciting. I want to help you. And it's that kind of collaboration that makes this so special. So I don't know who was here from historic Seattle, but I was really impressed with their willingness to help us because they had that specific expertize. So I'm excited to see that kind of partnership continuing to develop because preserving these things are important to all of us, whether you live in Seattle or don't in Seattle, anything that's charming here we want to keep. So thank you. So you think that they will be doing that fairly shortly in Seattle? Okay. I'm going to ask from a council member, do you have question right there? I had a question on a prior topic that she got by. Okay. Do you want go back to that then? Yes. Okay. If that's okay. Thank you, sir. You laid out and I was trying to figure out where in your staff report it is located, but kind of three requirements. And one of them I think had to be if they were a non city of Seattle and a non unincorporated area. In other words, what I think you said 23 urban serving cities. Yes. And we do have Jennifer Meissner here, who is our historic preservation officer that can speak to that in more detail. But King County does, in fact, contract with 20 suburban cities for historic preservation services. In addition, a number of the larger suburban cities have their own historic preservation function. One of the requirements of this program would be that the building be landmarked in some way, hence the requirement that either it be in unincorporated King County, where our historic preservation office would oversee that, or in a city that either contracts with us or has their own function. And that's because that's the only way you can land more building than through the federal process, I suppose. Correct. And we do, as I mentioned, have Ms.. Meisner here if you want to. So just I need to get educated here. Among Shoreline Lake, Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell, Woodinville and Kirkland. Which qualify or don't qualify? The shoreline has the shoreline. Historical Society Bothell is a very active program. Woodinville has a historic society trickling down. Good morning, councilmembers. I'm Jennifer Meissner. I'm King County's historic preservation officer. And to answer your question, we do have interlocal agreements with 20 suburban cities, including Kirkland and Woodinville. And many of the cities you just named. The City of Bothell has their own preservation program, so they would be able to administer and landmark properties within their jurisdiction . You got to be more specific on the cities I enumerated about Shoreline Lake, Forest Park and Kenmore. Kenmore has it. We have it in our local with Kenmore Lake. Forest Park. No. What was the other one? Sorry. Shoreline. Shoreline. Yes, we do have an interlocal agreement. Shoreline with Lake Forest Park. Be excluded from this. Well, I think the I, the excuse me the idea around protecting the properties was, yes. If they're located in unincorporated King County or within a jurisdiction that with whom we have an inner local, we would pursue landmarking. If not, the other mechanism to protect. The properties. In perpetuity would be through an easement, a historic preservation easement that would be held by historic Seattle. So there actually is an opportunity for properties located outside of those specific jurisdictions that have a program to be protected. But it would be through easement, not through landmarking. And easements would qualify for this $2 million fund. Yeah, the easement would lay out very specific requirements, preservation requirements, very similar to landmarking. But the difference would be the King County Preservation Program or the program within the jurisdiction would not have a design review authority that would fall for it through historic Seattle. Since they would be holding the easement, they would have specific requirements placed on each property to make sure that it's. Protected in. Perpetuity and that their public investment. Is is also protected. Okay. I just the easements a different path. What I'm what I want to understand is particular to my district and then particularly to the 17 suburban cities in King County that aren't in the 20. Right. And we cover with this fund. Yes. Every historic property one way or another. Yes. They any property would be eligible to be considered for the fund. It's just that protection. Mechanism would be different if it's not within and in a local city or unincorporated area. Okay. And thank you for that, Mary. What is the remind me of the source of these moneys? So this is from the Building for Culture program, which was a combination that bonds remember that the council issued a year ago from a combination of 2015 lodging taxes that were leftover after the kingdom that was paid off, as well as some future county lodging taxes post 2021 when the lodging tax, as you will recall, lodging taxes from 2016 through 2020 are going to pay off the football stadium after 2021, the lodging tax returns. And you'll remember that there are three components to the lodging tax. There's an arts and culture section which is dedicated to four culture. There's a tourism promotion bucket, and then there is an affordable housing bucket, which you will recall the council has earlier this year bonded against for the transit oriented development housing program. Okay. So thank you. It's the tax that somebody staying in a hotel pays or part of that tax. And have we we've done the affordable housing work there with the bonds and we've done the culture work. How about the tourism development piece of that revenue stream? Has that been worked yet? So there is in in the work that the Council did a year ago in approving these bonds, there is a fairly complex a year by year accounting of who pays what toward the debt service. And my understanding, and I was not involved in this effort a year ago, is that there is some portion of the tourism promotion bucket of the lodging tax post 2021 that would be involved in helping to repay the debt service on building for culture. But again, that was an action the council took a year ago. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And. Okay. Please proceed. Thank you. You stay there just in case you minded your question. Okay. Stay there. Just in case we need you and then we'll go ahead. So returning to our was I had noted that historic Seattle would need to go through a series of steps to be able to work outside the city of Seattle in response to the necessity of those steps. There is some clarifying language in Amendment One that legal counsel has worked up that would require confirmation to the county by for culture that historic Seattle has or will have the appropriate legal authority to administer projects outside the city of Seattle. So I think, Councilmember Boesky, that gets in some level to your question about historic Seattle's ability to get that approval from the city of Seattle. And who governs historic Seattle. They are a public development authority. They have a charter and a board. And their board is appointed by the city of Seattle. I can speak to that. All right. So the way it works in District. O. Is the executive director sports. Yeah. Imagine that. Was that a prerequisite for getting the job? It had to be, Kelly. What could be better than one visitor to. The same or wed, anyway? So. So moving on. And yes, we do have to Mr. Kelly is available to answer questions from their respective organizations on the bottom of page 15, the disposition of Properties. As I noted earlier, the Preservation Action Fund would not be a revolving loan fund whereby, say, the owner of a property would receive a loan to renovate their project their property. Instead, if a property is chosen for this program, historic Seattle would purchase it, renovated its place, a permanent easement on it, and then sell it, returning the money to the fund. I note that this has been discussed with a number of council members over the course of the analysis of this program. That is what is proposed in the agreement. That is a policy decision for the Council. And finally, I would note the permanent easement, which Ms.. Meisner spoke to. Any property, whether in a landmark city or not, would be subject to a permanent historic easement applied by historic Seattle, because historic Seattle would be holding that easement rather than either for culture or the county. Amendment One includes language that has been added in consultation with legal counsel that would require review by the county through the prosecuting attorney's office of a template for such an easement. We have received a recent template of a historic Seattle preservation easement. The amendment would require that the prosecuting attorney's office review that and require that any easements used through this program would be substantially in the form of the approved template. With that, I will jump to Amendment One, which is. Just up there for those two for a second. I have some questions on top of page 16. So you just explained the process that the sale proceeds would go to the path to be used for future projects. Suppose then we end up being able to grow that to a pretty substantial amount. Is there opportunity? I think at this point you can only do one a year, right? Is that. What? There's $2 million. So I think the intention had been that you probably wouldn't be able to do many more than one at a time. But I'll let you either. If we were supposed to. Culture term this. Historic fix something up that was, you know, in a dilapidated, dilapidated state that is now gorgeous and we sell it for $8 million. So we now have a lot more money in the account at that point. Is there any limits on us being able to do three projects for projects by project marketing? He's really saying no. So how many are going to be done at one time? Yeah, that's. That's really good dream. Yeah. Okay, good. I want to make sure it was expandable. Great. Okay. Thank you. On page 16, you'll see outlined what Amendment One would do. And this is an amendment that is sponsored by Councilmember Val. Amendment one would make changes both to the underlying ordinance and to the agreement itself, which is has been transmitted as an attachment to the ordinance. To the ordinance. The amendment would add a finding section to clarify that historic preservation can result in tourism promotion benefits, citing as examples Pioneer Square in the Pike Place Market and would note that the Preservation Action Fund would make it possible to provide similar public benefits in additional communities throughout the county. And then it would also make the accepted. Approved. Language change that I discussed earlier. For the agreement, the amendment would. Swap out the transmitted agreement with a new version that would make a couple of changes. First, it would note that all projects must meet the requirements of the underlying funding source, which again are the bonds that were approved by the Council as part of building for culture. Next, it would require that historic Seattle must demonstrate its ability to work outside the city of Seattle. And again, as I noted, for culture would need to certify that to the county. And then finally again, noting that the form for the preservation easement to be used by historic Seattle would need to be approved by King County following review by the prosecuting attorney's office. There is also a title amendment to make the approved except change in the title. That concludes my report. Again, we have staff from the various organizations here for questions and we have the amendment and title amendment available for. So if I'm clear on this, historic Seattle would sort of be our subcontractor to for culture. So that's great. So not that I think things are going to go wrong, but should there be something wrong? Like any subcontract, you can just say, we're not doing that anymore. Is that right? Or do we have to have a formal agreement that changes that? There are requirements in here about reporting. There are provisions in the agreement for termination, there are for culture, would be managing the fund and would have those responsibilities. And you said that the contract form would be substantially the same if there were changes. What changes it from being a minor change to a substantial change? That would be a question for the attorneys, but that that is typically the substantially in the form, as is, you know, the typical contract language when you say, you know, it must be like this and only minor changes, okay. Right. Are there any questions from anybody? Councilmember Thank. You. For following. Up on Mike prior. To say. Rude questions. That's all right. Our legal counsel has whispered in my ear that with respect to my and I'm sorry I waive the privilege counsel. With respect to my inquiry about Lake Forest Park example that that would require an are local agreement between the city of Lake Forest Park and historic Seattle in addition to the ordinance of the city. So council would have to adopt confirming that is their intent to proceed pursuant to the charter language in their charter. I believe that's correct that that historic Seattle would need to enter into an agreement. There have to be an agreement between the city. And then what would motivate Mr. Kelly historic Seattle to expend effort to enter into 17, up to 17 or local agreements with non covered suburban cities. And I'm looking for if we got a fair shot here, I want a fair shot for our communities on this regional source of dollars. And yes, exactly. I think we all share. And when you look down the project list, which was adopted by this council, but you know, you want to make sure that we're targeting the high profile projects, but that we serve history throughout the county. Yeah, I'm okay. Kelly, thanks for the executive director of Historic Sir. I like that people are paying attention to my last name rather than my first person. To answer your question, it's our mission. You know, it's our mission to preserve historic structures and throughout the region, quite honestly. And for the first time, I think in a long time, we really have a great team that we've assembled between Fort Culture, Jennifer and the County Preservation Program and the Washington Trust. And we're all well equipped with our own skill set to really make an impact in arts, culture and preservation in the county. So short answer your question. It's permission as the that's your entity preserved or protected any historic structures outside of the city of Seattle. To date, we have not in relationships with the cities in the county. Absolutely. So I'm on I'm also on the King County Landmark Commission. So I'm fully aware of sort of the complexity of of landmarking process. The quick by the numbers for those of you who aren't familiar with historic Seattle, we're a nonprofit, historic preservation organization. We educate, we advocate and we preserve. We've been doing this for 42 years. We've saved 45 buildings in the city of Seattle. We have 14 wonderful staff members, two and a half million dollar annual operating budget. 90% of that annual operating budget comes from eight properties that we currently own within our portfolio, and we have a $30 million balance sheet. So we've been doing this a long time. It's a great opportunity for us to continue to do it in the future in a larger scope. Thank you. If I might, it's. Seems like I'm interested in the efficiency or perhaps lack of efficiency in this process. We've got a lot of entities here. We've got a lot of our local agreements. We have a lot of legislative action that's required for $2 million. And that's a lot of money, but it's a lot of process and a lot of staff time and a lot of costs. And is there any alternative to simplify this? We're supposed to be the regional government here, but why. That is or maybe. It was a question. For Jim Kelly from Fort Culture. This is the proposal that was transmitted by the executive and had been originally proposed by for culture, as you might imagine. Mr. Dombrowski, this the question of complexity was one that both staff and legal counsel raised. But this this is the proposal that was transmitted. Before we asked. Mr. KELLY. I'm asking you, Mary, as our very talented, independent central staff analyst, whether there are other options. And I know this is late in the process, but this may be something on a go forward basis, maybe not for these dollars, but I'm interested in efficiency and and well achieving the objective as a regional historic preservation function. There are certainly many ways to achieve historic preservation. I had noted earlier that one of the most common ways is through a revolving loan fund in which owners of buildings use money from a fund and do the maintenance or renovation and then return the money. My understanding from for culture is the concern about that approach is that you wouldn't have the ability to grow the fund or to sustain the fund, but I would let them speak to that. So there are certainly other ways I had mentioned that this is a policy choice for the Council about this chosen way to approach the the proposal. But it is a proposal that for culture has developed. And as as I've talked with the team over the course of the year, one that they feel very strongly about in this case. This guy. Mr.. Kelly Number two, just answer. I would I a very interesting question, Councilmember De Bousquet, especially about the efficiencies, because you're right, historic Seattle has to get an agreement, for example, with Lake Forest Park so that they can do work in Lake Forest Park. That's a step. On the other hand, one would assume that Lake Forest Park has a historic resource that it's interested in preserving. I can assure you there are a number of properties there. It's a very historic community. So, yes, it requires a couple of steps to get there. But I would argue that those steps are actually, in the long term healthier because they get the city of Lake Forest Park thinking about historic preservation. They don't have their own ordinance. They don't have an inter local agreement. So to this point, historic preservation has not been high on their priority scale. So we enter into a conversation with Lake Forest Park to say, How about this expert historic preservation development entity working in your community? What advantages does that give you? And I think it begins a conversation that actually enhances the visibility and the viability of historic preservation. So rather than look at it through an efficiency perspective, I look at it as a through an advocacy perspective where we can expand the role of historic preservation in King County because communities better understand how it functions and get help in doing it right. Appreciate that, Mr. Kelly. The evidence you're using, the fact they don't have an area local agreement, is not indicative of the. With all due respect, the city's commitment. They in 1997 for their own Historic Preservation Commission, they've marked a number of properties with plaques in the community. It's a big part of their culture, actually. So I'm looking out and there are a number of these small communities throughout the county. I mean, tell us more about Dutchy has the points communities and I don't I don't know what their status are but the Beaux Arts but you know it's $2 million here but there's a lot of things that are going on here, too, to bring that to life in terms of action by multiple bodies. And and it just raises the concern about whether we're approaching this in the most efficient way possible. With respect, the 2 million is it's not going to be a revolving fund. Are they going to be grants? Is that the. No, no, they it is essentially going to be a loan, not a loan fund, but money expended to rehab a building. Money recouped when the building has been sold. And and who decides? Who decides on which buildings, which projects? Yeah, that's a very good question. It's one that we probably discuss in the greatest detail, and it's a collaborative project for entities that sort of go on this. Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, King County of Our Culture and Historic Seattle. And, you know, I hesitate to say what I'm perch to say, which is a building that needs the work. We will know it when we see it. We will recognize that certain buildings have a future life as a result of rehab. Some don't will avoid those. Is there a market for the building post rehab that will be a consideration that takes place. The significance of the building? Either it's a landmark or certainly eligible to be a landmark. So the buildings that we save have to have some significance. There's not a point system that says if you score a certain number of points, we're going to do that project. I just think it's for entities that are fairly well versed in this field and work very well together. And we hope that if you're aware of projects in your communities that you'd like to to say that you think or threaten you, bring those to our attention. But there's no science to identifying which is the most likely candidate. Well, who decides? Is it for culture or. The groups together? It's it. All four of us have to go along. What if there's. Oh, so there's a veto power under this agreement and it's basically, you know, agreements that you mentioned, Councilmember Lambert, how thrilled you were when Historic Seattle stood up in a meeting and said, we want to help. I think it's that spirit that's driving this. So it isn't necessarily contract language that says you get to veto because you have a stronger voice than I do. I think it's a project that's being entered into with the right intentions and spirit, and I believe that we will be able to identify projects that you will be pleased with. But I don't have any kind of scientific way to approach which projects do we choose and why would we say no? You know. County Council Member I would just note that Section six of the agreement and it's Exhibit B outlined the selection process and do note, as Mr. Kelly had stated, that the members of this Form four part team would either have to reach consensus or that the decision would default to for culture in terms of selecting a project. Okay, that's the answer I was looking for. What is the mechanism to decide if there's not a consensus? Ask a public question. Council Member WG There's an attachment, and I believe it's an attachment to the agreement that lists out projects and has values next to them. Do the project have to come from that list? No. That is actually a list of projects that were funded by building floriculture. Okay. Understood. So we don't have a sense yet of what the the order and list of projects might be. No, that's correct. And might I point out, Madam Chair, and I realize we're getting late through 60 communities that have similar funds, this is not something that's unique to King County. It's a preservation tool that we've not had at our disposal before, but it's been used effectively across the country. These revolving funds have generated. I think we have some statistics in a PowerPoint. Millions of dollars in tax revenue for buildings that were rehabbed and put back on the market. This one's particularly funny to me because I was on the board. There were some talk that this building might have to be destroyed. And at that point, I realized that I had space in my building that we're talking about, not today, not the courthouse. We're talking about the the town, the Townsend house. It's called the Trueblood House, Republican House. And so anyway, I went home after you and I had discussed it and talked to my husband about the potential of it being moved to our house and buying it. And so. So we had that discussion and so am I. I wish now because Redmond did change their ordinance where I actually could have done that. But so I am anxious to find out who gets it and where it goes, because I thought it was going to be my house when I got older. So and it's it's a very amazing house. Can I follow up on that? Because I know there is also what cultural relics you represent. Kirkland And there is that house that had to be moved. Is that it? If there's a project that's teed up for this, I think members of the council should know about it. That was exactly the that is exactly the project that we had in our scopes when we were talking about this. We knew that the people who owned the true blood house, basically their family was growing. They had outgrown the house. They wanted to basically tear the house down and build a new house on the site, realized the house had value, decided that they tried to save. It was actually purchased by Nickles Brothers, which is a company that moves houses for a dollar. And they spent about 120,000. They purchased it for a dollar. They don't move your house right now. You can get it for a dollar. But if you want to get it here a lot, you're going to look at the several hundred to get it there at any rate. So but that is exactly the kind of project that came along that the Preservation Action Fund could have gotten. The house for the dollar, found a piece of property, purchased a piece of property, put it in, put down the foundation, do all the hook ups, put it back on the market, reinvested in the fund. That's exactly the example that we're looking for. I think, Jim, this does speak to your previous comment about advocacy, because I think through all of our efforts and thinking ahead and forecasting what this Preservation Action Fund could look like, we've sat down with the owners and the parties that are associated with the Trueblood House and we're able to save this house without spending any money. It's purely an advocacy effort at this point, but it's it sort of speaks to the power that this action fund has and that the ripple effects from throwing the stone in the in the pond can be great in terms of preservation. All right. I am ready now, I think, for lot of questions answered to move the audience. Madam Chair. Yes, there was a motion. Is there a. Time sensitivity to this? Yes. What is it. That you bought house? It's about that you bought houses has been moved, but it can't stay where it is forever. Actually, I think the council member, Baldacci, the Trueblood House, is going to be saved by property, a private person. It has a market. Now, since the conversation started with the city of Kirkland and with the owners of the Trueblood House, somebody has stepped up and is basically moving the house to a private site. So the short answer to your question is not really it would have been time sensitive had we been trying to save the Trueblood House. But the Trueblood House, as I pointed out, is being saved on its own privately. Okay, let it be preserved. I'm sorry. I apologize. Will it be preserved? Are we what what what confidence do we have that it will be preserved with the private owners? I'm totally confident it's Kirkland and have any. Other local resident. So it will be a Kirkland landmark? It already is a Kirkland landmark. So it will be protected. Thank you. Madam Chair. Maybe I'm okay with moving forward today on this, but I would expect I'm interested in making sure every community in our region has a fair and equal shot at participating in this fund, and I could envision a number of ways to do that. But it might be that we require at least the opportunity for any city who would not be able to participate today either because there isn't an interlock. Call agreement with historic Seattle or they are not in partnership today with for culture another entity that they at least be invited and have an opportunity to execute that agreement before these funds are expended. Something like that. In other words, I, I want to make sure that because of the nature of how this is, that we're not intentionally but inadvertently leaving out a community. And I it's it's fairly complicated. So maybe that's okay today and I can figure out off line between now and final. But that's my concern. Well, actually, I think that what you're what you're asking for is very much what we would like to see. We'd like to see the Preservation Action Fund being an incentive program so that cities will sign up either with an interlocal agreement or start their own program. So if that was the outcome that more cities wanted to sign interlocal agreements to get access to these funds, that's great. Yeah. And they just may not know about this structure. Yeah. Madam Judge, I was going to make a I was going to make a motion. But given that the immediate preservation action that we were attempting to to implement with this is now handled. If if the council member would like a little more time to make sure that issue is resolved, there really isn't any time sensitive sensitivity that we have to move it out today. I certainly wouldn't want to print that because I share the objective there, obviously. But if that, I'll defer to other members of the committee. But that's my interest as I've expressed it. So I would just as soon let's let's say, move it to January and take it up at the next council meeting for actions that are a little time to address. You think it's just this complicated? It took me a long time to wrap my brain around it. And that's and so. This is just an area of particular interest to me. And I think the whole community, you see, for example, every time we come we talk about this, the Danny Western column with links is closing and the chanty is closing and our community's growing and changing so fast. And, and the work you do all you do I love it's amazing. And we have this is really just a little bit of money to help facilitate that. I don't want to do anything that would cause another loss. And perhaps if we get it resolved between now and Monday, we could relieve the committee and full council and get it adopted. I don't want to unnecessarily delay that. We're we're fine with that. Council member of the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. You may have noticed Councilman Bell has been sort of speaking on this one. My name is the sponsor. And as you may recall, this was originally referred to the Budget Committee. And I had a number of questions and concerns, and I wasn't much concerned as much as a different vision, I think, for how these dollars were to be spent. Some I just never, never got excited about the this the whole revolving fund idea and the target mostly because of how it it limits the use of the dollars and to a very specific purpose. And there's pros and cons to that and I know that and there are pros and cons to other ideas, and I never got there on this one. So what I did was but I know it's important, professionals at the agency feel strongly this is a good idea. I've colleagues here who have projects teed up and ready. So I acquiesced to this coming to Cao instead of budget and letting councilman due. Take the lead on it. In part, I was just so councilman asking you had some process questions too. And I just sort of, you know, it wasn't something I was going to fall on my sword for. And there's good things will come from this. And so I did want to let people know that kind of process, how to deal up here. And it was one of the things I thought that we would take up in January just as a work plan, because there are so many different issues and all these issues. And as both Mr. Kelley's have said, there are lots of exciting buildings and barns and structures across this county that are important to the entire fabric of this county. And as you said, a lot of the new people are coming that don't know the history of this county. And if it all disappears, that changes the charm of what we have here. So, Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. And we're clear in the agreement that covers this. It's intended to cover unincorporated King County in the cities outside of Seattle. I'm representing parts of syntactic tech and Berry Berrien. I share that the interest that's been articulated during the meeting that we make sure that the option is available throughout the county. But as a former board member for culture and a current board member of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, I know how fast some of these opportunities can slip through our fingers when we know about them and how fast opportunities can come up with a small window. So while taking this up in January and working on it is good, I want to make sure that we take it up promptly in January that we don't. While maybe the opportunity that was at hand immediately is taken care of, that we not miss other opportunities by making sure that we pause for a moment. Not longer than a moment of strong interest of mine. And I share that with you also, Councilmember. Are there other accounts that sort of give priority to areas outside of Seattle so that there's sort of equal weight all across the county? Are there other funding sources available? Well, for cultures, ongoing grant programs are available throughout the county and in and in the city of Seattle. There are no other funding sources that I'm aware of that are only dedicated for areas outside of Seattle. Jim That landmark challenge grant, which is a grant program for sure you make, Tim, of this landmark challenge grants is a grant program for historic properties in King County. And to be eligible for that, they have to be King County landmarks. There are no King County landmarks in the city of Seattle because Seattle has its own landmark ordinance. So our grant program tends to exclusively fund projects outside of the city of Seattle, just by the nature of the the jurisdiction. Okay, great. Well, we will take this up. Thank you for being here. And it's great to get more information about this. And all the great work on our landmark is all right with that woman. Thank you all. Thank you. And move on to number six. This is ordinance 2016 0459, an ordinance approving grant fund allocations for projects funded through the Water Works Grant Program. And this is round two. And so Mike Reed is our staff and that's would you take this away? We begin on page 81. Thank you, Madam Chair. And so this is 2016 0459 and has indicated that the staff report begins on page 81. This is, as you've indicated, the second round of grants since the restart of the Water Quality Grants program. You recall that there was a legal process that resulted in the confirmation to the courts of the eligibility of our wastewater rate funds to support these water quality grants. The Council did approve legislation in 2015 and 2016, establishing a grant criteria providing for grants, ranking committee with representation from a variety of interests, including from each of the Council districts, as well as providing for staffing and administration. And I will note, by the way, that I've seen a matrix of the, the, the grant ranking committee. Four of the positions on that grant ring committee are vacant from, from district. And so we would encourage councilmembers who have not yet made recommendations for names for that committee to do so. The council the council did approve an initial round of grants in the in July of this year. This is the second round of grants completing the cycle for the 2015 2016 biennium. This round of grants includes, I should say, as I went through, identified a number of themes and and characteristics of the grants, a number of things jumped out. So first that there are a significant proportion of the grants that are from non-governmental organizations, including the YMCA is a Youth in Action program, the Allenwood Community Waters Program, the Mountain Town Greenway Education Project, the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle's Environmental Stewards Program. The Seattle Tilth Watershed Stewards Project. In addition to these non-governmental association and community groups, there are projects from our governmental partners who are participants in the region's wastewater system. These includes a Redmond's street sweeping for water quality proposal. Seattle Public Utilities has a proposal that is is recommended to monitor water quality in injection wells that receive effluent from green stormwater infrastructure projects. Bellevue has a project for stormwater retrofit. There's also in this package and an emphasis on education projects. And so the Island Wood Project I mentioned earlier is a community wide project that educates students about political pollution prevention, encourages them to propose solutions to local runoff problems themselves. There is the The Sound Greenway Education Project, which provides hands on education to about 4000 students, which includes classroom sessions, field investigations, the service learning stewardship opportunities are sustainable. Seattle's project, which is referred to as the Green Duwamish Project Design Laboratory that involves providing South County teachers an opportunity to design and test curriculum relating to local water quality and also to facilitate student led community impact projects. Diversity is a value that jumps out as you look at the various projects here. So the YMCA is Youth in Action Project is intended to provide hands on experiences to diverse students addressing environmental needs in the home communities of these these students. The Wood Project I mentioned the community wide project. It's an emphasis on a diverse body of students to whom they provide an educational experience related to water quality. The Environmental Coalition of South Seattle Project provides workshops on pollution, CSOs and water quality to a multilingual, multicultural group of participants. The other key theme that I noted was that these there are a number of the projects which provide which identify specific water quality problems and provide remediation to those problems. And so the Redman project is a street sweeping for water quality project. These are focused. This project on the next one are focused on our urban creeks and streams. In this case, in the Redmond case, the concern was to show how frequent street sweeping was needed in order to achieve the health of a local urban stream. In the case of the UW Bothell Upright Bothell Campus Project, North Creek apparently has a steam stream for which there's been identified as a significant fecal coliform presence in the stream, which has been traced to a large quarry which is on the campus of that that university. And so the project proposes using small rolls of a bio filter filtration material, which is embedded with mushroom bodies. And these mushroom bodies would would be placed such that water is channeled through and sorry, after it's traced to a large what I call a rooftop cross, all the cro. Yes, yes, the famous in the north. They go back and forth every day. It's a big murder of crows, you know. A murder of crows. It's a murder of crows. They're murdering North Creek. Now, your district councilman, Roderick Bauer? No, your district. My mike. It's not my quads, Michael. Mediation NYC. Oh, which I believe refers to mushrooms. These are this bio bio filtration medium is embedded with with mushrooms or fungus, which is intended to filter the stormwater as it's channeled through and over this medium. So that's what that refers to. No. It wasn't. I would like to thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know if you're the right person, Mike, to ask questions about some of the thinking behind the decisions to what are you able to speak to some? And there may be questions that are sort of what do you call rhetorical questions to make a point, you know ? Sure. So we do have Elizabeth Louden here, who's a water works grant manager. Maybe I'll ask her to come forward at this point to answer specific questions. So one of the questions that piggybacks that so when you're answering his question, my answer piggyback to that, I'm looking at the percentage of education there is to on the ground, actual studies and work, and it's a very high percentage. So was that high in Brown in round one or is this inordinately high because this round two. Good morning, council members. My name is Elizabeth Loud and I'm the water quality, the water works grant manager. And so for this round there were a a higher number of education projects and that was discussed by the grant ranking committee and higher than the previous round. And they felt that they wanted to fund recommend for funding the projects that that were strongest and that were best at meeting the criteria of providing benefit to water quality and demonstrating a connection with wastewater treatment division responsibilities. So they did note that there was a high number of education projects and they felt that those were the best projects out of the 39 submitted to meet the criteria. Go ahead and at the gross question. Sure. Thanks. And we preface my remarks by saying I'm one of those who has struggled to find someone to represent District five on the committee. And I feel like I've paid the price for it a little bit in the sense. And so this is somewhat of a leading question. But to what degree was geographic equity considered as one of the factors? And the reason I ask this is a comment as much as a question, and it's not you. It's a committee of folks, but you might be able to offer some insight to it is that in South King County in particular, there's little to no there's a couple of kind of broad projects that got a little bit of money that serve all of the the county. But there seems to be a lack of investment in South King County and in particular, Council District five. At the same time, we're sending a quarter of $1,000,000 over to Kitsap County, to a large, well funded environmental center. And the committee passed on funding a King County Environmental Center doing a similar project in South King County at a fraction of the cost. Why would what benefit in the rest of your fare? QUESTION But what do my constituents get out of this? And I guess is and do you know the rationale for sending the money over to Kitsap County instead of investing in environmental education programs here? And then to what degree do you think the committee members took into account geographic distribution? That's not your decision. So I recognize that. But you might be able to at least offer some helpful insight and. Sure. Yeah, I know. I'm happy to answer that question. So first of all, the funding for the island would proposal is for work that would be happening with the Seattle school district districts. It would not be going to Kitsap County per say. So as you may be aware, Island Wood does did merge a number of years ago with another nonprofit called Home Waters, which works in the city of Seattle. And more than half of their programing is outside of their base on Bainbridge Island. So they do a number of programs around King County. And so I think that addresses that issue that it is a large dollar amount and it was something that the committee considered. They do scrutinize the higher ticket items carefully to see if there is a regional benefit. And with this with the island, what project they the committee saw a benefit to being able to implement to develop over the course of three years develop and implement curriculum on a very large scale because the Seattle school district is the largest school district in Washington state with the hopes that this curriculum could be shared with other school districts in the future and that the lessons learned could be shared with other entities who are doing similar projects. So hopefully that answers the the I. And what piece of the question and in terms of geography. So I mentioned the committee does look at fit to criteria and what there's there's a process where they have several meetings where the they will read all of the application materials and do individual scoring. And then we look. At those preliminary scores and then have long discussions about them. And so some of the other factors that go into play, sometimes they change their ranking based on discussions because there may be an aspect of a particular proposal that they weren't aware of or something else that that they'll learn through the discussion process from other committee members . And in addition, they do look at geographic distribution as well as other factors. So they're looking at types of projects. Is is there they're looking at the whole portfolio of recommended projects are that are there are a diverse number of types of projects. Is it diverse geographically? Have they they they had a preference or recommendation not to fund more than one proposal from the same entity in in a single session. And I'm trying to think if there are other factors for distribution, but they are looking at distribution as well. So a clarifying follow up. So do you know the extent to which and people disagree over how to allocate money all the time, but it's nothing new. But the notion that the whole county's paying in rate payers throughout the county, we want to make sure we get ahead of it. You know, water doesn't follow political boundaries, but the extent to which we want to make sure that. Generally speaking, the communities they're all paying in get a return, get to see these dollars put to use in their can, you know, in their community and is a political lowercase p kind of lens on things. But I think it's real and a democracy, you know, those that contribute, you know, you try to share the costs and benefits broadly and in an equitable way. So I wondering if it really got down to that level of analysis of looking simply at a map and say, okay, are we covering all the county? You know, what percentage of dollars are going to, you know, one big city versus others or are we catch in the northeast, south and central parts of the county? And then the second part would be to what degree? You know, sometimes capacity makes things more attractive. You know, and a lot of our grant programs, we've looked at kind of the social justice inequity, where organizations that already are well funded or have the ability to put together more competitive applications at this level. Were that where some of the committee members able to dove in and move an application didn't appear as competitive on the surface, if it's coming from a smaller organization or a newer organization, was there the ability to dig dig a little deeper and account for some of those institutional advantages that some of the big players have? Yeah, those are those are excellent questions. And so, first of all, the percentage of money there was a look at what areas I had projects represented. They did not consider the exact dollar amount per district or per area, but they were looking at is do the do the does the portfolio of of projects that are recommended for funding represent all parts of the county and they felt that it did. This one did. Yeah. Yeah. I like the South King County. Sure. So the South King County I Ecos Environmental Coalition of South Seattle so there. Wasn't any direct us to what. Page. Oh 82. Seattle is not South King County. So right. So yeah well that's. I mean has the word south in it but that's South Seattle. Sure. Yeah. And, and Ecos actually works. So. They're not limited to the city of Seattle. So they're working with they're working with different community groups. I don't know if you consider Tukwila part of South Bend County. Yeah. I'm sorry. The chart, what it's throwing me is there was the, the project location was listed or my chart. Now. Is Seattle on. Okay. That's okay. So one that would help with that. Yeah. Clarifying that. Okay. Not everybody has the information that you have, which is unfortunate. We should all have that chart. Well, especially the following I requested. Oh. Okay. Well, it would help overall informed on this. I can make copies of that if you'd like. You know, even now I. Know that we have a whole lot more time to get into this, I'm sure. No, no, I'm having the same feeling you're having. First of all, if I can jump in with you too, on this, I feel like there's a lot of silo work being done right now. When you look at the BRIGHTWATER mitigation account, which obviously is not this account, but it's the same agency, there is so much money going into broader mitigation account for education and for training and for all kinds of things. For education, it is an an inordinate amount of money. So we have an account for that. This was supposed to, in my mind, be for on the ground projects and experiments. So we would have more research on like one project you talked about was like street sweeping for water quality. So we would have some good information on how you do that. And to me, that's what these projects were for. What am I going to learn to make it better for water quality? And so I'm a little surprised by the delineation here. And secondly, in the same venue as what Councilmember other Grove was saying, there is not one project on here for the local government in this county, not one. And it's almost half the landmass of the county, I'm sure. Yes. Councilmember by right that I think this. Issue should be brought up again at another meeting because they come from the Grove and you have raised some issues that I'm particularly interested in. I know it comes from I wrote that GROSS predecessor was particularly interested in geographic representation, and you and I have represented both ends of the county. So I would in light my mindful, the fact that the third district we're supposed to have started 20 minutes ago and that you're always going to come after the flood district to say, I would recommend we hold this issue after the new year, because I would like to have everybody have a spreadsheet and everybody has the same equal distribute. Both paper, as well as perhaps a good understanding of the distribution of the funding around King County because they have a cross before they raised it. It's okay. It's okay. We don't have a clue. I think you're absolutely right. Councilmember McDermott was also showing that the chart doesn't really show clearly what communities are involved in which. So I think we need better information on that. And I'd also like to get information back on the amount of money that is being spent, an education out of the BRIGHTWATER funds through the Brightwater education account and how many classroom hours we are doing up there on that, because that was what that was supposed to be for. So I think we. When you're done. Okay, I think we need to hold this one and get better information, delineate it by area and get information about the Brightwater education account. And then we will hear from Council Member Dombroski around chair. Couple of things to stay here. I think Councilmember up the grove meant this, but he used the word countywide and I think he meant within the sewer service area just so everyone's on the same page, because the Councilor Lambert's comments seem to indicate that, again, we were done countywide. But I think we're all understanding that these projects need to be in or connected to have a nexus to the sewer service area or benefit to the service area where the rate payers are, because that's the source of the funds. Correct. First line second point to keep in mind is I believe that this is kind of remember when we and this council took the rate vote, we took the rate vote to add the water works funding to the sewer rate, wholesale rate. And we set up a process to have half council designated and half committee recommended subject to council approval within the committee recommended a random reform bill which we all supported. I think we all support it, but to add some additional district representation to it, right? And so that's where we are working on getting that stood up. And Mike, I think you noted that to address some of this geographic balance, which was important to me and as you can see why it's important to everybody on the dais here. This, I believe, is what you've called the second round of the committee designated projects. So we've had one round that's come through, right? Correct. And this is the second round. So as we sit on the dais and look for geographic balance and project balance, I think if you could help us by getting the members the totality of the projects around one, around two is that makes sense. So sure, there may have been some funded last time that might balance out this round if people saw them. And we just can't remember that. Right. And Councilmember Domestique, I might note that at this afternoon's Regional Water Quality Committee, there is going to be a presentation which will include actually both round one, round two, and I'll look to Sherman to confirm that it will also include the the council directed projects as well. And I correct. Yes, that will be the council director projects. I don't think that's a fair comparison. It's our job to do those. And but this time this committee recommended half. I think the points being made about balance are good because the ratepayers, countywide or not, came up with answers are paying it. Finally, I kind of want to echo Councilmember Lambert's issue. I think she's raising about kind of some of the education pieces. And I've been interested in making sure that this money that is designated for water quality be spent on water quality, improving water quality. And I understand how education you can make an argument that education of our community to be individual stewards of our streams and wetlands and rivers and lakes can have a value. I get that. But it is to me more tenuous and further away than a direct investment in in-stream and in water body projects and improvements. We got into a little bit of trouble on this before in the cover litigation by funding, you know, salmon celebrations and things like that. And I personally think we need to be very careful and steer clear of that and make sure that we are keeping our word to the ratepayers about making sure that these dollars go for water quality or projects and programs that have a true and direct nexus to improving water quality. That is the Metro mission from what it was formed by the voters. And when we stray away from it, we get into a little bit of a trouble. So finally, I don't remember who adopted the criteria that the committee is using to measure this. Was that was that an advisory committee itself that adopted that or did we approve those here at the council? I just don't recall we did. So there are criteria listed in the implementation guidelines. Yes. Good for yourself. Yes. As folks look at this issue, I think it's important that we go back, remember that we adopted the criteria. And as part of that, we said, hey, come to come in. We want council approval on the recommended projects. And that's for this very reason to make sure that the community is balanced in its distribution of the funds and true to the criteria that the Council has adopted. So just some big picture. No. And may I add one point. And in the implementation guidelines, it does list education projects as one of is an example of the type of project that could be funded through this through this grant fund. So and at the time, I was concerned about that because I also knew about the other Brightwater accounts. And I think, you know, in, you know, when we do everything in silos, you know, it's easy to say and it is round two and this is much more on that one education piece. But I think for the taxpayers, we want to look at globally what we're spending and make sure that we know what we're spending over that category and making sure that we actually have some documented science that helps us to make good decisions for the future. Like I like that one example that was cleaning the streets so we can do that better. So I think it's a good idea to take this back and look at it again, maybe have any harm. I don't know. Is there any harm in us holding it till January? Well. It's okay, Sharman saying no problem. Okay. So I think let's have some offline meetings about this. We can talk with council member at the Grove and others that are interested council member about duty to do night. Me. Yes, I, I wanted to say one thing and I have been in the place that councilmember up the group finds himself in with regard to any number of grant making works that we do, not just water works but others that go through this kind of a process. And and I have found up until this morning that I usually look at the list and feel exactly the way councilmember up the group felt, which is that, you know, my district pays an awful lot into all of this stuff. In fact, in some buckets we pay more than any other district and we don't see it coming back to us. And that's okay in a sense. I mean, there's got to be a balance, there's got to be a level of balance it but none of them individually are going to look like we put a dollar in. We got a dollar out exactly like today. I feel very happy because there's one project that's clearly within my district and another that probably slops over into mine a little bit. And that's nice. But I'm. I will. Yeah. And Councilmember Dombrowski advised me every time I say something like what we just heard, you know, I felt the same way my first year on the council. And I was told that if you watch over time, there's a kind of an evening out that naturally happens. I haven't been here long enough to see that yet. Today I feel a little bit of evening, but I support very much as looking at the fuller context as as Councilmember Dan Malcolm and you, Madam Chair, pointed out, there's there's a broader context here for these particular kinds of programs, and I am very happy to see that and assess that. So I support that direction. Thank you. Thank you. And as as one of nine members of local government, that is every day. And so I feel the pain. Councilmember, just briefly, I appreciate Councilmember Valdez's comments. I and with one exception, I don't think it naturally occurs. I think we have to build oversight and systems that make sure it occurs. And that's why, for example, on this project, I ran that legislation to make sure council members could have a representative on the committee, because without it , it's not by intent. It just, you know, people look out for their neighbors if they're at the table and if you're not at the table, you're dinner, someone may not look out for you. So that's what we're doing here today. Great. So we were I'm happy in early January to meet with anybody that wants to meet with me on this topic, and then we'll bring it back probably the end of January. Thank you. Thanks for the good discussion, everybody. All right. We're going on to the next proposed motion, 2016 0548. There's the motion approving the third quarter 2016 expenditures for emergent needs and anticipated project costs. Summary Report Provided Prepared by the Road Services Division. The Road Services Division. Thank you for being so patient and welcome. Thank you, Madam Chair. These are the key accounts of staff. I will do this very quickly for you today. Given the time consideration of my staff, report for this item begins on page 97 of your packet. As you may remember, counsel included a proviso in the 20 1516 biennial biennial budget. It requires the executive to provide quarterly reports on expenditures from emergent needs and quick responsive projects. This is the last of those quarterly reports and would release approval of a motion would release $75,000 of the $525,000 expenditure restriction. The report before you today shows the transfer of a little bit over $3 million of appropriation authority from quick response to two slide repair projects to bridge design projects, one road repair and a pedestrian signal. Those projects are listed on page 98 of your packet. The report also shows four emergent needs. Transfers. Does appropriation of about $1.2 million to reconcile with adoption of the first omnibus that was to fund the snow and ice material storage budget. The report also shows transfer of $735,000 from emergent needs to reconcile some indirect cost rates for some specific projects. Those are listed on the executive's report on page 108 of your packet. Great. That completes my report, Madam Chair. Thank you. And I appreciate that we've gotten these reports all year long to make sure that we know what's happening with emergencies like slides. So we know about that. And I think this is very straightforward and I would be ready for a motion if somebody would be ready to put this before us. So move, Madam Chair. Thank you. We have before us motion 2016 0548. Are there any questions? The clerk please call for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Remember Belushi? All right. Number DEMBOSKY. Speaker Number one council member got about $0.85. Member done. By. Councilmember Gossett County Councilmember Cole. McDermott. All right. Yeah, that's my girl. I am number one right here. Madam Chair, I am just, you know, I don't know. And Councilmember Goss said, excuse. Thank you. There was one item on the agenda left. And what we're going to do with that is to hold it until next year. But it is a review of all before that branch people leave. I want to tell you, I was at a meeting last night and a citizen came up to me and said we asked for some help from roads and they were out within two days to help me on this problem. And we expected it would take at least a month for them to respond to us. And we are so thrilled. So I just wanted you to know good things. Thank you. Here's the last one. Maybe on consent calendar and expedited. Okay. So on our last item here, these are the things that we covered this year. You can look it over. It's on page 13, 114. It has been a very busy year, and I thank you for all of your hard work. I think our staff, Mr. Hamacher, who filled in when the previous clerk and clerk but assistant to this went and got a different job and we were in excellent hands with Mr. Hamacher. So I very thankful for his good work to our committee staff, for all that you've done and to each of you for all the work . And with that, the meeting is a.	AN ORDINANCE approving an agreement between King County and 4Culture on how the preservation action fund will be administered and governed in accordance with the 2015/2016 Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 17941, Section 74, as amended by Ordinance 18179, Section 2, Proviso P1.
king_f59e27c9-9035-4871-a2d7-f90f5a204f13	Of September seven, 2016 for the meeting of the Committee of the Hall. It is a very busy day to day. Lots is happening, so there will be lots of movement up here and we are coordinating that. So I'd like to clarify the call, the order and call the role. Councilmember Baldacci here. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Caldwell's here. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Brown. Right in our area. Madam Chair here. All right. Councilmember, I'm right there. Would you put the minutes before us? Thank you, Madam Chair. I move approval the minutes of August 17, 2016. Thank you. Others in favor the minutes as written. Please say I I those opposed. Nay, the minutes are approved as written. We will be postponing item number four and we will be going into a briefing since we have employees here that we would like to honor their time. So we will start at number seven, and that is the briefing and the update of the sheriff's new domestic violence unit. Mr.. Does would you begin briefing us? And welcome to our sheriff and also to Mr. Martin. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Yes. As you mentioned, we will be hearing from the prosecutor's office and the sheriff on their new domestic violence unit, and that is relative to report 2016 be 0159. And as background for the briefing, the Council added in the 1516 Biennial Budget 872,003 FTE to reestablish a domestic violence unit within the King County Sheriff's Office. The prior DV unit had been cut in 2009 as a result of reductions made during the Great Recession. The ad was accompanied by a proviso that required the KSO to produce a report that included an analysis of expected impacts of establishing the DV unit and the identification of desired outcomes, goals and specific performance measures for the unit. The Kato produced that report and it was subsequently accepted by the Council in April of 2016. So with that as background, I would just go ahead and turn it over to David Martin, senior prosecuting attorney and the King County sheriff, for their briefing. Thank you. Mr. DAWSON Thank you, Madam Chair. It's good to be here and talk about something that's been such a success. Now, when I came into office in 2012, one of the things I wanted to do was reestablish the domestic violence unit in the sheriff's office. As I mentioned, we had it through 2009, but I thought it was time to start over again and really emphasize these, particularly in these crimes are insidious in the effect they have on the community and the effect that they have on families. I know that Norm mailing made it a priority for the prosecutor's office when he was the prosecutor and Sandberg has done the same thing as I have. And I think the proof is in the information we're going to get today from the from the prosecutor's office, the domestic violence suspect is more likely than a suspect in any other crime to go forward and commit another crime of violence up to and including homicide. And when you think about it, anybody that's willing. To injure someone they purport to love is capable of just about anything. And we need to take these crimes as seriously as we can. And they need to be investigated as seriously and with as much of vigor as we can in the domestic violence unit access quality control to a certain extent for the cases that my deputies write. But they also have the time, the expertize and the willingness to thoroughly investigate these crimes and for them to the prosecutor's office so we can get the best prosecution possible. And by that, they've pulled together excited utterances that may occur at the time. 911 calls. Medical examinations. All the things that can lead to the most successful prosecution possible. I'd like to introduce the two detectives we have in the unit right now and their supervisor, Sergeant Scott Garnett. And Detective Ben Wheeler. And not present is Detective Robin Nostrum. They've been in the unit since it was formed in the latter part of 2015, and they've done a tremendous job. Are these officers, you told me, volunteered when the unit started to come back to the unit? They did. They were they volunteered to come into the unit and they were chosen. And they've done a great job since then. We also have a community service officer that's assigned to the unit, and that person works with victims of crimes to make sure that we can collect all the evidence, make sure that they get to court on time, that they can be referred to the proper victim assistance programs that are out there, all the support that a victim is going to need. And in such a situation like this. I like to thank the officers. It's a hard job and it's a really important job and changes lives. So thank you for your hard work. Great. Thank you for being willing to come to us and ask for that unit during a budget time. What was tough? But as you said, it's a very important part of what we do. Mr. Martin, welcome. Good morning. Council members. Thank you. Good morning. Council Members, Thank you for the opportunity to speak and to share my officer's experiences of how successful I think this has been for the community. And I have a few slides. I'm going to go very quickly through them because I know you have a lot of the agenda today, but the domestic violence unit that the sheriff's office has is making a difference for victims and for offenders. And I'm going to lead with a story. We have a recent case that tells the story of what happened in this case. We just shared with all 5000 police officers in King County because we have a newsletter that goes out. It talks about here's a picture of a juvenile. It talks about what's happening at firs. And one of the cases that was there was a defendant by the name of John Muhammad. And on this particular case, there was a lot there was a lot going on. And this was a complex domestic violence investigation. There was tampering, there was abuse, and it led. So the victim didn't want to cooperate with what was going on with the legal system, because as things were pending, he was abusing her. She showed up and had a fresh black eye to a court hearing. And so there really needed to be some intensive investigation associated with that case. The sheriff's office, DV unit investigated. They learned of all the abuse that was going on. The result was a plea to a number of charges and a great deal of accountability and a meaningful legal result that happened. But more importantly, what happened was safety. She was allowed the time and place to get into confidential housing. We allowed the victim to have some time to move forward with her life. We allowed the period for her to be safe and for this case to be built. And there was safety and accountability as a result of having a specialized response to a really serious case of domestic violence. So this is you know, when we when we look at this just one case out of the many that the sheriff's office has, and there's a great result that happened because we had a smart, specialized, thorough investigation from the police. It's just a reflection of what is a national best practice. There are dozens and dozens of studies from the Department of Justice, the battered women's justice program, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Institute of Justice, talking about the research that backs specialized police investigations. So this is not just the story of one case or what the research says, but we actually also have numbers. In 2015, we received 1300 cases countywide for felony filing and we filed 1009 of them. And this was the low point for domestic violence, felony referrals since 2002. And in 2016, things changed. Our felony filings are up 20%, and the main driver for that is the sheriff's office. Their cases are up 30%. There is a graph that is supposed to be shown here on a PowerPoint. And I Matterport, I'm not sure if you're able to pull up the latest PowerPoint that we had there with that graph. Ladies, when I gave you. Yeah, it's not the one that's up there right now. If you could go to the PowerPoint, click. But what that graph would represent is. There was a large drop over a period of time in domestic violence referrals after the sheriff's office domestic violence unit disbanded. And then when that domestic violence unit reformed. There was an increase in the number of domestic violence cases, and it was significant. So this has made a huge difference both to the safety and accountability in the community. And it's really showing a reflection of the priority of the response to domestic violence, not just saying that, well, maybe the numbers are going down, too. As a result, there's less domestic violence in the community. In fact, it's a reflection of the priority that we put on these investigations, as the sheriff was talking about. When you put greater priority on the investigations. You will see an increase in the number of cases. And that's what we saw. And a couple of questions as you were speaking. So you had on the other side 13, 23 cases and then a thousand thousand nine were filed. Tell me what happened, the other 300 cases. Will often what will happen with those cases is they are declined to a municipal prosecutor. So they oftentimes will not meet felony filing standards. And we will take those cases and we will send them to one of the 39 municipal entities for filing as a misdemeanor case. And there's so there's this area that where we have seven out of ten or sometimes more of the number of cases that the sheriff's office and other police agencies are submitting to us for filing of felony charges. For those that don't meet felony standards, we will ask that those cases be handled by one of the city attorneys , whether it's city of Seattle bureau in one of the other places or handled by our own domestic violence court. What if when it occurs in an unincorporated area? And I know like for a rape kit investigations, you have a protocol and the hospital has a protocol. Do you have a I know that you had a checklist which I saw you developed. Yeah. Tell us a little bit more about that checklist. And is that similar to you as the rape kit investigation protocols? Well, it's interesting because the checklist that you're talking about is what's known as the domestic violence supplemental form. The originators of this form. Were you. Was actually the King County Sheriff's Office 20 years ago. So the sheriff's office developed this form. It, unbeknownst to many, has spread nationally. There's a lot of people who use a version of it today. For the past few years, I know the sheriff's office and a number of other police agencies has been involved in updating that form . There's a new kind of 2.0 version coming out soon, but for years and years that has been a critical part of sheriff's office investigations on domestic violence cases. Every police agency in King County uses a version of it. It's both a kind of a risk tool and an investigation tool and tool that identifies things that are beneficial for prosecution. We had a three year process to update that. That included a large, coordinated community response meeting, a safety summit to examine portions of that, to make sure that it's culturally competent. So the sheriff's office has done a huge amount of work to update and to look at bringing these forms forward. So it is connected to what you're talking about. But that checklist, I don't want to claim any credit for that. The sheriff's office has been doing this for years and years. Well, since I watched you lead the meetings on update, I think you do need some credit. So thank you for your humility on that. But the three years is a long time and when 2.0 comes out, I think we should do some national media coverage on that. I know that when I am national boards and I talk about the things we have, these kinds of tools, people will come up to me and say, Oh my gosh, I wish we had something like that, right? So if we could make it known nationally through Naco, I think that would be really good. I think it's a great tool. It's part of a and it is something that patrol officers are doing each and every day there. They have to fill out the form, right? That has to be filled out thoroughly. And then that has to link back to what a detective is doing in their investigation. And it builds the backbone of a good response to domestic violence on the criminal justice side of things. Now, what about the hospital? Do they have protocols at the hospital? Are there specialized hospitals in this area, like you'd go to Harborview for rape kits, other places in the county? You know, it depends, but they're there. Each hospital will have a protocol for how they respond to domestic violence. It depends. Depending on where you're going, there are some ideas for using forensic nurse examiners to help with strangulation investigations. That's something that's happening in a few areas around the country. And there's an effort to have Harborview nurses be compensated for doing that. That's a pilot program that I think has been discussed for a couple of years, is not yet going. But, you know, Harborview is a place that does amazing work in a lot of our hospitals do as well. But there isn't a standard protocol that each one of them follows. I'm glad that they're using strangulation because until an Attorney General, Rob McKenna, worked on that, it was very, very difficult to have those prosecuted. So I'm glad they're working on that. Sheriff, how's it going with manpower and women power? And is this the right number of officers for our demand? Do we need more officers? Where are we at on that? I think the contract studies the 12 cities, the contract with us plus on top of that Metro Transit Center are doing fine. They've got about the right number where we are still short of courses in unincorporated King County and we need additional resources for that. Okay. Always. How many more resources do you think you need? Well, that's a moving target, I would say, probably to be where we need to be. About 30 more deputies on the street and 30 more deputies. And how many more do you need in the unit? Well, we could use at least one more. Right now, the DV unit only investigates crimes and that occur DV crimes that occur in unincorporated King County. We really need to expand that to our contract cities, but we need more people in there. We need to contract cities. And I think this is going to help to agree to pay for that. So I'd like to get at least one, if not perhaps a half, a detective for unincorporated King County to augment what the two detectives are doing now. So a contract cities, can they pay more to get this? Yes, they can. And that's going to be my next sell job. Okay. Because I know that there's one city that says they're very interested and we'll talk about that. Okay. And then so both of you, you have a victim and she or he says, Moses, you see, because that's the predominance. She says, if he goes to jail, I can't afford to eat, so I don't want to press charges. What happens then? Well, it's an important conversation. And that's why advocacy is so important to the work that we do with the prosecutor's office, so that when the sheriff's office is investigating that case, we're going to get a thorough accounting of what happened, and then we're going to have to work with people through the rest of it. And there are really serious problems. We, especially in unincorporated King County, there's a lot of very marginalized folks. There's a lot of people who don't have a lot of resources. That has to be a part of the decision making process going forward and then has to be balanced against the level of violence and the and what we think is going to happen in the future. Sometimes it depends on the case. It depends on the individual, depends on the circumstance. But we also know that there's a lot of offenders who will try and get victims to say things to us to try and change our decision making on a case. We see this routinely with recorded jail conversations, with letters, with tampering. In the case that we had talked about earlier, many of those same things were being said, and at the same time, the defendant was abusing and beating this woman in order to make her say those things. It's a complex process, and that's why having specialized investigations is such a critical part of that response to really determine in many cases, that's accurate what a victim is saying that to us. And we understand that we have to be responsive to that and we want to be. But sometimes it's a byproduct of intimidation and a byproduct of abuse and being able to understand both of those things. We rely on specialized investigation to get to that point. And there's much more than physical abuse. Psychological abuse is huge in these situations. That's one of the things that makes this such an insidious crime and why there would be zero victimless prosecutions if it were not for the specialized domestic violence unit. I think I'd say in saying that because of the extra investigation, they other the time, the expertize and the willingness to do to really bring that entire package, even though it's still very difficult and they're fairly few and far between, but they do occasionally do victims, prosecutors. I want to give you a closing I want to give you one example that is very close to the sheriff's office. We had a deputy sergeant, female sergeant, male deputy. They were living together and they had a fairly volatile relationship just in general. And one night he got upset at her and got up in her face and threatened to kill her, scared the boy and she's been a police officer for 25 years, just scared the heck out of her. Very, very aggressive. Didn't assaulter, but threats to kill, which is a felony. We got called, we investigated, we took great statements. Prosecutors office were not able to file charges because she just totally recanted. Despite being a veteran police officer, despite having investigated domestic violence cases her entire career, she recounted and would not cooperate with the investigation . She resigned from the sheriff's office over all of this and I fired him. Now it's gone to arbitration and I may lose that arbitration and he may have to come back. I may have to hire him back at the sheriff's office in their back, living together again. I think what's most interesting is she to this day has never recanted what she told the deputies that night when they came in, took her recorded statement. She has never recanted, but they are back together again. And that's what makes this crime just it just destroys families. It destroys communities in this case, have destroyed two careers. You know, the idea of taking a walk and coming down is a good idea sometimes. The one last question I have well, I guess to do we have an anger management program for the people that, you know, say, for instance, the story you're just saying that your deputy could have gone to and that would have then strengthened what we need to be doing. Is there a good anger management program? That's a that's a hard question. I think there's a lot of questions about what works in responding to offenders who use violence against those they love. And this is a controversy that's that's going on national. There's a lot of places in the country that are really struggling with what to do for those situations. And I think it comes back to there are different types of offenders. And the sheriff talked about a police officer being involved in domestic violence. And we have so many different types of people that we need to have different tools that respond to the different type of offenders and different types of circumstances that we develop seek out . Right now is running a program that's being examined for its effective effectiveness. There are other programs that are going on nationally that are being examined, but I couldn't give you a good endorsement of one over another. But I think it really depends on who the individual is. And a good assessment of is this a byproduct of substance abuse or mental health? Is this a byproduct of a longstanding psychological, coercive, controlled relationship or just dysfunction in their own life because they had a very difficult upbringing? I think all those questions are that have to play into that assessment. QUESTION And we're not there yet. Okay. And I think absolutely what you said, there is a program a couple of years ago in Sacramento jail where they showed the inmates movies. There's five movies and there was domestic violence in the five movies or potential domestic violence. And they learned those movies so that they could say them verbatim and then they would do role playing and saying, okay, what do you do in this situation? And they had to pick out the actor in the movie and do what that person did. And it was run by a jail guard. And I interviewed him and he said he gave his business card out to all the inmates when they left and said, if you have a problem, you call me 24 seven. And he said, in all the years you've done that, he only had one person call him. But he said people would stop him on the street and say things like, yesterday I was, you know, Cary Grant or, you know, John Wayne or whoever that character in the movie was. So there are lots of different innovative kind of ideas. So my last question is this. Adverse childhood experiences. There's money under best starts for kids for aces. Certainly if there's a child in the home and I'm assuming then a lot of these cases there are children in the home, there could potentially be some money coming from ACES . So have anybody is anybody thought about applying for some ACE money? I know there's been a lot of conversations about Best Start's for Kids and here we had them come and present at the Domestic Violence Initiative at some of the past meetings. I believe, Councilmember, you may have been at that meeting, but I'm not sure of the timeline for those things that I know there is some thought to focus on, especially children who are involved in domestic violence in the home. There are so many cases and actually I'll I'll give another congratulations to the sheriff's office who years ago worked out a protocol for dealing with children in the home with King County public health, trained the entire department, and now has a really great, you know , hand out pamphlet that they use when children are involved. But there's also a national model. But I think building on that information and building forward to trying to connect that with services and other things would be would be wonderful. So I think we're going to have an amendment to the best rates for kids that will be like an ACS and in my mind SWAT team where when you go to a home and Mrs. Jones has been shot and the warden is sitting there watching that you would call Best Start's for Kids team to come out immediately because obviously the child needs therapy immediately, not six weeks after an appointment, but immediately. So would that be something would be helpful to you to be able to have a place you could call to get the kids the help they need immediately? Absolutely. Okay. Any questions from anybody else? But thank you so much. Let me say this has been a great partnership. The only way this works as a partnership between the sheriff's office and the prosecutor's office, but also with the council, if you hadn't funded this unit, it wouldn't be here. So thank you all very, very much. Thank you for Mr. Hammacher and his team helping us on the very last day of the budget to squeeze. And I know it wasn't easy. I've heard the stories. I know you have that it was a teamwork and a team effort, and I'm glad that it's successful. And thank you, Mr. Martin, for all your work and your team's work. Thank you. Thank you and thank you, officers. Did the third officer arrive? Okay. Robin on protecting Robin. Thank you, Robin. We praised your other two cohorts and so we want to praise you, too, for all the good work you do. Thank you. All right. I'm going to ask a question. Do we want to continue or a recess until 11 when our peers get back? Make sure you continue one. We have votes to two. Yes, we do. But we can do it by signing with technician, you know, maybe just that these things just to continue. Okay. All right, then that's what we'll do. All right, so we keep going. Yeah. Okay. All right. So was there, like, a Democrat breakfast or something this morning that we missed? We weren't invited. I won't say too much. Okay, here we go. Let's see. We have some coffee here. Okay, that's good. All right. We will now go on to C District Community Conference. If we could do that, my next. That would be good. We have our judge here with us. And Heidi, Papa Tuck is here also. And we welcome our presiding district court judge, Honorable Donna Tucker. Good to be here. And it's not even in the hallway. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Heidi, pop attack council staff. The staff report begins on page 131 of your packet. According to the Center of Court, Innovation and Community courts are a type of problem solving court that seek to address crime, public safety and quality of life problems at the neighborhood level. Unlike other problem solving courts such as drug, mental health or domestic violence courts, community courts do not specialize in one particular problem. Rather, the goal of community courts is to address the multiple problems and needs that contribute to social disorganization in one or more target neighborhoods. The first Community Court was established in the midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City in 1993. Over two decades later, at least 70 community courts are in operation around the world. Today's briefing by the King County District Court will provide the committee with an overview of its proposal to pilot a community court program in King County. Madam Chair, that concludes my remarks. Presiding Judge Donna Tucker is here, too, to brief the Committee on District Court's Community Court judgment. Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair. It's an honor to be here today. I would like to indicate to the Council that last year, when the county started asking for proposals and submittals under the mid renewal process, that the judges of the court sat down and talked about what it is that the District Court may be able to do to have better outcomes for the cases that we routinely see in our court. And we deal with a lot of misdemeanor offenses. We also have cases that appear in front of us that are felony dropdowns, primarily having to do with drug offenses, drug violations. And so we have a large population that appear in district court that do not qualify for the current therapeutic courts of drug court or mental health court. And but we still have individuals who are suffering from substance abuse issues, as well as lower level mental health issues. And so we took a look and thought that it would be appropriate for the district court to seek some assistance in providing what I would call a more individualized justice for the individuals that appear in front of our court. And we started taking a look at community courts around the country. My chief administrative officer and I had the pleasure to attend the 2015 Conference, International Conference on Community Courts, which was hosted by the National Center for Court Innovation in Chicago this year. And we heard from providers around the nation, including Australia, New Zealand and all across the United States. So the basic thrust of of these courts is for us to take a look at individuals and get as much information as we can about a defendant before we impose a conditions for this individual. Does the person need health care? Does the person need housing? Does the person need mental health treatment? Does the person need support in education? What are what are the needs of the individual? So the hope is that we can then fashion a conditions of sentence dealing with criminal behavior that start to address the underlying conditions that got the individual into the court system to begin with. King County started a number of years ago a jail diversion program through Seek Out and Work Crew. Those are really good programs. It's a really good start to make the community court concept work really well. So we're taking a look at what can we do? We want the person to be engaged in the community as a payback to the community. So work crew, I think will be a very large component. Of people's participation so that the community can see that the individuals committing these offenses are actually providing contribution back to the community as opposed to putting them in jail for rather small or minor offenses. So as a part of community court, we will be engaging the community itself to see what it is that the community needs. What are the community's concerns? What can we do to address the community and to ask the community to participate and to collaborate with us? I think that the most successful community courts that we have observed and we went to Spokane. Spokane started a community court in the most successful community, courts have services available or connected closely to the court, meaning that they have social services available, they have treatment available, they have helping people get education. You know, do we have defendants work on their GEDs or do we help them get back into school and they have those services available? So when an individual comes to the court that they're going to see that the court actually does care about, their being successful in is going to provide them more hands on help and getting the help that they need to start to address the issues. Our current model is we tell a person, go do this and stay out of trouble, but we don't provide them any resources or give them much guidance on how to do that. And so a community court really steps in to help provide additional guidance to do that. And we're also looking at individualized justice for four individuals. A really big component of community court is what they call procedural justice. And what that means is that each individual who comes into the court system from the time they walk into the system has to be treated respectfully so that they know that they are considered as a as a respected individual with dignity and that their rights are going to be respected. They need to make sure and feel that the court is neutral and that they're going to have a judge who is impartial and has not prejudged their situation . And the judge is going to listen to information that would come from them, their defense attorneys and or social workers to assist in making decisions, and that at every point in the process that they have the opportunity to to participate in the process and have some say and how what what they need and how that they're going to be able to articulate and to have the opportunity to tell the court what they want the court to know in terms of making their decision. I think for me, the most critical part of this is also that they will be able to sense that the court actually and the decision makers have compassion and concern for that individual and for their success. So we have found in our studies of other community courts that they actually have individuals who do not have cases in front of the court who actually come to the court for help, because they begin to perceive that the court has services available at the courthouse that they can then tap into without even having a court case. So in Newark, New Jersey, people will come to the court even if they don't have a case because they know that they can touch base with social services to help them with dealing with housing or treatment or other things like that. The city of Spokane has found that as well. The city of Spokane set up their community court at the local library. And so the individuals actually, when they come to court at the community court, they're going to the library. The city of Spokane has been able to get social service providers to come to the library on the dates that they have their community court there. And individuals who don't have cases actually show up to the court in community court and they're able to tap into and there's no requirement from most of these community courts that you have a case to be able to tap into the services. The city of Seattle started a community court a number of years ago, and they've been really fighting and revamping it, and they recently opened up a community service center. The same thing I can send anybody over to the City of Seattle Resource Center, which is in their courthouse, and they can tap into the services that are available there. So they can the libraries there to help people on certain days to work on resumes or to do research or to apply for jobs. They have public health there to help sign up people for health care. They have people there to assist in terms of DHS signing up for programs in. Treatment providers there to provide assessment. They have some housing available. So those are the things that we're looking at in terms of trying to set up a community court and to be able to better provide the services that individuals need to start addressing the issues that get us into these low level offenses. We're very excited about the prospect of being able to provide this type of individualized justice in our courts and think that it will start to address some of the issues of recidivism for low level offenders . So we're just starting the process. We have a proposal that would be coming before you in the budget process to ask to provide some funding. I've reached out to the Center for Court Innovation to assist us and in doing the planning and setup for for community court. And it also has the potential to engage the community itself in how we dispense justice and looking for them to provide partnerships in Dallas. We saw at the community court there that the local community donated shoes and coats for individuals working in the work program so that whenever they came to do their community work that they had proper shoes and clothing to to do that. But it was Dallas going out and reaching out to the business community, saying, this is what we need from you to help support these programs. And so I'm pretty excited. We we don't have a program built yet. We're in the initial phases of dreams and design. But I think that moving forward that, you know, we have the potential to start having impact and making impact on individual lives and hopefully reducing the recidivism of lower level offenses. It's pretty dang exciting. Yeah, I'm very excited. So you mentioned sea camp and Councilmember Garza and I went to Portland many years ago under the direction of our staff, Cliff Curry. I looked at their CECA program and within what, two years, three years, two years they were up here trying to figure out what we had done in addition to their program, to see so many successes, too. So we were learning from them and they can learn from us and we learned from them. So it was a mutually collaborative learning environment to be able to do this. So I'm really excited about that and I'm glad that C camp can be of help to you in that I did see when I was in the legislature and we did have a project where we looked all over the state at different courts and one court over and then eastern part of the state had a box in the courtroom and it was taped off a duct tape and anybody could come and stand in the box. And then when the judge had allowed or the attorneys were doing something, the judge would talk to the person in the box. And it was amazing to me the things that people would say, Judge, I drank again last night. I was really drunk. And, you know, to be so honest and the judge would say, thank you for telling me that. What triggered that? What can we do to help you? What do you need? And I was like, Oh my gosh, this person, it feels so free, to be honest in the courtroom. And rather than saying, I'm not guilty, we're saying I need help. And and they got it. And people come in and share their successes. I got engaged. I had a baby. I'm, you know, whatever it was. And the idea that these people felt loved and cared about by the court so much that they would come and share was really incredible. And they saw a huge drop in recidivism. Well, and I think that that is the concept of community court is really about building relationships. Yes, it really is about the court having relationships with the individuals that come in front of the court. And I think that I was a I was a public defender for 20 plus years before I took the bench. And I can I can tell you that individuals who feel like somebody really cares about their success and that there is somebody who's rooting for them to do well, are really more willing to be open and honest about what's going on than if they feel that the system really doesn't care. And nobody really you know, I'm just going to be as quiet as I can to get through it. And for those people who are able to and not everybody can do it, you know, every individual has a different timeline. There's no question about that. But for those individuals who are able to develop that relationship with their lawyer, the judge, the prosecutor, the court staff, even, you know, I mean, the court staff actually have a large role in whether or not the individual feels the. Rule fairness and that the system cares. And I think that's what the community court concept is all about, is about relationships and people being able to feel secure, that they're going to be treated fairly, they're going to be treated with respect, that they're going to be expected to be accountable, but that there's going to be compassion in how that's done. And I think that those are those courts that we can see. San Francisco is doing a really good job. Portland's doing a great job. There are a number of communities across the nation that are doing really good job and they do see a reduction in recidivism when it's when it's done well. And I really would like to see that come to our court. I think that our community will have better outcomes, and I think that we can make make an impact. Well, I appreciate your enthusiasm, and I know Mr. Aquino, who was there with you, has the same enthusiasm. And I would love to see all the courts in King County, the community courts, where people felt justice, had the face of justice with us, helping them get their lives back on track. Have a couple quick questions. What is the percentage of people you think that come before you who have at least one substance abuse issue before them? Okay. This would just be off the top of my head. I would be willing to wager that more than 70% of the people that come in front of our court have substance abuse issues. And that's probably low, but. Okay. Well, it's huge enough that having drug and alcohol services there are imperative to doing anything. Yes. So I think that's great. And why do some people not qualify to the other courts? What's the difference? Well. The drug court in King County is for felons. Okay. All right. And our mental health court is limited to diagnosis of an access one diagnosis. And so pretty significant mental illness. But the folks that we deal with in district court oftentimes have lower level, not in access one diagnostic, but they clearly have mental health issues that need to be addressed. And a lot of times there are co-occurring disorders with substance abuse. And so they're not qualifying for mental health care because they don't have an access one diagnosis, but they clearly have issues that we could address in a better fashion than we're currently dealing with. But I like the idea that being community court just centered on the individual rather than having all these other courts that have all these other rules. Let's just get down to who the person is and see if we can make a contract with them. Right. Make success. So I made a huge list that I'll ask you about offline because I'd like to help you get this moving. And so I'll finish that. But then I want to also praise you for the work that you've done on your online misdemeanor tickets. And when I went about four years ago, maybe five years ago, was it five years ago? We went five years ago to the Innovation Court. I wanted like a kid in the candy factory. I want all of those things. I wanted automatic this and this one online and this video and this, this. And and we're starting to see five years later, some of these things come to be video arraignments that you're doing, video visitations at Kent and some at the tower, your courts online. So I'm ready now to go to the next innovation and be prepared. Will take me another five years to get that. But it's very exciting. So I'm glad you went. So how how is that going? How do people get involved in that if they get a ticket? How do we. So help people? What you're talking about is our mitigation program and that we started for traffic infractions so that individuals who have a traffic ticket can respond to their ticket online with a online statement. It's going extremely well. And we find actually that from the time that the individual gets a ticket until they actually have a judgment from the judge about how their case is going to be handled is less than 30 days, which is incredible. All right. In the the part about that as well is that it also allows the individuals to respond promptly with their payments and they haven't forgotten it and they're dealing with it. So it's working really well. Anyone who receives a traffic citation from an officer and wants to mitigate their case can go to our Web site, and there's a link right there to present their online mitigation. I know there's been some discussion about and a lot of the officers tell the people about it, too, because we've shared that with the officers and they've told them, hey, you know, King County has an online portal if you want to do online mitigation. And when they request a hearing, we send them information about they can do it that way as well. So it's going really well. It's going really well. I appreciate the day you showed it to me. It was very exciting to see how it worked and I was particularly impressed that the computer programing gave you the RC ws right there. So it was an easy link to get the laws and everything was right in front of you and just click on this, get that, fix this, and off it went. AS And I occasionally do those hearings myself. When I have a judge out or something, I'll cover those calendars and individuals can attach copies of the photos for us. They can download their, you know, insurance card or their driver's license or their registration or whatever's relevant to the case. They can just download it. When I open up the file, it's all right there. I can see, you know, I can see their driving record. I can read the RTW, I can read their statement, I can read the officer's statement. It's all right there. It's a it's a really wonderful program and it's working really very well. That makes me very happy. You have no idea how happy that makes me. Well, thank you so much for your presentation today. And I will have my staff call you about how we can start packaging. Thank you. Community courts. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for your support. All right. So let's go on now. The local government update from parks serve the parks. People would like to come forward and. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was. Maybe. I'm sorry. Maybe if I'm afraid, I'll find out. Because yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't know. Okay. Would you like to begin? Yes. Good morning, Madam Chair. I'm Mary Bergin from the council staff. And the materials for this presentation begin on page 135 of your packets. I'm here with Jessica Emerson from the Parks and Recreation Division, and she'll be providing a brief presentation. I'll just start by saying that, as I think all of you know, the county's Parks and Recreation Division does not get any general fund. Back in the early 2000, in response to a shortfall in the general fund, the Council took action to gradually reduce and then ultimately remove general fund from the Parks Division and as well to transfer local parks and pools that were located within cities to those cities. As a result, the Parks. Division now. Is funded by. A. Voter approved parks levy, which was approved in 2013, as well as business revenues from user fees, sponsorships. Activities such. As Cirque du Soleil, as well as with creative partnerships with outside organizations through the Community Partnerships and Grants Program. I will also note, and this is part of the reason that we're here briefing you this morning, Madam Chair, is that Parks plays a very important dual role. It provides both regional parks and recreation facilities, but it is also the local parks provider in the unincorporated area. And that is what Jessica Emerson is here to present. She's got a slide show and I'll turn it over to her. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity to provide this update. I'll just dove in because I know we have a short period of time here. So as you all know, we King County Parks serves our 2 million King County residents and has 5 million visits to our parks each year. We have 200 parks, 175 miles of regional trails, and also 28,000 acres of open space. Our vision is parks, trails and natural lands for all. Which are sustained. With the cooperative efforts of our community. You sort of three areas that we focus on are regional. We're a regional and local provider as well as we partner with the business and community and we connect the county through a regional trail system and open space. The three principles that I talked about were really formulated out of the 2000 to Trip Business Transition Plan, which our business plan today kind of has evolved a little bit, but not very much. The work that we do are really regional. Services. Providing local provider in the unincorporated area of King County. And we have a business revenue target of raising 3% over the last year's annual revenue. And we do that through our partnerships. And finally, we work with community organizations to provide recreation in our facilities. Among our tuner parks is the 640 acre Mary Moore Park, which is located in Redmond. It's one of the best. It has one of the best off leash dog areas, as well as the only velodrome in the northwest. And it attracts events such as. The Brewers Washington Brewers. Festival and Cirque du Soleil. Another top regional facility is our warehouse. We're King County Aquatic Center. It has an Olympic size pool and attracts national events and also has the only ten meter platform diving in this area. The 20,000 acres of open space protects ecologically sensitive areas while providing recreational experiences such as hiking, mountain biking, horse riding , trail right trail running and wildlife watching. What percentage of the county is this? Do you have any idea what percentage of the counties are parks? I don't have that answer. Yeah, that's a good question, though. Recreation in our open space is really provided through trailhead access, and in this levy we plan to build or improve one of our trailheads and to meet that, to meet the growing demand that we're seeing at the inner trailheads and really just the people that are moving here and wanting to access this beautiful space. Well, this will help. We also know that there's ne there's more need. And we have partnered with the sheriff's office, Washington, Department of Transportation, mountains to town and state DNR to work for toward more access and improved access and as well as exploring just alternative options to get into our trailheads. Do we have any, like, volunteer ambassadors or anything that could go around trailheads and make sure about safety? Yeah, I mean, that's it. That's a really good question. We do have trail ambassadors and I think their presence really helps with that safety. We also have a contract with the sheriff's office where we we asked them to do some of that work, but it would be interesting to sort of see what we could do with our ambassadors on that front. You can look into that. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. The regional trail system is obviously 175 miles, as I said before. But it really connects our communities. It connects our cities, workplaces and other recreational destinations. There's a long term vision of expanding this to 300 miles. The Burke, Gilman and Sammamish River Trail is estimated to have about 2 million visitors per year. So a question on that. My mom is sometimes in a wheelchair. Yeah. And so she said she's not non-motorized in a motorized wheelchair. Is that okay? We're actually looking into that right now. We've had a couple of questions about that and the way that our code is written right now. We have to we're exploring that a little bit. And I think given the way that the our is written there, there's probably room for that. But I can't be definitive on that right now. I would like to work on that. The idea that mom has no clue whether something like that, that makes sense. Yeah. And it seems to me that under ADA that we should be able to say yes, it's easy to figure out somebody, maybe I won't say held over me . And and, you know, I would like all people that are in wheelchairs to feel comfortable. So if there's something we need to do to change it, let me know. I'd like. Okay on that. We'll be in touch then. And the regional chairs trail system is made up of both paved trails which are generally in our urban areas and soft surface crushed gravel, which tend to be in our more rural areas of the county, such as the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, which is also our longest trail of our longest trail corridor, which is about 31 miles. To get more specific about being a local provider in our more unincorporated areas, we do provide those regional facilities which serve all of our residents, but we also provide local parks which generally have your more traditional community oriented parks with playgrounds, ballfields and picnic shelters. Right. Here's a picture of Petrovich skatepark. We also provide local parks in the Cape corroborated urban area. This is Steve Cox Memorial Park, which is an example of that. And it's Steve Cox. We run our White Center Team program, which on the Saturday we're celebrating its 25th anniversary of the team program. The program operates five days a week for eight weeks a year, and it provides educational and computer. Resources. Leadership development, athletics and also. Drop in services. So let me ask you some more about that. So on the Memorial Park recreation equipment, that looks probably up to, what, five years old? Six years old. What is the range of that equipment? Is there an age limit? Somebody told me there was an excellent one, that one of the parks and some of the equipment some of the equipment does have age recommended age limits. Some of our parks will have sort of a toddler area, which is five and under. And then the more. For the older kids. Tends to be 6 to 12. And part of that has to do just with safety and weight and things like that. So they're recommended and we hope that. People follow them, but it makes good sense to have a two year old not be mowed down by an eight year old that's just not ready to have a little person around them. But I am so I like the idea of the toddler and then that the up to 12 and then I know at Mary Moore we have a mom's we do gymnastics equipment and it's really cool and moms and grandmas. So that's cool. But I am concerned about the teenagers that we have some recreational equipment like uneven bars, chocolate bars, something that, you know, would appeal to kids. Do we have teen age equipment or teen age playgrounds where kids can sit and, you know, do some schnapps or even looks like a teeter totter where you can put your feet underneath and you sit ups. Do we have anything like that in the county? You know, we do. Teenagers obviously can use the equipment at Mary Moore and then the different recreation that we have in our parks. But there are there aren't any specifically built playgrounds for teenagers in our parks. Yeah. Okay. That may be an idea. Something we might consider. Okay. Yeah. I talked about the new program. As I said, in our business plan, we really rely on our partnerships to get this work done. And we have many partners at Steve Cox Memorial Park, including Kennedy High Schools, Seattle Prep, the Wade Center, Community Development Association. One of the partners that we're really proud of is the Police Activities League, where they provide youth crime, a youth crime prevention program. And it also really serves as a way for youth and police officers to create trust among each other. The Pell boxing program is what is held at Steve Cox Memorial Park in the handball court. They've been operating out of there for almost eight years now. And they serve about. 75 youth each year in the neighborhood. Another example of a local park, which is outside at the urban growth brown boundary is Paul City Park. It's located along the Snoqualmie River in 2015, while City Park became the home of the Northwest Honkers. It's a semi-pro baseball team. This has become a great activity for local community members to just come out on a Friday night and enjoy baseball. The Northwest Honkers has a supplemental maintenance agreement where they help track the field and do other work to make sure that the field is ready to play on in between games. We're also working with them through our Community Partnerships and Grants program to do a some upgrades to the field so that they continue to use this as their home base. I'd like to compliment you on the work that's being done now with the garbage. Don't. You'll you? I was probably three years ago. I've got the first call on that garbage there and I couldn't believe it. It was taller than me and two major dumpsters could have just begun to fill up with the garbage was. And since you've really helped with getting recycling out there and the dumpsters and more appropriately placed, it's really looking a lot better. So thank you. Thank you. And I want to talk more about that in a little bit. I appreciate that excellence. There's also this park also has an equestrian arena that serves there raging river riders and local residents. King County Parks also created this parking lot at Park City Park, which continues to be improved upon and allows access to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail for cyclists running mountain bikes as well as our horseback riders. We also have a partnership with the Snoqualmie Valley Tribe to do restoration at Paul City Park and King County Parks has a great volunteer program. In 2015, we had 10,000 volunteers participate in the program, doing 500 events and completing 70000 hours of community service. As I mentioned before, as part of our business plan, we work with businesses and create partnerships to increase revenue for our parks. This is one partnership that we have, which is with Falls City River floating. And to date, this partnership has raised over $24,000 in revenue. It only operates in summer and it's doubled its revenue from last year. He's really working hard with the community to be an excellent citizen. He really is. Simon's been a fantastic person to work with, and it doesn't matter what you ask. We have this problem, Simon. Oh, I think I can help you figure that out. It's it's really a wonderful partnership for us. It is an amazing partnership anyway. People who live there, fabulous. So great. It's really working well. As you know, there are many challenges in this work that we do that you've brought up Councilmember Lambert, and I'd like to share some of that. For many years we had some great volunteers that helped with trash pickup along the river. And as part of and in 2014, they retired. And so we knew that this was going to be a growing problem again. And so last year we reconvened the Fall City River Task Force and worked with State DNR and others to bring a group together to address the issue of trash. SIMON The proprietor for Fall City Float, stepped up and agreed to pick up trash along the river himself with his with his team. And additionally, we improved some amenities just by adding a dumpster, extra pickups and adding trash cans at the park, which has gone a long way to help the City Park District, the city of Fall City, to improve those relationships. So just a listening audience knows it. Strangely enough, our city is not a city. It is a town in King County, which is oddly named. Because it's not a city and we are the local government. And so they look to us to be their mayors and we have lots of issues at this site that you're seeing in the picture of the float. There were 26,000 people there last year. That's a lot of people and it created a lot of issues. So as people come out to this place, cleanliness and orderliness is really important. So I think having it looks so nice now helps people to realize that somebody is keeping it clean and everybody does contribute to that. So thank you. Part of our work in providing local and regional parks is creating spaces and events for people to gather. Some of our events generate revenue to support the work that we do. For example, pictured here is the Timber Outdoor Music Festival, which takes place every year at MacDonald Park and it was so fun. Just want to tell you that really fun event, wasn't it? The event's become a real favorite for residents across King County, and we work really closely with the city of Carnation, as well as the partner to make sure that this event really works well for the city and the people that attend the event. We also could not have been nicer. Everybody was very helpful. Everything went very smoothly. I looked around. There was no garbage anywhere. Everybody is the cans appropriately. I mean, there was a good time. There was exactly what you would want it to be. So thank you for the good supervision and friendliness that made it so special. Thank you. I'll be sure to pass that along to our team. When I told all of them, don't they know it? So we worked well with her, also a partner to produce camp at Mary Moore Park, and this highlights her local food initiative. We also this year hosted. The Fair. With 50 event at Petrovich Ski Park, which was really celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fair Wood neighborhood. Well, let's stop right there. Okay. And before you say so, I just want to say that time is where I learned to throw pizza dough. That was really fun. And my grandkids, that was a hoot. So I just want to thank Parks Department for her incredible job on the fair, what, 50? We had around a thousand people show up and you guys were just great partners and sent a letter to Kristi Drew here just the day before yesterday or yesterday, maybe it was thanking the people that were involved. So I really want to pass on a heartfelt thanks for what you guys have done. Thank you. We appreciate that. Yeah. And I'm just going to close with our mission, which is to steward, enhance and acquire parks to inspire healthier communities. And we really do this work through our sustainable operations, strategic partnerships and civic engagement. Great. So I have two questions, President Park. And I think we did our visioning statement for that park four years ago. Yes. So every time I see Mr. Ellis, he wants to know where it's how it's progressing. I drove by the other day again and I can see that there's work being done. When will it be phased? When completed? So we can get on to phase two and phase three. I would love to answer that question definitively, unfortunately account, but I can tell you a couple of things. Okay, great. So we applied for a city RCO grant, and RCO is the Recreation and Conservation Office. And each year we apply for a variety of different parks. So this year we applied for the local parks category for President Park to move that vision forward. And the rankings should be coming out soon. And it all depends on state funding and whether we receive that and also just where we have our 2017 and 18 proposed budget. So we'll see what happens there with some of the work that we're doing in our parks. We also have our. Community Partnerships and Grants Program, which are doing the work that at the work at Preston Park is something that we're looking into for that program. Okay. Yeah, that's when it is a wonderful vision. And I know that it's important to so many members of that community. And we're working also with Mountains of Sound in the community. So we hope that we can continue to move that forward. Yes, I do, too. And then my last question, and I want Mr. Cleveland to hear this. We have a lot of people coming out to the parks. Some know the area. Some don't know the area. Some are used to being out in the parks and some are not. And we end up having rescues on a regular basis. And unfortunately, the state has taken out a road that we used for our search and rescue. And so now. We are not able to get in with our ambulances and get up the road where we used to because they just took the road out. I think that is not okay and that we need to work with the state and federal government that before they take a road out, that they have some plan with us and how we're going to do these rescues. And in my mind, making it more difficult for the rescue crews to get out there, especially on those roads that are frequent fliers for rescues, is just not okay with me. And they just took out a very significant one month ago. So if you will let that be known, he's written it down. That's great. I'm really very unhappy that this road was taken out and we had a rescue. The other day that we could have put it into an ambulance. But we needed for extra people to carry this person out on a stretcher and I believe was a femur break. So you can imagine an injury of that magnitude being juggled for miles down was really not okay. So I don't want any more of our roads in King County. I was there the night of the fire incarnation where we nearly lost Carnation a couple of years ago, and we didn't have any fire roads to turn the fire to, so we had to build a fire road. And that freaked out people because they didn't know exactly what was happening. And it became scary. And at two in the morning, when things are blazing, I don't want scary. So I don't want any of the fire roads and King County taken out there in my district and his district. But in my district, I don't want them gone. So we need them for fire protection and we need it for rescues. And so, anyway, I'm pretty passionate about what just happened. And so if you could help make sure that we don't lose any more and actually, I'd like to have the one they just closed reopened. So anyway, that's another topic for tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you so much for your presentation. Was. Absolutely. All right. We are going to continue on despite the fact that the rest of our members are not back yet. So did the best we could. So that takes us up to number five, which is our flood control is used for the reorganization. So if Mr. Rizo will make the presentation, we will proceed. I know that for number six, which will be part of this, one of our members wanted to make an amendment. Unless that person is back here in the next 6 minutes, we'll need to do that in full committee, but we will not be able to wait any longer. So just to be sure, when you begin and we have two members of the flood control district, so and a former member. So I think we've got a pretty good audience here today for dealing with this. Or if your brief has a number five, this is proposed motion 2016 0390. Good morning, John. Tricia staff to Kent County Council. And Madam Chair, if it's okay, I will provide you a staff report on both items five and six, which is proposed motion 2016 039 No and propose motion 2016 0443 because they are linked. Thank you. First of all, proposed motion 2016 039 NO. Is a proposed amendment to your organizational compilation or your rules? What it would provide for is structure in which employees of King County Council would provide 100% of their services to the King County flood control district while still remaining as employees of King County. What this would do would create within, similar to your independent agencies, create within the legislative branch a flood control district administration unit in which to house the employees and create the roles and general responsibilities of a flood control district executive director within your org motion. The org motion amendments would then go on to cover four key areas related to employment. First and foremost, all of the employees that would be part of this unit would be exempted from your traditional Employment and Administration Committee processes and the Flood Control Zone. District Executive Committee would be providing recommendations directly to the Council, as you will find with a proposed motion 2000 1644 three related to job descriptions and others. So specifically, that relationship would apply to the creation of job descriptions. The County Council would be those who would approve them. Based on a recommendation from the Flood Control Executive Committee for Hiring Processes, the flood control district would be responsible for establishing the hiring process and making a recommendation to the King County Council for appointment and for the Council's consideration for performance evaluations. The Flood Controls Executive Committee would provide performance evaluations of the executive director, and the executive director would be responsible for evaluations of those employees with other employees within the unit. And when it comes to disciplinary actions, those would be the responsibility from the front line, from the executive director to the staff reporting to the executive director and from the executive committee to the executive director. In in cases where those disciplinary actions may be more significant, two weeks suspension without pay or more. Or termination. All of those decisions would be appealable to the King County Council, as is your current practice for legislative branch employees. So it maintains that final linkage with the county from an employment standpoint, relative determination. You may ask your question just for clarification. So it would not go through the EEOC, correct? Okay. It would come to the committee of the hall. It would go to the full county for county council, which your practice would be then to send that information, whether it was a special, I believe, if in the case of a termination, it would be before the full council. Okay. So Labor used to come to this committee, but it now goes to. Any of the substance committees that where the substantive matter resides. And when it comes to Labor policy, the full council meets as a Labor policy committee to address Labor policy. Okay, great. Thank you. We don't do that very often, so I forget. Okay. Thank you. Okay. In your packet. There is one amendment which would clarify that the executive director not only reports to the County Council member who serves as the chair of the district, but is also responsive to all our members of the District Board of Supervisors. This is similar to language that exists with your chief of staff, as well as with my position, the Chief Policy Officer. Unless there are any questions on the job description, I'm on the organization composition. I'll move on to the job description. Let's wait. Just for council member Goss, this question. That's my guest. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that the final decision making entity for this position is not the county council. It's the Board of Supervisors. Am I wrong on that. Mr. Gossett? Well, the Board of supervisor, while the executive committee, not the Board of Supervisors of the Flood Control District, makes recommendations. The County Council is the final decider on all of its employees, and these employees do ultimately, they are ultimately county employees. And so they will receive the council will receive recommendations flow from flood control and from the executive committee. And they can deliberate and act on those as they would any other matter that comes before them. And when it comes to the suspension without pay or termination, the only time it would come before the county council is if the employee receives that level of discipline. And from whom? From the executive committee or executive director. And the employee chooses to appeal that decision. And an employee can appeal to the King County Council, but. Only under those two circumstances, correct? Yeah, because they are King County. We're changing it now. And so that's what. This is all under flood control. It was. And we're changing it now to open it up for getting more potential people interested in the job. And so that's this is a big change. And you're right. And so that's why we wanted people to have more opportunities to see this. So and I'll jump in real quick. Thanks. Councilmember Goss, at the the direction of the executive committee was to put as much control in terms of employment related decisions with the executive committee, the King County Flood Control District. At the same time, however, making sure that the employee, him or herself, is actually an employee of King County. We did that because we found in our last applicant process that the prospective employees cared a lot about being a King County employee with the benefits commensurate with being a King County employee. And so we were able to put a placeholder on a couple of positions there. And then what happened after we did that, we realized that there were some legal concerns about how we had it initially scoped. And so District Legal Council, working with King County Legal Counsel, came to this compromise, which gives the district exactly the maximum amount of control under law. Okay. Thank you. You bet. But I am glad the supervisor done that. We're at the point of having an executive director because I think we'll save a lot of money and have more accountability, given what our staff just described from this person. Agreed. And thank you, Mr. Garza, for being such a strong supporter of getting this job description out and working. So I think that what we should do, sir. Yes? May I continue on with the staff report and complete the other item, and then you'd be in a position to be able to take action on both items? Sure. The next item again is 2016 dash 0443, which follows the changes to the organizational compilation and would provide for the King County Council to approve a job description for a flood control district executive director who would be housed within that flood control district administration unit that would be created by the previous that the discussed piece of legislation you'll have before you the actual draft of the job description. It was it has just completed its legal review and we just handed it out so it can be attached today as you forwarded for that on this position, which would provide that executive leadership for this organization, for this government would be governed under the King County legislative branch, 13 staff salary table. It is proposed that it would be salary range. 133, which is a minimum of 121 936 through 163 991, which meets the general framing of criteria as the flood control district was looking at a midpoint that was competitive in the market. It is impressive rated that somewhere between one in five staff would be reporting to this executive director position as well as the contractors for financial clerk of the board and other services, as well as providing the oversight of the larger county agreement and administration of the of the government itself and performance evaluation, since that is a piece of Labor policy that you always have questions on again is covered within the organizational compilation and this position will be reviewed by the Flood Control District Executive Committee conducting those evaluations. There is the amendment which is on page 115 of your packet, which would attach the job description which has been handed out to you today. Right. And the first one, 390, also has an amendment and it is done by Councilmember Banducci and an amendment number one, a page 211, done by Councilmember Jim Balducci. I went to read the exact same thing and found out she'd already written it to so two minds thinking exactly the same thing. And basically it clarifies that the executive director is responsive to all members in addition to reporting to the council member that serves as the chair. So all of us have input in dealing with our employee. So with that and that makes that language because it makes it consistent with what the current language in the King County Council organization, Charterhouse. Yes. For both the chief of staff and for the policy director. So. All right. Well, since this is under your bailiwick, Councilmember, would you like to put before us a motion, a proposed motion? 390. Yes. Move. Proposed motion number 2016 390. Thank you. And there is an amendment. Amendment number one. What word and where is that? Page one. 11 of your packet. Yes. On 11. We're just talking about I. Will move Amendment one at this. Time. Okay. I'll let everybody read Amendment number one. Okay. I like Brandon. Explain it. I just did. That's what I just said. But you just explained the amendment as amended. It clarifies executive director is responsive to all members reporting, including the council chair of the district. As when I said that Councilmember Bainbridge and I had the same idea. And what was the idea? That's you're reading right now that it was clear that the person we hire is responsible to all of us in court and continuity with the two other positions that have this exact same language. I know the what was it before. It was just delivered. It just replied report it only to the chair and nobody else. So now it's to all of us reports to him. But all of us have information. The Chair. Yes. Yes. So now it will be addressed to him and to all of us, as we do with our other two employees. Okay. With that, we have a Fourth Amendment number one. All of those in favor of amendment number one. Please say I, I, those opposed nay. Okay. We are now have 390 as amended before us. Are there any questions for those that that are back? Welcome. This is the re of job description or and the reorganization plan for the flight control district. Okay. Let me just speak to that. Okay. I'm in. But this is simply a motion that allows King County to use two of its employees to serve or up to two. One right now, executive director to serve as the executive of the King County Flood Control District. And it makes the reporting language consistent with what we have already at the King County Council with respect to how members in the Chair interact with the Chief of staff. So it marks those two issues parallel with respect to the Board of Supervisors and our upcoming executive director. It has broad support. And then the next item is a motion that's going to approve the actual job description, which. Is in front of you. Now, which is there, the actual descriptions there. So I'd urge you support on item number five of today's agenda. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. I still have the difficulty of understanding the difference between the King County Council and the Financial Control District Board of Supervisors. Because councilmen are down. There have been. A that I recollect that I made a decision as a executive committee of the flood control district that I knew that several members of the King County Council, more like than now, would not have supported. And then there's been something that I could easily support as a King County Council member, but couldn't as just a narrow Board of Supervisors member. So let's admit it now. We just voted on just as King County Council and is a non state board of Supervisors meeting mean. So right now at this moment I'll try and take it. We're sitting we're sitting as the Metropolitan County Council right now. We're not sitting as the Flood District Board of Supervisors Committee of the whole. So with our King County hats on, which is always sort of hard to remember which hat is on. Right. Right now we are essentially saying we will allow this a King County employee to be hired with a reporting structure and they will become the executive director through a local agreement. And for a reporting structure that is substantially similar to what we have with respect to the way the King County Council members interact with the chair of the council and our chief of staff. So that's what we're saying at this time. And jump in. It is complicated, Mr. Garza. I agree, because this is brand new. And but what it is doing is it just what Councilmember Dunn said? And so this person will work for us as council members and then we will contract as council members for them to work for us. The supervisors for the executive director word. Yeah, for the supervisors. That is correct. And day to day supervision still will be directed by the chair of the local control district. That is correct. That part will work like it does today. All right. Okay. With that, there are no further questions. Kurt, please call for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Balducci, Councilmember Dombrowski. All right. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Gossett. Hi. Councilmember Colwell. Hi. Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne Wright Bauer. Hi. Madam Chair. Hi, Madam Chair. The vote is seven eight no nos and councilmembers Balducci and F the Grove. Excused. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. So now we have before us. So, Councilmember Dunn, we have before us. Four, four, three. Move proposed motion number 2016 0443 to speak to it, please do. After a lot of experience with executive directors and a lot of legal wrangling to get it just right, and we have finally come to what I think is a very fine job description for the flood control district executive director. This requires approval of the King County Council as we sit today, but also, of course, the King County Flood District Executive Committee, at least, and I think also the district as a whole. So everybody, it's a salary grade 133. There's a summation and just the career features we are looking for, including the essential duties and responsibilities. There's been a lot of work in this, a lot of specifics. We think that it is or at least my own view is that this is exactly what we need in terms of the proper candidate to run the flood district as executive director, based on a lot of experience, but also because it's a King County employee has the benefit of benefits that we struggle with as a district because we're not set up to do that, at least not yet. And it also provides a salary high enough to attract somebody. I think it starts about $130,000 a year, give or take. A little on the range is 121 through 160. Okay, 1 to 160. Thanks for correcting me in somewhere in there, we think there is somebody who would be willing to try it. And and the hope is we get somebody that can do this for four years and in that shorter period. So that's that's my motion. Thank you. Councilmember Garcia. I have a question for her councilman. And certainly featuring two or three times you said this person will be supervising four or five staff persons. I never knew the executive directors of the path, but I can tell control district the supervisor more than one or one and a half people, though. It's a good question. I haven't said four or five, definitely. That's not what I've said, is up to up to two, one or two. And three or four. I know that. No, the the thought which. We have discussed in executive committee but never taken formal action on. But we've had a fair amount of discussion. It was the idea of hiring an executive director and then based on the workload that we've seen in the past, that that executive director would be involved along with the board in hiring a policy analyst type of person that would backstop a lot of the heavy lifting. And there's been a little bit of talk about the possibility of bringing on a public information officer, which would complete the staff. But that is a decision yet to be made. But we wanted to scope out the job description to include the possibility of supervision depending on what policy decisions are our executive committee and board make in the future. All right. Why does this position require a valid driver's license? Because that individual is going to be going to tons of community meetings across the district, neighborhood associations, town halls, chambers of commerce, as we as we discuss. And Councilmember, I'd like to add to that answer. Transportation and you're in my district is so difficult. They need to get there by their own vehicle. Often there's no way to get to many of my facilities by bus. Yeah. Another day, another Uber. Yeah. Okay. So we are ready now to list before us. We have an amendment. Mr. Dunn, would you like to put your amendment forward. As an amendment one? Yes, I would move to remove Amendment One, which is listed on page 115 of your packet, which is just attached to the job description for approval. And that's a job description. It was handed out a couple of minutes ago, so it was on the dais. Okay. So with that a clerk, would you please call for the vote? Oh, we have an amendment. Sorry. Ma'am. I was late. On the amendment. Are those in favor? Amendment number one. Please say I, I those opposed. Nay. Number one is adopted. So we now have before us and 2016 0443 as amended. Would you now please call for the vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Baluchi, Councilmember DEMBOSKY. All right. Councilmember Dunn, I am Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Caldwell side. Councilmember McDermott, High Council member of the Grove. Hi. Hi. Madam Chair. I am chair of the vote is ADA is no nos and council member about D.C. excuse. Okay. So a couple comments. Both of those can be expedited and I believe for consent. That's okay with everybody. So that would be good. We can get this moving right along for those in the listening audience, if you're interested in a job of this category, working with nine fun people and and another great group of staff and the job description will be online shortly and it will be under a motion 2016 0443 so you can look it up. We are definitely looking for some great people to come and do this job. So they'll have big shoes to fill, though. And we'd like to thank Kris Lund for all of her work in doing that. She's been an incredible executive and we appreciate all her years of service launching this agency. Before we end. For those that weren't here, I just wanted to give you a summary of the briefing today on local government. We had a briefing on the issues at File City Park, which is a local park that we as local government oversight over. Last year, they had 26,000 visitors to that park and a huge number of garbage problems which we are working on and will continue to work on. And so we asked people as they go out to the parks to please use the garbage cans appropriately. And secondly, we talked about the pristine parks that the topic today was local parks and that progressing as quickly as possible visioning that was done about four years ago. So we would like to see that proceed as quickly as possible. And then we also had last month a fire road that was taken out by, I believe the state government may have been the federal I'm not sure which government it was. And because of that, it has made our rescues for people who have been injured on those trails much more difficult. And I am very concerned about more of our fire roads being destroyed by the federal or state government and putting more and more of our people in danger. That continues to be a huge problem. People assume that any place in King County, you can call for an ambulance and that is not accurate. And so they get into places that are very difficult to make rest. And without the proper roads, that is making it even worse. So I wanted to alert you to that problem, and hopefully we can write a letter or make some request that this will not continue in the future. So any other business that needs to come before this council member Gossett I. One question for you. Sir. Can you say that the advertising for the King County Flood Control District Executive Director is going to commence immediately? Yes, I hope so. I hope we just did. That was the beginning. And. And then when does it end? So I can tell people. I don't know the answer to that. STAFF When will it end? Upon approval, your the human resources folks will be proposing a time frame, I believe, of three or four weeks, and you'll have specific dates within just a couple of days. And we'll look forward to getting that out to you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And I've already made phone calls to people that I know that might be interested. So I think the broader our information goes out, which is why the reason it's on TV. Hopefully we'll find somebody who would love to do this job and we would love to work with and we've done amazing work. Help me with the number. Before we started this district, there was $3 million a year to deal with the floods in this county. This provided originally it was $36 million a year and there's a lot of that now. I don't remember what it is. Do you remember what it is off the top of your head? It's around 36 million a year. And that you didn't hear. 52 million. 52 million. All right. It's gone up. It's good. 52 million a year and project that. It can be more than that. It's going to be. Depending on how we spend in past years, it can be up to 60 or 60. It just depends on where we are in the project design or the project combination. What's happening? It's very. We put about 400. Money. $440 million on the ground and project since the flood district's inception. Almost to have already almost a half a billion dollars. Say that loud so people can hear that. All the roughly. $440 million in on the ground projects since the inception of the flood districts are approaching half a half a billion dollars. So very significant program. This started in, what, five years ago. That's about seven some years old. Seven years ago. Okay. So seven years ago, we would have had 21 million under the old plan and now it's had almost half a billion, which has made a huge difference in environmental issues as well as flooding issues. So it is a very exciting project to be working on and I'm thankful to all of the supervisors that have worked on that project. With that, the meeting is adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE relating to the city of Kirkland's South Kirkland Park-and-Ride elevator and pedestrian bridge project; approving an interlocal agreement between King County and the city of Kirkland to provide partial funding for the project, and authorizing the King County executive to execute temporary and permanent easements for the project.
king_0a7dac30-6c7a-411a-b62b-48817e298fcc	There were calls to order the June 2nd, 2021 meeting of the King County Council's Committee of the Hall. And as we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands, the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. And as in light of the public health emergency, we will continue to meet virtually. The governor has issued a exemption to the Public Meetings Act requirement that expects we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. So we are meeting virtually today and have noticed the meeting as such and may have a relatively brief meeting today because while we are used to having meetings, having a briefing from the director of the Department of Performance Strategy and Budget, he is on a well-deserved vacation this week, so we won't have that regular briefing. I sort of feel like I'm I don't know, Batman without Robin or Macklemore without Ray Lewis. But we will proceed without Mr. Dave Blake as we get started today. I might ask staff and the public who joined the meeting to keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. And if you planning off in public testimony, I would encourage you to connect via the Zoom application that will make it much easier to have public testimony and comment without a delay and to ensure we can unmute you. With that, madam, I'd invite you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci and Councilmember Dombrowski here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember Coe was there. Councilmember Lambert here at the ground here. On Hightower. Here. Council members. ALL Hello. You're Mr. Chair. Here? Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Vice Chair Don, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes from our 19th meeting. So movement your chair. The minutes of our May 19th meeting are before us. See? No discussion, although some favor. Please say I. I opposed it. Opposed? Nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Madam Clerk, is there anyone on the line for public testimony? I don't believe so. That's correct, Mr. Chair, there does not appear to be anyone for public testimony. All right, with nobody signed in and nobody present to offer testimony. We will advance, he said, scrolling through his notes to item five on the agenda. And that is proposed ordinance 2021 184 I'm in our last meeting. Sam Porter provided a staff report on proposed on the proposed ordinance which would send to the November ballot a proposed proposal to make changes to the Turner's preamble. I miss Porter, can you please rewind and reorient us to the legislation and amendment? Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me okay? We can. Okay, great. Sam Porter, Council Policy Staff. The documents for this item begin on page seven of your packet today. This charter amendment recommended by the Charter Review Commission would propose, including the context of equitable government, a strong urban and rural economy, and a superior quality of life among the counties. Goals in the Preamble to the Charter. Along with making one grammatical correction. The preamble serves as the introduction to the King County Charter and provides a brief statement on the activities, goals and objectives of King County Government. The four changes to the preamble included in proposed ordinance 2020 10184 can be seen in context beginning on page eight of your packet. The first change would insert the words equitable and for all in reference to the operation of King County government. The second change would correct the grammatical error and the spelling of the word ensure. The third change would add, protect and enhance in reference to a healthy, rural and urban environment and economy. And the fourth change would be to insert the goal to promote a superior quality of life. To place this on the November 2nd ballot. The last regular council meeting for adoption is July 28, and the deadline for elections to receive the effective ordinance is August 3rd. There is an amendment to the proposed ordinance to correct grammatical mistake. This amendment is on page 13 of your packet. That concludes my remarks. I'm available to answer any questions and Louise Miller may be on the line. She was the co-chair of the Charter Review Commission. Thank you. I'm checking participants. I don't see Councilmember Miller with us today, though. She was here at our last meeting. And are there any questions, particularly about the proposed amendment? From his porter. See none. DOMBROWSKI Councilmember Dombrowski, thanks again. Thanks, Mr. Chair. And Sam, thanks very much for the report. Do you happen to know I assume we pay a cost like any other government to go on the ballot with a question? Maybe that assumption is wrong, but I'm wondering what the cost to put this forward is. I don't have that information off the top of my head. It would be going on the general election ballot. I think that there's increased costs if it's going on a special election ballot. But I can find out and get back to you. Okay. And we do so we've updated the charter a number of times. And I guess my related question is, I wonder if if there were other charter language updates that would, you know, that we would be doing, whether those could be integrated in that kind of a consolidated proposal to the voters? This one is very specific in the in the preamble, or does it have to be kind of a single subject type rule? I would need to get back to you on that. There may be a single subject issue. Okay. Thank you. Further questions. Council member Belushi. Not a question so much as a comment. Just as a reminder, although it's been briefed before the we have a legal obligation to at least take up all of the recommendations that came from the Charter Review Commission, and they put in a lot of work over a long period of time. There's a short list of recommendations of theirs that we did not put on the ballot. I just want to say that I recommended this one and the next one, because it seemed this one in particular seemed like a is the first words that you read of our Constitution for our government. And I thought that the thought that was put into it was meaningful. And although it's more of a change in tone and direction, it does make the charter a more modern and relevant document to have these words. I think it's a really good question as to whether it's going to actually cost us cash out of pocket to put this on the ballot. I don't believe it does on a November ballot, but it's well worth considering and we have the time to consider it. I don't know if this was considered to be on for action today, but I'd be happy to move it if it is on for action. And then we could, you know, sort of decide what to do at full council based on what we hear about the the cost. But just looking for your guidance here about whether you want to move it or keep it in committee today. Mr. Chair. I have this and the next charter amendment both on the agenda for possible action today, and I would entertain a motion. In that case, I would move. Approval of proposed ordinance 2020 10184 or the due pass recommendation. Councilmember Baldacci has moved to give a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2021 when 84 Councilmember Balducci. MOVE Amendment one. Councilmember Belushi's moved adoption of Amendment One. Councilmember Bell Dutchie. Amendment One has been briefed. It is that it is a fairly technical. Issue for questions on Amendment one two and we didn't get any. Now all those in favor of Amendment one please signify by saying I. I am opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Ordinance 2021 184 as amended. Councilmember Bell. She. Yeah. I think I stated my, my rationale before making the motion, you know, with my usual deep respect for parliamentary procedure. But the I think this is a stronger preamble. I think it is accurate and states what this county is really all about in a better and more direct way. And it brings the preamble to our governing document, our baseline governing document into into modern times, if you will. And I would urge your support. Further discussion. I'm. Councilmember Caldwell's. No, no. Then, madam, quickly, please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member WG. Council Member Dombrowski. I am. Council member Dunn. I. Council Member. Congress council member member. I am council member of the group. I. Council member by night there. Councilmember Bond right there. I. I. Council members are high. I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 124. And this is where I'm going to do some talking and learning out loud in the middle of committee. I mean, if we with next Tuesday, the eighth meeting canceled, if we expedite, does that mean it happens on the 15th and we put it on a regular course of business? Does it happen on the 15th? Does anybody know? I believe it would be on the 15th either way. Okay. So let's not. Confuse anybody and just put it on regular course. Perhaps, Mr. Chair. In one's regular course means it skips one regular meeting and ends up on the 22nd. Wendy can correct me if I am wrong or Jeff, but I believe my suggestion to the one that's one week. It has to be at least one week on regular action. So with the meeting getting skipped, it will still go to that for that next council meeting that's occurring. My suggestion would be to expedite just in case if that is the intent to have it on the 15th. Just so we're really clear then. Then, unless there's objection, we will expedite, which means that it will be on the June 15th Council agenda. Hearing no objection. That's what we will do. And that takes us to item six in today's agenda, proposed ordinance 2021 185 would also send a proposed charter amendment to the November ballot. This would. This deals with the timelines for referendums and initiatives, which was also briefed at our last meeting. We have Jake Treacy from council staff here to reorient us as we want us to this legislation and its amendment. Jake. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jake Treacy Council Staff The materials for 2020 10185 begin on page 14 of your packet. The work for this item was done by Miranda less than ten council staff. I'm just filling in for her today. So, as you'll recall from the last meeting, this item would place on the next general election ballot a proposed charter amendment that would update the charter by making changes pertaining to referendum and initiative timelines and clarifying terms and bringing the charter into compliance with state law. With regards to such timelines, Table one on page 16 of your packet provides a summary of the proposed changes as compared to the current charter language. In addition to technical changes and changes intended to align with state law, the ordinance proposed would specify that initiatives and referenda should appear on the next general election ballot after the respective petition filing timelines have been completed unless the Council specifies an earlier time. Currently, the code says it could go on the next general or a special election ballot. So this will default to general unless council made other arrangements. It would clarify that it is the intent to file a referendum that must be submitted before the original effective date of the ordinance, not the signed petitions themselves. Those will need to be filed with council no later than 45 days after enactment of the ordinance. It would also specify that council cannot adopt an initiative by ordinance and thereby therefore thereby avoid a vote by the public only to immediately adopt the new ordinance amending that language. Any ordinance adopted in response to an initiative petition would not be allowed to be amended or repealed by the Council for two years following the effective date of that ordinance, except by an ordinance adopted by a minimum two thirds vote of all members of the Council. There's also a proposed striking amendment that would make technical and clarifying changes and would make a change so that if a valid referendum petition is submitted to the court from the County Council, the effective date of the ordinance would be 90 days after its enactment, rather than 60 days as proposed in the underlying ordinance and 45 days as is the case currently. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions? Mr. Chair, council member. DUNN Thank you, Mr. Chair. What was the genesis of all this? I missed that. How did this whole process to revise and update these rules relating to the referendum process come to pass was initiated by the Charter Review Commission or someone else? A Yes, that's correct. It was a recommendation of the Charter Review Commission, and I believe the ordinance, as is before you, is in the form that the Charter Commission Review Commission recommended. All right. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Gallucci. Thank you. Just to add a little more context to Councilmember Dunn's question. You may recall, Councilmember Dunn, there was an attempt by a group of citizens to put a measure, an initiative on the ballot on a for an initiative seeking county on the ballot of 2 to 3 years ago. And one of the things that came out during that process was that our rules were contradictory and hard to understand. And in fact, although those residents submitted the requisite number of signatures by the date, they were told they still were too late to make the ballot they were aiming for because our rules did not allow for all of the process steps that were required. And so after that happened, you know, regardless of the substance of that, our process was clearly not working. And so after that, my office and I took it upon ourselves to try to fix the rules which required a change to ordinance and charter. We've already adopted changes to the ordinances, our ordinances to put them in line with state law and each other. This change to the charter would kind of complete the circle of process improvement here so that there is a clear, stepwise path to take to do either an initiative or a referendum in King County. You know, by the way, not a huge fan of this way of legislating, but if we're going to have this is available to people, we should be upfront and honest with them about how long it really takes so that if they put the effort in, they're not told at the end of the day, oops, sorry, you can't go on the ballot anyway. So that that's a little bit more of the flavor of it. Thanks for that clarification. That's helpful. Lambert because remember Lambert. Real quick questions. Why do we move from 45 days for it to become effective to 90 days? My understanding is that that was requested by the executive side or it was it was so that there was enough time on staff's part in order to do the processing. But the sponsor might have more information on that. Because it seems that when people are doing this, they want to do it as quickly as possible. And so that seems like an awfully long time. And then when we're talking about notifying the clerk and writing a we defined writing. I know we talked about this before, but I do writing to include by email. I would have to follow up with you on that. I believe that they accept it by email, but I can confirm that. Okay. And then my last question is on page seven. It's. Because he's 17. They find it where they were talking about it real quick again are. You have to go on. Only the general ballot. Yes. The last part under 30.50 on page 17. The last bullet specified in Mississippi are only a general election unless the council specifies an earlier date. So. It seems a little redundant in some ways because it is a target, but we could pick any date we want. So explain why that's called out so clearly. And do we have authority? Supposing a city says, I really want this done quickly and I want it on April ballot. And for some reason we don't like whatever that is. We're sorry we had to wait till the November ballot. Is that a possibility that they could create? So I can say that the the existing rules say it goes on either the next special or the next general election ballot, whichever one comes first. So and this would go to just the next general election ballot, unless the council unless the council said, yes, it's going to go into a special election prior to that. So it would be up to the council to decide if it can go on an earlier date or if it defaults to the general election ballot. I think that was a recommendation that came out of the Charter Review Commission. All right. Thank you very much. You're very welcome. See no further questions. Council member Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to move that. We approve a proposed motion 2020 10185 with a do pass recommendation. Councilor Reason is House. Member Bill Duty has moved it. We give it to pass. Recommendation to propose motion ordinance 2021 185. Councilmember Balducci. I understand there is also an amendment. I don't know if would like to brief that first or have me move it first. I believe Jake spoke to it. You know, it just it is striking the amendment S1 on page 31. Yes. Moving on to S1. S1 is before us. See no discussion. All those in favor of approving amendment S1 please signify by saying. Ii1i. Opposed nay. The ayes have it and the amendment is adopted for the discussion on ordinance 2021 185 as amended. Mr. Charles, speak to a. Council member about duty. Thank you. As I said earlier, this is really the end of a kind of a journey of legislative cleanup we've been on to make sure that these processes are clear and implementable so that if and when groups of residents go to the effort to either run a referendum or initiative in King County, our rules make sense and they can be understood. We created a Gantt chart, which I will gladly share with anybody that shows sort of when all the steps have to happen in order. The elections is very much on board with clarifying these processes, so it's really clear what they have to do and when. Sometimes in these processes, the council has a role. It's clear what we have to do and when it just makes it possible for residents to access their government in this way. In response to one of Councilmember Lambert's questions, what the the amended ordinance would do if adopted into the charter by the voters is it would extend the entire process to a total of 90 days instead of a total of 60 days. So it's long, but it's not really ridiculously long. And the reason is to allow election 40 days to verify signatures. That sounded like a lot to me too, when election proposed it. But when I thought about it and listening to what they were saying, often the need to verify very large stacks of many, many thousands of signatures hits around the same time as they're working on an election, and they don't have people hanging around just to sit down and do this work. So to make sure that they were allowed ample time and could always meet their deadlines, this was what they thought was was required. And because the goal of this whole change is to make sure that we can meet our marks and that if we tell somebody who comes in with a petition, if you do everything you're supposed to in 90 days, you will be able to get on the November ballot. We want to be able to make that statement and make it true. And so this allows ample time so that we can always feel confident that we can do that. And that's the entire purpose of the change. I really appreciate the charter commission taking this up and looking at it very closely and passing it on to us because it does complete a path that we were already on to really fix one of our one of our one of our operating processes that we have here at King County Government. And I urge everyone support. For the discussion. Just a quick. Question, if I might, Mr.. Councilmember, about. This touches on an inquiry that Councilmember Lambert raised, and that is that kind of default to the next general election. And I wondered if there was kind of a pro and con assessment of that. I think of that initiative and referendum was kind of coming out of the populist movement. If my memory if my history serves me correctly, it's kind of a Western states thing and it's kind of it's designed as the ultimate testing of power in the people when their elected representatives maybe get a little sidetracked from what the majority wants on on a key issue. And, and, and I when I think about that, I it seems like that that a defaulting to the next general election could really lengthen the process for the people's voice to be heard on an issue of of major importance. And I understand that that there's a counter to that in this legislation where we could we could put it on a special ballot or a primary, for example. But that kind of seems to be counter to the general thrust of the initiative and referendum power. And so I'm wondering what the discussion was in the Charter Review Commission about that issue of defaulting to the to the next general, which is different than what we do today, as I understand it goes on the next election ballot. Unfortunately, Councilmember, I do not have that information in front of me. I'm sure if Miranda was here today, she would be able to give you a thorough background on that. But I'll be happy to follow up with you on that. Okay, Jeff, maybe it was chiming in there perhaps or wanting to. I was just going to say the exact same magnitude. All right. I guess I would say I'd be supportive today, but I'm interested in that angle as we take it up at full council and make sure that we're comfortable with that. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski. And not knowing the thinking of the charter review commission at all. It occurs to me that with the turnout in the general election, there's certainly more of the electorate, more of the public participating in that decision than in a primary and certainly than in a special election. But that's my own thinking at this moment, not at all representing what the term review commission may have been thinking. Fair point. Thank you, Joe. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Lambert. I'm glad you're at least talking about this, because sometimes the November ballot can be very long, very complicated, and people are working on big ticket items and this might be a down ticket item and not get the scrutiny that it might get a smaller election and that the cost of elections, you know, people are pretty clear about , well, I don't want to be the only thing like Councilmember DEMBOSKY asked earlier on, what does it cost? Because if you're going to go on, say, a primary election date, you have most likely other people just to share the costs with you. You don't have more people as a general, but you may have less scrutiny because there'll be more attention on other things. So it could be good and it could be bad. And so I think having the flexibility of the citizens being able to decide, is it better for me to be able to have more bandwidth or is that better for me? Not so. I think it's a good thing to at least think about. Thank you. Councilmember Mel Duchin, anything to close? I appreciate the discussion, and I think these are issues that we can take up on final passage. If that anyone has any amendments. I just urge them to really think ahead and make sure, because there's a number of hands that have to touch these processes, including elections, our own clerk's office, etc.. So if we're going to make changes to this, I really encourage that people check with those folks in-depth as early as possible, because I find that with any like with any process, if you pull the string here, things might happen over here that you're not thinking about. And as I said, the goal of this entire thing is to make the process manageable, clear and doable so that it is a reliable thing for anybody who undertakes this, which is a significant amount of effort. So, yeah, I appreciate the discussion and everyone support I urge yes. Vote here today. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And quickly, please call the roll. Was there a vote on this breaking amendment? I may have missed that. Pardon me. I have it documented that there was a vote on my amendment. Great. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi, I. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. I. Councilmember Caldwell's i. Councilmember Lambert, i. Councilmember of the ground. Councilmember the girl. Councilmember Yvonne Recover. I. Council members. Hello? I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight zero now. Council member of the group. Excused. Thank you. Councilmember at the Grove. Are you able to unmute? Not at the moment. Then we will be in touch with his office if he wants to follow up before the end of the day as our procedures for remote meetings allow. And without having no other business before us, I guess I should be clear. The motion is adopted and will be expedited to the June 15th Council meeting. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you.	AN ORDINANCE proposing to amend the Preamble to the King County Charter to include among the charter goals, equitable government, a strong urban and rural economy and superior quality of life and to make a grammatical correction; and submitting the same to the voters of the county for their ratification or rejection at a special election to be held in conjunction with the November 2, 2021, general election.
king_586a133f-4fdb-4bf6-9f9e-9ddfc98f632e	And get this meeting underway. And welcome everyone to the July 28, 2020 remote meeting of the Committee of the Whole. I am Reagan Dunn and I am privileged to serve as Vice Chairman of the committee that all Chair McDermott had a pressing matter that he had to attend to. And as you all know, he is. Attendance is like 99.9. He never misses a meeting, but he had to on this occasion and he's got some other stuff you take care of. So I stepped in as my role of Vice Chair to take care of the meeting. If it goes longer than about for customer about this issue will take over because I am privileged to be able to celebrate my son's 11th birthday this week and I can't believe he's 11. It's going fast. So in light of the public health emergency, the governor has issued an order suspending the section of the Open Public Meeting Act that requires we have a physical space for public to watch our meetings. The order has been extended by leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives. And before we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we were on the traditional lands of the Puget Sound, Salish peoples, past and present. We thank them for having us here today. We have a briefing from Patty Hayes, director of Public Health, and Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget on the county's COVID 19 response. Will then have a briefing about the 2020 point in time count, followed by a discussion of possible action on an ordinance that would make Juneteenth a county holiday. I think we'll have a briefing on that. And the last item on the agenda is the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account, or SGA or Posta. Some folks are calling it an implementation plan. I do not anticipate we'll have action on that today. I'd like to remind my colleagues that after this meeting the floor district will be meeting. So you want to stay on the line after Cao adjourns two housekeeping notes before getting started. First of those wishing to provide public comments at today's meeting, please be aware that we'll be taking up public comment following the first briefing on our agenda. Please stay on the line. Second, to help us manage the meeting, I like to ask the public comment as well as the executive and council staff. Please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. So those are my introductory share notes drafted by somebody else, and they're very fine now with all of that fun stuff. So I'll ask the court to please call the roar. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi, Councilmember Tim Barsky. Here. Councilmember Dunn or Mr. Chair. Mayor Order still here. Councilmember Caldwell's Herb Alpert member member here, council member of the Grove here. Councilmember Yvonne. Right down. Here. Council members only. Dear. Councilmember McDermott. Welcome, Mr. Chair. Thank you. We have a quorum. Councilmember Grove, if you might, the minutes of live 14, 2020 been put? The facts. Would you be comfortable moving those minutes, please? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the minutes of July 14, 2020 be approved. All right. Very well. They're before us all in favor of improving the minutes. Please say I. I opposed. They are hereby approved. Let's move on to public comment. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone wishing to provide public comment at this time? Councilmember Daniels is Wendy, did you want to go to the briefing first with Patty Heath and Dwight Avery? Wendy, I absolutely did want to do that. Thank you for the very gentle reminder. As I said. You're welcome. Low tech man in a high tech world era. We're just trying to get through it. But someone who is high tech. It's quite timely. The CEO of the county and let's see let's hear what he has to say and other guests. Are you there? And can you hear me? We're going to do it together. Okay. Hey, Dwight. How are you, sir? I'm doing great. And I think because he has another appointment, Andy Hayes was actually going to go first, and then I'll follow her. Well, what? We're thrilled and privileged to have Patti. He's on as well. Patti, are you there? Well, I am. Thank you so much. Patti. Directly, I can never be called high tech. So let me just be clear. High tech. You look high tech. How are you holding up? Doing okay. Taking it day by day, just like all of you right now. So thank you for having me today. I really appreciate the opportunity to give a bit of an update. I do have some slides that will come up, I think if the staff on screen share those. Actually, apologies, Patti. So we do not have screen sharing and zoom. Oh, that's right. You set your. Yes. So we are in the PDF that Angelica sent out this morning about 1008. So this will require the ultimate in my multitasking that may or may not go great. So I'm Mr. Chair. You're what you do which can. I got some crayons. I could draw a little graphs if you want. Do what you care. I love team tagging, as you know. All right. Let me start out with just a general overview of where we're at with the outbreak. So as many of you know, we are have been in an upward trend since the 1st of June. We've actually quadrupled in the number of cases we've been having. And Dr. Duchin and I've been watching very closely about where those cases are, what the changes are, and particularly since we're not meeting the metric on the number of cases, how it's impacting the rest of the system. So in the last week, we've had about 1200 cases, which is a 6% increase from the previous week. But I will say I talked to Dr. Duchin this morning, and he and I are both seeing what appears to be sort of a it's a leveling off. But I'll just say it appears that we're channeling within a new range that goes upwards around 180 cases a day or so. When you look at our metrics, you can see that we're clearly in that upper range. We're still at a point because we are doing so. Our testing has increased so much. We're ranging about 3 to 5% of those tested are positive. That is pretty expected. If you look at the national, except for places that are in really serious trouble, like Florida and Arizona, where those positive tests went up dramatically. The good news I will tell you all is that hospitalizations have really. Ben. Okay. We've had an increase of. But the numbers are very low. So they've been relatively flat over the past five weeks. And Dr. Duchin wanted me to let you know that he still believes that there's a time lag in when we're going to see an increase. But it's it's actually very positive news that it's been four weeks since we began to open up and that we haven't seen what looks like a huge surge in the hospitalizations. So we're going to be watching that very carefully because they're going up kind of like like that and not like that, which is what was happening in other states. So the deaths remain flat. It's always a tragedy for every day when I see that there are deaths from COVID, but it's been relatively low for the for the past five weeks. Actually, last week it was five and then an overall total of 640 deaths so far from this horrible pandemic. So I want to just stop there and just thank each of you for your leadership. I see you all on Twitter and in your spaces promoting the things that need to be done, which is helping our residents who are very traumatized. We're all traumatized by this, but helping them know that doing facial coverings, encouraging people to physically distance, which is so hard. Encouraging folks to stay home if they're ill. And of course, that very important thing of using hand sanitizer when they can't wash their hands. So I know you all have been champions and I can't thank you enough from the bottom of my heart. It makes such a huge difference. And I would say that we're managing as well as we are because we have great elected leaders like you are, that we're all hanging together. So I know that you had some questions on testing. So if you want to go to the slides, we have. There's been a lot on the national news about testing delays and problems in in many places. So I wanted to clarify where where we're at right now. So we have seen some longer wait times to get tests. I saw the stories out of Auburn, which it's really unfortunate. We have seen a surge in interest. And one of the things we're trying to make sure is that we're continuing to look at where we need to put increased capacity. Seattle has been a great partner with the Seattle Fire Department, and that has spurred interest by other fire departments. And so we're working on how to expand in areas with great partners. You'll see that we actually expanded testing to where we're doing upwards 25,000, 30,000 a week. And that is so great compared to where we were, I think, last time I met with you all. So I'm very proud of that. It's not enough. We're trying to actually, as you'll see on the slide, double that. And as I said, particularly look at areas where we know there are disparities to place testing there. Our goal right now is that we want to look over the next month or so and get new sites, particularly at the county and on the east side in the city of Seattle's working on one or two new sites in and around Seattle, at least one in the south. And there's a slide that shows the test per week and the new cases per week. That's just to let you just see how the numbers work. But the next slide is really important. You'll see that. We've had a target to look at where we need to place these. And so the team looks at the incident rate that is occurring and then puts it over lay to where we know the testing is happening. And as you'll see, it's very clear that what we need to do is to concentrate on the South Seattle area. So and Seattle and South King County excuse me. So that's why we are working so diligently with partners. And one of the things that we have the opportunity to do is to partner more closely with our community health centers. Many of you have a great relationship with the local community health centers in your in your district. And so we're working with that whole council. They come together every Friday as a council to talk about how they can work to serve their community and look at what we call open access sites. So that's another opportunity we have, particularly in the South End, with our strong partnerships. So why don't. Mr. Chair, why don't I stop there just in case there's questions around testing? Because I'm going to talk about contact tracing next. Okay, Patty, thanks. Council members asking questions. Patty on testing issues. Yvonne, Dave, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to first preface my question with a comment. I appreciate your willingness, Madam Director, to join me in doing some social media outreach with my cat in my district to promote the importance of testing. And so one of the things we talked about in our social media was exactly what you just mentioned, that need for testing in the South. And you you mentioned that there seems to be an acknowledgment of that need. And it's something that our office has talked with yours about over time. What are the barriers right now? In other words, to be blunt, what what's taken so long? And what can I do as a council member to help facilitate the implementation of more testing? And the reason I think it's important is exactly what I think you've been acknowledging is how this is exacerbating the existing inequalities, the racial disparities that exist in these diverse communities. We see the highest rates and I guess I'm just anxious. So what can I do to help and what are the barriers that are keeping us from getting some more sites deployed in the South? Yeah, well, they're the answer to your question about what the holdup is. As you all recall in the beginning of this, the access to testing kits has been a real challenge, and that I'm really grateful to say, is getting better. We are seeing two things happening at the national level, which is super unfortunate, and we're trying as fast as we can to work with partners so that we don't experience the same thing. There is a national shortage of a reagent, a very particular reagent that's necessary for the COVID test. We were alerted by the University of Washington to that effect, and we've been able to work with the University of Washington, but also find sort of alternatives that are using other methods so that it's it's slowing our expansion down a little bit because we can't open a site and then not have I don't want to build up expectations and then not be able to have it open. So we've been managing this national problem with this reagent shortage. The second thing is over overall, we need to watch our lab capacity. Now, that's about the ability for the labs to handle the onslaught. And what happened with a number of the national labs, particularly with the surge in cases in the south of the country, is coming at some of these companies who are serving nationally, their labs are serving nationally. We're overwhelmed. And when you heard the the things on the national news that it could take up to four weeks to get lab results, we can't have that here that that blows up all of the integrity of our strategy. And so we have been working to make sure that we're focused on labs that are local and that have an agreement with us that we are prioritizing Washington State here. So again, that isn't the happiest of news to say. That's why it's been a little slow getting some of these sites up. And then the second thing is, we've been watching a change in in where this outbreak is seeded and it's now in younger people. It's now more in the south. And we know it affects our bipoc community. And so we have been over the last month bringing on into our teams, community health workers and navigators from the community to help with the messaging. Because the second barrier is where are people comfortable to going. So getting to a testing site can be a barrier. That's why I like to partner with our community health centers because oftentimes people are used to going there, but also people want these drive thru sites, but there's also people that can't do that. So we're looking at expanding our mobile capacity as well as drive thru sites, as well as using open access points like our community health centers. So it's a combination of all those things. Mr. Chair? Yes. Councilmember Lamour. Thank you, everybody, for all you're doing and for your courage walking through these amazing times. I think a couple of things. You know, people aren't aware or are saying that they will when they think they have symptoms to quarantine themselves until they know for sure they don't. And what you just said a minute ago about it taking several weeks, it's very difficult. Ask somebody to quarantine yourself for a couple of weeks. If you don't know, you already have it. It's a lot easier if you know you already have it than if you don't. And so I think getting that message out again, that's important. The message that I'm hearing that I was really surprised about is people saying the test is painful and I don't know what they're thinking, but. It's not what I expected because it was not equal. So I think figuring out why people are saying that was it and all kind of tests and a new test doesn't have that or what. But I think getting over the fear of that is going to be important. A big change, the test so that the cotton swabs, not as long as it used to be. So let me address the first thing that you mentioned. We need your help getting those messages out. So just continue to help me with that Dr. Duchin puts out and so does the State Department of Health notification to providers on when to get testing. Remember people and it shows and the next slide I'm going to be going to on contact tracing that people can be shedding the virus two days before the onset of symptoms. So the minute somebody gets symptoms, they need to get tested. And we are trying to get that message out that that I will take that back and use that as one of our key messages for one of our ambassador call outs in the next week or so. And then, you know, there are different tests. There are some that go deeper up your nose, so to speak. And I can I know that there are people that have very sensitive in that area. So I can see why that there are some that aren't so far back. They're developing new tests that are actually the Mariners are using actually a test where they're having their players spit and they test through that. So there's all sorts of advancement happening in that area. I haven't heard a lot of complaints about it hurting. It's not if it's a if it's a deep nasal swab, it's not a pleasant experience. But that's too bad that you heard that. Thank you. Just ask one last question. Since our hospitals are not increasing and we were at 60% capacity, but we were acquiring hospitals. And I've been following the data every day. Would it be possible to allow the hospitals that they know that have to report early to say, okay, for the next three days you can go to 80% so that they can start getting more of their backlog of their calling and elective surgeries end so that they can be helping the people who don't have COVID but need surgery and moving up a little bit. So can we look at this as, yeah, this is a standard that's set by the state and it's always in discussion with the network. So that that is something that I know they dynamically look at all the time in terms of what they are allowing to do and what might be possible. And of course, every area like Pierce County is having a big spike right now. And I don't know how their hospitals are doing, but a good a good partner like Multi Care, which is really centered in Pierce County and then in the south. And they have to be mindful of what's going on across the county border for themselves. So I know the network is watching that closely. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert, other questions from Councilmembers Dombrowski. Oh, go ahead, Rod. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Patty, thank you so much for your work and for keeping us updated and for your kind words. I want to thank the Health Department for its mask distribution events around the county and in particular the one going on right now until 5 p.m. today up in the shoreline at the district court site on Meridian, where folks, if you need a cloth mask and or disposable, you can go up and do a drive through and get some. I had a suggestion which I passed on to you from a constituent. A constituent of one of ours. I'm not sure he's in my district, but with respect to mask distribution, which seems to be the dominant strategy to try to curb the spread of this. The county, I think, is doing a great job acquiring these and getting them out to folks in need. But perhaps if we could have them at fire stations or some public building spread throughout the county and I say PA stations because they are widespread and always open where folks they can't make an appointed time or can't get to one of our social service partners, but if the inmates could go in and get them and so I wanted to pass that on to you for your consideration. And then my my question is, as we are learning constantly about this disease, this bug virus, and we've seen different strategies and approaches around the world and around the country, it seems like some states like Florida and Arizona, have had these massive surges that we've not had here. And I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about the top takeaways or lessons learned from other places that have approached the response differently to ensure that we kind of keep a keep a handle on this until we get to the vaccine. Yeah, I appreciate that question. I think a number of elements have led and I'm going to knock on wood here that we have done as well as we have. First of all, being at the epicenter in the very beginning, we had CDC out here. So I think we really benefited from having their presence here for the weeks they were here. We helped shape the response for the rest of the country. A lot of the country didn't follow the learnings from here. So number one, I think secondly, this is back to compliment you all. I think we have had a unity of elected officials in the state that the whole country should look to. And thank all of you for supporting the health department and for following the science. The words of encouragement I've gotten from all of you that I share with my staff keeps keeps us going and is so very important . We've had bold leadership to go ahead and respond early. I remember the first time early on in the outbreak where Dr. Duchin was saying, I really this is when we didn't know much. But he was just I really think we need to pull back and shut some things down. And when he brought that forward, everybody just said, we're going to follow what science we have right now. We're going to do it. So I really think that that's an encouraging lesson. The national media continues to come out and want to do stories here on the lessons learned. So I think we can be proud and we just need to keep village vigil because people are tired. They're tired of. Not seeing their family. They're tired of not being able to congregate. It's it's really going to be the long haul. Well, thank you very much. And I recall sitting in a restaurant where kind of the early thinking on that was coming out, kind of leaking out like, well, we might have to have spacing in a restaurant or certain percentages. And my reaction was, you're kidding, right? Shutting restaurants down. And my how far we've come in terms of the change of of knowledge and understanding. But it sounds like with respect to specific strategies, you're saying wear the mask, wash their hands socially distance and. Yeah, I reaffirmed that with Dr. Duchin just this morning. You seen Dr. Redfield, the head of CDC, really emphasize masking. But Jeff again feels it's so essential to have the combination of the the physical distancing, giving that space with the mask coverings, with their extra hand-washing, hand sanitizer, and then staying home when you're ill. I mean, those four things go together. All right. Thank you, Katie. And thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Dombrowski. Others for the comments. Sure. Yes, Jeannie, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Patty, thank you for the always very terrific and informative presentation. I'm wondering about the contact tracing. Is there any need for recruiting additional volunteers or. I don't covered. That's great. So if you want to look in your packet, I have just a few slides on that. And because of time, what I'll just say is that we are building our model on contact tracing. We were fortunate to have 750 qualified people submit their interest to us when we did a call for applications. We're trying to onboard and it takes orientation and then some team teamwork to onboard people. We're trying to onboard about ten staff a week. You'll see in the slides that we're doing because our numbers spike so much. By this time, I was hoping to be able to report to you that we were handling 100% of our own cases right now, but we're still having to partner with the state right now. So we're doing somewhere between 45, 50% of our cases. The state does the others. Then the state refers back to us for local work to help case management folks who have to stay and be monitored. Our goal is by the early fall to have enough staff. So when we continue to have the numbers up that we can go ahead and and do our own. So right now, we've got enough people in the wings who are actually qualified. Have some background in all this and excited to help us out. All right. Great. Thanks, Jeannie. Any other questions? Patty, just tell us some part, your presentation or you concluded. I think just in lieu of time here. I'm happy to answer any more questions. You have the slides, and I. I hit my my head, my big points. Okay. Thanks, Patty. Let me just say that this council has disagreed on a lot of things over the years and even this year. But COVID 19 is really not one of them. And we have been, I think, unanimous in our desire to follow the science. And the science is fairly clear. And the social distancing and communities that are locked down now, I suspect, will be the ones that will be the first to emerge out of the pandemic. And we've seen what happens in places like Florida and Texas and others that sort of just refuse to do the necessary tough work. It's just there. And so I appreciate the fact that we're all on board and supporting you and and know that, no, nobody is working harder than you. And and and Dwight Daly and others on the front lines of the pandemic. So know that you have broad bipartisan support behind you as you do your work and will do all we can to translate outward constituencies and try and try and make Seattle the first place to really recover across the state. Yeah. I'm sorry about that. Ye. Yeah, I know you were rapping, and I just want to put a question out, not for answering right now, but to follow up on. And I'd second all the comments about the great public partnership that we had as different branches of government. And I'm really proud of the way we've supported our public health professionals. I still struggle, Patty, to understand the metrics around contact tracing. I see here we've got a percentage of how much we're doing versus how much washed out is different. I watch that. I see where my head is, the state is doing, but I, I would love to understand better and maybe we can talk after about like, where's the demand, where's like the, the point at which we have enough testing, enough test availability to to collect the tests, to process the tests versus the incidents in the community that we can then do contact tracing. So that it seems to me that the next big step for us in containing the virus and really starting to move towards more normal operations as a society, is this idea of identifying, isolating and and quarantining people with cases. And you can't do that until our contact tracing is. I mean, it seems like there's a combination of things like the cases need to be low enough. The the the testing needs to be fast enough and plentiful enough. And I feel like we're still very far away from that. And I don't I don't have a sense of how you measure these things. And I would love to get that sense. And let me let me suggest a couple of things, because I think you're you are identifying one of the big issues with coronavirus. So let me let me say it this way, but let me first suggest, Mr. Chair, next let's have Dr. Duchin, because he would love to engage in this conversation, because right now what I can tell tell you is that the scientists are really in an interesting debate around contact tracing. It is a major problem that this virus can transmit to days before symptomatology. The fact that you can spread it and be out two days and then by the time you're ill, it may take you a day to even go. I'm not feeling well. Holy, holy smokes. I better go get tested. There's another day. You get it done. Then the turnaround, even if it's like ideal slam dunk, is going to at least be 24 hours to public health. So by the time we get the information. We're already four or five days out there. And this is one of the big pieces you're going to hear, Jeff, talk about why containment is never going to be enough. The success for this virus is not going to be containment. Where containment is really important is when a business in your district is having an outbreak that they partner with us to contain it in that business. Absolutely essential our our work with others around for that. But this struggle we're having with we want to go ahead and contain and yet we really need society to do life differently . Right now is a walk we're going to be on as we find our way through this virus. So there is no perfect metric on contact tracing because of what I just described. But I'm going to say that Jeff will do it so much better and from the actual real time science as he's learning it. So I'd love to bring him back. Great. Thank you. I will love to have Jeff come whenever he wants to. We thank him for his work. Let me just ask this, Patti. What is the current science saying between the time from exposure till the time someone becomes symptomatic, starts to feel the symptoms? How long is that on average are we seeing. So Jeff would say that I believe the average is still potentially around 4 to 5 days. So it's in that early critical. But the majority of the people showing symptoms, it's a little later. So it's this range. He'll talk to you about this range. But I know that he he is seeing some differences in some age ranges on how that works as well. So live science, really interesting time to be alive, isn't it, folks? Yeah, it sure is. Panay really trying to stay alive to best we can. We appreciate your work and leadership, Patty. Thanks for being here. We know you got to work. You got to do so. You can you can you can take off in. Then if there are budget and funding request, make sure Dwight knows about it so that we can discuss them again. Dwight and I are in active conversations a lot of the time, so. They tend to be in conversation with I have learned. All right, bye bye. Thank you, Patty and Dwight, a celebrity even put a tie on for us. We're so glad to have you. So is Congress going to cut those another trillion dollar check for us? What's the status of the funding? Okay, that's on my list. Council members. So for the record, Dwight Believe, director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. So I actually thought I would share six things with you all this morning. I would this afternoon I would label two of them as bad news, two of them as interesting news, and two of them as good news. And so my thought would be to start with bad and go to good if that's acceptable. Okay. Councilmember Lambert agreed. So that's enough for me. So let's start with the July sales tax, which we just received. So again, recall that the way the state does sales tax, you get it about two months after people have actually paid it. So the payment we get in July is for business activity. In May, our July 2020 sales tax payment was 23% less than July of 2019. And since we assumed there would be some growth, that's something like 27 or 28% below what we would have forecast pre-COVID, which is pretty much in line with what we have expected . Not surprisingly, there's a lot of variation. Construction activity, which was still in that partial shutdown phase, was down 30%. Traditional retail was down only 8% because a lot of people had shifted to online purchasing. And a combination of restaurants and hotels was down 71%, with hotels down something like 90%, not surprisingly. So our July sales tax was was really bad, but not worse than we really expected. So, again, pretty much trending along the way, we we thought it would. I think we have postponed the August revenue forecast, which is the one that we used to do the budget as late as we can in August. We're planning on adopting it at the Forecast Council on August 25th. And the idea is to have as much information as we can, particularly the August sales tax, by the time we actually adopt the forecast. So I will pause there. That was item one and see if people have any questions about that. As members questions on that point. Not good. Could be better. All right, keep going. Do it. Okay. So I am him to the second part of the bad news. And I wanted to do this because Director Hayes was just fine with you. I want people to start to recognize that sitting here today, we have no money to pay for continued testing, contact tracing and the additional epidemiological work we're doing, the outreach work we're doing, the shelter, the intensification the DCH has done. There is no money to do that after December 31st of this year. We have not built that into our general fund projections. We do not have a commitment of federal or state money for that. And so and we're still working through the numbers, but that's probably something between 50 and $100 million for 2021 if we have to continue to do all of those things for another year. So depending on how the federal stuff works out, depending on how our regular 2122 budget works out this fall, I think you're going to have some very difficult choices to make about how we balance continuing to do all those things we need to do with all the other things that county government is supposed to do. And so I just want to make sure that that is on your radar. It's not something we have to deal with right now, but it will be something depending on what happens with the federal government, particularly then we may have to deal with in the fall. So I will pause there and see if people have answered questions about that. Questions about the fact that we have no money after December 31st. That I want to. Go ahead. Does that 50 to $100 million include the quarantine and isolation and the intensification sites? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Like the Grim Reaper. Why do you keep going and help me? Got some good news somewhere in there. Remember, the last two are good news. Okay, so let's move into interesting news. So the next two fall in the category of interesting. So many of you have asked me of the CARES Act. More flexible money that we receive. So recall this is the $262 million we got that is available under current law this year and only this year, and only for incremental costs associated with responding to COVID. So many of you have asked me kind of where are we in the process of spending that 262 million? And again, there's always the complication that we've talked about so many times that there are things that we're spending that are eligible for FEMA reimbursement, which now has been extended into September. So that's good news. That are also eligible for the CARES Act and of course will try to get FEMA first and then anything that isn't covered. We have to use the CARES Act money for. And there of course are also costs that FEMA does not cover that we are looking to the CARES Act for. So there's always this vagueness that we don't know exactly how much we're going to get from FEMA versus how much we need for CARES Act. But having said that. Of the 262 million, you have a. About 106 million that we do not think would be eligible for FEMA reimbursement. So there's about 106 that always or has been appropriated. Most of that has not been spent. I'll just be clear. But it has been appropriated. We are setting aside about $20 million so far for matching for FEMA, because, remember, FEMA only covers. And of the costs. And we are setting aside about $10 million for things that we thought would be cares act eligible that ultimately turn out not to be because there's there's things where a contract wasn't written in the right way and so some of it is not eligible. So that's kind of a risk reserve that we've set aside. So if you subtract those things, you end up with something like 126 million that is currently. On appropriated and unallocated. There are all kinds of ideas about how to spend that. We've talked a lot about our ability under federal law to shift some of our staff who are working on COVID over to that federal money, which would free up resources in the general fund and community human services funds and the public health fund, etc. We are needing money to continue the isolation and quarantine facilities that Councilmember Banducci asked about for the rest of the year. We're needing money to continue the hotel leases and the hotel vouchers that we've done for shelter intensification. There's a lot of interest in some of the grant program areas, which I'll talk about a little more later for additional funding. In those areas, there's a patty. He's brought up the idea of additional outreach and testing facilities and so on. So there's all kinds of claimants on that next 126 million that is still probably available. We are we just received from agencies their latest round of proposals for the supplemental that we will send you in August. The amount we received is more than the money that is left. So already we're going to have to start making some difficult choices about that. And that's before I get to my next point, which I'll share with you about what the federal government is doing in response to Councilmember Dunn's question. So I'm going to pause there and just give you a sense that is kind of where we are today with the CARES Act money. Thank you for that. Questions from council members. All right. Go ahead and continue. Thanks. Okay. So item four on my list and this is the federal government. So I assume most of you were aware it is. About a month ago the House passed a new COVID response bill of $3 trillion has all kinds of things in it unemployment insurance extensions, health care, all kinds of things. For our purposes today, it included $1 trillion of funding that would go to state and local governments for both COVID response and to cover lost revenues. That's a lot of money. We don't know exactly how it would be distributed, but obviously, no matter how it's distributed, a significant amount of that would come to King County, and that would help us a lot with our continued costs and with our lost revenue and general fund in the middle fund in the Metro Transit Fund, etc.. So that's the House bill. Yesterday, the Senate put out a proposal and passed it. Yet that is only $1 trillion has some similar features. There is money for unemployment extension, not as much as in the House bill, and it has some different features, like some business liability protection, but it has $0 for state and local government. And a smaller amount to continue testing and other programs. So they basically started from the point of state and local governments aren't going to get any more money. But what they did, which in some sense is really good but in another sense makes things even more complicated, is they said, okay, well, we've already appropriated money through the CARES Act, the state and local governments, and so we will make it more flexible and we will allow you to continue to use it on COVID response, but we will also allow you to use some of it for lost revenue. And we will extend the time period for which you can use it. And in our particular case, that time period would go through March of 2022, not 2021. So basically another 120 months from now, it would be allowed. Now the. Flexibility is nice. It would have been nice to know that four months ago the problem of getting flexibility now is if that's where Congress ends up, then the executive and the council are faced with this real challenge of Do we spend the money today on things we need now, which is what we expected to do ? Do we do less of that in order to have money available next year to help cover some of the costs that we face that we don't have money for, for testing and isolation and quarantine and so on? Do we use some of the money to offset the revenue losses we've suffered so we don't have to have as big a budget cuts? And. We're probably going to have very little notice if that's what they decide to do, because everything I'm hearing is they feel like they need to do a bill before they go on recess in August. So whatever final decision they make in their final legislation, we probably won't know until roughly the time we transmit this next oh, that omnibus to you and Councilmember Coles and Dombroski and I had a little conversation about this last Thursday. I don't have a brilliant idea about how to manage this other than if we end up in this more flexible space, but particularly if we end up there was no new money from the feds. I think this is just going to be really, really hard. So I want you to all start worrying about that. It's interesting because it gives us more flexibility, which is what we usually want, but it makes things a whole lot more complicated. So I will stop there and see what thoughts people have about that. Well, as usual, Congress is sometimes making it harder than it needs to be. Obviously, we're not going to get the funding shortfall filled with a bake sale or something like that. So we will continue to. For us all with our members of Congress to get serious about providing the funding that they need. It seems to me that what what is Congress rolled out of us? Six, 7 trillion. And what is the total amount they've appropriated? I, I think you're right. It's close to six, if I remember right. And that doesn't include some of the existing federal resources that were redirected is part and parcel with their missions like FEMA. Yeah, correct. It's like we built half the car. But we're not going to fund the from the rear windshield back at work, too. Well, the problem is, look, if you're going to commit to a huge funding stream in the trillions to deal with a pandemic, you don't shut off the faucet at the very height of the pandemic . You have to follow through. So anyway, we may have diversity of opinions on the issue, but let me see if others have questions or comments to Dwight on that point. And Cathy, if we did bake sale, your cookies would sell. I know that, but I don't think it's going to make up the shortfall. Okay, great. Dave, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a just since you said you want to know our thoughts. Happy to share some with you in with our budget chairs. I think we're going to have to maintain, obviously, some flexibility and ability to for us to pivot from even a transmitted budget. I would think because my gut instinct would be if we have the ability to use some of this to close our holes next year, then we should spend less of it this year versus spend a whole bunch right now and then just whack everything. Even. Deeper after the first of the year strikes me as something that could cause more harm and not be in the public interest as much as. Spreading out our investments over time to prevent those deeper cuts. So but if we don't know that until the time you've transmitted your budget, I just I just think that we ought to kind of be planning for both scenarios and not be afraid to change in some big ways and to maybe come out on the conservative side. Because if we proposed spending at all in a transmitted budget and then the federal funds change the polity, it becomes politically difficult because anyone who sees themselves proposed for funding in the budget that doesn't get funded views it as a cut. Right, exactly. So maybe coming in on the conservative approach. If Congress doesn't act, then leave room for the council to work with you to fill it in. Just a thought since you asked. No, thank you. That's helpful. Yeah. Gini, did you have any thoughts on that? I think more than anything, I was amused when Dwight said he'll let us worry about it now, or we can talk about it. Because I've been thinking about all this every night in the middle of the night. But I'm feeling, like I've said before, optimistic and positive right in the eye and or constant communication. And we'll be coming out with the memo to all of you shortly about the process that we will be having in the budget. So let's keep our fingers crossed, but also do all we can to make this as efficient and productive as possible. And Dwight, I know you're still in touch with what's going back in DC, and Jack Nicholson is as well. And I'm certainly looking all the time to see what the headlines is saying. So thank you. Yeah. Sorry, Jeanie, to call you. You are the budget chair, and I saw you nodding, so. Oh, that's okay. And I think I think David's point is well made. Just see if Congress could provide some clarity to us. It would help us manage through this a lot more effectively. And I know you're doing an immense amount of work and you're being thoughtful on this, but we need that ability to to pivot, I think, built in in case there is a sort of dramatic change to the rules or whatever. Real quickly, Dwight, if that is interesting news, I'm worried about getting over into the good news. I want you mentioned our our regular check ins, and I really appreciate the opportunity to serve as vice chair of the budget committee and chairs leadership Kels American Wells who brings a great deal of experience and and dedication to the job . But Dwight, one takeaway that I thought was very helpful for me and I wish you'd share it with my colleagues, I think it helps illustrate what you're talking about here, at least from a lens to to look at this for at least federal dollars. I don't know if you recall, but I asked about the philosophy of the executive. Are you and proposing the budget in terms of internal spending, the focus of the spending and kind of our external partners? And I think what I recall you saying was, say, our priority is to act to fund our county operations that are COVID related first, then fund our partner organizations that are responding directly to COVID. And then third would just be our our partner more more distant spending. Or it seemed like that was kind of the three priorities of buckets, and maybe you could clarify that or say a little better. Yeah. So Councilman de Maschere that you got it very close to what I had said. So that the question that he asked me last week was, is there a sort of implicit philosophy behind the COVID supplementals that the executive has been transmitting? And and this is, of course, under the current rules, that all the money has to be spent this year and all of that has to be spent on incremental costs. And so I said sort of on the executive side, our implicit philosophy has been to first fund all of the brand new COVID response costs that we're responsible for. So that's all those incremental costs in public health for outreach and testing and epidemiology and contact tracing. It's the costs we spend on the intensifying our shelters. It's the costs we've spent on isolation and quarantine facilities and other kinds of facilities. So we have places for people to go if they get sick and they can't be in a hospital and can't be isolated at home. And so those have clearly been number one on our list. And we basically have never said no to a cost in that category. A second category has been things where. We are diverting our existing resources to respond to COVID. And while we haven't really sent you anything yet, what we've done is been tracking those costs with the expectation that at some point we would likely say we want to shift those costs to the federal money to save money that was otherwise in the public health plan or the general fund or something that helps us when we're dealing with our huge budget shortfall for the next biennium. So that's kind of priority two. Priority three has been a direct response to the impacts we're seeing in our community. So this is where the Small Business Grants and Department of Local Services are. This is where the food security or the rental assistance is. Those are obviously really important things that I know a lot of people would like us to do more of, but we've seen those kind of as important, but in a third great category. And then probably a fourth category is where other governments are already able to pretty much cover the need. So you will remember that early on in one of the early COVID supplementals, you set aside some money for cities and you ask us to track work with the cities, to track their costs and be able to support them if they needed support. We have actually gotten very few of those reports from cities because relatively soon thereafter they got a big allocation of money from the state. And the impression I get from talking to the cities is that for most of them, their incremental costs of responding to COVID are pretty minimal, and so they have enough money from the state to cover that. They don't need money from the county. That always could change. But at this point they seem okay. Where they're struggling, of course, in many cases is all the revenue they're losing. Then we can't use federal money to cover at this point. So that was kind of the hierarchy of need that we have been implicitly using. And I recognize not everybody agrees with that, but it might give you a sense of what we've been proposing. Thank you, Dwight. And I know, I know I didn't quite have it right, but I thought it was such a good explanation to understand the framework which within which you're working. And we've generally adopted that. I wanted my colleagues to hear it in the public to hear it. So thank you. Thank you. You bet. Councilmember Lambert. Go ahead, Cathy. But take yourself off from you. Thank you so much. So, yes, I agree with Councilmember Paul that some of the already been worrying. So we're joining at 2:00 wakeup thoughts about, oh, my gosh, what about this? So if you feel alone at 2:00, general point of mass. But anyway, I think that what was said earlier, I think it was Councilmember of the Grove about you trying to spread it out to both scenarios is really important. You know, I was in the legislature when we had some economic issues and we actually had every department prioritize what services they had. And then we looked at how many services overlapped. And one example that's easy to talk about is we had, I think was seven different agencies that found dots for people and each had different overheads. And so we got together seven and said, how can we put this all together in one place so that we wouldn't have seven overheads for finding jobs? So that turned out to be a very helpful exercise. And so at some point, I'll be happy to talk to you about that. And I worked really carefully with the auditors when that was happening. The good thing is scope creep. You know, when you look at what our our charter says we're supposed to do and then you look at what we do, there are some things that maybe the schools should be doing or something that, you know, maybe the state should be doing. And so trying to look at, you know, where is the subgroup? And while they're important, if they're not ours, I hate to see us do things that aren't ours and let ours not be done well, because we're doing somebody else's job. So we could talk to our partners and say, look, you need to figure in or that because we've been covering your like your duties over here that they may not even know because we've been covering it for so long. And then the last one is the quarantine. It does distressed me that we have almost a thousand beds and only 31 have ever really been used. So, you know, looking back on, you know, what, what do we need when we think we're going forward? And I know it's unpredictable so that, you know, helpful is unpredictable. But I think we could scale back not on the ones they purchased and not on the ones that we have some leases on. But as the leases come up, maybe we not redo those so that we have some more money from there. So essentially what you're telling us is about a order is going to need to be taken out of. Most every fund or just the general funds? A target customer, remember? Where did that one quarter figure come from? Because you were saying that we had 28% reduction from the forecast. Oh, then remember customer. That's just the sales tax. Mm hmm. Well, it's important. Is much smaller than the property tax in the general fund. Right. Property tax is pretty stable. Right. So we're looking at the current forecast for the general fund is a deficit of about $150 million, which is roughly eight or 9%. Okay. That helps put it in a fairly but easier perspective. Yeah. I mean, that's still really tough given, you know, we've been cut the general fund for 20 years, but it's not 28%. I cannot imagine a 28% budget cut exercise. I wouldn't want you either. Skull horror story. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, let's hope that things don't get worse. And we are presented with that reality. That's the term. Yes, go ahead, Jean. Thank you. And Dwight, maybe you are going to take us up in your next two that we are scheduled still, I believe, to have the transmittal from the executive of our covered before omnibus on the 13th of August. Is that still the case? So can. You? That is correct. Can you give us a preview? I can't yet. We just got all the proposals from agencies. I have not actually seen them yet, Aaron, and some of the other staff have and they haven't yet been reviewed and vetted. So I really don't even have a good sense of everything that's been asked for, let alone what the executive will choose. So I realize you all are headed off on your recess. But Councilmember, if you want to take an hour out of your vacation and set up a time for me to talk with you before we transmit, I'm happy to do that. Thank you. And I am anticipating we will have our regular weekly meetings. Oh, good. Okay. I'll be continuing to work quite a bit. Just want to have all the meetings that the council has. Should I continue? Councilmember Dunn. You're doing great. I'm just thinking, maybe invite you over for an hour or you could give us some more good news. Maybe. Careful what you wish for. Ha ha ha. All right. Do I keep going, my friend? Okay, so the last two are actually better news. I thought I would give you an update on some of the grant programs that you have funded through various mechanisms, and there are several that either have not yet closed or literally just did. And I don't have information on yet, but there are a few that have closed long enough ago that I can actually share information. So two of the early ones were the money that was set aside for business organizations like Chambers of Commerce and then a separate allocation that was done with cities for business assistance. And we're getting that money out the door. So that money is actually already out in the community in many cases. I'm just glancing here at my other screen. In the first round of the Chambers of Commerce, we ended up with 47 awards. We have sent almost all of those out for signature and money has flown flowed out now to many of them. So that's working really well. Of the cities, there were several that decided they weren't interested. Typically very small cities. And we have sent out 25 for signature and about half of those are back. So those cities have received their funds. A couple of other grant programs that are of interest to some of you. You might remember there was a $750,000 set aside for live music venues that closed yesterday. And these are not final numbers, but we had received last week eight applications, so we might have gotten more when it closed and the average request of those was about 194,000. And just to give you some sense, the average reported revenue loss from each of those organizations was over $600,000. And so there will be more demand there than there was money set aside. Similarly, you appropriated 250,000 for arts, culture, science, education organizations that also closed yesterday. So these aren't final numbers, but we had received ten applications as of last week. And I'm looking here. My eyes are getting old. And I have to look very carefully to read the number of those ten organizations that filed applications. Their average loss of revenue because they've been closed was 964,000. So obviously, as we all knew, the impact in our community was very, very large for some of these businesses, some of these venues, some of these nonprofit organizations. And while it's not going to fully offset those costs, some of the grant programs that we've been funding will certainly help. So I will have lots more information by Friday. We're supposed to get a complete compilation of status on Friday. And I don't know what the best way to get that to you would be. You know, I don't know if it's through Wendy or how you would like me to do it. But once I have that and have reviewed it, I'm happy to share it with you if you are interested. This kitchen. There. Mr.. Mr.. Oh, no, go ahead. I think you try for the arts and culture one with those the arts, culture, education. Yes. So I reported on. Let me take a quick look here. The. The bigger cultural relief program is still we're still in progress of negotiating that. So I don't have an update on that one. And what about the science? Once we put in 1 million are appropriate. We have. So that one also closed yesterday. As of late last week, we actually had not received any applications, which I'm. Yeah, that was very surprising. So I assume what happened is people wait until the last minute. They can give you an update on that if you're interested. Sure. Thank you. I will do that. Okay. Other questions for Dwight Doer. Was that your wrap or do you still have one more? One more? But it's short. Okay. Okay. So the last one I thought I would just share this is indirectly related to COVID, but interesting. So you will remember that you recently approved a refinancing of wastewater treatment. That and I just wanted to emphasize how well that work and some of you may have already heard this. There were two different Bond series that were issued to refinance. And this is because the federal law changed as part of the big tax reform act. One of them the kind of traditional new money and refunding that we did the present value savings of refinancing that that. Was, believe it or not, 31.9%. Because the interest rates are so low today. And in the second one, because of the law change, we had to actually use maximum that instead of our normal tax exempt band to refund some of the existing wastewater treatment bonds and even using taxable debt, which has higher interest rates. We saved 21.9%. And the combination of those two things will save about $56 million for our ratepayers. And so that's, you know, taking advantage of these extraordinarily low interest rates in this current environment and saving money for our ratepayers. And, you know, as we as you knew that being able to do at much more cost effectively than we ever had before. And not surprisingly, those savings as a percentage of present value are by far the highest we've ever experienced in the county. Typically, if we can get more than 5%, we're really happy. So to get 22 and 32% savings is unprecedented. Mr. Chair. You bet. Brad, go ahead. When taxable sewage debt is the best news of the group. That kind of sums up 2020. I guess that is one way to look at it, but a little frosting on the cake. Dwight, that's just outstanding. We're very happy. That's good stuff, though. Good point. Good time to restructure debt right away. Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, just so you know, you have a very strong team in finance and business operations who manages that stuff. They are looking for lots of other opportunities to save money on refinancing debt. So that's one of the things that is so good about this government is we have the we've got really good rules and really good policies about that and we've got really smart people working on it. Well, there's no question about that. We don't doubt that at all. We appreciate the work of you and your staff and managing through. We are just intermission here. Unfortunately, we've got a ways to go through this pandemic and challenge. But like every generation of Americans before us, we're going to get through it. So do wise council members. All right. Good to see you, my friend. Jump in there. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Dwight, can you speak a little bit to your thoughts on issuing general obligation debt to build things, build houses, build facilities in light of the low interest rates that we're seeing? Yeah. So we have a lot of interest in doing that. The executive was very interested in doing that. Many of you know Aaron Robert, who is my deputy for budget, Aaron is working on very specific proposals in that way. Of course, the challenges at some point you have to pare back. And so the question is what revenue source are we going to either use it we already have like the general fund or that we will anticipate getting from the legislature at some point in the future that will allow us to pay the debt service. But it is an amazing opportunity right now to issue that at like 2% interest and use it for affordable housing, use it for permanent supportive housing, use it for community development. And so I think it is very likely you will be seeing proposals from us along that line with the proposed budget. But I do just want to put out that that comment that we always have to recognize that we need a way to pay it back and we have ways to kind of manage that in the near term. But one of the reasons the county has very little general obligation debt is because of our very limited ability to pay debt service from the general fund. So that's a there's a great opportunity right now. It has all kinds of benefits if we can do it. But we do have to remember that it has long term financial consequences that we need revenue to pay the debt are. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks, Councilmember. Other council members. All right, Dwight, thanks again a lot where you're talking. I wrote the card for my son Hayden and my daughter Kimberly. She's seven. It's 11. I've started a allowance this month for them, and it's a donor. 11 bucks a month. That's that's real money right there. Seven. I don't know what you think about that, but I'm just. I'm going to do it. It's going for your money here. Yeah. Anyway, I got a dime for a year when I was a kid, so at 12, I got a dollar 20. Well, okay. Inflation not so real good. Yeah, inflation just tells me we're done. That sounds like guaranteed basic income. It's just for pretty basic. Oh, you got me that all I come on and when I'm meeting doors to look at this guy's not sure. Welcome. Welcome. All right, kids, we're having fun. Now what? We're going to make this fun. Thanks for your leadership. Thank you, Patty Hayes, for being here. We're going to keep rolling, folks. We do have some public comment and we'll go into that. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone else want to comment? Yes, we do, Mr. Chair. Okay. So let me just reiterate some of the rules. This is unusual to have these remote meetings, and I want to make sure that everyone understands how the public comment is going to be handled. The ground rules must be that the comments relate to the items on today's meeting agenda and not used for purposes of assisting campaign for election of any person or office or for the promotion or opposition to any ballot proposition must not also not include obscene speech. If a speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, I will rule the speaker out of order and require the Speaker to exit the virtual meeting. I'll describe the process briefly. As all members of the public join the meeting, they were automatically muted. You can see your name or last three digits of your phone number. I can see them. Excuse me. Our committee clerk will call the names and numbers the last three of the phone number. When your name and last four digits of your number is called, staff will unmute your line. Please make sure to unmute your own phone as you have it muted on your side as a courtesy and then mute it back on any time you're not speaking before you begin your testimony, please wait to be acknowledged to be sure we can hear you and then start by saying and spelling your name so we can capture it accurately. For the record, if you wish for your video to be turned on for public comment, please request this before beginning. You will have 2 minutes to speak and will hear a timer go off. When you have reached 2 minutes, you'll hear that in the background. Please finish your thought at that point and wrap as quickly as you cancel. The next person can have their 2 minutes to speak. If you are listening on the TV or streaming, please turn that function off. Otherwise we will hear feedback on the line. Thanks. All right. So that's what we're going to do. Okay. Once you're done speaking, go ahead and hang up and then you can follow the rest of the meeting on Channel 22 or stream it online from the website at King County dot gov backsliders council. You can hit the watch it watch us live button. So let's go ahead and start. And Madam Clerk, go ahead and begin calling the names and numbers for the first people to testify. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first caller is Vice-Chair Alexander. Please go ahead and a mute yourself. You can proceed. Thank you. Are you there? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Sure. Go ahead and speak. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Bashir Alexander and I work as a project director, completion advisor and Green at Green River College. I'm here today to speak in support of the King County promise. My position primarily works with students that have had challenges in their personal life and academics that have hindered completing their degree or certificate on time . And I support these students through funding triage such as emergency funding, assistance for tuition or rent, academic advising and community based referrals. Here's what we know in Washington state. Majority of the jobs will require post-secondary credential. 39% of our students complete their degree within six years. These numbers are drastically lower for students of color, resulting in loss of opportunity and access to viable jobs and careers. The promise emphasizes the importance of representation, sustainability and accountability in our K-12 and higher ed institutions. And in light of COVID 19, our transition to remote learning. This is even more important for the students that I serve and roles like mine. We support the Plaza implementation plan and look forward to the Council's review and passing of the plan. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Jordan Furlong. Please go ahead. I am muted. Go ahead. You are a muted. Can I also have my video show? Go ahead, Jordan. When you're ready. Hey. Hello. Council members. Thank you so much. My name is Jordan for Ali, and I'm the communications and community engagement manager at Powerful Voices in the Central District of Seattle. We're a founding member of the Racial Equity Coalition, and we also fully support the past implementation plan and urge you to pass it. If you didn't know Powerful Voices is a women and men of color led and operated organization working specifically with girls of color in the Central District, the South End and West Seattle. So we know the needs and demands of young folks. And for 25 years, as we've worked, learned and worked alongside their brilliance, we have heard them ask for culturally relevant education consistently. They've consistently asked for police out of their schools and their communities. They've consistently asked for mental health support. And as a nonprofit, we know that meeting those needs requires a transformative approach to funding and a commitment from the overarching system. In pasta is a small investment but a majorly impactful step towards achieving that. In the midst of the pandemic, our bipoc communities have been impacted disproportionately, as you know, and the Racial Equity Coalition has been practicing genuine coalition building to collectively surge serve thousands of individuals and families under COVID. So we hope that you invest in youth of color through investing in pasta. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Raul Allende. I have a muted you. Please limit yourself and go ahead. That's true all along. d0l and a y. Are you there? Can you hear us? That was very well. I was muted. Muted again. Here we are. We can hear you. Go ahead. Thank you. My name is Rollo, and I am with the United Way of King County as a community impact manager. Today I am here presenting to. You in support of the pasta and implementation plan to improve pasta's budget. Today you'll hear countless messages across our partnership with United Way and the Racial Equity Coalition that is comprised of people of color led executive directors and leaders. United Way is committed to supporting our love and liberation model was in pasta. Which is a unique. Partnership that has kept black indigenous people of color have majority and majority decision making and power. There's been all sorts of different types of recent successes, some of which Jordan Farlam just recently mentioned. You'll hear countless other voices throughout this process. Of how we've all. Collaborated and done this work together to hopefully change and adjust the education system in the future. Thank you so much for your participation and meeting with the Racial Equity Coalition individuals one on one in your respective offices. We greatly, greatly appreciate that. Thank you so much for your time and greatly appreciate your support thus far during this unprecedented time. Thanks. Thank you. The next person is Ana. Antonia. Go ahead. You are muted. Good afternoon, councilmembers. My name is Annibale and I am with Enterprise Community Partners. I would first like to applaud the Council in moving forward a rare opportunity that will create lasting educational change from our earliest learners to college and career readiness. I am also here to implore you to act quickly to support and adopt the implementation plan enterprise as a proven and powerful nonprofit that improves communities and people's lives, that they can walk away from supportable and serve the people. Because we recognize the critical importance of early learning and how it can incur a lifetime of benefits for both the child and family when they have stable, safe and quality, affordable homes. Our flagship initiative is centered on this promise of opportunity. For several years, Enterprise has championed the nexus between remote learning and affordable housing in our region and through our work with the Washington Early Learning Loan Funds to help providers renovate, expand or build new early learning classrooms working in communities across the state. And the initiatives that the county has taken here has been unmatched. The COVID 19 pandemic has instilled an even deeper sense of urgency, as our workforce is a difficult balance between work and health care, with even fewer options available today due to the pandemic, this work has never been more important. I understand that there is an outstanding question of whether intermediary partners to implement parts of the work will be funded out of the executive branch, a 7% administrative allocation, or if their costs will have to come entirely out of the program costs. All of our experience with the state funds strongly recommend, including any intermediaries into the administrative allocation. Programmatic funding deserves to be spent on our children, and technical assistance need is significant and should come from administrative costs. We have put in the work and now we should benefit by moving swiftly to the implementation plan for the county. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Courtney Nolan. The research. Please. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Good afternoon. I'm calling on the dispatch director of provider services at Child Care Resources, and I'm asking for your support to pass the implementation plan. Though King County has long faced the childcare crisis in a post-COVID context, this investment is more critical than ever. We're very concerned about the situation of many children in the past. The target population are facing for families in financial stress or. Stressed due to health concerns. Access to housing or food instability. Childcare is a nurturing and safe place for kids and the needed relief for their families. But the pandemic has deeply burdened providers with limited class sizes. Providers face a significant loss of income, and families have less options for childcare, for finding care. Childcare providers, family, friend and neighbor caregivers will be relied on heavily this fall to ensure kids have kids can access online learning, and parents can work fast to find what providers will partner with affordable housing to build. New spaces. Expand their programs to meet the need, or to make the repairs necessary to keep their doors open. We know this plan will make a difference in ensuring the children who most need quality care can access it. Thank you for your support. Thank you. The next person is Jessica Lerner. Go ahead, please. You are muted. Jessica Warner w e r n e r. You are muted if you'd like to speak. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead, please. Hello, King County Council members, this is the Warner executive director of White Oak, a coalition of more than 100 nonprofit youth serving organizations across King County, including dozens of Bipoc led organizations, including many in the Racial Equity Coalition, many involved with King County Promise, and a vast majority with a focus of supporting children and youth of color . I'm here to testify in support of quickly moving forward passage and adoption of the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account Implementation Plan as submitted to you. The plan builds on your guidance and multiple motions over the past three plus years with community and focus groups, advocacy and deliberation all along the way. The Passive Investment Plan prioritizes programs and activities that complement the innovative investments and the best starts against levy across the age range and will help ensure that we keep a long view of what our children need now and will need going forward through recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic and a longstanding pandemic of structural and systemic racism in our communities. We've never provided the implementation plan forward swiftly. Your action will also help to ensure that the State is to distribute funds every two years to Kane County rather than using these funds for other purposes. Thank you for your service and support. We know that you're working in very different conditions than what you signed up for, and so thank you for managing all of that and ensuring that all of our kids are happy, healthy, safe and thriving into the future. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Laura. Zaza. You are muted. Go ahead, please. Hello, Council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you in support of the King County promise through the passed implementation plan. My name is Laura Diaz, outgoing. I'm speaking to you today as the daughter, as a daughter of an immigrant, as someone who understands childhood poverty, and as a person whose life was transformed by access to higher education. I'm also the executive director of Northwest Education Access. Northwest Education Access provides individualized and comprehensive support to help young people in King County, ages 16 to 29, build their own pathway to higher education and beyond. 100% of our students are low income. 51% have experienced or are experiencing homelessness. 76% are first generation college students, and 79% are students of color. Our students are strong, resilient and the future leaders of our community. So the biggest challenge challenges. We work with students on financial aid and understanding a complex system of higher education options and processes. Our model of providing one on one services tailored to the needs of each student has been proven to have a positive impact on educational outcomes and postsecondary enrollment. The King County promise is an opportunity to expand this type of individualized approach and community school partnerships at a larger scale. The current COVID era has prompted a significant shift to online only learning environments and remote operations, which is highlighting just how complicated and out of reach the system can be for many of our students who are traditionally furthest from opportunity. Many students will continue to need the flexible support offered by community based organizations in order to navigate school options in years to come. The promise can help address this gap and strengthen partnerships between schools and community based organizations. We are still reeling from the impacts of COVID 19, but a recent survey has shown that young people have been impacted economically more than any other age group through the process of deploying recent emergency funds to students. Our organization found that the majority of students were needing to decide between paying for housing, buying food, or paying for school tuition and books. Activation of the King County promise would provide much needed financial support and wraparound services to our youth. This type of longer term investment that the promise would provide to post-secondary transition and the community based organizations that are doing this work is essential to ensure that our young people who are furthest from opportunity, including bipoc youth, can access pathways to living within, especially in the post-COVID economic recession. Thank you. Thank you, Thurston. Okay. That's interesting. Is Mercy Daramola and MTV, these coordinators are doing this speaking to you. You are muted and you need to disconnect from the meeting, especially in a post-COVID economic times. Thank you. I say we've got a lot of repeat the question. Okay. Mercy, Darren, my line. You can go ahead. But if you would mute the your what you're listening you should there be great and I think you have. You're there. I am. I'm here. Can you hear me now? Yes, please. Go ahead. Awesome. Hi. My name is Mercedes M All our staff, the predecessor Education Service District and a Petersen College here network. I've had the privilege of being both part of the team since 2017. Leading development the King County Promise approved last year by this Council and have worked in partnership with this theater staff for the past five months to develop the King County promise portions of the plan before you today. In both processes, the promise and implementation plan development. We shared a commitment to equity and gave the young people and communities and content experts commitments that are critical to the long term success of both promise and passive funded programs and services as a whole. Today, I amplify the recommendations of the Council. Consider and include language. The Fund. Both intermediaries and DCH have staff from the admin designation, and the same with expertize of communities and content experts is critical. We appreciate that that is engaged in the plan overall. So part of that is a chance to interact systems that have not served our students. But we also can interact a part of nonprofit industrial complex which asked for incredible results from programs and services at the expense of adequately funding the systems and people that support those programs and services. As you do, you see us and the intermediaries will and must work closely together now and over the lifetime of pasta. We believe that that should happen, but not at the expense of funding the services. To be clear, let's pass this plan, get to work now because it highlights the president expanding disparities across the education system and passing it quickly will allow us to get to work quickly as these funds are so critical. But let's make sure this Plan Foundation is strong enough to last the test of time. Thank you to the leadership of the Council. As you see it, a staff and we are excited to get to work. Thank you. The next person is Michael Banning. Go ahead, please. You are a muted. Good afternoon, councilmembers. My name is Michael Beyond. I'm the executive director for Asian Counseling and Referral Service. I'm here today as part of the King. County Racial Equity Coalition. And asking Council for its full support for the passed a plan and to move forward with it. We're really grateful to the County for upholding the importance of centering racial equity in any key county decisions. One very important example is the support of the King County Racial Equity Coalition and that love and liberation strategy to support K through 12 youth development within communities of color. We look forward to working with Council and the County to pilot this work and to share the impact. We're really confident that will serve as an important model for public nonprofit and philanthropy partnerships that fundamentally. Reshape. Systems and how we work together on behalf of young people of color. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Munish. Your car. Hello? Hello. Go ahead. You unmuted? Okay. Thank you. Fact Hello Council Members Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Michelle Court and I belong to the seventh District as I currently lives in Sedgwick. I am an intern for Open Doors for Multicultural Families, and I'm also a senior at the University of Washington, Seattle. As an education major, I support the poster implementation plan because I believe that it gives youth of color the opportunity to engage in a space where they are surrounded by positive role models that give them the tools and strength to explore their own cultural identities, as well as a lifelong skills for success. I know that in my own experience with being in school, I never particularly felt encourage or motivated by my majority white teachers outside of the average program. This is exactly why it's so important that Foster gets the support that it needs so that it can keep creating influential change within the lives of our youth of color. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Niya Telfer. Go ahead. Your muted. Nyah to you. Hey, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead, please. Hi. My name is Natalie. I think you King County Council members were giving me this time to share my story opinions in Quest. Today, I want to share what I believe can help our family do these tough times. Things are more in studio, and best of all is with purpose after school program. I learned how important it is to focus on my education and to use it with purpose. And sometimes it means. Heading into my 10th year, I learned more about my Pacific Islander history from this school program than many of my older siblings, cousins and friends were allowed to learn with the current educational system for Pacific Islanders. So I urge you to support the past, the implementation plan and the Racial Equity Coalition, because they're working very well with the Educational Purpose Foundation. I truly believe that your partnership and support will give it a chance to become a part of the care of the answer, not the problems in our schools, cities and counties. Thank you for your support. Thank you. The next person is Naomi Tuggle or go ahead, please. You are muted. Thank you. Good afternoon, council members. My name is not only will this whole Kelly's family all I'm the executive director of the Education with Purpose Foundation for Pacific Islanders, and we are a member of the Racial Equity Coalition . Known as RAC. And that we quite a few of our council members pretty recently and I appreciate your acknowledgment of the work that we've done thus far as the coalition among our members. We've helped many students of color improve their grades, increase their cultural awareness, and we've given them tools to better navigate the school system despite the lack of people of color and culture developing and running. Programs for them. Most recently, we've also helped thousands of families with COVID 19 aid and education. We know what works, and our community members trust us as a coalition. We're also showing how doable it is for us to contact students and meet with their families, to organize calls to action within our communities who are also voting citizens and active participants . When called upon by us by urge the Council to support. The the implementation plan and to give the Racial Equity Coalition the responsibility to help create. True racial. Equality throughout the school. System for all. Of our future generations. REC also thanked the United Way of King County for their support in fundraising efforts and technical assistance. Thank you again for your time and we look forward to your next steps as our King County Council. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Charlotte Archer. Go ahead, please. You are muted. Charlotte Archer, you are a muted if you'd like to speak. I think she's here for other meetings. No comment. Oh, so sorry. Sorry. The next person is higher. H a y. E. If you'd like to speak, please unmute yourself and go ahead. Let me try to turn my video on. Hi, my name is Hy Munoz. I'm with the Filipino community in Seattle, also representing the King County's Racial Equity Coalition. I'm just speaking in support as well. Thank you, council members, for your time and I appreciate you hearing us out in this cause, wanting to help for your support as well for the pastor. A lot of our youth is really enjoying this time and program that we're having for them that really enables them to design it for them. How our program works is we ask the youth and we design them weekly, and that's been really a beneficial thing for the youth to have. So we really want your support to push through for the pastor. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. The next person is JUNCO or Jang Koi j u and k0y. If you'd like to speak, please go ahead and mute yourself. I was not wanting to make a comment, but I do really support the implementation and I'm also part of the Racial Equity Coalition. I'm from India. I'm helping a referral service. Please pass the pastor implementation plan. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Rebecca Laszlo. Please limit yourself if you'd like to speak. Hello. I didn't expect to speak. I stand in support of Jordan Ferrell in four powerful voices, a founding member of the RNC and I support Foster. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Russell Brooks. If you'd like to amuse yourself and speak, go ahead. Sure. Thank you. King County Council members. My name is Russell Brooks. I'm Southern Cheyenne and the executive director of Red Eagle Swine Native Theater here in Seattle, which is an organization that's been in Seattle almost 30 years serving our urban indigenous population. And the members of our community live all over the county. We even have those outside of our county that frequently take part in our activities, that build their confidence and their ability to express themselves, keep them strongly connected to their cultural identity, and help them try to navigate systems that were not made for them, that actually worked against the genocide of our native people to where they can successfully work their way through the K through 12 structure and go on to post-secondary opportunities and receive a high school diploma. It's really been an honor to work with the United Way of King County and also within the context of the Racial Equity Coalition, which is 15 organizations, including our own, that are representing communities of color here in the area. And it's absolutely critical that pasta is approved. And I just want to commend each of you for your strong consideration, your L.A. shirt. And you're working together with us so that we can pass this for the betterment of our communities and all of our children. So I want to say thank you, and I look forward to seeing the next steps manifest into hopefully getting past the past. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is venue are. If you'd like to speak to. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Thank you to the King County Council for taking time to truly listen to my public comment today. My name is in emotion. Ken RUDIN, a high school senior, and I soon embarked. Upon a scholarship purpose after school program as their vision. My family and I must not act of pursuing our dreams of success and happiness. Officials Program. I learned a lot about integration and the importance of higher education. This program was developed and implemented by Pacific Island people just like me. I was able to share my thoughts about the school system openly and freely, without wondering if I was truly being hurt or understood. This organization really made me feel valued and important. Also, my family really appreciates and trust this organization because they reach out by waste in many other organizations. And how we did that is what we need community trust now. I I'm proud to share that I will be attending the college in order to end my degree in engineering. And I support the. Fact that. The concession stand with hopes that the funding will be given by Racial Equity Coalition. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, Mr. Chair. I believe I've called everyone on the line. Very well. I call on anyone. Is there anyone on the line that wishes to speak? That is. Mr. Chair, I'm going to unmute all for you and see if there's anyone. Anybody with a burning desire to speak that has it already. All right. Very well. Thank you so much for closing public comment. Now. Mr. Chair. Now I will mute everyone and that will mute you also. So you'll have done mute. Here we go. You can hear me now. All right. Very well. We have had a chance to have public comment once we've done the briefing on on item number five, the COVID 19 response. We still have briefing number six. Let's go ahead and turn to briefing number six, which is on the 2020 point in time. Count the annual count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless folks in King County. April Sanders from council staff will give a report, and Mark Ellenberg and Christina McCue from the Department of Community and Human Services will provide additional information. Mr. Sanders, the line is yours. Thank you. For the record, April Sanders, counsel policy staff. This briefing will be on the 2020 point in time count locally called Count US In. But our point for this briefing begins on page nine of the additional materials we sent out this morning by Angelica. As a brief introduction, the point in time count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of all continuum of Care to report the number of sheltered and unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness during the last ten days of January. All home as the current continuum of care for this geography develops for 2020 point in time count with the help of the point in time, action committee and Vigor Nguyen Research, Mark Ellen, Brooke and Christina McCue from DHS are on the line to brief you on the report. And with that, I conclude my support and turn over to them. Great. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. My name is Mark Ellenbrook and I am the Division Director for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development for the Department of Community and Human Services. We also Christina McHugh, who is the lead evaluator for our performance management and evaluation group and will actually be walking through the results of the point in time count this year, as well as providing context about new homeless dashboards that we've developed. I'm just going to provide a couple of introductory comments and I'm going to turn it over to her because I know we have had a lot of comment and there's more to come in the agenda. So I just want to say that every year we do the count every year and have the opportunity to provide and present about it. I just want to say that it continues to be a sobering presentation to do in the six years that I've been doing it for the Council. We and our community and many of the people who you just heard from work diligently every year to house the people who do live homeless in our community. And we still have a long way to go in a place of, you know, historic wealth that this region has. The fact that we have so many living homeless in our community is startling every year. And I would also say that and you will see this in the data, it really stands as a stark reminder in this time as we talk about racial inequality, the persistence of racism in our community, that you see that in the homeless information, the homeless data that we will be sharing as well. Just quickly, we've talked a lot with this. The council, you know, homelessness ultimately is the result of so many failures, systemic, systemic failures in our system, whether it's affordable housing and a lack of that. Our corrections in the way that we look at our justice system, our behavioral health system, and the access to economic opportunity when those don't work for people, when those don't work for people of color, for our bipoc communities. Ultimately what happens for many people is we end up in a situation where we have persistent homelessness. As April mentioned, we do this count every year. I should add that we actually, although we are required to do it by HUD, this community has actually done it for many years prior to that requirement. I think we are going on well over 30 years of carrying out a point in time count in this community. And I would say that beyond simply doing it because we're required, I think we do it because we care in this community. We go out and we want to see and try to understand the issues in our community. And homelessness is obviously one that we deal with frequently. So we do the count every year. It is done in January. Volunteers go out and literally go to every single census track in this county and try to identify those people living homeless. We also balance that with a tally of the people who we know are living sheltered in our community, and then a survey that we have started to do over the last few years to get sort of anecdotal information to help us understand where we sit and what we can be doing better. Ultimately, the reason why we do this count and the reason why the federal government requires it and why we have done it longer than that, is that it helps us serve one as a measuring stick. Is it is homelessness going up? Is it going down? As we've gotten better at doing count, we've begun to be able to aggregate that information and look at specific populations, which is important, but it also helps us measure the impact and our ability around certain interactions or interventions that we do when we specialize and focus on certain populations. For example, as we did with veterans a number of years ago, we saw a decline in veteran homelessness. And so some of the interactions and the interventions that we take do show positive results, and then we are able to modify our policies and our approaches. So I think the last thing I'll say is kind of where are we going and what is the future? Folks are well aware that we are creating the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. This last count that we completed in January will be the last count that was done under the auspices of All Home, the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority, which has both a governing committee and an implementation board now in existence and is in the process of hiring its chief executive officer will be the entity managing this count going forward. It will be a key component of the work and so that is kind of the future of what we are doing. I think the other piece and Kristina will talk about this, too, is we continue to gain insight into our homeless population through other methods, not just our homeless count. The Homeless Management Information System, which the county itself has admitted for and administered for a number of years, provides a lot of critical information that we are able to to desegregate and to use to refine programs. So I think there is opportunity and there is hope as we look to continuing to expand our regional approach to homelessness. And I will stop there. I will turn it over to Christina to walk you through the information that was sent out this, I believe, this morning for the presentation , and then I will be available for questions at the end. So, Christina, with that, I will turn it over to you. Thank you. Mark, are you able to hear me? Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. I am Christina McHugh, lead evaluator for housing and Homelessness with Kent County Department of Community and Human Services. I want to thank the Council for the opportunity to be here today. And as Mark mentioned, I will be sharing some of the highlights from this year's 2020 Count US in report, also known as the Point in Time Count, along with some updates about our 2020 Homelessness Data Dashboard Refresh. I will be referring to the page numbers and the additional packet that you all received. And I'll do my best to remind folks of Drawn. So starting out on page ten, for those who are not familiar, the point in time count obviously is a hard requirement. Every continuum of care that receives HUD funding must report homeless numbers to HUD each year. And I just want to caution that it is an estimate. It relies upon volunteers who come out every year at 2:00 in the morning this year in quite a bit of rain. And so we also want to acknowledge and thank all the volunteers who helped make this happen. The full report can be found at Regional Homeless System Board. And then turning to page 11 a bit about the methodology. This year we worked with a new vendor to conduct the count bigger win research in Washington State, women in minority owned business. Despite this change in vendor, the methodology largely remained unchanged from previous years. There were a couple of new additions. I'll highlight a few. There was an online survey app that volunteers could use during Street Count. I guess mapping was used to provide additional information to volunteers to help them learn more about their census tracts during street counts . And there was an addition of a Spanish language translation of the survey that happened to post count. We had more than 300 volunteers come out, 125 paid guides with lived experience, and the count covered all 397 census tracts of the county. So page 12, in addition to the General Street count, we also tallied the number of people in shelters on the night of January 24th and have submitted via HMRC, our Homeless Management Information System. And as Mark mentioned, we conduct a separate count of youth and young adults during the day of January 24th. And we conduct a month long survey after the count of sheltered and unsheltered people, and those survey results are then extrapolated to the overall population. In the point in time count. Page 13 On the morning I'm sorry. On the morning of January 24th, there were an estimated 11,751 individuals experiencing homelessness in King County, and this represents a 5% increase from the 2019 count. On page 14, you can certainly read much more about some population findings in the full report, but I wanted to highlight a few of the results. In particular, veteran and youth homelessness declined this year, a trend that matches what we've seen in previous years. However, family and chronic homelessness increased. Page 15. Overall, the unsheltered rate remains steady for the total population between 2019 and 2020. Unsheltered homelessness among families and the chronically homeless did increase, and unsheltered homelessness among veterans and youth decreased. Then moving on to page 16. As in previous years, homelessness continues to be disproportionately experienced by people of color and other historically marginalized communities, particularly for black or African Americans and American Indian or Alaska Natives. Page 17. We also note that homelessness is experienced in every part of the county compared to 2019, and you can read about this more in the report. And the geographic trends between regions remained fairly steady from year to year. So moving on to page 18, I'm going to switch gears a little bit now and talk about our homelessness data dashboards. We recognize that no one data source is going to reflect the full scope and scale of homelessness in our region with complete accuracy. And so for that reason, we are increasingly relying upon our homeless management information system data, also known as H my ass. Last year we debuted a redesigned homeless response system data dashboards using our H.M.S. data, and we found that it's been a tremendous resource both to the system and to the community. So this year, in the spirit of continuously improving what we do and our commitment to accountability, we have added some additional dashboards, added some new features to all dashboards, and provided quite a bit more data to try to build upon our understanding of the system and homelessness looking down. I would be remiss not to acknowledge the contributions of my team. Briefly pair Maurice Armadale and Victoria Ewing, who worked tirelessly to ensure that the dashboards debut alongside this point in time accounted for. So I'm going to turn next to what's new for this year in the dashboards, as well as some high level findings from our annual refresh. So page 19. Now the first major change is that we have a completely new location. We used to be on the all hand website as we're shifting over to the Regional Homelessness Authority. We've decided to put the 2020 dashboards on the Regional Homeless Systems website. So in your packet you'll see a screenshot, and there are several things that you can click through on your own to view the various different dashboards. Page 20. The enhancements for 2020 include new looks at how the system has evolved and trends over time. You'll find the housing inventory account there by year, which is the number of units by project type, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, etc.. That's those are numbers that we report to HUD alongside the point in time counts. And you'll see that going back to 2016, we've also included more annual trend data on system performance as well as trend data on entries and exits from the system. We have placed a greater emphasis throughout the dashboard on racial equity analysis. So wherever we can break something down by race and ethnicity, we did. And we've also created new interactive dashboards that allow users to drill down more deeply by subpopulations and demographics. And I want to pause for a moment and note that DCA director Leo Flor recently submitted a memo memo to council regarding veteran homelessness data for the veteran Senior Human Services Levy. That data, which was previously submitted to council via memo, will now be found regularly on our dashboards as part of these new populations and categories. And so next, I'm going to turn to what we are seeing in the data this year. So that would be on page 21. So just to reiterate, by comparing trends over time as well as between data sources, we're able to get a clearer picture of homelessness. In comparing where the trends align, we have the greatest confidence in the results. And in large part, as you'll see on this particular slide, we are seeing similar upward trend both in the point in time count data as well as in the number of households served over time in HMRC. Both of these are in a sense point in time count estimates. The number of households is a comparable night in January. How many households were enrolled in a service or project? Turning to page 22. In the last year, entries and exits to the system both declined slightly. However, among system exits, the proportion that are going to permanent housing remains steady at 34%. Page 23. This is the active number over times, the number of households active on the last day of each month going back to 2016. And you can see that our system's capacity to serve households is increasing and we continue to serve more and more households each month. One thing you can do on this dashboard is you'll notice there's a dropdown menu to select by population. And so you can look here at veterans and use, for example, and we find that the HMRC data mirrors the point in time counts findings in that veteran and homelessness have generally been declining over recent years. However, we do not see comparably sized increases in family homelessness or chronic homelessness in this data. Page 24. HMRC data also supports the point in time counts findings on racial disproportionality and the experience of homelessness, notably for Black African American and American Indian Alaska Native households. It's 25. In order to deepen our understanding of the equity of the system, we have added new dashboards that will allow users to examine how well this system forms by race and ethnicity, as well as by age, preference, status and household type. So you can use this dashboard to select a performance metric, for example, permanent housing exits, as well as an intervention type. Here on the slide, I'm showing rapid rehousing. You can toggle that as well. And so add a system as a whole. We are finding that returns are highest for Asian and Hispanic households, lowest for native Hawaiian Pacific Islander households, and permanent housing. Exit rates are highest for black or African American households, Native Hawaiian Pacific households, they are lowest for white and Hispanic. And so, page 26, there is much more information available on our dashboard and in the counties in report that I can present here today. But I hope we've been able to give you a flavor for what kinds of data are available. And we welcome you to visit our website to learn more. Explore the dashboards on your own. Thank you. Okay. Great. Any questions on that from members? What would you say your biggest challenges are in terms of the collection of accurate data out there on the scale? In terms of their h my ass data are the point in time count point time. So I cannot speak to the methodology of the point in time count that has traditionally been held by all home. This is Mark Councilor. I'm happy to comment on that. You know, I think capturing accurate data late at night, you know, on that kind of survey is a it is a challenging situation. I think a number of council members and you may have also participated in this in the past. So I think getting an accurate count is always challenging. People who live homeless, many of them don't want to be found. Right. They because it isn't safe or for whatever reason. So I think trying to get an accurate count based on that can be challenging. People move from place to place to even on a given evening. So having done the count, say, you know, in a downtown setting like Bellevue or Seattle, you may have somebody who counts, who moves from one place to another place and shows up and can count multiple times, which I think really points to Kristina's point that having a couple of different ways of of looking at this, if we can look at the point in time count, which is very longitudinal, we can look at it. We try to follow the same protocols for many years. That's one way we can look at it. And then I think being able to look into the data and see what it is saying is a second way. And I think when you can cross-reference those, you start to pull out a little bit of the noise there. Well well, no doubt, important data. All of the things you spoke about, both you and Kristina are important data and appreciate the briefing very much. We want to continue to share that information and we'll discuss it at the Homeless Governance Panel as well. I hear Councilmember Taberski has a comment or question. Go ahead. Yeah, more of a comment. Mr. Chair, I want to thank Mark and Christina for the annual presentation and just a comment. I appreciate, Mr. Chair, your willingness to engage last year in the building of the structure for the new Regional Homelessness Authority and your willingness to serve on it as one of our council representatives, along with Mr. McDermott. And I think in the last few years, my observation is this we've been kind of steady at 12,000 folks, almost 6000. And I divide it pretty roughly, 6000 unsheltered, 6000 sheltered. And I want to call your attention to and our colleagues attention to the third door coalition's plan and proposal to address it. I've signed on to it. They are calling for 6500 additional units. They've got a budget. They've got a plan. It involves some bringing some new dollars, but also some cost cutting on building these units. And I hope that as you all adopt at the Regional Homeless Authority the plan to proceed, you will seriously consider using the third door Coalition's proposal as a foundation. What I like about it is it's got specifics, it's got a number of units, it's got a budget, it's got a timeline of five years. And that has been a thing in this arena that is frustrated me a little bit in my time here. I remember coming on the council in 2013 and having a briefing on this. I said, Well, what would it cost to solve it? I mean, kind of an immature question right now. Can we solve it? And I've learned a lot since then, but in some ways, the third door coalition returns to that very basic question What would it cost to solve it? How many units do we need and when can we get them built? And I think our public wants that. And I've been impressed with the broad coalition that signed on to that from public leaders, the private sector, human service organizations. And I just wanted to take this moment as we remind folks of the of the statistics in a way out there. And, Mark, I appreciate you calling out the veterans work, how we put some attention on that in the PSA. Just tell me how we can actually move the dial down. And your team did a great job there. But I think there are the makings of a plan that we can rally around as a community in the region to actually make a serious dent at this challenge. And I'm excited about it. And I didn't want this moment to go by without calling attention to it. So we have some new powers with the 10th of a penny council magic authority that the state legislature gave us. We have folks that are ready to go to, number one, acquire units. I think the hotel model presents an incredible opportunity to reduce the cost to tackle this challenge from 350,000 bucks a pop for supportive housing down to the 100 K range per unit in hotels. So it's. It's. It's. Basically more achievable. It's also faster because we've got hotels out there already built. We don't have the permitting and development construction timeline that's required. They're dispersed. And I hope we can seize this moment to bring those resources and this opportunity that has, in a lot of ways, sadly, been created by the COVID pandemic to really make leaps and bounds progress in this arena. So I. Sorry for talking a little bit. There was chair, but I wanted to flag those, those things that are going on and encourage us to seize the moment. Now, with respect to moving the ball forward, with respect with a plan that's out there and with the tools that we now have to do it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dombrowski. That's all very good commentary, and we appreciate it. I know there's a lot of folks that are going to work hard in terms of the implementation of the programs, the structure that you helped put together last year. So thanks for the input. Thanks, Mark and Christina, also for your leadership on the issues. And we look forward to a lot more work and a lot more productive dialog on this issue moving forward. All right. Thanks, gang. Is there any any other comments member? Go ahead, Kathy. Thank you. So I agree with the ideas that we've been hearing about making sure that we know how many units we have and the best wage and how much this is to build more housing. And so one of the things I would like to see is where are the 244,000 houses that were behind on our new houses that we would have to create? And then how many are we behind that? You think that that. And I think it's really important that we know the numbers and what the going future number is to allocate by how many houses we need to be creating. And the most important part is where is that going to be located? So also I read recently that we have 60% ownership in King County. And at one point we had over 80% ownership. So I think we need to be looking at how we can get back to the 80% or more of ownership. And then also the Chase Shiller index. The three categories or vacancy rates should be across the nation. We are way, way low, and in one category we're zero. So those are the things that are going to be coming up in the committee. So it's wanted to give you an advance warning of the data that I'm looking for. And if you want a briefing before the meeting, that's be great. But I am very concerned about where are these houses going to be built that we laid out? Builders that I'm talking to are saying we don't know where we're going to have the space to do that. And so we need to be giving him those answers. Mr. Chair. Thanks, Cathy. Mark Christina, maybe if you could circle back with Councilmember Lambert and give her the benefit of your thinking on that issue of be grateful. Thanks. Any other council members to comment? All right. We've got to move on. We've got some other interesting issues before the committee. Item number seven is proposed ordinance 2020, dash 0224, which would make June 19th or Juneteenth, an annual holiday for King County employees. Juneteenth has historically been celebrated by the African-American community as the date of the end of slavery in the United States. Mike Reed from council staff will give a staff report and executive staff are here as well to answer any questions. It's the first time we've had a chance to look at it. Today is the first day I heard about it. So we'll look forward to maybe a first pass on this and what folks have to say. Mike, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And you, this is a proposed ordinance 2020 0224. So you're aware, as you indicated, Mr. Chair, that the enslavement for African-Americans continued through the period of the American Civil War, which was 1861 to 1865 , towards the end of that, that war on June 19th of 1865, General Gordon Granger in the company of 2000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas. And I should say by way of context that Texas was out of the primary theater of war, and so became a place where those who were interested in retaining their enslaved persons retreated to and as the war came to an end. So General Granger read to the community general order number three, and I won't read the whole order, but the key piece is as follows The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free. The celebrations which ensued are following at that reading are continued on the anniversary of that June 19th date for the coming decades in Texas and extended to African American communities throughout the nation over the coming coming years. However, formal recognition of that date did not occur on the part of public bodies that is, the county, county and state and federal governments for over 100 years, until the years somewhat after the civil rights movement of the 1960s. So in particular, over the last 20 years, state governments have in state codes provided formal recognition, but not legal paid holiday status to a June 19th as Juneteenth acknowledging the end of slavery in the United States. In at the county level in King County there are ten named holidays in King County code and there are two personal holidays. There is no reference, however, to to Juneteenth as a named or paid holiday. The ordinance before you this afternoon would provide for the extension of the paid holiday status to June, June 19th and designated as Juneteenth. So a proposed ordinance, a 2020 dash or 2 to 4, would provide that extension. It's also noted that the labor agreements are or represented. Employees that are in place in King County do require that modification of language relating to to extension of paid holidays is a bargain item. And so the legislation does does also provide that the executive may enter into or extend existing agreements with labor organizations to extend to representative employees. Those are those that paid holiday status, which by the legislation is extended to the number of employees. The Office of Labor Relations has historically provided cost estimates for these kinds of these kinds of extensions. And in this case, so what they were asked to do that the there is an attachment to your staff report which summarizes this. But in some they've estimated that $4.8 million would be the cost to extend the the paid holiday status to county employees for the Juneteenth holiday that is primarily for or the cost of overtime. So there will be some services that are likely to continue. Again, transit services, wastewater services, service, and that's what we continue over the course of the holiday. And overtime would be to be paid for those employees with providing those services and again, at a cost of about $4.8 million. There's also a productivity loss that would be expected for those services, which would not continue. And the equivalent cost is estimated at six. $3 Million in Productivity Lost To or without those services. Legal review has been completed on this legislation and no amendment was recommended. Matt McCoy did provide for the Office of Labor Relations of the Cost Estimate and he is here to offer to respond to questions. Richard Hayes, also from the Human Resources Department, is here to respond to questions as well. Mr. Chair. Like, thanks for that very fine staff report. I know this is Councilmember Debusk is legislation, I believe. Right? Right. Yes, sir. Okay. And in in Matt. Rick, at this point, I know him in to let you speak next. I just wanted to see if there was any any any additional comments that either one of you would like to make at this time or if you wanted to wait for questions? No, sir. Okay. One quick comment. The analysis analysis that I did, I regard kind of a high level analysis. We haven't done a deep dove. And so the figures presented are more of a general magnitude of the costs rather than what we a more of a pinpoint estimate. So the four and a half million in the 6.2 million, roughly 10 million, that assumes a paid time off holiday, not just an addition type of holiday. Yes. And let's be clear, those are separate estimates. There's a couple different ways to examine this issue. One way to say, oh, how much productivity are we losing if we give everyone the day off? And that's where the $6 million estimate comes from. The other thing I think maybe that I kind of lip do is how much more how much extra money is this going to cost the county if we provide this holiday? And that's in the form of overtime costs that people like wastewater or the correctional facility. Well, we'll be paying them overtime almost certainly because of the labor contracts, and that's where the $4.8 billion figure is coming from. So there's separate it's not 10 million. It's somewhere in the range, I would say between four and 6 million. Understood. Okay. Ron, why don't you want you to kind of orient as to what you're thinking on this and then give us a sense of kind of what you wanted to do. Thank you, Mr.. Appreciate it. What I'd like to do is move adoption with a do pass recommendation. We have some time between now and full council consideration because of the recess and that I'd like to. Give some background and thinking and have some dialog. Okay. Well, that's. She wanted to watch you make the motion, and then we can decide. I do move on to move adoption with a yeah. Doing ascertainment. Go ahead. Go ahead broad. And then she can have a point of order because you sure. Go ahead. Mr.. Move adoption with the do pass recommendation. Okay, great. And Kathy, you had a comment on a point of order. I thought this was on for briefing. I didn't think it was on for briefing the action because this is the first time we've seen it. Right. It's up for discussion and possible action. So I don't see. I mean, look back again. All right. Yeah. How is that listed there, Councilmember Lambert? On the agenda. I thought it was up with possible action. I had not thought of that as an action today. It is an action. Okay. So thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I've described the events with respect to the civil rights movement in the last couple of months in this country is a great awakening. And I and I believe that that is the case. And I also think that there's another phrase that might be a great reconciliation that should occur. I think like many of you, I am a strong believer in the principle and value in our country of freedom as a bedrock and foundational principle. And we celebrate that as a country on July 4th, Independence Day. But I don't believe, Mr. Chair, that our nation has fully reconciled itself to the underpinnings of where we are today as a country with respect to the enslavement. Of Africans in our country. And that is what I believe, that this holiday, if we were to declare it an official holiday, is about. It's about freedom for folks that really help build this country, help build the capital, help build the White House, help build the Washington Monument. But did so not by choice, but by their condition as. Slaves, enslaved people and in servitude. Mr. Reed, who I want to say has been an incredible. 12th floor staffer. With respect in particular to equity and social justice issues talked about in the staff report the basics of this and that is following. September 22nd, 1862. The Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln. In those days, maybe the word didn't spread as far and as wide and as deep as folks today would have it. And not until June of 1865 did. Word of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas when general order number three was read by the Union Army. Your Galveston and Mr. Reed quoted the relevant part there, and that is that all enslaved people or slaves were free, and that it went on to say later their relationship was that of employer and employee. Now, I didn't know when I came onto the council, Mr. Chair, about Juneteenth. We're out here in the West. It's not quite as rooted in our culture, but I learned about it over seven years with our colleague, then colleague, Councilmember Gossett, who each of you will recall brought forth at this time in June of each year, a special proclamation where he invited community leaders in from the African-American community here in King County to tell us about Juneteenth and educate us a little bit. And I need to confess to you all that even then I didn't really understand the importance of this moment in history and this this holiday to the people that helped build our country until the spring and the. Largest civil rights movement in the history of America. Maybe even the world goes has come forward and this has been a key part of it. A number of states, 47 of them recognized in some way Juneteenth as a holiday in Texas. Now, for state government employees, that is actually an official holiday, which is what this legislation would do. A paid official holiday. And the movement is growing to to make it so nationwide. I think in a county name now in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. That this declaration and this move, this legislation, which would make Juneteenth an official paid holiday, is the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do. And you cannot, Mr. Chair, in my view, put a price on it. You cannot put a price on freedom. And that's what Juneteenth is about. It's about recognizing and celebrating liberation, independence and freedom for folks. And in our country, African-American folks, black folks that have not had historically that independence and freedom. And I think it is worth lifting up and cementing in the culture of our county and providing an opportunity to celebrate it. To advance its cause. And to remember from where we came and the opportunities of where we are and promises are where we can go with a day that's off, that's paid to take the time to do that. So I, I commend this to my colleagues. I thank council members Charlie and Co Wells, I think are the current co-sponsors of it. I think we can afford it on a on a $4.8 million cost out of 6 million annually or so in our budget. And frankly, I don't think we can afford not to do it. And I respectfully request that we advance it forward today and lead. And I hope that our state will adopt it statewide and that other jurisdictions around the country will follow. Thanks up during Mr. Chair to share some remarks on why I think this is appropriate legislation. Thank you, Councilmember Nevsky. Appreciate those thoughtful words and the words of a mr. Reid staff. It's because it's hitting us quickly. I want to make sure, though, that everyone has a chance to ask the questions to discuss this. You've asked for a do pass recommendation and you've asked for that today. So I think that we should get anyone who ask questions or comments. Let's get them out. I have a couple of myself sitting in front somewhat flat footed. Does anyone have any questions? Grove okay, up to go, followed by Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate my colleagues comments. You can't put a price on freedom, but you can't put a price on a holiday. And so what is the fiscal impact and. If any. I might quickly note that again, there's been reference to the $4.8 million. So it's about the expectation is that there would be a number of services that would need to continue. Are those, as you heard referenced earlier, would be things like transit, wastewater, sheriffs, sheriff services right above the services. And those those employees would be paid added overtime rate. The cost of those services is estimated at $4.8 million. A follow up, if I may, Mr. Chair. I wonder if there's any creative way to provide recognition to the holiday without resulting in having to cut deeper into the services and programs often that benefit the people we're recognizing . And I'm loath to vote against Juneteenth as a holiday and likely to be supportive. I just there's there's a tradeoff there that's an I don't know if there are other ways to structure vacations or annual recognitions or in ways that don't create an overtime cost or I don't know if you explored that at all. As sponsor. If there were, you know, again, I'm likely to support it. I just wonder if there's other ways to achieve the same outcomes without having that fiscal hit at a time when, unfortunately, we know we're digging. So it just means digging a little bit more and having an impact in other programs. And so finding that balance, if there's any other creative ways that we do holidays that don't drive a fiscal cost, because I was surprised to see the kids grow up to grow. I guess that's a question to me. First, I acknowledge the cost. It's 4.8 million estimated in overtime to keep costs or keep services going. And the way I looked at it was to say, well, we we pay folks to celebrate President George Washington's birthday. We pay folks to celebrate Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, and the day after Thanksgiving. We pay folks to celebrate New Year's Day. And we have an MLK holiday, which is about Martin Luther King Jr. I looked at that list and I thought, frankly. That the recognition of the liberation of African-Americans in America warranted the same or better treatment. And that's where I came down. There's there's I didn't want to give it second tier status. I didn't want to treat it as an honorable mention, if you will. I just I just I just thought, you know, it's worth writing the check for, and. You bet it does. Costs some money. And your your recognition of that is real. But that's where I came down. So wg. Madam Chair. Go ahead. Yeah, I have a request for my colleagues. I heard a. Couple of factual questions and policy answers, and it may be that that's where we're at, that that we have all the factual answers to questions. And the answer is to choose to do it or not to do it, given those questions. But I want to make a plea, and I will make this plea on any issue, not just this issue. Since we're having committee meetings and we've been having more committee meetings, I really want to ask that we not forward things that haven't been fully briefed, debated before getting voted on. I'd like to do amendments in committee and committee work in committee. We have all lived through how challenging it is when we get only every other week and we are looking at whether we need to do more council meetings. But at this point it's every other week. It would be great if we could allow folks to have one more meeting with this, to ask their questions, get their answers, and then take a vote here at committee with everybody feeling fully informed before sending it to council. Because I just really want to minimize the amount of committee debate and amendments and things that happen in council. Or as you see, last week we had 8 hours of council meeting. That's more than two meetings worth and it's been like that. So not commenting on the substance of this proposal, but I've heard that there are questions in answer to councilmember up the gross question about whether there are ways that we can rethink how we do holidays. Perhaps that maybe minimizes the overall cost without signaling anyone out. By the way, I was not on the Council when we voted to recognize Thanksgiving as a holiday a little bit before my time. And so I might have had the similar questions back then, but I just really want to ask if we would be willing to make sure that everybody has an opportunity with this. This is the first bite of this apple here at the meeting. I would really prefer that we make sure that we get all the work done in committee, and then I'd be very happy to vote it out and vote in full council. But just procedurally, I'm going to be asking that for pretty much everything at every committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I. Thanks for the request. I agree with your position, Councilmember Baldacci, but I also have a request from our members. So I think it's up to the member what he wants to do in terms of moving this forward. I think he should probably respond to you and then I have some comments or questions about specific legislation. This is your next cast as soon as we hear from Rod. If he wants to talk. Okay. Kathy, you want to go ahead. Eat? I was feeling the same way as how can we do this? And when I was looking at this the other day, looking at the ten holidays to personal holidays, one of the thoughts I had was, what if we asked our employees if one of the two personal holidays could be dedicated to this? And also in the timing of where this fits in the year is about the time that people would like to have a holiday. So I thought, let's look at maybe using one of the personal favorites, dedicating that out because it is important to all of us. I was lucky enough to go to a Juneteenth party with Larry, and I learned a lot at the party, and we had a wonderful time with the celebration. So anyway, that was one idea that we had. And the idea that we had is to look at maybe doing three segments in the county so that each year employees to choose what schedule they want to work on. And if we are going to work on this weekend, what we came up with the three different. Schedules. So that people could decide which of the three holiday types they want to be on so that we don't have to pay overtime, that we have a variety of when people are going to work and not work because certain holidays say maybe people are families, not around at Thanksgiving, but they'd rather do it at a different time of year. They could sign up for that. If you look at the ten days we have for holidays right now, the two personal holidays and 21 vacation days after five years, that's 33 days of the year, which is a month and a quarter off for every employee over five years. That is a lot. And so I think we need to look at that overall. We're going to open the door if we need to clean out what's going on and make sure that we are in line with the people who are paying the salaries, but maybe not getting a month and a quarter up every year after they've worked five years. So I think that there's work that needs to be done. I'm happy to help work on this work because I do think it's important and may meet other needs with moms that have daycare issues that some of this might be helpful for. So I think we have lots of work that we can do. And I agree that this opens up a door that maybe we need to be looking at more globally anyway. Okay. Thank you, kasey, for those comments. Other comments from my colleagues. Okay. Let me just say that. Here's here's that here's some of the issues I have. There's a couple different. I always wondered, how do these holidays get created? Like, how do they come up with Presidents Day or Columbus Day? Nobody likes Columbus Day. They just throw a statute in the water. We don't recognize Columbus Day here. Is that correct? That's my first question. We do not. The federal government does. We don't because I'd be willing to swap that baby out right now. But that isn't an option. So we have holidays that we recognize as special days, but people still come to work. Then we have holidays that we recognize as time off. There is a substantial cost, increased cost for ones that are time off. Not only do you have to, you know, you're paying employees, you're also getting a reduction in productivity because those employees are working one less work day a year. You also have the side effect that the constituency that we serve isn't getting the services presumably for that day, particularly places like deeper encounter operations that we have. And so. That middle that middle ground recognizing is is a special day. I do that in a minute's clearly rise as well beyond the level of special recognition. The issue for me is how do we how do we pay for it? Have we done the proper analysis? At some point you can't just keep adding holidays. I think Canada has a holiday every month. At some point you start to actually see meaningful reduction in the productivity to go to see. So that's that is a concern to me and the costs associated with it are concern to me. I really want to do a deeper dove if I'm comfortable voting for this. On what those costs are loss of productivity. I know we have a rough estimate. I heard 4.9. I heard 6.5. What services are going to be impacted and how we're going to get around those issues before I'm ready to support it? Maybe the majority of counsel wants to support it today. I want to flag I'm not going to speak to this anymore. I'm just going to flag this. We are in very serious Financial Times right now. The likes of which we haven't seen for generations in America. Neither has the county. And we just gave an $80 million raise to the bus drivers. We're now talking about giving ourselves a free holiday at King County. That's going to cost a lot of money to the taxpayers. I think there's value. I think there's value in thinking through this just a little bit more with a little more process. So the proper amendments can be made to guard and protect all of the interests that have been articulated here. However. I'm not going to get in the way of democratic process. So those are my own views. I sure like to take a chance to look at this more, do some other amendment work here. Give the Chair McDermott a chance to speak and vote in favor of assuming of this. But. But we'll go wherever the maker of the motion, Mr. Ambassador, wants to go. From here. Rod, what would you like to do based on the comments you've heard? Well. I have a lot of a lot of thoughts, Mr. Chair, but we're short on time. I introduced legislation on June 19, 40 days ago, so I don't know that it should be a surprise to anybody. But in consideration of colleagues interest in having opportunity to reflect and learn more, although I think it's quite simple. Costs are here. I do need to say I'm not swayed by the cost argument at all. This is about humanity and respecting the dignity of a portion of our population in this country that has frankly been put. Behind and put second and put last for 400 years. So that that does not sway me one bit. But in consideration of members interest. To learn more, I would change my motion or amend it to advance it with or without recommendation. So there are there is time for members to get the questions answered that they want if they want to develop amendments, they can, but that we keep moving forward, that we bring this forward and and get it and get it considered by the full council. So that would be my suggested approach, Mr. Chair, to try and acknowledge some of the concerns by folks today to to but at the same time honor the spirit of the moment and the co-sponsors who have decided that this is a good thing to do. So that would be a suggestion. Okay. Okay. So it sounds like you're comfortable moving it forward without recommendation, which to the viewing audience just means that the council's procedurally moving forward haven't really weighed in on the substance of it. It's kind of our tradition, right, when we want to keep things moving but have our way and then on the merits. Okay. All right. So that's before us. What do you think of that? I think it's a good place to start. And so I think maybe. Is there any other discussion on this if we're going to move it out with a recommendation? Mr. Chair. Yeah? Before you go, Jeannie. Claudia. Claudia. I'm going to hand the gavel magically through the world of whatever this is to you. Because I have to get in the car to drive to my child's 11th birthday party. And I will not miss that for the world, but I will reappear with a different backdrop. So now you have the gavel. Jeannie, you go right now. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Madam Chair. So I am one of the sponsors of this legislation, and I do so very positively and enthusiastically and look forward to the counsels as soon as whether or not we vote on it without recommendation today or we wait for to, I guess, three weeks. Three or four weeks. Given the recess coming up. That's right. Because the holiday is not until next June. I would just like to do this right where. Everybody. Will feel good about it. I would like to say, though, that I think this is a really critical measure, not only given the backdrop. Of what our society is going through now. The pandemic with addressing racial justice. But I also look at this from the point of view of someone who's been involved in an effort for a very long time. I cannot help but think of a film I used to show a long time ago when I was teaching at Cal State Long Beach sociology and teaching at the University of Washington for a long time in sociology. The film was called Black. Lost or stolen or stream and it is available. I just checked. I googled it. It's really outstanding. And it was actually released in 1968. And the premise, which is rather obvious by the title, is that we, so many of us do not know about black history and all the contributions that have been made and the significance of black participation in our development of our society and also throughout the whole time of this country since its inception. And I remember one girl growing up, I knew nothing about this. I knew about slavery. But our textbooks in our schools did not portray anything realistically, significantly about the contributions of black Americans in our society throughout all fields of study and all fields in our lives. So I think this is really important and it is a way for our county. King County, Martin Luther King County chairman to be able to say, hey, this is important. It's not only are solely rather about freedom, which is what our country supposedly was founded upon, but it's about what is reflected in our society today. And it's about time that Americans of all stripes, all colors, know about the important contributions and significance of black Americans and and others and our way of life and what we've accomplished as a society. And so I feel very strongly about this, and I think we should pass it. But again, I'm fine with doing it today. With that recommendation, though, that would lead to amendments to the council meeting, which I know the chair is not in favor or we wait until we come back. There's time. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember others. I'll just say a few words before we move to a vote. I, i, i share the view of those who think this is an important measure and something that we very much ought to do. I, in addition to all the things that have been said, which I won't repeat, I also feel that it is an important opportunity each year for us to reflect upon our progress in moving from where we are with regard to racial freedom, equity, justice, opportunity. The words of the proclamation itself are something that I think automatically upon reading them, they cause me any way to reflect on how far we have come, but also how far we have yet to go. And so I think for that purpose, it is a really valuable holiday to add to our list of holidays, because it marks a time each year when we should we should be reminded to reflect upon and recommit to, to justice. And so I think it's a good idea, and I think we should find a way to do it. My request really isn't met by making it move without recommendation if it's going to move. I would just as soon move it with recommendation because I think that's a stronger statement. My request is if there's still work to be done, that that work be done in committee. I'm really sincerely asking my colleagues to not send things to council that are not fully baked. I hear and am mindful of the length of time that some things have been waiting since introduction and have not had committee time. I think that as we continue to have more access to committee slots like you saw a couple of weeks ago, we're able to move more things forward and and therefore, probably naturally things will move forward faster and not sit in, you know, limbo, unheard. But I'm sincere and serious in that request. I really think that we are going to do better as a body if we do our committee work in committee. And I know as somebody who supports this and is prepared to move towards doing it, that some of us may be ready to vote and go. But some of us have expressed that we are not that we have some questions that we want to look at. And and so I just renew that ask. But if that ask is declined, then we will have a vote. Council member and basket. Want to call on your close? Thank you, Madam Chair. Then I withdraw my floated possible amendment to move it forward with our recommendation and renew my motion to move forward with recommendation. This is simple legislation. It adds an official paid holiday in the county code. To recognize Juneteenth as a paid official holiday. The brief. It was introduced on June 19th. Five weeks ago. There's been plenty of time to review it. It's simple. We have the cost estimates. That seems to be the major concern and we have the answer to that. And so I believe members today can decide whether or not it's worth it, whether it's nice to worth it, whether or not it's worth it to recognize African-Americans in this country. On the day that they were finally announced as fully free following Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, some tune it half years before on September 22nd, 1862, when in Texas . The American Army came to Galveston and read general order number three. And I think it's the right thing to do. I felt very strongly about it as an individual council member, that is my obligation. To use the position and power that has been entrusted to me in the franchise that has been granted to me to bring forward this legislation and to move it now in. Folks can vote how they would like, but these reflect my values and I'm proud to recommend you to the full council. I think more needs to be done. I request my colleagues vote yes. To the extent that statement suggested that members who have questions about what this means and how to implement it are not supportive of racial equity and justice. I think that's unfortunate and I'm sorry if that's the case. I didn't say that at all, ma'am. I spoke from my standard that my strong and my strong feelings and what I heard from the debate today in terms of questions about cost and and I believe it's fairly straightforward legislation, and I think we should move forward. I just want to state as the chair, that to the extent that there was an inference that those who might think that there's more work to be done don't agree as a policy matter. That is that's unfortunate and really shouldn't be done. There was no. Interinstitutional. Thank you, madam chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Council member dunn. Councilmember Coel's, i. Council member, Lambert. No. For McDermott. Coulson. I found someone on my phone. Councilmember Bond right there. Hi. Hi. Madam Chair. I am chair chair of the vote has five eyes council members dombroski call wells up the graph so high and bounded she council member Lambert Felts now council member Dunn. McDermott and on both our excuse and 1/2 the cast member I'll call on you in a moment. By our vote. We have approved this item with a do pass recommendation. It will not be on consent and it will not be expedited. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, am a little shocked. Whether it was my interpretation or not. I too interpreted the final comments to be. To be very sad. I do have questions about all of the holidays, which is why we did some work in my office on just how many holidays should there be total. I have no problems with this being the holiday. I actually think the better idea. But I also think that we need to be looking at the taxpayers are paying for all these holidays in general, not just this one, but all of them. Member I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we really have voted and it's time to move on. There will be another opportunity. A full council. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item eight. This is discussion and possible action regarding the positive implementation plan. And we have Patrick Hamacher and Erin Aria from council staff to give a staff report. I should probably say for purposes of the public who don't understand what we're talking about when we suddenly turn to the master implementation plan. There's an acronym. It stands for the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account. That would hardly you would hardly be the blamed if that didn't tell you much more. This is a it is a funding source that is going to be passed through to King County. The money comes from essentially sales tax, like payment from sound transit as they build their construction of stage three, the third sound transit capital program. And it is intended for educational purposes. So we're going to have a staff report today. I understand we also have executive staff here to answer questions. We've heard a lot of really good public comment in support of this. But based on what I understand as the second backup chair here today, the chair wasn't intending to move this out today, but that put it on the agenda again for action on August 25th. So with that understanding of the plan, I'm going to call on Patrick Hamacher first to begin the presentation. Please go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Patrick Hamacher, and you did an excellent job of covering much of what I was going to cover. And with respect to the time I think we are on. Just to orient you, we're on page 149 and going to 100, page 150 and your staff report. The only part I will add to the background section is that the reason we're here today is that last November you passed an ordinance, while last August and last November you passed legislation that together required an implementation plan for the use of pastor funds to be transmitted to the Council for your approval. There was also a request for funding and for staffing to begin rolling out the pastor funds, and that has been rolled into an omnibus that was taken up by Councilmember Kowalski's Budget Committee. And so what's before you today is the implementation plan. And Aaron is going to begin the discussion of the elements that were required to be in the plan and how well the transmitted plan comports with those. So that concludes my remarks. Aaron I had staff. The analysis section of the staff report begins on page 151 of your packet. You'll notice in the section a series of tables designed to compare the direction given by Council in motion 15492 with the various elements of the implementation plan. At a high level, the plan identifies four main cost centers visualized in table two on page 153 of your packet administration and evaluation accounts for 7% of the total over the life of the account, with 10% each year available for technical assistance and capacity building. After accounting for that expense, the remainder is divided by only 52% for early learning facilities, 38% for King County Promise, and 10% for community based organizations. Table three on page one, 53 of the packet outlines the motion criteria for governance. The plan recommends the establishment of a CAIB as a subcommittee to serve as the advisory group to the UAB, which is the King County Children and Youth Advisory Board. It appears that the governance section includes the elements required by the motion. The financial plan previously covered the introduction, and the financial plan is basically what you would expect using transit during projections from April of this year. So I will not get into that more at this time unless you would like me to, and I will keep going for time sake. We found that. Those requirements. Were largely met and then areas of note will be discussed in the next section of funding. Category one and early learning facilities are E.L.F. Begins on page 156 of your packet. The recommendations of this category were derived from the work of the E.L.F. Work Group. The membership is listed in attachment three on page 2 to 67 packet. But again, we're on page 156 right now. The left hand column of table six remains the direction to the executive branch outlined in motion 15492. For the sake of time, I'll only highlight areas of discrepancy. The motion directs the executive branch to set appropriate target enrollment figures based on income level, local cost of living and payment makes and strategies to sustainably maximize services to prioritize populations. Prioritized populations are defined in section eight of motion 15492 on page 244 of your packet. The plan notes that this work was postponed due to the impact of COVID 19 on the childcare industry, and DCH has plans to explore enrollment targets once industry has been able to recover. The motion directs the creation of strategies to ensure facilities are built with project labor agreements or other labor friendly practices. TCHC contracts will require activities financed by passive pasta proceeds to comply with applicable prevailing wage requirements and labor agreements. And the county may consider implementing a project labor agreement if deemed applicable. Additionally, the motion stipulates that grants for family daycare providers will not exceed $20,000 per facility. However, the plan raises the maximum grant for this category from $20000 to $75000 per award, and that's in order to sufficiently meet the needs of the facilities. The ALF work group recommended this change and it aligns with the State Department of Commerce Technical Assistance Plan that they commissioned in 2019. Moving to funding Category two. Unless there are questions on that section, I'm going to keep rolling. That is stopping if you would like to. Madam Chair, funding category to me, does it say to my colleagues, I am very happy to let Erin finish the entire presentation, but if you do have a question at any point that it would be best asked in a moment, please just speak out and we'll call on you. Thanks. Please go ahead, Erin. Thank you. Funding Category two King County Promise begins on page 158 of your packet. The recommendations of this category were derived from the work of the Promise Work Group. The membership for that work group is listed on attachment and attachment for on page 269 of your packet. While funding for this category aligns with the structure set forth in motion 15492 with the King County Promise Fund split with 45% for K through 12, 45% for post-secondary and 10% for community based organizations. The plan provides for two programs to be created. So the first is called Promise Partnerships, where K through 12 districts, community and technical colleges and community based organizations will be asked to co-design the strategy and submit a proposal for funding through a competitive RFP process administered by King County. Through the Partnership through the Promise Partnerships, TCHC seeks to create a fund, a cohesive pipeline of services for the grantees, and to partner and collaborate with other organizations so that each application includes at least two of the following one or more public community or technical college, one or more public K-through-12 district and or one or more youth serving community based organization. The second sort of funding program that is envisioned is a system supporting organization which the plan envisions would focus on ensuring a functional pipeline. Excuse me, a functional pipeline is created for student support in order to achieve the target outcomes. According to the plan, the systems supporting organization will provide direct services to the Promised Partnership Funding recipients, including working to develop a system building effort that fosters collaboration among the funding partners. Table eight looks at the King County or the K through 12 promised dedication and can be found on page 158 of your packet. This section is largely consistent with the motion. However, the motion directs that investments be made in career and advising, including through trade and apprenticeship programs. The plan represents that these these as potential commitments that could be agreed to. Noting that the first group of promised partnerships will collaborate and design a set of shared commitments and working to achieve the outcome targets set forth in the motion. Table nine reviews the post-secondary promise dedication beginning on page 160. The motion directs the development of policies for funding services for students pursuing post-secondary educational opportunities that include higher education and careers in the trades and apprenticeships, and that provide greater system alignment. Student supports and reduction in barriers and completing a post-secondary degree or credential according to the plan. Children, Youth and Young Adult Division staff will bring funded entities together to co-develop a set of commitments that may include the items just mentioned. And funding category three begins on page 161 of your packet. You'll know the left hand column of 211 outline instructions given then the motion for the remainder and the remaining 10% dedicated to community based organizations. Our analysis showed that the plan largely met that direction, differing in terms of procurement and the time planned for the recommendations for this funding category were developed by the Racial Equity Coalition, known as the RTC, which served as the work group for this funding category. The 15 member organization is provided an Attachment five on page 21, which is also the last page of your packet break immediately. And then the plan envisions a three year pilot called Love and Liberation, or L.A. for Short, where RTC organizations would perform direct work with youth, including out-of-school time or expanded learning opportunities, access to physical education , mentoring and case management. According to executive staff, these positive funds would allow for new and new, but existing L.A. services through the United Way King County, to be scaled so that they may be offered more widely throughout the county. And according to the plan, L.A. providers will focus on geographic areas with high numbers of youth and young adults from passive, prioritized populations and monitor for relevant demographic changes. The RNC recommends use of participatory grantmaking for this funding category. According to the plan participants, participatory grantmaking explicitly and intentionally brings together communities impacted by funding decisions together with funders to shift traditional power dynamics and funding decisions with the goal of empowering communities and creating lasting change. Council staff is working to determine how this aligns with county's procurement rules. And on page 163 of your packet, you'll find table 12 in the Evaluation Criteria section. The plan recommends that DHS Performance Measurement and Evaluation Team lead a related evaluation work. The plan notes that initial outcome targets will be set at a later time in collaboration with funded partners and by passive staff. And that more or less concludes our staff report. We would be happy to take any questions you may have. And in addition, we have Sheila Capps, Danny, director of C D, Jackie Moynihan, Deputy Division Director for Housing, Homelessness, Community Development Division, and on a further mcconney implication manager. Madam Chair, thank you so much, Erin and Patrick. But mostly Erin did most of the work and council members questions for our staff or executive staff. This is a first briefing. You will come back in August, but it's a good opportunity to ask questions you have right now. I'm sure we will have questions. We're taking it on board. I will say while people decide whether they're going to ask or not, that I really appreciate the work that's gone in. This has been such a stepwise process, starting with the I mean, back to the very first time I heard from Justin Farrell about the compromise in Olympia that put this funding source into the stage three authorization legislation. And then there was just a not a lot of debate about it during the election, but afterwards it became clear that this was going to be a resource that would be unique. I'm really proud of the work that this council did to try to make the most out of it, and especially to, for not the first time we've done this before, but in a really significant way, explicitly call out racial equity as something that we are going to to fund towards. And then there was, of course, really hard work about the different buckets and levels of funding for each level of for each level of education. We set ourselves a goal of trying to spend this money deeply and not peanut butter and all over the place so that it has deep impact. And that's one of the things I'm going to be looking for in looking at the spending plan. I think the engagement with the community has been outstanding in the creation of this and of this plan that's in front of us today. And it shows in the amount of support that it received in from all the different folks who have been really advocating hard for investment in things that will help to improve outcomes for youth at all levels. So and I start the analysis of this program with it, it's just there's a lot of good work that's gone into it. The community support is really important to me. There may be little things here or there as we move forward, but I just speaking for myself, I don't I'm not feeling the need sitting here to do major amendments or major changes because we've really walked up to this point together. So councilmembers, anybody care to opine or ask? Council Chairman Eldridge, Councilmember Raquel Welch, please go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a couple of questions that I know when we take this up later as well. For one, I really appreciate the work that's been done by the community groups who have put in a great amount of time. And I know that our staff, our district staff have been working on this for a long time as well. So I really commend the implementation plan that we have before us and of course also the executive staff and all of their work. One question that I have is so with regard to United Way and I maybe Sheila knows the answer to this, but of Will United Way are. B How much of the funding that will go to United Way will. Be. Retained as part of the administrative costs? Or is it something that United Way will be covering on there and. Thank you for that question, Councilmember. And hello. The the United Way what this project is actually. I'm sorry to interrupt you. Could you say that you didn't just realize that I was talking through myself and Sheila Capps, Danny and the director of the Children, Youth and Young Adults Division and the Strategic Advisor for Revenue. And so I the Love and Liberation is a pilot project and it has these partnerships to it. United Way is a partner will be providing capacity building and staffing for the Racial Equity Coalition to make sure that they have the foundation and the structure they need to get the work done. So the county will be will be funding that work that the United Way is doing. The United Way is not asking for a percentage and we're not giving a percentage to administration. I think. And Madam Chair, on a continuum, another question is that we know that the funding that we get from Southern Transit will be uneven. It will not be the same year by year. And depending on the construction that's underway on the part of some transit, there may be some years in which we have more revenue generated than other years. And I'm just wondering how this will affect the administrative process. I think it gives us some challenges. And I'm wondering if, Hannah, do you have an answer to that one? Yes. For the record, my name is Hannah. Honey, I work at sea my way. I am the custom being. Good afternoon, everybody. I would say we have looked at this 15 year budget really thoroughly and have based our assumptions on the latest estimates that we received from Sound Transit, which are from the end of April. So. So a couple of months back, we know that that is the latest information that we have and are moving forward with it. I would say about how we will handle handle the uneven distribution, which will probably still change as 15 years pass. So one thing is for administrative funding. We are planning and even spend down. So we are spreading the funds anticipating that our standard will be even across the years. And that's one one way we're handling our administrative and evaluate expenses. And then when we work with partners, once we have awarded contracts, then we will talk with them about how they want to handle their budgets. The one one strategy that we're employing from the get go is that we are thinking that implementation will be gradual and as such we will be accruing some a remainder funds at the end of each year that could be spent on one year and may be useful as a strategy as the fund itself starts to wind down towards the end of the 15 year period. Thank you. And one final question. Madam Chair, please go ahead. Thank you. Currently, we have a 7% administrative fee going to the county, and I'm wondering if that seems to be the right amount. I have actually offered an amendment that did not get approved by the council that would be at 5% so that we would have more funding going into the actual programs. But we do this 7%, and I'm wondering if that seems to be the appropriate amount thus far, or does it seem like we need more or less would do. Any feedback at this point? I think it's important to remember that that admin bucket is actually administration evaluation and capacity building. So it's 7% to accomplish all of those tasks. We're probably right at the edge of what is a good amount to do that. And so is as we hold admin steady, hopefully if if the income in that bucket changes or we can put out to community around capacity building. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Szabo, please go ahead. Thanks, Madam Chair. Hey, Sheila. How you doing? Hi there. I have some pretty elementary questions. So the implementation plan just confirming this is agreeing to the bucket or categories of spending and not allocating anything to specific organizations. Is that right? Well, that's for two of the buckets. That is true. What we are with the third bucket around the community. The community supports that 10%. That pilot project is already a predetermined group for the pilot project. That's similar to a couple of projects we did under BSC. So that is a closed amount. That is 10% of the 93% after admin eval and AC that was taken out. Gotcha. And who who are those neighbors that I don't think I see them yet. Do you happen to have that list in front of you? A lot of them testified today for public comment. Yeah. Aaron, as of 258, what's the pitch number? I actually have them right in front of me if you'd like to agree it. I'm sure the four C Coalition, all girl, everything. Ultimate program, also known as Age Up Education. Excuse me. Asian Counseling and Referral Services, Community Passageways, Education with Purpose Foundation for Pacific Islanders. El Centro de la Raza Follis Community Services. East Federal Way Youth Action Team, Filipino Community of Seattle Glover Empowering Mentoring Open Doors for Multicultural Families Para Los Ninos Powerful Voices. Red Eagle Soaring and United Way of King County. That's how I was at the end of, you know, organizations that belong to the Racial Equity Coalition. Any more questions? They're like, maybe we lost him. I think we may have lost control resolve. You know, let's take a quick moment here. Are they are high. Sorry, Councilmember, I couldn't hear if you had. If that was the end. I think I lost everybody. No. Can you hear me now? It can't hear us. In. Okay. Let's carry on and we'll see if we can help Rosalie with you. No. It's okay. I'm so sorry. Anybody else? Counselor Rizal, I'm going to pause you for a second. Anyone else have questions. About the growth. Of the growth? Please go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's more of just a comment. One of the areas I'm interested in continuing to explore is within the college career and technical education section. We've called the promise that Sorry is making sure that the way that is structured allows for as robust as possible community based decision making. I think we do a really good job of that in the K-12, and there may be some ideas to kind of clarify or strengthen the wording in a couple of areas so that the the community based organization envisioned. There are things called the systems supporting organization will be really a true partner with the department in developing recommendations. And so I wanted to flag that as an issue. I chatted briefly with with Sheila about that, and I don't have specific recommendations at this point, but I'm talking with the stakeholders and we'll be talking with the department and may have some amendments to bring forward. So that was a comment and a question. Not a question. Got it. Okay. Other members. I'm not hearing any. Let me just state again for the record that this is the first briefing. We will have a second, according to counsel to committee of the whole chair. MCDERMOTT That is probably going to be the time for amendments. So there will be some time between now and then with the caveat that we're on break and at the direction of leadership, many staff members are going to be taking some time off. So probably we'll be working on amendments the first two weeks of August, but we will have more time after that. All right. Any further questions? I'm going to pause this for a second because I have a message here that I was trying to get back in. And there he is. Cancer marsala in years. Hmm. I think it'll take just a second for him to cut their incomes. Councilmember ally. The system. Is also. Sorry. Everyone, can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Please continue. Well, we got to. Worry about that. I completely missed that the whole answer, but I think I got an email with the list. So I'll I'll look into that and I'll let me collect myself for a second. And you can please go ahead without me for now. Thank you. Yeah. So I was just I was just repeating for purposes of hopefully setting the expectation that there will be more time to ask questions, get answers. This is scheduled to come back August 25th, a committee of the whole. And that means that there will be not time plus plus a final council passage. So even if we can't get to today due to technical glitches, which are always so disappointing when they happen and you wish you could do something about them, but they happen, we will have time to get back to to those any issues that members want to raise. So I would. Ask one follow up question. Yes, please go ahead. And as many as you need to. Thank you, Sheila. If your organization or project want to access some of the early learnings that are capital funds in that bucket, from what what is the process like for that? What do they need to have in order to do that? Well, we will have we'll have an RFP process and there's going to be a lot of support around getting information out in our communities about that opportunity and also being able to help people as they think about is this the type of funding source that's going to be useful for them? I'd love to see actually if if Jacqueline, if you have any more information about how that might happen, nothing is written in stone yet, but how we've done it in the past with capital projects. Sure happy to. Jackie Moynihan, assistant Division Director for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development Division. And hopefully my Internet stays stable while I'm talking to you. So we would, for the new construction strategy that is in the implementation plan, will be running an RFP to select a third party intermediary to do those larger projects. But there would be an RFP and procurement process that would be run in coordination with DHS. So she was bringing there would be significant outreach of getting the word out into the community and also assistance provided to them to work with folks to make sure that that is appropriate. And I think part of the plan that is before you also includes a phase where there is some pre-development work that happens that helps test whether the project is a feasible project before you move into committing the multiple millions of dollars that would be needed to construct and facility. Thank you. Further questions. Okay. I believe we will have more discussion, undoubtedly. And we thank you for this opening briefing. And the good questions and answers will be back to those together in earnest. So. That concludes the action item on our agenda today. Before we move to other business, just want to make sure that technical difficulties didn't stop council members from voting. There were a few missed votes. And so, Madam Clerk, looking at the votes where members were excused, can we ask if there's any member who would like to vote that wasn't able to due to technical challenges? And we may have to we may have to list out what the most votes were. Are you prepared to try to help with that? Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. On item number 2020 0224 council members Don McDermott and Andre Bellemare. Excused. Okay. Are any of those members on the phone now and wanting to register a vote? Well, I'm not hearing any. And we can have people register votes after the meeting. Correct, because it's a committee meeting. Madam Chair, so you can only record a vote in favor of the majority recommendation. So in other words, they could add a vote by email to the clerk to support the recommendation to move the council. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Appreciate it. All right. I'm not seeing anybody attempting to vote, so we're going to move on. I see no other business unless there's anything for the good of the order. Madam Chair. Council member. Have to. Go. As soon as you bring the gavel, I'm going to bang the Flood District gavel. We're not going to have a pause between meetings. Okay, very good. I'll hand you the the. The banana. Okay. Well, thanks, everyone who participated in today's meeting with no additional business, the committee of the whole is adjourned. I council members, please stay on the line for the Flood District meeting. Any staff and members who are here for the committee of the whole are free to enjoy the rest of their day. Or you could stay with us and enjoy a flood district meeting. This meeting is adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE establishing June 19 of each year, Juneteenth, as a paid holiday for King County employees eligible for leave benefits; and amending Ordinance 12014, Section 23, as amended, and K.C.C. 3.12.230.
king_ce82e018-deb7-467c-a6c5-8304edf76e61	I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Committee of the Hall for September 21st. We don't have all of our members here yet, so we are going to do things upside down. So we're going to start at the end and work backwards for a while. We're going to start at Briefing 2016, Briefing 155, which is the maritime and recreational boat industry impact. And so if the panel would like to come forward for that, we will begin to hear more about that. If they're here yet, I think both told the media by ten oh oh, okay. They aren't here. All right. Well, then we will. Have to see. Okay. All right, then. We won't start with you then. All right. Always interesting. Okay, then I guess we will have to start. And no, they don't have their panel here at all, so. Okay. So what we will do then is we will have to start then with item number five and that will be proposed motion 2016 0439 . And this is a briefing today on a motion supporting the expansion of Social Security and Medicaid programs and benefits. And so, Mr. Nicholson, if you'd like to begin the briefing, that would be great. Thank you, Madam Chair. And members of the council. First time presenting in front of you. So looking forward to it. Excellent. We won't be painful as possible. I appreciate. That. I mean, pain. Life, not pain. You didn't catch that either way. Thank you. So the proposed motion in 2016, dash 0439 would add four items related. To Social. Security and Medicare programs to King County's 2017 federal legislative agenda. Specifically would add to the agenda that Social Security benefits should be expanded to address the financial insecurity among among present and future recipients, and that this expansion of benefits should be paid for by eliminating the cap on earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That cap right now is at $118,500. Employers and employees each. Pay. 6.2% of their salary up to that cap. The motion proposed motion would also state that the Medicare program eligibility should be expanded to include younger people, and that benefits should be expanded to include comprehensive dental vision and hearing coverage, and that this expansion should be funded by raising the Medicare payroll tax. That tax rate is currently 1.4 or 5% of all covered wages, and it's paid by the employee and the employer. And that's really what this proposed motion does. I know there's a panel here to further discuss the issue and answer questions. Remind me again. So it's 1.4 or five. Is that matched or is that split? The employer each pays it. So the employee pays 1.4 or 5% and as does the employer. Okay, great. All right. That sounds like a given. You survived and did a nice job. So welcome to presenting. Okay. If the panel would like to come up. I know we have several people. The president of the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, Mr. Ravi Stern, policy director, Economic Opportunity Institute, Dr. Marilyn Watkins, and somebody from the Washington Community Action Network. And I'll let you pronounce your name when you speak. That would be great. All right. Would you like to begin? Yes, I will. Thank you very much for hearing us this morning. My name is Marilyn Watkins. I'm the policy director of the Economic Opportunity Institute. And this is Social Security is one of the issues that I've worked on in that capacity for the last 17 years now. So, first of all, the Social Security and Medicare programs are vitally important to everyone here in our country and including here in King County. 22% of Kane County households receive Social Security income, according to the most recent American Community Survey data. And that income that people receive, it totals nearly $5 billion a year that comes into King County's economy because of Social Security benefits. We typically think of Social Security as a retirement program, but I want to share actually my own story to illustrate that this is something that's really important to people of all ages. Nearly 20 years ago now, when my children were nine and 11 years old, my husband dropped out one day of a heart attack. I was working part time, as many women do at that time, and so we were, even though we were a middle class family, financially secure in many ways, we were very much dependent on my husband's income. And from the very beginning, within a couple of weeks, Social Security benefits where survivor's benefits were flowing into my checking account. And every single month until my younger son turned 18, we received a Social Security check every month from the government. That was just hugely important to maintaining economic security, allowing me to keep our house, keep a functioning car, keep two growing boys and sneakers without holes and pants that weren't too short for them. It just made a huge difference for us, even as a middle class family. And it's something that that really impacts everybody. Every day, 15,000 children here in King County receive Social Security benefits directly. And the estimate is that twice that number of kids are actually benefiting from Social Security because they live in a household with somebody who's receiving Social Security benefits. So this is something that really spans the lifespan in terms of its importance to our economy. But as good as Social Security is, as important as it is to everybody's economic security, we could make it so much better. Almost every you know, every few years until the last couple of decades, we've actually tweaked and improved and expanded Social Security. And it's time to do that again for our changing economy to make life more secure for people thanks to Social Security and Medicare. Seniors as a group have the lowest levels of poverty of any major demographic group in our community. But very many live right above that poverty level. The percentage of people living between poverty and 150% or 200% of poverty really still struggling to meet the basics is really high. And of course, many people's medical bills and other expenses actually go up as they get older. So it's time to scrap that cap on the Social Security payroll premium, let everyone pay equitably into the system. And that would really provide us with the with the resources to expand the program, to expand benefits, especially for women of all races and men of color who historically and still today make less money for all sorts of reasons than than do white men. And we see the highest levels of poverty and near poverty among very elderly women who are widowed or single in other ways, who really, really struggle to cover the basics. And we could make life a lot better for them by expanding benefits. And I'll turn it over to my colleague. So she now. Hi, my name is Sochi Markovich, and I'm an organizer with Washington Community Action Network. I know my name's a hard one to say. So thank you. So we're a grassroots organization and we have 40,000 members throughout the state. And we strongly support expanding and strengthening Social Security because we view it as a racial, economic and gender justice issue. So for women, I think I'll talk about women first. So women not only are paid less than their male counterparts, they are often the caregivers for their family members. And I'll just talk about my mom as an example. So I have an older brother who has special needs and my because of the expense of like finding specialty care, my mom has stayed at home with him and has like maybe two years of work history, which is not enough to qualify for Social Security. And so she will not get any Social Security whenever she gets older. And she has to rely on my father for for that economic security. And having that dynamic is really problematic because, one, I think that leads to many women staying in unsafe. And luckily, my parents are not in this category, but there are women out there who stay in unsafe relationships because for that economic security, especially when you're older and if we had something like a caregiver credit, which would recognize the work that women do as caregivers and and count that time towards Social Security so that they could get Social Security, that is a will help. So so so many women in our not only our country, but in our state. And then I think as far as racial justice goes, Marilyn was touching on this. People of color are disproportionately impacted by poverty, lower wages and not having pensions. And so they are disproportionately reliant on Social Security. But the average payment you get a month is about, I think, 1300 dollars. And if talking about King County in particular, when you look at things like rent it, it doesn't match up with the actual costs that people face. So the last study I started is from Zillow. Rent in the Seattle is about $2,000 a month on average. And if your Social Security payment is 3000 dollars, there's no way you can really. Find a place to pay that rent with just your Social Security. And I know that a lot of people have this idea that renters are just young folks. But if you look at the communities of color within King County, 70% of African-Americans are renters. And so there are many, many seniors, as well as people on disability who are renters and are, you know, at the whim of the ridiculous housing cost in the city. And Social Security is not keeping up with those costs. And health care is also getting more expensive, especially for people as they get older. And so it's really important to make sure Social Security actually keeps up with the cost that people face. And so if we scrap the cap and people are equitably paying into the Social Security fund, then we're going to be able to expand Social Security to help fill these gaps that women and people of color face. Thank you. My name is Ravi Sternum, president of Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action. We're an organization of some 1200 members. We're multigenerational. We take as our primary role trying to make it possible for everyone in our society when they reach the years that they are, should be able to have a decent retirement, that they're able to have retirement with dignity, respect and some economic security. Just in the last two days, it was rather incredible yesterday. And then again this morning, I got emails from news services, one from Bloomberg and the other from one called Just Bread that talked about what we are facing in terms of the retirement crisis. It's estimated that our retirement deficit is $7.7 trillion. That, as most of us remember, when we were coming up, we were told that being able to have retirement was a three legged stool and the three legs were Social Security, a pension and savings. And the reality is at this point that we have a one legged stool or a defined benefit. Pensions have become smaller. The percentage of people that have it now are smaller and smaller. We have a growing population that depends on Social Security for 90% or more of their income. So what does that mean? Well, there's something going on called the age wave where you have this huge population that's moving from being baby boomers. And I think that's probably where most of you are into their retirement years. And what we have is we have this huge deficit and we have a Social Security system that's going to become more and more critical for our ability to be able to have retirement with dignity, respect and Medicare, which is also absolutely essential for seniors and people with disability to be able to live with dignity and respect. Medicare fails to fund vision, dental and hearing. There are emergencies that can be funded through Medicare, but basically for anything that is basic, dealing with your your teeth, your hearing or your eyes, you have to come out of pocket. Social Security, the average benefit is 1300 dollars a year. So we're looking at a situation where senior poverty is going to become more and more a reality in our lives, and we have to deal with it. We're coming to you with this resolution because you are influential and what you say matters. And if you say, listen, we recognize in the county that we have jurisdiction over, we have a crisis that's creeping up on us and one only needs to go outside. I got the statistics from the downtown emergency center in Seattle. And over the last nine years, the age of the people that they're serving over the last nine years has gone up by ten years. The age that the face of poverty is growing older and older, the face of poverty is more and more women and people of color. And we have to have a response to that. And you can help influence that with this resolution. What we're asking you to do in this resolution, as Mack said, is we're asking you to say that King County is in favor of expanding these programs with Social Security. It's just an equity issue. As as was said, the cap is $118,500. What that means is that someone who's earning $1,000,000, whereas we are paying 6.2% or we're paying 6.2%. Someone who's earning $1,000,000 is paying point 1/10 of 1%. They're done paying into Social Security after the first couple of weeks of the year. It's crazy. We need to have an equitable system that, in fact, provides the kind of Social Security system that we're going to need. What it does do, according to the chief actuary of the Social Security trust fund, is it means that Social Security will be able to pay full benefits for the next 57 years. 57 years is an actuarial lifetime. So we need we need to take that step with Medicare. We need to make sure that it covers the essential services that seniors need, including dental vision and hearing. We can do that by raising the social I mean the Medicare payroll tax from 1.4 or 5% to 2%, which would raise $90 billion annually, which would cover the cost of vision, dental and hearing. That would be the equivalent of $0.08 an hour for someone earning $15 an hour. So we're asking you to pass on to the full council this motion that will provide for the council going on record supporting the expansion of these two vital programs and having your federal legislative agenda reflect that, and letting our congressional delegation know that you're on board with this movement that is happening across the country at this point . And we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. And I just also want to say, I realize I forgot to mention this, is that as a young person who was in college during the recession, we don't have a whole lot of faith in IRAs and borrowing case to really be there for us in 40 years. And I don't really know anyone my age who has a pension. And so for people in my age group, we know that Social Security is like the only thing we can really depend on in retirement. Just how old are you? So I'm 26. Example, Robbie. Someone might ask you the same question if you want to. That's great. I do hope, though, that people your age will start looking at what are some of the funding mechanisms that they can have, because as I said, it is a three legged stool. So hopefully saving a little bit. And I know even with my grandchildren, I decided to put a little bit away every month and a 529 account for their education when they first start. This is so little, it's not going to make any difference. And now, five years later, I'm looking at them somehow going, Oh, my gosh, this pays for your college. And it was painless for me because it was such a little amount. So it was it was good to be able to do that. Councilmember Coble. Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, Rob is eloquent as ever. That was very, very moving. And also Sochi and Maryland, just really compelling testimony. Thank you for bringing this to us. I, I don't know if you're aware of another mechanism. That we have in the current year. We may have yesterday in the Health, Housing and Human Services Committee, we gave a do pass recommendation and this will be going to the full council pertaining to the Veterans Human Services Levy, which is currently operating and which likely will go on the ballot next August or November. And in a motion that we passed out of the committee yesterday, we directed the executive, the county executive to come back with the report in January with an assessment of how well this Levy's been doing and what might be some areas to expand it, including older adults. This would be services for older adults. So you might want to become engaged in this effort as well. There'll be community conversations going on later. That's starting next week and into October. So it's just a suggestion. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember at the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. A comment and a question and I have no comment. So she made about young people trying to say something that resonates with the experience I've seen with even college educated folks coming out of school now trying to get employment that covers one the cost of their student debt, plus being able to afford to live. I know a lot of folks who even tucking that little bit away, they're already making choices between being able to afford their bus fare or food or medicine. And so it heck, we make Bankers County Council. I'm having trouble putting money away, but but I have no excuse. But I just want young people in particular now. And I think student debt is a factor in that to having to make choices among basic needs and not having that ability to put something into savings. That was one of the things I like is, you know, it's the classic line for the movie you had me at. Hello. But one of the things I enjoy is hearing effective spokespeople articulate issues, and it helps me be a better advocate. And along those lines, I'm wondering if you can help me answer. One of the most common questions or the pushback comes from, you know, increase in the payroll tax or Medicare. Yikes. You're piling on working people. So what what do I say to someone who who says that that creates an economic burden on people who may be stretched already making lower wages? Well, you know, I think we have a lot of evidence of all kinds that social insurance, including Social Security and Medicare, has been one of the most effective things we've ever done together as a country. And it actually, as our economy continues to change and evolve and as people actually, you know, unlike when Social Security was founded , people don't get out of high school and get a job and stay in that job for their whole career. People move around a lot. When I get resumes of young people applying for jobs, they often have changed every year or two. And and that's just increasingly common. But I mean, employers aren't don't have loyalty to their employees. And employees really do need to move around a lot as well. And actually, a social insurance program like Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security follows people around. So you actually continue to be able to have those benefits as you move from job to job to job. That's that's a really important thing. These amounts that we're putting into these programs are very low. And one of the keys to our to this proposal is actually making the system a whole lot more equitable by we years ago scrapped the cap on Medicare, but we still have that cap on Medicaid and as we've seen inequality and increase in our increase in our society. And it's really particularly evident here in King County that the growing income inequality where you have the top one and 10% actually doing really, really well on everyone else is not even keeping pace with inflation in terms of their income. This is one of the things that we can do that is really going to help everybody survive and thrive together because our whole economy does better when when individuals have the economic resources at every level in order to just go out and spend for those basics that are going to really keep themselves and their families healthy. I just would want to add, I mean, clearly, your question relates to the payroll tax on Medicare, not on Social Security, because we're not taxing anyone who can't afford it. So we we we were asked that question before. And as I said, it's $0.08 an hour or it comes down to three. $3.20 for a $15 wage. $3.20 a week, or what comes to around $14 a month. So it is a weighing question because people are I know I'm not going to say that it's not it's a weighing question. And so it is a question of how do you weigh off those same young people not being able to access that, not being able to take care of themselves, their hearing, their vision, their their dental work when they get older against what will be a small amount, but nevertheless an amount that they would pay out. And I just think that it's a matter of values there. That's right. Okay. Thank you very much for your presentation. We appreciate it. And for allowing. Us to make the president. I have a report that we've prepared on Social Security. I'd like to. Create five for you. Thank you. Okay. And with that, we're going to move down to number eight. Our briefing 2006, briefing 155. This is the maritime and recreational boat industry impact. And if you would like to come on up, we will go straight to your presentation. No. This is just a discussion. I welcome. When you get seated, just go ahead and introduce yourselves. That would be great. Boss. Thank you. Hi, I'm Eugene Wasserman. I'm president of the North Seattle Industrial Association. We represent the business in the maritime industrial business and property owners in northwest Seattle, mainly centered on the Lake, Washington ship, Canal, Inner Bay and Lake Union. We've been existence about 25 years now. We're part of the quiet part of the economy that every year churns out jobs and tax revenues for. All of you. And yet we're not glamorous downtown industries that most people think of when they think of Seattle. A lot of our businesses do have some high tech in it, but we're the people that fish that repair the ships, that provision the ships that ship the stuff to Asia that brings international money into this economy. So we were here just to give you a briefing on sort of what we do. Most of you probably don't know what we do. You know, most people see us as the Deadliest Catch people. But there's a whole major industry built around our area, and a lot of it does involve King County. While most of us are located on the ship Canal in Councilmember Wells District, Jean Wells district, people who work in the industry are from all over King County. And as part of our industry also is the recreational boat industry, which is a major part of the state, state and King County economy, which has people in all your districts. So I want to introduce us, go down to that. I'm John Koslowski. I'm vice president supply chain for Ocean Beauty Seafoods, LLC. Good morning. ELLIOTT Strong coastal transportation. Then vice president there for two years now. Good morning. Peter Chapin, Northwest Marine Trade Association. We have 725 members and a focus on the recreational boating industry and the vice president there. So we're going to give you a no. We're going to give you a little story of each of the business and how it all works together and how we would like to work with you on some issues as well. So with that, I'll start with Jen. Thank you, Jane. And thank you, counsel, for making the time for us to acquaint you a little bit more with of the business that we have and how we relate to other businesses located within the Kent County area. First of all, let me start out by saying that the seafood industry is very Alaska centric. And just a couple of factoids. One one in seven Alaska residents are involved in the seafood industry. And in this area, almost 24,000 people are associated with the super industry, and that's all part of the industry. As Eugene says, that includes the vessels fueling all the way through to the actual movement of the fish. A First of all, let me mention that ocean beauty as of this year, 106 years old, we started on Pier 54, as in those days known as Washington Fish and oyster. And over the years, the company has made significant investments, particularly in Alaska, with our shore based processing operations. So Ocean Beauty is 50% privately held by three individuals. The other 50% are that is held by Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, which is represents 17 villages. That's around the Bristol Bay, all indigenous communities. We are a diversified processor, manufacturer, distributor and marketer of branded and private label seafood products. Our products are shipped to over 30 countries in the world and we maintain offshore contracted production in Thailand, China, Chile, Norway, Scotland and Poland. All that production finds its way back to the U.S. The vast majority comes through the Port of Seattle and or the Port of Tacoma. We also maintain inventory in Holland, Lithuania, Japan, China, Spain and Portugal for for later sale. So we move all those inventories. The vast majority go through Seattle to those countries for the season. And then we spend the rest of the time selling through the salmon products that we produce. But we also participate in every fishery in the North Pacific through our Kodiak operation, which operates year round. We're also in the fresh seafood business and we have seven distribution locations in Dallas, Salt Lake, Boise, Helena, Portland, our story and Seattle. And we have a. Lead of over 90 pieces of commercial delivery equipment. And you may have seen some of those on the Seattle street here. We also maintain sizable inventories of raw material and finished inventory in Seattle, Kent, all going to Burlington, Mount Vernon and Bellingham cold storage facilities. We also own and operate the nation's largest canned salmon labeling facility and count warehouse and labeling. And at that facility, we employ between 50 and 100 people, depending on the season. And last year, we produced 2.7 million cases of salmon that ship not only domestically but throughout the world. Our Seattle facility located on Ewing Street on the ship Canal, right next door to my neighbor here is a furnished and value added facility. We put about £20 million of finished production through that facility. We produce 112 different, unique products, and we have a staff of 130 to accomplish that. Our Monroe Smoking facility is the largest salmon smoking facility in the country. We produce over £5 million of finished production and we employ about 100 people at that facility. Our Alaska plants seasonally bring in about 1200 seasonal employees. Every one of them pass through Sea-Tac and find their way to the appropriate Alaska plant. And then at the end of the season and of course, return back through Sea-Tac. We contract directly for over 550 fishing vessels, many of whom are home ported here in the Seattle Kent County area. We also contract tenders. We have 86 on a seasonal basis and many of those battles are home ported here and of course, acquire goods and services in preparation for for the season. With all the movement of cargo being exported and imported, that means we rely significantly on a network of motor carriers and intermodal providers nationwide. Our total headcount at the Ewing Street facility, including corporate staff, is over 300. So in summary, I just wanted to let your folks know that there's a lot of activity that goes on. Some of that is not obvious in terms of the effect of the maritime industry on this community. So hopefully this gives you a little visibility on our business and how we affect and attempt to generate additional revenue opportunities within this area. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next. Thanks, Jan. Yeah. So Jan is my neighbor on Ewing Street. We're located on the southeast corner of the Bower Bridge, Red Bridge. Been there for 26 years now. At that current terminal again, my name is Ellie Strong coastal transportation. And what we do is we I'm not only Jan's neighbor, but he's one of our customers. So he makes the fish. He process the fish, and we carry it simplistically. We have a fleet of five ships that go to and from our terminal. Right in Ballard. Right in Ballard, in her bay, right by the Bay Bridge to western Alaska to and from western Alaska. We leave every Friday and in the fall we go seasonally down to every other week. And then the critical infrastructure link for us is the the ship canal and the up and the ballad locks. Our vessels have to use transit through the large locks. And so the barge locks closed every November for annual maintenance. So that's when we go down to every other week sailings to western Alaska. Our major ports in in Alaska include Dutch Harbor. We have a terminal up there, a facility where we wouldn't unload our vessels. We have a cold storage we just built last year. So we've been massively reinvesting in the past ten years into our fleet of five ships. We built a new ship for the first time this year. We built that up at Dakota Creek Industries. And and, of course, that was a design process lasting a design and construction process of three years represented investment of roughly $25 million into the business. You know, so we see the strength of the industry being very strong. We see our customers reinvesting. We see the the the health of the seafood stocks in Alaska is very strong. So gave us the commitment to be able to go ahead and keep reinvesting in our fleet, building that cold storage in Alaska. We just completed about two and a half years ago. We completed about a year and a half ago. We completed a new dispatch center facility right at our terminal in Seattle, also representing new jobs there. And we have roughly 120 employees in total, and about half of those are working right in our Seattle facility. The other half are our crews on our vessels captains, mates, engineers, deckhands, able bodied seamen, cooks. So each vessel has about nine, ten crew members on board. So we represent and what we do is we serve seafood in the seafood industry and customers anywhere from down size, all the way down to maybe a is an owner operator of a fishing vessel or a tender. So we our customers are base based both in Alaska and largely in the Seattle Ballard area. So that's why we see being in Seattle is such an important aspect of our business. We've been based in Seattle from day one. We've been in business for 32 years. We bought the old champion plywood mill in 1989 and rebuilt it into a into a marine terminal. And we want to remain in Seattle. It's a critical infrastructure link for us and our customers to be able to bring this finished product from Alaska to Seattle and distribute it all over the world that Jim was talking about. We have connections. Port of Seattle, Port of Tacoma. We load we can load containers at our facility. We can also load up refrigerated boxcars into railcars to distribute all over the United States of America. So having that rail link is also a critical piece of infrastructure for us, but also being able to load railcars on our site keeps trucks and truck traffic off of the streets . So we see the railroad being a big partner. For us and continuing to build that as as we build, build and grow our business as congestion and infrastructure is is being strained in in the Puget Sound region, we see we see what we do as a way to help alleviate that by bringing product into Seattle, right. The core of Ballard and eBay and being able to distribute it out in remotely. Hopefully help alleviate things a bit. In summary, our connection to Alaska is vital. We see the infrastructure in and jobs and in Seattle, Puget Sound region as a critical part of what we do and a symbiotic relationship for for everyone. So thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Hi. Peter Chapman again, Northwest Marine Trade Association. We have 725 member businesses around the state of Washington, primarily in your King County, primarily in your district. As I look across the the dais here, we are most famous for putting on a sailboat show, but we do a lot of other activities as well. We're part of a larger coalition called the Washington Maritime Federation. The recreational boardings of $4 billion industry in our state. And they're the big tent of the entire maritime industries, about a $30 billion industry. And we're all working together, coordinating our legislative policies and speaking with one voice, which is really exciting and relatively new for our industry . And I also wanted to share with you that we're part of another group called the Big Tent Coalition, and that is the outdoor recreation economy, which is a huge driver for economic activity, both in Seattle, of course, but in rural King County. If you think about it, all sorts of different outdoor fun activities, that's a that's a big industry for our state, but they're usually run by small businesses. We're looking at $22 billion in economic activity there. And recreational boating is the largest piece of that of that pie. Like I said, a $4 billion and MTA is, like I said, most famous for the Seattle boat show. And I'm not going to sing the boat show jingle if you want me to, but because you all we all own 51% of CenturyLink. Yes. I would like. To say you heard. The boat show. The boat show. The big Seattle boat show. There you go. Was always something later. So yeah because you we own 51% as the county with the public statement already I just wanted to share with you the working relationship the strong working relationship we have with Anne Kawasaki at the Public Statement Authority and also the new CEO at first and goal, David Young. It's space gets tighter down on Pioneer Square. I'd really encourage you to think about centrally, not just as a football field, but as a as an asset for the community. We have about 500 members that do business during that nine day show, and we'll be serving our 70th birthday on January 27th when we kick off, kick off the show and encourage you all to be there. It's a big show. We have members that book about 70% of their business because of the Seattle virtual because of that CenturyLink location. So just essentially it's not just a football field and empty is not just a boat show producer. We also run a government affairs program. And as part of that government affairs program, we struggle with finding qualified workers to work in our boatyards and in our marinas and building the boats around the states where we're addressing that head on. And I know that's a priority of four year olds as well, but we invested heavily in a program called Core Plus, which is farming out that skills that are needed to restore shop class to K through 12. We see this as basic education and we'll be going to the legislature with that pitch when they start in early January. Elliott mentioned infrastructure. A piece of infrastructure that we're concerned about, frankly, is the state of the Ballard Locks. They celebrate their 100th birthday next year, and we are commissioning a study to demonstrate the economic impact of the Ballard locks as a gear up for that that celebration. And frankly, they're there in disrepair. And we want to tell this story, which should be easy to tell, that this is a huge connector between our our area and the state of Alaska in the state of Alaska, for example. So, yeah, in conclusion, the recreational boating industry is strong. We are leading the country in boat sales by units, but we have some significant challenges, not just with the the future of what Century Lake looks like, but also on the infrastructure side and the workforce development side . Great. Well, thank you. I always enjoy the boat shows. I'm glad that you are there. Councilmember Caldwell's brought this to us, so I'd like to give you an opportunity to speak. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm really appreciative that you scheduled this briefing for us and very informative for very important industries. The maritime and the industrial communities, industries in Ballard and other parts of Northwest Seattle are really critical for our state's economy. And just a couple of things with regard to the Ballard logs tomorrow, history link is having its lunch and its focus is going to be on the 100 years celebration of the Ballard Lots in case any of you are interested in attending. And also on October six, I'm joining Representative Gayle Tarleton in speaking at the Seattle Maritime Academies, an expansion of its program and it's on she'll show a representative Tarleton through just. Nation that was enacted two years ago, I believe it was. I had a task force created of the left, just legislative members. I was very privileged and pleased to be serving on that for two years and also with representatives of the maritime and manufacturing industries. I've lost a little touch of that. What's been going on lately, and I'm interested to hear if the recommendations have been made to the legislature. Is that what you're talking? That's correct. January. That's right. The the task, the economic resilient Manufacturing Maritime Task Force for Economic Resiliency has concluded, as has their name. And the recommendations that I made is a report that's been issued and workforce as a central piece of that as is is also part of the Washington Maritime Federation Work Plan as well. Terrific. I enjoyed being on that a lot and I really want to highlight the importance of that. We know that there is a lot going on with regard to transportation issues and what might happen with the manufacturing industry and the health and viability of the men of the maritime industry and manufacturing. So I'm really pleased that you were able to be here today and bring this to our attention. Thank you. The council member of governance. Just a second. I am really interested in the jobs that you are producing. My grandfather was the stevedore, so I got to know a lot of stories about how important that was to balance the ships just correctly in the old days when you had to do it without a computer, and that those are good, hard earned jobs. So thank you for bringing this to our community. And thank you, Madam Chair. I have a comment. And the first is to thank you and Councilor Carl Wells for putting this panel together. And my comment is going to probably tell their story for them. I think it is one of those industries that sometimes flies under the radar. And folks do know in Councilor Caldwell's district you have that big visible presence in Ballard. But I look at I live in the city of Des Moines, my hometown in South King County. You don't think of it as certainly a big maritime industry, but you start down at the Des Moines Marina and we have the CSR Marine , the boatyard in the the floor of the marina. And you go up and up along Park Highway, there's a boat building, large boat building company up on Park Highway, and you keep going west into the Kent Valley. And as you mentioned, we have light manufacturing. And if canning you have labeling like the salmon terminals, those labeling there, you have a light manufacturing industry. And then it's not just those, but the little mini mart and bait shop next to the marina makes money. The Chinese restaurant Mandarin Kitchen up from the marina gets their business a lot from the the boaters, the gas station . And so a big part of the economy, not just in Ballard, but even down in South Kent County, is supported by this industry. And my experience has been that it's an industry that because you rely upon a healthy Puget Sound and Healthy Oceans has been a good partner in the States and local efforts to make sure we're stewarding our resources. Well, I had the chance to work with the Northwest Marine Trade Association. We passed a bill that made it streamline the process to make it easier to get water filters and that at marinas, we, the industry helped lead the way to get heavy metals out of paints and processes to help do that. So I, I've always had a special place in my heart for this industry and appreciate the the work that you do and being here today. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. I didn't know about the patents. That's another thing we talk about in public health. So thank you for leading the way on that. We actually are probably the most regulated industry in the area because a lot of our people businesses are on the water and so we have lots of permits. And so the water well we put into the water is cleaner than anything like, say, the city of Seattle does, which is I don't think people quite understand that. But we've put a lot of money into making sure we have a clean environment for the fish that we fish in the areas that we're in. And thank you. Thank you. Just a quick. Anecdote. I was speaking with Dwight Jones, who runs Elliott Bay Marina. And I drove down here all excited and I was speaking with you and he just wanted me to he served me just how much work goes on at marinas or when vessels are in on the water. He has over 100 vendors daily come into L.A. Bay Marine, which is right by Palisades, just working on the vessels, which unless you've owned a boat, you may not know that that there's a lot of care and feeding that goes into having vessels of all sizes ever done. And I know very well. And. That's where I see Dory that was made in your district council member off. The girl's name. And that's really the message that I think we all share is just the economic engine that comes with the maritime industry and the working waterfront. It's so sacred to our area. Right. Well, it's a way of enjoying and being really able to appreciate the beauty that we have as being able to get on the boats. So thank. You. I just want to make one quick point. As far as the maritime industry goes, we're pretty unique in this area in that we have a strong and growing maritime industry, as you can hear from all of us. Yet we're doing that in a very fast paced, growing, high tech city. We've been able to balance the two so far where in most places our industry would be gone. We've been forced out by higher land prices, but due to some band thinking, we're able to stay and prosper while in the middle of a gentrified area. So we think that's something unusual and special for this area. You would not find this in San Francisco, Oakland or, you know, I think in Long Beach. Very quickly, to take our take on, too, what you've been saying and kind of that symbiotic relationship that we have with not just the fishing industry, but also the boating industry in general. We have a lot of recreational tenants on our site that are sort of accessory to what we do as a core shipping. We have recreational boat builders repair facilities on site. We have 14 acres of land, so the shipping terminal takes up the core of it. But so we do see a connection with with the maritime industry and the boating industry in general. So great. Well, thank you very much. Something I have to tell you about the day my husband drowned our boat. That's a long story. Thank you very much. I think you want to do it on TV. So, you know, I don't know. At some point when we finish to start the ballot study, we'd like to come back for short of that day. Excellent. And I think we should do something to honor the 100 years coming up to that would be excellent. Thank you very much. I'm sure you have photographs of that, too. That would be really exciting for us to share. Right. Okay. Thank you. Thank so much. The next one I'm going to call up is Our People. And this will be briefing 2016, briefing 179. This is talking about cybersecurity and it's very important that we be briefed on our cybersecurity. We've had a number of issues come up recently in addition to some other ones. So we need to be briefed on what's happening here. So it's two entities to welcome. Thank you. Good morning. Council the council member Lambert members of the committee, Jenny Giambattista, Counsel Staff. Today we will have a presentation from Mr. Kehoe on cybersecurity in King County. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee. For the record, I'm Bill Kehoe, the King County chief information officer. And I want to thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about a very important topic, which is cybersecurity, something that is very near and dear to my heart as the King County CIO and protecting our residents data through our technology controls. And that case at our I.T. department is very focused on on a daily basis. So what is cybersecurity? And it can be rather mystifying. So today, what I hope is to draw some parallels with some other security controls that we're more familiar with so we can paint a different picture. But it's really the body of technologies such as the the computer, the antivirus on your computer. Processes like our onboarding new employees is is a a security process in practices like it's good password practices are are a part of cybersecurity. So it's not just technology, although it's a very technology term cybersecurity, but it's really the responsibility of all of us to practice good security practices. And that's a message that I, I hope to convey to all of the King County employees. It's really up to us. And there's not one technology that can really prevent all the threats that are out there. So ultimately, though, the the controls that we have in place around cybersecurity, we have that in place to protect the data that our residents entrust with us from unauthorized disclosure, modification or destruction. So breaches of data you may have read in other governments how damaging that is not only to the government entity but to the public that have their data compromised. There's breach notifications, but it really erodes the public trust of that government institution, and that's what we really desperately want to prevent in King County. Given the reliance on technology, all of our public are services to our residents rely on technology. There's very few that don't. You only have to look at the devices that you probably brought into the dais today to understand that there's more than just mainframe computers now. And in a in a a terminal, we now have a lot of mobile devices that are accessing our networks and our Internet and our applications. And so that's a challenge. Unauthorized authorized or unwanted attacks to our infrastructure, such as our network, can cause critical county services to be compromised or worse, unavailable, preventing our residents from receiving the services they need. An example would be if our if we have a network issue or even if our email is unavailable, you know, we rely on that so much in our daily work and our residents rely on our our information, our services so much that if they're unavailable, it's a it's a big deal. It's a problem. So we want to keep those services up and available. So sometimes we don't think about availability as a cybersecurity issue, but it very much is because some of the cyber attacks that others have have had relate to destroying or compromising critical network infrastructure or technology infrastructure. So in King County and County, we have our information assurance team that is charged with making sure we have the right controls and policies in place and that we are constantly assessing and monitoring our security controls and where we see vulnerabilities, that we do something about them. However, security is something that's in all of our services and correct not just in our information assurance program. So our network service has a large security component. Our workstation services that that we deliver devices has a large security component. Our applications have a large security component accessing the information in the data. So security is really throughout our I.T. organization. But our information assurance department really guides the policies and programs and controls. So the parallel that I would like to draw today to help you paint a different picture is about physical security. So coming into the courthouse today, you know, we all had to empty your pockets and go through the scanner and. We accept that that's visible. We think it's it's vital to protect, you know, those that are in the courthouse from unwanted harm. And, you know, we go to the airport, we go through TSA, we see these these physical security controls. Security controls are based on in King County, where people can go in the facilities and based on their access privileges. So depending on the role and the duties you have, you are allowed in different buildings, on different floors, and you have access controls. There's various levels of security in in King County, in our facilities, for instance, in our detention facilities. None anybody can just walk in to our jail. And nor should they. So there's higher level security access controls there versus the Chinook building, for example. So there's different levels of security in our facilities. The same is true for our network and our software applications. We may have public applications like our King County dot gov website that are open to the public, that are open to all. One Bus Away is an example of a software application that's open to the public. There's no private data there. It's information that we want to have accessible by all. But there are other services and applications that are restricted that may require a user ID and a password that are only open to those that have the right access, similar to our physical security and access to our criminal justice. Applications like our jail management systems require two factor authentication. So that's even a higher level of security, just like going into a detention facility. So there's a lot of similarities between what we're trying to do with cybersecurity controls and role based access. They're very similar to what we're doing in our facilities, in our buildings. So I hope that helps clarify that a little bit. Thank you. I have three questions for you. Is our building permit AECOM finally on board or what? Our building permit AECOM. Do you know if we finally got that program launched through deeper the online? Mm hmm. Yes, that did get launched. Excellent. Thank you so much. Then there is a change in how business is done in this county where we are relying more and more on your services. And, you know, when we get the budget every year, there's a big number there and people kind of freak out. So but that number is going to have to grow as we become more and more efficient using computers. So I'm wondering if there is a model that we can be looking at to say that and maybe we already do this, but that there is a certain amount that we will expect the use of computers to go up over time. And because of that, it should be in each, each unit expecting that growth. I know we do an overhead cost per computer, but is there are we doing the very best way of calculating those costs right now? So that's a great question. With our service model in city, each of our services are we're in a chargeback model. So for instance, applications or our devices that we issue, they'll have a cost per device, cost per application. And embedded in those costs is a security component. And the more standard we are, we don't necessarily have to always increase the price if we can standardize and which is also helping us with our security risk. And we can we don't have a lot of different standards throughout the county, then we should be able to control the price, even with adding security controls. But like I said in my introduction, it's it's money can't isn't the problem doesn't always solve the problem here. One of the things that we're doing that's very low cost is putting in a security awareness program that's online that we want to roll out eventually to the entire county. And just to increase the awareness of good security practices internally, because that can be the cause of many security breaches. The email phishing attack that you open up and it says, hey, enter your your King County password and user I.D. and the sophistication of those are is getting greater. So increasing the awareness there. But all of our security models and cost models have a security component. Great. And my last question is, we did have some issues this year with during flood time that some of our. Theaters or phone systems got overloaded. And then, of course, we had some issues during the election time and we've had some other issues in different departments. Do you have a master panel of when is each department in our county most vulnerable to overloads so that you can look and say, okay, let's just take November, for instance. We have elections, we have flooding, we have, you know, emergency people out. So in my mind, for instance, November could be the month from disaster zones. So do you have a panel that you can look at so your staff knows these are the heavy users. So you know that this month, over this month is different. And what I need to do to be prepared for an overload on our circuits. So we need to do a better job on that. I think thanks to your prompting, Councilmember Lambert, we're we're looking at different ways to get better at that. We do have a very mature change management process within KCET that involves all of the separately elected and executive branch agencies. We so we have moratoriums on changes to our infrastructure and our applications during those change, moratoriums like an election coming up. However, you know, we if we can get more information and get that on a calendar or some kind of enterprise wide awareness and increase that awareness, then that's only going to help us make sure we have staff that are available to respond, that we have the right staff available, and that we're not making any changes during those critical times. So we definitely can can do better in that area. So we work with us on getting an ordinance for to do that. Absolutely. All right. Great. Thank you so much for being with us today. Hey, we're going to go back up to the tap. And I think we don't need roll call at this point because we're also showing up. So let's do the minutes. We'd like to put the minutes before us these our Vice-Chair. Adoption of our minutes. Thank you. I'd like to move the adoption. And then are the minutes of September seven, 2016 as written. All those in favor of the minutes as written, please say I. All right. All those name. Okay. The minutes are approved as written. Thank you. All right. I am going to do a local government briefing for a couple of minutes now to let you know what's happening in the unincorporated area of our county. We have a lot of issues happening right now. That is number three. And so one of the main things is happening right now that I'm very concerned about is that our state DNR is closing what our roads in the force area, forest roads and these roads we have used for many, many years for fire protection. And they just recently closed the Mount Tenerife road. They did not notify us until the morning before that this was going to happen and the Mount Turner Road leads to Mount Sinai as well as Mount Tenerife and also the and I'm not going to pronounce this right, Kamasi Falls, which is one of the busiest rescue spots in our county. And this has been the road that we've used to transport people and equipment up and down the mountain to the mount site connector trail at the top with the kinds of things that we're seeing up there are often critical cardiac skull injuries or broken limbs. So being able to get the right vehicle up this road has been very important. This road has been closed to public vehicles for a number of years, but it's been open to hikers. And we have under both state DNR and federal laws, we have been able to go up there and use it to get our own vehicles up for emergencies. This is very important because not always can we have access to a helicopter. And when the weather is bad, even if we do have access to a helicopter, we can't get through. And so where we used to be able to get an ambulance in there and get the person out as quickly as possible, we are not going to be able to do that. So the current passage is either by foot or yeah. Or sometimes an ATV we can get through. So I'm very concerned about this and we have other roads that are at Rattlesnake and Hobart that have DNR roads and so we are going to be dealing with this issue and I thought it was important for us all to know how serious this is as people get injured and the idea of having a broken femur or a heart attack where time is of the essence is really. Really serious and not to be able to have the right person is also not okay. Second issue that I want to talk about is the falsity, Ali. We are having continual problems, persistent. This issue is going on now in my office for more years than I'd like to think, and I'd like to get it done and close. So I want you to know about it, because we need to press a little bit more strongly that this gets taken care of. First, we said that the alley in the street and as you know, that is our unincorporated town and it is not a city, even though the name is falsity and there is one street that is an alley. And we were saying that we don't own the alley. And then we said we do own the alley and now we're going back on microfiche is that are over 100 years old to try to figure out whether we do or we don't. And at this point there are a number of things that need to be done. We, I think, own enough of it. And the businesses that have been adjacent to this, who have been waiting for us to come up with a yes or no answer for the last couple of years would appreciate us moving faster. So we do need to know about this and move as quickly as we possibly can to get this worked out. This is where I'm hoping that the sewer system that we are working on and have been working on for four years will eventually go. So the sooner we get this issue taken care of, the better. The third issue is good news, and that is the Snoqualmie Tribe has offered to help fund some bus service and assist us as a partner in the alternative services program. And the ridership has been very high in the inappropriate area because of the system that we started with the alternative service system there. Ridership is getting a very high fare box recovery. The fare box recovery is currently 32%. So it is beating, you know, the standard, which is wonderful and that's pretty good. On a donation based bus, the ridership has increased to 16,518 boardings, which was our base in 2014. And the following year we had 18,235 riders. And so far for the first half of this year, we are even over those ridership numbers. So I wanted you to know that our system we came up with alternative services is working very well and we will hopefully continue to expand that system. Our last item for the day is proposed motion 2016 0384. That is the motion acknowledging the receipt of the Community for Culture Equity Grants Implementation Program. Ms.. Buchanan, would you begin to brief us, please? Good morning, Madam Chair. For the record on Mary Burge on from the council staff and the materials for this item begin on page 13 of your packet. Last fall, as many of the council members will remember, the Council adopted the Building for Culture Program, which was a partnership between King County and Fort Culture, that use bonds to fund capital programs for new and existing cultural facilities. As a companion measure to that program, the Council also adopted a motion 14474 that created another partnership with For Culture, through which for culture agreed to set aside $1 million for a cultural equity program. And that program was specifically designed to ensure that historically underserved local arts preservation and cultural organizations throughout King County have the ability to thrive. The motion the Council adopted last fall requested for culture to come back with a report detailing their implementation plan for this cultural equity program. And that is what you have before you today. Jim Kelly and his team from Fort Culture are here to make a short presentation. I'll quickly note that the implementation plan that was presented does commit to the $1 million. It has a proposed allocation strategy for both the cultural organizations and individuals, and then describes how for culture will determine how to make grant awards within the program. And with that, Jim is here and can make his presentation welcome. It's good to see you. Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the council. I'm happy to be here this morning to talk about this program. And I wanted to comment that they thought Mary wrote a terrific staff report. She gave a nice verbal report. But your staff report is actually pretty comprehensive, and I really don't have a lot to add to it, but I will. Do it anyway, because that's my nature. And we appreciate that. So we are calling this program, the equity program Community for Culture. It's very much part of our Building for Culture program. It's an addendum to it in many ways, but it's the question of how we support increased access to flexible funding for arts heritage preservation work in under supported communities. And we're going to tell you what we refer to by Andrew, by the communities as well. We actually envision two kinds of grant programs. One is for groups and the other is for individuals. The group grants program. To be eligible, you have to be an organization or a group with an annual budget under $100,000. You have to have no more than one full time employee. And you've received funding from for culture over the years of less than 1500 dollars. That pretty much describes somebody who we have under supported you. Obviously, you have to be King County based with the core mission of culture, arts, heritage preservation. You will apply for a grant. You can get up to $25,000. We want to make sure that we're investing in organizations operating expenses. We want them to build their own capacity. We will work with them through technical assistance. So this is really going to be a hands on program. The cash is sort of very important, obviously, to their bottom line, but I think as important as the work they'll do with our staff to increase their organizational capacity, how will we determine who gets funded and who gets $25,000? We'll look at the award level, at the longevity of the contributions. How long has the organization been serving its community, the impact it has in its community? But we're particularly looking for organizations that serve low income communities, people with disabilities in geographic areas or cultures within county zip codes experiencing greatest inequities, and in suburban and rural King County or Seattle neighborhoods underrepresented in core for culture funding. So that's how we will deal with groups who come to us for funding. And then we'll also have a component that deals with individuals and into individual fellowship program. To be eligible, you have to be an individual that is at least 18 years old and in fact, most of them will be considerably older than that. They have to be residents of King County. They have to have received 1500 or less in for culture funding in the past. You must be a professional in a creative practice, in arts, heritage preservation for at least seven years. So we're really looking to support individuals who have been working in the field for a considerable amount of time. Seven years is a fairly large standard to not only recognize their work but to support their work going forward. And so for criteria, we're looking for individuals that demonstrate through their application materials, the expertize and the discipline in which they work accomplishments, evidence of working within communities and the impacts having impacts in those communities, award levels or up to $10,000 so an individual can get up to $10,000. The size of the reward will be determined to some degree by their own perseverance and longevity. Working in this field will give priority to veterans, people with disabilities from geographic areas or cultures within King County. Zip codes also experiencing the greatest levels of inequity. So that's how we will deal with fellowships. The process we tried to make the the simplest process we could. Basically, it starts with the phone call. Heidi Jackson, who is sitting over here to my right in the audience, is the person you will talk to on the other side of that phone. She will talk to you, whether you're an organization or an individual, to get a sense of what it is you want to do, who you are, what your levels of community service have been in the past, there's no deadline. You can call us at any time during the year. We will review applications every three months after that phone call, Heidi will walk you through the application process. You can submit an application online. It can be written, it can be audio, it can be video, whatever format you prefer. And then Heidi will work with you to put the application together. It will then go to a panel, as I say, a quarterly. The panel will include people from the community and our staff. The funding recommendations will then be approved by the For Culture Board, and I can't emphasize enough how much staff support we're willing to put into this to make sure we get good quality applications and establish a relationship which is probably even more important that will go on long after that particular project. And then finally, I want to talk briefly about our outreach program. I would like to give some copies of these postcards to the clerk. For distribution to council members. We have printed postcards about community for culture opportunity in eight different languages. We have three that are currently printed and we are eventually going to have postcards describing the program. Information about how to contact us in Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, Somali, Chinese, Korean, Amharic and Punjabi. Right now I'm passing out to you copies of this in Vietnamese, Spanish and Somali. And furthermore, in addition to doing the postcards, we actually have another outreach communication strategy. Not only will we distribute fliers within specific communities, but we have a street team, which is a couple of people that go out into the communities, find local businesses that are owned by minorities, refugees, and distribute fliers to them personally. This past weekend, we had a couple of staff members go around to Somali and Vietnamese businesses and distribute postcards and talk to business owners. Will do the same thing that we learned in our poetry on the Busses and Artists Project, which is one of the best ways to reach people in communities that are not familiar, which is to find community leaders to be our liaisons to those communities. It's an effective process that helped us get inroads into different communities for the poetry and the Busses project, and we're continuing that as an overall communication strategy for culture, not something specific, just a community for culture, but this whole strategy of reaching out into communities that we have not had access to in the past is ongoing. It's not specific to this one program, but we'll also pay for targeted ads in ethnic media, in King County newspapers and blogs, and we'll do a significant digital media campaign. And I have a little two page that describes the Community for Culture Outreach Plan, because I think it would be very interesting for us council members to see how we intend to reach people in your district who we may not have reached before. And I think I'll just leave a copy of that or give you an electronic version. After this meeting, I only printed one of his notes and I didn't rely on it, but I think it's pretty comprehensive and I think you'll see that we are totally committed to this work and actually quite looking forward to it. And with that, my formal remarks would be over. Okay, I have three quick questions. How are you going to select the people on the committees to make these decisions. On the panel? As a matter of fact, we're in the process of doing it right now. We've recruited our first panelist who happens to be sitting in the audience. I just wanted to make sure that she was still with us. Cindy Domingo is going to join us on the panel. She was part of the group that helped us formulate the plan for community, for culture, for the equity program. And I think she'd be a great asset to our panel. We'll invite a couple of other people. I don't can't tell you who they are right now. Heidi will be the facilitator of that panel. I think we're looking to meet the first time in the third week in October. So it's coming up. We've actually fielded a number of applications in the inquiry inquiries already. We wanted to wait to you guys got this report to be really launched, this program. But frankly, we're sitting in September and and I know that you had anticipated approving this back in March. So we began to let people know that this opportunity is open. And because there's no deadline, it will remain open for as long as we have $1,000,000 to spend. And that just in the news front, I will add that we've been approached by a national foundation who has requested that we submit an application for $125,000, specifically in support of this program. And we have done so. We have not heard that it will be funded yet. But I suspect that the request that we submit an application is an that it will be an indication that it will be favorably favorably reviewed. So there's an example where we find other people interested in this same kind of work. How do we make sure that something as basic as arts and culture is really open to everybody and not just the few who can afford it? So this is really exciting. I also have somebody that I'd be interested in give you as a name. That would be fabulous. Thank you. And how will we mark when we when we when we list these art pieces or whatever to show that it came from this? Because I think it's important for people to know these special things. Well, we met when we mentioned in the blurb that. Well, in all of our contracts and this will have a contract, we ask everybody who receives funding for sculpture, including all the building for culture recipients, to list King County and for culture as supporters of the. So if you do any kind of printed material, if you have a website and we ask for acknowledgment of the support of your culture and your printed material on your website, it's a contractual obligation when we provide funding to organizations or individuals. Okay. And then are you going to be looking at any of the categories like arts, heritage preservation and public art and breaking it down and that are just whatever shows that. Whatever shows up, everything but public art. It'll be arts, heritage and preservation. And also the Seattle Arts Coordination. We coordinating with Seattle Arts since they have their own arts or are in. Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. We're not really. They do a similar program. They've done a lot of work in the equity arena, mostly on building awareness about the issues. They've done a lot of cultural competency training. I don't know that they have a direct funding program like this will be. Mm hmm. But no, we really have, you know, we're in constant contact with them because we overlap in so many different areas. But I haven't spoken to them about this particular program in terms of funding. Okay, great. Okay. So, Councilmember Gossett, this was something that you've brought to us and done some good work on. Would you like to make some comments? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. And my first question is for you. When I was going out into the community talking to folks about what is needed in terms of culture. For a smaller group, I thought right away you did a good job in describing the kind of organizations, groups of people in or individuals we would be targeting for consideration of receiving these funds. The overwhelming majority of them had not ever gotten funds from for culture before. So I was kind of surprised when you said to be eligible you would have had as an individual or an organization, you would have to show that you've gotten 1500 dollars or more for culture before. Why is that? Well, because we were specifically specifically intending to reach organizations and individuals that we hadn't reached before. So we had to ask ourselves if we've previously funded an organization. And I'm glad you asked that question, because there is a nuance to this. If we've previously funded an organization is that you were intending to reach with this or are we really making an effort to reach people who would, for any one of a number of reasons, been excluded from funding? And it might be that they've been excluded because they simply didn't know about it. So we decided that we look at we'd make this opportunity available to people who had been sort of left out. Now, the nuance. We also realized that there's some organizations in our community who've been working for a long time, who have received more than 1500 dollars but could use some assistance. And I'll give you an example. I don't want to publicly call out any one organization, but we work very closely with an organization called the James and Janie Washington Foundation, who really preserve the work of the artist James Washington in the Central District. And they have had a number of challenges financially because it doesn't raise a lot of money, doesn't earn a lot of money, but they have a very important collection and a very important residence and and a research facility. And so we want to work with them. We want to work with them through community, for culture. And in the past, we have funded them. We have funded them in chunks of $20,000. And one of the things that we have learned is that they've had difficulty actually accessing the money, doing the project to get paid. And so we don't want to take a look at we don't want an organization like James and Jamie Washington Foundation, who's been slogging in the fields for so long to say, this isn't for you. So we will be taking a look at certain organizations that have a long history of serving their community and saying, we have a we have a piece of community for a culture for you, even though you have received more than 1500 dollars in the past. So it's sort of a guideline guidance, but it's not going to be hard and fast when we look at who we want to fund. And I was more asking, what is it? Why is it in there? And like, I mean, I may take it out. Can I can I jump in? Sir, I think maybe you two are talking about opposite sides of the spectrum. What Mr. Kelly had first presented, Mr. Gossett, is that they these new grants would. B for people who had not received money for our culture. I thought they said they had this show where they got 1500 from or. Else that they had received less than. Right. So what we intending originally to fund organizations and individuals who have never been funded. Right. We realized we'd be excluding people that we had funded in the past, but at a very low level. So we also wanted to embrace people that we felt or organizations that we felt had been under supported. I agree. I agree, Mary. We're figuring out a way to allow underserved groups as well as groups that are individuals who have never been served. But our fantastic artists are able to showcase their artistic potential and therefore convince the panel that they're worthy of that can fund it. I do not want those have never been funded, excluded. So that's why I ask, why would we have a 1500? And I think what Mr. Kelly had said is people who had never been funded or who had been funded only at very low levels would be eligible. And then people who had been funding higher living would likely not be eligible. So I think the two of you just got switched up in your conversation. Are you planning on funding both kinds of groups? Those have never gotten funding as well as those that have gotten 1500 or more. Yes. Okay. Thank you. That does clarify because I I was hearing him say you have to show that you get 15. What I don't want to do, if I may. Councilmember Gossett, this is really a program that we hope introduces us to a whole group of people and organizations doing cultural work that we have not connected with for whatever reason. Yeah. And what I would like to make sure we don't do is support organizations who have been fairly successful in our annual funding programs, who will be able to say, well, we serve communities that are under supported. We serve people with disabilities. We serve veterans. So why can't we get some of that community for culture money, even though we've been successful getting money from our lodging tax funded programs? I don't want to say to them, Well, because you've gotten too much. We just think you've gotten too much because then nobody has gotten too much. Believe me. So you don't have this line of not having previously been funded or being funded at a previously low level, was intended to sort of communicate to people that this isn't for everybody who has come to our annual programs. These are the people who have not. And I used the James and Jamie Washington Foundation as an example of an organization that has come to us, but really could use some capacity building. So we want to be able to work with that group. Wing Luke Asian Museum is a very successful organization that serves a very specific ethnic community and beyond. I don't want them to look at community for culture as an opportunity for them to come into another grant because they've been successful with all of our other programs, projects, facilities, operations. And so we were trying to find a way to distinguish this from all of the other funding programs that we operate. And to say, this one's different. This is intended for a different audience. Yeah, I got in listening to your presentation to us that you did a good job doing, of describing how it's intended for except for the part where I thought I heard it was going to be limited to those who have received 1500 dollars of funding from foreign college in the past. But also, you and Mary are saying that it does not. Yeah. Or that it means or less. Therefore, my interpretation now is that groups that have never gotten any money from foreign countries will be eligible for these funds. Is that correct? That's correct. All right. Thank you, Jim and Mary, for those clarifications. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm going to call on council member at the Grove and then I'm going to call on you again to put it before us. All right. As a member of the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Jim. And thank you, Councilmember Gossett. I'll preface this by saying Councilmember Gossett is good with it and you're good with it. I'm good with it. But I did have a couple of quick questions just to help clarify my understanding. One of the issues we've talked about at length in the past is. When is it? When does it make sense to use one time funds to support operating? And I assume that the review committee will look at that and try to make appropriate decisions. I think of things like investing in training or a classic example I've heard is if a maybe an organization is putting on an event that year, a one time they're putting on a, you know, an right operating support. So I assume you'll be cautious about not setting up scenarios where we have one time money and, you know, build you know, we struggled with our county budget that way, trying to not not use that. And so I assume I like that we found a way to have the flexibility for those situations where it makes sense. I think that's a good achievement. I think it was Councilmember Goss, it's advocacy that got us to that point. And I would like to say thank you, council member of the Grove. I agree with you entirely. In fact, one of the questions that we're asking is, are these one time funds you apply to us and get $25,000? And I mean, you can never come back to us again. And the answer to that is no. I don't know how long it will take us to expend $1,000,000 since we're going to be receiving applications on an ongoing basis every quarter. We'll review the applications that came in since the last quarter and we'll basically allocate the funds till they disappear. But I am in total agreement with you that it doesn't do any good to give an organization $25,000 in operating support, walk away and expect that they're going to turn into a different kind of organization. We're going to have to continue to work with them. We're going to have to provide them funds in the future. But more to the point, what we hope happens with this program as a result of an investment in these funds from community for culture, they will become competitive when they come to us for their annual funding and all of the other programs that we do every year. So the whole purpose is to build them to the point where they're competitive in all of our other funding, and then we will have achieved something that will have a lasting impact. It strikes me as it's sort of like the Open for Culture program on steroids. But very well put. Yeah, congratulations for working it all out. And thank you, sir. And the nice thing you just said is what we're seeing is a new term of art in human services is the warm handoff. I mean, I just gave you a piece of paper and say, go figure it out. But we take you there. We help you with that. We figure it out. We train you. It's kind of the difference between, you know, giving somebody money or teaching them to fish. So this is teaching them to fish so that they will be capable of doing it. Plus, they'll have the relationship with you that the rest of us have. Or we can call you and say, hey, watch this work as his work. So that's great. Council Member Council Thank you. The only other question I have before I put forth the motion is that both individuals, my understanding is both individual and organizational requests are eligible each quarter. That's correct. Okay. Yeah. I think the last time we were here as a member, guys, we said we're going to start with organizations and then the next time around we do individuals. Yeah, it's September 21st, so we're doing both right now. I absolutely concur with you. All right. Madam Chair. Yes? I would like to put forth motion number 26 to 0 three a 4.1. Okay. I think we've had a discussion with anybody else. Okay. I think we are ready for the clerk to please call for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Belushi, Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossage, I recall. Well. Councilmember McDermott. All right. Council member of the group. Councilmember. Right. All right. Madam Chair, I heard both those numbers and Councilmember Bell due to excuse. So I'm thinking of expediting this so that the money can get out as quickly as possible. But I'm assuming you would like to speak to it. Yes. So my assumptions are right. So expedite and put it on regular council. And thank you so much for all you do. So they come in Monday. Coming Monday. All right. Want to get your money out? I got to get it out. Got to get it out. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. With that, the meeting is adjourned.	A MOTION supporting the expansion of the Social Security and Medicare programs and benefits and the elimination of the cap on earnings that are subject to the Social Security payroll tax, and directing the council clerk to distribute this motion to Washington's congressional delegation.
king_11072316-03f6-4ecd-8420-b0ab44aaabed	The May 19, 2021 meeting of the committee, committee of the whole. As we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here greatly enrich our community as as has been our custom for over a year now. We are meeting virtually due to the pandemic and the governor's suspension of the Open Public Meetings Act requirement that we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. Our meeting you will want to watch today because we will be not only hearing from director Dave Lee always worthwhile, but will be hearing a briefing on the remaining charter amendments from the Charter Review Commission that were proposed to the Council and taking up the facial recognition technology legislation. Councilmember Caldwell's has brought to the committee some housekeeping. As we get started, we ask members of the public, even council and executive staff to keep your video off until just before you plan to speak to make it easier to manage the meeting. And if you plan to provide public comment, please connect to the meeting, if at all possible via the Zoom app rather than simply by your cell phone dialing in by cell phone. It will make it easier to make sure you're unmuted and eliminate the possibility of a delay. With that, Madam Clerk, I'd invite you to call the roll and get us started today. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Ritchie, you're council member, DEMBOSKY. You're council member. Done. Councilmember Morales Yeah. Councilmember Lambert Yeah. Councilmember The girl. Here. Councilmember Of all my fellow here. Councilmember is on the line here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you'll have a quorum. Thank you. And anything else? I'm Mr. Hartman. I know, Mr. Chair, that I. Have not yet. Thank you. Thank you so much. Councilmember Caldwell's, can I invite you to make a motion to approve the minutes of our make this meeting. Mr. Chair, some of. Thank you. The minutes of our May 5th meeting or before see? No discussion. All those in favor please signify by saying I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. With that, we will move to public comment. I'm going to abbreviate our instructions for public comment. The the standing requirements that it be addressed in something on the agenda today stand and not be supporting or opposing anything on the ballot and the process for doing doing so is you will be everyone in the line will be called by either your name if we stand or the last three digits of your phone number. If you haven't put your name in the zoom out, simply begin by stating your name and pausing so we can make sure that we hear you and confirm the audio was working. And then if you spell your name so we can have it out for the record, we'd ask you not to use the raise your hand feature function within Zoom because we will be calling on everyone to make sure that we don't miss anybody for public comment. And your comment should be limited to 2 minutes. At the end of 2 minutes time, we'll go off. We'll ask you to wrap up your comments, certainly complete your thought and do wrap up your comments so we can hear from the next person. And if you have audio of the meeting, go in separate from your Zoom app, if you would please turn that off during your testimony so we don't have an echo effect. I think that covers the essentials. And I would disappoint the viewing public if I didn't remind you that after your testimony, we would suggest you try and watch the rest of the meeting on Cbc-Tv or online, rather than through the zoom out Channel 22 to watch on cable television. Or you can watch online by streaming at WW dot King County Legal Council. And then you would click on, of course, the ever popular Watch US live button with that. Madam Clerk, I might ask you to please call people for public testimony. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is Jake Parker. Hi. Jay Parker here with the Security Industry Association representing companies that provide security technologies, including biometrics. I just wanted to reiterate some of the things that were said to for previous meetings on the site regarding the facial recognition ordinance. I just wanted to remind everyone that the existing state law that goes into effect here very shortly does apply to the county and does already ban the uses of the technology. That would be of concern, such as law enforcement using the match results as the basis for an arrest or for mass surveillance of the public. So I would just wonder why that and also the importance of having a the ability for law enforcement to use this technology in certain child sexual exploitation investigations and those involving human trafficking and missing children, which currently has written into San Diego. So I would just urge the council to consider those things as they as they consider developments. I do. Thank you. The next person is generally. They cannot hear you. Oh, can you hear me? Yes. Now we can. Thank you. Great. Good morning, Council. My name is Jennifer Lee, and I am the technology and liberty manager at the ACLU of Washington. We urge you to support proposed ordinance number 2020 10091. The dangers inherent in government use of facial recognition technology are immense, and it is not worth the risk to everyone's privacy and civil liberties to use this invasive technology. Facial recognition allows for the government to track individuals movements and contacts without their knowledge or consent. Chilling free speech and free association undermining press freedom and threatening the free exercise of religion. People cannot meaningfully consent to be face surveilled, and use of this technology harms our collective privacy and democracy. Despite what some industry lobbyists may say. The latest facial recognition studies demonstrate that facial recognition tech is disproportionately inaccurate for bipoc individuals, children, elderly people, transgender individuals. And it's completely inaccurate for non-binary individuals. Marginal improvements do not eliminate bias in face recognition algorithms that continue to cause harm in the real world. It is important to note that King County Sheriff's Office does not even use facial recognition technology, and passing this ordinance would not change any current practice. And for good reason. In addition to facial recognition being rife with race and gender biases, there are many studies showing that face recognition doesn't work well on children and elderly people. The ordinance does not prevent compliance with the National Child Search Assistance Act, which is which does not mandate use of facial recognition. We need to ban facial recognition technology not passed weak regulations. King County is well within its jurisdiction to pass a facial recognition ban. King County has the opportunity to join the many other jurisdictions in standing up for people's rights and becoming the first county in the nation to ban government use of invasive facial recognition technology. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Adrian. Yes. Hi, my name is Adrian Plates and I'm deputy director of advocacy in Go Justice, a global youth led coalition. Advocating for ethical use of artificial intelligence. I'm here to speak in favor of this ban time and time again. Facial recognition technology has been abused to violate fundamental civil liberties is racially biased, invasive. And it puts us closer to a surveillance state in which privacy rights are nonexistent. This facial recognition surveillance has been linked to three wrongful. Arrests in the US. All were, but all three were big. All three victims were black men. And it's used to target and it's been used to target and surveil black lives like Black Lives Matter protesters exercising their constitutional rights. And it's been used by ICE to target and round up undocumented immigrants for deportation. And the way it's used makes us all feel less safe because we could to be falsely flagged or wrongfully arrested while merely walking down the street. It's also disproportionately used to investigate low level crimes and misdemeanors. We have an array of other investigative aids at our disposal, and when facial recognition technology is up to 100 times more likely to fail on black, brown and Asian faces, we can play with fire and risk, jeopardizing King County's residents basic civil liberties. I urge the King County Metro Council to demonstrate its commitment to racial justice and digital privacy to follow the lead of Boston, San Francisco, Portland, Oakland, New Orleans, Minneapolis and other major U.S. cities by taking action against facial recognition and barring its use by law enforcement. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Kevin Metcalf. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, we can. All right. Yes, my name is Kevin Metcalf. I am a prosecuting attorney. It's my day job. I have been involved in either military, state, local or federal law enforcement since 1988. So I've got a background in that and a lot of investigative side. I've been a prosecuting attorney now for ten years and also the founder of the National Child Protection Task Force while. And I apologize for getting in late. I had caught this morning, but what I'm listening to, everybody's got really great points. But one of the things that I really hope you will consider, for example, tag readers, license plate readers, we don't you know, personally, I don't want them used to issue tickets for traffic violations. However, if they can be used for something more serious, I think that can be regulated. And I think the guidelines and safeguards we be put in place when we talk about wrongful arrests, when we deal with technology. Most of the time, I'd say a vast majority of the time it comes back to the investigator not following proper investigative procedures, not understanding the limitations of technology, and just not doing the right thing in general because, you know, this is all new. So this year alone, using facial recognition technology I have been involved in, and that's not including the arrest of my task force, the recovery of 53 children and the arrests of 37 predators, just using facial recognition technology. That alone, when you have a video of a child being raped and is traded on the dark web, sometimes all you have is the face of that child to work with, and that's it. These guys are good enough. These predators are good enough to stay out of our reach. I strongly urge you, instead of completely banning this, look at it, putting safeguards in place. And we are we have been actively working on developing a series of steps and safeguards to put in place the way we do it. Race and ethnicity is not an issue, so we would be happy to share the panel with anybody in law enforcement, with any government agency looking at this. But I can't tell you if you ban is complete be the ability to use of child victims and child rapist to get these children out of these situations that they're in . And I can tell you, I could ask you to please conclude. I'm sorry. What? They're going to ask you to please conclude. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Everybody in this meeting has been called on and has provided common. All right, then. If everybody has been called on and provided comment, I will close the public hearing and move to our briefing with director Dave Lee. I'm joined David is the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget and updates us and every committee of the whole meeting on the county's response to the COVID 19 pandemic . Director David Lee, welcome. Good morning. Council member and other council members. It's a pleasure to be here, as always. For the record, Dwight Bagley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, and I have six items this morning, and at worst I would characterize them as just for information, and quite a few of them are actually good news. So this is a little bit unusual for our COVID briefings then it is mostly all positive. So let me start with the first and most timely item. Very early this morning, we received wire transfers from the United States Treasury that totaled $218.8 million, which is half of the flexible funding that we are expecting through the American Rescue Plan or fund. As I think you all recall, the idea that the federal government had was they provided half the money upfront and half within basically a year. And so we have received our first half and I will just give them credit. We filled out our application exactly a week ago. So to receive $218 million in a week, I think is really good news and very good performance by our colleagues in Washington, D.C. So I'd like to start with that and see if anyone has questions about that. Questions about receiving large wire transfers. Councilmember Dombroski. That was funny. I appreciated your family being appropriately received. Where do I sign up? All right. Doing great. So let's move on to item two. I did alluded to this two weeks ago and have I think what you could consider is near final figures for this. So you may recall that the state legislature approved a property tax deferral program for commercial businesses that had revenue in 2020. That was at least 25% less than they had received in prior year 2019. And applications were due at the end of April. Our Finance and Business Operations Division is still reviewing them to make sure they all qualify. But we ended up, we think, with about $31.3 million of tax value from these applications. So in other words, the number of businesses that applied to have a total property tax liability of about $31.3 million, and that's to all governments. That's not just the King County. We, as you all know, acted as the collection agent for all the other governments so that schools, state, cities, special districts and the county itself. Of that, 31.3 million, about 90% is from hotels, which is not a surprise, because we know the hotel industry was, you know, very heavily affected by COVID and the decline in travel. And of the 31.3 million, 79% is from property owners within the city of Seattle, and 11% is property owners within the city of SeaTac. And again, no surprise there, because that's where the biggest concentrations of hotels are in King County. And all the other applicants were scattered, both geographically and by industry type. So given that, it seems unlikely that any local government will be adversely affected by this deferral because the governments that are involved or governments that have, you know, relatively high incomes and can manage the change in the cash flow over the course of the year . So just again, to remind you, what this simply does is it allows the taxpayer to work with our Treasury to come up with a schedule to make payments still within the year 2021, but not on the usual schedule of the end of April and the end of October. So it just creates a little more flexibility for those businesses to pay over time. So I'll pause there and see if there are any questions. Alex. Lambert just there. Remember. They could just verify that they won't be charged any interest. Correct. And that was one of the features of the state statute was to allow interest free deferral for the course of the year. Great. I just want to make sure that stayed constant. Thank you. Mr. Dudley. All right. Item three. So similar information. We get information on hotel occupancy every single month and we are starting to see across the entire county hotel occupancy improve as people start to travel again. And I can just tell you from my own personal experience, I can see people who are obviously tourists in much larger numbers than we saw, you know, a few months ago. So at the end of April, the last week of April, the average hotel occupancy in King County was 44%, which is way up from, you know, the very low points we had, which were around 18%. Still not great, but obviously on an upward trend. And the one geographic area that continues to be very, very low and again, not a surprise. Here are the hotels in the area around the convention center. And occupancy there is still only 21%. And even that is up because in the lowest point, they were about 11% in that area. But that's still obviously is the area that is most adversely affected because conventions have not yet started up again. So again, still not great, but the trend is obviously in the right direction. And let me pause there, see if there's any questions about that. See nine. Okay. So the fourth item was a follow up to a question that Councilmember Balducci asked the last time we got together for this discussion. And she had observed and had heard that it was basically impossible to purchase a bicycle and wondered if there was any data that would support that belief, because bicycles are sold in all kinds of different stores. We don't have sales tax data that is around bicycles themselves. And so that that didn't work. But they were like our chief economist did some research and discovered that the best figure he can come up with is that in the year 2020, in the United States, bicycle sales were 69% higher than the prior year. And so there was an obviously a huge increase in bike purchases. And with all the problems in the supply chain from Asia, where a lot of the bikes come from, that combination probably led to the fact that it would be very difficult to purchase a bicycle. I want to share my own personal experience. Two of my grandchildren are now of bike riding age. And it took us. 4 to 6 weeks earlier this spring to get bicycles for them. And one of them actually came from a store in Alaska. And I think in January in Alaska, there probably isn't a lot of demand for bicycles. So that was the only way we could come up with bikes for our grandkids. Oh yes. Customer Well, duty, I think you're right. It's really hard to buy a bike, but. Cyclist Bell Duty. Thank you for. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity on that point. I think probably people would have bought even more if there were more to buy. And it it does speak to policy in the sense that we should be providing safe places for people to use their new bicycles. But thank you very much. And thank Mr. Reich very much for for following up on that. I will do so if some of your questions actually give us some fun opportunities to do research that we would never do. So please feel free to ask me and I'll find the right person to track it down for you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for referring to some of our questions as opportunities for research, not rabbit holes. Those are I think if you look in the dictionary, Councilor McDermott, those are the same thing. Okay. So. Item. And this is why it's important for us to start to understand. I've been working with the Office of Emergency Management to make sure we understand when the various emergencies might end that are related to COVID and what the implications of that are. And so two important emergencies that we need to be tracking. One is the federal Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health emergency for COVID, and that emergency currently would expire on June 20th. So no word about whether they will extend it, but it is possible that that emergency would expire on June 20th. That's the current expiration date. Their practice has been extending it by three months. They don't have to do that. They can extend it by a month. So just ears open that that will kind of be an important signal is whether they continue that public health emergency. And similarly, the governor has declared a state of emergency here in Washington state related to COVID. And at some point, he presumably will end that state of emergency, although there isn't a fixed date for that at this point. The reason I bring this up is either of those actions, either ending the public health emergency nationally or ending the emergency in Washington state will automatically end our eligibility for female reimbursement. So whichever of those comes first, that will be the end of when we are eligible to get some of our costs reimbursed by FEMA. We need to track this down. I believe it is true, however, that despite that, even if it ended in June, the money that is coming from the federal government to the state and then to us for vaccination would not be effective. So the vaccination cost passed then would be covered. But some of our other expenses that we've been receiving from a reimbursement for like our isolation and quarantine facilities. Whenever that emergency ends, that will be the end of our eligibility for FEMA. And if we want to continue those programs, we either need to use our own money or ARPA money or some other source of funds and not be able to count on FEMA reimbursement. So nothing decided yet. But I did want to get that on your radar. That is, you know, if it looks like COVID continues to wane as we get more people vaccinated, we are going to at some point come to the end of our potential for FEMA reimbursement. And so let me pause there and see if there were questions about that. Lambert. Council member. Lambert. Thank you. Have two questions. First of all, if that if it's possible that it's going to and in the next short period and we haven't had a lot of people now in our quarantine sites, when should we start doing the work that we need to do to repair those hotels so that we can turn them back, so that we can do that under the reimbursement? And how long do you estimate it will take for that to happen? So consider whether it's a great question, and I want to distinguish between two different kinds of hotels. So we have the hotels that we either purchased or leased for isolation and quarantine facilities. And one that is relevant in that context is the least hotel in U.S. And then we have other hotels that we have used to intensify our homeless shelters. And that's a separate category. And so we need to be very clear about which is which. And in 2021, those shelters, the intensified shelter hotels are not FEMA eligible. So we are the FEMA focus is only on isolation, quarantine, the current population in isolation and quarantine is roughly 30 per day. And in talking with you just last week, they were actually kind of surprised it is still that high. So they're trying to figure out that large and come up with a plan to perhaps move out of the Issaquah facility and into the raw facility. So they are working on that aspect. The FDA is looking at these costs for, you know, bringing the hotels back to the original condition. And it's my understanding that the cost of supply is actually quite modest, that the ones some of the ones that were used for shelter, the intensification will require much more significant investment. So your question, Councilmember, is a very good one and we will follow up on that. But I don't think that the end of FEMA reimbursement is really a big fiscal issue for our isolation and quarantine facility. As a follow up on that, it's I didn't realize that our the intensification of our homeless would cover under FEMA because we d intensified largely because we didn't want them to get covered. So is there any way of petitioning that? That was the reason we did that, to get under under the FEMA reimbursement. So that is in 2020. That is what we have done and have assumed. And in the first part of 2020, we already got paid by FEMA for that cost. In the second half of 2020, we have our amounts and they're still being reviewed. And there I think as we've discussed a little bit in a previous briefing, there are some essentially technicalities about how people got referred from homeless shelters to the the intensification hotels that may or may not allow us to get full FEMA reimbursement in the second half of 2020. Because of that uncertainty, we have not counted on FEMA reimbursement for the the intensification hotels in 2021. We might still seek it, but given what we heard in the latter half of 2020, we have not been counting on it. And so that's why we've been using ARPA money for that purpose this year. Thank you. My last question. Is there any possibility that we could partition that as the vaccine can still go on because we still need to do that, that we could have some money to help with rental reimbursements because there will be some shifting around with that and we will need lots of assistance in order to is to help us helping people to be rehoused. Is there any possibility of partition for that to continue? So we have so in the COVID seven ordinance that is before you, we have a significant additional appropriation, no rental assistance. That is a whole separate funding line from the federal government that isn't out of our flexible ARPA funds. There is more money that is coming through the state for that purpose and we think there might be more money eventually coming from the Federal Government for that purpose. So we will continue. To have. Essentially dedicated revenue sources coming from the state and federal governments that will continue to help us fund rental assistance. So that is that is outside of the whole context of FEMA reimbursement. Thank you. It been very helpful information. Thank you. Anyone else. Right. Item six. And finally, just to give you a contrast from the very first point I mentioned about how it took only a week to get $218 million. It took us ten years to get $75,000. So, Counselor, I remember you may remember the 2011 winter storms that had some significant effects in your district. And I think Casper McDermott, it was before your tenure, but it also had effects in your district. And the FEMA reimbursement for those $75,000 of that had been held for years. And we just got it last week. So that will finally allow the Roads Division and the Department of Local Services to close out to projects to repair damage from the 2011 winter storms. So I thought that would be an interesting way to just end our conversation, that sometimes we are very efficient and sometimes we're not. Mr. Day believes that storm actually from November 2010. It might well be. Yes, because it was it was work that was done in 2011 by Rhodes Snow, snow and ice in November 2010. It delayed the certification of the election by a day, which meant that it delayed my ability to take the oath of office as a council member, and thus with all that change that executive Constantine had been out on vacation having by ice and actually attended my swearing in to the council in jeans rather than a suit, because he had just come from site visits on vacation. I remember it well. Very good. Later this morning. Happy to answer any questions, if I can, or any other issues you want me to look into. Mr. Chair. Council Member Lambert And. That light hearted note, is our hair dye a reliable expense from the November wedding? It was quite the flood. And thank you. Thank you so much, Dwight. We appreciate you joining us and the briefing. In addition, and most importantly, the work you and everyone in PSP do have done throughout the year in managing our response and particularly the finance to support all of the county work in addressing the pandemic. Thank you very much. Good to see you all. A.C. at the next committee, the whole. That takes us to item six. The next items on our agenda deal with the five recommendations of the King County Charter Review Commission that have not yet been taken up by the Council. Ordinances have been introduced to implement two of these recommendations, but we will also receive briefings on the other three recommendations for which legislation has not been introduced. Staff will brief all five chair to review commission recommended amendments. Then we will move to discussion and possible action on the ones that have been introduced. Sam Porter from Central Staff will lead us off. Sam. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. For the record, Sam Porter, council policy staff. The documents for the items relating to the charter amendments begin on page six of your packet. The 2020 are no, not 2020, and the 2018 to 2019 King County Charter Review Commission recommended 11 amendments to the King County Charter. Six of those and one Council proposed amendment were placed on the ballot in November 2020 and approved by voters. The remaining charter amendments have not yet been considered. These include the amendments my colleagues and I are briefing to you today to please any of the potential charter amendments on the November 2nd, 2021 ballot. At the last regular council meeting for adoption is July 20th, and the deadline for elections to receive the effective ordinances is August 3rd. Moving on to the specific ordinances, the staff report for proposed ordinance 2020 10184 begins on page 41 of your packet. This charter amendment recommended by the Charter Review Commission would propose, including the concepts of equitable government, a strong urban and rural economy and a superior quality of life among the county schools in the preamble to the Charter. Along with making one grammatical correction. The preamble serves as the introduction to the King County Charter and provides a brief statement on the activities, goals and objectives of King County Government. The four changes to the preamble included in the proposed ordinance can be seen in context on page 402 of your packet. The first change would insert the words equitable and for all in reference to the operation of King County government. The second change would correct the grammatical error and the spelling of the word ensure, and the third change would add, protect and enhance in reference to a healthy, rural and urban environment and economy. And the fourth change would be to insert the goal to promote a superior quality of life. There is an amendment to the proposed ordinance to correct grammatical mistake, and that concludes my remarks on this item. I will pass things over to my colleague, Jake Tracy. Thanks, Sam. So we're now on page 48 of your packet. The staff report I'm going to brief was done by Miranda lesson of council staff. I'm just filling in as she was unable to attend today. So this proposed charter amendment, which has been introduced as proposed ordinance 2020 10185, would place on the next general election ballot a proposed charter amendment that would update the charter by making changes pertaining to referendum and initiative timelines and clarifying terms and bringing the Charter into compliance with state law with regards to such timelines. A referendum for you referenced is a ballot measure initiated by members of the public that subjects enacted legislation to a vote for approval or rejection by the public. Whereas an initiative is a ballot measure initiated by members of the public that proposes a new ordinance for adoption. In either case, a petition must be filed to the county clerk. With the required number of signatures and the filing requirements are met, the county must then submit the issue to voters for approval or rejection unless the council adopts or repeals the ordinance, as the case may be. Table one on page four, ten of your packet provides a summary of the proposed changes compared to the current charter language, and a copy of the proposed ordinance is attached to the staff report and that's on page 416. So in addition to technical changes and changes that are intended to align with state law, the ordinance proposed by the CRC, the Charter Review Commission, would do the following. It would specify that initiatives and referenda should appear on the next general election ballot after the respective petition filing timelines have been completed unless the Council specifies an earlier time. Currently, the code says the ballot measure could go on the next special or general election ballot. So this would make the general election the default. It would also clarified that it's the intent to file a referendum that must be submitted before the original effective date of an ordinance, not the actual signed petitions. Those would need to be filed with the council no later than 45 days after enactment of the ordinance. So the current charter uses effective date rather than 45 days, and that conflicts with the language in King County code. So this change will bring the charter and code into alignment. Another proposed change is to specify that the Council cannot adopt an initiative by ordinance and therefore a vote avoid a vote by the public only to immediately adopt a new ordinance amending that language. So if any ordinance was adopted in response to an initiative petition, it would not be allowed to be amended or repealed by the Council for two years following the effective date of the ordinance, except by an ordinance that is adopted with a minimum two thirds vote of all members of the Council. If the committee does take action on proposed ordinance 2020 10185 today there is a proposed striking amendment that would make technical and clarifying changes, and it would also make a change that if a valid referendum petition was submitted to the Clerk of the County Council, the effective date of the ordinance would be 90 days after its enactment rather than 60 days, which is proposed in the underlying ordinance. And with that, I will turn it over to Mary to discuss the next CRC proposed amendments. Thank you. Good morning. For the record, I'm Mary Bergen and from the council staff. And I am going to turn you back now to page nine of your packet where there are three remaining charter amendments that are not up for action today. Those are to allow additional exemptions from the career service system for leadership positions in the county and leadership supporting positions, a process to remove elected officials and a clean up of typographical and grammatical errors. So moving on to page ten, the first of these remaining three would add leadership and leadership supporting positions to the exemptions from career service. King County's career service system, which is established in the charter as part of the county's personnel system, is defined as a system in which an employee is appointed using a defined selection procedure, including a probationary period, and with specific procedures and standards for tenure, disciplinary action and reductions in force. Most county employees are covered under the career service system, but the charter includes a list of positions that are exempt. And you can see that list on page 11 of your packet. That includes all elected officers, council staff, the chief officer of each executive department at administrative office, and one administrative assistant and Confidential Secretary. For each of those leadership positions, the code defines positions that are exempt from career service as those to which appointments may be made directly without a competitive hiring process and in which employees serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. The code also goes on to provide further definition of exemptions from career service by stating that division directors of executive departments or administrative offices are considered to be essentially the same as leaders of executive departments or administrative offices for the purpose of exemption from career service. And the Charter Review Commission has proposed that to avoid any sort of lack of alignment between the Charter and the code, that there be an amendment made to the charter which you can see underlined on page 12 in the packet that would read add to the list of the exemptions from the career service to say and such other leadership positions and confidential positions, supporting leadership positions as may be designated by ordinance. So again, the purpose of this would be to ensure that the code and the Charter are in alignment. This would require an ordinance to further extend any exemption from career service to the Charter Review Commission, noting that that would signify the importance of removing any positions from career service. Moving on now to page 14, the next potential amendment would establish a removal process for elected officials. Currently, the only way to remove a county elected official from office is through a recall election. And there is a process that is outlined in state law that requires a recall petition, which must state that the officer in question has committed an act or acts of malfeasance or an act or acts of misfeasance while in office or has violated the oath of office. This recall petition ban would be certified if it collects enough petitions and would move forward to an election. The amendment that has been proposed by the Charter Review Commission would provide a new section in the charter and you can see that spelled out on page 15 in the packet. That would provide an administrative process to remove an officer holding an elective county office by the council. That process would require a number of steps to be taken, and you can see those both in the text of the language to be added as well as spelled out starting at the bottom of page 15. First, there must be determination of grounds for removal. The Council must determine, through an ordinance approved by at least seven affirmative votes, that the officer has committed an act or acts of malfeasance or misfeasance while in office or has violated their oath of office. And the Charter Review Commission noted that those are the same standards required by the State for a recall petition. Next, there would be due process provided for the officer considered for removal. The officer would be required to be given notice of the charges and the time and place at which the Council would consider the removal. The officer would have the right to be present, to be assisted by legal counsel and to offer evidence and make. A defense. And I will note that if a council member is the subject of the removal ordinance, a council member would not be able to vote on the ordinance. Next, there would be a public process required. The Council would be required to adopt rules of procedure by ordinance that would govern the time, place and conduct of hearings held for removal ordinance. And finally, in this process, council action on the ordinance would be final. A removal ordinance would not be subject to an executive veto or a referendum process. Finally moving down on page 16 of the packet, the final remaining amendment would be a clean up of typographical and grammatical errors throughout the charter, simply correcting a few misspellings. Grammatical errors, streamlining language, removing more archaic forms of language such as the term pursuant to and just in general making a number of cleanups that the Charter Review Commission identified. That concludes my remarks. I will note that former council member Louise Miller, who was part of the Charter Review Commission, is here on the line. If there are questions and as noted before, the first two of the amendments that were briefed are introduced and are up for potential action today. The three that I just briefed have not yet been introduced for action. Thank you. Thank you. Questions? Councilmember Bell did. She don't have a question. If it's okay, I have a comment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to speak on the charter amendment regarding the initiative and referendum process. You know, as a further reminder, we you'll recall that we have had initiatives to King County, and we had one a few couple three years ago where the watching members of the public attempted to go through the process. The substance of the initiative aside, pointed out some real challenges with the way our code and our charter interacted with state law and didn't leave enough time for all the steps to happen. It just didn't really work. And so I just want to just share that I'm going to be proposing that when we get to today, we're not taking action. But when we get to action, I am going to be asking us to to move that. Proposal. Forward to the ballot, because that will complete work that we've already started. We've already updated our own code to make it more rational and user friendly, and this will complete that work. Regardless of how anybody feels about initiative process, we have one. And if we have it, as long as we have it, it needs to make sense and be able to be worked by members of the public. And ours isn't quite there yet. It would require this last year to make it there. I really think the charter commission for taking this up and for making, I think, a very good and sensible recommendation that. We should move forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for their discussion. Colleagues. Perhaps I should be addressing this to Mr. Tracy. You briefed all five of the largest, the proposed amendments from the Charter Review Commission. Is there additional briefing on the two that have been introduced? There is not, as Sam mentioned, there is an amendment for the one dealing with the preamble. And as I mentioned, there is a striking amendment for the one dealing with referendums and initiatives. Those are up for discussion and action today. So it is up to you whether you wanted to take action on those or if you wanted to move on to the next item. So I will call the members attention. If you were looking at the agenda and thinking that those were separate items on the agenda. Those have have just been briefed as part of the briefing of all five. If there's specific conversation about those two in particular on the as there are separate items on the agenda, I want to call members attention to those before we might take up the following item on the agenda. I want to make sure we have any discussion members would like to have. With the intention of having the two that have been introduced on a future agenda for action since they were just briefed for the first time today. All right, then we will move to item nine. The final item on today's agenda is an ordinance that would prohibit county administrative offices and executive departments from using using facial recognition technology. And we've had two briefings on this legislation previously. And you should have I received an email from Nick Bowman of council staff Monday afternoon, which contained follow answers to follow up questions from the last meeting necessary to answer any additional questions you might have. Does anybody have any questions of Nick? Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will propose to ordinance 2020 1009 will be given a pass recommendation. Council member calls has move that we give a to recommendation on to ordinance 2020 191. Gentlemen, brick walls. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you will grant me a few minutes to just give an overview of all of this. And again, it's been very complicated. And even though we have discussed to have briefings a couple of times, I do think it's important for me anyway to go over some of the salient points. Okay. So as you know, this ordinance before us would ban the use of facial recognition technology in code for King County, and among that would be for King County Sheriff's Office and other agencies. And again, it's very important to remember this is only for our King County government, our agencies. It does not do anything for the private sector use, and it does not prohibit usage of facial recognition technology for any other governments. In King County, the county administrative offices and executive departments would also be prohibited from issuing any permit or entering into any agreement, which is a third party, to use facial recognition technology. And I think for simplicity, I'm just going to say f, r, t for the time being, and it would be unlawful to obtain facial recognition information on behalf of the county. Now, as we have heard repeatedly, the rapid advancement and sophistication of our party in the last several years has raised concerns over issues such as those that primarily focus on the accuracy of the technology, the demographics of biases and encroachment on civil liberties, racial biases in particular are prevalent within this technology. A 2018 study testing three commercial facial analysis services found that the data sets were overwhelmingly composed of lighter skinned subjects. Black women in particular are mis identified and significantly higher rates nearly 38% compared to those of other lighter skinned individuals. And with white men having misidentification at a very low point 8%. This technology is simple and less reliable when identifying transgender individuals and entirely inaccurate when used are not non-binary people. But apparently it also is more inaccurate or less accurate when used with children or with older people. And multiple studies have demonstrated that it is actually 100 times more likely to identify black or Asian faces compared with white faces. Now, when we look at this more demographically, it's really interesting and this is included in the staff report. In Asian countries, the technology is more likely to misidentify non-Asian individuals. In more European countries, it's more likely to misidentify. Asians are darker skinned individuals and corporations. Now we've heard the harrowing stories. Some of them I think there are many we don't know about, about a few individuals who were misidentified based on facial recognition therapy technology. Rather, Robert and Bart Chuck Williams went to jail for 30 hours after the Detroit police arrested him in front of his wife and children did share. Parks, was jailed in New Jersey for ten days and spent over $5,000 in legal fees to defend himself. Michael Oliver lost his job and car while being held in a Detroit jail for three days on a felony larceny charge. These three black men were wrongfully arrested due to false facial recognition technology that had been used for crimes that they did not commit. BARBER Jillian Burch, Hank Williams is now suing for damages. So government agencies using this are to really place our civil liberties. Much more harm in jeopardy than should be the case. We know that they can that can particularly be the case when surveillance is used, when there are protests, even riots, but when there are peaceful protests with people being able to use their right to participate, to protest something that they believe that's wrong, they can be surveilled, picked out of a crowd. There are facial features used and data that is being that are being kept and I don't know how they would be used. Again, we know from evidence that has come out in research that individuals in minority communities, underrepresented, marginalized communities, people who have a bipoc. Demographics are much more likely to be over surveilled and overpoliced anyway. Even without years of effort, this legislation reflects the consensus of M.I.T. Computer science researchers implies that technology companies, scholars and even corporate shareholders and for me, facial recognition mission technology is not a good idea for use by government governments. Now we know that even here in Washington State and Puget Sound, there are law enforcement agencies using such technology, including the U.S., Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and even the Seattle Police Department. Government entities such as the Port of Seattle have worked with the US Customs and Border Protection to implement facial recognition tech. International Airport. And this is worth something that's anecdotal that I've heard. It's not hard data, but that the plans are for our airlines to use facial recognition technology for identifying passengers as they're boarding flights. Now, is that needed? I don't think so. And the question for me is, what is used with that data? Later on, we know that some private retailers, such as Rite Aid, have also installed facial recognition technology across the country, larger, apparently in lower income and nonwhite neighborhoods. But last year, and I give Riley credit for this, said that it was discontinuing its use of such technology, and this was according to Reuters, from an investigation. Use of facial recognition technology can fuel police power and can increase the possibility of monitoring of marginalized communities, even if the technology is perfect and its use is increasing. But. Apparently also its reliability. But even if it were perfect, this is something that we would want. Do we want to be monitored at this level? And what if corporations and governments were housing the data with our facial expressions, our hacked? And I mentioned this at the last briefing. I have been notified by my credit card companies that their data have been hacked from something, an event that I attended. Well, what if it's are facial features, not our credit card number or Social Security number? What how is that used? Proponents of facial recognition technology have argued and argued today with a couple of people that it is needed to track down missing children. I take that concern very seriously, and this is something I worked on as a public policy maker for a long, long time. But as such, we have included language in this proposed ordinance to ensure that our government, our share, is not prohibited to comply with the National Child Search Assistance Act. And keep in mind, according to our executive, No King County agencies, which will be affected by this legislation if it were to pass, use this effort. This includes the King County Sheriff's Office. So it would appear that the sheriff's office did not use any of the tools listed that people have cited. Furthermore, the biennial budget included an expenditure restriction which prohibited the use of any King County Sheriff Office appropriations for our party. So we've already, in effect, banned this by the sheriff's office, albeit for only two years. But the hard truth is that security and tech companies around the world stand to profit greatly from the development and use and purchase of this product. And that's why some oppose the ordinance, and that is why all of us on the council have been receiving contacts from one of these large corporations in our area opposing this legislation. But I believe that we as a county government have a policy to lead with racial justice and equity as the driving force for how we develop laws and policies. This is an ordinance that puts equity into action. This is a technology that I believe is fraught with potential risk and the harm to all of our population, and especially to our most vulnerable and already marginalized communities that suffer already disproportionately from its application. I ask for your support and keep in mind we can always make a change through legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Q Further discussion? Seeing none. Councilmember Caldwell's. Anything to close. Mr. Chair? I'm sorry. Councilmember Balducci. Yeah, I was. I was expecting that there might be others who had thoughts, but I'll share some. I've listened to and read a lot of a lot of things about this proposal. I listened to Councilmember Caldwell speak quite eloquently on a number of occasions. Now I have heard from the public and advocates and read a lot of a lot of email, including email from constituents. And I've learned a lot about this technology. I know that it's not something that I had spent a lot of time studying prior to this proposal being made. And I think it's very timely and important topic to be giving our time and attention to as a council. And so as I as I listen to the arguments, I think I said this last time, I it's it makes sense to me, too, to pursue a protective principle here, which is that rather to not use or go slow in using something until you figure out how to do it well and safely and get the benefit of the beneficial uses while eliminating the risk of. Harmful. Uses then to just kind of let the horse out of the barn, if you will, because it's very, very difficult for law to catch up to technology in the market. And it would be very hard to try to catch up and control something that's being misused once it's once it's out there, especially something that that depends on large accumulations of data and databases like this process does. However, I do want to say, just for the record here today, that I always a little red flag always goes up for me whenever I hear arguments on any topic that are 100% one sided. And a mentor of mine once told me there are very few angels or devils in this world and and that probably applies to technology as well as people. There are pros and cons to almost any proposition. And so I listen for those and I try to compare them and I try to think one of the ways to navigate the pros and cons. There. We heard today a fairly lonely voice, but a passionately lonely voice in support of some beneficial uses that this technology could be put to. And there certainly are beneficial uses for almost any technology, just as there are harmful uses for almost any technology. And so I think this step makes sense. It makes sense for us to go slow. It makes sense for us to be cautious. I echo Councilmember Caldwell's when she reminds people because it's often when we when we change a policy for our own government, we call it an ordinance. It is it is a law. And so it's very common. And I've already seen reporting on this ordinance that doesn't make it clear that we are not banning facial recognition technology for everybody, for all uses in all of King County, we don't have that power. What we're doing is we're adopting an ordinance that sets policy for King County operations ourselves, saying what we will not do. And I think it's very important to just remind people that that's what this does and doesn't do. I could wish for a more nuanced approach, but I also feel that this is the right order, a protective first figuring out beneficial uses allow beneficial uses later. But I think there are beneficial uses. And I think I just wanted to be somebody who said that any technology can be used for good or for ill. It's how we use it that matters. And I hope that we don't just passed an ordinance like this and have that be the end of the story forever. I really think that there's a path forward to get the benefit of technological advances while protecting against. Risk in. Moving forward. So thank you for coming along to share my. Fairly wooly thoughts. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Council Member Coles. And it looks like we have another council member who wishes to speak. But I do need to remind you that we do have a technical stroke in amendment to address. Councilmember de Maskey. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to kind of align myself with the remarks of Councilmember Bellevue. Gee, I'm an original co-sponsor of this legislation, and I view it as kind of a pause and first approach, and it is an internal approach to our government. We did something similar on the last APHIS automated fingerprint identification system where they renewal regarding biometric technology, which is a broader phrase for any kind of technology used to identify kind of human characteristics, fingerprint being kind of the the early one. But the technology's out there. Facial recognition technology is another. But we're also looking at how people move, you know, their body movements. And there's a it's a growing science area. It isn't perfect, as we've heard. It's got some problems. And I kind of have come down on the side of let's let's let's not do it here at the government until we have an opportunity to work through a lesson, until we have an opportunity to work through the concerns, legitimate concerns that have been raised. I do think that there could be some valuable and appropriate purposes to put this technology to use at some point if we can work through the issues around it. I have a secondary concern and that is kind of the the government collection of and retention of personally identifying information and all of the risks that kind of go with that. And I've had that concern for some time. I raised it when we were looking to build even a customer service database which would span the government. So if you entered for service over in the Health Department, the folks over in permitting might also have, you know, information. I just have. I think we need to be careful watchdogs on how much data and information the government collects on folks in the community because it can sometimes intentionally or unintentionally lead to a bad outcome. So I think Councilmember Coles has advanced at this stage and at this time an appropriate policy for our internal government and that is we're not going to use this. It doesn't mean we won't explore whether there are other opportunities to bring it forward in a way at some point in the future with appropriate protections and where there's a consensus around its use. So that's where I'm at today, and I appreciate everybody that's reached out to me on all sides of the issue, and I've given that careful consideration and to independent research and reading as well. That has led me to being a continued supporter of the legislation. So thank you, Mr. Chairman, trying to share those thoughts. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would appreciate the comments that have been provided, and I would like to remind individuals that nothing in this proposal would prevent any organization from continuing to work on helping locate missing children or King County Sheriff's Office does engage and that they do not oppose this legislation. And we want to make sure that we, of course, comply with all the federal requirements, none of which require any governmental entity to use facial recognition technology. And with that, I unless there's anybody else who would like to comment, I would like to move our striking amendment S1, which makes technical corrections to the body of the ordinance and could explain. This is before us. So there are questions regarding this one. Would we like a briefing from Mr. Bowman? Mr. Bowman, if you could outline the effects of the strike in the moment. Oh, absolutely. So the strike simply makes structural and language changes as recommended by the code revised. It is purely technical. Seeing no questions of Mr. Bowman. All those in favor of striking Amendment one please signify by saying I am opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. The striking amendment S1 is adopted. Further discussion on ordinance 2020 191 as amended. To close Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that's all been said again. The last thing just to reinforce that if there were any time in the future where it seemed like it would be beneficial to our government now to to amend this law, given that it would pass, then we can do that. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Taguchi, Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Coles. Councilmember Lambert, High Council member of the Grove. Councilmember Underground. Councilmember Yvonne regular. I are council members online. I. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is ADA. Is Jonas Councilmember from excused? Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 191. We will send that to full council on the regular course and on regular agenda. Council member at the Grove. Are you with us? We will move. That concludes items on today's agenda. I want to thank everyone for participating. And with that, we are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE relating to facial recognition, prohibiting the acquisition and use of facial recognition technology by County administrative offices and executive departments, including the department of public safety; and adding a new chapter in K.C.C. Title 2.
king_654a3086-8e46-41fe-b9e0-2ed33259c2f8	Call to order the April 21st, 2021 meeting of the King County Council's Committee of the Whole. As we start today, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional lands, the Puget Sound, serious peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continued to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. In light of the public health emergency, the governor has issued exemptions to the Public Meetings Act. We will be holding this meeting virtually. And on today's agenda, we have our now regular briefing with Dwight Devlin, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, to appointments to consider to the Harborview Board of Trustees and legislation concerning facial recognition technology by county offices and departments. And a couple of housekeeping issues. As we begin, I ask the public, as well as executive and council staff to please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. And additionally, if you're connected to the meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment, please do your best to connect to the meeting through the Zoom application. If you're connected to the meeting without using the Zoom app, we may not be able to unmute you and or deal with the delay in calling for your testimony. So with that, Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? And, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, did you hear Councilmember Dombrowski here? Councilmember Dunn. Council member Caldwell's council member Lambert there, council member Agra here. Councilmember Yvonne Richter. Here. Council members only. Dear Mr. Chair. Dear Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Council Member Van. Right. But would you offer a motion to approve the minutes of our previous meeting? Shall Google share the minutes of our previous meeting or before us? See no discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes please signify by saying i. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Will now turn to public comment. Madam Clutch, I do presume we have people we expect to hear for public comment. Yes, you do, Mr. Chair. Excellent. Then my usual script would have me say that having a virtual meeting and taking a public comment. This format is somewhat unusual for the County Council and for this committee, though I think a year into the pandemic, I don't think that's necessarily the case anymore. I am happy, though, to go over the ground rules for public comment and how we will manage it through our virtual meeting today. Public comment should be related to items on today's meeting agenda and not used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition. It should also not include obscene speech if the speaker fails to abide by these rules. They may be ruled out of order. And I mean worst case scenario may be excluded from the virtual meeting. Now the process as members of the public. In fact, everybody during the meeting today, we can either see your name or the last three digits of your phone number. The committee clerk will call out your name or your the last three digits of your phone number. When you hear that staffer and your line, please make sure that you are answering your and if you have taken that action and please do not use the Henry's function, we will call on everybody in order in the room. And if by any chance you're here, just watch and monitor the meeting and not up for public comment. You can simply say pass. We won't delay and wait for you. Before you begin your testimony, if you might begin by saying your name and pausing so we can acknowledge that we can hear you and the audio is working . And then and then if you will begin by saying and spelling your name so we can have it accurate for the record. You'll have 2 minutes. At the end of 2 minutes, the timer will go off and certainly you can finish your thought. But if you would wrap up so the next person would have the opportunity to comment as well. If you're listening to TV or streaming the meeting, please turn that function off during your testimony so we don't hear feedback on the line. And after you provide your comments, it might make it easier for us to manage the call. If you were to monitor the rest of the meeting, watch the meeting through Channel 22, KC TV or stream it online on CCTV's Channel 22. And the link to stream online is WW W dot King County dot gov. That's backslash, counsel. And then of course, you would click on the ever popular watch just live button without Madam Clerk, I turn it over to you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person to speak is signed up is John Pincus. Please go ahead. Go on John Pincus. And. See us. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm a longtime Bellevue resident, and I'm testifying in support of the ordinance banning government use of facial recognition technology. This technology poses unprecedented privacy, civil liberties and equity concerns. Its effects are so toxic that Microsoft researcher Luke Stark compares facial recognition to plutonium. Today's facial recognition systems don't work well and have huge biases. They're worse at identifying people of color, especially black people. False matches have led to the arrests of multiple black people, and those are only the ones we know about. And the issues with face and facial recognition go far beyond these bias and accuracy problems. Facial recognition, technology powers. Systemic racism and injustice. Whether or not it works accurately. For example, the Baltimore Police Department scanned photos of people at the Freddie Gray protests to identify and target protesters without standing warrants. Even in an imaginary future where this technology actually works well and isn't biased, this kind of surveillance still has a chilling effect on protests and reinforces systemic oppression. Cities like Portland, New Orleans, San Francisco have already banned facial recognition. Now King County has the opportunity to take the lead by passing the first countywide facial recognition ban in the U.S. So please protect King County residents and visitors and ban government use of facial recognition technologies. Thank you very much for the opportunity to provide a comment. Thank you. The next person is Erika Darrah. Let's go ahead. Yes. Hi. My name is Erica Darrah, and I'm speaking on behalf of Fight for the Future, a digital rights nonprofit with over 3 million members. They call the Coalition of Civil Liberties, Immigration, Racial Justice and pro-democracy organizations working to ban facial recognition. We're asking you to support Ordinance 2020 1-0091, which would protect people's civil liberties and civil liberties and civil rights by banning government use of facial recognition technology in King County. Facial recognition poses an unprecedented threat to privacy, civil liberties and equity. Unlike other forms of identity verification, facial recognition technology can enable invisible, ubiquitous surveillance mask government surveillance. Government agencies can use facial recognition to track individuals, movements and associations without their knowledge or consent. This leads to chilling of free speech and free association, undermines free press and threatens the free exercise of religion. Numerous studies, including one conducted by the federal government, have demonstrated that facial recognition can be racially biased, especially against black and brown people. While the algorithms exist currently exist bias, we are equally as concerned about bias. About bias that the technology works perfectly as the technology replicates the criminal justice systems, wider racial biases and prejudices. And the technology will continue to be deployed disproportionately to surveil marginalized communities. King County has an opportunity to be a leader in protecting people's civil liberties and civil rights and advancing racial equity by passing the country's first countywide facial recognition ban. Audience Number 2020 1-0091 will prevent racially biased, discriminatory surveillance technology from being used to track ordinary people as we go about our lives, including at schools, outside health care facilities and at public demonstrations, and the interest of racial justice, freedom of speech and association and privacy. Please support this ordinance. Thank you for your attention and consideration. Thank you. The next person is generally. Go ahead, please. Jennifer Lee. L e. My name is Jennifer Lee and I am the technology and liberty manager at the ACLU of Washington. We urge you to support proposed ordinance number 2020 191. This ordinance would ban government use of face recognition technology in King County and protect people's civil rights and civil liberties. Thank you, Councilmember Cole Wells, Councilmember de Belsky and councilmember up to girl for sponsoring this important piece of legislation. Face recognition technology is a powerful privacy, invasive and racially biased technology that gives the government unprecedented power to automatically identify, locate and track people based on images of their faces. While facial recognition is dangerous. Whether or not it works accurately, it is important to recognize that this technology disproportionately misidentified people of color, women, transpeople and non-binary people , supercharging discrimination and putting vulnerable people at great risk of systemic abuse. These errors have had real world impacts, including harassment, wrongful imprisonment and can even lead to death. There is a growing movement across the US to ban face surveillance. Cities including Portland, Boston and San Francisco are just a few of the many cities that have banned government use of facial recognition, recognizing that this technology not only fuels discriminatory surveillance, but also threatens everyone's privacy and civil liberties. King County has the opportunity to pass the first ever countywide facial recognition ban in the nation and be a leader in protecting people's civil rights and civil liberties. We urge you to vote in support of this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Cynthia Spoon's. And please. Hi. I'm Cynthia Spears. Ah, that's c y and t h i a s p e s s. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm an independent security researcher and resident of King County. My comments are regarding agenda item eight. Facial recognition technology is dangerous. Governments use it as a tool of oppression to exert control and fear. Its use by law enforcement is entirely without consent and unethical. Academics have highlighted the biases in facial recognition technology across manufacturers. These systems routinely are and identifying faces of people who are dark skinned women. The older, very young have had jaw surgery or trans or any combination of the identities listed. When these error prone technologies are used by police departments, this can lead to violations of the Fourth Amendment. Wrongful imprisonment or even death, all of which can result in costly lawsuits the department which taxpayers must then pay for. This is on top of the eroding of the reporting of due process and chilling of free speech and freedom of association. Our faces are central to our identities and social lives. You only have one face and we can't reasonably, constantly hide our entire faces. Besides, who in a free society wants to have? The only means of opting out of the surveillance is by never leaving one's home. Facial recognition technology is a gross infringement of our individual rights. Multiple cities across the U.S. see the dangers this technology brings and have taken action to safeguard their residents by instituting bans. Four cities in California, six cities in Massachusetts, Portland, Maine, Madison, Wisconsin. Jackson, Mississippi, New Orleans, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh all have bans. Portland, Oregon not only has banned facial recognition technology used by the city, but also banned the use of technology by private entities in places of public accommodation. Vermont recently became the first state to ban the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement as a growing list of banned shows. The public doesn't want this technology. King County will be taking a step backwards if you allow the use of facial recognition technology. The dangers far outweigh any supposed gains. Please vote yes on ordinance 2020 10091. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Jake Parker. Please go ahead. Hi, I'm Jake Parker with the Security Industry Association. Our members provide security and safety equipment in nationwide and also in Washington. Our member companies include most of the producers of facial recognition technology available in the U.S. So many advanced technologies offer tremendous benefits and also the potential for misuse. We support measures making sure that this technology is only used for inappropriate ways. However, we strongly urge you to oppose. The ordinances currently drafted. Main reason is Washington in last year became the first state to pass a wide range ranging restriction on the use of facial recognition technology, which goes into effect in just several months. This applies to local governments as well. So county and city governments. In I submitted my written comments details on what that that law provides for. But I believe it addresses many of the underlying concerns that are expressed here about facial recognition. It also have been important applications of the technology that really have nothing to do with surveillance, including use of the tools available to law enforcement. Help find the missing children who are involved in human trafficking. Many thousands of the rescuers are using the technology in the last couple of years. It also doesn't distinguish between the non surveillance uses of the technology that are not controversial. So allowing a secure way to authenticate your identity for a host of different reasons and access secure areas and things like that. So it would be indiscriminate in that sense and limit the use of technologies in the future that are not controversial. Also, the rationale concerning technology performance I think relies upon some misconceptions about the technology claim is it's inherently less accurate matching photos of black and female subjects. That was the case for some technology. Nest is, which is the leading worldwide authority on the access to the technology, has found that the leading technologies have no such bias issues . So we believe that a blanket ban precludes the opportunity to develop responsible policies that might help limit the potential uses of concern, at the same time preserving the important business benefits of this technology. And we'd love to work further with you on a possible. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I believe I called everyone on the line. Thank you, Madam Clerk. To make sure that we haven't missed anybody who is here to provide public comment, I will ask you to unmute all the lines, and I'll ask people if they would like to offer public testimony to give their name. And I'll take names and call them in order as well. So if you don't mind, everyone. I've asked everyone to unmute themselves. Thank you. Is there anyone on the line who would like to offer public testimony and hasn't had the opportunity to do so? Any more public testimony, hearing? None. Madam Clerk, if you remind everyone. Everybody's muted in, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Madam Clerk. And you managed to do that without muting me this time. Right. That is great. And that will take us to item five on today's agenda. Our briefing with Dwight David, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the accounting response to the COVID 19 pandemic. Mr. Daley, good morning. Good morning. For the record, Dwight, I believe the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. I wanted to start with a compliment for a group of people. We've been doing this now for more than a year. And I just want to compliment all of the clerk's staff who are supporting these meetings. I was at the DFM meeting yesterday with the, you know, very extensive public comment and it's got to be stressful to manage that many people trying to do public comment with all the technology problems we have. So. So just a shout out to everybody who's supporting these committees because frankly, I think you're doing an outstanding job. So I'm so this morning I had five things. I actually think things will be pretty brief. And so let me start with the first one. As I think many of you know, the state legislature did approve House Bill 1332, which creates the potential for commercial property owners to get a property tax deferral if their 2020 revenue from a parcel was 25%, down from their 2019 revenue. And it took the legislature, frankly, a long time to get this passed. And it includes a deadline where applications have to be submitted by April 30th to each of the counties. So there wasn't a whole lot of time for any county to respond. And I wanted to make sure that you all were aware that our finance and business operations division, which is the part of the government that makes the property tax bills go out and then collects the revenue had been doing advanced planning on the expectation that this legislation would pass. And so when the governor signed the bill, we actually had an application portal that they literally just turned on and started accepting applications. We included any COVID seven appropriation that has before you now additional funding for temporary staff to help manage this, because it's a huge new burden for that group of folks. And so we're hoping that the council will approve that funding. But I did want to let you know that the system is up and operating. We're receiving lots of applications. Happy you after April 30th and they've had a chance to process them if you would like an update on how many there were and so on. I'm happy to come back and give you that. I would just let you know on a quick interim basis, the applications are coming in mostly from Seattle, Bellevue and SeaTac, and they're mostly hotels and to a lesser extent gyms and other kinds of activities like that. I have no real surprise there. Those were the types of businesses that were heavily affected by this. But just to let you know, that's what we're getting. And that was pretty much, frankly, what we were expecting. The folks in the FBI, the Finance Business Operations Division, are also going to do a fiscal analysis for all of the governments that potentially are affected by this. All the revenue will still be collected this year, but it won't be collected at the same time that otherwise would have been. And so we want to make sure that there aren't any governments that get in trouble, say, with making their bond payments. And so we're going to. Make sure that there isn't a problem there. And if there is, the county will be able to enter into an intergovernmental loan agreement to help cover those shortfalls. My personal guess is that we won't have an issue because of where these businesses are located tend to be governments that have quite a bit of financial resource. So it's not affecting, say, a small school district or fire district where they're operating pretty much on the margin. But we're going to verify to make sure that my assumption is correct. So that's item number one. And I will happily pause as usual to see if there's any questions. Any questions from members? Okay. Hearing then please. Continue. Great. Thank you. So the second thing I thought I would cover quickly is just to share with the council that there are a variety of you can think of them as line items in the American rescue plan that will provide. Money to King. County. And I'll just go through them quickly. I mean, what we are very focused on the big direct allocation of $437 million to the county, which is much of what you are considering in Covered seven. But there also are some other direct allocations that we can of at least estimate how much King County is going to get . So there's another section of the bill that provides funding for airports, and we expect that our airport, King County International Airport, will get something like a million and a half dollars from that. That's a lot less than came from the CRF last year. But nonetheless, it is still meaningful money for the home program, which is a regular annual funding allocation that the federal government provides to the HHS, our Department of Community Services are. We expect that we'll get an additional about $14 million from that allocation. As you all are aware, there have been multiple rounds of rental assistance funding that has either come directly to the county or has come to the county through the State Department of Commerce. We think the ARPA legislation will provide us with another about $34 million. There's a small amount of direct allocation from a federal agency to public health, which we estimate is about 4 million. And then we discussed several times in the past there is another allocation of funding that will come on to King County Metro for transit purposes and then has to go through the process at the PSC to allocate that. But now it's looking like that could be more than we'd earlier expected. So maybe something as much as $390 million. Not all of that is certain. Not all of that is ready yet for appropriation. But these are the kind of things that you might see in the next COVID related legislation in some cases that we would be getting. And then there are a whole bunch of other federal programs that it's less clear how they will actually get out, whether they will go through states, whether some of them will go through local governments, whether some will go to states and then to local governments. So there's a lot of additional funding that potentially will flow here, but it's just still not very clear how that process can work. And then finally, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, got another $50 billion as part of this. Of course, that will help pay for many of the things that we are already filing applications for. But because there is so much money available, we are going to start working with departments to see if there are some things that we haven't previously identified as potentially FEMA eligible that we now could. So we're also going to take an effort in that area. So I want to just give you a quick overview of those different revenue streams, some of which are pretty clear, some of which still have a lot of work to do. But just to let you know that the 437 million that we're talking about in COVID seven is not the only money that the county expects to get from ARPA. And so let me. Okay. Be back, Mr. Chair. I'm back and happy to take any questions for Mr. Lively. I want to be clear. I'm not taking the questions I'm feeling for Mr. Lively. Lambert. Council Member Lambert. Thank you. I think it'd be fun to hear what you have to say and compare it. Anyway, I have a question on the app for the portal for people to apply for the 25% drop in revenue. Is that on the assessor's web page or where would we. Find that portal? I haven't looked it up myself. It was pretty heavily publicized. I think you can find it just on the county's main website. Okay. If you go to the Department of Executive Services, Finance and Business Operations Division, it will. Okay. Did we lose you or was that the end of it? That was the end of it. Okay. And then as we're looking at that, I'm very concerned in the increase in foreign investments in rental property in our area and the issues that that brings up that citizens cannot buy houses and the escalation of prices. And apparently The Wall Street Journal had an article about it last week. And so I'd like to know if we want the percentage of foreign investment in rental property in King County is how would I find that information out? I do not know. Councilmember Let me reach out to both the assessor's office and to D.C., ask to see if we have any way to do that. I I'm going to guess that we don't, but I don't know that for sure. So let me follow up and I'll get back to you directly. Okay. And I've got my staff looking for the article that another group was talking about. So when I get it, I'll send it to yourself. Thank you. And lastly, on the FEMA, would that include food distribution? I don't know. So that's one of the things that we are trying to see is are there other categories of spending that we essentially haven't been tracking for FEMA reimbursement that might be eligible? And so that might be one of the ones because we haven't been looking at that. That might be one that we could add. But we have to check all the same rules to see if it is. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Is it Councilmember Bill Duchin? Yeah. I'm sorry. Do I? Thank you. These are always very informative, but I lost the thread for a quick second as you were listing out these various potential other buckets in ARPA, and I think I might have missed something around the home program. How much were you expecting that to look like? So it looks like if they follow that kind of traditional allocation formulas, the county would get about $14 million of incremental home funding. Okay. And then what was the 34 million for? That is exactly the point. I did drop right in the middle and. That was for rec. More rental assistance. Got it. Thank you very much. Dombroski as a member of Dombroski. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks to returning to the Metro Transit funding, I may have lost track, but I thought you said it's going to be busy. Another, maybe three. We're looking at 370 million. And one of our recent briefings you recounted the total basically increase in the Metro financial picture of $600 million combined, you know, federal, state, new revenue projection. How does that fit in with this new number to that picture? And where would that leave Metro's financial plan, say, compared to, you know, what, we thought it was pre-pandemic. Again, my interest is in the north restructure where Metro assumed a constrained financial picture and is reducing service and equity priority areas four and five, their top ones based on the previous budget. That picture is changing. And I'm just I want to share with my colleagues, I continue to struggle with why we're going to cut service to equity areas when our financial picture is improving. And I'm wondering what this new information where that leads us today. So Councilmember it again, we have to wait that this goes through the PSA RC process. But assuming that this is even remotely right, that 680 million, which you correctly are remembering of unreserved fund balance, would increase perhaps by 50 to 100 million. And so it it doesn't really fundamentally change the conversation we had a couple of weeks ago. And that I think you some of you in a different committee have had with Terry White from Metro, which is that the Metro financial position is now. Better than it was pre-pandemic because of all the federal money, more than offsets the lost sales tax, the loss, fair revenue, etc.. And so, you know, the executive metro all acknowledge that some of the service reductions that we thought we needed to make, we are not going to need to make. There is still out some number of years, four or five, six years. If you you know, and the forecasts are highly uncertain. Let's just all acknowledge that there is a, you know, out there that there still is a cliff where that and fund balance has been used up and our ongoing revenue is less than our ongoing expected costs. But that cliff is both shorter and probably further out in time than it was before. All other things being equal. So I think it is a very legitimate issue for the Council to be thinking about as we are starting to ramp service back up as we come out of COVID, you know, what are our appropriate levels for that? And are some of the service reductions that we previously expected to make still necessary? Thank you. That's helpful. And I always appreciate your candor. Thank you. I'm sorry. Further questions. Mr. Dudley. Okay. Two very quick items here at the end. So really no new news from FEMA other than, you know, what we talked about two weeks ago. We have been told that the 25% share of our costs that were given us, we got an early reimbursement for. And just to remind you, these were the costs that we incurred from the beginning of the pandemic through June 30th of 2020. We put in an early application for funding, and we got a lot of that funding at the 75% level. We've now been told since the President decided that we're going to get 100% reimbursement, that that remaining 25% is imminent. We haven't received it yet, but we've been told both by the at the state level and the national level that that money will be coming to us soon, and that has the benefit of getting additional amounts of cash into our fund balances. And so that that's a good thing. I haven't seen the check yet, but they told us the check is essentially in the mail. Colleagues. Mr.. Okay. And then the last point I think I have shared with you before, and Mr. Kim from your staff, I mentioned this yesterday at BFM. In the COVID seven proposal from the executive is a grants staff team of temporary employees in the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. This is something we decided that based on our experience last year, where we spread it all over, the government was done pretty much ad hoc, that in order to really make the compliance and the accountability more consistent, we wanted to create a team that would do a lot of this stuff. And so I think I to you that we put out job announcements for those positions and we got a very strong candidate. I just want to let you all know. So we're going to continue through the selection process for those positions. We will not make job offers until the council actually approves COVID seven, because I want to make sure that you authorize these positions and so on. But in the interest of transparency, I want you to know we are proceeding and looks like we're going to have a real good group of people and some internal to the county who want to do this work on a temporary basis, and then others presumably from outside the government. And so just to let you know, that's underway and our goal is to be ready to make job offers as soon as the council approves COVID seven, assuming you do. And so that was the last update I had for the Council this morning, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Any further questions in Mr. Driveway regarding our COVID 19 response? Mr. Jane Cowan, Council Member Lambert. Thank you. Could you give us a little bit of an outline on our quarantine sites and how we're going to ramp down? Do we ramp down? How do we decide when to ramp down? That's a great question, Councilmember. So this DHS is literally daily tracking the occupancy of those sites. The demand for them has gone way down in the last three months, maybe a little surprisingly, frankly. And so what we are doing, I believe, as of today, the only one that is operating is the least hotel we have in Issaquah . And the current thinking is that we will sort of permanently ramp down those activities, certainly no later than the end of the year, but quite possibly earlier than that, if demand continues to be low and as we see more people get vaccinated. So we're trying to manage those to minimize the costs. There's obviously have a cost of leasing the facilities that's pretty much fixed, but then there's an operating cost that is variable. And so we've gone from having, you know, three sites or at one point briefly four sites down to two and now down to one. And I think everyone's expectation is we will continue at that level. As a follow up on that, I know that we took out the carpeting in the beginning of COVID for health reasons, but it would be interesting to know what caused the damages and replanting, resetting the carpeting, to know what our costs were in returning the hotels back to the agencies. So Councilmember, the FDA Facilities Management Division is working on that right now. And our expectation is that we will have that figure for you in the COVID eight appropriation that we will likely be transmitting to the council in June. And so they are looking at each of those facilities that we leased, both for the isolation and quarantine and for the shelter, the intensification and figuring out what those restoration costs are. In some cases, I think it's going to be relatively modest. In other cases is probably a lot more. So we will have that information for you and probably be seeking an appropriation in June. Thank you. That would be very helpful to know and it'd be interesting to know which group of people was in which facility, especially the one that I understand has quite a bit of damage. Thank you. Anything else? Mr. Dudley, I want to thank you for the information you relayed on your ever willingness to join us and make sure we're fully briefed. And perhaps today, most especially for your recognition of our staff, who is doing an outstanding job of managing remote meetings with public participation. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. I'll see you in a couple of weeks. Look forward to it. That takes us to items. We're going to combine item six and seven. And today's agenda brings us to notions 20, 21, 157 and 158, which would confirm appointments to the Medical Harborview Medical Center Board of Trustees for Bill Boyce and David Hadley. The application materials for the appointments were sent out to council members separately in an email from Ms.. Stedman on Wednesday, April 14, at 12:40 p.m. and Sam Porter from Counsel Central Staff will provide a brief staff report and then we'll hear from the nominees. Themselves. Miss Porter. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me? We can. Great. Councilor Sam Porter, council policy staff. The documents for this item for item six begin on page eight and page 13 for item seven. Overview is a 413 bed teaching hospital that serves as the level one trauma center in the four state region of Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana. Harborview is owned by King County and operated by the University of Washington and governed by the county appointed Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees is composed of 13 members, one representative from each council district who is nominated by their respective council member and four At-Large members. Nominees are appointed by the executive and confirmed by the Council by motion and the Board as the representative authority of the county, oversees the provision of health care services to assure that the county's priorities are addressed and high quality health care is made available to residents regardless of their ability to pay. As you mentioned, Mr. Chair, there are two appointees here for consideration today. We have Bill Boyce, who would represent District nine, and David Hadley, who would represent District three. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you so much. I will turn it over to Mr. Boyce and then Mr. Hadley to introduce themselves, share a little bit about their background and their interests in serving on the review board of Trustees. Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let me begin for the honor of being here. I'm very excited about the possibilities appointment here. A little bit about my background. I spent four years in the military. There's an Airborne Ranger paratrooper. I'm a Boeing. Employee for 3 to 4 years of my profession at the Boeing Company. I have. Served 16 years on the 10th School Board of Education and now currently in my third term. On the Kent City Council. Also, I'm the vice chair of. The Sentencing Association, the state committee. What excites me about this. Possible appointment is our high review is a well-known medical center in northwest L.A. being part. Of the best. I feel like I have some skill. Set that can be. Part of a team and help enhance. What we are trying to do. Be successful at Harvard. I had a very nice conversation. About interim CEO Summer yesterday. And so it was very pleasant to talk to her and talk about what's going on at the hospital and some. Of the challenges. So I really look forward to this area and being a member of the team. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Mr. Hadley. Get the right button pushchair. There we go. Welcome back. I can't remember. MCDERMOTT It's a great pleasure to be considered for being a part of the Harborview Organization. I've been a resident here in King County since 1981. Previously has served on the board for 14 years. I stepped off the board at the end of my term four years ago, and Council member Lambert asked if I would consider returning to the board. And I'm thrilled to be considered young to be part of this organization. While on the board, I served as the chairman of the Finance Committee for several years. I also served as the chairman of the board for two years. I am currently involved in start up here in Bellevue. We're a medical device manufacturer focused on ambulatory monitoring for electrical activities in cardiology, with the goal of trying to identify pathological arrhythmias in the heart. And we also build a product that's used for screening use for the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Before I turn it to colleagues for questions. We have also with us the CEO of Harborview Medical Center. Some are clinical. I'm Wally. And if you would like to make any introductory comments, you want to. Oh, thank you, Councilmember and Chair. I had the opportunity of meeting both with Bill Boyce and Dave Hadley, and they have expressed very wonderful commitment to being on the board. They are both very excited and both bring a very nice skill set to match our other really strong board members and the engagement. We have both asked very appropriate questions and verbalized extreme interest in the committees that they're already excited about joining. So I have spent time looking at the past past council of our past board members that have been on and feel like these two will be extremely good additions to the to the committee. And I'm very pleased that they are up. Thank you very much. Thank you. Colleagues. Questions Conversation Dialog with our nominees. Councilmember Bell, D.C.. Thank you very much. Just a couple of things. And for reflection, if either of the members want to, but I want to I want to first off, just share my appreciation. Both of you bring a great deal of experience, expertize and knowledge to this position. And we we so appreciate you doing that. All of our board members, it's a very high functioning board with a very critical mission for our our entire county. So thank you, first and foremost. Second, we're going into a really interesting time of growth and expansion with the Harborview Levy that passed last year. And so I I'm interested to hear your your thoughts on as board members, how you help to guide an institution through this kind of a major expansion, which is very exciting. It's an exciting time, but also a challenging time. And then finally, I just want to say, particularly to Councilmember Boyce, I'm very glad to see somebody with your experience coming on the board, because we often hear from from the staff of Harborview about, you know, various issues. And it's so important that the organization have strong policies and a strong, you know, philosophy of supporting the staff because they are the services. They are the they are the trauma force center. They are the ones who make sure that we have the best in class treatment and support for, you know, for everyone in the county, but especially for our mission population. So I think that your experience is so, so, so good to have on the board. Anyway, no, no response necessary unless you feel like you want to. But those are my thoughts as we move to make this appointment today. Well. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank both applicants for your willingness to serve on this important board. It is, in my judgment, the most important board that we appoint for at the King County Council. And we have seen more now, more than ever with the pandemic, the need for a strong and robust public health system. Our review is the only level one trauma facility anywhere in the northwestern portion of the United States yet to go all the way down to San Francisco before we get to another one and quite a ways east, I don't know. I think it's Minneapolis. So it's really important and it's good to have different temperaments, generally two convictions and professional experience on that board, as we have seen, to make it better, more user friendly for everyone. So thanks for your willingness to serve. I eagerly support both of your nominations and appointment to the board and look forward to working with you once you're there. Thank you. Thank you very much. Comes a member of on board. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First a question for Mr. Boyce and for Dave. What are in your minds the greatest challenge you're going to have as a board member of Harborview Hospital for the next couple of years? What do you think. Is going to be the greatest challenge to you as a board member? I'll go first. Thank you, Councilman. I think for me, really, we all need to make sure we're on the same page for understanding the. Mission of Harborview. Medical Center. I mean, that's number one. I think it's. Important. Also that we put our people and our employees first and also make sure we provide the most upgraded. Profession to all of our patients. Right. So I think that's what we're really going to identify, at least. To kind of keep us continue. The look at the number. One trauma center. And I think it's. Up to us as trustee, as the CEO and our staff that we deliver. Services to. All employees. Thank you, Councilmember. Dave. I would certainly echo Bill's comments. I think those are very appropriate. I think Harborview is nearly unique in the country. Most county hospitals have at extremely difficult times in surviving facilities are inappropriate or are inadequate. Part of it runs on a razor thin margin and provides support for the uninsured and everybody else, elements of our society that otherwise wouldn't have access to great care. So I think helping support the organization as it continues to balance the budget without calling upon the county to supplement its budget is extremely important. I was on the board when we built out the Ninth and Jefferson Building and I think the ability to expand the range of care that we can give away with care we can give is essential as as the county continues to grow. So I'm really excited about those areas. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for the. Comments of Councilmember Dunn and Councilor Belushi, because they reflect my own sentiment. As well. Thank you. Thank you. Further questions. Discussion. I have my own perspective. I would just like to note that one of the things the in addition to the substantial bond measure that the voters so strongly approved last year, another part that the council has paid attention to and devoted some interest in over the last several years is the labor relations with Harborview and our labor partners at the hospital. And I want to give credit to the interim CEO and the management team over it, over time as well, that have made improvements in those relationships. Now, we can still continue to make strong improvements, but it is in partnership with our Labor employees that we provide the care to our mission population and everyone seeking care at Harborview. And I would just emphasized the need to continue that cooperation and progress while continuing to make sure we're managing the hospital well. I think strong labor relations is part of strong management. And you agree? Council member. Up the Grove. Councilmember of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to add my voice of support for both of the nominees. And in particular, Councilmember Bill Boyce and I have had the chance to bump into each other over the years and and cross paths in his role as a council member. And he's someone who has demonstrated and has a reputation for being thoughtful and levelheaded. And I've always known him to be someone who is driven by the public interest and wants what's best for the community. And I think he'll bring those values to the Harborview Board as well, in terms of being a real voice for what is in the public interest and in terms of whether it's the patients, the employees, the all of the of the people who impact or impacted by that organization. So I just wanted to add my word of appreciation for Councilmember Boyce, for you willing to lend your time and talent to the to Harborview and certainly support both of both of these excellent nominees. Further discussion. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. First of all, I agree with everything that's been said about what a special place Harborview is and. And the other things. And you mentioned adding the knife and Jefferson and I've had the opportunity to be up there on a number of occasions, and that is a beautiful space for people and very respectful. And I am really pleased the quality of care that Harborview is famous for. I am also pleased with the technology that you reach out to in so many ways with specialties like the Burn Unit and robotics. One of the units that I want to mention is that England bond issue that we just passed. There's going to be a new behavioral health building, and I've seen the schematics of that. And it is so impressive to me what that is going to look like and the range of services and how thoughtfully that was put together. And with the issues that we're having with mental illness, that building getting done on time and hopefully even a little bit early would be very helpful. I did teasingly ask if we could get keys to the building so we could come in and relax and enjoy the atrium. And no, we don't get keys to the building, but it it is really a wonderful design and I am looking forward to seeing that be available to us as we work with the impacts of life in general. But post-COVID. So it's one that I'll be looking forward to seeing more and hear more about as well as I know that the director of the unit currently has a lot of really good ideas that I'm looking forward to seeing implemented and potentially being a role model nationally. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the discussion. Seeing None Council member done, I would entertain a motion to give a do pass recommendation to motion 2021 157 Appointing Mr. Boyce. Move a to pass recommendation with pleasure for proposed motion to add 20 1-0157. The motion is before us and we've had great conversation with the appointees. Nominees. Any further discussion? Just generally super proud of these guys for being on the board. Has a long history of of that group working well together and also reporting back to the council on ways that we can continue to improve the system. I would urge my colleagues support and thank the individuals for their willingness to serve. I see no further discussion. Madam Clerk, could I ask you to please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. Hi. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I am Councilmember Dunn. I council member calls. I council member member. I council member of the growth. I council member by night. There are. I. Council members online. I. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair. The vote is 19 strong us. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation. A motion 2021 157. And we'll send that to full council and on regular course on consent and council member Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure that I'd like to move. Item number seven 2021 desk 0158 with a do pass recommendation. Council Member Lambert's moved adoption of the motion 2021 158 Appointing David Hadley do the Job Review Board of Trustees discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Hadley knows the work well, is serving many leaders of capacities on the harbor board before and when he had to step down for business reasons. A couple of years ago, board members called me and said, Oh my goodness, you're going to have to really work to find somebody to fill those shoes. And I did. But when that person had to leave for business reasons, I immediately called David. And I am so thankful that he is willing to come back again and to have his many expertizes back. He, as with Mr. Boyd, will do most, will do an excellent job and continue the great work of a past board members as they go forward. Thank you. Seen no further discussion. Madam Kirk, I'd ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Carlucci. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, I council member done. By. Councilmember Kowalski. Councilmember coe was i. Councilmember member. I. Councilmember of the grill. I. Councilmember. Born right there. I. Council members all. I. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is 99 zero now. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to motion 2021 158 appointing Mr. Hadley to the review board of Trustees. We will send that to council in regular course and put it on the consent agenda. Gentlemen, it'll. It'll be up for consideration by the full council. We'll see how you do there with all nine members. And it will be a consent. So we would expect that we'd meet with great support. And with that, I want to acknowledge that I believe the chair of the board of trustees, Stephanie Fain, is with us as well. Ms.. Fain, if you wanted to offer a word of congratulations or an update to the council. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And good morning, everyone. I just wanted to be here to support the appointees. Normally, I would just sit in the row behind the appointees, but Zoom puts us right up front. We are very much looking forward to working with the appointees. And I also want to take this opportunity to thank you all again for your strong support of our review and the unanimous passage of the bond measure that allowed the voters to consider it in November. I'm happy to answer any other questions. I believe we'll be back later in a few months to do a full report. Exactly. But I wanted to be able to recognize you and acknowledge you joining us as well. Chairman, thank you for not taking a vote on. Okay. Thank you so much. And we will move to item eight on today's agenda. This is an ordinance that would prohibit county administrative offices and executive departments from using facial recognition technology. I understand that there is a technical striking amendment. We have Nick Bowman from Policy Staff to provide a staff report. Mr. Bowman, the line is yours. Morning council members, for the record. Nick Bowman, Council Central Staff. The materials for agenda item eight begin on page 18 of your packet. As the chair mentioned, proposed Ordinance 2020 10091 would prohibit county administrative offices and executive departments from acquiring and using facial recognition technology or facial recognition information. Facial recognition technology or CRT is defined as any computer software or application which assists in identifying an individual based on the physical characteristics of the individual's face. Facial recognition information is defined as any data or information obtained or derived from facial recognition technology. Violations of the proposed ordinance would constitute an injury to which a person is subject to the violation may seek judicial release. To start, I'm going to provide some background on what our t is, how it is used, and the concerns it is raised is a category of biometric software generally defined as a method of identifying or confirming an individual's identity. Using their face. Facial recognition can be used to identify people in photos, videos or in real time. While specific methods vary depending on the system provider, FRC generally includes the following processes capture, which is the process of finding visual space and removing the face from a larger image analysis. The process of mapping an individual's facial features conversion, the process of taking the analyzed facial features and creating a standardized facial template or mathematical representation which can be compared to other facial templates housed in a reference database, often referred to as a gallery, and then identification or verification, which is the process of comparing a facial template against a gallery of other facial templates for an identification task. The facial recognition system is provided a probe image and attempts to match it with a biometric reference in a gallery for a various verification task. An individual already enrolled in a gallery presents their face or image. The system and the system that attempts to match the face of image with the claim template in the gallery and either verifies or rejects the face of revenge. An automatic automated facial recognition was developed in the 1960s but did not really become widespread until 2010, when computers became capable of training neural networks required to make facial recognition a standard feature. Today, facial recognition is used across the globe for a variety of purposes, from the relatively mundane, such as unlocking a smartphone or tagging a friend in a social media post to the highly sophisticated such as targeted advertising, law enforcement and surveillance. A Non-Exhaustive Non-Exhaustive list of efforts uses include accessing personal electronic devices and or secure locations. Social media, law enforcement, which includes such applications as collecting arresting mug shots and comparing them against local, state and federal databases. Querying mugshot databases to identify individuals in an image, verifying the identity of one of wanted criminals or those suspected of a crime, locating missing persons and or victims of trafficking. And there's also identity theft and fraud detection, streamline travel with biometric passports at border crossings and airports, event registration, individualized and target advertising and marketing and employee time and performance tracking. The rapid advancement and sophistication of theparty in the last several years has raised concerns primarily focused on the accuracy of the technology, demographic biases and encroachment on civil liberties. FRC has proven effective with relatively small populations in controlled environments for the verification of identity claims, where again, an image of an individual's face is matched to a preexisting image on file associated with a claimed identity. According to independent tests by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology, or new study between 2014 and 2018. The failure rate for finding a match in a database of 12 million portrait photos fell from 4% to 2.2%. However, accuracy decreases when there is no standardized photo for comparison or when the comparison comes by a photo from an uncontrolled environment such as a face in the crowd image or a still from a live video feed. Everybody works best when a picture is head on and has no movement. Additionally, because faces change over time. Unlike fingerprints or DNA, the technology can trigger incorrect results by changing hairstyles, facial hair, body weight and the effects of aging. Research has also indicated that FRC may not be as accurate in reading the faces of certain demographic groups. FRC biases can occur when neural networks of the system are trained on dataset datasets of images which are not demographically balanced. When the system learns from a demographically uneven pool of images, the error rate for the demographic groups less represented in the dataset increases. Some research has found that these demographic biases may be the product of a geographic region. The effort to use developed. According to a 2011 and I and I study of FRC algorithms developed in Western countries and algorithms developed in East Asian countries. Western algorithms recognize Caucasian faces more accurately than East Asian faces, and East Asian algorithms recognize East Asian faces more actively than Caucasian faces. More recently, studies have shown that demographic biases persist despite the general improvement in FRC in the last several years. A 2018 study testing three commercial face analysis services found that datasets were overwhelmingly composed of lighter skin subjects. As a result, the study found that darker skinned females were the most misclassified group with error rates of up to 34.7% compared to the maximum error error rate of 0.8% for lighter skinned males. The use of FRC by governments and private enterprises wherein individuals may have their faces scanned and added to a system's dataset unknowingly and without consent, has raised concerns over the infringement of an individual's right to privacy and other civil liberties. Civil rights and privacy organizations have argued that individuals have an expectation of anonymity in public settings and that few are privy to their identity and personal information. They are used to erodes this expectation by allowing the user to identify an individual by their face and associate that individual with internet behavior or travel patterns or other personal information . Recent instances of FRC use by law enforcement agencies have been cited by organizations such as the ACLU and the Electronic Freedom Foundation as examples of the threat posed by efforts to civil liberties. In 2016, the ACLU of Northern California reported that during protests surrounding the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore Police Department ran social media photos through efforts to identify protesters and monitor them. Also in January of last year, the Detroit Police Department wrongly arrested a man named Robert Williams based after being falsely identified by the department's efforts system. Now, proponents of the technology point to instances where FRC has aided law enforcement in investigations and the apprehension of criminals. One says insincerity by proponents is the August 2019 arrest of Larry Griffin's, the second, who was arrested after being identified by a detective in the New York Police Department's face ID section on charges of placing fake bombs in Lower Manhattan subway station. More recently, federal court documents show that the Federal Bureau of Investigation used FRC to assist in the identification of individuals who participated in the January six, 2021 riots at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Citing many of the concerns listed above. Several U.S. cities have banned municipal agencies from using FRC. As of November 20, 2013, cities have enacted some form of FRC ban, including San Francisco, Boston, Portland, Oregon and Jackson, Mississippi, among others. Okay. Moving now to the proposed ordinance, as I mentioned earlier, proposed ordinance, 2020 10091 would ban the acquisition and use of FTE by county administrative offices and executive departments. The proposed ordinance would also prohibit county administrative offices and executive departments from issuing any permit or entering into any agreement which authorizes a third party to use facial recognition technology or obtain or access facial recognition information on behalf of the county. However, evidence relating to the investigation of a specific crime that may have come from FRC may be used by a county administrative office or executive department, so long as the evidence was not generated by or at the request of that county office or department and for the committee's benefits, county administrative offices and executive departments include all county agencies except for the prosecuting attorney's office and the courts. The proposed ordinance defines facial recognition technology as any computer software or application, which assists in identifying or verifying the identity of an individual based on the physical characteristics of the individual's face. Efforts. He does not include the analysis of facial features to grant access to an electronic device or the use of redacting software to protect the privacy of an individual depicted in a recording intended for release or disclosure. Facial recognition information is also defined as any data or information obtained or derived from facial recognition technology. The proposed ordinance would establish a process for account for county personnel who inadvertently or unintentionally use or access facial recognition information. This process would require county personnel to notify their direct supervisor that they received, used or gained access to facial recognition information and that they immediately delete the information subject to applicable laws. Any facial recognition information collected or derived in violation of the established ban would be considered unlawful to obtain. Violations of the established ban would constitute an injury to which a person subject to the violation may seek relief in court. And furthermore, a prevailing plaintiff in any such court proceeding would be entitled to award costs and reasonable attorney's fees. That concludes my report, Mr. Chair, except to say, as you mentioned earlier, there is an amendment amendment S1 makes a series of technical and formatting corrections to the body of the audience as recommended recommended by the code. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Questions for. Mr.. Bowman. Mr.. Council member. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I do have a couple of questions. Thank you, Nick, for the really outstanding report on this. Very thorough. I would appreciate it if you would describe to us how the ordinance before us differs from the legislation passed last year by the state legislature, and also how it differs from the bill passed by the Seattle City Council. Sure. The state law, which goes into effect on January 1st, 2021, requires that any state or local agency that wants to acquire, develop or use NRT must first of all say they do use different definitions. But for the committee's benefit, I'll just continue using the definitions that I've described. If they want to acquire developer use FRC, they must first give notice to the state or local authority that it intends to do so. That agency must then develop an accountability report for how the FRC will be used and its impact on privacy and civil liberties. Then that accountability report must be sent to the local authority who must make it publicly available. So in the county's case, a King County agency would need to notify the Council of its intent to use or develop FRC. And then we need to develop an accountability report and send to the council. And then the council will need to make that report available on its website. There are also in the state law. There are also prohibitions on the use of FRC by state and local government entities, as well as specific prohibitions on the use of FRC by law enforcement agencies. Under the state law, no government entity may use FRC to engage in ongoing surveillance, conduct real time or near time identification or or start persistent tracking. Unless a warrant has been obtained, exigent circumstances exist or a court or is detained for the sole purpose of locating or identifying a missing person or identifying a deceased person. For law enforcement agencies, they are prohibited from using the results of FRC as the sole basis to establish probable cause in a criminal investigation. However, results from FRC may be used in conjunction with other information lawfully obtained, and they are also prohibited from using FRC to identify an individual based on a sketch or manually produced image as to state law. Seattle Surveillance Ordinance Requires City Departments to prepare surveillance impact impact reports on all new and currently used technology that meets the ordinances definition of surveillance. The reports must include an in-depth review of privacy implications, especially relating to equity in community impact. And the reports must then be reviewed by the City Council, who then vote to approve or deny the use of the surveillance technology. So in both the Seattle and state laws, there is a review process of the proposed technology. And. Whereas, proposed ordinance in 091 before you would outright ban in county administrative offices and executive departments from using technology that meets the definition of FRC or using facial recognition information. That would be the primary differences. Thank you. And just to clarify, if we had this situation where there were a missing child, for example, perhaps in another state or another county in the state or whatever. Would the county then not be refraining from being able to use that and notice if we had reason to suspect that that child was being held here? Know that we will not it would not be prohibited that. It would not. Be I would not be prohibited from using any help in the identification and location of that missing child. And to. See no further questions. I'd like to actually invite Councilmember Caldwell's, if she would like, as prime sponsor, to make any remarks before we take questions and more general questions and conversation from colleagues. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would like to make a few, and I hope you'll indulge me. I think we can time. I'd like to speak for several minutes because that's some, I think some very informative material. First of all, as was mentioned by NEC, this ordinance would ban the use of facial recognition and code for King County Sheriff's Office and other county agencies. And unless I'm mistaken, I do not believe we have heard from the sheriff's office opposing this legislation. And as you heard, a ban would not affect the private sector. It is strictly applicable to county government. The what really concerns me here, get down to the bottom line here. Without the rapid advancement and sophistication of facial recognition technology, and I'll just refer to this effort to in the last several years has raised concerns over issues. It certainly raised concerns on my part. And these concerns focused on the accuracy or lack of accuracy of the technology, demographic biases and encroachment on civil liberties. But also, I'm concerned about what is being done with the data. Have you ever thought about this when you got into a store and seen a camera tracking your movements while you're in that store, including your face without your consent? Now, this likely in almost all cases, is harmless, but the technology now exists that can harvest those video feeds and run them against photo databases and social media posts . And now, in our Zoom culture, we have yet another avenue for our spaces to be captured digitally. But where does it stop? And it can be taken place in so many different modes. Well, not an example of facial recognition. One thing that I have really hated that involves technology and tracking has been when I've been continually exposed to ads interrupting my trying to read a news article online. But what really bothered me a couple of years ago was when I found out that these ads are tailored for me based on my preferences being tracked. So if you are reading the same article online, you're going to be interrupted by ads, but they'll be different ads based on a new contract and your priorities. So where does all of this lead? What happens when the technology screws up, which it does. And this identifies an individual, particularly when there can be dire consequences and effects for that person. And we've heard how racial bias is so prevalent within this technology. And 2018 study, and I think Nick referred to this, showed that darker skinned females were the most misclassified group with the error rates of up to almost 35% compared to the maximum error rate found of 0.8% for lighter skinned males. And multiple studies have demonstrated that it's up to 100 times more likely to identify black or Asian faces compared with white faces. And black women in particular, they are misidentified at significantly higher rates than other demographics, and the technology is even less reliable, according to research that's been done when identifying transgender individuals and entirely inaccurate when used on non-binary people. Now you've heard the harrowing stories about a lot of people. One is Robert Julian BAUCHER Williams, who went to jail for 30 hours after the Detroit police arrested him in front of his wife and children. Think about Nigella Parkes was jailed in New Jersey for ten days and spent over $5,000 in legal fees to defend himself. Michael Oliver lost his job and car while being held in a Detroit jail for three days on a felony larceny charge. Now, these three black men were wrongfully arrested due to false facial recognition matches for crimes they did not commit. Robert Julian boy, Chuck Williams is now suing the city of. For damages. So for me, government agencies should not be allowed to display known racist, anti-black facial recognition technology in communities that are already, I believe, over surveilled and overpoliced. Now, we could argue that facial recognition can be beneficial, and it probably can be, but we have to really find the right balance here. And I think the evidence shows that it remains unclear whether facial recognition technology has contributed to the arrest or prosecution of riot participants. Even at the January six capitol, insurgents. We just know that there are a lot of issues that are continuing here where there are mistakes made many times grievous, many times life threatening or even deadly. So I think we just need to take this situation. We have in place a ban on this, and we can always remove that ban through future legislation if we know at that time that privacy concerns the incorrect charges that can be made. And civil rights, civil liberties concerns are fully addressed and there's no reason anymore. But I'm sorry. I'm just too concerned about all that can go wrong with what we have now. And that's why I've offered this legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Thank you, colleagues, for the questions conversation. Mr. Chair. Council member done. I for some reason I thought this was on for discussion purposes. Are we planning on voting on it right now? Checkpoint This is this is the first time it's been on our agenda. My intent would be to have a discussion today and probably take action at our next meeting. Okay. Thank you. I want to make sure people have an opportunity to raise issues, concerns, support, thoughts. In this discussion, Lala Kent remembers a whole lot. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nick, thank you earlier for distinguishing the legislation from the state and city level legislation. The explanations felt a little bit itemized to me. Is there a way for you to kind of give a more high level couple sentence difference between what the state is doing and what the county is doing? You know, for example, ours is more restrictive than the states are. Ours has different requirements that just along those lines, because in my head, I have one list of what this one does and another list of what the other one does without really kind of. Summarizing it all. Absolutely. Council members. So in the highest possible level, the state law and the city of Seattle's ordinance allowed for the potential use of R. Should the local approval that they provide. Both of them provide transparency and public notice that this technology may be used by a city, a city or State Department or local agency , whereas the counties is far more restrictive. And just in just saying that, you may not use this technology. Thank you. Lambert Council member LAMBERT Thank you. I have a couple of quick questions. Earlier, you talked about sketched images not being included. Could you explain to me what that means. So that as as mentioned in the earlier background, the technologies are more accurate when you have a standardized straight a picture. And so the state law prohibits any law enforcement agency from using SRT that uses the basis of deface attempt to match from a sketch. So essentially that you must have an actual photo of the person you're attempting to identify. Okay. So, you know, if you're a victim of a crime and you go in and they make a photo montage, kind of for you to say that that's what it looks like, you know, and then they could run it through our teeth to be able to see, you know, which people might be likely to look like that to narrow it down. We wouldn't be able to do that because the whole thing is banned. Under the state law. You would not be able to a law enforcement agency would not be able to do that once it goes into effect on July 1st of this year. So I agree with Council member Cole Wells on the idea that I'm very concerned about how much data is out there. I too have gotten specialized ads on a product about six months ago that you only buy like once a year. And I have been deluged with that same thing and it's driving me crazy. So is there any date by which the state law or any other some of this data says you must delete all this data within five years or anything like that. Is there any final date of of that? Some cities have taken the approach of banning or restricting the use of private enterprises and using FRC. But the Washington state law and this county ordinance does not. Okay. And my last question is this. Where in the in the Bill Digest today does it show the information on the state? I didn't see where that was all written out. As I did not include as there are quite a difference in as I mentioned earlier on, what was I did not include a background on the state law, but I'm happy to provide you a summary if you would like that online. Yeah, I think following a councilmember there, my Zala, I would like to see a side by side of the two. And then in the report on page 18 of this, it talks about data up to 2010. So I'm wondering from 2010 to 2021 what the data changes were. So if you could get that or at least tell me why we're using over a decade old tech data. So that that that refers to. While the facial recognition technology has been around since the 1960s, it only became prevalent in 2010 when computers became powerful enough to manage the massive galleries that the systems required to do this sort of machine learning to make the technology work. Okay. So none of the data is matched on that. The data that you gave us about the 34% and the point 2%, that was all the data based on data from 2021. That's based on from a 2018. Nice study. Okay. And there's nothing more recent than that. I do not. Not that I have reviewed in this research now. So my my concern that I'd like to see in our next briefing is. What will this do if we decide to be different from the state and the state wants to collect data as being the largest state county? What will that do to being able to really collect good data? Because I think, as Councilmember Crowell says, we really need to know more about all of this data, not just facial recognition, but lots of data collected on us and our analytics and our buying habits and how we can protect ourselves and our constituents from lots of information floating around forever. So if you could talk a little bit about that, what the comparisons will be, what impact as being different from the state will have. I'll be wonderful. Thank you. I want to make sure that we're not leaving anybody with the impression that this software, a ban on facial recognition technology, would address tailored ads to individuals that I believe was used as an example of deep reach, perhaps overreach by technology, of analyzing the individual person's activities, as some would compare this software to doing as well. But this banning facial recognition technology would not affect the current use of ads in social media streams. And so I want to make be clear about that. And the audience before us, if I'm not mistaken, would only affect King County government entities, not any private use or other entities within the counties boundaries. And also clarify, if I can, Mr. Bowman, that the state legislation putting some strong sideboards and recognitions of civil liberty and other concerns when it goes into effect the first in July is applies to King County government entities, the very entities that this legislation would affect. Correct. So both of those states and this ordinance only deal with government entities. There is nothing related to private companies and how they use facial recognition technology or tracking across advertising and marketing. And there there really is just sideboards primarily related to law enforcement coming down from the state law and also transparency and review from state law to local governments. Which is certainly a avenue and quarter that as Councilmember Caldwell's introduction documents have is concerning in our community when we have the power of law enforcement to our image, our obligation to make sure that we're using it justly and well in it and not in equitably. So I certainly recognize the wanting to make sure that the technology, if it were to be used, is used well and not. In error. Mr. Chair. Council member Lambert. Thank you. Would you just check? Does the state law require, as part of the work an agency needs to make public before using SRT? They must define what the retention period is and the date of the recent process. So I believe that that is in the state law. So if you could check and make sure that we have that accurate, that would be great. I'm sorry, sir. Could you repeat that one more time? Are you saying so? How long in the accountability records the agency must define how long they intend to retain that data? Yes, that's correct. It is correct. Okay. If they intend to use that type of technology, they must include in the accountability report how long they intend to hold on to that that. Excellent. Thank you for the clarification. Further questions. Conversation Council member Belge. You're on mute. There was somebody. Thank you. I was listening carefully to Councilmember Caldwell's remarks in support of the legislation, and it's a very compelling case and the public testimony. It's a very compelling case. When you have technology that is has been shown to have these kinds of impacts and then the risk of rolling it out in ways that could cause harm to our constituents and that that cannot be undone. And so I think it's a very compelling case. I want to ask if the sponsor would would take a question. Yes. What I if you could just explain, because this issue of sort of the state went through a process to come up with a piece of legislation . There was a great deal of work that went into that, as my understanding in your thinking. What is the what is the the justification for us? Like, why is the state law not sufficient to meet the need that you have so compellingly identified? Thank you very much for the question. For me, it really comes down to protection of civil liberties. And I think there's just too much evidence currently that the potential for harm to individuals is so strong that it would be preferable to ban the use of this technology. I've looked at a lot of the at least research summaries, some coming from M.I.T., computer science researchers, employees of technology companies, and then some are comments, scholars and even corporate stakeholders that facial recognition use by governments. We're not talking about private entities here, just has too much potential harm that I don't want it to be used by our government. Now, I said earlier that maybe in the future it could be refined so much that we could we could amend action here. But I also think that there is a potential for making the problem worse if the facial recognition systems were to become totally accurate. How much surveillance power by a government do we need? Do we really need to track people by their race? Do we need really to profile and monitor people based on really secret algorithms? And do we really need to create databases that can be exploited by ICE in our immigration systems and other government agencies? I'm very concerned about the direction that we're going in, and I believe that we, as the current government have a we should have a policy to lead with racial equity as the driving force for how we develop laws and priorities. That's what we're about. But this is an ordinance that I think really would put equity into action. The technology is out there that is just too potentially dangerous, I believe. And it is our most vulnerable and already marginalized populations that are suffering disproportionality from its application. Now. So I feel very strongly about this. And I, I think it's very appropriate for our county to take this step and impose the ban. If something changes, we can undo that. But I'm concerned with all that's the momentum that's going forward and it seems to be so quickly going forward. How much do our citizens want to be tracked by government? And. Especially when there's such a high mistake rate for darker skinned people, especially darker skinned women. And. Thank you. Thank you for answering that question, Councilman, because I appreciate it. And I'm also moved by the fact that we're watching kind of it in real time, a terrifying experiment and the the hyper hyper surveillance of an entire population of people in another part of the world. And I'm not going to get into that right here, but I think sort of placing guardrails around the technology here makes it less likely that we will end up in that kind of an extreme situation, like when you see persecution in other parts of the world. So I thank you for that explanation. It's helpful. Thank you. Further discussion. Thank you so much. Colleagues will look forward to taking on this legislation and our end of items on our agenda today. Madam Clerk, did anybody miss any votes today? No, Mr. Chair. No, it's promised. Then I want to thank everybody for their participation in today's committee of the whole. And we will. We are adjourned. Thank you. So.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of David Hadley, who resides in council district three, to the Harborview Medical Center board of trustees, as the district three representative.
king_9fe05976-cc06-4346-8031-8d65deea9335	Good morning. I'm going to call to order the October 18th meeting of the King County Council Committee of the whole. Today's meeting will be hearing two items related to building a new Algona transfer station. And we're also be hearing an update on the enhanced 911 strategic planning process, which is nearing its conclusion. I'm going to ask Committee Stokes, since this is a special meeting and we're going to stick to the agenda exactly as written and noticed. So I'm going to ask our committee assistant, Marcus Stedman, to please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garza. Council Member Cole Wells. Council Member Lambert. Council Member McDermott. You're council member of the group. Council member Run right there. Madam Chair, here. Madam Chair, you do not have a quorum. Thank you. Therefore, we will skip the approval of the minutes and move on to public comments. The Committee of the whole does offer a public comment on any item on today's agenda. The rules are similar to a council meeting. Each person will have 2 minutes to speak. Public comment must address an item on today's agenda and may not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election or related to any ballot property proposition. And if Speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, they'll be ruled out of order and required to stop speaking. Hopefully we won't have that today. We have two people signed up to speak in order, Mr. Alex Zimmerman, followed by Daniel Cato. Good morning. Hi. Am I doing a double if you are not a social democrat? My favorite progressive Gestapo principal. My name. I like Zimmerman, the president of Stand Up America when I speak about Agenda seven because I think as government and oversight sometimes have a problem. So why even speak about this? Because right now about this happened in Seattle in the country is look very terrible and absolutely don't have sense for America because we have a pure fascist, whether it. Be Mr. Zimmerman. The items today are solid waste transfer station. No, it's not seven. So number seven. And you 911. So please speak to one of those items. Thank you. But you don't. We'll talk about seven item. That's E911 one program changes. So if you want to speak to the E911 one program, please do it. But this talk about governance in oversight briefing. For E911 one for electronic 911 emergency call center. That's what it's about. I don't understand why you are asking about governance and oversight, but if in governance, government, in oversight, what do you think this mean? Exactly what? As I spoke now about governance and oversight. And governance, I did the governance and the oversight of the E911 system. That's what that says and that's what it's about. Please stick to the topic. Can we give them a little bit of time back? I've taken some of his time. In Say. No, but I don't understand. No. When you have something big like governance and oversight meeting, you know what it means. So that's exactly what is. I want speaking about this in nine 1111 briefing what is you talk and 911 is include insight so this not matter what is I going for detail exactly for 911? No, it does because our rules say you need to speak to something on the agenda. So please, I know that you can please speak to something on the agenda. I mean, I'm sure that your comments could be made relevant, but I'm asking you to try. Okay. I will try. Yes, let's try. Okay. Yeah, we go for number a. Number six is contract between can country in ai4. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I very appreciative so contract between Kim country in another city don't have sense right now because everything about this happened right now is happened only under not just social democratic mafia is this exactly what's happened. So every contract what is we have right now is reflect what this we have right now Seattle number one factory city in America it can control right now going like of with pure fascism. But this we right now is a point what is we have right now so every contract what this Kim country car with every city right now in king country what this belong to agenda number six is reflects this when you stop in this when you stop and this mafia when you stop and it's not a social democratic mafia with Gestapo principle, fascism only had one way for the last 10,000 year. It's a Nazi Gestapo principle. Is this exactly what this. I have a trespass from Seattle for 900 day because I spoke about this when you stop and fascism now. Thank you very. Much. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. The next person signed up to speak is Mr. Neil Cato. Good morning. My name is Neil. Cato and I am. Just the messenger. So I will only say. One thing about number five. Number six. And number seven. Is that it is all related to Democrat. Fascism because it's only one sided, because there's no community in here, there's just government and corporations. Making these decisions. So my question to you is, how do we include. Everyone in these decisions, not just government and corporations, because it. Is the community that has been affected. By all the decisions? As a matter of fact, I want to address. I think with your name, the government, he lied on the news and said that community. Is included. In these decisions. Especially. The one that you guys are implementing that is confusing all the voters. So why don't we put some truth. To that by opening. The bathroom? You say you don't have any power and influence to help us open the bathroom and city hall for open, honest conversation to include all people in these decisions. That means government, corporations, rich and poor. But you can at least show support to the idea so. So that it restores equality, freedom. Of speech. And the. Constitution. Because as all of you, government employees, that is your duty to protect the citizens when it comes to that. So if you don't have the authority to. Actually do it, you could at least show that you support the idea because it is fair and it is lawful. Write us the letter, put something in writing. Just saying that you support the idea so that we can introduce so that we can implement it once a week. Bathroom, City Hall Open Honest. Conversation Unlimited. So that we're not. Using the Nazi Gestapo principles. With trespass is when people. Are standing up. And voicing their ideas and their concerns and. Their opinions. On topics that are affecting. In them today, including e911 and all the other things on your agenda. There's no community in here, so the. Only way to stop Democrat fascism is to open up. Thank you. That's the end of the sign in sheet. Is there anyone else here who would like to address the committee today? Seeing none. We'll move on and our agenda. And then item number four at a minimum, five and six, sorry, are both regarding the construction of a new solid waste transfer station in the city of Algona. We have an existing station in the city of EL going to do an operation for more than 50 years and is in need of an upgrade and expansion. We've been planning additional capacity for the last decade. The executive has now proposed locating a new transfer station directly north of the existing site on county owned property within the city of Algona. The two pieces of legislation before us today are a construction agreement and a land transfer agreement, which outlined the conditions through which the city of Algona would allow the proposed new transfer station to proceed. We have Council Staff Mary Bourguignon and Tara Rose here to brief the committee and representatives from the Solid Waste Division are also here if we have any questions for them, and we're hoping to take this up for action today. So with that, I'll ask staff to please go ahead and brief the committee. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Mary Burge and from council staff and I'm here with Terre Rose, the materials for this presentation begin on page five of your packets. But I'm going to start with the large map that is at your place. Thought it might be helpful just as a geographic orientation to point out the area that we are discussing. So if you look at the map, you'll see that we are located in the city of Algona. If you follow the large arrow, you can sort of see the surroundings and you'll see that there are two properties highlighted. The one to the south that is highlighted in red is the existing Algona transfer and recycling station. That property was purchased in portions by the county beginning in the 1930s and the transfer station has been operating there since the 1960s. That property is approximately 200,000 square feet. It's somewhat topographically constrained and therefore is proposed to be replaced by this site just north of it that is outlined in Green, which is the proposed location for the new transfer and recycling station. That property is approximately 300,000 square feet. Before I leave the map, if you look just a little bit farther down to the south, you'll see a bright blue line along the West Valley Highway south, right at the border between the city of Algona and unincorporated King County. The agreements contain a provision that the city and county would agree to a boundary adjustment so that the city of Algona would control the entire entirety of West Valley Highway. Along that stretch. Right now, the boundary is sort of in the middle of the road and we split the maintenance. And so for ease of maintenance, as well as cost reductions to the county, the agreement would include this proposed boundary adjustment. If you'll flip the map over, you'll see a closer up view of the two properties. And I just want to point out one thing here in the green property, you'll notice that it's comprised of several individual parcels with some city streets running in between them. Those city streets would be vacated and made over to the county as part of the agreement so that we would then own the property in its entirety to be able to operate the proposed transfer station. So with that, I will turn back to the packets and we'll move to page six. Just a quick history of this property. I mentioned that the existing site has been in operation as a transfer station since the 1960s. In December 2007, when the council approved the Solid Waste Transfer and Waste Management Plan, it recommended that King County modernize the regional solid waste system and develop several new transfer stations, including a new one in South County. In 2014, when the Transfer Plan Review final report was adopted, that decision was reiterated with a proposal for a new transfer station in South County in 2012 as part of its search for possible locations for a new transfer station. The Solid Waste Division purchased the proposed site in Algona and then began an environmental review process that looked at three alternatives the existing site, which was a no action alternative, the new site that had been purchased in Algona as well as the site in Auburn. That environmental review process concluded last year. It identified the new site in Algona as the preferred location, and at that point the city of Algona challenged the Environmental Impact Statement. The two agreements before you today would allow for the proposed New South. County Recycling and transfer station to move forward. They include a land transfer agreement and a construction agreement. And the city of Algona City Council passed legislation approving both of them earlier this year. I will also note, just in terms of the history of this process, that several years ago, in 2012, the Council required that prior to the Solid Waste Division beginning any design work on this transfer station that it conclude commit to and transmit a report on procurement methods for the new transfer station. And it has done so, in fact did so in September of this year and has recommended that it use traditional public works bidding for the procurement for this new transfer station . With that, I'll move on to page eight and just run through the two agreements. You'll see that on the bottom of page eight is a section about the construction agreement, which is covered in proposed ordinance 2017 0324. So I'll start with that one. That agreement first requires that a procurement method be identified. I noted that the division has indicated they plan to use traditional public works bidding, and the agreement would commit that by September 30th of 2019, which is called the Project Decision Date, that the county would select a procurement method, notify the city and take the first major step toward construction. And we have worked with executive staff and understand that they feel confident that they can meet this deadline. Next, the agreement outlines the number of terms that the city and county have agreed to in terms of mitigate mitigation and the permitting process. It would outline the development standards that the county must comply with, as well as the cost for the permitting, which would be a cost of up to $300,000, and would guarantee that the city may condition but not deny the conditional use permit needed to operate the transfer station. The city would also, by this agreement, agree that the mitigation included in the final environmental impact statement is adequate and that the county would agree that the county would complete this mitigation prior to receiving a certificate of occupancy for the new transfer station. The county would agree to be responsible for newer modified utilities needed to serve the new station. Though the agreement does outline provisions for a late comers agreement for any nearby properties and the county and city agree to use the Mitigation Reserves program for in lieu fee mitigation to address wetlands on commercially zoned properties in the city. Next, the agreement. I'm sorry, Americas as possible. So can Councilmember Lambert. Could you explain a little more that last sentence the in lieu of fees for what. This this would be as part of the overall mitigation process the city and county have agreed to a way to manage wetlands and they would use the in lieu fee mitigation program as a way to do that. Explain a little more about that in live the program. So that is I can get you that offline. That is a separate part of the county code and it's a program, I think Erin Austin's has briefed on it within the last year or so. But I can get you that offline if you'd like. Great. So next part of the agreement is that the county and city have agreed to various maintenance and mitigation work that would be completed on West Valley Highway to handle the additional traffic expected from the transfer station. There are maps in the agreement that I don't know that we need to go over, although we can. But there are segments identified and various tasks outlined for what the county would be doing both during the construction process and then on an ongoing basis to mitigate any impacts for traffic to the site. Next, I had mentioned the street vacations that would be needed since the property that is proposed for the transfer station is comprised of several parcels. The agreement outlines a street vacation process through which the county would agree that the city owns the street right of way and the city would agree to vacate this right of way prior to the county receiving a building permit with the county to pay for appraisals and the full value of the right of way. And then finally, there are sections in the proposed agreement that outline the dispute resolution process and, if necessary, an arbitration process. If there are no more questions about that agreement, I'll move on to the land transfer agreement. Let's pause for 1/2. Any questions at this point about this construction agreement? Okay. All right. So I'm just I'm sorry. Go ahead. Councilmember. Very briefly, on the street, they. In compensation issue. Are we when you said we'll pay the full value, is that as it is that unemployment. Has been raised? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So next, moving on to the land transfer agreement, which is covered in proposed ordinance 2017 zero 325, this agreement where the construction agreement covered essentially the new site. This agreement would cover the existing site and it would cover the county's deconstruction cleanup and transfer to the city of the existing transfer station property, as well as the ownership , maintenance and operation of West Valley Highway in the area that I had pointed out on the map. Specifically, this agreement would require that the county would test, deconstruct and then transfer the existing station property to the city. And there are specific requirements outlined for the county to complete additional hazardous substance testing in addition to Phase one environmental site assessment to deconstruct the existing station by removing all of the facility except the wall, stormwater facilities and sewer water lines within 18 months of the station being closed. Cleaning the property to state standards for industrial properties. And then indemnifying the city. And I will note that legal counsel did point out that this indemnification would continue past the county's closure of the site and its transfer of the property to the city, but identified this as a business decision and not a legal concern. And then finally, as I noted, the property would be conveyed to the city after the cleanup next. As I had noted, the city and county share a boundary that runs along the middle of West Valley Highway in a portion of the area between Fifth Avenue South and First Avenue North. And as part of this agreement, the two entities would commit to a future boundary adjustment so that the city would control the entirety of the West Valley Highway right of way in that area. I will go on to note that fiscal impacts for the two agreements for the biennium are an estimate of $400,000, $300,000 in permitting costs and $100,000 for some of the work needed on West Valley Highway, specifically to reimburse the city for its local matching fund for a grant for that work. In terms of the larger budget for the new transfer station, the budget is estimated at $113 million. This project has been identified as a high risk project, which is part of the mandatory phased appropriation program, meaning that the council would need to approve each phase of the project. At the moment, the Council has, through the 2017 2018 biennial budget, appropriated funds for design and planning work. But future work and construction is not anticipated until the next biennium. And that concludes my staff report, unless there are questions and we do update McLaughlin here from the division. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Very, very good report. Any other questions at this time? I have a sort of a couple of general ones. This appears to all hang together and make a great deal of sense. Do we feel that these agreements resolve all siting issues between the city and the county? I would let the executive speak to that. I want to come on up and. Share your thoughts. I mean, I understand that there are contingencies built in here. But in terms of the decision to select this site and to move forward to the next steps, do we feel that we have a good resolution that is well supported by all parties? Yes, Madam Chair, thank you for the opportunity to be here. For the record, my name is Pat McGrath, and I serve as your Solid Waste Division Director. I do say with confidence that this represents an agreement that settles any, any and all concerns that the city has brought forward. As we as we've kind of pursued this siting approach. And the agreement represents the interests of both the county and the city in a very balanced and fair way. Okay. Thank you very much. And then my second question is, when I look at the terms, nothing jumps out at me as being particularly, you know, the way they all, as I said, hang together when you when you read them in this logical way. But I think about risks going forward. I heard the words hazardous substance testing. And I mean since this is I don't know actually what uses are there now. Do we expect any surprises? That's a really nonsensical question. Do we do we worry about any surprises? Well, we certainly yeah. It's it's a it's a valid question. It's a question that the city brought forward. We don't have any concerns and we don't anticipate any surprises. But there are there are contingencies and in a legal framework, in the event that such is discovered. But the reason we don't have that concern is that we've done some preliminary investigation and and review to make that determination. And we will continue to monitor that process throughout the course of the contract. This contract actually calls for some additional review periods to make sure that if there is anything that it's identified early on and remediation can be addressed in a timely fashion, but we don't have anything to to raise that concern to us at this point based on how that property has been used. Thank you. I will say that for all of last year, the mayor of Algoma was my vice chair on the Regional Transit Committee. So we had, you know, occasion to chit chat about what was going on down in Algona. And he was very complimentary of the way that the Solid Waste Division worked with the city, at least at that phase as we were getting towards agreement. And my understanding is that this is something that they are satisfied with, which is another example. I think along with some of the work we've done in my district recently of the division working hard with our our city partners. So I do appreciate that. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? This is before us for action today. And we have two ordinances. The first one is proposed ordinance 2017, down to zero 3 to 4. I would entertain a motion. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to propose ordinance 2017 0324 with the do pass recommendation. Okay. I don't see any amendments. So with that council member up to the third one, Rick Bauer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I had the opportunity to also know the Mayor of Algona quite well. I represent our going on the County Council, and it's been a roller coaster. But the roller coaster, I definitely found it equally remote. I don't think Pat and his staff are finding that it's the mayor of going is very not parochial. He's very personal and very, very caring about the city. And like a lot of our areas of South County, there is a sense that maybe they were the poor stepchild. And I want to thank you for making him part of the family, because as the process moved forward, he became more comfortable about what was happening. I really admire Dave Hill, the mayor, because he cares about his city, cares about a very tough economic community that doesn't get treated as well as some other cities. And King County and you and your staff did an outstanding job of reaching out, making him a part of the process, making him treated with respect, because that's a big issue for a lot of folks in South King County is a sense of lack of respect from Seattle and so on. Thank you. Publicly and I think Councilmember Banducci for her help on this as well. All right. And yes, ALGON is well represented by its city and its council representatives. So thank you. Any other comments with that? I'll call for roll call, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett, I. Councilmember Cole Wells. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Council Member of the Grove City Councilmember Yvonne Record. Madam Chair. Hi. Madam Chair. The vote is salmon eyes. No nos. Councilmember Stone and Bond right up to Grove. Excuse OC by your vote. Proposed Ordinance 2017 does two or 3 to 4 will move to the full council with a do pass recommendation. And is there any reason to expedite that? Madam Chair, the companion legislation oh 3 to 5 requires public notice, and it's been tentatively scheduled for a public hearing on November 13. So notes for that if you want. Well, this one doesn't have that restriction, but if you want to keep them together, they could both go together on November 13th. I think it's clean is to keep them together so we won't expedite them and we won't put them on consent. All right. That brings us to proposed ordinance 2017, DASH 0325, which is the companion land transfer agreement. Councilmember Lambert, when you put that before us, I'd like to proposed or in 2017 zero 3 to 5 of the do pass recommendation. All right. It's been moved and is before the body. Any further comments or questions? Okay. Marker. Please go ahead and call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garza, Councilmember Cole Wells. Councilmember Lambert, hi. Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Hi. Madam Chair. Hi. Madam Chair. The vote is seven is no nos. Council members done in. The grove excuse to right by your vote. That measure is also moved to the full council with a unanimous to pass recommendation. So we'll go on to the public hearing and next steps. Thank you all very much for your work on this agenda. Item number seven. Oh, I'm sorry. Councilmember Lambert is correct. We should go back and improve the minutes while we have folks here. So if you would like to put the minutes of October 4017, 2017, meaning before us with the due package recommendation, any comments or questions on the minutes? All those in favor please signify by saying i. I any opposed the minutes are adopted. All right. In our next item, we're going to hear a briefing on a topic that has been the subject of a great deal of work over a long period of time. And we have good news today. The know about the E911 one strategic planning process, the council and the RTC were Regional Policy Committee. For those of you who don't follow council. Alphabet Soup were instrumental in launching a scoping process over two years ago. Now that defined a framework for this process. Council members done Lambert and Up the Grove helped to oversee that scoping process. Since then, council members done, Lambert and I have been serving on the leadership group for this strategic planning effort. We've been meeting quarterly and we appear to be headed toward consensus. What I will say that when I first came into this and had meetings after being elected with with NORTHCOM and NORTHCOM representatives in my district, they reported that they had been through a period of some great concern but had come out of it and that the group really straightened up and was working very well together. And that's what I have observed during my involvement with this process as well. On November 9th we had a big meeting, not sorry, the last meeting, not November 9th, that's the next meeting. At the last meeting in October, we said we directed a set of recommendations for the strategic plan and we have a November 9th leadership group meeting where we will make some final recommendations. So I thought it was important for this committee to have an update on where we're headed before it comes for a final vote. There's been a really large and intense body of work about the future of one of our most critical services, the Technology and Operations Task Force alone. One of the four subcommittees, three subcommittees, met 43 times alone in the last year and a half. So it's been very heavily studied, a very rich and robust process, and, I believe very productive. The issues that prompted the need for a strategic plan are really being addressed and I think resolved. So I'm looking forward to this report today and moving forward after today. But I did want to just take a moment to acknowledge and thank all of the staff who have been involved in this process because it has been really productive and really, really intense. So they and Carlson from the executives office is here to provide today's briefing. We also have members from the from the 911 program office, Cathy Lombardo, who's the interim manager. Stacy Glick from the city of Seattle, Jill Dougherty, Electrical. Stacy, thank you. Who's been the co-chair of the Governance Task Force. And we also. Lisa Kay, who's on council staff, has been all on top of this. She has been tracking it closely for us. So, Diane, why don't you go ahead and give us your briefing and then we'll just have discussion and questions. There's no action today. Just hoping to get people up to speed. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Diane Carlson with the executive's office. We do have a presentation which is not dropped down yet, but I understand you have hard copies at your desk, so I will just kind of quickly go through those and reference the page that I'm on so currently than I would be on Slide two. And thank you again for allowing us to give you a brief overview of where we're at with this process and where we're headed as it wraps up. Just as a reminder, so slide two there, the King County Ordinance 18139 established this strategic planning process for the regional E9 one one system, and it identified the ordinance that the council approved identified four primary goals for the strategic plan. One, that we should integrate the system with local jurisdictions and their delivery of services to develop a ten year technology investment strategy. Three. A ten year sustainable financial plan for the regional E9 on one system, and then four importantly defined an ongoing decision making governance structure . So flipping to the next handout that you have, which is the Strategic Plan Organization graphic, and I think you've all seen this before probably in one of our other presentations, it is pretty complex. As the chair mentioned, we had three task forces rolling up into a planning group and a leadership group that was comprised of the elected officials. And we've been working our way up this graphic and we will be the planning group level will be proposing has been has just finished with our final pieces of work, hopefully to recommend to the leadership group the recommendations on the governance and finance components to go with the recommendation on the technology component. So we go to the oh, I do want to highlight that. Yes, we have had the Technology Operations Committee or Task Force had 45 meetings, the governance group had 13 meetings. The finance group has had 13 going on probably 14 to 15 to finish up in this last month and the work plan and I think we are on track to do this. I'm on slide three now. Is it okay the we're on track to deliver the council a strategic plan at the beginning of next year. So next slide. Thank you. The this is just to show you the components of the work items that have been produced so far. So the process brief was really a step that we took just to make sure that we all knew how we were going to do this work. The issue briefs are interesting because they identified what the challenges were in each of these areas, the challenges and the questions that we needed to address. And then finally, the draft recommendation recommendations, which will be rolled up into the strategic plan, are separated out into the three different large areas, technology and operations. And the the questions that they're really answering are, as we as we move into the next generation technology, what system architecture should we be using? And as the chair mentioned, the leadership group approved a system architecture, a primary system architecture for the strategic plan in late September. The finance question, the large one, is, is the system fiscally sustainable and what are the challenges and some of the options that are available to us collectively to address those fiscal challenges. That is in draft and will be presented to the leadership group in November. We'll cover some of the key issues today. And then finally, governance. How are the PC apps and the program office going to work together into the future? And we have some recommendations that Stacy Glick is going to review also today. So just four dates so that you can get a picture of the timing here. So we will be briefing the Regional Policy Committee today, later today. And then our goal and our hope is that we will be able to deliver the strategic plan to the Council for you to consider in early March and approve within the. Next few months. So I'm going to turn it over to Stacy to go through the governance recommendations. Stacey was a co-chair also of the governance task force. Good morning. My name is Stacey Jelinek and with the city of Seattle Office of Intergovernmental Relations. And I've been co-chairing the Governance Task Force with Dan Karlsson. So our governance body, the recommendations we're making for the governance body are that, first of all, the governing body is advisory to the program office, the King County Executive and the County Council . There were questions initially about whether the advisory board would have decision making authority or just advisory authority. And the solution was that they have advisory authority. Only the governing board will have one voting seat for each of the peace apps, which there are currently 12. Perhaps there must be a quorum for a vote to take place. The quorum is half plus. One is. The number. And he paused for one quick second. I just want to let councilmembers know if you're trying to follow along. The best place to look is in the is in the slides and they're on the screen. But we're also at page by page. There's no page numbers. Okay. So we're looking at the slide that is titled Governance Recommendations. Governance recommendations. Looks like this. Okay. Sorry is going on about them problem. And then just getting into the voting structure. This this was the topic that was, I would say, most heavily debated on our governance task force. We landed on a two test voting structure. So for a vote to pass, it has to be approved, first of all, by 40% of the peace apps that are present and voting. And then by a number of piece apps that represent 60% of the call volume, the call volume would be revisited annually so that the body can change and adjust to changing circumstances. Should there be a should we identify a better metric? Basically, the call volume metric was not one that anybody loves to death, but it was the best one that people could come up with. If a better metric is identified in the future, the body would have the ability to adjust and use a different metric. And then consensus is defined. Defined as no one asking for a vote. The next one. So the another item that we discussed was when does an item come before this advisory board and when does it not come before the advisory board? So these two boxes were basically these list of items were were set out to try to help everybody understand when the board is involved in the decision and when it is not. The governing board would have a say in reviewing the program office's biennial budget. And basically, once the biennial budget is reviewed by the board and approved items that are within that budget would not have to come back to the board each time something had to be done. They wouldn't have to approve operations, regular operations and maintenance actions that had been part of the biennial budget. There's then a list of other items that the board would also have a say in basically anything that impacts the system as a whole. Anything that would have an impact on the piece themselves. And then where no board action is required. Again, it's the items that had already been pre-approved within the biennial budget and then other. The other items are actions that are part of the operations, internal operations of the program office that don't necessarily have a direct impact on the peace. And then are appeals process graph. So the ordinance required that our governance body come up with a conflict resolution process. And this is the diagram showing what we came up with. Essentially, the if the program office proposes an action and the governing board accepts that action, the action would be implemented if the governing board doesn't approve of what the program office is proposing. However, there are steps that can be taken for them to appeal the decisions that's being made through a well-defined appeals process with timelines and specific steps for action. As you can see on this diagram, the governing board, if the governing board does need to appeal a decision, there is a way for both non-legislative and legislative actions to be appealed in three separate channels. But suffice it to say that we came to consensus on knowing that if the board disagrees with the program office, there are many actions they can take to try to push the action that they are proposing. And then the governance implementation. So this slide outlines the transmission schedule for the for the strategic plan. An important note is because there is currently the IAG operating and maintaining that in one system and there is a governance, a proposal in the strategic plan for a new governing body that is is organized differently from the current IAG . There is definitely an interest in getting that governing body up and running as quickly as possible, because right now you're in a little bit of a limbo while the old system is functioning, but you're waiting for the new system to be approved. And so the executive it plans to transmit by January 15th and hope that the council adopted by March 31st the strategic plan that the executive will transmit by January 15th and the Council adopt by March 31st the establishment of the advisory governing board. I think the current plan is for that advisory governing board to start organizing itself and getting ready to basically hit the ground running once it is officially created by the council. I think that concludes my summary. Just looking to see if there are any questions at this point that we want to just keep. Go ahead, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I just had one question, a couple of pages back. Could you tell me what the differences between kind of between education campaigns, training. Materials and social marketing strategies? What what. What will social. Marketing strategies entail that isn't part of education campaign and training materials? I bet I should probably. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. It's what we do online versus what we do in-person, I guess is the best that I can that I way to describe that right now. So we have a public relations and education and outreach program within the 911 program. And and whatever we might do to get to more people, we would try to do online versus versus going to schools, which is something we do quite a bit of right now to educate students and teachers and parents about how to use the 911 system. Does that answer your question? Sort of. Okay. So you want to ask it again? No. I think it's all right. I'll talk to you later about it. Oh, okay. I'm Kathy Lombardo. I'm the interim program manager for 911. Thank you. Thanks, Lisa. Thank you. All right. Please go ahead. Okay. So the leadership group during our last meeting unanimously agreed on the technology platform that we're going to use going forward, which gives us a great ability now to actually begin to plan. So what this what this diagram is showing, I probably won't go into the nitty gritty detail, but the basics of it, it's a single platform with multiple nodes. And so if you think about it, well, they'll be geo diverse nodes. So two likely in Puget Sound, one east of the mountains, and then depending on the vendor, then we would also most likely have a test piece, a node or a test node. The big difference between the way we operate currently is these these three nodes that you see in the center that could become for inadequate that type of equipment would be in each piece out now. So there are 12 pieces of equipment. And the biggest the biggest benefits here, I guess I've got this this platform gives us redundancy, resiliency, security and really efficient operations. The way that I think about this right now, as I think about it, as time to market with the 12 piece ups, the way that we're organized now, we're never they're never all at the same level of readiness. So they don't always have the same hardware or software. So it takes us 12 to 18 to 36 months to get that whole platform ready in order to serve our customers. What this platform does is we can make these kinds of changes now in the four nodes rather than in the 12. And we can do that. We're relatively certain much more efficiently than the way we do it now, taking maybe 8 to 10 months, we've been told by vendors, Oh, it'll just take you a month to do this. But we're saying it's probably more realistic that it's 8 to 10 months versus 18 to 36. Next slide. And then so here's our timeline, the high level timeline. Obviously, we've got quite, quite some time now to actually dig in the detail into the details, to develop really much more precise budgeting analysis, planning documents and going out for RFP or possibly RFI also. But right now, the thought is we would go out to RFP working with the piece ups and the program office. And this gives you an approximate timeline of when we think things are going to happen, that the 911 program is in a state of flux. We were constantly doing a baseline of operation and maintenance and now we've got the state assigned at two that's going to be ramping up and we'll start to see benefits from that, probably both financially as well as from a security perspective. So we're going to start to reap the rewards of some of the technologies as they begin to be upgraded, which leads us into the financial summary. And Tom Kony is here to back me up just in case there are questions. But I think the important thing to think about when you look at this graphic, it's a little stunning and it goes down in the wrong direction. And so but where we were a couple of years ago was that we saw impending doom. And in 2018, 2019, what we've been doing during this time in the past 18 months or so is really looking at the projects on our lists and reprioritizing some things. And because of the sign up to coming online, there are some things we can put off into the future. So now you see the revenue line going below. Well then why don't we go to the next slide? We've actually pushed off this cliff or this crisis until 2023 by holding back on several projects and then taking the time to really analyze costs going forward for our projects and maybe reprioritizing. So the good news here is that we've got tools in place now. We've got a fairly extraordinary model that the Finance Task Force has put in place to help us evaluate some of the options that you see in this graphic for not only possibly reducing costs, but also to look at additional revenue. So let's see. So I guess the important message here is by 2023, we can't wait until 2023 to actually begin to look for possibly looking for additional revenue sources while during this time, also looking at how to make our processes much more efficient than they are, both from a PC perspective and from the 911 office perspective. So I think. People like me too. So might do a next step. I'll go ahead and do that. So Leadership Group meets on the ninth to hopefully approve these recommendations. And as we said, we would be transmitting the strategic plan to the council at the beginning of the year. This has been a very intense process. I think what it has done is given us a really good working relationship going forward to address some still very challenging and difficult questions. But we have a good platform in place with the process that we've we've come through in the last year. So happy to answer any questions for the council. Thanks, everybody. I want to just say something real quick and then call for questions on the technology determination, which was the subject of the last, as I forget what you called the leadership group meeting. I think that what I want the council to be aware of is that there were two main structural options. There was what they call the single platform, which is what you saw here today. And then there was what was called the distributed platform, which is more similar to how we operate now, as Cathy described, with the equipment being sitting at all the peace gaps, all 12 of them. And there was quite a bit of discussion at every level of decision making about which one to choose. There was always a majority, in my recollection, in favor of the single platform option, but there was some significant discussion about the benefits of the distributed model as well as as, you know, just as a high level summary, which is about all I can muster on this technology question. The distributed option, well, both met all of the criteria that was set out for decision. Both options did. So it wasn't like one of them was excluded based on not meeting criteria. But the single platform exceeded the criteria in several significant respects, especially around security, in ways that the distributed didn't. But it does cost a little bit more money. So when this all comes to us, we're going to have to be aware of that and understand why it is that this body ultimately unanimously and strongly recommended the single platform, even though it projects out to be a little bit more expensive than the other option as of the costing we have today. I just wanted to make sure that that seems to me to be the big question that electeds are going to have to answer to and that we should be aware of the questions. But but we're here to talk about governance and finance. So any questions about that? I, I have to I'll just keep going. It's my meeting on the finance side, which is right up, which is up for us now. What's causing that drop off? Can something have a few bars about why we see this happening? Getting. Time to say my name again. No, you're good. This one's for the record. Okay. So this is the excise tax. It's collected on cell phones, landlines, voice over IP, and it's not keeping up with market trends. So as people shift to cell phones, the the taxes coming in from landlines has precipitously dropped as people move to cell phones rather than than landlines. So that's a big, big reason. So the revenues actually, this is a strikes me as the gap. It's the gap between revenues and cost. The drivers, really, the revenues are going down, not the costs are going up. Or is it a little bit of both? It's a little bit of both. And do you want to take some of this? We couldn't we couldn't let Tom come and not actually say anything. So welcome. Please introduce yourself. Hi. For the record, Tom County, deputy director of the Department of Executive Services. And I would say the characterization of the revenues are flat. So we've seen a stagnation of the revenue source and we have seen increasing expenditures. This is not an unfamiliar situation for the Council as the same sort of namcc happens in the County General Fund. Okay. Thank you for that. Sure. Second question on the governance. When we decide on a new governance model and then implemented by agreement with all the parties at that point, does the governance new model take effect for all purposes? Like we're going to continue to run the current system for a while while we're implementing the new system, but the new governance model will take effect right away and then be the governance. Yes, that's correct. The governing the IRG, the ordinance that established the IAG stipulated that it would remain in effect until an ordinance removed it or until it was removed terminated by ordinance. So the new ordinance will effectively establish the governing body and. Supersede the old. Exactly. Got it. Okay, that's helpful. Any other comments for Councilmember Lambert? Just wanted to. Remind people that on the November 9th meeting, two of us had to be in. Multiple places at that time. So it is the launching of the district court. After numerous years that their computer system. So, you know, if you want to plan your agenda so that you know, that that be helpful. We may both call in from the east side that day, but. Well, we'll work out those details closer to the day. All right. Well, thank you all very much for not only taking the time to be here today and update us, but also just the tremendous amount of work and the good thinking that you've all put into moving this forward. This is one of the most critical things we do as a region. And and it's it seems to be in good hands and on a good path. So appreciate your work. Thank you. All right. So that brings us to the end of today's agenda. But before we adjourn, I want to invite my colleagues and anybody upstairs who's listening on their squawk boxes to stick around or come on down for a brief cinematic celebration of Carolyn Bush, our departing chief of staff. In the midst. Of the business. Thank you. Yep. Now we're on it. Staff person? No. Okay. Other than that, is there anything else for the good of the order? All right. See, now, in the next meeting of this committee will be November 1st, when we anticipate discussing the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account, the results of the Solid Waste Division's Waste to energy study, and the county's lean efforts. And with that, we are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE approving an agreement to transfer land between King County and the city of Algona and authorizing the King County executive to sign and implement the agreement.
king_a6cdf129-5d3f-488c-ae97-3b2faf70f835	Council member Joe McDermott calling to order the council's committee of the whole for Monday, April 15th. Madam Cook, would you please call the roll? Councilmember double duty councilmember Dan BOUSCAREN. Councilmember Dunn here. Councilmember Gossett here. Councilmember both here. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember of the vote. Here. Councilmember run right here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you do have a quorum. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is public comment. We have one person who signed in for public comment. Our standard procedure is apply on the. Mr. Zimmerman, you're up. Zakaria my dirty. If you're not a social democratic progressive, give stop updates about my name. I like Zimmerman, and I want to speak about something about this very interesting action agenda number seven, a very good agenda. Number seven is about translation, guys. I speak a few languages he's been our language is a little bit confused me you know what I mean. And I don't talking about. The $40 per hour for government translator it's okay. Maybe good, maybe bad, but what is? I want to speak about this make me absolutely sick. I don't understand why we have two official languages in America. In exactly the state of Washington. In this coast? Yes, English. In Spanish. I'm totally confused why Spanish language code more privilege is in German. I speak German. Hebrew. I speak English to Russian, for example. You understand about talking? I try understand of course is free can create in the idiot who make second language for the last story or what is I see in all civilized country we have one government language. Is it you speak Spanish good. You speak. German good. You speak Chinese? Super. Why? Every time what this I pick up a telephone I somebody talk to me Spanish. I do not speak Spanish. See it on also. For Spanish people speak Spanish ever publicly. I don't understand it. I don't speak Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. I don't speak. Spanish. Why you did this? Why Democrat this democratic mafia did this trick? So right now I speak to everybody. Vignette cleanses dirty. Chamber from Nazi social democratic mafia. Thank you very much. We're a country of immigrants. Councilmember Garcia, that concludes public testimony today. Unless there's anyone else who hadn't signed up. See you soon. No one will close the public testimony. And I call on Councilmember Caldwell's to approve the motion to approve the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I moved to approve the minutes of March 18. Council Councilmember Caldwell's has moved approval of the March 18th minute scene. No discussion. All those in favor. Please say I oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That takes us to items five and six on today's agenda. We'll take those up in order and ask Ms.. Crocus Zoghbi to join us. The first motion is confirming the appointment of Natasha Rivers to the King County Cultural Development Authority, or for Culture Board today. This is the first of two appointments to the For Culture Board that provides cultural development activities within King County. Natasha Rivers, who was appointed by the executive Constantine is the first of the two and I'd ask Lia to make any additional comments I have already stolen, and then we'll ask Ms. Rivers to join us. Thank you. Councilmembers Lia crackles Oppie Council Staff Yes. So just a little background about the board. Culture board for Culture is King County's cultural development authority. It was developed or created in 2002 to administer King County's arts and heritage programs, and it is governed by a 15 member board of directors. And directors are to have a demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of cultural resources, be active and experienced in community and civic issues and concerns, and have the ability to evaluate the needs of cultural constituencies in the region. As a whole, directors are to represent a range of talents, experience, background and viewpoints related to cultural development. And directors must be residents of King County in order to be chosen to reflect the geographic and cultural diversity of the county. Last year, the Council made changes to the For Culture Board appointment process, which state that nine of the 15 positions are now directly appointed by county council members. All appointments must be confirmed by the Council. By Motion Board members serve four terms of three years and may serve up to two consecutive full terms. And today the first appointment in front of you is the For Culture Board board appointee Natasha Rivers, who lives in Renton in Council District five and was appointed by executive Constantine. Miss Rivers is a demographer for the Seattle Public Schools and is an adjunct professor, instructing it on human geography, immigrant America, population, geography and race and ethnicity in the American city. She is also a board member of. For Seattle Children's Theater and other civic organizations. Ms.. Rivers appointment appears to be consistent with the requirements of County Code and the for Culture Charter and bylaws. And she is here with us today. Thank you, Mr. Words, if you join us at the table. Yeah. Good afternoon and welcome. Thank you. I I'd give you an opportunity to just offer a few introductory comments before I ask colleagues if we have any questions for you. Yeah, I think she covered a lot of it. So I work for this yellow school district for about five years and serve on several community boards in the arts and also, you know, Urban League for Metropolitan Seattle Team Child. And I write fiction. I have a lot of interests. But essentially, I think I was invited to be on this board because of my interest with the arts, the demographic changes in the city. My efforts in terms of equity and inclusion in the workplace and also on community boards. So it sounds like a very apropos background for for culture in the work the agency is doing. Thank you. Councilmember Garcia, do you have a question? Yeah. Yes. I'd like to just mention a little something about demography. We we have been cited really well here at the county by demographers. And we have, I think, about four or five on staff. And something that's of interest to me is trying to find out why the county does not dis aggregate Africans from East or West Africa from African Americans. We have a demographic I don't know if it's a policy or not to put them all together. So my only question to you is, is it relatively easy to aggregate something like that out of people of African descent, but distinctly culturally, historically different? So that's a good question. And my dissertation was actually a little bit on. That. African identity, African-American African identity, and looking at migration trends of recent African immigrants and how many integrate. But for the school district, the way we distinguish that is usually home language because we have a lot of programs that are targeted towards African born versus African-American students, but they're still grouped into an African American category. And I think that to do with race and funding and things like that, yeah, I thought that there was something going on at the city level where they were trying to desegregate that data. But as far as school district, we just sort of point out languages and resources that need to go to those communities. And how do you see those skills? Because I, I, I mean, I'm excited about the fact someone with your background has that. When you say you're you are interested in art, is it from the writing perspective or the research perspective or both? It's all really. So for the college business theater, it's in terms of performance art and who has access to those shows. But I'm also interested in local artists getting the opportunity to have their art shown or just understanding, like for the access for all. When that comes maybe back up in terms of, you know, funding and outreach and who's involved and which arts organizations receive funding. I just want to be a part of that discussion. So that sort of drove my interest. Thank you. Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.. That's fantastic. I was actually in an event last night that shakes with a bilingual Shakespeare presentation, and it was maybe more engaging than Shakespeare. An English Council member of the Guild, Councilmember Dejean. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Oh, jokers. Thank you, Dr. Rivers, for being with us. Can you just speak a little bit about you do have such an eclectic background in terms of social you know, social sciences and then arts together. Talk a little bit about, from your perspective, how you see the importance of the arts in terms of achieving maybe some of the greater outcomes that we'd like to see with things that we may normally think about as human services or education or outcomes. How do arts and culture play into helping to achieve success, if you will, broadly defined in your view? Okay, that's a good question. So I grew up in Seattle before it became kind of a popular city. So inner city Seattle went to Seattle public schools and low income. And I think exposure to the arts specifically, specifically at the Seattle Children's Theater was really eye opening for me. I think it created a space of inclusion, just that all the kids of that. Room. We're experiencing the same show. Because I do think there's sort of like a set of standard things you see on TV and you read about there's like a standard set of beauty and what's politically correct, what's incorrect. But I think something about just raw being on stage, having that shared experience and the light goes down sort of exposed me to a different area of interest that I think once everyone has sort of equal access to that sort of lived experience and exposure to the arts, it does sort of open up your imagination and what you think you can do and how you relate to someone else if you're all laughing at the same thing or seeing the same show. So I think for me, definitely, I mean, obviously now I serve on the College of the Theater board. So it had an impact on me when I was going through K through 12. Thank you for sharing your personal experience. I think that a number of us have had that connection in different ways. For me, I was in theater as well, but for me it was with my son who has a series of developmental disabilities and challenges and watching him engage in theater with other kids and just be part of the experience the same as every other kid there, despite the fact that in some situations that's not possible or doesn't happen anyway. So I appreciate that. Thank you for sharing that experience. You're welcome. Councilmember up the grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just waiting for the right time to make a motion. Motion is in order. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd move the proposed motion to 19 0057 be approved. Thank you, Councilmember. Approve has moved adoption of that. We give it do pass recommendation of motion 2000 1957 for the remarks Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Rivers. I have to say right away that I am totally taken with you for many reasons, but one of which is that your ideas from UCLA were miners too. And so we're both Bruins. But seriously, so you have. Just like Councilmember Bell did, she said a really strong and eclectic background. I really appreciate that you are serving on a board right now at the Seattle Children's Theater. And I see you also received board leadership training with Arts Fund. Yeah. Have you had any direct involvement with Fort culture in other ways? And not until so. I guess over the last couple of years I've been getting more involved with them. I think over this last year for the board members that I, I mean, board meetings that I could attend and I have attended had a one on one with Brian, who's the new executive director. He and I both went through the Leadership Tomorrow program, different years, but basically the same training. So I feel like it's what the delay in the appointment. I still been able to have an active role and learn what they've done over the last two years. So it's been in that way. But yeah. Well, thank you for applying. And I think it's a really strong appointment by the executive council member. Got it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had one quick question of our staff. When you were mentioning about the terms of the board, you said that board members can have two consecutive three year terms for a total of six. My question to you is, does that hold the same for the three ex-officio members from the county council who are on the board? No. So the ex-officio board members serve one year terms and you can serve one one year terms and you can serve three consecutive one year terms. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know Dr. Rivers mentioned her professional work has been in Seattle. She is a resident of South King County in District five. And I had the chance to sit down and we had had coffee together. And I'm interested in people's backgrounds, but I'm also always interested in boards like this and people's personal attributes. And I found Dr. Rivers and Natasha, if I can use first names to be someone who's just very accessible is the word I thought of later, someone who's thoughtful. He's obviously a very positive and kind person. And I think with agencies like that that interact with a lot of organizations and a lot of individuals, people in those leadership roles, I think need to have those kinds of attributes to connect with the community. And I think that's going to be a huge, huge asset also. We talked a lot about issues related to equity around the changing demographics in the county, around how do you ensure that everyone is served by the agency? And it's obviously a topic that's near and dear her heart and and she's given a lot of thought to professionally and personally. And so I'm excited about her appointment. Thank you. Say no further remarks. I might ask the clerk to call the role. Just about there. To Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Cowell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember article. Councilmember phone. Right where? Hi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Jerry Rogers. Nine eyes and no nose. Thank you. By your vote, Musburger's appointment will be taken up at the April 24th full council meeting with the due pass recommendation. And I would suggest we put this on consent. Yeah, it will be on the consent agenda. You're welcome to come if you wish. But you're not expected or required to in any, any way, shape or form. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks for your time. Mm hmm. And that takes us to our second motion with a for culture appointment today. Motion 2019 103. This is King Chasm, who I'm nominating for appointment to the board. And I'll turn it over to Ms.. Krakow's up for introductory remarks. He can up. Thank you. Mr. Cosby is making his way up here as well. So for culture board appointee King Casillas in Seattle in Council District two and was appointed by Councilmember Jo McDermott. Mr. Kazem is an artist, designer, producer, M.C. and educator. He is the founder of two of six Universal, a Seattle hip hop organization. He's also the rental manager for the historic Washington Hall Community Space and the founder and director of Record Label and a multimedia company and a media producer for hip hop one on one TV and Zulu Radio. Additionally, he has received state and national awards for historic preservation. Mr. Gotham's appointment appears to be consistent with the requirements of County Code, the for Culture Charter and bylaws. Good afternoon, Carson. Thank you for joining us today. I really enjoyed our visit to Washington Hall and thank you for showing me around and having me out. I'd love for you to just give us some introductory comments and in particular maybe talk about your various work. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I've been following for culture for many years and very privileged to serve in my capacity of, you know, been an immersed in the community within the arts range, modest disciplines. And I've always been kind of rooted in activism and serving community. And I have many hats being heard. I'm currently spending a lot of time at the Washington Hall, which is 110 year old building, is the historic hub for many communities of particularly the African-American. Me first documented jazz performances and many, many greats have called Washington our home and along with our culture, as well as a historic Seattle who helped to get the acquisition and restore the space which was in perilous conditions. And we've our organization to say Zulu is one of the groups that have been the part of that preservation in the last ten years. And now we're able to continue to provide affordable and equitable spaces for many communities. Thank you. And if you might also comment on. The work you've done with foreign culture. I think you were telling me before the meeting started, you've attended the last board meeting or two. Yes. I've been loosely, you know, working in collaboration with Ford culture and especially in terms of, you know, restoration with us. Washington Hall recently had been able to sit on board meetings and kind of get a better pulse on some of the things that are on the agenda in terms of programs and and funding and kind of the kind of the electrical components of the on the board level. Other than that, of participated in review panels different trainings and and put together as a funding of due to us exhibiting has been a very valuable asset to our community. Great. Thank you. Other questions? Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. Mr.. Yeah. For Culture put together a tribute to me when I accepted recognition on behalf of all of us for putting $1,000,000 as part of building for Culture Grant three years ago. And the overwhelming majority of that money went to really create African, Latino, native, progressive, but very small white cultural organizations that ordinarily have not been able to access our culture. And they were very excited about having that opportunity. And I was really happy that councilmember about Do Jan DEMBOSKY also were able to join me at that event. So the three or four groups that's running Washington Hall now are really making sure a broad number of organizations and people or any groups that have an access to that facility for media rooms, for cultural or just political or just educational shows that they want to do. So it's really nice. I want to have the opportunity to say that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you. And I wanted to say that I really enjoyed the four culture performances at Washington Hall, but what I think I enjoyed more was watching our colleague, Councilmember Gossett appreciation of them. And we talked a lot about the impacts of art and culture on the viewer and the participant and the person experiencing it. And I took a picture of Councilmember Garcia, and I was talking about the beaming pride and appreciation for their really incredible performances in government buildings. You and I both enjoyed them a great deal, but they were eye opening. They were different, they were community based. I mean, I'd say different, different than, say, going downtown to an established, you know, theater that might be more traditional. But I could see in Councilmember Gossett the pride, frankly, decades of work that he has put in work in the community, being brought to the fore and put on stage for everybody to enjoy. And that was the highlight of that night for me, was seeing Councilmember Gossett. But there's one more piece to the story I'd like to tell, and that is a few years ago here, Councilmember Gossett led in an effort when there were some additional capital dollars in the for culture bucket, if you will, to help finish off the restoration of Washington hall when we reprogram that money. And it was a little different than what the initial proposal was. But Councilmember Gossett took the lead, knowing the historic importance of Washington Hall, knowing that it needed to be repaired so it could continue to provide the performances that we all got to enjoy that night . And I think that historic Seattle and the other associated organizations were would not have had at least the success on the timely basis that they had to get the facility completed without Councilmember Garcia's leadership. And I didn't want today to go by without recognizing our colleague for his work on that. Thank you, Ms.. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Bell Dutchie. So I'm just going to join the line of people who are expressing appreciation for the place that Washington Hall is taking in our regional arts and culture ecosystem. I represent District six, which is the East Side and the relationship between you Theater Northwest, which is one of our major arts groups and Washington Hall has been wonderful. You've hosted their their fundraisers every year and recently the production of Ragtime, which was a collaboration with, I forget the name of the organization in Seattle and the one on a theater in Northwest on Mercer Island, which was a real, I thought, a great dialog and presentation on sort of race and class. And all through the lens of this turn of the last century, sort of setting of the play. Anyway, you're doing an amazing job bringing the region together there. And so I just wanted to say thank you and thank you for taking time out of what is obviously a rather busy schedule with all the things you've got going on to give your expertize to for Kultura, we're really going to benefit from it. I appreciate your time. A pleasure. Thank you. Any other praise of Kazim or Washington all seeing then? I'd ask Councilmember Wells if she'd make the motion. Thank you. Mr. Chair. I make I move that proposed motion 2019 0103 to confirm the appointment of Mr. Johnson to our culture board. Councilmember Cole Wells has moved the appointment of King Kazim to the Foreign Culture Board. See no further discussion. Madam Critic, would you please call the role. Councilmember Bonaduce, back. To Councilmember Dombroski? Councilmember Dunn Councilmember Gossett. High Council member Colon I, Council member Lambert. I just want to bring up the grill. Councilmember Brown. Right. Mauer. Hi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. Vote is no eyes, no no's. Thank you. We've given a do pass recommendation to Motion 2019 103. We will send that to full council on April 24th and put that on the consent agenda as well. Thank you very much, Kazim. Look forward to your service on the board and thank you for joining us today. Thank you. You bet. And that takes us to item seven on today's agenda. On February 26, 2018, the Council adopted Ordinance 18665, which required the executive to develop language assistance plans for every county agency and office and submit them to the Council by September of 2018. The purpose of the Language Assistance Plan is to provide a framework for the provision of timely and reasonable language assistance to those with limited English proficiency. Today's motion would accept the language assistance plans transmitted by the Council. We have Tilbury Williams here from our central staff to brief us on the motion, and it's my intention to be briefed on the transmittal today with consideration of amendments and a vote accepting the plans of the future committee. And with that. Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tillery Williams Counsel, Central Staff. The documents for this item begin on page 19 of your packet. Proposed Motion 2018 0561 would accept language assistance plans as required by ordinance 18665. I'd like to start off by providing a little bit of background information before going into a brief analysis. Ordinance 18665 States Kane County agencies and offices shall develop language assistance plans that identify which of its vital documents and public communication materials need to be translated into languages for use by limited English proficient persons. On the 20 665 also requires that all language access plans developed by Kane County agencies and offices include identification of agency or office plans for providing translations of web pages, automated telephone greetings, automated telephone voice messages and informational signage for translation requirements. The ordinance establishes the requirement that the executive develop language assistance plans for every agency and office by September 2018. The purpose of a language assistance plan is to provide a framework for the provision of timely and reasonable language assistance to those with limited English proficiency. The threshold for the translation of vital documents and public communication materials shall be based on the top six languages identified by the tier map of limited English proficient persons maintained by the Office of Equity and Social Justice in the County. Demographer. The top six languages in Kane County as identified by the tier map. Which was updated in 2018, are Spanish, which is the most prevalent of the non-English languages spoken in King County Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, Somali and Ukrainian. If I can direct your attention to page 22, I will start my analysis and just go through and hit on some key points. So page 22 of your packet presents a tally of the language assistance plans that have and have not been transmitted by the executive to date. Today, staff will will be providing an initial overview of of those plans that have been submitted. If you look at that table there, you can see that four agencies did not submit plans and those agencies are the sheriff. The Department of Executive Services. The Department of Judicial Administration and the Department of Local Services. There are also two more agencies that submitted plans that are not a part of this motion. The legislative branch is ready for approval, but is not a part of this motion as well as Metro's plan. Council staff has reached out to those elected offices and departments who have not yet submitted language assistance plans. And in response, these are the answers received from those four agencies. King County Sheriff Office stated that it was unaware of the requirement to present a plan and will be preparing a meaningful response to council by May 15th. The Department of Executive Services stated that it began working on its language access plan in the fall of 2018. However, with the effort needed to integrate the fleet and airport divisions into the department by January 1st, 2019, as well as the inclusive emergency communications work undertaken by the Office of Emergency Management. The department was unable to conclude its plan by the deadline. The department expects to have its language assistance plan completed by September 1st, 2019, according to staff from the Department of Local Services. The reason the department did not submit a plan was due to it recently recently becoming a department effective January 1st of this year. Prior to the Department of Local Services, the road services division was a part of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Permitting and Environmental Review was a standalone department. Both of these entities now make up the Department of Local Services, while the Department of Local Services did not submit a plan, both roads and permitting did submit plans as part of their previous departments. Lastly, the Department of Judicial Administrator's Association stated that it did not submit a plan to the executive as requested. However, it was not transmitted. Council could choose to amend the motion to attach to the Department of Judicial Administration's plans as well. Moving on to page 23 of your package. The following background definitions are laid out in a cover page created by the executive that accompanies each of the submitted plans. Public communication materials are materials that are intended for broad distribution to inform or educate people served by King County for the purpose of translation. Public communication materials refers only to printed media such as brochures, posters, booklets, pamphlets, billboards and advertisements and printed publications. Vital documents are materials that provide essential information for accessing basic county services and benefits and for which serious consequences would result if the information were not provided. Examples of vital documents include emergency messages and alerts, application forms, consent forms, complaint forms, notices of eligibility criteria, write, denial, loss or decreases in benefits or services. Notices of availability of free language assistance and summary explanations of the Department's direct services. Translation means the conversion of written communication from one language to another in a written format. These materials could include multi-lingual signage, vital documents, web pages, written outreach materials, and educational, educational and information materials. Interpretation is the oral conversion of communication of a small spoken message from one language to another. This could include community meetings and sessions, one on one constituent meetings, an appointment language line, Vonage or other live interpreter services. These definitions, as presented in the executive cover page, are consistent with the definition for those same terms as defined in ordinance 18665. Due to the high volume of plans being analyzed, as well as the ongoing gathering of additional information from the executive staff. Staff analysis is ongoing. However, staff believe they will be beneficial to this committee to touch on some of the key highlights of those plans that have been submitted. I will touch on some of the more public facing agencies, if that's okay for today. Please. On page 25, you have attachment aid for the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. DioGuardi submitted a work plan which for 2019 its goals include determining priority materials that require translation for Spanish and all other languages, as well as determining which county resources are available to aid the department with the translation of high priority web content. The Department also plans to explore email social media opportunities to better serve its priority populations for 2020. The GDS goals include migrating as much of its printed materials as possible into a new jail management system. Once it is up and running. Other goals include creating complaint forms, tracking quality service measures, implementing web based information and online materials, and planning and implementing a quality assessment evaluation mechanism for staff interpreters. The Total Department Budget for Language Access DAG. The JD stated in its plan that none of its budget is specifically allocated for providing language access services at this time. Council staff is requesting more information. Therefore, this staff analysis is ongoing. Moving on to Attachment B, Department of Community and Human Services. Their work plan starts on page 26. For 2019, DHS plans to translate many of its vital documents, such as notices of eligibility criteria, rights, denial and loss of lots of decreases in benefits or services across the spectrum of priority language. In 2020, DHS will continue to translate vital documents while working to improve collaboration and language related tools and resources for employees to provide more services to those who are limited. English speaking. Moving on to page 29, Attachment C, Department of Public Defense for its work plan, for its print material and vital to the public defense identify developing policies, service levels and tracking methods to guide its early years service provision, as well as identifying and developing client information and resource materials as top priority for its Spanish speaking population. For all other languages, the department plans to translate documents based on client needs for its website, for its website, emails and social media content. Public defense plans to develop policies, service levels, and tracking methods to guide its early years service population. Another goal, as stated by the Department, is to review and update its website as required for its in-person interpretation services. Public defense plans to develop early years service levels and tracking methods and encourage employees who have direct client contact to better utilize phone interpretation services to assist with its earlier service provision in 2020. The Department plans to continue the work I just mentioned. Total Department budget. According to public defense, the department did not allocate any of its budget specifically for language access service provision, but it does use operational funds as required to provide services. And I will say for most of the plans that were submitted, that's a recurring theme. Many of these agencies don't have specific budgets allocated for language assistance service provision, but they do provide ad hoc services as needed. Mr. Williams, I was going to ask, do you have, as you note, that the various departments are identifying costs? Is the executive branch, are we yet looking at how to cover those costs, building those into a budget? I am constantly in contact with the executive on this issue and then staff will get that information and will provide it at a later date. But that is something that we have been in contact with the executive to to inquire about and get more information on for a number of these agencies. Very good. Thank you. Because given the value of the work, we want to make sure that it's undertaken and done to expeditiously. Thank you. Moving along on page 35 is the 2019 2020 planning for elections and 2019 elections plans to use 2019 to work towards its 2020 goals of translating all social media posts with key information such as deadlines and translating its entire website in 2020 elections. Plans to carry on the work it has been doing for years to serve the citizens of Kane County for its budget. The department's plan was at the time that departments and was submitted, elections had allocated $500,000 for translation, $430,000 for end language outreach. And half of this was received from Seattle Foundation and $30,000 on ethnic media air buys. Moving on to page 43, there's attachment M from the Department of Human Resources. And for purposes of a Plan D, I didn't really put much in its plan. I'm going to read this verbatim from the actual document that they submitted. The Department of Human Resources stated. H.R. management team has reviewed the Ordinance and Language Access Plan template and we do not have any vital documents or public communication documents to be included in the language access plan that the county executive will submit to council. Council staff did ask whether the department had considered the language access needs of individuals seeking employment with the county as well as of current employees and DHHS staff. Responded responded by stating that we do provide translation services upon request and some of our recruiting tools are in multiple languages. We have been working through a more proactive approach and a redevelopment of our website. Based on this response, staff is requesting more information to better understand each other's reasoning behind the information the department provided. Therefore, this analysis is ongoing as well, and I want to touch on a couple of more. Metro Transit is a big one, and we're still analyzing that plan. And then, of course, the legislative branches, language access and the Let the Legislative Branches Language Access Plan was developed by the Council Chairs, Office Council Chief of Staff and the Legislative Branch Equity and Social Justice team for its work plan. The goal for 2019 is to pilot the legislative branch as language access work through several high profile issues for communities that do not speak English or are limited English proficient. Through these pilots, staff intends to track best practices for the constituents the legislative branch serves and begin developing policies that will be responsive to their needs, as well as understanding in real time what documents should be accessible and in which languages. This pilot project will carry on through 2020. For budget that's allocated the legislative branch after completion of its plan. Pilots through 2020 will determine the appropriate budget to allocate to achieve its language access goals. The department's head has already committed to funding the interpretation and translation needs of each of its planned pilots in 2019 and 2020. And now I'm going to move on to next steps. As noted in the staff report, several agencies are still working on submitting plans consistent 49. As noted in a staff report, several agencies are still working on submitting plans consistent with the ordinance. In addition, council staff analysis is still ongoing in a number of areas as council staff completes its remaining analysis. Each analyst will also be asked to review the language assistant plan for each agency they staff to provide a richer understanding of each agency's language access service provision. The committee may wish to hold on further, further consideration until after King County Sheriff's Office submits its plan, which is currently scheduled for mid-May to June, or after the Department of Executive Services has completed their plan, which is currently scheduled for September. Whenever the item comes back for committee approval, it will need an amendment to provide a full list of approved plans and correct drafting drafting errors in the motion. With that, that marks the end of my presentation and I would be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the last group for which you with quality the sheriff's office. What was the last group? What it was that the sheriff's office. That in the last plan that was in it? Yeah, that was. The legislative branch. We said that we won't have it ready out the D. S a no no. So there. The point I was talking about. There are two plans right now that are outstanding. One of them is the sheriff's office. That's one of them. And that one is scheduled to be completed based on sheriff's office information mid-May to the beginning of June. I know, but then I thought you said somebody is going to have there's already executive services. Yeah. In September. And the sheriff may wait that long. So the agencies get to make their own minds up as to when it is. They'll respond to this. That the ordinance required for those plans to be submitted in September of 2018 when staff reached out to those agencies who did not submit. We ask for council staff, ask for clarification as to why they didn't and if they didn't submit what they be submitting one in the future. So that came out of the questions asked. When you followed up with the ones that hadn't. Yes, I meant that they said that they would take that long. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to get a clarification on that at this point. Right. And that's why we are getting a briefing today, but not taking it up. We'll be waiting to bring it up before a full, full committee again when we have the outstanding reports. Oh, we're going to wait that out of agencies. Yes, I'll get the reports and. Right now, not taking some. Date on it. Okay. For the discussion. Thank you very much for your presentation. And as I noted during during the presentation input on how what action the executive branch may be taking in funding the language translation services would be valuable to us and the ongoing work you're doing for the plans we have received in the analysis you'll do on the plans that are yet to be received. We look forward to all of that. Thank you. Thank you. With. We have nothing else to come before the committee of the hall and we are adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Natasha Rivers, who resides in council district five, to the King County cultural development authority (4Culture) board, as an executive at-large representative.
king_801af365-457a-4d91-aa16-d5a348fdcc91	Good afternoon. I'm King County Council member Joe Mcdermitt. I'm calling a meeting of the committee of the whole to order for Monday, June 17th. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, did you hear Councilmember Dombrowski? Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Cole Wells. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Sure. Mr. Chair. You have a quorum. Have a quorum. And I know that other members are on the way down. Just a moment. Councilmember Caldwell's, would you move adoption of the minutes? Yes, Mr. Chair, I move adoption of the minutes of our June 3rd, 2019 meeting. The minutes the item you're all here for are before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor. Please say I oppose any. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That takes us to item four on today's agenda. Public comment. We're going to divide public comment today into two sections because we have two items on today's agenda. So first, we're going to take public comment on the first item, which is ordinance 2019 to 28. And then once we're done with our work on that item, then we'll take public comment on the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Act motion 2019 245. So I have to sign up sheets separated by issue. And anyone looking to address the committee on the proposed Valentine Hospital District will be the first set of people I will call up to testify. And the purpose of this hearing, I should point out, is to allow residents of the proposed hospital district to object to the proposed boundaries of the hospital district. This is a requirement under state law. And like all of our public testimony, public testimony here in chambers should not be used to advocate for or against a ballot proposition itself. So we would particularly be aiming to hear testimony about the boundaries, which is the key action before us. In addition to not assisting a campaign for election of any person in the office or the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition, we do ask you testimony not include obscene speech. And if you fail to abide by these restrictions, I may rule you out of order and may conclude your testimony. With that, I have five people signed in to testify. Eric Prine When I call you name, if you just approach either one of the two podiums, you'll have a count that you'll have accounted for 2 minutes. Eric Prine Followed by any mic which Ted Gamal and Jane Slade will be the first four people. Good afternoon, Eric, and good afternoon, council members. My name is Eric, trying to remember some of you for my days with the Seattle Times. It's good to see you again. This ordinance would allow Fashion Island voters to decide in November whether to create a public hospital district on the island. And I'm here to speak today in favor of the ordinance as written. First, you need to know the term public hospital district is really a misnomer here. No one's talking about building a hospital on Bayside. What we're talking about is establishing a taxing district to raise money, to subsidize the very basic level of health care that's now available on the island. It's vital to our nation, and it's very much at risk. We don't have a hospital on vacation or an emergency room or an urgent care center. We don't have any medical specialists. We've got to take a ferry for all that. But we do have primary care. And when I moved away on six years ago, I knew there was a CSI Franciscan clinic on the island that took the private insurance I had at that time and that I knew would accept Medicare when I qualified. Then in 2016, the Franciscans announced they were closing the clinic. They said they were losing $450,000 a year. This was a big deal. And Bash on the island reached out to other regional provider networks, including UW Medicine and Swedish. They said they'd come only if we assured them of ongoing six figure subsidies from stable financial sources. No bake sales, no car washes. Finally, neighbor care health, which runs on a different business model, agreed to reopen the clinic and the island, quickly raised some money for them for it to help with start up and transitional costs. Then last fall, neighbor care announced that they too were losing money more than $350,000 a year. Their CEO, CEO told me last November that neighbor care would hang on at least through the end of 2019 to see if Vachon could do something to make health care on the islands sustainable. Which brings us before you today. Please approve this ordinance as written and give Vachon the opportunity to vote in November of November and hopefully assume some control of our health care future. Thank you. Thank you. Annie. Good afternoon. Hi, I'm Annie Mix. And if we don't. Have and if you'll just bring the mic down a little bit or get delivered to you. There you. Go. There we are. Anyway, if we do not have health care and get public hospital district on the island, we'll have no on island medical care available to all islanders. While we have two naturopathic clinics, the largest of the two does not accept traditional Medicare, which covers 69% of all Medicare. Washington residents. And on an island that is composed of 25% of us being over age 65, that's important. The second naturopathic clinic does not have any. It does not accept any insurance. So hence they just can't handle the medical needs of the island without health care on the island. Our demographics may change dramatically. You cannot listen to any of the news media without hearing another story of a rural health care rural area that has lost health care and that area is in decline. The at risk populations, the medically fragile seniors, young families with infants and school aged children, and the working poor, those who rely on minimum wage may need to move off the island. The working poor can't afford to take four or 5 hours off of work to catch a ferry to go get medical care. Young families can't leave school children while they are taking an infant on the ferry to medical care. And seniors need care. Where we live, our island, which is considered a Rocca rural, urban commuting area, could morph into a bedroom community with a few vacation homes. What makes fashion special to me is not the location, the beautiful sound views. It's the people. Thank you. Thank you. Tag council member. Good to see you. My name is Tagg Cornell. I'm a 30 some year resident. Invention makes you a newcomer on the island, right? I'm a newcomer. I don't even fit into the category. While the previous speaker explained to you what may happen to our island community without health care, I would like to explain a little bit about what a public hospital district could do for our island. Having locally elected commissioners select providers that meet the needs of the island creates a true partnership between the community and the health care clinic version, as many of you may know, is unique in many ways. Mayor Shine has declared a medical urban area. Even though we have a Puget Sound moat that surrounds us, we have 9635 people, residents of our sun and 37 square miles of land. And we really feel and act rural that China is the largest population over the age of 65 and all King County communities. On the last census, our median age was 53.5 years, with 25% of the island being older than 65. Our previous clinics have been urban structures, a rural structure with more same day appointments for late, urgent care and longer hours fits our island much better. The closeness if we swim or fly like a seagull to our medical care in Seattle deems us urban. This urban status negates rural grants and funding, but our rural area with a rural health care clinic is who we are and what we need. With a public hospital district, with public medical funds directed by local commissioners, a clinic tailored to fit our need is possible. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Hi. My name is Jane Radtke Slade. I went to high school on vacation quite a while ago. We had a sweet clinic on the island. A small, locally funded clinic at the time. Health care funding financial situation was much different back then. Since I moved back several years ago with my children. The local clinic has changed hands multiple times. It closed down when I happened to get a diagnosis of breast cancer and went through chemotherapy treatment without the clinic on the island. And now, obviously, the current clinic is in danger as well. So I'd like you to approve the measure. As with the balance as written, public health funding from a hospital district is needed to sustain a local health care presence on abortion, where revenue alone has not financially supported the health care services, supplemental funding is necessary. Communities looking for external heroes have failed. A handful of wealthy donors, large hospitals or regional charities can't or won't cover our costs long term. We've learned that only communities themselves can be successful to sustain what they need with confidence. This vaccine initiative would allow us to take the reins and the responsibility and put the power in the hands of our own community. Creating a Ph.D. is a vote for health care that is vaccine created by based on local responsibility and a partnership through the formation of a hospital district. Is the answer to our nation's health care crisis that, like a chronic condition left untreated, need not be a crisis. Thank you. Thank you. The last person to have signed up in advance on this issue is Alex Zimmerman. Thank you, sir. My dirty Führer. A crook, a low life, a garbage. I don't know who you are, so I won't speak about this island. Maybe it's in what we have right now. It's a good idea for senior citizen. Exactly this. Exactly what are they talking about? This is another problem, another size of this quarter. What? As we call. Is this about money? My question right now, very simple. We have a ton of money, for example, can come pick up $12 billion. Where does this money go? Why? We cannot support people. It's exactly what has happened. And I explain to you why is going look, these people because it's care, it's a parasite. You suck our blood and money from ordinary people and from poor people. Salary jumped hundred thousand, 200,000. 300,000. Is this parasite you say? Money. Salary? Maybe more. Only inflation. No pay anymore. But they suck blood and money from us and they support you. So they elect you fought for and you five here. Exactly my fear. But this I come not to social democratic mafia with this parasite in crook like you who make us life miserable. In thousand people dying right now without paying in pocket. It's important. So why are you sitting here in doing business? Billions and billion dollars so people die and then street when you stop and acting like a mafia, like a ban guitar, like a criminal. Where does this happen in this city? And can country more than 30 year in every day go for slaughter and wars? It's done go better. My seat kept for 25 years. You don't do nothing. So stand up, America. Stand up. Can country stand up? Tito could lose this dirty chamber from this Nazi pig. That includes the people who had signed up in advance for public testimony today on this issue. Is there anyone else you'd like to speak to? The Bastion Hospital District proposal. See, no one will close the public hearing residents of voucher on moyal end of collected signatures and met the required threshold for the Council to send a ballot measure to the residents to create a proposed hospital district. This ballot measure would create the hospital district and grant the new district taxing authority to construct and operate facilities consistent with in state law. There is a striking amendment that fills in the blank dates and replaces the existing boundary description with a much simpler boundary description to be consistent with the one used by the Vatican Parks District. I'll turn it over to Jeff Mamo, Chief Policy Officer, to provide a briefing on this legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Jeff Allen, chief policy officer for the King County Council. So we're going to start on page seven of your CAL packet today and Ordinance 2019 0228. It does two things that it sets the boundaries for the proposed bash on Murray Island Hospital district, and it also sets November 5th, 2019, as a date for a special election. The purpose of the election is twofold. It would put the question of whether to create the proposed district to the voters of votes on Murray Island, and then they would also elect candidates to serve as hospital district commissioners if creating the hospital district is approved by the voters. A little background. The state bar, as you said, Mr. Sharon provides for the formation of the district and once established, the district may purchase or at least land in facilities and provide services, and then may also assess a property tax as a junior property. As a junior taxing district. On April 22nd, 2018, a petition for the formation of a hospital district on Bastion of Murray Islands was filed with the King County Director of Elections. The director certified that sufficient signatures were gathered to put the petition before voters. The petition was submitted according to state law, and the next steps for the Council is to certify that the property description is accurate and then set the election date. This ordinance would accomplish both tasks. There is the striking amendment that you just described, Mr. Chair. Again, it would insert the dates of the advertising at this hearing and then in the variant in the dash on Murray Island Beachcomber according to state law. And then it would also replace that the submitted property tax area I'm sorry, boundary description with a much simpler description that both describe the island in its entirety. That concludes the report. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Are other questions of Mr. Ma'am seen? None in many ways this is a ministerial function to put the measure on the ballot. See, see. No discussion. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I would like to be in favor of this, if that's okay with you. You may. And so the other two to the other three hospital districts are in my district. So I am familiar with having a local hospital district in your area. And I would like to say that one of the things that I appreciate is the hospital district board is really close to my house. And when I want to say something to them, it's easy to find them. And when we have wanted to do pilot projects for health in our community, they have been very helpful because they know it's right in their community. And, you know, so many hospitals are being taken over by a national conglomerate that getting things done like that have been become more difficult. And also, it fits the community norms. I'm always proud. And fortunately, in the last decade, I've spent more time in a hospital than I wanted to with friends and family because some of my friends and family are getting older. But I think that it's it's been very helpful. And I have appreciated the idea that we have this ability so close to home. And then there is also some federal money that goes to rural hospitals. And I don't know whether this would be considered a rural hospital, but it helps with. And so I guess I should ask you, could this qualify? Yes, you could this qualify as a rural hospital, because if so, it does a higher Medicaid reimbursement rate, which I think could be very, very helpful to that hospital. And the other hospital in my district does qualify as a rural hospital under federal allocations. So I am happy to vote. Yes. Thank you. I'll have to get back to you on that. Council member council member of Unchecked Power Matures. This measure formally before us is not. Mr. Chair, with your. Recommendation as prime sponsor, I'd like to add my name as a Bash Island resident. Honor to move Proposed Ordinance 2018 0228 Councilmember Yvonne Reich Power has moved adoption of two 2019 228. Councilmember of own right there. Would you also like to put the striking amendment S-1 before us so move S-1 is before us seen no discussion on S-1 is which has already been addressed by Mr. Mom and others in favor of adopting striking amendments. One Please say I oppose nay. The ayes have it. Further discussion on 2019 to 28 as amended. Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for bringing this forward. I just can't help but note, too, that what a crazy, messed up health care system we have in this country when we have to create tiny, localized taxing districts just in order for people to get access to health care. And I don't know what the solution is, and I think this is a very important positive step. But I think it speaks to the dysfunction. As a whole. And the. Need for reform well beyond our pay grade. Well said. Thank you. Councilmember Van Rector, in concluding. I want to thank you as the prime sponsor of this measure. Those of us who still own property in fact, Shawn and I have acreage at the south end of Tarkwa, which is for sale. Why would what why would one want to leave vacation? It sounds like the taxes are about to go up. But if anybody wishes to. But I think this is going to add to the value of our property. And I commend the chair for doing this. And we can take a voice vote yes or no. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bellucci by Councilmember Dombrowski Council Member Done by Council Member Gazette. Council Member. Cornwall Council Member Lambert. Council Member of the Group. Council Member. Andre I. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is nine eight no nos. Thank you. By by your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to 2019 to 28 as amended, and we will send that to full council on consent if there's no objection. So ordered that tape. That takes us to our second item on today's agenda, and that is the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Act. We will open the public hearing on that item. And because we have 52 people signed up right now to testify on this item, I'm going to ask that we limit testimony to one minute so that after about an hour's worth of testimony, we will then have time to actually take up the item as well and same same rules for public hearing, same procedure. And I will acknowledge now that I'm going to have some trouble with handwriting on the sign up sheet. So I ask your forgiveness, but I believe the first name is Russell Brody, followed by Manic Harmon Corbin, followed by Mariah Mitchell. You go to. Yeah. Pretty. Any one of those three people. If you're within earshot, you can step up to the podium. Don't worry about order. What's the name? Russell Brody. It's Russell Brooks. Monique Harmon Corbin. Followed by Mariah Mitchell. Good afternoon. Hi, Mr. McDermott. Miss Cornwell's rest of the King County Council. My name is Russell Brooks and the executive director for Radical, Soaring Native Youth Theater here in Seattle. Currently funded. Funded underneath the United. Way of King County. I'm also a father of a 13 year old son who's part of the native Ed program here in King County School District. I just want to say how important it is being a father and being connected to so many different people in the community and also being a member of the Seattle urban native nonprofit group up to the age of five is really important and so is post-secondary. But it's a long, narrow bridge between those two for our youth that are K-through-12 and primarily youth of color. And for them it's an even more narrow bridge. So I ask that you allocate at least a third of the funding for the pasta to to k through 12. Thank you. It's vital. Thank you. I will be translating for Maria. When I start this, I mean, is Maria Carmen calling and then go to Centro de la Ciudad to. I'll wait. Then go on. Family daycare care for seniors? Hello. My name is Carmen Corbin and I'm the owner of a childcare center in federal way that I've owned for the last six years. Me Center is bilingual English Espanol and I'll go can we just. Familia was paramount and a lot of cultural years until they leave and eradicate and. In my center is bilingual in English and Spanish which is something that many families seek to can to maintain their cultural ties and sense of identity. And then go to a lawyer that they see it getting those Los Ninos that yes, there'd be a sign you'll see there. And they were China's iZombie linguists a year or two years. I mean, they represent them so so-called to the Mexican. Proud to say that I have two children who very are very proud to represent their Mexican culture. You know, they lost their lost problem also cannot understand the most common probably lot as they to be linguist is get nuestro nivel they do Cassian para los ninos Phenix their leader counseling program. One of the challenges we have as a family child care that is bilingual is that the level of quality we offer needs to meet the same quality as a large center with more resources. And those in the most and in consequence have a wellness. Transport of animals is a. MULLAINATHAN See that is the collider but I can instantaneously so. SAROYAN and neither or relevant the provider does there with over 1 billion on CASA. But I'm on a strong basis. We face the challenge of having to make up the costs of offering that quality and finding ways to make those to provide the needs required to offer quality care. And and not of saying yes, good thing or the trabajo and then going to be well dressed connected achievers. I don't know that. COSTELLO Mucho, I swear. So sacrificial and the proper familia con with those egos buried in all of this fun. That is the collider character at the ambulance center. In my six years, I have managed to reach a level three of the Early Achievers Quality Program, which has taken a lot of hard work and effort, and I'm very proud to be at that quality level. Now, my Lucado there's a lot in there that the normal soul compromiser that get out in law and they get in CASA or C in the central building with one of their trust. But there's one of them, Bernardo, this girl of nine years by a kindergarten leg in the east. Viviendo And those idioms. One of our priority is for the children coming out of family child care is that they can enter kindergarten, being able to read and write in both languages. There's someone they don't know. So I say what I'm going to transfer to cross quizzes and think I'm this is establish that emotional or we'll get a second thought out will you're this 14 E and this that by his billing way Mangan reports are they'll see you on the calendar. We want to make sure that our future council members and judges have the emotional the ability to regulate their emotions, to really excel and all that they do through both cultures. Representative their loss. I look at what is their their family charter is but it's like a very Mozilla voluble advocacy on them but on nepotism someone else came back that most appointments in the reports I'm allowed to estimate the line item brand. Representing family childcare providers here today I want to ask for your support and fund and helping us find the resources and funds to continue to offer bilingual and culturally relevant care for these kids. Good access. Thank you. Thank you. Maria mitchell will be followed by any man, followed by Michael Jackson and Aaron Lovell. Hi. Good afternoon. I'm Amy Yam and I'm here again to testify as a member of the Sound Alliance working in partnership with Shape Washington. I'm a primary care physician that serves a predominantly immigrant and low income population in East King County. And I'm here to request that the council allocate the pasta funds evenly across the continuum with 30% to each group. Our focus is equity in physical education and activity for. K-through-12 students. These funds would go a long way in ensuring that those schools who serve our most vulnerable students will be able to target the delivery of high quality physical education opportunities that our students need and deserve. Schools that have the least access to resources and funding could use these positive funds to invest to improve in these programs. For many, daily P.E at school is not a reality, and we know what the barriers are and we have plans to remove them. With funding for kinesthetic classrooms, action based learning instruction, appropriate facilities and instructional materials. So we ask you, council members, to allocate 30% of the cost of funding towards programs to support our most vulnerable K-through-12 students. Thank you. I'm Erin Lovell and the executive director of legal counsel for Youth and Children. We provide holistic legal advocacy services to about 500 young people in King County annually, ranging in age from toddlers to 24 years. The young people that we serve are involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, immigration and experiencing homelessness. The majority of youth we serve our youth of color who are disproportionately impacted by each of these systems every step of the way. These same youth are far less likely than their peers to graduate from high school, affecting the ability their ability to access employment and housing long into the future. I'm here today based on Elsie Rice's direct experience and engagement with young people at all educational levels, to ask the County Council to stand by the statutory intent to build equity in our educational system, ensuring that the youth most behind remain the focus of the funding available. It is imperative that the emphasis on this population of young people be incorporated into every program that's funded at all educational levels. Early learning K through 12 and post-secondary children in foster care and those experiencing homelessness are not limited to the ages of 5 to 18. Children in foster care and homeless young people include toddlers and young adults, and they are in need additional supports to succeed. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.. Afternoon. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Michael Jackson. I serve as the executive director for Nexus Youth and Families in Auburn, Washington. I am a King County resident, but I work in Auburn, Washington. I'm here to urge you to stick to the statutory intent of this past and keep to what it was intended to do is help those people of color who are grossly overrepresented by what my colleague just said. Also with the juvenile justice, those youth who are involved with that and in foster care, they've been let down enough times. It's time that somebody decided that they want to be a hero and stand up for their rights and stand up for their opportunities to get them out of that cycle of poverty that's going to keep them trapped and keep them from being what they can be because there's a lot of talent out there, but they just need someone to say, Hey, kid, I got your back. I'm going to do what's right this time. I'm going to be that superhero you've been looking for. You can count on me to do the right thing for you this time. And that goes across all channels of it. Birth through 12. It goes to K through 12. It goes to college. We need your support. Thank you so much. Thank you. And is Roy Mitchell in the chamber? We will move on. Paul Alawi, Eugene Shen, Roslyn. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Paul Wiley. I represent Friends of Youth and I'm also here representing a dozen King County agencies that work with children and youth experiencing homelessness, foster care, or are involved in the juvenile justice system. In the past, council members, you have talked about wanting to focus and on meaningful gains through policy investments. Rather than spread the funds thinly across various programs and special projects. The data and experience from providers such as me demonstrates that by prioritizing children and youth in foster care who experience homelessness or in the juvenile justice system, the county can make meaningful gains, whether in early learning K-12 or postsecondary success. Prioritizing these youth can be achieved by requiring that early learning facilities or programs funded through pastor designate a significant percentage of new child care slots for children in foster care. Families experiencing homelessness k through 12 funds by pastor have specific program models designed to serve the unique needs of children in foster care, experiencing homelessness or engage in the juvenile system. Post-Secondary scholarship and support programs have specific outreach strategies to reach and designate slots to serve young people. We ask you to stick and stay focused on the statutory intent of the recipient of this funds. Thank you. Good afternoon, counsel. My name's Eugene. I'm a academic advisor counselor at Renton Technical College for the past five years. And I my focus is on advanced manufacturing and technology. In 2015, RTC was recognized as an Aspen Institute Top ten finalist for Community College Excellence. From one main reason, and that was really around retention. Currently it's at 63%, both the best in the state. We disproportionately enroll low income, first generation and students of color. I absolutely love my job because of who we serve. I'm here today because it's the wrap around advising and career counseling that's critical. It's not just for scholarships. I'll be offered advice. And counseling in ROTC really means embedded programs for advisors. An early alert system. Student College Success courses. Mandatory orientations for individual programs. And relationships with our students that make sense. Advising ratios that really work. And so I just urge you to really consider the need for advising, to help support and guide students as a as a as a find their college. Thank you. Roslyn Kiki will be followed by Samantha Castro and Yasmin Hussain, followed by Kayla Lachey. My name is Roslyn Casey. I'm a director of a large college access program at the University of Washington and the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity. I'm a proud resident of SeaTac and a foster parent. I want to know what your vision for King County is. I want to live and work and raise a family and a place that invests in young people and provides them with the comprehensive supports to graduate from high school and succeed in post-secondary programs. 96% of South King County students surveyed say they want to attend a post-secondary program. However, currently, only 30% of them are earning a college credential. Even though we know that 70% of the jobs in King County require it. We have so many opportunities here a booming economy, innovation everywhere. But students from King County can't access those opportunities. How do we unlock these opportunities and eliminate barriers for King County students? The King County promise provides coordination and connection across systems, the K-12 system and the higher education system to ensure that students in King County can graduate from high school and access a post-secondary education. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Samantha Castro. I'm 17 years old and we're running so student at Green River College and Kingwood High School. Fortunately, I've had an opportunity to attend colleges here, and I can say that with the help and guide from my advisors, the transition of high school and college has been easy, has been easier for me. I'm also a low income student who has received a ton of support from financial aid counselors and advisors. I'm truly grateful for their help, and I honestly believe that if it weren't for their guide and support, I wouldn't be on track to graduate. The way I see, I see it as its necessity to grow in order to help me grow into a vigorous plan. Students need advising, mentoring and support services as they take their next steps in education. And if this promise were to be made. I know that to many this will be more than what seems a simple promise. It'll make a difference in many students lives. Thank you for your time. You. Hello, I'm Yasmin Hussein and I am 17 years old. I'm also running start student and I attend Kent Meridian High School. I believe that the King County promise can ensure and give people a chance to the education and career that the people of King County. Have always dreamt of. One of the major reasons why students don't continue their education right after high school is not only because of how difficult it is, but because of the financial crisis that they go through. I believe this promise is the greatest thing ever because it's very important to see people who look like you in the educational field that you want to go through while growing up. Because I for sure did not have that mentorship growing up as a first generation black Muslim student. I was taught that everything was made for the white people and always for them. Even though school teaches us the motto of the land of the free, when in reality it isn't for some of us. Thank you. Thank you. And Kyla will be followed by Eric Dent. So a run of old Rebecca Chen and Stephen Blanford. Good afternoon. My name is kind of lucky and I represent the Coalition who has been developing the King County promise. King County has the chance to model a highly supportive, equity driven, integrated post-secondary attainment system so that students who grow up here, especially students of color and students, were impacted by poverty. And students will be the first in their family to attend college, are able to participate in our region's economy and stay rooted in community. I'm here today to urge you to invest 40% of the cost of funding in post-secondary credential attainment through the King County promise. In our proposal, 50% is dedicated towards K-12 age students, and 50% is dedicated towards college aged students. We believe that we need across system strategies to break down the silos that currently exist between K-12 and post-secondary. There is tremendous power and funding at this transition point and real potential to dissolve the longstanding barriers that are currently unfunded . We also are in our proposal. We fund community based college access and re-engagement programing that is led by community organizations who are able to develop the critical programing and relationships with young people who are underserved in our current system. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. My name is Eric. Didn't I live in Auburn, Washington, with my girlfriend and my daughter, which is a fourth grader? Part of the reason why I'm up here, the the hard part when I was going to college. As a first generation college student. Was I needed navigation, I needed help. I had a teacher that actually heard my desires and really looked out for me. As far as S.A.T. prep, Vassar College visits, admissions letter classes to take and to be prepared for college and just overall college readiness. By the time that my daughter is going to be going to college, I hope that we will have more counselors and people around that will be able to support with these different steps and really just help out with every every step along the process. Thanks so much. Good afternoon, councilmembers. My name is Sarah, Nevada, and I'm testifying here today as chair of the King County Women's Advisory Board to urge the King County Council to invest at least 70% of these one time passive funds towards the creation of new early learning facilities. As you may recall, the wide released recommendations to the King County Council last year on improving access and affordability of child care in King County. The second recommendation urged the King County Council to invest the one time faster path to funding and early learning facilities. The report revealed that there is a significant shortfall of quality early learning in King County, that providers in King County are not in the position to be able to expand capacity and that the most vulnerable communities in King County often face disproportionate barriers in accessing this care. This is the most impactful way to close the opportunity gap and improve long term outcomes for vulnerable youth. And we urge you to invest in quality early learning facilities. Thank you. Hi. I'm Rebecca chan and I'm with Sara and I just want to say ditto and add on that this is important because few child care providers are in a position to fund the creation of new facilities. The lack of capital resources for financing restricts the building of new centers or the growth of existing centers. I'm from Shoreline and in shoreline. Many of my children's teachers, once they take off a year from work with a child, they don't come back full time because they can't afford the child care. Their husbands have higher salaries. And so the husband works full time while the wife juggles part time work and children. There are also immigrant families that are sending their babies overseas for grandparents to take care of because of the lack of child care here. And these children, they are going to have a opportunity achievement gap because of this delay in English learning. Kids are being sent overseas. I want to share my personal experience. Oh, I guess I missed the last part. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody who has materials in writing, you're welcome to submit them to the clerk. Copies will be made and we will all get a copy as well. Stephen, you're going to be followed by I'm sorry, is it Pru Cordae? Renaldo Mixon? Becca Meredith. Steven, you have a few friends. It seems like it. My name is. Dr. Stefan Blanford and I serve as I formerly served as a school board director in Seattle and also serve on the United Way Board of directors. While I was the school board director, I advocated for equity, particularly racial equity. And I find that the research is really. Clear that Seattle Public. Schools and the districts around Seattle have large opportunity gaps. Seattle Public Schools has the fifth largest opportunity gap in the nation, and there are large gaps all around this region. And we find that it's important that we. Support the types of efforts, particularly led by communities of color, that can help to resolve some of those issues. I'm grateful that the sacrifices and investments have been made in early learning and in higher ed, but there is a great need for additional support in the K-12 space that will allow our students to have to find support that they need. So thank you for that. Hi. My name is Rochelle with the United Way of King County, several United Way grantees who are joining us here today. I'm going to list them out. Glover Empowerment. Mentoring. Red Eagle. Soaring Power. Los Ninos All Girl Everything. Ultimate Frisbee. El Centro de la Raza. Asian Counseling Referral Services. Open Doors for Multicultural Families, Filipino Communities Seattle for Coalition Feast. Philly's Community Services Primary Youth Action Team Education with a Purpose Foundation for Pacific Islanders and Community Passageways. Oh, my God. Are you here to talk about our culturally integrated model, also known as Leper Liberation? Oh, our breath. It's using resources in our community and a new way to change the way that youth of color engage with education. The partnership of these communities of color based organization creates a way, a meaningful space for people most affected by the failures of an education system to design and implement solutions. United Way has invested more than $1,000,000 each year for the past three years for ethnic based organizations serving these communities. Feel free to listen to the upcoming conversation. Hello, City City Council members. My name is Renata. Oh, County. I apologize. County. My name is Renaldo Mason. I'm here on behalf of Multi-Service Center, Frito-Lay, Youth Action Team, Frito-Lay Public School District and the world is multi service and I'm very good. I'm noticing that the youth recover. The youth of color are overrepresented in the foster care, homelessness and juvenile justice systems. When we focus on communities of color, those who prioritize these injustices, no decision about is without is. What I do is I help kids get into college. So basically I provide them with the resources in order to go to college or whatever it is that may provide them a chance or opportunity to be successful. And I just want to shout out Mr. County member, is he county member, ranking member for the band in the donation to the Faroe Youth Action Theme Team. I appreciate that. And thank you, sir. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Denise Perez. Lolli and I have the honor of working adult central that let us as the Human Services Director. For over 45 years, our organization has been working to serve the Latino community in Seattle and King County. I'm here today. We are here today to encourage you to allocate at least one third of the pasta funds to K through 12 students. My focus today is our K through 12 youth for decades through programs such as Proyecto Xavier, Hope for Youth, Roberto Macias, Leadership Institute, Summer Learning After School Violence Prevention. Both on our campus and Seattle Public Schools, we have served students and in King County, who are native Spanish speakers, immigrants, refugees, victims of violence, homeless, and have supported them academically and culturally to thrive. While the disparities for black and brown students stubbornly remain in education, in criminal justice involvement, and in employment, our organization and other organizations led by people of color, many who are in this room are best suited to serve our communities of color, require funding and resources to ensure we meet the needs of those most impacted by racial bi bias by poverty in other inequities. Thank you. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Becca Meredith, and I'm the interim executive director for Feast. Feast is an organization led by Youth of Color in South Seattle and South King County, working to improve health in their schools. And I'm really here on behalf of the young people and holding them at my back right now. I'm here to support the equal division of funds between pre-K K through 12 and post-secondary for the passage of funding. We know that our K through 12 schools, like many of our institutions, have more built with racism woven into them . And while there's a lot of work to end this, we still see it today. We see it in graduation rates. We see it in the percentage of teachers that are folks of color. We see it in the ways in which disciplinary actions are taken against our youth of color at higher rates, not to mention the bad food , which is my organization's focus. This all shows that our K-through-12 youth really needs support to not only navigate these systems, but also demand something different. And a lot of our funding goes towards letting youth of color decide what they want to see in their schools and make that happen. And going to end of the quote now, I want to thank you, Michel. Hello, everyone. My name is Joy Saba. I manage the advocacy program at open doors for Multicultural Families. I'm here specifically to call out two things the need to support students of color with disabilities who are disproportionately impacted by the school to prison pipeline. And number two, to celebrate all of the community power that you see throughout this room and ask you to commit some of the percentage of the past of funds to build a coalition so that all of us in this room can come to the table and engage. Instead of wasting our time here talking to you. We would rather our I would rather be talking to the folks in this room who are the community leaders and advocates. Thank you, nonetheless. Next to something, we have something. That's Theresa and somebody were supposed to wrap it up. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council members, Colleen Lang with United Way of King County. I want to thank you for all the work that's gone into this motion. It's clear from the work that has been done that the council's listened carefully around youth of color, around having the K-12 bucket. And I would encourage you very strongly to fund that bucket at least a third of the funding to go into K-12. And we really want to emphasize that middle and high school are important, that you can't build that bridge two thirds of the way and then have a gap in the middle. And as Russell Brooks was saying, you don't see kids drop out in elementary school or in early learning. They drop out middle and high school. That's where we need to put this focus and this culturally intensive services. That's what's going to keep kids engaged and committed to completing high school, which is where the gap is, the racial equity gap. So that's where we want to focus. Thank you for all the work you've done on this motion and keep it up, please. Thank you and. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Kendrick. Glover and I serve as the founder and executive director of Glover Empower Mentoring. And we are located in the great. City of Kent, Washington. I'm here today to urge. Council members to really consider access and quality to our young people. I use a quote with my young people on a daily basis that states I have to see me in order to be me. And the problem with that is that our young people of color are not seeing us at that higher level. And in order for. That shift to change, they need to see. Themselves in leaders in our. Community. So I applaud all leaders that are here today and I urge you guys to take a stand. Thank you. You know. Council members make up Google. I'm representing Age Up, a Santa based organization that uses the spirit of ultimate Frisbee to mobilize first gen and black and brown young people to talk about social justice in our communities. I've been involved with this organization. For the. Past 13 years and nine of those years I was a player and the greatest thing I got was my relationship with my coach. My coach was the catalyst for being how I saw myself in the world, how I wanted to change the world. And now I was an employer for the past four years. I get to coach my young people with that same intention, with the same framework of gentrification, mental health systems, oppression have all affected us and shows up on the field. We have we have young people saying things like, my teammates, my space are their teammates is their only place where I can talk about hard feelings because this world doesn't let us. That's healing. This is what's possible with the positive. And this is using the expertize of organizations to use the tools that community already has and use it to be better for our own community. Thank you. Hi, my name is Alice Park with United Way, and I'm wrapping up our communities of color, youth serving organizations. So as you can see, we are established historical rooted in our communities, were leaders and were experts in our experiences. We are those directly impacted and we're the solution creators. We know the issues intimately and we know the solutions. We are partnering collectively in this work because the challenges faced by all of our communities of color, even though we represent really different race, ethnic communities are the same. We're changing not only the experiences of the generations after us and redefining our relationship with schools and other institutions by partnering instead of having power over by leveraging opportunities and by sharing resources. We're doing this with youth at the center and racial equity at its core. This is what systems reform looks like. Thank you. Thank you. Well organized presentation. Trying to catch back up to my list. Osman is it Sean Penn? Jacob Morrison. Garret Davis. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name's Sean Penn, the publisher, the chancellor of Seattle Colleges, said a college is one of the ten colleges. In King County. Together we serve about 137,000 students. Our mission is to prepare students for success in life, to prepare future leaders. The taxpayers in our great. Country. Are giving their Washington's. College grand tuition is seems to be. Relatively easy to get these days. But tuition is not sufficient. Our sit here program at the Seattle colleges for last ten years clearly shows it's the wraparound services, the path. The funds we advocate allocate 41% to support this initiative will pay long term dividends. There will also allow us to really change the proportion between advising the students. King County's Community College is part of the Washington. Our support from the state for advisors are very low. So okay. I'll give you your priorities. Thank you. Thank you. Most people. Jacob Morrison. Yes. Hi. Hi. My name is Jacob Morrison. I grew up in Newcastle, went to school at UW Seattle, and now I work in Kirkland. And I'm here to advocate for splitting some of the funding for secondary and post-secondary education. Because without funding like that, I probably wouldn't even be here today. I might not have been able to go to college. I was I was a first generation college student. I was raised by a single parent who I believe made the low below the poverty line most of my life. And because of that, it in a twisted way. I was lucky because I was able to get funding for standardized tests like the SAT AP tests. I didn't have to pay a cent for any college applications. I got financial aid all four years and just had to take out the minimum federal loans, which came out to, I think 20 something thousand in total for a four year education, including housing. But if I hadn't been if I had been raised by two parents or if she had made slightly more, I would have gotten almost none of that. And so I'm advocating for some of that funding to be allocated towards people like me, but that weren't as lucky. So thank you. Terry Davis. You're fired by Josh Castle, Richard Lieu and Larissa Rizzo. Thank you for having me. I'm here to talk about privilege and how it saved my life. And I want to talk about how individuals who did not grow up like I did with very rich parents and very nice housing would not had they had a child like me with severe mental health issues in high school been allowed to have the opportunity to give me. Seven chances to work through my mental. Health issues. And now I'm a college student and growing every community college. However, there are many I know who also had mental health issues, who did not come from a privileged background, who currently do not have the ability to attend college and were not given the opportunity to meet with counselors, to meet with specialists, to help them get them on. The right track. Any funding that can be given to help people who were like me but from a less wealthy background, must be done. So because there are thousands of students who could like me be positive contributing members of society who just right now do not have the opportunities to. Thank you. Just. Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you. Council members for unanimously passing the motion in 2017 for positive funding on initiatives that improve academic outcomes for students of color and children who are low income or homeless. I work for the Low Income Housing Institute, which provides 13 units of housing for homeless students ages 18 to 24 while they were in college at Bryan House and Evanston House in North Seattle and 14 units of housing at Columbia Court in the Central District for homeless families with school age children. Evertsen House has set aside for homeless college students, and we partner with special education access to provide referrals of homeless and outreach students. We have students here from other community colleges, U Dub, Carleton University and Seattle Pacific University. We are trying to do our part to house homeless students and this is a wonderful opportunity to allow us to provide more support services and housing for these students. $120,000 of this funding would help us subsidize rent and provide case management and supportive services. Please consider this when allocating the funding. Thank you for your time. Good afternoon. My name is Richard Lieu. I'm director of real estate development for Bellwether Housing. And a local. Nonprofit provide affordable housing. I want to emphasize the critical importance of access to quality, safe and affordable early learning and how its impacts on magnify for both child and family when they have stable and affordable housing by locating our buildings near workplaces, schools and childcare, their mentees, but where it puts greater opportunity within reach of our residents . We are currently working on three projects. We have related to child care and childhood. Education and afterschool programs. Cedar Crossing at Roosevelt Station in partnership of El Centro de la Raza, has four classrooms adjacent to Roosevelt Light rail station rose to Arena Avenue South, where we're developing a 9000 square foot facility in conjunction of Tiny Tots and Greenwood Boys and Girls Club, where we own the building. But the building is in dire need of a capital improvements and we do not have funding to help them improve it. So I want to say I'm here to emphasize the high importance, high percentage of pasta funds be used to support early childhood education and learning. Thank you. Hello. King County Council. My name is Larissa, and I'm a college and career success coordinator at the Community Center for Education Results. I stand before you as an alum of two South International High School, have graduated in 2011 and a first generation college graduate. And our recent letter Seed Report, which we will email and we have one copy that we will give it to you today. We also conducted listening sessions. We were able to capture the responses of 7000 high school students who told us that what they need in order to reach their post-secondary goals. You can learn more about the recommendations on page nine. One of our most important findings was that our students of color and first generation students are more reliant on school staff for their information about college than their white and non first generation peers. 81% of Latino students in the survey identified that they were first generation high school students, compared to 32% of white students. Let me say that again, 81% compared to 32%. These students need more support to navigate the college going process and yet more. Yet our schools receive funding equally so schools with more first generation students have the same number of staff as schools with very few. That is not equitable. This past month we wanted to follow up on our letter Succeed Report and Better Learn what worked and what didn't work for our Latinos high school seniors to feel prepared for college. We had the privilege to conduct focus groups with 44 Latinx high school seniors from six South King County high schools. And over and over again, students were telling us that they were told to apply to college and financial aid and that they wanted to, because 96% of our students in King County want to go to college , but they did not receive more detailed information or guidance to understand the college going process. There is a dramatic need for more staffing supports in our high school in order for our first generation students to truly achieve their high school aspirations and get the post-secondary credentials they need to access the living wage jobs in King County. And now is the time that we show up. Thank you. Thank you. It is Garrett Davis here, followed by or immediately Anthony Austin. Danica Martinez. Jeff Corey. Amy Morrison. Hello. Council members. Afternoon. For the record, my name is Anthony Austin. I'm the executive director of Southeast Youth and Family Services. I am also a member of Youth Development Executives of King County and serve on the coalition's advisory board. As his wife serves South King County in South Seattle and provides early learning services and mental health. Mental health services to children. Birth to young adult. I'm here today to actually ask you to consider a fair distribution of funds from early learning facilities, youth development, investment, and expanded learning case management tutoring and mentoring, and the King County Promise. I have personally seen the benefits of the services for youth ages birth to young adult. I feel strongly that there that there is a continued need for funding in programs that serve our vulnerable youth to help them thrive and succeed. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. My name is Danica Martinez. I work for Seattle Education Access and I'd like to highlight the opportunity for the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account to fund support for Opportunity youth in our region. Opportunity Youth are young folks who may not have completed a diploma. GED may maybe working or underemployed, may have a diploma GED but have not transitioned to college or may maybe young folks who started college but did not finish a degree or certificate. There are over 21,000 opportunity youth in King County between the ages of 16 and 24. Students of color are incredibly overrepresented in the Ohio population, including immigrants and refugees, young parents, first generation high school and college graduates, and LGBTQ identified young folks. The proposed King County promise has built in supports to help young people get back on track to a credential. The King County promise would provide resources for community based organizations like the one I work for that support, opportunity, youth and other underserved young people in accessing and succeeding in post-secondary education. But the King County promise we could start to make a systems level change to support young people in our region. Young folks have been marginalized and disenfranchized by gentrification and enact inequitable access to post-secondary options. But the King County promise provides a model for addressing addressing inequities in our region. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Amy Morrison. I'm the president of Lake Washington Institute of Technology. On behalf of the King County Community and Technical Colleges, we hope that we can count on you to bridge the gaps with a past promise funding to support critical advising, supports needed to guide our youth from K-12 to our community and technical college system. Lake, Washington Tech and our fellow community. Technical colleges do not receive direct state report support to fund counseling and advising services. Therefore, our college and many others are following woefully short of the national standard for advising, which is 250 students per every one. Advisor, high school advisor to student ratios are currently around 450 students to every one advisor at Lake Washington Tech. Our current ratio is 800 students to every one advisor. Again, the national standard is 250 to 1. Thank you again for upholding the spirit of pasta by supporting critical advising services for underserved youth. Thank you. And Jeff, you'll be followed by Ruby Hayden, Amanda Sandoval, Katie Warren. Okay. My name is Jeff Corey. I work with Danika at Seattle Education Access. And I just want to advocate for you are a part of this funding to go towards opportunity as well? Not only do opportunities deserve these opportunities, we know that if they're provided the support that they deserve, that they can be really successful. We recently completed a national initiative called Opportunity Works that embedded our services that a number of opendoor sites throughout King County. And along with that came a national evaluation. That evaluation found that students receiving our services were three times as likely to enroll in post-secondary as the comparison sites across the country or across the state. And young men of color were seven times more likely to enroll in post-secondary. We also found that our attention or our persistence rates for those students who did enroll in post-secondary were 70%, and the average for community technical college for all students is 50%. So I urge you to use a bit of this funding for opportunity youth. With these services, we can see great things. Thanks. Good afternoon, council members. I appreciate your time. My name is Ruby Haden. I'm the vice president of student services at Lake Washington Institute of Technology. As you deliberate on how to best use this funding, please consider the direct impact of insufficient advising services at local colleges, especially on those who are low income and first generation students. For students pursuing one of our popular health care programs like Nursing or Physical Therapist, Assistant or Funeral Services Education, the average wait time to see an adviser is 3 to 4 weeks. That's with offering group planning sessions for nursing on a monthly basis where our last session 55 students show up, meaning more than half of those people are willing to stand in order to get an hour with an advisor and have their transcripts assessed. With this kind of wait time, students planning to start classes this summer may already be too late and either need to register without assistance or not at all a result that disproportionately and negatively impacts our least resourced students. National research tells us that high quality and accessible advising gets a student onto an academic pathway and reduces or eliminates opportunity gaps. We need to double our advising teams in order to meet nationally recommended ratios. Please help us take care of these students. Good afternoon. My name is Katie Warren. I live in Seattle and I'm with the Washington State Association of Head Start and AECOM. This morning, the Seattle Times on their front page really made the case for early learning investment. Yes, exactly. On the front page. We serve less than half of children in high quality preschool programs here. Here in King County, we serve about 5000 children in Head Start. ICAP, Early Head Start. Easily another 5000 and probably more than that are eligible, but unserved. And we're talking about a very low eligibility level. Thousands more are, you know, above 100% of the federal poverty level and not getting any into any quality care. When we ask our directors about why they don't expand, they want to expand. And almost universally, the biggest challenge for them is facilities, and that's with programs like Headstart and ICAP that are slightly better resourced than child care. If we are going to really invest in closing the opportunity gap, we need to invest in early learning facilities. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, councilmembers. My name is Amanda Sandoval and I'm a public policy coordinator at the Mockingbird Society. I'm speaking today in solidarity with more than a dozen other King County agencies who work with children and youth in foster care, homelessness, or the juvenile justice system. I would like to remind you of your vote on Motion 15 zero 29, which prioritizes these funds for the over 12,000 youth in King County who are experiencing these systems because of the instability and trauma in their lives. This group of young people have lower educational outcomes than their peers. And among all these populations, youth of color are overrepresented. Currently in King County, only 55% of youth experiencing homelessness graduate high school, and only 29% of children in foster care meet kindergarten readiness standards. It is important to recognize the needs of this population across the educational spectrum and not just K through 12. This investment will complement the county's goals for preventing youth homelessness, their youth detention and best start for kids. I urge you to stay focus on the rightful recipients of the positive funds and the impact on education outcomes for youth experiencing foster care, homelessness, and those in the juvenile justice system. Thank you. Next, we have Steven Patrick. Patrick. Leah. Meredith Turner. Una Thompson. Go ahead. Why do they call your name? Second and. Hi. I'm Meredith Turner. Also, I'm really sick, so I'm sorry if I sound really gross. So I am a student at Highland High School in Burian, which is part of South King County, and we're all actually juniors at Highline. One of my teachers informed our class that King County had recently come into a very large amount of money, and my classmates and I immediately set out to working on figuring out what to do with it. We spoke to staff members under council members McDermott and Up the Grove to try and articulate our ideas. And our proposals were to have a job center on campus to give students who can't afford or don't want to go to college a way to have another life. Because not everybody can go to college. Not everybody wants to go to college. So it was a way to show young people that even if they don't graduate at the top of their class, there's still ways that they can give to their community. We also had the idea for a community mentorship program to show children that in the city that even if they don't have a family to support them, then there are still ways that they can succeed. And we wanted an increase in hiring of teachers of color to show more, to show young people that there's more out there for them than just construction jobs. Please, King County, we urge you to help out your young people, especially in South King County, in the South King County area . We need it. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Lena Thompson and I am a local pastor in the city of Berrien. And I've been sitting back here listening to all this, so I'm not going to rehearse all the data. I will say this I spent the morning with my friend and colleagues, Pastor Shalom, listening to students present on the impact of gentrification on their city. And I have to tell you that they had all the data, they had all the all the information that they needed to know. But there was a noticeable disconnect between what that data actually means to their lives. They know it, but they often don't feel empowered to do much about it. And so I guess I'm here to urge you, number one, to listen to young people. Number two, to realize that young people distrust institutions and people who make decisions, including that the institution that I work for, which is the faith community. And so we really believe that young people have the answer. We need to listen. We need to take risks. They are a good risk to take because they're smart and they know their community better than we do. So thank you very much. Abdullah Osman. Ulises Kwan. Erin Halligan. Good afternoon. I'd suggest you own it. Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Ulysses Quine. I've lived in Kent for 11 years, and last weekend I just graduated from Kent, Meridian High School. Thank you. It's one of the most diverse schools in our community. And even amid the air of celebration, we're afraid a lot of us are really scared. It comes from a sense of instability. You know, all the bureaucracy between trying to find resources like scholarships and other opportunities to help us make the transition to post-secondary education. This really disproportionately affects students of color and the children of immigrants like myself, people who have well-meaning families, but families that don't always have the same ability to advocate and support their students as much as other families. And so I'm here to advocate for the King County promise, because it would have made such a difference to me and the people close to me to have had more advising resources and people we could sit down and talk to and have us together, figure out the kind of path that we need so we can pursue our goals. Thank you. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Aaron Halligan, and I'm here today on behalf of Youth Care and joined by over a dozen agencies working with youth who are experiencing homelessness, foster care and are involved in the juvenile justice system. Youth care works with young adults aged 12 to 24 experiencing homelessness in Seattle and King County. We know homelessness profoundly impacts the young person's ability to connect with and succeed in school. In a vicious cycle, homelessness can lead to lower academic outcomes and then lowered academic outcomes can lead to a higher risk of homelessness. Fortunately, past offers us an opportunity to disrupt the cycle. This was the account's legislative intent. The statute explicitly committed to improving educational outcomes in early learning K through 12 and higher education for youth that are low income, homeless in foster care or other vulnerable populations. This was built upon in 2017 by the county motion to include youth of color and youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Thank you for that. We have an incredible opportunity to make a positive impact on the educational outcomes for the youth served at Youth Care and the many other agencies represented in this room. We urge you to stay focused on the statute statutorily intended recipients of these funds. Thank you. Angelica Mazzeo, followed by Kasich. Does anybody. And that will be that is it for the people who have signed up in advance. So if you didn't sign up and you'd like to testify as soon as these two people ask for those people to line up. All right. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. His and Julia Hicks, MAXINE. My apologies. That's not. No worries. I'm the executive director of Tiny Towns Development Center, where we provide childcare, preschool and early learning opportunities to over 400 families across South Seattle and the surrounding areas. At Tiny Tots, we're the largest provider of the state subsidized ICAP Preschool programs in the Seattle area and have five classrooms for preschool for for infants and toddlers. 96% of our families are use the state subsidized child care program. After years in this field, I can tell you that I enjoy loving and learning with the children. The staff are dedicated in their focus, but we've had some major problems this year. We had raccoons tear out our crawl space in the decking. We've come up with water damage to the kitchen area. We don't have funds to be able to replace. This is no easy place for us to get the funding. Only 0.8% of the state budget goes towards early learning, compared with 52% for K-12 and 8.3 for hire. Please use the funding for early education. Thank you. I'm sorry I ran out of time. Good afternoon. Have. Tony Eastley Take a stand, as you say, of the theme comes directly from the concert of the Gospel account. Of the teachings of Jesus. When asked what was the great commandment, Jesus signed into Himself, love, resolute, say God with all his heart and always answer so and always answer mind. This is the first thing the great commanded. And the second is like unto eat the I should love, thou shalt the love, see negro as Jesus the self on this two commandments. All is a low undeserved property. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else president who'd like to offer public comment today? If some of you approach one of the podiums saying no one will close the public hearing. And in 2015, the legislature, as part of the Sound Transit three funding package, directed approximately $318 million to King County to improve educational outcomes for students within King County. Those funds will start flowing into the county next year and we anticipate the funding will continue for a total of 15 years pending legislative allocation. After extensive work, public testimony, public engagement today we begin considering legislation that will frame the allocation of these resources. We have a motion in front of us that will serve as a framework for the policy document that will need to be adopted to direct this. And through the course of our discussion, the Council will determine the key elements and priorities with a overview of where we're at and the legislation before us. We have Jeff Mumm, Chief Policy Officer, to give the briefing. Good afternoon, Jeff. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jeff, ma'am, policy officer to the King County Council. So, as you described, the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account is funded with an offset fee on donations with three projects we have and state law caps sound Transit's payment to the account at $518 Million over that over the course of those projects, I'm going to skip over the background information. And first, just to frame the discussion, I'd like to draw your attention to page 20 of the staff report and then page 20. This shows the there's two charts here. There's a chart that shows the the current projections of allocation of positive funds throughout the three counties from King, King Pierce and Sandwich counties. But I think what I really want to draw your attention is the second chart, which shows the fund and how it flows for the King County portion. And as you'll see, it's it's not evenly distributed over the years. And so this is this will be part of the part of the work that that I believe the motion is looking at is how to how to make sense out of a funding stream like this. And so let's move on to the analysis of the motion before you, which starts on page 21 or before we go into the analysis. I also want to draw attention that the in the during the 2019 legislative session, the Legislature clarified that that funds could be used for facilities and services, and they also put in a provision that it would allow the funds to be used for an endowment if you wanted to set an endowment up to to improve educational services. So to the motion itself, the motion identifies the three priority education areas that were previously identified by the Council. And these areas are early learning K-12 education for underserved youth and college and career and technical education. The current form of the motion contemplates assigning percentages of future funds to the priority areas. However, the motion as introduced leaves these percentages blank. The motion also identifies the same underserved populations that were previously identified by the Council. And those populations are children and youth of color, children and youth and families with low incomes, children or youth who are homeless in the foster care system or in the child child welfare system, and children who are involved in the juvenile justice system and otherwise vulnerable youth. And further, the motion requests that the county executive work with council staff stakeholders in the community to develop a detailed plan for future distributions of funds. The motion requests the plan to include a governance structure, criteria for allocating proceeds, future proceeds, and for what duration? A financial plan based on the most recent revenue estimates for in transient for the life of the account, which goes back to the charity's earlier speaking about and then policies for potential investment of foster funds for four facilities. If I think that the motion contemplates sort of a different different process, different sets of policies that if you're going to invest in facilities than with that. That concludes my staff report and I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions of Mr. Moment Councilmember Lambert. Against the chair. A couple of questions. This chart. Who made this chart. I'm not familiar with that chart again. It was on our diets when we got here. So anyway. Well, since you haven't seen it, I won't ask you too many questions. But the bottom chart where it talks about homeless and foster care. I'd like to know how many of those are mutually exclusive and how many are, you know, counted in both. Both of those. I'll get your chart because you probably can analyze it better if you had one. So that's that one. And then the governance is the first time that I've really processed the idea of the governance. So could we as a council do what we do often on the idea of one as nominating one person from each council district and then choosing like three or four people that we feel are experts in whatever communities we decide to be the Government Governance Committee. I mean, we have more range. Sure. Yeah. The state law doesn't speak to any particular form of governance, so it would be a policy decision. And then on page 21 at the top, where they're talking about the Senate substitute bill, 5851, where it says they use distributions from their count only to improve educational outcomes in early learning in K-12 and higher education, including but not limited to facilities and prayers for children and youth that are low income, homeless or in others. So it says K-12. What about early learning? It doesn't say that. And here is that in another early. Learning rate before K-12 on that. Okay. Okay, great. I'm sorry. Okay. So on that was my question on that. Okay. So it's anything we want to do in there. And I was going to have a question on that, but I'll have to come back to it because I forgot what it was. Okay. Thank you, mister. You're welcome, Councilmember Howells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jeff, I understand that a recent report came in, I think, from the consultants, but having to do with an equity report. There was that community engagement report that came there that was briefed, didn't get received an oral briefing anyhow during the last committee, the whole meeting. And then it was the written version was transmitted on Friday. Okay. So will you be going over that with this at some time or with the consultant. Or I believe the consultant be happy to meet with you. I find the purpose that they'll ask me the whole meeting was that was to brief that report. Right. But now that we have an actual report, I think it could be interesting and also for the public to hear about that. That would be a request of mine that we take that up. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just had to put back the other page. So two questions. Number one, when we when I was reading about the early education, I was briefed on some of the numbers when we were calculating the early learning. I seem to remember that I was briefed that when they gave the numbers, the early learning, there was only ICAP eligible children. Is that accurate? Was this a briefing. That you think I had in my office? So we. Would you check on that? Yeah. And and you have the report that you were briefed on. I'm happy to look into it. Okay. I have my staff look it up, too. So I was a little surprised. But it wasn't all the children in the state that need this, because according to other research and the paper today, it's truly and we know from firsthand experience or I guess second hand now that there are lots of daycare needs that are not being met or people who are not ICAP eligible. And then you mentioned earlier on the chart on the previous page about the first couple of years up until about the year 2025, there's not a lot coming in is not consistent is the ability for us to bond. Okay in those early years against 28 and 29, which will be much better years. So the legislature did not provide did not specify that these funds can be bonded. It's also important to note that this isn't like a a revenue stream, a tax that you're used to seeing. The legislature has to actually appropriate the funds in every budget to the county, which complicates the bonding discussion. Yeah, that does. Complicated. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr.. Councilmember, up there. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And you said the time is also right for beginning discussion filming. Okay. Thank you. At the risk of thinking out loud and deliberating in public, I know we have a limited amount of time where we're set a timeline to figure out how the nine of us get to a plan. So I thought it might be helpful for me to reflect on some of what I've heard and some of my interests and in a way that that that could be helpful, at least with understanding where I am. The some of my first takeaways are that this is a time limited fund. It comes and it goes away. It's uneven amounts of money in each year. And as was noted, it also isn't hundred percent certain. It could be, you know, knowing the state legislature, they get in the budget crunch an easy way for them to balance their state budget one year, put this money into K-12 basic and close the budget gaps. It's also not something we can absolutely depend on moving forward, and I think those factors. Shape my thinking. I think it makes it particularly. Attractive for capital investments and one time spending versus ongoing programs. Just the nature of the funding. I have an initial interest in making sure there's significant funding for early childhood facilities, in part because it's a facility, in part because it's as far upstream as we can get. And we know kids learning start shaping early part because the data I've seen shows that it serves a large proportion of young kids of color. But I do have some questions and concerns that I'm working through with the child care providers to make sure that the dollars really are being spent to benefit the students who are most in need. In terms of what those percentages are, I'm also very interested in seeing if we can go beyond facilities. There's a large number, huge proportion of families that have their kids in family, child care, some licensed, some unlicensed, particularly in the immigrant and refugee population in South King County, and the ability to provide technical assistance or capital grants or support for home based. Early childhood programs might be a way to target. I love the idea of integrating ideas. The suggestion someone made about. For example, if we have meaningful investments in early childhood, you know, targeting youth in the foster care system, targeting homeless youth in terms of prioritization or set aside. I have an interest I've met with and it really appeals to ensuring we have equity in physical education is another idea of funding that could be integrated into K-12 funding, making sure people with disabilities are served again, that could be integrated into early childhood facilities. So giving some direction even within the categories and making sure that those different, different groups are served. I think it's important. My final thought is a big picture one in a process. I think we as a council should do more than just put three percentages in this legislation. It was the council that initiated. A robust and credible community engagement process, probably unlike any. Major we've had before. And for us to conclude our work with just simply putting three figures and saying, executive branch, bring us a plan. I think we missed an opportunity as policymakers to identify strategies and conditions and priorities as a council. So I'd encourage us to maybe flesh out some strategies. With those. Percentages. And that's my big brain dump. I hope it's helpful. Thank you very much. Sharing an interesting beginning. That very real work is what we're here to do today. And I offered the legislation this before us really as a framework, as I said, and I fully expect that it will be amended quite significantly before this committee would move it to full council, particularly because it does not have percentages numbers that says x, x, x. So clearly there's work to do, but it's a framework for some of the ideas that I thought we needed to be sure to think about going forward in the work leading up to where we are today has really shed a light on and highlighted some of the things that are working well for students and some of the things that aren't working well for students, and that informs how we might be able to have an impact on their ability to succeed. I want to commend the input we've had from the community today and encourage you to stay involved and in touch with all of us about this work. And as Councilmember Up, the Grove has laid out some interests. I hope you will hear others do that today and that it will lead to a striking amendment being brought forward at the next committee of the hall on July 1st. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple questions for you. Concerned about the Grove and our staff did who provided this money to us was a sound transit, but it couldn't come to us until they develop some broad guidelines. Yeah, it's a it's a fee on sound transit. Three projects that are is sound transit pays this fee to the state and goes into a state account and then the state distributes to the county quarterly. So the sound transit three projects are just getting underway. And so that's why it's taken this time so. Long to get. Yeah. And this money is only tied to the sound transit three. Yeah. That's why the, that chart is so lumpy. Okay. But it does from listening to the commentators from the community, the potentially affected agencies and experts that have come to talk to us about creative ways to use this money, it does sound like we can be really creative with it, but I still don't understand the a one third, one third, one third, meaning that some money have to go to zero five, some of the K-12, some to post-secondary educational purposes. For people of color and the poor. There seems to be a constant theme that the priority funding is for the most disaffected and alienated and disadvantaged sectors of the population in King County, if that is true. Does something have to go to each of these three areas, or is it completely left up to the King County Council to determine the percentage division? It's completely left up to the king. Completely up to the King County. Council. That's great. Okay. Councilmember, is this what we are going to do between now and the first day of July? Actually come up with the framework. The amount of the funds that will go in each category. And then the general criteria that one would have to meet in order to secure in these funds. That's my hope. Yes. Good to be. You. Okay. And then finally, how will the representatives of the community have an opportunity to have to provide input, whether it be in writing or through testimony again? Or is that going to with this that I just we had an hour's worth of testimony today from the public and have it successive previous council meetings and members of the community will be welcome to continue to be in contact with this. I would particularly encourage them to reach out to us individually and in in email and conversation and meetings as this work is underway in the next two weeks. Okay. So our input, our recommendations as individual council persons, do we need to have it ready by next Monday for this committee or do we need to have it in writing to some other committee? The legislation is in this committee, and this committee meets again in two weeks, and it would be that's on July 1st. It would be my hope that there is a striking amendment written at that point in time. So we will all need to be doing work on sharing our interests and our priorities and working on that legislation. That's the work we're engaged in right now. What staff is the lead staff for this preparation of a strike? An amendment? Mr. Mum. All right. Thank you. And council member Belushi. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hold on 1/2, please. I got to read something inside at the same time as you hear. A dog barking, I apologize. And so I wanted to start by thanking everybody. I want to thank the advocates who are here today who spent a lot of time not just today, but at previous meetings, but also everything. Do you help that the big banner about what we can do. And you've also been associated with the same level where we wouldn't have had this opportunity and we might have lost the funding entirely if it weren't for the work. Of the Advocate. Community. So I really want to acknowledge that. They've also pointed out the need for more community process and helped us put together our community process, which had meetings and additional financing until funded beyond what we initially planned. I think that'll also help us to make a better and better proposal at the end of the day. There's still an awful lot of work to do and we're talking about a framework here, but I'm really glad that we're getting to the point of thinking about how we can actually build and focus. So there is this history of work that we've done here, and I hope that the people who are still there. Are aware of. It and become aware of it. We've adopted a number of principles and goals that we want to achieve with this funding. We wanted to make sure, for example, that we make an impact, and that's why we identified the three buckets of funding, as opposed to what was sometimes called peanut butter, to give a little bit of money to a lot of different programs. Some of it can actually really not have the kind of impact we want to have. I want to share that. I'm a big supporter of what Councilmember After Girl was talking about. This is basically one time. Money is a long term, but it's one time. And that and that lends itself to one time investment. And we know that early learning will give us proven results are particularly attractive to the idea of funding early learning centers and transit oriented development, because the combination of affordable housing, a great transit of transportation with early learning opportunities are really powerful and proven methods. All three of those are bringing people up out of poverty and giving them opportunities in the K-through-12 sphere. Only and very. Supportive of investment in the focus populations that we've talked about kids and homelessness and foster care kids and criminal justice involved situation that does overlap. As we've heard today with youth of color and underprivileged, you really need the kind of supports that we can provide with this resource as an. And yet there is still a really supportive opportunity to connect youth to real post-secondary education opportunities and jobs. So that's one of the better I based on what happened at the legislature, I want to take a hard look at where those investments in live today. I remain committed to significant investment in all three areas, but I look forward to joining with my colleagues in the community agreements where we've. Got a lot to. Do here, but I think we've got a lot of opportunity and we're going to do a lot of good with this resource that came to us. Thank you. Councilmember Colwell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I thank you two council members at The Grove and Gosford and Balducci for sharing their thoughts. I'd also like to commend the communities. I mean, many I represented here today. But there have been a lot more people and a lot more organizations who've been very engaged in this topic over the last two years. The coalition that it formed representing early learning and down in the legislature and visiting legislators before the legislative session and during the legislative session, and also a broader coalition. And in fact, of all three of these group areas, the early learning, the K-12, post-secondary, higher education, working together to make sure that nothing was taken away and that effort was successful. But it was very critical to happen before the legislature. And I'd like everybody to know that with our community listening sessions that have been taking place, with people contacting us, with meetings that are have been taking place and are continuing with many of you and our organizations representative, we're taking this very seriously. I, for one, wish that we had even more funds at our disposal and that would continue. And it would be lovely to find other sources of funding for when the amount from these funds from pass through from as T3 will slow down. And that's something we can look forward to trying to do. But for right now we have a real challenge before us and our main one is to determine what the ratio is, how much percentage will go into each three of these buckets. I'd I'd like to also commend the groups that have been working together to, to bring out the overlap, the conjunction of K-12 and post-secondary. Because as we've been hearing today, there is a real nexus there in working with our K-12 schools to provide the counseling and the guidance that is needed for keeping kids in school, not dropping out, but also to provide a pathway to them in terms of opportunities post-secondary after they graduate and hopefully not drop out. When we initiated this, we referred to the promised scholarship, meaning tuition, one year of free tuition, two years of free tuition in a college in King County. And the city of Seattle is doing that now. But we've transformed into the idea of spending the funds in a different way. A lot of that based on very, I think, excellent legislation enacted by the legislature in this past session. So now we have the issue of providing services and support and getting the kids, the young people to college, especially, again, those who are of color, have been in the foster situation, been homeless, the targeted groups. But I'm really encouraged by that to say that we could perhaps have some joining in two of these different buckets or sectors. So I, for one, will continue to be very open to input that I receive as we take on this challenge, which I think is very exciting. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the folks who have come to participate today and also over the last many months and the public process. I don't have a lot of thoughts right now, but I thought I would, in the spirit of dialog, join in and express my appreciation for my colleagues sharing their views , which to a large degree I'm aligned with and I don't want to be repetitive, but some things that I think about when looking at these dollars are making sure that they are consistent with the county's adopted policy on youth, which is set forth in our Youth Action Plan, which covers birth at 24 year olds. This council unanimously adopted that. I think it's been helpful in guiding our work with us starts for kids and I think that we should be cognizant of that ongoing work and the investments we're making as a county government as we spend these dollars. You know, there's a new report out today which if you haven't seen it, I commend it to you from the Annie Casey Foundation, the Kids Count data book, which has some very interesting data with respect to children living in poverty. We're making some progress in the state with regard to percentage down from 18% in 2000 to maybe 14% now. But because of our population growth, the number of children, even though the percentage is down, the number of children living in poverty is going up. And I think what the studies show, the Heckman curve is early investment yields the greatest return and so on on investment in young people. So I'm particularly interested in the early childhood work and and would be pushing for the largest percentage of our doing buckets of our investment there. That's not exclusive of the other two buckets. But from a percentage basis, I think that we should follow the econ, the follow the academic research that shows early investment is a great return. And so I don't want to throw a number out yet, but but in terms of priority investments, I think we should do some there. I also think that we should be true to what comes from about. Do you remind us, which is early on we said we're not going to peanut butter this money around. And so we picked kind of three buckets. But I do think, Mr. Chair, if we can get there, we should within each bucket list some strategies. Maybe we shouldn't have three top strategies the County Council has, but for a large, to a large degree gotten out of the business of picking particular. Programs to fund. And invest in strategies. And we leave to the executive the competitive grant and allocation of dollars to particular organization and programs based on those strategies. And I think that in putting this motion together here in this legislation together, if we could think about prioritizing within each bucket where it makes sense, a couple three strategies that might serve us some good. If there was interest in doing that, I think we should be cognizant of the county's place in helping children and young people. What are we good at? What do we know? We are not in classroom teachers, right? We have this, the state handles that and the school districts handle that. We are a good and strong provider of supportive services, the wraparound services, supporting folks to make sure that they have the opportunity to succeed in school and life. So I will be looking at it through that lens. What's the on each of these buckets? What's the right role for the county to put these dollars toward? And I'm not sure I have answers today, but we are involved in helping justice involved youth pursue opportunities and and and get on the right track. We are supportive of children and young children and getting a good start with the Best Arts for Kids program. We're involved in apprenticeship programs and job training, right? So folks can have an opportunity to pursue all the economic benefits that are here in King County. And so those are kind of the at least a few thoughts as I look at this and look forward to working with you all to get to a consensus, hopefully. Thank, Mr. Chair. Thank you both. You and Councilmember up together highlighted the possibility that we might target funds within large buckets into particular strategies. And I think that could be a strong way to go in, would encourage us to be ready to be specific about what the strategies may be, whether you're ready to do that today or in the very near future. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I agree with what I've heard from my colleagues. I also would like to add to the Youth Action Plan that we also take a good look at the Women's Advisory Boards plan. They've been talking to us for two years about this. I just asked for the. Their data, how they came up with their numbers, because I haven't seen that for a while. I think that what we do needs to be something that will be generationally valuable. So doing a capital project that, you know, will be there for 100 years so that kids from many generations will be able to use that facility. I'm pretty sure that when they came to me to brief me, they talked about the kids that were used in the numbers as being ICAP eligible. And there are a lot of kids, as the speaker earlier today said, that are above ICAP eligible that weren't included. And so I think it's important that we we look at what is the need out there. And I think that's what the Women's Advisory Board did, was they looked at the total need, not just one or two segments. And I think we need to focus on all kids in this county. I have a special concern about the foster care children. If you look at the data of foster care children on this chart as well as, you know, if you're let's see. And so fewer than 3% of students are, in fact, who were experienced foster care and a four year college degree. 3% is pretty frightening. So and they have no other parents besides the collective of all of us. So I think, you know, one of our strategies might be really making sure that the foster care children have some very specific goals. And then I do like the idea of identifying the strategies. And I also am very interested in us coming up with the advisory board. I think having somebody from each of our districts that we select. And then X number three or whatever that we all agree are countywide experts that we can agree on to be on the board. I think that's a good governance. So it stays under our purview and doesn't get away from making sure that it's doing what we want it to do. And so I'm excited to work with everybody on this. Thank you. Councilmember Go. Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a status report. The Women's Advisory Board recommendations on early learning, and particularly child care, will be coming through as a transmission from the executive, a transmittal in the form of legislation in 2 to 3 weeks. So that is good because we'll be able to line that up with what decisions we're going to be making here. Thank you. Thank you. Further discussion. I want to thank my colleagues for knowing we don't have legislation to move out of committee today, having a robust conversation about where we're at, what we might want the final Stryker to look like in two weeks. I appreciate the conversation we've had and the work we've done to lead up to this. And with that, we have no other business before us today. We will meet again on Monday, July 1st. We are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE establishing November 5, 2019, as the date of a special election on the question of creating a public hospital district on Vashon-Maury Island; establishing the boundary lines of the proposed public hospital district; and determining the number of commissioners of the proposed district and the manner of their election.
king_172430b2-c308-452d-8e64-d04f4bc8a9af	I'd like to call to order this special meeting of the Council for April 25th, 2016. Agenda item three, four and five are motions to fill three judicial vacancies in King County District Court. So, Clerk, do we need to start by calling the roll? I'd be happy to call the Ritchie. Please do that. Thank you. Councilmember Balducci, you're Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember done here. Councilmember Gossett? Yeah. Councilmember Caldwell's here. Councilmember McDermott. Here. Member of the Grove. Councilmember run right power here. Madam Chair, thank you. Thank you. Okay, so we have a very exciting opportunity to fill three judicial positions on the district court. And I'd like to thank the members of the subcommittee who have worked long hours in interviewing 15 different people. And so I'd like to thank Councilmember Balducci, Councilmember Gossett and Councilmember Dombrowski for joining in on that. And as you can see from the binders that are sitting here, there was lots and lots of information. So today we will not be taking actions on the motions themselves. What we're going to be doing is reviewing the qualifications of the candidates to select final candidates to be interviewed. So what we're deciding is to decide to decide, okay, so we will look at the name and then we will be able to pick which of those candidates that we would like to interview at our next meeting, which will be Wednesday, May the fourth. All of the candidates were told the May 4th date during the interviews because we hope to choose by May the ninth, because on May 17th begins the filing week for those positions. We'll begin this meeting with a brief staff report to provide some background for those in the audience who are unfamiliar with the selection process. Then we're going to go into executive session to discuss the individual candidates qualification. Mr. Wagner, would you please begin? Thank you, Madam Chair. Nick Wagner, Counsel. Staff It is the council's job under state law to fill judicial vacancies in King County District Court. The procedure for doing so is spelled out in the county code, and it's summarized on pages 3 to 4 of your materials for this council meeting. Briefly, the count. The Council clerk publishes a notice of any vacancy, and interested individuals are required to apply either to the clerk or to one of the bar associations that has an established judicial evaluation committee. As defined in the county code to be considered for appointment by the Council, an applicant must be rated by a Bar Association's Judicial Evaluation Committee, and the committee must refer the applicant to the council. With the rating, there are three eligible candidates for the vacancy in the Southwest Division of the District Court and ten eligible candidates for the two vacancies in the West Division. The committee has received several hundred pages of written materials from the 13 candidates and from the bar and the bar associations. And each committee member has been provided a copy of those materials to review. In addition, some council members, as you mentioned, Madam Chair, have informally interviewed the candidates. The county code provides for this committee to review the candidates and select final candidates to be interviewed by the committee. And those interviews are currently scheduled for May 4th. That's when Wednesday of next week. The purpose of today's meeting is to complete the initial review process and to select the candidates to be interviewed. That concludes my staff report. Thank you very much. And on page 18 of our packet, it gives the criteria that we are looking for in selecting judges. And I think that these criteria excellent. And we're definitely what we had in mind as we were doing the interviews. So with that, Councilmember Garcia, do you have a question? Yes, thank you, sir. Who are the three candidates for consideration for southwest Marion Courthouse? Okay. That is on page four of the packet that they just gave. Or that they just gave. And are are. For today. You don't have it either. I know I have it right here in front of me. And page for. All right, Mr. Wagner? Yes, sir. I now have the three names that we considered for Miriam. Right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. At this time, the committee will go into executive session to discuss the candidate's qualifications. When we come out of the executive session, I entertain motions to select final candidates to be interviewed by the committee. On May 4th, the grounds for the executive session to evaluate the qualifications of candidates for the appointment of elective office as provided in our c w 4230 dash 110 Subsection eight. The committee will be in executive session, I thought for 20 minutes, but I'm thinking that's not going to be right. So I would say 30 minutes, which will take it until five. If we need to go beyond that, we can. And I'm asking the clerk now to post the doors to that effect. And we must now ask any member of the public and all county employees who are not directly impacted or necessary for this discussion to please leave the council chambers. So thank you very much. Okay. And. Oh. Okay. So the committee is back in open session. I'll now entertain a motion. We're going to have two motions, one for the the Southwest Division. And then after that, we'll have it for the West Division. They will be interviewed when we have the final candidates to be interviewed, and they'll be interviewed on May 4th. It will be in the morning and it's looking like we will start at 9 a.m. And I had told some of the candidates it was evening. So we'll have to make sure that they know that it is in the morning. So I'd like to call on Councilmember Gossett for a motion for the Southwest Division candidate. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. We had an excellent discussion and executive session. I thank all councilmembers will concur that these are some really outstanding and well experienced lawyers and judicial officers that we considered for this judgeship. And I'd like to move now that the following candidates be designated as our final candidates for interview by the Committee of the Whole to fill a vacancy in our Southwest Division Court of King County. And the two persons are long Gibson and Brian Todd. Thank you. And so do I call for a voice vote or do I call for a roll call vote was possible. Okay. All those in favor of the two names put forward, Laura Gibson and Brian Todd. Please say hi. Those opposed. Nay, those are the two names. Councilmember, would you now put a motion for the candidates for the West Division? And before you start, because there are two positions here we were we'll have more than two names coming forward. So with that, please make your motion. Okay. Miss Jones, do we have to delineate between the two positions, or can I just put forth five people for those two positions? I think you need to wait. Let's just put it together and then we can figure that out later. All right, I I'm going to go by what our chair said, and the five names indicate that they are being considered for filling to empty seats in our west division of the King County District Court. Therefore, I move that the following candidates be designated as our final candidates to be interviewed for two positions that are now vacant and the West Division of the King County District Court. The five names are as follows. These are Pat, Love, Sadie, Mary Lynch, Andrew Simmons, Samir Singh, Le and Greg Hara Hira Kala. Thank you. The motion is before us. Nice job. All those in favor of the five names put forward for the Seattle district. Please say i. I. Those opposed they. Their names are before us. So I want to thank all 13 of the original candidates for participating in the first phase of the process. Our county is very fortunate to have so many qualified individuals, many serving already as pro terms and who are willing to continue to serve their communities as district court judges. Those who were not chosen to be interviewed can continue to develop their judicial skills and experience. And I am sure that we will see you again at other vacancies in the court. Madam Chair, I want to mention to the public that they are also all still qualified to run for these positions. Once they are advertised the following week. That is correct. They may still be able to do that. And then after our decisions, they'll know who they are running against and in which position so they can make that choice should they choose to do so that maybe they'll think we did a fabulous job. I think that is all of the business before this committee. Is there anything else, Mr. Wagner, that we needed to bring up? No, ma'am. All right. With that, this meeting is adjourned.	A MOTION making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the southwest division of King County district court.
king_b69999ce-ce0a-45a5-b835-dca03596ef9a	Welcome to the March 16, 2022 recount meeting of the Committee of the Hall. I am Jean Carl Wells and I am the Chair of the Committee. And before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the King County Courthouse, where we would usually be meeting on the unceded ancestral lands of the duo, honestly, both past and present, we honor with gratitude the land itself and the drama's tribe. We will begin today's meeting with possible action on an appointment to the King County Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force. After that, we will have a briefing with mark downs with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and police here. So say, though, with the organization we are in, we will conclude our meeting with possible action on an ordinance that would make changes to the King County Code relating to the membership of the King County Board of Health. And with that, Madam Claire, could you please call? Well, thank you, Madam Chair. The Baluchi area council. Madam Council member DEMBOSKY. Here. Council member. Dan. Councilman McDermott. Councilmember Berry. Here. As a member of the group here. Council member, Bongi Bower. Here. Council member Sally. Eyre. Madam Chair. Here. You do have Arwa and we do have Councilmember McDermott, who has joined us since anybody else, and I'm sure they will be chiming in shortly. We now have time for public comment. Madam Craig, do you have anybody on the line wishing to provide that? We do not have any voting. Madam Chair. Okay. With that, we will close our time for public comment and we will go on to number five on our agenda, actually, the funding back up. We will course vote on our minutes. I don't see our vice chair councilmember up the ground. Would you please move to approve the minutes of our March 2nd meeting? Thank you. I move the minutes of the March 2nd, 2022 meeting be approved. The motion has been made all. Anybody have any question or comment? All in favor indicate by saying I. Will by. Any person in the minutes have been abducted. Well, now go to number five on our agenda, which is to confirm the appointment of Shawn Peterson to the King County Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force. And Shawn is representing the nonaligned he fund. The task force was established in 2000, meeting to develop a recommended countywide gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion strategy and work plan to implement the use of an additional gender designation or designations in all appropriate administrative processes and use by county departments. We have Sam Porter with us from our central staff to provide the briefing on this item, along with the appointee to answer any questions. Sam, I'll turn it over to you. And do we have Shawn with us? Yes, we do. You are as Shawn. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Sam Porter, Council policy staff. The documents for this appointment began on page eight of your packet. Your summary of its course was very comprehensive. It was established through motion 15162 in June 2018. And they have the task force has been meeting in accordance with the initial framework that was adopted through motion 15623. According to executive staff, they are anticipated to complete their work in mid 2022. The proposed motion would appoint Shaun Peterson. She currently serves as the Gen seven program coordinator for the Lahey Fund. According to the organization's website, she has more than five years of experience in youth program development and implementation, including a program called Native Girls Code, which is focused on computer coding, coding and culturally relevant STEM content for Native girls. That concludes my remarks. Sean is with us along with Mina from the Executive Office. There and Max. Sam, before we proceed. Are there any questions of Sam? Okay. Well, welcome, Sean, to our committee of the home meeting and congratulations on your appointment. And I would like to invite you to tell us a little bit more about yourself and about why you wanted to be serving on the task force. Thank you, Chairwoman. My name is Sharon Peterson. She her. Channel. Baby. Will come. From Vancouver Island, Canada. And I work for the not only fund. And my current role actually is community partnerships manager. I just changed roles and this work is very important to me because within my organization I'm really trying to bring forward LGBTQ. Lens to separate lens. As our organization historically has served native women and girls and as a queer identifying person, it's really important. That we're visible. And that we have a place. And so I was. Approached to sit. On this task force because there weren't very many there wasn't another indigenous person sitting in that space. And I think it's really important for me as an indigenous woman living in the city of Seattle to have a voice when it comes to these kinds of things as relates to the county. Thank you. And congratulations. Have you been able to attend any church? Yes, I. Have been attending regularly for probably the past three months. Terrific. Yeah. Is there anything you would like to share with us about your impressions of the task force and thing that you particularly want to work on or emphasize? Oh, yeah. I have really been impressed with my colleagues in the committee and how much experience that they have, and it's a variety of communities represented, which I think is really important. And a lot of, you know, communities in this area that are marginalized and really trying to put a voice to how these things are implemented, and then also how one of the mechanisms at which any of our recommendations are put into place in the county, and that those that we see those through and that we have a way to understand. And once we put things forward, like how it's actually. Going to be done. Is something we just variously. Talking about. Anchor. Are there any questions of Sean or comments anybody would like to make on the council? Let me. Constantly rebounding. I was just a thumbs up. And I thank you for serving. Yeah, thank you. Yes, very much. Thank you for serving. Councilmember Dombroski was the honor, I should say. Yes. Councilmember Brenda Dombroski was the one who actually came up with the idea for this task force and got it going. And Councilmember Dombroski, give anything you want to comment on. I just will thank Shawn for their service and move approval of the motion if you're ready. Okay. The motion has been made. Before we go to that. I'm wondering, though, if Meena from the executive office would like to say anything. Good morning, Mina. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Mina Hashemi with the executive offer. We are excited about Sean and that path for our staff. Significant time in 2021 doing outreach to ensure that we had a diverse and full task force. And we are excited about Sean's experience and the passion that she'll bring to this work. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else? The motion has been made to a proposed motion 2020 20051 to give it a due course recommendation. Does anyone else on the committee want to say anything else? Okay with that, could you please call the role and propose motion 2020 20051. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council member Banducci. Hi. Council member Dombrowski, I. Councilmember Dunn. I. And some of them. McDermott, I. Councilmember Berry. I. Councilmember at the ground. Councilmember Bond. Ray Bauer. Council member. Caroline. I. Madam Chair, on the board is ayes. No, no. Council member. Bond. Bye bye. Excuse. Thank you. Council member. And can vote before the meeting screen. That. Please let us know. Thank you, Rick. Our vote. We have approved proposed motion 2020 2005. When we will send this motion with the due pass recommendation for the consent agenda to the April 30 Council meeting on stemming objections. Great. Congratulations, Sean. We will be taking this up on the consent calendar. You do not have to be at the meeting to speak. And if you are wanting to be there, you can tell them otherwise. And we will, of course, let you know after the fact as well. Thank you. Great. Thank you all so much. And thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Great. Okay. Our next item, number six is a briefing on a 2020 to be 0039 with King County Regional Homelessness Authority. Providing an update will be Mark Jones Chief Executive Officer and also Felicia Sauceda, who is Executive Director. Are we in an and as I understand, the Partnership for Zero, which is part of this, is a collaboration to dramatically reduce unsheltered homelessness in targeted areas of Clark County. And the initial demonstration projects will launch in downtown Seattle and a set of regional communities. And this is made possible by a public private partnership from King County's business and philanthropic philanthropic communities. You might wonder what this has to do with the King County Regional Homeless Authority, Homelessness Authority, which we will be discussing during this briefing. As I understand from the briefing that I had, that Felicia Saucedo, who is the new executive director of the New We Are and will be talking about how the two groups work together. So with that, I would like to have this start. We do I believe we have Mark with us. Is he here yet? Yes. Good morning, Counselor. Hi, Mark. Good morning. And so year Sauceda. Good morning. Guy. There you are. Okay. Good morning to both of you. I'm going to turn this over to you. We had said about an hour before this briefing, I know that Mark has to leave at 1030, though, so we'll see how that goes. And but I will turn this over to you. And I think you have a plan between the two of you in terms of how you're going to present to us. Would you like to be interrupted for questions or wait until your presentation is completed? Erm I defer to you. Chair I'm comfortable being interrupted. So if folks want to hop and I think that's fine. I will finish. And I do have a deck or two decks actually. I have a deck that sort of provides a broad overview of the authority and then also drills into partnership for zero. And then, Felicia, we'll take it from there. There we are in portion, please. Are you okay with it being interrupted? Yeah. Sounds great. Okay. Thank you. And is it a hard stop at 1030, Mark? For me? Yes. Felicia, are you able to stay or. Also have to leave at 1030? Okay, we'll make that work. So we have 45 minutes, so go right ahead. If we get to have too many interruptions and then we will pause and to finish up and then resume questions. So with that correct. And welcome and thank you for being with us. Thank you for having us. And I'm just going to go ahead and share my screen. Is everyone able to see that? Yes. Great. So I'm going to be brief. The authority wouldn't exist without the support and votes of many of the folks who are on this screen already. And I will also lift up that to folks. Councilmember Duchin, Councilmember McDermott are on our governing board. And so I don't think you all need a profound analysis. Of what. It is the authority is supposed to be doing. But for the good of the public, I'll just walk through sort of our orienting principles and what we are focused on this year and then dove a little bit more specifically into partnership for zero. So the authority, first and foremost, is chartered with a theory of change. And that theory of change is that if we create a homelessness response system that centers the voices of people with lived experience, then we will be able to meet the needs of folks and eliminate inequities in order to end homelessness for all. I think it's just always important to start there because that theory of change was developed in community and in partnership with folks experiencing homelessness who then went on to found and launched the Lived Experience Coalition, which is a really close partner of ours on everything that we do. Additionally has seats on our implementation board and governing committee and are really just part of our day to day work. And so I want to make sure that we really always center that is like that is the mission of this agency. The purpose and goals of the authority are to unify and coordinate all of the homelessness responses across the county. So we represent a consolidation of funding, as you all know, from the county and the city of Seattle through an interlocal agreement and other jurisdictions as they choose to participate. What we are charged with is both, you know, sort of unifying the policy making and direction of the current system. But then I think more importantly, reimagining, right, what is this system supposed to be doing? How do we get everything we do to be really oriented towards producing pathways into housing and making sure that those pathways are sustainable and so that folks are not returning to homelessness after being housed. And then finally, you know, we are charged with co-creation. We really you know, as many of you may remember, over the course of the creation of the authority, talked repeatedly about how important it was that we get out of this sort of, you know, who's in charge and instead of get into a sense of the community, has to step up together and say that it is unacceptable that people are forced to live outside and that we have to create the solutions to that together as well. And so we are charged with co-creation, again, centering folks with lived experience, but also with our service provider, service providers, our houses, neighbors and other partners across the community. And we are an independent agency, so we contract and administer funding. We are responsible for the performance measures across the system and we also lead on the data via HMRC, homeless management information system and other aspects of data collection and performance management. I will just note in terms of timelines and that that is not a slide that is in the stack. I think it's always important to remind folks that the authority, while it was approved, the legislation in 2019, then the pandemic significantly sidelined the ramp up. I was not appointed and confirmed until March of 2021, and I began April 26th of 2021 as a staff of one person with three boards and a lot to do. We are now in a position where, as of this week we have about 52 staff and you know, I feel a lot better. I'll just say that, I mean, once I come to work with a lot less stress. But I think it's just important for folks to understand that, you know, we are still very much in a startup space and will be really until the end of this year. Significant bodies of work that are in front of us are for us to develop and have improved by both the implementation and governing committee, our five year plan to develop and have approved by, again, the Implementation Board and Governing Committee our data and performance metrics for the whole system, and then to rebid that system so that in 2023 we are phasing into again a new direction and a set of unified performance management that. Drinks, etc., that are all again driving towards housing. So, you know, while we have come a long way since April 26, then soon it will be a year for me. That's exciting. We are we won't really be out of that startup space until probably about November, when those are the five year plan. And the performance management stuff is is likely to be approved by the governing committee. And until then, we will be seeking to update folks and be in steady communication so folks don't feel lost in what we're doing. But we are in an interesting place where we are ensuring that nothing that is currently offered stops trying to improve things as we can, but not really in that sort of flip the light switch on a new system. We are also the local CRC now, so the continuum of care which is designated by HUD and comes with a substantial amount of funding of about a third of our budget, actually we are the lead agency for that body of activities as well. I'll also note that we are in the process of we've been awarded our our new HUD grants. We receive level funding for everything that was currently in RCC portfolio and actually had three additional projects funded as well. And I'm very grateful to the partnership that we got from both the City of Seattle and King County and in particular DHS around crafting the application to HUD and the success that we've seen there. Briefly. Again, our core values are just that shelter is not a destination, that we are going to end homelessness through racial equity and social justice, and that we are going to center lived experience. We also want to make sure that we are living very seriously into the understanding that not every community is the same and does not have the same resources, does not have the same needs. And so our subregional planning activity to date has touched all 39 cities in some way. Over 150 organizations. And we have worked to create, in partnership with those communities, seven distinct subregions that we are using to understand again how we might do more granular planning and alignment of goals to drive towards ending homelessness across the county. Really grateful to our subregional planning manager, Alexis Mercedes Grant, who joined us from and cities and brings with her a wealth of knowledge and understanding around the needs of those communities and is really able to center the relationships necessary to understand what people need. I like that when we said you mentioned the public may not be as aware of it. What are the seven subregions? So our seven subregions are still call me Valley, East King County. Sorry. I want to bring in Councilmember Perry is King County. We have a South King County designation as well as a Southeast King County designation. Seattle Metro is its own. And then we've got North King County and then unincorporated King County. Those are our seven. Thank you. And I really want to be very like I just know that folks are hearing this. It's really not. There's very wide variation in the needs of those communities. Right. And so it is absolutely not lip service to say it requires a deep dove and a real understanding of what's going on in those communities in order to craft a plan that actually makes sense. The last thing I'll just say is that, you know, so far our key initiatives this year, outside of the activities that I have also that I've outlined already, we're very focused on pure navigation, which is core to our Partnership for zero effort. So I'll talk a little bit about that there by name list. So many of you may have heard about this, but you know, in, in the homelessness phase by name list is one of the key indicators that a community is going to be successful in ending homelessness. And it is essentially, you know, when a community can say by name, these are the people who need us and these are their needs and this is our plan for those. And so we're very focused on getting to that level of data granularity and clarity across all seven subregions. The emergency housing voucher implementation, which to be honest, when the emergency housing vouchers were released by HUD, this agency had a staff of five. And so the implementation of the housing vouchers actually is a really significant point of pride for us because we were able to do that while also keeping all the other things that we had to keep going, doing. Moving forward, we're focused on a better understanding in response for our high acuity customers. So these are folks who, you know, may have co-occurring disorder or so they may experience psychotic spectrum illness as well as substance use or, you know, have extreme medical needs from a physical health perspective. And then, you know, to the point again, partnership for zero, continued public system and cross-sector collaboration and coordination. Right. I really do believe that homelessness is only possible or ending homelessness is only possible when we start saying we are doing this instead of they are doing this. And so I really want us to be headed towards that direction. One last thing, too, for partnership, very briefly. So on our understanding, unsheltered homelessness, this is the body of activities that are replacing or I should say, augmenting the point in time count. So what we received from HUD was what's called a methods exception, which allows us to conduct the point in time count in a very different way than what is normally asked. So we are undergoing that or undertaking that activity currently where normally would have happened in January or February and it's happening throughout the month of March. We are doing a headcount of unsheltered folks. We have already done a count of folks who are currently in shelter. But the most significant difference is that we are augmenting that with a real. A robust qualitative data collection strategy where we're operating about nine hubs across the county and engaging with people who are currently experiencing unsheltered homelessness and collecting oral histories from them. Most particularly, we are interested in what services work, what services don't work, and how we can better support them on their journey for recovery or housing or whatever they may need. To that end, we are hopeful to collect roughly a thousand oral histories. We'll see what sort of what happens. But we're using a respondent driven sampling methodology that typically generates a fairly large turnout when you're asking people for this kind of data collection. Again, if anyone watching this and wants to be a part of an oral history, I will just add there is also a stipend. So please, you know, look for the hub near you. So, Mark, speaking of that, many of us have these letters that we publish, and of course, we'll be checking out all the social media. Can you get us something that we could then use to send out to the people who subscribe to our emails and so forth? Absolutely. We can do that today. Excellent. And then also a question. So we're not going to have a typical or more typical in the past by a point in time where people sign up and they go out one night, it's going to be spread out over a period of time with interviews and who's going to be conducting their head count of unsheltered individuals . So the headcount happens alongside the qualitative data collection and what we're going to through our nine hubs. What we're doing is there's an initial engagement where folks, you know, go out into encampments, talk to people, let them know about the opportunity, you know, count folks, conduct some interviews. And then from there on, we are providing both to kids and to and from the hubs as well as the stipend so that in come into a space and be interviewed. That final number that we submit to hide it will be generated out of the combination of the headcount that is done in the initial. And then also, you know, the whoever comes in to the hubs and then we we partnered with you and a social scientist there who's much better at quantitative stuff than I am because I'm an anthropologist who is going to run the statistical model that gets us to the number that will file. What I would lift up is that we believe that that the best number to use has already been disclosed out of in partnership with our colleagues at DHS to in the fall through a very complicated administrative data set merge identified that roughly 45,000 people in the county are experiencing housing instability. And what we know is that the point in time county has never actually been able to yield a number that even when you applied force multipliers, got you to a number that high. Right. But that is who we are simply seeing over the course of a year, attempts to access various services and also identifies as experiencing housing instability or homelessness. So that's what we'll be indexing against in terms of what scale we need the system to be at. Thank you. And Councilmember Perry has a question. Thank you to Coles and. And thank you. Mr. Mark. Mark, thank you very much for your presentation. You're just it's amazing the work you're doing. It's amazing the pressure on you that you're fielding and holding and how you were bringing the the ship that has spent so much time getting us to this disaster. You know, then it takes an amount of time to shift that around and it takes many of us willing to make changes that are uncomfortable. So I appreciate you holding in there and staying in there. I'm very excited that my mayor, one of our mayors in the ten cities of our district, District three mayor from Snoqualmie, is excited about your peer and navigator conversation, your peer support. And she called me and shared that you said there might be age. And she we I'm very interested in getting them to all of our cities engaged in an inner local agreement or being part of that positive conversation toward that relationship. So you meeting with them goes so far to encourage that, and I really appreciate your outreach in this area. I'm a broken record. We have 252,000 residents in each of the nine King County districts. We have the same issues that show up differently. We have a lot of woods in our area and a lot of our people who are living unsheltered, you know, they live in these woods and they're very difficult to find. But there's a whole community. So my question to you is, me, this has gone on so long that that communities have formed, whole communities have formed. And sometimes often these days, the reason people don't want to leave is because they have to leave their pet or their belongings or their community. And it's so isolating and in the experience of living outdoors, to find a whole community that protects and watches you and to leave that it's terrifying. It's terrifying to begin with, let alone having to be pulled out of the one thing that might provide some security. So I wonder if part of the program is a mindset to move whole communities. Like a dorm? Yeah. I went to a space together to say, hey, you know, eight of you, we can do this. Would you like to do this as an intentional community together in this house space? Yeah, I really appreciate that question. Council Member And there is so ah intentionality around this system over the next year and a half, which is really going to be and I just, I really deeply appreciate this question is going to be to drive the system towards understanding that relationships matter. And that's part of the reason why peer navigation is so important is because we heard consistently from people experiencing homelessness. I need to talk to someone who's been there, who I trust and who is going to help me through the whole thing, right? So not just get me to shelter, not just get me to, you know, this this behavioral health program, not just it, but get me through all of it. Right. And so peer navigation and this actually Segways into partnership for zero peer navigation as an option allows us to to support people in a longitudinal way and in a relational way that is very different from what we currently offer across the system, where you might, you know, speak to one consistent outreach worker if you're lucky. But then as soon as you transition into the system proper, into shelter, right, you start to get case managers plural. And the more program touchpoints you have, the more of those you're going to get. And again, that's not necessarily to say that those people are bad at doing their jobs or they're doing the wrong thing. But what we hear from folks and what we see in the data is that that one single relationship can have an overriding impact on people's success in all those programs and ultimately even in getting into housing and staying in housing. Right. Which is the big thing again for us is that I don't want to see anyone returning to homelessness after they have injured housing. To your question specifically, I think that, yes, that is something that we are looking at. I think that this is where I'm very heartened by the Olympia budget and hopeful that like, you know, as we get access to those acquisition dollars, that we're able to create spaces that support intentional community, which is very different from where our shelter system has been. And I want to be very transparent about that because again, to the point about turning the ship around, that's going to take a minute and it's going to require us to be really you know, I was on a call recently where, you know, we were going through that siting plans for a shelter. And I was like, hey, not a common question, I think, but like green space. Let's talk that right. Because there is what we understand again is like when we create spaces that allow for human dignity and show value people, people do better. Like. You know, some of the the best shelters I have seen have been implemented inside COVID because they are non congregate people have doors. You know, I've been to one shelter that sited in a decommissioned nursing home. It is the quietest shelter I've ever been in. People are resting. They are working on, you know, recovery skills and job surge. There's a community garden like I have never I've never in over a decade of working in homelessness, I've been in a space that felt that therapeutic and it took this pandemic to get us to creating those spaces. And what's really important is that we not backslide on that, but really double down and honor that community aspect you're talking about. I thank you so much for that answer. And I would as as Chair Colwell said. And by the way, I really appreciate you using the non gendered language of chair and last name versus madam and Mr. and I messed up so I appreciate that that reminder and one thing I'm just hoping as as chair Cole Wells talked about she asked for information on storytellers so that we can share that in our respective spaces. And you know that there are stipends. There's also peer navigator information. I would sure appreciate information on that, if that is something, if those are folks you're looking for within each of our districts. And then also you mentioned this space that you saw that's therapeutic in the best that you've seen. I'm looking for the best that we've got. You know, I'm really interested in that, and I'd love to see that because we have a lot of work to do in each of our spaces to create inviting space. That's not something that we would, you know, continue our ostracizing and demonizing and all of the shaming and all of that. We need good, solid spaces and congregations for the homeless as their rules and specifications. And they're out here in our district now and very, very careful and thoughtful, organized group. And so I'm just capping I'm sort of wanting to. See where those successes are. Yep. I'm out here on bass. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. I just want to check in with the time. It's now 1008 and Mark's got a lot to cover, I believe we have Felicia also discussing the councilmember to ask you a quick question. Thank you. And I know I know we're short on time, but I think this is an important one. At least it is for me. Mark, I tracked the numbers closely in this new 44, 45,000 number really jumped out because historically we've talked about, I think in recent years, about 12,000 folks, 6000 of whom roughly are kind of without any shelter on any given night. And I really think it's important for policymakers to understand the scope of the challenge. And I heard you say that the 44 or 45,000 is kind of an unstable house number and that we have to scale the system to meet that demand. That sounds like something that's not comparable to the old 12,000 was 6000 on shelter every night. Can you help me understand exactly where we are on in the county, say on any given night number of folks unsheltered, say, you know, on the street, if you will, or how that 45,000 number compares to the 1206 number. Yeah. Thank you, Councilmember. That's a really important question. I think I would say a couple of really quick things, acknowledging time one, yeah, that 45,000 number is really different. And it is one of the reasons why myself and other folks who've been in this work for quite some time have been critical of the point in time count . And let's be clear, in the hot air report, it reports that the state of Washington has 23,000 folks experiencing homelessness. Right. And by doing that deep dove with DHS, we were able to see that just our county has doubled that need. Right. And so it is going to be critical for us if we're going to end homelessness to become an actually data driven culture. Right. And that means sort of stepping into these these big uncomfortable numbers and saying this is what we need to be responsive to in terms of the the breakdown, in terms of who is experiencing unsheltered homelessness there. That's a level of refinement that we need to do a little bit more work on. And our teams are currently collaborating on that work. Essentially what we did was look across a number of different program types and aggregate the folks who are saying or accessing things that are specifically for folks experiencing homelessness or accessing things and self-identifying as experiencing homelessness. Right. In order to derive a specific number of folks who are unsheltered, we need to refine across some of the programs where questions are being asked, which is doable, but then to arrive at a preliminary number of who is truly unsheltered, we need to split out some of the programs that serve just unsheltered folks. Right. And look at those and that's invite. And so hopefully we'll be able to answer that question soon with something that is more stable. My gut, if I'm being just honest, tells me that in terms of people who are truly unsheltered, based on the data that I look at, I suspect it is closer to 10,000 people. Okay, thanks. And I am interested in keeping getting more information on these numbers and kind of how they're compiled. And I confess to still not totally understanding it. But I want to because you're asking us here to be asking us for money. I want to know what what were you working to solve? Thank you. And Councilmember DEMBOSKY, we will bring Mark back, hopefully sometime this year to give a report back to. That's great. And I appreciate his shout out to the folks in Shoreline. And I want to thank the city of Sterling for their leadership in getting the facility up and running down. And I helped open it. And it is a fabulous place. I encourage you all to come visit. Thank you then, Mike. Let's go on now. And okay, so I'm going to be very brief to make time for Felicia. So Partnership for zero. I will just say this is our attempts to respond to the emergency of homelessness with emergency management approaches. Right. So another thing I think, you know, if you go all the way back to the very first US agency Council on Homelessness Report in 2013, that report was one of and the federal plan was one of the first major milestones where the Federal Government called for local jurisdictions to respond to homelessness as like through crisis, right through crisis management techniques. And to be candid across the nation, we have not necessarily done that right. We still approach things in in a very traditional governance way. And switching to crisis management is actually something that Partnership for Xero will allow us to do. So what our goal is, is to create a function or create functional zero subsystems and specific areas in King County, right. So that means we'll drive down the number of folks who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness to very low numbers, and then we'll hold those numbers there. Right. That doesn't mean that new people won't come experience unsheltered homelessness, but how functional zero works is. It means that the number of people who exit unsheltered homelessness in a given time frame a week, a day, a month, right, is the same number of people who enter. So on any given day, what that means is if 30 people are experiencing unsheltered homelessness, it should stay at around 30. We are focused on doing that through a unified command center model. And this is where I say truly, we are adopting the strategies of emergency management. So unified command center models are specifically deployed when an issue requires a multi-jurisdictional response. So, for example, in our work that has already been announced downtown, the folks who sit at that table are the authority, the county, the city, and then the lived experience, folks. Right. And then we have the sort of core operating areas of emergency management coming off that in terms of operations, planning, planning, logistics and administration, and then a multi-agency coordination table, which helps us work in collaboration with providers who are either doing adjacent and parallel work or are operating in the same geographic area specifically. And the glue for all of this, and I want to be really clear, is that pure navigation, right? So that is that is the resource that is going out and will be connecting with people and building both the binding list for the area that is that we're working in and then also supporting people in that longitudinal way out of encampment into services and into housing. And I also want to be really clear that one of the things that peer navigation unlocks is that I think this is actually very good, is that we don't need to be everybody's savior. I think that's a thing that is is false. And as a person who experience housing instability, as a person who, you know, is in recovery from a serious mental health condition, like I never went into a shelter right leg. And you know, this supports that I was able to access. Right. Allowed me to regain my footing and have and track my path back into a community without having to access some of those things. And and it was really the relationships that allowed that to happen. And so, again, one of the things that we think poor navigation can do and we've seen in other systems in other jurisdictions, is that it unlocks people's ability to build their own path. That doesn't necessarily utilize everything that we have right. But instead it really places the power in their hands to craft their reality and their own strategy. Again, back into housing, we have seen that be successful even in a short time. You know, frankly, during severe weather where we focused on building relationships with people over the course of the last severe weather incident, really trying to figure out what are your needs. We were able to exit people from homelessness using the centralized diversion fund during the severe weather incident by just again, building their relationship and being clear on, you know, what do you actually need? As opposed to presuming that everyone needs to go from unsheltered to shelter to PCH, which is basically what the system operates around the presumption of right now. And I believe that we can do much better. I'm going to stop because that is the gist. And I'm going to turn it over to Felicia. And I believe I'm running your slides to Felicia. So let me just pop down and. Thanks, Mark. And I'll try to keep it brief because we have more time for questions at the end. Thank you so much for having me today. And as Chair Colwell said at the beginning, I'm Felicia Salcedo. I use her pronouns and I'm the executive director of We Are In. Go to the next one, Mark. Thanks. So a little bit about what we are in is it's an organization that has just stood up so similar to Mark. We are right now in our startup phases and are fully staffing through the end of the year. But essentially we were established in 2019 in a parallel process as a regional commerce authority was being formed through legislation that passed through this body. It's a coalition, everyone on the external side. So all of the external partners, including business, philanthropy advocates, service providers and of course folks with lived experience of homelessness themselves, but also members of the general public that are very interested in this issue and want to be part of solutions. And the idea is that we're uniting resources to really end homelessness across King County, not to just manage the issue, but to really reach that end point and also to advocate for more affordable housing. And all of this is in partnership with our public partners at the King County Regional Homeless Authority, the city of Seattle, King County, and also the other cities across the region as well. Thanks, Mike. So again, just a little bit of background. The group was really started by these seed funders here. So again, many familiar names in business and philanthropy that are supportive of solutions to end homelessness and recognize the need for deep investments in affordable housing in order to support the population experiencing homelessness in King County right now. So ALMER groups, one of our lead funders, Bill Amanda Gates, who have for many, many years invested family homelessness, specifically Raikes Foundation and Schultz Family Foundation, as well as Campion Foundation, who have really more focused on youth homelessness, recognize the need to come together and think about responding to homelessness at a system level for all population. So a really significant shift in the way that they're approaching this issue as well. Just explain a little bit about our relationship to the regional authority again. So the Regional Action Framework was developed in a community process. It's really our high level plan and roadmap, how we're addressing homelessness across King County. And again, the same stakeholders were involved, including folks with lived experience of homelessness who are navigating the system on a daily basis. The regional authority was really set up to use those public funds to be the hub for the data infrastructure so that we have a better understanding of what's happening in real time and how our system is performing. But as Mark mentioned as well, those unique needs of the clients that we intend to serve and we have the crisis response management in mind. So that's really that the role of the regional authority. We are meant to support the regional homeless authority. Many of those seed funders that I listed for part of the process and advocacy group to really ensure that that could be brought online. We are managing private funds, so everything coming in from business and philanthropy to support the regional homeless authority, but also broader solutions around homelessness and housing affordability in our community. That also includes communication and advocacy. So you'll be seeing we've done some work to support the health through housing initiative across the region, but other areas as well where we know we need to really change the narrative around what's necessary to support people experiencing homelessness, our community looking at those root causes in particular. We also plan to invest in the system changes that we know are necessary. So our first initial investment is really in this Partnership for Zero initiative that we believe in so much and hope to take to scale across the region. So again, our values are very much shared with the Regional Homeless Authority and community partners that are doing this work on a daily basis. We work to be racially equitable, community driven and data informed in our response. And also we operate off the same theory of change that Marc mentioned earlier, that if we create a homeless response system, a truly centered customer voice, then we will be able to focus on responding to needs and eliminating inequities in order to end homelessness for all. So we also ascribe to that and work through that in our decision making processes. And then finally again, just to be more granular about what our work is, impact investments to support change across the system, really want to advance the work of the regional action framework that was community driven. We want to be responsible with our private dollars to make sure that we are responding to those community needs and also heavily focus on advocacy and communications in order to support our long term strategies around these issues. I think that's it. Okay. That was fast police here. Thank you very much for being with us. And I want to hear from my colleagues on the committee, but I do have one quick question. When I met with you quite a while back, you mentioned that you and Mark talked almost daily or text. You were really working hand in hand. So how does that really work? You run starting to stand up. Now this private group and mark runs for agency. How do you intertwine? Start, Mark. Go ahead, girl. I mean, you know, I joked when I took this job that like, you know, people there is some article that was like the unprecedented power of the homeless authority. And I was like, I am Chief Cat here at bat suit, like, and and, you know, I very much believe that that is how affiliation I work with, just like we are oriented towards different cats, right? So like, so my work is really to bring together our public sector partners around a shared vision and, you know, a common agenda. And Felicia's orientation is towards the private sector gaps, right? Who you know, similarly, like we are trying to bring together around that shared vision. And what Felicia and I talk about daily is are like, are we aligned regularly? Right. Like so like we have the same macro points, right? That we, we, you know, inflation. I have known each other now for the past six, seven years, almost so. So our relationship and our relationship to this work is actually very cemented. But what we talk about is literally at the level of, you know, okay, if I'm going to deploy five people here, does that align with your vision and your funders and who they're thinking about, you know, so like it is in the details. And what we're trying to always ensure is that, again, the entire community is stepping forward together on a plan. And I, I really want to emphasize that because neither of us are are in the position of checking in with each other to, you know, you know, I'm not calling Felicia and saying, hey, is Microsoft okay with this? Right. Like, that's not the role. And nor is Felicia calling me and saying like, hey, like, you know, have you, you know, talk to the mayor is like, are they mad about this? We are collectively talking to our respective stakeholders and then coming together and saying, this is what we're hearing. These are the directions community wants to go. Let's make sure that we are aligned in shepherding the dollars and the resources that we are entrusted with in alignment with that vision. Thank you. And we have constantly resolved the question. Thank you, Chair Cole Wells. Thank you, Mark and Felicia, for being here. I want to revisit the 45,000 number one more time. It's striking to me how similar that number is to the 40,000 units of missing affordable housing. 40 to 50% AMI and below. Conceptually, can we think of those two numbers as two sides of the same coin? You know, 45,000 people who are housing unstable and 40,000 units of missing truly affordable housing? Or are they describing two different concepts? Councilmember I would love if you thought of those as the same thing. Okay. The like. And just, you know, I don't mean to be glib, but but the solution to homelessness is always going to be housing. Right. Right. And again, when I talk about building a relationally oriented system, it is about building pathways to housing. It is not about, you know, constructing greater or more complicated pools of service. And what we understand is that, you know, for our community and, you know, for most experiencing homelessness, that 0 to 30%. Am I right? Like the truly low income housing is just missing. You know, as part of my work recently, I was looking at, you know, housing rental costs, apartment rental costs in some of our smaller communities. You know, the median rental costs for an apartment I believe in, Duvall, are Carnation is around 20 $500 a month now. Right. So I really want to be clear that there's nowhere in our county where we can just say, oh, well, why don't you go there? Right. That's not a that's not a real thing. Everyone is being crushed by where our housing market is and the level of what I would consider a crisis that it is. And I really appreciate the equivalence of those two numbers because it keeps our eye on the right ball. I think there's sometimes an attempt to divorce the homelessness crisis from the housing crisis, and those are not two separate things. So looking at a figure like 45,000, that continually puts us puts our eyes on the ball and makes us address the root causes, I think is an important concept. And I appreciate you all doing that. Thank you, Constable. Hello. Are there any more questions? Mark Anderson's here. Councilmember Perry. It's okay if no one else has a question. Go out of here. Thank you very much, Chair Coles. So thank you both for your again for this wonderful presentation. And I look forward to meeting with with each of you again as, as your schedules allow. And I I'm just wondering about, you know, I was listening to when the state when we had our signing day and the comments about Washington state being the least housed state per capita in the union. And I thought that was good language and awareness to factor into our conversation. Least housed state per capita in the union. That's important. And and another thing that I think is really important, the work that you're doing to work to make sure folks have a door and a lock. I'm very interested in the behavioral health component of this, which is not all of these issues. They're very, very complicated issues. But behavioral health has its own needs for stability and community landing spaces beyond social services and mental and behavioral health, mobile integrated health units and other things, they're interlocked. And some of what you're doing here can apply very, very well in a similar kind of system and structure of recovery for the behavioral health community. But they are different. And so I just I want to find a way to link these two, but also recognize the the clear separation of the two, because the reasons for homelessness are many and varied. And we have to have a many and varied approach. So we have to separate those need. So I just look forward to working with you on those systems and structures in those two ways. Thank you. I'm sorry, Chair. No, go right ahead. We have about 2 minutes left for the time you have available to us, so maybe we'll see first about this. Any other question? Of course, three has. Apparently not. I have a whole bunch of them, but I will wait. And so, Mark, can we get a copy of the PowerPoint that you provided to us? Of course we'll. Send that. Over. Right. And just very briefly, I appreciate Councilmember Perry's statement. And I will say Director Flora and I talk also about daily and we are very clear on where there is that overlap between what we're trying to design from a systems perspective. And I would lift up. I think it's just really important that when we talk about folks experiencing homelessness, only about 15, 20% experiencing homelessness have those really significant behavioral health or substance use needs. For most people, it is strictly economic. And we we really need to center that right, because it is that's why housing is the solution for most people. And again, some people need more and we need to make sure that is there. But we can't confuse the part for the whole. Right. And he said, Do you have anything you would like to add or a conclusion? I would just like to double down on what Mark said. I think we have lots of conversations about robust behavioral health supports and other system supports to really help stabilize and housing. But we need to make sure that that housing is available. And there are so many people that are stuck in our system because we have no place to place them so that they have permanent housing options. I think even thinking about this as a prevention opportunity as well, many people's behavioral health issues are exacerbated when they're forced to live unsheltered in our community. And so if we're able to provide housing, we actually have better outcomes with our service delivery as well. Thank you very much. And Councilmember McDermott, that's something. Anything. Okay. Looked like you. You were unmuted. Okay. Really appreciate you being here. So we will have both of you. And also, I want to commend all that you're both doing. And Felicia, please pass on our regards and appreciation to all the private funders. I mean, there's so much that is able to be done with their assistance. Okay. Any final remarks from anybody? Well, thank you very much. And we'll see you before too long. Great. Thank you for the time. Our next and final agenda is an ordinance that would conform the membership of the King County Board of Health to a new state law, as amended last year by the state legislature and second substitute House Bill 1152 that was adopted in May of 2001 and made some additional related changes. Councilmember McDermott is the sponsor of this legislation. I just marry my name to that to a council member. About a council member. McDermott is chair of our Concurrent Board of Health, and we are going to have Sam Porter from our central staff to provide the briefing along with Amber Quinn and Susie Baby from Public Health, Seattle and King County to answer any questions. But before we start, Councilmember McDermott, you want to make any opening remarks. Madam Chair, I'll just briefly say, as we introduced in the Senate will spell out in more detail this is coming about because the legislature in 2021 amended or restructured local boards of health. And so this is the step we need to take as a council, as a county, to then allow the Board of Health to engage in an active recruitment process for its non-elected members, which by state law now has to increase and prompt attention to. This legislation, will give us the opportunity to have a very robust outreach and recruitment process for non-elected members of the Board of Health, and then to take up to bring those nominees back to this council who will actually make the legal appointment to the Board of Health. And as as you and council members Ottaway and Taberski know, as members of the Board of Health, we have great participation and involvement from our smaller number of health professionals that are on the board now. And in fact, we have a history of including non board members, public members on task forces and committees we have formed over the decade. I have served on the Board of Health. So I think this is a way to strengthen and bring more voices to our work and look forward to its outcome, even as it will be a major topic of work, body of work for the Board of Health this year. Thank you, Councilor McDermott. And as I went over to the staff report, there was a lot I've learned in terms of what I hadn't realized I was going to be part of this. So it's a bit complicated. I think it's by reaching very significant and I think it seems like we're going to end up with a very much stronger Board of health in terms of the composition. So thank you. And with that, we will turn to Sam Corder. Go right ahead, Sam. Thank you, Madam Chair. The documents for 2020 20103 begin on page 15 of your packet. By way of background, the King County Council was originally designated as the Board of Health in 1993 through Ordinance one 1178. In December of 1995, Ordinance 12 098 added four council members from the city of Seattle, three electeds from suburban cities, and three health professionals to the 12 King County Council members for a 22 member board. Subsequent ordinances have resulted in the current 11 member board, which consists of three King County members, three from City of Seattle, and two electeds selected by the city's association, and three health professionals under state law and the entire local agreement for public health services between the City of Seattle and King County. The King County Board of Health is responsible for setting countywide public health policy, enacting and enforcing local public health regulations in line with state law, and establishing fees for license, licenses, permits and other services. As you mentioned, in 2021, the Washington state legislature has passed House Bill 1152, which increases the number of non-elected members on local boards of health across the state. Proposed Ordinance 2020 20103 would conform the membership of the King County Board of Health to this law. And these changes include requiring an equal number of non-elected members, as there are elected on the board, replacing the existing three health professional positions with eight non-elected members, with one of those selected by the American Indian Health Commission and seven members recruited, selected, recruited, and selected by the King County Board in accordance with State Law and Washington State Board of Health Rules. These members are required to represent three categories, which are public health, health care facilities and providers, consumers of public health and other community stakeholders. Non-elected members shall have voting powers on all matters except those pertaining to setting or modifying permitting, licensing and application fees. The proposed ordinance also sets appointment procedures and terms structure for non-elected members. Codifies the current practice for elected member alternates and removes the requirement that it King County Council members vote is counted as two votes. In addition to these changes to comport with state law. The proposed ordinance would also codify the practice for election of the Chair, provide compensation of $225 per board meeting for non elected members who are not otherwise compensated by their employers for their participation and require alternates for non elected members. The proposed ordinance would also allow the current membership requirements that are in King County Code to remain in place through the. December 31st of this year. House Bill 1152 directs the Washington State Board of Health to promulgate rules regarding the selection and appointment process for non-elected members of local boards of health. State law requires that these board rules go into effect no later than July 26, 2022. And the changes to the membership of local boards of Health due to 1152 are to go into effect July 1st of this year. The proposed ordinance would retain the existing elected member positions on the board and codify current practice of selecting alternates. This means that the elected membership would continue to include three King County Council members and one alternate three elected officials from the City of Seattle and one alternate and two elected officials from cities and towns other than Seattle and two alternates. The proposed ordinance would remove the requirement of to that King County members would have to weighted votes and codify the current practice that the board chair is elected from among the King County members. The proposed ordinance would replace the three health professional positions on the board, with eight new non-elected members that are representing positions as shown in Table one, which is on page 18 of your packet. State law requires that one of these members is selected by the American Indian Health Commission. The remaining seven members are to be selected from those three categories described in Table two in more detail, which is page 19 of your packet. Only members selected from the public health consumer category are required to be residents of King County. Only one non-elected member can be selected from any single type of background or position as described in the three categories. And the proposed ordinance would require an equal number of non-elected alternates, as there would be elected alternates with one of those non-elected alternates to be selected by the American Indian Health Commission. The proposed ordinance states that one of the non-elected members representing public health, health care facilities and providers should have knowledge of environmental health, including septic systems and groundwater quality. This provision is currently in King County code to be fulfilled by one of the health professional members on board. State law includes a formula for the distribution of non-elected members across these three categories. For the King County Board, it becomes the number of not elected members. After the eight agency member is seven, there must be two members from each of the two from two of the categories and three members from the third category, which results in a mostly even distribution. Given that it's an odd number. The proposed ordinance. Section five outlines the proposed term structure for the non-elected membership of the board. For initial terms, this would be two members serving a one year term. Three members serving a two year term and three members serving a three year term. A full term would be considered three years, but initial terms are considered full terms when considering eligibility for future service. The proposed ordinance states that the Council would appoint by motion the non-elected member candidates selected by the Board and the HRC member and outlines the requirements for what the Board needs to transmit for these appointments to be made. The Board would need to transmit these materials to no later than October 28th of this year. Section six of the proposed ordinance would allow for compensation to be paid to non-elected, regular and alternate members of the board who are not being compensated for their participation through their employer. The proposed rate of compensation is $225 per full board meeting attended not to exceed that amount each month beginning January 1st, 2024 and each year thereafter. The compensation amount would be automatically adjusted by the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers the Seattle Tacoma Bellevue area, also known as CPI U. If the 12 month change in CPI was negative, there would not be an adjustment. This CPI view provision is included in the most recent board compensation package for the Children and Youth Advisory Board adopted in Ordinance 19397. The estimated maximum annual compensation for the board would be approximately $27,000. Executive staff indicate that they would include the cost of the compensation and any additional staffing needs to support the board expansion in their 2020 324 biennial budget request. Information is included in the staff report regarding a 2020 supervisor report that was transmitted on board compensation. Information about this is on pages 22 and 23 of your packet. As I mentioned earlier, the Washington State Board is directed by House Bill 1152 to promulgate rules establishing requirements for the recruitment, selection and appointment process of non-elected members of local points of health. On February 25th, 2022, the State Board filed a C.R. one or two proposed rule with a stakeholder adviser to create this chapter of the Washington Administrative Code. The formal public comment period for the proposed rule is anticipated to run through March of this year with a public hearing in April, according to the estimated rulemaking timeline provided by the State Board. These rules are anticipated to be effective July 1st, which is the same day that House Bill 1152 is effective. Proposed Ordinance 2020 20103 is in alignment with the proposed rule, as it appears in the C.R. one or two. The Board of Health will be briefed on its proposed ordinance at their meeting tomorrow, and public health staff indicate that the board will begin the formal recruitment and selection process this spring. In addition to the process to amend Board of Health Code to align with state law and its proposed ordinance and board staff indicate that they don't have any issues with the timing included in the proposed ordinance. Before I conclude, I want to point out the timing issue that you have probably noticed resulting from the effective date of House Bill 1152. These changes go into state law effective July 1st, but the state board rules are not required to be effective until July 25th. As structured, the proposed ordinance recognizes the board's role in recruiting and selecting candidates for the non-elected positions and requires that the new reconstituted board be in place by January 1st of 2023. Figure one on page 24 of your packet provides an estimate of timelines for implementation. There is a technical striking amendment that begins on page 26 of your packet that would make technical corrections to the proposed ordinance and ensure that the language in sections 8 to 12 that would remain in code starting in January of next year, matches Section one V in the ordinance. And we have Susie Levy, the board administrator, on the call, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Sam, for an excellent staff report. So Andrew Quinn is not telling us about it? No, not today. Okay. So we have Suzy with us, who is the board administrator. And thank you for being here, Suzy. Are there any questions of your Sam or Suzy? Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks for this overview of this big restructure. I'm wondering which of these are all local choices for structure and requirements versus those dictated by state law? Sure. So the changes requiring an equal number of non-elected electeds and the three categories are required by state law. And removing the weighted votes for King County members, the state law allows the county and legislative authority to provide compensation if they wish. And the let's see, codifying the current practice for the election of the chair is not required by state law. That's super helpful. So if I understand the answer, Sam, the number of members we're doing here and kind of their basic qualifications, that's generally we're just following the state law change. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good question. Councilor Dombroski. Madam Chair, if I may. Of course, Counselor. Chairman. I would just further elaborate. Council Member Boesky What the state law requires that we have an equal number of non-elected and elected members, but it doesn't set that number at eight. In drafting the legislation, I chose to keep the same number of elected members and increased to that same number of the non-elected members. Thanks. Rider I was picking up on that. You didn't want like a 40 member board to join you, nor did I want to start telling colleagues on the Board of Health they were losing their have to go. Gotcha. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Council member about it? Thank you. And I apologize if you said this and I missed it, but has. The board there have they been consulted. About these changes? And did they have any feedback or. I think that's coming up tomorrow. That's Council Councilmember McDermott going on. It in advance of this hearing. I have shared the legislation and the staff report with the members of the Board of Health. But their formal briefing on this legislation as introduced will be tomorrow. I'm at our Board of Health meeting. Thank you. I appreciate that. And just it seems like something is kind of more more I have to do than I wanted to do and a very reasonable proposal. But before we vote on. Final passage, it would be really good to hear if there were any strong thoughts or ideas from from the board themselves. Thank you. And a council member belted chai referring to during the time we have final passage. Yes. So not in the committee. Correct? Yes. By final passage at the council. Thank you for clarifying. Sure. Thank you. Are there any other questions? SESAY Do you have any comment you would like to make. Now to thank you for taking the steps so we can continue with this empowering restructure work? Right. Okay with that unless there are any questions. Councilmember Turner, would you like to move proposed ordinance 2020 20103? I'd be happy to. I mean, we give a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2022, 103. Thank you. And we do have a striking amendment. Would you like to go ahead and move that? And then we can take everything up and move. Adoption of striking the amendment. S1. The motion has been made. Councilmember McDermott, would you. Well, first I would take a strike. The. The striking amendment. Would you like to speak to that? It's largely technical. I'd actually defer to Mr. Porter. And she gave us a short description of it already that it was strictly technical. But Sam, do you want to add anything? Yeah. So basically the way that the ordinance is structured, there are sections of it that, well, the timing of it allows the code adviser to remove no longer necessary sections from King County code. And this technical amendment just makes sure that that section, the sections that are remaining in code, match another section. Are there any questions of Sam under the stroke amendment? With that all in favor of striking amendment one please signify by indicating I'm I any opposed to this striking amendment is adopted and we will now go to proposed ordinance 2020 20103 as amended. Councilmember McDermott, any words? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll reiterate what I said earlier, but underscore I'm an important part of that. There will be times during the coming year when at the Board of Health this will be a major part of our work plan and taking up our time and will feel like an imposition. But at the same time, this is including larger voices in our Board of Health that will be that are currently under referenced, unrepresented and underrepresented, and they will greatly enrich our work and our conversation. So while some of the logistics and mechanics of the restructure will take work, and I'm sure I'll be frustrated at times in the process, it will lead to a more and more robust, engaged public participation and currently underrepresented or unrepresented voices in the Board of Health. So the end result will be a much stronger conversation and work on behalf of the people of King County. Thank you, Councilmember McDermott. Very well said. And I echo what she said. I'm actually very excited about the changes that we will be making and bringing in more inclusiveness. And I think it will be very helpful not only to our board but to all the people in our King County. Are there any other comments anybody wishes to make? Okay. Now, could you please call the roll? Enjoy, Madam Chair. Council Member Ritchie High Council member them asking. I. Council member di. I. As a member McDermott. High. Council member Perry. I. Council member at the Grow. Councilmember Van de Boer. I. Councilmember. So, hello. Hi. Madam Chair. Hi. What is this? No, not in council member rescues. Okay. We have both. We have approved proposed ordinance 2020 20103 as amended. And unless anybody has a concern about placing and I'm concerned, we will send this ordinance with the due pass recommendation for the consent agenda to the April 7th Council meeting. Okay. Thank you. And that concludes the action items on our agenda. But before we adjourn, I want to make sure that any council member was unable to vote. I think there may have been one during the approval of the minutes. Is there anything else that we need? The proposed motion as in 20 20051 council member bond. Bye bye. We had a vote. I voted I on confirmation. Thank you so much. Okay. Is there anything else? Angelica councilmember are. I figure you present. You can still vote today, can you not? That's correct, yes. So perhaps you could contact him afterwards. Okay. I'm next regular AGM and our next regular meeting of the committee of the whole is scheduled for April six. And I'd like to thank everybody who participated in today's meeting. And if there's no other business to come before the committee. Apparently not. We are adjourned. Thank you all.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Shawn Peterson to the King County gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion task force, representing the Na'ah Illahee Fund.
king_072c7707-6560-4b31-a74e-6d5f81f8b6d7	The September 8th meeting of the committee of the whole. I'm Joe McDermott, serving as chair of the Committee of the Whole this year. In a letter to the public health emergency, Governor Inslee has issued an emergency order suspending this section of the Open Public Meetings Act that requires we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. This order has been extended by the State Senate and House of Representatives. And as we begin today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present, and they continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd like to also acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. Today in our meeting agenda, we have a briefing from executive staff on the county's COVID 19 response. We're being joined by Public Health Director Patty Hayes, health officer Dr. Jeff Duchenne and Dwight Dave Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Following that, we'll have discussion on two possible action items in motion requesting that the executive contract with University of Washington to conduct a retrospective analysis of the county's COVID response and a motion reaffirming the council's support of unbanked money transfer operators and the immigrant communities they serve. Two housekeeping notes as we get started. To help us manage the meeting, I'd like to ask the public, as well as executive staff and council staff, please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. And additionally, if you're connecting to the meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment, I would ask you to please connect instead using the Zoom application. If you are connecting to the meeting without using the Zoom application, we may not be able to unmute you and hear public testimony. We ask that if at all possible, if you wish to offer public testimony, you take this opportunity to transfer to use the Zoom app. With that, I'd ask the court to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci here, Councilmember them asking their council member done here. Council Member Wells The Council member Lander. Council member of the Grove here. Councilmember Yvonne, right down here. Council members on hand. I hear. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn, may I ask you for a motion to approve the minutes of our last meeting? August 25th. So move, Mr. Chair. Council member Dennis moved approval of the minutes of our August 25th meeting. See? No discussion. All those in favor, please say i, i. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Next on our agenda is public comment. Madam Clerk, can I assume we have people on the line? I'm wishing for public comment today. Yes, we do, Mr. Chair. Great. I'm having an entirely remote meeting for the King County Council is still relatively new for us. I want to be sure that everyone is called in to participate in public comment, understand how the process will be managed. First, our standard ground rules and public comment must be related to items on today's meeting agenda and not be used for the purposes of assisting a campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. It must also not include obscene speech. If the speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, they may be ruled out of order and they may be required to exit the virtual meeting. Now I'll describe the process as all members of the public joined the meeting. There were automatically muted. We can see your names or the last three digits of your telephone numbers. Our committee clerk will call the names or numbers when the your name or the last three digits of your phone number is called, staff will unmute your line. Please make sure that you also unmute your own phone if you have muted yourself as a courtesy. A reminder that if you're calling in from a cell phone, we recommend that you connect using the Zoom application. Otherwise we may not be able to unmute you. Before you begin your testimony, when you called on before you begin your testimony, please state perhaps your name, but say something and wait to be acknowledged. So we know that we can hear you and can we can confirm that for you. And then start by saying and spelling your name so we can capture it accurately for the record. If you wish your video to be turned on for you public comment please request that at the beginning of your testimony. You have 2 minutes to speak and you'll hear a timer go off when your time has expired. However, please do finish your thought, but do wrap up your comments at time so that we can move on to the next person and hear from everyone. If you get much past 2 minutes, you may be muted. And if you're listening on the TV or streaming, please turn that function off. Otherwise, we'll hear feedback on the line during your public testimony. And though I don't expect this to be the case, if you are disruptive to the meeting, we will ask staff to hang up the calls. So you leave the meeting. Please do hang up when you have completed your comments to make it a make it easier for us to manage the call. And you can follow the remainder of the meeting on King County Television Channel 22 or stream online. The link to stream online is found on the council's website. W WW Gut King County Govt backs council and then you click on the ever popular Let us live button. Now we'll begin public comment when the clerk calls on you again. Please maybe state your name and weight to make sure that we can acknowledge that we can hear you, Madam Clerk. The line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is. Excuse my pronunciation, Rob. Oh, no, c m USC. Yeah, that's right. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. It's the council. Members. My name is Robin Lusane, and I'm the founder of The Right to Be Bank Campaign. I'm a 20 year resident of King County and I currently reside into Queta. I will be speaking in support of Resolution 0286 in my five years of advocating for the solutions to bank de-risking. I found that it's hard for most people to understand this issue. So let me explain it this way. Imagine if all the banks in the state of Washington refuse to offer you an account. How would you receive your salary from King County? If the payroll department pays you in cash, where would you store it? No bank account means no credit cards, so you would not be able to order services that are considered essential, like an umbrella or purchase from Amazon. And more importantly, you would not be able to build a credit, get a loan, or buy a house. All advancement in this modern economy is intrinsically linked to our ability to access the banking system. Bank derisking has denied lawful black immigrant businesses this access, creating an underclass that has to operate exclusively in cash. While there are many reasons to support this resolution in the interest of time, I'll give you two. It's about public safety. It is estimated that East African. Money. Transmitters physically carry close to $10 million in cash through the Sea-Tac Airport. Every month. This has attracted robbers. In the last seven years, there have been a string of armed robberies targeting these businesses in the King County. Let's address this issue before someone gets hurt or worse. It's about racial. Equity and equal. Access. I commend the Council for their efforts in addressing racial equity in the criminal justice system. After the killing of George Floyd. But we also need to address inequities in accessing economic opportunities. Bank derisking has disproportionately impacted black immigrant and Muslim residents of King County. I would like to thank the council members after Grove and DEMBOSKY for sponsoring this resolution. I hope this is a symbolic resolution. The King County government. Remains. Active role in advocating for changes in Olympia. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Shem Chau Isaac. Please go ahead. You are muted on our and please the mute yourself. Sham show stack i SSA Kim. I'll move on to this person is listed as sham show S.H. 8 a.m.. So. Please go ahead. Hello? Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Go ahead, please. Sorry about the technical difficulties. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is John. So, Isaac, I am the executive director of Living Wall Kent. I am originally from Somalia, immigrated 35 years ago, lived in South King County, 22 years. I'm the executive director. As I said, even while Kent, living while campus community driven collaborative, focuses on creating healthier, equitable and more sustainable community living, while Kent goals include creating community which all residents thrive. Our mission is to increase health equity, health equity and community connectedness in South King County. I'm representing South King County community based organizations. I'm also representing Kent resident. I'm here today in support of Motion 2020 Dash 0 to 86. This issue is very important to immigrants and immigrant families, as many. As many of businesses offering money transfer services. And that's the only lifeline funding that our families in back in our countries received from us. They provide services through language and other often culturally appropriate services. Many families such as mine. And we. I appreciated the services these stores and businesses provide. Thank you. Council member Upton Grove for supporting this is very important motion and I'm here to present immigrants and refugees in South King County. Thank you for listening. Thank you. The next person on the line is has a phone number. Last three digits. 741. Please go ahead and unmute yourself and you can speak. Last for last three digits, seven, four and one. If you'd like to speak. Please go ahead and mute. Mr. Chair, that is all the folks on the line. That I can see. All right. Thank you. To make sure we haven't missed anybody, this may be chaotic moment, but I'm going to ask the clerk to unmute all the lines there. I'm sorry. Let me interrupt myself. I see seven for one is now unmuted is the person with a telephone number ending in seven for one? I'm wishing to offer public text testimony. Yes. My name is Maria Hatch, and that's a last name to do so in the last four digits. So my number is actually 3741. I'm calling in because we've been dealing with a matter involving with regard to child abuse, part of my students record and public corruption. My daughter has experienced documented serial child abuse and the value school district. There have been mandatory reporters violations. And this past school year, we actually we actually experienced documented documented promoting of suicidality in my child by school administrators. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt. Might ask if this is going to pertain to something on the today's council meeting agenda. It doesn't pertain to anything on today's meeting agenda. This has to do with the safety and welfare of my daughter. I hear that concern. Though our rules do require that testimony be germane to something on today's council agenda. There is a council meeting each month where we take public comment on any item within the county's purview, whether it's on the agenda or not. And you're always welcome to email or reach out to individual council members of the council on the whole. And with the date at that meeting. BE Sir. I don't have that at my fingertips to somebody else. Somebody else on the line. Know when we would next have public comment this year. Council Member Bells. Thank you. Two things. First of all, if that would be September 29th, I believe is our last meeting of the month. But I also, Miss Hudson, I received your email and I believe I'm your council member, so we'll get in touch with you directly. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you so much. Is is Madam Clerk, is everyone on? Can we unmute everyone again as we were about to do? I will do that right now. Thank you. Everyone is now unmuted. Is there anyone on the line who like for public testimony who hasn't had the chance? Councilmember Von Bauer. No. Okay. Well, I assume that he doesn't want to offer public testimony either. And with that, Madam Clerk, you can remind everyone and I'll be prepared to unmute myself. Okay. I shall do that right now, Mr. Chair. I have now muted everybody. And I'm muted. We'll move to item five is our briefing with Director Hayes, Dr. Duchenne and Mr. Lively, who will update us on the county's response to the COVID 19 pandemic. Ms.. Hayes. Dr. Prediction. Mr. Lively, the line is yours. Thank you so much. It's great to be with you all today. I want to share a screen in just a moment. Jeff and I will give an overview of where we're at today. And I have some additional slides to talk about the relationship of sort of how we can all look together at the number of cases that are occurring and what that means in terms of which emphasis in our response is necessary for that, since we've had two now spikes and now we are seeing that our number of cases have been slowly decreasing over the past month, although I will say we just had a holiday and we will be watching carefully for four what happens with that. So let me try to scrape there and then what I'm going to do is I'm going to show. A. PowerPoint here. And then I will make it. Large. Mr. Chair, is that showing up? Hopefully. Yes. Great. So I will move to this slide, which is every week we update our indicator page. This is a clip from that you'll see from last week. And this is one of our dashboards. And as we update it weekly, it really is the quickest way to see where we're going here in King County. These are the measures that we've got. So I'm going to turn this over to Jeff now to give you a bit of an overview and any comment he wants to make on any of these indicators. And then I will jump back in to the rest of the PowerPoint after he's completed. Thank you, Patty, and thank you, chair and council members, just in a nutshell. As Patty said, the rate of transmission has been decreasing over the last several weeks after quite a large increase following the Memorial Day and July 4th holidays. As you all know, many of the cases in that time frame were younger adults in their in their late teens, twenties and thirties. And we see that pattern continuing. However, the number of cases has been gradually and steadily decreasing. To our great pleasure over the last couple of weeks, and I think it's a testament to the good work that's been done by our residents here in King County in showing good judgment about having fewer activities outside the home and social distancing and keeping six feet or more from others and wearing masks and all of that is showing a significant and very much needed improvement in the rate of COVID 19 transmission. The reproductive number, which indicates how many others a given case will transmit to, is hovering around one, which means that the epidemic is predicted to stay stable. It needs to be below one to shrink and it's above one. The epidemic will grow and our hospitalizations and deaths have also been quite stable over the past weeks, which is a relatively good thing. And we'd like to see fewer, but not increasing is excellent. Our testing capacity maxed out of about a month ago and has been holding steady and we've just added a few new sites. So we're hoping that people will take advantage of those sites and we can continue to test more and more people over time. And the great concern for us going forward is the onset of the changing weather in fall and winter, which will drive more people indoors. We'll close our windows and doors and lead to folks spending more time in indoor environments where there's less airflow and less ventilation than there is in the great outdoors. And the assumption of most public health and medical experts is that that will be a much better environment for COVID transmission. We're very worried about increasing cases, so we want to continue to emphasize the need for great compliance with mask use indoors and outdoors, with improving ventilation wherever possible and minimizing the number of unnecessary activities with other with others. As we enter the fall and winter season, which will potentially also be complicated by influenza should it arrive in any great number. So I'm going to stop that same hopefully we'll have time for Q&A. I do have to leave at 130 for another meeting. Yes, Mr. Chair, let's go ahead and take any questions from the committee for Dr. Duchin, and then I'll finish up, because he does have a heart stop at 130. Okay. Let me start with one question, and that is, as we experience smoke in the area from wildfires, the the consideration and balance between exposure to smoke for those who are unhoused and outside versus opening up shelter space that during a COVID 19 pandemic. And where are we in that thinking and supporting people in the best public health response possible? Well, it's a great question. And I can tell you that at this point, the smoke situation is expected to be short lived, which is good. And we're not planning for, you know, at this point, long term mitigation of a, you know, dangerous outdoor environment. But it is something that probably deserves some attention. I don't know if Patty has had other discussions about whether or not we'd be opening up additional shelters. It's a you know, it's a tough, tough logistical challenge because, you know, by the time you get you're planning for additional shelters, the risk from the smoke may be gone because it comes and goes with the shifting winds. And so it's a very challenging environment to plan for in that sense. And of course, smoke typically produces health problems and it is an acute health issue which can land people in the hospital and the intensive care unit very quickly. I'm not sure that we have a good way to balance those risks outside of a, you know, a major smoke emergency where we have high levels of particulates that were extremely unhealthy at lower levels. I don't know what the exact risk benefit would be at this point. It would take some additional thought. The only thing I allowed is that I did check this morning and it, as Dr. Duchin said, it is expected to be a short lived event. And there are the posting of the risk is for those that are have a heart, have asthma or other chronic conditions so we won't be needing to stand up anything. In fact, it's supposed to be clearing about this afternoon. There is the heat for the rest of the week. But again, it's it's a short it's a short time. And the weather will be in the the wind will be shifting, luckily. Thank you, colleagues. Further questions when we have Dr. Dawson with us as. The Chief. Sala Councilmember Balducci. Yeah. Just real briefly on the same topic we were. Just discussing, we have. And I don't actually know if this is public health is the best or the only direction for this question. So I do want to take a valuable time, but I'll just lay it out there. We have all these resources now. We have got temporary isolation and quarantine sites that are all set up and ready to go and not being used. We have hotels under lease or that we own and some of which are being used. Some of which are not being used. I just want to feel confident that our health folks, human services folks and facilities folks are all working closely together so that if there were an emergency that required us to try to help people currently living outdoors or who for whatever reason, aren't safe in their current environment into some of those resources that we're thinking ahead to that because it's smoke today, it could be heat tomorrow in the not too distant future. Ice, right. Like lots of things can happen. So I just and we have this great resource right now. I want to make sure that we're putting it to use for people when they need it. So of course, we work through the emergency operations center as they're working with the National Service. So I I'm confident we're well connected there. And your point about winter preparation is something we start this fall as well. So the EOC started connecting with both TCHC and public health last Friday when when the prediction for the smoking and when started. So nothing is a perfect system. But we are we have been in communication. Council members are hereby. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you both so much for being here. Both of you. I met with the respite program at Harborview. Some of them wanted to know if it's possible for their patients to utilize the isolation and quarantine sites. Could you could you speak a little bit about where we are with isolation and quarantine sites? Are they still available for people to use as the best way to get that rested Harborview program, the staff there to get in touch directly with you all or what? How do we best utilize those services? Thank you, Councilmember. I appreciate the question. I was actually in conversations with the staff myself already. So happy to share that with you. So the isolation and quarantine conversation with respect was a little different situation. And the reason why is we are blessed with Harborview as a partner and then the nursing staff there is 24 hours and we were able to deploy our staff and cohort those at risk there. And as with any place that experiences COVID, there is a need for the staff to be trained to have somebody to talk to. And we make a decision on what's the best place to manage a person, because, of course, transferring people in the middle of especially folks in respite who are there because they are undergoing some kind of treatment. We have people who are getting chemotherapy there and others who are recovering who don't quite qualify for hospital care. We actually moved a couple of people into the hospital. So it it's a long answer to your question. I apologize. But we saw them through until it was stabilized. We have a plan with them. In the case of the respite program, it was passed and was my recommendation after I talked to Jeff to hold those folks at that facility because of the confidence we had in the nursing care they were receiving there and the risk to to moving these high needs folks from a place where we knew they could be managed. So that's different than in a shelter where we may end up moving quite a number of people from a shelter into isolation and quarantine. So that's the situation with respect. Lambert. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good to see you both. And I'm glad that you're both, like, wide awake after the schedules you've been keeping. I have a question that I know the governor makes a major decision on, but I am concerned as to the dichotomy in the decisions being made between churches and other large groups. I realize that the churches are concerned about 26 foot sparrow during singing, but I'm assuming that large groups are yelling that the same thing is happening. So I don't understand why the rules are different and how can we then get the churches to be able to open more quickly if they are abiding by the six feet and the masks and potentially wearing masks, either singing or humming or whatever? So this is Jeff. I'm sorry. I didn't hear your question. It broke up a little bit, if you can. Sure. I mean, my question is that I realize the governor has decided that churches, you know, may not open very much, but that they are opening slowly. But I'm concerned why it has been so slow on the churches, and I realize that they have said there's 26 feet. That spirit can travel, drink, singing. But the same situation, I assume, should be for large groups that are not six feet away and yelling. So why are we closing one group and allowing another group? What is the difference and why one. Of them was not? Okay, so I can't speak specifically to the governor's rationale, but I can tell you that our concern primarily and I assume you're talking about indoor church services, our concern is really about the increasing body of evidence that shows that COVID 19 can be spread through aerosols. So basically, in addition to those droplets which can fly and land in someone's eyes, nose, mouth and so on, they remain the virus can remain suspended in the air. And singing and talking really produce lots more particles than just breathing. And indoors is a much higher risk than outdoors. So from our perspective in the public health setting, you know, the guidance should be based on the risk and indoor settings, particularly with poor ventilation, prolonged contact. You know, for example, what happened in the the choir practice up in the sky where there were many people infected, even though there were precautions being taken, the six feet distance and so on. People very far away from what was thought to be the index case became infected. So it's really just a matter of trying to decrease that risk. Most of the super spreader events that have occurred have been in indoor air spaces where people have had close contact and for prolonged period of time eating more than 15 minutes or or longer. So it's just outdoor outdoor events. The risk is much, much less due to the natural ventilation, the wind, airflow and the dilution of those viral particles very quickly, whereas indoors they can build up. And how long will they stay suspended in the air? It really depends on the specific size of the building and the ventilation status of the building. So if there's an age system or not and what other types of ventilation are available will determine how long particles will stay suspended? Thank you. Dr. Duchin, is there one set of rules and regulations within King County, or are there two or more? I'm not sure I understand the question. For churches and other large gatherings all follow the same set of state regulations, do we not? There isn't a separate set for one set of gatherings versus another set for a different set of gatherings. There are gathering specific guidance. So there are bigger you know, there would be guidance for churches, there would be guidance for recreational facilities, gyms, there's guidance for restaurants, all based on the governor's directives. Okay. Dr. Duchin, I want to be respectful of your time. It's now after 130. Thank you. If you need to go now, we certainly appreciate you joining us and excuse you. And we'll look forward to continuing the conversation with Director Hayes and Director David. Thanks is very good to see you all. Take care. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let me happy to answer questions. Let me. Move the slide. Hopefully here. I wanted to again highlight that we still have ongoing racial disparities in with COVID. And again, populations are more more vulnerable if they are essential workers, if they are living in areas where they don't have as good an option for ventilation or are living in more congregated settings if they have preexisting conditions, those things that we know that our bipoc communities all have as a part right now, which are just indicative of long standing policies and racist policies in our country. So this chart shouldn't surprise anybody. We've talked about it over time. What I will say is when you look at this, it shows you the significantly higher for that reference group. But again, our numbers have been decreasing and I'm very happy to say over the last couple of weeks we had seen a spike in the black African-American community, which seems to be receding quickly. So sometimes these things relate to events. We had a couple of weddings where we had outbreaks within the black African-American community that as we resolved those infections over a couple of weeks and those numbers are coming down, but we're still seeing disproportionately a higher impact in the black Hispanic latinxs, the native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders, and, of course, our indigenous population and community members. One of the things that the federal government has put out is this little visual I wanted to quickly share today. It's called a box in the virus. So you'll see this being used. It talks about testing. And as we expand our testing, as Dr. Duchin said, we are looking to get the number of tests higher, particularly in areas where we know that testing may not be as available. And we're seeing the outbreak. So we're concentrating on opening in South King County and the east side right now. Renton went live today, got pictures of that. That's exciting for today. Then the idea of rapid isolation, identifying contacts and quarantining. The lower the number of cases, the more effective this containment works. What we found over the summer is that because our numbers increased so much and there were so many outbreaks and so many cases in so many different places, it was really difficult to rely on this containment to be the most effective strategy. It's an essential strategy. But what became and what you heard was that community mitigation becomes more essential in our messaging and that the community ownership of wearing masks, physically distancing, staying home if you're sick, keeping gathering small, washing your hands, etc.. So what we're doing right now in it with COVID is that when our containment is stretched, in other words, when we have more and more and more cases, what we have to rely on is both of these strategies, but the community mitigation becomes more important. I would hope, as we would see our our future over the next year with COVID and as a COVID vaccine becomes available, that this balance will go back to where these things are, even or even the case with lower numbers, where you'll see our containment can work even more effectively. Mr. Chair, the last comment, I'm going to actually go out of this. So that I can stop sharing and see you all. There we go, Mr. Chair. To go back to Jones, I just wanted to say that we are in the middle of working with CDC and the state on what will become the COVID 19 mass vaccination plan here in the county. We would love to come back and talk to you all as we get some clarity in that. Right now, it's going to be a massive effort with partners, with our systems and clearly with the county having a lead role. So I just wanted to queue up that for the future and appreciate the time. So I'll be happy to answer any other questions I can. Thank you. Patty will look forward to that. Colleagues, the Grove councilmember of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Patty, no surprise I'm going to ask about South King County is, you know, some of the highest rates in the state are in South King County. And I want to start by thanking you for how generous you're worth your time, having the opportunity to meet with you and the director of DC HS and our Office of Equity and Social Justice last week to talk about this, and I in particular, the last slide you showed highlighting racial disparities, I think is at the heart of the challenges in South King County. We have the lowest income, most diverse corner of the county. You know, there's a lot of concern for unsheltered folks. We have higher rates of renters, as we talked about last week. There's folks who may not be legally present, who are afraid of the public charge rule nationally, too, before they receive services. We see behavioral health and child care issues on the rise and all of that exacerbated by racial disproportionality in those areas. So could you talk a little bit about some of the strategies in place to address this unusually high concentration of rates in South County and the ways, you know, maybe just a little bit deeper on also how we are we're addressing this racial disparity that we're seeing, whether it's the cultural ambassador programs or others. Sure. So thank you. And and this is a really important focus for everybody to understand as to why public health is focusing a lot of resources in this area and the other areas in south Seattle, on the east side and other places, we're watching for these pockets of where we see higher positive tests, more infection, more problems because of the issues that you raise. So we've done a number of things. One of the real blessings that we have is our community mitigation work has stood up our pandemic community advisory committee that has representatives from those areas, from our Bipoc community, as well as the faith community, as well as a number of employers. They spent an hour last week talking to Dr. Duchin and basically in small groups coming forward, answering questions like what can, what support, what more and different kinds of support is needed so that people can successfully isolate or quarantine themselves. What help in the wraparound services are we seeing? What are the transportation challenges that you're seeing? As you well know? And for everyone on the call, the the the ridership of public transit from the South End is higher because of that. So many essential workers are counting on that. And so that creates both a challenge. Childcare is a big issue, so we're working to try and get child care issues down there. So we also have hired community health workers from partners down there, like Seema and others. 50% of our contact tracers are by our bilingual. So that was important. We've also hired and to get what we're calling navigators, but really they're the folks that can help us with communities that have that hesitancy, that fear of government, somebody. From the community that can be that ambassador back to work with the community and help so that our messages are received. But people can really understand how to apply them within their cultural context, which can be such a such a barrier because of all the issues that you outline. So we're looking at all strategies we can deploy in order for communities to be successful and get through COVID, knowing that they are essential workers, that they do have childcare challenges, etc.. So it's our continuing mission down there in opening testing sites, in working with providers to make sure that the health care system is welcoming. That can be a challenge for some of these populations and these folks. Thank you. Dombrowski Conservative Melky. Thank you, Chair McDermott. And hello, Director Hayes. Nice to see you. I'm looking forward to our town hall meeting tomorrow night at 6 p.m., but I had a question on your reference to the vaccination plan. I think, as you know, I've got an interest in increasing our vaccination rates for HPV and we've invested some dollars there and have had some success. But I learned in that work that our county health department vaccination program is really quite small now and is always kind of a consulting and advisory role to the primary care care clinic network and for frontline providers. I'm wondering if and I also see the reports about with the with the quarantine that we've we've really had folks do a loss of progress on other vaccinations with children. Right. That's the step back there. So I guess I'm wondering in our plan, is there an opportunity as we roll out the expected COVID 19 vaccine and build up the infrastructure to deploy that? Is there an opportunity for additional kind of co vaccination work for our regular protocols and also our HPV? Or is there some sort of perhaps medical challenges around that where we don't want to have folks getting those at the same time and maybe we can have a more educational reminder or scheduling opportunity when we interface with folks. Great question. Thank you for that. You're saying in my song, as you now are, what we are doing for flu vaccine is working with our partners like the visiting nurse service that does the mass vaccinations for flu to see if they would actually stand up some of these co vaccine opportunities where for some of the childhood vaccines , we could take care of both of that. So there's active conversation about that. The immunization system in general is very concerned about everything you just outlined and how do we time it. Your point is well taken that when we're giving COVID vaccinations, it may or may not be appropriate to give a childhood vaccine that all that is in conversation right now. What you're going to see that's different with when I come back with our team on the mass vaccination is that it's going to be more of an all hands on deck sense. We can't rely just on the health care system to do something so big. It's going to come out in phases because we won't just have a gazillion doses of the vaccine. So it'll be prioritized populations. Of course, our first responders and our health care workers will be first to receive the vaccine, and then there'll be a prioritized list from the federal government. But as we do this into 2021, you're going to see we're going to need all your help in getting the word out, but also using multiple strategies and multiple partners to get both the vaccine available where people are. Because I think that's going to be really important not to not to assume everybody can show up in a provider's office, nor would they maybe even want to do that. So there's it's going to be our country hasn't done this in over 100 years trying to mass vaccinate people. So it's going to be interesting. I'll look forward to coming back and talking more about it. But thank. You. Oh, what a bet. Said Councilmember Cowles. And humans to cheer. Welcome and to hear from you. As you know, last week when we voted, our fourth Cumberbatch group created $650,000 to fund flu vaccine program the public health provides to an uninsured and underinsured, and hopefully that will be very helpful. Can you just first know a little bit about when you think that that will all be coming online? Yeah, thank you. And thank you so much for that support. And I'm hoping that we can both use that in flu, but also to look at how to set up that system for this mass vaccination for COVID. So, so appreciate for that. So what we're looking at with those funds is to, first of all, get another identified person on the team as quickly as possible. So thanks to you for putting those dollars in. By the end of the month, we're hoping to have another staff person in our very small immunization staff to really begin helping to focus on this . Then we're already meeting with the as I said, the the King County visiting nurse who are setting up their mass vaccinations and how we extend this, particularly in communities that are really high priority for us in the in and around South King County Eastside and other areas as well as just generally making them more available. So the team is working with the right now on what DOJ is going to be doing. They are shipping the flu vaccine out right now. It's coming in to providers offices so people can start getting those appointments for those that can get in to their provider and then the other vaccines will be available. And then also I would I did want to mention our health care for the homeless staff will be doing a very eye in-depth approach for the shelters and the encampments and the hotels, etc., where we have our our folks. So it will allow us to really do a very aggressive approach here. Thank you, Patty. And I would like to mention that people can go to their pharmacist. Well, that's right. Thank you so much. Stories which may be more available than have their health care providers. Absolutely. And thank you. I mean, stop by the pharmacy and you're aware if you go to Safeway or whatever, you could just get it right there. I did. Good for you. Thank you for the questions for Director Hayes. Mr. Leigh, I'll turn it over to you. Patty, I don't know what your schedule is like. We'd be delighted to have you stay, but we'd certainly understand if you needed to leave Mr. Dangly to his own devices. Thank you. I do need to jump off and get on that call that Jeff signed, so I appreciate it so much and I'm happy to come back. Thank you. We look forward to having you. Thank you. And Mr. Dave Leigh. Good afternoon. For the record, Dwight I, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. I actually only had a brief update for items that I thought I would go over with you. The last one is just really kind of trivial and fun. So first, I thought it would be helpful to give you an update on some of the grant programs that you have funded through these various supplemental appropriation ordinances. We are now in the phase where money is actually getting out into communities, into businesses, and is starting to do good as we had hoped. So just to give you a few examples of that, I just talked with me on floor this morning. D.C. actually is going to have about 200 to 250 new contracts with entities that they have not contracted with before. Obviously, they are a department that does most of the contracting with community organizations. And so that's an example of the emphasis that you and others have placed on reaching out to some organizations that historically have not gotten funding from the county. So they are in the process of doing those contracts and distributing the funds. Another example to share with you, I talked with John Taylor at the Department of Local Services today. John has now signed over 100 of the awards of $5,000 to small businesses in our unincorporated area. There's also very strong demand for the second round of those. You will remember that in your action last week you made more businesses eligible for those grants, and the applications are due for that second round on this Friday. And John reports very strong demand. And now he expects that we will ultimately commit all or virtually all of that money. So thank you for accepting their recommendation to broaden access to that. Looks like that will be a big help out of the unincorporated area. A third group, just to mention several of the grant programs that are operated through my office TSB, are now getting money into the hands of the actual recipients. We've done all the contracts, the funds are being transferred. So those are things like science organizations, live music venues, some of the tourism organizations we probably will get done next week. So we're making really good progress on a bunch of those, including the expanded amount of money that you approved for for culture. We are in the final phases of coming up with our agreement with for culture, and we'll probably be able to transfer that money to them next week so they can start getting it out to the organizations they work with. So that is also going well. And finally, I would just call your attention to we do have a out on on the street is the word everybody uses, not literally on the street. It's actually on the Web. We have the opportunity for vulnerable adults to apply for grants related to digital equity, which was one of the programs you started, not in this last supplemental, but in the prior one. Those applications are due by September 22nd, so two weeks from today. So if you're in touch with any individuals or any organizations that are focused on digital equity, that would be a good thing to make sure that they are aware. And I will pause at this point on that and on the grant topic and see if people have questions before I go on to the second item. I suppose that's a member, Carlos. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dwight. Do you know if all of the awards have been made in D.C. just for single centuries? I do not know the answer to that. I will make sure you get an answer. And that means, I believe, under the category of food security. Grant Yeah, I will take that one down and we'll have someone get that information back. Thank you. Other questions. Do you want to continue? Yes, please. So second one I wanted to bring up is just to give everyone an update on the federal government. And I see Mark is on the call. He may have more information as well. As you all know, we have been waiting patiently for the federal government to do another COVID relief bill in the hopes of getting money for COVID response in 2021 and potentially getting money to offset lost revenues. There has been no real progress on that. I read that the Senate may pass what they're calling a very stripped down bill that Senate Democrats and House Democrats have already said they will not support. So it does not seem very likely that we're going to be seeing any of that additional federal money anytime soon. Obviously, at this point, with the county executive's budget due to you in two weeks, we've had to do a budget that does not assume we get any of that federal money. It's obviously possible that at some point, maybe in late November, they will do something this year. But that's probably even past the time the county council could accommodate it. So that part is not looking good. Also, just remind everyone the federal fiscal year ends on September 30th. And as best I can figure out, not one of the appropriations bills has been approved. And so the potential for shutting down the federal government in October is there. There have been some statements from leaders in D.C. that they will do a continuing resolution for some period of time that would allow basically current levels of spending to continue. That has been done many times in the past, but there's no guarantee that that will actually happen. And so in addition to all the concern about COVID, we could also be looking at a situation where some of the other federal money that comes to the county could be endangered. We've been down this path several times in the past. Usually there's not much immediate effect on the county, but certainly if it goes on long enough, it starts to have effects on us, and it certainly has effects on our residents. So that's another thing to keep your eye on at the federal level. And I will pause there and see if there are any questions about that. Colleagues. All right. Herein none. So the third. Thing. I wanted to mention this afternoon is something I have brought up several times in the past, and it's something that I know is of great importance to this council, and that is revenue from the lodging tax. Just to remind everyone, starting next year, 2021, the lodging tax money that has been paying off debt for the football and soccer stadium comes back to the county for ah use. Europe established a series of policies about how that's allocated and I just wanted to note that the lodging tax revenue continues to really be down. Some figures I got on Friday for hotel occupancy in King County, the average occupancy was about 35% and it varied a lot around the county. So Sea-Tac is the best in about 50%. Obviously, that has a lot to do with airline employees. The east side is only about 23% and downtown Seattle is only about 19%. In addition to the occupancy being low, the prices that hoteliers are able to charge have come way down. So the average daily rate in a downtown Seattle hotel, for example, is down 48% from the prior year. So rates are very low, occupancy is very low. And so the amount of total hotel revenue and hence total sales tax is continuing to be extremely low. Just to give you a little preview of the budget you'll get in a couple of weeks, there is enough money we project in the lodging tax to actually put some amount in every one of the buckets that you set aside in affordable housing and tourism, in arts and culture. But many of those will be much smaller than you had assumed, you know, down 80% in some categories. So just to give you a heads up, because of the impact of COVID on travel, it is going to be a real challenging budget for the lodging tax in 2021 and 2022. And I will pause at this point and see if there are questions on that. Colleagues. Com Boesky. Demovsky name was Dwight. Thank you. I don't think that's unexpected news, but what have you had a chance to take a look at? And I know there are kind of a separate agency, but the impacts of that on the four culture financial plan that we've kind of worked on over the last several years. Yeah, that's a that's a great question. Councilmember and I have not heard Robert, the deputy budget director, does most of the work with for culture. And so I'm not terribly familiar right now, but I can tell you that the amount of revenue from the lodging tax that they will receive, given the new revenue forecast, is much less than we had previously assumed. And so there will be, I'm sure, some significant impacts on fort culture that you'll want to look at in the budget process. I don't you know, as you know, they've been living on this quote unquote endowment for the last eight years, and they may be managing that endowment in a way to help them out a little bit in the future, since everyone can see this coming. But that's not I don't honestly know the answer to that. And maybe a good question for you all to pursue in your budget deliberations this fall. And this is the first year, I think, under our new program where they submit their budget through to the exac and over to the Council for Adoption. Yeah, correct. And are you, while we're on the subject, aware of any changes that the executive has made to the for culture proposed budget? I am not. And I think, as you may recall, the executive had said he would not change the budget that they submitted. And therefore, I think what you're going to get is one minute, but probably adjusted for the fact that that forecast went down again. Got it. No, I didn't I didn't recall them saying that. But some of us have said the same thing. Thank you. And I nominate you to go into the first responder category for the early vaccination. Oh, no, no. I should be the last ones. I'm comfortable here at home, so I should not be anywhere near the top of the list. Yeah, it wouldn't mix well with the hydrochloric when you've been taken. That's right. Yeah. I am a private adviser in Washington, D.C., that I work with to work on my health. Council member at the Grove. Is that all you had to do? That is all I have to contribute. Thank you. Thank you for that valuable contribution. Anyone else? See now, do I? Okay, so the last thing I thought I was here, this is truly just trivia. Every two years, I write an executive summary of the proposed budget, and then after the council approves it, I modify it with the changes the council's made. And it's a fairly long document that just puts a lot of information about the county's budget out there. And it always starts with some information about some of the demographics of the county. And I thought I would let you know that we have always, for in recent years, talked about we are the 13th most populous county in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. We are now 12th. We passed Clark County, Nevada, in the past year. So if you want to talk about how we rank, we're about 12th. And then something that is less well known is that because we are a magnet for people to come into the county to work as our overall employment in the county. We historically have ranked ninth in the United States of all the counties. We are now up to eighth. We passed San Diego County in the last year. And now all of this, of course, is pre-COVID. So who knows what it would look like in the future. But we did move up one step both in the population rankings and the employment rankings between two years ago and this year. So continued sign of the growth of King County and the economic health of King County, at least before we had to. And that was all I had. But I'm happy to answer questions if people have some. Anybody with trivia questions for Mr. Dave Lee or other substantial questions? See none. I think we'll let you off the hook, Dwight. Okay. Thank you very much. I want to thank you and the entire team for the overall briefing on our response to COVID. Appreciate. I'm Patty, and I'm just been able to join us in your regular participation in briefing us in the county's response to the pandemic. And with that will continue to. The second item on today's agenda is a motion requesting the executive contract with University of Washington to conduct a retrospective analysis of the effectiveness of actions taken by county leaders in the Health Department to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. We were briefed on this item back in June, and I'm sure you remember it intimately by Sam Porter from Central South. This porter is here to give us a short overview and brief this on amendments. Ms.. Porter. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Policy Staff documents for this item began on page 19 of your packet, and as the chair mentioned, since this was previously briefed in committee, our focus on the amendments and proposed motion 2020 0182 would request the Executive to contract with the University of Washington to conduct a retrospective analysis of the current coronavirus pandemic response in King County and transmit the report to council. On page 27 of your packet, you can see Amendment one. This would remove previous language stating that a report should be conducted with Public Health, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the Gates Foundation and other organizations, and would add language stating that the contract should be made with the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. For graduate students to conduct an independent analysis to include but not be limited to the health, economic and social impacts of COVID 19 and the actions taken by King County leaders and Public Health, Seattle and King County to limit the spread of the virus. And this would be done using publicly available data and resources. The amendment states that the work should commence in January 2020, 2021 and that the executive can negotiate access to public health and other executive branch leaders in order to prioritize the ongoing pandemic response. The next amendment, amendment two is on page 29, and this would just change the due date for the report from June 30th of next year to July 31st of 2021. And the title amendment on page 31 of your packet would inform the title of the proposed motion to the revised scope of the analysis, as stated in Amendment one. We have current gill from the Office of the Executive and Sally Clark from the University of Washington on the line to answer any questions. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you. Questions of Ms.. Porter. Miss Carr, did you have any comments to make or are you simply simply willing to respond to any questions? You know, I'm actually pinch hitting for Professor Matt Stallworth from the Evans School of Public Affairs, and I'm happy to pass along some of that thoughts about how the student teams would approach the work. But given that this is your second briefing, I'm happy to also sit back and simply answer your questions. I think overall, we just want to thank Councilmember Dunn and for the and the Council on the Executive and Public Health for even considering this at this point. It's a great opportunity for the student teams. Great. See? No questions. Council member done. Is it on the table? Have I moved to get a date movement? Back in July, when we first heard it or not? No. All right. Well, I'd like to move it, if I might. Before the committee, the whole. Council member has moved to give it do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 182. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And then I'd like to move Amendment One. Amendment one is before us. Miss Porter has spoken to Amendment One. Are there further questions about Amendment One? Let me speak to it, if I might, please. When the when the pandemic began early on, when we were learning what was really happening in China and the first cases had come much to Europe as well and and to the West Coast of the United States. I spent a lot of time looking to try and find more information about the pandemic back in 1918. And it was surprising how little information there was. I'm sure many of you saw some of the data I was able to dig up to the National Geographic and others, but there just wasn't a lot of information, a clue . There's going to be a lot more information about the pandemic of the Corona virus in 2019, 2020. But local information, local analysis sense of how we handle here in the Puget Sound, Iraqi County is going to be really important. It's not about saying, hey, we did it better than other cities, although I think we did, but that it will be a guidepost for future generations. Maybe our grandchildren will have another pandemic. So we worked with the executives office and others in the public health arena to come up with a way that we could do this without getting in the way of our existing pandemic responses. And so I think we've fallen on. The Evans School at the University of Washington is sort of uniquely positioned with their expertize, along with the access to one of the best research universities in the United States, the medical field and the county and other public health information to do it. Sally Clark, always great to see you. Appreciate the university's willingness to do this as well. And we'd like to partner in this, I think gets it out of the way of the executives response. It still gives us a really good work product. So that's what the amendment is. I hope my colleagues can support this and urge your support. Further discussion on coal wells. Amendment one. Councilmember Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And maybe it would've been better to ask this earlier, and I'm not sure that it was mentioned. It's done. The estimated cost for this. Staff. Do you want to take that on? I know that we were going to use existing resources in the Emergency Management Department. Has there been any additional cost with the Evans School besides the contract? Referring to Curran in the office to help answer that. They scowls, remember? I do not know if we have a cost on this right now. Perhaps we could try to narrow that down before we vote on it at full council. Just an I'm. Yeah. We'll get you we'll get you all that information. The last conversation I had was the emergency department. Emergency Services had the money in their budget and that was going to come from that point for the that the study unless something has changed that's my belief. But Councilmember, I'll get that information to you before a vote of full council. Thank you. Especially because we'll have completed our being on budget. Yeah, I just. Just. Just so. You know, the cost and I just got a text as you were speaking is between ten and $15,000. 10%. It's a small. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Amendment one is before us. See no further discussion on this. In favor of Amendment one, please signify by saying I find I oppose nay. Guys have. Amendment one is adopted. Councilmember Dunn. I move amendment to. Amendment two as before as Councilmember Dunn. And this changes the deadline to late July of next summer, allows the winter and spring quarters for the graduate students to work on this and gives them a chance to to complete it right around their graduation in in. Next year. Garcia. Well. I do. And it would be really fun if one of the committees and subcommittees that's really happy to do this would would hear the final report. I think it would be very important to, you know, not only to process all that work, to publicize it, agreed for the students as well. We would get some of them here and well here, meaning the county courthouse hopefully by then and can showcase what they've learned and what we can learn from it. Thank you. Say no further discussion. All those in favor of amendment to please signify by saying i. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The council member done the title amendment on page 31 of our packets. Two. One. Q one is before a scene of discussion. All those in favor, please say I am opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. The title amendment is adopted. We have ordinance 2020 182 as amended before us. Further discussion. Urge your support, Mr. Chairman. I'll consider it. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Gallucci. Councilmember Powell, due to events, I can't remember how I. Council Member Tim Baffsky. Both I Council member. I. Council member done Bosnian Council Member Coles I Council Member Calwell Spokes II Council Member Lambert I Council Member Lambert Woodside Council Member of the Growth. Councilmember Arturo. Councilmember Bond right there. Councilmember Bong right there. I. I was on Larry King Live as well. Some members only high council members on line votes. I. Mr. chair. I. Chair votes. I. Mr. chair, the vote is eight i's. Council member of the group excused. Thank you very much. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to where or does 2020 182. And we will unless the objection, we will put that on the consent agenda at full council. Our last item today is a motion related to the unbanked. Money transfer operators. Matt Nicholson, the council director of government relations, is here to provide the staff report. Mr. Nicholson, the screen is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Counsel, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Great. Thank you. Mack Nicholson, Director Government Relations for the Council Here to brief proposed motion 20202086. The motion itself is relatively straightforward. The subject of the motion is a little bit more complex. The staff report for this is on page 33 of your packet. The motion itself does three things expresses council's support for the East African community and their desires to support their loved ones. Affirms the right for money transfer operators to engage in lawful commerce in a safe manner, and calls on the state legislature to study the issue of bank derisking and find a solution that promotes financial inclusion and public safety. As far as the background, the crux of this issue really is a phenomenon known as bank derisking. And bank derisking happens when financial institutions or banks terminate or restrict business relationships with clients or categories of clients to avoid rather than manage risk in the context of the motion before you. Banks have been de-risking or refusing to offer their services to money transfer operators, money transfer operators, or any type of business that facilitate the cross-border transfers of funds using it or their internal system or relying on international banking networks. Money transfer operators are commonly used by immigrant populations who have relatively low rates of financial participation to send money to family who remain in their country of origin. These type of transactions are called remittances. Western Union might be the best known money transfer operator, but there are certainly many others. As far as why banks are de-risking money transfer operators, generally, it's because banks make the business decision that the cost of compliance with national and international regulatory systems governing the cross-border movement of money, along with the risks and penalties for for noncompliance, outweigh the benefit of providing these services. So they start providing them rather than carry that risk. And that's that de-risking concept. In light of de-risking money, transfer operators have had to find other ways to send money overseas. As you heard in some of the testimony earlier today, it's become kind of a cash transaction and that the money transfer operators that remain in business are transporting cash, which has turned into a public safety issue as well. So to bring it all full circle, the motion calls on committees of jurisdiction in the state House and the state Senate to study the issue of bank derisking and to find a solution that promotes financial inclusion and public safety for these immigrant communities in King County in the state. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions of Mr. Nicholson. Council member of the Grove. I. We'll record your vote for the previous item. Ordinance 2020 182 Council member out the group. Did you want to speak to motion to the motion regarding item bank money transfer operators? Would somebody be willing to make a motion? Mr. Chair, because to preserve Grove isn't there. I'll go ahead and move it. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn is moving that we give a do pass recommendation to motion 2020 286 as Mr. Nicholson is that Mr. Nicholson has just briefed Jason. Discussion. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I am concerned also that in a money transfer that I have been making for over a decade, all of a sudden all kinds of new things are happening. And I'm wondering what's happening, why? Why this is necessary. And recently, the the bank overseas got my money, but they wouldn't give it to the person unless they knew my relationship to the person. What is going on where that kind of information is so necessary? We are aware of what's going on. Is that something you can respond to, Mr. Nicholson? I can take a crack. We're going to quickly get out of my expertize. But in reviewing sort of some of the reports and what's happening is going to be a focus on anti-money laundering and making sure that funds are not ending up for terrorism funding purposes. And in that process, I think there's just more sort of paperwork, more disclosure requirements, both nationally and internationally. And so I think these banks are feeling more of an obligation to do more due diligence to make sure that the money that's flowing through their systems doesn't end up being used for sort of unauthorized purposes. And that might be what kind of what you're noticing on a on a a transactional level. Now and a small amount that small but not huge amounts of money. I was really surprised by the amount of information. So thank you. Further discussion. My personal privilege. I'm pleased to be your client. If Kaphar. Or Lambert wants to send. Any money to me, I will not ask any questions. But I would. And my husband would. Okay. You're all out of order. A council member at the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize. When you called on me a moment ago, I have taken a personal phone call from. From family and was distracted. Would it be appropriate for me to make some remarks on this, or would you like me to wait until final passage where we have it before us now? So this would be most of and I'm not aware of any amendment, so it would be most appropriate now. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look at this. I think nothing is more important than family, regardless of our political party or race or national origin. The one thing that unites every human being is this the love we feel for family. And there's no more noble instinct than to care for a child or an aging parent, you know, to support them, to care for them, give them a better life. And the motion before us is about helping people care for their families. And specifically, it's about helping our constituents who are immigrants and refugees from East Africa overcome barriers so that they can care for their families back in Africa. Like many of you I've heard from community members in my case in South Kent County, who work hard often to jobs to earn money to support not only themselves, but their family members who are still in Africa. And they often, however, face a barrier in sending money to those relatives around Africa. And that barrier is called derisking. And that's, as was noted, the process banks go through of either terminating or restricting the business relationships of account holders that they deem to be, quote unquote, high risk. And this was something that began in the U.S. after the 911 terrorist attacks. And it makes sense to have good procedures in place. But unfortunately, many of the account holders and the local East African and Muslim communities believe financial institutions have closed their accounts not due to legitimate risk, but instead due to discrimination. And King County has one of the largest African communities in the United States. It also creates a public safety issue because many of these small business owners who aren't able to engage in the banking activity end up storing large amounts of cash on their on their premises, making them vulnerable to attacks and robberies. So my interest is in being able to promote financial inclusion so that people can support their families as well as protect public safety. And it's a gentle motion. It directs our government relations team to reach out to the state of Washington, explore the actions they can take to promote that kind of inclusion, or for all King County residents and members. So, too, for a lot of the folks you represent, this is a really important measure, and I hope you'll give it fair consideration. Further discussion, just briefly, Mr. Chair, Dombroski Cast Member, Dan Basket Davis Chair I just wanted to take this moment to highlight a strong and growing Eritrean community in one of the strongest parts of my district, Lake City, where we have a strong faith community and a community center. And this is an issue that I also understand is important to them, and I'm happy to sign on as a co-sponsor today for the reasons outlined by Councilmember Up the Grove, the prime sponsor, in his remarks. Thank you. Thank you. For the discussion. Seeing none. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member WG High Council member belted Schubert. City Council Member Dombrowski. I. Council Member Dombrowski both I Council member done. I remember done both i council member Colon. I Council Member Commons both. I Council member Lander. I Council Member Lambert Fox. I Council member. I. Council member up the both on Council Member upon rank power. I. Council member upon rank power votes. I Council Members are high. Ranking. Council members on line votes. I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 990 knows. By your vote we've given a do pass recommendation to motion 2020 286 and investors objection. We will place that on the consent agenda for for council. Sordid and having. Madam Clerk, I want to be assured that you recorded Councilmember up to vote on motion on Ordinance 2020 182. As Mr. Chairman has been recorded. And so I don't believe there's any missing votes. That's correct. Very good. Then having concluded our agenda and having no other items to take up today, we are adjourned. I want to thank everybody for their virtual participation today.	A MOTION requesting the executive to contract with the University of Washington to conduct a retrospective analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 and the actions taken by King County leaders and public health - Seattle & King County to limit the spread of the virus.
king_dd171acb-8692-4fcc-b4ff-133a9ce5bcef	Good afternoon. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott calling a meeting of the committee of the whole to order for Monday, October 7th. Those of you who were at our last meeting probably feel like it's the cliffhanger in your favorite TV series. Right? As we get started today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who've lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enriched our community. With that, Madam Clark, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Velveteen. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Gunn. Councilmember Garcia. Yeah. Councilmember Cole was there. Councilmember Member here. Councilmember Off the ground. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. We have to. Madam Vice Chair, would you please move the approval of the minutes? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move approval of the minutes of the September 16 meeting. The minutes are before us in a discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes, please say I oppose. Nay, the ayes overwhelmingly have it. The minutes were approved. That takes us to public comment and today's agenda. And we have two items, two bodies of work on our agenda today, four appointees to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and the Winery Brewery Descent Distillery legislation. We are to separate out public testimony and in order of one, we're taking up the items. So first of all, called people who signed up to testify on the appointments to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. The ground rules for public comment are that you should be speaking to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee appointees and limit your testimony to 2 minutes. You cannot use this time for to campaign for any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. And if you fail to abide by these restrictions, you may be ruled out of order and may be as much as excused from the chamber. With that, we have one person signed up on solid waste advisory committee appointments. Alex Zimmerman. Z. Kyle calling me a Nazi. Damn a dirty pig from Animal Farm. A fascist, gestapo, anti-Semite and killer. I won't speak about people who are always, always. Approved for committee and I am a dozen, few dozen committee every year. Different committee. You are probably exactly invented. People like you have never fallen too far from tree. This is exactly what's happened. Why we have fascism in Seattle. We can country right now. Number one, fascism. City in America. Fascism. It's very simple. Together with corporation. Is that blood and money from people? So why are you always choice people who in the into colloquial because when you chose for example one man like me in I tried doing this for many years and nobody accept me but you probably never will be crook. Roy, right now, like you, you sit in this chamber for 25 years because. Because 2 million idiot who live in Seattle, Indian Country all the way shows you how we can bring America back when this crook again and again and again, Stan, is the same. Is this all of it right now controlling by Democrat Mafia? So right now I speak to everybody. Listen to me. You want bring America back, you need change, Kesey. Because when you don't change, change them for 25 year and they elect same Coca-Cola. Me what is we have right now it's nothing different before from German natural Soviet communist so I don't blame them for this. Your people 2 million idiot elected this exactly again and again. So we are right now have only one party in control. Is this America about what you're talking this more dangerous? The Soviet Union are German Nazi so stand up America vinyard clean this dirty chamber forums is damn Nazi mafia. Thank you very much. Is there anyone who would like to offer testimony on the solid waste committee appointments and see no one will close the public hearing? And I'll introduce. I'm Terry Rose with counsel staff. Miss Rose is staffing this item. The Solid Waste Advisory Committee is comprised of industry representatives and interested citizens, and it's an advisory committee that provides recommendations to the council and the county executive about policies and programs related to solid waste, handling and disposal. And today will be taken up for appointments. And I fear Miss Rosen may have taken the majority of your staff report. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Members of the Committee for the Record, Tara Rose, council staff. And as the Chair noted, agenda items five through eight concern appointments to the King County Solid Waste Advisory Committee and the materials begin on page seven of your packet. I'll briefly provide some background and then introduced the end point. The appointees. State law requires each county to establish a solid waste advisory committee to assist in the development of programs and policies concerning solid waste handling and disposal. King County Solid Waste Advisory Committee was established in the mid 1980s and per county code, and as the Chair noted, the SWAC is comprised of at least nine and not more than 20 members representing a balance of interests, including citizens, local elected officials and industry representatives. Our code also requires that the committee shall include one representative from each of the two bargaining units representing the greatest number of solid waste division employees, as well as one representative who resides within a mile of the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill that's owned and operated by the county. Unless there are some additional questions on the role of the committee, I'll now introduce the candidates. And Mr. Chair, would you like them to come up one by one or at the conclusion of my remarks or. Whatever you would like if all four of them would come up as a panel? Okay. Great. So proposed motion 2019 0339 would confirm the executive's appointment of Lee Eric Moman, who lives in District two as a citizen representative. Mr. Roman's application notes that he has spent the last 11 years of his career focused on managing waste disposal and processing in both the public and private sectors. He currently works for Seattle Public Utilities as a solid waste operations manager. Propose Motion 2019 zero three for one would confirm the executive's appointment of Heather Trim, who lives in District four as a representative from the recycling industry. Mrs. Trims application indicates that she is the executive director of Zero Waste Washington, which is an organization that works to reduce waste, improve recycling and remove toxic chemicals from products through policy, advocacy and community program. Motion 2019 0366 would confirm the executive's appointment of Robin Friedman, who lives in District one as a representative from the Solid Waste Management Industry. Mrs. Frieden's resume indicates she has worked for Waste Management since 2011 as a senior communications manager and now is a senior manager for Public Sector Services. Proposed Motion 2019 0367 would confirm the executive's appointment of James Balsam, who lives in District seven as a representative from a bargaining unit representing Solid Waste Division employees. Mr. Burnham's application notes that he is currently a union representative for Teamsters Local 117 and represents drivers and machine operators in the recycling industry. Staff is. Identified any issues with the proposed appointments. They appear to be consistent with the requirements of King County Code. And I will just note for the Chair that we also have solid waste division director Pat McLaughlin and Dorian Waller, staff liaison to the SWAC here today as well. Thank you and good afternoon to each of you. I might suggest that you introduce yourself in order. Is Miss Rose introduced you and speak to why you'd like to serve on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee in your background. An experience that qualifies you. Good afternoon. My name is Lee Moman. I am operations manager for Seattle Public Utilities. I've been in this alloys industry for 12 years. I'm hoping to bring some equity to the group as well. With living in South King County, I. I've also traveled around the U.S. and I hear what others are doing in the solid waste industry. And with the current contamination rates and the other issues that we're experiencing, either through folks coming to the station or curbside. Having experience working at waste management as well as the collections and the transfer station. I'm hoping to bring some experience and some updates hopefully to the new King County stations. Good afternoon. I'm Heather Trim, executive director of Zero Waste Washington. And I'm a straight shooter. And when people ask me where they should, if they're new here, where they should work, I tell them that King County is one of the best places to work. They will learn a lot. There's a lot of cutting edge work being done. And so I'm proud of King County. And our mission is to make trash obsolete in Washington. And it's going to take innovation, it's going to take hard work. And I believe that King County is a leader in doing that. So I'm very happy to have the opportunity to potentially join this committee. Hello, I'm Robin Friedman. I work at the Waste Management. I'm in charge of public sector services, and I'm thrilled to be here and honored to be on the committee. I also live in Seattle and I'm raising a family and this is a very important issue, materials management and creating a more sustainable county and city. Thank you very much. James Balsam, Teamsters Local 117. I've represented members in the recycle and yard waste lines of business for two years now. I see not only the disposal regulations across the country that were all facing currently, but also, I guess the the things that are our members that are picking up the garbage and waste and that are also usually customers of the same companies they work for and the safety and all that they that they're having to go through each day in order to get these lines of business picked up and disposed of properly. And I just feel, you know, having a seat at the table to be able to, you know, speak about the labor piece of this as well would be beneficial for not only my members, but for this committee. Thank you. Are there questions of of the panel? Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I have a question for the first gentleman and the third lady and then a question for everybody. Do either of you belong to Swann? I do. You do? Are you going to the conference at the end of the month? I am not. No. Dang. Do you belong? Are you going to conference? Yes. We do belong. And most likely, my colleague who is closer to Swann and does more work will be there. So would you tell that person? I would love to pick their brain when they get back. I can't go, so. Oh, you won't be there. Okay. So I'll be sure that somebody follows up with you. Thank you. It's one of the solid waste advisory committee of North America. And then the question for all of you is, are landfills going to close in 2028, potentially 2040? What do you think we should be doing to prepare for that? Well, I think what we have to do is try to figure out how best to get less going into the landfill. Obviously, either be a recycling and then the contamination rate. Trying to figure it out. And I know that now part of what we're doing is if you can't clean it out to throw it out, and I think we have to reduce our R use. I know with Amazon and all the boxes and all that people are throwing away. We just got to find a way to reduce it. I'll ditto that. But there was an article in today's paper about a new enzyme that was discovered originally in Japan and then accidentally improved a better one found in U.K., where the bacteria eat the plastic. And this is going to take, you know, some years to get up to scale. But this actually looks super promising. So the idea of new innovations to help us address these issues is something I think we should embrace. I guess I would piggyback on that. Being part of the private sector and working at Waste Management for over ten years, we're very much an innovative company, the largest recycler and then in the North America. So I look forward to the opportunity to partner with King County and really develop some of these solutions together in partnership. I think that a big problem that we face right now is that people aren't educated on what's recyclable or how you recycle. I feel like moving forward, we have to be doing a better job with teaching everybody, not just younger kids or anybody, and how you recycle, but why we do it. And you can't, you know, put a yogurt container with yogurt still in it and throw it into a container that's got, you know, clean paper like cardboard and expect that that's not going to be contaminated with the levels that are acceptable at this date. And then also moving toward more compostable materials that can actually break down over time. Thank you. Council member Van Dike Bauer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, folks, for wanting to serve on the advisory board. Many of us have a long memory of 2012 when there was a strike. And I'm curious, given what's happened with the republic in the last 24 hours, if anybody wants to share some thoughts about how things are going in the industry starting out that year with the Republic has decided to obviously as many people know, pick it here, even though the issue is an East Coast issue. Is that correct? Yes. There were members from Boston that were in the northwest and they've been across the country just recently. And those workers were facing an employer that at the time their that and I don't know how far I want to get to the politics of this but that were offering less than a living wage for most of these people. My understanding is and they did extend their pickets to this side of the country and our members were not picketing at that point. But there were people that did honor the line at that with those those individuals standing out there. I don't really know what else context to give you other than that. Yeah. Thank you. Robin, you're your your company was directly involved, I think, in 2012. Yes. I was the company spokesperson. I'm trying to forget those days, but I really can't speak to what's going on with Republic. But most importantly, I can speak to that. We don't want to look backwards as a company. That was a painful, difficult time for our community as well as our company and our employees. And as we look forward, I feel very confident that the that our employees will be happy and that we will have solid contracts and we won't see any more strikes. What was the best lesson? Because I know you were the spokesperson at the time and I was involved because of the Regional Policy Committee. What do you think the best lesson was learned for that whole process in 2012? Well, just speaking from personal experience, I was in politics in Washington, D.C. for over 20 years before I came here. And I think nobody wins. You know, the company went through a lot during that period of time and as did our drivers. So, you know, it's important to have good working relationships with the union. And it was a it was a difficult time for anyone, everyone. So I would say nobody wins. Right. And I think that maybe the company tried to be more communicative as we went forward after that strike and open up more channels of communication. I would agree with you. I think that we've been working to heal those relationships. We were very close with the union now and we're also thinking farther ahead well before the contract comes up. Thank you. Thank you. The other comment, I would just add, I think communication was very key with with waste match. I also work with Waste Management and King County on kind of both sides. And I think what worked well is honoring the picket line for those for and understanding that there's a two minute wait and just making sure people keep level heads and on both sides of the table. And I believe that really helped out during the 2012 strike. Thank you all and thank you for your willingness to serve. And thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask you, in your introductory remarks, you said that I see myself representing equity on the committee. Could you elaborate as to what you meant by that? Well, living in a South King County and I work at Wallingford and just making sure that the when they build a facility that we don't have such an equitable facilities as we do in South Park versus Wallingford, where Wallingford has a big, gigantic playground. And South Park, we have there was nothing else built there, no playground, anything for the community, and just wanted to make sure that the community is being heard and that they're offering up at least get trying to get to some community people to see what what they want in the in the facility or need for the facility . Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. One issue that's before us that you need to know about and potentially work with the state on is the currently and the unincorporated areas there UTC. The state decides what the rates are going to be for the unincorporated areas. So a city council like this. You're a colleague. But we are also a city council when we are dealing with the local government. So sitting across the street council can negotiate the rates. We want more recycling, we want more this, we want more of this, we want less that and the negotiate on that. We sitting over here a council. We are a regional body at this moment, but we are also a local government body. We do not have the ability to negotiate our contract. We take whatever the contract amount is. And in some places in the county, it's double the price of what their neighbor across the street pays. That is wrong and we need to fix that. So I hope that you will fix that. And while you're fixing that, we also need better garbage cans into the areas where bears are getting in and causing havoc. So those are the two things that aren't being talked about but are really important to the people in this county . And I agree with you that recycling first, compostable is are second, but not everything is is recyclable and never will be. So we are going to have to get past all preconceived notions and look at the different technologies around the world. And I hope it's sooner than later. Thank you for the questions. Discussion. Councilmember Cole. WELLS Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have four motions to the last to have technical amendments. So I'm proposing that I propose a solid. I propose the motion be made for two at a time. To Lee Eric Moorman, which would be 2000. 19 0339 and the motion for Heather Trim 2019 0341 be taken together. Council member Caldwell's moved adoption of motions 2019 339 and 341. We've heard from the two appointees for their discussion. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell. Duty Councilmember DEMBOSKY Park. Councilmember done by. Councilmember Garcia. I thank the member for. Well I'm Councilmember Alhambra. Councilmember off the ground. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Oh, Mr. Chair, the vote is 19 zero now. Thank you. Given the vote, you've given a do pass recommendation, two motions, 2019, 339 and 341. Councilmember Colwell Thank. You, Mr. Chair. I new proposed motion 1219 0366 to confirm Robin Friedman to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. Councilmember Caldwell's has moved to give you do pass recommendation two motion 2019 366. Councilmember Coe Well, thank. You, Mr. Chair. We have a technical amendment and that would change the language that was inadvertently included, that identified the appointment term as a partial term when the term expires expiration date and the motion reflects a full term. Amendment one would correct that era. Councilmember Caldwell's has moved adoption of the Amendment one others in favor. Please say I oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. The amendment carries for the discussion. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garza. Council Member. Cornwall Council member. Lambeth Council. Member of the Council member. MAN right there. All right, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chambers, 97. Thank you. By your vote, you've given in to pass recommendation to Motion 2019 366. Councilmember Colwell Thank you, Mr. Chair. I new proposed motion 2019 0367 for the appointment of James Balsam to the King County Solid Waste Advisory Committee. Councilmember Calls has moved adoption of motion 2019 367 Councilmember Calls. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And as was the case with the prior appointee, we have a technical amendment to change the language to reflect that it is for a full term, not a not a partial turn. Councilmember Caldwell's has moved adoption amendment one. See no discussion. All those in favor, please say I. I opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. See? No further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, Dutchie. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett. Hi. Councilmember Caldwell. I'm Councilmember Lambert, I Council member of the Grove. Right. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Oh, Mr. Chair, the vote is nine. I sereno's. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to motion 2019 367 as amended. By an objection, we'll place all four motions on the consent agenda for Council. And with that, that takes us to the Winery Brewery Distillery, Distillery Ordinance and public comment. Same rules apply for public comment. I will try to stay about three people ahead in calling people to testify. And when it's your turn, if you please step to either one of the two podiums. We I however I take part of that back. I will ask you to try to limit your testimony to one minute. We have at present a page and a half of people signed in to testify. The first three people will be Susan Boundary Sanders, Cliff Otis and Chase Killebrew. Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Susan Bounds Sanders. I am commenting today as a private citizen, not in my capacity as one of the city council members. I'd like to thank Carlton over Ball Dutchie for her striker that made so many improvements toward protection of farmland and rural land in King County. But I am here today to ask for more protection. I want to remind you that I've submitted testimony in the past that there is plenty of room inside of city limits for these quintessentially urban activities of tasting rooms and event centers. There are over a hundred acres in Woodinville and over 1000 acres altogether in the city surrounding the Sammamish Valley. And I want to ask for improvements that I've given on a single page of testimony to you today, because the ordinance still provides for death by a thousand cuts to rural and agricultural land in the Sammamish Valley through and allowing providing an environment for land, speculation, providing loopholes in the code and providing for incremental weakening of the code. Thank you. Hello. Council members. My name's Clifford Rosen with MATTHEWS Winery. Winery's tasting rooms in unincorporated Kent County of Work collaborative with you over the past three years to find a legal pathway that both protects rural agriculture and allows small businesses like ours to flourish, providing jobs and a much needed tax revenue to the county. As a result of reviewing this amended ordinance, we have just a few questions that are left. What's the rationale for the percentage of a tasting room to define the percentage of 15%? It's like going into deeper and saying, your kitchen can only be this size. So it's kind of a ridiculous structure. That index to parking, we would have about 8 to 17 parking spots. Where are we going to park the cars that come for a wine release? There's so much concern about an EIA statement. Why don't we do one? How is the recent hearing examiner's decision for breweries impacting this? Can the state vesting law be preempted for a local vesting ordinance? Can the county require a business license that is tied to alcohol sales legally? We don't think so. So we urge you to take the time to forward legislation that's balanced, fair and balanced. And I think you just need to take a little more time with this one. Thanks. Following Mr. Killebrew will be Laura Cherry Case. Interesting to be. And Craig Peck. Hello, my name is Chase Killebrew. And you're. You're out of order. Please sit down. I'm sorry for the interruption. Hello. My name is Chase Killebrew and I am representing Blue Line and land use planning and consulting until Engineering Consulting firm based in Kirkland. We have written a long letter that is included in your packet for today's meeting, but I would like to highlight a couple of the points. First, the parking maximums that have been proposed lean toward redundancy when the proposed code provisions regulating maximum impervious surface, maximum building size and setbacks plus the county surface water standards should be adequate in prohibiting the negative effects of pollution generating impervious surfaces. However, if a parking maximum is considered necessary to ensure a reduction of the potential effects on water quality and runoff of development, one possible solution of reaching a balance would be to add a condition that allows the parking maximum to be exceeded. If an applicant implements more alleged bbmp stormwater runoff, such as pervious pavers or by retention wells. Second, we ask you consider the Department of Local Services permitting process as this will affect the enforcement of the proposed ordinance, particularly the proposed compliance period. With our extensive knowledge of the deal process, it's pretty lengthy and we know that it will be for these existing facilities coming into compliance. So we appreciate the determination of the Council to guarantee the ordinance can be fairly implemented once approved. Thank you. Hi. My name is Laura Cherry and I'm the owner of Dragon's Head Cider on Passion Island. And I just have a couple of points that I'd like to share with the council today. This ordinance, as written, would have a significant negative impact on the fragile economy on Passion Island. And it's frustrating that all of the time and money is spent by the county on stakeholder analysis did not include a single resident of Ocean Island. So Councilmember McDermott and his staff have reached out to the community, understand, and drafted a carefully worded amendment that would better meet the needs of the island. And it's extremely narrow in its focus, but it resolved the issues created by this ordinance for the fashion community. So I'd like to urge the Council to approve the fashion amendment. My second point is, with respect to the broader ordinance, I'd like to emphasize how important it is that the Council finally take action on this ordinance today . The delays resolving this issue also have severe consequences. As a small business owner, I can't make plans for the future of my business. I can't make additional investments in the growth and expansion of my business. Until you make a decision, we have it. I don't envy you because it's really there's no great answer here and there's no way to keep all the stakeholders happy. But it's time to own the issue and do what you can to resolve it in a timely manner. So to continue to kick the can down the road would only continue to make more issues. But please vote to approve the ordinance today so that we can all start to make plans for the future again. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. So let him refinance us to instead of complete emotionally and physically. Really beginning health care exists to help people in this optimal state of healthy. In 250 the population of the United States you or you say spend any is in demented city in the to rebuilding of healthy can't cause that's how this thing the exception to instead by as you say National Research Council people shouldn't in through under that is to 300 to something should that Americans. Did. To young younger. Thank you. Thank you. Following Mr. Peck will be Carla Da, Eric Gordon and Vince. I'm Ben in. I'm missing something in the photocopy. Good afternoon, friends. My name's Craig Peck. I live in Woodinville. And I urge you to reject the changes to the current law that are essentially an up zone and a repudiation of the compromises that we made decades ago. The Sammamish River Trail is where I walk, stroll with my wife, exercise and dream. And my kids played soccer and baseball in the Sammamish Valley on land protected from commercial development. It would be a permanent loss to King County's residents if you sacrificed or even risked. The current balance of beauty, agriculture and built environment to benefit a handful of illegal business owners. And please don't make it possible to open new bars, liquor stores and event sites. While there are plenty of other legal locations for these kind of businesses in the area. Don't reward land speculation. We spent together millions of dollars buying development rights to the Sunny Image Valley to protect it. And it's not just the agricultural feel of the valley that benefits the current hospitality industry there. People are actually growing food in the valley, and I buy my produce 5 minutes from my house. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I am Carla Da with MATTHEWS Winery. Whatever ordinances you decide to put in place will greatly impact the community, our friends and our employees restricting hours or minimizing retail space, which subsequently reduces our parking capacity or strangle our business and many others. The policies you mandate may force us to abandon the incredible property we have developed. For the community to embrace no farm, no flowers, no expansive lawns, for families to play games on or linger on a sunny afternoon. No embracing grazing deer or scurrying covey of quail. Please carefully think this through. Let's work together to design a fair and balanced ordinance. Please look at this situation logically and with a local focus. Please take the time to truly evaluate how your decisions will impact our business as so many others. Please work with us to determine a balanced answer that both preserves the rural character of the area being nurtured in our farm and garden while promoting the destiny of Washington wines. Thank you. Good evening. Counsel. My name is Eric Ohene. I am a farmer in the Sammamish Valley, and I want to thank you for your mention of the Salish tribes here this evening. Mr. McDermott. I am a for profit farmer for salmon. I hope that you all recognize the importance in the open space conservation of habitat, this habitat so close to the city over the three years that I have employed folks in the Valley, people from Fremont, Ballard, Capitol Hill, U District, Renton, Duvall, Lake City, Kenmore, Woodinville, Kirkland, Redmond, Cottage, Lake and West Seattle have found employment or opportunities on my farm and among my neighbors in the valley. The smallest valley is the first opportunity for young and aspiring farmers to immerse themselves in this vocation while remaining near the cultural attractions of the city and support network networks of their families and affordable housing. The violators in the district are taking that housing away by using what were once homes in the valley for themselves. Places that I will not be able to settle if and if I decide to continue farming in the valley. Thank you. Thank you. Vince Followed by Sarah Totally. Kurt Is it fun to make her in? Andrew. Eli. Thank you, Cosman. And my name's Vincent N. I study your ordinance and I have a trouble with a word demonstration. What is the purpose of a demonstration? Demonstration? For the winery. For the. All those things should be already in the. When we do the Woodinville Wine District, there should be already there. Why go to another demonstration project? The second point I have to made is when demonstration completed and occurred and recurrent a five day violator was at were according to the ordinary study is continue to operate so so this ordinance really to me is really not for a study or to a study is really all in for all those illegal violator is a back door for them. The third one I have the problem where there is a code enforcement or according to the code in the meeting I have in the Woodinville and the county. Officers say the code enforcement is not NSA is not in the county code. That was necessary. So how can we know the new ordinance will enforce the code? Thank you. Hello. My name is Sarah Tankersley and I manage Blue Winery on Passion Island. There aren't very many of us here today representing fashion because it's the middle of crush. We're getting our fruit and we're making our product. But this is very important to us because this ordinance affects our island's economy and our businesses. In a. Very real way. Our winery is small. 500 club members. It's cottage industry and has been for almost 20 years. This ordinance would shut us down and it considering. The fact that. This ordinance was made not to regulate fashion but to regulate the sammamish valley, that is just. So difficult. To come to terms with. We are. Councilman McDermott has created an amendment that is coming up for a vote today, and I hope that you will support it. Thank you. Good afternoon. Hi. My name is Kurt Tong, Homemaker and I farm in the Spanish Valley and we are subject to the development above us because all the water from those implements runs down on our farm. And I'm just looking at where this ordinance is written and it sounds like they're going to be able to change a lot of the homes potentially to start having more and more impervious surface. And they say that they're going to manage it where the King County rules, but then they talk about what about the waste? And they said, well, it's not equitable. And one of the questions on the the CPA report that they did, they say this is not applicable, this report is not. And so they didn't fill out any of the stuff so far and explain why or how they're going to manage this. And being a farmer down below are just concerned about the levels of water that are going to come down and make the land even harder to farm. And so I just encourage you guys to rethink this and give the farmers in the Smash Valley a better chance to survive. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Evo will be followed by Rob's Sandra mine. Can I bring I'll bring her and Robin Lao. My name is injury. Thank you, counsel, for having me here to give you a little bit of public insight. I just want to start with one. The Department of Ecology website reads Purpose and Intent Keepers intend to ensure the environmental values are considered during decision making by state and local agencies. When SIPA was adopted, the state lawmakers identified four primary purposes. One declares a state of a policy to encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between people in their environment. Two To promote efforts which prevent to prevent or eliminate damage to the environmental and biosphere. Three To stimulate public health and welfare. And for to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems of the natural resources important to Washington and the nation. The SEPA checklist that was performed for this ordinance was filled out and not applicable for every single line item, and it is utterly discouraging to have the county not take action on that. This was authored by county employees itself and it just doesn't make sense that if such a large area of agricultural and agricultural buffer areas, it should be taken into consideration what the environmental impacts are going to be before an ordinance is even proposed. Secondly, I just want to reiterate that there are numerous nonprofit organizations and and ecological conservation groups that are endorsing friends of some limited values version of this striker. And I think that the democratic representation of those organizations far outweighs the representation of the private businesses that are so that are so encouraged by the financial gains of exploitation of land. I thank you for your time, and I encourage you to reconsider moving this ordinance through today. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Rob. So and first of all, I want to thank Councilman Baldacci for the changes we've made. But that being said, I want to make it clear we oppose the Kathy Lambert's proposed amendments that are before you today. We don't we think those are taking us from reverse. Specifically, I want to talk about the fact that the WB definitions now require to take two stages of production for a winery, one of those stages that's fermenting. Unfortunately, this does not stop sham wineries such as MATTHEWS, who have two barrels in their back closet that are fermenting and aging. And that's the only and none of that is that wine is being sold onsite. All the wine is being produced offsite. So there's a loophole there. The current strike does not address this type of sham operation is totally and make it totally illegal. It's just what we really want in this amendment. Lastly, I want to make sure I think down the road in closing, 50 years from now. Are your grandchildren going to thank you for adding a few more wineries or for protecting this valuable resource where they can enjoy God's beauty? Thanks. Canal, Bangor, resident of Kirkland. This ordinance is billed as a proposed compromise, but a compromise is not the right way to protect our farmland. Here in the Sammamish Valley and throughout the county, the wineries and breweries do not seek agricultural production here they want and then develop tasting rooms and event centers, but allowing tasting rooms and events centers on agricultural production areas and the buffer zones will compromise the legitimate use of this farmland for production. It will and has already driven the cost of farmland beyond the means of legitimate agricultural producers. I urge this committee to remove tasting rooms and event centers from the allowed uses of agricultural protection areas, the adjoining environmental buffer zones and rural land. This ordinance and use this ordinance to strengthen the definitions and rules so that the county can effectively enforce our existing rules and regulations. Garden God knows we need to preserve this farmland. Our residents are relying on you, our elected representatives, to do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you. Robin will be followed by Tom Quigley, Dominique Jorgensen and Dean Scramble. My name is Robin Lough. I would like to request that this committee focus on untreated sewage. That's what we have. You have a choice. You either have treated sewage through it, through a sewer system, or you have untreated sewage that comes from septic tanks, which is what this entire area uses, that you're that you're you're proposing be turned into a commercial area. Generally, what happens in my own home, I have a 3000 square foot home. I have a thousand gallon septic tank, which is designed in two tanks. It's a modern design. You have wineries that are operating right now that are a two bedroom, one bath manufactured in the 1920s. It is operating as a winery and event center. Call it whatever you want. The issue that you have before you is when that sludge and I know solids come out of that sewer system, go into the drain field, it goes downhill. Just as that farmer said. It will literally pollute farmland. And you have a river. That is that is right there with the salmon swim up. You must have a sewer system or you've ignored untreated sewage in your proposal. My name is Tom Quigley and the President's Moonee Valley Alliance. And I am. Also serving as the current master of this municipality, Grange. I'm here representing both those organizations. A lot of people are asking, why in the world are we here? I am so proud of being a King County. Farmer and on. Farm land. And the reason we should be so proud is that this county has. Been held up for decades. Across this nation as exemplary in our preservation of farmland. And that is because it was visionary thinking that got us there. And as an early stakeholder in this process, nowhere in the process have we committed or challenged each other to get around a table. And focus on visionary. Thinking. We're talking about greed and laziness and other factors that are forcing us to go away from a plan that has worked for decades, that has been exemplary. And to abandon it for. A few violators. Why would we even consider that? So I encourage you to. Take whatever it takes to go back to what we have not even go back just to say what we have works for the majority. It may not be working for a small minority, but it's working and it's been held up nationwide as being an example. Let's keep to it. Thank you. Dominique Torgerson for Horsham Brewery. We need to remember our Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. We are all created equal. But our county does not treat everyone equally. This ordinance proves just that from the increased citation fees, the restriction on business hours on building size when there are already impervious surface limitations for all properties in the unincorporated area. This is not being treated equally in King County. And this ordinance violates our 14th Amendment rights for equal protection and due process. Governments are instituted among men, deriving just powers from the consent of the governed. We do not have our consent for this kerfuffle of an ordinance. Nor has King County properly, properly informed from the consent of the population for the heavily increase zoning regulations that have been passed over the last 30 years. These oppressive restrictions are strangling residents and businesses to death, and we're turning a blind eye to it. Among these, we have unalienable rights. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And what world does King County feel they're honoring this? King County is explicitly derived, deprived us of all these unalienable rights. I ask that either this ordinance is voted down or that we at least grandfather in all the businesses that were issued a state license, as that was the county's opportunity to either deny or authorize that license at that time. According to the state process. Thank you. Dean will be followed by Melissa Earl, Kim Prince and Barbara Lowe. Good afternoon, counsel. Sorry. This always gives me such anxiety. It's. It's our livelihoods that are at risk here. But I'll keep it simple. This room, I measure two. It's 2800 square feet. It's tiny. I mean, yeah, my operation can fit inside this room, and there's still restrictions being added to it. And it's just. It does not make any sense. I mean, there's 2800 square feet in this room, so. Yeah. Every single person in the rural area has an impervious service limitation. So ours is 20%. We can't exceed it. That's the house. That's. I mean, the planter boxes we have or if we have a little pond, birdbath, back deck, whatever. So I don't know. And the other thing is October 3rd of 2018, that's when the hearing examiners report came out. We still don't have our permit. So this is just we need to take more time on this. I mean, to prove that it is an allowed use and we still don't have our permit. There's something going on and we just need more time. So thank you. Hello, counsel. My name is Melissa Earl. I've come to these public testimony since the very beginning, and I'm going to try to sum up some of the key points here. I've had a couple of questions about where in the Growth Management Act do we feel it's violating the Growth Management Act, some of the things that are going on in this new ordinance. And so I wanted to kind of point out the Growth Management Act, adjacent cities and counties through the countywide planning policy process are supposed to be touched base with. So that means that my city that I'm next to Maple Valley, Covington, Kent, all those towns and cities should have been communicated with and their input should have been received in order for my particular business in District five to have been affected so much or I believe I'm District No, I'm in Reagan's district. Wherever Reagan and Dennis district is, I'm going to try and give a personal feel to what it's done for me. This process began for me about three years ago. King County stripped my business license from me and pulled my title based on access. They threatened my family land, my business, my income, and it's still unabated. Unfortunately, the most important of my basic needs were under threat for complying before with whatever I was receiving from them, and it continually changed from the deeper department. So when this process began, I was pregnant with my second child. My story is kind of hard for me to say because it caused a lot of personal stress. I fell ill after the deeper department, threatened my home and threatened my livelihood. It felt like a shakedown. My my doctors told me that the medical decision was they needed to take my baby from me early because I was not well. And the delivery process almost took my son's life and it almost took my own. I don't say this because I want sympathy. I say this because this story of mine is very similar to a lot of the businesses and families that I've heard go through this process. It has caused not only a financial burden, it has caused a physical issue. There are other problems that can be caused by just this process. I don't want to be homeless or without food by the end of this process. We are talking about a homeless crisis in this community right now, and I can see how I was damn near pushed to it. Excuse my language. I'm asking you guys to not pass this right now because I don't feel as though it's addressing a lot of the outcomes, like mine, for example, that I don't feel are warranted. Again, if you guys look at the GMA, you can see that my particular area probably should have been reviewed before I'm being held to some damage standards. Thank you for your time. I know the Stryker is really difficult. I hope we can get through it with a little bit more. Grace. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Prince. Okay. Hello. My name is Barbara Lough. I am a surface water hydrologist and I have written environmental impact reports and statements. So I see this as an issue of need over greed. Our future, our children. You. They all need fresh food from pristine farmland. Our orcas need salmon from the Issaquah Hatchery and from local streams throughout the Puget Sound. If this ordinance is passed, what do you think the vision will be in 20 years? What I see as a hydrologist is a state of pristine farmland. I see a toxic bog. I see a foul canal instead of the Sammamish river, where I saw a fish jump yesterday going up to the hatchery. I hear Cathy Lambert saying the farmland is protected. No, it is protected from development. It is not protected from environmental degradation which will occur if you do commercial development within the rural area. So we opposed any amendments that create loopholes in the current version. We oppose amendments. And remember, Mathews sells wine by the case at Wooden Villa Costco. They are not a small business. We need to protect our resources, our future, our grandchildren, our farmers, our people of King County, natural habitat, salmon and the orcas. Thank you. Hi. My name's Kim Prince, and I live in the farm area in Woodinville. The demonstration overlay rewards five violators under the guise of a demonstration. It can't be a demonstration win once everything's set up and in a few years, you can't take it down. We already have data on what happens when commercial businesses are located in the rural area where commercial infrastructure does not exist, like the sewers, the sidewalks, roadways . We don't need a demonstration and there is no way to pull out of it. At the end of the demonstration period. It contains the demonstration overlay contains 13 parcels extending south well past the last violator. Why is that? Why why the the eight more additional parcels? Because that last parcel is owned by the Lil Greg Lill, who was one of the authors of this whole proposal. Another thing I'd like to bring up is that the farm one in this overlay is a parcel that belongs to RCC and RS. And in the farm there's a. So do they get pulled out of our neighborhood? Do they no longer pay our dues? How can you just include a parcel that is, you know, part of our community? Thank you. Thank you. And I feel out of line in giving people advanced warning. Michelle Granada. Terry Strum. Strum Bear. And Barbara Carlson. Go ahead. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Michelle Granada. I'm a resident of the Valley and I specifically am here to ask you to keep the retail land uses of the code exactly as they're drafted. I'm speaking to you as a resident, a former city planner and a retired real estate attorney. And it is my opinion that that section of the code is clear and unambiguous and unequivocally limits sales to products produced on site. Currently, you have eight businesses in the area in the valley that are operating in violation of this clear code language. This current striker will grandfather these violators and allow others to follow suit. I ask you to keep the current code language as drafted. When I was a city planner, we didn't reward code violators. We enforced the code. And I'm asking you to do the same, to do what is right and not what is expedient. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. I stand in strong opposition of the beverage ordinance. This proposal will not balance the needs of farmers, small business and tasting rooms. It will do the opposite to all three parties. It will not bring the outliers into compliance with the zoning code. It threatens farmers and dampens small business by discouraging shoppers who are distressed by the traffic and parking issues. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, sewer is an issue. In conclusion, I also want to mention this the sewer was brought up. This is the Feliciana tasting room, which is a two bedroom house built in the 1920s. It can hold an event by its current permit of up to 200 people. They are on septic. How well do you think that's going to work? The answer is not very well. So in conclusion, this is what we're fighting for. And the judge, the. Sorry. To paraphrase Jeremy Bentham, it is the greatest good for the greatest number of people, which is the measure of right and wrong. Thank you. And we've barbara coulson is next followed by Nicholas to demand Montague. I'm sorry. I'll apologize now. I'm Carolyn Tansley and Serena Glover. Good afternoon. My name is Barbara Calhoun. I've been a resident of Woodinville for 50 years, and for 25 years I've owned commercial property in the city of Woodinville Tourist District, released space to six tasting rooms. The majority, the vast majority of the 125 or so tasting rooms in Woodinville are following the rules. And it's extremely unfair to them that the violators are being rewarded for not following the rules. As a commercial property owner, we've had to pay engineering and architectural fees, city permits, mitigation fees paid for sidewalks and street improvements, street lighting, landscaping, paved parking lots, daily sewer. The handful of violators have paid none of those costs, and yet they take advantage of what the legally operating visitors are paid. It's past time for King County to enforce its zoning codes. Thank you. Hi. My name is Nikolaj Walsh. I am in Super Belleville. I'm representing myself and any other volunteer organization. The two main point I'd like to bring to your attention is I love wineries. They're great, but the top priority is protecting the valley, and I would like others who are more. The second part is code enforcement. First, thank you to Councilmember Lambert and Permanent Director Chan, who showed up on 911 and 21 to encourage and explain to us all the code enforcement. But they both acknowledge and recognize that there some deficiency. Right now you are a legislative body, but you also need to exercise oversight. I think you would agree that both sides are saying there's clearly. Lack of funding or staff or regulation or not regulation, but execution and businesses and others should have a framework by which enforcement is consistent. Government needs to be deterministic and fair. It can't be arbitrary. So I would recommend strongly to you make sure that that is properly done, because it's not right now and that's not fair for boat people protecting the farm and also businesses. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hello. I'm Carolyn Tankersley and I live in Rural King County and I appreciate the work you've done. Although some of the improvements have been presented in the latest Stryker proposal, which look better. I do oppose the amendments, as they've been suggested by Cathy Lambert. The proposals do not go far enough to protect the Sammamish Valley and they actually reward violators. They negatively impact all of rural King County, both inside and outside of currently protected egg and farmland areas. There are farmlands in the rural area that will be lost. Once lost, farm lands are gone forever. Not only will food sources be lost, but as a resident of the rural King County area, the proposed ordinance will also negatively impact the quality of our day to day life, reducing open space, allowing increased retail and event operations, threatening water quality and dramatically increasing traffic on rural roadways. We do not want to see what happened in Kent Valley occur again. Please save our farms and rural King County. Kathy Lambert's proposed amendments must be opposed. Ms. Glover will be followed by Shawn mILLAR, Adelaide Leroy and Michael Tankersley. Hello. I'm Serena Glover, executive director of Friends of Sammamish Valley. The striker opens the Sammamish Valley to retail drinking establishments via dpoy and murky weed definitions. It attempts to mitigate the damage from these commercial businesses operating without proper infrastructure by limiting their activities and parking, retail space and hours. The violators claim they can't work within these restrictions. You've heard this yourselves from them. Add to that a complaint driven code enforcement system, murky code language, de minimis fines and a handful of restrictions which are impossible to uphold in real time with customers on site. This approach, which basically splits the baby by letting commercial development into the Sammamish Valley with some restrictions, will lead to endless code enforcement battles and commercial developers will. When the result is, violators will keep growing. Eight more retail outlets will be allowed, and land price speculation will continue, and the environmental and public health and safety issues will only increase. We will never, never be able to stop this onslaught. The demand to locate beverage retail outlets in King County is huge and growing. You have one chance to get this right. There's no mulligan on development. Clear legislation from the council that locates all retail drinking establishments with no production into the urban area is the only way to protect the Sammamish Valley. If you adopt the striker or any of Sam Lambert's amendments with a split the baby approach, you will lose the Sammamish Valley and that will be your legacy. Thank you for. Hey, everyone, I'm Sean Miller. I am a farmer here in King County. In this valley. I own tuck muck farm. This is my son, Yoshiaki. He supervises the farm most days. We came here to say, just to tell you how important and valuable the Simi Valley and the rural character this valley is for us, both as farmers and as a place to raise my children. Currently, as a full time farmer, I most certainly can't afford childcare. So my baby is at the farm with me every day, as are many of the other farmers, in that ability to have our family close to us in a place where we work side by side with our families is so crucial to us and that is definitely in threat. The current demonstration. One of our brothers said earlier to I have questions about this idea of a demonstration. It's 2019. We know what happens when we develop on the uphill side of rural farmland. That runoff comes down into our farmland, and our farmland is right on Sammamish Valley. This is a semi salmon bearing river that are on the river and we are the final buffer. Our farms are the final sort of environmental protective buffer. So the more that that's encroached upon, the more that threatens, the more water that runs down onto our land and into the river. Definitely on balance is that, you know, pristine sort of nature that we have in this valley. And I just encourage you all to take a step back and vote on what's the most reasonable course of action to protect the valley and to protect the farmers today and not continue to let it be split between somehow farmers and wineries. I think that's sort of been framed in that weird way. And we don't want to be enemies to anyone. We want to cooperate with everyone, so please help us. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's nice to see that the King County Council is not the only place of employment where they take your baby to work. Good job that this is true. And you have my sympathy to having to follow that. Totally good. My name is Adelaide Le Roy. I'm here on behalf of Alcoa Market Garden and my brother Marshall Le Roy, we are a family run, small farm, a regenerative farm in the Sammamish Valley. And Len speculation is killing small farmers. And it doesn't matter that the King County buys up farm land development rights because if in 15 years it is severely degraded and we cannot use that farmland, that is useless to us. I apologize for our friends here from back on island. I understand. And you have my sympathy that this affects your business. And I'm sorry you're lumped in here with us, but we are a business as well. We are working to grow and we cannot grow if we have no land to grow. Wineries, tasting event rooms, they don't need the land. And we do. And we can't have access to that land if we can't purchase it. If we can purchase it because we somehow have $1,000,000 to buy a parcel, it doesn't matter if it's severely degraded past the point of being usable and we want to do U-Pick pumpkins next year. I would like to think that that's a more family friendly event than wandering around on a lawn in a wine tasting room. That's just me. You have legislation in theory to support your farmland by buying the farm land. Great. Your legislation in theory to support your food insecure constituents. We operate at farmers markets and we utilize the WIC program supplying nutrient dense food grown with organic practices to your constituents. And the fact that there are so many people in this room who have shown up and well shown up to just statistically, we don't want this , the people who want this or five businesses who directly receive benefits from it. So I don't understand why we keep pushing the issue. I'm not for this ordinance. Thank you. Michael B, followed by Lamont Alexander. Hello, Michael Tinsley with the Hollywood Hills Association. First, I want to thank Claudia for stepping into this and making some incremental improvements to what was a very sloppy, messy ordinance that you guys were handed last year by the executive. But it did make some incremental improvements, mostly, though, on secondary issues and things that, quite frankly, just followed. The big issues, the primary issues, which are those loopholes that were written in there for what reason? We don't know. I still remain. It has to do with the definitions and that somebody else earlier mentioned. The clear thing in the code now that says only a product made on site can be sold on site. That's fine. It's very clear. And that's been removed and that should be kept. There's a rich legacy or legacy or a culture in our rural areas that extends all the way across us. And this ordinance is going to affect all of our rural areas. So there's been a lot of talk about farmland and appropriately so it is very important and it's very, very at risk with so many pressures on it. But what many people might not understand is that this agricultural community extends into our rural area in general. I have the county's website. It says 51,000 acres in agricultural production in King County. Of that, 14,000 only are actually under protection, which means only 34% of the farmlands are protected, 66% are not protected there in the rural areas. So as this code is written now, is extended to the rural area. It's going to have a massive effect on the whole rural community, which gives a lot of quality of life to not just the rural businesses and the rural citizens, but also to the urban citizens that come out and enjoy this bounty for the very many those it reaches to it. So I urge you to support I would like Mr. McDermott's proposals for Vacation Island. We are against Kathy Lambert's amendments proposed for these existing strike, but really we think this should be revisited altogether. I know we all want to get over this hangover from too much wine talk, but this isn't about wine. This is about land speculation. Thank you. I'm just here to say that our friend Lamar basically couldn't make it because there was no spaces in the parking garage and no place to park. So he couldn't make public comment. Thank you. The last person signed it in writing to testify is Alex Zimmerman. Thank you very much to you. Very good to me. It wasn't my intention. On the occasion of my funeral. Why do you listen to Zimmer? Why are you supporting him? Nice and quiet. Why are you a rabbit? A slave? They destroy not only you. They destroy all America right now. Small businesses go down different between corporation and poor. People got bigger and bigger and bigger. It's America. The Soviet Union, German Nazi. Why are you so quiet? You're frickin idiot. You. You're America. Not who you are. They support Amazon Microsoft Sound Transit never supporter do not united people look statistic matters. Last week I met a couple in Darwin in doubt, arguing that people lose everything right now. Why are we so quiet to them? Why are you like them again? You understand me or not? You were too quiet. I don't see nobody in this place. Stand up and talk cleanses, dirty chant. But. But I'm this crook from this mafia, from James Democratic Vendetta. Stand up. Your time is up. Yeah, exactly. Is there anyone who didn't have a chance to sign in to testify? You're welcome to approach either podium and identify yourself. And I'm sure your comments. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you. My name is Deepak by barge. I am here on behalf of myself, a 21 year resident of Sammamish Valley, Hollywood Hill, also the president of rest of your homeowners association. It's a 44 home community. And I can tell you that my community, as well as many of my neighbors and neighboring communities, are unanimously against this particular ordinance. We think that it's unnecessary and in fact, does the wrong thing by rewarding a small handful of speculators. We are concerned that maybe this is a Trojan horse that is being set up for abuse of rural, agricultural, land zoning for other areas. And we strongly recommend that you you vote against it. And again, you know, we're all good people here. We've been around for a long time. And, you know, we vote. And, you know, we're going to be watching this very closely. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else? Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. My name is Jennifer Drury and I live with my family in the urban part of Woodinville. And so I live on a smaller plot. And I understand that that's part of urban growth. And but I love that I live next to the rural part. And I took my children last week into the farms, and I talked with the farmers and I talked with one of them about regeneration, farming and putting carbon back into the soil. And I think that's something that we need to keep in mind with climate change and what we need to do to bring carbon out of the atmosphere. And that's a very important thing that our local farmers are doing. And I support our local farmers, the farmers market, and I buy from them every week in the summer and I take my children. And so this is why I don't support the proposal. Thank you very much. Hi. My name's Becky. I'm really sick. I have the worst sinus infection in the world, and it really should be working in my business right now. And I've come to every single one of these meetings, usually with a better statement. I wasn't really planning on talking what I which is I want this to stop. Like I can't keep taking time out and coming to these. I mean, I don't live anywhere near here. I live in Woodinville. It takes forever to get here. The parking sucks, as they talked about earlier. I don't get paid to be here either. And I just think that. We can't continue just I've heard the term kicking the can down the road. This has to end at some point, right? Like we got to just make a decision and move on. And I'm just hoping that we can do that today. Please. Oh, and I'm totally against all of this. Anyone else and anyone else to offer testimony. Then we'll close the public hearing. And as we know, the council has been working on this ordinance for more than a year, almost a year and a half. It was first taken up by the Local Services Regional Roads and Bridges Committee. When the committee finished that work, it went to full council and then has been reassigned to the committee of the whole. It is our intention to take up the ordinance and amendments today and to walk us through some of that before us is Erin Adams of our council central staff. Good afternoon. Yes. Let's get organized first. You shoot rubber bands across the room. That was good. Good afternoon, Aaron. Austin's council staff, Christi Craig from the prosecuting attorney's office is with me, as well as Jenny now from central staff. You have a very large staff report packet here. It includes the striking amendment and the and one title amendment, as well as a red light version of the striker and a summary matrix. I wasn't planning to go through the summary matrix again, but I could take questions on it if anybody has any. So we covered it last time. You also have a separate packet on on the dais that has some green and blue shading in a matrix form. You also have the thing that you hold up Consumer Gazette is the public comments that were received since the package was distributed? Yep. So I could brief the line amendments or the members could read them themselves, whatever you prefer. Members would be my suggestion that we have briefed the striking Amendment one and the amendments for the most part, follow amendments that were briefed at our last meeting. I'd suggest we take up the ordinance and brief as we take up each amendment. Can't remember up to now. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Do you mind a question on the. Underlying staff report and. Matrix before we get going with that? Please be appropriate. And and forgive me, this this may not have a simple answer, but I had heard some conflicting information today that got me questioning my understanding. Could you talk. About allowable retail uses under the current. Code in rural agricultural zones? Yes. Is it required to be grown? Are products required to be manufactured or grown on site? So the current allowance for sale of beer and wine goes under liquor stores. The condition for that requires that it be limited to accessory to a winery or brewery. Isn't separate, but that's what it's intended. And limited to sales of products produced on site and incidental items where the majority of sales are generated from products produced on site. With that, I'd entertain a motion. Councilmember Belushi. Mr. Chairman. Move. Ordinance 2018 zero two for 1.2 without recommendation. Council member Belushi is moved that we advance ordinance 2018 241.2 without recommendation Council member Belushi. Move striking amendment as one. Council Member Belushi's move to striking amendment. S1 Do you wish to speak to it before we take amendments to it? I would like to work through amendments and then speak to it, please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to move Amendment point five. And Councilmember Lambert has moved Amendment 2.5. Council Member Lambert. Thank you. This amendment increases the amount of building space that can be dedicated to testing activities from 15% to 30%. The limitation on testing space was a new concept introduced a couple of weeks ago, and I think the 15% restriction on testing space is a little aggressive for this concept. If we were going to restrict the taste in space, a business can have without a clear understanding of the impact on the ground. And I think we should have a little bit more space than that. I believe the CAP will accomplish my colleague's stated policy goals while protecting against any unintended consequences. So I urge your support. Discussion of Amendment Further discussion of Amendment point five. As a question. Councilmember Belge. Can you speak a little bit to what that means in terms of the square footage limits on building size and then what that would mean for the size of what is this testing and retail areas that the underlying maximum aggregated floor area didn't change. So it's still 1500 for facility ones, which doesn't allow retail space and so doesn't part of this and 3500 for a facility to use in the area and a zone. And then this would be of that square footage maximum 30% could be dedicated to retail and tasting areas. Can somebody do the math and tell me what that I'm trying it myself means doing that right now. Okay. I think what I'm coming up with is wrong. And I've been I've learned never to try to do math live here. Yes, we do. For a 3500 square foot winery. 15% would be 525 square feet. We make sure that that totally live math and at 30%, they'll be 1050 square feet. Okay. For an 8000 square foot winery brewery distillery, that would be 15% would be 1200 square feet and 30% would be 2400 square feet. Thank you. Councilmember De Mirsky Thank you, Mr.. We have representatives from the Executive's office here, and I wonder what their position on this amendment is, and I'll ask the same question as we move through this. Who. Who from the executive division might be willing to take that question? I think she's upstairs. Can. Kelly is upstairs. Miss Wolfe is downstairs. Miss Wolfe is moving. Karen Wolfe with the King County executive's office. We're just looking at this amendment today so we don't have a position on the percentage versus the actual square footage. That's one of the most famous. Sharon, do you have a position on the underlying percentage, the 15% in the striking amendment? We were supportive of the 15% in the striking amendment. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell duty. The 15% was added in the most recent version. I just want to make sure that people understand where this particular issue has been. There was no percentage limitation, if I recall correctly, in the Executive's proposal, square the rest square footage. What worked well was the square. There was no limit. There was no limit. So 15% was something that was introduced only in the most recent striker a few weeks ago. And it was based on, as I understand it, a staff review of some other codes. Is that correct? Can somebody speak to me about what? Because I had one understanding about what the 50% was based on, but today I was told something different. So I just want to be clear what it was based on. We were asked to look into it and so we did a review of a lot of different jurisdictions. Most of them don't have a percentage associated with an accessory use, or if it does, it's specific to a different type of use. We found that 10 to 20% appeared to be reasonable for an accessory to use and had put in 15% as a potential example of use. I thank you. I just wanted to sort of set some backstage for where this came from and why it was part of my most recent proposal amendment. And maybe Councilmember Lambert could speak to why 30% makes more sense than 15%, but just to provide context. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. So as it came over from the executive and as is currently, there is 100% that you can use in your property. So we went from 100% to 15%, which is a huge difference. So one of the things that that triggers is how many parking spaces you can have. And when we looked at the number of parking spaces, it was way too small. And so we looked at what would be a more reasonable amount of parking spaces for that size. Again, as a staff and council member, Balducci said, we have not changed the square footage requirements. We have not changed them. And so and we looked at what the trigger would be for parking, and we wanted to make sure that it was reasonable and not more than is current. In fact, it's not more than its current. So that's where we came up with the 30. So it came up from the executive at 100 and we're talking about 30 so far left. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a question on facility wise and facility. Are they just tasting rooms in unincorporated areas or would they be tasting rooms that exist in the urban part of like Woodinville and where they have the same kind of limitations? I'm just trying to see if there's any difference. So the facility one's facility to the facility, these are production facilities. They are allowed in several zones, including the commercial zone. Okay. They are allowable. Yes. The requirements for specific production apply like two stages of production. That applies only to the A and ARI zone. Remote tasting rooms as a separate use doesn't require production and that those are proposed to be allowed in the community business, regional business committee, business and regional business zones and then into in one area for in the ARI Zone near Woodinville. Okay. So as a demonstration project. So they are allowed in both the incorporated cities as well as unincorporated areas. They're allowed in the urban. Unincorporated in the. Rural unincorporated, but we don't regulate inside the cities. So other cities have their own rules for wineries, breweries is Hillary. And we're talking about it. We're only talking about it. And rural, unincorporated. Area, rural and urban. But yes, just in urban. But like Skyway that I represent, that's where I am. Thank you for the discussion. Councilmember Lambert to close, if you wish. Thank you. I think that this is a reasonable amount and impacts, as I said, parking, which is an important thing. And so I think this is a reasonable compromise. Thank you. I urge your support. All those in favor of amendment point five. Please signify by saying I. I oppose. Nay, the ayes appear to have it. Division has been called for all those in favor of amendment point five. Please raise your hand. All those opposed. The ayes have it. Point Amendment. Point five is adopted. Councilmember Caldwell's Would you be kind enough on my behalf to move the adoption of the Amendment 1.5, one point to be so moved? Mr. Chair. Thank you. One point to be is before us. As we heard in testimony today, the legislation that was originally drafted by the executive branch and sent to council addresses issues that were identified and extensively study in the Sammamish Valley. The similar issues don't exist on Fashion Island yet. As written, this code would apply indiscriminately to Valentine as well. So I would ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment, which would allow existing businesses only on fashion to be exempted from the minimum size, their arterial access, the setback and the square footage limitations to not impose the least amount. What I might consider this Mama's Valley solutions are the issues that have been identified in Mama's Valley that don't exist on vacation. So I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment for the discussion. Councilmember Gossett. What was the original reason that Bardstown was included? Is it just because it's located? It's considered unincorporated and rural. That it or would that impact that what we're talking about for the Mama's Valley? Yes. The underlying ordinance covers all of unincorporated King County. Okay. Which includes bash on. All right. Thank you. Mm hmm. Seeing no further discussion of those in favor of 1.2 B, please signify by saying I oppose nay. The hosts appear to have it. The ayes have it. Amendment 1.2 B is adopted. Amendment 1.5 B Council Member Col Wells. Would you be kind enough to move adoption? Thank you. 1.58. No, no, he skipped over that. I mean. Are you. I switched him up the other way. Okay. Great. Consistency would be very bad. 1.5 a please council member. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move adoption of amendment 1.5. Okay. Thank you. I'm amendment council member calls has moved. Adoption of amendment 1.5 a to speak to it. This amendment would set the minimum locks area at two acres, allowing up to 7000 square feet of aggregated floor area and exempts them from the size limitations on retail and tasting sites. This is to apply to in the red zone to winery brewery distillery twos for historic properties. Property is exclusively stored property. I would ask my colleagues to join me in supporting the amendment. I see no discussion. Council up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Do we know this? This this is not. Based on specific, correct? Or are we aware of a current inventory of historic properties? Yes. Is it just one? Yes. I mean that this would apply to. Yes. Okay. That we know. We know. All right, Mr. Chance, remember. DEMBOSKY So could could somebody explain to. Me the policy rationale for bringing historic works? It feels to me like what we're doing here is looking out for one particular business. What is the policy rationale that this should be of general applicability? I would defer to the sponsor, but I will say that there is code in here now about historic properties, treating them differently in some cases. With the point that Austin's just made about the legislation already addressing historic properties. The the work I barely plan to invest time has a history and part of its history is fruit preserves. And so as we look at wineries and if possible, use for the site, that is the nexus in my bringing the amendment. See no further discussion. All those in favor please signify by saying I oppose nay. The ayes. The ayes have it. Amendment three. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, move Amendment three and two speak to it. Councilmember Dunn has moved adoption of Amendment three. Councilmember done very. Well. It's important that we recognize the rural areas of the county are very different in nature than the suburban areas, as we heard today. And they certainly require a different approach in regards to the winery code. I'm offering this amendment in order to differentiate between rural for rural areas and other suburban areas throughout the county, which have different dynamics to account for. I want to recognize that many people who live in the rural parts of the county that it is important to have these types of event spaces available on some occasions. It's my hope we can preserve this aspect of rural character while also safeguarding rural businesses. My amendment is narrowly tailored to allow wineries, breweries, distilleries and tasting rooms on very large properties to host private events as part of their business. It makes sure to include certain conditions are mindful of potential impacts in those areas. Under this amendment, private ends will be allowed if the following conditions are met. The event must be in the rural areas. On the property on which the event is held must be at least eight acres. Buildings used for events must be set back 150 feet from interior property lines in order to further avoid being seen or heard by neighboring properties. The property access must be on a main arterial road. This will avoid impacts to local roads in the rural areas zone and it's consistent with our comprehensive plan policies. In addition, a temporary use permit wouldn't be required as long as the event doesn't include amplified outdoor sound between 8 p.m. and noon the following day . This time restriction is meant to be considered of the potential impact that any noise could have on neighboring properties. The amendment only applies to existing businesses with production liquor licenses from the state. This will allow current businesses to continue events and only on sites that cause no further impacts to local roads, neighbors and the rural area. All of these conditions ensure rural character is preserved and rural residents will stay at places to hold events. This amendment is consistent with our rural economy, strategies and plan, and it provides opportunities for businesses to supplement their income and stay in business. Thank you for your consideration of Amendment three. For the discussion Councilmember Epigraph. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Similar question for staff. How many parcels does this apply to? And we know the ownership. Of the properties that have been identified to have existing production facilities or potentially there's five that are over eight acres. Over. Council member buildings. That would not otherwise be eligible for this use. No, they would ask. The exemption could possibly apply to because they're over eight acres. But they without the exemption, these five properties that you're aware of would not be eligible for this. They would be subject to the limitation of 24 events per year. Okay. That's in the underlying. And with this amendment, what would be the rule about? There would not be a specific limit on events. ATP wouldn't be required unless there was amplification as stated by Councilmember Dunn. Right. Okay. Thank you. Council member up there. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And be clear. Under current code, not current proposals. These properties are in the rural agricultural zone and therefore their products would need to be grown on site were it not for us changing the rules. That's correct. 60% would need to be grown in Puget Sound counties. Okay. Under current code. All right. Seen no discussion. Others in favor of Amendment three please signify by saying I oppose. No. A division has been called for. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Well, I. I believe that's five others opposed for the amendment. Kerry's. Count magazines. Help me. You're about to get this one or both. Title. Title, just T2. But do the striker first. We have one as amended before us. Further discussion on this one as amended Councilmember Double duty. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to try real hard not to give a final passage kind of speech because there's more process. I want to start by saying I am definitely feeling both people who said, can we get to the end one way or another, whether this passes, whether nothing passes? I think that we have reached the point where we need to move to a decision. Anything that we do with an ordinance, we can change with an ordinance. But I think that just continuing to spin on this topic isn't helping people. A few words. So I think the three principles we all agree on, we agree that we want to preserve and protect the agricultural lands and uses of this county. We agree that rural activities should be appropriate, size and scale and use. We agree that rural owners and and people living in operating in the rural area have property rights and they can operate appropriate businesses and they do in their unincorporated rural areas. And farms are businesses. That was a good point as well as somebody's made. I think what we're disagreeing with is how to balance all these things and sort of what the real on the ground impacts will be of a proposed code. I want to point out that we know what the on the ground impacts are of the current code. You can go out there and see it. Part of the reason that this whole issue was taken up was because of the complaints that were coming into King County from people out in the rural areas about what was going on on the ground. And by the way, also that we were hearing from businesses that they couldn't possibly comply with our code, even if they were trying to comply with our code, because it was impossible to understand. So that was the that was the basis that we began with taking up this code. And when I say we, it started with the county executive. He did do a public process out in the Sammamish Valley, focused in the Sammamish Valley. It's correct that this is a county wide code. I'm glad that the Bastion Island Amendment passed because you brought to our attention something that we were having an unanticipated impact for doing this in the rest of King County. I think that this is better. So thank you for that and for being here today again. But. The challenge we've had and I'm going to read just a little bit, I apologize with your with your indulgence, Mr. Chair, I asked the executive branch to tell us what kinds of problems they were having with enforcement, because I have said many times that we haven't enforced the current code, and that is the problem. So I asked them what is going on? Why isn't the code being enforced? And part of its resources? And I want to say one thing we haven't talked about it here at all is that there is a companion budget proposal which I have brought, and we're going to be taking up the budget, starting in our budget and fiscal management committee tomorrow that will add resources to the Department of Permitting to allow for education and enforcement of the code, because we can't if we adopt the new code and we don't enforce it really right back here again. But let me just say and some of this I'm taking from from things that have been written to me, and I'm happy to share this with people. So some of the things that we have going on here, the current code doesn't address or define processing requirements for winery and adult beverage businesses. In other words, no production is required on site under current code. So folks who say there should be more than one step, two steps, there should be all steps, no steps currently required in order to be legal. If the current code were enforced. Wineries, adult beverage businesses would not be required to conduct any stage of production of their product on site. The state issued liquor licenses without requiring production at the state address for the license. That happens as well. There's no definition of an event in our current code. So what's an event and how do we actually manage events if we don't have a definition of what an event is? Probably the clearest example of inadequacy in the current code is that we don't know how many of them there are or where they're located. If a business is operating as a home, occupation or industry, it doesn't even need a permit. So we don't know where they are. They require a ton of other things, you know, clearing and grading and pervious services and other. But they don't require a use permit under current under current rules. So that's why this new proposal, as it came to us from the executive and still contains today a requirement for a business license and establishing some definitions so that we can identify and regulate businesses. I want to remind everybody that businesses, even if they're allowed under this code, will still be subject to all other portions of county code, including critical areas, building codes, public health codes, which include septic and all of that. I will say that. Yeah. I'm just going to pause there. The current code also doesn't include adequate mitigating provisions for impacts related to traffic, parking, arterial access. Number of guests allowed at events and hours of operation. None of that is in current code. So I believe that this code helps us in the sense that it establishes clear parameters. It allows some businesses to continue, but at a smaller scale. And that's what we're hearing from the businesses, that they will be at a smaller scale. You know, I, I there are and will be businesses in unincorporated King County outside the unincorporated growth boundary. That's just the case. But there should be an appropriate size and scale, and that's what some of the requirements in this code do. I will also say that I believe that a large part of the challenge in the Sammamish Valley is development in the city. The city boundaries are such there that there is a a carve out. And if you were drawing the city boundaries today, I'm not sure you would do this. That allows a large number of wineries, a growing number of wineries. There's a large new development that's in process right now, as my understanding, in the same general area that has all the same impacts of traffic and people drinking and and pervious surfaces and all of it. But it's in the city boundaries just across the street from where we're talking about. So the majority of this activity is out of our control. So we're trying to set reasonable regulations, a reasonable approach. I mean, I would not be in favor of this. I would not have proposed it if I thought it was going to lead to a massive expansion of environmentally damaging activities in this area. I do not believe that. I don't. And I know that you all believe it. And I know you believe it earnestly, but I don't believe it. And so I think this is a very fair and balanced code, and I think we should pass it. But right now, it's being proposed to pass out of this committee without recommendation so that we can get to the next step, which is another 30 day comment period. And so you all you don't have to come down to do it, but you can continue emailing us and you can send me the email that says CPA and all of that. Okay. When you when you pass something that's more restrictive, you don't do an environmental analysis because it's more restrictive. You're doing environmental analysis when it's less restrictive, when you're allowing more impacts. So that's why there was a determination on significance here. Okay, I'm going to stop now. I would urge my colleagues to move to the next step and to just get to a place where we can have an up or down vote at final council. Thank you for the discussion, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask Councilman or about duty a question, if I may. Councilman, a bit about duty to yield to a question. Here at first. Okay. What's your question? Remember Gossett? Yeah. In the book, I was struck by the number of people that said that last speculation is killing farmland and that we are allowing it. But just listening to your explanation a moment ago, you said things like, well, we don't we we don't necessarily have certain kinds of regulations. So someone can start, what, a house or an unincorporated area. Turn it into a tasting room or something. And then that was probably all right. So are you saying that although that might be true globally. We can't necessarily say that every structure out of an unincorporated area that's now facing no more or some other purpose related to distilleries and wineries, it's not explicitly that they went out there completely illegal, and the only reason they're there is because we didn't enforce it left in the U.S.. Mark, you were saying it's much more complicated than that. And I heard a lot of questions in there. Councilmember, you do my very best. Okay. So with regard to the your your frame of speculation, speculation is a huge problem in the Sandwich Valley and probably elsewhere. I'm most familiar with the Spanish Valley in my district. I, as you know, very well represented the city of Bellevue before I came here. And so it was a great surprise to me upon being elected to this position and knowing what I knew from following the issues of the farmland preservation fight of some decades ago, and where and all the different subsequent waves of that soccer fields and everything else we've talked about. I was very surprised when people started coming into my office almost right away and rolling out their their big drawings and saying, This is what I would like to do with the property that I own in the Spanish Valley, Arizona. And I would look at it and I would say, but you can't do that in the Sammamish Valley and you can't build all those homes. You can't build that giant one. You can't but whatever it was that the person was coming. And so I think that the lack of clarity in the code and exacerbated by the fact that this has been pending for so long, I mean, it's been with us for a long time, but it's been an under discussion for years that has contributed to speculation. I think putting this to bed will be the only thing we can do to help start to quell speculation. But truthfully, land values are just up everywhere. So I think the land values will continue to be up. But I think we are feeding speculation by our failure to act and by the lack of clarity in our code in the ag zone. And so that would be my answer to your overall question. When you say is it more complicated about violations of code versus the clarity of the code? I think there is a wide spectrum of what's going on out in the world. I think there are some places where you have or had owners that just didn't follow. The cop knew it, chose not to follow it, and now are like in this position where when we finally get done, there will have to be some enforcement. I know personally of businesses who have tried very, very hard to follow our code. They understood it, they tried to follow it. And they have been actually pointed out of times as good actors and they still can't get themselves permitted. So I think there's a wide range of good, good and bad actors, if you will, out there in the world. I hope that answers your question, Councilman. I thank you. Councilmember. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, as we've just been talking about code enforcement, and that's come up quite a bit, how to what extent do you believe the language of this striking amendment will take care of this issue? Are we still going to have gray areas? Will people likely still be able to disregard the rules and the codes and are or will there be ample enforcement? And I'm sure so. You don't know all of that yet. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Colwell, I can say that we worked very closely with the Department of Permitting and asked them to review all of our proposals with the lens of can I enforce this? So let's just say, for example, the content product requirement, the 60% of your content has to come from Puget Sound counties. Deeper tells us that that is very hard to enforce because their ability to figure out where the grapes came from that are sitting in the bottles of wine that are on the shelf is limited to none. And so we tried to do things like set numerical targets, certain percentage of floor area to move away from home occupancies where they have to do things like determine does that person who points at that can't actually live here? You know, I mean, we're trying to get away from standards that are very hard to enforce. And we tried to get to standards that were objective and easy to enforce. And we tried to do that in in working with deeper. And my understanding is that they support the standards in this code. Maybe, I don't know, I'd have to ask them if that's a universal thing. But we tried to get to a place where they felt they could enforce the code with appropriate resources, which, as I said , are coming with the budget. It's coming to us as part of our budget deliberations. For the discussion. All those in favor of striking amendment S1 as amended, please signify by saying I. I oppose me. The ayes have it. That that brings us to. Ordinance? I don't know. Time to teach you a title amendment? Yes. Title of the amendment to Councilmember Bell to. Remove teacher. Title amendment two as before. I see no discussion. All those in favor. Please say I oppose nay. The ayes have it. Total Amendment two is adopted. Ordinance 2018 241.2 as amended. Further discussion Council member up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think members probably know this, but I understand the motion is to move it out without recommendation. I just wanted the record to reflect that. My willingness to move it out, to vote yes on moving something forth out recommendation is not indicative of necessarily support the underlying ordinance. Thank you for the discussion. Councilmember Caldwell. Mr. Chair, thank you. I also would like to say the same thing as was just said by Councilmember at the Grove. I have some serious reservations about this, but I'm willing to vote for it, to move it forward so that we can try to protect it. Thank you. Thank you. See? Nothing further. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell. Duchin. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. I. Council Member Basin II. Council Member Cornwall Council Member Lambert Council Member of the Group. Councilmember one Right. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is a nice one. Thank you. By your vote, we have advanced ordinance 2018 241.2, as amended out of committee to full council. There is a required advertised hearing. Possible amendments would be submitted to staff to be part. I'm included as part of that advertising. And so with in the advertising period is 30 days once it starts. So letting you know it will not. The regular course of action for a normal ordinance that doesn't require an advertising period would be for it to become come before a full council a week from this coming Wednesday. That is not the case. It will be more than 30 days from now in order to gather anything that needs to be advertised as part of the public hearing and then have the 30 day advertising period. So with that, Councilmember Lambert. Wanted to know if there's any part of this we should turn back in so we don't keep killing the same trees or different trees. All of this goes out to recycling thing. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you. Thank was. Chair. For members. Serving on the Employment Administration Committee. We will meet if it works for you all at 345. 45 and 345. Any other announcements knowing of no other business come before the committee? We are adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of James Borsum, who resides in council district seven, to the King County solid waste advisory committee, as a representative from a bargaining unit representing the greatest number of solid waste division employees (Local 117).
king_e8e09309-e0a1-4fb6-a8e4-169ac9430e95	Great that I'm calling to order the meeting of the Kangaroo Council's Committee of the whole for September 1st, 2021. I'm Joe McDermott, member, the King County Council and chair of the committee as we start today. I'd like to acknowledge that we are on the land, the traditional lands of the Puget Serious peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I would also like to acknowledge the urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. In light of our public health emergency. We are meeting virtually rather than in person in the King County Courthouse, as has been our practice now for over a year and a half. And the governor has suspended the section of the Open Public Meetings Act that requires that we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. We're glad that so many people were able to join us today via the zoom out. We have several items in today's agenda. A briefing from director Dwight Dave leave the Office of the Performance Strategy and Budget regarding the county's COVID 19 response, followed by a motion relating to our Contract for representation services in the state legislature , lobbying services, and a motion requesting the Executive to provide an assessment report on roles and responsibilities related to the homelessness crisis. We'll also have an executive session at the end of the meeting with no action anticipated after the executive session. Some housekeeping notes. Before we get started to help us manage the meeting, I'd like to ask the public as well as executive and council staff, please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. And additionally, if you're connecting to the meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment, please do connect to the meeting through the Zoom application, if at all possible. That eliminates concerns or possible technical issues regarding taking you off mute and any possible delay, which makes it hard to call on you and hear you in this in real time. With that, Madam Clerk, I invite you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Here. Council member Belsky. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Council Member Cole Wells here. Council Member member. Councilmember two. Thank you. Council member of the crowd here. Councilmember one Right there. Here. Council members online. Dear Mr. Chair. I'm here. To turn. The corner. Madam Clerk, we did not hear Councilmember Bellucci. Is that correct? I have council member Dombroski excused. Okay. Again. You heard about duty? I did. Okay. She was messaging me. I wanted to confirm that we had audio from her. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With that, Councilmember Dunn, would you be kind enough to put the minutes, the approval of the minutes before us to move? Mr. Chair, the minutes of our August 18th, 2021 meeting or before us see no discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes please signify by saying i, i. Those opposed say nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. We have a number of people here for joining us in the committee today. So I assume we'll have robust public comment. Let me go through the procedures for public comment, both generally and specifically in our Zoom format. Public comments should be related to items on today's meeting agenda and not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person to any office, or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition. It must also not include obscene speech. If a speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, I will rule the speaker out of order and may require the Speaker to exit the virtual meeting. Now we'll describe the process will use virtually as members of the public joined the meeting, they were automatically muted. We can see your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Our committee clerk will call the names or numbers when your name or the last three digits of your phone number are called, staff will unmute your line. Please make sure that you also unmute your own phone if you have muted yourself as a courtesy on your end in. Please. Although it's counterintuitive, please do not use the raised hand function. We will call on everyone. Raising hands moves you around in the order and makes it hard to track who we have called on and who we haven't. And if you don't want to offer public testimony, you're here to observe for another reason. You can just say pass if you get called on. I'll remind you again, if you're calling from a cell phone and want to offer public testimony, if you're all at all able, we would encourage you to connect via the Zoom app itself. And when you are called on, if you are unmuted, if you might just say your name and pause so we can acknowledge that we hear you, that the audio is working. And then if you could begin your testimony by spelling your first and last name. So we have it accurate for the record. If you'd like your video turned on for your public comment, please request that at the beginning. Perhaps just as you're called on in confirming we can hear you. You'll have 2 minutes to speak. Time will go off when you've reached 2 minutes. You can certainly finish your thought, but please do wrap up your comments to allow the next person to share their comments as well. If you go much past 2 minutes, you may be muted if you're listening on TV or streaming. Please turn that volume off when you're testifying so that we don't get feedback. I don't anticipate any concerns, but we'd be prepared to hang up if somebody was disruptive to the meeting. And after you've provided your comment, that would make it easier for us to manage the call if you were able to monitor the rest of the meeting on King County TV Channel 22 or to stream online. The link to stream online is on the council's website which is W WW got King County dot gov backslash counsel. And from that page you would click on the ever popular watch us live button and we'll now begin public comment. I would remind you as you're called on to say your name and pause to make sure that we can confirm we hear you. And with that, madam, would you please begin calling people for public comment? Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is all to please the mute. Yourself and I will name a fighter. Athey are 18. Thank you. Go ahead. And for your. Duty. Yes, please. Go ahead. D. E. L i. E. Thank you. And would you like to provide comment? You keep muting yourself again? No. Oh, okay. Thank you. The next person is. I am. If you'd like to provide comment, please go ahead. I really just called to observe, but I will make a public comment at this point. And I'm calling really in support. I'm standing with the community members that are calling from Cascade, and I'm allowed them to tell you their story. But it's important that folks really listen to their story and honor it, because these are frontline workers who are right now on strike and they're on a safety strike. So I'm a step back and allowed them to speak for themselves. Thank you. The next person is opinion in. Please go ahead. Yes, my name is Ben and I can go by Ben. Thank you for giving me the opportunity and the chance to speak to the council members and chairman and vice chairman. So I am a community member. I am also a voter in King County. As a community member, I'm asking or telling the council here. This talk, too, because sending patients or forwarding patients or referring patients to cascade behavioral hospitals, this is in Aquila Washington. This is unsafe hospital because of so many reasons. With the 2 minutes limited time, I want to speak of state estate directly to you. We have endured a lot during COVID 19 pandemic, and the hospital has neglected patients, staff members. It's dangerously unsafe workplace. But a King County Council. Is still referring or sending patients to these hospitals and other. As a community member, I'm asking again. Please do not send any patients or start to those without. Most of the insurance companies have stopped sending because they know it's unsafe. This hospital is getting patients now who are on Medicare or Medicaid. So a community member is pulled. Does it mean that the community member needs to get substandard patients services sort? So. This is what I need to say directly to you. As a frontline worker, as a nurse. I want to play for almost. Thought it was a. Game. And. My family are on a strike without any pay. We took an oath to serve and protect these patients. It's a sense of community members. In this occasion, I would like to applaud. I think some of the council members who stood by us in solidarity in our growth and the good in one, and we all expect all of you to stand with us. We are voters in every district. We would like to remind you. That you are the people representatives to represent us and to listen to our concerns. And on safety issue again. But I hate to interrupt, but that is the timer. Your 2 minutes have have expired. If you could please conclude. All right. I'm concluding my message. And that's the message to council. We want we expect you to stand, all of us, in solidarity with support and stop patients until this hospital is safe. Thus, in short, my message. Thank you. I want to thank you for your testimony. And while I regret to do this, I am going to point out to and while I'm aware of the issue of Cascade Behavioral Health Facility and have heard from other employees via email that there is nothing related to the facility or the contract on our agenda today. So so the testimony today isn't in order. I would ask people to maybe contact council members by email and at a at the at a future council meeting when we are taking public comment generally and I'll have that date in front of me in just a moment. But we generally do restrict public testimony to issues on the committee's agenda for today. And I'm sorry if that was not clear before we started the meeting today and it would be the fourth Tuesday of the month. That is that has general public comment. So the fourth Tuesday, the full council is meeting in the afternoon on September 28th. We will be taking public testimony on anything related to the public's interest regarding King County without Madam Krueger, invite you to continue calling people for public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next person is quickly. Please excuse my pronunciation. And can you provide your spelling of your name? Oh, you said it right. Exactly. Yes. EOB first name. Last name to clarity. Kay. Adlai. Thank you. Please go ahead. Okay. I will go on to the next person. Mr. Jackley, if you were trying to offer testimony. You're lying. Remediate after you spell your name. Hello? Yes. Yes. Okay. I apologize. I think it was it was an accident. Okay. So thank you for giving me the chance to speak. And as you all know, that has been passed the months that all. Nursing staff at Cascades, behavioral health on a safety strike. And I yeah, I mean, I don't want to go to the details because it's already up on social media. And, you know, there are some of you came out there and so and understand the issue. But, you know, what I wanted to say now is we're still out there striking for safety, to be in place for our patients and for us and management still being uncooperative. They have not made any change yet. And there are maybe two or three attempt through our union and those attempts were unsuccessful due to management being uncooperative and don't show no interest to to get into the details and understand the danger and trying to make a change. So again, as my colleagues have said before me, that the hospital's still unsafe and we're still out there striking for safety and no paychecks 2 to 2 hours. And, you know, we're putting our family in danger, too. So the longer we take this on, you know, we don't know when the breaking point is. So we want you to you guys to put pressure on them by not sending any kind of patients to our hospital so that they understand, you know, how serious our concern and all of that. That's all I wanted to say. I think my time is up. Thank you for listening. You're welcome. And I recognize I now assume there are a number of people here to speak about the same issue. And again, I'm regretfully I'm in the position of of reminding people that it is not our procedure to take testimony on items that are not on our committee's agenda for today. Recognizing you're here and concerned about the issue. I would invite you to email Carl, reach out to your council member and all members of the council as you wish to come to the meeting of the full council on September 28th to offer your public testimony. I do need to ask that you not give public testimony regarding the contract issues at Cascade Behavioral at this meeting. But recognizing you're here, if you get called on, if you might just say, identify the issue and that you look forward to contacting us individually or later so that we'll know why you're here. And then we can move on to the next person here to offer testimony. And I would really invite you to simply share why you were here if it's Cascade Behavioral Health and that you'll contact us in the future. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next person is listed as Galaxy Note eight. Can you please provide your first and last name and spelling? Galaxy Note eight. They are not a new thing. So I'm moving on to Galaxy Note nine. Galaxy Note nine. If you'd like to provide testimony, please unmute yourself. Well. Okay. I'm going to move on to iPhone. If I phone would like to speak. You're unmuted now. If you can provide your full name and spelling. Yes, my name is Kara, Gary and Carol and I'll be chairman has clearly elicited as to what is expected from here on behalf of my team regarding continuity of our hospital. It is imminent. It is pertinent. It is dire. It's a dire situation, which we will address his recommendation. But this needs to be addressed at the border. It is pregnant and will continue to do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Jose. Please unmute yourself if you'd like to speak and provide us your full name. Yes, my name is Jose Havana, a V, E and a like. Everyone has spoken before me. I'm here on behalf of my my colleagues at Cascade are requesting for your support, but we will email our counsel, you know, regarding this issue. But it needs to be taken care of immediately. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Tania Escobar. If you'd like to speak, please unmute yourself. I'll move on to the next person is listed as LG stylo for. Yeah. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much. And this is my first experience being here. My name is Kim. I'm a community member and a registered voter in King County. The reason I'm here today is related with a safety issue at Cascade. I have heard from the chairman, Joel. There will be a meeting held on September 20 and I'll be back on September 20. But thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. The next person is Nasrat. If you'd like to speak, please. Um. Yes. Yes. Hi. My name is Mr. Amara. Here. The same reason what's happening at Cascade Behavioral Hospital, but thank you for having me here. It was a good experience for me, but I'll be back on September 20th. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next person is one plus s t r 60. Excuse me. One plus 60. Okay. I will move on to the next person is listed as Sami's iPhone. Sammy's iPhone. Okay. The next person is Sarah. I'd love to provide your phone. Yes. Yes, yes. My name is Sarah. Spelled R a last name. Of AOL N, and I am a community member and I'm also a registered nurse at Cascade. I've heard the comment from Chairman. But I just want to update you guys. I'm sorry, but I still want to talk about the issue. It is important to all of us know that a lot of the members on this meeting, we have a really safety matter and a safety concern. And at this point, we will keep we'll keep talking to all of you until we are heard. So, please, I'm asking all of you guys to take this matter seriously. Some of the members in the name that I've seen here. Like David, Up, guys, Girma and some of the people who have been to our strike line to support us. But this matter has been going on for a month now, and it's getting to a point where it's not safe, not only for us, not only for the staff of operations. We want you guys to stand. With us and support us. All. And we will be back on the phone a. Thank you. The next person is listed as. Galaxy S20. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Cici Brett spelled ask ISIS y last name to be honest. And like my other friends, I'm here related. With the question. The issue has been for. A month and we didn't get any. Response yet. And I expect as our representatives, you guys to press hopped in to make it as a priority for me, taking the dates until the end of September is that's like us ignoring it. It's going to be more or less people have red families are desperate. There isn't any. Payment to getting. You stated this seriously. Thank you for the opportunity, but still I will be back on September 28. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is to just jam you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Good morning, everyone. My name is the guest. Rouhani is Phil Tighe. Feisty last name. Rouhani B r h an e. So thank you very much for taking the time to listen to our safety and safe work environment at Cascade Behavioral Health. And this is very a very serious and imminent danger for everybody. And we are not it. No one is safe at Cascade, including patients and workers. And we would like to you guys have addressed this issue for all of us, for the patient, for those vulnerable patients that are to cascade and for us, for the workers . And so this is what we are planning. We are wanting everybody to do. And again, this is everybody need to be safe at their workplace and the patient needs to be safe. If we are not safe, how are we going to be providing patient safety, quality patient care to those patient? And the patients are very vulnerable. Mind you, this is a cascade behavioral health hospital that we work an acute psych unit. So it's creating a lot of unsafe. Oh, sorry. My time's up. So, again, thank you very much for the opportunity. I'll be there on September. And please take this seriously and then address it as you can. Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you. The next person is Tenaya. If you'd like to speak, please unmute yourself and provide your full name. But I. My name is in a one decent Nazi. I only spell your last name. I'm sorry. I didn't catch that. w0ldesi. L s i. E. Thank you. Okay. My name is of this and I see I'm a community member in Diamond Voter Income in King County. I see community member. I'm telling you, Cascade Hills capital is unsafe. Unsafe for any community member. So police listening to stop funding or referring any community members to this hospital. Mm hmm. Okay. A lot of private insurance have already stopped sending or referring patients to this hospital because they know it is unsafe. Where? Unsafe? The patients are unsafe. They are bringing very dangerous patients. And but we don't have any security members. So. So. Just barely. I guess the. Thank you. The next person is Morning Show World historic. Hello. My name is Wayne Short one, Audie, and I'm here on behalf of Cascade Behavioral Health Hospital. And the issue that's happening there, I understand that it's not on the agenda for today, but I would still like to talk about it. Many members of the community that work at Cascade Beaver Hospital don't feel safe, and patients and workers at that hospital have been facing huge hardships for a very long time. And now they're on the picket line because they've had enough of what's happening. And I'll be back on September 28th to speak on this issue. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I believe I've called everyone on the line. Thank you, Madam Clerk. And to make sure that we didn't miss anyone. I will ask in just a moment, Madam Clarke, for you to unmute all the lines, and I will ask if anyone has not had the chance to offer public comment today. And I would ask that people on issues other than cascade behavioral health, because we've clearly heard that that's a priority issue for a number of constituents. And look forward to hearing from you not only on September 28th at our council meeting, but also before that by email or by phone call by other means, just not public comment and a committee that is not on the agenda for. So if you're here for another time for public comment and something on our agenda today, I will ask you to say your name. We'll take those names down and then call anybody who we haven't heard from. Madam Clerk, without you ask, unmute all the lines. Mr. Chair, I just ask everyone to unmute themselves if they'd like to. Is one prisoner? Is there anyone here who would like to offer a public comment on me on today's agenda? Yes, I have. Elazar. One moment, please. Anyone else? Anyone else not seeing anyone else. Eleazar. Is it dim? Dim, if you would introduce yourself. Well, there is also a you go. First of all, this name is why you and speakers before me like the behavior. He. I'm speaking about that. First of all, I would like to thank you for joining us and supporting us and everyone else in this meeting, especially the opportunities. I need you guys to listen to me because I'm a voter in King County for the last ten years, and then you have the oath that you took to protect us. And this is very dire situation. And in Cascade, I have been hurt a lot, a lot of times. And then and then not nothing has been done. We reported to the oil rich and everything. No response. But I want you to listen to me because I'm the voter in King County. Okay. So this place is very dangerous for staff and and patients. And then I want you to start funding and referring any patient or my community to this hospital until they listen to us. Okay? Okay. With that, I will close public comment and we'll move on to our briefing on the county's COVID 19 response. And we welcome the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, Dwight Dave Lee, to present on the county's COVID 19 response update. Mr. Devlin this morning. Can you hear me clearly? Yes. Now I can see you. You're a moment late coming on the video, but you're here. Great. Thank you. So good morning, everyone. For the record, why don't we, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. No matter what. I thought he. Was lame, remember? If you can hear it. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Let me start over again. I had seven things this morning to give you an update on. I think they'll go pretty quickly. So let me start with an update on three of the COVID grant programs that the council has appropriated. The first one is the $20 million arts and culture program that is intended to help organizations that have capital expenses related to COVID testing, expenses related to COVID and revenue loss in this upcoming performance season related to COVID. You all should have received a program outline in the last few days for comment. Our plan is that I will review any comments you have and we'll in about ten days be putting that request for proposals out to the organizations with the goal of having everybody selected by the end of this year. And then funding can begin after that. So that's the first one. A second one. I provided funding to the Department of Local Services for another round of unincorporated business assistance, small business assistance. And that application period is closed. And we're actually going to meet tomorrow to figure out exactly how we want to award the funding. I think the feedback we've gotten from council members is to do it in various levels based on the size of the business. And I think that's what we'll do. But we'll make a final decision tomorrow, and the goal is to have all that money out to our businesses by the end of the year. And the third program I wanted to update you on. You provided funding for intergenerational programs and up to four senior centers, and that application is open now and we're 30th. So if any of you in your districts have senior centers that you think would be interested, you may want to reach out to them to make sure they're aware of the program and are planning to apply. And so, as usual, let me pause there and see if there are any questions. Do I miss that very first. Briefing. Did you talk about. Rental assistance yet? I did not talk about rental assistance. So let me add, I didn't have it on my agenda. But Councilmember, let me give you a quick update from what I heard yesterday from Mr. for the DHS director. Obviously, we all know we have been slower in getting that money out that everyone had hoped. And so they are actually taking advantage of a couple of rules that have come out from the federal Department of the Treasury that allow us to, in essence, advance funding before we've completed all the applications with the idea that we would have to take money that ultimately doesn't have enough documentation and very significantly increase the output of funds from the county to landlords in the next two or three weeks. So that's all the details I have. But I know Mr. Moore would be more than happy to talk with any of you or your staff about the details of what they're going to do to speed this up. Thank you. Dwight, I you know, it seems to me that's one of the most important things we can be doing for not just the tenants who are facing imminent eviction here, but also the landlords who are are helping to provide and carry some of the load here. As you know, the federal Biden eviction moratorium was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. And we have our own state eviction moratorium, which was it touched by the court, at least now. But anyway, I think the point is, from my perspective anyway, it makes sense to spend a little money to get that money out the door . I assure you saw the article, several of them that showed that other counties are doing much better job. So I would just encourage and support anything we could do to get the money out the door. And I'm pleased to hear what you just said regarding the work that Leo is working on as well. Mr. Chair. That's America Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a DCH has put up a new blog yesterday all about this and what people can do to expedite the process. It's very helpful. And I would and it's something that all of us can email or put out in our news, which is what I'm doing and get that information out to people . Lambert Council member. Lambert Thank you. I'm sorry. I was having technical problems and I could not take my eyes off it, but so it wasn't because I wasn't trying. I would also echo what the last two speakers said and I will have my staff look for that blog. So thank they do and we do something similar for the and the intergenerational senior centers to. And are we back to ground zero where all the senior centers are available now? Because we did the hubs and then we did and hubs. But now I think since we've done both, we're back to ground zero where everybody is open for this funding. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. Great. Can we get a little blurb on that to to send out? Let me have I'm looking right now for. Contact. Yes, I did do that. And so I would have been offended probably through car into each of your offices. Thank you so much. That's really helpful. I appreciate it. Thank you. Doing nothing else. All right. Let's move on to item two. So another one of the programs that you have appropriated funds for is, frankly, a experiment, an innovative effort to offer people who are homeless, both housing and employment. And this is an idea the executive had to see if we can not just house people, what get them to work so that then they can be able to support themselves in the longer run. And we have started with county agencies as the first source of jobs. And as of right now, at least, the following list keeps growing. But at least the following divisions or organizations within the county are going to be sponsoring jobs, parks, water, inland resources, facilities management, emergency management fleets and animal services. And we're also working with several of the other divisions to see if they have opportunities as well. So that's also a pretty good start. The first hires will actually happen this month. There have been several sets of interviews that we've done at homeless shelters, typically or other service centers. And so people are being vetted for particular jobs, and we'll be having people get actually get hired this month. And then in order to kind of meet the target of the number of jobs are trying to create. And I think we need to go beyond just county government and we're going to have a request for proposals that go out to some of the nonprofit organizations that are in a place to hire homeless people and then have them work for our either our agencies or other nonprofit organizations. And we'll be finishing that up before the end of the year. So we'll have another round of employment that probably will not be county jobs, but will be jobs with nonprofit organizations by the end of the year. We've also got very interest from some of our cities in perhaps piggybacking on our program. So we're going to be reaching out to the Sound Cities Association to just give them the opportunity. If any of their cities are interested, to create some jobs in those cities, that then we would be providing the funding for the employees to help them get out of homelessness. So I pause there and see if there's any questions about that program. Colleagues, member Council Member Lambert. So I have two chambers that are wanting to do the same thing. So again, if you can send me information on that, I know that two of my chambers are interested in helping. Especially like in restaurant jobs. Great. And so I will have Nancy Yamamoto, who is our lead for that program. You email you some information that you can share with them. If you so much. Okay. I'm still having trouble getting my mic off. So sorry. No further questions. Back to you, Dwight. All right. So item three, you may remember that under the American Rescue Plan Act, we are required to file periodic reports on our programs. And the first report was due yesterday, and we actually got it done early, which is great and managed through great technical difficulties to actually get it filed . The report I heard is that you should be very proud of King County information technology because the Department of Treasury Information Technology is not as good as their site was, had a lot of problems, excepting all the reports, obviously, that had to come in, but we did eventually succeed in getting our report file. It's quite a long document. If anyone is interested in seeing it. It does give you a status report on a lot of what we're doing and so I'm happy to share it with anyone who is interested. I think probably the easiest thing to do would be to just send me an email and I'll make sure that you can get a copy of the report. Okay. Moving item forward. We talked about this before, but now it has actually happened. So as you will recall, our principal isolation and quarantine facility the last few months has been a leased motel in Issaquah. That lease has expired and so we have shifted our isolation quarantine facility to the motel we own in. There's been liaison with the city to make sure they're aware of that. What's going on? We're averaging about 40 people. A day. In isolation and quarantine. So that number has gone back up significantly as the delta very as has come through. So we're not anywhere near capacity there yet, but that is where we are using right now for isolation and quarantine. I just wanted to close that loop because we've talked about that was the plan and now that actually has happened. Okay. Moving right along. So the fifth item, council member Cornwall Council member Lambert. No, this, but last week we are formally adopted the August revenue forecast. This will be the last forecast we have until March. And so our budget, the scope of it will be using that adopted revenue forecast as the basis. There were only very small changes from what we saw in July and nothing really material. I didn't want to share just a couple of little tidbits of information that I thought you would find useful. So first, the assessed value for all of the property in King County for next year is estimated. To be. $709 billion. That's a really big number. It is one of the things that when we meet with rating agencies, bond rating agencies they find quite remarkable is how much property value we have in King County compared to many other counties that are of similar size or of population. You know, other than the Bay Area Counties, we really stand out as very unusual. So that's a really high number. It reflects, obviously, lots of growth in values, both the commercial and residential real estate. And just to give you a sense of how quickly that has grown, we have doubled more than double our assessed value in eight years. So in 2014, it was less than half of that amount. So I thought that was just a little piece of interest. And then the other thing I thought I would share is even though our hotel industry is coming back pretty well, the forecast for the lodging tax for this year for 2021 is still only half what it was for 2019. It's double what we actually got in 2020, but it's still only half of what we had in 2019. So it's recovering, but we have at least a couple more years, three more years, maybe, before we get back to where we were pre-pandemic. And so have all of our revenue sources. That's the one that has got to get the hearts. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about the revenue forecast. Same gun. Okay. So during public comment today, just a very fortuitous timing. We got our latest sales tax report and I had a moment to kind of go through that. Trends are continuing very much like we have seen now for several months. And so what I'm going to give you is sort of some industry segments and comparing what we received in June of 2021, because this is the June taxable sales compared to two years ago. So again, compared to 2019, because, of course, last year was very anomalous. And so just I picked out, as usual, some of the big winners and some of the big losers. Construction is up 10% from two years ago. So construction continues unabated. Lots of commercial projects, lots of single family residential projects. And of course, construction prices have gone up a lot. So the sales tax, of course, based on the price of construction, also continues to go up. Auto sales and parts were up 11%. So that's also a big growth sector. Furniture, which for a long time was way down. It was up 16% from two years ago. Building materials, which we've talked about every time I brought this up, up 27% from two years ago. So the remodeling craze continues and big box retailers are up 40% in two years. So that has become the kind of go to where people go to buy things even more so than it was pre-pandemic. And as usual, the two sectors that are most adversely affected continue to be restaurants that are down 23% from two years ago . And the lodging industry, hotels and motels, which is down 55%. Those numbers are improving, but they're still substantially below where they were two years ago. And so that remains, you know, the segment of the economy that is still the most adversely affected by the pandemic. And so, I mean, just pause there and see if anyone has questions about that. All right. So very last item. Just a reminder, we're on the executive side in the midst of working on the mid biennial budget ordinance or so. A lot of people refer to it as the second omnibus budget ordinance. We will be transmitting that to the Council on September 30th there. It's going to be a fairly extensive set of amendments, many of which, as we've discussed, are really just technical changes. And there's lots of good news, as we've discussed, particularly for the mental illness and drug dependency or mid programs, opportunity to restore sort of all the cuts that we made a year ago that we said it makes sense to restore at this point. And so there's going to be lots of good news, lots of technical news and a few things then that I think will be attract a lot of attention because people will be trying to get the same amount of that. It brings focus pretty much on the general fund and those resources that we have more of, but not nearly as much as people would like. So just again, a reminder, that's coming at the end of the month. And so that's my report. But I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you very much. Colleagues, any questions? Dwight. I'm concerned we're letting you off too easy this week. You are. But it's very nice once in a while. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. See you in a couple of weeks. Thanks. In Coex. That takes us to item six. The proposed motion would authorize the Chair of the Council to enter into a contract for services to represent the county before the Washington State Legislature. Jeff Mumm from council staff will provide the staff report. Mr. Mumm, the light is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just count the staff. As you accurately described, proposed motion 0264 would authorize the council chair to enter into the contract prescribing services. An RFP was issued earlier this year, and Amendment One, which is found on page 14 of your packet, would insert foster government relations as the RFP awardee. Also, I just want to point out Mac Nicholson, Council's government relations director, is here as well as Simon Treanor and then also David Foster and Cynthia Jackson from the tax office is also here to answer any questions. But this is the standard lobbying contract that the council members are used to seeing, and they should be used to seeing David Foster as a committee or face who has been awarded the contract in the past. It's a two year contract, and it would also allow the chair, the council chair, to enter into a one year extension if the chair so desires at the time that we can answer any questions. Colleagues. Any questions? Councilmember Bell duty. I'm going to make a motion, if you'd like one. I would be happy to have one move approval. For the do pass recommendation. Councilmember Bell, this year's move will give a to pass recommendation to motion 2021 to 64. Councilmember Belushi. I just spoke to this. Well, I thought every now and again it's good to open our contracts and make sure we run a competition. And we did that. And this is the result. You know, it seems that there's not a lot of competition in this industry, or at least not in this way. And we might find a way to get around that at some future point. But we've gotten good service and this is a good contract. So I, I urge it for our continued support. And Councilmember Bellucci, in addition to those eloquent words, I'd also welcome a motion to adopt Amendment One that members will find on page 14 of our packet. Of Amendment One. Amendment one is before us discussion on Amendment one. All those in favor of Amendment one, please signify by saying i. I. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. Further discussion on the motion as amended. Council Member DEMBOSKY. Thanks, Mr. Chair. And last time we this came up, we had some dialog and kind of trying to signal that we did hope to actually get some competition and other proposals. I understand we didn't hear and appreciate Councilmember Du Chair Chair kind of noting that, at least for the record. My question is just on the amount of the contract is that is what we're paying for this the same less or more than the prior contract with this provider? In on this journey on that one. Certainly have an answer for the council members. Magnificent and relations. Councilmember Dombroski. The contract amount is the same as it was awarded last time, which is 11,000 a month. So last year, at the start of sort of the COVID lockdown pandemic, the council asked the state contractor to take a bit of a haircut on that contract, about four for that last year of the contract. So that was a little bit of a lower amount last year. Otherwise, the contract amount for this new contract is the same as it was for the previous contract, which is 11,001. Okay. Thank you. Further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Duchin, I. Councilmember Dombrowski. I am. Councilmember done. By. Councilmember kowalski. I councilmember lambert, a councilmember of the ground. I. Councilman Andre Bauer, I. Council members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero notes. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation in motion 2021 to 64 as amended. We will. We will expedite that to full council. And if there is no objection, I would suggest we put it on consent as well. Thank you. And Mr. Foster and Mr. Shaw will would be disappointed if I didn't note that they are both here, though they did not turn on their video so I could not ascertain whether they were wearing a tie. But I will point out that Mr. Nicholson's tie is overrated and unnecessary. With that, we will move to item seven on today's agenda. Motion 2021 to 89, which would request that the executive provide an assessment report that makes recommendations on roles and responsibilities of the county, city of Seattle and King County Regional Homelessness Authority and other cities in King County in responding to the regional homelessness crisis. April Sam Saunders from Council South will provide the staff report. Misunderstood. The line is yours. Thank you. Good morning for the record. April Sanders Council Policy Staff. The materials for item seven begin on page 65 of your packet. As a reminder, on December 11th, 2019, Council passed Ordinance 19039 authorizing the executive to enter into an interlocal agreement with Seattle for the development of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. The authority has the mission to significantly decrease the incidence of homelessness throughout King County using equity and social justice principles. Additionally, on October 12th of last year, Council passed Ordinance 19179, which imposed a 1/10 of 1% sales tax for housing and related services. Since passage of the through housing sales tax, the executive has announced purchases of six hotels to house individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and of the six, three are located in Seattle and one each in Renton, Auburn and Redmond. With that background, I'll get into the legislation in front of you today. Proposed motion 2020 10289 would request the executive transmit an assessment report to the county on or before March 31st of 2022, as well as the motion accompanying the report. The report would provide a vision for and make recommendations on roles and responsibilities of various entities in responding to the homelessness crisis. The entities for which the assessment report would account are King County, the city of Seattle, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and cities represented by the Southern Cities Association. The Assessment Report would provide these recommendations for roles and responsibilities in the near term, the immediate term and the long term. In addition to recommendations on the roles and responsibilities, the assessment report would do the following. It would identify investment and funding for the care program and describe how investment in programs will align with those administered by other entities. It would describe how the entities would coordinate on capital investments in facilities and operations in and maintenance of the facilities. It would identify which, if any, recommendations should be implemented from challenge to Seattle's Chronic Homelessness The Crossroad Report. And it would describe each entity's role and response roles and responsibilities and implementing challenge the panel's recommendations. As a bit of background on these last two components of the report, the organization Challenge Seattle is an alliance of chief executive officers from 21 of the region's largest employers, including Alaska Airlines, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Costco and the Expedia Group. Challenge Seattle released a report entitled Chronic Homelessness A Crossroad, which provides recommendations on addressing homelessness. The recommendations are in the following categories emergency housing for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. Individualized on demand services. A command center to support individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. Utilizing real time data. Qualified. Experienced case managers. And transparency. Accountability and evaluation. The proposed motion states that the executive should consult with the City of Seattle, the Regional Homelessness Authority and the Sound Cities Association in development of the report. That brings me to the end of my staff report, and I'm happy to take any questions. Angela Bassett. Did you want to speak? Maybe if I could, Mr. Chair, just just provide a little bit additional context. First of all, I appreciate you scheduling this so quickly after introduction, and I'm not looking to move it today. There's not a rush on this. Second of all, let me see if I can undersell it a little bit. This is not intended to be, nor is it a policy motion. I'm not looking to set any new policy here with the council in this area. It is not a motion that calls for a new plan. I think we've got enough of those. And the Regional Homes Authority is going to develop kind of the regional plan. This is a very basic, at its core motion requesting kind of a status report that we took out the words plan and not looking for anything there . And it's really driven by kind of the developments in the last couple of years since we set up the Regional Homelessness Authority, which is getting going now, and major developments, including our health through housing, where we're hoping to bring on some 1600 units of a kind of a new kind of housing that we've led the effort in creating here and the hoteling programs that have kind of come out of the pandemic that the county and the city have done just cares and similar ones efforts by some of our cities, like over in Bellevue, where they're standing up the new men's shelter. And basically there's a lot of additional kind of major developments that have occurred, I think, since the regional homeless authority was envisioned. And we, of course, the county will continue to provide, I think, our behavioral health services role. So this motion and then we've had this fairly significant report from Challenge Seattle, which looks at some other jurisdictions like Bakersfield, California and San Diego and has some recommendations there. It seemed like an important report that's gotten some attention that we ought to at least consider enough in a formal way. So I guess what I'm seeking to do here, Mr. Chair, and colleagues in the motion, is say, given those things that have occurred, and particularly after we transition some of our contracts over to the Regional Homeless Authority, Homelessness Authority here toward the end of this year, what is our role as the county going to be? What are some of the other players roles? And what, if any, recommendations should we be doing out of that challenge? See, I don't report a dialog with the executive and I think we have Kelly Ryder here in a for her for comments. They have a request for some additional time, which makes sense to me. And also, if I understand it correctly, some additional scoping modification. We don't want to be recommending what other jurisdictions should be doing. I think as I understand the core of it, and that all seems fine, fine to me. And I would like a little more time, a little more time, Mr. Chair, to work on language with them that suggested that we get into amendment form and bring it back to you. So that's it. And I'm happy to answer questions about that. Or you can have staff or maybe Kelly has a comment. As writer do you have? I will take that as an invitation. As writer, if you'd like to ask for comments, you're welcome to. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Kelly, writer, government relations manager for the Department of Community and Human Services. Happy to provide some brief comments here today. We think this is a reasonable request. We will be working through and over the next several months, especially as we prepare for the 2324 biennial budget process. We know that the homelessness system has always had close intersections with our mainstream systems, and so we will be doing the work to ensure that we have clarity around roles and responsibilities in the evolving work of the King and Regional Homelessness Authority. And it makes sense for us to be very transparent with you all in identifying where those are and our evolving work to ensure that we can meet the housing and homelessness needs of our region. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Kelly, tell me the name again. What? Our program is where we're at the medical home where we put mental and physical health together. What's the name of that program? Are you thinking of the King County Integrated Care Network? Councilmember. Yes. So an integrated care network. Some of the counties are not having a lot of good success there. And so as as people are homeless, they may also have medical or mental health issues. And I want to make sure that we keep we keep that final authority even over the integrated network, because some of the counties have experience where they're not happy. But they have lost the control. So I'm very concerned about that. And then in the conversation that we had the other day, where not all of the information and a person is going into HMRC, only certain kinds of information is going into HMRC. So whatever information is not going into HMRC, we have to have a central place that you put in, you know, person X that whatever portal they came in to get services that the providers all know what those services are. So we're not being redundant and we're not getting good data. So those are my two concerns. Where's our data? If it's not integrated? HMRC and then keeping our role with Integrated Care Network are two things that I want to make sure that we are clearly on top of. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Councilmember. We certainly share your interest in maintaining our role in the King County Integrated Care Network. We believe that it's an innovative and strong program to be able to address the region's behavioral health needs and maintain our ability to really find intersections with the work that we are already doing as the county and be able to leverage those Medicaid benefits. What we know is that there are folks experiencing homelessness with behavioral health challenges and behavioral health disabilities. We also know, though, that the broad number of folks experiencing behavioral health disorders are not homeless. And so we want to make sure that we have a behavioral health system that's able to address the wide ranging needs of all of our county residents, while ensuring that those specific needs of our folks experiencing homelessness are being met. And so we feel that that's a great opportunity for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to partner with us, to be able to help inform where there may be gaps that they're identifying among our folks experiencing homelessness. We I also heard your question the other day about the data system when we're speaking about the Navigator program. We are doing some work right now, especially to figure out how we ensure that the behavioral health data system and the homelessness data system are able to inform each other while being very careful, as always, about the requirements that we have to maintain secure and private data. We're doing some work on that. We will continue to build out our ability to really understand the systems. And I think having the King County Regional Homelessness Authority really lead on how we address the needs of homeless folks and inform our mainstream systems while our mainstream systems are able to inform them, is going to be a great path forward to informing you more about that through this report. Colleagues. Other questions regarding the motion before us. Discussing. Looking forward to the continued work by Councilmember Dombrowski and everyone's otherwise on board. I'm going to put words in your mouth and see if I can get anybody to say anything. And seeing some nice things. Thanks, Mr. Chair. And if colleagues have ideas, you know, this is a very simple kind of leap motion and Malcolm, other thoughts, but that's kind of where we're headed. And Kelly signaled one other thing that I didn't mention, which in my conversation with the exac I thought are the exact branches should be clearer I thought would be helpful and that is we will be heading into the, you know, a new a new budget season next year. And this document, the report coming out of it could be helpful in kind of just setting some. Setting setting the table a little bit in this space to help us see, you know, who's doing what and where we're going to be. And so I think it will be from a timing and content perspective, could be helpful there, too. So I appreciate colleagues taking a look at it and their time on the agenda today. So quickly out of the gate, Mr. Chair. You're very welcome. We look forward to discussing it further. Madam Clerk, we didn't miss anyone in any votes today. Is that correct? That is correct, Mr. Chair. Then we will move toward executive session again, as I said at the beginning of the meeting. There is no intention to take a vote after executive session, but I will come back to this zoom to reconvene and adjourn. The last item today is an executive session. The grounds for executive session are CW 4231 ten. To discuss with legal counsel legal risks of a proposed action when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the county. The committee will be the executive session for approximately I don't have an estimate before me. Q May I ask Ms.. Moore for a suggestion on how long we might need executive session? Mr. Chair. I am going to probably say about 20 minutes. However, David Hackett of the prosecutor's office who the executive session has some moments that are more appropriate for open sessions to set up the executive session. Of course, I guess for a day I am from him that he's having problems. One thing he's been able to weave and. Look like he has. Okay. Well, I would actually prefer, you know. Got it. Mr. Chair, who set up the opening comments. Thank you. Then I will interrupt and set aside my introduction of executive session and to introduce the topic and set the parameters. Mr. Hackett. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the Council. I wanted to brief you on some pending litigation against King County in the open session. That litigation was brought as a putative class action, meaning that it desires to be a class action by the Civil Survival Project against the state of Washington, King County and Selma County, alleging that the counties and the state are responsible for substantial damages arising out of the Supreme Court's decision, namely the refund of legal financial obligations and other unspecified damages that the complaint seeks. This is something that was filed in March that the parties have been busy litigating since that time. And at this point, I think that it would be appropriate to discuss the legal risks regarding proposed legal action involving the county in executive session. Thank you. Then with that, we will have executive session. And the purpose for the purpose of which I will say are S.W. 4231 ten to discuss with legal counsel legal risks of a proposed action when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the county committee will be an executive session for approximately 20 minutes until approximately 1105. I am asking KC TV to please post the virtual meeting to that effect and the committee will be off this zoom call for the executive session, together with only those county employees directly necessary for the discussion. And unless there is objection at the conclusion of the Executive Session, I will return to this Zoom call. And during the meeting with that, I will see members in the Executive Session link. But I'm calling the committee the whole back to order. We are now back from executive session. I want to thank everyone who participated in today's meeting, but with no other business to become to come before the committee as the whole. We are adjourned and I thank everyone for their participation today.	A MOTION authorizing the chair of the council to enter into a contract for services to represent the county with the Washington state Legislature.
king_1d3a490b-d758-43ef-a826-2391cf4fe97c	To order today the meeting and the committee of the whole. For June 1st, happy June. And Clark, would you please call the Rock? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Bell. Dutchie. Councilmember Dombrowski here. Councilmember Dunn. Council Member Gossett. Council member Caldwell. City Council Member McDermott. Council member of the Grove. Council member Yvonne. Right there. Madam Chair. Here. Thank you. We were postpone the minutes until we get a quorum. And with that, I'm not sure whether we should take the next item. How you doing for time? I want to make sure enough members have heard. Are you okay? Which is. Why I'm good into a lot of. This. Okay, so I'm wondering about making sure, since that is if we should go on to if they record a quarterly update and we can't do that because he's missing, you know, we'll just take it in order. So could you begin on our ordinance number 2016 0044? Yes, Madam Chair. Nick Wagner, Council staff. The staff report on this item begins on page 11 of your materials. This proposed ordinance would place on the November 2016 ballot a charter amendment that would make the office of King County prosecuting attorney nonpartisan and would, among other things, provide for vacancies in that office to be filled in the same manner as vacancies in most other elective county offices. Currently, every King County elected office except prosecuting attorney is nonpartisan. On the other hand, in all 39 Washington counties, the office of prosecuting attorney is a partizan office. For non charter counties this is prescribed by state law which is quoted on page 12 of the materials for charter counties. The ICW allows county offices, but not state offices to be designated as nonpartisan in the county charter. So if prosecuting attorney is a state office, state law requires it to be partizan. If it's a county office, the RTW would permit a charter county Charter County to make the office nonpartisan by charter in four of the seven charter counties in Washington, including King County. All of the executive branch elective offices except prosecuting attorney, are nonpartisan. This disparate treatment of the office could be due to uncertainty about whether the prosecuting attorney is a state office or a county office, and therefore whether the county is permitted to make the office nonpartisan. In an opinion issued last November, the Washington attorney general expressed the view the prosecuting attorney is a county office for election purposes and that a charter county therefore may convert it from partizan to nonpartisan by charter amendment. And that opinion is attachment to in your materials that pages 25 to 30. In reaching this conclusion, the attorney general considered not only the CW but also the Washington state constitution, which provides that counties, quote, shall not affect the election of the prosecuting attorney, close quote. The attorney general interpreted that constitutional provision to mean only that the office of the prosecuting attorney must remain elective rather than being made a point of those, according to the attorney general. Charter counties do have legal authority to convert the office of prosecuting attorney from PARTIZAN to nonpartisan by charter amendment. The effects of the proposed Charter Amendment, if it were placed on the ballot and approved by the voters, are described on pages 13 to 14 of your materials, starting at the bottom of page 13. First, the election of the prosecuting attorney must be conducted as a nonpartisan election. This means that no candidate's party preference may be listed on the ballot. This does not preclude candidates from seeking party endorsements or affiliating themselves with political parties in their campaigns. Nor does it preclude political parties from endorsing or campaigning for candidates. Nor does it prohibit any form of partizan, identification or advocacy except on the ballot itself. The second effect of the amendment would be that upon taking office, the prosecuting attorney is required to, quote, designate one or more employees who serve as a deputy or assistant in such office to serve as an interim official in the event of a vacancy. Close quote. If there is a vacancy in the office of prosecuting attorney, the amendment would require that it be that it be filled like a vacancy in any other nonpartisan elective county office. Which is to say that the council appoints as acting prosecuting attorney, quote, an employee who served as a deputy or assistant in such office at the time the vacancy occurred, close quote. And that person shall serve quote until the vacancy is filled by appointment pursuant to general law for nonpartisan county elective offices, close quote. The council is not required or would not be required if this amendment were approved by the voters to appoint someone from the same political party as the former prosecuting attorney and from among three persons nominated by that party's county central committee. As would be the case if the office remained partizan. The fourth requirement or the fourth effect of the matter. That there are six. I have a question. Okay. So when the prosecuting attorney takes office, he designates one or more employees to serve as deputy or assistants. So not that this is going to happen to a prosecutor, but suppose he should die. And so then that person would the interim official would then take over as the new prosecuting attorney or as the interim until he appointed using the same procedure that we just did. The three judges with. That person would take over as the interim prosecuting attorney, and then the counsel would be, who would have the option of appointing someone who served as a deputy or assistant in the office to serve as acting prosecuting attorney until such time, if the county wish, the county could just leave it at that until the next election. Or the Council could appoint someone. Anyone who meets the requirement. The qualifications of office to be the I guess you call none acting prosecuting attorney until the next election. It's kind of a convoluted process. As to why it's going to be a Hanabusa. Okay, so the person he appoints to be the interim from the very beginning is not the person that would necessarily step up because we'd have or they'd step up for a while until we decided which of the existing deputies or assistance in the office would fill it until we got to the person. Okay, I get it now. All right. That is a little convoluted. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. The fourth effect of the proposed amendment is that the qualifications for office and the timing of the election of the prosecuting attorney shall be as prescribed in state law. Before discussing the practical effect of making the Office nonpartisan, it's important to understand what partizan elections in Washington look like. Unlike traditional Partizan elections in which the political party endorsing a candidate is listed on the ballot with the candidate's name. Washington's top two primary system permits only a candidate's party preference to be listed with the candidate's name in a partizan election. The ballot may not show whether the candidate has been nominated or endorsed by a political party. Whether a party approves of the candidate or whether the candidate is a member of or is otherwise affiliated with a party. In traditional partizan elections, the listing of the name of a political party below a candidate's name on the ballot informs the voter that the party endorses the candidate, which is information that the voter can use in deciding whom to vote for based on the voter's familiarity with the party and what it stands for. Party endorsement has been described as a low cost and usually reasonable policy guide for voting. Since it enables the voter to avoid a more time consuming process of determining the candidate's positions on issues of concern to the voter, and in my staff report, I compare it to the way a consumer might rely on a consumer magazine's ratings of products. A more important decision, but still there is some similarity there. The candidate's preference for a political party does not necessarily mean that the party supports the candidate. For example, two candidates running against each other might express a preference for the same party, and the candidate could express a political party preference for strategic reasons, despite holding views not shared by that party. The bottom line is that some of the informational benefits of traditional partizan elections are unavailable to voters in Washington under the top two primary system. Still, even a candidate's expressed preference for a political party provides some information about the candidate that a voter might find useful on pages 15 to 17 of your materials . Starting at the bottom of page 15 is a discussion of some of the most common arguments for and against Nonpartizan elections. First, there's the argument that potholes and bus schedules, for example, have no political affiliation in the sense that there's no political disagreement about whether potholes should be fixed and busses should run on time. This argument is then extended to say that local government is really all about management issues, not politics. So party labels are less important in local elections and don't belong on the ballot. On the other hand, one could argue that a willingness to raise taxes, to finance road improvements or mass transit or the allocation of resources between those two may depend on an elected officials political perspective. Similarly, one could characterize as representing a political viewpoint a prosecuting attorney's position on issues such as whether it's an effective use of public resources to press felony charges against against certain low level criminal defendants, or whether to support diversion programs for nonviolent offenders or to decriminalize certain drug offenses . This latter view would suggest that local offices and issues have political dimensions and should be treated as such on the ballot. A second argument for treating local elected officers as Nonpartizan is that political allegiances and party affiliations are sometimes based on national issues that don't carry over to the local level. The local branch of a political party, for example, may take positions on local issues that the voter, if he or she knew about them, would not support. Voting on the basis of a party label on the ballot could lead such a voter to vote mistakenly against his or her own preferences. Another argument for making nonpartisan an office like prosecuting attorney or for that matter judge, is that such officers should be conducted in a nonpartizan and unbiased manner. But an endorsement by a political party does not necessarily mean that the endorsed candidate, if elected, will be biased in favor of that party in performing the duties of the elected office. On the contrary, a party might endorse a specific candidate for prosecuting attorney, for example, precisely because the party believe the candidate will be even handed. In Washington, though, the only permissible reference to political parties on the ballot is the candidate's preference for a political party, which does seem more suggestive of bias than a party's endorsement of a candidate. This arguably strengthens the case for having nonpartizan election of the prosecuting attorney in Washington, compared with states where a party's endorsement is permitted on the ballot. Fourth. It has been argued that nonpartizan elections are inherently less rancorous than partizan elections. In Washington, though, nonpartisan elections are required to be nonpartisan only in the sense that party endorsements, affiliations and preferences may not be shown on the ballot. Candidates are not precluded from affiliating themselves with political parties in their campaigns or from seeking partizan endorsements. Nor are political parties precluded from endorsing or campaigning for candidates. Partizan Identification and advocacy are prohibited only on the ballot itself. Another rationale for removing party affiliation or preference from the ballot is to motivate voters to find other sources of information about the candidates. In practice, the evidence suggests that many voters in nonpartizan elections rely on information, shortcuts, or I should say, substitute information shortcuts like the race or ethnicity suggested by a candidate's name or the candidate's name, familiarity which favors incumbents and well-financed candidates, or that a voter might decide for lack of a reason to favor one candidate over another not to vote at all. This possible negative effect of having a nonpartizan ballot may be limited to some extent by Washington's practice of providing a voter's pamphlet containing information provided by the candidates. Finally, if partizan information is unavailable on the ballot and voters have not found substitute sources of information, they may end up voting by mistake for a candidate who does not share their views. Besides being undesirable in itself, in a jurisdiction where a clear majority of voters supports a political party, such mistakes are statistically likely to favor the minority party. That concludes my staff report, unless there are any questions and as you see, also available to answer questions. Are the prosecuting attorney, Dan Söderberg and Tom couple from the Pierre. Any questions before we bring our prosecutor and legal staff and then as a senator again? Sorry about that. Councilmember Caldwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Nick, I went in under a system of the non the nonpartisan position, just as it's the case of our running for office where we have nonpartisan offices and I don't recall this can a candidate place the party designation on the yard signs? Yes. The only thing that is affected by the nonpartizan status of the office is the ballot. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And then I had one quick question. So judges are considered county employees, aren't they? Are they state employees? I'm not sure about that. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. And Mr. Söderberg and Mr. Couple, if you want to come on up. I can't remember. Do you have a question? Thank you, Madam Chair. How many of the elected officials here in King County are Partizan? How many of the elected officials in King County are part of one and that is. The prosecuting attorney. Why is that the case? Well, I can only speculate that it may be due to uncertainty about whether it is considered a county office or a state office under state law. The the rc w permits the county the county charter in the charter county to make county offices nonpartisan and state. An office is a state office. Then the rc w requires that it be partizan. So I think, Madam Chair, that we should have some consistency in county government. We should all either be partizan or nonpartisan. And that's why I'm looking forward to supporting this measure. But I would like to hear from Dan and our lawyer. Great. Their next. Mr. Senator, welcome. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Members of the Council in the onset of King County prosecuting attorney, also senior deputy prosecutor, Tom couple with me to answer any legal questions you have. And the question that you asked, Mr. Gosset, is is is the question why is it in King County government that the only office that's a partizan office is the prosecuting attorney? And the technical answer to that is that there was some ambiguity about whether it was a county office or a state office. Now, that ambiguity has been clarified by the attorney general's opinion that Mr. Wagner referenced, and I think I provided you each with a copy that that says that in a charter county that you have the right to ask the people how they want to form their government. And so now that that ambiguity has been resolved in favor of asking the people how to resolve how to form their government, then they're within, the tougher question is, well, then if you could change it, why wouldn't you? Why would the prosecuting attorney be the only partizan office when by anybody looking at it, it should be the one that shouldn't be partizan? I mean, Mr. Wagner's excellent report makes some of the arguments about, well, a party label can be shorthand to give limited information to people who don't otherwise want to do their own research about the candidates. I would suggest that that might be true for members of Congress, for the state legislature, even potentially a county or city legislative body where issues of budgets come up, where taxing and priorities of spending come up. But I would I would submit that it is very misleading to have that binary approach for a Justice office like the Office of Prosecuting Attorney Binary BI You either play for this team or you play for that team, and that somehow that label is going to tell everybody everything they need to know about this person's approach to justice. And there's a reason that we don't do it for judicial positions, because judges are supposed to make the best decision they can on all available evidence and try to do the right thing. Well, my office does that, too. The prosecuting attorney's mission is to do justice. And we don't go to a touchstone of a party platform to decide how to best prosecute cases, how to best use the resources that the county gives us. The party affiliation is misleading and worse than misleading to voters. It undermines the single greatest challenge that the criminal justice system has today, and that is to build confidence with the communities most impacted by crime that they can trust us, that they should participate with us, that they should testify when they see a crime, that they should call 911. And all the efforts that we've made to build a system of community justice are undermined by the fact that you can look and say, well, wait a second, you're a member of the Republican Party. How can I trust you to do that? And so I'm asking to harmonize this office with the rest of the county and and take away that that misleading label. Now, the it's not hypothetical to imagine a time that the prosecuting attorney office could become a partizan office. And it wasn't that long ago. And I would I would recommend to you who haven't read it Christopher Bailey's book called Seattle Justice, that tells the chapter of our local history that happened right here in this building. When Charles O'Carroll was the prosecuting attorney from 1948 to 1970, he was not only the prosecuting attorney, he was also the de facto head of the Republican Party. And if you wanted to have a job as a deputy prosecutor, you had to be sponsored by a Republican Party official or precinct committee officer, and you had to agree to work on Mr. Carroll's campaign, either donate money or put up yard signs. It was a political machine, and it eventually, as the story is told, it fell apart because it was a political machine, because corruption invaded this this office. And since 1970, during the eight years of Mr. Bailey's term, during the 28 years of nor mailings determined over the last nine years that I've had the privilege and honor of being the prosecuting attorney, we've done everything we can do to have internal policies to keep politics out of the office. So in my office. You're not allowed to endorse the prosecuting attorney. You're not allowed to give the prosecuting attorney any money. Know, we try to keep people at arm's length from the from the partizan political nature of the office. But I will say that adopting this ordinance, allowing the people to vote on the structure of their government and if they were to vote and I relatively confident that the people would have no problem saying, well, of course, the prosecuting attorney's office shouldn't be a partizan office. That would be the culmination of the last 45 years of reform in this office to make sure that that the the excesses and the corruption that went with a very partizan office never comes back to this office. So this, I think, is an issue for you of an issue of good government. It's an issue of harmonizing the the office of prosecutor, agreeing with every other elected official in this in this office. And I think we've got the clear sign from the attorney general that this is permissible. And now that it's permissible, I think answering that question about why this is the only prosecuted only partizan office becomes nearly impossible to to to answer without completely misunderstanding the role of the prosecuting attorney's office. So I'll stop there. Happy to take any questions that you might have been. Any questions come from. Thank you. So you're saying that every prosecutor in King County since 1970 has been a Republican? Every prosecutor since 1948. Been 28. Okay. I mean, I was listening to you, and I think that the argument is basically true, because the first time I ever went to jail was under Charles Carroll. And he said that people like us were nothing but outside agitators coming up to Seattle to agitate our Negroes. But all of us were born here. So that's that's something to think about. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you very much. All right. I don't see any other questions. And just a couple. Did you have anything you want to add? No, not unless there are any legal questions. Okay. Okay. Councilmember domestics have a little time, but this is, I think, for Nick. The fact of nonpartisan county offices is relatively recent. If I'm correct, can you enlighten us a little bit on the history of the executive and the council or any other elected offices in the county? Were partizan versus nonpartisan? Sure. The first office to become nonpartisan was the sheriff's office, which was made a charter office in 1996, and it was made a nonpartisan charter office. Then in 2008, Initiative 26 made the offices of assessor, council member and executive. Nonpartisan. 2008 Right. Also 68 when I think the Charter was adopted on Royal Charter until 2008, all those offices were partizan. Right. And how did that charter amendment come about? The 2008 charter. It was by a recognition. Going to give credit where credit is due. Customer of mine, right? Yeah, that's right. No. What does that mean? Sorry. It was by by initiative. And also that same year, a different initiative. Initiative 25 made elections director, a charter office. And it too, was nonpartisan. Oh, I had forgotten that one. Yeah. Great. So you're all alone, and that's not a fun place to be, so. Well, it is a fun place to be in the sense of being pro-second turning is a tremendous job and a great responsibility and tremendous challenges. And I think that eliminating that partizan label, you know, in the end, whether it's me or anybody else, we want to be judged by the people on our approach to justice, on the decisions that we make every single day, not by the consonant that's next to our name, but rather on the content of the administration of justice. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski has a question followed by Councilmember Chair. And this is maybe more of a legal issue, but it's it's kind of a novel legal issue, given the attorney general's opinion of last November, I guess it was I was just looking at the statute here. 2904 110 the parts of the statute. Subsection. The statute. Yes, sir. The state statute. Arcia between now 411000 county officers. Right. Except judicial officers and those officers for which a county home rule charter provides otherwise. Those are the parties that officer. So the issue is, is your office a county office or not? When you bring charges, when you file. Right. An information or or brand charge, isn't it, in the name of the state of Washington? Yes, that is the charging language. And I think the attorney general's opinion distinguishes a county office for the purpose of the election versus a county office for the purpose of the function of many of the functions that we do are not state functions. When we provide advice to our clients in this from the civil division, we're not acting on behalf of the state of Washington. We're clearly acting in the best interests of the people of King County. And so that there are definitely functions where we do invoke the name of the state of Washington. But for elective purposes, it's clear from the attorney general's analysis that it is a county office. So that's the distinction. It's the only center that analysis is. What area are you talking about? You're talking about the function of the job or the how the how the job is elected. That's right. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Because it sounds like. Although. Thank you, Madam Chair. I've heard your arguments, and what I've observed about you is that despite the fact that you're a Republican, it doesn't appear as if you let that get in your way. Because I studied the way you and some of your top deputies review cases, some of which are very serious, like three strikes. And I have written down here that I you. Excuse me, concerns that you and your top deputies and over the last since around 2008 have been willing to support 15 or 16, I'm not sure persons that were in jail for three strikes and now most of them were sentenced before you became a prosecutor and you have ended up writing letters and that the low level of their charges, robbery tools are such that it's not likely that you are, given what you understand the circumstances to have been in their cases would have a levee that three strikes you're out on these persons and the governors whoever they might have been and the the pardons or clemency boards. I forgot the correct name over these last 12, 13 years. I have ended up concurring with you. And I think all but one of these three strikers or a man, all of them were black and they ended up getting out. And most of them that are out, all of them, as far as I know, have been able to reassess their lives. And I live in a positive community, contribute to a lives. Now that they're out, why do you have to have your office changed to continue that kind of fair assessment? Why do you have to be nonpartisan? Well, thank you for bringing that up, because I think it's a perfect example of the justice function of the office, where we're we're more like a minister of justice. We're not the judge, of course, but we have that we're in that same line of work of trying to do the right thing. And in each of those cases, I believe that the men had and the one woman had served sufficient time and that their their conduct while in prison made them no longer a threat to public safety. And that to keep them in prison until they died would have been an injustice. So when making that decision, I'm motivated by what's the right thing to do. And I didn't go and ask the political party if they thought that was a good idea or not. I just did it because that's what I thought we should do. So I think by removing that label, then I don't we don't I can be judged on the decisions that I've made and not some shorthand of, well, you're, you know, this are next your name, so you must believe in this. You know, the things that I believe in, I as a prosecuting attorney, I believe in because I've been in the office for almost 31 years now, and I have a sense of what a just outcome is. And so that's what I want to be judged by. Okay. Madam Chairman, I would ask a question about prosecutions. And then we need to wind up after that. Thank you. Have you had the opportunity to read Bob Ferguson's opinion that he is delivering as the Washington state attorney general? Yes. Yes, I have. And I like that. I know that is evolved, but I've always been confident that you render independent judgment. What is your opinion of that opinion? Well. We've looked at it pretty closely, actually, and our conclusion is it's the better view. It's the better legal conclusion. I would say that it's not settled unless or until a judge were to decide that issue, and that is a possibility. However, you know, having been looked at it and looked at the authority cited in there, I do think we're pretty comfortable that it is the better view. Thank you very much. Senator. Councilmember. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dan, have you had occasion to speak with your counterparts in other counties? I have. Sure, I have. And it's important to note first that about half of the elected days in America are nonpartisan. So we were outliers across the country and in the state of Washington. Those prosecuting attorneys who are from charter counties are very interested in pursuing this as well. In fact, the question came from the newly elected prosecutor in College County to the attorney general, because the College County is undergoing, you know, its charter formation. And so I think that is that that and I should go back to in 2009 and 2010, I had two bills in the state legislature that would have made this. Office, a nonpartisan office, statewide changing the RTW. And neither Bill got out of committee. The legislature is a partizan place, as you may recall, from your experience there. And so I was I was I said, fine, we tried. And at that time, I had every member of WAPA on board saying, yes, we think that this is more consistent with our function as ministers of justice than it is as a partizan office. And so there's widespread support for this in the state. And how many of the 39 counties are Charter seven? Seven. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So our plan is that we will vote on this in two weeks. And so we will look forward to seeing you then. And thank you for coming and sharing this with us. Thank you. And in the meantime, if any questions, you know where to get me, I'm on the fourth floor. Thank you. We thank you and thank you for living out what Norm said to all of us, that we are the face of justice. Thank you so much. Okay. We're going to go on now to number five. No, number six are going to get number five until the end and bring up number six right now, which is the workplan for 2006 for the East Side Rail Corridor, proposed motion 2016, 2 to 1. We thought it would be a good idea before 2016 was over. Are you actually had the plan on what you're working on since you're working very hard work on this? Eddie Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you, councilmembers, for taking the time on this item. We attempted to discuss it back in February when this work plan was relatively fresh. It is now June. There is a reason that we are asking you to formally adopt this workplan, as you know that you say rail corridor has no fewer than six owners. We have two important adjacent jurisdictions, the cities of Renton and Bellevue, and we have a number of stakeholders who are interested in how this corridor is developed. Over the years, the Council has been committed to ensuring that you receive the best and the public receives the best return on investment for your activities in the corridor. To that end, two years ago or a year and a half ago, you created this position, the LRC program manager, for the purpose of of ensuring that the coordination collaboration would move forward consistent with your policies. The Council members and my direct report, Chief of Staff Carolyn Bush, decided this year that we would lay out for you a very specific work plan of activities that we would attempt to accomplish this year. They're basically broken into three general areas. One is to ensure that in negotiations that the executive branch undertakes and that I am involved in on your behalf, that the Council's policies in in furtherance of dual use of the corridor, social justice, arts and culture are all represented in those negotiations. That's the first goal. The second goal is that as you consider policy options this year, and most notably in adoption of the trail master plan and in comprehensive plan policies that you'll consider as part of your comprehensive planning activities, that those policies are consistent not just with your multiple objectives for the corridor, but that we're moving to position the county and your other your co-owners to compete well for federal and state funding for development of the corridor. This has turned out to be, particularly when you've got multiple owners, your your pitches for programed funds require that a lot of governments work together. And so we need to make sure that we have the policies in place in your comp plan and in your master plan that support those grant applications. Thirdly, because this is an asset that requires strong not only intergovernmental cooperation but also interdisciplinary cooperation between this is not just a parks asset. This asset has transit implications for mobility implications and housing implications. So it's important that you work closely, not only with other governments, but within agencies within your own government in, for instance, your. Representatives to the Growth Management Planning Council representatives to PSR C's transit oriented development group, that everybody is aware that there are ways in which how you develop this corridor will make a big difference. So what we have done is to put together a motion to approve this work plan. The work plan is in your packet. On pages 47, 48 and 49. I will certainly entertain questions about it either here in this meeting or we can. I've gone over it with with the three council members who helped me develop it in January and February and have had a chance to talk about pieces of it with the rest of you. Certainly happy to answer questions here today and take further time with you individually. Thank you. Council member Dunn. Thank you so much. Thanks for your work on this very much. I just wanted to bring to your attention I've been meeting regularly with Bill Finkbeiner, a person. For whom I. Have great respect, and he's just enthusiastic as heck about this project. And, you know, it's interesting. It's lots in Claudio's district. But, you know, Ari, I, for example, is building a brand new, really wonderful store over there in Bellevue. Right now off of honor row. And it's interesting. 25% of their employees bike to. Work and it's right off the trail. Anyway. So we've been talking about a funding. Strategy for these projects. You know, obviously, the Wolverton trestle is one of the issues that crossing over there to the other side of the tracks. And so I want to alert my colleagues that I think it's this next legislative session is the time to make a request. For some funding for some of those projects. And I've put it on max radar screen that it might be time to go down and try and get some some additional assistance for those those all. Those little segments that need a little work as little trestles for bridge and trail construction. So I just want to put that on your radar screen. Thank you so much. For your work and your. Enthusiasm on this program to. I'm glad you're. Leading leading the way. So Councilmember Garcia will be next after this. But Councilmember Dunn, the idea of us going together for joint funding both state and federal makes it much more powerful to know that all these miles along we're agreeing. So I think that's great. And I'm glad that you notified Mac about it. Getting the coordination of lots of cities working together in the beginning was interesting, but it has become more collaborative now. And so I thank you for juggling and your charm and your tap dancing. But we, I think, have gotten to a really good place working together. One of the things that I think is important that we're working on and we haven't quite got there yet, is the wayfinding along the trail making sure that the signs are similar enough that people know what to look for along the trails? That there are two issues that concern me, and one is the trust, which is what you brought up. And I can't remember the exact number, but I think it was like a $11 million asset when it was taken down. Do you remember that? Oh, you're talking about the trestle, the the tunnel. Yes. Okay. What we understand is that the Department of Transportation saved $15 million in the 405 expansion project by not having to expand that tunnel, but rather simply took it down. It is highly likely that it will. And we're having a design charrette toward the end of this month to come to a agreement among the state, the county and the city of Bellevue about how we're going to reconnect. It's highly likely that the reconnection. Will cost. 15 million to rebuild. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. So one five, one five. So you just saved to thousands. Very good job. Right. That's the point that's been made, is that at the at the at the point that everyone agreed that taking down that tunnel was the right thing to do, I think that people didn't really anticipate how much it would cost to replace it. So I think that's an important thing. And the amount of money that we were given, knowing that was an 11 or $15 million asset, I think we got like what, six or eight or something like that? Well, we're still working on that, councilmember. Okay. When we when when we have when we have a an agreement on what the design should be, then we'll have a better estimate of the cost and will know how much money we have to find in partnership with the state and our and federal government. So most of the time when you do a project, the mitigation either replaces what you had or makes it better. And Mike. Concern is that what some of the views that we're looking at in my mind do not replace and they're certainly not better. So I think it's an issue we need to be aware of because I think we do need to go back to the legislature and say it needs to be the same or better. And I don't think that's what they have in mind at this point. So that's one concern. And the second concern I have is that some of the numbers that we've been given are, in my mind, not completely accurate. And so the last point on page 37 is a preference for on bad on real bad alternative. And we have on bad data and we have of bad data, but we don't have any. I'm better now but have to move that data. And if the rail banking should ever come through and everybody says it will never happen, but by federal law it could happen. And then if we had to move it later on, there will be extra costs and it may be ten years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years down the road. It's still taxpayers dollars. And I think we need to be really careful about making sure that we don't do anything that will make it more expensive in the future should rail banking come back? So those are my two concerns I want to put on the record. Councilmember Gossett Thank you, Madam Chair. Who are the three council members that you work most closely with that you mentioned. Under the former council motion? 13801 The Council member for District six, which is Council Member Baldacci, is the chair of the RAC and the Regional Advisory Committee and a nominal leader of the Council Oversight Committee, which includes Council Member Lambert and Council Member Dunn. And I would like to be a councilman who has a one on one with you. So I get. Happy to sit. Down and try to understand this. Happy to do so. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for hearing about my two concerns, too, as you go forward on it. All right. I think that presents all the work I need. Are you done? Yes. Okay. So I think we should have a motion so that this lady can get to work on the work she's been working on. Councilman, would you like to put the motion before us? I'm sure it'd be happy to. Number two, two. One, two, two, one. We'll look it up. I want to echo Councilmember Dunn's appreciation that they'll think Byner for his volunteerism and enthusiastic support for this project. I know a lot of people are involved, but he is really a tremendous ally to have in this in this work. And with that match, I would move adoption of proposed motion number 2016 0221, which would approve the work plan. Excellent. Could you please call for the vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Balducci, Councilmember dumbass. Be I councilmember done by member Gossett. I never. Called. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember. All right. Councilmember Mike. Right. Madam Chair, table six. I no notes in council members, but due to McDermott and Von Right are excused. Thank you. I have a work plan that's very robust. Thank you very much. Oh, sure. Could I ask whether you want this ongoing consent calendar calendars? Fine. And what about expedited? Expedited fine? Oh, yeah, that. We will have it described as possible. Thank you. Councilmember, would you put the minutes of both meetings before us? Sure. Move approval of the May 4th and 18th meeting minutes. Thank you. Are those led to approve the meeting minutes as written? Please say i. I those opposed nay. May 4th on May 18th, approved as written. That will now take us to number seven, which is the proposed motion 2016 260260, a motion approving the first quarter, the expenditures for emergency needs and anticipated project costs. Summary Report Prepared by the Road Services Division. So this case. Thank you, Madam Chair. Please again, council central staff. For the record. My staff report on this item begins on page 51 of your packet. This motion 2120160260. Would approve the first quarterly reports for 2016. From the Road Services Division on emergent needs and unanticipated project costs. As you'll recall, Council. Approved a budget proviso requiring these reports in response to an operational shift in roads from planned investments that has individual CHP projects taken from the transportation needs report to reactive system management. With funding pooled in a number of response oriented programs, including emergent needs and quick response, this change was a response to the roads funding shortfall, the division's experience with emergency roadwork expenses and a desire not to cancel capital projects if emergency repairs required additional revenue. This first. Quarterly report shows the transfer of $620,000 from the Quick Response Project. To the Upper Preston Southeast and Southeast 97th slide repair. And there were no transfers from the emergent needs funds. The remaining appropriation in quick response is. Approximately $5.9. Million, and the remaining appropriation for emergent needs is approximately $5.6 million. Approval of the motion today would release $75,000 to the road services division for the proviso. That concludes. My report. Director Bauer and Director. Deputy Director Osburn are in the audience if you have additional questions. I have a couple of questions. Bauer. Okay. Good morning, Jay. How are you? I'm well, thank you. For the record, Jay Osborne, deputy director, King County Roads. So when you say the disproportion of certain project numbers, will they still stay on the books, though, like, for instance, the Miller Miller River Bridge replacement? Well, that's still stay on the books in case we ever get anything. FEMA money for that. So we have a transportation needs report. That is the 20 year list of all. The projects that need. So when a project is unfunded, it remains in the. TNR as an identified need for future funding options. Okay, I have not given up on that. And you should know as roads if you haven't already heard that stock comment was closed off for 5 hours. I can't remember. That was Saturday or Sunday because the railroad pulled up across again and closed the entire town off. So with no Miller Bridge as our alternate way out, that's not a good idea. So I'm very concerned about that. So I'm glad that it's in here. And I'm hoping that as we go back to Congress, we can talk about FEMA replacing this bridge because it was destroyed during a flood. So anyway. Okay. And I'm glad to see that you took care working on the slide repair. How how is it completely repaired now? The work on Upper Preston is done. Yes. Okay. And what about the guardrail. And the guardrail repair, I believe, is part of a maintenance. Activity that we've concluded as well. Okay, great. It's frightening to go see that slide and the guardrail. So I'm glad that you've got that fixed. Great. Okay. That is our report. And anybody. But please to put that before us. Sure. We have to manage and move adoption from Motel 60260, which would approve the first quarter to that 16 expenditures for emergent needs in a budget cost summary report. Excellent. Thank you very much. Clark, will you please call for the vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. Customer, Double Duty Councilmember. And Ambassador. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett, I Councilor Colwell, I'm Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember up the councilmember memory card today. Madam Chair, I'm not terribly excited and I know some council members felt duty. MCDERMOTT And vermouth are excused. Excellent. Thank you very much. And I appreciate all your hard work on this. I do have a couple of questions on some of the other ones that we can get off line later. Madam Chair. Yes, I'm sure I'll again ask, expedite and can't. That's not expedite in case they have an amendment later on. But we can have it next week. But I'm concerned. No. No. No. Okay. All right. Be great. And now number eight. And this is Briefing 2016, briefing 117. This is a clear zone issues and standards. And this case, would you begin on that? Thank you, Madam Chair. My staff report for this item begins on page 65 of your packet. Council appropriated it $500,000 for a clear zone safety program in the 20. 1516 biennial budget. As defined in the King County Road standards. The Clear Zone is a roadside. Border area at the edge of a roadway that is available for use by errant vehicles. This basically consists of ten feet on either side of the roadway according to our standards. The Road Services Division has received a number of inquiries from the public about its recent inventory of objects in the clear zone, during which a. Number of trees and other. Objects were marked road surfaces. Director Brenda. Bower is here to brief the. Committee about the division's implementation of the program. We're also joined today by a prosecuting attorney, David Eldridge. And John Briggs is in the audience also. And counsel is legal counsel. Jim Brewer is available. So if questions emerge that need to be addressed in executive session. Thank you. All right. We'd like to begin with spiritually speaking, I word. Thank you for having us here today to talk about this important program. As noted, we are busy out there working on clear zone issues and it's coming to the attention of the public. So we wanted to make sure that all of you were understanding our effort and what's involved in sort of an update and how we're pursuing this program a little more aggressively than we have in the past. So what is the clear zone? The Clear Zones, an area that's adjacent to the road that doesn't have a curb and that needs to be kept clear in case the vehicle leaves the roadway. And this gives you an opportunity as a driver to stop safely or regain control of your vehicle and get back on the roadway. And that makes for a, you know, an opportunity for a safe recovery and less likely that there will be injuries or fatalities. Our current road construction standards are that there should be a minimum of ten feet that's clear for a vehicle to recover. And that's important because each year, roadway departure crashes account for more than half of all the fatalities on the roadways. So let me ask you, I was out Mount Sera this weekend. Wow. That is beyond words. I'm glad everybody found it in this beautiful bed. Wow. So if you've got cars parked legally or illegally on long, they're hanging over in the ditch. There's not ten feet anywhere. There's not two feet. So what do you do on roads that have cars parked? There is an attempt feet clear. So a car parked along the side of the road is acting as a guardrail. Oh, my. Okay. Certainly, if there are cars parked illegally and in a way that we don't feel is safe, that's something that we want to address on our roadways. Okay. So the car is there any question of the car that's safer than crashing into a foam pile? I guess that's what that logic is here to the tree. So things that are parallel to the roadway versus things that are fixed, stationary, horizontal or vertical objects are a different risk. Okay. Thank you. So why are folks leaving the roadway? They are for a number of reasons. Sometimes it's to avoid a collision with another vehicle. Sometimes it's due to mechanical issues like a blown tire or because of weather issues like ice or fog. And certainly at times it's driver fatigue or inattention or speeding or driving under the influence, which are things that we hear about more. But there are a lot of different reasons that vehicles end up leaving a roadway that doesn't have a curb. One of the studies that was done showed that about 90% of the accidents occurred within ten feet of the paved surface. So clearing that ten feet is a big predictor on preventing some of those accidents. Modern design standards were not in place for many of our older roads, so we didn't have these studies. We didn't have this understanding or this expectation or certainly some of the volumes or speeds that we're experiencing today. In addition to that, we've got over time vegetation that grows in this area. And we also have adjacent property owners who inappropriately often place landscaping or fencing or objects in the clear zone in the right of way that should not be there. So this is sort of an ongoing program for us. Trees are our biggest issue in this five year period. There were 479 collisions with trees or stumps, and of those, four resulted in fatalities. We also have issues with fences in the same time period. There were also four fatalities associated with fences that were in the clear zone. Do we have these slides? Yes. You mean in your packet? Yeah. I can certainly provide you with a copy. Explains why I didn't see him. Okay, go ahead. So we've had run off the road programs for more than a decade. In that time, most of the projects have been focused on locations with a crash history. And the programs have emphasized guardrail, but they've also include mitigating or removing fixed objects. What we're doing differently now is that we've surveyed all our highest speed, highest traffic roadways, which we refer to as our Tier one and Tier two roads to identify objects in the clear zone. There's about 265 miles of these roadways, and that's about 18% of our total miles. And these roads are the ones with some of the highest risk because they've got longer stretches of road that connect communities and that allows for higher rates of speed and higher rates of speed. Hitting a fixed object is the real problem. So far, what we have is an inventory. This is what we found. We cataloged any object within ten feet of the outside fog line, everything from boulders to stairs. And this chart shows the quantities of items by category found in the clear zone. So we worked with the post office about the mailboxes. There are standards for things that are in the clear zone, breakaway posts that make those objects safer in the clear zone and make. And so those are allowed. The Post Office does have standards for postal boxes in the clear zone. So again, trees are responsible for most of the fatalities. And in King County, trees are involved in a total of about 20% of all serious crashes, in addition to a high rate of involvement in fatalities. Question. Council Member Wells Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. When you say trees are responsible for 20% of all serious cat accidents, but nationally 47% of fatalities involve trees. But when you say in King County, are you talking about unincorporated or all of King County unincorporated roads? Yes. Statewide, it's about 15% of serious accidents involve trees, not just fatalities, but serious accidents. So what are we doing with this inventory that we performed with this for creating what we call a priority array? And that's since it's a more comprehensive analysis of every mile of these roads. What we need to do now is to take all this information and apply a series of factors to to prioritize locations for projects. And the kinds of factors will be using include things like prior crash history, which is what we've focused on in the past. Speed, traffic, volume, the geometry of roads like whether it's on a curve or not, that particular location and issues with block sight lines. And we're going to use all these factors to try and weigh the severity of the risk for each location and place those things by order of risk on a project list. When we complete the prioritization, we're going to start estimating costs and then selecting top priority projects to address with the funds that we have available. We're also working to implement a more robust public awareness campaign, and we're going to give notice to and work with property owners adjacent to any projects. I think this is my favorite slide because you can see the sort of we'd like to see the before and after picture. This is at 78th Avenue south near the Green River, and it was blocking visibility of oncoming traffic for the driveway where you see our truck in the second photo. In addition to being a hazard in the clear zone, so this is actually a before and after picture of removing this tree or mass of trees from the clear zone, whatever property. And he says, I love that tree then. Well, we certainly will work with property owners to help them understand the risk to drivers and to themselves. For in this case, I know that the property owner had difficulty seeing oncoming traffic as they pulled out of their driveway, and that was a risk to themselves, to their family, to visitors. And it just makes our roadways unsafe and our top priorities are to ensure that our roadways are safe. So if this were a really dangerous intersection, we've had 50 accidents and the person said, I love that tree, you can't touch it. Then when we do, we would be removing the tree, okay? We would certainly work and do everything we could to educate the person. But but our number one priority is to keep our public right of ways safe. So all these trees are public right away or some of them are private property. Some of the objects may be on private property. The history of roadways and the ownership in the county is not always well documented. And we'll be working on that, determining what to do. Thank you. So I guess what my thing is that at some point we can tell people, you have to do this because it's dangerous. Right? Or that they have to take the liability. They would not have the liability because assuming it's a county right of way, it's the county's property and it's the county's liability associated with objects in the clear zone. But if it's private property, then I guess I later. Okay, go ahead. That's that's my presentation. I'm happy to answer questions at this point about our program and how we're being more aggressive about implementing it. So any questions from the right? Yes, Councilmember. Oh, thank you, Madam Chair. It's possible to get a copy of your PowerPoint. Absolutely. It provides information is fairly unsettling. I think it is, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for feeling that way. I feel that on a regular basis I'd like a copy too. So again, soliciting it to all of us. Okay, so let me just ask the sort of devil's advocate question, why are we doing this as opposed to putting more money into potholes and overlays that are equally dangerous? If we have roadway surfaces that are equally dangerous, I can assure you that we would be either closing or addressing those. These this is responsible for nearly half the fatalities nationally is not is having these objects on the side of the road. So this is a high priority for public safety. Okay. And is this a part of a federal discussion or it is it has become the modern standard that road standards have a clear zone for uncurved roadways. Okay. And then the picture you had like, well, this picture is more what I'm used to seeing like six inches from the end of the white line to the end. And it's very nice because what's here then is flat. Many areas of my district, it isn't flat, it's a gully, it's a culvert area, it's a ditch, it's elevated and in some cases enough that cars disappear. I have three places in my district. Cars disappear every couple of years because they get in there. So then a couple slides back, they had a very nice shoulder, but we don't have a lot of that. So as if we were ever to build a road again, where do we have wider shoulders? Yes. Great. That would be lovely. Okay. Anything that you would like to add to this? For the record, David Eldridge from the prosecutor's office. I do have some information about some legal. Reasons why this should be a priority for. The county. If counsel has questions. In that area, I'd be happy to. Answer it. I think we should get this information. Should everybody okay with going into executive session for a couple of minutes to get some? Okay. So we will go into executive session for a couple of minutes and the grounds are to discuss with our legal counsel potential litigation and legal risks where public discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the county as provided in RTW. 4231 ten Subsection I committee will be in executive session for approximately, what do you think? 510. How many minutes do you think we should be in executive session? 10 minutes. 10 minutes. Okay. And tell, say ten after 11. And I'm asking the court to please post the doors to that effect and turn off the microphones. And as members of the public that are not county employees directly necessary for the discussion to please leave the chambers. And thank you very much. We are now in an executive session and. And so we will move on to our last item now, which is item number five, and it is briefing 2016, briefing 85. It's it's a real quarter quarterly update. Yeah. Thank you. What about those? Okay, folks, come on up for the briefing. We sure appreciate your time. Who do we have here today? If you're. Deb is there if you want to come on up from a briefing. Sorry. We had six or seven. She said there weren't five. Okay, great. Thanks. All right. I am taking over briefly as chair. So welcome. Have briefing 2016 be. 005 on the East Side. Rail Corridor Quarterly update. Is that a good to see you again? Go ahead and introduce yourself and we'll get started. Thank you. I'm Deb Eddy. I am about Eastside Rail Corridor program manager for for the council. Knowing that you are short of time, I'm going to ask Erika Jacobs of DARPA to very quickly give you her update on the regional trail master plan. The reason is this is one of those things that's going to come before you this year. And it's important for a variety of reasons moving forward that this master plan adoption happen as efficiently as as possible. So of all the things that are in our update, it's probably most important, important that Erika keeps you apprized of the master plan process. Erika Thank you. Councilmembers Good morning. I will probably just breeze through some of the background slides so that we can get to the part about the process that I think is most important for awareness. Let me see. I think this is on Mark. I might not be powered. Sure. Oh, good. Yes. Hard copies have been distributed and won. What I'm going to do is I thank you. I'll just use the keyboard. If we had more time, I would give you the background on the context for master planning, which essentially I can just touch on. We are master planning within a context of a multi-use vision and a rail banked corridor that is meant to be preserved for future potential freight reactivation. So King County has an interim trail sponsor under that process. We'll go forth and put in a public use trail in the entirety of our ownership areas and also in portion of sound transit ownership area where we have trail easement, all in the context of a multi-use vision for this corridor and in the freight reactivation context. Under a rail linked quarter, we have in our ownership area broken this segments down into three very distinct segments from a planning context, but also an implementation context in the South. And we have a most residential segment where the trail corridor skirts behind residential uses and we are definitely more more cognizant of near neighbor issues and concerns there. And it's a quite lovely section where you have a lot of views of Lake Washington. The Wolverton segment is the most urban context, highest level of investment in transportation scale infrastructure, bridges, crossings over freeways and such. Also, a lot of immediate near-term opportunities for collaboration with Washington State DOT Sound Transit and City of Bellevue on near-term upcoming projects. So I bring that up as context for the urgency of implementation there. Not to lose it are opportunities for shared, collaborative and efficient investments in the Valley segment and to the north. In the Woodville area, the Sammamish River Valley offers great opportunities for a more rural trail trail setting in the wine valley in quite beautiful setting up there. There is also, I should mention of potential excursion rail interest which which will defer rail removal of rails until such time as we've explored that possibility. I'm going to focus on this this timeline slide here, because I think this is the most important to ground the members in our upcoming process and the legislation package that's coming before you this fall. We have just completed over a year of extensive public process in the development of the Regional Trail Master Plan, the development of alternatives for trail. We've gone out to the public in numerous series of open houses, but we've also met with stakeholders, business leaders, chambers of commerce and all kinds of near neighbors up and down the corridor, which includes the Seahawks and Chateaux and Mitchell Winery, among other commercial interests, all up and down. So we've done a lot of outreach. We've involved people in the actual scoping of our environmental review. And right now, we when we did release their draft master plan in the draft this in February and went through a 30 day public comment period, and we're getting ready now to issue the final master plan in areas which contains the recommendations for the preferred trail alternative that will be issued in late July to the public and to all members. And then we will also be packaging that under a legislative package for council consideration and adoption that would arrive in August in a transmittal, but gearing up for September and October consideration depending on the council schedule, hoping for a vote on that in October, recognizing that it's going to be a very, very busy fall for for council with budget issues. That said, what we do after the council adopts the regional trail master plan is, is the exciting part we get to move into implementation of trails through design and construction and the implementation priorities and strategies will be contained within that draft, within that final master plan. And I think with that I can turn it back over to Deb. There was further content, but that was the important part. Okay. Thanks for the briefing. Appreciate that. We've got this this hard copy. Deb Well. The only other thing that I that I and part of the reason I wanted to make sure you got this update is knowing that the fall is going to be very busy. You have a budget process this year. Certainly you have other pressing issues on your agenda. I want to make sure that you have the opportunity to be individually briefed or in small groups or whatever, so that when this trail master plan comes before you that we, you know, all your questions are answered and we've done the due diligence that needs done because the implementation cannot happen until the environmental impact statement is finalized. So that's why this is time sensitive. The challenge for us here in King County is that this important public asset is owned by no less than six governments. And this kind of sets us apart from other places across the nation that are repurposing these old rail corridors, and they may have one or two governments involved. So we're particularly challenged here. And it's why your efforts to bring the other governments, the other stakeholders to the table in collaboration is so critically important. The other piece of work that we're going forward with is to redesign the Regional Advisory Council to meet current needs. It was approved by the County Council in 2012. It's outlived its its authorizing ordinance. So by the end of the year, we'll also be bringing to you a new structure for the Regional Advisory Council. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks to both both of you, Erica. And doing great work here. And we sure appreciate all of your help on this. It is a great regional asset. I look forward to getting it completed and constructed. So thank you. Thank you. We've still got a ways to go, but we'll get there. Thanks. All right. Move it along here. Let's see. We're going to go. Thanks, Dave Burrows. For what? I see. Item six and seven cover. It covered everything. So we're concluded our business this morning. All right. Is there any other business to come before the committee? We've gone through the agenda. All right, see now.	AN ORDINANCE proposing an amendment to the King County Charter to make the office of King County prosecuting attorney nonpartisan; amending Section 610 of the King County Charter; adding a new Section 649 to the King County Charter; amending Section 680.10 of the King County Charter; and submitting the same to the qualified voters of the county for their approval or rejection at the next general election occurring more than forty-five days after the enactment of this ordinance.
king_57bae00e-a563-4b22-b4de-e9715b5a72f8	For Mcdermitt Councilmember up the grove. Councilmember Gunn right down here. Madam Chair. Here. Okay. We will hold the minutes until we have a quorum. And we're taking things in order today, is that correct? All right. Number four will be proposed ordinance 2016 0417. This is an ordinance relating to the sale, the North Shore Public Health Clinic that is in Bothell, which is District one and District and Muskie's district. So staff, if you'd like to begin. Thank you, Madam Chair. And good morning. For the record, Miranda lesson in council staff. Materials for this item begin on page seven of your packet. The proposed property for sale, which I'll refer to as the North Shore property, is 824,740 square foot parcel, including a 16,277 square foot building. The microphone of the closer. Certainly apologies. Thank you. So the parcel includes a 16,277 square foot building, which is the existing site of the North Shore Public Health Center. For historical context, voters in 1987 approved a levy for nearly $100 million in general obligation funds, which have since been retired for multiple health care improvements, including funding for five regional health centers and a satellite clinic that became the North Shore Public Health Center. The county purchased the North Shore property in 1989 and constructed the North Shore Public Health Center, which I'll refer to as the North Shore Clinic in 1993. Facilities Management Division FMD operates and maintains the building. By 29, public health reduced its had reduced its use of space in the building by half. And Healthpoint, which is a nonprofit health clinic, became a joint tenant. At the end of 2012, Healthpoint moved to another location in Bothell, and subsequent attempts to find a replacement tenant were unsuccessful. The building has been partially vacant since the end of 2012 and less than 40% of the building is currently used by public health. Public health is charged for operating and maintenance expenses associated with its use of the building by FMD and the County General Fund reimburses FMD for mothballing costs associated with the unused building space. The adopted 2015 2016 budget, which assumed closure of the North Shore Clinic at the end of 2015, included a proviso on FMD and public health related to the future of North Shore Clinic and its operations. The subsequent provides a response which addressed clinic options related to keeping and selling the North Shore about the property recommended moving forward with selling the property and either keeping the clinic on site through a leaseback agreement or moving the clinic to a different location through an outside lease of note. Two The building is described in the provides a response as generally in good condition, with the exception of the eight H back system, which has reached the end of its useful life. On this note, Council appropriated approximately $250,000 in September of 2015 to the Building Repair and Replacement Fund for each HVAC system replacement as part of an omnibus ordinance, FMD staff indicated that full disclosure of the air conditioning issue was made while marketing the property and further represented that work to correct the issue was tentatively scheduled for spring of 2016, but that repairs might be negotiated as part of a purchase, a property purchase and sale agreement. A PSA sale of the North Shore property is assumed in Public Health's current financial plan, which is on page 75 of your packet as attachment number five. As noted, council has already approved a new lease for a clinic replacement site and related tenant improvement support to be reimbursed out of the North Shore property sale proceeds returning to the item before you proposed ordinance 2016 0417 would authorize the executive to convey the surplus property to Title LLC in accordance with the terms of the Purchase and Sale Agreement. PSA, dated June 6th of 2016, which is located in your packet beginning on page 15 labeled Attachment A. Per the transmitted PSA, the property purchase price would be $4.1 million, which is consistent with the most recent appraised value of the property. Page five of the stock report, which is page 11 of your packet, describes the anticipated net revenue to public health from the gross sale proceeds insured after taking into account required and transaction costs reimbursement to the B, R and R fund to support tenant improvements at the at the new leased location. And a buyer credit, which I'll discuss momentarily. It's estimated that about 2.4 million in net one time revenue would be available to public health to help address its current budget deficit. Also included in the PSA is an assignment agreement for an existing cell tower ground lease on the property described in PSA Exhibit C labeled assignment agreement as well as a leaseback option for public health should meaning if additional time is needed following the property sale before the new clinic location is ready for occupancy. If exercised. This leaseback. Provision, which is described on page 42 of your packet as PSA Exhibit F labeled lease agreement would be at a base rent of $13,564 a month and include an initial term of three months with two three month options. To extend. FMD indicates that an opportunity arose during the buyer due diligence period for the county to transfer the HVAC system, work to the buyer at a cost savings to the county per a First Amendment to the PSA signed by the county on August 2nd, 2016, $132,500 from the sale. Proceeds would be held back in escrow as a buyer credit for each HVAC system repair and maintenance, and the buyer would waive its due diligence contingencies under Section 5.1 of the underlying PSA. This is the buyer credit that I just referenced in terms of how this impacts the 250,000 council already appropriated for the HVAC system. The fiscal note to the proposed ordinance on pages 73 to 74 of your packet indicates that the remaining project funds approximately $199,000, will be misappropriated. Council's legal counsel has reviewed the transmitted PSA and recommended revising Exhibit F related to the short term leaseback provision labeled Leaseback Lease Agreement, and specifically sections seven and nine of Exhibit F to account for B $132,500 each VAC System repair and maintenance buyer a credit reflected in the First Amendment to the PSA. A Second Amendment to the PSA was mutually executed by the parties on September 9th, 2016. That reflects this recommendation by striking and replacing Section 79 of Exhibit F to account for the buyer credit that was included in the First Amendment to the PSA. Along this line, there is an amendment to the proposed ordinance beginning on page 61 of your packet, which would attach the Second Amendment to the PSA dated September 9th to the transmitted PSA. In the effect statement for this, I would just verbally clarify specifically line 15 of the effect statement by reiterating that it is Section seven and nine of Exhibit F to the PSA, the lease agreement that are amended by the Second Amendment to the PSA. Lastly, Amendment one to propose Ordinance 2016 0417 would also replace the existing PSA Exhibit E, which is the assignment agreement for the cell tower ground lease with a version that is dated September 21st, 2016, that has a copy of the actual lease being assigned, attached or appended to it, which is referenced as Exhibit A in the attachment in the assignment agreement. Pardon me, because this document is quite lengthy. Only the first five pages are included in your packets, but a hard copy is available here at the staff table in a link to an electronic copy of the entire document is footnoted in the staff report. With that, that. Concludes my staff remarks unless there are any questions. Thank you. Thank you. I have three to start with. So on the cellular groundless, it goes to 2020. But is there any possibility of us going longer than that? Should we choose to do that? So the existing lease does indeed. It is good through 2020 to 2020. So upon the my understanding is upon the closing date of the PSA, that lease will be transferred to the buyer. So if they should decide to extend that out. That would be at their discretion as the new owner. Okay. And then on the for culture, which is a percentage of the sale price that the sale gross price is 4.1. I'm surprised that the closing cost, the back end transition costs are not substituted from that that we pay on the gross sale price rather than the net sale price when we calculate that for culture. Is that customary that we do it on the gross and not on the net? Procedurally, I would defer to executive staff to provide clarity on that. Okay. Does anybody know whether we do it on the gross or the net normally? Okay. Well, that'll be a question for later and get back to me on and then. Okay. Thank you. And under county code four, culture is entitled to 10% of the gross proceeds from the sale. So that's the standard operating procedure in the way it has been for many years. Namely, it was 10%. I just forgot that it was gross and not a net. Okay. Thank you. And then the 2.4 million for public health. Tell me how that was arrived at. Certainly. So there is a page in the staff report that breaks down the cost a little bit. I believe that's on page 11 of your packet. So that's where I have your figure eight. So taking the gross sale proceeds of 4.1 million. That's what I'm looking at. Yes. Okay. So that's just that that's what was left over. And then all of that goes to the public health fund, correct. As a net one time revenue. Okay. So it doesn't come back to the general fund and then be reappropriated, it goes straight to the General Health Public Health Fund. Correct. And this is a the. Proceeds described here are already built into the public health funds current financial plan, which. Is also included in your back. Any questions for anybody else? Okay. Okay, Councilmember. Thank you, Madam Chair. And colleagues. What I would suggest on this, perhaps, is that at this afternoon's council meeting, we didn't list the chair as concerns. Objection. We take it up for approval. I understand there's an SBA loan on the buyer side here, and they're a little concerned about timing. We'd like to move it out. And so if we could do that this afternoon, that would be great. I just wanted to take a moment to, again, thank public health for their work, to find a new location, keep these vital services for the north and northeast parts of the county. Our residents up there open. I also want to take a note to say, though, I don't like how we're doing this, we're selling capital assets to pay a deficit that was incurred because of operations. And that's just not good financial management. And I don't think the department thinks it's good past management. We just got into a big hole, we got into some real trouble. And so it's just another reminder about the importance of the work our health department is doing to secure basic funding for our basic public health services and why that's so important. So I think we're headed in the right direction. But this is just an example of how tough it's been over there at the department the last few years. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I think in the next briefing room, you can hear more of that and you're sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul. So I will accept that. I just wanted to ask a question I should probably ask a couple days ago and this was discussed. It's going to be pulled to council as afternoon. But what would be the difference of it being voted out today, too, and then immediately going to council's noon? Well, I'm not sure under our rules that we can do that and just should. That was today. Normally that's what you would think. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's correct. Several years ago, when the council went back to the automatic one week period between committee action and council action, which essentially prohibited doing exactly what you're talking about, which would be to take action in the morning and move it to that afternoon. Under your rules, it goes to next week, and that's the earliest you can take action. Okay. What you didn't change was your ability to pull any item from committee and take action on it at full council. So essentially that's what you'd be doing today. You could have done that with or without the briefing. The item is now been brief for the council. You'll take action this afternoon. That's perfectly allowable under the rules. But once you take action to send it to full council, it starts that to meeting clock. And the only thing you can do there is cut out one of those meetings, but that would mean you would have to skip today. So that was really good to be refreshed. Thank you so much. Okay. So we will hold that and have it come up this afternoon. Thank you. If I could ask just one additional questions on the timing with respect to the new side and the tie work that's going on there and our option to continue in this space under the leaseback provisions. Is there everybody confident that we have enough time for a smooth transition to get the work done at the new Evergreen Health site and not get kicked out into no man's land or be subject to kind of a hold over type situation. And my my understanding is, is, yes, I can certainly circle back with a clarified timeline on that in terms of anticipated moving dates. Okay. Thank you. I'm sure they'll definitely be working for that. Councilmember Nebraska, would you be willing to put them in as of September 21st in front of us? Sure. So moved. Thank you. Any questions on the minutes of the last meeting? Those in favor, please. I write. Those opposed made the minutes pass as written. Yes. If I can just comment, Madam Chair, on the previous item. Sure. And that is what we have. We have a known issue with public health and we have a plan to address it. It's a substantial plan that's. Just been briefed here. In the committee of the whole. So I. Would encourage members to take the time. Over caucuses and. Today to be sure. That you've had a chance to look at it. Any questions answered so that we might have the opportunity to take it up or address any questions as needed today? That would be great. Thank you. And now we're going on to item number five. And this is the one that we've been waiting for bated breath after all the things that have been happening. So if our public health people come up to the table, that would be great. This is briefing 2016, Briefing 186, and this is on what is happening with our public health. And there's Cortez. She wanted to come up and begin. Then we have our distinguished panel with us. Welcome. Good morning, Madam Chair. Catherine Cortez, Council Staff. I will only take enough airtime to say it, if you wish. Introduce our distinguished guests, which are the Director of our Department of Public Health, Seattle and King County. Patty Hays, our health officer, Dr. Jeff Duchin. And Dennis Worsham, the prevention division director from the same department. They will have all the news for you. Thank you. I brought my newspaper for questions later on that the average citizen might have. So I'll see how many of those get answered beforehand. Welcome. She please begin. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I first want to say how grateful I am for scheduling of this discussion and updating the Council on the current situation in our prevention division, and also for the Council's support to make public health a priority in King County. Just so grateful in the work that we've been doing to prepare for some legislative work that I'm going to describe later, to have the leadership from the council and also the the team of our legislative liaisons working with the Washington Association of Counties. But I have to tell you, we're here today because of a brewing crisis. And I'm looking at this situation as foreshadowing potentially worse times to come if we don't act. When I came before you two years ago now, it's hard to believe it's been two years. But two years ago I shared with you that I was worried that the cuts that have occurred throughout the department and the flat or diminishing funding for public health would be a major problem. Should we be pressed to manage issues that were simultaneous at at one time, in addition to just continuing the regular work? And that's where we are, as I sit before you today. We are unable to respond in a way that you and our residents in King County expect, both in an ongoing way. As well as the emerging issues that we will discuss in the state of affairs is exacerbated during times like we're experiencing, and that's what this presentation is all about. I'm pleased to have Dr. Jeff Duchin here to go over the specifics on the issues and outbreaks we're facing. And Dennis Worsham, our prevention division director, will share some of the impacts that our lack of capacity is having on operations and ultimately on the health of the community. Then I'll be coming back to talk about the foundational public health services work. But I do want to start with this picture. This is our Metro foundational public health services picture that I've showed to you before, after our meeting today. I'll be going over to the Washington Association of Public Health Association to their annual meeting, where we'll be doing a kickoff of the work for this statewide. But I'll note to you, as you see on the left side of this, this visual, the communicable disease control, the very first stovepipe as a important piece of core work of public health. And then at the bottom, the across all programs I'll be will be describing some of the impact across our cross-cutting programs that that are described here. Let me start by saying that ideally your prevention division focuses on both prevention activities. Examples would be promoting immunization and infection control training. The more outbreaks there are, the fewer prevention activities can happen. And you should expect that your health department is in a position to prevent outbreaks. That's that's our core job. And when outbreaks do happen, we our job is to decrease the risk and mobilize so that those outbreaks don't pose a threat to the community. Our ability to focus on prevention is in this balance between staff capacity and the size and complexity of the outbreak. Ideally, we would have the funding to maintain that balance between prevention and outbreak response, with more staff deployed to outbreaks or issues when they happen. But it would come back into balance. But this is what we face because of years of declining funding or flat revenue. We actually don't have the funds to prevent that. We should. And as Jeff is going to talk about, we're very hard pressed to deal with communicable disease issues and the current state of the multiple issues that we're facing. It's an unusual situation today, but it's brought into really clear focus to me. The lack of capacity that we have and that we've been struggling with as our population has grown and the risks have grown and our resources have shrunk. Current outbreaks and the issues that are going to be described means that we have all hands on deck for the further response that we need to do, which minimizes our ability to do prevention activities. There's multiple, simultaneous, complex investigations and responses have now exceeded our capacity to respond in a timely manner to the work and to other core work. The ripple effects of this, as you'll hear both from Dr. Dutton and from Denis Walsh and can last for months. Something that's often invisible to the public is they think that once an issue has been resolved, such as the outbreak at the Matador restaurant, that our work is done. But actually you'll hear about that. Our work continues with those institutions, whether it be an institution, a restaurant or whatever, to make sure that we're shoring it up and that we know what needs to be done and that the public is is protected. So I'll turn this over to Jeff now to give you some specifics on the work that we're doing right now. And then Dennis will talk about the impact on the agency and the work that we should be doing that actually since he's been here, we've we've started to document that has stopped. I'll come back towards the end of the presentation and talk about next steps. And again, the link to the work on foundational public health services and directories. When we have an emergency situation like this, can we call on other counties to come and assist us, or are they just so busy too that they don't have time to come help us? It's a problem with capacity all over. I was talking to my counterpart up at Snohomish County and he actually had his disease investigators partially deployed to Island County. But yes, we have a vigorous network and Dennis can describe that more where we do help each other out. But again, the capacity is so drained statewide, it's it's why when I'm going to the statewide meeting, the first level of investment that we're talking to the legislator about is in this area. Thank you. Welcome, Dr.. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning and thanks for this opportunity. Is it the green button for advance suicide? Okay, so I'm going to walk you through some of our current activity. And as you probably know, we've been working on an unprecedented number of health care associated outbreaks recently. Currently two simultaneous hospital acquired Legionella outbreak investigations. These are quite unusual and these are very complicated both in the clinical, public health and environmental perspectives, both with respect to our investigations and then with the response measures that need to be put in place to address these issues. They require patient notification, counseling of exposed persons. They generate significant public and media interest. And as you may have read, also, at the same time, we're working on an investigation of a potential blood borne pathogen transmission at a dental facility that was in the news recently. We've had a number of other investigations in progress that I'll share with you as well as we go through the presentation. You may recognize these. Are there a recent health care associated outbreak investigations we worked on? These are related to either infection control lapses or equipment reprocessing errors. These are related to concern for possible blood borne virus exposures as well. These are complex and lengthy investigations that may involve thousands of patients. So I want to give you an idea of what's involved in these types of investigations. Once we take an initial report, either from a health care facility, could be a patient, could be a media report. We have to gather information, extensive information about the disease, how it was diagnosed, the timeframe, potential community, as well as health care facility exposures, patient risk factors, other recent health care facility visits and of sort out what that what the actual relevant risk factors might be. Then work with the health care facility to gather additional needed information. For instance, are there other cases that we're not aware of? Are there any known or suspected infection control lapses, the number of exposed persons we're talking about here? Any additional diagnostic tests that need to be performed, we need to arrange for we need to understand the relevant procedures a patient may have had over a period of months. Any common caregivers that patients may have had that are affected, the locations, every location. The patient was in a facility. These we need to know about the infection control procedures in place in the facility, their equipment reprocessing procedures, how it works. And this generates significant amount of information and data that needs to be organized and analyzed at this point. Then we'll develop some initial recommendations to decrease the risk. As we understand it, we may need to go onsite one or more times to help assess these risk factors. For Legionella in particular, we need to work with engineers, facilities, maintenance, maybe the water utility and do an environmental assessment and testing. We need to coordinate with consultants that may be hired by the health care facility, get specimens to our state public health lab for molecular testing or DNA fingerprinting, and then develop a plan for enhanced monitoring to find additional cases that may have been unrecognized and to promptly find additional future cases. So all this is, you know, developing and making sure plans and procedures are then implemented. We have to report we have to report to Washington, Department of Health, Washington State Health Systems, Quality Assurance. We frequently will consult with CDC on some of these complicated matters. We need to check additional databases both here and in Washington state, to check for previously, previously reported cases of whatever the infection, the relevant infection might be. We may need to consult with equipment manufacturers and the FDA. We work with health care facilities on messaging both to their staff and their patients regarding an exposure, their risk and follow up actions that are needed. And we develop public communication messages and respond to ongoing requests from the media for information we are. We need to continue ongoing, regular, frequent communications with the health care facilities to both make sure the plans, the mitigation plans are being implemented appropriately, to check for new cases, to understand if there's any new relevant information that becomes available. Results of environmental tests. And this goes on for months after you've heard about the last case and it's faded from the news. And finally, we need to monitor for the effectiveness and the success of any actions that have been taken. Couple questions should be said so far. Okay. So on the top of the paper, it said at least 650 day old patients by next Thursday have been test happy. So who who pays for the tests on those follow up tests? B, health care facility, that's where the where the exposure occurred. So what if somebody is not covered under Medicare or any other insurance plan, then the hospital itself pays for it. In all of our cases to date, the hospitals have offered testing to all persons who've been exposed. Okay. And then have you been satisfied that the time between the initial realization this should happen until you were notified was timely enough for your. Well, it always varies from case to case, but in general, our facilities are excellent. They are very timely. Okay. So the general rule. And then in the courts were having a huge increase in in interpreter costs. Did you have any increase in interpreter costs needed through all this to explain this to people that didn't understand? It's a good question. Many of the facilities have interpreters, so they will also produce, you know, patient notification and have hotlines with interpreters available. I don't know about our department as far as the communications team, whether they've had to do additional work using interpreters or not. This is a complicated even if you speak English. Understand this, I'm going to actually get more into that a little bit when we get into tuberculosis. But moving on to another question that I'm sure you have about what are the roles of different agencies and organizations in these types of outbreaks? So Department of Health, Health Systems, Quality Assurance and the hospital accreditation agencies do assess and do routine inspections every couple of years to make sure health care facilities have systems and processes in place in general to ensure patient safety, which includes identifying, monitoring and responding to infectious agents, but do not conduct detailed assessments of plans for specific diseases. So, for example, these agencies would not go into a health care facility and get into the level of detail about their Legionella control or monitoring plan that we need to do when we do an investigation. And ideally, we would like to do that as part of prevention, but we don't. We currently can. I'll talk more about that. So to investigate infectious disease outbreaks and take steps to protect the public, this is really the local health jurisdiction responsibility. And ideally, as I mentioned, we like to promote best practices based upon CDC guidelines for prevention of health care associated infections, including Legionella. But there are no resources currently available for this type of work. However, on the positive side, we did receive a small grant recently from the National Association of City and County Health Officials in which we conducted a series of workshops over a two month period with regional hospital staff, and this was infection control, communications, risk management and medical leadership to educate and train about best practices for public notification and communication during hospital associated hospital associated infection outbreaks. And these were tremendously successful. We had a great feedback from all the participants and we were asked to do more of these, but we don't have funding or staff available to do so. But I do believe that these are responsible in some measure for the prompt and transparent communications you're seeing from our health care facilities about the current outbreaks. And I mentioned that Washington State Health Systems Quality Assurance does routine inspections. They also come in when there's a an outbreak identified a complaint which is basically if we notify them they consider that a complaint or if the health care facility notified, notify us and they consider they consider that a complaint. And then they also will come in and do inspections and work with the facility to make sure these types of things don't happen again in the future. So I'm going to shift gears a little bit now and talk about other things we're currently working on besides hospital associated outbreaks. And this is tuberculosis. And you've probably seen that we're in the in the process of investigating and responding to an active case of TB at a large residential facility, supportive housing facility for recently homeless persons with substance abuse disorders. And these clients are at increased risk for tuberculosis disease. These infections are also it's sorry these investigations are also resource intensive, prolonged and require expertize to identify at risk populations to follow up for testing to determine who needs preventive treatment so that those who might be infected do not develop active contagious. TB We've had several of these types of incidents in the past here, so if you were on this depicted on the slide and in almost all of these instances, these cases of. They were contagious, TB were preventable, and that's because active or contagious TB cases develop in people who are infected years ago, who develop an inactive or latent form of disease that is not diagnosed. That's not treated with preventive treatment. And then later that infection reactivates and becomes active, capable of spreading and putting others at risk at one time or TB program did screen high risk persons for latent TB and treat infected persons to prevent them from developing active contagious TB. But resource limitations have forced us to focus exclusively on persons with active contagious TB. And these are national recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that recommend testing high risk persons for latent TB infection and providing preventive treatment to infected persons to decrease future cases of active TB. And notably for us and King County, high risk persons include those born in countries where TB is prevalent. And I want to show you that in King County, a large proportion of our active TB cases are from countries where TB is prevalent. In fact, 80% of our TB cases in 2015 were born outside the US in countries where TB is prevalent. These individuals were born in 27 different countries, and the rate of TB among people born outside the U.S. is 15 times the rate of US born individuals. So this again highlights a unique challenge that we face, addressing this complex work among persons from many different cultures and speaking a large number of languages. Finally, I'll just summarize in a nutshell that what's in the newspapers and everything that we're working on, we have a heck of a lot going on besides what makes it into the headlines. We have other health care facility investigations, including those that I've mentioned. We have a steady stream of them are typical work, including five foodborne outbreaks this month alone, over 100 cases of enteric infections and 50 foodborne illness complaints reported, 35 animal bites requiring rabies exposure assessments, 23 of which require rabies preventive treatment. Almost 90 reports with request for Zika virus testing and several clusters of influenza to investigate. So I'm going to close by sharing with you something that we decided to do in the middle of last year, which is provide almost real time, routine public notification of our foodborne and other outbreak investigations. And we feel that this is an example of best run government. It's transparent. It gives the public information that they're interested in to help them with their decision making. We're the only one in the country that is doing this, but getting this information together accurately with the appropriate public health messaging takes significant work both from our communicable disease epidemiologists, our environmental health team, our communications team, and generates ongoing requests for follow up info. So although we feel this is extremely important and we're very proud of it, it was a huge, unanticipated body of work that we're now grappling with. So I'm going to start here. I'll be available for questions after Dennis Worsham gives you some additional information about the implications of all this work. Good morning, Madam Chair and Council. Good to see you. It's. I've been in my role as the division director now just about five months. So my first three months coming back to the county certainly was to do a review of the county work that we're doing within the division and taking an opportunity to really see where we are as areas for improvement, kind of what the what the lay of the land was and kind of doing an assessment role has been mentioned both by Paddy and by by Dr. Duchin is we've had a steady decrease of funding in this particular area around our communicable disease work and through that erosion of funding, also a loss of some grant funding and just recurring, you know, budget reductions over a period of time. We've lost a number of staff in some of the analysis that we've looked at is up to 30% of our staff has been lost over the last several years. In 2011 in particular, one that stood out for me is a recent reduction is when Medicaid administrative claim changed its ability or our ability to be able to turn things in for reimbursement on our fees. We lost about $1,000,000 just in this work alone in our communicable disease area, which caused a further reduction of staff around our epidemiologists. Work are public health nurses and our Aaron peers who are oftentimes on the front line in responding to these diseases, in these outbreaks that Dr. Duchin has just talked about. I'm going to go to this slide that Patty started this out with. And again, in an ideal world, we would really want to be in a place where we've got a nice balance of doing prevention, I think, in some of the examples of some of the challenges and Jeff gave a really great one just a moment ago is that we had received a two month grant to come in and really work with hospitals and do more on the prevention side. It was a short term grant and so that leaves us now just on a response mode in these are hospital acquired infections or other health care related infections. So not having people who are working more on that prevention side shifts. More of our teams are in a response mode over to the outbreak side through the challenges that we have it led. The question for me as part of my assessment is what is it that we've stopped doing or where is that we're really inadequate in our ability to respond? I think in public health, when we think about communicable disease, I think these are things that we as the public think that is happening behind the scenes, and we're just sure that it's being taken care of to protect the public from these threats. So I was curious to know some of the things I'm going to highlight at least three of these here. And Dr. Duchin referred to one of these in particular. I used to be the program manager for TB a number of years ago, and we have about 100,000 people living in King County who we believe have latent TB infection. So they're not contagious at this point, but they're living with the disease and it's just one in ten will become active within their lifetime and then puts us on a response mode of contact investigations and these outbreaks that we talk about right now, the program is not staffed or have we been able to do anything around latent infection and only been working around infectious diseases around TB as a response mode. So it's kind of the game of whack a mole, if you remember that game. It's just waiting for something to pop up and then we are quick to respond to those areas and really have shifted that scale over to the outbreak side and not on the side of prevention. Another one that I think is worth highlighting here, we have made good inroads as a county and really leading the country, in fact, if not the world around some of our great work around HIV and we have one of the lowest prevalence rates around TB are excuse me, around HIV. But one of the things that becomes threatened is new cases are being diagnosed with HIV and our goals really to do the prevention. One of the things that really leads to that is outbreaks around other sexually transmitted diseases. We have seen since 2010 an increase in gonorrhea by 51% and with syphilis by 153%. Our role in public health is to do the contact investigations and to stop the spread of disease from another person. These two I highlight in particular because it puts people at greater risk for HIV. Our role, again, is around the contact investigations, letting partners know they've been exposed and get them treated as quickly as possible. We used to be able to respond around 92% of our contact investigations around syphilis, and we're down to about 77%. And as far down in gonorrhea as 49%, as our ability to even reach out and let people know they've been infected, it's a core function of public health that is had to be put aside because of lack of staffing. Another one I'll highlight here is around working with pregnant moms who have hepatitis B babies who are born to mothers with hepatitis B have a potential of becoming chronically infected with hepatitis. B when, when, after birth and if the mother is not treated with preventative medications. So far we've had to reduce this workload because of lack of staffing and only reaching. Now about 60% of moms who are hepatitis B infected in order to get them treated with medications to prevent that spread to an unborn child. So it's a concern for us because if a baby is born with hepatitis B, have a potential becoming chronically infected, and we know about one in four of those babies will have chronic liver problems and oftentimes die prematurely of those complications later in life. So those are the things that we have let go of before we even have an outbreak situation around some of our prevention strategies. As Dr. Duchin has highlighted, when we have a high, complex cases, as these hospital acquired infections, e-coli and a number of other things that get reported to us, including our TB work, the staff that remains in our programs get shifted completely over to the outbreak, and we try to do our best in responding to those in a timely way. It does come with a cost, of course, more the more costly with overtime of staff being deployed. We more stress, of course, on some of our staff. Some of our routine work gets set aside and delayed that are required by grants that we receive or other funding requirements. And another example in our TB work right now is we're trying to go live with EPIC, which is our electronic medical record, which we've had to put on hold and delay a bit why we're doing and responding to the TB outbreaks. So not only is it that our our daily work gets shifted and put off to a side, but a number of other things go left undone going into the flu season. That's important to us right now to monitor flu. It's getting done, but it's getting done at a much lower level as far as staffing goes. The other piece I want to point out is from just we have staff who have been really creative and really trying to stretch those resources where we can. We have a good example in our TB outbreak that we had earlier at the Rainier High School, deploying Snohomish County to come down and actually help us with those particular areas, calling Department of Health where we can and even bringing students in who are in graduate programs where we can help them, have them help us where we can. In fact, our Zika right now is being monitored. It's oversight by an epidemiologist. But actually the work of the Zika work is being actually done completely by students, which would be about a one FTE that we're not doing. So great program. I'm glad we have it. But it's it's things that we rely on outside of our department in order to help us to be able to respond to what should be our core work that we do every day. When we talk about the work that happens within my division in with our talented staff who are qualified to do this great work, it also has impacts in other parts of the department as well. We oftentimes refer to these when we talk about foundational public health as our core work. These are our crosscutting services that really support the entire department, not just our program, but is a resource that we tap immediately and it's all hands on deck, as Patty has mentioned, during a outbreak of any kind. Our preparedness section is mobilized to help us out and to deal with out with outbreaks and other health related emergencies just since 2000. If you look in the past decade or so, we've had about 50 health emergency incidences or varying sizes that the preparedness unit has responded to. Those have been from windstorms to earthquakes to floods, and these all require intensive services. More recently, outside of our division, you've heard even other areas. They've been deployed certainly in the Mercer Island with the e-coli in the water system. Our environmental public health was front and center without Ebola in our preparedness section is a tremendous amount of work that we didn't have additional funding to take on that those efforts. And about $400,000 of those were not even reimbursable that from from federal or state government. I've mentioned the Mount Rainier, which also took a number of resources. I think the important thing I would want to highlight about our work around the public health preparedness section is we are 100% grant funded for this work. There are no local or state dollars that prepare that go into anything around preparedness. The good side is we do have funding in that area. The downside is they have deliverables on those grants. And so we don't have the flexibility to continually pull them off and not meet those grant deliverables. Because if we do, of course, the the fear is that we will lose those grant grants in in the long run. And you say there are 50 events since what year? I'm sorry. 50 events is what she. Since 2001. Those aren't. Thank you. Another cross-cutting service that we rely heavily on. And as Dr. Duchin mentioned in our transparency work, that we're really wanting to be out front and letting people know and the public know where they're most at risk. Our communication team is vital to this work, to notifying the public, getting our messages out, working with hospitals, working with shelters , working with a variety of settings in getting the right message out to the right folks and broadly to the public where necessary. They do that in a variety of ways through using digital media, our website, social media, and again working with a variety other entities to get this this work done. Translations of work where needed are. I think about when we had the windstorm and the concern about carbon monoxide poisoning is a great example of where they were deployed, getting language, getting our messages out in a variety of of of areas. They, too, have work that gets undone. It ties very tightly with our prevention work. We oftentimes refer to this in public health as our health promotion. It's about getting the messages out there that really keep the public safe at all times. And these areas are slide when we are in the areas of a response mode for our group. I made a shift back over to Patty and she can talk a little bit more about where that leaves us and some of our needs at this point. Madam Chair, do you want to pause here or do you want me to finish first and then. Conclude have two quick questions or questions that they want right now. Okay. You want to go ahead. Okay. Thanks. Can I have. So I've got a slide here that estimates where we're at with our our current just needs for where we're at right now. So we expect to need to spend up to $200,000 on what Dennis just described, mainly overtime, extra staff, other associated costs, managing the outbreak. And that money, of course, will have to be expended this fall. It will be reflected when I report back to you. And in our work with PSP, it will go into the debt that public health currently has that we will be paying back over time. Can I ask where we aren't charging the hospitals for that? Of course, the 200,000 scammers is across all of these capacity works. But we we don't have the we don't charge hospitals for these normal outbreaks. I mean, this is core. And what I'm going to I mean, I think if I'm before you a year from now and we haven't had a statewide infusion of dollars, we need to get creative and have those kind of conversations. We want to make sure that we are with our core work. We should be having state dollars for that. And that's that's the one after this that with your help, I'm going to make setting up a some sort of fee or charge back to partners that we're working with that are dealing with. That would certainly be something a year from now we're going to have to look at all of this because public health can't not do this work. So but for now, that's that's, you know, for the hospital acquired infections, as you heard from from Dr. Duchin, this is really a new and escalating environment that public health has called upon to help and work with the hospitals. In our metro environment, the average number of hospitals that a health department works on works with in the state of Washington is four. In King County, we have 24 plus the level one trauma center. So the workload and the risk of these hospital acquired infections is pretty much astronomically different than in any other part of the state. The state actually relies upon us here in the metro to get a handle on this and to develop best practices so that in smaller counties, those hospitals can adopt that and work with their health department. So we're actually the standard bearer. I said before you today saying that as a as a first go in this we need a new one FTE with staff expertize in this we don't have that we're pulling in and we need an EPI staff person that we that would be assigned to this because we don't we don't even though we have a lot of these happening right now, the trend on this seems pretty clear that we need the infrastructure to work with Dr. Duchin and with Jeff, I mean, and with Dennis on these issues. So those are our immediate, immediate needs. On the longer term, let me say that Denis, as example on the description of TB again heightens the metro complexity of this. And I'm talking with the state about as a metro, we do welcome a lot of immigrant and refugees here. And with that, we need the the capacity to work with both them and the communities where they live to make sure they're safe and their community is protected. So just that is such a great example of why we need a larger infusion of dollars for from the state, for public health, what we're launching that I'm going to the statewide meeting to talk about. We're asking the state to invest in the state an initial investment of 50 million in the next biennium for local public health, of which public health, Seattle King County, would get somewhere around 5 to 6 million a year out of that, which would be a great investment. When we ran some initial numbers on this, both looking at where our our gap, our gap is, as well as some of these activities that Denis has been unearthing that we should be stepping back into, we quickly went up to $8 million a year that we need. So we're trying to be very clear that this is a first go investment that the legislature needs to make. And then we're asking for an additional 4 million to be invested in some pilot projects around the way services are delivered throughout the state. For example, we know that it's not feasible for every local health department around the state to have epidemiologists. There aren't enough epidemiologists to to do that anyway. And there's not there's a more efficient way we can deliver that through shared services in this model that we're going to be testing over the next couple of years with the legislature support, I believe that public health Seattle King County will be recognized for our core role in this, possibly being a regional hub where we would actually be able to better coordinate. Resources in a logical way and be recognize that with some funding to test out. So I'm excited about that possibility. So with that, I am happy to have our team answer any questions or any thought to and have council member. WG So thank you for this information. It's a little scary and I'd love to ask you if you could. I think I heard you all talk about basically four types of things going on that are driving this stretching of your resources. And I heard just the increase in population generally. I thought I heard something about increased incidences of infection, but I might be wrong there. New types of infection. Obviously, when you talk about things like Zika that we haven't been exposed to the whole Ebola scare and then social trends like poverty and homelessness and migration around the world sort of. Can you talk about. Like what. What's our future look like? What's driving the the surge is the word I think you used. And what can we expect to see going forward? Yeah. Geoff Mostert. Thank you for the question. It was a good summary. You know, it's hard to predict what the future will look like. I think based on the past the trend is increasing. We like to look at trends to sort of predict where the future is going. I think part of the reason that we're seeing more demand on our services in public health is not only the it may not be exclusively that more infections are occurring, although we have seen these emerging diseases coming with increasing frequency like Ebola, Zika, there were SaaS before that, H1N1 and so on. You know, just the pace, the global population explosion, the pace of international travel and the importation of diseases is much quicker now, but we're also hearing about things more effectively. So I'm not sure that everything that we're seeing today is is something that is wasn't there previously. But there are things we're being engaged in more frequently. And part of that is because we have very good relationships with our health care facilities that are they're reaching out to us and telling us about things that perhaps in the past we wouldn't have known about. And they are also having expectations to be more transparent, to do better case finding patient safety, I think, has become a much more important focus of health care delivery in general. And so people are looking for issues and they know they have to report to us and we need to maintain good relationships with them to facilitate that reporting. You know, we need to be seen as someone is going to help them manage the problem, not, you know, punitive and and causing them to have problems, but to help them, you know, resolve the problem, do the right thing for their patients and their institution. So I think there are a number of things. And then there are trends really related to just social conditions that put people at higher risk for diseases like tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases. So so some of the social determinants of health that we've talked about can predispose people to not only not getting preventive health care, but also behaviors that put them at risk. We didn't even talk about heroin and opiate. It's another, you know, stress that was totally unanticipated and a anticipated consequence of bad prescribing practices by the medical system in the 1980s. The other thing I'll add is there's been an emerging and you've seen it and in the paper around the idea of superbugs. So again, the use of antibiotics over time has now led us. So we're facing consequences from things we've tried in the past that come to bear. And it's just seems like a cascade of them right now. But I would say that the issue of of superbugs is going to continue to be a problem, that public health will be called upon to to work very closely with the systems on that clinic systems as well as hospital. You know, just the one thing I would add to that as well is just the example I gave. You know, one of the things that is, again, just the core function of public health is the way we stop the spread of disease is by quickly deploying people and getting out to do our contact investigation. So under the STD rates in particular, as we look at gonorrhea and syphilis, when we're unable to reach 50% of the people who have been exposed to the disease, it just gives that much more opportunity for it to be out into the community longer. Then it just cascades over time. With this, being able to do that in the latent infection is the other great example of a hundred thousand people living here right now with latent infection, and we're doing nothing to be able to bring them in to treat them so that they don't become an active case. I think those are two examples of about an eroding system that is causing the complexity of going further. And there's just one more thing I have to add, which is climate change, because that is a driver of infectious disease dynamics and. The expansion, for instance, of mosquitoes into the U.S. to carry Zika, dengue, chikungunya is related to warming temperatures. We're seeing more episodes of shellfish related illness related to warming waters and very small changes in climate. Progressive will have a profound impact globally on the incidence of infectious diseases that will well increase our workload as well. Let's have a couple just factual questions I just want to review. I think, Dennis, you said that since 2010, gonorrhea has gone up 51% and syphilis has gone about 53%. Is that correct? That's correct. And is it syphilis the one that can lead to blindness? Okay. So that's pretty scary. And then the other one I think, was chlamydia that we were watching for a while. Is that still one in four college freshmen or something like that? Okay. So I think those are really serious. And then is there anything that we can be doing, like, I don't know, taking probiotics acidophilus, anything that we can be doing to help our bodies, you know, be stronger. So we fight this stuff off. I'll turn to the doctor. Yeah, there's. There's some there are some very good things that people can be doing in general to keep themselves healthy. One is good diet, exercise. Preventive measures. Vaccinations in particular. If you're talking about flu and so on. Pertussis. Influenza. Pneumococcal disease. Herpes. Zoster. Major source. Sources of morbidity and mortality. HPV vaccine, which we spoke about at the last Board of Health meeting. Cancer preventing vaccine. Hepatitis B vaccine. A cancer preventing vaccine. So there are some very good preventive health measures that the population can take for certain things. But for other things like the emerging infections, hospital acquired infections and so on, that's not as much under the control of individuals. Exposure to tuberculosis, for example, exposure to Legionella regional is increasing nationally. We don't exactly know. I have a hunch it might be related to warming temperatures because that's what the bug likes warm temperature. But that's been increasing nationally. That's not something individuals can control. So anyway, back to probiotics. I think healthy diet, good, well-rounded nutrition is very important. Okay. Anything we can do to make sure that doesn't happen? And then remember, employees and in the public health department, it's around 1200, 1400, 1300 employees. Okay. And how much you know, you gave a number that we would get between five and 6 million. But I started thinking about the many we talked about a minute ago, 2.4 million from the building sale. And then the issues that we've had for years with getting the Medicaid reimbursements and then the payments we're now getting on our building that it's a lot more than 4 million or 5 million. So just from those three alone, it looks to me closer to like 14 million that we're short. So the number I quoted was just what we would spend the initial investment on. We're going to we've done a cursory look across the whole department, and indeed, it's going to be a much higher number. And this is why we're going to be telling the legislature that this is just a first, first phase of an investment. And then we do want to look at how state wide public health can be. The service delivery can be done in a little more effectively with some things that that. So we are investing in the right places to coordinate the system. But for our metro, you're right. We're going to be coming back with a larger look at this, because the the impact to this division is going to be the first go strategy to shore it up, as well as partially our cost cutting services. But we haven't even dipped into the Chronic Disease Injury Prevention Program. As we know, we're not doing the level of work in injury prevention. For example, what we should be doing. We've talked about the help, the promotion work we should be doing there. Again, that's core. That's core. We're going to go after that as examples as well as some of the leading work we need to be doing on the policy end for maternal child health and and furthering the work that, at least in this county, best starts for kids has agreed to. But there's again a core piece to all of that. Two more questions for me and then I'll turn to anybody else I'm interested in. Why would we ask for 50 million when we probably need 75 million, at least statewide? Why not ask for what we really need? And and then secondly, I know that the rest of the state doesn't love us, but maybe asking for a slice for us to do some of the work you were talking about that nobody else can. Afford to do or as expertize to do. So asking for a $20 million, you know, part, how do we decide to ask for 50 million and not more? Yeah. So as part of the statewide steering committee, what we've been doing and actually Oregon is our closest partner that's trying to wrestle with this right now as well. The ask for the first investment was both a decision made on the initial documentation of what a first level investment, stability and some work with the governor's office. The governor's office has actually been participating, very grateful for that on the steering committee and what Oregon learned, because they actually spent a year going health department by health department within all those stovepipes and cross-cutting that I showed you, documenting very much in detail. And because of the crisis that the larger health departments are facing right now in Washington state, we didn't want to wait to do all that because as I've been telling people, if your larger health departments fall apart, the whole system is falling apart. So part of this was a decision based upon what additional work we needed to do. We are in the service delivery change the issue of what the role of public health Seattle King County is on the table, I'm happy to say to you, because we've been such an aggressive leading partner in all this. The fact that we have been participating with the whole system has really positioned both here leadership and Councilmember McDermott's leadership and others on on the look at this has really put us in a good spot. So the pilots I talked about were really designed to be a smaller scale so that it didn't look like we were implementing something as we were testing. So that's why I said about 4 million to that. It could change. But and just the people there listening have the severity of this in mind. You if you want to. You told me something the other day about in your whole career, where does this current situation fit in the realm of your current career in a number of outbreaks that you're dealing with? Well. For me, this is the cascade of things. It's the worst that I've seen. I don't Dr. Duchin, you may have seen something, but I personally, in my 25 years in working at the state and here I would sign and look at this much. Yeah. In local public health, this is probably the highest workload we've had since I've been here, which is the 1998 largest number of simultaneous investigations, most cases, most stress on the staff. I haven't seen our staff stress like this since I've been here. People are talking about finding other work. So that's very problematic to me because our staff are highly trained and highly experienced and bringing in new people takes years to get them to the level of competence, expertize, effectiveness and efficiency that our current staff have. So, you know, in in that context, this is, you know, the most stressful situation we've had here just functionally in that unit. And these scrupulously honest know that in 20 years and 25 years, this is the worst that they've dealt with. I mean, that kind of puts it into perspective, and I think that's important for people to know. This is not just a minor blip. This is a huge, major earthquake of this sort. So I won't go through the newspaper article, but I'll call you about it because there are a lot of things in here that I was surprised about. And on that note, Madam Chair, maybe be appropriate to just take a moment to express the Council's appreciation to the department's leadership and its frontline staff at this time. I mean, Director Hayes, you sent me a note saying you had a staffer. I've been working several days, almost 24 hours a day, and finally literally just collapsed and had to stop. That's these are not six, seven, eight hour type operations going on right now. When you say you're stressed. You really are. And we we, on behalf of the community, appreciate the work you're doing. Thank you. Thank you. When you relay that to your staff, to that, we really appreciate it. And we don't want them to leave. We would like them to or we're helping. Okay. Councilmember Garza, followed by Counsel McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. I heard on dark days talk about needing money for an estate. I'm trying to figure out if the state provides general funding or categorical, and what percentage of all the funds that you get for specific kinds of activities versus general funding and Broadway example our current budget. I'm buying a budget for King County as a whole is 10 billion, and about 900 million or 9% of it is general funding. That's on. And oftentimes people are surprised by that. What is it for public health? Can you help me out tonight on this? That's a that's a level of detail. What my health wise is going to come up and help me with if you're from the state. State? Oh, do I? Okay. The state does provide some flexible dollars for for public health as well as the county. We do have see but a lot of of our dollars from the county, of course, goes to support our clinic systems and our direct services. It's less amount in in this in this area that should be core supported by by the state. I'm trying to remember what the stakes are. Did you hear my question? Yes. For the record, quite ably, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. So, Mr. Gossett, you're. The state provides money to public health in two different forms. So one is specific. Grants for specific. Projects and the other is state. General fund support that we call flexible funding that then can be used anywhere within the department and is controlled basically by the council's budget decisions that you make. So you might all recall that way back in time, public health was funded in part by contributions that were required from cities. So cities in King County had to pay toward the public health function. The there were a lot of complaints about that. So the state said, okay, we will. Take a portion of the motor vehicle excise tax and we will use that to fund public health in part. And one of the nice things about that, it was a growing revenue source. So over time it was sufficient to keep up with the cost growth in public health. When an initiative repealed the motor vehicle excise tax and the legislature subsequently agreed with that because it was thrown out as unconstitutional. The legislature said, okay, we will. Provide you with state general fund money to offset the loss of the motor vehicle excise tax. And in the first year it did exactly that. So that was 2002. Since then, that amount. Of money has stayed the same. So it has not increased with inflation. So we now have for public health about 15 years now where the amount of flexible money coming from the state has not increased at all. And that's one of the major drivers of the budget. Situation. That public health finds itself in, is that the state funding has increased for 15 years. Do you estimate? I was trying to get in my mind the estimate of how much is given to town for general funding and it's like five, nine. What of the total. Budget for public health? Yes. Why don't we get that figure for you and send it to you? I don't want to get sitting here in front of you. I like that. We'll do that. Management. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Madam Chair. Some of Council Member Goss's questions got to the point I. Was going to make, and that is that for at least 17 years, the funding for public health has not been stable, has it has been flat at best, as population in need has increased, and we have found ourselves more and more pressed. And that's why Secretary Whitman, the state health secretary, formed the work group, I believe, about two years ago now. And at the time I was chair of the Board of Board of Health, asked to serve on that, to identify the foundational services of public health for health departments around the state. And it was that work that Patti's graph starts to demonstrate. And then Patti has spoken of and maybe not dived into much. Depth. About the metro areas. Several communities around the state who, given their expertize in their population, provide even more services. And she's spoken to the increased number of hospitals, increased number of outbreaks and increased work that happens here in Seattle. King County. Public Health. Those metro services, Pittsfield being the leading example. But there have been others Vancouver, Spokane around the state that need probably additional funding beyond the foundational public health funding. Even the foundational public health funding to keep basic health programs in counties around the state isn't being met. And then in addition, we have some crises that we see as a metro area with increased needs and responsibilities and inability to offer expertize to the. Communities around us that. Aren't being. Met. And so Patty has Director Hays has continued to serve on a subsequent panel that has done more work in identifying the Metro needs and how to implement. And it is imperative that we have, as part of our legislative agenda and that we talk to our colleagues and counties around the state in making sure that addressing foundational public health is a key part of our legislative agenda. And of course, heard by legislators from County Council members, board of health members, public health officials around the state to make sure that we can contain outbreaks. And it's not enough to. Just look out for. Seattle and King County because public health outbreaks don't know geographical boundaries build foodborne illnesses or mosquitoes. They don't stop at borders. We have to have a strong system statewide and nationally. Thank you very much. And I'm glad you brought about the committee. And I want to thank Director Hayes first having a leadership role on both of those committees statewide as well as the subcommittee. Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Madam Chair. What have we got? Communication needs in here. But what what's been. The response and the workload with regard to the public contacting the department? And I would think with popular, very popular restaurants being closed for now, obviously the hospitals. And so forth, what are you finding? So we have a very busy communications. The team right now working. They also concentrate on working with all media outlets, including the hundred main ethnic media outlets that we have here in King County, because we want to make sure that we're talking to the media outlets that are getting the message out to the community. So there's a very big concentration both on making sure that's why we set up also our public health blog that's that's being picked up by a lot of media outlets and put out. So the team has been used very creative in, in social media so that we can get messages out quicker. But the workload that Dennis and Jeff talked about, of us just putting information out faster, it does get the but what we found also was people were sharing in their own social media and maybe it wasn't quite accurate what they were putting out. So part of our strategy was to get the accurate information out as fast as we could to offset people posting things on Facebook or Twitter that actually weren't accurate. So we're trying to meet the the movement of social media that's occurring in our in our society right now. So that's part it's part of our challenge. But we've got some really good young folks on our Commons team. I would and I'm sorry I wasn't announced. I mean, you may have said all this already, but I would anticipate that quite a few people would be calling directly to just wanting to know when their restaurants are going to open or. Oh, sure. Oh, should they never go or aren't coming through the website, are you right. Right. Q. Well, thank you. I want to thank you for this amazing presentation and for your willingness to put this together for us so that we can get it out to the population and that they can know that we're on it and we're doing the best we can with the resources we have. And unfortunately, the resources aren't enough. So all those people that went to the restaurants or have family members that are going into a hospital, having had that experience a lot last year and watching a family member in the hospital and thinking about, I wonder if this is safe. I wonder that safe. I wonder if this is safe. Sometimes you know too much about these kinds of things and it's disconcerting even as a family member watching what's going on. I hope that's clean. I didn't watch that be clean. Did that come from here? You know, when I go to the dentist, I'm like, check, checking everything. And he's like, don't worry, I put it all through everything. But, you know, we need to know that and we need to, you know, be cognizant of being careful ourselves when we go to different things. But you can't control what the scopes, how they were cleaned and when the filter was changed. And and you probably won't even have a doctor if you went in with the list. When was all your filters changed? But anyway, thank you for all your hard work and we will look forward to future briefings and hopefully good news grade you. Thank you very much. Okay. Let's bring up our next panel, which will be 2016 0473 and in a minute. Yeah. Okay. This is developing a plan for addressing major technology emergencies that might occur in three different departments that we wanted to start with. The Office of Emergency Management, Natural Resources and Parks and the Department of Elections. Mr. Hamburger, would you begin? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Patrick Hamacher, I'm I'm apparently being joined by Mr. Gillis. I'm also delivering a report for Mr. Giambattista, who's there in the office today. The proposed motion before the committee would call on the executive to work with three departments between the departments and committee to come up with a plan to address emergencies and the way that they would handle it. Related Emergencies within the department. The project, which essentially would start out like a pilot project, would require the departments to work with KCET on how they would be alerted on upcoming events, a schedule for major events that could be adversely impacted by I.T. emergencies. The how the how KCET would be alerted if there were issues to come up and the a resource or on call plan for dealing with those issues. That plan would be required to come back to the Council in April of next year for review and could lead to more widespread roll out throughout the county. And that concludes my staff report. Madam Chair. Thank you. That's pretty straightforward. Thank you very much, Mr. Key. How would you like to make any comments? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Bill Kehoe, King County Chief Information Officer I think this is a a very good ordinance. It will improve the coordination between city and our separately elected agencies in our executive branch agencies when we have an event and an event can be a flood warning and could be an election cycle . There's many events that could occur that require our assistance and coordination. So this will formalize what we are trying to do today, which is to coordinate much better with our agencies around these events, make sure that we have the right recovery plans. If something were to go wrong, make sure we have the right resources on call, make sure that we have alerts so that we don't make any changes to our technology during one of these events. So there's moratoriums that we have to adhere to. And so we're looking forward to working with our with our agencies, in our executive branch departments and increasing the coordination and collaboration to make sure that nothing goes wrong during these critical events. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Robertson. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think a couple of weeks ago we had the emergency management program leadership. Judy Miller. Who was it? Judy Miller. Yeah. That was before us. And she said that we're trying to get cell phone numbers into our system, but we have to rely upon people calling that registering. And what that did, to my mind, is say that a lot of working class and poor people get different cell phones every four or five months, and they rarely would think about even if they saw ADVERTISMENT on TV to register with anybody. So my question to you is, how do we get information about an emergency that has are out the down quickly? Are we just we're out of luck. Thank you. Mr.. Mr.. Gossett, I think for this, this audience is really for internal coordination. For external coordination and our residents. You know, that's difficult for, you know, the folks that you mentioned. I think there's email, there's texting potentially is other technologies that we could look at in addition to the cell phone. But unless someone has access to that, it is difficult. Yes. And there's no way that every time someone gets a new cell phone number, it just automatically goes into our system. That was that technology doesn't exist yet. It probably does exist, but it certainly isn't something that we have available. You have to work with the various phone carriers and sometimes their cell phones that are, you know, just for day use or, you know, they're free, essentially. So those are more difficult as well. But that's a that's a real that's a really good problem to look to solve in the future. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And thank you for remembering that we were briefed on some of the emergency needs and the coordination. And so I'd like to thank Carolyn Whalen, Judy Miller. Christy, true. And of course, you, Bill Kehoe, for the coordination on this and being willing to put this together so that when there is an emergency that the phones don't go to get overwhelmed or the computers slowed or crashed. And if they do happen, where do we do next to make sure that that doesn't happen for very long? Council member of the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. Bill, do you anticipate you can do this with your existing staffing and resources yet? That's a great question. I was actually thinking about that as I was walking up here. We have a lot of processes in place today, so we're not going to request any additional funding or resources a change management process. So I think it's just increasing the level of coordination. So I don't think there's a huge impact on on our staffing. Thank you. The other questions Councilmember Dombroski. Thank Madam Chair. Please to a to move for the do pass recommendation propose motion 2000 60473. Thank you. Any other questions? Please call for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council member Belushi. I want to come to Members and our city council member. Then Council member Gossett I. Council member Caldwell's I. McDermott, High. Council member of the group. I am. Some are proven right. All right. All right. Madam Chair, I am sure the vote of. No, no, no, no. Thank you very much. And with that, I think we can put it on the concert calendar, since it is an internal working document. And well, I don't know, Mr. Goss, that might want to talk about the idea of mentioning again to various people. Let's just put it on the real calendar and very good timing. Thank you very much. All right. Let's go on to our next item, which is the briefing 2006, Briefing 187, and that is our four culture update. Two weeks ago were updated on what they've done in the past and this update as required by code is what their plans are for next year. So if the spirit, you know, and if you'd like to begin that, be great. Good morning, Madam Chair. For the record on Mary Bergen on from the council staff and the meeting. The materials for this item begin on page 85 of your packet. As you noted, the code requires two briefings by for culture each year, one on the past year, and then one looking ahead to the next year. And I'll just provide a brief introduction by noting that because for culture is a quasi public public development authority, it's the county's cultural development authority. The budget action that the Council will be taking over the next several months is to appropriate money to a Cultural Development Authority Fund, which is then transferred to for culture. And then the for culture board itself sets its budget for the year. As a result, the staff report in your packets today provides a brief overview of the biennial proposal for the Cultural Development Authority Fund budget. You'll be hearing more about that during the budget panels over the next couple of weeks. So instead of talking any more about that, I'll turn to Jim Kelly from For Culture, who is here to make a short presentation about their plans for next year. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Madam Chair. Am I ready to go? Yes, please. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the council. As Mary said, this is our second report. We are here as recently as July 6th of this year to do our first report. And I'm going to give you a little look at our revenues, expected revenues for 2017 and then some of our ongoing and new programs. So you can get a sense of what we're going to be working on over the next six months to a year and just waiting for this to pop up on your screen. And there we go. So for the first slide. Thanks. So the first slide, we will simply look at revenues for 2017. The first three items, the percent for art allocation, general fund allocation and a contingency are part of your 2017 18 biennial budget process. So there are numbers who are actually getting from the Budget Office and they are percent for art, about $3,911,000 over the biennium , 4% for art coming out of the county's capital budget. The General Fund is for collection of the stewardship of the King County Art Collection, which now numbers about 2000 pieces it's been amassing since 1973. And we get about 260,000 a year or 520 for the biennial to steward that collection. And then there's some money in a contingency fund may or may not happen. Some of it has to do with the sale of surplus properties. Some of it has to do with some public art projects that may or may not go forward in 2017 and 18. But I think is part of this budget. You will give the authority over the contingency in case they do happen. And then the final number, the special account transfers money that we actually move from our special account, our reserves into our operating budget for 2017 is not a buy, it is not a biennial number. It's in fact a one year number for 2017. So it's a little apples and oranges. Those three four numbers you see up there, two, three of them represent a two year commitment. One of them is a single year commitment. And I'll simply point out that the special account transfer of that $10.5 million, 2 million of that is for debt service in the building for a culture program. So we'll have $8.5 million to maintain our programs, which will be essentially maintaining them at current levels. Our board does not adopt it, squash it until January of 2017. They will see the budget in draft form in December. But we don't really put the fine tuning to our budget until after the County Council adopts its budget because your budget obviously has an impact on ours. So these are rough numbers to simply show you revenue coming in in 2017, some biennial and some annual right there I am you now let me just touch on some of our continuing work just seems the last week the week before you guys signed off on community for a Culture, our ongoing work to address equity in King County and we have our first panel meeting coming up in October, October 13th. Any applications that we've received through today will be reviewed by that panel. So far, we have about 12 applications from groups representing ethnic and geographic diversity. I was going to mention some of the applicants, but I think that's probably not a good idea. I can tell you that the applications that we are getting represent different ethnic communities, geographic areas, serving programs that have been underrepresented by King County, but are certainly viable. And we are looking forward to examining them in detail in probably shortly after the 13th. We can tell you the result of that. This is an ongoing program with no deadlines or if you are aware of any organizations or groups operating throughout King County that could use a little support for cultural programs, please let them know. Begin simply with a phone call to one of our staff people. You can find that information on those postcards or on our website, but we're looking forward to seeing how this accelerates over the next year or so. Next one of the talk about artists up, this is a project we do in conjunction with the City Office of Arts and Culture and Artists Trust. We all have an interest in diversifying the artists who we all serve, who we give grants to. And over the last couple of years, we've made a concerted effort to reach artists representing different ethnicities. And it wrapped up about a year ago by asking artists, what are the obstacles to applying to any of the three agencies? What works for you? What doesn't work? We actually engage them in a process where they design, design the application and the application process. And so we launched this year thing we called Grant Lab. The application was just what is a last Wednesday and we've received a number of applications from artists for awards up to $3,000. And the feedback we've gotten on the actual application process, which they helped design, has been very positive and it's something we want to work into other programs as we move forward, not just this particular program, but has been very successful reaching artists who needed to be nurtured to come into our process, to demystify the application process and it's producing some great results. So we're going to continue doing that work. Creative justice is now in. During, I believe it's third year and we're going to tweak it a little bit in 2017. You all are familiar with this program. It's working with youth who are engaged or enmeshed in the legal system, the court system. We're trying to give them an alternative to incarceration and an opportunity to explore their own creativity, answers, sort of questions like, How did I get here? How do I get back? And it's been a very successful program, I think, in reaching youth who are not deeply engaged in the justice system. But if they aren't given a lifeline, perhaps do become more deeply engaged than we'd like them to. So we're going to change the format a little bit. We've done 12 week sessions. We've done for 12 week sessions in the past. And one of the things we learned is that it's really hard to do a session during summer. People are just too busy, and the attendance isn't as constant as it is during the rest of the year. So we're going to tweak it a little bit. Instead of 412 week sessions, we're going to do 316 week sessions. We're going to be able to reach more artists. We're currently recruiting mentor artists to work with this in 2017, and we think that 316 week session will give us more time to engage with these youth and have a little bit of a deeper experience and prevent some of the absenteeism that we saw during summer months. So we continue to work on creative justice. Our heritage program began. Steps Two Steps is a program that was actually begun by the American Association for State and Local History. It's called the Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations. History organizations aren't the same as arts organizations. There's less funding available for local history as there is for local arts for any one of a variety of reasons. Heritage is not as well supported either in the public or private sector, certainly in the foundation or corporate world. And so what we do is we work with local history organizations to teach them how to adopt and maintain best practices. So it's sort of incorporating standards into the work of local history organizations. And we realize local history organizations aren't all the same. So we have a number of organizations that have all volunteer staff that have budgets of less than 2000 a year represented in that photo by the photograph to your left, which is Black Diamond Historical Museum. In the middle you have organizations represented with one or fewer full time staff, part time staff budgets of less than 100,000. But they do have some professional staff, so they have a different level of need than an organization that is entirely volunteer. And then finally, there's organizations that have significant budgets and significant staff. The image to your rage is the Museum of Flight, and they get to enter what are basically master level classes. But this is an example of not money but hands on tutoring. Professional standard developed mentoring is actually the way to assist some of these organizations in understanding how best to care for their own collections. And so that is the work we're doing in 2017, building on work we've done in the past. So we're calling it Steps for Culture to point out that see that I speak on I did poetry on the bus as we continue this is the second year of the revival poetry on the busses, which we actually stopped doing for about six years because of budget concerns. Last year we started the program again. We had about 600 poems submitted. One of the things that was interesting last year we reached out into communities of non-English speaking peoples. We held 11 workshops celebrating poet poetic traditions of the African-American, Native American, Amharic and jammy Chinese and Latino communities. To date, we now have 1600 poems submitted, including 70 poems. They're written in languages other than English. We're going through the selection process right now, and next April we will have the poems beginning to appear on metro busses. And this is just a fun program because anybody can write a poem, anybody can write a 50 word poem. The subject this year is your body of water. We do poetry workshops to get people thinking about how to write a poem, but it's basically about expressing your thoughts in 50 words. I know some members of this panel have submitted poems in the past six successfully. I hope you did again. I did. Okay. But it's an opportunity for anybody to express themselves on a particular topic and share it with the public. This is one of our most popular and we like to say populist programs. I'm happy to see we're continuing it and we have an overwhelming increase in the number of applications, which says something about. You just stay in check manager is a very nice king five something was king five story on this just in the last week on our folks site but you might look for. It where I'll look for it. Got on love got on the bus and was sharing some of the poems and getting writer feedback. Oh, there was a positive. Yeah. All right. Well, I'm glad I'll look for that. Came from Councilmember Dombroski. Next thing I want to mention was equity and preservation for culture is convened an equity and preservation committee to look at the obstacles in the landmarking process for communities of color. In King County some couple of years ago, there was an example of an African-American bank in the council in the Central District that was nominated to be a Seattle landmark, and the nomination was declined because the building lacked some architectural significance. And it seemed to us that what they ignored was the social significance of the building. So it led us to ask ourselves who makes decisions about what makes a building significant, and how do we make sure that buildings that are significant to certain populations are significant to the rest of us? So we started this equity and preservation program basically to look at how we can change guideline guidelines and collect data to ensure that what we're preserving reflects the best of all of us, not just the people who have developed landmarking standards in the past. And we'll continue that work. In 2017, I mentioned a public outcry. Can I jump in on that just with an emphasizing comment? This region is growing so fast and redeveloping so fast, you can just see it changing before our very eyes. Most of us, I think, here in the room grew up here, but that's really important work to just kind of preserve some of the character of this place so it doesn't become a totally foreign land, if you will. Right. I mean, the U. Dub reactor, for example, I know is quite controversial there. But, you know, many of us walk to those Huskie games year after year or when they're on campus. And that was kind of an interesting piece of history that harkened back to a different time that talked about and reminded us about the incredible research and work that this part of the country has done in that arena. And there's examples like that all over the place. And so this is exciting to see that you're looking at this, and I really commend you for it. Thank you, sir. And thank you for mentioning the nuclear reactor building. We lost that one. The preservation community did. It is now been demolished, making way for a new computer science building and the U. Dub campus. I understand the pressure on YouTube to build a new computer science building, but the building that was lost was really a remarkable piece of architecture. Architecture with a remarkable story. A brutal style. Yeah, it was called Brutalism. You know, you don't think of something called Brutalism as something you'd want to save. But it was an incredible piece of architecture that not only hearken to a time, but an activity. You know, a lot of people don't realize that we did a lot of research on nuclear reactors right here and, you know, campus. And that building was the embodiment of that. And now we've lost it. So thank you for your comment. Is there any coordination or something like that to see if there's a place in one of our open spaces or one of our parks where that could be moved to rather than just losing it? Yeah. Obviously the first goal is to save it on site. Second goal is can it be moved elsewhere? And it requires two agreeing parties, the one who's going to give up the structure and then some place to receive it. This was a particularly difficult building to relocate, primarily because it didn't have an obvious adaptive reuse. If you remember the building at all, at least in photos. It was a stunning building, but it was relatively small and it had glass walls so you could actually look in. And it wasn't the kind of building that you could take someplace and turn it into a car dealership. I don't know what you'd turn it into. So one of the problems with reciting a building is what you're going to do with it on its new site. And this was a building that was so unique to its time and place and site that the idea of picking it up and moving it elsewhere and having it have any meaning at all I think was problematic. Might have been hard to move, given it was big concrete beams. I mean. It was it was huge. Not a huge in terms of volume, but in terms of the concrete that went into it. It was it's like picking up sections of a highway, moving it somewhere or an overpass. So it would have been difficult. I always think it's better to explore before you tear down. This was in the courts and it was torn down before the entire process played out. The court, the new DUP got a favorable. Ruling that said you were not subject to the Seattle Landmarks Code and they ran with that and move forward. I hope I didn't register any commentary is. Not sure how you feel about it, you know. And then last there are. Secondly, the last thing I'll mention is Sodo track. This is a project that many maybe you've seen. If you ever rode light rail from the airport downtown, you go through what's known as the transit corridor and Fourth Avenue. It's about a two mile strip just before you enter the city. It's in Soto. And basically what you're going through is a corridor bordered on both sides by the back of warehouse buildings. So it's about a two mile strip where you're going down a corridor bordered by the backs of buildings. Well, over the years, artists have done with artists. Do they put murals on those buildings, some of which were well done and some of which were just graffiti. But it sort of triggered it thought, what if these what if this corridor what if the your entry into the city of Seattle was to go through a corridor that had two miles of art on either side of the track? And so we began this program called Soto Track. It's a three year project to paint every building. 32 buildings over the course of three years, two miles long, will engage 50 artists. We've currently done five murals on the backs of buildings. We've gotten a $50,000 grant from the Paul G. Allen Foundation. One of the building owners contributed $10,000, the Soto Business Improvement Area committed to maintaining the murals once they were done. So we are about to continue to beautify a corridor of Soto with public art that will really speak volumes about who we are as a community to people who are visiting, perhaps for the first time or people who are regular commuters on that particular route. So the Soto track continues. Councilmember McDermott has a comment. Thank you, Jim. Weren't some of the murals painted through a project with the Soto business district? Yes. Those being preserved and maintained as part of the project or some of them have been painted over. No, actually, some of those are actually being retouched. They're in prison. Some of them are being saved. Some of the most of them are being saved and retouched. The ones that can be saved. The ones that are worth saving. Yes. And then some of them were graffitied walls that frankly are just going to be painted over and start over because the ones through. The project were involving youth artists and. Urban artworks. Fantastic projects. Both in their visual presentation, but also the involvement in the education, in. The. Intervention that went along. With them. Exactly. As a matter of fact, Urban Artworks is participating in this project. One of the artworks that we're doing right now are who just completed an artist, basically did the outline of the artwork, and then urban artwork artists came in over the course of three days, four days. They painted it in sort of paint by numbers. And I know that sounds, you know, sort of paint by numbers, but in fact, it was a great experience for the kids to see had these little pieces that they work on. When you step back, you get the whole thing. And so, yes, they continue to work on us with this project. They wanted the project partnership. Next thing, I'll bring you up to date on building for a culture. We have 100 projects, as you recall, that were funded by the Building for Culture Initiative. We now have 1298 projects contracted. There's only two projects that we're waiting to still execute a contract with. We've paid out. It's now up to 11 nine. So since I put this together last Thursday, another $300,000 in invoices come in. 84 of the 100 projects are actually in construction. So actually I think things are going pretty well. What I will do for you at the end of the year, I will give you a report on the status of all of the projects that are being funded through the Building for Culture Program. And we'll begin to let you know which things we which projects we think may not go forward in the timeline required of bond funded projects. And then you can begin to think about how to reallocate that money if you choose to do that. So by the end of the year, it's only a few months away. We'll give you a more thorough report that lets you know which ones they say might not go forward as planned. Councilmember Abdul Grove has a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you remind us of the timelines and requirements to be eligible? Yes, thank you. These are bond funded projects. These are funded by tax exempt bonds, which means from the date of the bond sale, the proceeds of the bond sale must be spent within three years. So the bonds were sold in March of 2016. That means all of the funds appropriated through the bond sale must be expended by March of 2019 20. Please. Go ahead. Thank you. So just because a project was eligible to enter into a contract doesn't guarantee that that project is necessarily going to be able to fully utilize the funds? That's correct. And and as a matter of fact, we do not expend the funds until the project is actually underway. So until you break ground in our building, we hold the money. We don't want to put a lot of money to architectural and design for projects that stall. So short answer to your question is yes. And then I'll just tell you, one of the big things we'll be working on over the next six months or so is developing the program for Cultural Access Washington piece of legislation that passed in 2015 in the state that gives counties the opportunity to put a sales tax increase on the ballot, to create a pool of money to support cultural activities, to make sure that every student in King County, every person who lives in King County is not prevented from participating in cultural programs because of geography or cost. And it's a pretty monumental program, would have a huge impact not only in the cultural community, but certainly its citizens at large. This has to go to a public vote in, we hope, in 2017 that will be your call. But before it goes to the public vote, you need to know what the public's going to be voting on. And that's the work we're doing right now. So over June and July or July and August of this past year of this summer, we convened a series of meetings to talk about the program, develop the program, design and draft the program so that it addresses the way various organizations, no matter size or locations, serve the public. And so we're going to continue to do that work. We're going to probably present a program to you in late November. I realize that you guys are working on the budget probably after you would adopt the budget. You're probably not going to look at this until after the first of the year. But we want to be ready to go when you're prepared to focus on this. And that's the work we're going to be doing certainly over the rest of this year and into early 2017 to prepare this for you to consider putting on the ballot in 2017. And with that, I'll take any questions. You could have any. Yeah. The ballot for 2017 is going to be a very busy place. Council member domestic. Thank you very much. And again, Jim, thanks for the report on that last item there. That's, of course, as you know, under state authority that we worked on here at the council for a number of years to get and included in that authority. I think, as you also know, this is a 10th of a penny sales tax, but there is a 10th of a penny for housing, I think, related to kind of mental health in particular, or maybe cancer. But there is a 10th of a penny for housing. I would encourage I hope that my sense is that the arts and cultural folks are kind of working on this with their lens on. I don't sense in conversation that there's been a lot of discussions with the housing community and and just in looking at priorities and this is very important work and awesome work. But we have declared an emergency in this county with 4500 unsheltered people every night on the streets. And I think I'm very interested in having a conversation, a serious one, in a dialog with leaders to make sure that with this issue that we. Considered carefully as it comes before us whether or not we should include an exercise that housing peace as well, whether it's a joint question to the voters or not. But I just want to set that out there. I know you're working very hard. That's not your area of expertize, but you're in this arena and under this authority and that companion authority for housing is something that I'm particularly interested in. That's correct. And I appreciate that comment. I think that campaign strategy, whether it makes sense to do housing in arts on the same ballot, maybe is a linked initiative, a quality of life initiative that is a higher pay grade than mine to figure out. I'm obviously, you're right interested in the arts piece. How it links to the housing piece, I think is something we will leave to you folks to figure out. Yeah, and I just wanted to raise it with my colleagues. I think a lot of folks are kind of tracking it, but we're in the early stages. But this is going to come quickly. And there is a there is an example here where I think what the Seattle Art Museum and a measure that several years ago that was put forward that actually combined those two issues, housing and support for the arts. So that's correct. I hope that we can convene a conversation among leaders in the community about at least assess and consider the housing side of this as part of the process of going through the cultural access assessment. Well, thank you, sir. We would welcome that conversation. I have a couple of quick questions. You said there are 2000 pieces in our art collection. Do you know, out of the 525,000 biennially, how much of that is for our storage costs? If you can get me. That, it's actually I can guarantee you it's very, very small. We have very few pieces in storage now. It's probably less than I'm going to throw a number out of it. I should probably copy Budget Director David's position and say went through a number out, but I'll bet it's less than $10,000. Oh, excellent. Okay. That's great to know. And then in the categories you had arts, heritage preservation, public art. Is there any formula or or guess that I'm spending 25% on each of those four categories or 10% and, you know. Sure. So public art is not a percentage of it. Public art is sort of its own budget because it's a reflection of the county's capital budget. So what we spend on public art is really dictated by the county's capital budget. Preservation, heritage and arts are all paid for out of the lodging tax special account, and the breakdown is probably 70% arts, 30% heritage and preservation at this point. Okay, so arts is 70. Heritage is and preservation together are 30. That's correct. And do you have any idea of one year it's 32 Heritage zero two preservation or it's 1515 said? Well, actually, Heritage probably of the 30% that goes to Heritage and preservation, 80% of that goes to heritage. So preservation in terms of the funding program, preservation is the smallest program. Okay. That's what I want to know. Thank you. And then when we do evolved you out to be a separate entity, what percentage now of your income is coming from fundraising? We don't fundraise, we're not a fundraiser. Any grants that we get tend to be project related. If we see an opportunity, for example, like Soho track, we realized we had to have money beyond the percent per art allocation for a project like that. And since it was a little bit more ambitious than just doing a couple of buildings, we went out and fundraised for that. But we do not typically fundraise in competition with the very community that we are set up to serve. Okay. And then on this last thing I looked at that there are four South County meetings, five in Seattle, one in central King County, one in the north, and zero in east part of the county. Zero in the our Far East. The most eastern is Bellevue, and that's really central King County. So we still have half the county beyond that and there's no meeting there. So I just wanted to point that out so we can afford. Noted. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. The last thing on our agenda today is the ordnance establishment. And thank you for all your work two weeks ago and this week, also in order to establish a taskforce on labor trafficking and it is asked to be postponed by the maker of the ordinance. There's also a big symposium coming up shortly that may pertain to this. So we may be getting a more full briefing from both of those things happening. So that will be postponed. And there any other business before this body or that the meeting is adjourned.	A MOTION requesting that the executive transmit a plan for addressing major technology emergencies that might occur the in the office of emergency management, the department of natural resources and parks and the department of elections, and departments as requested by department directors.
king_982a8ddc-9b22-42fb-a3ec-3d1bd82811ed	Good afternoon. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott chaired the committee, the whole culinary committee meeting for Monday, July 1st, to order. I want to begin by acknowledging that we're starting 40 minutes late and apologize and thank you all. Council had a joint meeting with the Snohomish County Council and then a special meeting of the County Council this morning at Bartel City Hall. And that went later than we expected. So I apologize for a late start today. Thank you for your accommodation and understanding, and I'd begin by asking the club to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi, Councilmember Dombrowski here. Councilmember Dunn here. Councilmember Garza, Councilmember Boyles here. Councilmember Lambert here. Councilmember of the Grand Jury. Councilmember Bond right here. Mr. Chair. Good. Mr. Chair of the Quorum. Thank you. We're going to hold public comment until after we take up the first briefing. I would ask Council member Caldwell's promotion to approve the minutes of our June 17th meeting. Some of it's been moved in second. We have it's been moved that we approve our minutes of June 17th in the discussion. All those in favor, please say I oppose nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. With that, we're going to advance to item five, because I'm assuming that none of you were here to offer testimony on the process we're using to make district court appointments. It looks like I'm safe in making that assumption. And so we're going to begin with a briefing from Samantha Porter from council central staff. And just to frame this for my colleagues, we have two openings and trying not to take all of your thunder. We have two openings in the district court that this committee will be entertaining applications for. And I wanted, though, there will be a subcommittee working on interviews and recommendations to the full committee of the whole. I wanted the entire committee to know what the process was and how that was working before the subcommittee began its work. And I'll turn it over to Ms.. Porter. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Sam Porter, counsel, central staff. The documents for this item begin on page seven of your packet. Today's briefing only on the process to fill two judicial vacancies in King County District Court. District Court is the county's court of limited jurisdiction and has responsibility for traffic infraction, small claims and misdemeanor criminal offenses in the counties, unincorporated areas and contract cities. Currently, there are two vacancies in the Northeast division of the court. Due to judges Katie Shaw. And David Steiner being recently appointed the Superior Court. Under state law, the King County Council, as the county's legislative authority, is tasked with filling filling these vacancies by appointment. Judges appointed through this process would hold office until a successor is elected in November 2020. Judges elected in 2020 would serve a two year partial term. The merit selection process for filling these vacancies is described in King County Code and includes the Clerk of the Council advertising the vacancy candidates having a current buy rating by the application deadline review and interviews by the Committee of the Whole, which would be recommended to the full Council and final appointment by the Council through the adoption of a legislative motion. Candidates for this position must submit their current rating of, at minimum qualified from the King County Bar Association and at least one other eligible Bar Association operating in King County. A letter of interest and their resume. A copy of their completed responses to the questionnaire submitted to the King County Bar Association and any supporting information the candidate would like the Council to consider. Pursuant to King County Code, the chair of the Committee of the Hall has determined the process by which the Committee will receive recommendations for selecting the final candidates to be interviewed. This will involve a subcommittee of four council members elected to perform the initial candidate interviews. This includes council members Balducci, Dombrowski, Lambert and McDermott. And the interviews will be conducted on July 8th and 10th, and the final candidates will be interviewed by CWR on July 15th. There were six eligible candidates out of the eight who submitted their applications. These individuals can be seen on page nine of your packet along with their bar ratings. That concludes my remarks. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much. Questions about the process. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you. Mr.. Not a question, but a comment. And that is I've really had the pleasure and courage to serve in this process a number of times in recent years. And I recently had the chance to go and look at the bar ratings of the judges who have been appointed by this council to the district court. And I'm happy to tell you and anyone that cares about this, that we've actually done a pretty good job in selecting quality candidates to go on to the bench, according to the bar ratings and also according to the governor gubernatorial appointments of district court folks going up to the superior court. We've had a number of those from folks that we've selected. So I think this process has much to say about. It's positive and I'm. I think we're going to do another good job here with these two. So thank you for the opportunity to participate on this panel. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Miss Porter. Appreciate it. That takes us to item six, which means we're going to back up to item three, which is public comment. We have 26 people signed in for public comment. I'm going to ask you to limit your testimony to one minute. I'm going to try to stay about three names ahead of who's at bat and on deck. And so when you hear your name, know that you can approach either one of the two podiums. And I would ask you to, again, limit your testimony to one minute. And so the first three people I will call up are a Gretchen Staab Bruin, Erin Shamika McCann and Miguel Macias. It's. Apparently Gretchen's not here. Good afternoon, councilmembers. My name is Aaron Shea McCann. I'm the deputy director at legal counsel for Youth and Children. And I'll see you. I see we provide holistic legal advocacy to 500 young people in King County annually. They range in age from toddlers to 24 years old. I'm here representing a group of over a dozen agencies that work with the 12,000 children and youth experiencing homelessness, foster care and juvenile justice systems in King County every year. The children and youth that we work with experienced significant trauma and loss, emotional upheaval and transitions and instability. The majority of these young people are also youth of color who are disproportionately impacted by these systems every step of the way. The data across the education continuum for these young people is in stark contrast in areas of kindergarten readiness, high school graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment and completion. They experience the worst educational outcomes of any of their peers. We urge the Council to include specific language in its motion to make clear its intent to improve the educational outcomes for the named populations in early learning and post-secondary allocations, not just in K-12. Thank you. It is Gretchen or Miguel. And then following would be Nicole Sugiyama, then Vandana, Akhil. This may be one of those where I don't need to call a few more names in order. Bill and all. Good afternoon. My name is Michael Myers. Thus, I am with Centro de la Raza at the Center for People of All Races. We are here again today to stand as part of the Coalition of community of color based organizations on United Way of King County. Our proposal particularly addresses strategies identified in King County. Motion 15029, including programs or facilities for vulnerable children and youth. Innovative strategies to empower students to address social and racial injustice. And teacher training. It is the only proposal that has unified the voices of community of color based organizations who share the lived experience of the youth served. We see every day the need of our children across the board. El Centro has a large and very successful early childhood program. I myself have a degree in early childhood education. I have in our work with children who have had an excellent preschool experience. We know those advantages must not be neglected. They must be continued in a culturally supportive way, that is, with an inclusive learning environment and K-through-12 appropriate, a funding for programs and facilities, vulnerable children and youth, and innovative strategies to empower students to address social and racial injustice. And teacher training is key to that which was identified in King County Motion 15029. Thank you, Nicole. My name is Nicole Salmon. I'm Inupiaq, and I have been a part of radical, soaring Native American Youth Theater program for 16 years, since I was 11 years old as a student, alumni, volunteer, teaching artist, director, and I now serve as the current program manager. I'm a poster child for these impacts, for the impact these types of organizations can have on at risk youth of color that come from low income families. I grew up in a King County Housing Authority community raised by a recovering addict. I didn't do well in school and struggled with depression without organizations like Radical Soaring, who taught me about resilience, empowerment and leadership? I don't believe I would have even made it through high school. But with their help, not only did I graduate, I went on to earn a bachelor's from Central Washington University. And now I get to give back to my community by doing our native, my doing for our native youth. What radical throwing did for me? This work and the work of 15 other organizations doing this in partnership with the United Way of King County is critical to changing the education system and decreasing the opportunity gap in education . Cultural Integrative Services Directly addresses in King County Motion 15029 and pasta and building programs for vulnerable children, and is an innovative strategy to empower students and address social and racial racial injustices, both of which were originally strategies four and six. I cannot stress the importance of funding for K-through-12 aged youth. Enough. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Righty. Good afternoon, King County Council members. My name is Vanity Keough. I am a youth filmmaker. Say that Asian Counseling Referral Service, thank you for your time today. A little context. I just graduated high school. I'm I'm almost finished my degree now. And I struggle with many things in high school, at home, I didn't have a typical parent. My parents are refugees who came to America escaping a genocide. And there's an immense pressure on me to grow up and be successful and do right by my parents. That's when ISIS invited me. And in high school, I felt depressed. I felt like I didn't have space to be vulnerable. And I couldn't articulate a way to show that, to show that I have actual problems. And growing up here in America and I didn't have any role models to look at through at home. So in Asia, there's a Southeast Asian young men's group that makes documentary films. And to me, the creative process of making these films, I was forced to be vulnerable and open up. And I found that there are many people who have same similar stories to me. I am requesting that the Council Fund, high school community based services. I know from firsthand experience that the importance of these programs like the Southeast Asian Women's Group, because of the benefits that I received, I recently begun working with the program and so that I can give back to other youth who face similar issues that I did . This work and the work of 15 other organizations in partnership with the United Way of King County is critical to changing the education system and decreasing the opportunity gap in education cultural integrative services. Indirectly, it directly addresses in King County Motion 15 oh 2029 poster in building programs for vulnerable children and is an innovative strategy to empower students and address social and racial injustice, both of which are raising awareness strategies for six. Thank you for your time and consideration of this request. You. My. Good afternoon. My name is Sam Cartagena from the Filipino community of Seattle. Hi, everyone. We as we are, we are part of the 15 organization doing this partnership with United Way and King County. It's critical to changing the education system and decreasing the opportunity gap in education. Cultural Integrated Services Directly addresses in King County Motion 1502 nine in pastor in building program for Vulnerable Children, and is an innovative strategy to empower students and address social and racial injustices, both of which were originally strategic strategies. Four and five. And I would like to thank all you, all of you council member, to have this time to listen to us. And I hope and urge you that please help the CAPA Club to get the funding that we needed to be fair to everyone, if you can just make it equally for everyone. Thank you so much for your support. No, no. Hello. My name is Renaldo Mixing and I'm here on behalf of MOTUs Service Center America's Frito-Lay Public School District. So many. I forgot that, but I just came here to talk about how you guys should. Oh, well, first of all, how you guys have a platform to be able to have city council meetings. Well, excuse me, county council meetings, county council meetings. So therefore, I feel like you guys should be able to open up that platform to accept and have youth be the center of it, just for the simple fact that we have a lot of ideas and we feel like we're useless because no one's coming to us and asked us for our opinions. And just from with me helping these youth and seeing that they have these aunties in a sparking them sort of say and they want more and they're kind of getting antsy and just just seen. I feel like there should be a lot of different entrepreneurship skills that's going on, small businesses, accounting, a lot of things. Like I go to school for small business and entrepreneurship. So just being in that mix and going to school and learning and being around a lot of people that actually use their mind would kind of drive me to to look for the answers out in the community. So I just kind of think you guys should extend the platform. Thank you. Thank you. So I'll be the last one to speak. Hi, my name is Arabella Allende Junior. I'm with the United Way of King County. You just heard the testimony from different agencies talking about our collective work. And I just wanted to call out because of our one on one meetings with you, our work in the K-12 sector is complicated . It is not as tangible as facilities or scholarships, but necessarily fluid to be reflective of the history and culture of these agencies in their groups and their young people to address the needs of those most marginalized, to make those programs most effective for them. I encourage you to take a moment to take a look. I'm going to ask you all to take a look at this group of folks organized to make this type of change and the opportunity to make change for generations. This isn't one time funding. This is a generational opportunity to make a gigantic impact. And I want to thank you for the time, and I appreciate you for all the work that you do. If there's any questions, we're here to answer them. Thanks. Thank you. And it's people have signed up. And I apologize for my mispronunciations. I'm hit my sherco. Otherwise, I'm goo. And Alexandria. Barbara, excuse me. So when you. I feel like I'm not. I'm not. I'm sorry, sir. You're out of order. Take your seat. We'll be at recess. I'm sick and tired from your. We'll come out of our brief recess. I apologize to the audience for the outburst we had and the offensive nature of it. And I apologize to you. Please proceed. Thanks. Good afternoon. My name is Hec Chaka, and I'm with the youth development executives of King County, also known as White EC. And we're a coalition of over 100 nonprofits that serve children and youth from ages five to young adult. This morning, my nine year old sister asked me what I was doing today, and I told her I'd be speaking with very important people on why they should invest money in programs outside of school. And she was not amused. But before I left the house, she made sure to say, Please tell them I need programs now because I'm so tired of being home all summer. I laughed at the moment, but she's right. Kids only spend a small percentage of their days in school. When I first moved to the U.S. in 2008, the cultural transition was especially difficult for me. At school, I didn't speak English, and school was not a place where I felt a sense of belonging. It was because of the amazing community based organizations like the ones I mentioned today, that I stand here as the first person in my family to graduate from college. So on behalf of my 12 year old, me and my little sister and all the other young people stuck at home with nothing to do. This summer, I urge you to consider allocating at least 30% of the cost of funds to the k 12 bucket. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Elise Gary and I am the infant's other services coordinator at Child Care Resources, where my team of coaches go out and partner with early learning professionals to really promote the infant toddler care in the field. I'm also a mother of a maya who will be two on Friday, and then also my son Caleb, who is almost five. And at the time of this photo, I had just been offered my job at child care resources and they literally were scrambling to find child care. As you know, when the time to find infant care is when you're pregnant and I had missed that boat by four months. The other pieces that as a renter in the current housing market in the last 18 months, we have had two year long leases actually go and renew due to the owners decisions respectively to sell their homes. And so in addition to the realities of finding housing, which is already stressful and we all know what that's like and the compounding sort of formula of trying to figure out how to balance housing and finding housing on top of finding childcare for our children. It's just been very difficult. What I'm doing right now is really asking that you help to promote quality child care centers and be able to establish allow providers to be able to implement and create childcare spaces that are representing the communities they serve. Currently, the decision right now is my children are in the care of providers that love them and oftentimes it's really difficult to find programs that actually reflect the communities that they serve. And you have to pay a pretty, pretty penny for that. We pay 30 K right now for child care, licensing those and for a beautiful program that I saw just last month. For my children, it's $57,000 for their great quality centers with the great environment and the quality of interaction that I would love for my children to have. That's just beyond the reach for even my thought income family. Thank you. Following Miss Barbaro will be zamzam mohammed. Kids going to be and Dana henry. Good afternoon. My name is alexandra barbera. I am a homeless family engagement specialist at Child Care Resources where I help families experiencing homelessness, find child care and navigate the state subsidy system. Previous to this position, I worked as a lead teacher at the Refugee Women's Alliance, working with immigrant and refugee families, many of whom are experiencing homelessness or facing a real chance of experiencing homelessness. In the one time count, there are 12,500 households experiencing homelessness in King County, and 11% of them are families. With children working in the world of child care has allowed me to see the unique challenges of these families to find stability and opportunity. I can't think of a better example of this challenge than a parent I am currently working with. She's been living with her two children in her car for the last month following the very sudden passing of her husband that sent the family into an incredibly vulnerable economic position. She was able to find a job that offered housing as well. But with a previous eviction on her record, the promised housing fell through. Every time we speak, it is about trying to handle it is about trying to get a handle on the vicious cycle of battling priorities that she faces. She works in downtown Seattle and cannot afford either housing or child care nearby. She is incredibly stressed about finding childcare for her kids and hasn't found a provider who is willing to offer care for a family in transition, let alone an open child care slot. There is an impossible puzzle that she wrestles with as she tries to figure out how she will make things work. What if she finds childcare in federal way but housing in Renton? And where does she even begin? You have before you a letter signed by affordable housing leaders who believe early learning facilities are the answer. On behalf of my client and so many other families with stories like these that I work with every day, I encourage you to invest at least 60% of positive funds into early learning facilities. These kids deserve a bright future, but the odds are almost ah ah, the odds are almost impossibly stacked against them. Thank you for your commitment to funding early learning facilities, and please take this opportunity to make a bold investment in our most vulnerable children. Good afternoon. My name is Zamzam Mohamed and I am a CEO and a co-founder of Voices of Tomorrow. We are a community based organization whose goal is to eliminate racial inequities in early racial inequities, an early learning system which deeply affects immigrants and refugee children, growth and development and academic performances. We currently serve about 214 children through a dual language Somali English preschool program, both in Seattle and as well as outside of Seattle. And our most critical need is a facility, as we are at risk of returning 40% of our slots back to the state because of lack of facility. The need is there, the service is there. But the most challenging roadblock that we have is finding a facility that is equipped it to be licensed, as well as renovating areas and finding spaces close to the families that we're serving through our dual language program. If we don't find places again, more children were not left for the children that will be have enrolled what have no places to attend. And so I will urge you to invest, at least not more, 60% of pass that funding to early learning facilities to help quality early learning programs such as the services that we're providing to set our children up to a strong, strong start that they deserve. Thank you. Thank you. There's going to be. Good afternoon. Good heavens. Expense expenses of more license and the injury than people in reserve deplore that containers good healthy is central to kindling strengths and living a long and active life. Fast food fast fast. This unhealthy here had some key point about healthy more dense than is in the main article. Healthy can be divided, has physical meantime and the social well-being and has a best source for living on food life. Thank you. Thank you, Henry. We will be followed by Jennifer and will go Beyond Mercy to Ramya and Brian Rob. Good morning, council members. My name's Dana Henry, and I'm here today representing the members of the Sound Alliance and the Society of Health and Physical Educators. I've been teaching elementary physical education in federal way for the past 23 years. My school serves children who are in foster care, have parents who are incarcerated or who have been deported, are experiencing homelessness, have family members who are struggling with addiction and are moving through their day with more than their share. Of adverse childhood. Experiences. There are physical, social, mental and emotional concerns experienced by our students that current educational curricula and trainings do not address or emphasize to improve educational outcomes for vulnerable youth. A comprehensive approach to education that includes cognition in combination with the physical, social, mental and emotional well-being of our students is critical. We believe we can make a significant difference by working with the Council to ensure one third of the positive funding is to support age five to young adult with an opportunity for funding the delivery of high quality, comprehensive physical activity and physical education programs. Thank you. Good afternoon and thank you for this opportunity. My name is Jennifer Ajumogobia. As the chief program officer at Kindred, it is my honor to speak on behalf of our youngest community members. Specifically, children, birth to three as well as those with disabilities which are not specifically called out in this motion. Kindred was founded in 1962 by five mothers of children with disabilities and has grown to become the largest and most comprehensive service center in the region. The character of our service is reflected in our mission. Kindred embraces children of diverse abilities and their families by providing the finest education and therapies to nurture hope, courage and the skills to soar. We know that early intervention works. Dr. Michael Guralnick from the University of Washington concludes that children enrolled in early intervention programs obtain on average an increase on standard standard intelligence tests of 8 to 12 IQ points in comparison to those not receiving intervention. I urge the Council to consider investing a high percentage of pasta funding in critical early learning facilities, and we hope to see continued support for early learning as well as early intervention for children with special needs across Puget Sound. There's no better time to maximize long term benefits than the first three years of a child's life. More than 85% of brain development occurs by supporting a child during these fleeting, fleeting window, particularly children of diverse abilities and developmental delays. We can change the trajectory of success for their lives. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Mercy. That was so nice having you so quick. Awesome. So good afternoon. My name is Mercy Daramola. I represent the coalition behind the proposal formerly. Known as King County Promise. So at this one minute, there are three points I want to hit. One, the king. King Promise started. Off as a proposal to support tuition. Support for students. Washington State stepped up and we say that's amazing. King County has an opportunity to fill in. The gaps are still remain as students want to and deserve to obtain their post-secondary credentials. What the formerly known as King County Promise proposal is, is a proposal to increase the amount of caring adults in the life of students on the school campuses of high school and community colleges, but also in the community through community based organizations. What the community has asked for through the survey that was put out would they've asked for navigation, supports for students, support services for students and systems change, all of which are represented in the proposal for, you know, this King County promise what you can call post-secondary supports. This is a pipeline comprehensive proposal that represents a system that needs to support the students who aren't. So I'm going to step aside and let the rest of my team in green talk more about our proposal. Hi, fellow community members. My name is Bryce Wall and I'm a counselor and the tenure track faculty member at South Central College. The previous 14 years, though, I was working on our trio program and the bulk of the work I did was career and academic advising. That work is a lot of work and something that I appreciate being here is the privilege not only to share this information with all of you, but also to represent my fellow colleagues who have less resources and a much busier schedule to do that work. When I looked at the community report and the needs assessment that was done around this, I recognized the demographics that are looking to be served. Those are the demographics that show up at our community colleges. I recognize the opportunities they seek and the supports they desire, and those are the work that we provide. Again, as Mercy spoke to this is not about tuition. The state's stepped up and tuition is being provided more and more. But when you read any article on all the tuition efforts being done in multiple states, something that they're looking for, those wraparound services, those support services that will guide the students through the process, have them succeed in school and have them meet their goals. Thank you. Thank you. I fell behind in the advanced warning. Angela Pierce Cairns, a hemmed in clearance dancer. Hello. My name is Angela Pierce and I am a program manager at Seattle Education Access. Today, I am advocating for King County's Opportunity Youth. These are young folks who may have not completed a high school diploma yet, may be working or underemployed, are attempting to transition to college or have started college and having graduated yet. Right now there are over 21,000 opportunity youth in our county. These youth face some of the most difficult barriers when trying to access post-secondary. They are majority students of color, young people experiencing homelessness, former foster youth, immigrants and refugees, young parents, first generation high school and college grads and LGBTQ identified young folks. As you can imagine, it is extremely difficult to do well in your college classes if you are not sufficiently housed or your childcare fell through, or you have no one else in your family who went to college, you turn to for advice. This is where college support programs come in and make a difference. Our work with this population was recently in a national study with Urban Institute, where we found that 71% of our students continued on to second year college at community technical schools, the state averages only 50. Right now we know that high touch, individualized college support group programs go the extra mile in supporting the most vulnerable students to and through college. Thank you. Thank you very. Hello. My name is Gonzalo Milani and I am reading this testimony on behalf of our state who could no longer make it today due to the delay. My name is Karla Vargas. I just graduated two weeks ago from University of Washington, Tacoma, and a security job in the King County Prosecutor's Office. I was a teen mother who faced a lot of obstacles through my educational journey. One of this obstacles would be childcare, you see. I was not able to qualify for a child care subsidizing program that would allow me to continue my education. I was so close to finishing up my first year of college when I was so close to dropping out due to this barrier. Thankfully, I was connected to Angela Pierce, who is here today, my education advocate. When she found out about the barrier that I was facing. She helped me secure childcare to stay in school while my daughter was getting taken care of. I didn't have to worry about childcare, about the childcare fees anymore and could focus and stay in school. Not only was I able to get support, I was able to obtain a friend mentor who helped me transfer from Green River College Tina to to t where I graduated with my bachelor's degree in law and policy earlier this month. I honestly could have not done it without zero education access, who helps me open so many doors that I did not know existed. Even now I am receiving support from SC with LSAT prep preventative my degree. My dream goal of being an attorney and staying employed at King County Prosecutor's Office. Please find college support programs. So many students like me can achieve their education goals. There are so many other students that need this support. Thank you. Constants are followed by I'm kind of a lackey. Dulce Siguenza. I'm sorry, Shaman. Marie, Emmett. I don't think Clarence is here, so. Okay. So we are a coalition that is asking for 40% of the funds over 15 years to support over 140,000 young people in achieving their post-secondary goals, including 20,000 opportunity youth who want to become more connected in school or work. This is a K-12 and higher education approach. Half of our funds are dedicated towards strategies and students at the K-12 level and half at the higher education level. It's equity based, and it's focused on students who are currently underserved and would benefit the most from individualized high touch support. We have a sustainability plan and we are all about systems change and making a lasting impact. We know what works and we want to model it here in King County, and this is what it looks like. Here's how to dramatically increase the supportive adults in high poverty, high schools and community organizations and in post-secondary institutions. We also are working on intense engagement of K-12 and colleges in our region to address gaps and streamline processes and practices so that students in the future have an easier path. This is legacy work and that we can leave our legacy by creating more equitable practices and policies while also supporting the students that are here now and getting an easier pathway through post-secondary. Good afternoon, King County Council members. My name is Jesse Wednesday and I'm here in support of the Opportunity Youth Force that post-secondary support programs like Seattle Education Access, also known as ACA. In 2013, I was a sophomore at the UW in great need of mentorship when I came across ACA from taking the time to meet about what courses I needed to graduate to walking with me to the Financial Aid Office and education advocate guided me through the complex education systems. And in 20 Sep 2016, I became a first generation college graduate in my family. Fast forward to 2017. I became the first ever employee person at ACA who is a former ACA student. This opportunity gave me confidence and the skills that I needed to leave poverty behind. Not only am I the first generation college graduate in my family, but at 25, I'm also the first in my family to be able to become a homeowner, first in my family to not live paycheck by paycheck, first in my family, to be able to add funds to my savings account. And in the near future, I hope to own a small business where I will be able to give back to my community by providing jobs to many people. This is why supporting opportunity youth is critical. It takes one person to motivate us, guide us, and believe in us for us to take on the world. Thank you for your time. Hello, everyone. I'm Michelle Markey. Ahmed I'm originally from Somalia, coming to America. I knew how to better myself and my family, my going to college. So I went to Green River College where I struggle and navigate college as I hold first generation identity until I enter the trio program where they help me tutor personalized advising, transfer preparation , scholarship opportunity, textbook calculator lending. And most of all, the program taught me how to handle failure. I became more confident and continue my education. So I went to Central Washington University, earned my bachelor's four years later, attended the University of Northern Colorado, earned my master's, and now I'm back at Grand River College. As a trio advisor, I want to impact my community for the better. I am the result. I am the story. I am the impact for a better tomorrow. Thank you. And next will be Ulysses Quinn. Kevin McCarthy. Andrea. Echo Bar. Good afternoon, council members. I'm Ulysses Quine. If you remember me, I graduated from reading high school with the class of 2019. There was a lot to be proud of in that group of people. Collectively, we earned numerous athletic and academic accolades, broke records, and proved to anyone who would have referred to commemorating as the ghetto school, which were colloquially known as in our district, that our socioeconomic status does not determine our ability to distinguish ourselves. But there was a limit to our tenacity, our perseverance. I've seen the people who inspire me. The most hardworking, intelligent and dedicated people I know break down in tears or silently resign themselves to make light of how bleak their future seems, and if how all their hard work may have been for nothing. In my junior year, a classmate asked me to accompany them to visit our counselor. She felt hopeless, scared and confused, like most of us did. Most students at our school, unfortunately, don't have the kind of access that we had to a kind and understanding counselor we could visit without an appointment. But my classmates predicament was not unique. Those of us with families of color who may also be immigrants often can't expect the same support from our families or our communities. As well-meaning as they are, they often are less informed students as to our various needs and how schools complete. I know firsthand that increased availability of advising and counseling can make some of the biggest conceivable conceivable differences to the ability of students and their community to thrive and succeed. I think it's worth mentioning that I'm not here to represent an organization, but myself, my classmates. Any advice and services we need? Thank you. Good afternoon, King County Council members. My name is Andrea Escobar and I'm a resident of King County Second District. I've come here to show my support for post-secondary support and its message of helping low income and first generation students who are making the transition into college life. I'm a first generation Salvadorian and a proud daughter to immigrant parents. I grew up in the Bay Area and my parents always tried their best to prepare me for my future, instilling in me their goals of sending me off to college. One day they expressed how important my education was and where it could take me in the future. But when it came time to begin the process of college applications, I was lost. My parents had never gone through this process and couldn't give me any tips or advice, so I turned to an advisor in my high school and she understood the struggle and offered me resources and advice I would have otherwise not been able to receive. She went above and beyond. She would stay with me after school and help me revise personal statements. She helped me understand the different college applications and helped me to find scholarships that could help me throughout college. Thanks to support from her and for my community, I am able to enter my last year at Seattle University. My hope is that through post-secondary support, more students will gain access and have the support system for advisors like I did and not be afraid or put off by the college application process to pursue higher education no matter their economic or family status. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Kevin McCarthy, president of Renton Technical College. And I'm here on behalf of the Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness, a group of educational leaders from K-12 in higher education who've been working with students, advocates and partners for the past two years to put together our vision. We know our current joint proposal works data from wraparound colleges, college access and success programs shows significant improvements to retention, especially for students in their first in their families to attend college. Washington State has stepped up to cover tuition with the Washington College Grant, and now the King County can invest in what has always been at the heart of this proposal a focused, proven strategy, high quality, individualized support from school and community based staff focused on opportunity, youth, youth and foster care, communities of color and other underserved populations. By creating a highly supportive and high school to post-secondary system, our region's college access and success and completion will be among the strongest in the nation and will serve as a model of an equitable, highly supportive and sustainable system for students success in the country. We stand ready to work with the county on building this plan. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I believe that concludes the people I had signed in in advance to offering to wish to offer public testimony. Is there anyone else present who would like to offer testimony? If so, please approach either one of the two podiums. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Sorry for not signing up earlier. My name is Sandra Toussaint and I'm a political organizer with a left with American Federation of Teachers Washington. I'm here not only as. I was a prior rep from that. Organization, but also as a. Resident of Seattle and everyone from a running start student. I know firsthand how. Important accounting services are for our students, especially our underserved, underrepresented students. And equating to a college system had not been for my family. First, going to college helped me. I would not have been able to get through the counting services understaffed and under. Sorry, underfunded. So we are asking. In coalition with. Everyone else who just spoke before for a similar thing, for. 40% of the positive funding. To go towards these wraparound services so that. Our students can. Smoothly transition from high school to college and go. Ahead and forward and. Seek out their degrees. Thank you. Anyone else? All right, then we'll close the public hearing. And that takes us to item six, which is the framework motion that I've introduced. Motion 2019 to 45 making allocations for the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Act funds coming to King County. We've put a lot of work into the decisions and framework about how we're going to proceed and where the investments should go. And in doing so, we've heard a lot about and important ways the kids are and are not being supported. I'm hearing King County and how that has a real impact on their ability to succeed in school and life beyond. I want to offer my appreciation to the people across the county who've put such work into informing our work on the past of funds through public testimony, letters and emails, small group conversations, the community engagement meetings that we have sponsored and participated in helped to organize in a lot of ways. This won't be the council's masterplan plan. It will be the community's positive plan. Mr. Mom to do plan. Did you have a staff report or information to work through or are you just making yourself ready for questions and. Ready for. Questions? That's what I assumed I was going to check, though. We the there is not a striker ready to come forward today. And so this is another opportunity for for the committee, for the full council to have a conversation among yourselves about what are our priorities, how we might see the money split up, what strategies in particular are important to individual council members so that we can hear that and make sure it's reflected in the strategy that I would intend to bring to full council, to the full committee on July 15th and to set the stage, I will offer some of my own thoughts, and then I would invite my colleagues to follow suit. What I'm looking for out of this work is investments that will have a long term positive impact on individuals and communities. Priority setting that reflects the things that people have told us are important things like resources for youth to support their out of school lives. We heard some particular testimony about that today so they can focus and be successful and in school itself to focus on outcomes as a measure of success, including resources for evaluation and opportunities to allow for innovation. Also recognizing that we should evaluate the program as it proceeds over its 15 years and have ample opportunity to adjust our invest particular investments to make sure that the programs we're investing in are having the intended effect in outcome. And we've heard and testimony and public comment and our own work and a value from for mine going forward would be to honor that consistent thread of equity and social justice driven decision making in organizations. The funds were awarded to and particularly the youth and students that the funds would serve. There's a lot of attention to the three buckets and how much of the funds might go into early learning K-12 and post-secondary. And I understand that emphasis. But also, I think it's important to remember that the goal is long term success for all four students, particularly those we have identified as vulnerable, vulnerable populations throughout that entire spectrum. And want to be able to underscore the county's work in our Youth Action Plan that starts for kids and zero youth detention. The policy statements we've already adopted for how we want to interact and support youth in students in our communities. I think this is another opportunity to complement and support those goals as well. With that, I'd welcome conversation questions and dialog with within the committee councilmember up the growth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Some of this may be repetitive from last week, but I thought I'd reflect on some of what I've heard and what some of my thinking was and some of my interests. As I think through this one, as was noted before, there is some uncertainty. This is time limited funding that needs to be appropriated regularly by the legislature. And there's a risk that we don't get it all because of that. One time funding is more attractive than setting up and starting programs for which we don't know that the funding will be able to continue. Capital funding is attractive to me because of that. I'm interested in us making some decisions in this legislation. I would like to see us do more than just pick three categories and defer to the executive branch. I feel like the legislative branch has had a very, very rigorous process. We've led in terms of hiring a consultant and having community outreach, that we shouldn't be afraid to identify specific strategies with dollar amounts in this legislation. If we can reach agreement on that, that's one interest. Second interest is in making sure that the funds are effectively hitting the target groups called out in the legislation. And certainly that we have rhetorically talked about and I'm nervous a little bit about about that. I've been very interested in early childhood capital funding, but I want to see a specific commitment to ensure that those dollars are going to serve the target population to a large degree. I'll just give you an example. If half the kids and these aren't these are sort of just made up numbers for illustrative purposes. If we were to give half that illustrative purposes here, if half of the funds, 50% of the funding were to go to early childhood facilities and half the kids served were low income or kids of color. That means 25% of our funds are going, in essence, to support kids that aren't part of the targeted population. So I would like to see some firm commitments in the legislation not worked out later by stakeholders, but what our expectations are about the population serve so that we're focusing in, as we heard today, on dual language. So we're focusing it on traditionally marginalized communities, kids in foster care, students with disabilities and particularly low income population. Does that be 100%? But we ought to be able to put have an understanding. I think the same goes with each age group, the formerly known as the King County Promise. I know it's meant to target those margins, those kids who are most struggling, but making sure that the language in our appropriations ensures that a couple other small interests I had I'd like to see admin costs no more than 5%. I'd like to see 1% set aside for technical assistance for smaller organizations with less experience to assistance in applying and navigating the system. I'd like to see us have a specific carve out for our own facilities in King County. We we have incarcerated young adults, and I'd like to make sure that we provide support, even though there are people under 18 at the RJC, get students up to age 21, are eligible for education support. So I'd like to see those young people that are in King County's custody get a direct allocation in some way, shape or form. I've met with the Sound Alliance folks a couple of times, and the equity in making sure of equitable access to physical education across all of the age ranges is a it's appealing. Figure out how we weave that in is something of interest. And I think those were some of my areas of interest and I think there should be a meaningful contribution to all all ages along the continuum. And that's my $0.02. Thank you. I appreciate all of that and particularly would be interested in working with you on the idea you surfaced. You did, in fact, surfaced last time the committee met about making sure that investments, particularly in your example, early learning that those facilities are supporting the vulnerable populations we've identified in the language in how do we find a way to do that? Look, I would like to work with you if you have any thoughts to share them. Now, we're on or between now and the next meeting about how we can best do that. Please. I forgot something. Thank you. I look forward to work with everyone on that. As part of that, I you know, we have a lot of immigrant and refugee families in low income families in South King County and probably throughout the county who receive child care through home based programs. And I'd like to make sure that we have some mechanism to provide support for those providers, whether it's through a grant program or something like that. I think in terms of our neediest kids and where we get the most bang for the buck, there ought to be some way to reflect that so that there's some opportunities there . Another idea to kick around. Thank you, Councilmember Balducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate this opportunity. And thank you for giving us this opportunity to have this open conversation with the public here and with all nine of us here. One of the things I think this may have seemed like an extremely slow and deliberate in some ways process. But I think that one of the things I've liked about it is the fact that we've sort of brought people along and everybody's been able to engage and have have their their voice heard, which I think will make the ultimate recommendation, the ultimate decision, more understandable and more justifiable. So thank you for taking this time. I agree with a lot of what's been said. I'm just going to emphasize the things that are most important to me. To add to the collective conversation you've had with Mr. Chair, with the idea of having a long term positive impact. I think one of the key principles that we have put out in every one of the the conversations and motions that we have had. And it's just so exciting, actually, to see people come lobbyist with their own words. That's super cool. I recognize those signs is that we wanted to make sure with this it's short term money. It's not it's not an insignificant amount of money, but it also could disappear very, very easily. It's an amount of money that if we spread it out in small chunks to lots and lots and lots of different types of things could easily disappear and not have the kind of impact we want to have. So I continue to be very, very supportive of the idea. As difficult as it is to narrow our focus on strategies within the three eight levels of education that have the deepest possible impact. We've put a lot of time and effort, as has been said, into studying what types of strategies have the greatest long term educational outcomes positive and serve the most young people. And I think that we should see that study reflected in our proposal when when it comes. I think that we should go where the information leads us, including listening to what the public has said and we have our community input summary. We've heard a lot from people about what works for them. We need to take that into account and that needs to be demonstrated as well. I agree completely with councilmember of the group and with what we heard here and at the last meeting in in one of the motions, I think it might be in the second motion for some reason, the target priority populations that have been called out from the beginning in the legislation from Olympia only showed up in one of the three educational categories. It didn't show up in K through five. It showed up and it didn't show up in pre-K. It showed up in K through 12 and it didn't show up in post-secondary. I don't think we intended that. Certainly, I think it's important that the priority populations be the focus of every level of education. And so to the extent that was a mistake, I guess I will just say it was a mistake. And I think what we intended to do was to focus this money as much as possible on the places where it is needed most, because that's where we can have the most impact. What else? It's important that we set an evaluation period. It's important that whatever we do, this is 15 years worth of funding, that we set a time as if it's a levy, that we're going to evaluate the programs we're investing in between now and the end of that time period. And then we take it up as a county again and see whether we're having the impact we want to have and adjust accordingly. We do that with all of our funding levies for best starts for kids and vets and human services. And I think we should do that with this as well. I think I've covered what I wanted to say. Oh, I will say this. I'm going to turn to the public and say this. You all are making incredibly compelling cases for all the needs that you are speaking to. And we hear you. And as a mom of of a young man who's 13 now, I guess I can't call him a little kid anymore. I we want to do for all of it. But when you have a group of people asking for 60% of the money and another one asking for 40% of the money, and a third group, somebody is going to be disappointed. So I just we we have to figure out a way, I think, to give a strong rationale for why we're investing, where we're investing. But I don't know that all everybody is going to be happy with the percentage. Number. So I hope that you will bear with us and work with us and help us to figure out a way where we can make a fair level investment that has the best outcome for the most young people from pre-K all the way through post-secondary. So thank you for just kind of asking for your indulgence a little bit as we work through this and thanking you in advance for that. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I agree with what we heard from the last speaker completely, but I'd like to add a couple of things. First of all, I agree with what Councilmember Avakov said about us being the policy branch and that we have spent a lot of time and a lot of hours read, a lot of reports . And so I think we should be the ones making the decision on how the money is distributed to go out. 15, 25, 25, 25 is peanut butter. And I think it's more important to me that we do something meaningful transformation, transformational, powerful, ongoing changes. And one of the things that I was talked about about earlier was that we might have a little evaluation money in here and that might be something we can do. There are many buckets of money and we need to be sure not just this bucket, but all of our bank and others to be sure that the needy all across the county are being served because there are pockets where there's really high needs and there's pockets where there is not quite so many in need. But every district has people that are in needs. So I think it's important for me that we be really aware of Aces and making sure that we get to the children as early in life as possible so that they're on the right track as early as possible. And that the Women's Advisory Board has done a lot of work on this over the last couple of years. I met with several people and one of the people told me that the data we've been looking at was on subsidized youth only, that the data was only for that category as they had read it. Originally, I was thinking it was all eligible youth across the county, and so even the numbers that we're using are a smaller section of the pie than all of the need. And so I asked the Women's Advisory Board to go back and give me some more information. And basically what they said was, even if we did a whole lot of money. Again, this is a hypothetical. Even if we went as high as 85% going to facilities for small children, it would only cover 73% of the subsidized eligible youth. So even if we went that far, we're still not getting the whole pie, but we're getting a very large percentage. And so I think as we look at each of the percentages, we need to look at what percentage of the problem are we solving and try to get the problem solved. The last thing I want to say is that, you know, there are two things left over from my days in the legislature that I still have have pain about, and neither one of them are solved. And it's been 18 years. So it's it's hard for me when those two topics come up because back then I was very concerned that they won't be done right. And it turns out they still haven't been done right and we're still dealing with them. And one of those is foster care. The Brame decision, or Brom, depending on how you pronounce it, was settled two years ago by the court, and that is for foster care kids. And one of the rules around foster care kids and so two years ago after gosh, I guess it was like 18 years of negotiating and saying , do this, pretty please do this. You're still not doing it right. Was the mess for over 18 years and even two years after the final negotiations. They are still not clients with the new agreement two years ago. So the foster kids in this state are still not being treated with the care and concern that I believe they deserve. These are people who have nobody but us. And I know with my own children, it doesn't matter whether they're 18 or 21 or 25 or 30 or even 40. There are times when they come back to mom and say, Can you help me with X, Y or Z? And for us to have expectations that a child at 21 or 25 is not going to need anybody to turn to is something that's very painful. So I think we really need to do something with our foster care kids and to make them a huge priority. So those are my priorities. Thank you. Thank you, colleagues. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I generally concur with a lot of the points that my colleagues have made. I thought the government about the issue was particularly perceptive when she noticed that we didn't have direct criteria for K 0 to 5 and post-secondary. And actually some of the people that testified said we want we want this money to go to all the children that want to go to college or we want it for all the child care centers. I think it's absolutely imperative that we have targeted criteria for money that's at 0 to 5 K-12 and post-secondary if we end up having funds in all three, and that it has to explicitly say what's in the state legislature, legislation that went to sound transit, and that is that their beneficiaries be low income youth, youth of color, child welfare system recipients, foster care kids and those involved in the criminal justice system. All those are disproportionately African-Americans and other youth of color and poor people in general. They are married. When he first took over as mayor, I don't know, five or six years ago, he said he was shocked when he found that in Seattle, Washington, that 55% of all black kids, 18 and under, live in households that are below the poverty and the corresponding figure for white youngsters is 5%. He said, I just didn't know, Councilman Gossett, that the inequality was that great. And, you know, it's a it's a major challenge. So I think and I think if you look at what happened the last three weeks, the overwhelming majority of the population of folks that provided input to us here clearly were saying when they came up in big groups that they want k 12. Yes, it's true that they want various aspects of K 12 from it, but I just don't think that that's political criteria that's coming from residents that say that the focus has to be on 0 to 5 or both secondary and the most critical need is in K 12, because no matter what we've done over the years, the categories that we're focusing on low income youth, youth of color, child welfare and foster care kids are consistently doing extremely poor. We can't solve all of it with $300 million, but we can target a few programs like Dr. Juneau, who's the superintendent of schools now, told the Breakfast Group, which is a black man's social group, that I'm a part of, that she was shocked to find out that 64% of all black third graders in the Seattle Public School still today, despite whatever existed in the past, are are reading at below many far below third grade level, third and fourth grade level. So we can target third or fourth grade or we can talk target cultural enrichment for our high schoolers, or we can target curriculum change for teachers that we test and evaluate to see if it makes a difference for our public schools. I know we can't run everything, but I think that in each of the three categories we have to target. I agree with Councilmember of the girl. We need to be the ones to be more prescriptive than the County Council usually is by coming up with the criteria and pushing and encouraging the executive staff to go along with it. And then we put a little bit in there for evaluation. But we have targeted focus areas of K-12, post-secondary and zero to try and 0 to 5. My problem with going forward in 50% and three out of five per capita is that the examples that I have to draw from , from the County Council, when we've made money available just for capital in the past, we have not done very well. Even when we say, Oh, we want our fair share of it to go to the poor because the poor are not able to put together proposals to say, well, we got to put 10% of the money into the project, or 15%. An account only has to put in 70% was no real for growth. Given the statistics I gave you all the earlier that our ten 15% extra point for capital moneys are based on the incentives and incentives are going to have to be non-financial. We're going to have to put this criteria in there and we're going to be vigilant and looking at it. I just think in closing, Mr. Chair, that we have to just choose targeted program areas in each of those three categories, but particularly K-12, that we focus the money. I agree with members who say, Well, we just read it all over. We're not going to have anything resolved. We got to be proscriptive about what it is we find, how we're going to evaluate it, and why it is that we think by putting money in these categories, that's going to make a big difference for low income kids, kids of color, those on child welfare, those in foster care, and those that are involved that are involved in the juvenile justice system. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Council Member Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question of jobs and then I would like to make a couple of comments. Jeff, and in my incorrect here, am I correct that in our motion that we approved two years ago and in the motion that's before us now, we do not differentiate between any of the three buckets early learning , K-12 post-secondary in terms of only one having the priorities to reach children and youth of color, those in low income families, children of youth who are homeless and the foster care system or in the child welfare system, or involved or potentially involved in the juvenile justice through criminal justice system. I thought those those were for all three groups. In the motion before you. There's there's sort of two sections. And in section A, it's sort of shorthand for the different educational areas. But then in section B, it calls that it says for all of this, for everything you do, focus on these kids. And then when and then in section see it asks the executive to come up with an implementation plan, and part of that is to make sure that it hits those priorities that are in Section B. So that's it. It's certainly could be more clear in Section eight, but the mechanics of what's before us, honestly, I have to go back and look at the the last meeting and I haven't and it's not top of mind right now. But my understanding is it's not that these targeted efforts go on solely in K-12. It's across all three areas. That's correct. Okay. What's unclear, I find, is when criteria are mentioned for the executive to come back, it's relating to the process of allocating the funds. But still, all of these mentioned targeting will go on in all three, as we've called them buckets. Yeah, I think that's how the, the, the report is structured. So. Mr. Chair, I have a lot of mixed thoughts here and we've all commented on this before. It's so compelling to hear from the people who've engaged in public comment, who've emailed us, who've called us, have spoken out at the many listening, listening sessions around the county that were held by the consultant. And I mean, my heart goes to this one and that one and the third one, because they're all so compelling. And one thing that is really important to me is that or a couple of things that are really important to me is that we look at this holistically. Children, young, very young children, school aged children, youth who are going often to some type of post-secondary program or potentially would, you know, are real people. They're not just like segmented that they're people when they're only in your early learning and that's when they should get all their attention are in K-12 or in post-secondary opportunities. And for me, it's looking at that whole person and what's going to be best to work out for them regardless of the age span in which they are. And in fact, I see that all three of these age areas have overlap. I mean, there's certainly a lot of overlap between early learning and K-12. It's essential to get kids engaged with education. Passion and opportunities and love of learning and so forth when they're really young. And we do not have a sufficient number of child care centers throughout the county, let alone ones that parents can afford to have their children there. This is a fabulous opportunity to expand what we have in some communities with Headstart and eke out, but we're just not able to keep up with it all. But there is that overlap with the K-12 program, and the more we can do in early learning, there's a better opportunity for individual kids to be able to have a meaningful education while in the K-12 systems, and especially when we're talking about the the at the ethnographic and demographic areas since we've included. But there's also obviously a huge overlap between K-12. Keeping kids in school, keeping them engaged and not dropping out of school, not getting involved in the juvenile justice system, especially for kids who are in the foster care system or the child welfare system and so forth. So to me, I look through about as I look at all of this holistically, I see some appeal to looking at those linkages too, and not having three discrete systems that we're dealing with. And with that, I would like to remind everybody, I'm sure you all know it, but in the last legislative session session when we had the clarifying legislation come through, that we can use the funds for Capital One time expenditures. We also were informed that we cannot bond the funds that we receive, but we can use the funds to create endowments in all three of these buckets, so to speak. And I'd like to suggest to my colleagues that we really look at having some some percentage of what we do go into creating endowments, which we could then have longer term effects than otherwise. So I haven't decided where I am here on which percentage for each group, but those are some of my thoughts. Mr. Chair, thank you. Thank you. I want to share your interest in breaking down some of the barriers between those buckets, if you will, and recognizing, particularly in some of the work that we're hearing about and in pondering in K-12 and post-secondary, that if you're going to help students succeed and Kate, in 9 to 12 in high school, that is going to project them into some sort of post-high school work in most cases, and sort of not see that as a graduation, as a D marker, as a hard deadline, an endpoint in start point. And then also recognizing that a lot of the work we hear about the Promise program, if I could, and sort of from a scholarship , perhaps it starts before you're in school, starts with the application and the financial applications and such that again starts before high school graduation. And so recognizing that lines between buckets may blur and we may need to be explicit about that or wherever that is, we we make funding decisions. With that, I want to acknowledge and thank my colleagues. It is unusual for us to have a discussion among ourselves on TV with an audience. But it is the way we can have such a discussion with all nine of us. Being part of it is to do it in public as a as a full committee. So I want to thank you for sitting through our conversation. And more importantly, I want to thank my colleagues for having a conversation that is somewhat unusual to not be debating the fine points of legislation and offering motions and amendments, but talking about our interests. That will then help inform the striker that I expect you will be in committee. You will see before, but will be in committee on Monday, July 15th, when we take this issue up again. And with that, we are adjourned.	A MOTION relating to identifying the future allocation of Puget Sound Taxpayers Accountability Account proceeds to priority educational areas and requesting the executive to develop plans to allocate proceeds within the priority educational areas.
king_cd432593-6307-431a-a24a-f08067d43d8d	The employees supporting the company's network, IP equipment replacement and the central desk. The department additionally provides fee based services such as geographic information systems or GIS services, radio services and China access to external customers. The Departmental 2017. 2018. Operating budget, inclusive of supplemental appropriations, is approximately. $340.5 million. And includes just over 408 TDs. In addition to managing. The department, the department. Director and chief. Information. Officer. Or CIO. Also advises the county on technology issues, technology planning and project implementation, as well as provide overall vision. Information, technology management and investment. The CIO also provides oversight of county IT. Projects via the Project Review Board. And approves countywide I.T. standards. Policies and guidelines for wide adoption. A more detailed list of responsibilities can be found. On page eight of the packet and turning down to. Page nine to the experience and qualifications of DB has been serving as the interim director of KC I.T. since October 7th, 2017 and was selected. After a nationwide search that attracted more than 300 applicants before her appointment to be interim director. She served as the. Deputy director of KC I.T. beginning in 2016, and prior to her work with the county, this unit. Held senior management roles at Amazon and the Computer Sciences Corp.. The Executive Notes and the transmittal letter that mRNAs diverse skill set to modernize the county's complications, meet the challenges of. Cybersecurity and ensure customers. Have the right technology to effectively meet the goals and priorities for. The county's strategic plan. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in government from the University of Maryland. As well as a project management professional certificate from the University of California, Irvine. I'll close in putting your attention to two. Attachments to the Stack Report. Attachment three. Found on page 15 is the confirmation packet prepared. By the Human Resources. Division. It includes Ms.. Hanna's reasoning letters of support for her appointment, the county's financial disclosure form and the review of the background check. Attachment four can be found on page 47 and is the completed counsel questionnaire. That concludes my remarks and I would be happy to take any questions. Ms.. Hanna is also. All right, why don't we invite this up? And, Mr. Skilling, are you going to join us? Marlon, thank you for these kind of materials. We appreciate you answering. These questions and a detailed question. I'd encourage all members to look. And start opening up council members and co-sponsor the confirmation motion because what would you like to say? A few. Words or ask any. Questions? Okay. Thank you very much. Have. And then. Never expected to. Serve on a. Strategic advisory board. We're also looking for one. More council member to serve on that. And that's what. We want to engage in a bigger recruiting effort. Yes, that's right. It's a funny thing. And I have to. And how her business savvy can be. Applied to governance and looking at how we can. Not only with the private sector, but. The leaders of our 18. She's also invited me to to have more fun. And that is where we have. People together to start counting problems and to. Or in the way he developed and I think her expertize. Actually taking real problems to. Our expert. And having them find a solution that will help them. It's been very interesting and exciting. And I have to admit that I. Don't always know exactly what they're telling me, because there's a lot of new technologies that are new and exciting, but I know how to put. Them out there and it's really exciting to see what she's bringing so far. Other members have questions or comments before we. Council members have this photo opportunity as. But I'll question whatever you invite now as you can. And I don't think it's going to work. The Speaker If I may say so. Thank you for your response. Qualifications and experience. It's very helpful. One of the challenges. I think we in any big operation. This is that. I think they're. Just about right. It's about how organization doesn't. This is standard practice in the. Process of trying to save more to upgrade your IQ system. Almost always more about. The process and the business processes. Than it is about the. All that you do now, of course, is the. And then you. You wanted a partner with Operation Cars to make sure. We have systems that provide the most efficient service that work for our staff so that they can provide the most efficient service. Jane. The statue was really, really powerful. Thank you, Councilmember, for and very thoughtful question. From King County Information Technology to personal. It is all about our customers. Our customers are our employees. Interact with stakeholders and members of our community. We believe. In a customer centric approach in how we look at. Technology solutions that. Within the county. That starts with understanding. Our customers. And your customers and. Developing business requirements that meet the needs of those customers. And then you factor in the business processes and the technology and this. So it really starts with the customer. We have implemented with King County. Information Technology, some user center. Practices, whether it's around our web development. Aspects, whether it is our business analysis, those all start with our customers. And that is the. Yes, that. Ruling out any technology. Council Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm thinking this head is going to move about duty notes. You'd had a chance to try to jump on it for size. Also, you come with private sector. Experience, and I think that could well suit us in that balance. And I'm wondering what. You think the most innovative use for drones here at the county. I don't know what it is, but I know it's because we were Lambert. Oh, thank you. You're welcome for that question. So. He's an attorney in the county. He has his many potential use cases. One would include around properties and the domain, using drones to potentially look at changes in building structures. Especially the taller buildings. There is also a use case for. A flood warning and potentially do surveying the landscape. You know, while an event is happening, and we could probably come up with a few more. But those are probably the two best use cases specific for King County. Thank you. The other question. Here comes the memory. After that. No one. I think you mean that when that question. So could you talk a little bit more about the Community of Opportunity Project, the White Center that has to deal with the coding and digital literacy, but also how that relates to the expansion to the rural areas. We have so many people that don't have that. So last. Year. King County Information Technology undertook a project with the federal NTIA to look at. To do it. To perform an assessment of broadband access, we chose the right center community of opportunity to get an. Understanding of what digital assets. We have. Within the community that could be. Broadband service to the. Wireless access, nonprofits that provide grant money to library system job training programs within the area. So that we could then determine. And develop a. Digital equity plan through the county. Figure out how you can best serve. White Center and then leverage what we've learned there to. Expand it out. We are we have the draft plan available and we're. Working on finalizing it. But it worked with our community partners at the Housing Authority, the libraries. And a couple of nonprofits. Oh. Oh. We're a part of this system. Like you said, it comes from on. Right. And I was not going to ask. You know, he probably knows the answer. You're at University of Maryland, College Park graduate. What does? A terrible turtle. A turtle. All right. You know that I think your mother is strong. Strong deeds, gentle words. Yes. Let's see that carried out. Councilmember Lambert, would you like to put the motion before us to confirm? That's number 2018 zero one. And based on that, the ratings are way. All right. That's key for us. Any other comments or questions? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. WG i. That's when a mobile phone. Buyer. I. Mr. came home to about a six hour space time and given the unanimous to pass recommendation to your confirmation, congratulations were expedited to. Muslims in Turkey. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you for indulging us in that. Now we are going to turn back and we have three folks signed up for public comment, none of whom were on that item. So I want to get to those three folks. Dustin Lambros first and then serve on the. Thank you to you and many, many fans. To everyone here at. To start today. Speaking of. War. Well, the legislation on harassment. We had our. I told you that about briefing the other day from from California, about the legislation and largely supportive and very much appreciate your work on this. Well, tonight, I think we have some questions that we want to talk with you about around the edges. And some of them are very much, sorely needed and very much appreciate your leadership on this and the other council members who worked on. So thank you very much. Thank you, Dustin. Sarah Feldman. And if you can't. Remember, my name is Sarah myself, and I certainly am the chair of the advisory board and the attorney general. Here in Seattle. I wanted to thank Councilmember Carlisle for her leadership. Not just on raising. Awareness on sexual harassment, and then also. On leading. And really strengthening the county's current policy to address sexual harassment and discrimination and also inappropriate. Conduct. I love the idea of how I. In the work place. I think this is particularly important. And I was honored to have a councilmember out from your grandfather framework for discussion on housing coming forward. And I believe that's policy in the right direction for a few reasons. And one is that in addition to. Having sexual harassment and discrimination, I believe the empowerment must take time, discrimination and harassment and inappropriate contact. And I've argued that I. Am perfectly one. That is, I also take steps to prevent it from happening in the first place. And it clearly defines. It also provides options. To deliver training. For incoming employees. I think that that is particularly essential in terms of even culture. Termination. I'd encourage that. One of these options is an in-person training, which is recognized as a best practice. The Attorney General's office had sexual harassment training and required an enforcement option. A better. And secondly, in order to. Compromise, is that one party policy or not at all and that some folks need. Other reporting options. Including one one option. I think that that's critically important to keep bringing this violence. Around sexual harassment and discrimination. I'll just wanted to thank all of. You for your. Leadership on that and on supporting equitable and inclusive. Workplaces. Where all employees. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mary Baker. You're welcome to just. Come to the table. So I just wanted to take this opportunity to speak on an item on the agenda today and that is regarded our program. And I do hope that you. These programs provide the funding for them. I know that. Has been a lot of talk. In the. Community and among those selected in King County. It's been a very, very valuable exercise in diplomacy. So thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anybody that didn't get a chance to sign up and whatnot for. Public testimony willing to come forward? All right. We don't see anybody or. Close that item and the turn reserving the for 4 minutes, if that's okay with you. We'll turn to our briefing today. Item six, which is 2018, briefing zero. Entitled Innovative Policing Radar and the Navigation. This Council funded in partnership with some other grant money was released from our bid comes about $100,000 to a pilot project up in Shaun called the Radar Project. And it has expanded across the north and into the east side of Kirkland with the Navigator program and what this is. I wanted to have a hearing on it for this film because I was. Blown away. Really? One of the best meetings I've had of this job when I walked in the hall weeks ago and had the police chiefs and city managers from every city in the tournament talking about the successes of this program and the intersectionality of behavioral health. Mental health, chemical dependency, developmental disabilities. Police work, de-escalation, all of the things that are kind of present in our society today. They're facing challenges and some. So the stories were so compelling. I thought it would be appropriate, given that we're into this now about a year. To see how it's going and share with you all the results of this pilot work. So that's my brief introduction here will haul from shoreline is going to kind of make this up and hopefully do our new our introduction so you've got an excellent. And for those that are joining on. The panel, I don't know if you're able to maybe introduce them as well or do you want me to? We can go ahead and introduce the other folks who are here. So thank you, Chairman Boustani and Council members for taking time this morning to talk about a pilot project that's really beginning to make a difference for people with mental illness and for the challenges in our community. I am Wilhelm, Mayor, City of Shoreline, and I'm joined by representatives from the city of Liverpool and Kirkland Lake, Forest Park and our school district. So we can just go down the line and introduce ourselves and then the other representatives behind us. Sean Ledford I'm the police chief for the city of Shoreline. My name is Carol. Come into the cheese place from the city hall. Steve Sutton, chief of police for the. City of Lake Forest Park. I'm sure you never saw the chief. Of police in Kirkland. Bernard I'm an officer with both West Palm. So the representatives of our cities, which was good enough. John Rogers City Police Department. Philip Hill City Administrator Lake Forest Park. Rebecca Miner. Sterling School District Deputy. Terry City. Jim Hammond. Shoreline. Rob Lindsay City Manager. James Baker. Mayor City. Jennifer Phillips. I'm sitting in home. Duncan Harmon, deputy superintendent for North Shore School. All right. Well, thank you all for being here. And again, Counsel, thanks for taking time on this. We all know that we've got a mental health crisis still in our community, in Shoreline and King County and throughout all of our communities. And we know that sometimes in the past year, police have been challenged with finding somebody in crisis and their only solutions are taking them into the juvenile or criminal justice system or taking them to a hospital. This approach, radar, which stands for Response Awareness, De-escalation and Referral. It's an idea that's been a priority for the Shoreline City Council since 2014, and the pilot really only became possible with the support of $100,000 in mid funding. And I'd like to. Thank each of you for that. Sometimes when you're in a crisis and trying to come up with new solutions and innovative ways to help people, ideas come up at different times and they don't always go through the same lengthy vetting process that we try to run most ideas through. And I know that this one came up and it took special consideration from council and each of you being willing to step a little bit outside the processes and the wording is what made it possible. And as Chair Dempsey said earlier, what we've learned now is that this is a great approach that's really making a difference. You're going to hear about how the partnership between law enforcement and mental health professionals has created a new bridge so that at the time somebody is in crisis. In our community, we have our police officers who are trained primarily for public safety, and they now have access to a mental health professional so that somebody who might be in a difficult situation because of either mental illness or drug dependency issues, they can get access to the mental health services they need right away without ever entering into the criminal justice system or even going through the more lengthy diversion process. You also hear examples of how this is working together across multiple communities and we're sharing resources. So for a relatively small investment, we've got benefits accruing to all of our cities and all of our school districts. If you look at your second slide, technology's not working, so we'll try to walk you through this radar's approach is that a lot of people in our community, especially those who might be suffering with mental illness or drug dependency challenges, they don't always reach out to the services to help them. They might not know they exist. They might not know how to reach out. So our first. Contact with them. Often is when something goes wrong and someone calls 911. And when that happens, our law enforcement officers respond and they're trained to protect public safety. But a lot of these 911 calls, it's not necessarily a public safety issue. It's a personal crisis issue. Someone is in crisis and it's affecting the community. As all of you know, jails and emergency rooms are not the answer. For people who have. Chemical dependency problems. But 911 is what they call in trouble. Radar creates a way to have a mental health professional work in partnership with law enforcement, not only to connect with these folks at the time of crisis, but to follow up with that and ensure that they can get the services that they need so that we don't have a revolving door of law enforcement. So I'd like to turn it over now to Charlotte graduate student police to tell you a little bit more about this. Thank you. Good morning. Radar is a pilot project that started enshrined in 2016. Our goals are to reduce use of force incidents, avoid misunderstanding with individuals suffering from behavioral health issues, and connect people to the proper services. And reduce unnecessary calls to emergency services. Work closely with King County Prosecutor's Office, the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, or we are the ACLU, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Tammy and other stakeholders. There are three key areas of focus with radar. The first is response plan. So now I'm on page one for the PowerPoint. The first is response plans for at risk individuals try and received the Department of Justice Smart Policing draft. There are certain individuals due to behavioral health issues who frequently come in contact with law enforcement. These plants are connected to our computer aided dispatch cat, which gives responding officers information up front to be better prepared. The response plans include information on what may escalate the situation and what could de-escalate the situation. Charlotte currently has 18 response plans in place in just over a year. The information has came from Case Report, previous contacts and working with the individual or family on de-escalation strategies. The program incorporates privacy in an individual and an individual's rights. The radar advisory a radar advisory board, was created to work through the public disclosure, privacy and other constitutional concerns. Now I'm on Slide five. The second area of focus is the police partnership with a mental health professional, what we call the navigator. This has been the meat and potatoes of the radar pilot program. And the reason we are here today, during the course of law enforcement duties, our officers respond to a wide variety of calls. Each and every game, they come into contact on a regular basis for people where enforcement is not the proper tool person is in need of services. Radar allows our officers to make the connection between people in need and the navigator and connect them into the system that can truly help. The Navigator works in collaboration with the police. They ride with an officer to do a schedule follow up on a weekly basis. Council member Taberski helped out and helped Shoreline and the Sheriff's Office secure med funding to fund the navigator on a part time basis. Now on page six, slide six. The made fun of navigators now assisting police agencies in Shoreline Lake, Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell and Kirkland. Troy has had 269 Navigator attempts and has made 147 contacts in just over a year. 83% of those contacted have been receptive to services. Bothell officers have made 139 outreach contacts with the Navigator Lake. Forest Park has made 13 patrol officers identify individuals that may benefit by being connected to existing services and calls. Officers have viewed or responded to. The follow up is scheduled with the navigator and an officer in town and is scheduled with the navigator and officer to attempt outreach generally on a weekly, weekly basis, depending on the jurisdiction. This is entirely voluntary. The person may accept or refuse to talk to the navigator or the officer. In short, the police are to come in contact with people most in need visible in the community and the least likely to seek out services. Please take their knowledge and co-ordinate outreach and connect people to services to improve public safety at a lower cost. So on page seven. As you're aware, a lot of the nation is very concerned with food safety in our schools, and these threats and actions can often involve students or persons who are in crisis. We are, as the mayor mentioned, we are limited frequently by what we can do with these students. Corpuz We are proving a security threat in our schools. Should there be probable cause that a crime has occurred. We can potentially take them to the youth center. Should the youth center be willing to accept them if there is clear evidence that the student is a danger to themselves or others? We can we can take them to a mental health facility for evaluation if there's space available. Frequently, unfortunately, the situation doesn't rise to either of these levels. And that leaves law enforcement with few options. Having an NHP or, as we call him, the navigator, available for assistance either at the time of the incident or for follow up really expands our options. So let me give you just one example of a recent incident that happened. Officers were called to one of our high schools regarding a student who had threatened to harm both the staff and himself. The student actually got into a physical altercation with the officers who were responding, who were when they tried to take him into protective custody. Medics were called and the student was eventually taken to a medical facility for evaluation. In the past, that would have been the end of a law enforcements evaluate our involvement in the situation. In this case, however, the navigator was called and provided follow up assistance. An officer from the city where the student lived, an officer from the city where the student went to school and the navigator made contact with the student following the incident to check to see if they were involved in services. And also, very importantly, making assisting the parent with ensuring that their child was engaged in the proper services because many times families don't know where to turn. This intervention was actually a catalyst for the creation of a comprehensive, tri level crisis response plan by the Navigator. And this is a detailed plan that looks at the safety crisis, de-escalation and support of students that would be returning to school after a situation like this. It coordinates with the school, it coordinates with the student and external resources such as doctors, psychologists, law enforcement, and that by coordinating those efforts of all the parties so the issues can be addressed more effectively. The plan is currently being evaluated for implementation, pending, of course, the source of funding. So with that, I'd like to switch to Page. Eight. This moves in to the broader aspect of the navigator interventions. What we've found is there's broad categories that we generally use her for homelessness, elderly issues, dementia, juvenile or issues like such. The one I just mentioned, mental health issues, people that are affected by drug abuse and all of these. And this is an important aspect of it. And why you have so many of us sitting at the table today is that so many of these cases are cross jurisdictional conflicts. Like to give you a couple examples of the cases that we've gone out on recently and then to let you know, should there be time in the end and that you would like to have more detailed information? We have Sergeant Rogers, who has worked closely with our navigator and has gone out on tens of many, many of these situations, and I'm sure would be able to answer more questions as far as his experiences. So. Recently there was an elderly woman who was found at a senior care facility with had no ID and no memory of who she was. So this was a co response with law enforcement and the navigator and the team was able to find out eventually who this woman was and locate her husband, who, in fact, was also affected by some memory issues. The navigator was able to work with the family and social services to get her placed in a an appropriate memory care facility, and now has continued to work with the husband to connect him with services, as is often the case. This outreach included working with two police agencies because the husband is frequently traveling between two cities. Another example, as you've heard, this region is really impacted by homelessness and many of our homeless are living in on the streets, in their cars. In this case, a man had moved up to our area from California and was living out of his car. He couldn't find a job. He was without health care. He was out, did not have mental health care. And so we contacted the NOP Navigator. It was in turn able to connect him with a doctor and a psychiatrist and a counselor with the help of this new care team. He was able to find employment that also included housing. And he has been continually engaged in services since fall of last year. With that, I'd like to have just briefly has MPL Brett Barnard, who is one of the powerful officers who has as a line officer, has had the opportunity to work directly with the navigator. Thank you, Chief. I just want to speak really briefly on the from the mine officer user end of the program and kind of bring that perspective into the conversation. I made it a point early on when we got the navigator brought on to our agency to tell my chief how much value we saw in it at the street officer level. And there's two main reasons for that. First being that these individuals that are in need of services and our only options are either jail or the revolving door of the hospital, are not always the right fit. So number one, these people that need these services are now getting them because we have this navigator working with us out on the street, hand in hand with us and doing follow up work. And number two is that takes a huge burden of the workload that we have on our officers right now and takes care of that piece of the workload so that we can refocus our efforts on other police services that are important to our community. And those are the two main reasons that I again, I made a point to tell her early on. We saw the value at the line officer level in this program. And I told her early on, I would love to see this develop a full time position because it was that valuable. So with that, I want to thank everybody for taking the time to be here and be part of this discussion on this important issue. So thank you. Great. Thank you. Slide nine on your back. Why is this important to us not just as cities, but as a region, as a county? Well, it's been talked about earlier that our police officers come into contact with people at their worst times. They're dealing with stress, mental health issues, personal crisis, drug addiction and much more, which puts themselves and our communities at risk. Shaun mentioned this about people with mental health are their greatest need for help. However, they're the most unlikely to go to go find it and to go get it and. They need that now. And this program is providing that today's police officer, unlike those in the past, have been trained to deal with every situation imaginable. Active shooter situations, scenes of violence. And also be community caretakers. Work in the community in all different angles. We have really become the problem solvers for the community. Over the past several years, we've been successful in training our officers in crisis intervention and in de-escalation, and the state now mandates that training. However, we are not. Mental health professionals. I'll tell you that again, we're not mental health professionals. We've got some training. We know how to de-escalate, but we're not the people that can connect the dots. And that's what our navigator program has done. We also know that locking locking these mental health patients behind bars or sending them to the emergency room. It might be trigger or even worse behavior and does not solve the program. Our navigator has direct access to a litany of resources our officers have never seen before. They have the training and background to identify what's going on with that person in crisis, how to possibly diffuse the situation, and to provide specific resources to get that person help. So what does it do for our officers? I don't have to really explain what it does. It gets them back out on the streets to do their jobs. And really, for most of us in law enforcement, we have very few resources. We all have staffing issues. And so if we can get that that police officer back on the street, that's really important to us. So slide number ten, the program has been proven to be successful at all levels. However, we've capped our capacity in the programs that exist today because of their success. We're adding the city of Kenmore and the city of Kirkland, and we can't keep up with the demand. Our vision is to have a full time mainstreet coordinator to full time image fees and funds to contract with part time professionals who currently train our officers in crisis intervention and de-escalation. And that work in the five cities mentioned before Shoreline, L.A., Kenmore, Bothell and Concord once again. I really personally want to thank you for taking the time to listen to us today and for the funding in the past year. It's really encouraged that gap that we've seen in our industry. And for those who don't know, this officer right here was on a SWAT call at 1:00 this morning time. And so that's what it means to him to be here. And so we appreciate that and appreciate your time. So we're open for questions. Very much so. Thank you. I feel the things that ever felt. I want you to know that they appreciated that. And for making sure I heard. So you said you had 18 plans. Why do you need about 18 plans? So under the radar, there's different elements. There's response plans. There's the outreach follow up with the navigator, and then there's school safety with the navigator. So on the response plans, that is where we give the information to the officers. If we've ever been involved in that chaotic situation or crisis, and we gather information that may help the next officer that has to go out there, for example, what could what could escalate this situation? And so the officers can avoid that type of action that may escalate. What could de-escalate the situation? Maybe he's talking about his son, Brian, and now the officers have that information in the response plan that he has a son named Brian that's ex age. And the officers have those tools now, too. And it's connected to to the address, what we call the computer aided dispatch. So when the call comes in to 911, there's a flag up, a response plan. The officers can pull that up quickly, look at the photo and some basic information to hopefully de-escalate the situation so we don't rush in. And, you know, there's so many examples. Maybe there's a misunderstanding of somebody with Asperger's or something that is not going to sit down no matter what you tell them. But if the officers have that information, they're not going to take that as that person being defiant. They'll take that as this person has some cognitive disabilities and they know that information going up front. I just have a couple of questions. So when you are dealing with a child, could you try to question them and put the question? So when you're dealing with a child, you go to a scene and modeling shot. And now you've got this child sitting here. What do you do with the child? In that situation, we would hopefully separate them with another officer. Of course, given, you know, any type of very comforting items that we could possibly give, connecting with other family members and so forth. So yeah, that's that's somewhat of a separate situation here. But we would try to obviously separate them from the scene, connect them with other family that they could be comforted by. We actually had an example of that. It's not as extreme as somebody being shot, the president presence of the child. But we had a car accident where they had children involved and the children actually were not injured, but they were traumatized. And so we called the navigator. The navigator was actually riding with an officer that night, and the navigator came to the scene and was able to provide kind of street side counseling to try to deal with the situation there so that the children wouldn't go on and, you know, have developed PTSD from that situation to provide that comfort. So and then do you communicate with the school teachers that you have an ongoing thing, or are you telling school teachers, you know, this is happening? Is there a two way communication thing? We're working with the juvenile. You giving information to teachers or not? So as I said, this is a new program. And so we recognized the need for this for this integration into our schools. And so this the plan that I briefly mentioned earlier has is in the development stages. And so that's a good question as far as how much is shared. Again, that's where the navigator comes in, because they understand the legal bounds of what can be shared and what not. It's a important component of it. But of course, the schools are absolutely an important partner in this, which is part of why we have two school districts represented here today. When I was a teacher practice. And I was frequently asked questions of. Slightly different students, but they wouldn't tell me why they're asking these questions. What should I be watching out for, for the time that. I have six or 8. Hours a day. So I went and wrote the law when I was a legislator. So there is a law that complete communication can be between. The police and the. Teachers. And I don't know that everybody knows that law exists, but it does. And that's how we know that it does exist. My last question is that we really need to figure out how to get around here so that we can work for the person. And sounds like you have done some work that maybe we could use some help on. Yeah. And we worked with the King County Prosecutor's Office on the hip concern. And we're basically our information is what are their actions? And it's already in case reports, it's already in other bulletins. We're not looking for a diagnosis or medication or anything because it's irrelevant to us. We just want to know behaviors. And that's what's included in the response plan for HIPA concerns and so forth. And we're completely aware that all all of what we do is under public disclosure. So everything is is in the response plans is it's generic. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and keep doing that to happen. And I know we're short on time, so I just want to say a couple of things and then ask one question towards the idea of this really is a promising approach that you all have highlighted. We've seen. Tragic. Responses across the country when. Police are calling the situation. They don't know why the persons behaving. Just a thread. So I love hearing what you're saying about, you know, having to explain how to respond, how to keep people safer. You know, I. Used to work in the jail system. The children during the years. You do not going to the jail that are getting more appropriate responses to their situations. And it's the gift that keeps on giving because. We also the corrections. Officers are not. I really appreciate your program describing. I would love to think about as we go forward for. How did you. Understand? And make the same. Sort of service available to. Law enforcement. You're allowing the county because that might be for working people working elsewhere. So like what do. I would love to know where the navigator sits for organization. Diane Sawyer. Is that a huge success factor or can that be discussed by the interpretation being provided more centrally. To more people? Or is it really. Right. And the second question. Somebody mentioned, I think it was Chief Cummings. An evaluation has been done or. Thank you. I don't think I don't need answers right now. I just want to put that out there for. You can't help the moment you just think by raising your answers. There is an. Evaluation by George. Mason University that's being done. The dance is part of the national brand. And then the mall of our last year comes to us. Kind of highlight this, perhaps. Perhaps prune out a little bit more. With the children of the state of. Looking for anything to say. Could this be taken care of? She continued. So in answer to your first question, part of the team approach, how the, the, the relationship between the navigator and the officers is a very important aspect of it. So it's not something that can be entirely decentralized. Right. But I have to give huge credit to Chief Ledford because it originally was a Shoreline Navigator centric and he was able he was willing to extend it because of that cross jurisdictional issue into Bothell and into Lake Forest Park. We realized that Kirkland we were having a lot of overlap with Kirkland, and so that's when we started to say, let's see about a North End model. And that's what that's what Chief Sutton was saying, looking at how we could have a coordinator with the MH piece circling around. So we are trying that right now. What we're doing right now is that expansion, the challenge is, is that the money is running out because we are now going through it more quickly because the navigator is covering more cities. Would you touch on your work at the station? So one of the issues is that right now we have one navigator, but we understand that and this is there are other areas across the state that are trying this, too, and we're recognizing that we should have a academy that provides some consistency and training for the MH piece that are coming into the system because law enforcement mental health work is a very unique thing. So we contacted Sue Ras from the Criminal Justice Training Commission to see if she would be able to house a say, a two week academy. And we're in conversation. Fact, I got an email from her yesterday to talk about what would that look like? And that would also be part of this this program extension would be to house a two week academy for MH kids embedded in images. Well, as we wrap up, I don't know who the buyer is or anything from this. I'd say it's phenomenal to have a resource that is outside, know what they talk about outside the criminal justice system or a hospital some way when a student is in crisis to provide that kind of support, that is really much more supportive of genuine support for the student and. Generally. Almost guarantee that that child might have had that. And we want to see that more success. And will remarkable the and you know, again, thank you for your time and I know that sometimes these ideas come up outside the normal process and that's just a stretch. But this is a crisis. And this program has shown that by leveraging a mental health professional with police, we are often the first contact. It's a very efficient way of making contact with people in the community who need help and getting those services. So I think it's just been a tremendous investment. And absolutely, I see the potential with additional resources and training and work over time for this to serve all of our communities. Absolutely. Thank you. I just want to say that this is so exciting. I'm really pleased that it's had those kinds of results. So are there grants at the federal level that we can be applying for? Is there anything we can do to help you? Part of this once founded. Yeah. We have a Department of Justice smart policing grant that runs out in 2019. And part of that is George Mason University has been with us from the beginning, and they're going to do an analysis on this in 2019. But certainly there are opportunities that we can explore if that's possible as one council member. But there are others in any letters of recommendation. I, for one, would be happy to help you get other grants because it's just phenomenal. Thank you, Councilmember. And yes, looking for outside funding. We're also hoping that because these are our communities here in King County, that we may also continue to have funding from King County for it. This crosses our jurisdictions and into unincorporated areas, so we're willing to step up on behalf of our city as we hope the county will be a partner. And yes, we will continue to look for state and federal support. I mean, candor to my colleagues. I think both of you, I heard the presentations and I want you to make the sales pitch to my colleagues. Appreciate it. Jim Lange, drop. In your team. I'll be here. Your support for the funding of startup. We work so often across the stands to reduce juvenile detention incarceration to. Cost of the jail that over time. The challenge is. All day long because the prison population so. The mobile. So I just saw a lot of those issues with this program. Innocent. And some of them. Are getting phone services that are before they enter the. Criminal justice system. Systems for. You. Serious violence. So I thought this was a such magnitude and I wanted as many of my colleagues to hear about it. The success story. And I told them they can't just be about, you know, the law. Then we can prove it up there. But everyone has the same opportunity. COMEY you know, if they like it to. To do. So I would like to think that you know that. So last weekend, I was putting together prevention for a book. And reading 30. Years. Of police stories. Phenomenal and most of the heartwarming one. Where exactly are you talking about? Where they went into a house and horrible things were happening. And turned it around. And so I he's down because his children and grandchildren will be amazed at some of the things he did. Don't even think about being special because you do it every day. But I know reading my dad's stories about. Thank you all for. Rob to you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Well, we are going to hear one procedural matter that's proven imminent and the calls for that motion. Thank you, Madam Chair, I. Basically all the things that all those things are. Yeah. We started at. 935 because of the technology. Slightly less than one. Actually. But I promise that you. A full 60 minute hour. Here she is. Here she is. Really bad on this piece. And working on. That. We will encourage her to share. This portion of the reading so she can run. So I see. You know, just. I was. To tear down. I think our opponents local councils. We are now going to move to item number 778. Both have to do with the proposed ordinance 2018 0256. Which is an ordinance addressing harassment and discrimination in the King County workplace. And this is an issue. I'm just going to make a couple of remarks before we go on. An issue that has received a great deal of attention through the BlackLivesMatter and the MeToo. And last fall, I began working on legislation relating to our own discrimination and harassment policies and procedures here at King County. And I'd like to say right away that I very much have appreciated the whole hearted efforts to work with me on with the King County executive, Don Constantine, with our human resources department, with our prosecuting attorney's office, with experts in the field, with our equity and social justice Department. And the main effort, I think, for everybody is to see what we can do to make our outstanding work as a county be even better. And that's a tall order because we really do a good job. But we do have some number, around 14,000 employees who work with us. And when we understand that workplaces that are complex. And that we as the county government. Some employer do not know what goes on with every employee in the county. We need to do all we can to make sure that we have a workplace that is free of discrimination. Harassment. And other forms of inappropriate content. I'd like to commend the H.R. department of particular. I don't know how many meetings we've had and staff from the council have found that you've been out. So what I am looking at in this legislation is basically rebooting our policies and procedures. The last time this happened for the country as a whole was in 2002. So much has changed in the last 16 years culturally in this country, in this region, as well as in our own county. And as. We really scrutinize our current policies and procedures. And found a whole lot that's really, really good. What occurs. But just as has been found with the U.S. office, 50 U.S. Equal Opportunity and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the numbers have been pretty static, even though there's been so much awareness. And efforts to ensure workplaces free of discrimination and harassment. The numbers just keep there. And the commission has determined that there's more needed to be done with regard to training, with regard to making sure that our policies. The definitions are very clear and that all employees understand the. And feel comfortable coming forward if they find something uncomfortable at a minimum. And even more so. In terms of actual law violation that they can come forward and get this. Make sure that they are working. In a workplace that is not going through discrimination and harassment. So what this legislation represents. In the gaps and directing through an ordinance that all employees know what the policies and procedures are. They're clearly understandable and that they if they meet the legal definition, if any behavior needs a legal definition, federally, statewide, countywide as well. Harassment or discrimination. They know what they can do. They know who to go to. They know they can file a complaint and expect a response. But also, we know that there are some types of behavior in the workplace that may not meet the legal definition for being actionable. And our employees and I include employees in the legislative branch here as well, need to know that they do not have to tolerate racial slurs. Bad taste jokes about people with disabilities. Off color, sexual incantations and you want this. And they certainly do not should not have to work in a place. Where they are being harassed and whether it's overtly or more covertly and implicitly. So what does the legislation do? We're going to turn to Jenny, a staff who's been just excellent in all of our work on this, to go over the different parts of it . But very broadly, we would include inappropriate contact that would be put into come. Secondly, we would require that all departments. Any government to provide for training options for training. Also that all policies that a clear definition. How the process, whether it's formal or informal, for people to be able to feel they can come forward in formal processes, in formal complaint processes would be new here. It's done in school districts across the country under Title nine. It's done on colleges and universities across the country, whether they're public or private. We can do that here, too. It's not something that can be difficult. The idea is. Employee who feels uncomfortable. But perhaps intimidated by the thought of filing a formal complaint and fearing retaliation. Or just so household can see inflammation. And this is the part they can go in to somebody and we don't dictate who that would be. That would be up to the executive branch or the legislative branch. They can go to just get information. What are my options? What can I do? And that can be important to prevent behavior worsen. That would lead to a legal action. We would also require that there be protections against retaliation. This is very important. And they would require that the. County government report back to the legislative branch by the end of September. With what the plans are, what. The policies that have been revised and created and procedures are. And then by the end of 2019, the Civil Rights Commission would report by annually who what the numbers are in terms of compliance and the resolution. Jenny I love. A bit too much about that. But I'd like to a. Give us more information and we don't have time for questions. Thank you, Madam Chairman, for the recommended committee, said council's central staff. Thank you for the excellent summary. With that I will just skip to the background section of my staff report which is on page 58 of the packet. As I go through my staff report, in the interest of time, I will be touching on key points in each section of the staff report in looking at the background section of the staff report. I want to highlight the report of the to the 2016 Report of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Select Taskforce on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace. That is a mouthful of a title, so I will just refer to it from here on out as the 2016 EEOC report. I have included a copy of this report on page 77 of the packet. I am referencing this report now because many of the specific policy requirements in this ordinance are built upon the recommendations in the report. The task force was looking to understand why, when the laws prohibiting discrimination have been around for so long in workplace training, workplace prevention training is common. Why does harassment continue to persist? The report includes many detailed recommendations on designing an effective anti-harassment policy, developing the training curricula, implementing complaint and reporting and investigation procedures, and creating an organizational culture in which harassment is not tolerated. As well as recommendations for ensuring that employees and management in supervisory positions are held accountable, held accountable, and a call for employers to assess their workplaces and respond to what the report calls risk factors for harassment. I will talk more about these recommendations as I go through the components of the ordinance. I'd now like to touch on some of the key points in the analysis of the ordinance. If you'd like to follow along as I go through sections of the ordinance, you can find the ordinance on page 65 of the packet. The first major component of the ordinance is lines 62 to 72, which adds a nondiscrimination anti her anti-harassment and inappropriate conduct statement in code to Title three, which is the personnel code. I've included the statement in the staff report for easy reference. A few things I want to point out about this language. The first is the inclusion of the term inappropriate conduct. This would expand the type of behavior that is prohibited in the King County workplace. Beyond behavior that only meets the legal definition of discrimination and harassment, the term inappropriate conduct has not been defined in federal or state laws. An example of a definition is below from the executive's revised policies, and that is inappropriate conduct is conduct that, while not rising to the level of unlawful discrimination or harassment, communicates a hostile, derogatory or negative message about persons based on protected status. It can either be verbal or nonverbal and includes slights, insults or other conduct that a reasonable person would find offensive. This definition is not in the code, but the code does require each agency to ensure that their policies include the definition of discrimination, harassment, as well as inappropriate conduct. The example I just read is from the executive's revised policies. I also want to point out in looking at the policy statement that it includes a broader list of protected classes than is currently in the King County Code or the federal or state law. The intent with this list was to try and include all of the protected classes that the existing ones that are in the federal, state and the county code, and then add a class as well for domestic violence victimization. The proposed ordinance also allows for the protection for any other status protected by federal, state or local law to allow for the scenario of a new protected class at a state. Or local level. You will see a table on 59 which compares the different protected classes at the federal, state and in our existing code as a result of the expanded list of protected classes that is in the proposed ordinance. The Council may wish to consider separate legislation to align the King County Code, the Fair Employment Section, which is 12 1801 DOE, with the listing of protected classes in the proposed ordinance. If this ordinance is adopted. The next requirement of the proposed ordinance is on pages in the staff report is discussed on pages 60 to 61 of the part of the staff report, and it requires the executive and entities managed by separately elected officials to develop revised or new policies and procedures. The ordinance specifies that these policies and procedures should reflect the recommendations included in the EEOC Select Task Force Report I mentioned earlier. I want to highlight a few of the things about these requirements and again, I've included them in the staff report for you. First on item three, it calls for the reporting system to be for employees who experience the the behavior as well as those who observe such behavior. And this was included in the ordinance in order to reflect the call in the EEOC report to try and change the culture of the workplace. So it's not just the person experiencing the harassment, but it's also those who witness it that they also have an obligation to come forward and and report as well. But I should clarify, there is no requirement here that someone who witnesses the behavior report that is well, there is a reference here for an informal mechanism. And again, the line says the reporting system shall provide multiple options for reporting, including county, state and federal reporting options, as well as an informal mechanism such as the county's employee assistance program. I think Councilmember Caldwell spoke to that point. So I will. Go. On to note. In addition, the ordinance would require policies, procedures and training options for each entity managed by a separately elected official. As Councilmember Caldwell's indicated, that means this ordinance would apply to the legislative branch as well as other separately elected entities. The intent of this is that all county employees will be covered by a policy that has the same broad characteristics. It also specifically requires the policies, procedures and training options from each entity managed by a separately elected official to specifically address how to respond to complaints by employees that involve their elected officials. I want to note that the presiding judges of the King County Superior Court and the King County District Court have noted that while the subject matter of the proposed ordinance is extremely important, it would not be appropriate for the legislative branch to direct the training and reporting requirements of the judicial branch because of the constitutional mandates on the separation of powers, keeping the judiciary independent of other branches of government. The courts note that they've adopted their own policies and procedures. I've included those as attachment eight and nine, as well as an email from Judge Tucker. Both Judge Tucker and Judge in Being are here as well to answer any questions that the council members may have. Moving on now to the training requirements, I think it's fair to say that a policy without training will not be effective. The EEOC report includes many recommendations related to training. Now, on page 62 of my staff report, the training recommendations in the ordinance are on lines 114 to 118. In the EEOC report, it was noted that most of the training that's been done over the last 30 years has not worked as a prevention tool. And they they surmise that it's been too focused on simply avoiding legal liability and teaching participants the specific legal standards that will make conduct illegal. They suggest new and different approaches to training, and that these training, these different approaches should be explored, including identifying two new approaches. The first is a bystander intervention training, which is increasingly used to combat sexual violence on school campus. This is, again, kind of back to that concept of changing the culture so that it's not just the employee, but all coworkers as well feel like they have the tools to intervene when they witness harassing behavior. The second suggestion from the EEOC was to consider workplace what they call civility training that focuses on promoting respect and civility on the workplace generally rather than kind of specific compliance. Centered training. The ordinance requires the executive and the separately elected agencies to develop budget options for employee training for the Council to consider during the budget process . Given the size of the county's workforce, the ordinance allows for the training to be phased in over time. All of the transmitted training plans would be required to incorporate training intended to foster an equitable, respectful and inclusive workplace for all employees. That's trying to capture the concept of the workplace ability training that was mentioned. The EEOC report. At least one of the options proposed must be kind of a gold standard version, and that would include there are some specific requirements that the ordinance sets out. And those really are the. If if you were to do the best training possible, according to the EEOC, that's what it would include these particular features, most notably that it would be in-person or in an interactive and on or in person or an interactive online training. Also, we know that training just a one size fits all approach doesn't work. So requiring that there be a plan to address the specific needs of workplaces. The ordinance also requires reporting on the number of complaints by department and the type of complaint by protected class. These can be seen in the reporting requirements, which are lines 151 to 167 in the ordinance. The ordinance would also require the Office of Civil Rights to report on the number of complaints and the type of complaints by protected class. This information is currently collected by the Office of Civil Rights, but it's not reported to the Council. As I conclude my staff report, I would like to point out that there is an amendment and the amendments identified a drafting error that is on line 85, where the policy is referred to as an anti-harassment policy rather than as a nondiscrimination, anti-harassment and inappropriate conduct policy. I have prepared an amendment which is attachment to page 75 of your packet to make this correction. The amendment is consistent with the intent of the ordinance to address discrimination, harassment and inappropriate conduct. But Madam Chair, that does conclude my staff report. I know I went quickly and covered a lot, so I I'm happy to answer any questions that members may have as well as we have behind me. Members of the executive staff. Thank you. Again, you've just stuck. Three choirs. The Revised. We do not approve. You require all of this, but not. That is correct, Councilmember. You mentioned the PPV for. And I want to clarify that is. Could be worth. Question. Yes, that is correct. It is it is one option. We do not direct. We find that they set up. Obama. Only to have a place for employees to ask questions. And what are their options? All right. Are there any. Councilmember Lambert, thank you. Very much. I just have a couple of questions. Sure that's. Online 143 point authenticated each entity managed by is definitely like to sit there. That means that each of us has to do that. Of course it means. Ten. Thank you, Councilmember, for the question. The intent is that the Council would develop one set of policies for the legislative branch. The Superior Court would develop one set of policies for District Court. The. So I think that the plain reading may not say that. So maybe it's. And then I really like what you said about. I get to do the work stability in. You did not miss that. In drafting. Audience and networking reached reaching out to HRT. There was some concern that as well as coming from the office, there was some concerns that the connotations of the word civility may have different connotations to different groups of people. So then we use the language online. 123, 122 and 123, where it says it shall incorporate workplace training intended to foster an equitable, respectful and inclusive workplace for all employees. So. Somebody is yelling at that I repeated faces or being rude to a particular person on a repeated basis. Would those qualify under that definition? In terms of the training, I think the training, again, is intended to foster a respectful environment. My sense is yelling at people is not creating a respectful environment. Then the last question is we have a training, which I really think is important and reporting. But suppose you know that somebody goes through and reports it, but then it doesn't change. What's the change factor here? What will happen if somebody is continually rude or harassing in a non legal. Way but just. Harassing so that you feel uncomfortable coming to work? I wonder what that person is going to say. Rude to me today. Would that qualify? If you get up in the morning you got another day of hearing ex be rude to me. Would that be considered under this. Is not acceptable. So it sounds to me like you're asking two questions. One is the question about accountability. What happens if someone records the behavior? And I think your second question is a definitional question about what is included in inappropriate conduct. So you got to tackle the first question. The ordinance. Specifically requires. Let each entity develop reporting procedures. Those reporting procedures should include. And again I'm here looking at lines 83 to. 105 and specifically 99 to 1 0506 talking about the recording procedures. And then there is also a specific language talking about that the county will take prompt and proportionate corrective action. But I think as envisioned by this ordinance, each entity needs to develop reporting procedures and accountability mechanisms. But it's not dictated here in the ordinance what those are look like. But it also goes on specifically on lines 10821 11. Required that managers and supervisors promote an inclusive and respectful workplace. And requires that each executive in each entity managed by a separately elected official shall work to evaluate the progress and performance of the managers in doing that. And that was included directly based upon a. Recommendation in the report that there needs to be better accountability mechanisms. The managers need to be held accountable. Your second question about. What is included as inappropriate conduct. Again, the definitions are required by this ordinance to be included in each entity's. Policies as well as in those definitions, need to be easy to understand with specific examples. So I gave a definition that was from the executive's revised policy, and we would expect that each entity would transmit policies that would provide specific examples will be up, for example, to the legislative branch. You all are considering and approving the policy for this branch. What you want to include as the examples for that. So come on. Or not. That's another important part to me of having an informal process, but again, having each entity determine what that would be. But as Councilmember Lambert brought up some people who might be reluctant to even come to work because they just don't like the way they're being treated. It's not something they can. They feel uncomfortable filing a formal complaint because they don't think it's at that level. But they need some help. They just need to find out what can be done to help their particular worksite be more accommodating and then come. Councilmember Darcy. Thank you, Madam Chair. What is that? Is it the question for you or stand by. Each entity must develop their own entities. You talk about. Thank you, Mr. Gosset. That is referring to separately elected agencies. So, for example, the CAP, the legislative branch would develop a set of policies under this. Ordinance, the Superior Court would develop the District Court. The PAO. It sounds like we may need to clarify that. Language that it's. It's not clear as it's currently grad. School a degree that here might have been. You said earlier that they already heard from the superior court and as the court said that this. Right now the government. But the de la Rosa District Board, secured or not included? But the intent of the legislation is for all branches to be included. I wanted to highlight in my staff report that the Superior Court and District Court have raised concerns specifically regarding the judicial branch because of the constitutional mandate of a separation of powers. And both judge in being and Judge Tucker are here. And if. You had further questions. From them. We'd like to say to. I've had conversations with Judge. Exchange with Judge Tucker that. I don't want to have. Harassment. Then there were those considered. I think the issue is that we cannot. Dictate to them. What? So when. We have them come up. Later on. Well, they're not. If they want to come up, that's fine. They have indicated. They don't need to. They are here. So I'm going to have some questions that they need to come up. Maybe they get it now. Okay. And I do need to remind everybody, we have three people who have been waiting to. Be on the panel. I want to make sure that we talk to. I'd like to first say thank you to. All right. Too late to become a board of the leaders of your respective sectors of one of our important branches of government. But I often hear us talk about being one team and. While the counties the county executive in particular talks about one an old variety of. It was when he was talking about coming. Government. So I'm trying to figure out how it is that with the two of you, what does it mean that we're a separate branch until the government has all this applied to us? But if it if that's true, what do we do to ask you all to consider adopting this measure? Either one. We don't have Mike. All right. Well, thank you for that question. And it's complicated and it's a long civics lesson that I'm probably not the best one to be giving. But as we all do want to acknowledge the importance of. This topic and in your. Packet, Superior Court has provided. Three separate policies. One is the administrative. The policies for general employees. The other is the policy. On this subject relating to payments, because there are. Different group and then we have internal policies related to the elected officials and the judicial, the non-elected judicial officers as well. That covers this very topic and. Court maybe. Not so coincidentally, we've been conducting all. Court training. Over this this past. Spring, mandatory training for all. Of our employees on this topic. And in fact, we have a half day. Judges meeting at the end of June where we're bringing. In a consultant to talk about. And train. Us on these issues so that that's not the issue. The issue is a general one, and I am sure you can appreciate it in this climate. When we look at the federal. Government. And sort of the tons of. Law between the branches. And the. Concern about perhaps not full respect of the independent. Judiciary. That perhaps we're a little more sensitive than we would be in other times. And so saying that we have policies, but that it wouldn't be appropriate for the legislative branch to indicate to us what those policies should be. We're governed by example. As the presiding judge. Both of us are governed by Washington State Supreme Court in general Rule 29, which. Specifically indicates. Our obligations to. Govern our our employees and develop our. Own policies. And then, of course, the Judicial Conduct Commission. Oversees the any. Missteps of judges as well. I'd just like to add to Judge End being statement that you are 29. Applies to us and our responsibilities to manage our courts in accordance with the court rules and the canons of judicial conduct, which are not included anywhere in these. Charts about. What that is, and specifically g r 29 prohibits us from delegating that authority or the permission to the legislative or the executive. So not only are we required to do it, we cannot delegated, even if we wanted to if we wanted to say, Hey, would you write our policies for us? You guys are great, we'd like you to do it. The Judicial Conduct Commission would come down on me for allowing the blurring of the separation of powers between the court and the executive and the Legislative Council member. Got it. And in relationship to your question about what is a separately elected and King County one, this has been a struggle for me personally in dealing with the county's master labor agreement and the counties, you know, master agreements and in terms of labor and so forth, because I have absolute responsibilities under Chapter 29 to manage the courts employees . I have an absolute. Obligation to maintain the separateness between us and the county. But I also have an obligation to work with the county, and the courts have no interest in working contrary to the county's processes and procedures. So one of the things that I could see that this legislation could do to make it clear is, first of all, don't call us separately elected. We are a separate branch in the executive's office, likes to call us separately elected all the time. Separately elected in this county are the elections office is the sheriff's office is the King County prosecutor's office. The separately elected in this county are those people who report directly under the executive. You are a separate branch of government. The courts are a separate branch of government. We are not separately elected. And when we start to blur that line in our code, the public starts to think that there's no separation between the courts. And that's my concern. That's really my only concern. I'm very conscious of the time right now is the shows we are going to have to move on. This is an issue I think we all are aware of, and I think that's a good suggestion about the change in terminology which we can do. I, for one, am comfortable with the judicial branch is very responsive. Responsible to having. All county employees. Be protected as much as possible. But I know we cannot do. We have two very. Are you. All right? This is an important issue for me because I think I've missed. What is the status of the. Legislation is that. Exclude. They are not. Just these things that we have to change. It's an issue here. We recognize. And so we I'm very open to amendments. This came out fairly late trying to deal with. Before the conflict. Thank you both very much. I would steal one quick question. I get credit for that. We want to know. If can you. Okay. I look now at a good word on the debt culture and anything. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. And I'm sorry we are really running out of time and I appreciate our customer feedback to say you can go home, but later I'm not sure. Of I would like to move to our panel who have been sitting here. And we also have Jay Osborne here. They meet with directors of human resources that we have a panel of and. We as I mentioned, we've been working with a group of experts. Not all that come today. I'm absolutely appreciative that we have the three we have here today and then introduce each one and then let them speak for 5 minutes or so. Jason Morse is a member of the Kent County Board for Developmental Disabilities, which is a citizen advisory board that provides oversight of community services for children with developmental delays and adults with developmental disabilities and the families of these individuals. He's been a longtime advocate for people with disabilities and recently confirmed him for the board. Our Ken Pollack is legal architect and API chair. I'm from the Mispronounce State, which is an API to provide support to people who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, forced marriage and human trafficking. Our last panelist is Lauren Paris was a. Partner. And also Fetterman. Ms.. Swartz frequently advises employers and employees on all aspects of employment law, including discrimination and retaliation disability accommodations. FMLA and other leave laws. And we're going to have Lauren it all together up to the other two or three. So, Jason, please go ahead. Thank you so much. And thank you to all our members who are here. As I was sitting back there listening and I think this is such a crucial element in our workforce to address inappropriate behaviors as well as other elements that's in this policy. I know as a person with developmental disabilities and delay socialization and coming from a part of the country that have different emphasis on behaviors, that is so important as an employee that we constantly train and and go over. What was a professionalism was inappropriate. And it's like mowing grass. You're always going to have to do it. And, you know, and it's a constant process. So onboarding new employees about our culture, what it looks like to be a King County employee, our professionalism, these are very important aspects and getting work done. And this is the whole point of having this so we can go to work and get things done. And you can't do that when you have inappropriate behavior, unprofessionalism, etc., and so on. And so, you know, we always have to constantly do this. And there's a concept in manufacturing. Safety starts with our behavior. And yes, you can put the earplugs on, but they had the yellow lines. But, you know, you have to instill that in every individual. And it's a culture and a mindset. And and, you know, I'm constantly always checking my own behavior and my own example, doing my own work so I can produce the best results possible and create the top environment where we all win. So thank you for inviting me. Thank you very much to. Thank you for having me here today to talk about this topic. I can do it. Okay. No worries. So first, when I was brainstorming about these issues, I think it's really important that the King County employees have the safest environment possible to report within. I think particularly it's important to have a diverse team that they are reporting to and handling these issues because it's helpful for employees to see themselves in the people that they're reporting to. And that may help increase reports as well. And I think it's also important to tailor the situation to the employee. So asking who they feel most comfortable speaking to. Sometimes people want to speak to someone of the same gender, someone they know better, or someone they know less. So I think making sure that you're asking those questions and those requests, they're being accommodated is really important. And like Jason said, I think ongoing training and education is imperative. It's important that employees know exactly what harassing harassment means, what exactly discrimination means, and how those play out in reality. And so I don't think handing a stack of papers to sign, you know, once a year is really practical in asking for more. All right. And asking for honesty and what's actually happening in the workplace. So I think, you know, in-person trainings, ongoing trainings is really imperative. And it's also really important to encourage employees to report anything that's making them uncomfortable. So it doesn't necessarily have to rise to the level of legal definitions of harassment and discrimination. I think just having an open door policy is what's most. Important. So that if anything comes up that they can just have a conversation. And I know in dealing and interacting with our clients who are survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual assault, sometimes all they need and all they're looking for is validation in that moment that what's going on is not okay, that there is something they can do, and that if that's what they want to do, that there are people there to help them do that. And I also want to point out that it's really important to understand the role of culture in issues like harassment and discrimination in certain cultures. I'm Indian, you know, there's a lot of shame and stigma in talking about sexual harassment or sexual assault, things like that. So I think also understanding that and why someone may not report if there's not a very comfortable work environment in which to do that is important. And lastly, I know that this has been said a couple of times, and that makes me really happy, is that there can't just be a one size fits all solution for this. I think every situation has to have its own approach and it has to be tailor made to that. And I think also having input from the employee is really important throughout the entire process so that they don't feel like the situation is happening to them, but they feel like they're part of the solution as well. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, Lauren Paris. Why it says I can't remember a quote well said I'm also a fireman where I'm a partner in a practice employment law. I'm also King County resident and councilmember consents district. In addition to practicing employment law, I also sit on my firm's executive committee, so I've been part of its recent reboot of our procedures and policies and trainings. So I've sat where you are trying to figure out these issues for my own firm, and I've also given, I know, about a half dozen presentations in the past three or four months on the issue of responding and preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. So I wanted to give you just in 5 minutes the things that I am advising my own claims about how to create a culture shift. The laws are not new. These are issues that we've been dealing with for a long time. And so what I'm hearing from management, from employers is, you know, we already have a policy, already have procedures in place, in training, already have an investigation process. And so what are you telling me that's any different than what we've done? How is that going to create any kind of culture shift? So this is the advice I've been giving or giving in a couple of words. So in terms of your policies and trying to change the status quo, I think the inclusion of inappropriate conduct, which that that's already in the proposed legislation is very important because it starts there and it's not something that you see that we've seen in a lot of policies because the policies are really focused on the legal definition. By the time it gets to the point that somebody is legally sexually harassing somebody or engaging in conduct, that rises to the level of sexual harassment or discrimination, it's it's gone too far . And so by including inappropriate conduct, you're going to stop that behavior and let people in the workplace know early on that it's not tolerated here. I'm also having a bystander responsibility that's talked about in the proposed legislation that's very big because that tells not only the victim that they have a safe place to go, go to and report, but also tells those who are around, who are witnessing it, that it's important that they to go and report, that they, too, have responsibilities, duties to go and make sure that this is properly investigated training. You've heard this already, that it needs to be tailored, not one size fits all. I think management has gotten into the rhythm of trying to make sure that there's an affirmative defense if it ever goes to court. And so there's these online quick through ten minute trainings. I think in the in the staff report, it says King County is currently it's ten or 15 minutes on onboarding and then each department gets to decide how they're going to continue training after that. It's really important, if you can. I know with 14,000 employees, this is not probably practical. But I tell people if you can do in-person, do that, if you can't be very intentional about the training, think through who are the people who are being trained? How can we make this interactive so that they can ask questions? That's going to go much further than them sitting behind a computer and just clicking through in five or 10 minutes. Also specialized training for managers, and that's also talked about in a proposed legislation. I think it really is talk down to the managers knowing how to spot it, how to respond, that they too have responsibilities to to do something when they observe it. They cannot just wait for a a report from somebody from a complainant that they need to go and investigate it if they witness it themselves. So that should be covered in the training management accountability, meaning that if you find out that a manager knew about something and they didn't take action because they were a bystander, that they would there be an investigation and holding that manager accountable for not going through the steps. If managers think that they don't need to do anything, you're not going to change the culture. Lastly, well, actually to two point follow up, I think employers get into this scary space of not knowing they're trying to balance privacy concerns with also following up, we don't want to disclose this person, this employee's information. We don't want to say that we've disciplined them in some way or another so they do nothing. What we know with respect to sexual harassment is that only 25% of the victims will actually report. 75% will say that they face retaliation. There's definitely a concern or a fear that nothing will be done. So if they had the courage to come forward and report and then they see that nothing's done or they experience retaliation, you're only reinforcing all of the fears that they had. So you know what? I'm advising my clients. As you go in and you tell them at the end whether it was found, the person who complained, found it or unfounded, whether disciplinary action was taken or not taken. There's lots of other ways to have that conversation with them without violating the privacy concerns. Obviously, you cannot go and put on a poster up and tell everybody in the office and all of the times these things circulate. But letting the complainant know that something was done rather than just assuming that that they know that you took care of it, is better. And then lastly and often are already talked on this, the reporting systems thinking about who is identified. And when we look at our own policies, we see that, you know, one or two people were identified. They kind of look the same. They're kind of the same demographic. Are people in the office going to feel comfortable going to those people? And if they look nothing like them or they don't have shared experiences or really thinking intentionally about how do we create a culture shift and not just relying on what we've done for the last few decades. Thank you. Council member. A lot of times I go to places where. The men and women I'm talking about on this issue of harassment is. And they said, Well, then my culture and the black culture. Everybody says honey and baby. I guess I'm my. We see that as. You know, I wanted a language or a rap. You got any thoughts on that? Yeah. And actually, we dealt with that exact question in our in our training at my firm. And it was a Southern example, somebody going to the South and getting sweetie and cotton. And the response is, I don't think that you can get that specific in your definitions of what's inappropriate. Right. Because there's going to be a different culture depending upon where you are. But when the person learns that honey or sweetie or whatever is not going to be acceptable, acceptable, it's unwelcome to that person who's receiving it that the action, the corrective action should be proportionate. So you would hear from them. I didn't know that that was on what you'd hear from the person who's been complained against. I didn't know that that was inappropriate. I didn't understand that they found that to be unwelcome. But I will make the necessary changes and then you hold them accountable for doing so. So you need to look at every situation individually. Not to say that it's all about intent, because I'm not trying to suggest that it is. But but it is true that there's going to be different cultures in different areas of the country and different cultures, you know, different races and so forth. Something like that would not rise to an action. No. It's an education. Business. Through education training. To find out. And I think in your proposed legislation, it says that you'll take prompt and proportionate corrective action so that that covers that, that somebody's not going to be fired because they. Said, sweetie. Any other questions? The Council members must be. Thank you very much for having this. There's some ground breaking moves. Around the dinner table. A new legal standard. This isn't the way. One of the things that is a. To give it to distinguish. Expertize from the third party mandatory. You're hosting the team's duty, and you're doing it for yourselves. Something. It might be. And I could see some employees. Not until I don't want to get involved in. Are there other issues around that? We have mandatory reporting for people. Doctors are screening folks. Okay. Tremendous stuff. Maybe I'm misreading. Just remember, they're about the answer to the question about the ordinance. But I think the legal question. Miss Watson is definitely. Better situated to answer that question. But the ordinance does not require bystanders to report. The reference to the bystanders. Was in the. Options that the EOC suggestion for training was. That was part of a cultural shift in the training to encourage employees to report if they see something. So kind of that see something face or see some, see something, face, whatever that is that that that concept. But there is no requirement in the ordinance. They're just investment. It's up to each. Agency to create their specific, detailed policies. The ordinance doesn't. Require that that policy include this requirement that bystanders or. The reference to the. Bystanders is in an option for best practices for training, which is one of the recommendations of the. You seem to be trying to change the culture so that and I think the phrase they used on the record is it's on us. Everyone. It's up to everybody in the in the workplace culture to speak up. But I think, you know, it does stem the bystander responsibility, which stems from a concern that kind of marginalized community is not going to feel safe, necessarily speaking up from themselves. And so if we put all the responsibility on them and nothing on everybody else, that we're not going to actually see a culture shift. And the one thing I'll say, though, it's not in the proposed legislation, but I do believe that the management, to the extent that they are saying something and maybe I'm misremembering the proposed legislation, that the management does have some responsibility to do something if they see something. And that makes sense. Yeah. Thank you. Councilmember. Have a question. Thank you. And then I just want to let people know now we're obviously not going. Today. Thankfully, you have some more work to do. Some really important issues were brought up. This is something we've been working on for a long time. So this applies not only to your manager and employee, but peer to peer ship, right? Yep. Okay. So I'm very interested in this ability issue because if you don't get civility right in the office, then it will lead to other things. So not criminal, but just not a good working relationship. So. My concern is the courts have a judicial conduct commission, which I think is a very good plan, where, you know, it's not working for the judicial conduct mission. And this doesn't give us any employee conduct commission or place where they can go to be discussed about what's happening. And there should be some accountability to that person. Do you realize when you do X, Y or Z how that is. Perceived by somebody else and then it needs to. Stop. And one of the things that. As we get older, we learn better words. But as a younger person, which of course, was last week for me, you know, being afraid to say this hurts me, or I think that that's not appropriate. As you get older, you feel more comfortable to do that. But I think we need some words. That are kind of suggestions when this happens. Here are words that you can use that will help empower people. So that would be my suggestion. And having some empowering words and. And a place to take it. Half the members of the team. Turns out that if you call your co-sponsors. We? All demonstrate that we are, by the way, of all of our. Four years to. Demonstrate that we are taking additional steps. It is required. But I'm sitting here thinking about sort of the famous old saying there's culture needs strategy for breakfast. And in this case, you can say culture policy for breakfast. You can have great policy. You can have great training. But. But if the culture is such that. As soon as the people arrived back at the office in. House fires. Boys are. Supervisors or managers. And implicitly or explicitly. Okay. But here's how we really. Or not, it doesn't have any impact on you like so. So I'm going to be very interested. In how we think about implementation and. One of the things I really appreciate about this audience and I think it's a really nice innovation, is that it puts us in. Elected officials sitting up here that we also have accountability. Because I think we need to walk the talk. Message down for the organization that. Well, it's okay for you, the Congress. I do have. A question. That is probably a legal question. And I know. I'm very mindful. Still she needs both very old. The idea of people not being. To even step. Into the space of talking about what's happened. And the 25%. 75% of. And of that small minority report, 75%. That is those are really challenging statistics and. We have an obligation on some. Says Harvey Weinstein. Truly her asking. That we go do something. So I'm a little concerned that. We need to get it right here, that we want to have. It in. These were women or men to come forward and say something out. But we also. Have to be mindful of the fact that we can't promise that states can't. This is just in for. So that's what I'm saying. I mean, these are for you to speak to it, but. In the ordinance or propose ordinance. I if does talk about confidentiality and maintaining it to the extent possible because you cannot promise confidentiality. You know in the conversation that some of the different community members had with Councilmember Cole? Well, prior to this, we talked about this idea of having kind of an informal complaint in and how an employer can respond to that. Because once, you know, you know. And and you can't. Not take action because this there was a concern from more of an advocacy standpoint of, well, somebody might be more comfortable if they know that no action will be taken. And as an employer, you just don't have the liberty of saying, I can promise you ahead of time that nothing will happen. I don't. Want to. I think so. On the one hand. These advance tickets. Wait, before you tell me anything, I must warn you that this conversation may not be done. It. It just kind of pours. More like salt in the wound of why people. We are obligated to do something. So that sounds to me like I still. So I. I appreciate that. And it's something that we think. A lot of I mentioned school districts to colleges and universities do. And what we're thinking about is more other classes that would be developed by food departments, not by. For people to seek out information they don't know if they should. It's not. They want to just know what their options. Perhaps they science. This is all that's happening. We are going to have to stop. I have discussed this with the chair of the Maskey. We will not take action today. To have. Ah, we do have a time urgency because there are budget and appropriations for us for taking this problem. In the summer. So we will do that. We will be working on refining the language. And I'm feeling very positive that we are going to come out with the best policies and procedures throughout our whole system and any place local government, state government in the entire country. I hope to have Jasper come forward and shape. You can come back. We did have a couple of other people wanting to make comment in the public comment period. Larry King at our next meeting. Thank you all very much. Very good. And the meeting with the.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Tanya Hannah as the director of the King County department of information technology.
king_b3c246d4-f960-4e92-be5a-467a290781ca	Right then, given that it is 930, we have a quorum and we have a very full agenda. I'm going to call to order the September 15th minute meeting of the committee of the whole. As we start today, I would like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present, and we thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continued to live here since time immemorial. I would also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community in keeping with the public health emergency. We are meeting via Zoom today rather than in person. Governor has issued an emergency order suspending the sections of the Open Public Meetings Act that require us having a physical space for the public to watch or meeting. We have several items on today's agenda. First, in motion to fill a vacancy in the Southwest Division of District Court, followed by a motion requesting the executive to provide an assessment report on roles and responsibilities related to homelessness to the homelessness crisis. And then we have a briefing on the best efforts for kids implementation plan and concluding with In Motion requesting that the Executive transmit a report relating to City Hall part. I would ask to manage the meeting that our members of the public as well as executive and guests who are here to participate in the meeting. Keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. Additionally, if you're connecting to the meeting via cell phone and you'd like to offer public comment, I would strongly encourage you to connect via the Zoom application to eliminate a possible delay and issue technical issues and get on mute in your line with that. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Belushi here. Council member Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Cole, once again, councilmember member here, councilmember of the girl here. Councilmember Bong. Right there. Here. Council members only. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair. You have a quorum. Great. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of a September 1st meeting? So move. Mr. Chair, we have the minutes of our September 1st meeting before us. Senior discussion. All those in favor please signify by saying i. I. Those opposed nay. On. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Well, now turn to public comment. Do we have anyone on the line for public comment today? Mr. Chair, it looks like we could possibly have one person. Would you like me to check with that person before? Okay. Mark Johnston, are you here for public comment? Yes, I am. Great. Thank you. Hey, Mark. You're a veteran of public comment, and we know we can take your audio works. So I would invite you all open public comment and invite you to share your 2 minutes of comment with us. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name's Mark Johnston, and I'm from Skyway. It's a great day to be from Skyway. Today, though, I'm troubled. We recently passed a sad anniversary. A member of my community, Min Fu, was gunned down and killed a block away from where I live here in Skyway. On August 20th, 2012. That's nine years ago. That murder has never been solved. Yet. Today, I understand the county is asking to make special budgetary arrangements to try to purchase a park to increase public safety for the for the. County seat. And while I think that's a laudable goal. I just wonder why. It's coming in a special way and not in regular budget time. And while crimes that are just as serious as have happened at the county. Have been ignored. In Skyway, a community that you have budgetary budgetary authority over. Renfrew death occurred on a very dark street with no street light. King County doesn't even provide the public safety measure of street lights. Universally throughout the Skyway. Where is the concern for public safety in your communities? So I urge you to not only take up the matter of public safety in Seattle. At your business location, but also throughout the county in the unincorporated area. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mark. Just to confirm, is there. Is there any. Madam Clerk, would you take everyone off mute? Just a moment. Mr. Chair, I just asked everybody to mute themselves. Because their unmute yourself and let me know if you would like to offer public comment. We haven't got you. Hearing no one. I thank you, Madam Clerk. Would you re mute all the lines, please? Okay, Mr. Chair. Great. Thank you. And with that, we will close public comment. And our first, if you will, business item on today's agenda will make an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the Southwest Division of the King County District Court, a process governed by King County Code. For the appointment in front of us today, the Council advertised the vacancy and accepted applications until August 9th of this year. We received two applications from three eligible candidates during the application period. And before we proceed further, I want to provide members and attendees with an overview of how this process today will work. Members should have received the rapid the application materials by email on Thursday in these emails. These materials were sent around again yesterday afternoon and again this morning by email. We will begin today's proceedings with a brief staff report on the motion from Erika Neumann of council staff. And after that, the committee will interview each candidate, one at a time. During the interview, the candidates not being interviewed will be placed in the zoom waiting room as do not get advance on the interview questions or the other candidates responses. Once each candidate has been interviewed, if there is interest among the council members, the committee will go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of the candidates. We would then rejoin Zoom the Zoom meeting before making any decisions and taking up the motion itself. Are there any questions on how this process would work? Becoming rather frequent. So I am hearing none are Muslim and the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Their consuming council central. The items for a proposed motion 2020 10336 begin on each end of your packet. The applicant packet also includes the judicial ratings for each candidate, which start on page 14. A little bit about District Court. District Court is the county's quarter limited jurisdiction and has responsibility for misdemeanor criminal offenses in the county's unincorporated, unincorporated areas. And the court handles approximately 250,000 filings annually throughout the north, south, east and west divisions. The proposed motion is to fill position one in the South Division, and it was made vacant by the retirement of Judge David Christie. Under state law, the King County Council, as the county's legislative authority, is directed to fill district court vacancies by appointment. As you mentioned, there are three eligible candidates to be interviewed in. The selected candidate will fill the remainder of Judge Christie's term, which ends in January of 2023. In its current form, proposed motion 2020 10336 has a blank for the name of the person being appointed. A verbal amendment will be needed to insert the name of the selected appointee. Mr. Chair. That concludes my remarks. Thank you to the questions from his name and. Thank you then. I expect each interview to take roughly 20 minutes and would ask each candidate to be prepared to provide opening and closing remarks and responses to a set series of questions from council members each to limiting your responses to 2 minutes to the opening. Closing remarks and the questions, please. Members should have received a set of prepared suggested interview questions by email yesterday from my office, which were then reset before the meeting. Today, in accordance with past practice, I would ask for members to volunteer to ask the prepared interview questions and candidates again will be asked to respond in 2 minutes before the meeting. We randomly assign the order of interviews and will begin with Brian Todd, followed by David Vogel and lastly, Ivie. Vargas unless there are any questions. This would be the time to speak up. I would ask the cleric in a moment to place Mr. Vogel and Ms.. Vargas museum waiting room. Any questions? See none. Madam Couric If you would escort Mr. Vogel and Mrs. Vargas to the waiting room, and as a reminder to members and staff, please let the clerks admit people from the waiting room and avoid the particular technology temptation to click the admit button ourselves. And if we can confirm when the other two are in the waiting room. Not certain. Mr. Chair, what signal has the police give us? Just a moment. Of course. Mr. Chair, do you want to sign? Who's going to ask the questions? I will take you. Eager volunteers. I've had a particular volunteer for question five already. Okay. Well, then, let's see. I would like to take number two then. I will expect you to step up and ask question number two. Then I'll be happy to make. I didn't ask question one, Mr. Chair, unless. You plan on doing that one. It's yours. Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if our host is having technical difficulties and I am unable to move. Our guests to the. Waiting room. So we are. Waiting. If you'll give us just one more moment. I apologize. No worries whatsoever. You have one candidate in the waiting room, Mr. Chair, and are waiting for the other person to enter and wait. No worries whatsoever. Both candidates are now in the waiting room. Great. Meanwhile, I was accidentally trying to print a 92 page document instead of one page document, so I was having my own technical issues as well. With that. Mr. TODD Good morning and welcome. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Thank you. There you might hear my printer finally printing that one page document, and I would invite you to introduce yourself and share your opening remarks. All right. Thank you. I'm sorry. Mr. Tribe and I will claim rustiness because it's been weeks since we've appointed the District Court. Let me more warmly welcome you to the interview. Thank you. And let let you know that we do appreciate the time you're spending with us today. The time it's taken to prepare the extensive application materials and your interest in serving in district court. And we look forward to this conversation with you. And with that, I invite you to share your opening remarks. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And likewise, I appreciate the council's time. And in doing this process, I do think it's an important process. So, Mr. Chair, my my opening statement to you this morning is more of an introduction about me and how I came to be here today with you. I know many of you were on the council five years ago. It was approximately May 2016 when I first interviewed for a position in the King County District Court to be appointed by the King County Council. I was an, you know, and an eager attorney that wanted to serve the county as a judge. However, at that time, I had no experience. I had not protested anywhere. I had not had the opportunity to get to experience what it means to be a judge, experience what it means to have people in front of me and experience what it means to make decisions for other people and in disputes. But when I did not get that position, I did not give up. I kept going. I kept trying. And I was thinking, you know, I need to make myself better. As far as having the skills, having the ability to be a judge and to be of the pro town. And so slowly I started reaching out to courts and actually I first reached out to Judge Walden and I took, well, a municipal court and said, hey, you guys accept pro tem, do you, training programs. And thankfully, she. Took me under her wing and I started programing in tech. Well, I still had a practice at that time. And so my, my availability for being a pro tem was a little bit limited. And so I looked deep down within my heart, within my soul, and said, You know what? I want to be committed to the judiciary in the state of Washington, largely in King County. I want to be committed to them. And so I made the hard decision. Oops. All right. So I made the really, really hard decision to give up my practice, start not taking any more clients, and just focus on being a pro tem judge for the state of Washington and for King County. And so from tech, well, I had been approached him in federal way in Renton in the morning in SeaTac and pull up in Lake Forest Park. And it's been an amazing experience and an amazing opportunity. And as a matter of fact, I will add that recently, a month ago, as a matter of fact, I completed the pro tem training for King County District Court. And so I really do feel as though now is the time when I am ready to step in, ready to be a judge for King County District Court judge that would do this council very proud and would do a very good job with being a judge in King County District Court. And so that's kind of how I got here today, started from no experience to being a very experienced, confident, assured judge and would be a good judge for King County. Thank you. And I apologize. That buzzer is, in fact, the two minute timer. I'm certainly happy to have you conclude your thought, but that that will be the indication that we've had 2 minutes. Left in these councilmen. When I said that, I didn't know that was the time for so. You know, quite all right. And if someone would ask the first question, please. Thank you for being here. Judge Todd, always great to see you. First question is, what is it about your particular skills and and interests that would make you a good fit for King County District Court? So I think the particular skills that I have is I do have the experience as a pro tem judge. I have experience presiding over any phase of criminal proceedings from arraignments, making decisions with bond hearings, pretrial pleas, sentencings. I have experience presiding over criminal trials. I presided over a civil criminal trials in Renton. I recently presided over two criminal trials in Charlotte, actually last November during the age of COVID, when where we dealing with social distancing and dealing with keeping juries separate. And so I have those skills to be able to do that. I presided over civil code enforcement trials in Des Moines. And so it just I had the experience to be able to make those decisions, to be able to preside over those types of cases and to be able to do well in the job. As far as district court in particular, I do have mediation experience mediating cases in King County District Court. You know, so as sitting as a judge in a small claims trial or in a small claims situation, you know, I know what goes on in small claims. I know how mediation works. And I know, you know, that's the best way for the parties to be able to do that. One other skill that I do have, I am bilingual. I can't speak Spanish. His wife conducted hearings in Spanish for clients who are appreciative of the fact that a judge speaks their language. They feel relaxed, they feel relieved that somebody is actually there and able to really, truly hear them. And so I really do feel, as I do have the experience and the skills and the ability to step right in to work in King County District Court. Thank you so much. Thank you. In here. Thank you for saying that you speak Spanish because I was looking at that. But I was going to start by saying. What is this. Mean? Okay. So my question is, what do you see as the most significant challenge currently facing district court and how do you think it ought to be addressed? So I think one of the biggest challenges facing District three, quite frankly, all the courts in the area is the trial backlog that they're seeing. You know, obviously, we've been on hold for the past 18 months with our trials. And I know from Judge Mahoney presented at the King County District Court program training about a month ago and indicated that the trial backlog is significant. And so, you know, I would be able to step in and I would be able to to do that. And so I think but I think Councilmember, I think your question is kind of more broad. You know, how can we address that issue? I think it's focusing on, you know, prioritizing those cases that need to get to trial, get them done. One other thing that is also current right now is just the access to the courts. You know, the buildings are closed and in general, people can and still do need to be able to come in. And so King County District Court's actually done a really good job in moving a lot to the electronic filing. I got a really good job in trying to provide more access. So I think it's just continue to provide that access to people is one of the biggest challenges right now in this current situation. You know, structurally we have the trial backlog, but then also we have just the general access to the courts. And so it's it's what it is. It's an opportunity to really think outside the box. And, you know, we did that at the beginning of this pandemic with allowing court hearings to occur by Zoom, allowing people to appear electronically, allowing them to peer virtually. And it's worked. And so, you know, I think that thinking outside the box led to a lot of innovation. And I think it can only continue to lead to more innovation. And so just making sure people have that access and have the ability to have their their cases heard in court, I think is the biggest challenge the court is currently facing as a as a structure. Thank you. A volunteer for question three. Sure. Sure. I'll ask him. Thank you. Thank you. And welcome back. I remember meeting you some years ago and really glad to hear that you really worked hard at it and getting more experiences then it's good to see you again. You the. Third. Question for you is would you please describe your efforts to implement equity and social justice. Practices. In the criminal justice system? Mm hmm. One thing that I, you know, always had and always had in mind is that, you know, people come from different backgrounds. And I saw people come from different places. And so one thing that I always try to do is listen, you know, I think listening is the first thing to provide that equality and provide that that focus for people. The other thing that we really have to remember as judges is we do all have implicit biases. And so it's always being mindful that there are those biases that I have. And I always make a conscious effort to not let them enter into my decision making. I have been in something as simple as a traffic infraction calendar or excuse me, probably not simple, but, you know, less complex as a traffic infraction calendar. And as I have the participants come in front of me, I have thought in my head, am I making the same decision mistakes that I just made in the case prior ? Am I going to be making the same decision, you know, in the future for the exact same situation? And so it it is it's realizing the biases that we have, making sure that we're aware of them, making sure that we apply the law fairly to everyone because it should be applied fairly. One of the way that I've actually been part of a project to increase that type of access and to increase that inclusivity is in my position at the Office of Administrative Hearings on Chief Administrative Law. Judge Loraine Lee personally asked me to be part of a project to put together to conduct unemployment hearings in Spanish, completely in Spanish, Spanish speaking judge, which would be would have been myself and one other judge. And so that was an amazing opportunity for me to really, truly open up access and inclusivity and in implementing any. We're doing it. Please, you. Welcome. Finish your thought. No, I was. I was saying. It's just it's been an amazing, amazing opportunity to to be part of that project. And, you know, I would look forward to doing similar type projects and keep trying this record as well. I think it'd be incredible. Thank you. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Hi, Brian. Sorry about that buzzer. It's what? It's what customer one right now uses on me when I ask a third question. So we we apologize for that. But I've got the fourth question here today. It's great to see you again and look through your materials. Very impressive. In our question here on number four is how do you approach judicial matters that you're not familiar with? One thing I've done before is I've reached out to two other judges. I was in trial presiding over a trial in Renton, and there was a somewhat novel issue that came up with jury instructions. And so we we were on a normal break. I think it might have been lunch break, but I called I called Judge Murphy Richards, and I said, you know, here's the situation. What's your what's your thought on it? You know, what what's your input on it? You know, knowing that I eventually would have to make that decision. The other thing that I do, if something comes upon me that I'm not familiar with, is I prepare. I definitely make sure that I know what's going on, what's in front of me. One novel situation I had was with code enforcement. I had never dealt with code enforcement in my practice. I've never had to deal with it with any clients. And so when that came in front of the judge, you know, the court had asked me to come in there previous. I was reviewing the calendar days ahead of time and I saw what was going on. And so I went in, I looked up the city code, I looked up the enforcement of the code. I looked at the procedures for civil code enforcement, hearing, that kind of thing. So if I'm not familiar with it, I researched it, I prepare, I consult with other colleagues and get get the best information, knowing that in the end, I'm the one that gets gets to or has to make that decision. And so I'm comfortable if something comes in front of me that I'm going to wear it, I will certainly learn about it really quickly. Awesome. Thank you so much, Brian. Thank you. Chancellor Merkel was. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Brian, again, thank you for being with us today. And I have a question for you. If you were a judge in the courtroom and an attorney clearly were to display bias in the courtroom, such as calling a female witness by her first name and her male counterpart by his surname. What, if anything, do you think a judge should do? And if that seems like maybe a fairly minor example of a bias. I would appreciate hearing something else that you think would be germane. Sure. So I think the the answer to that is absolutely. A judge has the obligation to step in, to maintain, you know, the proper decorum, the proper respect and the proper confidence in the judicial system. And so if I were to see an attorney exhibiting bias in that manner, probably what I would do would be to remind all parties that we address everybody by their last name. You know, everybody deserves the same respect that needs to be exhibited there. If there's a situation where there's anything more egregious than that, I'm not trying to disrespect it certainly is the judge's obligation to step in, to maintain control of the courtroom and to maintain that there's that appearance of fairness. You know, this is the court system. And in this particular one, it's the King County District Court, you know. And so we need to remember that we represent King County. We need to remember that we represent the judiciary. We need to remember that we represent those that are neutral. And so it's absolutely the obligation of the attorney to step in, you know, if need be a conversation may need to be had with counsel on the record, with opposing counsel there as well, reminding them of the need to always show respect, not show bias if it continues. You know, I judges have certain powers to be able to find somebody, you know, in contempt if that's really what needs to if it's if it's that flagrant. I know that's probably taking it a little bit to the to the extreme in that manner. But Councilman Caldwell's, I think to answer your question, absolutely. The judge has an obligation to step in. I'm confident being able to do that. I'm confident. And in knowing that, I always try to show respect and trust and confidence to every person that's in front of me. I expect everybody that's in front of me as well to also show that respect and that confidence. So thank you. Thank you. And I would ask you to please share your closing remarks with us. All right. Thank you. Councilman Ross, thank you so much again for this opportunity. And I really feel it. I really feel like this is the time that I'm ready to step in. I'm ready to do this. I have the experience that I have. I've trained with the King County District Court, and I'm ready to step in and ready to do it. You know, I, I my story is not necessarily a story of struggle. My story is not a story of it being difficult to do things. As I was growing up, as I was going through school, as I black, that kind of thing. I think it was a little bit of the opposite. But you know what? That is what sticks in my mind every single time that I'm on the bench is that I know that where I came from is different than where other people came from. I have that in mind every single time, and I care. I care about the people that come in front of me. I care that they are receiving a fair hearing. I care that they feel that they've been heard. I feel obligated to provide that justice to those people that are fair, that is fair, and that they feel that they've received a fair hearing when they come and find me. I do that every single time. You know, that's based on on where I come from, what I do, my criminal defense work, my mediation, and just kind of where I grew up and how I grew up. And I know that I would do the King County Council proud in being a King County District Court judge. With the experience that I have with the the drive that I have and with the desire that I have to provide fair justice to the citizens of King County when they come before the King County District Court. And I would ask for your appointment to this seat here this morning. Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you very much for talking with us this morning, sharing your experience and really for your interest in serving the people of King County, which are already engaged in doing and wanting to continue in this way. We appreciate that. Well, thank you. Yes, definitely. Madam Couric, if I could ask you to excuse Mr. Time to the waiting room and invite Mr. Vogel to join us. And so with that announcement, I'll go ahead and turn my video off. Thank you. Well, Mr. Longo, let me make sure we have excused Mr. Todd. I believe we have proof. Madam Cook can confirm that for me. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Todd is in the waiting room. All right. Thank you so much. Mr. Vogel, welcome. Thank you for joining us this morning. And thank you for your interest in serving on the King County District Court. We recognize the investment of time and effort it has taken, particularly to apply to prepare the rather extensive written materials, and to join us today for this conversation. And beyond that, to prepare and and be in a position to serve the people of King County in this way. So we really appreciate your interest and desire to participate in the system in this way and serve the people of the county. And we'll invite you to share your opening remarks with us. Thank you very much. I seek this appointment because I want to help people improve their lives and make our community safer. And because this position is well suited to my legal and personal skills, I believe I should be appointed because I've had exceptional training to be a judge because of the breadth and depth of my experience, because I am even tempered, respectful and fair, and because I will work very hard to be a great judge. I was a law clerk for Judge Frank Johnson in Montgomery, Alabama, who protected the constitutional rights of minorities, of immigrants, of women, and of the mentally ill at great personal risk. As the deputy prosecutor for more than a year in the Burian District Court, I observed Judge Gary, you regard an excellent judge on a daily basis. I would have applied for this position before, but in 2008 I moved to California to accommodate my ex's autoimmune disorder when our children were young. Practicing in California has given me greater appreciation for the laws of Washington, where rehabilitation and restorative justice are emphasized. When my younger child started college in October 2019, I moved back to the ocean. Since my return, I have been trained and appointed as a pro-tem district court judge and I plan to pro tem regularly. I was endorsed by the Puget Sound Police Managers Association and was rated exceptionally well qualified by the Loren Miller Bar Association, the Washington Women Lawyers and the Cardozo Society. When I submitted my application and since then, I have been endorsed by the King County Police Officers Guild and have been rated exceptionally well qualified by the Joint Asian Judicial Evaluation Committee and the Latina Latino Bar Association of Washington. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you so much, Mr. Vogel. And council members. All I. Thank you for being here, Mr. Vogel. What is it about your particular skills and your particular interests that would make you a good fit for King County District Court? I think I have a breadth of experience that is somewhat unique. I've had 38 years as a lawyer. My experience as a person is, well, I grew up in and around New York City. I've been a cab driver. I, I know people. I like people. And I have an even temperament. And I'm I think I'm balanced. I don't the reason I think I got the endorsement of the police officers and the police managers is that they feel I will be fair to them, just as I will be fair to defendants. I've seen I've worked in the district court for many years, so I have a lot of experience in both criminal and civil litigation. I have had civil litigation in the federal courts as well. But I think it's that large amount of experience that I have that enables me to look at individual cases with better judgment. And so I think my judgment has been refined over the years so that I can handle things better, I can handle them quickly, and I treat people well. I like people. So I think that's those are all good skills for the district court. Thank you very. Much. Thank you. Good morning. I have a second question. My question is, what do you see as the most significant challenge currently facing district court and how do you think it should be addressed? Well, the most significant challenge for the district court, like with the superior court, is that they're overburdened with cases. It could be that new judges will need to be appointed to accommodate that. But if those judges that aren't appointed, judges just have to work harder and put in the time and work efficiently. And that's something that I've learned over the years to do. The judge that was my mentor, Judge Johnson, and in Alabama, he decided cases like the Selma to Montgomery march. He decided he allowed Rosa Parks to the back of the bus. So he took these monumental cases. But over 25 years as a district court, he was the most efficient district court judge in the United States. And I could use him as an example for how to do things efficiently. I think in the morning he'd have a stack of papers like this on his desk. By the end of the day, it was cleared out. And so I do think that is the the volume of cases. That is the most significant challenge. There are certainly other challenges as well. Yeah. What are those? Well, another challenge would be to know. Yeah. I'm sorry. That was a member of the public, not a member of the council. I would ask that members of the public. We're certainly here to observe the public meeting, remain on mute, not participate in the meeting. Mr. Vocalist, if you would concluded with your question, that's. Yes, that's that's fine. But if, if council member Lambert would like to hear an answer to that, I think that there are other challenges and one of them is participation by minorities in the court system. I think that a lot of people are scared by the court system and I think that by being respectful and fair, you can take a lot away, a lot of that fear. So that's one of the things that I intend to do. Thank you. Councilmember Belge. Thank you very much. Nice to meet you. And we thank you for being here today. The third question from us is, please describe your efforts to implement equity and social justice practices in our criminal legal system. My practice my legal practice over the years has been doing that. I've taken a lot of pro-bono cases. I've worked for a lot of cases where I reduced my fees so that people could afford to hire me. I had a case recently where my client was in prison for 29 years, since he was 19 years old. Juan Martinez and. His sister could not afford to hire me. She said, I have 1500 dollars. That's all I can afford. I said, That's fine. And I met with him once a month for 13 months before his parole hearing, and I learned as much from one as I did. He learning from me. And by the time we got to that parole hearing, he was magnificent. He just was great. And he was paroled. And we still keep in touch. But that's that's by having lawyers do cases for pro bono and for diminished fees. I think that's that's important. Also, if I don't know an area of law, I will try to find someone who does know that and make referrals. So much of my time on the phone is giving free advice to people and pointing them in the right direction to get help. Thank you. You're welcome. Do you have other questions? We do. Councilmember guideline. When I cued up Mr. Jack. David Wright, Tomasky County. How are you? I've got the fourth question here and that is and you just touched on it briefly there in your last answer, but speed up to expand upon it. But the question is how do you approach judicial matters with which you're unfamiliar? 30 I don't think that one should try to rule by the seat of one's pants. If I don't know a subject, then I will go home and I will learn it and then I'll rule on it. I'll put it over. I'll continue a case if I don't feel comfortable making a ruling. I've been a quick study through my legal career. I've done medical malpractise cases in very difficult areas of medicine, and I don't know those areas, but I learn them and I work with experts and you keep an open mind and you don't think you don't act as if you know something when you don't know something. So I think humility comes into play and a willingness to work hard and learn. And I have that. Great. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Thanks for your interest in serving. Sure. Councilmember Member Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. David, also pleased to have you with us today. And my question has to do with bias. If in your courtroom, an attorney were to clearly display bias, such as calling a female witness by your first name and her male counterpart by his surname. Surname. What, if anything, do you believe a judge should do? And there might be some examples you can think of to that may be even more challenging. Well, I can think of a great example of how a judge handled that, and that was Judge Johnson in Montgomery, Alabama, when it was routine for people to treat other people disrespectfully in court. And there was a case involving a black woman who is the plaintiff and the defense attorney who was distinguished, powerful defense attorney, kept referring to her by her first name. And what Judge Johnson did is he banged his gavel and he said, Counsel, unless you are unfamiliar terms with this witness, you will address her as ma'am. And being on familiar terms with a black woman at that time was not something that was taken lightly. And I think Chambers to meet with an attorney in chambers and caution an attorney is is a good way of approaching that. You wouldn't want an ex party communication, but, you know, you could do that and not discuss the case. So there I think setting a good example, you know, of treating everyone the same is helpful. And I don't think it's necessary to come down very hard on people, you know, and embarrass them publicly. But sometimes it is. And I think I would take, you know, lesser measures if I can. But treating people disrespectfully in my court is not something that I will tolerate. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. And with that, I would invite you to share your closing remarks with us. Okay. Well, thank you. During my 38 years practicing law, I have helped many people through crisis. People have been injured through the fault of others. People who are suffering from alcohol or drug addiction. People who are mentally ill. People who have been the victims of crime. And people who have been accused of crimes. I've developed a broad and balanced perspective on the criminal and civil justice systems, and I want to use this perspective and the knowledge I have gained over the years as a district court judge. I want to provide a role model by treating everyone who comes into my court respectfully and fairly. I will work hard to handle my cases carefully and efficiently. Because justice delayed is justice denied. I will work with court staff and with other judges to maintain and improve our courts. And I I'm excited to work in the community court system, which can enable defendants to acquire the tools they need to empower themselves. I want to be a district court judge because I like people and I can help many people in this very busy court. I believe that in most cases, rehabilitation and restorative justice can make society safer, and it is in the District Court with the assistance of the probation department that we can help people get the services they need for rehabilitation. Thank you for your time and your consideration. Thank you very much, Mr. Vogl, for sharing with us your experience and skills that you would bring to King County District Court for the time you spent with us today and again, the time it takes to apply, and most importantly, your interest in serving in this role of the people of King County. I'm going to ask the clerk to please excuse Mr. Vogel back to the waiting room and invite Ms.. Vargus to join us. Thank you. And I see Miss Vargas with this. I believe that Mr. Vogel is in the waiting room. And is correct. Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Ms.. Vargas, welcome. And thank you for not only joining us today, but for your interest in Serbian District Court. The service itself, the role itself is vital in our community and the time it takes to apply. Not only joining us for a conversation this morning, but to prepare the extensive application materials is an investment as well for all of that interest and desire to serve, I want to thank you and offer our appreciation and tell you how much how much we look forward to a conversation. Some questions and learn more about you in this interview. I mean, with that, I would invite you to share your opening remarks with us. Thank you so much for that. My name is either Vargas and thank you so much for giving the opportunity to talk to us today about who I am and why you should consider me for the vacant position on the District Court bench. As you have seen from my materials, I have been a public servant for over 17 years in this King County community, and I want to continue to be a public servant for this community in the role of a judge. And I'm very dedicated and loyal to King County specifically because King County has been the community that has welcomed me and nurture me to become the person that I am today. When I arrived as an 18 year old, I was I didn't know who I was, what I was capable of, and what the future held in store for me. And King County. Members of this community nurtured me to help me see myself as a smart, academic, scholar, leader, lawyer, supervisor and attorney, managing attorney of over 100 people. In perfect preparation for my interview today and to even be considered for this position, I thought it was important to put myself to the test to figure out, can I really do this job? Can I sit in judgment of other people and can I do so responsibly and ethically? And so I started to pro-tem. And in those experiences, along with my experiences as a public defender, what I've come to know is that members of this community need lawyers and judges who understand the challenges they face every day, the challenges that make their lives difficult, and the challenges that make their lives rewarding. And though it's been a bit of a struggle as a child to have experienced these experiences, I talk about them today because they're what framed my viewpoint as to what kind of a decision maker I'll be. It's important we have judges that understand poverty, that understand what it feels like to be a foreigner, what it what racism feels like, what sexism feels like. I've experienced those things. What be knocking. It feels like learning English as a second language. Having a family member with addiction, having a family member has been in the and unfortunately domestic violence as well. And these experiences were difficult, but they also were important because they gave me the framework from which to make thoughtful and inclusive decisions that will impact members of our community. It's a huge responsibility to sit in judgment and make decisions about people coming before you every day. Our community needs judges who understand these challenges, so this will have insight into the lives of the members of this community so that thoughtful and inclusive decisions are made. I didn't come to this position with lawyer, family members or judges. I've paid my own path and I've been very proud of what I've been able to accomplish. And I worked hard to build a solid reputation in this legal community as being an open and thoughtful advocate and person, a hardworking and dedicated public servant, and a person who is deeply committed to this community and strongly in this work. I said that BlueBell was the two minute mark, if I'm sorry, if I could ask you to conclude your thoughts. Yes. And I because of the strong reputation, I enjoy the support of prosecutors and defense alike, lawyers from the private bar, state leaders, nonprofit leaders, community leaders, and current and retired district court and superior court judges. If appointed, I will work hard every day to be a thoughtful decision maker and someone who protects the safety of this community . Thank you. Council members are hereby. Thank you so much. For being here, Ms.. Vargas. What is it about your particular skills and your particular interests that would make you a good fit for King County District Court? I think I touched on it in my opening statement, but basically having that first, first hand experience as to what poverty feels like, what not having the resources you need to live a life without many challenges is an important perspective that currently is not reflected on the District Court bench. I am a person that understands what it what it feels like to not speak English as a first language and to have to figure out who you are on your own, and to not have people in your family that can help you pay your way through life. And that has made me strong. And that's going to make me a thoughtful decision maker capable of sitting on the bench in a way that is inclusive but also protective of our community. Because I'm very, as a parent, interested in making sure that Canton remains safe for all. Thank you. Thank you. I have the next question. Thank you for being here. My question is, what is this? What do you see as the most significant challenge currently facing district court? And how do you think it should be addressed? Well, clearly, I think that this is the most challenging time dealing with a global health pandemic has been has made us all look at how we deliver justice in courtrooms every day. And it's very clear that we need to clear the backlog that exists in our current dockets. And I think what the court is currently doing makes a whole lot of sense, which is doing mitigation by mail, also doing infraction calendars via Zoom and really dedicating the majority of our resources to people facing loss of liberty and loss of, you know, money and other things that come along with having hearings in court. I think it's going to take a bench of judges who are willing to work together to get cases tried. I certainly would open myself up to do everything I can to help people have their day in court in a timely way. And I would look forward to working with this counsel to come up with strategies to to to move forward on that. Thank you very much. It's a memorable duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome. It's very nice to meet you and I'm glad that you're. Here. And. Expressing interest in this position. Our third question is please describe your efforts to implement equity and social justice practices in our criminal legal system. Well, I'm very fortunate to be a leader in King County, currently in my my position and in my in my role as a leader. I think what's most important is hiring diverse lawyers, hiring diverse staff, so that members of our community who need our services have lawyers that understand their experiences and understand the challenges that they face every single day. It's about talking about issues of racial justice. As a leader in my in my own community, I have led those conversations about how do we achieve equity, how how do we achieve justice within our own working communities? It's about showing up in community for community events and showing up as a leader. It's about mentorship. It's about community service. It's about, you know, making your ideals, talking about your ideals openly and encouraging that conversation. But it's also about welcoming others into the conversation and not being off putting, being accusatory. It's about inviting the conversation because that's where the growth happens and that's where, you know, we all belong. We all have a role. And we we should all work together to help make this community inclusive for everyone. Thank you. Council member, Dan Belsky. Mr. Chair, and I thank you so much for being here, and thank you for your current service to King County and our Department of Public Defense. You have a big job there. We appreciate you. I have the fourth question and it's a fairly straightforward one. It's how do you approach judicial matters with which you're unfamiliar? Education and not making impulsive decisions. I don't think a judge should be making decisions off the cuff. There are very important rights at stake for everyone, for victims, for defendants, for everyone. We all deserve judicial decision makers that are thoughtful and careful and measured. We do not need people on the bench that just decide off the cuff. And so if I don't know something, I'm going to take time to educate myself because a wrong decision is never worth it. It's always best to think things through carefully before deciding. Thank you very much. Council member, Lambert. A thinking coalesce, but do. You're right. Yes. And so. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much for being with us today. I have a question relating to bias in the courtroom. If an attorney before you in the courtroom work to clearly display bias in your view. An example could be calling a female witness by her first name and calling her male counterpart by his surname. What, if anything, would you do? Or do you believe that a judge should do? And you can come up with other examples as well. Thank you. Well, Judge is responsible for what occurs in your work, and a judge is responsible for ensuring that equity is always at the forefront. And we all play a role in ensuring that bias doesn't play a part in what happens. But it does happen. I've been on my own. I've experienced it myself. And I always approach it from a perspective of, you know, seeing the good in the other person and understanding that a thoughtful conversation with them is probably going to be the best way to address it, but also calling it out and naming it and making sure that it doesn't continue. I don't believe that most people are intentionally trying to be offensive, and I think that we have to recognize our humanity and recognize each other's intent and work with one another. Obviously, if it if it goes to the point of impacting justice and impacting a client or impacting someone, I would most definitely put a stop to it by addressing it head on. I think that's important because if we allow things like that to happen, it's a tacit agreement and approval of it and that that would not be okay with me. Judges are leaders and I would act with leadership in those in those instances. Thank you. And that concludes our prepared questions. We invite you to share your concluding remarks with us. Thank you. I'm so sorry. I'm a little embarrassed and got emotional in the beginning. I'll try not to. As well. Appointing me to the bench would mean that you're going to get a dedicated public servant, that you're going to get someone who's dedicated to meeting thoughtful and inclusive decisions. That you were going to get a public servant that is dedicated to treating all litigants with respect and that will uphold the law and our constitutional protections. I understand that I would carry an enormous responsibility as a judge to act and make decisions that are viewed from the lens of equity, that are grounded in equity and understanding that the decisions I make on a daily basis will impact people's lives. I will show up to the job with the goal of preserving and protecting our constitutional freedoms. My courtroom will be one where people are treated thoughtfully with respect and where they will be heard. And I thank you for your time. Thank you very much for joining us today. As I friend beginning for taking the time to prepare for the conversation and the written materials and for your current and future service to the people of King County. We very much appreciate it and the time you've spent with us today. I would invite Madam Clerk, I would ask you to invite the other two candidates back in from the waiting room. They have been admitted, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. We've concluded the three interviews for the Southwest District Court position in King County, and I believe I'm going to suggest we would like a few minutes in executive session. And so we will the committee members the council members will step into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office, will be in executive session for approximately 15 minutes until about 1050. The committee will be off the zoom calls for the executive session, together with only those 20 employees directly necessary for the discussion. And with that, members should have the, um, zoom link to join the Zoom executive session. Thank you. It's. It's been. You get nothing. They think that you. Go. There are. She? The. She. She. Gutierrez asked me to let the listening public know that the executive session will be an extended and additional 5 minutes to approximately 1055. This man has asked me to let the listening public know that the executive session has been further extended until approximately 1105. I'm King County Council's committee to hold back to order. We are back from executive session, which we were in pursuant to our S.W. 4231 ten H and I would entertain a motion. Chair. I would boost approval of the appointment process without recommendation at this time to all council members. Councilmember Dunn has moved that we advanced motion 2021 336. The placeholder for an appointment to the King County District Court to full council. Any discussion. Mr. Chair, council member did ask. Me just for applicants in the public's knowledge, what I think would be helpful for members to have a little more time to reflect on the materials in the interview today in that I think we would obviously be expecting on Tuesday, if this is expedited, to insert a name and confirm an appointment. Is that your understanding? That would be my impression that my intention was. That I support the motion. Thank you. Then I see no further discussion. Madam Clerk, I ask you to please call the roll. Some everybody achieve. Councilmember Bellucci II. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I. Councilmember Gunn. I. As a member of Congress, I. Council member, Lambert. Council member of the group I. Councilmember Vaughn right there. I. Council members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero now. Thank you. By your vote, we have an advanced motion 2021 and 336 making an appointment to the South West Division of King County District Court two for Council. Without objection, we will expedite that to Tuesday's County Council meeting. And as was said in discussion, it is the intent, my understanding of the Council to be able to further reflect on the interview conversations and the written materials that have been submitted to the Council and to take action on that motion on Tuesday in full council. I want to thank the applicants for the conversation and the interviews today and would I'm expect to now see you on Tuesday in full council. And with that, we will advance our agenda to motion 2021 to 98 and request that the executive provide an assessment report that makes recommendations on roles and responsibilities of the county, city of Seattle and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and other cities in King County responding to the regional homelessness crisis. We had a briefing on this at our last meeting, so I invite April Sanders from council staff to give a brief overview of the legislation and then brief the amendments. I'm Sanders. You have. Good morning, April. Standards Council Policy Staff. The material for item six began on page 17 of your packet. Since I brief this item two weeks ago, I'll bypass that background and dove into itself. But the proposed motion would request the executive transmit an assessment report to the county on or before March 31st of next year , as well as an accompanying motion that provides a vision for and makes recommendations on roles and responsibilities of various jurisdictions in responding to the homelessness crisis. Those jurisdictions that are listed in motion and cities include King County, the city of Seattle, the King County Region, Homelessness Authority, and cities represented by this entity association. The Assessment Report would provide these recommendations for the near term, their immediate term and the long term. Additionally, the report would do the following, but identify investment and funding for the Just Care program and describe how investment and programs will align with those administered by other entities. It would describe how the issues will coordinate on capital investments. Would identify which, if any, of the recommendations from challenge Seattle's Chronic Homelessness Across Crossroads report should be implemented, and it would describe which entity should take on which role and responsibility in those recommendations. The proposed motion states that the executive should consult with the City of Seattle, the Regional Homelessness Authority and the Sound City Association in the development of the report. That's the end of my brief interim, and I'm happy to dove right into amendments. If you like. Similar questions, I would invite you to proceed to amendments three. So Amendment one, which is on page 26 of your packet, would remove the city of Seattle and other cities in King County as entities for which the executive should recommend roles and responsibilities in responding to the homelessness crisis. It would also change the duty of the assessment report and accompanying motion from March 31st to June 30th of 2022. And there is also an accompanying title amendment. If this amendment carries. Thank you. Questions of Ms.. Sanders. Could you help me understand why they should be excluded as part of what we evaluate? Sure if it's a reason of why I would defer to the sponsor. But it would leave the County and Regional Homelessness Authority as the entities for which the executive should provide recommendations. But I'll defer to the sponsor as to the rationale. Mr. Chair. Please. Thank you. And April, thanks for your great work on this council member. Lambert In answer to your question, in working with the executive on the scope of the work they suggested and it made sense to me that we are doing a report here, probably should try and figure out or tell them the other jurisdictions what they were or should be doing. And that made some sense that we should focus on our our role at the county. And so we worked with DHS and the executive on the amendments. And I'm authorized to say that they are supportive of them and the underlying motion as amended. And Councilmember de Bhaskar. We'd like to make a motion. Sure. Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate members consideration of this. As I said before, it's not a big policy motion. It's just asking for a report and check in and working with the executive if they thought it would be helpful as we transition this big job over to the regional almost, but still understanding that we as a government are going to play an important role, like through our health, through housing initiative, our behavioral health services, our hoteling programs, etc.. And the notion here is to kind of see after two and a half years or so, kind of where we stand and help us give us some visibility on where we're going. So with that background, I would just respectfully request colleagues support and move adoption of the Motion and Amendment One. We have the motion 2020 129 before us with Amendment One before us. Discussion on Amendment One. All those in favor of Amendment One, please signify by saying I by those opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Discussion on the motion is amended. I apologize, Mr. Chair, there is also a title amendment t one on page 28 of your packet, which just removes those entities from the title. Councilmember Dombroski the title amendment t one is before us. So you know our debate on the title amendment. All those in favor please signify by saying i. I opposed nay. The title amendment is adopted. The motion as amended is before us. I see no further discussion. All those. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember Dombrowski. Council member. Done by. Councilmember was I. Councilmember member. Councilmember Article. I. Councilmember one right there. I was a member by. I thought. I. Council members online. Are. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The bonus nine eyes are on us. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to motion 2021 to 8289 as amended, and we'll send it to council in regular course of business. And I'm concerned. Rather close of business on consent. And that takes us to item seven, a briefing on the best search for kids implementation plan, which has been duly referred to the Regional Policy Committee and this committee, the Regional Policy Committee, RTC is currently currently has the legislation before it, in its first discussion of the legislation, had its first discussion of the legislation last week. Miranda Luskin and Wendy Sue, who from Council Central South, will provide a staff report as a briefing to this committee as RBC conducts its business. And Ms.. Lesson in Mizuho. Was that friend of yours? We're joined by Purvis, who will be advising us and best friends for kids. Great. Well, good morning, everyone. Good morning, Mr. Chair. For the record, Randall Skinner with council staff. As the Chair noted, my colleague Benny Suku and I will be leading today's briefing just as a quick note of context. As members will recall, the ordinance that placed the Renewal Levy proposal for Best Rates for kids directed that the executive transmit by the end of July, a proposed levy implementation plan to the Council for its review and adoption by ordinance that must identify these strategies to be funded and outcomes to be achieved. Use of the levies proceeds and must also include a mark to measure the performance of levy strategies in achieving their outcomes. Today's briefing provides a brief overview of the proposed implementation plan that was transmitted to Council on the 28th. For sake of time, we are going to focus in on the analysis portion of your staff report materials for today, and I will go ahead and hand things over to Wendy to cover the Levy's estimated funding distribution, which starts towards the bottom of page 35 of your packet materials. Wendy Sue. Council staff. And revenue estimates will Levy are based on an initial IP rate making sense in 2022 with a 3% annual limit factor in the subsequent years, according to the most. Recent. Revenue forecast. Levy is currently expected to generate a total of about $884. Million. Which is about 12 million higher than during the spring when we were deliberating on the ordinance. The renewal levy will continue to provide for prevention and early intervention programs and will also expand ad funding to support improved access to childcare throughout King County, as well as investing up to $50 million for the Capital Grants Program. Table three on page 37 shows the currently projected levy revenues and the proposed spending breakdown for the different strategies. I won't go into detail on the table, but I would just draw your attention to the two main programs, the child care programs and the capital grants, which are challenged with child care programs. And we estimated that the proposed expenditures there in the very top line and then the spending through the capital projects in the very last line of that. And I will turn it back to Miranda. Thank you, Andy. So I'm going to be covering next the strategies under what we're calling in the staff report, the first allocation. I'll start with the new investments in child care, and I'm at the bottom of page 37 of your packet materials. So the proposed implementation plan includes a new child care subsidy program whereby Brooke would partner with one or more organizations to administer subsidies to expand child care at licensed centers. Or family care. Child child care sites for approximately 3000 children annually in King County, ages three through 12, and their families as described in the plan. The program would aim to expand access for children and their families who are not eligible for existing federal, state or local subsidy programs or for whom such programs are not sufficient. The program would also aim to work towards advancing equity and eliminating disparities in accessing child care by prioritizing families who experience additional challenges in accessing care, such as families who live in areas currently without open care, childcare, open child care slots, bipoc families and families whose children may have disabilities or developmental delays. The child care subsidy eligibility cap. Part of the plan would prioritize families whose incomes are slightly too high to meet the state's eligibility criteria and would be adjusted accordingly throughout the levy period just to be able to reflect changes in any state or federal policy. The plan notes that BSC would coordinate closely with local and state partners to be able to understand where there may be gaps or where needs exist, how to coordinate services and how to best prioritize, prioritize families who need access most according to executive staff. The reimbursement rate would be determined in partnership with B.C. children and stay with the Children and Families. Child Care Task Force, the state's Department of Children, Youth and Families and Local Partners. Turning to the Wage Demonstration Project, the plan additionally proposes to allocate at least $5 million annually during the levy to establish a wage boost demonstration project whereby a salary adjustment would be made available to project participants. Per the plan, ABC would partner with a contractor that would be responsible for distributing the funds and data collection. Eligible project participants are proposed to include low paid childcare providers working with children ages 0 to 12 in the county. So structurally, the project is expected to take the form of an hourly wage boost or a retention bonus model based on factors like length of service is projected to reach at least 1400 providers, prioritizing those working in areas with limited childcare access or those serving low income families. Per the plan, Becky will engage with providers and staff to design and refine the project's specific eligibility parameters, and participating providers would be accepted on a rolling basis and would be able to remain in the project for the duration of their employment or through the end of the levy, basically, whichever would occur first. The plan notes that BCE will ensure sufficient technical assistance to support providers, teachers and staff in equitably accessing the program for both investment, according to executive staff. The Executive intends to partner with the Children and Family Strategy Task Force, the state's Department of Children and Families, the City of Seattle and other community partners to develop these specific criteria, including eligibility income criteria for both programs. Specific criteria for both the subsidy and wage boost programs would be determined in their respective procurement or RFP processes based on priorities identified during this engagement and as noted in the plan. This engagement will allow the county to leverage state resources and serve the lowest income, most vulnerable households not otherwise served by state and other resources. So turning to the next strategy under this first allocation umbrella is the Youth and Family Homelessness Prevention Initiative, which center members are very familiar with. So the proposed renewal implementation plan would increase funding for this strategy by approximately $8 million compared to the funding level during the current levy. In order to support equitable pay standards for the case managers who do the services delivery and across these programs to positively impact workforce turnover and improve service quality. Wrapping up with the last strategy under this umbrella, I'll speak a bit to technical assistance and capacity building so described in the proposed plan. BSG will continue to provide technical assistance as well as capacity building supports throughout the levy. Of note the Levy Ordinance Directive that $1,000,000 annually must be dedicated during the levy towards a grant program to support capacity building and developing infrastructure in areas lacking either services or services infrastructure. And according to the proposed plan, BC intends to address this by using data to identify communities that lack services or services infrastructure and partnering with local coalitions and communities in order to inform decisions and plan for enhanced capacity. And then also complete outreach to areas that are identified as either lacking infrastructure or services in order to best understand needs. Of note, the plan identifies that this increased funding will allow the addition of a new type of capacity building to help create new organizations where there are currently none or healthy organizations that currently exist grow to serve a previously underserved area. So I'm going to pause there and turn things back over to Wendy to discuss the new capital grants program. Thank you. And this discussion starts on page 40. The proposed plan proposes to allocate $50 million in capital grants program consistent with the levy context. The levy ordinance that a maximum of 53. Mr.. Who I would interrupt for a moment. Your volume is moving up and down as you speak. Oh, if there's anything you can do to be in better proximity to your mike or aware of that, I will just call your attention. Thank you. Thank you. Is that better? Yes. Okay. So for context, the levy ordinance set a maximum amount of $50 million for the capital grants program, specifying that if proceeds were projected to fall below 872 million, then the capital grants program would be reduced. First before reductions. To any other levy program. As noted previously, the proposed plan is based on a forecast of $884 million for the entire levy period. And so the plan doesn't scheme the full $50 million allowed. For capital. Grants. According to the proposed plan. Capital grant funding will be offered on an annual basis through a competitive process. DCH US will review projections each year to determine the amount of funding available for the upcoming year. And then if the projections were to fall below that 872 million, the capital grants program would be reduced accordingly. In addition, the projected annual amounts for the Capital Grants Program are proposed to fluctuate with larger amounts, as in the later years of the levy in order to ensure sufficient reserves in the earlier years be transmitted plan. Also identify several priorities for grant awards and be first priority is proposed that the proposed invest in new or existing facilities to provide new or new community or recreational centers that prioritize bipoc children, youth and families and low income communities where they're limited to no other facilities available. Priority two would support repairs and upgrades to existing community centers, as well as early learning centers in child care or recreational facilities to address any health and safety issues. The third priority would entail expanding child care and early learning facilities for multipurpose uses. And then the fourth priority would. Focus on creation of. Affordable family or youth housing that also includes child care or youth development. Component on site proposed plan also indicates that prioritization will go to rural. Areas. As well as low income areas with lack of access. And also two sites that are multi-use intergenerational include covered outdoor spaces. I would point out that the plan states that all funded sites would need to provide programs and services for children and youth, as well. As. Host low cost or free programing for low income households. Page 41. The plan also indicates that overall priority one or priority two projects would be funded in 2022 and. 2023. In order to make it possible for new and improved facilities that starts for kids program sooner. I would highlight a policy issue which we raised on the staff report and note that the transmitted implementation plan does not specify any minimum or maximum grant awards. The types of organizations that would be eligible or how to allocate funds among the identified priorities and the executive did indicate that their intent was to provide flexibility. And I will turn it back to Miranda. Thanks, Wendy. And sticking with page 41, I'll speak next a bit to the investing early allocation. And so this allocation for the levy ordinance is focused on strategies for children under six years of age and their caregivers, pregnant persons and individuals or families concerning pregnancy. Table four, which is excerpted from the proposed plan and we place this on page 42 of your packet materials, identifies the individual strategies to be funded within this investment area as well as their associated estimating funding levels for sake of time and read through the table. But just note that that is on page 42 and then right underneath of table four is a list of proposed refinements or adjustments for this investment area for the renewal period. Again, for sake of time, I won't read through this list, but I just note that that is described on pages 42 through 43 of your packet materials . And with that I will next to be sustain the gain allocation. So this allocation includes strategies focused on individuals ages five or older. Table five, which is on page 44 of your packet materials and is also in the proposed plan, identifies the individual strategies and again their associated estimated funding levels for this investment area. For sake of time, I won't read through this, but just note that again, that is on page 44. And similarly, right underneath of table five is the list of proposed adjustments for this investment area, for the renewal levy for sake of time and what we through those but those are listed at the bottom of page 44 through page 45. While we are talking about the sustain the gain investment area, if I may, I'll just take a brief second to specifically discuss behavioral health supports in response to a motion that was approved around the same time as the levy ordinance. So the motion and this specifically is motion 1588 requested that the proposed implementation plan identify strategies related to behavioral health needs in children and youth ages five through 24, as well as to consider programs that provide and or expand access to substance use disorder supports children and youth. So the transmitted plan identifies three specific programs that are consistent with the motion. First is the school based screening and brief intervention for referral to treatment or services. This is the expert program as well as the school based health center strategies. These were identified as providing direct support, outreach and early intervention to address mental health and substance use impacts among children and youth. Additionally, the Liberation and Healing Strategy addresses community trauma and its impacts on young people by promoting strength based social and emotional supports. And thirdly, the plan states that the Community Well-Being Initiative will convene and coordinate upskilling efforts related to mental health and well-being and would be implemented in response to this motion. Specifically, just diving a little bit deeper, the CWI intends to connect with other related county efforts, such as community behavioral health services interventions that are administered by DCH , SS, Behavioral Health and Recovery Division. This could include connections with services supported by overall health sales tax funds, prevention services provided by the Children, Youth and Young Adults, division of DHS, as well as addressing behavioral health impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic within Public Health's COVID related response. So I am going to pause there and turn things back over 20 to discussed communities of opportunity. Thank you. Communities of Opportunity as discussed on page 46 of your work. The plan proposes to increase funding for communities, other communities by approximately $10 million during the renewal levy, from about $36. Billion to $46 million. Consistent with the levy ordinance. The plan proposes to continue the existing of strategies which are shown in the bulletin list in the middle of page six. So please be thankful for community partnerships. This is a strategy that's eligible to geographic areas based on a composite index of health and well-being and also to cities that are adversely affected by it. And that strategy is proposed to receive 45 to 50% of the total funding. The second strategy is systems and policy change, which would receive 40 to 50% of total funding over the life of the levy. And this is a strategy that supports community led projects and campaigns to transform systems and policies to decrease or prevent inequity in communities. And then lastly. The learning community strategy would receive 10 to 15% of total funding. And this is a. Strategy that provides for shared learning experiences for community stakeholders through, for example, cohort learning speaker series and group coaching or that I will turn it back to Miranda. Great. Thank you, Wendy. So I am on page 47 of your packet materials and I am going to cover these strategies under what we're calling in the staff report, the 5% allocation. With that, I will start with the performance measurement, data and evaluation strategy. So the renewal levy evaluation and performance measurement framework as proposed in the transmitted plan would build on the existing framework that was established during for the current levy. That said, a BSC staff do expect to refine the approaches in areas relating to data and improvization that were requested by communities such as expanding data and evaluation partnerships, especially between community partners and school districts, expanding technical assistance and capacity supports, which we discussed a little bit earlier, as well as planning reporting across strategies. The plan also intends for the ESC to expand the ways in which BIPOC communities are visible in data and are involved in decisions about what data are gathered and how it is interpreted. Now I will turn to a brief overview of the framework for measuring the performance of the levy strategies and achieving their outcomes. So this theoretical framework and intended results for BSC that were identified in the transmitted plan are summarized in three graphics that are also in your staff report on pages 48 through 49. And these illustrate the relationship between factors and intended outcomes whereby the Levy's interventions would drive towards the outcomes that are described in the middle of those graphics and which are also consistent with those that are identified in the levy ordinance. With that, I will make a quick note though that be investing early to sustain the gain and communities of opportunity. Investment areas are each aligned to a single application of this framework. So namely, either figure one, two or three. Whereas those areas that really span age ranges, such as the one of HPI, the new child care investment and the new capital grants program, would be informed by all three applications of the framework. So figures one, two and three. So with that, I will turn to page 49 of your materials to discuss repeat results based accountability. So consistent with the current levy, BSC would continue to evaluate its results, beginning with results based accountability and then supplement that with additional evaluation activities. All of which is to say that altogether, the plan indicates that the Levy's evaluation framework will include population indicators, performance measurements and in-depth evaluation. These are discussed in more detail on page 49 of your packet materials, but for sake of time, I won't dove into them further at this moment. So relating to annual reporting, the executive, in accordance with the Levy ordinance, will file any reports to the Council on the Levy's implementation, and these reports would be due no later than July 15th of each year from 2023 through 2028, and would cover levy expenditures, services and outcomes for the prior calendar year as well as provide performance data for all of these investment areas of note to be proposed plan indicates that the zip code level geographic data that was required by the levy ordinance will be phased into these reports, beginning with the first report for 2020 to investments. So turning to the next strategy, under this allocation, I'll speak a bit to stipends, board stipends and the proposed plan. Does not specify the amount of stipends that needed to be provided to the Children and Youth Advisory Board members except staff indicate the governance update report that is also required per the Levy Ordinance and its accompanying legislation to implement the recommended changes in that report. Currently anticipate monthly stipends of about $120 per member. I'll turn next to progressive mitigation. The levy does allow up to $1,000,000 for this investment if applicable. The transmitted plan does state that current modeling as of mid this year suggests that no rationing is projected for applicable metropolitan park districts, hospital districts or fire districts during the renewal levy period. Given current levy rates county wide. However, in terms of monitoring for programing each year after the county's Department of assessments certifies levy rates, the plan does note that the county will calculate whether and how much any eligible districts are rationed and if rationing were to occur. The plan indicates that he would partner with those impacted jurisdictions to identify eligible services to fund and per the levy ordinance. This would be subject to approval by ordinance by this Council. I'll turn now unless there are any questions to speak a bit to procurement and financial policies. So levy proceeds would be distributed consistent with the requirements of ordinance 19262 for each of the investment areas like the current levy period, most levy proceeds allocated to community will require competitive processes. That said in Appendix I to the implementation plan does provide a full list of procurement and financial policies for the current levy. Included in this list are some policies that we've included on page 51 of your packet materials that may be of particular interest to councilmembers. I won't read through them for sake of time, but again, those are provided on page 51. One more thing I'll speak to before turning things back over to Wendy. Our segmentation considerations. So under state law levy, the proceeds may only be used for certain for the specific limited purposes of the levy as indicated in the Levy ordinance itself. Levy proceeds in King County prior to a recent change in state law that I'll speak to in just a moment, could only be used to provide for existing programs and services, provided that the levy proceeds supplement but not supplant or replace existing funds with very limited exceptions. So under a recent change, a House bill introduced and passed by the state legislature actually removes the supplementation restriction for Levy's in counties with a population over 1.5 million. So for example, King County for Levy's approved in calendar year 2015 through 2022. So just a note on that. With that, I will go ahead and pause here and turn things back over to Wendy to cover potential policy issues. Bill and this discussion is on page two of the packet, and. I'll just walk. Through these quickly. As I already mentioned. With regard to the capital grants program. The transmitted plan does not specify minimum or maximum amounts and in leveraging requirements or the types of organizations that would be eligible for program ramps or how to allocate funds among the various priorities other than limiting 2022 and 2023 grants to priority one in priority two projects. And again, executive staff did indicate that their intent was to allow for flexibility and location, as well as to allow for the Council to provide policy direction. Another policy issue that we've mentioned is that the transmitted legislation does not require a printed middle of an updated evaluation plan, although it does speak to the intent that Yassky will build on the existing evaluation framework that was established for the initial levy. The Children and Youth Advisory Board stipends and programing mitigations set aside. While these are discussed in the plan, the plan does not actually delineate a specific set out of the levy ordinance in order to go to those purposes. So that is something that the Council could certainly consider an issue that is also mentioned on page 53. Number four is related to notification to council regarding budget changes. Like. This. The plan indicates that the Council would be notified by letter of changes. To budgets of. More than a two strategy level that gets more than $500,000. And so that threshold is something you could consider as to whether or not it's sufficient. And then lastly, the annual reports that came during the work that have been transmitted during the current levy also come with an accompanying motion to accept the report. And what's proposed for moving forward is that the annual reports would come, but they would no longer be transmitted with report for the Council take action. So that represents a change from the current levy and I will turn it back to Miranda to speak to next steps on key dates. Great. Thanks, Wendy. So I am on page 53 of your packet materials. As was noted by the chair, the Regional Policy Committee held an initial hearing on the proposed ordinance that would adopt the plan at its September 8th meeting just of no no process following RTC action on the proposed ordinance, this committee would then take up the item of Notes Attachment four to the Staff Report on page 189 provides the Distributed Amendment deadline schedule for the proposed ordinance. Just another quick note relating to timing. A final action on the plan is requested by the end of this November, as indicated by exact staff, in order to provide enough time for implementation of new contracts at the beginning of 2022. And then the last thing we'll cover for today's staff report is more of a heads up for committee members. In addition to this implementation plan, two other timely pieces of renewal related legislation are anticipated to be transmitted this fall, and those will include a supplemental appropriation request for 2022 spending authority for BSC, as well as the governance update report and accompanying legislation that we referenced earlier, and that is due to be transmitted by October the first. So Mr. Chair, that concludes our very brief overview of the plan. We are, I believe, also joined by six staff on the line. If there are any questions and I will go ahead and conclude their thank you so much. Thank you so much. As my last name just outlined, this is a briefing that the item is in the Regional Policy Committee with the dual referral. At this point in time, I have encouraged members to work with members of the see if you have amendments to facilitate them being adopted in our IPC and not requiring a RE referral given that it's a mandatory dual referral. And so this briefing was important to me to make sure that we had the overview before our PC act. And are there questions, inquiries, conversation about the implementation plan? Council Member Baldacci Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's related to possibly not in the implementation plan itself. When we did the first implementation plan, I sponsored and the Council passed a motion that asked for work on a combined outcome focused reporting system that looked at the big. Picture outcomes of how much of a. Moving the needle to the good for community outcomes in all of our three major levees that that will lead to human services in this way K mad and that seniors and human services and I know there was a ton of work that was put into it into data collecting systems and sort of thinking through what that would look like before we have to vote on this implementation plan. I would love to know where that work is and what it's trending towards and what it looks like, because I think it's really important that we have a multi-layered. Look at what we're accomplishing with our investments and, you know, transparency to the public about that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, sir. I just want a clarification on something that was said that I might know more about. They said certain groups will decide what the criteria for success is, and maybe I misheard that. But if you have certain groups in certain areas, deciding success is X. But that may not be success in another part of the county. Then how do we compare apples to apples? And that's my first question. My second question is that there were some groups that may or may not have complied with their contracts fully. Are we looking at people who did not make their contracts fully last year and and making some more oversight? So if those same groups come forward, that they will be successful this time. Thank you, Councilmember. And I believe we are joined by staff who could speak to both of your questions, if that's. Goodbye. Me? Good morning. Almost afternoon, council members. Thank you for your questions. Sure. She later cap Estonia. I'm the director of Total Youth and Division and our Strategic Advisor for Children and Youth. To answer your second question, we do have some folks who didn't necessarily make the requirements of their contracts, but we are constantly monitoring contracts and we have developed deep relationships with all of our community organizations for the ones that just stumbled a little bit. We provided a lot of to a lot of capacity building so that sometimes when there's a reported not meeting the terms of the contract, it's really a point in time that eventually they did. We had some contracts that just weren't able to. And yes, with some of those organizations, we have had to end contracts or we have said to them, maybe this isn't the thing that they you can be serving with that starts for kids. So we are going to continue that very close relationship with our organizations, both through contract monitoring and in partnership with the program managers who are in charge of all of these strategy areas for the first one. You know, in terms of working with people and outcomes, we still maintain what we have as our our goal for the entire initiative around our secondary indicators. What is the thing that people give input on as their performance measures for their specific service that they are delivering? And those performance measures aren't just pulled out of thin air. They have to relate to the secondary indicators. There has to be some evidence that they can move us towards our our overall goal. And what we'll be measuring on is that overall goal. So I'm not quite sure when that language was used in the staff report, but it is all about how we talk about the individual organization, how they serve, how we measure whether they met the terms of their contract and the goals set out. Did those goals push on the overall goals for that strategy? And if those overall goals push on our population goals for children and youth throughout the county? So there is a correlation and a relationship between them and it's sort of complex to try and answer in just a few seconds, but that's the that's the pathway for that. So when community can participate in what works for them, as long as they're partnered with our evaluation folks who can then say, yes, that will get you to this. It's just a different direction, but it will get us there. Then we can compare the apples to apples this level. That might be a great way of being like a think tank or learning tank to be out of there. This group did over here and it was more successful and have that idea then, you know, be an incubator for other parts of the county. So that's great as long as we can compare. Thank you. Oh, you're absolutely. Any other questions? DEMBOSKY. Please. Thanks, Mr. Chair. And just following up on the performance measurement or objectives measurement. It was a big topic of discussion when we did the first big scale initiative in the municipal league, which was a strong advocate at the time, was interested in that. And we knew it would be kind of tough and it would take some time. But I took a look at the plans measurement section and its comp. My reaction was it's complicated. There's there's some fairly high level stuff going on in there. And I wonder if when we bring this back over to our PC year, the next, if we have a little bit of time, if we could get a little overview in more simple terms for someone like me to understand what is the proposal to measure kind of outcomes and improvements from a maybe an individual level and a community health level? Because I think all of that's in there could in some maybe work with the U dub, if I remember correctly, but I confess to not totally understanding it and could use some help. And if other members aren't as interested, I would take a briefing individually. Thank you. Thank you. Further questions. I want to thank Ms.. Luskin and Mr. Hu for the briefing today. Point members to the packing for today's meeting. The extensive staff report they worked from point out how frequently they said for time's sake, they won't read entire pages at a time. The staff report is much richer than they presented today and encourage members to be familiar with it. As I said, as our takes up this work, I know Ms.. Miller and Ms.. Kaplan Stanley would be held at a moment's notice to be ready to be engaged and responsive to members interests in the implementation plan as well. With that fruit, that is our first briefing as the matter is still in RTC. And that takes us to our last business item on today's agenda. Given the time, I'm going to ask that we have a brief staff report from Ms.. Viner and leave it at that today. And I assure you that we will have this item on our next committee agenda in the city. This is Motion 2021, 318, which would request that the executive transmit a report that includes a plan for providing shelter and services to current and potential future occupants of City Hall Park in the options for the county to require City Hall Park. Councilmember Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm wondering if it might be best to wait to have a briefing on the staff report by Ms.. Spooner at next County Council, the whole meeting, so that we could be more logical in terms of presentation and discussion. That would work well with me. I would apologize to members for not getting to it. But as you know, we had a full agenda and accomplished good work and thank you. Councilmember Caldwell's as the sponsor for being open to that. And we will take up motion 2021 318 at our next meeting. Ms.. Vina, you're on notice that you'll be front and center then. Thank you. That concludes the action items in today's agenda. Madam Clerk, are there any votes that members missed? Mr. Chair, there were no votes missed. Thank you. With that, then we have concluded our today and the committee of the whole is adjourned. And I want to thank everyone for their participation. Thank you so much.	A MOTION making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the south division, southwest electoral district, judge position number one of the King County district court.
king_7b1fca1d-d126-494d-adc5-1e34a302783a	Good afternoon. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott. I'm calling the council's committee of the whole meeting to order for Monday, October 21st. I'd like to begin by acknowledging that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank these caregivers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I would also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enriched our community. With that, we're going to move straight to public comment. We have two people sign up for public comment today who will be speaking to one of the two items on today's agenda, I'm certain will limit public testimony to 2 minutes and remind people that public testimony can not be used to support any candidate for any office or support or oppose any ballot measure. Failing to abide by these restrictions could have you ruled out of order or asked to leave the chambers without? There are two people who've signed up in advance. Alex Zimmerman. Followed by case sanity. Mr. Zimmerman. You, Kyle, my daughter. Call me a Nazi, then. My pick from Animal Farm. Fascist, Gestapo, anti-Semite and killer. My name? Alec Zimmerman, a president of stand up America. I won't speak about agenda number. Number six about. Ken Conte reduced record. My experience with Ken Conte reduced record for the last 30 plus year. Totally negative look at all judicial system what they have in I'm in court a hundred times what last 30 years but something what this district court did what is I want explain to you what is unique. I don't think so. It's common knowledge in American history from 2008 nine for ten year district court. Stopping. Make a decision, say I cannot go to small claims court and sue somebody for ten years. Ten years ago, it's looked like a lifetime of abuse, of discretion. I cannot understand this. You know what this mean? For ten year, I cannot go to small claims court. How is this possible? Each time what they say comes, they dismiss, dismiss, dismiss. Never give me another chance. Go in court. I want to explain to you so judges is to me looking very strange. You know what this mean from one size is supposed to be professional, nice and looking from another size is I ordinary attorney and for my understanding is not my only opinion and opinion and what I want the United States of America, what they stay and for many years they stand there equal to use car dealer. Can you imagine so we choice used car dealer for court for judge is very unique you know it is mean but it's exactly what is statistic talk so I right now speak to everybody listen to me we need clean this dirty chamber from this democratic mafia who totally kill us. Thank you very much. Mrs. Enemy. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Girl sitting in that indentation, sitting not the same one insipid when sitting in stations. You decided what kind of emotions, what kind of positive feelings you seek by you in turn, in intending to do something or become something, you are that much closer to living the life. Sir, we d these said any. Any easy way to establish any stations is by writing them down every means week or day. We will check whenever interval might work best for you. Simply jot down the last of which wizard was that you went to some place for the next the time period. For example, I intend to rekindle my friendship with. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else you'd like to add for public comment? Ms.. Houston. No one. All right, then we'll close the public comment. And I would ask Councilmember Caldwell's promotion to approve the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I moved to approve the minutes of October 17, 2019. The October 7th, sir, before us. October 17th, I think. I apologize. The minutes of our previous meeting are before us. All those in favor please signify by saying I oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. With that, we'll move to our first business item on the agenda to this motion 2019 371. It is consideration of the executive's appointment of John Diaz to be director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. We'll begin with a discussion from with the staff report from Mr. Cory of our central staff, and then we'll hear from the executive branch, Mr. Keller and Mr. Diaz himself. Good afternoon, Mr. Curry. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, members. I'm Clifton Curry of Council Staff. The staff report for the signing begins on page nine of your packet today. And again to some very brief background. The King County Department of Adult Juvenile Detention operates one of the largest detention systems on the Pacific Northwest. It operates two adult facilities, one here in King County, one in Kent, the Baling Regional Justice Center. In addition for adults, the county operates a community corrections program with a variety of services. Those services include a day reporting program known as Sea Camp or the Community Center for Alternatives Programs, Work Release and a variety of other programs. In addition, since 2002, the county's Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention added the J to its name and began operating the juvenile system right now up at 12th and Alder. In addition to those programs, the department staff also operate the alternative programs for juveniles, which include work release excuse me include electronic home monitoring and a series of other programs through the department's court detail. Staff from the department escort inmates throughout this building and other courthouses in the county will also guard inmates while they're at health facilities for appointments such as dialysis or for emergency medical care and will transfer to Harborview and Valley. It's also one of the largest departments in the county. Its 20 1920 biannual budget is just over $323 million, and the department has over 900 FTE ees as required by King County Code. Mr. Diaz is confirmation of his appointment as director has been transmitted to the Council for your review, and I believe I'll defer to Mr. Diaz to describe his background. However, I've had the pleasure of working with him for almost 20 years now, both in his work for the city of Seattle and since he's taken the position acting prior to his designation for the permanent appointment, he was the interim director of the department. So I've had the pleasure of working with them and I'm joined. Mr. Shaw. If there are no questions for me, I'm joined by KC Keller from the executive's office and then also Mr. Diaz. Thank you, Mr. Gray. Mr.. Six. KELLER Good afternoon, Counsel. Wonderful to be here. I'm delighted to be here today on behalf of Executive Constantine to introduce John Diaz as the executive executive's nominee to lead the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to speak and for scheduling the meeting today. You all know John Diaz have his back in front of you, so I won't spend a bunch of time retelling his story. I'll let him do that for you. But what I do want to convey is our deep confidence in John Diaz, his ability to lead. This is not an easy job. As it turns out, it's not an easy job to recruit for. When Director Hayes announced his retirement last fall, we conducted two national searches. Neither search produced the candidate or candidates that we were looking for. Executive Constantine is not looking for a jail director. He's looking for a change agent, a leader who shares our values and vision for transforming how we approach detention and community corrections. And someone who has the experience expertize and frankly, the thick skin necessary to lead the department through this period of change and isn't afraid to tackle difficult operational challenges, particularly around staffing in both the adult and juvenile facilities. John Diaz is that person. John brings three decades of senior management, law enforcement and labor engagement. Experience to this job. His leadership style reflects advanced study and by his own career, rising through the ranks of the Seattle Police Department, where he began as a patrol officer in 1980. After serving in the United States Army. John believes strongly in engaging directly with employees to inform decision making. He's now with staff during successive shift changes at our facilities. He leads our regular labor management meetings and is known for simply walking up to line staff to introduce himself and engage in conversation. And that may seem like a trait we want for all of our leaders, but when you have 950 employees, it's easier said than done, especially in an operation that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. I want to just touch on two quick items, which I know John will expand on as well. One is mandatory overtime. And just to underscore that, in the six months that John has been interim director trying to address mandatory overtime, a longstanding issue for the department has been a top priority for him. And I'm proud of the work that he's doing. So far we have cut the time to hire and have with the support of the council. We've hired two new recruiters, which is allowing us to pursue more aggressive hiring strategies, including the hiring referral bonuses that the Council also approved as part of the budget. And we've increased wages for the latest corrections officer contract. These efforts are bearing fruit so far this year. We are on pace to hire. So far we've hired 52 corrections officers and 17 juvenile detention officers, which is remarkable when you think about the fact that we're competing against SPD, the sheriff's office and every law enforcement agency north and south of us. But I do want to underscore that hiring alone will not solve this issue. The fact is, nearly 20% of corrections officers have overtime restrictions and the department is currently processing three or five new restrictions per week. The average annual leave use of a corrections officer is nearly 500 hours, including scheduled unscheduled and unpaid leave. This equates to about 60 days off a year. Additionally, other contract provisions on work rules contribute to vacancies on ships. We continue to discuss with Labor how contract provisions contribute to overtime and look for ideas for reducing our vacancies. But John knows that staffing for today and the future is his top priority and that to be successful we must approach this effort in partnership with Labor and our workforce and with the Council. Lastly, I want to touch briefly on the Juvenile Division and Ordinance 18 637. I'm proud of the work that John and his team has achieved over the past six months to advance our shared vision for how we engage with youth in our care, including implementing new restrictive housing policies at both the juvenile and adult facilities consistent with Ordinance 18 637. These changes are reducing the use of restrictive housing, as our most recent quarterly report to Columbia Legal Services demonstrates. Later this week, we'll be interviewing finalists for the Juvenile Division Director position. So we have a lot going on. But one of the characteristics I so appreciate about John Diaz is that he sees each of these challenges as opportunities because that's what they are opportunities for us to improve, to partner, and to demonstrate to you and the community our commitment to continuing efforts to be an industry leader in taking a more progressive therapeutic approach going forward . Thank you so much for the opportunity to offer some opening comments and I urge your support of John Diaz to be the director of the HPD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Question for Mr. Six Color. I can't explain the fourth quarter. Questions for our staff and Mr. Keller. Councilmember Garcia. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Cliff, what year was it that we as a government research discussed and implemented the job and oh, job and for the lift in audience purpose. Tell them what those two terms mean. Certainly, Mr. Goss at the Juvenile Justice Operational Master Plan was the first effort. This effort was undertaken in order to ensure that the county did not have to build a expansion of the then existing juvenile detention facility with 200 beds. At that time, it looked like the county would need at least 80 new beds. Rather, the the council promulgated the requirement to develop the operational master plan, which would emphasize the use of alternatives and efficiencies, etc.. That was done from 1998 through 1999, and the Council adopted the documents related to the Juvenile Justice Operational Master Plan in 2000. For the consideration of the 2000 budget, the Executive sent over a request to begin a jail planning office that would build a third county jail on East Side property that the county then owned. And at that time, the Council chose instead to begin an adult justice operational master plan. Following on the success of the Juvenile Justice Operational Master Plan. That document was ultimately adopted in July of 2002 with again providing policy for how the county's secure detention facilities would be used. At the time, representatives from the National Institutes of Correction noted that we were only the 11th county in the United States to adopt a policy for how secure detention would be used in the county. Mr. KELLER, you mentioned the challenge of overtime, and I wanted to ask you, because I think it's an achievement that I think you said we've hired 60 plus officers in the last 6 to 7 months. What impact has the hiring had on the outstanding challenge of doing something about overtime hours for our regular staff? Mr. Gonzales. I would prefer to defer that to Mr. Diaz, who is close to the operation of the programs. With that. Mr. Diaz, welcome and good afternoon. Thank you, counsel. I first of all, I want to say that I'm honored to be considered for the permanent position as the director of the aged. It was not a job I was planning to go to. I was asked by by the executive and and Mr. Six killer here to come in and take a look at the operation and do it on an interim basis. My my whole effort was going to be really toward seeing what I could do to stabilize the operation and then help them move. What we're trying to look for, for that next jail director and also gave me a chance to not only work closely with the executive and I had a chance to meet with virtually all of you, but also meet with the rank and file with them and meet with the different stakeholders throughout the organization. And what I was really looking for is seeing if, a, if I was going to be the right fit for this organization. I think that's incredibly important to me. I'm at that stage of my career where I only want to work on things that I think I could solve problems on. And and if I could go and just talk very quickly about my background and then maybe just go right into questions, I think that won't be helpful. So very quickly, I think, you know, a little bit of the story. I was. My family was from from Mexico, from a town of our clients and the state of our clientele as it's kind of northern Mexico. They moved to San Francisco, and that's where I lived most of my life, a pretty progressive city. And but at the same time, I was able to see racism. And it's probably at its worst at times. And I then went into the U.S. Army. I was a criminal investigator, and I spent the first eight or nine months for a variety of reasons over in the Deep South and down in Alabama in the late seventies . So that was an interesting time from somebody that came from from a different part of the country. I had a few days vacation between the time I left. I left the Army and started with Seattle PD. That was poor planning on my part. I was planning on taking a few months off and it turned out that I had an opportunity to start earlier. So I had a four day hiatus and then I started with S PD, worked my way up through the ranks as a patrol officer, then as a sergeant working in mainly the Central District that I became one of the first community police team sergeants at a time when no one knew what that actually was, including me. And we were able to see and it was really our first attempt as in policing, at least in the city of Seattle, really trying a different way of working with the community, working closely with them, and really working on a problem solving approach. I spent a couple of years in Internal Affairs, which was quite the education, and then I continued to move up through the ranks. I was a watch commander, which was maybe in charge of approximately 50 patrol officers, once again, mainly in the Central District East Precinct. I then was promoted to captain, spent time as precinct captain, and then during kind of some of the worst times in our city with a gang violence, I, I then became in charge of the, of the gang section I spent there. I spent a couple of years there. I learned incredible amount from the men and women working in that organization, working with other people in the system, and working with some of the gang members themselves and trying to find different ways to try to keep them out of the system. Eventually, I did spend a couple of years running the homicide and robbery section. Once again, it gave me the opportunity to at times to work with with the victims families and just seeing the role of gun violence had in this in the city and the things that we needed to do to change. I was then moved to the deputy chief of administration. We had a new chief that had this idea that I needed to learn about budgets and all these human resources training, all these areas that I pretty much tried to avoid and spade, you know, stay on the operational side. So I spent five years there running the budget, which was around $250 million at the time, and which I'm very good staff and some really good ideas. We were the first time in in in our history that we actually stayed within budget in the in our with our budget, which was very unique because we had this crazy idea that we didn't need to. Actually stand back and usually over time was a driver. So we did work through that. Eventually I became the chief of police toward the end of my career, and we worked on a consent decree. We worked on a variety of other issues. But I guess more importantly, what I want to say is I just didn't hang around for those 33, 34 years on the department. I really tried to do is every place I worked. I was always looking at, you know, the status quo was unacceptable. It was always looking at what can we do to make the place better? And invariably, the only way to do that is you have to engage your staff. You have to turn and turn that culture into one problem solving, looking at trying to experiment and realizing that times you're going to fail at those experiments, and that's okay. People that know me know that it was a great idea. They would always get credit if it was a bad idea. I would always take the responsibility and I would continue to ask that here. Also, we're going to try some different things, and sometimes they're going to fail. If they fail, blame me. But if they're good ideas, please, you know, give credit to the staff and the different people that were involved in working on that. And that's how you get people to change from just treading water to really trying to improve the organization. I've had a chance to meet a lot of people in this organization and we're lucky. We have a very talented group of dedicated people doing a very difficult job. I'm kind of used to being in that environment and I really look forward to trying to continue to improve this organization if given the chance. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Mr. Diaz. I had wanted to began by asking you a question about over time. I was impressed by Mr. Keller. I said that just in six or seven months we've hired quite a few officers here and King County in our jail facilities. I know it's two of them. And my question to you is, has that been enough to put a dent and the challenges around over time? Yes. No. And why not? The answer to that. Councilmember Garcia, there's no PBA. We have made some great headway in that arena. However, I think what we've what many of us have done being included is when we talk about mandatory overtime, we use shorthand is saying it's staffing and staffing is just one piece of it. It's a big piece of it and it's an important piece. And I have to be and I'm very proud of the of our h.r. department. Peter, you in central h.r. I want to thank all of you for the the bonuses that that you authorized that kept us in the running when everybody in this area, every agency is offering bonuses. We've done incredibly well. I want to thank you for that and for those employee referral bonuses. Those have been incredibly helpful also for the use of two people from central H.R.. One of them is a marketing specialist, and we're trying a lot of different things. Sometimes they don't always go well, and I won't talk about the backpacks and how badly that went. But but we are trying some new things and they are they are bearing fruit. We need to continue to do that. And we will will do so. They know that we need to at least hire that many and probably more this coming year. But staffing is just one piece of it, you know. And like I said, we tend to use it as shorthand. There's a couple of other things that we need to look at, and one of them is our work roles. You know how the management occurs prior to this recent arbitration, that award that just occurred. You could walk in an hour or you could call an hour before your shift was going to start and take a day off . Now, that makes it incredible, incredibly difficult if you're trying to manage it, manage a workforce, and it's different than it was. And we're going to propose what I could sometimes we could make make that work. When you have actual policies that have to be have to be managed, have to be staffed, that makes it incredibly difficult. So our current changes in the contract now require a 72 hour notice before you're going to take a day off. That's going to be helpful. The other thing that the award could help us in is there's now a cop on. I mean, there's a cap on compensatory overtime on comp time. It used to be that there was no cap on comp time. So basically you could continue to earn it throughout the year and take it as you need it. I understand it. And it's a yes. And I understand how this would be fantastic for the employee. And but we needed to put reasonable limits on that. And so currently now there's a cap of about 82 hours for a certain type, another 40 total. So I think it's a total of 122 hours. So now there is a cap on our comp time. That's just an example of some of the work rules we need to change. The last piece of that is culture. Mr. Six Killer talked about we have a percentage of our employees right now have FMLA restrictions on using on on mandatory overtime. And I understand it perfectly. Men and women of the organization want to have predictability in their lives. They don't want to work double shifts if if without being given a heads up. And once again, that's a that's been a problem with not being able to give them predictability. I understand it. If what we need to do, though, is become one team, we really as a as organization, we truly need to become a team. And if it all would take just a little of the overtime, we wouldn't be in the situation where we have so much mandatory overtime. So that leads to those are some of the problem. But other solutions to that, we we've met with the with the unions and I'm I want to thank our adult corrections staff or looking at a variety of different ideas. We have floated one of them that they just recently had said that they would be interested in looking at is having an auxiliary workforce of retirees that could come back in and fill gaps as needed. That could only work with both both sides having a shared interest. Finding an MLA where there'd be appropriate language that both sides would be able to ensure that their interests were being met there. Frankly, there need to be also an escape hatch if it turns out that it's not working the way we want it to. So currently, as we speak, we have a survey out to retirees in the last two years to see if that's something that they would be interested in. Another area that the labor was interested in and once again, we have a shared interest in trying to solve this would be are there different areas where we'd be able to try some different shifts that might be more efficient and effective and reduce the use of overtime? So we're putting together some workgroups where you to sit down and frankly, you know, we have to be willing to kind of open up our minds in our hearts to try to to try these different things. We will we will work closely with our with with labor on this. We will will together some potential employees. And then we'll work through to see if any of these are worth pursuing, to see if they meet some of our goals. And at the end of the day, if they don't, then we need to stop them. The other thing that we're we will plan on, if any of these members of understanding that we're looking at doing, there's going to be a hard cap to them. So there'll be a timeline where at a certain point they will end. And if they're the best thing that we've ever seen, then it's something that we should put in a regular as we go through and we negotiate our next contracts. But to me, this is an example of it's three things. I know it's been a very long answer, but it's three things. It's staffing. It's looking at our work rules that make sense for all. And it's really it's also changing culture and having the spirit of innovation. Spirit of innovation, as you say. A spirit of innovation. Yes. Thank you. Council member of the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for your willingness to serve. I know it's a thankless. Job and we're lucky. To have someone. With your experience. And reputation being willing to step into the hot seat. And I appreciate your comments about when you try something big and bold and it doesn't work out, you take the blame and then you. Share the credit. But what. You missed was when you do something big and. Bold and it works out, we, the politicians take the credit. So. Yeah, my my question is, and it's. Kind of two pieces, but they're. Related. It obviously a. Large portion of in particular the chronic offenders that are housed in the facilities have behavioral health challenges. And do you have any. Plans or thoughts as. To how we can speed up programs such as medically assisted treatment with addictions? And secondly. Ways to improve our release and transition programs to better integrate those behavioral health programs either into the facility or that kind of seamless handoff into services. So I feel like that policy area is ripe for also for innovation and new. Ideas and. Bolder ideas. And I wonder if you have any thoughts in those areas. Yes. Sorry. Yes, I kind of said it better myself. These are the these are two areas that you touched on that we're something that I'm very interested on. When I first came, when I was asked to come and talk to to Mr. Six together into to the executive, I'm frankly, I think they read me like a cheap novel . They realized that there is certain things that I was very interested in. I've spent my whole life trying to work on problems I've seen. I spent my whole life watching arrests, people, and he had all sorts of issues. And then we would bring them in through the court system. We walked them into the jail and then, you know, shortly thereafter they're back out. And, you know, all you have to do is see that and say, what could we do differently? We must be doing something different. That's why I was a big proponent of lead when that was started by you know, was started by Lisa Desjardins and members of the Seattle Police Department. That was now it seems probably something that we, of course, we should do, but it was a big deal when we started it. There was a lot of tension about whether that was going to work. But that was just an example of here's a better way of doing business. I talked to Dr. Sanders here with your health and he knows and I'm a a big supporter of what we could be doing in medical assisted treatment. And I don't like playing defense. I like working on our bench. Just recently, I was at a large jail network meeting. That's some of the large. The Steelers in the country. They met in Columbus and there was a big, big section or a session. It was all about medical access to treatment. It's coming our way. It should come our way. This is an area that we should be working closely with. Yale Health. All of this isn't as easy as we would think. The delivery of the medication, as an example, is is is an issue that we need to continue to refine the type of. When they use Bute, it turns out that that's something that they could that they could sell within the jail system. They can sell when they go out of the system. So that means somebody has to sit there and watch them as far as they're taking the medication for a period of time. There's different delivery system that we're going to have to take a look at, and that's just a little example of how my agency, Joe Health, needs to be working together on how do we make this a better system. And one way to do that is we still get ideas from other places. For instance, right now on state of Massachusetts, the legislator required they were going to require all the jail systems to go to a to match treatment and a medical assisted treatment that jails came back and said, you know, we're not ready for prime time. So four of them decided to do a pilot program and they moved ahead on some of these areas and some of the areas that I think we're going to have to work on. They've already had some answers. Now, the other thing that's music to my ears is because I ran budgets and I'm incredibly, incredibly I use the word frugal about the about the money of the taxpayer, is that there's some technical assistance money where we could send send teams out to Massachusetts. There's four counties right now that are kind of moving pretty far ahead in this area. And we should, frankly, if any good policy they have, we should take it and use it. You know, there's a I, I was pleased to see that this large scale network was very similar to a major city chiefs that I've spent 15 , 20 years going to, where we were very good about stealing each other's ideas and everybody actually revels in it. And we make it a point to try to see how we could do things better. But of course, it's a treatment. It's something that we will certainly be working very hard on and trying to trying to work on. The other area that you talked about is those people, those high barriers group that goes in and out of the system over and over again. It doesn't make any sense to me that we have people that have substance abuse problems, mental health issues and homelessness. And then on a Friday at 4:00 in the afternoon, we're walking them out the door and assume they're going to make it to some appointment on Monday. The chances of that happening are are pretty poor. What we should be doing is having that warm handoff. And that means probably more caseworker, more caseworkers needed a better triage of who needs that kind of help and working with our outside community programs and such to make that happen. So that's another area they will certainly be working hard on. When I say me, it's really going to be just one I'm pretty good at doing is tapping the talent of of a very smart organization. It's a it's a, you know, we have 900, 950 PhDs in this organization. And it's really tapping into that, into their innovation and ideas and making it okay for them to want to come up in and try new things. Because I remember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I wanted to follow up on your FMLA comment earlier. So do you know what percentage of your workforce is on FMLA at this moment, and how often do they have to be there by their FMLA documentation? You know, I know. I think currently we have and I'm sorry. My. Math today won't be great, but we have approximately about 140 people, I believe, on FMLA. Because that's 140 at 950. Yeah. And that's between the the juvenile and corrections. And I think there's and once again, I'm just going by memory at this point so I could give you a more detailed review and I could send that to you as far as how often they're supposed to do it. I believe that they're supposed to go in every six months, but I will verify that. I know that we're not doing as good a job as we can. Once again, it just comes down to the amount of staffing that we have. When we talk about staffing, there's also staffing issues we have up in the administrative side of the house as well as in the corrections officers side. We need to be doing a better job of managing the people that have FMLA restrictions at the other. Too bad. It's as I said before, I could perfectly understand why why people are getting FMLA restrictions. We have an aging workforce and what we're asking them to do is difficult. And being that I'm on that end of the spectrum, you know, there's a variety of different experience headaches, knee surgeries, you name it that people go through . And I think that's one piece of it. But I can't give you those. I can't get back to you on the actual percentages. Looks like about 14 and a half percent, so six months seems a little long to not have to revivify, especially with that high percentage. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Bell duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Apologies for being late. I am empathizing with you a little bit right now, having sat in that exact chair in this exact meeting once upon a time. And if I can start by just offering thanks for your willingness to take on that, it's such a big challenge to run our jail system the right way. It's you don't get to choose who comes in the front door. You have to deal with whatever comes to you. There's always not as much in the way of resources as you could use. You certainly could always use more. And it's one of those operations that it seems that a large percentage of the public just sort of assumes they know how to do it, just as well as the people who are doing it. And so there's a lot of criticism that comes your way and and yet it's very hard to do well. And on top of that, it's something that we should rightly be judged for if we don't do it well. So it's just a challenge. It's a real challenge. And I appreciate that you're willing to take it on. My second thing is just a piece of advice. If you're able to, after all your years of being involved with 24 seven operations, to find a way to put your phone away and get a full night's sleep at night, that's a highly recommended. Yeah, but my question for you is this. So when I was working as the jail director, I, I got some very good advice myself that was about always having a a principle or a goal to that. You were sort of chasing after that you're trying to challenge the organization to be better in some way, as opposed to just dealing with the problems of the day . Because the problem of the day are going to they will fill the whole bucket and then some. But so one of the things that came to me, it wasn't my idea, but it was just sort of an issue of the time when I was the jail director. And it was something that we heard from the Department of Justice in our own jail health people and others was to really limit the use of of isolation housing in the adult jails. And so we worked at that. That was that was a big major initiative when I was the jail director. What sorts of things do you see as being the initiatives of the next few years, aside from dealing with the things that just present themselves on your plate because they're there? And if you don't have those because you're coming from a different kind of line of work, where do you find those those sorts of things to keep us pushing into the high end of the practice? Yes. Thank you, Councilmember and Baldacci, I think you've just explained the ongoing issue that you have when you have these kind of jobs. You know, I would just put your the quote by Marcus Aurelius, but basically it was you have urgent things and you have important things. You know, we have the day to day urgent things that we have to get done. We have to keep this place running. It's a it's a daily population of about 2000 daily adult secure population of about 2000. You know, we are blessed. You said 900 people and all that entails when you're just doing the day to day work. So what are the urgent things that have to happen? But and the bigger thing is the important things. And that's really the area that I want to focus on is on those important things. One of them is and will continue to be restrictive housing with the ordinance that Councilmember Dombroski and Councilmember Wells. This is this is an area that we're going to continue to move forward on. And I'm pretty pleased on where we going with that. As an example, we have a MDT multidisciplinary team that's made up of a sergeant, a classification specialist and somebody from psychiatric services, and they are going systematically on the Adobe side as an example, working through each floor, trying to find different ways to reduce restrictive housing. Our biggest restrictive housing, as an example, is or people that are in restrictive housing, almost probably 60, 70% of them are people that are refusing housing. So what I mean by that is you walk in the door and you have a you know, as you're going through classification, they decide. You're going into the general population and people said, no, I won't, you know, who do I have to hit? You know, what do I have to do to stay out of out of that? So these are people that kind of self-imposed, restrictive housing. So what this team is doing is basically kind of putting together groups of people that are like minded so that we keep them out of restrictive housing. So that's just one example of what they're doing. They, you know, I sent them to the national conference once again, we should be stealing good ideas. We should be saying what? What what are the best practices around a nation. On the juvenile side of the house? What's come out of that ordinance? You know, the eight six, 637 has really been, as we've been looking at, really reducing and ultimately trying to eliminate the need for restrictive housing and trying a different and different approach as we've we've been trying some new things, such as Restoration Hall. So basically, instead of putting somebody into a youth into restrictive housing, they're doing one on one. I mean, they're trying to help. This helped his kid be able to manage working day to day. When you have those, you know, those general difficulties in life, these are the same kids that I saw out on the street all the time. And what usually would get them in trouble would be lack of impulse, you know, impulse control. You know, they'd see something, something would get them upset and they would react. So we're trying to do different programing to try to help them as they get out and go back out into the community. And I think that's an area we're going to have to continue to move forward on. We talked about Mattie. That's another big area that we need to continue to work on. The other big area for us is succession planning. We have a we have a large group that could retire, you know, in the in the coming years. And currently, I have some of my top people could retire today and active might come back. They might have already retired but so it's. That. So it's really we need to do a better job on getting our future leaders out there. That means identifying training, you know, making sure that as we try some of these new ideas, having our rank and file involved in not only coming up with the ideas, but being involved in those workgroups of trying to change things and getting them ready, coming to these kind of a, you know, coming to council hearings as different issues are coming up so that they understand how to continue to work collaboratively with people. In the last the last piece of that would also be is getting our workforce to understand that our our world is changing, the world of corrections continues to change, and that we really need to be involved with so many other disciplines as we continue to do this work in the future. I mean, it's one thing that I started seeing on on the statehouse for the probably the last decade or so is more and more we were at tables that had so many different other disciplines involved. And that's where really that's where you started to see some real solutions. That's what I want us to continue to do here, and that's what I'll be moving forward with. Councilmember Dombroski he was. CHAIR And thank you, Mr. Diaz, for Cheetos, like the guy for being willing to serve the people of King County in this very difficult role. I appreciate the multiple opportunities. You and I have had a chance to talk over the issues, and I'm just done a great degree of confidence in your ability to lead this department in a way that is aligned with the community's values and and continuous improvement. I'm pleased to join today as a co-sponsor of the motion confirming your appointment. I wanted to give you the opportunity to share with the Council today a little bit about your work on a national level with juvenile population and your background and experience there that you've engaged on to reform the systems around juvenile offenders. And then maybe just looking ahead, whether you see an opportunity to explore whether or not in due time and with appropriate planning, there might be an opportunity to take our detention for young people. And rather than have that be a part of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, where we have a kind of a corrections approach to be consistent with the general push, to be restorative in nature, to bring that public health perspective, as the executive has talked about, to really take that opportunity when we have young people that are justice involved and wrap them with support to get them going in the right direction. And whether that should maybe be it could be benefited by being out of kind of a detention department, if you will. Wow. Okay. It's a I. You. Can you can give us the executive summary. I know there's a lot there. We're running on the juvenile side of it. You know, I have for quite a few years, I was part of the a group run by Justice Bridge looking at kind of the big picture items as far as, you know, what are some of the changes that we should be looking at? And the juvenile side of the house also for many years, as you saw and you've just seen it in the in the reduction of population in secure detention is when I first started and with speedy I mean the we were we probably had five or six times the number of of kids up in the youth service center . I mean, there was no screening or triage. And I think all of the studies have shown that that is, you know, the more we keep them out of the criminal justice system, the better the higher likelihood for success. So there's been a lot of work, I think, done by a lot of people with once again, with the right heart, the right mind to to change that. And now you've seen that. I think today when I look I think our our current population up there right now is 40, 41, I believe. And it's been fairly consistent now that I would say that all of us would say that's 41 too many, but it's a significant reduction in what's been happening. The approach to public health is one that we've already have embraced and are going to continue to move forward on. It's going to be now how do you how do you implement that change? Currently, we are working closely with the University of Washington, with Dr. Trump, and we're working with King County Health and Dr. Carrie and really changing the way that the those juvenile detention officers, how they're, you know, how they do their work, it is really changing significantly. In fact, if I was going to mention juvenile, you know, that division in general, I use one word, it's change. They're changing how they do their their business and they're moving into a new facility. They're ultimately they're moving to a completely different public health approach and one that is sorely needed. So that's going to require immense amounts of training. It's going to be picking the right juvenile director. That's going to be incredibly helpful, that wants to continue to move forward in that and that arena. It's understanding where we are with restrictive housing in the fact that we're going to change that significantly. And we already have started moving, I think, in the right direction and I've been pretty pleased by what they've been doing. So I guess what you what I would say is you're going to continue to see change in how we do things. And I would ask that you continue to observe what we're doing. I you know, I'm sure there's going to be direction and advice is always going to be needed and how we continue to speed that up. But it's going to be it's going to be interesting change in how we do business. Councilmember Caldwell's. Hi, I thank you, Mr. Chair. John, congratulations on the appointment and why you're here today. Obviously, I think you've done a terrific job in the six months you've been here with us. And so. The City of Seattle. You commented when you first spoke about having been in San Francisco and you saw a lot of racism when you were there. And that was quite a long time ago. Also commented that had been involved with the consent decree in Seattle. And you've also commented about the world is changing and so you're trying to stay up to speed on that and be able to bring our center into those changes. But I'd like to hear from you just a comment now coming full circle, in a way, starting off your career, going to San Francisco, being at Seattle, and now being here with us at King County. Any observations on discrimination, racism, how things are changing? To what extent do they still need to be changed and so forth? Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, the world is changing. I mean, in my time in and in my career, I saw a sea change in how we were doing business, how we are continuing to move forward. I wish I could tell you, though, that it's enough and it is. And we know that the issue of race and disproportionality is one that continues to plague our country. It's it's an area that we need to continue to focus on trying to fix. It's a it's a you know, you look at every one of our social structures and you see it where it doesn't matter whether it's education, whether it's economics. Your job, as I in the medical field, I can't think of an area, any large system where we don't see it. And I think we've gotten better in many ways, but it's one that sometimes we take a step back and language matters. You know, our leaders talk matter, whether we're willing to take a stand on things that maybe aren't maybe aren't popular, but are important to try to move forward, I think it matters. And so I feel very fortunate that I came from a progressive city and I still go to my family still there. I worked in a very progressive city here in Seattle, and now I've been very pleased by what I've been seeing in the county's approach to equity and social justice. And so I think it's a I tend to be optimistic by nature, and I think we're moving in the right direction. But this is an area that there's still so much work to do. The area that we've been focusing on is ensuring that we have the most diverse workforce that we can. So we started a recruitment team made up of juvenile detention officers and corrections officers, and we've been sending them out to different community and ethnic events and and really with the whole idea of trying to continue to do that, to hire. And, you know, that's been a big change from when I first came here. I came and worked for the city, you know, way too long ago where, you know, it was you know, you just didn't see the diversity that you see now, that diversity and not only in and race, but in gender. And and and just just seeing the openness that that you see in this area. I could tell you, though, that even now, you know, as I travel across the country, it's it's not the same everywhere. And it's one that we're going to have to continue to work on. It's one that I feel deeply committed to. As he as I said, I've seen it firsthand. You know, I've seen it how they you know, even to this day, my mother, who's 87, who who's English, isn't the best yet, and and how she's treated at times. And, you know, you just you know, when you notice it, when you when you see it in your own family and then you notice it everywhere. So it's an area that we need to continue to work on. And that's something I'm committed to work with here in this agency also. Thank you very much, Mr. Diaz. You've been introduced by Mr. Six Killers as change agent, and you've spoken yourself about not being satisfied with the status quo, both in your written materials that you submitted to the committee ahead of time. In our conversation today, you've talked about integrating into the division's work, the principles of equity and social justice that King County truly is trying to champion at every level and have already demonstrated that in your work as interim director, by reaching out to communities of color in particular, as you try to recruit a workforce that looks like the community we're serving, that and your dedication to staff training is all exemplary and I look forward to that continued work. And with that, I'd encourage continued attention to best practices around persons that are transgender or gender nonconforming to make sure that King County is always on the front edge of making sure that we are we are committed to those communities in the best way possible. Yes, sir. In fact, one thing I was very pleased about was director Dr. Sanders from Geo Health just came back from a national conference on correctional jail health and it was ace one of the sessions was on transgender policies in the jail and I was pleased to see that they highlighted King County's policy and I could send you a copy of that email. So I was very pleased to see that they were they liked the approach that we were taking in this arena as an example. Once again, we'll continue to work on that. We're going to be on the leading edge. Exactly. Thank you. Other questions seem that I would entertain a motion. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilwoman Lambert and I were very pleased to be the initial sponsors of this motion. Therefore, I would like to have the honor of moving that. We confirm the appointment of John Diaz as the director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. Councilmember Gossage moved adoption of motion that we give a do pass recommendation. The motion 2019 371. Is there discussion, Councilmember Lambert. I'm very pleased that even after being interim, you want to stay on. So that's a good thing. And I really appreciate your accessibility, how you're really involved and teamwork, and that you make our 745 minute meetings each week and the planning that goes into that and that that's stressful. And yet you're very calm about the decisions that need to be made. And so I appreciate that and your compassion for the people that work at the jail as well as the people in the jail. And both are important. So I look forward to continue to work with you and I'm excited about voting yes. Thank you for the discussion. See? None. I'd ask the court to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember about the tie councilmember did last year. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Bassett, I. Councilmember Colwell Councilmember Lambert, I thank the member of the Broward County. Something on record. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is 90 zero no's. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation motion 2019 371 and without objection, we'll place that on the consent agenda before full council as well. What day will that be coming before a regular. Course of business? Or a week from Wednesday. Thank you very much. Thank you. I would say congratulations, but you still have to make your way through the nine member council. Thank you. Thank you. That takes us to our last item on today's agenda, which is a briefing B 162 on district court vacancies on process update and to present is Sam Porter Chair. Good afternoon. Sam Porter Council Central Staff. Today is just a very brief overview of the judicial vacancy process. We had two appointments in July of this year that the committee heard, and this is one vacancy in the same North-East District of District Court. Under state law, the King County Council, as the legislative authority is directed to fill these vacancies by appointment. The Clerk of the Council published Notice of the Vacancy and Judicial Appointment Application Process on August 28th of this year, and the deadline for application materials was October 14th at 4:30 p.m.. The merit selection process that's outlined in King County Code requires that eligible candidates submit current rating of, at minimum, qualified from the King County Bar Association and at least one other eligible Bar Association operating in King County. A letter of interest and a resume. A copy of the completed responses to questionnaires submitted to the King County Bar Association and any supporting documentation that they would like the Council to consider. There were six individuals who submitted applications. The names of those individuals are on page 24 of your packet, and the chair of the Committee of the Hall has determined the process by which the committee will make recommendations to CAO for the interviews that will occur on July, not July, November 18th. And that concludes my remarks. Questions of the process. It will seem very familiar to people since we went through it earlier this year. There is one correction the staff report. The members of the subcommittee are councilmembers McDermott, Dombrowski and Lambert. Councilmember Cole Well, thank you, Sam. What did you say? Individuals had to apply by October 14th. 14th? Okay. Thank you. All right. In seeing nothing else, we are adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the appointment of John Diaz as the director of the department of adult and juvenile detention.
king_33147330-40f8-4471-ab31-62f074e2c171	Reporter The December six, 2017 meeting of the Committee of the whole. Today we will be reviewing and acting on an ordinance that streamlines ongoing reporting requirements in the code, reviewing and accepting a report on the executive's plan for addressing major technology emergencies. We're going to be hearing a briefing from H.R. DX, our Human Resources Division on racially diverse and culturally responsive workforce initiatives, and hearing an update on the East Side rail corridor. We'll wait a moment to call the roll, but I'm going to go straight into public comment. The committee at home offers the public the opportunity to make comments on any item on today's agenda, which are, as I just listed, there's a two hour and 20 turned down. I can hear myself echoing. Thank you. Each person will have 2 minutes to speak. Public comments must address an item on today's agenda. Public comment may not be used for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition must not include obscene speech. The speaker fails to abide by these restrictions. They will be ruled out of order and asked to return to their seat. About two people signed up to speak today. The first one is Marguerite Bouchard. Good morning and welcome. Yes. Good day, everyone. My concern today is that there is an item that I want to discuss because of the fact that it deals with investing in you. And I'm a you racially diverse and culturally responsive. And I don't feel that Mr. Harris White is doing a thorough job. And I feel like people need to sweep through these offices and departments, just like Ms.. Durkan is doing. And you say, well, why is Ms.. Durkin doing that? Well, because I've had multiple complaints, just like the situation at the Supreme Court. They're saying that this situation on a baked cake that these homosexuals want it will affect it said. Minorities, which. I don't call myself an African-Americans. And that's when I just kick back. When I read that, I said, why are black people always in something. That has to deal with race, diversity. Insanity? Children out of hand because the government won't treat us as people. They're still back there with Nat Turner. And who's the other gentleman? Anyway, you know, the one that Dred Scott. Yeah, the. Don't let me. Forget about Dred Scott. The Dred Scott case. That's why they said. If you don't learn from your. History, you're bound to repeat it. But I don't know about. No, repeat here. I just think, like they say, it is what it is. It is what it is. In these departments about them. Being racist and not sound in their judgment when it comes to us. That's why we have to keep coming in front of you, telling you that it's wrong. I'll be back. Thank you, Miss Rashad. The second person signed up to speak is Kasi Sinabi. Well, comedy. On the serial number, no less one who in the key to the genius theory that I you and you these you tend not to live through it save for the years in America, sir. Jeddah. Gentlemen. Sir, good on this hunt. Carlos that morning Randy after a setup meeting as well tonight speaking to Luke looking for that gold opening to find this line, this soft train, this message of the East Indians when they let any live that it will be different. Me to sign this off but particularly this thing stealing. What? Sweet, so to speak, to become an eyes on the ground earlier by his split screen Spanish one three that the Lincoln don't was influence sitting with the bloody tough talking officer and an underrated trooper in. It'll with he's in. No. Thank you. Thank you. That's the end of the list that we have for people who signed up for public comment. Is there anybody else here today who would like to speak to the committee seeing none? We will move on in our agenda. I would like to call a recess for a brief second. We're going to be at his. Concession. We're going to jump ahead on the agenda a little bit here and move to the briefing number. Agenda item number nine, which is an update on the East Side rail corridor. There's a lot of work going on out in the corridor, and I thought it was in addition to the fact that we've had a commitment to quarterly updates. It's a good time towards the end of the year to hear about what we're doing. We're making progress towards a funding commission. I want to thank my colleagues, Cathy Lambert and Regan Dunn, for their ongoing participation in the Regional Advisory Council Committee that's doing all of this work. But here to present the details of where we're at is Geoff Mom, our council initiatives director, and Erika Jacobs, project manager from Park Vision. Welcome. Thank you for giving us this is our last meeting of the year and I was hoping to end with this one, but we're going to go first instead. Go ahead. Jeff Mum, Council Initiatives Director I just wanted to briefly update you on the work that the Regional Advisory Committee has been conducting since the last time a updated you guys. And then I'll turn it over to Erika for the more interesting part of the presentation. The projects that are underway and will be going on later in the year. So the last Regional Advisory Committee meeting that was held in Redmond on September 22nd. The REC gave us direction to develop a funding commission and the Commission will be convened by their Regional Advisory Committee to produce recommendations for funding options or for future development of the corridor. They will have basically three action items for the year, identifying different funding sources when focusing on public and private partnerships, and also areas where we can leverage every type of other types of public funds recommending different actions to fund. And really, this is about looking at projects that are proposed and matching them up with the with the matching of those that qualify for existing funding sources and finding the best matches there. And the Commission will also keep a close eye on geographic distribution when they make the recommendations. And then the Commission will also work on building sustained support for different projects throughout the corridor. The Commission the vision here is that members of the Commission will represent a variety of different constituencies throughout the corridor and figure out ways to build excitement and support for that corridor within those constituencies will be an important part of the Commission's work. The Commission will be up and running in early 2018 and we will have a little bit more to update you on at our next briefing. And the second thing I wanted to talk briefly about is the branding effort that the RAC is underway. It's my understanding that the RFP just went out yesterday and proposals will be back due back in a month. And here the RAC wants to do is build a brand for the entire corridor that integrates existing brands and region regional themes that specifically the the consultant will have more than will deliver back three different logos for the RAC to choose from that incorporate all these different themes and the four and so that's those are the two major items that the rack's working on. Before I turn it over to Erika. I also want to give the Parks Department kudos for the work they did on applying for a Tiger grant in October. The the usually it's my understanding that these grants are usually a two month process. And this year it was a month long process. They got over 50 different groups to support the effort. And I think this is also not only a testament to the park's hard work, but also to the work of the RAC. And I was I sort of had a back seat on this process, but I saw all how all of the relationships among the staff that our participants in the RAC, them working together to pull this off. So it was a tremendous amount of work and I want to give them credit for that. I will second that. It was a really strong application and I know that trails don't always fare so well in the Tiger grant process. Do we have any sense of the timing when we'll hear back about that grant It's. Like forgot about my mike. Madam Chair, first of all, you can turn the microphones or too loud. No, you want them on. But I'm trying to hit the sweet spot. Councilmember. Yes, Madam Chair. I understand that we'll be hearing in the spring, although we don't know the exact timing. Okay. Thank you. Okay. With that, I will go ahead and launch into the update for the Eastside Rail Corridor. As you mentioned at the outset, many. It is a very exciting time for the East Side rail corridor. We do have some very exciting work underway, so I'll be giving an update today on the status of removing rails in a portion of the corridor and turning those portions into interim gravel trail. I'll be talking about segments that are moving into final design and where we're at with that. We have been doing some exciting regional coordination. Looking ahead at future opportunities for trail connections. And again, I will talk about that Tiger Grant submission in a little bit more detail. We've been working with Washed Out to advance important segments of the trail. I'll give an update on that, a little more information on the branding effort and then end with a schedule for looking ahead at the prioritized segments. So I'll get myself set here. I don't know, Marco, if my devices are useless. Thank you. Thanks for your patience with technical difficulties. Okay. So I had just gone over this overview with the presentation with rail removal. This is probably the most exciting thing we have going on at present. I also wanted to thank Council member Regan Dunne for coming out to help us kick off the event with kick off this phase of the project with ceremonial spike removal. We did that last October on a very windy day and here we are in the winter, luckily with some sunny breaks, getting those rails taken out. We have quite a bit of progress done to date. In fact, you see in the center picture on the bottom, we just can't keep people off it. It's really exciting to see people already out there actively using this and we see this every day. This work will open up five miles of interim gravel trail. By January, February, they should be completely wrapped up for four miles south of I-90 between Cullen Park in Renton and Newcastle Beach Park in Bellevue, and then another into jurisdictional connection in the north between Kirkland into Bellevue for a mile. I'm taking the Cross Kirkland corridor into Bellevue. Can I just as well this be the kind of pressed gravel trail that you can ride a bike on. Or. Yes. I'm glad you asked, because at present it looks like just rough gravel. This is just the preliminary base course. They're going to end it, finish it with a very fine compact gravel that's almost identical to the cross Brooklyn corridor. Great. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Um. So moving into final design with the help of a $2 Million Federal Highway Grant granted to us through the Puget Sound Regional Council, we have been able to advance design on the entire Wilbert and segment of the trail. It's the most urban segment. This contains the exciting Wilmington trestle. This will be going forward to design numerous bridges, crossings and in the full context of urban, the most urban setting with a lot of redevelopment planning right around the trail. So it's a very exciting thing to be planning and designing right now. And we will have a pretty robust public process kicking off in the early part of 2018 and really look forward to engaging the community on that. Also right within the heart of the Wilmington District are Wilbert and Segment of the Trail is a separate project moving forward on its own. It involves a lot of collaboration with sound transit in the city of Bellevue. This is a bridge crossing that we're working on designing over Northeast State Street and Bellevue. It'll have an integration or a direct connection into the Wilmington Light rail station at its north side. The Trail Bridge is running in parallel, which you can't really see very well in the picture. But behind it will be a light rail gateway track, also crossing northeast eighth above grade. And we'll have some elements that connect that trail bridge with street grid and sidewalk and have a lot of integration with the surrounding land uses. So that's an exciting project that we're moving forward with design. We also have a public process kicking off with that in the early part of 2018. I mean, just breaking to point out the goal there is to have it built and ready before the light rail line opens in 2023. That would be really, really nice to have all those trail connections open and ready to go when the light rail comes along. That's correct. We need funding. Yes. Well, we have currently funded for design. It's very true that both the Wilbert and segment I mentioned a moment ago in this bridge crossing are we will still be needing construction funding, but the goal will absolutely be to construct it in time for the station opening, but also in a window of opportunity between sound transit's phases of their station construction. So as soon as they're done constructing the gateway track and the the Station Foundation elements, we can get in there in about early 2020 and start construction and need to be finished by 2022. Very good. Customer Lambert has a question for you. Thank you for all your hard work on this. I think you could probably do the blueprints in your brain at even looking at them at this point. It's amazing. So in looking on the slide on page four and a slide of it, but all those would construction, is all that going to come down as you build a new one or there'll be the will to happen with that. The Wilbert and trestle there in the picture. There is a significant portion of that. There are a lot of we call timber members that are exhibiting rot and decay. It's a very old structure originally built in 1904 will replace those timber members. What will preserve the historic nature and character and esthetic of the structure? It's listed for eligibility for National Historic Preservation. And we will we will seek to preserve the character even as we retrofit it for use as a trail. So we're in I'm looking at Page Five's picture and I'm looking at page four picture. So will we be built? So I'm not sure how they look. So inside we'll still have those and this will be built next to it. Page 45 is the northeast, east, northeast, eighth Street crossing, different bridge. This is much further south. So that picture is not relevant to this picture. Just if that's what that's what's alarming you. Yeah, that is. Right. That section. So when we get to this, we are going to leave those members. Yes. Ones of course that are not right it right. Well, we will rehabilitate and repair portions of that structure, but it'll esthetically look very much like it does today, only with the trail on the top and structurally sound and fit for another 30 to 50 years of life. Excellent. I'm glad you said the magic word that was historical. So, yes, keep it preserved. Thank you. Thank you. And if it helps just to help on that point of clarification about geography, I did click back to slide number four with the map on the left. The trestle structure that you see in the picture is in the the lower third of the picture. There's a little black line that runs across the I.R.S. going north and south. That's the well, that's what we've been referring to as the Warburton gap over I four or five. This trestle structure is just within a couple of hundred feet north of that black segment and then the northeast street crossing a much more urban style bridge most likely is probably about a mile to the north of that northeast. Okay. So in fact, moving just a little bit further to the north of Northeast Eighth Street in the Belle Red area of Bellevue. We have some exciting coordination going on and opportunities to bring a direct trail connection into what is becoming the new spring district , which we all know now RCI has plans to move its headquarters to. We have a lot of exciting development happening in the spring district, including, as you see, with a red star to the right, another one of light rail or sound transit's light rail stations, the Spring District 120th Street Station. So with all of those opportunities to bring bicycle and pedestrian traffic directly into another light rail station opportunity and all of this transit oriented development we've been coordinating with sound transit and the city of Bellevue to contemplate a direct connection from the from the east side rail corridor trail via what will be the new Spring Boulevard into the heart of that district. So we've been looking at some options. And this direct connection to Spring Boulevard, as I'll show you in the next slide, has risen to the top and has been discussed with the stakeholder group in that in that area as well. So if we take that picture and flatten it out on the left, which is to the south, actually in this picture, you see the future Spring Boulevard coming in. It actually has an east west orientation. There is a schematic inset in the top left corner that contemplates a ramp that would go up from the air, see, have a direct connection to Northeast 12th Street and to Spring Boulevard, both of which have bicycle dedicated bicycle paths on the on on their rights, away on that on the north sides of them. So the direct trail connection will come right from the EOC into those bike facilities built by the city of Bellevue. And in coordination with just the footprint and outline that you see there. In the center of the heart of that is all of Sound Transit's Operations Maintenance Facility, East Metzger question. It's hard to see the relationship of the proposed bicycle trail for some PED bike, presumably trail to the road and this schematic. Is it going to be just sort of a side like a regular bike lane sidewalk sort of deal on what is otherwise looks like a road? It'll come up from the ear, see, just which kind of is running horizontally across the page there at about a 5% slope. It's a ramp structure that's going to have a little bit of great increase to it as you go up to 12th and Spring Boulevard. But it will be a nice ADA accessible grade. It takes it has a little bit of a left turn to take it directly to Spring Boulevard at the top of the ramp. And a little bit more of a right turn to go over to Northeast 12th so that anybody wanting to go downtown Bellevue would have a much more direct connection, be it Northeast 12th. Any direction of travel coming to or from the Spring Boulevard would enter onto that ramp on its left fork, if that helps. I can't visualize it. Is it the is it the ten triangular? I'm going to stay out of the red outlined box. Okay. The ten line that cuts across the upper third of the page here from right to left is the ear, see. And then you see as you come in towards the if I was heading south, you come by the OMV maintenance base there. There's what looks like a left turn. Yeah, left turn. That's what you're talking about. It would actually be a right turn. You'd go into the area that's within the red inset box. The reason we'd have to take people up to the right or toward a westerly direction on that ramp to connect up to Spring Boulevard is because there will be light rail track on the eastern side of the EOC feeding into the IMF. And we we don't yet have a way to plan for an under crossing or an over crossing that would fit with the track alignment. I just can't even visualize what you're saying. So maybe we can come back to this another time and be helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry about that. It's riddled with some technical challenges on that front. Yeah, I'd just like to see a maybe something as the slightly less detailed and beautiful that's just lines on a piece of paper that can show me which the bike trails are and which the roads are. Because I can't. It looks to me like it turns left and goes right into the Spring District. But you're saying that that's not what happened, so I don't understand. Okay, we can circle. I can come right back to it. You don't have to come back to this meeting. We can do it another time. This is this is off in the future. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. So in the same vein of collaborating with regional partners on the Air Sea, we have a great partnership going with the watchdog on their plans to build the the Gilbertson Gap Bridge, which is basically a reinstatement of a bicycle pedestrian crossing over the southbound lanes of I-405 in the vicinity of the Mercer. So this old train tunnel was removed in 2008 with the last expansion, four or five wash that is now planning to put a new bicycle pedestrian bridge in that location by 2020 as part of their rent to Bellevue Express Toll Lanes Project. Also as part of that project further south of I-90, they will be installing two and a half miles of permanent paved trail within the Eastside Rail Corridor between Coal Creek Parkway and Ripley. That the purpose of that installation is to replace what will be last segments of the Lake Washington Loop Trail as the freeway expands and moves into the right of way where that trail currently exists. That will also be constructed in the 2019 to 2020 timeframe. So we're getting quite a bit of trail developed in this collaboration with Washed Up. This this timing also relates I had the Wilbur Tin Trestle on there intentionally with our goal and desire to get the Wolverton trestle constructed by 2020. The two are almost nearly adjacent to each other in the in the continuity of the ear C one really needs the other to have through connectivity. So we are both, both agencies intend to try to construct those concurrently. Okay. Now getting a little more into the Tiger Grant, I think it's really exciting that we've been able to work with Kirkland to put together a joint application. Part of the grant application was is to fund hopefully their totem lake connector bridge badly needed at the interchange with the RC and 124th they have put in part of part of this application is for that and we have also part of the Wilbert and the most central part of the Wilbert in segment put in for construction funding, which would include of course include the trestle. Our total ask for in this grant application was $25 million between the two of us and it's for a $44 million total project cost. This match ratio makes it a fairly competitive potentially application in the scheme of things. We did get over 50 letters of support throughout the region, including federal and state elected officials and numerous state I mean state elected officials as well. So this application can be found at King County dot gov slash East Side Connector. The application itself is on there as well as all the supporting materials and some fun video clips that we were able to pull together. It really was a team effort that went beyond park. I thank you for that recognition, but this was an an effort that did pull together all of the agencies who have ownership and interest, our partners in the Regional Advisory Council and the staff that support that, it really took everybody pulling together. So I encourage everybody to go take a look at this. And yes, we hope to hear more about the status of this application in the spring. Okay. And I'm going to conclude with just a schedule to look ahead that helps speak to something you were mentioning, Madam Chair, that we we do. I'm looking at the bottom. Is that North State Street crossing? We have some timings on all of the projects that I'm going to go over on the schedule that are pretty critical to me. Opportunities for construction with our partner with partners who are also working in the similar areas. Why we've actually prioritized these pieces. First, of course, we had the rail removal that's going to be wrapping up. An interim trail will be opening in the first part of 2018, right in the early part of the year. But the lakefront segment that will have an opening sometime in mid 2020 when Rush that does construct the two and a half miles. The Wilbert in segment has a number of coordination opportunities with sound transit Bellevue and washed out so that piece we're working on final design now through mid 2019 and moving into construction by the middle of 2019 through 2020 with a later segment of the Wilbert later portion of the Warburton segment dependent on funding maybe opening up in the 2021 to 2022 time frame. The thing on the project on the bottom of the schedule is that Northeast State Street crossing its construction window is 2020 through 2022 and it's the star which indicates a potential opening to the public is disembodied from that construction timeline only because even if we can finish construction by 2022, we will open that trail bridge concurrent with the well-written station opening in 2023. So that is what we're prioritizing work on now. And certainly everything you see in the construction is is dependent on funding. So we'll be looking to fund those through future projects levy or through grant funding. We're highly prioritizing grant applications at this time. Thank you. Any questions or comments, Councilmember Lambert? Thank you. This is really exciting and thank you for all your hard work in this. Even again, this with two years, three years, four years is amazing and come a long way. But I do have the two things I want to say. One, I am concerned about the signage that we said along here, that it's clear that rail may come back at some point. So as we take them out, is the signage going in so people will know that this could be a transportation corridor in the future? Yes, Councilmember, we do plan to have signage. I believe we have every I can't exactly remember the distance, but there's certain frequencies of intervals where we'll have signage that remind the trail users that it's a multipurpose corridor and that there that we'll be also using historical signs along the way to show that it was once a freight corridor and to commemorate and honor the history of the rail corridor, but also to remind that it's a multi-use corridor that has plans for future potential transit and certainly in the areas where they will be seeing light rail, that will be a very present reminder where sound transit is constructing light rail alongside the trail. You know, I see it in Europe, I expect it in Europe. And so, you know, there's no problem. But I am really nervous that if there's a section that people are using and then we say, okay, we want to use it for transportation, that people are going to be furious that they're having it taken away from them. So I think as we bring it on, that we should bring on what we are intending to leave on and not something that's going to take it away. I think that's important and I think it's great that we can have many modalities on this on this corridor. My other thing is just to tell you that we are not having such good luck on Lake Sammamish Track. Things are going pretty smoothly on this is fabulous. It's not going smoothly and it's not fabulous on the flights. And it is true we are in the middle of some lawsuits against the city as demand against the city, as the managed things are not wonderful and they are not getting more wonderful as the days go by. So we want people to know that we are in a section. You mentioned that some of this goes by urban or that trail is in a very narrow corridor where there homes on each side and in some cases the line goes through people's front rooms, through their backyards, to all kinds of things. So we will have this that briefing coming. And I just want you to be prepared that it's been a long, arduous struggle and doesn't look like it's going to be happy soon. So I hope it will turn around. We may need you to come over on that one. Erika has a project she does, and she's doing her own project. We like you where you are. Yeah, I wouldn't move her because she's so amazing on this. But yeah, there is just needs. And Erica, you. Thank you. Well, I think that they have a pretty good team and I know they're working hard to solve some of those challenges. And it takes patience. Thank you. It's just a. Few comments from me. Can you put back up the the last slide that showed the timeline with the show? So this is I mean, this is really it's very organized. It's easy to see. It's based on your presentation, understanding the what you call timing opportunities, which I think is a beautiful way of putting it . There are some challenges embedded in those opportunities, but this looks very doable as long as we keep working closely and well with our partners as we currently are. So I'm just very excited that we're going to see portions of this open up over time. And then in 2023, the transportation look and feel and capacity in this part of the county is just going to change. This corridor is going to make a huge difference along with the light rail opening. So I just couldn't be more. It's very, very exciting. I would look for opportunities to accelerate things if possible, but I know that that's really challenging because most of these are have dependencies on other people's constructions that are on a very set timeline. So maybe the best we can do is just continue to work with them to make sure they stay on their timelines, but they will look for opportunities, if there are any, to try to accelerate opening up this trail. And I guess my final comment on the on the subject of dual use, I'll say what I've said before is I agree completely with the idea of maintaining that idea in people's minds through signage and through art. As we do art on the quarter, there's opportunities to sort of maintain some side portions of rail or something that would evoke what used to be and what will be again someday. But I think it's always important when we talk about transportation in the corridor to remember that although it is a linear corridor and we preserved it as such, the likelihood is that transportation options will open in segments, just as we see now in the segment from downtown Bellevue North to the Belle Red area, you will have light rail in the corridor. I mean, it's being constructed right now in the future as we continue, if we extend to Kirkland or if there's something to the South, I, I don't see at this point in all the planning that we've been doing around transit a, you know, sort of East Renton to East Bellevue, major demand for transit service. It's West Renton to West Bellevue. And so that's the challenge that we've had planning corridor planning trends in that corridor and our regional transit agency is budgeted out until 2041 at this point. So the transit is some ways out, but we want to remember and keep that sort of in our planning because it's in our vision. Anyway, thank you very much for your for your update on this. I look forward to ribbon cuttings and walks and bikes out there next year and that'll be really fun to do. And, and I see David St John is coming, I need to thank him as well for all his hard work on this. Appreciate your being here and everything you do for the rock and for this project. All right. Thank you. We're going to go back to the regular order of business now and I would ask. Councilmember Lambert to move approval of the meeting minutes of our November 29th special meeting. Thank you. I'd like to move the minutes of November 29, 2017, as written. It's been moved and is before us. Any comments or changes? All those in favor please signify by saying I. Motion carries item five and six are to ordinance to proposed items. One Motion one ordinance that will be presented together because they both are related to probably my favorite projects of 2017. This was like a New Year's resolution that I'm I'm I'm having a lot of help making come to you before the end of the year. It was a yearlong effort to review all our ongoing reporting requirements and code. So everywhere in the county code that says to somebody that they must report to us to determine which ones are useful and should continue, which ones can be combined or changed in frequency, and which ones are no longer useful and can be eliminated. We briefed the committee on this project in September. We have had a tremendous amount of staff work on this and so I just really want right up front say thank you for that because we're getting to the point where we can now start to update the code, but there are quite a few little technical ins and outs that need to happen in a multiplicity as code update of this sort. So Tara Rose from staff is here to present the staff report. Aaron Osnes is also here. Don't you go ahead and take it away. Excellent. Well, do Madam Chair, members of the committee for the Record, Tara Rose, council staff. And as the chair noted items five and six on today's agenda concern making changes to reporting requirements to council the materials for these two items begin on page 11 of your packet. And Madam Chair, with your permission, I'd like to brief item 6/1 and then circle back to item five. Please. Please do whatever order makes the most sense. Thank you. So then I'll begin on page 12 of your packet and start with some background on the project, just a little refresh. So at the direction of the chair this year, council staff are engaged in a research project reviewing the King County Code to identify required reports to council and focusing on those that are at a regular ongoing frequency. Proviso responses and reporting requirements to other entities such as the Executive were not included in this effort. And as the Chair noted, the committee received a briefing on this project in September. Staff found 119 of these ongoing reporting requirements to council and also identified the enacting legislation for each requirement. And some of these date as far back as the 1970s, reporting requirements generated by state law or in a local agreement are not included in this number. Council analytical staff and other legislative branch staff were consulted about whether these reports generated by code requirements were used in their analytical work, or if they could potentially be eliminated or streamlined through consolidation with other reports or a reduced frequency. And as part of this effort, analysts were encouraged to think about if the reports were used in their analytical work, if the information was easily available elsewhere, or by request, if circumstances had changed relative to when the report requirement was created, and if a reduced frequency would still give sufficient information. Proposed Ordinance 2017 0501 Item six on the agenda is the culmination of this work and would eliminate 28 ongoing reporting requirements, change the frequency of eight combined 13 reporting requirements into five ongoing reports, and make miscellaneous changes to seven. And I'll describe some of those miscellaneous changes in a moment before I go into more details on the changes that would be made by the proposed ordinance. I want to pass out and orient you to a handout. No pause for a second while it's passed out. Council member Mike Bowers on the phone. So if he doesn't already have this, maybe describe what you're talking about. We'll do a first. So this handout is an updated version of attachment three in your packet. There's been an update to the work plan portion of the attachment, which I'll go into later. I will be using this handout 4 to 4 page numbers, and I'll try to be very explicit that when I'm giving page numbers for the packet and the staff report and pages for the attachment, but if I'm being unclear, please, please ask and I will provide any clarity that I can. So as you can see, this updated attachment that was just passed out provides additional background on each reporting requirement and the specific change that would be made by the proposed ordinance. It's sorted by change type, and by that I mean reporting requirements that are eliminated on one list that have a change frequency on another list, etc.. In the September 20th committee of the whole briefing, reporting requirements were assigned an identifier consisting of a number and a letter. And these identifiers have been continued from that briefing. In addition to the changes described in the handout, the proposed ordinance 2017 0501 would make the changes to gendered pronouns and historically gender terms in King County Code titles one through four A And this is to match the changes in proposed Ordinance 2017 0489, which passed the Council this week. The proposed ordinance in front of you today also would make technical corrections to the code suggested by the code adviser, such as updating outdated names to reflect current names, deleting duplicative words or inserting missing words, etc. Examples of these technical corrections and their associated line numbers are provided on page 13 of your packet, so not the handout. So moving ahead to page 14 of your packet. As noted earlier, the proposed ordinance would eliminate 28 ongoing reporting requirements, and the full list of reports proposed for elimination can be found on pages one through seven of the attachments of the Matrix. Some common reasons for elimination are identified in table one in your packet and the staff report portion. Some reasons include that the group responsible for the report is no longer active. The information request in the report is accessible elsewhere or that conditions have changed since the enacting legislation. In addition to eliminating 28 reporting requirements, the proposed ordinance would also change the frequency of eight. In the full list of those items can be found on pages eight and nine of the handout. The Matrix. With one exception, the changes represent reduced frequencies. So for example, semiannual two annual. The exception is related to the county's affirmative action plan, which was identified as Report 18 C on the attachment and current code requires the Executive to transmit the Affirmative Action Plan every five years, and executive staff have requested that this be changed to a four year reporting cycle in order to reflect a federal requirement for the county to apply for certain federal funds. So I want to pause there for a second because I think this is a good example of what we're trying to do here. We have got, for good reasons, a code requirement that says make a report every five years and the federal government saying make a report every four years, which ends up with multiple reports doing the same things in successive years as opposed to just one time every four years. And we all get the same information. This is just sort of the efficiency that you can have when you go in and clean up every now and again. So I think this is a good one. I'm looking over the H.R. people. They're nodding. So that's good things. Moving ahead to the next section of the staff report, which is on page 15 of your packet. Proposed ordinance would combine 13 reporting requirements into five ongoing reports, and the full list of these reporting requirements and their associated change can be found on pages ten through 12 of the attachment handout. And then finally, the proposed ordinance would make miscellaneous changes to seven reporting requirements. And these changes do not fall cleanly into the previously described categories of eliminated change frequency combined. And the full list of these reporting requirements and their associated change can be found on pages 13 through 15 of the attachment. That handout four of these changes concern what I am referring to as one off reporting requirements, and these are things that were inadvertently codified back in the day. So these reports, these were a one time only reports. And according to the King County legislative drafting guide, in general, ordinances that are of a general and permanent nature should be codified. And then those ordinances that are temporary or relate to very specific circumstances are not codified but kept in the clerk's office, for reference. And so three of these one off reporting requirements are more than a decade old. And council staff have raised no issues with eliminating these one off requirements. And then the fourth that I would point out, is more recent and concerns the best starts for kids, youth and Family Homeless Prevention Initiative Implementation Plan. And this plan has already been adopted by council. So additionally, for your reference, a list of reporting requirements that are left unchanged in the proposed ordinance can be found beginning on page 16 of the the handout attachment. Additionally, a small subset of the unchanged reporting requirements have been flagged as potentially in need of further updates, but that required additional research and consultation outside the scope of this project. And these items were placed on a list to be considered for a future work plan, and the work plan can be found beginning on page 28 of the handout. At the beginning of my remarks, I mentioned that this portion of the attachment had been updated. And I just want to point out that item 12 W, which concerns revisiting the Harborview reporting requirements, was added to the workplan. So that is the difference between the attachment that's in your pocket and the attachment that I handed out. Switching gears. I'll now brief propose motion 2017 0500. Unless the chair wishes that I pause for questions. And have any questions here, I'll just state that the side conversation back here was about the vacancy report. And one of the things that you may have mentioned is there's a couple at least in here that were reports that are ongoing reports. They're actually happening. They're valuable reports, but they're only listed in a motion. And so sort of the reverse of what you were just saying about one time reports that shouldn't have been codified. These probably should have been kind of filed since they were in a motion. We don't codify motions. So what we're doing with those and the vacancy report was the one we were talking about back here, is that we're going to codify that and make it at a reasonable free frequency and continue receiving the same information, but quarterly instead of monthly. And now it will be in the right place, written the right way. That is correct, yes. Since that relates to proposed motion 2017 0500. Would you like me to please clean up? Okay. Perfect. Madam Chair. Councilmember D'Ambrosio. Before we say, is this the right time to ask the questions about specific reports? Please chart. Yeah, please do. I'm trying to give you a reference here. All right, so if. You just give me a subject, I might be able to find it quickly. The Special Duties Report. The one that H.R. produces. This is 23 on in the materials, 23 executive boards on the number of employees on special duty assignment. Can you remind me? I think I know what that is, but remind me what a special duty assignment is and the rationale for proposed elimination of this report. I would have to follow up on the specifics in terms of special duty assignments. But this this report is something that the council does receive. However, staff provided feedback that it was unclear what analytical value it provided and that it wasn't used in their analytical work. Hmm. You know, that certainly that's, you know, staff's perspective. And so council members may have different feelings. A generation may be able to help us out here. He looks like he's halfway out of a. I'm going to dove in while Mr.. Issue comes up because i recall working on this report in h.r. And in a department. My understanding is my recollection, i should say, is that this is a way to keep track of how many people are working out of classification and presumably receiving some kind of of out of class pay so that that doesn't become used all the time and result in reclassifications. So there's different ways of getting a reclassification, right? One of them is you look at you don't have the right kinds of staff. You need different kinds of staff. You have for budget, for a different kind of staff that may cost you more. And you have to go through the regular budget approval process and the possibly the FTE approval process to do that. Another way is if you work somebody out of class, intentionally or unintentionally, that then that employee can later on, sometime down the road apply for reclassification through the personnel board and actually get themselves reclassified without any of those approvals. So I imagine that this was a means of keeping an eye on tracking and managing so that reclassifications are intentional and not unintentional. That would be my guess. Mr. Issue Councilmembers John Rich Just after King County Council. Madam Chair, you are correct. This might even go one step further in just being able to keep track of those individuals who have been given that clock, that special duty assignment, so that it isn't an end around a reclassification process either. It allowed the members to understand the different kinds of special duty and just to know what was going on. That information is available in a variety of different forms as well today, and any work that's being done on this, it just wasn't used for analytic purposes. And in the check ins on this, staff have mentioned this has been of minimal additional value. This was also instituted at a time when we didn't have as good of an H.R. system, and that information was a little more difficult to draw it together. So that's all I have on that. The only additional thing I would add is for all of these reports that are recommended for elimination, there were a number of different reasons. One is we're not actually getting this report. It doesn't exist anymore. And that could be for a variety of reasons, including there used to be a committee. We were supposed to get reports about the committee. That committee hasn't existed for 20 years. So, of course, we no longer get reports about that committee. I mean, could be that obvious. There are reports that we are getting that staff advised they don't use for any purpose and or the information is available to them in a more useful format in other ways than an annual or routine report, etc.. And we could possibly either in a systematic way for all of these or for targeted ones that councilmembers have questions about, provide information about the why it's not really. This chart is on eight and a half by one sheet of paper I imagine they're tracking goes quite a bit beyond that and we could probably provide more information if that's helpful. So I appreciate all all of that and I appreciate that there's reports that staff doesn't need, but there's does and I've gone through in a lot of these, it looks like they should be gone and it's good work. There are some that I think are informative to members as we make sure we understand to the best we can kind of what's going on in the government from budget making decisions and operate policy setting things. And this one, it's pretty fresh as a 2011 originating legislation and the report is being done. We have a 2016 version of it. I confess to having not read that, but I think I might go look at it and just just see. It's absolutely fine. I was the special duty thing I had. Maybe it was another thing in mind. So our commitment going into this work was that if a member raises their hand and says, I received this report, I use this report, this report is useful to me. I would like to keep it that we will do so. Also on the seventh, see the lobbyist reporting. That's pretty. Stay 1998 originating legislation doesn't look like it's been done. What's the rationale for eliminating the reporting requirement? That is correct, that the original legislation is from 1998. And so within the ombudsman role is the investigation of alleged violations of the lobbyist disclosure code. And the OMBUD has indicated that while relatively rare, I think they've had three, that they would include that in their their report, the Ombudsman's report on their sort of exercise of functions . Okay. So we won't be losing that information. It would be coming from another place. Correct. On the six E, I'm going backwards here. The School Technical Review Committee reports. Can you help me understand? As someone says, Aaron, often someone who sits on that committee, I tell you, this report is never done. Okay. So why what? Why didn't why do we ask? Why isn't it done? This is supposed to come over as part of the school impact ordinance. It never has. Who's required? What is it? So let's talk a little bit more about the requirement, because there's not a column here that says who the code requires to provide the report and. Required to provide the report. The School Technical Review Committee consists of council staff, deeper staff and PSB staff. We spend a whole day with the school districts going over their plans, making sure that they're, you know, compliant with the requirements of the formula for the school fees and that their student generation rates make sense and meet our for our requirements and their couple of facilities plan makes sense. The thinking at the time was that I believe that wasn't here was that a report would come with the ordinance that implements those plans. At this point, those plans are updated on kind of a peripheral basis. I mean, they're they don't change a whole lot other than just the number of projects in the in the student generation rate. So the report doesn't add a lot of value. What is the concurrency that we're looking at? Other school facilities are required to be concurrent with the county's comprehensive plan for unincorporated areas. Concurrent. I understand. I understand. Transportation, concurrency. I don't understand. Let me get back to Ed, what that phrase means. And I am the last one, Madam Chair, if I may, is just the one above that on the interleukin mitigation program, which is a pretty cool program that we do here. And that's pretty fresh legislation. 2016, are we going to get that information and then another from another source to kind of see how that's working? I sense that Mr. Ricci has stepped up to answer the last question. So first of all, let's yeah, let's let's let's let him do that. And then and then we'll ask for an answer to that question as well. Mr.. Dombroski, to answer your question about concurrency, it is actually the exact same concept as transportation concurrency. Concurrency is a land use term that is used to call for all utility and facility support to be concurrent with the development that is being implemented. And schools have been determined to be one of those base utility or base facilities. So electricity has to be concurrent, water capacity has to be concurrent, transportation has to be controller in schools and other of those types. And so it falls into the same concurrency construct and that it has to be funded within that same six year period. And so with that, is that a predicate to, say, approving certain amount of growth and planning and zoning for certain amount of residential growth, which is also why you had the school impact fees like you acted on earlier this week. I should pay for it. Correct. That is to ensure that it can be concurrent. I see. So if we need to have concurrency in terms of school capacity to make sure that we are not over zoning for growth when we need this data, and then you can answer that later. Okay. I'm just I'm thinking out loud on it. It's kind of an interesting question. Thank you, Mr. Ricci. And on the critical area of mitigation, we Murphy and Lou the Willard reports to the federal government as part of their requirements. Right. So the Clean Water Act program. Yeah, it's not exactly the same reporting requirements as the county, but it's again, an elimination of one report that they would have to do. So what I've what I've captured here, Councilmember, if I may attempt to summarize, is that you would like more information about items five E, six E, seven C and 23 E before we get to final passage on this, would that work for you? I don't need anything more than seven C. That was a helpful answer. Okay. I got a couple other notes here, but those were ones that I would like that I'll get with. Start between now and final. Very good. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert, his question, I think you mentioned and thank you for your hard work on this. So I guess they can go back to working on my book at night rather than reading reports. So they'll be great. There's still going to be 50 plus reports to read. So yeah, no worries there. No worries there. Well, I've been reading more than that and that's a good job. But what does concern me is that as we went through this, we realized that there were regulations to do these reports that just never showed up and that's not okay. So I think that now that we've streamlined it and reduced some of the requirements that we need to list, that is, you know, what are the dates, what is due and when, you know, quarterly there's semiannually and and yearly. But I think we all need an annual list. I know you guys have it in the back, but it doesn't always filter up to the council members. I'd like to have that chart and you know, I may have my staff put reminders on my calendar so I know what report should do when so that we don't get in this place before. I mean, in the future. The other thing is that it's got to be more clear that we asked for information that we we get that information. So that was a little disconcerting as we went through this and as we went through this. And there were many good conversations. So thank you for those. We decided that it could be put in the budget. So there are a couple in here that I definitely want to make sure are in the budget. So I'd like to do an amendment that says in the budget these things will be there because as the last council members are there certain things we make important decisions on? And for example, 9ei have no idea how we would make a decision on nine E, which has with animal control without the information that is there. And we have had voluminous negotiations over the past 12 years on that, and we need to be able to track that. So that's an example of one of the things I'd like to see for sure would be in the budget where. Here it says it could be. I want to make sure that there's about five of these. The not only could be but ah so that's that I'll give you that those. And then on page 34 line 351 and 352, what do you. By nine C what exactly of the ordinance I mentioned. Sorry. Yeah, but what's the other one? Sorry. Can you repeat the number in there? It's page 34 of the ordinance lines 351 and 352 leading governance transition efforts for the urban area consistent with the Growth Management Act. So this is actually one of the code revise or technical corrections. So this this isn't related to the reports ordinance. And I think let me have that example specifically. So this was added to the code by a previous ordinance, but not properly underlined. So this is a technical change to fix that previous ordinance problem. And what where on the website does it say leading governance, transition ordinance for the unincorporated areas consistent with the DMA? We'll have to get back to you. Okay. Just it's only half the county matters. And I think that we have a whole county that matters. So thank you. Okay. With that, won't you go ahead and brief the motion now? Okay. Great. Will do. So propose motion 2017 0500, which is item five on the agenda and is the companion legislation to the proposed ordinance that we've been discussing. Reporting Requirement three, which was also previously mentioned, requires the executive to report monthly on vacant budgeted positions. And that was requested by motion 11154 and was not codified. And so in order to change the frequency from monthly to quarterly, the proposed motion in front of you would rescind motion 11154. And that is because it's addressed in proposed Ordinance 2017 0501, which would codify the reporting requirement, given that it is of a general and permanent nature, as well as change the frequency from its current frequency of monthly to quarterly. And with that, that concludes my remarks on both ordinances. But I'm happy to take questions or to brief the amendments. So it seems like there's some desire to just dig in on a few additional details, some of which have been laid out here today, some of which may come up in between now and final passage. I would like colleagues to try to move these forward maybe without recommendation today, because it would be great to get it done before the end of the year so that the new requirements at least will be known, if not fully codified by the beginning of January and can go into effect then. So I think what we need to do is take up the motion first. We have a series of amendments to make these effective. So we take up the motion, if we could, without recommendation, and then we'll do the amendments to perfect it and then take a vote on moving it out of committee without recommendation. So, Councilmember Lambert, can I ask you to please put in front of us motion number 2017. 500. 500. That's right. Okay, I'm ready. Madam Chair, I'd like to move Ordinance 2017 0500 with a do with our recommendation. Okay. The motions before us. There is a technical amendment one which would update a whereas clause with the correct number of the companion legislation. And I move amendment number one. All right. Any comments or questions on amendment number one? All those in favor please signify by saying i, i. Any opposed amendment one passes and then there is a relevant title amendment to one that I'm sure I'm entitled. Amendment number one. Any comments or questions? All those in favor please signify by saying I want any other amendments to proposed motion 2017 0500. Their motion is to improve it without recommendation. With the clerk. Please, Calderon. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Hi. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Fine, right there. Hi. Madam Chair. Hi, Madam Chair. The vote is ADA is. Known as Councilmember Gossett Excuse. Thank you very much for your vote. Proposed motion 2017 0500 as amended will move to full council without recommendation. Do we need to expedite these in order to get them on the calendar before the end of the year? And would you support a majority of the objection to that? I have no objection, Madam Chair. Does anyone else on the committee have objection? You're the one who's going to have to cram the agenda through. You're the one who has to join me in sitting through it. Excellent. All right, good. We will expedite that. We will expedite it. No, you are proposed. Next, we have proposed ordinance number 2017 0501, which would implement the the changes to the reporting as discussed today. And I would accept a motion to move that forward without recommendation. Madam Chair, I'd like to move Ordinance 2017 0501 without recommendation. Thank you. It's been moved and is before us. There are two amendments. Councilmember Lamour, can I ask you to put Amendment One before us and then we'll ask Tara to explain what the amendment does. Okay. I'd like to move amendment number one. All right. Thank you very much. Amendment one is before us. Can you please describe Amendment One? Of course. So Amendment One concerns three public records related reports that would be combined by the proposed ordinance. And those reporting requirements are identified as 45 C and 60. And background information about these reporting requirements can be found on page ten of the handout. So in order to combine these three requirements, the proposed ordinance sets up sort of a two step process. Reporting requirement for C requires each agency to report on performance in responding to public records request during the previous year and in current code that's due to council by April 1st. And current practice has been agencies submit them some combined and some individual. So we end up getting a lot of reports. So instead of transmitting these to council first, the proposed ordinance requires that these be four submitted to the Public Records Committee, and then by February 15th and then the Public Records Committee would back up these agency reports with the two reports, five, C and six, so that they are responsible for and transmit this combined report to council. By March 1st. After introduction of the ordinance, executive staff indicated that it wouldn't be possible for agencies to meet the February 15th deadline, and so Amendment One would change the dates in the process I just described . So the agency reports would be due to the Public Purpose Committee by March 20th instead of February the February 20th date in the proposed ordinance, and would make the transmittal deadline to council for the combined report to be April 1st instead of March 1st. I have a question about that. As you as you laid it out, it sort of was came clear to me, is that really enough time between March 20th and April 1st for the Public Records Committee to do their work of combining them and getting them transmitted to us? That's only 11 days. I reached out to executive staff and they indicated that it would be okay. Okay. Maybe it's just a ministerial act that they have because they all have been working on their reports already and then just combine them and send them on over. That works. We don't need to take more time than it takes. All right. Any questions or comments on Amendment one? Seeing none. All those in favor of Amendment one to Ordinance 2017 0501. Please signify by saying I any opposed. All right. We also have an amendment to Councilmember Lambert. Would you put that before us? Thank you, Madam Chair. I've moved item number two. All right. Amendment two is before us. Chair, would you also please brief Amendment two or so? Amendment two concerns Section 24 of the proposed ordinance and relates to the county's project control officer reporting requirement. I. Currently the Project Control Officer transmits a quarterly report that concerns compliance with King County's construction management policies and procedures, and this is referred to as 14 C. And the attachment this reporting requirement is was one of the the ones that comparability she mentioned that is required by motion and is not codified. So Section 24 of the proposed ordinance would codify reporting requirement 14 C while changing the frequency from quarterly to annual and in reviewing motion 13 zero 26, which is the enacting legislation for this requirement, staff discovered another reporting requirement related to summarizing findings in regards to changes in scope, schedule and budget, referring to capital projects and this reporting requirement would also be codified by the proposed ordinance. Executive staff have indicated, however, that their current practice has been to transmit one quarterly report that complies with both 14 C as well as the reporting requirement. That I just describe regarding scope, schedule and budget. And so Amendment two would combine these two reporting requirements in the proposed ordinance to align with the project control officer's current practice. And then this combined report would be transmitted to council annually. All right. Any questions about that? See? None. All those in favor of amendment to please signify by saying i. I any opposed. All right. Are there any other amendments for proposed ordinance 2017 0501c? None. Brings us to final passage. I just want to say a word before we call for the vote. This is like one of those things. This is one of those projects that I don't know why anybody would ever take it up. It's there's there's there's no glory in this. There's there's no headlines. I don't know that our constituents will ever notice or care, but we are taking a step toward making King County government more effective for those staff members who have important jobs out there that are providing us information that we need. In other ways, we're now sort of removing one potentially meaningless task, some of these which have accumulated over the years. So I think it's very, very worthwhile, but it's kind of one of those unsexy things that I just really appreciate everybody's time and energy to work on it because you can't put it on a resume, but you've done a great job and I think this is going to really pay some dividends for the county, and I appreciate everyone's time with it. With that, let's call for the roll to move ordinance 2017 0501 to full council without recommendation. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Garson. Councilmember Coble. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember Voting rights are high. Madam Chair. Hi, Madam. Chair. The vote is eight. Eight no. Nos. Councilmember Gossett excuse. Very good by your vote. The motion that the motion carries and we will expedite that to full council. Thank you. Thank you both very much for all your work on this. This was Terry's first really big project that she started a while ago now when she was moved into this position. So congratulations on getting your part of it. Almost done. Summer All right. You know, I realize that we did not ever call the roll, so perhaps we could do that task before we get too much further towards the end of the meeting. But thank you, Madam Chair. And Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember done roll call. Yes. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Caldwell's. Councilmember Lambert. I mean, so here. Councilmember McDermott. Here. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. There it is. Here. Madam Chair. Here. Councilmember Dunn says that he is here as well. Okay. All right. Thank you. So that brings us to item number seven on the agenda, proposed motion 2017 0 to 9 five, which is a motion to adopt the executive's plan for addressing major technology emergencies. This motion is in response to a request sponsored by Councilmember Lambert. And here once again to brief us is Tara Rose. Thanks, Madam Chair. Still, Terry Rose, council staff. Item number seven on the agenda is proposed motion 2017 0295, which would adopt the executive's plan for addressing major technology emergencies. This materials for this item begin on page 161 of your packet motion 14750 requested the executive to develop and transmit a plan by April 3rd, 2017 that would address major technology emergencies that might occur in the Office of Emergency Management, the Department of Natural Resources and Parks, the Department of Elections and other departments as requested by department directors. Motion 14750 requires that this plan be adopted by council by motion, and for it to address at least the following four areas. The first A Method for alerting city sorry the King County Information Technology Department on upcoming operational events. A list of events in 2017 and 2018 where there may be increased technical capacity required due to higher than normal needs, such as an election day, for example. Third, a method for alerting the city to technology emergencies in specific departments. And then fourth, a resource on call plan for technology emergencies for specific departments. So they plan to address major technology emergencies. Was transmitted to council on July 5th after the executive requested a two month extension. The plan, transmitted to council meets the content requirements outlined in motion 14750. And I will briefly describe how each of the four areas is addressed in the plan. I'll now flip a head to page 163. The plan indicates that both executive branch and separately. I'm sorry. Okay. Motion 14750 requires the plan to describe the method by which departments will alert cascade of key operational events so that KPI teams identify resources that may be needed and ensure that no changes to key technology infrastructure are made during those times. And the plan in response to that indicates that both executive branch and separately elected agencies use its change management process to alert Keysight about upcoming operational events, where a temporary moratorium on it changes is needed. Agency staff request a change moratorium at least two weeks in advance, if possible, for known events, and identify the critical business processes , websites, systems, locations and any other technology that must remain up and supported. According to the plan, agencies can alert KCET of any operational events, and that includes planned or those that are emergent by contacting the customer support services team via phone, email or web within. If within the King County Network, these change requests are then processed by the City Change Advisory Board, which conducts weekly meetings and is comprised of the KCET Business Continuity Program Manager and IT staff and agents in executive branch and separately elected agencies. And the same process is used in emergencies and for unplanned events. And while a two week notice is preferred, when events are known, an emergency change process or moratorium can be submitted and implemented immediately as needed. For example, the Department of Natural Resources and Parks uses this process for flood warnings or when the flood center is activated . Moving on to area number two, addressed in the plan, motion 14750 requires the plan to include a list of events in 2017 and 2018 where there may be increased technical capacity required. The planned repeatable events identified in the plan are listed in table two on page 164 of your packet. Executive staff indicate that events needing moratoria are harder to predict in advance for both the Department of Natural Resources and Parks and the Office of Emergency Management. Though both agencies use the change management process, I just got just described for emergency situations as needed. Moving on to area number three, addressed in the plan motion 14750 requires the plan to include a description of the method by which the Office of Emergency Management, the Department of Natural Resources and Parks, the Department of Elections and other relevant departments will alert KCET to emergency technology issues. And as noted previously, the plan indicates that all agencies can alert KCET of operational events, both planned and emergent, by contacting the CASA Customer Support Services Team. And the phone number listed in the staff report is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and alerting the that team begins the change management process described previously. Moving onto area number four addressed in the plan. Motion 14750 requires the plan to include a resource on call plan to ensure that the departments named in the motion want access to needed technology expertize in an emergency. The Case Customer Support Services Team is the central contact number for all planned or emergent events, as they noted. And the plan indicates that KCET has identified on call staff for the various systems and components of the county's technology infrastructure such as phones, network servers, applications, etc. and if necessary, KCET made it clear a major incident depending on the type of emergency which generates a Skype call and a request for all on call staff to engage in the call within 10 minutes. That concludes my remarks. Unfortunately, no executive staff were able to be here today, but I'd be happy to take any questions as well as follow up with the executive staff following the meeting as appropriate. Thank you very much. Questions or comments? I'm Chair Councilmember Lamer, so I think you did an awesome job. So this came about because we had our phones crashed during a flooding emergency and we had no alternatives or backups or a way to reroute or anything else. And then later we had our websites crash, so it was clear that we weren't really stepped up to deal with emergencies and to know who to call as quickly. And for those people to know what you know, what times of the year this could be expected because these aren't really emergencies. They become emergencies because we're not properly staff for the things we know that are going to happen. So that's why we started this. And it's good that we have the chart from elections and Willard, no other department said that they have any spikes in their computer or web users. Agencies use the change management process described for things that may not be a like annual repeat event such as elections. And so they use that process and these are just the sort of known repeat events. And then did they identify any supplies that we might need, you know, greater capacity to move more onto another server, more server space, a generator? Were there any other supplies that they thought that might be helpful? There was no mention in the plan transmitted of additional supplies needed. However, I can follow up with executive staff and I would imagine that would. Be my one question. And then how are they going on that? And then how would they alert all the other agencies about this? Are they going to publish on their Web site or put out countywide email about it? How are they going to notify all the other agencies? And that would be a question for executive staff. And I can follow up and circle back. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. I think it's valuable to review the approaches being used and make sure that we're in in providing appropriate oversight. One of the, I think, major innovations that was put in place, I want to say four or five years ago now, it never used to exist is the 24 hour helpline . And that's the that the helpline is what you're referring to when you say the on call place. So that if you know somebody who worked at a 24 seven operation, it used to be that if somebody and many people were working and many things were happening in the middle of the night, if they had an eye problem , it had to wait until the morning. You could call and leave a message and somebody might get back to you. We had our own staff who we could call out, but as you imagine, with three or four guys, you don't want to do that too terribly often. So having the 24 seven on call number is a major improvement in terms of responsiveness to exactly this kind of thing. That's not to say that there aren't still there is still work and there are still things we can learn from subsequent emergencies that happened after that innovation. But to me, that was probably the biggest thing that was done to to be prepared to deal with i.t. Demand and challenges that are not planned. So yeah, we had, by the way, in response to your department request, we had very few planned heavy I.T. draws at the jails. So there were things that we would do. But, you know, running a scheduling program once a year doesn't put a really probably appreciable demand on our computer system. And the times we did have demand that we didn't expect, it tended to be on like the health records system. And that had to do with the system that was being put in place. And it was unplanned. It just happened and was addressed at the time. So I thank you for for raising this issue. It's just something that we don't tend to think about a lot. Another unsexy thing that actually. Exactly. Is very, very important. Okay. Thank you very much, Terry. We appreciate the report and behalf of the executive staff. I guess I would say usually we can be afford to be a little bit flexible when their schedules don't allow us to come. But there's no more meetings this year. So this was a matter of timing. And that brings us to our final briefing for today and for the year, and that is item number eight on the executive's investing in you policies on human resources. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. This motion pending almost already to be done. And it's just so okay that there is a motion that we need to take up. Councilmember Lambert, would you please move approval? Thank you. Yes, I'd be happy to. I'd like to move proposed resolution 2017 095. And I also like to thank Bill Kehoe, who worked with me on this. You no longer works here, but I will send him a copy done in L.A. and we got it done. Very good. Thank you. All right. Motion 2017 0295 To adopt the executive's plan for addressing major technology emergencies is before us. Any comments or questions? Will the card please? CALDERON Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember DEMBOSKY Councilmember DUNN All right. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Caldwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott Hi. Councilmember up the ground. Councilmember one right there. Hi. Madam Chair. Hi, Madam Chair. The vote is eight is known as Councilmember Gossett. Excuse that that motion carries. And I would put that motion on consent and expedited December 11th. Thank you. All right. Now we will move to their final briefing of the year. And I want to welcome Whitney Abrams, chief people, officer for the county executive, and Paula Harris White, longtime workforce equity manager. Although your title and duties have changed, you have been working in this field for many, many years for the county, and they'll be giving our fourth and final briefing on the executive's investing in you policies on human resources, labor relations, recruitment and retention. Today's briefing will focus on racial diversity and cultural responsiveness at all levels of employment. And we look forward to hearing your briefing. Please go ahead. Good morning, Madam Chair. And council members. We are here today to reorient you on the King County. People's Strategy. Investing in you. As we've discussed in the past few briefings, this initial. It incorporates the complete employee experience, the compensation and benefits they receive, our workplace, culture, learning and growth and considering equity and social justice systematically. King County success depends on the strength of its workforce. We want to have a highly engaged, diverse and culturally responsive workforce. With this, we expect higher productivity, better customer service and commitment in innovation and results. Today, we will discuss having a racially diverse and culturally responsive workforce at all levels in King County. This pillar of investing in you focuses on our ability to recruit and hire a diverse workforce. Our workforce culture pillar helps us think through the work environment that is needed to retain a culturally diverse workforce and ensure that we are able to provide a culturally responsive service. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Paula Harris White, our workforce equity manager in the Human Resources Division, to discuss this topic with you. Good morning, Madam Chair, and good morning, fellow council members. It's nice to be here in this morning to talk to you about this. This is something that's very close to my heart and it's been fun to work on. And so. Let me just get you serious. So our goal is to attract. Okay. Ready? This is working out. It's working. Okay. Okay. To attract, develop and retain a more racially diverse and culturally workforce at all levels. Leadership, management and staff. One of the things we realized in looking at our workforce, particularly when we were doing the ESG strategic plan, is that although we are very diverse, King County's workforce closely is similar to our community. As far as our diversity. Our diversity was really focused in particular areas, particularly in the lower salary ranges, and we realized that we were not diverse at all levels. So part of this work is really about how do we do that? So the applicants and hires that we have, we want to make sure that they are reflective of the county racial ethnic demographics, also that the key strategic positions are identified and vacancies are planned for. So opportunities exist for historically underrepresented groups. I think you have probably been hearing about the silver tsunami for a couple of years and actually some of us might be on that wave. Sure. And if we can help it or not. If we can help it. Right. So we have talked about, you know, approximate 40%, 40 to 45% of the workforce changing over the next few years. And with that change, there are a lot of opportunities that will be created. And we wanted to make sure that when those opportunities were created by vacancies, that people left the county, that there would be opportunities to bring in a more diverse workforce in particularly in higher paid salaried positions, which often had been rooted in people being here for a long time, working their way up in those positions. As you know, demographics have changed in our communities, though. And we wanted to make sure our communities had an opportunity to be reflected in those positions, particularly the underrepresented groups. So we're looking at the racial diversity of senior staff supervisors and management management positions, and we wanted to make sure those positions reflect the county demographics. Okay. So how do we align with the other pillar? So there are six primary other pillars. And with the workplace culture, we want to make sure that King County is the place that people want to work for, that we have a welcoming and inclusive culture that makes people feel valued and respected. Also, we want to look at our health. Making sure that we have a healthy workplace where people feel that it is a good place to work. And we have great health benefits. We look at learning and growth. What are the opportunities for development? How do employees grow? Often our employees will come up from other positions in the county. What opportunities are we giving people to grow and take on new opportunities? Well, also, we're looking at our total compensation, which has been something I think we've done a lot of work around making sure that the salaries are fair and equitable. And as women have moved into the workforce in King County, we have seen parity around wages for women. But the parity is not necessarily go over when it comes to racial groups. So we are concerned about that and making sure we have our great business operations and systems and many of them support diversity. And so we are working to make sure that they are reflective of diversity in all ways and how do we get there. So we have done a number of things. Some of you remember the 2014, 2016 affirmative action plan when we began to lay the foundation before the East Bay Strategic Plan to have training around bias. And so we were we asked that then that departments begin to think about the bias that might happen during the application process, the recruitment process. And training has been developed and actually it's been deployed. And now it's become a very common standard practice. Almost every department that you talk to already has training in place for bias. And so we're going to further develop that training and make sure that our hiring managers understand what culture responsive hiring looks like. And that will also be through our recruiters hiring authorities interview panels and also the people who screen the applications and ensure that people have a fair opportunity to apply and work at King County. And one of the things that the executive cabinet has asked for was the Hiring Excellent Workforce Toolkit. They wanted some guidance. So we have these goals, but how do we get there? And one of the ways of getting there is this tool kit that we have worked on and actually parts of the tool kit have been used in council before. It hasn't actually fully come out. We have launched it yet, but Kamala Ellis and it's who was on our team and some of our team members here represented today from different departments, said, could we borrow them? We have some interviews coming up. Can we look at the questions? And then your staff took the questions and they gave us some really helpful feedback. And then those changes were incorporated into the hiring toolkit, which we consider a living document. So it is very fully engaged with representation from different departments on our team to make sure that we have a full representation of who we are and how we actually operate in different places in the county. We've. That that hiring authorities require diverse interview panels. And again, when we checked that, we realized that's already happening all across the county departments, already using diverse hiring panels, and they have found that it's a better experience for the employee or the applicant. I know an employee who has just become a superintendent in transportation and he used to be a person. He said he his job previously was when I first met him. He was in charge of groups of people who would clean the tunnels, the bus tunnels at night. When one the rest of us were home, his team would be out there steaming down the tunnels. And he's now a superintendent in transportation. But and he was just recently a chief. And part of that was because of his own perseverance, but also that there were pathways made for him to move up and have opportunities to grow in King County. And he talked about his experience and interview panels, and he said he had diverse interview panels. And he said when he went in and he saw the faces of people suddenly who reflected who he was, he felt more comfortable. He said he relaxed. It changed the actual interview process for him. And we can see it in the results because he's now a superintendent. Not to say that he was not given that on his own merit, but he was given the opportunity to express that in that process. And then we want to make sure that we have recruitment policies and hiring practices that screening candidates. Public health will tell you sometimes I'll get 300 people for an applicant for a position because there are so many people who are qualified out there, and particularly some of our lower paid positions may have a lot of applicants, but we want to make sure we're screening people in that were not doing the recruitment or the screening in such a cursory way that we screen out excellent applicants who might bring diversity and bring extraordinary talents to our workforce. Also, how do we get there? By we implement equitable, culturally responsive workforce development planning, including a school to work pipeline. This year I was able to add a person to my staff, Lisa Langdon, who is now leading the work on the school to Work Pipeline and her team is looking How do we interact with the schools? What is our relationship? We have very few entry level positions, so it's hard to graduate and come here as a new employee. But there are places where that that is possible. How do we ensure that King County is seen as a desirable place to work? And so they are looking at different ways to ensure that we have programs, internship programs, other programs that will increase that opportunity for young people to see King County as a valuable employer. We are also reaching out to under-resourced, historically underrepresented communities. And so we have a large immigrant population here in King County, and we're looking at how do we reach out to those different communities? How do we ensure that they see opportunities here at King County? And we are also reaching out to historically black and Native American colleges and universities to ensure that they have applicants with some of the skills for some of the higher paid positions that we don't have in this region. And we can entice them and bring them here to work for the King County. Finally, we'll be doing some audits of our the use of best practices, which can be found in our toolkit, and make sure that they're actually being used in hiring processes and making sure that we are focused particularly on the high rates of promotions in the higher salary ranges. So we have a measurement, a series of measurements because if we are doing this work, how do we know if we are going to be successful with this? So this is a work in progress. We are looking at the racial diversity of applicants and hires and making sure they reflect county demographics. And so we're asking departments to look at, you know, how are they doing? What how many pipelines do they have? What's the percentage of hires? Some of those employment pipelines from economically disadvantaged communities, the percentage of racially diverse applicants still in all phases of the hiring process and then the racial composition of all employees per department. What we have found out that sometimes you've got great candidates, but the screening process may eliminate them. So we're really looking at ways to have more inclusive screening processes. Some of the things we are doing is looking to mask some of the information with the application with applicants and using what we call blind screening. And blind screening is being used by it's being actually used in the music industry where they're having people they realize when people apply like the. Voice sample, why. Would they don't know? They hear the voice, they make measurements. They make a judgment based on the voice. You're not in any way biased by the appearance of the person. Right. And so we want to use that as we hire in King County, look at the merits of the candidate and not be let our own biases play a role because we understand we all have biases. That's just human nature to have them. And how do we deal with them? One way is to eliminate them in all ways. So we're taking out information such as? Like where you went to school. We know here that. There is kind of a rivalry between two of our leading universities, and there are some biases probably about where you went to school and which we kind of joke about. But there are other biases about your last name, right? And we make assumptions about people's last names, your zip code, your area code, whether you're in-state or outstate. We might say, well, this person that they live in Arizona, that they probably are not going to come here and they would come here because they wouldn't be applying for a job. But that might be a bias. So we're trying to mask some of that information and so that the hiring authority can really get down to what the skills and abilities are in the competencies of the applicant. We're also looking at the key strategic positions and vacancies, again, talking about that silver tsunami as some of the top higher paid salaries because people who have been here for 30 years, how often are in those higher paid salaries that those people are leaving? We're encouraging departments to take stop and take a look at the position and reconsider the position. Maybe the position needs to be changed. Maybe there are people that are in a pipeline in your organization that would be a good fit for a position. And particularly the position was changed to meet the the needs of the organization, but also the needs of your staff and also looking at your staff and about opportunities. What are we doing to prepare people to move up in the organization? We'll work closely with training development about that. So the number and percentage of strategic positions that open up for and then we try to identify them. We're doing some we'll be getting some work around succession planning, which probably will not be fully our work. It will be work that is spread out throughout the department. DRP actually has been taking the lead and looking at succession planning and getting some training for their staff around that and seeing how do we plan for people to move up in the county and how do we plan our opportunities? And then finally, the racial diversity of senior staff, supervisors, management, and making sure that they actually project the racial demographics that we have. So we focus on the top 20% of new hires and promotions. And actually, in the last nine months, we've seen an incredible uptick in the changing demographics. It was amazing once we focused on it and people were aware of it and they began to think about it and actually had an impact. So sometimes it's just bringing it to people's the forefront of their mind and making them realize where we are not diverse. And then the system seems to work. We've seen a number of improvements in our systems which have resulted in a more diverse leadership. And take a pause there for a quick second. And just because this gives me an opportunity to tie back to what we were just talking about, which is doing away with and modifying and sort of limiting routine reports. I think that as we were talking about that that project, one of the things that came up was, well, what are we getting these reports for? Why were they asked for in the first place? And it's usually because either something has gone wrong or we're afraid something is going to go wrong. And so we're asking for information to be sent to us so that we can stay on top of it and make sure that doesn't happen or doesn't happen again. And I tried and could not think of a single, single situation where we identified a problem before it happened because of a routine report. But this sort of thing, and not just in this area, but in all of our areas, you know, sort of having key indicators and watching them all the time and seeing whether we're succeeding or not. I think this is the sort of information generation that will help us to create policies that will help us to adapt and to succeed and to avoid problems more than a lot of 25, 30 page routine reports about stuff that's going on out there. There's a place for both, obviously, and there's a purpose for both. But when it comes to getting at how do we know how we're doing, I think these kinds of indicators are how we know how we're doing. And so I really appreciate you trying to apply them to the investing in you work generally in this work particularly. Thank you. We try to be upstream. We try to really think about what are what can we do and not be in a crisis mode, but how do we respond when things are going terribly? But instead, let's think about our workforce and some of our data is about projections of around our workforce. And I had to say employees played a big role in all of this work. You know, we took some time. We really listened to what employees said, and then we were guided by what employees said about what their needs are and what they would like to see. So our priorities for 2017 and 2018 and so the hiring an excellent workforce toolkit and the name we use is significant because initially people were saying how can we get some guidance about how to hire a diverse workforce? And our feeling is, well, actually an excellent workforce includes diversity, right? So let's look at the entire process, the entire hiring process. Let's not forget not we don't want to just sideline it. Right. And say, well, here's the diversity way and here's the other way. It's all integrated. And so with that outlook, we actually have a hiring toolkit that has been developed. We hope to deploy it next year. It has gone through a review by h.r. Staff hiring a number of people in the county through the cabinet ops cabinet, the h.r. Community, the. We've all had the opportunity to weigh in on this and we've gotten excellent feedback that has made it a better tool and we've gotten some maybe views from people that used it initially, but it's a living document and we understand that as we get feedback, we will change it to meet the needs of our staff . We're going to develop mechanisms to identify and measure progress and diversity in the new hires and promotions at the top, top of the pay scale that is complete. And that's called a Tier five board that the executive is using to when things are elevated to Tier five, they are considered crucial and important, and I think they're paying a lot of attention. And so departments are being asked to actually visually represent how they're doing in hiring or the top 20%. And so now we have visualization of that in every department where people are aware of what's going on and actually can see the changes in the workforce, the training. So people say, so how do we do this? Can we get some training? And so we are developing training for recruiters, hiring managers and h.r. Staff on the new processes. So they will be familiar with them and they can implement them and then strategies for employment pipelines for underrepresented communities. Again, this is something that will be done with community. We are looking at how we hire, how we have done outreach and thinking about how can we improve outreach. Some of our departments have on the spot hiring, they work with the AARP has worked with work sorts and that they have prepared employees, prepared candidates actually to become employees. So work sources done all the hard work of preparing them and they'll have a place where people who have already been vetted can come and apply for jobs and pretty much walk away with certain level is generally entry level jobs. But it's a different way because people talk about how long it takes to get a job at the county and working with work source. We've been able to kind of circumvent that and make it a much smoother, cleaner process. But work sources on the preparation and the county has been prepared to receive these new employees and welcome them in and with the positions that are going to change their life and then strategic succession or positions that improve workforce planning with a focus on how do we do that? So we will be looking at our trends. We can identify who might be considering or might likely be retiring based on length of service and a couple of other factors. But that is a very sensitive issue. We have employees who are in their eighties in King County, and some folks would predict that they would have retired 20 years ago. And so that. As a member of the board is going to be here until she's 90 to 92. Yeah, there are some employees who are just that valuable and that committee will be here. I'm not sure all of us find that, you know, protecting ourselves here at 80, but there are those and we're not suggesting that they retire. So we will be looking at that in a very sensitive way to see where are some of the places we can project opportunities and making sure there are people in a pipeline who will be ready and competitive for those positions. That's all that we ask, that our employees get the opportunity to be competitive. We can't guarantee that the positions and then our timeline. And so some of the things that we have done already in the first quarter, the toolkit and scoping the pipeline commitment this quarter, we're finalizing the measures and visualization, which is the Tier five boards , and then we're doing some research around the employee pipelines and identifying some of the communities. The next quarter, the first quarter of 2018, the tool kit will be launched. There'll be some guidance developed on the pipeline and then some guidance around succession planning. And then we'll be doing some of the measurements to see how we're doing. And then overall, the second quarter and 2018, we will continue to implement and monitor the use of the tool kit. The tool kit is currently being piloted in three departments Public Defense, Public Health, the Executive Office and A.D. are all trying it out to see how it works out for them. And then we will also have some guidance deployed on the pipeline and succession planning and then also the measuring and learning. So we are in a cycle of produce deploy measure after we've implemented and then go back and check again. Kind of a we'd like to see it is kind of a continuous improvement loop on this work. It is at the end of your presentation to Murphy, is there anything else that you would like to add, Whitney? Any any comments or questions from councilmembers? Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. So you said that. 40 to 45% of the employees in the next blank years could be retired. So that was back in 2014. They were saying that they've been saying it for I mean, we have stopped actually saying it, but it had been said that the prediction was and then, of course, the economy impacted people's decisions. And right now, with the current economy, people may not be so willing to leave a great job with great health benefits. So we cannot really predict that. But we do know I mean, I have seen kind of an uptick. I don't know. It is not really a real scientific measurement. But in notices about retirement parties, I don't know if you've noticed that, but I'm seeing more people announcing that they're leaving the county for retirement parties and people that you didn't expect to leave are leaving. So. Okay. So we don't know over what period we're talking about or have been talking with that over the next five years. Ten years before they were talking, it was five years and that was back in 2014. So we're approaching 2019. Okay. And then how are we doing? So I'm just. There are especially if you're talking somebody that's been around, you know, 20, 30 years, they've learned so much that's not in the book. And and it worries me that some of that institutional knowledge will go out the door with them. So are we planning any overlap time of a month or two months on those key positions so that the new person coming in can just get a download from the person before? I would say departments are trying to do that, so it will probably be on a position by position case. I would I can't say with certainty which departments are doing it, but I'm sure that it is happening out there where they are looking at workloads. Sometimes there will be an overlap of a few months where the person is getting ready to leave and and there are training. There are positions where people have already plan their successor and they have trained them. So in assessor's office, there is a person who does a particular line of work and she has a person that she has trained who she knows at some point will take over that position. It's very technical work and so we are encouraging departments to do that actually in technical fields. And I think that's a really important thing. There's no point in us having a leg of the learning curve if we can start building a curve a whole lot earlier. How are we doing? I heard at one point that in King County, the women to male pay equity differential is very small or nonexistent. How are we doing on that? I think we're just maintaining that it's I think unlike the city of Seattle, I think we reach close to parity pretty quickly. And that was a year or two ago. So but then again, that is aggregate numbers. And so when you go and look at particular jobs, it may be different when you get into job categories, the it may be different. So if you look at a predominately male area of work, women who are entering that workforce may not be at the same position because they have not been in those positions as long. But our departments are certainly trying to ensure, like transit has been working for years to try to bring in more female US operators, knowing that's an excellent job. But I always ask women when we talk about this, how many women want to drive a bus? And there is a particular group of women who are really interested in driving busses, but we have a lot of opportunities, do multiple things, and people are making choices about what type of careers they want. So although we might be relying on federal standards or looking at our workforce, say because almost every woman who's got a driver's license is actually in the workforce and available to be a bus driver. But everybody who drives does not want to be a bus driver. Right. The last thing is, I think we have to have a better system countywide that. It's the continuum. Number one, how long it takes you to get your job paperwork, which you talked about earlier, because I know that we've offered jobs and people have already gotten a different job because it took us so long. So that has to be fixed. And then the next thing is that people, while they're here, can feel more free to have a way to make suggestions or this is not feeling right to me or I don't like what's happening. Because what ends up happening is then they leave. And I don't think in some departments we're doing a complete enough job of actually exit interviewing because sometimes the people say, I'm leaving for X reason, but there's Y, Z, ABCD, EMG below that, and we don't always know that. So the problem keeps on. So I think we have to have a better way of exit interviewing that gets past that. Oh, well, I want to go home and read a book. Right. Because that's not they're feeling sad about X, Y and Z. So I'd like to see as we go forward that we look at that continuum and how we can do that better. And I know that they implemented a system in Idaho and Utah, and when they implemented it, they got thousands of inputs of things that needed to be corrected and they were shocked. And so they had to sort them out. Some were very easy, some are not. And they were amazed how just knowing all that and letting employees know that they knew and we're going to systematically do something. Their employees satisfaction rate went way, way, way high. So they happy talking about that, I think. Thank you. And so those are things we are considering as we have a new applicant tracking system which will be launched next year. And that has a lot of opportunities to speed up the hiring process. Public health, for example, went through an equity and social justice impact review and continuous improvement review of their hiring process so they could speed it up and working with their staff and getting feedback and leadership, they were able to really reduce the amount of time in the process so that there's, you know, the announcements out for a particular amount of time. And then there's the screening and then you get a call. We're trying to really reduce that. We realize we often lose excellent candidates. The flip side of that is that we are trying to make sure that for the higher paid salaries that the positions are open longer because often people that we would like to hire are not looking for a job and they're not looking for a job. Sometimes we're going to entice you to come work for King County by reaching out to you and saying, we've got some great jobs and they're going to need more time to make that decision to consider working for us. So it's a balancing act as far as employees concerns that show up at the excellent interviews were actually, I think, trying to do to gather a lot more that information in the employee surveys where departments are getting feedback from employees pretty directly right down to the section level about how their employees are feeling about their jobs. And hopefully we can do some creative, constructive work before we lose those employees. I think the worst thing is to have an excellent employee leave because they were not happy and they tell you the last thing they tell you on the way out of the door is if you had done this at this, I would have stayed . And if you had known about it, you would have done something about it, right? But there wasn't that communication and that employee did not feel either welcome or safe in coming forward and sharing that information. So we're trying to get that goes back to the workforce workplace, right? We're trying to have a workplace where people feel that they can be honest and come forward and share. And we have various places employees can go so they can go to ADR, they can go. I often get calls from employees and council employees. We're trying to make sure that our h.r. Folks are there for employees to be a bridge toward resolving these issues so that you can go to your h.r. Person, you can go to erp, you can go now to OCR, which is in the SGA office. And we are trying to make sure that people have those skills. The civil rights of civil liberties, equity and social justice for those playing along at home. Yeah, right, right into that. So civil rights has recently moved into the Office of Equity and Social Justice and there investigator there is actually doing some proactive work to ensure that employees feel heard before they have to file a complaint. And then also there is some work done being done about integrated conflict work in the county where we put together under what needs leadership. We put together a group of employees who are really concerned from ERP, from ADR, from office, civil rights, ADR, alternate dispute resolution, thank you. From those different agencies to work together and from the prosecutor attorney's office as well and h.r. Folks to say how do we actually create a workplace where people feel they can come and be authentic, bring their real service selves, contribute and also get respect and be heard. Right. And if you are contributing, being valued for your contributions. Yes. Councilmember Colwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the excellent presentation. And there is one other issue I think, that is related, particularly to women in the workplace, and it's too much of a topic to really go over now, but that is sexual harassment. And our council, under the leadership of our council chair, Councilmember McDermott, is embarking on looking into training for our employees and for our members. But this is a big topic. And do you have any sense on when you say, you know, we want to have a comfortable environment for people to be able to let us know why they're leaving? You know, this is an issue that comes up. So we do have an executive policy on non harassment and discrimination that is actually in the process. We're reviewing it. We will be looking at it to update it and make changes to it. We will also be doing training around harassment and bullying, sexual harassment, all types of forms of harassment, discrimination in 2018. And we're developing a work plan on how we're going to deliver it. We've got 14,000 employees and not all of them can go online and look at something that's online. And so we have to figure out how we're going to deploy the training for folks who are out in the field, who need it just as much as people who work at an office. So we are it's a top concern of ours. And so we are looking a message went out recently. Do you want to look at the message you sent out? Yes, we sent we sent out a message to all executive branch employees, and we shared it with the council. As well about reminding them of our no. Tolerance policy for sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, as well as forecasting that we're going to be providing some trainings for all employees by the end of 2018. So we are very engaged. In this. And we do take concerns very seriously. Very pleased to hear that and would be glad to work with you. I did have my staff call h.r. To ask how many reports there had been of sexual harassment in the county and she was told that there's no central repository and they do not track those numbers, which i think is unfortunate. You know, I suggest perhaps that policy be changed or that practice. And but my question was more do you have a sense of the incidence or prevalence in terms of being a reason why people leave because they feel uncomfortable? I personally think King County is outstanding and I would anticipate that that would be very low in number. But you had mentioned about. Right, you know, a comfortable environment for people to come forward so often. I mean, because of the role I play in the county, I also am often a person that employees will call with issues or people refer. Just recently, somebody in ADR referred an employee to me. I will talk to employees about their concerns and that is not one that has come up. I have heard concerns about racial discrimination or harassment in the workplace, but I have not heard about gender discrimination or harassment, not about sexual harassment. That has not come up. I'm not saying it's not there, but when I hear the complaints, you know, that people are talking about, that has not been one now. And I'm sure there are workplace that it may happen. We are like the rest of the country. We are a place and I'm hoping that employees will feel comfortable. And that is the reason we want to get our message out to employees again. So we started with a message to all employees letting them know about zero tolerance. But we will follow training and then we will. We will also expect managers to talk about it every year with employees to remind them, again, what type of workplace this is. It's a workplace that is free of violence, free of harassment, both sexual and racial or gender based. And that we're not going to tolerate that. And that if employees do not feel they can go to the person above them, there are other people in the county that they can go to. Now, EAP may keep records on that, but their records may not be easily accessible because it is probably a level of confidentiality. But there are records, but we are certainly here. If we do hear complaints, we will do something about that. And of course, there is the difference between confidentiality for Dan in terms of identifying employees versus just an aggregate number. All right. Thank you very much. And ERP is the Employee Assistance Program. Thank you. That was a three curveball and you hit it out of the park. Good job with it with the acronyms there. So thank you both very much for all the work you're doing. Thank you, Whitney. For the four reports this year. It's helpful for us because our employees are how we deliver our services and our our largest investment of tax dollars go to our employees. And so knowing how we're managing that valuable resource and. Workforces is very helpful to us. I think that this work is ongoing and it goes throughout an employee lifecycle. We talked about hiring today, but also into training and preparation for promotion and in our workforce environment, helping people to align with the mission of the county and to be successful and high performing employees. And that sort of just works. So these these efforts that you're talking about will sort of permeate the entire lifetime of our workforce if we're going to have a really healthy and high performing workforce. So I thank you for your efforts in that regard. Thank everybody for being here today. And to my colleagues for being with us through this year of a smorgasbord of different topics here at the committee of the whole. This is, as I said at the beginning of the meeting, our last meeting of the year, our first meeting of the year, December 3rd, is going to be canceled . So our next meeting will be in mid-January. Thank you. January 3rd will be canceled. Thank you. And our next meeting will be in mid-January the 17th. Thank you. All right. And thank you to Lisa and Pat, who's not here because he's on vacation, who is our committee staff this year, Pat Hamacher and Marco, for all your assistance as well. All right. With that, we're adjourned.	A MOTION relating to deleting the requirement of the executive to provide to the council a monthly report showing vacant positions by department; and rescinding Motion 11154.
king_d09dfff1-b8d5-4052-b84b-c238c6132570	Welcome, everybody, to the meeting of the committee of the hall. I am Jane Wells, the Chair. And before we began, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the Kent County Courthouse, where we would usually be meeting, is on the unceded ancestral lands of the two Irish people, past and present. And we honor with gratitude the land itself and the de Armas tribe. We have a full agenda to do that, both since 2002, and I am planning that we will end the meeting around 11:30 a.m.. We will begin today's meeting with Haskell Action on the Consent Agenda, which includes extending the appointment for the Acting Director of Public Health. And then we will have to brief and we'll start with the briefing on the executive's COVID response. It's from Dwight David, director of the King County Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Following that, we'll have a briefing from Jack Nicholson, director of government relations for the Council on the most recent legislative session in Olympia. And then we will conclude with discussion on and possible action on two proposed ordinances relating to district court injuries. A motion relating to the city's first citizenship initiative. And lastly, a motion requesting the executive develop a comprehensive response to the crisis in Ukraine. And now we will call. The roll. Call gun and shoot, please. Thank you, gentlemen. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember Perry. There. Here. Council member up the wrong. Councilmember Andre Bauer. Here. Up the grove. Here. Thank you, Councilmember. Council Councilmember Sally. Here. Chuckles Sure you. Do have a. Quarter. Thank you very much. And I now ask for a motion to approve the minutes from the erm 16th to 2022 moving. Councilmember Gunn. So move, Madam Chair. Thank you. All in favor indicate by saying I. Like. Any move. The minutes have been approved. We will now turn to public comment. And Kirk Hogan, do we have anyone on the line machine to provide public comment? Sure. Well, sure. And look, you know, it looks like we might have one. Would you like me to check with them to see before? Yes. Okay. Just so. That. Daniel Thomas. I've asked you to, um, you can you tell me if you're here for public comment? Pass. Okay. Thank you. So, charcoal wells. We have no one here to provide dollar, but thank you very much. Then we will not delay public comment and we will go directly to number five on our agenda, the consent agenda and that is item five is related to extending the acceptance appointment of Dennis motion as the acting director of the King County Department of Public Health. This is pro forma. We've done this already, and this motion would extend his contract through June 23rd. We do have, as Sam Shearer, two groups. If there is need for that, does anybody have any questions? Okay. We will. Go ahead. I'd like to. A motion to move the consent agenda. So move, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms.. Good. And we're going to have to call the roll on the Senate agenda, which is to approve proposed motion 2020 20154. Thank you for your call, Wells. Councilmember Dejean. Councilmember Dunn. I. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I. Councilmember McDermott. All right. Councilman Perry. I. Council member at the. High. Council member Andre Bauer. Councilmember Sala. I. Charcoal wells. Hi. We got set. Seven eyes, no nose. And Councilmember Balducci and Councilmember Bond. Excuse. Sorry to hear what I have that we have approved. Proposed motion 2020 20154 and will send this motion with the due pass recommendation by the consent agenda to the comment to councilman. We will now turn to item number six on our agenda. And this is our first briefing. It will be with Dwight David, director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, and the Executive's Budget and director Dove. It's good to see you this morning and I always look forward to hearing from you. It's very informative and that will take. About. Half an hour for your briefing and questions from our council members. So please go right ahead. Great. Thank you. Council Member Caldwell. So for the record, Dwight Dave, the Director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Can everyone hear me all right? Yes. I'm getting some hands. Thank you. So I have seven items for you this morning. And interestingly, they're all good news. So maybe that's a nice way to start the agenda today, first of all, and probably the best of the good news, as always, we're starting with updates from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA. And we learned last week that they are fundamentally changing their whole process of reviewing applications for federal emergency money. Well, given all the details, historically, you've had to submit all the documentation before they would even begin to look at the documentation. And that was one of the reasons that it took so long to get federal reimbursement. They have changed their process. They are going to start reviewing documentation, even if it isn't complete. And rather than reviewing all the documentation, in many cases, they are simply going to sample it. And if the sample looks, you know, in compliance with federal regulations, they will then approve the funding without having reviewed everything. They're also looking at some other changes they haven't made yet that would also simplify the process and speed up reimbursement. So for us, this is really good news. Obviously, many of our applications for COVID related response are very complicated and lots of documentation. So the fact that they are going to sample and they're going to start when we've submitted some of the information is a really good piece of information and should speed up reimbursement. We previously did not expect to get any money this year. Now, I think there's at least a good chance that sometime in the summer or fall we would actually start to receive reimbursement, which would be great. The other important part about this is this is not restricted to the COVID response. This will apply to all FEMA processes moving forward. So our snowstorm application from more than two years ago will also go under this new rule. And so the funding that we're looking for, for parks and roads particularly, might also come sooner than we had expected. So anyway, very, very good news from our partners in central government. And as always, I'm going to pause after each item to see if anyone has questions. And then the follow up. So members are on the line to share. Dwight How does this impact our COVID unmet needs? Is this just for the grads that go over to the executive branch? Are calculated grids affected, benefited as well? So Councilmember, it would apply to anything that is supported by federal funds regardless of whether it was a council or executive initiative. Also, just as an aside, I reached out to Councilmember McDermott with an idea about how those grants might be handled, those unmet needs grants might be handled in a little more efficient way. So I'd encourage you to reach out to him and have a conversation about that. Thank you. Joe, watch out for me. Okay. Go ahead. So I and also from our Office of Emergency Management and you'll probably recall that the council appropriated another $500,000 to support businesses who were adversely affected by being located near some of the facilities that the county established to respond to COVID. And OEM has notified 42 businesses that they will receive funding. Most of them are getting the maximum out of $10,000. The money hasn't gone out yet, but the businesses are aware that they have been approved for funding and OEM continues to review applications. It seems possible that ultimately there will be more applications than funding, in which case we will bring back to you at some point information about what we would find if we had additional resources. And it might be something you could consider for either COVID not an or it would be something we would do later on in the year if that was the executive and council's decision. So I just wanted to let you know that that one is well underway. Any questions? And so the third one is a more broad category, and I'll give you only one example of it, but happy to get emails from you about specific follow ups. So yesterday, at the request of your council, central staff has been working with the other departments, pulled together a matrix of all of the seven and eight appropriations and the current status of them. So has recipients been selected? Has the money been spent? Are we still in the procurement process? So your staff now has comprehensive information about the status of each of those programs. And just to give you one example, I'm sure you all remember the jobs and housing program, the idea that the executive had and you approved to create some opportunity for people who are experiencing homelessness to both get a job and also get moved up on the list for housing. As of last Friday, we have 27 people actually working for the county and three different agencies. We have another 56 county positions that are open and are in the process of people applying and being selected for those positions. We also are in the process of contracting with a mix of nonprofit organizations to also provide jobs. And those nonprofits have identified over 400 potential jobs for people who are currently experiencing homelessness. So that's an example of a program that it took a long time to get the mechanics of it set up, particularly working through all the county employment rules, but now is moving ahead very, very quickly. And that's kind of a common pattern that with the federal requirements and, you know, all the things we're trying to do that we've never done before. It took a while to get going, but you'll find that many of these programs are now well underway and lots of people are being helped. So anyway, that information is now available to your staff. You can obviously reach out to them or reach out to me if you have questions about specific programs. The one remaining real barrier that we have is just getting all of these contracts through our procurement team. It's just an immense amount of additional work to set up vendors in the system and to process the payments. So really thank you for approving the additional staff that we asked for there. And they are either have been hired or in the process of being hired. And so we'll maybe be able to break down that last barrier here very quickly. But I just wanted to give you a sense that things are moving very quickly at this point in getting the funding out into our communities. Thank you. Director darling, that really is good news. And I'm sure I'm not alone in hearing from some of the grantees in my district who have not yet received funds. Can you give us a little overview of what your idea is for the unmet needs? Grants. I'm going to defer to Councilmember Thurmond because as the chair of the same committee, I think it's really his decision if he wants to proceed with a little different way. So if he wants to speak to it today, it's obviously his privilege to do so. But I'm going to defer to him about that idea. Okay. Councilmember McDermott, the of anything you wish to acquaint us with at this point. I'm going to hold. Off at the moment and brief anybody by the end of the week. Okay, great. That'll be very. Shaded. Thank you. Okay. Are there any questions now of director dietary? Okay. Let's go on to number four. Okay. So number four, number four are both actually number four. Five and six are all related to the hospitality industry and some improving news there. So number four, every month I'm giving you an update on hotel occupancy. When we spoke last month, it was obviously very dismal because of our Macron in the middle of the winter and so on. The last four weeks of March were much better. Occupancy was about 56%, countywide, about 50% in downtown Seattle. And as has been the pattern, a little bit lower on the east side and a little bit higher in SeaTac. So we're seeing the same pattern, but everybody is moving up now and there clearly is a sense of we're on an upward trajectory with hotel occupancy. I want to get to my very last item, the sales tax. You'll still see that that is the sector of our economy that remains the most adversely affected by the pandemic. But there there's some good news with hotels. I'm going ahead with four, five and six. And then okay, so five is for those of us that live near Elliot Bay. There have been some random cruise ship sailings the last couple of weeks as they reposition. So these are not cruises that are really leaving from Seattle, but the ships come in and fuel and get stores and so on. The first regular cruise ship departure is going to be April 23rd in the sense that that's one that will go for a week, come back over a week, come back. So that cruise ship season is soon to be upon us. And as you all know, that's a huge revenue generator for King County and many of the businesses that supply the ships and, you know, the hospitality industry and so on. So just to give you a sense that that's coming up very soon. And by the time we speak next hour, I think if I counted right, there will have been ten cruise ship departures by. Then next year. And I read somewhere that three cruise ships now are going to be soon, in effect, refugees from Ukraine. Do you know anything about. No, I. Had not heard that number. That would make sense, but I have not heard that. Okay. Thanks. And then the last. I think it's usually Councilmember Dombrowski that asked me about this. So I want to get ahead of it. We are right now, while we're speaking, the first large post-pandemic convention is hearing in King County. The neurologists were scheduled ten years ago for a convention starting this past weekend. And they are actually here and I estimate is estimated attendance was about 7000 people. So the first really large national convention that we've had since COVID hit and the convention center, I believe, has four other significant conventions scheduled this month alone. So that kind of last part of the economy to come back seems to be starting to come back. And you. Thank you for that. Do you know the approximate opening date of the convention? Expansion. Of the expansion? I do not. They've been delayed, obviously, by the concrete strike. But I was going to my doctor yesterday and was stopped behind three trucks delivering to the construction project. So I know they're back at work, but I actually don't know what date I can find that for you. I need to talk to them anyway on a different item. So let me follow up on that. It really. Looks beautiful when I'm driving by it. And it. Looks terrific. So. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Madam Chair? Yes? Councilmember McDermott. With all due respect to this Seattle Convention Center, what's really beautiful is cement trucks on West Westfield Bridge. Definitely. I'm not surprised to see that. Very important. Other questions of threat. And you mentioned earlier that on the last when you would address the sales tax. Rate, that's item seven. And seven. Anyone has questions on anything else before I get to that. Right here with a quick one. Go right ahead. I just wanted to know if there are 7000. I couldn't quite hear Dwight. Neurologists or urologists in town. Dwight. Neurologists. Okay. I thought she said you were out too. Sorry about that. It starts with an end. Of. The life. Council members dialog. Thank you, Chair. Dwight, you mentioned that. Hotel occupancy rates have hit 56% in King County, 50% downtown. Could you give us what that figure was a year ago, just so we have a comparison point? I can and I don't have it with me, but I will track that down. Thanks so much. Any other questions? Okay. Let's go to number seven. Okay. So number seven, as always, and. It seems like this. Is the one that attracts the most interest and everything. I brief you on. So we got our January sales tax. So recall, as I always remind everyone, that we get sales tax two months after it's actually paid by customers to merchants. So in late March, we get our January results. Recall the January we had snow. So that factors in somewhat in the sales tax. But nonetheless the results were really good. As we have been doing, we are comparing to 2019 just for consistency. And so the total sales tax base across the whole county in January of 2022 was 17% higher than 2019. So we are continuing to see very significant growth in sales tax activity. The pattern by industry was very similar to what we have seen now for many, many, many consecutive months, the big box retail stores were the highest growth, up 54%. I mean, really reflecting how people have changed their purchasing patterns, online activity. People buying over the Internet was up 41% from 2019. Electronics was up 44%. So we all are increasingly continuing to buy gadgets to communicate, be able to work remotely and so on. Auto sales were up 40%. Some of that is activity, but a lot of that is price, as I think everyone is. Their auto prices both used and new have increased dramatically endemic and partly because people were are reluctant to take transit and partly because with the supply chain issues, the quantity of vehicles available is not what the automakers would like. And so people are bidding up the price of cars. And why is that 40% reflex then both used and now. Yes. And I could drop down into that. I didn't have that. I don't think I have. That seems like for a while that the used was really outpacing the new year because there was. Yeah yeah very much so. Construction is up 8%. And I would just note that that means that construction activity is actually lower than it was because construction prices have gone up so much. So that might be a little bit of a warning sign. A lot of the growth has been driven by construction now for many, many years, particularly in the city of Seattle. And so since we're now seeing growth, it's really only because of prices. It means that the underlying activity is starting to taper down a little bit. So just a potential warning sign there that we should be tracking. And then, as always, the two sectors that are still struggling, hotels are down 51% from three years ago. Pretty consistent with the pattern we've been seeing in the last few months. And then restaurants are down 15%. But the good news for the restaurant industry is that that their sales activity in January was 54% higher than a year before. So comparing 2022 to 2021, restaurants are up 54%. And so that's least I can tell you from my own experience, a lot more people are going out to restaurants. Bars. A lot of new openings. So it looks like that sector has really started to recover. And as the tourism industry picks up, as we expect, that should really help them as well. So other than construction, I think a lot of good news there that are continued. Our economy continues to be really strong. And and are there any. Questions on number seven? Was that the last one? That was the last one. But I'm always happy to if you have questions on anything else. See if I can answer that. So I was going to say so questions on number seven or any other ones. Hello. Council members. Thank you, Dwight. May you set? May you email us those numbers if that's possible. Absolutely. Happy to do so. Thank you. Yeah, let me do that. The raw data is. A little. Hard to grasp if you're not a nerd of the stuff like I am, so I will just email it to everyone. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Are there any other questions? Well, thank you. 1 to 1 from day one. So that's okay. Dwight, thanks for this presentation, as always. I know I have no doubt that you're tracking the national economic scene and the yield curve is now inverted. And some of the big investment banks are now calling that there may be next year. An actual recession may be short lived, but there's a lot of concern about the Fed and whether we get a soft landing or a hard one. And I'm wondering, looking ahead, as you begin to prepare our budget, how will you what's your thinking on that? Yeah, that's a that's a great question, Councilmember. I have to tell you that I am not a believer that every time the yield curve inverts, that we have a recession. There's a lot of coincidences there. Sometimes it's two and a half years after the inversion, before the recession starts. So that always has struck me as a somewhat simplistic view. Having said that, there obviously are lots of challenges in the economy, particularly as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, you know, high inflation that we're experiencing for a variety of reasons. So when we do the July revenue forecast, I'm sure Dave, like Alisa, will be looking at those things, building that in what we may want to do. It would be to actually ask Dave to run a mild recession scenario, even if that isn't the base forecast. I think get a sense of that. The implications of that, as I think everyone knows, our property tax revenue is essentially unaffected by those circumstances. So where you see it is mostly. Revenue and then to a lesser extent in some of the fee revenues we get. Things like the, you know, the revenue we collect when people file documents. So that that's really where the vulnerability is for the county is especially around sales tax. So I'll make a note of that because I think the idea of doing a separate forecast, if they've had enough notice, which this obviously is, would be a really good idea. Thanks so much. Yes, thank you. Are there any other questions? But thank you very much. Thank you, I believe, for being with this. Again, we are not having the people in two weeks. I think our next meeting is the first Wednesday in April. So then Wednesday in May. This is the first. In May, of course. I'm having a hard time believing spring is actually here. Thank you. Others like. You. Okay. Okay. Let the record know that Councilmember Banducci is doing this and that if she would like to record a vote for approval of the minutes and for our approval of the consent agenda, and I think we are sending councilmember by for that consent agenda. That is correct. Madam Chair. Thank you. So, Councilmember Eldridge, are you. I can hear me now. Yes. And on both of those. And also, just as you may hear, I'm arriving downtown on a bus right now. So I'm going to be set for about the next 10 minutes and then I'll be back again. Thank you, Jeff. Okay. Thank you. And Councilmember One right there where you are now, record your vote for the conservative gender. And right for our votes. I thank you very much. I think we're all caught up. Okay. With that, we will go on to number seven on our agenda. And that will be a briefing with Matt Nicholson, who will provide us with a recap of the most recent legislative session. And Rick, Mark, I believe we have Simon Beretta and our three contract lobbyist are a couple of them Dave Foster, Aaron Jack and Mike Shah. So Mark, I'll just turn it over to you and let's take about 20 to 25 minutes for this. Thank you. Jericho Wells Council members. Good morning. We do have the contract team and sign in with us. We have a PowerPoint we've put together. So I'm going to share my screen now. And start that. Okay, so we're off. We're going to just kind of present a 2022 session recap. And from from the perspective of the G. R team, it was a very successful session. It was just a 60 day session, started January 10th, ended March ten. That was a mostly virtual format. Committee meetings were all virtual. During core debates, there were a limited number of legislators allowed on the chamber floors. And as we got toward the ending days of session, they actually opened up the galleries to the public for a limited number of public to to come watch the action. Of the thousands of bills or resolutions that were introduced, 309 passed and reached the governor's desk. Areas of focus session included police reform, behavioral health, housing, homelessness. Economic recovery was a supplemental budget year, but really not just any supplemental budget year between the state revenue forecast, coronavirus relief funds and federal infrastructure funds. The legislature had a little over 5 billion to spend in a supplemental budget, which is a pretty significant amount. I think one of the most surprising things obsession from our perspective was the passage of a new transportation package, a 16 year, almost $17 billion package that included a $2 billion transfer from the state general fund to the transportation budget. Oops, the bad ones. So moving now to our legislative agenda. This is the document that we put together at the tail end of 2021. This sets out the priorities for the government relations team to work on in Olympia. It's adopted by council, worked on together with the executive and it sets are marching orders for Olympia procession. So the first bucket, the first topic that we have on that legislative agenda was a housing bucket. The first bullet there is around resources to plan for a more diverse housing supply and prevent displacement. The legislature did appropriate some funds for local governments to comply with some Corrupt Management Act requirements that have changed in 2021 and 2022, including requiring local governments to include affordable housing elements in the comp plan. The big policy bill in this area was the governor's missing middle bill. This would have required city spending under growth management to authorize middle housing types or average minimum densities near transit areas, and a lot zoned for single family residential use. This is a pretty controversial bill. There were a lot of discussion about it, but ultimately the bill did not pass, though the final budget did include some grant money for local governments who are updating comp plans in the 2024 cycle to take certain actions to increase rental housing on residential zones. The next bullet there, there was no local option provided for local governments to increase housing or to provide revenue for acquiring permanent, supportive or affordable housing units. Though the state this is the third bullet. Now, the state did spend a fair amount of their American Rescue Plan Act funds to build and preserve affordable homes across a number of different programs. There was 45 million grant funding to transition individuals who were living on public ride away to permanent housing. They provided 45 million more for eviction prevention rental assistance program, 300 million for Rapid Capital Housing Assistance Program, and some increases for the Housing Trust Fund for Homeless Youth Facilities and some assistance for utility improvements and connections. The next topic on our legislative agenda is one around rebuilding the economy. The the ask was that the legislature leverage federal funds to create jobs through investments in infrastructure across a broad range of sectors. What you see here on this slide are really the two big pieces of federal legislation that provided funds. One is the coronavirus, state fiscal recovery, federal funds that came through the American Rescue Plan Act. And you can see how the legislature invested those across a number of programs, not just housing. There's business assistance for arts, for hospitality, for small businesses. They provided 20 million for convention center, COVID support. There's ongoing funds for COVID response and COVID vaccination. There was 58 million for farmers, the families food box program, and then 280 million for public school enrollment stabilization. On the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This is the big infrastructure bill that passed at the tail end of 2021. This provided a lot of money for infrastructure projects. So the state in the budget, in the capital budget provided 79 million for safe drinking water projects, 33 million for clean water projects, money for salmon recovery projects, 100 million for broadband planning, an infrastructure development , and then money for weatherization and some other programs. The next piece on the Rebuild the Economy topic was an investment in workforce development and apprenticeship programs. We saw the Legislature pass a couple of bills that are really aimed at increasing availability and utilization of apprenticeship programs. The next bullet there is on expanding and enhancing the tax incentive program for film production. The Legislature passed House Bill 1814, which is increase increased increases that total statewide tax credit from 3.5 million to 15 million per calendar year, and that increases the individual limits on that program as well. Charcoal Wells testified a couple of times on this and was a big help in getting this one across the finish line there and in the waning days of session. The next topic on the legislative agenda was dismantling systemic racism and injustice. This bullet is really around law enforcement reform and trying to help correct the issue in the scope of law enforcement response to behavior health crisis calls. Again, police reform was a pretty significant topic in the 2022 session. House will 1735 pass. It was one of the less controversial ones because it was aimed at providing that clarity around use of force when responding to behavioral health crisis calls. So we saw that passed House Bill 1719 dealt with less than lethal equipment or munitions, sort of the beanbag rounds, if you will, that were, I think, inadvertently banned in a bill from last session. So they kind of fixed that this session. And then moving to 2037. This is one of the more controversial ones. So this really deals with the use of force in the context of three stops or the stop and frisk since they are more commonly known. So this one generated quite a bit of discussion and public testimony throughout session. And it really authorizes a peace officer to use physical force subject to the requirement to exercise reasonable care to the extent necessary to prevent a person from fleeing or stopping a person who was actively fleeing a lawful, temporary investigative detention. So moving on to the next one, I'm happy to answer questions now or whatever council members have said. But I'll just keep going until until all the stuff. The next bullets under the dismantle systemic racism in justice. One was the adopt legislation necessary for a timely and complete implementation of an executive order that would rescind a Governor , a prior governor's directive and implement race and gender conscious affirmative action where appropriate. Governor Inslee signed that executive order rescinding 91 early in the year and then adopted another executive order that instructs state agencies on how to move forward towards achieving equity where appropriate. The next bullet was around the Blake decision. If you recall, the decision is the state Supreme Court decision that struck down the state's felony drug possession statute. Unwinding all those possession convictions is an ongoing challenge, both fiscally and procedurally. The state recognized that and provided 23 million in additional funding to reimburse county legal financial obligations. This will be administered by the Administrative Office of the Court, which is the State Court Agency. They also provided $2 million for resentencing and better reporting around black decision. Moving on to behavioral health and crisis response. The first bullet is really around specific investments in King County. We saw 4 million in the operating budget for King County. Mobile crisis response capacity increases 3.9 million for three kind of behavioral health response teams. And then the state statewide number, $10 million for 988 call center impact. So we'll see that as as the nine its cost and gets that up and starts to go live. The second bullet is around behavioral health workforce. The legislature funded a 7% provider Medicaid provider rate increase and also a 7% rate increase for non Medicaid services. The legislature also provided $100 million to address behavioral treatment access issues resulting from workforce shortages. On the next bullet here. It's funding capital investments to expand, enhance access to care for individuals, behavioral conditions. So this is really the capital investment side of the health system. Now, the legislature provided 72 million to expand care for individuals in crisis by creating new capacity for 23 hour crisis, triage, stabilization and residential crisis facilities. 10 million specifically of this amount is provided for a King County Walk in Stabilization Center, which provided 26 million for behavioral health community capacity grants against 6 million of that, and specifically for Cascade Mall in Seattle. Alleged bribe 10 million to university Washington for their behavior health teaching facility and in the policy build space. We saw House Bill 1866, which establishes the Apple Health and Homes program, which provides a permanent supportive housing benefit and a community support services benefit to individuals who meet eligibility criteria related to income, medical risk factors and barriers to finding stable housing. A bill that we didn't get was Senate Bill 5920. This would have allowed courts to make adjustments to parenting plans after parents demonstrated a substantial change in circumstances based on abstention from drug, alcohol or other use. The bill came out of the Senate on a unanimous vote, but got hung up in the House committee. The next bill, their House bill, 1181, establishes a suicide prevention community based service grant program at the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund programs for suicide prevention, peer support, and other financial assistance for veterans, military members and their families in the budget. The operating budget includes $11,000 for that grant program. We have to protect our environment. There was no climate bond, but we did see a building decarbonization bill passed a Senate bill 5277. We saw Hospital 1770 that go quite a ways but ultimately fall short of House Bill 1770, the net zero energy code bill aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The next bullet around maximizing local distribution of federal infrastructure funds will see through the interim the Joint Transportation Committee, meet and make recommendations and provide to the legislature those recommendations on how to split infrastructure funds. The state local split. This has been done in the past, albeit a slightly different format. So we'll be participating in that through the summer to try to make sure that we maximize that local spirit. The State did not provide any funds for local passage, Barrie removal, but they did include language allowing state funds to be used for mask requirements for locals who are applying for federal grants. So some help, but not any funds specifically for local fish best fare level. The next bullet around a grant program for Vex Systems to help reduce horror from wildfire smoke. The results of 1620, which created a program at the department military department to exist for to assist in extreme weather response grants that would have included poor air quality due to wildfire smoke. But the bill did not pass and there was no money included in the budget. The support updates, land use planning that take into consideration climate change and resiliency. This is House Bill 1099. This had an interesting journey through the end of session. It was lost on the last day the bill had gone through the conference committee process. So there was agreement the Senate had moved it out. There was money included in the budget and the House adjourned before taking it up. So it really was potentially the last bill lost on the last day of session. And any money set aside in the budget for that will just lapse and go back into the general fund for the greater good. So we expect to see that bill again next session. The next bullet is around product stewardship. Senate Bill 5697 did not pass. This would have established a program for the management of consumer packaging and paper products to be funded and implemented by producers of those products. Again did not pass, but House Bill 1799 did, which is an organic material management bill established to state goals, requires county solid waste, plans to identify priority areas and to provide source separated organic material collection. The next bucket was fixing the tax structure. The short summary of this is there was not a. Lot of action for. Local tax structure changes. They did not address the arbitrary profit tax cap. It didn't provide any additional flexibility on the progressive revenue source. There was a bill, House Bill 2026, that implements road usage charge program beginning in July of 2025. There was good hearing on the bill, but the bill ultimately did not move. Nor did House Bill 1058, which would have converted that total access program sales and use tax to council tax. That bill did not move. Early in session, the legislature did talk of a long term care trust act. They passed House Bill 1732, which delays implementation of the program by 18 months and makes provisions for workers who are born before 68 and who wouldn't meet that ten year vesting requirement in the program. They also passed 1733, which creates some new exemptions to the program for certain veterans, military spouses, temporary workers and workers who live outside the state. There was some more discussion around additional exemptions, but the legislature really kind of punted to the the board that oversees the program who are going to take a look at additional issues, including exemptions through the summer and report back to the legislature at the end of 2022. So we'll likely see some more bills around this in the 2023 session. If we get to the general priorities, the first bullet is around a transportation infrastructure funds. Again, we saw that movement had Washington transportation package passed 16.9 billion over 16 years. You can see the funding sources there, 5 billion from the Climate Commitment Act, three and a half from the Infrastructure Better Infrastructure Bill, over $2 billion operating budget transfer, some transfers from the Public Works Trust Fund and some anticipated additional state general fund transfers in the future. And then some increase on car license plate fees. We have a slide on the move ahead package next. So we'll go into a little bit more detail, the next bullet there on providing a permanent option for governments to conduct virtual meetings. The legislature did pass 1329 and it allows public agencies to hold meetings remotely after a declared emergency. This allows local governments to to do the remote hearings and not have to rely on the governor's executive order extending sort of exemptions to. And finally, there were no additional resources provided for search and rescue efforts moving into the move ahead transportation package. So these are how the Climate Commitment Act funds were spent. We see almost 1.3 billion in active transportation, so bike ad, 3 billion in transit programs and projects, 500 million for alternative fuel electrification and some money for ferries and rail. On the specific project list, we pulled out some ones that we know were in King County and they highlighted them here. There's an East Rail funding person, some rail projects funding person, North Aurora projects. You can kind of see there and we'll happy to send this list around. There were some specific transit projects that were also funded. Rapid, Rhode Island, the South based campus annexation, electrification. Metro's Amber Boulevard line improvements. And then some money for the Seattle center monorail station improvements. Notably, there's a 1.45 billion in transit support grant funding available for transit agencies. So that would be King County, Metro and others, but only if they've adopted a policy allowing 18 and younger to ride free. This is a free, fair program to be eligible for any 2023, 2025 grant funding that their free policy needs to be in place by October one of 2022. So I understand here in the next in the coming months, we'll see an ordinance transmitted to council that would implement that fare free program in order to get that in place to be able to apply for the grant funding in 2023 2025. So on the package, on the road construction site, if you will, there was a little over a billion set aside for additional ferries. We see 2.76 billion for new construction projects, almost a billion and a half for existing projects, almost two and a half billion for the state barrier removal program. And then 3 billion for preservation and maintenance of roads and highways. The new projects are listed there. The big one is the I-5, Columbia River Bridge. Billion dollars set aside from that. And existing projects include the 450167 corridor improvements. Puget Sound Gateway, a 96 one bypass is just on the east side of the of the pass. There's also some local projects that received specific funding through this transportation package, including some city center access project, the federal way, a 42nd bridge replacement into Aquilla. So Colby Parkway Rehabilitation and then the Inner Bay Regional Transportation System Corridor funds. Finally, on the preservation and maintenance side, most of that 3 billion goes to state roads and bridges, though there is 160 million over six years, so 10 million a year for local road preservation and maintenance. And that's distributed by the County Road Administration Board and the Transportation Improvement Court. So a little not a lot. Most of the money will be mostly preservation maintenance, but it'll be on state state roads. Now it's. There's a whole laundry list of other bills to flag here in the interest of time. I'll just scroll through. There was a Senate bill 5528, which allows a regional transit authority to establish an enhanced service zone and then subject to approval, impose a special and that or commercial parking tax within that zone to be used on projects within that specific zone. That was a building for the arts program in the past. There were three weapons or firearms bills that passed, if you will. One prohibits open carry while knowingly being a local government building used in connection with meetings of governing body one that prohibits manufacture of untraceable firearms. One banning large capacity magazines. There were a number of GM bills that passed as well, modifying the dates of certain actions under the GMA, requiring tribal consultation, increasing the component update cycle from 8 to 10 years. There was a a bill that made pickleball the official state sport. And finally there was a bill that creates a uniform regulations of transportation network companies to Uber the lift that the on demand transportation companies. And there's a link there that I can again send out to you that that has a brief summary of all the legislation that was passed during the session. So a quick look ahead. The 20 day window for the governor to sign or veto legislation is closed. We did not see a lot of veto messages. The effective date for any bills signed is 90 days from the end of session unless otherwise specified in the legislation itself. So 90 days puts us in mid-June. It's election season, so all the House members in the Senate will be out. There are a number of legislators who announced that they will not be running either before a session, during session or some session is ended in King County. Senators from Carlisle and Dodds will not be running, nor will represent as Johnson County, Sullivan or Harris tally. We also know that Representative Frame will not be returning to her House seat. She'll be running for Carlisle seat. Similarly, representing about that is will be running for Senate of proxy. So they will not be returning to their original chamber at the House chamber, as well as the new individuals there as well. And then looking ahead, the first day of the 2023 session is January nine, 2023. So that's what we have. Happy to answer questions. Thanks for the time. Appreciate the help of all the members in their offices as we work through the session. Thank you very much, Mark. And I just couldn't miss how the similar done we finished. What a session that is said to be a record setting one for a short session to end on time as well with that in special session quickly. You mentioned the vetoes. Not many. There were some controversial ones, as I read, with any that were particularly applicable to the country. You know, I didn't see anything of the bills related to our legislative agenda that they got vetoed. I think within some of the budgets that were, you know, some some partial vetoes. But I don't think anything that that was on our radar. So I think as far as that goes, we heard. And council member Dan. Thanks. I just figured out the raised hand feature, so I took me two years to figure that out. Hey, Mac, just a quick say thanks for. Your great work during these last couple of years. In these legislative sessions that have been remote, having done a fair amount of work around Olympia the last couple of years, it's amazing how challenging the sessions can be remotely. I wanted to thank you particularly for. Your help on. The addiction and recovery legislation that we move forward to reunify families which passed unanimously. Through the state Senate. Ed and didn't and stalled out in the House. But that's okay. It's a start. And we started to make a point and and and I think we're on the right track, but we'll continue to work to improve that legislation with the sponsor and co-sponsors. And we'll. Take another run at it. Next year. But thanks for your hard work. And that was, as always, a lot of fun trying to get bills to that legislature. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. Thank you so much for this wonderful report. And you did send something to us. Is this something that would be this or if it's how you described it today, that would come our way? Are you going to share this deck with us? Yes, Councilmember, I will absolutely share the slide deck with you. And it's based on the document that I sent earlier. It's going to have a little bit more up to date info as we understand the budget a little bit more. But I will actually, right after this, this meeting here, send this point out to everybody. Wonderful. Thank you. And I'm specifically interested in all the areas surrounding behavioral health funding for space, as well as suicide prevention. And I'd love to have a conversation with you baseline to further detail that as we further our conversations in our district and the community in this area. Absolutely. Thank you. I'll. I'll work with your staff and get something on the calendar. Terrific. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Bell, Tootie, thank you so much, Chair. And thank you, Mack and the whole team for all of the work this year. It seemed faster and longer than a short session normally does. I just wanted to share some outcomes of some of the reports that we've heard with the Council because of the really unfortunate failure of House Bill 1099, which would have put planning for climate change into the comprehensive planning process. As I know, we all know, all of the local jurisdictions are going into their latest major plan update this year to be adopted by 2024. So that was really unfortunate timing. But there are an increasing number of local jurisdictions that are committing voluntarily to include climate planning, as if 1099 were in effect, that basically we're going to do what the law said, even though the law wasn't passed. And I, I believe, although we're getting an analysis of this, that we already do it, all of that. But I think we should join those jurisdictions and commit as to set an example and to encourage other jurisdictions in Washington state and particularly within King County, to plan as if climate was required in the comprehensive plans, because we just don't have time to wait for the next update. All of the news is pretty dire about the timing for getting our getting our GHG emissions down so that we can at this point just blunt the worst impacts of climate change. It doesn't even seem likely that we're going to be able to stop them entirely. So I just wanted to share that. And also, I know a number of us spent some time in the zoom chambers down in Olympia this year. I was really pleased to be able to testify in support of the transportation package, which meets a lot of our principles as a county in support of the missing mental housing bill, which also did not pass but will require attention because we do need to do something about missing rental housing at the local. The strictly locality by locality approach isn't getting the job done. I want to remind members that at the Affordable Housing Committee of the Growth Management Planning Council, a lot of words. We are working on a path toward having targets in the comprehensive planning policies so that every local jurisdiction, including King County, makes sure to plan for appropriate land use so that we are on the path to enough affordable housing for a healthy housing market. There's a lot more going on there, but it was it was quite a session and a lot got done. A lot didn't get done. And I really look forward to the next steps on the things that we can do. All right. Thank you. I'm sure. Thank you. And just so everybody will know, we've penciled in for one of our meetings in October to have Mark and his car going back to us to begin discussing the legislative priorities for the 2023 legislative session. Matt, you do any of your team, your lobbying team like to bring up anything? We really appreciate all that. Simon and our contract lobbyists did for us. Thank you, Councilmember. I'll defer to them. Anybody wants to say anything. It's a Dave Foster. I'll just say, I think that was a very comprehensive overview that Mac provided. I'm not sure. We have. Much to add, so thank you for doing all that. Right is very comprehensive indeed, and I'm sure a huge amount of work went into it. Thank you for that. And Simon. But for all of you really to come through for us and that we would have liked to have some things go through that did not. But it was, I think, a martin short session. Anybody else besides Dave. Like to say anything. And I would add reminders. Go ahead, Mike. It'll be a very strange session next to some of the major stalwarts that we've had in King County. Reps have Eileen Cody, you know, her her not being down there, Pat Sullivan, Tory leader in the House. There's so many folks who are transitioning out. And what's interesting, we're seeing. A lot of legislators who were. Just in their first term who've announced they're not coming back. It kind of a. Reflection of the, you know, the great resignation. Yeah. They were saying, you know, family issues. You know. Wanting more time for. You know. So I think that's one of the things I took away from the session that I thought we were just going to have 60 days of fixing things we did last year, which we did with criminal justice and some of the other things. But it just felt like a long session. I'll just ask you Echo some. You've already said this did not feel like 60 days. Yeah. And do you have anything? Hi. Yeah, thank you. I apologize. I'm having some work done in my house. I'm in my car, so I'm not going to susceptible to seeing the in my car. But the thing I'd want to flag is this is a remarkable year of behavioral health that was probably long overdue, but also really meaningful investments to stabilize the workforce, hopefully grow the workforce and build capacity. And so I know we ran through that and it sounds like the team sent out a more comprehensive read. I'm happy to answer any questions there, but just want to flag that this was, I think, the most ever in a budget for behavioral health in a session. And hopefully it's a meaningful difference we see down the road in our community and across the state because of these investments. All right. Thank you. Does anybody else have a question? Dombrowski complimented. The basket. Chair and that outstanding presentation very comprehensive I echo the others thank you. On the using some of the public works trust fund for funding the transportation package, do we expect to see an impact there on our funding to the extent we use that? Or is that mostly a city issue? Thank you, Councilmember. About you know, we don't expect to see too much. It's not a source of, I guess, a loan program that kind of makes a lot of use of I think we have used it in the past, but certainly the smaller jurisdictions rely on it to agree to do it. And then the larger jurisdictions. I mentioned to Senator Lias when I saw him recently that that was a huge package with at least from the outside, very little drama compared to the one we did when I first came on the council and congratulated and thanked him. So looking forward to getting those dollars. Are there any other questions or comments? Thank you very much for her. Very capable and capable as well as the children answered for us larping team where we appreciate all of your work. Thank you. Thank you. We will now go on with item number eight and another chapter, both of which will be relating to the district court redistricting. And we're taking these two items together, but we will take action separately. They will be briefed by Erika Neumann on our central staff. We must bring back to Wilson. She has supervisor with King County Elections, an assistant presiding Judge Horne with the District Court to answer any questions. There will be a verbal amendment by Councilmember Bell to cheat that. We will get to that in a few minutes. And with that, Erika, please go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Erika Neumann, Counsel, Central Staff The Items to propose ordinance 2020 2012 to begin on page 18 of your packet. As you all know, District Court is the County Court of limited jurisdiction and has the responsibility for traffic infraction. Small claims and misdemeanor criminal offenses. In November 2021, the Council adopted Ordinance 19358. Which authorizes. District Court to provide services to the City of Pacific under. The Interlocal Agreement. And the city started receiving services. In January of. 2022. The proposed ordinance would implement the changes to the King County District Court redistricting plan. On March 7th, the county's district redistricting committee met to review the. The. County's district court plan, as required by the state statute and county code. And they, in that unanimously approved the amendments to the district court district map, which would include voters. From the City of Pacific. That reside in Pierce County. And as you mentioned, in its current form, the proposed ordinance has a blank online line, which is on page 21 for the date that the committee has a blank. We need to have a verbal amendment to fill in that blank with the date of March 7th, which is the date the committee approved the amendments. I can pause right there or I can continue on to explain. Ordinance. Oh, one, two, three. Thank you. I wonder if there are any questions. And Kirk Newman. Okay. Let's go on and have fun. 2020 201232790123. What authorized the changes to the King County District Court Southeast Electorate District to include. The City of Pacific? The changes to the Southeast Electorate District are reflected in the attachment to the proposed ordinance. As far as timing goes, the Council is required to adopt amendments before May 1st of 2022. And if I recall correctly, if the. If the. If we take action today, the Council can take final action on April 19, full council meeting, which would allow time for the ordinance to go into effect prior to candidate filing, which begins on May 16. Madam Chair, that concludes my remarks. Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Kurt Newman under all measures. And we do have Wilson and George Ryan with. Us. Bearing questions of them or if they would like to send. Good morning, Mrs. Judge, and thank you for considering our ordinance and we are delighted to have both the city of Pacific and the city of are going to join the District Court as contract cities. And this is just a technical correction to make sure that all of the city and Pacific citizens have the ability to elect their judges who are hearing their cases. And so we appreciate your time and the willingness of the district in committee and the council to make this correction so that everybody has a say in who their judges are. So thank you. And I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any. Thank you for being with us today. Are there any questions of Judge Hahn or Mr.. Okay. With that comes the rebels. You are the sponsor of both measures. And we will first take the proposed ordinance. 2020 2012, two. Would you like to make a motion and then speak to it? And we do have the rebel amendment to the offer as well. Very good. Thank you. Chair Caldwell's I would move adoption of proposed ordinance 2020 20122. The motion has been made. And would you like to move the amendment? Yes. The amendment is a verbal amendment to insert the date March 7th, 2022, as the date the redistricting committee considered and unanimously approved the amendments to the district court districts map this week. Thank you. Is there any question on the amendment? Please all in favor of the oral and verbal amendments indicate by saying i, i, I must say now the amendment has been adopted and we now have because proposed ordinance 2022 zero 122 as amended Councilmember Belge and comments. The only thing I would add to what's already been said is that this was really kind of a life experience. It takes a great deal of effort to amend these maps. It doesn't happen very often. And so you had to pull together a whole convening of various members of different jurisdictions. Many of our mayor showed up in person to take this vote, judges from the district court and others. So it was really nice to see the kind of the community of the district court come together to support making this boundary adjustment so that the the residents of this area can vote for their own judges. And I think I think it was said, but just to make clear, Pierce County has to do a mirror action and they are on path to take this same action in Pierce County to just sort of make sure that it is fully approved. I don't question. So councilmember built into the comments. Okay. Well, I. Think please call it the wrong. Thank you. Chair Cornwall Council Member DG. II. Council Member DEMBOSKY. DEMBOSKY I. Council Member Then. I. Council member McDermott. High Council member Perry. A Council member at the grow. I. Council member. Bond Drive Bower. I. Council member, Sally. Hi. Chuckles. I never was. Nice eyes and no nose and nice kids. I'm okay with our vote. We have approved proposed on the 2022 zero 122 as a member. And unless there are concerns, we will send this ordinance with the due recommendation for the consent agenda to the April 19 Council meeting. And we will now. I will mount as Councilmember Bell to try to move proposed ordinance 2022 zero 123. Thank you. I so move. On to. Are there any comments you would like to make now? This is just the second action required to complete the approval process and I urge your support. Thank you. Okay. Are there any questions or treatment that will please call the roll? Thank you. Call us. Council members. Hi. Council member DEMBOSKY. Hi. Council member Dunn. I. Councilmember Mike Berman. All right. Council member Perry High Council member at the growth high. Council member Van de Boer. I council members thoroughly. Five. Chuckle. Well, I it won't is my eyes, no nose and no excuse. Thank you. Very much. And with our vote, we have approved proposed ordinance 2020 20123. And with our than concerns, we will send this ordinance with the best recommendation for the consent agenda to the April 19th Council. And I would like to make one correction. I believe I referred to our analyst Derek and woman as clerk. That was unintentional and I apologize for that. And we will now move on to item number ten on our agenda, which is proposed motion see 2020 20153 that would declare a King County support for the Cities for Citizenship Initiative. And direct. The executive to sign the currency into the initiative and the initiative as the participating community. And we will have analyst Melissa Bailey brief us. We also have with this Nina Hashimi, who is the director of the Relations for the Executive Office and the Cities for Citizen Citizenship Initiative is a national initiative aimed at increasing citizenship for eligible permanent residents in the United States and encouraging cities and counties across the country to invest in citizen shift programs. So we will hear from Melissa there. And then Mina Hashimi is available for questions from council member Belgium is the sponsor of this legislation will also offer a verbal amendment to this one as well. Go ahead, analyst Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Most Council Central Staff Materials for proposed motion 2020 20153 begin on page 39 of your packet. The proposed motion would declare King County support for the Cities for Citizenship Initiative and direct the executive to sign the county on as a participating community. It would also request the executive designate a county representative as the liaison to the initiative and express the county's intent to work collaboratively with both the national initiative and local community based organizations to increase citizenship. Immigrants and refugees in King County as well. Background cities for citizenship, as was noted, is a national initiative that works with both cities and counties to increase citizenship among eligible permanent residents in the United States. It goes by CPAC for short, started in 2014 and now has over 100 partnering communities across the country. In Washington state, that includes the cities of Kirkland, Redmond, Seattle, Tacoma and Yakima, as well as Kitsap County. The initiatives coordinated by the National Partnership for New Americans and chaired by the mayors of New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles City is the founding corporate partner. Supercedes Primary Focus is on lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders who are eligible to naturalize. In King County, there are approximately 75,000 lawful permanent residents eligible for naturalization. Moving to the analysis section of the staff report on page 42, local governments participating in the initiative receive free access to technical support, policy advice, best practices , research and demographic data and networking opportunities with other jurisdictions, all with the goal to increase the number of citizenship applicants. In return, the participating communities are encouraged to share information on their naturalization efforts, be an annual survey, participate in monthly partner calls and attend the initiative's annual municipal gathering. Local governments are also asked to provide a point of contact for the initiative. There are no membership or registration fees to join, and membership is not dependent on establishing certain programs or policies. CPAC states that participation is flexible and up to the capacity of the local jurisdiction. The proposed motion does direct the executive to designate a county representative to serve as a liaison. To see policy in the primary cost associated with the initiative would be the staff time necessary to participate. That said, executives have noted that while they have not yet developed an implementation plan, they believe these responsibilities would likely be handled by an existing FTT or TLT. The executive's office plans to work with the Office of Equity and Social Justice to identify the appropriate staff person to serve as the reason. That concludes my remarks, Madam Chair, I'd be happy to answer any questions. And as you've noted, we have executive staff here as well to help. Thank you. Are there any questions of analysts favor? And as mentioned, we have Nina Hashimi here from the Executive Office. And so, Director Hashemi, would you like to send. Thank you, Carol. Good morning, councilmembers. No further comments from me, but we appreciate council member Malcolm G sponsoring the motion and looks forward to partnering with the organization to organize the Minister and the Council should the proposed motion be passed. Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Director How soon? Okay with that, let's go to Councilmember Belton. She'd like to make a motion and also speak to your legislation. Thank you very much, chair corrals and I'd like to move. Approval of motion 2020 20153. And then just to speak to it briefly. The report was was very it was thorough and good. We've been requested a number of times over the last few years to join this effort. It is a collaboration with some of the biggest jurisdictions in the country of which we are, of course, one. Several of our cities, as was reported, have joined already. And I know that this council is keenly aware of the challenges and the increased challenges that have faced the immigrant residents of our communities. This is one approach to one sector of that challenge, and it is the fact that there are many people in our county who are eligible for permanent citizenship who for one reason or another don't achieve that, that goal. And we know that people who don't attain citizenship are at a disadvantage or disadvantage legally with job opportunities and ultimately with economic opportunity and stability. And so this is a great opportunity for us to take the things that we are already doing. By the way, I want to remind the council that we approved in recognition of the fact that we have approved a number of things that make that address this exact problem, providing during the pandemic, $11 million in pandemic relief to immigrants and refugees, and $5 million to help defray the cost of applying for naturalization, both of which are right in line with the values of this organization that we're and collaboration that we are considering joining today. So I highly recommend that we continue down this path that we join with our colleagues in Seattle, Redmond, Kirkland and other places around the country in encouraging naturalization of those who are here, contributing to our communities and would benefit from completing their naturalization. And I urge your support. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Eldridge, I am very excited about this legislation. I appreciate your two words. Would you? Are there any questions before we go on to the amendment? Councilmember Perry. Thank you, Chair Colwell. So just to be clear, the immigrants in our community, our immigrant community members pay taxes, correct? That's affirmative. Right. Okay. Well, I just wanted to acknowledge that. And I also want to say, I just think this is terrific. I love it when people are given more and more opportunities to move closer in and participate as deeply as possible in their communities for the better of all. And so where folks are willing to do that, I'm eager to do that. Immigrant and refugee community that I've experienced specifically in Bedford and Spanish district are some of the most patriotic, patriotic and actively engaged community members that I've experienced in in this last year especially. And I just think this is terrific. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Yeah. Just a quick question. And I'm sure whoever wants to ask, is there a cost associated to the county with supporting this particular initiative? So you foresee. This from councilmember done. And so there is not. There's no there's no admission fee. We may decide to undertake activities, but we could decide that anyway. So. But there's no cost to join. I think. Are there any other questions? Councilmember Bowdich, who would you please offer you an amendment? This is a verbal amendment. Verbal amendment. So I move that on line four of the motion. The number 190,000 be changed to 290,000. And I'm happy to explain. Please go ahead. So line four through six currently states, whereas there are approximately 190,000 lawful permanent residents in Washington State and over 75,000 lawful permanent residents eligible to naturalize in King County. That was just a typo. There are actually 290,000 lawful permanent residents in Washington state. So it's just a factual correction. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions on the amendment? It's all in favor of this rebel amendment. Please. By saying. I like any. Person. All right. Okay. The amendment is seconded, and we now will move to a roll call vote on motion 2020 20153 as amended. Councilmember Jenny Concluding Remarks. We can hear your muted. I couldn't unmute for some reason there. I have finally got it. Sorry. No, no, no. Urge support. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. When I called around, please call the roll out. Thank you. Joe Caldwell, council member about the chair i council member DEMBOSKY. I council member done by. Council member McDermott. High. Council member, Barry. I council member at the Grille, i. Council member, Andre Bauer. I. Council members, Caroline. I. Chuckle. Well. Hi. The board is nice eyes. No nos and no excuse. Thank you. With our vote, we have approved proposed motion 2020 20153 as amended. And unless there are concerns, we will send this motion with the due process recommendation by the consent agenda to the April 19. Council. Meeting. And we are now on our final item item now, which is a motion sponsored by councilmembers Dunn and Dombroski that would request the executive to develop a comprehensive response to the crisis in Ukraine. We know that Executive Constantine has already announced and implemented many plans for welcoming and assisting refugees from Ukraine and for ensuring that we maintain no financial relationships that would benefit the Russian Federation. But it seems like a good idea to find out what has been done and what else could be done. And I thank councilmembers Dunn and Bombastic for bringing this to us. As in certain for all, sickened, in fact, horrified by what's been happening in Ukraine and to the millions, millions of people who have fled their homeland. We have with us Mina Hashimi, director of consular relations for the Executive Office, and Cherie, who will first brief us, one of our analysts from our central staff. So with that and also Richard Prince going back. Thank you. Your chair corrals very soon with council central staff. The legislation is on page 50 of your packet and there is no staff report for this item since it was recently added. But I will briefly summarize the proposed motion and then, as the Chair mentioned, I will ask if I can have staff to speak to what actions the Executive has already taken. I proposed motion 2022 zero 100 would request that the executive develop a comprehensive response to the crisis in Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine in February of this year, and in response, the U.S. has taken actions, including imposing sanctions, prohibiting individuals and businesses from trading with Russia's central bank and freezing Russian assets in the US. On March 1st. The King County Council also recognized the King County Ukrainian community and expressed support for all Ukrainians, including the Ukrainian residents of the county, the Greater Puget Sound region, the citizens of Ukraine and the worldwide Ukrainian community. This proposed motion requests that the executive take four actions. The first is to review the county's financial and procurement contracts to ensure that the county is not investing in services or purchasing goods that would directly or indirectly benefit the Russian Federation and its leaders. The second is to examine county inventory for any excess medical or other supplies that could be safely provided to a crane. A third is to develop ways to allow employees to utilize the employee giving program immediately to support relief efforts in Ukraine. And the fourth is to consult with the King County Immigrant and Refugee Gene Commission and to work with federal, state and local governments and nonprofit partners to provide support for refugees who may arrive in the county from Ukraine as a result of the conflict. The executive has already taken some actions in response to the crisis. So at this time we have Hashemi, the director of Counselor Relations with the Executive Office, who is joining us today and can share with the committee about actions that the executive has taken. Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much and welcome, Director Hudson. Thank you. Chuckles For the record, my name is Matt Hashimi and I'm with the executive's office. I appreciate the opportunity to share the executive's work to support the people of Ukraine. I can report that of the four proposed actions in the motion, all four have been completed and we continue to engage with community partners and seek new opportunities to support the Ukrainian people. Regarding the proposed actions, as Churkin mentioned, performance strategy and budget along with finance, business and Operations Review, the King County has no direct investments or contracts that benefit the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. We ask our department to review and identify any medical supplies or supplies protective law enforcement gear. Unfortunately, the county does not have any surplus of those items at this time. But last week, executive Constantine participated in a joint effort of humanitarian nonprofit noble Ukraine, Stanford University Students and Ukrainian Association of Washington State to coordinate the delivery of 32 tons of emergency medical supplies and humanitarian aid to Ukraine via a cargo flight from Sea-Tac Airport. The executive activated the employee giving program to allow employees to donate and support the people affected by the war in Ukraine beginning on March eight. Employees were able to convert accrued vacation leave and or some time into cash donations, as well as provide one time cash donations. Three organizations were recipients. Global Impact Ukraine Response Fund, Doctors Without Borders and the Ukrainian Community Center of Washington. The Ukraine emergency response closed on March 28 and more than 270. Pledges from King County employees are now being entered and reconciled. Time donation approvals will be distributed to department leadership this week, and final numbers and donation dollars will be reported no later than April 20 at the Office of Equity and Social Justice. I'm engaged the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission regarding the situation in Ukraine. The Commission hosted its monthly public meeting last night, April six, on how the discussion regarding the county's Ukraine response. King County OSHA staff provided an update about the work that's already being done here at the county and representatives from the Ukrainian Community Center of Washington and joined the conversation. The executive's office continues to communicate with local resettlement agencies, the Ukrainian consulate in Seattle and the Ukrainian Association of Washington State to assess the current needs of organizations and refugees who may be arriving in King County from Ukraine and to keep them updated on our work. And finally, Monday evening was the Seattle Mayor's Concert for Ukraine and Refugees Worldwide. Executive branch staff organize an auxiliary event to help raise funds for refugees. They secured a venue at Trinity nightclub. Owner Anthony Frazier agreed to donate all staffing and proceeds from his bar for the event. We promoted this to King County employees and brought together our staff with the arts community, including a performance by the symphony which was livestreamed into the venue, and participants were encouraged to donate directly to the refugee fund. Thank you again for the opportunity to share the executive's work to support the people of Ukraine. Thank you. Thank you, Director Hudson. And please give our appreciation to executive Konstantin. I think it must have been a real success Monday night. I tried to register and it was already sold out. This was had been a few days before the event. So with that other questions. Director Hashemi, before we go on to hear from our two sponsors of the legislation. Okay with that, I would turn it over now to councilmembers Dunn and Jim Perskie to speak to. Do you want me to start or you want to start? Okay. This was maybe some of you guys were called composed very shortly within days of the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine and was forward thinking and designed to get us to think as a county about how we might be directly or indirectly benefiting Russia in what is obviously an unjust war, which has resulted in what I think the world community has indicated is a large. Series of war crimes and very. Very tragic. And so I do appreciate the director, Hashim, his report on things that are being done and their continued support of the cause. I don't think there's any partizan division over this important issue. And so I want to just to to happy to move the legislation forward if the council wants to or if they think enough has been done also there. But I think it would be good to show strength in our continued commitment to. Ukraine's solidarity with Ukraine people to move a simple motion like this forward and leave it at that point and then happy to answer questions. Thank you, Councilmember. And let's hear from Councilmember Dombroski and we'll see if we have questions or comments that. I thank you, Madam Chair, and thank Council member Don Director Hashemi for the report and all the work. I was pleased to join Councilmember Member as the and in his capacity as the Prime sponsor of this and add a couple of pieces in particular the consultation with our Immigrant Refugee Commission, which I'm very excited that we have stood that up here at the county and are beginning to use it as a as a resource. I really again commend the executive for all the work they've done. And I think the question. Sorry, dry throat there. I think there is a question of given the accomplishments of the exact should we move this forward? And I think it's it's really a no harm, no foul situation. This was walked on. Folks wanted some more time. And so it's here and in the regular process. But I think from an historical perspective, if folks were to look back at this time, what did King County do? What is the legislative record? What did the county council do in partnership with the executive in response to this humanitarian crisis? And we make the record through legislation. And so I think that this has I think facts have kind of surpassed the requests in here. The executive is extremely responsive and very active. And I think that the legislation has provided a good opportunity for things like this to get updated on it. So I would I would support councilmembers Dunn, Gilmore, Councilmember Dunn's motion to adopt it and you know, might even add some appreciation at final council. This paragraph appreciating the executive and all of our partners for the tremendous work that has been done to date and encourage that to continue. So thank you, colleagues, for the opportunity to share a few thoughts. On this one. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski and Councilmember Dunn. I agree that this is such an enormously significant happening and our world does impact our county as well. And I very much I'm with you and appreciate what the executive is done. We don't know if there will be more that will be done, but it certainly is very heartening to hear about what the executive has been engaged in on behalf of the county. Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Commander Perry. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Director And yet to the executives or for the executives to get the full approach and response, I really appreciate the strength of. This. Response of the executive and appreciate the record from Councilmember Don Dombroski coming forward as action on the council as well. I think we all should take a stand against. This. Atrocity and I hope that there will be more and that we do not broke down but only grow more fierce in our in our actions in support of the Ukrainian people in. This situation. Thank you, Councilmember Perry, and somebody else who wishes to speak. Okay. I think it is a good idea to advance this legislation and hopefully enhance it through the mandatory courses of our country. Is there any other comment? First of all, Councilmember Dunn, would you like to make the motion to give it to pass? Recommendation to motion 2022 zero 100. Move a motion. 2022 zero 100. With a do pass recommendation to full council. And then just to speak on final from my chair, just to say that we certainly opened to opportunities to improve the legislation as it goes before full council. And I agree with Councilor the Baffsky suggestion of commending the Executive for their quick work on this issue as well, and appreciate all the comments and work that have been done to this point and will be done in this very challenging and emotional set of issues surrounding the suffering of the Ukrainian people. So thank you. I would like to say that I heard mention of this in the 7 a.m. news this morning on your RW Empire film about by taking this up. And I thought that was very positive for people all over the region to hear that the council is taking this up. Is there any other comment to make? With that. Kirk Calderon with you, please, Caldwell. Thank you. Chair Caldwell. Council Member Ritchie. High Council member DEMBOSKY. I can still remember done. I can still remember. McDermott. High Council member. Kerry. I. Council member. Afterglow. II. Council member Ben Dybala. I. Council member starlight theft by. Charcoal on their bodies is my eyes, no nose and no excuse. Thank you. And with our vote, we have approved proposed motions 2020 to 100. And we will send this motion with the pass recommendation to the April 19 Council meeting. We will not put it on consent because it appears there likely will be an amendment, an amendment or other amendments. With that, this concludes the action items on the agenda. Before we adjourn, I want to make sure that there weren't any difficulties. I don't believe there were any council members from voting. That is correct, Madam Chair. Richard, terrific. And with that, unless there and take that as our next regular cow meeting committee of the whole meeting will be on May 4th, 2022. I'd like to thank everybody who participated in today's meeting. I'd like to thank our clerks and our analysts as well as other guests to join this on spoke. And if there's no other business managers. Yes. Council Member McDermott, thank you. If you indulge me for a point to personal privilege. Okay, certainly. Thank you so much. I just like to acknowledge that I'm one of the attendees at today's meeting. That was in fact, he was. Called on and passed and public comment is Daniel Thomas. And Daniel is a Boy Scout attending our meeting today, working toward his merit badge for citizenship in the community. I just wanted to thank Daniel for being here and welcome to join us any time. Well, that is certainly a point of personal privilege, Councilmember McDermott, and I'm glad you brought that up. And if Daniel is still with us, welcome them. Best to you on working on merit badges. Okay. Is there any other business to bring up? Then. If not, we are adjourned.	A MOTION approving the extension of the executive's appointment of Dennis Worsham as acting director of the King County department of public health.
king_c843a0da-1b82-4a8d-8713-f5e9e63ae780	All right. Good afternoon and thank you very much for being at this special meeting of the King County Council's committee of the whole, we have a packed agenda with a lot of folks who have signed in to testify and I mean a lot of folks. Thank you all for being here. Our meeting today is primarily focused on for culture, our cultural development authority and a number of items around that. We also have a very important land conservation initiative, Bernice, and you can hear me, so I'll speak up. We also have a very important land conservation initiative that we hope to move forward today as well. And so I'm going to ask folks if you can normally we have 2 minutes, but given the number of folks signed up, if you could try and keep your comments to one minute, that will help move along and make sure that folks who are on parking meters can get back to that and we don't run up a big bill. So, Mary, can I jump straight to our public comment? Why don't we do a roll roll call first so we get members attendance log. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Baldacci here. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia? Yeah. Councilmember Caldwell's here. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott here. Councilmember. Councilmember von Richter. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you are the queen. Thank you very much. All right, let's go. In order here of the folks signed up, Mr. Zimmerman, you start us off. I want to warn folks that having a tenant. Go ahead, Mr. Zimmerman, your time's running right now. Mr. Zimmerman can get a little animated and often inappropriate if you're not familiar with his style. So. Yeah. Hi, my dirty devil out here are not to social Democrat progressive Gestapo principal attacks, sucker and killer. My name Alec Zimmerman. Anyone speak today about for culture. This little bit confused me is this organization what is prefer to be a free American business and the you nuts who pick dirty garbage rats chariots they right we are free. So right now it's your choice. Today a couple dozen members. But this old slip, it's exactly what is you do in here. You bring American Constitution to come in. Nazi fascism. It's exactly what is. You do it one free organization. Are you crazy is this out right now make from the I slip so this exactly what this happen right now so what is I can total this crime I a few of the. Next step I have butter Bert and I apologized anybody whose name I mispronounce, I'm just doing the best I can based on the writing air putter. And then Kayvon are Bobby and then Elena are cocky. Good afternoon and thank you. I'm here to speak on behalf of Kids Quest, Children's Museum and Agenda Item number 38. I am the executive director of Kids Quest Children's Museum, located in Bellevue, Washington. And I'm here to read a letter from a parent of our museum. My name is Rebecca Bartels, and I reside in Maple Valley. I am a working mother of four girls four, nine, 14 and 19. My oldest daughter, Gia, began working at Kids Quest Museum in 2015. During her junior year of high school, Gia was planning to pursue child psychology as a career path, so working at Kids Quest was a great opportunity for her to gain experience with child development. After her first day on the job, she came home and told my husband that she that we had to bring our younger children to the museum. She was so impressed with the focus on learning development and wanted her sisters to be able to benefit from the museum . So I lost where I was from the environment. This meant a lot of time as Gia was a typical high school junior. My minutes. Up. Yeah. There you go. Real quick. I get it. We not only serve children and families, but we have a very broad youth volunteer program, parent ad and business development. And we just want to thank you for all of your support. Thank you. Peter. If you'd like to give the letter to our clerk, that will go into the file. Thank you. Thank you for being here and for your work in the community. Kayvon and then Elena. And then John Adams. Go ahead. Hello. My name is Kayvon. R.B. and I am speaking on behalf of the Kids Questions Museum today as a volunteer. And I live in Bellevue, and I'm going to 10th grade at Bellevue High School. And Kids Quest has provided me with a great opportunity to me, opportunity for me to serve my community and to help others from working on heatmaps and expose Excel spreadsheets to helping a four year old build his or her own rocket. There are many great exhibits and programs that Kids Quest provides us for our creativity and carry on curiosity from the Learning Lab, where kids are introduced to chemical reactions, to the art studio, where kids are being inspired to become the next Picasso. And furthermore, the environment in the working space is vibrant and friendly with everyone smiling and having a good time. And I'm never afraid to ask someone for a question. And finally, the diversity of individuals that come through the front doors of kids quest is remarkable, as people of all different ethnic backgrounds are coming to one place to learn and to provide a better future for their children. Thank you. Thank you, K9. Good timing. Elaina and John Adams and Kelly, I think. D. Hi. My name is Elena Araki, and I'm here representing the Wilderness Society. I'm here today to express our support for the Land Conservation Initiative and the value of environmental equity that it upholds. Natural beauty and outdoor opportunities are qualities that distinguish our region. People come here to hike, climb, bike, or simply to enjoy the views and fresh air. But almost one quarter of King County's own residents lack adequate access to nature. Passing this legislation would have ripple effects across the county, including health benefits, opportunities for social engagement and community building and a cleaner physical environment. These benefits could have the greatest impact on communities that currently don't have good access to greenspace. The LCI would help right this imbalance by focusing money on those areas in need. Historically, underrepresented groups face many disproportionate burdens and the environment should not be one of them. By investing in the Land Conservation Initiative now, we can seize the opportunity to benefit the region for generations to come and uphold a standard of environmental equity. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Thank you, Ileana, John and then Kelly. I see you didn't want to speak, but I've John Adams and Cindy Flanagan on the Land Conservation Initiative, then Liz Stewart. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is John Adams. I'm the board president from the Kirkland Art Center. I just wanted to thank you all for the opportunity to be here today and also consideration of the funding that is in the upcoming bill. Just this year, we started our Make Your Mark program, which is a public school program for arts education, emphasizing social emotional learning. We also just opened a brand new art public art exhibition on Park Lane in downtown Kirkland, and we're really excited with what the organization is going to do for Kane County. Looking forward, we do all this from our Legacy Landmark Building, the Peter Kirk Building, designed and built in 1892. It's a true treasure in the county and the funds that we receive from the county are a big part of preserving that building which we take on as the stewardship is part of our mission as an organization. So I just wanted to thank you all for your support, and we'll see you soon. Thank you very much, Cindy Flanagan, Liz Stewart and then Barrett from Shoreline. Good afternoon. My name is Cindy Flanagan and I represent the Rainier Audubon and the grassroots groups Save Our House, our Campus, our organizations have been working together to conserve open space on the historic Weyerhaeuser campus. And we're here to voice our support for the Land Conservation Initiative and ask that you support the ordinance before us. Today, I live on the West Hill in Auburn, a suburban corridor between Highway 167 and I-5. And while it's a nice place to live with good neighbors and schools, it lacks green space infrastructure. There are no public open spaces, parks or trails. Within a 30 minute walk, the warehouse or campus would provide nearby nature for tens of thousands of residents residing in this corridor. But the challenges in conserving this gem are time and funds. Working with Fortier in the City of Federal Way, we've raised 2.75 million, including a million of CFT fund funds. This year. However, we applied for another million, but we learned that we most likely will earn half. And so the result is it may take us a few extra years to acquire the funds and we risk losing that acquisition and development by pulling the CFT funds forward of up to 140 million. The Land Conservation Initiative could change that and it's our lifeline and for making our conservation efforts and others in King County a reality not only for our benefit, but for generations to come. And we hope that you will support us with this. Thank you. Thank you. Cindy. Liz Stewart. Barrett, Mongoose. Richard Cosgrove from Enumclaw. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today as you consider the Renton Historical Society's application to the Building for Culture Program. As you said, my name is Liz Stewart. I'm the director of the Renton History Museum. I'm glad to speak to the grant application today because Building for Culture is one of the few capital granting programs available to an organization like ours. The Renton History Museum is focused in the last decade on improving our programmatic service to our very diverse community. And here I had a whole list of accomplishments. But creating innovative and inclusive programs will be an ongoing process for us. In the coming years, we hope to rededicate energy to our historic home, Renton Spire Station number one in 2016, thanks to a four culture grant, we renovated our museum lobby and offices for the first time since the 1980s. Now, before you is a request that would enable us to replace our external signage and bring it in line with our more inclusive logo. We're continuing a process of raising the museum's profile and manifesting on the outside the great things that are going on, on the inside. And we hope to tell the public that we're a forward looking and outward looking institution, ready to participate in documenting the rich and diverse history of our community. Thank you, Liz. How's the fire truck? The fire. Okay. And a follow up on that. Okay. Yeah. Barrett and Barrett Mansoor. So the president of the Board of Shoreline Historical Museum, I've been a resident of Shoreline and Richmond Beach all my life. And our museum is a very important part of the community in that we are preserving documents, pictures, allowing people access for their research. We need we have in the possession of having to build a new building so that we can preserve these things in a much more ready fashion to be available to everyone. The museum is requesting $500,000 to be able to complete our project. We have raised close to a million already. So we would very much appreciate your consideration. Thank you. Thank you very much. Patricia Cosgrove, Ellen Ekberg. Okay. All right. We came all the way from Maine and. You don't want to. Okay. All right. Very good. Alan Ekberg and then Cage. SDH Good afternoon. I'm Alan Ekberg and the mayor of the city of Tukwila. I'm here to comment on the Land Conservation Ordinance. This legislation is very important to the city of Tokyo, as well as the region. As you know, a critical component of the legislation is that it waives the local dollar for dollar match required of cities in order to acquire the open space. This patch has been a significant burden to our city and we look forward to it being removed. Currently, the city of Tukwila is working on a half acre partial land, which the King County executive held a press conference on recently. Over 180 children live adjacent to the land in apartments where their landlords have restricted them from playing in their parking lots. And there's no greenfield around them. We need this conservation funds to be passed and the legislation changed to allow this area to be activated for these kids to have a place to play. Without that, they are stuck and being forced in some cases to be evicted because they can't play out in their parking lot. So we want our kids to be safe. And with that, please make the legislative change. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Mayor. And thanks for your leadership on that case, Schlegel. And then I've got Hal Schlegel after. Okay. Hi. My name is Keith Slagle and I'm a resident of the Bitter Lake neighborhood in Seattle. I'm on I belong to the Broadview Historical Society, and I'm a former board president of the Shoreline Historical Museum. I fully support the Charlotte Historical Museum's request to complete their new collections and research facility. The Shoreline Historical Museum is the Broadview Historical Society's partner for over 25 years, and the Broadview Historical Group looks to thank them for the program support and archival guidance. Broadview Historical does not have their own public space. They actually work out of the Broadview Library, but they have no storage and their collections were busy, but they were made accessible to the public through the museum. But ever since, the museum has had to move and able to keep the Broadview archives. The museum's new building is going to be a great asset to the community and their assistance to the Historical Society will be back on. Thank you. And you can learn how. And then I've got Bill Holes and Paul Gilding, it appears. Afternoon. My name is Hal Slagle, and I've been a resident of the Bitter Lake area of Seattle for 73 years. I'm also the president of the Golden Wheel's Auto Racing Pathfinders and a shoreline historical museum board member. I cannot emphasize enough what an asset the Shoreline Historical Museum has been to Golden Wheels, from keeping the history of four racetracks that operated within its geographical area, to providing research materials, to partnering, partnering with us for events, and acting as a clearinghouse for researchers wanting to access Golden Wheels collections. The museum has always been there for us. The challenge of not having their collections on site has been a daunting one. Not only would Golden Wheels members like to see the museum get everything back on their campus, they would like to see the museum provide public access to Golden Wheels collections in the future. Right now that is not possible. We are Golden Wheels are in favor of the museum receiving $500,000 to complete their collections and research facility. And I thank you. Thank you, Hal. I remember door belling, one of your members, Mel Anthony, and him showing me your his racing cars there in Shoreline back in the day. All right, go ahead. Who's next? Bill. You're. Bill holds. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. And members of the King County Council. My name is Bill Halls. I'm the artistic director of Renton Civic Theater. I'm here to express our appreciation for and underscore the urgency of the funding for Renton Civic Theater. Seat replacement is within the Bill for Culture Ordinance. The list of projects you have scheduled for item number 38 of the agenda. We are very proud of our theater, the performances we provide and the value we add to the Renton community and the region. But we have a dire need to replace our original seats from 1939. These seats are falling apart, there are no longer made and parts have to be custom fabricated, which as a nonprofit organization we cannot do that all. So our seats do not currently match any of the ADA standards. They're only 18 inches wide instead of 2227. I have made a a opportunity through this grant. I have made a vendor that has given us an opportunity to get get us some new seats that are only three years old. And these seats he is giving us, because we are a movie theater that's turned into a life theater. And we've been in business for 32 years. He has given us an opportunity because of this grant, if we get this money, he's giving us the seats instead of the normal $500 per seat for plus installation and re fabrication . He has offered them to us for $320 a seat with installation and fabrication and re for vacation of these seats. Sale and soon. Sale will. And we yeah. It's basically these seats we're down to like weeks with this he'd like for other theaters that really want this money. Well I'll see what we can do here today to move that along. So thank you for bearing buyer opportunity. I've enjoyed a show in your theater, Paul, during, I think at P.O. Box 21 906, then Henry Reed and Kathryn McCorkle. Hello, I'm Paul Greeting. I'm from Seattle Symphony and I'm here to speak in support of the funding request for Sound Bridge, which is Seattle Symphony's Music Education Center at Benaroya Hall. It's an accessible place where 10,000 kids and family members each year from all across King County experience concerts, classes and hands on exhibits. Sandwich programs are designed to for those who might not otherwise have access to the symphony, for example, sensory friendly concerts for children on the autism spectrum, and the lullaby project for families experiencing homelessness, where moms attend workshops to write a lullaby for their child. Sound Bridge is now being completely remodeled, and when it opens in 2019 as a one of its kind music center, the new facility will be even more engaging, will have enhanced and new programing to increase attendance and serve even more in King County of King County citizens, thank you for considering this investment in Sound Bridge. Thank you. Paul Henry Reid. Catherine McCall. Ron Hardin. My name is. Henry Reed, and I'm a resident of Lake Forest Park and a member of the Shoreline Historical Museum Board. In January 2011. The Shoreline Historical Museum lost its building, his historic building, to an act of eminent domain. Despite this challenge, the museum has survived and thrived in its new location. Our new collections and research facility is going to keep us on the map. And for you, as King County Council members, it's going to be a wonderful asset to your constituents and visitors from all over. A request for $500,000 is very reasonable when you look at all we've. Already. Done and the amount of the service to the community of this facility promises. Our capital campaign is called the next 100 years for a reason. The Shoreline Historical Museum is going to be strong for a long, long time period. Thank you very much, Henry. Thanks for your service. Catherine Gogol Run Hard and Jackie Hackett. Hello. My name is Catherine Gokul. I serve on the Conservation Futures Oversight Committee as an at large member. I'm testifying on behalf of myself, as well as the King County Conservation Futures Oversight Committee. The Conservation Futures Oversight Committee is supportive of the Land Conservation Initiative, and we stand ready to help implement it. In particular, we support this legislation to increase the use of bond financing with the existing conservation futures tax to 148 million over the next four years. Acquiring Forest, River farmland, trails and urban greenspace will never be as affordable as it is today. If we don't act soon, we might miss our chance to save these key parcels from development. The CFTC Oversight Committee also looks forward to engaging and working with the social equity cabinet to provide access to open space to residents who live in underserved areas. Thank you for your support of the LCA. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chair Dombrowski and members of the Committee for the opportunity to provide public comment today. My name is Jackie Hackett and I'm here on behalf of Fortier, a regional sustainability organization based here in Seattle. I'm here today to urge your support for the passage of the Land Conservation Initiative. The Puget Sound Regional Council's most recent forecast suggest the region can expect another 1.8 million residents by 2050, with the majority living here in King County. We believe that in order for the county to remain the high quality home we enjoy, we must take action while we still can to protect and expand our forests, farms, rivers, natural lands, parks and trails. The Land Conservation Initiative is critical legislation for achieving this goal. This legislation ensures that over 65,000 acres will be preserved to meet the needs identified by our county and cities, including 55 new urban green spaces and 125 miles of added trails for recreation and access to transit. Key in the complex. So again, we believe the Land Conservation Initiative makes a critical investment in our future and we urge your support of this legislation. Thank you very much for your consideration and I'm glad to answer any questions. Thank you. Jackie James Moschella. And then Tracy Stanton. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the committee, my name is James Moschella, and I am the policy and planning manager at the Washington Trails Association. Washington Trails Association is the state's largest hiking advocacy and volunteer trail maintenance organization, representing more than 15,000 members. I'm here today to thank you and provide support for the King County land. Conservation in this initiative is a bold commitment to securing a greener future for all. And as the city of Seattle grows, demand will increase for outdoor recreation opportunities, and the LCI will provide funds to protect these much needed green spaces. The elimination of match requirements for equity area acquisitions will help to promote opportunities for expanded, equitable access and greenspaces throughout the county. Research has shown that people who think of their local greenspaces as accessible and usable feel more satisfied with their neighborhood, and that residents report betterment better mental health when having access to higher quality green spaces . It will also promote the development of the. Eastside Rail Corridor. Which provide a multitude of new opportunities for non-motorized, recreation and transportation use. This investment in our communities will hopefully help lead to a healthier environment and greater community access to the outdoors. We urge you to support this legislation and look forward to working with King County to ensure the success of this project. Thank you for your time. Thank you, James Tracy. And then I've got Judy Parsons and Kim Scott. That afternoon. My name is Tracy Stanton, and I'm the executive director of the Emmett Alliance for People, Nature and Community, a new collaborative effort designed to fill a critical gap supporting many conservation organizations working across the whole region. The Alliance supports the adoption of the ordinances being considered today. We applaud the executive's bold vision to prioritize investments in parks, trails, farmland, forests, aquatic systems and natural areas, as well as vital urban green spaces. Furthermore, I'm proud and emboldened by the county's forward thinking leadership, demonstrated by advancing this people centered, inclusive approach to ensuring an equitable distribution of open space within some of our most racially diverse and historically underserved communities. These investments in open space support the health of people, the health of the economy, and the sustainability of the region's rich biodiversity on which all life depends. I'm also excited to leverage the overall LCA approach and the funding to develop a funding strategy to protect 450,000 acres, 300,000 miles of trails and 26 urban areas in need of green space across the whole region, as outlined in Pierce's recent regional Open Space Conservation Plan. That legacy starts with your support today. Thank you. Thank you, Judy. Then Kim and Victoria Stiles. Hi. I'm Judy Parsons, a 40 year resident of Shoreline and a former Shoreline school board member. Currently, I'm on the Shoreline Historical Museum Board and the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce. I know firsthand the museum's positive impact on the quality of life in the community and the museum's ability to partner with a variety of organizations across King County . I also know how vitally important access to the collections is to the many researchers who come to the museum, which includes students from high schools and colleges. A new collections research velocity is essential for the museum to serve these scholars and others who need to use our unique primary research materials. The museum is asking for 500,000 from an amended building per culture fund to complete this facility's project this year. Your support of the museum's request would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you, Judy. Kim Scott, then Victoria Stiles and Karen Nest Vault. Hello. My name is Kim Scott. I'm a resident of Echo Lake. Neighborhood and shoreline and also a shoreline historical museum board member. Even before I became a board member, I was very impressed with the museum's work with the Japanese tribal members and all the effort put forth to make sure the museum is telling the story of the first people of the area. And we do this through exhibits, performances and also educational programs for the community. Our new collections and research facility is going to make important research materials more readily available to those trained to learn about the role of the Duwamish in Northwest King County. The museum is requesting $500,000 to finish this facility, and we only we've already completed the design work as well as the required right away access and our building permit is imminent. So we are ready to turn that first shovel of dirt into our new structure. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Okay, Victoria. Karen. Then Kasich sent me. Good afternoon. I'm Vicki Stiles, and I'm the executive director at the Shoreline Historical Museum. We're a regional museum, and our collection area encompasses all of northwest Kent County, North Seattle, Lake, Forest Park and Shoreline were a crucial and fundamental part of the fabric of King County heritage. Operating in tandem and as partners with all of the other wonderful heritage organizations throughout the county. We provide essential research and educational services to the community through our many projects and our preserved documents, photos and artifacts. Our new collections and research facility is vital to keeping all of this history together and accessible for everyone. As you've probably heard, we've risen to meet every challenge put before us. We have the support of the community, as shown by the generosity of many community members. We've already completed a lot of work and we're ready to build our facility here. Assistance through a grant from the amended Building for Culture Fund can go a long ways to making this area a reality. Thank you. Thank you. Vicki. Karen, hold Kazakstan, babe. Then Nisha Brookes. Hi, I'm Karen Nest, bald executive director of Music Works Northwest, a nonprofit community music school in Bellevue dedicated to changing lives through accessible music education and experiences. We provide music lessons, classes, summer camps and music therapy sessions. Students come to music works centrally located facility from across King County, including from Bothell, Duval, Sammamish, Renton, Kent, Seattle and Bellevue. Demand for accessible music education for all ages and abilities continues to increase and music works. Proposed Building for Culture Project will help us meet this increased demand. It will also improve the quality of music, education and music therapy for hundreds of King County residents annually. Thank you to the Council for your support of Arts and Culture in King County. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Mike Brooks. I am from global to local. We are a nonprofit located in SeaTac, Washington. And I'm also here to speak about the Land Conservation Initiative. Having access to green space helps build community. It helps de-stress, it helps lower our blood pressure, and it allows us to get outside and exercise. This lack of open space limit is limits, the ability for residents to live a healthy lifestyle. And oftentimes the mostly the communities are impacted by this are communities that are low income, communities of color that are awfully impacted by the highest health disparities in South King County. The equity cabinet will be working on subsequent steps to bring about authentic equity outcome and system changes in the implementation of the Land Conservation Initiative. And I also serve as a recently formed member of the Open Space Equity Cabinet. So I do ask that you please support the Land Conservation Initiative. Thank you. Thank you, Nischelle. And next, I have and we're getting close to done here Mitch Friedman the mayor will haul from Shoreline and then Dan Stratford. I'm Mitch Freedman. I direct conservation Northwest and supporting the Conservation the Land Conservation Initiative. My organization works to protect wild lands and wildlife across the state and region, and we support the initiative. I recently had a great day on the county's Green River natural area, accessing places like this close to home, adding more open space where people live, particularly in the in the south and north ends. Not only improves the quality of life helps us keep people in denser areas with with a high quality of life. But it also takes some of the recreation load off of our overburdened wildlands in the mountains. It's a it's a great idea. Thank you for it. Thank you, Mitch. Mayor Hall. Thank you. Wilhelm Mayor, City of Shoreline. I greatly appreciate you providing support for the Shoreline Historical Museum. You've heard how its programs support all of North King County today. I also strongly support you urge you to support the Land Conservation Initiative. I grew up in East King County, where I used to hike straight from my doorstep through forests to Cougar Mountain. Well, subdivisions cover two thirds of Cougar Mountain today, but not all of it, because in 1983, you preserved the Cougar Mountain natural area. You also preserved one of the highest quality wetlands in all of King County in South King County, adjacent to where my wife grew up as Bingaman Pond, Natural Area and Richmond Beach Saltwater Park is one of the most popular parks on Puget Sound here in the county. All those great places were preserved decades ago by people, yourselves, in some cases, and others who were looking to the future. We need more parks to support the growth that we're continuing to see in this area, especially in cities. We have a lot of people who can't even walk to a park or an open space. We have a goal in Shoreline to add 25 acres of parks for people to be able to access. You've heard how important parks are. I urge your support. Thank you. Thank you. Well, for your sustained leadership on that and other issues. And then Stratford, then Emma Cotard. And then lunch did. Hi, my name's Dan Stratford and the current conservation chair for Rainier Audubon, which serves South King County. I'm here to speak for I'd like to speak for the birds in support of the Land Conservation Nature Initiative. You speak for them or do you chirp for the birds? Yeah. All right. Habitat destruction is the largest threat to birds that exist. And if you lived in South King County, as I have for the past 40 years, and you've watched the Valley fill up with warehouses, you know what habitat destruction looks like. So. Really? I'm just asking you for the birds. This is our last, best hope to save what's left. Thank you. Thank you very much. Very good. Emma catalog. And then let me shed. Good afternoon, members of the King County Council. My name is Mark Atagi, staff with the Filipino Community of Seattle. On behalf of the Filipino Filipino Community of Seattle, I would like to speak in support of the ordinance dealing with the building for culture funding and includes 15,000 for the Filipino Community Center for Improvement of our State Health System. Many of you have been in our center located in Councilmember Goss. It's a district. It's a cerebral cultural center for the Filipino community, a vital component in the preservation of heritage and social fabric of the Filipino community since its founding in 1935. However, today, the Filipino community centers serve as a cultural anchor for the diverse community, especially immigrants and people of color community that live in the southern part of the King County. The funds will be used to replace our broken projector and automatic screen. Wireless microphone, spotlight and lighting of the state will provide much needed improvement for our program, such as Senior Lands Program during their fitness program activities such as Bingo, the Hayden microphone so that they can hear clearly. Also for the gala dance group of the picnic, the teaching tradition of cultural dances in language for children in each of the states and King County in Seattle also use our facility for the community reception, meetings and gatherings to get community input for issues such as transportation. Thank you so much for your continued support of the Filipino community's center, and I'd like to extend an invitation to all of you to please visit our center. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, AMA. I'll do the I'll do the bingo, but maybe skip the dancing. All right. Well, good afternoon. I'm L'initiative Bartoli, then the executive director of the Northwest African-American Museum in Councilman Garcia's district. And I am here to speak in support of Nam's front doors replacement project that's within the proposed ordinance. The Northwest African-American Museum is a jewel in the cultural landscape of King County. We are housed in the historic Coleman School in Seattle's Central District, and we are the only African-American museum in our region. We offer robust programing, dynamic exhibitions and impactful partnerships year round. We also are proud of our award winning Youth Curators program. Our front doors replacement project will help protect our collections with better insulation and will provide access to our museum for mobility. Challenged visitors and families with strollers. Replica doors will keep the historic integrity of our building, which is a city of Seattle landmark. We thank you for your support. Thank you. And you should. Do you recognize in your exhibits a familiar face here on the day is your grief. When you walk through those doors, who do you see? Absolutely none other than councilman like Megan. All right. I have two more folks signed up. That is K 16 a, b, k since I called you earlier, do you want to present testimony or you want to take a pass today? Yes. New cases. And then I have Miss Marguerite Rashad. I don't know if this Rashad is still here. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Go ahead. Back on a cell phone. She went through it. Only me and the hand of one sheep. Any answer here? Ominous voices, she shouting. Voces appears. Cynthia listens. The anchorage. And become in tin gland with a. Map of. Come flowers who know. And. Are to understand themselves to a troop officer then gone on. It is was a joy. No, no, no. In company of the women's crisis. No, I won't make. Oh, this piece of phrase and the. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody that I did not call or that I missed or that didn't have a chance to sign up that would like to offer a testimony or come forward, sir. You can just come forward to either microphone and we'll squeeze in here. Thank you. David Kaplan is the club's Trails Club. We fully support the conservation efforts and thank you very much for your past support. It's pretty amazing what the county has done. Thought a lot about being a kid in Bellevue and Magnolia and then later in Bellevue. And so much of that land that we played on and explored was private land and is all now developed. And we've got to catch a lot of land for the future and we need to catch it real soon. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Dave Pat, and I'm the regional director for the Trust for Public Land. Thank you so much for for bringing forth the Land Conservation Initiative. As an organization, we believe in creating parks and conserving land for all people to create healthy, livable communities for generations to come. One important initiative that we're driving now is to make sure that everyone lives within a ten minute walk of a park. Unfortunately, here in King County, more than 25% of our residents do not have that luxury. This initiative will allow us to really break down that gap, especially in places in South King County and North King County that have the biggest deficits. You heard from the mayor of Dickwella, who we're working with now to begin this work. And this ordinance will help accelerate that for our urban equity, open space development, as well as continuing the proud legacy of protecting the forest and farmlands of Eastern King County. So thank you so much for your time and appreciate your support of this initiative. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. I don't see anybody else. That's excellent and welcome public comment. We appreciate it. And you can see the footprint of King County throughout the region here. So we're going to close. Oh, yes, sir. Come forward. Just in time to sneak in. In just under. Three. My name is Ron Hardin. I'd like to speak in favor of the Shoreline Museum. The I've lived in the shoreline area since 1950. And the you know, there has been enough happened a lot of changes in the area, a lot of it's worth preserving. I would like to just out my work for the council, but to review it and give it attention. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Howard, and appreciate your coming out. All right. Now, last final call. I'm going once, twice, three times closed. Just to give you all a little orientation. I want to take a well first, do the land conservation initiative, and that is passed out of the Regional Policy Committee, which Councilmember Ron Wright Bower chairs, and he facilitated that legislation through the committee. So today would be the final committee action before it goes to full council. And then I want to take up out of order the building for culture reallocations, which is item 38, would be the next item after the building for culture, if that will work. Mary does that. All right. I'm getting a nod. All right. Let's do the LCA. Do you want to do the minutes and consent agenda first or come back to those later? Come back to those. Thank you. All right. So for the record, on Mary Bergen on from the council staff and the materials for this item began on page 39 of your packet, but I'm going to begin at page 40 and just give a little bit of background on what led to this ordinance. Back in 2015, the council passed motion 14458 which declared that it is county policy to protect and conserve land and water resources and directed the executive to develop and transmit a work plan by March 30th of 2016. To do that, the executive came back with an initial work plan in early 2016 and then convened a land conservation advisory group which met throughout much of 2016 and 2017 and developed a first phase report in January of last year and then a final report in December of last year. That report set the goal of acquiring 65,000 acres of open space lands within the next 30 years, at a cost estimated over the 30 years of $1.9 billion . The group came up with a number of ideas for how funding could be secured to do that, which included, among other things, resetting the conservation futures tax to its state maximum of 6.2 cents per $1,000. That would require voter approval. And so instead of that, at this point, the Executive has come forward with several of the other concepts from the Land Conservation Advisory Group, one of which includes an increasing the bonding level against the conservation futures tax. And then the other, which is also in this ordinance to establish equity areas in underserved areas of the county. In the middle of page 41, you'll see a description of the conservation futures tax. This is a dedicated portion of the property tax that's authorized by state law to acquire property rights to conserve open space. It's been collected in King County since the early 1980s. And as I mentioned, state law sets the maximum for this levy at 6.2 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The CFT was at this maximum level when it was first imposed in the 1980s, but since then it has eroded and it is now under $0.04. King County currently allocates about 12 and a half million dollars in CFT proceeds each year, and those allocation processes are governed by sections of the King County Code, which establish an application process for local communities. A citizen's oversight committee from whom you heard this afternoon to review the applications, and then a process by which first the executive and then the council review those recommendations and allocate funding. Now I'm moving on to page 43 in terms of the proposed changes that are included in this ordinance. The first thing the ordinance would do, as I mentioned, is change the financial policies for the CFT to allow that 80% of the proceeds could be used for debt service so that the amount of money bonded against the CFT could be increased. Currently, there is not a set limit for bonding, but there's been an informal limit set by the council, an executive of about half the proceeds used for bonding. And right now about 46% of annual CFT revenues are used to support debt service with the proposal going to 80%. That would provide an additional 6 to $8 million a year. That could potentially be set aside for debt service and could lead depending on the length of the bonds. The interest rate, somewhere between 80 and $150 million in proceeds that could be used immediately to acquire property. The second thing the ordinance would do, and here I'm on the top of page 44, is to eliminate the match requirement for what are defined as equity areas. I should note that right now any jurisdiction applying for funding through the CFT is required to provide local match equal to the amount they ask for from the CFT for equity areas. And I'll get to that definition in a minute. There would be no local match which would allow for more jurisdictions and underserved areas to seek funding. You'll see a little bit farther down on page 44 the definition of equity areas, which would require three criteria to be met. First, areas located in a census tract in which the median household income is in the lowest third in the county. Second areas located in a census tract in which hospitalization rates for asthma, diabetes and heart disease are in the highest third in the county. And then finally, areas that do not have easy access to parks, either those within the urban growth growth boundary no park within a quarter mile or areas outside the urban growth boundary, no park within two miles. There is also language in the ordinance that would allow for some flexibility so that an applicant can demonstrate and the CFTC Citizen's Oversight Committee can determine that a project proposed for funding would be eligible to be considered an equity area. With that turning to the bottom of page 44 and staff's analysis. First, the definition of equity area. As I noted, there are three criteria as well as some language that allows for flexibility. Those obviously are policy choices for the council, whether you wish to add this definition and then if you are satisfied with the combination of set criteria as well as flexibility that the Oversight Committee could apply. The next policy issue for the Council is the elimination of the match requirement for equity areas. Again, this would allow for underserved communities to apply more easily for T funding, but would mean that because there is not a local match, more money would need to come from the CFT or other sources to acquire that open space. Again, a policy choice for the Council. Next, the increased bonding. As I noted, setting the bond limit higher would allow for an immediate cash infusion to purchase property, but would mean that in future years more of the C of T revenues are being used to support debt service. Again, there are pros and cons of that. It's a policy choice for the council. And then finally, the nexus between equity and open space. The proposed ordinance talks about this to some extent, but staff has identified a number of both adopted policies and regional plans that specifically call out this nexus, including King County's Determinants of Equity Report , the King County Open Space Plan and the recently adopted Puget Sound Regional Council Regional Open Space Conservation Plan. The final issue I'll note is the ongoing erosion of the C of T. As I mentioned, the state maximum for that tax is 6.25. Since it has eroded over time to under $0.04. And this proposal would not affect that erosion. So it will continue to erode over time. Mary, you used the term erode, but can you explain what you mean? What I mean is that there are limits in state law by how much property taxes can increase each year. And because of those limits, the portion of any particular dedicated source of funding such as the CFA, go down in value year over year. And so again, over the 30 plus years that this tax has been enacted, it has gone down from 6.2 $0.05 to under $0.04 now. And that diminishment would continue unless there is some action and in this case, voter approval to reset that levy amount. Finally, I'll note and as you had mentioned, Mr. Chair, this ordinance is a dual mandatory referral. It was heard by and approved by the Regional Policy Committee earlier this month. And that concludes my staff report. Bob Burns is here from the Department of Natural Resources and Parks, if you have questions. Thank you very much for the staff report and the presentation, Mary. Let's take a couple of questions and then we'll see. Councilmember Cole Wells is the co-sponsor of the legislation with me, if you might, when we're ready to be able to put it forward. Start with Councilmember Lambert and then Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. To look at instead of eliminating the match, look at a sliding scale. I think that's a great question for the executive. So I'll call bumpers up. So well he's coming up asking the second question. So, you know, we talked about the 6.2 going down to $0.04. But during that time, the housing in this county pretty much doubled in value. So while that the amount to 4000 went down, the assessed values went way up. Right. Yes. That's so it didn't really erode the amount of money because the assessed values were so much higher. The rate has been what eroded. That was what I was trying to impress and apologize if there is any confusion. But I wasn't. And I know you weren't, but I just want to make sure the citizens listening who don't do this everyday got that little twist. And then I know that in the catalog. And maybe there's another question for you, Bob, but there is a catalog of county planners, city planners that says that for every thousand people you have, you have to have so much open space. Do you know what that formula is for? So for the record, Paul Byrnes, King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks. So on that question, I think each jurisdiction has their own, you know, comprehensive plans and part plan. And so it varies by jurisdiction in terms of what those goals and targets are. There's not a legal requirement. I don't think that's uniform across jurisdictions. But many jurisdictions set targets and goals for numbers of acres, numbers of ballfields, numbers of certain park amenities. So that that's true. And thank you. What I was asking was, what is the guideline? There's a guideline formula. And so I think it would be interesting as we go forward to maybe have something in the bill that says that you need to you need to get closer to the guidelines so that you don't end up in these problems. Because I used to know that there's what the number was, but I don't remember off the top of my head. But there is a formula. So maybe we should find that out and then see other cities that in going forward you need to make decisions that don't put us in the situation in the past. So did you ever look at a sliding scale as opposed to eliminating it? So the advisory group recommendation was to eliminate the match, but what we did was assessed where are the areas of most acute need? And I think that the sense was that there weren't there's not a lot of gradation when it comes to acute need areas that are bottom third of income, bottom or top third of hospitalization, rates for heart disease, diabetes, asthma and a lack of proximity to greenspace. And the strong consensus coming out of the advisory group process was elimination of the match entirely is the thing that is going to allow those areas to catch back up and get some greenspace going. If we if we take gradations and gets very complicated, it's hard to, you know, describe an area with an acute sort of need as just, you know, gradations of of of waiver. And so the strong consensus was to eliminate the match entirely. Okay. Thanks very much. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was impacted by many of the people who testified because they reminded us that already the King County Council has preserved a lot of open space where our public funding. More so than most other places, at least proportionately speaking around the country. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Larry Phillips was our leader for so many years on a county council, and he was the father of the growth manager plan when he was in the state legislature. And I also like the fact that the CFP has that program that you and Council remember had been talking about where we could give priority consideration to low income communities getting a little bit of open space because I think communities like Harlem and North Philly that you can go from miles and have no open space. You got some cement basketball courts, but no open space for a long time. Here's the challenge that I have. If we increase the bonding capacity for our county from 50 to 80% of all the money, yes, it's true that that means that right now we can bond that money and have an I think oh, I think you said about 100 3050 million available to spare. And two or three speakers said if we could spend money now better than we're waiting for later because the cost of land would be so much more. And that that's a consideration. Here's what bothers me. The FBI guy in the Seattle Times, his name is Bork. Eugene Bork. Yeah. Okay. And he said The poor people in King County in Seattle are King County. I can't remember which pay way more taxes than anybody else in the state of Washington and perhaps in a lot of other places. And they sound like we pay for 18% of their money for sales tax and most put it on their homes. But I'm sure it's even more than that if they if they do and have to pay taxes, because those are two primary taxing possibilities here. I don't know about this having more. And Mary, very clearly explain what it means. It means we have to have more capacity to pay off a larger debt in years in the future to pay off that empty debt. That would be really high. And then the other point, she said, because each year something falls. And what was that? It was the rate of the tax know. So it's going to be much more difficult to get resources in the future. So I wanted to ask either one of you. The debt service payment being so high in your future, what are the redeeming values of having that kind of situation? Thank you, Councilman, for the question so that the action in front of you today would put the financial tool in the toolbox to allow bonding at a higher level, but it would not cause any increase in taxes. So what what would happen? No, I mean, why not? So we would rely on an existing the existing conservation futures tax revenues, which is an existing, stable, predictable revenue stream. We would use those existing revenues to pay off any debt that would be council magically issued. And so it wouldn't require increasing the tax, it would just be binding against an existing stable funding source. And the reason we think that's prudent is pulling that capital forward allows us to accelerate the pace and buy land before it disappears to other uses and wallets. While it's maybe more affordable in the future, we project the price of land to only go higher, and the longer we wait, we'll lose these opportunities to get green space in urban areas, to protect farmlands, connect trail corridors, etc.. So those are the rationale set. Up by me. Mary, also a comment on Macron because if the because are using all of this, the money, the value of it is going to go down in the future. Well, understand what it means. It's easy to pay it off. What I mean, sir, is that essentially the county would be taking this existing revenue source, which Bob mentioned, and it's essentially putting more of it on the county credit card. We'd be saying we need the money upfront because land values are increasing so quickly, we're going to borrow to get more money. So it's as if you said your salary is the same, but you're going to put more in your credit card because you need to buy a new car or you're going to take out a home loan to buy a new house. And that's essentially the proposal here. So it's not a new tax. It's not an increased tax. It's just saying we're going to borrow some money now to have more up front. Somebody has to be paid back. So the county would be paying it back out of its existing revenues from this tax. And it just means that in future years there would be less to spend on an ongoing basis because the county would be spending more to pay back the debt. Definitely would be less to spend in the future. Thank you. Thank you. If I might come at Mr.. And I think one of the reasons you got comfortable with the proposal in the Regional Policy Committee and were able to support it there is because this legislation authorizes us to go up to 80%. But there are still two additional steps before we would actually do that. At least tier one you would be able to approve the specific proposed acquisitions of land with the money or recall that comes before us every year on recommendations of the CFP committee. And two, you would have to vote to issue the debt and there may even be a budget vote in there somewhere as well. So I think there were those additional steps that would be required to where your concern, which I think is valid with respect to does the proposal comply with our financial policies? Are we not overextending ourselves? All of those issues are certainly going to be able to be presented and addressed if we were able to move forward. This simply sets the framework to be able to do it. Did I messed that up, Bob? That that was exactly right, Mr. Chair. This just even a blind squirrel finds the knot once in a while, so. Okay. No, he's always pretty good at explaining count. Thank you, Councilmember Garcia, that's kind of you to say Councilmember Lambert had an additional comment before we put it before us. Yeah, well, I found it online line. So it was just what you said. But it was also that prior to from 1919 60 to 19 eighties, the National Recreation and Parks Association standard was ten acres per thousand. And then in the 1990s people were saying that there was too much parkland, surprisingly enough. And so then, then they said, but each city establish its own standard. And so some cities have like nine acres, a couple cities have 12 acres, Tampa has 9.9. So, you know, it's interesting that the cities, very few of them look like they've gone over the ten per acre, that it was actually a way of making it less, which was very interesting. But I think, you know, looking at some kind of standard, even though that was the old standard for 20 years, it gave a guideline so that if your city didn't have proper and we know that it's needed for health and all these other good reasons, including mental health. So anyway, I threw that out because they thought it was something that we should at least know how our cities are doing. Are they getting close to a 10th acre just so we know, or are they doing it like one city has four acres per thousand, which is completely not acceptable as far as I'm concerned. So know. I just want you to know that. Thank you, Councilmember about duty and then Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you. Looking left. I just wanted to repeat something that we said at the Regional Policy Committee, mainly because there are people in this discussion that weren't in that discussion. First of all, there was some discussion at our P.C. about whether pulling this money forward would limit our ability to fund things in the future, which is, of course, always true when you bond because then you then tied up your revenue streams. However, I'll repeat what I said there, which is for this kind of a project, it's a very sensible kind of strategy for funding because of the risk of losing the lands that we're trying to preserve. If you don't preserve them now, the risk is that they go away. So pulling money forward to me makes a lot of sense in this kind of situation. I just thought I'd repeat that. And the other thing I wanted to repeat was this I am I'm very appreciative of and and excited by the work that's been done in the proposal that's coming forward. I am particularly excited about the equity investments. I think there's an incredibly strong case for that. And it's a it's a it's a nice way of making up for past inequities in access to open space and safe ways, places to play outside. I do want to again, though, stressed that when we talk about conserving land outside the urban growth boundary or at the urban growth boundary, that sort of brings to my mind of the discussion around the whole balance of good, the Growth Management Act. And the balance was we're going to grow inside that urban growth boundary, we're going to provide housing, we're going to provide density, smart growth, transportation, all everything that people need so that at the same time, we can conserve the land outside the urban growth boundary and not sprawl all the way to the Cascade Mountains. Right. We seem to do a pretty good job of the conservation part, but we're not doing the greatest job on the housing part and the density part. We're not keeping up with the demand for housing and the cost just keeps going up and up and up and up. So maybe I'll frame it as a question this time. Was any thought or discussion giving to a way to tie these two things together because they are linked like a TDR program for housing or any kind of innovation? A better way to try to support that second really critical part of growth management while we're doing the conservation, that is also very critical. Yeah, thank you. Great question. That actually came up yet. But I do say. That that came up through the advisory group process. We actually did an analysis based on questions from advisory group members and we looked at the buildable lands capacity in the urban area. It's about 417,000 units of capacity. And the Land Conservation Initiative that we estimate is about double what we need for that, I think the 30 year growth target. But but that's, you know, there's the next 30 years in the 30 years beyond that that land conservation initiative would impact that by about two and a half to 3%. So the advisory group, I think, got comfortable with the idea that that's a fairly de minimis impact, but it's an impact. And the point you made is we're struggling with affordability and. And can I jump in? Yeah. It's not about the impact of this. I'm not arguing that because we're taking land out of production, we should. Therefore, that's not what I'm saying at all. What I'm saying is this is regardless of what our targets are and what our buildable lands may look like, we are failing egregiously at providing enough housing so that people can afford it in this market. So there's something wrong with that analysis there. There's something not working there. And this provides an opportunity to potentially encourage more density in places where people will actually build it. Maybe just put it that way. Yeah. And so we've been working with the Development Committee on how do we grow the TR program, which you referenced. I want to suggest that as part of this, we should try to do that. Yeah. Yeah. That's actually was we as part of the Land Conservation Initiative, we assumed a higher level of revenue from TDR as part of the non CFT revenue that would help support land conservation. The more we can grow TDR, those proceeds can help cover some of the cost of land acquisition. If we pass this as written, does it limit our ability to use TDR or some other incentive program in that way? In this package, it. Doesn't limit our ability to use TDR or any other private or public private partnership opportunity. That's very that's very comforting. And I want to work with you all on finding ways to do that. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Customer Resolution. I want to remind colleagues that in our comprehensive plan update, we included a work plan item to explore adding flexibility and new types of TDRS with our program. And I think the department is working on that, which would include urban to urban TDR using I call supercharging TDRS to incentivize their use in underinvested communities and even some perhaps rural to rural, whether that should be TDR to be able to facilitate these things. So I think some work. Is underway on that, and I'm very interested in seeing the results. We're running low on time, and I'm going to turn to Councilmember Caldwell's to take up this item. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I proposed ordinance 2018 020268 that would make changes to the code to allow increased funding of conservation features, tax proceeds and establish policies for the purchase of equity areas in underserved census tracts. All right, that's before us. Comments on passage. We don't have amendments at this time right here. Effectively, Amanda, we got to go back to their pieces, hopefully do that. Councilmember One Right, Bart tells me, is a full agenda at the IPC Council Member Lambert Thank you. As we go forward in this, I think there's some things that we need to continue to think about. So I'm just going to listen quickly. First of all, our citizens are saying their property taxes are too high. So that's a problem. And one of the reasons our property taxes is too high, it's because 61% of the land is not paying full taxes and much of it is not paying any taxes. So that's a problem with this. It would probably go up closer to 63% of the land not paying full taxes in this. 3% of it would be on buildable lands. And we also have a problem with affordable housing. And yet part of the properties that were on the list, I don't know if they're still on the list, but are buildable land properties. The issue about having more open space land is that we still have many, many noxious weeds. We're not doing a good job and fire prevention in the unincorporated areas. We're not doing a good job of making sure people are not parking illegally and we are not doing a good job with the amount of garbage that is being taken into our rural areas that my citizens. One group spent $14,000 last year paying for that garbage to clean up after their property. That was not their garbage. $14,000 last year. So as we go forward and we have people out in open spaces, they need to not be bringing their garbage and leaving it for somebody else to clean up. The chance for development rights has impacts on the rural roads, and as we change that, we need to be aware that the rural roads are a huge problem. And every time we do a transfer of development rights, it makes the Rural Roads Fund worse. It makes it better for the unincorporated area incorporated, it makes it worse for the unincorporated areas. So it has an impact. That is not. But I was here when we talked about the 50% rate for bonding and there was a lot of discussion that day because people were worried that it would ruin our discussion in the future . And they were really worried that we'd get up to 50% right away and that wasn't going to happen. And so it was almost humorous. I laughed when I read 80%. I thought, Wow, we debated a long time on 50 and now we're talking about 80. So I have those concerns as we go forward. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Limmer, Councilmember Colo. Mr. Chair, who shared the comments made by Councilmember Lambert that I think there is something eminently, eminently compelling about this legislation. As as Executive Constantine wrote in his transmittal letter, which is found in attachment to in the first paragraph, he referred to finishing the job of protecting and preserving irreplaceable open space lands in King County. Timing can be everything, and if we don't take this opportunity, we may lose the opportunity to actually have these lands being saved. And then on attachment for the last two lines, and this is from supporters of the Land Conservation Initiative and refers to the initiative will pair the creation of new green space with new housing units to promote livability as our cities grow and densify. We still have time, but if we wait, these lands will either be developed or priced beyond our capacity to secure. And thus, Mr. Chair, I strongly support this motion. Thank you, Madam Chair. Or. Well, you're always Madam Chair. You can't go wrong with that, can you? I want to just say a few remarks. I've spoken on this item many times, but I'm pleased the prime sponsor. I want to thank and commend the county executive for his leadership and initiative on this and our advisory group that worked for a couple of years, plus on putting it together with outreach to the community, including especially the co-chairs, Larry Phillips, our former colleague, and Shawn Quinn from Tugwell on the city council. There we are all from my district, talked about growing up and be able to walk out his front door to Cougar Mountain. We're both Hazen Highlanders, and we both now represent the Shawcross Scotts, whose motto is Our mascot is a Highlander as well. Like the Shortcrust delivered their mascot down to Hayes, and when it opened up, there's a connection there. But the reason that Will Hall was able to walk out his door and to Cougar Mountain was because 50 years ago, in 1968, voters in this region approved Proposition number six and the forward thrust bond package. And that bond package preserved things like Coal Creek and May Valley Wetlands and Cougar Mountain and Maplewood Park, all part of the network in south east King County that surrounded the places where Will Hall and I grew up. But for that foresight and investment by the region's voters to make a long term investment and significant down payment, those lands probably would have been paved over. This is a continuation in my mind of that tradition, but very well thought out. The technical expertize that the department natural resources in parks has brought to this proposal, the specificity with respect to which 65,000 acres we want to preserve and protect from our farmlands and our forests and our open space and parks and waters is a new level of precision and focus. And I just I think it's terrific. The equity piece fits with our county values of making sure we do right by those who have leased. So I think it is a very, very compelling proposal and I'm excited hopefully to see it advanced today. And I want to thank Bob Burns for his leadership on it, as always, with that will come through. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. Hi, Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. Hi. Councilmember Coldwell I. Councilmember Lambert No. Councilmember McDermott. High. Council Member of the ground. Councilmember Bond right there. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is seven I Council member. Member no and one excused. All right, we've advanced that recommendation. I would like to expedite it to Monday's County Council calendar, given the break that's coming, and it'll just be on the regular calendar there. So thank you all for coming today on that item and to my colleagues for your work on it. We will turn now to item 38 Ordinance 2018 0257 Building for Culture Reallocations. Mary will have a staff report on this and then we'll move to take action. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, for the record, Mary Bergen on and the materials for this item begin on page 153 of your packet. I'll provide just a quick background back in 2015 and I'm now on page 154. Back in 2015, King County was able. Well to pay off the bonds for the long since demolished Kingdom Stadium about nine months earlier than anticipated. That meant that under state law, lodging taxes that had been set aside for the repayment of the kingdom bonds could be used for arts and culture purposes. With those proceeds, the county worked with for culture and led a community based process to develop the Building for Culture program that awarded just over $28 million in grant funds through a bond supported by these lodging taxes to capital facilities, improvements at arts and culture programs. That program was implemented through a number of ordinances, and you'll see those described at the bottom of page 155. And then moving on to page 156, an ordinance that made a supplemental appropriation of $28.5 million to allow funding for the program to go forward. An ordinance that authorized the issuance of bonds for the program. And then finally and you'll see this at the top of page 156, Ordinance 18181 that authorized the executive to enter into an agreement with for culture to implement the Building for Culture Program. Under this agreement for culture was to contract with the agencies that had been awarded funding and then also was required to report back to the council at several points, one of which two years after the bonds were issued, to indicate whether there were any organizations that would not be able, in four cultures estimation, to expend or fully expend their bond funds. You'll see on table one in the middle of page 156 that four culture did indeed report back in March of this year, two years after the bonds were issued and reported, that in their estimation, four projects would be unable to fully expend their funds. Those were the Seattle International Film Festival, which had been awarded 200,000 and would likely not expend $120,000 due to some zoning issues near their site. Pottery Northwest, which would not be able to expand its $11,300 award due to the renovation of key arena that is underway or as planned, good ground, also known as rumbling or farm that would not be able to expend $25,000 because the organization did not wish to pursue some landmarking issues. And then finally, the proposed studies center in Bellevue that had been awarded $1.2 million and in four cultures estimation would not be able to secure the needed funding to begin their construction on time. Now, if you'll see at the bottom of page 156, there is a quotation pulled out from the agreement that describes the options for any funds identified as potentially unexpended. And it notes that the projects in the agreement may be amended by the County Council to reallocate those funds to any other projects or tourism promotion activities, including arts and culture capital projects, as the County Council may determine. And it notes that if the Council chooses not to reallocate funds, any unexpended funds would be used to devise the bonds. That brings us to this ordinance that has before you today the proposed ordinance would reallocate a portion of the unexpended funds toward a number of projects. And I won't go on further in the staff report and describe the ordinance, because instead I'm going to turn to striking amendment as to which you should have at your place at the dais. And I'll pause here. We've got extra copies if anyone doesn't have one handy. S2 Striking Amendment S2 would reallocate the full $1.356 million identified by For Culture this March. It would also allocate an additional $300,000 based on information from the budget director that there is additional funding available due to interest earnings and potential additional under expenditures of bond proceeds. The striking amendment would add a statement in the statement of facts to note that and then would also add a new section in the implementing portion of the ordinance to require that for any additional funds that are allocated that the Executive would provide appropriate appropriation authority legislation to the Council to sort of close the loop. I had mentioned earlier that one of the ordinances implementing for culture was the appropriations ordinance, and so this would be an additional appropriation for those additional funds. You will then see attached to the striking amendment to exhibits, Exhibit A is the updated project list of approved projects. And then Exhibit B, which is at the very end of this little packet here, shows a red line version comparing what was in the original ordinance back in 2015 of the projects awarded funding and what the changes would be in this Stryker. And you can see that in kind of red line format of the organizations that I had mentioned previously that would not be expanding either all or part of their funding. And then the organizations recommended for additional funding. And if you turn to attachment B, I'll just go through it's organized in alphabetical order. First, you'll see the city a federal way would increase. And Mary. I don't want to rush it, but I think given our time, folks, can we. Let you read Exhibit B? And so then the ordinance is there and then Striking Amendment S-2. That was extremely helpful and very understandable. Councilmember about duty. We're going to put this on first, do it and move approval of ordinance number 2018. That's 0257. 2018 0257 is before us and we like to move the strike. Move striking amendment as to. As to is before us and Mary as described that other comments or questions on it. Okay Councilmember quickly where is but page number is the red line when it's in the extra packet that I distributed that's labeled as two and it has been exhibit thanks or attachment B, which is with the back of the packet. No. Okay. Councilman Belushi. If I mean, just briefly, I know where I was. I made the motion. Let's let you speak to it. Yeah. Thank you. And take a brief moment, Mary, accurately describe the reasons why this money has come back out of this earlier and much larger allocation and is before us for reallocation. I do want to say for the record that the fact that we're reallocating money from at least one of these projects that is going on and will be one looking for building and construction support in the future is not a statement of of lack of support for those projects. It's just timing. This this money has a hard and fast deadline on it, and it's coming up quickly. So so that's why we're here today talking about reallocating this money. It does provide us with an opportunity to support several very worthy projects. We heard about many of them today. Thank you all for coming down and telling us about your your visions and your and your projects that that will serve the public. These projects need to be like more than shovel ready. The building for culture projects had to be shovel ready. These have to be either underway or like getting underway in a minute because there's all you've got to go through there. After assuming this passes, we still have county bureaucracy that has to happen before the money can be, you know, issued, and then you have to be able to spend it. So I thank you all for your bravery in stepping up to this challenge. There is some urgency, and I do appreciate this getting on the agenda today, even though it's a very tight agenda because and I'll just say one example, the Renton Civic Theater has got to go. I mean, they've got a time window. And so. I feel. Sending. The right note. And it's not just the sale, it's the season starting. And if they're going to replace if they're going to replace the seats, they got to replace them. So I appreciate that. And I just want to list out real briefly without going through the whole list. This proposal before it today will support performing arts. We heard from the Renton Civic Theater, but there's also the Federal Way Performing Center Heritage, Renton, Shoreline, Sammamish and Highline are all in this package culture. We heard from the Filipino Community Center, Northwest African-American Museum and educational and arts programs like Kids Quest and Kirkland Performing Arts Center and the Seattle Symphony. It's a great package. I really encourage your support and I thank everybody for working so hard because this is not easy to do you all. It is not easy. No matter how big the pie is, it is not easy to figure out who gets what. And we've all worked very hard at this, and I think we've come to a place where we're doing a lot of good and I hope that we can all support it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Balducci. Other questions or comments? Council member Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some I mean, our county executive is always talking about we are one county. And I get mixed feelings about that because we have the executive and the judicial in the legislative branches. But this is a great example of how the executive and the County Council work together to figure out how to put together a satisfactory proposal. Because I did not think that we were going to get it were it appears to me that we are. And I just have one question here on the North African American Museum. What does it mean when it's 75,000 crossed out and then 127,000? Does it simply mean they're going to get 52? That is exactly what it means. They received $75,000 grant award in 2015. That award would be increased to 127,000. And that was from. This from this from this striking amendment. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Goss, other questions or comments? No, just briefly, I'll. Oh, Casper one, Rick Bauer, thank you. Sorry. I want to pick up on what Ferguson said, but I want to be specific about the appreciation to Councilman Baldacci, because I appreciate Councilmember or former Councilmember David Constantine's working with his former colleagues, but it took somebody to help the bridge. Yeah, and I'm. Sure. That every card with our chair, the committee was very Dombrowski who had raised some good issues through this process. And so I think that we've all worked together and I want to commend Mike Cameron, my colleague, Councilmember Banducci, and the chair of this committee. There's been a lot of collaboration and a lot of coordination and a lot of communication. And I think we've all seen like. You're so subtle right now, are you not? Very good. Thank you. For that. I appreciate those references. And this was not 1/1 presented, speaking for myself, a proposal that I could support because I didn't think it reflected our one King County values beginning. And that was just the beginning. And Councilman Baldacci, Doug, made clear that it was just the start. And indeed in the last several weeks, there's been a lot of work to make sure that we heard from the needs around King County. And this package, as amended today with strong amendment to is much more broadly I think reflective than the starter proposal, which was our starter proposal. We put on our best creative thinking house late, late yesterday and early today. I want to extend my personal appreciation to the executive staff, to Rachel Smith, his chief of staff, to Dwight Dybul, his chief, our chief financial officer, for their creativity in helping to be quite candid, secure some funding for the shoreline historical society which was , I thought in a jam and and needed some help. My district in the first round got 284,000 out of 28 million. Less than 1% for one ninth of the county. And I was having trouble doubling down on on that. And I think we've at least headed in the better direction. And we have a four culture panel here today and our executive director nominee is before us. And these issues around equity throughout the county are one of the reasons we're going to have, I think, this task force to take a look at that stuff. So I think the council has really stepped up here and my colleagues working together through some tough issues to make sure that we lived our our values. I'm very, very excited about Councilmember Gossett, successful advocacy for the Filipino Community Association and the African-American Heritage Museum, additions to reflect our cultural diversity and needs there. So I think we're we're in a very good place, and I'm very, very excited to be able to support it. We couldn't get your 500 shoreline when we got you three, so that that should help get it done. Thank you for being here. Any other questions or comments all in favor of us to say i. I your opposed turning to the underlying motion, motion or ordinance where we had an ordinance. Thank you. Yeah. Ordinance as amended. Councilman Belushi, to close. I echo the sentiments that have been shared. I don't want to repeat myself, but I feel very, very good about this list of projects I am. I'm going to be excited to come out and see all these places when these things are all done. So I appreciate the invitation by the Filipino Community Center and I might just show up at all your places to. Do the dancing and the bingo. Are not done for me to. Dance, I think. As I do. Okay. Thank you for your support, Marcus. Save us from ourselves by calling the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member DG Hi. Council Member Dunn. Councilmember Gossett Councilmember Kowalski I Council Member Member I Council Member McDermott All right. Council member of the Grove. City. Councilmember Von Richter. All right. Even Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is eight eyes, no nos. Oh, look at that. I will advance that on an excited basis. The full council on Monday for adoption. Congratulations to everybody and thank you for the work you do in the community to make this county an interesting and fun place to live. Yes. Councilmember Lambert, really quickly, thank you. I just got a chart right here and I'd like to show you this is what we're dealing with. And I think it's really important that everybody knows this. So District one got 1% this year to 18%. District three 7%, District 427, District five for District 611, District 79 and District 823, a District 9.3%. So as we go forward, these need to be much more equal because every one of our districts is the same 234,000 people, and they all have the right to have the same relatively same amount of lovely culture and arts and beauty in their districts. So as we're going forward, this is where I think we're all going to be needing to work on some equity in social justice. I Councilmember Lambert Councilmember McDermott has. That's prompted a comment. I think. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I would like to respond to that. While I don't have the graphic that the previous speaker just displayed, I would also point out that allocate the sites, the location where an institution exists, and there are a couple of districts that have concentrations of regional institutions that serve people across the city , across the county, in all 39 cities across King County and in many cases around the region and around the world. And so to expect such allocations to be broken out evenly by council district, I don't feel is the equity that we should be seeking. You know, Councilmember Gossett, I know you want in on that, but I'm going to. Have 25 minutes to go. I think you're going to see some of these issues play out in the next two matters. So. All right. It's a. Healthy debate. Thank you, Councilmember McDermott, for the counter view. And there's probably views all in between those two. So, Mary, do you recommend we proceed with our task force or our nominee to for culture? What's makes more sense? Well, what would you like to do, sir? I think given the and I know there's interest in both, but we have a number of tests for how many task force members are here. Raise your hand. Why don't. Just to respect their time. I think we can move pretty quickly through that item. We're not going to hear from all of them in an interview format because just too many. But let's see if we can take that one up. That is motion number 2018 zero three for four items ten through 36. I see 33, 34, 33, 60. We're going to have one consolidated motion on this if we get there. Yes, sir. All right. Go, Mary. So again, Mary Bergen on. For the record, the materials begin on page 73 of your packet. There are 27 motions earlier this year when the council approved Ordinance 1868 for restructuring for culture, the Council requested the executive to help establish a task force to study four cultures practices with a particular focus on equity and social justice. The ordinance required that the task force be made up of at least 14 members, and you can see the makeup of the required membership. On page 73, the executive has responded with a proposal for 27 members. There are members who represent the executive, members representing for culture the council in Carolyn Bush, your chief of Staff, Arts, Cultural Access, Washington Sound City is a member and an alternate and then a number of representatives of cultural organizations from around the county, including at least one from each council district. You can see the list of appointed members beginning on page 75 of the packet. And Mr. Chair, if you'd like to have people come up maybe in groups of three, since we have three chairs, they can introduce themselves and then you can take a motion on the motions. And we do have a couple of amendments. Sure. That would work for me. Does that work for all I'm saying? Nods. So will you help us facilitate? I am. Not sure. Exactly. Here is here. So I'm going to call out names of people I believe are in the audience by threes. And then if we get beyond that, there are more people here, we'll bring them. That's a lot of names because twice. So the one folks just come on, come on, come on up and we'll take the first three to fill the chairs while you introduce yourselves. Yeah. And then good idea. Then we'll have you sit back down there. We'll just do it real quick. Let me say that. Go on up there. Thank you for being here and for sitting sticking with us through those first two items. And we'll start with you. Just give us a brief introduction, your name and what you do and why you're interested in serving on the panel. Well, good afternoon. Thank you for the Opportunity County Council. My name is Julie Ziegler. I am Executive Director of Humanities Washington. We're a statewide organization that provides cultural programing to underserved areas across the state, including many unincorporated areas across King County and and beyond. We work in both the arts and heritage sectors, the all encompassing humanities. And so if asked to serve and if approved, I would look forward to bringing our our values of geographic, social and cultural equity to the fore culture process of resource that I think is incredibly important and valuable to our county. Thank you, Julie. All right. All the way from Reno, Ga. Good afternoon. I'm Patricia Cosgrove. I work for the city of Auburn, where I am the director at the White River Valley Museum and the historic Mary Olson farm. And I've also had the pleasure of serving on four cultures board and writing many, many, many grants to them. So I know them from both directions and I would be honored to serve on this committee. Thank you, Patricia. I thank you very much. King County members. And my name is letters Amber Murti. I'm Washington State Arts Commissioner. And I also serve on different boards like Northwest Folklife Center for Washington, Traditional Arts, Upper Cochrane Performance Center, one, Redmond and Asian Cultural Center, Seattle Latino Film Festival and so on. And I'm an artist myself and I'm also an artistic as well, outreach, outreach and development director of various large scale festivals that happen around King County area and one such festival, Ireland. The Mela means joyous festival happening in the city of Redmond campus this weekend. And we are going to get our lieutenant governor as our special guest inaugurate the festival and. Also, we are going to get our federal congresswoman, Susan DelBene, as a chief guest, also among others, like State Senator Patrick Yoder and others. And our council member Claudia Bellotti knows very much about my involvement with arts, culture, heritage and traditions of this place. And and I also was on the Advisory Committee of for Culture and also so on the panels and also go on reviews to different events all around that is funded by for culture. So I'm here and I am very, very fortunate to have been selected to serve on this task force. And I will do my best bringing my knowledge, my connections and my experience. And of course, I learned a lot when I was serving on the Advisory Committee of for Culture and when I served on panels with such wonderful , experienced people who have been serving here to our culture, tradition and heritage. So thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. Thank you. Locked up, Dominica. Thank you, Chair Dombrowski. My name is Dominica Myers. I'm the board president of the Shoreline Lake Forest Park Arts Council. And in addition, I'm on the on the Board of Cultural Access Washington. And I am a born and raised Seattle Light from King County. I've lived and I've lived in Woodinville. Obviously, I'm currently living in Shoreline. I've lived in Woodinville. I've spent my adolescent years in Councilmember Upper Grove's district. And in addition, I've also served on one of the individual artists grants, funding panels for for culture. So have a little bit of insight on, on how that works. And I also work for Seattle Opera. So I'm, you know, in terms of my my own. My grand slam home run right. Here. So, you know, I have, you know, kind of the outlook of the larger organizations, the smaller community based organizations, and also just being a longtime resident of King County. And so looking forward to the process. Thank you so much. Going. Good afternoon. My name is Manny Cowling. I am the executive director for Youth Theater Northwest on Mercer Island. I also have called King County home for many, many years. My family has. Lived in Larry Garcia's district for. 80 years. I am the central area. Long. A year ago. My father was born over there. Yes. So my passion, of course. Is theater heritage. Performance. And community organizing around the arts. I have a rich experience in theater education. I certainly. Understand the role that small to. Midsize arts organizations play in communities throughout King County to provide valuable education and opportunities to develop 21st century skills. I also have a background in Heritage, having worked at the Wing Luke Asian Museum as their exhibit developer and manager, as well as participating in a variety of different heritage program that specifically work with communities with a special emphasis on immigrant and refugee communities. I am also a board member of Cultural Access Washington because I. Believe. That individuals and communities across King County deserve much more equitable service in arts and cultural activities. So I'm very excited to be on this task force. I've also served as a commissioner for the Seattle Center, as well as served on a variety of panels for a for Culture and Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. And I thank you for this opportunity. You all are busy. Julianna, how are you? Hi. Good, thank you. I'm Julianna Ross. I'm a huge fan of the work of for culture, both as a regular citizen and an arts administrator. My day job is with Seattle City Light working on restoration and activation of the Georgetown Steam Plant and national historic landmark built in 1906. My other day job is an executive Taser's executive director of Sandpoint Arts and Cultural Exchange Space in Magnuson Park. There we operate the Magnuson Park Gallery and a new low power FM radio station. Space 1 to 1.1 FM space has a long history of working in partnership with the Parks Department to preserve buildings and provide arts programing in the park. This is important because not only is Northeast Seattle a cultural desert compared to the rest of Seattle, but we will also have approximately 1000 people living in Magnuson Park by the end of next year, many of them low income and immigrant families. All our services are free and open to the public. Thank you for the chance to serve on this task force. I look forward to working with people from all over the county and my fellow colleagues in District one. Thank you. All right. Are there other folks who want to introduce themselves on this item? I think we did that real expeditiously. Impressive sampling, very impressive group. Mary, lead us forward. Okay, sir, there are 27 motions. I don't know if you want to get a motion to put all of them on the floor. And then we have core amendments that maybe could be done with one vote. Let's see who would help us out with that motion. Councilmember Lambert, would you like to move motions? 334 to 360. Sure. Okay. I'm going to call them all out. So on the record is all right. I think you can just move them. 2018 334 through 360 consecutively. All right, that's what I'll do. I'd like to move. Proposed motions number 2018 033, four, two, three and 60 consecutively as listed items. Number ten, two items number 20, 36, 37. Thank you for the motion. Now, I believe Mary has identified a few spellings. So there were a couple of typographical errors in the motions as transmitted you'll have on your places of the dice. A little packet that says Amendment one. There is an amendment and a title amendment for three, three, four and three, three, six, just to correct the spelling in the appointees name. So if you want to just do one vote, I think you could do one vote on that amendment package. Thank you. All right. Would you put the amendment package before us? Councilmember Lambert, Amendment one? Yes. Thank you very much. I'd like to put amendment number one before us and it correct the names as a spoken. And also there's a title amendment later. To there's actually two amendment ones. To amendment ones to title amendment ones, therefore. All right. Three, three, four and three, three, six. All right. I have understood the motion to be to move Amendment one, two, three, three for Amendment one, two, three, three, six and the corresponding title amendment. All in favor. Say I I any oppose those carry. Now turning to the underlying motions as amended. Any comments on this. And top quality? We really appreciate your service. I'll just I'll just make a couple of remarks. Our earlier this year, there was legislation for the council to make some change. Is it for culture or cultural development authority, which has been a wonderful institution, and a number of our colleagues serve on the board there in an ex-officio capacity, I believe. And that process, which I would say was shown, showed that there was a number of interesting issues that folks thought could be explored. But we needed some help. We needed some expertize from the community to take a look at issues surrounding for culture and the county's partnership with it, and how we might be better responsive as we go forward or more responsive and not saying we're not responsive, but more responsive to needs and interests countywide. We're looking for this task force to help us address some of those issues and give us some recommendations in partnership with for culture. For culture is currently out in the community and engaged in a listening session. I know in the next week or so they've got one up in Shoreline, for example, and we are hoping that this can be a partnership with that work to come back late this year or early next year to see whether, whether and how we can continue to strengthen our tremendous cultural development authority. So and call the role on these items unless there are other comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, Duty Icon. Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett. I. Council member. Calls I. Council member. Member. Councilmember McDermott, councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is ADA is no nos when excused. All right, we'll expedite those items to Monday's agenda and we'll put them on consent. Council member of the Grove Tribe. If we're able to hold off consent, may just have a minor technical correction to one item. Sure. Let's begin with desert specific. Well, okay. Can we can we put them on consent and then pull it. Or not. Pull it off because it's like. Well. 36 motion. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, we've put it our consent, and if we don't figure it out by Monday. We can pull out. Okay. All right. So we'll do that. And it's a lot of signing to go on here. Thank you. Cosmo wrote The Grove for your help on that. All right, Mary. Now take us to our appointment. The appointment of Brian Carter is for culture executive director, and. Brian is here. Come forward, Mr. Carter. We talked about the I mentioned on the last item. The legislation that the county council considered and passed earlier this year. One of the pieces of that was that the council would confirm the executive director of for culture. Upon the recommendation of the board and the county executive. And Mr. Carter is the nominee. I think a number of us, if not all of us, have had the opportunity and privilege to get to meet with you, Mr. Carter, and understand and hear about your impressive background, experience and vision for the Cultural Development Authority. We are excited that you're here today and willing to take on this role at this critical time for our culture. And when we welcome you and give you the opportunity to make some opening remarks, and then maybe we'll have some questions and see what we can do. Sure. I'll just say thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. And pull that microphone right up to you. There we go. I would say that I just welcome the opportunity to talk with you and thank you all for making time over the past three weeks to set up those individual meetings. It was nice to be able to chat a little bit more informally and hear about what some of your concerns are and also opportunities for our partnership to strengthen as we move forward. So I'll just say I'm very, very fortunate that the search committee and the board selected me to be the next executive director for culture. The legacy of that organization over the past decades and decades here in King County has been really tremendous. And as somebody who's worked in arts and culture and heritage and preservation for years and years now, it's really such an honor to take the helm of this prestigious agency. And I look forward to doing good work. And I'll just look forward to doing that work in concert and in collaboration with you. And as we discussed individually, I think lines of communication being open when there are questions that we're there to answer them and that we work collaboratively to ensure the cultural health of the entire county is as high and as a stable as it can possibly be. So I look forward to that work with you and also with the folks sitting in the audience and the larger cultural community here in King County. I think it's exciting times and I look forward to being in the mix of those exciting times. So thank you. Thank you very much. Councilmember Gossett, would you like to lead this off? Yes, I think it would be helpful for the audience here and our broader listening audience on TV, sir, to hear something about what work you've been doing for our culture and some of your previous experience. I think it would be unlikely, I'm sure. As with that. I've been working in culture within museums for the past 15 years before I came to Fort Culture. So I had the fortune of being one of the founding staff members at the Northwest African-American Museum, where I served as deputy director and head curator for about nine years. After that, I had the fortune to be on. What years were those pieces? God, when I. Start the. 2003 2004 to 2012. So it was it was an honor. That was something that I know the region needed and was very proud to be part of its creation and to see it flourish today and receive funding. That's a it's a good day for me for that reason. After that, I moved to Portland, where I was the museum director of the Oregon Historical Society, which is the de facto State History Museum in Oregon. After that, I moved back to Seattle, where I worked at the Burke Museum as a director of interpretation, and then I moved to Fort Culture, where I've served in the for the past almost three years as Heritage Lead. So overseeing the Heritage Program, grant funding, professional development, technical assistance to the field and just trying to be of service to a lot of different heritage organizations, history, museums, independent historians around the county. Or not nationally. Nationally, I serve as the board president of the Association of African American Museums. I also serve on the American Alliance of Museums Diversity Inclusion, Accessibility Task Force. And I'm the father of two sons. And I think that's probably the most important job I have. Thank you, sir. Mm hmm. Thank you. Councilmember McDermott and then Councilmember Bell. DG. Oh, I'm sorry. And Councilmember Cole. Wells on this. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, Mr. Card. Afternoon. I'm interested in coming from within the organization itself. What you think some of the strongest assets for foreign culture are going forward? I think. Me, definitely. Oh. Oh, I bet these jobs do take confidence. Thank you much. Thank you. Okay. No further questions. No further questions. I think that the team that I get the chance to work with and have over the past three years is the greatest asset of the organization. I think it's everybody knows it's been a real moment of transition for for culture. As the previous executive director, long tenured executive director has stepped down and retired, there has been significant changes in senior leadership over the past three years, but consistent in all of that is the staff. I think it's a staff with experience in every facet and discipline of arts, culture, public art, preservation, heritage that you could ask for . It's people who know what they're doing. It's people who have been in the trenches and people who make a firm commitment to for culture. I've never worked anywhere where people just stick in the way that they do because the work is so rewarding. The environment, I think, is so positive, and I think it's a testament to those that came before me. And if I could, just for the public record, I'd love to just say a thank you to Deb Swirsky, who has served as the number two. And deputy director. Nick. There have been a few bumps and hurdles in the recent past, and the staff really look to her as a guiding force and as a solid team mate who was always there for us and for the organization. So I look forward to my continued role collaborating with her and just a thank you from me personally and I think from the board at Port Colter and from the staff of Port Culture. So thank you for that. Companies are increasingly. Concerned about duty and then cold wallets. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to say a few words about the process, and I'm sure Councilmember Caldwell's and Councilmember Gossett can as well. There is a very thoughtful, thorough process followed by the Ford Culture Board and the hiring committee. The staff was involved. There was some thinking and rethinking around inclusiveness and diversity in the mission of the organization and how this hire needed to really reflect that. The hiring process needed to really reflect that. The three of us who were council liaisons to the board were invited and included in the the same process as the executive committee. We all had some nice lunches together, meeting with all the candidates. The pool of candidates was solid and we had three outstanding finalists. And I thought that the the results are very, very encouraging. My own personal opinion that Brian is going to be an outstanding executive director for for culture, which is only had one, I mean , is a real inflection point for an organization to go from your founding and very, very influential and in sort of personally charismatic executive director to number two. Right. That's a tough space to step into, but it's also an opportunity. And I think that Brian is absolutely the right person to lead the organization into that next space of opportunity and what our culture will become in the next 25 years. So I just really want to encourage our support of his confirmation and point out that he's a district District six resident, which in no way biases me in his favor. I think we're very, very lucky to have him. Very good. Thank you. His work elsewhere go well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. What Councilmember Bell did. She just said this about what I was going to say. It's been it was it was an incredible process. Not only was there a selection committee and the board, but there was also the executive committee of the board. And it was very systematic, thoughtful, thorough, with a great deal of opportunity for board members to become engaged in what was going on within the process. We had three really excellent finalists. We interviewed them all. They each spent, I believe, a full day with group interviews. Not an easy thing to go through. They all were outstanding. But I have to say, Brian really shone through. And not only has he had tremendous experiences in terms of arts, culture, and I think in your case, Brian, it's heritage, primarily historical preservation heritage, but also the personality that I think will be very appreciated by everybody at Ford Culture who mostly all know him anyway, but also by our council and arts and culture organizations throughout the county. Brian actually came across to me is exceptionally thoughtful, well-spoken, had an eye dia every moment during the interview. I was just captivated by all the ideas he had and I'm very confident that he's going to bring those ideas to action. So I very much commend Brian Carter as executive director. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also wanted to create to congratulate Brian. I think this is an exciting time for the organization, an exciting time for the county. I really appreciate the time that you and the Board for Culture took during the process when there were three finalists to make yourself available to give council members a chance to get to know you, and then the follow up conversations once you had been selected by me, by the board. I think those conversations are a great start of what will be an ongoing dialog. You're jumping into a tough job, but it's, I think, an exciting one. I think the future in this county is very bright for arts and heritage, and I know my friends in the museum communities are excited to see a heritage a heritage guide, although I know you're equally committed to all all aspects of arts, arts and culture, but that that background that you bring is going to be a particular asset to that element of our cultural preservation. And I just can't say how excited I am and, you know, certainly have my full confidence and look forward to working with you. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I might just say did all the above, but I wanted to thank you for taking the time for our conversations. And the impressive many things that we talked about were very impressive to me. But your vast experience and balancing heritage is being a really important thing in this county. And the idea that there will be renewed conversations between you and our culture and the council because they all care about making their beauty and art and heritage all across this county. So I'm excited about that and I look forward to working with you also. Thank you. Okay. So let me say before you both question. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Councilmember Cole Wells, you are a co-sponsor of this item and I'm vice chair and very interested in these issues as you would you like to put the item? I think you might want to put it before I. Say to you. And I never seen anybody move faster. One councilman, whether you wanted to hold on the minutes one time. So that way that I moved. I proposed motion 2018 0333 to confirm Brian Carter as executive director of the King County Cultural Development Authority. Thank you. Councilmember Coe Wells I want to let you know, Brian, that it's not very often that legislation comes before us with seven co-sponsors from among the council's members. And that's where your nomination stands today. And that is a sign of a broad support. And so congratulations on that. I think we've had all the comments on this. I looking forward to working with you as well, and particularly on the issues we talked about with respect to small organization support ethnic and racial and cultural diversity, investment, which for culture has really been doing significant work in in the last well throughout its time. But importantly and increasingly in the recent times and also on the geographic balance and investment in developing culture, using the cultural development authority to develop culture in areas where there are cultural and historic deficits, if you will, or desert. So I'm based on our conversation and comfortable and confident that you understand those issues, have a passion for addressing them. And I'm looking forward to seeing that work continue. So thank you for your willingness to serve. Mark. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Ritchie. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert, I. Councilmember McDermott. Oh. Council member of the Grove. We can all hope, Joe. We. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is Ada is no knows when excuse. All right. We've given a unanimous do pass recommendation to the confirmation. Let's accelerate that on Monday. And what do members think in this beyond consent? I think we've all done it. Someone wants to pull it off. The cannot put on consent. And so there's no need to return on Monday. But you're welcome to. Thank you for being here very much. And congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We are making good progress here. We have a consent agenda. And I wonder if, Councilman Lambert, would you. Agree. With that? Okay. Councilman recalls if we go ahead. Sorry. I was sitting in the. Chairs like, oh, yeah, I'm. Thrown off because usually customer calls is next to me, my vice chair. So here I am, like. All right, I'll let you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move our consent to the proposed motion number 2018 0300. Proposed motion number 20 20278. Proposed motion number 2018 0279. In proposed motion 2018 0322. Do not read their titles. No one is a clinical call to rule on those four items. Council member Baldacci Council Member Dunne. Council Member Gaza City Council Member. Commonwealth Council Member Lambert High Council Member McDermott. High. Council Member of the Grand. High. Council member. Yvonne, right there. All right, Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. 37 days, no no's to excuse. All right. We'll move that on to Monday's consent agenda with the new best recommendation. Councilman Coles, would you move our minutes? Thank you. The chair. And you're the. Excuse me. I'm of approval of the minutes of July 18th, 2018. All in favor. Say I only opposed. Those are approved. We have two important remaining items and I want to take the temperature of the room. Given the hour. We had a lot of public comment today, 45 minutes of public comment so that in a little bit extra. One is the annual for culture report. And Deborah, you're here to give that and I know raring to go. And then that's item 39. Item 40 is a briefing on for culture plans for 2019. And that is would be Brian's deal. These this I imagine is a half hour between the two of them at least. And I want to be respectful of the importance of the items. And I wonder if my colleagues would like to have those heard and if it would be okay for culture at a later meeting this fall so they can get their due. Is there is there any time sensitivity? I'm seeing that that I'm seeing that that might work for folks. Yes. Okay. And I'm getting a thumbs up there. My colleagues. Are people okay with that? We'll get to it. We will definitely get to it. Why don't we do that? Because I think they're very important. As you can see, there's a lot of interest. I think we've made a great lot of progress today, and let's set those for as soon as we can in maybe the second meeting in September, which would be the second or the maybe the one with our second meeting in September, me, Mary, but the 19th, if that works for folks, if not, we'll do it in our in October. But we'll definitely get it get it on this fall's calendar and maybe we'll do something fun. Maybe we'll come over to Fort Culture and have a joint meeting or something with you there. And you have a little experiential briefing. Doesn't always have to be here. All right. Thank you for your support and willingness to be flexible on that. And I know he wants to go celebrate. Y'all all want to go celebrate with them as he's almost there. Is there anything further to come before the committee today? No. Mary. Oh, yes. Would you come forward? And this is Deborah to our scheme was previously. Risky for the moment. Acting Director for culture. I just want to offer our thanks to Mary, who has done a phenomenal job and to all of your staff and to you for paying the attention to for culture that you have over the last several months, but also for your brilliant staff for preparing all of the really complex issues dealing with building for culture, the task force on all of the other issues in front of them. So just a our our thanks. There are that is very much appreciated and we are very fond of our staff and admire and respect their hard work. Mary Chief often among them, although they're all great. And Mary, on this item, as colleagues know, we had to walk these items on Monday, given the timing of their delivery for the exact she worked very hard to get them prepared, make sure they were accurate, fixed, where necessary. A staff report completed all just in a couple of days while solving a very difficult political challenge. With. Grace and aplomb. So we appreciate and second, your appreciation of Mary and our team. So thanks for that, Deborah. All right. With that. Thank you. We're adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE concerning protecting conservation lands in King County; adopting financial policies to accelerate the protection of vital open spaces, including urban green spaces, natural areas, wildlife and salmon habitat, trails, river corridors, farmlands and forests in King County; to address equity and social justice issues by increasing the availability of open spaces in historically under-served areas; and to address generational equity by spreading costs of protecting vital open spaces over time; amending Ordinance 8867, Section 1 and K.C.C. 26.12.010, Ordinance 13717, Section 1 and K.C.C. 26.12.003, as amended, and Ordinance 13717, Section 4 and K.C.C. 26.12.025 and adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 26.12.
king_b3cf2df2-7839-4605-8d3d-c5ec24cd367c	Of the committee, the whole for Monday, December 2nd, to order. As we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We wish to thank the caretakers of this land who have lived here continuously and continue to live here since time immemorial. I would also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and continued and continued to enrich our community. Madam Mechanic, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Done. Councilmember Garces. Councilmember Colwell. Score. Councilmember Member Yeah. Councilmember Up the ground. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Here. Thank you. Next is public comment. We have one person signed up in advance. However, we may be surprised by the number of people here who wished for testimony who didn't sign up in advance. Testimonies list limited to 2 minutes. Please check your comments to an item on today's agenda and public comment may not be used for the purposes of assisting or opposing a candidate for public office or for a ballot measure and should not include obscene speech. Violating these restrictions could be could lead to being ruled out of order or having your time concluded without. We have one person signed up in advance as I mentioned that Mr. Zimmerman. A Kyle, my dirty Führer. And that's a Gestapo. anti-Semite pig from Animal Farm, a pure fascist and killer. My name? Alec Zimmerman, a president of stand up America. Yes, I won't speak about agenda number six, but he's talking about language. Language, and I don't know, number five, it's a culture. So let me give you some culture. Very important question right now. What is language in culture you really use is a point for my understanding. You use use right now only one language is its land which come from German Nazi Gestapo or Soviet Union commie me in KGB . It's exactly what's happened right now with me. You persecute me right now. You persecute me before with my first class action in 97 when I stand up for a hundred hundred thousand people. Yeah, you persecute me until 2013 when I win class action. $400 million against government. You persecute me right now for my rights. So I speak. You make me right now. I dissident. What is it exactly? How before in Soviet Union? For 15 years. So who are you right now? What is language you? What is culture you use? Is this exactly what has happened? It is going for more than 20 years and nothing changed. It got worse and worse. It's not surprised me. So settle it in country number one factory city in America is the UK, my Führer. It's exactly what is happening right now. All America knows this right now from East Coast to West Coast is this will be out in order to earn your place here. What is? You start acting like a Nazi pig because Alex Zimmerman come every day almost 3000 times, 25 blasts probably or 3000 and speak every day about something . What is he see before in my family? See before from Nazi Gestapo from Soviet KGB. There, Kyle. My Führer, stand up, America. Stop and acting like an idiot. Thank you very much. That includes the people who signed up in advance. Anyone else present who later for public testimony. See, no one will close public testimony, and I'd ask my esteemed vice chair for a motion to approve the minutes. Thank you, Mr.. Mr. Chair. I move the approval of the minutes of November 18, 2019. See no discussion of all those in favor of approving the minutes, please signify by saying I opposed nay. The ayes have it. And the overwhelming majority that takes us to item five on today's agenda Ordinance 2019 439. Over the last several years, the Council has done significant work related to Fort Culture and the county's cultural development authority . Today's ordinance ordinance clarifies some changes. We related to board members, position members and I'll turn it over to Leah crackles IP to brief the committee. Good afternoon council members I'm Leah crackles IP council staff and the materials for this item begin on page seven of your packet. As the chair said, this item would amend the Charter of therefore culture or the Cultural Development Authority, which is known as for culture to make clarifications related to the board position numbers and the board position terms. As you know, or culture is governed by a 15 member board of directors, and those board members serve four terms of three years and may serve up to two consecutive terms. And in March of 2018, the Council made a number of changes to oversight of four culture, including modifying the four Culture Board appointment process to include one board appointment by each county council member and six appointments by the county executive. And during the council's work this year, confirming board board members appointing and confirming board members, council executive and fort culture staff did discover some ambiguity in the four Culture Charter and bylaws with respect to terms for appointments to four called the Culture Board . And so the proposed ordinance before you would make the following changes to the Board culture charter and bylaws first for council appointed for culture board positions. It would change the position numbers to correspond to their Council district number of the Council member responsible for making the appointment next. It would specify that board terms correspond to positions rather than the person filling the position. It would also allow, rather than require, board members to continue to serve until the director's successor has been appointed and confirmed and clarified language related to holdovers or directors serving in expired terms until a successor has been named. Finally, it would allow notice of special board meetings to be provided by email rather than by mail, so that probably the most significant change of those is changing the board terms to correspond with positions rather than the person filling them in. What that means as that when a director is appointed to a vacancy, that that person will serve for the remainder of the three year term correlating to that position. So for example, if a term expired December 31st, 2019, the new director and a new director is appointed in January of 2020. That person would serve for three years if the position were to expire at the end of this year. But the new director wasn't appointed until sometime in 2021. That person would serve the remainder of the three year term, so it would still expire at the same time rather than a new three year term. So their term would be two years rather than three years. And previously the four Culture Charter stated that directors were appointed to serve three year terms, and that provision did lead to some confusion in the case of holdovers directors changing from one board position to another, directors being appointed after extended vacancies, etc. and it also caused board positions to expire in uneven batches, with as many as six terms expiring in some years and as few as four in other years, according to the executive staff. Linking board terms to board positions rather than the people serving in the terms is more consistent with how most county boards and commissions work, and it also allows for terms to expire. The terms to remain as staggered in the event of vacancies on the board and the proposed ordinance wouldn't change the terms of any current serving board members. This would only apply to new appointments. And that concludes my staff report. Questions of Miss Crackles IP. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So let's say you get appointed and that term does end for two years. So you fill out the rest of that term and then you get reappointed for a three year term and then you can be reappointed for another three year term. So the max you could serve would be like eight and a half years. Is that right? So the charter does currently say that a full term is considered at anything two years or more is considered a full term. Okay. So if someone was appointed to fill out the remainder of a term and they serve two years, that would be considered a full term. Okay. So they could only serve one more consecutive full term. That's good to know. And the last question I had was. Do we do any evaluation at the end of a major project to ask the person who project it was how they felt the process went. They talking like a legislative like code change like like was. No, my example is to say, for instance, we have a new building that goes up and the tenants of that building work with for culture on the art for that building. And then at the end of the process, is there a survey that goes to them that says, how did the process go? What were things that went smoothly? What didn't were improvements? Because they think we need to know when tenants in different buildings have had issues. Okay, I just do have Claire Miccio. And then for culture, government and community relations here in the audience, she may be able to speak to that or bring that suggestion back to Brian Carter , the executive director. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm Claire. Meantime, the government relations and commuter government and community relations manager for for culture. So I'm not sure specifically which public our program you're talking about what tenets but I'll go back to the public art team and get back in touch with you. We have lots of different types of ways that we get feedback from different programs, so I want to make sure I get the right answer for you before I speak to that. Okay. I would very much like that. I think having just been through a large process that went on for four years, I think there were strengths and there were other things and I think we should all know when those things are happening so that we can help make things work more smoothly. Okay. Thank you. See? No further questions. Madam Vice Chair. Madam Vice Chair, I have long arms. I thank you, Mr. Chair. I know. Proposed ordinance number 2019 0439 be given a pass recommendation. Council member Caldwell's Place Ordinance 2019 439 before us with a do pass recommendation mikakos up. Do you mind speaking to the amendment? Sure. There is an amendment Amendment one that would simply update the roster, the for culture board roster that is attached to this legislation. And the update would be to correct the name of one of the board members and to update it to include some appointments that have occurred that since this legislation was in. And as the form notes, a couple of people have been nominated but not yet confirmed. And then the striking public policy in the amendment to my friend, is that while the world knows King Kassam as King Kazim, evidently that is not his legal name. So it's Kazim Incognita and it creates the roster to have his legal name. With that, a number of calls. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move amendment number one. Councilmember Caldwell's has moved adoption of amendment one. See? No discussion. All those in favor. Please say I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted ordinance 2019 for 39 as amended. See no discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Duchin. Councilmember. Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garzon. Councilmember Cole. Well, Councilmember Lander Council member of the Council. Councilmember Yvonne Reischauer, I. Mr. Chairman, I. Mr. Chair, you have seven eyes, no nose. Thank you. And unless there's objection, we will place that on consent and the regular course of business. And that takes us to item six Proposed Motion 2018 561. The final agenda item today is the adoption of the language access plans for county agencies. The county code requires that each county agency have a language access plan for an interaction with county residents who do not speak English as a first language. The committee was briefed on this earlier this year. However, at the time, there were several agencies that had yet to submit their plans. Those plans have now been received and were ready to be briefed by Mr. Williams this afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Tillery Williams, counsel, central staff. The materials for this item began on page 85 of your packet. As you stated in your introduction, step first brief this committee on the proposed motion to accept the language assistance plans as required by Ordinance 18665 on April 15th of this year. At the time, the Executive had requested more time to complete some additional plans that had not yet been received. Who knew? Also, the Department of Human Resources had requested to update its plan. The committee chose to hold on further consideration to allow for the executive to complete this work. On page 117 of your package, you will find a section labeled Update from April 15th, 2019 CAO meeting, which provides a brief analysis of the new plans that have been transmitted, as well as a brief section explaining what Amendment one two the proposed legislation would do if adopted. Council staff has distributed to the members of this committee an amendment package for promote proposed motion 2018 0561, which attaches the revised and or completed language assistance plans for the following agencies. King County Sheriff's Office. Department of Executive Services. Department of Local Services. Department of Judicial Administration in the Department of Human Resources with. They submit a plan at first, but they have updated it now. Would you all like for me to give you a brief, a quick run through of those plans that have been submitted? I would. Yes, please. Thank you. I'm starting off with the King County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's office states in its plan that it has identified the need for a thorough analysis of its needs and gaps related to translation. The sheriff's office also states we have a number of vital documents that are currently translated into Spanish. We will use this as a guide to translate the same forms into the five other languages as identified in the ordinance on the top line languages identified by the tier map of limited English proficient persons maintained by the Office of Equity and Social Justice in the County. Demographer. Finally, the Sheriff's Office states that the agency does not have dedicated resources for this work and that any efforts to translate all of its vital forms into the county's top six languages would require a funding source that the Department of Executive Services moving along has identified gaps in its existing language access policies and and is exploring options to address those gaps. The agency has also identified the vital documents and public communication materials that need to be translated based on community requests and and or patterns of use. Executive Services has translated key documents and will continue to do so as needed. At the end of 2018, Executive Services stated that it translated service pages for Regional Animal Services of King County and may claim for damages forms available in five languages. In addition, the Office of Emergency Management began work on a mandate from the state legislature to provide translation of emergency messages. Their work is ongoing. Executive Services Language Assistance Work is funded as needed from the Department of Local Services, the state in their plan that with the reorganization of the Department of Transportation to the new Department of Local Services. There has not yet been an opportunity to do a gap analysis. They began their gap analysis on September 1st, 2019, with the newly formed Department of ESG Committee. This gap analysis will identify over will identify other key documents within our department and associated resourcing needs. The list also states funding for translation and interpretation comes from existing communication and outreach budget. Specific project funding options like grants or other associated budgets. Moving on to the Department of Judicial Administration, DGA is currently completing an inventory of its vital documents and public communication materials that need to be translated and expects that this inventory will be completed by the end of 2019. DGA Plan D J Plans on Completing Translation of vital documents and public communication materials by the end of 2020. Additionally, they have not identified any ongoing funds for its translation and interpretation goals. And then finally, the Department of Human Resources Human Resources stated in its updated plan that the agency will add its web page and advertise the availability of language assistance and all of the county's top languages, especially for assistance with job applications. Human Resources stated that it does not have existing funds to work toward some of its translation and interpretation goals for 2019. The amendment also attaches plans for Kane County, Metro Transit and the legislative branch, both of which were briefed on at the April. Both of which you were briefed on at the April 15th meeting since those plans had been received at the time, but were not attached as part of the original motion. To date, the executive has submitted language assistance plans for all of the executive agencies that identify which of their vital documents and public communications need to be translated into languages for use by limited English proficient persons, and which include identification of agency or office plans for providing translation of webpages, automated telephone greeting, automated telephone voice messages and informational signage, thus meeting the requirements laid out in ordinance 18665. That is the end of my report and I would be happy to take any questions at this time. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tell me, what are the five ideas in basic languages besides Spanish that's on this list of three language assistance plans, requirements, and an hour of follow up? Those languages would be Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, Somali and Ukrainian. Okay. Ukraine. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Now, all these agencies and well, we would like to do this or that, but we don't have the money. Is an incumbent upon the county council to find the money or is it their responsibility to identify potential sources? Or is it all right for us to say, this is important enough? You have to look at your budget and figure out our way to do it within a specific time frame? Well, to answer your question, I would say that, well, some of the agencies use existing funding that has been budgeted to carry out this work. But then there were some that says that we don't have the funding to complete the work. So it would just be a matter of whatever the council chooses to do. We do have the executive representative here to maybe weigh in on that. Who is that? And. Mr. Chair, if it's okay, this is Patrick Hamacher. For the record, I would just add to that that the council, as you're well aware, does not approve a line item budget. You approve total amounts for a department. So when a department says we don't have the resources for that, that might very well be a true statement. But also true along with that would be we're not willing to prioritize this work over some other work within our department because you don't you don't direct the department each and every activity or task they're supposed to undertake . Okay. Pat. But now, first of all, I have a question for Pat. So when we provided two years for all the agencies to change their letterhead, their badges, their cars, and to the new county logo, we heard a lot of them said it didn't have the money, but we still made the requirement and had to do it . It didn't sound like you were saying that they could say, we don't have the money, therefore we're not going to do it. Mr. GARCIA No. If you were to pass a requirement that they make the change, I think with regard to the logo, what you actually required was as items were replaced, that they would be replaced with the new logo. So it took a period of time. I think you very well could do that here. The point I'm making is you haven't yet required agencies to do all of the translation and interpretation that these plans highlighted. This was a request for agencies to come up with a plan, and some of your agencies have said, this is what we would like to do, but we're not yet doing it because we don't have resources. You very well as a council could require them to do it, and you could also choose to fund or not fund their requests for funds at the time. Okay. So, Keller, every as far as you know, required the agencies of King County government to provide basic language services in the direction that we'd like to see it go. So the ordinance only requires a motion for the agencies to identify which of their vital documents and public communication materials need translation. But that's as far as that ordinance goes. It does not require them to do anything further than that, I think, is the. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the further questions. Discussion. Councilmember Gossett, would you, as the Prime sponsor, would you put the motion before us? Okay. Mr. Chair, I'd like to move ahead with the proposed motion. 2018 0561.1. Councilman, Councilmember Gossett has moved that. We give a do pass recommendation to motion 2018 561. Councilmember Garcia If you'd also move adoption of striking amendment S1. I would like to move Broken Amendment S1 to that overall motion. Thank you. S1 is before us scene. No discussion. All those in favor of S1 please signify by saying no. Those opposed. The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Comments. Well, I don't remember. Got it? Yeah, I'm the sponsor. But now that I heard the presentation, I'd like to have this in the near future. Well, I'm here not. I'll look at the extent to which it's reasonable to require all the departments that have a minimal baseline for translation and interpret the services available. Just that's just a comment, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Steve. No further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member Bell. Duty Council member DEMBOSKY. Council member. Done. Council Member Gossip. All right. Council member. Cornwall Council member. Member. Council member of the group. Council Member. Upon regard, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair of Seven Eyes, no noes, thank you. Having received the required majority motion 2018 561 is sent to full council with the due pass recommendation, and unless there's objection, we will put this on consent. With that, the Committee of the whole has concluded its work for the year. I want to thank everyone for taking up the issues that were before the committee, both those planned and unplanned. And I want to particularly thank Marcus Steadman for her work clerk in the committee throughout the whole mixture, making sure we were always pointed in the right direction and the amateur things. He has been busy serving as policy lead of this committee this year. You have no idea what busy in sleep deprivation would be like come the New Year as you and Sally expand your family. So we wish you a restful rest December as we conclude our last meeting of the year. And with that, we are.	AN ORDINANCE to amend the Charter of the Cultural Development Authority related to board position terms; and amending Ordinance 14482, Section 7, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.49.060 and Ordinance 14482, Section 11, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.49.110.
king_50a39491-5b9e-4a9c-8159-f0442b59f938	Everybody, welcome to the King County Council Committee, the hall meeting for Wednesday, July 19th. I call the meeting to order and I will ask our clerk to please call the room. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombroski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. Council Member. Cornwall Council Councilmember Member. Councilmember McDermott here. Councilmember up the grove. Councilmember Yvonne right there. Madam Chair. Here. Madam Chair, you do not have a quorum. Okay, so we will proceed with the agenda and postpone action until we do have a quorum. So we'll skip over approval of the minutes. I'd just like to let everybody know that today we have a briefing and action on the East Side rail corridor and a couple of briefings , one on E911, one strategic planning, and a second in a series of briefings on the people strategies from the executive branch, sort of the human services employment work that they are doing. So the first thing we will do is public comment. I have a sign up sheet and I'd like to welcome council member James McNeill from Bothell, followed by Councilmember Elaine Cook from Woodville. I'm very glad to see you here today. Welcome. So 2 minutes. I will try to keep it brief. Thank you for having me. I'm chair council members. My name is James McNeil. I reside in the city of Bothell. I'm here today to speak on behalf of the fact that I've lived in the state of Washington my entire life in King County, 51 years. And I want to first thank you for all of your service. Each and every one of the council members. I see many of you throughout the community at different regional things like transportation environment. But today I'm here to speak to you about a need that we have within our part of the region, in the North Shore area , which is an aquatic port and aquatic center. And it is a big need in our community for the youth of our community, as well as the seniors in our community. We have one of the fastest growing populations in the state in the north end of our city and the Snohomish side, as well as the King County side . And we have approximately 22,000 students in our schools, North Shore School District today, and that's growing. We also have a very fast growing senior population in the community of North Shore area. So today we're we're here to to talk about a need that we have for an aquatic pool in our area. One of the things that near and dear to me as a father is ensuring that that all the kids, not only in our economy but throughout our region, are able to swim by the time they're in the third grade. So I look forward to to working with you. I'm hopeful that you guys will be supportive. I know you did some fabulous things up in some Amish and throughout the region and other areas working in partnerships with the Y in the cities. And I just want to say, as a community member, a citizen, that I look forward to working with you and all the council members on making sure that we have that same resource available to us in the North Shore area. So thank you very much for your time and your service to our community. Thank you, Councilmember. And I also would reflect the Council's thanks for your service to the people of Bothell who are also King County residents. Thank you so much. Next, we have Councilmember Elaine Cook from the city of Woodinville, and that will be followed by Dr. Michelle Rhee, the superintendent of the North Shore School District. Good morning, council members. Thank you for having me. My name's Elaine Cook. I am a Woodinville resident and a city council member in the city of Watsonville. I, too, am here on behalf of the families in the North Shore area and by the North Shore area, I mean the cities of Kenmore and Woodinville and Bothell. I am obviously a representative of the citizens in the city of Watsonville. I am not from the Seattle area. When I grew up back East, aquatic facilities or pools were readily available to most citizens in most towns. And when I moved out here 12 years ago, it was obvious that that was a missing eye. My children go to the North Shore School District. Schools are in the North Shore School District. And my understanding is that all four North Shore School District, school high schools have swim teams but no facility to swim at. We share facilities in the Lake Washington School District and which makes it extremely difficult to find times that work for the schools to practice. They share the pools at the same time with other schools, and I believe it lessens the amount of participation because of the lack of facilities sent centric to our region or our area. I actually come here to ask for your support for your support in future planning of a facility, but also financial support. We're hoping that King County might have available some moneys to support a facility that we eventually built. We have spoken recently to the Seattle YMCA about a possible partnership, whether that be public private partnership. We have talked extensively or brainstormed ideas about the type of facility we could we could possibly build with the Y as a partner. So thank you for having us. And I hope that sometime in the near future we could talk about a possible partnership or support from the county. Thank you. Thank you, Lynn. It's really good to see you. And thank you also for your service to the people, Woodville and King County. All right, Dr. Reed, welcome. It's good to see you here today. You know, thank you very much. And thank you. For your service. And it's a pleasure to be here with James and Elaine. And it's rare, I think, that three cities. And a district can come together on a common purpose. And I think. It should be duly noted that we can do. That and be thoughtful about our future. As Elaine said, we have four comprehensive. High schools which. Include eight swim teams, boys and girls, eight water polo teams, and no place to practice. More importantly, since water safety. Is one of. Or water related deaths. Or one of the highest rates of death for under 18 year. Olds. We have a lot of water in our. Neighborhood in the North Shore and no place to teach swimming lessons. And by no place. I really want to. Be thoughtful about for us in the North Shore School District, equity and access are key. To. All matters. Whether it's rigorous coursework. In the classroom or access to activities outside the classroom. That we know empower young people to become the adults that we want in our community for the future. And currently, with the situation where the only access to pools is by paid. Only certain families. Are able to access that swim lessons or water. Safety instructor classes, life. Saving. Classes. And we feel. Like if we had a public facility that our families had access to, that our equity mission would be empowered. Often it's a very children that have the least that find themselves in the most risky accidents, particularly around water, again, because they don't have the water safety equipment or the understanding to be safe. So I guess I'm just asking, as Elaine did, for you to include us in your future planning. We have 22,000 kids and growing. With a large immigrant. Population as well. Who really would, I think, benefit from an aquatic center and the ability. To learn water safety lessons early on. So thank you for your support. And if there's. Anything we can do to answer. Questions, please stay in. Contact with us. Thank you. Thank you all very much. As I can testify to the demand, it doesn't grow, it doesn't shrink, it grows. And the access to to water just doesn't grow or we lose pools like we did in in Juanita in Kirkland. And so I appreciate where you're coming from. And we certainly will look for an opportunity to try to work with you. And thank you for your time. Our final speakers already your pro procedures and then be thank you. I think elimination and elimination the first the big change in. LIVINGSTON The idea beginning to weaken only about 10,000 years for people to have a new way of making living in clean pot. So we have learned not to build as a free thing. Clayton. Oh, really? Boom. The train was a crude son who is vegetable food. To beat this and to be nasty. And the animals enlisted simply anything. So it was in an relation which was to that island that hood away or leaving that that honest audition did not necessity lend the people to have any easier life than zero footed the neighbors. But climbing think change give the same of the very limited to choose sir in the ground a sentiment that to have millions of life in either well condition under been such house to ground be been in full speed. The spirit is a different plant food and animal to find in one area in such has the key and thickness family group cold in the weekend to keep some and people on years will be. Thank you Mr. Inhabit. If you have a copy of your testimony, I'm sure we would take a copy of it for the record and the staff will be happy to help you with that. Thank you. All right. That's the end of the signup sheet here today. Is there anybody else who would like to speak to the committee before we move on on the agenda? Seeing none. We will move to approval of the minutes. I believe we have a quorum now. And I would call on Councilmember McDermott. Some of Mr. Madam Chair. It's been moved to approve the minutes of our June 12, 2017 meeting. All those in favor please signify by saying i, i any opposed? The minutes are approved. All right. This brings us to agenda item number five. We have a briefing and then agenda item number six and action item both on the east side rail corridor for our viewing audience. The Eastside Rail Corridor is a 42 mile rail corridor that has been largely rail banked. The county, along with the cities through which the corridor runs, are collaborating to build a multi-modal trail that will run from Snohomish County to Renton. When complete, the Eastside Rail Corridor is going to be a huge regional asset that will greatly benefit all of our residents. We heard about the need to encourage healthy outdoor activity and this will certainly be a part of that. This is our first briefing since our new Council Initiatives director took his job. Jeff months. So welcome, Jeff. I'm told I'm supposed to, like, give you a hard time. I understand that it's traditional, but I'm unprepared. So it'll come when you least expect it to say. I'm just happy to be here, Madam Chair. And we also have Leah crackles up council staff and Erica Jacobs from the county's park division. I will leave it to you two to take it away. Good morning council members I'm Leah crackles IP council staff. As you know this is a deaf man Council Initiative's director and Erika Jacobs, Danette AARP's project manager for the East Side Rail Corridor Trail. And so this is a quarterly brief or a quarterly update on the East Side rail corridor, and the materials begin on page seven of your packet. And we're going to start with Ms.. Jacobs giving an update on activities related to development of the East Side rail corridor trail. And then Mr. Mumm will give an update on the Regional Advisory Committee. So we'll turn to State. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and Council Members. Thank you for having me. This will be a brief update focusing on our transition out of the master planning phase and into some exciting developments with design and implementation of trail on the East Side rail corridor. So today we'll talk about let me see if I can get my slide to advance where we're at with rail removal and installation of gravel interim trail on certain sections of the corridor. Moving into Wilbert in segment design. This is the segment throughout Bellevue and I'll be showing you some graphic images to orient as to where that is and what we're doing there. The Northeast Eighth Street crossing design in Bellevue is an important section of the trail that we're working collaboratively with other agencies and folks on designing. I'll give you a quick update on that. Importantly, Wilbert and Gap is moving forward. This is a bridge across four or five. Why start as lead? That project. And concurrent with that, we're focusing on design of the Wilbert and Tressel. Talk about the relationship of those two important pieces. We've been active coordinating with sound transit on developed as they move forward on key facilities of theirs that are related to our trail interests. We are working collaboratively and very actively with them on design reviews and opportunities to develop trail elements. And then I'm going to give a very quick update at the end on where we're at with a branding effort, regional cooperative branding effort to come up with some new thinking about the name and look and feel of the East Side rail corridor. Okay. So for starters, you know, we've been working for about the past year on design drawings and permitting to remove rails and ties from a couple of key pieces of the Eastside Rail corridor and replace that with a usable interim gravel trail that we can get the public out on and enjoying the benefits of this corridor. So the focal points of that work for now are a one mile section in the north from 108th Avenue down to 520, with on the north coming out of connection with the Cross Kirkland corridor and in the South being able to connect with the 520 trail. We may even be able there to connect later this year into a piece that sound transit's installing that will connect down into the Spring District in Bellville. It's an exciting extension that we hadn't anticipated coming on so early. So in the South we'll have a four mile section from Jean Cullen Park up to New Castle Beach Park. Both ends connect to the existing Lake Washington Loop Trail. So this is a nice piece to give to that to the community. And Renton and Bellevue, south of I-90 as well as the region, can access it many points. Other sections of interim trail and and rail removal are going to be deferred until we can properly install crossings, deal with the Wilbert and trestle the Wilbert and gap in areas that we just can't get to safely right now. And then as far as design and construction of permanent trail and connectivity throughout the entire reach from Kirkland to Renton, we will work on those as funding becomes available. So focusing in on that piece and what the Wilbert in segment, it goes from 108th Avenue Northeast in its Kirkland Bellevue line all the way down to I-90. And while we don't have the funding yet to construct this in total, we are moving quickly forward on design and prioritizing design because the opportunities are ripe to coordinate with other agencies working on projects such as in Bellevue. The Gilbertson redevelopment washed out to work on the Renton to Bellevue Project is provide a lot of opportunities for us to get some important pieces in. It's got the historic Robertson trestle as a piece of it and a major focus of our work. So I'm just going to breeze through and we're also focusing on the Northeast State Street Crossing design. Over the next couple of years, we'll be working, continue to work with Bellevue and Sound Transit to make sure that we have the best integrated crossing that works well with the Albertson Light Rail Station as well as the future surrounding land uses. We have reached a stage of 30% design completion in our advertising right now for the final design consultant. We also have an artist on board for that through for culture. So that's an exciting development and we'll be working with looking forward to working with him on our team closely. Okay. So big focus for us over the next couple of years is to coordinate with Washington State Dot on their development of a bike pedestrian bridge over what was there used to be a rail tunnel there across the southbound lanes they're going to reinstate bike and pedestrian connectivity and you can see that here. I don't know if the laser will really work in here, but in the upper portion of the the aerial picture is where the bridge crossing would be. This is near the Mercer Slew, south of Southeast Eighth Street in Bellevue. When washed, that puts that in which the commitment is to have it in by the end of 2020. We also would like to be getting the Wilbert and trestle retrofitted and and with, you know structurally rehabilitated and retrofitted with trail so that the two can open concurrently by the end of 2020. As you can see there, they're very close in proximity to one another and either one completed without the other would not be a continuous usable section. Getting into some of our coordination with sound transit. The picture here that you see on the slide is a draft concept of their operations and maintenance facility east, which is near the Spring District in the Belle Red area. And part of their designed concept for that includes the transit oriented development section of the parcel. And what we're looking at is an opportunity to connect the East Side rail corridor trail, which is shown on the left of the picture, left of the development to the Spring District 220th Street Light Rail Station, as well as into the heart of the Spring District in the Todd itself. So there's another opportunity as well to connect a new spring boulevard to the East Side rail corridor trail so that later this fall, Sound Transit, Bellevue and other key stakeholders are going to hold a design charrette to look at the best ways that we can achieve those important connections to the trail. And we'll continue to move forward as as we have concepts with that question there. Sure. So there's an there's an agreement between sound transit in the city of Bellevue around this segment of trail. And I believe it extends most of the way, if not all of the way up to the north intersection with the 520 trail, which is the south end of the segment. You were talking about opening in 2017. And and the agreement is and I know because I negotiated it that there will be an interim trail during the construction phase at this location so that people can bike through to Northeast eighth and or Northeast 12th. I forget which it is, but and then and then a final trail which would go presumably back on to the rail corridor, but that will be blocked due to sound transit construction. And every time I talk to them about this, I ask them, what's the plan for opening that? And then I forget what they say. So what's the plan for opening those? So far as I understand, it's this the opportunities have been improving for a more near-term interim trail on the east side rail corridor itself. Their original agreement or plan was to develop an interim trail that skirts around the north side of the that facility cuts over to 120th Avenue, then would join bike lanes that would serve as somewhat of a bypass to get people down to even northeast as far as northeast fourth. Now, though, they're the now that they've selected Hensel Phelps, they have their team on board. That concept and proposal, as I understand it from their developer, is to go ahead and open gravel trail on the Eastside Rail corridor as a way to avoid all of that construction traffic coming in and out off of 1/20 and just go ahead and get gravel in for now, at least down to the location where you see the smaller red circle and the potentially being able to route people over to 1/20 from there. I understand their schedule is to try to open that piece by this fall break, and I think that could be a great opportunity to connect that stretch of interim gravel trail to the piece of gravel trail we're developing to the north. Also by this, I was. Thrown a little bit by the Charrette bullet because Charrette sounds like we're just brainstorming early ideas. And I thought we were much further along than that. Oh, thank you for that clarification. As this would be looking at beyond the interim trail to ideas for permanent connections and permanent trail routing east west from the trail over to the station. Excellent. Yeah, I think. Thank you, Erica. Thank you. Okay. A second piece of important sound transit coordination. This has been rapidly developing as a story was passed, sound transit was able to move forward quickly and accelerate their plans to extend Eastlink light rail into downtown Redmond. Currently, I understand they're planning to have a station or terminate at Redmond Town Center. Either way, they are. This image shows 520 is the highway going through there on the south side of that would be their light rail alignment. It would it would run across the northern edge of Mary Moore Park before taking a turn. The U-turn there to the north and back into into Redmond Town Center. The opportunity there is an important one for King County and for the city of Redmond. This is where we can possibly put in a trail connection linking the East Lake Sammamish Trail shown in blue on the far right of the picture over and under the 520 ramps and section there over to the Redmond section of the RC. So in red you see the southern portion of the Redmond Central Connector. Connecting those two trails has been a big priority for many years. Finding a way to do that across 5/20 is finally a possibility as we work with sound transit. To achieve that. Is very limited has a question. Thank you. So I live in Redmond, so I know exactly what we're talking about here. But for years we have had a parking lot, the one that's painted with other signs on the ground that was. And then we put the berm in that was right near the railroad park. And that was where that was supposed to come to you. Recently I heard that the terminus will be more down towards Mary Mary Park, so we'll will have to cross over to the parking. So why was it decided that that would not be where it terminated at that parking? I'm not as familiar. Can't remember. I met with them the sound transit deliberations on their alternatives. I know that they've been working through an alternative development process with the city of Redmond and with some of my colleagues at King County. I think the Redmond interest has been to see if they could terminate or have the station, Redmond Station be at Redmond Town Center as opposed to going all the way into that location. You're discussing in disturbing what's now become kind of quite a public space for the city of Redmond. So beyond that, I think I'm not I would maybe need to check in or have Redmond check in with you or sound transit more particularly on where they're going with their alternative selection. There was a great deal of discussion towards the end of the process about ways to improve safety, make better connections, avoid conflicts of different uses, say particularly around Mary Moore Park. And in the end, results of the discussions was modified alignment. I'm sure sound transit could provide a lot of detail around the whys and wherefores and if along each spot along the way, I know Mayor Mangione could as well. So maybe we could just follow up and ask them for somebody's follow up. Maybe, Jeff maybe our new council initiatives coordinator, Jeff Mumm, could follow up with sound trends and ask them to provide details to Councilmember Lambert on that question. So I. Did excellent job. Work with the mayor a couple of weeks ago, and my concern is, okay, if you're going to change it for those reasons, which is fine, you're going to then have the park and the shopping center where there's a lot of businesses that are in there, which is great, including Microsoft. And I think AT&T is still in there, but there's no covering. So once you get off to a park is a long way with no covering. So you get wet and it can be muddy through there too, depending on what trail they pick up. So I want to make sure that wherever we are that it's easy and dry to get from there to wherever your car is. That's my main concern them, I think. And they said it was gonna be a quarter of a mile, which I thought was a bit much for this terminus. So I'd like to know that, too. Thank you. Okay. So I think that is and so, again, our our hope is that we can achieve some really great opportunity for a trail connection, mainly between the Redmond Central Connector and which of course gets us to other parts on the remainder of the Eastside Rail corridor north from there and to the east Lake Sammamish Trail , and really great opportunity for our regional trail system to achieve this. Okay. And finally, I want to just give a brief update on the branding effort for the East Side rail corridor. There's been a discussion that's been ongoing for a little while. Back in 2016, I believe in the fall, the Regional Advisory Council for the East Side Rail Corridor approved in concept moving forward on a collaborative rebranding effort with all of the partner agencies and stakeholders in the corridor that is now moving forward. A branding team would be procured this fall to get started and get their work underway by December or January, with the goal to have a products developed for consideration by the RAC, all of the stakeholders involved throughout the process, but with final deliverables and final rebranding completed by June of next year, the brand would communicate and foster the multi-use vision of the corridor as including trail transit and utilities, the regional significance of it for economic development, all the opportunities that it provides to our region. Importantly, we would want that all of us collectively would want the brand to maintain and preserve the identities of local trail sections such as the Redmond Central Connector and the Cross Kirkland Corridor and Nest, then within that larger regional brand for the corridor, and then likewise for that in turn, to be known to be part of the King County Regional Trail System as an identified piece of our collective regional assets. So we'll look forward to more on that to come. It sounds very dry, but this is super exciting to me. I think the the concept of the East Side rail corridor is so amazing and will be so beloved by the community that we're serving with this. That calling it the east side rail corridor just kind of doesn't do it justice and doesn't generate the level of excitement that I really believe people will have for this. So, so really looking forward, I usually don't get that excited about branding efforts, but this one is going to be good, in my opinion. Thank you. Thank you. Very excited as well. That is all I had. And I just want to go ahead and turn it if there are no other questions. Council members, any questions for Erika? Before we move to the next item. I just want to thank you. Please. You may say thank you. Yeah, okay. I just want to say this, but most everybody doesn't know how much work this has been. And Erika and several other people. And I forget your name. Tell me your name again. David, David. David Center. And they have not only done a good job, but they've done a stellar, amazing, fabulous, incredible, awesome job. And that's a minor issue of what they really done. And this this could be really an exciting project and it has not been easy. And when you talk to Erika or David, they pretty much have it in their memory. And I mean, this is this many miles long. People say, oh, yeah, at that turn. I know everything about that. It's really been amazing. So it will be a legacy for generations, and largely because the two of you and others who have really put a lot of work has put in a lot of work, a lot of other people. And now Jeff gets to put a lot of work to do so but this is really exciting. So I say thank you for the hard work because this is amazing. Thank you, Councilmember. I think it's always a good idea to remind people that a lot of it happens behind the scenes. And last year we had a number of events where we got to say thank you in public. We haven't had those this year, but we sounds like we will. And that's going to be very, very nice and an opportunity to say thank you again about all your hard work. Thank you so much for that recognition. That was very kind of Councilmember Lambert. And yes, we do hope to have some celebratory events this fall and invite the community out to enjoy those open trails, open pieces of interim trail. Fabulous. Thank you so much. Okay. So we'll move on to agenda item number six, which is a related item with regard to the Eastside Rail corridor. Actually, Madam Chair. I'm sorry. Jeff had a the second part. Oh, I'm. Sorry. Update please carry on with the second part of the update manager. And that was not like an intentional hazing thing. I literally was ready to move on so. I would have to be here. And the only thing I wanted to add to the update on the last RAC meeting, basically the reacted to things. I mean, they went over the they had the branding discussion that Erika already discussed and then they approved unanimously a a memorandum memorandum of understanding. And that is actually the next agenda item. So if you would like me to just move forward to many of its agenda. Items, I want to point out that was exactly what I was about to do. So I was ahead of everybody. But yes, please do move on to agenda. Thank you as always. Please go ahead and move on to agenda item number six. I do have just a brief opening remark before we get into the substance of it. The council members will recall that we've had a regional advisory committee on this project since the beginning, and it has consisted of owner jurisdictions. Redmond. Kirkland. Redmond, Kirkland. And. And. Then organizations that hold easements. So Puget Sound Energy and Sound Transit. And I'm missing one King County, of course. Well, we're owners. Owners, right? Yeah. So so that that body has done a lot of good work. They did all the early planning, came up with the vision. But then as time went on and other jurisdictions that didn't actually have an ownership or easement rights became engaged and saw the potential and started to build and make plans for the corridor. It became clear that we needed to have a broader group of people at the table. So we've been working for the better part of a year and a half to try to update the the adopted rules that this body adopted by ordinance to restructure the Eastside Rail Corridor Regional Advisory Committee to be more inclusive took a lot of negotiations. We're here today to talk about the results of those and hopefully to move forward and improve the menu that we've negotiated. And with that, I will hand it over to Jeff. Please go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. You've actually covered pages 21 through 23 of the staff report, so I could probably just move on to 24. We discuss the details of the memorandum of understanding, as you said, that the RAC has decided to reform and enlarges membership. And now and instead of just having these is owner jurisdictions and the rail being quarters, they they'd like to expand the membership to include jurisdictions through which the corridor runs through and also jurisdictions, Erin, and also a an advocacy organization that is interested in seeing the trail about through their organization. So the new expanded rack will include that seat. Will include Dobby and Renton who are non owner jurisdictions. But the the quarter runs through those cities and then Woodinville and Snohomish County. Both of those are still active freight lines, but they're also very important in the future of that corridor. And the Eastside Greenway Alliance, which is made up of RCI, Ford, Terra Cascade, Basil, got a land trust for public lands and all of the then with that and they would be joined by the current five members of the RAC, King County, Kirkland Redmond, Sound Transit and Puget Sound Energy. The other either major component of the memorandum of understanding is that governance structure and currently the RAC is chaired by the King County Council member who is represents the district in which the largest part of the corridor runs through. That's in the that was the previous motion and that is you, Madam Chair, District six. And so the Memorandum of understanding would change that and a chair could be selected from the it would from the King County delegation. So one of the three King County Council members or the King County executive, the executive wished and then vice chair of function is added and that is from the other owner jurisdictions could and an elected official from the other jurisdictions. Let me just jump in for a quick session there. It just seemed more democratic to be able to select our chair and our vice chair from among our members, as opposed to having it set out in ordinance that it shall always be a particular position and also to include the cities and other owners as potential leadership of this group as opposed to as it is now. The actually there's co-chairs and one of them is the councilmember from District six and the other one is the county executive or his delegate? A delegate. So we are not to break our arms patting ourselves on the back, but the executive and the AARP and I all sort of gave up our guaranteed seats of authority on this body in order to make it more democratic, so that we sort of had the ethic of working together as a group as opposed to having one in the lead and or another. And I think that would be very healthy. So thank you. And just a couple of other items, the Racquel can we'll work on a consensus basis and MRU makes it clear that there won't be any votes in the rack. It's basically, you know, everyone in the RAC agrees or the position or action doesn't go forward. And similarly, the RAC can also add or remove members from the RAC through a consensus basis. And those are the major points of the memorandum of Understanding. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions about this? I will add that the body, when we had our last meeting, agreed that we would try to get the NYU ratified by all the members by hour before our next RAC meeting, which is September 15th. So we have a little bit of time. Seems like we've once again lost our quorum so we won't be doing anything with it for a minute or two. But I'd be open to questions or discussions before seeking action on the IMO you. Speculation. Council member. So just clarifying. What is that? So rather than it being the chair just district six, it could be district three or nine in addition, correct? Okay. All right. Keep taking your vitamins. Think you could get a turn? Yes. Go ahead. One more item. Last night, the city of Woodinville adopted the Fantastic. We can thank Councilmember Cook when we see her again. She's around here somewhere. Okay. So now that we have a quorum, can I ask if the council is prepared? If the committee is prepared for a motion to move this forward to the full council to do pass recommendation? Let me do that. Yes, please. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I'd like to move. Adoption of proposed motion 2017 0293 with the do pass recommendation. Thank you very much, Councilmember. It's been moved. Any comments or questions? There is an amendment. There is an amendment. Yes, there is amendment. There's amendment number one, one, one. And it is sponsored by you. And this makes a technical change to the motion replaces attachment A, an updated attachment A that includes the technical changes. Yeah. Typo. I see. Okay. All those in favor of amendment 1.1 please signify by saying i. I. Any opposed? All right. Any other amendments? No title amendment with that. Okay. So thank you. We're at the underlying motion, and I believe we have to have a roll call vote on this one. So, Mark, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombroski Councilmember. Again. Council Member Garson Price Council Member Cornwall Council Member Lambert High Council Member McDermott. High. Council Member of the Grove. Council Member one Right there, Madam Chair. So you got that? Yes, I did. Madam Chair, the vote is six sighs, three no's, three. Excuse. Excuse me. Okay. Very good. Thank you. All right. It passes unanimously. I want to thank the staff and Jeff, who sort of picked this up after it had been quite a ways down the road and helped to carry it over the finish line. And that was not nothing. So that was very good work. Thank you. But also just acknowledge the cities of Kirkland and Redmond, Bellevue, Renton, Woodinville, as well as Puget Sound Energy, Sound Transit, the East Greenway Alignment Alliance and Snohomish County. Because we all we all had to come together on this and I think it worked out quite well and will serve us into the future. All right. Thank you. I believe you can go on consent. Yeah, thank you. All right. So that finishes up item number six and brings us to item number seven, which is an update on progress report on the 911 strategic plan. Uh, I'm not going to do a whole introduction. I will allow you to introduce yourselves, but I will say council members done. Lambert and I represent the County Council on this multi-jurisdictional leadership group that was formed to recommend a strategic plan to the Council by December 31st, 2017. So we're moving along a lot of big decisions being made and to be made. And so I will ask Lisa Kay, our council staff, to please give the report and and introduce our speakers. Thank you, Madam Chair and Lisa Care Council staff. I'll give a very brief introduction so that you can hear from the folks who are here. I'm joined today by Diane. Carlson, who's in the executive's office, Laura Ueland, who's the. Director of telecom, and Cathy Lombardo, who is the is the manager for the. 911 program. Office. Tom Conti from Department of Executive Services is in the audience with us also. My briefing the staff report for you begins on page 47 of your packet. This committee and the Regional Policy Committee were. Instrumental in structuring a two step process to complete a strategic plan. For the King County Regional Line one one system. The first step was creation of a scoping committee to define a planning process and a. Framework for the eventual plan. And the second step. Is completion of the plan itself. We're now in step two, and the executive is following the scoping committee's recommended planning process. And that process called for collaborative development of a ten year technology investment strategy, a ten year sustainable financial plan, and an ongoing decision. Making and governance structure for the regional system. The executive appointed, as you mentioned, a 16 member. Leadership group to oversee development of the plan and which is. Supported by a staff planning group. The planning group then in. Turn. Appointed and oversees. Three taskforces on governance, technology and operations and finance. Those task. Forces will make recommendations to the planning group, which will then. Recommend a draft strategic plan to the leadership group. Membership on each of these groups is listed on pages 49 and 58 in your packet. As you mentioned, council. Members about duty done in Lambert are on the leadership group. I'm on the planning group. And. Council personal staff Krista Cummins. And Tom Goff and April Sanders. Each serve on a task force respectively. The leadership group has met three times. To date and expects to recommend a strategic plan. To the Regional Policy Committee and the County Council by the end of the year. That completes my report. And I will turn now to, I believe Laura Ueland is going to lead off with. A progress report on how the. Planning is going. Thank you. Thank you for letting us be here today and update you on this very important topic. And I would like to give special thanks to Lisa Kay. She has represented council staff very well on the planning group and is very involved in this process. As she mentioned, this ordinance that kicked off the whole effort that this council passed was basically answering the question of how are we going to get to next generation 911 in a collaborative partnership and that we could all afford and governance. And so that's basically the questions that we're all trying to solve right now. It was a very extensive scope of work that was detailed in the scoping process, which in itself was quite the lift. But now we are exercising that lift and we have actually done quite a bit though. You see where we are on the slide and we are now to the second draft recommendation of the Technology and operations task force. The meetings, as I'll get into a little bit later, the meetings are quite iterative. We are going around and around to make sure that we hear from everybody, that we consider all things and that everyone has a chance to weigh in, which is imperative in this process. This is a county wide E911 system that ultimately serves the purpose of saving lives. And so we. Do definitely want to hear from everybody and just leave no stone unturned. Here we are on the check in and you can see where we expect to come back to you either through the Regional Policy Committee or committee of the whole. The most important date you'll see is at the end is we expect to have this strategic plan done and recommended to the executive office who will transmit it to council at the end of the year. So it will come back to this group around January some time, and it should be a comprehensive plan that addresses all of the elements that was in the scoping document that you may recall and maybe a few other surprises as things come up. Here is our org chart that took quite a bit of deliberation to get to, but our point on this was to show that this is truly a regional countywide effort that has voices from all of the cities and interest groups such as the fire districts, the sound cities. Thank you all. All of the cities, all of the agencies, all of the stakeholders, the task forces have different elements in them that hear from like the deaf and hard of hearing and special language groups. But we want to make sure, again, that we get all voices heard. I want to go back to this. This again, shows the iterative process, how things are bandied about, discussed and talked within task forces, with the planning group, within the members of the planning group, back to the task forces. And then eventually it'll all bubbled to the top and come back to the council. I'd like to also say that again, dry information, but this represents a pretty major breakthrough when this was when when the group and all the stakeholders agreed to this organization and this work. It was coming from a place where many of the stakeholders had been very concerned about going forward and a little bit unwilling to come to the table. And this enabled them to do so. And so this was some really great work to get to this, and it was sort of in the rear view now. But, you know, just because what you're doing is hard doesn't mean that what you did was easy. So what you did was also hard. So congratulations on that, getting us to where we are today. Thank you for that point. And that is something that I personally am very proud of. There was there was a reason that this came to the forefront. But as you say, that reason is in the rearview mirror. There is a level of trust and collaboration among the parties now that did not exist before. And if nothing else, we are proud of that. But we have a lot more to do and we are confident because of that relationship that we have that we're going to get there. The Task force updates. Again, they are working some of them weekly, the technology and Operations Task Force. I'm so glad they didn't know what they were saying yes to because they may not have said it. This was this is quite the effort. And we have the Bellevue CTO on this committee, the task force. We have Bill Kehoe on this task force. We have quite a few people that are doing the heavy lifting. They're going to be bringing back to us recommendations as the planning group of which Kathy and I are the co-chairs of. They'll be bringing back to us the recommendations, as will the finance group and the governance group, on how we're going to implement governance and pay for this next generation of 911. The task forces themselves are working together because there's none of them stand alone. They all are very much a part of each other. Certain decisions have to be made. Then they bring them back together and have good conversation about their final recommendations because all of this will be wrapped up into the strategic planning. So next step, we are on the path to get those task force recommendations. The architect of the platform that's going to transport all of these 911 calls, text videos and whatever else the future has to to share with us. We are going to be having some cost evaluation on that, which, as you can imagine, the finance task force is quite interested in. And then the governance will also be talking about how we're going to manage this in the future to make decisions. And I believe that's the end. I would turn it over to my co-chairs or Diane, if they have any statements to add or questions from the council. Member Limerick. Thank you. As a member of this committee at the ready to do a body language one on one, the first meeting, everybody came in and looked at each other with their arms folded, like, don't even talk to me about this. And now it's collaborative and smiling and you're doing this great. So as a councilmember about it, she said, there's a lot of work that has been done in developing the collaboration. And as we go forward, there's a couple of things that I really want to keep my eye on, and that's the ergonomics, making sure that whatever we come up with is ergonomically fine. And as I looked at 91 centers across the country, that's most of what everybody said to me is make sure that ergonomically we can see all the screens and that it's easy to manage. And then secondly, the cost benefit ratio and technology changes because there's so many good ideas, but which is the idea that's really going to be the most valuable for us to support? And and then being willing to say, you know what, we tried this for a year and it didn't really work. So now we're in it to change and that's okay. And I think a year or so ago that would not have happened. But I think we're in a place now where people feel comfortable, say, you know what, these numbers don't really look. We have one example that I won't get into right now, but we have one example that is pretty costly and we're talking about maybe changing that. And I think that's a really healthy sign in an organization where people feel comfortable to say, let's evaluate this again. So I just want to say kudos to all of you for getting us past the first meeting, which was almost a joke because we should have taken pictures of the body language and to today. So it's it's really fun to go to these meetings now. So thank you very much. If I could just add. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. And Madam Chair, this there's a lot of work going in. Introduce yourself. All right. Diane Carlson with the executive's office. Thank you. There's an awful lot of work going into this by our regional partners. And I agree that I think none of them probably would have signed up for this if they really knew how much time this was taking. But and I appreciate the council members time in this process, because you're going to be getting some very heavy information. And but I want you to be assured that it has been through many levels of people out in the peace, out and through King County. And we're really looking at all components and asking all kinds of questions. So thank you for your time on. I think that thank the regional partners for coming to the table and really moving us forward in a very positive way. Thank you. I would also just add that what we're doing here is something that's really challenging for government. Generally speaking, technology evolves much faster than we do. And so making decisions about what technology to embrace and how to keep up with rapidly changing technology, how to finance these things is really challenging. And I think that's the challenge that this group has set ourselves. And I'm not hearing people wanting to back away for all the sort of semi joking about if they knew what they were getting into because it's so important. This function is really important. It's important to all the partners who are at the table and we want to get it right. And I suppose the positive aspect of that is we're building up muscles for how to do this so that as we go forward and and technology continues to involve in our we will be able to work together hopefully better that will grow out of this work as well. And then before I wrap up, I'll ask if there are any other questions or comments I want to acknowledge Bill Kehoe, who is also in the audience, who our IT director, who he and his staff have been putting tremendous amount of time into this effort as well. So thank you all. Really appreciate all of your work and we look forward to keeping on top of that. I'd like the council to also keep on top because at some point there's going to be decisions coming here and it'll be important to not have to recapitulate everything that was done. So people keeping us informed is a really good step and we appreciate your time to do that. Councilmember Dunn, did you want to I know you serve on this leadership group. Did you want to say or ask anything before we move on from this item? I'm a low tech man in a high tech. World, but I did find the outlet underneath the diocese crowded before. I. I did not call on you. It was the sort of the waitress always ask you, how's the meal while your mouth is full rule? I wasn't going to do that to you. But before we move on, did you want to say anything? Okay, he's got it. All right. Thank you. And we appreciate your time. And that brings us to our final item today. And it is as billed at the beginning of the meeting, the next in a series of briefings that I've asked for staff to coordinate, covering the various strategies and the Executives Region Human Resources Initiative that he's calling investing in you. So much of what we do at this county, the services we provide to our citizens is. Delivered by the great and varied staff at King County. And we want to make sure that we are keeping on top of how the county is managing that staff. So we really appreciate the work you're doing. I know you've got some exciting initiatives coming forward. I want to introduce this by introducing HAMACHER counsel staff who will provide an introduction, and then Whitney Abrams from the executive's office will begin the presentation. I thank you, Madam Chair and Council Members. Patrick Hamacher, for the record and the presentation and the PowerPoint in your packets begins on page 51. The only thing I'm going to add to your introduction, Madam Chair, is that the prior briefing we provided an overview for the committee of at least four briefings that were going to cover various aspects. We're really kind of covering the heart of what was listed at the briefing. Three In that overlying or in that outline, we're kind of taking the briefings in the in the order in which we can make it work for schedules or things like that. So that's highlighted in your packet. But with that, I'll just turn it over to Ms.. Abrams and the PowerPoint will be available on your screen and it's also in your packets beginning on the next page button. Ken, Pat, either you or Whitney just sort of orient us again, remind us what we heard before, what we're hearing today, and then what's yet to come. Just kind of because I know that I can benefit from that sort of reorientation. Good morning. Whitney Abrams, executive office. And thank you, Madam Chair. So again, what. I would like to do is reorient. You again to what this overall employee experience strategy is. And what we've been doing over the last. Number of years is really. Paying attention. To what the employee experience is in terms of the compensation and benefits they receive, how well they are engaged in their work they do at King County, have how they feel in terms of their workplace, culture, respect, looking at equity and social justice issues, as well as looking at how we do. This in a system. Where we can do that strategically without proliferating and just reactively. And so what we'd like to do, again, is. To follow. Up in this series of meetings and get into some of the details about this overall strategy. But really. What this is, is the reason we're doing this is because King County's success depends on the strength of its workforce. We have. Changing. Community needs and expectations, and we have a changing workforce. We have continued resource constraints and increased demand for services. And we are integrating equity and social justice and continue improvement commitments. And what we're doing and why we're headed in this direction is we want to have a highly. Engaged, diverse. And culturally responsive workforce. And what we expect is higher productivity, better customer service, a commitment to improving how we. Deliver service. And commitment to innovation and results. For our. Region. This will. Also result in lower. Turnover, lower. Rates of absenteeism, fewer complaints and grievances and fewer safety incidents. So to highlight what we've done in this strategy is we've worked in six buckets. So what we're going to be talking with you today about is two of them, the workplace, culture and health, wellbeing and safety. But just so you know, for the whole context, we also have areas of learning and growth that we'd like to come and talk to you. About racial. Diversity and cultural. Responsiveness at all. Levels, which talks about how we are hiring and retaining our workforce in alignment with our equity and social justice commitments. How we are doing this through strategic and collaborative, collaborative in aligned business operations and systems, and then doing this all within a total compensation framework, which I've been here several times to talk with you about. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to, I believe, our pitaro. To talk about the workplace culture. Thank you, Madam Chair and council members. And also to you, Director Abrams, Anson Butera with the Office of Equity and Social Justice. I'm also co-leader for King County. Is investing in you efforts around workplace culture with my colleague Brooke Bascom, who is the county's and employee engagement manager who was unable to join us today. So if I may, I would like to take a few minutes to give you an overview of our goals and objectives around the type of workplace culture we aspire to and our priorities and a timeline to help us get there. Culture is foundational to everything we do, and the water that we women is the character and personality of the organization, the sum of our mindsets, decisions and behaviors. Culture matters because it influences leadership style, how decisions are made, and at its core, how we treat each other, how we treat the people we serve, who we are, and how we live out our values every day. Management guru Peter Drucker famously said Culture eats strategy for breakfast, meaning you can have the best strategies in the world. But if you don't have a culture that enables that, it may as well stay on the shelf. More than anything, it affects the quality of service that we deliver and how we hold ourselves accountable. King County has a strong track record of being an employer of choice in the region. Generally, we have a highly engaged workforce who cares about delivering high quality services to all our residents. And we also have areas for improvement as we continue to listen and engage more deeply with our employees and leadership. We're learning that we need to take a more holistic, coordinated and collaborative approach to building a workplace culture where every employee is engaged, experiences trust and respect, is treated with dignity and confident to perform at his, her or their best. Our Investing in you goal and objectives in this area which you see listed in front of you, echoes we have learned from our employees. We've already started to make progress toward a broader goal by putting our plans and values into practice. And we'll build on that progress by being strategic. This means we'll be focusing our efforts upstream on addressing root causes and where needs and opportunities are greatest in our organization. Building a racially just engage workplace culture where leaders are modeling the way and where we are developing people, managers and improving conflict management systems are some of our priorities this year. As you see in the list in front of you. One of the best ways to know for being successful is to continue to listen to our to what our employees are telling us about their employee experience and how their experiences vary based on factors such as race, gender, where they are in the organization and what they do in the organization. Experiences that include their level of engagement and feeling respected and valued. The extent to which employees are accountable for their work, both at the individual employee level as well as the leadership level, and how this the skills of and the relationship with their managers influence the quality of their work and the levels of engagement within the organization. Our ability to understand whether we're being successful also relies on the indicators listed here, such as supervisors ability to effectively manage conflict in the workplace. Disciplinary practices occur by race, gender and position. Information from our labor management partnerships to see where we can work more collaboratively to improve outcomes for our employees and our organization. And the extent to which imply employees feel empowered in their work to do innovation to help us deliver those high quality services. One of our biggest priorities this year is to improve how we are measuring employee engagement. We've had success with our current approach of measuring annually and responding to the data with action plans at every level of the organization from year one to year or two of the annual engagement survey. Our engagement index increased four points, which is pretty significant for an organization of our size. As we get more rigorous in our measurement and accountability at the county, we want to make sure our measurement methodology fits into our overall performance management framework. We also want to look at our balance of quantitative and qualitative data and explore other best practices out there. And we want to look at how engagement is impacting indicators of organizational performance. As Director Aaron's previously mentioned, things like turnover, injuries and grievances that have been linked to engagement. Another major priority for us is to redesign or is to design an integrated workplace conflict management system to be more equitable, accessible, agile and focused upstream. We've already convened a Cross County multi-stakeholder group to gather information on the current state of how and where our various conflict management systems work and the extent to which they're effective. Our next steps are for us to develop a shared vision around the country, a culture of conflict in our organization, and a framework as well as recommendations and an implementation plan with a core group of subject matter experts and practitioners as well as the broader stakeholder group. Can I ask a quick question there? Yes, thank you. It's an issue I have a lot of personal interest in just because of my background working in labor relations and human resources. When do you expect to have kind of an outline of what that looks like? Because I just think that is such a challenge and such a big opportunity for us as an employer. If we can find ways to resolve conflict that are durable and that empower and give our employees the tools to continue to resolve conflicts for themselves. It's almost like we do, and I hesitate to do this because I'm not really comparing our employees to children. But what you do with your kids, right? You help them through the conflicts, but you also want to give them the tools so that as they go off in life, that they can resolve conflicts for themselves without, you know, needing to rely on people. And I just think that that would be such a positive step for us. Unproductive employee conflict and employee supervisor conflict or manager conflicts. It harms productivity. It harms customer service, and it makes life miserable for everybody who's around it and who's involved in it. So you could improve. I mean, it's just a win, win win all the way around, if we can really get to that. I'd be very interested. I know you don't have the plan today, but I'd be really interested to see sort of what that ends up looking like. So I think it could be groundbreaking. Thank you. Thank you. I will at least give you a timeline of our effort and towards the end of the briefing. So we'll have some more information. And the final piece of our priorities is in alignment with our equity and social justice strategic plan. One of our major priorities is to continue to build a racially just workplace culture. Our holistic, coordinated and collaborative approach with this priority includes strategies to foster healthy dialog on an understanding of racial equity among employees and their work groups, exploring innovative and upstream ways such as restorative workplace strategies and workplace coaching. As a part of the integrated conflict management system and racial equity training tools and resources for our people leaders. I so just wanted to briefly share the timeline that lays out the actions that you can expect to see over the next year based on our priorities. So for the employee engagement and management evaluation and work, we're generally in the planning and scoping phase already. More of that will be happening in August and September. And the idea is to, by early next year, be able to advertise and select a vendor if if it's different from the one that we currently work with for our employee engagement survey needs. And then also for the integrated conflict resolution work. We're currently in the planning and scoping phase and we'll be continuing to assess the current content contacts and developing a vision as well as the framework and draft recommendations in an implementation plan by early next year. And there might be an opportunity for us to come back, since you are interested in that, to review in terms of what those recommendations and ideas are, if you want that to happen. We do have one more of these briefings scheduled for a little further down the road. So that might be an excellent time to update on all of the progress to then. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So this concludes my portion of the briefing and so thank you. And I would like to turn it over to my colleague Karlene. Good morning, everyone. For the record, I'm calling Sakamoto. I'm the manager of Employee Health and Well-Being. It's a section in the Human Resources Division. Most people, most employees and yourselves probably know us as the healthy incentives program. But what we're excited about is joining the Investing in You initiative. It provides us lots of opportunities to expand and grow on behalf of efforts to help our employees serve our customers. So before I go into the presentation, I just wanted to bring your attention to our mission statement. We aspire to be a workplace that is known for caring about our health and well-being of our employees, staying safe and ensuring quality and affordable health care. We spend about half of our waking hours at work. We know that work affects health and wellbeing and conversely, our health and wellbeing impacts our work. As Ireland has been talking about the importance of engage workforce, we totally understand that interconnectedness, that and our mission to that goal. So what we have here is a opportunity to take our current program and our current benefits package, our current focus on worker safety and broaden it to look at a much broader scope of wellbeing physical, social, emotional, financial, as well as a sense of purpose. This would give us a greater impact in terms of employer performance and overall health of our workforce. And this is the message that we want to leave with you in terms of our evolution to a next generation program. Gallup, which measures both levels of engagement and levels of wellbeing, has found that those who are highly engaged and have high levels of sense of well-being missed fewer days of work and due to health problems, have greater resilience in the presence of change, more likely to recover fully after illness or injury, and are more likely to report excellent performance. So this is part of our broader business case that takes ROIC far beyond just controlling health care costs to connect to productivity, engagement, recruitment and retention. So this slide shows how we reflect this broader way of thinking. How do we get there? We in healthy incentives have a strong record working with labor partners. This has been very rewarding and this becomes the basis for us continuing to evolve the program. And we have been in business for over ten years, believe it or not, and we have had some associated cost savings in the earliest years of our program. But it's time for us to grow because we are a little bit out of step with research and we have heard from employees that the program has grown stale. So there is great opportunity to co-design our new program with this voice. Sure. I'm sorry. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Sure. Yes. But last year was good, so that was great. But I know that it costs more than one or two conversations in several houses, including mine. So I'm looking at page 68 and the last bullet, the percentage of county employees who choose the value based health plan. So have a little bit of problem with calling them value based health plans, because I don't want either of those by choice. But I feel like when I go to my doctor, that was the other plan that they value my health too. So I'm not sure that that's the right terminology for that. And then as we looked at that chart, all the different things that are important in a reducing stress probably went into emotional as well as physical. But we had a briefing yesterday about people whose jobs have become because of layoffs or because there just isn't many duties that need to be done, aren't being done because they don't have the money to do it. And so there's a lot more stress. And I think one of the things that would be important is helping employees to learn to deal with stress and, you know, let it go or deal with it or be more more aware that they can verbalize it to their bosses. And so that that is a huge deal. And yesterday we heard quite a briefing on that. So I just want to throw those two things out. Both of those are very good, very good points. And we are hearing the same sorts of input from labor leaders and our employees regarding the use of the term value based. I, I assure you that on every one of the plans, including the current King Care PPO plan, we are working with with regions to make sure that at least some portions of our contract with them includes what we call value based care, which is just much more related to not paying for volume, but paying based on outcomes and patient experience. And you know, for whatever reason in my family, I got to play nurse so many times in the last couple of years. And so I've had the opportunity to spend a lot of time at the hospital. And I think one of the things that I have noticed in our plan is how many former colleges pharmaceuticals are on our plan, and then they're off the plan. And so if you're used to taking one medication and then you change, your body has to adjust. And we're doing that every couple of months. It's not a good thing. So, I mean, I think we need to be a little bit careful on how many times are changing our pharmaceutical list and maybe the appeal procedure of, you know, if a person has had their medications changed a lot, that that would still be covered. So I think there's some things that we need to do on making sure that that doesn't cause more stress in people's lives, especially after a major surgery. Thank you. So to continue the briefing. What I wanted to emphasize on this slide in terms of areas where we wanted to improve upon. One of the key data that came out of the first ten years is while we have been touting our 90% participation and Healthy Incentives program. When we took a look at the 10% that doesn't participate, we have been experienced some unintended ESG impacts. If we look at the 10% that don't participate, which means that they were they're paying the highest out-of-pocket levels. People of color are two and three times overrepresented in non-participants, and people in lower wage categories are non participants from the standpoint of the kind of work people do. People in the Metro Transit Division, Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention and custodians and facilities are also notable in terms of their level of participation. So these are areas that we are going to be focusing on in terms of how we're going to be improving the current program, which I've been calling the peanut butter approach. Everybody goes through the same process in terms of engagement. What will success look like? This is a little map that shows that we are building a dashboard. And you can see that there is a bunch of preliminary indicators that we're looking at that spans all the way from survey data, all the way to health care claims data. But these are three important buckets. We will be looking at signs that we're making a change in the culture. We're definitely going to be looking at health and safety outcomes for our employees. We are also proud to be a leader in the region in terms of improving health care delivery for all. And that's why affordability and value in terms of what kind of care our employees are receiving becomes something that we hope to pass on to other employers in the region. Okay. So there's three priority areas I wanted to make sure the council knows about that's going to be happening in the remainder of 2017 and into 2018. So I'm on this slide here about additional health plan choice for 2018. So we were here at the council a couple of months ago presenting a report on a.H and that was part of a budget proviso H and stands for accountable health networks. The important thing for you to know is that this is a US plan arrangement where King County pays for value instead of volume. This is a very important concept. So Kaiser is one of those plans and we've seen many employees making a choice to go to Kaiser and we will be we're very excited about their announcements of investments in our region, and we hope more employees will give this plan cause some consideration during open enrollment this year. But we're also excited to offer H ends through Regions Blue Shield and we're going to call this King Care Select Cut because H ends is a pretty, pretty big mouthful. And these are networks designed for people who are most comfortable in the PPO market. And that's the message we will be conveying to our employees. It looks and feels like a PPO, but the providers in these networks have banded together in a business arrangement and will deliver a higher level of coordinated, patient centered care. The four networks are listed on the slide. And what what part of what we're doing as part of our communication plan will be to explain these networks, how to find out if any of these networks could work for you. A particular if you're already seeing doctors that are in these particular what I call narrow or networks within the PPO. So this is a big communication outreach push you'll be seeing starting October for open enrollment, which is the first two weeks in November. Kind of asking you to think about one side. Can you explain maybe just in a couple of ways, you know, maybe with the comparison to what is what would the difference look like from a patient's perspective from between the PPO or the Kaiser Permanente slash group Health and an Accountable Care Network? What would what would be the primary thing that I would see differently if I was going to a doctor? And that was my plan, I. Guess I would use the word coordinated care. Mm hmm. Or integrated care. Where when you go see your PPO and your PPO says, well, I think you need to go see a specialist. They may recommend somebody in their building or that they know. But if you go on to a specialist, if you're in the PPO, you may land up, you make your own appointment, you know, not necessarily coordinated with your PPO. You may have to retake tests because they're in a different system so they can't see your MRI. And then if you then go on to hospital care, then you're either you're not within a system, but you're sort of governed by what that specialist uses as a hospital. So when you go into a net of a narrow network like provided by each of these four networks that are committed to do an H and network, what they're committing to do is to act like a coordinated, integrated care network that's already in existence at Kaiser. Okay, so you double system, if you're already going to a YouTube clinic and you are a specialist, that's a you specialist specialists and you use YouTube hospital. We are hoping that you will consider as an employee signing up for the U dub RCN because what we want to do is reward doctors and providers systems for working together and we're willing to work with them in the standpoint that they provide us improved experience and results and we will pay them based on that. Okay. That helps a lot. Thank you. The second area where you're going to be seeing some activity is in terms in our efforts to modernize our approach to workplace health and well-being. And this is a really exciting effort for us because, as I like to say, in trying to describe what this means, our focus has been on physical health and nutrition. Eat smart, move more, quit tobacco. What we are looking to do in our redesign effort is to broaden our focus to support our employees in the workplace and in many more aspects. It's involves making sure employees know about existing programs because if you were to check on our websites right now, you go to one place to find out how to get into a different comp. You go to another place if you want counseling on financial management because they're offered by different sections of King County departments. So we are talking about a overall umbrella marketing or outreach that and we call a KC. Well, for now, we probably don't have a real name yet. It may come out of our efforts right now to engage employees to help us redesign the program. Large buckets of take good care, which is our benefits program, Live Healthy and Safe, which is a lot of what we do in the workplace and solve life problems, which is when people encounter a specific problem and we want to provide resources. And then you can see that we expect to support these programs through county wide program and approaches, specially designed programs, like I mentioned, for transit, THAAD and custodians. And then an element which has turned out to be something we haven't done but shown to be successful in other employers is challenges. People, whether it be in small groups or in larger groups in their departments, are participating in friendly challenges. And that's turned out to be a highly motivating element for for engaging in healthy behavior. A third priority area is regarding worker safety and our Safety and Claims section is working hard in producing their annual report. We will be highlighting in this report a new metric which is of which we're really excited about in terms of what it will tell departments. And it's a rate of absence per 1000 employees. And so that model, the implementation of the model will be to provide this data to departments and to work with the leadership to model safe behavior, and then to remind leaders of their importance to maintain a connection to their injured workers. Because workers who are who feel that their employer cares about them is likely to return to work. And this finally, as the timeline for our key activities, we're finishing up healthy incentives for this year. On July 31st, as I indicated, we're just starting up on some employee input activities through discussion groups and we will be issuing a survey. And then in October, we will begin the communications effort to prepare people for open enrollment and the introduction of these new plans. January one, New Hlah and plans go into effect, and the first quarter of 2018 is when employees will begin to see new program offerings that hopefully respond better to employees, wants and needs. Thank you. Okay, so that seems like the end of the presentation. Any questions or comments? Council members? I have one. I and this is a little self-motivated, I will say. But so we've all been doing health incentives over here as well. And I think there were ways to keep it if you really sort of embraced the concept, if there were ways to do it that were minimal effort and there were ways to do it, and you could change up what you did so that it was more interesting and varied. What kind of involvement do you expect or do you know yet that the employees will have to have in that new program? Or is that just sort of like steer still at the design phase? Well, I guess what we have concluded and we're confirming this with employees is that we don't want employees jumping through hoops. We don't want them simply to check a box for it to be able to check a box. So we're going to be designing programs that matches better where employees are at in terms of their engagement and motivation for health. So the key in terms of our our programs going forward is that the out-of-pocket expense levels will no longer be tied to your health in your reporting on health. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we'll look forward to seeing what that includes. I will just one comment as we wrap up. There is a great deal of value in all of this work. As I said at the beginning, the 12 plus thousand employees of King County deliver all of the services that we provide to our constituents. And so having people who are at work healthy, engaged, feel empowered to do their best job will provide the best customer service to our our residents. And that's what we want. So it would be really helpful to me as we talk through this and go into the future if we could find a way to tie employee engagement with customer and and, you know, constituent engagement. I know that there's a separate survey. That's the public facing survey that gets done from time to time. I just think it's important to track those two things together. I believe they will track very well together. I think that when we have empowered, satisfied employees, not only do they have a better work experience, but they provide better service to our customers. Which is it? Which is why we're here. So that would be helpful to me to sort of tie those two things together as as we continue to go forward. And I really I think you're doing some very, very fascinating and interesting work, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes back to us in another few months. If there are no other questions or comments, that brings us to the end of our agenda. And our next meeting will be on July 26th when council members will recall. We have a special meeting in the evening at 6:00 at Kent City Hall. So we will see you there. Thank you all very much for being here. And this meeting is adjourned.	A MOTION approving a memorandum of understanding to restructure the Eastside Rail Corridor regional advisory committee.
king_48be87f4-e2f3-4a3f-a15a-580fd7a0856a	20th and 2021 meeting of the committee of the whole. And as we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional land of the Puget Sound, this peoples past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continued to live here since time immemorial and also acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. In light of the public health emergency, Governor Inslee has issued an emergency order suspending the section of the Open Public Meetings Act that requires that we have a physical space for the public to watch their meetings. We have three items on today's agenda the appointment and appointment to the Northeast District of King County District Court legislation relating to the best hearts for kids implementation plan and emotion relating to race and gender conscious affirmative action. Two two housekeeping notes. As we get started to help us manage the meeting, I'd ask the public, as well as the executive and council staff to please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. Additionally, if you're connecting to the meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment, please connect the meeting to the Zoom application if at all possible. If you're connected in the meeting without using the Zoom application, we may not be able to unmute your line and have issues with DeLay as well. With that introduction, Madam Clerk, I ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member. County Council members. Ambassador. Council member time. Here. Council member calls their council member member. Dear Council member of the group here. Councilmember one right down here. Council members the way here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Vice Chair denied entertained a motion to approve the minutes of our October six, 2021 meeting. I move minutes of. October six, 2021. Thank you. The minutes of our previous meeting or before us has seen no discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes. Please signify this. I are. Opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Madam Cook, I do believe we have people on the line for public comment, correct? That is correct, Mr. Chair. Great. Then let me share the ground rules and how we do this in a virtual setting. Public comment and must be really the item on today's meeting agenda and should not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition. It must also not include obscene speech if a speaker fails to abide by these restrictions. I will rule them out of order and have the speaker potentially removed from the virtual meeting, though I have not needed to do so. The entire time we've been working virtually. And don't expect that to start happening today. Now to describe the process as all members of the public joined in the meeting, they were automatically muted. We can see your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Our committee will call the names or numbers when your name or the last three digits of your phone number is called. Staff will ask you to unmute your line through the Zoom application. Please make sure that you also on your own phone if you've muted yourself as a courtesy. And for this portion of the public comment, please do not use the raised hand function. Everyone will be called on. In fact, if you are called on and you are not here to offer public comment, you can just simply say pass and we'll go on to the next person. A reminder, if you're calling in from his cell phone, we recommend you use the Zoom application to eliminate the possibility that we may not be able to find you. And before you begin your testimony, please begin by simply stating your name and pausing so that we can be sure that we can hear you. And then once we've confirmed, we can hear you. If you can begin by saying and spelling your name so we can capture it accurately. For the record, you'll have 2 minutes for your public comment. You'll hear a timer go off. The minute you reach 2 minutes, you can certainly wrap up your thought, but we would ask that you conclude your comments to allow the next person to speak. If you much past 2 minutes, I will interrupt and don't want to be forced to mute lines. If you are listening on TV or streaming, please turn that function off. Otherwise we'll hear feedback in the background when you were providing your public testimony. And please, if you're able, please hang up after your public testimony and follow the rest of the meeting by watching on Channel 22 TV or streaming online, because fewer people in the Zoom app will make it easier for us to manage the rest of the call. The link to stream online is on the council's website, which is W WW dot King County gov backslash console and then you simply click on the ever popular watch just live button will now begin the public comment period reminder to please wait to be acknowledged when we we can hear you begin by saying your name and passing will confirm we can hear you. And with that, Madam Clerk, please go ahead and begin calling names and numbers from public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is Karama Hawkins. Please go ahead. Good morning. My name is Karama Hawkins. I am asking the Council this morning to support the motion that has been introduced by Council member Zella High. It is way past time that King County worked toward effectively restoring equity to Washington State by supporting the urging of Governor Inslee to sign an executive directive to rescind 9801, which has essentially killed affirmative action in Washington State, not initiative 200, as many falsely and erroneously believe we've seen over the past several months, in particular a number of studies and audits and information that has come out about the impact of disparate employment and contracting throughout various governments, including King County. And now is the time to make that change and to ensure that everyone has the equal access to gain equity in employment, in contracting and education. And we believe that, especially in King County, this is the best place to start actively working toward that. I ask that the members please support and vote to pass a do pass recommendation on Council Member ZOA House motion today. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is c0poc Seattle. If you could provide a warning or name, that'd be great. Yes, my name is Anand at the Metro. I'm here on behalf of the Coalition of Professionals of Color. We worked with the council and the county auditors in your recent review of contracting practices, and we encourage the council to seriously consider Councilmember Lay's motion to ask the Governor to rescind Executive Order 98.01. This executive order has caused a lot of confusion with not only state agencies, but how it has been carried through all governmental levels in the state and with King County's council's support. We are confident that the governor will seriously consider rescinding this outdated executive order. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Adi. Can you please provide us with your full name? Yes. You're on mute. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Thank you. My name is Addie Smith. Thank you. Go ahead. My name is Addie Smith. My daughter and I are hate crime survivors. I moved to this state in May of 2019 to work for a billionaire corporate landlord in a luxury apartment building. The attacks on mine and my daughters, like the hate crime attacks, began in June of 2019 because I wouldn't allow a white woman to qualify to live in one of the low income apartments through the arts program to be bumped up the wait list. Judge Lisa O'Toole. Judge Michael Finkel. Judge Susan Mahoney. Judge Marcus Nadler. Judge Debra Alexander. Judge Justin Walsh and Judge Julie Spector and others have all helped this corporate landlord, Sy Hadley, the arts program, the police and the racists. When I went to my employer, they lied for two and a half months that they stopped threats for stopping the harassment and the attack. They said they sent ten day notices to stop their action. I went to the Bellevue District Court for an order of protection. Judge Marcus Nadler refused. He denied my petition and the attacks continued. The attacks were described by and harassment, according to the King County law. He said that these attacks were par in course for my job. When I tried to appeal his racist ruling, his staff referred to me in documents as the defendant and the white woman as the plaintiff. The clerks also didn't send my notice to appeal to the Superior Court, and this was intentional. What I'm trying to say by saying all of this is there is a problem in the courts and my duty. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you now. Oh, I'm sorry. Said something about the host. Wants you to unni. Okay. Sorry. The the. So the problem is. And I've gotten off of my speech. Off of my speech. The problem with King County, Bellevue, East District Court is that they have built my big corporate landlords to protect them, essentially. And the attack on my daughter and I have gone unheard. And I need someone to hold both Daniel Palomino and those judges that I need accountable for protecting that those landlords. Must. Mean those racists. Oh, I'll call back because I got that off, Mike. It's okay. That's quite all right. And you have a lot there if you'd like to email. I would suggest you email me. And I will make. I'll be responsible for making sure you know who your council member is and connecting you. It sounds like you may have concerns that could be worked through with the Ombudsman's office as well. So let me facilitate that if I can. If you would like to email me my office, I will make sure we make a few connections for you. Thank you. Thank you. And. Thank you. The next person is. Where'd she go? Karen Olmstead. One moment, please. She raised your hand and I last year. Now I found her. Now I'm asking her to unmute. Karen Armstead. Good morning. My name is Robert Armstead. Oh, great. Thank you. And I am calling in support of motion. 20210391. I will not repeat the comments that have been previously made, but I will state that I'm in total agreement with the King County Auditor's recommendation about a disparity disparity study for King County. But I want to to add to that, there have been at least five or six disparity studies done for organizations in King County within the last ten years, two or three at town transit, two at the Port of Seattle, one for Washington state airports. So there is substantial information that is available that describes in detail the disparate treatment that has occurred in Washington State since 1998 with the passage of a 200. There is not a need for another study to justify your action. That information is already available. It details by race and ethnicity the disparate impact and discrimination that has occurred in this county as a part of the State Action for II 200. So I very much urge that each of the county members support this motion and that King County will urge Governor Law to do what is necessary in order to correct the harm that has substantially impacted thousands of citizens of King County since 1998. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Jesse Wayne Barry. I am asking you to unmute. Jesse. I'm very. I know, Mr. WEINBERG just during the room he may be getting set up at the same time, so we'll hold for just a minute. Mr. Wayne. Barry, if you can hear us, we've sent a mute. You're welcome to. And you will. There we go. I see you unmuted now. We're in public comment and if you'd like to offer a public comment. Sure. Well, first of all, thank you for, Mr. Chairman, for putting this issue on your agenda. I won't take up much time because I'd rather yield that time to the people from King County who are going to be testifying as well as question your committee of the hall members may have. But in a nutshell, we come to you really with what we think is good news. We applaud the King County Auditor's report entitled Contracting Inequities that Still Persist in a Racially Neutral Environment. And based on the research that the attorneys for the Washington Equity Now Alliance have have provided us. The the court decision that was handed down in 2003 by the Washington State Supreme Court, that was subsequently echoed by our state attorney general, who, by the way, used to be a member of your body there. The King County Council make it unanimous that Washington state has been a racially and gender neutral. Affirmative, I'm sorry, racially and gender conscious affirmative action state. Even when Initiative 200 was passed back in 1998. And so we're just urging the King County Council and today the committee of the hall to use this tool to move forward with some of the with all of the recommendations that the auditor has has made in terms of contracting and and King County. And and recognize that when that report, which we reviewed refers to I 200 and refers to the attorney general's opinion that in addition to that support you have in your favor, a decision from the state's highest court that says that I 200 certainly prohibited a lesser qualified candidate for being selected or qualified candidate for a job, a seat in college, or a contract based on race or gender. But it never, ever. From the time it was introduced to the time the voters passed it to now was intended to eliminate affirmative action programs or to move Washington state to a racially neutral affirmative action position. And so I'm available to answer any questions that you or your your committee members may have. And again, I thank you for for hearing this issue today. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I believe I've called everyone on the line. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Let's make sure that we have got got everyone. And there isn't anyone remaining on the line who wishes to provide public comment. If there's anyone on the line who would like to provide public comment and has not had the opportunity to do so. Please use the raise your hand feature in Zoom or if you're connected by phone. Press Star nine. It was basically hands and feet or if you're connected by phone. Press Star nine. To activate the raise your hand features we can make sure to call on. I'm calling you and you're from everyone who's joined us wishing to offer a comment. All right, then. No further requests for public comment and will close public comment. That takes us to item five on today's agenda will meet which is making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the Northeast District of the East Division of the King County District Court, a process governed by King County Code for the appointments in front of us. Today, the Council advertised the vacancy and accepted accepted applications until August 9th of this year. We received four applications from five eligible candidates during the application period. Since there were five eligible applications, a subcommittee process was used to narrow the finalists to be interviewed by the Committee of the Whole Councilmembers. Dombroski fielded. She and I held interviews with all five candidates in December. I'm sorry, on October 13th and 15th to narrow the field to the two candidates who are with us today. At this time, I would ask for motion to select Peter Quinn and Renita Rampersad as the finalists to be interviewed by the committee consistent with King County Code. Two point 70.20. So elegy. And the motion is before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor please signify by saying i. I. Those opposed nay. The ayes have it. Motion is adopted. Before we proceed, proceed, I'd like to provide members of the attendees with an overview of how this process will work. Members should have received the application materials by email on Monday. These materials were sent around again this morning, and we will begin today's proceedings with a brief staff report on the proposed motion from Erika Newman of Council staff. And after the staff report, the committee will interview each candidate one at a time. During the interview, the candidate not being interviewed will be placed in the zoom waiting room as to not get advance, not to get in advance on the interview questions or on the other candidates responses. Once each candidate has been interviewed, there is if there is an interest among the council members. The committee will go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of the candidates. We will then rejoin the Zoom meeting and take up the legislation itself. Are there any questions on how this will work from either members or the candidates? Before we get started. Hearing none. Ms.. Newman, the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Erica Nolan, Council Central Staff. The Items. For Proposed Motion 2021 zero 335 begin on page seven of your package. The applicant packet does include a judicial ratings, which start on page 13. As you mentioned, the district court is the county's court of limited jurisdiction and has a responsibility for misdemeanor misdemeanor criminal offenses in the county's unincorporated, unincorporated areas. The court handles approximately 250,000 filings annually throughout the north, south, east and west divisions. The proposed motion is to fill position number seven and the Northeast Electoral District, which is which is within the East Division and was made vacant by the retirement of Judge Donna Tucker. Under state law, the King County Council, as the county legislative authority, is directed to fill district court vacancies by appointment. As you mentioned, there are two eligible candidates that were selected from the subcommittee process to be interviewed today, and the selected candidate will fill the remainder of Judge Tucker's term, which ends in January of 2023. In its current form, proposed motion 2020 10335 has a blank for the name of the selected person being appointed. A verbal amendment will be needed to insert the name. Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks. Thank you, Miss Newman. Other for the questions of staff. I guess not further. Other questions of South. Harry? None. I expect each interview to take roughly 20 minutes and will ask each candidate to provide an opening and closing remarks, each to be limited to 2 minutes. That will be timed. Soon you'll hear a timer go off for 2 minutes and members should have received a prepared set of suggested interview questions by email yesterday, which were then we sent before the committee meeting in accordance with past practice. I ask for volunteer members to volunteer to read the prepared interview questions and candidates are asked to limit responses to 2 minutes before the meeting. We randomly assigned the order of interviews. Will begin with Mr. Peterson, followed by Ms.. Rampersad. Are there any questions before we advance to the first interview? Hearing none. I'll ask the clerk to place Ms.. Rampersad in the zoom waiting room. And as a reminder to members and staff, please let the clerks admit people from the waiting room and avoid the temptation to click that admin button. Madam Clerk, if you can confirm when that's done. Rampersad is in the waiting room this year. Great. Thank you, Mr. Peterman. Morning. Good morning and welcome to the committee the whole this morning. I want to thank you for your interest in the judicial position and welcome you to the whole committee. I invite you to begin with your open remarks and ask that you women them to 2 minutes. Thank you. Good morning, all. My name is Peter Preq1. I was born in New York City. I grew up in Massachusetts. I went to law school in New Orleans. And 33 years ago, I chose to make my home in the Pacific Northwest. I live in Kirtland with my wife, who is an Eastside native. We have just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. My daughter came home to live with us during COVID and she has recently returned to Boston, where she graduated from college in 2020. I'm an attorney with the scrap division of the Department of Public Defense. I have spent the last 30 plus years in the District Municipal and superior courts advocating for others who are often facing the challenges of poverty, discrimination, mental health issues and substance. Dependance. I have been shaped by my exposure to the experiences, lived by others from diverse walks of life. They have provided me valuable lessons that I hope to bring to the District Court bench. Several judges had suggested that I'd become a judge. First, I was flattered that people I respect would think that highly of them. Then I sought out judges to better understand the job. I completed the King County District Court Tem training program, and I had the opportunity to serve as a pro tem judge in several municipal courts to gain exposure and to truly grasp the importance of the role. I continued to gain experience representing people in court. I took time to contemplate whether I was ready to fulfill this role. And only when I believed I had acquired the necessary breadth and depth of experience did I start the process of applying for appointment. Even though I had been approached by several Superior Court judges encouraging me to seek appointment as a judge in the Superior Court, I know that my true calling is to serve in the District Court. I have been representing clients in person and griping since the court reopened in July of 2020. I have faced the realities of Colvin that is, that have come to our courthouses. I have adapted to these realities, and I have ideas on how we can move forward to address the backlog of cases in our courts. I want to be part of the solution. I'm proud of the letters of recommendation for endorsements I've provided as they speak to my abilities that I wish to bring to the bench. I am prepared to dedicate myself to service as a district court judge in service of the law and the people of King County. Thank you. Thank you so much. Council members and entertain a volunteer to ask the first question. I will volunteer for councilmembers. Hello. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here today and for your interest. May you please describe or expand on your efforts to implement anti-racist and equity and social justice practices in the legal system? Well, throughout my career in representing people of marginalized groups, I have had to not only deal with the reality of my clients, but I have also had to at times confront it in the courtroom with witnesses who were operating from a place of bias or prejudice, and also in educating potential jurors in the courtroom to concepts of implicit bias. We are lucky that our courts are evolving in helping to educate jurors as to those issues. But as a defense attorney representing people from marginalized groups, I have had to push those issues forward. It is not always a comfortable situation. To have to confront issues of racism and bias as it impacts not only witnesses, participants, and unfortunately, sometimes people in the courtroom, court staff, judges, but helping the public to understand how their life experiences may differ from those who I'm representing and try to help them. Understand issues of implicit bias and their own place in that in that spectrum. So those are some of the things that that I've tried to do in my practice. Thank you so much. I can know again if you're with the chair. Another volunteer. Mr. Chair, I'd be glad to ask the next question. Thank you, Councilmember Carlos. Sure. Thank you. And again, welcome to our council meeting. How do you approach judicial matters with which you are unfamiliar? And when that happens, what resources do you tend to seek? Well, I think the the first place that as a judge, if you are confronting an issue that you're not familiar with, you have to obviously start with the law. Then you have to rely upon briefing from the litigants to help illuminate issues that you are not familiar with there. In my materials, I actually reference an experience that I had with a new judge on the bench who was faced with some issues that he had never had to deal with before. And he shared with counsel that he intended to. Turn to other, more experienced judges to gain insight as to how to move forward. And I was particularly impressed by this because it, I thought, reflected humility, but also a desire to get the answer right and to seek out other colleagues. And in this case, the judge. Told Council ahead of time, Hey, this is what I plan to do. Those are the steps that I hope I will take if I'm lucky enough to serve. But one of the things that's also important is because of my 30 plus years of experience in litigating very, very complex issues I have been exposed to. Some of the issues that will be hopefully placed in front of me. And I think having that experience will help to guide me going forward as to how to address situations for which I haven't been called on to award for. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues. Third question. Come to my duty. Thank you. Good to see you again. Thank you. Please describe a challenging ethical dilemma that you've encountered in your experience. And tell us a. Little bit about how you approached to resolve that situation. It's actually something that occurred to me, actually earlier in my career. I had relocated from Massachusetts to Washington, and when I had obtained a job working in a firm that did civil litigation, I was called upon to perform an act that I deemed to be unethical. And I had just started dating the woman who has now been my wife for 30 years. And when I came home, I called her up and said, I need to talk to you. That she worked in a law firm and continues to work for a law firm. And I said, you know, this is what this partner is asking me to do. And at that time, it had been a very big challenge to find a job in Seattle. And they had been searching for about a year before I obtained that position. And I said to her, I'm I'm in a very difficult place. I think this is unethical. And I think I need to go in tomorrow and resign. And she said, well, you had one of two choices. You either go in and resign or you get yourself a new girlfriend because I'm not going to be a part of someone who is going to be unethical. First of all, that's what I did. I went in the next day and I quit. And I can say. Later on, I found out that that attorney was ultimately disbarred. But it also told me about the quality of the person that I was dating at the time. You know, as far as potential financial reward was not even a consideration, it was you have to do the right thing. And as I've heard from many people, you know, ethics are the things you do in the dark with no one else is watching. Well, Jane, I'm glad. That worked out for you, by the way. Did it? Did. The next question is the volume of cases facing a district court judge is significant. How do you approach managing multiple high priority matters in front of you at the same time? It's I mean, one of the things that the experience of working as a public defense attorney is you always have more cases than you have time. And so you, by necessity, learn to address. Matters in a swift. Crisis. In my experience, when I was pretending on a regular basis in SeaTac Municipal Court, I had a regular calendar that was on the calendar where they grouped a lot of interpreter cases. And as any judge will tell you, handling interpreter matters takes a lot of time and effort. And in that case, the calendar was chock full of multiple different languages and lots of people in the courtroom. And you have to work through the process of. Recognizing the matters that have to be addressed. First, you have to prioritize. You have to continually work through matters. You have to be diligent. You have to be attentive. But you also have to be decisive. In the district court, judges are not given the latitude to step back and say, Well, I'm going to step back and take this under consideration. We have to make decisions and we have to keep moving. It's not that due process is sacrificed, but if we don't act decisively. Other people's access to justice gets denied because their cases can get hurt. And so we have to always have that balance of expediency with attention to the issues that are properly before the court. And sometimes it means that we can't give each case the amount of time that we would in a vacuum. And that's just the reality. We don't have all of the available of bailable resources with all the competing needs. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues. Then I will volunteer again. What about the district court interests you the most? Well. I think the reason that I feel drawn to serve in the district court is that you have. Participants. Who have the ability with support and direction to move forward and have successful lives, that if we can help individuals who are challenged in many myriad of ways to address some of those underlying issues. What is a bump in the road does not become a life path that if we can. Assist in that we can make a difference in lives. I'm I'm often. Reminded of the. Lessons I learned when my daughter was in a montessori school. And that is the idea that there are limits and boundaries and there are consequences. And that by imposing consequences on. Times when you go beyond the bounds, it does not have to be vindictive or punitive, but it can be corrective that we can help to try to. Direct people in a more pro-social, appropriate manner. We always have to remember the. Access to access to justice and due process requirements of the court. But we also have to keep in mind that the courthouse should not just be a punitive place, but that there are concepts of restorative justice that we also have to keep in mind as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Last question from the draft list council members. Question six. So. Jerry, I'm happy to go. Thank you. Go ahead. What do you see as the most significant challenge facing the district court and how do you think it should be addressed? Well, the obvious issue we're dealing with right now is how to how do we respond to the realities that COVID has thrust upon us? I think some of the important things that we need to do immediately is to first fully utilize all our existing facilities. For instance, in Redman, we have a fourth courtroom that is currently not being used. I think we have a second court room in Issaquah that could be used for additional criminal trials that we're going to have . We have a backlog of cases that we're going to have to work through. I think those are two things we need to focus on immediately. We also have to find ways to extend the use of video for certain preliminary hearings. I think it's a way to allow participation when we can't have full courtrooms. I think the county, the courts should also partner with other county facilities to help provide access to people with limited technology. In my work defending people from marginalized groups, one of the critical things that that I have. Had to deal with with a certain level of frustration, is that my client, who doesn't have access to the same level of technology that other people might have, are often put in the box. They're not presented in the same way as someone who has access to quality technology. I think the county courts could potentially partner with libraries, community centers, possibly even firehouses or other courthouses to provide places where individuals can access technology so that they can appear with the same quality of technology as more affluent people do. I think we also need to consider transition to a standing trial calendar to reduce the downtime and the heat and to try to increase efficiency in the way trials are currently conducted. Possibly even consolidating locations of jury trials to make more effective use of our jury pools. Extend or expand the use of programs in court. Commissioners for certain kinds of hearings allow for continued use of video for contested infraction mitigation hearings. I'm also developing a pool of experienced civil attorneys to act as potential commissioners in civil and small claims matters. And this would have a dual benefit not only help work through our civil backlog, but also giving attorneys who have a desire to potentially serve as superior court judges but want to focus on civil practice and not having demands of criminal practice in district court, a way to gain that necessary experience. So those are just some things I think we need to focus on right now to help us move forward and address the, you know, the COVID backlog. That is what we have now and what's going to be coming in the near future. Thank you. Thank you so much. Are there follow up questions from colleagues before we ask for Mr. Pittman's closing remarks? You know, Mr. Quinn, your closing remarks. Thank you. I have represented individuals with complex legal issues and personal issues in difficult cases for 30 plus years. Through them, I have deep knowledge and experience and also insight into the challenges faced by those who appear in our courts. I have served as a pro tem judge. I understand what the job entails. I know the difficult decisions that a judge is required to make on a daily basis. I am prepared, I am ready, and I am able to make those decisions. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you so much again for your interest in serving on the court and sharing your thoughts and perspectives with us today. We're richer for it. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. If you will please admit, Mr. Speaker, into the waiting room and invite back. Misrepresented. And this teacher, Mr. People, is now enjoying them. And Mrs. Rampersad. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. I again want to welcome you. Well, first, to begin by thanking you for your interest in serving on the district court bench and serving the people of King County. And I welcome you to the committee of the hall this morning and invite you to begin with your opening remarks and ask you to limit those to 2 minutes. Thank you. Good morning to the council members and thank you for having me back again today. Intellectual integrity, commitment to justice. An unparalleled breadth of experience. These are the traits of an exceptionally well-qualified judge. These are the traits I would bring to the King County District Court bench. Since graduating from Georgetown Law 12 years ago, I have worked at every level of court in Washington state, from municipal court to the Supreme Court. I've also held every role in the criminal justice system, beginning as a law clerk to then Chief Justice Madsen on the state Supreme Court as a public defender in municipal district and superior courts in both traditional and therapeutic courts. As a prosecutor trying cases before a jury in King County District Court and as a judge pro tempore. I've also worked abroad as an attorney and immersed myself in other cultures in Kenya, Tanzania and China. That's relevant because there I gained valuable, invaluable understanding of the different kinds of constituents who call King County home. And in the two years since I appeared before you last. In response to feedback I received, then I stepped away from my full time work and appellate caseload at a law firm I founded this past spring. I founded the law firm previously, but I stepped away from that work this past spring to be able to pro-tem full time. And I now appear regularly in eight different municipal courts in the region, and I have seen how each court has handled the pandemic backlog. I've presided over hearings remotely in person and in hybrid hearings, and utilized a variety of case management computer systems. Because of this breadth of experience, I have the judgment, perspective and skills to handle cases in District Court fairly efficiently and with fidelity to applicable law. As a result, I've been endorsed by over 20 judges at every level of court, including by a majority of justices on the Washington State Supreme Court, all of whom know I am the right choice for this position. Thank you. And I look forward to the counsels questions. Thank you. Gentlemen. Thank you so much for being here. Question number one Please describe your efforts to implement anti-racist and equity and social justice principles or practices in the legal system. Yeah. Thank you. My entire career has really been about promoting social justice and equity. I've been a public defender. I have done work in civil legal aid. I've done work in human rights abroad and working with refugees in a UN camp and also urban refugees in Tanzania. So it's a little hard to narrow down something to say to you all. But some examples of the systemic work I've done in Washington State are first, I founded and run a mentorship program for underrepresented law students, and that includes disabled students, women and other minority groups. I founded that about three years ago, and it's now grown to 125 participants this year. We hold multiple events here, and it's a collaboration of more than ten bar associations, including the Washington State Bar Association. So that's the work I'm very proud of because I think it's important to facilitate others having a voice in our legal profession , and that's how we can ensure social justice and equity long term. I also serve on the Washington State Bar Association's Equity and Inclusion Workgroup, and I've worked with the Bar's Diversity Committee on that mentorship program and other issues. One case that I am particularly proud of as a public defender that I handled an appeal began when a woman called police to say that a man was breaking down her door trying to get into her apartment. And based on that call, the police created a suspect description of unidentified male. My client, who is a young Latino teenage boy, was with his friend, a young black boy. They were two blocks away from where the call initiated. They were in a different building, in the same apartment complex, and the police stopped and arrested them. Ultimately, the police learned that the woman had actually just heard pounding and never saw anyone and assumed that it was someone trying to break in and assumed it was a male and so on. Appeal I argued to the court, Unidentified male isn't really a suspect description in any meaningful sense, and that my client was stopped purely because of who he was and what he looked like. He was on the street being Latino, and I called it out for what it was. It was profiling, and the Court of Appeals agreed and reversed that conviction. As a judge, I would be in the position and there's a pro tem judge. I'm in the position to make those decisions instead of challenging, challenging them two years after the fact, after someone's been dragged through the process. So that is how I would hope to continue that work from the bench. Thank you, Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome to our council. My question is, how do you approach judicial matters with which you are unfamiliar? And if that happens, what resources do you tend to seek out? Yes. Having worked in a lot of different courts and a lot of different levels. And that is definitely something that I've encountered. But I think everyone encounters and I have a multi-step process. The first issue is just identifying the issue and making sure that I realize, hey, this is an issue that implicates a particular law or a particular constitutional doctrine. I can't just make a decision subjectively or based on my opinion. It needs to be based on this particular legal framework that already exists. And that's something I have a database in my head of issues that can come up in courts of limited jurisdiction. Having worked in appeals for more than five years exclusively and handled a lot of different issues in District Court as well as a judge pro-tem and a public defender, I have a quite an extensive database, so I'm very confident in my ability to identify an issue. The second is it's always important to give the parties the opportunity to weigh in and make their arguments about that issue. So it's not just I identify the issue, I apply the law in my own head. This is something that needs to be presented. The parties I've identified, there's a request to close the courtroom, and this is the legal framework I'm going to be applying. And these are the factors I'm considering. Please make your arguments to try to give the parties the opportunity to present that. To me, it's also an opportunity for them to bring to my attention any change in the law, any new case that I'm not already aware of that is relevant to that issue because the law is always changing. There are always new cases coming down from the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, new legislation being passed, and it's impossible for one person to keep up with all of that. So that's another sort of safeguard. And although I think I may think I know the law give the parties an opportunity to to present new information to me. The other thing is, as a long time appellate attorney, I have exceptional research skills. So I can very quickly go into Westlaw, Lexis other other research databases and find that information on my own. And I often will do that while the parties are talking to me. I'll be looking up different laws by reading through different cases quickly. Another thing is to hit the pause button and have the courage to say, we don't have enough information right now for this decision to be made with due fidelity to applicable law. The parties and I are not sure we have all of the relevant law before us. We need to we need to hit the pause button. Let's set a hearing where we fully hear all of the arguments just related to this issue. And so I think it takes a certain amount of courage to say we realize that we don't know everything in this moment. I also it my list of endorsements is quite long. And most of those people are those judges are my mentors. And so I have a lot of people on speed dial who I can quickly call and say, hey, am I missing something? Is is this your understanding of the law? And, you know, is this the appropriate legal framework to apply? I would never ask them to make the decision for me. Of course, at the end of the day, if I'm a judge pro-tem or on the bench, I need to make that decision in the courtroom. But it can be very helpful to have a colleague or a mentor weigh in and say, no, you missed this other thing . Didn't you hear about this new case and I can go and look it up. So those are all the strategies that I deploy to address an issue that I'm not familiar with. If it comes up during the hearing and obviously if I have advanced notice, I can do all of that research on my own before the hearing ever starts and be prepared so that I can run the courtroom efficiently. Thank you very much. Oh, it's good to see you again and welcome. The third question is, please tell us about a time that you experienced a challenging ethical dilemma in your experience and how did you approach or resolve that situation? Oh. The most challenging ethical dilemma I ever faced was early in my career, I was working as a civil legal aid attorney, providing legal advice to refugees in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I worked for a very small nonprofit organization, and. Mostly we were documenting having people come in to do interviews, to hear their story so that they could explain to us and we could identify who had a valid asylum claim and who had was entitled to legal protection under the UN rules, who could potentially apply for asylum or some kind of legal status under the rules of Tanzania? So, so that's the work I was doing. And I interacted with a lot of people who were displaced from other countries, mostly from the Congo. One man in particular, I will never forget, I heard his story and did the interview. And at the end he at the end of the interview, he said, I can tell you're a person who really cares about other people. I can tell that you're a good person. I know that you're American and that you come from a place of resources. Would you take my son? And that was a very that was a very challenging moment for me. There was a moment where in my head I considered, oh, what if I did adopt this adorable two year old boy who I know has been homeless? His his father loves him, wants the best life for him, wants to take care of him and provide for him in any way that he possibly can. And I had a moment where I, I flashed in my head, what if I did walk home today with my husband and say I had I adopted this child, I kind of, you know, imagined it all in my head. And then then my legal training kicked in and I thought, okay, what are the ethical implications of saying yes to this very profound request? This father, who loves his son, would be separated from him. We may have other clients who now come to the door saying, hey, I have my child, I have my baby, can you take them, too? And so I realized very quickly that this was not regardless of how I personally felt, that I had made a connection with this client, that he trusted me. But I wanted in my heart of hearts to say, yes, I knew it would be a terrible idea. And so I did what I knew was best, even though it was very painful to me personally. And I tried to help him through the legal relationship that we had as his attorney and in the best way that I could. But I knew that life was going to be very challenging for this child if I said no. But I hope that his father's love and caring for him would be enough. And to this day, I still remember that moment very distinctly, but I think it shows that I am willing and able to make difficult decisions when I know they're the right decision, even if I don't like them. And they're they're painful to me personally. Thank you very much. The volume of cases facing a district court judge is significant. How do you approach managing multiple high priority matters in front of you at the same time? Yes, I have that issue as a judge pro tem. A lot of the dockets I handle, there could be 60 people on the calendar. There could be matters that absolutely have to be addressed today. And so I do I do run the courtroom efficiently, first of all, by being prepared. I make sure I look up the cases. I look through the case files, I review the docket so I understand what happened last time. And I familiar familiarize myself with all of those things so that the parties don't have to spend a lot of time getting me up to speed on what's already happened, what's already been decided , what issues are before the court this morning? So prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare. Second of all, I will inform litigants, particularly proceeding litigants, who are there without an attorney. What is the legal framework I am utilizing today to make a decision because that helps focus them. They then understand what about their arguments is relevant and they can get quickly to the point. And also it helps people feel heard and people feel calmer when they're in the hearing because it's not, you know, some strange thing. They don't understand it. I know exactly what's happening. I know what I want to say. So I give other people the ability to be focused on their legal arguments. And I'm also quite good at de-escalating, which becomes very relevant for handling hearings efficiently. Now I've worked abroad where I was interviewing self-professed war criminals and terrorists in an environment where I could not call security to come to my aid if something were to happen. So I have developed very good de-escalation strategies with individuals who are stressed, who are angry and who are disruptive. And that can be very helpful in running a courtroom efficiently, because when those disruptions do happen, I can invest a little bit of time upfront in order to get everybody back on track and then save time so that we can't in the long run, so that we can handle more hearing for everyone, not create issues like that . So those are those are some things that I do and I familiarize myself with how to use them. That's been really critical so that I'm not tinkering with sound and audio and video and all those things, and then I can help others troubleshoot. Okay, go down to the bottom. Click on the three dots, click more or go up to your you know, sometimes that's really helpful because it helps litigants before the court. You don't have as much experience with using this technology to get to the point where we can we can handle their case and move forward quickly. Thank you. And unless somebody else jumps in. I also have the next question and that is, what about the district court interests you the most? Yes, the district court is an opportunity to disrupt a person's life if it is going off track. That to me is very appealing because I, I care about people and I care about the community. I see there's so much recidivism that goes on. If we don't address the if we don't address the issue, the underlying issue of friends and that's something that I notice and a distinction between my appellate work and my work in in courts of limited jurisdiction, is that not to say that it's, you know, too late for somebody, but oftentimes by the by the time a case comes to me as an appellate public defender, there's a long history and it's very challenging to redirect somebody. So I think handling cases in courts when they're jurisdiction, misdemeanors, where it might be someone's first appearance, that is very and that is is a very valuable opportunity. And I also really relish the opportunity to help the court move through this backlog that's been created by the pandemic, because I think that's an opportunity to create and expand, create new therapeutic courts, expand existing therapeutic courts. And that is something I'm really looking forward to working with colleagues on the bench to be able to address. Thank you. Council members. Hello. What do you see as the most significant challenge facing the district court and how do you think it should be addressed? Yeah, I just alluded to that a little bit in my last answer, but I think the biggest challenge facing court is definitely the backlog that's been created by the pandemic. There are a lot of cases languishing that haven't been addressed. This is particularly troublesome in the criminal case arena because individuals have a constitutional right to a speedy trial. And we've had to put the pause button on that and have good cause to delay. But, you know, at some point we need to make sure that people have the right to their trial if that's how they want to proceed. So we've got this backlog. It's also meant that small claims court, other kinds of cases that are handled by the district court on a regular basis have been deprioritized and put on hold. And that's very frustrating, I think, to community members because that's what the court is there to do, there to dispense justice, there to resolve cases. And so there's a backlog that's just been growing and growing. So what can be done to address the backlog? First of all, we have to innovate and use technology. We're doing that to a certain extent, but we can do more. And the second thing I would say is we need to expand the existing therapeutic and community courts and potentially create new ones. So as far as innovating and using technology, you know, some hearings are we are being held partially remotely. So litigants will appear by Zoom, but we could do fully remote hearings. We could this would allow the court to have the judge and the clerk and everyone be fully remote. If we did that, we could run hearings in parallel. So bring retired judges and pro-tem judges to handle cases that don't require. Things to be happening in the courtroom and reserve the courtroom space for things like jury trials that do absolutely require at least some part of that is required to be physically in person. So we were able to do that. We could you know, we could always have evenings and weekends and running hearings that way to dig out of the backlog. But how wonderful is we can have hearings happening at the same time, say traffic court and fully remotely with one judge and then the courtroom being utilized for a jury trial at the same time. So those are all strategies that we could use or possibly have to use all of them in order to dig out of the backlog. And then as far as expanding and creating new therapeutic courts, the other way to handle a backlog is not to take cases out that are already in, but take cases on the back end so we can divert cases out of the traditional model and into the therapeutic courts. And that's been statistically shown to reduce recidivism and ultimately to save money. Also for the county, when people have their underlying issues addressed, so have their their substance abuse or mental health issues addressed so that they don't end up in a revolving door back in the courtroom over and over and over again. That will also address the backlog. And I just want to say one more thing, and that's about the Blake sex legislation. So simple, drug possession used to be a felony. It always went to Superior Court. The new legislation has changed it to a misdemeanor. That means there's a whole new category of cases that are going to be in the district court that have never been there before. And the district court needs to have a strategy for how to handle those cases when they start coming through. The other thing is that the legislation has required that before those cases can even be filed as a misdemeanor, individuals, defendants need to be given to opportunities at diversion. So that means we're going to have to run those cases through some program, some, you know, therapeutic court, which is why I think expanding existing mental health court or creating a new drug court in the district court would be a way to address the looming backlog of case or category of cases, and it's going to further contribute to the backlog. And helping to set up a court like that or a therapeutic court is something I'm uniquely qualified to do. I have training in and I have worked on in therapeutic courts and I also have a lot of expertize in founding, implementing and expanding new programs, working with multimillion dollar budgets across China, expanding and creating new programs that were then pilot projects that were then duplicated all across the continent of Africa. And also implementing my collaborative program with the minority mentorship program with the Bar Association. So creating programs, implementing them, expanding them, and collaborating to get that to happen is something that I have a lot of experience with. And I would love, love, love to work with colleagues on the district court, to have colleagues on the district court and to be able to work with them to address the backlog through therapeutic courts. Thank you. On this list of are prepared questions, colleagues, are there any follow up questions before we ask for closing remarks? CNN. I invite you to share your closing remarks. Thank you so much. These past two years, I have transitioned from my role as an appellate public defender to the role of judicial officer, and I had the opportunity to make some observations. First, as a judicial officer, my role and my duty is to be a passionate advocate for the rule of law and for due process. It is not a neutral or a passive role, but rather an active one. I have seen when judges safeguarded the integrity of this process and when things went off the rails, resulting in costly appeals. The second thing I have observed is that appellate courts correct errors of law. They do not correct errors of judgment. Because of my work at every level of court. On multiple continents. In every role in the criminal justice system, I have the experience and the judgment, including a deep understanding of the law and of people from all walks of life. That enables me to motivate changes in behavior. The third thing I've observed is that the District Court presents a unique opportunity to interrupt the trajectory of a person's life before it spirals out of control. As a public defender, I would often talk to clients who are in prison with years of escalating criminal history, now staring down a sentence that may last for decades. Along the way, they may have lost custody of their children, blown up their relationships, and left a trail of destruction in our community. That conversation is very different from the one I've had. Later that same day as a judge Pro-Tem talking to a defendant who was struggling with substance abuse in court for a first time misdemeanor. I've been able to look that person in the eye and say, It's not too late for you. You can still fix this. Every decision in my career has been driven by my dedication to public service. I lived in a tent on the border of a war zone and advocated for the rule of law under the surveillance of the Chinese government. I didn't do those things because they were safe or easy or comfortable. I did them because I saw an opportunity to serve where I could make a difference. And I see that same opportunity here to serve my home community. If I could finish my thought to save my sister and my home community on the east side as a King County District Court judge, thank you so much. Thank you very much. We appreciate the insights and experience that you shared with us. And again, truly appreciate your interest in serving the people of King County as a district court judge. Madam Court, would you please admit Mr. Bitcoin back to the Zoom call? And let me know when that's been done. I see Mr. Peake going back in the room as well. Colleagues, would you like a few minutes in executive session? You there? Several nodes. Thank you. Under rc w 4231 ten H. The committee is going into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office. The committee will be in executive session for approximately 15 minutes, ending ad let me say 13 minutes ending at 11:00, and the committee will be off the zoom call for this executive session, together with only those employees directly necessary for the discussion. And at the end of executive session, we will be we will return to this Zoom call. Thank you so much. We are in. We are recessed in. Committee will be an executive session. And. All. Nothing. Think they can. Know. Yeah. The Quorum. Thank you. Amazingly on time out of executive session without an extension of cost out of an executive session and out of recess. I believe I put us in recess as I was doing that. So I'll make sure to cross all my t's and dot all my eyes and. Would ask there was a motion proposed motion regarding proposed motion 2021 335. My member council members go with. The do pass recommendation. Councilmember Bell Belushi has moved adoption of Motion 2021 2035. Council member Belushi. Is it Amendment one? It would be an oral amendment to fill in the blank. And move an oral amendment to fill in the blank with the name of when you represent. We have a verbal amendment to insert the name of Ramprasad into the motion discussion. I could speak to it real briefly. Mr. Chair. Please. Thank you. This has been a really, really great panel of applicants for this job. And I fully expect that we will see both of you on the bench in the future and possibly in the not too distant future. So I want to start by saying that the selection of one is by no means anything other than we can only put one person in one seat at one time. And I want to say, and on behalf of the motion that we've made, we've had this ramprasad has applied in the past. She has been very impressive both times. I've heard from a number of my colleagues over the period of us getting to know her that we appreciate the breadth of her experience, her very clear ability to state values, and then how that will manifest in the in the court context and why it's important for judges to. Use. The job of the court to do justice. I find that very compelling every time I listen to her speak. And and frankly, it was very important to me that after the last interview, I know that several of us gave advice and said, please get some judicial experience. And she really did that. She closed up her own law firm and went to be a full time pro tem in order to get my experience to be ready for this opportunity. So I feel very confident that she will be an outstanding addition to the judge, to the district court bench. It's a difficult time. We need all the help in the district court and in the courts that we can get to move things along and to help us get out of the backlog and the challenges that face the court due to COVID. And I just I'm really delighted to to support her for this. I will say also to Mr. Paquin, please, please, please come back here or at the ballot when there is another opportunity, because we also think that you would make an excellent addition to the bench, and we'd be delighted to see you there as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the discussion on the verbal amendment. For myself personally, I would add and affirm what councilmember did. She just said The qualifications of both candidates are exemplary. Very much the kind of people we want serving the people of King County on the district court. And really value the interest and desire to serve the people in such a way. This is a public job interview and challenging in that way. But really good to get to know both candidates and and affirm the idea that Mr. people and we would love to see a future application or involvement in seeking to serve the people in this way in the future. Thank you for the discussion. The sea? None. All those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying I. I am opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. The the amendment is adopted. We have motion 2021 335 as amended before us. Seen no further discussion. I'd ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Ritchie, I. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, I was a member down. Council Member for Wales and Council Member Lander I. Council member. But the girl. I. Councilmember Bonner. Right. Thought. Council members only. I. Mr. Chen. Hi. Mr. Chen. The vote is seven and I assume most council members. Dan Bernstein. Thank you by your vote. We have given a do pass recommendation to motion 2021 335 as amended, and we will expedite that to full council. And in Leicester's objection, we will put that on the consent agenda as well. Very well. It will be on the consent agenda this coming Tuesday in full council. Thank you. And that takes the Zone six proposed ordinance 2021 288, which would adopt the best charge for kids implementation plan for the years 2022 to 2027. The ordinance was duly referred to the Regional Policy Committee and the Committee of the Hall. We had an initial briefing on this legislation in Cowan, September 15th, and the ordinance was passed with amendments in our P.S. on October 13th, Brenda Luskin and Wendy Sue, who from council staff are here to provide the staff report. This was. CONAN And Mr. Who? Please go ahead. Great. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Good morning. Good morning. Members of the committee. For the record, Miranda Luskin in with a brief staff report for today, essentially kind of reiterating what the chair had just noted as a refresher for the committee. So as committee members are aware, this item was a dual referral to the RTC as a mandatory referral and then to this committee. Both committees receive briefings on the proposed plan. And as was noted by the Chair last Wednesday, October the 13th, the Regional Policy Committee took action and passed the ordinance as amended just for members. I will note that a summary of the pieces action last Wednesday is provided in your staff report on pages 41 through 42 of your packet materials. The last thing I'll note for today is just a process note. So as was noted, this item was a mandatory referral to the original policy committee. So assuming that this committee passes the legislation on to the full council and that either this committee or the council were to amend the legislation that would necessitate a re referral back to the RTC, such that the RTC would have that item back before it for its consideration before possible final action by the full Council. And then Amendment four to the staff report does provide the amendment deadlines scheduled for the proposed ordinance. And, Mr. Chair, that concludes the remarks for today. Thank you. Questions, colleagues. All right. Would someone. Are you ready to move in, Mr. Chair? I'm ready to move. Motion 2021 288. Let's do. It. I move. Adoption of the Duke Pass recommendation. Thank you. Councilmember Damascus moved adoption of motion that we give you do pass recommendation to motion 2021 288 discussion. On behalf of the motion. Mr. Chair, I really appreciate Councilmember von Right past chair and the Regional Policy Committee facilitating a process with our regional partners and us to work in some some amendments to refine the plan a bit. I think we should also thank our county executive and the team there for putting together a really good plan that didn't need many amendments. And this is. A pretty exciting. Initiative by the county, and I think it speaks volumes that the voters renewed it overwhelmingly, you know, and I think in the low 60% in terms of what we did in the first six years. And I'm excited to see the progress that we can make for young people around the county in the next six. So there's a lot that could be said, but I think we're ready to go. Let me just briefly say for myself that the best charge for kids Levy is an exceptional piece of progressive work, in my view, in that it is trying to make the upstream early investments. We just made an appointment to the District Court where both of you know, most of the people we interviewed today spoke to the way that district court can interrupt lives in a positive way. And what that starts for kids is attempting to do is actually address issues much earlier in life that thus no one can have the best start possible and not end up in the criminal in the criminal legal system and other negative outcomes with avoiding that and sending people off on a very positive path as early as possible. Further comments. Member Council member LAMBERT Thank you. I'm excited about this because the sooner that we can get kids lives back on track and the better that will be. And we know that if a child is homeless and they're youth, that they have a much higher percentage possibility of being homeless later on. So all the things that we can do to surround children on the best path, this is really important. So I think this is great work that's been done. I agree with what you just said about how Sheila and her team and our team has done a great job of putting this together and it being a regional collaboration . I really like several points that I want to hold out, and that is that this information will be coming to us on a regular basis by zip code so that we can monitor if there are any needs that might be dropping through the cracks, that shouldn't be. So I think that's really important and not supplant language so that we can have supporters all across the county and not worry about hitting one junior taxing district against another. I think that's really important. I think having the services earlier on in the system, as we've been doing the last couple of years and I know two particular projects in my district have expanded greatly, hired more people, more interpreters and are having some very positive impacts. One of the projects now has kids doing incredible things that were street kids before, and when I was there they were talking about applying for college, which is pretty exciting. The other thing is that the Safe Place program, which is one of the many good programs I really like because it gives an opportunity for kids to self-refer. They have to wait to go to somebody else to get help or to say I. I need to be part of a long system to get in and they can just go straight there and say, I need help and make it a much shorter time to getting that help. And we know how important that is. So I think we've learned a lot of great things at the last level, and I look forward to more great things happening in the study. Thank you. And the discussion. You? No. Madam Cook, would you please call the Royal? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member Ritchie Guy. Council member Demovsky. I don't. Remember. Done. Councilmember Dunn. Council member calls on Council Member Level II. Council member of the Grove, Councilmember Yvonne. Done votes. I think you. Councilmember one right now we're. Council members are high. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight zero notes. Council members are excused. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to Motion 2021 288 and we will send that to full council on the regular course of action. I believe we were just joined. Yes, indeed. I see that Curran Gill is here. Curran Gill is the executive's council liaison. I'd just like to particularly welcome, though it's unusual for me to do so. Mr. Gill to the call because he is spending part of his birthday with us. And with that, we'll move on to item seven on today's agenda. This is a proposed motion, 2021 391, which would express the Council's support for race and gender conscious affirmative action policies at the state and local level. Andrew Kim from council staff is here to provide the staff report. Mr. Kim, if you'd please, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I hope I'm coming in. Okay. You are. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record and your campaign council central staff. Due to timing of this item, there is no staff report prepared. But the proposed motion language begins on page 323 of your packet. And I will actually go start with the the language starting on page 325. The proposed motion would declare that race and gender conscious affirmative action practices in the county are needed to combat discrimination that race and gender neutral measures have failed to eliminate. And in furtherance of the policy it would, the Council would urge Governor Jay Inslee to immediately sign an executive order rescinding governor's directive 98 or one. This governor's direct and then one was issued by Governor Gary Locke back in 1998 to provide directives on the implementation of 200, which was the 97 ballot measure that ended preferences based on protected classes for public employment, public education or public contracting. The proposal proposed motion would also support, including an item in the Council's 2022 2022 legislative agenda to advocate for any legislation necessary to timely and fully implement an executive order that would rescind the Governor's Directive. 94 one. The proposed motion would also support the recommendations included in the county's auditor report entitled Contracting Inequities Persisting Race Neutral Environment to Reduce Racial Disparities and Inequities in Awarding County Contracts. And as members are aware, this was presented to the Government Accountability and Oversight Committee back in in June. The proposed motion would also support county executive order entitled Pro Equity Contracting, which directs the implementation of most of the recommendations included in the County Auditor's report and as brief by some of them from some of the members at the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee yesterday. There are some budget items in the second omnibus that supports this executive order. The proposed motion would also support exploring the benefits of reestablishing a minority and women business enterprises office or program in the county to ensure consistency in contracting processes and criteria across county agencies and departments, and to also eliminate ambiguities regarding the county's commitment to eliminating racial disparities and inequities in awarding county contracts. And lastly, the proposed motion would support setting measurable countywide goals for spending with minority and women owned business enterprises to further the progress of eliminating racial disparities and inequities in awarding county contracts. Mr.. Cheryl, note that there is a title amendment for this item that was emailed to all members in the title land that would comport with the body of the motion. We also had Brooke Leary with the auditor's office and as you mentioned, Mr. Curran, deal with the Executive Office to answer any questions. And that concludes David Martin Fisher. Thank you, Mr. Kim. And I want to acknowledge and appreciate the cooperation, support and work of an executive, Constantine and his team in bringing us having the county is poised, as we are, to take this action and be as supportive a value of the partnership we have with the executive in doing this work and being where we are. Colleagues questions of Mr. Kim, Mr. Gil as Larry. Mr. Chair. Council members. Hello? Yes, thank you. I'd like to speak to this motion, please, before, Mr. Chair, I want to thank you very much for adding this incredibly important topic to your agenda. I want to thank Andrew Kim for all his excellent work, our King County Executive Branch, as well as the Washington Equity Now Alliance. For all of their advocacy we all know that I 200 and it's related executive order 9801 have had devastating impacts on women and communities of color in the two decades since they took effect. These laws have funneled billions, billions with a B of dollars out of these groups and also slashed many of their economic and educational opportunities . Some have estimated that prior to 200 state agencies and higher education institutions spent 10% of their contracting and procurement dollars with certified minority and women owned businesses. Since the passage of I 200, however, that rate has plummeted to an average of 3% from 10% to 3%. And this steep decline in economic opportunity at the state level is also felt locally. I think my colleagues remember the report that was released by our King County Auditor's office in June of this year titled Contracting Inequities Persist in Race Neutral Environment. It showed us that our own level of government has felt and dealt the painful consequences of a 290 801. So that's why this motion is before you today. It not only asks the state and our governor to rescind 9801, it also holds up a mirror to our own government and documents our own commitment to advancing contract equity at King County. So I think Andrew did a great job already of documenting what actions it requests that our King County government takes things like supporting the recommendations in the auditor's report, supporting the executive order from executive Constance, entitled Pro Equity Contracting also supports exploring and reestablishing a minority and women owned business enterprise office at King County and supporting and setting measurable countywide goals for spending with will be contractors. So colleagues I 200 and it's related executive order took away many of our tools for bringing about economic justice in our society. Our our region's economy has been booming in the two decades after these laws took effect. But not everyone has felt the surge in prosperity. Let's commit to our stated principles, pass this motion, and continue our work to make sure everyone in King County can thrive. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember. Questions on the presentation. Councilmembers followed. Entertain a motion. So move, Mr. Chair. We have a motion before us to give it to pass. Recommendation to motion 2021 391. Further discussion. Mr. Chandler. Councilmember Belushi, followed by Councilmember Caldwell's. I want to also thank you for finding time on an agenda to move this forward and to have this committee discussion just as a matter of process. It's always, I think, better for us to have the opportunity to consider something and ask questions, even if we don't have all the answers right here, right now. And so I do appreciate your making time for this. The more substantively, I will repeat everything that Councilmember Zaha said, but we know at King County and in other parts of government that when we make an effort, targeted, non neutral effort to improve racial outcomes, we can move the needle. We can we can reduce disparities, we can bring up communities of color and businesses and people give them good jobs and opportunities that help to close that achievement gap that we see in every aspect of the lives in our communities. And so I think this kind of a step is really important and can make a really real world difference for people. It can help them get good jobs and economic opportunities that make our whole community better and and fairer. So I really appreciate this step. I look forward to learning more about it, quite frankly, because it's it's it's pretty it's moving pretty quickly. But I think that the sentiments stated in this motion are things that are absolutely aligned with our values and our stated goals here at King County Council. And I'm happy to be a supporter. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I first of all, I want to extend my appreciation of Councilmember San Joaquin for introducing this legislation. And I so say hello to my former colleague in the state legislature, former Representative Jesse White. And as Jesse knows, there was a lot of effort in the legislature to not have to go to the ballot. As I recall, it was an initiative to the legislature. And then when it did go to the ballot, we some of us were very active in trying to defeat it. And I bring this up because I think the history of this is important. And I ended. Up. Debating Ward Connerly, who was the proponent of Initiative 202, was the University of California regent at the time, and this is at Tulane University. There were 100 people in attendance. There were several of us on the panel. And it was one of the more noteworthy events in which I participated in my career. And frankly, I was absolutely appalled and I was very, very disturbed by the language of the ballot measure, which I thought was very deceptive and I think swayed the voters. But that's just a little bit of an aside here. And I, I had one I had been very intrigued about this legislation, and I was thinking about introducing Edmund Burke with our legal counsel, general counsel, Monique Cohen about it, because I wasn't sure whether it was something that we could really take up. And so I was very pleased when it was introduced and signed down, by the way, we worked in the legislature to try to ameliorate when we should have 200. We got some things through, but they did not make a sufficient difference. And I have long thought about, I think, the tragedy of it and should have. 200. For the state and for people in it. But I am very pleased to join in, in supporting this request to the governor to rescind the Governor's directive 90 zero one. I think it can be very helpful. We are the largest county in the state and I'm. Hopeful that. Our support of this would. Be. Influential to the Governor's decision on what to do. And I also believe that with regard to what can happen at the county here, this would. Be. Very helpful. So I'm very. Pleased to support this. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Kim. I see you turned your camera on. You did that so you can remind us that we have a panel amendment we need to adopt before we get to final passage. I'll pretend I remembered before I saw your camera. Come on and ask colleagues if there is any more speak cut remarks before we take up the title amendment. Senior nine council members are. Hello. If you would remove adoption of Title Amendment two one, which Mr. Tracy emailed to us at 804 this morning. So moved, Mr. Chair. The title Amendment two one is before a say no discussion. All those in favor of one please signify by saying i. I. Others opposed nay. The ayes have it. The title amendment is adopted. Thank you for your time. The reminder, Mr. Kemp. Further discussion. See no further discussion to close, if you wish. Council members. Hello. I urge your support. Without Madam Clerk. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember building team. I. Councilmember Sandusky. I. Councilmember John. I. Councilmember calls Councilmember Lambert. I'm sorry. I as a member of the council. I. Councilmember one right there. Council members online. By Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight zero announced council member. Voting rights are excused. Thank you. By you. We have given a do pass recommendation through motion 2021 391 and with the committee's permission, we will expedite that to full council this coming Tuesday. Is there interest in speaking to it or might we put it on consent? I'll put it on. I'll suggest we put it on consent and we'll always have the possibility of removing it from consent. All right. That concludes the action items in today's agenda. Before we adjourn, however, we missed a couple of votes due to technical issues. Madam Quirk, can you can we check with council members done in BAN right there for methods that are available? Absolutely. Mr. Chair. Council member. Done. I am missing a vote on 2020 10335. I think we've lost him again. And Councilmember Bond right now. I am missing votes on 2020 1033502880391. All right. We don't seem to have a good connection with either. Did you say done? That's correct. Let's remember. Dun dun. Dun ci. Four 2020 10335. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And per a Rules Council member of UN right there will be able to vote by email through the rest of the day. With that having no other business to come before us, we are adjourned. Thank you so much.	A MOTION making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the east division, northeast electoral district, judge position number seven of the King County district court.
king_ac0da980-d836-469b-b146-614e12e1254e	Good afternoon. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott calling the committee the whole meeting for Monday, November 8th, 18th to order. And as we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I would also like to acknowledge the urban Indians living in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enriched our community as well. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi, Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn here. Councilmember Garcia. Here. Councilmember Courvoisier. Councilmember Lambert, Council member of the girl. Oh, my God. Councilmember one right there. Here. Mr. Chair. Sure. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Next item on today's agenda is public comment. We have two items on our agenda today. Public comment should be specifically address either or both of those two items. And testimony is limited to 2 minutes may not be used for promoting or opposing a candidate or ballot measure and should not include obscene speech with those ground rules stated. We have one person signed up in advance, Mr. Zimmerman. Kyle, my dirty Nazi Gestapo, anti-Semite, pig from an animal farm appeared fascist and lowlife and human garbage. Yeah. My name's Alex Zimmerman. I want to speak about something. About this belong to judicial problems. Number five for my industry. You prosecute me right now for disorder. Same condition. What as I have right now? What did they have before in Soviet Union. A pure political in religion persecution. And I'm dissident in Soviet Union for many years. So you're doing this right now. And I spoke in this chamber from 2008, more than 2500 time. How you can do this. You can do this only because this case is a fear of obligation. But this is not a point about obligation. Why are you doing this? Not legally, absolutely. In doing everything. What is the one with people who have different opinion? Because we have a fascism, officially recognition fascism right now. When three branches of government work together. Judicial system. I saw for the last few years to couple dozen charges for abuse of discretion about stupidity and corruption in court. This is exactly what this happened in district court. These exactly. Guys what this will happen right now you do in exactly identical what they did before the German Nazi. It gets tougher. Get there, come to power and 33 fewer later. Everybody who have different opinion and concentration camp this exactly about this. You persecute me. After 12 beer parties, I come to the chamber and talk every day because you're by definition scared. People have different opinion. So right now I speak to everybody who listen to me. Before we don't. Collins is banditos. It's Mafia, this Nazi pig. You know what this mean? From this chamber? From all three branches. Not some Creole bitch. Stand up, America. We. That includes the people who have signed up in advance. Is there anyone else who would like to offer public testimony on either of the two items? Anyone who would like to offer public testimony, either of the two items on today's agenda c none will close the public hearing and I'd ask Council Member Caldwell's promotion to approve the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I moved to approve the minutes of November 4th, 2019. The minutes are before us. No discussion. All those in favor. Please say I oppose. Nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That brings us to the first of two items on today's council agenda. Committee agenda. That being motion 2019 641. The filling of a district court vacancy. There is a vacancy in the King County District Court, Northeast Division, due to the passing of Judge Peter Nolte pursuant to County Code. I instructed staff to coordinate interviews with eligible applicants, and the committee that conducted those interviews consisted of council members Lambert, Dombrowski and myself. We conducted six interviews through the week of November 4th and are recommending three candidates as finalists to be interviewed today. The county code requires a procedural motion to select the finalist to be interviewed. And I'd like to call on Councilmember Dombrowski to make that motion now. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you for setting forward this process that's led to today's recommended candidates. And I believe you would like a motion, an oral motion that this committee, the committee will accept the subcommittee's recommendation that we interview three candidates for the vacancy. And those three candidates are Jessica Jenner, Kevin Peck and Ronna Rampersad. And I apologize for any errors in the names, but that's the motion I make at this time. Thank you very much. Councilmember DEMBOSKY has made the motion that we interview the committee subcommittee's three recommendations. All those in favor, please say I opposed nay. The ayes have it. With that, we'll proceed with the full committee interviews of the finalists. We'll provide about 15 minutes for each interview until the finalists are before the panel for the interview, I'm asking that they step into the side conference room in the Blue Room so they don't hear the questions that were asked of the first interviewee. And we randomly assigned order before the meeting began. And Mr. Peck will go first. Before I excuse you, I will ask members if there are any procedural questions. Sam Porter is here to answer any questions or add anything that I have forgotten and help me field any members questions. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are there going to be time limits on the candidates? Time to respond to our questions. Their opening and closing remarks. I've asked them to limit those to 2 minutes, and I had not planned on keeping a hard stop on responses to each of their questions. But I would hope we as a panel might think of about 15 minutes total for each one of the three interviews. Thank you. Further, Councilmember Colwell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Do we have available the materials submitted by the applicants? Miss Porter. Contributed binders. Even. Here. Well, let me look here, but. I'll find it. Yourself. Okay. Thank you, Patrick. And in. My office. All right. So, having no further questions, I would ask Mjolnir and Ramprasad to step out. Mr. Peck to join the committee at the presentation table. Huh? Right. That might come. Mr. Pitt. Good afternoon. We're still in open session. And I want to again thank you for your interest in the judicial seat that's opened in the North-East District Court, welcoming you here to the committee of the hall and invite you to give us an opening set of remarks in about 2 minutes if you'd be so kind. Well, thank you for the honor to address the council. Again, my name is Kevin Peck, and I've served my entire legal career as a trial lawyer in King County over the past 36 years. And during that time, I've specialized in both criminal law and civil law, the civil cases being personal injury cases and employment matters. I've also been honored over the past 29 years to serve as a pro tem judge in the King County District Courts and as an arbitrator in the King County Superior Courts. I've now presided over thousands of hearings in the King County District courts, and those include criminal cases, civil cases, bench trials and jury trials. And I enjoy serving as a pro tem judge. Often I'll have up to 60 cases in the morning and 60 cases in the afternoon, and I enjoy the pace. I'm proud to be endorsed for this position by ten King County District Court judges, including the presiding judge of the East division where the vacancy is located, and every other judge in the East Division, including the Honorable Michelle Gilbertson and the Honorable Jill Kling, who are both appointed by this council in July. In addition, I've been endorsed by three retired judges from the East Division. Many of these judges I helped cover their calendars and trials over the years. I discussed their cases with them, and in many respects I've served as a colleague to them. Many of them have pointed out to me, based on knowing my the quality of my work, that if I was selected for this position, they believe I could fill in the position and hit the ground running on day one. They've also pointed out to me that the versatility that I bring to the court based on having both a civil law background and a criminal law background. Finally, many of the court staff I worked with for years have pointed out to me they enjoy working with me and they hope that I'm selected for the position. The King County District Court bench is a superb bench and if I'm honored to be selected for this position, it would be my goal to help improve and enhance that bench in any manner possible. So thank you again and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. And colleagues, there are prepared suggested questions that everybody please we have unscripted who might ask questions and I would take a volunteer to ask the first question. Councilmember Bell. DG Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first question is and welcome. Thank you again. You too. What is your view of the role of district court in King County? Well, my view of the role of district court in King County, it's the People's Court. So if people have an interaction with a court in King County, it's most likely the district court and many people that come to district court have never been in a courtroom before in their lives. So as a judge presiding in a district court, I make sure people are comfortable in the court. I mean, I use what I call procedural fairness and due process. I make sure they understand the type of the proceeding, what the process is going to be in the proceeding and what decisions are going to be made. And I want the process to be as transparent as possible. I want them to be treated with dignity and respect and feel that they had an opportunity to be heard. So at the end of the hearing, no matter what the outcome, they receive their full day in court. And I think that's the appropriate role of a judge. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. During the previous time that we interviewed you, you you talked to us briefly about your awareness of racial and economic and other kinds of inequalities that exist in our judicial system. So my question to you is, could you tell us what the terms racial and ethnic disparities generally means to you? And is there a role for a judge to help address these issues at the district court level? Yes, thank you. I think we all recognize and acknowledge that, unfortunately, in today's criminal justice system, there is some implicit racial bias and racial bias. I myself have taken three classes to studying on implicit racial bias. So when I've served as a pro tem judge, I've attempted to use what I've learned in those courses to combat bias in the criminal justice system. I've also spent a good part of my career working to try and eliminate discrimination in the workplace. So I think I recognize the signs of discrimination. As a judge, it's my role in the criminal justice system to ensure that no members of the public or none of the court staff is ever subjected to any type of discrimination in any courthouse I'm sitting in or any courtroom I'm sitting in. I think I've also worked with communities of color and diverse. Relations for years in my practice, and I think I understand some of the issues and problems that they face, and I think that's reflected by the ratings I receive from the Lord Miller Bar Association, the Latino Bar Association in color, which all exceptionally rated me exceptionally well qualified for this position. And what is Q law? It's the LGBT community. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Dunn. Thank you. Sir. Mr. Beck, you and I had a chance to be together, at least on a couple of occasions against one another. And it's good to see you up there. My question involves the basic fact that the district court here in King County is really a high volume court. There's a lot going on. And I guess can you explain to me and others up here what elements in your training, background and experience have prepared you to effectively manage such a busy courtroom? Well, thank you. And it's good to see you. And I enjoyed litigating against you and when we had a chance. But I think my background I first started practicing. I was a public defender for almost three years, so we were attuned to handling large caseloads and many people learning the facts and circumstances in the unfortunate circumstances potentially that they were in and working to advocate them on on behalf of them as best as possible. I've continued to practice and represent indigent persons in Federal Court since that time, over the past 31 years. So I'm used to dealing with large caseloads. In my experience as a pro tem over the past 29 years, I'm used to dealing with the large calendars in the district court. Like I said, sometimes it's 60 matters in the morning and 60 matters in the afternoon. And to be frank, I think I thrive in that atmosphere. I enjoy the personal interaction with those that come before the district court. I enjoy learning the facts, applying the law. If it's new law, I look up the law, research law, or ask the parties to help provide research or briefing on the law. And I think I've excelled in providing the type of justice that people are deserving of in the district court. As a matter of fact, last time I gave an example of a lawyer I ran into in the lobby of the courthouse who I had denied a motion in Shoreline District Court. And he told me, you know, I understood that your ruling I thought it was a great ruling and I was uplifted by your ruling. And this is someone that I denied what the request was. So I think I've learned to provide the appropriate justice on a good, rapid basis in district court. Thank you. Thank you. And with the fourth question, Councilmember Paul Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kevin. Thinking hypothetically and envisioning the future. If you were to get the appointment, how how do you hope a court participant would describe her or his experience in your courtroom? And what steps would you take to accomplish that goal? That's a great question. So in my experience serving as a pro tem, I always address each individual litigant that appears before me, even if the lawyers start talking and want to move the case and it's just a continuance and they pass the continuance paperwork up. I make sure I address the person that appears in court. So it's obviously a significant matter to them. It could be the most significant thing occurring in their lives. And I want them to know that they felt respected, heard and I was involved in their decision that day. And as I described each and every case, I think a good attribute of a judge is having patience. I do handle it on a patient matter. I learn the facts and circumstances. I make the feel people feel respected. If they want to address the court, I listen to them. And before I issue any ruling or decision or continuance or whatever the case may be, I want them to feel that no matter what, that they had their full day in court. Thank you. Any questions from colleagues before we ask Mr. Peck for closing statement? Mr. Peck, you are closing remarks. Well, thank you, and thank you again for the honor to appear before you. I now practice criminal law in King County for the past 36 years, and I've been honored to be endorsed by the top law enforcement officials in the area, including King County prosecutor Dan Sater, Berg, Snohomish County Prosecutor Adam Cornell, and the former U.S. attorney, now Mayor Jenny Durkan. And I think these individuals endorsed me not only based on knowing me, but based on my reputation for honesty, integrity and fairness. I think it's also important to note that the vacancy created by the unfortunate passing of Judge Nault at the time he passed away, he was carrying a full civil caseload. And again, based on my experience, not only in criminal law, but in civil law, I think I would be ready to step in and handle a full civil caseload if requested by the court, to help eliminate that backlog. Over the past approximately two decades, I've been called by the court staff into the evening to see if I could pro tem the next day or often in the morning to see if I can fill in that day. And I've accepted as many of these appointments as possible because I love serving as a pro tem judge. Approximately a few weeks ago, my wife came across me early morning in the kitchen and she said, Are you protecting today? And I said, Yes. How did you know? She said, I can tell by your energy and enthusiasm. And I think I bring this energy and enthusiasm to this job. And if I'm honored to be selected for this position, I will bring that energy and enthusiasm to this job every single day. So thank you again for this opportunity. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. And we will take a minute while we have Miss Jen Genaro join us for her interview. Thank you. Thank you. Legionnaire, we want to thank you for joining us this afternoon and for your interest in the appointment to the North-East District Court and look forward to a conversation. I'd invite you to share opening remarks with us. All right. Thank you. Well, I would like to begin by thanking you, council members, for the opportunity to be here with you this afternoon. I am seeking this appointment because I believe in the ability of the King County District Court to empower individuals to improve their lives and to uphold the public's confidence in what justice is and what it can be. I currently serve nearly full time in King County, and it is a privilege for me to be on the bench nearly every day. I love this job. I love what the district court does. This is not a stepping stone for me. This is not a checkbox for me. I believe in the work that the District Court does to empower people to change their lives and to keep our communities safe. And the many letters of support submitted on my behalf, both from current members of the bench as well as from the legal community, I believe attest on their their humbling for me. But they speak to the sincerity of my desire to serve and my qualifications to do so. I began my legal career with nearly a decade of service as a prosecuting attorney before I spent a number of years working as a defense practitioner, and I appreciate the opportunity to have developed a balanced perspective from both of those roles. I then transitioned into service as a judge per term and have served in that capacity for approximately six years. I'm appointed in ten municipal courts and two district courts, but today I serve nearly full time in King County. This is not a once or twice a month commitment for me. I am on the bench nearly every day, and I walked away from my law practice in order to make this my primary occupation. During my career as a judge pro-tem, I have issued judicial rulings in more than 20,000 matters. I have sat in nearly every courthouse in this county, and I have served for the majority of our current sitting judges. I have presided over every area of the district courts, criminal jurisdiction, and most of the matters of the court civil jurisdiction as well. And this experience has left me uniquely qualified to not only manage the day to day responsibilities of the role, but to take on the administrative court of the work primary work of the court as well. My community investment is also an important part of who I am, both as an individual and as a judge part time. I live in King County and I serve in King County. My work with the Women's Advisory Board to the Council, along with a significant number of other youth focused community organizations, has enabled me to address the critical needs of those in King County. Many of these needs are tied to the very same issues that I see day in and day out during my service on the bench. I am seeking the opportunity to become an involved and engaged member of the bench, to serve the critical needs in King County, and to take on the difficult issues of bias and equity in our justice system, and to improve the public's confidence and faith in what that justice system is. I thank you again for your time and consideration, and I look forward to answering any questions that you may have for me. Thank you very much. Councilmember Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first question we have for you is and first of all, welcome. It's good to see you again. What is your view of the role of district court in King County? And I understand you've covered this a little bit. If you could speak more specifically to that question. Yes, certainly. Thank you. I will say that one area in which I believe our district court unequivocally excels, that is innovation. We are the largest court of limited jurisdiction in Washington state, and as such, we have a tremendous amount of contact with the public, and that is incumbent upon our district court, therefore, not only to be innovators , but to set the model and the tone for what justice can be for the public's perception of our court system. One area that our district court certainly can work on is sustaining and expanding the scope of this innovation and applying that equitably throughout our county. And while I recognize that King County District Court, along with many other county programs and departments, is being asked to do more with less or more with the same. I do believe that King County District Court is up for the challenge, and I'm committed to serving as a judicial officer who is well equipped to respond to those challenges. I've had the privilege of protesting every Thursday for Judge Hahn while she worked on the committee to establish and to implement our new electronic electronic excuse me, case management system. I've also had the opportunity to work closely with Judge Stephenson and judge it to understand systematically how cases are now being processed within the court. Civil jurisdiction utilizing the new the IMF. In addition, I've had the opportunity to work and engage with Judge Pagel authority on our therapeutic court programs and to understand the process of expanding those court programs. And I've had a front row seat to the many opportunities to engage administratively in the work of the court in terms of direction in the future for the court. I strongly support expansion of the electronic CMS. I believe that we need to expand that to other areas of the court's civil jurisdiction and hopefully someday to the court's areas of criminal jurisdiction as well. I also believe that we need to focus on sustaining not only our therapeutic courts, but the network of resource providers serving US courts so that we can address the underlying causes of criminal behavior rather than just treating the symptoms as we see in recidivism rates. And I think as a court, we also need to give significant focus to our cash bail system. Our cash bail system is a factor that we need to consider with regard to examining the cost of housing individuals who are charged with misdemeanor offenses based upon and held in custody based upon their inability to post bond rather than based upon a meaningful finding by the court of their likelihood to fail to appear to court or likelihood to pose a risk to city of community. And I am committed to engaging with all of these concepts with innovation and with vigor and with engagement as a member of the bench. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The term racial and ethnic disparities exist and all you as many people feel in all U.S. institutions, particularly public ones like the judicial system. Do you agree with that assessment? If so, why? If you disagree that racial and ethnic disparities is a serious problem, also tell us why. Thank you for that question. Unfortunately, we are a system of disproportionality. When one in 38 arrests in King County is an African-American individual compared to only one in 200 white individuals. We have clear and unequivocal evidence of disproportionality in our system. I am personally invested in addressing issues of bias and disproportionality within the realm of the district court, not just by engaging academically, which I have done to a significant degree, but also by meeting with individuals and the organizations that represent the communities most impacted by bias and disproportionality within King County. This predominantly impacts communities of color, for example, those impacted by gender based violence or those from economically disadvantaged circumstances. My work with the Women's Advisory Board, as well as a number of a significant number of other King County organizations, has been based on a desire to address the need to promote equity and address disproportionality and bias in our justice system in King County. I've had the opportunity to host a high school classroom visit into our district court courtrooms. I volunteer to coach a YMCA mock trial team. I also serve with the Girl Scouts of Western Washington, a little league all done with the intent of understanding what the critical needs are in King County and placing myself in a position to be able to respond to those needs in King County. I have had the privilege of overcoming personal obstacles in order to access education in my life. And I believe that it's critical that I share that education, that experience with our community. And again, we can do that through a number of assets. Councilmember To address the second part of your question, including focusing on our therapeutic courts, but also giving meaningful, considerate consideration, excuse me to the cash bail system. The cash bail system has caused an avalanche of criminal convictions that are that are not based entirely upon the evidence , but rather upon an individual's desire to have their case over with so they can be released from custody and avoid placing their housing, their medical care, their employment in jeopardy. And I think that we need to give consideration as judicial officers and whether or not this results in authentic justice. We also need to look at jury composition in King County. Recent statistical data is indicating that we're now approaching 8%. Population is African-American. Only 4% of our jury pool population is typically African-American. And we need to give consideration on the implications from that type of data. Lastly, I do believe we also need to focus on youth resources at the District Court. We need to improve opportunities for young people to engage with our courts, form positive associations with our courts, and to reduce the school's school to prison pipeline as well. And we will incorporate all of these considerations into my practice on the bench. Thank you. Thank you very much for the response. Thank you, Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks for your interest in taking on a role like this in a full time basis. As you know, more than most, I suspect, district court is a high volume court. Lots going on there. And so really, can you speak to what elements in your in your training, your background, your experience have prepared you to manage what can be a very busy courtroom? Absolutely. Well, it's not uncommon to see court calendars with an exceedingly high number of cases. I see this on a near daily basis in my practice on the courtroom, as we've talked about a little bit earlier this afternoon, we are at the district court being asked to do more with existing resources. D.U.I. case filings has significantly increased and that it does take consideration both by our judicial officers, but by our very dedicated court staff to be able to successfully process higher numbers of case filings. However, it is critical that court efficiency should never come at the cost of due process. And in my significant experience as a judge pro time, I have developed a number of case management strategies that enabled me on a daily basis to balance due process with efficiency of the court and with efficiency of court resources. Some examples include my preparation before court. Each day I invest time to prepare my calendars before I even step on the bench. I review every case on a court calendar. This enables me to not only understand the history of the case and to understand why it's sat on that specific calendar and what you are hoping to accomplish . But also ensures that I understand why we're all here day and I can give meaningful consideration to it. I take the time to prepare notes for myself for every case that is on my calendar. And this allows not only a smooth transition from case to case, but also helps me to avoid delay in researching the cases individually while I'm on the bench, as they're called up, I also enter the courtroom on time. I understand that the attorneys and the parties before the court have taken care technology issues aside to appear on time in court, and I want to extend them that same courtesy as well. Once I step onto the bench, I stay on the bench. And I understand that sometimes the attorneys need additional time to discuss their cases before they are able to be presented to the court. But I'm also fully aware that while the court is on the bench, there are a number of individuals seated in the back of the courtroom waiting for their cases to be called. And I think it's important for them to see the district court is here and we're working hard for them and we're ready to hear their case. I also maintain a demeanor of judicial court decorum excuse me, throughout the calendar. It's important that my temperament on the bench upholds the public's confidence in the respect and equity and fairness of our court system. And I'm very aware of that. And while I recognize at the end of the day, some calendars are just going to be long calendars I may experience, has it still instilled strong case management practices in me? And I plan to continue those on not just as the judge for time, but as a member of the district court bench. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilmember Colwell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like you to just think about what your courtroom would be like in the future when you are, you know, on the bench there. How do you hope a court participant would describe her or his experience in your courtroom? And what steps would you take to accomplish what you would like to have happen? That is the question Councilmember I've given significant consideration to. I spoke a little bit about the importance of a judicial officers demeanor, upholding the public's confidence in the equity and the fairness of our justice system. And that is that concept is one of the cornerstones that I have developed my own personal judicial philosophy based upon. During my nearly six years as a judge pro-tem, I've had the opportunity to develop a strong judicial philosophy that is based upon the cornerstones of respect and commitment to public service. I have learned that the perception of justice is just as important as justice itself, but we unfortunately can have neither. If the judge does not establish a courtroom of fairness and equity and justice and respect, and as a judge pro tem, I treat every person who appears before me in court with respect, and I would continue that practice as a seated member of the District Court as well. It does not matter if that person is a pro se litigant, a criminal defendant, a witness, an attorney, an alleged victim in the case. Each person who enters the courtroom before me will be treated with equity and fairness and respect. Judicial officers are charged with not only administering the law, but, as I have said before, with upholding the public's confidence in the integrity of the law and of our court system. And that is a very big task. That is not an easy one, and there's no one short answer. But I can assure the Council that it is my judicial practice and this will remain unchanged to approach my service on the bench as a commitment to public service and to upholding the public's confidence in our court system. Thank you. Thank you very much. See no other questions from my colleagues. I might invite you to share closing remarks with us. Thank you very much. And council members, I would like to thank all of you again for the opportunity to be before you today. I am seeking this appointment because I am committed to using my extensive experience in order to serve our county. In addition to my extensive experience as a legal practitioner, I have served as a Judge Pro-Tem for nearly six years, and during that time I've had the opportunity to issue judicial rulings on more than 20,000 matters. My primary occupation has become nearly full time service as a judge pro-tem in King County District Court, and that experience has prepared me to transition seamlessly into the role of appointed judicial officer. Not only am I extraordinarily comfortable with the day to day responsibilities of the role, I am ready to take on the administrative challenges and practices of the court as well. Serving in the court nearly every day and having the support and mentorship of current sitting members of the bench, has enabled me to understand the issues that are critical to serving on the King County District Court bench in. Looting, continued work to transition and implement the new electronic case management system, as we discussed earlier, to hopefully extend that to other areas of the court's jurisdiction as well, but to also expand and sustain our therapeutic court programs and the network of community resource providers who serve those programs to actively engage with the district in Municipal Court Judges Association in order to foster collaboration and create an even greater impact for the resources of our county, as well as to to balance the need to manage increased case filings with existing court resources. My track record of community service, I believe, speaks to my deep and abiding commitment in public service. Not only have I served as a member of the Women's Advisory Board to this Council. I also volunteer to coach a YMCA mock trial team. I volunteer to host high school classroom visits into our district court courtrooms, and they serve with a significant number of youth based organizations. King County Wide. I have the support of the bench and our legal community, and in addition to my reading, I believe again that the letters of support filed on my behalf by those individuals can attest to the sincerity of my desire to serve and my commitment to do so. I am passionate about my work and I'm passionate about public service, and I will take the same deep commitment into serve on the District Court Bench. I am seeking this appointment so that I might have the privilege of applying my experience and my community investment to serve us on the District Court Bench. I thank you again for your time and your consideration of me. It's been a pleasure to be here this afternoon. I want to thank you for joining us and for Indigenous in this conversation and with that institute. I'm sorry, council members obviously a late breaking question, but I had the chance to ask the questions during the interview panel. But this one occurs to me, because of the candidate's particular experience in the district court, sitting pro-tem is by invitation of the of the judge, as I understand it, who normally presides in the courtroom. And and I don't know the answer to this, but I'm curious, has there been, in all of your experience, talked about 20,000, you say judicial decisions. Or 20,000 judicial decisions. As there has. Has there been a time and there could be any number of reasons, stylistically or otherwise, where you're aware of not being invited back to pro tem for a judge? And if so, did can you tell us perhaps why that might have occurred to the extent you know? Quite candidly, I am not aware of any circumstance where I have not been invited back. I can tell you I still consistently serve in all of the courts from which I was originally appointed. And as I think you're likely aware, Councilmember Dombrowski, if a judicial officer is displeased with the work that you're doing on the bench, if you are not able to treat court staff, for example, respectfully or the attorneys, then the parties who appear before you respectfully, if you're not able to efficiently manage your courtroom calendar and to do so in a way that exhibits respect for the community and the justice process unequivocally would not be asked back. Right. Thank you for. That's helpful to me. Thanks. All right. And with that, I want to thank you for engaging in the conversation and invite Mr. Lemon to invite Ms.. Rampersad out. And Mr. Chair, just. Why we have a break in between. When I authorize the packets to go out, I mean, I didn't notice that the motion wasn't included. So this is the blank motion that would actually appoint the person if you insert a name mark and are handing out copies right now. So I'll put that. In front of you. Make a unity between. You and I. Recommendations from all seven. Yet she only got interviewed by six. Watch this picture. Of course. Welcome back. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, Ms.. Rampersad. Thank you for your interest in serving on the North-East District Court. I welcome you to the committee, the hall for a conversation. I you conversation with the entire committee and would invite you to begin with opening remarks. Thank you and thank you for having me here today. The King County Bar Association excuse me, the King County Bar Association rated me exceptionally well qualified to serve on the King County District Court bench. But if the council remembers just one thing about me, remember I get things done. And I have created this chart that I just, Madam Clerk, just handed forward to the council members to illustrate how my qualifications line up with the skills necessary to be an outstanding District Court judge, and also to explain the what, where, why and how I get things done. I'd like to draw the Council's attention to three things on this chart. One of them is I get things done in high pressure, high volume environments. So, for example, I presided over hearings at the United Nations where I determined who was a terrorist and should be excluded, therefore, from resettlement to the United States. Second, I get things done under intense budget constraints, and that's my administrative skills down there at the bottom. At those hearings, I had one pen excuse me, and I was told, don't lose. It. Because the supply truck won't be coming for another ten weeks, so you won't get another one. But I've also managed multi-million dollar budgets, funding projects across the entire nation of China, and I have experience designing, implementing and expanding new programs. So, for example, on top of a heavy civil legal aid caseload, I designed obtain funding for and implemented a pilot project that was duplicated across multiple countries. And third, the most important thing, what motivates me to get things done, and that's the top line here, public service dedication. Every decision in my career has been driven by my desire to serve where I saw a need. I didn't go live in a tent on the border of a war zone or advocate for criminal justice reform under the surveillance of the Chinese government because those things were safe or easy or comfortable. I did those things because I felt compelled to serve where I could make a meaningful contribution. And I see that same possibility here to bring that wealth of experience. I've had the opportunity to gain to serve my home community as a King County District Court judge. So thank you for having me here today, and I'll be happy to answer the council's questions. Thank you very much. Councilmember Bell Balducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's Syrian. The first question we have prepared is, what is your view of the role of district court in King County? My view of the role, well, I will say something about my judicial philosophy, and that is that I don't view the role of a judge as a neutral. I know that's a phrase that a lot of people say, but to me, it just conveys a limp noodle. You know, you're not there to be passive. I see it as being a fierce and passionate advocate for the rule of law and for due process. So the role of a judge is not to be an advocate for either side or to put the put my finger on the scales for either party or try their case, but to be an advocate for the integrity of the process. And I'll give you an example. So if during a jury trial, for example, a party proposes a limiting instruction, so evidence is admissible for one reason but not another. So a party proposes a limiting instruction, but it's a misstatement of the law. So then I would have an obligation not just to be calling balls and strikes and say, no, that's rejected. It's wrong. I have an affirmative obligation to provide a correct statement of the law and then provide that limiting instruction. And that's a view of the law that the Washington State Supreme Court has told us trial courts have that affirmative obligation. So I see the role of a judge as as upholding the rule of law and safeguarding that process for everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Oftentimes in the U.S., you hear a lot of folks talking about terms related to racial and ethnic disparities when talking about big public institutions. And it's often talked about in relationship to the criminal justice system. So my question to you is whether or not you believe that or what you think racial and ethnic disparities mean to you. And then do you think that that is a challenge or our problem and the judicial system, particularly the district at the district court level? Yes or no? And why? Well, absolutely it's a problem. I think statistics has borne that out. We see that people of color are more likely to be drawn into the criminal justice system, to be drawn in multiple times, and to have more serious or disproportionate outcomes from the criminal justice system sentencing bill. And, you know, the biggest example of that was the Washington State Supreme Court fairly recently striking down our death penalty in the state, saying that it was disproportionately implemented and that was shown by statistical evidence. So in my view, it's not it's not really up for debate anymore, whether it's a problem. The question is what to do about it. And there are a lot of things that can be done. I think we're making progress on that front and awareness. People can go to trainings and as a judge, I could ensure that my staff go to trainings to understand our own biases. I, as a person of color, also, I'm not free from that influence. I've taken the the online bias, implicit bias test. And people of color can be biased against people of their own group or against other people of color. So it's a thing that we all need to be aware of. Something in my personal life that I have done to address on my own behalf as I have gone to other countries to live in other places where I am a minority there. So I've lived in Kenya and I've lived in China, I've lived in Tanzania, those places. Those experiences inform my understanding of how those issues and people interact in our own societies. So I think it's given me a different perspective and a lens through which to view things here, and it can definitely creep in to all kinds of decision making at the district court as the court that most people interact with in our community. So I think being aware of it and always consciously thinking about my own biases and setting those aside when making decisions is one thing that can be done to to address that. Thank you very much. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you so much for your interest in what is a very, very important job here in King County and, of course, across the state. The role of the district courts is really critical. It's really where the rubber meets the road. And it is a very high volume court, as you know. And so I guess the question I sort of have is what what elements in your training, your background, your experience have prepared you to really effectively manage such a busy, busy courtroom? Absolutely. Yes. I think my experience as a public defender in Yakima, Pierson, to a lesser degree, King County district courts. So I've had, for example, 5 minutes in the hallway with a client speaking to them through an interpreter, trying to get someone to understand important constitutional rights, make a decision about a deal that maybe they have. Should we set this over? Should we take the deal? You know, and sometimes that's the only time I would have to handle that. I've also been, you know, the hearings that I handled as the decision maker at the U.N. I would have an hour to interview 30 people. And it's my responsibility to screen out who is the terrorist who I don't want to resettle to my country and who is a civilian. And I don't want to have my issues of bias deny someone and doom them to a life in a refugee camp when they're when they have a credible asylum claim. So I've I've dealt with being a decision maker and assisting other people, making decisions as a as a defense attorney. And recently, I've I've had some pro-tem experience at Edmonds Municipal Court, which is also very high volume civil cases and criminal cases. So I know that I have the experience to do that, and I have a strategy. My strategy is be prepared. Make sure that I prepare as much as possible for all my hearings and prioritize during the hearings. So certain cases, maybe you're running up against a constitutional time limit. We need to. Handle those today. Other cases could be set over if we run out of time. So so prioritizing with absolutely necessary to get done or what issues within the case must be addressed today and what issues could be set over. And also not panicking because there's always something that comes up that's unexpected. So having a reasoned step by step way to handle issues that arise that I don't anticipate or to handle de-escalation strategies within a courtroom when people are not behaving, maybe appropriately. So those are all tools that I use to manage the caseload in a high volume docket. Great. Thank you. And Councilmember Rico Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome. I'd like you to imagine your court run in the future when and if you are a district court judge. How do you hope a court participant would describe her or his experience in your courtroom? And what steps would you take to accomplish that? Yeah, I would want someone to walk out of the courtroom feeling like they had been heard and they had been treated with dignity. And I keep quotes from from people throughout my legal career that are motivational to me. Quotes from clients or quotes from people I've interacted with, and I included two of those in my application. One is, thank you for treating me with dignity and respect, and the other is thank you for treating me like a person. And one of those quotes is from a person I prosecuted and another is from a person I represented. And that is very important to me to feel that everyone has their day in court, everyone feels respected and they feel heard because on a good day, you know, you'll have a 50% approval rating on your decision. There's always somebody who goes home unhappy with the outcome or, you know, on a on a better day, maybe both people are equally disappointed in how things turned out. Right. So to me, the goal of a judge is not to make everyone happy, but to make everyone feel heard and respected. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you very much for the conversation. Closing remarks. Oh, okay. Judicial excellence. It requires two things. Competence in the law and informed compassion. How can the Council know that I will be competent in the law? I attended Georgetown University Law Center. I clerked for then Chief Justice Mattson on the Washington State Supreme Court, and I passed the Washington, New York and Tulalip Bar exams on the first try . Oh, that was a long time ago. So why does that still matter? Because you, the council, can be confident that I have the intellectual capacity to do this job and to do it well. I also have an exposure to a wide variety of roles and subject areas in the law. And in particular, my appellate work has given me a unique perspective. So I like to think of appeals as trial autopsies. What went wrong and why? And that's given me a database of issues in my head to be able to see how to avoid costly and inefficient appeals. If things aren't done right the first time. And it also has led me to understand that appellate courts will correct errors of law. They will not correct errors of judgment, which is why it's critically important to have a trial court judge who has informed compassion. And to me, that means having the judgment and the life experience to understand different types of people, because the role of a judge in district court is to influence behavior. And a person with addiction issues or a mental health crisis, or who is experiencing a prior trauma. Those influence those things influence the decision making process. And so informed compassion means understanding that context. It means setting bail and sentencing and treatment order decisions, using those to give people the tools to succeed, to influence their behavior, and also ultimately to make our community safer. With my background, I am uniquely qualified to make those calculations, and the counsel can have confidence I will make those decisions with perspective and with balance. So in closing, I am seeking this appointment because I love the law. I love people and I would love the opportunity to serve my home community as a King County District Court judge. Thank you. Thank you very much. Shall I. Go? You don't have to excuse yourself from the chamber. And Mr. Lehman, if you didn't. You're welcome to invite the other applicants interviewees back. Colleagues, would we like a few minutes in executive session? Okay, then we will go into executive session and for everyone's information, we will do that. The council members will move into the Blue Room so we don't have to clear the chambers. Fewer people moving in that case. And to that end, the committee needs to discuss the matter in executive session. The grounds for executive session under RTW 4231 ten one h are is to evaluate the qualifications for appointment to elective office. The committee needs to be in executive session for approximately 15 minutes until about 305. I'm asking the clerk to post the doors to this effect, and I'm asking that I'm asking the council members to step into the Blue Room to have that discussion. Thank you. We're coming out of executive session. Welcome back. And for emotional call on Council Member Col Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I moved proposed motion 2019 0461. Council member Cole Wells has moved adoption of Motion 2019 for six one. That's the motion making the appointment to the District Court with a blank in it for inserting the name of the person we would appoint and as introduced prior to today's meeting and to make an amendment to that motion. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On line 25, it is blank. And I would like to offer to amend that to insert the name of Kevin Peck. Councilmember Damascus moved to amend the motion. The motion to insert the name of Kevin Peck, Council member Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is probably and I've said on the interview committee, I think in my six years here for every one of these vacancies and we've done up maybe seems like ten of them, this has probably been the most difficult decision among the three advanced candidates that I feel that I've had to made and could certainly vote for any of them. And I hope I get to vote for all of them before my time on this council is done. But Mr. Peck comes before us with a significant amount of experience. He comes before us with four exceptionally well-qualified ratings from the bar rating organizations and three well-qualified. He appeared before us on the last two vacancies and I think made a strong case for how he would fit in on the district court vacancy and for the Northeast. The other candidates, I want to say, are extremely impressive. And to that to that point, we couldn't make a I don't think a bad decision here. And I wanted to just express my appreciation. I'm making this motion, frankly, procedurally as the third person who sat on the committee in this process here. But I think it is the I think without knowing for sure, because we don't decide things in executive session and not knowing for sure. I think it probably is the maybe it reflects the majority of the will of the council at this time. But the other two candidates, Michener and Mr. Rampersad, I just want to say how impressed I was and am with each of you and believe and hope that you that we'll see you again if you remain interested in this particular part of your legal career. I know you have a lot to offer, and I want to express my personal appreciation for your application. And we'll see. I don't I don't know, Mr. Peck, if this motion to amend is going to carry. Okay. So there's there's my basis for it, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Council members investigate further discussion. I'm on my own behalf. I would echo some of what Councilmember Dombroski said about the strength of all three candidates we've interviewed today. And all three of you bring a very different a different set of qualifications to serve on the district court. Each one of you is exceptional in what you bring in the work that you've done to this point. Miss Jenn-Air, the dedication you have to district court and serving and the temperament with which you speak would serve continues to serve. District Court exceptionally well. Ms. Rampersad The diversity of experience different from what we would see many other judicial appointees or judges being elected to the position and holding, I think, would be a real enrichment to the bench. And it's been a pleasure. I'm getting to know and talking with both of you through this process. And Mr. Peck, the record of involvement in the criminal justice system, in the overall justice system throughout your career and including as a member, as a pro-tem judge, speaks well to your ability to do the job, do the job well, and excel in it from day one. For the comments, colleagues. Councilmember Gossett. All I can say, Mr. Chair, is that I concur with you and Councilwoman Dombroski all three. And what's particular to me is that we were about in the same space last time. We had two very qualified female that had applied for the job. We had two jobs opening. We gave it to both of them because they were so well qualified. We told Kevin, who competed against them, that he did well and we hope he would continue to try this time around. We haven't voted yet, but it may be a juxtaposition, and I wanted to strongly encourage the two competitors of Mr. Peck to please stay involved at the judicial arena, which you will as lawyers. But you all both of you are going to make excellent judges at the at the district court, superior or even higher someday. And I hope that we're able to communicate that feeling to you. And if Kevin wins the vote, I also think you are going to be a superb and extremely experience and successful judge, and I'd be very surprised if you were not. So I wish all three of you well on behalf of the King County Council and the people that all of us are are looking forward to serve. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate it. Three of the best candidates ever seen for this job. So I mean I mean that seriously, somebody is going to get in local and federal courts. So it's great stuff. Mr. Peck, enforcer, seven months ago now and we indicated that and I indicated in my comments at that time that, you know , frequently what I see here is people who are interviewing and if they don't get the nomination on their first attempt months or years later, they're back here before us again. And they frequently do get it at that time. And in a minute when I said that and I think other members echo that. And and so I have a lot of confidence, Mr. Peck, in your ability to to take on the judiciary here. But all of you are some really, really great interviews, and I would urge you to stay interested in this. District court is really where the rubber meets the road, and a good bench requires different temperaments, talents and convictions to be on it and to share information with their colleagues. And so the forward in support of Mr. Peck's nominations, do you look forward to the opportunities that abound in the future for the others? Thank you. And they'll do. Everything I would have to say has already been said. But I do want to make a brief statement about process through this process, because you will recall that we put in place this new process that requires the bar reviews for the bar ratings upfront in order to shrink the time it was taking as it was taking, as a very long time to fill vacancies. And I think we've succeeded in shortening the time to fill vacancies. But I feel like we may also have erected some barriers that we should inquire into for future appointments, because we heard from candidates that might have applied to our previous round if they had been able to get their bar ratings, that they were ready and willing to apply, but they weren't able to get the bar ratings because of the Bar Association's process. So I just want to ask that and there's no action required from us today, but I'm going to follow up to make sure that our process is open to everybody and gives them a fair chance to be competing for these jobs when they come, because they do seem to come up a fair bit. I think we've got an aging bar. We are filling retirements and things have some such. Thank you. And I'll just add my thanks to all of the candidates. You've all put a lot of time and heart and experience. And frankly, I was so impressed by how different all of your backgrounds are and you all bring something unique and very, very valuable to the work you're doing. And I also want to encourage you all to continue to seek judicial appointments, because I think you would all make excellent judges. And and I would love to see you get there. Thank you. Others in favor of amendment. The amendment from Council member Dombrowski added Mr. Peck's name please say I oppose nay. The amendment carries. We have motion 2019 for 61 as amended before us. I see no further discussion. Madam Quirk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Kimba Bell. Duty Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Gossett I. Council Member. Cornwall Council Member Lambert, I. Council member of the Grove. Council member Van. Right now. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote is 880 noes. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to motion 2019 for 61 and it will be advanced to full council, I believe, a week from Wednesday, regular course of action. And I want to thank my colleagues for the work. I want to thank all three of you for being interested in devoting time and resources and energy to pursuing the possibility. And I particularly want to add a note of appreciation to both Mr. Hamacher and particularly Sam Porter for this staff work in supporting us through the application and appointment process. Thank you. With that, we have one more item of business on today's agenda. That is motion 2019 for 59 establishing the 2020 state legislative agenda. For those watching at home where the county does is often constrained by state law. And the legislative agenda is our list of items that we want to go work on during the legislative session to allow us to better serve our constituents. And by us, I mean the county as a whole, not exclusively the council, but the council, the executive and all of our other independently elected officials and countywide operations. With that, I'll turn it over to our Council Government Relations Director Mac Nicholson to present the item. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee, Mac Nicholson, government relations director for the King County Council. With me is our state lobby team, Mike Shaw and David Foster. April Putney from the Essex Shop was here as well, but had to leave. So before you should be a document that looks like this, which is a draft proposal for the agenda. The agenda process starts with our team speaking with all of you and coming up with sort of a long list of items that you'd like to see and add to the list circulating and speaking in caucuses. It grew to a fairly lengthy document. And so recognizing that we're we're going into a 2020 session that is a supplemental budget year and a short session. And in light of 89, 76 passing, kind of reassessed the top priorities for the county and what the message would be going into session. And so after meeting with some council members, kind of condensing all of those longer list into sort of five top priorities that you see in draft form in front of you, while also kind of creating for us internally to help guide our work down there. All the other items as items that we will engage and support on throughout as they evolve throughout the legislative process. So that's kind of what's in front of you now is is the agenda on the draft agenda. We also have a list that is not anything to be voted on, but kind of the bulleted items that you all asked us to put on the legislative agenda that we will use to to guide and engage our work down in Olympia. So the five items listed are protecting enhance transportation options, local transportation options, increase availability of affordable housing, address the critical roads and bridge needs, improve access to community behavioral health services, and then protect public health . I'm happy to go into more detail as you wish, but recognizing that we're kind of running up on that 330 mark, I can answer any question, but we're going to pass it up. The discussion. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mac a glaring omission to this is changing our tax situation to add in prop two, to add in inflation and population growth. Do we? I don't recall. Do we customarily not do that in the even number of years where this legislative session is short or. It has been on the legislative agenda? Every year that I've been I've been here recognizing that we are walking into a short session where it's unlikely that the legislature will take action on that kind of stuff. Realistically, that window will most be open again in 2021, which is the supplemental budget year, which is also in kind of the McCleary issue that the state dealt with. That's when sort of the 1% cap comes off for the state. Are there, I guess that Levy goes back under the 1% cap? So I think there's a recognition at the state level that that they will have to look at that. And that's sort of the the horizon for that would be the 2021 session. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've got a piece of legislation emanating from the addiction and recovery community that I haven't had a chance to really. I've been working with Mike Hoover on it, haven't really been able to get into it yet because it was late breaking. But I'm more than happy to support the legislative agenda moving forward. But I do like the opportunity to talk to my colleagues about it as a possible scenario on later on when the time permits or perhaps some other appropriate method. But I just look forward to talk to each of you about that moving forward. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would not like to know and be able to ask the question. And what I'd like to point out to you are I would like to have a response. For the first time in several years, we do not have anything related to criminal justice reform in our top priorities for next year. And I know that sentencing reform to second degree robbery offered three strikes, but they didn't do anything about the past. I'd like to see some work at that on some our candidates even earlier today mentioning that we really need bail reform for lower income people. Reentry expungement are issues that come up every year. So I wanted to ask, why did that? Why did criminal justice issue not reach that threshold to be on our agenda? I would defer to to the council members if if if an item comes up that you would like to elevate to this. We certainly can. It's not really my opposition, yes or no. I will say that we do have sort of on our are running list of items that we know are going to be in play and that we're going to have to weigh in on. And we, you know, weigh in on support on a lot of those issues, on our on the criminal justice front, on the criminal justice reform issues. We certainly have those flagged as our working order. But whether or not you're going to see them reflected on this kind of one piece. There will be things moved on that are not on this priority list. Is that what you're saying? Yes. There's a list. And you might not all have that list. I don't have that to counsel. I remember right at the start that. I read review. I didn't get back to you later. Thank you. Yeah, I think the last two questions you've received, Mr. Nicholson, reflect the balance of trying to narrow the legislative agenda and recognizing, particularly given the passage, passage of the initiative, how much we might want to focus yet how much there are issues that are of great concern to the county, to our constituents, to council members that at the same time we may want to see reflected. And so there's a balance there. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So when I talk about three different things, first off, I love it, except I think we need to change the order, number two. And number three, I think if you're going to start off a transportation and it doesn't say anything about roads, but roads is number three. People will be confused whether is there something about roads and bridges. So I think they should be together. And so I suggest, if that's what makes more sense, just in continuity ways and then tell me the thinking behind not having the 1% cap on here other than the fact it's been on here for five years and gone nowhere. So what was the thinking about taking it off again? The thinking was sort of the top priorities. And what is the legislature going to be trying to match our top priorities with what we expect the legislature to be working on and having the legislative agenda reflect that the 1% is still an issue. Certainly I've heard from a number of council members wanting it to still be in play and we can still kind of go down and advocate. There's still a bill in play, represent a poll that still has this 1% bill. And we can certainly go down and advocate on it on behalf of the county and wanting to see it move. But just a recognition that these are kind of the top priorities we expect the legislature to be working on. Don't expect them to be doing much in the 1% in 2020. So and then thank you for responding to my request for this second list. But there are two things on this list that I have some concern about I want to throw forward. And one of them is improving the King County conservation based in district governance by transitioning to an all appointed board of supervisors. And that has been an elected body. I'm pretty sure they want to be an elected body. Yes, I agree. There have been problems in the way that they have been elected in the past. They agree, but unfortunately, they got the burden of being people, being angry at them when it was a state law that made that happen . So our director of elections is working with them and they are going to be doing it on a regular ballot in the future, hopefully. So I think we should be looking to see the policy that this council is going to be voting on and talk with our own elections supervisor. So director said that one may be premature. So I think we should look at that one. And then the one before it. And I agree with it. I agree with what it says, but I don't agree with where it takes us. So let me explain that. It says. No, we're not looking at the same piece of paper. No, that's why I'm going to read to you. So when it says an increase, the HPV vaccine uptake by granting adolescents independent authority to consent to HPV vaccination, that I agree with. What I don't agree with is that the current law, as I understand it. And I've been making questions and inquiry. So it's not consistent anymore. The law was passed a few years ago that a person can make a decision on their mental health and physical health that they will not take treatment at age 13. And that was before the research came out that your frontal lobe of your brain is not fully formed until after 24. So people who we have now said in the last couple of years are not mentally capable because their brains are not completely formed yet. They can make decisions that they will not get medical care that their parents think they should have. There is a judicial bypass where a 13 year old can go to court and say, boy, 12 year old, for instance, can go to court and say, you know, that I really want this medical care, whatever. My parents won't let me. And the judge can decide that. But I think that we also need to be looking at that issue related to this and rewording the entire law that medical treatment. And I have here parents and as you know, we've had some suicides in my district recently of high schoolers. And some of the things coming out is that some care should have been or could have been earlier, but they didn't have the authority to do it. And so I think we really need to look at that and make sure what things we want adolescents to make sure they can agree or disagree to. But we're usurping parents in a way that I think is dangerous. So I just wanted to point that out. The further discussion council go. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. The legislature did quite a lot with regard to environmental protection last session. We still have a lot on our plate with regard to climate change. And had there been any thought about placing something on here or do you not see that the legislature is realistically going to be taking this sat in the coming session? I do think that the legislature will be looking at climate change issues in the upcoming session. Again, it's happy to add it as a priority kind of deference to this body. Well, I think it's in deference to us, but also to the executive who has certainly been working on this issue. Sure. And I will say this. The executive has seen these five items in his and is in agreement with what those is his top priorities. I'm surprised that I would like to see something on there. See no further discussion with Mr. Nicholson. The. Does the. I'm sorry. This council meet a week from Wednesday? No, no. So if we were to move something on the regular course of business, it would be two weeks from this coming Wednesday. How does that fall in line with what our legislative gathering is? It would be the day after. So that would not be very practical. Correct. Four hour action yet to move it out today. Expedited to Wednesday might be a little aggressive given the conversations that will take place, given the suggestions today in meeting out what to include in what the final balance should be. Colleagues, I might suggest that we move it out of committee today without recommendation and. She didn't know. I'm now I'm thinking out loud on television, which makes me very nervous. So where how how many council meetings do we have before our legislative gathering? Just one. One. Okay. So we are we might have an intense next 46 hours, but that would be the only way to have an adopted legislative agenda before the legislative gathering. Mr. Chair. Council Member. Democracy. Mr. Chair. With the indulgence of the Chair of the Committee of the whole, could I ask Christina Logsdon, my chief of staff, who has been really kind of managing the details of this? Christina And with respect to the meeting that we're having with our legislators, do you have anything to add to help us with guidance? Christina And if if you do, could you come to the U.S.. A microphone. Turn to skill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is Christina Locsin, chief of staff to Councilmember Baffsky. This is listed on the council agenda for Wednesday. Okay. What Wednesday? This coming Wednesday, we have one council meeting before the legislative meeting, the legislative happy hour, and that is this coming Wednesday, the 20th. Because our legislative meeting is on the. The fourth, I believe. Third. Tuesday the third. So we only have one council meeting between now and the legislative gathering. So whether we move whether we move it out of committee today, and I would suggest doing so without recommendation or not, we should expect to take it up in 46 hours or less at the council meeting on Wednesday of this week. Yes. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Real quickly, how does that impact the first item that you put on next Wednesday agenda? We had forgotten that we're not meeting next Wednesday this year, candidates. Can we move that forward to this coming Wednesday to. Let me think about that for a minute. Let me handle this issue right now. And you're right. I did I did tell those. I did announce earlier it would be up a week from Wednesday. The issue would primarily only affect Mr. PAC and will certainly communicate with with him when that's taken up. All right. You know, we believe. I would entertain a motion. Councilmember Caldwell's, would you be willing to give me a motion to move it out without recommendation? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move personally. Here. I knew proposed motion number 2019 0459 by be voted on without recommendation. We have a motion to move a motion 2019 for 59 without recommendation two for counsel on an expedited basis. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I'm fine with it, but I want to know if we could flip number two and number three. So that reads more following. Given the conversation we've had, there will be more editing and it's without recommendation. And so I have noted and I'm sure that Mr. Nicholson has noted your request. I would make I would want to do that, recognizing that that is also not trying to suggest a lesser importance for affordable housing. And there was the criminal justice, tax reform, 1% cap, climate change, other issues. So there's conversation to be going forward. Order is part of that, but not the only issue that continues to be looked at between now and Wednesday. Thank you. And I think we've written in the past, these are not in any particular order, so that might be a thing. So the people know for sure that we did say that. Thank you. I'm see no further discussion with the motion before us to advance it on an expedited basis without recommendation. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. Councilmember Dempsey. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Gossett. Hi. Councilmember Caldwell. Councilmember Lambert. Council member of the Grove. Councilmember One right there. Mr. Chair. All right, Mr. Chair, voted 680 no's. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation without recommendation, and we'll advance the legislative agenda to full council this Wednesday. Please sign the sheet before leaving and before we adjourn. Will be at a brief recess. And. Hmm. We're out of recess and with nothing further to come before the committee. The whole.	A MOTION making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the east division, northeast electoral district judge position number four of the King County district court.
king_a0cd26b0-e1ab-4970-b74e-2f25c2f57ba3	All right. Good morning and welcome to the April 18th meeting of the King County Council's committee of the Hall. We'll dispense with the roll call at this time and start immediately. I'm going to hold public comment till more members get here because I want them to be able to hear what folks have to say. And we're a little sparse right now. So we'll turn to item five, which is proposed ordinance 2018 0158. And in our local agreement with the City of Covington for landmark designation and Protection Services, we've seen these before. Is there anything different about this one? Nope. All right, Sam. All right. I think. The I mean, Mr.. Dobson, Mr. Chair, the ordinances reference and the clerical call, the roll. So be subject to signature. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Phil Duchin. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Caldwell's Wells. Councilmember Lamour. Councilmember McDermott. All right. Councilmember up the ground. Councilmember Yvonne right there, Mr. Chair. I think, Mr. Chair, the vote is two eyes, no no's. Seven. Excused. All right. We're going to do pass recommendations subject to signature. Will, can we expedite that to the full council? We'll do that. Have it on consent. In all due respect and with fairness, is there anything you want to add? No, not at this time. Very good. Thanks for being here. We're nothing if not efficient. Right? All right, let's see what we turn to. I tell you what, if members are listening, we're going to take about a three minute recess and see if we can get a little more attendance here at the committee of the hall. So we'll be in recess for 3 to 5 minutes till we have more members here. You're invited to present yours now. Go ahead. All right. Very good. Welcome. Hi to my a few of that. I'm not a social democratic. My favorite progressive Gestapo stopped by principle my name. I like Zimmerman and president of stand up America. I want speak about agenda number. Eight. About union contract with union. We don't have right now a union. We have a government who cut up to 773 branches work together so union money matters you bring right now to union come to absolutely absurd because of money about this other union the car right now a union employee covers this. If we talk about all three branches care too much too big. I have statistic about this so your salary for example you earn from this three branches it jump for the last year only by $22,000, $250,000. But maybe many member of union. What this covers is making from 2 to $300000 don't have sense. Why are you doing different today than one year ago or five years ago? Nothing. You consult, for example, make work in only a hundred days per year and $265 you out so you pay another 20 grand is good example. Is this exactly what is we doing with everything? Just come to judicial system, to judges, come to executive branches like don't Constantin And everything in that sense will be changed. You cost us a billion and billion dollars and most people right now dying in street, you don't have money. So why we pay to government more and more every year when government only works statistically only 4 to 1, you pretend this is don't have sense and whenever our salary for example in king country approximately $60,000. Why you doing doing this this same for $60,000 when you work in only 200 day per year is it's exactly happen . So right now I speak to everybody listen to me. When you do cleanse this dirty government, what is it? We have this this is not only Tory government, this government court drink from what this I call fat cat toilet. Is this exactly what's happened? Okay. We've got a quorum. Now. Invite Sarah Annabel to present her testimony. Hello, council members. My name is Sarah Bryant involved. And it's my honor to testify here today as the chair of the King County Women's Advisory Board. While I wanted to thank council members Dombrowski and Cole Wells for sponsoring the motion to pilot an infant's at work program for eligible employees in King County, I am proud to say that the WAB enthusiastically supports the motion. For the past 16 months, the world has been focused on the topic of affordable and flexible child care. We are excited to share that the Infants at work pilot and more flexible telecommute policies for employees in King County will be part of a more comprehensive set of recommendations that are forthcoming . Why is this pilot so important? So first, this pilot will help address the critical shortage of infant care in King County and the cost burden on working families out of paying for infant care. By way of example, the average cost of full time infant care per month is 1500 and can be higher. I actually paid 2300. I could pay off my. Infant attendant full. Time care. Second, the pilot will make King County a more family friendly workplace and hopefully reduce parental stress and increase infant health and brain development by providing opportunities for with for parents to bond with their infants and also to normalize the practice of breastfeeding in the workplace, which is so critical. Finally, this pilot will help address gender and inequities by allowing more women to return to the workplace sooner and maintain continuity at work, decreasing the gender pay gap. So in closing, while the motion does recognize the pioneering work of the Washington State Department of Health, I serve as an assistant attorney general. My day job and my clients, the Department of Labor and Industries. And they've also done some really great work in this regard. They have piloted a program that was highly successful and implemented the program fully. And I'm happy to share more details about that, to provide information about that program. Thank you. Thank you very much, Sara, for your testimony. Is there anybody else who would like to present to the committee? I didn't have a chance to sign up or I don't think anyone will close public comment and turn to item six, which is proposed March 2018 017 for a motion requesting a plan to implement an Infant at work pilot program for eligible King County employees and their infants. I'm pleased to sponsor this motion and glad to have Councilmember Caldwell's on board a leader on these issues. We've got a very good panel today, and I think Sam is going to do an initial introduction of the legislation because that her staff report. And then we'll turn to our panelists and will you introduce those? Sam, where would you like me to? Yes, I can. Super. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Staff. The legislation before you begins on page 25 of your packet proposed motion 2018 174. Would request the Executive to develop a plan to implement an infant's at. Work pilot program for eligible King County employees and their. Infants. This program would allow employees to temporarily bring their new infants to work in approved workplace environments based on the long term health benefits of breastfeeding newborns and allowing employees to return to work sooner than they may otherwise be able to. The Washington State Department of Health. Implemented an infant at. Work program in July of 2015. As of February of this year, the Department of Health has had 59 infants. Successfully participate in the program. Ten additional Washington state agencies either have policies in place or are piloting similar programs. This trend is reflected in public and private organizations across the country. Proposed Motion 2018 174. Specifically requests that the plan from the executive include a description of program eligibility requirements, a description of any workplace environment considerations. Such as safety guidelines, facility requirements, and recommended operational practices to ensure the adequate adequate care of the infant. Adequate hygiene in the workplace, and. Continued employee. Productivity along with policies and procedures. For events when an infant is disruptive to. The work environment for a prolonged period of time. And a timeline for implementing the pilot pilot program, including the duration. And beginning and end dates of the program and the scope of employee. Groups to participate. The motion requests. That the executive transmit the plan to council by August 15th of this year. Along with any legislation necessarily necessary to implement the pilot. The proposed motion requests that the program be developed in. Consultation with the King County Women's Advisory Board and using resources published by the Parenting in the Workplace Institute. That concludes. My remarks. I'm happy to answer any questions. Denise Pruitt, senior. Policy advisor from HRT, is available and the panelists. Mikayla Dorman of the Washington State. Department of Executive Services and Robin Vasquez of the Office of Financial Management. Are also available. Terrific. Thank you very much. And why don't we invite McKayla and Robin to come forward and make their presentation about how this has worked in their workplaces? Thank you both for joining us. Oh, sorry. My name is Mikayla Dolman. I am an assistant director at the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services. I'm Robyn Vasquez, and I'm a labor negotiator with the Office of Financial Management. So you should have the presentation in front of you. If you can't see the notes below. We did include a lot of notes and for time sake will go quickly over the slides. But there are more details about the different agencies because we wanted to represent all of the state of Washington in this. So you can look through that at your interest. Yes. For what it's worth, we only got the slides. Okay. So I would say the when you have them later. Okay. Yeah. So they electronic version you can look through and then we'll we'll send that to you. So the information workplace policy is essentially we're allowed to bring our infants to work from six weeks to six months. And within this slide, it will show how agencies have differences between their policies. We also sent a copy of the Department of Enterprise Services policy. So that kind of outlines what our policy covers. And then differences are things like whether or not you can do it full time or part time, how many caregivers you have to have , whether or not the caregiver can be someone who reports to you, things like that. So each agency chose to make it a little bit different. But overall the policy represents in general how the state has approached it. So right now it looks like there are 12 agencies who have an infant at work program and all of them have adopted it. Since Department of Health was the first back in July of 2015, Michaela sent out a survey to state agencies and 17 responded, indicating that they don't have an infant at work program right now for various reasons. Either they haven't had time to pursue it because they've been focusing on other things. They don't think it aligns with their business needs or, you know, they have plans to pursue it, but they haven't gone that direction yet. New parents are allowed to telework, and of course, one agency can respond. I think that's a pretty good response rate. It's I would say that the conversation is shifting now that there are 12 agencies who have a program. So I think this is much more of a focus than it has been in the past. Even if agencies don't have one at present, I think employees are asking about it and executives are talking about whether or not what they have and what their position is on infants at work. So there were three main reasons why most agencies chose to implement the program. One is just the compelling parent benefits within the state at the current time, at least back in 2015 and 16, we didn't offer paid parental leave. You had a family medical leave that you could have your time, and that's protected, but it wasn't paid. You could use your own sick leave. Are you on vacation leave? But a lot of times, like for my first two kids, the program didn't exist. And so I would use up all my leave and then I'd come back. And then the day they got sick, they, I didn't have any sick leave to take care of them. So it was kind of a hardship on the parents. So we were trying to figure out what can we do to be more of an employer of choice. We know we can't compete with salary in the state. So what can we do to help people realize that we want to support them and to be able to hire a younger workforce that is of childbearing age? Because the other statistics show that we are kind of heavy on the post childbirth age group within the state workforce. The other is just infant health and well-being. There are a lot of research and statistics that the Department of Health really brought forward that demonstrates that that continued baby bonding, at least for the first six months, demonstrates that there's a better emotional connection for the parent. It shows that it's an easier transition for the parent coming back to work, and it shows that there's a connection to infant health when they're able to bond with their parent and continue breastfeeding for the first six months in life. There's also a shorter transition time that they were was a hypothesis that would happen. And I can say that I chose to participate in the program for my third child and I took four months off for my first two kids and then came back cold turkey full time. And then this third time around, I came back after two months because I had the opportunity to and if anything with the other two kids at home, it gave me more time to bond with my kid without two kids clinging to me. So and McKayla just Mikayla excuse me. Started to cover some of this, but there are benefits for the employer as well. Employees can choose to return to work sooner. I'm also a previous participant in the program and I returned to work sooner when this program was in place than I did with my first child. My second child it was in place and I came back after two months and I would not have if I hadn't had that opportunity. If it provides a recruitment advantage, it's a place where, like you said, you know, we can't always compete on salary, but we can offer other less financial benefits, but that are very enticing to our younger workforce. It allows us to avoid increased retention costs, or while it increases retention or avoids turnover costs, we don't have to hire someone new because a parent decides not to return to the workforce because they want to stay home longer and they don't have a chance to if they come back, it increases employee loyalty. I mean, some of this evidence is probably anecdotal, but I'm very grateful to my agency for creating and offering this program. And I think a lot of the people I've talked to who participated feel the same way. Supports the governor's goal five concept of being an employer of choice, just supporting families in the workplace. It's a morale booster. When I ceased participating, like when my son was close to aging out, I think my whole office was a little sad. Like my work unit was sad to find out that Malcolm wasn't going to be coming to work anymore. I come into my office, say, Where is he? They didn't want to talk to me. They wanted to see if the baby was around and I had put him at home. And then, of course, lower health care costs and less sick leave used for both the parent and the child. They were kind of when we surveyed the different agencies that do have a program, there were four general themes with little logistical challenge or challenges that we faced. The first one being logistics. One of the biggest things, and it was surprising, but the biggest concern that people had was about where do we put the poopie diapers? What are we going to do with the poopy diapers? And each agency has chose to address it differently. So what we chose to say is that, you know, we have bags that how you know that the dog bags that have a little bit of a scent to it, put the diaper in there, tie it up. It usually doesn't smell. So we're allowed to throw it in the workplace. Other parents choose to put it in their car. So there are different ways to handle it. The other big one was around if some agencies were very accommodating, it sounds like based off their presentation, we want to. The goal is to bring breastfeeding more public in the workplace. Not all agencies were as comfortable with that. And so the other logistical challenge is how do we breastfeed? We don't have enough pumping rooms available for all of the parents that may want to participate in reality, whether they bring their infant to work or not, that's still going to be an issue. What we chose to do was just take conference rooms and put lines on them and just have a sign up there that says Breastfeeding or pumping mother at work. But those were the two big logistical challenges, the cultural challenge that we faced where there were a lot of people who were concerned about will an infant be disruptive both to the parent and their colleagues? What we found is that with regards to the parent, most of the parents were more concerned than the rest of the staff on their infant being disruptive. So as soon as the infant made a noise, they would rush out and pull the baby away. Whereas the rest of the employees were saying, It's not that big a deal. We don't mind the noise. We don't mind the queen. If anything they were saying, it makes us happier to hear that cooing. What we did find and the Department of Health noticed this as well, is that there was some disruption with coworkers. Can you not hear me? Sorry. Okay. There was some disruption with coworkers wanting to come and take care of the baby. Hold the baby. And so it was the coworkers who were saying and the poor parent was saying, just let me. I need to get my work done. And so we had to create clear rules in our policy that you're not allowed to hold the baby unless you are a designated caregiver and the parent has to run off to a meeting where the infant isn't there. So that was kind of the biggest signal that we had to send is don't bother the parent when you're the coworker. The perception there was some concern, especially with the agencies that were bringing their children to work with public facing jobs. Is is our taxpayer is going to be concerned about is this an issue? I know when Department of Health first went live with this and the News did a segment on it, there were some concerns about it, in my opinion. I haven't heard anything that was insurmountable to where we were saying, no, it's it's so big of a concern because we were showing how the parents were actually working and effective on the job. The final point is around equity, and this is something that we're still working through right now, but the equity of for the most part , it's office jobs that are the easiest to have an infant in the workplace. And so in D.C., we have a lot of more blue collar to laborious jobs for like our we have a buildings and grounds crew and we have a custodial staff. What we've found is, and we'll cover this a little bit later, is that if a parent comes to us, we want to approach it with how can we make this work for you? So we're still trying to figure out how can we participate or how can we ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in some way ? There are some agencies like the Department of Corrections who have chosen not to have a program, because what they found is that it's really only their headquarters staff who would be able to participate. And they didn't want to have a program when only one part of. The. Of an 8000 person agency could could participate. So just real quick of our experiences so far, and this is my child, so I just have to brag right there because that's him on my computer. Of the 11 agencies that currently have an infant's in the work place. Protocol working out of class. Yes. Yeah. I'm actually broke the screen to it, turned it and we couldn't figure out how to get it back. So I wouldn't recommend letting them touch the computer. But of the 11 agencies that have a current program right now, all of them indicated that they want to continue the program and they've found benefits from them. So there wasn't any agency that said, no, we're not going to pursue it. The 12th agency is only a 20 person agency and they just don't have anyone who is of the age to have children or and bring them into the workplace. So that's the only reason why they're no longer participating as of now. What was interesting is that, you know, the parents we talked about the parental benefits, but the coworkers, Robin mentioned it as well. The coworkers really noticed a benefit of there was bonding. People felt like they could have conversations with their coworkers that they wouldn't normally have and that strengthened relationships that even after the infant was no longer there, that they could say, we work better together because I got to know this person on a human level. So it's just an interesting additional benefit that we weren't expecting when we had the program. I think that people who have been skeptical of this program have been won over by it when it's been implemented in state agencies. So there are things that each of the agencies that has piloted or created a program has taken away. And one of those things is that communication is key. You want constant engagement between the supervisor and the employee. The supervisor should feel comfortable expressing concerns. If there are concerns or if it's not working. The employee, likewise, should feel comfortable expressing concerns. I know that there have been some employees who have opted out of the program earlier than the six months because they felt like they needed to in order to be able to get more work done. So communication is the thing that makes this whole program work. It's you can make it work if there's a will. And Kyla talked about some of the hurdles that have been faced, whether you're public facing or whether you have a job where there's travel or kind of a more hands on job, where it makes it more difficult. But there are adjustments that can be made to many jobs to make this program work or to allow someone to participate. It is probably the most stressful for the parent. I think I was more anxious when I was participating than any of my coworkers were, and most of my coworkers honestly had had kids, you know, and even if they were past the age where their kids were no longer small, if my baby first a little bit, nobody in the room was shocked by that. Right, because they all had dealt with having children. And so I was the one that was like, oh, I need to get up and go out of the room. But if you have, you know, parents are interested in making this work because they want to participate. So there's that incentive. Some parents don't want to participate. I've heard concerns from employees who said, I don't I don't want to feel like I'm obligated to participate in this just because we have it and just because I'm expecting a child, one person I know didn't want to participate because she wanted to take a longer leave time, like she wanted to be off for six months with her child. And she said, I don't intend to come back to work even though we have this program. And so it's not for everybody. It's, you know, it's all individual. It needs to be tailored. And that's kind of our last bullet point, that things change. It needs to be checked in on Revisited and it should be flexible. The employer would need to be flexible. The employee is expected to be flexible when participating. So that concludes the presentation. Excellent. Very, very helpful to open it up to members questions or comments. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Thank you very much. I have two questions and then a comment. So could you tell me, you know, we've really tried to make our pods a certain amount of square footage, so it's pretty tight. So how is that going to fit into the pods that we have? Just logistically, it's my first question. And the second one is when is the state pilot going to have their data so that we could look at that? When will that pilot have their data, their evaluation? The state? So there is no statewide pilot that we're doing. Each agency has approached this on their own. Some agencies have chosen to do a pilot. Other agencies have just launched into it. So DHS is one of the agencies that launched into it. Department of Health has been doing it the longest a year longer than any other agency. They had that first year pilot, so they probably have the best data that you could connect with to get from because they have, I think. What did they say? Over 30 participants so far. But 59 infants. 59. Yeah. So. But which what type of data are you looking for? I guess would be just. What were the lessons learned? You know, and he gave us some high level ideas. But there would be others, too, that, you know, the noise factor in the building, waking the baby up, you know, all kinds of different factors, including the fact that, you know, depending on which building you work in, there's a lot of germs and lots of people that the baby may not be, you know, accustomed to yet. And so that that's a concern for the baby. And then you mentioned several times that our salaries are not commiserate with the outside sector. And I believe probably before the recession that was true. So after the recession, I'm not sure that that is actually true anymore. So I would like to know, Kathleen, just on that as a separate issue. Sure. Thank you. To your first question, you know, you're asking about how it would fit into a smaller space. One of the components of most of the programs is a risk assessment and an assessment of the workstation. Where are you going to put the area where the baby will be laying or sleeping? Will the equipment fit? You know, are are the bookshelves secured so that in the event of an earthquake, they won't fall? I went through a security inspection, like, are the cords secured or put up away from the walkway? So that's again, that's part of the tailoring process. You look at the workspace for each individual employee who wants to participate to make sure that the workspace will work. And in some cases, people have been reassigned temporarily to other workspaces. For instance, if they're in a cube and you have a free office, you could assign them to the office. But people have made it work in cubicles as well. Thank you. Other questions, comments. Councilmember Cole WELLS Thank you. Mr. Chair. I'm very pleased to be sponsoring this legislation along with the Chair, and I'd like to bring out a couple of points. One is that. I. I will never forget the experience of visiting Google and seeing their dog friendly workplace. And there were dogs everywhere and it didn't there was not a limit to six months of age puppy. It could be any age. And they had toys, their dogs, dog paraphernalia all over the workplace. And I think it's certainly worthwhile for us to explore as a pilot project, not just a carte blanche, but a pilot project. I would like to see some evaluation included in here, so I don't see it when I'm just scanning through it and as I did before. But I think it's a pilot project. We should request a require that the executive that and evaluation component for that pilot project. And the other thing that really strikes me is and it was touched on here but I don't know that it was touched on sufficiently is the savings and the impact. Mr. Chair, is that all right? It's so everyone involved as the chair of the Women's Advisory Board come up. There and. Speak in public testimony. But I don't know that everybody was here. Yeah, but she not only Sarah Commander, she not only chairs the Women's Advisory Board. And their top priority, as I understand it, over the last year has been on child care. Yes. But she also has very personal experience. And Sarah, you just touched on it toward the end of your testimony, but I'd really appreciate if you could tell firsthand what it's like. And your husband is the prosecuting attorney. You're an attorney with the attorney general's office. That's correct, Tony. That's correct. That's correct. So they the two of you, I'm assuming, make pretty good salaries in between the two of you at the courts. Is this standard even more in many cases than college tuition? Would you please just kind of reiterate or maybe flesh out a bit what you've mentioned during your testimony? Absolutely. And as I mentioned during my testimony, I'm chair of the King County Women's Advisory Board. And we've been focusing on this critical topic of affordable and flexible childcare for the last 16 months. One of the reasons why we're wholeheartedly in support of it is that work program is that all of the experts that we've listened to and the research and data that we've reviewed showed that the costs of infant care in King County is staggeringly high and that there is a critical shortage of particularly infant care in King County. And I can personally say, you know, I work as an assistant attorney general in the attorney general's office and my husband's a prosecutor. We really can't afford full time care for two kids in King County. It's a real stretch for us. Because of our. Student loans and also our mortgage payments. And so we have my mother in law and also my mother watch our kids one day a week. And so we pay for three days of care at the Seattle Infant Development Center. And full time infant care at that center is 20 $300 per month. You can double that. And so I think it's it's very significant to know that. That's that's a huge impact for. A lot of people. And a lot of women, when thinking about returning to the work force, are having to make really tough decisions about maybe whether they can get into, you know, care center for infant care because the waiting lists are so long. I'm constantly looks are constantly reaching out to me, asking, where does your infant. Go to day. Care? How can I get on a waiting list? I haven't gotten called back. It's such a source of stress for mothers. And then there are oftentimes requests forced to return to the workforce with substandard care or forced to stay home because they simply can't get into infant care. So these kinds of decisions, particularly for women, but also for men, are really agonizing decisions. And a program like this would be so critical in terms of addressing the high cost of care, but and also ensuring, as you were both mentioning, that infants have that opportunity to bond with the parents and that women such as myself can continue breastfeeding in the workplace, which has shown to have huge developmental benefits long term. So that's a little bit about, you know, my story and why I think this program is so critical. Thank us, former Co Wells and Sarah, I, I want to emphasize the point that she, I think was touching on there a little bit, but on Monday we recognized Equal Pay Day. Right. And the fact that I think women are about $0.78, maybe that might be a little high on the dollar for men. And I think when you look at the studies, one of the things that they show is. Firms have a key driver for that disparity is the child bearing issue and the fact that that takes working women oftentimes out of the workforce. To me, one of the benefits of this program is I think it helps. And I think the state data shows, or at least, you know, the hundred 50%, but it keeps folks women in the workforce. And we're talking about women here. But this pilot project wouldn't be limited to just women. We want to see some dads do it. One of the things that I'm I think most interested in the data from our 12 weeks of paid leave program is that our male employees at the county are taking it at the same rate as our female employees. That's right, Councilmember Gossett. Right. And the same relationship to our overall employment stats. Now, I don't know if we would see that with the babies to work in part because of maybe the breastfeeding issue is a little bit different there. But this doesn't discriminate based on gender and perhaps we can get the guys working a little harder too. Yeah, that would be great. The waiting list is an interesting point. I remember when we were looking years ago, but it can be six months or sometimes close to a year on a wait list for childcare. You're thinking about getting pregnant. Get on the list now. Right. Right. And so a program like this would help with some flexibility. The legislation itself comes from a go well, as it calls it takes an hour and make a pun here, a baby step in terms of suggesting that the executive look at the issue and develop a pilot program in developing the pilot program. The thinking behind the legislation was that the executive can consider all of the issues here that have been presented in terms of which departments, how to implement what the policies would be and the guidelines and the scale and size of at least a starter program. And as well, with respect to our representative workforce, obviously there could be some negotiations that might be required there. So I want to understand the Women's Advisory Board, which is the entity charged with advising the executive and council and has been working on these issues, is supportive of the legislation? Yes, we are very supportive of the legislation. And I know you're coming forward with some comprehensive recommendations on child care. So we are coming forward with comprehensive recommendations, but we believe that's a step in the right direction and we will likely be recommending additional child care as well, obviously, because it's important for women to have options and we need to have flexibility around these issues. But we are supportive and it will likely be one of our recommendations to pilot an Infant at work program. Great. All right. Jasmine, Raquel Wells, would you like to put it before us if we're ready? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I propose motion number 2018 174. All right, that's about for us, I think I would say I do want to speak any further to it. All right. Anybody else? I do agree that we should have to the extent the executive does propose a pilot in response to the motion, some assessment built into it, and perhaps we could drop that at the council on any other amendments if they are necessary. Any further discussion on this item? Asked the clerk to call the room. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell. Do I? Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. All right. Councilmember Caldwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. On the bonus, eight eyes, no no's, one excuse. All right, well, put that on the regular calendar in the ordinary course. So we have some time. And I want to thank the panelists for coming. Thank my staffer Liz Elliott and Sam and our central staff for putting together a good package of information. And there is for folks interested, some more information from the Parenting in the Workplace Institute, which I asked Liz to share with all members. And I'll just make one more comment. I think those of us who have young kids here on the dais, I've seen each of us in my short time here bring our kids to work for various reasons. You know, maybe childcare didn't work that day. Maybe he or she was sick. And I concur that it's brought some joy to the floor and smell, isn't it? And it's been a benefit to the kids, our colleagues and our coworkers. I think. So. We'll see if we can't make some work here. All right. Thank you all. All right. Now we are going to turn to the next item on the agenda, which is a substantial piece of work that the county has been engaged in with our partners in our workforce who are represented by labor unions for a number of years now. And that legislation, with respect to the master labor agreement and participating workers has been transmitted by the executive introduced. This is our first presentation on the actual legislation. Heidi Papageorgiou has prepared the staff report and is going to give us an overview of it. And we are joined by see Denise here, Denise Coughlin with the Coalition, one of the two leaders of the coalition, as well as executive branch representatives as well. And Heidi, will the executive branch and then the. Be joining you at some point here at the table or presenting. As you were, which I will do the overview of the MLA articles and if there's questions that I'm unable to answer, okay, we're. Doing it and you just may if you all want an opportunity, once Heidi's done, you're welcome to give us your take on it. So thank you. And I think for members interest, this will be our first presentation and then we'll look to get questions and issues resolved and hopefully we can act on it at our next committee of the hall and move it forward. That is correct. Mr. Chair. Heidi, Perpetual council staff. The staff report begins on page 33 of your packet. Proposed Ordinance 2018 0178 would approve King County's First Master Labor Agreement between King County and the King County Coalition of Unions. Also the companion led ordinance proposed ordinance 2018 0138 would amend the King County Code to add a number of master labor agreement provisions that would also apply to not represented King County employees. I will begin my staff report by briefly discussing the county's previous process of negotiating collective bargaining agreements, or CBAs, and the structure of the proposed Master Labor Agreement or MLA. I would then conclude my staff report with an overview of the proposed Emily articles and the proposed changes in the King County Code. Prior to the proposed MLA, the County negotiated the different provisions pertaining to human resources processes, leave benefits and payroll practices and individual CBAs. In 2016, Council adopted Ordinance 18405 that require King County and the King County Coalition of Unions to discuss the structure for bargaining, standard practices, procedures and CBA provisions via MLA. The proposed Emily was standardize those practices and procedures and 31 superseding articles that would apply to 22 unions and the Coalition. Under the proposed Emily, a CBA would be known as an appendix to the MLA and would no longer be a standalone agreement. The superseding articles and the proposed MLA would take place of the individual appendix articles on the same topic. With some exceptions, the proposed MLA would also include seven non superseding articles that may or may not replace their article on the same topic in the individual appendix. Council staff will present the 60 MLA appendices at the committee's next hearing on May 2nd. 60. 60? How's that going to work? Well, you. Know. Be slow. Okay. The proposed MLA also includes a memorandum of agreement between King County and the Coalition relating to the county's implementation of a county wide career progression classification project. Essentially, that project would include if all employees whose positions are reclassified. That project were not o those employees were not to suffer a loss in pay. I would like to now draw your attention to table one on page 37 of your packet, and this table summarizes the superseding Emily articles. The table, I'm just kind of going through the crosswalk of the table. The first column is the Emily article number and the Emily the article name. The effect of the Emily on the proposed ordinance. The King County Code Citation that will be impacted as well and make those corresponding changes and the effect what the proposed ordinance for the Kane County Code would be. So starting with Article 2,000,000,002 military leave, that would essentially mirror the language that's currently in King County code. And so that provision would require no change for the code, but just include language in the MLA under Article three unpaid leave of absence that essentially would distinguish the approval authority for medical reasons of leaves and non-medical reasons for leave. I guess I'm going to I'm going to stop here for just a second. Sure. We've got I'm looking at your chart here, 38 articles, right, in this chart. Correct. All right. Now, for the committee's benefit, I want to give a little preview of where you're going here. Are we going to. Is it your intention to walk through all 38 of these? That's my intention. Unless you, Mr. Chair, you prefer otherwise. And I can just highlight. Okay. Well, I want to I hear Councilmember Lambert saying that she would like you to go through all 38 of them. I'm not sure you're going to. That's a lot. And I feel, with all due respect, that we're going to I want to take a sense of my colleagues here, whether there's interest in walking through those or whether folks can maybe take a look at them and ask if they've got specific questions. Could you highlight let me suggest this. Could you highlight what you view based on your work as some of the. He or major provisions in the articles. I understand maybe they're all important, but and then if members have questions about specific ones that you don't cover, we could come back to that because in the interest of time and and and efficacy and interest, I'd like to maybe highlight the key ones. Okay. Absolutely. And then we're going to have to figure out how to do 60. So. Yeah. So jumping over to Article four, leave for volunteer service, that is on page 37 of your packet. The essential change for that is that the currently the county allows employees to utilize up to three days of sick leave to volunteer at an employee's child's school. The MLA and the King County Code would change to allow employees to utilize the sick leave for nonprofit organizations. Also at the child school and any the nonprofit organization would have to be approved on the employee giving program list. So that's one substantive change. And jumping over to Article six on page 38 of your packet. Now donated leaves, one primary change is that with the donated leaves, currently, if an employee receives donated leave, the leave would revert back, revert to the the donor after 90 days of the unused leave. So this would remove that requirement and the donated lee would reside with the donor or donate donated. All right. Let's me do that one because of the donated leave item is very popular here. I think it gets a lot of attention and use. I want to make sure we understand what the change is. And I confessed to having lost track there. Yeah. So with the the donor the donor would offer what, provide donated leave to an employee who is eligible. And then after if there's a remaining 10 hours remaining that was unused for the recipient, usually that donated leave would be would go back to the donor, the person who's donating the leave after 90 days. And what this would do is that that donated leave, those 10 hours would continue to stay with the recipient indefinitely. Correct. So once you give it away, it's gone. It stays that way. And currently, the county, what after the 90 days move that leave back to the the donor. You know, have you heard what the rationale is for that? Why the why the change or could someone how did you want to help us out? Come on. Up to my knowledge, is the administrative burden to go back and forth and have that out to the donor. All right. And we're going to have a we're going to get all sides here. In the. Morning of management and labor. I'm Megan Peterson. I'm the director with the Office of Labor Relations. So the rationale is this was an administrative burden for payroll and central payroll staff to administer with the leave going back and forth. Sometimes it would get missed. It was also sometimes a basis for employees, you know, in some rare cases to sort of game the system if they were close to the cap or over. And so they would donate the leave and then it would come back to them after the end of the year. And what about cash out value upon retirement or severance from the county would would recipient of donated leave be entitled to cash payment. My understanding is once it's with them. Yes, that was that right. No. No. Okay. Apparently. No, that can't be. That says no. Yeah, this is our h.r. Policy advisor here are. And then if you want to come forward to or do we need to. Denise's here is. Asking that denise. Come for. Any issues. Related to non rep code changes associated with the MLA. Okay. And it sounds like with some implementation expertize as well since she's running that fancy new computer system we bought them. All right. Thank you for being here, Denise. All right, Heidi, everyone. Okay, now on Councilmember Lambert. Go ahead. You so hypothetical. We were talking about gaming the system. So, Mr. Jones, that we all love is going to retire. So we all give him 10 hours of sick leave, which he can then cash out as a bonus. That's not. No, no. So what I'm saying is prevent that. So I recently worked with our brick and B people on this. So no, it's actually kept in a separate bucket, but they call them. Buckets. And it's separate on your pay stub like it actually says donated leave versus sick leave. And the donated leaves never been subject to cash out either for vacation. Or for the retirement of, you know, sick leave under retirement. And it will continue to be that way. So somebody can't give somebody a bunch right before they retire and then they can cash it out. That's a great answer. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Go ahead. Okay. So jumping over to Article seven on page one of the AP parental leave, as you may recall, in 2016, the county piloted paid parental leave and with ordinance 184054, their total compensation for the the unions, it extended the program to 2017. And then for the MLA, this would include provisions to contain the program and also for the non representative employees to have that same benefit. And those are the corresponding line numbers for the proposed ordinance for relating to non-representative employees. Continue, not containment continue. I'd also like to add that there were some union groups who hadn't originally signed off on paid parental leave, and this would encompass those groups and it would become part of the contract. So everyone in the coalition who signed off on the MLA would participate in the parental leave program. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Thank you, sir. So if I remember correctly, paid leave, parental leave. There was no requirement that you could work for like a week and then go off on paid parental leave, and then at the end, you'd be required to pay it back. It didn't work for six months after. After it. Is that still the same answer? Yeah. Yeah. So? Well, there is a requirement that you have to have worked for the county for six continuous months of service at the time of the qualifying event. And then you also have to return to the county for six months of service following the leave. Okay, great. So that was my question to that at the six months. It's in both the MLA and in the code. And on both ends point after. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So the next article is Article eight relating to bereavement leave on page 39. For this change, it would increase the number of bereavement days of up to five days instead of three days. And the King County Code would also reflect that. It would also remove the language that entitles eligible employees to use up to three days to sickly if they have exhausted their bereavement leave. That's one item for the non representative represented employees. The next article. Article nine vacation leave cap. There will be a there's a certain cap depending on your hire date for King County employees. Employees who are hired after December 31st of 2017 would have a vacation leave cap of 320 hours, and employees hired before that date would have a cap of 480 hours and that will be consistent in the code as well for non reps and jumping to Article 12 Professional Development Page 41. This is a new pilot that will be available for representing employees to have a professional development program, kind of a scholarship program of $150,000. And there will be a one time program that will be available and obviously this does not apply for non reps. So this will just be for beginning January 1st of 2019. And how you when you say one time, does that mean one year. Or 20 in one year? Yes, correct. And so are there any other questions regarding fund raising? Here's my comment. I think repeatedly we hear from our reverend workforce and others about an interest in additional training opportunities. Has been a consistent theme in my five years here. I know we're short of money, but a one year $150,000. Development program is pretty lean. There's a comment. So from from my perspective. We we did. I know you got it. There's cost and they negotiated that. But. Hopefully going forward, we can continue to invest from my perspective and our employees and their opportunities to grow and develop. It's just an interesting idea. I think it's it's fair to say the discussion at the table was very collaborative on this issue, recognizing that we do have a need for greater training opportunities. And so we just like to study it over the course of the year. And then actually the intention is to extend it, assuming it's working well. Okay, Denise, and this is something that we took from very successful programs and other public places. I know the Seattle city of Seattle has a program like this and the city of Portland also has a program like this. So, yes, it's very limited this time. But if it's something that continues to be successful, labor is, of course, open to expanding the program as much as. Sure as we can response. And I sense this is beyond kind of what might be mere professional training, but this is more development, leadership, development, management, development, that kind of thing. So the way that it's used in other jurisdictions is if it's something that's not related to the job or something that they couldn't get approved at the department level, they go to the separate body and essentially apply for a scholarship and it could even have something that has nothing to do with what they currently do, but they want to explore another career. Well, that sounds good. Thank you. So moving on to Article 14 is on page 42 of your packet relating to reclassification and resulting pay. This would describe the reasons for reclassification for an employee and also particular groups. It also results with the the pay or the resulting result in pay of a reclassification. And this would also be mirrored in the King County Code. Currently this is shown and the career service rules for the county for non represented employees. But this would codify it and put it in in the code. Councilmember Lambert, you're a bit of an expert on this. On the classification and resulting pay are you see that is okay. I confess to not understanding this and oh. Reclassification. So if. You could help. Me a little more. Yeah, sure. So looking at I. Was looking for a cover letter to help me out, but she's pointing to, I think. The the column here for position reclassification. So if an employee requests for their position to be recast, they would have to follow these certain reasons. For instance, an employee's position is not assigned to the correct classification or there has been a significant or gradual change in the employee's body of work for at least one year, and that individual could request for the position to be recast to maybe it will result into a higher salary grade or the same salary grade once they're place in the correct classification or even a lower salary grade. So this will define that process and have a uniform process for for those reclassification requests. What were the objectives of management and Labor with respect to these these changes? Help me understand what we're trying to achieve here from each side. So with respect to reclassification and spousal special duty in particular, we have a myriad of stripes of approaches in the various collective bargaining agreement. So this was a true efficient consistency, a conforming one standard for all of the 60 governments. This is a good example, then of what we were trying to achieve with the master labor agreement. Yeah. Spot on, example. Sure. Councilmember Lambert. Well, thank you for thinking. I'm an expert on that. Maybe that's what happens to you on the employment committee for a decade or more, but thank you. So my thought on this was when you give somebody special duty, it says 30 days to 12 months so that you can have them out of classification for 30 days without increase in their pay right now. Think you might be jumping to Article 50? Yeah. Okay. Let's note you highlight article 15 and Councilmember Lambert can follow up. Yes, sure. So Article 15, special duty on page 43, these would be assignments that would last a minimum 30 days, but up to five years. And there's specific reasons for those assignments that to classify a special duty employee. And those are highlighted under, for instance, the 30 days to 12 month assignments must be approved by the department director. If the reason is due to work that exceeds either the volume or the complexity of what is routine and is for limited duration. There's also a section for term limited term employees, so we can talk about that. But for special duty, there are provisions that if the employee is in a special duty to have to result in pay of that, that the employee would get a premium pay for working in that higher level or for that special duty assignment. So my question is to share with that, that you can take some reclassification for 30 days before you have to pay them out of classification. So I'll chime in here. If you look at Article 37. There's a separate article. For working. Out of classification for less than 30 for less than 30 days. And when does that begin? It is long as it can be one day from one day to 29 days. So that was my concern. That first was the nightmare and paperwork, if it's going to be one day. So I think that's that's counterproductive to the simplest simplification effort we're trying to do. And actually, I think it's a benefit to work out a classification for a day or two or three or whatever, to find out, is this a classification I'd ever be interested in? You could work in a job for two days and say, this is not for me. And and why not have that as an opportunity for people to go into different classifications and see what fits for me? So I don't really like Article 37. But anyway, that's just my thought. Anyway, thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay. So moving on, Article 26, grievance procedure on page 46, this outlines the steps for filing a grievance for the coalition members and essentially and also the level of management that will be notified for those each for each of those steps. I suspect this is another area where consistency. We didn't have it before, but we're going to have it now. Yeah, we're we're very excited about this. And the next one is Article 28 relating to economic equity on page 47. This would essentially allow should any non coalition bargaining unit with King County reach a more favorable combined general wage increase or benefit funding rate, that the Coalition would be able to reserve the right to reopen the MLA to bargain that impact of that decision. Is that applied to non Coalition member unions, is that what you're saying? There were these are these are bargaining units within the Coalition if they achieve a better economic terms in a side agreement that you could reopen. So this would apply to groups outside of the coalition with the exception of are safety sensitive our paramedics county sheriffs and then decisions where a higher combined general wage increase and benefit funding rate is awarded through an interest arbitration process which obviously the county has limited control over. Those would be accepted. That doesn't that would not trigger the economic equity banner. Okay. All right. Okay. So last one that I have is Article 29 Coalition of Unions Incentive Pay. Last one part that superseding articles on page 48. This would provide a premium for the coalition members to receive up to a total of 3.25% premium for signing on to the MLA. So you may recall in January 2018 the Coalition received 1.75% general wage increase. And in the staff report, it also notes that the Coalition received a 1% premium in 2018 and that is not correct. The Coalition has not received that additional 1% yet because the MLA has not been approved. So just kind of breaking out the total premium based on the first or the 2017, 2018 total compensation Emma Way the council would allow a half percent general wage increase for the Coalition. Also the one premium, 1% premium for reaching a tentative agreement of the MLA. And then the 1.75% general wage increase would total to 3.25% if the MLA was approved by council. Is any of that a one time? That doesn't go into the base? No. It all goes into the base. Okay. And how does that compare? I'm looking at the. November 2016 ordinance that adopted the memorandum of agreement here for 20,017 2018, and it addressed these wage increase and premiums. It looks like the numbers here are a touch lower for 2018. It looked like it would be a 2.75% increase for the Coalition. Is this 50 basis points higher for the 4%? Is that superseding this agreement? And so that's right. Yes. So in the course of bargaining, the master labor agreement last year, we agreed to an additional bump of half percent to the general wage increase. Okay. So the Coalition agreed to 2.75 in this prior agreement and now we're bumping that seven basis points. So the Coalition the agreement was a base gwp of 1.75. Right. On ratification of the MLA, an additional 1%. Okay. So that was, I believe, in the 2016 memorandum you're referencing. That's right. And it covers 2018. Correct. And then last year, we agreed to an additional half percent. I see. So that was already been superseded. This agreement had already been superseded. So the half percent will take effect. The one additional 1%, an additional half percent upon your adoption and implementation of the MLA. All right. So it hasn't been approved? That's correct. All right. So what is the economic cost to the county of the 50 basis points. There. Beyond what you're saying agreed to? It's 5.2 million. All right. And that was. Given in exchange for what? Commitments on Labor's side beyond those that they already agreed to in the IMO way. I can speak to but I'll let. You. I mean, I get, I guess I would say, you know, that was part of the MLA. It's, it was something that was a big project. And in the course of bargaining, you know, there was that originally a coalition incentive for passing the MLA and we negotiated that up. So I would say that the reason for it is part of the MLA package. We are in total compensation bargaining right now and we committed to that. I'd also note that politically right now it's difficult for us because the non represented employees now are making more than we are because they got a 3.25% wage increase in January . So I mean that's already been passed. So I guess we're asking for the same wage parity as the non represented employees. All that's compelling, I just don't think what I'm looking at here is are we paying twice for the same thing because that doesn't make sense. I've always felt that we ought to give representative folks who are participating this a premium over non and that was we were supposed to do that. I mean I guess I'm. Well that didn't happen because the non reps got the same amount. So I mean the premium concept essentially for us on Labor side, I mean it's kind of just turned into a general wage increase. And and to point out that Labor will be the coalition groups will be receiving retro payment back to January 1st. So they will they will have received the same amount in terms of the represented and non represented annual wage increase for 2018. That's true. If if it's passed, if it's a premium. Okay. Council member Lambert. Yeah, I see where you're going. And I've been worried about this too. I was when we first started this, and I am a huge supporter of the National Labor Agreement. The idea that we have, what is it, 78 bargaining agreements and 104 unions or some number like that, correct me if I'm wrong, is absurd. So but then when we signed to get on the master labor agreement, I was good with that because I thought it was fair to everybody and so I was fine with that. But now I'm beginning to feel like I'm working for a baseball team and I want, you know, my left fielder. So I'm going to do a signing bonus. You know, I don't think that the taxpayers are going to be really pleased with that continuing. And, you know, I've been on the Budget Committee and, you know, I think it was last year or the year before, I don't remember the amount that the salaries went up was almost the same amount of money as we had to cut out of the general fund. Now I realize that not every employee is paid by the general fund and it's a small relatively amount. So I'm aware of that. But it was interesting to me that the amount we were cutting was about the same amount as as what the salary increases were. And again, I know that it's not straight across because they aren't all directly in place. The $5.2 million is a lot of money, and I haven't heard yet what the count is going to be directly and maybe our budgetary knows better, but I had heard around 40 million so that, you know, a pretty large percentage of what end up having to cut. So it's difficult to see that. And I'm hoping that signing bonuses are a thing of the past and that the idea that working for the county is such a privilege because we get to serve people every day that and B do do as we talked earlier, we do do market analysis on a regular basis. So if we didn't do that, I'd have a completely different opinion, but we do do that. So I think between the market analysis and the benefits and the holidays that and the opportunity to serve, it's a really great place to work. So I'm not sure that signing bonuses should be necessary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. With respect to the general wage increase, which is our new kind of term, as I think about for COLA, we don't have a COLA anymore. It's a general wage increase. We've gone here, as I understand it, to fixed amounts. Is that right? Yes, that's. Correct. Is that consistent or inconsistent with the adopted labor policies of the County Council? I don't know the answer to that offhand. My I don't recall reading in the old policies which have sort of been dormant for a while reference to that the DWI or COLA. You know, I do want to make just a couple of comments in response to Council Member Lambert's concerns. One issue that was at play in the negotiations last year is that the CPI for the area was rapidly escalating. So I don't have the figure at my fingertips here, but 3.25 is either close to or potentially below what the CPI is for 2018. Right now, it's really 3.5 if. You include housing costs, which is a big. Number of Seattle, Tacoma. So it's you know, I feel like it's pretty fair how they do the CPI. So we we both labor and management felt very solid in the 3.25% general wage increase. And I can't stress enough the efficiencies that this master contract will bring to our complex labor landscape here. So, you know, labor and management felt that this was a very solid, very fair deal. And is the 3.5 for 18 only as 19 addressed? 19 is not addressed. As Dennis referenced. We are currently in negotiations for total compensation for 2019 and 2020 and that will include the general wage increase as well as benefits. Okay. To a comment and and then maybe a question, if I can remember, but the comment is, under our charter, the counties that county council, the legislative branch sets the labor policy. And when you say they are dormant and you can't tell me whether we have a variable or fixed rate in our policies, somebody is dropping the ball there. Either this legislative body is not exercising its obligations to set clear Labor policy and have the executive bargained as our agent, as the charter calls for or the executive is bargaining without any regard to the adopted Labor policies. And I think that we should have some dialog and do some work on that and make sure that we are giving the executive direction as is our obligation under the Charter with respect to Labor policy and understand from the executive who is frankly sometimes closer to the negotiating table, who is too close to negotiate, what is working and not working so we can have clearer Labor policies that give adopted policy and guidance to our bargaining agent, because I for one, feel that this is an area that hasn't had the attention it deserves, given the amount, and given that it's our biggest cost to do everything here at the county labor as it is with any organization. So I want to and I'm asking you to work with me as our head of MLR to take a look at our labor policies, make sure their current and fresh. I'm going to ask my colleagues to engage on this as well, because otherwise it's we're no longer setting policy. We're merely ratifying of what you bring to us. And I, for one, believe that's where we stand today. And that's not proactively setting policy, but merely ratifying what comes before us. And I think that's a dereliction of our obligations under the charter, and it's not fair to the voters. So I want to work with you on that. We would welcome that opportunity. And I understand there was an effort in the 2016 time frame to refresh, update Labor policies and that. There was some work on that. I don't know that we got to the finish line. Yeah. I mean, our our concern and I think we were kind of the stalwarts and that is we really want to take an active role on that as well. The past I know we have and Dustin who's not here today, but as another Coalition co-chair has been involved in past Labor policies, it would definitely be something that we're interested and I'm not trying to make excuses for labor or for management, but keep in mind we're now in our third set of negotiations right now because we've been implementing such a revolutionary problem rolling basis. In 2020, they'll all catch up. So total comp and the MLA bargain will happen at the same time. And I'm not saying we wait until 2020, I'm just saying there is hope at the end of the tunnel. But it's been a bit of a slog and I think Megan can attest. And the approach has been with respect for the executive to come in and brief the Council on an as needed basis with respect to the status of the negotiations and kind of have some dialog and get some informal feedback. To be honest, I don't believe and I appreciate that. I think that's been fine, but I think we owe you more. We owe you clearly thought out policies that are developed in consultation with our stakeholders. We're keeping our fiduciary obligations in mind, keeping our best employer obligation in mind that then you get a vote, that they're adopted , that you know where to go. Dialog, you get different members perspectives and off you go. And it's kind of a well we told them so let's I appreciate it sounds like there's an interest in kind of working on that and. I look forward to doing that with both of both of you, if I can. Casimir Lavrov reiterating my question was with respect to the management side, up for benefits out of this massive agreement in York. You mentioned that the executive believes there are vast or significant. I think maybe was your term of benefits of the simplification here? How do we and what are our plans for measuring that? Because we hear about it. And sometimes I feel like maybe those benefits are there. They may be there. They probably are there. But how do we quantify and we know what them what the general wage increase will cost. And you said about $5 million. How do how do you help us turn to the public and the labor and everybody and say, here is the savings and the efficiencies we achieved? Is there any plans to kind of assess and measure that? Absolutely. So the executive branch is knee deep in looking at metrics to, you know, justify efficiencies, to tell the story of how we are saving taxpayers money. And we will be looking at how long our negotiations take, what efficiencies are gained from bargaining in coalition in terms of the time spent versus bargaining at 61 different small tables for the full gamut of what the CBA covers. One issue that we're continuing to to advance is the need to get away from retro payments, which are very costly. Yeah, they're difficult for our payroll staff to administer. And Denise can attest to this. And the last two total compensation bargains, we have delivered the agreements well in advance of contract expiration. And that is consistent with adopted labor policy. That is that we should not have expired agreements. And I too often I was going to ask you one of my questions. How many how many how many folks are working or how many agreements are there that have lapsed. Right. Which often lead to those retro pay issues. So so we're cognizant that there are models in the private sector of of bargaining over two weeks for an entire, you know, three year contract. That's what I would call a Railton special, you know, expeditious. And, you know, we may not we. May not get there. Two weeks may be a little ambitious, but certainly blowing past the contract expiration. Bargaining in excess of a year is something that we've moved away from with Labor support. But if I got you correctly, you're hoping through the efficiencies that you achieve here with the master Labor Agreement to be able to take your resources in a while are and on the Labor side of the table and address these contracts before they expire. I mean, I had to cut to thin today. That's right. And this essentially did that because we took all of the collective bargaining agreements under the MLA and we brought them all up at the same time. So we didn't have any coalition agreements expire, which I think is a huge win. That is a big win. I mean, that's that's the right thing. Yeah. Folks not folks are working with a contract instead of without and management's working with the contract. And it wasn't easy. I mean, making sure that Michael and others worked very different. Or. Worked very hard over that issue. All right. Why don't you, Heidi, help us with any final hot topics? Oh, I'm sorry, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you very much. So this has been a topic that we've worked on for many, many years. And and getting the master agreement has been the heart of it. You know, we want people to know what the requirements are. I remember one time when I asked for something and they said I would be a change of working environment. And I said, For what? Well, you want to evaluate, you know, customer service. And I'm like, No, that's not a change of work environment. I expect every employee to put their best customer service. So there were some odd things in the past. The donning and doffing is not my favorite, not provision that was really important to one of our chefs, but I don't know that the chef is that interested in the donning and doffing policy. So, you know, I think there's some in the policies in the past that, as you said, people are added on. The other thing was there's two things. One, that the policies for labor used to be in a little handbook, but it wasn't on the computer. And I don't know if it's an ordinance or it's on the computer anymore. I don't know that. And the other thing was that when we did pass a contract that frequently there would be add on route changes that they called pocket changes that were made that were never reported back to us. And so we did a pilot a couple of years ago where we had our attorney at the time temperature and look at all of those were brought over to us, which we didn't even know existed, which was a problem. And. Then they put them in categories of no big deal. Questionable and something that definitely should have been negotiated. And the two lists did not match up. There were a lot of things on the no big deal that I attorneys that was a big deal. So that was enlightening to know that there were things happening post us that we were never informed about. So I think as we go forward, there has to be a circle that comes all the way back to us and that we're in it. So I think as we work on those Labor policies, we might want to specifically address this issue of side agreements and whether we want to formally adopt or clarify the notion of minor. MODERATOR Major and what should get council approval or what shouldn't? I think that, frankly, it's somewhat vague right now and it's just being done as it's being done. So I know that's an interest of yours, Councilmember Lambert. And there's kind of been a protocol developed, and if it's big, send it over. And if not, maybe not. So if I could speak to that. Our office airs on the side of of transmitting monies to council, especially where they have a fiscal impact. We also don't approve them. Yeah. And we view you as our partner. So, you know, the other issues, we're really trying to limit those after the fact, most inevitably working conditions, issues come up that need to be addressed. But that's part of of the greater efficiency as well. Good. All right. Heidi, anything further at this initial briefing? Oh, Councilmember Dutchy, before we jump to that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.. Thank you. Sorry. I apologize if I missed. Come all the way down here. No, no. That was first on my way of thinking. Yeah, I. I look at all this information and the scope of the effort that's clearly gone in underneath all of this is pretty impressive. So I want to thank everyone who was involved for I know each one of these provisions was probably debated in some great detail and probably many of them were hard discussions. When you went back to your respective home offices and talked to the folks you are representing. So thank you for that. I think the the benefit of moving in this direction, of continuing to streamline, consolidate, make things consistent is going to really pay off, as you said. I do want to understand the changes a little better. And I know we're not voting on this today, but I wonder if, like, for example, when I look at the table one, there's a column that talks about the effect of the MLA and then the effect of the ordinance changes for non reps. I want to make sure I understand the changes from today's agreements to the MLA. So like what's new here in this third column of this chart? What's and I'm not 100% sure I've followed all that and it's possible that it's because there's changes to multiple different things. But I would love to understand where we're seeing new things increases, decreases, changes. So the one that jumps out at me, for example, is I'm just going to pick on this one the vacation accruals. Vacation accruals have been something that we have all worked very hard on for a very long time. And I see Debbie Bellum in the back nodding because we were on this some years ago and there was a level of accruals that was the standard limit in county policy and I believe it was fairly well implemented through the bargaining agreements. I don't recall that there were a lot of exceptions to that in the bargaining agreements, except that I'm going back a couple of decades now. Nobody was enforcing them. So you had people with hundreds of hours above the limit on their books, and we went through a very painstaking process of bringing that down to where then it was the amounts were being enforced. And the reason that matters, the reason why it's a problem for somebody to carry a zillion hours on their books is because it's an unfunded liability and we don't know when it will hit. So it makes it hard to budget it, you know, and then if especially if we had layoffs and people wanted to cash it all out and we weren't. So to have the limits is important for as a budgeting exercise. At the same time, we want our employees to be able to manage their leave. We want them to save up some amount of leave for when there's an unexpected need to take some time off and they can use it. That goes for sick leave and vacation. I want to understand, when we increase it now up to 400 and some odd hours, which is a fairly significant increase, what does that mean and why are we doing that? So we actually. Decreased the cap. This was one of the most contentious within our. Yes. Okay. So work a lot of nodding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're we're cognizant that. We are an outlier here in King County in terms of our vacation cap relative to. Our prime is I misremembered the numbers, but I did remember it was an issue. So I guess I'll put that and just say I can only imagine what a difficult conversation that was with your members. And and I appreciate that we're working in that direction because that's just about fiscal responsibility. I mean, we trying to have policies that allow people to be gone when they need to be, when they're sick, when their kids are sick, when their family's sick, take a reasonable amount of time off because we want people to be refreshed and sharp and some of our jobs are really physically demanding. We want people to have their time just to recharge so that they're well and have, you know, a good attitude. At the same time, the way the leaves have been used in some ways is has been really a challenge from, you know, maintaining a fiscal responsibility towards the taxpayer. So thank you for that. But I'm just like, that's it. So you said it's gone down. I read it and I was using my memory to say, Oh, I thought it went up. Which underscores my larger point, which is I need to understand what the changes are better than I can get from this chart. And I don't know. We had to grandfather in current employees got as many of them were relying on that pass for VEBA and for retirement and for other things. So the balance that we struck and what I could tell my constituents is any current employees get this grandfathered in, but it's going away. And any employees that start after, I believe it's December 13th of last year and I think start with the new cap. They're on notice. I can plan for that for their financial future. And I think that's totally fair. People need to have I mean, they've planned to they've worked with specific policies over time. To yank them out suddenly is to break to break a you know, to break the reliance that we have created. The point is, I'd like to understand where we were and where we are. And that doesn't appear in this. This chart is super easy to read. I suppose what I'm asking for is a slightly more complicated chart, and that would be helpful before we get to final passage. Thank you very much and thank you all for your work and thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Belushi. Heidi, final highlights at this initial briefing. I think it's all covered. One thing just to highlight with the non represented employees, the fiscal impact of that, that there will be about approximately $540,000 to implement with a 257,000 general fund charge. And I know we talked about this, but you've got to remind me, are they getting the same general wage increase and why is that? I thought we should have like a 50 basis premium on the represented side. I guess that's a you know, we say they're getting it. That's a decision the council makes every time a budget and we don't have to do that. Right. And the last time I had this discussion with staff, it was, well, if we don't, they'll organize a new union and but they haven't. So I'm I think it's something we ought to we should consider carefully. You your workers are giving up a lot of things that they're entitled to in terms of individually negotiating contracts, in terms they made sacrifices. The table that has to be recognized, it seems to me. So I'm it wasn't that long ago there was a differential. I thought so. Maybe. I know Pat's telling me now. All right. All right. So why are we talking about the unrepresented workforce here in the context of this, in terms of their general wage increase? So according to the executive, the the intention is to continue the practice of extending the same benefits and standards to non. I see. So when where if we're going to endorse this, he's warning us or at least not warning but giving us the heads up here that has an implication for your unrepresented workforce on the budget. So the other. Issue is that they're part of this package you'll be considering involves changes to the code. I see four non. Represented employees that are tethered to the master labor agreement provisions. There's actually two items. Yes. There's the ordinance implementing the MLA and there's the. Ordinance changing the code. As it pertains to the owner. And, and okay. So I'm going to ask for some more information on the unrepresented workforce and the code changes if we're cementing into code some kind of policy that would tie their annual general wage increase to that in the Labor. If that's true and the represented refers to you. Know so what the ordinance that's before you it just brings the code in alignment with the benefits and practices that were adopted in the MLA. Okay. To build on the efficiencies that were previously. Outlined. And to bring even. Greater equity to the King County workforce. By extending those same. Benefits and practices to our. Non represented employees. So that extends those standards and efficiencies to another like 19% of our employees. And council member of the GROW our budget committee chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And it's not really a budget comment. I, I just wanted to appreciate the line of questioning and I think it is worth exploring between now and final passage. When I worked at the state level, we struggled with the same question of do non-representative employees get to enjoy all of the benefits of those who are participating in with representation and advocacy without any responsibility to participate? And there's a Supreme Court case pending right now with the issues of why it. Is and some of the solutions. That the state implemented in some years in the budget were to when there was an increased benefit, were to provide that benefits sooner to the represented employees and have the implementation dates be later for non represented. But it's a question that we struggle with at the state level too, and I think it's a very valid one that I hadn't thought of until your line of questioning. Thanks. It's an interesting issue. I mean, we want to treat employees equitably and not have a set of second class employees. But we also have this dynamic of. You know, folks negotiating at the table and what that means. And I just want to clarify, the non-representative place have gotten that 3.25 since January and our membership has not received that. So just ironic, Claire. Yeah. Okay. Well, I, too, want to thank the executive branch and the coalition for these years of hard work and working in a. Really a collaborative way to achieve shared objectives while not ceding your respective interests from the management or the workforce side. I know that sometimes sounds inconsistent, but and sometimes is inconsistent. You've got to you can't always have a shared objective, but it seems like you guys have really made great progress here. As we go forward and maybe in our next meeting of the committee, I'd kind of like to get a sense of whether we've kind of done the big master labor agreement with a lot of things or whether we've kind of gone small and or narrow, if you will, and these these 60 agenda raises that kind of issue for me. And I know that was an issue at one point in terms of how it was characterized when when you started off versus where you at and ended up and what the implications are that for kind of the next round of national labor agreement bargaining and do we broaden its scope or have we gotten most of what we were hoping to achieve out of the process? That would be, yeah, a great discussion. And I suppose it matters whose perspective you have in terms of whether it's a small master first master contract or large. I there were many other topics that the county was interested in tackling, but, you know, this was the first ever master contract and it was a seismic shift psychologically for our labor groups. And so, you know, we'll continue to evolve. Or good anything else. Thank you all for your work on it and we'll look forward to getting questions answered between now and the next committee and the next committee and moving it forward expeditiously. I would for members knowledge, let me make a suggestion here that we have this at our next committee meeting. And unless there is a concern from the legal beagles that we would try and adopt it and on an expedited basis for adoption at the full council meeting that following Monday, because obviously there's a retroactive pay issue here and we like to move things along on that, or at least I do when we can. All right. Is that. I'm seeing nods there. So. Well, we're going up the next meeting with the anticipation that it would be passed out with a do pass recommendation on an expedited basis for that by Monday. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell's our vice chair. I think we have our minutes motion, if you'd be willing to put that before us this. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Of adoption of the minutes from our previous meeting. All in favor. Say I right. Any opposed? All right. And what the roll call reflect that every council member attended today's committee the whole meeting. Is there anything further? I don't see anything further. Words are.	AN ORDINANCE authorizing the county executive to enter into an interlocal agreement with the city of Covington to provide landmark designation and protection services.
king_419ae3d4-bd78-4284-be85-8520c79ed09a	Many of the hall for Wednesday, January 28, 2021, the first meeting of the Committee for the New Year. In light of our public health emergency, Governor Inslee issued an emergency order suspending the sections of the Open Public Meetings Act requires us to have a physical space for for the public to participate in our meetings. That order has been extended by the leadership of the House and Senate. As we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Serious peoples, past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enriched our community. We have two items on today's council and today's committee agenda. We'll start with a briefing from director Dave Lee on the county's COVID 19 response. Then we will take up an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the Southwest District of Kim County District Court and Housekeeping Working Party. To help us manage the meeting. I'd like to ask the public, as well as executive and council staff to please keep your video off until just before you intend to speak. Additionally, if you're connecting to the media meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment, please connect through the Zoom application. If you're connecting to the meeting without the Zoom application, we may not be able to unmute you without Madam Crook and ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. You're not a member. DEMBOSKY Here. Council member done. Here. Council member Coles. Yeah. Council member Lambert. Yeah. Council member. Up to grab. Dear Councilmember, if I'm right there. Here. Council members are high here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Council member denied entertained a motion to approve the minutes of our December 1st, 2020 meeting. Move approval of the minutes of December 1st, 2020. Thank you. The minutes to before us see no discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes. Please say I am opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. I will now turn to public comment, madam. Quote We have people on the line from public comment. And no, we do not, Mr. Chair. All right. Out of an abundance of and I think you're right. I see everyone I see on the zoom call is a county employee. Or here for a particular item later in today's agenda are there. So we will dispense. We will. I. Will open public comment here in note. No one for public comment will close closed public comment. And that takes us to item five. On today's agenda, a briefing with Dwight David, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update this on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr.. Traveling with the new federal administration, we expect to have many new updates and look forward to your presentation. Good morning, everyone. A happy new year for those of you who I have not spoken with this year. For the record, Dwight Dave Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy, we have six items this morning. And as has become our tradition, I will do one and then we'll pause and see if there is discussion of that and then I will move on. So first this morning, just as always, I want to give you an update on where we are with reimbursement from FEMA, both for the February storms and then obviously for our COVID response. As of yesterday, our estimated federal eligible costs for the storm were $33 million. We are still in the process of putting together all that documentation that first goes to the state and then goes to the federal government. And we would presumably not get any of that federal money until late this year and probably more likely next year . But nonetheless, there will be significant reimbursement, we think, for the costs that we incurred during the storm, particularly be true for the road services division. So that's where that one is. On COVID response. The latest estimate for 2020 for FEMA eligible expenses is about $114 million. That is still being worked through as agencies provide documentation to the Office of Emergency Management. So that number is going to change up or down somewhat, but probably not a lot at this point since we're well into January. The big outstanding variable there is what percentage of federal reimbursement do we get? Just to remind everyone, traditionally it's about 75% that we get. Traditionally, the state then has provided a 12 and a half percent match, leaving the county to cover 12 and a half percent. There is also a very real possibility, but it hasn't occurred yet that this becomes a such a big amount that the federal government actually reimburses at 90% and that incremental 15% is a pretty large number, of course, for us, depending on what we ultimately have to do. Just again, to remind everyone, what we have done is we have set aside in the general fund at the end of 2020 sufficient money to match 25%. So we've kind of covered the the highest potential county cost. And if so, government is more generous or if the state government comes through with a match, then that will free up some general fund resources. We can hope that in the new administration that decision will be made pretty quickly. But we have no guarantee that it will. So that's the kind of status we have, the FEMA. Obviously, FEMA has extended the COVID emergency further. So many of the costs we are incurring this year, 2021, for our COVID response will also be ultimately eligible for reimbursement. And of course, we have no idea what that amount is going to be. And so with that, I will pause and see if there are any questions about FEMA colleagues. Mr. Everly, please. Please proceed. Okay. Thank you. So the second item I know is of interest to many of you is that $500,000 that you appropriated last year to cities and businesses that are hosting some of our D intensification sites and some of our isolation and quarantine. And the three governments that have participated in that are the cities of Issaquah and SeaTac and the Renton Regional Fire Authority, which provides the fire and emergency medical services. And the city of Renton and all to those governments have submitted about $250,000 of expenses that we will cover out of that money that you set aside. You later extended the eligibility for that funding to businesses that are affected by those sites, and they have to provide documentation of their, you know, incremental costs or whatever it might be. And the latest estimate from OEM of how much will be covered is about $210,000. So we will use up all or virtually all of that $500,000 for eligible expenses as we look forward into 2021, since we are going to be maintaining at least some of those facilities for a while. It seems likely that it would be prudent to appropriate some more money for that same purpose in the next Cogat omnibus supplemental , which I'll talk about in a little while because it doesn't look like much will carry forward from 2020. And I will pause there and see if there are questions about that item. Alexx. Mr. Lively, please proceed. All right. Thank you, sir. An item. You probably remember that in the last call, the supplemental appropriation you did in 2020, there was a large appropriation, about $60 million to purchase personal protective equipment or PPE. As everyone now has learned, the phrase in that has almost all been purchased now and much of it has been delivered. The good news on that is more of it is going to be eligible for FEMA reimbursement than we had originally expected. So the kind of net expense to the county out of the coronavirus relief fund, the CRF Fund, is probably going to be a little less than we had planned, which will then free up some additional resource for us in 2021. And so just to let you know that that has gone through the PPE has been purchased, we have a new warehouse location that we're going to be housing that this year. And so that program is pretty well underway. Remind me again, Mr. Dingley, the amount dollar, $16 million. And the ongoing pandemic, it's likely that we will be back in the future seeking an additional appropriation, but we haven't really talked yet about what that amount might be. Great colleagues. I think Councilmember Caldwell's is saving her questions for when she gets information about the first supplemental of the new year. I'm saving that for last. Please proceed, Mr.. Jaime. Okay. Fourth item, just to continue to give you an update on many of the grant programs that you approved in the various covered supplemental appropriations. Many of those are now complete and are 100% expended, or nearly 100%. I can give you specifics on anything you're curious about. There were a few that we went slightly over and a few that we went slightly under, but then fortunately they were all within the same appropriations. So we don't have a problem with any of the appropriations that we know of at this point. You will also probably remember that in the December federal action they allowed money to be spent past the end of 2020, which had been the original deadline. So in a few cases, work that we didn't get done in 2020 will now be completed in 2021 and still be compliant with the federal law. So that that was fortuitous. We had a kind of own complex workaround if we needed it. It turned out we didn't, of course, have to do that. So I will continue to be able to provide updates on this. And if any of you want to either just bring it up now or send me an email about a specific program that you're curious about, I can then get you that individual information. You're being exceptionally thorough today, Mr. Lively. No questions. Okay, good. Thank you. So two things to go. So at the end of 2020, you will probably recall the plan had been. To take. Unspent federal funds, flexible federal funds. And if we knew we had a certain amount of money that we weren't going to get spent, we were going to use that to pay for staff time in county departments that was eligible for federal reimbursement. And in doing so, we would, in essence, create fund balances at the end of 2020, mostly in the general fund, but potentially in some of the other funds as well. That work is underway. We are obviously the process of closing the books on 2020. But just to give you an update about the general fund, because this is going to become very important here in the next few months. We easily got the amount that we had assumed in the adopted budget for 2021 and 2022. You'll remember that when you adopted the budget, we assumed a certain amount of 2020 savings would be available to help balance the 2122 budget. And so the first part of good news is we easily achieved that amount of fund balance. So that means that the budget that you adopted, all of the things being equal, is balanced and sustainable. What beyond that is we expect that there will be a significant additional fund balance build up in the general fund. We don't yet have a figure for that that is reliable, but it's probably something on the order of $20 million. So that means that as we go into 2021, we have some flexible money, general fund money that we can use for COVID response. And if we don't need it for COVID response, then later on in the biennium, we'll have the opportunity to look at other potential uses of that money for county priorities. Again, very preliminary, but we know we've achieved what you counted on and expect to have a fairly significant amount beyond that as we start into the year of 2021. So let me pause there before going to the last item. All right. I will move on to the last item. So the last item is, as you know, we are going to be doing it again, maybe quarterly, potentially even more often, COVID supplemental appropriation ordinances. The first one, which we're referring to as COVID six, we want to kind of keep our sequence from last year rather than start over again, because then it could be very confusing. So COVID six, we are planning to transmit to the Council on February 18. And I want to. Discuss the complications that we're looking at right now with COVID six. So the new president has, of course, announced his proposed legislation that would provide a very large sum of money, nearly $2 trillion for additional national COVID response. And I think many of you are familiar with up into literally dozens of different buckets in different programs, everything from vaccines to additional support for businesses, additional unemployment compensation. And then there is a fairly significant amount of money that's labeled to go to state and local governments. So far, we have not seen any details about what that is intended for, how flexible it is or how exactly it will be allocated, whether it be allocated the same way as the CRF money was in 2020 or whatever been allocated in a different way. We don't know. And obviously Congress has not passed it yet. So if there is very prompt federal action, which let's say is in the next two weeks, and if that then provides some clarity, we likely will be coming to you in that first omnibus that covered sex with a request to appropriate some of the federal money. If that has not passed, we will probably air on the side of caution and not propose appropriating in appropriating any of it, partly because it hasn't passed yet, but also because of the risk that we ran into in 2020 where the federal government said this is only for money that you haven't already appropriated, weren't able to reimburse ourselves. The very first COVID spending we did because the date at which federal eligibility occurred is when the president signed the legislation and because, of course, COVID hit in our area. First, we had already started to spend some money that we couldn't go back on. And so out of a risk that the same thing could happen. This time, we are probably taking the position that unless the federal legislation has passed, we're not going to propose appropriating it yet. And that's probably okay because we have a whole two years worth of appropriation authority in the new budget that in public health and wherever else we are working with kind of your approval on a programmatic basis, we can shift some existing appropriation to that and then later appropriated the federal money. So this is going to get very, very complicated. In addition to that, as I think you all know, we are proceeding rapidly with our own vaccination program and the very early cost estimate for that is $7 million. And ultimately it is going to be significantly higher than that. We are relying on our existing appropriations for that. If we have gotten actions, the federal government or if we get additional money from the state, which we might, then we may be coming to you in that COVID six with a proposed appropriation for the vaccination program. But if that hasn't happened, but we think it's going to happen, we may not. And so just this is depending on the timing of all these things, the COVID six proposal could be fairly extensive or it could safely be quite limited. In the limited were probably only to be additional state money for public health that we know we are going to get. And so I wish I could be a little clearer about what we're envisioning in that legislation. But until we know what happens at the federal level, we're kind of in limbo about what we would propose. We may want to talk with council, particularly Councilmember Cole Wells depending on where we are with the federal government. We might want to delay that covered appropriation by a week or so if that made sense. But that's something I think we want to talk about the timing of council action on that compared with all the other things that you have to deal with here at the beginning of this year. So that's what I wanted to share about the COVID six legislation. And now I'm happy to answer questions about either that or anything else that you would like to ask. Madam Chair. I mean, Mr. Chair, it was looking cordial, sir. Mr. Chair. Question Council Member COLES. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, thank you for that very comprehensive and helpful briefing to some of my colleagues. So I meet with the wife every week and with budget staff as well as my vice chair, Constable Dombroski, and we'll be meeting tomorrow again. So what we're doing is staying in touch and doing what we started off doing at the studio is to work collaboratively with the executive branch that will come. And I also believe to be in touch with all of you on the council shortly to revisit our priorities that we established last year to address and include in our five code. I think there were four current budgets that we did that. So I would like you to be thinking about whether you believe the priorities will establish last year were still on target, or if we might want to make some changes and we will send you the motion which we had approved and provided to the Executive Dwight, when we met last week. You mentioned that the issue of effectiveness and what we did in our current budgets last year, I mean, it's not that we had a process or even outcome evaluation going on. And that's another thing that I would like my colleagues to think about is how effective do you believe? And we have to look at less concrete data in terms of being able to assess effectiveness and what our actions were last year, the outcomes of them. Do I do you want to comment on that further? What do you think is perhaps needing to be done? What is PSP working on or DCH as thank. Is it me provide different comments on that. So first of all, we're doing this and are still doing it in crisis and a lot of the usual processes of getting proposals and evaluating and putting performance measures on. Obviously, we we suspended all of that. We didn't go through all of those steps. So I would say we have in most programs good output data and much less good outcome data. So let me explain what I mean by that. So we will be able to tell you how many people received rental assistance or how many people received food assistance, or how many businesses in the unincorporated area got support from the funds you appropriated to the Department of Local Services? We will have all of that. And I think when you have time and we want to have a conversation about that, we can certainly go through any or as much of that as you would like. We are not going to know, probably in almost all cases exactly what the benefit that was achieved was. So, you know, yes, we will know how many people received rental assistance, but, you know, how many of them are still going to be in their apartments or in their homes a year later? We probably will never be able to know when. We will know how many businesses in the unincorporated area received assistance, but how critical that was to their survival. We probably will never know. So we just I just want to make sure that your expectations about what kind of performance data we'll be able to provide are realistic given the circumstances. The second thing I would say is one of the lessons we've learned is when you're trying to do these things really fast with all of the federal restrictions, it is particularly difficult to allocate funds to a large number of small organizations and have them succeed. So one of the things that we will have data on is how many organizations that we try to work with in some of the programs where there was a commitment to, you know, broad diversity of organizations receiving funding. How many of them ultimately decided not to accept the money as they learned about it, as they learned about the federal requirements? Many of them ultimately decided it just wasn't worth it for them. The amounts were too small to justify all the work they would have to do. We can. Hope that the federal requirements will be less stringent on any future money. But we don't know that if they continue to be a stringent. I would just encourage you, as you are thinking about your priorities, that as much as many of us desire to get a lot of organizations involved, it may not be very realistic in some cases, and it may take a long time. So as you start thinking about things like food assistance, how we actually do it is going to matter about as much as how much money we propose. So please just start giving that some thought that given federal requirements and given the crisis timeline we're on, that sort of the process of distributing the funds matters a lot to. And so that would be the other observation I would share. To. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. And I'm sure Dwight thought we might be asleep, but we were just tantalized by the things you were saying. And I'm sure, given the choice for Councilmember Caldwell's actually simple or complicated. I'm sure she would love complicated because that just makes life consistent. So anyway, I am very intrigued by what you just said on the on the food distribution. We have a group in and my district who has gone throughout not only our county, but our two neighboring counties and has delivered over 20,000 tons of food since March. It is it is spellbinding to watch this production, which she has. Will we be able to help her group because she has a track record of amazing work. To get more food money directly to her because she has figured out how to get so much food out to people. Or do we have to go through a different agency when she finishes the day? If there is any food left, she gives it to the neighboring foodbank, which is wonderful to support our food banks. But this massive amount of food coming in, in these trucks and being delivered within a very short number of hours is really something . And if any county employees want to go see it, I think it's a good use of your time. It's really quite amazing. So anyway, would we be able to apply because she has this track record to get her her more money for food? So let's go. We need a source of funding for this. And so assuming we get federal money that allows us to do food, I know there is a lot of executive interest and council interest in doing more to provide food assistance. So what customer you are talking about is exactly what I was referring to, which is we need to identify organizations that are already set up and know how to do this. And then we need a list of those and then we figure out how to work directly with those. One of the things we did, and I think it was well-intended, but probably ultimately not the best idea is we ended up with three different departments doing food programs. We had DARPA, Public Health and DHS all administering food assistance programs. They were of different kinds. And so there was some logic to that. But it also led to a lot of confusion and I think a lot of overlap. And so I think what we're going to propose on the executive side, if we do get money to give food assistance, we're going to run it through one department, probably D.C., DHS. And then we would propose to you that we work with established organizations that know how to acquire and distribute food quickly and efficiently and government land. But I don't know the organization you're referring to, but it certainly sounds like one that fits that bill, the established food banks or others that know exactly how to do this. If you give them money, they know how to acquire food and you know the best possible price and then they have a mechanism already set up to distribute it. So I think identifying those organizations here on a prospective basis would be helpful. Each of you knows, you know, in your district, the organizations that already are set up and are doing that and you know, DHS knows some of that well, as you do. So if as part of Councilmember Caldwell's process of reaching out to each of you, I'm asking Councilmember Caldwell's here for a favor, that she include that solicitation in what she's going to be asking of you. So we could get one list from the Council of Organizations that you think would be good to work with if we are in the position of doing additional food support for our residents. Thank you very much. I will send you a list. Her colleagues, Dombroski Councilmember Tedeschi. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dwight, as always, appreciate your work on the stimulus bill that Congress adopted in December. I think the $900 billion there was about $15 billion in there for transit agencies. Do we know yet what we expect to see here in King County, if anything, for Metro and any other thoughts or comments you have on the Metro budget in relation to that? We do have a good estimate of it, which I don't have with me. It is a very significant amount of money for Metro that I will get and then I will email it to you. And in fact, I'll probably send it to everyone because I know it's of interest to all of you. There was the last time I checked, which was a week ago or so, we didn't know whether the airport also would get an allocation. They received about $18 million in the CARES Act. It was potentially additional money in this December legislation, but we didn't know for sure yet. I will also track that down and let you know. But yes, for Metro, it's a significant amount of money and it will significantly improve their financial position. And as I think, as everyone remembers in the budget discussions, there was sufficient funding to maintain service levels at pre-COVID levels for several years into the future. This would extend it even further than that. I enjoy it and so do I. Standard that these trends that dollars are not maybe just restricted to COVID impacts, but they're flexible transit agency funding that gives us some opportunity to program from capital to operations. Yeah. So if, if it is like the cares act money, it basically can be used to fund transit. In essence, period. So, you know, the Cares Act, money that could cover lost revenue, that transit related money can. And so that is very valuable for Metro because it basically just supports their operations and capital program. Right. That's that's good news, if true, because we've kind of have been operating from a philosophy of scarcity and taking from others and putting it out there in, you know, the best places that collectively we can. But it would be wonderful if this is a significant magnet to where. It could be. Help us come out of the pandemic with a very robust system that meets the needs of our riders can ride. Thank you. And if I could, Mr. Chair, on another subject that I touched on, and that is our pandemic response vaccination sites, the $7 million that we haven't done an additional appropriation on that's just within existing authority was announced in conjunction with the two initial sites. And now there was an announcement of ten sites and one estimate of a million bucks a month to run them. So if anyone, when they got stood up, you know, they could be through June a $50 million item, as I calculate it. Five months, ten sites, million bucks, 50 million. So how do we pay for that? Is that in the budget? We're hoping for federal money. State money? That's the plan. We obviously don't have $50 million of existing county funds that we could devote to that. There is widespread expectation that whatever Congress passes will have a significant amount of money to support vaccination. And so we would at first be looking to that as the source of money to pay for the program. And your math is correct if we assume that it's $1,000,000 to say. I have actually some questions about whether it really is that expensive. So we need to track down and come up with a better cost estimate. But yes, there will be a significant amount of money. We do know that there is some money the state has received for vaccination that likely will a portion will come to us. It seems unlikely that that is 50 million by itself, but is probably at least ten. So that's another place we can go fairly quickly while we see what the federal government, that's for it. Thank you for that additional information and for your work. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Further questions. Mr. Chen. Councilmember Coe Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight and Ann for my colleagues. What we're going to have to work out and I will be consulting with our chair, councilmember will be chairman since we have new restrictions on timing of amendments to be introduced, not only striking amendments, but very importantly line amendments. So hopefully we will have more opportunity to deliberate and be able to address the transmittal of our upcoming COVID six, seven, eight and nine this year. But there are some new challenges that will be posed that we'll be working on that. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Just a note on that. Because we are at the beginning of the biennium, our situation is different than it was when we were trying to do stuff in the last six months of the biennium. We do have a significant amount of existing appropriation authority. And so if the Council needs to take longer to deliberate on these ordinances, that actually is okay this year. In a way, it really didn't work last year. Councilmember Belushi. Yeah. Just on the point about our new rules on amendments, everybody should recall that the past that we used quite effectively last year on budgets still exists, and that is that the chair and the sponsor and forgetting which one has the authority here can set up a a a specially designed briefing schedule with what set timelines. And as Councilmember Caldwell's our budget chair did last year. That can still be done. So it can be customized to whatever the needs of the particular legislation are. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Councilmembers. Hello. Thank you. So sorry if I missed this. Can somebody give me a heads up about the timelines for the various supplementals and omnibus budgets, especially the one that's coming? So I can speak to what we're planning on the executive side. And then obviously he comes from work. Well, I can speak to what she's planning for the council. So our current plan is to transmit the so what we're calling COVID six, the first COVID related omnibus appropriation to the Council on February 18th. And again, there's four. I think we should leave open the possibility of a slight delay in that, depending on what's happening at the federal level at that point. Following that will be the first regular supplemental appropriation ordinance of the year. That doesn't have to do with COVID, and that will likely come to you at some point in late March. And typically what we do with that is any corrections that need to be made in the adopted budget, of which I think there are very, very few of any. You will recall that we delayed consideration of some of the budget provisos and expenditure restrictions, especially the dates involved in those. We didn't do that last fall. We will have some requests of you to change some of those dates. And then the third thing are what we call re appropriations, where money that was unspent in the 2019, 2020 biennium by a particular agency. Sometimes they request that that money be reappropriated in the next biennium. And I will just share with you that on the executive side, we have drawn a very, very hard line against very many appropriations. Historically, these have been things that an agency understands and then said, well, now, you know, we really need to replace a bunch of computers. Please reappropriate that money for computer replacement. We are we are not entertaining those proposals this time, given our financial circumstances. So I don't think you will see very many re appropriations. It is possible that there will be a few. Truly. New things, largely of things that were not anticipated at the time you adopted the budget. But typically we don't do very many of those in this first omnibus. So then beyond that, on the executive side, our current thinking has been to do the COVID related supplementals once a quarter. That may turn out not to be sufficient know depending on circumstances, we may need to do another one in April instead of May, but our current thinking is to do those quarterly. And then the, the what we always refer to as the mid biennium supplemental would probably be in the early fall and that would be when the executive and the Council would take the opportunity to make any significant changes in the adopted budget that that actually is called for in the county charter, that there is a mid biennium ordinance and we think of it typically as the second regular supplemental of the biennium. And again, that's probably something around September that we would transmit that to you. And historically, the council has tended to act on that by the end of the year. There have been circumstances where it's carried over in the early in this case, 2022. Thank you so much, Dwight. That was really helpful. I'm sorry. Councilmember Bell duty. Was that? No. Anyone else? Mr. Devlin, I want to thank you very much. Appreciate your investment in spending time with this. Briefing us on where we are in pandemic response regularly. Look forward to having this be a continuing feature of meetings this year and appreciate your continued work in managing our response. Thank you very much. Really thank you. And I really look forward to doing this. So I will be with you at your next meeting. Wonderful. And colleagues. That takes us to our next in our final item on today's agenda. And we'll make an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the Southwest District Court of King County District Court, a process governed by King County Code. Today's appointment will be the first in at least two. The committee will make this year. Applications are currently being accepted for a second position in the West District of King County District Court. I'm going to expect the committee to take up that appointment in February for the appointment before us today in the Southwest District. Members will recall that the Council advertised the vacancy last year and accepted applications until December 7th, 2020. We received three eligible candidates during the application period and will be interviewing two candidates today. The third candidate we withdrew their name from consideration. While the councilors sometimes used a subcommittee process to interview candidates prior to the committee meeting in order to narrow the applicant applicant pool. We did not do that this time, given the number of eligible applicants. So before we proceed further, I want to provide members of the attendees with an overview of how this process will work, given that we've not filled the judicial vacancy remotely before. Let me begin by pointing out that the application materials for both applicants and suggestion questions were emailed to members, most recently at 944 this morning by Terry Rose in. So I would call your attention to that email. They have those materials before us within the packet of application materials. The first applicants materials begin on page one of that packet and the second applications materials continue in that same pdf beginning on page 48 of the packet. Members should. We'll begin today's proceedings with a brief staff report on the proposed motion from Sound Order of Council staff. And then after the staff report, the committee will interview each applicant one at a time. During the interview, the candidate will not being interviewed, will be placed in a zoom waiting room so as to not get an advance review of the interview questions or the other candidates responses. Once both candidates have been interviewed, if there is interest among the council members, the committee will go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of the candidates. We would we would then rejoin the Zoom meeting to take up the legislation before us and make any decisions. Are there any questions on how this will work from either members or candidates before we proceed with the staff briefing and the process? With that. I miss Porter. The line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Policy Staff. The materials for this item begin on page nine of your packet. Proposed motion 2020 10006 that would make an appointment to fill the judicial vacancy and position. Member for the Southwest District of King County District Court. Left by Judge Mark Ayade upon his retirement under state law, the King County Council as the County Legislative Party is directed to fill district court vacancies by appointment. The King County Code provides a merit selection process for filling such vacancies. In accordance with state law. The judge appointed appointed through this process will fill the remainder of Judge Ed's term, which will end in January 2023. District Court is the county's court of limited jurisdiction and has responsibility for traffic infractions, small claims and misdemeanor criminal offenses in counties. Unincorporated areas. Cities that do not have municipal court courts and contract with the court to provide those services and for the adjudication of state offenses, which are violations of state statute within the county, or when the arresting agency is the Washington State Patrol or another state law enforcement agency. The court handles approximately 250,000 filings annually. In accordance with the merit selection process outlined in King County Code by the application deadline, eligible candidates must submit a current rating of at minimum qualified for a district court judicial physician and the King County Bar Association and at least one other eligible Bar Association operating in King County. A Letter of Interest and Resumé. A copy of the completed responses to questionnaires submitted to the King County Bar Association to obtain its rating and any supporting information the applicant would like the Council to consider. As the Chair mentioned, three individuals submitted application. Candidate Michael Franz withdrew his application as of January 18, and the remaining candidates are from Illinois Masonic I and Brian Todd. In its current form, a proposed motion 2020 10006 has a blank for the name of the person being appointed, and a line amendment will be needed to insert the name of the selected appointee. These line amendments appear on pages 18 and 19 of your packet, and that concludes my remarks. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Questions from his partner. Thank you very much. I expect that each interview will take roughly 20 minutes, and I'll ask each candidate and each candidate to provide an opening and closing remarks, each to be limited to 2 minutes. A member should have received the prepared suggested interview questions by email yesterday and again this morning at 944 a. In accordance with past practice members to volunteer to read the interview questions. And before the meeting, we randomly assigned the order of interviews. And we'll begin with Mr. Mason. Mr. Pisani and then followed by Mr. Todd investor. Any questions I'll now ask the clerk to please to please please Mr.. Time the zoom waiting room now and as a reminder to members and staff, please let the clerks and people from the waiting room avoid the temptation to click on the admin button yourself. I know it's tempting. And that is done, I believe. Yes. Mr. Mazzoni, I thank you very much for your interest in the judicial appointment and welcome to the committee of the whole of this morning. I might invite you to begin by offering your opening remarks and ask you to please limit them to 2 minutes. You were unmuted and just re muted. Give us just a moment, Mr. Chair, please. I'll ask Angelika to make him a call up and also train his body on their excellent. There we go. Welcome. We can't hear you quite yet. Give us a moment. You should have the capability to unmute himself. You were unmuted. When? What? I said you. We couldn't hear you. And then your microphone is now muted according to the zoom screen. There we go. Your immediate. But we can't hear you. Not yet. We'll be patient. You should have seen us in March when we didn't know we were doing it. We were all new to this. It looks like he's unmuted, Mr. Chair, and his video should be on I. We have his. We have your video, sir. I'm. Perhaps if you go to the microphone icon and use the up arrow is there, select the microphone choice. To make sure you've selected your head said this is dangerous when I'm playing tech support. The lower left hand corner of the zoom screen should be a microphone icon in the upper right hand corner. It should be an up arrow current. If you click on that, the menu might appear. That includes select a microphone. Meanwhile, you are muted again. Maybe it is for a moment. They expect to reconnect. Enjoying this clock if you can be on the lookout to readmit him. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will. Thank you. How are you, Mr. Chair? Doing well. The good and. Well. Good. I spent my weekend pulling my desk away from the wall and getting wires that had been running across the room, actually behind the desk and plugged into the outlet that the desk blocks so well. You can't tell any difference. The organization here in my home office looks a whole lot better today than it did last week. I can see it. The background looks nicer. You have a. Vacuum to. Nice and you change your on your shirt to. Dress up for. The occasion today. Yes, you did. Yes. That was very impressive. You were the one who pointed out the other day that I'm usually in collegiate wear and was out of uniform. That's true. That's true. We have to spark things up sometimes, right? Have you read all those books back there or are they for show? They're all intended to be read if they haven't already been read. The shelf, I like to point out, is the shelf of blue binding, blue bound books that are all together. They're my I'm I'm Childhood Hardy Boys collection. Nice. But I couldn't interest my nephews in reading when they hit grade school and started reading. And so they still sit on my bookshelf waiting to go somewhere some day. You may have to wait for their children, but come back again. I don't think anybody will ever read those editions of Hardy Boys again. They're so out of date. They never text. They use a landline. It's good for them to hear ancient history in their. Facial recognition software. Hello? Can you hear me now? Yes. I am so sorry. I apologize. No. Nearly no apology necessary. We were all learning how to do this remotely and completely understand. As I said, you should have heard all of our mistakes and learning curves as we got used to this, and we've just had some practice doing it together to make it all work. I was stunned. I was so mystified by Mr. Daly's presentation that, you know, I didn't check to see if the audio was working properly. So that's my fault and I apologize. Happy New Year to everybody here. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. McDermott, for allowing me to come. Thank you, council members. It is great to see all of you here. Happy New Year to each and every one of you. My name is Farmer William Sonii, and I was born in San Francisco, California. I was raised to the south of market. I moved here to our white center in 1984, where I attended Evergreen High School. I played football there. I played different sports. I was involved in all kinds of activities. I graduated with honors in 1987 and would bestowed the title of Male Student of the Year. Later that year, I attended Washington State University. I attended. I worked on the football team and played for coach Mike Price. I graduated in 1992 with a B.A. in Criminal Justice and Minors in sociology and political science. After that, I entered the workforce. I went to Alaska to work on a fishing trawler without from Dutch Harbor out to the Bering Sea, out to the coast of Russia. I came back and I was a bouncer for several clubs around the Puget Sound area. I eventually worked airport security, and then I started working as a golf course maintenance employee at the City of Tech. Well, as far as the Greens. That led me to volunteer at the Tukwila Municipal Court in 1994, where I worked my way up and became the in court clerk serving judges Jerry Jay Miller and Peter Luke Novick , and both of those judges that requested me to go to law school. I just asked so many questions. You're like, You got to go to law school. I applied to Seattle University, but due to financial restrictions, I was not able to go to Seattle University. So the Honorable Scott Stewart approached me in and we started doing the Washington State Bar Association's Rule six program. It's a four year program. It's a tough program to get through. I graduated in 2003, became took the bar and passed the bar in 2004, worked as a public defender for the cities of of Sammamish, North Bend and Kenmore, Sea-Tac in Kent, Lakewood and Milton. And 2006 I left and went to American Samoa and I took up a position with the American Samoan government at the assistant training as an assistant attorney general. I was assigned to the felony prosecutor level to handle domestic violence, child abuse and rape cases and white collar crime and the juvenile matters. In 2009, I was federally appointed by the federal government to be the independent prosecutor, and my office played an investigation into a. A very large human trafficking scheme involving public officials from America's some one government. We had many convictions and charges then, and we were able to effectuate the change there. In 2012, I relocated my family here to Washington State, and I practiced in the federal bankruptcy court and I entered Chapter Sevens 11 12/13. I represented individuals and banking institutions and the federal and state level for litigation. And I very happily was involved in the Washington state mediation programs here in Washington State. 2014, I began my pro tem career, the City of Issaquah. In 2015, I was assigned as the Pro-Tem Commissioner for the King County Superior Court Juvenile Division under the Honorable Wesley St Clair. And I served that appointment for one year. I also started protesting in cities of Seattle, in Des Moines and Renton and SeaTac and Puyallup. And I also been protesting in the King County District Court level at the Mealing Regional Justice Center for the retired March 18 Judges of Amato and Horn and Green. And here I am now, applying for this position. I am a father of three. I'm happily married. I've been married for 13 years. Just me and my wife works for the Asian Counseling Referral Services. My children attend school at the school district where my son is a six year old Herschel Walker, and my daughters. Two of my daughters attend elementary school at Temple Elementary, and I serve on different committees throughout the Puget Sound area, the Asia Pacific Community Culture Center down in Tacoma. As the president of these Samoan Cultural Week program and I work with the Asia Pacific Organization here on Beacon Hill in Seattle, and we run food drives. And I do a lot of pro-bono work and helping people and direct them to the right attorneys to help them with their legal issues. If I can ask you to wrap up. Yes, that's why I'll wrap up there. I'll stop there. All right. And we have several questions various council members will step up and ask. I'll begin with the first one. What is it about your particular skills and interests that would make you a good fit for King County District Court? The King County District Court is it's a people's court and it changes as the people change. Growing up on the West Side and seeing all the different changes and the gentrification and start areas that used to be very poor, it's changing the clientele of the individuals who are there. And so I think the law has to adapt and has to change along with them at the other. And with that change, you have to be adaptive. And I think that's one of those my strengths is to be adaptive. Every time I was told no, I found a way around it. When I didn't get a scholarship to play football, I walked on when I wasn't able to pay for my law school. I did the robotics program every time I tried to do something. You have to be a doctor. You have to work together with individuals who are around you to make positive and effective change and not just be selfish and try to do things on your own. Growing up on the West Side and seeing all the different changes that are coming to that area, I think we would have to be adapted. There's a large homeless population that lives in Burian. There's also a large Hispanic community and there's a lot of Pacific Islanders and Asians that live on that side and they're not being heard, they're not being represented and they seem lost and confused and there's no voice for them. There's no way for them to express themselves. And so I've been a happy mediator between that and helping them get legal help. And if I was assigned to this position, I would try to educate and I would try to teach and I would try to be a voice in the inner circles of the judicial realm to try to effectuate change in a positive way, not just for the Asian people or Pacific Islanders, but for everybody across the Social Now report. Thank you. Council member Col Wells. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I. My question is whether in line with what you just answered, but what your superiors in your last position say was your greatest strength? Thank you for the question, Councilmember. What? I think I'm personal. I'm a people person. I'm able to get along with different people. I use humor. I use education. I try to use everything as a teaching tool. When people don't understand, when people come into court, they're afraid. They don't understand what's happening. They don't understand the charges. They don't understand the process. I take a great deal of time as a public defender to try to explain to them what's going on, why they're being charged with this, what we can do and what their options are. Most of the time, they want things that we can grant to them, but at the same time, we are able to identify issues that they have in their lives, whether it's mental health, alcohol, drug addiction, anger management issues. And we try to help them get into a position where they're able to receive the help and get the case resolved in a way that won't affect them later on in the future. What we're seeing now is we started seeing a lot of people who are coming back on deferred sentences to some individuals who've been charged and receive, stipulated or two continuances that have immigration issues. And those have been and are now affecting them in a negative way where before it looked like it was a really positive way to proceed. And so trying to educate them and try to explain to them that the decision that you make right here, right now is going to affect your life for the rest of your life. It may stop you from going into law school or getting a medical degree and how, you know, this one little tiny theft case may stop you from living your dreams. And that's not fair. And so I think my superiors would say that I take a great deal of time educating and help guiding them in the right way so that the mistake that they won't come back to haunt them later on in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I follow up on that. Thank you. Conversely, for that answer, what would your superiors in your last position say? What is your greatest weakness? I talk too much. I talk. I take it I take so much time with one individual to make sure that they're settled, that I'm not fast enough to talk to everybody else. And so they would have to take over at that point in time. But I want to make sure that everybody understands. And so I give everybody the adequate time I want them. And when I'm on the bench, I want them to feel that this is their day in court. It was sitting in court for two or 3 hours waiting for that two or 3 minutes that they appear in front of me. I want to make sure that they are heard. So when they leave there, even if I rule against them, they go, You know what? I had my day in court and I don't accept it and I don't agree with it. But you know what? I had my day and I try to make sure that everybody feels that way when I'm protesting. And I definitely make sure that everybody feels that way when I when I'm handling their case. Thank you. It's kind of like turning a lemon into lemonade, right? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Our next question. Councilmember Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's been very nice to to meet you, and thank you for your application. It's a very detailed application. I don't know what the public knows how much material you've submitted. And I want you to know that we've looked at all of it. And I think this is the first time we've ever had a Rule six person who got admitted to the bar that way. And you you said it is a major accomplishment that that is the long road around. So congratulations to you and on all your accomplishments since then. Thank you. My question is simple, but so please describe a day we all have had them, especially in the law where things just went really wrong. It didn't go your way. And how do you handle that? How do you how do you how do you react, bounce back, deal with things when they just everything goes wrong? Thank you very much for the question. And thank you for the kind words councilmember about about I. The first thing that comes to mind is I had a young lady appear in front of me at the Mealing Regional Justice Center on a DUI case. And the case was ten years old. And the one of the retired judges had issued a warrant for $25,000 for her arrest. And she's appearing in front of me to quash the warrant. And I'm looking through the docket and I'm like, okay, she didn't meet her probation. She didn't do this. And I'm looking at all the negative things. And her defense attorney came forward and he was arguing that we should quash the warrant. And he presented several things that were really positive and really good and progressive. And as I continue to look through the docket, I'm like, well, this judge really wants your 25,000. So my training and everything is telling me how to take her into custody. So I called for the marshal. I said, I'm gonna have to take you into custody. And as she said over on the side, and she's getting ready to be processed, and my court clerk is giving me the eye. And if you've ever sat a courtroom and you have a quarter given you, the eyes are pretty sure that the young ladies they work with you are giving you the eyes every once in a while. I just in my heart is that, you know what? Bring her back and ask the marshal. Marshal, would it be okay if we can reassess this matter, please? And can we can I talk to one more time? And I brought her back before me and I said, You know what? I'm going to do something I normally don't do. I'm going to go back on my ruling. And I've looked at all the things and yeah, this case is ten years old. You stayed for five of them. You came in and then your case was continue for two years and then you finally pled guilty and you've been sentenced. And yeah, we don't have this and this, but we have the other four things that are required. I'm going to quash the warrant. I'm going to let you go. I'm going to give you another court date to come back. It it's amazing, counsel, remember about it. You want a little bit of patience and compassion can do for that young lady. And she stood up and she's appeared for every court date. I checked, she's appeared. She's provided proof of her treatment. She's doing really well. And we're hoping that the end of 2021, her case will be closed finally. And so, yeah, we we all make mistakes. We're human. You know, the people that I represent and the people that come before me, I understand that. You know, I remember where I came from. I came from a very poor neighborhood. I moved to White Center, which I thought was pretty cool at the time because, you know, it was it had I had a yard and I could climb a tree and and I could do things I couldn't do in San Francisco. And it was great. It was is everybody has a bad day. But there's the mistakes that we learn from the most, not not our successes. And so I'm looking forward to if you ask my wife, I make mistakes all the time, you know, but and so but I try to learn from them and I try not to repeat them, especially when I'm on the bench. Thank you very much. Thank you. I guess. Next question. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I'd like to welcome you also and thank you. Say that in the era of oral sex was quite the accomplishment. So thank you for not giving up on your dreams. Because I think about. My I question what is you do you see as the most significant challenge currently facing the district court and how do you think it ought to be addressed? Thank you very much for the question, Councilmember Lambert, and happy New Year to you. And thank you for the kind words as well. The significant challenge we have going forward is that first we have this pandemic. We're not able to have jury trials and we're not able to get people to come into the courtroom like we used to. I, as a public defender and I practice everywhere throughout the Puget Sound area, I'd walk into a calendar of 60 people and then I'd have to rifle through them and make sure that we're able to get them in the right direction. Now, with the pandemic and the spread of COVID, how easy it is, we have to make sure that everybody's health is taken care of. And not just physical health, but mental health. One of the biggest issues I think that we suffer from is that we don't the criminal justice system doesn't treat mental health the right way. I think that there should be programs in place, and there probably are, especially if we get some federal funding. As I was listening to Mr. Daley talk, that not only can we put people instead of an issue where somebody suffers their mental health and putting them in jail, we should probably get them more into counseling. And not just them, but their family. My sister suffers from schizophrenia and I try to educate my parents and all my brothers sisters about. She's not a martyr. She's not. She shouldn't be ostracized. We shouldn't treat her any differently. We should try to understand where she's coming from. Make her feel comfortable. Make her feel like, okay, I'm love. And in that way, when she does have, we can recognize what triggers her and we can try to mitigate those triggers and make sure that she's taking her medication and make sure she's receiving her counseling. And counseling could be not just from training, as if it should be with family members and love in the community. And I really accept that as part of the community court and as a public defender, we try to help everybody. We could understand where they're coming from through the different programs that we made available. We did the REACH program, we did the lead program. We tried to get them into counseling Asian through my wife's resources, were able to get SARS, come down and offer alcohol and drug treatment. It's just a some individuals are not ready for it. They didn't want to make that change because they didn't trust the system. I think the biggest issue that we have in the King County system is getting the trust of the public to make sure that we're doing everything right and that we're there to help them. I really think probation should be changed into more of a court support services instead of being the hammer that tells the court that, hey, they're doing something wrong. One of the biggest things I think a judge should be is a great listener. But I also think a judge should be a cheerleader. And when people are succeeding, we should be in court and we should saying, hey, this person right here succeeded, and this person right here is an example to everybody else. You can do it, too. If they can do it, you can do it. You know, and and I really believe that. And I really am excited to work in the community courts there. And I pro tem the community court in Seattle when they used to run it when it was in operation. And it was a fantastic feeling to give people that self-worth and that make them feel good about themselves. And a lot of these individuals, they feel down about themselves all the time and there's no trust there. So you have to build up the trust with the public. We have to educate them and we have to make sure that we're there for them. Now, there are those individuals who are going to fail and there are those individuals who won't care. And that's what the court needs to be the executioner as well. But do it with compassion and do it by giving them some respect. And I think that we need to have more of a connection with the public. So many times in my career, I've seen judges gotten so old that they weren't connected to the public anymore. They didn't understand what was happening in the community. I grew up on the West Side. West Side is my home. Tom. I want to I. Want to help the. So thank you. Thank you. Gentlemen, Brazil. Hello. Thank you so much for those words and for being here today, Anthony, and I really appreciate that. We're in a global pandemic that makes congregate and confined settings like courts and jails very dangerous. And so I just wanted to hear a little bit from you how our current crisis impacts your decision making. Well, we always lean on when individuals have gone to jail to make sure that we give them the least restrictive means possible. If we're able to use home monitoring or tattoo bracelet or smart start on cases involving alcohol, we make sure that we try to get those people out. I think treatment is better than being incarcerated for people who are mentally ill. We try to make sure that we're plugging into different programs, making sure they're taking their medication. I know that from speaking to my sister, some of the medications they take are terrible. But if we do least restrictive means, I think that's very important. The other issue that we are having is, you know, we're having so many court these words trying to get processed and trying to get information and everybody's trying to learn how to work on Zoom. The good news is that we're able to communicate a lot better with our clients. We're able to have Zoom meetings with them. The bad news is that we have a lot of continuances. So I think what we need to do is we need to make sure that we're able to get plugged in right away with the individuals , make sure that they are set up in a way that's fair, that they're going to be successful, that they feel comfortable in operating in a zoom system. That's the biggest issue we've been having so far, and we haven't been able to do any trials. You know, jury trials are expensive and I love jury trial. Let me do it. I love them. I've done over 100 jury trials on the federal, state, district court and municipal court levels. But trials are expensive. And when I first started as a court clerk, we used to have bench trials all of the time. We can have a bench trial with limited people in the courtroom instead of bringing in individuals from the community. And that way we can alleviate them from being exposed to the pandemic. But individuals who are in jail, we got to find ways to get them out. The jail is just a petri dish filled with COVID that is going to get everybody sick. We can have a lot more video hearings that we have things that are not, you know, continuances or setting matters to trial or exchanges of discovery. Those can be handled by video so that we can try to alleviate the amount of people coming to court. But I think that if we're going to have a jury trial, we're going to have to do it in a way that is conducive to this point, that I'm hoping that this vaccine helps everybody and everybody is able to get vaccinated so that eventually we can approach some type of level of normalcy. But I don't think we're ever going to get there again. I think our new level of normalcy is going to include a lot of Zoom hearings in the future. I hope that answers your question and happy New Year and thank you for the question. Council members are really. Happy New Year to you, too, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues further questions. The company, I invite you to share with us a closing statement and would ask you to aim for 2 minutes. Yes, sir. I will try to stay under 2 minutes. Oh. Yeah. I like I said, I grew up on the west side. I've watched that area change over the almost near 40 years that I've been there. I've watched my friends places in the park like homes and the other places of low income be rooted out and built new buildings. I've seen businesses closed. I've seen just the face of of the West. I change over a period of time, and the law has been very slow to react to that. I think that if we. I think that if I am given this position, I would love to educate a lot more people. I would love to go into the schools without violating my judicial independence and try to educate the kids at the school if we can get them young and early and try to educate them. I think we can make an effective change that we wouldn't see a large number of individuals being arrested in the future from on May 9th, 1992. I'm going to shift gears here. My dad and I were taking pictures on the stage of Beasley Coliseum when I graduated from Washington State. And he turned to me and he said, You look like a judge in that roadster. From that day to this day. My entire career has been built to this. So I ask that you give me the opportunity to serve the people of the West, and I thank you for your time. Thank you very much for sharing your experience and your perspectives and interest in serving on the District Court with us. We're better for it. Thank you, Madam Clerk. If I can ask you to admit Mr. Matheny to the waiting room and invite back Mr. Todd. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you'll just give us a moment. Of course. Mr. Todd, I believe you're getting admitted and connecting to the Zoom room itself. Welcome. And good morning, Councilman. Thank you. Good morning and welcome. I want to thank you warmly for your interest in the judicial position before us today and for taking time to join us here at the Committee of the Whole. I invite you to begin with opening remarks, introduce yourself into perhaps shoot for 2 minutes. Very well. Thank you, Councilman, to all the council members. Thank you very much for your time today. I came before you four years ago seeking a position in the same court, and my opening statement began with saying that the Southwest or the district court in general is the People's Court, and it truly is. And that has only been encouraged and supported by the work that I have been doing as a pro-tem in the lower jurisdiction municipal courts that I've been working in recently. I have only improved from when I was in front of me four years ago to the point that the minority bars have found me exceptionally well qualified. I do continue to feel as though I'd be an incredible asset to the King County District Court and would represent you, the Council, with pride in doing this and in accepting the appointment if you were to choose to appoint me. I've always been committed to diversity. I've continued to work with immigrant communities, with their legal issues. As a pro tem, I'm always mindful of the biases that I have. And additionally, as a pro tem, I've conducted hearings in Spanish for clients and for defendants and litigants that come in front of me in Spanish. And I think that that just opens the doors to access to justice. And I be committed to access to justice throughout my entire legal career, but especially in being a pro tem sitting on the bench and ensuring that everybody has the access that they have. And so I do feel as though I'd be a really good fit for Southwest District Court and I would ask for your appointment. And with that I am open to questions. Thank you so much. I'll begin with the first question. And what is it about your particular skills and interests that would make you a good fit for King County District Court? I think my particular skills are that I have a diverse background. I come from the gay community. I come from a rural community. And I come from a community that knows immigrant issues and able to work toward those and resolve those. Additionally, my unique skills that I have, as I said, I am bilingual and I have conducted hearings for litigants in Spanish. They come in front of me. I recently did a hearing and I believe is in federal way, that the litigant was just so happy that the judge actually spoke his language, spoke Spanish. Then he commented, Oh, I hope I can meet you someday. I hope I can meet you. And what I had to tell him in Spanish was that, you know, if we see each other on the street, we can certainly greet each other. And it would be a pleasure to know you as well. So I do come from a unique background, a diverse background, and I do have those unique skills in order to allow litigants to come in and have that access that they have to the courts. Thank you. I need to be on my mute button. Councilmember Caldwell's. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Mr. Todd, for your wanting to serve further and the judiciary, the court system. I have a two part question. What would your superiors in your last position say? Which is your greatest weakness, but also your greatest strength? I've always been a strong practitioner, so I don't necessarily have a supervisor, but I will look towards, for example, the court administrators that I work in, in the municipal courts. I think they would say that probably my greatest weakness is that I care possibly too much. I want to make sure that everybody is treated fairly, that everybody is received the same decision, regardless of where they come from, regardless of their background, regardless of what they look like. And so I have been careful and slow and deliberative at times in making my decisions to ensure that I'm providing that exact same result for everybody else and providing a fair and just result. As far as my greatest skill. I think that it would be being able to relate to people, being able to connect with people and being able to make decisions and tough decisions at that. I presided over a criminal criminal suppression motion in Lake Forest Park, and I wrote an opinion for that on my findings of fact and conclusions of law. And Judge Portnoy actually commented that that was exceptionally well written. And so I think, you know, strengths would be the way that I'm able to connect with people, the way that I am able to make decisions and the way that I'm able to write and speak and present myself in court. Thank you. Councilmember Balducci. Look, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Todd, it's good to see you again. Thank you for applying for your interest, for your work. I do like to say at least one thing to each candidate. And the thing that jumped out at me from your application packet was your mediation, training and experience. I think that that is extremely valuable to members of the bench to have that experience, to be able to listen for interest through the sort of what may be presenting on the surface of, you know, anger and emotions that that you get in court. So I'm very that's that's really stands out to me. My question is, so every, you know, everyone has a really bad day and in court that can turn into a really bad day in court that has, you know, ramifications that go on into the future. So if you could describe to us a time when you had just a really bad day and how did you react to that or what did you learn from it? We all do have our ups and downs, good days and bad days. And I think over the past year has particularly been trying for all of us to have those good days and to have those bad days. And, you know, there are times I can bring instances where I can think of when, you know, I might have been anxious about starting the day and then I'm presiding over cases and I have people coming in front of me that are dealing with similar issues. And I just have to remember, you know, they're probably dealing with issues as well. They may be having a bad day as well. And so the way that I deal with it is, you know, first of all, while I'm on the bench, I compartmentalize it, set it aside just to set it aside. And because I have to provide justice for people, that's fair, equitable and and and that appears fair regardless of what I'm going through that day, you know. And so I'll set it aside while I'm on the bench. And then when I get off the bench, I will find a good ear to listen to me. I will find a good shoulder to cry on, which has happened several times when I've been having a bad day and just checking in with somebody to bring me back to reality, to make sure that that I'm doing what I need to do in the way that I need to do it. And so, you know, just number one, realizing that other people go through the same things that we do. Number two, making sure that I'm there, I'm present, I'm doing the job that I need to do. And number three, dealing with my own health and well-being afterwards in between sessions or over lunch or whenever it is, but just making sure that I'm healthy as well. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council member, Lambert. Mr. Chair, there are many issues before the district courts at this point. What would you say is the most significant issue and how would you help solve it? So I think probably right now the most significant issue before so many of our courts is just the backlog of cases that are set to go to trial. And I'm ready to step in and I'm ready to do that. Even the eve of COVID, with social distancing and with all the precautions I recently actually presided over to jury trials in people up in the age of COVID. It was I believe it's November 5th and November six, two separate days, two separate trials that I presided over. And it actually worked out very well. We kept the jury separate or kept them apart, kept them distance. Anyway, we made sure that everything was was clean and secure. And so I think right now, at that point, that's the greatest problem that the district court district and lower jurisdiction courts, municipal court and quite frankly, superior courts are facing as well as just the backlog of those trials. Because obviously our customer remember, you know, when people are charged with a crime, they have a right to have their trial. But recently it has been getting pushback and back and some people have not been getting their day in court as I'm ready to step in and help with that backlog. I also think that, you know, stepping in there with the compassion, with the understanding and with the ability to run a courtroom and a trial efficiently, which I am able to do, would be one of the things that I would step into district court and be ready to go. Thank you. Council members are holding. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Judge Todd, for being here today. We're in a global pandemic that makes confined and congregate settings like jails and courts dangerous. I was wondering how that impacts your decision making. It certainly does impact it a lot. And just as one anecdote, the moment that I realized that I was a judge was when I had to make that first bail decision. And you are deciding whether or not somebody is going to be in custody or somebody is going to be out of custody while their case is pending . And so there are obviously problems with the bail system that we have and whether or not we should be detaining or releasing somebody already. We already know that there are systemic racism that goes through the bail system and making bail determinations. People are disadvantaged from not having a stable residence or disadvantage from having problems going around their home. And obviously, we know that there have been recent movements to try to reform the bail system, go to a different type of system. For example, in Spokane, I know they were trying to go to a risk needs assessment at one point. But part of the problem with going to a risk needs assessment is that a lot of the data on which that risk needs assessment is based is already racially biased. And so it's trying to reform that and trying to come up with a better way to take care of that. And so, you know, in any case, any bail decision that we make as judges, whether a defendant is in custody while in cases pending or a defendant is free while the case is pending, you know, it has to be guided by some of those considerations as well. But, Councilman, as you pointed out, in this age and in this pandemic can only exacerbate the particular problem because it puts people, more people at risk of getting COVID, of suffering the complications from that, and and dealing with the implications of keeping somebody into custody. And so those are certainly all are considerations that I have to look at in addition to obviously the criminal role. 3.2 looking at whether or not they're likely to appear for court, whether or not they're likely to commit a violent offense, looking at their criminal history and just taking those considerations. And so as judges, we have to be mindful of following the rules that we have set when setting bail, as well as looking at the the system, the problems and the individual person that's in front of us. And I'm certainly mindful of that. And I do take that into consideration every time somebody is in front of me. Thank you. I believe that wraps up my questions from members in my mistaken. Thank you, Mr. Todd. I'd invite you to share a closing statement, closing thoughts with us, and ask you to aim for about 2 minutes. But you. Customers. I am extremely humbled to be in front of you here again, and I know that I would take my over 20 years of experience in law and family law, criminal law and courts of law, jurisdiction in the district court and in superior courts, and be a great asset to the bench. The time that I've been serving as a pro tem has been absolutely incredible and I would take that energy and I would take that ability into the super excuse me, into the district court. And you look forward to using my skills there as counsel. Councilmember Bell Duty said. I do have that mediation training and that really has been a way that I've been able to reframe my mind, look at issues and just allow somebody to be heard. That's really the biggest thing, and that's part of what district court can do. District court gives the opportunity for somebody to be heard, somebody to be acknowledged. Have those issues acknowledged as well as have their motions acknowledge? And so that's why I feel as though I would be a really good fit in here. I am committed to diversity. I've been committed to diversity. My practice. I mean, what I do in the clients that I work with and the way that I work with them. I'm glad that my I am bilingual. I am able to conduct hearings in Spanish and it just opens up so many doors and is such a pleasure and such an incredible opportunity that I have. And I would look forward to the pleasure and the opportunity of serving on the District Court. And if he were to appoint me, I would gladly accept your appointment. Thank you so much for your time. Mr.. Mr.. TODD, thank you for joining us today, for your interest in this record and for sharing your perspectives and thoughts. And we're better for it today. We appreciate that. Thank you, Councilmember. Now, if we meet and readmit Mr. Mohseni, I. No inspections and not admitting myself. We've concluded her interviews, and I'm assuming colleagues would like a few minutes an executive session to discuss the qualifications of the candidates under RTW 4231 ten each. The committee is going to go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office. The committee will be in executive session for approximately 10 minutes until approximately 1147. The committee will be off zoom for this executive session. Committee members we. Have in our. Calendars a Skype meeting to join to conduct our executive session so staff and candidates others can certainly remain here in the Zoom room. Members, please step out and join us in the executive session conversation without we're an executive session. Or. The terrorists asked me to notify the listening public that the executive session will be extended. An Egyptian on 7 minutes. And. Can I. Confirm? My audio is working. But we can't hear. You can't number up the growth. Now you're messing with me? Yep. You know. Point. Just another move to begin. This question. Yes. So whatever we do now will go to the council on Tuesday of next week or two weeks. If we expedite, it would be next Tuesday. That's all I want to know. Thank you. So. Eight. All right. And quick. Is he ready? Yes, Mr. Chairman. We're ready. Just a moment. Okay. We back out of executive session in the regular session and I'd entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Make sure I get everything right. I would move at this time. Motion approval. Of motion. 2021.06. Counts Number done has moved. Adoption of motion 2020 10006, which would make an appointment to the vacancy in the Southwest District Courts seat for King County District Court. An amendment would be in order. Very well, Mr. Chair, as vice chair of the committee, my pleasure. And to offer Amendment. One be listed on page. 18. Which inserts. Mr. McKinney. Into the position for approval. Now comes. Councilmember Dunn has moved the motion in and the amendment won't be adding Mr. Mason. His name comes from a line right there. I like to second that motion on behalf of my constituent from Federal. We have before us the the motion and the amendment discussion. Mr. Chair. Council Member Vaughan Wright Power. I think we've been very fortunate with the nominees that we've had before us. Today, and both were articulate. And they represent, I think, the best of folks applying for this. Position. I support the recommendation of our first nominee. I felt his background, his experience is a very diverse background. She spoke so loudly to the needs of voices in South Kent County, and I don't think I was looking at the faces of my colleagues on the county council. As you as he spoke and there was an incredible. You want to bring people together. You were you. I wish you I hope you were able to see the faces of my colleagues as you spoke about your work experience, your life experience, your skills that you bring to the position. And I would like to join my colleagues in strongly recommending your confirmation. Thank you for the discussion. Councilmember Belushi. I just want to add that this process is unfortunately awkward, all being remote. We've been through this a number of times, and it's always easier to have these discussions when you're in the same room with somebody and you can look them directly into their eyes. I strongly support the motion and the amendment. I think that Mr. Masonite brings an outstanding level of experience and talent. Talent and skill. His his ratings and his references all reflect that. But there was also, for me, just a very impressive level of humanity being able to sort of hear and feel and reflect the experiences of the people that will be appearing before him in his courtroom and tried to do justice in the sense of having people feel heard and supported and helped to succeed, if possible, from those difficult situations. I also wanted to speak, though, to say that in my going into my seventh year on the Council, it's hard to believe I've been through with you all, my colleagues, quite a number of appointments now. And we have had applicants who were nowhere near as qualified as either one of these two applicants. And so I want to just say to Mr. Todd that I want to encourage you to continue to pursue this appointment because you are also exceptionally well qualified and would make a great judge. We can only pick one here today, but if there were two positions, I would also gladly support you for one of them. So I want to encourage you to continue seeking this job. I think you'll do a good job at it someday and you'll get there. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Member Council member LAMBERT Thank you. I too was probably one of the faces council member on I was talking about. I could feel the compassion, the heart and the warmth of our future judge here. And if I were in need of a courtroom and somebody was going to be changing my life, I would want the judge to have the kind of wisdom and heart that I saw in his answers. And I also was very impressed when I looked at his varied experience with broad, different kinds of case and the different places where he's worked. It's given him a very broad idea of people's needs. And then, of course, the dedication that's been shown over his life over and over. Not the least of which was that he is a lawyer by Rule six, which shows great dedication and the fact that several judges told him when he was younger that he should go to law school because of his inquisitive mind. And I think that having an inquisitive mind obscured no more. I care more about others, and so I hardly endorse him. See no further discussion. All those in favor of amendment one. B. One. I. I. I. I. I. And those opposed. The ayes have it one vs adopted. We have motion 21 six as amended before us into a further discussion. I will ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember WG i. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Councilmember Dunn. Hi, Councilmember Cole. Councilmember Lambert. I council member of the grove. I. Council member upon return. I council members only. All right, Mr. Chair. Right. Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero now. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to motion 2021 six and we will expedite that to full council for consideration at the full council meeting this coming Tuesday afternoon. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. My person, village. Council member of Direct Power. Just a one question of our our judge elect. You will. Is your father still with us? Yes. Yes. Oh, I want that. I would be honored to meet him sometime in federal way. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Good. Thank you. And Madam Clerk, I don't believe we've missed any. Any members missed any votes? That's correct, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Then, knowing of no other business to come before us and having completed our agenda on the committee, the hall is adjourned. Thank you and good afternoon. Thank you. Goodbye. Bye bye.	A MOTION making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the southwest district judge position number four of the King County district court.
king_0af37ba5-2bbf-43b6-928c-164160970944	Afternoon. King County Council member Joe McDermott. I'm calling our council meeting for Monday, November 4th, to order. And as we begin today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples past and present. We we thank and honor the caretakers of this of these lands who have lived here since time immemorial and continue to live here today. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enriched our community as well. Benjamin Clark, would you please call the roll? And thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bellucci here. Council member, Domestic Council member, ten European Council member, Boston here. Council Member So while you're Council member, Lambeth Council member of the vote here. Councilmember Bond Right down here, Mr. Chair. Here, Mr. Chair. You have a. Quorum. Thank you. Will advance to public comment and we have the two reports and our legislative agenda on our committee agenda today the committee takes testimony and items on our agenda. I ask people to limit their testimony to 2 minutes and public testimony should not be used for the purposes of assisting, supporting or opposing any candidate for any office or for the support or opposition of any ballot measure with that. We have four people signed up in advance. When I call your name, if you approach either one of the two podiums. I mean, feel free to begin. KASICH Zainab will be followed by Suzy Sander, who will be followed by Phil Schmidt. Mitt is going to be. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Maybe in mice. Mm hmm. It's my same over. Oh, that x x explosion on Saturday day. Or it seems too difficult to sit still. But the medication can be enhancing. But this for me finally is eating the currently correctly meditation is commonly used practice to take breaks from the. How Justin and Pista of life. Okay, get back in time with your inner self. If you are new to meditation, start silly really and the easy self into the practice. Find a home conference table and quiet peace when you are paid to relax full. If you. Do. Not. Have time to start in how to learn meditation beginning with just 10 minutes. Listen to your body. Remember, meditation takes practice just like everything else. So start solution with a goal in mind. Thank you. Thank you. The Ender. Thank you for letting me speak today. Good afternoon. My name is Sue Sander. I'm an environmental specialist. I've been doing it for give or take about 40 years. I worked for and with King County on a number of projects also prepared that year for the Spokane Waste to energy facility. I was a team member for the Normand Waste Energy Solid Waste Expert and recently reviewed all of the Arcadis study related to waste to energy and solid waste export. Their conclusion, which I totally agree with, which was to move forward with the waste to energy option. It was. That's positive. Unfortunately, the size that they proposed and the cost was significantly greater than that which was embodied in the Normandy report in the West Palm Beach facility. To 1.2 to 1.5 billion is a lot and should be reconsidered in terms of the timeframe. They said 8 to 11 years. Way too long. We could do it in three years to five years, depending on the location. It should not be a location related to the sea or hills. Landfill needs to go somewhere else in maybe an older landfill owned by King County or the city of Seattle port property maybe adjacent to a waste water treatment plant. I also wanted to talk about a couple of other things the Unit nine project, because this waste energy concept is moving forward. I would like to propose that the Council stop it. You don't need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars moving that entire unit nine to some other location. Also, with respect to the serious landfill. I have presented to many of you folks before there are health issues, cancer being prevalent in that area. 200 eagles that feed their air quality water, a vibration leachate flows out. And I want to make sure that that stops. The residents need to have their homes and the businesses mitigated immediately. So close the landfill, build the waste to energy facility, mitigate everything. So thank you very much for your consideration. I greatly appreciate being here today. Thank you. Mr. Schmidt Patman, followed by Alex Zimmermann. Yes. Good afternoon, honorable counsel. My name is Fellows from the Parthenon. I'm an international waste and resource management specialist. Over the past 22 years, I've provided you on countless occasions for scientific facts and data. Why it's critical to stop landfilling the waste we produce, specifically untreated reactive waste like municipal solid waste. I cannot stress enough that the impacts of landfilling, reactive waste to humans and the environment are detrimental and the cost are higher than any other option. Let's say, for example, what happens if we do not indeed capture as a stated red right now by King County solid waste at 95% greenhouse gases, but it's much less, significantly less. Our entire structure is based on that number. But what happens if it's not? If it's not accurate, it could come at a very high cost to the environment. The citizens of King County. Costs that continue to increase in an aging infrastructure just by maintaining this instant. Unsubstantiated status quo of a landfill dependency. Our current landfill based system doesn't support a financeable, workable recycling infrastructure either. What if King County's recycling rates are well below the stated 52%? No one, not even Washington state ecology, knows how and if the materials are actually recycled. Are we in 52%, 40%? 30%? We need to be more accountable with taxpayer money. And our landfill based system has little, if any, transparency there. Kate, this study was focused on moving waste from landfill to waste to energy facility. However, a lack of focus on an integrated waste management system, adhering to the principles of an internationally. Recognized waste management. Hierarchy. Moving towards a circular economy. Cradle to cradle versus cradle to grave. Regional economic growth will hit a. Wall as it is focusing. On continues to focus on landfilling, an outdated approach to managing or in this case, management, mismanaging our resources. So it's time to stop wasting taxpayer money. The bottom line is that as long as we landfill and continue to promote the landfill based system, the least sustainable method of dealing with waste you and we will fail to achieving greenhouse gas reduction goals. Waste reduction goals becoming more sustainable and moving closer to cradle to cradle. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer money is being wasted on forcing to maintaining a status quo that is outdated and keeps us in a downward spiral. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. The Kyle my duty garbage. Call me Nazi. Democrat pig from Animal Farm. Yeah, pig. Always do it here. I know. So people probably know this, too. Fascist, gestapo and killer. My name is Zimmerman. I'm president of Stand Up America, and I won't speak about with agenda number six about something. What? This for me very interesting. What this man bought organic organic food in the coup introduce this is sponsor Dombrowski oh it's very interesting organic food you know how much costarred organic food right now everywhere how price jump in store grocery everywhere for the last year egg for the last four months in Fred Meyer come from 99 cent to two bucks chicken in America golden you can find egg dozen eggs in store for $8. What is his golden chicken doing this great. And I spoke about organic many a time when you cover organic market, for example. So come every week in different location you use people money government money for give people a chance delivery something but price in this market it's a nightmare you cannot afford this how 50 percentage people can use organic it's not surprise me. So people in believe you live 610 years longer than people in can't for example guys when you do something for people you need something doing because console Dombrowski probably don't know nothing about it we have salary $150,000. How much cost? A simple cucumber or broken organ? You go in check this. You will be surprised. People need work one hour for buys. This is exactly what this happened now. So right now I speak to everybody, cleans this garbage chamber totally cinco very much. Mr. Zimmerman, I hope you're able to stay for the briefing you were here to testify on so you'll understand that it's regarding organic yard waste and composting. Now, I understand you've testified. Thank you very much. I hope you're able to stay so you can hear the presentation you were here to so passionately testify about. Is there anyone else here who would like to offer testimony today? That's the end of the signup list today if you'd approach either podium and introduce yourself. Good afternoon. Hi. My name's Karen White. I live in the Maple Valley Heights neighborhood. I smell the landfill on a regular basis, mostly when the wind is out of the east and it's very hot. And I want to open my door and I can't because it smells so bad. I really, really would like to see this recycle thing get done, but not in my neighborhood. I've had enough of the garbage smell. I've lived there for 30 years. I feel like. Like our neighborhood has had enough of the garbage we have. Being unincorporated, we don't have any council or anybody to represent us. So you send all of the bad stuff to our area. And now we have the Cedar Grove Compost. We have the landfill. You want to put asphalt plant in our neighborhood right on the Cedar River? I really, really am fighting that because I don't know if you're aware of this or not that our salmon are dying. We don't have anymore. It's not just the Arco wells that are starving. We had berries in our garbage all week because they're starving. They didn't find any fish on the riverbanks. We have eagles that are eating garbage because they aren't finding salmon in the river either. The big, big issue here is the river. And we need to do stuff to make the river survive. That means take traffic off of that highway. Not just garbage traffic, asphalt traffic, just all the traffic you keep putting on that highway because that highway runs right along the Cedar River. Everything that happens there is going to end up there. And as far as this landfill goes, it's overfull and it's threatening the groundwater and the Cedar River. It's on a fault line and it's also near coal mines. So it's really, really in a bad place. And you need to move it out of this area. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you for letting me speak. My name is Sue Edwards, and I'm just one thing. I know you guys have some decisions that you have to make, and I would just like to really encourage you to consider the the environmental criteria to be much more important than the money criteria. With if you kick the environmental criteria down the road and just always take the cheapest option. You're just making it more expensive for people later. So I'm hoping this time around when you decide what you're going to do with regards to the the waste that you really, really consider the environmental part to be the most important factor and that the financial cost will fall in line. And please consider the environmental first. And the other thing is, I feel like when we do something which negatively affects part of King County, it negatively affects all of King County. So even though it's only a small part of the population that's affected by what's going on with the landfill, it's still a cancer to the whole county. The affect on the part really affects the whole. So I'm hoping that the environment is much more important than the cost. That's what I was encouraging you to do. So thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to speak. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else to offer public testimony today? Then we'll close the hearing. The public hearing and Councilmember Caldwell's had entertained a motion to approve the minutes. I think you the chair. I'm. I moved to approve the minutes of October 21st, 2019. The October 21st meeting minutes are before us, so no discussion. All those in favor, please say I opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That takes us to the first report on today's agenda, which would acknowledge receipt of a feasibility study related to the options for long term disposal of the region's waste. Comparing the waste energy facility to waste export by rail. As many of you know, the region's landfills in Sewer Hills is projected to close at some point in the next 20 years. The study in front of us today, conducted by consultant, provides cost and other estimates to help the county plan for the next disposal method after the ultimate closure of Cedar Hills and will begin to this discussion with the staff report from Teal Rose. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. For the record, Tara Rose Council staff the materials for proposed motion 2019 0429 begin on page five of your packet. The proposed motion would acknowledge receipt of a feasibility study, as the Chair mentioned, and I'm going to begin my remarks with a bit of background, but spend most of my time focused on the findings of the feasibility study in a few key areas. Turning now to page six of your packet. King County's Solid Waste Division operates a regional solid waste system for the unincorporated area and 37 partner cities who have signed in our local agreements that this system includes one remaining local landfill, the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill, a 920 site located in Maple Valley, which is owned and operated by the county and which has served as the final disposal location for the region's mixed municipal solid waste since 1965. This past spring, the Council approved the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, and this plan directed further development of the Cedar Hills landfill to maximize disposal capacity instead of the other options considered at the time of a waste to energy, facility and waste export by rail. The adopted 2019 2020 biennial budget included funding for landfill development, capital projects and the Solid Waste Division is currently conducting a State Environmental Policy Act process to evaluate three engineering options to develop Cedar Hills for additional capacity. Executive staff indicate that based on the three development alternatives being considered and the current tonnage forecast, Cedar Hills is expected to reach capacity sometime between 2035 and 2041, because the current in our local agreements with the partner cities obligate the county to dispose of the region's waste through 2040. And it is not yet known the exact year when Cedar Hills will reach capacity. An alternative waste disposal strategy will need to be identified given the lead time associated with implementing the next disposal method. While the adopted Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan directed the maximization of Cedar Hills, it did not specify the next disposal method. After the ultimate closure of the landfill in the 2019 2020 Biennial budget, the Council directed the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, or PSB, to issue a request for proposal and managing contractor to conduct a study evaluating the feasibility of either a waste to energy facility or waste export by rail as the county's next disposal method, including in that budget, is the proviso that requires the feasibility study to, among other things, review the county's projected waste forecast, as well as provide estimates for the costs and environmental impacts of both options with the study to be transmitted to the Council by October 4th of this year. The full text of the related expenditure, restriction and proviso can be found on pages seven and eight. Now moving on to the bottom of page eight to the analysis section of the staff report. And I will just note before I begin for the committee that waste to energy is a specialized technology. And so my remarks will focus on the findings and assumptions contained within the study. But for things that are not explicitly mentioned, I will likely have to follow up and confer with the executive staff and the consultant. So with that said, I'll offer a bit of just process information. PSP issued an RFP earlier this year and selected Arcadis as the consultant to perform the work requested by Proviso. The resulting feasibility study with the motion in front of the committee would acknowledge the receipt of the feasibility study, and that was transmitted to the Council on October 4th. And now I will begin to dove into some of the findings. So the proviso required the consultant to review the factors that may affect the county's future waste tonnage forecast and analyze how different assumptions could affect the forecast as well as include a range of estimates. The consultant reviewed the Solid Waste Division forecast that was prepared in February 2019 and developed to waste tonnage forecasts representing a high and low bound over a 50 year planning period. These are based on a combination of the county's forecast data, as well as population projections from the Puget Sound Regional Council and per capita waste generation estimates . Executive staff indicate that the consultant used population as the major variable because it reduces the number of assumptions to project out over a long period of 50 years. The footnotes at the bottom of page nine describe the two forecasts in more detail, if you are interested. Table one on page ten provides the estimated waste generated in a few key areas under each developed forecast. And just for context. Approximately 931,000 tons of waste were disposed at Cedar Hills in 2017. So I'm now moving ahead to pages ten and 11 of your packet, which provide a high level summary of the consultant's findings in a few key areas. I know. Earlier. The Feasibility Studies study considers two options for long term disposal a waste to energy facility, where the region's waste would be directed to a facility where combustion would occur, and a controlled furnace system that generates electricity for use either at the facility or where excess electricity may be able to be sold . Ashes generated at the bipod product, which may be directed towards re-use opportunities or landfill. And then the second option considered is waste, export, and where the region's waste would be exported by rail to an out of landfill. Two landfills were considered under the study, one located in eastern Washington and the other in eastern Oregon. The remainder of the staff report identifies each of the proviso requirements and summarizes the consultant's findings for each of the requirements. But as I noted earlier in my remarks, in the interest of time and based on the historical interests of the Council, I'm going to focus my remarks in three areas the estimated implementation timelines, the estimated costs , and the modeled greenhouse gas emissions for both long term disposal options. So the consultant's conclusions in these areas are summarized on table two on page 11. And I'll begin with the implemented the potential implementation schedule. The feasibility study estimates an implementation schedule of 8 to 11 years for waste energy and 3 to 6 years for waste export by rail. Additional detail regarding the potential timelines can be found later in the staff report. However, I am just going to summarize it here since we have the table in front of us. The consultant notes that the citing and permitting process for waste energy largely account for the difference in the estimated implementation time needed. According to the study, the 11 year upper estimate allows for up to two years of delay for permitting or siting issues. The lower estimate of eight years assumes no significant regulatory hurdles or public opposition to the project, as well as assumes the availability of long lead time materials with waste expert. The schedule assumes that a new intermodal facility to transfer waste from trucks to train would be needed instead of using existing facilities. And both schedules assume that the procurement process would occur concurrently with siting, planning and permitting. Moving on to the next row of the table related to greenhouse gas emissions, the feasibility study provides that the consultant use two modeling techniques the Environmental Protection Agency, one tool and the worm tool with line item adjustments based on the consultant's professional judgment. And these are outlined further in the study attachment. According to the study, the modeling tools used do not quantify annual emissions from either disposal option because they don't explicitly model the timing of any emissions . Therefore, the figures should only be used in a comparative sense and don't themselves represent actual emissions in a specific period of time. Additionally, these modeling tools used by the consultant involve a sort of debit credit system where gross greenhouse gas emissions, for example, the emissions of carbon dioxide from combustion to be offset by avoided emissions, for example , avoided carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity generated by a waste energy facility. So for net greenhouse gas emissions, the consultant estimates that a waste to energy facility in its modeling would have comparatively lower greenhouse gas emissions than waste export by rail -0.05 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per ton of waste versus a range of 0.8 to 0.33 using the same metric. The negative result for waste to energy indicates that in the consultant's modeling, the estimated offsets or emissions avoided for things like ash and metals. Recycling at a waste energy facility are greater than the estimated generated emissions. And for reference, this information is further described in the staff report on pages 17 and 21. For comparison, the greenhouse gas emissions estimates in the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, which also used the warm tool but included different assumptions, yielded the opposite conclusion and estimated that greenhouse gas emissions for a waste energy facility would be a net positive, meaning emissions are higher than the available offsets. The next rows in the table provide estimates for the total cost and the average cost for that for the proton for the ten, 20 and 50 year time periods. The feasibility study notes that total cost includes capital and operating costs as offset by revenues but does not include some departmental cost, though are assumed to be the same for both options. The consultant concludes, based on its final financial modeling, that the total costs offset by revenues for both long term disposal options are similar in the ten year near term at over $1 billion, but that a waste energy facility could cost less in the 50 year long term, estimating the total cost of waste energy over 50 years at approximately $7.9 billion and a total cost of approximately 11 and $16 billion for waste. Expert by rail. Over the same 50 year period. For comparison, the analysis contained in the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan. Comparing the to long term disposal options resulted in the opposite conclusion and determined that waste export was the more inexpensive option per tonne. Executive staff provided a memo to the council members by email on October 24th. I described the different assumptions that led to this conclusion. This memo is attached as attachment three to the staff report for your reference. I will now describe the waste to energy sizing options developed by the consultant and provide additional detail about the cost estimates . The bottom of page 11 of your packet discusses the facility size that would be needed to accommodate the county's waste over a 20 to 50 year period beginning in 2025. Based on the high and low bound forecasts described earlier, the consultant developed two facility sizing options, the first with an initial processing capacity of 3000 tons to be expanded to 4000 tons per day in 2048. And the second option a facility with initial processing capacity of 4000 tonnes per day, that would be expanded to 5000 tonnes per day in 2040. And the former refers to the low down forecast and the latter refers to the high down forecast. These initial facility size estimates are lower than the 5000 tonnes per day facility that the 2019 comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan assumed that would be needed and which was based on solid waste division and an external consultant analysis. And just for some context, the county Salt Lake system averaged roughly 2500 tons per day in 2018. The feasibility study indicates that approximately 43 to 55 acres would be needed for a waste energy facility with the processing capacities that I just described. But notes that it's often possible to condense buildings and equipment into a smaller footprint at additional cost, and that the acreage range figure provided represents a slightly larger site requirement than ultimately may be needed. Additional siting needs identified by the consultant are listed on page 12. I'm now moving on to more detail about the cost and financing options found on page. 12. In response to the proviso requirement or a discussion of estimated cost as well as potential financing options. The consultant developed a model financial model that includes the costs for development, construction operation and expansion of a waste energy facility based on the high and low bound forecast estimates again over the 50 year planning period. The feasibility study model assumes a design build operate contract is used, meaning the contracted entity is responsible for design, construction and operation of the county owned facility. Table three summarizes the estimated total cost information for a waste energy facility, including capital costs and operating and maintenance cost. And note that these are the same figures as in table two. Moving on to the following page or initial construction cost estimates, the estimated initial construction costs, according to the study, would range between 1.19 and 1.49 billion, depending on the facility size and for expansion cost between 231 million and 289.5 million. According to the study, these are based on the most recent facility constructed in the United States located in West Palm Beach, Florida, and are adjusted for regional prices for things such as labor sales tax and land acquisition costs. Also included in these estimates is the cost for carbon sequestration, technology and advanced metal recovery equipment, the former of which is anticipated to be required under a new state law concerning electricity sales. And I will discuss that further in a few moments. The consultant assumes a long term bond. That long term bond financing would be used, though notes that other options may be available, but at potentially higher cost. Table five summarizes the estimated operating, operating and maintenance costs for each sizing option offset by revenues. And I would just like to call your attention to an error on this table. So instead of revenue, the column headers should say costs. So my apologies for that error. The rest of the language in the figure is correct. And so the feasibility study provided operating and maintenance costs over a 20 year term, which roughly corresponds to the length of time before the facility would need to be expanded and the remaining 30 year term in the study period. The list on page 14 and 15 summarizes some of the costs included and the assumptions used by the consultant. For example, these costs include the value of an operator contract. Recall that the consultant assumes that the county would use a design build operate contract under the financial model the consultants developed and the this value is based on the actual operating contract for the West Palm Beach facility, as well as the additional costs for operation and maintenance of the carbon sequestration and advance metal recovery equipment. Information about the potential revenue sources are further discussed on pages 16 and 17 of the staff report. However, I'll note that revenue is assumed from electricity sales, sale of recovered metals and from acceptance of out of county waste for a per tonne fee. Executive staff indicate that the available facility capacity for any out-of-county waste was determined by subtracting the projected county waste from the designed capacity of the facility in a given year. However, that actual interest on the part of non county jurisdictions was not specifically evaluated as a part of the study. The consultant indicates that the cost estimates provided are influenced by a variety of variables and assumptions, and so they have identified the top five risks or assumptions impacting the financial model, and these are summarized on table six on page 15. I'll highlight just two of these. The consultant notes that if the larger facility option is selected and the actual waste processed is significantly lower. For example, if the county is not able to secure out of county waste to process as assumed in the model, the cost per ton of waste may increase. Another risk identified by the consultant relates to carbon sequestration. The 2019 Clean Energy Transformation Act, passed by the Legislature this year, imposes new requirements for electricity generation and therefore may influence future electricity revenues should the county decided to move towards waste to energy. Under this law, the feasibility study explains that all retail electricity sales must be carbon neutral by 2030 and by 2045, all utilities in the state must obtain electricity from sources classified as renewable or non emitting. According to the consultant, new waste energy facilities would then likely require carbon sequestration or carbon capture technology and or require the purchase of renewable energy credits to offset emissions in order to meet the carbon neutral goal. However, the consultant suggests that in their analysis, it will be difficult for a waste energy facility to meet the 2045 requirement for renewable or non emitting electricity generation, even with carbon sequestration or capture absent a modification of the rule. The feasibility study also notes some uncertainties related to these technologies at a scale that would be required by the county. The implications of the Clean Energy Transformation Act is further discussed on page 16 of the staff report. And we can interrupt for a moment. Councilmember Dunn on point the modification of the rule set by the state legislature with respect to carbon sequestration goals by 2045. With regard to the implementation of the Clean Energy Transformation. Act, any indication that the legislature was considering waste to energy facilities when they were looking at that rule? I would have to look into some of the legislative history. And I'd be surprised if they were thinking about that, as opposed to things like hydroelectric facilities and other things where we're comfortable with. But we do have our state legislative director here as well as others. It would be something that we can work through. But when you're talking globally about the environmental need to deal with waste and then the fact that in order to do that, you've got to incinerate it, creating energy, that might be a little bit different tack they may be willing to take. And I'm not going to speculate on exactly what they were thinking, but I think there's room there at least to possibly modify some of the state rules. I will note that there is one waste energy facility located in Spokane. So to the extent that the city of Spokane did any lobbying, that it may have been addressed, but I can't speak to. That's good to know. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay. So I'll now turn to the study findings for waste expert by rail, which can be found on page 20 of your packet, skipping right ahead. So as I did for waste energy, I'll provide some additional detail related to the estimated costs for waste export by rail. Table nine summarizes the estimated total cost and average cost per ton for both the high and low bound forecasts as before. Total cost includes capital and operating costs, but does not include some departmental costs. The feasibility study notes that a waste expert program would have four major cost components. Construction of an intermodal facility is assumed a transport of waste from the transfer stations to the intermodal facility. Transport of waste by rail to the landfill and the disposal fee at the landfill. The study assumes, again, that current intermodal facilities would not offer sufficient capacity to handle the county's volume of waste. And so the financial model assumes construction of a new intermodal facility financed and constructed by a rail company. Under the model, the rail company would charge the county for these capital expenses in the proton fee charged for waste export by rail. The consultant identified the top five risks or assumptions impacting the financial model, and these are summarized in table ten. I'll highlight three and he lists on page 21. According to the consulting. Interviews with railroad companies. The railroads indicated they're unlikely to grant long term contracts and instead would anticipate offering something in the 5 to 10 year range . The consultant notes that this may result in some uncertainty relating to hauling and disposal costs over the long term. The second note relates to the rail capacity as part of the proviso the consultant was required to review future rail capacity, and that concluded that there appears to be sufficient capacity now to accommodate the region's waste and that there will continue to be some rail capacity in the future. But the availability of that capacity may depend on an entity's willingness to pay. Additionally, the consultant notes that the out of county landfills typically partner with a specific rail hauler, which may make it more difficult to switch landfills and rail hauler at the end of a contract period, particularly if an intermodal facility is constructed with a specific railroad. And that all of this would potentially result in less competition. Flipping ahead to page 23 to the summary of consultant recommendations based on its analysis, the consultant recommends that the county consider pursuing additional preliminary evaluation, permitting and fighting considerations in order to move forward with a waste to energy facility over waste export by rail. Specifically, the feasibility study states that, quote, due to the long term cost savings, improved recycling rates and potential for net greenhouse gas emissions. With the inclusion of carbon capture technology, waste to energy disposal will provide a significant financial and environmental benefit to the county over waste expert by rail . Additionally, even with potential hurdles during the permitting and siting process, waste energy represents a more, much more stable long term financial profile underway. Expert by rail to protect the county's solid waste rate structure against future inflation and escalation, end quote. I'll close my remarks in noting that the proposed motion in front of the committee would acknowledge receipt of the feasibility study and approval would release the funds encumbered by the proviso. However, it would not provide council approval for the next disposal method. The main vehicle for solid waste planning decisions is through updates to the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan the council included in the 2019 plan that was adopted earlier this year, a requirement for the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget to engage with the Solid Waste Division, as well as regional partners to develop a plan for long term disposal. With a progress report on that work due to the Council in 2021. That concludes my remarks and I'd be happy to take questions. We also have Dwight Dave Lee from the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget and Pat McLaughlin from Solid Waste available for questions. Thank you very much, colleagues. Council up the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm not sure. Who to address the question. I looked over. I thought, Jeanie, there are there. Questions. That weren't asked in terms of points of comparison? You know, this was pretty specific about comparing certain factors. I wonder if and I'm not sure if you're the right person to address this, too. However, are there other strengths and weaknesses of the proposals that can be measured with other metrics that weren't addressed in this other environmental output ? Those kinds of things. I would say that the the consultant's work was driven in large part by the budget proviso, which identified a number of very specific requirements to be contained, whether there could be other things included, I would have to think about that more and get back to you or defer to I could of staff. Okay. I'm sorry if there are glaring if either is in feature communication if there's glaring things but what what they didn't look at was X or what. They should have looked at was Y, that kind of thing. And but for. Both this and the previous study. You know the the interesting to me. Council member, Lambert. I don't think you're surprised that I want to talk about this. So one of the comparisons is that the underlying says that we're capturing about 95% of the methane of the land, though we don't really have a way of knowing that for sure. And so I think that the comparisons are very important to look at. And in Germany, which is one of the 13 ways to energy plants I've seen now in the world, and they do a lot of work. And on the website, it says, since the Hamburg facility represents the world's most environmentally sustainable, commercial, proven solid waste solution is not surprising that it serves as the model facility for the European Union and enjoys the exclusive support of the German Green Party as the best available technology for the treatment of solid waste to achieve the Green Party's 2020 concept to avoid landfilling of all degradable solid waste from human activities. And when I was in Germany and talked to the ministers of the environment, they were very proud of what their facility has accomplished as one of the finest in the world. So I think this is really an important study. The experts were asked questions very as much as possible to be comprehensive because this is an important study. And in the study it says that potentially by the year 2035 that our landfill could be filled. And it also says in the study that on the long range, it could take 11 years to get the next facility up and running. So when you think about this being 2020 and you had 11 to that, it's pretty darn close to 2035. So making a decision soon, I think is an important thing that we need to be doing and looking at proven technologies for the size of the volume that we have and also looking at all the byproducts that we would get from this. And there is a reason why the European Union requires this to be in all of their member and member countries so the rest of the world is doing this. There's data online, 24 seven out of Hamburg, so that we can see exactly what's happening. We do not have that same kind of information available for the landfill because it cannot be gleaned where with the waste energy plant it can be cleaned and it meets and exceeds our federal standards. So after 12 years of talking about this, it's very nice to see the report is here and I look forward to people reading it. Council member Done. Thanks for that very good staff report as outstanding and appreciate your work on this. I want to concur with my colleague, Councilmember Lambert and others that this report is well timed after the comprehensive plan that we move forward on solid waste with a ten year provision for the continuation of using the Cedar Hills landfill, followed by possibly , and I hope not a ten year option to continue out there if we can possibly fit anything in. And given the report coming back saying, you know, something like an 8 to 10 year time horizon, assuming that is even is inaccurate, the time to discuss the matter is really now if we are going to seamlessly move to a different technology and get rid of the landfill. The time for this body us to have the conversation is really in the next 12 months. And so I really hope that folks are willing to at least have a conversation that's either go no go decision or sequence the steps so we can do slowly get our feet wet on the matter. Driving towards a point in time which we do have sort of a command decision on what are substantive, solid waste policy is going to be moving forward. So I wanted to flag that we working on this issue. It's an important issue with Councilmember Lambert and Dwight Daley in the executive and others and see if we can't go in a different direction, because the the days of huge monolithic landfills, I think, are are slowly coming to an end. They have to it's just not sustainable into the future. Thank you for your time. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I just want to make two extra quick points that we are preparing to put millions of dollars into a new pit. And I think that that's something we need to be looking at and that those dollars could be used in a much better way. And I want to thank DSB for all their work on this and for Mr. Dave. Like going to Florida to see it. And I'm hoping his capture the executive to go with us. So thank you. And his manager that oversaw the study did an absolutely fabulous job. She didn't have any background in ways to energy, but it didn't take her long to become very well versed. And she was an excellent project manager, so please thank her for her good work. Thank you. Thank you. And Morales, we've complimented PSP in the study. I want to also acknowledge your analysis and review of the study. Substantial study with a key question, a key decision point. This coming before the council with the exceptional analysis that you've presented to us. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Colleagues prepared to accept the report in Council Member Vale. Did you just make one comment as Richard, please? It's just slightly off topic but related. So I had an opportunity to go visit the landfill last week, which I thank the folks from Solid Waste Division for setting that up. It really is something to see it in operation and all the different challenges and things that they do they work with. I mean, it's a very it's a very modern professional landfill. And but I have to say, watching a truck dump up to 18 tons of waste and then the next trip drive down to do it again and see that there's going to be over 100 trucks like that that day alone and then every day after that. Our challenge isn't just how to get rid of it. Our challenge is to create a lot less waste. We have just got to and this is way bigger than King County, but we have to start to figure out how to produce less waste because our society is going to be drowning in our waste, whether we burn it and bury the ashes and put some of it into the air, whether we bury it in the ground , whether we shoot it into space. There needs to be less of it. And so I just think that that's something that we should be figuring out how we get into our discussions about future planning for waste as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Colwell, would you be willing to put the item before us? Definitely would. Mr. Chair, an acknowledgment to Councilmember Lambert. I moved the proposed motion to move 2019 0429. You're given a do pass recommendation. Councilmember Caldwell's move that we give a do pass recommendation to motion 2019 429 and again, that's simply accepting the report before us make these decisions about our long range waste disposal that are timely for us to be considering now. But the acknowledging that we see the report itself further discussion. Others other than favorably say, But do I need a roll call? I'm sorry. Will you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Duty Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Hi, Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Amber. Hi. Councilmember autograph. All right. Councilmember one right there. Mr. CHAIR. But, Mr. Chair, the. Vote is 19 zero no's. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation in motion 2019 429. And can we put that in consent? We'll put that on the consent agenda for at the regular course. That takes us to our next item, which is about how the county can play a more active role in expanding and enhancing the market for compost that is produced using the organic materials generated by the county within the county. This report was required as part of the 2019 2020 budget. And again here Rose is here to brief the item as well as. I am still here. Tomorrow's Council staff propose motion 2019 0353 What is the chair noted acknowledge receipt of the King County Organics Market Development Plan in response to a budget proviso. The materials for this item begin on page 335 of your packet, but I'm actually going to start on the following page on 336. So as I noted earlier in today's committee's meeting committee meeting, the Solid Waste Division is responsible for the disposal of waste generated in the 337 partner cities and the unincorporated area under the county solid waste system. Partner cities manage curbside collection of garbage, recycling and organics within their jurisdictions and in general contracts with private haulers to provide that service. While garbage is transported directly to the Cedar Cedar Hills Regional Landfill for disposal, recyclables and organics are taken directly to processing or compost facilities where materials are prepared for sale to manufacturers and other users. And I will just note that in order for mature materials to be effectively recycled, there must be a market for the end product. Approximately 1.03 million tons of organic materials were generated in King County, Snohomish County in Seattle in 2018. And this refers to things such as yard waste, food waste, wood waste, and 55% of that is attributable to King County, according to a consultant report requested by the Solid Waste Division. There are three composting facilities that accept and process organic material from residents and businesses in the region Cedar Grove, composting in Maple Valley and in Everett and Lenz Enterprises. So in the 2019 2020 Biennial budget, the council risk restricted $500,000 to be expended, only to develop a plan to expand and enhance the regional market for compost that's produced during using the county's organic stream. And to pilot the recommendations in the plan and also included in the budget is a linked proviso that withholds $250,000 until the executive transmits the plan to the council. And it also required Salt Waste Division in the development of the plan to consult with other county agencies and to consider best practices, procurement policies use in development and site rehabilitation projects and agricultural subsidies. Moving ahead to the analysis portion of the staff report on page 337. So in response to the budget proviso, the executive transmitted the proposed motion in front of the committee, which would acknowledge receipt of the King County Organics Market Development Plan. The plan notes that the division contracted with Cascadia Consulting Group for Market Assessment and Best Practices Research hosted two full day organic summits and consulted with county agencies to inform the recommendations in the plan. The proviso requires the executive to include a set of recommendations, and these are divided into three areas in the plan. One Enhance and expand the local market for compost to reduce wasted resources and contamination. And three, expand regional organic material processing. Table one on page 338 provides a description of each of the recommendations in the first area, which seeks to increase the purchase of compost in the region. And the plan notes that at this time only recommendation one B, which can be found in that table, would need new budget authority and that all other efforts will be paid using existing appropriations. The transmitted supplemental omnibus under consideration by the Council includes funding. Four to support recommendation one B moving ahead to page 340. Unless there are. Questions at. Table two on page 342 provides a description of the single recommendation and the second area of the plan, which seeks to minimize contamination. When plastic and glass are disposed improperly in organics collection bins, the resulting compost can become contaminated if processors are not able to remove the plastic and glass fragments. And the plan notes that contamination reduces compost quality and can hamper market marketability and impact value. The recommendations in Area three seek to aid in the development of additional composting processing infrastructure, and the plan indicates that in 2018, the King County and Snohomish County public health agencies permitted organics facilities to process 530,000 tonnes annually, but that they only process an estimated 470,000 tonnes, which represents an 85% which represents 85% of permitted capacity. The current plan notes that in order to reach the county's zero waste goal adopted in the Strategic Climate Action Plan and the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, more processing capacity will be needed in the future. In addition to divert more organics from disposal at the landfill. Table three on page 341 provides a description of the recommendations in Area three, and I will conclude my remarks in just noting that with the transmittal of this plan, the funds encumbered by the proviso can be released if motion 2019 0353 is approved by the Council. That concludes my remarks. I'd be happy to take any questions. We also have executive staff present. Questions. Council Member Dombrowski. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the excellent and easily understandable staff report. Tara, I really appreciate it. I wanted to start, Ms.. Chair, by thanking the Solid Waste Division for their strong work in preparing this report. It's comprehensive and responsive on this important area of county business, and I think it identifies some really important goals for us, including making sure we have adequate capacity to handle this waste stream and the importance of the waste stream in terms of keeping it out of the landfill or whatever disposal method we end up eventually going to . Councilmember Lambert I had one question, Mr. Chair, and that was, I think, in the proviso, if memory serves me correctly, in addition to asking for the study to for capacity and uses and there's some great creative uses in here that are very pro-environment and environmentally friendly. But we also asked them to actually pilot some work by acquiring a product and putting that to use. And I maybe I missed that, but did they do that and how did that go? Yes. So I would refer you to page 338 of your packet. Okay. The first recommendation noted there is to provide technical assistance to King County agencies to increase compost use in county projects. And included in that effort is the intent to have a universal compost purchasing contract that agencies could then pull from. So does that answer your question? That sounds like a go forward method, but I believe of the of the restricted funds, we wanted some of those to actually be put to use today, you know, currently to acquire product and put it to use in the field. And I'm wondering if and I see Pat nodding his head, maybe would he be the guy to ask for more detail on that? Or I would just note that many of these are in various stages of sort of planning and implementation and of course specific questions. Executive. Yeah. I wonder if. Mr. McLaughlin if the chair permit would have any examples of any early successes for putting this product to use in the field. And he's bringing back up. Yeah. And I'll have to go there. Probably not. That's that's a softball. I have no idea what the answer is. So I think that's been being I think the project being put to use. But I am truly curious as to how it's going. Yes. Thank you again. For the record, Pat McLaughlin. It's my honor to serve as your director of Solid Waste. And I'm accompanied with Josh Marks, who's really been our project manager on this feat. And we have indeed experimented with some materials that I'll I'll let Josh speak to this to not just to consume more material, but to actually find complementary ways to manage the environmental impacts of of managing waste. And I'll let Josh talk a little bit about the materials and the impacts of the pilot testing, which has led to a funding request because we see an opportunity to actually expand it. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Josh Mar, for the record for the Waste Division. Yes, we've been engaged in a number of activities to develop the plan to buy more compost. To date, we haven't actually purchased piles of compost. We've been working to create programs and partnerships, so we've been working with many of the agencies within the county. So the Parks Department and. Roads, as well as the permitting agency to develop different approaches so that we can purchase compost. And as was mentioned in the staff report, we had a summit where we sought input from a number of stakeholders from the region. And really the two takeaway messages from those summits were that King County government could and should be doing more to purchase compost. And so we need to figure out what does that mean. We don't currently have universal material specifications for compost and there's limited and lack of awareness among project managers about opportunities for compost. So we need to build those relationships, develop those opportunities before we actually are on the ground buying compost. And as I mentioned, we do have a project to study the the benefit of using compost in the sense our waste division operations and that's applying compost to closed landfills and attempting to or measuring the GHG benefits of doing so so that we are going to be doing. But we as was mentioned in the staff report, we need additional funds that are in the omnibus. And so the last sentence of the ER number two says the pilot must include a program whereby the solid waste agent purchases compost for county use. So we haven't done it yet, but we we are doing it. Is that how we're complying with this? Yes. So our intention. With with. Funding provided would be. That we would go after we actually, I think a request about $560,000 that would help support the application of some of these materials on some of our closed landfills to model greenhouse gas emission sequestration. There is some pretty interesting study and there's a great video on it with respect to greenhouse gas sequestration and working compost into ag lands. And I would encourage you to work with the department, National Resources and Parks Farmland Preservation Program to see if we could pursue that as an area of cooperation. Yeah, we've we have actually done some onsite testing. We've in partnership. With Cedar Grove. Have. Applied some of their what they refer to as overshoots, maybe reject material that they don't have a market for. And we've been able to apply that up at Cedar Hills and do measuring and comparative results to other types of cover materials to understand the potential benefits. And we'll continue to explore those those options going forward. So if I may. Mr.. I'm still a little confused, less concerned about why when we aired 500,000 and said that it should it must include a program whereby the division purchases companies for county use. How is it that we are releasing these funds without them? The notion was there use some of the money to buy to test the stuff but that that hasn't yet been done and understand you are going to ask for some money to do that. But I mean, help me understand. And we project. That we will have that again. With funding. Appropriated. We'll have that complete by the end of the biennium, consistent with the proviso. Okay. So we're on a path. Absolutely. That okay. And just if I can, I'll be done then. Mr. Chair, the comment was made well, not just to, you know, buy it for buying sake or something like that, but one of our challenges is that the region is producing so much of this compost. Folks are really good about not putting it in the garbage bin. One of the thrust of this work was to have some demand created and to actually buy it so we don't have it piling up in Councilmember Dunn's district and the issues that arise from that. So we are trying to create a market to increase demand, to keep it out of the landfill and put it put it to use. And that's why I'm excited about some of the work you've done here in the proposals. And I just want to give you my encouragement to keep going in that direction, because I think it's a pretty exciting opportunity for the county to expand its role and make this market work thing. This Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the compost. Also gives us nothing. So how are you going to capture the methane that's being put off by the compost? Well, the private sector manages composting currently, so Cedar Grove manages in a rollback condition. And so there is no methane or very limited methane production in anaerobic condition. So that's anaerobic. So why does smell so bad then? Are the neighbors complaining about this now? Well, I would just say that the degradation of organic material is has odor. That is correct. But most that odor doesn't it come from methane production? The methane isn't that partly what creates the smell? I don't have a scientific explanation for that councilmember. And then also in number one, A, so there's a lack of uniformity in the specifications. So when you're looking at using these facilities, this compost in different places, having a lack of uniformity will make a difference whether it's going to be used in the roads or the parks or at your top parts of your landfill. So how are you going to get a more uniform specification out of this? So in partnership with the Sustainable Purchasing Program, we're developing specifications and we're using in the Department of Transport, the Washington State Department transportation specifications as well as others to to develop specifications that are that are used in different kinds of applications. Thank you. For the discussion. Council upthere. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And this is following up on Councilmember Dombrowski is kind of getting my head around the the difference between the expenditure restriction and the proviso. But, you know, it's it's been a while. I understand that the expenditure restriction was on the development of a planned 250,000 and there is a separate section in the budget that had the 500,000 and it said that's for developing recommendations and piloting. Did the development, the recommendations cost 500,000? Did all that five per k get eaten up before actually implementing a pilot? I don't say that like a bad thing necessarily, but is is how much of that 500 K has been spent and I don't have a number of time how much was spent. We can provide that to you. We did spend significant dollars working with the consultants to develop the reports. But again, I think to address the question of why or why not. And we purchase complex. We need a place to put compost, right? I mean, there's always division isn't hasn't been in the business of of using this amount of compost. So we need to develop those markets. And that's what the initial efforts are all about, is trying to find those markets with our partners. And once we've developed that and there's confidence and willingness to use it, then that material can be applied. I mean, it's expressing a little nervousness that if the appropriation said here's half a million dollars to develop some recommendations and go pilot them, and then if it comes back, okay, we spent most of that just on developing the recommendations. Please appropriate more money to pilot it than either we got our budget way off or in terms of our estimates in advance of how much to appropriate for that or maybe it hasn't been spent. So I'd be interested in seeing this sort of a rough we can provide some greater clarity over the financials to address that concern. Are you are these folks back in? Are you at the SA Waste Division because you're shaking your head like you've got some knowledge or are you just commenting that they had check? Oh. Okay. All right. Yeah. I want to echo, if I can. We're going to go to the notion. The reason that language is there is and we put it in the SA Waste Division because we couldn't put it in another, you know, function. But the notion was start, bind some hysteria, deploy it, test your test, test the markets, put it in those stormwater cleaning facilities to save the salmon, get out there and do it. I we would never spend $500,000 to prepare a study, and I know you didn't. At least you better tell me then. Okay. I'll look forward to that same information that comes more up to go ask more in terms of the breakdown. Councilmember Lambert So how are you going to go about removing the contamination that is in the collected organics? And as you know better than anybody, China said that they won't accept any. Any impurities over 2.5% and our garbage is at 10%. So organics that you probably have a lot of, you know, garbage that have been thrown at it because you can put in your pizza things and such. So how are you going to remove the contaminants? And many countries are moving away from composting to an anaerobic digestion. So like for instance, Germany, which I happen to think is ahead of us environmentally, I know that some people don't think so, but I happen to think so. So do the contamination. They are not finding people wanting to purchase their compost. The report, very well done by our staff does talk about the costs of the equipment on order to do that. And the only way that I know to capture the methane is an enclosed facility, and this is not an enclosed facility. So your answer earlier that you don't really have to capture it because it's not there is confusing to me. So anyway, I think I think there's a lot of things that we need to continue to look at. Thank you. Colleagues. Are we comfortable moving the subcommittee committee today? Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I moved a proposed motion of a 2019 0353 be given a do pass recommendation. Councilmember Cole was moved to give a DU Pass recommendation to motion 2019 353. See no further discussion. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member. Belted Chief Council Member. Dan Vasquez. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Nancy. Council member of the Borough Council member Ron, right there. Mr. Chairman. All right, Mr. Chair, the vote is 790 noes to excuse. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation the motion 2019 353. And we'll put that on the record. Of course, we'll put that on consent on the back of the course of action. That takes us to item seven in today's agenda. Our final item is regarding the county's 2020 legislative agenda. The county, as the other three, the state are, is a creature of the state and therefore often issues we wish to address or work on behalf of on behalf of our constituents are impacted or on some occasions even limited by state policy. And thus we find ourselves putting together a state legislative agenda each year of issues to take to the legislature, to ask for them to address, to allow us to better serve our constituents and do our work as often delegated by the state. And so the brief is on a draft of our state legislative agenda for 2020 is Mac Nicholson, our government relations director with Mr. Shaw, one of our lobbyists. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. Just to briefly introduce my chair, he is one of our lobbyists down in Olympia. Asked him to be here with me today as we kind of go over stuff just to flag what's in front of you and what will be sort of doing a high level briefing from is a chart that kind of shows that the 2019 legislative agenda, whether the state did something with those particular items and whether there's been some discussion about carrying those forward. Mark. What you do not see on the agenda is any of new items that we're still pulling together information on and making sure that we have a good understanding of them before we put them on the agenda in the upcoming session. 2020 is a short session for the legislature. It's a six day session. It's a supplemental budget year. So we don't expect a lot of budgetary action, probably some clean up stuff. The revenue forecast for the state does not show a lot of new money to spend. The September one was right around plus 27 million. There will be a new a new revenue forecast in November that will sort of set the tone for what the state is going to look at in the upcoming session budget wise. And the sort of additional significant development is there will be a new speaker in the House for the first time in several decades. So that's kind of what we're walking into for 2020. So going through this document in front of you, then the blue highlighted stuff is stuff that really we successfully got in 2019 and don't expect any further action on in at least 2020. So you can see that the first item there is reform tax policy. So the legislature sort of re convened a tax policy group that will run through 2024. So don't expect much on the way of revenue or tax reform for at least a few years until that group finishes their work and comes back. The next two pieces are one is the the 1% growth limit. The other one is the not supplant issue that applies just to King County. Those are both ongoing issues that we have worked on and expect to continue working on in 2020. The the next blue piece is a property tax exemption for seniors, veterans expanding that program. The legislature accomplished that in 2019, so don't expect to see that moving forward. The final piece on this state and local tax system was a concept of looking at a homestead exemption exemption that has not really been further vetted either in 2019 . Don't expect to see it coming in 2020. So that's kind of just existing there. Moving on to housing, one of the items last year was supporting recommendations of the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force on one table to increase the supply of affordable housing. Legislature passed several pieces of legislation that were consistent with that moving forward. There will be more discussion on some additional bills around affordable housing, tenant protections, those sorts of things. We expect that there will be some action in 2020 on those. The next piece is a new tools piece. This council did some work earlier on 1406, which was the tax credit. So that was something that happened in the 2019 legislature. We expect in 2020 that 1590 will be in play. This is the there's a current 10% sales tax for homelessness, behavioral health services. There is a bill that would make that councilman. Voter approved. Those discussions are ongoing now. So we expect that that will be a sort of significant topic. And, Bill, in the legislature this session. Excuse me, Councilmember Carl Walz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Where did House Bill 1590 end up in this year's session. Do you remember? I don't believe it made it out of the house, but I will I will confirm. And the sponsor. I believe, is Representative Delio out of South Olympia, Thurston County area. Thank you. The next two blue pieces. One was increasing the housing trust fund to increase affordable housing supply. There was 175 million in biennial budget. Don't expect to see that number grow in the supplemental. There was a kind of liability reform that was was successful in getting through the process in 2019. The reducing barriers to Building More Housing Inside Cities. House Bill 1923, which was a Representative Fitzgibbon bill, sort of incentivized cities to take certain actions related to increasing density or housing programs and those sorts of things. I expect that there might be some more discussion around that. On the housing front, on the supply side. So there might be some opportunity to be involved in those discussions on that issue. Moving forward to the Health and Human Services issue, the foundation of public health, the state provided significant money statewide. Some of that money was tied to vape tax revenues. Those tax revenues have come in significantly under expectations. So there's a desire to go back and ask to sort of make that whole and then provide some more additional public health funding as a statewide ask and also for King County Public Health. There was a lot of work done last year in the local behavioral health crisis systems. There is an expectation that that work continues, particularly as King County moves towards integration and wanting to be sure that the state is funding maybe health services for local governments. CHAIR And we're taking actions as we go. We are. Thank you. And before you move on, Mr. Nicholson, I have to Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mac, with regard to the foundation of public health programs and vaping. So, as I understand it, the governor has banned all vaping products sold to minors. Yes, I believe that's correct. At the end of this year. And then the expectation is there'll be legislation introduced. Do you have any idea how much of the revenue from Vaping Tax would be influenced by? I don't know. We can find out and see if it's broken down. I know that generally prior to the ban there was an expectation that revenues were lower and certainly the ban would not have have helped. Maybe she has some additional. Tests, which are the real test to see if you can turn the mic on. I have help. We go. Initially, the shortfall was to excess about $3 million, but that number has been growing. I talked with the head of Wausau for the Public Health Association and two days ago she mentioned it's, we thought, 3 million, probably more like five. Councilmember Dombroski. I think, was chose on the same topic. And Mac, I want to respectfully disagree with you. I think you characterized the investment as significant. It's it's a drop in the bucket for what our public health department needs and those around the State Government are. Lammers been working through the motions in the counties on this for some time, but I want to ask Michael what went wrong? Why, why? Why was this such a of of be blown a flame out on public health when the coalition seems to have been so broad and gone on for so long that in here you have a syntax that they can really go after it. So it seems to me like it's just anemic. And then to hear that the revenues are coming in and I guess you'd expect that one would bat a low with the flavored vaping bands. But how can we do better here? What are the barriers that you saw in achieving the funding we need for our public health department? I think it was. All right, get go back. I believe in the initial governor's package. At the beginning of session, they had requested $60 million. They are just pretty good. Yeah, the governor put in 20 and from there, that's where the legislature kept it. And I think it was each session has certain priorities. It seemed to overshadow everything else. Of course, last session was dealing with mental, mentally ill, housing, those things that they made substantial investment said and had to make some priorities. And unfortunately, that being said, they put 20 million towards public health. Now there is decent discussion because of hepatitis and other contagious diseases to make another ask about to wait till the governor's budget comes out in December just to see how far that's gone. On the next. Great, if I might Mr. Chair, with respect to. Behavioral health, because I think we're covering both. I just want to put a plug for counsel medic authority on the 10th of a penny sales tax that is in existing legislation that was passed as part of the access for all. A bill speaker shop at the time was I think the leader in that it's now requires a vote but it's consistent with General King County request to have counsel make authority. But that could generate $6,570 million a year to support behavioral health services and supportive housing services. And it would it would be helpful to have that. And then with respect to our our capital budget, as the chair knows, we're serving on our review board leadership team. We may be looking to next year. There's a growing interest in developing a behavioral health institute in a new building on the Harborview campus. The cost is tagged at about $65 million, and there is a notion that perhaps those cost should be split 50, 50 half of it in the bond and the half from the state. I planted that seed with Senator Frost, who writes the capital budget. But as we move forward here, while balancing the specifics to the general, I would be interested in putting some language around around that in the final adopted version if there's colleagues support. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of things. First of all, I know, as I've talked to my constituents about this issue, that a couple of things I'm hearing. Number one, any more money going into affordable housing that I have to pay? I'm going to be needing affordable housing. So, you know, I think that we need to be a little bit careful of taxing people out of their own houses. And so that is a great concern to me. The other thing that I'm hearing, and this is not on the sheet, but since I've got the floor, I want to say something about that. I've been getting a lot of phone calls from people about their ballots and the cost of the ballots because they're a page and a half long and people are telling me on these advisory votes, I don't know what to do. What does it mean to be advisory? Why is it on my ballot if it's only advisory? Why does it not make any difference? And and somebody several people have said to me, I'm afraid to even vote now because these ballots are so long and so complicated. That is of concern to me. Here, we're trying to do everything we possibly can to make it easier, cheaper, you know, more information to citizens to vote. And then they get overwhelmed with, what is it, 20 advisory votes or something like that. So I think we need to be talking to the legislature because that was done by initiative. But the initiative was long enough ago that we could be looking at this and maybe doing it all together as a whole list. One of the people said, Well, I really like the idea of knowing how many different taxes they put on this last legislative session. So maybe just having one long one and saying, do you agree or disagree in a mass and if it's an advisory vote anyway? So that's a concern both from the cost angle and the angle that I want people to vote. And then on the SB six, three, three, four, you know, I was very excited. We've worked years to get that passed. Thank you guys for your work on it. To enact condominium condominium liability reform. And then somebody said, well, in Seattle, the builders aren't doing anything about it, but the rest of the county is. So do you know why some people are not wanting to build condominiums? We work so hard to make that available and give people an opportunity to own property. Have you heard anything about that? I haven't. We could ask around and see what we can we can find out. On that is when they said that the other day, I was shocked because I thought everybody was working for that together all across the spectrum. So I wanted to know what broke down on that. And then I'll just end with my last thing. Nothing on here says anything about the Ruckelshaus study, and that's supposed to be back this year, mid-January, is that right? I think it came back already on the on the pass. I already got it on my desk. Of course it's come back. So I've read the first couple of chapters. I don't you and I talked about this a month ago. And so as you and I talked about, there's a lot of good work done on what the problems are, but not a lot of ideas for how to solve the problems. And I don't think that we can continue another two year with a two or three year study that this Ruckelshaus study was was two or three years anyway. Whatever the time was, it was way too long. All of us, as you know, you were at the meeting, all the counties sitting down together. We could have written that report in a half an hour, but came out of there with all those white boards around the room. So I'm getting impatient of a two or three year study that the people who deal with it on a daily basis could write in a very few minutes. And the fact that we have very few solutions to the problems in this report, at least as far as I've gotten into it, I don't know if you've found the chapter with them in yet, but the chapters I've seen, I was hoping each chapter would end with and this is how we will solve this problem. And so I was very disappointed that that's not there. So I think we need to push the legislature into finding solutions and sooner the better. So anyway, that's my opinion on that. Thank you. Okay. Councilmember Balducci, I. Just want to add one of the points that Councilmember Lambert just raised. I think it's a really great idea to take a position on those advisory ballot measures. Are meant to be transparency. They don't provide transparency. I understand what the hell they're saying. And I pay fairly close attention to this stuff. And like Councilmember Lambert mentioned, people ask us, well, judicial races and things that they don't know how to figure out how to vote. They ask about advisory boards. I don't know what to tell people other than you can just ignore them quite safely because they don't mean anything. And so I think it's a really good idea to try to de-clutter the ballots. I think it would be better for democracy and for getting more people to vote, which ought to be our goal. So thank you for bringing that up. I second that. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just came in and I heard just the last part of the discussion, but I never. Had so many people ask me, What is all this stuff? Katherine Gosset. 18 or 19 things they said. It sounds like it's written by. Lawyers or advanced lawyers because it wasn't very comprehensible. And I just had a do what you. She said, well, you don't have advisory. I think I. Really don't know what why we had them on it. But I think it's because they're trying to find out if people would have a majority of people would have thought differently than a majority of the legislators thought on those issues. However, the majority of the people who select the legislators in this state and locally, so they have ways to get rid of us if we vote frequently and in a manner that they do or did not support. So I don't understand the reason for all those ballots. I think it was what the advisory votes come from, an initiative sponsored by Mr. Aymond several years ago that require they require those advisory votes on the ballot. So it would take an act of the legislature or an initiative to remove the advisory votes of the ballot. And it's been long enough it would not require two thirds majority of the legislature to take action. Initiatives have been on the books long enough. Thank you for that explanation. Okay. Moving ahead, the next sort of piece that there might be still some some resources would be around resources to combat opioid crisis and increase availability of medication assisted treatment programs. The following three blue things. The one was the increasing the sale of tobacco and vapor products to persons under the age 21. That happened there was continuing to ensure access to affordable health care for low income Washingtonians. This was also a bill that was passed. There were increase investments in the health program in the in the budget last year. Again, just to the limited nature of the supplemental, don't expect that there will be increased investments coming up in 2020. The following the next piece was supporting county based or the regional or statewide health coverage programs. Is a new approach to providing comprehensive health coverage to uninsured individuals across Washington state? Moving on to the mobility and infrastructure piece, there are a number of items here that really kind of deal with addressing transportation and roads issues. The first piece there is addressing the underfunded county, regional, local road projects. There's some expectation that there's going to be a legislative piece in the 2020 session. I'm unsure exactly what that's going to look like hearing some different ideas, but expect that we will see something. The other one, the next sort of grid piece, deals with increasing investments to speed up local and regional transit. Share. Bike and pet trails. Councilmember Dombroski Thank. You. I read an article in today's news. Could beans, I think might have been in the overview paper, but it said County Council calls for regional levy to fund rural roads. And I, I was thinking there's something like that and he cited two and a couple of our colleagues were quoted, I didn't remember voting on that. I don't think we checked. I did. But I think there was some discussion in our local services, Regional Roads and Bridges Committee, about that notion of a potential property tax. So I'm very interested in alternatives to that. Obviously, this is a crisis with a quarter billion dollar a year deficit. Do you know, I think one of the successful techniques that was used in the last legislative session was the sales tax credit back to us to fund affordable housing, right? I think. Yes. Is there is there a similar model we could adopt for jurisdictions statewide with the gas tax, which I know under the Constitution, is limited to roads and bridges, but and I'm sure they've spent a good portion of it there. But is there a similar model where the gas tax could be credited back to local jurisdictions to fund regional roads and bridges? There could be there. I don't I don't know that one exists today. There is we believe there's a local option business tax that has not been used by any county, to my knowledge. Well, so a whole lot of gas in unincorporated county, right? Maybe within that there could be. Is that something that y'all could look at with our with our lawyers and maybe see and watch the sausage goes to see if there couldn't be a proposal that could be put together there that might return some dollars that are tied to the users of the road and without going out to the property tax funding that. But again. Not that kind of the remainder of the mobility and infrastructure piece. I think sort of figuring out how this piece will look will depend on what happens later this week and what what the nature of the world looks like. So we're kind of holding that just to see what happens and where we would need to make investments. Following that, jumping ahead to a piece that was on it last year, dealing with camera enforcement of transit only lanes on busses. This bill is still alive and we do expect it will be moving again this year. So that that is something we will be watching, participating in the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Funds. There was a bill that passed sort of affirming counties use appropriation authority in the budget. Again, something we keep our eyes on. Depending what happens later this week on the energy environment pieces. Oops. The sort of one piece of that suite of bills was the reduce greenhouse gas emissions that didn't pass in 2019. That will be revisited this year as well. Always the culvert issue. This is also on the county legislative agenda issue, dealing with removing fish, fish barrier of passage, obstacles, also known as culverts. A piece on cultural access program flexibility. This is something that several council members have asked about. So expect that will be on the new legislative agenda with some some new language moving to sort of the last page on the public safety issues. Last session there was a piece dealing with indigent defense funding. This is in line with the larger county association task as well will be another issue or another request this session just to keep it on the radar and moving and then reducing disproportionality in the adult and juvenile criminal justice system. We helped get 50 to 88 passed last session, which removed robbery in the second degree from strangle offenses and expect that there might be some more bills this session around that issue and using that language to to give us the ability to sort of play in that sandbox, if you will. So that's kind of it. As we as we look forward, our legislative reception is December 3rd. So the timeline for this, for getting feedback on these plus new language, new ideas, new suggestions would be in time for council action on the 20th, which is the final council day before the Thanksgiving break, with the worst case scenario of filing back that first week of December. But that might put us after our legislative breakfast or reception. So trying to to get this done before November 20, just for timing purposes. And Agile. Guinea. Mr. Shah, we are looking forward to your insightful additions to the conversation. Then I'll try to add there are two. Let's have races that they're actually on the ballot. The 40th District up in north west Washington and the 13th District in central Washington, these were based on appointments were made right prior to last session. There are two changes actually, in addition to those in legislature. So you might remember that Senator Barbara Bailey retired. So there's been an appointment, said Ron Musil, the 10th District new member. And in the first District, of course, there was a change as well. Senator Palumbo stepping down. We have some recollection of that appointment. Yes. Yes. So as you know. So that's the only changes other, of course, the minor issue of the speaker of the House. Very good closing comments, questions. Timing wise, it's we don't have it on the agenda for action today and didn't expect to take action but we would. Clarify for me we expect to take action. The next meeting we would need to relieve the committee of it in full council could. Take action at the next committee. We will expect that our. Committee meeting. We will expect to take full action at the next committee, the whole meeting. And with that nothing else to come before us, I'm sure. Pocket Square, Mr. Short and we are adjourned.	A MOTION acknowledging receipt of the feasibility study for a waste to energy facility to manage the region's solid waste that provides a comparison to waste export by rail in accordance with the 2019-2020 Biennial Budget, Ordinance 18835, Section 19, Proviso P4.
king_1b8bbecb-8c89-4360-8c73-df1aec3f6ba7	And good morning and welcome to the May 16th meeting of the Committee of the Hall for the King County Council. We're going to get started here and hope that the rest of our colleagues will join us soon. And I want to make sure they're here to hear public comments. And we're going to hold on that item a couple of minutes to see if we can get a few more members and would turn to Councilmember Cole Wells to bring before us subject to signature our consent agenda. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the consent agenda. All right. That is items five, six and seven. And I'll ask Margaret to call you all. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member Bell. Council Member Dunn. Council Member Gazette. Council Member Cole Wales I. Council Member Lambert. Council Member McDermott. High Council Member Up the Grove. Council Member one Right there. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is three eyes. No, no. All right. Subject to signature, we've given a generous do pass recommendation to those items. We'll put them on the ordinary calendar, on the ordinary schedule. But I'm concerned let's hope that folks will join us soon and move back to public public comment. I guess we'll get going. I'm starting to hear wrestling's there. I've got four folks signed up, Marcia, then Carter, then Matt and then Fetcher. Marsha, come on up so you can use either microphone. Good morning and thank you, council members. My name is Marsha Baxter. She and her and Marsha pull that microphone out. There we go. You're tall. We won't be able to hear you. Yes. And thank you so much. All right. Years of learning to speak softly, I tell you. All right. So Marcia Boxer, she and her and thank you so much, council members for taking up the consideration of providing more services for the transgender and gender non-conforming community over 40 years. Now closing in on 45 for me as founder of Ingersoll Gender Center in these areas and also a member of the Martin Luther King County Labor Council and Equal Rights, Washington. But really, I speak from my from myself and from my heart today in approval of taking the next steps for finding better information around transgender and gender identity issues in our county. Goodness sakes, I have sat on that bench out there many times over many years. Decades ago, we brought forward requests for these sorts of things. People heard they wanted to do the right thing, but it took a little bit longer. Here we are at this stage and goodness sakes, we have a good team, we have good friends. We have the statistics around the world. We have the demonstrated evidenced based research that's necessary for folks to consider as they take this county forward in responding to gender and gender identity concerns. And I cannot thank you enough for doing this. So that is my essential message. My colleagues will bring you some more details, but I offer you these decades of experience to back up. The reason I thank you so deeply and I leave you with Robert GREENE Ingersoll is the words The time to be happy is now, and you shall help us as a county become so. Thank you ever so much. Thank you, Marsha. And thank you to the Ingersoll Center for your help in developing this legislation. It's been a privilege to get to work with you and your team, and my staff has expressed their appreciation for it. Thank you. Okay, Carter and Matt and then Fetcher. Thank you so much for having us here today and for hearing this legislation. My name is Carter Brewer. I'm the executive director at Ingersoll Gender Center. We are, to our knowledge, as the country's oldest trans led nonprofit based right here in King County. We serve thousands of trans and gender non-conforming people, their family, friends and allies each year. And I just wanted to speak briefly about what impacts our community has faced when not when we have not been given an opportunity by the county or the city to be counted. As many of you know, in this room, our communities are facing a homelessness crisis. King County has one of the highest populations of folks without stable housing in the country. Roughly a quarter of the youth who are without housing. Our LGBTQ folks, we know that 37% of trans and gender non-conforming people in the state of Washington will experience homelessness at some point in their life. That's nearly 7% higher than the national average for trans. And gender non-conforming people. And frankly, unacceptable. And we know that for the folks who are experiencing homelessness, an overwhelming majority, 70% of them experience harassment at shelters. That means that they end up sleeping outside more often than not. So as we're facing this crisis, we know that this is a crisis. We feel the impacts because we serve those folks every day. But this report, the Washington State report from the National Center for Transgender Equality, which is wonderful, it's a community led effort, but it's only three pages because this is all the information we have on the barriers that our community faces. And without those barriers defined, we can't work in partnership with you to really tackle the issues that our community faces. So we're so excited. This is very much needed. And when we know that our community is ready to work together with you all to make this happen. Thank you. CARTER Thank you very much. And I think it might be helpful if you have if you're willing to share the copy of the report. Members might be interested in how to maka and you'll get a chance. Thank you. I Matt. And then federal. Good morning and thank you. My name is Matt Landers and I'm here on behalf of GSB, the Greater Seattle Business Association, representing over 1200 LGBTQ and allied businesses in King County. GSP would like to commend the County Council for once again leading on these efforts to be more inclusive of our communities. When the county executive in 2016 recognized LGBTQ businesses in the county supply chain, King County became just the second county but the largest to recognize LGBTQ businesses and to count us, and has served as a model for many other counties around the country to follow. Our community is so rarely counted at any level of government, and we often fall into a vicious cycle where any funding or any action is predicated on having these very statistics that then we can never get collected. The county's efforts to recognize the LGBT community at the county level are so important, and we're proud to be included on this task force with many other of our organizations that we've worked with over the decades. Ingersoll, first and foremost above them to help our own business members change their policies to better recognize the full range of gender, gender identity and expression in our workforces. And we're excited that the county is working to lead by example in investing serious time into doing this right. We hope that the recommendations coming out of this task force will serve as a model and as an inspiration for cities, counties and other public entities across the United States. We strongly urge the Council to pass this motion and in the interest of promoting fairness and opportunity. Thank you so much. Thank you. Matt and Fedor Saeed Ibrahim. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and council members for the opportunity to testify. My name is Farah Syed Ibrahim. I'm a legal fellow with legal voice and search reproductive justice. I'm here to testify on behalf of both legal voices, a progressive, nonprofit feminist organization that does direct impact litigation on behalf of women and LGBTQ communities in the five Pacific Northwest states and served reproductive justice as the only explicitly reproductive justice oriented organization out of Washington. We serve communities of color, primarily in immigrant communities around reproductive justice issues. So a core tenets of the reproductive justice movement is creating a world where all people get to flourish and live with dignity, free from coercion. Recognition is the first step to that. And to that end, we support this motion and all initiatives and efforts to honor the lived realities of LGBTQ communities in Washington. Thank you. Thank you. Federer Is there anybody else that did not get a chance to sign up that wants to offer testimony to the committee? Don't be shy. We have time. All right. So nobody will close that item. Who? Think I better go. I'm going to wait for one more member to approve those minutes. Well, turn to item eight. Is that our best action item? Okay. We'll go to item eight. Item eight is an ordinance which will improve the grant funding allocations for our Water Works program. This is round three of this very popular and successful program. These are sewer rate funded projects to address water quality improvements. The rate includes. What is it like about $3.6 million per biennium as at 1.8 per. It's about two 2 million for this portion of the program. Now that there is a council portion of the program in the separately executive portion. So this is the executive portion. Right. So in this this this half of it goes through the recommendation committee. The grants rank and committee. That's correct. And those are the recommendations that are before us. That's correct. All right. And we're going to be joined by a representative to present the recommendations. Right. You've largely captured what I was going to present. So I think I'm I'm sorry. Working out of my class there. I think I'll just just introduce Elizabeth Louden, who's the Water Works program manager for the water program. She will give you a briefing, as you indicated here, this is based on water, on water and wastewater treatment division funding. And from there, I turn to Elizabeth. All right. Thank you, Mike. Thanks for your work. Welcome, Elizabeth. Good morning. Good morning. And thank you for inviting me. I'll be just offering a some brief comments on the water grant program and the current round before you. The overall goal of water works is to fund projects that improve water quality in the Wastewater Treatment Division's service area. The program also has additional benefits, including community involvement, building stewardship and leveraging funding. To date, 82 projects have been funded totaling $5.8 million, and that's for both the competitive and the council allocated projects. Project types include green stormwater infrastructure. Rain gardens and cisterns. Education and community engagement. Research and monitoring. And stream and riverbank restoration. Most projects include more than one type of activity, and as mentioned, there are two different tracks for funding. The competitive and council allocated. Are very competitive to. Ensure they are for the competitive track. The Grant Ranking Committee reviews applications and makes recommendations. And this year for the competitive track, we have a biennial cycle which will award all the funding for 2017 and 2018. And also this year, we had a two step process. Letter of intent, short pre application and then a full application. We started with 80 proposals and then the 23 before you were considered by the committee to be the the best ones. And are these before us as the committee recommended, or were there any changes between committee recommendation and submission to the council? There were a couple of changes. There was one project that was proposed initially proposed by a wastewater treatment division that the committee recommended, and then subsequently the management decided that their preference was to have the funding go to outside entities. So the committee reconvened for another session to decide what to do with that $113,000 and decided to awarded to two other projects which are on the list. The last two projects on the list. Yeah, great. So that was the one change that was made. So the round three recommended projects list starts on page 50 of your packet, and there are 23 projects totaling $1.86 million. There's a wide variety in project types, in size of projects that also location and I, things that are different this round. The recommended projects include 11 organizations that have not been previously funded by Water Works and two led by Native American organizations. So overall, this $1.86 million in water works funding is leveraging another $6.8 million in match, both cash and volunteer time. So this represents a significant community investment in water quality improvements. Excellent. Do members have questions or comments on this item? Councilmember Building. I'm still kind of going through the analysis here, but there's a series of grant programs that we do repeatedly where I'm very concerned. Turn that my district gets very shortchanged. And this is one of them. And I'm just going through the math here, and I haven't been able to work all the way through because there's not a summary by district. There's kind of a general. And and I just want to point that out. It's it's concerning to me because the first year when I had this comment, our chairman pointed out, and I thought quite correctly and wisely, that these things come and go in cycles, and some years you're going to get less, some years you're going to get more. But I'm on year three now and I'm just not seeing that there's a fair distribution to my district, so I'm concerned about that. I might briefly note, Mr. Chair, that that on page one, page 71 of your packet, there is a listing of projects, and you will see on that fourth column from the left that there that it's defined by district. Yeah, I'm busy sorting through that right now and trying to do it because it's not totaled up my district. And so I'm doing math and spreadsheets over here, which is probably not a good activity on my part, but it just I'd like to know what what's being done to make sure that there's a fair distribution of this money. So I can respond that that the committee does look at the geography of where the projects are. And so what we do is we look at the we ask the applicants what districts their project takes, takes, takes place. And that's where we have this information from the table here. And many of the projects take place in more than one district. So we do put we put together a map, kind of a preliminary map showing where the different projects were. We are also limited by where the applicants are coming from. So. But I did look at all of them because I know that there was a question about this earlier. I did look at all of the projects in the final list, the final 23, and just to see how many were only in Seattle versus outside of Seattle . And the numbers on that were 21% of the projects recommended for funding were in Seattle. And then. I. Almost have about 45 were in multiple districts. And then another chunk, 30 something percent, were entirely outside of Seattle. So. That's helpful. But is there outreach to make sure people are applying? Is there is there a way of making sure, maybe by mapping out where these are, that things are being spread fairly? Do we look back over five or ten years and see where there are gaps and try to fill those gaps? I mean, I'm asking more of a process question. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And we're I'm happy to do outreach. We have workshops that we've done in different locations around the county, and I'm happy to do presentations if people have suggestions on where I might present on what works opportunities. So Mr. Chair, if I might suggest I'd be happy to work with the agency if it's possible to take a look over the last several years and do a basically a spreadsheet analysis of where money has gone in terms of districts and how it has been balanced over over time as a resource for your information. I think that would be really helpful. And then maybe we can think about doing it because before you. So I appreciate offers, but before I personally or asked my colleagues to ask for specific work, it would be nice to do a little bit of an analysis to see if my perception is correct, first of all. Second of all, if so, why? And then what is what would be the best way to address whatever the issue is? Okay. So I wouldn't ask you to run right out and do that right away. And I do appreciate the offer. But let's see if we can do a little analysis about what's really going on and why. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate that. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember LDC and Councilmember Coleman Wells might remember better than than me as former chair of the Regional Water Quality Committee, but I had some similar concerns the first time this came out, and we prepared some legislation to kind of help shape the technical or the recommendations committee. Right. In terms of having council members suggest representatives. Yeah. And do either of you recall if you type of how we structured that and whether each district get a representative and how are we doing on filling those? I think I know I've got my person. Yes. So very briefly, there is a grand ranking committee, as you're referring to, that Grant's ranking committee does. I believe there are nominations from each of your offices to the council district offices, which go to the executives executive appoints them to the to that committee. And I am not in fact, I was going to ask what the what. She's got. The list. I've got the list. Yes. So why don't we before we let's not call out any vacancies in case there there. But if there are council members who have not got their representative to you, why don't you let those officers know offline? Do you have to do that? Yeah. That was one solution because, well, gee, I'm not sure it's the most effective. You know, it's just one way to have a voice at the table, which is part of the process. Obviously, I think it would be interesting to see on the denominator, if you will, where all the applications came from in terms of determining that that equity. And I think that could be rather readily transmitted. And the other piece of this was to ensure that equity we got these funds in half. So there is the council side. What is the will of the body on this today? Are folks ready to move forward either with or without recommendation? Is there any timing issues? I mean, I know what, by not approving it, we're holding up the funds. Oh, ahead. So for timing issues, let's see. So the initial letters of intent were submitted in June of last year and then went through the review process. So we did tell people, I think people are hoping to be able to get started this summer and some of the projects to have a seasonal aspect to them this year . Window. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. What do you think, customer value. Will you be able to get the information you want between now and two weeks? Or would you like this to remain here? I, I don't know. Let me look to Missouri. Do you think we can do some work on this between now and two weeks from now? I would certainly start today to work with the agency, and I'll look to see whether whether you can produce information that would be needed for that sort of an array over the next, let's say, week. Yes, sure. We can do that. Okay. All right. Customer McDermott, it's your legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would move that we give you a do pass recommendations and a full council, he said, looking at the ordinance number ordinance 2018, 149. All right, that's before us. Further questions or comments this customer about. To say, I'm going to vote no on do pass, but I might get there by final count. Thank you. Okay, very good. The clerical cultural on. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Baldi Chino, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garzon, Councilmember Colwell, Councilmember Lambert, I Councilmember McDermott. High. Council Member of the Grove. Councilmember Wainwright Bauer. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. The vote is for eyes. One No. Four. Excused. All right. We've given a preliminary do pass recommendation to this legislation. It'll go in the ordinary course, which will allow a couple of weeks, and even if necessary, a courtesy delay for a third week. It sounds like that's reasonable information that could be gotten quite probably, and I'd appreciate a copy of it to our office as well . Maybe all offices, I'm hearing, to take a look and appreciate Councilmember Bowdich duties, diligence in making sure there's a balance in these grants. Thank you for your work and for being here. Thank you. Okay. We are going to turn now to item nine, which is. Oh, the minutes. We like to put those before us. All right, Councilmember Cole. Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm approval of the minutes of the May 2nd 2008 committee of the whole meeting. All in favor. Say, I hope any oppose minutes are approved. All right. Now we will turn to item nine, which is a motion which would declare the necessity of an administrative planning and coordination to address gender identity and sexual orientation, inclusion in King County administrative processes, and would establish a gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion task force to develop a recommended King County Administrative Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Strategy. This legislation is written in my office and co-sponsored by Councilmember Cole Wells and Councilmember Up the Grove and is really had a good partnership in its development over many months with community partners, which we appreciate. We're joined by Sam Porter, who will give us an overview from the central staff's perspective. And Mathias is here I see from our Office of Equity and Social Justice. You're welcome to come forward to if you want to do this. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Staff. The documents for this item begin on page 75 of your packet. Proposed Motion 2018 0165 would require the executive to establish a gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion task force that would review and make recommendations to revise administrative processes with regard to gender identity and sexual orientation. Administrative processes would include but not be limited to forms, questionnaires and interviews conducted by person county personnel. The analysis and recommendations of the task force would be done not only on the contents of the forms, for example, when a form requires the individual to indicate their gender, but also on the experience of gender nonconforming gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals when accessing county services. When such questions are being asked in January 2018, the Washington State Department of Health adopted a rule change that amended the Washington Administrative Code pertaining to birth certificates to include a gender option of X to provide individuals with an additional gender option if they do not identify with being either male or female. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, gender identity is defined as a person's perception of having a particular gender, which may or may not correspond with their assigned sex at birth. A list of possible organizations to request representation from is described on page 82 of your packet and includes the King County Council Executive's office and the Human Resources Division, as well as business representatives and organizations that serve gender non-conforming and sexual minority communities and communities of color. The proposed motion outlines the following six task force objectives, which are seen on page 76 of your packet. One To review the Washington State Department of Health ruling and determine its implications for King County. To consult with county departments and community groups. To assess existing King County administrative processes regarding gender identity and sexual orientation. Three Identify processes suitable for modification and consider potential implications if a process gathers information used by other government agencies. Four Develop a recommended statement of intent to address gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion in identified King County administrative processes. Five Assess the experience of individuals accessing county services and providing requested gender identity and sexual orientation information and identify strengths and weaknesses in the current state of King County Customer Service. And six Make training recommendations for county employees to achieve excellent customer service and address the concerns of task force members. The proposed motion would require Task Force members to transmit an initial framework for completing their work, including an estimated budget to council within three months of their first meeting. The executive's final report would be due to council one year after the approval of the initial framework. And while the motion does not prescribe specific dates upon which the deliverables must be transmitted, it does state that the task force excuse me, shall expire 60 days after all reporting provisions have been completed. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you very much. Sam, do members have questions or comments for Sam before we hear from the Executive Branch Council member Gossett? Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Sam, I I've in recent months, maybe the last year, seeing a lot of Latino people used. Latin X. An overwhelming majority of them do see themselves as either male or female. So how do you distinct distinguish that from just put an x, which means you don't identify with any gender. That is a very good question. I am not prepared to answer that at this point. What about what about this guy? I can say some things about that. I mean, the actually, it's often what it would look Latino with Latino or Latina. The the actually Spanish is a very male focused language in the sense that when you talk about a mixed group of genders, the default is kind of the OS, which is the male. So I think generally the ax has been done as a way to be inclusive of male female, you know, would include transsexual gender, not non-binary, too. I mean, I think it's an all inclusive term beyond the male female binary. So how do we do that in relationship to what we're trying to do and create more clarity? And more responsiveness to how people perceive themselves. COUNCILMEMBER The task force would would address that concern and bring that up within within the context of what their the intention is. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett. And I think you've highlighted just one of the kinds of issues that we're hoping to gain more knowledge and expertize and recommendations on from the task force about how King County can respond and be more reflective of our community in our systems and processes. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you and good morning. Good morning. Thank you. This is my third meeting into North Bennett back already. So I want to first respond to Councilmember Gossett. What the gentleman said a minute ago is actually accurate, that the Latin Spanish language is very much prides themselves in in having everything, including inanimate objects like pencils, have a gender determination. And it's part of their culture. And I really don't think it's really our place to be telling another culture how they speak and what their words are. So I think that we're stepping into things that really aren't the role of government to be doing right now. So I don't understand on page 75 where we're talking about the Board of Health ruling on birth certificates, how we got from that to having a task force. And it seems to me and looking at the things that the task force will do, that there's a huge overlap between our sj r h r r we have lots and lots and lots of committees. They seem to be doing government by committee, so I'm not sure what is. Where do the overlap is? Where what's missing that we need this. What is the reason for this? And what do you think the costs will eventually be? I realize that we don't know exactly yet, but in order to do this, we must have some ballpark figure of what we think this Casperson will cost. So I'd like to have those questions answered. All right, Sam, take your best shot there. I would defer to you, Mr. Chair. Oh, that means I had to listen. I was listening, Councilmember Lambert. Here's my view on the task force. This is an area that. Well, let me start up start back with some general principles. King County, one of the things we're talking about now in our messaging is making sure that we are a welcoming place and this government is a welcoming place for everybody. All 2.2 million people in our county and I think we are getting a little more aware and a little more knowledgeable and a little more sophisticated about understanding the depth of diversity in our community and that there are in historic systems barriers that have been built into those systems that really can turn people away, can turn people away from participating in important government functions and can inhibit our ability to provide services as a government. 2.2. 2 million people and I mean all of them. What this task force asks us to do is bring some expertize to the table in the area of gender identity and sexual orientation issues that I don't have and that I don't think a lot of us have here in the government. And I think it's an appropriate use for a task force to bring expertize into a decision making process, to look at the issues from a community perspective, from and with experts in the community, to give us some recommendations and advice about how we can be a welcoming government, an inclusive government, a responsive government that respects and reflects the individuality and diversity of all members of our community. So whether it be in our delivery of health care, whether it be in our civil rights functions, are voting functions, our transit system, our justice system go down the list of functions that King County provides. We think that there are areas that we could be better at and be more inclusive of that in terms of how we deliver those services. So that is the motivation, if you will, behind this legislation. And with respect to the process, the suggestion to have a task force is really to have its expertize. With respect to cost, there is some probably additional cost. I don't think that's been as fleshed out, if you will. But my sense is my understanding is that the executive, while stretched, is supportive of the legislation. But these will be. Able to carry out this work. Councilmember Caldwell's Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't know what else I can really add to your, I think, eloquent statement here, but I would like to comment on my colleague's remarks. Councilmember Lambert. I think she is correct in saying we as a government should not be dictating to any cultural group there anything about their language or their customs, their terminology and so forth. But I don't see that reflected in this legislation. In fact, what the intent of the legislation, or at least one of the intent is to be able to become more informed by a process of inclusion, of having individuals and organizations who represent various cultural groups, gender identity and so forth, to provide the input to the county so that we are able to make informed decisions and in doing so become more inclusive and making sure that we're doing everything we can, as Councilmember DEMBOSKY stated, to be a fully welcoming county for all of our citizens. And not only am I in support of this legislation, I did sign on as the sponsor to thank you, Mr. Chair. And Councilmember Caldwell's Councilmember Duchin. Yeah, I am. I actually appreciate this effort quite a bit. So when you think about all the different things that the county does internally, externally, how we provide services, it's hard to even imagine the ways in which our work can impact people, how we could do a better job of serving people, how we can do a better job of interfacing with people. If we are more thoughtful and respectful about where everyone is coming from and who they are. My own personal experience is you all are probably tired of hearing at the jail. This was a really difficult issue for us with treating people with respect. Keeping them safe, you know, and basically acknowledging their rights as human beings. And we grappled with it. And sometimes it was really challenging to do the right thing. And our knowledge has changed so much over time that our practices really I don't I can't imagine that all our practices have kept up. So the idea of having a really close look at how we're doing, how we're treating people, we're a service organization. We serve the people of this county. And I think that we're going to serve them much, much better if we are thoughtful and listening and respectful of who are or customers essentially are. So I really appreciate this effort. I'm also a little like I get a little bit hesitant with the bureaucracy sometimes, you know, like another task force. But we need to bring it's just a way of saying we need to bring people together from different points of view with different knowledge to the table to help us understand what we don't know already and how we can do more and do better. So I think this is I think this is a worthy effort. And I'm I'm glad it came forward. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I also agree that it's a worthy effort. I'm just concerned that we have worthy efforts on this topic and others repeatedly and that we're getting a repetition of it, the repetition of the repetition. So I need to see what we aren't already do. We get the regular charts that show how we're doing in all these categories and and every place in the county by their classifications, the working level, the upper management, the elected, we get these charts on a regular basis. So I think with all the committees we already have, I don't know what this will provide that we aren't already doing in multiple places. So if you could get me a chart on that, that would be really helpful. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mathias. We invited you here to share a few words in the executive's office and didn't get a chance. Sure. And happy to say a few things. Good morning, Mr. Chair, and council members. I think from the executive side, I think we are strongly in support of the intent of this proposed legislation. I think as already has been mentioned, it's very much in line in terms of our intent to be a welcoming county for everybody. And also not only that, also, as we know from an equity and social justice perspective. The more we are able to disaggregate that, I know exactly who we're serving, who's in our community. We're actually better able to serve those individuals and those communities. So it's not just a I think, a feel good thing. It's actually about how we can better serve our residents. So I. We support it. And those grounds, if we don't have that, that we don't know what we need to actually do. So that's very important. I do have some some of my concerns, but I'm confident we'll be able to work through some of these things is around the resourcing and prioritization and how do we actually do this jointly with council to be able to stop it sufficiently? We have full work plans already running at full force, so trying to figure out how we actually resource that, staff it, whether we use some of the models we've used for some other taskforces, including bringing in consultants willing to, I think, explore some of those options. And I think the maybe the final thing too is just potentially a concern in terms of trying to think about this piecemeal first. First, I'll also say just in terms of generally, we've already been doing some of this work. I know I worked with one council member, Belden. She was also with the tension and the jail. Why work with your health to include sexual orientation and the and the history forms, for example, medical history, which is extremely important. Already in the employee survey, we included transgender and non-binary as categories. So I think we've already been, as a county, been making some good work and been looking at some of those kind of best practices. The concern I would have, too, is that maybe we are potentially looking at this also piecemeal in the sense that we're looking at sexual orientation and gender identity, but also we kind of sometimes run into similar challenges around other demographic categories. So, for example, race and ethnicity and we do a lot of employee we do employee survey, we do customer surveys, you know, we we track information from clients, etc.. And I think there's a lot of inconsistency in terms of how we do that. So I think that's one of the things is just thinking about how we can actually use this an opportunity to be better in our demographic and tracking, trying to make sure that we're following our best practices. Sometimes that's a complicated issue because sometimes there are some federal requirements in which we have to track information in a particular way that isn't necessarily the kind of the best practices or where we where we should be going in the future. So brings in a lot of different considerations to think about, but just trying to think about how we actually not just set up a task force this time and then, you know, next year are going to be having to set up another task. So like a race, ethnicity, for example. So that's some of my thoughts. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Councilmember Sure. Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate it. Came a little bit late, so I didn't get all your staff report. So let me just I just try to read that entire audience real quickly. So we're putting together a task force. That task force is going to report back to a variety of people, including the council, within three months. Is that right? The first report would be due back within three months upon the first meeting of the task force. Though once the task force is identified and they have their first meeting, they would have three months to transmit a report, including a budget to council. Okay. And then one year upon the transmittal of that report, the final report of the task force would be transmitted. Wait a. Minute. So one year within one year from that point, the final report would be transmitted? Yes. So I guess what maybe the chair would permit a question. What is the timeline for us directly from creating a task force to look at these issues that make sense? It's the recommendations themselves that I think that largely won't be controversial. There might be a couple in there that are controversial. We're going to put a couple in for you just to be controversial. Okay. Perfect. I got make you want my job to be interested. What? What? So what? What what is your vision in terms of this coming back before the council for us to take action to ratify it? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we'll look to work with the executive branch and the task force with respect to how we would receive and then respond to and implement. If that was the decision, any of the number of recommendations that might come back, it could be on a rolling basis, you know, or it could be. Here's a final report on the general steps we think the county should take to be, you know, a better provider. You'll come up with your implementation plan and funding to do it. I don't have a set vision for that, and I would defer too to the group that will do the. Work very well. The only thing that struck me, Mr. Chair, is that three months seemed like a quick turnaround. It sounds like you're building in additional time. That's kind of an initial. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn. If it's all right, I would also like to add that on page 84 of the packet online 131, the task force may also provide interim updates and recommendations as the task force deems necessary or as requested by the Council or executive. Or by the council on me. Thank you, Sam. Council Member McDermott, thank you for joining as a co-sponsor. Would you want to put this before us for action? I'm of the Give it to Pass recommendation to Ordinance Motion 2018 165. All right. That's before us. Thank you very much. Any further comments or questions, Mr. Chair? Yes, Councilmember McDermott, thank you. You know, we've had a discussion about other task forces and other work, but I think the testimony we heard today speaks to the amount of information, research and knowledge we have about transgender issues and issues around sexual orientation. The executive director of the Internal Gender Center showed us the statewide report for the city of Washington on trans issues. It was three pages. There's a dearth of information in this area, unlike some of the others that we tracked more carefully and were behind. I think this is an opportunity to catch up. For a community that's far too often at risk. Thank you. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hey, I. I'll answer anything. I do identify as male Councilmember Garcia, and. I'm going to identify your thoughts. All right. You tell me differently. I appreciate the way you respect me like that. And that is the last thing I wanted to say. I think this is a significant sound step forward because in terms of our commitment to equality and social justice, because it allows people who are seen as I perceive themselves in a very, very small minority to be respected and to be able to articulate to us what their perceived gender is. And we have not had that in the past, and that is clearly a form of discrimination. So that's why I'm happy and planned to support this ordinance. It's a step in the right direction. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And again, I apologize for my mistake. That's okay. Thank you, Mr. Gosset. All right. A clerical collar on this motion 2018 0165, which is before. So that do pass recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, DG Hi. Councilmember Dunn. II. Councilmember Gossett, I. Councilmember Kowalski. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. All. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Bond. Right. Member. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. The vote is six ies. One No. Two excuse. Okay. We have given a do pass recommendation on this motion. It'll be on the ordinary calendar, in the ordinary course. Thank you, everyone, for their work on it today and your participation. Look forward to continuing with that work. And I want to thank, if I can, my chief of staff, Christina Logsdon, who for close to a year, I think has been working with folks on the legislation. So thank you, Christina. Very, very nicely done. Okay. Let's turn now to item ten, which is a briefing, I'm sorry, to the fleet of lawyers who is here. We're here for the last item, but welcome. We're glad you're here. We have invited. Our staff from the Solid Waste Division. Pat McLaughlin is our manager of the division. Pat, you want to come up right out of the gate to give us a briefing on issues involving recycling here in King County, which has for a number of years been part of an international marketplace with much of the demand for recycled materials being China. And the materials have been traditionally or historically in recent decades sent to China, processed and come back this way, and packaging your Apple iPhone boxes, for example, being one of them recently, I think you've already in the news. China has tightened requirements for importing recycled materials, paper and whatnot, and with respect to how much contamination and foreign material matter can be in them, some of our waste stream here does not meet those new requirements and it has created some problems with respect to how we dispose of those, including sending bales of paper that don't meet standard out to the landfill on an emergency basis, at least in some areas. So as the regional provider here outside the city of Seattle and Solid Waste Services for our 37 or eight participating cities, we thought this was an important matter to bring before us to get a briefing on the current status. What did I mess up? It's all right. That's great. Okay. Thanks for those notes. All right. Thank you. Casmir Lambert could have given us the 30 minute seminar on it or more, but she'll chime in here only 5 hours. Okay. All right. Go ahead, Tara. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, for the record, I am Tara Rose, and with me is Mary Bergen on council staff. And as the chair noted, today's briefing is about recycling and will cover potential impacts to the county's solid waste system due to the recently enacted policy changes in China that have restricted imports of recyclable materials. These policies are often known and referred to as the China Sword or National Sword Initiative. The materials for this briefing begin on page 89 of your packet, but I will actually start on the following page with some background and describe the restrictions in more detail. Mr. Chair. Yes, right at the outset, can we just why do they call it the sword? It's so aggressive. What's that about? That is a Chinese name, and I can't answer why they chose that particular term. We just need a shield. That's right. Yeah, we need the recycling shield. And so for many years, as the chair noted, China has been our primary market for recyclables from the U.S. and Europe. Container ships unloading good at West Coast ports instead of returning empty would return to China with recyclable materials to be used in manufacturing. According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, in 2016, the U.S. exported $5.6 billion in scrap or recyclable materials to China, making recyclables the sixth largest export to the country. In 2013, however, China began to express environmental and health concerns about the quality of the recyclable materials it was importing and the impacts on the environment. And in response, China launched an initiative called The Green Fence, which focused on increased import inspections and cracking down on illegal smuggling operations. In July 2017, following the Green Fence Initiative, China filed notice with the World Trade Organization that it was planning more extensive restrictions on imported recyclable materials. And this new initiative is the National Sword or China's sword and imposed a combination of restrictions that are now being implemented in the United States. The WTO documents express China's continued concerns with contamination as an impetus for the restrictions. But an action plan to boost the country's recycling industry circulated earlier in the year also suggests that the initiative may be intended to build up China's own domestic recovery infrastructure. So there are three components to the restrictions. The first component is a ban on certain recyclables from import. Beginning this year, China will no longer allow the import of low grade plastics and unsorted paper, among other items. The second component is a reduction of contamination standards and contamination in terms of recycling, or refers to the inclusion of materials not recyclable, such as food in food packaging. Obviously food can be composted, but the packaging is separately processed or the combination of incompatible types of recyclable materials that are baled together. So a plastic container filled with paper. The plastic would contaminate the paper beginning in March 2018, all scrap materials imported into China may not exceed contamination levels ranging between 0.3 and 1%, depending on the material type and specific common curbside materials not covered by the ban face new a new 0.5% contamination standard, which is significantly. Below typical processing processing standards of 3 to 5% at Washington recycling facilities. And I should add that facilities nationwide have a typical processing standard of around that range. So it isn't that Washington state facilities are somehow behind the rest of the nation. The Department of Ecology has noted that it is believed that a 0.5% contamination limit would render virtually all domestic recovered materials ineligible for sale to China. And then the third component to the China sort initiative is a suspension of import licenses for part of 2017. China issued no import licenses and some have been issued in 2018. But imports of certain materials remain very limited. Some alternative markets for recyclables have emerged in Asia and elsewhere, but not at the scale of the former market in China. Recycling processing facilities in the United States have responded to the policy changes in a number of ways, including slowing down their processing and sorting lines, adding more labor. Labor exploring additional technology to enhance sorting, requesting to landfill recyclable materials and storing materials in hopes that scrap prices and markets stabilize. In response to the increased processing costs borne by some of these actions, one private hauler has received approval from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission for a temporary surcharge on residential recycling bills. I'll pause here for any questions before I move ahead on possible impacts to King County. All right. Very good overview of the problem. We've got fences and swords and who knows what else. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tara. About what percentage of Washington State recycled materials has historically or contemporarily gone to China? I don't have that figure offhand, but I can definitely follow up offline. And I think that would be helpful. Regarding that, you have that answer. I think we will provide some specifics, but primarily mixed paper and and what we would refer to as terra mentioned, low grade plastics have been our primary exports to China. And so, you know, a significant majority of our materials, particularly from the West Coast, have have traditionally gone to that marketplace majority. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Dunn. Let me just check in here. You know, everybody loves a great trade war, right? Just stick it to the Chinese. Except the problem is there are real world consequences to that protectionism that happens at a national level. And we're seeing some of it here locally, of course. Let me ask a question. What what do you have a tonnage fee, King County tonnage I want to get that's a different that's the wrong word. Tonnage fee. How many tons are we likely not to be able to ship into out of this region and into China? And again, what is the make up of that? Is some of that compost or is it just plastics and other things? I would defer to the department to see if they have updated figures. Thank you. Yeah. And again, just for the record, my name is Pat McGlothlin. It's my honor to serve as your director of Solid Waste. Primarily, the materials that are at risk are mixed paper. So there's a, you know, we recycle a lot of materials and they go to various markets, some domestically and many internationally. The ones that are primarily affecting us and putting risk to our recycling programs are mixed paper. Is any of that product the kind of product that might be diverted towards a composting facility, like, for example, Cedar Grove in my district or not? No. You know, the problem that we're dealing with is contamination. And so when we do think about our organics part of the of the stream, it is very much a similar challenge in terms of both capacity and contamination. There's not enough capacity and there's too much contamination, and that's making our regional organics recovery more challenging. And that's certainly the problem that we're now facing with mixed paper. Okay. Final question then, Mr. Chair. Thanks for those. No, no. Can you break down what you mean by contamination for this council and for the viewing audience? So we understand a little bit more what you're talking about. Certainly, contamination is really we have a well-intended base of recyclers here in King County, and overall, we have some very admirable recycling rates, 54%, much better than the national average of about 34%. However, depending on where you live, work or play, and most of us don't live, work and play in the same place where we're, you know, very mobile. The recycling rules are different. So how you recycle at home might not be the way that you're intended to recycle at work. And thus the well-intended recycler is putting the wrong thing in the wrong bin. Oh, mostly things. Who hasn't done that? I mean, a lot a lot of pressure right out of. College, course, to figure out which bin to put the right stuff in. So in this case, China, who is the traditionally the largest buyer of our recycled materials in the United States, being the largest seller of these materials has integrated higher quality standards that if they're buying a bale of mixed paper and they see a crushed water bottle in there. Right. That's contamination. Now, that water bottle is recyclable. It's not that it's a non-recyclable material, but it doesn't belong with those recyclable. So contamination could be recyclable materials that are mixed together and shouldn't be. Contamination can also be a dirty materials that don't belong and are not recyclable. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Pat. All right. A brief summary on the impacts to this local region here. Great. So I'll be continuing on page 91 of your packet. So under King County Solid Waste System, the County Salt Waste Division has a somewhat limited role in collection and processing of recyclable materials. That responsibility falls predominantly with private haulers that contract with the cities to pick up recyclable materials curbside and then take them to their own facilities for processing and sale. So given this arrangement, it's anticipated that King County will not be as directly affected in the immediate term as the private haulers, but will face impacts if haulers are not able to find alternative markets for their recyclables or find ways to meet China's allowable contamination standards. I will note that this is an emerging and fluid situation. Many of these restrictions have only been in place this year, and so the extent of the impact on King County is still being determined. However, there are several issues that could affect the county, starting with the first bullet. On page 91, private haulers may request to place recyclable materials in landfills, either at the Cedar Hills landfill or in haulers owned private landfills outside of the county. In fact, they have done. That. All at. The director. Talk about the current status of how King County has authorized or not authorized. However, by way of background, the King County code requires garbage either generated, collected or disposed in unincorporated King County or in any other jurisdictions with an intra local agreement to be disposed at county facilities. However, King County must be notified and approve of any disposal outside the system, and division staff have indicated that at the time of the the staff report was written, King County has not authorized disposal either outside the region or placed bales of material at the Cedar Hills landfill for disposal. Another possible issue the county may face is increased disposal of recyclable materials curbside and or a decrease in recycling at transfer stations due to confusion about recycling. There are concerns that individual solid waste customers might conclude that it is not worthwhile to recycle any longer and that more non waste materials could be disposed rather than recycled. Division staff note that King County is working with stakeholders to develop updated communications materials and an outreach campaign related to recycling to be implemented during the summer months. Messages are likely to include Keep recycling, keep your recyclable recyclables empty, clean and dry and other messages. Despite these efforts, however, the impact of China or it could affect countywide recycling rates going forward. A division staff indicate that the previous waste disposal forecast assumed recycling would increase from the ecology reported rate of 52% to a projected 57% in the near term and remain at that level. They note that their updated forecast now assumes that recycling will continue the pattern of 52% and that future forecasts will be updated as ecology reports new information and for context, the adopted Strategic Climate Action Plan contains a goal of achieving a 70% recycling rate countywide by the year 2020 and by 2030. Achieve zero waste of resources that have economic value for resale reuse and recycling and a lower recycling rate into the future could have implications then for the life of the Cedar Hills landfill. A third possible issue is declining revenues from recycling at transfer stations. King County currently has a contract with Republic Services to collect and process the cardboard and mixed recyclables collected at the county's transfer stations. These are the same materials people put in their curbside bin. The county receives a credit for the materials collected based on market prices. And for example, in 2017, the county paid 212,000 for hauling and processing costs and received nearly 380,000 in revenue from the commodities, which were primarily cardboard. However, the value of cardboard and paper has dropped in the last year from approximately $100 per ton to less than $5 per ton. And then moving on to the finance. Ship it to China for five bucks a time. Can you bet? No. And actually, that's primarily around mixed paper. The the market for what we would call ledger materials, white paper or cardboard is still relatively strong, but the what might be referred to as junk mail is what we would more commonly associate with mixed paper. I don't think that's worth five bucks a tiny bit. Yes, it's perhaps not. All right. Sorry. No, no problem. Just and so moving on to the final bullet, as described earlier, changes in recycling could then affect the lifespan of the Cedar Hills landfill, which is currently projected at capacity through 2028. Division staff note that's too early to determine the full impact on the landfill capacity, but they are working with stakeholders to identify solutions through the formation of a task force. Kane County has partnered with the city of Seattle ten suburban communities, private haulers and other stakeholders to form the responsible recycling task force. And this task force is expected to produce a report by October that outlines some short, medium and long term recycling solutions. I'll close by pointing out that council members will have an opportunity to address some of these issues later this year, when the 2017 tonnage report is transmitted in early June, as requested by Proviso, and when the proposed Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan is transmitted later this year. That concludes my remarks, and I'd be happy to take any additional questions. Okay. Before we do that, let's have Pat say a few words. We appreciate the opportunity to to address this issue with the Council. It is an important issue and one that we're working with our regional partners on. And both here in King County as well as abroad, solid waste managers from across the state are assembling a task force. And I think one of the keys that we're seeing early on in discussions with the cities, with our haulers, processors and and other county managers, is the opportunity to take a more unified approach? Again, at the at the core of the problem is contamination and most readily accept that a driving issue around the contamination is just simple confusion. And so there's an opportunity for us to take a more unified approach in our recycling policy, working across the region to simplify, you know, how we how we recycle and actually what we refer to as just responsible recycling versus more a wishful approach. People put things in the bin and hope that it will be recycled. And I think we have to take a. A different approach than we have traditionally taken. Thank you. Are there jurisdictions around the country that are meeting China's new standards with respect to contamination maximums? I'm not I'm not aware of that. Some jurisdictions have all in one bin and the sorting is done down at the murf, right? Yes. That seems to be even more problematic than our separation. Well, ours is is much like that because we are single stream kind of co-mingled. Recycling brings a lot of those recyclable materials together, and our processing partners are then separating them. The problem is, as you know, I think Tara said it well. Empty, clean and dry is the message that we want people we want people to continue to recycle. But the materials need to be empty, clean and dry. And it's when that rule is broken, it not only means that there's things in the bin that are not recyclable, but they're probably going to cause the recyclable items to become waste as well. All right. Well, this issue play and you mentioned this briefly to our a major role in our updated strategic plan, our long range plan that you've been working on. Well, fortunately, the conversations with the cities have been pointing towards this direction. We've identified best practices for recycling. I would say that the more significant change from the conversation is, will we take a unified approach towards recycling, or will we continue to allow the county and the cities to have a menu of options and choose what they feel is best? Again, I would suggest that breeds confusion and thus contamination. And so we will anticipate presenting in our comprehensive plan would be proposals for a more unified approach and an opportunity for the county to lead that with the cities. Is there a final question from me? Is there any notion that the decline of our domestic recycling capabilities over the last three decades are the part of the solution might be to restore some of that, you know, domestic side recycling capacity. There is a demand for it as long as we keep it local. Right. And I think so. You know, these materials are recyclable. There's markets for those materials once they're recycled. But the infrastructure, as you point out, is not here. And so and I would imagine a savvy investor is going to want to know that there's going to be ongoing domestic markets for it before those investments are made. But there's certainly a need, an opportunity to recycle these materials and put them into a better purpose and and reap the environmental benefits as well. It's good for the economy. It's good for the environment, but we don't have the domestic capacity right now. That's one of the conversations we're having with our regional partners about one of the options to create a more domestic market for those. It occurs to me that the county is in a fairly unique and strong role with respect to our flood control ordinance to be able to direct this product stream, if you will, on a on a comprehensive and concerted basis to where you can engage in some dialog with perhaps domestic recycling operators or people that have new technologies that want the waste stream. I think there's some great possibilities there. Okay. Councilmember Lambert. He didn't even raise my hand. Well, you. Know, thank you. Well, I've been studying this for 12 years. And it's interesting that. Right, the year that it comes before us for a final vote, everything seems to be happening. The term that I learned last two weeks ago at a conference with the other electors in this county, 56 people from elected officials met and they talked about what you were talking about a minute ago, and they labeled it aspirational recycling. I think this looks like a good thing to recycle, so I'll throw it in. So you want it to be and they just throw it in, even though it may not be in the right bin. And you're right, you probably do need a PhD in which box is what goes in, especially in some of the stories in the staff report. It did a really good job. And also the idea of what the haulers they are for haulers were at this meeting and they did talk about the idea of the impurities that they may have to do when in doubt. Throw it out once the one hand out when in doubt, throw it out campaign would start. Then people will say, you know, I really am in doubt even about things that they shouldn't be a doubt about. And then more will go into the garbage. Well, so the thing that I am really concerned about, I have many better when I say one, is that we already have measures that show the material that's coming from the Murf to cedar. House in the county's regional direct program has changed remarkably. I looked back over 18 years, and in the merger that serves the one third of the county, it has consistently had about 40 tons coming out. And now this is that will happen every month, 40 times every month. And now 120 tons every month is going to garbage. So the things that people thought they were recycling, we are now sending three times as much to the landfill as we were before because of this. So when you see a change after 18 years of that magnitude, it, I believe, is time to go back and relook at what is that rate of change that we have. Even from February 17 to February of 18, going to impact our landfill. Those numbers have not been run. And I think it's imperative because I no longer believe that 2028 is the correct closing year. So I think that's work that needs to be done as we go forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Anything else you want to add for next steps or other issues, Pat? Just that we are looking at those numbers, Councilmember Lambert, to understand the potential risk impacts to the landfill. And we will continue to keep the council and council staff well informed of the progress we make with our regional task force. We think we've got the right people at the table. And I found that at the forum, the partners forum that Councilmember Lambert mentioned, there was a lot of commonality, probably more commonality than anything in terms of this dialog. And so I remain very positive about the the opportunities for us to to move through this. Do you believe that the reforms that we may be able to do in this area will help us achieve our 70% recycling goal? Or is that still on the table? You know, I believe we know how to get the 70%. It takes bold it takes to put. That in the plan that's come on over. It. It is in the plan. It identifies what those steps are. And in taking a unified approach, we'll get. That help, right? Absolutely right. When do you expect the transmittal of the plan. Which we anticipate the executive proposed soloway's comprehensive plan would be transmitted on July 26th? Excellent. All right. So we're just trying to plan here for that. That's going to be a big piece of work for this committee to work through. Councilmember Lambert, to close. Thank you. I just wanted to ask for more information. Since you asking for more information. I'd like to know how many of our cells are in mind. And I know we're moving to realign. So I'd like to know the cost of that. I'd also like to know the cost of the upgrades to the leachate facility and what is the information station schedule for that. Okay, so thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Alright, we'll close this item. Thank you for the update if we can be helpful. Let us know. We're going to turn to our last item 11. And this is I expect and hope to have a quarterly item on the Committee of the Homes Agenda as part of the legislative branches, general knowledge and oversight and awareness responsibilities with respect to major litigation that the county is involved in. And I have asked that our civil division in the prosecutor's office to give us an update. We get a quarterly litigation report, but sometimes that's pretty dry and you can't have the dialog. So we're joined with a number of folks from our prosecuting attorney's office, and we will conduct this in executive session. And with respect to that, I do need to let you know that the committee needs to discuss these items in executive session and under our S.W. 4231 ten, the grounds for that are to discuss with counsel litigation to which the county is a party when public knowledge may result in an adverse legal or financial consequence, will be in executive session for no more than 30 minutes, and so will be able to be done early today. If you are not directly involved in any of these particular items, we would ask that you excuse yourselves from the chamber and we will post the doors and welcome Mike Hoover. And it looks like, Darren, are you going to you going to lead this or we're going to have Kevin, the big boss, turn to Kevin the big boss. All right. Kevin, right. Is our chief here. All right. We're not there yet. All right. We're clearing out. Chief civil. Deputy prosecuting attorney. Thank you, Kevin. We've had sewer and gender and recycling, and now we got lawsuits. It's the committee of the hall. So we want. The mikes work now under our new technology, even though we're off TV talking now. But Mark is going to turn us off here. We're coming out of the executive session. Is there anything else that any member would like to bring before the committee of the whole today? Staff Is there anything that we need to take care of? No. All right. We're adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE approving the grant funding allocation for the projects funded through the WaterWorks grant program, Round 3, in accordance with the 2017-2018 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 18409, Section 113 and Ordinance 18261.
king_05c08eaa-5aa6-49b2-861a-9cb0ff905432	The King County Council Committee of the whole meeting from now. This is the wrong packet I have Monday May 1st. Thank you for Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017 and ask the clerk will please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett, Councilmember Coles, Councilmember Lambert here. Councilmember McDermott here. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Von Bauer. Madam Chair, here. Okay, so it seems we don't have a quorum. We'll skip the approval of the minutes for now and move right into item number five. We have before us propose motion number 2017 0177 providing for an evaluation of county, immigrant and refugee policies and practices in light of guidance from the Attorney General on this topic. I think everybody is aware that we are in a period of increasing attention to these issues locally, nationally, and that King County has been active in developing legislation and policies that address the concerns of our immigrant and refugee community here in King County. We're also aware of attention to this issue at the federal level and of the potential complicated position. I think it's an understatement that local governments might find themselves in. Several weeks ago, the State Attorney General's Office announced the publication of a guidance document intended to help local governments through these challenges. The measure before us this morning provides for a report that considers how well county code policies and programs correspond with this guidance that's been sponsored by Councilmember McDermott and Mr. Dombrowski. And before I call on staff, Mr. McDermott, would you like to say a few words? Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for making sure we heard this in a timely fashion. I appreciate it. The as you've said, the attorney general and his team have put together a comprehensive guidance document for local jurisdictions on how to be affirming welcoming jurisdictions for immigrants and refugees throughout our communities while also complying with federal law . This motion is an opportunity to take full advantage of the opportunity before us and the incredibly valuable resource the Attorney General's Office has prepared. Immigrant, refugee. Refugee communities need to see the council and the county step up and be accountable to them in these very challenging times. And this is a key way to communicate the county's, that the county's a safe and welcoming jurisdiction in place for all of our residents. The Council should be proud of passing the Resilience Fund last month to support immigrants and refugees in our community. But as I said, when the fund was passed, that was one important step in a long and necessarily sustained effort before us. So I'm appreciative of the attorney general's efforts to make this guidance available to local jurisdictions. And I think we have an incredible opportunity as a county to review our policies, see what we are already doing , and see where we might be able to make improvements. And then with the report, we're asking our staff to provide to us and make those adjustments later this year. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. I just I'm sorry. I'm having a bit of a rough start this morning. Apologies to the assembled. I skipped over public comment, Mr. Reid. And since we have members of the public here to comment. If you don't mind, I'm going to go back to that. No, stay where you are. Stay put. I'm going to go back to that. I'm going to allow them to speak and then we will get back on to this agenda item. With apologies, will do public comment. I have two people signed up to speak, starting with Mr. Zimmerman, who we have not seen in a while. Welcome back, Mr. Zimmerman. About immigration. I will go. To an item on the agenda that is that's that's very impressive. Thank you. Hi. My daughter, Darby Leftfielder. My name's Alex Zimmerman. I'm president of Stand Up America I refugee and I fighting before I come to America for 15 years with KGB. It's a very risky business. 15 years. What is we doing right now in legal immigration? Is this going to cover since no one civilized country, no uncivilized city is ever doing like this, this absolutely idiotic situation? It's not because I hate Mexican. No, I am a Jew, so I know what is this mean, but it's idiotic because it's number one, cost us a billion, $10 billion, for my understanding. Stranger Seattle Stranger newspaper print couple weeks ago have hundred 50,000 not illegal immigrant in Seattle is you five percentage whereas America have only 3%. So who's pay for these hundred 50,000 people who come in Seattle in America? For free. Who pays this? I pay. She pay for poor people. Pay ever reach? People pay for this because we all pay for this is idiotic situation. Number two, what is absolutely critical. Every government have a corruption. This is not a corruption because it's a broken law. A broken border are broken. Everything is totally destroyed. System is totally destroyed. America in totally destroying country because it's against common sense and law, it's very important. So for this reason, I ask you, stop this B.S. You know what this mean. This criminality in stopping illegal immigration. Take out hundred thousand illegal immigration from Seattle. It make our situation much better than before because we tolerate pay for houses, not legality in criminality. What this government did stand up America, America, first one forever. Mr. Zimmerman, I thank you for staying relatively on topic. And if you just sort of did away with the Nazi salute, we'd be really great. We're so close. As you are. That's fine. But you don't have to do a Nazi salute. Let's not do that in the future, if we could. Next from the Queen Pearl. Margaret Richards, welcome. Well, anyway, now I can hear myself. Oh, there's so many difficult things that we have to go through in life. No, I am talking now. It wasn't on. I'm standing right here in front of this mike. Mr. Zimmerman. We have problems like that over at City Hall. And these are. Egregious circumstance, circumstances that we're going through as far as this immigration enforcement. And that's why the Bertha Landers room or the should it chambers are rooms should be open for us to speak concerning the candidates for election. We have to speak without brokers for election. I hope I'm saying this right because we asked the Ethics Commission to enact this policy and they did not do it. But it's needed. We need the rules to change because every election is fascism, Nazi. Principles. In Hitler's regime. That's why I was really shocked that what I see, we have council people there that walk out during the constituents speaking and for whatever reason they're on their phones and stuff like that, looking like they're not even concerned about what we're saying. And the immigration situation takes billions of dollars from black people even when wars break out. And I saw something on the Internet that we might be introduced to World War Three if that was to happen. The first people that are going to be attacked and lose a lot of things will be black people and I think is the scourge of the nation to sit up there, sit up there and guide us through refugees and immigrants. When you have not corrected the actions that go on day to day in black people's lives, they are subject to some of the most worst atrocities you ever want to see. Just right now, with Texas killing another black innocent person in what happened in Baton Rouge. So that's what I was saying. You cannot put a Band-Aid on our situation and look at other people's situation. Okay. Thank you, Miss Pearl. I appreciate your your time. I don't see anyone else from the public here to testify. But if there's anybody else, if you have something in writing to give to the clerk, please just go ahead and we'll make sure that we get copies of it. Thank you. Is there anybody else would like to speak to the committee this morning? Seeing none. We will now go back to item five. Thank you again, Mike, for your flexibility. And I'm going to call on our counsel staff, Mike Reed, to do a presentation. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll be relatively brief. So you've indicated that you've noted the the increasing level of federal attention towards enforcement actions with regards to immigrants and refugees, as well as the federal executive orders on those topics, as well as the concerns that the Council has expressed with regards to our support for the needs of the of the immigrant and refugee community, are those two developments raise certain contradictions and complications for county government and local government generally across the state with regards to managing legislation and operations of services that relate to immigrants and refugees and raise questions such as the best practices across a range of county services, including such things as collection of client information, communication with federal officials and similar kinds of of concerns. So in light of that, and as I understand, the attorney general's office actually received a good deal of questions from counties and cities across the state on those topics. And they have, in April, published the guidance concerning immigrant immigration enforcement that you referred to earlier, that that document does address a matrix of local government services, including law enforcement, including courts, including health services, hospital and other local services. The legislation in front of you this morning that council member McDermott sponsored does call for a report to be prepared by our legislative services staff. That report would first identify the types of services that the King County government provides that correspond with the elements of the guidance concerning immigration enforcement. It does also call for looking at the King County Code provisions and how they correspond with the recommendations of the document. It calls for identifying how the document could be used to help modify county policies and codes and finally, identification of options for convening a county government wide summit to to address the recommendations of the guidance document . That report is due July one of this year. And that's the the summary of the legislation. Before you, I will note that we do have representation from the Attorney General's office, if you so wish, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Reid. At the. This point. Are there any questions, comments, discussion about the item? I'm not seeing any. I think I would just add that basically the question before us is whether or not to take up a study of how our existing policies and procedures here at King County comply with the various laws and the current enforcement policies of state and local, state and federal government. So that seems like a very prudent thing to do, and I think it would be wise to take it up and take a motion to approve this motion and direction right now. Madam Chair, I would move that we give the Duke House recommendation the motion 2017 177. Okay, it's been moved. I hear some questions in conversation. Councilmember Lambert, thank you. Well, we didn't really get much time to look at this. So are you going to go through this whole report with us or how are you going to do this? My understanding, and I'll look to Mike for this, is that the point of the motion is to have our legislative staff do that, to go through the report, to go through the laws, to go through our policies, and then come back to us with the report about how well what we're doing complies with all of that guidance and then recommend any actions that they may at that point. But this is sort of like a preliminary step. And are we going to are we going to differentiate anyways between legal and not legal immigrants? Madam Chair. Council Member McDermott Thank you. I'd like to underscore this point, something you said a moment ago, and that is that the guidance from the Attorney General's Office is how to be compliant with federal law and be as supportive of people within our community as possible. So everything within the guidance before us would be clearly designed to articulate what's within federal law. And ask a question of staff at this moment and maybe my colleagues. We have the only two items today. Both of them are on the same topic. And the second item is an executive session on the topic of immigration law and our and legal matters related thereto. We have our lawyers here to speak to us. Would people prefer that we take up the executive session before the motion? Yeah, I'm seeing some nods. Okay. But I just need to be educated. We can. Okay, so let's. Let's proceed in this way. Let's finish discussion. Comments, questions about what the motion is in open session. Then go into executive session and we have a motion pending. And we will either we will take it up after the executive session. But let me just I'm looking to the motion maker of the motion to see if he is amenable to that order of business. Madam Chair, I'm not going to I'm certainly not going to object. But let's be clear about what we're in executive session for in the conversation within executive session is within those confines, we. Will announce that and stick to those rules when the time comes. Okay. Councilmember Dunn, just real quick. I just because of the important subject matter contained in this and because as we're hitting this as an issue of first impression, I am inclined to ask for a one week courtesy delay after we've done all of this today and may not grant it, but I'm going to request it. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or questions on the topic of the motion so we understand what's before us. Councilmember Gossett Was that a wave or just a twitch? Okay. Well, all right. So at this point, let's let's take up the executive session. This is item is this item number six? Just an executive session? So what we're what the executive session is regarding. Go ahead. Councilmember. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Reid said that we may have a representative from the Attorney General's office here. I don't know if they were part of the presentation in executive session. If not, if we ask if they have comments to address the motion before us before we go into executive session. Okay. So none of that made it into my script today, I have to say. So I'm happy to invite them, but we're sort of just flying by the seat of our pants here today. And I prefer in future to sort of schedule these things out, if we could. If we have a guest to speak to the attorney general's guidance, then we should bring that person up and have them say what they have to say now, I believe. Yes. So we have Colin Melody, who's a with the attorney general's office. She's, I believe, had the the civil rights unit. And Ms.. Melody, can you join me at the table here? Welcome and thank you for being here today. Apologies for the sort of on and off nature, but we're happy to hear from you and appreciate your coming to our meeting today. Good morning. And we're happy to address questions now or later if there if there are questions that come up. I was asked to just come and talk a little bit about why we developed this guidance and then answer any questions that council members may have about what's in it and what's not in it. And so we developed this guidance after some statements began coming out at the federal level about whether excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt . Could you pull that microphone just a little bit closer? Some of the members are having a hard time hearing your voice. Any better? Council member okay. Thank you. So following following the change in administration, there were a number of executive orders and public statements about the potential requirements of local jurisdictions, counties and municipal jurisdictions to comply with federal law and also to serve as federal enforcement agents to cooperate in federal and immigration enforcement activities. And a lot of the jurisdictions in Washington had questions about how their current practices might or not might or may not sort of comply with that federal law. And we began getting questions from around the state, from local lawmakers, from law enforcement. So sheriffs, county prosecutors, public defenders, other lawyers who interact with immigrant clients, witnesses and victims educators, and other state government officials who provide public services where they need to understand what their obligations and rights are with respect to how they choose or don't choose to act as deputized immigration officials. And so what this guidance is designed to do is to answer some of those questions and to explain what federal law is. Federal law does have some requirements, and then federal law provides a lot of flexibility for local jurisdictions to determine whether and how they're going to act as immigration officials . So it's the guidance as organized by subject matter area, whether you're providing local services, whether you run a local jail, whether you are law enforcement or educators, employers or other other sort of actors in our and our public life. So it contains some general rules governing interaction between federal immigration authorities and local jurisdictions and then some specific laws related to specific, specific areas. So, you know, generally that is what the guidance contains. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have about what it is or why we produced it. Okay. Any questions from members? Comes from Damascus. Thank you very much, Madam Chair and Melody, thanks for being here today. I've been interested, along with others, including Councilman McDermott. I think of the courthouse issues and the impacts to the administration of justice that may result from the fear of folks coming to testify or to undertake any kind of the public business we have here in the courthouse. And I know our Supreme Court has written a letter and is working on on that. But one of the other areas that King County works in and that's identified in here is public hospitals. And we own Harborview Hospital. It's under contract for the management of it with you'd have medicine, but I wonder if you are able to maybe highlight some of the issues that arise around public hospital ownership and management and what your recommendations are. Sure. So there are. So within the specific areas listed in the guidance, there are some specific federal and state laws that provide specific protection. And the health care field is one of those. So kind of HIPA and federal privacy requirements are going to and there are some sort of analogous important state law requirements about health care. Record privacy are going to prevent the disclosure of certain kinds of immigration sort of information, immigration related information to federal officials and that might have health status check in, check out surgery, scheduling, other kinds of information that might indicate when somebody is going to be at the hospital or maybe has been at the hospital. What for and when they're going to be released because it's medical information. So generally, there's a rule that state officials and including state hospital administrators cannot or county you know, public public officials cannot cannot prohibit their employees from talking with immigration officials about immigration and citizenship status. But besides those two pieces of information, immigration and citizenship status, there is no requirement to share information about anybody who's admitted to the hospital, who's visiting the hospital. And in fact, because of other privacy laws and the health care context, there may be real limitations on what folks can share. And so our best practices recommendation is to develop a policy so that staff that work in the hospital, who are not lawyers and are, you know, don't have all these statutes in front of them, can understand what information they may provide to federal officials and what information they may not provide federal officials because of these other privacy protections. Does that answer the question. In a very detailed way? Lawyer. Yeah, and I guess I misspoke over one of the particular I think it's a unique situation. Our view is we, in cooperation with the University of Washington in this council, made sure it didn't go away when it was threatened to have a clinic particularly aimed at refugees and health care needs that arise from and relate to those members of our community. And I'm this is some general guidance, but I want to signal for my colleagues that it's an area that we might want to look at because it would it would be very sad if folks didn't want to come for treatment from trauma arising from refugee status or some things that go on in other parts of this world that we treat up at U Dub Hospital or Harborview because of fear arising from from these issues. So I'm particularly interested in that and maybe we can work on that a little bit. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. All right. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. For several years now, we've had an ordinance that relates to the treatment of alleged immigrants and refugees who are housed in our King County jail. And the ordinance that we identified about two or three dozen serious crimes that we would be willing to allow ICE officials to take the interview, to take away if they desired, etc.. But they that they would have to submit some paperwork to us that provided evidence and proof that this person is an illegal immigrant. And instead of dealing with that, they said we're not complying with ice, and they stopped making any effort or taking anybody out of the King County Jail. So to me, that was not related to us being a sanctuary jail. That's not. Allowing them to do their job and to do it us more strictly adhering to the law. What's your thinking on that from the perspective of the attorney general? Well, there's a number of jurisdictions that will require ICE to submit evidence of probable cause of a federal immigration crime before they will hold an individual beyond their term of commitment in the county jail. So if King County is holding somebody because of a conviction for 30 days and ICE request, hey, could you please hold them for two days longer so that we can come get them? Many jurisdictions, including my understanding this one, say yes, as long as you provide us with some sort of judicial warrant or an affidavit of probable cause about the immigration crime that they've committed. That is an increasingly common practice nationwide, because there have been a number of court decisions that have said holding somebody without that kind of evidence is a constitutional violation. And so and so my understanding is that ICE is in the process of considering whether it will comply with those court orders and provide that kind of evidence. But to date, their position has not changed. As as as you stated and they've said that their administrative paperwork should be sufficient. Now, I thank you. I thank you again. And I will add on that topic, Councilmember, that that was an interesting development as we were talking about the ICE detainers, that sort of federal decisions started to come down saying that holding people in jail beyond the period of time that we have any state law, probable cause reason to do without a warrant or without some reason, you know, it starts to become very risky to do that. And we don't in this county do that. And I noticed that on page 27 of your report, you actually address this and say that it best practice would be absent an order signed by a judge. Immigration detainers are not mandatory and should generally not be used to hold people any longer than the jail would otherwise hold them. And I think that is inconsistent with our practice at this point. I want to thank you so much. This this report is very valuable, and I'm sure that many counties and cities feel this way. But on behalf of King County, thank you in your office for putting it together, for doing this work so that we can now do our work and be in compliance. And we want to do that. So I appreciate your time. At this point, if the counsel is ready and willing, we will move to executive session. The purpose of the session and the grounds for the executive session under RTW 4231 ten are to discuss with legal counsel litigation or potential litigation to which the county is likely, is or is likely to become a party. When public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the county. We will be in executive session for approximately 30 minutes, I'm guessing, until about 1040. And I'm going to ask the clerk at this time to please post the doors to that effect. And anyone who is a member of the public or county employee not directly necessary for the discussion, please leave the chambers at this time. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Right. We're going to start up again. Okay. Many of the committee of the hall will be back in session. We just completed an executive session on a matter of potential litigation to receive legal advice. And now we are back on item five, which is motion number 2017 0177. And there is a motion pending to move it out with a due pass recommendation. But I would ask if the motion maker would consider to move it out with no recommendation at this time. Duly considered and accepted, Madam Chair. Okay. That's the motion before us. Discussion on the motion. Okay. Is he here? Yes. They can come back in. Yeah, we're in public session. Okay. All right. We're going to be in recess just for a moment again. Reagan wanted to make it. Recession and we are once again on proposed motion number 2017 0177. This is item five and the motion before us is now to move this item out of committee without recommendation. Councilmember Dunn. Because when we courtesy delay. Yeah I appreciate the request this meet this this committee only meets every other week and our next meeting is a town hall in Kent on the subject of transit fares. So a one week courtesy delay from this committee would turn into a one month courtesy delay. So I would prefer, as the chair, that we go ahead and move it out without without recommendation and without expediting and then sort of take the time necessary for council members to get up to speed at the council level rather than keep this until July, potentially before final action. I apologize, Councilmember Dunn. I just think that that that hopefully will give you enough time. All right. And the other comments or questions with that will call for this is a roll call vote. Yes. Okay. Please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. By. Councilmember Dunn No. Councilmember Gossett Hi. Councilmember Caldwell. Councilmember Lambert No. Councilmember McDermott Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Run. Right. Bauer Oh, Madam Chair, I met with the chair. You have four eyes, three no's, councilmembers Dunn, Lambert and Von. Right. Bauer and two members excused Councilmember Cole Wells and Councilmember at the Grove. Does that pass? Because we have a majority of the members present? Yeah. Subject to signature. Right. So that signature. Get off the curbside. Okay, but we don't. We only need a majority of the members present in any event. Correct? Correct. In the right subject. Yep. Okay. All right. So this moves on to council without expediting and with with without without recommendation. All right. That brings us to other business. There is one item, colleagues of other business. Today is a historic day here in King County. He's not here. It's a historic day in King County. There's no formal proclamation. But I'm going to take the liberty to speak for council and say that we informally together proclaim today a day of celebration and encourage all residents of King County to join us in wishing Councilmember Dave up the Grove a very happy birthday. Oh. He scooted out. So maybe I can tell everybody how old he is. He's one year older than. Rod and me. All right. And then, yes, Councilmember Gazette. Councilman Bryan Rayburn said nobody's ever done that for him. Well, I will. If he leaves, I'll say how old he is. Oh, yeah, right. Okay. Birthdays. Look at that. Before we adjourn. All right. Before we adjourn, we do need to approve the minutes. Is there a motion, Madam Chair? And the minutes of April 19, 2017 is written. Any comments or changes seen? None. All those in favor please signify by saying I any opposed motion carries. And with that we are adjourned.	A MOTION related to county services to immigrants and refugees, and the Washington State Attorney General's Guidance Concerning Immigration Enforcement.
king_c11d578b-ad68-4051-811d-3182505933a1	Called to order the February 17th, 2021 meeting of the Committee of the Whole. As we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We want to thank the caretakers of these lands who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. And I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians of King County who have brought their cultural way of life here and greatly enrich our community as well. In light of the public health emergency, Governor Inslee has issued an emergency order suspending sections of the Open Public Meetings Act. That requires that we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings, which has been extended by the House and Senate leadership. So we are doing what is becoming more and more accustomed to us, and that is having a virtual meeting. We have a number of items on today's agenda. We'll start with the briefing. We'll start with public comment and then we'll move to a briefing from Dwight David, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. On the county's COVID 19 response and then take up legislation appointing a member to the Landmarks Commission. Then we'll receive briefings on legislation related to fireworks in unincorporated King County and legislation related to the best streets for kids. Levy. I'm to brief housekeeping notes as we get started to help us manage the meeting. I'd like to ask the public, as well as the executive and council staff to please keep your videos off until just before you plan to speak. And if you're connected to the meeting via via cell phone, then you wish to provide public comment. I ask that you connect to the Zoom through the Zoom app, if at all possible. That's because there is a delay on the cell phone connection and we can also have trouble and muting cell phone connections in service. Enabling you to speak can be a challenge with that. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roar? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci, you're Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember Cole. Miles. Eric. Council member Lander. Councilmember member the ground. Here. Councilmember Yvonne right down here. Council members only. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Still 12 months into a pandemic and working remotely, it is still relatively new for the King County Council to have a remote meeting. And we have a number of people with us for public comment. So let me talk through how we will work public comment. First, some ground rules. Public comment should be related to items on today's meeting agenda and not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. It must also not include obscene speech. The Speaker fails to abide by these restrictions and they may be ruled out of order and may be required to leave the virtual meeting and now the process itself. As members of the public joined the meeting. You are automatically muted. And we can see your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Our committee clerk will call the names and numbers for public comment. When your name or the last three digits of your phone number is called, staff will add your line. Please make sure that you've also unmuted your line. And if you have muted yourself. And a reminder, if you're calling from a cell phone, we recommend the Zoom application. Before you begin your testimony. Please perhaps say your name and then wait to be acknowledged so that we can confirm that we can hear you. And then if you'd begin by saying and spelling your name so we can have it accurate for our records. You have 2 minutes to speak. You'll hear a timer go off when you've reached your 2 minutes. You can certainly finish your thought. But we would ask you to conclude your testimony in wrap up so that the next person has the opportunity to speak. If you're listening on TV or via the Internet with you, please turn that mute, that volume, that speaker. During your public testimony, we don't have an echo. And after you out for public comment, if we might ask you to follow the remainder of the meeting, I'm sure. Channel 22 Cable Channel 22, King County Television or to the online stream. Fewer people in the Zoom call allows us to manage the meeting a bit easier. The Weblink is it ww rw dot king county dot gov backslash counsel and then you click on the ever popular Watch US Live button. I will now move into public comment, Madam Clerk, if you'd call people for public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person I'm going to call is Carol Gibbs. Please go ahead and meet yourself and. Earlier. A muted go ahead. Carol Gibbs. Bellevue, Washington. 98004. Carol Gibbs. CAIR l Gibbs Gibbs. Can you hear me? Yes, please. Go ahead. I have a license family childcare provider for 32 years. I am a leader in the Child Care Union, SEIU 9 to 5 and president of the Washington State Family Childcare Association. I want to tell you why I support the renewal for best starts for kids levy. Childcare is in trouble in King County. 63% of our county's families, working families, live in a child care desert, meaning there are not enough childcare slots for children that need that need them. Families in the suburbs are more likely to live in one of these deserts in low income neighborhoods have even fewer childcare options. We need to think of childcare as a basic infrastructure for King County. It is necessary to support our growing, robust economy. Statewide, we lose $2 billion a year due to turnover and missed work because of childcare issues. And that was before COVID. Over my 32 years in this field. I have seen hundreds of childcare providers close. Now the estimate is that 30 to 50% of those currently closed will not come back. It will be a loss for our entire community if that happens. In the last ten years, the state has licensed 266 home childcare in Bellevue. Currently, less than 20% of those 52 are still active. Part of the problem is that the job does not pay enough to attract or retain staff. Childcare workers are paid less than pet groomers or dog walkers and don't have health insurance working. Looking out over Lake Bellevue, you see the spring district awaiting Facebook and GICs, bringing 2000 new residents and 13,000 office workers. That's not to mention all the apartments that are going up in the Crossroads area. What childcare options will there be available for the children of these people? I have found that parents love their children through this work as opposed to their homes. Either way, they need options. Without childcare, how are parents able to work? By investing as this renewal levy does, it expands access to affordable child care for families and helping providers stay in business. We can jumpstart our economic recovery if. Thank you. Then next person is y d e coli c f. I've asked you if you can meet yourself and give your name, please. Hello. My name is Renee Murray, spelled Greenie. The last name is M. You are y. Hello, chair and members of the committee. I am Bernie Murray, director of Public Policy and Advocacy at Wider Youth Development. Executives of King County is a coalition of over 100 youth serving organizations in King County serving ages five young adult. I am here to speak in support of the best stories for kids renewal and its expansion. We are excited about increased investments in the out-of-school time and the 5 to 24 supports in general. We encourage this effort to sustain the gain of the early learning and birth to five investment. I would also like to encourage that childcare investments are sure to include the school aged child care population to age 12. As you know, this pandemic has shown the incredible value of community based organizations and the supports they offer children, youth, especially outside of the K-12 school environment. We hope that the knowledge we have gained from this pandemic does not go in vain. The organizations that I represent are ready and willing to serve. This increased investment in five young adults will help us support our community. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. The next person is. And please excuse my pronunciation. Diana, Linus, l l a and e s. Good morning, everybody. My name is Deanna Jennings. I am a last name, Jennings. And yes, I am from here in Washington. Can I can you guys hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Good morning, council members. My name is Diana Jimenez, and I am the director from the Wings Child Care Center in Turin. I have worked in child care for 12 years. My center serves 77 children. Right now we are at 34 children capacity. Ribs. The wings are very special. A special program because we provide child care for essential workers who need care even until midnight and Saturday. Or teachers are also bilingual, and we offer a program in English and Spanish. We are proud of the fact that we've been providing raise the store staff. When they complete that, when they complete credits in higher education, because of this commitment, we do not make a profit. The pandemic has been very challenging and we had to expand our program to provide more school aged care. I have been working with SEIU 925 to address the childcare crisis and I want to speak in support of their renewal of the best starts for kids. Very. There are an estimated 750,000 kids under 12 in Washington when it's childcare and only 188,000 licensed space for care for them without enough licensed care. Families end up using a licensed gear or one parent needs to quit their job. Especially. In Washington, 63% of people live in childcare deserts. And unfortunately, this number is accurate in King County as well. I think this is because there's not enough parents who meet the income qualifications to receive work in connection subsidies and therefore can afford to send their children to childcare. Just this week, I have a parent who was essential worker and she lost childcare services and she had to cut her services, her childcare for half a day because she can't afford to pay. It is also hard for centers to stay open because some pastors who often decide to work elsewhere. We cannot continue to raise our tuitions. These races have become an expensive public honors and a steal. Your teachers deserve. More. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Gordon Goodsell. Please meet yourself and go ahead. Go ahead, please. Mr. Goodsell. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. Thank you. Very good. I'm Gordon Goodsell, Fire Marshal with South King Fire and Rescue. My name is spelled g0rdongodsell. I'm speaking on behalf of South King Fire and Rescue in support of all of the ordinance banning the retail sale and discharge of fireworks. Ordinance number 20 1-0057. I have submitted a written comment so I won't repeat the content of that here. I just have a brief statement for you. South Concern Rescue covers Lakeland, Lakeland, North and South in unincorporated King County, in addition to the city's The Better Way and Des Moines. Want to add some statistics and data and also my experience related to fireworks. In the past five years, we've had 47 incidents related to fireworks. And over five years that doesn't seem like a lot of incidents, although it does represent a significant risk. But in those five years, those incidents were limited to just 22 days of the number of days. And in those 22 days where we had incidents related to fireworks, the damage was estimated at $1,013,400 related to the. Discharge of recreational fireworks. And so I appreciate your ear here today, and I would encourage you to review my letter, which provides more background information. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Mark Thompson. Go ahead and meet yourself and you can speak. Good morning, council members. My name is Mark Thompson are key to Olympia so in. I'm the vice chair of South King Fire and Rescue Board of Commissioners and also the president of the King County Fire Marshal's for Fire Commissioners Association. And I'm speaking today on behalf in support of the fireworks ban, the proposed ordinance 2020 1-0057. The over the years my service in the fire fire service 55 years I've responded to a lot of debilitating injuries and property destruction by fire caused by sap insane and the illegal type fireworks. For years there's been an attempt to have a fireworks ban that cairn's been kicked down the road many, many times. And with the advent of the Internet and there's an increased use of commercial consumer fireworks being modified to create a bigger boom or a bigger blast or what have you. And basically, many of those folks are untrained and something they read on the net, and they basically are making IEDs and improvised explosive devices which damage property in has no people have no idea what the impact's going to be when they when they're detonated. So there's injuries and deaths created by the is an explosion in IEDs. So I'm urging you to approve the the ordinance. When it comes time, the fire districts and fire departments in King County expend a lot of money for like cheap goods. And I'll said 22 days of service and the the respond to the increased calls for service due to fireworks. So I appreciate you taking this step. And one of the things the love of the fireworks stands in King County are not operated by nonprofits. The lot of them are operated by families and as a for profit business. So I ask for your support and later on down the road and thank you very much. Have a good day and stay safe. Thank you. The next person is listed as Barbara's iPad. Can you please give us your full name and then proceed? Barbara, if you'd like to speak. Please unmute yourself. Go ahead. Okay. I'll move on to. Hello, this is Barbara. Go ahead. Can you give us a name? Barbara Hopkin, DARPA or a napkin? Dalby Cayenne. I'm a resident of White Center. I just have a little recording I want to play just for a short time. Oops. It's not playing in any event. I'm calling in support of the ordinance 20 10057. The fireworks ban every year in this community. The fireworks have gotten stronger, louder and last longer in the days before and after. July 4th. It really feels like we're under attack here. And, you know, I have taken to staying home every year because I'm afraid my house is going to burn down. And and I'm serious about that. Additionally. I just want to give you a little taste. So that was recorded in my kitchen on July 4th. So I understand it's a controversial issue. There are many people that want to celebrate. July 4th was fireworks. But what's going on now are not just the little sparklers or firecrackers here and there. These are big explosives. They're dangerous. And additionally, with the noise and the risk of fire and the the issue of home pets being terrorized, there's also a lot of trash left behind. You could walk around the neighborhood the next day and there's piles of debris that are just left for other people to clean up. So I really urge you to please pass this ordinance for the safety of our community, the health and well-being of our community. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. The next person is Helena Peck. Please go ahead and unmute yourself and proceed. My toothache. You would need to. To. I do not have a public comment. Oh, thank you. The next person is Peter Schrock then. Go ahead and unmute yourself. You can proceed now. Hi there. Good morning. Members of the King County Council. My name is Peter Champion and I serve on the Board of Pies, which is in that capacity. I'm speaking with you today on the important issue of banning commercial fireworks in unincorporated King County. I just want to applaud Councilmembers McDermott and Banducci for bringing forward this much needed measure. Hopefully already seen the letter from Heidi Wilks, who's the president and CEO of PAWS. And I just wanted to let you know that you have our board's full support in this endeavor. PAWS knows firsthand the dangers of these commercial fireworks on animal populations. First, PAWS receives and cares for a dramatically increased number of dogs and cats during and after fireworks are used. And the secondly, fireworks also pose great threats to our local wildlife. The loud noises and bright lights of fireworks cause anxiety and confusion for these animals. I'll end here as hopefully you've seen Heidi's letter and out of concern for the citizens whose camp companions are lost, injured or frightened and sometimes killed as a result of fireworks and the thousands of domestic and wild animals who live in the county , I respectfully ask that you vote to approve this ban in unincorporated King County. And I just would say that on this day, celebrating random acts of kindness throughout the United States, I ask that you vote to support this measure. Thanks for your time. Thank you. The next person is Rachel Krinsky. Commit yourself, then proceed. Thank you. Hello. My name is Rachel Krinsky. I am the executive director of Livewire and I'm one of the co-chairs of the King County Alliance for Human Services. And I'm speaking today on behalf of the alliance, and I'm here to express the Alliance's support for County Executive Dan Constantine's proposal for the Basque Renewal and Expansion. The Alliance asserts that every child in King County needs a strong foundation to reach their full potential, and that best starts for kids is one of the most essential tools we have to ensure that kids across King County have the opportunity to thrive. Best starts for kids, builds well-being and strengthens families and communities. In addition to preventing negative outcomes such as homelessness, domestic violence and mental illness, projects and programs funded through the best care are designed by communities to fit what is needed and what works. The King County Alliance for Human Services applauds you and our other public officials and the voters for establishing this funds was five years ago and for the success we are already seeing from the services supported by the first basic levy. And we are dedicated to ensuring that best care helps kids in every zip code across the county succeed. We advocate for the highest possible renewal at this critical time during the pandemic. We know what works. King County kids need our support to spring back from this pandemic stronger than ever and in an equitable way. We urge you to strongly support our kids by supporting the executive proposal fully as submitted. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Ray Pettigrew. Please send your stuff and go here. Hi, my name is Ray Pettigrew. That's ah, a y. P e t. T i g r e w. Good morning, Council Members. Thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment on proposed Ordinance 20210057 prohibiting the retail sales and personal use of fireworks and establishing procedures for public displays of fireworks in unincorporated Kane County. My name is Ray Pettigrew and the Assistant Chief and Fire Marshal for Kane County Fire District two. We provide fire protection and emergency medical services for Bear in Normandy Park and the neighborhoods of the North Highline area. I also represent the North Highline Fire District. I ask each of you to support this proposed ordinance. I've been with the fire department for over 35 years. I started as a volunteer firefighter and was later hired as a career firefighter. I work the majority of the 4th of July holidays during my tenure and have seen hundreds of fires started by fireworks during this time. I've seen homes lost and people injured by fires caused by fireworks in 2019. In 2019, I was at the fire where a member of our community lost her home, her husband and her pet to a fire that was caused by fireworks. I ask that you support this ordinance that our community never again experiences a tragedy like the one that occurred in 2019 due to the private use of fireworks. We should leave the use of fireworks to the professionals that can do it in a safe manner for the enjoyment of our entire community. Thank you for your time and efforts. Thank you. The next person is Rebecca Wells. So replacing a mute yourself with. Hi. I'm Rebecca Wells. That's r e BTK. W e l l s. I live in White Center. I'm speaking today in sport in support of that proposed ordinance 20 10057 the private consumer fireworks ban in unincorporated Kane County. As a resident of White Center, we are between two cities, Seattle and Berrien, who have banned private consumer fireworks by many residents and people from outside of our area, come here to exclude huge quantities of fireworks, including the type you see at the shows put on by cities and events. And almost everybody here describes the the feeling as being in a war zone when this is happening. These are untrained people that are lighting some huge fireworks. And obviously, this is not a safe situation in light them at all hours of the day, not only on the fourth, but four days before and weeks after the holiday. This causes many problems for the community, including, excuse me, lost and traumatized pets due to fear from the loud explosions. So many people are saying, how can I keep my animal calm? How can I see them asking for help and things to to address that issue? Also, fires attributed to the fireworks, including two houses that burned in North Highway one, resulting in the deaths of a 70 year old man. Sonny Kennedy rest in peace with his two dogs and displacing 12 people from those homes in years with drier conditions. So the number of fires could be much higher. Being jolted awake multiple times a night from explosions after the holiday. Dozens of injuries. Like many others, I have asthma. And the smoke from the fireworks is so bad that several days after the 4th of July and therefore trouble breathing, I urge you to please support this proposed ordinance . Thank you. Thank you. The next person is listed as trout tr0utt. If you could unmute yourself and give us your full name, that would be great. Go ahead, please. Good morning. Good morning. Can you give us your. Name and habitat to. I'm sorry. I'm having a hard time hiring you. I just very slightly like. I think I do. You know. No. This isn't working. Out to me. We will. Move on and try trout in a little bit. So. The next. The next person is a phone number. Area code 26655824. I asked to meet you. And if you unmute yourself, you can go ahead. Hello. My name is Liz Keever. Eliza g i b a can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. I'm a member of the North High Line, Unincorporated Area Council. As you know, North Carolina's between Burian and Seattle and both of those cities banned fireworks. The result is that people from more affluent areas around us come to North Carolina to get their fireworks fix. They explode large quantities of fireworks at all hours of the day for days before and after the 4th of July holiday. There are many small fires. Debris fills the street. A gray, smelly, unhealthy haze hangs over our community. It feels like we are under attack. Our neighbors who suffer from PTSD are forced to relive their past traumas and persevere because there is no place to hide. Traumatized dogs shake cow and are lost when they break through fences. Many of us are forced to hose down our yards in groups, shut our windows, medicate our pets, turn up the music and hope for the best. The situation is untenable. Our already overburdened deputies and firefighters cannot control the dangerous chaos. This is a public safety issue. Please end this dangerous situation and support the fireworks ban. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is listed as 915. I've asked him, you know, if you'd like to meet yourself, go ahead and give us your name. Thank you. My first name is him. Haymitch. I am I same y you un g. I have contacted some of the council members previously. I'm contacting about the whistleblower protection code that the County County Council has passed in 2009 that provided extending protection for county employees. It is my understanding that I believe that the batsman has not been offering this expanded protection to employees. And it's quite worrying to me because that people who are willing to speak up are to most integrity and encouraged and courageous employees of the county. And when the issue that I have been witnessing is that the Ombudsman will informed individuals that their complaint are too minimal on its own, even though he points to a larger systematic issue and with no individual relief. Even if that the Ombudsman has decided that there is a systematic issue exist, that a systematic review are to be happening. But actually no individual employee will be entitled to relief because their problem is not versus a level of improper governmental action per se, which in turn I believe may cause the county money because the idea was to expand the protection, was to reduce the likelihood of exposure to risk or claim or lawsuits, but by not providing protection that may be just opening this door all over again. So I would hope the House would also pay attention to that or, you know, review on this issue. I you know. Can you give us your first name again, please? I am. For you. Well, I'll move on. Thank you. We're going to try Trout again. Asked you to mute yourself. And maybe if you turn down the volume in the. Ach. It might help your audio. I'm not sure. Try. My head, please. You're a muted. I mean, how are you able to now? It's a little bit better. Maybe if you just shout. Okay. How can you hear me now? Oh, yes, that's better. Okay, good. Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Tab Teddy Trout tr0ut and I'm with g fireworks. And I appreciate all of the testimony prior about the ban on commercial or consumer fireworks. I would ask that the council consider meeting with industry and the nonprofit groups to address the issues that the residents have suggested. There are two types of fireworks that are being sold. You have the legal and you have legal and a bans do not work. And I think that if the council would be open to meeting with industry and the nonprofit groups who use this as a very successful fundraiser, we could come up with some programs that are really better than a ban, which would be enforcement and also education. So we appreciate the opportunity to meet with the council and offer up solutions. Thank you. Thank you, and thank you for your patience. Mr. Chair, I believe I've called everyone on the line. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Let us check and make sure that we have heard from everybody on the line who would like to offer testimony. And to that end, in a moment, I'll ask the clerk to unmute everyone. And if you are on the line and have not been able to offer testimony, I would ask you to say your name. I'll confirm that. We've got you. We'll take a list and then call people to offer testimony. I think we got everybody, Miss Daly. But I want to double, double check and just be absolutely certain. So if you could unmute everyone. Okay. I'm going to ask everyone to unmute. You'll get a message asking you to mute. I've done that, Mr. Chair. Thank you. And if you have not testified and wished to, if you could please say your name. I'm not hearing anyone. All right, Madam Clerk, I'd ask you to remove renewed all the lines, and I'll be ready to meet myself. Actually, I only saw one that was unmuted, so I just muted that person. Okay. Then I want to thank everybody. And we have heard a couple of references today to written comments. I call members attention to an e-mail from our clerk's office from Marcus Steadman's e-mail account at 8:28 a.m. this morning with public written public comment on both DSK and fireworks that are on today's call. Your attention to that primarily because several people mentioned their ties to the large volume of written comments in that email. So I would call your attention to that as we proceed. And with that, I'd entertain a motion to approve the minutes of our February 3rd meeting. Councilmember. Doug, you seem to be unmuted. Would you make a motion to approve the minutes? So when Mr.. Girls cowgirls. Would you help us out? I guess. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the amendments. In fact, if I move to approve the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's a very February 3rd meeting here before us. I'm seeing those things in your discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes. Please signify by saying i, i, i. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That takes us to our first briefing today. This is a briefing from Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. This has become the usual part of our CAL meetings, and we appreciate Director Devlin taking time to provide the briefing. Mr. Gravely. Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me? Yes. Good. For the record, Dwight, I believe the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. And I have four things this morning, at least a couple of which I think are going to be of great interest to you and maybe a little bit of discussion. I do know you have a busy agenda, so I'm going to try to go through this fairly quickly. So item number one is the ordinance that we are calling COVID six, which will be the sixth supplemental appropriations ordinance for the COVID pandemic. We will be transmitting that to you tomorrow. And it's very much as I have discussed with you in the past, it's a pretty straightforward ordinance. It only includes 14 items. The total proposed appropriation is about $92 million, almost exactly half of which is the additional federal money that was authorized in December for rental assistance. And so we'll run that through the DHS programs, as we did before. And then, as we've discussed, most of what is also in here are reappropriate tions of projects that didn't get completed in 2020. But now that the deadline for using the federal money was extended, we are asking you to reappropriate for those. We're also asking you to appropriate the initial funding, most of which we've gotten from the state for the vaccination programs that we have rolled out here in the last month. And then finally, as I think I have discussed with some of you, maybe not all of you, we have a request for $5 million of general fund to create a revolving fund that would be managed in my office in PSB. So for grant programs to smaller nonprofit organizations, that can only be done on a reimbursement basis under the federal rules. This would give us the opportunity to find some of that money to these organizations that aren't capitalized in a way that they can actually make this work. And then we would recoup that funding when the federal money was available and receipts were submitted and so on, we would then put that back into the revolving account. It's probable that there will be some small losses over time, but the idea would be to get this set up and do it on an experimental basis . And if it works the way we hope it would work, we would then maintain it in the future. Even when we're past COVID, we would broaden it to other kinds of grant activity with small organizations that don't have the capital in order to have to wait for federal reimbursement for, in many cases, months for these programs. So this is a little bit of an experiment. But given some of our experience with COVID last year, we thought it was worth a try. And so that's all I was going to say about COVID six, unless there are questions. Alex. Question. Council Member Lambert Thank you. Will that revolving account also cover the the unincorporated areas, the local government? Yes. So it would be available for any the idea would be any nonprofit organization that gets a grant that has restricted funds, typically federal money that is only available on a reimbursement basis. They don't have enough money to actually front those expenses. So we would make this available through DC Jazz or Public Health or DLC or whatever department it was, and then they would then revolve the funds back. So yes, Councilmember, our intent is to make it widely available. Thank you very much. Councilmember Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the update. And quick question, just to make sure I understood what you said about the rent assistance funding. Is this money that was already appropriated last year and is being re appropriated or it's new funding? Can you say a little more about that? It's new funding. So it was about the only money in the federal DEC COVID legislation that is going to the county. So we received a little over $45 million from that December appropriation of new rental assistance money. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Divella, I would welcome some conversation now as it's before the Council about how to make sure that we are ensuring that all of our rental assistance is distributed as equitably as possible, and not just to larger organizations understanding that they have the infrastructure, but they also may not have the relationship with minority and bipoc communities. I mean in some of the most severe need. Yes. I would suggest that either at this committee or at BFM that you perhaps arrange a briefing from Leo Flor to talk about how they did it with the money in 2020. And then there is this new money and then it appears there's likely to be very significant additional federal money. So I think your comment is very timely and we should make sure everyone kind of agrees on the mechanisms we're going to use for this. Thank you, Councilmember Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And just to my colleagues to recall that we are going to be scheduling a special meeting of the Budget Fiscal Management Committee on March 10th, assuming that the legislation is referred to that. Committee. At next Tuesday's meeting, which I am assuming it will. And then we will be having to go through the process and take it up in the full council meeting later in March. Yes, Jacqui. All right. So item two, and this is the one I think we will have the most discussion around is what is now being referred to as the American Rescue Plan. So this is the next proposed round of federal money. The president proposed 1.9 trillion. And I thought I would give you a fairly comprehensive update on where that is. And at least at this point, the different components that potentially would affect the county. So the way that they approached this was to do different bills in different committees starting in the House. And so the one that we've talked about the most has passed out of the House Oversight Committee. And this is the one that has the direct funding for state and local governments. And I looked at it this morning, and what passed out of committee was, I think, identical to what we had discussed two weeks ago. So for Washington state, the state government itself would get about $4.3 billion. Local governments in Washington state cities and counties would get about $2.4 billion. As we discussed, King County itself would get 440 million. And then the way this bill works is different than the CARES Act was. Every city will receive an individual allocation. And cities that are eligible for the Community Development BLOCK Grant program will receive money directly from the Treasury and all the other cities. Typically smaller ones, it appears, will receive money through the state. And I assume that is because the basically the Federal Government doesn't have a contractual relationship already set up with those cities. And so just to give you a couple of examples and I have a whole list, if people have specific questions, Bellevue would receive about $19 million. Federal way would receive about $17 million. Seattle would receive $220 million. Uh. Let's see. Kant would receive $26 million. And then all of the smaller cities would also receive funds in this way. So that's just a sense of that money and how much it is. And then let me tell you a few of the terms around it. So in order to access the money, the county executive would need to submit to the Treasury what they're calling a certification of the need and intended uses. They don't provide any detail about what that would have to be. And I specifically, I don't know how detailed the intended uses would need to be. So I think we'll need to have some conversation ahead of time about what we put in that document. But it will be in our interest to get that document submitted to the Treasury as soon as possible, because the legislation asks the Treasury to provide funding 60 days no later than 60 days after they receive that certification. So like the CARES Act, if we meet this requirement, the money will simply come to the county and we'll have it in hand. We won't have to wait and send bills to the Treasury and wait for weeks or months to be reimbursed. So that's going to be an important thing to get that ready to go. Basically, as soon as the president signs the legislation, assuming it all passes, so that we can get that done. I think another important feature is what you can use the money for. And just to repeat what we discussed two weeks ago, it basically provides for different categories of allowable uses. So first, to respond to or mitigate the public health emergency. So presumably, all of the things that we are doing with vaccination and testing and isolation and quarantine and hotel rentals and vouchers all should qualify in that bucket. Secondly, which sounds about the same thing to me, is cover costs incurred as a result of such emergency. So presumably that might be like our internal costs in the sheriff's office and the aged care in courts where we've had lots of incremental costs. The third category is replace revenue that was lost as of January 27th, 2020. So we would basically take our revenue forecast for 2020. Prior to the COVID hitting and then anything that we didn't get from that revenue forecast would be eligible as a use here. So general fund sales, tax meds, sales tax, metro sales tax, some of the property tax losses we had due to delays. So all of that apparently would be eligible users. And then finally, the last one is to address the negative economic impacts of the COVID emergency. So that presumably provides very widespread flexibility to provide funding to businesses, to nonprofit organizations, to individuals who are adversely affected by COVID. So the language as it exists in the bill today is extremely broad, far more so than the language that was. CARES Act. And then the final thing I would note on this before I paused here for a second is there is no time limit written into the bill. So it doesn't say you have to spend all this money by December 31st, 2021. And there's and it doesn't say anything, actually. And there's an explicit statement on the committee website that there is no timeline. You have the money until you spend. So that also would provide a lot of flexibility. So I have more to talk about, about the American rescue plan, but maybe we should stop there and talk about this kind of flexible funding component. Before I move on. Joe Rogan. Councilmember Dunn Thank you, Mr. Chair. BOYD Thanks for the presentation and encouraged by a lot of things you're saying, including what you just said. Significant, of course, that the federal government is is at least at this moment, providing broad flexibility. That is also retroactive back to January 2020. That's a lot of money that can be used for a lot of things. How are you going to approach that in your office in and in conjunction with Dow and our budget leadership team to try and get an idea of what you're going to fund there in such a big set of possibilities. What's your plan? That's what we've done. That is a great question, and it's one that I have been pondering now for the last couple of weeks. So let me just give you a very preliminary answer based on a conversation I had with the executive late last week. What what I would like to do is sort of identify all of the possible categories of uses. And last week, I had a call with Councilmember Cole Wells and Councilman Dombrowski, and we kind of started down this list. So it's everything from our direct county costs for COVID response. To our ability to support individuals and institutions and businesses and nonprofit organizations. With COVID response to revisiting some of the budget reductions we were forced to make in the 2122 budget. To looking at how we position ourselves financially to come out of the recession that we're in without another round of budget cuts in 23 and 24. And that was actually a good suggestion from one of your staff. So it's going to be. I think a complicated exercise to figure out roughly the size of each of those buckets, recognizing further that we don't know how long COVID is going to last, how what the next thing might be. Also recognizing that there are other sources of federal money that recover some of these things. So I'm kind of skipping ahead to my fourth point. We do expect that FEMA is going to cover all the vaccination costs. So it is a I think it's more than a 3D chess game. It's a four or five D chess game to figure out how all these pieces fit together. So we have a kind of process set up with the executive we're running. Engage him about his priorities. I, I would love to have councilmembers working through Councilmember Wells. Start thinking about how you want to engage in that balancing and how we can go back and forth from the executive side and the council side to figure out how we're going to allocate things. My only other thought at this point is I really want to encourage us to be thoughtful about how much we appropriate early, given that we don't have a clear sense of how long this is going to go on. We don't know if there will be another COVID bill from the federal government. And there's just so many uncertainties. I really would like to make sure that we have kept a significant amount of money in reserve until we get to, let's say, June or July. And then we could maybe reallocate to some other programs and we'll know more at that point. So that's a very thanks, but it's a very complicated question. Yeah. I appreciate you giving it some initial thought. Yeah. And I agree. We got to keep some in reserve. We just don't know. This thing has dogged us at every point worse than our expectations, but it's also our real opportunity to make our way, for example, to mid you know, as we as you well know, we've seen a double digit increase in relapses and new cases of addiction across the board. And yet that that fund is is in pretty bad shape, the sales tax revenue. So I look forward to working with you and in our budget here as we have that very important dialog. And remember Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Drake, for providing all the information. I honestly think relatively this will be a cakewalk compared to what we went through last year. Sir. It's really. Good news. I do have a question about the four items you brought up. And are there. Have. You been able to discern what may be the most problematic in terms of being able to get through Congress and be signed by the president? I mean, I hear and I'm sure we all do about some concern on the the total amount. There's some balking about that. But are any of these four items, ones that you think may not survive? I would be surprised, although I'm hardly an expert on the federal politics at the moment. Recall that this is all being done through the budget reconciliation process and that the reconciliation process and the budget resolution and the $1.9 trillion in it. So in a sense, as long as all the votes that voted for that stay there, the total amount is probably not going to change. There certainly are those who oppose any form of aid to local and state governments, and especially any form of aid that replaces lost revenue. And so I guess one could imagine if there is a desire to have a more of a bipartisan ultimate vote, that some of that revenue replacement money might be the most at risk. But it feels to me that at least all the COVID response money seems pretty safe, given that the need for that everywhere in the United States is obvious. Thank you. That's helpful. And of course, I think we all would prefer that there be. A bipartisan. Vote. And support here, even though it's. Through the reconciliation just requires some maturity. But thank you. Good. Lambert. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Three quick questions in the allocations. What will the allocation be like? For instance, the HOGGETS Euro 20 million? What were the allocation to each of the unincorporated area? There is no separate allocation for the unincorporated area. So one of the things that we will need to think about is of large 440 million. How much should we conceptually centralize going to the unincorporated area? And that might be especially important as we think about some of the budget reductions we took because of the lost revenue. You know, I'm thinking about the sheriff's office, maybe specifically. So I think that's a good thing. And I know you will be on top of that council member that we would recognize. Also, I think it's also important to understand that if this goes the way it is and the cities have as much money as it appears they're going to have. I really think we need to think as a county of what are our regional responsibilities that really only we do, and then what are our responsibilities as the local government for the unincorporated area, because every other local government is going to get a direct allocation of funding. Thank you. That is so powerful. And yes, I, I think two things there. One, that we should do what you just said. What is the local government and pick a city? What are they going to do? And then also, whatever the formula is that they came up with for all the cities to be allocated, and I'm looking at it saying it's probably a population that that same exact formula should be given to the unincorporated people. Because I don't like when they're a half a citizen or three quarters of a citizen, they should get everything that everybody else in the county get. So I really hope that we can get that formula as kind of a standard. Whatever anybody else gets, they get the same plus whatever needs for the local government, they don't have anybody but us. The next thing is that could we do some work on childcare capital costs? We heard some testimony today, but we hear it constantly. I hear it at the dinner table. I hear it from my daughter in law's. My son in law's daycare is just a nightmare. And if we could get some more opportunities for a lot of new daycares to pop up and I do know that I've been in touch with an agency I'll talk to you about later. Who has the ability to help us? If we had more money to go into daycare, could we make that one of our criteria that we're going to really focus as one of our focuses on daycare capitalization? Yes, you could. As I read this legislation, there would be no restriction on that. It's clearly related to, you know, what's happened because of COVID. Well, I think we would need to think about what it would take us from an administrative perspective. To do a program like that is a little different than what we've been doing. But nonetheless, I think from a legal perspective, reading this, there would be no reason you couldn't do that. Well, I hope my fellow members will take that as a suggestion, because we recently had an eight year old die. And it was very cryptic what the paper said, but it was charges of domestic violence. And I'm very concerned about the mental health and the safety of our children. The last question is, I am also concerned about landlords who have called me to say my tenant is working but has decided not to pay me any any rental. So is there a way that we could say when we give out the money for rental assistance, you must show either the contract that you're working with your landlord or pay the landlord directly or so that you're paid up something where the landlord situation is brought into this. And so it's a partnership. It's not just rental, but it's also landlords getting help. So I think that's a question for DHS. I don't know what they did in the case of the funding they did in 2020 as the payments went directly to landlords. It didn't book the tenant and then on to the landlord. But what you know, I personally don't know what requirements they had to document things like that. Great. I'll follow up on that because that falls under my committee. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to hear the breakout of how things are looking. Of course, it's not done until the ink is dry. And I'm going to refrain from giving my whole personal list of priorities for money, because we'll have to work through this together as a group. But I think once again, it's very important and good that we we collectively set out our principles early on. And I think that was really good work led by our Budget Chair to make sure that we are as it should help with our certification as well, since we have already adopted priorities and policies, one would hope. My question is this. So in conversations, public health has been having regular conversations with some of our school districts, possibly all of our school districts. And in the most recent one, it was brought up by some of the school board members. What emergency funding was the county going to be able to share with schools? And none of us were really clear what they were talking about because they kept using a phrase that I'm not going to remember. That was not one that any of us who are not education people were familiar with, but they were talking about cares , act, money. And so I'm not sure, like there's not been a conversation other than we need help. Can you help? I just want to put it out there that that was said out loud. I know we have a very high priority to help the schools open. And if there's anything within our role that we can do to support them with testing or technical support or whatever is appropriate for the county to do. I just want to put it out there for your thinking as you're modeling through how we do this. I think it is similar to something Councilmember Lambert was saying, that we should make sure that we're looking at what resources the schools have through their own sources and what what they can access to do their job. And then what, if anything, within our role can we help them with? But I just wanted to put that out there cause it had it coming for the very first time. I had not heard that asked before just a few days ago. So through the collective thought process. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Colleagues. Mr. Donnelly, I believe that's yours. Okay, so this is kind of part to me, and I think we'll go faster from here. So in addition to that part of the overall program, there are a variety of other proposals that are in different congressional committees that would also provide funding to the county. And I'm just going to list what some of those are. So there's an emergency rental assistance program that is proposed at $19 billion, a portion of which would go to county governments to administer. So beyond the 440, we would get a piece of this. I haven't researched whether they have a formula for that yet, but clearly we would get some of that money in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. There's additional money for transit and related purposes. And these are all, of course, national figures 30 billion for transit agencies, 8 billion for airports, 3 billion for aerospace manufacturing, wage support, which presumably a large portion of that would end up in King County and in Snohomish County. There is $50 million to FEMA, and I think this is where the 100% reimbursement would come from, which, as we've discussed, would then free up money that we had set aside for matching FEMA that we wouldn't otherwise have to do. There's also a $3 billion program through the Economic Development Administration to respond to economic injury caused by COVID. Those are typically competitive grants. And so I think if we had a couple of very good ideas about where we could use that, we should be thinking about that and beginning to work on figuring out who would write such a grant proposal. And that's not a lot of money, but it's the kind of thing that a few million dollars might make a big difference if we're really focused on a particular category. And so those are some of the other things that are in there that would potentially affect the county. Councilman Baldacci, I would note there is $128 billion that would be for schools that would be administered through states, but 90% of it has to pass on to local school districts. Typically, Washington state gets about 2% of any of those amounts. So you're looking at, you know, something on the order of $2.5 billion coming to Washington state, that would mostly end up with local school districts. So that might be the more logical source of money for the things that you were asking about. And let me pause there. And that's what I have at this point on the American rescue plan. Questions to be. Dwight. Okay, last two should be pretty quick. So the third one is, as I think some of us have discussed, it is the executive's current thinking that he will be proposing COVID seven very, very quickly after the president signs this legislation, assuming, of course, it goes all the way through and gets signed. There's a couple of reasons for that. One is that we know we have great need in many parts of our county, both own programs, and for programs to support our residents and businesses and nonprofit organizations. So what we likely will have for you very soon after the president signs is a pretty large appropriation with a lot of the categories that were reflected in the council priority emotion that you sent us a couple of weeks ago. I am recommending to the executive that we don't do anything around like revisiting general fund budget cuts in that particular ordinance, but rather it really be focused on COVID response and it will come back to the general fund issues a little later in the year. It just it feels like that's too much to try to take on all at once. So we are likely going to be sending you in mid-March. The COVID seven is assuming we could get our act together, which I think we will, and it will have some of these really big buckets around vaccination, around testing, around the homeless shelter response. Those kind of things would all be in there. I expect we will also do some of the other things that are on your priority list, like additional money for food programs, additional money for some of the like the child care programs that we've done. Again, I don't know exactly what that's going to be. We are working on those lists, but that is our current thinking about how to do a first set of appropriations if this American rescue plan is approved. And I will pause there. Obviously it's memorable. Thank you and sorry for dominating here. One of the real challenges of last year's budget fight, as you know where the deep cuts to the mid and we know as Councilmember Dunn was mentioning earlier, that needs for mental health and behavioral health resources are increased dramatically during this time and the resources are decreased. So we have that sort of like worst case scenario going on. And I just want to commend to you if there's any way that programs have sort of limped on into the New Year without being cut yet. If there's a way that we can preserve operations that are ongoing, that are supporting people today rather than waiting to fill holes, that that would be worth looking at if you can avoid the harm of something that hasn't already gone away. Thank you for taking that into consideration. Yeah, Councilmember, that is a really good suggestion. And I think you're right that unlike in the general fund where we basically did cuts at the beginning of 2021 and then have others planned for the beginning of 2022 in mid there was kind of more of a ramp down. And so I think your suggestion is a very good one and we will look at that and maybe that would be an exception to what I said, that we'd put some revenue replacement money in for mid so that those programs could continue or maybe even grow where we know we have additional meet. Thank you so much for looking at that. Appreciate it. Great suggestion. Councilmember Carl Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight. One of our new priorities that we added this year has to do with access to justice in the courts. See encoded seven that you might including anything on that. So in the COVID six, we have included continued use of the Maiden Power Center for Superior Court Civil Jury Trials. We would likely add more money in COVID seven for that if the center still is available to us, which I think it will be at least through June. We have also in COVID six included some carryover funding for court improvement projects that weren't finished in 2020. So certainly if there are other ideas that emerge from our justice system where we could make additional investments, we would certainly look at that. My impression is we have done about as much as we can with technology and, you know, barriers and that kind of thing. So I'm not quite sure what else we would do in that area, but certainly if the prosecutor or the courts or public defense had ideas, we would definitely entertain them. And one example I can think of is with the need for interpreters, especially with all the remote proceedings. So I have not heard anything from any of the justice agencies about inadequate funding for interpreters. I mean, maybe it is an issue, but it is certainly not one I have heard. I have, but. Thank you. I. Guatemala City for the questions on this. Okay. So the very last one is like 30 seconds. Just want to add, I always want to have FEME on this list. So we continue to hear more from FEMA about some of the things the president has said, around 100% reimbursement, retroactive and so on. We haven't gotten anything. That is a check that I can take to the bank. But every time we get a communication, it's a little more positive than the previous one. So I think it is likely that we will end up with 100% reimbursement for 2020 and prospectively. But I don't really know for sure. And just to remind you, that's probably worth something like $25 million of money that we've set aside to match that we may not now need. And that would, in essence, be general fund money at this point. So as you're thinking about what we would be doing, you know, in the next few months or even in the rest of this biennium, if that comes to pass, that will help significantly. And that's what I had for this morning. Thank you. Questions on Mr. Moore for Mr. Davey. Thank you very much, Dwight. Appreciate it. We'll look forward to celebrating St Patrick's Day with COVID seven. Excellent. We will try to time it perfectly for you, Councilmember. Very good. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next item is propose motion 2021 ten, which would confirm the executive's appointment of Tinubu to the Landmarks Commission. Application materials were sent out to the council members separate from the meeting packet itself. Council staffer Leah Crackles AP will provide the brief staff report and will hear from Mzbel, who is with us via Zoom today. Ms. Crackles. AP The light is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, council members. I'm Leah Crackles AP The materials for this item begin on page ten of your packet and these this item would confirm the appointment of Tanya Wu to the Landmarks Kane County Landmarks Commission. Jennifer Meissner, the King County Historic Preservation Officer, is also here with us. And the Landmarks Commission was established to ensure preservation of King County's historic places, material culture and traditions for future generations. The nine member Commission is comprised of volunteers with broad experience in areas such as agriculture, arts, land use, START preservation, archeology, education and history and staff has not identified any issues with this Wu's appointment. And so I will turn it back to you. Thank you. Any questions of Ms.. Crocker's IP? Ms.. Meissner, did you have any introduction you wish to offer? Thank you, Councilmember McDermott and council members. I am really delighted to welcome Tanya Wu to the King County Landmarks Commission. She is bringing a wealth of experience in building redevelopment, a passion for historic preservation, a knowledge of preservation processes. And we are just thrilled to have her. And I would, again, just really want to welcome her. Thank you, Miss Boo. Welcome. We're glad you're with us today. And I turn it over to you to offer a few words of introduction and speak to your interest in the Landmarks Commission. Thank you. So my name is Tonya Woo. My family owns the Louisa Hotel, a 1909 unreinforced masonry building in the heart of the Chinatown International District. The building caught on fire on Christmas Eve in 2013. Its roof was burned, the structure was compromised, and we were in danger of collapsing on to our neighbors. So we worked with an amazing team to put the building back to use by preserving its historic characteristics closely following the Secretary of Interior's guidelines for rehabilitation. And I'm very happy to say the building reopened in 2019 to offer 84 units of workforce housing available to those who make about 30 200% area median income. My current passion project is restoring Prohibition era African-American jazz murals that were discovered during the rehabilitation. These murals are the very last remnants of Seattle's jazz club history, and we are on our way to completing this project in the next year or so. I currently serve on the International Review District Board, which preserves, protect and enhance the historic architecture of the rest of the city. I was trying to enter National District, one of Seattle's diverse Asian-American community. And I'm also on the AAPI heritage in the Pacific Northwest Task Force. And so I believe that historic preservation is not just about protecting historic structures, but also about our history, preserving legacy and ensuring that the stories of those that came before us will be preserved. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Wu. And your work has already spoken to the question that I asked the applicants before us at our last meeting, and that is about, you know, a broader understanding, if you will, of landmarks and preservation, and particularly of native and indigenous peoples and sites and artifacts. And you have spoken to that, or at least in reference to your work in Chinatown, in the international district, your work on the International District Review Board, the African-American jazz murals in jazz clubs. If you want to elaborate further on making sure that there's a broad cross-section and not a single focus on white culture in preservation. Yes. So there's. So many stories that are intertwined in all of our historic structures. And Seattle's and King County, one of the most diverse counties in in the states. And so it's just amazing, like walking through Chinatown. It's called Chinatown. But there's cultures. There's the Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, all these Asian cultures and one little area. And you go into the Rainier district and there's just so many more. And you hear about how all these cultures are intertwined and how celebrated diversity was, especially in our jazz clubs, in this in this area where all cultures are able to come together and celebrate the differences and have fun. And so it's just amazing to. Through buildings and build structures, discovering all these hidden stories and themes to preserve them and tell them to all of each generation. So have them realize there's always more to what you're just seeing is always more to the ground you walk on into . These those environments that holds us and protect us. Thank you. Colleagues. Any questions from this room? Hearing? None. I would entertain a motion on proposed motion on 2021 ten. Approval. Mr. Charles Coventry. Council Member Bell This has moved. We give it due pass recommendation in motion 2021 ten. I see no further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, did you? I. Council member Dombrowski. I. Councilmember Dunn. I. Council member, Caldwell's High Council member, Lambert High. Councilmember up the grill. I know Councilmember Yvonne right there. I council members are. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero on us. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to most in 2021 ten and will advance that to full council and we'll put that to consent. Ms.. Meissner, I was concerned that you were jumping the gun at the beginning of your presentation, talking about Ms.. Rule already joining the full council still has to approve the motion, but within I knew a vote coming out of committee. I think she is in good shape. Thank you. Thank you. And in as I said, we'll put that on consent. So it should be on a larger agenda for for councils is the approval on regular schedule. Thank you so much. And that brings us to item seven. This is this is ordinance 2021, 57 that would establish a new regulations on the use and sale of fireworks in unincorporated King County. You may recall that the council received briefings on the executive executive's proposed fireworks legislation, as well as a conceptual striker in early 2020. The proposed ordinance before us today is a reintroduced version of that fireworks legislation, which includes the conceptual, striking changes that were reached previously. The item is up for discussion today, and I will call on Jake Tracy to give the briefing and then as prime sponsor would make a few comments and we'll take up and then take up discussion. Mr. Tracy, the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jake Treacy, council staff. The materials for this item begin on page 15 one five of your packet. Proposed Ordinance 2020 10057 would prohibit the retail sale and discharge of fireworks, as defined in the revised Code of Washington and unincorporated portions of King County, and would establish standards for public displays of fireworks in unincorporated King County. As the chairman mentioned, there were a couple of briefings on this last year under proposed ordinance number 2020 0109. So Washington state law does allow for the retail sale of consumer fireworks with the state license and also allows persons 18 or older to purchase and use consumer fireworks without the need for a permit or license . The handout on page 54 of your packet shows these legal consumer fireworks under state law. Examples of similar fireworks that are legal for sale in Washington state include Roman candles, reloadable mortars, parachutes, wheels, cone fountains and others. Trick and novelty devices such as toy caps, party poppers and snap and pops. Under state law, do not rise to the level of these consumer fireworks and then other fireworks such as bottle rockets skyrockets. Missiles and firecrackers are illegal to sell by state law except on tribal lands. State law does allow for the retail sale of consumer fireworks only from June 28th to July 4th and December 27th to December 31st of each year. And states the consumers may only discharge fireworks from June 28th to July 5th and December 31st to January 1st of each year. Display fireworks of consumer fireworks. Display fireworks, on the other hand, are large fireworks that exceed the requirements in the definition of consumer fireworks. A public display of fireworks, as the name suggests, is the use of display fireworks where the public is or could be allowed to view them. Such displays require a state license and a permit from the local fire marshal. Cities and counties are allowed to adopt more restrictive regulations on what's allowed by state law. But there is a required one year waiting period between adoption of such regulations and the regulations being effective. King County Code currently allows fireworks stands and the Regional Business, Community Business, Neighborhood Business Office and industrial zones for up to 30 days each calendar year without the requirement for a temporary use permit. A temporary use permit would be required in other zones. As previously stated, actual sales of consumer fireworks can only occur during those periods prescribed in state law. The fire marshal is charged with issuing permits and conducting enforcement activities for the storage, retail sale and transfer to fireworks, as well as for the discharge of fireworks that exceed the definition of consumer fireworks. There's currently no limit in the code on the number of public displays of fireworks that can occur on any given property in any given the amount of time. So as I mentioned, this proposed ordinance would prohibit the retail sale and use of consumer fireworks in unimportant incorporated portions of the county. Fireworks could still be sold at wholesale, not direct to consumer in the industrial zone. And this prohibition on discharge and retail sale would not apply to tribal lands. The penalty for violating fireworks regulations would remain a misdemeanor, and the maximum penalty would increase from $250 per day to $1,000 per day. The proposed ordinance would remove existing regulations relating to fireworks, including standards for retail sale, consumer use and public displays from Title six of King County Code. And those regulations for public displays and prescribed penalties would move to a two Chapter 17 of the code, which is the fire code. As is required today, a permit from the fire marshal would be required for any public display or fireworks. Subject to a permit application and review fee. Proposed ordinance would remove detailed guidance on the applications and requirements and instead allow the fire marshal to determine what information should be included in the application. The code would mandate that traffic control and crowd policing plans, crowd control policing plans would be part of that application. The proposed ordinance would remove public displays of fireworks and allow as an allowed use in all zones and state. The temporary use permits cannot be obtained for these displays. So what that means, those two things working together is that the any individual property could have no more than two public displays of fireworks and any 365 day period . And just to give a little context based on data provided from the executive in 2019, for instance, probably the last normal year of fireworks usage, there were six applications for public displays of fireworks, all on separate properties. The proposed ordinance would remove detailed technical language and definitions, instead referencing the requirements and definitions in state code and the International Fire Code. And so that is kind of a brief overview of the ordinance. I can talk a little bit about process or I can pause for questions there. Let's pause there. And at this point, I will offer some as first and comments as prime sponsor, and then we can take up discussion and process conversations. This is this is one of the pieces of legislation we take up and consider as a county council where we're really serving as a local government. Fireworks are currently banned in 25 neighboring cities parks, national forests that surround unincorporated King County. Yet in this occasion, we have the ability to legislate for unincorporated King County, where we are indeed their local government. Unincorporated King County relies on us for their public safety, for health and welfare. This legislation will advance that. We've heard testimony about risk and injury. But let me point out, the United States Consumer Safety Commission says that, quote, On average, 180 people go to the emergency room every day with fireworks related injuries in the month around the 4th of July holiday. And we've seen this tragically in our own communities, though, in the 20 years I've represented fashion in White Center, both in the legislature and in the county council, I've heard repeatedly concerns about fireworks. It was the death of Senate Kennedy in White Center in a house fire started by fireworks that has prompted me to advance this legislation . His widow is one of the correspondents who sent in written testimony. That stuff was emailed us earlier today and people testifying have already mentioned that two houses were completely destroyed and 12 residents were displaced by fire that year. And in addition to injury risks, fireworks can also have a negative impact on health as well. Fireworks caused air pollution in a small amount of time. Maybe medical metal particles, harmful chemicals and smoke in the air for hours and even days. And the smoking particle pollution poses a health risk, particularly to people who already suffer from pulmonary issues, including asthma. We know that while King County has some of the highest outcomes, health outcomes in the county. In the nation. We also have some of the greatest disparities in health outcomes within our county. And in fact, some of the lowest health outcomes come in unincorporated King County in areas in South King County. The overlap to our ability to address these health concerns is correct today. And regarding the environment, in the last few years, we've watched forest fires spread quickly, threatening everything in their path, including homes, wildlife and firefighters. The horrific 2017 Eagle Creek Forest fire in Oregon was caused by safe and sane fireworks. A smoke bomb, according to news reports. The fire burned over 50,000 acres over three months before finally being contained. And then. There's the effect on pets and wildlife as well that PETA's trapping from paws is spoken to. And we have written testimony in our packet from Heidi Wills with PAWS. And I look forward to a conversation with my colleagues today about. Taking this action and how to develop the proposal before us and look forward to advancing it next month to full council where Mr. Tracy will speak to in a moment. I believe a would be more than a month from committee action, given the requirement for a 30 day notice of a hearing in full council. With that. That concludes my remarks and questions of myself for Mr. Tracy at this point in time. So. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are so many aspects to this, and so I'm glad that we're having lots of opportunities to ask questions. So I have a couple questions on page 16. Help me understand the paragraph. It says that state law allows retail sale of consumer fireworks from June 28th to July 4th and then December 27th to July 31st. That consumers may only discharge fireworks from June 28th, July 5th and December 31st to January 1st each year. And unincorporated in Connecticut only allows the discharge of fireworks on July 4th and does not allow retail sale of fireworks during the December period. So you still could let off the fireworks in December for New Year's Eve, but you would have had to have purchased them by July 5th. Is that correct? So my understanding is that the state law allowing for the December period came in after King County had adopted their fireworks code so that the state law supersedes the. The count is interpreted to supersede the county's allowance and that so the county does allow for those December sales. But I would ask Jim Chan of the permitting division to confirm on that. Good morning. Council members to chair. A provision director for for permitting. What Jake just said is correct. That is confirmed. Okay. So let me say that back. I'm sure I got it. So you would have to buy it by July 5th because that's the last day legally. Sara And then keep it until New Year's Eve so you can let it off on New Year's Eve. Is that right? That is correct. Okay. So I have a little bit of concern about having fireworks in your garage that long. So, anyway, that was one question I had. And then on the public displays, I, I want to know a little bit more about how much the permit would cost. It sucks in here someplace about the idea that if your application is incomplete more than 20 days before that, you would be dismissed. You know, if you're not used to making applications to government or you don't speak the language very well, you know, you may not make it correctly. So how is that going to work? But, you know, if a application comes in and it isn't made properly, will we get on the phone and have them complete it? Or will we just say, too bad? So is the question, how much would a display fireworks permit cost? And if the application is incorrect, how would they correct it? Okay. So we have a fee ordinance that lays out all of our fees for permits on our website, including fireworks display permits. That information is available and is updated with every fee ordinance so they can look at that and pull that information off if an application comes through and it's incorrect. We will reach out to those individuals and make those corrections, help them guide them through making those corrections before we we process the application. So one of the things that I think is in everybody's best interest is that we have a few days as possible. So. For them to be going on for all the reasons we heard today, from pets to people to fire damage, all of that. So getting the cities to have the large so is important. But as I remember, the permit was fairly expensive. It was like a couple of hundred dollars. Do you remember what the permit cost is? I have that here. I had the application fee for a special event or a fireworks display. Under the current code and this proposal remained the same as a $250 for the application fee. And the inspection fee is $412 per site visit. Okay, so it's $650. And for the little city, so say Skycom is $650 is a lot of money. And I would rather that the city do it and not have, you know, 50 other people doing it. So. I think we need to look at that in light of this to make sure that we are encouraging the cities and not making it more difficult for them to do that. I do want to say that was a little surprised. You know, everything that we've been doing for equity and social justice has been to reduce fines. And then here we're quadrupling it. 100% increase. So I thought that was interesting that the amount proposed that increased fine is so huge, which is the dichotomy of what we're doing and other things. So I'm glad we'll have more time for discussion, but those are my questions. Thank you. Hello. As members. Hello. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Most of my district is in Seattle, but I do have an unincorporated part of my district in the southern end called Skyway. And I've heard from a ton of residents about their desire to ban fireworks. So I want to thank Councilmember McDermott for bringing this forward. It is a public health issue. It is an environmental health issue. On the other hand, I've also heard from a lot of constituents who are worried about, as Councilmember Lambert mentioned, increasing fines and fees on low income communities. And, you know, when I see $1,000 per day, that's that seems super aggressive. I've also heard from people who are concerned about increasing law enforcement interactions with communities of color. I've heard about ending income streams for churches and nonprofits. I've also heard about, you know, interfering with people's cultural celebrations. And so for a long time, I've been grappling with these competing interests. It's really hard to weigh them against one another because they're so different. And in my attempt to grapple with it, I called up some of the people who I've heard from who were opposed and said, you know what would be something that you would support? And unanimously, everybody's saying that, you know, if we're talking about the big firecrackers, the eighties, the things that make your cars shake, the things that make dogs go wild, those things we're all against, the things that we don't want to ban are, you know, the celebratory ones that don't make that much noise, the roman candle, the sparklers, the wheels. So I was thinking about what would it look like to have that kind of compromise? But then I got confused by Jake's presentation earlier because it sounds like the firecrackers are already illegal everywhere. Is that right, Jake, that those big ones that people hear all the time are already illegal, even in unincorporated Kane County? Yes. Statewide firecrackers, bottle rockets, that sort of thing are illegal except for on tribal lands. They can be sold and used there. Okay. So we are really just talking about the ones that are sounding like grenades. The ones that are sparklers and wheels and and colorful things that aren't super loud. Is that what this ordinance is doing? I couldn't speak to the relative loudness of them, but the the things that are shown on page 15 of the packet that are those are not page 15, I think it was 54 of the packet. Those are the things that are currently legal that would become illegal under this ordinance. You said page 1554. Sorry. Okay. All right. I'll add second page 50. Page 55 shows the ones that are currently illegal for all of Washington state except for tribal lands. Great. So I'll look more into this and do some research. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. That's. Yeah. You know, I want to make sure that we're doing what we want to do with this. I think it would surprise a lot of people in unincorporated King County that I've been hearing from that the ones they're complaining about, at least that they're complaining about to me are already illegal. So that's just the interesting point. Thank you. Council members, council members. And I if I may, part of part of the motivation in a complete ban is to draw a bright line, because enforcement is terribly challenging. If some fireworks are legal and some are illegal, if a neighbor is letting off something that is legal. But maybe if the measure is volume allowing loud but not quite loud enough or is intended to be on the ground that bounces, you know, aerial generally being illegal that it was it's the brightness of legal or illegal that when I was working on this in preparation to introduce last year was a key point, not only in some of the communities that have been disturbed by fireworks, but particularly in law enforcement. One in the bright line and not the ambiguity of what might be discharged. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I can. This is Jim Chan, if I can add a couple comments. Mr. CHEN. Yes, just to clarify a couple of points on the penalty. So the ordinance as currently written allows up to $1,000 in maximum fines. That doesn't mean that we have to assess $1,000. We can assess anything up to $1,000 per state law. And in terms of the displays in other cities, our ordinance would not affect the the the cost or the displays that are outside of unincorporated King County. They can continue to permit and do their own display methodologies and permits. And then lastly, on the consumer fireworks to respond to Councilman, bizarrely, the sparklers are one of those consumer fireworks that you can buy off of fireworks fans. And those are one of the most dangerous and types of fireworks that is that you wouldn't necessarily be aware of. They burn up to 2000 degrees. They can melt metal and lots of cases. Those are causes for significant fires. So it's not just the noise, it's also the type of fireworks and the temperature in which they burn. Just wanted to share those comments. That's really helpful, Jim. Thank you. You bet. Cast member Belushi. Yeah. I just. Not a question, just a comment. I signed on to this as a co-sponsor. Primarily because I'm coming from an urban, suburban, incorporated area where this kind of a restriction has been in effect for many years for the reasons that you listed. There are some reasons why unincorporated and rural areas are actually at higher risk because they're harder to respond to if a fire does start and we don't have to reinvent the wheel here. There's a lot of experience in a lot of communities implementing something just like this. And I think that I support taking time to make sure everybody understands what we're doing. There are some deadlines that would be important to meet if we're going to enact this this year, we should enact it prior to the fourth so that it is effective prior to the fourth because of the rules about when it can take effect. And I support getting answers to everyone's questions, but this is not, in my mind controversial or challenging or really all that unusual. We're just an outlier in this regard where we don't regulate the way most incorporated jurisdictions do for safety reasons. And the story that members of the public share that you shared, Mr. Chair, about that family that lost their home and, you know, family member, it's just we should never, ever allow something like that to happen without doing what we can to to regulate as a government. I believe that's within our police powers, which are our obligation to the public safety of the community that we represent. So I feel very strongly about this, and I thank you for bringing it forward. Thank you. Mr. Tracy, did you have a process to speak to? Yes, if I may, Mr. Chair, please. So the executive has completed a superb review of State Environmental Policy Act review, or the previously proposed Fireworks Prohibition Ordinance, the one that came up in council last year. And that super review considered the potential impacts of all policy changes that are in this proposed ordinance, as well as a number of councilmember amendment concepts that were that came up in discussion. So the executive issued a determination of non significance through the super process on April 15th of last year and the amendment concepts that were provided to the executive in addition to the ones that are in this proposed ordinance. I'm just going to list them off quickly. Those were making changes to the civil and criminal penalties for violation of fireworks regulations to either decrease or delay effectiveness of the penalties, limiting the fireworks prohibition to urban areas and basin Maryland, and continuing to allow fireworks sales and use in rural areas other than downtown Maryland. Requiring that the ordinance not take effect until the executive is signed an agreement with all tribes and city and King County that do sell fireworks, that prohibits the tribes and cities from selling to individuals that live in unincorporated King County and continuing to allow the use of sticks and sparklers in unincorporated King County. And so all of those amendment concepts were considered in the executive analysis. If there were other amendment concepts that came up that come up outside of that. Those may require additional analysis. This legislation does require a 30 day hearing notice before being heard in full council. And so any amendment concepts that I didn't just list would need to be communicated to council central staff no later than the Friday after the committee action in order to be included in that 30 day notice that goes out prior to the public hearing in full council. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you. Member Council member Lambert. Just to make sure I heard what you just said. Did you just say that one of the potential things that was analyzed was that tribal, that the tribes couldn't tell me what you said about the tribes not being able to do that? Yes. This the amendment concept. That was communicated to staff was that the ordinance could not take effect. This prohibition could not take effect until the executive had signed an agreement with all the tribes and cities and King County that still sell fireworks. And that agreement would say that those tribes and cities could not sell fireworks to people who live in unincorporated King County. Oh, I think that that could be a amazing concept, because that's where they're getting the ads and the things that aren't legal for us to sell. And and I think that that would separate where it's being done. If they said that nobody that doesn't live on tribal land or is a tribal member could buy, would that fit under that amendment? For SIPA. So this I think the scope of this ordinance would only be able to affect. So. I would have to get back to you on that. Okay. Because that makes a huge difference, because the concern that I'm hearing you is that people are saying people from other parts of the county are coming out and making messes and leaving them and, you know, not taking and having the bucket of water in the hose and all the things necessary in case of an emergency. And so if nobody could buy the illegal things, that would make it much easier. So if you check into that, that was interesting when you just said that. Thank you. All right. Here. Nothing further. I want to thank Mr. Tracy and the public for coming to testify and for their comments today as well. And we will list this item for discussion in potential action at our next meeting. Last item on today's agenda is a briefing on the best starts for kids Levy. This is a mandatory dual referral, and the legislation is still in the Regional Policy Committee, which received its first briefing on the legislation last week. So this is our chance to make sure that we're briefed and aware of what's currently being considered in the Regional Policy Committee. It is not formally in the committee of the whole at this time. And for the briefing we have with us from our central staff, Hillary Williams and Randall Luskin for the briefing. The floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hilary Williams, Council Policy Staff. For the record, it's point for this agenda item begins on page 56 of your agenda packets. Propose on this 2020 10062 is a proposition to find the best start for kids initiative by replacing an existing property tax levy that is due to expire at the end of 2021. Best start for kids as a prevention oriented regional plan that is aimed at supporting the healthy development of children and youth, families and communities across the county. The executive proposal will create a new six year levy beginning in 2022 and going through 2027 with an initial levy rate of $0.19 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2022. Four Compare comparison. The initial levy rate for the existing levy was 14 cent per $1,000 of assessed value in 2016. If approved by the voters, the renewal levy is currently projected to generate a total of approximately $811 million in revenues during the six year levy period, based on the most recent forecast, as compared to a current projected total of approximately $404.5 million for the existing 2016 through 2021 live. According to information gathered from the assessor's office, a proposed 19 cent per $1,000 of assessed value levy would be estimated to cost the owner over $600,000. Home in King County, which is the 2020 median home value approximately $114 in property taxes in 2022. For comparison, at the current year, bank levy rate of 11 and a half percent, one per $1,000 of assessed value. The cost for the same homeowner would approximately be $69 in 2022. The proposed levy renewal will continue to provide funding for prevention and early intervention programs and services for children, youth and young adults aged 0 to 24, as well as their families and their communities. Additionally, the levy would expand to funding to support improved access to childcare throughout King County. This legislation was transmitted to council on January 28, 2021, and has been duly referred first to the Regional Policy Committee as a mandatory referral and then to the Committee of the Home. Today is the first briefing of the proposed legislation in the committee. The item was also briefed in the Regional Policy Committee on last Wednesday, February ten. Council staff and legal review of the proposed legislation is ongoing, and if approved by council, a renewal levy could be placed before the voters at the August 3rd, 2021, primary election. Mr. Chair, I will now hand it over to my colleague Miranda Luskin, and to provide background information on the creation and progression of best starts for kids today. Thank you. TILLERY And good morning, members of the committee. For the record, Miranda lesson in I am on page 57 of your materials and I'll speak briefly to a bit of history and background. In November of 2015, King County voters approved the current best starts for Kids Levy, which is a six year property tax levy based on an initial levy rate of $0.14 per $1,000 of assessed value, plus an annual 3% growth or limit factor. With the first year of collection in 2016 for the current levy ordinance, 18088 directed that out of the first year's levy proceeds that $19 Million be set aside to fund the Youth and Family Homelessness Prevention Initiative, as well as the amounts that were necessary to pay for the election cost related to the levy. All remaining levy proceeds are to be disbursed as follows. And again, this is for the current levy, 50% for the invest early allocation, 35% for the sustain the gain allocation, 10% for the communities matter allocation. This is also known as communities of opportunity and 5% for the outcomes focused and data driven allocation. In September of 2016, the Council passed Ordinance 20 373, adopting the current starts for kids implementation plan. The plan provides guidance on the goals, investments and implementation of the current levy. Current levy oversight is provided by the Children and Youth Advisory Board, which carries dual responsibilities tied to the levy as well as the Youth Action Plan, as well as the Communities of Opportunity Best Streets for Kids Advisory Board, which is the advisory body for the communities of opportunity portion of the levy. Moving forward a little bit in July of last year, Council adopted motion 15651, which requested the Executive to submit for Council Review an assessment report of the current levy funded goals, strategies and programs per that motion. The intent of the assessment was to inform council deliberations regarding the potential for a levy renewal since the current levy does expire at the end of this year. The motion included a detailed list of reporting requirements, covering both an assessment of the current levy and recommendations for any future levy. In October of last year, the executive transmitted the report and a motion to accept the report. Council passed the motion to accept the report in December of last year. The assessment report made five recommendations to inform a proposal for renewal of the best streets for kids. Levy I want to read through each of the recommendations, but just note that they are described on page 59 of your packet materials regarding overall, levy highlights the attachment to the proposed ordinance, which is a best rates for kids blueprint. Reports noted that the current levy has funded almost 600 programs and served more than half a million children, youth, young adults and families throughout the county with community driven programing since the inception of the current levy. A summary of Levy highlights excerpted from that report are provided in the staff report. Again, I won't read through them individually, but just note that they are described beginning at the bottom of page 59. And with that I will turn things back to my colleague Mr. Williams to describe the start with the analysis portion of the staff report. Thank you. I would now like to direct your attention to the analysis section of the staff report, which begins at the top of page 61. This section provides step analysis of the transmitted proposal as follows An overview of the Renewal Levy proposal a summary of the Individual Levy Ordinance sections, including Attachment eight to the proposed ordinance titled The Best Kids The Best Art for Kids Blueprint Report. An analysis of the executive's proposed estimated funding distribution, which includes funding for new child care programs. An analysis of the executive proposed estimated annual allocation for those existing investment areas currently funded under the existing BSC Levy Ordinance. Potential policy issues as identified by council staff, supplementation considerations and finally, next steps and key dates. I'd like to start by providing a brief overview of the proposed BSC renewal levy, which is described in detail on page 60. As I stated before, this ordinance would renew and expand the existing best constituted property tax levy, which is due to expire at the end of 2021 to fund the Best Start for Kids initiative, if approved by the Voters Renewal Levy is currently projected to generate a total of approximately $811 million of revenues during the six year period . Moving on. Ms.. Let's get in. And I will now provide a summary of the Levy proposal sections. I will cover section one through five. Section one of the ordinance provides definitions for a number of important terms used in the proposed ordinance. Section two of the legislation covers Levy submittal, which calls for the sum of the proposition to the voters to approve authorizing the property tax to provide necessary moneys for the purposes identified in Section four of the ordinance, which I will go into detail a little bit later for a period of six consecutive years for collection beginning in 2022 for an initial rate not to exceed $0.19 per $1,000 of assessed value with a limit factor of 103%. Section three covers the deposit of levy proceeds and identifies the levy. Proceeds would be deposited into a dedicated SERP, one of the best starts for kids for or its success. Section four covers the eligible expenses covered under the levy, which first directs the amount of the amounts necessary to pay for election costs related to the levy be paid out of the Levy's first year proceeds after accounting for election costs. The ordinance directs that the remaining levy proceeds shall be used to one promote improved health and wellbeing, outcomes of children and youth as well as the families and the communities in which they live. Included including but not limited to ensuring adequate services and supports for pregnant persons and newborns. Access to safe and healthy foods, developmental screening for children and youth programs, and care for children and youth when they are not at home, including childcare and out-of-school time programs, programs and services that promote a sense of belonging, connection and positive identity in children and youth. And programs and services that provide academic support. And promote academic achievement. To prevent and intervene early on. Negative outcomes. Including. But not limited to. Or birth outcomes, developmental delays, chronic disease, social emotional isolation, substance abuse, dropping out of school homelessness, domestic violence, and impacts of the system, systemic racism in incarceration. And lastly, three reduce inequities in outcomes for children and youth in the county and improve better. Improve, better coordinate, integrate and encourage innovation in health and human services systems and the agencies, organizations and groups addressing the needs of children and youth, their families and their communities. I will provide a breakdown of the executive proposed funding distribution for all of the new and existing investment areas later in the presentation. Section five of the proposed legislation, which calls for a special election which set the date for the election on August 30, 2021 and provide the specific language to appear on the ballot. I will now turn it back over to Ms.. Less to provide a summary of six and six through ten, as well as the BSC Blueprint Report, which is a testament to the proposal. Thank you. Hillary picking up with Section six and I'm on page 64 of your packet materials. This section states that the King County Children and Youth Advisory Board would serve as the Oversight and Advisory Board for the levy and its strategies, except for the communities of opportunity portion of the levy, which would be governed by the communities of opportunity. Best starts for Kids Advisory Board. If voters approve the levy, the executive bye must by October 1st of this year transmit to Council for consideration and adoption by Ordinance a best starts for Kids Governance Update Report and enacting legislation that describes and explains necessary and recommended changes to sections of County Code and any applicable ordinances that speak to the composition and duties of those boards. Just of note, the proposed ordinance would require that the Executive consult with both of those boards in preparing the update report and moving to Section seven. As regards implementation plan, this section requires the Executive to transmit a proposed levy implementation plan to Council for its review and adoption by ordinance. The plan to be transmitted by the end of July of this year would identify the strategies to be funded and outcomes to be achieved with the use of levy proceeds, and must also include a framework to measure the performance of levy strategies in achieving their outcomes. Regarding the development of the plan, the following would be required of the executive. The executive would be required to develop the proposed plan in consultation with the Cyf and Sobieski Advisory Boards. The Executive would be required to consider and promote harmony with the current Levy's implementation plan, particularly regarding which of the current plan strategies would continue in the proposed new implementation plan, and then, to the maximum extent possible, also take into consideration the Kane County Youth Action Plan. Per the proposed ordinance levy, proceeds may not be expended until the effective date of the adopted adopted implementation plan for ordinance moving to Section eight regarding exemption, this section indicates the renewal levy would be included in any real property tax exemption allowed by state law, which exempts some seniors, disabled individuals and veterans. Just as a note of context, state law allow cities and counties the option to exempt eligible persons from the regular property tax increase resulting from a levy, a subject to meeting eligibility criteria and receiving application approval. A Section nine ratifies would ratify firm certification of the proposition by the Clerk of this Council to the Director of Elections Section ten. Regarding severability, essentially, I would specify that if any part of the ordinance is held invalid, that the remainder of the ordinance would be affected. And then there is Attachment eight, which, as we referenced earlier, attached to the proposed ordinance is a Best Starts for Kids Blueprint Report. The report stated Intent is to explain and provide context for the executive's proposed ballot measure ordinance during this council's consideration and deliberations. As further indicated on the cover page of that report, the Executive would request that the report be detached from the proposed ordinance before final action. And with that, I'll turn things back over to my colleague, Mr. Williams, to speak to estimated funding distribution. Thank you. The analysis of the executive proposed funding distribution for the proposed ordinance begins on page 66 of the staff report. As directed a 22.5% allocation under the renewal Levy's first year proceeds, which is approximately 27 million of a currently projected 122 million, would be dedicated for the Youth and Family Homelessness Prevention Initiative and Technical Assistance and capacity programs, as supported by the first BSC Levy, as well as a new affordable child care program and a new child care workforce demonstration project for the subsequent years of the Levy years 2226 8% allocation for these purposes is not specified in the proposed ordinance. Instead, the ordinance directs that at least $235 million must be invested for those programs over the six year span of the levy. In reference to the proposed new childcare program investment. The proposed ordinance would make a substantial new investment in a new childcare subsidy program to make childcare more affordable for more than 3000 low income families with a specific focus on communities that can least afford childcare because of longstanding inequities or emergent challenges like unemployment or homelessness. The proposal also establishes a new childcare workforce demonstration project to bolster the ability of childcare workers to earn a livable wage in King County, according to the executive. The Childcare Workforce Demonstration Project will supplement the salary and benefits for approximately 1400 childcare workers across the county, focusing on childcare providers that serve low income communities and communities of color, according to the Blueprint Report. This investment would aim to improve the quality of childcare and improve the ability of childcare providers to live in the communities they serve. The demonstration project will be evaluated each year to determine how these wage and benefit changes affect recruitment and retention. In 2025, the demonstration project would report on outcomes and recommend any changes to improve the program for the second half of the levy period. In summation of the four programs previously mentioned. The Blueprint Report also states that if council approved annual costs for the Youth and Family Homelessness Prevention Initiative and Technical Assistance Capacity building programs adhere to the best Start's staff modeling of 4.7 million per year for those two programs. The proposed ordinance requirement for a 235 million total six year expenditure would leave approximately 206 million total to fund the Childcare Subsidy Program and Childcare Workforce Demonstration Project, as indicated by executive staff. The rationale for this approach is to allow childcare expenditures to grow as a proportion of overall levies, expenditures faster than programs carried for from the existing levy, and to allow preschool plans to operate with the benefit of a of forecast that will come out close to the time the implementation plan is proposed also for the executive. By setting a first year percentage and a total six year amount, those two factors combined to require the investments in childcare to grow without trying to set a specific amount by the year that would be locked in to the ballot measure ordinance. Well before we have more dependable valuation forecasts. In other words, the proposal is designed for child care to be a bigger proportion of the levy in year six than it will be in year one. This also aligns with the operational reality that program starter takes some time in the first year. Moving on, I will now cover the proposed estimated annual allocation for the existing BSC BSC investment areas as created by the first BSC Levy Ordinance. This information begins at the bottom of page 68. After annually setting aside proceeds to Family Homelessness Prevention Initiative, the new Affordable Childcare Program, the new Childcare Workforce Demonstration Project. Empower the technical assistance and capacity building programs. The Report. The proposed ordinance would then allocate the remaining levy proceeds between the invest early sustained again communities of opportunity and evaluation investment areas as established in the in the first BSC levy. Those proposed remaining allocations for the levee renewal ordinance are as follows consistent with the existing levee. 50% of remaining revenue would be invested in an existing invest early strategies. The first book left the ordinance states that those revenues should be used to plan, provide and administer strategies focused on children and youth under five years old and their caregivers, pregnant women and for individuals or families concerning pregnancy. Of these moneys, not less than 42.8 million shall be used to provide health services such as maternity support services and nursing. Family Partnership. Home visiting programs. Services. In comparison, the proposed ordinance maintains the 50% allocation, but to be used to plan, provide and administer strategies focused on children and youth under six years old. But it does not specify a minimum dollar amount to be used for health services. One thing I like to point out that while the existing and best early investment area covers prenatal to five years old, the proposed renewal changes that target to include children and youth under six. Council staff inquired about this discrepancy in the identifier identifier age category, and the executive stated that the language change regarding age was intentional due to purposefully adjusting to certain five year olds who are not yet eligible for kindergarten to prevent gaps between services. Specifically, that designating the group as under six allows the full target population to be eligible for preschool and home visiting programs for kindergarten. Moving on. Investments in the Sustain the gain area, which covers 5 to 24 year olds, are increased from 35% in the current levy to 37% in the proposed renewal, according to the executive. These bonds would be able to maintain current programing and increase funding for school based health centers. Transitions to adulthood and out of school time for 5 to 12 year olds. The executive also stated that the 2% increase in this investment area is driven by input from council members and the community alike, requesting more investment in 5 to 12 year old children and county. As opposed to the 10% allocated in the current levy. 8% of remaining funds are set aside to continue communities of opportunity at the existing funding level. Council staff inquired about the reason for the 2% big decrease, and according to the executive, the proposed legislation starts with the dollar amount allocated to communities of opportunity for 2021. And builds upon the dollar amount for the renewal with a yearly cost of living increase. Because the proposed levy is larger amount of funding than the current levy. Keeping communities of opportunity at the same dollar amount changed the percentage of the levy proceeds allocated, but not the dollars investment in the strategy. With the 2% that remains. After calculating the dollar amount for communities of opportunity, the executive was able to propose deepening the investment in the sustain the game investment area, specifically for the 5 to 12 year old programs that I mentioned before. Consistent with the existing levy, 5% of remaining revenues is preserved for evaluation. Children and Youth Advisory Board stipends for youth appointed to the board and reimbursing park fire and hospital tax districts experiencing progress as a result of the levy for expenditures that are consistent with the purposes of the levy. It is important to note that the current ordinance does not include language that requires stipends to be paid to any of the Children and Youth Advisory Board members with proceeds from the first vascular August 2020 a week for projections estimate that 77.5% out of their proposed renewal. Levy's first year proceeds dedicated to these investment areas with total approximately 95.3 million. Mr. Chair, I will stop there and turn it back over to my colleague, Ms.. Luskin, to cover the initial policy issues council staff has identified as well as supplementation considerations. Thanks to Hillary and I'm on page 71 of the packet materials, so staff have identified some potential policy issues that are described in the staff report, and I'll just move through them very quickly. Regarding levy rates, as noted, the proposed initial levy rates of $0.19 per $1,000 of assessed valuation would represent an increase of $0.05 from the initial levy rates for the current levy and the proposed initial levy rate for the renewal levy does represent a policy choice relating to the new programs discussed and the transmitted renewal levy proposal. I would add funding to support a new child care subsidy program and a new child care workforce demonstration program. Again, the addition of funding for these new programs and their funding structure also represent a policy choice. Just also note that the proposed definitions included in the levy ordinance in Section one do not specify program parameters at a detailed level, also relating to funding structure. It's also important to note that in regards to the programs funded by the 22 and a half percent allocation in the first year, and that includes the Youth Family Homelessness Prevention Initiative, the technical assistance and capacity building, and then the new child care programs that while the proposed ordinance requires that no less than 235 million of levy proceeds total be allocated to these programs over the six year levy period. The ordinance does not establish a maximum dollar amount that can be allocated to these programs, which also would represent a policy choice. So moving to rationing considerations, levy proceeds are allocated if approved by council by ordinance in the proposed ordinance to reduce the Levy's impact on applicable Metropolitan Park districts, fire districts and capital hospital districts. To the extent their levies may be rationed and to the extent the rationing was caused solely by the levy. Aside from providing up to $1,000,000 for impacted Metropolitan Park districts, the ordinance does not specify a set aside towards rationing mitigation. Instead, the ordinance directs that such funding would be included within the proposed 5% allocation that, in addition to rationing, mitigation, also covers funding for performance measurement, evaluation and data collection and the city stipends. The levy ordinance directs that cruel ration districts would be required to use any moneys received to fund services identified in subsection B of the ordinance that are provided by those districts. So in other words, any moneys received would need to be used for services and programs that are consistent with the Levy's purposes. Just for a bit of context, the current estimates for kids levy include similar pro rationing mitigation funding provisions for local metropolitan park districts and fire districts. Inclusion of local hospital districts is a new addition for the proposed renewal levy period. And according to executive staff, the rationale for the inclusion of hospital districts is to provide a mechanism for local park, fire and hospital districts to maintain their locally funded priorities if the levy is enacted and approved. Also noted an initial analysis by PSB indicates that the Basin Hospital District could potentially be impacted by rationing, but that this analysis is preliminary and it's difficult to know whether the district would actually be impacted because there may be a substantial variability in economic forecasts over the next year. And again, staff analysis is ongoing. Just speaking very briefly to some supplementation considerations for King County. Under state law, a levy like proposition like Best Start's for Kids can only be used for the specific limited purposes of the levy as identified in the ballot title. Additionally, state law allows for levy funds to be used to provide for existing programs and services, provided that the levy funds are used to supplement but not supplant or replace existing funds. Just as a quick heads up, the state statute governing levy bed lifts currently prohibits implantation in counties with a population over one and a half million . There is a proposed House bill that's been introduced and is currently being considered during this year's state legislative session. That would, if it were enacted, remove the supplementation restriction for Levy's approved in calendar year 2015 through 2022. Just in terms of status, as of the writing of the staff report, the bill is currently in the House Rules Committee and again, staff analysis is ongoing. With that, I will turn things back to Mr. Williams to speak to the last section of the staff report. Thank you, Miranda. So I will go over this very quickly. This section of the staff report begins on page 73, following action on the proposed legislation, the Regional Policy Committee. The committee of the whole would then take up the legislation, assuming the Committee of the whole passes the legislation to the full Council for consideration, and that either the committee or the full council means the legislation which will create a new version. The legislation would need to be referred to the Regional Policy Committee for its consideration before moving to the full Council, full or possible final action. The last regular council meeting at which this Council could act as a non emergency with minimum processing time would be the May four, 2021 council meeting. The last regular meeting at which the council could act as an emergency would be the May 11, 2021 Council meeting and conclusion. The chairs of the Regional Policy Committee and Committee of the whole have distributed a schedule of deadlines for amendments for this legislation, which is attachment to the staff report and can be found beginning on page 135 of your agenda package. Mr. Chair, that concludes our remarks. Thank you. Brandon Tillery, Councilmember one Mike Bowers, Chair of the Regional Policy Committee. Did you want to speak to the committee's timeline or work? Thank you, Mr. Chair. In terms of our preparation, our regular schedule of our APEC meeting will be on March ten. And after that, if there is an action taken by the Economic Council that is different than what is passed out by the RTC. I have now scheduled a special meeting on Friday, March 26, in the morning there. That seems to be consistent with the ability of the two members of the Salem City Council and the other suburban mayors and our own colleagues. So the two dates for the RTC is our firm date of March 10th Wednesday, and a special meeting will be requested of the RBC on March 26. Patients needed. Thank you very much. Colleagues, are there questions, discussion that we should surface as part of this briefing? Again, this is briefing only today. The legislation itself, as we've said, is still on the Regional Policy Community Council member Dombrowski. Oh, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thanks for the briefings today. This is a somewhat technical question, but with respect to the suppression issue and Councilmember Lambert's very effective advocacy for the Metropolitan Park District, I think in her area, we also saw Councilmember Eye on something called the North Shore Park and Recreation Service area, which is a different kind of special purpose government that has similar functions or at least powers. And I wondered if staff would have to do it now, or legal council could make sure that to the extent there were suppression issues there because that there is a levy. Now, the fund helps support the senior center of the North Shore that we could make sure that that those types of districts were protected. It's a park and recreation service area and we don't have to answer today. We can work on that offline. I want to surface it. Thank you, Mr. Roy. I mean that you think you got to remember, we will definitely work with DHS and legal counsel to get more information for you now. Thank you. One other question, if I might, Mr. Chair. I have an interest, and I think I just want to surface it now with colleagues and staff in ensuring that all of the great programing that the best arts for kids Levy brings to life has a physical place to occur that is safe and healthy and really enables these programs. You know, the Community Center's Think Boys and Girls Club, think wise, think other, maybe more culturally specific centers where these services are carried out. And, you know, one of the things we did on the parks levy was have the penny for pools for for capital facilities. And I'm wondering if there is an opportunity here to include a capital grants component. I've shared this with the executive staff, but I'd like to just surface that a capital grants component to remodel or construct or enhance or expand those kinds of facilities throughout the county. So we've got places for the kids to go. You don't remember? We will make note and definitely work with the executive to inquire and gather more information for you regarding the request. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Thank you. Other colleagues. Amber Council member. LAMBERT Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I am concerned about about depression and. I just think it's not okay that we stamp out any other taxing district and tell them you have to go away, or you only can do a function that may not be your function. So one of the districts that we have is a cemetery district, and I doubt that that cemetery district is going to be able to do things for little kids so they won't qualify for this. So the cemetery district should have be operations, and I don't know if it's appropriate operation or not, but it doesn't seem like it's fair to the littoral districts, whether they be a hospital and a bird hospital guarded by our districts, which are very interested in proration, in not happening cemetery districts, park districts. All of these districts provide a function and yet we could overpower them and say, you don't get any money. And I had a park district that had no money. Zero. For two years. That's just not fair to the community. So I think that we should have a policy that says we will backfill any of the junior taxing districts that we bump out or reduce because of this. So that section, I think, really needs to be rewarded and make sure that all of our junior taxing districts have security, that they aren't going to lose what they have, and that the citizens who rely on those services know that they're not going to go away. So that is a very important part for me to be able to have that be much more. Bold that. That is the public policy we're going to have. So two quick questions. Did this early on say that we have a 3% cost of living inflator during those six years, or was it a total 3%? Oh. Councilmember, this is Miranda. So the limit factor is the same as for the current levy annual increase of 3%. 3% limit factor. Okay. For each year. Okay. And then one thing I would like some analysis on is as I was listening to this, we're talking about children. And I can't remember because it's been 20 years where their head start is, kids, 18 months to three or eight months to five years. But there is in law either headstart or with the school district where that is the purview of educating that group. And I don't remember exactly the the ages, but that through Headstart and through the schools is the school's responsibility. And as I'm listening to the health care clinics in the schools, that's the school's responsibility. So as I'm listening, I'm thinking, oh, we funded that cares money or we funded that with this money. It seems to me that there's a lot of duplication, and it would be interesting to see how much overlap and how much we're doing that actually belongs. To the schools. So that we can begin to really analyze what this is. And I would like some analysis done on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Further issues to surfaced during the briefing. I want to thank everybody. And Mr. Williams, Miss, was listening for your briefing. We'll look forward to the good work of the Regional Policy Committee and having this formally before the committee. The whole after they complete, they conclude their work. Madam Clerk, were there any items were there any votes missed today? No, Mr. Chair, there were none. Thank you. Then I want to thank everyone for joining and participating in the committee, the whole meeting today. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you so much.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Tanya Woo, who resides in council district two, to the King County landmarks commission.
king_577d678b-4172-45e3-b2b5-a7ad8184bf9a	Afternoon. I'm King County Council member Joe McDermott. I'm calling our committee the whole meeting for Monday, March 18th, to order. Madam Clerk, would you please call the off? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Council Member DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Council Member Gossett. Here. Council Member. Commonwealth Council Member Lambert. Here. Council Member of the Grill. Council Member Phone right there, Mr. Chair. Here, Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Is is there anyone who had signed up for public comment? Next item on the agenda is public comment for item on today's agenda for the committee, the hall. If anyone in the audience would like to make public comment on the items on today's agenda item, you're more than welcome to do so. I'd ask you to limit your testimony to 2 minutes and ask you to step to either one of the two podiums and see no rush from the audience to either one of the podiums. I'll close the public hearing and that takes us to approval of the minutes. Councilmember Gossett, would you be kind enough to move approval of the March 4th minutes? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to move that. We adopt our march for 2019 minutes. Thank you. The March 4th minutes would be for a C, no discussion. All those in favor, please say I opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Takes takes us to items five and six, two appointments to the for culture board. Last year, the Council adopted an ordinance that made changes to the oversight for culture, the county's cultural development authority. One of those changes was to have the have Kane County Council members directly point nine of the 15 board members with the council confirming those appointments. Two of the council members nominated for culture board members are here today for consideration of their confirmations. The first is Vivian Phillips, who was nominated by Councilmember Larry Gossett. Leah Cockles, up from our central staff, provided a brief staff report on the appointment, and then I'll ask Councilmember Goss if he'd like to introduce the item. And I'm here from as Phillips. Good afternoon, Council members. The materials begin on page one of your packet and just a little background for culture is King County's Cultural Development Authority, created in 2002 to administer King County's arts and heritage programs. And the For Culture Board is governed for culture is governed by a 15 member board of directors. Directors, according to their culture charter, are to have a demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of cultural resources, be active and experienced in community and civic issues and concerns, and have the ability to evaluate the needs of the cultural constituent constituencies of the region as a whole, directors are to represent a range of talents, experiences, backgrounds and viewpoints related to cultural development. And directors must be residents of King County and are chosen to reflect the geographic and cultural diversity of the county. Last year, the Council made some changes to the board culture board appointment process, and nine of the 15 positions are now directly appointed by Council County Council members. Appointments must be confirmed by the Council by Motion Board members as four Culture Board members serve four terms of three years and may serve up to two consecutive full terms and now move on to board appointee Vivian Phillips. She lives in Seattle in Council District two and was appointed by Councilmember Larry Gossett. Mr. Phillips is a strategic advisor and consultant serving clients in arts, culture and communications fields. Additionally, she has served as director of marketing and communications for Seattle's largest performing arts organization, the Seattle Theater Group. She has co-founded an African-American theater lab, served as an adjunct professor for Seattle University's MFA Arts Leadership Program, independently produced theater productions and served on the Seattle Arts Commission. Mr. Phillips appointment appears to be consistent with the requirements of county code, the Fort Culture Charter and the bylaws. Thank you. Then invite Ms.. Phelps to join us. And Mr. Bryant. Carter and Mr. Carter, if you want to join us at the presentation table, welcome. I didn't realize Mr. Carter was coming to. I know Mr. Phillips well enough to know she could fend for herself. Yeah. But I can't remember. Gosset, would you like to introduce? Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. It gives me a great deal of pleasure and privilege to introduce to all of you who don't yet know her. Vivian Phillips has been more active in the cultural arena than just about anybody I know. She goes all the way back to the black arts west and central area where she was dynamic and a person who was involved as well as very supportive of black theater. I thought that our staff persons met in other big titles that she currently owns was good, but she is very rooted in the grassroots movement for our culture, involvement of African-Americans and other people of color, and just anybody who thinks they have the talents to be more active in a culture of various cultural arenas that are called to represent than just about anybody I know. And because of this training and experience, she's someone that will even challenge Councilmember Gossett when she thinks it's appropriate. So I kind of dig that. So what I want to do, what I want to do not turn to Brian, who I know knows Mr. Phillips. And he is currently the executive director of the for Culture Organization and its its board that I am recommending Vivian serve. So I'd like to give you an opportunity to mention briefly about the board and then what he thinks Vivian will bring to it. Thank you, Mr. Curry. Welcome. If you have any framing remarks for both the board in general and for culture, and Ms.. Phelps would welcome them. Just want to say hello to all the council members. Thank you for having me here today. And thank you specifically to Councilmember Gossett for nominating Vivian Phillips. I've known Vivian since it's been a while now. She was the emcee for the opening ceremony of the Northwest African-American Museum back in 2008, which is when I first became acquainted with her and was able to celebrate that momentous occasion together. And since then, I've seen her and her prolific career and, as you said, those large titles. But beyond that, I'm excited about her. Coming on the board for culture at this pivotal moment is we're an organization that's evolving, that's changing. It's really looking critically at where funds go and how they best support the culture and helping the entire county. And I think she has an experience across just myriad disciplines, different size organizations with such roots in community that it's somebody that I plan to rely on for their counsel, for their advice. And like you, I'm sure she'll call me out when need be as well. So I look forward to the talents, I think, and the experiences and perspectives that she brings to the Fore Culture Board. I think she'll be a valuable asset and I look forward to working with her. So thank you for that. Thank you. Good afternoon. Ms.. Phelps, some words in your own defense. Well, it. Seems everybody knows me. Pretty well. And I do. Want to say that the last time I was here, I. Think it was when I was working with Pete von Bauer back in the. Nineties to secure. Funding for the restoration of the Paramount Theater. So yeah. My career goes. Back quite a long. Ways. It is quite an. Exciting opportunity, I think, to be serving on the Fort Culture Board at this particular juncture, given the changes that are taking place across the region, both in the demographics of our region and in the arts and cultural complexion of our region and under the leadership of Brian. So I'm really excited. To have. An opportunity to be a part. Of. Not only uplifting the arts, but uplifting the arts as a part of our civic conversation, as it relates to the growth of the region, the changes of the region, and how arts and culture really is an important part, just like infrastructure and everything else. Without arts and culture, our region does not survive or succeed. So I'm excited and. Thank you very much. Thank you. Questions from his Films Council. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you very much. It's good to see you and thank you. Thank you. Glad to hear that. Your involvement with theater labs and that we definitely need some of those out in the unincorporated areas to further east. I just wanted to say that we had a listening center of succession with the entire board. So that last week the task. The ordinance task force. Right. Yeah. Last weekend. Yeah. So I was really, really impressed with the broad array of people on the board with their ability to listen and actually their excitement about being out in the area of my district. Some of them hadn't been there in a very long time. And one of them told me afterwards that they felt so warm and comfortable there that they may move there. So it was an interesting opportunity to talk about the idea that we are all united and that the unincorporated area also needs to have more art. And so I really appreciated that. And thank you for spending the time that night. Thank you. Can I just. In response to that, you say that for probably the last 13 years, I've had. The opportunity to work with or culture on bringing. Stories. About arts and culture throughout the region of King. County to a viewing public through KTTV. And it has been the best thing. That's happened to me to get out to Carnation, to get to Snoqualmie. To get to these other areas. And really see the kind of work that's going on there, as opposed to just being in a bubble here in Seattle. So it's really exciting to have another opportunity to get back out into the county. To Councilmember Yvonne Rick Bower. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank Casper Gossett for his leadership in appointing someone who has been truly a leader in this community. We had a chance to work long hours on a project that many thought would never get done. And thanks to her leadership, she not only talked about it, but she helped put together the mechanisms. And with some outside help, we were very successful and today is a credit to you and your leadership. I also want to thank her for her acknowledgment of the regional responsibility for culture, because when she and I were working together in the nineties, that county was a little different and they different and the county has changed dramatically. Yeah, populations have moved throughout this community and so important to make sure that we follow the people because the people are moving throughout this county now and make sure that the cultural opportunities that are not just limited to those lucky enough to live in Seattle, but are lucky enough to live in Federal Way and Bothell and Auburn and other parts of our region because they need to have that access. And she understands access. And I want to thank again Councilmember Gossett for having the foresight again to appoint someone who I think is a true leader in our region. Thank you. Appreciate it. Senior Council Member Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and also like to thank Councilmember Gossett for his foresight and wisdom here. And Mr. Phillips, I think what's so wonderful about you two is your breadth of experience, breadth and depth of communications working, of course, in live theater. And I also really appreciate that in substantive areas you've brought to the public the keen awareness of of the transatlantic slave trade. And that's very important that we look to not just at the position, but what it is one is doing in one's position. So thank you. Thank you. So much. With that, Councilmember Goss added, Entertain a motion. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It gives me a great deal of pride to put forward the name of one of my own girls, Vivienne. I both grew up in the center area, so therefore I like to move that with the proposed motion. 2019 0067 Council member Garcia just moved. We give it due due passed recommendation to motion 20 1967. I second. Thank you. It has been moved and second to see no further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Duchin. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. Hi. Councilmember Colwell Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is nine eyes, no no's. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a unanimous recommendation. Do pass recommendation to approve Ms.. Phelps appointment to the Culture Board. We will advance that to our two full council and we'll put that on the consent agenda. So it will be taken up as part of the consent agenda. And you won't need to reappear unless you certainly want to. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Our pleasure. And with that will move to proposed motion 2019 112 MESABI five. Crackles IP. Excuse me. Yeah, see for that. I don't get. It, Mike. Michael. Again on page 17 of your packet, this is the appointment for for culture board appointment for Frank Martin and he was appointed by Councilmember Lambert. Mr. Martin lives in Skycom ish in Council District three. He was or he is the founder and project manager of I hope I pronounce this right. One one Amish Lodge, an adaptive reuse of a historical building in downtown Squamish. He is also a senior project manager and business consultant for a construction company and he is a councilmember for the town of Squamish. And this motion also has an amendment for your consideration. Amendment one would make Mr. Barton's appointment a three year term and to conform with the advice of council's legal counsel for filling four culture board vacancies. And with that amendment, Mr. Martin's appointment appears to be consistent with the requirements of the County Code and the culture charter and bylaws. Thank you, Mr. Martin, and invite you to join us to the presentation table. Good afternoon and welcome. Councilmember Lambert, would you like to make a few remarks? I would love to make some remarks. First of all, it is a pleasure to endorse him for this position. I met him under circumstances. He purchased a piece of property up in Sky Comet that I had my eye on for us to build as a community center and town. People said Councilmember Lambert may not be happy with you buying that piece of the property. And so we talked about it and he turned it into a amazing place that I couldn't be happier about. He took something that now was close to almost falling down and turned it into a beautiful place. And not only did he do that, but the workmanship in there, it was the two common arrows bridge that you took the lights from at an auction and put those lights in. He used crates from another business to redo the stairways. He left in the back of the building the marks on the ground where it used to be an old ice house. And so the marks from cutting up the ice were left on as part of the historical history of that building. There were so many pieces that showed absolute intricacies and devotion and love to the art of keeping this building alive. But he has done an awful lot or that building and for the town and that creativity that I saw as I went to the grand opening was spellbinding. And even the side of the building is now the back slat backsplash for the stove in the kitchen. And so the reuse was amazing. So I just really appreciate what you've done and I look forward to working with you even more. And thank you for being on the committee. Town committee. Thank you. Mr. Carter, any framing comments? I'll just say that Mr. and I had a chance to talk last week, which is the first time we had met. And I think what he brings to the foreclosure board at this point, which is really important, is this focus on preservation and I think an understanding of the built environment and what it takes to protect it for the utility that it provides community and also the beauty that you keep, the artistry that goes into the act of preservation of historic places. So I just look forward to him bringing that perspective. And then also it's just you guys know, there's been I do. It's a big county court. It's a gigantic county. And having somebody with deep roots as far out as Skycom, which will help bring that perspective that I think can that can work elsewhere as well outside of Seattle to be able to bring that frame to it. So I look forward to those two perspectives and also just enjoyed our conversation we have and look forward to him being on the board. So welcome. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Martin. Good afternoon. Sir. Humbled by following Yvonne's appointment in front of all of you. I'm. I'm. I'm a 15 year vet here in the city. I moved here from the East Coast, from Maine. And, you know, I was in Seattle for most of that time up until I bought an old another home that was about ready to end up in Skycom ish, just because Skycom was this town that, as you know, was heavy in mineral extraction and timber and the railroad, and it sort of died when it was cleaned up. And now it's coming back to life again. And I'm a huge ski and snowboard enthusiast who spent a lot of time up at Stevens. I run a nonprofit up there as well, and I just invested my time and effort and energy into this little town that's trying to reestablish itself again. And I had the pleasure of working with Councilmember Lambert and mayor of the town, a lot of other for Tara and different groups. And we were able to kind of pull something together for this building and not to mention start to build a new vision for that town. I am though not relegated only to skate commerce. I do have a home on Queen in, so I'm back and forth. But Skate Commission is my primary residence where I spend the majority of my time just because it reminds me a lot of where I grew up in Maine, where I'm 45 minutes from a city and, you know, 5 minutes from the outdoors, which is what really lured me to be be up there. So I'm again humbled by by the folks, the sport, everything of our culture of don't have gone through their grant program already. They gave me a grant for this for the lodge and it's called one mesh. One is in a group of people that are coming together under one roof. And mesh is the Native American suffix, meaning people. So. One people underneath this lodge that are using it as a base camp to access this recreational paradise that we have in our backyard in the great northern corridor. So, again, happy to be here and just honored and humbled by the folks here just to to take part and to do what I can to get back to. Thank you. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Martin. Councilmember Dombroski. CHAIR Thank you very much for willingness to serve. And when I came here in 2013, Councilmember Lambert and I worked on a joint piece of legislation called the Sky Commerce Initiative. If you're familiar with it, but was really to encourage our county departments to work together on a recreation, economic opportunity, historic preservation, those three kind of pieces of the three legged stool. And so it's not that we're necessarily leading on that, but we want to be a supportive partner and call your attention. Councilmember Lambert, if she hasn't already, I'll get you a copy of that motion so you can wave it around to various county folks when you need some help. For Terra was a great partner in that as well. And and we've been supporting through our conservation futures work efforts to protect the Moloney forests there and acquire some of the last original old growth timber remaining in King County, which is just north of Skate Coalition fighting the Scoop Jackson National Forest. So thanks very much for your willingness to serve your work in Sky Commons. Absolutely. Certainly invite anyone to come up there too and sit in the whistling post and talk to some of the old loggers about the trees. These the and you know, back in the day, it's it's a pretty impressive community, very small, but very welcoming warming. To. Councilmember Lambert. I don't know I don't know if all of our listening audience knows, but the town guy commish had a railroad leak from the early 1900s. And when it was discovered, there was like 36 inches of oil underneath the town. So they had to dig up the entire town down about 30 feet, suck out all that oil, and they put the houses on big logs and rolled them to the other side of town. And then after the oil was all taken out and many, many things happened, then new dirt was put back. They regraded, brought the houses back, reset them, new sidewalks, new streets. And then they took the next block and did that until the town block by block until last year. Oh, my gosh. 15 years ago, maybe something like that. Yeah. I think the first lake was discovered in 98 and the clean up for 80 to 90% of it was finished in 2006 27. And they just recently finished the old school that was up there was a is an art deco school, but it was a concrete they couldn't move it. So they installed a bunch of steam pipes underneath and have been working on pouring that sort of contaminated slurries and. They didn't know how they were going to do those steam pipes. So it took time to design how they would be done. And it was an amazing issue with local governments together and and state and federal, they had a whistle that would blow. And then there was a yellow house in the end. And when the whistle blew, everybody came to the house and they would say whatever problem they had had at that moment, and then they would whiteboard it and then everybody would agree when they finally agreed. And then it was signed off by everybody. And so that everybody that was there in that room had the authority to sign off on this because there were so many decisions that had to be made that it was truly an example of government at all levels at its best. And the railroad was there also. And once we got started and the railroad was very helpful and and and it was made to have happen, but it the history has been written on it. It's an amazing story how the town of Skye Komische was actually moved and reconstructed. And so it's the little town that could and now it will. And we're excited about what's going to be ahead. Very good. Councilmember Lambert, we'd like to put a motion before us. I would indeed. I would like to move proposed motion 2019 0102 with the do pass recommendation. We have motion 2000 amendment. We have a motion 2019 102 before us. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to move amendment number one. And Councilmember Lambert has moved Amendment One, which is the one that is was that are places when we got to the dais today. Could make the three year term to conform to the advice of the council legal staff. And I will pursue a question with legal staff is not in committee today but just to make sure I understand the or origin of this amendment making sure that we are all in line, but we have a recommended amendment making the term a three year term instead of the originally proposed two year term. All this in favor of an amendment. Simply say I opposed any human. Kerry's further discussion. Madam Quirke, would you please could call the roll in motion 2019 102. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. Councilmember Tim Buskirk. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Garzon. Hi. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember at the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne Ricardo. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chan. The vote is nine is no nos. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a unanimous to pass recommendation to our motion 2019 102. And like Ms.. Phelps, we will we will put this on the consent agenda for a full council. So there should be no need for you to come to the full council. We look forward to full, full approval. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. And with that, we move to agenda item seven. This is this item is a motion to confirm the executive's appointment of Rick Brady as our new director of the Road Service Road Services Division of the Department of Local Services. Mr. Brady has been with the county for a number of years and is currently serving as the interim director of Roads Services Division. I'm Pat Hamacher from our central staff will brief us on the motion and then Mr. Brady is here. His questionnaire is in our packets and he's here to speak to us in person about the appointment. Mr. HAMACHER Thank. You, Mr. Chair. For the record, Patrick Hamacher from council staff and the staff report begins on page 25 in your packets. And I'll just note that I'm pinch hitting for Nick Bowman today. He prepared the work he actually included in the staff report, a relatively extensive history around how we got to having a roads division, road services division within the Department of Local Services. But since you're all aware of that, having just stood up the department in January, I think I'm going to skip that background piece and focus on the appointment that's before the council. Mr. Brady has been a King County employee for 17 years. He began his career as the County Engineering Services Section manager and became the county road engineer in 2013. Most recently, Mr. Braider was appointed as the interim director of the Roads Division on October 1st of 2018. This is back when I would have still been in the Department of Transportation and transitioned to the Department of Local Services when it became a stood up as its own department on January 1st of this year. Before joining the county, he worked as in a number of engineering roles for Washington State Ferry Ferries and his full appointment packet, including the questionnaire, as you mentioned, Mr. Chair, is included in in the packets in your packets on the dais. He has been transmitted by the county executive and all of the transmittal, documents and materials that we would expect for a division director have have been transmitted are included in your packets as well. And with that, I would be happy to answer any questions that you're as you noticed, Mr. Brady has joined us at the table. So he's here as well. Any hard questions for Mr. Hamacher? CNN will turn it over. Mr. Rader, good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, good afternoon. On a beautiful, sunny, warm day with no snow. It's an honor to be here and to be considered for the position and role as the division director. I think the road services division is one of those divisions that maybe on a daily basis touches almost every person living in unincorporated King County on a daily basis. So again, it's an honor and a privilege to be here and be considered for this position. Thank you very much, very much. I might start with the first question, and that is, is reading through your materials submitted to the council, I was pleased to see an emphasis on stakeholder engagement and constituent services. Can you share some ways that the Remote Services Division might improve customer service and communication with residents and users in unincorporated King County? Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I think one of the key things that's happening and is exciting is that with the standing up as the Department of Local Services and the new emphasis on the unincorporated area and the outreach that's going to occur within that and as part of that department, the division is going to be fully engaged in in a broad spectrum of the communities around King County, across King County. And I think that's going to be very helpful in making sure that we, as a division, are delivering the services that the residents want and that we're really encompassing all of the residents and all of their needs throughout the whole broad range of unincorporated King County. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, as you know that I serve on the statewide crab or the muni community Roads and Administration Board, and I knew we had a great county engineer. But then when I heard the other engineers talk about him, I was even more impressed. Because when your peers say good things about you, that is pretty impressive. I was worried they try to steal him away when they needed a new engineer for the state. So I am very impressed with the work that he's done and the long hours that he's put in for years and that we've worked very closely for many , many years and. Underfunded formula that he has to work with, with roads and bridges, and the very difficult decisions that he has to make on a daily basis because his department is grossly underfunded because of the state formula where only the people living in the unincorporated area pay into the county roads. And at this point, we're paying $1.88 per thousand dollars of assessed value as opposed to the 225, which is allowed under law with 100,000 less people paying into this account and expect to do the same things that we were doing before with so much less money. So with his hands tied behind, his back is still able to do amazing work. And so there's lots and lots of challenges that he faces. And so far, he hasn't pulled his hair out, which is good. The other thing is we just came through a very big emergency. And as I left my house this morning, there's still four inches of my snowman that has not melted. And it's been quite some time that we've been past the snow, but there's still remnants, including on my front lawn. So this snowstorm was the worst in 70 years. And I just want to say to roads, all the employees, roads to Rick and to John and to all the team and also Casey and our executive down there were a lot of people that put in long, hard hours and some as many as 20 hours a day during that time, many on 12 hour shifts for three weeks, 28 days. 17. Days, 17 days only seem like 28. And that's a long time when you're working 12 hour shifts out in the cold with pretty much crazy conditions, ice being so heavy that we had to bring in graders to cut it up before we could plow things that you wouldn't normally expect. And they did it and really helped the citizens. And we discovered a lot of things that you always learn during an emergency that they're going to be sharing with us. But we got through it as well as we did because of the great work. So I want to thank you and your team for the great work that you did and the dedication to work 17 days on 12 hour shifts. So thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Dunn, I. Want to echo Councilmember Lambert's words here today. Appreciate all the hard work, especially through the snow circumstances. And in echo, also that state law probably is the biggest hurdle, I think, that I see in you doing your job effectively. And boy, I'll tell you, it's never good when a law stands in the way of trying to get a basic government function done. And that is the we reached our statutory maximum in terms of what we can levy for the unincorporated roads levy, largely because this councilmember never mentioned annexations and and corporations have brought the population in a different direction than an increasing tax base. So I just want to let you know that I stand firmly behind you and your efforts and the department's efforts and the new divisions efforts and the executive's efforts to try and get that antiquated tax system restructured in a way that allows us to continue to repair our infrastructure out there so folks can get around to their jobs, to their families, to emergency services and hospitals and many other things that I think are basic service. So thanks for your leadership and look forward to working with you. Thank you. I also wanted to ask about working with your staff. We ask a lot of road services division, not only in ingenuity and the work before them, but in particularly challenging circumstances when they don't have the full resources to do everything we'd like to do to protect our assets and maintain the assets that your division is tasked with maintaining and growing when possible. Can you speak to how we can best support staff morale with within the division and support them in the innovative thinking and creativity that we so strongly need? Sure, Mr. Chair. So first off, there's quite a bit of road staff right here. So so we're very, very fortunate to have such great and talented people working for Rhodes and for the county. I think like any organization, you kind of get into your groove and you don't really understand that other people know what you're doing and what you're struggling with and what the real problems of every day trying to maintain a system that's underfunded and overused and anything that you can do to just recognize that you understand the situation that they're in and what they're dealing with and the good work that they're doing goes a very long ways, very long ways and obviously good communication as we're dealing with issues in your district or anybody's other district. It's super helpful to know that there's a good understanding and a good partnership and a good relationship with council member. And it's just goes a long, long ways for people wanting to put in the extra time and the extra effort to to try and resolve a problem. Thank you. My office has appreciated working with you very much in some of the work we're doing with our constituents in unincorporated King County. And, you know and know that that very work is done by your staff within the division and making sure that we can be as creative as we can and also support them. Knowing what situation we are in resources is very important to me and I think to the entire council. Well, thank you. I look forward to working with you in the future indeed if confirmed. Other questions. Council Member Dombrovskis Thank you. It's a very particularized and local concern, but the north half of 145th Street is a county owned half of an arterial. What is your vision for that in terms of eventual municipal control? It's important because we're trying to connect Bothell and Lake City way to I-5 for light rail coming in a couple of years. And we've got multiple jurisdictions, Seattle Shoreline, the state of Washington because it's Route 53, King County, Seattle Public Utilities is in the right away. How would you take a complex situation like that and maybe use that as an example? And what do you see happening in that corridor? Thank you. So that particular section, there's a section of that street that's state highway and that actually trumps the county right away. So that's a majority of the portion of that particular roadway. So I get a little bit of an out on some of that. So there's the two ends of that corridor that are part of the county road right away. And it's mainly the intersections where there's a lot of overlap. And and in those areas, as we have in other situations, there's a great effort to partner with all of those interested parties, interested agencies, jurisdictions. I think that there's a strong will to make some of these regional systems function and work and acted in good, good partnership with all of the different interested parties and vested interests. And so I think we have a long history of being a willing partner to work through those issues and accommodate something that's for the greater good of the region. Would you agree with me that we really don't even need to be in that space? I mean, that is absolutely. So what's the path out? Well, unfortunately, the county has a history of what we call our orphan roads. So we have these little segments of roadways all over King County that through annexation and incorporations have been left behind. And there are little islands of roadways that are basically in limbo. And in in that end, we've been trying to work with the state legislature, with the jurisdiction that's on the other side to try and see if we can get them incorporated into their. Respective jurisdiction. However, it's not been an easy task and we would certainly look forward to any support and help we could get in helping those other jurisdictions be willing to take them in. They're not large sections of road, but they do task our maintenance efforts in terms of being outside of our main service area. So it's something that we've been working on. We've had a few successes, but not a lot of them. And so it's something we're going to be working on throughout the future. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I mean, actually, three very quick questions. Okay. Number one, how many orphan roads are there in the county? It's roughly 60, I. Think that is the number ahead. Thank you. So there's 60 of them in the county and we went to the state, I think it was three years ago, asking for them to take the orphan roads and to say it was an unpleasant debate would be the understatement of the week. And the cities were not helpful. And so we came away with a bill that was completely gutted, that did absolutely nothing. So we're still in the same place, virtually, that we were before we went to the state. And they have done nothing to change the formula, which is the problem. But so that's that's it. And then the next thing is, seven years from now or six years from now, how much money will be in the roads, capital budget? So you're talking about the decline of our funding and what we can actually provide for our capital program. So in that period of time, the capital program will decline down to zero and we will have no funding available for our capital program. So I think that when you get to that budget of zero, it's a pretty good indication that there's a crisis and we don't have time to mess around with this. This has got to be change and the state needs to know that they can no longer continue this deprivation. And it means that 70 miles of road and 35 bridges. Tell me if that's correct. Will be substantially impacted. 35 bridges having their weight bearing changed or closed, some with bad detours, routes as far as length and 35 roads that will not be in good condition. 35 miles of roads will not be in good condition. This is not how we preserve a $40 billion asset. So I appreciative of the fact that we have people who are willing to work with us and try to get the state to do what needs to happen. Thank you. With that, Councilmember Lambert, would you put a motion before it? I would be happy to do that. Thank you. I would like to move a proposed motion 2019 0048 with a do pass recommendation. Councilmember Lambert has moved adoption of Motion 20 1948 for the discussion. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. Hi. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is nine no nos. Thank you. You've given unanimous to pass recommendation to most in 2000 1948, and we will put that on the consent agenda in full council on March 27th. Thank you very much. It's not it's not often you have the interim general director showing up in your support. The next agenda item is Motion 2000, 1930. And last September, the Council adopted a motion to formalize the establishment of the Legislative, Branch, Equity and Social Justice team. The motion adopted the team's mission statement and identified the team's composition and defined its scope of work, which included adopting a biennial work plan. Today's motion would adopt the 2019 2020 biennial legislative branch ESG workplan. We have Andrew Kim receiving the applause from the hallway with our central staff to brief us on the proposed motion. He will be followed by Larry Evans, the inaugural chair of the SGA team, to give us some introductory remarks and cook and conclude with April Sanders, a member of the SGA Team Reporting Subcommittee that puts this work plan together. Who will summarize the work plan? And Carolyn Bush, the council's chief of staff, is also available to answer any questions or join the conversation. But to begin. Mr.. KIM Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the record to Andrew Kim with Council Central Staff. The staff report for this item begins on page 73 of your agenda packet. As you mentioned, Mr. Chair, on September 2018, the Council adopted motion 15227, which established the Legislative Branch ESG team and adopted its mission statement. The motion formalized the legislative branch ESG team, which have been meeting monthly since 2012. The motion also required the ESG team to draft a bi annual work plan for possible adoption by Council motion by January one of every year. The proposed motion before you would adopt the 2019 2020 biannual legislative branch ESG workplan. The workPlan, which is attached to an aide to the proposed motion on page 81, was drafted by the ESG team and email to all council members on January nine, 2019, as required by motion 15227. The work plan also includes a list of proclamation proposals for possible council adoption and a list of learning and discussion sessions that would be coordinated throughout the biennium. That concludes my remarks, Mr. Chair, and I will turn it over to Mr. Larry Evans and Miss April Sanders. Good afternoon, Mr. Evans. And I should begin by apologizing and welcoming you warmly after not getting to this item on a previous agenda. So I appreciate very much your patience, and we're glad to have you here today, David. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's okay. I guess the main thing I was looking well, besides this work plan, it was my mother's 90th birthday, so I wish her a belated happy birthday. Anyway, thank you, Mr. Chair. And committee members. My name is Larry Evans, personal staff for council member Larry Gossett and also the chair of the Legislative Branch Equity and Social Justice Work Team. I know it's been said before, but I'd like to thank you for passing motion 2018 15227 last September, and thank you in advance for consideration of passing our workplan today. To be fair, there's been a great deal of work done regarding ESG from the legislative branch. The legislative branch, the flood district and the independent offices have been well-represented on the IBT, the Inter Branch team for equity and social justice for many years and have made a profound impact on ESG policy countywide. Some of the things that you all have contributed quickly immigrant and Refugee Commission orca lift expungement legislation school to prison pipeline. You'll remember, Mr. Chair, that came from the council, the Juvenile Justice, Equity and Juvenile Justice Equity Steering Committee and gun safety legislation. Some of our accomplishments to date. I guess the the biggest thing has been the level of enthusiasm that exists within the legislative branch. We're running out of meeting space. We normally meet in one conference room and it's just too small. We've got more representation broadly from the districts as well as administrative staff, central staff and the independent agencies than we've ever had during the 12 years that that I've been employed at King County. My esteemed colleague April will go into the dynamics of the six subcommittees in more detail. But even implementing that practice has done a great deal in terms of not only spreading out the workload, but creating opportunities for buy in and participation on the work team. But a few things that we've done just in the last four months. Councilmembers Caldwell's and Goss said One of our objectives was to increase our community engagement, whether it's in underserved communities, rural communities, or, as Councilmember Vaughn Mike Bowers said earlier, follow the people to where they go. Again, Council member Cole Wells and Gossett co-sponsored. It was a trickle down, trickle downtown. A very powerful documentary about homelessness that we plan to show here in one. During one of our luncheon learns our legislative ESG work team has co-sponsored Unspoken Truth American History exhibit with Metro Sound Transit and Seattle Public Utilities. Two weeks ago, at a grant writing town hall, we were asked to facilitate two workshops on how to engage your elected officials in support of grant opportunities and otherwise. So we did that with the Department of Natural Resources and Parks in Councilmember Gossage district at New Holly. The central staff is about to submit before the work team an ESG review impact tool, so that one of the challenges is that and as a county, we still struggle with this that everything we do that inherently just like we look at fiscal responsibility, ESG, we will notice the implications in any kind of policy that we we put together and that that does take practice in order to do that. We've already partnered with the executive branch and other outside agencies more this year. I believe that there's an event for Women's History Month that Councilmember Cole, Wells, Lambert and Baldacci have spearheaded before. But the executive branch has asked us the legislative branch if they could partner in in that. So already we've extended these partnerships more than we have in the past. And the King County television station has made a commitment to broadcast more of our ESG efforts, whether they're the luncheon learn events that we put in. Race or other events, even television shows and things like that. Specific to equity and social justice. And we also within one of the work groups, we'd like to look at some of the results from the creative ground event that you all facilitated for us and to do our part to implement some of those practices. In closing, I would say that, you know, the biggest thing for me has been when we talk about issues of equity, gender, gender identity. Rural versus suburban versus urban. And it shouldn't be versus it should be all inclusive and issues of race. We've historically struggled in these conversations, and one of the things that we would really like to work on is creating an atmosphere of safety and comfort where people know that we're all in this together, that we've all been, in some cases, had elements of history hidden or distorted, and that we all have to go through this reeducation process so that this becomes as inherent as fiscal responsibility or any other element that goes along with the public service. So if there's no questions, I will gladly turn it over to April. Right? So for the record, April Sanderson, council member, Lambert's office and if you want to follow along in your packets on page 81 is where the 20 1920 workplan begins. And the workPlan represents the first report developed by the expanded ESG team formed by motion in September of last year. And the work plan identifies five objectives for the work group to meet throughout the biennium. And you'll see each objective also has key activities within them and that identifies which key activities will be carried out by the by the six subcommittees throughout the throughout the biennium. For the purpose of this discussion, I'll provide a brief overview of the five objectives, but not go into detail on the key objectives or key activities just to keep it a little bit more brief. But the subcommittees are community engagement, language access plan, reporting, events and training, organizational practice, integration and affinity groups. So starting with objective A objective A centers around participation, increased understanding and progress of ESG within the legislative branch. So when we were drafting this in the reporting subcommittee and a phrase that was used is strengthening the team for the future. So getting getting more involvement throughout the legislative branch and this includes goals of increased involvement and establishing reporting criteria to monitor progress. The workPlan Objective B will lead to advances in equity analysis. Larry mentioned the Equity Impact Review tool, as well as the ESG legislative analysis methodology. And getting more employees trained on these on these methodologies will be critical in this objective. Objective see as our more outward facing objective of increasing public engagement and building community trust. So it includes communities that are often under reached in our current outreach practices. One of the major outcomes we anticipate from this objective is the development of a language access plan for the legislative branch, which is currently before the ESG team, and Objective D seeks to promote fairness and advancement opportunities within county government by reviewing and updating organizational practices with the lens of equity. And lastly, objective identifies recognitions, proclamations and community awards we anticipate throughout the biennium. It is by no means comprehensive, but it's a draft of ones that we tend to see year to year that deal with equity and social justice. And that concludes my overview, but we are happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Ms.. Sanders. As the work groups can begin, their work can continue. How can the council stay appraised of progress along the way? Absolutely. So. The reporting subcommittee, once this workplan is passed, will continue to meet to develop what the criteria are for the performance objectives. And we can certainly keep you involved and send out emails as we as we make progress. But also, all nine officers have representation on the expanded team. So it's also a way to really foster communication between the council members and the team. Great. Thank you. I would welcome the periodic updates and I would suggest all council members to hear from the team directly. Absolutely. Great and welcome council member Lambert Gosset. Okay. Thank you. April, how would a council member add a topic that he or she would like are considered for our brown bag lunch sections that is related to equity and social justice and relevant to the populations that we serve. Sure. So I think the easiest way would be to let let your staff, Larry, know. And as chair, he can disseminate that information to the events and training subcommittees so that we can get that on the agenda. Okay. Thank you. Further questions. Discussion. Council member double duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the items that's been under discussion for a while at the Employment and Administration Committee is the idea of creating a equity screening. I'm not going to label it correctly a tool that we would use in our policy work. It's been being worked on in the policy shop and I think that that effort will be really meaningful when we can apply it, because I think that's the thing that we miss when when we here are working on policy, when we're adopting policies. You know, we bring our own lenses, we bring our own experience. We've been, I think, trained. And because of the focus on equity here at King County, generally have had our eyes open and to be more thoughtful about impacts outside of our own realms of experience. But I think we still it's still just human nature to miss things that aren't like right in your face all the time. So I do think I am looking forward to that effort because I think that will help us to continue to make sure we're being very intentional about what the impacts are. So I guess I'm looking at Patrick and or Andrew too, to speak to that one, maybe a little bit. Sure. Andrew Kim Council Staff. So we're in the process of we've developed this, we're titling it ESG and analysis ESG, a legislative analysis methodology. And to just to differentiate from what the the executive branch and agencies are using what was to call the impact review tool. So we've developed the methodology and we're in the process of training the central staff to to utilize it. And we're hoping to pilot the usage of the tool sometime in May and June and hoping that that would and then presenting it or coming to the EEOC again for evaluation and for potential for roll out at the end of the year. And I understand that the folks who are working on the legislative branch equity and social justice team have been given an opportunity to our hope. They will be given opportunity to review the methodology and give input, because I think that's a nice that's a nice up. These are the folks who are working on our internal facing work to make sure that we're equitable internally. But I think that they probably bring a great deal of experience and knowledge that would help with the methodology. So I would suggest that that connection get made as well. Assuming it has. It definitely will make sure that we do that. Thank you and thank you for your work, Larry and April and everybody who's been working on the teams. There's a lot of energy from, you know, attending just the beginning of the that I always want to say solid ground, creative ground staff gathering. I can tell that people were really engaged and everything I've heard afterwards that there were really good discussions and people were feeling empowered to bring their best ideas and concepts and even criticisms forward. And I think that's important and very healthy. And so I want to thank you for for the work of doing that. And I encourage you all to continue feeling brave to tell us what we need to hear. Thank you. Thank you. I also want to compliment Mr. Evans in the analogy that you used about the methodology, and that is that we should be at a point where and we need to get to a point where our ESG analysis and review is the same as a fiscal analysis and review. It's the same level of responsibility in our work. I heard that and I appreciate it. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And my question is directed toward Mr. Evans, too. Are you guys aware two weeks ago? Yeah, about two weeks ago, our chief of staff brought us a new proposed organization chart that our chair and her and other staff person has put together. And it has a position, a directorship position for equity and social justice, which I think will enhance the work that you all are already doing. But give us, you know, a full management type person who will help facilitate all of that along with your estate. Were you all aware that that's in their making or were you all consulted on it? Yes. Mr. Gossett, we that was announced at our last meeting, I believe it was Caroline Bush announced that there was consideration for an equity and social justice director in the legislative branch. We've held our. Wrong in terms of the legislative branch in King County. But we know that on the executive side, they've got, I think, six or seven staff people. I don't know what the budget is, but it's committed to equity and social justice. And you consider all the things that King County does, whether it's the tax assessor roads that spoke earlier. Criminal justice, health, there can be an ESG umbrella, but as the tentacles of that umbrella extend downward or outward, it becomes very specific in terms of what these different departments do and how they recognize ESG in their work part. And I think a position in the legislative branch would go a long way, not only in fostering that within the legislative branch, in the independent agencies, but also working more closely with the judicial and the executive branch in that regard. Thank you. In June. As we wrap up my last question, Mr. Evans, would be, are there other ways you can share with us where the council can be supportive and engaged in the equity and social justice work that the team is leading? You will be more than happy to do that. I mean, the representation from the council members on the our ESG work team has been amazing. We've never had this much participation from nine districts. And the independent office is one of the things that we've really stressed is that that door is always open in terms of recommendations. I mean, we've talked about opportunities for career advancement that are maybe nontraditional. Maybe somebody wanted was interested in serving in a different capacity, a committee staff or even an analyst. What are some ways in terms of what we can do in providing training to create pathways for that? So we serve at your disposal. We're an advisory group, in a sense, but we would love it if that communication continued to be an open door both ways. Very much so. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett, would you make the motion to would you move adoption of the motion. Number. 2000, 1930? Thank you. I would be happy, Mr. Chair, to move that the King County Council adopt motion number 2019 zero three. Councilmember Gossett has moved. We give a do pass recommendation to motion 20 1930. See no further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell. Duty. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garza. Hi. Councilmember Coles. Councilmember Lambert. High Council member of the group. Councilmember One recorder. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is the ADA is no nos when excused. Thank you for having me. We've given a do pass recommendation to motion 2000 1930, and we will that will be on the council's full agenda on March 27th. Also on consent, if there's no objection. Also on consent. With that, we take up item nine. Thank you very much. Thank you for your patience in getting to the item. I apologize and really relish the work we're engaged in. Item nine on today's agenda as most motion 2000 1997. Each year, the county adopts a list of a lobbying agenda for the to take to Washington, D.C. and lobby our federal partners on the county needs. And here to present the initial version of our legislative agenda and discuss forming it and finalizing it is Mac Nicholson. Mac Nicholson Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee. Mac Nicholson with council staff. Before you as a proposed motion, 2019-0097. I believe it starts on page 85, or at least the staff report in your materials. So this would adopt the 2019 federal agenda. What Simon is passing out to you right now is sort of the latest updated version. Over the last 2 to 3 weeks, we've hit every office at this point to discuss the federal agenda and development of it. You've seen a track change version. Essentially, the version that was just handed out takes feedback and adopt some of those changes and makes a couple more. Based on input from offices. So this is the first time you have all seen this document. We just want to make sure we got it all together and got all council members have a chance to look at the original version before we put together a new draft. So you have that today to take a look at a couple of things to flag. There's the a few items dropped off from 2018 because Congress did pass a couple of priorities for King County. So those were removed. There are a couple ads, a bullet about orca recovery, supporting orca recovery efforts, a piece about electrification of the transportation system, fuel economy and energy star appliance standards, and then separating out a bullet for homelessness response and affordable housing response. So those are kind of the significant changes in this 2019 latest draft from the 2018 version. And I'm happy to answer. Any questions? Great. Thank you. Questions for Mack. See none. It's the intention that we move this out of committee without recommendation today to full council. I would suggest we move it to full council for the 27th, giving us a little bit of room. Should it be needed to have it adopted before we would be in DC lobbying on it? Yes. With that council member, Dean Bousquet entertained a motion to adopt the agenda item. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I want to add my thanks to the staff for their incredible work on this. It's a growing body of work as we go back to the federal government to work for Gene Kelly. So I'd move adoption without recommendation, I think was your suggestion. Proposed motion has 19 0097 and I look forward to it and finalized with everybody and approved next Wednesday. Councilmember Jim Vasquez moved it up. We're going to do that. We move to full council without recommendation. Motion 2000 1997. Seen no further discussion. Councilmember Cowles Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd also like to thank Mack and his team for the really great job in this, and especially for including Orca's recovery. Our Southern resident orcas thank you. Only comes from excellent suggestions from Members Council. Councilmember Caldwell's with that. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belt. City Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Caldwell. Councilmember Lambert. Hi. Council member of the group. Councilmember one right now. Here. Mr. Chair. All right, Mr. Chair, the vote is ADA is no no's. One excused. Thank you. By your vote, we have advanced to full council without recommendation motion 20 1997 that will be on the Council's full agenda for March 27th, and we will not put that on consent. Okay with that. The next meeting of the committee, the whole will be on April 15th. And knowing of no other business to come before the committee. We.	A MOTION confirming the appointment of Vivian Phillips to the King County cultural development authority (4Culture) board.
king_0dd5ad55-9fa8-4fcd-9b1f-e40ffe7bfadb	Good morning. A call to order the King County Committee of the hall meeting for Wednesday, June 7th, 2017. And welcome, everyone. Today, I'd ask our committee staff to please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski here. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett here. Councilmember Caldwell Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne Wright. They were. Here. Madam Chair. Here you have a quorum. Thank you. All right, before we go into public comment, I just wanted to share that we do have a briefing on the agenda today for the convention place sale, but we're not prepared to take action today. We've been working on an amendment. The idea is to take that up at a monday special meeting of the committee of the whole. That's not one we normally meet, but we're going to be meeting next Monday in the morning. And so that's the plan. As of right now, we do welcome and encourage everybody who signed up to comment to please go ahead and give us your comments as we're going to be moving expeditiously through an amendment on Monday morning. Just want to make sure you aware of that. All right. So the first person signed up to speak at public comment is Mr. Alec Zimmerman. My. Hi. My dirty double. Our future. Yeah, I want to speak about. Agenda because every single agenda in this situation right now. Property. But it's very important for my understanding. You talk right now reflect who make a decision and who make a decision. It's exactly council who sit in this chamber. So how we can bring this council to right decision is only one way. Stop fascism. What is this council introduce in us? Can country it in Seattle for many years and I speak about something what is right now very critical about election never Nazi never Soviet Union doing something. What is happening right now in Seattle in king country when go for election you go alone going the candidate for council go hello no competition over Soviet Union communist pure fascist in German that's pure first rule of policy is cannot be election. When you are won you don't have competition council. Dombrowski Good example of this. So this situation accusatory. So this situation what is we cover right now you know tries changes for many years hundred times we knew to open dirty room in city hall for example in Seattle city hall when people can come every week in the cup of free conversation with candidate with. Everybody. Is a problem what is we have right now we need clean is fascism but this because of clear view more danger is a Nazi or communist. You do natural born degenerate idiot only idiot can establish this policy. What is we have right now in many you sit in the chamber for 20 or 25 years. Guys, who are you? Is this a. Question? What is we have right now? When you change something, time for changes. This cannot go forever. Stand up, America. You can lose this chamber. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. Now we have next we have Ms.. Marguerite Richard. For the record, Pete, I don't think you're that bad. I'm just. Saying. I just don't think you're that bad. Please go ahead. Because he can speak. Yes, we all know. Mr. Zimmerman. Please sit down. Mr. Richard, it's your turn. Yes. You know, it's good that people can laugh because the Bible tells me that laughter is like a medicine, but everything is not funny. But although people like Kathy Griffin, she's a comedian and she knows how to make jokes, and then all of a sudden, her joke has made her look scandalous. But, you know, coming here to me is on the real side, just like at the bottom is this cow meeting packet? Do you know the song DGP, my Michael? Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Can you tell me how? So we have to be concerned about what we're being fed in this chamber when we come here. And so my concern would be to say the same thing, because when I go other places, they're very studious. I notice that about these council people, whether they like me or not, like what I say or anything like now, like what I'm saying or not. They are. They're like clockwork. I go to rent and I speak for 5 minutes uninterrupted. I've never seen this kind of stuff, scandalous stuff that goes on in over here. I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. So it's good for him to talk about what is ethically sound, what we should be doing and what we're not doing. And I think that's what's very irritating to the average citizen. They're thinking that you're supposed to be of a timely persuasion, but oftentimes that's not the way things happen here. And so if that's the way you're doing it, can you imagine how you're treating this Mr. Dark Eyeglasses over there? Yeah, I see you looking at me. And so I'm telling you, the. Issues that we're. Experiencing in our lifetime, they're real and is nothing to be played with. And I have a couple of seconds to say goodbye. Miss Abby Lawler, followed by Mark Riker. Good morning. Morning. Abby Lawlor with the Unite Here Local eight. I'm here to speak on the sale of convention PlayStation. Others in the Budget and Finance Committee have already heard lots from us about the impacts of the convention center addition and the lack of benefits in the current proposal for hotel workers and other low income communities in the county . I want to thank you all for keeping. The purchase and sale. Agreement in committee imposed so that outstanding risks and uncertainties about the sale can be. Given the attention they deserve, but also for creating the. Space necessary for Local eight and the Convention Center. To advance conversations about how this project can better meet the needs of hotel. Workers. As we've said, there are many approvals this project still. Needs, and taking your time won't. Impact the overall timeline for the project. We also urge you to be. Working in concert with our representatives in the state legislature. And at the Seattle City Council, whose decisions. On financing and entitlements. For this project are still. Outstanding. To encourage the provision of public benefits that address our. Region's most pressing needs and also the needs of all. Workers. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Raker, followed by Russell Robinson and Dale Bright. Right. Good morning. Terrible duty members of the council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. My name is Mark Riker. I'm a business agent with Chief Auto Workers Local 66. And I'm also the vice president of the Washington State Building Attractions Trades Council. And on behalf of those two entities, I am here to speak in favor of approving this purchase and sale agreement. We have negotiated a good deal for this project. This project is very important to our region, not just the Seattle community, but our entire region. One of the best pieces of this play of this project is the inclusion and the pathway from poverty to a sustainable life. Is the inclusion of apprenticeships and direct entry for helmets to hardhats, participants and female and minority communities that can get into our apprenticeships and get out of poverty and into a better life. This project is an important piece of that. It provides vital funding to support careers in the construction industry. We do support our brothers and sisters in United 83 and we would ask them to support us on the front side of this and building it. We will support them on the back side of it and managing it and operating it. It's very important Labor piece, but let's move forward with this purchase sale agreement. Let's get this thing built and let's continue forward. Thank you. Thank you. Russell Robinson followed by Dale Bright and then join now. I'm Dale Bright, labor's level 242 political director council members take the opportunity to speak directly to talk about the opportunity for careers on these projects. For members, we have members that are business agents now that started off on the initial commission center. We have members that are now retiring from this vital part of our careers. We are part of the community where it's great to be able to give back and we do support our brothers and sisters in Unite here. We've been out with them organizing and a lot of other things, but we encourage you to move this project forward. Don't interrupt the careers of our members and allow this to go forward. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Do I did I miss somebody? But there was somebody named Russell Robinson signed up. Okay. Thank you, Miss Robinson. So then we're up to join now. And then the last speaker signed up is Tommy Parsons. I'm joined now five represents Masons and plasterers local 528 and I'm here to support Washington State Convention Center Bandshell and thank you guys for doing your due diligence to, you know, do what's best for our county's best interests. And I think that the economic benefits of this one, our economic growth demands a facility like this in our area. But the benefits far outweigh all of these other situations that are that are coming up. And I just strongly believe that this would help our area, this would help our economic growth. And for all those people that are trying to get a piece of the pie that didn't help pick the berries and need the dough, they need not try to get a piece of the pie. Now, they didn't help put all the heavy lifting in that it took to get to this point. And now they want to grab a piece of that pie. So all those people just are, let's get it happen, let's get it, let's get it built. And then you go ahead and walk. Walk it and love it then. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Parsons. Welcome. Good morning. My name is Tommy Parsons. I'm also a business for the Cement Masons Plasterers Local 528 here in Seattle. We have apprentices training down in South Australian Community College right now as I'm speaking that hopefully be working on this project here in the near future along with the other building trades have been in negotiation with this for nearly a year and a half and I'm here to ask to move forward on this project and purchase purchased the land so we can start building this iconic building that's going to be seen around the world. Any time we have a sports event in Seattle, we know just like they show the Space Needle on our waterfront , they're going to be showing this convention center and it's going to be bringing in revenue from all over the world. So that makes this local 528 with our other affiliates are for purchase in the land. Thank you. Thank you. That was the end of the signup sheet. Is there anybody else? I would like to speak to the committee this morning. All right. Sing none. We will move on to agenda item number four, which is approval of the minutes. Councilmember Lambert, would you put that before us, please? I'd like to move minutes of the May 30,017 meeting as written. It's been moved to approve our May 13, 2017 meeting minutes. Any comments or changes? All those in favor please signify by saying i. I when the opposed approval unanimously. All right. That brings us to item number five for discussion today. This is the proposed sale of Metro Transit's Convention Police Station to the Washington State Convention Center Authority that we've all just been talking about to construct an expansion of the convention center. This item was extensively, extensively briefed in the budget and Fiscal Management Committee is now before the committee of the whole to work on some technical and other issues. There is a striking amendment and process. It's not before us today, but it will be before us very shortly. And but we I want to thank councilmembers Dombrowski and Caldwell's for working with me to try to bring this to a place where we can have an up or down vote in a timely manner. Because I think that we hear the urgency and we hear the interests, and we're trying to balance those and make sure that we do our due diligence as as one of the speakers stated. So, okay. With that, I will ask our staff, Pat Hamacher, to give us a status update and maybe lay out some of the issues that we're working on. Sure. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Council members, for the record, Patrick Hamacher, Counsel Staff. I'm going to turn your attention to page 20 in your packets. And almost all of the staff report is verbatim the same as what was in the Budget Committee. But, Madam Chair, you asked us to highlight one issue that was in the staff report but didn't get a lot of attention. And then we'll flip to the end, which is the update, as you hinted, as you said in your introduction about where we are with the status. So the item that I want to cover is the bottom of page 20 and end of the page 21. It's areas of the sale, particularly revenues of the sale or expenses associated with the sale that are of interest to council members to make sure that the county actually retains the proceeds from sale, from the sale of the of the convention place station. And the two big areas of risk that I want to touch on are covered in this section. And they are the temporary work that this is essentially the ramp that would allow the transit busses to continue in and out of the site during the work the convention center is doing, but hasn't yet when their work is being done, but hasn't yet displaced the transit functions into the CPS station, and that is currently projected to be up to $4 million. The scope and timing of that have yet to be worked out between the convention center and transit. So there is some risk there. The additional piece is the what we call the the TPS, which is the transit power substation work, that is equipment that is owned by transit and communications and power transmission and other utility equipment that is jointly owned. And the total of the equipment is owned between King County and Sound Transit. And that relocate that equipment needs to be relocated as part of the construction and is currently projected to be in the $17 million range. But once again, the final scope and schedule and what the budget actually will look like hasn't been negotiated yet. So those really are two areas of risk on the expense side for transit that are still up in the air, not not for any lack of intention to have it clear, just that the negotiations haven't been done yet between transit and the convention center authority. So that's what I wanted to highlight there. And I'm sure. That what I really asked for, I mean, we've highlighted these issues and. And frame them and you just highlighted and framed them is there's a big difference between we know what we're building and there might be a change in the cost of materials and that can be significant. But, you know, it's a percentage here, a percentage there versus we don't know exactly what we're building. And this could mean this number could be way off. And that's what I'm really asking, is what's the range of possible swing in those actual costs? Do we have any clue the no. We have a lot more certainty around the ramp because that is a much more narrow number. I've seen between six and $8 million as the current projected one. The fact that you have sound transit and Metro Transit and the Convention Center all negotiating over the TPS agreement, what needs to be done? Ultimately, we know what works there, but how and when it is done is what can drive the cost and the risk. There is potentially millions of dollars in difference. Okay. Well, that's something that's of concern to me. I just wanted to highlight that because it's of concern to me that we set a sales price and then that's the benefit of the bargain can get significantly degraded by the fact that our cost to close the deal and do what we said we were going to do could go way up. And we don't know that at this time. And I think we need to get a little more certainty around that one way or another. I mean, there's different ways to do it. Yeah. So. Okay, thank you. Please continue. That's an excellent segue to page 30, which is the very bottom of page 30. This is a status update on the items. And I'm sure that you and your colleagues asked us to highlight essentially the areas you're still working on. And the very first item there is price certainty around the two agreements that we were just discussing. So that's one of the items that's still under discussion. The agreement as transmitted by the executive, gave the buyer the option of building affordable housing on site or providing a payment to King County. Same value. But whether they built it or whether they paid the county for it, the notice essentially notification and a verification opportunity for the county around the stress test associated with issuance of bonds for the project. The next item is how to address concerns with the decommissioning of the public art on the site. And then finally the amount of time or the date at which transit will be required to vacate the site. So those are kind of the big picture items that are still in progress. And at that point, I'll stop and I'm happy to answer any questions. Madam Chair. Thanks, Mr. Hamacher. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Manager. I am concerned about the affordable housing piece and I would rather have it in my mind in the facility so that it gets done simultaneously. And having had to deal with the city of Seattle on a building permit that the county is trying to get, I think that it would be better for us to have it inside. So at what point could we decide which way that's to go? Can we do an amendment here to decide that so. That the agreement that came over from the executive, it's the buyer's option. They can, at closing, make a payment to the county or commit to building affordable housing on site. The part of your question where you said right away, though, that's the real issue because any housing that's built on site would not be constructed until at least 2021, which is when the rest. So they're going to build the convention center addition. They're going to build the footings for the two new towers. And at that point, housing could be built. And currently they're projecting an office building and an apartment or condo building. So it would not be until at least that time that any housing would be done in 2021. Sounds fine to me. I'm just worried about a be 2015 or 29. So in order to not be 2090 and I have some concerns about some other history we've had where they were going to build offsite housing and I'm not aware that ever got done. So it is part of this and conditional that you don't open your office building until the affordable housing is done, then I know it'll get done. And so I want that to be tied a little more closely. Okay. Thank you, Councilmember Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. My concerns are very similar to Councilmember Lambert. I was kind of surprised by the lack of, you know, labor or work or solidarity that was expressed this morning. We have people testifying that were with your name here. But let's talk about it at the end of the process, after the decisions have been made and other people are saying, well, they weren't there at the beginning when the hard work to its effort was. Therefore they don't have any legitimacy. So I don't understand why we can't make a commitment for low income housing up front even though the housing not be going to be spent. I pad indicate into 2000 22,021. We as a government have been okay on too many big projects for a commitment to housing and that not take place. And it is the condition that the executive worked out is very minimal. You hear just saying and I think it's a moral and good idea that if you're going to be on how they make some of it affordable for the people who work in hotels, which are mostly refugees, immigrants, African-Americans and other low income workers that are serving as maids, butlers, cooks. So I don't understand why we would bypass making that kind of commitment upfront. Or. Not just affordable for some low income housing and whatever. Is the bailout as ideal that one union's ideas are superior to the other and the other because they represent low income workers? Got to wait later after we get our jobs. I don't see that as solidarity. Thank you, Manager. Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Councilmember Lambert, another question. Thank you. Yes, I just wanted to ask about the permitting for the building construction. So having been for the last three years, every Wednesday morning dealing with a building permit from the city of Seattle and Purgatory, be a nice word for how that is. Are there any things in here where we need to put any protections that any delays that are caused by the cities? I can't use the word ability, but I should use the word ability. Ability to to get permitting out in a timely manner. Would there be any impact to us? Is there any protections we need to build in that? If it's not done by a certain time and there's a cost allocation escalation that there's no impacts on us? Most of the answer to that question is no, because this is a land sale. We're selling the piece of property. The area where I would say the answer is yes is as transmitted. The date for when Transit asked to vacate the station is September 30th of 2018. Unless there is substantial delay on the project. And as we've noted previously throughout the staff report that what that substantial delay is isn't defined. So I think the the only real place where a city delay would impact the county would be in that if they delay permitting, theoretically transit could stay in the station longer. And there's up to a year there. That's really that's really not clear. But we're anticipating sound transit would like the county to be out of the tunnel September 30th of 2019. So there's quite a difference there between September of 2018 and 2019. So that's the one area where I think the city permitting delays could impact our role in the transaction. So anything we can do, they say you can't be paranoid if it's already happened to you. So the fact that we've had to deal with this for our own building, building, if they'll do it through the county, then it could happen to other people too. So I think we need to just show that up so that there's some kind of way that we are completely protected. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other comments or questions on this topic? Well, just in closing, as I said, we are closing in on an amendment. I heard some comments from council members this morning that suggest that you might be thinking about other amendments as well. And I our plan is to take that up after at the special meeting where we're going to do the appointment to the legislative vacancy in the. This is the 3040 646. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Douglas. Despite rampant rumors, I am not making calls for one of the candidates. Excellent. I thank you. And that is so. But there's going to be represent. Part of it. Councilmember Garcia, I think we'll be able to use half of that special meeting to keep this moving because we get into summertime and we have some breaks in our schedule and it gets a little bit difficult to keep things going. So I want to keep the momentum going. Madam Chair. Accounts from. Damascus. I apologize. Say this. I haven't done it yet, but I did have one question that I wondered if Pat might be able to answer. This is, I don't think senior staff report, but with respect to the party, the DSD, the downtown sale transit tunnel early and turning that over to exclusive sound transit operations is their existing debt service that the county is paying today on the tunnel. And if any of that we do that, are we relieved from that debt service? And we have an idea of what those savings are to the county that soundtrack that understands hundreds of up. The first part is, yes, there is existing debt and if we give up up joint operations early, we would be absolved of that. I think it's about a year and I think it's about 3 million. But don't quote me on the number, I will confirm that to you. There is a debt service payment and we would probably avoid at least one year of that. But I just need to find out what the number is. Appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm referencing your earlier comment about amendments. When would an additional amendment have to be ready to be discussed? Well, the final date would be when we take this up at the full council, but the earliest date would be as of next Monday morning. And next Monday. Okay. Because I want to look at an amendment. We have a government wide commitment to equity is also just as in my mind, that means considering what impact our major policy decisions have on other poor minorities and other disadvantaged folks who want to put it together. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett, Oscar Castro, the best known. What sense would it be? Helpful. You and I and Councilman Carlos have been working diligently with staff on this and on the affordable housing piece. It seemed to me there was a growing consensus, at least among the three of us, that it might be worth sharing and correct me either of you if I get this wrong. But with respect to the $5 million payment for affordable housing in the county, I have heard a couple of preferences among us, and that is one that we pursue the cash at closing option. And I think the thinking behind that is twofold. One, it occurs sooner and allows us to deploy the money faster to build affordable housing sooner so we don't lose through 2021 inflation. The value of the $5 million, right? If it were to be built into the project years later too, it allows some little bit more control at the county to direct those proceeds, perhaps for workforce type housing or transit oriented development housing where we'd have the flexibility to locate those on projects that are ready to go or high need or that suit our policy objectives. And I know Councilmember Garza has been a leader on ensuring we get down to the real affordable housing. 30% am I 50% in mind that would allow us to target those dollars that way? So we've had this discussion today. I thought it was fair and appropriate, so everyone was on the same page to share some of the thinking in the room. As I recall it. Just as a process matter, there will for sure be a chair striking amendment. There may be a joint strike imminent, there may be a separate striking amendment, then there may be standalone amendments. But we're going to try to get as much of what we all agree to into one as possible, just so that we're able to take things up in an orderly fashion. And I think we're I mean, I think we're getting there. I guess that's what else I think we're getting there. And I appreciate hearing the issues that have been brought up this morning. Councilmember Costa, I just wanted to thank you, Madam Chair, said Councilwoman Dombroski there it is nice that, you know, the three leaders of this issue have discussed this, but I would like to have the opportunity to meet with you all and try to make a case for more concrete commitment to low income housing because. Always that big is off the hook by saying, Y'all give us some money and we'll find somewhere to build low income housing. And we hit our tendency of building all the low income housing and already low income neighborhoods. I don't see why we can't commit to building that in the neighborhoods that were being expanded. And we're going to allow the developer to invest in building, you know, hotel, motel or apartments. We should do something for the lower income workers. Not exclusively, but something. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Dawson. Councilmember Colwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Packed question. I concur completely with the motivation, the desire expressed by Councilmember Garcia, but I wonder about what the history is in recently of the council dictating to a developer or a business what they do, how they spend their funds and how they design. So, I mean, can we require that they. Oh, I think I think certainly you could. I think I think the the desires expressed by the developer or through the executive's proposal are just that you're making a contractual agreement with the developer for what is built on land that you currently own and are being asked to sell. So you certainly could obligate that. And in fact, we have obligated developers to build housing on site in the past. To Councilmember Lambert's point, there have been quite a few hurdles in actually getting it built. But certainly you you have the authority to require that to be built. Thank you. For much. That's great. That's what I is for so that we can surface issues and hopefully do something with them. Thank you, Madam Chair. And this is in the event I don't connect with the three of you, so we might as well pass thoughts along. Now on that. I am I mentioned this before in the Budget Committee and I'd repeated again, I'm very supportive of the Councilmember Dombroski suggestion that we take Castro closing part because the geographic flexibility in addition to the the real dollar, the real protecting the value of those dollars to the extent we can legally and I don't know to what degree we can legally. The ability to target. Additional housing units to a workforce that's going to be generated in Seattle as a result of this project and the increased need there. And I don't know how, you know, our attorneys have looked at this, but in essence, can we find ways that units become available for the lower wage workers who are in that industry? And I don't know if Pat, if you recall the conversation with legal to agree we do that or is it simply doing housing in that price range and marketing it to them versus restricting? We have done some analysis of that and the initial conclusion conclusions ironically were actually that it's very hard to target the industries in Seattle with their new rules because of the first. So I would not give that as a as a legal opinion or a final answer. The the councilmembers that we've been working on this have have wanted to target based on images the lower the lower end of that spectrum. And that's fairly common to do. I think it may be difficult to do a industry specific target in Seattle, but I don't see any reason why it couldn't be done with the $5 million as a whole as it went out into other programs and and actually funding affordable housing projects. What you end up with is a project with a whole bunch of funders and with a whole bunch of different restrictions. This part has that and it goes into a pot and there's a really complicated process they go through to try to allocate it in this case as quickly as possible because of the need out there. But I think that's workable. Ironically, it might be difficult to target that and then back into the city where the where the jobs are being generated. So Councilmember Lambert's. A noble a noble a noble goal that it might be a question of if you can't legally set aside units, we at least maybe want to set a goal of good communication and targeting of marketing in our clients to that segment of workers. Thank you both here. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Or maybe even some agreement, if it were going to be in that area that we buy it. We've made it so that over cost in all of our contracts it'd be really nice weather and whenever we are expecting housing to be built that we have some follow up dates that you know, five years from the date it's supposed to be down to three years. And if it isn't that there's a fine levied with that because I don't think that the follow up has been as good in the past on some of them to make sure we got all the units we thought we were going to get. So that's my concern. Okay. Thank you for that good discussion. And I just want responded Councilmember Gossett, and I appreciate your acknowledging those of us who have been working on this issue. But as always, the decision will be the bodies, what happens. And I hope that we can engage with your proposals and and do something in that regard. Thank you. All right. I think we're ready to move on to item number six. Are we? Very good. And that is a solid waste overview. So we're going to have a briefing now regarding King County Solid Waste System and the development and approval process for the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, which is the overarching plan that looks to the future and talks about how we're going to continue to perform this critical function. This is the first in a series of briefings that we've scheduled to make sure that we are all getting up to speed on where we are and where we have been so that we are prepared to make decisions when they come next year. That's going to be the substantive policy decisions. Future briefings are going to cover long term disposal options, demand management and recycling. Today we have Tara Rose. Welcome. Is this your first presentation to it is. We're so delighted to be here to hear it. There's some hazing that goes on. Just be prepared and. We're here already. All right, Jack and Mary Bourguignon, welcome from our council staff to give us an overview of what we can expect to come this year. And we also have staff from the Solid Waste Division with us. Thank you for being here. If we have questions on the way. Good morning, Madam Chair, and members of the committee. For the record, again, I'm Tara Rose and with me is Mary Bergin on council staff. Today, as you stated, I will be providing a briefing on the county's solid waste system and the development and approval process of the county's comprehensive, solid waste management plan. The material for these items begin on page 313 of your packet. And over the course of this briefing, I will provide a short refresher on the nature of the county's solid waste system. Give a sense of the road ahead as it pertains to the development and approval of the updated plan, and also identify some key issues that will feature in the update. Before I jump into a discussion of the plan, which will be the focus of today's briefing, I want to first give an overview of the county solid waste system to help ground the discussion. If you're following along, the system overview can be found on page 314 and 315 of your packet. As the committee knows, the King County Solid Waste Division operates a number of facilities related to waste, handling and disposal. I'm not going to go into too much depth about the nature of these facilities, but a map of the locations can be found on page 314 of your packet. All cities in King County, with the exception of Seattle and Milton, currently have agreements in place that govern their participation in the region's waste system. 32 of the 37 cities have signed, extended and revised Interlocal agreements that commit them to the system through December 2014 and five have retained their original agreements, which are in effect through June 2028. The region's waste system is supported by disposal fees approved by the Council. The current fees were approved in 2016 and went into effect January 1st of this year. A schedule of key fees is provided in table one on page 316. Continuing on page 16, I'm now going to switch gears and move into a discussion of the solid waste comprehensive plan. Both King County Code and state law require. It would require the county to develop and periodically periodically update this plan in cooperation with the cities that have signed in our local agreements. The Solid Waste Comprehensive Plan is intended to identify the governing policies and principles for solid waste management in the near term for the next six year planning period, and then also in consideration of the next 20 years. Plans must contain a number of items as required by state law and county code, and there's a list at the bottom of your packet on page 316 that provides some examples to list a few. The plans must provide goals for solid waste management, a detailed inventory of handling, solid waste handling facilities, and any deficiencies in meeting current needs the estimated long range facility needs over the next 20 years, and a six year construction and capital plan for these facilities that meet the relevant and appropriate state and county laws. Moving ahead, I will provide some history related to the current and past efforts to update the Solid Waste Comprehensive Plan. This discussion begins on page 317. As the committee will recall, King County's existing solid waste comprehensive plan was last adopted in 2001. In 2006, the Solid Waste Division began an effort to update the 2001 plan, and this effort culminated in a draft plan in 2013. However, the Council requested the division to undertake a more rigorous review of the transfer system needs prior to finalizing this plan. And so the 2013 draft was not transmitted to council. This always division is currently in the process of updating the solid waste. The plan with the two advisory committees. That would be the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and the Metropolitan Solid Waste Management Advisory Committee. And the division has a proposed timeline that I will outline later in this briefing. First, I want to note that the Council has identified both an expected timeline and key issues for the anticipated plan through a series of provisos in the 2017 and 2018 budget. The first proviso relates directly to the solid waste comprehensive management plan. Proviso p one withhold $1,000,000 until the executive transmits an updated plan by March 31st of 2018 and establishing establishing this deadline. It also requires the plan to include a range of strategies to address the region's waste, including alternatives to landfill. For your reference, the proviso is provided in its entirety on page 317 of your packet. A second proviso P2 withholds just over $2.4 million until the executive transmits two reports one related to solid waste system tonnage, and a second related to options for extending the life of the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill. A third proviso. P3 withheld $1,000,000 until the executive transmitted a plan to implement the demand management pilot program. Pilot program, and that proviso was satisfied by motion 14856, which passed council last month. Moving ahead, I will now turn to page 319 of your packet to discuss the development and approval process for the comprehensive plan. This process is governed by a complex combination of state law, county code and the inner local agreements with the partner cities. And as noted earlier in the briefing, the Solid Waste Division has a proposed timeline for review that includes several milestones. A table in visual representation of these milestones is included on page three, 19 and 320 of your packet. I'm now going to walk you through their proposed timeline and note some of the process requirements, and you can either follow along using the table on page 319 or on the bullets in the proceeding the following pages. As noted, the Solid Waste Division is currently has work underway, updating the plan contents with the advisory committees and their involvement is driven by state law, county code and the inter local agreements. And the Waste Solid Waste Division anticipates this work to continue through September of this year. Additionally, work is also underway on the Environmental Review as part of the plan update The Solid Waste Division must complete a programmatic environmental impact statement to comply with the State Environmental Policy Act or CPA. And the division anticipates this process occurring through September of this year. Separate from the CPA process. King County Code requires the Solid Waste Division must hold a public comment period on the preliminary plan for a minimum of 30 days. The division anticipates doing this from October to December of 2017, and you'll note that that is a greater length of time than is required by county code. Next in the process, the division anticipates submitting a preliminary draft plan to the State Department of Ecology in early 2018 ecology that has 120 days to issue a response. And also during that timeframe, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission will undergo a review of the cost assessment prepared as part of the preliminary plan. Once those steps are complete, the Solid Waste Division estimates that they will transmit the plan for Council and Regional Policy Committee review in June of 2018. For the Council review portion, the committee of the whole or another account committee designated by the Council may hold hearings on the preliminary draft plan, and they must hold a public hearing on the final draft final draft before adoption. Additionally, any cities using the solid waste facility shall be notified of these public hearings. You'll also note that the Regional Policy Committee is designated by Interlocal agreements as the Solid Waste Inter Local Forum or the Swift County Code grants this with the responsibility to review and comment on the plan . And additionally, because the RPC has noted the plan as an item on their 2017 work plan and because of its designation as the SWIFT Legal Counsel indicates that the plan will require a mandatory. Referral and. Staff will work with the relevant committee chairs as the transmittal day approaches to develop a schedule for review. And then finally, the plan must be adopted and formally submitted to the State Department of Ecology for final review. According to the Inter Local Agreements, a plan is adopted after two things happen. It must be approved by the County Council and also approved by cities representing three quarters of the incorporated population of cities that have signed inter local agreements. So Seattle and Milton's population would not factor in flipping ahead. Once completed, the Solid Waste Comprehensive Plan will provide key guidance on managing solid waste in a number of policy areas that are of interest by the Council. These items are listed on page three, 22 and 323. One of those policy areas is related to options for long term disposal. The Cedar Hills Regional Landfill has a limited capacity and as noted previously. The counsel provided in one of their provisos in the current biennial budget. To that, the plan must include a range of strategies to address the region's waste in the future. The Solid Waste Division, as part of this response to the proviso, has identified four alternatives to include for discussion in the plan, and those four are expansion of Cedar Hill's waste, export waste to energy and emerging technologies. The division is currently conducting an evaluation of these alternatives based on the cost, the impact on greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on recycling rates. Further, the division plans to validate their findings through review by a third party. Another interest issue of interest to the Council relates to the needs of the transfer system. As the committee heard from the division in April of this year in this committee. The development of the Solid Waste Comprehensive Plan is occurring concurrently with the planning for the demand management pilot. And while results from the pilot will not be available for inclusion in the plan under the proposed timelines, the division noted in their April presentation that the plan can set criteria to determine pilot success. The division anticipates transmitting legislation in November 2017 to establish the peak prices under the demand management pilot and also to suspend the use of the hole and transfer station during the pilot. And then finally, a third issue that has been of interest to the council relates to recycling goals. As you'll recall, the 2015 update of the Strategic Climate Action Plan for this gap contains the goal to achieve a 70% recycling rate countywide by 2020 and a zero waste of resources by 2030. Current recycling rates vary by sector. For example, the rate for single family homes is approximately 56%, whereas multi-family is closer to 15%. So the update to the comprehensive plan will evaluate strategies for the system to meet the goals outlined in the scope. That concludes my staff report. I'd be happy to take any questions. And as the Chair noted, we also have staff of solid waste on hand. Counselor of the group. Thank you. Thanks, Tara. When it comes to curbside service, if I have cat that go in. The yard waste or the garbage. That might be a better question for for the solid waste division. It is important. As long as since since this all my stuff has come to to be here. I wonder if you might want to come down and say a few words about the background of what we've just heard and what we're going get to go and get into. Can you join us? And I like to bring my expertize with me. That's okay. While we're shuffling around, I need to inform the council that while Councilmember Garza was gone, we passed a rule that there will be fines for phones that are left ringing unattended in the chambers during the presentations from here on forward. Okay, please go ahead. Well, good morning. For the record, Pat McLaughlin, I have the pleasure of serving as King County Solid Waste Division director, and I'm joined by Meg Morehead, our strategy communications and planning manager as well. And Meg is actually leading the charge of this update of the comprehensive plan. And we've made some really solid progress in working with our advisory committees, which, as you know, are comprised of both our city partners as well as our industry partners and interested citizens. And so it's a good and important work and it's long overdue. And so we're excited to be approaching some of the challenging policy issues that are going to really set the stage to ensure that we can continue to meet our environmental as well as service objectives in the region and appreciate the support of the Council as we go through these briefings to find the right sweet spot in some of those policy areas. Great. Thank you. Neither questions or comments. I'll say a couple of words. And I thought one of the really interesting parts of the staff report was the reminder that our last plan was updated in 2001 and that we started this update in 2006. So it is really high time and my sense of why we are where we are is not due to lack of effort, but due to the fact that change has been happening in one way or another in this system. So that we sort of do study, we figure out the demand projections, we come up with a plan and then something changes that changes that picture. And rather than sort of adopt it and then amend it, we go back into, okay, let's fix it. And that's happened a number of times now. And so I'm really looking forward to engaging and and and kind of finally just putting a pin in it. It's always going to be an evolving area. And the minute we adopt a plan, it's probably going to start to become out of date right away. But that shouldn't stop us from adopting the plan and working towards it and then updating at regular intervals. I would ask, can you just sort of talk a little bit about what are some of the biggest issues that we see coming with our partners that as we as we get into this, I know it's kind of put you on the spot pad, but like, what are we getting into? You know, I think, first of all, you're really right to point out that we've we've done a lot of work over the years. And we're we're trying to design this policy framework around a environment that is constantly changing. And so I think that the work we've most recently done is good and solid and can provide the necessary direction, even as there will remain some unknown aspects. I think some of the big challenges we have are certainly around some our environmental goals, adopted goals of zero waste of resources by the year 2030 is going to take certain action and and perhaps more precise policy framework to ensure we actually arrive where we want to want to go. And that's going to take action. That's challenging both for our unincorporated areas that that we are responsible for as a county infrastructure. But also, I think we're going to be challenged as we work with our city partners to encourage them to take action as well. And so adopting policies that will drive different behaviors for businesses and individuals regardless of single family or multifamily or the commercial sector, we we are going to be challenged to change what's happening. 70% of the materials coming into the landfill should be recycled and we're burying them. So I think that's one of the big challenges we have. Another is going to be with our transport system and. We have for a good, solid, robust reasons, pause to question what was a plan developed back in 2006? Our transfer plan was adopted and it called for the modernization of our transfer system, the replacement of certain transfer stations. So many of those conditions have changed and they continue to change. And I think as we have explored demand management as an alternative to the Northeast transfer station replacement, I think we're you know, that in of itself brings challenges and I don't think there's an easy answer and there's not an easy way out. Whether we proceed with demand management, which calls for restricting services in a certain part of the region or increasing prices to certain customers during certain times of the day. That's not an easy policy choice, but it may be the appropriate and necessary choice. The alternative is siting and building a northeast transfer station. Also, not an easy policy choice, but it indeed may be the best solution. And so as we continue this process and look at those options, I think those are certainly two key policy choices around our recycling programs and around our transfer system. A third is in our long term disposal areas. You know, we have enjoyed the benefit of being able to manage our waste locally through our Cedar Hills regional landfill. It's proven to be the lowest cost and the most environmentally responsible option. We're fortunate as a region to have a landfill and and as other municipalities and government sectors have to put their waste on a train. But what is the long term best interest of the county? Is it to continue developing that capacity at Cedar Hills? How does that compare to waste export? What about waste to energy and some of the other emerging, emerging technologies? I think that we have an important opportunity in this plan update to solidify that policy direction and ensure that we've got the best long term interest of the of the county lined up through the policy direction that we choose. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. As you know, this is a topic near and dear. I've had the opportunity to go to Kenya and look at their garbage plan, which entails people literally going barefoot into it, walking through it and cleaning as it's combustible and watching crazy things happen. That is amazing that that's still happening in the world. And then to be in Germany, where they have the state of the art and certainly we hope to be more like Germany. So you asked earlier what were some of the issues and the cities trying to sign the contract that to 2040 that took us several years to get everybody to sign on. Then the technology changes, the recession changed our calculations. And so there were a lot of variables. But I think you're right of trying to put something down here and go from there. And the landfill has been the cheapest. But as Patch has said, it won't be forever because we can't refight another one. And I think at this point, it's it's it's 730 feet above sea level. And we're going to go to 800 by 780 feet above sea level at 830 feet above sea level. That's right. So that's a lot of piling at higher and higher. And eventually that quite won't quite work. So I'd like to see us look at at some other more modern options and keep the capacity for emergencies. I think some of the things that will be important is that we do a comparable to what other advanced countries are doing and how it's impacted their cleaner air because of it. And then also looking at our calculation formulas, when we're talking about greenhouse gases, we're using a formula that's not a lot of the rest of world is using anymore. So I think as we do this study, we're going to have to modernize everything. And Pat was nice enough to come to a couple of meetings a couple of months ago where we talked about the idea that technology has changed so much since the year 2007, that everything prior to that is obsolete in the waste energy field . So that's pretty startling. I think we are in for exciting times as things get better and better all the time and being better for the environment. So anyway, thank you very much. I'm looking forward to this report. Thank you. I don't see any further discussion or comment. And this is just an introductory session. We're going to work hard to get ourselves up to speed so that when the time comes to engage with these challenging and difficult issues, we're ready. Excellent. Report. Very logical, well-delivered, well written. Thank you so much. Congratulations on your first time here. You made it. You did a great job of ignoring the distractions and excellent. So. All right. And thank you all for being here today as well. We look forward to working with you on this plan going forward. All right. I tried. And there was really it was a weak effort. Council Member Sorry if I do say so. We're taking a little time. All right. This brings us to agenda item number six. We are scheduled to have a series of briefing on human resources because this county spends so much of its operating funds on services and the staff who provide them. It seemed important for us to spend some time hearing about the current planning and thinking around managing our human resources at King County. I know there's a lot going on. So our staff to pull together a series of briefings to cover various aspects of the king of the county's human resources, benefits, compensation and labor relations . This started from my interest and in somewhat confusion about what we used to call the employer of the future effort. I gather that's not the term anymore. That's good, because I never quite understood what it meant other than it sounded really cool. And so we're going to hear about this today, I gather. And today's briefing will be an overview of the work to come and introduction of where we are. I'm going to ask Patrick Hamacher. Welcome back to provide an introduction. And then we have here today Christopher Solo and Whitney Abrams from the executive branch to tell us more about what they're up to. So thank you. Welcome. And thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just going to really quickly highlight what our current working draft is for the series of briefings. We'll obviously adjust that based on the committee's interest as we go. But right now, we're this is the first of four that we've identified for the year. It's going to be an overview kind of demographics, an introduction to the executive's new investing, a new program, and cover some of those big picture highlights. The second briefing, which is currently scheduled in July but may get bumped to August, is going to cover the county's shared commitment to grow every employee, employees talent and also racial diversity and cultural responsiveness at all levels. The third briefing is going to cover supporting employees in health, wellness and safety, and also having processes and systems that support or improve the employee experience. And then finally, the last briefing is going to cover sustainable and competitive total compensation. There's a lot of other issues that are percolating right now. So as those ripened ideas such a annoying term, but as those ripen, they may work their way in. But that's kind of the broad strokes of what we've laid out for the course of the year. All right. Great. Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the committee. For the record, I'm Christy Marcello, interim human resources director for King County. Good morning. Whitney Abrahams, director of employee engagement for the King County Executive Office. We really want to thank you for having us here today. Just to give you an overview of all the efforts we've been doing across the county to strengthen our workplace and workforce and become an employer of the future. That was the original term being used, and now we're moving it forward into a new initiative called Investing in You, which we'll tell you about in a minute. We started these efforts really in 2013 when the council asked Human Resources Division to look at how we can improve our workplace and workforce. I think the Council recognized that King County, as a service provider and as an employer is rapidly changing. And we hadn't made a lot of changes to our personnel code since 1970. So over the past few years, the Central Human Resources Division has been working really closely with the Office of Equity and Social Justice, the Office of Labor Relations, the Office of Continuous Improvement, Department of Executive Services, Finance and Business Services and Benefits Services and agencies to to look at how we can increase employee engagement and help employees strengthen their skills and build a more racially diverse and culturally responsive workforce. So we thank the Council for your support in those efforts there. Today. I'm going to tell you a little bit about why we're doing this, what we've done so far, and what it looks like going forward. So I hope that you agree that we strongly believe that our 14,000 employees are really the engine that makes the government work. We've got employees in a myriad places across the county, from operating transit busses to working in public health centers to working in offices. And as the region transforms into a more multicultural, dynamic place, we also need to make sure that our workplace and workforce is transforming, too. And so what we've been doing is really looking at, again, how do we strengthen and make our workplace and workforce more equitable? So why is this so important? I'm going to highlight a few things. One, I talked a little bit about just that our region is changing. We're more racially and culturally diverse than ever before. And so we really think that to best serve our communities, we need more racially diversity. We need to be more culturally responsive. And this is not something that we're making up. McKinsey and Company recently said that when companies commit themselves to a racially diverse leadership, they are more successful. And we expect to see that here as well. A second point is that not only is our community changing, but our workforce is changing. We are all unfortunately getting older. The median age of King County employee is about 50. I know that's a number. I didn't. Know. You know. We anticipate that nearly 40% of our workforce is going to turn over in the next five years because of retirements and also through regular attrition. So we are really going to be competing and trying to hire the best talent. As you know, we are competing here with some of the nation's top employers in the country. And also we need to recruit the next generation of public service employees, which right now there are not a lot of young people thinking of public service as their career choice. So that's something that we have to have to work on there. The other big factor that we're thinking about is you probably have seen in The Seattle Times recently that the King County region unemployment rate is about 3.7, 3.8, very low. So there are a lot of people competing for this talent. So we need to make sure we're as competitive as possible. And then third, why this is so important. You all know too well that King County has a structural budget gap. And so we need to make sure that we are using our resources as as best as possible, looking at the total comp and the total cost of compensation that we're giving employees. And so staying competitive but within a limited budget. Over the last two years, we have focused significantly on increasing employee engagement. And employee engagement is really that employees come to work and want to do their best and actually make an extra effort and also want to recommend King County as another place to work. There is a strong correlation between employee engagement and high performing organizations you can see on this slide. So when employees are more engaged, you organizations typically see lower turnover, lower exit rates, absenteeism, fewer complaints and grievances from employees, improved customer service and fewer safety incidents. So these are things that that we want to see in our workplace. These are also things that support the lean business model that King County is has adopted there. The Government Finance Review magazine has reported that high engagement paying, highly engaged government agencies are almost twice as successful as low engage agencies in achieving their strategic goals, and that engage public sector employees are four times more likely to stay in their current jobs, five times more likely to recommend their workplace to others, and five times more likely to be satisfied in their work. And we have found through focus groups and employee engagement surveys that our employees are engaged compared to other government agencies. But that level of engagement really varies across the county, depending on what position you're in, depending on your race, also depending on your gender. And it rarely varies from work group to work group. I want to just back up a little bit and give you an overview of our current workforce and what we can expect in the future. No surprise to you. We are a large employer. We have more than 60 lines of business, so we're fairly complex. We also have a complicated labor environment. More than 80% of our employees are represented by 100 or more bargaining units. Then when it also comes to racial diversity, something that's very important to us. We have a complicated story to tell. All in all, we are more racially diverse than what we call the available workforce in our region. But we're less diverse than our communities in general, and our workforce gets less diverse as you go up the salary range. So at lower salary levels, we are diverse. As we go up into leadership, we are less diverse. We have to be also prepared that the future public service employee is going to be more racially diverse. They're going to be younger. They're going to be asking for new things from employers, like more flexibility, more opportunities for learning and growth. So these are all things that we have to that we're taking into consideration as we think about our employee strategies. This is, once again, Councilmember Leonard has a question. So I once saw a chart that I was given, I think, by the county that showed each of the groups, the millennials, the baby boomers and age, and then what motivates them and what doesn't motivate them. And so are we, including that kind of information and what we're doing? Absolutely. So one is we're looking at what are best practices and trends. And also through our engagement survey, we are able to dissect that that data by by groups, by age, by gender and things like that. So looking at that, so you probably have heard millennials are looking for more flexibility, definitely looking for more opportunities to grow very quickly in their jobs. So in general, since I guess the one other thing that we haven't talked about very much as retired people and because they're usually they're out of the bargaining, so they often get bargained as the tail end. And I think it might be good that we tie whatever that that retirees get to some proportion minimum of what the active workers get so that they don't get left behind. I was in a hearing once in the legislature where retirees came in and talked about how much inflation and the lack of continuing with bargaining had impacted their lives. And it was heartbreaking. So I'd like for us to think about that, too. Thank you. The next slide shows more detail about our employees, specifically through our race and ethnicity focus. And we can look at that at your leisure. But just to point out, just we are about two thirds Caucasian and about one third of people of color, and that's self-identified. And you can see, if you look at this chart, the orange is the representation of people of color and the lighter orange is identified as white. And so you can see as as it goes through pay range and also by tenure and by age, as that increases, the diversity goes down, which is what I had mentioned before . This is something that we are continually looking at, and this is called out specifically in the King County Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan. So what have we been up to? So since the original proviso in 2013, we have been planning and putting efforts in place. We had originally called this the employer of the future, and then we transformed just to keep things fresh into to calling it best run government employees. And specifically, we were looking at three or four different areas, predictable and stable, total compensation, how we were attracting and retaining an agile workforce, how we're engaging and developing employees, and how how we are improving business processes. Because what we realize is we have a lot of people working on employee efforts and also negotiating labor contracts, but we needed to better connect that with our business systems so that we could actually do what we wanted to do for for employees and for the systems. And so there's been some really great efforts, some cross-departmental work there. So we are having constant communication and looking holistically at that. Can our payroll system support what we're trying to do in benefits and total compensation? Just last year you all great supported this work through through funding some additional FTE to work on this. You also adopted the King County Equity and Justice Social Justice Strategic Plan, which focuses on this. And again, there's been more increased alignment between all departments who support employees from what we call from higher to retire. And then just this week we have actually come to fruition and. Bringing all the efforts together, the equity and social justice efforts, the total compensation bargaining efforts, Hardie's efforts, some continuous improvements, efforts together in a more integrated strategy called Investing in you. You have a hand out that that has the goals of that, as well as measures and objectives and actions. And that's what we're going to be coming to brief you on in the future. To give you more information about that, I'm going to turn it over to Mike. I'm sorry I messed up here. I want it done. Yes, that's the last slide. Before we go there, though. Excuse me. I wanted to just talk to you about some successes that we've had in the past. As you know, we Office of Labor Relations and was successfully negotiated with the unions a total compensation package as one under that was under the predictable and still stable compensation area . We also have a new paid parental leave program for King County. Under engaging, employed and developing employees, we have opened an employee resource center where employees can come and learn about other King County jobs and also learn about what are their interests and how they can grow their careers there. We have had two annual engagement surveys in just one year. We actually saw our engagement overall jumped four points to an overall 74%, which is that the consultants tell us is very significant there in terms of attracting and retaining diverse and agile workforce. We have really been standardizing our recruitment practices and working on practices that screen in candidates rather than screen out and trying to make those practices consistent across the county. We've also transformed our new employee orientation to make it more welcoming. So they actually new employees actually hear. About what it a pause for saying. Yeah yeah. I thought if I think about that for a second, it will make sense. And I did and it didn't. What's the difference between screening in and screening out? Yeah. So so in some practices, when you hire somebody and look at resumes, you may typically be looking at what is their traditional work experience or what is their college experience. And so then you actually screen out people who maybe haven't been able to go to college because of life circumstances or maybe have experiences that would be just as beneficial but are not the traditional career path. So, so we actually provide coaching and support to the people who are review resumes and who are in the interview panel to look at things beyond those, you know, what is their college degree or what is their traditional career growth and to see what else is there as well . Also, for instance, we in some places we actually mask the names of people when we do the initial resume review. So making sure that there's no implicit bias toward an ethnicity or or anything else like that. So, yeah. The customer about it, just so you know. Yeah, I know you joined the employment committee this year. We've implemented a lot of that actually at the County Council are the first time we find out the identifying factors of a candidate we're going to interview is after we've selected them for an interview and we've taken a approach to look at the overall resume as opposed to a has worked here for three years and has a master's degree approach, which is how it was done here for quite a long time. So so this wasn't a direct result of anything that the executive branch did. That's just a are your your independent branch doing the same type of work and coming to the same conclusions? Great. Okay. Okay, Whitney. Thank you, Christie. By way of further explanation, I'd like to discuss for a moment about the Investing in You initiative and strategy that we're launching this week. And as Christy was mentioning earlier, we've been doing a lot of work over the last number of years to really get to the point where we are now and to acknowledge that this work cannot be done outside of the context of the whole. And so we have a couple of goal areas that I'd like to briefly review with you and also talk about how they actually are responsive to what Councilmember Lambert was beginning to discuss about the changing needs of our workforce. Right. And how engagement impacts the needs of the workforce and the terms of compensation. So, first of all, this is not a new initiative. Again, it's just integrating the work that we've already done by also communicating what these priorities are and how we measure them. So if you look at our new website on investing in you, you'll be able to see what our 2017 priorities are in each of these goal areas. And we have deployment leaders for these goal areas that will be leading this body of work and communicating and coordinating throughout. So first of all, our first goal of area that we will be discussing is the workplace culture and really acknowledging that engagement, accountability, what competencies exist and resolving conflict within coworkers and the labor management structure is an area of focus that we will be looking at deeply. Also health, well-being and safety. We're acknowledging that health and wellbeing not only is the benefits that we receive as employees, but also how we engage in that benefit structure by choosing wisely, getting the best value out of our plan, and then also just not being reactive and getting treated by being proactive in living a healthy lifestyle. So rolling out some things in that area. Learning and growth is something that we heard strongly communicated through employees, through our equity and social justice feedback, as well as our employee engagement feedback on the survey. So that is not only training for what you can do in your existing job, but how employees can develop and move throughout their careers, not only in the county, but possibly if they want to go outside of the county. As we mentioned earlier, before we have 14,000 employees here, many different lines of business, we'd like to provide the opportunity for people to learn and grow within the county and that ability for them to be able to do that. We show we have evidence to see that that actually allows you to be more engaged in the work that you do. So we want to support that as an entity. And then the racially diverse and culturally responsive workforce, we have put that as a priority as the Council knows as well by adopting the equity and social justice strategic plan and what you highlighted earlier today, we do have a racially diverse workforce throughout the county, but not at the higher levels and the leadership levels of the county. And we want to put some focus there, not only through the screening in of candidates, but being very mindful about development opportunities and engaging in conflict resolution in the workplace. So really focusing there as well. Councilmember Caldwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. I I'm just wondering about this last one that you mentioned. Focus on racial diversity and cultural responsiveness. Yes. Had you thought about otherwise same racial and ethnic diversity? And it seems to me that would hit a broader group. It's a good question. This is that we're using the language consistent with equity and social justice, strategic plan for this one. Know, I'm just I was trying to look at broadening our inclusiveness and just terms can matter and I think cultural responsiveness, you know, kind of on that. But that would be my preference. Thank you. Thank you. To to following areas that will just follow up on is again, the business operations and systems piece of this. This is the area of focus that allows us to actually implement what we are trying to achieve by not proliferating systems that maybe don't work, but actually having having these initiatives roll out in a way that is can be cost manageable and not proliferate in those areas as well. And then lastly, also acknowledging that compensation doesn't just exist in terms of wages and benefits for employers, but also, again, what the leave packages we're finding out a lot of data that shows that newer employees are actually interested also in flexibility and work life balance and what the leave package ultimately looks like. And our traditional accounting leave package is one based on tenure. So if you've been here 25 to 30 years, you have a long time to be able to take leave. But really, for newer employees, it's not as beneficial. So we want to be thoughtful about that as we negotiate our total compensation package, but also acknowledge that that's a piece of compensation. There may need to be some give and take as well. Is that have you at the end of the end. Thank you. I wonder if I could just ask, what are the sort of on the ground? New things that we will see first. Where are you? Where are you? Really starting to roll this out and make it into practice? Put it into practice. I. I can talk a little bit one about the, what we've been doing around engagement. So we started an annual engagement survey two years ago and what we used to do with engagement surveys was every three years it was a binder. People got a binder and put it on the shelf and maybe some managers and directors looked at it and some didn't. We actually now have this as our online system, where. Workers might just assure you that your Department of Executive Services director did not stick it on a shelf. Sure. But now we have actually an online system where workgroups as small as eight people can get the engagement scores for that team. And we are, as have asked them over the last two years, to create action plans that are developed with employees. So we have coached and supported hundreds of managers and how to have these engagement conversations with employees. We have asked everybody that has a survey result eight or more to do action plans. We can actually monitor that. We had a goal this year of getting a of know of eight is only because then we lose an amenity and amenity if it goes below. You mean the number of number. Of number of people. Yeah. So sorry. So if you. So we actually had people enter that we had a goal of 80% of people doing it. Action plans. We actually are at 100% any group that could do an action plan. So we're actually seeing things happen in the work group that we haven't seen before. So Solid Waste is a great example where Pat has taken real leadership of this. He's actually changed and going out to visit work sites throughout the, you know, their 24 hours, throughout the different shifts, talking to them, hearing their concerns so that so that's one thing there. I don't know if you have another one, but. Let me just ask maybe a slightly different way. I'm sorry I interrupted you. Do you want to say something before I ask my next question? Okay, thanks. Really. This started in your presentation, and from my experience, I'm aware that this started as gosh, our personnel guidelines are terribly out of date. Let's update them. And rather than just do that mechanical process of changing the rules around leave accruals and usage and all of those personnel rules, which I mean, just the fact that it's called personnel rules tells you how old it is. And so this was sort of a bigger, broader way of thinking about how we are a good employer and that and that that then supports us providing great customer service and value and all of those things. What happened to the personnel guidelines and all of that? I think the original plan was that potentially doing an overhaul of the entire thing. We wanted to work together to look at what is what is the overall vision and strategy, where do we want to go before we tackle an overhaul? And so I think that's what we've been that's what we've been trying to do. And then there are some things that we you all have adopted as changes around. So for instance, one that that that we as as we're trying to compete with talent people, it's hard to do because some maybe the top talent is expecting relocation expenses while our we don't allow for that. So I think it was last year it may have been the year before where you all passed some more flexibility around that. We still don't think it's enough. But that's a that's a tangible thing that that happened. Just a statement. I think the balance in these kind of workplace policies, if you will, are is between perceived fairness and flexibility. A lot of what you're talking about is the need for especially our younger generation of workers, but for everybody to have kind of flexibility in their work. That means providing discretion to management. Discretion to management can be perceived as unfair by employees, especially in a culture that has grown up here over many years, where if I work a year, I get a step increase. If I work two years, I get another step increase. And if the person next to me is making more than me and we started at the same time, there must be something wrong going on there because I've been here the same amount of time and it's just it's not very flexible. It doesn't reward engagement, it doesn't reward self-growth and good customer. But at the same time, we need to have some way of within a flexible system assuring people that everyone's being treated fairly, because otherwise you get the opposite problem, which is people you see those charts where the promotions obviously don't go, aren't, aren't racially, ethnically proportionate, or else you would see more managerial people because we have a very diverse workforce. Course in some job descriptions at the entry levels, but almost none at the senior management level. So that's to me, the really hard challenge of all of this work. And the exciting opportunity. I mean, that's that's why we're really excited about this plan, because we've put together a system and where we can be weighing those things and thoughtfully thinking them through in a strategic way and being able to deploy them. Because, again, yes, we need to have fairness and consistency and transparency. Any other questions or comments? Colleagues. Council Member. Muskie Heymann Chair. I don't. Maybe this is because it's off topic here, but one thing that strikes me in looking at the materials is the lack of attention to gender pay equity. I don't see that in any of the focus here on the council in 2015 did some work in this area. We adopted the Women's Advisory Board recommendations. Frankly, we asked for an annual report. It didn't come last July coming up on the list, but my understanding is it didn't come on the progress for implementing those recommendations. So I just wanted to flag that and wonder if there might be some opportunity in your plan when we're talking about fairness and equity and investing in employees to make sure that we are doing the right thing in terms of gender pay equity, the results that when we did look at it came back fairly good, right? It showed in with the I would say an exception was a pay band and kind of those middle class jobs, the 70 , 80, $90,000 a year jobs which are frequented by sheriff's deputies, metro drivers, mechanics, those some of those traditional industries where there haven't been as many women in them. And one of the things we wanted to do is recruit and train up early. But anyway, that's a continuing interest of mine. And Councilmember Caldwell's has also recently reached out. We might do an update on that kind of status there, but I just call that to your attention as maybe something that could be included in your efforts. Thank you for that, Councilmember. All right. Thank you for this presentation. It's really nice to get started on diving into what you all do. I know there's been a lot of work behind the scenes and it's nice to see it coming out into the light and it looks very exciting, colorful to us, and we look forward to hearing and learning more as we move forward. And I know just a notice to everyone here. Yesterday we had our first planning meeting for the upcoming labor summit, which is early July. Or. Late, late June. It's it's two weeks from today. So look forward to seeing you all there again and back here at our next briefing. With that, unless there's anything else for the good of the order, the meeting will be a.	AN ORDINANCE authorizing the conveyance of the surplus property located at 906 Pine Street, Seattle, Washington, in council district four.
king_57b1fee1-4f28-4ee7-b078-a35e6f38c119	Order the November 3rd meeting of the committee of the whole. As we begin today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. We'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life to our community and greatly enriched it. In light of the public health emergency, the governor has issued a emergency order suspending the sections of the Public Meetings Act that requires us to have a physical location for the public to watch our meeting. This order has been extended by the leadership of the State House and State Senate. We will start today's meeting with a briefing from the executive staff on the county's COVID 19 response, which will then be followed by three members, three items on the consent agenda, and then discussion and possible action on the fifth COVID 19 appropriations ordinance. Or they can close the meeting with two briefings, first, from the Council's director of government relations on the state legislative agenda for the upcoming legislative session, and second from executive staff on an assessment conducted on the best targets for kids levy programs that we will later adopt to housekeeping items to note before we or as we begin to office manage the meeting. I would ask the public as well as executive and council staff to please keep your review off until just before you plan to speak. And additionally, if you're connecting to the media meeting via a cell phone and you wish to provide public comment. I would strongly encourage you as you're able to use the Zoom application instead. If you're connecting to the meeting without the Zoom application, we may not be able to unmute you. And I believe that also causes a delay that can be hard to then call on you and get a terrible response. With that, Madam Quirk, I'd ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bellucci here. Councilmember Dombrowski. You're. Council member then. Here. Council member Colonel Eric. Council member council member here, council member Yvonne, right down. Here at the courthouse. Council members on life area. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn. I'd entertain a motion to approve the minutes from our October 20th meeting. Move approval of the. Minutes of October 20th, 2020. The minutes of before us see no discussion. All those in favor, please say I, II and others opposed nay. Guys have it. Minister approved. Madam Clerk, do we have a next item on the agenda, as you know, would be a public comment. Do we have anyone on the line wishing to offer public comment? We do not. Mr. Chair. All right, then. Just as a. With my non parties, with my non video participants names highlighted. You're right, I only see county employees. In the call. So we will move past public comment, having no one to provide public comment. And that takes us to Adam five on today's agenda. This is our first item is a briefing from Dwight David, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr. Lee, the video is yours. Thank you, Councilmember. For the record, Dwight, I believe the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, and thanks as always for the opportunity to join you every two weeks and give you a little update on our COVID response. And so I have five as I thought I would cover here this afternoon, and I will try to get you through them relatively quickly because I know you have a long agenda and it's going to be a very interesting evening. So let me start with an update on the grant programs that you have approved through various supplemental appropriation ordinances. We are really now in the phase where a lot of the money is actually getting out the door to groups. You know, as you know, you have to go through the contracting process. You get to get all that stuff signed for all done remotely. And so it's all electronic. And then in most cases, organizations have to come up with receipts before we can reimburse them. And so it's taken obviously several months to get through all of those steps, really to the point where a lot of the money is going out the door. So just to highlight a few of the ones that are of interest to council members, the live music venues we've now disposed of 52% of the money. As of yesterday morning, the grants that were given to Chambers of Commerce and similar business organizations. You might remember there were $5,000 grants for a large number of organizations, 25,000 for a smaller number. In both of those cases, where about two thirds are dispersed. So the money is actually out to those groups. We are over half now with these cities that got a significant amount of money that they in turn were using for economic development and support in their cities. And just for example, just this morning, I approved the transfer to the City of Federal Way, which was about $150,000. So a lot of the cities have received their funds at this point. And then the other one I thought I would highlight this morning, and the reason I do is I know this was of great interest to several of the council members. You will recall that you put some money in the Office of Emergency Management to support restaurants as they were trying to survive and in some cases to reopen. And as of yesterday, they had received 108 applications for restaurants offer support, which we're typically doing in the form of personal protective equipment and other things like that that they need to operate. 78 of the 108 had been approved, and I just thought I would read you a couple of comments that were received from restaurant owners. Just what I saw this morning was gratifying to me, and I think it will be gratifying to you. And so this was a from a restaurant owner in South Seattle saying it is so fantastic of King County to want to help restaurants stay afloat. This grant really epitomizes the great lengths the county goes to help not only financially healthy establishments, but also help business owners survive this what seems like a tsunami for the financial landscape . We are grateful beyond description. And the second one was a small food business owner in Kent who says We recently received an email about this opportunity to apply for financial assistance. Our business has been established since 2011. We are now struggling to stay in business due to the pandemic. As a small mom and poor business, we have tried many ways to get help from the government, but it seems like we could not get through. You are much appreciated for the opportunity. So I just would be good for you all to hear that, you know, we are making a difference with the funding out in our communities . I hope so. Thankful. I also note Mr. Kim in his materials later a fifth COVID supplemental. I sent you an update from each of the departments that has big grant programs. And so there's all kinds of information about that that he sent out to you that even goes down to detailed lists of all the recipients and the status of those things. And so rather than go through that, I just would reference that you have received that in your email. And if you're have any questions about any of that, feel free to give them back to Mr. Kim and then I'm sure you'll pass it on to us and we'll get answers for you. And at that point, I will pause to see if there's any questions or CIDA. Colleagues questions of Mr. Dudley. Do. No. All right, Dwight. Okay. So let's move on to item two, which is a little update on FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There's two pieces of information I thought I would share. Specific to FEMA. One of them does not relate to COVID. But you remember we did have some storms earlier in the year. And so far the Office of Emergency Management OEM has worked with our agencies and we've identified nearly $36 million of costs that potentially are eligible for FEMA reimbursement. And so that number actually is higher than we expected. I didn't expect it to get over about 25 million. So, again, that, as you know, is a long process before we get reimbursement. But I want to give you an update on that. And then the other piece, I think is fairly cryptic. We believe that FEMA has fully approved the plan we made for that cost for the non congregate facilities like our isolation quarantine facilities. It shows up in their online system in a way that says that the award is pending and is embargoed until today. So we would that we believe that has been approved and then maybe they're waiting to do a press release or something. But it was an intriguing thing that it is embargoed until today. So perhaps later today we'll have more detailed information about that. But that is, we are interpreting that as very favorable news. And that's what I was. I don't seem at this point unless there are questions. Colleagues. Again complete. Okay. And the third one I wanted to pass along is an update on our sales tax revenue for the month of August. So this is what we got in late October. And again, sales tax revenue has lagged by two months. So this is economic activity in August. And I would say it's both good news and reinforces some things that I think we're all aware of, but we're getting more and more data that show it to be true. So comparing August of 2020 to August of 2019 and obviously when the economy was booming, our sales tax revenue was only down 6.2%. And so that's a sign that, you know, our economy, at least in general, is recovering pretty well. Obviously, we all know there's wide divergences that I'll talk about in a minute, but that actually is a pretty favorable response. And then I thought I would mention some of the individual components of that kind of going from worst to best. And so, again, not surprisingly, the whole lodging and hotels and motels is still down by 84% compared to the prior year. So that that's of all our larger industries, that is the one that is absolutely suffering the most damage. And, you know, many of the like, particularly downtown Seattle and the other places in Seattle, are down 90%. Sea-Tac is is down substantially, but they're actually doing the best because there still are, you know, like airline industry employees who are staying down there. So that's our worst hit by far. And second worst, not surprisingly, restaurants are down 47%. So those are the two really big segments of the economy that are ahead. Next, again, not surprisingly, things like clothing stores continue to really struggle. They're down 19%. Construction was down about 4%. So pretty stable. We're still seeing a lot of construction activity in the county. And then on the upside, people apparently are buying cars because the that sector is up almost 7% compared to the prior year and August. And then the big winners are, not surprisingly, those organizations that are particularly benefiting from COVID and remote shopping and such. And so the group that these have cryptic names, but they're called miscellaneous, but it includes things like Amazon, IKEA, GrubHub. They're up 17% compared to the prior year, and even more so a group that is the big box stores. So the Costcos and things like that is up 40. And so if any of you have been to Costco lately, you would have had the experience of they are really busy. And so that's what, you know, people are not shopping in the smaller places. They're going to the big places, they're getting big orders. And so in areas like that, they are doing very well. So we have an economy at least through August that was recovering. I think there's probably some adverse signs here as COVID is picking back up again. But I want the point I really want everyone to get is that there are some big winners and there's really big losers. And we're going to continue to see that impact, you know, our economy in very different ways. And with that, I will pause and see if there are questions. Mr. Chair. Council Member Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Bright eyed and it seems like a while back. The other ones that we're doing well, we're remodeling and specialty stores. Still the figures on those. Yes, I do. So we find it here. So the the segment that includes like building materials and supplies was up 19% in August. So that continues to be the case. And then the the Internet based retailers, I think was the other one. You as they were also up 15%. So those trends are continuing. I that's about the specialty food stores. Specialty given is that before. Which is interesting. Yeah. Let me see your genie. They shut down permanently. No more semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies. Oh, no, no, no. Fortunately, I can get those big box stores. You know, I can't remember best. You're out of order in more than one way. I just. I don't. I don't have them on my list. Let me see if I can find that. You might have said that in just a few meetings. No, I did. There was there is a category that is there, and I just don't have it with me here today. So I do have a serious question with regard to the big box. You mentioned Costco. Are there online sales doing better, too? And I assume so. Yeah, those will be combined in what we see. Thanks. Dombrowski. Councilmember Devine. Rick Bauer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, in your comments about the auto industry, you mentioned a 7% increase. Correct? Did you break that. Down between new cars and new cars? And the reason I'm asking that question is one of the collateral discussions I've had with some of the auto dealers in Auburn and South King County is that they're seeing a surge in used car purchases. And in conversations, anecdotally, there are people who used to use public transportation who are now going to a used car dealer in a comment. Very interesting. I don't have that data, but I know it exists. So let me track it down and I'll get back to you about that. Thank you. Thank, Mr. Chair. You bet. Council Member Ron Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr.. And and thank you, Dwight. And customer Ron Wright Bauer. Your ridiculous bragging about being at the courthouse. I mean, come on. Anyway, Dwight, one fund that I'm interested in that you didn't mention maybe we're going to next is our real estate sized tax fund with I'm seeing major commercial building sales and there's a big move on single family homes. And even though prices maybe are down in parts of Seattle for condos, it seems like that the real estate markets big on are we are we looking at some surprise revenue there on the right? No, because recall that the county only gets rid from the unincorporated area. Okay. So the fact that there's all these transactions in Bellevue and in Seattle benefits Bellevue and Seattle in the state, but at the top benefit King County. So our real estate tax just working here is almost exactly on forecast. So pretty much normal. And I think I have a little more detail here. So September real estate excise tax was up substantially in the unincorporated area and there were 36 more I'm sorry, 36% more transactions and 21% average prices for. 21% higher average prices. Sorry about that. And so both the volume of transactions were up and the prices were up in the unincorporated area, and that's almost exclusively residential there. Very little commercial real estate activity in the unincorporated area. So it sounds like that national trend we see of some folks moving out of the urban areas to the more suburban and rural is occurring here, too. Definitely is happening here, too. Interesting. Thanks. Right. Thank you, Mr. Zala. And some members also. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dwight. I know for the during the budgeting process, you have to make assumptions and forecasts regarding future revenues that are uncertain. Just a budget one on one question, what is the process for recalibrating if if reality exceeds what you forecast? And do those funds just go straight into the to a rainy day fund or what happens. Now so that the revenue you know, we have all kinds of different revenues obviously, and they all are deposited in different funds. So if let's say that general fund sales tax turns out to be higher than we have assumed, the revenue will be in the general fund. And unless the Council takes an action to either appropriate it and spend it or to move it to a reserve, it will simply set in the fund balance of the general fund. You can think about it as if you get more money in your paycheck than you expected. It goes into your checking account and until you decide what to do with it, it just sits there and you can decide to save it or you can decide to spend it. But until you make a decision, it just sits in your checking account and the same as is basically true for how government works. We will do the next revenue forecast in February and bring it to the Forecast Council in March. And so that's really the next time that we'll have a official adopted review of where our finances are. Thank you, Dwight. I think you've taken a question from every council member, Dwight, so it's your turn again. Okay. Councilmember Lambert, for the record, wants us to realize she didn't ask when this time around. So this fourth item is a request for help from you. We are in the process. And then when Mr. Kim does the report on the first COVID supplemental, he'll talk about our plan to purchase additional PPE. Given what's going on right now with COVID and so on, our problem is that the warehouse we have been using this year will not be available to us next year. The owner has other uses for it, so we need to find a warehouse we could make, do, maybe use more than one, but ideally we would just have one that would we would use to store and disperse PPE and we're struggling to find a location. We thought we had some ideas with county facilities that didn't pan out. Caroline Whalen approached the city of Seattle to see if they had something we could use, and they really don't. They had a couple ideas of privately owned things that were following up on the facilities management division. Everybody is is looking. But I thought I would take the opportunity if any of you are aware of a building in your district that either is a vacant warehouse or could serve as such. We would love to be able to get those ideas from you and just the kind of basic parameters we need something like 40,000 square feet. And it ideally almost certainly has to have a loading dock. But beyond that, it could be anything. You know, so if there's a a government or a business that has a building that, you know, is just sitting empty and we know it's going to be empty for six months next year, we can probably make that work . So I just put out a little plea to all of you because I know you know your districts and if you know of a business owner, you know of a government of a school district, whatever it might be that might have a facility that we could lease, we would love to hear about. And if you do feel free just to email me and I will pass it on to the appropriate people in facilities. Got it. Okay. And then the last thing. And maybe this is a crazy optimistic thing and I shouldn't even mention it, but I am convinced, regardless of what happens with the election, that the federal government is going to have to come through with some additional COVID response money. And I think what that looks like is probably quite different depending on how the election turns out. But I don't think it's zero. And so I'm gonna ask my team to start thinking. About. How we do an appropriations ordinance in January, something that would act either after the election or right after they reconvene in January. And so what I'm trying to start thinking about is what are the categories of things that we would want to appropriate money for quickly if we could? Now, again, recognizing the federal government will put restrictions on what we can use money for. So some of the things we might want to do if we won't be able to do but obvious things that we would want to continue is the public health work on contact tracing and testing and preparing to distribute vaccines and so on . Presumably, we want to keep going with the shelter intensification. But then I'm really looking for your thoughts and your feedback about, you know, another high priority, be continued food support or rental assistance or small business assistance, because depending on what you know is on that list, we need our apparatus, you know, ready to go to do more contracting, to do additional fees and so on. So any guidance that you can give me about your priorities would be great. You know, I would great if you did it as a full council and came up with a list like you did earlier on. I don't sense that you probably have the capacity to do that right now, but everything else you're trying to do. So even just your individual recommendations would be of great value to us as we start thinking about this. So just, you know, if you have any of that feedback and you just want to email it to me or send it through Councilmember Wells and have her send it to me. Whatever works for you would be great. But I really would like to get your thoughts about, you know, what would be priorities if we could to get money going as soon as we can in 2021. Councilmember Belushi. I don't need to be asked that twice. Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate your work and your report on your institution. I continue to receive cries for help from the care sector, and that was one of the first places that we put some of our resources to try to help keep those slots open in order to support essential workers, but also to make sure there was a child care sector at the end of all of this. And I will share with you some information that we got recently. But I suspect that we're hearing from some there's probably a much larger problem, and that is, I think, a really fruitful area to go back to and look at what additional help might be needed. Thank you. Great. So just General, that we did reach out to this DHS and they absolutely agreed with the need. They felt like they couldn't get any more money out the door this year. But that would be something that I know that department would say is also a very high, immediate priority. Hello. Councilmember Caldwell's, please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of things to follow up with the foundation's suggestion. As we've been, we're. He has B and Aaron was it was going to get us back to information we needed to expand. I'm disappointed to hear that we can't do any more this year that we've been waiting for, that I'm thinking of completing the five stages, but in some ways that won't work. Let me confirm that. But that is what I heard on Friday of last week. We were hoping that we could add some funding to those facilities. Haven't put it in the cupboard. Well. But secondly, Dwight, after we finished two weeks from today, November 17th, we will have hopefully our final. Three. Budgets, including the BI annual one and that. Prior. Year. Then I would be very pleased to get work with my colleagues and get to a list of our priorities since we did in the summer. Very great. Thank you. Thank you. Other colleagues. I heard Mr. Daley asking us how we wanted to spend money. All right, Mr.. I really expect that you will hear plenty from us in time. Great. Thank you. So I will sit on the meeting here because I want to hear Mr. Kim's presentation later on on the fifth called the Supplemental. So thank you again for the opportunity. Thank you very much. Cowell's just member, Cowell's. I'd like to go back to the first item that Dwight had discussed with regard to the COVID update. And thank you very much for selling out to us. Selected Highlights of Peace in Syria, France and Contracts. If my colleagues have not read that yet, it's very informative and I think everybody. But as you mentioned and as is included in this document, there are some grants that have not been given out yet for various reasons. What can we expect for that to happen? Or. The answer to your question varies a little bit by the category. Our expectation is that almost everything will get out by the end of the year. There probably will be small amounts of underspending in some of the categories, but staff are continuing to work really diligently to get that money spent by the end of the year. So. I'm not even going to speculate across the whole government with all these categories. There certainly will be some underspending, but I think it's less than we had feared previously because we've continue to work on these processes to get the money out the door. And still have to spend the money. That first year. Could be for reimbursements that they've already. Said. Yes, that's the easiest thing. So for example, like with digital equity, where we know there are long positions, school districts, etc., that have spent the money, reimbursement is really quite easy. To come by with small business. The city where the chambers just. Generalizing, but that's very helpful. Thank you. Do I. Uh. For your questions for Dwight. We know you'll be sticking with it, but thank you very much for this presentation. Always, always appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. The next three items are make can constitute a consent agenda. The first relates to the annexation of approximately six acres in the Covington Water District. The second relates to the renewal of the moratorium on the winery, brewery and district distillery applications. The third amends a loan with the State Department of Ecology for a wastewater capital project. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda. Mr. Chair. So moved. It's been with the consent agendas before us. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Bellucci I. Council member Dombrowski. I. Council member. Done by. Council Member. Commonwealth I. Council member, Lambert. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember Up the Grove. By. Councilmember Yvonne Lothar. I. Council members online. All right. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight. Eyes are on us and Councilmember Lambert excused. I thank you by your vote. We have given a do pass recommendation to the consent agenda item six, seven and eight. And today's agenda, we will without objection, we will expedite those to full council next week. Those are our McDermott. This is Aaron. The hearing for the moratorium is on until December 8th. That one will hold until then. Fair. Thank you. Yes. So two of the three will be on the agenda next week. And the brewery distillery moratorium is requires a public hearing. So it will appear in due course December 8th, I believe. Correct. Thank you. That takes us item nine, an item for discussion and possible action. It's the fifth COVID supplemental ordinance. Andrew Kim of our central staff is here to provide the self-report. Mr. Kim, the camera is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Am I coming out okay? Yes, you are. Great to share. Andrew Kim with Council Essential Staff. The staff report for this item begins on page 46 of your agenda packet, but I will actually begin my briefing starting on page 47, on page 47. In table one, you can see a summary of the Cobas supplemental omnibus that has been adopted thus far, and also the COVID five, which is before you today. So if you include all the proposed appropriations in COVID five, then all the COVID supplementals that have been adopted would amount to about 360 million, of which 42 were for operating purposes and 73 million for capital. With regards to COVID five, I've provided a table to categorize some of the expenditures. Details of the COVID five elements are actually in Attachment four to the staff report before effort for the purpose of the staff report. I thought it would be more valuable to provide some categories. So the only real policy decision for the for the members is an increase of $500,000 to the digital equity program for vulnerable populations. That was established by the council during the third COVID omnibus with the initial appropriation of $500,000, and then in call before council increased that appropriation by another 195,000. So the Executive is proposing to increase that even further by another half billion as there is more of a demand for that for that program. The other items in COVID five, as you see in table two, about 4 million is related specifically to various departments for their operational expense related to COVID. 27 million is directly to counties the public health response to COVID. So that's all for public health. And it is five $5.6 million grant acceptance for the CARES Act, a HUD CDBG grant. And lastly, there's about $4 million of technical corrections from errors in in COVID four. Moving on to page the next page, page 48, page 48 through page 50, top of page 50 is is a summary, as I mentioned, of the COVID 19 grant programs administered by Gillespie, DHS, DLS and Public Health. This is just a summary of the details that that I've emailed to all the members on on Monday. It just provides some key figures of some of the programs, along with how much was appropriated for each program, how much spending has been done for each program, and and the project expenditures for some of the programs. This is, again, kind of a status update for now. Executive staffs state that the contracts are still ongoing or and there are some committed dollars. But but as as they move through the process, we'll make sure to follow up with executive staff to get some additional updates for the members. Now on to page 51. There is a table on page 51, table seven. And through this proposed ordinance, the executive is making some assumptions, some new assumptions. Since the Ford COVID omnibus adoption on table seven, you'll see two columns, one column titled After Adoption of Ford Code Omnibus and Come to the Right says as proposed via Fifth Omnibus. After the adoption of the Ford Code Omnibus, there was about $194 million of the 262 Kroner relief fund adopted in in the course of the supplemental appropriations. And then 68 million of that you see in the sheet it rose were reserved for those four items. COVID 19, you point out costs that caused for those taking leave due to COVID 19, FEMA match and risk reserves. Now, there wasn't much of a breakdown at the time, but since then, the executive is taking a new approach on the $262 million of the Corona Relief Fund. So as you see, the adopted appropriation to date is still 194 from COVID one to COVID four. And then the assumptions for the the middle of the COVID 19 redeploy staff costs is about 70 million. Staff costs for taking those taking leave due to COVID is 2 million. And they're not utilizing any of the Corona Relief Fund for the FEMA max and risk reserves. The executive is asked to assuming some under expenditures and and some removal of funding for ineligible expenditures of about $24 million. There's also some additional there's an additional $1 million from the interest earned for for the 262 million. And with the fiscal the omnibus proposed appropriations of 19 million, that leaves 3 million of the 263 million unallocated. The reason for this new approach, one of the reasons for this new approach is because because we're still so uncertain about the counties FEMA match obligations for for those for the FEMA grants. And and because we have to extend the current relief fund monies by December 30th to provide some more flexibility. But what the executive is proposing is to utilize some of the Corona Relief Fund to pay for general fund staff costs related to COVID and free up some general fund reserves so that that can be utilized through the FEMA match. And if FEMA matches up the necessary, then then it can be used for other flexible general fund expenditures. And then on the on page 52, there is a timeline for the budget shares proposal on actions regarding this code five. Just notably that on November 5th there is a new and the budget is requesting deadline for a striking amendment request. And then on Sunday evening, the finalized the amendment will be released and then any amendments to that striker is due on Monday, November 9th, at noon. That concludes my remarks. Mr. Chair. Mr. Kim. Thank you very much. I'm scrolling back. It was unfortunately, a. I'm sorry. I'm not going to find it. Here it is. Page 50. The table at the top. Can you speak? Can you clarify for me how much funding is in just care? The Pioneer Square City program as this budget arrives and how much is in the program? If we were to adopt the budget as the executive transmitted it to us for the Chest Cares program program. Yeah. So the Just Cares program was so the council appropriated 4 million for that program and covered three, and there was no additional appropriation for this proposed ordinance. So it remains at 4 million for the end of the year. Right. Thank you for their quote and other questions of Mr. Kim. Councilmember Wells. Thanks you this chair. I am turning this discussion over to. The Bench of Fiscal Management. Committee member Dombroski is in the lead on this and is covered by the budget. How would you like to have them make the motion at this time? Catherine Dombrowski. Okay. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. And Madam Chair and Andrew, thank you very much for the overview. Just for I think, Mr. Chair, you want to have a little discussion if members are interested, right, about what we might like to see in getting this the rather than you saying yes. Okay. So just again, top line, it's about a $41.6 million appropriation ordinance covered five we're calling it five or 6 million. Of that, I think is that is a capital and the rest is in operating funds. And Dwight David tells us we've got and Dwight, correct me if I'm wrong here, but maybe $4 million or so of additional opportunities to add on to this with with members priorities and suggestions, am I to do for Dwight or where what's our number. Yeah, I think you're safe at four. Okay. That's kind of been our language with Dwight. Where are we say fall on this year. And we've been working very closely with his shop and PSB and his deputy, Erin, to make sure we get this done. As you all know, the original plan, because of all of the budgets was to try and do this in December. But given the December 30th spending deadline required by federal law and to give better guidance to the department and to comply with kind of budget transparency and open means act and get members interest in it, we thought we'd take a run at speeding it, speeding up our consideration. So the plan, I think Andrew highlighted there would be if it would be to hopefully pass this out today without recommendation, with the understanding we put together a Stryker on that schedule that's outlined for adoption a week from today. Just a couple of guideposts to remind us all what we're trying to do, and that is, one, be consistent with the motion adopted early in the year which prioritizes I'm going to go from memory here, but number one, our public health needs and response to COVID two, housing three, security or behavioral health needs and economic recovery. Those are kind of the big buckets. And maybe I missed something there, but I'm going for memory. And then maybe even more importantly, we are not we are going to try not to and maybe we just can't. In any event, drop on a new program to our executive branch folks. We're trying to get money out the door. I think we all know that now. But we're looking for folks in your priorities, looking for for contracts that exist, providers that exist, kind of channels that we can get the dollars out, because that's the that's the whole point here. So those are my those are our requests from the budget chair and myself. And we thought we would have just a little bit of dialog here for members to express interest. I won't speak for members, but I will share mine and then turn it over. I'm interested in we put two and a half million dollars into the behavioral health bucket last time. We have a contract provider network of about 40 organ entities around the county and that money was well received and worked pretty quickly. We've worked with the department to gauge potential additional need in that space, and they think that they could use another 2 million or so in the behavioral health space. So that is one request that is kind of on the table and I know there are others, but from a numbers, I'll let folks speak to them. And Mr. Chair, do you want to call on colleagues or how do you want to proceed? Yes, I'd be happy to. Thank you. Then brought the growth. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And. And, Mr. Vice Chair. I was going to mention one of my interests as we work through this in the week ahead. I think everyone may have seen the headline in the Seattle Times. I think it was like five or six days ago that said South King County has been disproportionately affected by coronavirus . And I think the reason largely has to do with poverty also has to do. You know, we're continuing to see higher rates among communities of color. You know, the I understand, if my notes are correct, are the age adjusted rate for infections in King County's about 1200 cases per 100,000. It is an almost twice that for native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders and for Hispanic population. It's about 50% higher for African-Americans. And so as we think about crafting what we do, where we have a kind of a focus or an emphasis down the stretch, I'd like us to think about the public health response side, as well as the community services side. And the department is doing some really good work with some targeted, qualified disaster relief for low income individuals. It's basically the strategy the department has developed to address some of this disproportionality, recognizing that there's folks who are on who are essential public workers or people who work in the service industry and don't have the option to work from home. There's some evidence that suggests those kinds of economic situations can exacerbate the spread in a community because of the challenge of being able to isolate when you're exposed to because you need to continue to work. And so I had some initial conversations with the public health department as to whether or not that existing program could benefit from some additional dollars to target, wouldn't be specifically targeted geographically, but would be targeted generally at folks who are low income and where we're seeing the greatest spikes. So it would be a general suggestion that we we. We continue to look at the public health side as well as the community service side, and look forward to hopefully bringing some ideas and options forward. Thank you. Corals Council. Councilmember Caldwell's Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure. Councilmember DEMBOSKY when he was speaking what that we can certainly look at making reimbursements to already. Chance. Do I? If you want to comment on that. I did mention that. Yeah. So it's easy to amend existing contracts to increase amounts and it's particularly easy if it's for reimbursements of expenses that have already been incurred. So where we have contracts where I'll make up a number, I'd organization got $25,000, send us their receipts, we paid those $25,000 out if we know they have another 10,000, they didn't send us, but they've already spent. Amending the contract is very easy and then providing that additional $10,000 is pretty easy. So those are things that even on, you know, we're going to be looking at six weeks notice or pretty doable. Thank you. Cast member Belushi. Thank you. They're going to echo a little bit what has already been said, but I thank you. I really appreciate the reminder of the framework that we adopted for how to put out CARES Act funding, because I think it still really holds up that our first our first priority is to fully fund our COVID response efforts. And that is very much at risk right now without additional funding from the federal government. But assuming that we get to that part, we do have a letter which I think I think everyone will have received. It comes from the YMCA and they're talking about and this is a nonprofit childcare provider, one of our larger ones. And they ask into us for over $2 million to support their their provision of service and keep them afloat. Really. And I, I don't I don't raise that because I think it's something we ought to try to earmark in our budget, but because I think it is possibly indicative of real catastrophic red ink throughout the child care provider sector. And I want to also pick up on something that Councilmember Coble said, which is if there's a way to push, if there are resources and a way to push more resources into that sector, I do believe that it's just kind of a foundational thing. If we don't have child care resources and we're coming out of COVID, it is going to be a devastating impact on employment for parents and especially for women, because we know that women have a lot of child care responsibilities, and we know that this COVID induced recession has had a much harsher economic impact on women than men . And so just as it sort of fits all our equity principles and the things we ought to be doing is to make sure that parents are able to have a place to go with their children so that we can, you know, maintain our workforce. So I really hope we can find a way to do something affordably in this probably in this last 2020 COVID budget. Also, it would help us make sure we've expended all the money that we have so that we don't end up with extra. I know, I understand the femur Nash approach and that makes good sense, but if not in this budget, then certainly next year, if we have more resources, that can mean we need to really get back to taking a hard look at this issue. There are so many ways, I mean, hearing the stories from the restaurants and that was something that was done in one of our letter budgets. And, you know, there's many, many ways that people need help. But I just really hope that we can continue to focus some of our resources on supporting childcare. Thank you. I would I want to affirm all the comments my colleagues have made already and also add to that and to the conversation, the supportive housing work that some of our nonprofit partners are doing in the community. And I believe they reached out to more than just me. Some of the housing providers who support people in supportive housing with the goal of moving them into permanent housing have been stalled because of the pandemic and finding work and helping people find employment and move at the same pace out of what might be a temporary housing situation into a more long term housing situation. And therefore the nonprofit partners find themselves strapped and that might be a worthwhile place to make an investment as well. Particularly since some of those from those friends have been extended. You. I believe it is a reimbursement and contract amendment situation. Okay. Mr. Chair, I've taken copious notes. Very good. Not seen anyone else. I'd entertain a motion council member to Baffsky. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I had said without recommendation, under the kind of assumption that we would be amending this. But is that your preference or how would you like it to proceed? I. I would think without recommendation, since we know a significant striker or formative striker would be coming. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Then I'm pleased to move adoption of proposed ordinance 2020 DASH 0383 of what we are calling the fifth COVID 19 omnibus and would be expedited for action on Tuesday's council meeting with the striking amendment expected. Thank you. We have ordinance 20, 23, 83 before us. Is there further discussion? Seeing none. I'd ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Duchin, I. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Councilmember Gunn. I. Councilmember Coleman. I. And remember Councilmember after girl I. Councilmember Brown, my father. I council members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 880 noes council member Lambert. Excused. Thank you. By your vote we have advanced ordinance 2020 383 to full council on the consent agenda for next week. All right, your mikes are off. But you all knew it wasn't really unconcerned that there would be a full council next week. Thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Kim, for leading us in that discussion. That takes us to item ten on today's agenda. That is a briefing from Jack Nicholson, the council's director of government relations on the council's state legislative agenda. We don't expect to take any action today, but wanted to have a briefing and conversation surface issues and have Mr. Nicholson and Ms. put me back for the December 3rd meeting to take action on the legislative agenda at that time. Mr. Nicholson. The camera is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members, council members. Nice to see you all. I'm hoping everyone can hear me. Perfect. Thank you. Magnificent director of government relations. As as chairman mentioned, we also have April 30 joining us and make sure they foster were on. I believe they still are. Those are the contract lobbyists down in Olympia. So the whole g. R team is here to answer any questions and provide some insight. So this is a briefing on the legislative agenda development for the upcoming 2021 session. We put together just a two pager. It's on page 95 of your packet to provide a little bit of background assessment. Have you been through this process before? The Council and the executive coordinated their efforts to develop the legislative agenda to reflect the county's priority requests for action by the Legislature. This agenda is traditionally adopted by a unanimous vote of the Council. After a few rounds of wordsmithing to make sure that we capture the appropriate language, it reflects your priorities. The G8 team, the G. R team, then advocates using this agenda to advocate for items on the agenda down in Olympia and to guide our engagement with the hundreds of bills that are introduced every session, as you recall, our 2020 legislative agenda. We had a little bit more of a narrative tone to it. It contained just seven high priority items, and we heard good feedback from legislators on that structure and how we use that agenda to advocate for our priorities. So kind of looking ahead to the 2021 legislative session, it starts January 11th, 2021. It's 105 day session. It's an odd year session. So the legislature will be writing their biennial budget for the 2021 to 2023 biennium. Democrats control both chambers right now 5742 in the House, 2021 in the Senate. And today's election is unlikely to flip either chamber, though there are potential impacts for both chambers, depending on results later today. What we do know is heading into session that that like everything else, COVID has an impact on how the legislature will run this session. We expect that at least part of it will be virtually and perhaps all of it, although we're hearing that the Senate might do a hybrid model with some in-person votes and online or virtual committee hearings, much as you have been doing. We are hearing that the legislative buildings will be accessible only to elected officials and their staff, meaning lobbyists will not have access to the dome. Or that's kind of what we're hearing at this point anyway, are still under discussion. Later this month, both chambers will be hosting their committee days. So we'll get another trial run of how they anticipate doing session. Some of this is technology driven. Even a partly virtual legislative session will likely restrict the number of bills that successfully land on the governor's desk. In ordinary times, committees will happen concurrently. Potentially eight hearings in the same time block for now, sworn Senate. This takes a lot of bandwidth, and I think there is concern about the actual physical, technological capabilities of the Capitol campus. So we're hearing that they might just be running one committee at a time. So it's really going to create a logjam to get legislation through committees down there. Sort of the practical effect of all this is probably a lot of extra meetings, but also, of course, towards omnibus bills, combining what in ordinary times might be separate bills into sort of one bills so they can take a vote and kind of move the legislation through. So that's kind of what we expect to see as far as the major issues that we expect to see in the legislative session. It's not dissimilar to what you all are encountering at the county level, primarily a big budget issue. The pandemic has blown a $4.5 billion hole in the state budget through 2023. That number is likely to change there. The next revenue forecast for the state is in mid-November. How the legislature will address this deficit is going to depend in part on whether or when Congress passes another COVID response stimulus package and what's contained in it for state, local governments. So far this summer, we've seen legislators staking out positions from a no cuts budget to an all cuts budget. The governor is expected to release his budget in December, and that's really going to help set the table for what we see in 2021. One of the big discussion items will be revenue. There's certainly a push among some legislators to have new revenue sources on the table, whether it's capital gains or a statewide employer tax. Those ideas are certainly going to be discussed in the upcoming session. One of our things to watch is the legislature certainly has a penchant for balancing the budget on the backs of local governments. So we want to be sure we are paying close attention to that and pushing back where we can. It's worth noting that just last week the Association of Counties was successful in their unfunded mandate lawsuit related to ballot box requirements. A Superior Court jury in King County found that the legislature had violated their own unfunded mandate statute for unfunded mandate statute. So we'll see if that triggers any sort of response from the legislature going forward in the upcoming session. Obviously, another big thing that the legislature's going to be looking at is COVID response. They can spend a lot of time on a pandemic response package, including public health, housing, behavioral health, education. A part of it will include a dedicated funding source for public health moving forward. I think it's should be clear to legislators now how important local public health funding is. We expect to see a transportation discussion following the Supreme Court action on 1976 and the implications now of having to revisit the projects that were paused and how the legislature might use some of that money to backfill for decreased revenues that they see in the state construction budget for transportation. And I'm kind of running through some of this pretty quick, so please feel free to interrupt if you have questions. Certainly have the whole team here to try to answer them. Another big issue that we think is going to happen is law enforcement reform. We've already seen a number of proposals starting to be developed. It ranges from no knock warrants accountability, accountability, transparency measures, decertification, de-escalation, training. So there will be a whole range of law enforcement reform proposals that the legislature will consider. By the way, expect to see a lot of work on environment stuff, policies aimed at reducing climate change, looking at impacts of wildfires. Clean air. Clean water. Likely to all be big issues. As we met with councilmember offices over the last month, we really have seen a lot of what we expect the state legislature to work on, line up with priorities that we've heard from from you. All COVID response and jobs and economic recovery have been a consistent message from councilmember offices. In addition to looking to increase estate investments, also working to give local governments, particularly the counties, maximum flexibility for their own local COVID response. Housing has been a significant ongoing issue. And one of the specific items that has been mentioned multiple times is the need to seek legislative approval to use the housing sales tax dollars to acquire existing units of housing. That certainly is a priority, will likely be reflected on the legislative agenda. And broadband access and child care have both been frequent items brought up by council members. And so since we haven't had a chance yet to talk to every council member office, we haven't put together a draft proposal for you. But once we do hit every office, we will have a draft that we will certainly send around to make sure that everybody sees, that everybody has feedback. And that's kind of what I have for you now. Certainly happy to answer any questions. I'm certainly happy to defer to April to provide any insight from the executive side as well. Any questions you want to answer preemptively? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am doing great today, which I assume is the top question that you are going to ask me. April, finally, director of Government and external relations for the County Executive. Mac did a great job of summarizing what we're expecting in the sort of new challenges we're expecting at the legislative session next year. I think the the one sort of primary thing that I just want to put out there that I know is sort of very much of a sort of focus and priority for the executive going into session is recognizing that, yes, there there is going to be some technology change. It challenges with the legislative session. Operating remotely or partially remotely. Yes, there is a budget deficit that the state faces. And yes, obviously, COVID and COVID response is is critical. I think the executive believes that we need to absolutely do everything we can to make sure that those aren't the only things that the legislature focuses on. There are too many challenges facing Washingtonians, whether clean air, as Mark was saying, child care, helping get businesses back to work, lack of affordable housing, inadequately funded behavioral health system, and obviously the sort of fundamental reforms needed for our tax system that we we can't afford to only focus on a couple of things with the legislature this year. So I think that is the the hope that we would all bring down to King County, that we need to be bold and aggressive on on all fronts, not just a couple. Thank you, colleagues. The Grove Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks, Mac. Thanks, April. This is a more in the phrase, and I think the comment as you think about putting it together in the weeks ahead. But I'll kind of frame it as a question. We often or consistently have been clear about local government revenue priorities. That's always been central to our agenda. Flexibility, making sure it's adequate and flexible. But I'm wondering if it might make sense for us to be a little more aggressive as a government at some of the bigger picture fiscal decisions being made. And the reason being is in addition to being very focused on COVID right now as we continue to stay safe. I think one of the most important things we can do is try to take steps to get the economy going again. And we're so limited as a local government at the tools and levers we have to pull. But the decisions that the state makes and how we can work with them, I think, impact our ability or the ability for our constituents to help kind of climb economically out of this COVID mess. And so I know there's a coalition I'm a part of, but others are to oppose an austerity budget. And I'm wondering if something as specific as that would make sense, because, you know, dealing with economic recovery means making sure people have health care, access to child care, housing, those middle class economic values. And it isn't it's getting a little bit broader in our vision. But if we. You know, didn't get too detailed. But to include something in our agenda about opposing an austerity budget or an all cuts balancing budget or being a little bit more maybe explicit than we have in past years, I think makes sense in this environment right now. And wanted to suggest we think about what that looks like and what the language might look like. Certainly I've taken that as a question. Yeah, we can absolutely work to develop some language to pass around it and get feedback on it. Ellen, welcome. Your thoughts on how to do something like that. Appropriately worded right, but giving you something that gives you enough flexibility to weigh in on those kinds of discussions. And Mr. Chair, if if I can also respond, I think Councilmember epigraph, that's a a really great point. And and one thing in particular that I think we all need to to do and sort of really be focused on is as the state evaluates any budget cuts of knowing what happens when you pull that thread from the state and what it means back in our communities back here. You know, there are proposals that the State Departments have submitted as part of their budgeting where they all had to identify a 15% cuts. And some of those are proposals I'm thinking of, you know, a lead program that the Department of Health's Environmental Health Program is proposing to eliminate. It is a small program that the state does, but the state inputs the data into the system and the entire system for our environmental health program here in King County and in other communities across the state, built under the assumption that the state is doing its part of the job of putting the data in. And so knowing what it means to pull the thread, I think is going to be one of the most important things we're communicating back home. Similarly, you know, the last time that there were major cuts to the state budget a couple of years ago was when they there were lots of cuts to the behavioral health system that we've just sort of started digging out together and that the state has been taking really good actions in the last couple of years. Thanks. If I made a super quick follow up, Mr. Chair, and it's more just to continue the discussion. I agree completely. I think that's smart. That's even a little bit more limited than I envision. I think we're all on board. I think it's less controversial. We've always been on board with. You know, advocating against budget cuts that cut county government services. I guess what I'm suggesting is we maybe there will be decisions made that won't affect county governments budget, but will affect our shared constituents in King County in a way that runs counter to the values this government has that King County has advanced just to make something like total hypothetical cuts to child care funding, late night types, counties budget it all. But we as a county have been committed to equity and social justice, and we have, you know, an economic opportunity. And I'm suggesting maybe we get a little bit further out on our skis than we have in the past in terms of advancing what are the shared values of the county, even in some areas that don't affect the county government's budget or don't have the direct ripple effect, but really are a values statement that are our constituents we know they would like us to advance. So that's I know it's tricky because there is where do you draw the line and that kind of thing. But I just think it's worth having that discussion this year a little bit. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Councilmember Bill Balducci. Yeah. I mean, after that discussion, I don't know if it makes any sense to say this or not, but I figure any time that issue of agenda is upset, we should make sure to put out there that. It's seems like this is the time when we ought to be having a discussion as a state, as a county , about our revenue less regressive. We just adopted a sales tax year to help to house the most people in our community. So we're using the most progressive taxing source that we have that hurts the poorest people the most in order to help the poorest people. And it gets to the it gets to the point where it starts to feel like we're chasing our tails around a little bit and it also gets to feel abuse. We have the most regressive tax system in the country, and we all wring our hands about it like we ring our hands about it constantly. But where are the proposals to do something about it? And the last time I had an opportunity to speak to a large group of our local, our delegation to Olympia, I said this or something like it, and I got two emails from one senator and one representative saying, Well, what's your proposal then? And so I don't know if that was serious. Like, we should be coming up with a proposal, but it should be front and center on our agenda at all times to be pushing to make our revenue less regressive. It's an embarrassment to this state that we are more regressive than places that you can name, that you think of as being very backwards. And so we should we just have to make some progress. And this seems like a year where we should be able to make progress. A welcome conversation in any context. On point, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you. Following up on the charge, you're laid out by councilmembers up the Grove, about Dutchie and April and Mac. It's great to see you and I hope you're well. Seattle, this, on their second attempt, adopted a revenue package. It's kind of employee compensation based, I'll call it. And I wonder if you can tell us if that's one specific, you know, option is to go countywide with something like that. Well, I wonder if you can tell us if there are any discussions going on about a specific proposal or whether the executive has thoughts on whether we should regionalize a revenue package that is similar to the Seattle taxation method. Mac, do I mean to take that first or do you want to go first? Go ahead. April. So the executive continues to support a regional sort of corporate excise tax, like what was proposed last year, thinks that that is, you know, acting regionally is is the sort of best way to address regional issues. So I think that that would be an appropriate sort of space. I think what I've seen is a lot of conversation has sort of shifting into a statewide tax like that rather than sort of looking at a county by county level now. So I we we may have missed our window, but I think it's something to Councilmember Belushi's point. I think it certainly is something that, you know, is a solution and is something that that we should be for. Thank you. And if I might, Mr. Chair, I had heard some discussion about that in conversations with Senator who works in my district. And and he thought that there were some real challenges to that with, you know, statewide electeds. And I wonder, just from a policy perspective, as if it wouldn't be better to have it as a county local option, because if it's statewide, my sense is the state will keep the money and we'll still be left to manage the challenges. And so I'm interested in that. And then if we are to work on that, they're talking about the MAC group, I call it the Mac rebuild and pretty amazing effort that she undertook there and got so close in April. I know you were working very hard on those conversations, but a lot of it seems aimed at housing. But I would like to just surface the notion of having a little more flexibility to perhaps include transit funding. You know, we we aggressively fund transit with sales tax, too. And it's an essential need, I think right alongside housing is that mobility need. And if we could perhaps talk about that and I think there's some nexus, particularly there with employers, if it's an employer based tax, you know, that's a that's a government function that is directly tied to supporting our employers throughout the region. And, you know, maybe we can explore that authorized, you know, use of the funds as well in the conversation. My my second my second question, if I might, Mr. Chair, surrounds climate change and what our experts here think there may be in terms of kind of a carbon tax or or a major set of initiatives around climate change coming out of the state. Sure. I think and all I will defer to AP on this as well. Discussions around a low carbon fuel standard has been ongoing and expect to see that less clear to me about a carbon tax. I know it's available if you have any insight on that, certainly in the discussion, but I'm not sure sort of the likelihood . Yeah, I would say that the places where I've been hearing most of the sort of conversations around carbon tax is really sort of combined with some other places are where he talks, people are talking below him and feel standard great. And I think Mike actually and Mike Shore might actually have the sort of best info here because I think it is really related to a transportation or infrastructure package that is sort of being discussed about that. And I think they're throwing out a bunch of different sort of ideas as it relates to transportation funding. And I know we have been certainly sort of saying and asking for replacement funding tools than the sales tax for for metro and other transit agencies to the point they were making earlier. Councilmember Demovsky But I think that is where that conversation is sort of contained currently, at least in from from what I am watching. You know, we'll be all watching anxiously and eagerly to to see what the governor proposes in his budget next month and see if there is something for climate there that is either tied to transportation or independent of. Thanks and thanks for the addition of the low carbon fuel standard. I hope that we will and in this major issue of our time, make of a strong statement, not sometimes because we're saying we're a little neutral or soft in our language, but I think we ought to be expressly supportive of that and take a position to support that. I think there's some direct nexus to the county, particularly in some of this work we're talking about with the Port of Seattle, perhaps, and and and helping them with cleaner jet fuel production, maybe with our landfill stuff. And that begins to maybe work at the moment. We have a low carbon fuel standard and and I think Oregon, California, British Columbia, they've all shown that it doesn't kill the economy or or anything like that. It did. They put the blends in and it works out pretty well. So that's an area of interest for me. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our team. Further discussion. Malik, I want to thank you and the team for bringing this discussion to us for a minute. We will look forward to further developing it and taking it to Olympia virtually as it may be. Thank you. Much appreciation. That takes us to our final item on today's agenda a briefing for the Best Charts for Kids Assessment Report by Executive Staff. Motion 15651. Adopted by the Council last July or July of this year, requested the Executive to submit for Council Review an assessment report of the basic levy funded goals, strategies and programs. The intent of the assessment is to inform council deliberations regarding regarding the potential for a levy renewal since the current levy expires at the end of 2021. Motion 15651 included a detailed list of reporting requirements, covering both an assessment of the current levy and recommendations for any future levy. Today, we're joined by Summer Capistrano, the director of the Children, Youth and Young Adult Division at the of the Department of Community and Human Services. And Marci Miller, the policy manager at Public Health, Seattle in King County. Ms.. Capistrano. Ms.. Miller, the camera is yours. Thank you for sharing. Everyone, I am hoping that I can share screen because I have a PowerPoint today. Is there a process for turning over control for me to do that? No, Miss Capistrano, you just need to select the share screen at the bottom of your the green share screen. And just do it. Mm hmm. You should be empowered. Oh, I love that. Thank you. All right. Here we go. Oops. Okay. Am I sharing? And folks see that. Yes, we can. Thank you very much. Okay. So I'm going to go through that again. Good afternoon, everyone. I was able to offer briefings to some of you on our best case assessment report. I want to go over some of that information today, but really try to preserve some time. If there are questions about where we are and what our recommendations might be. So some of this is review just to ground us again and what book is and because I love our vision statement so much, I wanted to put the spine up here to show folks really the vision for best starts for kids is happy, healthy , safe and thriving. This is about for our children, for our families, for our youth and young adults and for our communities. And it is the vision that is embedded in everything that we do. The best starts for kids. We were asked to write this assessment report by the council. And so what I want to review with you today are really sort of our highlights of that analysis. We did transmit that report, and I will admit it is a very long report. So this is going to be a way to go over some of the highlights. In particular, I want to just highlight again the strategies and programs and some of our early measurements and outcomes, but really focus the rest of our our presentation and time with you today on challenges of some of the ways that we invested in equity, which we were asked to address by you all and then what some of the recommendations. Moving forward for what we're calling BSC 2.0. It's just an interesting thing that I wanted to also sort of ground us in, is that as of January 1st of 2020, that starts has funded 570 programs and has reached over 425 babies , children, youth and families throughout our county with our community driven programing. So to remind everyone of what best starts for kids does. We have 50% of our investments and best starts go to that early prenatal to five time and I want to to show again our theoretical frame they want to go over this so much but really as a way of emphasizing that when we first develop. We really looked at it as an initiative and not as siloed funding sources that weren't pushing us towards an overall vision or change that we were trying to see. So as I show you what our programs are that we ended up funding, if you were to take a look at each one of those programs, you could actually link them back to what our theoretical framework is. This theoretical framework is built on science and research from the last few years in this field, and it also is built on some of the community input and community partnership feedback that we've gotten in the last few years. And wonderfully, the science research actually intersects with the communities telling us that they need. So essentially, in the simplest terms frame with the best hearts for kids is if we increase the promoted and protected that use risk factors, then we will be able to move towards health and well-being for our children and families. Each one of these points is a again, a research backed, science backed approach and is also consistent with what we heard in our communities. We have this same theoretical frame for our next funding, which is our 5 to 24 as well. Some of it is universal, but those things are what people need throughout their childhood for all humans. And some of them are really specific to the developmental stage that we're focusing on. Our prenatal to five investments are divided up into these categories. And if we start thinking about it again, 50% of the levy investments for the US now starting with the very beginning. So birth outcomes assuring that our children are healthy and ready to go. So we invested first in our public health direct services to assure those good birth outcomes. We invested in home based services which look like home visiting and other types of services that are getting in people's homes for brand new families. Our program called Groom, which is actually parent education tool to talk about how you can look at early brain science and apply that in your everyday life as you're raising your children. We invested in developmental promotion, helping families know what is typical development for young people. And then we also partnered in investing in our early support intervention system so that when we were able to identify young people, hopefully everyone's developing fine. But if there were issues that we could then also invest in the system for people to be able to get the support that they need early on. But we know a lot about developmental delays. Is the earlier you can get to young folks who might be experiencing delays, the more likely you are to reverse those and be able to get back on a path towards healthy development. So I'll be moving out from that. Individual children and families. We invested in community based parenting and ways for families to support one another and ways for family to be within community to get that support for their early parenting. And then thinking about where else, who else and where else are our children cared for when they're not in the custody of their primary and parental figures are care providers. We invested in child, which is really about assuring quality support for our child. Workforce development. Looking at who are to provide the children in that prenatal supply of time, ensuring that they have all of the latest and good information about early childhood development and brain development and issues around culture and language and and equity as well. And then finally has become the circle out. We started with families then who surrounds our families. We. Grow, which is really has a two pronged approach. It says that families should get to the resources and private providers that they need. And so we're looking at a warm line, a warm handoff, so that everybody knows where to go when they need resources, but also connecting those resources and those providers to each other so that they form a cohesive, sustainable system of support for our families in that prenatal to five period. And then our final investment in our P five area was in an innovation fund. And this was to say there's a lot of really good stuff that we know in all of these categories that the people might be doing other things that are innovative or creative or really specific to their own communities. And so this fund allowed folks to apply for funding and then to receive both program development and structural. Support. And in order to to the programs and then see are these things that we want to be able to replicate throughout the county. Our next set of investments is our sustain the game, which is 5 to 24. Again, we have a theoretical basis of that is if we increase the good and with the bad, well, we'll get right to that healthy development in lobbying. These investments fall into approximately 5% of the levy and they fall into some broad degrees that have the different strategies underneath them. So we invested in youth development, which included mentoring, positive identity development, youth leadership and healthy relationships when vested in our school partnership. So the ways that we as the county and our key partners can intersect with our schools not to fund education, but to fund the other pieces that go into making school a good experience for young people. And that includes school based health centers, our expert program trauma and informed of informed trauma and supportive practices, which is really around systems change. And then our quality out of school time, family connections and community connections is a large piece of it as well that we funded with family engagement, healthy and safe environments. And to adulthood, this investment really focuses on a 16 to 24 year olds. It looks at completion of secondary education and then looking at what happens post-secondary. As we took best rates for kids and we looked at the science on brain development that said, really young people's brains are still forming after 18. Even though legally in this country we consider folks, adults that 18 to 24, there's still a lot of brain development that's going on. We want to be able to offer support during that time. So we provide that and age appropriate social emotional support around education, employment, post-secondary training. What comes next as we launch people into their full adulthood? And finally, we have our our specific stopping to school to prison pipeline investments, which are really very. Particular group of young people and providing mentoring and with that community is now called community support and supports. And just so that you know what the equivalent is. We started calling that case management. The young people said to us, We are not your cases. And they wanted us to call it something different and they are the ones that named that community support. So the type of services that they get that can connect them, that can connect them to people their age, to mentors that can mentor them, but also to additional services. Communities have offered. This is the piece of the book that's about wrapping community of families and children and young people. And you all know this information. It's a public private partnership. We have both both both placed faith communities and culture based communities. And each community is a network of stakeholders that have really come up with what is it that we want to do and improve for our own communities and the priority areas that that community of opportunity and each one of those communities work. So to a larger or different degree per community, is quality, affordable housing the right to be healthy, increased economic opportunities and strong community connections? So that's our SEAL program. And finally, we have our youth and family homelessness prevention work. And this initiative really is designed to work for young people and families with children who are of imminent risk of homelessness, not people who are experiencing homelessness now, but who have the potentially there imminent risk of that. And the idea then is to pair having flexible financial support. If there's one or two or three things that a little bit of financial support could help to stop them from slipping into homelessness, then that's provided. But it pairs it with case management and a way of being able to partner and advocate for folks to say, What can we do to assure that you don't step over this line? The Our Youth and Family Homelessness Initiative, you all have seen some evaluative information about that as those work came to separate in the beginning for best fits for kids. But even now we're holding it. It looks like at the year mark, about 95% of buy these services to do not actually ask system and become homeless. So that's a pretty amazing success and we'd like to see that continue into and asking to point out. So I wanted to then spend the rest of the time talking about how did we do and what was it like launching BSC and what were some of our challenges? What were some of our successes? What did we do around equity? So some of the the main challenges. One of the biggest ones was really shifting county policies and processes. We heard from our community that we were not partners and that we could be difficult in many different ways. And so we had to really dig in and take a look at how did the county do things? What were things? The way we thought we'd always done them in what was really sort of the rule or the line separating those things out and then being able to make those changes. And as you can imagine, bureaucracies are hard to push and hard to move. But we were able to really shift a lot in the things that we did, particularly in our RFP processes, which is where we heard mostly from the community that it was difficult both getting government funding and then maintaining government funding. We were challenged by building capacity of our smaller community based providers. That's something that we've all been talking about for a long time. It was the desire on the part of the community and something that we did for kids to make sure that we were investing and the cost of the program. That meant sometimes fairly large grants to their patients and recognizing where our points were that we needed to be providing more support around capacity, things like financial management systems, making sure that people who maybe traditionally were hiring contractors to do their work understood the difference between a contract employee and a regular employee. So those sorts of issues just getting into the weeds were challenges to us. As we as we move forward with shifting the way that starts did its funding and ensuring quality evaluation and performance measurement. This requires a lot of capacity on the part of our community partners to do data sharing, to do data collection, and working with one another, working with the county. So we just had to dig in deep and it took a lot longer than we had thought they probably would to to get our systems up and running around evaluation and performance measurement. We were challenged to make sure that we were funding the full program costs. And that is something that that is a dynamic process. What part of program costs or admin costs or admin is a part of program? How do you tease that out? How do you make sure that people have what they need in order to get to the outcomes that we want to see for the people in the county? And we ran into a super interesting issue that our committee told us about, is that we really pushed the notion in the beginning of living wage for anyone that was being employed under BCA dollars that we were a little bit like, you know, thankfully the county was out in front on this one. They were little out in front of other funders and what other organizations were able to do. And so we got some pushback, not a lot, but more of a partner with us, sort of request from the community to say, yes, we believe in that. But when you have this this funding source says we have to hire people at this level, but we can't hire anybody else if that you're creating an inequity within our organizations. So we are working on that issue with our community partners to see what are we need to do so that we can stand by a real commitment to a living wage for the folks that are doing this work, but also do it within a context as realistic community based organizations. And finally, we had the challenge, like everything else this year and getting to respond rapidly to COVID 19. And our communities were hit really hard. The organizations that we fund are actually working. In community, in families. And we really work very closely with the theme this year to shift the way that we were doing implementation and our supports and so that they could use those dollars in different ways than we had originally contracted with them, particularly for our folks that were seeing kids after school or in school when they're at home, those dollars so that tutoring help can happen or visits happen in a different way. There's just a lot of work that. To shift and keep up with the need. When you asked us to evaluate sort of what did we do and how did we do around equity? Our work around equity is foundational to best starts for kids. And so it's at the very basis of what we what we set out to do. We wanted to. That's why they're investing in community led programing. As I mentioned, the challenge of the policy and systems change. Actually, we were pretty successful in making some pretty significant policy and system change that opened up the ability to have funding to a lot of different kinds of organizations. And the county had really worked with and funded before as well as just reevaluating the way that. Things that we envisioned. But we are moving towards and being learning how to be nimble when we got community feedback that we actually had missed the mark. Learning to listen to that and then to shift what we were doing in order to be able to do it in a better way. And then that's about infrastructure. And then finally we were able to do some pretty exciting things around evaluation, around participatory evaluation. We started with an idea that if we're collecting data from a particular community, that that community owns that data rather than the county owning it. And that led us down the road to, well, then what do we do about data analysis? So very early on, we would take that data that we had collected and we would have community meetings with just the communities we'd collected from and said, okay, this is what we found. You tell us what this means to you. And what we ended up with was really a deeper and richer evaluation of preliminary evaluation that had otherwise. So that gets us to what it looks like. I'm going to. Very quickly and then I will stop talking. And I've been talking very fast and we can get to questions if you have them. So BSC 2.0 is around the corner. We are beginning to look at what it is that we want to do, and we have some preliminary recommendations that are coming out of their policy staff here. Our first recommendation we want to keep with our commitment to leading with one to make sure that we are both centering black and brown experience and voices and two things. And we want to make sure that we are looking at investing throughout our county and in all of the communities where there is need. We want to maintain our long term goals and strategies while refining programs and measures. What this really means is that our recommendation is that we stay with the basic framework of the scheme. We put a lot of thought and effort and community engagement. We spoke with well over 2000 people when we were first forming the S.K.. Invitation plan after we wrote it back out to the community before we transmitted to council to make sure it truly reflected with its community wanted. And we worked really hard to base it as as I repeated earlier in that theoretical. So that it was connected in an initiative that was about an entire lifetime of childhood and not just siloed programs. So we feel like we put a really good together and that it was it was put together for the long haul. You know, personally, my desire would be to see the babies that were born in 2016 and ask be able to experience all the ways that we are going to shift and take care of and for the future years to come. But we built a system that at least invested in our childhood for our children, for those types of change. And so we are suggesting that that we stay with the basic framework at best. But a third recommendation is also that we strengthen care for our children and youth in the places that our children are cared for. So we are recommending and without numbers attached right now on the 5000 foot level that that council consider and a expansion of BSC to include child care. I heard some hear during this council meeting. Everyone knows our child care. Crisis. The fact is, before COVID hit, it wasn't in the greatest shape to begin with. And so there's no doubt that this this pandemic has really hit harder. And this is about taking care of our children. It's about making sure families have access in the ways that they need. And it's making sure about assuring that our economy is going to be able to recover. We believe that there's a place for funding childcare in making sure that people have access within this levy. We also think that there's other places that our children are cared for, and we'd like to see a deeper investment in our out-of-school time investments so that we can expand that to our 5 to 12 year olds. And we'd like to see a deeper investment in our school. Because. Well, while we know that. With a spent time in child care daycare out of school, time before and after care summer camp. They also spend time at school and the way that the county can partner with schools is to be able to say, where are the places that children get their social, emotional, physical and psychological needs that while they're in school, are school based health centers are a great place for that. And so we like to invest in seeing a few more centers come up in our county and not just in our urban areas. We want to continue to do the systems level work that we're doing with the. Around building those stronger systems. And our fifth recommendation is we really want to increase the. And Youth Voice We have a youth leader committee. The Advisory board, they formed themselves. They have become quite powerful and have many good recommendations about how that can come to best stretch for kids. So we look forward in the next coming months to listening to them and building some of that into the desk to point out. So those are our recommendations. This is us. You have questions that I would love to ask and answer. Any questions now? Thank you very much, Sheila. Can you if. Can I ask you to stop showing your screen? You can ask them to. But we see. Everybody. And I won't promise that somebody won't ask you to put it back up. Okay. Thank you very much for the presentation. And more importantly, for the work. I'm Best Start's for Kids. The initiative itself within King County, the investment it makes, the support it provides to youth, to children, to families and communities to make sure that they have their best start possible and can be as successful throughout life as we can possibly set them up to be is very profound, and that we have taken it on as a local government to do is innovative in and of itself and I am encouraged by how equity centered all of the work is. Thank you. I look forward to diving more into the report and doing more work with you in preparation for renewal of the levy. Very frankly, I'm colleagues. Camp. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thanks, Mr. Chair. I didn't want to jump in if someone else did. But Sheila, thank you so much for your great work on this. And it looks exciting. I one of the things that I'm kind of interested and I share this with you when we had our briefing about wanting to surface it today to see if there were any any takers among my colleagues. Councilor McDermott, you've been raising the issue lately and some of our non profit providers struggling with space needs and costs and affording space needs. I think in maybe in another context, but I've always been really proud of King County's role in the forward thrust era building infrastructure for community needs pools and community centers. And I know that the Best Starts for Kids program is largely, you know, programing, right? Soft, Soft Castle College. But we also need good, healthy, modern, accessible places for all that great stuff to occur in. And I just wonder if we might consider a piece of the renewal much like we did with our pools program in the parks thing that came kind of came late. So I want to surface this earlier to have a capital grants program as a piece of it for relate child related facilities or young lives, whether it be a community center or daycare build out. We did some work, obviously with some transit money on daycare facilities for capital, but I just wanted to surface that to see if there were members interests and if there was room in whatever we send to the voters. I know it'll be we'll have to watch the dollars, but, you know, a few pennies could go a long way. And even if we bond it, you can you could advance some funds. So just servicing that and and don't mean any dialog or feedback, but if anyone's interested, let's chat. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Balducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to add my words of congratulations and just appreciation for your staff and everybody and yourself who worked on this initiative, going back to the planning stages prior to 2000, 2016. Right. It is. It's an amazing accomplishment, really. And we do brag about it out in the out in the world is breaking in and has this this really just sort of easily understood nugget of what we're trying to do here and why. And one of the things I always say is it's one of the hardest things to do for government run by elected officials to do a prevention program, because the real results of prevention appear, if they appear at all in the very long term. And of course, here on Election Day, we all have to run for reelection every four years or so and explain to people why what we're doing is necessary. Right. And it's really clear to me how how like sort of elegantly in a way, this program flows together. And I was super impressed with your presentation because it is a very complex program. And in order for you to describe it in ways that made it sound so simple and kind of, you know, intuitive, I think there's a lot of work had to have gone into that. One of the things I recall asking about when we were doing the original implementation plan was how do we show results to this point? How do we show that we are having the impact that we know we are having? And there were a few different sort of slices of trying to get at that. I was really intrigued by what you said about the approach that the program has started to take in showing data and results to you. Really that's being served and sort of asking what it means to them. I really am looking forward to learning more about how that went and and what we learned from that exercise. But you can speak a little bit more about outcomes, what we know about outcomes from the first round, what we try to build towards to improve our understanding of outcomes for the next one, because we really want to know that, you know, everything that we're doing is having the biggest bang for the buck. It's a nice set of resources, but it is finite set of resources and we really want to make sure that the money we're putting, the communities that were serving said . Can you talk a little bit more about that, what you learned? It might be less expensive the next level. Mm hmm. Yes. Thank you, Councilmember. I so I want to start with just the 32nd review of our event. Framework was was based on results based accountability. So this idea that we had headline and that eventually we hoped that we could show that we were pushing on those headline indicators and those were big things like babies are born healthy and they were the big population. And then we had a secondary indicator that we thought we were going to get to quicker. There were also population level, but not so grand. But really, when we're looking at specific populations that we are funding community orgs to to work with, we should be able to see those secondary indicators. Then we had sort of the baseline of working with every single organization, had performance measures and we knew what. Individual organizations were where we're aiming for and when we can tell when they have reached those particular outcomes. So when we look at it, those outcomes should be able to push on those secondary indicators and the secondary indicators should push on the headline indicators. That's the that's the system in there. What we can tell you now are how our organizations have met their performance measures and within any different strategy than if we funded 30 organizations in our youth development strategy. Then we know what the individual performance measures are for each organization, but we can aggregate those outcomes and to say with our youth development investments, we have these overarching. So that's that's what we have as a system in place. Yes. Okay. Our first dollars went out the door in 2017. We're now in 2018. So flowing from we have a lot of outputs. We don't have some preliminary outcomes, but we don't have the really deep out just yet. I am guessing that by the time we get this first levy, we will have had a good solid 2 to 3 years of investment and that's enough time to start seeing if you've got good, solid outcomes. Right now, as we have the linear preliminary, yes, we're moving in the right direction with this and we have the yearly . Each organization has reached the outcomes that they set for performance measures individually. Some of our strategies and I could use about that's the one that we are going to see impacts a little bit later on and be able to analyze later on because it is so much a promotion and prevention program and not so much that early intervention. Some of our programs that we implemented are actually evidence based programs. They super quick to implement and we have a few years already of data. Some of our home visiting programs are like that, that early investment. Some of our later programs that had very clear outcomes and we replicated programs that were already happening in the country . Those were going to see quicker outcomes and be able to take a look at things like our Youth and Family Homelessness Initiative, which is really like, we do this in a year, we're going to see if it had an impact and we had a private partner to help us study that. We were able to take a look at it. We have the immediate outcome already. Yes, this actually works. And this is how we know, as you said, it's a big, complicated initiative and where every every different point of being able to give us that, we hit the outcomes that everyone we know that when we're hitting the performance measures. So it sounds like your recommendation I would put words in your mouth for a second. You can correct me immediately is to sort of say to pause for the most part and continue collecting that information so that we will learn more at each level and ultimately have the at the highest level, but with two and in some cases maybe three solid years of data. We just need to learn more before we really see those particular outcome needles moving. That is that. Fair enough. That is fair enough. I think those high population level indicators and and I can hear my epidemiologists in my my ear saying, don't promise anything. And they're very good researchers. What I what I believe is that we will in spite of it and some of the impacts, there's some things that we're doing that we're actually going to see with time. And what I also know, though, is that there are other things that have been hugely impacted by that in trying to push on headline indicators when you have so much else going on. And we've had to make some of those adjustments. So we're really committed to continuing that evaluation and thinking about all the factors that come in and play out on our outcomes. That on a really good sense. Thank you so much for all this effort. We know we're making peoples and children's and families lives better. It's just a matter of how do we do the absolute most positive? And I feel. Like we're doing that now to the extent and able to know and our knowledge will grow. So I think that's that's very encouraging. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues. Ms.. Capistrano, thank you so much for the report today and for walking us through it. And I, for one, look forward to adopting it. Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, everyone. That concludes items on our agenda today. Let me catch up on a couple of things, including barring objection. The items on today's consent agenda that we expedited to next week's calendar. I will also ask be put on consent for next week. There is no objection so ordered. And I clarify something placed in the structure. The statement of course. The consent items only more expedited. So the one that wasn't expedited will also be on consent. No, it will not be. I know it has a hearing, so let's just leave it out, make sure we have a chance to have a hearing on December 8th. I'm concerned. Okay. We'll put it on. Yes, we'll put it on consent. Barring any objection, carry none. All three items, regardless of what date they will show up on, the council's agenda will be on consent. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Lambert. HQ. Well, I've had an adventure during this meeting. As you might guess, my power went out. They don't think it'll be back for 4 hours. So I had to go find a place where there was public power and pyro there room. So I'm stuck in a corner in a public place. So I've been on the meeting, as you know, but they hadn't had a chance during that time to vote. So if we could do that. Then what's the next thing I was going to do? Council Member Lambert Because I was well aware that you had rejoined us and missed votes. Madam Clerk, we have, I believe, four votes. Council Member Lambert missed. Out. On the three consent votes and moving the covered five budget out of committee without recommendation. Correct. Madam Clerk, what's the best way to do it? Just ask Council Member Lambert. Council Member Lambert for votes on those four items. I will read the three consent numbers into the record and have a vote on those. And then I will read the fourth item on in 20 0362 2020 0395 and 2020 0304. Council Member Lambert I thank you. And 2020 0383. Council Member Member I. Thank you. Mr. Chair, the vote on all items is nine. There are none. Thank you. That concludes all of the business on today's agenda. I want to thank everyone for their participation. And with no other business can be for the committee. The whole. We are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE authorizing the executive to execute an amendment to an agreement approved under Ordinance 18959 with the Washington state Department of Ecology for loan financing for a wastewater capital project.
king_0fc66ce3-66cd-41ac-801f-1d171c761c55	Good morning and welcome to the March 21st, 2018 meeting of the King County Council Committee of the Hall. I'm calling the meeting to order. Today the committee will be discussing an ordinance completing our gender neutral code work, a motion adopting the county's federal legislative agenda for 2018, an ordinance adopting the E911 one strategic plan and establishing a governance board. And a briefing about learning and development within the executive's Investing in U. Employee Program. So with that, I think we'll skip the roll call for now. We'll come back to it when we have more people here. Welcome, Councilmember Cole. Well, thank you for being here. All right. So the first thing we'll do today is item three public comment. The committee of the whole does have a public comment opportunity at each of our meetings. Each person will have 2 minutes to speak. Public comment must address an item on today's agenda and of course may not be used for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office, or for the promotion or opposition, and must not include obscene speech. If a speaker fails to abide by these restrictions or be ruled out of order and will ask them to return to their seat. And with that and with hope in my heart, I call on Alec Zimmerman to. My name. I like Zimmerman and I want to speak about federal agenda. I think this is an agenda number six. I look at this paper in terms of still this full committee. This is this very symbol. Washington state is a best place for country to go. Believe in the race firmly. I stay in this county for 30 years in for 30 years. Number one, I cannot find an honest man who work for government in all three branches. They look exactly an identical in work in like one branch is a pure fascism. But this fascist very different from German Nazi or Soviet communist fascism because nazi in common on to make life better for today people you make like wars for your people. This is exactly what is happening. What is we? Because right now is a nightmare. We go deeper and deeper and deeper. Why? Because everybody who controls has government right now and branches like this. And I know other branches. It's a primitive and very full this exactly what is my president talk about kinds this people it's a low life a trash and human garbage. But why I come to this place every day, why I go in fighting for human right for all my life, because I believe somebody can be change in this can be change come from people like Donald Trump or city Mayor Jenny Durkan or like Alec Zimmerman and people like me. We believe we can make our life better because you bring us to total collapse. When we don't stop in you for another couple of years, thousands and thousands of people will be dead in probably more than 50%. She will be a low income, probably all car at nine. You graduate and she will be low income in very poor. So I speak right now to everybody. Listen to me. Stand up, America. Stand up, Washingtonian. When you change discourse in Collins's dirty chambers in Cuba, remember? Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. All right. We have a number of people here to speak on the issue of the census, and I'll start by naming out the first three, Mr. Joseph Lachman, followed by Alexander Alexandra, I'm sorry to start. And Oscar Zambrano. Welcome. Good morning. Councilmembers My name is Joseph Shoji Lachman, and I'm the president of the Seattle chapter of Japanese-American Citizens League. And so the reason we wanted to speak about this, a lot of us wanted to speak about the census in relation to the 2018 Federal Agenda for King County Council. And I'd like to start us off by offering a historical perspective based on my Japanese-American family's background. And it's to emphasize the fact that there really needs to be a census that is not politicized, does not include a question about citizenship, because a question about citizenship will inevitably push people underground because of a lack of trust right now in government to actually protect the privacy of lots of citizens and non-citizens alike. And there actually is historical precedent for the census being used as a weapon against minority communities. And you need to look no further than the Japanese-American experience. Again, I know I frequently talk about history here, but I think it has a lot of value and informing the present and the census was actually the data from that was actually used was discovered fairly recently just in 2027. That information, block by block information and even some micro data on addresses was provided at the request of FBI in the military to persecute Japanese-Americans. And they decided that they wanted to round up. And for example, this was there's actually a 17 month old. So supposing threat from a Japanese-American was actually or schizophrenia that was then later used to justify requesting confidential information that violated the confidentiality of the census and was used to persecute Japanese-Americans. So thinking about this, please don't allow an unvetted question to be used that will inevitably make it more difficult for King County Council and organizations to fulfill their constitutional duty for a census that counts everyone in our state. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Alejandro. I choose Oscars and Bruno and then the Leon dress. I apologize if I got it wrong. It's okay. I'm Alejandro. Yes, I'm the executive director for the Municipal League. The Municipal. League Policy Committee has prioritized an accurate. Census count as a top issue on the agenda. They have done so because, in the words of our policy co-chair and board member Ben Stafford, it is the very ligaments. Of our democracy and the accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness of government programs relies on this information. Public health information is underpinned with census data. Without it, we cannot address, intervene or cure disease. Also, our local businesses, small and large, need this information for human resources, transportation and other logistics that are critical to a successful venture. We urge an accurate count and are also concerned about the possibility of the Department of Justice putting in a question about the citizenship. This question will suppress information from not only undocumented immigrants, but all immigrants. As Joseph mentioned, there is a history and a variety of reasons as to why immigrant communities have less trust of government and are less likely to give this information. The executive director for the American Public Health Association recently said, While this is going to impact and suppress the immigrant count, it will impact all programs and will actually throw information effectiveness completely out of whack. An accurate count that is tried to do the very best to count hard to count communities is not just best for immigrant communities, but for all of us. Right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Please welcome. One of the conceded Condado numbers was cast. ZAMBRANO So director of the Latino community funded all U.S. Hablando Espanol. Well, just, you know, the introduction just to make a point. And that is that, you know, when we're talking about the census, especially the agenda you're going to send to D.C., we're asking for all the funding possible to make sure that we reach out to hard to count communities because as it is and not just the Latino community, but most of our communities of color, there's a big distrust with governance. And the way that we you get somebody at your door, you know, to to knock and ask information, person information, especially. That distrust then boils down to that question that we're asking you to please lobby in D.C. to to be removed for the citizenship. Because when we're asking on your agenda to have a full count and an accurate count, with that question in mind, you will not be getting that. And I can guarantee that right now, as a community leader and community advocate, that I work underground with the community. It is hard to get, as it is, questions on, you know, supporting what the county, the cities and so on for just regular, everyday business. Now, imagine if you're going to get an accurate census count if you add this question to your census. So as a Latino community fund and as a as a community member and as a community leader, I'm asking you to please put this in your agenda to make sure that this question just gets removed, if it so goes to to the Census Bureau. And I'm just asking, you know, also that we prioritize that language access. When we come back, you know, eventually in the future when we're actually doing the census count, that if this doesn't come out the way, you know, the census, does that get removed? We have a robust program of the census to make sure that King County gets an accurate count in hard to count communities. And we start investing now because the census question has not been talked in the legislature. And California is the only state that has been investing in that already. So let us think forward. Thank you. Thank you. Lillian Ballesteros, followed by Derek Lim. Welcome. Morning, counsel. My name is Lillian Ballesteros. I'm the development director at Latino Community Fund. And every day we work with community organizations across the county who are really on the floor, working with our immigrant communities, with our communities of color, supporting our communities. And a big fear is that including a citizenship question on the census in 2020 is really going to impact the work that they can do. By putting that question, we're really going to be creating a bigger target on our communities who already are feeling targeted at this moment. And so if we include that question, we really hinder our ability as a community, as a county, as organizations, as all of our communities coming together to do the best work possible. We want an accurate count and we want to push for an accurate count. And in order to do that, we want to make sure that everybody feels that they can fill out the census. And so we really are really pushing that. We don't have the citizenship question included on the census in 2020. We want to make sure that everybody shows up to really be counted and be part of our communities are welcoming communities. We say we're welcoming community. And so we want to signal that this is really going to also impact the funds that our county is going to be able to get. Because if we do not have an accurate count, we are not going to have the funds able to do our human services to do the work that we need to do every day to make sure that we are welcoming and that we are becoming the community we want to be. So really pushing the council and really hoping that the citizenship question does not end up on the census and that we continue to support our communities, to support the organizations that are supporting our communities, to make sure that we are becoming and living up to that welcoming county. So thank you so much. Thank you. Derek Lum and then Luis Ramirez. Welcome. Hey there, guys. Derek Lum, community organizer for a pace boats. So a pace boats. We do work with the AAPI community year round and civic engagement. And we spend a lot of time in our community using our cultural knowledge, using our in language abilities to talk to our team members about engagement and voting. And you can be sure that the census is something we're going to work on and we're going to throw all of our weight behind it to try to help our community to accurately counted. And this question does not help that it hinders that immensely as. Just just the presence of a of a of a sensitive question that will hinder both people who might be undocumented. Because API community is an increasingly growing member of this undocumented community, I think is something like 10% of undocumented folks in Washington is even higher are APIs and that number and that's growing. It stretches Vietnamese-Americans, Cambodian Americans, Korean-Americans and all other ethnicities in the API diaspora. And so this question will make it harder. And we need we really need more resources and ways to make it. The center's more open so we could be accurately counted and not fewer resources and not these prohibitive questions. And so with that, I am. Thank you very much. The final person on the sign up sheet is Luis Ramirez. Hi. Good morning, everyone. My name is Luis Fernando Ramirez. I am representing the LGBTQ Latino community. The executive director of Entrada. And I want to talk about the health issues that we are facing. And we know that King County is the best in the country in regards to HIV issues. And I'm talking about people who are getting tested. We are at the best in reaching out to them. And once someone is tested, we are the best in getting them on treat treatment. And once they're in on treatment, we're at the best on keeping them on with the medication. And so we are at the base on that. And I think that to keep that in in in the same way, we need to keep working with our community. And again, having the question is going to affect not only Latino or LGBTQ communities, but all the immigrants who are here in this country, not only undocumented, but also just immigrants in general. So it is very, very important for everyone and not only immigrants, but also the county, the city and the state to have that question out of the out of the game, because it is going to affect all of us. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right. That is the end of the signup sheet. Is there anybody else here today who would like to speak to the committee? Si. No one will move on in our agenda. And I do hope we'll get to talk about that important question on the census at the when we get to the item on our federal agenda. I'm going to ask the clerk to please call the roll at this point. And thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett, Councilmember Cole, whilst Councilmember Lambert Councilmember McDermott here, council member of the Grove. Councilmember von Richter. Madam Chair, here, Madam Chair, you do not have a quorum. All right. Well, hold off on approving the minutes and move on to proposed ordinance number 2018 0148. As we have discussed a number of times in this committee and at the full council, the voters of King County previously approved a charter amendment making our county charter gender neutral. And then, since early last year, we've been working to complete that same body of work for the entirety of the King County Code, which has been quite an effort. We've had a number of different updates to the code. This is our fourth and final ordinance before the committee. It would be really cool to complete this work during Women's History Month. That'll be a that would be aggressive. But let's try and and I just want to say, before we even start this one, that staff have just done an incredible amount of work. This has been detailed, very, very large body of work and combed through literally hundreds of pages of code to make this update. So I want to thank Erin Osnes, who's here today. Sam Porter Bruce Ritson, I don't know if he's here. And Russell Peifer, who's just been there. Hello? No, you're waving it. You're waving in somebody else. Not at me. That's not Russell. Okay, Albers, but welcome to you. Anyway, now we'll move on to a briefing by Sam Porter. Welcome. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Staff. The documents for this item are found on page nine of your packet. Proposed ordinance 2018 one for eight as the last, as you mentioned, in a series of four ordinances that would make changes to the King County code, removing gendered pronouns and historically gendered terms wherever possible. The proposed ordinance only includes changes to Title six that pertain to business licenses and regulations. No substantive legal or policy changes are proposed to be made through this process, but other drafting corrections are have been incorporated as proposed by the code advisor. As you know, motion 14680 was passed in July of 2016, directing the Clerk of the Council to develop options for how to apply gender neutral references throughout the King County Code. The same day related ordinance 18316 passed, which placed an item on the November 2016 ballot to amend the King County Charter, as you mentioned, to make the language of the charter also gender neutral. This charter amendment was passed by a majority of the voters in November of that year. This proposed ordinance is consistent with Washington state law that rendered the state law gender neutral over a period of six years. Throughout the code, the series of four ordinances replaced gendered pronouns such as he, him, she or her with the title of the actor in impacted sentences. Table one on page ten of your packet contains a sample of other proposed changes to historically gendered terms in the proposed ordinance before you today. As with the previous ordinances, executive staff have been consulted regarding the proposed changes and their feedback has been incorporated into the proposed ordinance. And that concludes my remarks. All right. Thank you very much. Is there any discussion, comments, questions? It seems that we do have a quorum at this time, so. Councilmember Colwell Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd also like to thank the staff for your work and for councilmember founded Ship to lead in bringing this forward. It's really interesting. I I'm very observant of gender, language and the need for respecting the rights for women and conversely, to be able to be identified in a way that reflects the other gender. And I do notice that people occasionally on Facebook or whatever get upset about this. And I have one constituent who continually makes remarks whenever this topic comes up. And he, you know, he by golly, he is going to use man and he to reflect women and girls all the time and no one's going to stop him. Well, I bring this up only because I think it's important that people understand that in our passing this legislation and it's going into our code throughout it, we're not in any way directing people to speak a certain way or to write a certain way. They can still do whatever they want. This is just reflected in our codes and people. Sometimes you don't get that. But we're not out there as the speaking. Right. You know, the the politically correct way to speak for people. We're here reflecting a need that had arisen in our own code. So I just want to make sure that people understand that. MANCHIN Thank you, Councilmember Carlos, and thank you also for pushing us to do the entire code because we probably would have stopped us with the charter. I mean, this is it's good to get it done. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Thank you. Could you tell me why ears was not an appropriate term? The base of air comes from here. Oh, you got to be kidding me. I'm not kidding you. I wouldn't kid you. And I will say, just as a person who once upon a time studied and practiced just enough a state law to be sound like I know what I'm talking about when I don't. But beneficiaries is a broader, more inclusive legal term as well. It's not errors. I think people think you're just inheriting money beneficiaries or people who might be receiving other kinds of benefits besides just property. So I think it's probably an improvement. Gender. Wiser? No, I'm guessing. So I didn't have the benefit of knowing that nuance. So thank you for saying that. But you could have an error. Is this correct? An error? Who is not necessarily a beneficiary? I don't think so. Beneficiaries a broad term. I mean, somebody, one who benefits from. And you certainly benefit if you inherit somebody's property. But an error, I think, is commonly understood to be somebody who inherits property. Interesting. Well, my other lawyer friends want to dove into this debate. I know your discretion. That's very smart. So I could actually have an error. Say I had a say. I had a child that I chose not. To have. In my will. They would be an error, but they wouldn't be a beneficiary. I don't think that's correct. That's correct. No, but. Right. But it's a it's a decent question, legal counsel, to. Look at this. But we will run this one. Both times and again and be sure. Counsel. Yeah. I'm sorry I missed hearing what the response was to Councilmember. Legal Counsel did review this ordinance, but we will run this question by the minute. I mean, why error? Oh, it was just them. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I would appreciate a motion to move this out of committee today since there's only minor question. And even if we made a change, it would be easily done at full council. Councilmember Lambert, would you like to do that? Should I be happy to? Do you want to with with that recommendation? I don't care. Either way. I think with a recommendation would be good. You know, we can make one last amendment if we need. Okay. Manager I'd like to move ordinance citizen 18 0148 with a duplex recommendation. Okay. This motion is before us. Any final comments or questions? I will just add on to what Councilmember Caldwell says. You know, it's you don't get a lot of those kind of at least I don't get a lot of those kinds of comments from people who object to us making our language more inclusive and respectful. But I like to tell the story of walking down the hallway upstairs where there's pictures of historical pictures of the council over time. And there have always been women council members. And the fact that our codes don't recognize the half of the gender that has sat up here, it's I think if we're not recognized in the code , then how are we doing with the public at large? I think it's just a matter of respect and inclusion, and we're not telling anybody how to live their lives or how to use their own language. I think it's a very positive change and I've supported it all along and I thank you, my colleagues, for supporting it as well. All right. With that, all those and. Oh, sorry, a no amendments. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member. Demovsky Council Member. Dunn Council Member. Gazette Council Member. Cornwall Council Member Lambert I Council Member McDermott. High. Council Member of the Grove. Council Member one right there. Madam Chair, I Madam Chair, voters. Six ayes. No, nos. Three. Excuse two. Thank you. The item will move forward. I'd like to expedite that. No, no. It requires special noticing because there's the regulations. All right, we want expedited. There's legislations that require public notice. So we have to do we have to take a regular path. All right. We'll do our best to try to get it done before the end of the month. But can we go back and approve the minutes of the March 7th meeting? Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I'd like to know that the minutes of the March 7th meeting as written. The minutes of the March 7th meeting are before us. Any questions or changes? Seeing none. All those in favor please signify by saying i. I any opposed? The minutes are approved. The next item is a motion that would adopt the county's federal legislative agenda. The legislative agenda is used by the Council and the executive into a joint legislative agenda to tell Congress the changes that King County is requesting in federal law and funding decisions. We're making our annual federal lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. on April 10th. So this is a timely item to get approved before that. And Jack Nicholson is not with us today. So just mom is going to pinch hit. Welcome. Good luck. And please go ahead and make your report. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Vietnam Council staff. So before you, you have a draft 2018 federal legislative agenda. This was handed out today on the dais. It was not in your packet. And so I'd like to just walk you through the draft agenda and then I'll do my best to answer any questions you have, but I'll probably wind up just taking your questions and getting back to you so that the agenda starts out with basically a summary of why King County is such a great place to work and live. And then we go, you know, we go down and highlight some past and current investment investments and partnerships that the federal government has participated with. King County. You'll see that we're still looking to get some data points from some departments to make sure that our numbers are accurate and those will be filled in between now and when the agenda is finally approved. Then we get into some specific infrastructure asks, and these include ask the federal funds to bring county, county bridges into compliance with new federal standards, funds to maintain and replace our aging roads, delivering transit projects to commuters throughout the region, and then maximizing Tiger and TPA grants. And we highlight in the agenda projects like the Eastside Rail Corridor and the Fairway Triangle. We're also looking for increased funding to to to bolster some of the older Army Corps of Engineers projects like the Ballard Locks, the Howard Hanson Dam and Buckley, the Virgin Dams, investing in flood protection projects, especially there in the Kent Valley to protect farmlands and infrastructure, preserving or designating the mountains the sound greenway as a national heritage area. Funding programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and investing in clean ups of Puget Sound and the Irish River. And then looking to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration and maintaining the FAA's Airport Improvement Program Program, which provides funds for King County's airport . I'm also looking at some programing investments aimed at helping King County combat the nationwide opioid epidemic and the other homelessness crisis, specifically looking for ways to safely transition people off of heroin and opioids through the Comprehensive, Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, and to fund recommendations made by the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, looking for permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing and reemployment service funding to help King County communities all over King County who are combating homelessness, looking for resources for families, U.S. youth and veterans to address homelessness by fully funding the Community Development BLOCK Grant Program, CDBG and the Home Grants programs, and ensuring access to affordable, quality health care for county residents by increasing Medicare reimbursement rates, preserving Medicaid access, and especially for populations where private insurance will not cover. And reauthorizing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP, which is in the 2018 Farm Bill. And then there's some policy asks also that the that this draft is proposing addressing immigration reform by protecting the legal status of DOC recipients and ensuring that residents all over the county can feel like King County is still welcoming in place and continues to be a welcoming place. Taking actions to prevent a a trade war. As we often hear, Russian state is the most trade dependent state. The nation, and it and our reliance on trade is vital to King County's economy. Finally, funding the Census Bureau heading into the 2020 Census and ensure that a full and accurate counting process is undertaken to prevent loss of federal representation and funding. And then developing and implementing initiatives that improve gender equality and prevent sexual assault and harassment. Reduced juvenile detention and disproportionality in the criminal justice system. Combating human trafficking and guaranteeing equal protection for all people, including those in the LGBTQ communities. So that's the quick run through of the current draft. Happy to take questions and look forward to listening to your discussion. Thanks, Jeff. Just as a framing to the discussion here, this isn't quite 100% there yet. And so I think my plan for today would be to do questions, comments, any suggested changes, hold it in committee. We have time to do one more committee meeting and then still pass it out in time for the DC trip. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. It always seems one of the challenges with our. Legislative agendas is trying to keep it broad enough to be flexible, but then specific enough to make sure that our unique. Needs are are addressed. So my question is more an interpretation. So I don't know if that's fair to ask Jeff for our Mac, but under the infrastructure, we talked about the importance of investing in flood protection infrastructure. One of the biggest funding needs that's been identified. Particularly on the county, not the flood districts side, is the the habitat improvements that can accompany flood protection. Often when it's kind of like when you tear out a you tear up the street, it's a good time to replace the pipes underneath it. A lot of the challenges in the Green River system are balancing the impacts of the flood protection with the need to do habitat for salmon. And so without adding a whole bunch of words about including multi. Benefit habitat elements. Do you think when you talk about investing in flood protection infrastructure. That's enough direction for a federal lobbying team to also advocate for those programs that provide the multiple benefits in a floodplain like Habitat? Or if I'm interested in that, should I say flood protection infrastructure and related habitat or something? Let's take that down as a possible ad and look into it and get back to that to be a fit. If we interpret flood infrastructure as the as the. Let me just state my support for your opening comment, which is I think that that tension between being specific enough to actually be helpful to our delegation because we're telling them exactly what it is we would like them to do or not do. So more detail can be better. And then that's intention with making it, you know, the type on this one page document so small that they can't read any of it, but it seems like a worthy thing to look at whether that's the detail would be meaningful. And it just occurred to me I missed a part in the policy asks and in there is asking the delegation in fact, to enact common sense gun violence prevention measures. Let's apologize for that. No, thank you. Okay. Councilmember Caldwell's to Madam Chair. Jeff, on the last part of this document for resolving challenges, the policy issues, the next to the last one has to do with the census coming up. I'd suggest adding in there somewhere about the impact on redistricting, because that's the change issue for the states, for our county. I think that is what the last couple of words, their federal representation and funding, I think the better representation means and I understand the redistricting issue, but getting the accurate count so that we get as many congressional districts as possible, is that what you're getting at? Or is it more to make sure that the lines are correct? Well, both, actually. We'll get that addressed. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski. Again. Thank you, Madam Chair. On the excuse me, on the in that common sense gun violence prevention measures. You know. I don't want to wordsmith here, but common sense means different things to different people. And I might suggest the word effective in lieu of a little of that for folks to consider. And then on the census, a paragraph continuing along with the effectiveness theme they may be suggests and might have some specific. They do have some specific suggested language there to make sure that folks are not afraid to participate in the federal census. You know, and it'd be designed in a way that we get maximized participation because of all the good things that flow from that. So I think you've got some suggested language on that in the bill to get to you. Right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Otherwise, but I think it's very good. It's comprehensive. There's a lot going on here. Yeah. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Lots of good work on this. I love the pictures, too, by the way. So a couple of things. Infrastructure for a strong economy. I love that you're talking about lots of things that happen in my district, too, but I think we left out the software and the high tech industry. And so I think that might be a good addition to show the breadth of what goes on in this county. And then I know that they've banded a lot on the South Park, which originally but we're still paying the interest to, I think, 2036. And that is being paid for by the people who live in the unincorporated area, many of which don't even know where that bridge is. So getting some more money from there be good. And then I am really excited to see that for the first time I can think of increase the Medicare reimbursement rates. This to me is a senior protection issue that I'm really glad we're highlighting. I know that my own parents couldn't find a doctor for a long, long time because every place they went, they said the Medicare reimbursement rates are so low, we can't take any patients that are on Medicare. And that was really disconcerting to see. So I'm really glad that some are on our list and I really want to fight for that because it's really scary when you're a senior and you can't find a doctor. Thank you. Thank you. I'll add a few thoughts. In the infrastructure section, we have a statement about delivering transit projects that commuters rely on to reach job centers. I, I want to explore maybe just adding a few words or changing that a little bit, because the current issue at the federal government is a proposal by the administration to completely delete the standard federal partnership moneys that support those major transit investments that we know we need here in King County. And most of that money would go to sound transit, not to King County, but our long range transit plan relies on that transit spine being built out, and it is very much at risk if the federal government proceeds to delete all the funding they have traditionally partner with states and localities on. So I think we should call that out since I don't think it will be come as a surprise to any of our delegation. They have no doubt heard this. And then on the question of the census, I would like to explore with my colleagues putting in a direct statement, as we've been asked to do today about the citizenship question. I think one thing that may not have come through to those who aren't following this issue closely is this is a question that's not on the census and has not been on the census. It is proposed to be added for the first time now. And it's the sort of thing that may, on the face of it, look good to some folks and sound good. Don't we want to know how many people are citizens and aren't? But in reality, what will happen is people will not answer the census, they will not answer the question and they will not answer the census. They will not be counted at all because you'll depress response. And that's just it undermines the whole purpose of doing it in the first place. We want to know how many people there are here and we want to know things about them that drive policy decisions and investments. And so I think that could potentially be a political move done, not very thoughtfully, that will have real and long lasting repercussions. And so I think as a council, we should seriously consider coming right out and stating that we support leaving that census question out. I didn't do it for applause, but thank you. You made a very compelling case, so applause to you. Then we already talk about the funding, which I think is the other important issue that's on the on the docket right now about whether a census is adequately funded to do all the things we need. So that's when I comments any other councilmember member. Well. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. This may be redundant with regard to the section on infrastructure for a strong economy. I'll bring county bridges into compliance with new federal standards and then we indicate, maintain, replace and repair aging roads. I, I would like to have something in there about the significance of addressing bridge safety and road safety. I mean, there have been a number of bridges that have failed in the state and just bringing them into compliance federally, I'm not sure gets to that sufficiently. We'll look into that. I think that the federal compliance for bridges is is a new safety standard when we talk about bridges being, you know, structurally deficient and scoring ten out of 100. And I believe that's based on the federal safety standards. But I'll double check. How much I don't think it would hurt to just indicate that because safety is a huge factor. Thank you. Okay. So maybe this gives the public watching us a bit of a flavor of how difficult it is to put these things together, because there's six of us here. There's three of us who also have opinions on the executive, and we have to come together on a statement that we can all get behind. And we all have lots of ideas, but I think we're getting close. I would like to hold this in committee. If there's no objection to that, until we have an opportunity to take up the final changes, vote it out, and then we can hopefully expedited to full council after that. I'm sure Mark will look forward to that. Councilmember Member Well. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have one more suggestion in this. One may be too controversial to include in here, but under investing in healthy communities. I would like to have added reproductive health care. We'll take a look at that. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? All right, Jeff, thank you very much for covering. And we will take this up again at our next meeting. We'll move on to item seven, which is an item to approve the enhanced 911 systems strategic plan. The enhanced 911 system is a really large and complicated system, and it's a very critical system. It's what people rely on when they call for emergency help. It's comprised of 13 public safety answering points or piece ups, as we have all learned. And they all they're necessary there behind the scenes, but they're necessary to answer 911 calls and dispatch the appropriate help. This plan has been in motion since this committee and the Regional Policy Committee established the work program in 2015. So today we come to the culmination of a great deal of work over a long period of time. The Regional Policy Committee approved this item at its March 7th meeting and it is now before us for approval. I will say when we started this work, I know it was very contentious. It happened before I came on the council. But one of the very first things I was invited to after being elected was a meeting of some of the 911 folks on the east side. And they told me at that time we were really worried. This was really terrible, but it's going a little better now and it just went better and better. And we've really all come together. It's been it's been great to see how hard work and patience and working through issues can really pay off. And that owes a lot to the folks sitting in front of me right now. I'll introduce in a moment. So there's been a tremendous amount of work and we're now ready to move forward and tackle the issues of the E911 system together with all of the piece ups. So with that, I'm going to call on Lisa Kay to brief the committee and then introduce the panelists who are here to walk us through this decision point today. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Lisa K Council Staff. Today, I am honored to be joined by the co-chairs of the planning group that led the staff work on the proposed plan. Kathy Lombardo, who's the interim manager for the E911 Man program, is to my left. To her left is Laura Ueland, who is the executive director for Valley Communications, one of the public safety answering points where I'm going to be calling them piece ups. And then Tom Connie, who is the deputy director for the Department of Executive Services. He was also co-chair of the Finance Task Force for this work. As you mentioned, Madam Chair, proposed ordinance 2018 0069 would approve the King County Regional E911 strategic plan, and it would establish the King County Regional E911 Advisory Governing Board. My staff report begins on page 113 of your packet, and the plan itself begins on page 127. The substitute version of the ordinance before this committee today was approved by the Regional Policy Committee, as Councilmember Belden, you mentioned. It adds a requirement for an annual report to the Regional Policy Committee on implementation of the plan's recommendations, and it also corrects a typographical error. Council members Baldacci, Dunn and Lambert served on the 15 member leadership group for this planning process, which also included elected officials and staff from Sound Cities, the city of Seattle, the county executive , the sheriff, a fire commissioner, and two of the piece ups. You'll find the complete list of the leadership group, the planning group and task force members on page 365 of your packet, which I think is the last page of your packet. Actually, it's not the last page of your packet, said the Regional Policy Committee. There's more. With the chair's permission, I'll keep the briefing at a fairly high level, given that this committee has had past briefings. If you want more detail, just feel free to interrupt me or you can ask at the end. Okay, I'll start with a short introduction to E911 recap the genesis of the plan that's before you today, and then summarize its major elements. So a911 call that's placed within King County today touches at least five major telecommunication systems from the time the call is placed to when eight is dispatched. You can see a general illustration of the system in FIG. one on page 271 of your packet. So, for example, a person in King County uses a private telephone service provider to make a911 call on what's called the public switched telephone telephone network. The private service provider routes the 911 call to the State Emergency Services Network, which is called the S9+. The state then routes the call to the regional E911 system, which is managed by King County's in an on one program office. The program office then facilitates the call delivery to the correct peace up staff at the Peace Up, then answer the call and dispatch appropriate search resources. And keep in mind that call, answering and call dispatch are two separate functions within a piece up. That'll come up a little bit later in this briefing. Knowing those five steps is important because the strategic plan before you today applies to just a subset of that complete system, just the county's program office and the call taking functions of the piece ups. So two of those five steps are addressed in this in the system plan. Those two functions. Are funded by a 70 cent monthly excise tax assessed per telephone line. The call dispatch functions are separately funded by the local agencies served by the World Peace APS and King County, which are listed on page 114 of the staff report . There is a 13th piece app, which is the test piece app, which is used to do trial runs of new technology before it goes live. It's pretty important to get it right before you incorporate it into the system. So the system was relatively straightforward when we all had the same kind of analog telephones, but that's been changing, as you know. And the federal government launched an initiative some time ago called Next Generation 911, which I'll be calling New 911 to modernize existing landline based technologies and upgrade systems to support wireless and other emerging technologies such as text, photo and video transmission, so that they can be used with the 911 systems. Today, Washington State is in the midst of upgrading its emergency services network to support these additional energy 911 functions that upgrades called sign up to. And it drives some very significant local changes. Basically, if the county and the peace apps want to fully implement the new 911, I'm getting into too much detail. Mr. DEMBOSKY Here, you're like. Well. You know, it's an important item. Don't, don't don't be self-conscious about the level of detail. Just keep going until until instructed otherwise. Variances in the work you're doing and how we can accelerate the enhanced 911 deployment because it's so vital to get responses to folks. Frankly, oftentimes in DV situations, in crisis, where you can't get on the phone. And so we've had an interest in the. So I think I'm paying close attention. I didn't mean to. So I wasn't sure how to interpret your concentration. All good. In any case, if the county in the piece helps want to fully implement what the changes that the state are going to make available with their I net two, then the program office and the piece ups have to implement and support compatible systems. That local implementation, as you know, has been a challenge both in terms of how to best keep up with that technology, which is just changing so rapidly and how to pay for the new systems because it will be more expensive than what we're doing now. Unfortunately, neither the federal nor the state government has provided any local funding for that new 911 initiative, and King County's forecasts for some time have shown that projected system expenditures are going to outstrip revenues, leading to a significant deficit. And I'll get to that a little bit later, too, in this context. Then the County Council, in collaboration with the Regional Policy Committee, approved an ordinance in October 2015 that resulted in the strategic plan that was before you today. The plan was unanimously approved last November by the Multijurisdictional Leadership Group for recommendation to the County Council. It addresses three major areas governance, technology and finance. And I'll go over those briefly for you. I'll start with governance. The plan recommends and the ordinance establishes a new regional advisory governing board with specific roles and responsibilities and a decision making and appeal process. You can see the details for that on page 116 and 117. In your packet, the governing board would be advisory to the nine month run program office, would have 12 voting positions, one for each piece up and operate by consensus as much as possible. In the event that a vote was needed, a positive vote has to meet two thresholds approval from 40% of those present and from piece ups representing 60% of current call volume. The plan also provides a detailed process for decisions and appeals in the event that the Program Office and or the executive don't agree with a recommendation from the advisory governing board, you'll see a diagram for that on page 146. And if you want to see a verbal explanation of that, that's on page 117. And I can walk you through that if you have questions about that. Moving on then to the technology recommendations. The technical technology plan identifies extensive performance measures and targets associated with strategic objectives and actions. But most critically, the plan identifies a path forward for an energy 911 based on a process to implement a new single platform system architecture while monitoring the assumptions that support that preferred option. This moves the core elements of the 911 system infrastructure from each individual piece up to a single host platform that will have three or four nodes. The task force found that compared to directly connecting each of the 12 piece ups to the state's I net using the single platform architecture but provide increased security. Be more fair and equitable with increased capacity to manage call volume surges would make more capabilities available, provide greater interoperability and provide for common management solutions. The major drawback is that single platform architectural will likely incur new networking costs of about $700,000. Per year to connect the platform nodes to each of the piece ups. That cost wouldn't exist if the USA network was directly connected to each of the 12 piece ups. Assuming that the state didn't change its current funding commitments because several of these assumptions, as I just mentioned, the technology and that is the changing and the costs are a little bit in flux in terms of what the state is going to pay for. The leadership group put a very strong caveat in the plan that any additional information that emerges during the RFP process for the single platform provider could modify the preferred course of action so that there are some steps in here that would be that would raise red flags if this decision needed to be revisited. Turning next then to the finance recommendations, the consultant in the Finance Task Force developed a first time ever financial model of the regional E911 systems revenue and expenditures, with a lot of help from the piece ups in the program office. The new model provides a financial baseline for the system and projects, and the bad news is it projects a negative fund balance starting in 2023, which is a few years later than had been estimated previously. However, using the model, the consultant was able to develop and quantify estimated impacts of changes to revenue and expenditures that could be implemented to eliminate the forecasted deficit. Those are listed on a page on page 119. So as you can tell, there are some pretty big decisions that are still remaining to be done. This plan provides a framework to make some of those decisions, and it has a high level implementation timeline for specific governance, technology and finance actions. So you'll see that there are key milestones for formation of the Regional Advisory Governing Board. The target was first quarter of this year to complete new contracts between King County and the peace ups. By the end of this year. To connect the state air, sign up to to King County by the first quarter of 2019 to execute a new contract, to develop that single new platform, new single platform system architecture by the third quarter of 2020 with a project with a system in place by the first quarter of 2022. And then also, very importantly, to identify any potential expenditure reductions and implementation of any new revenue sources by the end of 2021. The new the new Advisory Governing Board will have significant involvement in working with the program office to meet these milestones. Council's primary involvement will be through the budget process and also approval of the contracts that the executive will negotiate between the county and the peace ups. That completes my report. Madam Chair and I and my cohorts at the table here would be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Thank you. I don't remember on page 121, I don't remember that we had talked about the egis to connection to King County taking. Was that five or six quarters and then the contract for King County? Is that what we had agreed to, that it would take that long? I'll ask Cathy Lambert. I'm sorry. For part of the other. Yeah, the other capital. Yeah. Sorry. By the way, Cathy Lombardo, program manager for 911. Could you repeat the question? I'm sure I'm just looking at the implementation timeline and looking at how long it is between areas. Yes, I know that two connection to King County in the contract for the system architecture executed. So it goes from the first quarter of 2019 to the third quarter in 2020. Well, those aren't dependent. Well, they are dependent on one another. But the actual contract for the platform has to we have to go through an RFP process. We have to actually design the system first and then develop an RFP to actually implement the project. So those two, while the LSI Net two is required for the platform, they're not. I think you're thinking about them differently than maybe you need to be thinking about them in terms of the implementation for the platform versus Eastside. The two are. Separate. They are separate. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. I got that right. And the other questions, what would you like to say? A few words, how you've come to the end of a long process. Surely somebody would like to say something. You want to start? It's not required. But I was Tom County, deputy director of the Department of Executive Services. I just want to remind you of a couple of quick points. One, before we forget about it, I've got to say, Lisa, thank Lisa for a contributions to the process. She was steadfast, insightful and impactful through all the time we were going through this. So thanks again from all of us in the group and as. As a reminder, we have moved the E911 man program office. The council did that to case Haiti over the past year because increasingly it really is a technology platform delivery service that is kind of the regional function. And this is this is a case where the process we've gone through, it's been long and a bit arduous, but the process is as important as the strategic planning product you see in front of you. This the process and the plan give us it has put the program in a position to adapt it to what is clearly an evolving kind of technology world. So you're saying that to the specific kind of definitions of what, next year 911 means there's still a lot of things that are not completely defined that we're in position now to more flexibly and transparently kind of meet the challenges in front of the system. So I appreciate all the efforts. Laura mullins, executive director of Communications Center. And I would echo everything that's been said so far. This has been a long, arduous process, but it has been role defining. It is it is a new reality in King County for the peace efforts. This process has elevated the attention to the King County Council and beyond. So we have attention and your support has been tremendous. So thank you for that. This is a technology, world and environment and the peace efforts support did support the movement to create. But this is also a people job and this is a people world. People called 911. They want to hear a voice. They want to know that something's happening. So the peace efforts, while we support that, we are also very cognizant of the relationship that is required to deliver. The nine on. One service. And we have a fantastic foundation through this process of strong relationships. So if nothing else, I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for all of it. But this has redefined the relationship among the county peace efforts and it's fantastic. Great. Thank you. We've come a long way, baby. And I'm going to just use the phrase creative chaos, and I'll tell you why in a second. But with when you have creative chaos on my mind, you come up with a much better solution than you would have ever had when you started separately. So recently we've been talking about some things internally and with several other piece of directors, and we have this constant debate about people and and technology not versus technology. And we actually have, I think, competing, sort of chaotic roles. The county is responsible for a technological solution. The piece that directors are responsible for people, but so are we. But at our base and at our core as King County, our responsibility is that technological system that enhances the ability of the peace of directors and their their folks to actually contact or connect with people in the community when they're at their worst days ever. And so from that vantage point, that creative chaos is going to continue. But we have a framework now, I think, for working through that. And we yeah, we've come a long way, baby. I guess I'll close the same way I started. So it has taken a really focused and flexible approach from all the folks at the table. There was a lot of expertize around that table, but also a lot of history, and that can be some of the hardest thing to overcome. And I'm just really impressed with how you all did it. So congratulations to you and thank you very much for the hard work. I just have two quick one comment and one question and then maybe we can move to action. My comment is to Lisa. I just want to thank you so much for the very clear and simple description of the appeals process. You may recall I was concerned about how complicated it was for quite a while, and I get it now. And that's largely due to I know how hard you work to to be able to explain it in a way that an average human being could track. So thank you so much for that. And the second question is about the ten year financial plan. It's good news that the the date at which our projected fund balance will go negative has been pushed out by quite a few years from where we were, but we still need to work on it. How will that process come back here? Will that come during a budget cycle? Will that be a report? Is there a particular plan for that to come to council? So I'll give you a preliminary answer and then I'll probably turn to Tom as the finance chair or if Laura wants. Anyhow, I think it's going to come to you by way of the budget. And you may see some some initial numbers in the upcoming biennial budget proposal as some of the groundwork is laid. You'll also probably see some of it. You may see some of it depending on what the content is that's going to be in the contracts that are negotiated with the piece ups. But Tom, did you have any other thoughts. Out of the one thing to add in the Regional Policy Committee if there was an addition of an annual report back to that committee? So as part of that report, they'll be a touch back to see like, okay, so what is the financial position of the fund right now? Great. Okay. Thank you all. We'll look forward to following along with that. And I would that I want to ask Vice Chair Lambert to move this put this item before us for a vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to propose ordinance 2018 0069.2 of the Dew Point recommendation. Okay. Final comments. Questions. Council Member Tomasky. Bingaman Chair I just want to add my words of appreciation and respect for folks coming together. It's a different presentation than we had when. This first started. And I think it's a it's a credit to the peace gaps in your leadership, but also to the county and its willingness to listen and respond as a kind of regional government and a convening entity, as well as a service provider. And I think we can take some lessons from this experience. It's very impressive that you've worked together to come up with a governing structure, and that will help solve the problems that will come up and the challenges that will come up on a on a going forward basis so that things don't bubble over. Right. And that's just really impressive. I know that probably took a lot of work and and discussions and compromise. So I just wanted to commend commend you all at the county and out in the field that do this work. Nicely done. And to you, too, Lisa. Thank you. Okay. Did you say something, Councilman Leonard? So thank you for having served on the committee. I got the privilege of seeing all those balls in the air, and they actually didn't fall on anybody's head, which was a good thing. And it's largely because of all of you at the table being willing to jump in to creative chaos. I love that term and being able to be really clear about the the different issues that we were dealing with. And there were many of them, for instance, what the state was doing and all the different variables that we not rush because we didn't know what was ahead and making a decision before we knew some of the variables. Coordinating with all those piece ups. And they had very different opinions about almost everything, including whether they really want to talk to each other. It was interesting to watch the body language. The first couple meetings, it looked like the Hatfields and McCoys coming together. But by then, you would have thought it was a family reunion of people who loved each other deeply and dearly. So that didn't happen by accident. And so I really appreciate the work that you did to make that happen. Dealing with the revenue deficits and what year that was going to be and inconsistencies across the county where certain groups want to do certain things further and faster because of enhanced 911 and and all these things that were shiny but not capable and trying to hold back the shiny, fun, exciting stuff to the realities of getting the basics done. So there was a lot that went on and I really appreciate all the work where we are now, the committees, the governance structure. And this was not that easy, left over three years. And I'm sure both of you actually, I'll take your word, are tired. But you have really made a huge service to this county and to the protection of everybody. I had to call 911 this morning on my way to work because somebody was smart enough to cover their loads. And there was actually a a lawn mower spreader in the middle of the lane, which is strong enough to do some really bad damage to somebody. So I thought about what privilege it is that we have in 911 and the work that you have done. So I just want to say thank you. And to Lisa, you didn't pull out your hair. You had to staff each one of us. And in the beginning, this was even more complicated because we hadn't landed any place. And so thank you for being able to continue that they were making. Yeah. And I also have I have the list of thank you here as well that I will I will say as part of the getting there, there were some really big decisions around governance, finance and policy that were around technology that were all not clear at the beginning. And they all had to be worked through in great detail. So I just want to call out the co-chairs of those. The Governance Task Force was co-chaired by Diane Carson Carlson of King County and Stacey Ellick. The Finance Task Force was co-chaired by our own Tom Koni and Marilyn Beard from Kirkland. And the Technology Task Force was co-chaired by Sheila Picard from Bellevue and Bill Kehoe, our former I.T. director. And they all really had a big ship to steer in to bring this all together. And then I finally want to say to Kathy Lombardo, you came out of retirement to help us and that you didn't have to do this. You could have been on a beach somewhere. And I understand you're going back into retirement now once this is once this is put to bed. So thank you so much for bringing all of your energy and smarts and patience to this process. You did a fantastic job. Thank you so much. I will also again thank Lisa K.R. Council staff because having three council members with varying degrees of engagement and understanding and knowledge and interest is always a challenge. And you were our bird dog on this and you really watched it very closely, made sure that the council's needs and interests were met so that when it came to this point, we can have, as you see, a very strong level of support for the final product. And that doesn't happen by a. That happens with a lot of hard work. So thank you. Okay. Did you want to say something? They did. I just wanted to thank my own staff. And you might want to think your own personal staff. April Sanders, who worked really hard on this and was on one of the subcommittees. And I also want to know if we can put a tracking device on Cathy Lombardo so they can find her. And I think the next time you need to. Check out the nearest Alfa Romeo dealership. You'll find her there eventually. Yes. No, I will. Thank my own staff. Krista Commons. And who put a tunnel to my chief of staff who put a ton of work into this and was very, very instrumental on the task force that she served on, but also kept an eye on equity and how we were making sure that we were including people who we might not be thinking about in our customer base. So thank you for that. All right. With all the thanks and the Academy being thanked, maybe we're ready to move to a vote. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garzon, Councilmember Commonwealth I. Council Member Lambert I. Council member McDermott. Oh. Council member of the Grove. Council member upon return. Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the vote is six eyes, no no's, three excuse. All right. If it is acceptable, let's expedite it and put this on consent. That way it can be approved before Cathy leaves. And you can take that with you can take a copy of the final ordinance with you. All right. Thank you all very much. Great job. All right. Our final item today is a briefing from the county executive on the executive's office on the employment program called Investing in You. As we all have discussed before, the executive has placed a focus on the county as an employer and investing. A new program was created and was created to to address that. We've been briefed a number of times. Today's briefing is focusing on learning and development and what we used to call training. And so Whitney Abrams and Megan Peterson. And no, I'm sorry, I've got a whole bunch of names here that just don't matter. So I'm going to let you all introduce yourselves. And Whitney, you want to go ahead and give us your briefing. And care council members when Abrams from the King County Executive Office and we are here today to talk about, again, investing in you and what we are doing in the area of learning and growth for employees here at King County. And who I have here with me today is Shannon Harris, who is a project manager in human resources as well as Jay Osborne, who's the interim h.r. Director. So with that, I would like to start with talking a little bit about what we've been talking about. So this initiative incorporates the complex and complete employee experience here at King County, the compensation and benefits they receive, our workplace culture, learning and growth and considering equity and social justice systematically. King County success depends upon the strength of its workforce. Our employees come to King County with a passion for public service, and we want them to be able to have meaningful careers where they can grow their skills and talent while they work. Here today, we will discuss our investments in learning and growth for employees. This pillar of investing in you focuses on our ability to train leaders, managers and employees so each person can perform at their best, grow their talent, and accomplish their career goals. With King County, this pillar aligns with our priorities in the workforce culture pillar and helps us think through the skills and competencies needed for us to improve the overall work experience and thus our delivery of services to the residents here in King County. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Jay Osborne and Shannon to talk about what we are doing in learning and growth for a king county place. Thank you, whitney. So for the record, jay osborne, interim h.r. Director and we do have a presentation that we're going to start with here. So as you know, we've got several goals and investing in you. The goal that we're talking about today is our commitment and the resources to grow every employees talent. So some of those things that we're looking at are opportunities for employees to develop and thrive. The ability to advance your career in King County and to receive regular feedback and performance guidance and work on a training plan for each and every employee as we go forward. We do have the pillars that we have talked about with you before, and the pillar leads, two of which are retiring this month after long careers at King County. So. Moving those forward as well. So how did we get here? What are some of the things that have happened in the past? So we have some initiatives investing in new equity, social justice and best run government. Those filter into how we're applying some of these efforts to employees. We're looking to support the leaders in King County by providing clear expectations, tools and resources to effectively manage and develop their teams, providing knowledge, skills and standards to support employees in their delivery of service and development. This is identifying ways that you could advance your career. Perhaps you come in as a fiscal specialist one and you end your career as a CFO. How do we get you there? What are the skills you need? How do we help develop you through that opportunity and maximizing our resources and partnerships to share best practices and provide effective programs and services? Madam Chair. Please go ahead. Construction. You go back to the previous slide and so you just went by that so mentioned that two are being reached, but two are retired. You mean the people, the programs with the people. I'm sorry. So Karlene Sakamoto and Paula Karlene, who's been with the county for 38 years or has had her retirement party, she's got three more days of work. And we saw the posters. And Paula's Harris White's last day with the county is the sixth. Of eight. Wow. There'll be a very thorough two years. So both of those pillars will be getting new staff members to lead those efforts. Have they been hired yet? We're in the process currently. Okay. Thank you. So learning and growth programs and services. So what are some of the things we're looking at? Organizational development, how we're assisting that throughout the County Leadership Essentials program, the Bridge and Aspiring Leaders Program, investing more time and effort in those. We have some cohorts that have passed through the bridge program that are doing quite well out there in the county, career development and individual contributor training, and then some of the basic things that help support that performance management and feedback, supervisory basics and compliance training, mentorship and coaching. So we're looking at what are the basic trainings that an employee needs to get on a regular cycle. Anti-Harassment training would be an example of that. And how often do we provide those services to folks? Some of the priorities for 2018. So in organizational development, H Hardy's ability to assist with organizations that need assistance and we have the right assistance at the right time to help folks throughout the county working on performance management and feedback. One of our goals is that every employee gets some performance feedback and given some tools and training and opportunities to improve their skill set as they work through their careers. The County Manager Training Program. Part of being able to give good feedback is to train the people who are giving the feedback on how to do that and do that successfully and what does that look like? And then just being a supervisor and doing compliance training within King County and what are those skill sets? Frequently you're promoted from being one of the senior analysts to being the supervisor of the group, and that's actually a different job and a different skill set. And how do we help teach you that where you might be the subject matter expert, but it's your first time out of the gate supervising people. The next one, the next slide in there is Bridge and Aspiring Leaders program. So this is identifying 25, a cohort of 25 folks throughout the county and giving them some intensive training and opportunities to spread their skill set. We've done three bridge programs so far and I'm preparing for the fourth later this year. Mentorship and coaching. Actually, ironically, we have more mentors lined up than we have mentees, which is an unusual place to be, which certainly pretty previous. My question, which is what's the average age of our employment group today so that you don't answer that right now? But that's what I'm thinking as we're talking about all this training and success kind of succession planning. It's been rather high and I imagine it's getting higher. So hence more mentors than mentees. Lots of people have been here a long time since this one. Exactly. And then career development and individual contributor training and continuing to look at ways to enrich our employees, both on an individual basis and in a career series as they work forward. Which brings us to the last slide. How are we going to know if we're successful? So Shannon Harris has just joined HRT, and one of the things that she will be working on is helping us to figure out how we are successful. What are some of those measurements? I'm going to ask Shannon to address this slide. Sure. So, yeah, so we have placed our measures into three general categories. One is to increase the number and mode of training and development opportunities. So we're trying to. State your name in and title. For the record, please. Shannon Harris, Investing in you, project manager. Thank you. Congratulations. Oh, thank you. So we're looking at, you know, how how are people accessing and utilizing our e-learning services? How many people are actually going through some of the basic trainings that we're offering and then looking at other opportunities? Some people go outside of the county to receive training and so looking at better ways to track that. And then we have our employee survey that also has people self-report, whether they feel like they understand how they can advance in their career at King County and then in career advancement. We have pulled that lowest 20% of employees by pay, ranged to check and make sure that employees who are in lower pay ranges have development opportunities. So we're working with departments to develop the skills for supervisors to provide development plans or develop development plans with employees in partnership. And we're monitoring that on an annual basis. We're increasing the numbers of mentors and mentees. So we have a six month program where mentors and mentees are matched up. It's structured so that mentees and mentors both have a positive experience. So we'll want to increase that and make sure it's also receiving high satisfaction rates for participants and then increase the number of participants in the bridge program and also do more follow up with our bridge program participants. Right now, we know that people who've gone through the bridge program are taking stretch opportunities to grow. Their careers are also applying for positions with more confidence. So even if they don't get a position, they report that they feel more confident applying for positions because they've gone through the program. And then performance feedback. So monitoring and ensuring that all employees, no matter what their job, are, getting some performance feedback. And if they want to change jobs, grow in their careers, they have those opportunities. We will continue to refine our measures and as we get clearer on a few other aspects of training. We'll continue to work with PeopleSoft and other software programs to make sure that we're getting the results that we've stated we're striving for. And I would like to just mention in summary, something that I'm really proud of in this work is that this is all integrated into what we're trying to achieve in our equity, in social justice, strategic plan and our workplace culture. Right. Accountability for the services we provide to our employees has a lot to do with performance feedback and defining those measures and goals. We also consistently see in our engagement survey that employees are definitely interested in development and receiving the tools that they need to do their jobs well. So this all really flows nicely together. Thank you. I was actually one of the comments I had on the measurement is I think some of the other questions that we track in the employee survey would also be maybe indirect measures of the success of this program, but interesting, including the ones about whether employees feel like they're empowered to do their jobs. Right. Because we want to tie our success always back to whether we're providing the service to the community, to the to the county residents that we want. And that's tied directly to whether employees feel like they're being empowered to do a good job at their job. And a large part of that empowerment comes from their supervision and their leadership. So it's indirect, but it's important, I think. So that'll be interesting to see as well. I have a quick question about the supervisory training. Always such a challenge in some parts of our county where you have people who are working 24 seven who, you know, we may never see in an office ever. And how do we plan to get all those folks trained? Is is the plan for 2018 to try to train all supervisors, new supervisors? What's the how do we how do we spread this, the new learning out there? So part of it, we do have supervisors that have been around a long time and we have supervisors as they join that don't understand things around labor contracts or management or some of the responsibilities of a supervisor. So there's sort of two prongs of training in that. One, sort of the basics of supervision, and then one, helping people develop their skills in giving performance feedback or healthy conflict engagement, maybe some mentoring that they need as well in specific areas. So the curriculum that we're going to offer out is the basics that we're starting with now and building on top of that in 2019 and beyond. And just to add to that, we are looking at what is a sustainable service delivery model. So we have a fairly small central training team within HRT. So we may be partnering with other H.R. Managers who actually work in the department so that they can reach out, will do train the trainer program so that we can get people into the workplaces and try to find trainings that are accessible for all of our employees. That makes a lot of sense. I mean, I think if you asked around any department to name their top supervisors who are really good at what they do, they probably know who those people are. And perhaps we can, you know, use some of their knowledge and expertize and the respect that they already have in their own departments to help them to mentor and train newer supervisors or other supervisors. Boy, communications is so critical in all of this. That is the one of the hardest things to do. And it's so important for a supervisor to be able to manage conflict among employees between the supervisor and the employees, not to create conflicts unnecessarily themselves. That's you know, I empathize with the challenge, but it's a big one. And I appreciate everything that you all are doing to try to equip our folks because they're they're critical. It's like the sergeants, right? Sergeants win or lose the war. These are our sergeants. We need to make sure they have what they need. Okay. Any other questions, Constable Lambert? Thank you. For me, one of the things that I'd like to see is some coaching on brainstorming, brainstorming solutions, because people don't always fit in round boxes or square boxes. And so we get these problems that there really isn't anything in the book that says that ESOPs are like parenting. Now, what I do and how do you begin to look for the solutions that will be satisfactory on those situations that don't fit in the box? And I think that's going to be really important for people who have that, which means that they have to feel like they can make suggestions to their supervisors that this situation doesn't really fit and it doesn't have common sense to it. So how do I how do I do that in this situation that anything I wanted to say is that I read a report not based on King County, but I read a report and overall that the percentage of time an employee is actually working with when they're at work, that was frightening to me. So, you know, how do we I realize that human beings aren't machines. But making sure that, you know, when people are at work, they are taking their breaks so that they can be working, you know, during the hours are supposed to be working, but they really are working and making sure that when that data is ever taken on us, it doesn't look anything like the report I read. So is there anything that we're doing to help with that data or are we looking at that data? Councilmember Lambert. So what I'm hearing you ask is again about like productivity measures that we have, because clearly we have FLSA exempt employees who are responsible for a body of work and then we have nonexempt employees who are required to take breaks. I think all in the performance measurement and accountability is how we can look at these things. Right? Lay out clearly what expectations are and model it. So employees need to see their leaders, their peers and their more senior peers modeling this behavior and where the expectations are clear and feedback is given and corrective action is taken if needed. But I think that all goes into accountability and expectations. Great. Thank you. Councilmember Carlos. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm very pleased to see on the first page of the 2018 priorities and your supervisory basic and compliance training that you've included anti-harassment training not just for supervisors but for all employees. I'd like to see a copy of that. So you think that. Anyway. I'd like to see a copy. Thank you. Okay. Well, I think that may be the last of the we tried to plan four or five of these briefings to go through everything that was going on. And with investing in you in the last year, we didn't quite make it in 2017, but thank you for your patience. I know sometimes we had to move these briefings because of other pressing business, but I appreciate you coming and briefing the committee of the whole on what's going on with, you know, we're with our employees, which is where the vast majority of our investment goes and how we provide the services to the residents of King County. So thank you. Appreciate all the work you're doing. We'll look forward to hearing more about the results and anything else that may be coming forward. Thank you so much. And that will be the last item on our agenda. Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 4th, where we anticipate discussing an annual report from the King County Library System and a motion from the executive to create a local services department. All right. With that, we are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE clarifying Title 6 of the King County Code, establishing a gender neutral code and making technical corrections; and amending Ordinance 1888, Article I, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.01.010, Ordinance 1888, Article I, Section 4, and K.C.C. 6.01.030, Ordinance 1888, Article II, Section 4, and K.C.C. 6.01.080, Ordinance 1888, Article III, Section 1, and K.C.C. 6.01.110, Ordinance 1888, Article III, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.01.150, Ordinance 2287, Section 6, and K.C.C. 6.04.060, Resolution 12714, Section 1, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.04.170, Resolution 12714, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.04.200, Ordinance 7216, Section 6, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.08.042, Ordinance 4270, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.08.090, Ordinance 4206, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.08.100, Ordinance 13548, Section 4, and K.C.C. 6.09.030, Ordinance 13548, Section 13, and K.C.C. 6.09.120, Ordinance 13548, Section 15, and K.C.C. 6.09.140, Ordinance 13548, Section 17, and K.C.C. 6.09.160, Ordinance 1294, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.12.020, Ordinance 1294, Section 3,
king_673dec25-a187-404d-978c-63bd62a03f9d	Because KCET. I'd like to welcome everybody to the July six, 2022 meeting of the Committee of the whole. I am the chair Gene Co Wells and the meeting is now beginning. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the King County Courthouse is on the unceded ancestral lands of the Duwamish people past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the damaged tribe. Today's committee of the whole meeting features the first of two meetings on the topic of preventing gun violence. Today's part of this series will be titled Preventing Gun Violence Mapping the Issue in King County. Our discussion will aim to provide a bird's eye view of gun violence in the county, focusing on data, public health impacts and relevant laws in Washington State and in King County specifically. We will continue our conversation at our next meeting on July 20th, also beginning early at 9:00 AM with a focus on community based violence, interruption, work and tangible strategies to achieve safe, healthier communities. It is my hope that these conversations will lead us to a body coming up with tangible ideas that can make a difference in our communities and begin to deter this cycle of violence and harm caused by firearms. Every day in King County, before we get into the panels, we will begin today's meeting with discussion and possible action on a motion sponsored by Councilmember SA Holly, requesting that the executive develop an operational plan for sheltering the most vulnerable King County residents in the event of extreme cold heat or wildlife's smoke. And we've certainly had our experiences with all of those. Following that, we will have a briefing on the executive's COVID response from Dwight Daley, director of the King County Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. And then we will turn to our two panels before we begin. Well, actually, let's go ahead and have our clerk call the roll. Thank you. Chair calls Carr. Councilmember Balducci. Here. Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember Dunn where? Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember Perry, you're a council member up the grove here. Councilmember Yvonne Reich Bauer. Here. Council members alkali. Here. Charcoal wells. Here. Charcoal wells. You do have a quorum key. With that, I would like to have Councilmember Perry moved to approve the minutes from the June 15th, 2022 meeting. So moved. Thank you. All in favor indicate by saying I, i any oppose say no. The minutes have been approved. We will now turn to public comment. And we do have a few people in the chamber with us today. And Madam Kirk, do we have anybody who is online wishing to give public comment? Charcoal wells. It looks like we have one person online. One person. Okay, very good. Just a general statement for public comment. It must be related to today's agenda items and not be used for the purpose of assisting any campaign for election or any person for any of the circuit or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition. It must also not include obscene speech or be disruptive to our meeting if the speaker fails to abide by these restrictions. I will rule the speaker out of order and have the speaker removed from the meeting. You will have 2 minutes to speak and we'll hear a timer go off at the end of those 2 minutes. You can finish your thought, but please wrap up your comments right away. We will begin by calling on those who have signed up to speak in person. And if you are providing comment remotely and it looks like we have one person at this time, please listen to the meeting on this zoom call until you hear your name called Madam Clerk, my cat. Would you please call on those who are in attendance here in the chamber? Thank you, Chair Caldwell. Our first speaker is Alex Zimmerman. Kyle. It's working. Microphone. It's working. No, no, it's working. Kyle, my. Dirty damn Nazi fascist mob vendetta. In sake about my name. I like Zimmerman and I want. Speak about. Agenda seven. Or eight about gun violation. Gun violation will be going to give me a government record progressive it big bigger and bigger and bigger because. People are very angry. And I explained to you something territory but this action. Very important for stopping. Gun violence. It's, for example, Seattle. Instigation, 50%. Of homicide, only 50%. So right now you can kill easy people, 50%. This is. Never be defined you so a killer. Can do in very good job. So I have experience. With judicial system because. We have three branches of government and one branch of government judicial branch. But a prosecutor judges. Public defender police. Sheriff in jail Gordon Thatcher will totally in I have experienced very good with this system for 35 year three times they prosecute me three. Times. It's absolutely fake but it's not the point. Point how we can change gun to violence. So my. Proposition very simple because all people who touch this third branch branch of government, judicial branch of government is very. Angry because of this. Absolutely not guilty. Is this exactly. What this happened? Yeah. If spent $1,000,000,000 but this so my proposition very simple in exactly come to council zocalo because here it's responsible for this territory Vinyard. Open a. Public volunteer commission you know what this means? But this will be control. All this mafia is. Organized criminal. Prosecutor, judges, public defender, police. Sheriff in jail. Is this exactly what is needed? Open up Public Volunteer Commission. Bye bye. Our next speaker is Marguerite Rashad. Yes. Hello. Good day. I'm here today to re-emphasize that it's very wrong. The situation with guns, because Jaylin Walker died by the hands of a gun. And oftentimes we give credence to some of the evil that the Bible speaks against. But deliver us from evil and evil struck on July the fourth. I'm not gonna mention his name because I know where he's going. If he ain't already out there. And so it's interesting that our mouth can be full of deadly poison, too. So, say, for instance, you don't use the gun. You can use some kind of a tactic like. Claudia Bonaduce used against me, huh? That's an evil that's. Please stick to the topic. Misanthropic is when you have a weapon, your mouth can be a weapon to destroy and defame our culture and our community when we know that we have issues every single day involving our families. They drop at the hands of a gun and they may be just sleeping while black walked in, while black talking while black drop while black by hand. One that's not even supposed to touch you. So I heard. So when it struck me, it caused a trauma into my mind, thinking, Oh, okay, the next thing is going to be even something worse, but I'm praying against it. Jean Cole Wells because you don't have the right to interrupt. Me neither. That's that distinct. It's called free speech. And you constantly are harboring a deal wheel against people that should otherwise be safe. We all have a right to be safe. No one has the right to harm another person. I'm now moving to our online speaker, Carissa Taylor. Please go ahead. Carissa Taylor If you'd like to speak, please go ahead and unmute yourself. Chair Commonwealth that is everyone on the line. Thank you very much for extending. Is there anyone else on the line who would like to provide public comment and has not had the opportunity to do so? If so, please raise the hand function or press nine if you have joined us by phone. There is no one raising their hand. Your call. See no further request. We will go on with our agenda and close public comment. The first item on our agenda is the motion sponsored by Council Member Zahoor ly requesting that the Executive develop an operational plan for sheltering the most vulnerable King County residents in the event of extreme cold heat or wildfire smoke. This is proposed motion 2020 20197 and Jennie Giambattista will brief us. We also have, I believe, from the executive branch, Mena Hashemi, Brandon McCluskey and Caroline Wayland. If there are any questions as. Go right ahead. Jennie unless Councilman Basile, I would like to say anything. First listen to the staff report first. Chair Coles. Thank you very much, Jennie. Thank you. Good morning. Chair Caldwell, the members of the committee, Jennie John Batiste, council staff, the staff report for this item begins on page seven of the packet. Given the very full agenda today, the Chair has asked me to provide highlights from the staff report. There are a few key points in the background section of the staff report. I'd like to highlight and provide some context for the discussion of the proposed motion. First, what's happening now during an extreme weather event? The Office of Emergency Management works with King County agencies and partners from other jurisdictions to identify and share information on available sheltering options. The Office of Emergency Management posts information during an event on the sheltering options, including links to other jurisdictions on the King County Emergency Blog. But OEM does not have an operational, extreme weather sheltering plan that details the shelters that are to be open, the hours staffing or other operational issues. Director McClusky from the Office of Emergency Management reports. The Department of Local Services has started working in the unincorporated area to find community based facilities that are suitable and willing to open in extreme weather events and to identify the operational needs for opening those facility. The background section of the staff report on page eight also includes some information on the extreme heat event in the region experienced last June. I've highlighted this event because, according to the National Weather Service, heat events are the most deadly weather related emergencies for King County. The heat dome was the deadliest climate related event in the region's history, with 32 with 33 deaths, an average age of 75.6. Based on data from public health, 91% of the fatalities occurred in the persons resident. June 28th of that heat dome also set a record for the highest number of EMS related calls in the history of VMs. There are more details on the EMS responses that can be found in a PowerPoint on page 21 of the packet that was prepared by EMS for a countywide summer hazard seminar hosted by the Office of Emergency Management. I've also included a presentation in the packet from that same seminar from the National Weather Service on page 42 of the packet, which notes some of the challenges that Seattle region faces with dealing with extreme heat events. The Seattle region has the lowest rates of any metropolitan region for air conditioning. Additionally, homes are built to keep the heat in in the northwest with added insulation and many have south facing exposures. Additionally, the National Weather Service noted that many community facilities don't have air conditioning in the heat dome event. The temperatures peaked late at night, which meant indoor temperatures stayed hot. The National Weather Service noted that these indoor evening air temperatures need to be taken into consideration when planning for the operating hours and cooling shelters. I'd like to now turn to the discussion of the motion, and that discussion is on page 12 of the packet. The motion requests the executive to develop an operational plan by February 28th, 2023 for sheltering the most vulnerable residents during extreme cold heat and wildfire smoke events. The motion defines the most vulnerable residents as including, but not limited to, unhoused people, low income people who live in housing without adequate protection from extreme weather and theater. Senior citizens or those with disabilities without adequate protection from extreme weather. The motion requests the executive coordinate with King County agencies and work groups, and the King County Homeless Regional Homeless Authority to develop the operational plan. The motion calls for the executive to strive to begin offering expanded extreme weather sheltering no later than June of 2023. The cost, information and the staffing requirements for such a sheltering plan are requested as part of the transmitted operational plan. I'd like to highlight some of the key actions requested in the motion. First is to conduct community outreach in low income communities and unhoused communities and unincorporated King County to gather information on the community's preferences for the location and features that result in the highest utilization of shelters during extreme cold heat and wildfire smoke events. The outreach efforts should also seek to identify other community needs in responding to extreme weather events. The next action requested is based on the information gathered from the low income communities. Provide a listing and map of King County owned or operating office operated facilities in King County that are recommended to serve as extreme weather shelters. Another major action requested is to develop a plan to offer hotel vouchers during extreme heat events, to offer temperature controlled accommodations to those living in unincorporated King County who are the most vulnerable to the effects of heat, including the elderly, families with infants and those with underlying medical conditions and opportunities to stay cool. Additionally, there are two requests to coordinate with the Department of the State Department of Social and Health Services to identify any long term care assistance facilities or family care homes in King County that do not have air conditioning. This is intended so that in the event of an extreme heat event, outreach can be done to these facilities. Additionally, there is a request to maintain a website with updated real time information during extreme weather events, which includes a listing of all available shelters. Where to Go to get help and public health tips for staying safe during extreme weather events and how to volunteer or donate resources to organizations providing support during extreme weather events. Those are the components of the motion. There are a few issues identified in the staff report on page 13. First are the challenges with extreme weather shelters. These include the staffing, particularly for overnight shifts. Community partners have also expressed concerns over the operating costs and security in addition to staffing, and that's been reported by DLS and some of their current work. Additionally, some shelters reach capacity while others get few occupants. However, I would note that we don't really have data now on shelter capacity to what extent are being utilized. Not all community facilities in the region have air conditioning. And then lastly, the COVID 19 pandemic continues to complicate things. The staff report also notes that council staff have requested additional information to better understand the extent to which the proposed activities could be achieved using existing resources. They also want to note that on page 77 of the packet, you will find the changes suggested by executive staff that were provided on Friday afternoon. Staff analysis of these changes is ongoing. Madam Chair, that concludes my staff report. I'm happy to answer any questions or go into more detail on some of the topics that I did go over quite quickly. We also, as you indicated, have executive staff in the meeting to answer any questions as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jenny, for the excellent report. Did you mean to say page 77 of the report? That I think yes, that includes page 77 of the packet is where you will find the changes that were suggested by the executive stack. Excellent. Thank you very much. Are there any questions about Jenny at this point? I can get my remarks if you're okay with that. That would be fine. Go right ahead. Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you, Chair Caldwell's. Thank you, Jenny, for that great report. I'll start off by saying that earlier this year, I read an alarming story in The New York Times about a deadly heatwave in India. Imagine week after week, unrelenting temperatures between 110 and 125 degrees. No AC, no relief. Just suffocating, scorching heat. Dozens of people died and continue to die. It's a devastating human made disaster and people are suffering because of it. Then I thought about our fates up here in the mild, mild Pacific Northwest. Last year, we saw three of the five hottest days in King County history happen not only in the same year, but in the same week. As Jenny reported, we also saw dozens of heat related deaths. On a personal note, I didn't have AC in my home. My home got up to 110 degrees and I felt like I was choking. Then I thought about all the people in King County who are living in dense apartment complexes, senior facilities, encampments with no HD, who are all vulnerable to heat waves and who face greater and greater environmental threats every year. I read in Cross that Washington historically sees only four days per year the average 90 degrees or above. But by mid-century, in our lifetimes, without emissions intervention, this number will stretch to 17 days and it'll only go up from that. Extreme weather is going to affect every aspect of our daily lives. Extreme heat, extreme cold, wildfire smoke. And when you combine that with our housing crisis, the fact that we have the lowest number of housing units per capita of any state in the country, we are in a particularly unique and dangerous situation here in Washington state. So as Jenny described, my motion asks the executive to develop an operational plan for sheltering the most vulnerable in our region. The bread and butter of the motion is creating a regional network of indoor facilities that are constantly developing and that we're building on that map of indoor facilities. I'd like to see three categories. Category A Here are the buildings that King County currently owns and is already using for extreme weather shelter. Category B Here are the buildings King County owns and does not currently use for extreme weather shelter, but that we potentially could with proper staffing and upgrades. And here are the costs and the plan for those staffing and those upgrades. Finally, Category C, here are the buildings that King County doesn't own that are maybe owned by other government jurisdictions or the private sector. Here is our engagement plan for working with those entities that own those buildings with those third parties. Think of a public school, for example. And here are the costs in the plan for staffing up and creating the upgrades needed to create extreme weather shelter out of those buildings. The motion also asks the executive to do a few other things that Jenny already described, like conducting outreach in unincorporated King County. You may have read recently in the Seattle Times, but we do not face heat waves in an equitable way. There are areas that face more higher impacts of those heat waves than others. I've noticed that Skyway is one of the areas that faces one of the highest impacts of heat waves waves in King County. So South King County and many other places. So I'll end by saying nobody needs to die of heat waves. Nobody needs to die of wildfire smoke inhalation. Nobody needs to freeze to death. These are all preventable deaths and ones that we can help prevent by making sure that we are as prepared as possible and using all of the resources that currently exist at our disposal. I urge your support and I'm thankful for everybody who worked on this motion, including Jenny, Jake, Tracy, Rosa, my, my, my staff, my staff, team member, and also the executive branch who have been very helpful and collaborative during this process. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmembers. I really appreciate the thoroughness and as well as of the thought that you put into this, really identifying a major issue which appears to be coming exacerbated with our climate issues. I have a couple of questions. First, I'd like to say I'm very pleased that you included language pertaining to long term care facilities and collecting the data on which ones are how many but which ones really do not have air conditioning. A family friend of mine who was living in a long term care facility with the brain traumatic brain injury and who died two years later, had no air conditioning. There were no windows that could open in the facility. And this was just a couple of years ago when she died. And so fans were used and it was totally inadequate and what they needed. What they need is to have an H VAC system so that they can have the air conditioning. And it was really horrible. So I very much appreciate that you included that. My question is, I as I understand the executive came out with a plan a couple of weeks ago, three weeks ago or so. How does your legislation differ from what's already in place? The thing that I haven't seen is what I described before, which is that a map, a regional network of indoor facilities and the plan to staff up and upgrade buildings that either we don't own or that we don't currently use as extreme weather shelter. I haven't seen that and I haven't seen that accounted for. And so that's probably the thing that I would say is the most different. And then Jenny can maybe chime in as well. Okay. Thank you very much. Councilmembers. Hello. Jenny, would you like to add anything on that? Sure. Thank you for the question, Councilmember Colwell. I think you're referring to the executives at press and in recent weeks about the plan to develop an extreme heat mitigation strategy. And I did ask the executive how that extreme heat mitigation strategy, how that complements or works, would work with this proposed motion. And on page 12 of the packet, you will see the executives response that the extreme heat mitigation strategy will not specifically address the sheltering needs, but the sheltering plan that's proposed in this motion could be a complement to the extreme heat mitigation strategy and about as well as they note, while the strategy will identify a new and that's the extreme heat mitigation strategy, while the strategy will identify a new or enhanced short term actions that we could be taking to support response. The bigger focus of the executive's heat mitigation strategy is examining the longer term built environment changes we should be taking to mitigate heat risks. Kate. Thank you, Jenny. And I do want to get to our executive staff, but I see that Councilmember Bell Duke, she has a question. Thank you, Chair Colwell. I want to first also express my appreciation for this proposal. It was a terrible, terrible outcome and terrible time during the heat wave of last summer. And so I really do appreciate this forward thinking. How can we make things better in the future kind of proposal? The question I have is. As with most emergency responses, there's a heavy component of inter jurisdictional partnerships that happens when we respond to weather events, earthquakes, any kind of major emergency. And I was listening carefully, and I don't think I heard an element of this proposal that would survey the available partnership shelters, spaces or ways in which we could partner. I think back to that very long term power outage we had some years ago, and in the cities here on the east side, we supported each other different . You know, there were maybe shelters in some parts of Bellevue that served a lot of Redmond and vice versa. So I would wonder if that's possible to include an element of that sort of very critical partnership potential in this proposal. Councilmember Bell, did she there there is a specific provision to call an action requirement or request, I should say. It's a motion to coordinate with city, state and federal agencies to identify any public or private facilities in King County that could serve as shelters in the event of extreme cold heat and wildfire smoke events. That's right. That's very helpful. Thank you. The only thing I guess I would add to that is that the focus on facilities is understandable and really important. We need places for people to go. That that clearly is why some people, you know, have preventable deaths during these kinds of events because they had nowhere safe to go. But I think that there's there's probably operational elements, too, like perhaps depending on the type of weather event and how it's hitting people, we might identify different shelter. There might be different configurations of response and different different kinds of partnerships. So just like let's not overlook the operational aspects as well. I think this is a very thoughtful proposal. I'm happy to support it. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Bell, did she chair call us? Yes. I'm sorry. The one councilmember who's with me here. Council member Bill Perry. Thank you, Chair Colwell. So I, I also I share the appreciation for this proposal. And I'm aware in our last heat dome, there were 33 deaths. One of those deaths was in district with it was in my district, district three. And the senior citizen community, senior resident community in our district was very strongly impacted. We had that same question about hours of operation for shelter spaces, cooling spaces. It wasn't available on the weekends, it wasn't available after hours. And so I'm wondering, I'm glad to see a look at the staffing and facilities and partnerships with nonprofits, churches, temples, mosques, other municipalities to address this. I know at that time, the fire, the Eastside Fire and Rescue wanted to make sure we had an sort of on the ground network knowing where our folks in our different communities were most at risk. I would love to see a breakout by district, as you mentioned, council members ally. There are certain districts that are more impacted, certain areas that are more impacted. And I'd like to see a breakout of the actual the areas where the actual deaths occurred and the age demographic as well as the ethnic background . I think it's really important to to look at the data and to make sure that we are responding to the areas that are most impacted. I'm also wondering if beyond the shelter, there are many people that are not mobile that are at risk. And so I'm wondering if there are cooling units that would be made available. One of the things that was brought up by you said fire and rescue is just are our senior citizens that were most fragile, not having a cooling unit in their home, a small cooling unit or whatever, whatever might be available. I'm wondering if that's something that we're looking into. And I'm also aware that when western and Eastern hospitals closed, there were different locations set up around our neighborhood, three different locations set up around our neighborhood for folks that were living with developmental disabilities, Down syndrome and and others in these group homes. And it was really they had no no cooling opportunities and it was really dangerous. And that was something that Eastside Fire and Rescue also brought up as just needing equipment for these vulnerable spaces and places. So I guess analyst Jenny Giambattista, I am wondering if you can share a little bit more about the possibility of equipment, not just a movement to a location, but this multipronged approach that might include equipment and if that's spoken to already. Thank you, Councilmember Perry, for the question. The motion as it's drafted now does not specifically address a requirement for equipment, but I would note that as part of the requirement to do outreach to. Gauge the community's needs and preferences for shelter. There is also a requirement to address other needs as well, and certainly equipment could could be there. I would also note you also ask for information on the location of this of the deaths that occurred. Council staff have been working with public health. Where there is public health does have a concern about releasing the data and has noted that the heat related deaths occurred throughout the county and that any apparent pattern or distribution was not able to be identified during what they consider an extremely small number of deaths. That said, council staff will continue to work with public health to see if we can find a way to provide a spatial mapping of those deaths to provide the information that you're looking for. Council Member I would appreciate that. Thank you very much. And I think that that data helps to drive our actions and so be the more specific we can be, of course, without sharing private information that would otherwise be inappropriate. I think really recognizing where we have the greatest impact and see the greatest impact throughout King County. Having that data helps us make better decisions. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. Are there any other questions of councilmembers, ally or Jenny? Okay. I would then like to have some comment from the executive branch, I'm thinking Brenton McClusky, director of Office of Emergency Management. But we also have Mena Hashemi, Director of Council Relations, and Caroline Whalen, Director of Department of Executive Services, with us. Thank you, Chair. Call Wells. I believe that. If. If you'd like, I would offer. Comments from the executive. That would be fine. And chaperon with us. Thank you very much for having me. The executive. Supports a regional approach to extreme weather, sheltering. And heating and cooling centers and county agencies. Have been coordinating internally and with cities and now with the Regional Homeless Authority. To reduce. The amount of. Heroics required in our. Response to extreme weather. Since discussions with sponsor council members Charlie, which began earlier this year, we've increased. These efforts with an. Eye on the potential need for warm weather response this summer. The introduction of. This proposed motion has had a very positive result. By elevating both our internal and external coordination. There is much in this legislation to. Which we agree, and we look forward to producing a quality product. In response to your future adoption of this motion, or by completing the. Work we have already initiated. Since the Motion's introduction. We've collected executive branch, and I would note that there. Are at least six. Executive branch. Departments involved in this. As well. As information from. Our city emergency partners. And. Gather their input. And we have. Compiled that in the form of amendments that. Are in your packet today. And we provided those late last week on Friday. To the sponsor and his office. Our chief concern is the. Deadline by which an. Actionable operational. Plan can be completed. We look forward to further discussions with the sponsor on the amendments. That we recommend. Thank you. Thank you very much, Director Whalen. Council members are right. You have any response? I want to thank OEM and everyone in the executive branch. They have been extremely responsive and collaborative on this motion. They've been sharing their expertize. I want to say that they have already been doing a lot of the stuff that's in the motion. They have comprehensive responses. I'm hoping that the recommendations we make through this motion are additive of their efforts, and I'm definitely willing to look at their amendments and make changes, especially on the deadline. You know, you're the ones who are doing the work. And so I will I will be fully deferential on the deadline piece to make sure that we do this right and not just do this. You know, I do think we need to do it fast, but we also need to do it right. So I'll agree with you there and looking forward to working with you on all of the other amendments as well. Thank you. Thank you very much. And is there anybody else either Mina Hashimi or or Brendan McCluskey, who would like to make any comments? Thank you, Circle Wells. I don't have much to add to Director Whalen's comments, but will echo the executive's support for a regional approach to addressing extreme weather events. We appreciate the sponsors, intent and attention to this incredibly important issue and thank them. As Caroline shared, we've begun conversations with several executive branch departments regarding implementation and have shared some of this feedback with the sponsor and look forward to collaborating with him and with council to implement the motion if passed by council. Thank you. Thank you, Director Hashemi. And what about Director Brandon McCluskey? Any comments? Thank you, Madam Chair. I also don't have anything else to add other than to echo what both. Caroline and Mina have have stated already. And we're looking forward to working with the sponsor on this the council, the cities and other. Departments of King County on creating a plan that. Works. And does the right thing. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the three of you being here and council members. It appears that the best course of action now would be to hold this until our July 20th meeting, at which we can take up a striking amendment, possibly, or light amendments. And we'll look forward to working with you on that. Does that meet with your satisfaction? Yes, they can check. Okay, terrific. Well, that closes our discussion and hearing a proposed motion. 2020 20197. We will now turn to item number six on our agenda, something we all look forward to with a briefing by Dwight Lively, director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, and basically is our Budget Director for the county. And Dwight, I know that in the past we could go on and on and on and we have question after question after question with you. I think that's one of our favorite parts of the committee of the whole meetings. But I'm going to ask you to make it very brief today. I'd like to wrap it up in 20 minutes so we'll hear from you. And we did give Dwight a heads up on this earlier. So we'll hear from Dwight. We'll take a few questions and then we'll go on to the main part of our agenda on preventing gun violence. Thank you for being with us, Director Lively Dwight, and please go right ahead. Great. Thank you very much. Can you hear me? Yeah, clearly. Good. So, for the record, Dwight, they believe they're director of the Office of Performance Gene Budget. So given the short time, I'm only going to cover four items today. First, as is our tradition, we'll start with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Brendan McCluskey is here. If you have other questions about this, the one bit of FEMA news that I think is important for the council to understand is that the 100% FEMA reimbursement plan that they have very generously done ended as of July 1st of this year. So all of our eligible expenses throughout the pandemic will eventually be reimbursed 100% by FEMA through July one. They have agreed that through the rest of this year, through the end of December, it will be 90% federal reimbursement and that will require 10% local match, which we may end up being able to split with the state where that has not yet been resolved. So still good news on that. But at this point, after December 31st, it is unclear what, if anything, will be eligible for FEMA reimbursement. So let me pause there and see if there's questions on that. Apparently not. So go right ahead. Okay. So let's move on to item two. So I want to give you an update on some of the grant programs that you have appropriated through various appropriations ordinances over the last two years. And I've just selected a few. As always, if you have questions about specific ones, please let me know and I will follow up on those. Let's start with the Arts and Culture Program. This was the roughly $20 million program you approved to support organizations who obviously had major financial challenges during the pandemic. By the end of this week, all of the awardees will have been paid. A few of them opted for two separate payments, basically to get it into two different fiscal years for those organizations. So there are a few that will get a second payment in September. But other than that, by the end of this week, they will all be paid out. Similarly, by the end of this week, all 29 awardees of digital equity grants will have their contracts in place. So that program is proceeding rapidly relevant to a subsequent topic on your agenda today. One of the programs we are working on is to work with a group called Youth Affected by Gun Violence Workforce Pathways, in essence a job support for youth who otherwise might be involved with gun violence. We are just finishing what's called the eligibility memo to make sure that it qualifies for federal funding with that organization. And so once that gets done is approved by the prosecutor's office, I will be able to proceed with contracting with them. And there's lots of progress on all the other programs that I can share with you, but I thought I'd just give you a sense of a lot of this stuff did take a long time to come to fruition, but it finally has done so. So let me present see if there's questions on any of those. Thank you. Are there any questions? I have one, perhaps more for the public listening in which you briefly describe why there's been such a lengthy delay. DeLay in getting the grants awarded using federal funds. Yeah. So recall that we have two different federal appropriations, one that was made in 2021. That was made in 2021. The 2020 appropriation was very flexible. They didn't require a competitive procurement process. Their eligibility was very broad. That 2021 funding was much more control. And so in most cases, we had to go through competitive procurement processes. There was a lengthy eligibility requirements that we didn't actually learn the final rules until the end of December last year. And so it's taken much longer to do the contracting for the 2021 federal money. And that's why it has taken so long in many cases to get contracts set up with organizations and to get the actual appropriations spent. That's unfortunate, but that was the nature of the federal requirements in the 2021 funding. Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Okay, please. Go on. Okay. Item three I always want to give you an update on the hospitality industry in King County, which is now doing really well. So this information is about two weeks out of date. But as of two weeks ago, the average hotel occupancy in Kings County, over the month before that was at 79%, which is the highest we've seen a very, very long time. And it was pretty consistent across the county. So there used to be some pretty strong geographic differences. We are seeing those narrow a lot. So finally, the lodging industry, the hospitality industry is really improving. I thought it was interesting that we are now ahead of most of the rest of the country. So for the comparable time period, hotel occupancy in the United States was 68%. So we're well above that. And for the 25 largest markets, hotel markets, it's only 72%. So King County now is is doing better than the rest of the country on average with hotel occupancy. I think those of us that are in downtown Seattle frequently I can just see the crowds of tourists that are back and it really shows up in the statistics. And obviously we can go on with lots more information about that. But in the interest of time outdoors and see if there's questions on that. I'd just like to say it's really interesting that we're so high. I'm very glad about it. But with our fairly bad weather, I think it's quite remarkable. Chair Questions. Councilmember Perry. Thank you. Chair Cowles And thank you, Director Dove, we appreciate this as always. My question, having just met with a number of the major arts organizations throughout our county, how do you see this reflecting on their ability to recover? At this point, I know in in our district we have village theater, which is fabulous. And the restaurants down in Issaquah, surrounding village theater are really just booming. And so and their numbers are right back up to where they were. But the same is not true for ACT and some of the others by far. And so I'm wondering if you see an uptick any time in the near future or now, as with in relation to our hotel occupancy as well. So I think the reality for the arts and cultural organizations is it's highly variable. We're seeing some that are back financially to roughly where they were pre-pandemic, but in almost all cases that's lower attendance still and is being offset by people being more generous in their contributions. I think we see other organizations that are still in very serious financial difficulty. And then I think there's another category that includes the theaters that you mentioned, where the federal money that came through the county has made a huge difference in their survival. We got a very great letter, thankful letter from the Fifth Avenue Theater, for example, which is actually receive one of the largest awards of that arts and culture money. And they talked about how that really kept them in business, will allow them to recover as crowds gradually build back up again. So it obviously made a huge difference for some of those organizations. But as a as an overall group of entities, I think our arts sector is still one of the ones that is struggling. It doesn't benefit as much from tourism as some of the other entertainment businesses do. So that really depends on people from the region are feeling safe in wanting to go back into venues for arts and cultural performances. And it feels to me that that's going to take several years before we get back to what we could maybe consider normal. Thank you. Are there any other questions on this? Okay, Dwight, please go right ahead. Okay, we're going to make your schedule. So last item, as always, is an update on sales tax. And just to remind everyone, these are the June revenues that we received which reflect equal economic activity. So it is is quite some time to go now at this point, but that's the way the sales tax works. And as always, we're doing a comparison with 2019, which is the pre-pandemic time period. Our overall April sales tax activity was up 21.2% over three years ago. And yes, there's a significant amount of inflation in that, but there's also a lot of real economic activity reflected in that. And as usual, let me just give you some of the sectors that grown a lot. The list is about the same time we talked about this, but it's still interesting. The big box stores are up 49%. That's consistent with what we've seen throughout the pandemic. One of the interesting ones is there's a category that includes sporting goods and hobbies and music stores and things like that. It's up 44% from three years ago. So a lot of people, I think, have, you know, picked up hobbies or spent more time on them because they're spending more time at home. Electronics, as we've seen consistently, is way up, up 36%. Motor vehicles up 31%. And a lot of that is price. But it is also some activity that people are still buying vehicles. And my favorite building materials is still up 23%. One good sign we've seen some softness in construction and the last couple of months. And now in April, it was up 16% from three years ago. A lot of that is obviously the higher cost of construction, but nonetheless, that sector is still holding up. So restaurants, they are up 4% from three years ago, which obviously isn't a full recovery. But I think last month when we discussed this, Councilwoman Rosalia, the observation that because it was a negative number, that perhaps people were changing their practices because of inflation. And at least for April, it doesn't seem like that was the case. It looks like the restaurants are recovering and the lodging sector of hotels and motels was still or one negative number, -9% compared to three years ago, but obviously much better. And so the last two numbers I'm going to give you are one year numbers for those last two segments. So compared to a year ago, restaurants are up 30%. So that's a really good sign for that sector and lodging industry. Hotels and motels are up 183% from last year. So again, not back to before the pandemic for either the restaurants or the hotel sector. But we are continuing to see rapid recovery in those last two lagging sectors. And so with that, I will stop unless there are other questions. Chair Perry. Thank you and thank you again Director David Lee for this report. I'm curious, given the topic today and the topic in our country seems every week you said 40, it's up 44%. Sales are up. Sales tax is up 44%. Hobbies, music and sporting goods. Does sporting goods include gun sales? It would. It's probably a very small component of it, but yes, that would be categorized in that group. I understand that gun sales are up dramatically in our state, so my curiosity is where it intersects. Thank you. Are there any other questions of Dwight? This is quite remarkable, Dwight. Usually we have so many questions, but apparently my colleagues really listen to me to keep it short. But I'm very happy to take any questions for Dwight. Okay. Well, with that, we will go on to our next item on the agenda. And Dwight, thank you very much again, as always, for being here with us. And we look forward to your next report. Thank you. Okay. Our next item is the first of two panel briefings on the topic of preventing gun violence, mapping the issue in King County. And I originally scheduled this meeting as a response to the horrifying mass shooting that occurred at a school in Evolve Day, Texas. And unfortunately, because of scheduling issues, we weren't able to have this meeting, this discussion until today. And I did worry at the time that the issue would not be a suppression in light of the time that has passed since the terrible tragedy of the children and teachers being slaughtered in cold blood. Our news cycle tends to be very rapid and built for very short attention spans, however, as it turns out, very tragically and and just horrendous. Secondly, we had another shooting on the 4th of July at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois. And it's become more and more obvious, I think, around the country that gun violence is endemic and it impacts us every single minute of every single day in our country. And it's not just the shootings that make the national news, but the guns are everywhere and harm lives in so many different ways. And some people are more impacted than others. Women in the United States appear to be 16 times more likely to be shot and killed than women in other developed nations. Black Americans are ten times more likely than white Americans to die by gun homicide. Firearms are the second leading cause of death for American children and teens. Albee LGBTQ hate crimes are on the rise, with half of victims being killed by firearms. A young Native American commits suicide with a gun. Every six days in the United States is a shocking figures. Suicide is another brutal issue made worse by the prevalence and ownership of guns. 74% of gun deaths in Washington State are suicides. These statistics are really overwhelming and as I said earlier, shocking. We have many more that we could be reciting here in Washington state. The rate of gun deaths has increased 24% since 2011, which means that 240 more people were killed by guns in Washington in 2020 than in 2011. The rate of gun suicide increased 11% and gun homicide increased 87% from 2010 to 2019. With these figures and what they represent, I find it hard to be hopeful. But today we will try to get an idea of what it is. We are trying to tackle the extent of the problem and hopefully to debunk common myths about what gun violence truly looks like. I am hopeful that today's discussion will help us do everything in our power to strengthen some of our current policies while focusing on ways to fight this pandemic created creatively and fearlessly, we will be taking this topic up again, as I mentioned, on June 20th. Before we go to our first panel, we will have two of them today. I would like to ask council members McDermott, Dombroski and Zala if they would like to each speak for a couple of minutes, because they have been leaders in our efforts here in King County. And Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Circle Wells, for convening this panel on this discussion and for your work on addressing gun violence as a public health crisis in our region. It's because we truly do have an. Epidemic of gun violence in our communities. And in fact, for years I've cited the fact that 35,000 people die as a result of firearms each year in our country. But as you've already referenced, in fact, 2020, the most recent year for which there's national data available, was the highest on record yet over 45,000 people. And while mass shootings get significant attention, understandably so, it's really important to see the whole epidemic. As you've already referenced, over 50% of firearm deaths in our nation are suicide. And in King County, that's even more true. Among firearm deaths, there were three times as many suicides as homicides. And the problem with suicide by firearm is if someone attempts suicide by firearm, they're more than likely to be successful. People who attempt suicide by other means and are not successful are successful at a much lower rate. And and people are not likely to attempt suicide if subsequent time. If you can intervene if they can intervene and get the help they are seeking that they need and we can save that life and not lose it to firearm violence. So it's really important to him to address this area of firearm deaths as well as, in fact, whether it's mass shootings, suicides, domestic violence, no single piece of legislation will solve the epidemic. But we really do have to take action. In fact, the council worked together well to enact the gun safety action plan that was rolled out in July of 2018. And by the end of that year, all five items were adopted, requiring safe storage of firearms and ammunition, directing the sheriff's office to destroy all weapons legally confiscated in crimes. Establishing a task force to establish gun safety strategies informed by a public health strategy. Collaborate. Having a collaborative summit to work with youth and young adults to identify recommendations for reducing gun violence exposed to and requiring signage in firearms and points of sale for firearms throughout King County. One of those actions as a result of the Gun Safety Action Plan was the gun safety summit the following year. That really addressed community violence and a community response to it. And the voices we heard, particularly from community passageways and shoes, went 80, were strong. And the community voices we have to be informed by and listened to in these conversations. And we'll also hear as part of our panel discussions about the Extreme Risk Protection Order, the proposed work that addresses access to firearms, particularly affecting the DV situations and the larger shots fired study here in King County. And beyond that, all work that the council and the county has invested in and supported that we need to continue to do. And I assert, given the epidemic, we have to do more work. I'm glad to be with you today, Chair Caldwell's and my colleagues to be taking up this work. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilmember McDermott, you've been such a strong leader in this field and also with the Board of Health, which shared in much of what we were able to accomplish. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, do you want to make any remarks? Our Thanks Chair calls for the opportunity. Thanks for scheduling this hearing, and I really appreciate Kels McDermott's excellent and comprehensive summary of the work we've done in the last few years. So really great. We're continuing to to work on the issue as colleagues know, and I look forward to our next meeting to take up some next steps with you all and look forward to today's presentations. Thank you. Thank you. And we do have legislation in the committee that we will be taking up under July 20th meeting that Councilmember DEMBOSKY has introduced. Councilmember Zala is chair of the large Justice Health Human Services Committee and certainly did a lot of work over the last couple of years in our budgets. I thought it would be very helpful to hear from you. Thank you so much. Chair Caldwell's. Thank you for organizing this event and thank you to our presenters today who are going to talk us through some really important topics. As you mentioned, Chair Caldwell's the shooting over the 4th of July weekend was devastating. And I also read in CBS News that it wasn't the only one, not surprisingly, to many of us, over the July 4th weekend, 220 people were killed. In just one weekend, 220 people were killed by gun violence and 570 others were shot. And the most devastating part of this carnage is that these are preventable. These are preventable. We know that there are solutions that are very likely to reduce gun violence and to save lives. There are solutions at the level of the shooting itself, like addressing how easily accessible weapons of mass destruction are. And there are also solutions way upstream, like making sure people have their basic needs met so that they can live safe lives. We are working on housing, jobs, health care, good education that people need to be safe. We know that poverty and structural racism are very much correlated with increased gun violence. And I always talk about this, but I will never forget the day that our prosecutor's office showed me a map of where gun shooting incidents occurred and how that map looks eerily similar to the map of where we have highest poverty rates in King County. So we have a lot of work to do on both the, you know, close up downstream at the shooting itself level, but also upstream and making sure that we invest in these communities that are seeing disinvestment so that they can live healthy, thriving lives. So thank you, Councilmember Caldwell's, for hosting this. And. Thank you to everybody on the line working to address this pressing issue. Thank you. Councilmember Basile, who as usual, is very modest. He was able to bring about quite a lot of change over the last two years, since I mentioned in our budget that we will now go on to our first panel and we have Dwight Diversi, who is director of the Budget Office, as mentioned. We were going to have Renee Hopkins, who is CEO of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, but I believe we have Rebecca Johnson in her place, who does mainly the advocacy work for the Alliance. We also have Mac Nicholson, government relations director for King County Council, and Dr. Frederick Rivera from the University of Washington. We will have each individual speak for about 10 minutes max. I at this point, I'm going to ask everybody to hold their questions till after the panel, because they do have content that we want to make sure they cover. And then we'll have an opportunity for questions and some discussion. We're going to start with Mac Nicholson and Renee and Rebecca Johnson to first speak on the status of our laws and our legislation at the state level. And Mac and Rebecca, if you could. Is Rebecca here? She's on the line. Okay. Good. Welcome, Rebecca. It's good to see you. And they have discussed their prison terms station, and I believe we have a PowerPoint. Is that correct? I believe Rebecca has a. Rebecca has that. Second, we'll hear from Dwight DeVries speak about what we've done in our budget over the past few years. And then we'll turn to Dr. Rivera to speak on what the data inform us on this issue. So with that, please go right ahead, Mac and Rebecca. And I'm not sure which order and how you're going to proceed, but about ten. Well, because there are two of you, you can take up to 20 minutes. Thank you. Checco Wells and Councilmembers. When Rebecca and I talked kind of the division of labor was that Rebecca would really hit sort of sort of the state laws and what the state has been doing because she's been intimately involved and that's what I will let her kick it off if if she if she would like to just jump right in on those things. Okay. Thank you, Mac. And also for our council members, we have the PowerPoint and other materials starting on page 85 in the packet. So with that, Rebecca, welcome. And Morning Circle Wells and members of the committee, it's a pleasure to be here and unfortunately it is so timely. It always seems like such a timely discussion, but we have made a lot of progress at the state level. I'm here with the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. We are a statewide organization of tens of thousands of survivors, victim advocates, public health experts, community leaders, law enforcement, and many others who've come together over the last ten years to advocate for gun violence prevention at every level of government. When I travel, share my screen. That looks like it works. Yeah. Okay. So I, I'm going to give an overview of some of the foundational elements of our state laws on firearms. We have made a lot of progress. There is much more progress to do. But you'll also hear a couple themes in my presentation, and I think the presentations of people coming after me, where we really have been focused on keeping guns out of dangerous hands, keeping guns out of crisis situations, and focused on guns and other gun accessories that creates kind of military style , extra deadly weapons. So the first thing that we tackled as the alliance the state tackled was background checks prior to 2014. If you did a private sale or transfer for a firearm, there wasn't a background check required. There was a voter initiative in 2014 that required background checks for any kind of sale, any kind of transfer, no matter who was selling and who was buying and what context that was in that closed, as you can imagine, an enormous loophole now that when we're talking about it today, it just seems like the most obvious thing to do. But for many years, we worked with a gigantic loophole. The way our background checks system works today, it's about to change, actually. But we do local checks, local background checks for handgun sales. So that's local law enforcement checking every state database as well as the federal database if someone wants to buy a pistol or a handgun and then if you're buying a long gun, actually a non semiautomatic handgun, those transfers and the background checks happen at the dealer. We passed a couple of years in Olympia, a bill that would centralize our background check system that begins in 2024 and the state patrol will be in charge of doing all background checks no matter where they are. And that's partly to make sure that the background checks are happening uniformly no matter where you are in the state. We also have implemented age restrictions. So in 2018 we had initiative 1639 did a bunch of things. One of the things it did was increasing the minimum age to purchase a semiautomatic assault rifle to 21 and prohibits anyone from transferring a semiautomatic rifle to anyone under 21. That aligns the standards for assault weapons or assault rifles with the standards that have been in place for many years for handguns where the minimum age is 21 . We also in that initiative imposed a ten day waiting period on the sale and transfer of assault rifles. That and the fact that we allow local law enforcement ten days to complete that local background check on handguns creates one, makes sure that the background check is executed thoroughly. But the other is something that I think Councilmember McDermott and others have referenced, which is the more time you can put between somebody who's in a crisis and then having a gun in their hands, the more likely you are to prevent a tragedy either to themselves or someone else. Last year in the state legislature, our last session this year, we passed restrictions on high capacity magazines. So we as of four or five days ago, as of July 1st, we are prohibiting the manufacture, importation, distribution, sale or offer for sale of any magazine holding more than ten rounds of ammunition and also any conversion kits or parts that you can assemble when. And that is we talk a lot about assault weapons. And one thing that makes assault weapons so deadly is that ability to take a magazine that holds ten or 20 or 30 or 40 or a hundred rounds and is able to shoot those very, very quickly. So by restricting the size of magazines, that will help with the numbers of fatalities when a high capacity women assault weapon is used. You're going to hear a lot from the next panel about our extreme risk protection order, as that was another voter initiative which allows people who are most likely to notice the warning signs of violence with family members. Or if a report to law enforcement is come in and they can petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from someone in crisis, the person who's subject to an approval is required to turn over all their firearms and any concealed pistol license, and they cannot purchase or possess firearms while they are subject to the order. This is one where the implementation, where this on the other protection orders where. So I guess I'll talk about that for a second. Domestic violence protection. Very stalking. Anti-Harassment. Sexual assault. Tech workers vulnerable adult orders are all designed to keep individuals safe. And when determining whether one of those orders is appropriate, a judge can also include a requirement that the respondent surrender all of their firearms and conceal the license. Are your team and Ken County has done phenomenal work on the implementation of these laws and it really has been kind of an arc of progress where we've passed a law and then spoken to practitioners like the folks in King County about what's working, what isn't. Are there loopholes? And then going back to the legislature to try to align processes and make sure the system is working as it should, to make sure folks who are at risk of creating violence are not able to access firearms. Safe storage. We have an awesome safe storage on King County. We also have a lot at the state level which holds people responsible. If an unsafely stored firearm is accessed by someone who shouldn't have it, someone who is prohibited from possession like a child or a person convicted of domestic violence or a felony. If that gun is accessed or used, the original owner can be subject to criminal liability. We also one thing that we heard, especially in the early years from kind of the opposition was, well, what about enforcing current law? And in 2017, we passed a background check enforcement law that requires dealers to let the Association of Service and Police Chiefs know if someone has attempted someone prohibited has attempted to purchase a firearm. These lists, this notification to law enforcement also goes to victims. So, for example, if a domestic violence victim wants to know if a subject of their protection order has tried to purchase a firearm, they can sign up for a notification. And it's pretty amazing. Like there's hundreds of these every year. And just letting local law enforcement and victims know as an important step towards community protection. We've had a bunch conversations about ghost guns the last few years as technology, as technology has increased. A few years ago, there was a huge increase in 3D printed guns. People are putting plans for how to three 3D printed gun would be totally untraceable and undetectable by fire or metal detectors online. At that time we said you cannot manufacture, own, buy or sell a 3D printed undetectable gun. And this last year, the legislature passed a law saying, you know, what else isn't appropriate is that you could buy kits for homemade firearms that included all the components and sometimes the tools. Or someone could assemble a firearm in their home in like an afternoon without doing any kind of background checks. Last year, the legislature passed a law to prohibit the sale or possession of the homemade, untraceable ghost guns. We've also done a lot of work around open carry and armed intimidation. We saw, especially in the last couple of years, a huge increase in violence at protests, demonstrations, folks open carrying in a menacing way at local government buildings . And the legislature took action over the last two years to, one, say, you know what's not appropriate to have open carry of firearms on the state capitol campus. It's not appropriate to open carry firearms near public demonstrations or protests. And this last year, there was a bill that also said you want no firearm, no open carry at local government buildings when there's meetings of the governing body and no firearms at school district school board meetings and in election related offices and facilities. So long as we wanted to highlight, we thought we'll make a slide that just lists all the bills that Olympia has passed over the last ten years. And it turns out that it takes six slides. So I'm not going to talk to speak to this. I'll highlight a couple. But you do have in your pocket a document that goes into detail in each of these bills that you can see, you know, one or two in 2014, some bills on 15 and 16 and then they increase. So Olympia has continue to step up in greater and greater ways. And some of these laws include saying, you know what, they'll fire just like we have no guns at K-12 schools. There should not be firearms at early learning centers prohibiting bump stock bump stocks, which were allowing semiautomatic weapons to basically function as fully automatic weapons. We've done a lot of work around, as I said, kind of making sure processes around protection orders work. Well, I still see a lot of those laws on this page temporarily prohibiting firearms for folks who've been subject to a 72 hour involuntary treatment hold clarifying background checks, making sure we could do background checks for frames and receivers for components. And then the one other bill I make to highlight is creating our Office of Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention. At the state level. We were the first state to create such an office, and that office is really focused on creating grants and supporting community intervention programs in communities around the state and also supporting the research that helps inform the policies that we seek at the state level. And then of course, this last year we restricting large capacity magazines is something I think we've been working on for eight years in Olympia and was a huge win along with some of these along with these other policies. So I want to say thank you. I do want to say one quick word on the Supreme Court, and then I'll turn it over to Mark, who I think is going to speak more about preemption. So two weeks ago now, the US Supreme Court made a ruling in a case called Brewing on overturning a longstanding New York law around their concealed carry licenses. In New York, the law said you had to show a specific reason, like greater than just a self-defense reason to need to carry a weapon. And the authorities who are in charge of issuing those licenses had kind of a lot of discretion. So the court overturned that. And in their analysis, you know, they talked about other states like ours that have shall issue so less discretion in their concealed weapons licenses. We don't think the implications for our state laws. We are confident that our state laws are still constitute our constitutional and that our concealed carry law in particular is on very safe grounds. But the way that the court got to that decision is a little bit troubling and I think will influence the way that we construct laws in our state. So for the last 12 years, those have been like a two step process to evaluate laws and whether or not they satisfy or violate the requirements of the Second Amendment. And that two step process has been, you know, are these consistent with history and tradition of families? Does this implicate the Second Amendment? And then the second prong about test has been balancing the kind of the public interest against the impact to gun owners. The Supreme Court and everyone said we are no longer going to look at that second, second test. So from here forward, firearm laws will be evaluated based on history and tradition and particular history and tradition of gun regulations in the 1700s. So that's something that we're aware of that we're taking a look at. We believe and our legal experts believe that the laws we currently have on the books satisfy that requirement. We're all going to be experts, I think, in history in some ways. And yeah, I guess I would just say that's something we're keeping an eye on. And of course, we're all keeping an eye on the Supreme Court overall. So I'll pause there or stop there and turn it over to Matt unless certainly anything else. Thanks so much, Rebecca. And to my colleagues who may not know Rebecca, those of you who may not know her, she's a top notch lobbyist in Olympia, worked with her for many, many years. And it's great. See you, Rebecca. Thank you for being with us. We'll hear now from Jack Nicholson, our government affairs director. And maybe we can squeeze in a question or two right after Max speaks, and then we'll go on to our next panelists. Thank you. Coles council members Mac Nicholson. On that list that Rebecca was running through. One thing that you didn't see was a bill that would change or amend the state's preemption law, although those have been introduced over the past few sessions. None has passed. So the preemption. Preemption law. Mack, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we do have this in your packet, too, and it's on page 94. Okay. Thank you. Perfect. I was just about to say we printed a copy in your packet. I didn't know what page it was on. It's on page 94. So you can read the state preemption law. That really is a broad preemption that really restricts what local governments can do in the arena of firearm regulation. In fact, just earlier this year, in 2022, the state Supreme Court struck down city of Edmonds Safe Storage Law in a unanimous decision where they the court said that that RTW 941 to 90, which is a state preemption law, broadly preempts local ordinances that directly regulate firearms themselves, but not necessarily ordinances that have an incidental effect on the use and enjoyment of firearms or exercise as a municipal authority that do not establish rules of general application to the public. Sort of a lot of legalese, but it really does restrict what local governments can do in the regulation of firearms directly. So that's the state preemption law. There have been bills in Olympia to try to amend that, to give local governments more authority to develop firearm regulations at the local level. But those bills have not passed. So we still operate under a strong, broad state preemption law here in Washington. Jumping ahead, then past the state stuff at the same time that the Supreme Court handed down the decision, the Brune decision that Rebecca briefly talked about, Congress was also putting together the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was the most significant piece of firearm regulation coming from the federal government in almost three decades. There's also a one pager on that in your materials, likely right after the state preemption. Page 95. Thank you. Page 95. And that really has a number of different components. Some are going to sound familiar because they're very familiar to what we have in Washington state law. And I can walk through sort of the highlights of that and then provide any more information as needed. So this was signed by President Biden last week, I believe. And well, it's called the bipartisan Save for Communities Act. So it does a number of things. It provides $750 million for crisis intervention programs designed to keep guns out of the hands of individuals, that a court has determined to be a significant danger to themselves or others . This was briefly discussed in that slide. This funding can also be used for veterans courts, mental health courts and drug courts. So $750 million nationwide. The law closes the boyfriend loophole. So this refers to an individual who's convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence as part of a dating relationship would now be prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm. For five years prior to the enactment of this bill, there was no law covering the dating relationship. The boyfriend loophole, as it's called. The dating relationship, will be determined by the court based on a number of things. The law requires more gun sellers to register as federal federally licensed firearm dealers. The impact of this is really that more individuals who sell guns as a primary source of income will have to administer background checks before they can legally sell those firearms. The the federal bill bolsters background check requirements for individuals under age 21. So if someone under 21 tries to buy a gun, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, NCIS would have three days to investigate for further review, and a further review is warranted. The system would then have ten days to immediately contact criminal history repository, juvenile justice information systems, mental health records, local law enforcement agencies to investigate for any disqualifying records and then inform that licensed gun dealer whether the transfer receipt of the gun would violate the law. The federal bill creates two new crimes one for gun trafficking and one for straw purchasing, which make it easier to go after those who are buying guns. For individuals who are not allowed to purchase weapons on their own, the sentence ranges up to 15 years for violations. And then the bill makes a number of investments both in school schools and then children and family mental health services. To highlight a couple of those. It includes 150 million to support implementation of the 90 day suicide crisis lifeline. That's a nationwide figure, 150 million. So not a lot, but some significant amounts for the nationwide system. It expands existing Medicaid Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration program to all states to increase access to community based behavioral health services. And it provides resources and grant funding to states to implement, enhance and expand school based health programs. On the school side, the bill invests 500 million to increase the number of qualified mental health service providers who provide school based mental health services to students in school districts. 500 million in funding to help train and diversify the pipeline of school counselors, school social workers and school psychologists. A billion in funding to support a variety of activities to improve conditions for student learning, including developing positive school climates through evidence based practices, provides 300 million for school safety measures in and around schools, supports school violence prevention efforts, and provides training to school personnel and students. And then finally, has Homeland Security create a federal clearinghouse on evidence based practices and recommendations to improve school safety? A lot of the funding that that's in this bill comes through existing formula or competitive grants. So we'll have to see how that funding shakes out as it moves through the agencies. It's likely to end up in state programs and school district programs. So that's what I have for the for the high level are for you on the on kind of the federal action. Thank you very much, Mac. And also to note, we have materials on the explicate the bills that Rebecca covered at the end of her presentation. But this is a more thorough presentation and I think Mac provided that list to us starting on page 97. And it was actually created by EDI Adams in the Office for Program Research at the Washington State House of Representatives. So quickly, we have an opportunity right now for a couple of questions before we go on to our next panelist. And these questions can be directed to Rebecca Johnson or Mac Nicholson. And I think Councilmember McDermott is waiting to ask a question. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Chair Coel's Another question and a compliment. Rebecca Johnson is too modest to point out when she says she'd like to highlight legislation that has been enacted in recent years in one slide that she had defeated in the Senate. She's too modest to point out that increase in legislation to address gun responsibility and safety for our communities coincides directly with the creation of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. Thank you. Thank you for pointing that out, Councilmember McDermott. And you're absolutely correct. I wish Rene Hopkins could have been with us today. But Rebecca is just a wonderful substitute for her and has worked so diligently for so many years. Really appreciate your work, Rebecca. Are there any other questions? Councilmember Perry. Thank you. It's hard to look at who's here. Well, and especially when I'm looking at this. Screen. So thank you both very much for this presentation. And I'm wondering if you can tell me if there's a shared system that we have, Washington State or King County, whereby our sheriffs, police, fire, behavioral health specialists. Social workers, tribes. Have access to knowledge of whether these there are registered guns in the home prior to responding. If our entire scope of responders to people intending to do harm to themselves or others have a registry that is accessible by those who would be responding to them, that's one. And the second question along the same line, we have public registry for many things. Do we have a gun public registry by address available for public access? So we are aware of where guns are in the homes, in our neighborhoods or in the homes of our elementary school students, middle school and high school students for information so that we all know what is accessible to folks who intend to do harm to themselves or others. Thank you. Thank you. That's a very important question. It's not a quick one. And no, I but it's a very important one. And I expect we can hear from Mac and Rebecca. We may want to have other panelists comment on that as well as they speak. Mac Rebecca, do you want to take that on. A little staredown with Rebecca? I'll let her answer. She probably more than me. Though. In no way we're having a stare down. Okay. So there is, I guess, a couple of ways to answer. One is we do not have a firearm registry in Washington State. We don't have licensing requirements and we do not have a registry or a requirement for gun registration. There is a database managed by the Department of Licensing where records of pistol transfers and sales, they have records of pistol transfers and sales and records of semiautomatic assault rifles sales after the passage of Initiative 1639. Law enforcement does have access to that. And I'm actually going to defer on there. I believe it may only be law enforcement who has access to that, but I think the following panel with Judge Levinson and some of your King County practitioners can speak more about the way access to that database works and some of the limitations on access to that database. Definitely, there are conversations both around requiring firearm licensing, requiring greater information about firearms. Part of one of the bills I talked about, the background check enforcement bill, making sure local law enforcement knows if someone unlawfully tried to purchase a firearm has been really important for law enforcement. But there definitely are additional steps that can be taken at the state level. Dr. Rivera has this hand-raised. You might have an answer for you. Thank you. I just saw that, Dr. Rivera. We don't have such a database, and it's obviously for the reasons that you outlined, it would be very helpful then also for research purposes, we would find that very helpful as well. But it's closely guarded information that's really not available. Thank you. Dr. Rivera. Okay. And I think it's rather obvious that, at least to me, there's a lot more work to be done at the Washington state legislature. So stay tuned on that. Are there any other quick questions? Yeah, Madam Chair, Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mac. Are you still on TV there, buddy? Got back on for me. Mac, my question to you is, were there any significant investments by the Washington state legislature in terms of restoring the dramatic cuts in our law enforcement capability throughout the state as a result of the. Defund the police. Movement? We're talking about gun violence. Obviously, law enforcement is an important part of that. Was there any important. Advancements in the legislative session in that area? Councilmember Dunn None that I can think of, at least for the local level. But I'll certainly kind of go through my notes. But none none that none that jump to my. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. We will now go on to Dwight Daley, director of PSP, our budget director, who will speak briefly about what we've done in our budget over the last few years that are relevant. Thank you. Thank you, Dwight. Thank you again. Right. I believe the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Let me start by just responding to Councilmember Dunn. There was one thing in the 2021 session that was helpful. The county received about $9 million of new funding, one time funding for the costs of implementing in King County. Some of the legislation was passed by the legislature in the criminal legal system realm. And so we have spent some of that money already, and you'll see more of that proposed for spending in the next budget. So just a quick response to your question, Councilmember. So on the topic of gun violence, let me cover three points very quickly just for information to remind everyone of what the county has already done. So you have made several separate appropriations in different pieces of legislation around this. And just to simplify the whole thing, we have appropriated funding for two different organizations and purposes that are relevant to this. A total of $5,170,000 has been appropriated for the Regional Peace Keepers Collective, and a total of $2 million has been appropriated for the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, which is working on similar issues. So a little over $7 million in total has been appropriated essentially over the last two years. So that's the money that has been appropriated. Second point I want to mention, and we don't have to delve into the details, but we do have what we call investment monitoring, which is a process of looking at new initiatives that have been approved by the executive and the council. They just track them to see how they're performing. Compared to our expectations in the entire realm here in regional gun violence investments is one of the ones that we do every three months. So we always have pretty timely data on the number of youth being served, the number of interventions that have occurred in this particular case, whether those interventions are in the community or whether they occur at Harborview. So we have a lot of data that we collect systematically on how well these programs are doing. And so that information is available to you as you continue to deliberate on this. And then the final item I would note there, there's been some, I think, organizational confusion about exactly which department is doing which things between our Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. DG The Department of Community and Human Services, DHS and Public Health. And so the three directors of those departments over the last couple of months met to figure out exactly what functions should be done by each department. And so there's going to be some realignment that you'll see in the executive's proposed 2324 biennial budget, just to make sure it's really clear which agency has responsibility for which aspects of this work and just let you know, public health will continue to be the focus of gun violence prevention work because it is seen as a public health activity. But some of the other activities that are more really around working with nonprofit organizations and providing services are probably more appropriately belong in D.C., IHS. So just to give you a little preview, you'll be seeing that in the 2324 budget. I don't think it has any dramatic impact on on what we're doing, but it does make it clear who's going to be responsible for what. And so I will stop at this point, unless you have questions on any of that information. Thank you very much, Dwight. And I'm anticipating there may be a question or two. Gerrit Cole Wells. Yes. Council Member McDermott. Thank you so much. Mr. Dave Lee, thank you for your response, your friendly response to Councilmember Dunne's question. So I want to confirm and clarify. There were no actual cuts to law enforcement, just increase. There were nothing that state legislature did in either. The 21 session of the 22 session reduced any funding we received that's related to law enforcement or the criminal system. Thank you. So all of the legislative sessions since the so-called defund the police movement started have not resulted in any decrease to law enforcement in King County from state sources. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Dan, did you have a response? No, I guess not. No, no, we're. We're having a good discussion. I'm learning it a lot. Okay. Excellent. That's what we always strive for. Are there any other questions? Okay with that. Thank you very much, Dwight. And we will now turn to the last panelist on this first panel of ours for today, Dr. Fredric P Rivera, University of Washington. He has testified before our public our Board of Health in the past and other issues. I think most of us know of him and his stellar reputation and work. And welcome. Good morning. And we'd like to hear from you. Would you please, Dr. Rivera, would you please give us your actual title? I'm sorry, I don't have it here with you. Thanks very much. I'm a professor of pediatrics here at the University of Washington and directly Firearm Injury and Policy Research Program. And I've worked on firearm injuries since 1987. So I'm old and I worked in this area a long time. Let me share my screen here. Can everyone see those slides? Yes. Okay. Let's see here. It's not what I want. Didn't want to. Can you just see the slide there? I can see it. Okay. So I think one of the messages I want to convey here today is that. We. Shouldn't feel helpless whenever we hear about these mass shootings that seem to occur very regularly in our country. You know, all of us sort of bring our hands and feel terrible about it. But I think that we can do some things about it. And Rebecca showed what our state is really doing, and our city and county have also done a lot as well. So I think that's an important message to take away. We have this foreign ministry and policy research program here, which is funded by the state of Washington. And the goal of it is to reduce the impact of firearm injury and death on people's lives through research and collaboration. I come from a public health background and there's some background. I'm a pediatrician. And this is, I think, a wonderful statement by a former surgeon general, David Satcher, who said if it's not a health issue, why are people dying from it? I think that's one of the things that has happened in the last 20 years, is that public health has really begun to take an important role in discussions about how we can reduce the toll of firearm violence. Someone earlier mentioned how firearm violence touches all of us. And this is, I think, a wonderful study that looked at how. Commonly it is for individuals in our social networks to be directly affected, either by fatal gunshot wounds or non-fatal gunshot wounds. You can see here, for individuals who are black in our communities, 99.9% of the time, they're going to have someone in their social network who's been shot in 95% of the time, someone has been killed by a firearm. Overall, for all races, it's 99% of the time someone in our social network is going to have sustained a nonfatal gunshot wound 84% of the time. Someone we know or in a social network has been killed by a firearm. So this is an issue that affects us all. Here's the latest data. I think that this was mentioned earlier by Charcoal Wells, and you can see that in the state of the United States as a whole in 2020 of last year, that we have good data. 45,000 people died. And you can see for the United States as a whole, 54% of those were suicides and 43% of those were homicides. A small number of so-called unintentional or accidental injuries, primarily due to children. But there could be some misclassification there. And then legal intervention, which are our police and police officers involved with citizen shootings. And you can see this sorry state of affairs here where their death rates have been increased in the black lines, the number of deaths per 100,000 population and the blue bars and the absolute number of deaths that have happened. And you can see that this continues to go up, particularly since the period around 2011, 2012, we had the large peak in the early 1990s, which were people ascribe to the crack cocaine epidemic and then community policing and other actions that decreased fairly dramatically. But then in the last ten years, we've seen this a dramatic increase in firearm deaths around here in the state of Washington. All these data from the CDC. And you can see that in 2021 there, 834 deaths in the state of Washington and 69% of those were suicides. 29% of those are homicides. And it turns out in all of our Western states, suicides far outnumber the number of homicides that occur from firearm deaths, whether that be Montana or Wyoming or California, Oregon or Washington. Suicides are going to account for the majority of firearm deaths. We often talk about other injury problems and health firearms compared to those. But last month, it was reported that the United States as a whole firearms now account for more deaths of children than do motor vehicle crashes. Looking at people of all ages here, you can see that these lines crossed in the state of Washington in 2009 . While there had been a increase in motor vehicle crashes in the last couple of years. The increase in firearm deaths is far outpace that. So now we have more firearm people dying from firearms than from cars. What about King County? Here's data that I was able to pull yesterday on King County. And again, the black line is the rate per 1000 population and the blue bars are the number of absolute number of deaths. And you can see that, unfortunately, 2021 was the worst year we've ever had, both in absolute numbers of deaths as well as in the rate of deaths and in our community per population. And this increase from the beginning and again about 2006, 2017 inches the last five or six years, we've seen fairly significant increases in deaths here. Firearms in King County. In King County as a whole, 60% of the firearm deaths are suicides and 40% are homicides in 2021. This was a national embarrassment. You can see that we have much higher rates of homicides than any other developed country in the world. And most of these are gun homicides and really firearms that account for the dramatic increase in the firearm and the homicide rate in the United States. It's not like we are a more violent country than some of these other places. It's really that we have easy access to firearms that result in these high rates of homicides. And you can see from the slide, the horizontal axis here is the household firearm ownership and the vertical axis is the number of firearm does for population . You can see there's a pretty direct relationship between the number of firearms that are in the that are owned in our communities and the number of firearm deaths occur. I put an arrow at Washington. We pretty much there in the middle in terms of number of firearms that are occur in our households and the number of firearm and deaths. Places like Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama that have very permissive gun laws, have a much higher rate of firearm ownership and consequently have a much higher rate of firearm deaths. States like Hawaii and this Massachusetts, Rhode Island, that have more firearm restrictions have a much lower rate of firearm ownership, and therefore, a firearm does. This was this was mentioned before, as well as the again, the national embarrassment of the disparities that occur in firearm deaths. And you can see the red line are there on black men, the green line, then they're towards the bottom of the young white men. And the blue line are Hispanic men. And you can see that the number of deaths among black men is orders of magnitude higher than it is for other races and ethnicities. Here's data from our Kane County Medical Examiner's Office, and they can see that homicides in King County, predominantly male and 52% were white, 34% were black, which obviously is disproportionate compared to the number of citizens in our communities. You can see that 625 to 44 year olds account for about 65% of the homicides in the county. Now it's important to know that the most common reason people have a fear of the homeless for self-protection. Over 60% of people that have a firearm have a good self-protection. So the question comes up of are you safer having a firearm in the home than not? This is data that we looked at in King County for 2011 to 2018, and we looked at firearm deaths occurring in the home. And we showed that there were 12 homicides, self-defense homicides, where homeowners shot somebody trying to break into their home or trying to do them harm. But there are 529 suicides, 87 criminal homicides. So that for every self-defense death, there are 53 people in a home who die from shootings. A 53 to 1 ratio of people dying in the home compared to shooting an intruder. And this was mentioned earlier as well. If you try to take your life with a firearm, it's going to end in a death. 90% of the time compared to if you try to take your life by cutting your self, cutting your risk or taking pills, it's 1 to 2% of the time you die. So firearms really don't allow a second chance. And it's also mentioned before people do survive their firearm suicide attempt or I'm sorry, their suicide attempt, that the vast majority of people do not die by suicide subsequently. They live full lives afterwards. So the issue here is trying to restrict these lethal means for people that want to try to harm themselves. Some more data. Local data from the state of Washington. You can see that overall that there are 35, 30% of households in the state have children and have firearms much higher in rural areas than urban areas and much higher in white households and black households or households where the restaurant industry is. Safe Storage does work is a study that was done here and in state of Washington and showed that if firearms are stored safely, the risk of an accidental shooting to a child is reduced by about 85%, and the risk of firearm suicide is reduced for use by 78%. So safe storage of firearms and the laws we have to encourage safe storage really does work. Here is unfortunately more recent data about storage practices in homes with children in the state. And you can see that about half of the homes have firearms that are stored safely. But you also have 40% of homes with not all firearms in homes or locked up and 39% of firearms and that are stored unloaded. So there's a big problem here in terms of safety for children in our communities and firearms. What's more, when we think about the other end of the spectrum with older adults and suffering from confusion, memory loss or chronic alcohol abuse, there's a fair number of those that have firearms in the home. Overall, 39% of older adults have firearms in the home. You can see the individuals that have confusion of memory loss in the prior year. 15% of that has firearms destroyed, loaded and unlocked. We've been trying to work on increasing safety of firearms by having places where individuals can safely store firearms outside of the home. If you are having a crisis in your home, storing a firearm safely in a home may not be feasible. So we contact the police departments, one rangers and firearm retail outlets around the state. They created this map that shows places where you can contact these agencies and temporarily certify the amount of your home completely protects people Second Amendment rights, but does provide a measure of safety. Want to talk a little bit about the red flag laws, extremist protection orders. There are now laws in 19 states and the District of Columbia and the one in Washington went into effect in December of 2016. However, it's not used enough. In the first three months of after it was enacted, only 238 individuals had the extremist protection order filed. So 9% of the firearm. 87% of these were fired by law enforcement in the state of Washington. That can be solved either by law enforcement or people that share a house or or partner or share a child with an individual. But I, as a physician can't file and therefore I cannot counsel a family about it or reported to police. Any 1% of these were granted by a judge. It can see 36% of these were for home to threaten harm to others. 29% were harm to self and 34% were harmed by self-abuse. 16 of 39 counties in the state did not have any extremist protection orders filed during this time period. Kent County had the most with 114. The recently did a survey of physicians in the state of Washington. I'm embarrassed to say that same 5% of physicians in the state did not were not aware of these laws. Colleagues down in California published this study a couple of years ago where they looked at extreme protection orders that were granted and tried to deduce how many of these might have prevented mass shootings. And they came up with 21 cases. 91% of male, 81% had declared their intent. So leakage where individuals post stuff on social media of their intent to commit mass shootings. Climate recovery tendencies of one individual had 26 guns at the latest shooting in Highland Park in Illinois. Illinois does have a extremist connection or that individual had had contact with the police and they removed a bunch of knives that he had. It's a failure there that the extremist protection order was not being used against that individual because that could have been used and it could have been used to restrict him from ever buying the semiautomatic rifle that he used to commit the mass murder. One of the things that comes up a lot is the issue of mental health. And I think that the people on the other side of the gun control debate say that it's really a problem of mental health. I think it's important to realize that gun violence by people with severe mental illness occurs in less than 2% of people who have to be discharged from the hospital because of mental illness. And only 4% of criminal violence can reasonably be attributed to mentally ill individuals. In other words, 96% is not, and people who are mentally ill are much more likely to be victimized with gun violence than to commit gun violence. But only about 4% of gun purchases than I was in the course of treatment, illness and blaming the mentally ill results on stigmatize. I think we all can agree that our mental health system needs to be much better. I think we're making steps here in the state to do that. But to blame firearm violence on mental ill stigmatize the people who are mentally ill. It doesn't get at the root problem of access to violence. So to that we do have to use now that really try to prevent us from feeling helpless. One is the idea of promoting using safe storage. Safe storage does work can be done with safely storing homes, firearms in the home with push button lock boxes. There's the idea of voluntary out of home storage. But we have extreme production orders and protection orders, as Rebecca mentioned. We need to promote them and use them. And I think including our police departments as well as our mental health counselors, we need to really be pushing that much better. We are one of the few states in the country to have something called the do not sell law, where an individual, if they have a mental illness and they recognize it, they can go to the county clerk, list themselves as someone who should not be allowed to purchase a firearm. They're the ones that voluntarily giving up their right to purchase a firearm. This is grossly under use. It's about ten people a year in the state of Washington actually use it. Our Firearm Injury Policy Research program is one of the leaders in the country trying to look at what works and what doesn't work for people in our state. As was mentioned earlier, there's now a state office of Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention, headed by Kate Kelly, a former state legislator. And it's really working hard to try to address the whole problem of firearm violence. We meet with her every two weeks. I met with her today at 9:00, and we really partner hand-in-hand with them to try to address this problem. The one thing that we do have here in the state is a great deal of cooperation across agencies. We work closely, for example, with the King County prosecuting attorney's office. They know later could be here. It's interesting to hear about that. It's a terrific agency. We have we work with the police department. We work with other groups and public health department here in the county. I think that's something that we have in this community that's that's rare and that we can continue to use to try to address the firearm violence problems. And as mentioned earlier by committee member McDermott, we have the great work by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility that has really made a significant event making our community safer. What do we need greater use of the tools we have. So whether it be extremist protection orders or tools for improving safe storage of firearms, better access to data, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, the we don't know who has firearms and who who doesn't. We have trouble linking our criminal justice data to medical data and health data. And I think if more work can be done to try to facilitate that. I know that Senator Dhingra and the legislature has been working on trying to put together a bill that would bring together different datasets under the auspices of the Department of Health to try to facilitate this. Assault weapons are a terrible problem. The medical examiners and the physicians. And of all they talked about the terrible destruction done to the children by an assault rifle. Assault rifles are just a different order of magnitude than are handguns. Go back to your small physics and remember that the energy in something is equal to mass times. The velocity squared is equal to NC squared. The problem with assault rifles is that the velocity of the bullet is so much greater than it is with the handgun and that produces a huge amount of energy to the bullet as it travels through antigens and causes destruction. One of the things that we need from our state legislature and potentially even from the county is clarity and reliability issues around storage. If you give if you store your firearm in a a gun dealer, what's the individual's liability when they return to you at this store? A firearm with a friend. What's their liability if they return to you? Those issues are really murky. So finally, this was a picture done after the Parkland shooting. You can see this with terror in the background there. And the the march that we heard about firearms then, it still is an issue now. And I hope that we can together try to address this problem. Thanks very much and happy to answer questions. Thank you to so very much, Dr. Rivera, for that outstanding presentation. I don't believe your PowerPoint is included in our packet, so it would be really helpful if we could get that from you. I sent it to one of the staffers last night. Okay, so we will get that and send it out. Thank you. There's so much I would like to discuss here. We do have very limited time. I would like to say I really appreciate your next to the last slide and what we need and really specifying things that we can work on. Do any of my colleagues have questions of Dr. Rivera. Chair Call US. Council Member Perry. If there's no time, I'd appreciate just asking the question and then maybe receiving a response after the meeting here. But I'm wondering who can file verbal orders? You said that doctors cannot. I'm wondering who has the ability to file or put orders. I'm also wondering the number of deaths caused by registered gun owners versus deaths caused by unregistered gun owners. And I understand the demonizing and stigmatizing of mental health issues. It is, in fact, a national health care crisis. And whether we have brain chemistry issues from Alzheimer's to autism to depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, schizophrenia, psychosis, these are all . Or substance use disorder or combination of that. These are all national health care crisis that have to be dealt with in a medical way. It is important to recognize that depression is a mental health issue and there are associations in suicide as a mental health issue. So I don't want to minimize the impact of that as well and would love to talk about that more. Thank you. In terms of the process, it's really very simple. It's police officers or people who share a household, share a child, a romantic partners. Those are the or family members. So it's not like you're your parent or somebody who you're concerned about. You can take care of both, but they're not the health counselors. Physicians cannot. In terms of the registered gun owners, we don't have that information. So don't really know how many of these. I don't have that information that police department may have. But I don't know how many of these suicides or homicides are committed by registered gun owners versus not. And the mental health I agree with you totally is that mental health is an important issue, that we need to do better in taking care of people who have mental illness, struggling with their own problems. But it's really a matter of how can we prevent people who intend to harm themselves rather than from having access to guns? Thank you. Okay. Are there any other questions? Well, Dr. Rivera, I hope you are able to stay on the line for the next panel because. It is time for us all the time. Just terrific. Thank you. And for being here as well. Our next item on our agenda, number eight and such a continuation of this program. And we have a second panel made up of Judge and Levinson, Shandra Shanahan, Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit and line. But King County shots fired program. And they're going to be speaking primarily to what is going on here at King County. What? And we're going to really focus on two programs that have been established and very exciting and accomplishing a lot. And I'm going to actually ask an Levinson to speak first. Judge Levinson, whom I've known for, I think 30 years. Is that right? Something like that. And and has got such a wealth of accomplishments. Her work has been incredible. You may have noticed an article in the Seattle Times on June 23rd that in the sports section highlighted 50th anniversary of Title nine. That's something that I've worked on for most of my career and and and was profiled in terms of filing one of the first title, nine lawsuits in the country when she was participating in field hockey at, I think, the University of Kansas. Yes. So if you haven't read that, be sure to go back and read it. When I was looking at having this scheduled, I mentioned this to Councilmember Dombroski and he said Call and Levinson. And I thought, of course, call and Levinson, the perfect individual for this and worked as deputy mayor under Mayor Norm Rice many years ago as well as chief of staff. And I think console and that's when I really got to know her well and she also has been municipal court judge, Seattle Municipal Court judge and was one of the first municipal to lead the mental health court in the country. And she has served as chair of the Utilities Transportation Commission for the State and the chair of the Public Disclosure Commission, and also served as the independent oversight auditor for the Seattle Police Accountability System. And I could go on and on with so much more of it and is stellar, but really germane to why we are here today is and really coordinated the efforts to with the public but public health Seattle King County and our Board of health in creating the programs for urban or PO here in King County. I'd like to speak to that and also introduce our other two panelists. You bet. Thank you so much. And we'll take about 30 minutes for this and then have questions. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chair Colwell, it's good to see everybody. Thanks for having us and for convening this important discussion on gun violence prevention. As the chair mentioned, I've had an opportunity over the years to explore this issue in depth. And I want to give you all a little bit of history of the role the county has played and then central update the work of this very important unit that we're going to speak about and then we'll hear about the shots fired program. So what we're going to focus on now is the you know, it's called the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit. And I'll make sure I got this PowerPoint correct for you. So you all can give me a. Your command will take it from there. So. Excuse me. Okay. Well, thank you. So this unit is the unique in the nation. It's a regional unit that's dedicated to reducing harm through intervention where there are civil protection orders and firearms involved. I'm going to build on what Dr. Rivard and others have covered. And let me just say that Dr. Rivera and his colleagues have been such tremendous partners in this work. We are we are very lucky as a region and as a state to have them so regard to intimate partner violence. One of the you know, heretofore, I would say in in decades past unrecognized but in recent decades now very recognized firearms risk has to do with intimate partner violence. And I'm going to show you some stats in these slides and I'll let you read through them. Intimate partner violence and gun violence in the U.S. are inextricably linked and impact millions of women, families and communities all across the country. So as this slide speaks to domestic violence, victims are five times more likely to be killed if their abuser has access to a gun. And American women who are killed by their intimate partners are more likely to be killed with a gun than by all other methods combined. Also often unreported is that the perpetrators of mass violence have a history regarding domestic violence. Those who use firearms to inflict public terror often share histories of violence against women. What they have in common, more so than any particular religion or ideology, is this history of domestic violence. Also, I should note here that 2014 Washington State Institute for Public Policy Analysis reported that domestic violence is the single greatest predictor of future violent criminal acts and the single greatest predictor of violent crime. In terms of heightened risk, a woman's risk of homicide is even higher, is at its highest when she's trying to leave the relationship. According to the highly respected Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment, the single most important red flag to predict a lethal response in an intimate partner violence situation is the recent separation. That means the risk is highest when the individual's trying to initially leave the abuser, which makes it all the more important to have strategies to intervene quickly. The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence in its 2013 report reported out that in more than half of the DV almost homicides in our state, the defendant had been previously ordered to surrender firearms and that domestic violence perpetrators use guns more than all other weapons combined. So you can see the risk of lethality presented by firearms in these situations. The research does tell us that the best available tool we have, the most important element in preventing these fatalities is to remove the firearm from the situation. The Washington State Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board stated for 20 years that the best recommendation they could make was to remove firearms from abusers as a priority to reduce the risk of harm to petitioner's families and community. Federal law has now for several decades barred convicted domestic abusers from gun ownership, but does not and has not provided a mechanism for removing the firearms they already own. That means they're prohibited from buying firearms, but they can go home and access the firearms that they already have without matching state laws. This limited the options that law enforcement had to take care of these firearms. So in 2014, our state legislature passed what was 1840 and now codified in our state statute as are CW 941. It fixed several of the problems that are gaps in federal law, so it included addressing temporary protection orders. Those are the orders initially issued by a court in an emergency situation. So those were very important in terms of risk. It requires firearms to be turned in. It requires the court to have proof from the respondent that the respondent has complied with that. So this concealed pistol, license and all firearms must be surrendered and future purchase and access are prohibited. It also addresses temporary orders. So in terms of these orders to surrender weapons, courts can now issue these when they are issuing all of these types of protection orders that we've listed here for you. So in our state, we have we've been a national leader in adopting legal protections to prevent abuse and violence, harassment, stalking and neglect through the Civil Protection Orders, which are intended to provide a fast, efficient means to get protection from harm for petitioner. So they're addressed in the civil system, not the criminal system. And they are allowing petitioners, family members, to come in and obtain immediate protection for themselves without having to go through the criminal legal system. So when they do now, courts have the authority to issue what are called orders to surrender and prohibit weapons with each of these types of orders. And then, as has been mentioned into the end of 2016, due because of the passage by the voters, we now have the extreme risk protection orders, which are an additional type of a civil protection order that allows for removal of firearms. So getting the law passed in 2014 was critically important. But as all of you know, laws are not self implementing. So it took a lot of work to then figure out how to move forward so these laws could be more effective. And in early 2016, we had discussion here at the Board of Health about having King County, the city of Seattle, and suburban cities undertake the hard work of making system reforms to implement the law more effectively. Stakeholders came together from impacted systems of courts, law enforcement advocates, community to identify gaps, barriers and challenges, and to make recommendations for how to overhaul our systems. We included in this all those types of protection orders. And when domestic violence protection orders have been mentioned as the most frequent. In addition to that, we added extreme protection orders when they were adopted. So I'll go through very quickly. The work group issued a number of findings that you have heard from in years or heard about in years past, primarily noting that the law didn't provide for a single point of responsibility for implementation, and that implementation required a more seamless, inter jurisdictional, interagency coordinated approach that our systems were out of date, needed to be updated, and that law enforcement and courts didn't yet have a process in place for ensuring compliance. So we continued that work with the regional group throughout 2017 because there wasn't data available, we ended up doing a hand count and as you can see here, you know, more than half of the respondents have been ordered to turn in their firearms, ignored the court's order and a large percentage also were found in compliance when really all it was was technical compliance that is turning in a declaration saying they didn't have any, but there was no verification of that being done. So the group, the regional group issued a number of findings and recommendations, also highlighting that several instances where protection orders were not served or service was delayed, that there were many data issues and in a range of system reforms that were needed. Also highlighting that because these protection order hearings or civil proceedings, typically there's no prosecutor or law enforcement or court staff in the past who's been there to provide a comprehensive record to the court. And so it's meant that the burden has been on the petitioner, and they had to go through many steps to secure enforcement of their orders and putting the burden on them. That meant that we were leaving them at risk when they had come to the system to seek help. So what that led to was a recommendation, unanimous recommendation based on these gaps that had been assessed in the data that we've been able to look at to create the first of its kind regional firearms unit with a dedicated team. And it uses a coordinated, effective, inter jurisdictional approach to enhance the civil protection order system and to make sure that when a court orders firearms to be relinquished, it does happen. And this was well received. And the county, the city and our partners in the prosecutor's office, the city attorney's office, the sheriff's office and Seattle Police Department entered into a multi-year agreement to establish this new unit effective January one, 2018, and King County has and City of Seattle have both since then had it in their budgets to make sure this unit stays as a permanent resource for our community. So I'm going to turn it over now to Sandra Shanahan, who has led the work of the unit since its very inception and has done a. This job in this work, and she'll explain to you some of the primary needs that are being met and give you examples of some of the cases where this intervention has helped both reduce harm and avoid those lethal risks that I just spoke about. Thank you very much and for your presentation and to my colleagues. And so PowerPoint is in our packet starting on page 105 with other materials that you will have reference to shortly. Just one very quick question and where did that graphic come from? That was on the previous slide. The final slide. Yeah. Yes. So that is the logo, if you will, or logos on them on the website for the unit to reflect the work they do. It's really powerful. And I wish I could take credit for it. I mean, I wish I could take credit for creating it, but it was a colleague at a partner organization that created that beautiful illustration. And it really demonstrates what we're trying to accomplish here. Well, welcome and appreciate your being with us. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. My name is Sandra Shanahan. I'm the program manager of the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit. And I know that it's not very common to get kudos for the work that's done in government. But I have to say, our program is nationally recognized. So the investments that the city and the county have made in our unit have been recognized many times over across our country with other areas wanting to have something just like this in their community. And one of the reasons why this work is so important is because we are lawfully disharmony, disarming people who are most at risk of committing domestic or committing firearm violence. And those are domestic violence offenders and people who pose an imminent risk of harm to self or others. And so the obvious investments that you've made into the unit have resulted in life saving interventions and have also reformed systems and have promoted public safety. We operationalize harm reduction in kind of a three tier approach, and the first is to intervene as early as possible. And as Judge Levinson said, we know that the risk at the time of separation or at the time that people are expressing risks of harm, that's when we want to intervene and we intervene and we try to neutralize or de-escalate the situation by removing the firearm lawfully based on a judge's order. And the goal is to disrupt that firearm tragedy from occurring. Excuse me. We we take a look at a lot of different types of cases. One of the main ones that we look at is we have our advocate scan every King County Superior Court Protection Order petition to look and see if there is any evidence or allegations of firearms. We also look at the shots fired reports. We look at felony and district court first appearance cases with a specific with specific attention on domestic violence, sexual assault, hate crimes, harassment, felony DUI. And we have an Erpenbach inbox where people can reach out with concerns about loved ones or a patient or client who may be expressing risks of harm's harm so they can get an immediate response from us to triage the situation. Our advocates are doing direct outreach. When we have information that a case involves firearms, they're calling survivors, they're calling loved ones, and they're asking specifically about the firearms when they were last seen. What do people possess? Where are they kept? Have there been threats? They're looking at doing record searches and looking at other databases to amass that information, including photos or posts on social media. And then our unit shares that information directly with law enforcement partners so that they can use a warm intervention and safely remove firearms at the time that they're serving them with a protection order or an extreme risk protection order. And we also share that important information to court so that they can make a comprehensive assessment of whether someone is in compliance with the court's order or not. So several other folks have already talked about the constellation of risks of armed domestic violence offenders. And I have to say, admittedly, when I first started doing this work, I'm a longtime advocate for survivors who were seeking protection orders. I really focused on the homicides of intimate partners, their children and their family members and the officer fatalities. And we have just learned so much more that domestic violence offenders are so uniquely risky. And really their violence spans out across many different spectrums. And my colleague David Martin has really started looking at the fatal force or the officer involved shooting situations locally. And more than half of those are domestic violence offenders or scenes of domestic violence. So some really nice things that you get when you really get to put your focus in these very specific areas as you start to know the population that you're working with in. And what we've learned is that domestic violence offenders are disproportionately armed compared to the general public, and that's both on a local level. So King County, Seattle, King County Public Health surveyed households about firearm ownership possession in approximately 2015. And it was about 21% of residents admitted to owning or possessing firearms. On the national level, it's about 31 to 33%. But when we look at our cases, it's 40 to 50%. So we have the most likely people to violently re-offend, disproportionately armed in our community. We also see them overrepresented in all local cases involving homicide and attempted homicide. So if somebody has already been convicted of a domestic violence, has a domestic violence conviction, they were involved in about 20% of local homicide and attempted homicides and firearms were used 70% of the time, which was more than two and a half times all other weapons combined. And they killed strangers and acquaintances more than intimate partners and family members for that time frame of 2015 to 2019. And why that is so important is just to talk about this unique category of risk. And we also really want to talk about that intersectionality. So we often hear it, talked about firearm violence, talked about as if these are mutually exclusive categories of people or events. And the reality is these are all interconnected. And this is not even putting anything on the slide about access and surges and purchases and the supply side of firearm possession. I was really grateful to hear Councilmember McDermott and Dr. Rivera talking about some of the myths that we have about firearm violence. And I think it's really important because that kind of national mythology that we have around firearms lead to paralysis and inaction. And one of the ones that is really important that we hear about, and I'm sure everybody here has heard, is if you take the gun away from a domestic violence offender. He's just going to use some other weapon. And the reality is, people have studied this. Dr. April is the only who's at Michigan State University has looked at the impact of this possession laws on domestic violence offenders and found that that intimate partner homicide rates declined. Overall, they didn't see increases in other weapons being used to commit homicide. Those homicides didn't occur. And then we've been hearing a lot more recently about let's just arm victims. That'll solve the problem. And the reality is, I spent two decades working with survivors, getting protection orders. That's probably over a thousand people, probably seven survivors I've worked with in my career have ever mentioned wanting to get a firearm. And what we know that Judge Levenson and others have shared is that a firearm in the home when there's domestic violence increases the risk exponentially. And if a firearm excuse me, a domestic violence offender isn't going to not access a weapon just because it's not theirs. The other thing is when people have really started to look into abused, abused women using firearms or other weapons to defend themselves, the outcomes legally are not very good. So we don't want to have this false sense that that would protect people. And most survivors I spoke with just wanted the violence to end. They didn't want to hurt anybody. They just wanted to protect their themselves and their children. And I won't get into the other myths, because those are also have already been covered. But just to shift gears, the other major focus of our unit is on extreme risk protection order. So unlike other civil protection orders, which are specifically designed to prohibit contact, prohibit certain conduct, keep people away from certain areas, the sole purpose of the extreme risk protection order is to temporarily remove that firearm and prevent somebody from being able to purchase or access another one. So protection orders and as Dr. remarks that are a very there is research to talk about their effectiveness in moving upstream to intervene in situations of risk. And as we've heard a lot about in the news with the most recent mass shootings, as people do leak risks, they do share threats, and people around them sometimes are aware of it but don't know what to do or where to turn. And so what our unit is trying to do is to we have our deputies available 24 seven to serve as a lifeline to law enforcement and others who are expressing concerns about somebody's level of risk. And they can work together to file an appeal. And it's kind of you can I like to think of it as we need to do the right thing at the right time every time to prevent firearm violence. So we learned very quickly, although very difficult to do, we were getting good results by kind of taking the steps of trying to recover firearms at the time of service. One of the most impactful quotes that our original Sergeant Dorothy Kim mentioned is that this is closer to the beginning of our of our unit's formation. Is that a year ago, none of these guns would have been recovered. We'd never have done a search warrant. We would never have even looked to see if a weapons surrender order had been issued. And I've heard similar sentiments from my colleague, who works specifically on extreme risk protection orders. She's been a deputy for almost two decades, and in her testimony to the U.S. Senate, she talked about working on extremist protection orders as some of the most meaningful work that she's ever done in her career. She's longtime focused on sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking, and was often reacting to some horrific situations. And she has found the opportunity to move upstream to prevent those tragedies as significantly meaningful. So just kind of more boots on the ground. We've had several cases where we were able to come in and neutralize the situation by recovering the firearms. So one involved a sexual assault of a child, a SAPO, a sexual assault protection order was obtained and law enforcement recovered 50 firearms from that situation. So we know separation reporting, criminal investigation, these are all risky times. So that neutralized that situation. We've received several calls and outreach from our APO inbox about people whose loved one are expressing desires to take their own lives or in the process of purchasing a firearm. And we have been able to intervene to reach out to law enforcement to stop that purchase from happening through an extreme risk protection order. We've had a case involving someone who threatened a massacre at SeaTac Airport to shut it down. We've had somebody who threatened to have an armed confrontation with the Port of Seattle, and we've had people, especially on the heels of other high profile mass shootings in other areas, people making similar comments locally. And our deputies have worked closely with law enforcement to help neutralize those situations. And then just to kind of examples, I know the council received a presentation about the King County audit on the protection order process. And I just want to say the coordination that happens within the prosecutor's office and other entities and public health is really remarkable in our county. We had a situation where a survivor went into the Protection Order Advocacy program with really significant concerns for her safety, her children's safety. Her partner was threatening to commit a mass shooting. If she were to leave him, he would come home from work, strap on a ballistic vest and train his rifle out the window as people walked by. The home that advocates who served her in the protection order program identified that this was a very unique, high risk firearm situation. Contacted our unit where we had an advocate immediately go down and conduct a firearm interview so we could get really good information to unearth, to share with law enforcement. So they were able to recover those firearms immediately upon service of the order. And then another it talks about it's a great example of that. None of this is done in a vacuum. It needs to be done across regions and across jurisdictions. We had a survivor who also access to our protection order program. She had recently fled from another state. She had been threatened with a firearm. She had been abused. Her puppies had been shot by her partner. He was suicidal. He had no fear of law enforcement and said he could kill her any way. She came up here and fled, filed a protection order. The advocates in the protection order program alerted our unit, our advocated a firearm interview and found out that she had very recent knowledge and information about where the firearms were kept out of state . We staffed it. It's out of our state. It was one of our first cases, like really far outside of our region. And our advocate called down to that local Department of Justice and share that information. And they were thrilled to get it because they had a local order that they told him he was no longer eligible to possess firearms, but he had simply said he didn't have any. And we had direct information and they immediately got a warrant and found the firearms exactly where she said they were going to be and then arrested him for unlawful possession. So it's all of these little bits and pieces working together in coordination, sharing information. And to Dr. Rivera's point, people need to know about these tools and strategies, and we have to work together to carry them out. And these are just in closing, some statistics about the work that, you know, these are just a couple of different metrics that we capture. But within our first year of operation, we recovered more than four times the number of firearms that were recovered in all of 2016, and we've gone up from there. So thank you again for the investment that you've made into our unit and that the city of Seattle has made its you know, we are really proud to do this work. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for all that you're doing. And I think the multi-jurisdictional aspect of what the unit represents is so powerful and as well as all the bits and pieces, as you mentioned, to look at it as a whole. I'd like to also remind my colleagues that are cleared. Gabby did send out to you a few days ago or recently some national press in the form of articles that I believe Van was able to get to us. Sanders spoke about how this program is nationally recognized, which really is really. Liked it in those articles, so I encourage you to read them. And again, these materials that are being presented now in the form of PowerPoints are in our packet beginning on page 105. Okay. Before we go on to our third panelist, let's see if there are any questions of an or sandra. Madam Chair. Council Member Dan. Thanks. Thanks and Sander and thanks for your leadership at work on this. I think the question I have is, you know, it's obviously a really, you know, wonderful program you have there. There's a really important nexus here on the ground. And what we don't hear we hear a lot about laws that will try to help make this firearms violence problem better. We don't hear a lot about the discussion of resources and how to make you do your job better. And I guess I guess my question is, you know, do you feel like you're adequately funded in in the office? Do you feel like there's an adequate number of law enforcement, law enforcement officers who are able to go out in the community and do this? Or do you think that you could use more? It's kind of a softball question. I'm curious. What your what your. Views are on that. Sure. I'll I'll jump in. I'll jump in on that. Thank you very much for the question. I would say, in terms of resources, one thing, the shared responsibility between the city and the county has been terrific and has made a big difference. As you know, firearms violence does not stop neatly at jurisdictional boundaries. So that's incredibly important approach. If you were to have funding available, I'd say a primary priority would be a threat assessment detective to be added to the unit and also a couple of civilians to support the sheriff's deputies who do the work so that they can focus on those things that only sworn personnel can do and not have to spend so much time on all of the work that goes into removing the firearms and the follow up of enforcement. And then you're likely also to get requests from the court in your upcoming budget. And I would say one thing you want to look at there is what you can do to enhance the compliance aspect of their orders. So the changes in state law have been very helpful in the last couple of years that allow the prosecutor's office, as well as civilians, to now appear in court and present information when there's a lack of compliance. So it's not up to the petitioner to have to do that, but it would be great if our court systems had a focus on that in a way that these don't go on for months because as you know, the risk is ongoing all during that time. So I know resources will be tight, so I'm not here to make a budget request. But in responding to your question, those are some that strike me as priorities. Well, I'm glad you said that. And really, that's what this is about. Right at the end of the day, we're all here to do is try and reduce the amount of gun violence that's happening in our community, particularly harm and death and of course, shots fired. And so I think that's important. I look forward to supporting what you just mentioned and making sure you have the resources on the ground. And, you know, I mean, ever since Initiative 1639. Took effect, we're now in the fourth year of. That, creating some of the most. Restrictive. Gun laws in the country in Washington, as stated in the work that's been done with the gun safety action plan and things that have done in King County. And we have lots of laws that exist, lots of restrictive laws. The problem, I think, is that, you know, we see gun violence continuing to go up. So in 2018, it's 858. And we can see that. Of course you can. Of course you can. 858 is the number in 2019 and then 2020, 2025 in terms of total shots, fire. And then 2021 is 1405 shots fired. You can just see this graph going up and we know roughly 80% of our victim shooting victims are in communities of color. And so what we're not talking about or we're talking about a lot of laws and those are important to discuss. And I think that there are some examples of laws that have been very, very successful here. But we're not talking about as the resource allocation and the dramatic reduction in police, you know, three orders, 85 cops off the streets of Seattle, 40% reduction in two years of the King County Sheriff's Office last year. The county did do a good job of starting to build back up, which I appreciate. But we need to focus the resources on where the rubber meets the road, where this enforcement action and where this research action, where these specialized units are to make sure they're fully funded in addition to all the other work we're doing. I want to make sure that doesn't get lost in the conversation as we make a safer community. That's why I asked about the resource allocation. Thank you for having me up. Are there any other questions for my colleagues? Council Member and Chair COLWELL Pardon me. Council Member Perry. Thank you. So I know that some refer to these as restrictive laws. I like to think of them as safer laws because everybody's goal is to make sure everybody is safe. I know that the sales of guns, the number of guns sold has dramatically increased, and that is a 1 to 1 reflection of the number of shots deaths by gun and shot gun use. So the it's been it's clear from the statistics that as our gun sales have increased, so has gotten use and that's not difficult. I also know that police officers, the funding is there. So I've been meeting regularly with all ten police chiefs in District three. And on behavioral health issues, the funding is there for all of the police officers that they need. They simply cannot hire. Right. So everybody has a staffing shortage, but it's not about funding. It's simply about the hiring of folks. So they're working very hard to make sure they have the support they need. I know that Councilmember Dunn and I both have a significant portion of our district in rural King County. So I know he has 92,000 residents. I have 77,000 residents of the total, 252,000 residents that we each have. And I'm wondering that that live in unincorporated King County. And I'm wondering if you have information about rural versus urban domestic violence cases involving firearms. I know that for both Councilmember Dunn and I, gun possession, registered gun use is very important or registered gun possession is very important to our districts compared to other districts. And I work with folks that really focus on gun safety. So I know a whole bunch of folks that own guns and they focus very strongly on gun safety. They're often leading the pack. So I would really like to know if you have any statistics available, either now or at a later time. Thank you. I think that's a great question. I don't have the specific statistics by zip code of where firearms are being recovered, but I can get information about the law enforcement agencies that are assisting with those recoveries. I think that's really important for everybody to have. Thank you. And I would just add to that that one of the features of this unit is it's a it's an empirically based approach and a public health approach. So with intentionality, the idea is to no longer do cases, jurisdiction by jurisdiction or agency bench, but at the highest risk first wherever it is, and have all the resources in the unit put to that. So whether it is a rural community, suburban community or a downtown Seattle, their focus is by level of risk. And that that is a a really important part of taking a public health approach. Thank you. Q Thank you. And and Judge Levinson, would you please introduce our next panelist? And this is shots fired. We've heard the term shots fired. I mentioned that in the last few minutes, but this is another program that was established in King County and the work, particularly in 2018. Right. And I'm going to have Sandra introduce some of these collaborate quite regularly. Thank you. Hello again. We have Elan Portier. He's a deputy prosecuting attorney in our Crime Strategies Unit. And the work that they're doing is really incredible. It's it's altered the framework of our understanding of the shots fired and non-fatal injuries that are happening related to firearm violence. So we're really glad that he's here. As part of our panel, we rely on the work that his unit does every single day and screening for cases that may need extreme risk protection orders. All right. Thank you, everyone. So I apologize. I did provide a PowerPoint slide at the last minute. You got it. Okay. Okay. So I believe that will be shown here. And Mr. Wright, I may have been mispronouncing your first name. It's okay. I get all different variations. So our first name is pronounced Elan. Elan. Okay. Thank you very. Much and. Welcome. Thank you. And thanks to everyone for for having me this morning still. So first off, just a brief overview of CSU, the Crime Strategies Unit. But before I begin, I am a senior deputy prosecuting attorney within our office, the King County Prosecutor Attorney's Office. My specific role within the office is that of a community prosecutor who is housed within the CSU. Also online is our crime analyst Rafael Serrano. And also who's sitting in the audience is Bridget Merriman, who is our chair of our Violent Crimes Unit. Want to make sure the record reflects that these people, all these folks are present here today. So in regards to CSU, as many of you know in this room, CSU came about in 2016 when our office partnered with the Public Health, the folks in Public Health and several other law enforcement agencies on this project called Shots Fired . And to accomplish sort of this task of shots fired are really the focus of the shots fired project was this were the to collect the uniform collection the standardization of illegal shootings within King County. And to accomplish that we formed CSU. And I say we I wasn't within the union at the time. It was Chris Taylor and Dan Cruz. So I, I offer a lot of sort of commendations to them because they started this whole project and this whole unit to begin with. But CSU serves as a centralized hub to receive all these reports from law enforcement agencies all across King County and then in turn compiles all that data into our shots fired database. And so CSU consists of two prosecuting attorneys and a crime analyst, as I mentioned, Rafael Serrano. He is our crime analyst. And we all overlap in our duties because we all touched two shots, fired that at some point in time. Rafael Rafael Serrano, our crime analyst, he collected data, maintains and analyzes it and standardizes it. And then myself, I work with a lot of a couple of community organizations in developing and maintaining firearm violence intervention prevention programs. And then we have a focused firearm violence prosecutor who focuses on prosecuting firearm violence offenders in our county. And one of the duties that we have in regards to CSU as a result of being that centralized hub of information, is that we produced a daily violence report, and this is reports of of incidents that occurred within the past 24 hours. More specifically, firearm violence cases. And we received reports from a number of different law enforcement agencies and compile into one document and one PowerPoint slide and distribute that out to our law enforcement community as well as interested parties. The benefits of this DVR Daily Box report is that, one, it connects investigating agencies together, more specifically investigating officials such as detectives and so forth, to make quicker connections on cases and then more specifically and that more specifically, but also in regards to purpose, as Shea had mentioned earlier. Her office screens or looks at these published DVRs on a daily basis and sees if there are good candidates for purpose in them. So these are very quick and sort of getting to the point of what's going on within our county within the past 24 hours. As I mentioned, transpire database as a consummate comprehensive database of maintaining shooting incidents in key chains. Since 2015, we collect data on the following categories, as you see on a screen there shots, homicide, shots, injury, basically non-fatal injuries, then shots to property, and then overall shots fired. What you will see on our quarterly and annual reports on the shots fired reports is that we collect those those four categories of shootings, but we don't collect or we do not track suicides, confirmed self-inflicted shootings or officer involved shootings. I just want to make that clear for people in the audience who are unfamiliar with the shots fired reports. Now. I'm sorry I'm speeding along here, but I recognize where we at and we'll talk where we at with time. The trends we are seeing. I kind of want to talk about trends that we're seeing within King County in regards to shots fired and where Councilmember Dunn was holding up a number of different shots, fire reports from previous years. In short, he is correct. The trends are trending upwards. But I want to start with quarter one and quarter one of this year and quarter to it's our report for quarter two is not yet published. It should be finalized or be finalized here within the next few days. So that report is basically two is coming forth to the public shortly. We just need to audit the numbers, make sure the numbers are correct in that report. But I will talk about a trend we are seeing in quarter two. But to be in a quarter one, quarter one and believe so, you have already seen the shots fired report on quarter one of this year. We had 22 firearm homicide victims, 91 nonfatal shooting victims in 384 total shots fired. If you look at 2020 one quarter one, we had 16 firearm homicide victims, 53 nonfatal shooting victims and 253 total shots fired at this time. That was in quarter one of 2021. If you look at quarter two of 2021, the numbers jumped to 42 homicide victims and 54 nonfatal and 580 total shots fired. Which will see in regards to the geographic distribution of these these these shootings is sort of what Councilmember Zelaya mentioned earlier on about the map that he saw from our office before. So you will see that the shootings in King County are not evenly distributed within jurisdictional law enforcement, jurisdictional lines. We currently collect data, as we mentioned, our reports from over 20 agencies, but the majority of the data comes from eight law enforcement agencies Seattle, Auburn, Des Moines, Fairway, Kent, Renton, Tukwila and the Ccso Sheriff's Office. And when you look at those those reports of what you will look at, the geographic distribution, which you will notice, is that that the majority of them do come from those agencies because they account for roughly 80% or so of our population within this county. In corner one of this year, 57% of the total shots fired incidents and 56 of the shooting victims, both firearm homicide and also non-fatal shooting victims were for agencies outside of Seattle. So just to kind of give you an idea, if you look at the next slide I have here, this is also another sort of visual of what the trends are looking like. This is a depiction or a view of looking at corners back that up to 2019 to quarter one of 2022 this year which was see here is a trend that that many of you already know and are aware of. The summer months and summer months are always some of our violent months and we are definitely recognizing where we are. We acknowledge that those months are very challenging when it comes to combating gun violence. But what you will see here is that, you know, the jumps in quarters, 2 to 3, there's always a jump or a gradual increase during that time because those are our summer months and then it levels off or drops down during quarter four sort of into our winter. And what you will see here, the next slide. I get it. If you see her at the next slide, see the demographics. You see the demographics of the shooting victims, as we've been seeing for quite some time now. The demographics of our shooting victims are people of color and more specifically, people of color within the age range of 18 and 24 year olds. And quarter two. As I mentioned, the report is forthcoming on that. But just a trend recognizing and Mr. Serrano can can address any questions that may come up. But what he's saying right now, without providing any specific numbers as that the fatal nonfatal numbers for quarter two are are lower than they were last year, but again, still much more higher than our pre-pandemic years. But just to flag that for for the councilmembers here in attendance today and for the public viewing, we will have more numbers and specifics on that. But I just want to give an idea of what the trend looks like. Nonetheless, the trend will still have that gradual increase, I think, in the summer months, but it could be significantly lower than than last year. Well time. I'm running out of time here. Now, please go ahead. Share your slides. Hopefully, most of us can stay on. Okay. And we'll finish up in the next few minutes. In my contact information for those who have to run is at the end of the slide show. If you have any questions about you think you've heard up to this point, feel free to contact me and I can address any questions you may have about forecasting the future and what things would look like. You know, Council member Perry mentioned in the number of gun sales, you know, we will never know. We won't know if, you know, basically what happened with the onset of COVID 19 and sort of the societal impacts during that time frame would sort of be the new norm or not if it's just a spike and then not continue from there. But what we do see, what we do know is that the federal background checks have increased. And in March of 2020, as I say there, it no background checks topped 1 million in a week for the first time since the government program to start tracking these in 98 and then in 2021, it broke that record of 1.2 million background checks. Now, these are a proxy for for how many guns are just actually out there on the streets. Another thing to consider, too, and a number of other factors to consider and look at is, you know, in addition to gun purchases, variables likely to contribute to this lasting trend of gun violence could potentially be the prevalence of the polymer kits, you know, basically making your own gun with with no Sarah number two track. Unlike the federal background checks that we rely upon on the number of guns that are on the streets, these guns don't have those. And therefore, we can't use it as a proxy to determine just how many are on the streets. Then population increases in King County and population increases in Puget Sound region altogether. And when I talk about population increases, Seattle grew by more than 128,000 people since 2010. King County gained more than 338,000 people over the last ten years, with a total population of over 2.2 million people. Only four of the counties in the country saw this population increase of more than 300,000. And then, of course, that last bullet point there is that Pierce. The Snohomish County saw population increases to 15.8%, 16.1%, respectively. The question is, what are we doing now that we we have some of these trends are one thing as a community prosecutor that I am doing is I'm working with a couple of organizations, Choose Freedom, which is in partnership with Choose One, Adrian Brave, which is in partnership with YMCA, Highline School District and City. A billion. In these programs, we focus on that population and that has that lasting trend, the higher trend of 18 and 24 year olds. For more specifically and choose freedom, we refer people who we identify who are peripherally connected to firearm violence. And what do I mean by peripherally connected to firearm violence? I'm talking about those individuals who always keep up popping popping up in these police reports, but not necessarily a victim or a suspect or a R or a defender or whatnot. It's the person just keeps on popping up in the periphery saying, hey, you know, we should take that person and connect that person with the community provider who will provide one on one mentorship, one on one guidance, counseling and things like that. And that's where Choose Freedom comes into play. We do not refer folks who are, like I mentioned, defendants suspects in shooting investigations and brave. And to date, we have over 150 referrals to choose freedom or choose 180. And in regards to brave, which is building resilience and violence education, you know, we refer names as well. In addition to that, the Highline School District relies on their truancy records to refer folks is those ages 12 to 18 are referred. The idea behind that is like, okay, we identified 18 and 24 year olds being most at risk of gang violence. How about we start early on and try to cut that off before we begin today, age range of 18 to 24 year olds. So that's where this design came into place. This program has capacity for about 30 folks to date. If I remember correctly, there's over 25 referrals at this point. And then impact and this is the last pretty much the last slide I have for everyone. And the impact of some of these programs is, you know, I kind of want to highlight and this is from our brave folks and these are some points that the people on the ground have conveyed to me. And this is about their program. And they say one of the youth will be graduating next week. And this was given to me back in June. So graduating high school, he'll be taking his driver's test next week as well. Youth is in the Seattle Police Explorer program is interested in continuing in that field. The youth plans to study criminal justice in college, which he begins in the fall. When he first met one youth. She was very shy, didn't want to speak much, are engaged, but they made sure to make her feel comfortable and listen to her . She slowly started to open up. She now shared many goals and hobbies that she would like to accomplish, and they're hoping to plan. One youth was on the run and is now attending school every day. Two youth successfully became employees. Several youth have completed their resume and actively applying for jobs. I am not going to continue on. I want to highlight these things because some of these points and some of these achievements may be minimal to some folks, but at the same time, this is huge for kids in these environments because what this is doing is breaking cycles of violence and is changing generations to come. And I just want to highlight that for everyone in tennis here today, other than that, I know I kind of zoomed through here, but my contact information is on the screen here is also within your materials that you have or will have. And then also there's our email to the entire unit as a whole. So if you want to just reach out to anybody within the unit with any questions or concerns, please feel free to do so. Thank you, everyone, for your time. Thank you so much is very illuminating and I appreciate your identifying factors such as the demographic ones as well as the pandemic COVID 19. And I think what's really important is that we understand there are multiple factors for us trying to understand the increase in gun violence, shots fired and so forth. It doesn't necessarily mean that there's with a correlation that there's a causality for the more laws we have, whether we want to refer to them as promoting restrictions or promoting safety, that doesn't necessarily mean that that's a causal relationship. So really important information provided. I thank you. Are there any quick questions from my colleagues? Councilmember Bell. DUTCHY Thank you. And it's not a question, just a couple of comments real quickly. Thank you for your call, Wells. So I've been following this entire meeting very closely, although I've had to be moving from place to place, so I've been mostly off camera. But this is a really educational, well put together series of presentations. I found it very, very helpful to start to tee up a policy discussion. This is really in some ways a model of how you would do that. And I appreciate each and every person who has presented today looks forward to taking a little bit more time to read through the presentations and the staff reports, because there is just so much information here today very, very helpful. I do want to say one thing, though, that there have been some comments made today that were just flat inaccurate. And I need to call out one of them. I think I heard one of our colleagues say that we have reduced positions. Equity is, I believe, is what was said in the sheriff's office by 40% or by 40 FTE years. That's just simply not true. We have not reduced the number of years in the sheriff's office. They have a lot of vacancies. And I know that somebody else pointed that out. But that kind of misinformation is really concerning and shouldn't be shouldn't be stated in our in our forum. We should use accurate information. I look forward to the next meeting where we take a policy discussion because this is such an important issue and I really believe this so well teed up by all that we have heard today. Thank you again, Chair, for us. Thank you. And I would like to add to your comment about the staff vacancies we have, in fact, over the past two years put in many into the sheriff's office for recruitment and retention efforts and staffing to be able to get our staffing back up with all the vacancies by council member. Thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you very much. Chair calls. I too wanted to join then my colleagues who have expressed their appreciation and expressed mind to first you for working to put together a really great meeting that has been incredibly informative. You know, sometimes we learn these things and then that and then it drifts a little bit. But the data that's been presented, the strategies, what we are doing, what we can do, it's really been grounding and grounding for me and I agree with Chair, obviously it's helped set the table for to help us process next steps. I know we're really short on time, but very briefly, a couple just one takeaway. We do have this pending legislation to set up a year round voluntary firearms dropoff program in partnership with our sheriff's office. I think we're going to take that up at the next meeting. But in conjunction with that, I just wanted to highlight Dr. Rivera's slide that showed the correspondence between household firearm ownership and the rate of firearm deaths. So more guns in households, higher rate of death. Judge 11 cent on the intimate partner violence. The single most important element to reduce that is to remove the firearm from the situation. Those were two kind of takeaways that I thought really jelled well with respect to our work, to reduce the presence of firearms in homes. And I don't think that that is a panacea, that piece of legislation for able to advance that and set it up. But I think it could be one part of our comprehensive network. And I'm also interested in exploring. We have on our county website information on data and what we're doing in a number of places, including the prosecutor's office in the public health space as well. And I wonder if we might do some work to integrate it into a comprehensive dashboard data. But we use that term kind of the data about what's going on, what our strategies are, and then direct help for folks that that maybe they need help in a specific place. And I would look forward to working with colleagues if you're interested in that. But again, thank you very much for this great meeting and thank you to our panelists and our staff for putting it together. Chair call. Us. Thank you. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, Councilmember Perry. Thank you. 60 seconds just to say. Director, about what a wonderful presentation. Thank you very much. And I'm specifically interested in your engagement in community. Community is going to cure what ails us. We have to lean in. And at the end of the day, what matters is what is exactly happening in our neighborhoods. And so when you change one person's life like a family system, you change the system of the people around them. So I just want to commend you for that work. I believe deeply in what community can do, and those numbers may seem small, but I see what you're doing and I very much appreciate this program. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. And are there any other questions or comments from my colleagues? Okay. Well, with that and speaking of communities, for our follow up to our program today, that will take place at our committee of the whole meeting on Wednesday, July 20th, again at 9:00 AM. And I think you can see why we started half an hour early. We will be hearing from community voices as well as community based violence interruption work that is going on, and also discuss tangible strategies that we might embark on to achieve safer, healthier communities, which is what we all want. Like to commend Judge Levinson. She helped in planning this meeting today, as well as the one that will be upcoming on July 20th. I'd like to thank all of our panelists, the first panel, as well as the second panel. Your contributions have been immense. And I, as I believe you can tell, really listened to by our call by the council members on this call, very important work. But we also can see very readily that there's so much more to be done. And with that, I believe we do not have any votes that were missed. No, we do not. Chair So we're all set with that. And again, our next regular meeting will be on July 20th. And there's no other business. We are adjourned. Thank you.	A MOTION requesting that the executive develop a regional operational plan for extreme weather centers and disaster sheltering, with a special focus on the most-vulnerable King County residents.
king_9e508543-ca66-4003-a1cb-4084fc256afc	Good morning. I'll call to order the committee to hold meeting for Monday, for Wednesday, May 5th. And if we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that the run, the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here greatly enriched our community in light of the continuing pandemic. The governor has suspended the section of the Open Public Meetings Act that requires us to have a physical space for the public to observe our committee in council meetings. So we will be conducting this via Zoom, as we have been for over a year now. Two housekeeping items as we get started to help us manage the meeting. I'd ask the public and executive and council staff to please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. And additionally, if you connecting to the meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment. Please connect to the meeting through the Zoom application if possible. If you're connecting without using the Zoom app simply by telephone, we may not be able to ask you to allow you to speak without madam. Correct. Would you please call the room? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Bel Air. Council member Dombrowski. Here is. Council member done. Here. Council member Cole Wells here. Council member, Lambert. Council member Africa. Here. Council member Belmokhtar. Air. Council members online. Dear Mr. Chair. Dear Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Council member done and entertained a motion to prove the minutes of our April 21st meeting. Sorry. Yes. So movements there actually took them to get prints out of you there. Okay. You can frame it while Councilmember Dunn is framing the screenshot of any discussion on the minutes. Seen? None. All those in favor of approving the minutes. Please say I. Am. Opposed. Nay, guys have it. The minutes are approved. We have a time constraint. And so I'm proposing that with the committee's indulgence that we kick items out of order. I'd like to take up the appointments to the Immigrant and Refugee Commission first, and we'd have an interest in doing that before public comment. But I'm very aware that it is possible that there is public comment on that item. So, Madam Clerk, without any planning on your part, in my part, I'm going to ask anybody who is here to comment on the appointments to the Immigrant Refugee Commission to please. Turn on their video wave, raised the hand in, zoom in some way to get our attention. So we know that we need to take some testimony on that item before taking that item up and then resume public testimony on the one other item on today's agenda and moving forward with our agenda. Is there anyone here to offer testimony on the Immigrant Refugee Commission appointments? I'm seeing none in so meetings and Walgreens. I'm going to move to item six, seven and eight on today's agenda. These are proposed motions, 2021, 171, 172 and 173, which would confirm the executive appointments of Jenny Yang and Juan Cole LaHaye and Jacob Taylor, Mosquera to the Immigration and Refugee Commission. Application materials were sent out yesterday in a separate email to council members and Brenda Luskin and from the council staff will provide a brief staff report. Then I'll invite each of the appointees to introduce themselves and share some introductory comments. There's going on. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning. Members of the Committee for the Record, Randle, Eskom and Council Central Staff. The materials for these three items begin on page nine of your meeting packet for today. Just very briefly, these proposed motions, as noted by the chair, would confirm the executive's appointment of the following persons to the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission, Jenny Yang, who resides in Council District eight for a partial term expiring September 30th of 2021. Khawaja or while Ray, who resides in council just before for a partial term expiring September 30th of 2022, and Jacob Taylor Mosquera, who resides in Council District four for a first term expiring September 30th of 2022 . Just as a brief bit of background, in 2018, the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission was established by Ordinance 18653, which is also codified in King County Code in Chapter 278 to serve as a central point of contact, communication and coordination, to encourage coordination and efficient intersection of the work of stakeholders serving and engaging immigrant and refugee residents to achieve greater impact. Of note, the Commission also focuses on understanding and addressing challenges faced by immigrant and refugee communities living in suburban cities and unincorporated areas of the county. A non-exhaustive list of the Commission's duties are provided in county code. Of Note, the Commission is comprised of 13 members. A list of membership requirements for the Commission are provided in your of materials and thus are listed on page ten. Per county code appointments to the Commission are subject to Council confirmation and such approval of the proposed motions before you today will fulfill their requirements. In sum, the appointments appear to be consistent with the requirements of county code. I'll wrap up by noting that we are joined today by all three appointees of Nunes, Mr. Chair, and fourth committee. I believe that a verbal amendment will be needed for the first item, a proposed motion 0171 to reflect the correct spelling of Ms.. Yang's first name, which is J. E and A rather than J. E. And with that, that concludes my remarks. Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. I'm seeing no questions of the staff reports. I would ask Ms.. Yang to share some opening comments. You're welcome. Hello. Hi. Thank you for having me here. Can everybody hear me? Okay, great. I first want to start saying my name's actually pronounced Dina. You know? Yeah. And so. And I'm. I'm really glad to be here. I'm meeting everyone through Zoom. Hopefully, we can see each other in person someday. I appreciate you having me here today. I came just just to let you know, my little background, my hometown is actually Anchorage, Alaska. And I came to Seattle for college and I stayed here ever since. And during my time here in Seattle, I worked with a lot of communities, including my own community, kind and AAPI community. But I've worked many years with immigrants and refugees, and for me, being part of this commission made sense. And my friend Muhammad, who I worked closely with during my time working for Senator Maria Cantwell, she suggests that I should try to be part of this commission. And so, you know, last year was I turn in my application and I really, really enjoyed being part of the meeting so far, and hopefully I can be more involved in the future. Thank you so much. I will ask Mr. Railway to introduce himself. We'll follow follow through with everyone making introductory statements. Then we'll open it up to a conversation. Yeah. Thank you very much. My name once again is called You're a Worry. And I'm really happy to be appointed to the commission. My background. So I'm originally from Ghana and have been in Seattle for a number of years and actively involved in the African immigrant community. So specifically, I've served as the President of the Washington State Coalition of African Community Leaders and currently serves on the board. So I currently serve on the Council of Coalition, so we actively engage all of the African community leaders through which we reach out to our African community members here in Washington State and specifically King County, where we have majority of of African immigrant community living in making life so and actively in the last 3 to 4 years, helping the community and achieve the needed resources and as well, the pathway to make make life enjoyable here in King County. I've also been working with Soca Without Borders Seattle, which focuses on youth programs for immigrant communities here in the Seattle area. I've been working as a coach and mentor for newcomers to Seattle and King County area and helping them integrate well into into the city, to school the whole system to make sure that the training well. Most of the reason being that I speak different languages as well Portuguese, Spanish, English and I've been able to labor on the world and that helps me connect well with the immigrant community. So I feel very excited and I know I'm going to add value to the commission too to engage everyone and help address the needs of our immigrant community here in King County, which is really growing. So it looks like the population today is probably around 22 to 25% of the total population of King County. And out of that, the African immigrant community is roughly around 8%, which is growing in King County here. So I'm very happy with some of the council members. So give my and councilman up to grow up to grow up as well from from King's area and and others that I've met in person. And I look forward to working with with all of you to help the immigrant community here in King County. Thank you very much. Thank you and welcome. And now, Mr. Taylor Mascara. But are they as everyone expects them being? Hope you all are doing well named Jacob telling Mosquera I'm up here in Northgate area, sending you all warm wishes for your families. Hope you're all staying safe. I am a Colombian adoptee here in Seattle, standing in firm representation of the Colombian community, as well as Colombian adoptee community. I'm excited to be a part of this commission and really, really, really enthusiastic about everything that's on the horizon for this county. I think we're headed in the right direction. Also, a little bit of my background. I have studied in multiple places, most recently here in Seattle at Seattle University, doing public administration right now. Very much looking forward to transitioning from teaching in middle school conjugating verbs with seventh graders into doing all the much more tangible work that you all are doing. So looking forward to collaborating with all of you in multiple ways. And yeah, I'll be I'll be brief with that. Just to say that Colombians are going through a really tough week this week. So if you have a chance to check out the news, please just reach out to any of your Colombian neighbors or friends. We're experiencing supreme state violence against civilians across the country down there, and especially in my hometown of Cali. With that, I'll come back to you, Mr. Chair, and good morning to everyone. And again, please stay safe out there. Thank you. My husband was reaching out to some colleagues he's worked with yesterday. Colleagues questions of our nominees or appointees before us today. Councilmember Balducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. My condolences for the terrible violence and situation that we're seeing. I've read some terrible stories this morning about people finding out that their loved ones have been killed. And I'm just so sorry to hear. Thank you, all three of you, for your willingness to give your personal time to this to this work. It does help us to be a better government, and you do it on your own time. So we really appreciate you for bringing your experiences and your knowledge. I guess I would just ask a question to any of you who have an answer. If you could name one thing about county government that that we could think about improving our services to immigrants and refugees. Like what? What do you bring to the table as you arrive any any guidance that you think we should be talking about, thinking about in terms of improving our service to those members of our county community. I think I can start and I mean when I think about the government serves the community today what we are all going through the pandemic access to vaccination you know via language access so where my community that I'm engaged we've been actively engaging little community clinics to. Really. Ensure that our communities get access to the vaccine and also helping provide language and language access to to ensure that they understand what it what it is in for them. Because there's a lot of head to head to hesitancy within my community when it comes to access to the vaccine. And so it would be very helpful, you know, going forward, engagement of everyone. You know, most of our community members live in in Cairns and so, you know, council members within that area can start King County to be actively engage and help address that the fear and help community organizations that are actively engaged in this work to support them and make sure that you reach out. Not everyone can go to all these mass vaccination sites. You know, not everyone has this access to to cross, to drive or you've been to the bus to all these mass vaccination sites. So I'm really in favor of having, you know, community organized vaccination clinic to ensure that majority of our immigrant communities are vaccinated as quickly as possible to ensure that there's equity on that front. Thank you. Thank you. Very good. I think for me, my current role, I currently serve with Congressman Adam Smith as a casework director. And one thing I have noticed, especially as I work with immigrants and refugees directly, is that a lot of times I have to explain policies to them. And a common language is something simple for that for them to understand. And I think that's something that I would like to bring it up to the council by having some of the policies, in a word, in a language that everybody can understand. Even for me, someone who is fluent in English, when I read something, I have to look it up or have to double check because there's there's something there's a language there that I can mean, I think, many different things. Right. And so I think if we can make it more access, more access to our communities, I think that will be really helpful. And if there's any way that I could assist with, please let me know. But other than that, that's what I want to bring it up today. Thank you, everyone. Customer Thanks for the question. I think as a teacher in the community, I teach in the small private school and also in Seattle Central College. I would say a robust consideration can sustain consideration for more outreach in the education sector. Right. A lot of my students, both in the high school and middle school as well as community college, have an idea that a commission like this even exists. Right. And so so I think in around running right away with yeah. More concentrated outreach and education spaces would be really, really, really beneficial. And that's that's my piece. Thank you again for the question. Very good. Thank you all for your answers and again, for your willingness to serve. Really? It really means a lot to us. I'm curious if any of you have had the opportunity to already join some meetings of the Commission and if so, any impressions you have of the current work and where it might be going? I couldn't talk to that. I was at the last meeting, actually, Councilmember Barghouti, you were there. And I think my first impression was how concise and organized everything seemed, which was a pleasant surprise in my classes. And tell you right now we're talking about it a lot about the the constant struggles with bureaucracy. And it was just refreshing to see how, how, how time everything worked and the direction. The focus of that conversation was justifiably centered around COVID and vaccine vaccinations. And so I just I was happy to be just a fly on the wall, very much looking forward to more conversations about about issues affecting our community as far as the direction that it's going. My impression was very positive, and I say that because, again, it was it was just obvious that people came prepared. People were passionate. And that's that's something fantastic to step into. Further questions. Herein? None. I would entertain a motion to approve to give a do pass recommendation in motion. 2021 171. So move. Mr. Chair, we have motion 2021 171 to appoint Gina to the Immigrant Refugee Commission. May I ask for a verbal amendment to correct the spelling of misused first name? To correct it to one and. Some of. Mr. Chair. All those in favor, please say I apologize. The ayes have it. The correction is made. Further. Any further discussion on this motion? Madame Curie, I'd ask you. Please call them all. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member II. Council member. Kim asking i council member Dunn I. Council Member. Cornwall's High Council Member Lambert I. Council Member Abdullah II. Council Member one My car. I. Council members online. I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero on us. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to motion 2021 171 and we will put that on consent at full council. I would entertain a motion to approve both because there are no amendments to approve both motions 20, 21, one, 72 and 173. So moved. From. It's been moved that we give it to pass recommendation to motions 2021, 172 and 173 went in Mr. Away and Mr. Taylor must go to the Immigrant Refugee Commission. See no discussion of those. Madam Couric, if you'd please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. I. Councilmember Demovsky. Hi. I am. Councilmember dan. I. Councilmember Coles I. Councilmember Lambert I. Councilmember autograph i. Councilmember Vaughn right there. I. Council members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 990 nos. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to the appointments of Mr. While Ray and Mr. Taylor must go to the Immigrant and Refugee Commission. And we will put those on the consent agenda for council as well. I want to thank everyone for their indulgence in taking items out of our usual order, and we will move back up the agenda to public comment. And Madam Clerk, I do believe we have people on the line for public comment. So let me just proceed with our procedure in virtual meetings of how to do that. And first, I'll remind people that items should be your comments should be related to items on today's agenda and should not be used for the to campaign for election of any person in the office or the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. You should not also not include obscene speech and failing to abide by these rules may have your time expired and ultimately require your exit from the virtual meeting, though I don't expect any of that to happen today. Now, the process as you joined, we can see your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Our committee clerk will call names or numbers when your name or the last three digits of your phone number is called. Staff Vote and your line. Please also unmute yourself if you've muted on your end. As a courtesy, we would ask you not to use the hand raised function. We will go through the entire list and call on everyone. A reminder that if you're calling in from a cell phone, we recommend that you use the Zoom application if possible. Otherwise, we may have challenges muting you and there may be a time delay as well. And before you begin your testimony, if you'd state your name and then pause, that will allow us to confirm that we hear you and we know the audio is working. And then when you begin your testimony, if you would not mind saying and spelling your name. So we're going to have it accurate for the record. With that, you have 2 minutes for public comment. You'll hear a timer go off when you do. You're certainly welcome to wrap up your thought, if you could concludes. The next person will have the opportunity to share their thoughts as well. And afterwards, you'd be encouraged to observe the rest of the meeting by either streaming online or listening on TV Channel 22 and you can stream online at the council's website W WW dot King County Echo Park Council. And then you click on the ever popular Watch US Live button. Without Madam Critical, turn it over to you and ask you to call people for public comment today. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is John Pinkus. Please go ahead. John King is. King and. See us from Bellevue. Thank you. Go ahead. Facial recognition is like plutonium so toxic that its use needs to be restricted to a small number of tightly controlled situations. And that's exactly what Ordinance 91 does. Washington State Why? The legislation takes a very different approach. It allows virtually all uses of the technology, but introduces transparency and testing requirements. For example, it requires government agencies to document how they'll ensure that everyone's sprayed with equal amounts of plutonium to test out plutonium on the communities. Most likely to be hard to see how toxic it is and to produce reports on what happens when people are sprayed with plutonium. Unsurprisingly, the communities most at risk from facial recognition strongly oppose the statewide legislation and instead favored a moratorium or a ban. The legislature wasn't ready to go that far, but they did remove a clause in the original version of the bill that would have prohibited stronger local legislation. In other words, the legislature specifically allowed for exactly the kind of ordinance King County is currently considering. Unsurprisingly, communities most at risk from facial recognition support this ordinance. As a software. Engineer, I strongly urge you not to get too focused on whether or not algorithms are improving. Cherry picked quotes and numbers typically make the technology look better than it really is. For example, by ignoring real world complexities like racialised policing and inexperienced users with limited training and besides, the issues with facial recognition go far beyond today's bias and accuracy problems. Attending a gathering of the Gender Fix project points out in the case for banning facial recognition, even completely accurate facial recognition can still be used in ways that are detrimental to certain groups of people. Evan Dellinger and Woody Hertzog suggest accurate facial recognition might be even more dangerous because those in power will find it irresistible and then want to use it more often. So please protect King County residents and visitors and vote to ban government agencies from spreading plutonium. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. Thank you. The next person is generally. Ahead, please. Good morning, councilmembers. My name is Jennifer Lee and I am the technology and liberty manager at the ACLU of Washington. We urge you to support proposed ordinance number 2020 10091. Despite what industry lobbyists may say, the latest facial recognition studies do demonstrate that facial recognition technology is disproportionately inaccurate for bipoc individuals and transgender individuals and is completely inaccurate for nonbinary individuals, as the technology inaccurately presupposes that gender is a fixed category, a reduction in inaccuracy over the years of some limited number of face recognition algorithms that are tested in controlled settings does not mean that facial recognition technology is free from bias and that it will not cause harm in the real world. We emphasize that even if facial recognition operated perfectly accurately across race and gender, it would still power systemic racism and injustice and pose potentially even greater threats to our privacy, civil liberties and democracy. A ban on facial recognition technology, not weak regulations, is what we need. SB 60 to 80 The state facial recognition law regulates only three uses of facial recognition technology, while many other uses are freely allowed. This means that under the state law, agencies may use facial recognition technology without any restrictions to surveil entire crowds at football stadiums, places of worship, or even on public street corners, killing people's constitutionally protected rights. What is important to note is that SB 60 to 80 does not preempt local jurisdictions from passing stronger legislation like this proposed ordinance. King County is well within its jurisdiction and capability to do better than SB 6280, a bill that was never supported by civil liberties proponents. We need a ban, and King County has the opportunity to join many other jurisdictions in standing up for people's rights and becoming the first county in the nation to ban government use of invasive facial facial recognition technology. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Savannah. Can you please unmute yourself and then give us your full name? Oh, my apologies. I did not intend to testify today. I'm just listening, so I'll duck out. Thank you. The next person is Brianna offering. Please go ahead. Thank you, B.A. three. EU f f. R a y. And Legal and policy manager at CURE Washington. And a King County resident here. Washington is the largest Muslim civil rights organization in Washington state, and I'm here today to represent the interests of this community. Regarding Ordinance 91, as you've already heard from multiple racial justice and immigrant rights advocates, technologists and privacy experts. Facial recognition technology is dangerous. I know you've already heard statistics on the inaccuracies of these technologies, but I'd like to focus on the dangers that persist. Even if these technologies were accurate. You'll hear from Microsoft and others that some technologies have improved since prominent racial equity studies were performed before the communities that I represent and many others, the harms are just as ubiquitous, if not more. If these technologies were accurate, government use of facial recognition technology will always be a tool of oppression, whether intended or not, because of the fear it instills in people which tells free speech, freedom of association and the free exercise of religion. The memories of highly surveilled communities are long and past government. Abuses of surveillance technologies absolutely shaped the daily choices of many individuals. Less than a decade ago, we saw police departments using automated license plate readers to surveil and catalog the comings, goings and interactions of mosque goers. When this news broke, many Muslim individuals were afraid to leave their homes for months, let alone attend prayer services or community gatherings. For many of these fears persist to this day. And the reality is, is that surveilling a car is so much less invasive than surveilling one's face. You only have one face and you can't leave home without it. Recent instances such as the use of authority against BLM protesters this summer and its use by ICE to track and detain immigrants throughout the country have demonstrated that our fears of this technology are well-founded. If even the fear of such abuse by law enforcement and other government officials causes individuals to avoid attending protests or religious services for fear of being surveilled and targeted, then the technology should not be used at all. I ask that you vote yes on ordinance 91. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Camille Baldwin born. These. Go ahead. Hi. My name is Camille, and I'm a constituent of King County District four, and I'm calling to support King County Ordinance 91. I want to thank Councilmember Cole Wells and co-sponsors Rob Dombrowski and Dave of The Grove for putting forth this important legislation. Facial recognition technology has been shown, as you've already heard from many of the other callers, to be less accurate in identifying people of color, women use trans and gender nonconforming individuals. This sets a dangerous precedent because when technology is used for prosecution in a court of law, it's often assumed to be objective. Instead, facial recognition technology can amplify existing biases and can have life or death consequences. It also sets a dangerous precedent because of the large scale and invisible, persistent surveillance of large groups of people that have that has the potential to pose a serious threat to our civil liberties. I urge all council members to vote yes on Ordinance 91. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Derrick Lum. Go ahead. Hi there. My name's Derek Lum. Go ahead. Thank you. Hi, everybody. My name's Derek. I'm working with Interim CVA. We're helping to represent the interests of the immigrant and refugee communities that we serve. We work primarily in the international district. And, you know, as you all are probably fully aware that our national district is a place that is dominated by immigrants and refugees and particularly low income senior immigrants and refugees specifically. And the fear what could happen if maybe undocumented or or just some other community member with a tenuous immigration status or to be in facial recognition issues. And so that's why we're supporting. This ban today, that face. Recognition cannot be allowed to, you know, to be used in our communities via government services. So that's why you need to support this ban to protect immigrant refugee communities from these issues. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Heather Kelly. Good morning. My name is Heather Kelly. Thank you. Go ahead. Sure. I live in County Council District four, and I'm here today with the League of Women Voters of Seattle, King County. On behalf of the league, I urge you to pass Ordinance 91 and prohibit county officials, including law enforcement, from using facial recognition technology. Our stance is based on established league positions at the local and national levels, condemning discrimination and supporting equity and citizen confidence in government, as well as our resolution on racial justice. As others on this call have already mentioned. Facial recognition technology threatens to exacerbate discrimination in our criminal justice system for people with darker skin, women and trans folks. Research has demonstrated that the rate of false positive IDs for these community members are vastly higher than for whites, particularly white men. On the other hand, the league is not aware of any studies to date that prove the use of facial recognition technology improves public safety. The use of facial recognition technology by the government poses questions of constitutionality. Under the first, fourth and 14th Amendments last June 2020, lawmakers introduced bicameral legislation at the federal level to ban the use of facial recognition technology. Boston, San Francisco and Portland have already done so. Here in King County, voters laid the groundwork for this type of reform with their approval of charter amendments that will reshape the sheriff's office. This ordinance is consistent with the will of the voters and a natural step forward for our county. The league hopes that King County will establish itself as a leader in this area, as the first county nationwide to ban this racist technology. Please pass Ordinance 91. Thank you so much for the opportunity to comment and to the sponsors of this critical ordinance. Thank you. The next person is Jake Parker. Please go ahead. Hey, Jake Parker here with the Security Industry Association. We oppose the the bill was currently written because Washington State's groundbreaking new law in facial recognition does address the underlying concerns. I just wanted to point out this, that this law includes some pretty significant restrictions on using the technology. Outlawed is its use as the sole basis for an arrest or any use to monitor individuals based on their participation in First Amendment activities or based on their race, immigration status, gender identity and many other characteristics protected against discrimination also would require a warrant for the use of facial recognition for surveillance of a person's movements in public spaces or any real time identification. He also wanted to make a clarification that the statement in the ordinance that compliance regarding compliance with the National Child Search Assistance Act would. Not provide for. The use of technology to find missing children. That law simply requires state, local, federal law enforcement. Agencies enter information. About missing children cases to the National Crime Information Center. This does not involve use of the technology as written. It would still prevent county law enforcement personnel from using several well-known technology tools that incorporate this technology to help find missing children and solve child sex sexual exploitation cases. And one of these tools is is known to have helped to rescue over 15,000 children in North America from human trafficking in the last couple of years. The county's recorded reply are comply with this act anyway. So this is not a genuine exemption that would allow this for this longstanding use. Encourage you to take a further look at this. Also important is the use of the technology in digital forensics, which is also important for child exploitation cases. Also to point out that the. Ordinance makes no differentiation for common user authentication uses of the technology similar to unlocking electronic devices which have many public sector application applications. And for that reason, we remain close. Thank you. The next person is Hilary Hayden. Go ahead. Hilary Hayden. A mr. Chair, I believe I've called everyone on the line. Thank you, Madam Clerk. To make sure that we haven't missed anyone. I would ask you to unmute all the lines right now so I can ask if we've missed anyone. So if you please unmute. I've asked everybody to unmute themselves from this picture. Thank you. Is there anyone on the call who would like to offer public testimony and has not had the opportunity to do so? If you just say your name now, we'll take names, then take you. Take your testimony. Anyone for public comment. Hearing. No one. Madam Clinical asked you to remove all the lines. I am muted or muted everybody. And I've I muted myself and I want to thank you and thank everyone for public comment will close to public comment now and that takes us to our brief briefing on the executive COVID 19 response provided by Dwight David, the Director of the Office Performance Strategy and Budget. Mr. David, good morning. Welcome in particularly this morning. Thank you for coming in accommodating our schedule. Oh, happy to do so, Mr. Chair. So for the record, Dwight Bagley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. I have seven items for you today. And unlike our usual briefings, I think almost all of it is good news. So I'm pleased to be able to say that the first item is actually not COVID, but it's female related. And so I kind of snuck your name in here because it's a little bit of good news. You is hard to remember, but in January and February of 2020, we had very extensive flooding in parts of King County and incurred some significant costs. And so as we've tracked all those costs, FEMA has clearly said that they will cover their traditional 75% share, which is currently estimated at about 24.7 million. We learned recently from the state that the state will pick up their traditional half of the remainder or 12 and a half percent, which is a total of about 4.1 million. So all told, we will expect to get about $29 million of reimbursement for the money we spent, particularly in roads and in parks during the flooding, you know, about six months ago. So that's good news. You will all recall that it typically takes quite some time to get that money. So I frankly wouldn't even count on it this year. But the fact that we're going to get it at some point is good news. So and as we've kind of fallen into the habit of doing our pause here and see if there's any questions before I move on to point number two. See. No questions. We'll just take the money and run. Okay, that's great. Second one, this is also an update from the Office of Emergency Management. I think you may recall you authorized funding in one of the COVID bills last year to compensate either local governments or businesses for impacts from our shelter. The intensification use of hotels. The three governments that applied, which were the city of SeaTac, the city reservoir and the Renton Regional Fire Authority, all of them have been authorized for payment and some of those payments have actually been made. So. So that part is a. OEM is still working through with some of the businesses that have sought reimbursement. The problem is, is really with a lot of them don't have documentation. So that part is still continuing. They'll keep updating you on that. And as I think you all know, there's additional funding for this in the COVID seven legislation that is before you right now. So the intent would be to continue these programs until we finish the use of those hotels. Mr. Dangly this is to compensate with reimburse cities for compensating businesses affected by hotel de intensification. That's correct. So if you know there's additional cleanup requirements or emergency response requirements, that was the council's intent to provide funds to offset those. And are we doing similar reimbursement to businesses with impacts from the original sites before the the intensification efforts? That was not ever something the county was doing. Noted. Thank you. Other questions. Do you know all of the questions? See. Go ahead. I don't see a further question, Mr. David. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Item three. We got a new guidance from FEMA about a month ago. That they will again pay for things like personal protective equipment and shields and barriers in some of the facilities that we are operating to respond to COVID. And so that it's not going to be a lot of money. But some of the money that we were planning to use from, let's say ARPA or other sources now will become FEMA eligible. So we'll be able to say, you know, it's going to be at the margin and but it might be a few hundred thousand dollars that now can go to FEMA instead of other sources. So it's just another good, you know, sort of step with FEMA that will be able to get that funding and step. Questions. Mr. Knightley. Okay. Item four. It seems odd to tell you this while you're still working on COVID seven, but the proposals from departments and branches for COVID eight are due to my office this week, and so we will actually start the process of developing the eighth COVID Supplemental Appropriations Ordinance that that ordinance is particularly focused on departments that needed more time to develop proposals and couldn't do it in time for the COVID seven appropriation. So not all of it, but I think a very significant portion will be requests from the criminal justice system agencies to deal with the backlog of cases that has built up during COVID. And so we will get those proposals this week and will start processing them. One of the things that our my office will do, working with the executive, is to make sure that whatever we ultimately propose is constructed, because we're getting proposals from the courts and from the prosecutor's office, from public defense, and we need to make sure that those are internally consistent and there are sort of side effects, things like facility impacts or information technology impacts. We need to make sure to assess those and make sure they're funded if necessary. And so we'll be doing that kind of compiling and coordination function to make sure that whatever we present to the executive and ultimately what he presents to you is internally consistent. We also want to make sure that whatever is proposed is actually able to be implemented. We are starting to hear that there are some professions where it might actually be difficult to hire as many people as they might propose hiring. And so we want to make sure that if we proposed, for example, to hire 20 additional attorneys, we actually believe that's possible and not get into a situation where we funded something that we can't implement. So just to give you a heads up, that's what's coming. We are working with comes from Raquel Wells about the exact timing of when we would transmit that. Our current thinking is at some point in mid-June with the hope that the council would be able to act on it before your August recess. And so let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Colleagues. Council Member Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm looking at some of the recent data. I'm very concerned about the number of people who are being serially arrested for mental health type misbehaviors. So can we do some project that if a person's been arrested, pick a number more than two times in a month or more than three times in a month, that they need to be directly hooked up with a mental health evaluation before they leave so that we can stop this cycle of them cycling through. And do we have data on just how many of those people are are happening at the jail? I remember a couple of years ago we had 104 people that were constantly recycling. I don't know if that number is the same or larger or smaller, but I think that we really need to get our handle on the recycling through the jail as a way of finding out that we have people in crisis and need to hook them up with mental health. It doesn't matter whether you identified a very real issue that I think. I don't know that we actually have data that the kind of general impression is that the problem is getting worse, not better, given the stresses of combat, the additional number of people who are homeless and so on, that the data are going to be hard to compare because we have booking restrictions now at the jail and many of the police agencies have agreed not to present people for booking who, you know, pre-COVID, they would have done that. So I think it will be hard to come up with good statistical data that supports the point you're making. But I'm almost certain you're right. I believe there are limitations on our ability to require people to be evaluated, and certainly we are unable short of civil commitment to require anyone to accept treatment. So the focus that we've been working on now for the last couple of years is developing physical facilities, most likely in the West Wing of the downtown Seattle jail that would be available to people who are here as an alternative to being booked in jail or as a transitional space as they leave jail so that they can be connected with the appropriate services. So that planning is all in process. Obviously, we can't do anything until we're through the COVID crisis and don't need that space for the jail. But our current hope is that by mid 2022, we will be able to open that facility. And that all depends, of course, on the progress we make with COVID. So I don't know if that's a complete answer to your question, but that's kind of what we're currently seeing and what we're currently planning. So I'm very pleased to hear that that's what you're planning. I think it's inhumane for us to have the clear knowledge that somebody is in crisis and the impact it has on the rest of society. When just as one example, you're walking down the street and somebody throws coffee on your child. It's just it's just not okay. And we need to get that person help. But we also need to make sure that the rest of the people are safe in our community. So we are going to be working in my committee, I think this next month or the month after. I can't remember the schedule. I'm looking at beefing up Ricky's law to be able to see how we can do what you just said in a more expedited fashion, and so that we can get people the help they need. And so offline, I'd like to talk to you about how we expedite that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Other questions. See none, Mr. Dudley. Okay. Item five. Not again. Directly COVID related, but sort of related to COVID eight. I think all the council members are aware of the state Supreme Court's bleak decision a few weeks or a few months ago that essentially threw out the drug possession statute retroactively back to 1971. So the state in the budget that they just adopted, assuming the governor signs this portion of the budget, set aside about $49 million to assist both with the legal process around vacating convictions for those who want it and the refund of legal financial obligations that people might have paid. So we as a county need to set up a process of how we're going to approach that. And I will say the prosecutor's office is doing a very good job of thinking through that. We are working with them. We're going to be working with the other justice system agencies about how to set up a simple, efficient process for people who want to get refunds and get their convictions vacated to do so. And we very likely will be proposing probably a separate ordinance at roughly the same time as COVID eight that would fund that work, but with the hope that eventually the state would reimburse us for some or all of those costs. But we really do want to get out in front of that and not wait for, you know, litigation or whatever else to go on. So you will be getting an ordinance on that subject and also probably in a month to six weeks. And because it's not covered, we've decided it probably needs to be a separate ordinance, but that is our current thinking on what we would do with with length. So any questions on that? See none. Okay. Um. Actually, just currently I have another item I'm going to add, so it's going to be eight. And I said. Oh, Mr. Dye plate. You're like, what is what did you mind when I add it? Why don't you make that seven. A and be sure I can get Councilor McDermott, I can link to that brilliant, brilliant idea. Okay, so that makes number six, the property tax deferral program. So I think you all are aware the legislature passed a bill that allowed a commercial property owner whose revenue from their property declined by 25% between 2019 and 2020 to get a deferral of their property tax payments. That's that still would be paid within 2021 by the usual schedule of half at the end of April. Half at the end of October could be restructured to something that was more amenable to the business's cash flow. And so we'd set up and frankly, with your support in kind of pre-funding at the Finance and Business Operations Division, as soon as that legislation was effective, had an online application that has worked really well under the state law. All applications were due last Friday, April 30th. And so I don't have an absolute final update for you on how many applications there were and how much money it represents. But I will tell you that based on essentially the first half of the applications, the vast majority are from hotels and the vast majority are within the city of Seattle. None of that should be a surprise given how bad the downtown hotels were get, but that was the early trends. There were a little bit in Bellevue, little bit in SeaTac, a little bit in Kansas, but the vast majority was in Seattle, the vast majority were hotels. So when we get together, the next time, I will be able to give you a final report on that. Given where those are located, it doesn't appear to us that these deferred payments will create any kind of problem for local governments who were expecting property tax revenue that is now going to come in later. Those tend to be in the more rural areas and suburban areas where you have fire districts and metropolitan park districts and so on that run pretty much on our, you know, as you go basis that they need that property tax on schedule. So we don't think there's any government that's going to be impacted by this. We will confirm that. And if necessary, we can set up an interim loan from the county to that district so they'll be able to pay their bills. So I thought that would be a quick update and then I'll give you more details in a couple of weeks. I am seven eight. Okay. So seven and seven are both related to revenue. And let me start by will call seven eight the sales tax for February. So recall that February 2020 was essentially the last pre-COVID month, although kind of you could sense it was coming and there were some changes in people's purchasing patterns in February 2020. So I'm giving you sales tax figures for February of 2021. We're basically comparing to the last pre-COVID month. And the news is, I think we're. Our February 21 sales taxes are 10% higher than February of 2020. And areas that are down. Not surprisingly, hotels is down 50%. Clothing stores are down 15%. But there are also areas that are up and so construction is up 14%. That continues to boom here in King County. Big box retailers were up 8%. Miscellaneous retailers that include Amazon is a really big item in that is 21% up and auto sales are 44% higher . February of 2021 than a year before. So overall, on the sales tax, the news is really good. I would I will note that it's only one month, but it is, you know, meaningfully higher than what was adopted in the March revenue forecast. So so far, so good on the recovery as we're coming out of the COVID recession. Ask a question, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. So. Board member. Thank you. I don't know if I don't know this is the right dataset, Wyatt, but there is this kind of I think it's it's partially anecdotal discussion that you hear in active transportation circles that bicycle sales are higher than they have ever been, like, ever. And I wonder, is there a way to get at that information? It's probably not split out the way auto sales are, but it sure would be interesting to validate the sense that that kind of that kind of sale is very, very high and has been throughout COVID. Let me see if we can do something with that. There probably is not a category. It is bicycle stores. And obviously there's a lot of we a bicycle, but there's probably industry data that oh, if I could come up with. So I'll ask them to track that down. Yeah, it would be it would be very interesting to know. Thank you. Yeah, just kind of vaguely related. Know my family was going to buy me a new telescope for Father's Day. Yeah. And you can't find telescopes available online locally. Everybody's been stuck at home. Everybody said to look at the sky, and so you can't buy a telescope. I just recently bought a few little dumbbells, and for months you couldn't find any. Anywhere. Between people's different patterns. And they all have disruptions to supply chains. There's just these weird anomalies. Yeah. Things that you can't get. Thank you. I'll have you know the West Seattle is well-stocked in the East again. Yes. You know, is probably completely inappropriate. But we have a very large telescope in the basement that we're getting ready to sell. It just. Seeing no further questions or offers. Mr. TRIFLING Okay, so seven. BE Thank you, Mr. McDermott, for giving me a way to link these two. Let's dig in a little bit more on the hotel part because I haven't seen the data yet for the end of April, but the data for the beginning of April was kind of the first time we really started to see improvement in King County Hotel occupancy. And so the occupancy in the first weeks of April was 43%, which sounds terrible, but you might remember a few months ago it was 18%. So the trend is clearly upward. It's uneven. Across the county, the two best areas continue to be SeaTac, which has always held up the most because it's closest to the airport there in about 52% occupancy. And then the South Lake Union area is at about 50% occupancy at the lower end. Not again, surprisingly, the two lowest occupancies are the hotels around the convention center, which are a little below 20%, and the East Side and Bellevue Hotels, which are about 30%. But everyone is trending upwards. So the recovery of that industry is going to be really critical in a lot of different dimensions. And so just, you know, keep track of, you know, are they going to be able to do cruises later in the summer? There's still talk of that possibility. A lot of the conventions are being rescheduled, which is a good sign. So that remains probably the segment of our economy that is in the worst shape. But even there that the ten, the tendencies are all upwards at this point. So a little bit more good news. And that's all I have, unless there are questions. Colleagues. Making very thorough and complete. One question. Council Member Lambert House Council Member Lambert. Thank you. It just came to me that I would like to have an accounting for how much money we have spent in different categories included in our outreach and in our initial setup of our first mass effect site. So the first the first money, how much was that? And then like in the interpretation where we translation we spent 2 million, you know, did we overshoot, do we undershoot? Do we get it right just so that we have some idea of how well we did? Because I think that would be interesting as we go forward, hopefully not to another pandemic in the next hundred years, but just to have that information. The cost for the mass vaccination should be pretty easy to come up with. It's going to be a little harder to track down the interpretation and translation because it was done in a lot of different programs and probably wasn't separated out in all cases. So I'll just crossing you. That one's going to be more of an estimate then the mass vaccination costs will be. Thank you. That makes sense. I'm looking out for most of the 10 million. And then maybe if we figured out, you know, when we translated it, you know, one thing into 43 languages, it was this much. And then when we did it into 100 and some languages, it was this much. So we can kind of extrapolate, you know, how many different things we translated. And just rounding estimate is great that you do. That and I'll plan on bringing that back at our next committee of the whole. Great. Thank you so much. With that, we want to thank you for your continued work and for your regular briefings here in the committee of the whole. We very much appreciate it. Thank you very much. See you in two weeks. Tell your father good luck with the Father's Day present. I think we'll give it up. Okay. And that brings us to item nine in today's Agenda Ordinance 2020 191 that would ban an ordinance that would prohibit county administrative offices and executive departments from using facial recognition technology. We had an initial briefing and discussion on this in our last meeting. I mean, we have Nick Bowman from policy staff to re-orientate us on the proposed ordinance. Mr. Bowman. Bowman, the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, council members. For the record, Nick Bowman, Council Central Staff Materials for Agenda Item nine begin on page 23 of your packet. I think they're missing. This is the second presentation of the proposed ordinance. So I plan to provide an abbreviated staff report that skips over some of the lengthy, lengthy background on facial recognition technology and focuses more on the proposed ordinance itself. Proposed Ordinance 2020 10091 would ban the acquisition and use of facial recognition technology or f r t by county administrative offices and executive departments. The proposed ordinance would also prohibit our administrative offices and executive departments from issuing any permits or entering into any agreement which authorizes a third party to use FRC or obtain or access facial recognition information on behalf of the county. However, evidence relating to the investigation of a specific crime that may have come from FRC may be used by county administrative office or executive departments so long as the evidence was not generated by or at the request of a county officer. Department for the Community Benefit County Administrative Offices and executive departments include all county agencies except for the Prosecuting Attorney's Office and the courts. The proposed ordinance defines facial recognition technology as any computer software or application, which assists in identifying or verifying the identity of an individual based on the physical characteristics of the person's face and does not include the analysis of facial features to grant access to electronic devices or to use or using redacting software to protect the privacy of an individual depicted in the recording, which is intended for release or disclosure, so long as the process does not generate or result in the retention of any facial recognition information. Facial recognition information is also defined as any data or information obtained or derived from. The proposed ordinance would establish a process for county personnel who inadvertently or unintentionally use or access facial recognition information. This process would require county personnel to notify their direct supervisor that they have received, used or gain access to the information and that they immediately delete the information subject to applicable laws. Any facial recognition information collected or derived in violation of the established ban would be considered unlawful. To obtain violations of the established ban would constitute an injury to which a person subject to the violation may seek relief in court. Furthermore, a prevailing plaintiff in any such court proceedings would be entitled to the award of costs and reasonable terms. In response to some of the questions raised in a previous meeting. I included a table that begins on the bottom of page 28 of your packet that compares the recently adopted state law regarding FRC and the proposed ordinance . As you will see, the primary difference is, is that the state law would allow for the use of FRC, provided any state or local agency adheres to certain provisions regarding transparency, testing and training, whereas the county would outright prohibit the use of FRC. That concludes my report, except to say that there is an amendment. Amendment S1 makes a series of technical and formatting corrections to the body of the ordinance as recommended by the compromise. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions of Mr. Bowman. Mr. Chair. Council Member Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you mentioned and others have, we do have a matching national child search law. And would you explain a little bit more about the effect of this legislation on the ability for King County, for example, insurance companies to be able to use tools to be able to help search for missing children. In search of the National Child Search Assistance Act requires local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to enter information about abducted children into the National Crime Information Database within 2 hours of receiving reports. So the proposed ordinance would not obstruct or prohibit any compliance with that act. As I mentioned in prior briefing efforts, these systems have been and are currently used by law enforcement agencies to assist in the search of missing or abducted persons and victims of human trafficking. However, it is not one of those agencies, according to Ccso, and is not currently used by the Department for any purpose. Furthermore, in the 2122 Biennial Butler Council last year, the budget included an expenditure restriction which prohibited Kessler from spending any money on FRC for any purpose. Therefore, while the proposed ordinance would prevent CSO from using a property in the future for the missing persons, it would not currently disrupt any consistent practices or operations. Absolute. A question. Mr.. I think you're calling on me. I'm going to just go ahead and start talking base. Yeah. Nick, I want to just follow up on on that last Q&A because I got a little lost. So this ordinance would ban any use by our law enforcement. Except if they were complying with this one federal law. Could you explain that a little better for me? So it does not require case you so has been, as far as I know, has been complying with the National Sales Assistant Act as long as it's been in existence since 1990 and that party is not required to comply with that act. I ask yourself, does not currently use FRC? The proposed ordinance specifically provides an exemption. That means that whatever made changes may come to the National Sales and Services Act cases, so it would be allowed or any other department would be allowed to comply with that act. But in using the ordinance itself would prohibit the use of FRC for any purpose or any other county office or executive department. And that's what does make me feel that need to go backwards, because I am now familiar with that federal law. Could you explain a little bit what that act does require? So it requires that any local law enforce state or federal local law enforcement agency to enter a a report about abducted or missing children to a national crime information data database within 2 hours of receiving a report. I see. I see. Okay. But we would. But but our office but our our offices would not be allowed to use any facial recognition software of their own or anybody else's or any data produced by facial recognition software by anybody in order to locate missing children. That would not be allowed. So long as that agency did not request or offer a contract to obtain that information. If someone were to provide that information to counsel on their own, then that would be allowed to be entered or used to locate this missing person. So they can use facial recognition as long as somebody else provides it to them without us asking. That's correct. Okay. I find that really confusing. Like, I'm not sure I understand the implementation aspect of this ban. If it's it's not really a ban, right? Then if they can use it so long as they don't collect it themselves. Or request it. I mean, it prevents the any agency from using their own FRC or contracting with somebody for facial recognition information. If so, what are the reports? It includes the data that were given to KCA, so that would be allowable. So that wouldn't be a prohibition in helping investigate this missing person. Does mutual aid, the mutual aid agreements count as contracts? That would be a question I would have to follow up on. Because that's really how I mean, in reality, that's how police agencies work. They don't enter into specific contracts like you will provide me this service in an exchange, I will pay you. What they do is they enter into these very broad mutual aid agreements that we're going to support each other. We will respond when you need us. You will respond when we need you. And they're pretty they're pretty open ended intentionally, like they're there. They're intended to work without a lot of management, a lot of accounting and paying off each other back and forth. And so, you know, I'm always surprised when, you know, like Bellevue police officers end up in situations in Seattle. And then I remember mutual aid. So. Okay. Thank you. The language is written that they're not specifically. They're not it would be prohibited from contacting specifically for access or use of facial recognition technology or information. But I wouldn't want to get too down into the weeds of specific agreements without first conferring with counsel. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I could offer maybe an example, it would make more sense. So I'm just going to throw one out and let's see what you can say about your case. So we're to receive a report from the, say, Thurston County Sheriff's Office or Bakersfield, California, or Atlanta, Georgia. So some report went out around the country, around the state pertaining to a missing child, and it included facial recognition technology in some form. In my correct to say that King County Sheriff's Office used that report to help locate, if possible, that missing child. That's correct. They would be able to use that information in furtherance of their investigation. But we can use facial technology to locate a missing child. We couldn't actively do that. We were. Just. That's correct. We would be tying our hands to not ever do that. Well, if I could, Mr. Chairman, we have a it's a factual question. I'm not trying to get to the debate yet. Well, I'm not either. And I'm just trying to clarify for myself, too. But what does that mean? Again, if the skin condition samples received a report of a missing child that may be in this area, they could look at it and help them to find this missing child. Or is that is that prohibited. As long as they didn't specifically requested and it would be allowed if there's an I don't I don't want to get too much in to the how the the sheriff's office. But if they said if they requested information that included facial recognition information, that would be prohibited. Okay. Thank you. As a member of our. You're muted on our end. I know. I've received a text from Council member Van Dike, though, that he wishes to ask a question. No. You're unmuted now. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And first of all, I want to thank Councilmember Giancarlo Wells for introducing this topic. Because whether you're a libertarian or ACLU member, this technology that concerns many people, the only thing that concerns me more than the technology is the potential making a mistake with good intentions. It appears that the Act only requires the provision of written information within a given time frame. I'm concerned that the ordinance or proposed ordinance would prevent the county from using the technology for looking after the National Child Search Assistance Act. I could speak to that. There is a specific exemption in the ordinance which says that nothing in the ordinance would prohibit any county administrative office towards every department, which includes case council from complying with the National Child Search Assistance Act. That act does not require the use of that article. Nick. Yes, Nick. I appreciate the word complaint. The complaint does not require the use of technology constrained. Not. That is correct. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate again the. The mission, the audience. But I'm concerned about its application, and I think it needs a lot more review before we take action. Thank you. Mr. Sheriff and Councilmember Lambert. I have a question on page 28, and I'll just read it to you. Let's see this process where we require county personnel to notify their direct supervisor that they received, used or gained access to facial recognition information that they immediately delete the information subject to applicable laws. So so the applicable law would be the public disclosure, which doesn't allow you to immediately delete this? I don't think so. I ask legal staff and legal staff. So where you would have the I guess I should say legal subset, basically. There's a question here. Let's just say that there's a question here that I think needs to be better, better worked out, because we have two laws that may be conflicting and we need to look at that. So I point that on page 28. Mr. Chairman. Council Member Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Then the question of just for clarification and I know some of this is a little confusing. When we look at other jurisdictions that the net, as far as I understand, the national child missing child law does not require use of facial recognition therapy. I mean, the technology, is that correct? That's correct. It just requires that they enter information they received about a missing child within 2 hours with national governments. And if the national law were to change to an act of Congress and signed by the president to require facial recognition technology, that we have to comply with that. That's a legal question. But I would I would presumably think that the I actually I'll stop there presumably is a bad word to say. So I'd have to specifically follow up with legal counsel on the customer. Thank you. I would appreciate that. And if that's the case, then that's the case. And I'd like just to mention again, any ordinance that we pass can always be amended later if need be. Thank you. Mr. Bowman. And from our last briefing. I have the impression that the county would be allowed to use facial recognition technology in addressing human trafficking and child exploitation. What I'm coming to understand in this conversation is the county could use, including the sheriff's department in particular, but the county in general, as this legislation would direct, could use data received, if unsolicited, they could not use the technology itself to locate. A victim of human trafficking or child exploitation. That? That's correct. I guess the the the technology cannot be used by any county administrative office or executive department, which includes CSTO for any purpose other than they could use information derived from that. As you mentioned, as long as it is not soliciting. But under no circumstance could we use it, even in those cases that are identified as us. And what I understood to be exemptions last time. Okay. Yeah. Yes. If there is not a specific exemption for investigating of human trafficking or missing persons for the. So the county could therefore the county use the use the technology in any way, shape or form? That's correct. But I would just like to re-emphasize that they do not currently use it now. So current practices would not be disruptive. Mr. Chair. Council Member Lambert. Thank you. So our line 97. Page 37. It says that. That is Baqouba. Barbara, I'm sorry. It's 94 violations of this ordinance by any county personnel may include retraining, suspension terminations subject to due process requirements and provisions of collective bargaining agreement. So if we were to pass this, it wouldn't take effect until after it went through collective bargaining, which, depending upon when that could come up, our implementation plan could be years out. And so I looked back on the state law that was just passed this year, but I don't think it takes effect until like July or August . So we don't even have any data yet on the state law. So I'm I'm interested in in exactly when the state law takes effect. I think it's not until July. And and then we also have an issue with our effective effect date. If it's the bargaining issue. So and I would just to clarify, that's that is only for regarding the rules regarding violations with those couldn't be established until that collective bargaining if required workplace. But this would also change your working conditions. It would be a change if we were to implement. I guess it wouldn't be a change if we don't do it at all. But if there are getting some of it now, then it would be a change in working condition. So it might apply to more than that under our existing labor law. Right. Again, that's getting in the legal weeds, which I would have to confirm with legal counsel. Thank you. Zala. Councilmember Zavala Thank you, Mr. Chair. We've heard about the kinds of uses that people might find valuable from facial facial recognition technology, like missing children and organizations that do that fight against human trafficking. Has anybody on here heard directly from those organizations about what they think of this law? Because the only people I've heard from our industry professionals and I understand that there is often a conflict of interest with with those organizations. But how about the intended beneficiaries of facial recognition technology that we've been talking about? Has anybody heard from them, from people who advocate for missing children or people who want to fight against human trafficking? I just want to see if those voices had been heard from. Customer is directed to staff or to your colleagues? I think anybody who has knowledge on it. No, no one has reached out to staff like that. Thank you. And to member Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council members, are they. We all received an email late last month from Jennifer Lee from the American Civil Liberties Union, and she included Sunnis experts on those who support this legislation, some of which abortion and sanctions do work on. Anti Chuck Schumer Bills. Reading API. China. Black Lives Matter. Seattle. King County Care. Washington Church. Council of Greater Seattle. El Centro de la Raza. Invisible Eastside Legal Voice. La Resistencia One America, Puget Sound Stage, Real Change and so forth. It's a very lengthy list and supporters of this. Thank you, Councilmember. Once again. Mr. Chair, I want to respond to the issue. Yeah, I want to respond to that question as well. The King County Council is a pretty low profile outfit. People don't generally know what we're up to unless it gets a lot of coverage. Right. I mean, we've all seen this at the virtual the virtual room is filled with folks who are tracking us because they are tracking us. Right. Because we're doing something that they are keenly involved in because they're advocating for whatever. I think it's really fair to ask whether organizations that are concerned about human trafficking know about this. And and they may they may very well support it. And truthfully, I mean, I started with questions. I didn't start with the statement of my values because I was being a little bit literal about the process here. I am very. Intrigued. By this proposal because, you know, when you take surveillance technology out of you know, when you take that cat out of the bag, there's no putting it back in. And so a cautious approach to rolling things like this out where we don't do it until we're sure that it's manageable and that it's not God like that's attractive to me. However, I think I feel myself sort of gravitating to those who are like, Could we take a minute and learn a little bit more and maybe do some outreach to folks who may not even know what we're up to here before we take a vote? Because I think I would like to ask those questions. I'd like to ask that two groups of human trafficking. I'd like to I heard a lot in the public testimony about the state of the technology and how. Good or bad, it is at identifying people, especially from various racial groups, and that's a real concern. So, I mean, this is just like this is also me being a little bit like playing to my stereotype here, which is I just always want to take a little more time than most other people do. And so I would be happy to to do that outreach exactly that you are asking about. If I if I had a little more time to do it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair? Council Member Councils. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate council member foundations concerns and I tend to think along those same lines as well. But just to too, as we have already been hearing from organizations that work against human trafficking, and I mentioned to some of them API, China certainly has been in the lead on that front since I started working on human trafficking in the legislature, and that was many, many years ago. That's a really important central theme that us and others that look at this very lengthy list. You did get it by email last night, and I don't know if any other offices have been the same as what we've experienced and we do for office . But we've received at least 1000 emails already supporting this legislation from organizations and from individuals all over. I think there's a great deal of support and to me, well, I'll save my remarks from closing. Thank you. Dombrowski with a quick question. Councilmember Demovsky. Thanks, Roger. And Nick, I. Think in kind of went by quickly, but did you mention that in our adopted budget, the current 2122 adopted budget that we have in the sheriff's office, an expenditure restriction prohibiting the use of facial recognition restriction technology for any purpose? That's correct. I see. That will not apply to. Trafficking or any of these other potential. Uses. Yes. All right. Thank you. Colleagues further discussing. Because. Chair Shura. Council member Dunn. Nick my wife has got me painting this bathroom because she doesn't like the color. I don't know what what she means up above this pink. But my question is not about the color of this bathroom. It is about the following statement made by the industry industry representative that I saw about the the issue of just using the facial recognition for something like turning on a computer or, you know, home security, maybe entering your house through a locked recognition system or something like that. Do we have any protections in place? Because obviously that stuff is not in my mind a problem or in fact, it's a benefit. But but more broadly, of course, the facial recognition stuff does concern me. What do we have a mechanism now, today or through for council to allow, for example, our local software companies to be able to engineer those type of simple functions that don't seem to have a liberty interest detriment except for personal security. So the the definition of facial recognition technology does not include analysis of facial features to grant access or deny access to an electronic device like a phone or a laptop, because that is a common feature or the use of our teeth for the use of a semi automatic or automated process for redacting. So you could use redacting software and it also doesn't include those for social media. So there are there are allowances for the use of analyzing a facial feature to grant access to certain things, although it would not the way it's currently written would not allow access to a built. Okay. So, so to turn on your computer or laptop and grant you access to your own device, that is okay under this law and your interpretation. Okay. Okay. We're establishing that legislative record. And then for, for example, granting access to a building or for a suite of offices or something that hasn't been contemplated under the law or is it prohibited under the law, would you say, in your judgment, it would be it would be currently prohibited. Okay. So I want to remain open between now and for counsel to working with industry leaders on maybe some kind of a narrowly tailored amendment for some of this sort of gray area stuff that might be in the public's benefit or to a few individuals benefit for things like personal security measures. Okay. I think I just want to clarify on that point. I just quickly, this only applies to cap to a government entity. So it does it doesn't have any impact on the private sector. Great. And also, what do you think of the color effect? I like things thinks it thinks that. Mr. Chair and member Lambert. So I had a conversation a couple of days ago with some wonderful, very intelligent advocates who I've known one of them for a very long time, and one that was a new friend. And I got a very different answer on the reduction issue. So I think we need a little more clarity that the reduction software could be used, especially for our body worn cameras. And then could you help me know the idea about your ring doorbells that if you have information on your ring doorbell, could you give that to the police? And what what are the requirements on our ring doorbells? So the first question regarding redacting so that the ordinance would allow redacting the use of editing software so long as it does not generate specific facial characteristics, data that falls under facial recognition information. As I'm going to preface this by saying that I am not an expert, but my understanding of most software is that it plays like a video of redacting software. It plays like a video feed where it has an interface which allows the individual to click on individual faces or geographic location, such as an address and either blurt out or put a black bar over it. There are various measures of automation, but that goes into specific uses. But this would allow the use of broadcasting software so long as it does not create the facial recognition information, which, as I mentioned, does exist. So clarify on that. So I get it can do it manually, but that's too time consuming and why we haven't done this for years on the redaction because it's too expensive and too costly in time. So there is a program where you can say the space take out the whole way and then you don't have to do it manually. Would that be prohibited under this rule? So as long as it is, the purpose of the software is just to identify a human, not the specific characteristics of an individual. Yes. Okay. And then the the ring issue, the ring camera. So those again, just as that's private, but if a private individual had a crime and wanted to provide that information itself, then they would be able to do so and cases that would be able to use that in furtherance of their investigation. Great. Thank you. As a teacher. And a member of Carlos. Thank you. Has to challenge the question of neck and neck. You may not know this, but have you heard from the King County Sheriff's Office about any request to use such facial recognition technology or any questions they've had on this legislation? We have not. Not on this. So in both during the budget process, when the expenditure restriction was being considered and during this audience, I reached out to Castle. And no, their answer was, we do not currently use this. And I have not seen any request from the Sheriff's Office to obtain. And we have not heard that they've opposed this legislation either. I have not. No, no. Okay. Thank you. Further questions. I think I'm hearing some questions and some follow up members might like to do. Before taking up the legislation. I want to check and see if that's an accurate reflection of. The conversation what were what I'm hearing today or was another intention action counts member number of on power. The committee of the whole is where we come together to work on legislation before we go forward. There have been a lot of questions. Again, this legislation's mission is something I agree with. I'm just concerned that the path that we're taking to it may lead to more problems. Along the way to get accomplished the mission. So I'm hoping that we can use the committee to hold to work on this legislation. And that's why I'm hoping that you can hold it in committee. Mr. Chair? Councilmember Banducci. I would add that the fact that there's this budget, a prohibition on spending any money to implement facial recognition makes me feel a little calmer about taking a little more time because nothing's going to happen, like it's not going to suddenly be implemented while we while we work out any concerns. And so I, I'm personally comfortable with taking one more one more committee meeting if if others are. Jack Council member. Lambert. I would agree. I think that, um, you know, I've been in China and been very surprised with how much they knew about where I was and when they did, um, what cities I've been to. And I don't want that to be in my community. It was very uncomfortable for me to see. Not that I had anything to hide, but I was just surprised. So but I think the wording matters and I think there's a couple of areas where the wording isn't quite cemented in everybody's mind. And I think that also the fact that the state law hasn't even begun yet and nobody said whether that was accurate or not on the July date, which I still don't know if that's correct, but I think it is. So I think we have time to really look at this. And it's important this is very important legislation that we should take the time to start really looking at the language and beefing it up a little bit. Then Councilmember calls. Thank you, Mr. Chair. While I would prefer that we want to take this up today and understand that people have concerns about it, so that's fine with me, the way we will place prominence or maybe the whole agenda. And I can be working with my colleagues and staff to staff as well. I would I would not like because if two weeks went by and no one had done anything and we were just back in the same position. Well, if you wouldn't mind if I took a minute or two to just clarify a couple of things that I think are important, and then I will agree with whatever decision you recommend. You're welcome. You're welcome to your council member. Thank you. I just would again like to reiterate, this legislation pertains only to King County government. It does not have anything to do with the private sector. It does not cover colleges, universities, schools, nonprofits, local jurisdictions such as since the unincorporated area of King County for the residents and businesses. And it also has to do, though, with mainly this King County Sheriff's Office is where we would anticipate there would be any engagement with such technology. And we've heard no request by the the no opposition to, say, the King County Sheriff's Office on this legislation in my office has been checking on that and nothing has been forthcoming . Privacy is critical to all of this. And also, I think an important factor for us all to think about is how many times have we been notified by your credit card company that unfortunately there's been hacking taking place? Maybe you were in silent auction or auction and some of them were. You paid for items by credit card. And then you found out later that the whole system was hacked. And I've heard that on a number of occasions where I've had to change my credit card number. It's a hassle. But when we're talking about facial recognition, which we could be in a crowd somewhere and there could be surveillance occurring following our just being in a crowd of people. And I think our privacy and our civil liberties are critical, let alone that we no hard evidence exists that there is a great amount of racial and gender biases going on here. When we talked about that before, with regard to women of color having a 30%, 30, nearly 30% of the Mr. ID rate compared to 2.3% by white men. There's a lot more I can say about it. I'll stop there. And I look forward to working with my colleagues and our staff, working with staff during the next two months. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Councilmember Caldwell's. And you have my commitment that this legislation will be on the next agenda for the committee to hold and encourage, as you did, encourage members to engage in work on amendments or proposals to the questions that have been raised in this conversation today and at our next meeting and be ready to take the legislation up. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for a very good discussion. We'll look forward to discussion and debate and action that are on this legislation at our next meeting. Madam Clerk, I am not aware of any reconsideration of votes that missed votes that is needed. Are you? That's correct, Mr. Chair. There were no missed votes. Great. Then with Council member Lambert. Herbert of the order I our bad news that our dear friends on the internet. So we were going to do a resolution on you. It will be in your office in the next couple of days. I think we should still sign it. I just want. Thank you. Customer Bloomberg Council member Leppert was referring to Alan Painter. Oh, no. Yes. Okay. So sorry to hear that. Yeah. Thank you for letting us know. All right. With that indeed sad news, we are adjourned. Thank you.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Jacob Taylor-Mosquera, who resides in council district four, to the King County immigrant and refugee commission.
king_31131230-3168-4637-9355-e9e2e36ceb22	The business today will be proposed motion 2016 0085 and this is confirming the Director of elections appointment of Sharon Cortez as Deputy Director of elections. And we have Ms.. Cortez and we have Ms.. Ways with us and establish equity begin. Thank you, Madam Chair. Heidi Perpetual counsel staff. The staff report begins on page five of your packet. I will begin by providing some background on the elections Deputy Director position. In September 2014, King County's Director of Elections proposed a reorganization plan for King County elections that would eliminate the Superintendent of elections position and add a new Deputy Director position in 2000 . In March 2015, the Council established the position of Deputy Director of Elections. As a. Key subordinate unit that required Council confirmation and required that the Deputy Director must be an elections administrator certified by the Washington Secretary of State's office in November 2015. Julie Wise, the Deputy Director of elections, was elected by the voters of King County to serve a four year. Term. As the director. As the Director of elections. Starting in January. 2016. And February 2016, Director Wise appointed Shannon Cortez as the Deputy Director of the Department of Elections. Propose Motion 2016 Dash 0085 would confirm the appointment. Of Shannon Cortez. Madam Chair, at this time. I would like to introduce. Julie Wise and Shannon Cortez. Please come on up and introduce yourselves for the record. Good morning, Madam Chair. Thank you so much for having me this morning. And council members, again, I'm your newly elected director of elections, Julie Wise, and I'm thrilled to introduce you all to Shannon Cortez. And I'll try not to go on and on, but there's lengthy experience that Shannon brings. I believe it's my responsibility as your director of elections to ensure that we're prepared for success. So I'm creating a team of individuals with a lot of experience and with the poise and the demeanor that you need for this type of work. So, again, I'm thrilled to announce the appointment of Shannon Cortez. She has over 16 years of experience with Pierce County elections, and similar to how I spoke to you a few months back, she's worked in nearly every capacity at Pierce County elections and has worked her way up the ranks. She is a nationally certified election administrator and has been since 2011. She's also a Washington state certified election election administrator, which is required for this position and has been since 2003. She left Pierce County to join King County as their election supervisor. That's really the second in charge of the elections department there in Pierce County as far as that auditor's office has set up. She's conducted nearly 80 elections, four of those being presidential elections, and she's served on various state committees throughout the Washington state. Secretary of State's office has several committees, including a voter registration modernization, voter intent committee clearing House committee, and she's presently on the group coordinator plan as well for the secretary of state's office. Shannon is a graduate of the University of Washington with a B.A. in politics, values and social change. And she also recently received, which is a real extra bonus for me, particularly because I'm a big fan and proponent of lean and agile and rapid office kaizen. Shannon comes to us with a greenbelt in Lima that will serve our office, I believe, very well, as elections work lends itself very well to lean principles. Again, so Shannon has, of course, the experience, the qualifications, I believe, for this position sets our office up in case anything happened to me, but also to keep the organization running as she has done that for years and can do that here at King County elections. She's calm, cool and collected under pressure, and that's important. And that's going to be important this year in our 2016, the election cycle. But also, Shannon is incredibly passionate about elections. She's incredibly passionate about public service. She's in elections for life, as she will tell you. And so I think that she'll be a great addition to King County elections and be happy to introduce Ms.. Shannon Cortez to the council. Thank you. That was a wonderful introduction. Ms.. Cortez, welcome again. Thank you. Like to talk about your interest in your job, what your goals are. Some of my goals, though. I this is my third day on staff with King County elections and I am so incredibly honored to be part of their team. It was not an easy decision leaving Pierce County elections after almost 17 years. But as Julie said, my passion is on elections. I, I enjoy it so much. And I love serving the public. I love serving the voters of our great state. Some of my immediate goals would be to expand the Dropbox program in King County elections. In Pierce County, we had 30 drop boxes. So I do look forward to installing more drop boxes here in King County. First and foremost, though, we have five elections that we need to administer this year and that that's the most important work that we need to do. So that will be my goal. And we have an election next Tuesday, February 9th, for several school districts, about half the county. So we'll be working on. That and I'll be I'm already hitting the ground running on that election. So that would those are my goals in the immediate future. And then whatever else my director has for me. Excellent. Thank you. Director West, how many elections now have you done where they have had a perfect balance? I want to say it's 26. I'll look to my elections team here. And we've brought the whole group this morning for for you all two to meet. And we're at 26 elections, six years, nearly 9 million ballots with zero discrepancies. And as Shannon, when she met with some of the council members earlier this week, she can tell you that that's not the norm, that that is something that should be celebrated. And and we have celebrated that with the staff, as you recognized the office last year, which the staff. Really appreciate it. We had cake in celebration of it last week to start off our new year in the hurrah to keep that great work up. Excellent. Well, I don't think most people realize 9 million ballots and missing. That is pretty amazing. So thank you for that great work. I think there's some pretty amazing people with you. Would you like to introduce them? I'd love to. I'd absolutely love to. I'll go ahead and start and let's see. Order here. Front row is we have our election operations supervisor so candidate filing jurisdictions a coordination building the ballot is Courtney Kinzer and my wonderful new she just came in joined us from South Kitsap School District she's my confidential assistant so I'm sure you'll probably hear and see a lot of her. And that is Susan Southern. And we have Jacob Lodge over here behind me, and he is our voter services and ballot processing manager. So he's responsible for staff that manage the 1.2 million registered voters that are on the rolls, as well as the intake part of our ballot processing piece. So when we get the ballots in and we sort them to the signature verification piece and any of those ballots that come in in an alternate format, which in the last presidential election was 20,000 of them. So not a small feat. And that's a Jacob Lodge. And then I'll go back over to the corner here we have Dave Wilson and he is our guys supervisor. Dave has been with the county for 26 years. I know it doesn't look humanly possible, but it's true. I started in diapers. And he has him and his group doing incredible work with precincts, boundaries, jurisdictions, petitions from the school districts. I know I'm forgetting the last three, Dave. And then of course, we have Dale Hartman, who you've met before. Dale Hartman is our I.T manager for elections and he and his team do great work of supporting all of our election staff there. That's about 62 individuals as well as building our own special applications in the house and all of the equipment that's associated with conducting our accurate elections. And then we have Christopher Rudolph, who has also been with the county for 15 years, 15 years. And Chris is responsible for our special projects, which are many, including our ballot drop off. The council has in front of them a budget request for additional ballot drop off locations. So Chris will spearhead that effort. Chris is also on point for presidential primary, which is a unique election this year that we haven't seen for eight years . So she's responsible for being the project manager point person for the organization on an a special election where you actually have to declare your party. So there's a different component to that than we're used to doing. So she's our point person for that, as well as our point person for the United States Postal Service. We have a lot of coordination with the United States Postal Service, and Chris is the point person for that. And then we have our H. Our manager, Richard Moore. He joined us about a year ago from the city of Shoreline. And we're thrilled to have him. He is going to be focused on hiring 500, 500 temporary employees this year to get us through the presidential election. And he's also helping us make sure that our equity in social justice is inclusive and the work that we do internally and externally at elections. And then we have Akshay. And Akshay, as Shannon will note, is a bit of an I don't know what a legend. That's the word election we literally call things that Akshay application. He has built some applications that have saved King County elections countless hours and dollars by his ability to build applications, to streamline our processes and to make us more accurate. And it's work that Akshay has done and others that the organization collectively that's gotten us six years of zero discrepancy elections. And you've told all these people they can't return to their 100 member. No, there's no requirement. Glad they know that. But thank you so much for being here, for supporting your new director and deputy director. And we are very excited by the open communications that we are seeing and feeling from your department to the council. And we are here to make sure that your success is all of our success. And so we are just really pleased that what's happening. And so with that, do you want to say anything you mentioned a minute ago about people drawing on their ballots that it costs a whole lot more money to process ballots that are defaced and it's probably not a good idea to do that. Cut everybody more money. It's true story. Okay. So we have a be informed campaign that we've used local celebrities, the Tom Douglas's of the world, the j chances of the world and our local celebrities to help us not just help King County, but. Really helps the state because the media buys that. We do help our surrounding jurisdictions and communicate about keeping costs of elections down. So frivolous write ends, not signing your ballot. Those are sort of things are not filling in the oval, but rather drawing a circle around it or making a stir or whatnot, or all things in which it takes more time to process ballots so we don't get those timely results that we all want to see. And it also costs more money to process those ballots. So there we've had to focus on that. And I've seen those numbers come down. And so so, yes, it does cost more money if we don't follow the directions and fill in the ovals and forget those frivolous right answers. But it's your right to do it, too, if you want that. It's it costs a lot more money and it doesn't help anybody. So that's that's great. Thank you. Would you like to put this motion or this ordinance before us? Madam Chair, if I may. There is a technical. Amendment attached Mrs. Ms.. Cortez's confirmation packet and were pages that on and that's on page 11. That's right I remember. Thank you. So we have 20 maybe 4 hours and then. Sure be happy to move. Adoption of proposed Motion 2016 0085. Also move Amendment one, the technical amendment described by staff. Excellent. Thank you. So and the check on amendment number one. All those in favor. Amendment number one, please say I, I, those opposed nay and it is passed. Now we have the motion as amended and in discussions. Councilmember Belgica Thank you. I just wanted to to say that what I think we all had an. Opportunity to meet Cortez and. Of course on the elections the director. This week we came up and. Spent some time the offices. So thank you for doing that, taking the time to come and talk to us. Your your experience is obviously very. You know, directly on point extensive. We're lucky. To have somebody of your skills. And experience to do this. Really critical function. I did want. To ask one question, though, because this was something that I think we all observed, especially last year, that the where are our voting percentages? The turnout is. Really going in the wrong direction, it seems, and it's. Very low. In fact, I was having a conversation. With one of our local electeds here in a city that was thinking about trying to do some kind of a bond or levee measure to support their roads and saying that they now have to pick which ears they go based on whether there will be enough voters to validate the measure, which really starts to impact our ability to to govern. So I'd love to hear any thoughts or initiatives that you all will be working on to try. To drive voter. Turnout in the other direction. And anything that we can do. As a council to assist with that, because it's just it's the foundation of our democracy. And if people aren't. Voting, something is is not working great. So I think we can both probably answer that together. But as we spoke before and as I ran my campaign, it's a complex issue and unfortunately it's not the field of dreams. We build that, you know, build drop boxes and they come in hordes. I wish that was the reality. And I do I'm concerned, too, that that that the number and the turnout is low. I, I do believe Washington State has a higher turnout across the nation, and King County has had a higher turnout across the nation. But it is a trend that we're seeing and it's a trend that we're really seeing in jurisdictions that are polling place jurisdictions as well. So I believe vote by mail has helped kind of keep our turnout stable instead of seeing it go farther down as it has in other jurisdictions that I've gone to to point place elections . But I think it's like you like we've discussed is that it's a very complex issue. And I believe part of my responsibility is to work with you all in identifying barriers to registering to vote and barriers to voting and how we can remove those barriers. Ballot drop off locations again on a budget item that is that will be in front of you all I think is really important service that we need to provide our voters ten permanent boxes is not enough for 1.2 and it's going to be 1.3 million registered voters pretty soon here for the presidential election. We need to have more drop boxes to service our voters. But there's a lot of other things, too, I think, that we can coordinate and work on together, and that's keeping abreast of the trending issues of prepaid postage, looking at a more time for voters to actually register to vote. So looking at more enhanced voter registration deadlines, which is one I've supported this year and last year in Olympia and was our number one bill for King County, which was to walk that deadline closer to Election Day so people have more time to register online and in person or by mail. But I think that the other budget piece that sits in front of you in all that that was passed last year is about languages and making sure that people have access to their election materials and their language of preference. And so that. That budget item also will be coming to you later this week and asked for your your attention to that matter as well as that's a new area that we've been asked to to provide more services. And I think Shana wanted to talk a little bit about technology, and I think we probably may see different technology requests or different trends on eliminating barriers with pieces of technology. So I think we need to be open to providing technological solutions to people, generational differences. I think there's some of that that we'll see that we need to be aware of and just be open to. I think we. Discussed a few that. First and foremost, though, our job as election administrators is to run accurate and honest elections. And so there is a piece we, you know, as election administrators, we, too, do not like to see those low turnout percentages because we work hard to produce ballots and put on elections and then to only see, say , 25% of the populace return their ballots. That's you know, that's that's our work. And so we do want to see those turnout percentages come up. But I feel like first and foremost, our job is to administer the elections. So I just wanted to. Pass that on. And I would just also state that I think that if we have things like, you know, marijuana and liquor on the ballot, people turnout or a presidential election, people turn out, people know how to turn out. There will be over 80% turnout in the presidential election. It's the issues that are on the ballot, and that's what we've seen nationwide. If there's something attractive or sexy on the ballot, it's going to get people to come out. So if we could arrange that for every election, then maybe we would see a trend. But it's it's hard. I mean, I just watched I'm sorry, just got a plug. I watched the suffered it suffragette is that I said yesterday and that's a great movie. A lot of people thought for their rights to be able to vote. We see movies like Selma. We see there are a lot of a lot of fight to be able to have the right to vote. It's it's it's sad that people don't turn out. But I do believe that there's about 81% of King County eligible or of age voters of age people in King County. Let me try to say that again, but actually makes sense. 81% is about our voter registration rate of how many people are of age. We don't know if they're citizens or not, but that's not an incredibly low number. And again, I would say that come the presidential election, we're going to see well into the eighties of people turning out. It's really has a lot to do with the issues that are on the ballots, too. So it's a complex issue, but I hope together we can partner to chip away sort of barriers to access to voter registration and to actual voting. Great. Thank you. Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I hope that we can continue to be innovative and reflective about successful strategies, because for as much attention and interest and benefit em and convenience as there is in drop boxes, because we all hear from our constituents that whether they're drop boxes convenient to them or not, or whether there's a mobile van such as there is in days immediately prior to the election in West Seattle, people still want more. Will that actually increase turnout, though? Because drop the drop boxes aren't the only place people can leave ballots. We have mailboxes at the end of every driveway and post offices in every community. What's going to help us actually increase turnout? It's the convenience. In. Yes, that's the. That is a worthy investment and one skill of its own. But if the goal is actually increasing turnout, is that the best investment? And if not, what else is what are their choices to make sure that we're doing that as best we can? Anderson, I completely agree. And I think it's keeping track of places like Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, who just went to prepaid postage for their envelopes. I interviewed the election officials there as well, spoke to our United States Postal Service representatives. And I think we need to yeah, keep our finger on the pulse of what's happening around the country. We haven't seen that, unfortunately, increase their turnout. They haven't seen an increased turnout yet with their pre-paid postage because they had a special election. And our special elections are really hard to get people to turn out because of the issues on the ballot aren't necessarily as exciting. So absolutely keep a pulse on what's happening and trending across the world and and how we can increase turnout here. But I agree. Thank you. One of the problems, the county's going to start our next general fund budget, $50 million in the hall. So ideas that will not make that worse are always the most creative. Yes. Councilmember Caldwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. You may have mentioned this and I. I missed it. But what about having the county have pieces or increase the numbers of pieces in conjunction with other partners? Has this been done very much or are you looking at doing more of it? Absolutely. So. We have been doing extensive pieces around an immediate campaign that we call a be informed being informed voter campaign where we use the local celebrities. Rick Steves, Tom Douglas, Jay Jantz, Nathan. Adrian Wright, City roller girl. Nearly all of our artists believe that one with the most impact to him. They are the pride of shoreline. Yeah, I'd say so. We've used local celebrities for this. Be an informed voter campaign that talks about deadlines, talks about when you need to get your ballot and when you need to register that it's important to find your ballot. Sort of the things that make the cost of elections go down, the processing times go down, and also inform the voters about the deadlines that come. I think we can do more of that in 2016 to switch our focus and our emphasis about why it's important to participate and why it's an important part of our democracy to be engaged in these elections. So I think we can do more pieces about them. Chairman, I continue. Sure. What about the thought of having a real appeal to young voters by having them on appearances on radio stations that young people really like and on YouTube and and on the Internet? Agreed. Absolutely. Macklemore, you. Know? Yes. Yeah. We actually looked into Macklemore and there were some concerns, I think, and some questions there. But absolutely, we'll work more on that in 2016 to be able to do more pieces that are focused on the kind of younger generation and and those younger channels to get people engaged. So I think that's a very perfect point. And lastly, if I may, Madam Chair. Yeah? It'll be our last drinks, you know. I believe this would take a change in state statute, but Oregon recently enacted legislation to make registration default so that it's automatic unless somebody opts out. And I think that seems very appealing because it's not just getting people out to vote, it's getting them to register. Yes. Our secretary of state, Kim Wyman, put a bill forward this year for automatic voter registration, and I have signed on in support of that bill. I believe that that would be a great thing for the citizens of King County as well. Thank you. Thank you. That will help us as we find people moving to. That helps. Just know that they've moved. Yes. All right. We've had conversations now that before us, others in favor of the motion as amended, please say I. All right. All right. As opposed nay. It is pass congratulatory and need to Jeremy today voice or a roll call vote. I'm sorry. That's okay. Yes. Okay. Please, I'm comfortable. Hi, Councilmember Dombrowski. Hi. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Gossett, Councilmember Colwell, Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Councilmember approved. Councilmember phone right there. Hi. Madam Chair. Hi. Madam Chair. The vote is ADA is no nos increases member it excused. Excellent. Thank you so much. Congratulations. I look forward to working with you for the next 30 years. Yes. Let's put that on the consent calendar and there's no objection we can expedite it's and she's already working. So now takes us to our next agenda item proposed ordinance 2016 0094. And as you can see on our agendas, we have not only the page numbers but approximately the time that we have allocated, and we will have the time allocations on each of our items this year so that you know how much time we've allocated. So this is an ordinance related to operation maintenance of the Harborview Medical Center and the King County executive, and the President of Harborview Medical Center Board of Trustees executed a hospital service agreement with the Regents of the University of Washington and a mission statement and admission policy for Harborview Medical Center. This was a lot of work by a lot of people, and we are very pleased that we are here today with a proposal. So who should we bring up first? Okay. Would you like to come on up first and introduce yourself to us? Here are. Yes. Grant Lewis. Good morning. I'm Clayton Lewis, and I'm president of the Harbor View Board of Trustees. And I'm here today representing the trustees, the men, the women that you've appointed to represent both you and, of course, the citizens of King County. As trustees, we are both honored and humbled by our responsibility to Shepherd Harbor view on its journey. And what I want to do today is share with you a couple of comments. In the first day we are here recommending enthusiastically that you adopt the contract before you. For the past 20 years we've been operating under this contract and if you see it, it's 14 pages long. It was found signed by then King County executive Gary Locke, and it looks like it might have been produced on a mimeograph machine. But a contract has served us extraordinarily well in terms of the relationship between King County and the University of Washington. As you appreciate, Harborview is really the crown jewel of the medical system of King County, and the residents of King County are extremely fortunate in a number of fronts. First were the adult and pediatric trauma center for a four state region. So if you're in King County, you have immediate access to Harborview. But because the services, the quality of care are so impressive, residents from the states of Alaska, Montana, Idaho are flown here if they need that level of care. Second, as a result of that, we have specialty areas that people choose for elective surgery in orthopedics, neurosciences, Optum ology, vascular surgery IV because of the both quantity of care that take place at that facility. In addition, Harbor View and the trustees take very seriously our responsibility for disaster planning and management for King County. In the case of an emergency. And finally, if you go to Harborview and if you talk to the employees there, each one will tell you how passionate they are about serving individuals from all walks of life, regardless of their ability to pay. Serving the mission population. So as trustees, as we entered this process of looking at a new contract. We were focused on four areas. First, how could we improve service to the mission population? And as we looked at that, we looked at the quality of care. We looked at how can we be more efficient, especially in partnership with King County Public Health. How could we make sure that we're providing a continuum of care so that individuals in the mission population are being served at every step along their health care journey? And finally, looking at accessing new funding sources. The second thing we were focused on is how could we strengthen the partnership between U dub King County and Harbor View to make sure that we're serving individuals from all walks of life? As you know, when we started this contract 20 years ago, the University of Washington had one medical center and then the relationship advantage in Harborview. Today, the university medical system is expanded dramatically with Valley, with Northwest, with other clinics. And what that allows from a system perspective is to make sure we're providing care to the mission population throughout King County. Next thing we wanted to do in this contract and we believe we've successfully done, is provide greater clarity of the responsibilities of King County, the responsibilities of the university, and the responsibilities of the trustees. And then finally, and this is probably the most complex was how can we create a contract that actually can operate and provide the right framework, the right structure for ten years to start and potentially 210 year extensions? It's impossible to imagine what health care is going to look like in 30 years, but we wanted to provide a contract that gave us the right framework as we're building out this partnership. Now, we started this journey in September of 2014, and like any long journey, you start with, you get to know the people you travel with very well. And I just wanted to call out a couple individuals and say thank you very much. First to Patrick. I believe you'll hear from Patrick and Sung and I literally would meet sometimes three times a week over the course of the past year in terms of putting together this agreement. And Patrick did an extraordinary job of representing the interest of King County, the interest of the council, and was really a very strategic and thoughtful negotiator. Michel also was a key member of the team, as was John Gerberding. And then I'd like to call out Councilmember Dombrowski, who's been on the committee from the start and really guided us thoughtfully in terms of strategic decisions and some important considerations. And then most recently, we've been joined by Councilmember ARP to grow up and gossip. So here today in summary to passionately, we had a unanimous recommend. Clayton, let me help you out and councilmember Cole was. Oh, thank you thank you did not know you run the committee all said I appreciated you being at the event but thank you. And so here in summary to say the trustees unanimously, enthusiastically are recommending this contract for your approval and consideration. Thank you. Well, we are very excited and that we have come to this great contract. And for the superior work that you do, it is to help me with this effort. The only level one trauma center west of the Mississippi River is that right. Now what we do actually is we're the trauma one center for a four state region. And what's unique about that and really so important is that you may go to some cities where they may have two or even three trauma one centers. And what the studies indicate about that is that when you split the trauma, serving the trauma patients, it becomes somewhat inefficient because literally at Harborview, we have specialist on staff 24 hours a day. So we literally serve Montana, Alaska, Idaho in the state of Washington. So we serve the largest region of the country, largest geographic region, as the only trauma one center. Indeed, you need telemedicine when you're talking about people from Montana. Is that how you help in trauma? So we do do tell about we have both telemetry programs and then telemedicine programs throughout the four state region. It's great. I have been able to go to a dinner party where you were talking about the opening of your burn center many years ago and looking at the difference between the old methodology and the synthetic skin methodology. And I almost made it through the dinner without crying, but not quite. It was really profound to see the differences and the people talking about the trauma that they've been through in their bodies, such as severely burned, was really a profound experience. I'll never forget that. So I'm very thankful that you had that capability and such amazing different kinds of expertize, no matter. Where you go. We had a meeting last year, I think it was Mr. Up the Grove had a meeting up at your facilities and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to, to walk through and not worry about being a patient, but to just be able to walk through and look around and see all the different things you had available. So thank you very much and thank you for the hard work. This was not easy. We have calculated how long it will be until Mr. Hamacher can retire after the next 30 year contract is done. So. So. Thank you so much. Of course. And tell the board thank you for their hard work and we're glad things have come together so nicely. Appreciate that. And I just stress also, even in the Berne example, that speaks to the power of the partnership with the University of Washington. As you know, the University of Washington receives more grants than any other university from a public level and especially within the trauma center and all the care. A lot of the research that takes place, the teaching that takes place is a foundational to the quality of care we're able to provide. Thank you. I have a sibling who was trained at your hospital. Oh, excellent. Yes. Thank you. I'm sure we're going to. Is Clayton going to leave us or is he going to stay when? I think he's probably going to stay because we may have questions from him, too. Mr. Hamacher, welcome on board. So. Good morning, council members. Patrick Hamacher I'm going to now go over the staff report that's in your packet. It begins on page 13. As Clayton indicated, Rochelle was a big drafter of this as well. But I'm going to go through the staff report and any of the hard questions. I'll have her answer at the bottom of page 13, Harborview Medical Center. Many of you know, this started as an eight bed hospital in South Seattle in 1877. I wasn't here then as I wasn't here. You know, that came. In in 1931. It moved to its current place on First Hill, and it's now a 413 bed inpatient facility that serves just under 65,000 emergency room admits and about a quarter of a million clinic visits per year. So it is a major provider of health care. It was originally owned and operated by King County. It still is owned by King County. But in 1967, the operation of the hospital switched to the University of Washington and has remained that way, too, till today. As Clayton noted in his remarks, the original contract was heavily rewritten in the early nineties, but actually a lot of the terms are very similar to what they would have been in the late sixties. So coming into this project, it was a very dated document that needed a good amount of worked from a modernization perspective. Moving to page 14 of your packets, the staff are going to highlight the changes to this agreement from the prior one, particularly those that have a major policy impact. And the first is what's known as the concept of support for the hospital's mission population. This the mission population itself is identified on the bottom of page 14. But how this provision of the contract will work is there is a commitment by the parties to work together to find a way to better serve the mission population in a way that makes it easier for King County to avoid some of the inefficient costs we're currently incurring. And this is a partnership whereby the parties will agree to find ways to make about $5 million a year in efficiency improvements that will result in lower costs for the county. That can be, as many people have said, that can be in cash or trade. Hopefully the goal is to have that be in trade so that the services are provided the more efficient manner. But that's one of the key provisions of the contract. The second key provision towards the bottom of page 14 is a refreshing and modernizing of the way in which the mission statement mission population was written. There were some dated terms hadn't been looked at in many years, so this contract would update the mission population for the hospital. There are quite a few changes in the contract related to governance. I have now moved to the top of page 15. The one of the key things for the county's leadership team in the negotiations was that Harborview maintained its identity independent of both the county and the University of Washington. And so this contract requires that it puts the board in the position of approving any change to the logo, signage or branding of the hospital, and lays out stipulations for how and where the logo and u dub and King County signage and branding shall be used to appropriately match the board's role in maintaining the hospital independently. The county's role as the owner of the hospital and the university in the role of the operator of the hospital. The next one pertains to retention of services on the campus. All of the services provided at the medical facility have been broken into core or non-core services and core are the big ones like the trauma center, the burn unit and many of the clinics. The board approval is required for changes to the locations of any core service and consultation is required for any changes to non-core services. That in fact has been the practice over the years but was never written down or a requirement of any of the relationships. So that's been formalized. The board also under this contract has the authority to hire and retain their own staff if it's necessary to do that to perform their oversight roles. Right now, all of the staffing for the board is provided by the university. It does not require that they hire their own staff. It just merely gives them the option to hire the staff for the board, provided that it's included in the medical center budget. The one of the other changes that I think will be good for the council's review of Harborview is the timelines for the Harborview Capital budget are being adjusted in this. Contract to match and give the county time to actually review it prior to taking effect. Right now, because the hospitals on the state fiscal year because of YouTube is the operator, you don't see their capital budget sometimes until 3 to 6 months after it's taken effect, which gives your rule, which very heavily limits your role in an oversight capacity. So the contract binds the parties to a new process. Earlier in the year, it will be transmitted to the Executive and into the Council for a year review and approval prior to it taking effect July 1st. The in terms of also increase to governance, as you're aware that Harborview has a board while Yudof Medicine also has a board, and this contract requires you to the University of Washington to appoint two members of the Harborview Board to also sit as full members of the UW Medicine Board. The there are a number of provisions in the contract pertaining to the executive director of the hospital. The most important two concepts, I believe, are that the executive order. It's clarified that the executive director reports jointly as even though they're a Yudof employee, jointly to the to the board and to the University of Washington, and makes it clear that at the board's direction, the executive director will be removed by the university. And then one of the other issues that arose. Now I'm turning to page 16. There are a couple more related to governance. The county does own the hospital and has a vested interest in that hospital being maintained properly. So the contract requires the university to maintain the hospital with best practices for a medical facility and to staff the hospital accordingly in order to assure that that occurs along the same lines of matching the interests with the operations. It does shift the responsibility for commercial leasing on the campus from our facilities division to the similar division at the University of Washington. So the university will be in charge of negotiating the leases for the space on the on the campus, the commercial leases, the coffee shops, the subways, the banks that are on the campus. Those will still have to be executed by the county, but the negotiation process will be done by the university. And the hope there is that it is done more quickly and more in line with the university campus needs or with the medical center campus needs and currently occurs. The other related issue related to capital is right now projects under $1 million in capital cost are managed by the university, and anything over 1 million on the campus is managed jointly by the university and the Facilities Management Division. That is a number that was picked in the early nineties and has never been changed and as a result it leads to way more projects and was originally intended being managed by jointly instead of just by the university as the operator. So this contract increases that amount from 1 million to 5 million, the contract. Now moving to issues related to labor. This is on the bottom of page 16. The contract notes that the one of the key assets at the hospital is the relationship with the employees that work, that there's over 4000 employees that work on the campus and for the first time expectations of the operator of the campus in terms of the labor, labor management practices are included in the contract. These are not binding. I would describe many of them as aspirational. In other words, what the county would expect of its operator to occur. But the university is responsible for its particularly its collective bargaining and its labor management. And this contract keep respects those appropriate lines there. I've just directly copied a couple of the key provisions from that section of the contract into your staff report. Section 3.122 says that the university shall seek to maintain a positive employee and Labor relations with their employees at the campus. Section 2.3 directs the university to have a process in place for continual improvement for employee and labor relations on the facility. And two Section 3.1 to 5 requires training for employees at the university, at least as high as what they would receive at University of Washington Medical Center. So it's a baseline set at their other academic medical facility that they have to at least achieve, if not better. So there, I think, key provisions on labor moving to the bottom of page, middle of page 17. There are another several other key general conditions. The first you heard Clayton mention the term, the term of the agreement is a ten year agreement with two automatic rollovers. So a total of 30 years unless one of the parties. Out at the at the tip each of the ten year window renewals. The current agreement includes no dispute resolution provisions except for termination, which is rather dramatic if it was a relatively minor dispute. So this new contract includes a labor dispute process that the parties will follow, protects everybody's rights to still go to court or to terminate. But it includes a process that should be filed short of that. Could you elaborate on that just a little bit? What would the process entail? Sure. So the process is what I would describe as very standard mediation arbitration provisions that were, quite frankly, just missing from the prior agreement. And we've included consistent with what would be in other county contracts of this nature. Okay. And it was that section itself was relatively straightforward because, of course, the university has similar language as boilerplate in their languages as well. Can I get a copy of that later? Sure. The entire agreement actually was included as an attachment. The staff report. Madam Chair, it's actually on page 72 and 73. Section 13 of the contract. Excellent. Thank you very much. The the other thing that I think was is important but was missing from the current contract is there was no language in there on the conducting or supervising of research at the facility. As you're aware, it's a major research facility as well. So the contract we worked with our outside attorneys and our consultants on this to include standard language for the conducting of research on the facility as well. So I think those are all important changes to the agreement. The only other item I would note for your consideration as part of this is as part of the agreement. A number of code changes will be necessary to implement the agreement. One of the two of the substantive ones we covered ahead of time the university being our agent for negotiating at the campus, and also the changed from the capital operations from 1 million to 5 million. Additionally, the timelines for the new capital process need to be incorporated into the code as well. Staff are working on that and we'll be able to bring that forward to full council. We're working with legal counsel right now. It will be a very straightforward ordinance and we'll be able to bring that forward whenever this agreement goes to full council to implement. With that, I'd be happy to take any questions, Madam Chair, and that concludes most everybody. That was a very comprehensive report and a lot of work. And I can see why you were meeting for so many times each each week for that period of time. One thing I did want to say is that, listen, population order what each population's requirements are about on page 14. I was concerned that the order wasn't was in exactly the order I would have put it in. And so I was told that they're all important, so they're all first. And so I want to just point that out for the record that there offers is not in the order in which they appear and it's supposed to be in alphabetical order, which took me a while to see because it all starts with persons. So that was a little interesting. But anyway, I just thought that was important that all of those are of equal weight and people that will be served. And so that was that was great. Any questions anybody has about this contract? Well, obviously you've done a really good job either in the pre briefings or in the work or all together. And so I'd like to thank our attorney, John Gerberding, that's sitting in the back is upright, which is a good thing after working on this contract and also and Kim Gilmore and singing and then a special shout out. I know that everybody contributed at the end, but there were some people that were on from the very beginning and spent years. Councilmember Debusk, I believe you were there from the beginning as well as Council Member Haig. So I think all the members and Council member Philips. That's right. So that three of you who started from the beginning deserve a shout out for all the good work that we got to this place. And I'm glad we have more people now that will be working on this. And I think the beauty of it is it is now modernized. It is much more comprehensive. It makes better sense. And we're all really familiar with it now. So 30 years from now, we will be ready for the next briefing. So it will be great. So, Councilmember Dombroski, just something. I would just like to make a couple of remarks of my colleagues would indulge me. And I want to start by thanking in particular Clayton Lewis, who has been how long have you served on the board? Clayton ten years, ten years, a decade of service. This is not compensated service. Clayton is a busy guy in the private sector who does this for the betterment of the community. And it is hard to find the kind of qualified people that to serve on the board that Clayton represents. I think he's customer McDermott's nominee, if I've got a correct good judgment there, Councilmember McDermott. But I mean, I got a chance to see him in action and the time you mentioned, but the time that he invested personally in this was above and beyond the extraordinary amount of time that our Harvey trustees invest in that work and the ordinary course. But for two years, Mr. Lewis has worked on this and has brought his expertize from the private sector to bear on this project. And it is an incredibly good result as a result of his personal commitment to it. I will tell you this, you had essentially three parties here. The county confirms the contract. Technically, I don't know if were were a party, John could address that. But the trustees, the University of Washington and the county are particular objectives weren't always aligned. And I would say we turned to kind of an interest based bargaining, if you will. What were our shared interests that we could identify and get to? Yes, and it took a little longer than than we anticipated because the bargaining was tough and the stakes were high. But Mr. Lewis and along with the county executive office through Sung Yang and our staff Rochelle Celebration, Ian and Pat Hamacher were really instrumental as a team and coming together, I think, to advance the shared interests of serving the mission population and the agreement before you colleagues I think really does that. And there's some exciting things in here that if we make them work and I think we will, there's tremendous commitment on the behalf, on behalf of all parties here and some very, very exciting things in in here in terms of synergies, opportunities for efficiencies, opportunities to deliver care in a better way, opportunities to serve the mission population in its new locations where historically, you know, in 1970, that mission population was centered in the city of Seattle. Today it's not I mean, it's here, but it's much more suburbanization consistent with the suburbanization of poverty phenomenon that we know and have studied so much here. And so to be able to find synergies in cooperation with our public health clinics, which are more spread out with other functions at the K engages in public health at j o health. We don't specify in here where those opportunities must be, but we and that's good. There's, there's an opportunity to work together to find the best places for them. We are giving up some stuff with respect to example leases, but that's an informed and knowledgeable decision. I think it's a good idea. It's more procedure than substance. Who negotiates those? It's a good thing. The capital number from 1000000 to 5 million, that's a give, but it's in the interest of efficiently operating the hospital. What I will tell you is that I think this agreement conforms with the seven or so objectives that were laid out in the motion that this council adopted in July of 2014. At the beginning of this process, they were call that we had a process that put forth the overall objectives and the contract, I think, reflects those. And so I really commend it to you. But I want to take a few moments to thank the negotiating team who spent a lot of time on it, and in particular , Mr. Lewis, because he didn't have to. He didn't have to. And we really appreciate it. Clayton Thank you. One more. Thank you. As we got down to the final difficult open issues and there were a couple of them. President Ana marie Cao said the University of Washington made a personal investment and sent Randi Hodgins as her representative to help get the deal done, if you will. And I think that her personal interest and commitment to this project was instrumental in getting us here today. So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And thank you for all the work that went into that. And please think the entire board for their work and dedication. And it's always a pleasure to see their innovation and dedication to you. So thank you for all your hard work. Appreciate that. Okay. With that. Emotion. Yes, please. I'd like to have a motion. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Let's see. Is this an ordinance? Where are we. Going? To turn it. Over to zero nine. For I would move adoption of proposed ordinance to a60794. And then. Request expedited expedition to Monday's council meeting. If that works on the time frame. Yes, because the UW Board of Regents will be voting on February 13. So this having been expedited will be helpful to that. So that would be great. So, clerk, would you please call for the vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Bell, Dutchie. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, Councilmember Member. All right. Council member Gossett. Council member Caldwell. Council McDermott. All Oh. Council member of the. Council member Boatright Bower. Mr.. Madam Chair. I am sure the vote is seven eight no nos and council members. Gossett and Von right there. Excuse. Excellent. Thank you so much, everybody, for your good work. Mr. Hamacher. I just would point out one more thing, Madam Chair. I know that during the staff report, that amendment to effectuate some of the code changes needs to be done as well. We will, as soon as that's ready and reviewed by legal counsel, will distribute all of that to you with a summary. But you should expect that to catch up with this as well for next week. So we'll get that distributed as we're frankly seen as it's written, but it's almost done. So that'll be separate, even though this is on the expedited calendar that will be taken up. We've been advised we should do it at the same time. So we'll take it up with suspend the rules on on Monday to adopt this at the same time as the contract. But I want to get that out to you as soon as it's done so you can see it ahead of time. So you're not surprised. Excellent. We'll look forward to that. Thank you for letting us know. Thank you so much. This takes us up to our last order of business. And I just wanted to make one announcement. We have I have received those of you that sent in ideas on what you'd like the current committee to do this year. And we have made our schedule now between now and June, and that will be coming to you, hopefully by the end of today. So you'll have an idea. Obviously, everything's tentative if other things come up that are unexpected. But this is kind of what we've laid out. So people will know where your items appear on the schedule between now and June, and we will be having, as part of our committee the whole time each month where we will be talking about our role as local government and being briefed on what's happening in our local government area. So I was up this morning in our city and there's a number of things happening out there that we will be being briefed on. And I'm glad that some things are happening. They're not happening as fast as I would like because a lot of the businesses in the downtown are empty and it's really important that we make some changes out there so they won't be empty for very long. So we'll have a local government section and also when you get your chart, it will show the night, the first night meeting on there as well as some other adjustments because we're going to be going to DC in April. And so those adjustments around that, you might want to have your staff check any other announcements for the good of the order. With that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.	AN ORDINANCE related to the operation and maintenance of the Harborview Medical Center, authorizing the King County executive and the president of the Harborview Medical Center board of trustees to execute a hospital services agreement with the regents of the University of Washington and adopting the mission statement and admission policy for the Harborview Medical Center.
king_8d35f785-6b60-4748-bea1-54d46455b131	Good morning. A call to order the November 29th, 2017 special meeting of the King County Council Committee of the Hall. Welcome, everyone. Today we will be discussing an ordinance to make our code, our county code, gender neutral. The county's 2018 state legislative agenda, the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account, and changes to the county sick leave program in response to Initiative 1433. I would like to skip ahead and do public comment to be respectful of the peoples time who have come down to speak to us today. Without objection, we'll go ahead and do that. I've got two people signed up to speak just by way of background. The committee of the whole offers the public the opportunity to make comments on any item on today's agenda. Each person will have 2 minutes to speak. When I call your name, please come up to either podium and just we are general rules state that public comment may not be used for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition and must not include obscene speech. Although I don't see anyone here today who might be tempted to do that. I welcome you to come ahead and testify when I call your name, Renee Murray, first followed by Jake Horowitz. Good morning and welcome. Good morning. I am Rene Marie, the Public Policy and advocacy manager for Youth Development Executives of King County. We are a coalition of 110 youth serving organizations, serving youth aged 5 to 24. I'm here to ask the Council to consider the need to serve a continuum of children and youth with the funds from the city through tax revenue. Wide EQ has had positive conversations with the early learning community, and we do feel that a capital investment is worthwhile. It is also clear from feedback from our members that we do not serve any one group in isolation. In fact, many families have births to adolescent in every family system. To that end, we ask that youth development continue to have a role in the consideration of how these facilities are built and designed. A co-location model with early learning, multi-use space capacity for youth groups, nonprofit, shared meeting space and a commercial kitchen will all be great assets to benefit programs in our community. Thank you for this opportunity and giving input and for your work for our children and youth. Next on the sign up sheet is Jay Horowitz. Welcome. Good morning. Are you Jake or is that Jake? Oh, this is Louis. Hi, Louis. Welcome to your first public council meeting. I think you're making sense. And it is his first. Excellent. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. My name is Jake Horowitz. This is Louis. He's three and a half months old. My wife, who couldn't be here today, is Emma. Both Emma and I have good jobs. I have a four year degree. I work for a labor union that represents health care workers. My wife is a licensed clinical social worker. The master's degree that works for the VA and helps homeless veterans find housing and services. Despite that, the cost of childcare is out of reach for my family and so many others. In order to afford having Louis, we had to move in with my wife's parents at a discounted rates and patched together childcare from my mother in law and aunts. Without their help, we would not be able to have a child in King County. Both my wife and I had siblings very close to our age, which was a really important part of our upbringing. We want to give Louis the same opportunity. We want to give him a sibling within the next couple of years, but we have no idea how we're going to do that. The only thing we can think of is that my wife, who again helps veterans, homeless veterans and King County find housing, quit her job simply because my benefits are better than hers and have her stay home and watch the kids. We love Seattle. We want to stay here. We want to raise our family here. But the prohibitive nature of childcare in King County in its current state will make that impossible. So using the one time funds from the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account to fund early learning facilities is a crucial step in expanding access to affordable, high quality, early learning opportunities. So please continue to place a high priority on early learning for the use of these funds, and I urge you to pass the motion before the committee. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Thank you so much, and thank you for sharing your personal situation. It's very helpful for us to hear that. Thanks. And for bringing Lewis his darling. He's going to be a great big brother someday. That's the end of the signup sheet. Is there anybody else here who would like to speak, if you would? So I've got a few. Why don't you step right up and we'll just take you one at a time until everybody's had a chance. Thank you. Please state your name for the record and welcome. Hi. Thank you. So much counts for both the LG G and members of the council. My name is Leslie DeSanto. I am working with the Early Learning Stakeholder Group that has been really focused on thinking about the use of one time funds in the best way for King County to leave a legacy with these dollars. We know from parents like Jake and others, including myself, that the cost of child care and the cost of early learning in this community where we know the research is really showing us it's an important place to invest. And the county has recognized that through other investments in operational costs. But we also recognize that early learning, unlike other areas, does not have a public source of funding for things like facilities. And that makes a really big difference to the ability for businesses working on very, very thin margins to be able to create more space for more children in our community. I wanted to thank the Council for this process, and particularly Councilmember Balducci, for the the very deliberate way that you've set up this process and the ability for people to give feedback. But we very much appreciate this motion. We hope that the council will pass it, and we think that the the direction the council is going to really focus and work more deeply and invest more deeply in areas for greater impact is the right direction. And we hope that you will pass the motion in front of you today. I have one hand out for you that has the kind of long list of supporting organizations for the early learning proposal. And I also want to give a head nod to my friend Renee over there from White Ark, who we've been working with and talking with more about how to be intentional about addressing the needs of whole families, both in early learning and youth development. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming down today. Please step forward and state your name for the record and welcome. Thanks, Councilmember. Beauty and the Council. My name is Colleen Lang and I'm with the United Way of King County. And I would like to request that the council consider a continuum of age groups. As you think about the 33 sound taxpayer accountability count use of funds, United Way invests $30 million a year in King. County, in cluding large investments in early learning and students success in K-12, as well as transitions to post-secondary. And we think all these age groups are important and that there's valuable work to be done in all areas. At United Way, we support early learning facilities and are really excited to see that there's an opportunity for that sort of investment here because there is a massive facilities crunch around early learning and there aren't other sources of funds for that. We'd also like to ensure that there is some funding for K-12 out-of-school time, particularly out-of-school time for youth. We think that there. Is an opportunity there to. Really address the education gap in a way that could be profound and want to ensure that doesn't fall off of the list of items that are being discussed. We also, as I mentioned, invest in post-secondary success and are excited to see that that's also on the council's discussion list. And that idea of scholarships plus supportive services seems to make a lot of sense. So are grateful that you're having these discussions and this deliberate and thorough planning period. And thank you for all your work on this. Thank you, Colleen. Good to see you again. So anybody else would like to speak to the council, the committee this morning before we close public comment saying nonpublic comment is now closed. We don't have a quorum at this time. So and I would really like to have more people to discuss the legislative agenda and the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account. So perhaps. Is there any chance that we could move to the paid sick leave? I mean, we don't have a quorum. We can't take action on anything so. That generally. We won't do the gender neutral code. Let's do that. That's how you got here. The next thing on the item anyway, we'll go to number five and hold off on roll call and approval of the minutes until we have a few more folks. Thanks. Welcome. So number five, I recall that in 2016, the council put a charter amendment on the ballot to make our charter gender neutral, and it passed by 65% , which was very nice. That was motivated by the, I believe in part by the election of two new female council members who found ourselves surprised that our orientation day to be referred to as council man. I'm sorry, Heidi, we didn't go far as your item. And I'm just kind of juggling the balls here this morning after that charter amendment passed with our staff to review and update the county's code to make a general gender neutral. This is a much larger body of work, a significant body of work, and we're going to take it in stages. Today's ordinance is the first of what will be several ordinances to eliminate gender specific terms from the county code. And we are lucky to have Sam Porter and Aaron Osnes here to brief us today. Thank you for your work on this. Thank you. Please go ahead. Sam Porter, Council Central Staff. The materials for this item begin on page seven of your packet. Proposed Ordinance 2017 0489 is the first in a series of four ordinances that would make changes to the King County Code to remove gendered pronouns and historically gendered terms wherever possible. This ordinance pertains, as the chair mentioned, to titles one through four of King County Code. No substantive legal or policy changes are proposed to be made in this ordinance, but other drafting corrections are proposed by the Code Advisor. This proposed ordinance is consistent with Washington state law and county code bars to be written in gender neutral terms. In the proposed ordinance, gendered pronouns such as he, him, she or her are replaced with the title of the actor and impacted sentences, for example, in sections that refer to the director as he or she. The revision changes the gendered pronoun to the director, naming the title of the actor and disregarding gender. Table A on page two contains a sample of other proposed changes to historically gendered terms. A comprehensive list of the gendered terms addressed in the ordinance is available in attachment two of the staff report on page 213. In your packet, executive staff and the King County Ombud have been consulted regarding the proposed changes. Their feedback has been addressed and incorporated into the proposed ordinance in attachment three. On page to 21 of your packet is the timeline for future ordinances, and the plan is for three additional ordinances to be presented to this committee completing the review of remaining titles of the King County Code. This work should be completed by May of 2018. This concludes my report. I would like to recognize Russell Patel from the clerk's office and the Council Coder Advisor Bruce Bruce Ritson for their extensive work during this process. Aaron and I can answer any questions at this time. ABRAMS Thank you very much. So I hope that, colleagues, you've had a chance to take a look at this. It seems fairly non substantive and non-controversial. I think the only thing that stood out to me certainly was the change from ombudsman to ombudsman. A quick search through the Internet suggests that that is a movement that is happening. Lots of other places have changed. Their ombudsman office to ombudsman is going to take a little getting used to. But are there any questions, concerns? Councilmember Caldwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just on that issue, on ombudsman, as compared the ombudsman, we wrestled with that at the state legislature as well, and the code revised its office and it was changed to ombudsman there. But I expect we may run into some more issues that will come up as we go along, because some are terms of art, some are terms that are recognized by the federal government in terms of occupation. So there's a lot more in to involved with this than I initially thought. It took the legislature six years to complete this project and I had thought it was going to be pretty straightforward at the onset. So thank you for your work rustles and as well. Thank you. Is there any other discussion or questions? Are we prepared to move this out today and take this first bite and let the staff move on to the next one? I'd entertain a motion I can't remember. Lambert Thank you. The Post Ordinance 2017 0489 with a do pass recommendation. Okay, it is. The motion is before us. Any comments? All those. There's no amendments, so I suppose we're prepared for. A roll call. Marcus Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Hi. Councilmember Dunn All right. Councilmember Gossett Council Councilmember Commonwealth. I. Council Member Lambert I'm Councilmember McDermott. Right, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember One right there. Madam Chair, I Madam Chair, the vote is 18 is no nos. Councilmember of the Grove excuse. Okay, by your vote you have passed this ordinance number 2017 zero 49 of the do pass recommendation. I'm going to suggest we send it. We're going that we expedited just because December 11th is starting to get to be a very packed meeting. And I understand the chair has asked that we take up as many things December 4th as possible. Okay. That's what says here on my notes. Anyway, somebody wrote that for some reason it's on and I would suggest that we put it on consent. It doesn't seem like it needs to be. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much. Can we go back and do the roll call at this time? And thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garzon here, Councilmember Colwell here. Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember McDermott here. Councilmember up the grove here. Councilmember Yvonne right there. Madam Chair. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. In motion when we have, but not going to call on Councilmember Lambert to put the minutes before us. Thank you. I'd like to move the minutes of November 1st, 2017, as written. All right. The minutes are for us for approval. Any comments or changes? Seeing none. All those in favor please signify by saying I any opposed. The minutes are approved. So this brings us to agenda item number six, which is proposed motion number 2017 0483, a motion to adopt the 2018 county state legislative agenda. Every year. As you will recall, the Council develops a state legislative agenda in close coordination with the county executive. The legislative agenda tells the legislature the county's priorities and the type of changes we are asking them to make to better serve our residents. It's always a fun exercise, putting this document together with so many people and so many opinions, but I think it's really powerful to have a consolidated legislative agenda. And so we've got Mac Nicholson here to brief us on it and have asked us to take action today. Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the committee. I believe you all have a draft in front of you of the state legislative agenda. I will start off by saying I have emailed various drafts throughout the last couple of weeks to you. So apologies if you haven't seen the latest version, which we kind of put some new language in last night. But you should that should be the copyright in front of you. And I will flag kind of the new language for you that you likely haven't seen or had the opportunity to review before. On the front page, it lists two top initiatives under the reform, state and local tax system. There is a narrative explanation of kind of where we're at or whether where there has been an expressed interest to kind of reform the state and local tax system. Some of that language is new language. The roads and bridges piece appears on the front as one of the top priorities. And then. The last version, the last piece that that would be new to this that you likely haven't seen before is on the back side. Under the strong community is the very last bullet that says support state policies that reduce carbon emissions and accelerate a transition to clean energy. So those would likely be the new pieces you haven't seen before. Other pieces have been in the agenda throughout development, though there are wording changes as we continually kind of make sure that we are stating things succinctly and in a way that makes sense and capture any sort of grammar errors. And I think there still are a couple we might have to get. So at this point, I'm happy to answer questions about specific items or kind of I can go into more depth about the items on on the agenda. Let's suppose there for a second. One question that I have is, is this version with all the last round of changes? Has it been shared with the executive? And they have approved this version? I did share it with you last night. Got back in email shortly before cow today. They had a couple of just kind of small grammar sorts of changes, nothing substantive that I have not been able to reflect. But as far as the substance of the agenda, the indication is they're okay with it. Very good. Glad to hear it. Any comments or questions from members? All right. Councilmember Dombroski. Are we planning on a bill to annex the key peninsula down there? I'm looking at the old map. The key peninsula. I know it's some place south of Bremerton that be the Gig Harbor area. And also some of the names and some of the old names of communities that are no longer named communities anymore. So, yes, we we love our maps here. I've actually thought about proposing that we change this graphic, but I decided to spare you that proposal because I know that you're working really hard on the substance. So we try to have that banner match the biannual budgets, that kind of a consistent from year to year. But certainly in 2019 would be the next new biennial. We can have a absolutely new graphic and certainly open to suggestions. I am not proposing a new graphic. I mean, the county did used to go across Puget Sound and it's early days. So it's just a just a dated map. Okay. Any other comments, Councilmember McDermott? I would move adoption of Motion 2017 for 83. Okay. I would move that. We give a do pass recommendation to full council of the motion. 2014, 2017 for 83. All right. Thank you very much. And do I see correctly that you have an amendment? I do. I believe adoption of Amendment one. All right. Amendment One is before us. Would you like to speak to the amendment? One boldly adds the document itself to the motion we are considering. So it's in the nature of a technical amendment. If yes. If you think improving state and local tax systems, improving our juvenile justice system, stabilizing public health services are technical technicalities. Yes, excellent, indeed. All right. So motions before us. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Yes. Because we are moving from is ISP to actual words. That's pretty good. So the new sentence, I think it's a new sentence that the state generates almost 43% of its general fund from us, but yet invest less than $0.23 back to 20% back to us. That is a very startling piece of information. I didn't realize that disparity was that big, so I'm really glad you put that out front and center. So I think it is great work done to this. And the fact that you are still upright after all these versions is a accolade to you. Okay, very good. The amendment is in front of us. All those in favor of the amendment one. Please signify by saying I any opposed amendment carries. Now we're on to the main main motion. Any final words on the legislative agenda? I will say I think this is a strong agenda we have, as we have highlighted, just for the record, our state and local tax systems fundamentally challenged and getting more so all the time. I really appreciate the addition of an acknowledgment of the McCleary property tax adjustments and how they fall really the hardest on most of King County statewide that but yet it's important to fund education and we have to find a way to do that. We have to find a way to do it fairly. Improving the juvenile justice system, stabilizing our public health services, investing in our roads and bridges and providing mental health and addiction treatment. These are all topics that we talk about here frequently in many different ways. So I, I support and commend this legislative agenda, and I will ask for a roll call vote at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Cornwall's Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Bowen, right there. Madam Chair. I. Madam Chair. The vote is seven is no nos. Council members Dunn and Garcia excused. By your vote. The Motion to approve proposed motion number 2018 0483 with do pass recommendation has approved and this should also be expedited expedited to December 4th because we do have our meeting with the legislators coming up and it would be nice to have it. I think it won't we won't be able to pass it before we meet with them, but to have it on for that same day, we'll be able to present this to them as a draft to be approved later in the day, not on consent. All right. Thank you very much. And that brings us to item seven. Propose motion number 2017 0496 regarding the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account, this is Sound Transit three funding for education. And this is the third time that we will discuss this account. The last time we discussed this, we had a draft motion outlining a process for developing a plan for how to allocate this new funding source based on feedback. During and after that meeting, we changed the motion to add feedback, I believe, from all the council members who provided feedback and it was introduced last week. We received a little bit more feedback since then and we have a striker to discuss that today. So I'm looking forward to this discussion. I think everybody who came down to speak to us about the importance of education funding in the ways in which our needs are not being met, and that this source can be a valuable contribution to doing a better job at improving educational outcomes across the spectrum. So I'm looking forward to this conversation today and I'm going to ask our council staff initiatives, director, council initiatives, director, special initiatives director. What's your title again? Chairman Council Staff. Please please brief us on this matter. Mr.. Mr.. Ma'am. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you. Thank you for introducing the motion and bringing us up to speed to where we are today. Before we get into brief, I'm assuming you want me to brief the the striker. Before we do that, I just wanted to remind everybody about the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account. The legislature created an account in 2015, and it's a finite sum of money. Approximately $315 million will come to King County over the next 15 years. And the purpose of the fund is to improve educational outcomes for students all over King County. The funds come in based on Sound Transit's construction schedule, so they're a little bit lumpy, and the funds also have to be appropriated to the county by the state legislature through the state legislatures, but budget process. And so now that you're all refreshed on the the nature of the funds and let's get into the striker. So before you the striking amendment offered by Councilmember Baldacci and that sets forth a bunch of goals and principles for the council to follow as well as targeted areas for the council to invest the the funds the council the motion also proposes that that council that the a council driven process where the council initiative director works with the consultant, the stakeholders and executive staff to develop specific policy direction in the form of an implementation plan for adoption in September of next year. So let's look directly at the at the Stryker that's in front of you. And as we go through, there's also a red line version. I'm sorry, Madam Chair. I'm sorry. Councilman Tomasky. Thank you. I have two stryker's paper clip together. I'll read one's red line one. I believe one's a red line. Thank you. Yeah, that's correct. So I got through the Stryker and then point out where the areas have changed from what was what was introduced on Monday. So. Section. Let's see here where we. Because Section eight of the strikers sets out seven different goals. And these are the same goals that we talked about on November 1st, during the during the committee, the whole meeting there is that then those goals briefly are to ensure that every child in King County is ready for kindergarten, improve educational outcomes for youth, experience homelessness, youth in the foster care systems, youth involved with the child welfare system, and youth that are otherwise vulnerable. And for further context, in this motion, the definition of youth is the same definition that is in the Youth Action Plan, and that's the youth who are aged 16 to 25. So yeah, to continue with the goals. Goal three is to close the opportunity gap for youth of color and low income youth and the school to prison pipeline and reduce youth involvement in the criminal justice system. Embody the King County Equity and social justice goals. Ensure that all youth in King County are prepared to fill jobs of the future and finally build a legacy for King County that lasts beyond the duration of the funding. And then going down to Section five, this sets out five principles for the council to follow. And these are also the same principles that were in the draft that we discussed on November 1st. And those principles are maximized the impact of the funding by focusing on no more than three areas of investment prioritize programs and projects that match the limited duration of the funds as much as possible. Prioritize in evidence based and promising practices and in programs that are that have measurable outcomes and prioritize funds, directed indirect services provided by the community being served and maximize the impact of the funding by leveraging existing initiatives, programs and funding sources such as the Youth Action Plan, Best Rates for Kids, Living and the Veterans, and seeing Senior and Human Services Levy, as well as related investments by cities. And then the striker also adds in private foundations section. See there's a there are three targeted areas and the striker adds, adds adds add some language to the targeted areas. So the first area is early learning and then the striker adds to what was the language that said Vulnerable Youth to K-through-12 education for Vulnerable and Underserved Youth. And then the third targeted area is career and technical education. Councilmember Lambert. That's our mindset and that's what I want to talk. To hear. Maybe aversion issues. There's a red line version. No, I don't have a red line version. I just have a black version. You're looking at S-1. I think you. So he's talking about lines 72. So you want to formulate your question. So and might 73. I thought we. Were you say. College and career training. College, career and technical training. Is that what you mean? I'm training. Let me. You know, you don't. Get. You said the word technical. The language in front of us just says college and career training. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. That's my that's my mistake. Was it just. Speaking? I was speaking from colloquially. Okay. Listen, I like that because I think that's what we're trying to get, is all those options. So I'm wondering if just a friendly amendment could say what he just said. College career and technical training and technical. You know, so we don't have an action in front of us right now. But I'll take a note and I would accept that as a friendly amendment at the appropriate time. Thank you. Yeah. I'm Manager. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. When do we run? How much money will end up being allocated to each of these three areas? Is that later now? It is certainly not now. But the question as to when I think is should be part of the briefings, the next steps. So let's make sure we touch upon that. And I don't know if you want to jump ahead. There are finished briefing on the striker and then ask because that is the critical question. When do we talk about how much money goes where? Right. Okay. Yes. I think that right now I'm talking to I think that would be in the next step when when the implementation plan is being developed, that there will be at least two committee to hold meetings as we as the council's developing the implementation plan. And when that when that plan comes out, I would imagine that's where the recommendations to the council will be to what areas are funded and it's been happy with how much. And then it's up to the council to to adopt the plan end to end to allocate the funds. So they'll be certainly not now and within during the budget process next year, in September, October. That would be my understanding and intent as well. So this money starts to flow in any in 2019. So allocation from our perspective needs to be in the 2019, 2020 biennial budget, which we will be working on next year. So our policy framework should be in place, our implementation plan should be in place so that we can then budget the money by the November of next year. Does that answer your question? Council Member. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to follow my train of thought here. We've come back to. Now we were down on pit lane. Let's start on line 85 of the Stryker amendment. This is the section where it talks about that. Right now, we have seven areas for the for the consultant and the team that's working on the implementation plan to look at when they want to explore while they're drafting the plan and these areas. The language in here is to look at these areas and it's not just limited to these areas, but it's making sure that they do look at these areas. Okay. Councilmember Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. Besides you and this consultant that we're going to hire, who will be the other team members that you referenced in. The motion, if you were to adopt this motion, would also include members from the executive staff and then anyone from the council staff that. That is appropriate. Who would define who is appropriate? Councilmember I think that would be up to us as a body. And certainly this motion doesn't put any limitations on the ability of staff from members offices to participate and everyone would be welcome as far as I'm concerned. And I have heard no other concerns from anybody else. I think we would welcome his participation. All right. Thank you. The difficulty that I think there's we have not set up. The question is, would the members of this team be voting or nonvoting? This is not that kind of a process. We haven't attempted to set up a formal committee that would take up issues and vote or not vote. This would be an exercise in creating legislation by consensus and participation by all the staff. There will be a piece of legislation brought forward and it would be the normal legislative process. And in theory, I would like to do this similarly to how we are doing this motion, which is I announced in advance that we're going to be doing the motion and we talked about it. And then I did a draft and we talked about that publicly. Then we took input from all parties and then introduced it so that by the time it was introduced, it contained the input from most of the members. And then after that we got some additional input and we are trying to incorporate that input now into this. So it's really a group document. Although I introduced it, it was something that was created collaboratively, I would say. Does that make sense? Yep, it great. And that's how I would foresee doing trying to do this. Although of course there could be competing proposals from different council members. We all have the right to do that, but I would hope that we would do it collaboratively as a group with any kind of coordination with the executive's office and with input from stakeholders, as we have had on this process. I can almost guarantee you that whatever the consultant and I come up with and introduce as a recommendation to the Council will be perfected. By bye bye. Bye. US? Yes. Okay. Who will decide who the consultant is going to be? What kind of committee oversight question. We're hoping to do over the next couple of weeks? Have a staff group of council staff to define the scope of what what the IT consultant will be considering and then issuing an RFP to have a consultant hired. Hopefully by the end of January. We're going to keep on our schedule of having this delivered to the council by September 1st. We really need to get moving in defining the scope and getting that consultant on board. I know, but Jeff, I'll just ask, asking who is going to make the recommendation on who is on the panel, how they interview the consultants and make the recommendation. So this is a decision that doesn't necessarily come back to the council. And I think the question is what process do we normally use to hire consultants and how can members who have an interest in giving input into that process be able to do that? I was intending to organize a staff group of professional staff to do this and to define the scope of working and to bring that to hire the consultant. Hopefully we can, and I'm still learning the ins and outs of the RFP process, but hopefully the scope of work is one where we can bring three, three different consultants into interviewing and make that selection. All right. Thank you. Councilmember, are you suggesting that you would like for your office to be involved in this process of defining the scope and selecting the consultant? Yeah, I just want to make sure it's representative. So, yeah, I'd like that consideration. And Councilmember Lambert indicated as well, and I think anybody else who would like to be involved in that process can certainly give speak to Jeff directly and then be engaged. Thank you. Does that work, Jeff? Can you do that? Absolutely. Excellent. All right. Carry on. Okay. So back to line 85 of the red line striker. This is where we go through that. Like I said, areas for the consultant and staff screening group to work through as they are drafting this implementation plan. So the first one, we've added a little bit of language and this is about post-secondary and career education. So it would be now it would read increasing access and success to are in post-secondary and career connected education, including advisory support or other necessary services at community or technical college via a private scholarship program targeting homeless youth and other programs. The this draft deletes language that said a guaranteed 13th year and. It's my understanding that a pyramid scholarship idea is is is not as restrictive as the 13th year. The 13th year just implies that first year of school and the Promise Scholarship, I believe, is more what is less restrictive. The second segment remains the same as in what we saw on November 1st, because what was introduced on Monday constructing, maintaining and renovating facilities to support early learning programs and co-locating early learning centers with affordable housing, including flexible, mixed use space to meet the multiple needs of children and youth with limited access and services. Number four programing for facilities, which is the facilities, this new language to support children and youth who are homeless in the foster care system or in the child welfare system, involved in the juvenile justice system or otherwise or otherwise vulnerable or underserved. And there's a typo there should say you you are I'll fix that taper and then five so this which is this is a new concept that was not introduced on Monday. It's important supporting asset building strategies for youth, including children's educational savings accounts. And number six is also new identifying innovative strategies to empower students to be change agents in their schools and communities who can identify and address social and racial injustice throughout advocacy, through advocacy and organizing. And the number seven is also new language training educators in the effects that economic status and institutional racism have on educational outcomes and economic mobility. And those are the substantive changes to the motion that was introduced on Monday. Can we pause here for a second, Jeff? I'm looking at number one on the list, which starts on the previous page and rolls over to this page. And I'm trying to make that list work. So it says Increasing access and success in post-secondary or career connected education, comma, including advisory support or other necessary services. And then where I'm having a hard time is from there on out of community or technical college via a promise scholarship program targeting homeless youth or other program. It it seems like there's I just I'm having a hard time understanding that list is the promised scholarships specifically targeted at homeless youth. Is it something different? Is that list rendered correctly? It doesn't seem like it, right? It seems like a promised culture would be broader than homelessness. It should end after the word program. Yes. Unlikely. Yeah. If the intent is to have the scholarship. Scholarship to be available to more than two youth who are not homeless, then yeah. That would be. We would delete, but we should. All the 171717 council member Belsky had a comment that he thought that maybe the maybe this should end at the after the words promise scholarship program with the semicolon right there or maybe a Promise scholarship or other program, something like that. And I have comments from Council Councilmembers Lambert and then Gossett. Go ahead. This many is not an ending. And so I'm not really sure that, you know, we can have it for everybody. But if we're targeting youth, homeless youth, then we aren't going to necessarily get more youth. So maybe we could say something about targeting or, you know, including underserved, poor homeless youth so that it isn't just, you know , it's hard because we do want to focus where the greatest need is. So I'm not really sure how to do that, but I'm glad you pointed it out because it doesn't read right otherwise. So I wanted to ask. Well, Councilmember Garcia had a comment as well. And then after that, Jeff, maybe you can say a few words or somebody can say a few words about what he promised. Scholarship is defined a little better so that we can understand what this is referring to. Councilmember Garcia's. Thank you, Madam Chair. I had that same kind of comments that Councilman Lambert had. I think it should be Target, because we're going to have limited funds for the most needy. But how to define what we mean by the most needy? You know, I know that we're not going to do that now, though. I was like, then I wanted to say. I think I get it. And the light bulb went on. I think we're just missing a comma. I think that online 89, it was meant to say at a community or technical college via a promised scholarship comma programs targeting homeless youth, comma or other program. I think that's what's going on. I think those two thoughts got completed conflated that are different thoughts but both important to stay in. What is other programs? I mean I don't know. That is meant to be open ended because we don't know what what other things might be we may find in this process of identifying what we want to find. I think. Yeah, because the mayor of Seattle has promised in his donor campaign to provide this kind of help to folks to get out of high school and Seattle. And I'm trying to figure out it is complementary to that. And we're just dealing with youth outside of the hour. Or is this something different? I believe Councilmember Caldwell's can speak to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I had she been working with our new mayor prior to her being sworn in yesterday, and she's going to be announcing her version of this today at South Seattle College. And my understanding is she's not going to be including in her announcement, any specification of the source of the funding. She and her staff understand that the as T3 funds and you have correct me if I'm wrong here, that the city three funds for education are being transmitted or will be transmitted to the councils of San Transit counties, including King County, and that no town or city can utilize those funds without our collaboration with them. Is that accurate? Generally. I think it's even stronger than that. They would you would have the council would have to take an affirmative action to directly give that to the city, I think stronger than just collaboration. So I think the intent is that our funding would be part of any equation, but the city of Seattle could go on their own too, and come up with other funding for that. But we could our funding could be complementary. As one third of King County as the other. Population wise. However. Madam Chairman. Please go ahead. What we're doing would be applicable to all the county. We're not specifying that it would be strictly for certain. In fact, I think believe was silent on that. That's right. And ultimately, when we balance the funding, that's one of the dynamics that we always have to consider is how we you know, I do think it's important at this point if we're talking geography, though, to mention that this money is being raised in the sound transit taxing district, which does not include all of King County . And so we've got some issues there about the source and the and the expenditures that we'll have to grapple with as well. Okay. And answer your question, Councilmember. Yeah. Thank you. Councilman McDermott, do you have a comment? Well, thank you, Madam Chair. I was just going to point out that Councilmember Caldwell's mentions Mayor Durkan is making that announcement itself, Seattle Community College. And I wanted to probably point I'm sorry, something on college and wanted to probably point out that some district eight. Thank you. Okay. We've all got our Mr. T staff out from today, hopefully. Thank you. It's a it's a great district. My pleasure. It was my pleasure, actually, to emcee her swearing in ceremony in West, the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center yesterday. Afternoon in District. In District eight. I hope to see you all in District eight at the 100th anniversary of the historic school, which is now called the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. It's Sunday afternoon. Excellent. Morning, District. Thank you, Mr.. Where are we right now, Councilman Richter. Thank you. Councilmember Dombrowski, I'd like to welcome you to this debate today. Matter of fact. All righty, then. Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombroski. This is on. A follow up to your most recent remark there with respect to where the dollars are raised in the center as a district. And there was some language I don't this was when I read it prior. I don't have it in front of me. But it does talk in this language about serving all kids in King County. Obviously, those are children beyond the soundtrack to that taxing district. And I'm looking at the recital to be specific here in my inquiry, I'm looking at the recital on the second page lines 27, 28 of the red line says, whereas to the greatest extent practicable, the expenditures of the county must follow the requirements of the sound transit summary equity policy. And I wondered if that is in the state statute that I'm getting. That's in the state, like I. Say so and maybe we're not ready to get to this, but is there an issue we're going to have to grapple with there with respect to comply with the subject area equity policy, which applies only, I think, to the sound transit taxing district and the notion stated elsewhere in the motion referencing support for all children in King County. I would note that the state law qualifies it with, to the greatest extent practicable, which I don't know exactly what that means, but it doesn't say it must follow. So I think there will be some grappling, but it also it doesn't have a very strong restrictive doesn't say it. As a follow up to that. Are we deciding that now in this motion or are we kind of saying we're kind of we'll figure that out? We're not we're not making a decision on that issue today. There is no decision, I know, to be made today. But a year is really good point, COUNCILMEMBER. It's something that as we develop further policy guidance and move towards that funding decision next year, we'll need to look at the sources and where the money is raised and make some attempt to to to make it equitable, to make the disbursements equitable, because that's what the statute tells us to do. But it's of thing. This is sales tax on the construction. That's the source of this revenue, is it not? No. A rebate. I thought it was a sign that it was a. It's a a fee fee. Basically it's a fee is the hat that is equal to half of the states. What the state would have collected on that based on the construction and. Who pays the fee? Sound transit. Actually, sound transit pays the fee. I see the source of that. Those funds is that there's some transit sales tax, the car tabs and the property tax. The center has a property tax for sound transit. Three projects specifically, and I wouldn't note with CBRE equity, it's the current definition of CBRE equity is about what benefits the area. And so if you you know, as we talked about in last month, if you, you know, you build a transit station in the same in shoreline and that might actually benefit people in battle because they can you know, it doesn't if you're trying to get from shoreline bother, you have to get off the station somewhere . Right. So similarly, if you were to, you know, have scholarships that that help kids who go to shoreline community colleges to pick on where I live again that could actually benefit people all over the North End, right? Because those students live everywhere. Okay. Something just an interesting issue. I mean, because in the past, like on our best starts for kids, we made a deliberative through the consultative process decision to target need throughout the county where the need exists. And and this is a little bit of a different spin because of the state statute, as I'm reading, it says you're going to be cognizant of that summary equity issue, which the some transit members know more about. Having worked on that. I think it's absolutely true that we're going to need to look at sources and uses and where they are. But this to me, the the the strongest message of the statute is to that the money should support areas of need homeless youth, you know. So I think that that's the balance we'll end up having to strike is need versus geography and trying to meet needs where they are. My favorite example of summary equity. I use it all the time, but I just never get tired of saying it is. If we applied cyber equity strictly and you used only East Siberia funds to build East Link, the line would stop in the middle of the I-90 bridge. So clearly it benefits the East Sudbury to have those tracks actually connect up to the rest of the tracks and. Go all the way across the. Bridge. It's a little more flexible than just spend it here. And I think that Jeff makes a really good point that with education, it's much harder than with building a railroad line. The rail lines either in your sub area or it's not. Education services may be provided in a certain location, but they certainly serve people from lots of other locations. And I just don't think I would I would recommend to us not to get too hung up on exactly where people are coming from and address based services. I'm sure folks encouraged them. Duvall, get over to Bellevue College. No doubt. Got it. All right. Good point. Councilmember Raquel Wells. Yeah. Sorry for the delay on this, but I'm still back at F 100. Line. And I will I was just going to say that council member lines 88 through 90 and pertaining to the promised scholarship and I I'm not sure that just adding the commas really does this here for me anyway, because overall we're talking about all students and if we were to target one group. Shoot. I think it would be more apropos to include a broader term, and that certainly we've been talking about targeting low income and underserved. I don't know why we would strictly target homeless youth if, on the other hand, the purpose of the comments were to be adding something to this. I don't know that we really need to do that because everyone deals with the higher education part. The others allow it to through seven deal with other parts. So I'm not sure what we're really trying to get it here. Do you have any thoughts on that? What was your suggestion? I mean, my suggestion would be to just stop, put a semicolon after program on line 90. But if we need to go into more, then we should add low income, underserved or use that those terms instead of omission or get even more specific. But as I have conceptualized this, we're talking about a potential scholarship for all graduating seniors at in King County. The reality of it is when the colleges accept people and they provide funding, they target low income. They target students in need. So I just I don't think we've reached the the correct language here. Jim. Any thoughts on that, Jeff? I think that if the policy direction is to well, you know, the private scholarships as a as I understand them, there's there's various models across the country. And the one that's at South Seattle College is the one that's freshest in my mind. And that really is is directed at sort of this. If you have graduated from a Seattle public school, then you will be supported at South Seattle College. So I guess what I'm trying not to do is make a policy recommendation right now. I really think it is if if what the buying into decide is whether they want to targeted at homeless youth or any other population or if they want to leave it open for that for our work as we go forward to make recommendations on how and the best way to meet the needs of the first part of the sentence of providing increasing access and success to postsecondary education scholarships. I'm not I'm sure scholarships tend to be need based and we at some point should address that. I don't know that at this point. We need to address that. Councilmember Gossett. I'm listening to come from our where I was saying. I went to ask her and all of us what about having the semicolon off the program and and targeting homeless youth and other low income and underserved as broad category. I don't know why we would have to take out the homeless and and low income underserved even though I was that homeless youth a part of that but because people have expressed an interest in making sure this class of people are served, we can keep it. And that's just a part. So let me make a suggestion, because I think these are all good thoughts, but I have learned from hard experience that wordsmithing on the dais is a really dangerous activity. Let's just take that thought for the moment, put it in the parking lot and get through the rest of the Stryker. And maybe at the end of this, we can move this today without recommendation, fix up some of these things before full council and bring back something that incorporates this thought. Because I agree with what I'm hearing that it seems like what's happened at the end of line 90 has confused the main point of that subsection. But we don't want to delete homeless youth from this. It just may not belong there may belong somewhere else. And in fact they are called out at line 96 and subsection four. So I think we can I think we can fix this, but I don't want to try to edit right here, right now. Like group editing on camera is just not a good look. So let's I will take all of those comments and then let's get to the end of the strike or see where we are and what would be the best way to incorporate them. Okay. Thank you, Alex. Appreciate it. Please finish the striker. I believe we're finished with the Stryker. Okay. So we're done walking through the Striking Men, and we have neither the motion nor the striker in front of us yet. So I guess, given what I just said in the discussion we just had, I would ask for a motion to approve a proposed motion number 2017 0496 with or without recommendation at this time. Okay. Manchin I'd like to move propose motion 2017 0496 without recommendation. Thank you. It is before us. And Councilmember Lambert, could you also put a striker as a one in? Yes, I'd like to move. Striker S1. Thank you. Okay. So any further comments on the striker? What this action would do if we support this is it would adopt this language, make it into the motion. Without those two changes we discussed and the two changes I have are where was the first one. Councilmember Lambert from comments. On 73 973. Online 73 to add the word technical to three. And then the other change would be to work through this issue between F one and F four about the promise scholarships targeting homeless youth and other programs so that we would adopt this into the motion as written. Without any of those changes, we would then move this forward to the next council meeting and at that council meeting bring a perfected motion and an amendment that made those two changes. Does that make sense? So work? Councilmember two Masking. Yes. And then maybe any other changes I'll speak to when when we're ready either on this or on final passage. Very good. Yes, I just. Councilmembers two question to clarify, when you said F four, we're still leaving this language in here now. Yeah. As one is before us to be, to be adopted exactly as written. Okay. Thank you. All right. With that, all those in favor of a strike, amendment one, please signify by saying I, i any opposed. Okay, now we have a main motion in front of us without recommendation. And Catherine Domanski. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to thank and commend you for your excellent collaborative leadership approach to this. It's really it's really been good. And I think the outcome reflects a strong approach. I really personally like the three key areas early learning, the K-through-12 peace for vulnerable and underserved children and youth and and college and career training piece. It just it seems to fit well for for me when we're talking about young people, I go back to our Youth Action Plan, the adopted policy for youth. I appreciate that multiple references in here to it. I might have we're we're talking about leveraging existing initiatives like the two days what I might want to add a little more language about supporting and complying about complying with but something like that and again work with with the chair on that as we head toward a final passage because some excellent work was done there. One area with respect to the go forward process that I think we should include and I'll get some language to you before final passage is that we consult with the Children and Youth Advisory Board. We have a tremendous resource there of 35 experts that we've appointed and confirmed here at the Council. And and I think that they should we should tap that expertize here. And so I, I hope that that can be supportive. But overall, I just think this is a really good package. I think it's responsible. I think it's consistent with our role with these funds. And I don't view them as permanent and we're cognizant of that. I think we have, in essence, some state overseers, the legislature, who will watch closely that we're doing, you know, the right thing here and that we're supportive of their overall objectives. And I think they are. So I just I'm really excited about this and want to be supportive and thank you for the approach you've taken. Thank you, Councilmember. And I'll be happy to work with you on both of those amendments between now and final passage. Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Madam Chair. I also would like to compliment you on the process that you've undertaken here. It has been indeed very collaborative and I've appreciated that. I've appreciated language being added into the striking amendment that we put forward, such as we've been talking a lot about for and making sure that we're hitting the the capital needs and facility needs as well as René Marie brought out in her public comment, when we're dealing with children, families who are vulnerable and I I'm so pleased that higher education is included. We normally don't think of the county as having a role in higher education, but we have this wonderful opportunity. And I'm not sure if you all are aware and I don't know the figures from King County. But our state of Washington is one of only 11 states in which the current generation is on track to be less well educated than their parents. I think that's pretty shocking, especially for our state. That just is really shocking. And we know from ample research as well that a high school diploma plus one year of college really constitutes a tipping point for a student to be able to earn a living wage through jobs and or continue into the front of their efforts and post-secondary education. This particularly is true for low income and underserved students. Just yesterday and I bring this up because I think it's really very fitting. Yet just yesterday, the Washington Roundtable released its policy agenda, urging policymakers in Olympia to pursue the highest level opportunities available to ensure that 70% of our high school students attain a post-secondary credential or degree by the age of 26. And this is very much in keeping with those Student Achievement Council's roadmap. So we know this is a great opportunity. I'm very excited about it and I like that we are looking across the age span, especially for individuals and families who are vulnerable and are in need. Thank you, Madam Chair, very much. Thank you, Councilmember. Okay. So with that, I think we're ready to move to a vote. And the only thing I would say here is, in addition to this being a great opportunity, I think that this is the sort of it's an interesting it's an interesting fund, really. It is unique. And I don't think we've seen anything like this before. But it does really dovetail very well with existing county initiatives and county needs and things that are within our purview. And that is about opportunity and about youth who are underserved and end up in the criminal justice system if they don't. You know, bad outcomes come to us. Good outcomes are happy, successful people who go on to lead productive lives. So I'm I think there's an urgency to this and I don't want deliberation. I mean, we've talked a lot about the deliberative process and that's intentional. We're trying to do this right. We're trying to take our time. We have a timeline that that links up with the budget. But I don't want people to confuse deliberation with a lack of urgency because these needs are very urgent and they're growing. And so I encourage us to move forward and make sure that we start to get this money out to places where it can do good in 2019. With that, I will ask for the court to please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gazette. Hi. Councilmember Cornwall. Councilmember Lambert, I. Councilmember McDermott All right. Council member of the Grove City Councilmember Yvonne, right there. Madam Chair, I. Madam Chair, the vote is eight eyes no nos. Councilmember Dunn excused. OC. Thank you very much, though obviously not beyond consent and it should be on the regular course on December 11th. By your vote you have approved proposed motion 2017 0496 without recommendation, and we will have that on the Council agenda on December 11th. Thank you, colleagues, for a good discussion. And to the members of the public who came out in support of this this proposal, it's very helpful to have your input. Our final agenda item today is proposed ordinance number 2017 0490, which would make changes to the county's sick leave and other human resource related policies. These changes are being proposed to bring county code into line with the statewide initiative 1433 that passed last year and guaranteed all workers in Washington state paid sick leave. We do have an amendment today for technical changes and there may be a need for additional amendments. We have staff member Heidi Petrarch here to brief the committee. Thank you for running down when we prematurely announced this item and then waiting. And we appreciate. You being here. No problem. Thank you. Exercise. I thank you, Madam Chair. Heidi. Poppycock. Council staff. The staff report begins on page 229 of your packet. Proposed Ordinance 2017 0490 would amend the King County Code to incorporate the new state law requirements relating to paid sick leave. To provide some background in November 2016, Washington State Voters Approved Initiative Measure 14 three or EI 1433, which authorized a number of changes pertaining to paid sick leave me minimum wage, automatic service charges and employer retaliation. These changes have been codified and. After 4946 of the revised Code of Washington. Under the new state law, employers are required to provide basically to most employees. Beginning January 1st, 2018, the required changes relating to sick leave accrual and sick leave usage are described on page 230 of your packet. There are four new sick sick leave accrual laws that employer employers must adhere to. First, most employees, including part time and seasonal workers, must accrue paid sick leave at a minimum rate of one hour for every 40 hours. Worked to pay sick leave must be paid to employees at their normal hourly rate. Three employees are entitled to use accrual accrued pay sick leave beginning on the ninth calendar, day after the start of their employment and for unused paid sick leave of 40 hours or less must be carried over the following year. The new state law does allow employers to provide more generous accrual and carryover policies moving on to sick leave usage under the new state law. Employees are authorized to use sick leave for the following reasons to care for themselves or their family members, including for medical diagnosis and preventative care. When the employees place the business has been closed by order of a public official for any health related reason, or when an employee's child's school or place or care, a place of care has been closed for such a reason, and also for absences that qualify under four leave under the Washington State Domestic Violence Leave Act. The new state law does allow employers to provide more generous paid sick leave policies or authorizing paid sick leave usage for additional purposes. If there are no questions regarding the four primary changes for I 1433, I will go ahead and proceed to the executive's proposed changes. Any questions, Councilmember Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. Heidi, how are you doing this morning? I am doing well, thank you. All right. Who is it that would make the decision as to whether or not given these new areas where employers and paid sick leave, who would make the decision that Susie says her child's school are closed on Tuesdays she needs Wednesday Thursday and Friday are to find a new. And that what if our employers said no because we need you right now is that those kind of authority they are there or do you automatically have to give people sick leave in these new four categories. According to state law? Yes, the two have based on those requirements for the use of sick leave. Those are authorized uses when eight. And this is how it has to be by order of a public health official. So if that place of business is closed so. That public health would have to say you couldn't offer it. And has public health said that that business closed for poor health conditions or something like that? You know, I will defer to the Human Resources Division representative to interpret that. Okay. All I'm saying, Madam Chair, is that I just want to get clear that the same flexibility that employers have now continues, despite the fact that we're adding these four new categories that they can use and legitimate, legitimate, they give paid sick leave. It seems like our executive staff who is here may have a comment on this topic. And why don't we invite you up and please welcome. Thank you for being here. Please introduce yourself for the record and thanks for answering the question. Thank you. Denise Pruitt, in your opinion, you're. Closer to you. Sorry. Denise Pruitt, senior policy adviser from the Human Resources Division. So in that in the specific instances that are laid out in the new minimum wage act, yes, there isn't discretion for the employer. So but but that instance that you're speaking of is very specific. So it's, you know, in an instance where so this actually happened at my son's high school once where during the bird flu, the CDC, there was an outbreak in his school and they closed the school down to clean the school and make sure it didn't spread. Yeah. And so it's it's a pretty specific instance. It won't be for things like snow days or, you know. Like an earthquake or anything like that. It's really specific to health related reasons, and it's has to be closed by a public official. So it can't just be my kids schools closed today, so I'm taking a sick day. Is that. Okay? Answer your question. Yeah. And employers would know this. How at the public health department. I, I don't know that for certain, but I would think that we would be able to confirm, to verify that, because it would be kind of a big deal, I would think, of a if a whole school or, you know, things were closed like that that would be to verify. Thank you and thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. I have one question, and I don't know if you're going to cover this. So if it is, we can just wait until the time comes. But does the new accrual rate change the accrual rate that we currently use for represented or non represented employees? So no, it does not change and we'll get to that. How the new state law applies to King County and what King County currently provides. And so we'll get to that very well. Why don't I let you continue with your presentation then? Okay. Oh, no problem. So if I may draw your attention to page 232, and that's to table two. And that shows essentially as a crosswalk of the proposed changes. It shows that what the county currently provides and the proposed change in the executive's rationale. And so the first one discusses currently that short term temporary employees and administrative interns do not qualify for any leave benefits. And under the proposed ordinance, it would add language that states that short term and temporary employees would an administrator in terms would not receive comprehensive benefits. This new state law allows short term temporary employees interns to recruit sick leave benefits only. However, they're not eligible for comprehensive leave benefits, which would include like vacation leave and paid parental leave, those types of leaves. The second one, currently the count. The county does not reduce its part time or temporary employees compensation in lieu of benefits by the value of sick leave. The proposed ordinance would require temporary employees and part time employees to receive compensation in lieu of benefits. But their compensation would be reduced by the value of their sick leave benefits. And so and this is just according to the executive to offset the sick leave benefits, that short term, temporary, poised and administrative interns will receive. Number three. Different kind of stop. You actually understand that. One, what would what does it mean to reduce compensation in lieu of leave benefits? What does it mean to do that? What would that look like if we did it? Hello. Thank you. So right now in the code, we have a provision that if our temporary employees exceed a certain number of hours, so essentially they exceed half time. You may recall this that we got we do what we call referred to as back benefit pay and they get a payout of compensation in lieu of the benefits that they didn't receive. And as it stands, now, that they don't get any benefits. So we're just adjusting that benefit calculation to offset for the fact that they will now be receiving sick leave. Understood. I, I don't recall that because we used to just not use part time employees or temporary employees over the maximum amount. Because this happened. It was such a hassle if you went over the maximum amount. So we just managed so that we didn't do that. Okay. Thank you for the explanation. Please go ahead. Okay. So on number three, so currently the short term temporary employees and administrative interest are not accrued sick leave. And under the proposed ordinance and based on the new state law, short term temporary employees, administrative interns would receive accrued would accrue sick leave at a rate of 0.0 to 5 for each hour and pay status. And that's based on the new state law for number four. King County currently provides 1.8 4 hours of sick leave for every 40 hours worked. And currently the county does not allow sick leave accrual for overtime hours. The proposed ordinance would add language stating that if an hourly employee works over 74 hours in one week, the employee would accrue a sick leave rate of 0.02 5 hours for each hour over the 74 hours and the. The logic behind that is with the minimum state are with the state new state law, one hour of sick leave earned for every 40 hours. The county offers 1.8 4 hours per every for every 40 hours. Worked or not for every for an hour, for 40 hours worked. So that is more generous than what the state is offering. And so if an employee works in a rare occurrence, 80 hours in one week, the county would provide 2 hours of sick leave for those 80 hours. And so currently with the county county already providing 1.8 4 hours, the can, we just have to make up that difference to get to the 2 hours. Okay. Okay. And so moving on to number five, currently short term temporary employees and initially interns did not accrue sick leave. The proposed ordinance was language that excludes employees from a critically. If you are short term temporary employees employed in social service programs designed to help youth gain basic work skills. And according to the executive, these employees are exempt from the new state law. Number six Currently short term temporary employees and administrative interns do not accrue sick leave for employees who are eligible for comprehensive leave benefits accrued sick leave is canceled upon separation or termination except by reason of retirement or layoff or separation for medical reasons. The proposed ordinance would allow sick leave accrued by short term temporary employees and administrative interns, and that will be canceled by separation, retirement or termination of county employment. And the rationale for that is that the county is not required to cash out unused basically to in to an employee. Number seven, currently, if an employee resigns in good standing or is separated for medical reasons or is laid off and returns within two years, the employee sick leave would be restored except for former employment in a term limited position. The proposed ordinance would remove this language, and the rationale for that is that if an employee returns to county employment within two years, accrued sick leave would be restored. That's the county's policy and also the new state law allow sick leave restored within 12 months of any employee. So the county is more generous than that. Number eight. Currently, the code describes two specific scenarios that are eligible for sick leave use. For example, sick leave may be used for employee exposure to contagious diseases and resulting in quarantine. Then the proposed ordinance would add language that authorizes sick, sick leave that mirrors the new state law. So an employee's family member, mental or physical illness, injury or health condition. And so you can see in the proposed changes column those different reasons that will be allowed for sick leave. Number nine, the current that the code states that verification from a health health care provider may be required to substantiate the health condition of the employee or family member or leave request. The proposed ordinance would remove this current language and and language that states that the county may require the employer to provide reasonable notice of an absence from work as long as the notice does not interfere with the employee's lawful use of sick leave. This essentially mirrors the state law. Passed request from Councilmember Lambert. So as to how an employee employer would do. If you have an employee that's decided they're sick and they're taking all this leave and you don't really think they are sick. What is your ability as an employer to deal with that? Unfortunately, the way the new law is written, it's going to hamstring us a little bit in terms of its impact. So we're working right now to review all the departmental policies and practices. We're no longer permitted under the new law to discipline employees for their use of sick leave, and that includes like patterned behavior. And you also can't factored in to things like performance evaluations and merit increases. So we're the rules. The regs just came out a couple of weeks ago. So we're still trying to wrap our head around the ins and outs of what we will be permitted to do and won't be permitted to do, but it will actually be able to do less than what we've been doing. So having had some past experience in dealing with this issue that is disruptive to the work of the government or the work of any business. So you said the regs I see here that you have an RTW is is what you just said. Is it in the RTW itself or in the regs referring to the RTW? It's in there. It's vaguely in the RTW, in the Minimum Wage Act. It's more specifically in the wax. Okay. So I think we need to petition that the WACC be reviewed and to make that clear, because that is not good government policy or business policy. So I know that there is a lot of the whole because this applies to every employer in the state. So as you can imagine, there's a lot of and and the fact that, you know, they they pushed the rules out so late in the year and it takes effect January 1st. You know, everybody's scrambling to try to figure. Out one, how to implement the changes and then to how to how to deal with the new regulations. So I think that there will be a lot of employers making those comments. So I was once on day work, you know, if you, A.J., like it. But it's the group that oversees how the work it's interpreted to the CW. And let's just say there's a lot of creativeness in how that happens sometimes. So I think if we could go back and look at that, but I think we need to really press on this. This is not an acceptable change and can be very disruptive to businesses and government and say, okay. Thank you. Please go ahead. Okay. So moving on on to number ten on page 235 of your packet. Currently, if a county employee fails to return to work by the expiration date of the leave of absence, it may cause for removal or termination. And under the proposed ordinance, it would remove this language. And the rationale for that is that this is no longer permissible under the new state law. Number 11 currently the code states that verification from a health care provider may be required to serve substantially of health condition or of the employee or family member for leave requests. The proposed ordinance remove this language as we just discussed, and would add language that states that verification of an employee's sick leave is for an authorized purpose, may be required for absences in excess of three days. Also, verification may not result in an unreasonable burden or expense on the employee and may not exceed privacy or verification requirements otherwise established by law. And this new language mirrors the new state law. Moving on to number 12 on page 236 of the packet. Currently, county employees accrued sick leave on the first day of employment. The proposed ordinance would remove this language and this is the rationale for this is that is not current, not the current practice at the county and it's not permissible under the new state law. Number 13 Currently the county employees are not allowed to use vacation leave during the first six months of employment. The proposed ordinance would remove this language and allow an employee to utilize vacation leave during the first six months. This will be reflected in the master labor agreement for representative employees that will be forthcoming to the Council and the Executive will recommend the same policy for non reporter for not represented employees. The remaining changes are technical, so I won't get into those. The 2018 costs for implementing I 1433 is approximately 607,000, which of which 221,000 will be charged to the general fund? That concludes my staff report. And Madam Chair, there is a striking amendment to the proposed ordinance that would define two terms and make technical changes. Okay. Thank you both very much for walking us through. This is a technical exercise. This is a pretty major change for us. I guess I want to preface this by saying that the the concept is, of course, something that this county strongly supports and endorses the idea that people should be able to take time off when they're sick. You may hear a little bit of raspy ness in my voice today. I blame one of my colleagues who didn't stay home when he was sick. Sorry, it's not fair, but I do. I blame him. And so I want people to stay home when they're sick for selfish reasons, but also because we owe it to our employees and the people who work here to be able to get well to be with their family members when they need sick time. This statute, in my view, is addressing employers that have long not valued that sick leave benefit the way this employer has. And so I support the concept behind it completely that that should be the standard that people should be able to take sick leave when they need it. The challenge is that when you run a especially a large, complicated operation with a lot of different employees, with a lot of moving parts, with operations that are required to go 24, seven hour wastewater treatment plan has to run 24, seven. Our jails have to run 24, seven hour police have to be out 24, seven. It does become more and more difficult to staff those functions, not at a reasonable cost at all, to have people in place to do the things we need them to do. If we don't have the ability to manage attendance in some way at the same time that we are balancing the employees need. And so I share the concerns that were articulated by Councilmember Lambert. And I look to item 11 about employment verification. And I'll just say there is a practical reality here. There are not too many doctors that won't sign a note for their patients for whatever reason, whenever. And I just don't know that we're going to be able to practically manage attendance with these kind of rules. So I, I share the concern that in trying to do the right thing, we not kind of overcorrect to the point where we actually can't run our. Operations for the benefit of the observer taxpaying and the public we represent. That said, it is a law and we have to follow it. And so I don't see much option other than to pass this ordinance and continue to work through our legislative advocacy to make sure that in doing the right thing, we're not unduly hampering and hampering hamper rating. I mean, in a word, hampering employers who who need to provide services. So with that, I would ask Council Member McDermott to put this item in front of us. And as a reminder, it is proposed ordinance number 2017 0490. Madam Chair, I would move the committee the whole of the to pass recommendation to ordinance 2017 490. Thank you, Mr. McDermott. And would you also move striker s. William Sherry move adoption of Striking Amendment One. Thank you. Would you care to speak to it? I think it's an excellent, striking amendment. Thank you, sir. Very good. Any further comments from this council member? Kolawole. Sorry. Yes. If I may. Yeah. Madam Chair, there is also an amendment to the striking amendment sponsored by Council Member Cole Wells. And if the Council member wishes, the amendment will be distributed. And I can say. Thank you very much. I was looking for it. Thanks. Please. Councilmember Wells, that's being passed out. Would you like to speak to it? I'm speaking without saying it. It's right here. However, thank you. So this amendment, it's it's mentioned in the effect statement would allow county employees to utilize sick leave to increase their safety if they or family member have been a victim of trafficking. Okay. And if I may speak on that, I'm sort. Of considering I consider it. Have you moved it? Put it before us. Please speak to it. Yes. This is similar to a law that just passed in New York City. And we know that there are issues relating to human trafficking here in King County. We recently had a report that was accepted by the full council that came from a consultant that deals with labor trafficking in King County. We've already done quite a work on sex trafficking. So victims of trafficking, domestic violence and sexual abuse, as well as their family members will, if this amendment is adopted, would all be able to have time off from work to plan their next steps, especially being able to focus on safety without fear of loss of income. We know that individuals at times have to go to court because of having been victimized by these terrible scourges, and many are fearful of their safety, especially if they've been brought into the country for purposes, for illicit purposes. And I think we should follow the example of New York and adopt this amendment. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. How many additional days can a person take off from work if they indicate the hours that they think their daughter is, you know, being turned down on the block or something like that? Traffic. Well, I'm assuming that this does not give any additional time off from work. It just would allow these individuals to be able to, you know, to utilize what's available for all other to. Utilize sick leave for that. Purpose. But they wouldn't get extra simply. Correct? Correct. Or not in addition to it's whatever the sick leave accrued by the employee. I'm going. What is the definition of traffic like? Like like for example, I is like getting a young lady that's in your household to work for them or or. Not answering her calls because. You're under a state law as well as federal law. And I'm just remembering this and I'm not looking at the definition that trafficking involves force, fraud or coercion. And as such, it's very difficult for people to get out of that and actually be able to come forward. I don't think this would be utilized by many people, but it does exist. We know it exists. And so I'm expanding the availability of sick leave for those individuals for purposes of safety and security. Can one of you remind me what our current practice is and policy about sort of safe leave if people are going to court or fleeing domestic violence or I believe we have a policy that says you can use sick leave for those kinds of purposes. Is that correct? State allows it. So this would kind of expand that concept just to include people who are fleeing or exiting trafficking and or have been trafficked for their safety. It's really consistent in my mind with the whole idea of the sick leave expansion that's happened some time ago now for for domestic violence victims. And I think it makes good sense. I'm happy to support this amendment. Council Member. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just would like to clarify here we are talking about providing options to individuals or because of their family member has been. Understood. Without fear of repercussion at their job. Yeah. Councilmember Dombroski about chair great amendment. Thank you. Councilman Caldwell's for bring it forward and it looks great. I think in concept I have a technical question and it applies to this, but all of this and that is do these changes have to be negotiated with our labor partners? And if they do, have they and if they all have to be negotiated, have we consulted with them for feedback? Yes, to all of the above. So we are so they can't waive it. So the so we have to bargain the effects, right. So the the unions will still have to comply with the laws. So we will have to make some changes to some of our CBAs and Office of Labor Relations is currently going through the contracts to determine which contracts will need to be changed. For the most part, I think the the labor unions will be fine with most of the changes because most of the changes are actually beneficial to two employees. There is a weird thing about what's the word I want to use incentive programs that we'll have to eliminate. Like some of our contracts have incentive programs, and you may be aware of a council member from DHS that encourages employees not to use their sick leave, that they're then if they don't use sick leave for the year, they're able to convert a certain number of days to vacation leave. We will no longer be allowed to do that under the new law because there it's discouraging people from using sick leave. So we're working on those things right now. And like I said, labor relations hasn't is I know there is a meeting on Monday, I believe, to talk with the labor unions to notify them that we will be working on that with them. So on Councilmember Caldwell's amendment to allow the use of sick time to increase the safety of the employee or family member when the employer founder has been a victim of trafficking inspired state law, would that have to be negotiated? I mean, there's some terms in there. You know, you could see questions with a family member. Maybe that's the fine. I don't know. But is that something that would have to be negotiated? Can we and I really like the idea. Can we just add it on here and or how does that work? I don't think so. I'm going back to my paid leave. Yeah. Yeah. You know you will because it was a we were adding on a benefit, but. Right. You had to negotiate it. And some of the other ones, like the domestic violence, one is is in the law. So there has to be compliance with that. In theory, yes, they could push back on this, I think, and I can see from a practice I also agree with this amendment. But from a practitioner standpoint, I can already hear some of the departments saying, how do we confirm that that's that's what it's being used for. Was there as their language in the underlying ordinance that calls for negotiation. Of these terms. I mean, all of them. No, it doesn't need to be in the order. I mean, we have to do it regardless. So. Yeah. So I it seems to me we should adopt this and move it forward in that there are technical, legal or labor issues between now counsel will figure out how to address. Well, as you know, the ordinance, I mean, applies to our non-representative employees regardless. And then yeah. So that if it'll apply to anybody that doesn't have something different in their contract. Madam Chair. Yes. Member. Yeah, I appreciate the support that I'm hearing. I think it would be helpful. Before we go to the full council with a vote there is that we got a copy of the state law that I think W is applicable here. Okay. Thank you. All right. I think we're prepared now to vote on Amendment One to s one. All those in favor please signify by saying i, i any. Opposed. Amendment one is adopted. That brings us to Amendment S1. Any further comments or questions on the striking amendment? Seeing none. All those in favor of S1 please signify by saying i. I any opposed S1 carries. And now we are back to. The. Proposed ordinance itself. 2017 0490. The only thing I would say before final passage here is this cost of $600,000 is for one year. It's in the 20 1718 biennium, but it's being implemented on January one. So this means this implementation of this new law is going to cost us a King County $1.2 million every biennium. Just it's understanding it's the right thing to do to have robust sick and sick leave programs. But we we just need to remember that there's a balance. We also have to provide services effectively and efficiently to the public. But this is being driven by a state law change that I believe we have no no ability but to implement. And it's got some really good things in it, along with some things that seem challenging. So I will support it, but look forward to working to perfect the whole concept of attendance management as we go forward. All right. Any other comments? Well, the court, please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garcia. Hi. Councilmember Cornwall I Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Hi, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne right there. Madam Chair. Hi, Madam Chair. The vote is six eyes no nos. Council members Dunn, Lambert and Van Dyck. They were excused. Okay. By your vote, will you have approved proposed ordinance number 2017 0490 be advanced to the full council with a do pass recommendation? Is there any need to expedite this? It doesn't seem like it. If you would like to get there on December 4th and not have, you know, full council packed on December 11, though, that will be just. It can seem like there's any objection. And without objection, I'll also ask for it to be on the consent agenda so we don't have to go through this again. Oh, amendments. Yes. Just one potential technical amendment. Well, then we'll put it on the consent end. So sorry. All right. This brings us to the end of our agenda today. Our next and final meeting of 2017 will be next Wednesday, December 6th, when we will anticipate discussing the elimination of unnecessary reports. I'm super excited about getting an update on the East Side rail corridor, reviewing a report on the county's plans for addressing technology related emergencies and receiving the last briefing of the year on the county's human resources programs, including diversity and hiring. And I look forward to seeing you all. Then we are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE clarifying Title 1, Title 2, Title 3, Title 4 and Title 4A of the King County Code, establishing a gender neutral code and making technical corrections; and amending Ordinance 1371, Section 1, and K.C.C. 1.02.010, Ordinance 11348, Section 2, and K.C.C. 1.05.020, Ordinance 11348, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.05.040, Ordinance 13320, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.07.020, Ordinance 13320, Section 3, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.07.030, Ordinance 13320, Section 4, and K.C.C. 1.07.040, Ordinance 13320, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.07.050, Ordinance 13320, Section 7, and K.C.C. 1.07.070, Ordinance 13320, Section 8, and K.C.C. 1.07.080, Ordinance 13320, Section 10, and K.C.C. 1.07.100, Ordinance 13320, Section 12, and K.C.C. 1.07.120, Ordinance 13320, Section 14, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.07.140, Ordinance 13320, Section 15, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.07.150, Ordinance 159, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.16.020, Ordinance 159, Section 8, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.16.080, Ordinance 159, Section 9, and K.C.C. 1.16.090, Ordinance 11683, Section 9, as amended, and
king_30efacf5-6b1b-4038-88f4-c19a2b1cf3b4	Ready? Clear. Okay. Good morning. I'd like to welcome everybody to the July 20th, 2022 meeting of the Committee of the whole. I am the Chair King County Council Member Jean Cole Wells. And before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the King County Courthouse is on the unceded ancestral lands of the Duwamish people past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the dew on this tribe. Today's committee of the whole meeting is the second meeting on the topic of preventing gun violence. We have two more panels today and we will be taking possible action on a motion requesting the executive assess the feasibility of a voluntary firearm and ammunition buyback program. This has been introduced by Councilmember Dombroski because of the immense amount of information and abundance of experts on this issue and because of a great deal of public interest in this topic, we have decided to add a third meeting and garnishes to our agenda for the council meeting in August. That will be held on August 17th at the same time. Before we get to these items, however, we will begin today's meeting with action on four appointments to King County's Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force, and a motion also sponsored by council members. Hello. Requesting that the Executive develop an operational plan for sheltering the most vulnerable King County residents in the event of extreme cold or heat or wildfire smoke, which we already have, unfortunately, in our state. And now we will start with calling the wrong man. Thank you for your calls. Councilmember Val Dutchie, Councilmember Butt Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember McDermott. Here. Councilmember Perry here. Councilmember up the grove here. Councilmember Vaughn rank power here. Councilmember Zal I. Hear. Charcoal wells here. Charcoal wells you have and councilmembers. Dunn and Baldacci excuse me. Do have a quorum. Thank you very much. And I'm certain they will be coming on shortly. Councilmember McDermott, would you please move to approve the minutes from our July six, 2022 meeting? I remember approval of the July 6th meeting minutes. Thank you. I'm all in favor indicate by saying i, i i any opposed say no. The minutes have been approved. We will now turn to public comment and now include do we have individuals who have signed up on line? It looks like we have some people here in the chamber. Chair Cole Well, there's one group logged into Zoom to provide public comment. Okay. One, one. Okay. Well, we will go ahead with public comment. Looks like we may have a few, both here in the chamber and through Zoom public comment, as I'm sure most people know by now, must be related to items on today's meeting agenda and must not be used for the purpose of assisting any campaign for any election. It also must not include obscene speech or be disruptive to the working of this committee and its proceedings. If the Speaker fails to abide by these restricted restrictions, I will rule that person out of order and have the speaker removed from the meeting. I, in the case of our visitors through Zoom, the microphone would be turned off. You will have 2 minutes to speak and we'll hear a timer go off and you can finish your thought. But please wrap up your comments. And if you go past 2 minutes by much, you may be muted. We will begin by calling on the people whose who have signed up to speak in person. If you are providing comment remotely, please listen to the meeting on the zoom call and until you hear your name called. Okay, let's go ahead with those of us who are in person today. Who is. Speaker. Thank you. Tirico whistles Alex Zimmerman. Jill Kyle, my daughter. Damn Nazi fascism, banditry and psychopath who speak to us from that heaven. My name. I like to meet them and I won't speak about agenda number ten, about gun. I am in military. So everybody in normal people, Korean military, you know, everyone quarters. You're talking about the gun. It's a pure propaganda, stupid propaganda for this democratic world for you in combat definition, IED or slip. It's exactly what's happened. I give you a couple example because I am in the military. I know what is. I'm talking about. America have 500 million guns. 500 million guns. How you can stop in black market from 500 million guns or nobody knows this and you don't know this to. Yes, number one. Number two, shoot people. It's not good. Not matter whether this happened in houses, happened in Vietnam, Ukraine or in America. It's not a murder murder stupidity because ten Bullet Magazine is a pure idiotic propaganda for Change magazine. New 3/2 how we can stop and people who change magazine for 3 seconds. How ten, 3 seconds, then 3 seconds and 3 seconds. So for five, 10/2 you can kill 30 people. Why you brainwash this idiot? You know exactly in Seattle. Because Seattle is a unique place of slave in Zambia. No. At this mean when for 15/2 you can kill 30 people. How is this possible? Why are you talking about with this? Are you are crazy in many from you don't have experience with military equipment. So this exactly what is I told you stand up America Collins's dirty chamber from this psychopath and people cops the silently idiotic same people that have. Next Jericho Wells. No one else has signed up for public comment in person. Okay. Thank you. And who is our first individual to speak on our Zoom call? Jericho Wells. We have Alliance for Gun Responsibility logged in to provide public comment. Okay, so there's no one I can clear, right? Alliance for Gun Accountability. You may unmute and provide a public comment at this time. I'm not quite understanding it. It's a group. Okay. So would you like to go ahead and start? How many people are in the group. Trying to get them going? Alliance for Gun Responsibility. If you wish to provide a public comment at this time, you may unmute and do so. Hey, sorry about that. Our CEO, Rene Hopkins, should be speaking as she is. She log in. And Rene will be speaking in on the first panel on our program. Got it. She's going to be taking care of our public comments after the confusion. Kate, is Rene on now? Okay. Go ahead, Rene. Hi there. Are we starting the first panel? I'm waiting to know Rene. We're still in public comment, but an individual from your group suggested that you were going to be leading the public comment. So there's probably a little confusion there. There is confusion, yes. Sorry about that, sir. We have no public comment. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Do we have anybody else? Typical. There's no one else. I signed up. Okay, well, with that, we will close public comment and begin our agenda. As I mentioned, our first item on the agenda has to do with appointments to the King County Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force referred to as the GSO Task Force. And we have four individuals with us today who have been appointed by the county executive and we are very appreciative of them being here with us. We have Sam Choi, who serves as the training and technical assistance coordinator for Game City. Christina Fogg serves as the Senior Policy Advisor for King County Council Member Rod Dombroski. Jose Romero serves as the Director of community advocacy, education and research for the Pride Community. And I got our guy, Yota P Yota, who of Vienna serves as the Deputy Director for United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance or Utopia, Washington. And we have Jeff Munn from our central staff to provide the briefing on this item. Please go right ahead, Jeff. Thank you, Madam Chair. Jack. Ma'am, council central staff and thank you. Introduced the motions. And so these would be agenda items. Five through eight motions to 10 to 11 to 1 to 13 and to 14 to to make those appointments. The task force was established three motion 15162 in June of 2018 in response to the Washington State Board of Health ruling allowing for a third option for designation on birth certificates to indicate a gender other than male or female. The objective of the task force outlined annually in the enabling legislation was to review the State Board of Health ruling and determine what changes the county may need to meet in response, consulting with county departments and community groups to assess relative, irrelevant administrative processes that currently include questions regarding gender identity and sexual orientation, and then identifying a process that might need improvements and make recommendations for those improvements. And I should point out for members information that staff report that Sandpoint prepared, it's found on page eight of your packet and has further details about all of the task force members. Looks like there's 20 members on the task force. And whether those appointments are need council confirmation, these four appointments require council confirmation. And I believe the appointees and at least two of the appointees are here to answer questions. And I think we're trying to track down two others. And I just got to note that might have more information about that. And and we and we are unable to connect with the remaining two appointees today will invite them to council if councilmembers have questions for them. Charles, I'm sorry. I'm having a little hard time understanding you. Then something seems a little muffled, but could you repeat your last statement? Oh, and if you want to save me on this one. Hi. Hey, Andy McLeod. For the record, we invited the four appointees, but it appears only two are on the line right now. So if the council members like, we can try to extend invitations for the full council meeting. If there's questions for those appointees where we can just go ahead and move them forward. But we only have two of the four appointees on the line right now. And those two. Are it is Sam Choi and Christina Fogg. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. And if the other two come online, then I hope they will be spotted and we can ask them to join us. Yes. Thank you very much. Okay. So we'd like to now have Sam Choi, who goes by he him and Christina Fogg, who goes by she her to join us. And I welcome you and I congratulate you on the appointments. And it is the council's responsibility to have you come before us and answer some questions. And then we will take action today on moving your names, your appointments to the full council for confirmation of your appointment. And let's take that as Mr. Choi first, who serves as the Training and Technical Assistance Coaching Coordinator for Game City. And Jeff, where you going to go over each person's background a little bit. I think it's probably best for their appointees to do that, but I can do that for the ones. Okay. We'll go ahead and let the appointment. I'm just going there. Usually that's how we do it with the staff report. But Mr. Choi, Sam, would you please provide us a little bit about your background and your reasons for wanting to serve on this task force? And welcome. Hi. Good morning. My name is Sam. I use him pronouns and like you said, I am the training and technical assistance coordinator at Case City. We are going through a rebranding right now, so we will be changing our name to Seattle's Automated Compliance Center. Like I said, I graduated with a psychology degree u dub and I am a first generation queer and trans immigrant and a queer person living in Seattle. And through my work I work with acutely bipoc so queer and trans black indigenous people of color, youth, and we center bipoc youth in all of the work that we do . And through my work I connect with organizations, hospitals, businesses, whoever to meet their needs and becoming queer and trans competent. And I really hope to bring forth more compassion and care for queer and trans individuals and beyond comprehension. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Have you attended one of the meetings yet? Yes, I have. I have since April, when our previous executive director, Fred, left, I kind of took over his role in the task force. And so I've attended three meetings so far. Oh, good. Yeah. Any thoughts about the meetings and what you're getting yourself into? Yeah, I am. I think I'm still opening pieces together, but I understand the critical needs of having this task force of meeting to have various queer individuals in their room to understand and assess and make recommendations to ensure that Kent County as a whole can better support queer and trans rights. Well, it appears that you're an outstanding new member of the task force, and it appears like you're really enjoying your work on it thus far after attending three main meetings. So I think you'll do great. Do any of my colleagues on the committee have any questions to ask of San. The Council members are. Hello. And good morning. Good morning. Thanks so much for volunteering to be on this task force. I'm really appreciate your help. Could you just speak to some of your goals with the task force? What are your priorities? Yeah, I think I kind of spoke about it earlier. I work primarily with Bipoc youth in the work that I do currently and I feel like, you know, Bipoc youth are often left out of the conversation. Adult ism is a very critical thing and we do not give a lot of agency autonomy to youth. And so I really hope, through my experience working with them, to really center their voices and their experiences. So I am I'm healing from COVID and to really bring their voices and their experiences to the table as well. Tam, thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. Are there any more questions? Well, thank you very much, Sam. Again, we'll be taking up a vote on your appointment shortly. And really pleased to have you with us today. And again, congratulations on your appointment. All right. And we also have with us Christina Fogg, who has been appointed as well and is the new member of the council staff or council member. DEMBOSKY has just joined us. Good morning. Good morning. Morning. So, Christine, Christina, would you please go ahead and speak on your behalf and then we'll hear from Council member Tomasky, I believe, as well. And if you could let us know what motivated you to be appointed to the task force and what you hope to work on? Sure. Thanks for having me this morning. Yeah. I recently joined Council member Dombroski staff in April. Prior to that, I was a lawyer for 16 years, the last nine of which was at the U.S. Attorney's Office here in Seattle representing the Western District of Washington. And my role there was as the coordinator for their civil civil rights program. And I mostly dealt with responding to complaints in the community about various forms of discrimination and violations of federal civil rights statutes. So this particular task force appealed to me because a lot of what I saw in my prior work was, you know, what happens when organizations don't have an inclusive culture or policies and procedures and norms and all the things that contribute to a culture of making a welcoming, inclusive place. So I was really excited to be part of something that is addressing those issues in a proactive and systemic way. And so I jumped at the opportunity to be that council representative. Well, I'm so pleased that you did. You have a terrific background and I know will being bring a great amount to the task force council members to be asking, do you have anything you'd like to say? Well, I don't want to kill the nomination. Here by messing it. Up. But thank you for your willingness to serve, Christina. And I think your background, as you've articulated here with your civil rights experience at the United States Justice Department, will be super helpful. But Christina also has a long history of other service charcoal wells, including a board member and mentor with the Joint Minority Bar Association Association Mentorship Program Service with the YWCA as a cooperating lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington here in Seattle, and also with the King County Housing Justice Project. So I think her significant experience and her expertize in civil rights will do well. I wanted to take this moment to thank you and your office, particularly Jonathan Fowler, who was the prior council representative to the task force. And he's gotten busy with commitments and other obligations. And so his service has been exemplary. And Christina is going to be, if approved here today, following in his footsteps to have that council rep there. So that's the background on on why we're having this nomination here. But I would appreciate colleagues support for Christina and the other nominees today. Terrific. Thank you very much. Councilmember Jim Baskin. It appears that Christina has another virtue of being very modest, but although sometimes one should be very forthright about all of their accomplishments and attributes. Christina, you seem to have a whole lot of them. So I think this is an excellent appointment that's been made. I congratulate you on that and I look forward to hearing from you as you report back to the council on what is going on with this task force. I do think. That. You're welcome. Does anybody have any questions of Christina on? I don't see anyone. Okay with that we will go. And we, the other two have not arrived. So we will go ahead and let's let's both take up all four names. People are busy and we get very busy too. So I'd like to have a motion. Councilmember Dombroski, would you like to make the motion? Yeah, sure. Thank you so much for all. There are four motions you're actually. I move that we give a do pass recommendation to motions 2020 2010013014. And I think is 012. This note say here to ten so. It's 210 and 0 to 1 zero 0 to 1 10213 in 0 to 1 fourth. Okay not to 12 to 11. To 10 to 11 to 13 to 14. That's weird. Or as the agenda reflects. If we've got that wrong. Okay. Are there any questions or comments? I think we will find it before us. Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Chair Wells. I didn't have any questions for any for Sam and Kristina, but I want to express my appreciation to both of them and all four of the nominees for considering today and to acknowledge the role of the importance of the task force to represent the LGBTQ, the queer community in King County, and ensure that that voice is present within county government that we're aware of impacts that intentional and unintentional that we may be having in the community and how important it is that King County, our agencies benefit from a established resource for us to be informed and benefit from the conversations and information and experiences of the queer community as we legislate and do our work. Thank you very much, Councilman McDermott, for that very well stated comment. I couldn't agree with you more. And it's it's tremendous when I look over the whole roster, too, of this task force, very, very impressive individuals, the ones I know, and then the ones that I don't know, but that I have read about. And of course, we had them all before us earlier. So with that, if there are no checklist. Yes. Thank you. Oh, it's Councilmember Perry. I can't remember. I'm still getting used to looking off at the wall for Zoom when being in the chamber. And I somehow missed you. Go right ahead. Thank you. I just also want to share on Echo what Councilmember McDermott expressed and that how important it is that people are stepping forward and participating and and and keeping everything. Keeping people aware and asking folks to. To pay attention to the civil liberties of all. Recently, in the last six months, we have looked at non gendered language and are working hard on council to refrain from Madam Chair, Mr. Chair and Madam Speaker, Mr. Speaker, and things like this, and instead simply refer to people by their title. And it creates more of an egalitarian or not egalitarian, but but a respectful space of inclusion is the intention. So I look forward to hearing the task force's assessment of how we're doing on that and any recommendations for how we might improve as the Council. Our reflection of inclusion in the language that we choose to to use on the dais and in public view as well as private. So I just really appreciate all the work and potential work and and folks willing to step forward in this task force. Thank you. Thank you very much, Kay. With that, our Kirk will please call the roll. Thank you. Chair calls Councilmember. Excuse me. Councilmember Balducci. And. Councilmember Dombrowski. Hi. Councilmember Dunn. I. Councilmember McDermott. Oh, hi. Councilmember Perry. I councilmember up the grove. Councilmember up the growth. Council member Von Reich Bauer. Hi. Councilman Barzagli. Hi. Sorry. Okay. Thank you. Council member of the group. Council members. Charlie. I. Councilman or charcoal wells. Circle wells. The vote is nine eyes, zero nose key. With our vote, we've approved, I believe, proposed motions. 2020 2021002130214. And what is the fourth 100211? The numbers weren't quite right on our script here. And we will send these motions with the do pass recommendation for the consent agenda to the August 16th Council meeting. And for those of you who are listening in and those two candidates who are here, there is no reason for you to appear at that council meeting on August 16th. You will be notified, of course, if you would like to be with us here in the chamber or on Zoom. That, of course, is just fine. Okay. Our next item on our agenda is the motion sponsored by Councilmember Sali Reck, requesting that the executive develop an operational plan for sheltering the most vulnerable King County residents in the event of extreme cold heat or wildlife smoke, which is going on right now in central Washington. We were briefed on the proposed motion at our last meeting, and as I understand, we have a proposed striking amendment today. We will hear from council members July, but we have, I believe, Jennie Giambattista with our central staff to provide a short briefing on this item since we had one earlier. And also on the striking amendment, we also have Mina Hashimi, Brenda McClusky and Caroline Whalen here from the executive branch to answer any questions if they come up and four members. Just a reminder, we are going until noon today. We started half an hour early and I expect we will be able to finish all items. Okay, Jennie, please go ahead. Thank you. Councilmember Cole Wells. Good morning. Members of the committee, Jennie. John but Keith, the council staff. I will be discussing the proposed motion 2020 20197, which does begin on page 25 of your packet as a recap of the discussion on July six in CAO. The proposed motion requested the executive develop an operational plan for sheltering the most vulnerable residents in the event of extreme cold heat or wildfire smoke. I've updated the staff report to respond to questions from the last meeting. The updates are in blue. On page 27, you can see an update from executive staff. They provided more information on the current status and their planning efforts. On page 28, the third of the packet, there's additional information on fatalities and EMS calls from the heat dome. And on page 35 of the packet, executive staff note that they will need to assess the budget availability for the work, but they anticipate needing at least one dedicated resource to manage the work. If there are no questions on the underlying motion, I can now go over council members striking an amendment which was developed with executive staff . Thank you, Jennie. Just one moment. Does anybody have any questions on what Jennie has briefed us thus far? I hope you all had the opportunity to to read over the additions to the staff report that reflected the executive branch's comments from the last meeting. Okay. And before you start, Jenny, going over the amendment. Councilmembers, I do you have anything you want to say at this point is wait till after Jenny's through. After Jenny, please. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Jenny. Go right ahead. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember. The striking amendment is on page 43 of the packet. I have also included a version showing changes and that's on page 53 of the packet. There's also a title amendment as well. So starting with the striking amendment on page 43, I'll walk through some of the substantive changes. The most substantive change is the body of work is expanded to include planning for disaster shelters, not just extreme weather shelters. Executive staff requested this change because they noted that if they were bringing together all the stakeholders to do this planning work, it made sense to discuss emergency sheltering overall, given that they would be talking about sheltering for particular types of emergency. The next substantive change is the striker removes the date by which the executive shall begin to offer expanded sheltering. The next change is the requirement for the executive to conduct community outreach in low income communities and unhoused communities in unincorporated King County, to gather information on the location and features that would result in the highest shelter utilization. It's changed, and it's changed such that the outreach to unhoused communities is removed, and instead such outreach is encouraged by the Regional Homelessness Authority. Additionally, the request that such outreach also seek to identify other community needs in responding to extreme weather shelters is also removed. The striker adds language to clarify and provide details on the information requested for those King County facilities that are currently serving as disaster and extreme weather shelters and those that could do so with improvements. There is also language added to clarify and provide details on the requested information for non county owned facilities. And the information on whether long term care assistance facilities and family care homes have air conditioning is now requested only if it is available from the State Department of Social and Health Services. The request for a plan to offer hotel vouchers that was part of the motion as well as introduced is changed so that it's now a request to consider with the Regional Homelessness Authority and City Partners the use of vouchers for accommodations, or they use activities for the most vulnerable residents. And the due date for the operational plan is changed from February 28th, 2023 to June 30th, 2024. Councilmember. I would also note that there's a title amendment so that the title conforms to the strike. So those are the major changes in the strike, or I'm happy to answer questions and as you indicated. Councilmember Cole. Well, we also have executive staff here as well. Thank you, Jenny, for your outstanding staff report, as always. And we do have a question from Councilmember Bell. Did she. Sorry. That was an error. I apologize. I'm good. Okay. No question. Are there any questions? Council member Perry. Thank you, Chair Coles. I appreciate that. I am wondering, you know, that originally or in our last discussion about this, I had mentioned language specific to providing equipment heating, cooling and air filtering equipment. So the language is outreach. Efforts should also seek to identify other community needs in responding to extreme weather events. And after. The whole. I'm just wondering if there's a place in this to call those specific things out, because part of the issue is people not a big part of the issue with the deaths was people not having access to air conditioning, cooling, heating and air filter filtration areas that are not able to move to different spaces. So so people can locate and if they're living outside, that hasn't has a specific focus in in making sure that folks get to appropriate shelter if they're living inside and they don't have heating, cooling or air filtration systems as senior citizens, as of folks living with disabilities, different kinds of experiences who could benefit greatly from those those specific kinds of equipment. I'm just wondering if it can be called out more specifically or if there's just if we're wanting to keep it that open and that that that made. Councilmember Perry, if I may, just clarify the language specifically requesting information on other needs that language is and struck. So okay. So and so with that clarification, I will turn I think it would be appropriate to ask the executive staff what their plans are in addition to conducting outreach on the location and features that would result in the higher shelter utilization. That to ask the executive staff what additional. Information they're going to be querying on in terms of the needs of the community? Well, exactly the question I would like to ask then. There we are. That is a good. Okay. So we do have Caroline Whalen from a director of the Department of the Executive Services and then we also have OPM director Brendan McCluskey available as well. Sharon Wells If you if you would. I don't know how you would like to address that, but I would that would be great. I Council Member Perry. I will leave some room here right now if either Director McCluskey or Director Whalen would like to respond. I would like to remind people we are in a tight time frame, so I appreciate having any questions or remarks being made as brief as possible. So anybody from our executive staff would like to respond. Thank you. Chair Caldwell. So I will just say briefly that we are interested in doing a needs assessment as we do outreach. We are expecting to get a report from the City of Seattle of some outreach work that they did. My understanding is one of the findings is that people will say, yes, they want government to supply. Cooling centers are warm, wet, you know, heating centers, but they want it for other people. They really want to stay where they are. And I really understand, Councilmember Perry, what you're saying is some people can't move. And so what is it that they need? So we will be doing a needs assessment. And doing our best to accommodate, you know, our residents and visitors. And I don't know, Brendan, if you want to add to that, if that would be okay with the chair. Okay. Go right ahead. Yeah. Thanks. I don't know that I have much to add to that. I think that, you know, we want to take a very comprehensive and complete approach to this so that we want to look at every potential option that's out there. Thank you. Thank you. And I'd again like to say, as I did at our last meeting, there are many long term health care facilities and resident facilities that do not have air conditioning. My mother and rather a friend of mine was in one of those before she died, no air conditioning and it was really, really challenging. So I'm hopeful that this issue will also be addressed. Okay. Are there any other questions? K Council member C Yeah, council members. SA Hello, would you like to make a motion? So move chair Caldwell's. Okay. We have a motion for proposed motion 2020 20197 before us. We do have a striking amendment which has been explained. Would you like to move that? Council members. Hello. So move. Check. Okay. Thank you. And would you like to speak to that council members? Thank you. Absolutely. I think making good policy as council members requires that we work collaboratively with the executive branch. They're the ones who will implement our legislation, and they are also subject matter experts, whereas I'm not. So I fully support the striking amendment and making it more implementable and in the spirit of collaboration. I want to thank Director McClusky, Director Whalen, Rena Hashemi, Karen Gill, King County Regional Homelessness Authority, who have been super responsive and collaborative, like I said before. So I, I encourage your support on this striking amendment. Thank you. Council Member And does anybody else have anything to say on this or have a question? Okay. Councilmember Dombroski. I just want to take a moment to thank Councilmember Xilai for this thoughtful and forward looking piece of legislation that's going to, I think, become increasingly necessary as our climate extremes present themselves. And it's a longer term project, maybe with some shorter term deliverables, but it's really good and thoughtful work, and I wanted to commend him publicly for it. Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you. Councilmember building to. Thank you this time was intentional. I also want to say I think in looking through the staff report and listening to discussion, this fits well in with, I think, a multi-tiered plan because we have to work in the short term and the long term. The executive's study appears to look at ways to mitigate heat, which is a very big and long term project. And councilmembers are always not in talks about sheltering people when because we are going to have extreme heat events. And I just really wanted to point out that this morning Craig is already in process of activating their response tier network approach to the projected coming here. That looks like we're going to get up into the nineties next week. And so we have we have. Work going on at. All scales. And then now in the short term, in the long term and just for those anyone who might be watching what the message this morning said is that the Tier one response will make funding for cooling supplies available to homeless service providers up to $2,000. And if if you are someone who provides emergency shelter, day center or outreach, you should reach out to KCR today because the this this money's available now. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. That's very helpful information, especially given that from what I've heard, the Puget Sound area here has the least amount of air conditioners of any major equivalent American city and and metropolitan areas. So we're going to be expecting we'll have some hard times next week, everybody, but we worry particularly about our most vulnerable and as citizens, residents. Okay. Are there any other comments? Okay. All in favor of striking amendment one. Please say I. I hear any polls say now, Kate, the amendment has been adopted. We now have title amendment one, and that is to correspond with the changes made in striking Amendment one. Any questions? All in favor of title. Oh, we have to have a motion to move it. Kind of move. Thank you. Councilmembers. Hello. All in favor of title amendment one. Please say I, I. Any no's? Please say no. Okay. With that, we have a title. Amendment one has been adopted and we now move on for a proposed motion. 2020 20197 as amended. I would like to just say that I as well I'm very appreciative of Councilman Rizal I bringing. Forward. It's, I believe, really improving what the executive had already been working on and brings a lot more public awareness to it when we have this. So Councilor Basile, I do have any final comments. In addition to the people I already thanked, I want to thank our legislative branch teammates Jenny, Jim Batista, Jake Tracy, Rosa Mai for all their great work on bringing this vision into a reality. Thank you, everyone. Okay. And I should have asked if anybody else had any comments. Okay with that. Would the clerk please call the roll? Thank you. Chair calls. Councilmember Belushi. Hi. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember done. I. Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Councilmember Perry. I. Councilmember up the grove i. Councilmember Yvonne Reich Bauer. Councilmember Zala. I chair Caldwell's I. Turco. Well, as the vote is eight eyes zero nose with Councilmember Yvonne Reich Bauer excused. Kay thank you. With our vote we've approved proposed motion 2020 20197 as amended, and we will place this item on consent unless there's concern on that and we will send it with the do pass recommendation for the consent agenda to the August 16th Council meeting. Unfortunately, King County TV is having some technical issues, so we will take a brief recess. For how long do you expect? 5 minutes. So we will be on a five minute recess. Thank you. Okay. It appears we are ready to go. So I will call the meeting. The results over concluded and we will be back in our meeting. Now the next item on our agenda is the first of two panel briefings we are having today on the topic of preventing gun violence. Planning for a future of safer, healthier communities. And before we get started, please be advised that today's panels will be discussing topics that may be upsetting for some people. The panel will be discussing issues relating to gun violence, including suicide, domestic violence, homicide, and other disturbing outcomes that can be caused by guns. If you believe that any of these issues may be upsetting to you, please feel free to leave the chambers or to turn off the livestream as necessary. And if you do decide to participate, remember to practice self-care. Our panelists today on our first panel include Aaron Silversmiths, Linnea Grayson, Taberna, Salva, Delaina, Delina and April Shanta. They will be introduced by Rene Hopkins with the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. Our last meeting featured a bird's eye view about gun violence in King County and some of the things we are doing currently to combat this disturbing, endemic, unique to our nation. The meeting was heavy on facts and statistics. It is easy, as we found out, to be numbed by the numbers. This meeting shows that there is a real face, a real human being behind those graphs and numbers. And I believe that it is critical that we hear from survivors and impacted individuals of gun violence, plus those on the ground trying to make a difference by promoting peace and interrupting violence. Today's meeting will focus on the impact of gun violence on individuals and communities. We will hear from impacted members of the community who will share their personal stories about how they have been harmed by gun violence. And it is my hope that these conversations will lead us to a body as the body coming up with tangible ideas that can make a difference in our communities and begin to deter the cycle of violence and harm caused by firearms. Every day, unfortunately, in King County, it's no easy task. It's currently the state has strict preemption laws, making it difficult for local jurisdictions to implement gun related policies that could make a difference. We'll see what happens with work before the legislature next year. But unfortunately, now guns are everywhere and harm lives in many different ways. Now, Renee, I'm cutting my remarks a little bit short because we have about one hour left on our agenda. And I'd like you to go ahead and introduce the panelists, and we welcome all of you. And thank you so much for being with us. We have about 45 minutes for this first panel, and that will include questions from my colleagues on the committee, which we will take up after the panelists speak, given the time we have remaining. I would like each panelist to speak for no more than 10 minutes, and we've heard that that's probably a good amount of time for you. We're dealing with very upsetting subjects and situations. I know it must be very difficult for our panelists to come before us today, and I cannot say enough how much you are appreciated. With that, Renee. Thank you so much. I'd like to just start by extending my gratitude to Chair Wells for your leadership in convening these conversations to learn more about gun violence in our communities and policies and programs to address the epidemic that is taking more than 40,000 lives a year and injuring 2 to 3 times more people. And now is the leading cause of death for children in our country. I'd also like to thank the entire King County Council for your continued commitment to investing in our communities to make them safer. As the Chair already mentioned, two weeks ago, you heard from a leading researcher, Fred Rivera, who broke down the data and dispelled commonly held myths about gun violence. You also heard from a leading policy expert from my team about the work we've done at the state level to pass common sense gun reforms. You then heard about two cutting edge programs that you have all invested in for the last number of years. First, the shots fired program that aims to address gun violence. And second, you learn about the regional domestic violence firearms enforcement unit. A first of its kind, multidisciplinary, multi-jurisdictional unit that focuses on the promise made to survivors of firearms will be removed from dangerous hands and situations when a civil protection order is granted. To start our time together today, you're going to hear from four people who've been directly impacted by gun violence. Erin to Hannah and April at the Alliance, we work hard to center the voices of those most affected by gun violence. We can talk about data for days, and the data is vitally important. But we must remember that for every data point, there is someone lost to gun violence, injured by gun violence, or threatened by gun violence. There is a person and that person is connected to a family and the community. Every life lost has devastating consequences that ripple through our society. As a survivor of gun violence, myself losing my 14 year old brother more than 25 years ago. I know what it takes to share your stories. So I want to extend my thanks to our presenters today who are willing to share so that others can learn and with that knowledge make the change that we know is possible. Preventing Gun Violence. And now I'd like to turn it over to Aaron. And excuse me, Renee. We do have one individual here in the chamber, and the others are so. Wonderful. Is Lenny in the chamber? Yes, she is. Oh, wonderful. Thank you so much. So, Aaron, would you like to start us off today? Hi. Thanks for having me. My name is Erin. And my story with gun violence began a long time ago, but I didn't realize it until very recently. So in 2013, I started volunteering with Moms Demand Action for Gun in America out of this kind of fierce drive to protect my children and all children. It was a fellow volunteer who drew my attention to the fact that there was more to my story. And it involves my dad. My dad, John was a very typical dad in many ways. He taught me how to play baseball. He taught me how to go to fish. He taught me how to drive stick shift in my little Ford Festiva. And I was 15 and a half and he was an expert at making pinatas out of grocery bags and flimsy bacon. And he loved trout fishing and yelling in the middle of a scary movie. He made himself ham and eggs every weekend. And he had the most amazing whistle. It smelled like soap and smoke and a leather coat. And I loved my dad. He was a complicated man. He was an alcoholic. And he often lashed out at his family. He struggled to find steady work. He struggled to find happiness. And we struggled alongside him. Like many families, we learned to master all of this. People would ask, you know, How are you? How are things? How's your dad? And we would reply, We're fine. He's fine. Everything's fine. Everything's fine. But it wasn't fine. And he wasn't fine. Our family was not fine. And on a very beautiful, crisp November morning in 2002, my dad shot and killed himself with a gun. The loss was immeasurable. Of course, my life and the life of my sisters and my mom. Forever changed. And many grief. Like many survivors of suicide, was complicated. I felt sadness and anger and shame. And guilt. Her frustration over questions that I would never know the answer to. There are many things that I just will never know. What I do know. And that there are many, many more families out there like mine. Families who have been devastated by suicide, families whose personal experiences of gun violence don't make the headlines. And we are the faces of everyday gun violence. We are part of this bigger story of gun violence in America. And it's really important to see the entire story. It's important to see this. And it's important to do what we can to curb this and all types of gun violence with education and outreach and, wherever possible, gun safety legislation. The stigma of suicide has followed me around. For nearly 20 years. And if you indulge me, you know, there's a little more to my story. For 20 years, I have never understood how a person could get to such a point. I always felt ashamed. I always felt like I should make it sound like an accident when it wasn't. But in 2021, after a period of personal turmoil, I did understand what my dad had gone through. And as I had suicidal ideation, so it became stronger. I understood the danger of having a firearm so accessible. I got to the point where I wrote a letter to my children and. You know. This is someone who has known suicide, someone who has known the statistics around it, knowing what to do, who to call, but still. I wrote to Nora, my beautiful, noble orchid. You are so low to me, my wonderful blazing fire. You are so low. But I found myself in a place where there is nothing I can do to create a positive change for myself. I've been really, really trying. But I am adrift. I have nothing to hold up to take care of myself or find somewhere to put this pain. You did nothing? Absolutely not. One single thing. To contribute to this pain. You can't make it better. It's just too big. And I wish I could make it better, but it's too big for me to. There's more to that letter. That thankfully never had to be shared. I reached out to my therapist. I had my husband hide our knives and. I think today. About people who have such easy access to firearms, about people who aren't educated. And I thank God for the safety precautions we have in place. And I really think this council for doing whatever they can to stop the spread of gun violence and to just educate everyone about it, including yourselves. So thank you. Thank you so much. And can we go to India in person, please, next? Yes. And Renee, I'd also like to thank and I'll thank all of you at the end. But that was so emotional for me to listen to all of that. And thank you for sharing. Recording in progress can be. We welcome you. Now. Hi. Good morning. Yeah, good morning. When I agree in here, I just want to send love and words of encouragement to Erin for sharing her story. I know that was very, very difficult, but I appreciate the journey and you've given us a story to be able to like. In my mind, I can envision your father the experiences that you just expressed with us also. Thank you. So I am here today to talk about a little bit about the prevention, the efforts that are happening within King County, within our region and across our country in terms of the impacts that gun violence has had on mothers and children specifically. So I'll start with my personal story and then wrap up with some information about the organization and the mothers who are suffering. And I set my timer because I have a couple points that I want to make sure that I hit on. So to start out, in 1998, I went to Whitworth Elementary School in South Seattle near Rainier. And Brandon, it's I think it's now Orca Elementary School. I was in the first grade where I met Terrance Page. Terrance and I were friends from the time that we were in elementary school to the time that he was murdered. At that time, I think I was like 12 years old. I think when Terrance and I, he was my first boyfriend, right? And so we had all these different experiences for a little over 25 years of our lives together. And then we had a child in 2016. In February of 2021, Terrance went to a bar slash nightclub and he was murdered alongside of or he was shot alongside of three other people. So all together there was four that were injured. Terrance was the only one who did not survive at that time. Our child was four. She is now five years old. Terrance was a very active father. Although we were not together. We were co-parenting and working through a lot of our issues, I guess you can say, and just navigating through being young parents. And this is the case for most of the mothers that we work with. So just over two years ago, in January, January 16th of 2020, Terrance and I took a trip to Washington, D.C. just to celebrate my birthday. We toured the White House just outside of the White House. We went to restaurants. It was just him and I. We just taught D.C. We went to Virginia, Baltimore and seen a couple of comedy shows. We just really enjoy one another. A year later, Terrance was murdered. I ran into Terrance the night. The day before he was murdered at a at the mall in federal way. Our daughter was getting her hair done at a nearby shop. And that was the last time that she'd seen her father the day before he was murdered. And so the experience that we had in January of 2020, it was like I had a full circle moment recently. And last Monday, July 11th, I was invited to the White House to celebrate the passage of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act. And here I am surrounded by. Folks who are passionate, not just survivors, folks that are truly passionate about creating change and soul for for me and where I come from to be around all these politicians, the survivors of you, VALENTE, the survivors of of the buffalo, and to have these conversations about what is needed. It saddens me that. This the supports are they don't exist for mothers and children that have been impacted. There is a distinct focus on what is, I think, what our society labels as high risk youth, which are typically the ages between 12 and 25 that are that the teenagers and then the young adults. But I had a full circle moment just being at the White House and then just being there two years prior with Terrance. So I know that you guys are probably familiar with the fact that the public health approach requires. I'm sorry that public health that gun violence is a public health issue. It's a public health crisis similar to COVID 19. And so I just want to point out the fact that it takes similar investments to what we've seen with Colbert Calvert. In order to see a difference with with gun violence. And so I also like to point out the fact that a public health approach does require mutual accountability among partner partnerships across the various agencies. There's a lot of work being done within King County, and I am so grateful for the work that is happening and that's taking place. However, that work does not include the most vulnerable. And so I want to go ahead and read a quote by Nelson Mandela, which I typically really like to share this quote whenever I'm or whenever I'm speaking and I have a platform because I think it's so clear even around our mission and what is needed from the public and from from you all. So safety and security don't just happen. They are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear. So we know that gun violence impacts 50% of the gunshot victims in Seattle and throughout King County are African-American men and boys. There is a disp this proportion is the disproportionate impact on black families. Now I think about the 85% of the fatal and non-fatal injuries of last year per the King County prosecuting attorney's office. Right. So this data comes in and I often talk about how we see folks as numbers through the data. We don't see what's behind those numbers. And so we have no clue as to what percent of the 85% of males that were impacted were fathers and husbands and providers. So I like to I like to communicate. Yes. We know that it's a public health crisis. Yes, we're finding ways to address it. But when an individual experiences an injury, whether it's fatal or non-fatal and he's going through or she is going through triage or she is going through to the morgue. We need to be capturing data that tells us, was this individual a father? Was was she a mother? Right. Because that really will support us in that public health approach that hopefully we can intersect with a holistic approach that looks at the individual's mind, body and spirit. Because you can't have one without the other. Okay. And so another thing I would like to highlight is the fact that the ones closest to the problem are closest to the solution, but further removed from the resources. And as I've been navigating through our community, our county and our country, it's not just the gap that we're feeling . It is a huge black hole. Okay. The fact that I had nowhere to go when tragedy strikes and when I say nowhere to go, I'm not talking about organizations that are supporting with basic needs. I'm talking about the mental health supports that are relevant to our community. I'm talking about a ET a what I've been able to create has not existed. And a little bit more about the organization of what we do and the mothers that we serve. They have all experienced losing a significant other, their their child's father to gun violence. And so with that, there is the highest age group within King County's gun violence data shows 18 to 24 being the most impacted. That is a direct reflection of the mothers, majority of the mothers that were serving there between 18 through 24. So this data shows 18, 24 men who were murdered and we're supporting that 18 to 24 of the majority of the mothers. Now, the youngest mother, 18, the oldest is 49 years old. The children are ranging from 0 to 12. Majority of the children are 0 to 7. We have a 17 year old. We have a 16 year old. It's very it's like one of each of those ages. But majority we have about five, five year olds. We have a couple seven year olds. We have so many babies who were in their mother's womb at the time that their father was murdered. And so when we think about. Okay. Couple more things I would like to point out and then we'll wrap up here. So I also want to point out the fact that the overexposure to violence on child brain development is super important to address that. As I've been networking and meeting with folks, I see that there is not a framework. We need to develop a framework that addresses the children and the mothers that are being supported. I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Wrapping up here in 30 seconds. But Maslow's hierarchy is a prime example of needing to address the basic needs for families. And so it's so difficult to worry about safety of belonging and self-esteem when those that basic level at the bottom of the pyramid is not being addressed. So we really seek to support those needs as well. And just one. In closing, there is a ton of unaddressed trauma that the families have. And so then to pile on top the trauma of gun violence, it truly does become a recipe for disease, disability, disability and death. So we work with a host of practitioners and providers that come in a space to help the families to process and to heal. And thank you so much for for the time today. Thank you. Minaya. Your your information and how you present it is just profound what you went through and what you've done since that tragedy to help others and to bring awareness to others like us is extremely important and so appreciated. And I could listen to you for a long more time, but unfortunately, we're we have a schedule we have to follow. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Rene. Thank you so much than I. Let's turn it over to Hannah now. Hi there. I. I'm going to read mine. And the best way I'm going to get through it. Welcome to you. Thank you for being with us. I appreciate you having me. Thank you. This is an important discussion to be had. My name is Thomas Alfred Molina. I live in Woodinville. I'm a mother. I'm a former emergency room nurse, as well as a former Harborview ICU nurse. I am currently working as a nurse practitioner and as a medical provider. I serve the communities of South King County from a community health clinic in Kent. This is a community that is disproportionately affected by gun violence. So from a medical provider perspective, this is extremely important topic. And the trauma that was just spoken about in that community is an underserved need. I am also a gun law survivor. I would like to tell you about my family. I was my mother's only child and the only grandchild and niece to my grandparents and to my uncle. And they were my family. I visit my family often and spoke to my grandmother every week. My grandmother was the gentle matriarch of our family, and she was my heart in my love. She was beautiful. She was a cook. She smelled amazing. She would dance with her husband in public to big band music, and people were just drawn to her. In the summer of 2000. In the summer of 2010, my family was in crisis after my grandmother had fallen and broken her hip. I had concern about a gun that existed in my grandparents house, which is where my uncle also lived. I contacted two health care professionals in five agencies, including police, all of whom said the law was a barrier. They could not remove the gun. They could not intervene. On October 13th, 2010, I received a devastating call when I heard the words. There was no doubt in my mind that what was being said was true. And honestly, if I had been more objective, I would have seen the clues more clearly. I saw the chaos and thought something bad was coming, but not this. As long as I knew my grandfather, he had been legendary for his angry temper. We had all walked on eggshells around him to ensure that there were no outbursts. Later, even my grandfather's doctor told me about her concerns about my grandfather. Grandma had mentioned that she was afraid of him, which in my mind was fear of his rash, angry outbursts, very frightening. But he had also mentioned that he had planned to drive with her to the hospital if he'd ever had a heart attack so that they would crash together. He planned to take her with him when he left this world. The signs were definitely there. On October 13, 2010, my grandfather used his gun. To shoot a single bullet into my grandmother's head. And he murdered her. And then he killed himself. There were many questions, but what I knew was my grandmother, my heart, my love had been murdered by her husband and was gone in an instant. Like you've already heard, trauma loss is like dropping a stone into the water. The ripples that extend outward can drown the survivors. In fact, as you may have heard already, the evidence, the data shows that loss of a loved one to traumatic death increases their risk for prolonged and complicated grief and PTSD. Suicide puts family and friends at risk for anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicide themselves. My remaining family was not immune to what had been seen in these studies. Two days after my grandparents died, my sweet uncle shot himself in the head. When all of this happened, I had three young children, ages six, four, and one in their tiny bodies in my hands, had no time to absorb my grief and pain. I agreed carefully to protect my babies. I found showers. A really good hiding. Tears every day for about nine months. I would wake up, get in the shower and cry. Really cry. Sometimes I would get on my knees and beg my lost loved ones for forgiveness, for not having saved them. Is a health care professional, is a devoted granddaughter. I should have been able to save my grandmother and uncle. The guilt was overwhelming. I sought out help. It's moved through my grief. My mother did not fare as well. She struggled. I lost her to suicide in 2015. After my losses, I was obviously driven to stop anyone else from experiencing what I experienced. In 2015, I coauthored a resolution to the National Emergency Nurses Association, asking them to create a training for emergency nurses focused on caring for patients with mental health crises. The resolution passed overwhelmingly. Later, I completed a master's capstone project guiding emergency room providers in caring for patients with suicidal ideation. It is a key importance to note the access to means. It is a critical element of the evaluation process for health care providers. If access to a gun can be restricted even briefly, it can allow mental health providers the time to intervene to prevent a rash decision. There is only so much that we as mothers, nurses, as medical providers and government survivors can do. Policies and laws are the necessary tools to carefully keep the means and specifically the guns out of the hands of those who can drop that stone into the water, creating those irreversible ripples forever. Gun sense policy and laws are life saving. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. It's it's difficult for me to speak right now, the continuing tragedies that came from the one, as you say, the ripples that spread out and drown remaining family. It's hard for me to speak. You're just incredible. And I hope that a lot of people are watching on this. We will be including the video of this meeting in May e news that goes out every week and has about 60,000 subscribers. It's just so important for people to hear your story. Thank you. Okay. I'm sure some of our council members wish to speak to you, but I'm going to go ahead and have Rene introduce our last panelists and then we'll have time for questions. Rene, thank you so much for sharing your story. I'd now like to turn it over to a presenter, please. Good morning, everyone. I know we've heard many stories this morning and my heart just goes out to all the survivors for sharing their stories. So thank you for that. I am also a gun violence survivor. I moved to King County. Four years ago after my daughter, Carmen Schenker, was brutally murdered in the Parkland School shooting in Florida. It's hard work for me, as you probably know, since the penalty trial for that. Massacre that happened. But I'm here today to talk to you because we know that gun violence incidents don't just happen in Florida. They happen. Unfortunately, all across the US and in Washington state, too. Just to tell you a little bit about Carmen. She was a 16 year old senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She beautiful, caring. Brilliant. Just really enjoying life. I was starting to blossom. I'm looking forward to graduating high school. She had thoughts about moving here. She actually applied to University of Washington and was accepted to UTEP. She was also accepted at the University of Florida, and she didn't tell us where she wanted to go. But I know she really enjoyed her tour at University of Washington. And sometimes I think that I move upstairs just to carry a little bit of her with us, possibly. You know, her being here. On February 14, 2018. A former student with many. Warning signs came into the school with an AR 15 style rifle, high capacity magazines. Not only shot the 16 others, but fatally, and also injured 17 more within a matter of minutes. And many times people ask us, especially parents of. What can we have done to not only prevent school shootings, but just shootings in general? And some of the things that I think that could have prevented Carmen's charter is red flag laws or here we call extreme risk protection orders. And within weeks after Carmen's murder, many of the families, including myself, pushed for that legislation. And I'm glad to know that Washington State has that. The one thing that I do ask is that you as council members, really make sure that the public is aware of what an extreme protection order is, that they understand that if they see someone who is at risk of harming themselves or others, there are ways that they can legally get those firearms restrained temporarily through a due process and so on, and making sure that they're aware. Because one thing that I've realized in living in Washington is that Florida now has a higher percentage of extreme risk protection orders that are actually executed even more so than Washington. Broward County has used them more even than King County. And I know we have an office here, but I just think that our public really needs to know more about that. So I really ask for this council chair to work with the different departments in making sure that our citizens know that that's available to them if they have concerns. The other thing that I think that would have saved Carmen's lives is safe storage. Again, I know with 1639 that that is a piece. It's part of that. But again, I ask for you to educate our public on how they can make sure that firearms are safely secure. Last year, I testified for House Bill 1759 in the state, which asks for school districts to post on their websites information about safe storage as well as safe prescription or drug storage. That did not pass. But we don't need a law like that to make sure that people are aware of how to safely secure firearms. I know that King County has Lock It Up, which is a great program that I wish was again put out there more so that parents understand that maybe they're buying have done because they think they're keeping their families safe, but bringing a gun into their home actually puts their family more at risk of gun violence and specifically suicides and unintentional shootings that can happen. So more public awareness, education, information posted about something as simple as lock it up securing firearms. Then the reason why I think this is important is because Carmen's murder lived with a family member or a friend of his mom's right after her death. And that friend did not like the fact that she had firearms and that he was, you know, not taking them seriously. And because of that, she left her home and went to live with a friend. So his family allowed him access to those firearms. And again, we know the tragedy of that. So that is that's an important piece. And I feel like we could do here with this council and in our in our community. The other thing that I'd like to ask is, like I said, the safer, bipartisan, Safer Communities Act was passed federally. I was also there in D.C. with many of the other family members from Parkland. We were invited with our organization, Stand with Parkland, and we advocate for safer schools, including responsible firearm ownership, mental health support services and safer school security, which all of those things were touched on in that bill. And I just want to urge this council to look at the grant funds provided in that act to utilize them to the best we can in our community. I touched on a little bit of that with the URC, so say firm storage, but there's other funds available there too. And the mental health piece I find is important because right after the shooting in Parkland, I had the other 16 mothers and spouses, women that I can lean on talk to, and we can we can console each other. But when we moved here, I didn't have that same support. We could talk to each other on the phone or zoom, etc. but I need to have a conversation with someone. So I looked into therapy here in King County and I did get look into Virginia Mason grief and trauma counseling. That was actually a grant program. So I didn't have to pay for therapy sessions while I was there. And I found them very helpful. And I would just like to make sure that that kind of service is offered to other survivors, people who are affected by gun violence as well. And that, you know, it can be replicated in more areas because we know that gun violence in King County has increased. In fact, a report I think that came out today said that Seattle's homicide rate had a 69% increase in 2020 and that gun violence has tripled in the first half of 2022 compared to last year. So these are things that we have to deal with. And again, mental health support services for our victims is important. And the other piece, again, of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act is school security. And just making sure that our schools, school districts understand that just because they have a plan, putting it on a shelf and and saying , yes, we have a plan is not enough. They need to make sure that they practice their protocols, that they're stay vigilant in upgrading and keeping their security protocols in place, that law enforcement and other people who may need to respond in a shooting scenario understand what it is that they need to do to keep our staff and students safe. So I just urge that we understand the importance of that, not only in Parkland, where a lot of failures happened, but most recently involving as well. So we just want to make sure that others understand that. And one way we can do that is making sure that our school districts understand that there is a federal website that has a lot of school safety information, which is in the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and that school safety that does so, making sure that that information goes out to our school districts, parents, administrators, etc., so that they know ways that they can keep our students and staff safe. So again, I just ask for your help and many of these things and, you know, really just want to make sure that our our students and communities understand that there are these resources available to them to keep maybe their own family members safe or others. So making sure that we utilize the grant money to make sure that that can be maximized here in terms of. Thank you, April Ryan. One thing I would also like to add, and I'm proud of the work that the airlines are doing. In fact, I'm on the board for the alliance and we last year passed the high capacity magazines now. And the one thing I did want to mention is that last week, I think The Seattle Times reported that a majority of Washington support an assault weapons ban. And that is something that I feel is important here in our state. Carmen would have not been challenged if the shooter would have used another gun. In my personal opinion, a handgun wouldn't have killed her. As he shot through the door of her classroom. She was on the other side of the classroom. He was not close to her. He he basically pointed at the door and was able to shoot the students that he could see in that classroom, Carmen and three others specifically. So, again, we know that assault weapons are dangerous in civilian hands. We also understand that law enforcement is scared of them. We saw it in person and we see it in your body. So anything that I can ask this time to a county council members to please support an assault weapons ban because again, majority of Washingtonians support this and it will keep our community safer. Thank you so much. April, it's like with our other panelists, everything is so poignant and for me, so it brings out so much emotion. But we also have to look at the facts and the realities and what needs to be done and why. And that's part of what we are trying to do in this part, this program today, but also our upcoming one in August and August 17th, when we're going to really look at and discuss thoroughly where do we go from here, what is needed? What can we at King County do? Thank you so much. Are there any questions now from my colleagues on the council, on the committee or comments that you would like to make? We'll be going into our next panel shortly. But if you have anything that you'd like to say at this point, please do. Councilmember Perry. Thank you. Chair Caldwell, this school morning is stunning and I appreciate the bravery and the fierce. Work being done from the pain of your experiences individually and collectively. We appreciate you coming forward. To generously work so that others don't feel the same pain you are feeling. Well, because you don't have to do that. Given the most primal pain you've experienced in your lives. Um, I, I want to say is, is that when they are, I want to make sure I'm pronouncing that correctly. There's an hour speaker prior linear, linear linear when I thank you very much thank you for coming in to council and signing up there with you in person. But I'm glad to see you here. And you mentioned something that struck me, which is naming of the children. For the people that are killed. So that you are bringing the reality of those impacted into the written word of it, into the the documentation of it, so that we can pay attention immediately to those impacted, be they children or parents. And I just want to say I appreciate the focus on bringing our community awareness forward, because we remove ourselves from that experience. We remove ourselves from from who is impacted, and we focus on the one who is killed. And we're not focusing we're not doing something like this would bring our awareness to those where that ripple effect happens and in a very concrete way that we can that we can do something with over time and immediately. So I just want to say I appreciate that and I appreciate the encouragement everybody has here of continuing to recognize how we can keep our children safe. How we can keep our children safe. And this is about making sure we remove guns from the hands of those who intend to do harm to themselves and others. That's full stop. So I look forward to being part of a continued solution and walking with you on this. And again, just really appreciate your bravery today. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Perry, Councilmember Bell, Duchin. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to add my words of appreciation. It is obviously quite difficult for each of you to come forward and continue to share your stories and your family's pain and grief and yours, your personal pain and grief. But the keeping the reality of gun violence in front of us as policymakers, in front of the public who we need to support change. In order to avoid. Continuing this cycle of violence is so, so meaningful and so important. And I, I really just wanted to thank you all and appreciate how much, how meaningful it is your your stories, your involvement, your, you know, recommendations for policy and law that can make a difference. And I want to add my voice to those here who support whatever we can do on on this issue of the horrors of gun violence. So thank you. Thank you, Councilman Ribble, did she? We are going to be going on to our next panel. But is there anything else any of my colleagues would like to say? Okay. And our next panel. Also on the issue of preventing gun violence, I include Sean Goode, executive director with Choose 183 Youth Thorough Lish Strategy, Strategic Advisor and Program Manager, Regional Gun Violence Prevention at Public Health, Seattle and King County. And I believe Brandon Schell, Deep Dove Program Director with Community Passageways since Brandon here or if not Jessica Levi. Can. Brandon is here. I'm good. Thank you, Brandon, very much. We weren't sure when we started. And I'd also like to thank in particular Rene Hopkins and Anne Levinson, who worked with us in planning and preparing for the second meeting on this brutal topic. Okay. Thank you all for being here. And we'd like to hear from each of you in terms of what are the community interrupters or violence interrupters that are taking place in our community now in the King County area? I'd like to have you each take about 10 to 12 minutes to speak. There are three of you. And then we'll have time for questions and answers given. But again, looking forward to our August 17th meeting where we hope to bring this all together and really try to plan out what we do from here. So with that, Sean, please go right ahead and welcome. Everyone and good morning to the council. I'd like to lead by saying that I'm honored by the testimonies of those who preceded me, and I have to admit, a bit disheartened at the number of council members who weren't on camera while these folks were baring their souls and sharing some of the deepest, darkest and most challenging moments of their lives. I imagine that there's a diversity of reasons why that may not have been possible, but if folks were fully present in space together, that would not be possible then. And there's something added as a presenter to know that the people who are representing you are fully present in the space that you're sharing in. I think as it was mentioned in the introduction. My name is Sean Good. I steward an organization shows one A.D. as our executive director. Significant to this is I'm also a father and a husband in the fullness of my being. And I've also been heavily impacted by this disease of gun violence. My earliest engagement with the criminal legal system was at the age of six where I was visiting my brother, who at 13 was incarcerated as a result of gun violence. My father, when I was eight years old, threatened my mother with the pistol and then backhanded her with the best of it, which led to us leaving and our first bout with homelessness. As a teen, I had my very first experience of watching a man bleed out on the concrete as a result of gun violence. As a young adult, I lost friends such as Tyrone Love, whose murder still goes unsolved in our community to gun violence and my service to the community. I have supported many young people who have thrived and other young people whose lives have also been lost to gun violence. And in 2019, my uncle was shot and killed by Pierce County Sheriff's. All of us come to this work in a variety of different ways, and all three of us will speak about the work that's being done. Absolutely are not only grounded in what's happening programmatically, but also what I lived experience that informs our approach. That's important to me because I want folks to know that what we talk about isn't pie in the sky aspiration. That's that that's grounded in some sort of hope to get people who cause harm off the hook so they don't have to be penalized for what it is that they've done. And because we don't understand the victim's perspective, because all of us, each and every one of us have also been harmed by gun violence. But what we know because of the journey that we've been on is that a circle, the circle and cycle of harm will not be interrupted by causing more harm, but only by introducing people to an intentional healing journey. And the quicker we are able to engage people who have been harmed and those who have caused harm in a healing journey, the more likely we are to stop this redundant cycle of violence that continues to plague our community. My journey in this work began a very long time ago at this point. Working closely with both the both the Lutheran Church and Brandon Show, where we were part of launching a gang and group intervention team in the city of Seattle and and South King County, where we work closely with young people who are being impacted by gun violence at that particular juncture of my life. I was also serving as a minister in the city of Dakolo. And on occasion, too often we would support young people on street corners. One week and the next week I would be eulogizing them and supporting their families. This work has been difficult. This work has been heart wrenching. This work has been complicated. And yet it's work that I still stand in the midst of the tension on because I believe with unapologetic hope that our young people are possibilities to be developed and not problems to be solved. I see that locally with the investment from the King County Council and Restorative Community Pathways. I see that locally and the investment from both the City of Seattle and King County and the Regional Peace Keepers Alliance. I see that within our organization where we've historically partnered with people who have opinions that are juxtaposition to an effort to co-create solutions that alleviate the harm that's been caused and engage them young people on a quick and intentional healing practice. The work that we began in 2011, in partnership with the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, where we were providing alternatives to criminalizing young people's behavior and offering the community instead. This work that since then supports young people ages 12 to 24, well over 90% of them don't return to the criminal legal system within 12 months of participating in our program. It's not because we have some sort of magic. It's because we're intentionally engaging young people on a healing journey. The work that we now do in partnership with the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, where we are uniquely connected with young people who have been impacted by gun violence, because as the data points to, young people have been impacted by gun violence, are disproportionately likely to engage in violence themselves by use of a gun. And so we engage them early when they've been impacted, their family members, the young people themselves. And we work with them closely to engage them on a healing journey so they can get to a place of wholeness. And as exciting as all the work that's happening regionally is, I want to impress upon the Council today that all of these things are a stopgap. Every program that we offer is a stopgap. It only exists because harm exists. And the harm that exists is predicated upon years of divestment, systemic racism, and the leanings of white supremacy that have caused terrific detriment to black and brown communities throughout our region, as well as well noted throughout our country. And if we don't begin to address the chasm of wealth that is present in Martin Luther King Jr County. We will not truly be able to solve for this disease of violence because the social determinants of health that dictate when a person is most vulnerable point clearly to this broad economic divide as a leading factor that continues to place people in harm's way. When black families in our region and throughout, throughout our nation hold a nickel of wealth to the dollar that white families hold. That is a chasm that cannot be crossed by stopping purchasing Nike's and Jordans and stopping purchasing Starbucks. That is a wealth gap that must be intentionally addressed by policies and practices here at the county as well as the state level. So I have some practical recommendations that I'd like to lean into that would lead to creating a closer a better proximity for those that have and those that have not. We absolutely need our King County Council to advocate for statewide tax reform. Our regressive tax continues to plague those who are at the farthest away from privilege and position ality in our region. Although the King County Council can't dictate what Washington State does as as the large as the Council is, and as large as your constituency is , this voice can make a huge difference across our state to make sure those who are farthest away from economic justice become more proximate and are enabled to live and thrive in the communities that they desire to do something. I also recommend the council assemble a reparations task force. It is clear that historical harms have happened to the black community in ways that have not been duplicated on any other bodies within our nation. From the moment that we were stolen from our own land, enslaved here in our country, and imprisoned beyond our own will, forced to labor in a way that was an economic driver for this nation at large, and even an even post Emancipation Emancipation Proclamation after the assassination of Lincoln and in the presidency of Johnson. When walk back so many of the reforms that Lincoln put in place and so many of the black codes got stirred up both in the south and in the north and then furthermore across the nation. It is clear that black families have been most distant from the type of wealth necessary to thrive in this country. And a reparations task force assembled by this council would be one step in that direction to begin to write a historical wrong. We must also begin to see land that's held by the county and gone undeveloped to nonprofit organizations looking to build affordable housing that is rent controlled, that allow people to live proximate to where the jobs is, proximate to where health care is, proximate to where quality education is. That stops driving them to the parts of the county that aren't that have yet to be able to build up the type of support network to meet the needs of those who are quickly moving there. I'm a child of South King County, and what gentrification has done, combined with poor preparedness from the from the electeds that live in those spaces, who failed to anticipate the moving wave of those who were going to be in need. It is dynamic and it's a primary contributor to the uptick in harm that's happening in those spaces. I'd also like the county to advocate this council to advocate for a living wage for those who are contracting with the county through social services. I believe that the King County Council should be advocating for a minimum wage standard for those who are contracting with the county, similar to what we do in the construction trade. It makes no sense that we can underbid people in nonprofit settings by paying them 35, $45,000 a year and then asking them to serve in a way where they are just as close to the people that they're serving and needing those services. We have to do better, and the King County Council can't get us there. And lastly, I'd say, particularly with the state, the beginning of nine, eight, eight, that we need to have a renewed investment in mental health practices that allow folks to be able to call that number and get quickly connected with the services that they need. 988 does that's no good. If there's not practitioners on the other side that are culturally competent that can begin to address the diverse mental health needs that are present in our community. After I spent the last 18 months working with the University of Chicago Health Lab and reimagining our emergency response system, I am fully persuaded that there are ways forward and correspondent models and alternative turning of responder models that will allow all of us to be a part of the solution to solving this thing in our region. But what it will require is a collective US and a King County Council that's in best in and standing up more than programs, but instituting the type and mechanisms that would change systems and the material conditions that your constituents live in that lead to the type of harm that we've been living through. Thank you for the time. Thank you, Sean. As always, I thoroughly enjoy listening to you and all of your ideas that are so many and so intriguing. Most of the ideas you brought up have been around for quite a while and have been very challenging to bring about, as we all know. But I feel I for one, feel very inspired to keep working on it and do elevating my work on it. Please know that we did invite the Regional Peace Keepers Alliance to be part of this forum as well, but they were not able to be here. I expect we'll have some comments and questions to you, but we'll take that up after we hear from other people. But again, thank you for being here, but also thank you for doing what you're doing. Okay. Next. And I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing the name anyway. And the youth there are less strategic advisor and program manager with the Regional Gun Violence Prevention and Public Health, Seattle and King County. And I think that you are going to be referring to the Peace Keeper Alliance and what they did. Please go right ahead. Thank you. Charcoal Wells. And to all of the members of the committee and council for having us here today. And I do also want to start with a powerful acknowledgment. Of. The work of members of the panel that spoke before us, survivors and fierce changemakers, who have called all of us to action and acknowledge, as Linnea, as Miss Grayson so beautifully and eloquently stated, that there are not gaps, there are black holes, and there are huge opportunities as we move forward to address those. But I will share today is a fraction of a comprehensive regional approach. But it is the beginning and where we are today. But I hope as a result of all the things that you hear in the in the various conversations that are brought before you, that we can continue to lean in to where those black holes exist and address them. I also want to acknowledge April's call to action for safe storage. And as we proceed in our conversations to invite all of the folks on the previous panel to join us in conversation about how we can improve and continue to grow and develop the work of the Regional Peace Keepers Collective and the work of all of the regional approach underway to date and expand it to be a model for change that we can all be proud of. Thank you, Sean, and for the acknowledgment of the work that we did together in community. Today, I serve as a as an employee of the county, as a strategic advisor for the Regional Prevention and Intervention Strategies for Gun Violence through Public Health, but specifically on the Zero Youth Detention Team. And I would be remiss not to compliment and call out my colleagues, Willard Jamerson, who couldn't join us today, and Tiernan Shea Yarbrough , who make up our small but mighty team in our joint approach and our efforts to bring together both a community safety and well-being plan and specifically an immediate response to gun violence. That, as I mentioned, is in its early stages and there's a of room for growth and inclusion of more partners as we continue to build in order to fully acknowledge the work of the folks that make up this body of work for the regional approach, I'm going to be referring to a PowerPoint. I don't want to shift the tone, but I think it will help me better honor and give you visual aid to some of the work that's happening. Before I begin, I also want to acknowledge that Brandon Schell here on the call. I asked his permission to do this today, but when I met Brandon at 17 years old in 1999, I was at the beginning of my professional work in addressing what we know, as I'd call the disease of gun violence. We all, as Sean mentioned, have been impacted in various ways. I will not ever claim to be a survivor, but must acknowledge that there are 92 young people and young men specifically that I have loved and known in my life and work, who I've had to participate in their funeral services. So as as it as it holds dear to the single life mission, it is a body of work I hold in the county, but a singular life mission and focus to help address this as an ally and a champion to the best of my ability. So that said, Brandon is the inspiration for my personal work and I want to acknowledge that. And the opportunity to both work with Brandon as a professional colleague and Shawn Good has been a tremendous player here. I, if you don't mind, will be referring to a PowerPoint and it looks like it's requiring that I share it with you. So if you can bear with me, I will share as a slideshow because somebody gave me a thumbs up just to confirm that you actually are seeing something visual in front of you. We are. Going. That's great. Thank you, Chair. So I mentioned, you know, Public Health, Seattle and King County, a regional approach to gun violence. I also appreciate Ms.. Grayson's acknowledgment of the statistics and and would like to having omitted some of those statistics, since you review them in your last hearings that we are having taken a data driven approach rooted in the statistics that have been shared and understanding that those are what calls us all to action. We are taking this public health approach and acknowledging that there is an effort to make both the community safety and well-being plan, but that because of those statistics, we needed to take some immediate action to address gun violence. And so in last year, June 4th, officially on Gun Violence Awareness Day, we launched what is now called the Regional Peace Keepers Collective. I just wanted to highlight here this two pronged approach that's underway, in part because of the powerful work of community and systems folks who came together in workgroup formats to create a series of recommendations that will be put in front of you if you haven't seen them already. Those have been shared out and are going through a community vetting feedback process. But Community has identified a series of recommendations for long term addressing of gun violence in the domains of juvenile justice, education, workforce development, community land safety, health and human services. I will primarily speak today about the work of the what we call our go for strategy, our immediate response, which is the domain of community gun safety. So the Regional Peace Keepers Collective is an overarching initiative. It does not it's not a singular group of people. It started as an initial group of partners and has continued to expand with some of your county and with some of your investments and calls to action from the council on certain council members, specifically council members alkali calling for additional resources and as we will share later in the PowerPoint that will address how we were able to expand specifically in South Seattle and into Skyway and evermore expanding this regional peace keepers collective also alliance with the city of Seattle's efforts. And we are now joined forces to make sure that our true regional approach can reach Seattleites who have been displaced from the city proper. And residents throughout King County were deeply impacted by gun violence. It's the theory of change that we practice looks at community led and data driven approach, as I mentioned, and ensures intensive service wraparound services for youth and families directly impacted by gun violence and take place based approach. And the city of Seattle and and the county efforts are all expanding into locations of underserved or in great need areas where gun violence has taken place historically. And there is a need for place there. Social services and culturally reflective providers on the ground they overall are taking initiative takes a compassion based care approach that connects young people and family to resources, emotional well-being and growth opportunities. As I mentioned, we're in early stages and there continues to be more opportunities to rally specifically around the well-being and growth work for all involved. The objectives of this approach are high intensity engagement and support, critical incident response, which centers critical and violence interrupters working in community, responding to shots, fired incidents, deploying to provide services on the ground, de-escalation, ultimately mediations as possible. It also notes and that next to that icon, the hospital based approach, we partnered with Harborview Medical Center and directly working with directly impacted folks working in the hospital, meeting bedside with young people and connecting to community care as folks are exiting the hospital, wraparound care for high risk. And I'd like to really address that. That word should stay a high need ultimately where all, all young people can be at risk. But there are various things that put folks at risk. But we're really seeing young people tell us that they have a high need for care, supporting connection for families and siblings, decrease negative law enforcement contact. This is one of the objectives we do work and hear from in one sided conversations weekly from city and work with three different police chiefs and South King County, and especially under the guidance of Chief with the intent to continue to expand this model and recently begun our partnership with the Sheriff's Office to share protocols so that they can understand the work of the violence interrupters, understanding that it is the effort to center community care and decrease that contact by law enforcement in a necessary ways. And then community outreach, public awareness and restoration and events are part of the overall strategy. And we have the great benefit of my phrasing technology that is preventing me from moving the slide show forward. And isn't that amazing? Going to give it one more try. My friends. I come back to this slide, just an outline of the overall strategy, and it's been most simplistic framing. And again, this is an initial framework to start us off. It's focused on an intervention that holds these three pillars within the context of the intervention. So an immediate intervention, secondary prevention to prevent future incidents of gun violence, and then moving young people and families into what we call our Restoration Services pillar. We take this shared method approach across all of the initiatives. So centering community leadership, multi partner approach, centralizing management and coordination to ensure that we are building out what we would like to be acknowledging as a new model for public health worker and first responder methodology that allows for these folks to be seen as the true professionals they are when they're out in communities servicing this issue, rigorous training and professional development and coordinated service delivery are benchmarks of how the shared methods of practice reach across the various initiatives. The strategy includes these core parts. So taking an ongoing data analysis approach, first of all, understanding that data can and has historically caused harm in community because of how that data is interpreted. So we were taking a very focused approach to how we look at the data and various forms of data. Story is data lived experiences data, numbers are data. And so we're really looking at all the information coming in as a way to form the strategy and address the issue. There are weekly shots fired, as I mentioned, which converts into the team conducting action, planning to do follow up care and immediate issues. It's protocol driven, critical incident notifications, violence interruption in the hospital response as a core pillar, strategic school based Safe Passage, which is happening beautifully in the city of Seattle through the CSA initiative. And we're working to look at how to expand that into areas of South King County, ongoing community engagement and what we call hotspot remediation. Really a way of centralizing services in locations where need has been indicated by incidents of gun violence and bringing services and care to those locations. This is first sort of half of the wheel is how young people and families are contacted are connected. And that then includes enrollment into the initiative where folks receive trauma informed life coaching, outreach and care and case management, family and sibling support, as offered by specifically our partner. And I say sibling support. They're offered specifically by Sean Woods organization choose 180 in this model and then community restoration and Healing Activities is a growing area of our service domain. I think I have this sad fortune of what technology continues to do. So I will skip very quickly to the final slides here. And what that will illustrate for us are the organizations that are providing these services, and hopefully I'll be able to get through this without elaborating too much more. The strategy is designed with support from public health. The funding goes through to lead organizations community passageways. You, Brandon will speak more about After Me and the Community Passageways serves as the lead organization both for the Counties Initiative and the City of Seattle's initiative, which allows for that centralized coordination and leadership. And Rainier Beach Action Coalition is our first second organization to provide leadership and also bringing together a grouping of partners to expand the services. And we are working with three municipalities in South King County to continue to identify lead organizations and bring more partners under the umbrella. This is just a org chart, not an orchestra, forgive me, but a service model chart that outlines how the various service providers work together at the middle tier. This is sort of the management infrastructure. So across it reads the critical incident managers, land service managers, hospital interventionist interventionists, plural and restoration coordinators who partnered together to support the direct service and the folks at the bottom tier in our first and I really want to highlight this call to action that as we continue to find funding and increase the service provider network, these are simply the initial partners but currently community passageways Harborview Medical Center, she was one of the Freedom Project Progress Pushers. The YMCA is Alive and Free Program and a program called Renegades for Life are providing service network to expand into South King County and partner with the City of Seattle in the Skyway and Rainier Beach area. In addition to the incredible work happening through the efforts of the City of Seattle's team and the Rainier Beach and Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club who serve in that community as a hub. Or the Southeast Network in the Seattle model. These are additional service providers that are providing enhanced and additional care. So we have here a new beach action coalition serving as the lead organization Culture, Youth Outreach, Freedom Project, Fast and the Urban Families Center, who are providing elements of that service model, as I highlighted in the graphic just before this. And finally, just want to acknowledge and shout out the work of the City of Seattle team, which also includes funding and supports the school based work balance interruption community, our systems navigation for young people to make connections to services, community pathways, the YMCA , the Urban Family Center, and again the Southeast Network for the City of Seattle's model. The last comment I'd like to make is simply that this service model, early stages, we are continuing to work to sustain it and find additional supports and services. As I mentioned, the rigorous training and professional development. I want to call out that this model was selected by the White House, and the Biden administration has selected 16 jurisdictions around the country, all with the exception of King County, our major municipalities who are working to center community and provide technical assistance and training for those on the ground doing the work. They selected our regional approach because of the comprehensive nature of working across systems and working together with cities like Seattle and Auburn to Renton, to call on others to bring together a model for change that we can teach others around the country. We jumped off a call with the White House this morning, and they were really wanting to acknowledge and I want to share that acknowledgment with all of you that it takes in a public health approach, all of us doing our part. And I think we are modeling in our region that from council to boots on the ground, to those of us who are responsible for providing coordination, we are all in this together as the first graphic illustrated. So that technical assistance is is going to come at a certain point. But they are also asking us to reach into those federal dollars and those grant opportunities to bring those dollars into community, to provide all of the lifesaving and affirming kinds of services that we highlighted today. So thank you for indulging that the dryness of having to do a PowerPoint presentation. But we wanted to just give you a sense of the framework. Happy to provide more information to share out this material or do any briefing in the future. It's helpful. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your being with us today and for giving us a lot of very helpful information and for being able to represent the peacekeepers. I'm saying alliance, but it's regional peacekeepers. Collective, collective, collective. Thank you. And I would like to go right ahead now with the individual you mentioned and apparently received a lot of inspiration from Brandon Shell, who's with us. And Brandon, if you could give remarks for 10 to 12 minutes, and then we are going to go right into some questions and comments from my colleagues. Thank you. Appreciate your being with us. Thank you for having me and everyone here. Yes. I first want to say to the people who spoke on the first burner panel to the victims, the survivors, I know that was hard to speak about, but thank you for having the courage and talking about it a little. And thank you guys for all the work that you do. I spoke to earlier. I come to this work as being a young person that was impacted by this, the gun violence and 27. Midday rush hour traffic. Downtown Seattle, WA, was shot four times. That led to me feeling like I needed to protect myself and I started myself carrying weapons that led me to get locked up. And I knew I had the challenge, right. So when I came out, as I was in there, I was thinking, what was it that didn't help me? What was I miss? And it wasn't the information because it was there. She was saying it, but I wasn't hearing it. I started to think that maybe it was the person who was giving me the information, not knowing that when I came home, I will be able to be an inspiration to some of the young people in my community. I started first with the YMCA helping young people, and in doing so it helped me change some of the things I was doing right. Because you can't tell somebody to do something and not mimic the same behavior. I did that for a few years, and now I've come to my current role with Community Passageways as director of Deep Dove and Deep Dove Communication, where we do a lot of things. But within the Deep Dove program, we specifically work with perpetrators are victims of violence. Ages 15 to 27. Right. And we identify these young people by the community. The community knows who's doing what and what's being done. So they refer them to our our program, which is a one year program. And what we're trying to do is just help with some of that generational trauma that they're going through, help them with the resources. I think I said it best earlier, is hard to focus on anything when you don't even know where you're going to sleep, how are going to get your next meal right. Young people need to be able to be young people, and that's what we're trying to provide. We're walking hand in hand with them, with the outreach worker that's going to help them navigate the streets and getting up out of that. We have a resource navigator that's going to walk hand in hand with them that's going to help them with any resources they need. If they're going through the court system, we're going to walk with and do that. If their housing is unstable, we're going to try to help them stabilize their housing. Anything that they're going through with within systems, the navigators going to help them, anything in the streets. The outreach worker will help them with that. And it's a great program because the people that are helping them have been through what they've been through. We have some of the greatest resource navigators just going to help you any kind of systems you come come in contact with. We have outreach workers that live their life that they're living and made it out so that it gives them credibility. The young people listen to what they're saying and it's not 100% effective, but it's better than what's been going on out here. Right. So we're trying to just help young people not make the same mistakes we did. I don't want to see a young person die or get shot or end up in jail. But we would just walk in hand, in hand with them. And at the end of the year, we we we were hoping that they're more stable, that they have better tools to it. Conflict resolution. Instead, again, when they're angry, they know how to better deal with it. That's the hope of the Deep Dove program. That's the plan. We're in our third cohort start recruiting right now. So if you have any young people that fits their age group or the criteria, go to the community passageways dot org and refer. We only can take 25 per cohort, so if we can't get to them, we'll figure out other organizations, partner organizations that can work with them in some capacity. I really don't have much to say besides that and that. Gun violence is is is is is is destructive to our communities is. But it's just our young people not knowing. Or not have an outlet for their self, right? Why not try them on top of trauma? You create this, this, this. I don't care attitude and this I don't care attitude transforms into. It's like. It's like, say you go to a store, right? I'm just giving you an analogy and you steal something the first time you scare. Right. And then as the more stuff you do, the less it affects you. Right. So that's our young people there. Their first experience with trauma wasn't Bam, somebody did something to you? Any anybody think about it that you when you've been through something, the first thing that trauma, it happened to you first. You didn't do nothing to somebody. Somebody done something to you. And so just keeping that in mind that these young people, that they can be saved, that that it just takes more help. It takes a village. And that's all I have. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much for being with us today, Brandon. And I can understand why a Lutheran says that you are a real inspiration to her. It's amazing for me, anyway, to think about all that you have gone through in your life and especially in your very young life, and how you were able to pull yourself together, but were able to work with others who could help you. And now that's what you are doing with young people in the community and helping them be set on a different course for their own lives. And hopefully they will inspire others as well. I'd like to turn now to my colleagues on the committee and see if any of you have any questions you'd like to make or statements you would like to make. Comments. We can take a few minutes for this. It's not like. Council members are like. Thank you, charcoal wells and thank you for organizing these panels. I want to thank all the panelists for all the incredible comments that they made. I was especially grateful for how specific they were with the solutions that they were proposing to us. You know, it's often said that at the King County level where preempted by the state from regulating guns directly. And that's true, there is preemption. But we cannot take that statement to mean there's nothing we can do. There's a lot we can do. As our panelists spoke on, they talked about community investment. They talked about a public health approach. They talked about activating spaces. They talked about de-escalation training and violence interruption. They talked about systems integration. And they gave us just a long bullet point list of things that we can do immediately and for the long term vision. And I think we need to scale up the efforts that they are already doing. And I'm excited for all, all of us to come together and support all of the really great work that they're doing for our communities. So thank you for your ideas. It was really impactful and most of all, thank you for the work, especially those of you who are consistently putting your own life and limb and bodies on the line to keep our communities safe. We appreciate you so much. Thank you. Thank. Thank you, Councilmember. And I think you're absolutely right in to remind you, we will be taking this up again on August 17th after council recess. That's four weeks, I believe, from today. So there's a lot of time for us all to be thinking about what we can do very specifically in terms of legislation. We have our next biennial budget coming up this fall where we can obviously include items that would be helpful in taking up this issue and what can be done actually and really done. So are there any other comments or questions or anything that any of my colleagues would like to bring up? Councilmember Perry. Thank you. Chair Cole's three. It's nice to see you again. Thank you all for your wonderful comments here. Testimonial. And you know, we thank you thank for testimonials. We thank for information. We we share our hearts are broken and all. That's true. It's not what you're asking for. Why what you are asking for is action. And I'm I just continue to hold in my bones that two thirds of all deaths by gun are suicide. And our Native American community, our young girls especially, are devastating loss in these last several years. And all of this has to happen in concert together. And so I'm hearing many different and I've been hearing over these, you know, for many years and especially in the last six months, many different aspects and avenues and hearts of the elephant, people looking at various different parts of the elephant and very passionate about each of the parts of the elephant. We have to bring that conversation to get them. So I am very supportive of I appreciate the chair. Colwell, I appreciate you bringing this song. This has been really painful last session, this one, and I'm sure the next one as well as it brings up and triggers so many points for so many people , myself included. And it is critical that it comes forward and we are prohibited from preempting state law. But there are many things we can do as council members, allies says. And now I would just like to know who lives next to me. That has a very simple thing. I just like to know who's next door that has a gun or is in my neighborhood that has a registered gun. I would like to know more and that's there. I see that you can say apparently that that's why I think we need to start with our communities saved by leaning in together. More and more lives like that are a bigger and more opportunity. Listen. Thank you again for your presentation. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. And is there anybody else? Am I missing anybody? Speak up. If I can't, I can't. Councilmember Bell, do check and see if you had your hand. So, no. I didn't do that. I, I don't I just don't want to end this panel and in silence. But in reality, I'm taking it all in and having a lot of thoughts because we've heard today things that can be done relatively easily and quickly, like publicizing gun safety or safe storage laws and the extreme risk protection orders. And I. Thought, of course. We should do that all the time. We should just beat that drum regularly all the way up to, you know, statewide tax reforms and and embracing that, the need for reparations, which are much more systemic. And truthfully, the long term solution to so many of our challenges is systemic. And it took us centuries to get to where we are today. And and so it's daunting but necessary. And I'm just I didn't want to end this panel in silence. I want you to know that I've you've given me a lot to to think about as a council member where to put our efforts to have short term impact, but also drive really long term systemic change, which is much harder but really necessary if we're going to solve these this problem. But also so many of our problems are, well, an equitable economic opportunity. I mean, I think Mr. Good spoke to that. It's at the root of so many of our county's challenges and something we have, again, influence but not control over. So anyway, I'm just I'm being very thoughtful. That's that's how I lead this this panel. And I want to thank the members for giving me a lot to think about and. Us collectively a lot. To think about as we start to build an action plan. Thank you. Councilmember Abdul. Did she is there anybody else? Q I would like to leave this with bringing out a few more things to think about. I think I read this at our first meeting on this topic on July six, but I think it's important to remember and these are just some of the facts that we have . There are many more women in the United States are six times more likely to be shot and killed than women in other developed nations. Black Americans are ten times more likely than white Americans to die by gun homicide. Firearms are the second leading cause of death for American children and teens. That is just shocking to me. LGBTQ, because hate crimes are on the rise, with half of victims being killed by firearms, a young Native American commit suicide with a gun every six days. In the United States, suicide is another brutal issue made worse by the prevalence and ownership of guns. 74% of gun deaths in Washington are suicides. The statistics are overwhelming. I could read a lot more, but when we lose about 50,000 lives to guns every year, we need to take more action. And it may mean and I hope it means that we are able to amend the preemption statute in Olympia next year. Thank you to all who participated in this part of our agenda today. Rene Hopkins, just fabulous. And also for helping plan this meeting I Aaron Smith, Lanai Grace and to Hana Selva delaina April Shan Trump Sean Good Eleuthera excuse me are Luther Eilish and Brandon Shell. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We will now go on to our last agenda item for today is a motion requesting the King County executive assess the feasibility of establishing a year round voluntary safe firearm and ammunition return program within the King County Sheriff's Office. This is proposed motion 2020 20221 introduced by Councilmember Dombroski. And we do have Andy McLeod to. Rufus. That will start on page 120. And Jesse Anderson, King County undersheriff, I believe, was joining us. And he is here as well. And we were going to take up legislation at our next meeting, August 17th. And I hope that there will be more that will be introduced by then, that I know that Councilmember DEMBOSKY has been so eager to get this going because it is so important. And I'm wondering if you want to say a few things before we hear from Andy for a briefing. Council Members. Dan Bass Thank you, Chair Caldwell's and thank you, colleagues. I want to start by thanking the panelists for their courage and compelling stories this morning. And I ask for their forgiveness. I had to personally leave the dais and listen from the side room because it was just extremely difficult for at least part of the presentations. But I was paying close attention, and one of the things that we heard repeatedly from the guests today was the devastating results that are consistent with the overwhelming statistics that result from having firearms in a home. You know, three quarters of deaths in Washington are suicide. And the research shows that when you have a firearm in the home, the risk of death and injury is exponentially off the charts compared to homes that don't have firearms. One recent study in California focusing just on handguns. Not long guns, but handguns showed that homes with a handgun were three times more common to have deaths than than those without. And of course, the impacts are disproportionately felt by women who are, frankly, the victims of intimate partner violence and people of color as well. So this legislation, Jericho Wells, which you have co-sponsored along with councilmembers Angela and McDermott, is a fairly straightforward motion that as our sheriff's department to establish and promote a year round voluntary firearm and ammunition turnover program. These are done in other departments, including the city of Seattle has one today. I think it's a little known, but in discussions with the sheriff's office and I want to thank Undersheriff Anderson for being here and a chief of staff, Ellenbrook. You can turn a firearm over, but out of the sheriff's office or some of them. But it's this legislation would make it more systematic, more widespread and more advertised. It's a motion that asked the department to look at the feasibility of developing a program, what it would cost, how it would be promoted and and really provide that easy opportunity. The vision here was to use the power of our King County Sheriff's Office with its geographic reach in our unincorporated communities, both rural and urban, as well as our ten or so contract cities where we provide service to see if we can make it easy. When somebody determines that, for whatever reason, they no longer wish to have a firearm in the house, or maybe they come into possession of one through inheritance or otherwise. Don't want to have it around. They're aware of the risks. You know, we have extreme risk protection orders, which we're studying and have stood up here. That's a fairly challenging program. This is in some ways a simpler way. Bring it when you can bring the gun and turn it in. There are some issues that need to be worked through that the sheriff's office would do in this legislation. In terms of the terms of a turnover, do you have to give your name or not? You know what? What would we do with the firearm with respect to obligations to to comply with federal law and and, of course , disposal and things like that. So this is not and we have an amendment here today that we've worked on with the sheriff's office. It's not directive. It it asked the sheriff's office to come up with a program and gives them the space and flexibility to do that. We don't put a timeline on it chair calls, but it would be my hope that the department could work and prepare to come back to us in the budget process to let us know how it could be stood up and and what it would cost in the amendment, which Andy will give us a briefing on. We have added a little more flexibility for them and also requested an additional item, and that would be to explore the feasibility of one or more early community buyback slash turn events. They did this a number of years ago here and had some 800 firearms returned. The city of Kirkland. Which includes councilmember mildew douches and his council districts, recently did one with their department, and almost 80 firearms were turned over in a day. So there is a, I think, a demonstrated need an interest in the county for this, and we've got that there. So there's a little set up for it. Thank you, General Wells. Thank you, Councilmember Baskin with that. And the clerk will go ahead and give the briefing. Good morning, Andy McLeod. Council central staff at the staff report for this item begins on page 120 of your meeting packet. Proposed Motion 2020 20221 request would request that the executive assess the feasibility of establishing a year round voluntary firearm and ammunition return program within the King County Sheriff's Office. Voluntary firearm return programs allow individuals to relinquish their unwanted firearms, ammunition, explosives or other destructive devices to government entities. Usually, law enforcement programs can be one time limited events or ongoing services. Program policies vary widely across jurisdictions, but commonly include anonymous or no questions asked participation, financial or other incentives for IT. Participants. Partnerships or community oriented partnerships with community organizations. Delivery of unwanted firearms to a secure location or requested firearm pickup by program employees. And the destruction of all relinquished items. Jurisdictions in King County have both a history of one time firearm buyback events and ongoing firearm return programs. And these are summarized on pages 120 and 121 of the. With respect to King County, the King County Sheriff's Office, General Orders Manual includes policies and procedures that allow individuals to drop off unwanted weapons during normal business hours at the King County Sheriff's Office, locations equipped with secure evidence storage or another location upon individual's request and with the supervisors approval once relinquished, all firearms are taken for safe storage until they are held and can be condemned, can be destroyed at a facility in Spokane, which, according to the King County Sheriff's Office, generally occurs once or twice a year. Unwanted ammunition is also accepted, according to the sheriff's office, though it's not explicitly stated in the general order manual. King County Sheriff's Office does not provide currently any and any incentives, financial or otherwise, to county residents who relinquish unwanted firearms or ammunition to the sheriff's office. As I noted earlier, proposed motion 2020 20221 would require that the executive assess the feasibility of establishing a year round voluntary firearm and ammunition return program within the Sheriff's Office. The program, as assessed by the executive, should include a process by which any individual may relinquish any firearm or ammunition to any location at any time. Any sheriff's office location. A process by which an individual may request the sheriff's deputy or otherwise employee, other authorized employee to retrieve unwanted firearms or ammunition from a specified location. The destruction or disposable of all unwanted firearms and ammunition voluntarily relinquished, and the provision of monetary or other incentives to encourage participation in the program. And finally, the proposed motion further requests that the executive assess whether the voluntary firearm and ammunition return program could be developed and implemented in collaboration with jurisdictions throughout King County. And as Councilmember DEMBOSKY noted, there is an amendment, and we are joined by Undersheriff Anderson in Mark, L.A. Brooke, with the sheriff's office. I'm happy to brief the amendment now and four questions. First of all, let's hear if any of our council committee members has a question. I'm sure. Yes, Councilmember Dunn. Thanks, Andy. Thanks for the briefing there. The question I have is I understand that the motion would give the sheriff's office the option of a perhaps being a buyback program as opposed to a voluntary gun return program. I'm less worried about that because ultimately we would decide here what the buyback program would look like. The question I have is, what does it speak to about the lists that the sheriff office might make or keep when somebody comes and returns a gun or ammunition? As you probably remember, there was a voluntary bump stock return program and then later on a list was capped and then the public disclosure request was made of the personal information who had done that and became quite, quite the dust up. So I'm just curious what the legislation speaks to on that issue as it is right now. Thank you. Council member Dunn, I believe as drafted, the legislation does not speak specifically to that list, but does give some deference to the sheriff's office to, I think, respond to your question. Okay. And then we do have King County Undersheriff Jesse Henderson. Would you like to make any comment on that? Yes, I would like to thank for being. Here, too. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Counsel, I appreciate the opportunity to come to you and talk about our support for this program as brought up. We've had policy in place for some time, and I like to emphasize that the overwhelming majority of guns that we bring into our custody under these surrender type programs have been court ordered surrenders. So we need to do a better tracking of the times that we voluntarily when community members voluntarily turn over firearms. And so we were going to we're going to build a system in place to be able to track that information as well. And I so totally support the need to get out there and market this better. So we so community members know that they have this option and they can go to our designated facilities or occasionally, if they're not able to provide that have that transportation to one of our facilities, that we could go out to the home and collect that firearm. And so we want to make sure that we're doing this in the safest way possible. And so we will build into our policy, our existing policy, some additional information that provides guidance to our deputies to be able to take these weapons into custody and put them into our evidence for him for disposal. And thank you very much. And we have Mark Labrecque, who is chief of staff for the King County Sheriff's Office. Mark, do you have a comment? Just a. Quick comment. Yes. Good morning. And just for the record, Mark Holbrook, chief of staff for the sheriff's office, comes over down. Just to answer your question, we actually had an opportunity to chat with Councilmember Dombrowski about this issue yesterday. And I think there obviously, the goal of a program like this is to be able to take in as many firearms as possible and concerns from folks who might be turning those in about the anonymity of that. So I think we absolutely recognize that, and I think we want to make sure that when we come back with the report on this, talk about what the options are in that space to ensure that anonymity. I think a question we had talked about, we have not settled it, but came up from one of our captains was, you know, is is there a possibility of wanting to at least understand if a weapon has been used in a past crime, not for the purpose of obviously following up with the person who turned it in, but just to recognize that that weapon has been identified and is, you know, our firearm has been identified and taken sort of out of service. So we're going to look at that and come back with how we can do that. But I think we're acutely aware of how do you manage names, a process, ensure anonymity, particularly with public records requests. Can I just just just finish real quick on that? Thanks, Madam Chair. Mike, I want to support this. I think voluntary gun return programs are good. We can argue about the effectiveness of gun buyback, because I ran President Bush's national effort to fight gun violence. And at that time, there really wasn't any efforts to gun buyback programs work per se. But we do need an option for people to voluntarily give away a gun. And there's a bunch of reasons why they might they might inherited a house. They might have somebody in their house has become emotionally unstable and they want to return a gun. There's a lot of good reasons why it should happen. The biggest deterrent to involuntary gun returns will be whether or not somebody's name is going to be put on a list somewhere. And so that's a concern I have. And, you know, court ordered returns are one universe individuals who are just kind of want to get the house out of their gun, out of grandmother's house or wherever, and just get get rid of it, because that's not their thing. That's kind of where I hope I hope you're sensitive to. And I if you are sensitive to that and I think I can support this today, but I just want to I want to put a face on it for for you folks, where you would see this program become less effective moving downstream. Any comment on that? Councilmember Domanski. Or. I'll defer to the expert, Undersheriff Anderson, and then I'll make a statement of legislative intent, as. We still do need to hear about the striking amendment. Go right ahead. I agree with the anonymity of turning in firearms. So we would have a system in place that you could show up at a worksite or call one of us to come out and obtain that weapon without needing to provide your name. Now, one of the scenarios we talked about, or I mentioned briefly during our discussion other day is that if you're a witness to a crime and you want to turn over a weapon that may have been involved in that crime, probably not going to be able to turn that over anonymously. We would have to work through some of those. But generally speaking, under the program, you could show up at one of our precincts and turn over that weapon and be able to walk away knowing that you're not your name's not going to end up on a list somewhere. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember. Thank you. Chuckles. And I'll just say, from the legislative intent perspective and the language in the motion, it is consistent with Undersheriff Anderson's views and position to make this effective and preserve folks anonymity, if you will. Thank you. Let's go on now and hear from and our clerk to I mean, our policy analyst coordinator to about the striking amendment. Thank you, Councilmember. Actually, Councilmember Dombroski did a great summary of it. And what it would do is it will clarify that the request is to evaluate the assessment of the feasibility of a program and the original language. It said it specified which tribes that wants more time. The amendment would clarify that the request is to evaluate the feasibility of a voluntary safe firearm ammunition program. The original language specified what could potentially be included in the program in the amendment would say These are things that should be considered during the assessment, and so it changes it from what should be included in the program to what they could be conclude included in the assessment. And then, as Councilmember Taberski noted, two additional items as part of that evaluation were added, which is the gun buybacks and potential cost to administer the program. Okay. Thank you very much. Councilmember Jim Bass, would you like to move the first of all the legislation and then the striking amendment? Sure. Thank you. Chair. Coel's I move adoption or that we give a do pass recommendation that is to motion 2020 20221k and I move adoption of amendment one which has been described. Okay. The motion has been made for the proposed motion and also for this break amendment or amendment one. Are there any questions or comments on this striking amendment? Amendment one. Councilmember two I don't see any questions. Councilmember Dombroski, would you like to speak. Just briefly on Amendment one? It says and he described, but I want to thank the sheriff's office, including Undersheriff Anderson and Chief of Staff Ellenberg, for working with us to refine this and our staff for getting it into order. And just to be clear, it removes kind of the directive language which was in the original motion. Just by way of example shifts that to assess whether these elements should be included in the program. And that's consistent with the original intent of legislation to defer to our experts in developing this more enhanced and robust program by way of example. Undersheriff Anderson said, Well, you've got in here include in the program a requirement that we go to somebody, residents or placements to pick up a firearm. There's a lot of danger involved in that. We may or may not want to do that. Or if we do it, it may want to be under certain conditions. So the amendment here would say, should that kind of element be included? And then in addition, we added the tell us what you'll need to run it from a budget perspective and look at a couple of jump start, you know, look at some of these early buyback events to see if that could help. So that's what it does. And I encourage members support and I should let the sheriff's office say whether or not they support it on the record by themselves without me speaking for them. Yes, we support that. Excellent. Thank you very much. And thank you both for being with us today. Any other questions or comments before we take a vote on Amendment one? Okay. All in favor of Amendment One, please say. I, i. I any opposed? Say me could. The amendment has been adopted and we now have before us propose motion 2022 0 to 21 as amended. Anything final that anybody would like to say? Councilmember Dombroski Well, I want to thank my colleagues and for their support, hopefully of the motion and thank the co-sponsors. You keep saying it's my legislation turtles, but it really is. Yeah, I've been here now in just over nine years. And one of the things that is inspiring, we often have our disagreements, even about things we generally agree about. But on this issue, gun safety and gun violence prevention, this council works extremely well together and is aligned to a great degree. And I really appreciate the co-sponsors, council members, ally and yourself corrals and Councilmember McDermott as evidence of that. And others, of course, are welcome. Councilmember Dunn, who has a great deal of expertize from his federal service on this, is correct that these programs aren't a panacea. The studies show that they can they can be helpful, but it takes a whole package of things. And so I don't view this Chair Caldwell's and colleagues as something that will solve this issue. But I think it can save lives. I think it can save lives by reducing the number of guns that are out there, because we know that, again, guns in homes dramatically increases the risk to folks living in those homes. And so if we give folks the opportunity when they're ready or interested to turn over a firearm, I think it follows logically that we reduce the risks associated with having the firearms in the home. That's the basic thrust of it, and I think it's part of a big package of work that we've done for years here, working together and will continue to do. And I really appreciate our sheriff's office engagement on it and willingness to help us develop a more robust program for the safety of our community, their core mission. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for introducing us. And of course, guns can be stolen that are out there, too. I'm okay with that. Will we please have the the card called the rule. Councilmember Perry. Chair. I'm sorry I missed you. I was looking. It's hard to see those hands raised sometimes. Councilmember Perry. It is hard to see them. Thank you. Chair COLWELL So I would just like to add my name as as a co-sponsor to this. I think that's a really great movement forward. And I and I agree also with Katzenjammer down on anonymity that it is critical, critical that we have the anonymity to allow guns to be removed from the hands of those who intend to do harm to themselves or others. Thank you. Thank you. And with that will occur. Kirk, please call the roll. Thank you for your calls. Councilmember Bell Dickey, I. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember mcdermott now. Councilmember Perry, i. Councilmember up the grove. I. Councilmember Yvonne Reich. Power. I. Council members. Charlie. I charcoals. I. Charcoal was about as eight eyes with Councilmember McDermott. Excused. Okay. Thank you. With our vote, we have approved to propose motion 2020 20221 as amended. Hopefully, Councilman McDermott can touch in and be able to record have his vote recorded. He is a co-sponsor. And unless there is opposition, we will send this motion with the do pass recommendation expedited to the July 26 meeting. Okay. Thank you. That concludes the items on our agenda. I had said we would be through by noon. We've just missed that by about a minute. And any I don't believe any technical difficulties stop council members from voting. But if we do have a missing vote, we just want to mention Councilmember McDermott was there and one from many from our earlier votes. Yes. Council member. Yes, I voted I voted in I vote in the affirmative on the earlier motion. Okay. That's now recorded. Thank you very much. And with that, our next regular co committee of the whole meeting is scheduled for August 17th because we will be interrupted by our two week summer recess the first two weeks of August. At that meeting, we will hold our third session on gun violence prevention and community safety. We will be discussing where we go from here. I would be very pleased if any of our committee members introduce legislation. Given all that we have been discussing for these two times on this topic, and I look forward to hearing from all of you otherwise in a discussion on the 17th in terms of what we what we might be working on that is that we are able to, given the state preemption laws and also what we might be able to do in the budget coming up. So with that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for attending.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Sam Choi, to the King County gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion task force, representing Gay City.
king_3e91bc22-ba2b-428b-9a79-a30bd8a8b61e	To get public comment out of the way. And then we may take a short recess until members gather, depending on how long that takes. So sorry for a late start, but I have one person signed up. It's Alex Zimmerman. Mr. Zimmerman, you have a short leash with me. If you don't follow the rules. You're out. Yes, my Führer. Thank you. Hi. My three double. If you're not too social democratic, my favorite progressive Gestapo principal. I won't speak about night about that. Gender discrimination, harassment and inappropriate conduct. Guys, I'm sorry for my experience. My ex. It's good to hear from an expert on this one. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. This is not about doesn't discrimination. What they're saying. It's not the point is exactly identical. What is did Gestapo kids should be in Makati in 50. What's happening right now? It's very unique. You can't because we not elect a woman, our president. My gosh, what's happened? What's happening in Seattle, in King Country right now because of our new rules? Absolutely. I repeat, endangered calls about the state Gestapo and KGB. This little bit loop different in American me. But there's nothing change in a 2000 time. Seattle King country is number one fascist city in America. You're doing exactly this this make me a laughing because this can come not in America. It's supposed to become I don't know make by Jaitley Stalin, Mussolini, Franco. Another fucking pardon, you idiot. You know what this mean with Nazi Gestapo mentality, guys, what is going on throwing you for century in Seattle in King Country you have a pure fascism with Gestapo mentality. You conceal Dombrowski number one Führer to care. You know white you don't like me. For many it is a correct. Not because I am, you know, because I'm a bad boy. I understand this. So right now I'd be very happy, I swear. Speak to everybody. Listen to me. Opinion. Stop in this crock because there's a Nazi Gestapo big. It's exactly what this happened right now. The cry of during a dam burst. This when we have services available at the county. Yeah. All right. All right. Is there anybody else that would like to present testimony to the committee of the hold this morning that didn't have a chance to sign up? I don't see anybody will close that item and ask Councilmember up the ground for a motion to prove the meeting minutes from May 16th. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the minutes of June six, 2018 be approved. All in favor say I any oppose those are approved. Turning to the consent agenda, this would be subject to signature accounts from up there. I would you put that before us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman of the consent agenda. I was five and six be approved. Thank you, Corporal Kolawole. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, Duchin. Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett, Councilmember Kowalski. Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember McDermott, council member of the Grove Councilmember phone right there. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is three eyes. No, Nos. Six excuse. All right. So these two things that we've given do pass recommendation on those items. Should they be expedited, Erin? No art regular calendar consent for council. We have two substantive items today to take up and that is the confirmation of our decennial charter review commission. I see we have a number of nominees here in the audience and we'll do a panel once we get going. Of of you. I think there's five or six. Raise your hands if you're a nominee. I think I recognize. Oh, we've got better attendance than that. Outstanding. All right, May, due to panels in your packets, there are responses to committee questionnaire for folks to get an idea to help move that along. And then I hope that we'll be able to take up our harassment and discrimination ordinance by Councilmember Cole. Wells So that'll be the second hearing on that item, see if we can't move that today, but so that we have a little bit better attendance, I think folks are coming. I've heard from Councilman one right down who is has a breakfast on these days down federal way and and that he's does regularly and he's running a little bit late and may have to dial in and I think we'll get some better attendance here in a couple more minutes. So we will recess for let's try 5 minutes and reconvene at 945. Thank you. All right. We're coming back into session after a short recess. We've got a number of colleagues who have made it to the dais. And we will turn now to proposed motion number 2018 0274. That's item seven on your agendas, which is a motion which would confirm the appointment of members of our Decennial Charter Review Commission pursuant to Section 800 of the King County Charter. In your packets, colleagues, there is a committee questionnaire and responses to basic questions which should give you a general idea of what each person's interest in this work is. And we have a number of folks here, and I think we're going to have two panels. Mac, do you want to do a set up on this for us as our staff? And then. A couple of you say. Oh, I said it all. Oh, all right. Well, as the first. Set of five come up, I will note that this is the 50th anniversary of the King County Charter that was first adopted by voters in 1968, taking effect in May of 1969. It's had some remodeling over the years, particularly after the merger with Metro in about 1993, where we added some of our regional committees because the municipality of metropolitan Seattle had those municipal powers, metropolitan powers under state code, at least a couple of them were activated. But I would also note that our region is growing at 2.2 million people, 39 cities. It's complex, complicated. And I think from my perspective, we're starting to see some strain on this government's ability to respond adequately to regional challenges, particularly, and I think most acutely our regional, affordable housing crisis is is evidence of that. And what I've observed in my short time here is we tend to be we're too often it seems to be governing by one off interlocal agreements, taskforces, special committees. And that's not an efficient way, it seems sometimes to be able to address our regional challenges. So I hope that this Charter Review Commission will take a look at our charter and our region as it stands today and will continue to grow in terms of its complexity and needs and make sure that we can, if possible, have the right tools in this regional government to address those challenges for our community in the coming decades, or at least maybe for the next ten years. And of course, we also serve as a local government, about 250,000 folks in unincorporated rural, but some parts of urban King County. And there may be some work to do there as well. So I would invite up maybe by self-selection the first five folks as they're coming up and also give my colleagues any opportunity that they would wish to share some opening remarks if they would like to do so. I don't see that. All right. And I'm going to ask you to all introduce yourselves, maybe just give a short bio and why you're interested in serving. Then we'll see if any members have questions or want to engage in dialog. Thank you all for being here. Alejandro, would you like to lead off? Of course. My name is Alejo. Yes, I'm executive director for the Municipal League of King County. In addition to having a keen interest in policy analysis and nonpartizan work, I have traditionally also done work with immigrant refugee communities. I'm Toby Nix and I currently serve on the Kirkland City Council, previously served in the Washington State Legislature as a representative from the 45th District. And I really am looking forward to this. When I was in student government in high school, I rewrote the Constitution of our student government. That was one of the first things I did. And I have always loved digging into the structural issues. And and so I look forward to working with everyone on seeing how we can improve the King County Charter. I am Kevin Williams. I'm an attorney and partner with the law firm Ensley Best and also a member of the Washington State Bar Foundation Board. I've served on a number of different community committees and my interest in this is basically efficiency and good government. I note that Councilmember Demovsky noted that there was, you know, seems to be some inefficiencies and that might have something to do with that. I think we have over 160 special purpose districts in this county alone, and then you add that on to the various cities and then the legal hoops that everybody has to go through. Each time we approve a911 ballot, we do flood control, anything like that. These are regional issues that need to be more simplified and directed towards individuals and the people. Thank you. I'm Louise Miller. Not familiar. Former. Are you off the council? Councilor, see that shop here all the time? Exactly. About six months after I retired in 2001, I was on, you know, I was chairing the regional water quality, etc., etc.. And I've been doing things like that ever since, two different projects in the last few months. So I think maybe I might be the lowest north of the commission because everybody keeps saying, Well, wait a minute, did you do this ten years ago? Lois and I actually live in the same building now, so people get us confused. I was came from the legislature to the county council as we were transitioning and taking over metro responsibilities. So I was a member of a council of 13 members. And and the growth now compared to the size of our responsibility then is huge. So I have concerns about that. And also I realized that over the number of years that we have worked on, quote, growth management GMA, we have found that promises and maybe legislative thinking of well will take care of the problem of helping counties do their work with infrastructure. We'll find we'll take care of that later. And the problem is we haven't been able to get them to give us the ability to pull in the resources we need. Your budget is still totally lopsided to the criminal justice side. When you look at the pie chart, you see how much of the general fund goes to that. So it's a concern to me that we won't be able to keep our infrastructure up and that we need to have the authority and the ability to bring in the resources that are needed. So I think that's a major problem that maybe we can help a little bit with the commission. Let me pull out a microphone right up to you there. There you go. Hi. My name is Nat Morales. I am currently the organizing director for an organization called Front and Center. As a once undocumented immigrant from Mexico, I think this opportunity to serve on this commission is important not just for the county, but I think our country as a whole. It has been my mission since moving to King County from rural Tennessee to bring the perspective of community, of immigrants, of refugees, of my brothers and sisters in the movement. And I think that this opportunity will be sufficient enough for bringing the voices of community to the table. I think when we're looking at the at our infrastructure, when we're looking at who is making the decisions here in King County, here in Seattle in particular, I think we oftentimes don't include the most marginalized. And so it will be my mission and it'll be my distinct honor to be able to do that while serving on this commission. Very good. Thank you. Well, thank you for those introductions and comments. I'll turn it open to councilmembers questions or comments at this time. Councilmember Lambert, would you like to start? You may be happy to do so. It's great to see so many of you. I've seen all of you before here doing great things. So thank you for bringing that expertize began to help us. So I think what do you think you mentioned earlier about the different taxing districts. What do you think about the different taxing districts that we could do to streamline some of that? I assume, Councilmember Lambert, you're directing that question towards me since I had mentioned that 161 different taxing districts right now that there has been. If you follow the growth management, there has actually been some policy statements whereby some of the taxing districts should actually merge, consolidate and things like that. We also have, you know, within the county, certain countywide taxing districts, there needs to be some form of legislation that would, I guess, incentivize further the consolidation of special purpose districts that are serving regional as regional areas. Because right now there appears to be, in my mind, of serving special purpose districts the desire to maintain local control , even when a local control doesn't necessarily benefit the citizens. But there's obstacles in that. There have been a couple of minor legislative changes out there that will make it a little bit different, make it easier. But still, there isn't the incentive to regionalize. And part of that has to do with affects of labor law, affects of local control, things like that. So I think it would be important to look at ways that the county could, as a ambarella agency, move and consolidate and maybe bring those little services under, much like it did with Metro. She took, I thought, this conversation or these questions. I'm not sure the difference there, but you're welcome to proceed as you wish, as long as you don't abuse our witnesses, which I know. And I don't think Mr. Williams going to let you down. I'm not happy the mayor worried about painting that. Anyway, I think you have a good point. My concern is, as you know, a member of many boards and commissions that the number of expertize this bridge is, I don't know how to run a hospital. I do not know how to run a fire district. I could probably administer it, but I don't know whether you need more of this kind of chemical or that kind of chemical. So I'm glad they're firemen that know this chemical fire, people that know this is the chemical used for this that this and the ratios. So that part, I think we need other experts and I don't know if they report to us so that we do all the overhead, but the one area that we do have a problem is that nobody has the authority inside the millage rate to decide who gets more millage and what do we do if that knocks off a junior taxing district? So I think one of the considerations I'd like to throw out is somebody should have, whether it's us or somebody, probably us have the ability so that if somebody wants to increase their taxing rate by $0.10, but that knocks off three other taxing districts, that we have some ability to say, no, that isn't going to work. So that for me is the part that needs to be fixed. Interestingly enough, and I don't want to digress too far on on ad valorem taxes, but interestingly enough, special purpose districts, really, they make the levy request to the county. The county is the actual one that levies the taxes. All they do is make the request. And depending on what county you're in, certain counties exercise the the the power of levying a little bit differently than King County does. King County is pretty much we ask for it and we give it to you, unlike certain other counties that actually exercise a great deal of oversight. Because, remember, the process is we make the special purpose districts make levy requests, and then the county approves that levy. So I don't know if there needs to be another layer involved in the county charter that would be able to balance that out and take those things in consideration. That's a big political issue. As you mentioned, the statute already addresses the priorities between senior taxing districts, junior taxing districts. That's a that's a very interesting conversation. And obviously, it's something to have that you're going to really have to work through. The other point that I wanted to make is, is that I think it's also important to separate operational issues from policy. A lot of what you were describing was operational issues. And I'm going to be the last person in the world to tell a fireman how to put out a fire. But at the same time, I think that there's an appropriate spot for you all in in determining regional services. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you. And thanks for your comments on special purpose district reform. It's something that I've been interested in and worked on some in the last decade or so. And it is such an antiquated tax system and it's been built on layers, upon layers upon layers without a whole lot of regard to the layer, previous layer. And it's kind of a mismanaged mess. We see it most particularly what we run into levy suppression issues where junior taxing districts get suppressed and that's happened and where that junior taxing district literally has to pay the more senior taxing district not to levy its rate, which is the same thing. It's burning money for the junior taxing district. So I'd like to work with you on those issues. And I think it needs to interface also with the state legislature in terms of how we prioritize those taxing districts and how high on the world fire districts get close to suppression sometimes in hospital districts. I mean, that's just crazy. And history has taught us anything. It's taught us this that we're going to have a recession. It might be in two years, it might be five years, possibly eight years, but it's going to happen. And so we need to reform that. And I'd like to work with you in advance of that coming before. For the voters and the council. I want to say very generally, the charter of your commission is a very important process and it was really very necessary every ten years. It really should be every five. But that's a lot of work to kind of clean house and to reorganize the way that we fine tune, the way that we run as a government very broadly. And so we put our brightest minds in this table here. But I can say that about all of you. My nominee, Sean Kelly, is the mayor of Maple Valley. And he's very, very, you know, worked very closely with the Thomas School District. And I hope the council approves him as well. But these are really fine folks. It's a lot of work we're asking you to do, but we appreciate it very much. And I have found that working the charter of your commission, working with council members as that process moves along, yields a better result than if it's done in isolation. So just encourage that. Appreciate your willingness to work and look forward to working with you on special purpose district reform. Thank you. Very good, Councilman Belushi. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all for being willing to serve on the charter commission. It's a it's a it's going to be a bit of work. We appreciate you bringing all your expertize. One thing I've been thinking a lot about lately, and I noticed in many of the responses to the questions is how do we effectively work as a region to address regional challenges? County is the regional government, but we don't have all the authority and the responsibility here required to address effectively some of our biggest regional challenges from transportation, homelessness, affordable housing, economic development. When we talk about where does where do jobs go and how do we, you know, lift all boats around the county? We really need to be able to work effectively with cities and with the state. And it's just a topic that's on a lot of and a lot of meetings these days. So I would be really interested to hear anybody's thoughts now or when you get to meeting about how do we structure ourselves so that we can work as effectively as possible and challenge ourselves and each other while recognizing the authority and role of each level of government? If it was easy, somebody would solve it by now. But, you know, jump right in. I will say one of my interest actually in being involved with reviewing the charter is not only look at really looking at the policy analysis pieces, but really having an overview why I didn't actually like some of the questions we were asked beforehand. I thought, you know, in some ways we really can't answer those until we do like a deep dove on how our county has really changed and not only how our county has changed in terms of demographics and challenges, but also how government has changed in the last ten years about how we should be working. Together. How we should really be having communities in leadership, in ways that I think didn't happen as regularly ten years ago. And, you know, I have worked with other regional parts of the country and Seattle has attended Seattle and King County. Have. Some really good models they could be looking at in terms of a regional approach that does not seem to be as present here. I look forward to hearing more about that. Thank you. And I'll just note, it's a long standing tradition that the municipal league be involved. They helped get our 1968 charter passed and of course, the few decades before that reform the Seattle City Government Charter. So we're really pleased that the Nesbitt League has a representative here and hope that we can rely on your broader organization as well on its skill set and resources to be a part of the process. I'll be happy to. I think one of the things we forget and part of our job will be to educate the community as we go along. Because the reason we have so many special purpose governments in the West and it's mainly in the West, the larger West is because we didn't trust the feds at all. So we had to have our own little pockets of a commission for this and a board for that. And that's sort of how we got and and I actually was an elected member of the Special Purpose District, i.e. a water sewer district, separately elected, etc.. And I agree with the idea of the management of the what you're doing is one thing, but the governance is another. And I agree that maybe it's time that we quit worrying about being the wild, wild west and get things together. But we'll have to do a real we'll have to do a lot of educating to the general public, because I always said if King County on the day stop everything they do, suddenly people would realize how many services the county is providing that affect their daily life. And I would just add to that, I think there really can be a litmus test around safety and so on, so forth. As part of a 32 house sewer water district on Basilan, I could tell you that we've not always had the greatest water quality standards and so on, so forth, and it's difficult. One of the volunteers in the neighborhood running it, and there is a point of professionalizing that process and. Putting in other questions or comments for this panel. Councilwoman Raquel Welch. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't know if you are in the position yet to be able to answer this question, but if any of you have any thoughts, I'd appreciate hearing what going into this process. What do you think is the number one challenge for King County? I think that this is kind of Williams again. I think that when I look at the charter. And I look at what's going on in the county is. You need to be a little bit more nimble. There's a lot of issues in the world's changing rapidly, and it seems like maybe it's just because I'm getting older. But it seems like as things keep changing, it seems like the pace of change keeps getting faster and faster. And when I read the charter, I, I felt like to some degree it was antiquated and in a way, it had a lot of a lot of restraints on action. And I think that in order for the county to be able to address the issues such as homelessness, whether you call it homelessness, affordability or streamlining government, it's going to have to be a little bit more nimble because it's very confusing from a consumer perspective or a taxpayer perspective when you have to call eight different places in order to get an answer in your state and you're in the same house, you know, it's not like you're going different places, but you're there's a lot of different layers of government here that's very confusing to most people. And I think that being able to streamline it and make it easier for people to understand their government and how they work and get responses is going to be a challenge for everyone. Very good. Let's see. Toby, you wanted to? Yeah. You know, in reviewing the charter, I really don't see structural issues in the charter itself. That would be changing. That would make a huge difference, because I see the biggest challenge facing the county as a sustainable revenue and the limitations are not in the charter. The limitations are in state law and what what the county is allowed to do. And so it'll be interesting if we go through this process and we end up not making many changes to the charter, but giving you all a long list of requests to the state legislature. And I don't know if that's actually within our scope to do that. I hope so. Maybe one of the things that we end up doing. Thank you. Yeah. I want to just reinforce for my perspective those comments that there may be some state based changes. We need to be able to effectuate a contemporaneous, contemporaneous charter. And I would say just real quickly, I also want to say that I think one of the biggest challenges right now in the county is the lack of equity when it comes to a policy that is passed, when it comes to looking at who is in leadership positions, when it looks to when it looks at how decisions are made and who they're being met by. I think that everyone, obviously on the council and everyone who represents King County is capable of doing so. And I mean, we appreciate everything all the time that council members have given and your efforts thus far. And I do think that there is still a lack of representation. I think there when we look at the county, when we look at how it has changed and we when we look at how it will continue to change, we need to make sure that government governing bodies and decision makers are reflective of the people who are most impacted by those decisions. So I think when we look at how equity is applied and that lens is applied to governance, I think that's still a challenge for King County. I know. I'm sorry. Did you want to go? No, I would certainly agree with Natalie. I would also say, you know, not to be glib about this, but how do we look at this as an opportunity as well as a challenge? I mean, King County, I think, is known for innovation. Our region is known for innovation and wanting to find unique solutions. And I've, you know, had a chance to work with the council. And I know that's also a desire there as well. So the question is how can we create litmus test and the constructs of equity throughout our work that we could be striving way beyond just tinkering with things, but having that really reflect what we would like to see in the county. All right. In the interest of time, Kasperowicz, can we move to the next panel or do you have a specific question here. For this panel? That's okay. Sure. It was triggered by something that our panelist, Toby Nixon said. You know, one example of that is the Rhodes formula. Rhodes formula is broken. And when you talk constituents, the reason I can't fix your road as much as I would like to and as much as the 43% of the King County Roads employees that got laid off, they have no job. Would love to be out fixing your road, but because of the formula at the state, we don't have the money for that. It's mind boggling to them. What do you mean? You don't have the money for that? What do you mean? The formula is broken. How did that work? Why did that happen? Why hasn't been fixed? Oh, perfectly legitimate question. So I think, you know, having something that it has to be sustainable is really important. You know, one of the things that we do fairly well is we acknowledge where. Regional government. But the thing we don't do as well as acknowledge with the local government and I think it's really important as we go forward because if they were a city, they would be the second largest city in the state. And yet they have no mayor, they have no city council. They have us, but not all of us are actively engaged in what goes on out there. And sometimes it's a difficult dichotomy. And so I think putting the fact that this the section of our county needs to fully be represented is really going to be important. And hopefully we'll have the Department of Local Services. But what should that department be able to do to make it more empowered as a city and not just sucked up into being, you know, part of a regional government? Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Nixon, I know you've got to go. And just maybe if I can, one final question, since I think you may be our only city council member on, we have the mayor of Maple Valley who'll be serving. But you're here today. A big part of our work involves partnering with the 39 cities in the county who are the direct service providers to most of our residents. And we have some structures via the Regional Policy Committee in the Regional Transit Committee to integrate our governance. But do you have thoughts on how that process might be or what relate those relationships might be improved? Because I think there is still occasionally some tension between the county in the cities on the issues that are facing our region, just in terms of how we address them and getting them done. Well, I think that the current system is actually pretty effective with the South Cities Association having representation on all the regional committees or nearly all of the regional committees and the SCA Public Issues Committee, which I serve on, and the and the board being able to work on consolidating positions among the cities in communicating with the county . I think it's been pretty effective and making sure that the interests of cities are addressed by the county. So no, I don't have anything on the top of my mind right now in terms of what would be changed. But I certainly look forward to the process and considering concerns and proposals that others might raise. All right. Well, thank you very much. I want to echo Councilmember Dunn suggestion that as you do your work, that you make time to make time to interview and dialog with members of the council. The executive are other separately elected officials. I'm sure you'll outline a process or work plan to do that as you get going. And we are providing staff from both the legislative and executive branches and hopefully we'll get you a lawyer. Do we have an act? We have a lawyer for we got a lawyer for him. Okay. You're going to need that. We don't want too many. No, no. Canon is not allowed to practice law and order. But thank you for being here. We'll expect a move if you have to do, but expect to move this motion forward today. We'll invite up the next panel. You guys have cleared a lot of the heavy, heavy brush for that. Thank you all. All right, welcome. And Will, you guys saw how we did that? And we'll let you do brief introductions and a little bit of background on why you're interested in serving that. Have a little dialog and we'll start on the left. All right. Good morning. I'm Beth Segal. And I guess the thing that the charter and I have in common is we both just turned 50. And I. Didn't get a committee panel thing. I just had cake. I am a the founder of a nonprofit that education network that focuses on education policy, primarily with suburban Seattle school districts, but also statewide issues. I have a lot of experience also representing foster children, and that actually right here in King County courthouse, also with a lot of policy and hands on experience helping the disability families and students with disabilities and special education policy specifically. Also, I have been very involved in overcrowding issues in our school districts, campaigning actively for too many losses and a few wins for school bonds. And with all of these domains, I can bring a user perspective to these discussions, whether it's people with disabilities trying to access public transportation, trying to explain to voters what a bond is and why we have to keep voting them up or down. And also, as a ten year resident of unincorporated King County, just the issues that you face, trying to raise a family and go to work every day from Novelty Hill area and the traffic and issues and things like that that we face pretty good. Thank you. I thank you for having me. I'm Jeff Natter. I'm executive director of Pacific Hospital Preservation Development Authority, which is the city chartered but county wide PDA standard up on Beacon Hill where the stewards of the Pacific Hospital campus. And we use our funding to provide services and grants to people in King County who are addressing health equity issues. We work with quite a few organizations. I'm really excited to see members of the council again. I've been having one on one meetings with several of you. It's great to see you again and thank you for welcoming me here. I've been doing health and social services in King County now for about 30 years, and I still feel like a newcomer and in a honeymoon phase at this county. Just quickly, last week we were in my staff and I were in North Bend to meet with Encompass, which works with two small children, and we passed a herd of elk by the side of the highway. And one of the reasons I would like to really work on this county charter and feel very honored to be able to do so is I would still like this county to be a place where we can have herds of elk in the county under the shadow of Mt. Sinai and have world class opera and have competitive sports teams like the Seattle Storm. And I also think it's really important for us because the charter is only reviewed every ten years to look at the ways in which practice may differ from actual policy. In the past ten years, I think we all know in terms of administration and management, we often engage in practice that might be different than the written word and some of it's often for the right reasons. I'd like to make sure the charter can reflect that, and I really want to work with the Council themselves as the stakeholders of this of this Charter, to see what your opinions are and what your ideas are about how we can make effective changes. Thanks. Thank you. Morning, Brooks. Hey, Brooks Selzer. I'm an executive board member of the King County Labor Council, representing about 150,000 workers. And also the Washington Federation of Public Employees represented about 45,000 state workers. The reason I wanted to be part of this committee, which I was really shocked when Joe actually nominated me, was I really do want you guys to have that nimbleness, to actually attack some of the problems that we have in our community. And also it's just to make sure that workers are a stakeholder in our charter because, you know, those are our voters and those are the constituents that you guys represent. And that's why I'm here. Thank you. Hi, I'm David Heller. I'm a lawyer with an office in Burian and I live in Normandy Park. I don't know much about municipal law. The other lawyer knows far more about it than me. Obviously I do know quite a bit about history and the Constitution, which I think is how I got nominated. It seems to me I agree with Mr. Nixon. The biggest problem the county has is it doesn't have enough money to do what it needs to do. And I'm not sure how much of that is a structural problem within the charter. I think it is more of a state problem. So as someone else suggested, we might come forth with some suggestions regarding what the state ought to be doing to change that. Someone mentioned, and I'm well aware of this as a lawyer who goes to court, that the court system, the justice system is taking a. A huge amount of the budget and it's, in my opinion, absurd that Washington is the last state in the union after even Alabama and Mississippi in state funding for its court system. I mean, the county is paying all this money to prosecute people in the name of the state. Does not make sense to me there. There's been talk about regional solutions and I agree that we need regional solutions. But the region is bigger than King County, and I think that's something we need to think about as well. Take a quick example. If we if King County did something that caused homeless people instead of ceasing to be homeless, to move to Everett or Tacoma. Problem is not been solved, just been moved. And I think there's a number of problems as the region grows and as people leave King County, because the housing prices, they're moving to Snohomish and Pierce counties. And I think increasingly these three counties need to be working together. And I'd like to see some structures that can make that happen. And if, for example, all three counties went to the legislature and said, we need this or that, that's a lot of votes and it might have some impact down there. So I'm looking forward to getting up to speed and working on this. Thank you very. Hello. I'm Michael Hermanson. I think I bring a perspective, which is a little bit different from the other panelists I've heard this morning, simply because I have never been involved in government and have worked primarily in the in arts and culture in King County. And so I felt like, I suppose, that the position I once had that had the broadest sweep was being the director of the Museum of History and Industry. So I've had a different a different way of looking at things. I'm now retired, so my history activities are focused on it really narrowly seems, you know, as as I get older, my life gets more local. So I'm now president of the Queen Anne Historical Society, which is very narrow but still touches on a wide range of issues that affect the county. I'm also very active in bicycling in Seattle and King County. And, you know, I'm sort of the the old man out in Seattle neighborhood greenways. But I'm very interested in finding solutions to density through the reduction of our intense use of automobiles. And I think that King County, because of Metro, is really very much in the lead insofar as all of that is concerned. And the other thing thing about bicycle riding is that you get to see history where it's happening. That's one thing. And the other thing is you get to explore the whole county. I rode two weeks ago, 67 miles from Mary Moore to North Bend and back, and it's a really a great opportunity to get to know what's happened. Oh, that's the same Mount Index experience. Mount Sinai, was it in North Bend? Well, it was really beautiful. But so you get to know the county in ways that's really different, a kind of an intimacy with the landscape. That is something that I hope we can bear in mind as we explore how the the organization of the county can be improved. And I'm happy to hear, having read the charter, I'm happy to hear that there could indeed be a focus on establishing protocols for approaching the state to change the way things are operated. Thank you all very much. Members questions or comments to any of these panel members? Councilmember Bell Duchin. I think that you heard our questions before and some of you went and answered them. And I really appreciated the comment about regionalism being bigger than just the borders of King County. I think the only thing I would offer is I do think that there is we are bumping up against the limitations of our current structure within King County to work regionally, effectively and our different layers of government to address our problems. And I think we need to kind of solve that and work with our neighbors. I mean, I think these are and not or so it's just more of an observation. But I really appreciate your your. I wanted to make sure not to not ask you the question. You're welcome to answer it again if you like. But thank you all very, very much for giving your time and your expertize to this process. It seems like a really high powered group we have here is going to be very interesting to see what you do. I do want to share just a I my very first run for office was for a charter commission in Bellevue, and I won that race. So I've been where you've been before. But the charter itself, the the vote to establish the charter commission failed. So we never had to do anything. So you're going to go further down this road than I ever got to go. Okay. Councilmember one right. Our question after this. Okay, proceed. Okay. Very good. Are there any other Councilmember Lambert? Thank you. So I'm glad you were for Mary Moore to mount site because that's all my district and all 1007 square miles of it. And it is beautiful but it doesn't have a lot of busses and so and Vikings long I'm glad you can do that so there's a problem with roads out there and there are problems that are unique because of the amount of water and the number of trees and the distance and many things. How do you feel that you'll be able and this is for anybody to really be able to address the uniqueness or get to know the uniqueness outside of the urban core. Oh well, I'll just respond directly. I'm one of the things that didn't come up in this conversation were were environmental issues surrounding the county. And so much of the county in terms of square feet is actually rural as compared to what we have in the urban core. And so I think that we have to take the environment and the impact on the environment into account and kind of see ways that we. To expand the purview of the county. I think there's a real balance to be achieved between, you know, providing access to where people have to work and shop and protecting the environmental quality of the of the area. I think the Growth Management Act had a huge effect. It's really been successful. At the same time, when you write from Mary Moore to North Bend, it used to be as soon as you left Mary Moore, you were in rural King County. That was the first time I did those rights not that long ago, like 15 years ago. I used to love getting out of Mary Moore, and now you have to crank up these suburban hills until you actually get to rural the rural part of the county. So it's very important to to bear in mind that we need to understand that while there are regional problems, there may be social and political, there are also huge environmental questions that need to be taken into consideration. I don't have an answer. So most people do not know that 61% of this county is owned by government or open space or has an easement. So there's a lot of issues because government owns and we haven't quite got our noxious weeds under control. We haven't got a lot of things under control that need to be under control. And I think people don't realize that 61% was anybody else want to answer that question? Sure. I'd like to jump in and thanks for the opportunity. I think my role and I hope our role as the Charter Review Commission is not necessarily to solve each of those problems, but to help create a framework that allows the county council and the citizens of King County to address those problems. I mean, obviously, all of us come with real strong concerns about certain issues, if not a whole variety of issues, mine being, health care for underserved. I don't think the Charter Review Commission can improve health care for the underserved. I wish we could. I wish we all could. But we're going to have to work together. And I hope that our role as a commission is to provide, as I said, that framework that allows the county council to take action to address those issues on a on a more granular level. Just as a semi-colon to these, these are all really great answers. And the issues that you're raising are spot on. I'm a I'm also a lawyer. And I in reading through the charter, it wasn't jumping out to me what specific provisions are hindrances or barriers, but that is where I'm going to absolutely tap into your expertize to say, look, you know, we have these challenges. Are these things that can actually be addressed by the charter or do we need to go to Olympia or something else to follow up, especially on what Councilmember Tom said earlier in the process of whether it was campaigning for a bond or trying to help a. Foster child get. Services in South King County and all different types of advocacy I've done. One of the things that becomes really clear just from the lawyer perspective is exactly what he said, which is we've have layer upon, layer upon, layer upon, layer upon layer of fixes that addressed. A specific problem. But weren't necessarily global. Just because the reality is whether it's helping somebody take the bus or making sure waste is picked up or whatever things have to happen. And so perhaps this will be an opportunity. To fix. Some level. To make some. Global changes that could at least streamline or make things a little better. I just wanted to add, I grew up in a very, very small town. It was back east, but a good analog would be Omak with that kind of a place, that kind of weather. And it was east. We did have layers and layers of government in my town which had 5000 people. That was both a village board and a town board that met separately and made their own rules. So I'm somewhat familiar with that. But I understand your concerns. And I'll just tell you quickly, I was just back there visiting. My family still owns a very small parcel of land. We have some beavers who moved in a couple of years ago and at first they were cute and now they're taking over the place and we're not sure what to do about it. And so that's part of the issue. That county is both very urban and very rural in different places, and sometimes they need different things. In my overlong essay that I wrote in response to the questions or didn't make it, it was a. Very interesting response. You might take a look at that questionnaire. Thank you. I suggested that perhaps we should look at restructuring the council. Maybe it should be larger, maybe it should be different. Maybe there should be some at large seats. That could be if there are groups that are not being adequately represented that or perspectives that are not being adequately represented, that could be a way to address that. I realize that's a pretty touchy subject, but it might be something for us to study and think about it real quick. That's why we're done. On that point. I appreciate your courage in coming forth and saying. It's, of course, been done before. Yeah, we all or some of us lived through that and having to campaign against the person that represents this district now, because ultimately the charter was struck and the 13 denied but larger. Yeah, I heard that as well. We hear what we want to hear up here. Here's the point I'm trying to make. It is so critical that this board, the commission, were made independent and I mean really independent and and to the point where, like I said, you know, worked closely with members of the council as you shape a particular proposal. But at the end of the day, you're going to have to take the tough votes. Let's talk about special purposes. Who reform? Do you think fire commissioners are going to like the idea of giving away their jurisdiction or sewer district commissioners or irrigation district or whatever it is? There are so many. You're just going to have to take the tough choices. And I appreciate the independent spirit by which that was said. And so regardless of I'm up here griping in a couple of years about something. Remember what I'm saying now? You need to be independent. Thanks a lot. Councilmember Cole. WELLS Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don't have much time. I'm aware, but I did ask the earlier panel about what they thought might be the greatest challenge. And one of the Palin powers thought maybe a more appropriate question would be what are the greatest opportunities but that you have before you as being a member of the commission ? Would you like to just give like a 32nd response? Any of you? Well, I think we've talked a lot about managing growth. I'd like to frame it as managing change. The nature of the county in terms of our demographics and our population in the past ten years has been dramatic. The nature of the the urban versus rural of balance has been demographic. Ten years ago, Bellevue was not Bellevue as it is today, and much of Seattle is not what it is today. So I think that's a great opportunity for us just to be able to recognize what has changed in the past ten years and hopefully make sure that the voices who are the individuals behind that change, whether it's environmental, social, health related, political, are respected in the upcoming charter. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. We obviously you have 23 members who are nominated division. It's tough to get folks. Kojo, we appreciate everyone, all nine of you that were able to attend today. I sent out the questionnaire to help give members some insight into the nominees, especially those that were unable to attend. And we got pretty good responses on those. Mac, do you know how many out of the 23 responded to the questionnaire? 15 or so, 15 or so. Okay, 16 so far. I did hear from Senator Joe Fein, who was courteous enough to let me know that he would not be here today because the number two child was expected to maybe be delivered. I don't know how that's going, but I would be right now in my chair to refer to. Child which just born. Okay. And I just got a text from Joe and mother and son are doing well and it appears to be it's £8, ten ounces born at 957. Otherwise he would have been here. Your mother and baby are very healthy, sweetheart, but before. Well, he yelled to a question. Well, boy or. Girl, so. Boy. Okay, second boy. All right. Do you know. All right. And also Sung Yang indicated that he wanted to be here but was was not able to join. I don't think I heard from other folks. I want to pass along those items. So Councilman Ron Wright power. I just had a procedural question. It has nothing to do with the panel here, which I'm very appreciative of. Bob and I nominated Center Payne and I feel that he because he worked here at the county for ten years, both for Julie Patterson as well as myself, he brings a really good perspective. I couldn't help but notice that looking at the sheet that Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Baldacci, Councilmember Lambert and Councilmember Bowen are all have one nominees, whereas other districts have large is their vote weighted or I'm just curious as to how this process developed because it seemed the suburban district councilmember I do chief myself Lambert Dunn all seem to be having represented by one person on this rather large panel. I was just curious with how this was set up. Yeah, that's a good question. And I see that we're going to get some help from our legal counsel to perhaps give us some background on the extensive and long process that is undertaken between the executive and legislative branch to get these nominees here. Well, good morning. I am Mike Hooper, counsel to the council. And the question was, is the wait, are the votes on the charter commission weighted? They are not. It is one person, one vote when they actually serve, because ultimately what they are doing is providing recommendations for you to act upon or or not act. If I took that question as rhetorical, but the underlying point was the question was, what's been the process that's led to this ban? That's that's correct. I'm going to answer that. And if I may, I'm going to turn it over to the very knowledgeable Mac Nicholson on how the actuals like the actual selections in front of you. Joe. Thank you, Mac Nicholson staff. I've been working with this charter view process since 2016 and 2016. The charter requires 15 members, one from each district, or at least 15 with at least one from each district. So the way we kind of split it with the exact staff is reached out to council members for a recommendation from their district which would cover the one from each district. The executive side made appointments equal in number. Okay. Okay. With one additional appointment to kind of not to get to 23 total. And so from from there, the list of folks that were nominated or appointed by the council, you'll see we end up with at least one in each district. And then the executive side went through kind of their internal process to it to end up with that. The folks that they appointed, which I think is why you see the picture, it appears to me just looking at the raw number that not all districts are created equal. You mean to respect you don't Bellevue councilmember duties larger district over there and compared to some others it just doesn't seem like there was a good communication between the council and the executive to make sure that all these districts were represented. That this does not look like a well-balanced panel. It looks like a very distinguished panel, but well balanced panel. When you see the five suburban districts at one person, Dave has two people, whereas other districts have one, two, three, six, five people. It appears to me, Mr. Chair, that we could have done a much better job spreading the burden and the opportunity to represent King County. I think that I concur that that is an ongoing issue, Councilwoman, right there in our major board appointments, as someone who represents both Seattle and non Seattle, one third of my district being in the city and two thirds being out, i, I am sympathetic to your point. I think the chart could be I wouldn't say misleading, but not tell the entire story. For example, a position number 11, William Ebersol is listed as King County Council District one. Public sector was. Magic Kirkland. I mean, he was a as the former mayor of Duvall and I. I don't believe well, lives in district one he may work there so I think the chart well giving a clue I think to some degree at least that is an example that jumping out at me is as maybe not indicative entirely of the geographic balance here, but we obviously could not control the executive side nominees. We did our balancing here with mostly one member per, but I think there were a couple of council add ons as well. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to pick up where you ended. I was very if Mac could clarify kind of how we got to 23, each council member I know was asked to nominate someone for possible appointment. So that was nine. And then we if I recall, the executive recommended more than nine. Correct. And I thought it was ten. I may be mistaken. 11. Okay, it was 11. And then so we had a process where empowered our chair to nominate two additional and it got to 22 and there was a discussion among one of the council members and the exact surrounding concerns over one of the nominees. And that was kind of worked out between that particular council member and the exact site and resulted in the additional appointee that is kind of be part exact part council member individual who was appointed. Okay. Thanks. Councilman Belushi. Looking at the chart, can you just remind us which of these positions by position number were appointed by the council? Yes. If you allow me to just grab my. Yeah. Thanks to the panel. You may step down. And while we have our as you can follow up on Councilmember Dunn's comment, you can see why independence of the panel will be so important. Because now here we're wanting to make sure that there's been fairness in the process. Mac, why don't you come to the table here? Yeah. And, Carolyn, is this something that you could add some information or value to as well as a participant in this or not? Really, Max, the one. All right. That's, I believe, the position numbers, if you'll give me just 1/2, because I don't have them listed by the one through 23 yet on that particular green sheet. Is the first green page. You look at his 41. So I'll just run through real quick. Position number seven. And these are the council appointees. Position number seven. Three. Position number three, position number 16, position 15. The names I. Know he's just going through the. Position chart. I see. Okay. Thank you. 1895 position number 18, right. One. Right position 21. Six. No position number six was a executive side appointee. Position number eight. Seven. Position number seven. No, no, no. I'm saying I'm saying that. So I'm doing a running tally. Seven people. Position 23. Position 21. And I've already said that. One. Two, three, four. I'm not talking in my sheet, but position number 414. Correct. Okay. Is a council appointment position 12, four. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. So that's nine plus the. Extra and there should be position 11 also we should be at 11. How do we end up at 11. Nine plus the two council at large. One or two counsel I thought there was one odd one. Now you don't remember. McDermott Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I wasn't done asking. Can I finish? Well, I'm. Sorry. I was clear McDermott was going to explain or kind of. Answer. Your question. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you. I was trying. To get you two to look each other because Joe was trying to say, I've got the answer. Sorry, I can't look at. Him. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are nine appointees by council members. And then when the executive what having them have 11 appointees, there was an interest in making sure that the Council had an equal number of appointees, as the executive branch did. And so I sent out an email to all of the soliciting names and input on making two additional appointments, and based on those responses, made two additional appointments. And that's how the council seats got to 11. I'm sure those two. Alejandro Trace was one. And just a moment, if you would. Sure. Or if I can help me out. And Linda Larson. Human Director Yes. Okay. Councilmember Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure it's understood that, at least in my case for District four, I had nominated one who was included. And then I was asked for a follow up because most of my selections were white men, very bluntly put, and there was the need for more diversity. So I offered another one as a suggestion, and that's what happened. Okay. I appreciate councilmember run rate Bowers concern. I often also look to district representation. But I think the point that was made by the chair is a good one. There are a number of names on here that while they have a district number after them are, they come with a set of experience and background that makes them good representatives for a much broader geography. And I will just without embarrassing her point out Louise Miller, who is listed as a District four person, but throughout much of her career was a District three three person and clearly has a much broader perspective. And there are a number of people like that on here. I feel that this is a good panel overall and I'm prepared to support it today. I do think that we should remind ourselves also that whatever recommendations come out of this charter commission come to the council and the executive, and then we get to vote at the council, whether they go forward and are voted on by the voters or not. Correct. You actually have to vote on our recommendation. Yes or no, but we get to vote yes or no, right? Yeah. Thank you. That comes run. Right. Power it. Just clarification then on the contest again. Yes. Let's assume again those five members representing suburban King County are these 23. Yeah, we have five people. Mr. Kelly, Mr. Fein, Mr. Nixon and Beth are one, and then we're actually six people representing the Duke and David district. Those six people who actually represent or live in South King are in suburban King County district. If they decide to come together on issues, are they going to be restricted by a majority vote on this panel from recommending recommending things that might affect their area? Well, I'm not sure how the charter commission's going to want to vote on these things. I can say previous reports have included both majority recommendations and minority recommendations. So if there were areas where there was a unanimous vote as a recommendation and then there would be some that were partial recommendations and then minority recommendations as well. We have 23 people on this board, six of whom are in or represent the rural or suburban areas of King County district. And those are the districts most affected by King County. With all due respect to my friends in downtown Seattle, by our decisions, because our constituents out there are the most affected by King County's decision. So I'm until I have confirmation that those six lonely voices from our suburban King County are going to be heard. I'm going to vote no. I'm sure it's going to pass. But I just I feel very just disappointed that so many didn't communicate together to make sure there more than six votes. Of 23 members representing King County suburban or working county. And with all due respect to my colleague, we talked about the broad experience. I agree with you on that. But nothing like living in your neighborhood talking. We believe in communities and if they live there, they're talking to their neighbors at the Safeway store. They're talking at their community clubs. I think it's incredible that we have six people on a 23 member board that actually are coming from districts that are primarily suburban or rural districts. Councilmember Lambert. So this is going back to like ground zero after hearing what Councilmember sorry, Andre Gardner said. So one third of the population of this county live in Seattle, and yet it's about two thirds of them will be representatives from Seattle. So I get the broad. But for the nine and I had said my person was number 20, 28 and 33 and I adopted her, but I had actually done a number. Well, Avatar, who is that is my number three. But anyway, I do want to point that out just for clarity. So but my question is, has to do with the executive. Is it in the charter that the executive gets to represent? To put that many in. Was that something that we had decided? How did he gets to match us and not have it be? And fine with the matching, as if he picked people from all of our districts. But the fact that each of them predominantly from Seattle, kind of exacerbates the problem outside the county, that only Seattle is matters. So how did that happen? Is it the charter? Is it so the charter just says the exact points council confirms and there need to be at least 15 with one from each district or at least one from each district. As far as how the exec chose his appointees, I would defer to the executive because I don't know how he met that. Remind us who is the executive branch staffer on this? So there is Kelly Carroll who has been working with this. And again, is Ms.. Carroll here? No, no. And who else? And Kelly Knight, who's calling recently. So I don't know how many boxes. Over. There in the back corner. Okay. Kelly's here. Ms.. Knight, would you like to respond to Councilmember Von Powers issue regarding the geographic diversity of the executive side nominees? On behalf of the executive. I can. Why don't you come forward if you're going to speak? So we have it on the record. Name calling night. And I work on the external relations team for the exact office. This is my first time up here. It's really nice to see all of you. Welcome. Thank you. Usually we do a pretend hazing, but it seems like this. Is more of a. Outreach. I am actually coming on to this project new so I can take your feedback, bring it back to my team in the expects office and respond offline. If that works best, I feel not equipped to answer questions about our selection process because I was not working on this issue when that process was going forward. That's a reasonable chance. Counseling everyone right now. We have to pass this out today. We do not. I would like to have a chance to have a dialog with the executive, because, again, we have 23 members, six of whom are represented by district. So I think if he has that capacity or we can work together, I just want I like everybody who's been nominated. Yes. I just wish everybody would nominate across the board. We talk about, you know, Supreme Court decisions about representation. I don't see that in this process. Okay. Colleagues. Customer McDermott Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Nicholson, are these appointments? They're being sent to us by the executive. Are they technically all of the executives appointments? And he's taking our recommendation on 11 of them? Yes. I think that's kind of a fair way of saying it, that under the charter, the exec appoints counsel, confirms the discussions we had early in the process as a way to try to ensure that counsel had representation and had some input to have the council members pass along. Nine are turned into 11 members that the exact would then add to their list of of appointees and sent over for confirmation. And has the Council always have approved or confirmed appointments to the Charter Review Commission? No, but this is the previous Charter Review Commission recommended a charter provision that was passed by the voters to require council confirmation of charter review appointees, and also that the ending piece of having the Council act on every recommendation in an open public meeting. Okay, thank you. And if I've got the numbers right from the charter, you said it's at least 15 with nine council members, one from each district having a representative person. It's at least 15 with at least one from each council district. I see. And do they have to reside there? It's unclear. I guess I would at this point kick back to Mr. Hoover, because we did have that discussion about kind of how how strict that that kind of requirement was, whether it was a residency or. That the charter says council. It doesn't. The charter says. Hello, Mike Hoover, again, county council counsel. The charter says from each council district. So it's it is a little bit ambiguous. You can read it as residing there. It could be representing that. It could be that you are free to appoint somebody from that district that you think will represent that district. Council member Ron Wright power. And I just want the opportunity to have a chance to talk to some of the members who are being appointed to make sure that the minority of folks that are six out of the 23 voices will be heard because they represent in terms of this district or this county, two thirds of the county. And I want to make sure that I have a chance to talk to somebody individually, to make sure there's a respectful process that's going to include the minority, as well as the substantial majority who are appointed by the executive. Thank you. And just one more general question, if we might, Councilman, through. Remember, it was my understanding is this has been worked for months now that it was going to be ten and ten or at least it would be even. And I will confess to see an odd number of 23 and 11 council, nine plus two at large. That's not even half. So what happened? Why why wasn't understanding that I should have been reached with I understood have been reached with the Executive Office to have a balance of counsel on executive nominees. Not here before us. So if I'm understanding the question, why are we at kind of 23 instead of 22? Yeah. With that were the extra one came from and I would defer again to that particular council member who had a discussion around kind of some of the appointment in the appointment process. And, and there was a discussion that was reached or a discussion was had between that council member and the staff that resulted in the appointment of a 23rd to the body. Well, I'll just say this is a problem when all council members aren't treated the same on these kind of appointments. It can lead to these kinds of challenges and concerns because, you know, I served before I came here on the redistricting commission with five commissioners, and that was a sensitive topic. There were two nominally are two now heads, and we had selected a fifth person as a chair. And one of the rules we adopted, an internal rule related to transparency suggested by Judge Carroll, was if there were contacts from an interested party, a council member, about where a line should be drawn or what precinct should be made aware that those be disclosed with the entire committee. And that was, I think, our first of its kind sunshine rule. And it worked pretty well because there wasn't a fear or concern that somebody was gaming the system. And I think what you're seeing here in this dialog is some concerns about transparency in a panel that is going to recommend changes to the Constitution, this government and the structure. And for all of the reasons, as articulated somewhat by Councilmember Dunn about independence and the importance of this work, you can you can see why we care and why Councilman Ron Redbirds are raising these procedural concerns about how we got to today on the on the nominees without raising any concerns individually about the quality of the nominees before us. He's been very clear, and I think I think probably all members here agree with that. It's outstanding group of folks, but sometimes where you sit determines where you stand and maybe from what your district you work from, like determine where you put your work in to on some of these issues. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. So I agree that these are a great list of people, but I am also concerned with what councilmember bombmaker brought up about. The idea that that happens frequently is that the people most impacted by our decisions are frequently people that are in the unincorporated area, both urban and operated in unincorporated. And yet frequently or like 99% of the time, they have a few people there to advocate for whatever is or isn't. So it's just systemically looking for ten years from now, you know, maybe saying that, you know, whatever the numbers are that the executive needs to, you know, choose the people he chooses along with each of us , where he would say, there's somebody in your district I would like to appoint. Is there somebody that you agree with so that it is more evenly divided? But even so, there are five districts in Seattle and four districts that are not. So even then, we still have a preponderance. So I think it gets back to the question that Councilmember asked earlier. You know, will the people that are going to be on this committee, like many of us have to do? You know, one minute I'm a floating district supervisor and I have a supervisor, and then you take that off. And now I'm a council member and pretty soon I'm a board member. So, you know, flexing their ability to say and keep in mind that Seattle, as wonderful as it is, is not the epicenter of the entire county , and that there are other people who live and work outside the county but also need to be taken into account. And if it's going to impact them more than other places in the county, that that really needs to be taken into concern. And, you know, one of the one of the members brought up an issue today, I think, kind of tongue in cheek. But it was on the beaver issue. That is a huge issue. And I have pictures I took. I was going to tell them we could have a whole session on beavers, but we're not doing that. Councilmember Lambert has no new beavers. We have had committee meetings on the beaver. We haven't have new pictures. But it is a serious issue. And unless you have to deal with it, those cute little things are so cute until they destroy everything. And how do you tell people who don't who only see them as cute and adorable, that when they've destroyed everything, it's not so cute and adorable? And how do you deal with it? And unless you know that, you have no idea. So I think it's going to be important that whoever is ultimately on this committee that they really have the pep talk thinking outside of one city but the entire county. Thank you, katherine. I want to get to councilman wrote the grove, but just. In the interest of movements like hearing your concerns, Karl Rove of Rick Perry, but understanding the constraints of committee time and it is this committee has been it's not the committee of the whole in the past. We have been added a whole bunch of substantive jurisdictional issues around parks, sewer. We are overwhelmed. And the July and August meeting schedules are tough. I would ask and hearing your concerns and knowing that there could be a solution because these are flaws, not ceilings on nominees. If we might be able to if you would be comfortable with without recommendation, moving the members forward today, knowing that that's two weeks plus a week to at least think about that. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I as a south ender, along with my colleague, I appreciate his sentiments. I maybe don't have quite as much fear as I heard in his voice, in part because the nine of us, you know, a majority of this county council's from outside Seattle, from the you know, five of us are from rural and suburban areas, and the chair of the committee is in a divided district. So I think if there were shenanigans based on geography that took place on the Charter Review Commission, the fact those come back to the council would would provide some certainty. That being said, I think the point that I heard was broader about making sure that that life experience is truly reflected in the in the diversity and the geographic diversity and the the numbers districts. I'm sympathetic to how they can mean different things. For example, there's somebody from my district there, the executive director of a Seattle based nonprofit. I thought the example of the former councilwoman serving a suburban area but living in Seattle. So these numbers kind of at times can be somewhat arbitrary. But I I'm actually more troubled by the notion of that nine of us not being treated equally, especially if that threw it out of whack. And I don't I don't know the back story on that. But if having one council member get an additional appointment ended up skewing these even further, that would have been more problematic. So I want to express my concern about that, my, my, my empathy. But also just I wanted to point out that we do have a majority of folks up here from outside our urban core. So I think if like I said, if there was something that wasn't geographically balanced, we have a safety valve. But I would love to work with Councilman von Reich power between now and full council if there is identified needs for any changes. Sorry. Just very briefly, in addition, we put this list together quite some time ago. I mean, we've been working on this for over a year and things have changed in that period of time. There are some topics that are extraordinarily hot now that were merely, you know, simmering then and things that. And so if we're going to take time and have conversations between now and another committee meeting, maybe we could consider that as well. Because we're on regular. I mean, we we passed that motion on to the full council without recommendation. Thank you very much. It's about for us and I take the motion is not going to concern about the substance of individuals and their qualifications. And I'm extraordinarily impressed with the addition of all these individuals who took the time to do it, some of whom I've known for 30 years, some I've just gotten over the last 30 minutes. But I want you to know from this is a process question, not a not a personal question, a process question. And I think you can appreciate that comment. And I want to thank each one of you for your willingness to serve. A very good clinical call the role. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Duty Council Member Done. By. Council Member Gossett. Council Member Caldwell. I Council Member Lambert. I. Council Member McDermott. High Council Member Squirrel. All right. Councilmember one Right now. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is 18 is no no's. One excuse. Here again, we've given a recommendation that this be advanced without recommendation of the full council. It'll come to Mondays from now. Although under our practices and procedures there can be an additional courtesy delay if a member has it. And it seems like, Kelly, that maybe the executive might want to get with the councilman one. Right. Bauer and others have expressed concerns about regional balance on this and see if there isn't anything that can be done there to work on that. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it. MACK Thank you. Thank you to all our members and good luck. You do not need to come back for the full council meeting. We will turn now to item eight. And as we do that, Jennie Giambattista will brief us I. Wanted to let staff know on item nine that I in a prior dialog I thought that had passed out on our consent agenda. So I see why you're still here. This on the biomethane. We'll see what we can do. I'm not optimistic, but we'll see what we can do to get to it. Hi, Jenny. We had a substantive hour and 15 minute briefing on this piece of legislation that's been worked on very hard by Councilmember Cole. Wells Really the harassment and discrimination last time and we are here today to take a look at her striking amendment and other potential amendments and see if we can't get it advanced. Good morning. Council members Jenny and John Batiste. Council staff if it's helpful for you, I can give a brief recap of the ordinance or I can jump right into the striking amendment. Which would you prefer? Mr. Chair, I think. We've had the ordinance briefed basically, and we heard concerns last time, and so would it help? Councilman wants to jump to the striking amendment to see how you have proposed to address the House. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that's fine. And I do want to bring to attention of my colleagues that we do have the materials that were distributed on our table today. So you can get those up. Thank you. So thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'll go through the striking amendment. I have prepared a red line version for you, so the line numbers I will refer to are the red line versions. I think that will allow you to see the changes both clearly. So the primary substantive change that you will see before you in this striking amendment is that the judicial branch participation is now voluntary. And you can see that in lines 191 to 194, where there is a specific language that is added. There's a new Section five that's added that simply requests the Superior Court and the District Court to give consideration to the sections of this ordinance. Additionally, they are encouraged to transmit training options. That is the most significant substantive change to the ordinance. Other changes that I will walk through in the striking amendment largely reflect some of the discussion that was had at the last meeting on this topic. Throughout the ordinance, the phrase each entity managed by a separately elected official is replaced, and that is replaced by simply listing the offices of those separately elected officials. So, for example, on line 72, you will see that that has been replaced by listing the assessor, director of elections, sheriff, counsel and prosecuting attorney. That doesn't change the intent of the ordinance, except, as I indicated earlier, the effect is that the judicial branch is no longer included. So you will see those that phrase deleted, threw out the striking amendment. And if I may, Jenny, just an obvious question for you, or are the are legal officer, but can we direct those separately elected officials to to do this? Or did they have any independence similar to the judiciary, although they're not a separate branch, if you will? I just go back to our paid leave program where, you know, it was essentially. I believe we can, but I would like to defer for confirmation to our legal counsel, Mike Hoover, on that question. He's got rules. He's like, you might as well take a permanent seat here at the green table. Thank you again, Mike Hoover, counsel to the council. This has actually been worked fairly extensively and we believe as it's written now, we do have the ability to direct it, direct those officials named in the current version. There were other versions where we went back and forth on this quite a bit, the courts being the primary ones that we removed inside over. I see. And I see we have executive branch books here from H.R.. Is that your understanding as well? Okay. Oh. I'm just trying to square in my mind. The reason for the silence is in the prosecuting attorney's office. The prosecutor, Soderberg, I thought, stepped up and did the right thing by on the one paid weeks of leave, offering to, you know, grant that benefit. But I understood that it was discretionary. And so I'm getting nods from some maybe this is somehow different, but it's a still an important now there are now they're shaking their heads. Could somebody from the executive branch come forward and educate me? I'm looking at the lawyer. Yeah, this is I'm not I'm just to understand the difference if there is one or how this works, just from not that I think it should apply to all branches of the government. Right. But I'm trying to understand as a legislator, our ability in this context. Excuse. Islamica prosecutor's office. And Mr. Hoover and I haven't talked about this issue, but I do. Think the prosecutor, like with paid parental leave, agreed that they would be part of this ordinance. But I think there is a question and actually, you know, apropos of your charter review decision or excuse me, discussion this morning, there have been some lines where we have done things because we've always done them that way. And there's some things we're going to need to clarify in the charter about whether the this body can regulate what courts are doing or the prosecutors because. We like the courts. Are a separate branch. But Ms.. Jean Baptiste is correct that the prosecutor's office is happy to, you know, be part of this this effort to. Update policies and report back to the council. But I think that question, if we want to talk about it. Deserves a little more research. Okay, that's helpful. So we're proceeding here with concurrence of the separately elected. But there well, there is a. Or and again, the separately elected in the executive branch. If someone's doing the crazy executive. The assessor, the elections and my sheriff. The sheriff. All of their employees, it says in the charter, in. The executive. Branch. That prosecutors, employees are not in the executive branch. Because that office is established by state. Correct? Yes. Okay. But we. Do have some sort of mix up on how we'll get that all squared away in charter. Review. All right. That's helpful. I appreciate the tutorial. And if I may add just non-legal information. Our chief of staff, Carolyn Bush, did convene a meeting with the chiefs of staff with each of these separately elected officers to discuss the ordinance and the Stryker. And all of those officers were supportive and in fact, suggested the list, the way that this is listed here in terms of rather than using some phrase, such as each entity managed by a separately elected to actually list them out. So moving on, if I made lines 74 to 75, this was just a a edit to clarify the writing. It doesn't change the intent where the edits here are done to clarify that, that there is a requirement for new or revised training rather than just recommendations for training later on in the ordinance. It's clear that we've tried to make it clear that what is to be transmitted on September 24th, 2018, in terms of training, are training options line 100. The striking amendment insert the word encourages in order to emphasize the intent that the county does want to encourage reporting. So it now reads a description of a reporting system for employees that encourages those who experience workplace discrimination and harassment, including sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct, as those as well as those who observe such behavior to report it lines 107 to 113. This language was added at the request of Councilmember Balducci in order to provide more direction on what the guidelines for how to handle a complaint should address. I think the information that is added here is consistent with the intent of the underlying ordinance. There are, looks like, a lot of changes on lines 122 to 143. This is just moving text around for clarity. There is a new requirement in there at the end of line 130. And the new requirement is that resources for employees to understand the policies and procedures shall be easily locate able online lines. 158 to 164. Were edited for clarity. The prior version could have been read to suggest that we were trying to prevent complaints, which is certainly that was not the intent. And then on lines 177, this is a substantive change in that the requirement for reporting data on informal reporting is changed to when possible. And that was done in consideration that it may not always you may not always have the data on the informal reporting. I would note that the striking amendment has been shared with the executive staff and it has been supported by the executive staff. Get a note on this issue. We got a nod from RH, our director. Okay. So that concludes my comments on the striking amendment. I think you have also has a amendment from Councilmember Lambert as well, which is an amendment to the striking amendment. For a discussion of that amendment, I would like to turn to our legal counsel, Mr. Hoover. Good morning. This amendment is fairly straightforward. The the over the underlying piece of legislation actually directs a variety of departments and agencies in specifically including us to go back, revise and develop our own policies. This amendment that's boring would actually be a little more specific on what should be included in those council policies. And it specifies that if there is a concern or a complaint between council members, not necessarily staff, but council members themselves, a mediation process would be imposed and it would be mandatory. This particular language essentially just directs us to adopt that. So we would be passing. If you pass this amendment, you would be passing an ordinance telling yourselves to go forth and adopt a policy, implementing a a mediation process that would be mandatory where there are concerns or complaints between council members over and above whatever other policies we also have. So this is some specific the ordinance itself is more procedural in terms of asking that processes and politics be developed. I think it's fair to characterize the although the ordinance has some specific standards and benchmarks to meet, the ordinance generally tells departments and agencies to go and develop something. This would be a fairly specific directive to us. Yeah. All right. We'll take these up in order. Councilmember Caldwell's, would you like to put the legislation before the committee? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move by ordinance, proposed ordinance 2018 0256 pertaining to discrimination and harassment, including sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct in the King County workplace. All right. And would you like to move striking Amendment One? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move striking Amendment One. All right. And Jenny has given us an overview of it. Would you like to speak to it? Okay. Do where do we need to take up the Councilmember Lambert? And then after we take after we well, before we vote on the striking amendment. All right. Councilmember Lambert, would you like to move your amendment? I would. Thank you so much. I'd like to move amendment number one. And it would. Serve. I need a procedural ruling on this. Is this within the scope and object of the legislation Council? I believe it is. I yes, I could elaborate. All right, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This idea came to me during the meeting that we had with all of our employees. What date was that? Is that Thursday? Thursday? And the question that came up and then we had legal advice is, is what how do these things that other employees can go to their manager? How would that be handled by the council? And I thought, okay, that's an interesting question. And the advice was that we would self-police. And that was very difficult to do. And so I thought, well, how could we do this in a way that's respectful and a way that would be a good example to all the employees that even when you're an elected official, you're still held to the same kinds of standards and that if we don't have a manager over us, although we do have our constituents, but that doesn't help on a day to day basis that we have a process where we can make sure that we are able to do whatever we need to do to make sure that this is a healthy working environment. And I thought this is a good way of being an example to all of our employees that we to take this very seriously. And if there's a problem that we will go to mediation and get it worked out in a timely way as possible. Thank you. And I'm sorry, Governor, did you move that amend? That's because other council members are concerned about the issue. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is one of the innovations, and I think I mentioned this in our last meeting about this ordinance that's in front of us, is that it does include council members. We're not exempted from the requirements that Councilmember Caldwell's has put forward to review our policies and to adopt policies and procedures that address all of the things that have been now stated as in the ordinance. I will say I lived through an experience on another body where there was an elected official who was alleged to have committed some behaviors that could have qualified as sexual harassment that was on senior staff, possibly not just senior staff, but also was problematic among some of the female council members. And so it's very difficult to deal with a situation like that. It's important to deal with it. But it's very difficult because each one of us is here, because the constituents in our district voted for us. And there is nothing that the rest of the council can do about that, that the people we are here and we're here until we get voted out of office or we do something that enables us to be recalled by law. So however, it sends the wrong message if we just shrug our shoulders and say, therefore, there's nothing that can be done if there are complaints like this. I asked a question earlier on the side that I want to ask you again, now that we're speaking in public, and that is can you talk about so first of all , I think the before I frame the question, just one more thought. I'm doing this in real time. I do think that the issue of councilmember behavior is a correct thing that we ought to address. I don't think it should be about councilmember behavior just to other council members. It should be about councilmember behavior to anybody. And I think that there should be a process that is as effective as we can make it, that gets developed, that we use in situations where there is a concern about sexual harassment or discrimination that meets the definition of this policy. Do we have anything like that in the ordinance here? And if so, can you explain what it does now? Yes, we do. The the at the beginning of the ordinance, we actually directed many entities, including ourselves, to go back, review and revise our policies in line with standards that were set forth. If you then go down, I'm trying to think, I guess it's section two D, there actually is a specific provision that is, I think, fair to say, aimed at what you're raising, which is although it applies to any interactions between staff members, etc.. We also ask that the policy include a specific look and and procedures for accounting for power dynamics. I didn't say that very elegantly, but it is to account for the power differential. But when elected officials erect with staff or with each other, I would think. Can you point to line number? Yes, I can. It's in I hope I've got. A very striking amendment on s one lines, 144 to 148. Right. And it reads the policies, procedures and training developed by the and I'm skipping all of some of the people council shall specifically address the power dynamics involving staff and elected officials and how to respond to and prevent discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct by elected officials. So the way I read this amendment in keeping with the striking amendment and the ordinance, because this isn't new language, this is in the underlying proposed ordinance. Right. This what I just read. Yes. Is that the ordinance and the striking amendment would direct all of these parties, including the Council, to go create procedures and policies that do all these things, including this particular thing. And the amendment would say what at least one of those procedures must be in a specific type of situation. It's like sort of getting to the end on this one question, though, because it's so so here's what I'm suggesting. And I look at Councilmember Lambert for a second. I completely agree that mediation is a tool in our toolbox that ought to end up in our final policy, in an appropriate place, with appropriate language around it. Who does it when? I don't know that we can require each other to engage in mediation, but we can certainly encourage each other to do so. But I do think that we're set up right now with this ordinance to tell everybody, apparently set the courts to go and figure out what your policies, procedures and training are going to be and then come back and then we're going to adopt those things or we're going to implement those things anyway. So I. Wonder, Councilmember Lambert, if you wouldn't be willing to accept that this language says we're going to work on exactly this sort of thing. I'd be willing to work with you. I'm sure Councilmember Caldwell's would be willing to help us with this, as he's been the guiding light on these things, to come up with a procedure that at the end does what we need it to do. Because I support your idea. I do. I like it. There are some tweaks I might propose, but I do think that this gets to a place of stating the end result when this entire ordinance is really about dictating a process to get to the end result tonight. Councilmember Caldwell's stating that correctly in your mind. And thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I believe you are. And what we what I've wanted to do throughout this is to be consistent. And my concern with the amendment is that we would be going for a level of specificity with the council and especially particularly with relations between council members that we do not have anywhere else in the proposed ordinance. And I think that's the way to go about this. And I agree it's very important is to work on the council's policies and procedures and training to reach the objectives that Council Member Lambert is wishing to have included. Councilmember Lambert, Thank you. I am very concerned about power differential with a staff member. I think it'd be very difficult for a staff member to say Councilmember X has whatever yelled at me, screamed at me, jumped up and down, giving me funny looks, turn green, whatever, because they work for us. And so they would come through either us or through H.R., through the county, if they felt that the processes here weren't working. But for council members, I think that we need to set the tone of good behavior and treat each other with respect and what we you know, what we say to our kids. And, you know, sometimes we give a greater example by what you do than what you say and hopefully what you do and what you say match. But when they don't match, then it's a very bad messages to our children or to anybody around us. And so I think that as we go forth and make our own policies, I think this is an aspect that is very touchy and something we haven't ever talked about before a very much. Although if you look upstairs, we at one point, Julia Patterson did the chart on the wall upstairs about how to treat each other nicely , which has been there a long time. So I'm going to withhold this amendment for the fact that, as we do our own, this is a aspect that I think we need to include and that we also need to make sure that our employees know that we intend to model the very best behavior and not allow things to continue that could be swept under the rug in the past. Are you withdrawing Amendment One? I am. All right. That's withdrawn. Are there any other amendments council member made? Just as a final comment, I everything you just said, I agree with and support and will work on. As we move forward to our Council proposal, I commit to working on getting to a place that acknowledges all of those realities that you just outlined. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell. So I'm sorry, are there any other amendments? No. All right. Councilmember Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. In speaking in support of the striking amendment, I would like to just bring out a few things that I think are really critical. First of all, thank you to all the staff and all of the H.R. just across the board. It's been a very productive process that we've been going through for the last six months. But secondly, I think it's really critical that we bring up our whole county, including our council policies and procedures relating to harassment, discrimination, sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct, which would be new in this case. We have to modernize what we have in place, which has been good but has not been adequate to really achieve what we all want. And that is a welcoming work environment where people feel as though they can thrive in a safe and an equitable, a respectful and inclusive environment. And we know that people across the country. In government entities as well as in the private workforce, are reluctant to come up to report discrimination and harassment and inappropriate conduct. And I want to make sure that we're not dealing with the abstract here. We have good policies, but if they're not ones in which people feel comfortable coming forward, then we are having effects on individuals that can be mental, they can be physical, they can result in economic difficulties if they feel like they have to resign. And so my main effort here has been to make sure we have something that works that. We don't have a workforce here that is reluctant to come forward. We are the best county in the state. And I believe with this amendment, with this ordinance, if it is indeed approved by the Council, we will go a long way in making sure that we have the most productive workforce and that we value our employees as they should. We need policies and procedures that are easily understandable, that don't result in people trying to read them in their eyes, glaze over because, you know, it's like they just don't even want to continue reading that they feel comfortable and all the King County reflects and what we want to have happen. This would result in some cultural change, but it's needed and we will all be better for it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilman Coles, thank you for your impressive leadership on this issue, and the amount of work that you've invested in is very impressive given the time. I'd ask that the clerk call the roll on this. I'm sorry. All in favor of the strike amendment. Say I am opposed. That carries. And as they turn to the underlying ordinance as amended, I ask the clerk to call the wrong. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belted. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garza. Councilmember Cornwell's Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Hi, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Hello, Mr. Chair. The vote is seven. Eisner's no nos. Two. Excused. All right, we'll advance that to the full council. Does it does it need to be or can it be expedited? We'd like to expedite it. It can be expedited. That is your policy decision. Would you like to do that, Councilman? Also, let's expedite it and we'll have it on the regular calendar so it can be spoken to with my colleagues permission, if you will. There's one more item that the waste our Truman Division would really like to get addressed today. I think we can do it in 4 minutes. Mr. REED 4 minutes. We went a little long on the charter review, and this is with respect to our environmental attributes legislation which the Council has adopted before. And I think we've got a fine tuning ordinance. Yeah, very much so. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be brief. So this is 2013 0230. You will recall that in 2016 you approved two pieces of legislation. First, that authorized the well that authorized the sale of bio gas from the South Premium Plant to II resources, and it also authorized the sale of environmental credits which are associated with the bio gas. These credits are created under the Federal Energy Independence Security Act. Under that act, EPA used to authorize credits to generators of alternative fuels that are used in the nation's fuel supply. So in this case, Air Resources, which is an affiliate of BP products, North America, would purchase the fuel and the environmental credits in 2016. The council actually approved two pieces of legislation. The first would have approved would approve the sale of the bio gas and the environmental credits. The second, because there was going to be a waiting period during which an EPA registration process to authorize county participation in this market would be required and the legislation allowed for storage of the bio gas during that registration period. So the EPA approval process did go forward. Approval came in August of 2017 and the sale to IEI went forward. The county realized actually $629,000 for the bio gas purchase. A portion of the sale realized $5.6 million up for of the environmental credits piece. So since that time, county attorneys and AGL attorneys have been communicating and I identified a number of changes needed to the legislation. They are those changes I'm going to jump in here are listed on pages 233 and 234 of the staff report. That's too numerous to list here. Morally, right? That's true. All right. But I will quickly note, Mr. Chair, that that is a striker. I, I have to apologize. I got that. The request for your sponsorship for the Stryker to you quite late. And so as I understand, you are considering not acting on the Stryker this morning. No, I. I'm happy to do that. I thought we had advanced this on the consent agenda when I spoke to you in the meeting here. So I thought it was too late to do the Stryker, but I'm happy if the peo and department, you know, it's fine to further refine it. Right. So we're short on time. Okay. Is the committee willing to advance this? Yeah, it can be subject to signature. Is the committee willing to advance this on a regular calendar, which I understand is basically a contract clean up? The legislation? That's correct. Councilmember Lambert. So, yeah. We can do without recommend. Yeah, I think so. I just wanted to make sure that that I'm reading this correctly, that this is an existing contract where they pick up our gas from rent and treatment plant. That's correct. It's gas and environmental credits that are created under VICE, which is the Federal Energy Security Act. So there's an I have no problems with the contract. There are some issues with that. And as far as the leachate and stuff that's coming and some of the gas issues that we can talk about that another time. So I'm okay with doing that, that recommendation. Does this change the fundamental economic return to the county on this contract there? Is there a major change in the economic benefit to King County? Because we spent a lot of time looking at this before. It does and it basically extends the process that's in place. I will will note that there had been contemplation of an actually increase in the environmental credits revenue that has been pulled back through the striking amendment force, which I could go into. But I don't want to unless you ask me to. Just for our department. Could I ask colleagues that we advance this without recommendation to full council on the regular schedule? And I understand that we've had a very limited time here, and people may want to look into it a little bit more. Councilmember Lambert, would you be willing to put them on force without recommendation? 2018 230. Thank you. I'd like to propose ordinance 2018 0230. Whether you pass out is Iraq without recommending that recommendation? And would you be willing to offer the striking amendment? I would be happy to. I'd like to move a Stryker amendment, number. One S-1, all in favor of S-1, making technical and legal changes, say I. Any oppose that's approved, ask the clerk to call the underlying ordinance roll call. This is without recommendation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett, Councilmember Qual. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott, councilmember of the grove. Does not have the votes. I. Councilmember von Richter. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote has five eyes. No nos. Right. We've given a a. We've advanced that legislation with that recommendation to the full council on the regular schedule. And Councilmember Lambert has a question. To I just want to check item number six, which was earlier today, the tentative Cedar Hill. Yes, that was on our consent calendar. Yes. Are you putting that on consent for the full council or is that going to go regular? We did advance that on consent. So if you wanted to pull it off at the full council to discuss that, you would want to do that. Well, maybe if they could talk to me beforehand, because the tonnage that's on here is considerably less than the tonnage that we have had. Okay. So I was just wondering why the numbers were different. We had Pat McLaughlin and a couple other folks from Solid Waste here for that item, but we did move it out early in the meeting. So I think, Erin, I'll get you answers. Good. Thank you. All right. Thank you to my colleagues and staff for your work today.	A MOTION acknowledging receipt of a Cedar Hills Tonnage and Capacity Report prepared in accordance with the 2017/2018 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 18409, Section 107, Proviso P2.
king_f32beec4-4914-44e5-9d6c-a23bdc39a8a8	To welcome everybody to the June 1st, 2022 meeting of the Committee of the Hall. And I'm the Chair. Council member Jean Carl Wells. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the King County Courthouse, since the unceded ancestral lands of the Duwamish people past and present, we honor with gratitude the land itself and the drama's tribe. We will begin today's meeting by public comment, followed by a briefing on the executive's COVID response from Dwight David, director of the King County Office of Performance Strategy. And batshit following that, we will have a panel presentation on King County's Immigrant and Refugee Commission and take possible action and three appointments to that commission. And we will conclude our meeting with legislation offered by Councilmember Bell duty and myself that would propose an amendment to the King County Charter to move the elections from certain county offices, from odd numbers to even numbered years. And now we will call the will. Go ahead, Matt. Thank you for your calls. Councilmember Balducci here. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Here. Council member done. Here. Councilmember McDermott. Here. Councilmember Ferry here. Council member at the ground here. Council member Andre Bauer era council member Sally Eyre. Chuckles. Here you have a permanent. Thank you. Ma'am. And I will now ask where emotions are. Vice-Chair Council Member Time to approve the minutes from the May 18, 2022 meeting. To move approval of the Minister May 1822. Okay. All Thank you. All in favor indicate by saying i. I. I know the minutes have been approved. We will now turn to public comment and this will be our very first meeting since 2020, in which. The. Chambers are open for public comment. We will begin with public comment in the chamber before turning to those who have joined us via Zoom. And Madam Kirk, do we have anyone in chambers to provide public comment and possible can you provide an estimate number of the number of individuals in the chamber? Yes. Go our way out. Excuse me. I apologize. Yes, Chair Cole. Wells. We have one person in the chambers. How quickly? Thank you. And do we have anyone on the line wishing to provide public comment? And if you have an estimate the number for those and appears that we might have about seven people. Okay. Very good. Well, I'm going to make some comments that I hope will be helpful for people who are wishing to give public comment. Such comment must be related to items on today's meeting agenda and not be used for the purpose of assisting the campaign for election. Are any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition unless does not include obscene speech or be disruptive to our meeting. If the speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, I will rule the Speaker out of order and have the speaker removed from the meeting. Our committee clerk will call the names and numbers when your name or the last three digits of your phone number is called, you will be asked to come to the podium or a new line. Please start by saying and spelling your name so we can capture it accurately. For the record, you will have 2 minutes to speak and we'll hear a timer go off in your breach. 2 minutes. You can finish your thought, but please wrap up your comments to allow the next person to speak. You may be muted if you go much past the 2 minutes. Please go ahead and begin calling names and numbers for public comment. Again, we'll start with the one person in the chamber. Thank you. The first person is Alex Zimmerman. Go right ahead, Mr. Zimmerman. Yeah. This time. It's not working. It's not working. Oh, okay. Kyle, my lovely dirty. Damn Nazi fascism due bandito. My name, Alex Timmerman. I wanted to speak today about something what absolutely critical what has happened for the last two years. How you destroy America. Totally. Is this exactly very important look right now what's happened? Your status change right now before I think in the you the natural born degenerate idiot for the last year year you won't destroy America. You kill people, you kill a million people. You know what this means? Everybody in your right now to me looking like a real Nazi bandit. You know what this means. And then, Mr. Zimmerman, your testimony is to be germane to our agenda. Exactly. Absolutely. I want to be excused because this first meeting in the first meeting, I want to explain something. What this happened, for example, in church, but nobody here. You know what this mean. How is this possible? You sitting home, $450,000, part time job in. Nobody come here. What is going on guys I come here to in gasoline cost $6 under Trump only $2. So is this exactly what is very important? Nothing happened. What is right now here before in America I live here 35 here. You look to me right now. They got real Nazi my bandito. Mr. Zimmerman, please speak to the agenda or it conclude your remarks. To me because it's first meeting in I wanted this and why it's going on. Is to send them in. Mr. Zimmerman all Mr. Zimmerman, all speakers must abide by what I brought out at the beginning. You are to state the agenda? Yeah. How is this possible? You talk now broken law or your rules? You will not here why you're doing this? Look, you are the mafia. You look up and get a no one going from here from nine. Where is going on? How is this possible? You know, what do they mean? And then. Mr. Zimmerman now, because what what's happened now is this unique situation. No one concealed here in this chamber. You have a medium clear memory. This is not speaking to the agenda either. Speak to the. Excuse me because situation today not about the agenda. This about what you started doing for the last year. No, no. I will not asking you to. Do your time. Not working. Time are not. What are you going on? I met him kircher's his time. I know you already. You understand that we are talking nine? No, I'm here. No one will. I talk to one? Two to this. Will you know what this mean? To come into. To to to to to be about. What is you talking guys in this time of year? This year. Please mute this camera, this microphone, and just so everybody will know. Starting next week, we will be in a hybrid meeting schedule where we will have people in the chamber. There will be people working remotely and people in the chamber. And this takes some planning and technological changes and then click. Is that all for individuals wishing to get public comment in the chamber? Yes, that is an engineer. Okay. And then please go right ahead with those who wish to give public comment remotely. Thank you. Thank you. The first person is Becky Claussen. Please go ahead, please. You can unmute yourself. I see you're on mute in. Becky Clawson. Oh, thank you. Please go ahead. I just wanted to speak in favor of the change for elections being on even years and not odd years. I think there's been a lot happening to prevent people from voting. I certainly don't think this issue falls into that category, but I think that as a society, we should be doing everything we possibly can to maximize access to the ballot box for everyone. And I think that the evidence of the difference in percentage of turnout for even years versus odd years makes it clear that it would be an advantage for many voters to be able to cast their ballot for the county positions on even years. That's it. The next person is Colin Gore. Please go ahead. Councilmembers. Thank you very much for your time. My name is Colin Cole and I am the policy director at a More Equitable Democracy Action. And we are a racial justice organization that focuses on voting systems and electoral reforms. We're here today to speak in favor of the ordinance because at the end of the day, what the research shows is that more people will vote in local elections. And I want to be really clear. It's not just more people casting ballots during times when local elections are on the ballot. It's people casting votes that are in those contests at the bottom of the ballot. I know that there's concerns that folks might not pay as much attention to the bottom of the ballot, that you might see more voter dropoff. But what we can see from the evidence and the research is that almost 2 to 3 times as many people vote, and the most increases in folks that are voting. When you move to even. Years with local elections are folks who are currently underrepresented. Young people almost double their proportion of the electorate, which actually matches their proportion of the population, for instance. And people of color vote at significantly higher rates as well. I also want to highlight that this is not exactly unprecedented. We already have, as your staff report notes, several counties in Washington state that hold their elections in even years. And there has been no movement. To move these back to odd years because people aren't engaged enough. In fact, the opposite when you compare contested countywide races in, say, Pierce. County and Clark County from the year 2018 to contested. Countywide races up here in 2015 and 2017, you see a difference of about. 2 to 3 times as many people. Casting votes in local elections. And regardless of any of your concerns, whether concerns might be about education, about voter engagement, about anything else. At the end of the day, 2 to 3 times as many people are voting in local elections, and that is something that we cannot undervalue. Thank you very much. I began my remarks. Thank you. The next person is Jae Lee. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you. To the committee. My name is Jae Lee. I'm speaking on behalf of Sightline Institute, an independent nonprofit think tank based in Seattle. Identifying this morning in favor of the even near elections proposal. So Align supports this reform because it will increase engagement, equity and trust in King County elections and governance. In the last decade, over 75% of registered voters in King County have voted in even higher elections on average. But in odd years, less than 45% of registered voters cast a ballot. There were no on year elections in the last ten years, where more than half of registered voters cast a ballot. What does this low turnout mean? I'm talking about half a million regular voters across King County that you could be hearing from but aren't. Usually it's very hard to improve voter turnout. People who work. On this are thrilled when outreach or policy changes improve turnout by two or three percentage points. But this change would dwarf dozens of those minor impacts put together easily, raising turnout in county elections by 30 or 40 percentage points. And these voters are exactly the kind of people that government often underserved. So I think the research shows that ordinary voters in Seattle are disproportionately whiter and older than the general public and even your voters. Now, some people say that voters will be fatigued by a longer ballot and skip local office. That is, if they appear after federal or state elections, this might happen. But the differences in turnout across that single ballot are way, way smaller than the differences in turnout across years. In the last ten years, King County election results show us that hundreds of thousands more voters make a choice. And even year races, including the really far down ballot contests than they do in odd years. So for all these reasons, Sightline supports the ordinance for a charter amendment to move King County offices. Even your elections benefits to public input equity and voting rights and trust in government can't be ignored. And a simple change can do more for increasing voter turnout than dozens of other potential voter turnout solutions combined. Thank you again for the opportunity. Thank you. The next person is Kathy her. Please go ahead. Thank you. And thank you, Chair Cole Wells and members of the committee. I am. My name is Kathy Fukuhara, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Northwest Progressive Institute, and I strongly supports this change based on analysis of the stark differences in voter turnout between even in ideas, quantity and diversity that you've already heard about and we'll hear more about. I want to address some of the concerns. One concern I've heard is that this will make even your ballots too long. That is based on the misunderstanding that even your ballots are longer than a year. But as you will see from the staff report, that is not the case. They report that ad year elections come closer to requiring a two page ballot. I think the concern behind this is the suggestion that the length of the ballot will cause voter drop off and some will not complete the ballot. It's not at all clear that that will be the case. But even if it holds true, the data from your own staff show that the total number of people voting in county races will actually go up because of the higher turnout. There are some who object to the complete elimination of odd year elections. This ordinance comes nowhere close to doing that. It simply means each voter will be deciding on one, two or three additional races in even years. This proposal does not eliminate odd year voting. Another concern is that there will not be a sufficient attention to county races. I'm sorry, but that is exactly the problem. There isn't sufficient attention among voters now. They are not paying attention to you, which is why they are not turning out in your elections. Many here don't even know there is an election in odd years. Finally, I think the entire issue is beautifully summarized in the staff report. Whether council wants to increase voter turnout for the election of county offices is a policy decision for the council. So the question is, do you want to increase voter turnout? Thank you. Thank you. The next person is love, Allyson Schwab. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you. Chair Call Wells Councilmembers. My name is Lev Schwab and I am the advocacy chair for the League of Women Voters of Seattle, King County. I'm here today to express our support for the proposed ordinance 2022 180 to move elections for certain county offices from odd numbered to even numbered years. The League of Women Voters was founded on the simple principle that the more people involved in elections, the more representative our government will be. We support maximizing the number of citizens participating in elections. We support having a diverse electorate that represents the people. And we believe that government should identify barriers to public involvement and take steps to reduce and overcome those barriers. Elections held in odd years have serious issues when it comes to equity and representation. Typically, odd year elections have about 40% less turnout than even year elections, and those who do vote tend to be whiter, older and wealthier than the electorate in even years. But in King County, we've been electing most of our county level positions in odd numbered years. By supporting this charter amendment, which calls for even higher elections for King County officials. We can increase and diversify turnout in county office elections and elevate public discourse about the future of King County and the issues that we face by shifting even your elections. We can not only get many more citizens voting in these important county office races, but future elections will be include more young voters and voters from marginalized communities. Additionally, media coverage and public awareness significantly increased during even years, and by shifting the even year elections, candidates will get to run in a landscape where more people are paying attention. We in Washington State have a proud tradition of being leaders in democracy, reform and ballot access. This is a tradition. I encourage you to continue by shifting our remaining executive and council positions to even year ballots. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Julian Nadler. No comment there. Thank you. The next person is Mohammed Focker. Oh, come on. Yes. Thank you. The next person is sure to come round. Hello. I am across the counter and I am coming back as just a activist and also as a leader of the King County Democrats. We have, as you heard, we have to deal with the reality that the lowest turnout years for our state and in King County have all occurred in odd years in this past decade, this past year, in 2021, our state's largest county, obviously King County, we had turnout at approximately 46% in comparison to 2020, nearly 90% countywide. And in fact, the 46% obscures that it was much lower and smaller cities such as Sammamish and Auburn. The change to you and yours would be in alignment with other West Coast cities and states such as in Los Angeles, who they decided to move their auditor elections to even yours just last year. They expect that this change will yield 800,000 new voters who will participate in electing their city leadership. As we debate voting rights at the national level, it is our duty to look at it here in Washington State, where we can help make voting easier and more accessible for people, particularly for people from different racial backgrounds and marginalized communities. If you've heard other people speak to today in the past year, I've heard from far too many people that they believe that they only have to vote every two or four years. We spend a lot of time on the doors and it is always so much harder in the odd years because people just are not aware. There's not as much of an ecosystem that is helping to turn out voters. No one can feel great about democracy when our leaders are being chosen by less than 50% by the public that they are supposed to represent. It's time to make this change, and I hope that you will do so today. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Tanya Haenel. Hello. Thank you so much for having me here and speak in behalf. My name is Danny Aquino and the founder and president of Somos Mujeres Latinas is a male and is a website is is l w a dot org and it's a nonprofit. That mission is to connect, educate and empower Latinas in Washington. Now, we've been working someone Latina has been working hard with King County elections to educate our Latinas to have a better turnout in border engagement. Because I, as an immigrant myself from Mexico, it's so hard to be involved in in politics because we are coming from a fear base. Don't trust the politics as much because of being an immigrant. Now we are trying to change the system and we are here. And I'm here representing someone who gave Latinas an endorsement to change the act, to switch the even years elections to. And even because I said already we have very low turnout in the Latino community and Latino community and we want to make sure we do not. I trust our elected elected officials will will want to hear more for our Latino community and want to be elected by our Latino community. So I want to make sure that we not only wear a Y axis so that we do not miss the access of having our Latino community participate in you. All our elected officials feel proud that they were put there by our diverse community as well. Thank you so much for hearing me. And I'm hope I hope we can see this in our ballots this November. Thank you. The next person is Sultan Haj now. Thank you. Yes, my name is Sultan Heidel. I'm a professor of political science and an expert on local election timing. I have published research on the topic in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and a range of other academic venues. In my time, I'll briefly give you an overview of research on election timing, and that overview will show that moving to even year elections greatly increases voter turnout and makes the voting population much more representative of the general population. So first, research demonstrates that the one small change in timing that you're considering makes a huge difference in turnout. So in Washington state, turnout jumps dramatically from odd to even year contests. So over the last two decades, on average, only 46% of registered voters have turned out to vote in odd year general local elections. In sharp contrast, turnout in the state almost doubles to 73% when elections are held in even years. This massive turnout effect, as others have talked about already today, is evident in elections in King County itself. It's also evident in cities and counties around the country. Indeed, every single published study that has looked at the local election timing has found that moving to even year elections is by far the biggest thing that localities can do to increase turnout. Second, researchers find that moving to even year elections makes the vote much more representative of the population. So younger voters are often the group least likely to be involved in democracy, have a much bigger say in even years. So their turnout grows from a paltry 18% in larger local contests in Washington to a much more impressive 50% in even years. The same move tends to increase the share of voters who are racial and ethnic minorities. The share of voters who are working class. And the share of voters who are liberal and Democratic. Finally, and perhaps most critically for the council, surveys reveal that even year elections are incredibly popular. Almost two thirds of Democrats favor even year elections. And in the dozens of cities where even year elections have been put on the ballot, voters have improved them by overwhelming majorities. And I'll stop there and thank you. Thank you, Chair. Well, I believe I've called on everyone. Thank you very much. Is there anyone on the line who would like to provide public comment and has not had the opportunity to do so? Just let us know now. Well, same old. What part of me? Oh, I was just going to say, I see no hands raised. Okay, so since we have no further requests, we will now close public comment. Thank you all who participated in this time. Our next item on the agenda, number five is our monthly executive's COVID briefing with Dwight David, director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. We always look forward to twice providing us this information. And Dwight, thank you for joining us. And please go right ahead. Good morning. Can you hear me? Clearly. Excellent. And for the record, Dwight Bagley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. It's always a pleasure to join you. You're only two weeks ago, and the list today is pretty short. And I know you have lots on your agenda, so I'll try to go through it expeditiously. And so I have five things I thought I would cover this morning. First of all, we always start with the an update on FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. So we have now filed all of our 2020 requests for FEMA reimbursement with the agency. And we are hoping that we will get feedback, if not cash, in the next three or four months. So we have some sense of whether there's any challenges with any of the kind of projects that were submitted for reimbursement. I think there's a very real risk that we won't have heard anything back even by the time the council has to adopt the next biennial budget. And if that's the case, there's going to be some uncertainty that we just have no way to avoid. So I just want to give you that head's up that the 2020 figures are all in, and that will be kind of our test case to see whether the same kind of things for 2021 and 2022 will get reimbursed. And that's all I have on FEMA, unless there are questions. I have a question. Why are we likely to hear back all at once, or will there be staggered feedback to us? I think that isn't clear from what you know. FEMA's changed their processes. They're not requiring as much documentation. They're promising quicker action. So I think it's possible we'll hear about everything or it's also possible we will kind of hear kind of program by program. And I don't think we really have a sense of how they're going to react. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Go on to number two, please. Okay. Number two, I want to share this information with everyone because it's kind of bad news and it's come up very recently with one particular organization. So I've been giving you updates as we've gone through all of these grant processes for programs you've approved, like festivals and events like arts and culture, like the unmet needs programs, and we're doing very, very well at this point and actually getting the contracts issued. What is now slowing us down, and this is the bad news I wanted to share, is unless the organization is already set up as a vendor in our county payment system, it's taking 1 to 2 months to add them just because of the sheer volume of transactions with new organizations. And then once they finally get added, then the payment actually happens quite quickly. So you may be hearing from organizations in your districts that are, you know, they have a contract or we've agreed on an amount and they still haven't gotten their money. And that's what the hang up is at this point, is we're just kind of overwhelmed with new vendors. And so there unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about it. We have to go through those processes in order to comply with our own code and state law. But it is slowing things down. Feel free to send to me or to Aaron Rhubarb if you have a particular organization and we can try to track down where they are in that queue. But it's it's just a challenge that we are just struggling with across the whole government because of the sheer volume of new vendors we have to put into the system. So I just wanted to make sure you were all aware of that situation. Dwight Have they been notified in those particular cases? Yes. So what? When individual organizations either contact council members office and they get referred to us, or if they come to the like the program staff who are running the programs, we get back to them and explain that situation. And it, you know, sadly isn't very satisfying for people because they know they've gotten a contract for a certain amount of money. They're counting on that money given all the impacts of the pandemic. And it sounds sadly very bureaucratic that, well, sorry, we have to set you up as a vendor. It takes six weeks. And, you know, unfortunately, that's the reality we're facing. We are telling people that I guess it makes them a little happier because they understand, but it's still a problem because they would like to get the money. So make sure you were all aware of that and feel free to pass along any organizations that if you want them to get feedback directly from the people that know. Thank you. Do I? Any questions? Council member Belgium. Thank you. Just want to confirm I understand the scope of this. Is this contractors guarantees all of the above. All of the above. So it's and the same part. This applies whether it's COVID related money or whether it's our regular business of the county. So, for example, if we got a new office supply vendor, that's we didn't. But if we did, the same delay would take place in getting them set up as a vendor in our system. So if we use our council district funds to make a grant to an organization and it's a new organization that hasn't received a grant from us before, that's because we've been getting complaints about holdups from some of those types of organizations. And you're saying that what is the timeline? So from the time the grant is awarded, so the contract is finished taking between one and two months to get them set up as a vendor in the system. And then after that, once the actual payment is authorized, it usually takes less than a week for the payment to go through the system. So that's the first part. It's the vendor that's taking or maybe on average, six weeks. Okay. Thanks for the heads up. Yeah. Any other questions? Okay. Great number. Okay. Item three is also kind of early warning. So you will recall last year included eight and in covered nine the council appropriate and a lot of money to our criminal legal system agencies to deal with the backlog in the system. And at the time no one really had a sense of, you know what that money all we spent this biennium with somebody left for the next biennium. And now it's very clear that we are not going to spend all of that money in the current biennium, in other words, by the end of this year. So as part of the 2324 budget, we will be proposing re appropriations of that money to those agencies to continue their work to drive down the backlog. And I just I think you're probably all aware of the backlog is not shrinking very fast because there's a lot of new cases coming in. And in many cases, the appropriate agencies are struggling to hire staff. And that's particularly true for the Department of Public Defense and course the office. So well, Superior Court and District Court and the Department of Judicial Administration have been able to staff up. It's been a real challenge finding qualified attorneys to handle some of these really serious cases. So we will be looking at how we reappropriate that money, and it won't necessarily be in exactly the same way that it was originally appropriate. In other words, the mix between agencies might change in what we transmit to you in the fall. And I just wanted to give you a heads up that that's coming. And I think there will not be a way to make everyone happy. So you can anticipate that regardless of what we do in the executive's proposed budget, we'll be hearing from our criminal legal system partners that they are not necessarily happy with their appropriation. And so for Councilmember McDermott and others, just to give you a heads up, that will be one issue that you will need to handle as part of your budget deliberations this fall. I just want to share that early because I know it was a very big deal for the Capitol with appropriate money to deal with the backlog. And you're going to face the same issue again here in a few months. Councilmember McDermott, any comment? Thank you. Sure. Well, I just want to assure you, my other colleagues and director, Dave Lee, that I did not sign up to be budget chair and accept the appointment expecting to please all of the people of. Amen. Okay, Councilman DEMBOSKY. Thank you. Dwight, thanks for that update. When we funded that, we had kind of a rough kind of chart of the general areas that the court, the prosecutor, the defender expected how to spend the money. Any previews on what you're seeing in terms of what you might expect in terms of shifting priorities? Would it be in the same buckets or are there some new ideas for those dollars within those systems? So concerned about asking. It's really early in our process. We have to tell you, I believe, two different status reports on the backlog. And Ellis Blakey has prepared, as have done, I think, a fantastic job. So I refer those to you and your colleagues. What I think a fundamental question will be, we ideally would have more funding for attorneys because that seems to be where we have the problem. But if we can't hire them, providing them money doesn't accomplish anything. That's the, I think, the struggle we will face in the next few months, trying to figure out, even if we shifted the resources to the prosecutor's office and public defense, could they actually spend them? And so we're seeing some things that are very different than what we did. So, for example, it appears that Superior Court is doing a good job bringing down their backlog of civil cases because they usually don't require either public defenders or prosecutors office. The attorneys are provided by the litigants and so the court has additional resources and they're not able to use them on criminal trials. So they're using logically for other work. So I think we're seeing a very different situation anticipated a year ago and how we work our way through that is unclear to me at this point. Thank you for that. If I could plant a little seed with you and my colleagues. We recently received an auditors report looking at our processes in the Superior Court with respect to the Extreme Risk Protection Order Program and firearms turnover. As you know, they were called Judge and Levinsohn after kind of a charge from the board of Health of years ago led a region wide convening to set up what is now regarded as a nationwide model. That's one of the of our red flag laws as they're known around the country. And I think we do overall pretty good. It is a model here, but it's my understanding and dialog with them and looking at our auditors report that we can make that system even more effective. I don't know. There's been some changes in state law as well in the last year or two that the courts, I think are working through. But if there's an opportunity to engage with our partners in that system to increase the effective efficacy of this national model that we've built here and reduce the risk of gun violence, where the data shows that in these situations, the risk is very high. I would like to to have some talks with you all about that with our partners in the judiciary and in the system that we've set up there. And we're aware of the change in state law. And so that's one of the things we're looking at is, is any of that money available for that? Is it something that is ineligible? We also got some money from the state legislature a year ago to deal with changes in state law that affect us and increase our costs in the criminal legal system. And we've saved most of that money. And so this is another place that we could go potentially to help fund some of those improvements that you're describing. Thank you so much. Have there any other questions. To do right now? I'm sure I always provide you with an update on the lodging industry because obviously that's the industry that got hit hardest during the pandemic. And we are now seeing real improvement. And so these figures are essentially for the four weeks between the middle of March and the middle of April. So there there are a couple weeks. All our hotel occupancy rate countywide was about 69%, which is, you know, below the good old days, but still much better than we've seen and very similar actually across the whole county. So downtown Seattle was 68%, SeaTac was 72%. So we're seeing rapid recovery in that industry. And I think for those of us who, you know, are around areas that tourists or conventioneers visit, we're starting to see far more people, very much like pre-pandemic days. And so that that's a good sign of recovery. Are there actually some additional conventions and meetings being booked kind of at the last minute? I do. Surprising that I saw that there were, I believe, three new ones for the third quarter of this year, which that's not very much notice to put on a big meeting or a convention. So it appears that there's revived interest in that as well. So it looks like the trend line in that sector is is doing really well. Let me pause and see if there's any questions before we move on to our favorite topic, which is sales tax. Go right ahead. During nine. So item five on my list. Last item is the sales tax update. And so these are the May figures, which means as always, it's two months ago that the activity occurred so that this is March activity. And mostly I'm going to compare 2020 to the current year to 2019. So that's the pre-pandemic three years ago. And then I will have some annual comparisons just to show you some trends in a few sectors. And so to the three year growth rates are very consistent with what we see now. For many, many months, total taxable sales in King County were up 22% in that three year period. The usual big winners were there. So the big box retailers are up 41%. Electronics stores are up 34%, building materials 32%. And the non store were the Internet retailers are up 25% are very, very similar patterns to what we have seen now for many, many months in a row. Restaurants and bars are still below. Three years ago, they're down about 6% compared to three years ago. Again, rapidly improving. And the largest sector is still down 31% compared to three years ago. Any. But I do want to give you the trend lines in the last year for both the restaurant sector and the lodging sector in the last year. So this is March 22. Compared to March 21 activity, restaurants are up 42%. And hotels are up 184%. So while they're not back to where they were before the pandemic, the change in the last year has been very dramatic, you know, very strong improvement in each of those sectors. I will say there's one potential cautionary note. The construction industry was down 5%. Comparing 2022 to 2021. So compared to last year. March construction activity was down by 5%. That may be influenced by the concrete strike and a few other things. It's hard to know, but that has been a very strong component of our sales tax growth now for many years. In in these data points, it's 21% of our sales tax revenue. And in places like Seattle, it's a meaningfully higher percentage than that. So if we see construction activity start to slow down, it will affect the overall growth rate of sales tax. And the last thing I want to do is sales tax. By a couple of weeks here, there were some questions about the geography of, you know, what are we seeing the same thing everywhere in the county, or is that a little different in different places? And so these are, again, annual comparisons. So this is the May 2022 sales tax compared to May 2021. Overall, countywide, it's about a 10% increase in that one year. And most of the larger areas are pretty close to that. Seattle was 11%. Bellevue was up 10% and it was up 9%. Winton was up 8%. So it's a fairly consistent pattern across the entire county. I will note that the unincorporated area was up 13%. So that again is reflecting people making more Internet sales are in purchases because those deliveries that occur in the unincorporated area are credited to the unincorporated area and the the city that was the big winner in the last year, probably not a surprise was SeaTac. They're up 47%. And of course, a huge percentage of their sales tax base is hotels and another big percentage is restaurants. And so with the recovery of those two sectors, SeaTac sales tax went up by 47% from a year before. So they were the big winner. And with that, I'm done unless there are other questions. And I have a question, Dwight. With the war in Ukraine continuing to go on and the gas prices continuing to increase, I saw on CNN last. Night that there was over. $8 and $8 a gallon in California in places. What do you see happening here and how this is going to affect our economy? I mean, that's a very good question. Obviously, the war has a lot of impacts, not just energy prices, but, you know, disruption of things like grain supplies. And so grain prices are way up that, you know, works its way through the economy. So clearly, one of the things that's happening is inflation is going to continue at a pretty high rate for at least a few more months. That is really detrimental to much of our budget, particularly the general assignment Roads Fund because of the limit on property tax revenue growth. So that that is an issue. It doesn't yet seem that people are cutting back on their spending because of things like fuel price. We aren't seeing it affecting other consumer spending. I think, again, that has a lot to do with how wealthy this region is at the launch of dinner with people still wanting to take vacations. And we're a very attractive place for people to travel to. So so far, I don't think we have seen big impacts on our revenues or on our local economy from the high fuel prices. Now, obviously, Metro is paying a lot more for a good plan. It is their third largest expense. But compared to their wages and benefits, it's not a lot. And they're obviously well financially. So so far, it hasn't been a big problem for King County government. That was going to be my next question. So thanks for anticipating that. But so we shouldn't have to worry about maintaining a current service level. No, no, no, no, no, no. And, you know, if it just persisted for a decade. Yes. But but I think everyone hopes that once the war ends and things get a little bit back to normal and some of the other you know, there there is some effort to ramp up production and other places in the world. So at some point, I think relatively soon we'll start to see the fuel prices trend back down. If nothing else, the end of the summer when people quit driving as much should help. Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions of Dwight on. This, Jamie? Yes. Once again, Ed. Thanks. Thanks for your call. Wells are Dwight. Thanks for being here as always. Just looking at some data here from today. Jamie Dimon from JPMorgan talking about his realign his prediction for May from storm clouds on the horizon to a full blown hurricane on the horizon, I guess. I want to know, I saw some of these things happening, some of this happening in 2008. And I'm worried. I just want to know, what are we doing to sort of put our rainy day reserves and other sources that we can draw upon in bad economic times or in a recession in the right order in advance of the possibility of an economic downturn? Yeah, because, again, that's a that's a very good question. So we have across the government reserves in almost all of our economically sensitive. So Metro has very, very strong reserves. We have reserves in the mid fund, the mental illness and drug dependency fund. We have reserves in like our council housing fund, which is sales tax supported. We are depending on what you want to assume, we have about 7% reserve in the general fund right now and that's within our 6 to 8% policy range. The council spent a little bit of the rainy day fund for January of 2021 expenses. So we still have about $21 million there. So I would say, Councilmember, the two places that would get really hit hard by a combination of continued inflation and a downturn in the economy would be the general fund and the Roads Fund, which , sadly for your district are probably the two most important funds, the Roads Fund, because it's entirely dependent on property tax with a little bit of gas tax, which obviously is also not the gas tax is declining as a revenue source and in the general fund because it's the property taxes limited and if the sales tax growth turns downward. Whatever. You know, that will be a big challenge if those things happen. I have said previously, I think there's some of you that the 2324 general fund budget is. Kind of right on the edge of whether or not we can sustain everything we're doing right now. The 2526 general fund budget is horrendously out of balance. And again, that's the combination of inflation driving up our costs and our largest revenue source only growing 1% for a year. So that's the thing I am most worried about is what's going to happen to our general fund, particularly if we have an economic downturn. I think most of our other funds are pretty well positioned to get through a couple of years that aren't very good. Thanks. I guess I would just say whatever we can do to make sure we're in a position to best deal with the possibility of a downturn we should probably be doing now in advance and would support those efforts. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. Thank you, Chair Wales and thank you, Director Dingley, as always. Your information and reports are invaluable and I share well, what I assume is Councilmember Gunn's concerns around a reduction in our roads space. I know, and for King County as a whole, but in District three, one third of all unincorporated roads are in District three. So 500 miles of unincorporated roads are in District three, along with 67% of the bridges. And they're not in great shape to begin with, as you know. And so I'm concerned about the lack of momentum that that represents in any stalled effort that might be happening. It just exacerbates it. So I would very much be in favor of doing what we can to look at to look at this, to see if there's any way to mitigate that. And and, of course, encourage us to be as attentive to this as possible. But this information is very important. And appreciate appreciate you sharing your. Ten Councilmember Jim Barsky, followed by Councilmember DiSalvo. Thank you, Madam Chair. Or Charcoal Wells. Thank you, Dwight. On the sales tax, one thing that's kind of interesting I've been thinking about is the effect of this this inflation we've had on our receipt sales. You know, you talked about the big box stores and Home Depot and Lowe's, those kind of places. You know, you might have someone who does their tech. And two years ago, it might have been $1,000 project, but now it's a $3,000 project, although that benefits us on the sales tax receipts, I assume. Although if we can get this thing tamed, the Wall Street Journal reported, I think yesterday that lumber prices, the futures and spot prices are down 50% in just the last couple of months and inventories are building. And so the we may be getting closer to that $1,000 deck again or maybe a 1500 dollars deck. But I would think that might have an impact on our sales tax receipts. Yeah. And so obviously, inflation drives up sales tax receipts if just the share prices are going up for banks. One of the things that's so interesting about the card inflation is it's unevenness. So, you know, so much of it was originally in auto prices and gasoline prices, which, of course, are not subject to the sales tax. Home prices, which are not subject directly to the sales tax. And so food prices, groceries are not subject to sales tax. So, yeah, some part of this growth rate that we've been talking about is clearly driven by inflation, but maybe not quite as much as we would expect in less inflation and gets, you know, pervasive throughout the whole economy. And you start seeing it in things like electronics and furniture and other commodities that so far at least have not been subject to as much inflation. So it's a unlike the old days in the eighties and nineties where inflation was kind of everywhere. This one has been different. And as you said, there's some of these very volatile lumber going way up now, coming way back down. There is this can be hard to figure out how that really is showing up in the data we see on the sales tax. And you mentioned Ahmed Fund, which is of course, funded by a 10th of a penny on every purchase here in the county. I assume that that's we've had a surge of dollars there. Do you have any details on kind of what we are looking at in terms of increased receipts over our budget? Oh, yes. I do. So the this came from our Office of Economic and Financial Analysis just yesterday. So on the middle fund. So far this year, it has taken in $20 million, $20.3 million, which is $1.3 million more than what we had assumed in the last revenue forecast. Actually, I'm sorry, assumed in the budget. And so that's 7% ahead of what's in the budget. So when you buy annualize that, you know, you're looking at, you know, something probably on the order of six, $7 million of additional revenue in this biennium. And again, we as you recall, we cut spending thinking we were, you know, because we were in a recession and then we restored it. But there's been a big gap where people in your organization take a long time to recover. One of the, you know, swimming council member Dunn's forecast doesn't come true. One of the things that we will have some flexibility with in the 2324 budget is accumulated underspending in the mid. And so some policy priorities around how we use that money, whether it's for, you know, enhancing the workforce because it's really hard to get people to work in that sector right now, whether it's some programs that have been underfunded, they need more money. There will be some opportunities to do that. Right. If I can put a little plug in and frankly, maybe even before the 2324 budget, but I've been concerned for a year plus now and we put some money in our covered one of our covered budgets chair calls for addressing this increased isolation and the effects, particularly among younger and older folks. But the crisis among younger folks is just skyrocketing. There's a New York Times article this week. There's a Seattle Times article this week that just some stats youth suicide and self-harm trends among 6 to 12 year olds up 57.8% from 19 to 21 among 13 to 17 year olds, up 37%. And the disparity in gender impact is significant. The percent increase from 19 to 21 among young girls and women is 48% male, 2.8%. When I then my colleagues and Mina, who's listing in I think we have a tremendous crisis here that I would hope we could take a look at and deliver some resources that young people can't get to. Counselors, we don't have enough. Whether it's pay to them or decreasing capacity, this government with this fund could take some action to support our our young people. And I don't I know there are a lot of needs, but that seems to be particularly acute. And maybe we could meet with our mid advisory board and Councilor Perry, I think you're our representative on our mid advisory board this term and I see you nodding. I know this is special interest to you, but Dwight, if we have some resources there and colleagues, I'd be interested and maybe we could do some kind of an urgent surge into that space and not wait a couple of years. Because I think we've got a real challenging and sad problem there that we could really help out as a government. Yeah. No, thank you, Turco. Thank you. I wish we could talk more about it, but we are going to have to be moving on shortly. We still have quite a lot in our agenda. Councilmember Sokoloff. Thank you. And I'd definitely second everything that Councilman Lasky said. Do I never change? I love nerding out with you. This is my favorite question all the time. My constituents agreed to they they we sent out a newsletter with these updates. And this was their favorite update that they got because it's so informative. You know, the last time you came, you mentioned that the restaurant and bar sector was up 4% compared to 2019. And now it sounds like for the March data that it's down 6% compared to 2019. Can we read anything into that trend? Does it seem like the restaurant and bar sector compared to earlier this year is trending downwards now? I don't think we can read anything into it on a one time basis. So I think if we had another two or three months of data in the same month, that might be meaningful. But these things tend to vary a lot from month to month. If you'll remember, in 2019, before COVID, we were in a huge expansion, you know, like tourism was booming. And so the restaurant bar sector would have been growing really rapidly in that period. It's growing really rapidly now. And a small divergence in those growth rates would mean one month might be positive and one might be slightly negative . So yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't interpret that as but I mean, yeah, if we see it continue for several more months, then yeah, I think your conclusion would be correct. Yeah. I think that that is a that is an item that we should track closely because even though we've had inflation all year, it does seem like the past couple of months people have been feeling a little bit more acutely than they have earlier this year. You know, with gas prices, war in Ukraine, everything that we've already touched on, I don't know if my colleagues feel this, but it definitely feels like the pain is has gotten heightened a little bit more in the past even few weeks. And so if we start seeing people not going to restaurants and bars anymore, that seems to be the first area to go when people don't have a lot of expendable income. And so I'm hoping that we don't, but I'm anticipating that maybe we will start seeing a decline in these areas as inflation goes up. And I'm on that note. Another thing that I wanted to bring up, just like Councilmember Dombroski brought up a really important topic is food insecurity. Because grocery prices have been going up so much, it feels like people are relying a lot more on food banks and food pantries. And so whatever we can do this biennial budget to supplement people's food intake, to support them during this time of high inflation is something that I would be really interested in working on with my colleagues and the executive. Thank you, Councilmember Zelaya. And I have to say that this is also affecting our food banks. I keep reading about the precarious situation that they're in. And one more thing before we go on to why. It's from what I've been reading. One of the geographical areas where there's real difficulty for restaurants and bars and downtown, where the office vacancy rates are still alarmingly high. And not just restaurants and bars, but other shops to people just aren't going downtown. And of course, even down by Pioneer Square. Do you have any figures on that that you could share? I don't have it. So the challenges are all the sales tax data is collected only at the jurisdictional level, but subdivided within it. So I within the city of Seattle, I couldn't tell you the impacts now. What's interesting is Seattle's performance was actually higher than the county average in the last month, included in sales tax increase. So at least some segments of the city's economy and geographies are doing very well. But I don't have any detail about downtown Seattle. It's it's likely that, like the downtown Seattle Association would have at least a good sense of that kind of trend. And I want to reach out to them and see if they have any information. But for the state sales tax system level. Okay. Get it down to two. Okay. Well, thank you very much for being with us today. And we look forward to our next meeting with you, which will be, I think, July six, if I'm not wrong. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next item on our agenda is a panel briefing with the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission, which was established in 2018 and focuses on understanding and addressing challenges faced by immigrant and refugee communities living in suburban cities and unincorporated areas of the county. And this will be a nice Segway because next on the agenda we're taking up the taking of three appointments to the commission we have with us today the lead time, you see, I'm sorry to get back to later, Paula and Herman. Sheriff, I'm sure I've mispronounced the names and they are current members of the commission and each of them is a former co-chair. We also have Mena Hashimi, director of council relations with the Executive Office. So I'm going to turn it over now to Melita and Huma, and we'll take about 15 minutes for this briefing. Thank you very much for being with us. I didn't hear council members. I'm lonely county commissioner and I was the King County Immigrant Refugee Commission's chair in 2022. I then increased that role to my fellow commissioners this year, but I will be doing my presentation for you about the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission. Unfortunately, my co-chair, unfortunately, my co-chair, Huma, had to leave because she had to drop off her kids to school. So I apologize for that. Mina, I was wondering if we could get the presentation from the CRC Online for our County Council members to learn about what the King County Immigrant Refugee Commission does. My apologies. I don't have those slides. I don't believe. Let me double check. Okay. I can share it. Cherise had informed me that that was available, but I can do that if I get share screen option. Thank you. Sorry about that. No worries. You have access to the cookie. Give us a few minutes. Stanley, I believe our staff can arrange that share screen function to. I think I haven't. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I think everybody can see my screen. We. I'm just going to skip to the. Our vision for the King County Immigrant Refugee Commission. And please council members know that this presentation will be emailed to your staff, so you will each have an option to review it in your own time. But a large part of what the King County Immigrant Refugee Commission really is doing work with us in engaging our immigrant refugee communities, in establishing trust, in identifying what the needs of our communities are, and in really engaging our communities and the civic process in King County. And I will just get an interest of time the mission of our commission, I hope you get to see this presentation, but really focusing on the highlights of the work that we have done in 2021 about conducting surveys for community based organizations from immigrant refugee commissions to really identify what top priority needs are for our immigrant communities , and to brainstorm with those community based organizations and how to bring in the resources and the needs to address those needs in a very culturally nuanced manner. We also worked with the King County Regional Planning Team to help enable the culturally and linguistically appropriate access to programs and services. In addition to helping develop that equity impact review tool that County was working on. A large part of our monthly meetings are about bringing our immigrant refugee communities to our public meetings to help our community members get comfortable to overcome the intimidation and the challenges that our community members have in participating in the civic process and even coming to a public meeting like today and feeling like they can give voice to their needs. That intimidation is a huge part of why you don't see the immigrant refugee communities involved in the civic process. So we often try to engage our community members to step forward in the ICRC commission meetings, to address their needs, to have a discussion with the commissioners and to identify how to address and how to advocate for those needs in county council meetings. We are definitely very proud of the fact that we advocated and participating in the advocacy for the 1.5 million biennial budget for the Free Dental Care Program, pilot program for Seattle and King County, and also our work with the Afghani refugee resettlement efforts and now with the Ukrainian refugees that are coming to King County. There was a lot of work that we have done in 2021 in establishing that trust in bringing our communities to county commission meetings and to work with our community members in that 2022. Priorities are definitely about affordable housing and homelessness. I never stop talking about the successful L central model of mixed use housing to have spaces where affordable housing is present for seniors or aging adults and early childhood families. And having retail space in that same mixed use housing project where seniors and our can offer affordable child care to our early childhood families and can recreate those thriving communities that would really address mental health and isolation and affordability in child care, but also to stay in a mixed use housing project, a project that is actually affordable for them. So really about advocating for affordable housing in mixed use housing projects, in addressing homelessness and helping out immigrant refugee communities who have significant stigma and taboo around expressing the need for a home. In stepping up to a shelter, in finding that voice to address that, they need a safe space. How often that does not happen and how to address that to advocating for three pantries in addition to our. Food banks, because very often immigrant refugee communities have a sense of shame when they step forward to ask for food. That's the last thing. When you when you immigrate to America, you want to believe that you are going to be successful, that you have achieved that American dream of a roof over your head and food at your people. And when you cannot provide that. The sense of shame that you carry with you. You have free pantries where there is. It's a safe space. It's a space that you can walk in, you can pick up what you need and where you can actually get culturally friendly food, where there is vegetarian food, where that is halal food , where you can actually, you know, be anonymous enough that you can step in and take those. So free pantries actually are a great alternative model for that, too. Advocating for culturally nuanced behavioral health support services. The fact that immigrant refugee communities do not feel comfortable stepping in and advocating for mental health support, and that there are other ways to actually provide that kind of support by really having mental health professionals embedded in your in your community as volunteers, as advocates, as familiar figures, who can be those trusted ambassadors and provide culturally nuanced mental health support services to maternal health and, well, baby checks to really advocating for our youth, for the criminal justice system, our youth and those system and to reengage. Are you back to be contributing members of our community and to talk about the small business community that is reeling while COVID 19 has supposedly and and masks mandates are off and our youth are back in school. Our small business community is still reeling under the impact of COVID 19. COVID has not recovered, is not yet over for our small business community, income and revenue is still a struggle. Commercial rent assistance is much needed. Our small business community is reeling under loans that they may have taken from community brokers or family friends because they just don't feel comfortable stepping forward to the lending institution and accessing opportunities that are available there to language access and the fact that community COVID 19 vaccinations and boosters have to continue. The advocacy for that has to continue. How many? Often immigrant refugee nursing moms and young women who are hoping to conceive are still hesitant about getting vaccinated. How many US pastors struggle about going to get that booster? The need for continuous advocacy in COVID 19 vaccinations to the challenges that are Afghani and Ukrainian immigrants facing with the sense of shame or the need for a roof on their head and food at their table and vocational training and mental health services. We have a broad range of work that we actually have to prioritize and do in 2022. And we as a commission are so grateful to you, King County Council members, for costing us with this work. It is such an honor to be in this space, to be trusted, to be your ambassadors, but to also step up and ask you the hard questions that we may oftentimes have to do. So we are very grateful to you for this trust that you have placed in us. And I will just say that this last slide that includes all the member, first commission members, and I will make sure that we will email this presentation to each of our staff and I'm open for questions. Thank you. Thank you so very much for such an informative presentation. And I have a couple of questions and I'm going to first ask any of my colleagues here on the council if they have any. Council members hold. Thank you so much. Charcoal. Charcoal. Thank you, Lolita. That was an amazing presentation. Thank you for your incredible work and to the whole commissions. I had a quick question regarding refugee resettlement. I noticed that we've done really great work on providing homes to displaced Afghanis as well as Ukrainian. Have you been hearing a need from our communities for other countries that are also experiencing a lot of turmoil right now? I know Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, Syria, a lot of different countries are going through internal turmoil and that's causing a lot of displacement. Are we hearing from our local communities that they're wanting more support for their displaced family members coming to the U.S.? And if so, how can we make sure that we provide as much, you know, resource and attention to other nations who are going through similar conflicts? Thank you, Councilmember Zine. And that's a very critical question that you brought up. And I think it's about representation, it's about ensuring that the commission really is well represented from each of these communities. And we are absolutely yes, we are hearing about this constant need from many different immigrants, from many different nations, all of the nations that you have brought up. And I think there's a broad range of needs, whether it is about access to culturally friendly food to affordable housing from immigrants to vocational training is huge mentoring spaces for our youth, you know, mental health services, all of these are needs. And I think the the largest overlying question here is where is the representation from each of these communities in our commission? And to potentially maybe create more space in the commission so that we can have it equitably represented? Because I will tell you as an example, as if if an individual from a different community steps up to my community and asks about the needs, will that get expressed? Will there be enough trust to get it expressed? And then how do you address that need the culturally nuanced way to address it. That really comes from ambassadors from that community. So this commission definitely has the need for space and representation. That is, maybe we need to increase the numbers and bring in those communities, too. Thank you very much. And Councilmember Perry. As always, executive director her. Thank you so much for being here and for all of the incredible work you do. I know it's a passion and a commitment of the heart for you, and I really appreciate your organ is your mad organizational skills also, and I really appreciate that every time you've challenged me, you challenged me in my campaign and you challenged me in these first six months to make sure that there that I am always focusing on representation when there's an opportunity to do so. And then when I reach out to you and say, who you got, you're sending folks to me. So I just want to recognize that you are not just saying it, but you are also doing the work on your end. When we say, you know who, who do you think would be a great ambassador, a great voice in this situation? And you always send people to me and I do my level best to to encourage all of all of the folks that you send with your great recommendation forward. So I just want to thank you for the integrity of that movement all the way along and your encouragement all the way through and your activism. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. And I have one question and then I think, oh, I'm sorry, Councilmember Daniels, when to. I'll go ahead. And I heard on NPR that there are about, I think, 82 or so Ukrainian refugees that are now being housed at one of our health through housing hotels. Maybe Mina Hashemi has that information. I'm not sure which of the hotels. There's another being housed in Redmond for sure. Okay. Thank you, Councilmember, I. We are currently using the hotel in Redmond for housing for refugees. We have moved away from the hotel down in federal way. And I, as of today, have been told that we currently have families in the hotel from Afghanistan as well as Syria. To answer, councilman, there's always a question and we are expecting Ukrainian refugees later this month. So I can look into that. Thank you very much. And Councilmember Dunn and then. DEMBOSKY And then we really are going to have to move on because we have oh, I'm sorry. I'm concerned. I didn't see that elsewhere. Absolutely. The hand is in the part of your screen that's hard to see. Lolita, Reagan, I just want to thank you for your leadership. What you're doing on the on the commission. And and these are really important issues for King County. I know that you're also a resident of District nine, and we appreciate appreciate your good work there. So keep it up and thanks for reporting back to the council. Thank you, Councilmember Darnell. Okay. Councilmember, I'm not sure who was first with the hand that. Either way is fine. Either way is fine. Thank you. I appreciate that. I just wanted to say that I really appreciate this this report. I've had a number of conversations with members of the Immigrant Refugee Committee and have visited with them as a as a committee. And I just want us to be thinking about for the next little bit here before we have another report, how do we maximize the impact of this body? We've got a number of like for all the desire for broader representation, we have got really solid representation here already. And people with a lot of ideas, you see the wide variety and the really sort of big challenging needs that this commission is, is identifying and communicating to us. And so I've been, you know, struggling and talking with with them. And I think we all need to think about how do we convert that work into action by the government. And so that's really the focus here is advisory to King County. So what to what do we do with that great list of input that we're receiving from them and convert it? I don't have a really easy answer because I think it's a big project, but I think that's where I really would love to see this work go to make the most of the expertize that that these folks are bringing to us. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Ritchie, I think you brought up a very good point in there. The commission, as commissioners, we definitely can identify the needs. We definitely can bring up strategic ways to address those needs in a culturally nuanced manner. But we need capacity in the commission. We need how we really need to get staffing that who we can work with so that we can amplify this kind of work and the trust that you have placed in us. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski I thank you. Chair goals. I wanted to also add my thanks to the Commission for its work. Its was not that we've stood up in 2018 as the County Council. It was a very joyous day when we celebrated in council members All Eyes District, the launching of the commission. Many of us were there and I really appreciate this report. Your work program is exceeding all expectations that I might have ever had, and it will really help us in making policy and budget decisions to continue to hear from you. Chair Co-host Thanks for scheduling. This. And as we work through our budget process, a little suggestion to our budget chair. McDermott We often hear panel presentations from our independently elected officials and others as we work through the budget. I wonder. Chair McDermott Don't answer now, but we might maybe schedule some time for our commissions like this, our Immigrant Refugee Commission, and we have others that are doing work for their views on our budget and where we might help them and the community that they're advocating for do better. Thank you so much. Thank you. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, I think we definitely would appreciate that presence at the decision making tables to offer strategic approaches, because, as I said, it's very different, for example, for somebody to seek access for mental health support in a traditional community. But for an immigrant community, it is a matter of great shame and a very different strategic support is needed in that sense. And that work is happening. It is happening in our immigrant refugee communities. So please do seek that, seek us out and ask us for back information. Thank you. And also a special thanks to Councilmember Dan Pesky, who, as I recall, was the one who came up with the idea and sponsored the ordinance to establish this commission. Okay. We are going to move on now. Thank you very much, Commissioner Paula, for being with us today. And I'm sorry that we did not get to hear from Commissioner Surridge, but we're now going to move on to three appointments to the commission there in the agenda item seven, eight and nine. They're going to be briefed together by Melissa Bailey on our central staff. We have, I believe, two of the three appointees with us today. We want to hear from them. We are going to be short on time. We still have another agenda item on the even year election ordinance, which does have some urgency because we do want to have that in time to be placed on the ballot if that is adopted. So, Melissa, please go right ahead. And this begins the staff report begins at ten. Thank you for your calls and good morning. Council members Melissa Bailey with central policy staff. As the Chair noted, this is a combined staff report for the three appointments which are item seven, eight and nine on the agenda, and they begin on page ten of your packet. As noted, the proposed motions are to confirm the executive's appointment of the following three persons to the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission, who also became resident of Council District three for the remainder of a three year term expiring September 30th, 2024 five Wilhemina, who resides in Council District five for a partial term, expiring September 30th of this year. And Carlos Michel from Council District nine. For the remainder of a three year term expiring September 30th, 2024, are in the background section of the staff report that included some basic information about the commission, since you've just received a briefing straight to the section with Appointee Information, and I believe we have two of the appointees here who are eagerly waiting to talk with you . So I'm just going to give a little bit of information on appointing. So who wasn't able to be here today? Appointee and information for the appointees begin on page 11 of your packet. On page 12 is information for appointing yourself so based on rent in Highland area. He's currently a senior at Haven High School where he serves on the Associated Student Body Executive Board as the ACP parliamentarian. He will be attending Seattle Pacific University to study nursing. According to his application, Mr. Michelle is looking forward to bringing a youth perspective to the commission and he would serve on the commission as an organizational representative as he was nominated by a Lima fund out of Pueblo. That concludes my remarks that I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much, Melissa. And is there any question? Okay. I've given a short time. We do have two and two of the appointees with us today, and I'd like to have each of them introduce themselves and see if we have any questions. First of all, I'd like to congratulate you for your appointment and which is very exciting. And we hope to be confirming you at the full council meeting coming up. But let's start off with, let's see, the dual. Saidu Sadiki I'm saying that Ron, I'm sure that welcome very much and we thank you for joining us and we'd like to hear you give us a little bit of background that you have and what your thoughts are about during the commission. Yes, thank you. My name is Gul Siddiqui and I have been very excited to join the commission. I have been living actually in Arizona for the past 15 years, very actively involved for eight years with the International Humanitarian Organization, moved to Seattle, Washington, and was blessed to continue this work and this passion of working with refugees and with immigrants locally as well as internationally. Here in Seattle. I live in Sammamish and am. Also working as the development manager with the International Rescue Committee, which is a humanitarian global organization responding to the needs of refugees and one of the largest resettlement organizations here in Washington, bringing in a variety of refugees from many, many different countries . I have joined them since January this year. And in fact, it's interesting. I'm sitting outside their Redmond Hotel as we speak because I had an appointment to meet with the site director there. And we are serving and. Helping with their resettlement and the education and the medical services very needs that we are seeing for the families here . So I'm very excited to be part of the King County Commission to be able to channel this effort and bring the voices of the refugees to the commission. Thank you very much. And again, congratulations. How long have you been meeting with the commission? Just this year. Okay. Yes. Very recently? Yes. And do you have any thoughts on what you would like to focus on in your work in serving on the commission? Yes. So I would primarily. The need is to bring the voices of the refugees who are underserved and who have needs that many times are overlooked. Like Lily mentioned, there is hesitation in sometimes speaking of their needs. And we are seeing a few challenges, for example, of Afghan women who are not seeing medical doctors, even though they may be pregnant because of their hesitation of seeing male doctors. So there are a few very sensitive needs that we have to determine how to. Best, you know, bring the resources to them, help with education in this aspect and mainly like connect the dots of what are the resources that are available here in Washington to serve them, but do it in a very empathetic way and do it in a way that shows compassion from Washington. And really, you know, help them in rebuilding their lives here in Washington. Terrific. Again, thank you for your wanting to serve. And you seem to have an outstanding background for being a member of this commission. I'd like to turn now to our second guest appointing Gray Hyman. But he others who I believe like prefers to go by type and excuse me, prefers to go by check like a checklist. So welcome and congratulations to you as well for your appointment. And we'd love to hear from you about your background and as being able to serve on the commission. And you've got a Newt yourself, please. I forgot that. Thank you. Thank you. As you correctly said, my name is Amanat and. People want to call me tackler but shorten it so I can go by tackler. No problem. I am from Eritrea and I went to school in Ethiopia, so I have the passion to help people who speak. Amani and Teresa this are people who live in East Africa, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and as a refugee, I. Would share. My. Experience with. Newcomers to this and my profession. I am a teacher. I have been teaching for the last 30 years. At five. Years. I am. I came to send to the United States and now I am working for open doors for multicultural families. This is an agency who specializes with. Different cultural people getting services for their children with disability. So we. We, we. Kind of unite disability and the cultural diversity that means people from different cultures having their loved ones with disability need culturally responsive services and in open doors we help with this kind of services. My focus is on Amharic and Greek speaking families, though there are other families from East Africa chicken in Tanzania that are included in my caseload. So what would I focus is I would focus on the resettlement of these people. As I said earlier, there are a lot of issues in Ethiopia, Eritrea. Other areas in South Africa, Yemen. All these people, they come to America and when they come here, they find very complex process. As earlier said, they were thinking to succeed easily and to be to integrate easily into the community. But when they come here, they find a lot of problems. So I would share my experience of resettling into the system and trying to be able at least to be self-sufficient on your own and then to help others as well. So that is my intention coming to the commission. I think that would be suffice. And I think you. Thank you very much for your willingness. And I can tell enthusiasm in serving on the commission. You bring an extraordinary background to that role. Are there any questions of my colleagues from my colleagues, council members and asking? Thank you, Chair Coe Wells. I'm sorry for talking so much today. I know we have a packed agenda, but this is a terrific agenda. You. I want to thank both of the appointees for their willingness to serve. And just to do a little advertisment here. A few years ago, the council, as we all know, the county owns our hospital. It's run with you, Doug. Medicine and the council a few years ago took steps to make sure we protected the clinics that are offered up there. And Harborview offers a very unique, as they describe it, International Medicine Clinic for high quality primary and mental health care services for refugees and immigrants 16 years of age and older. They have tremendous and broad language expertize and really have developed an expertize in this area. And I just given the presentation here, an update from the Refugee Commission and this new appointee. TS I thought I would mention it and perhaps encourage them to reach out for a presentation to make sure that the clinic is being connected with leaders in the community who are in direct contact with folks who maybe could use their services. It's a tremendous service we provide here and is more important than ever, I think, given the strife and dislocation around the world, much of which is landed here on our doorsteps in King County. Thank you, Councilmember Dombroski. And are there any other questions or are you all ready to move on for action on these appointments? I assume that's already. Let me just say something. Between. The expenditure, the the other appointee, Carlos Michael. He is a is taking on the remainder of a term and he was raising rent and goes to Hayes in high school as a member of the SB executive board and is the ACP parliamentarian, which is a very useful thing to happen, is attending and going to attend Seattle Pacific University to study nursing next year. So supporters amendment as well. Cool. That's in my district where he will be attending college. So any unless there's any concern expressed, we will go ahead and take action on these three appointments. And Andy Nicholas, can we combine these into one vote or do we need to take them up separately? I think taking off separately would just be the easiest. Okay, we will do that then. So, Councilmember Dunn, as vice chair, I appreciate you're making these motions. The first one would be proposed motion 2020 20130. A proposed motion. 2020 20130. Okay. Any discussion? Will I please call the roll? Thank you, Jeff Caldwell. As I'm able to achieve I. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I. Councilmember Dunn. I have. Councilmember Thurmond. All right. Councilmember Berry, I. That's the of the girl. Does the member ban Dybala? Councilmember. Hello. I. Chuck Hall Well, I the board is ayes, no nos. The council member bonded by our excuse. Very good. With our vote. We've approved proposed motion 2020 20130, which we will send with the due cast recommendation for the consent agenda at a June 14th Council meeting. Okay. Next Council Member Dunn proposed motion 2020 2013 to be proposed. Motion 2020 20132. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. Well, please call the roll. Thank you, chef. Caldwell Council member. Balducci High Council member. DEMBOSKY, I council member. Done. I. Council Member McDermott, I. Councilmember Perry, I. Council member at the grow i. Council member Van de Boer. Council member, Sally. I. Scott Caldwell I know what is air no nos in council member Bundaberg Bower. Excuse me. Thank you. With our vote we have approved proposed motion 2020 20130. Where am I? Three, two. We will send with with the Duke's recommendation for the consent agenda to the June 14th Council meeting. And then lastly, I council and return proposed motion 2020 20133. View Proposed Motion 2020 20133. Okay. Any discussion? Okay, Bill and Kirk, then please call the roll. Thank you, Chair Caldwell Council Member By the time I council member DEMBOSKY I council member Dunn I had. Councilman McDermott. I. As a member. Perry, I. Council member Afterglow II Council Member Van de Boer. Council member, Sally High. Chuck how well on the boat is ayes no nos in council member type our excuse thank you with our vote we've approved proposed motion 2020 20133 which we will send with the deepest recommendation or the consent agenda to the June 14th Council meeting. And thank you both of the appointees who are here today. I really enjoyed meeting with you, reading about your background and am very, very. Impressed. And believe you're going to make very strong commissioners. You do not need to attend our June 14th meeting because we placed the appointments on consent for confirmation and we will be notified. You, of course you can you can tune in as well, but congratulations. Okay. Our last item on the agenda is proposed ordinance 2020 20180, which proposed to the King County Charter to move elections for state and county offices from odd numbers to even numbered years. And we would by passing this, we would send this to the voters of the county for their ratification or rejection of the November eight, 2022 , general election. The Staff Report begins on page 22 and Nick Lowe briefs, and I hope we still have with us Julie Wise, director with the Department of Elections, and Kendell Hudson, chief of Staff, Department of Elections. And Councilmember Bell, did she introduced this? Do you want to say anything now? Councilmember rebuild the chair and wait till after the staff report. I'll wait. Thank you. Okay. And we're a little rushed on time. If we can, we would like to take action on this today. But if not, we will do so at our June 15th. Go right ahead, Auntie. Good morning. Andy McLellan. Council Central Staff. Just as a note, Cherie Sue is the lead stock of this item, but I will be presenting the verbal staff report this morning. I mean, as you noted, we also have staff in the departments, but options on the call materials for this item begin on page 22 of your packet. Proposed Ordinance 2020 201801 Placed on the November 2022 election ballot, a charter amendment proposal to move elections for County Executive, County Assessor, County Director of Elections in County Council members from odd numbered to even numbered years. Each of these county positions was most recently elected in an odd numbered year for a four year term ending in in either 2023 or 2025. For each position, the proposed charter amendment would change the following term only to a three year term 2023 through 2026 or 2025 to 2028. And then move to move to an even your schedule, subsequent terms starting in either 2026 or 2028 would again be four year terms. A little bit of background. Every November, the state holds a statewide general election. By default, county officer elections are held in even years, with an exception for counties governed by a charter that provides for ideal elections such as King County elections for the county executive assessor. Director of elections and councilmembers are outlined in Article six of the King County Charter. As we've, as I mentioned before, they are currently elected in odd years. The remaining county office, the prosecuting attorney, is a position created by state law and is elected in even years. The Elections Department administers elections countywide for federal, state, judicial and local positions, along with state and local ballot measures. Table one on page 24 summarizes the type of elections currently administered and even at odd years of the seven home rule charter counties in Washington, Kingston, Home and Whatcom hold elections for county officers in odd numbered years. Moving to the analysis section, beginning on page 25, as we just as I just noted, but in table two summarizes on page 26, the proposed changes to the election schedule under the proposed Charter amendment, both for the county executive and council members from districts one, three, five, seven and nine. These were most recently elected in 2021 for a four year term to end in 2025 under the proposed Charter amendment. The next term would the term would change the following term only to a three year term from 2025 to 2028. Again, after that, the terms would be four years for the county assessor, elections director and council members from districts two, four, six and eight. These were most recently elected in 2019. Under the proposed charter amendment. The next term would change for a three year term for 2023 to 2026. After that, the terms would again be for years, the remaining county elected office prosecuting attorney was most direct elected and most recently elected in 2018 and serves four year terms. The proposed ordinance also repeals some sections that would no longer apply. Summarizing some of the cost considerations in this can be found on page 27 of your packet. Operational costs election staff indicate that moving county elect county officer elections from odd to even years would not directly result in operational changes or costs to department, executive or election staff believe it's unlikely that the proposed change would impact turnout and even are odd years and therefore unlikely it impacts staffing and costs. The only potential, a potential operational change or cost would be if moving it to even year elections resulted in two page ballots. Administering two page ballots would incur additional costs for printing, storage, space and staff time to sort through the boxes. Data does not show that moving to giving year elections would necessarily result in two page ballots. There is a table on page 27, table three, that summarizes the total number of ballot items in recent elections. The exact number of contests on a ballot given ballot would vary with respect to the allocation of election costs among county, state and local jurisdiction. Election costs are divided proportionally across jurisdictions appearing on a given ballot, the allocation of cost would shift. Is moving county officer elections to even years changes whether or not the county appears on the ballot. Turning to your direction or directing your attention to table four on page 29, this shows the potential fiscal impact if county officer elections had been held in even years instead of on. Moving County office elections from odd even years when occasionally have a fiscal impact to the county, and even years if the county would otherwise have no races or ballots or other measures on the ballot and table for these would be highlighted in blue. If the county does not run a ballot measure in odd years, local jurisdictions may see an increase to their election costs, since there would be no county races or measures. Since 2009, there have been three elections where holding county officer elections in even years would have increased cost to local jurisdictions. The 2009 primary, 2011 primary and 2015 primary elections in table four. This is highlighted in orange. In the in these odd year elections, the county did not run a ballot measure and only ran county officer races. If county officer races had instead been held in even years, the county would not have any races or measures on the ballot. Additional costs would have been passed along to the local jurisdictions. The cost to the county with the increase in the cost to the state would increase in this case. I will now discuss some of the potential policy considerations. This begins on page 30 of the open reading packet. Low voter turnout over the last 20 years, I can tell you have seen higher voter turnout in even number of years. There's a chart on page 30 that summarizes voter turnout or general elections in the county over the last 20 years. You can see that since 2010, the county's average voter voter turnout rate is 77% and even number of years and 47% an odd number of years. Low voter turnout data is also available from King County elections by precinct, and this is displayed in the two maps on page 31. Regarding impacts to your voter turnout based on voter turnout in other counties, data does not suggest that holding Cobb County not holding county officer elections in even years rather than odd would impact volunteer turnout. Number of races on ballots in county officer elections to even years would increase the number of races on even your ballots and reduce the number of races on all of your ballots. It is not clear to what extent voter response rates are impacted by ballot lanes, ballot position or voter interest in the types of races. What measures and finally, alignment with federal and state elections. Moving county officer elections even years would align with the election schedule would align the election schedule of these county offices with federal and state elections, which are held during even years. This means that county officer elections would take place in a different electoral context. Whether council desires, desires to align county officer elections with federal and state elections is a policy decision. Just a quick timing consideration to place this potential charter amendment on the November 2022 ballot. The last regular council meeting date for adoption as a non-emergency would be July 19th, 2022. As I mentioned earlier there, staff from the Department of Elections to answer any questions. This concludes my remarks. Thank you. Thank you very much. And excellent work. And this was mentioned, Julie Wise and Kendall Hudson from the Department of Elections are here to answer any questions. Do any of my colleagues have questions of Andy or Julie Wise who can. Vote. Hudson? COUNCILMEMBER two. Thank you. Caracol Wells. So my question is, I sort of heard a sort of reference phrase generally the state legislature considered a change like this to move a lot of these other races at a statewide level to even years. And there were a lot of legal hold ups and challenges in terms of what state law required. Did anyone do an analysis of how this might run afoul or not run afoul one way or the other of other state election laws? I'm for this. What I would need to divert to election staff, where we would have to get back to SRI or somebody would have to get back to you offline without question for the amount of analysis done. Do we have any data either of our election staff wanting to answer that question? Good morning to Chairman Reynolds and council members. It's great to be with you all this morning. Kim County Director of Elections Julie Wise. Councilmember Dunn I'll attempt to answer that question. Under RTW, county offices are up for election an even numbered years unless a home rule county decides otherwise. I know this is, I think just mentioned by Andy. So of those seven home world counties in Washington, King Snohomish and Whatcom counties are the only ones who hold elections for county officials in odd years. So I believe it does not run afoul of current RTW. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Okay. Look, so, councilman, rebels itching for a question and then this is prepared for me. Thank you. Maybe for Andy. Thank you. First of all, for the very detailed staff report and the visualizations in the staff reporter are really impactful. And I think they were super helpful. You mentioned that you looked at the number of resources that would increase or decrease if we made if the voters chose to to make this move. I did a quick count myself, and I believe that the difference in any given ballot would be between one and three positions, up or down , no more than that in any one year. Is that is that on track with what you found when you looked at it? I believe so. Again, I apologize. Sherry Steele is the lead staff on this, but I believe that is what was in every staff report table. Yes. I mean, it makes sense because you've got your council member in each vote, only has one council member and then you've got the executive and two other county wide positions, but they are not all up in the same cycle. So you would have your council member plus the executive, I believe, or you would have two other statewide positions. So and that depends on whether your council members, even district or district. But the point is when people talk about the ballot getting longer, the most number of positions that you would see added to any ballot would be three. On ballots that routinely have between 20 and 30 plus items on them. That's without a whole lot of measures. And by the way, this this this council has been responsible for a whole lot of measures. Thank you. Thank you. Council members online and then followed by council member Jim Barnes. Thank you, Chair Wells. Thank you, Andy, for this great briefing. Can you explain a little bit more what the reasons are between the fiscal impact chart? The table four that you had provided were the reasons behind increases or decreases to estimated costs. Yes. Just give me 1/2. I do apologize and I will defer again if the election staff wants to increase. But I believe, Julie, if you would like to help, I believe it's if one is removed, there'd be costs because there's proportionately divided among the jurisdictions. If the elections were shifted and ones were removed, there would be a cost that if the jurisdiction still had ballot items on the ballot, that they would receive that reduction in cost if the counties that had one more time. But that's what I think is happening there. It's offsetting the cost. If the county would remove their ballot items from the ballot, but again, would defer to election staff on the exact date of calculations. Thank you. Julie, did you want to add anything to that? I think he did a fabulous job. But yes, it really is the cost. The cost shifting between King County, the state and local jurisdictions based off of what appears on the ballot. So, for example, let's use like a real world example here. So in 2015, primary, the city of Kent. So if there wasn't anything from King County on the ballot in the 2015 primary, the city of Kent would have seen its elections cost go up from 43,000 to about 62,000. Right. For the years that the county cost would have increased. As Andy laid out in the in her presentation and in the report, you know, the years the county cost could have increased that numbers between 1.5 and 2.5 million. But it's all about that shifting between county, state and local jurisdictions about what appears on the ballot. I don't think I'm understanding at all, but I'll ask for further clarification offline. And then I'm happy to. We have Chief of Staff Kendall Le Van Hudson, who does a fabulous job explaining it. So we want her to take a go at it as well. We're certainly happy to do that. Let's have let's do that. Is she here? I'm here. Thank you. Count for number 500. Kendall Hudson, chief of staff for King County elections. This takes me multiple times to grasp when I first started. Seconds number. It is not you. The way election costs are divided is based proportionately on the number of registered voters per jurisdiction. So Kent's portion is based on how many registered voters there are out of the total. When you add the county in or take the county away, that means a whole lot of registered voters out of that total. So the costs aren't going up in any way. They're just spread out differently depending on what that denominator is. I don't know if that helps, but we can we can go off and do it again, too, if that helps. So why would county costs go up? First of all, by reading the chart that costs would go up if we moved to odd years or mine. I mean, even years are in my misreading that. It would really depend on the year. So there are some years where the county now wouldn't have anything on the ballot. In those years, local jurisdiction costs and state costs would go up. There are other years where the county otherwise wouldn't have had something on that even year ballot, or all of a sudden the county is paying a large share of that election. So the other I think thing I didn't mention is it doesn't matter how many things you have on the ballot. If you're on the ballot, it's based on how many voters you have. So the county could have one race or the country could have five races and ten measures. The course, the question of the cost is the same. I got it now. Thank you so much, gentlemen. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, Chair. Call Wells and Andy, thanks for your excellent staff report presentation. Thank you, Director Wise, for being here. Very interesting issue with respect to the turnout and the issue of ballot drop off. We know that in a presidential year, a lot of people vote in that presidential race and some don't vote for anything else on the ballot. But usually as you go down, there's a drop off. Where would the county races appear on the ballot? These are the federal candidates or even years in Congress, state candidates, when we have the statewide elections, legislative candidates. Kind of. Where would these races appear? Other ballot questions, city races. If they were to come over. Thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski, for the question. You're correct. They would come after you got federal, state, and then it would. Be all. The state offices and then the county. And we can, of course, draft up an example of what that ballot would look like. Oh, you could. Sure, we could do that. That would be. Amazing. So I was actually I didn't know it would. So the county races would be the last on the ballot down at the bottom on the back side. Is that what you're saying? That is correct. But they would come before, right? Like if there was local jurisdiction ballot measures. And except for judicial, I think would be the very last. Okay. I don't mean to put you on the spot on this, because I. Think. It might be interesting to see see a ballot. And then since we have some counties that are doing this, of the 700 charter counties in the state, three of us, I think you said are on odd year, the other four on even. Could we have some analysis done of the percentage drop off of the county races, you know, and maybe apply that to here? I think as I understand it, the expectation is that are the number of people participating would still be expected to be higher. But I'm kind of curious as to the magnitude of that. If they were to use other jurisdictions, say the mean of the other four counties that are doing it, even their drop off on a county council or some of those are commission counties may be kind of what that would be. Okay. Thank you. And Counsel. I have one more question. Okay. Yeah. This is of great this is of interest to me. I didn't hear it addressed in the public testimony, which was excellent or in our staff. And I'm not sure if that's because it's more of a political question. But when you're talking politics, you're often talking money and we no longer have public financing in the county. We did have a program years ago, and that is a big issue in terms of access. And I'm it seems to me the cost to run an election where if if the number of voters you have to reach, it'd be higher. And I am interested in whether we could do any assessment of of that, either at the county with our independent staff or maybe maybe some of the folks who are interested outside the outside of our government could help us with that. But the issue of kind of incumbents being able to raise a lot of money and a barrier that that attracts to greater participation on the ballot is such is of interest to me as we explore this question. Thank you. Jerry. Thank you, Councilmember Perry, followed by councilmembers. Hello. Thank you. Thank you for this. For all of the great testimony and for this report, direct wise, I'm always interested in your reports. And so it's from what I'm hearing statistically, if we actually follow the data on this, that there is more participation by by a huge volume of people voting on those currently off year elections when they're moved to on your elections or on year elections moved to even year elections, there is because there's a certain amount of voting in the on year elections. And then then what this what the data is saying, if I'm hearing it correctly, is that it only increases, it doesn't decrease, but it only increases when it is moved to the even year elections. Is that correct? Director was doing to answer that. Councilmember Perry, thank you for the question. You know, it's really difficult to predict what changes could happen with turnout. But yes, even your turnout often reaches 70, 80% in the end. But then in an odd year elections, we will see like here in South King County jurisdictions, hitting 30% turnout. So even years generally, again, are getting double what the turnout is in an off year election. And I'm not sure if that answers your question. Well, I just I'm trying to be really clear on like trying to understand this. And first, I'd love to see a ballot. That would be awesome. And maybe I need the the off line conversation that councilmembers are asking for. The question I have is, statistically, we have the statistics, I think, that show the increase in participation specifically for those that would otherwise have been in an odd year election when they moved to an even year election, either in our state or elsewhere. We have the statistics available to us, do we not? Of those that wear those ballots, then have an increased response than those of where they sit on the ballot, simply because an exponential number or a greatly increased number vote on even year elections. And by virtue of those that would already be motivated to vote in odd year elections, you already have that population. Plus you're putting in front of people who vote only in even your elections that don't often vote in odd years. So you're putting it in front of more people. So I'm just wondering about the data itself. So because we have these sort of big ideas about it, but I know that you were talking about the statistics and others were talking about the statistics. Is it possible to actually see those statistics where there's been a shift that we've been able to record? As in to say, you know, selecting those that voted that don't previously they vote only and even your election said don't previously vote in of your elections showing statistically where those folks now vote when they had the opportunity. You know for those folks down ticket the police director was. Councilmember Perry, just to clarify on the question, of course, I'm happy to get my, you know, my data from the office around this to see what sort of data we can pull out here. So I think we can definitely follow up. I'm not sure if the question is, do we have any models or examples of things that used to be an off year elections and are pulled now to the general and that we've seen a higher turnout in that. I can't in the 22 years that I've been here in elections, can't recall something where we're going to be able to identify that. But we certainly will take it back to the office and dig in deeper around that. And it sounds like it looks like, Councilmember Perry, that that was your question is do we have something that that would which would show a similar sort of change? Right. Are there examples that exist that way? Because I think that's the verbiage around this is people are saying, no, no, it won't. And others are saying yes, it will. And do we have any simple examples of where, in fact, that has been the case? I'm just curious about that. Councilmember Perry, I'm going to move on now to Councilmember Satellite previous question, because we're really getting late. We're already almost 15 minutes over our meeting time. And I want to have to thinking about did she be able to comment on her legislation? So Councilmember satellite and then councilmember about it. Thank you. Chair Caldwell's I think I'm asking something in a similar spirit as Councilmember Perry, but maybe hopefully easier data to track down in the areas that have shifted to even year elections to local level elections see the same or significantly higher percentage turnout as compared to if they were still in the artier elections. This is not a trend that we see. From some members. Actually, we can try to dig into a little bit of the data around California. California has completed sort of a recent change, which is what comes to mind with Councilmember Perry's question as well. But when we look across the state, turnout patterns across counties with even versus your county races don't show any real pattern . And turnout varies so much anyway across the state. But looking across the country, we haven't really been able to find any real valid comparisons to help us understand what might or might not happen with such a change as this. But again, happy to take it back to the awesome Team Kerry elections team to see if there's some more data sleuthing we can do here in Washington state and across the country. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to now have Councilmember Balducci speak on the legislation. And Councilmember Bell, I think given the lateness of the time, we will defer taking action on this to our June 15th meeting so we can get the material from director wise as well. Yes, thank you, Chair. I think that's that's good to make sure that people get answers to their questions to the extent that there is available before we before we take action would would make good sense. I just wanted to say a few words about this. The this proposal came to me from some advocates in the community for who are looking to improve access to elections. It is a principle that this council has supported in a number of ways over the last several years, including expanding access to ballot boxes, including really pioneering prepaid postage for ballots that then went statewide. We have, along with our elections director and department, been very diligently committed to increasing access to the ballot box and thereby making sure that the people like us who are elected to represent the public are elected by as representative of a sample and as large of a sample of the public as possible. And so this that's what this is about. This is about making elections, continuing to make elections fair and accessible. You've heard a lot of numbers, and I know that there's a lot of desire to dig down deeply. But just at the very base level, you look at the turnout for positions in this county like assessor in 2019 , where the turnout was 31% of registered voters like our elections director who we love. But who's the vote on her line in 2019 was 41% of registered voters. And then in 2018, the year before, when our prosecutor countywide position is up 61% of total voters. So you see just the number. The increase from one year to the next is in double digits. I think it was pointed out very well in some of the excellent public comment that we heard today that we we would invest in something that got us safe, two, three, 5% increase in participation. And here we're talking about 20%, 50% in some years. It's it's very compelling. But for a neighborly example, last year, in 2021, our King County executive race saw 40% turnout. The Pierce County executive, who's I think they're statutory county and therefore do elections in even years. 82% turnout. Turnout for King County Council members in 2021 range between 30% and 47%. Turnout for Pierce County Council members in 2020 ranged between 75 and 85%. And you're not always going to get those eye popping numbers because it's not always going to be a presidential election. But those are the people who voted for president and Pierce County Council. They got down there to those to those lower level ballots, lower level votes. Voters who are more engaged in odd year elections tend to be older, whiter and wealthier than the general electorate that vote and they are voters more likely to be paying attention and voting in off year elections by moving to even year elections. We would align those with these important local offices with more high profile state and federal offices that attract higher turnout by more voters and more diverse voters. Younger people, more people of color, more renters. That makes us the people who are elected to sit here at King County, more representative of the people who send us. And that's that's got to be good for democracy. So I'm going to stop right there. I guess the last thing I will say is we are by no means pioneering here. If we do this, if we put this out to the voters and the voters approve it, we will join the majority of counties in this state that have their positions elected in even years, because most states do that because they are cold states. But we will also join other charter states that do this. So charter counties, I should say. So it looks very compelling to me. I want to make sure that members have a chance to get their questions answered and that we can then hopefully move forward to ask the voters to have their say about when they would like to see these positions on the ballot. I thank you, Chair Caldwell's for the extra time today. Well, thank you. I found Jeremiah's very compelling, and I'm glad that I also signed Spencer to this legislation. Are there any questions of councilmember ability to. If not, we will take this up at our next meeting, which is on June 15th, and we will hope to have some materials or a sample ballot that we can look at that will be provided by Director Wise from the Department of Elections. And I think this has been a terrific discussion and something that is new to all of us here at this county that I think has a great deal of promise. And I thank you, Councilmember Belgian chief, for bringing the legislation forward. Now that I'm Kirk, I know that Councilmember Von Bauer was excused from some votes. Were there any other members who were excused? Madam Chair, council member Monday about what is on the line right now. Oh, yes. Okay. Councilmember Bowen. Right. Would you like to vote on the measures that you missed? Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you hear me all right? Yes, we can, Madam Chair. Thank you. All right. Barbosa Affirmative. Okay. So for any of the votes that you missed, you are saying you about you vote now affirmatively for all of them. That's correct. Thank you very much. And did any other member miss the vote? No, Madam Chair. No, nothing. Very good. Before we adjourn, I'd like to let you know that our next regular meeting of the committee of the hall is scheduled for June 15th, at which time we will hear from a panel providing a status report on the Harborview Medical Center. We'll also take up action on the ordinance, placing the ballot a charge, a change to our ballots to even number of years. And we will have further discussion and possible action on the reappointment of beneath the condo wall as director of the Department of Public Defense. And a preview for our meeting after that, which will be July six. We're planning now to have a panel and gun safety measures that are provided by the state, the county and other local jurisdictions, jurisdictions likely these will the panelists will be members of various departments in the county. And we will also have a discussion on what else might be done to ensure greater public safety in the question of gun use. I know that Councilmember Dan Barsky is already working on some legislation, and if that timing works out, we could take that up as well. If anybody else is working on legislation, we might be able to include that as well. So one other item that we will also hear from Dwight Daly and we will take up a motion for a discussion and possible action on that is sponsored by council members on extreme weather sheltering. And so I think that that'll be a good time to get ready for this summer. I thank you all for participating in today's meeting. And if there's no other business we are chairing.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Carlos Michel, who resides in council district nine, to the King County immigrant and refugee commission.
king_12b1082d-6092-4b6f-857b-286383ee4f25	Good morning. I'm going to call to order the King County Council Committee of the whole meeting for February 21st, 2018. I want to welcome everybody who's here in the chamber with us and everybody who is upstairs in the overflow room. And there may be other locations by now, for all I know. But thank you all for being here today. We are today the committee will be discussing an ordinance that would make oversight changes to for culture, King County's cultural development authority and the third of four ordinances to make the King County code gender neutral. So we're going to split this up a little bit just to have our discussions be contiguous and therefore hopefully make a little more sense for everybody. So I'm going to start the meeting with public comment on the gender neutral code update. Only if anybody happens to be here to speak about gender neutral code, you be welcome at public comment to stand up and speak to that. Then we're going to have a briefing. Then we'll move into the for culture ordinance. We're going to have a staff briefing first. We're going to have a panel of folks from the Floor Culture Board come forward and give a presentation. Second and then third, I will ask for public comment on the for culture ordinance, followed by deliberation by the council members and then potential action. It's on our agenda today for possible action. We're going to see how the discussion among the council member goes. Okay. So with that, I'm going to ask the clerk to please call the room. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn here. Councilmember Gossett, Councilmember, Commonwealth Councilmember Lambert here. Councilmember McDermott here. Councilmember at the Grove here. Councilmember Vonn right there. Madam Chair, here. Madam Chair, you have the quorum. Thank you. All right. So item number three is public comment. And as I said at the beginning, this public comment will be on item eight only, which is the gender neutral code update. And so I will invite anybody who is here to speak to that, to come forward to the podium. I don't have a signup sheet for that one because there's nobody here to speak to it. Right. Let's just be honest. And it's non-controversial. And but if anybody does want to speak, please step forward scene and we will move on from public comment to approval of the minutes of our February 7th meeting. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move the minutes of our February seven, 2018, meeting as written. It's been moved and is before us. Any comments or changes on the minutes seeing none. All those in favor please signify by saying I any opposed minutes are approved unanimously. Okay, this brings us to proposed ordinance number 2018 0086. This item would make some changes to the for Culture King County's for Culture Development Authority. And as I said earlier, we're going to ask this. Our staff, our King County Council staff to make their report first, then move on to the panel discussion and then we'll take public testimony after which the committee will have a chance to deliberate on everything that we have heard. Okay. So we have a striking amendment to consider today, as well as the original proposal. And with that, I will call on council staff Leah Greco Zoghbi and Wendy Sue, who thank you both for all your work on this topic. And please go ahead and give us your staff presentation. Good morning. Council members and audience members. I'm Leah crackles at the council staff. With me is Wendy Sidhu. The materials for this item begin on page nine of your packet. The ordinance for you is concerning county oversight of King County's cultural development authority known as for culture, and it would amend King County Code, the fourth for Culture Charter and for culture bylaws. I'll begin with some brief background and then Wendy and I will present the analysis of the legislation prior to the existence of our culture, King County Arts and Cultural Services were administered by the Office of the King County Office of Cultural Resources and within the Executive Office. In 2002, the King County Executive proposed and the County Council adopted an ordinance creating the Cultural Development Authority, later named for culture to assume their functions previously provided by the Office of Cultural Resources, as well as some additional functions under state law. Counties by ordinance may establish a public development authority defined and often called PTA defined as a special purpose quasi municipal corporation created by a local government to carry out a specific public purpose. The proposal to form the PDA was in response to changes in cultural funding at the time, including a reduction in lodging tax revenue available for up. Operations and a reduction in the County General Fund, which resulted in the elimination of General Fund support for cultural grants in 2002. In forming the For Culture PDA, King County wrote an adopted four cultures charter and bylaws and selected the acting executive director and members of the Nominating Committee to select the four culture. The initial for Culture Board currently the primary funding sources for for cultures ongoing operations are a special account which was formally called the Endowment Fund. And I'll get into that more in a little bit. And the 1% for art funding, which is which comes from capital budgets, from county construction projects, investment earnings and county general fund money for maintaining King County's art collection. So table one on page 11 of the staff report shows four cultures projected revenues for 2018. Historically, a portion of the lodging tax collected in King County has been dedicated to arts and culture. And then in 1995, the state legislature reduced that support requiring and also required that 40% of the arts and culture revenues received after January 20 or January 2001 be set aside into an an and a down endowment account, which was to begin supporting arts and cultural functions in 2013 in lieu of that lodging tax support. So in 28 and then in 2011, the state legislature once again established a permanent funding stream for arts and culture in King County by dedicating a portion of the lodging tax revenue to arts and culture beginning in 2021. And so currently for culture is living off that endowment. Table two on page 12 of your packet shows the uses for lodging, tax for arts and culture in King County over time. Moving to an overview of the proposed ordinance, pages 13 through 15 of your packet provide a section by section summary of the proposed ordinance. But in the interest of time, I'm just going to give a brief summary. So the proposed ordinance would require that the King that King County or the County Council accept a accept by Motion for Cultures Board adopted budget prior to transferring funding to forge for culture in the next fiscal year. It would modify the for Culture Board appointment process to include one boy board appointment each by county council members and six appointments by the county executive. The requirements for a specific balance of expertize on the board would be eliminated, and it would provide for the county executive to appoint and King the King County Council to confirm the for culture executive director and recommended for selection by the for Culture Board. And it would provide for the county to remove the executive director by ordinance and it would provide for the county to amend for culture bylaws to make them consistent with changes to the For Culture Charter. Table three on page 16 of your packet shows a comparison between the proposed ordinance and existing conditions. Now turning to the analysis of the proposed ordinance, the ordinance page 17 and 18 of your packet discuss comparisons of the proposed oversight of fort culture to oversight of other PDAs, public agencies and public art programs in the region. The full comparisons can be found in attachments six and seven, which begin on page 171 of your packet. The comparison shows that for culture, beginning in 2021 would receive more public funding than most of the other agencies in the comparison. It also shows that this proposal would make for culture one of only two PDAs where the founding government plays a role in confirming the agency's executive director. And it would make for culture the only PDA to have its operating and capital budget approved by its founding government. I'll now turn to Wendy, who will provide the analysis of the budget impacts. Thank you, Wendy Sidhu Council staff and Mr. Crackles IP pointed out earlier this proposed legislation would establish a process for the County Council to review and accept for cultures budget by motion. Specifically, the ordinance would require for culture to transmit its board approved budget for the following fiscal year to the Council by late September each year. Under the proposed legislation for culture would be required to transmit information. Similar to that which the Council receives when the executive transmits the county's biennial budget. Specifically, the elements that would be required in the proposed legislation would be budgeted operating expenditures and full time equivalent positions for the next year. Capital expenditures for the following six years. And then supporting data including but not limited to a financial plan for the preceding year current year in the next five years. And a description of significant changes from the current fiscal year budget to the next year's proposed budget. Under the proposal, if the Council were to not accept the budget by motion, which would mean either rejecting the motion or not taking action before the end of the year, then the county in the following year would begin to discontinue transfers of the county funds that go to 44 culture currently. And these funds include the hotel motel tax revenues that Ms.. Zaki described that will begin resuming in 2021, as well as 1% for art funding, the capital program funding that goes to for culture as well as general fund support. And the general fund support is the money that goes to culture to essentially take care of the county's art collection. Under the proposal, the transfers would not resume until after the council had accepted a four culture budget by motion and according to the sponsors of the proposed legislation, the rationale for this proposal is to provide greater public accountability over the public public dollars being expended by for culture. Council staff did talk with for culture to try to understand what the potential operational impacts would be according to for culture. Preparing and transmitting the budget to council on the timeline that's proposed would require some significant changes to the agency's budget process. Historically, they've adopted a budget or they've proposed a budget to the board in December once the county budget has been adopted and the amount of county expenditures are known, and then the board approves the budget in January. And so under this approach they would need to provide a budget to their board that was based on estimates of revenues and expenditures, which could mean that throughout the fiscal year they would need to make updates to their budget to reflect actuals as as they were learning more information about their financial condition. I would note that the legislation would not require that those budget updates come to the Council. Once the council had actually taken action on the motion, there would be no need under the legislation for for culture to make any updates subsequently. However, in the case that the Council didn't approve the motion by the end of the year or had rejected it in that case, it's possible or even likely that for culture would probably want to submit a revised budget to the council. Council staff asked for culture to provide information on the potential impacts to the actual programs. If the transfers of these funds were to discontinue for a period of time for a culture indicated that if the council rejected or didn't accept the budget by the end of the year, then they would have to announce that they would be postponing funding for all programs until the budget impasse was resolved. According to For Culture in 2019 and 2020. So before the lodging taxes resume, the primary impact would be to the 1% for art program. Public art projects have multi-year schedules, and the 1% funding from the county is typically transferred to for culture in the beginning of the biennial budget period. And so if the funds stopped being transferred, the public art program would have to be suspended, which could lead to layoffs as well as delays in implementing the public art projects. In addition to stewardship of the county's art collection, would also need to be suspended if general funds ceased to be transferred. And this could lead to temporary layoffs of employees. So turning to page 20 of the staff report, by 2024, culture does expect to have depleted most of its reserves. So the grant programs that are funded by the lodging, tax and special account funding would also be impacted most before cultures. Application deadlines are early in the calendar year, which would be problematic if the Council didn't accept the Fort Culture budget by the end of the preceding year. Without significant reserves, to be able to rely on the grant awards could be delayed, which would potentially delay projects or impact organizations or individual artists that receive funding. And then I would also note that for culture would potentially only be able to cover 1 to 2 months of their general operations. If transfers were discontinued before, they would have to consider layoffs. Council staff also worked with the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget and asked for input on the proposed budget review and acceptance process. They had a number of requests. Specifically, they requested that the Fort Culture Budget be transmitted. Via PSP so that it can provide a quality control review before the transmittal to the council. A PSP also suggested that the for culture budget transmittal include information on administrative expenses and estimated expenditures by program area, but limit the estimate of capital expenditures to only one year as per culture does not manage a significant capital program. PSP also expressed the executive's interest in specifying that the Council should act on the motion in order to accept the port culture budget at least 30 days prior to the end of the year. And then lastly, PSP requested that only the hotel motel tax revenues be withheld and pending council acceptance of the budget in order to prevent any delays or implementation issues with the public art programs and or the 1% for art programs or the stewardship of the county's art collection. I would note that the acceptance of the four culture budget that contemplated in the proposed legislation would be a separate action from the appropriation of county funds for transfer to fort culture. That's something that the Council does as part of its biennial budget process. It appropriates the hotel the the funding sources that the county transfers to for culture as part of the budget ordinance. And so that would continue to occur. And so the budget ordinance would remain a vehicle for potential expenditure restrictions and provisos on those funds. That concludes my remarks, and I will turn it back over to Julia. Thank you, Wendy. And so we're turning to page 20 of the packet for the impacts to the for culture board of the proposed changes to the report or to the board nomination or appointment and makeup. And so the proposed ordinance would change the board nominating process and board makeup such that new appointments and re appointments due to vacancies unexpired terms would be appointed six by the executive and one each by each county council member. The executive and Council member could make appointments from among those forwarded by the For Culture Board or other qualified candidates. According to the sponsors of the proposed ordinance. The rationale for the proposal is to increase communication between the for Culture Board and the County Council and to ensure diverse geographic representation on the For Culture Board. The proposed changes would not impact the current board members as the changes would take effect in the case of filling vacant or expired terms. Four Culture has expressed that while they welcome County Council input into the nomination of Fort Culture Board members, they are concerned about having board members not appointed by individual council members rather than as part of a whole, that that could decrease the overall diversity that they strive for on the board. And I think you will hear more about that when there are four culture board panel comes up. So I will move on the table beginning on page 21 of your packet shows a comparison of the makeup and nomination appointment and confirmation process for select county boards and commissions. And while the table shows that the nomination and appointment process is, ah, they vary quite a bit. One common thread is that the executive appoints most members and the council confirms appointments and that is the case even for boards and commissions that are required to have members residing in each council district or where the council plays a role in the nominating process. The proposed ordinance would make for a culture the only board in this comparison to have a member directly appointed by each council member turning to the Executive Director impacts on page 24 of your packet. The proposed ordinance would keep in place the provisions that allow the Fort Culture Board to manage the selection of four cultures, executive director, oversee the executive directors performance and remove the executive director. The proposed ordinance would add provisions requiring that the four Culture Board recommend to the recommended executive director candidate to the county executive for appointment and confirmation by the County Council. The proposal would also allow the county to remove the executive director by ordinance. According to the sponsors of the proposed ordinance. The rationale for the proposal is to increase the responsiveness of the for culture executive director to the County Council and Executive who directly represent the people of King County and for culture , has expressed concern about the proposal. And as they point out that the. Executive Director would be an employee for culture, and that hiring and firing by an outside entity would be a concern for that reason. And that they also noted that they believe the proposal would create confusion for the executive director reporting to multiple entities and would deviate from the governance structure typical of PDAs and nonprofit organizations. To compare this proposal with the management of other county departments and independent agencies generally, King County Department Heads and other appointees are appointed by the executive, confirmed by the Council, and can only be removed by the executive. There's further feedback from Fort Culture on the proposal on page 24 of the packet and in the attachments beginning on page 185 of your packet. You'll also hear from them during the panel discussion after the staff report. So turning to page 25 of your packet, there's a striking amendment that's been proposed by the sponsor of the proposed ordinance. So I will briefly describe that it would make the following changes to the proposed ordinance charter and for Culture Charter and for culture bylaws. It would eliminate the ability of the county and the county to remove the four culture executive director. It would stipulate that the four culture budget be transmitted to the executive rather than the council 125 days before the end of each fiscal year. And then to the executive would transmit to the council with the regular budget process. And it would require that the for culture budget review and executive acceptance process begin in 2020 rather than on the effective date of the proposed ordinance. It would allow fund transfers to continue in the next fiscal year if the county or the council did not act on the motion by November 30th. So transfers would only discontinue if the Council rejected the four culture budget by motion by November 30th, and it would provide for a process for notifying and get it and providing input from the for Culture Governance Nominating Committee on board vacancies. All other elements of the proposed ordinance would remain as previously described, and that concludes our staff report. Okay. Thank you. I have just been told that we can open up the balcony. I'm waiting for somebody to come along with a key. Apparently, it's been closed due to the as I said it, I heard the key in the lock. So we're going to be moving some chairs in upstairs that can help to accommodate a few more people. But I do want to take just a few minute recess at this point because it'll be noisy. So I'm going to call it into recess for about hopefully no more than 5 minutes. And we can accommodate a few more people in the chambers. There's at least 40 or 45 people up in the overflow and I see people standing outside. So I'm hoping we can get a few more people in here. So we'll be in recess for about 5 minutes. Is this on? We're going to continue in about 30 seconds so people could take their seat. If you have a seat. I'd appreciate it. The overflow room remains available for those who don't have chairs upstairs. Welcome for those who do that. So, of course. So. All right. We'll be back in session. Thank you all for your patience. I'm glad we were able to accommodate a few more people here in the chambers. And at this point in the agenda, we have three representatives from the Board of Four Culture. I will also say that Councilmember Cole Wells, Councilmember Gossett and I serve as ex-officio or non-voting members of the For Culture Board. So we want to welcome our colleagues from the Fort Culture Board. And I don't know what order you want to present them, but I guess I'll call on the board chair. Stephen Elliott First, please introduce yourselves and speak to whatever you have brought to share with us about this action today. And welcome. To Morning. Good morning. People do that after many years of coming here. It's not at all intuitive. So and I was instructed how to do this before I got here, so I still made the mistake. Thank you, Madam Chair. I Tracy Wickersham, I for culture vice president will be speaking first and then Tom Ikeda for Culture Board member will speak and then I will conclude our panel presentation. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair. Members of the Council. I'm Tracy Wickersham. I'm a member of the Board of Four Culture. Since 2013, I'm current vice chair and as such, I am also the chair of the nominating committee, having recently completed the process to identify and put forward candidates for open seats on our board. I'm here today to specifically speak to that part of this proposed ordinance that would change the process for appointing new board members and why I think it would be detrimental to representative, equitable and trusted governance of our culture. Currently. As you know, the For Culture Board through its nominating committee recruits nominations for new board members, including from all of you, King County Council members, advisory committees and public calls. We conduct thorough diligence on the candidates interviews and then forward a slate of recommended candidates to the full board of for culture for approval. Once those recommendations are approved, they are then sent to the King County executive for his selection from the submitted names. And then those are subject to your confirmation. The nominating committee by statute, already includes all three of you who serve as our ex-officio King County Council board members, as full voting members of the nominating committee, as well as the liaison from the executive's office. So we welcome your participation already in this process. Board members are required to fulfill specific areas of expertize and are limited to no more than six from any one municipality. We absolutely share your desire to see representation of all nine King County Council districts served by a culture on our board . Currently we have three open seats due to end of terms and also from some individuals moving outside of the county. Therefore, we have two districts that are no longer represented on the current board. So our priority in this last process was to find qualified candidates in those districts that also fulfilled the other board criteria we seek, namely a balance of racial, age, ethnic and gender diversity, as well as expertize in the program areas that for culture administers heritage, historic preservation, public art, multiple artistic disciplines, individual artist practice, governance, finance, outreach, and all the other myriad skills that we consider in creating a balanced board as evidence of our priority for geographic distribution, I ask you to consider that our most recent board nominations, which were the result of four months of careful process that were submitted before this ordinance was introduced, reflected this priority. Our five candidates came from districts one, three and five, one in three being the current districts where we need representation. Should you accept our recommendations? All nine King County Council districts will be represented on the current for culture board. But geographic representation is not always as it seems or the full factor. I'd like to use myself as an example, if I may. I live in District eight, I work in District four, I grew up in District nine. I worked for ten years as the cultural programs manager in the city of Kent, which is District five, and I know firsthand how important four culture was to my work in cultural development in suburban King County. Four Culture was a lifeline to me when I worked in District five, and my heart is still very much in that county. So if you look at me or that that district, if you look at me and just see the eight by my name, I don't think you're getting the full picture. I used to work at one of the largest arts organizations in Seattle. I now work as the director of Cultural Tourism for Visit Seattle, which is the official destination marketing organization. I'm a direct link to the tourism industry that provides the lodging tax that funds for culture and can serve as an advocate for the importance of making these cultural investments back to the industry that's generating those tax receipts. So that, again, I think the eight next to my name is only part of the reason why I can serve as an effective four culture board member. If the King County Council desires to take a more active role in board recruitment confirmation, I can tell you that the entire for culture board would welcome you to please engage using the current mechanisms. Only one of our four Culture Board nominees has received a council confirmation hearing in the last ten years. I have no doubt that this is due in large part to the sheer volume of 48 boards and commissions in King County that you're managing. But if you're concerned about who's being nominated to serve on King County on the Four Culture Board, I can think of no better action for you than to interview the individuals that we have put forward in our nominations. We feel confident that you will share our opinion as to their qualifications and ability to serve the. People have King County. I also want to call out I know this was mentioned in the earlier staff report, but the fact that if this proposed ordinance goes through in its current state, it would make for a culture the only board to have a member directly appointed by each council member. So in closing, I ask you to please not remove our ability to build a for culture board that is reflective of not only geographic representation, but of all of the other areas of expertize and representation that we need to be an effective, trusted board. We do consider all of those factors when we put forward our slate of nominees. Making board appointments by district I don't believe will improve public accountability. In fact, I think it will actually decrease this essential function. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. And before we move on, Councilmember Lambert has a question and then Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. So my question is, do you interview all the people that the council members suggest for appointment to that? We did not receive many recommendations in the last round, but no know we don't interview every one week. We put together a pool of candidates. We first of all, have to determine their geographic eligibility. We have a couple of challenges with a couple of the districts that have for instance, we really needed a candidate from District one , but part of District one is in Seattle and we couldn't have another candidate that lived in Seattle. So there was a name that was put forward, but that person was not eligible. So we look at the entire slate and then we move forward with interviews with the candidates that we think are most likely. So I put forth two names for my district three, which is one of the ones that's vacant, and one was the former curator of a New York museum. And I was told she wasn't qualified. And when I called her to see what went wrong, she said, nobody ever called me. So that's a concern. And then I'm looking at the Seattle Arts Code 314 825 and it said the Seattle Commissioners Commission consists of 15 members, except as provided for some initial ordinance, blah, blah, blah. Seven members shall be appointed by the City Council, seven members appointed by the mayor. So I'm a little confused that Seattle's code looks identical to what we are talking about. So I'm confused. Could you help me understand that? I actually can't speak to Seattle's code. Is anybody else familiar with that? With the. Well, I have it right here, and that's what it says. So. Thank you. And maybe we can ask for our staff to follow up with an analysis of Seattle's code. We looked at other county boards, but I don't know that we compare to other jurisdictions. Okay. Okay. Well, I the follow up would be, why do how do they operate? Are they independent? Are they a board or commission? That's I mean, I think it would be helpful to hear more about that topic since it's been raised. And I think the difference is that it's a commission. When King County had an arts commission versus. Board for culture. There that I'm not sure if they were directly nominated by council members, but there was a greater role that the council, the county council played in the appointment and nomination process. And is it common that the city of Seattle from four council members to have direct appointments to their boards and commissions because we commonly don't, but maybe they commonly do. I just don't know. It is a totally it's an area we haven't really delved into. Yeah. Okay. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask, did you. I want to make sure I heard you right. Did you say that once we identify the last three people that we plan to interview and recommend them for our appointment to the county council districts that are not currently represented, that this would become the only board appointed by King County Council members where we have district representation. Did you say that? I'm sorry, Councilmember Gossett. I didn't quite understand the question. Did you say that for culture would become the only board that's represented represented by all nine districts once this process? No, I did not say that. I said the not. So we currently have three open seats on the board. As is our practice, we are asked to give more names as as proposed board nominee nominees then will be appointed. And I said that if our recommendations were were accepted by the executive and approved by you, we would have representation from all nine council districts on for culture, sport. All right. Thank you for that. Yeah. You're welcome. The only other thing that I want to ask at this time, because I got several letters from people who said that there's never been a time that they can remember where government bodies who were elected officials picked folks to represent them in that cultural arena. Is that a position of the current board or yourself at this time? I think our concern is that if the board is made up of representatives that are selected by individual council members, there will be an expectation that those board members will be thinking primarily, always in terms of the benefit to that district instead of the larger public benefit and the best use of public funds. So I think that that is the concern. I can't speak for the individual letters that you received, but we feel that it's important that we have people that understand the scope of the full county, that have. He's in the program areas that we administer and that can really put the good of the county as a whole in part of the decision making process. Okay. Thank you for that. It's just that I've been on the county council for 24 years and I wish all the people that I've appointed thought like me and carried out my messages that it is absolutely not the case. That's not happening. Councilmember Kowalski, I thank you, Madam Chair. Final thought on this issue, and thank you, Tracey, for your presentation. Lee, I have a question for you. At my request, you had prepared a memo detailing what the appointment process nomination confirmation was for many of the other boards that we have. And as I see it, we do not have any that would be similar to this model or the same as this model in all cases, going through different ways to nominate or make recommendations. The county executive makes the appointment and the council confirms. Can you think of any other one in which it would be this model that is in Australia an amendment would be applicable. So of. The. And I just I didn't pick all of the boards and commissions. We, we just picked some of the most prominent ones that you interact with the most or that were formed more recently. The Community of Opportunities Board does have one person who is directly appointed and represents the Council, which is one the others in the comparison the council may nominate, for example, the Parks Board, Parks Levy, but I, I can't get any closer. To the. Parks Lobby Board Oversight Committee has one person nominated by each council member, but they're actually appointed by the executive. So typically, if the executive or there's a few rare cases of some outside entity doing the appointments and the council always confirms. And Madam Chair, the follow up please, and with the first example of the communities of opportunity that starts for Kids Levy Advisory Board, yes, the council selects one person, but that's a staff member, not somebody out in the community. And that staff member attends the meetings and contacts us and then represents us at the board meeting. And I think. That is all. Again, there's a real variety, a real range. But I just have not been able to find any example of one in which each council member appoints. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much for taking questions and we'll move on. And on that one on. Oh, please go ahead. I'm sure. Mr. Wickersham, thank you very much for your presentation. It was helpful to me and I appreciate the recruiting committee or the what do you call your subcommittee of the board? It's the nominating committee and committee. You mentioned my district a few times. I felt compelled to speak up. How long was my. Not my C, but my constituency. The D one seat vacant when Ms.. Halligan moved out of the district from Bothell to Seattle. I believe. I'm not exactly sure. I think it's been a couple of years because her term is not yet up. So we serve three year terms and she moved in the middle of her term. So a couple of years. So this yeah, this was the first round of new board positions put forward and we prioritized a District one representative in our first choice pick. But there was a vacancy for D one for a couple of years. Yes. Right. Right. And would you describe the recruiting process that you undertake or in this case, that you undertook to select the nominee that you've selected? Yes. So you may recall receiving email announcements from us that went to every council member and your staff asking for recommendations. We sent similar messages like that out to our various advisory committees. Each of the four culture major program areas has a community advisory committee of experts in that discipline. So we also let them know that we had board openings. There was a public call in our newsletter on the website, you know, working through the various channels of communication. I did see a public call in November or December of last year because it transmitted through my email. And that was, I think, the only thing I saw I may have missed. It's very possible we lost email. It's very possible I missed the direct outreach. And I. I did have a chance to raise it with your executive director at a lunch that I had, that my interest in being included in that. And fortunately, I wasn't in the process. But did you have a chance to interview multiple applicants for the person that you ultimately selected? Yes, we did. Multiple qualified. Adults. Yes, we did. And those include people of color? Yes. And women. Yes. Okay. In fact, were the five nominees that we put forward, three are people of color. I met on D, one. O and B one. Yes. I mean, did you interview multiple people for day one who were qualified? We did. Okay. And did they include people of. Color for D1? I think perhaps not. Okay. I would be interested in seeing who applied. I didn't get a chance to see who applied and and understanding a little bit more the basis for the recommendation. We can do that. Yeah. Okay. Is that a follow up? That's a thought. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Thank you. And thank you for your work. Thank you. Okay. So who's next? Mr. Carter. Mr. Elliott? Yeah, I'm next. Please go ahead. Good morning, Madam Chair. And members of the Council. I'm going to build upon what Tracey just did and to share my story in terms of what it took to get me onto the board and and to actually talk about how, you know, some of the processes that I was involved in. So I'm a member of the for Culture Board of Directors and the founding executive director of Denso. I'm also a third generation King County resident. My grandparents came here over ten years ago. Two years ago, I founded a nonprofit dance show to collect and share the stories of what happened to Japanese-Americans during World War Two, both in King County and other parts of the country. When we started the show, like many other nonprofit arts organizations, startups, you know, we struggled and we received our first competitive grant award. And it came from for culture. It was a $4,000 grant, and that gave our small group confidence in our idea. But more than just that confidence for culture really nurtured nurtured us. They invited me to to join grand panel awards committees. And so I reviewed hundreds of grants. And that may sound tedious, but that really helped me understand how to write a grant. And to give you an idea of how that impacted the show in the last nine years, Daniels received about 15 federal grants totaling close to $4 million. We've also received hundreds of thousand dollars in state grants. You're all coming to King County, and currently we have a staff of 14 full time employees. You know, all that was a seed from fort culture in terms of how to really write grants. We also get funding from other sources, you know, to give you an idea of some of the experiences and qualifications of a before culture board member and before serving on the For Culture Board. I served six years on the Heritage Advisory Committee. This allowed me to get to know the heritage community across the county. You know, not only the small organizations and the outlying, but also many of the the committees and organizations dealing with serving communities of color. I'm also a nationally renowned for our use of technology in heritage and education through our work at Dan Show. Previously, I was a general manager at Microsoft, so I bring also technology experience and I continue to serve on grant review committees. I know a concern of some council members is the issue of geographic diversity of the board. When I joined the board, I saw another lack of diversity. The board lacked adequate representation from communities of color and other vulnerable communities. I'm proud to say that, you know, the process can work. You'll see the efforts of the committee staff and board members. A multi-year effort was made to identify and recruit racially diverse candidates to apply to serve on the board. You know, going through the process that Tracey had talked about, and although it took a lot of time and effort, the board is now more racially diverse. This process also brought to light that we can improve in the area of addressing social justice and racial equity throughout the organization with the understanding, with the understanding of the full staff and some board members with that understanding the full staff and some board members. You went through a year long, are currently going through a yearlong racial equity training program. A direct result of that training is in the search process for the new executive director. We have taken the time and made the effort to really broaden the outreach to encourage candidates from all communities. So, Councilmember Dombrowski, you really brought that up. It's really about outreach and really getting qualified candidates to to apply to be on the board. In closing, I want to say that for culture works. I say this as a participant in dozens and dozens of grant programs throughout the country. And when I see the process that for culture goes through in terms of how we conduct our business, it stands out as a model throughout the country. Thank you very much. Thank you. There's been a. If you would. Councilmember Gossett, I would like to ask a question. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you for your presentation. One of the I you're going to hear me hearken back to many of the letters that we received relative to this issue that we're addressing in our meeting this morning. It kind of surprised me that a lot of people say, well, if you are a take over appointment of board members, there's no way that it's going to be representative. And even sometimes there you are won't consider people of color like we do. Do you think if the County Council had more control over the appointment of some of your board members, that it would still continue to be as racially diverse as you're hoping to make the current board. Your councilman, Gus? I'm not sure what you know, how they answer your question in terms of what will happen. But what I what I get is, you know, we have a process in place to consider not only just racial diversity, but things like heritage, the arts, preservation, experience, gender. And sometimes it's hard to to get that through just one district. And so I was also previously on the nomination committee. And when we're able to work with a pool of candidates, it's much easier to consider all the balances for the board when it comes to you know, when I joined the board, I believe there were only two people of color on the board when I joined. Last year, I believe we had six. And to get to that level took you know, it wasn't so much just focusing on districts. It was really going out and and doing the outreach to really reach out and encourage people to consider joining. And so, you know, whether happens, I just think it's harder to do it from just a single district perspective. I think when you have the whole the whole county to look at, it's much easier. Any other questions? Okay, Mr. Elliott, please bring home. Good morning, Madam Chair, and members of Council. I'm Stephen Elliott and serve as the former culture board president. During my arts career, I spent eight years as a cultural arts manager of the city of Renton District five and 17 years as a manager of the theater at Maiden Bower Center in District six. I have been associated with four culture and its predecessors for 25 years as a volunteer serving on approximately 30 peer review panels and evaluating in excess of 3000 grant applications. I was a charter member of Four Cultures Arts Advisory Committee. Serving six years the last year as chair. I'm in my sixth and final year on the board and this is my second year as board president. I have dedicated myself to this organization because of its innovation, because of its ability to make a positive difference in the lives of the citizens of our county, the ethics, the integrity , the transparency, the accountability, and ultimately the exceptional stewardship of public funds. I'm here this morning to speak with you regarding our grant making and its transparency for culture manages many grant programs involving scores of general and cultural community members, reviewing applications against objective criteria and open public sessions each year for Culture administers 25 separate grant making processes for arts, heritage, historic preservation and public art programs for culture organizes these grants into projects, capital and arts equipment, operating support and artistic calls. And each grant program applications are solicited through an open call posted on four culture's website, through direct and email notices plus outreach workshops and our Hello for Culture Drop-In centers throughout the county. Each application is reviewed by an expert panel of peers selected by the respective program manager, and these peer review sessions are held in open session, and such a review is conducted against a set of objective criteria and guidelines previously adopted by the For Culture Board, which is publicly posted and as part of the application process. The grant criteria concern. The grant criteria concern both the substantive quality of the grant proposal for the programmatic goals of the particular grant and for objective public benefits that the grant recipient will provide. Furthermore, each application is tagged with a council district number to assure geographic distribution of the available funds. And we even have one program that does not require you to be an arts organization to apply, provided you demonstrate an arts component. We have funded 41 such organizations in recent years. Grant recommendations are then deliberated by the appropriate advisory committee and open session and then presented to the board. These grant making panels generally take 2 to 3 days and then there is a full 2 to 3 hour session meeting of the advisory committee for further recommendation. The board then reviews the grant recommendations of the advisory committee in an open public meeting and votes to accept or reject the recommendations. There also exists an appeal process for the applicant. The membership of the Arts, Heritage, Historic Preservation and Public Arts Advisory Committees is established by the For Culture Charter. Each advisory committee has one four culture director as a member. Each advisory committee has 5 to 6 additional members nominated by the program manager. After consultation with the community and appointed by the for Culture Board, each advisory committee member serves a three year term limited to two terms. Each advisory committee elects its chairperson, who serves no more than two years as chair over its 15 years. Independent grantmaking for culture has successfully made nearly 10,000 grants to thousands of community cultural organizations all across the county since its creation in 2003 for Culture has made approximately 9950 grants to approximately 2400 different organizations and individuals, or 660 grants per year, totaling nearly $133 million in geographically distributed funds since 2003. 50. Persons have served as four culture directors. Approximately 90 persons have served as members of the advisory committee, and each year approximately 75 people serve on panels. This is an extraordinary number of active volunteer participants from all across the county, bringing a wide range of perspectives and experiences that help ensure that four cultures grantmaking is fair and objective. Grants have been awarded to organizations located in 35 of King County's 39 cities. The four exceptions being both arts, Clyde Hill, Pacific and Yellow Point. Plus, we have made grants to over excuse me, over 300 grants to unincorporated King County. Now, this proposed ordinance threatens to compromise the transparency of fort culture's grantmaking process. First and most fundamentally, the change in the composition of the Board of directors from a group of 15 each nominated by the governance nominating committee, appointed by the executive and confirmed by the Council to a Board of directors composed of nine directors, each appointed by the Council member from a particular Council district and six appointed by the Executive will inevitably change the primary question each director ask in considering a grant from. Does this grant application best meet the adopted objective criteria of the grant program and provide public benefit to how much money has for culture awarded to my district? Log rolling is a tried and true means of achieving compromise among legislators in a district and governmental entity. Each district representative may work with the other district representatives to assure that each district's particular favorite projects are funded, converting the for culture grant making process from the transparency and objectivity that has been its hallmark over the last 15 years is a public policy choice that is well within the purview of the King County Council. However, this more provincial process is substantially less likely to result in objectively better arts and culture programs and less likely to produce more public benefits. Second, the proposed ordinance inexplicably deletes the requirement in the fourth Culture Charter that the board of directors have at least one director with expertize in each of the arts, heritage, public art and historic preservation, and at least one director from the business community. Perhaps, perhaps the sponsors proposed to change this change to allow each council member more freedom in appointing the director from his or her district. However, this change will weaken the For Culture Board and its ability to objectively review and approve its many grants. The board has benefited tremendously over the years by having at least one director with each of such experience. Removing this requirement will work only to weaken the board's expertize and objectivity and to promote more log rolling among the directors seeking to assure grant funds go to their respective districts. I respectfully thank you for your time and this concludes our presentation. Thank you, Mr. Elliott. I think there might just be a couple of questions before we move into public comment, Councilmember Gossett. Oh, thank you very much, Madam Chair. As they did you, how many years did you say at the beginning of your presentation that you've been associated with for Culture 25? And all the information I have is that we started the for Culture Agency in 2003. Correct? I over ten years ago. We didn't exist more than 15 years ago. Correct. And also Councilmember Lambert. Excuse me, Gossett, I. I know. Brothers and sisters. I know. Right? I, I was I was associated with when it was a department of King County. I began my association in 1993 and then fall right into fort culture when it became a PDA. Okay. For culture as Maine name did not exist before 50 years ago. But for 37 years before we began for our culture, we had a cultural office as part of King County government. That's another reason why I couldn't figure out why we were getting so many emails. And whoever heard of government running cultural programs? Well, King County and Seattle, I've gotten awards for the manner in which we have run our culture as well as any other kind of program. Which leads me to ask you this final question. 9950 grants and 15 years in county government funds, tens of thousands of grants every year. When you take our whole government into consideration and the buck always stops with the nine members of the King County Council, I don't know how you or anybody else can make a case that the existing for Culture Board will have more experience and likely not successfully managing for culture programs. What do you think of that comment? Our our process is one of transparency. We want to ensure we know that we are funding each and every area of the county through a fair and equitable process. You know, council Mingus may step in it. You know, I think just in terms of what you heard this morning from the three of us when it comes to the arts, heritage preservation, public art, the three of us have dedicated our careers to this. And and so in this area, I mean, in this in this area of of of the humanities, culture and arts is something that I consider the three of us, as in some ways nationally known as experts. And so for us to be part of this, I think and it's not just the arts. You know, I have an MBA. I was a general manager at Microsoft. And so there's a lot of also business background on the the council. So I think there is this rich blend when it comes to the culture and arts in King County and the governance in terms of what the board does, I think is is part of what makes for culture special. But the problem is what's on the table and under consideration is whether or not the public as well as us think that it can be managed as well or even better. I think we can do better if we have the government more significantly involved and the Iranian Council. Councilmember Gossett Okay, a couple of things I'm going to I'm going to interject here as the chair. Quite please. A couple things. I think we're getting into debate. Okay. And we will have time for debate. And certainly there will be today there will be at least one other meeting at full council and maybe more so if we have factual questions for them. But I also didn't invite them here to be asked to sort of defend in an adversarial way. If I were their lawyer, I would have objected to that as a leading question. So let's just kind of let's and to the members of the audience, to the members of the audience, please, can I ask can I ask this? We're having discussion here. I'm just going to ask you to please try to refrain from either applauding or, you know, expressing displeasure in some vocal way, because we want to have an open discussion here and we have differences of opinion. I want them all to be heard. Okay. And I know that we will hear that when you all speak as well. So I appreciate your your respecting the chamber in the way we operate. And so thank you for that. Councilmember Cole, do you have another question, Councilmember? Councilmember Cole. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. Stephen, or to any of you. The word trans, the term transparency has been tossed around a lot. And you've mentioned it here. We've had justifications for the legislation that it would create more transparency. My please correct me if I'm wrong. I think I'm right. But are your meetings all open to the public? We know the board meetings are. I believe the nominating committee meetings are open. And what about the panels? I'm not sure on that. Who deliberate in terms of recommendations to the advisory committee that goes on the go on to the board for approval of grants? Yes. Council member or every meeting that we have with for culture is an open meeting. So our panels are in fact, they are attended by the public, as are our arts advisory and committee meetings and of course are our board meetings. So that appears to me is transparency. And I'm not I'm just not sure how it would be improved if we changed that process. So thank you. Yeah. Okay. We're starting to debate again. Councilmember McDermott, do you have a question? I do, and I hope you think so, too. Excellent. And then Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you, Madam Chair. My question, Mr. Elliott, is given your your experience, both with foreign culture as a cultural development authority and your previous experience with the county office, can you speak to the differences you've seen in how public money has been spent, invested and used in those two forms of government and oversight? I would I thank you. Councilman McDermott. I would say that as a public entity, as a PDA, we have expediency and efficiency with delivery of of funds and the contracting process by being an independent agency. That's that's an aside to that in terms of spreading the money around the county, the processes have stayed very much the same because we took that not from being a department and then we expanded that as as a PDA. My experience has been that there's been just a greater sense of of independence in how. We evaluate our processes as a PDA. And it's we we have not had that I guess that oversight that has at times dictated and slowed down the process of of delivering funds throughout the county. Thank you. Councilwoman in. Milwaukee. Thank you very much. And I'm kind of still fact finding and reflecting and learning things. So this is very helpful. Appreciate your work. I just want to make a side comment, maybe not a side comment, but Tom, one of the highlights of my work with our culture and we're two days after the day of remembrance here on Monday, which was President Roosevelt's. Exactly. We're now six six, which incarcerated Japanese-Americans. But we did a beautiful thing. And I encourage folks to see it on the 12th floor if you're leaving up there a plaque commemorating Gordon Hirabayashi, his incarceration in the jail cell right over here for resisting the executive order. Now, six weeks and I just had a very positive experience with our culture on that. And your work for Dan Schorr has prompted that memory. So I encourage folks to take a look at the marker there commemorating that. But my question here, really, Mr. Elliot, turns to your part of your presentation on the grant making process and transparency and your words about to assure geographic distribution of available funds and geographic distribution of funds. You mentioned that. First, let you say, and I don't want you to debate here, but the grant process you outlined sounds tremendous to me. And it also sounds like a nightmare that I don't want anything to do with as a as a county council member that, you know, that's not my role. At least I don't perceive that as my as my role. And I really think that your grant making process on an individual project basis, based on kind of what I've seen, delivers high quality results that are merit based and and have received acclaim and satisfaction on the whole in the community. And it was helpful for me to hear in detail how that works, including the appeal process and the public vote. But in this legislation, I, as I understand it, doesn't wade into that. And I and I wouldn't support anything that does. But the geographic equity is a is a concern to me. And and it was mentioned that all of those projects that are produced are tagged with the district number. And for culture, I want to say, has been very transparent and helpful in delivering the rolled up data, in fact, the detailed data by district. And it is one of the things that's driving my interest in a little more. I don't know what you would call it, dialog reform change, and that is the geographic equity question. I try to take my role here as a councilmember for the entire county because my vote affects councilmember. Does districts represent residents the same as mine? So I try to bring that out. But I also have to look out for for folks up in my district. I think they expect me to do that. And when I look, for example, at the rolled up data, 2015 to 17 to those years, I didn't have a board member or my district didn't have a board member there. Apparently they got $2 million of grants. Mr. Dombroski, I'm sorry. I'm about to reach into my bag of judicial TV cliches and ask, is there a question here somewhere? Sorry. Yeah, i, i it goes to his log rolling point. Anyway, a million out of 40. And for the 2012 to 14 it was 700,000 out of 14 million. You talked about log rolling. I'm trying to understand from your perspective and your experience on the board, which is supposed to have one member, at least from every district, the danger you're perceiving and articulating for a council member to have more of a role was based on the knowledge and relationships and work we do in our district in sending somebody to represent those folks to the board to to support the cultural and heritage organizations in the district. Because I'm concerned that my folks up there haven't had a fair shake. And I feel that they they maybe need a little more of an advocate than an empty seat. So help me understand or articulate, if you could, how we might solve that problem, because since 2012, it it it's been consistently challenging without getting into, you know , without the dangers of this Land Rover councilmember. I would and sincerely want to help, you know, give me your expertize. I would I would address this that this is not just a district one issue. This is this is a one, three, five and nine issue. Try not to tread on my colleague. No, no, no. This is something that it's it's it has been recognized by my staff and by board through the years. And it comes down to that if we can't fund what doesn't apply. So if the infrastructure is not in the particular districts, it's very difficult to fund something that doesn't exist. So it's a it's a matter that we have to take the. Next steps. And those next steps come in as a result of cultural planning, which we are in the midst of right now, that actually came out of the the ordinance for Kiawah on May 1st, when we when your amendments called for subregional planning throughout the county. So we are going to take that a step further and look at 22 of the cities throughout the county and look at that cultural plan where we can start to initiate and develop infrastructure within districts that we have recognized that need more infrastructure, that need more organizations that are going to create a better place or a better environment for arts, culture, living, work and play within those districts. And yes, that has been recognized and we're well aware of that and are taking proactive steps to correct that. And it was the impetus of that ordinance on May 1st that started that. And we're continuing and in fact, we are in we're in a process of that now by developing those those programs for innovation in particularly and outside again outside the Seattle city limits. I appreciate the answer, and I might want to dialog with a little bit more about the log rolling nature. Sure. What I hear you saying is you want to put the development in the cultural development authority and develop these cultural assets in parts of the county where historically there hasn't been. And it's not just geographic, some of it's cultural and ethnic and gender. And I mean, there's a lot of cultural deserts, if you will, that aren't just geographic. And as you are, as you are well aware, this this county is evolving monthly by demographic, by size. And that is one of the primary goals and strengths of our culture has been our ability to be in front of that and to adapt very, very quickly to what is going on in the county. And we recognize those changes that are occurring throughout the county, and we're going to be a part of that. And we want to be innovative in what we do in each council district. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. It comes from of course, I would really like to get to public comment if we could do it quickly. Sure. I just wanted to let Stephen and you all know that I did pass down this table a graph in terms of the number of grants funded, applications funded. And I think it speaks very well to what Stephen was just saying about you've got to get the applications there and it's incumbent upon Fort culture to do as much outreach as possible, even more than doing now. So the number of applications increase. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you all for coming and speaking and answering our questions and engaging in some debate. I want to state for the record that I attempted to get eight politicians to not debate and you can see the results, but I think you all did really, really well. Okay. At this time, we're going to move on into public comment. Everybody has been here a real long time. I thank you for waiting and I have to sign up sheets in front of me with 41 people signed up to speak. We had planned on one hour for public comment. And given that, that means that each speaker should have about one minute and 30 seconds timing. I appreciate I apologize for the shortness. Usually we give 2 minutes, but I if I have to air, I want to err on the side of allowing everybody who came here to speak to at least have some time. And then our meeting is supposed to is scheduled to end at 12. And we wanted to have at least some time to actually debate, to have the discussion. And there's some amendments that we want to take up. So I'm going to ask people to come up in order of assignments. I understand that some of the folks who have signed up to speak with higher numbers may still be sitting upstairs in the overflow room. So I'm going to announce a few people ahead and I'm going to announce you by numbers of people who are up there, can have time to make their way down here when their time comes. When I call your name, please step to the podium. Like I said, I want to call a few people ahead so folks can line up and we can do this as efficiently as possible. And then your timer will start. It'll be green and yellow tells you you've got, I believe, 30 seconds left and red means that the time is up. Please state your name for the record and then say whatever it is that you want us to hear. I will add that because this is not the last time we will take this up, we are still receiving written comments and boy, are we receiving written comments. So please feel free to supplement anything you want to say by sending more written comments. They all get put into the record. All right. With that, the first five people on the sign up sheet are. Michelle de la Vega. Connie Zimmerman. Ellen Solon. I apologize if I got that wrong. And Ken Torp. This is an oversight. So that was Ford and David Toledo. Yeah. Either side, whichever is closest to you, feel free to just step up to the podium. Welcome. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you very well. Okay. Good morning. I wanted to address your concerns about diversity. I've been an artist. My name is Michelle de la Vega. I've been an artist in King County for the past 25 years. I've been a proud residents of unincorporated Kane County District eight for the past 13 years. My work has been funded by our culture three times. I've had a solo exhibition in the gallery. I've been a speaker for their events. A pair of panelists for their grant programs and will soon be serving on the Public Art Advisory Committee. I'm a person of color and I live in a highly diverse and what many would describe as a low income and underserved neighborhood. I'm grateful that for culture does not withhold funding, support and opportunities for influence from people like me. I would like to introduce you to Artist Up. Artist Up is an in-depth collaboration between for Culture and the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs to reach out to diverse and underserved demographics statewide, to understand how to make arts funding more accessible. Both organizations have Applied Artists copious research to their respective funding programs. I served as an ambassador and advisor artist advisor for Artist Up, and I would like to suggest the Council partnering with them as a resource to begin building real context about how to enhance accessibility of arts funding to the underserved communities for whom you do express concern. And thank you for that concern. An additional example if our culture's pioneering efforts. I would like to tell you about is the new ARC Fellowship program, for which I was a peer panelists this year. The eligibility requirement to apply for the fellowship was a physical, developmental conflict cognitive, intellectual or emotional disability. There are 9898 applicants. In total, 70% of those applicants had never applied for arts funding before. I think you'll agree that this is this unprecedented program is a huge success in reaching and serving an underserved community whose artistic voices are a vital part of the fabric of our county's culture. Thank you. Thank you, Connie Zimmerman. Welcome. Thank you. My name is Connie Zimmerman. I live in unincorporated King County. And so I thank you all for your service. As my local government, the city closest to my home is Duval. I am a board member of the Duval Historical Society and a board member of the Duval Foundation for the Arts. I have personally worked with Councilmembers Lambert Gossett and Van Ryk Bulk, Van Ryk Bauer and Projects of support and enhance awareness of heritage and the arts in Duval and in King County. And I've had the privilege to serve on selection committees for culture panels. I want to tell you how much Duval Historical Society and Duval Foundation for the Arts rely upon for culture and not only for funding. We rely upon them for their expertize, their guidance and mentoring, cheerleading expertize and inspiration to organizations just like ours and their staff and leadership like you share our vision for the future of Dubai and for the Lower Snoqualmie Valley. We appreciate the efforts that Councilmember Lambert and others have made to work towards distributing for culture money throughout King County so that small communities like Duval are represented at the same time. We really respect the strong professionalism fort culture exhibits, which is facilitated by their independence. We trust that the county and for culture will continue to work together to help small communities like Duval. Thank you. If I could beg your indulgence, I am going to call on Francis Nelson because we have a little guest here who has been incredibly patient. And I don't want to try her patients more than necessary, but welcome. Thank you. My name is Francis Nelson, and I'm an artist and architect living in the Rainier Valley and district to I identify as an artist of color and receive funding for an individual artist grant as well as a site specific project grant fund for culture. The latter was to create a project project marking 89 unmarked graves in a cemetery in an old pioneer cemetery in Kent in District five. This project sheds some light on some unknown facts of Kent's early history and brought awareness to a site that was largely forgotten. This goes to show that arts funding operates on many complex levels beyond simple geographic boundaries. The proposed ordinance. Most likely would not have allowed a project like this to exist for a culture is not broken. It provides grants to diverse artists in diverse areas of King County. This dismantling of our culture will not serve artists or the work we are trying to create. I oppose this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. All right. The next person on the sign up sheet is Ellen again. Solid, I believe. Solid, solid and solid. I live in District two. I want to also address this issue of misperception for cultural allocations countywide. By way of introduction, I'm the former executive director of what was then the Seattle Arts Commission, now the Office of Art of Arts and Culture. And I can be happy to answer your question relative to those appointments. The executor of the Colorado Council on the Arts and a professional artists as a Seattle based artist with more than 25 years of experience making public art from Bellingham to San Jose, I have in-depth experience with multiple public agencies, and I can tell you that four culture ranks among the highest for professionalism, valuing the community and treating artists as professionals. I want to go back to the issue of the misperception and a difficulty of it analyzing the funding and where it goes. As an artist, I've created works and projects for for culture. They I live in District two, they've been in Woodinville, Bellevue and Renton, for example. But when you analyze these numbers and you look at the numbers, what you see is what the financial reports say, where the providers of the services were not the recipients. So when you look at my site specific project that examined the history of Winters House in Bellevue and the lowering of Lake Washington, you would see that Seattle was funded. In fact, all the services went to Bellevue. And in fact, part of my grant went to the East Side Heritage Center. So that's one thing. Secondly, I'm going to run out of time. So I've written comments. I'll turn them in. Thank you, Steve. My comments are there. I really appreciate that. Thank you. All right, Mr. Cantor. But that's going to be followed by David Toledo and Marie still in that Sabarmati and AC Peterson. Thank you. Okay. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thank you for your time. I live in District two. Thank you, Councilmember Garson, for your service. I've been a professional public administrator all of my life and I probably have about 50 years of service. I've been a U.S. Foreign Service officer, the deputy chief of staff to a governor, the deputy director of a highway department in Colorado. And I was the executive director of the Center for the Improvement of Public Management at the University of Colorado for more than a decade. I've looked at for culture and I don't understand why you're doing this. There's no scandal. There's no inefficiency. There's no public outcry. This is an organization that works really well. I look at turnover rates when I want to do a diagnosis of an organization. There's virtually none in that organization. It's high morale, low turnover, high professionalism. So, you know, it ain't broke. Don't fix it, please. Secondly, if I were in your shoes, I would look at the model for the Colorado State Department of Highways where the legislature deputed to the commission projects selection because they didn't want to wade into that swamp and get into all of the trouble associated with it. And I would just tender some avuncular advice from a septuagenarian that I wouldn't go there if I were you. I'd stay as far away from it as possible, particularly since this organization is doing such a great job. Thank you. Thank you for bringing the words avuncular and septuagenarian into the discussion and just in. And he really enhanced the level of discourse. Welcome. Hi there. I'm David Toledo. I'm a lifelong resident of Seattle. I've been a working artist since the mid eighties. Very eclectic drawing, painting, cartoon animation. As a matter of fact, just last year, over the one year period, I launched a cartoon animation series and I published a novel on arts, race relations and culture in Seattle. So I'm very busy. But the most proud thing that I'm proud of is that I, for 20 years have also been an arts administrator working with low income and at risk youth in the Seattle area. What's most important to me is that when you teach a child an artistic skill, we should also be teaching them how to make money at that. So education, tracks and networking, that sort of thing is very important to me. And I know it's important to Councilmember Dombrowski as well. And. Councilmember Gossett, who I've met with and spoken about these things. Having said all of that, we need to make a decision on what what what arts and culture should encompass. It's not just music and theater, which Seattle loves. It's also working with low income children at risk children and introducing them to arts. Now I know about the board. In 2014, I had attempted to drop an application application off so that I could participate there in the board. District eight, which was Councilmember McDermott's was only represented by Vash on Island and NatWest Seattle while I was attending there, just to say this, that I was there for a full year and over a year one seat remained empty. The count, the board member did not call in. He did not show up for one full year. And when I spoke to Jim about it and said, why don't we have representation there? It fell on deaf ears. We need the council to stand it, step in and do appointments of people that want to be there and will be there when they're appointed to the board member. Thank you very much. All right. Next. Anne-Marie Stallion Pilot by late December 31. Hi. My name is Anne Marie Stallion and I'm an artist. I'm here today to say to the council, please stop. We are against the proposal, which turns a careful and independent process into political pork barrels. You are asking the community to believe that all you want to do is provide oversight. First of all, for culture is the oversight. It is a process. It is a process where the public's money is overseen by a diverse web of citizens, which renders a transparent and independent result. It is a lie that your proposal won't change that if you pass this legislation. Then, according to Dombrowski, my council person, he will be able to call up his board member and get the money he needs for the Shoreline Historical Society. And that's a quote. Do you see this is the bad old days of politics where someone's voice is amplified. If you know the right people in the right district, we will not go quietly. If you destroy a beautiful system that has worked long and for a long time, let's work together. Let's work together. Please stop pretending that this legislation does anything except flatter yourselves at the expense of those who elected you. I learned today that your proposal will create chaos in our communities, become more expensive and be dumber as well as impeding our programing. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Let the welcome respected Madam Chair, King County Council members. A very good morning to you all. I'm let's have a multi Washington state arts commissioner. And artistic director. Of various Indian. Festivals that's. Happening in the Puget Sound area. And they serve on different boards of reputed organizations like Northwest Folklife Center for Traditional Arts under Humanities, Washington and so on. And as a 15 year resident of Redmond, which comes under District six and thank you our council man member Claudia Bellotti for the great service and. I have known about pop culture for 14 years and I have interacted with the whole culture in multiple capacities as an artist, as a commissioner, and then as a director of many festivals and so on. And also I have sold on the panel for various grants and also I have served on that advisory committee for two successful terms. And and most of all, as a citizen whose life quality has improved owing to the people and organizations supported by full culture. And I am a woman of color representing the minority community, but I feel very, very welcome and also very inclusive. And also I feel a great sense of belonging than any other organization. Some I am associated with, including my own Indian organizations. I would see so big hats off to for culture. And for culture is a gem of an institution in our midst. So far that is. Can you please wrap up maybe your main we all have heard the phrase If it ain't broke, don't fix it. A stronger version of this phrase might be If it is running well, don't kill it, please. Dear County Council members, I would like to plead with you today to resolve issues of mutual concern with full culture in a cordial manner, while leaving the organization untouched so that it may continue to keep and enhance effectiveness and reputation. Please say no to Ordinance 2000 80086. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. A.S. Peterson, followed by Maryland. I'm sorry. I'm going to get this wrong. Rachel or Rachel, welcome. And that will bring us after that. Margaret Livingston. And that will bring us to number ten on the list. Okay. I'm at the other podium, though. Good morning. My name is A.S. Peterson and I'm from Kirkland. I'm a volunteer on the for Culture Arts Advisory Council, a recipient of past artist awards. And I've been an onsite reviewer for several years experiencing performances from Burian to Duval to North Bend. I've served on award panels with artists and administrators who are well qualified, respected and experienced in their fields. All phases are transparent and open to public review. The staff of our culture do outreach to include and encourage artists of all abilities, incomes, geographic areas and disciplines. We have oversight. It's built into the structure and has been followed for years. The King County Council, by granting itself blanket approval and veto power of dollars in personnel, will turn this into an undemocratic process and open to politics. I urge you not to change what has been an immensely successful model for artists and audiences from King County and beyond. Thank you. Thank you very much, Marilyn. Rachel, followed by Margaret Livingston. Hello. My name is Marilyn Rakel. I'm with The Art of Alzheimer's, which is an organization that is dedicated to celebrating the creativity of people who are living with Alzheimer's and dementia. We're a young organization. We got our first grant in 2016 is an individual, and in 2017 as an organization, this has provided the seed money for us to develop and to grow into an organization that is making a difference in the lives of people who are living with Alzheimer's and creating greater awareness and understanding on the part of the general public. I look forward to being able to make an application in 2019 to identify and work with the organizations outside the city. There's so much more money in the city than there is in the county. I rely and we rely on the trust. We trust and rely on the expertize and the independence of our culture to make and administer grants that are based on merit and their ability to enrich the cultural life of King County. I urge you to reject this ordinance. Okay. Your name, please. Good morning. And thank you for your service to our community. My name is Margie Livingston. I'm a working artist. I have received received grants from Fort Culture. I have served on the review panels. And I also am a member of an arts artist run gallery soil, which received funding from from for culture. In my opinion, if our culture is doing a great job of supporting the arts, heritage, preservation and public arts programs in King County. In the 15 years I've been applying for four culture grants. I've always found their process to be very easy to understand and fair. Even though I've applied many more times and I've been awarded grants each year, I've applied. I've noticed that for culture has fine tuned their application process or website and then made an effort to make it easier for people to understand and more responsive to the community. Maybe it's inappropriate to call out an individual person, but Heather Dwyer, who administers the Arts Individual Arts Program, is a joy to work with and bent over backwards to help people with their applications. She's scheduled workshops for people. I'm running out of time. I really urge you to not adopt this proposal. Thank you. Thank you. That brings us to Pete. Pete desperately followed by Bob Woodward or Woodard. Woodrow, Woodrow and Richard Beckerman. Hello. My name is Pete Gasperoni. I'm a member of the Seattle Seahawks and live in Kirkland, Washington. I came here from Southern California a year after St Helens erupted. And I represented I took over a branch for a medium sized computer company at the time and had a lot of work done at Boeing. I bring this up because it's a matter of the independence that I want to address. About a year into this, I was chasing a deal that was worth a couple of million dollars and had gotten to know the controller for Boeing commercial airplane. And one night we were up on the ski lift and he broke a code. We weren't supposed to talk business on the slopes. And he said, What's it mean to you to get this deal? And I told him, We're an outlier. We're a remote office. They give me my numbers at the year I make my numbers, they give me murmurs. Next year, they leave me alone. And he helped make that deal go through because he recognized that local expertize, local knowledge and the ability to have the resources to support these organizations was important. Arts and culture is always going to be an outlier for me, you know? And I'm Bob Woodruff. I'm in District four. I started singing as a Saturday night, and I'm an octogenarian now. And then the last ten years, the Seattle Seahawks Guardsmen have played a key role. Please, you're the tone didn't restart. Phil, you have you have 90 seconds. Think oh what a deal. I seem like it went by fast because it did. Have him hum a few bars. I want to thank you. You know, I basically want to say I think though from my experience, the FA culture process works for granted. Smooth, it's clean. The people end up working at our shows, evaluating them, giving us great feedback, and the whole system works well and therefore, I suppose, and reject the day of the ordinance. Thank you very much. Thank you. Richard Beckerman, followed by Patricia Cosgrove and Marianne Peters. Hi, I'm Richard Becker. And 27 years working in the field and King County of museums and worked with three different PDAs. And I'm here to report they're very successful. They do exactly what they designed to do. And so I've had a very positive experience. I don't claim to understand the tension within the Council in terms of governance, but one thing I do know is I hope that we get past this and work it out, whatever that looks like, and focus on the fact that the Washington state is in the bottom five of the states that support the arts communities. So I think the question to me, is this a matter of governance or is this a matter of programing? If something's not being addressed in the programing, maybe creating and funding, that is a more appropriate solution. Thank you very much. Thank you for this copy of that report, which is in that status. So when asked this question to Staff Councilmember Ron Rivera asked if we could find the report that shows the that we are in the bottom five, I believe, of states. Is it states or counties? Yeah. Maybe we can try to find that. I think that the for culture staff could probably find it for us. Let's ask them. Okay. Thank you, Mr.. And the other questions. Okay. Please go ahead. Welcome. Good morning. And thank you for this opportunity. My name is Patricia Cosgrove and I work for the city of Auburn, where I am the director of the White River Valley Museum and the historic Mary Olson farm. And I live on a farm myself in Enumclaw over my 42 year career working in museums. I've raised, I don't know, $10 million in grants. And that may not sound like a lot if you're writing grants for roads, but if you're writing grants for heritage and getting them in $2,000 allotments , that's a lot of ground. And I've had the honor of sitting on the For Culture Board, also on the Heritage Committee. And as people have said, the system works remarkably. I have I've worked with so many other grant makers that I cannot give you enough accolades for how this organization functions and its openness and fairness. I will say that I share some concerns that I think I've been picking up as as this discussion has gone on. They're small because as of about ten years ago, when I was on their board, they recognized that they needed to fund a broader range. And one of the problems is you don't get a lot of applications from some areas. So they've initiated projects to try to fix that. I think they maybe at the same time initiated projects to hire a more diverse staff, which I have to say it certainly is at this point, and to increase the diversity on their board . And so they're in the middle of those wonderful transitions. And it would be hard to find any agency or government that isn't right now in the middle of those transitions. So thank you. Thank you. Is Marian Peters still with us? Marion, please welcome. And after that, John Sutton, Paul Gilding, Jack Mackey and Lenore Benzinga, I believe. Please go ahead. My name is Marianne Peters. I'm an artist. I've been working in the region for over three decades, and I'd like to acknowledge Council member Lampard. I can totally understand your disappointment that your candidate wasn't acknowledged in the same way you hoped. Welcome to my universe as an artist. I'd also like to say that we're standing on Coast Salish land and I want to acknowledge that and think that community for their incredible presence in this region. I have been on the board of the Public Art Committee. I've been on the Public Art Committee for for culture. And I was the committee president for a while. But I want to talk about some things that come to your way that you would not have to necessarily know. We are a very large community that even when we go off committee, we are available to our colleagues. I worked for ten years on censorship in the arts, and I can tell you that those kinds of topics are ones that you want people with a certain amount of on the grounds experience with. And if you as council members want to take on the possibility that there will be things that will come into your purview that you don't understand, which is the job of artists, they're supposed to bring you things that you don't understand out the gate. Then it's they take on this this ordinance. But I can assure you that this is something that you don't want to do. There's nothing wrong with for culture. Everything about it is respected. You can't go to a city in this country where people don't some way acknowledge their staff. And finally, if they can go through 23 audits and never be questioned on that, how could you possibly think that they are in need of a revision? Thank you. Thank you. Hi. My name is John Sutton. I'm an artist and arts professional and on the board of a nonprofit that focuses on arts, culture and the intersection of environmental and social justice. I ask that you all reconsider this proposed ordinance for full support for our culture. I've had experience with numerous organizations locally, nationally and internationally, where culture is the best organization I've had the opportunity to work with. All of the proposed changes in the ordinance, I think can be addressed through working directly with work culture, its board, and its constituency. Please, thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Mr. Paul Gilding, Jack Mackey and Lenore Bensinger. Thank you, councilmembers, for this opportunity to speak. I am speaking on behalf of the Seattle Symphony. We welcome this opportunity for dialog with the County Council. We have great respect for for culture and for the tremendous benefits that have helped. They have helped create for county residents. King County's investments in the arts have enabled us to honor the artistic traditions of diverse people in King County, to instill creativity and a sense of purpose in our young people, and to bring us together collectively lifting the human spirit. We hear and we support the Council's desire for transparency and accountability for our culture. We also believe that for culture should continue providing their expert, their extensive arts expertize and highly respected independent review process for arts funding. To ensure that that continues. We urge the Council to adopt the principles formulated by Cultural Access Washington, which are intended to guide the Council and a county executive in the legislative process of reviewing, amending and passing post ordinance. Council has received these principles directly from Council and I will also include a copy of them together with my printed remarks. And further, we urge the Council to ensure that the appointment process for the For Culture Board be designed such that the Board remains a governing board separate from the peer review panels. This requires a balance of talents and skills such as financial background, organizational leadership, legal and other qualifications. Again, we appreciate this opportunity to speak and we hope to continue a fruitful dialog to create a strong for our culture to dialog with you about that. Thank you. Thank you. And just for the benefit of those who are maybe still waiting upstairs, we're approaching number 20 and there's probably about ten seats available down here if anybody would like to come down and claim them. Please go ahead. Hi, I'm Jeff. Mackie, civic artist. Over the past weeks, we've learned a lot about our council. And the. Gang of Six that are proposing this. Many of us are suspicious of your motives. Most glaring of what we have learned is that some members know very little about how our culture actually functions, what its mission is, and how it is successfully operated. Ever since this council cut it from King County and made it one of 14 stand alone PDAs, why are you only going after this one PDA? You're going to check in on the others. This ordinance is back to the same constant failure that places council its rural and suburban and rural and suburban versus urban. It's back to good old Balkanization of King County. Nine county districts simply do not have the same number of heritage orgs, arts orgs and artists in them. You have calculated the total dollars your district has received, but how you calculated the total applications that your district has produced. But you want money going to your district. We get that. So you just say that. Tell us the truth. Another fact is the fundamental changes you proposed were gut for culture, mission, and as highly professional, respected processes. You say it won't, but you clearly don't know for culture. That means if Gossett gets a dollar, then. Vaughn Right. Bauer gets a dollar. Wells gets a dollar. Never gets a dollar. Everybody else gets a dollar, dollar, dollar. Everybody gets a dollar and not one more. You're going to cut a nickel that isn't going to work. The nine county districts have to have to drop this and look at the whole county. Now we're hearing we're having a hard time imagining what a compromise would be. One fell in for this morning. We haven't yet seen it, but there's a discussion that is going to go on. You need to bring us all into your backroom discussions. No vote until you have heard from each one of us. Thank you. Whew. Okay. Lenore Bensinger, followed by Chris. I'm going to say Brooke and Ellen Ferguson. I have. I'm Lenore. Welcome. I have a call and I've asked my colleague from Seattle, Puget Sound, to deliver her remarks in my place. Man. Of course, yes. Beforehand at the door and at the other. Thank you for asking. I appreciate that and for being here in your illness. Thank you, Lenore. I'm actually number 30 on the list just for housekeeping. My name is Ariel Bradley and I represent Theater Puget Sound. The how of any process, as we all know, is as important as the why. As an arts community, we value that process and understand when a product is derived without one. If the intention of this ordinance is to create a more equitable system of the process, must be informed by those who are most likely to be affected . I ask that the Council take more time to work in concert with our community and to truly identify if this ordinance is creating the equity you seek to establish. Thank you. But. Okay. Thank you. And that brings us to Chris. Brooke, apologize if I've got that wrong. Ellen Ferguson. Good. And then we'll be at about halfway through at number 20 on the list. Welcome. Madam Chair. Counsel, thank you for the opportunity to speak with Chris Brew, long time resident. I thought it was an interesting point. I've lived and worked in five different districts. I currently am in District eight and incorporated in King County. We've heard a lot of testimony from it. I'm an artist, an educator. I received grants. I am in my second term on the Public Art Advisory Committee. I've served on many peer review panels. I'm pretty familiar on an intimate level with how the agency operates. I've also and my work out of state and four also for Washington state and for federal agencies. I have consistently been under impressed when I come home I compare the the efforts and the procedures and other public art agencies for culture is at the top. It's something that we should all be extremely proud of at this point for the work that they've done. I think we've heard a lot from artists who are grateful and impressed by the agency. What concerns me is the power and the money that will shift if this ordinance is adopted from a broadly dispersed, relatively horizontal structure with lots of civic volunteer involvement to one that is centered on a nine member council. Thank you. I urge you to reject this ordinance. Thank you. All right. Next to have my own Ferguson. And then the following people will be Amy Beth Nulty, Kate Shubert and Nancy Chang. Thank you, Madam Chair. And greetings. Council members privileged to be here. I am Ellen Ferguson, fourth generation King County resident, proud member, District two for years, over four years at the Burke Museum. Over 20 years. The Wing Luke Moore, where I currently am co-chair, have had the literal privilege of being very actively engaged with Fort Culture, grateful for grants. We've received, certainly in those groups, many others, but serving on the Heritage Advisory Committee and also on a number of granting committees. And I certainly concur with what many have already said. So I would say I am involved in nationally in many conferences I have used for culture as an example in on many panels nationally. It is a crown jewel of King County, something, as has been said, we should all be proud of. One thing I would want to share that hasn't maybe been stressed yet is in serving on granting committees. I, I applaud the the work towards diversification. I've served with Tom Kent. I served with Brian Carter when he was a young curator at Nam. And the direction they're moving there. And but what I would say is because I'm a member of District two does not mean that I don't give a damn about do all shout out to Devolved Man. We care about your roofing and your roof. And when you are on that committee, we spend hours reviewing, reviewing in advance. We spend hours, day long meetings on Saturdays. And we care about every community in King County. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff, this afternoon. All right. Okay, Amy Beth Nulty, followed by Kate Schubert, Nancy Chang and Pat. Granny or granny, welcome. Hello. I am Amy Beth Nulty and I live in Shoreline in District one. My field is. Nonprofit and arts, government governance. And when I heard about the proposal, I wrote my council member asking Councilmember Dombrowski to vote against the proposal list. This led to a meeting with the council member, his chief of staff, myself and some leadership from Theater Puget Sound. I was encouraged. By the listening nature of the conversation, and I learned that when we sat down and. Spoke together. We ultimately want many of the same things for for culture. But unfortunately, the way this proposal was executed, alienated and worried our arts and cultural organizations rather than bringing them into the conversation. For this reason, my request to the Council is that you delay passing this proposal in order to engage the organizations you want to help. It is apparent. That many members. Of the Council have not felt represented on four culture or. That their voices have been heard. And I hope both parties can work together to find a way to increase the ethnic and geographic diversity of the board to actually better communication. May this be an opportunity to strengthen communication both ways. My second ask which. The amendment begins to address is to please. Remove the hire and fire capability of four cultures. A. Executive Director from the proposal. That language alone is why I first became involved in this issue. If you have the representation on the council you propose, then you don't need hiring and firing capabilities because that is the duty of the governing board. Let the board members you charged with governing do their job and govern. Thank you for your time and thank you for your supports of arts and culture in our county. Okay. Welcome. Hi, I'm Kate Schubert. I want to thank you for your service and this opportunity to speak to you today. I am a Seattle native and I will not recite the number of districts I have lived in over the course of my life. But I am very proud to be a member of the audience, a patron, a member and board member of a number of cultural groups, some mainstream and some very definitely not. I have participated in the grant application process for for culture and have found it to be rigorous, fair and helpful. It requires participants to make a detailed survey of their achievements and consider their missions. Groups who aspire to a for culture grant must reach beyond their product and their core constituents and reach out to the community. To the underserved. The underserved, like youth, elderly, those who face mobility and economic challenge. In turn, those participating groups extend their audiences and strengthen their community ties. So what about this ordinance? I believe and I know that many in the arts community, I'm an amateur musician. And so that's my area. Believe that changing the board from individuals selected for a balance of skills, geography and identity to political appointees is a concern to everyone who prizes freedom of artistic expression. It risks degrading confidence in the perceived fairness and independence of for culture. I urge you to vote against this. Audience. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. I want to thank the council people that are currently engaged and proud of the work of full culture. My name is Nancy Chang. I'm an arts administrator and I live in District two. I'm heavily engaged in local and statewide arts and culture specifically to correct gender and race imbalances. I serve as a board member at Artists Trust. I'm a founding advisory member of the Women's Creative Industries Meetup and serve as the executive director of Real Girls, a nonprofit that serves young people countywide to explore, to help them support, support them, to explore, critique and author media through a feminist lens. I'm here to advocate for for culture's work of building trust with grassroots organizations like Real Girls and Express. My disappointment that six council members can say they love the work of our culture and also work to push the ordinance 20180086 without any consultation with Jim Kelly and his dedicated for culture team. Although Real Girls is based in Seattle, we have had the opportunity to work throughout King County, thanks to for culture funding, providing programs for young people in Squamish North towards Shoreline, as well as various cities in south and East County. Empowering urban women, etc.. I've worked in commune development for almost 20 years, serving at the city of Redmond for a decade, and in my current role for almost four years, I know how difficult it is to build trust with the community and have experienced trust and care by gymnast team for culture as a fledgling public development authority under the for a culture as a fledgling fund. Anyways, these are all written statements. But my, my point is that without the work of for culture, I wouldn't be able to do gender and racial equity. And this this ordinance is just a bad idea. That should not. I mean, we have we have we have other problems to deal with. This isn't a problem. It's not broke. Don't fix it. Thank you. Thank you. Give us somebody. Yes, right here. Staff. My challenge is that you respond, you actually read this and respond back to me. Challenge Accepted. All right. So we're up to number 24. Exactly. Yes. Welcome. And let me just read out a few more names. Number 25 is Carl Sandor, followed by number 26, Janet Way. Number 27, Christian friend. And I hope I got that close to right. Welcome. Hello. Good morning, everyone. Sorry, I have a cold. My name is Pat Greeny and I have been in this county for 40 years. I moved here in 1979. I have been working with for culture for a great majority of that time. I'm an award winning artist. I've toured all over the world and I also with dance and installation and I also work with incarcerated women. And I would just like to say that for culture was one of the first people to really recognize the importance of that program. I've served over 5000 incarcerated women in King County and surrounding areas, and they are the poorest folks and predominantly people of color. We shouldn't surprise anybody, of course. That's why our culture is. I just think that there's there's a kind of brilliance there that that is really important. And I know that you know that I know that you acknowledge that. And I also wanted to say, when people were making comments about you choosing things, I don't think anybody doubts your sincerity or your professionalism. You are professionals and you are amazing in your own capacity, which is the political realm. I am not. And so I just think that I just want to honor what you have done and what you what you continue to do for the county and specifically for your districts. I do a lot of national international panels, and people have come up to me, especially with the Creative Justice Initiative in New York on a panel and said, oh, my God, what kind of this is amazing. This is so groundbreaking. This is so brilliant. You know, we thought that would be King County is that King County has been doing that for quite a long time. And so I just want to speak to the importance of the structure that exists and the really the brilliance of the leadership of the organization. Thank you very much. Thank you. Welcome. Hi, I'm Karl Sander. I've been Greece on the cogs of culture in King County for about 40 years, doing very things for many organizations, work for nonprofits the whole time. I just wanted to say that it's very encouraging that people are here today. I was reading yesterday this book on Tyranny 20 Lessons from the 20th Century by Timothy Snyder. And the second lesson is defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve democracy. They need our help. Do not speak of our institutions unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. And I want to thank everybody here for acting on behalf of for culture. And I certainly include the council members in that in that observation. I wish I had a couple of things to say, but I'll move directly to Mr. Dombrovskis. DOMBROVSKIS Pardon me, Councilman. Point name like that, your answer to anything? The that he stated in a letter to me that over a three year period grants to organizations and artists in his district. I believe he's going to make this point total 70 $700,000 while at the same time for called report approximately $5,200,000 into another district during the same period. In other words, for every $100 that went to District four, I assume District one only received $13. The Council member states that this data points to an out out of balance and inequitable funding record. To which I respectfully reply. Councilmember is a supporter for culture who is seeking more oversight. You should be able to make the following three point rebuttal. The money that funds for culture. And you make it in 10 seconds though. Go. I thought I had 30 years. Your time is up. So if you could if you could finish those. Comes two for two for culture from a lot more money comes from district four than comes from district one into the hotel. Motel taxes, the people that the institutions that drive cultural tourism are primarily in District four and all of the members of King County. Your constituents as well enjoy those resources. So those two to say that that's that those monies do not support you is just wrong. So thank you and thank you for allowing me to use my franchise as a citizen. So you may I've got a kind of a tell if the if the buzzer goes and you say, finally, I'll let you finish your sentence. If the buzzer goes and you say, I have three more points, I will interrupt and ask you to wrap up. Okay. That's just a little trick of the trade, please. And after. So this is Ms.. Janet. Way after that, Mr. Christian, what I now read to be French, I believe, and then best sellers. Thank you. And finally, I would like. Given 5 minutes. I'd like to begin. Yeah. Hi, I'm Janet Wei. I'm from Shoreline District one. I'm representing the Shoreline Preservation Society, but I'm an artist. I have a degree in art from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, where the real patriots are from. And we believe in preservation, protecting the environment and protecting culture in Philadelphia and from back east where I'm from. So I am I'm opposed to this ordinance I believe in. For culture. I think it's it's very important for all of our districts. Yes. Our district would like more funding. We always we always appreciate more more appreciation. I used to be city council member in Shoreline. So I think we we all think we need more, more respect and more more culture, more funding. But I can count. We must stand up for culture, not undermine it. And I believe that's what this ordinance would do. I was shocked to hear about this proposal. And even now, as development is impacting every corner of our county, places that we have come to love, respect and appreciate, and we assume they're they're protected, but they're now threatened. Even the Pike Place Market. So I believe in objectivity, expertize, quality, professionalism, independence, which is what you get from your culture. Strengthen it. Don't destroy it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Thank you. All right. Welcome. It's in prepared remarks because I get nervous in situations like this. And please forgive my typos. My name is Christian French, and I'm here today to speak in favor for culture and for keeping things as they are. As a member of what I would call the second wave, namely the artists and writers who got drawn like lemmings to Seattle following the first wave, the musicians who flocked here following grunge crunches. Detonation Karma. I can tell you firsthand that art is cultural R&D, which everyone knows is not. The revenue arm of any enterprising is the very creative community of the city that draws tech giants like Amazon and Google. The third wave to Seattle for all the economic benefit that a vibrant art scene brings to the table, to assume that such an ecosystem flourishes without diligent, nourishing and tending is short sighted. Organizations like For Culture and Art is trust departments like their offices. Our culture had tended this little garden ably and professionally for decades, keeping Seattle in the forefront of American creative centers. Having me shown supported art in Seattle for over two decades. I can also tell you that none of the world class talent I'm surrounded by gets rich through the support that these agencies provide, let alone be able to afford the extra rent of a suitable workspace. Yet we continue to work and contribute here because of the rich, diverse, creative climate these agencies help foster. Do not mess with success. For culture is not broken. Don't break it. Thank you. All right. Best sellers than we have Shannon Halberstadt at number 31. Ben McGuigan or make some McGuigan. Thank you, Bien McGuigan and Storm Webber. Welcome. Good morning, council members. Thank you for listening to all of our comments and our passion for our culture. My name is Beth Sellers and I'm a long time curator. I could easily go libertarian or whatever as they did, but I have been a curator in in this city for 20 plus years, including curator for the City of Seattle Arts Commission. About 20 years ago, we started a small alternative installation space called Sugiyama Space in Seattle. And from the beginning, even before it was called for culture, King County Arts Commission supported us with with their small amounts initially to just positive reinforcement. And throughout the years they stayed with us for the 20 years that we were producing artwork that the thing that that I wanted to also mention, I have been on panels for, for culture several times and I have been amazed each time that they that I have sat on it thinking how absolutely professionally they ran their panels , how they worked so hard to include every aspect. And I just hope that that, you know, that, that the expertize is what is really required here in the arts, not just quantity but quality. And and that the consideration of applications applications versus how many people got awards. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Shannon Halberstadt being McGuigan, I forgot already how to say it, but you know who I mean. Storm Webber and then Josh GANNES. Welcome. Hi. I want to thank Shannon from Artist Trust for giving. Me her. Time. My name is Katie Wu, and I'm co-director of 206 Zulu and I currently live in District four. I'm blessed to still work in a central district at Washington Hall in. District eight, where I. Raise my children. I've been working in the arts community, our community for 20 years, since before foreign culture existed. I remember when Fort Culture was formed and it was created to fix a problem and they've done a tremendous job. We received our first grant from Fort Culture in 2007. Sorry, I'm a little nervous. You're doing great. And over the years they've mentored us and provided an invaluable feedback that help us grow as a small arts organization. The impact that Fort culture has had on our families, our elders, our youth, and in particular our youth of color has been life changing. And the organizations that are being served. To watch know how and not have a home without fort culture. The kids in our bids for the Ryan program come from all over King County. We're being displaced and pushed farther and farther out, and our kids are traveling back to the city from as far away as federal away Maple Valley, Renton and Washington Hall. We work with thousands of families. Quickly, I want to thank Larry Gossett for your programs. For culture and creative justice. We want and we need more programs like this. And we need your help on this, Mr. Gossett. And with this. There are hundreds of citizen volunteers from all over the county who are currently stewarding and guiding for culture. Let the people that are knowledgeable about our needs run for our culture as is without interference. I urge you to veto this ordinance. Thank you. Okay, listen, I'm not going to try to put your name again. I'll let you do it. Brian McGuigan. Thank you. You are welcome. This is looks like being. I'm sorry. It's. I grew up a tagger, so I riot like I'm still tagging. My name is Brian McGuigan. I'm a writer, performer, arts administrator. I live in King County District five and work in District two at Artist Trust, where I'm the program director. I'm here to oppose the ordinance today. First and foremost for culture is an incredible asset to artists, arts organizations and communities in our county. I worked at two organizations that have received support from For Culture You Go House in order to trust. They are both located in District two, but they do support artists and writers with funding, education, resources and opportunities from across the county. And then there's me. I'm a recipient of an individual artist grant from for culture, for my own writing about manhood and gun violence. And the award came at a time early in my professional career, and that funding and recognition was incredible boost to my work and helped open doors for more funding and opportunities without for culture support, my career and my work as an artist and the careers and artistic practices and lives of many others who are here today. And more would be much different on a practical level. I'm the program director at a statewide nonprofit that does similar work to for culture. I've worked in the arts for 14 years now. The level of oversight that comes with the ordinance you're proposing is a threat to for cultures work and its autonomy. To do that work. The ordinance puts the power of how to run an arts agency in the hands of people who may never have run an arts agency. As someone who's done this work for my entire career, I can say without a doubt it's highly specialized and nuanced. Simply put, you need to know how to work in the arts, to work in the arts. Finally, we are lucky that for a culture that knows what it's doing, it's staff includes nationally recognized leaders in the arts. Its processes are fair, open and transparent. Its awards are selected by artists, professionals and community members, citizens the same people the council is elected by and represents. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay. Storm Webber, followed by Josh, Janis Lucy, A New Year or Newman there. Good morning. I'd like to also give honor and respect to the people of the Salish Sea on whose land they have grown in a second generation satellite. I am here to affirm that four culture is not broken. It does not need fixing. I am here to also share my personal story. I grew up here in Seattle. Mr. Speaker, if you and I both attended Lakeside. My journey to Lakeside, though, is a bit different than yours. I grew up in the gay bars and the hotels of Pioneer Square. I was in foster care when I was given a full academic scholarship to Lakeside. The reason why I was able to go to Lakeside is because art saved my life. Art and culture are not late things. Art and culture are vital parts of our society, particularly at this moment when we are so beset by so much chaos , so much corruption. So much unsure of what is going to happen to us. Art and arts and culture give us reason to live. There's nothing wrong with foreign culture. Our culture is an exemplary organization that stands for the race and social justice that King County purports to uphold. I urge you to listen to your community today. And to vote no on this ordinance. I thank you. Before you leave, can I ask you to just state your name for the record, please? My name is Stormi Weber. Thank you, Mr. Weber. All right. Mr. Weber. Thank you. I'm sorry. I apologize. Oh, my gosh. I do apologize. Josh? Janis. You see a name or nerve or something. I apologize to you as well. That's all right. Good morning. Thank you so much. My name is Lucia near Lucia near. I am a site specific theater artist. I've lived in Seattle for 20 years. I received my very first grant from For Culture. It basically launched my art career. I have received numerous grants from pop culture over the years and in 2012 was named. I was received the Mayor's Arts Award. I honestly am sort of shocked that we're here for culture is a model of organizational brilliance. It's that the leading edge of funding, of equity, of art making not only in this state but in the country. And frankly, I think there are other issues that we need to be attending to in this county. Truly. Four Culture does not need fixing for culture is brilliant the way that it is. And not only that, because of its amazing leadership, incredible volunteer resources, and all of the artists and community members, curators who come together to create what it is. It will do more beautiful work in the future. Please, please, please vote no. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next and final speakers. Well, I've got to tell you, I won't do the whole. Josh LaBelle, followed by Dylan. Matthew Spencer and Mike McGrath. And before you start, Mr. LaBelle, I just need to disclose that. While I was sitting here, my phone buzzed and I lost the Hamilton lottery again. Oh, my God. So understand my attitude as you begin to testify. Thank you. Should be well. Thank you very much. Chair Baldacci and Council Members. My name is Josh LaBelle. I run Seattle Theater Group. We're the proud operators of the historic Paramount Neptune and more theaters in Seattle. I'm here to advise that I feel that these proposed reforms are far too reaching. I have some personal experience with for culture. I used to serve on their arts advisory committee. Actually, I ran it for a couple of years as well as we receive funding to keep our historic theaters strong and many of our arts and education community programs. It was for a culture that encouraged us to place Ailey camp in Tukwila. It was for culture that encouraged us to put our dance for Parkinson's programs throughout the county, I believe were in three different districts. One for Culture learned that I grew up in a in a Guatemalan Jewish household. They figured out that I spoke Spanish. They sent me down to Burian to speak Spanish and invite, you know, Spanish speaking artists to apply. I think they do a great job with geographic diversity. I want you to also know that if if you pass this, you're also saying to me and this community that you want to be more involved in how the tax money is spent. So perhaps we're able to open up a discussion on the convention centers money. They're funded by the same tax. Perhaps it's time that this community receives a greater share of the hotel motel tax. So if you pass this and insert yourself, that will be our next conversation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. LaBelle. Dylan, welcome. Hi. My name's Dylan Kelly, and I'm the son of Jim Kelly, who is, as you probably know, the executive director of for culture. And I did not tell my father I would be here to speak today. So he's, I'm sure, surprise this is every father's nightmare right here. And I'm guessing that's why it only to two in on the sheet here. He's going to. Do great, Jim. He's going to do great extra 2 minutes. Yeah. We're going to give you some more time. Go ahead. I would just like to say that I am a professional musician. I graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston. My sister is also a professional classical violinist, former concert master at University of Washington, Jim Kelly is married to an arts professor. He is incredibly dedicated and passionate about the arts. And it's frankly a bit of a disappointment to think that the council would use his retirement as an opportunity to try to take control of our culture and what they're doing and everything. So I just want to say that I fully support full for culture. I oppose the ordinance and thank you. Thank you. All right. Our final people on the sign up sheet are Matthew Spencer, Mike McGrath, Madeline Anderson and Kaleb Monier. Welcome back. So I am a writer and curatorial assistant. I work at Interstitial Interdisciplinary Gallery based in Georgetown. My professional experience with full culture has always been positive, and they have set a standard for me, a personal standard for how an organization functions. And just to illustrate that, they illustrate the transparency of the process. They made it clear that our location in Georgetown, which is Sash, which is overrepresented with galleries and arts, was what would be negatively affect our chance at receiving grant funding. And in order to compensate for that, we made it a point to increase to initiate a. Excuse me, a a a curatorial program that was intersectional, that was widely distributed, not, not only throughout King County, but throughout the world. And we we have, you know, had folks come over from over half a dozen different countries, early and mid-career artists, persons of color, who have had an opportunity to engage with our community and and know that they are being supported. So I urge you to vote no on this ordinance. Mr. McGrath. I am. My name is Michael McGrath. I'm a. Excuse me. Sorry. I'm the program director of the McGrath Sculpture Italia at the Gage Academy of Art. I'm also speaking on my own behalf, not Gage. I'm also an artist and recipient of an individual project grant from Fort Culture. I am telling you, I want to express along with everybody else my firm and vehement opposition to this proposal. I am also from District eight for Culture is an exemplary arts organization. It's a model, as you've heard from four other arts organizations nationwide. The action here represents an unprecedented and warranted revocation of the independence of the existing board. By placing itself in direct control of the composition of the board, the Council inevitably assumes editorial direction of the organization and puts itself in line on decisions of merit in literally thousands of grant proposals, a subject in which the committee obviously has relatively little expertize. One can only assume this action will have a politicizing effect on the board and the funding decisions that it makes. This will inevitably compromise both for culture and the Council. Why would the board put itself in such a position? The Council I mean, the main value seems to be in making sure that this rather large incoming tide of money is steered in ways that serve the interests of those other than the arts, as understood by those who practice art and who spent their lives developing art. This alone gives a strong public perception. Some would say think that the underlying motivation behind this proposal is more about power and work than good governance. Thank you. Thank you. Please say hi to Stefano for me and welcome. Thanks. Okay. Madeline Andersen and then Gib Monier. Morning or afternoon, I guess. Yeah. I live in District two and I work in District eight. I work with King County's film community and in development for the School of Acrobatics and Circus Arts in Georgetown. I first got involved in grant writing because of a free workshop for culture offered at the Frye Art Museum. I use this knowledge to write a grant for a youth boxing program in the Central District, where I live, to engage youth and afterschool and during school breaks to disrupt this cycle of bullying and violence. Currently, I write grants to foreign culture and other partners to utilize circus arts for trauma therapy, violence prevention and physical therapy and artistic expression. We partner with Title one schools and other community organizations like Refugee Women's Alliance, among others for Culture as a vital and dependable partner for these programs, which serve over 1000 youth and families from all over King County. I know because I had to do a long spreadsheet about all of our zip codes. I am here like so many other arts community members here today to oppose this ordinance. It's clear that the stated intention of this proposal is to increase public oversight of funds. However, my concern is that giving council members complete control over for culture introduces the possibility of political self-interest and the distribution of these funds. For as the current system incorporates the input of a diverse board of artists with various areas of expertize. My concern is that King County Council members do not have the time to actively engage in the governance of work culture, which would be detrimental to this community of artists you serve. I urge you to vote no on this proposal and instead to actively engage in the existing process. Thank you. Thank you. And is Kibby here? Am I saying that correctly? Okay. Yeah. Hi. I'm just making a slight addendum for her. Maybe the second half of my comment was. I created an art. Event that was initially funded by a culture that ultimately took place at the Frye Museum. I'm speaking on behalf of a. I understand the department here to have you speak on her. She's just given me to another person, brought over 20,000 people to the Frye and was ultimately reviewed in Art in America, bringing honor to Seattle. Thank you so much. That's all I wanted to add is that art changes lives. That was a second half. Thank you so much. It's a good ending to our public comment. Art changes lives. I appreciate that statement. Okay, so we have come to the end of our signup sheet and we are past the end of our scheduled meeting time. I know Councilmember Lambert has to leave and she has to leave 3 minutes ago and we had hoped to move this , but I think it requires some substantive discussion among the council, and I hesitate to try to embark on that 3 minutes after the scheduled ending time of our meeting. So if people do not object, we'll have another committee meeting on this in two weeks. I will just say at this point, we'll put out a notice about whether there will be public comment or not. But because we need to get to debate on the motion and two amendments, I think that we will have limited, if any, public comment at that meeting just so the committee can do our work. You're, of course, welcome to attend and send any comments you may have. Like I say, we'll put out a formal notice about what the what the agenda will be between now and then. But I just want to pre sort of pre communicate that. I want to make sure we reserve plenty of time on the next committee of the whole meeting so that we can engage as council members with this ordinance. Colleagues, any comments, final comments before we close today? And of course, we obviously will not get to the gender neutral code today that will come back again as well. All right. Yes, Councilmember Colwell. So one more thing. I'm not sure we will be here for our next meeting. We hope she will, but we hope she won't. But I just want to publicly acknowledge the outstanding work that Leah has been doing for us here with this measure and also Mary going on. And Wendy Sue, who Leah's been phenomenal. Thank you. Thank you. Very well said. And thank everyone for coming here today and sharing your perspectives and your information. We look forward to continuing discussion about this issue in two weeks. With that, we are.	AN ORDINANCE related to the cultural development authority; identifying responsibilities of the county council; amending Ordinance 14482, Section 34, and K.C.C. 2.46.180, Ordinance 8300, Section 3 as amended, and K.C.C. 2.48.030, Ordinance 14482, Section 38, and K.C.C. 2.48.065, Ordinance 14482, Section 39, and K.C.C. 2.48.075, Ordinance 14482, Section 40, and K.C.C. 2.48.085, Ordinance 14482, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.49.020, Ordinance 14482, Section 7, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.49.060, Ordinance 14482, Section 9, and K.C.C. 2.49.080, Ordinance 14482, Section 11, and K.C.C. 2.49.110, Ordinance 14482, Section 17, and K.C.C. 2.49.160, Ordinance 14482, Section 18, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.49.170, Ordinance 14482, Section 19, and K.C.C. 2.49.180, Ordinance 14440, Section 3, and K.C.C. 2.49.200, Ordinance 14482, Section 58, as amended, and K.C.C. 4.40.015 and Ordinance 17527, Section 57, as amended, and K.C.C. 4.40.110, adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 2.49, decodifying K.C.C. 2.49.070 and repealing Ordinance 14482, Section 10, and K.C.C. 2.49.090.
king_d46b6002-a7f1-4092-9950-2bd5275a0cf3	We are going to start with a public comment and then we'll probably have a little recess as members join. We'll start with Alex Zimmerman. Thank you, sir. Hi. My daughter. I believe you're I'm not your social democratic, my five year progressive Gestapo principal, my name. I like Zimmerman and I'm president of Stand Up America. And I told you many times, country times, it's very unusual. But as you don't cover too many conceal inside we can speak it out with quote you okay about union I'm a little bit surprised when I see a few years ago statistic about how many people in King County employee King County employee make more than $200,000. It's a little bit confused me because it's a union together with government right now acting like a but I don't like a Nazi. Call me a fascist. Is this exactly. Let's get an average salary right now approximately. In King country, close to 65, probably $70,000 and 50%. People are low income. How is this possible? So thousand, 10,000 government employee make more than $200,000, sometimes over $300,000 to make this look like a racketeering. You know, I told them about this many times. By definition, you're a bandit, a gangster, a criminal. That's exactly who you are. And nobody is stopping this. It's a very interesting union about this vehicle right now. What is this union right now is very unique union in every city before ever from Soviet Union. But really for a very long time, this all union support only one party system, a Democrat system, a pure fascist. It's exactly what has happened. So nothing surprise me. So salary and can country go up and up over the last two months apparently ticket what is give me policeman for ticket approximately 4000 bucks where does money come from? Related in principle about this you do in from bandit, from the gangster, from criminal who you are. It's exactly what's happened when you stop security during principle. So right now I speak to everybody. Listen to me. Stand up, America, stand up. Washingtonians, stand up. People in Seattle can country. If you get killings, it's dirty. Okay. I think we are. What I'm going to suggest, since we have a number of folks signed up to offer testimony, is that we wait just a couple of minutes until we get a couple more members here, hopefully. So I'm going to put this into a brief recess because we want more folks to be able to hear your testimony. And we'll be in recess for two or 3 minutes and hopefully we'll have a few more colleagues. All right. Good morning again and welcome back. We've got four members of the panel. And so almost all we almost have four kinds of record wells is around the corner and be back shortly. Let's continue with public comment. And I apologize if I mispronounce any of the names. I having a little trouble on some of the handwriting, but that's my error. So Oscar with the Latino Community Fund, then a lineal ponce. And then. Guarino Thank you. Guarino Or at Casa Latina. Thank you. Hey. Good morning, everybody. One of the men is asking me for. And I'm the director of Civic Internet Advocacy. It's mostly thanks for the for the legislative agenda that were here a couple weeks ago and support and thank you for going to all in Olympia, D.C. and advocating for the census in a more equitable way. I'm here with a representing Latino Equity Network Partners as well with other community groups, and there will be talking after me. We're here to advocate for this, this, this, this motion 20 1801 84 to have a floor plan that implements this a better census count in hard to count communities. From our perspective, we would like to, you know, center those voices in the community that are really impacted by this case of color, immigrants, refugees, as well as the communities that are, you know, homeless and so on. When when I when I reviewed the plan, you know, we would like to also be part of the, if possible , to include as many community groups and the complete count committees that would be held throughout the county to make sure that the voices of these communities are at the forefront, realizing that this plan is just in the starting stages. Also, some feedback would be to have more a full information campaign. There is a lot of misinformation going out there, but also a lot of fear within our communities. And we want to make sure that there's allocating funding or some part of the planning process that we address in a full information campaign to make sure that communities are aware of what are the implications of filling out a complete census. And the last piece I'm advocating here for today's equitable funding for community groups. This is going to be a big lift, you know, a heavy lift for our community members, the county and all the municipalities. We want to make sure that whatever funding we do allocate for this through this plan, we are making sure that it's equitable to community groups that are going to be at the forefront, knocking doors and making those contacts with community members. And thank you for your time. Thank you, Oscar. Okay, say it again. Ileana. Ileana. Thank you, Liane. Thank you for giving the opportunity to be here. I am a physician, and before I came to Washington, I worked for, say, federal employees for NIH and the U.S. for healthcare, racial equality. And when I came here, I found I still working with the government we have and also I funding a coalition of community health, working for migrants and refugees. And I am part of the Latino Community Forum. And I am here because I really love the idea to have a census, especially for Latinos, because we are losing both to giving my testimony and my family. We are five people, all of us. We are U.S. citizens. I am the only one that I'm not. You know, we lose them both. And by why we're this seeing is because our community that same believe sometime you know in representative because they have been stereotyping like for example or Latinos are ignorant or Latino are only good for cleaning houses, etc. And representing the community and working on refugee, you know, is a lot of fear. I also coming here, I said refugee in the 84 Nicaragua was a very difficult and sad process for me. Either I have being a physician at that time, you know, and I implore you to listen to us and put up community health workers that are trusted members of the community to make this census because, you know, they will trust more ing people that is in the community and have respect the value of the community. Thank you so much. Thank you, Doctor. Thank you for being here. Gudino. Hello. My name is Carina Barragan. Con and I work at Casa Latina, a local nonprofit that serves Latino immigrant day laborers and domestic workers throughout King County. I'd like to thank Councilmember Dombrowski for this bill and for including community leaders in this important conversation about the upcoming census. The possibility of citizenship question included in the census will make this process very challenging for immigrant communities we serve. Even without this question, our community groups work hard to encourage our community members to be counted in the census. The inclusion of this question, especially in light of recent releases of private information such as the Department of Licensing, will make our job much harder. And as a Latina, we work very closely with immigrant members who come in search of services, as well as information assistance and assistance with issues such as wage theft and labor rights. We are recognized as a trusted resource and our work is often funded by government because we play this role. It's appropriate that for the census community organizations like ours play a role in sharing information so that community members can make informed decisions about how they choose to participate. We appreciate the opportunity to work collaboratively, collaboratively with King County Council and with our community members to create outreach plans that will result in the most successful outcomes for our communities and at the same time give us an accurate count that will also benefit our communities in the ways that the census is intended to work. Thank you. Thank you. Then I have Burkitt and Sahara with the Somali community Smith, Mallin, Ty McGill and Cherry and Solomon. Thank you for the opportunity for having me. I am from the Coalition of Immigrant, Refugee and the Communities of Color. Every ten units we are asked to fill out and return of their since questionnaire. It is an important decennial event given the population count to billions in federal spending determining congressional appointment and to play a key role in shaping future policy. The census experts and the community leaders like us, we are expressing growing concern in the bedrock of the mission of the to 2020 census. An accurate and trustworthy head count of everyone is this that is imperial with word some implication. Civil liberties advocates like Sadiq also feel the Trump administration is injecting political controversy into the bureau originated part of the agency was population count will be on the basis of redrawing congressional and the state legislative district is a tool in the 2020s and there is a broad agreement that I stress restriction know aggressive enforcement of immigration policy will make even harder to reach minorities, undocumented immigrants and others whose numbers have long been under the count. Yet vast segments of the population often fail to respond. Greater racial and ethnic diversity, more nontraditional living arrangement, elevated poverty rates and a litany of other factors. Also putting more people at risk for not being counted in 2020 as if state and local governments to prepare for the Nexus, make sure this community participate is a priority. Newly released report shed light on the best of the people like least likely to be counted. Most of the disparity in this participation are tied to demographic. Identify harder to count since the track found in every state is a country. African-American and Hispanic neighborhood, especially those with limited English proficiency, have historically been more difficult to count as low income communities areas. What I like to say is community leaders like Sir are elected officials. And as people who have indicated they are not convinced that they can stand up with confidence and tell their constituents that finding out the census from Smith and concluded that is just a great lack of confidence. And now I would like to request an implementation plan for the 2020 census which focused on HUD. Thank you. Thank you. Burke if he'd like to, you're welcome to give your written comments to the clerk and they'll be a part of the record. You don't have to get responses. And then Sara and Smith. Now and then die. I lot in. My name is Sarah Farrar and I'm a director, small local restaurants of Seattle and I would like to say thank you so much and to give us opportunity today to to be more with our team. I'm here today to support our party, our community, and most of the time, what we do in a Somali community. There have been a lot of bridges in immigrant new arrival, and we always do a lot of different educational if it comes like a voting census or a lot of dedication that cannot receive in our community. So today I'm here to support our census. I mean, what I'm saying as census project. So we will like to say. Most of the time our community is the of place that there are a lot of times they're not going to reach or the people who don't speak the language cannot get a lot of opportunity or services that they needed. So we would like to be get a lot of opportunity and to reach those communities that are not get a lot of information or a lot of support. And most of the time since we working with the census money to the Cape, we will have to be continue to support and educate our community to reach those places, then displaced it or just to make sure that the common people to be at least get a good information. I just want to say a lot of thing. I don't want to say a lot of information because I was not ready and I'm not sure what to do, but I'm just here to support our team and work in our community. So I just want to say thank you so much to give us up to date on what's. Sir, thank you very much. Good morning, council members. My name is Mitt Mitchell. I'm with Baker Housing and Serc. Thank you for bringing the Census 2020 legislation today introduced by Councilmember Dombrowski. I'm here to urge your support to ensuring King County residents, especially our hard to count communities, fully participate and are counted in the census 2020. The Census provides critical information about our population, which among many impacts and helped inform policy funding and resource allocation and helps us to understand the growing needs of the King County's diverse residents. I'm very concerned that our diverse communities won't be significantly under counted and underfunded in the census for many reasons, including fear and distrust, confusion of lack of culturally relevant education and outreach about the census no. None to minimal funding and partnerships to community based organizations. And the Federal Census Bureau itself is underfunded with significant staff turnover. Therefore, implementation is very crucial, and it's behind schedule right now. So the shift to an online based survey will also make it more difficult for hard to count communities to participate. So as the census is being developed right now and will develop at the county level, we're really hoping that we can emphasize some critical things, including strategy for equitably funding partnerships with grassroots organizations and community based organizations . The formation of a complete count committee and also stressing that directly recruiting and or helping the Census Bureau recruited, trusted culturally specific community education and supporting capacity for culturally specific census help centers. And encouraging census education participation and the pre to pre-K to 12 schools and colleges and universities and also co-developing culturally relevant outreach and engagement strategies and messaging around addressing the digital divide which for homeless and immigrant, refugee and document participation is very crucial. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Lynn Tai and then Miguel and Sherry and Solomon. Thank you. Council members are I, I. Still haven't gotten on that fitness program, Lynne, that you recommended for me. But again, we're going to get on that soon. All right. Clearly, it's just 10 minutes a day. Yes, I guarantee. You know. So thank you. And I'm here to speak to in support of your legislation, Councilmember DEMBOSKY, in support of this for the census count for the underserved community. Others have spoken about the fears. Others have spoken about the lost opportunities and the things that that impact negatively on underserved communities. I'm here to speak on what is possible, in fact, what has worked for me personally and for the Vietnamese-American community. Ten years ago, we engage and, you know, despite being, you know, second largest immigrant born community in the city of Seattle and then but dominant of the Vietnamese community in the state of Washington, concentrated in King County. There wasn't a lot of, you know, effort in in providing government services in dollars to these taxpayers in accounting for a long time, ever since we resettle here. But ten years ago, we decided that we fully engage in a census count. And what had transpired as a result direct result of that was that, you know, King County, especially a key part in the elections, had, you know, been able to, because of that census count, be able to provide language translation to ballot to. And that is enormous in terms of engaging an entire new community that have always been here so that they can be more civically engaged or more informed, engaged with our governments and whether it's King County or which C local and even all the way to the federal level. And so I speak to that. And I, you know, with a council appointment, I have all I've also been serving as a CAC member. So there's great benefits. And I hope you pass this legislation so that underserved community can enjoy the same benefits that the Vietnamese-American community have enjoyed in the last ten years. Thank you. So much. Thank you. And thanks for that good example on the translation under the Federal Voting Rights Act. Hi, everybody. My name is Miguel. Jumping out of the bubble. I am the fundraising manager for Enter Manners, a Hispanic LGBTQ organization here in the state of Washington. First and foremost, thank you for allowing. Myself and my colleagues to speak in favor of forming more of a socially grassroots movement around Run the census, my and my constituents, specifically the LGBTQ community. Here are our specific group that's being targeted with the 2020 census not being represented, not being counted. Myself as a doctor. Recipient as someone who. It was very much afraid of this added citizenship question because this is our home. This is where we see ourselves. We've we've lived here most of our lives. A lot of individuals who we represent as an organization are our doctor. Recipients are people who have various statuses in this country and who have formulated great lives here and who are here to essentially contribute back to society as much as we can. Not being counted with the census will impact a lot of different things. Primarily a lot of the services that are essentially funded at the state level, a lot of the services that we provide as an organization are increased testing for HIV, getting people on prep and even immigration programs. A lot of this is going to actually affect the people who come into our organization as a safe place. We have been around for 27 years and we have served as a mecca for LGBTQ, Hispanic people living in the state, and we will continue to do so. And having the support of King County Council in regards to making sure that everyone gets counted is very crucial for our constituents. Thank you so much for allowing us to speak. And thank you again. Thank you, Miguel. Jerry Solomon and Jackie Bond and Elsa. Elsa. Hi. Good morning. King County Council members. My name is Terri Cayabyab and I am a volunteer with Searhc, the coalition of Immigrants, Refugees and Communities of color. And thank you so much for a briefing. This legislation today around the census 2020. Thank you, Councilmember Taberski, for introducing it. This is going to be my third census, which happens every ten years. I know I don't look that old, but I actually am. I have I started working with the census in Southern California when I went to college, their first one since 2010 years ago. I being the executive director of an Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership nonprofit. We decided to take up to working on this census 2010 and make sure that communities, especially communities of color, weren't counted in the census. We had a coalition of primarily communities of color, very diverse. And so it is not the first time that many of our communities are coming together today to ensure that King County supports a full count. We have been doing this work. We had some wins that I want to highlight. So ten years ago, many of the outcomes from the census in which many of our communities participated in were we we gained a congressional district, we gained a 10th congressional district. And King County also had a higher response rate compared to the national average for Census 2010. There was 72% of households that participated on a national level. And for King County, 80% of households participated. So that's pretty significant. And we want to continue that and we want to up the ante on that. We want to have a goal of 100% participation. I'm equally concerned about what everyone prior to me has shared about the need to make sure that hard to count communities are supported and there is a focus on ensuring they are counted. So thank you. Thank you very, very much. Solomon and Jackie. And then also. Good morning, dear council members. My name is Solomon Burke, honey. I am from the Eritrean Association in Greater Seattle and I'm also a member of the Search Coalition. As a community, most of the situation that has been talked about concerning census is area. You know, I don't think I have any more to elaborate on that. The thing I would like to mention in particular is our community and in general the East African community, which are listed under the hard to count community or in our group, are people who have been here for the last 30, 40 years, and most of them are known to the register of the U.S., you know, the census, because all they care about is how to earn their living, how to make their and how to, you know, find their food. And most of them being illiterate have no way of learning from reading or, you know, watching TV. And we have great concern of outreaching this group and making sure that they understand what's going on and what their participation will how their participation will help them in the end. And we noticed this one, particularly last year during the voter education campaign, that many of them have been, you know, willing to participate and vote. And we want to enhance this situation through this census campaign, this for this 2020. And we would like the council to consider this one and allies in a capacity to to to to handle the situation and make everybody participate in the campaign. Thank you. Thank you, Solomon. Jackie. And then also. Good morning, King County Council members. My name is Jackie Vaughn and I'm with Searhc, the Coalition of Immigrants Packages and Communities of Color. Thank you for a briefing on Census 2020 legislation today introduced by Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I'm here to urge your support of ensuring King County residents, especially our hard to count communities, fully participate in our counted in the census 2020. I'm sure, as you know, the census helps ensure that Washington State gets the funding that it means for their residents from the federal level. And as we see every day, the growing need in our communities, especially around affordable housing, homelessness services for the youth. And so making sure that we can fully count all of our hard to count communities is going to benefit our communities so that everyone has what they need to thrive. And in order to make sure that we're going to be able to fully count our hard to count communities, we need to ensure that we're partnering with organizations that are based in those communities and that are culturally sensitive and have connections to those communities to make sure that they're fully in count. And so making sure that we're able to give support to those organizations that are led by hard to count communities, and they can provide that culturally specific support that those communities need so that everybody is counted. Thank you. Thank you. Jackie offers the last person I have signed up. But if you wanted to speak and didn't get a chance to sign up, just come up after us. Hi. My name's Elsa. That resonates hard when to say I'm here representing Win Win Action Network, which is an organization made out of. It's a network made out of many different organizations throughout the state that have been getting together for many years to build community power and political power around the States. And I am so excited and thank you for bringing this up and starting to think about the census. For people like us who are in the community, we are already thinking about it and getting organized. This is the biggest and the largest civic event where everyone is involved, and I love that my little kids get to be involved, the census, and they get it. And then I start thinking about then voting. What does this mean? And this is a great opportunity. But as I always say, I have always a hard time with the with the term hard to count because it is not that it's hard to count is the way in which we're counting our communities and we know what works. And we know that the way in which to get to our communities is by going and partnering with organizations that the community already trusts, that the community already does work with. And so I'm here to in support of this legislation, of course, but also to recommend and suggest to always, always take the lead on the organizations and communities that we know how to count ourselves and and we know how to do partnerships. So thank you so much and have a really that. Throat hurt, but thank you and I hope to see you soon and be doing more work with you guys together. Thank you. Also, I think we can get you a cup of water over here if you want it. Hey, we should change the term to work harder to count. All right. Now, is there anyone else that wanted to offer testimony? Thank you very much for the informative and compelling testimony. The Oscar. I think you had three areas of focus. I want to make sure that you get those to Christina and or our central staff and to make sure that they're in here. Okay. All right. With that, I don't see anybody else that wants to offer testimony will close public comment. Customer Lambert Reed trying to get my attention. Oh, okay. Let's move to a motion to approve our meeting minutes and then we'll turn to that item. Councilmember Run right bar. Would you put the meeting minutes before us and you're. Going to be waiting for me down. And Councilmember Caldwell's, I think, wants to join you in that motion as our Vice-Chair. All right, all in favor. Say, I, I any opposed? Those are approved. We'll turn now to item five, which is proposed motion 2018 0184. This is a motion that would request the executive to develop and transmit an implementation plan for the county to coordinate efforts for a 2020 census with a focus on hard to count communities. Now, that's the term used in the motion to ensure a complete and accurate count and participation of all county residents regardless of age, income, race , housing status and citizenship status. Andrew Kim is our central staffer who's going to brief us on the motion. The motion. I know this has gathered a number of co-sponsors, including councilmembers Val Do, Chico Wells. I think I heard Desmond McDermott asked to sign on. Thank you, Councilmember McDermott. And then we have also invited Dillon Ordonez from the executive's office, who will share a little bit, I think. Dillon, are you going to present or. Mathias Okay. And we've got some his squad with him here summiteers from all the faculty on social justice and Chandler Feldt, our county demographer. It's after 10:00. You think I could get out of two? So more three syllable word, right? All right, Andrew, why don't you lead us off on this one? Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Andrew Kim with council central staff. The staff report for this item begins on page seven of your staff report. Mr. Shares, as you mentioned, the proposed motion before, you would request Executive to develop and transmit to the Council an implementation plan for the county to coordinate the efforts for the 2020 Census with a focus on hard to count communities by September 1st, 2018. As members may already be aware that this decennial census is used for apportionment of House of Representative seats to enforce voting rights and civil rights legislation, appropriating an estimated 675 billion annually in federal funds to local communities such as Medicaid and and producing and publishing data on unemployment, crime, poverty, health and education. According to the Census Bureau's 2020 Census operational plan in fiscal year 2019. That's the federal fiscal year 2019. The Census Bureau will begin its field operations, and the 2020 census kickoff is scheduled for April 2020. The operational plan also speaks to focusing on four key innovation areas for the 2020 census design, some of which include optimizing self response by focusing on more online responses and assuring data protection and re-engineering field operations by relying heavily on automation. The Census Bureau states that these design changes have the potential to save the Bureau an estimated $2.5 billion. The adopted fiscal year 2018 federal budget appropriated $2.8 billion to the Census Bureau, which was a little more than $1,000,000,000 more than the Department of Commerce's request for 2018. For 2019, the Census Bureau has requested $3.8 billion, of which 3.2 billion will be used to begin the field operations for the 2020 census, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the department's request will still be lower in comparison to spending trends a prior decennial census not adjusted for inflation. If I can have members turn to page ten of the staff report, I can speak to the hard to count communities again. The proposed motion requests the executive to transmit a plan to coordinate efforts for the 2020 census with a focus on hard to count communities that the Census Bureau defines hard to count communities as a census tract where percentage of households that mailed back their 2010 census questionnaire or obstacle. Itself response rate was 73% or less. There's a chart on page 23 of the staff report. If members would like to see page 23 and page three, the printed page 23 provides a list of all the hard to count communities now. Did you bring the reading glasses? I apologize for the font size. Worcestershire. That's our county. The so this this has a list of all the hard to count communities as identified by by in King County. The darker the shade represents a lower response rate. Of the 396 census tracts in King County, 49 census tracts listed here across 13 cities have been identified as hard to count communities. These communities had an average self response rate of 69.9%, and the proportion of population that represented people of color was around 62%, with about 40% of the population at or near poverty level. In addition, of the 49 census tracts, 33 had more than 80% of the households meeting the minimum threshold of having having Internet connectivity of 200 kilobits per second for uploads or downloads. 15 census tracts had between 60 to 60 to 80% of households meeting the threshold and one census tract had 20 to 30% of households meeting the threshold. The proposed motion would also request that the plan include. Ask your question on that answer. So how many census tracts here on this sheet? Again, you. Went there 40, 49. 49. Is that all of the identified hard to count census tracts in King County? That's correct. And out of how many in King County? Out of 396, I. Said, and who did this ID again? So the the identification is actually done by the Census Bureau, but the data that was put together was actually done by the City University of New York Mapping Service, the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York. I see. And the criteria, again, was it based on the last census and the response rate? That's correct. The last census response rate was around 73%. So the Census Bureau used that as the threshold for anyone below that to be hard to count mostly. And if we wanted to localize this, we heard Gerry say that our King County response rate was 80%. I mean, is there if we were developing and were the motion, ask the executive develop a plan under any circumstances? Would it make sense to look at our own metrics, if you will, for identifying hard to count sounds tracks? Yes, that would be a good suggestion. And the motion allows for that flexibility in terms of its scope. It does. We'd be there. Is that the motion states that the executive finds strategies to reach hard to count communities and in the findings statement of findings we do to find that 73%. But if you want to change that to 80% to accommodate the differing metrics for King County, we can do that as well. To amend their. Model, we might just think about that. Maybe we've got it right, but something to consider. All right. Thank you. Feel free to jump in colleagues with questions as Andrew goes along. I'm now on the bottom of page 29, I'm sorry, page nine. The proposed motion, but also requested the plan, include the county's role as a convener to engage our county stakeholders, the county's role as liaison to the Census Bureau, the consideration of hiring a temporary full time employee, and use county moneys and existing resources to implement the plan. Assessment of risk to Undocumented. Undocumented Immigrants who participate in the Census and Strategy Strategies to Minimize Risks. Strategies on advocating the King County Federal Legislative Delegation to urge policy considerations regarding census questions and legal strategies to address possible equal protection or civil rights violations for deliberate undercounting of hard to count communities and or limiting federal funding for the 2020 census compared to prior censuses. The executive staff stated that the current staff work will work on the developing the implementation plan and therefore no additional costs will be incurred. And the executive staff also confirmed that transmitting the implementation plan to the Council by September 1st would be feasible. Executive staff also indicate that a budget will be developed to include funds for a full time employee and for other costs that will support the implementation of the plan for the 2019 2020 biennium. And lastly, executive staff mentioned that the county has already begun the 2020 census activities. And soon after this briefing, members of the executive staff will provide a briefing on the on these activities. Mr. Chair, that concludes my briefing. And as you mentioned, we have a members of the executive staff here to answer any questions and also to provide a briefing. Okay. And when would the requested plan be due? Back to the council on September 1st. Ah. And so that would be ahead of our budget cycle. So to the extent we wanted to make sure resources were allocated to this work, that would allow time to put that into our fall budget. And that's correct, Mr. Varadkar. All right. Thank you very much for that overview of the legislation. Do members have questions from Andrew's presentation? Don't see any. I'd like to invite up Dillon or Daniels, Matthias Valenzuela and Schindler Feldt, who are in my brief slide presentation on the status of the county's work thus far and what they see going forward. There is a copy of it on your place. Dylan, thank you for being here. Brad Simon, Dallas, Oregon. That's right. Dallas, Oregon. Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Chair. For the record, Dylan Donor is director of external relations for Office of King County Executive Dow Constantine. Thank you for the opportunity to present today and thank you to the sponsors of this motion. Chairman Barsky. Vice Chair Cole Wells. Council Member about Dutchy. And now the addition of Councilmember McDermott and supporters for addressing such a critically important issue to our county, our state and our nation. This motion expresses many of the approaches we're taking into account in the development of our work. And should the Council adopt this motion, which we hope you do, we will be in a position to meet the September 1st deadline to transmit the requested implementation plan starting in March 2020. Households across King County and across the country will begin receiving their forms to participate in the 2020 census. This past April marks a two year countdown to census day April 1st, 2020. Simply put, the 2020 census matters as we've heard. An accurate count is essential for counties, other local governments and the people who live here. Census data is the foundation for much of our understanding of community conditions in King County and supports our planning, implementation and evaluation of our service delivery. Census data is also used for the planning and allocation of billions of dollars in federal and nonprofit funding. Additionally, census numbers are used to determine the apportionment of congressional representatives. We know that certain communities are likely to be undercounted, and many of these are historically underserved communities. We share the goal of ensuring our I believe we're calling them, work hard to count communities now, hard to count communities are engaged and participate as it is imperative in our work to advance equity in King County. In terms of fairness, opportunity, and addressing the many issues faced by our region and the nation. A complete and accurate census is paramount. That is why our goal, our vision, is to have an accurate 2020 census that counts all King County residents. In order to achieve that goal. I'd like to talk about some of the values that guide our work. First, we seek to have alignment with our mission of equity and social justice. Second, will meet communities where they're at to receive input, understand their concerns, and ensure that we work together on this important effort in order to reach hard to count communities, which is a priority of ours. A consistent priority. We're hearing from those representing hard to count communities, as well as organizations that serve hard to count communities and a goal of the motion before us. It is imperative that we partner with community, especially those that rarely, if ever, have had an opportunity to give input. Third, we will strive to align resources, messaging and engagement with community and other stakeholders, where appropriate, to avoid duplicative work and maximize what everybody can bring to the table. King County is uniquely positioned to serve as a hub, a regional convener, as we did with health care enrollment for the many moving pieces and energy surrounding the 2020 census. Fourth, we will leave no stone unturned when thinking of ways to organize, educate and make the most of opportunities to reach members of our community about the importance of the census. And now I will turn it over to Chandler Feldt to talk about some of the administrative work that's been done to date. Thank you. Thank you. Before we do, do members have questions or comments on Dillon's portion? I just if I can want to make one comment to raise a concern. You mentioned our success with health care enrollment in King County was a nationwide leader, and we used a community based approach there under the Affordable Care Act. But and I hear some discussion about replicating that model here, but I want to make sure that we're cognizant of the difference. And that is obviously with the census, we want to count everyone, regardless of citizenship status. And of course, the Affordable Care Act excluded a large portion of our community. So I think I just want to make sure that we're aware of that. And I was thinking about that as we develop this plan that we don't just hit the pause button. We know it will not be a carbon copy. It is a framework that has used in the past for us for that effort. And so we are exploring that as a starting point and understand that the framework that we are developing will not look exactly the same. Got it. Thank you. All right, Chandler, are you up next? Yes. For the record, Chandler Feldt, King County demographer in performance, strategy and budget. We actually began several months ago with preparation for the 2020 census because we recognize how important it is. So we've begun scoping. Strategies and building partnerships to be able to conduct as effective a census as possible. One part of the 2020 census is already underway. It's called the Lucca program. Lucca is a Census Bureau program to improve the accuracy of street addresses. It stands for local update of census addresses. And what it consists of is that the Census Bureau has shared their address files, street address, residential files with King County. We are in the process of correcting and updating them to account for the development that has happened since 2010 and since the Census Bureau's most recent sources. That's already underway at King County Geographic Information System Group. There's several GIS professionals engaged in that work, which will be completed about July 1st. So chatter on that program, what information is that a purely address system or are there other names and ownership fields are tied to those address? There are no names and no ownership information or no demographic information associated with that. It's simply a list of addresses by street and house number or in a few cases, in rural route advance numbers. And do you see or any need to take steps, and if so, have we to protect the privacy and make sure there's no easy, if you will, linkage between, you know, for example, our assessor's records, which often have owners who will do have ownership information or taxpayer information and addresses, what are what are we doing in that regard? The Census Bureau requires very rigorous security measures to protect their address list, and we are doing the same with regard to our address information. So the work that is being done is on a separate computer, not connected with our shared drives. And at the end of this process of identifying differences between the Census Bureau's list and our lists, we will turn in a differences data set to the Census Bureau and then destroy all of the information that that they had sent. Thank you. So that process is underway in terms of communication with the Census Bureau. The bureau has really limited resources this time compared to ten years ago. Notwithstanding what Andrew mentioned about the fiscal year 18 infusion of funds that the Congress did, that's that's only for the year that ends this October. So we still don't know what the next fiscal year of census funding will be. So, in short, were more dependent on our own resources than we were ten years ago. And we have the additional difficulty that the Census Bureau moved their regional headquarters from Seattle to Los Angeles between the 2010 and 2020 census. So we're not as as in touch with them as we were ten years ago. Nevertheless, we've had a couple of meetings with U.S. Census Bureau staff, and those have been productive in terms of figuring out resources and partnerships. And are you the lead on this? Dillon is actually the lead for that coordination. I'm the technical lead for the time being. On on that. And then that communication with the Census Bureau has also been done jointly with the city of Seattle, who has designated a couple of people as leads for Census 2020 Coordination two group. We've had a number of discussions with the Washington State Office of Financial Management Staff. They are well engaged. They're organizing a statewide complete count committee. They're providing resources to counties and cities to to develop their own programs. And both the Census Bureau and OFM are helping us identify these work hard to. Out areas within our counties and cities. That's that concludes my comment. And members have questions for Chandler County demographer. All right. It's a couple more minutes here and I'm going to. I'll dove back in real quick and just discuss our organizations. So far, internally, it is our intention to have an organization wide inter branch team that can help inform our efforts, as well as bring in traditional and outside the box ideas and tools to help our broader outreach and education campaigns. Cabinet has been informed of our census work and asked to begin developing ways to support. Additionally, we're in the process of reaching out to other separately electeds here at King County. As such, we are again thankful to have the opportunity today to share our census efforts with you and look forward to collaborating to achieve our shared goals . Externally, we will be forming a complete count committee comprised of representatives from a variety of sectors, for example K through 12 labor, business, nonprofit, higher ed community and tribal governments, faith based organizations, etc. that will help develop and implement our regional efforts and bring resources to the table to raise awareness and encourage completion of the 2020 census . As previously stated, there will be a strong focus on hard to count communities. It is our hope that we will have a complete count committee formed and operational by the end of 2018, if not sooner. To date, we have been working with partners from the aforementioned sectors to align efforts. Additionally, executive Constantine has sent a letter to the 39 mayors flagging the importance of the 2020 census and inviting collaboration. And I'll turn it over to Mathias to quickly give us some feedback on what we're hearing from communities and much of which we've heard from this morning from those who testified. Okay. Good morning, Chair and council members. I'll be quick because I think we have heard some really eloquent testimony from the community and those are exactly the types of comments that we've been hearing from then when we've been reaching out. Traditionally, the hard to count populations include the elderly, low income communities, renters, frequent movers, people of color, immigrant refugees. We heard about a lot of them today. There's a national general fear and distrust towards government at this moment, too. And then some additional barriers, such as the new citizenship question was, which is being proposed for inclusion. Those are all new challenges for us and also the homeless population. We need to just remember the crises that we have right now in terms of homelessness and also how those populations are to count, but also the added number of people doubling up short term, you know, you know, renters or people in short term housing. We know that that's an area that's increasingly challenging for us. We've been also hearing and working with some of the other jurisdictions, institutional partners. I think they'll work especially around with philanthropy, is important. A lot of of our philanthropic partners are interested in supporting this work, such as were the organizations that I spoke earlier. We need to make sure that we are not working and cross-purposes that we're actually aligned with one overall umbrella. And I think is King County as a convener, has a unique role to play in that particular area. And just finally, in terms of a lot I think has been said around being consistency of messaging. We've heard a lot around that. I think there's a lot of things that still work out in terms of what our key messages are going to be around the particular challenges that we have in this next census. But also, I think the theme that we hear very strongly and we want to be consistent with in terms of how we've been most successful as a county, is how do we work with our community organizations. So they are the trusted local voice for our very diverse community that we need to be working with them, resourcing them. So they are the ones that are delivering the messages. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Any comments or questions? As vice chair of the committee, as Councilmember Cole Wells. I wonder if she would want to put the legislation before us for adoption. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I new proposed motion 2018 0184 and given a do pass recommendation. And that's before us. Any comments on passage? Clinical control. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Council member. Council member. Felt. Council member done. By. Council Member. Carson i. Council Member. Cornwall. Council Member Lambert I. Council Member McDermott all right. Council Member of the Group. Council Member Yvonne MacNamara. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote is nine eyes no nos. All right. We've given unanimous do best recommendation to motion 2018 0184. We'll have that heard in the ordinary course. We'll leave it on the regular calendar in the event that there is some fine tuning between here and final passage. And particularly, I want to thank leaders of the community that came and offered excellent testimony and very helpful testimony today. We very much appreciate it. And I would ask, to the extent that this motion needs, from your perspective, additional refinement or improvement that you work with Christina Langston on my staff and Andrew Kim on the central staff to prepare any needed amendments between now and two Mondays from now. Thank you all for being here. We appreciate your good work. And are you going to make it through this census or. I town. By hand? Very good. All right. You're going on, what, almost for three decades or for. Little more than four. Little more than four decades at the county. Well, thank you very much. We appreciate you offering your expertize here. All right. We will turn now to our second major item of today's meeting, and that is the proposed dates, items six and seven on the agenda, actually proposed ordinance 2018 0138 and 0178 pertaining to the Master Labor Agreement . We've had a number of intermediary briefings as this project has gone along and we had a first major briefing on the proposed legislation at the last committee of the hall. Heidi Piper is our central staffer who's been leading the work on this. And we also sent out an email, I think, to colleagues to try and facilitate today's review, because there are some 60 attachments. That we. Were seeking not to go through 60 attachments. We wanted members to be able to look at those and bring any of that they had questions on. So hopefully you all received the e-mail. I know you received the email. Hopefully you've had a chance to take a look at it and and have any questions answered. But we are going to go through the ones that are somewhat unique. Is that right, Heidi? Correct. The 12 substantive proposed append is very good. The other thing that I asked central staff to do and there was a handout here that Heidi helpfully prepared, was to look at our standing labor policies. And those are listed in a chart on the left with a description in the middle column and then ask, does the master labor agreement and its appendices comport with these policies ? So the there was some indication perhaps at the last minute that they were inactive or what was the word dormant. And I think we've learned they're not dormant and we want to make sure that we're following the adopted labor policies or if we're not, make sure that we're aware of that and make a decision. Heidi, thank you for your good work on this. Why don't you what have I messed up there? Oh, nothing. Well, that was the first. All right, why don't you go ahead? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Heidi, publisher, council staff. And as you mentioned, Mr. Chair, at the last meeting or the committee of the whole on April 18th, Council staff brief council members on proposed Ordinance 2018 0178 by providing overview of the substantive articles of the Master Labor Agreement or MLA and the proposed changes in the King County Code and Proposed Ordinance 2018 0138 that would require non represented King County employees to adhere to similar provisions in the MLA. In addition to the superseding and non superseding articles of the MLA and proposed ordinance 2018 0178. The MLA includes 60 appendices that represent the small table agreements negotiated individually, covering 85 bargaining units in the Coalition. So I will go ahead and brief the Committee on the 12 proposed ordinance or excuse me, proposed and appendices to the MLA that have substantive changes. And those can be found on page 45. And I will start with appendix three. Appendix three to the MLA represents 36 man. Jurors and supervisors and the Department of Public Defense. The proposed appendix would provide pay range increases for mitigation supervisors and auto stop increases for supervisor attorneys. And the fiscal impact of this appendix would be approximately $52,000. And is that per year or biennium? And over the term of the contract. Classification, the position classification, as I understand it, with the supervisors, they would receive two range increases for each year. So for 2018 and for 2019 and then the mitigation supervisors would receive two range increase and one of those years. Okay. Councilmember Lambert has an inquiry. Yes. Thank you. First of all, he said page 43. 45. Okay. And then also in the first section, because there's a lot of paperwork here. Back on page 29, Article two, there's no change on this. But yesterday we found out that the way our contract cities are contracted with the sheriff, that they have specific duties, number of officers, response times. You know, that's a violent unit, whatever units they want, as how they are handled in the city of the unincorporated area. It just number of officers we have left over. And one of the problems that we've had is that most of the cities do not have as long a military leave as what the county gives. And so when a person is assigned to a contract city, which is 56% of the county's sheriff's budget, they are moved into the unincorporated area budget, and that counts against the officers in the unincorporated area. So I am concerned that this is a cost that we are much well, I don't know that we are apparently over what the cities do, and that has an impact on the distribution of manpower in our sheriff's department. So I'd like to flag that and figure out how much over are we so that we can be more in line with our surrounding cities and not have that problem in the future. Mr. Chair, if I could jump in just a second. And to that point, Councilmember Lambert, where's that. Voice coming from? Oh, good. Okay. The body voice. That's The Wizard of Oz. Really? The two things I would point out about that is there are there are some unique there are some unique leaves and types of absences available to employees within the sheriff's department. And there are also specific provisions in the services contract between the county and the cities that delineate some of the items you just brought brought up . However, neither the sheriff's contract nor the contracts with the cities are a part of this ordinance that's in front of the council now. So we can certainly bookmark those items, but they're not impacted by this legislation. I don't understand how that could be possible. So the very reason that they are moving is because our contract gives more benefits. So I understand that as long as they stay within their benefits, it makes no difference. But when they go over the benefits of City X, because I don't want any cities calling me and saying, don't , don't use me as an example. So City X and then they end up coming into the unincorporated area budget. So that's this this provision is what causes that to happen? No, no, no, Councilmember. This provision applies just to the agreement between the county and the coalition of unions that are covered by this agreement. Which is not the sheriff's department, because they have their own office. Exactly. Which is not the sheriff's office and the items. I'm not saying that the items you're bringing up are not legitimate issues, but they're in two other places. They're in the sheriff's contract itself or in the contract between King County and the in the the cities that we contract with to provide. And we don't expect that the sheriff's office will ever sign onto this to a master agreement or because they are what's the word they are. Where you can go to court automatically. Interest arbitration. Trust arbitration because they're interest arbitration. They won't be signing a non interest arbitration contract. Correct. Okay. So as we look at those other contracts in the future, we need to take that into consideration because it is an issue that I didn't even realize until a couple of months ago. Okay. It's not an issue in this legislation or agreement. All right. Go ahead, Heidi. Okay. I think we were actually on page. Page. 45. 45. Okay. Moving on to appendix ten, which would represents 31 staff who work in King County Sheriff's Office as security. Green Earth. The proposed appendix would increase the P ranges of two position classifications to address internal equity concerns. This would have a approximately a $47,000 annual fiscal impact. Moving on to appendix 15 on page 46, it's the Joint Craft Council. Construction, Crafts and Labor Agreements. This appendix represents 191 employees and a number of construction craft bargaining unit working in the airport row services and facilities management divisions. Also, the construction craft bargaining units have negotiated additional provisions in addition to the MLA provisions that are described in Appendix 15. And I would like to draw your attention to on page 47, Appendix B to Appendix 15. It's for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 289. This proposed in the appendix would increase the premium for mechanics who hold either an American Welding Society or Washington Association building official certification. So that premium would increase from $1 to $2.17 to match the premium that the other bargaining units within this appendix will receive. Moving on to appendix 19 on page 48. This appendix represents 28. Dental assistants and dental hygienist employed by Public Health in Seattle, King County. This would provide for a range wage range adjustment for dental assistants to bring them up to the King County salary schedule due to the wage increase provisions in their current CBA or collective bargaining agreement. It was not aligned with the county's salary wage schedule, so this proposed appendix would bring them up to align with the county's salary, wage or wage schedule. Moving on to appendix 22 on page 49. This appendix represents nine court reporters. And I have to ask a question on page 49. Under the dental folks, what are what are, what are perplexing services? That is the great question. I will call on my colleague, Mr. Kim. Just a chance for some education here. I am Andrew Kim with counsel, central staff. This is you're proposing is is when they can find a patient to do procedures so that whenever they do a procedure and if they move that it won't injure the patient. So essentially when they use nitrous oxide or the nitrous oxide is not does not fully sedate the patient, they use a what's called the Papoose board. And it sounds like a bad day in the day. Yeah, it's mostly for it's mostly for for children. And they need a special training to to put those restraints on. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Ed, I don't know where you learned that, but. Wow. We may have to put Councilmember Lambert here. All right. Okay. So appendix 22 for the court reporters in the King County Superior Court. This appendix would increase the real time reporting premium for court reporters. Currently, the reporters receive a if they receive a courthouse test certification for real time reporting. They would receive two and a half percent over the current collective bargaining agreement, premium to a total of 5%. And then if they receive a national certification for real time reporting, they would receive an additional two and a half percent, totaling seven and a half percent in premium pay. The executive proposed or estimates this cost for implementing this will cost approximately $25,000. Moving on to appendix 36 at the bottom of 49 and carries over to page 50. This MLA or appendix represents five fire investigators who work in the King County Sheriff's Office. This would include an education incentive, incentive payment for fire investigators and based on the years of service. If you look on the on page 50, you'll see a table that shows the amount of years of service based on the degree attained and that dictates that the percentage of your premium that you would receive. The executive estimates this costs will be about, oh, to implement, this will be about $23,000. Moving on to appendix 38, which is also on page 50. This represents 74 employees that are legal administrative specialists in the Department of Judicial Administration. These would the appendix would increase the wage ranges for several classifications. This would result in approximately $238,000 in increased costs. Moving onto appendix 39 on page 51. This appendix represents 78 employees working in the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. This is also a would increase the ranges, salary ranges of a number of employees. And due to the executive conducting a wage rate market analysis for each of the positions in this bargaining unit, the estimated costs would be about 105,000. Moving on to appendix 48, this appendix represents 348 employees in the Department of Public Defense. This proposed appendix would increase wages for investigators and create a la auto stop increases for attorneys, and this would result in an estimated cost of $652,000. Which one was that? Appendix 48 for the Department of Defense. Property Defense. Get me on to appendix 49. Appendix 49 represents 44 employees in the Department of Community and Human Services. This appendix is. Going to back you up on the $650,000 items that per year. This is just for 2018. Okay. The cost for 2018. And then that's the new base. Yes. Yes, yes. Could. Could. I'd like to understand a little bit more about this. Is this for under our parity principle with the prosecutors, is there anybody here from that worked on this item? Yeah, I would defer to executives. I. Well, okay. Come come forward. Yeah. And Jenny, do you are you coming forward on this item. To the. Version? Okay. Good morning. Megan Peterson with the Office of Labor Relations. This was a pretty complex set of negotiations. It was very much overshadowed by the feeling of the bargaining unit, that there is a lack of parity. There is a both a code, an ordinance, as well as the court rules that establish the need for a public defense and the prosecutors to have parity. So, yes, this was one of the driving principles for these increases. I don't know about the court rules requiring compensation parity. I think they addressed staffing levels. Are you sure about that? I believe they are. It doesn't go into compensation, but it does talk about the need to look at parity. Councilmember Gossett and then Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that around about eight years ago, we had begun an effort to bring public defense of the parity with the prosecution attorneys office. And I'm surprised that we're just now getting to say investigators. What was the group of other investigators? An attorney. Yeah, but we had talked about investigators, secretaries and other support staff and public defense and were way behind prosecutors to get equity. And I hope this comes close to it. But I did have a question on an attorney. We are establishing a step increase system. Does the prosecuting attorneys have steps down? Yes. That's as a. Person. Yes. Oh, they have. Right. Yeah. And my colleague Mr. Railton did remind me that the 652,000 actually relates just to the investigators. So those are the increases related to the investigators pay. What we did with the with the actual attorneys is we opened a gateway to allow them to progress, but there is nobody actually waiting to that will be benefited by that in this contract cycle. So I guess to address your question, what about future contract? I just want to know, is it parody with the prosecuting attorney? Do they have steps? They do have steps. And then this will allow public defenders to have steps. They already had steps they want. What did we do? So we allow the the attorneys who are kind of bumping up against the senior ranks to move into a senior into the senior status and to be eligible for additional pay. But this in this contract, there are no individuals or no incumbents who will actually enjoy that benefit. So the 652,000 is just for the investigators. Okay. But what about the future? Will they be able to enjoy? Yes. That when they get high level. And do prosecutors already enjoy that opportunity? It's looking for here. Yeah. And there is I mean, this is a it's there's more to this issue. As you know, there are case limitations for the defenders, whereas the prosecutors at the senior level can, in theory, take on as much work as their upper management would like them to. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I also have some concerns on that. And, you know, when you are in upper management, you get paid a salary and you just do whatever work you need to do. And so the idea that, you know, Saturday work or, you know, coming in on standby gets, you know, several hours of pay, even if you're just on standby, that's a little much as far as I'm concerned. And on Ethics 36, which was when back where they were talking about the fire investigators, it showed what happens in year two, three and four, what happens in year five and beyond. I'm going to defer to Mr. Railton, who was actually the chief spokesperson on this contract for management. Okay. Bob Helton, Office of Labor Relations, Labor Relations Manager. This is the same education incentive that the Police Officer Guild enjoys, as well as most of the other commission staff, the sheriff's office, deputies, sergeants, captains, majors and chiefs. And so it doesn't increase beyond. In other words, there isn't additional increases, four more years of service. It caps out of four years of law enforcement service and whatever that percentage is for the particular degree that they have. And one of the reasons we looked at this for the fire investigators is because they are very specialized detectives, investigation investigating arson, and they work alongside the deputies and the CIA unit. So there is some commonality in terms of work, but they're under different collective bargaining agreements. So we felt that this was the right thing to do in terms of parity with their coworkers. It seems to me that the job classification there, because of what you just said, it's very specialized. They should have at least a degree, but probably a B.A. degree. And yet for a B.A. degree, which should be their basic start, we're going to pay them 4% more per year. I can get the master's degree paying more, maybe not 6% more, but I can get the master's degree and I can even well, not on them because that that in an investigation they don't speak lots of languages. But I just think that that by paying into a degree and a B.A. at those rates when it should be their base qualification is a little bit extravagant. So I don't feel comfortable with that. Just one minute. Thank you. Returning to the public defense addendum or appendix, Megan, you've now said twice that this was related to the workload and case requirements stipulated by the Supreme Court rules and the other rules. I have to confess to you, I am not understanding how I know what those rules are. I don't understand how they're related to these wizardry pieces and and step provisions and establishment of a committee. It doesn't seem to me it is related. It's it's the RCC, not the court rules. The rules of professional. Conduct that there is a reference. So we can get get back to you on that. But I do want to one key point that I want to make is we recognize that we are paying senior attorneys and DPD. You know, we're paying them more based on the fact that they're in a quasi management or lead role. And so one of the things we secured in these negotiations was a commitment to work with the union to better define what seniors do and to demarcate that seniors have additional duties. Because here in the county, you know, according to our labor policies, which this council has passed, we don't pay people more just for doing the same thing right over and over. And so our interest was to say, okay, if you're a senior, you're mentoring your coaching the new attorneys in court, you're providing briefings to staff, you're maybe working on policy projects. So I don't I do want that point to be made because we recognize that in order for seniors to be paid more, they need to be doing more. Okay. But the compensation here is for investigators. That's right. Okay. And the other pieces apply. The lawyers are the investigators. Yeah. Sorry. This is confusing the other pieces. When I was referencing parity and I'm happy to come back here to to get you information where where we look to in terms of authority for establishing parity. One of those sources is the our pieces. I thought it was council action when we established the Department of Public. It's that as well. That would be the first thing that we look to. Let me tie in appendix 16, the prosecuting attorney's association, since parity is tied to them as I read this on page 60. The Master Labor Agreement acknowledges that this agency, meaning the POW, has the authority to negotiate those issues separate and apart. Right. I'll give you a chance to look at it. So my question is, since we have a principle of parity in the Department of Public Defense, are our compensation and working conditions to extent parity applies to working conditions driven really by Prosecutor Söderberg and what he does with the with the prosecutors. So that was the position of the union in our negotiations with DPD. The county was taking the position that, yes, we consider that, but the jobs are different. So to some extent, it's an apples and oranges analogy. As I said, there are workload caseload limits for the public defenders that do not apply to the prosecutors. So let's say that prosecutor Soderberg is a senior deputy prosecuting attorney, $120,000. And we have a senior Department of Public Defense defender who's making 120,000. And prosecutor Soderberg says, well, I'm going to get my folks raise it 125. Are we then, under the principle of parity on the defense side, obligated to raise RS 225? That's what I'm trying to stand, is what we've set up here. In terms of I would say when we're not obligated, we we will look at that and we we look at and and again, the Labor policies reference the market comparators. So one thing to keep in mind is that public defense in other jurisdictions is in a nonprofit model. So it's a again, it's sort of an apples to oranges comparison because in the nonprofit world, the wages tend to be lower. So we will we will consider everything. We will consider the budget and what we're able to pay. But just as one of our labor policies. Right. And just just because the prosecutor raises the pay doesn't mean that we're automatically going to be raising pay for the public defenders. Okay. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have sat on the other defense board for this state for, I think now like 16 years. So this is not a new topic to me. But with that hat on, different than his hat. But with that hat on, I look at the cost in comparable caseloads between surrounding counties, including Spokane County. And it is much more expensive to do a felony in King County than it is in our surrounding counties and Spokane, as the comparables is way more than other counties because they're not on comparable kinds of schedules. So when I have asked about why these numbers are disparate, I am told because our felonies are more complicated than other felonies. It would be fine if we were talking about Mars and Earth. But that's an odd comment that a felony in a neighboring county. To our north or to our south is so different from a felony in our county. And then I get told other things, too, which I won't get into. But I think that there's work that needs to be done here. And I have great concerns that we, per case, are paying a lot more than than potentially we would need to be in looking at that. And as Councilmember Garcia said earlier, he's completely correct that we did try very hard to to make sure that the parity between the prosecutor and the defense bar was obvious. And in so doing, I understand that we may have swung the other way where now that the prosecutor should be coming in and asking for parity with defense. The other one point that is really old. But we were told that we were not in parity because we were micromanaging the independent branches of the defense bar before we brought them in-house. And when they came in-house, they had more employees than we even knew they had. I submit that if I were micromanaging, if we were micromanaging, we would have known that there were more employees there and we were giving them money and parity all the time. Monica that used to work for us, decided not work for us after that formula was done. She worked that all out. But what happened was that the four different agencies rearranged the money after we gave it to them, and then we went to court and lost because of that. So there's a lot of history here and I think it's time to delve down again. And I think that's a really good idea that we do. So are you Councilmember Lambert? There's some issues around this provision. I think people would like more information. But in the interest of time today, let's move forward and work on that offline. That's great. Time to. Read. Appendix 49 on page 51. This email proposed appendix to the MLA represents 44 employees in the Department of Community Health Service, Human Services, and the appendix two would add a new shift premium for evening and nighttime shifts. The premium would be $0.75 per hour. The executive estimates this cost to be to implement this about a $34,000. Moving on to appendix 50, this is for represents 263 workers and the wastewater treatment division bargaining unit and also the person in the Department of Natural Resources. In part, the proposed appendix would. Offer professional license premiums for two four employees to receive $50 per month for each license. And it would also add two new license categories for specific classifications. So they would more employees would qualify for this premium since they have obtain those specific certifications and they anticipate it is going packed as about $23,000. Appendix 51 The last appendix for briefing today is for Teamsters Local 174. It represents 231 employees and various divisions. If I may draw your attention to page 54, a significant amount of the cost proposed for this appendix stems from a the solid waste division. Well, actually, there's been a memorandum of agreement that would allow for helper shifts to be added skill operators at the transfer stations. There will be eight hour helper shifts added and that would run from May 1st to Labor Day and except for. On peak season. 4th of July, Independence Day. And so the majority of the costs associated with this appendix will relate to that implementing that. Okay. I see we have a representative from the Teamsters here. A number of council members, I guess it was late last year. I'm losing track of time, met with some of our scale operators about concerns surrounding perhaps some gender equity issues. And we provisoire, I think, some money in the budget asking for a plan for kind of employee development and advancement. Does this appendix do anything with respect to implementing that plan or addressing those issues? My. Michael Gonzales, Teamsters Local 174. Thank you. Thank you for being here, Michael. Thank you for asking me to be here. Yes. This memo, you does actually address a lot of the issues that we have brought up as far as especially the present context, some of the issues with them being able to take lunches and breaks, especially during the peak season. Just so for some context, for the entire council, the school operators are a group of employees, mostly women, who are the ones at the very point of contact when ever a person of the public or a commercial driver comes in to the dump to, you know, get rid of garbage, wood, recycling, whatever it may be, they work normally either for eight or ten hour shifts. And when during peak season, if they don't have any help, they are working that shift by themselves and they are working not only the inbound when somebody comes in to pay, but the outbound when so when the personnel so I'm sorry, the inbound when they get their card and the outbound when they pay, which is probably about the length of the county. And if to give you context of this, on a week and day, they could go anywhere between depending upon the station, 4 to 800 customers and one day walking back and forth between the scale not being able to they take what's called intermediate breaks, but it's very hard to tell when those breaks are going to come. Usually they're at a customer with the mouth or food or, you know, they're hearing people honking while they're trying to take a bathroom break or something like that. So this was a I would say why they got to a point of contention, right? I mean, they felt that compared to the other work groups within the county, that they were not given the same amount of staffing to be able to have the same working conditions, working conditions and working with the opposite labor relations especially. I'd like to applaud Megan for helping us work through this issue. We were able to come up with a menu and a trial period to look and see if these issues can be addressed, especially during the peak season. We think with some other things in the contract and the other ways we've done some bedding that during the non peak season will be able to work some things out. But during the peak season we like to take a look at this and think it think it will help the issues. And have we commenced this pilot project now given that it's May 1st, third, second or third. Correct. The solid waste division has taken taking this very seriously. And they are they when they had recruited and got people in as far as I know it has. Yes. Started it's going to be starting this week. Wonderful. Thank you for your work on it, both of you. And really thank you to your members who had the courage to come forward and raise these issues and work for positive change. Don't thank. You. Proud of them. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right, Heidi. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That concludes my staff report. There is an amendment to the proposed ordinance, one of the two, since we're hearing two ordinances today, and that's before you propose ordinance 2018 0178, which would approve the MLA. That amendment is on page 203 of your packet. And it replaces an incorrectly transmitted appendix 51. Correct. That's the one we were just, I think review. Correct. That's the one. I want to get that one right. Correct. And then on the ordinance 0138, it looks like there is a striking amendment which would make technical changes. Correct. Those are all staff requested. Correct. All right. What is the will of the body? Are members comfortable having had briefings, an opportunity to review this, to move it forward? Today, the full council in the ordinary schedule, I'm seeing nods and one shaking. No. So we will vote accordingly. I ask for a motion to put 2018 0178 before US Councilmember Gossett. So move the chair. For the Vice Chair Councilor calls. Would you be willing to move the amendment. A. Putting. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Amendment number. One. All right. This is the putting in, correct? Appendix 51. All in favor Amendment one. Say I. I. I'll oppose Amendment One carries turning to the underlying ordinance as amended. Comments or questions. Councilmember Bell Duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've been holding off for the appropriate time and hopefully this is it. So the overall accomplishment here is, is pretty big deal for King County. We have a lot of bargaining units and. Many, many collective bargaining agreements and the accomplishment of starting to streamline in a real way the provisions, the language around a lot of these practices, I think, can only really help. It'll help the employees and the managers understand how to implement, implement more correctly, to have people feel they're being treated fairly and for us to be more accurate and actually incorrect in how we implement. So I think this is a major accomplishment and I want to thank everybody involved for that. I want to ask in the spirit of continuous improvement and lean, which you reference in your materials. The primary objectives here are efficiency, equity, engagement in recruitment and advancing coalition bargaining. I would like to make sure that as we move forward into the next phase 20, 19, 2020 and onward into the future that we are checking back to make sure we're achieving those goals. I'm looking at the fiscal note. It comes out to about a total of 5 million in addition between the previous fiscal year and 2018 with 60 bargaining agreements. If you had done them all separately and added them all up, it's probably ballpark where you would have been. So I'm just guessing. But it's going to be nice to sort of make sure that we're keeping track of how we are capturing efficiencies by doing things this way that we can then use to provide service for the public. That's, I think, a key goal of having a more efficient labor relations for all of us. So I don't know if you could talk to that just a little bit. I really appreciate that comment because it's something that we are very cognizant. Is our overarching North Star goal in bargaining in coalition for a master labor agreement. I see this as a very much iterative process and getting the first master contract was, you know, 99% of the battle. And now that that's in place, we are socializing it with our unions, with our employees. We will continue to build on that success. One very real, very tangible efficiency and cost savings that the county has implemented in the last four years is bargaining and a total compensation methodology. So as opposed to the past, where benefits and wages were sort of siloed, we are making it very transparent with our workforce that we have to look at everything the county is paying for or the employee experience, and we have to cost that. So we're in that regard. We're better off now than we were even last year. You know, I think Denise and Michael could attest to that. When we talk to total compensation, we never we no longer see balking and eir roles at negotiations from the members. It's like, yeah, we get it. That's what most employers in the country do. Councilmember of the group. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I figure this is a big enough deal. Wanted to at least offer a few comments. I, I think what we have done, taking some of the credit for the good work you've done, I think is impressive, in part because we're working in a fiscal environment that's very challenging. You know, we're given the limitations on local governments, the ability to remain a generous and fair employer and to actually make these positive steps towards I know what the executive has touted as being the employer of the future to have what you just called the whole workplace experience stay modern, stay make sure we're a place that people want to continue to work and to do that in such a fiscally constrained environment and do it in partnership with the employee groups, and to reach resolution in and of itself as an accomplishment and to do it in a way that appears to be consistent with the policies we've adopted. It's it's kind of a funny role. We play it, you know, the ability to vote up or down, you know, sometimes I think it would be great if we could each negotiate each of the nine of us the things we like or don't like. But that would be utter chaos and I'm sure a violation of laws and processes. So recognizing that our responsibility is to vote it up or down, I, I think it's the obvious. The obvious course of action would be to approve it and not only prove it, but approve it with a sense of pride for the work that's been done. To reach the the agreement we have in such a difficult. Fiscal environment. Speaking as the budget chair, I'm very thankful. Thank you so much. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I am really excited that we have a master labor agreement. When we first talked about this, was it five years ago? Everybody was like, oh, this is like walking into a bomb territory. This is dangerous. So I'm really pleased that that we did it because they think it's the right thing to do. And like Councilmember LGT keeping track of how much easier it is to not be spending time all the time negotiating, but actually getting the work done and dealing with real problems. My concern is that there's going to be $5 million more, and I assume that's on top of steps that people will be getting. And we were just briefed last week that the county and the general fund will be $25 million deficit. And so now that number could go up to $30 million. And that concerns me. That's a huge number. And I see things popping up that I just don't like, like donning and doffing. A couple years ago, I didn't even know what donning and doffing was, but we pay for it every day. And, you know, giving signing bonuses, I had no idea that I was working for a baseball team or football team. You know, places where a B.A. or an AA degree should be the basics for getting hired. Now we're paying, you know, bonuses for. So I'm concerned by the scope creep of our pay scale in these categories. And so that is my one concern. But my overall concern that how long are we able to afford this? But I really like the format and I'm hoping that when we do the next contract that there won't be so many amendments. I think it was probably part of the wish list of getting this together. So thank you for your work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions, Councilmember Gossett, or comment? Yes, thank you. It's just a comment and it follows along with the ones that you and councilwoman ideology and councilor of the Grove and Councilmember Lambert have made. And that is I'm really recognizing this as well. We have a human resources department, but I'm recognizing that it has special work that Labor Relations Office does because these are highly complex and challenging questions that we have and they impact dozens of a union. So to be able to sort it out, make some reasonable accommodations with our labor representatives and then be able to articulate what they mean is, you know, a monumental job and probably get a little more challenging even in the future. So I wanted to say to them that we definitely appreciate that the work that you do on behalf of our government and our residents of King County. I think, Mr. Gossett just returning to the economic issues, we have Labor policy on compensation, which directs the Executive to consider the following factors. Economic number one economic conditions include could. Inflation and deflation in the region. I think our inflation is ticking up in the region to revenue and cost forecast for the county customer. Lambert mentioned that we had a briefing council member of the committee on it and while there were some concerns there, I assume that the cost forecasts were incorporated into that budget. That presentation by Mr. Diver. Third, comparable work compensation and for the status of accounting reserves. The presentation indicated we were actually taking up our county reserves toward an 8% number, if I recall correctly, at least in the general fund. And this applies to not just the general fund, but also some of our utility funds, always division and and wastewater. And I don't think transients in here as transient tragedies as in the. Yes. Transit in there. Okay. So I guess my question is, in the staff analysis they indicated is unknown to council staff at this time, what are the executive considered the factors described in the compensation labor policy? So my question to the executive is did you consider these factors when negotiating the wage provisions of the appendices, which are the applicable provisions before us? Absolutely. Very good. All right. Thank you. I want to give if there are no further comments from my colleagues, I also want to thank everyone who worked on particularly Megan, you and your shop, but Denise Cobbs and Dustin Frederick, who brings a lot of expertize and years of experience as well and is who else I want to give you all of. Course, my quick comment. I'm sorry. I do not want the work of the ADR ADR office, especially with Polly Davis, to go unnoticed, especially within our caucus with 90 people on the bargaining unit, Denise and I, and with, you know, trying to get 90 people to decide whether the sky is blue sometimes can be a challenge. And she really put in a lot of work in her office, putting a lot of work, also helping the practice and get it done. So at least. Some alternative dispute resolution wasn't just between management and labor, but between labor and labor. But I think what they always saying was renegotiations both the negotiations happened between Labor's own members, but they were, they were incredible in helping us to reach that. And I just wanted to make sure that she and her office were recognized for that. Very good. So the 2018 0178 as amended is before us. Then the clerk will call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember done by Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert and Councilmember McDermott. High Council Member of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is eight eyes, no noes. Councilmember one right there. Excuse. All right. Because of the compensation issues related here, I would request that we expedite this to Monday's council meeting. If folks have a questions that don't get answered, we can have a one week courtesy delay, which is our tradition. But let's move this along. We'll turn now to ordinance 2018 0138, and I'd entertain a motion for to pass a recommendation on that one. If anybody wanted to move it. Councilmember up the grove was put up by Vegas. I think, Mr. Chairman, the proposed ordinance 2018 01784 giving a do pass recommendation. And Council member Cole Wells as our Vice Chair, would you be willing to move the striking amendment making technical changes? Thank you, Mr. Chairman, that the striking amendments. In favor of the striking amendment making technical changes recommended by the staff say I opposed that Carrie's turn to the underlying ordinance. And we all said what we wanted to say on this package of legislation. Looks like we have the critical. Call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Duty. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. I. Councilmember Colwell, Councilmember Lambert and councilmember McDermott. High Council member of the Grove, Councilmember Yvonne Wright Bauer. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote is seven eyes, no no's, councilmembers Balducci and Von. Right. They were excused. To be given a do pass recommendation. We will expedite ordinance 2018 0178 as well to Monday's calendar. We will have those on the regular calendar because this is a big deal and folks may want to talk about it. I want to thank my colleagues and executive staff and our representatives from Labor for helping us get through a pretty dense set of materials, pretty complex. It's quite a long process. And especially I want to thank Heidi five, Chuck and Pat Hamacher and your colleagues on our central staff for their great work. Anything further? Nothing. We're adjourned.	A MOTION requesting the executive to develop and transmit an implementation plan for the county to coordinate the efforts for the 2020 Census with a focus on Hard-to-Count communities to ensure a complete and accurate count and participation of all county residents regardless of age, income, race, housing status and citizenship status.
king_fb8bf7e1-dc3e-4ae5-8201-8b5268a08d9c	All right. Good. Good morning and welcome to this special meeting of the King County Council's Committee of the Hall. I'd ask Mark, our clerk, to call at the attendance, please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry. You really? Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember Cole was here. Councilmember McDermott. Mr. Chair. The chair is here and Councilmember Bellucci and Councilmember up the grove are here along with Councilmember one right power. And they have the wrong engine. It's just it. Is that good. All right. We have a quorum. And this is a special meeting of the committee of the whole. Our second one on the topic of lodging tax allocation, specifically related to Safeco Field. Those are the those are the items on the agenda for today. We expect to have our second briefing by central staff on it. We also have a panel of representatives, including from the Public Facilities District, a member and their lawyer, Mr. Johnson, as well as some consultants who helped in development of the stadium needs reports. And so we asked these folks to be here to be able to answer questions, enlighten the committee as to the work. Your question? Okay. Talk a little louder. Maybe turn it up to 11 again. All right. There we go. We have a number of folks here who are interested in the topic. Obviously, our overflow room is down in the presiding judges courtroom on the ninth floor. We very much appreciate you being here. We know that you're here because you care about our community and the allocation of resources and investment in things that make King County great . So we are looking forward to hearing from you. But before we hear from you, we are going to do a little bit of work with respect to receiving a report from our central staff, as well as the panel that I just mentioned. There are two items on the agenda. One is the motion that would recommend the allocation of lodging tax. And the second, and this is new for the first time, is the Interlocal agreement that's been transmitted since our last meeting, which if there were to be an allocation of lodging taxes by the county, would be the vehicle by which those funds are transmitted in pursuant to the terms thereof to the public facilities district. We'll have a briefing on that. That's item six. So I welcome for this briefing, Jeff Mom and Andrew Kim from our central staff, and we'll let them take it from there. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Andrew Kim with counsel, central staff, the staff report for this item begins on page seven of your packet. Today's staff report builds from the staff report from the first hearing on this topic back in July. As members may recall, the first hearing focused on proposed motion 2018 0266, which would state the county's intent to specify the allocation of the county imposed 2% lodging or hotel motel tax that would become available beginning January 1st, 2021. The portion of the staff report from the first hearing remains unchanged, and today we will focus on proposed Ordinance 2018 0374, which would authorize the new agreement and an amendment to the existing finance agreement with the F.T.. And this was transmitted by the executive shortly after the first hearing. With that, if I can direct the members to page 15 of the staff report. The proposed ordinance would effectuate a portion of the proposed motion by authorizing the Executive to enter into an agreement with the BFD to make an annual contribution to the FDA as specified by the proposed motion. Attachment A of the proposed ordinance, which is on page 35 of your agenda, includes the agreement between the county and the FDA. The total contribution to the FDA would be approximately $184 million over the course of the 25 year lease term between the FDA and the Mariners. The agreement is contingent upon an executed lease between the PFC and the Mariners consistent with the May 23rd, 2018 lease term renewal sheet, which can be also found on page 111 of your agenda packet. The agreement requires that the lodging tax contribution be used solely for major capital improvements to the basic infrastructure of the ballpark. And it does not include expenditures related to baseball operations, routine maintenance of the ballpark or facility upgrades with direct revenue generation potential. The agreement also requires the BFD to inform the county of any proposed improvements on an annual basis. And lastly, the agreement requires that the BFD include the lodging tax, a contribution into a separate fund and not be co-mingled with other BFD funds, in particular the capital expenditure fund mentioned in the lease between the Mariners and the BFD. The proposed ordinance would also authorize an amendment to the existing 1996 financing agreement between the city and the county by adding provisions pertaining to advance advancement requests made by the PFC related to the lodging tax revenue contributions. By way of short background, the 96 financing agreement agreed that the county would issue general obligation bonds to fund the construction of the ballpark appropriate and transfer public funds to the PFG to finance the construction of the ballpark and have both the county NPF to acquire real estate for the construction of the ballpark. The amendment amendment number six outlines the process step BFD must follow to make the request an interest payment provision should the county issue debt to fund the event advancement request. Mr. Chair, that concludes my portion, and with your permission, I will turn it over to Mr. Mom. Let's let's see if there are questions on that portion and members have questions on that. Just I've got one you mentioned there, Andrew, at the end, the potential for issuance of debt. That's a new to me in terms of my understanding what the request was. Can you elaborate on that, please? Sure. So that that would just add a provision to the 96 finance. So there's two attachments to the proposed ordinance. Attachment A would be the agreement, a new agreement between the BFD and the county to transfer a portion of the lodging tax attachment B would be an an additional an amendment to the original 96 financing agreement between the city and the county. And that amendment would add provisions to the original financing agreement to it. If the BFD were to request an advancement of the lodging tax revenues, then that and and the county were to provide that advancement using issuing general obligation bonds. There are some provisions to to direct on how that issuance of the bond would occur and how that payment would also occur. Does the PFA, under this proposed agreement, have the right to require the county to advance funds prior to their availability because these aren't really available until 2021? And so we would have to issue debt. Is that would we be obligated to do that if the request came in under the terms of this agreement? I don't think they're obligated. We'll look into the details, but I think they're obligated. But it's just another option. If should the county want to issue debt to provide the advancement of those funds requested by the BFD? So I think just as a provision, as an alternate, as an option for the county. You have anything to add on that, Mr. Mom? We've got new microphones here, so you'll sometimes see us pause a little bit to try and figure them out. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Geoff Mum, council staff. This is one of the issues that I've flagged in my in the analysis section that we need more link reviewing. All right, well that sounds like a good launching point for you to go. Thank you. So now at the bottom of page 16 of the staff report, and this is the analysis of the audience that Andrew just briefed you on the issues in attendance. The proposed ordinance states that the Seattle Mariners draw nearly 3 million of fans to Safeco every year, and approximately 55% come from outside of King County, according to more current data from and this is actually from the Mariners. This is a typo. It's not from the D. In 2008, approximately 45% of the attendees came from outside of King County and on average 49% since 2014. Figure one, which is on page 17, provides more details of the percentage of attendees by each county, by each county in the state. From 2014 to 2018 and 2018, approximately 25% of the attendees came from Snohomish and Pierce Counties. In addition, Figure two shows average attendance from 1994 to 2017 for Safeco for the Mariners compared to Major League Baseball as a whole. And this information comes from ESPN Sportsnet. And the next issue is the economic benefits. And I'll let me ask you, Jeff, because this seems a little out of context. Why are you sharing this data with us? This is just to put into context that some of the the whereas clauses in the ordinance just to go to drew up to current detail the next issues, the economic benefit the proposed ordinance states. The Safeco Field is expected to generate $46 million for local jurisdictions and $140 million for Washington state in the next 20 years. And we found that this data is based on the being venues and populous architecture. 2014 Safeco Field Long Term Capital Needs Assessment Report, which used a 20 year net present value basis and projected to generate Safeco to generate 81 million in tax revenues to the PFA and 140 million to the state and 46 million to local jurisdictions . And these are so the total tax benefit is would be 260 million through 2036, which was the timeframe of the consultant's report. Another issue in the ALA or in the agreement, rather, is the extension of the lease. And we think it's important to note that the new this proposed agreement between the PFG and the counties states that a transfer of lodging tax receipts shall continue for the term of the lease as it may be extended in accordance with its terms. And since there's in the underlying term sheet, there's terms for the PFA in the Mariners it's 25 years long, but it also includes an option for the Mariners to extend the lease for three additional years twice. So the Mariners could extend extend the lease on their own for six years, which would under this language which would obligate the county to continue making the payments to the BFD. It's my understanding in consulting with the executive staff that this is not the intent. The intent is only to have the payment scope for the term, the 25 year term on the lease. But if that's it, if it is the will of the council to it to change that, that's an issue that should be flagged. And also in the agreement, the underlying note. Here in your staff report that as written, it could be another 70 for just shy of $74 million on top of the 184 million. Yeah, we calculated that by just taking the what is estimated to be the last year's payment to the PFA and just holding that's that constant for the for the next six years. The Amendment to agreement section in the agreement and the underlying agreement in Section three of the new agreement states that the agreement may be amended at any time by mutual written agreement of the parties. And we wanted to flag this if the Council may wish to consider the Council's role in reviewing or authorizing future amendments to this agreement. The parties are the from the executive branch in the party, especially related to the duration or any dollar amount in amending the agreement. And then there are some other edits to the underlying agreement that legal counsel has flagged, particularly just making sure that it is in the right form. And making sure that it's relevant with existing county statute and state law. And so that's the that's the summary of the of the analysis of the proposed agreement. Next to me. Happy to offer any updates that have happened since this committee last year ever deliberated on this issue. As Andrew said, on July 30th, the the executive transmitted the proposed agreement. And then in relating to the transit oriented development bond allocation, which we briefed the committee on last time. To date, nearly $50 million of the $87 million has been awarded, and that when we produce 141 units of affordable housing. 1041. I'm sorry. Thank you. Yeah, that would be really expensive. And then just technically, the staff has determined that a document provided in the last staff report by the Mariners, which is which is known as the Skanska report, it's the list of the upgrade improvements that we talked about last time that it was formatted incorrectly and that it really totals up to approximately hundred and 84 million, which is slightly less than what we had originally reported at 190 million. And then I'm happy to go through the answers to the questions that were brought up during committee. If you want me to go through those, or if you want me to direct members to them. What's what's the pleasure of the body? Do we want to have Jeff highlight those answers to the previous questions? Customer one Right part. I think you have a lot of people in the audience. Okay. Take your suggestion on that. I'm seeing nods. All right, Jeff. Sounds like you got a pass on those. We can do our reading there. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Anything else to add from central staff? Do members have questions for Andrew or Jeff based on the staff report or otherwise? No. All right. Let's hear anything I have to say. I can't hear. It's not too much. Thank you. I have a very soft voice, and I will work on speaking up if you can help us by making sure our volumes up on this new system, that would be great. All right. We're up all the way. All right. Next, we will turn if there aren't questions to a panel of guests that we've invited. And I'd ask them to just come forward. The first is Paul Moore. Who? Paul Moore, I'm sorry, who is a board member on the watch state, major League Baseball Stadium, Public Facilities District. Then we have Jerry Johnson, who is general counsel for the PFG. Dan Barrett, the executive vice president of CAA slash icon who was the lead lease negotiator for the PFG. Brian Slater, the senior project manager from being DEVENUS, the lead consultants for the long term capital needs. And Pat Tangent AIAA Principal Project Manager with Populous, who was the lead architect on the long term capital needs assessment. Thank you all for being here, and we appreciate your willingness to attend. Jerry, how how do you want to handle this? Do you have to have an order in mind? I have the table there in front of me. Once you have the table in front of you. Is that why you're sitting back there? Mr. Zimmerman, this is your first warning. You're disrupting the proceedings. If I. If I come after you again, you'll be removed. No second chances. Thank you. All right. Jerry, do you want to lead us off here? Assume there's some opening remarks and very provocative question. Introduce the panel. All right. And I've had a helpful suggestion from an audience member to pull that microphone right up to your mouth so we can all have a better chance of hearing you. Thank you, Chair Dombrowski and council members. I'm Jerry Johnson, a partner in the Pacifica Law Group, together with the National Sports Facility Practice based in the Denver office of the Hash Blackwell firm. We serve as counsel to the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District for the negotiation of the lease between our client and the Seattle Mariners. Thank you for this opportunity to participate this morning. Allow me to extend the apologies of the board chair, Virginia Anderson, who is traveling out of the country and unable to be here today. The board is represented here today by a member by board member Paul Moore, a long time leader in the international district community, and respected advisor and manager of numerous mixed use projects undertaken there over the years. Paul also played a leadership role in assessing the long term capital needs of the ballpark in the run up to the lease negotiations. Paul Together with representatives of our two critiques, sorry, two key consultants will discuss that work with you shortly. This work was commissioned jointly by the Mariners and the PFG. Together we selected the team of Populus, widely recognized as the leading sports venue, design and architecture firm in the country and beyond, even venues nationally recognized sports venue planners and project managers. Today, the principals of both firms who worked on our projects are here Pat Townsend for Populus and Brian Slater on behalf of BMD venues. Also joining me at the table this morning is Dan Barrett, a principal in CAA icon. Dan was selected by the FDA as our lead negotiator for discussions with the Mariners. Down in his firm are widely recognized among the foremost sports business consultants in the country. His many other sports major sports venue clients include our neighbor, the Washington State Public Stadium Authority, for which he recently conducted a comparative financial analysis of the Seahawks new naming rights agreement for CenturyLink. The residents of our entire team were provided to you separately. With those introductions, I will turn this over to Dan to review the term sheet the PFG has signed with the Mariners. In that regard, we previously provided a summary, I believe we have, of the principal ways in which a solid majority of the PFO board believe the term sheet represents an improvement over our current lease. After discussion of the lease, we'd like to turn to the capital needs assessment introduced by Paul and supported by our facility consultants. I would propose that we close by addressing any questions you may have about the proposed agreements between the county and the FDA, which I think I can answer. All right. Very good. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you, Jerry. Our council members, thank you for allowing us to present today. My name is Dan Barrett with CAA Icon. I'm going to go through the general parameters of the lease term sheet that we've negotiated with the Mariners. As you know, we represented the PD's interests in this negotiation. I'm going to highlight some of the differences between the existing agreement and the proposed agreement. I'll start with the term of the agreement. The original agreement was a 20 year deal, which is coming up at the end of this year. There were several extension periods, but those extension periods are by mutual agreement. So effective December 31st of this year, there is no lease. There are no existing terms in place going forward. And anything that would add any going forward by either party requires mutual agreement by both parties. So it's an important element to understand. The lease does expire, there aren't any automatic renewals. We have reached a tentative agreement on a 25 year lease, which is five years longer than the original term. And it also includes two three year options to extend on the same terms as the 25 year extension. The rent for the original agreement started at $700,000 a year. It has escalated by CPI since that time and is currently just over $1,000,000 a year, just below $1.1 million per year. It escalated a little over 2.3% per year over that period each year. The proposed term sheet includes a rent of 1.5 million, also increasing by CPI each year. The original agreement included a profit share provision. Can I ask you a question? The rent. How is the rent determined? It was part of a series of trade offs. We went back and forth on what what terms we thought were important. We felt that an increase in the rent was something that we wanted to achieve. But there were other elements to the agreement, including a capital contribution that I'll talk about in a moment of 3.25 million. That was part of the overall agreement. And how we looked at a rent. Rent is just one element of it. When we look at leases, we look at all of the stadium occupancy costs. So we look at rent, the contribution to capital, revenue sharing, taxes that they're subject to, etc.. I imagine that comparables are hard to find, but it doesn't sound like comparables were looked at to determine where. They were. Absolutely. So when we when we looked at this agreement 21 years ago, when I was at Deloitte Touche at the time, we compared this deal to 12 other new stadium deals and we compared all the occupancy costs for the stadium at that time. This time it's a little bit more difficult because you have a mix of new stadium deals and you have renovations and you have lease extensions. And so if you look at the original deals that were built around the same period of time, some of those buildings are currently being replaced. Some of them have lease extensions and some of them have uncertain futures right now. And we can talk about those specifically if you'd like. But all of those were looked at in terms of their deals as well as what we were structuring here. I'm just going to give just if you were to break it down and take the office space for the team alone, which is at the stadium. Do you know how many square feet that is? I don't. Off the top of my head. And just if you were to look at that times of market rate for office space in the city at 25 bucks a foot, I'd probably estimate triple net these days, just a million and a half a year. Right. So like I said, there's a little light, there's different elements that if you add up the rents and I don't I don't want to sit here and take the Mariners position or make the Mariners arguments. But just try to understand. How if you take if you if you look at a real estate lease and you look at rent, that's the primary element to it. Who's responsible for operating expenses? Who's responsible for capital repairs? What are those expenditures? And if you add up the rent, the revenue sharing, the capital expenditure contribution, you end up with about a $10 million a year payment. And then if you look at the overall expenses of it, they're substantially more than that. So that's how we looked at it. It's very difficult to compare a stadium lease with a traditional real estate lease. They're just very different. And when we look at the comparable stadium leases, we're looking at what's happening in Atlanta. We're looking what's happening in Denver and Houston, in Texas with the Texas Rangers. Those are kind of the deals that are being done right now. And that's what we were comparing against. Well, it's 1.5 million per year, correct? Rent. Correct. Again, one element of the overall deal. Okay. Yeah. The next piece is another component of rent or stadium occupancy costs as we would look at them, which is a profit sharing element. The original agreement called for the PFA to share in 10% of net income from from the operations of the Mariners in the first 19 years of the agreement. There was no revenue sharing to the PFG or no profit sharing to the PFG. And the reason for that was when the original agreement was made, there was a $200 million catch up provision, which was an accumulation of losses that the Mariners had realized, as well as their contribution. Towards the stadium. And so for that reason, there was no sharing or no profit sharing during the first 19 years. They've caught up as a result of profits realized during that period, and this year will be the first year that there's profit sharing. So we wanted to make sure there was more certainty and less risk with that. It was an important element from the Mariners perspective to get rid of that provision. We're not aware of any provisions in Major League Baseball or even in Major League sports where there is a operating profit share provision like this. And so in order to achieve that certainty and eliminate that risk from the fees perspective, we went to a revenue sharing model which called for one and a half percent of ticket revenue, the first hundred million in ticket revenue to go to the PFG to be used for capital repairs. That percentage increases to 2% over $100 million. We estimate that that would be about 1.3 to $1.5 million a year growing over time. Another important element that we addressed in the lease was the performance standard of the applicable standard that the Mariners were responsible for in terms of operating and maintaining the facility. And in the existing lease, the applicable standard or the level that they have to maintain the building at is compared to buildings that were built between 1990 and 1999. Several of those have been replaced already. 20 year old building in Atlanta was replaced with a new building in Cobb County. The Texas Rangers are replacing are having their facility replaced in Arlington after 20 plus years. And in the case of Atlanta, the contribution from the public sector is between three and $400 million. In the case of Texas, the city of Arlington's contribution is 500 million out of a $1 billion project. There's also Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Baltimore facilities that are looking at renovation plans or potential replacement in the case of Tampa Bay. So we wanted to make sure our applicable standard going forward was comparing to the better the better stadium or the better condition stadiums in Major League Baseball. So we replaced the buildings that were built between 1990 and 1999 with the top third requirement. In other words, the Mariners have to maintain, improve and upgrade the facility to meet the top ten or top third of Major League Baseball stadiums. So regardless of how much money is available in the fund, they're going to be responsible for meeting that obligation. And one thing that we wanted to make sure to clarify in this lease that was not as clear as as the original lease was that that means upgrades as well as necessary infrastructure and necessary improvements. Our goal and our objective from the start was to try to make this building last beyond not just this 20 year period, not just to the next 25 year period. There's often been talk about this being a 100 year building, and our goal was to try to have funds available to avoid situations where the facility gets deteriorated in the back end isn't maintained. And we wanted to make sure that that applicable standard was in place to maintain that. In addition, we also wanted to make sure that the PFA had more control over how those expenditures were made and what expenditures get made. And so in in the current lease, the Mariners are required to submit an annual management plan which explains their one year plan to maintain the building. The BFD doesn't have any approval rights over that in the current lease. In the term sheet, we have a a a plan that requires the Mariners to submit a one year plan and a ten year rolling plan that the PFG actually has to approve. So the PFA will approve the management plan and the capital maintenance plan on a one year and ten year rolling basis to make sure that the facility is continuing to be maintained. And again, it's regardless of whatever funds are available in the reserve funds, the Mariners are responsible for that. I mentioned that that in the current agreement the club is responsible for major maintenance and capital improvements. The upgrades is a little bit less clear. We wanted to make sure that upgrades were specifically identified in the term sheet to make sure that those improvements get made. We wanted to avoid a situation that the Arizona Diamondbacks and Maricopa County are in and Phenix, where they had a dispute over $187 million worth of capital improvements. They went to arbitration. They ultimately ended up settling after about a year and a half with the Diamondbacks getting their lease terminated five years early and being able to explore options within Arizona as well as outside of Arizona for a a liquidated damages fee of 25 million, reducing by 5 million each year. So a relatively nominal fee there that we want to avoid that uncertainty in this agreement. We also felt it was important and and the PFG has been looking at the neighborhood around the ballpark and trying to make improvements there. We wanted to identify a funding source to do that. And so the term sheet calls for a an immediate $2 million deposit into a neighborhood improvement fund. And then there is a portion of rent at the FDA's discretion to contribute to that neighborhood improvement fund that is expected to reach about $25 million, in addition to the $2 million over the period of the lease. One of the small that's. Kind of one of the interesting twist on this. It's a $25 million item. What is the intent of the BFD with respect to those improvements? What do they want to do with the money? I don't know if you want me to take that or. Sure. The discussion basically is that they want to make sure this isn't a fund to do major development around the ballpark. It's really a fund to try and improve the safety, the desirability, the fan experience around the ballpark, whether that's painting, landscaping or other projects to make it more safe, more desirable. That was the original intent for that neighborhood improvement fund. There was a district study master plan that was done by the PFG that looked at some of those different elements. But that was a primary purpose there. All you want in on that? Sure. Yeah. One of the things that the BFD, because of our desire to protect the public interest in the stadium, is to look at the surrounding area and to make sure that, as Dan had mentioned, that the fan experience is a good one, that pedestrian safety is in there and that whatever gets develop is compatible with the BFD and the Mariners want to happen inside the stadium. Thank you. Thanks, Mark. One of the smaller items that was discussed but was a source of economic impact of the PFG is that historically they've had a share of insurance expense. We've now put that insurance expense on the Mariners 100%. So that obligation goes away from the PFG. An important element that that we wanted to make sure to address was the non relocation of the team. Under the current agreement, the Mariners are required to play 90% of their games at the stadium. The the requirement to play those games is part of the existing lease since the time that that lease was constructed. The industry has gotten a little bit smarter and a little bit more. I shouldn't say smarter. They've advanced in terms of how the non relocation provisions are addressed and now they're typically addressed in a standalone bankruptcy remote document. So there's a standalone non relocation agreement that we have required the Mariners to enter into that provides more safety and more protection from the parties perspective that the team won't relocate over the 25 year period. Another element of the existing agreement requires that the the club to pay the PFG 20% of net profits from the sale of the club. If 80% of the of the team is sold. That provision has not come into play given even even though there was a sale of the team, it did not. There was a there were some carve outs for the 80% as well as to existing owners. So that provision never came into play in the original agreement. We modified that agreement or that provision to provide more protection for the PFA and the community. And what we wanted to try to do with that provision is to incentivize a new buyer to extend the lease by ten years. So it would take it from 25 to 35 years and also encourage the Mariners to sell to local interests. And so local interests would be defined as someone, a local buyer would be defined as someone who has lived or had a principal business in the area, in the Seattle area, for at least ten years. If if if the Mariners sell to members within the existing ownership group or anyone who agrees to a ten year extension, there is no payment. And I should point out that there was a cap in case I didn't point out there was a $20 million cap in the existing agreement. If if the PFA is so excuse me, if the Mariners are sold during the first 15 years of the term or if it's sold to someone who extends the agreement for ten years, then it's a $20 million payment to the PFA. However, the club is restricted from selling to any owner that doesn't extend the agreement by ten years and the last ten years of the agreement. If if for some reason a court doesn't uphold that provision, then we get 10% or the PFA gets 10% of the gross proceeds of any sale. So we're really trying to put a penalty in there in the event that they try to sell it in the last ten years of the agreement without a ten year extension. So we're really trying to incentivize local ownership and we're trying to incentivize ten year extension on the 25 year term. And then the final kind of major provision, there was a disposition of the ballpark at the end of the term. There really was no provision for demolition of the ballpark once the term ends. We made sure that there was a provision that allowed for demolition of the ballpark, if that's what the community chose, as well as the PFG would retain any proceeds and any of the reserve funds in the event that the club was no longer playing in the Seattle area. And that basically summarizes the comparison of the of the existing lease versus what the term sheet is currently proposing. Okay. Dan, thank you for that. We'll have some questions. First comes from Ron Perlman, Councilmember Up the Grove and Councilman Raquel Welch. Nathan and Peter today. And I thank you very much for providing this opportunity for a discussion and listening to the public later. Getting back to your reference to a study, can you speak a little bit to the safety study for this $25 billion that was done by the PFG? You said that study was done to enable it to spend $25 million around the facility. The and maybe Paula, Jerry, you guys can talk about that. I think he's talking the district master plan that was done. Oh, by the PFG that we. Yes. So the the city in conjunction with the public stadium authority for for the football and the public facilities district for baseball did a a neighborhood study. And this involved also Pioneer Square and the international district, Paul. Correct. And you were involved in that, I think. So do you want to. Share this study was done probably about maybe eight, ten years ago. And basically the purpose of the study at the time was to try to get the city's comprehensive plan to include the stadium district as part of the comp plan. And in in that study, we looked at what could happen in the neighborhood, what are its needs and what are its wants. And basically, it laid out a lot of physical alternatives and also had some preliminary price tags on those so that the dollars that were presented in that study were very preliminary and early on. And I don't think that it is the aspiration of the D to take on that whole financial burden. That's just a reference point in terms of the kind of thing that might be useful or helpful within the district in general. And the idea of the Neighborhood Improvement Fund, Paul, is much more narrow. Yeah, the neighborhood improvement fund is is being proposed by the P of the focuses of more around the immediate surrounding of the stadium. So that's the basis of of where we're going with that particular proposal. $25 million is a significant figure for that area. And I was wondering if you can fill in a little bit about how you would spend $25 million? We we wouldn't we would not. It's a city that's a city study. And again, that is not something that we that we would take on. That's not what the Neighborhood Improvement Fund is for. This is it would hopefully do things that are compatible with that. But and I would just point out that that the primary source for that neighborhood improvement fund is is the rent. So you pay the rent fees, operating expenses have to be covered, and then $250,000 gets set aside for capital improvements. The balance of that gets contributed to the Neighborhood Improvement Fund, which is around $600,000 initially and will grow over time. The total amount over the 25 year period gets used to close to about $25 million, but it's not an upfront payment or anything like that. It's a relatively small number over that, over time. Jerry, were you involved in the initial language creating the PFG? Yes. We're in that language as the mission to do our work around the district. I don't I don't recall that. So the the mission of the public facilities district and the statutory mission is basically to steward the ballpark. And the public facilities district looked at its own mission and recently expanded that to focus in addition to just the the immediate structure of the immediate environs around that structure. And it's our belief that a limited and focused minor public improvements to the streetscape to provide for fans safety and enjoyment sort of things that Paul spoke to are well within the statutory authority. I look forward to reviewing that with you. Thank you. Happy to talk with you about it further. Thank you. Thank you. Customer Ron Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I might do two questions and that's it. Well, the first one. Thanks for being here. This is a helpful and clear overview. I found it useful. I'm fortunate to be a landlord myself. I rent a little condo out that I used to have and I charge enough rent to cover the costs of the upkeep and maintenance of the condo. So why wasn't that a goal. Of the lease negotiations to charge enough to cover the costs of maintenance and upkeep, whether through rent or other payments? Well, we think that we've identified enough funding sources to cover a substantial portion of those expenses. We think that the risk is on the Mariners and not on the PFG. You can always negotiate a real estate deal where, you know, whether it's triple net or it's a gross lease. And in this situation, we identified the rent payment. We identified the 3.25 million that would go, which I'm not sure that I covered. Actually, there was a capital I didn't cover that. There is a $3.25 million a year subject to escalation commitment that the Mariners need to make towards the CapEx fund. So there's 1,000,005, there's 3.25 million. There's roughly a million and a half for the revenue share. And and then there's the emissions tax and the parking taxes. And those generate over the period, we think, a substantial amount to cover certain obligations, capital obligations that would maintain the facility. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And my second, which is sort of a follow up to that. And given that. Do the terms of this lease. Require another government such as King County, to contribute funds in order to fulfill the lease requirements? The PFA hasn't taken a position on that, but the term sheet calls for the PFG to accept what the county decides and will accept any funds, funds, if any, that the county decides to invest. So that's up. And I'm no, I'm not asking this to make a political point. I'm trying to actually. Understand it then. So is there a shortfall in the lease in terms of the ability to maintain it under the maintain and keep. That facility up, barring some other government, whether it's the state or the county or whoever the Mariners come to to ask for more money? Is that that does the lease stand on. Its own without additional public funds? Well, is there enough money in the terms of the lease to maintain and keep the field up there at the ball field up without another government contributing funds? I take that. Sorry. Ultimately, it depends. It depends on how you define the issue and how you define the cost. There's in the Brailsford and Donnelly V popular study, you'll hear that there's $385 million of expected costs. You'll also hear that there are upgrade costs, varying numbers going from 160 to $190 million. It really depends on how you define the problem and how you decide to participate or invest in it. If I might just follow up before we start asking customer calls and then it comes from others to jump in. The 365 million maintenance costs that were done in the popular study are those fully funded by the economic terms in the term sheet without any outside injection of resources. So again, they don't include the upgrades. That was my question. Okay. 365 no upgrades. 385 three 8585. Does the rent and the contribution to CapEx and the parking tax and the ticket tax, does that cover that for the term of the lease 25 years? The revenue sources, depending on what your assumptions are, are estimated to generate about 350 to 355 million. Okay. So 20 to 25 million, perhaps short. About maybe 30. Okay. All right. I think that's what council member of the growth was trying to get. So council member council member Dombrowski. And I just to add the conundrum, of course, is that without a lease, none of those obligations exist. Right. And so the Mariners have made the request for county funding and informed us that their willingness to enter into the lease that we've just described to you that create those obligations is contingent upon some level of investment by the Council. And that's not in their signed term sheet that the PFA and the Mariners signed when they agreed to execute a lease pursuant to the terms. That's correct. There's a separate communication to that effect and that is what we understand their view to be and that is what they have stated publicly to be their position. And when did they first inform the PFA of that position after a couple of years of negotiating these lease terms. The my partner who. The party was aware of the club's aspiration for public support, some degree of public support during most of the conversations that two years of work included the the the capital needs study and a lot of work before we actually engaged with the Mariners, that conversation was about a year in length and during that period of time the PFA was aware that the club was going to ask them, or at least they signaled they were going to ask. Did they indicate the amount that they would seek? No. All right. And is that Gerry, while I've got you, does the public facilities district have its own taxing authority? No. The public facilities, district levies and admissions tax, which is collected by the county on its behalf, it's it's called a tax, but it's really a user fee, honestly, at all of the revenue that the PFA collects from both its admissions tax and it's much smaller parking tax are generated by the enterprise itself. They don't have sales tax. We have no broad based tax. All of the broad based. Boxes that were provided for the original construction of the ballpark sunset when the deck was retired a number of years ago. Thank you, Councilmember Cole, while sorry for interrupting your line. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you all for being here. This is really illuminating, and I'd like to start off right away that I'm a huge supporter of the Mariners and was thrilled when Governor Lowry called the legislature and a special session when the voters initially turned down the funding for the stadium. I want the club to be successful and it is showing that it can be successful. And it's and I want to be able to reach those applicable standards to be in the top third of all ballparks in the country. And even though fan base is down around the country, from what I understand in other ballparks, the Mariners have been doing really well, even showing signs of growth because it's a great stadium. It does need maintenance, it does need upkeep, and it does need upgrades to in order to continue that way. But I am very concerned and this is all very complicated, but as has been mentioned, Dan and Jerry and that there was nothing specific on the term sheet, but one thing that had been computed demanded by the Mariners, as I understand, and you have mentioned, was that it was non-negotiable, that there would be annual profit sharing in the new lease. So we get that and in return there would be some type of revenue sharing put into place. But my understanding is that what also was assured was that the Mariners would assume sole and unilateral responsibility to repair, maintain and upgrade the ballpark in order to reach those applicable standards. I don't know if I'm incorrect on that, but that's what my understanding is. And in Virginia, Anderson's letter that came out on August 15th, I think it made it very clear that the party would accept any funding that came about from the hotel motel tax, depending on what the council decides to do. But it wasn't requesting that we go ahead with that. And even in the closing two paragraphs, it was bolded in her letter that there would not need to be that. The PFA believes the negotiated terms for a new 25 year lease with the club would substantially increase increase the club's obligation to invest in the long term stewardship of the ballpark and give the PFA an even stronger hand in ensuring compliance with their obligations. But again, reinforcing that they were not taking any position or asking the county for these funds from the hotel motel tax starting in 2021. So I'd like to hear any other comment that you might have. When I calculated out what the public I think should contribute sum, it is a publicly owned facility. I came out with 24 to $25 million, which in fact has been mentioned here, and that would be to cover the gap between what the club's responsibilities would be and the parties responsibilities would be in covering basic maintenance. And we came out with the 25 or $24 million gap, which is what I'm very happy to to go forward with. That was kind of a statement, not a question. So if there's any response, I would be very pleased to hear that. Well, Councilmember Coles, I would I would just say again that what was represented in Virginia Anderson's letter with respect to the lease is correct. But unless the Mariners are satisfied with respect to the level of public investment that they may find acceptable, then we will not have a lease. I think, in these terms, I should say. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just somewhat following up on Councilmember Caldwell's line of questioning. This was not a unanimous vote at the PFG. And I wonder if you want to say anything about the no vote and the reasons that have been given quite publicly, and if there's any response to that from the folks who did vote in favor. There's this kind of split on the board that's of interest to me. I understand it. Put you on the spot, but you're here. You're there. You're on the. Spot. Well, I would say, I guess, first of all, that this body certainly understands that unanimity is a high standard and people, reasonable people can disagree. The board has only seven members. They all worked very hard over the course of the last two plus years with respect to the negotiation of this lease and providing guidance to us and understanding the needs of the ballpark and the board as its chair, Virginia Anderson explained, did not join in the request for public funding. A majority a solid majority of the board, five members agreed to a term sheet that provides that the PFA will accept public funding but and that the the condition on the lease, the contingency is not the parties condition, it's the clubs. But again, it takes two parties to have a contract. It's worth. Was there any substantive discussion about the rationale for the dissenting votes and what we think those reasons were and how they're addressed in the least? So the whether public funding would come into the into the facility was a topic of discussion. All of the discussions within the board about these terms were properly conducted in executive session. And certainly it's not for me to to discuss the those conversations in detail. So I would say that's an issue of this magnitude, obviously was a topic of substantial discussion throughout the period of time. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett. And then Councilmember Caldwell's. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of us did get some correspondence from the dissent, the dissenting voters, and they appeared to indicate that after having the discussion, we thought that this is them speaking. We thought that the Mariners that 50 was being very generous to the Mariners. There's no reason why there isn't a good reason why the public should have the should be requested to participate by giving $190 million over 25 years to the BFD or the Mariners or the stadium. I don't know what time I suppose it is. And their argumentation, at least to me as one councilmember, was very reasoned, and it has had a lot to do with why I've been willing to support the proposition put forth by Councilmember Carl Wells that 25 million is very reasonable. It has been helpful, Jerry, that you and the others have helped clarify that even though the vote was 5 to 2, it wasn't tied to 5 to 2 in favor of asking. The King County government for money. It was 5. To 2 saying that if the King kind of government decides to support contribution for contributing funds to this. Endeavor, that you would it that they would accept it. Am I misinterpreting? So it's close, but it's a little more nuanced there. If the board was not did not vote on the public funding question, separately, the board voted on approving a term sheet that we reviewed for you and that you have seen. And one of the reasons that at least one and to some extent the other dissenting vote on that question was the objection to the Mariners contingency that public funding would come. So there was there were typically there was never a vote on whether to ask or even accept public funding as a free standing question. Oh, okay. Okay. And then finally, Mr. Chair, Jerry, did you say that the Mariners and then negotiations said that they would walk if they didn't get anything from King County government? Well, it the Mariners advised the club I'm sorry, the club advised the 50 throughout the conversation that they were expecting to ask and and hoped that the county would provide a substantial amount of public funding. They returned the term sheet to us, signed with an explicit contingency condition that they would not enter into a lease consistent with the term sheet if the county were not to do that. So they did say that they. Would not and they didn't. Five Well, they didn't specify a number. But they didn't specify the number. They did not provide an amount acceptable to the club. It's how it's been put in. And was that presented to you in writing? Is that. Yes, in writing? Well, it's not a public document. It is a public document. The press has quoted it. It was in an email returning the signed term sheet. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Councilmember Garcia, Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. To any of you, I'd like to hear about the upcoming change to the naming rights of the stadium or anything about the naming rights. What I've been hearing is that could be happening. A new name different from Safeco Field and the expectation that that would to get for any organization or business to get the naming rights would involve quite a lot of funds to the Mariners or to the team. I'm not sure. And if that is the case, is the public able to be able to benefit from any naming rights? I mean, I we want to get more funds for this. Stadium. We're just some of us are questioning and that it should come directly from the taxpayers funds. And this seems to be like another category of funding that could be available. And if so, could that be used for maintenance and upkeep and upgrades? So just to. Under the current lease, the Mariners have the ability to sell the naming rights subject to the statutory requirement that that name be approved by the PFA after consultations with the state legislature. That's a function of that feature of the statute you referred to. Council member that providing for the original formation, the PFO and the construction of the ballpark, the at the moment the the naming rights the club is, as far as we know, not engaged in discussions about the sale of the naming rights. They really have nothing to sell until they have a lease. And I don't know, Dan, if you want to speculate about the. Well, know that they are. I'm sorry. They're beard and I usually don't need a microphone. The naming rights are something that that the Mariners the Safeco deal is going to end. And so they will be looking for a naming rights partner. Jerry is right that until they have a long term lease, it's going to be unlikely that they'll be able to sell a long term naming rights agreement. Naming rights get highlighted frequently in these negotiations and in the political discussions regarding stadiums and arenas. And they are typically retained by the team in these negotiations. There's trade offs. You know, the naming rights are really not any different from sponsorship revenue or concession revenue or parking revenue. They just are a bigger number typically, and they're much more high profile. But we talked about naming rights during negotiations. Again, we made a series of trade offs in our negotiations and felt that getting the the rent and the CapEx contribution and the rep share were numbers that we felt were certain or certain. There's no guarantee that they will be able to sell naming rights to the building. The Washington Nationals for years have been trying to sell naming rights to their new building. Dallas Cowboys took them a number of years to sell it to AT&T. We would expect that they would sell the naming rights. But right now, we don't know what that amount will be. We don't know what term that will be. And we wanted to make sure we got the certainty of other revenue streams to cover CapEx going forward. I thought. Thank you, Dan. And but it's a logical to assume that said, the proceeds from naming naming rights sales could go toward maintenance and upkeep and upgrades. It's. It certainly is possible. Just like we're we're requiring them to commit 3.25 million directly to CapEx, a dedicated funding source, we could say give us 50% of naming rights towards capital expenditures. And that may be less than 3.25 million. And that would be a potential tradeoff that we weren't willing to make in that situation. We've got 3.25 escalated over 25 years is going to be a substantial payment. There are other agreements. If you take the Dallas Cowboys, for example, the city gets, I think, 10% with a cap of $500,000 a year. That that cap, the payment is substantially more. 10% is substantially more than a cap. You know, there are political ways to to get pieces of naming rights. But we think we wanted to go to the substance and make sure we had enough dollars that were certain. So is it theoretically possible that the sum of the proceeds could go to the public? It's all part of negotiations. So if we asked them for that, they would ask for some other trade offs. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions? Just following up on Councilmember Caldwell's line of inquiry on the naming rights. It seems that that number could be could vary widely. It could be $10 million, $20 million or $40 million if you have not put any kind of capture or cap or adjustment to the financial terms of the deal based on the result of the naming rights sale, as I understand it. Is we did not touch naming rights. We did not want to have the trade off where we were participating in upside and being exposed on the downside. So just gave them all the upside. Correct. And we and they also have all the risk with any capital repairs, maintenance and up. Based on your experience with CenturyLink, I think you said you had an other stadium. Can can you or anybody here on the panel give us an estimate of what a 25 year naming rights deal for today's Safeco Field might buy? Sure. And the it's naming an existing building carries less value. Typically the naming a new building, because people are used to calling it something a three time park, monster park, Candlestick Park. Probably are familiar with Candlestick Park. And I used. To be familiar with Quest. Field, which I used. To be familiar with Quest Field. Okay, exactly. Exactly, exactly. So people get used to calling it something. People are used to calling this Safeco Field. So a buyer of naming rights will take that into consideration. Their original deal was a 40 million deal over 20 years, $2 million a year. We would expect that that would increase substantially from that level because naming rights agreements have increased since that since that time, whether they could get four or $5 million a year with escalation going forward over a 20, 25 year period, it's certainly part. Possible, but there is no assurance or no guarantee that they will sit. So it could be a $100 million item. It again with a renaming of an agreement. You know, there are typically shorter term deals, maybe a ten year deal, maybe a 20 year deal. But it's just like any sponsorship agreement, major sponsorship agreements could be five, ten, 20 year deals. It's very uncertain what the revenue stream is that they're going to get. But it could be substantial. Yes. Could it be $100 million? It's hard to say exactly. That's not. It's hard to say what the what the total. Anybody else have any thoughts on that? No. All right. One final line of question, if I might, before we wrap up here. And I do want to give these gentlemen a quick update, but we got a lot of folks who have come to testify, and we do want to hear from them, I guess. And Jerry, maybe you can help me with this, but the lack of a kind of a number with respect to the public investment outside of the PFG, in other words, take the lodging tax. We'll take it if we can get it. We don't have a position on the amount. I wonder, and it seems to have come kind of late. They delivered the term sheet to you saying this is conditioned apparently upon getting some lodging tax revenue. I wonder if the terms of the agreement that the paddy negotiated would have differed if you knew that there was going to be a substantial investment of lodging tax or outside tax money end of the deal, for example. The transparency seems to be reduced. We, as I understand it, have given up our right for the annual review of the books. What the public benefits would they have been different? Could there have been low dollar or free tickets for, you know, disadvantaged children, but would the naming rights pricing have come into play? This is a 180 plus million dollars we're talking about here. That is kind of you're saying, well, we'll take what we can get, but all of these terms seem to be related to one another. As you describe, the economic investment drives, the overall lease deal. And I just wonder, it seems like a big, big number to put in and say, but everything else remains constant. Everything else remains constant. Can you help me understand whether the PFG, if it had known that $180 million of outside resources were going to come into this deal, or would you have negotiated different terms along oversight, transparency, public benefit, or just economic obligations on behalf of the Mariners? So I guess the answer to your your your question, council member, is it what you're suggesting is, is pretty speculative that that's not how the conversation unfolded. What I what I believe is that the Mariners gave us as much as they did in terms of improvements over the current lease in anticipation of having public support. In other words, I don't believe that we would have gotten the lease that we have before us now through the term sheet had they had no expectation of getting public funding. And I think it is important to turn to the the scope of the potential need, because one of the major improvements in the lease stand pointed out and very central to the question that you have before you, is the scope of the Mariners responsibility to invest in the building, which is broader and potentially unlimited with the combination. And this is very important of a much stronger hand for the PFG in determining the scope of that obligation rather than being purely advisory as it is now, the Mariners have to have our approval. Their approval may not unreasonably be withheld. True, but it's still approval. So may we turn to the CapEx? I sure. But I we're not. To be honest, we have a lot of interest in the details and maybe we can hit the highlights there and we'll. Try to be efficient. I want to give Councilman one right power opportunity after they finish the year. So let's spend ten more minutes and then let's get to public testimony if that will work. Okay. I'll try to be brief. Council Chair Dombrowski and Honorable Council Members. My name is Paul Moore, as was introduced by Jerry. I am a member of the Board of the Public Facilities District that oversees Safeco Field, and I'm here today on behalf of the board. A major element of the lease negotiations was when we started looking at this, was to determine what the future cost would be in order to keep Safeco Field in the top tier of ballparks in the Major Leagues. What we did at that time, and I think it's been mentioned before, is the public facility district and the ballclub jointly agreed to fund and participate in a capital needs assessment study. Basically, we jointly selected the consultants, the indie venues and populous architects. They. Began their study in 2015 and completed it in the spring of 2016. Initially, they were looking at our requests at a 20 year horizon. Subsequent to completing the study, we asked the peer to ask them to extend that commitment to 25 years, which they did in both the PFA and the Mariners have accepted the results of the study. The consultants estimated that the necessary improvements, those improvements that are needed to keep save Greenfield in the prime condition with the top third of comparable stadiums, would cost about $385 million over the 25 year period. And this includes, of course, contingencies and escalation. The consultants provided us also with some concept of upgrade improvements, which neither the Mariners or the BFD made any approval at the time. Since that time, and I think the council has received a document from the Mariners that they have listed a number of upgrade improvements over the 25 year period that add up to around $190 million. So the $385 million is what we believe and the Mariners believe are the necessary improvements to keep the ballpark in top shape over the next 25 years. With me at the table and Gerry is in two are Brian Slater from BTV. Then you the venues and that dangling firm populous architects who can answer any questions you might have about their study and about the capital needs. All right, Pat and Brian, give us the highlights, given where we are on the program that you think we need to know. Okay. The dialog you've heard. My apologies. My name is Brian Slater. I'm with B.A. Venues. Thank you for having us here this morning. We've covered much of it already, but over the next 25 years, the cost to maintain Safeco Field and a first class condition is estimated at $385 million. This is additive to maintenance and operations costs, which are detailed in the report and estimated at about 250 million over that same term. There are also upgraded concepts that are more fan focused concepts that are estimated at. As Dan mentioned, anywhere from about 160 to $190 million. Those are the highlights of the study, and we're happy to dig into any of the details that you all see fit. Thank you. Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And as I'm asking this, you might not be the right person, but just to kind of get to a bottom line, you add up the maintenance costs you identified and the necessary improvements. Compared to the revenue that's generated without any outside money. What's the gap in the terms of the lease? If you take the revenue that's anticipated, on one hand the necessary improvements in maintenance, on the other hand, do they equal or what is the dollar delta? What's the gap? That's not over the course of the lease that's not funded. That would that would require outside funding, again, just for the necessary improvements and the maintenance. So including the 250 for maintenance. So it'd be about $280 million shortfall. There's about 30 to $35 million shortfall between the necessary improvements and the funding sources. And then if you add the operating maintenance items, that's about $250 million that the Mariners have estimated to be about 280 285 million. And that's what. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And that's what's proposed to be the team's contribution or a public contribution to be an out the the maybe I didn't ask that question correctly. The as I understand it, there's a specific dollar commitment from the team in the terms of the lease. And when you add up that commitment that's been made as well as the other sources of revenue, right? My math was different. I took the ability to fund the necessary improvements and the maintenance. There's there's two different numbers you're talking about. The maintenance that Brian just mentioned is annual operating maintenance. There was another number which was the upgrades. I think you're referring to the upgrades number. Okay. 162 190. And then we were talking about previously the the chair had asked about with. I guess what I'm asking is when the. With $180 million public contribution were that to be made? Does that allow funding beyond the necessary improvements and maintenance? Would that allow funding to go into that? I guess that third category that was identified as potential additional upgrades, you mentioned in the in the consultant's report, there were additional opportunities for new investments in the stadium beyond those that were deemed necessary. Would an outside contribution of $180 million allow the ability to go beyond the necessary upgrades? It would depend on how you restricted it according to the current draft of the inner local agreement. Those dollars would not be able to be spent on upgrades. However, it does reduce the obligation of the Mariners their overall obligation. But it could supplant. We have we have some situations in county government where the state gives us money for criminal justice. But they say you can't move your current criminal justice elsewhere. Would there be any restrictions if this money went to maintenance? Could money the Mariners were going put into maintenance then get pulled out and put on other things? Or do we have some know some plantation language in there? So I think as a as a practical matter, the did to turn back to the lease the lease the lease terms to contemplate lease terms as reflected in the term sheet. Do not subdivide the Mariners obligation to maintain the ballpark and invest in the ballpark consistent with the applicable standard. So all of the elements of the capital improvements required to do that, including the upgrades, fall within the scope of that obligation so we don't disaggregate them. If if your funding were to come as a result of the draft agreement and the legislation you have before you, that would be the only earmark, if you will, on the use of available funds for a subcategory of the full scope that the club is obligated to perform. Thank you. Councilmember Yvonne Roukema. Mr.. I'm hoping that perhaps because it's a fact finding meeting this morning, we might be able to hear from the general counsel for the Mariners because specific questions were raised, and I think they could best answer some of the questions that were raised in the process of the last hour. Thank you very much, Congressman. Right back for that suggestion. Are there any further questions for our panelist assembled here at this time? I want to thank each of you for making yourself available for your work. It's helped us understand this complicated deal a little better and understand some of the facts and circumstances around it. Paul, I want to thank you particularly for your service to the public on the board and for your decades of leadership in the Chinatown International District and working to protect the community there. So we appreciate you being here on behalf of the board. And with that, Jerry, you've got to kind of wrap up remark. And then I do want to ask if he wants to to have Mr. Rivera, general counsel for the mayor, heard the dialog and may have some additional. Absolutely. And I just wanted to thank you for this opportunity. And all of us here are available to you or your staff as you continue to consider this. Thank you, Jerry. You are just as they send you off here, the preeminent lawyer in this state for public facilities districts. And I asked you about taxing authority. Sometimes, as you know, lawyers disagree. And I kind of put you on the spot. But but would you take a look and confirm for us offline whether or not the public facilities district has existing property tax and sales tax authority subject to a vote of the people? Our our lawyers and staff are telling us that that that authority may be there. I heard you say that it lapsed with the pay off of the bonds, but would you take a look at that and maybe get with Miss Moore here to have a little lawyer dialog? Yes. You know, with that. Yes, I understand your question. I'm happy to respond to it. Thank you so much. Appreciate your being here. Mr. Rivera. Thank you for being here. You've heard the dialog, and I don't know if, Councilwoman, you've got a specific question or maybe Mr. Mayor just has some general responses to add to the dialog we've had. Well, thank you for making sure we excused. You are excused. You may go now. You're welcome to stay for the rest of this. I mean. No, Mr. Chair, thank you very much. I think a lot of general questions were thrown out here, and I think to the best of their ability, BFD representatives were trying to address some of the answers, but I think it's important to have specific answers from the from the Mariners themselves to some of the issues that were raised , especially some of the special and speculative questions. Sir, thank you very much for that. Thank you for being here, Fred, and go ahead. Thank you. I have three points I want to make. And, of course, I'm available to answer any questions that you may have. First, we respect and I sent a correspondence on this issue as well. We respect the party's decision to not weigh in on the political process as to whether this body should allocate funds to the PFG for stadium capital improvements. The notion, however, that's been suggested that the party was not aware that this was a revenue stream is is not accurate, as Mr. Johnson indicated today during during our studies of revenue streams to fulfill the necessary capital improvements, lodging tax had always been part of the available revenue stream to fund what is necessary over the next 25 years or so. It was no surprise to the PFG and I would further add that when the state legislation was amended in 2005 to restrict how the funds can be used by this body, the PFG was involved in those discussions and actually lobbied to ensure that capital improvements at professional sporting stadiums was one of the allowable uses for the tourism portion of the lodging tax. So I recognize that I believe none of the current board members were around in 2005, but the PFG is a body since at least then has been advocating to use this money for this particular purpose. The second point I want to make is this is, as I think a couple of council members have noted, the financial aspects are somewhat complicated. It's a complicated building. It's a 25 year term. So there's some complicated aspects to it. But one thing that I don't want to get lost is that the $180 million in upgrades is necessary. It's necessary to meet the applicable standard. The 385 million is the base work just to keep the lights on and the water running. The 180 million, which the Mariners will fully fund, is necessary, in the words of Mr. Johns, or the parties. Letter 180 million is necessary to extend the economic life of the structure. These are these are not these are not funds that cannot be spent. And if they're not spent, you have the situation in Texas where you have a stadium that's being demolished. In Arizona, where there is litigation for two years and a stadium that's likely to be demolished. The PFA and the Mariners recognized that and came up with the responsible. Financing plan to prohibit that. Lastly, on the notion of the naming rights, and that is that is a very good question. What hasn't been mentioned is that under the term sheet, the committed revenue sources that the Mariners are committing equal $615 million over the 25 year period. So at $615 million into operation and maintenance upgrades and capital improvements, in addition, any overruns that are required, whatever whatever funding is necessary to meet the applicable standard, the Mariners are 100% responsible for that, even if it goes beyond six $615 million over the 25 years, the way the club funds, that is through its revenue streams and one of those revenue streams is naming rights at this time. We have, I think, as Mr. Johnson or Mr. Burns said, we have nothing to sell. There is no lease as of January 1st. There is no naming rights partner as of next year. If we if we do have one, that is a revenue stream that goes into funding the $615 million commitment. And so it's not additive to that. So those are the three points I wanted to make. I'm more than happy to answer any questions of this body. Very good. Thank you, Fred, for being here. Questions for Mr. Rivera. Maybe I'll ask you, since you're here on the naming rights, the BFD representatives indicated they had no knowledge of any current status. Do you have a partner identified or any contingent or type of deal or an asking price for the naming rights? Can you give us any more information on that? We do not have any of those, and frankly, we're unable to. Given the currently situation there, there's simply nothing to nothing to sell as of now after December 31st of this year. So what is the team's current plans with respect to the name of the stadium starting next season, since signage would have to be changed here more almost to September? Is the plan to continue it as Safeco Field? We haven't gone that far. That's that's one potential is to leave it up. Key arena, for example, is still Katerina, even though there's no deal there. So what? We haven't explored what the options may be. Thank you. And then just a down in the details a little bit. One of the costs that have been identified is for a new or expanded parking garage. Is that in the 385 million number or the 180 million upgrade number. That world? You know, actually, it's not even in the 180. That's even another number that would be part of an upgrade. That would be the Mariners responsibility as a potential concept. So that is that's not part of either of those numbers. All right. That's helpful. Thank you. Other questions? Customer run rate Mark. Thank you again. And thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Rivera, in the discussion about this effort to improve the safety and security around the facility, what conversations have the Mariners had with the PFG relative to this? What to me is a relatively new idea that I didn't when we were involved with the original setting up of the PFG , I as a member of the King County Council, I never thought of that as a mission of the PFG. But I'm curious, have there been conversations with you relative to this part of the lease negotiations? And again, I think it was Mr. Barrett, Mr. Johnson accurately reflected the give and take of a negotiation that took two years to get to this point. The PFG made clear that it was important to them that they have funds available to improve the neighborhood. And and as part of the negotiation, there was an agreement reached that they could take money out of our rent for that purpose. I'm not aware of any any specific projects they have in mind. Only some of the general ideas that I think were reflected this morning. And I don't have any other information beyond that. Thank you. Thanks, Jerry. Thank you, Mr. Rivera. All right. We will close our fact finding and staff work portion of this and turn to public comment. I want to thank everyone for being here and waiting patiently. And Mr. Zimmerman, you're now out of order. I've asked that you leave the room. You didn't ask. Goodbye. Yeah, I disrupted the meeting. The deputy. Well, remember why I'm doing it. I've got a number of folks signed up, and we're going to take as many comments as possible. One minute each. And again, I do appreciate you all coming and your interest in the topic. We really do want to hear what you have to say. And I'm going to just go down the list here, starting with John Martin then Susan. Good. Now then I wish to any corner and I apologize for getting your name probably wrong there. Then Mark Santos Johnson, you can come to either microphone and I would encourage you to line up as I call your name so we can move as expeditiously as possible through that. So, John Martin, Susan Good. Now, then and Connor, come forward. Sir, your time is going. Start one minute. Can I respectfully request a soundcheck since you've had some Mr.. Mr.. Conte Mr.. Martin, go ahead and start. You have one minute. My name is John Martin. I'm from Lake Terrace, and I'm a baseball fan. I feel all of the $180 million of the tourist tax money should go to help poor and working class people and not a dime to the Mariners to honor the legacy of Ken Griffey Jr. I've introduced legislation that requires the name Griffey be included in the stadium name and requires that the estimated 45 million from naming rights be contributed to the Ken Griffey Jr. Family Endowment for Pediatric Cancer Research at Seattle Children's Hospital. This employs a standard advertising approach called Co-branding Griffey Gates Field. Griffey Kaiser Field and the estimated 45 million can be attributed to local medical research. Do you hear that? I hear a bunch of Mariner lawyers saying, you can't do that. Oh, yes, we can. Renegotiate the lease. The Mariners, the PSP received and gave naming rights in violation of the Constitution of the State of Washington. And I want my money back with the address. $72 million and used to support public education. 180 plus 4580 2297 billion. I want my 297 million back. Thank you, Mr. Martin. SUSAN Good. Now and then end. Connor Mark Santos. Johnson, Laura Bernstein. And you are welcome. If you have written comments to provide them to our clerk and they will be copied and distributed to all council members. Hi, Susan. In piggybacking my husband who has all the brains I. This session really highlights a huge tragedy in this area and that's $1,000,000,000 ballclub reflected in the stadium skirted by homelessness that is becoming the proportions of a third world country are starting to look like that. Money isn't the problem. We have lots of money flowing between, you know, billionaires, corporations and the government for so easily. But just squeezing that down and getting just a little trickle into our the poor here is so difficult. And I know it's very complex, but I don't think is the money is, you know, decision making. It's some kind of systematic ethics. And I am very hopeful and seeing this council, I mean, you seem to have great ethics and but I just ask that you, you know, think about your efforts today and going forward, that you really think about community and doing good for the community. My husband had a great idea in steering money ethically and and a lot of good ideas here, so please take them to heart. Thank you, Susan. Good morning. My name is No Wish to my Honor. I represent Chief Seattle Club as their housing director and the more than 1000 urban American Indians and Alaska Natives who turn to the club for food, housing assistance and other basic survival needs. I'm also here to speak on behalf of the dozens of homeless Native Americans who could not be here today because of they perished on the streets of downtown Seattle in the past year. For all of us in the native community who see and feel the urgency of this moment for our people who sleep in encampments and in doorways, are under the cover of our stadiums and arenas. I'm here to testify in support of directing additional resources from the King County lodging tax towards creating additional housing for King County's homeless community, including thousands of our homeless native brothers and sisters in a place that is named after the great chief. So there's a tragic irony that the native community experiences far higher rates of homelessness than any other group in the King County. Yet there are currently no housing programs provided by the Native community for the Native community. Thank you so much for letting me speak on behalf of Colleen O'clock. Thank you, Ms.. Connor. And I've got Mark and then Laura, then LeAnn Geier, then Peter Quan. Good morning. My name is. My name is Mark Santos Johnson. I live in the unincorporated West Hill community and I work in community and economic development for the city of Renton. In years past, affordable housing was a problem that mostly affected those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. Now, with the area's booming economy and skyrocketing rents, affordable housing is also a huge and growing problem for many working individuals, families and retirees alike. For years, Renton was a place with a lot of more reasonably priced housing. Now we are seeing many families forced to move away and generally move much farther south because they can't keep up with rent increases. This uproots families from their their communities and schools and causes more transportation problems in the region. We desperately need more affordable housing and in order to make that happen, we need more funding on behalf of the City of Renton as a member of the Housing Development Consortium. I strongly encourage you to make significant additional funds from the housing from the county's lodging tax dollars available for affordable housing to help respond to the crisis in Renton and elsewhere throughout King County. Thank you, Mark. Laura. Hello, Council. My name is Laura Lowe. Thanks for the opportunity to speak today. I'm here representing a group of folks that organize around land use equity in District four and five in Seattle called Share the Cities. We voted to support and signed on to team housing with many other groups like Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness and the Transit Riders Union. There's a line around the block outside to speak. They've been waiting since 8:00, 830 this morning to speak to this issue. There is a strong need for housing in our city, and many different people are feeling the effects. Sure, the city's believes in creative and bold housing solutions during our dual housing and climate emergencies. We believe that we must address homelessness through building housing. We believe that all of you and us need to treat the housing emergency like an emergency and fund homes, not subsidize home runs. Personally, I couldn't convey to everyone here my passion for baseball in the amount of time left. 6 seconds. I cried at Griffey's number 24 retiring ceremony. I've been in many games. 15 stadiums across the country and. Love baseball, but people need homes. Thank you, Laura, Laura, Peter and Maya. So last time I wrote good morning and it was afternoon. Today I wrote Good afternoon. Now with morning the war on track. I'm pleased that City Councilmember Peter Cohen and at the King County resident, I want to request that you help support our economy and direct 15% of funds allocated by the state legislature for tourism promotion to the south. Seattle, South Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. That equates to only 25% of the funds that we generate. The cities of SeaTac, the Koala and the Moyne is home to 9000 hotel rooms, which are the largest grouping of hotels in the entire state of Washington. Together, the three cities generate almost $5.9 million in teacher and lodging tax just last year alone. What? I concluded that the portion of these dollars back into our economy, every dollar spent by the Southside Regional Tourism Authority generates $42 and 82% in visitor spending. That's an outstanding return on investment. We need to invest in our region and our jobs. Thousands of hospitality and service industry jobs in King County depend on a robust tourism. Please understand tourism is economic development. As one elected official to another. I thank you for your service and understand personally the commitment that you have to your constituents. Thank you. Thank you, Peter Leon. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Council members. My name is Leon Guyer. I'm here with my building trades hat on today and I stand before you in support of the proposed plan. I understand that 37% that we're looking at are targeting affordable housing. And I think that's a great deal, you know, and a good investment coming out of hotel motel tax that taxes taxes designed to promote tourism and support tourism. And so I am in favor of the investment into Safeco Field and the necessary upgrades that they need in a publicly owned building or ballpark. Thank you very much. Thank you, Liane. I've got Esmeralda Hernandez, Heidi Parke, Anna Bonilla and David Lord right here. Thank you. My name is Esmeralda Hernandez. I am a legally blind person. I experienced homelessness myself. And then, thankfully, the YWCA opened its doors to help me out and have a permanent home today. It's unsafe for people with blindness and other disabilities to be in homeless populations. And I if it weren't for the YWCA, I probably wouldn't have a home today. So I'm hoping that you would allocate some funds for affordable housing, but also allocate funds for certified peers, which live among the low income population, to be able to help managers, to help other people better rather than accidentally inflict trauma and and to be able to use our gifts and talents to help those around us. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Heidi. And then Anna and Sonia and David. Laura. And good morning, council members. Thank you for letting me come and speak here today at Public Comment. My name is Heidi Park. I am from the YWCA, Seattle King in Snohomish County. Our mission is to eliminate racism and empower women. We advocate to end homelessness and increase access to affordable housing. Build economic security for Washington women and families. And reduce barriers for our YWCA clients. I YWCA. We own and operate 851 housing units. And people of color are disproportionately homeless, making up 72% of all families and 46% of single adults that are homeless. More affordable housing is needed to address the state of emergency of homelessness that was declared three years ago. We look to help our committee members, much like Esmeralda has said earlier, and she's a valuable member of our community at YWCA and is the shining example of what advocacy can do when you are unsheltered and can move from unsheltered to being in stable housing. Help us to begin to close our community's affordable housing gap. 157,000 homes now and 244,000 homes by 2040. Thank you. Thank you, Heidi. Anna. David Lord. Patrick Sanford. Dale Bright. Good morning, King County Council members. My name is Anna Bonia and I am with Enterprise Community Partners working to advance our state and local policy agenda. At Enterprise, we believe in advancing opportunities for family through affordable housing, which is a focal point for where much of our health, well-being and prosperity stems from. I'm here today to encourage and support the Council in voting in favor to continue addressing the crisis at the level at a state of emergency. We can look at the numbers of the need of 244,000 homes by 2040 for families making less than 80% area median income. Or the fact that in 2018 we had 12,000 people experiencing homelessness in King County. But we don't need the numbers to see the reality that's true for us. So we cannot walk away from the opportunity that is before us. We are we are at a defining moment in our history as a county. And there are nearly a quarter billion dollars of shovel ready projects of affordable housing in the city of Seattle alone and not enough funding to support all of these projects. So I ask you all today to take bold action and support more affordable housing, more money for our communities in need. Thank you. Thank you. And I, David Lord, Patrick Sanford. Good morning. My name is Pat Sanford. I'm here today in support of the count of the county executive's proposal to continue the county's partnership with the Seattle Mariners. One word I feel is overlooked when talking about a ballpark is park. A park is a community space, a place to gather and experience to share. My wife and I are and are fortunate to attend many games each year. One of the best ballparks in baseball. Our ritual is get to the ball ballpark early, find a spot in the bullpen and on the rail and watch the Mariners starter warm up. When our kids were babies, we backpacked them into Mariners games. These days, we meet up with our now grown kids in the pen. It's where we visit with friends and neighbors. It's where we connect with out-of-town visitors. It's a place where we gather to share and experience and build community. Our days at the park watching Mariners Baseball are woven into the fabric of our lives, and I want to continue that for years to come. I want to share mariners, baseball and the ballpark experience with my wife, my kids, and hopefully someday their kids. I want to tell my grandkids about Felix's perfect game. Each of those hits record and Junior's Hall of Fame induction, all the while standing in the pen, watching the day start a warm up, enjoying a day at the park. I urge you to support the county executive's proposal. Thank you. Thank you, Pat. Dale, after Dale, I've got Ralph Morton, Katie Jarrow, Jim Cappuccino. Ethan Stall. Council members. I'm Dale Bright, political director. Labor's Local. 242 Labor Local 242 is concerned with the potential diversion of revenue from preservation and. Maintenance at Safeco Field. We've seen degradation of public infrastructure for decades on bridges, highways, other public facilities. To see this. Being potentially done at our public stadium. Is disconcerting. Well, we're more than willing to tear down a degraded, outdated facility. The kingdom. We believe $180 million over 25 years, a small price to pay. To guarantee a. World class facility and team for the next 25 years. We're in support of the Executive's proposal, and we hope that you guys will be in support also. Thank you, Dale. The Seattle Sports Commission strongly advocates for you. Let me know your name. I'm sorry of that yet. Ralph Morton, thanks for coming. Sorry about that. Seattle's Sports Commission strongly advocates for King County's financial support of maintaining the publicly owned Safeco Field as a world class venue in a tourism industry that generates $7 billion annually for King County from Seattle to SeaTac. For government terms, tourism spending is the best kind of revenue because 40 million tourists come to King County. They create $728 million in tax revenue. Then leave. Safeco has also been an unmitigated success. It is an important asset to our tourism industry, a major contributor to our region's economy with 3 million visitors annually. It is important to the Sports Commission that Safeco remains a state of the art venue. We hope to be successful for a bid such as the MLB All-Star Game and the FIFA World Cup, with more than 475 million in potential economic impact. Major events like these only happen if we make a proactive investment in our assets for the alternative of allowing a building to become obsolete. We need look no further than King Arena or the Kingdom. Thank you. Jim. Katie Jarrow, Ethan Stoll. Thank you. My name is Jim Colosimo, and as most of you probably know, baseball floats on a sea of statistics. Just about everything that happens in baseball can be measured by a number. Now, Mariners fans know that their shortstop, Gene Seger, his batting through 15, Eddie Diaz has recorded 50 saves so far this year. Felix Hernandez has struck out 2458 batters in his career. But there are some baseball statistics that everybody in the county should know. Like the fact that Safeco Field generates $180 million in economic activity to our city each year. It supports 3300 jobs and provides $128 million in wages since the ballpark opened some 20 years ago. 45 million fans have passed through the gates, making it Seattle's top tourist attraction after Pike Place Market. A new 25 year lease will continue to yield this sort of economic and civic benefit to the county. And an additional $8 million a year in public funds for maintenance will return a spectacular ROIC. It's a win win and it's a financial no brainer. Thank you. Thank you, Jim, Katie and then Ethan and Scott Carty, Rob Leslie, Calvin Jones, Katie Segway. And good morning, council members. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. My name is Katie Garrow and I'm the deputy executive director for MLK Labor, an umbrella organization that represents 100,000 workers here in King County and 150 different unions. I am also a resident of White Center. I'm here today to testify in favor of a deal that supports stadium improvements to Safeco, a place that provides hundreds of living wage jobs to our community, a deal that supports affordable housing and workers rights. Much has been said about affordable housing and stadium improvements. So I'd like to focus in on workers rights. We know that when American workers try to make a better life for themselves, they often face intense hostility from their employers. One solution to this problem is to encourage innovative partnerships between employers and unions, such as the kind of agreements that executive Constantine and new council members have put in place for your workers. Thank you. Another tool to this problem is successor ship agreements, so that when there is a change of management at a facility or organization, the company will not be able to wholesale fire and hire new nonunion workers for less pay. Go ahead. We believe that there's a pathway to keep our stadium thriving, workers rights respected, and that builds affordable housing. And that's a deal we can get behind. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. Got Ethan Stoll, Scott Carty, Rob, Leslie. Hey, Ethan. So I just want to point out a few things. One is the philanthropy that the Mariners do for our state. I mean, they're one of the best organizations in the state for outreach to the community. I know that I got introduced to them with the United Way, which I was a board member and campaign chair last year for United Way, and I would have been introduced to them and we would they wouldn't be our number one supporting organization that we do with our company. Two, I just want to point out an industry standard expectations. You know, we've gone through roughly about 20 leases or lease renegotiations or renewals, and every single one of those, the owner of the property has contributed financially. So I think it's something that's a that's a that is a very industry standard. And another thing to add on to that is, is the fact that I know the longer you wait to do repairs, the more expensive they get. So, you know, just having a being a person that's done a lot of construction, I know putting it off is probably not the best answer. And then lastly, you know, I would just like to I just want to point out that this group here seems great, but I just don't like the idea of the political discourse that's been going on in our city and state and actually, thankfully, our country. So hopefully that does not devolve into this topic. Thank you. Thank you, Ethan. Scott. No. Okay. I don't have Scott, Rob, Leslie, Calvin Jones, Katie, Sergei and Jen Kolb, Anna Johnson and Ethan Moats. Come on up. Good morning. My name is Rob Leslie. I'm the director of partner and visitor. Services for Visit Seattle, the official destination. The official isolation market organization for Seattle and King County. I visit Seattle has led the economic development and the tourism industry for our county in partnership with our 900 member businesses that we represent. From the English Museum to the excuse me, I'm sorry, from the museum to the Pioneer Square businesses to the waterfront businesses. That we support. This has led to 76,000 jobs in our county alone in 2017. We recognize the need for housing to help satisfy the needs of King County citizens. From the 2028 legislation, housing will get lodging tax revenue streams that start at 13.1 million annually in 2021 and grows in perpetuity. Lodging tax is collected. By the Washington State Convention Center will pay approximately 6 million. Annually for housing in Seattle and approximately another 3 million annually to King County. Each 1 million of these revenue streams can provide 17 million in bonds for housing. Finally, the public benefits package by the convention. Center of 39 million will provide additional affordable. Housing for funding. So we want to be a great partner, but we know that the tourism funding is necessary. Thank you. Rob. I've received your correspondence. What is the position of the Visiting the Visitors Bureau shall account of his visit here with respect to the $180 million Mariners request for it, against it or muddled. We believe that. Thank you for your call. Just trying to get a clear answer. We believe that there's a more reasonable allocation that should be considered. Thank you. That's helpful. Calvin Jones, Katie SIEGEL and Jen Cobb, Z Cody, Anna Johnson, Ethan Moats. Hi. My name is Calvin Jones and I'm an organizer with Seattle Tech Housing and a King County District two resident. It feels like every week I read something in the newspaper about how housing and homelessness is the defining issue of our time. And yet, every six months, when an opportunity comes up to do something about it, we do nothing. We have a system that has underinvested in affordable housing for years, and that system has resulted in 12,000 residents of King County that go every night without shelter. In my opinion, unless there are 12,000 Mariners players that struggle to find dignity in a society that has abandoned them, it is morally wrong to invest this lodging tax dollars in anything but affordable housing. I'll be honest, I was not really paying attention to county politics before this, but it's clear that I should be. And so I'm here now asking you to invest in affordable housing. And I'll be here next time and the time after that and the time after that to do the right thing. Thank you. Thanks, Calvin. Katie and then Jan and Anna and Ethan. Katy had an obligation. My name is Mark on the market manager for Hubbard Radio five radio stations here in Seattle. We have no sports stations, no play by play, but we associate on a daily basis and partner with the Mariners. They're a family oriented brand. That's the fabric of our favorite city, Seattle. We love the Mariner organization. We love working with them. We take our commitment to the community just like they do very seriously. I urge the City Council to approve the Executive Council team's proposal. We believe it's the right thing to do at this time. This team is the fabric of our city. And we leave you with this quote from the legendary Yankee baseball player Yogi Berra. Love is the. Most important thing in the world. Baseball's pretty good, too. All right. Thank you, Mark. You know, Jan, Anna and Ethan Yogi also said this is deja vu all over again. Hi, my name is Anna Johnson. I believe I switched cards with somebody, so apologize. Sorry. When you're on. I'm here because I grew up in Seattle. I'm a current Seattle resident and I work in the construction industry, so I work with schools and a lot of. Anyway, so I wanted to just comment that I feel like the Mariners are something that's very important to Seattle. You know, I grew up watching the Mariners. I have extremely fond memories of my grandparents being just so excited to watch every single Mariners game. And then so I feel like the Mariners are an iconic and important symbol and just representation of Seattle that we should continue to invest in. And then just given my experience in construction and whatnot, I do feel like it's very important that we continue to invest in these public facilities. Although, you know, again, having grown up here and watching the homeless situation and crisis that is occurring, it is very important. But I don't want that to be the investment in public facilities that still needs to happen to be dismayed by their the homeless issues. Thank you, Anna. After Ethan, I've got Michelle, Dylan and Tim Cocks, then Sharon Lee, then Sarah Runabout. I'll come forward. Don't waste any time. People are waiting. Go ahead, sir. I'm multiple names down the list. Great. What are the multiple names? Tim Cox. Pardon? Tim Cock. Tim Cox. Go. Tim Cox. All right. Okay. My name is Tim Cox. I'm a 12 year employee with the Mariners and a game day team captain. It's important. Microphone up so we can hear you, Mr. Cox. There you go. It's important that my work area and the overall ballpark is a safe place for employees and fans to enjoy. I support the proposal by King County executive Dale Constantine as a publicly owned facility. Yearly maintenance. Maintenance is required to maintain the ballpark in a first class condition. The King County Council has the obligation to keep this ballpark in pristine condition for the fans who travel to Seattle to watch games, go to concerts or special events, and those paying to stay in the local hotels, motels from which this revenues generated an ill maintained ballpark will lead to lower attendance for events and less hotel motel tax revenues. This is not an expenditure. It is a long term investment in the community for a publicly owned facility. With more hotels, motels being built in King County. This tax revenue increases. Please step up to the plate. Do what is right for the future of King County in the Mariners and pass this proposal. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cox. Go ahead. You, Michel. Yes. All right. Super good. My name is Michelle Dillon, and I am asking you to fund housing. That microphone. All right. There you go. My name is Michelle Dillon, and I'm asking you to fund housing, not empty stadiums. We are being asked by the anti housing side to essentially wait for trickle down housing. Trickle down didn't work for the economy and it won't work for housing. The argument for public investment into the stadium is that somehow it will increase tourism, which will increase money spent in the economy, which will create more revenue through hotel taxes, money spent at restaurants, etc. Then this revenue will miraculously provide housing and services way down the line. There is no plan for this. No timeline. According to official MLB stats, Safeco Field was 60% filled last season. Attendance is not great. How will this magical tourism money manifest when there are no tourists? According to Safeco Field's own report. Half of attendees went nowhere before or after games, and those who did spend only 24 to $50 per person. This is not enough to justify taxpayers subsidizing the stadium. It's hard to believe, based on these numbers, that our investment would even break even with these rates of tourism, let alone merit the investment at the expense of housing for our neighbors. We're in a housing crisis. We cannot wait for money to materialize. We cannot wait decades. We've already waited too long. The money isn't here. It will never be here. If we don't prioritize the needs of our community, of our neighbors, over the whims of a billionaire, what will King County stand for? Please fund housing, not empty stadiums. Thank you, Michelle. And I've got Sharon Lee and Sarah Ryan about. And if you have a card up to number 35, up to number 35, just come forward. I'm Sharon Lee, director of the Low Income Housing Institute. And I wrote a number of councilmembers earlier. But I think you should look at this whole question through the lens of equity and social justice. I think there's a way to rightsize the subsidy to the Mariners. I think 180 million is beyond what the what even their own report required to maintain the stadium and tiptop condition. So I think there's a problem when you don't have profit sharing. I think profit sharing should go back in. I think you should increase the lease. The lease is too low. If you increase the least to amortize and fix up over time somebody or borrow on and fix up some of the stadium needs, that would make sense. So I think housing is a priority. We support the 2025 million going to the Mariners, then we support the 160 million going to affordable housing. But I think you have some flaws in the equation the lease rate, the lack of profit sharing, the fact that the owners can invest capital because they're going to be making the millions and billions when they sell and on an annual basis. So I think the council has a couple different tools you can use to get housing and right size what the Mariners need. Thank you. Thank you. Sharon. Sarah. Good morning. Councilmembers. My name is Sarah Ryan Eveillard. I am a parent and homeowner and Council District four, political director of the 36th District Democrats and Chair of the King County Women's Advisory Board. I'm here today in my personal capacity and as a member of the 36 District Democrats testifying in opposition to the executive motion to allocate the 185 million and hotel motel tax to maintenance for Safeco Field. I would urge the King County Council to instead invest this funding in affordable housing with a priority on housing for and services for youth. As you know, three years after the city of Seattle declared a homelessness emergency, the number of homelessness and people in Seattle has continued to increase. King County Council has the opportunity to show much leading, much needed leadership in this area and respond to the state of emergency by investing in affordable housing for the county's most vulnerable residents. There is no doubt that this would make a huge difference and the needs of those most vulnerable. So thank you very much. Thank you, sir. And again, anybody with a card through 35 and let me know your name if you would, so I can check you off. I'm. My name is Wendy Morgan. All right. And I have written a personal letter to each of you, and I want to reinforce that that you need to adequately fund tourism promotion services. I received responses to my letter from a couple of you and a newsletter from one of you. So you know how important communication and promotion is. As a as elected officials, you're constantly trying to please people and have them remember you when they go to the polling station. So please put adequate funding in the promotion of tourism so that we have a stable tax base to fund the programs that are represented in this room . Thank you. Thank you, Wendy. Hi. Go ahead. Hi, I'm Sarah Wamsley. I think I might be out of order. I hope not. I can tell you are not a not out of order. You go ahead, Sarah. All right. Well, in that case, I'll just go. My name is Sarah Walmsley. I'm with the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle King County. We are an organization of 165 member organizations working throughout King County to ensure safe, healthy and affordable homes for all. And we've long considered council to be partners with us in that vision. So in that spirit, I'm here to urge you to maximize the lodging tax for affordable housing. You've heard today and in many of the ongoing discussions that you lead, such as the Regional Affordable Housing Taskforce, about the immense need and the bold steps that we need to take if we are going to meet it. In May of this year, we welcomed executive Constantine's announcement to speed up bonding against lodging tax dollars to help address our affordable housing crisis. But remember that when this announcement was made, it was made as a down payment. This is your opportunity to make the next payment and invest in the construction and the jobs and the revenues and the housing that affordable housing brings. Now, you can see I wore a mariners shirt today. I'm a fan. I ask you to please prioritize housing over the luxury of MLB stadiums. Thank you. Thanks, Sarah. Hello. My name is Catherine Kurtzman. I'm the president and CEO of the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. This national award winning public destination marketing enterprise began soon after 911, when the city of Tukwila partnered with neighboring cities, promoting the region as a travel and tourism destination known as Seattle Southside. This coalition has proven to be very successful public private partnership, which has paid dividends for our part of the county, including an estimated ROI of $40 for every $1 invested. Please amend the proposed motion to augment our partnership by investing a meager 25% of the nearly 6 million county lodging tax funds generated by our hotels annually in the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority to help drive visitation, create jobs, generate increased visitor spending and tax receipts in our part of the county that still provides 75% of what our hotels generate to invest in other important county projects. Our priorities. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Kathryn. Go ahead. Hi, councilmembers. My name is Jessica Ramirez and with Puget Sound Stage. I'm the director of Community Engagement. At the last council hearing, you heard from our executive director, Nicole Kidman, and our labor partners at U.S., UAW 21 and SEIU seven seven, five. And this morning we sent you all a joint letter on our stance on this issue, but for the greater public. And for the record, I will say to you all here that we urge you to program the remaining 25% of the county's future hotel motel tax for mitigation of the county's housing crisis and for community development. It is unclear that the revenue is needed for the Mariners Safeco Field continued profitability or for public benefit. But luckily for you all, we have three recommendations are what we believe should be requirements of the use of the county's future lodging tax and one that is that the vast majority of the remaining 25% should be committed to workforce housing. Two that any of the lodging tax should be spent on projects covered by a community workforce agreement. And three that any use of the lodging tax lodging tax must have the highest level of transparency and accountability. It is your interest to serve the public good as community members who are in relationship with those people. We believe that in affordable housing, good jobs as now authorized by the state, it is a clear priority for local government and a win win for the public. Thank you. Thank you, Jessica. And if you've got a card up through 42, feel free to come forward to either microphone. And if you are listening in in the ninth floor in the presiding judges courtroom, we have about 20 seats here in chambers in New York. Welcome to come. Come join us. Go ahead, sir. Hi. My name's Mike Bush. I'm here to speak on behalf of Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. I'm also the. Former director of marketing at the Museum of Flight. During my time at the museum, Seattle Southside was a great partner, very effective at what they do. They help to fuel our private events business and attract groups from out of state, particularly veterans groups that wanted to see old airplanes. During my time there, we saw. A 35% increase in education participation. 28% increase in visitor ship. And I give Seattle Southside much of the credit. The biggest beneficiaries of South Side's work, however, is the smaller attractions. People like the Museum of Flight that don't get the MacArthur money and the Boeing money and the Alaska Airlines kind of money groups like the Highland Botanical Gardens, Rainier Symphony, Des Moines, Marina , South Sides, their biggest and most important champion. They're doing great work on behalf of the little guys. And I hope you'll they'll have your support. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Go ahead, sir. Hello. My name is Gregory Rosoff. I had the pleasure of working for the Mariners as the captain of seating host and gate hosts on the day game. Leadership Staff. Bottom line Safeco Field is a publicly owned facility and we need to support the capital improvement plans as presented by the Mariners moving forward. I have great pleasure in welcoming many, many guests to every game and it is a safe, clean and friendly facility. And moving forward, I'd like to see us maintain that facility in a top tier world class facility. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Rosoff. Go ahead, ma'am. Hi. My name is Sherry Scott and I'm work for the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. One of the communities we represent is one of the most diverse in the state. CHEERING for the microphone down. Sorry. It's a vibrant community of people from a wide range of cultures who came to the area to build a business and a life, as you can imagine on. All of the folks can afford to do a lot of advertising. That's where Seattle South Side comes in. The people I work with are passionate about bringing people to the SeaTac tech world in Des Moines and dedicated to finding the unique offerings in the area and a shining spotlight on them. I hope you'll help us continue to do so. And we thank you for your time. Thank you. Go ahead, sir. Thank you for joining me today. My name is Bruce Dickinson. I'm vice president with Rainier Industries. We are one of the oldest companies in Seattle starting business in 1896. I represent the 285 men and women of my organization since the days of the kingdom. Our company has been actively involved with the Seattle sports scene. In addition, we worked at over a dozen major league ballparks across the country. I can tell you that no organization takes better care of a facility than Seattle Mariners do. We are proud of and association with this organization for over 30 years. They are loyal to our community beyond means and keep the work needed to maintain this beautiful ballpark with local companies. I have visitors that come to Seattle often and can't believe the ballpark is 20 years old. It's showing that's because it's maintained so well. Safeco Field, to become an iconic destination in the Northwest like Fenway. Park is to New England. Let's keep this ballpark world class. And keep the Mariners right here in Seattle for generations to come. Thank you for your. Opportunity to speak today. Thank you, Bruce. Hello. My name is Ron GROSS. I am a commercial filmmaker. I have what I hope is a very useful and simple practical testimony. I have had the privilege of documenting Safeco Field with my cameras since its debut in 1999. The partnership that has existed between the Seattle Mariners organization and King County has led to a ballpark that is more appealing to our cameras today than it was the first day it opened. The success of this partnership can perhaps best be illustrated with a visit to AT&T Park in San Francisco, a beautiful ballpark in its own right that opened a year later in 2000 and already showing signs of age not evident at Safeco Field. This panel here today pointed out many instances across the country where 20 year old buildings have been demolished and replaced. The fact that Safeco Field is a public facility that is in better shape today than the day it opened speaks volumes. I remember watching the implosion of the kingdom with my two year old son on my shoulders. It is hard to imagine that fate for this bar ballpark, which continues to improve with age. This is a success story that should continue. Thanks. Thank you, Ron. Good afternoon, council members. Alison Eisinger with the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness. Fortunately, the question before you doesn't have anything to do with whether or not the Mariners baseball team or Safeco Field, soon to be renamed, will continue. What is before you is the question of whether or not you will prioritize these precious public dollars for the most important public need that we have in this community right now, which is housing. The fact is that the crisis before us is that people can't afford to live in King County. So I'd like to just stipulate for the record, we all love baseball and also that the most family friendly brand there is is for people to have homes, because I'm the director of the Coalition on Homelessness. I'd like to also just make one other point. We're not talking about homeless specific housing. As you well know, the legislation allows for the hotel motel lodging tax to be used for housing that's affordable for people between 30 and 80% of Amy. That's an individual earning between 20 and $50,000 a year and a family of three living on 25 to $57000 a year. Those are the working people whose homes are in your hands. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Dennis Saxman. I'm speaking on behalf of myself and more housing. I live on Capitol Hill. I always vote. I'm very engaged in community matters. I'm not a sports fan. In fact, I can afford the price of admission to what is being called a public facility. But I am a fan of racial and housing justice, and therefore I do not support the executive's motion. If my hands shake, it's because I have essential tremors in both arms. I hear a lot of story about the importance of tourism and everything, but I would say who wants to come to a city that lets people die on its street? This is wrong. Thank you. Thank you, Dennis. Good morning, counsel. My name is Sally Kinney. I am a member on behalf of my neighborhood organization in Seattle, King County Coalition Homelessness and the Transit Riders Union. This afternoon, the Homeless Remembrance Project will lead seven more leaves. Bronze leaves in the sidewalk of a park in Lake City to honor homeless people who have died in my neighborhood. So far, we're up to more than 40 people have died in my small Lake City neighborhood. Then after that, I'll walk three blocks home to my senior housing apartment, where many of my neighbors who are in their sixties, seventies and eighties are worried about being homeless after their next rent rent increase. We just had a rent increase that. Is going to make some of them buy less food. This is the real. Emergency low income housing for people who are. Homeless or in danger of becoming homeless. Housing, is it. Not $100 million in upgrade. Of a stadium and a ball club owned by billionaires. Please council members make your decision in recognition that emergency. Thank you. Thank you, Sally. Good morning, counsel. My name is Andrea Ray and I have the honor to serve as the president, CEO of the Seattle Southside Chamber. I'm here this morning to remind you that the lodging tax funds were dedicated and approved to support marketing and tourism, to support organizations like the Seattle Southside RTA that are dedicated to growing our local economy and adding jobs. Funds dedicated to support housing and the arts. Funds that should support our entire community for the benefit of all. Not only for the benefit of some. Thank you for doing what's in the best interest of our community. We would also just like to echo what visit. Seattle said that we are not asking for a dereliction of duty, our responsibility to maintain the public facility. We think that there is a more equitable compromise that can be made, and we encourage you to do so. Thank you, Andrea. And if you've got a card through 50, go ahead and come forward up to 50. Go ahead, sir. Good morning, Carol. I'm sorry. She was ready. She was ready. I jump. Go ahead. No worries. My name is Rebecca Brown. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. You have a hard job. You have a lot of really hard decisions to make. And I'm sure that you go home some nights and feel really anxious and uneasy about some of the council business. And that's why I'm so happy for you today, because today is not one of those days. Today, your job is even. Looking forward. To one of these days. I know. You're welcome. Councilmember Caldwell's has put forth an extremely reasonable compromise, and I urge you to accept it. We know that you all care deeply about the communities that you serve. But in the face of a crisis, if you choose to do only the bare minimum and instead ask those communities to subsidize millionaires, you're asking us to rationalize your compassion when we know that you've left evidence of that compassion on the table. So I'm asking you, who is baseball for? Who gets to enjoy it? If the stadium gets the funding, those upgrades will never be seen or enjoyed by some of the folks who would have benefited from more affordable housing. Our national pastime will remain out of reach for many of them as well. An affordable place to live. It is true that the stadium does bring economic benefit to the region, but perhaps if the stadium paid any property taxes or for that matter, the executives, any income tax, we may not be having this conversation. Many of your constituents took a functional pay cut to keep up with rising rents. I'm sure if the Mariners start to feel the pinch, they can do the same. Thank you. Thank you for backing. Good stuff. Good morning, counsel. My name is Jeff Dressler. I'm a lifelong resident of Kane County. But I'm here to talk to you today about my role as a concert promoter in this market. I have proud to have produced and presented every major event that has. Played Safeco Field that was in baseball, that being Sir Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Beyoncé, the late Tom Petty are upcoming this week the Foo Fighters, Zac Brown Band and. Maybe most importantly to the other conversation about today. We did the Pearl Jam shows two weeks ago. They raised over 11 and a half million dollars for homelessness. So close to Pearl Jam. But it's because there is this tremendous community asset that needs to be maintained in a first class and tenable condition that we're able to produce and present these shows at Safeco Field. And we look forward to doing many more for many years to come. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Again, anyone through card 50 and come forward and we'll just take turns. Hi, I'm Teresa Clark with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance here to ask you to support the proposed amendment by Councilmember Cole. WELLS Thank you to councilmembers Cole Wells Up The Grove, Dombrowski and Gossett for your leadership on this issue. There is a housing affordability crisis in King County. It is a defining issue of our time, and you have the opportunity to act on the declaration that homelessness is an emergency in King County by allocating at least $184 million to build housing for the many individuals and families struggling with our county's severe shortage of affordable homes, roughly 43% of households in the county are renters, and many are paying much more than 30% of their incomes to keep a roof over their heads. So why then would the county give public tax dollars to a sports team owned by billionaires while leaving struggling households in the cold? Your constituents are desperately in need of options. Please stand up for the people of King County and do the right thing by supporting Councilmember Caldwell's proposed amendment that would allocate $184 million for affordable housing. Thank you. After Representative Valeria, we'll take these two women here at the table and then continue. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the council. My name is Velma Valeria. I'm a former Washington state representative. I'm here to represent the Filipino community of Seattle and others in the struggle for affordable housing. We support the request for increased funding for affordable housing from the hotel motel tax. The Filipino community of Seattle is doing its fair share to alleviate the housing crisis in King County. We are in the process of building a 95 unit affordable senior housing in the South End of Seattle and are challenged by the enormous requirements for development. For example, the cost of construction is skyrocketing, rocketing in the Seattle area just in the time we have been designing and planning our building. The pressures have pushed our cost up to nearly $2 million more. For over 80 years, the Filipino community of Seattle has been the galvanizing force and cultural touchstone for thousands of Filipino community and others in the low income community. Increasing the funding for affordable housing will not only benefit the people in the South End of Seattle, but throughout the King County. Thank you very much. Thank you, Velma. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Which one? Either one. Okay. My name is Jennifer Laird. I've been in Washington state now for almost a decade. I wasn't born here. I went. I lived in Denver for 17 years and I've only been to in the Rocky Mountain. Ball club. Once I took my adopted child on a field trip because I couldn't afford the ticket. But since he was going on a field trip, it was covered by the public schools. And I've only been to see the learners once. The upgrade will make it unaffordable for those of us on SSI to be there. I'm not a sports crazy fan. Like most of Danvers residents don't bleed orange and blue. You won't make it. So please support affordable housing. That's mostly what I live on is SSI. I live in Shoreline and that's where the homeless crisis is headed next. Jennifer, thank you for coming down from the shoreline. Queen Bee. Good afternoon. King County Council members. I am Queen Bee. King Rios and formerly homeless. I'm a member of well, a leader of Women in Black. And I'm also a member of the Homeless Remembrance Project. Last year, in 2017, we stayed silent. Vigil for 108 homeless people deaths. Our hearts are broken and we are grief stricken. Just last Wednesday, we stood for two more deaths this year, bringing this year's total to 77 that we know of. Our city is in a crisis, but it is more than a crisis. The homeless people are our sisters and our brothers and our children. I am asking you to use the funding, however many dollars that it is, to fund affordable housing. There is an overwhelming need for housing that people can afford. We can't do it without you. Please do the right thing and fund the housing. It will help save lives. Please choose housing over a $504 toaster. And I'd like to invite you all to our leafleting ceremony at 3:00 today on 125th and Lake City Way. Thank you and God bless you. Thank you, Queen Bee. Good morning. Council members. My name is Nicholas Earn a reside in District seven. At the last count, the number of homeless tallied exceeded the population of Woodinville. And so the region continues to exist under a state of emergency. Without any signs it will be lifted. It's completely asinine that county residents have to show face and plea for our council members to make a choice of investing towards a housing solution that was declared a state of emergency three years ago. Let's stop wasting time and get the ball rolling. On investing the $480 million towards restoring the community of over 12,000 who lack housing stability currently. Thank you. Thank you, Nicholas. Hi. My name is Hilary Keys. I grew up in Seattle and I'm a current resident in Wedgewood, and I'm baffled about what is necessary by about $504 toasters and $3 million in new furniture, both items on the proposed Mariners wish list. When there are actual needs within our community with 150,000 additional affordable homes needed today and 244,000 by 2040, the Mariners are doing just fine, currently at an estimated value of $1.45 billion. Additionally, we have seen that by this panel skirting around, answering direct questions about the financial need from the public, that this lease has been negotiated in a way that reduces oversight of the club through regular audits and reduces the return to the public and instead goes into the pockets of Seattle Mariners owners who most certainly do not need this money. Members of our community without homes do need your help. Children and families who have been forced out of their homes because of high housing costs need this support. I hope you do the right thing and invest this money in affordable housing. Thank you. Thank you, Hillary. And if you're through, say, 65, feel free to come forward. Number 65 by Katie. Haigh Council Members My name is Katie Wilson speaking for the Transit Riders Union. I first want to say we all spent an hour and a half this morning before the testimony listening to a presentation about the stadium and its needs. I'm wondering when we're going to hear an hour and a half presentation about the housing crisis and our region's housing needs. I also want to point out that many people weren't able to stay all morning in order to testify and reiterate a request that the council holds an evening public hearing so that people who work during the day can attend and we can speak at the beginning. I think it's clear from all the information that's been coming out recently about the stadium lease that it's a really bad deal for the public. And I sort of feel like at this point, even if the alternative to subsidizing a stadium was to give all King County employees a nice holiday bonus for the next 20 years, that might be a better use of the money. It would certainly have more economic benefit for the region. But in fact, the alternative is our region's most pressing need the crisis that we all keep talking about and doing so little about. Please put your values into action and prioritize housing over stadiums. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Hattie Rhodes. I'm from Georgetown Nicholls ville. The reason I am here is to respond to executive Constantine's argument that investing $180 million in safe coast upkeep has real economic benefit and is in the public's interest. In reality, the so-called upkeep is an actual upgrade to the stadium that only has monetary benefits for the Mariners, not the city or the county. If we accept the figures from the study that the stated wages generated from the 2200 jobs is $100 million per annum. The reality is most of those jobs are part time and seasonal and only pay minimum wage. By no stretch of the imagination does this labor force average in a $45,000 a year. I would challenge as to whose salaries are being included in this economic impact number. The cold, hard truth is many of the men and women who comprise this labor force of 2200 are living in tents or shelters or tiny houses because of the critical shortage of affordable housing. I know this statement to be true because I live with some of them and I could introduce you to many. I urge you not to be bullied, as it now seems that past mariners female female employees have been into believing that the Mariners will leave town if you don't kowtow to their demands. I'll end by saying this. Keep in mind that the toll on human suffering by far outweighs the demands of the wealthy to upgrade their playthings . Please do the right thing. Thank you. How do you. But like an afternoon. My name is Alicia Glenn. Well, I'm the policy and special projects manager with the Coalition Ending Gender Based Violence. I remember programs collectively serve thousands of survivors of sexual and domestic violence in King County every year. And we believe that King County lodging tax dollars ought to be maximized to create homes that working people can afford. For domestic violence survivors, the struggle to find housing has literally life and death implications. Marie, a survivor working with one of our member programs, works three part time jobs. Her income was still not enough for her to afford market rate rent anywhere in the county. After she left her abusive partner, she's currently renting a room from a friend of a friend, but it's temporary. And this acquaintance has exhibited coercive, abusive and illegal behaviors toward her while she's been living there. And she's too scared to say anything because she knows she has nowhere else to go. She told her advocate, it's just as bad as being with her abusive ex partner, except now she truly doesn't know what will happen or where she will go next. We believe all available lodging tax dollars should go to affordable housing, and the amendment proposed by Councilmember Cole Wells is a good compromise. We urge you all to support this opportunity to create new, desperately needed homes for some of our most vulnerable neighbors. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, ma'am, and then we'll get Rooney. Hi, my name is Kiesha Bailey and I am from Community Psychiatric Clinic Supportive Services for Veterans and Families Program. I am a social worker. I am also a person who is employed and one step away or one paycheck away from being homeless. So I understand the need for affordable housing as a my 30% of my income also goes to housing. I asked that King County please support the city of Seattle to secure affordable housing to address the homeless crisis impacting King County. Is it not an insult to humanity to prioritize the investment of 185 million into the Mariners Safeco Field improvements first inning versus investing 185 million into safe, affordable housing and supportive services to over 12,000 homeless and working poor persons. I asked that we invest in the homeless and the working poor as they are profession workers at Safeco Field who are making under 50% of the area median income. Let's house veterans, elderly, disabled women and children, young adults sleeping in tents, vehicles and sleeping in bags. Sleeping bags, living and living on the streets of King County and around Safeco Field. I am team affordable housing and supportive services for the homeless and working poor. Thank you, sir. Keesha. Go ahead, Renee. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Renee Murray, Public Policy and advocacy manager for White Oak Youth Development Executives of King County. And we are also a member of the Seattle Human Services Coalition Steering Committee. Today, I am speaking to you on behalf of the Seattle Human Services Coalition. We thank you for your support in the past for affordable housing. You've shown that you understand this is a critical need for strong, healthy communities throughout the county. We also know that much more needs to be done to reach our shared goals. The lodging tax presents us with a tremendous opportunity. We can choose to direct these resources to address the lack of affordable housing for workers at King County or not. Shc. Shc members stand with others here today to urge you to put every dollar you can. The full 62.5% that is allowed by the state toward affordable housing. It is time to remember and recognize that maybe routine maintenance is not a priority in this non-routine time. The alternatives are either continually increasing the Center for the Workforce to move out of county or increase homelessness. Thank you. Thank you, Renee. Go ahead. And thank you, counsel, for allowing me to be here today. My name. Is here. Okay. Thank you. What's your. Name? My name's Rebecca. Ulrich. Okay, Rebecca, go ahead. I am representing Nicholas Bell, Georgetown. And I just came here today because I have a lot of things in my heart for all the things that you have made possible for us and all the help that we've gotten in particular from my help. I was born, uh, homeless on the street as well. But January, I came to Nichols Bell, and they've helped me so far. And this is the best place that I've ever lived. Coming here, being in a tent in Soho area, I was constantly afraid for my life and, you know, my health and everything. I have a safe place to call my own now. I have my own little house. It's helped us in so much that I want to share with you all today that we need more funds for the homeless. There's a lot more homeless people than we thought, and we just really all need your help. And we do appreciate everything that you've done for us. And please, there's never don't ever quit having compassion. For my missing. Humanity. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Dan Belsky and council members. My name is Steve, where I'm executive director of the Wooden Anvil Chamber. Pleased to be here today to comment on the allocation of future lodging tax revenues in support of tourism. Tourism is an important segment in the Woodville economy, and with our wineries and concert venues and other attractions, we draw a lot of visitors to our neighboring cities as well. So it's really a regional asset and tourism means a lot to all of all of us. But with just two hotels in Woodinville, our lodging tax revenues are somewhat limited in order to support an aggressive tourism promotional effort. So we turn to visit Seattle, which is a very well-run, strong destination marketing organization. They're strategic partner. They help connect us with tourism decision makers on a national level, international level. And we urge you to to continue to support visit Seattle through lodging tax revenues. It will benefit all of us. Thank you so much. Thanks, Dave. Go ahead, ma'am. Good afternoon. My name is Debbie Carlson, and I'm the executive director of LGBTQ Allyship. Allyship is an organization that represents over 3000 LGBTQ people, and we strive to better the lives of LGBTQ people in King County, in Washington State. And I'm here to support the increase of funding of affordable housing, particularly. I believe that using all tools to end homelessness, displacement and the lack of affordable and low income housing needs to be utilized. And that is a key factor in ending LGBTQ homelessness and displacement. I wanted to I had the privilege of hosting as Allyship a leadership institute of LGBTQ individuals around housing. And I wanted to share a couple stories of some of our participants, Holly, who is a participant, they are part of the LGBT community. They are living with disabilities and they are currently homeless. They're a leader in our community. They cannot be here now. But increasing affordable housing for LGBTQ people will make a difference. I also want to share another story. Participant His name is Steve. He has been displaced from Seattle because he lost his job and it is no longer affordable in Seattle. Seattle has LGBTQ friendly, direct services, community visibility. It's a safety as well as a direct service issue for LGBTQ people that we are able to have affordable and low income housing in King County and Seattle. So I please urge you to support the increase of funding for housing with the lodging tax. Thank you so much, Debbie. And if you've got a card through 75, feel free to come forward through 75. And if you're outside or in the ninth floor courtroom, we have about 20 seats or so in chambers. You're welcome to come this way. And I've got 86 folks signed up. So we're we're making good progress here. Okay. Hello. My name is best known and I'm here on behalf of behalf of Youth Care, one of the largest providers for youth experiencing homelessness in King County. And I'm here today to share how our dire need for affordable housing affects youth experiencing homelessness in King County. So my job at Youth Care is to help young folks get jobs in our community, and they're doing it even with the trauma they've experienced and the barriers that they face. Our young people are able to get entry level full time jobs in King County, but even with full time employment, they cannot afford shelter or a place to stay. And let me tell you, it is nearly impossible to maintain employment if you don't have a place to live. I work with a young 18 year old woman. She was staying in emergency shelters and also holding down a full time job. When the shelters were full. She had to sleep outside. She was assaulted that night, couldn't go to work for four days and lost her job. This is a dire situation. And I'm here on her behalf and on behalf of all of the other young people experiencing homelessness who need affordable housing options. Please invest in this amendment. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bess. Hi, I'm Josh Castle. Josh. They come next, right? You're you. I'm the community engagement director with the Low Income Housing Institute. I spoke a couple of days ago, so I won't repeat some of what I said there. But I wanted to reiterate again that our case managers that work at our in our tiny house villages, they work their hearts out every day to find affordable housing for the residents in each of the villages, each of the nine villages that we sponsor and are reminded every day through all through their efforts, how little available for affordable housing that there is. And we are measured on that by the city. How many people we get into affordable housing. We, as you know, we in a crisis that many people believe is the biggest, most challenging one that we face in the county. And we we really should be doing everything we can, putting as many available dollars as possible to help the many you know, many working families and people in your district, in each of your districts who are struggling to find affordable housing. I want to especially thank council members. Gossett Dombrowski. You call Wells and Up the Grove for all of your leadership on this issue. And I'm I think that Caldwell's proposal, who's my council member, is a very good compromise. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. Hi. Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Britney Boulay. I'm here on behalf of the Sierra Club Seattle Group. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a giant baseball fan. I am a mariners season ticket holder. I have been to 41 games this year and Safeco Field is my home away from home. But there are so many people that need real. Homes. In this time of crisis, we must very carefully examine our priorities. Shelter from smoke, from heat waves, from other extreme weather events is becoming an increasing need in times of climate change. Affordable housing close to jobs reduces driving, reduces the stress on our vulnerable natural areas. The ring Seattle. And. Sorry. I'm nervous. That's all. Right. Doing a great job. The Sierra Club strongly supports prioritizing affordable housing to any degree possible. And we thank you so much for listening and for your patience today. Thank you, Brittany. Thanks for being here. My name is Bob Simeon. I'm representing the Settlement RBI Club. We're a group of over 150 season ticket holders, and our board. Of directors has the following statement endorsed unanimously by the board. We are writing in support of the proposal by King County executive Dow Constantine to devote a fraction of the hotel motel tax revenues to continue. The highly successful, successful public. Private partnership that has kept Major League Baseball in Seattle. Using a small portion of this revenue source will maintain our public investment in Safeco Field in a very and this is a very reasonable step. The King County executive's proposal limits funding for the hotel multi tax for Safeco Field to be spent on infrastructure, necessary capital improvements, things like plumbing, heating, heating and electric, electrical and roof repair. This is responsible and good stewardship. We are pleased to see that the Mariners and the King County Executive have agreed on in terms of a 25 year lease that will keep the team here through 2043. We urge you to approve executive Constantine's proposal. It is this It strikes the right balance and will ensure that we maintain our public asset and Safeco Field in a great condition for the next 25 years. And I just want to echo Mr. Stolz point. I don't think it's realistic for the county or any other entity, private or public, to think that they can have a three to 4 to $5 billion facility and not. Contribute to maintaining the infrastructure. It's just not realistic thinking. Thank you, Bob. And come on forward. If you've got through 75, just go ahead, line up, take your turns, let me know who you are so I can mark you off. Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Jason Austin. I'm here on behalf of Catholic Community Services of Western Washington, one of a number of faith based organizations who has come out in support of the Coal Wells Amendment. The argument against the amendment seems to boil down to consider the needs of tourism in this town. Well, the thing that I hear from the chamber and other tourism interests is we don't like the traffic in this town caused by all of the working class folks who have to travel so far from their jobs to the affordable place that they live, number one. Number two, people don't like to see visibly homeless people when they come here for trade shows. If you want to make this a place that's appealing for tourism, you can start by investing in affordable housing. And you all have a judgment here. You all will presumably face voters in a few years, but you also have a personal reckoning to deal with as well. Now, I don't know myself. I'm a skeptical man, so I don't know what happens after we die. But I know that if I do face Saint Peter's judgment and he asks me, What did you do with your life? I'm not going to tell them how nice the box seats were. Thank you very much. Go ahead, sir. Hi. My name is Brian Chu and I'm a board member of Homestead Community Land Trust, as well as one of the 215 families that currently owns a homestead home that is going to stay permanently affordable. Right now, there are over 67,000 households in King County that make between 60 to 80% of area median income who are either cost, burden or extremely cost burdened by their housing. Owning an affordable home would give these households not only an affordable housing payment, but also the opportunity to build equity in their home and stay in their communities. We need new revenue sources to create more affordable homeownership opportunities. In addition to creating more affordable rental units, the lodging, lodging tax dollars can make a much bigger impact if these funds are used to address our community's need for more affordable housing. Thank you for your time and your consideration. Thank you, Brian. Go ahead, 61 and then we'll get to a nitro over here. Here. Hi, my name is Ian Carroll. I am a lifelong resident of Councilmember Caldwell's district. And a student University of Washington and Urban Planning and Geography. In both of. Those, we talk about the growth coalition, which is is often framed as. A group of special interests that are. Working together to focus on their own needs for for tourism and for a civic spirit that is framed as for everyone, but often benefits only themselves. The tourism argument is false because it is going to happen anyway. The Mariners can afford to make the investment and get the same return on investment without any public money. Thank you. Thank you, Aiden. Anita. Thank you. My name is Anita Freeman. I am a founding member of Wheel Women in Black who stand vigil whenever somebody homeless dies outside or by violence anywhere in King County. I became homeless in 1995 due to bipolar depression. If I hadn't got into housing right away, if I'd been out there for very long, wandering around in the great, great fog, I would be dead by now. Housing is critical to survival. Every budget season, I hear the phrase We have to make hard decisions, which usually ends up meaning we have to pay something else and not shelter and housing. This is a chance to make a hard decision that benefit poor people. Make a decision that gives the greatest benefit for the greatest need. Thank you. Thank you, Anita. Hello, everybody. My name is Miguel Duncan Galvez. Bravo. I am the fundraising manager for Romanos. The only if I were one C3 LGBTQ Hispanic nonprofit in the state and currently Seattle ranks third in the country when it comes to the homeless population. According to the U.S.. Department of Housing and Urban Development, since 2007. Homelessness has climbed 47% to the 12,000 12,000. A number of figure that we see today, King County also ranks third in the number of. Unsheltered homeless people, which means people living in tents, vehicles and so forth, which represents a 21% increase. Over the last year from 2017. One of the most startling findings this year was that the jump in the number of people living in cars and recreational vehicles is 46%. 22% of King County homeless people from ages 12 to. 25 identify as LGBTQ gay. Transitional homeless people. Youth and young adults are seven times more likely to experience sexual violence than the straight and non transgender counterparts. According to the. Committee to. End Homelessness, 21% of Los Housing because of issues like eviction, rising rents, foreclosures and 80% said that they are at more affordable housing and rental assistance could help us out of homelessness as a nonprofit serving LGBTQ communities. Those who are living with HIV, with current housing programs have to wait a minimum of three. Years just to get assistance. We need money to develop our homeless. Population that we have in Seattle and King County. Thank you. Thank you, Miguel. And researcher. Yes. Thank you. I'm sorry to interrupt. I think this seems like a good time to ask again, people who have written testimony, especially, we're going through this pretty fast and please feel free to share that with us. If you have written testimony because you said a lot and I was trying real hard to focus on all of it , and that's true of many speakers now. So please do email your comments if you have them. Thank you. Thank you. Helpful reminder. Go ahead, ma'am. And then we'll take up through all it's going to last through 86 as the last I've got. So if you've not yet had a chance to speak, feel free to come forward and let me know who you are. We'll get you in. Thanks for being here. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Elisa mostly. Thank you council members for the opportunity to speak. As I said, my name is Eliza. I work at the Latino Community Fund. We are a local nonprofit just two blocks away from here. And we are our mission is to better the lives of the Latino community all around Washington state. We do this through a bunch of different programs and initiatives like economic empowerment, workers rights, civic engagement and advocacy, among others. But our job is becoming increasingly hard when our community doesn't have a place to live. We can't help our community thrive. If they don't have anywhere to go at night or even during the day, they can't have jobs. As many of us have said, it is really hard to maintain a job when you don't have a place to live. So we want to ask you, are community or already marginalized communities being further impacted by the housing crisis? You have the power to decide how to use that 25% of the lodging tax. So I want to urge you to allocate those tax dollars in a way that actually reflects the most pressing needs of our region, its residents and our community. Thank you. Thank you. Also good, sir. My name is Zach Wirtz. W r t z. And you think it's unfortunate that we're here being divided on an issue that we all seem to agree on? We've heard from many folks today who live as both fierce housing advocates and passionate fans of our local teams. I agree with just about every proposal brought forward today and more to fight the homelessness crisis. I also believe that the county can both fund the imperative housing emergency and maintain our our public cultural spaces. I moved here from Yakima, a community with its own homelessness, crisis of its own. And here in King County, we aren't faced with the same lack of access to resources as we are out on that side of the mountains. We are fortunate to have the means to effectively tackle this problem. And while nobody is making any threats of the Mariners moving, I still believe in the value a community gains with also recognizing the role of public performance in events spaces. I'm just asking don't get backed into choosing between teams that love our between the teams that we love and our fellow community members who just need a safe, dry place to sleep. We all seem to be on the same team, so let's do both. Government budgets aren't much more dynamic than saying, Here's a block of funds. You can choose this thing or that thing. Imagine the next block of funds. Make you choose between schools or busses. Thank you. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Jesse Murray and I am co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission. Our commission at our most recent meeting voted, I believe, unanimously in support of Councilmember Caldwell's amendment. We think that it is an appropriate compromise solution. And as others have mentioned, LGBTQ individuals are disproportionately represented among the homeless population, especially among unaccompanied youth. I think the point in time count estimated approximately one in three unaccompanied youth was a member of the LGBTQ community. We need to take bold action here. And for too long we have said that we can't take action in Seattle until we take action as a county, and so we need to take action as a county. This will not do enough to eliminate the crisis. This will hopefully stop it from accelerating as much as it already is. We need to ensure that more people, especially those in our community who especially trans individuals, are at risk of poverty, aren't falling into homelessness. And we need to do that urgently and we need to start switching this conversation from conversation to action. Thank you. Thank you. Jesse. So my name is Sarah Stewart, and I'm here with the Washington Community Action Network. I worked full time in health care and was a seasonal wildland firefighter on specialty crews before falling seriously ill with a degenerative illness and 2001. This past March, I became homeless after being evicted from Seattle Housing Authority due to their practices which exploit the marginalized populations they serve. I currently work an intermittent part time position for the city and can't work enough hours to afford housing on my own due to my chronic progressive illness. My best option when I was evicted was to live in my car. But that shouldn't be anybody's best option. It doesn't need to be if our lawmakers fight for policies that prioritize affordable housing along with better tenant protections. If they did, thousands of people could be housed right now. Housing issues aren't just about the homeless and low income. They affect everyone in King County. A person has to make at least 61,000 to afford a one bedroom apartment in Seattle. And median home prices for many in King County residents in a wide range of income brackets to rent. A new study released by the Urban Institute said that almost half of Americans can't pay for their basic needs, such as housing, utilities, food or health care. This isn't just the middle class. This included the middle class and not just the poor. Our policies need to be built by and for the people most impacted by this housing crisis. We can make a better, more equitable society, but the people, not big business, should lead the way. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. Go ahead, Joey. Hi. Thank you. I'm Joey Gray. And today I'm here as an athlete. As a former sports executive and a former executive of a local housing program for native youth. I've competed in five world championships myself, and I've served on the executive committee of an International Sports Federation. So I understand the sports business aspect of this. I founded the Mixed Gender Championships, now lauded by the International Olympic Committee as exemplary on on gender balance. Three years ago, King County sent me on an impossibly time consuming wild goose chase for just one desperately needed staff position to support kids aging out of foster care with nowhere to go. Meanwhile, extraordinary resources, dollars and time are spent on men's sports. It's inequitable on so many levels, including the amount of public attention and staff time today. So please prioritize affordable housing and focus all tourism spending on equitable recreation for all and define world class being in the top third of cities that take care of our people rather than take care of our elite sports teams. Thank you. Good afternoon, council members. Thank you. My name is Michelle de michelle. I'm at South Park resident. I have a day job and I'm a community health worker who goes into homes to help people with health issues, often exacerbated by their housing conditions. And when they don't have homes, those health issues are even worse. Today I'm here representing that two Amish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition, along with the Housing Development Consortium here. So big businesses pushing the disadvantaged out. This issue is the same issue that is happening into Aquila and SeaTac. And there's a value at play here of greed and big business versus the value of helping the less fortunate, who give also economically high contributors to our society here in King County. Across Seattle, King County, we have residents and communities coming together, organizing to keep their homes, to ensure they can pay for their home in the community they love and neighborhoods they have built. Communities are working together with the city of Seattle to help solve the housing crisis for their neighborhoods. Those who are most vulnerable for displacement due to increased rents are tolerating property, owner neglect, persons, severe mold and have been tolerating these conditions for decades. Help solve the healthy housing crisis and displacement crisis with your King County community's concern for the most vulnerable. Spend the maximum amount you can. Unhealthy housing solutions that keep neighbors in their homes. Thank you, Michelle. My name is Mason Taylor. I'm a fourth generation resident of the state of Washington, third generation resident of Seattle. And this housing crisis is something I never thought I would see. I'm sure my parents are rolling over in their crypts. It's unbelievable. I just want to highlight some things. By the way, I'm representing or I'm a member of the Transport Writers Union and paid to sign advocates for retirement action. Already, 85 organizations across King County have signed a joint statement urging council to prioritize public dollars for affordable housing rather than stadium maintenance. The Seattle Times had a rather interesting article yesterday on the stadium. I hope everybody's read it. Taxpayers are already largely subsidizing the stadium. It doesn't pay any tax. It gets $175 million from parking and admission taxes. Danny West NE reported that one of them on the list of necessary improvements includes $501 toasters and expensive furniture for luxury suites. I've never been to a professional game. I'm not going to go. I'm certainly not going to watch football on television. I'm joining with my neighbor because of the racist policies of the NFL. We're boycotting that. Thank you, Mason. Hi. My name is Judy Haas. I'm here is just a taxpayer. And my. Professional taxpayer. Just a taxpayer and a very minority owner here. I probably have oversimplified this, but I would urge you to ratify this agreement to keep the Mariners as a valuable asset. A valuable asset and a strong business is good for our community and good for all programs that need to be addressed. Thank you. Thank you. And I think we got your correspondence as well. I read it. All right. Go ahead. Sir. Hi. My name is Mark Rutan. I'm a real estate agent native to King County, where my entire life, according to the Information Board you guys have in the lobby, it's the council's responsibility to exercise fiscal integrity and accountability and the use of our tax dollars when there are thousands of citizens on the street every night, children whose parents have to decide between diapers and formula and teachers and recent college grads who are working multiple jobs just to make ends meet, I ask you why our tax dollars going to sports stable housing is a key to unlocking the potential of our people. When families aren't cost burdened by their housing, they can invest in better childcare, emergency fund savings accounts, healthier food, extracurricular opportunities. Individuals can focus on continuing education or higher education in general professional certificates and other boosters of economic mobility. It increases the real wages and disposable income that goes directly into our local economy. Your other kinds of commitments include public health and safety. To improve those, you have to address the root causes, both violent and petty crime drop. When people have housing, jobs and opportunity, communities are healthier. When people have the funds to purchase fresh food and time to exercise stable housing is the backbone of any well-functioning community. Frankly, Safeco falling apart. Even though it's not safe or needs upgrades, it doesn't really matter when we have children dying on the streets. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Go ahead, sir. My name is Michael Hoss. Michael. And appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. So over the past few weeks, I've been reading different articles, pros and cons on this lease agreement. Good things, bad things. I mean, it's like anything. It's a juggling act. We've got to figure out where to spend our tax dollars wisely. But the one part that really struck home to me is that we own the building. We have a responsibility to maintain that building. The Mariners have stepped up to the plate and are allocating significant dollars towards that maintenance. I feel that we as taxpayers need to provide our share. The affordable housing issue is a very critical issue, but we have to balance both. We have to look at we cannot let this stadium go to go to waste over the next 30 years. So with that, I would say I support the BFD lease agreement and would urge the Council to as well. Thank you very much for your. Time, Michael. Thanks for sticking with us here. Go ahead, sir. My name is excuse me. My name is Dan Caldwell. I'm a facility services consultant with McKinstry Company. McKinstry is a local company here in Seattle, been around for 60 years and employs about 3 to 4000 people locally within all sorts of services. So I get really excited. I'm probably very much alone in this. When people start talking about CapEx and OpEx and return on investment and revenue streams, those things just get me really excited. And so I. Haven't even gotten to. Back. Oh yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. Let's not go there anyway. I believe in an asset value is increased by preventive maintenance, asset value is increased by upgrades and I think it's very necessary that we maintain Safeco Field to the highest degree necessary. So I fully support those proposals that would do that. I also believe that we need affordable housing. And so I think. You do have a difficult decision, but I think there's a way that we can that we can do both. So I support everybody that's that's been here today that. Thank you, Dan. Thank you. Patients. To you the honorable king county council. Member got the right person is the last speaker patients. I am the reverend Dr. Lynn just speaking today on behalf of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, you've received a letter from us stating our position for all the 100 years we've been meeting with faith communities and other institutions here on the issue of housing. Our message is simple today, and that is provide sufficient funds immediate to house our our our homeless neighbors. Today, King County Council members, you have a chance to do the right thing, and that is to read 185 million for hope for more housing. We are troubled by a proposal that would put a roof over a billionaires stadium, but not a roof over our neighbors who are who are living in poverty. The facts are simple. There are insufficient funds to support the increase and to support our homeless neighbors. I appeal to your moral conscience. To do justice, to do right, and to do what is right. Don't you want the best for your families, your son, your grandkids, your daughters, your grandparents, your peers? Why would you not think that our neighbors who are homeless and struggling would not want the same? We can do better. Building affordable housing is the right thing to do at this time. Nothing is more important. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith. All right. Is there anybody else that didn't get a chance that would like to offer testimony to the committee today? Thank you for sticking with us through this hearing. I do want to note that we did public comment second after the staff report so we could hear everyone that wanted to sign up. If we do it first, at some point I got to cut it off to get to the staff report. So that's the purpose. It's actually to be able to hear everyone. And I think we had close to 80 folks present to us today. We also took testimony at last Monday's King County Council meeting at the previous July special meeting of this. The next committee meeting where this will be brought up is one week from today, 9:30 a.m. on September 5th in these chambers. And Council Chair McDermott is making sure I do what I need to do. Would you like to move? Approved the minutes. Mr. Chair, I'd move adoption of the minutes of a previous meeting. All right. All in favor. Say, I, I. Is there anybody else that wants to vote in favor of approving the minutes? I. Any of those? No. Are those those are approved. Again, we will meet one week from today, 930 to take this up and see if there isn't five votes to do something with that merger.	A MOTION proposing the allocation of future lodging tax collections to support arts, culture and heritage programs, workforce housing and youth services, and capital or operating programs that promote tourism.
king_16633ebe-1eae-4d4c-a9fb-c794ca6d7123	I'd like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We think these caregiver caretakers of the land who've lived here and continued to live here since time immemorial. And I also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and have greatly enriched our community. Councilmember Belushi may have a motion to approve the minutes of our December 2nd meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Of Approval. Minutes are before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor, please say. I think the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That takes us to public comment. We have four people signed signed in for public comment today. The items on today's agenda are a brief in and the full culture of board appointments. I would ask people to restrict their public comment to items on today's agenda and not use public comment for the purposes of assisting the campaign or promoting or opposing any ballot measure. If you fail to abide by these restrictions, you may be ruled out of order and asked to conclude your testimony. With that, I have four people who have signed up in advance for public testimony. When I call your name, feel free to approach either testimony and after your comments, beginning with case is going to be followed by Marguerite Rashad. Does anybody? Good afternoon. Good afternoon. International and intellectual movement has failed to prove that it's beginning to company. Political economy. Communication. Psychology. Social theory. Lithium duty media to refill video instead of the stadiums culture and to be pretty popular p museums, stadiums and the artist to the culture puppet piano main or culture text in this field least the nature of third coolest three third on how break the art Crowley patrimonial related a relate to matters of I trilogy no maternal play to the Eternal City social classes and Gothic to. Culture, state is economy and what was the meaning and the peak practice of everyday life. These that the school comprises the way people. Do the verticality in this search as watching television or eating out in even culture. It also statists meaning in the U.S. is people attributed to violence objects and that this spiritually culture in feeling us in front of us those meaning and as in the practice held independently of reason watching television in were that to view public re. That is to on is so clearly evident. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Bouchard, followed by Mr. Zimmerman. Good day, everyone. Today I. Speak in memory of Kobe. Bryant and all those that lost. Their lives in the plane crash because indeed, he was an artist on the court and he will forever be memorialized in the black community here and around the world. And our culture our culture is very important. I was looking at the Korean consulate, brand new building on. Queen Anne Hill. And they're open for business to help their people out. There's nothing in our community. As such as black people. As long as I've been living. Here, you see. Something? We can go in, feel like we're proved among each other in our community, and that money is reserved to make sure that that culture stays alive. It's all you have. The Black Museum over there on the corner. Do you know they almost killed our brothers trying to get something in this. King County area? A I'm fed up with it. I don't even think it's necessary anymore. And this is MLK Month in Seattle, King County. And why do we have to keep sacrificing our lives to get Kibbles and Bits? Huh? You need to ask yourself that. This thing here. Right here I'm reading is there's. These board people at. Be active and experienced in. Community and civic issues and concerns and have the ability to evaluate the needs of cultural constituencies in the region as a whole. A We can't get left out. Because I talk to black artists. I'm an artist. Because God put it in me. There's a whole lot you haven't seen that I'm capable of doing. But I come down here and I get beat up. So if I get beat up, are you going to see the best out of me? If the. If I'm getting crippled down here. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman, followed by Katherine Chamberlain. Zakaria I'm not saying you stop anti-Semite pig from Animal Farm, a fascist killer. My name? Alex Zimmerman, president of Stand Up America Won't Speak about agenda number eight, about coronavirus. I have experience in my life with epidemic. What is very, very happy. Thousand people die and I have this experience. What is happening right now is by definition show how US government cannot work. We have. Our government cannot care about people. It's a very dangerous point. So to point what is I demand now, number one stop in every single go to China. BLOCK China. Totally. You know what this means in every country to have this very dangerous disease, but look totally into the light country did this because it's very dangerous in number to what is I call my experience. Couple of days ago I go to Costco and this happened the rain little bit. So what is doing Costco management and I spoke with management about this. They put out something like a piece of garbage. You know what this means? Shit. I don't know what this mean. Live fabric in clean every cart. So it you guys are. You're freaking idiot. And somebody had one infection. Thousand people will be have same infection. It's very simple. You know, it's say piece of fabric napkins. You know, it has been cleaned all hundred in country. So it all goes there, you idiot. They told me no because it's rain. They talk rain. Don't harbor virus, but people come because touch with the card with hand. So one of coronavirus thousand, we will be in management. Look me like I am idiot. So I talk him go to doctor in talking about this. So stand up, America. Clean, dirty government. Idiot. Thank you very much, Miss Chamberland. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Catherine Chamberlain and I live in King County and I also work. In King County. I'm a charge nurse at the general surgical unit at Swedish Issaquah, and I wanted to let everyone know that we are starting a strike starting tomorrow and we are striking for more. Better safe, patient or safe staffing. Excuse me. So we can. Provide safer care to our patients and ensure that our health care workers are safe in their jobs. Right now, Swedish is not allowing us to do our jobs efficiently. And safely. Because they don't they aren't providing the number of staff that we need to take care of our. Patients. And so I'm asking for all of your support, and I hope to see you all on the strike lines with us in the next three days. Thank you so much. Thank you. That's it for the people who had signed in advance for public testimony. Is there anyone else present who would like to offer a public comment? See, no one would close the public comment for today. And we're going to take up item eight out of order in order to accommodate Dr. Edition of schedule, Dr. Edition, if you want to step to the table. Dr. Jeff Duchin is the King County health officer and will be updating us on the latest developments regarding the recent outbreak of coronavirus in China and King County's response. Doctor, good afternoon. Thank you, Terry McDermott. I have a couple prepared comments for you and then be happy to take questions. I just wanted to give you a situation update about what's happening with this outbreak and what's happening locally. Beginning in late December, Chinese health officials have reported thousands of cases of a new coronavirus infection throughout China, primarily in Hubei province, including the city of Wuhan. Cases have also been identified in travelers from Wuhan to other parts of China and 16 countries, including the United States. On January 21st. Just know how much county resident was confirmed as the first case of the novel coronavirus in the United States after traveling to Wuhan city, China. So what are coronaviruses? These are a large family of viruses. Some cause illnesses in people and others circulate in animals. Human coronaviruses are major causes of the common cold, and the same emerge as coronaviruses that emerge from animals to infect people cause more serious illness. Currently, there's one confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in Washington and five confirmed cases in the entire United States. Our staff are working with our local health care providers and public health colleagues in Washington and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promptly identify any possible additional cases for evaluation in order to minimize any risk of spread. Each day, public health staff communicate with any persons being tested, which are called persons under investigation, and the close contacts of the known confirmed case to monitor their health and to arrange evaluation and testing at CDC if they the symptoms of the novel coronavirus are present now. Close contact means caring for a living with visiting or sharing a room with someone who is sick with this novel coronavirus infection. Close contact can also include having direct contact with infectious secretions, such as a sick person coughs directly in your face, and people who are being investigated for this infection are isolated and remain at home until the tests are available and they are actively monitored by our team. Since January 21st, we've identified six King County residents who are investigated for novel coronavirus infection. At this time, two of those persons have tested negative for the novel coronavirus and results are pending on the remaining four. But I do not have a high level of suspicion that those people will test positive. Those people are also under active symptom watch as I described. So the public health system considers this outbreak a very serious public health threat. But it is really important to understand that the novel coronavirus is not spreading in communities anywhere in the United States. And the health risk to the general public from novel coronavirus in the U.S. and in King County is low. For perspective, it's useful to remember that in a bad flu season in King County alone, we can see several hundred thousand flu cases and hospitalizations and hundreds of flu deaths each year. Influenza infects tens of millions of Americans and causes tens of thousands of deaths. The novel coronavirus outbreak continues to evolve rapidly, with increasing reports of cases from China and cases identified in other countries. It's fair to say this infection can cause severe illness and is able to spread from person to person. However, the spectrum of illness in other words, how many mild cases there are and how many severe cases among them, and exactly how it spreads and how rapidly it spreads are not known with certainty. Other coronaviruses that infect. Humans spread from someone that is ill with the infection, primarily by close person to person contact, mostly by respiratory droplets, droplets produced when the infected person coughs or sneezes. I expect over the coming days more cases will be identified both internationally and in the US, possibly locally before the outbreak ends. Based on what is known, infection from novel coronaviruses start between two and 14 days after exposure. Therefore, for travelers who have recently been to Wuhan. If you develop symptoms of fever, cough or shortness of breath within 14 days, contact your health care provider and be sure to call ahead to let them know about your recent travel and your symptoms. It's important to know that you're not considered at risk of novel coronavirus infection and do not need to seek medical evaluation for the virus if you have not had recent travel from the Wuhan region. If you have not been identified as a close contact of a confirmed novel coronavirus case or a suspected case, and if you are not ill, even if you have traveled to an area where there's an outbreak of novel coronavirus, CDC is currently recommending that travelers avoid all non-essential travel to Hubei province, China, including Wuhan at this time. And people traveling to other parts of China should practice enhanced precautions. And it's a good idea for anyone planning travel anywhere to check CDC travel notices on their website, regardless of their destination. In addition to novel coronavirus or other infectious diseases, much more common that travelers should be aware of and take precautions for wherever they're headed. It's also important to know that the risk of novel coronavirus in the U.S. is associated with exposure to travel or to a known coronavirus case, but not related to ethnicity or nationality. We do not have transmission of this virus in our communities, and people in the U.S. travel to China and other parts of the world for many reasons, including for business and tourism. Even if someone has been to an infected region, it does not mean they present any risk to others. National and public. Local public health agencies across the country are on high alert and actively engaged in the response to this emerging disease. A few of our local here activities at Public Health Selling County King County include working with leadership at our King County health care facilities and our Northwest Health Care Response Network to ensure their readiness to evaluate and treat novel coronavirus patients, providing information and health advisories and guidance to our health care providers and hospitals regarding screening, identification , testing, and infection control measures to prevent transmission in the health care setting and in the community. For persons meeting. CDC criteria for investigation. Setting up systems to track and monitor the health of contacts of cases and persons who meet criteria for testing. Providing and updating information to the public through our Public Health Insider blog, I encourage you to visit that site regularly as information is updated and posted there. We work closely with and are getting great support from our colleagues at Washington State Department of Health, the Northwest Health Care Response Network, and the CDC, both here in Atlanta, in assisting in the response to the first U.S. case. And I want to call out for special appreciation our colleagues at Harborview Medical Center who have worked with us to establish a mobile clinical team based at Harborview that can do home assessments for persons who may need evaluation but do not have symptoms requiring a visit to a health care facility or an emergency department. And this allows us to reduce the risk of exposures, both in the health care system and in the community. It's less logistically complicated than arranging transport to a health care facility, and it is less costly and resource saving and preserves our limited E.R. capacity for those patients who need it. And it's also more acceptable to the persons being evaluated. This unanticipated outbreak is resulting in a large demand on our staff working 24/7 since last week, including consulting with health care providers to assist in evaluation and management of cases. Assessment of possible cases for testing and identifying identification and tracking information around contact and case. Contacts for coordination with the regional health care system and other response partners. We've activated our Health and Medical Emergency Command to coordinate department wide activities and to help coordinate the many response activities that we need to carry out in collaboration with external partners, including identifying and managing search staffing for the novel coronavirus response. In addition to the ongoing Hepatitis A virus outbreak that we're experiencing here in Washington. So although it's not possible to currently predict the ultimate course or impact of this emerging outbreak, I just want to reiterate that at this time, we have no transmission of this novel coronavirus anywhere in the United States. That exposure is related to travel or contact with a known case. And we will continue to provide you. Updates and new information as it becomes available. Thank you very much. Appreciate you joining us today. A couple of questions. Council member Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for having this briefing. I appreciate it. You know, it's one of these things where just because we're having a government meeting on it, we don't want the public to, you know, think that this is a bigger deal in our region maybe, than it is or create any kind of public hysteria. And yet it's not prudent, I think, to have the information sharing exercise. So thank you for coming, Chief. I appreciate it. A couple of questions. The first is this council some years ago made about a $6 million investment in Tamiflu. And I know that, you know, just very sort of generally relating to the possibility of a pandemic. Some future time out of Tamiflu has a shelf life. And I guess the question I have is, do we have the provisions necessary to be in a position like we once were, or are there any recommendations on what we might be able to do here as a council in terms of budgeting that would put us in a better position not just for this issue, but for all pandemic flu types, things we might see in the future. Yeah. Thank you, Councilmember. So Tamiflu is an important medical countermeasure for influenza, this particular coronavirus and other coronaviruses. Unfortunately, we don't have a vaccine or antiviral drugs that are known to be effective at this time, although people are now working furiously to test and develop those countermeasures with respect to preparedness in general, I can tell you, as I mentioned, you know, the federal funding on which we rely greatly upon for public health emergency preparedness has been decreasing for ten years. As you know, our health department is quite excellent, but I would say we've learned to make the most out of a barebones capacity. No health department in the US is adequately funded to meet the needs of a sustained, long term increased surge that a large scale pandemic would require. So what that means is emergency funding would need to become available just in time to sustain those types of responses. And of course, it's very challenging to bring on staff and hire people and train them and have them be familiar enough with the community and the health care system to function optimally under those circumstances. So to the extent that the capacity of the public health system could be enhanced to have a more sustainable, a robust capacity to meet these types of challenges, I think it would be very valuable and much appreciated. Thank you for that response. That's helpful. And you know, there's a reason why we create rainy day and also reserve funds. And it's not just because we might have a downturn in the economy and have to absorb a bunch of revenue losses, but also for natural disasters and health related issues as well. So we are in a position to pivot in a substantial way if necessary. If and I want to just be very clear, this is just a hypothetical that I'm asking if the situation with what is known as coronavirus, you know, it spikes. There's always a life span of these things. If it were to become more contagious. And you did feel that the threat level, which is now low as you state needs to be modified in some way, how will that look to policymakers and to the public at large? What would you do in that circumstance? Thanks for that question. It's an important question that people are thinking about at every level of the public health system. First of all, the people have the most information as it emerges from mostly China right now. Our colleagues in Atlanta at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and we rely on them to inform us about the emerging science, about how this virus spreads, how transmissible it is, and how serious it is. And if you remember, during the early days of the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, the impression was that that virus was a lot more deadly and serious than it actually panned out to be. And in fact, there were many, many more mild and asymptomatic, even infections of that influenza virus than you could ascertain at the onset of the outbreak. So depending on how severe this virus turns out to be overall and how transmissible it is, the response strategies would vary accordingly. So if, for example, it turns out this infection is going to be widespread like the common cold coronaviruses and transmit very easily and with little symptoms or no symptoms, it won't be possible for us to contain it by tracing someone's contacts. You know, we won't even know who's infected and who they're. Techs argue that transmission will be occurring. So this intense effort that's going on now across the country to identify infected people, to monitor them, to monitor their contacts, will probably be scaled back and discontinued because, you know, widespread, low grade, mild infections. That type of strategy is not effective or doesn't make sense. It's not resource intensive. It's very resource intensive and not productive. Other things that might happen if this virus is shown to be more transmissible will be depending on where it's occurring and how widespread it is. Advice to the public about how to prevent infection. So right now, the advice that we would give if this virus was circulating in the community is very similar to what we recommend during influenza season, because these viruses are transmitted by respiratory droplets. So what that means is stay away from people who are sick. If you're sick, don't go to school or work, have really good hand hygiene, wash your hands frequently. Do not touch your mouth, nose or eyes with your hands and disinfect your home environment or workplace environment regularly. All those steps will stop the spread of all respiratory viruses. Now, again, this virus isn't circulating here in Washington State. It's not circulating in King County. But those are good, common sense measures that people can take today and keep them healthy from the viruses that are circulating like influenza, RSV, rhinovirus, adenovirus para influenza virus and so on . So depending on exactly what we learn about how this virus transmits and how serious it is, the public health response will, you know, adapt accordingly. Thank you for that response, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So. You know, follow up to where council member was just saying the idea that that not only did the legislature not fully fund foundation of public health in the entire state and in a meeting I was there with commissioners and council members across the state last week. They were talking about the dollar amount and they said King County alone could use the entire amount we're talking about. And people were shocked. So I think the nexus between how much money we get from the state and what even foundation of public health is is still not enough to deal with these kinds of things. So that the first thing I wanted to say. Secondly, he said, call ahead to the hospital. I did call ahead in 2003 when I came back from China and I thought I could possibly have fires, but I was not expecting was that they gave me an appointment time and when I got there they were dressed in hazmat suits. I was not expecting that and that was very disconcerting. So it isn't like I'm in the parking lot. Can I come in? But here's the time, because they need to suit up. And so I think people should know that because it was, as I said, very disconcerting. You did say enhanced protection. When you say people should take enhanced protections, what does that mean. Of the CDC travel advisory? Yes. Yeah. So for Hubei province in Wuhan devices, postpone all non-essential travel. So basically they're saying don't go there unless for some reason you really have to enhance precautions, meaning things like staying away from people who are ill, wearing a face mask. Perhaps if you're in public location where there are ill people staying away from the live animal markets and things where you would ordinarily not think about. So there's a little paragraph on the CDC traveler health site that advises people about steps they can take to protect themselves that they wouldn't ordinarily think about. But short of saying, don't go there. Councilmember Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Dr. Duchin, for coming here. I know you all have a lot to do, and right now I think what I'm hearing from constituents is just that. I think in some sense, the the news has spread faster than the germs have spread. And so there's a lot of fear. And I think the reaction of the Chinese government has caused people to raise their eyebrow and say, is it really that bad that they're cordoning off such large sections? So. You said it very quickly and I'll ask you to say it again slowly for the cameras. Where can people go to find out and keep up to date on information that will impact their what they need to know about our local community and risks and how to avoid them? Yeah. So there are a couple of really good sources of information. Thanks for asking. There are in King County, our King County Public Health website and our Public Health Insider blog. You can just Google either those. King County Public Health Public Health insider and get right to their sites. We post updated information there. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the most authoritative site where people can get good information about what's happening internationally, nationally. There's a Q&A with frequently asked questions. There's information for health care providers and the public, and they have regular situation updates on that site. And then our Washington State Department of Health site for those listeners who might be outside of King County and in other counties, and then there are local health jurisdiction websites can give them the information about their immediate environment. Thank you very much. Thank you. Everything you and your team are doing. Thank you very much for sharing the information with us in your presentation today. As Councilmember Lambert has already alluded, it underscores the need for preparedness and foundational work from our public health department. In fact, again, underscores that public health knows no boundaries, that the case in Washington state, I believe, is actually resident of Sonoma County. Yet you've said we're monitoring people who've had contact with a known case in King County transmissions, don't know geo political boundaries and underscores the need for preparedness throughout the state, throughout the country. Really, public health is a a knows no boundaries. And whether it's investments in foundation or public health emergency preparedness in recognizing that we're all in this together, these are important reminders for us as we even as we talk about the one case here, that is there's not transmission and the low level of concern you've you've asked the public to have. It's still to make sure that we're aware, we know that our public health department is at work protecting us. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you very much. That will take us. We'll go back to item six. In today's agenda, this is Motion 2019, 484. This is the appointment of Hank Cooper to the Ford Culture Board for the remainder of his three year term. And that expires on December 31st, 2021. Matt Cooper lives here in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle and serves as the art program manager at the Brick Starr Indian Cultural Center. Developing a program supporting emerging native artists to present the item is live crackles up with our central staff and I invite you and Ms.. Cooper to the presentation table. Good afternoon council members I'm Leah crackles the council staff. The materials for this item begin on page five of your packet. The motion would confirm the appointment of Hayden Cooper to the Work Culture Board of Directors. And just a brief recap for culture is the king is King County's cultural public development authority, created in 2002 to administer King County's arts and heritage programs for culture, is governed by a 15 member board of directors. Directors are to have a demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of cultural resources, be active and experienced in community and civic issues and concerns, and have the ability, the ability to evaluate the needs of cultural constituencies in the region as a whole . The directors are to present a range of or to represent a range of talents, experience says backgrounds and viewpoints and directors must be residents of King County and are chosen to reflect the geographic and cultural diversity of King of the County. Directors are appointed by County Council members and the executive and are confirmed by the council. Ms.. Cooper lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle in District eight and was appointed to fill a vacancy for the remainder of the current term. Four for Culture Board Position four by Councilmember Cole. Wells and Ms.. Cooper serves as the Arts Program Manager at DAYBREAK Star Indian Cultural Center, developing a program supporting a virgin virginity, merging native artists. She has a master's degree in musicology and a bachelor's in art degree in indigenous and American Indian Studies, and has held several positions at several or has held various positions at several museums. She's been active in several Indigenous community organizations as well, and Ms. Cooper's appointment meets the criteria established in the For Culture Charter. That concludes my staff report. Thank you. I encourage you, first of all, not to take it personally that the TV cameras packed up as you were being introduced. That's fine. I'll have my I'll have my name at some point. Thank you. Would you like to introduce yourself, make a few opening comments? Sure. Okay. So he drew Hank Cooper together. Sky took Oklahoma to. Golly, they are golly. Go figure. Hello, how are you? My name is Hank Cooper. I am from Skyhook, Oklahoma. I'm very happy to be here today. Thank you very much for the appointment. Our council member, Jane Cole. Well, I appreciate it. I am just very honored to fill this position, especially during this time of a little bit of restructuring and transition. And the more resources that we can provide to the citizens of King County, I am very excited to be able to offer my resources and network system to the underserved artists community here and be able to figure out ways for these folks to be able to tell their stories and find healing across different demographics and communities. And I'm really excited to witness that community building. So thank you again. Thank you. Questions. Councilmember Caldwell's question or motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd just like to ask a question first before making the motion. I think you've got a stellar background. I mean, in so many ways with your education. I particularly love that you have a masters in musicology and all the practical experience you have had. Do you have you had experience working with work culture at all or any similar type of agency or organization? I have with for culture been able to witness programs being sustained through them, really important programs that that support. Then the native community in particular. I have some very close colleagues and and friends and peers from the cohort, from the musicology program who have worked for our culture and have said nothing but wonderful things about them. This admittedly, this process is is very new to me. I do have, you know, a lot of fancy titles on on paper and whatnot. But I am really excited about the challenge and opportunity and the process of of my role on the board. And so I'm just I'm gathering information as it comes. And I will ask questions and try to show up to the best of my ability. And and. Yes. And with our culture and their values. Right. Thank you. And one comment, as my staff and I were looking into potential nominees for this appointment that come to mind about United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, as I'm sure you know, located in Discovery Park. And when we talked with Mike Tooley, the executive director, about recommendations, Hank was the one who recommended and very, very highly, very strongly. So I'm very supportive of this nomination for confirmation, and I would like to make that motion, Mr. Chair, to move that Hank Cooper be confirmed to the Fort Culture Board . Councilmember Caldwell's moved to adopt that. We give a do pass recommendation to motion 20 1944 and see no further discussion. Madam, quote, Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember, about the time. Councilmember did ask COUNCILMEMBER that I was trying to remember. Councilmember after. On right now. I've got to resolve. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Jones, what is 980? No, thank you. Having received the required majority motion, 20 1944 is sent to full council and we'll expect that in full council on February 4th. Is that expedite? Yes. Expedited consent on the consent calendar? No objection. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Well, assuming it goes well in full council. And that takes us to item seven motion 2019 485. That is the approval of the appointment of Stacy. I've been to the Fort Culture Board for the remainder of a three year term expiring on December 31st, 2020. This admin lives in Kenmore in District one and serves as an art instructor at the Shark Art Center in Everett. Good afternoon. Hi, Mr. Cosby. Good afternoon again. Council members. Materials for this item begins on page 17. I already provided the background on for culture and the board, so I will move on to the information about Ms. admin. The motion before you would confirm the appointment of CC Admin for the four culture board of Directors. And as the Chair stated, she lives in Kenmore in Council District one and was appointed to fill the vacancy for the remainder of this term by our board position one by Council Member Rod Dombroski and Ms. Admin has a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in painting and serves as an art instructor for the Stack Arts Center in Everett. She has also produced numerous public art and event pieces and has numerous works on display. Some of her recent works include the Wooden Vale Rotary Peaceful Project Murals at Kenmore Elementary School in the Kenmore St Vincent de Paul Building and works displayed at locations in Lake Forest Park, Woodville, Kenmore and Schack Art Center. Ms.. Edmonds appointment meets the criteria established in the Fort Culture Charter. And that concludes my staff report. Have been a few words in your own defense. I am honored to be here today. I live in Kenmore, and I have to tell you that my introduction to our culture was back when the city of Kenmore was building a new city hall, and we. Had a representative for. From Our Culture who was that coordinator? She led us through the process of choosing the artists for the 1% for the art. So that was my first introduction. But now it's amazing to see where it has spread in the community and all of the things that our culture supports. So I'm really excited to learn more and to learn from the people who I will work with and to be a part of supporting all of these things in the arts, culture, history that I, I hold very important. Thank you. Questions? Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I saw in your resignation something that after this is over, I'd like to talk to you more about. But your components for child development activity kit. What research project was that in the School of Nursing? It was something that the School of Nursing was doing that a friend of mine was putting these kids together that were tasks that the children, they were seeing how parents. Or caregivers would interact. With the kids. And unfortunately, I was the labor and never really got to see what was happening. But it was fascinating to hear that they were using these kits with different tests of various difficulty to see how parents or caregivers interacted and explained how to do the task. So I was just at home sewing on one at a time. And there is a place in in a forensic investigation where we need something like that. So I'd like to talk to you. Okay. Okay. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for scheduling this hearing today. Stacey, thank you for your willingness to serve on the For Culture Board. I am very excited about your candidacy and appointment and just looking at your resume on pages 23 through 25 of a packet today really demonstrates the breadth and depth of your background and preparedness to serve on for culture. You are a practicing artist. You've got two degrees in art. You also have some awareness of kind of the cultural and historic functions. You know, you caught my attention with your work on the Iron Goat Trail and restoring the milepost there, the historic milepost. And I know you've been in other projects in that area as well. Stacey, colleagues has. Served us already and does on the King County Parks Levee Oversight Board from 2015 to present. So if she looks familiar, that may be why, but she and her husband Eric are very active in urban stream and creek protection and restoration efforts in North King County and are just generally strong and active residents of the of the North End. I really appreciate your experience across the north in Lake Forest Park and more over to Woodinville. And I'm just really confident that you'll bring a region wide perspective to the work at Fort Culture. So thank you for your willingness to serve. And my colleagues say, I think you can see we've got great candidates coming forward here. This did result from the process that was amended a year or so ago where we did work in consultation with the recruitment committee for the Fort Culture Board as the call for in that ordinance. So I just want to make sure folks knew that. And with that, Mr.. I'd be happy to move adoption with a do pass recommendation of proposed motion 2019 0485 confirming Stacy Edmond's appointment to the King County Cultural Development Authority. Thank you. Motion 2019 485. As is before. I see no further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Buddy Guy. Great. Ambassador matter. Done. Never have I heard. He was my father. My mom was a mother. I think that's a member of the club. Excused. Thank you. Having received the required majority motion, 2000 1845 is referred to for counsel. The do pass recommendation. We will schedule that expedited, therefore on February 4th and put it on the consent agenda by an objection. With that, I believe we have completed all the work before us. I want to thank everybody particularly for the work session. Our first work session of the committee, the whole earlier this afternoon. And with no further business, we are adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the appointment of Hank Cooper to the King County cultural development authority (4Culture) board.
king_5efffe32-0702-4890-9025-e7c1a53d9981	Thank you all for being here. Welcome to the July 26, 2017 meeting of the King County Council Committee of the Hall. Many of the hall, affectionately known among us as Cal, takes up issues that are of interest to all council members. And it's a place where we all come together to talk about major policy issues. All county council members sit on cows. So at this point, I'm going to ask our staff member to call the role, is there somebody here to do that? Okay, I tell you what, rather than doing a roll call, we were going to introduce ourselves anyway, so we'll just do it that way. I will start with Councilmember Vonn right there. If you could just introduce yourself and who you represent. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. My name is Pete Brown, right? I represent South King County primarily. Two largest communities are Auburn and Fairway, but I also have parts of Kent and parts of Melton, Alcorn and Pacific. And I chair the Regional Policy Committee, where I'm Fischer is the distinguished mayor of the city of Kent, Suzette Cook , who's does a great job representing the City of Kent and the Regional Policy Committee. Good evening. Ron Dombroski represent District One, which is North Seattle, and then the communities of Shoreline Lake Forest Park, both from Woodville and the north part of Kirkland. I chair the Council's Transportation and Economy and Environment Committee. Good evening. I'm Jean Cole. Wells and I. Represent the Fourth. Council District, which is all within Seattle from Madison Avenue up to the boundary of shoreline and from Puget Sound to I-5, just a little sliver out of East Lake, which belongs to Councilmember Garson. And I chair the Health, Housing and Human Services Committee. Hi. Good evening. My name is Reagan Dunn, privileged to represent District nine on the King County Council, also serve as vice chair. That's communities of Bellevue, Newcastle, Renton, Kent Covington, Black Diamond, Maple Valley, Enumclaw to Snoqualmie Pass and I chair also a different the separate unit of government that we all serve as supervisors on the King County flood control district. And that's very important as Mayor Cook knows, to this community. Also, Arbor and Renton. Tukwila, one eighth of the state's economy, is in this green river floodplain. And so we are working very hard to make sure that lives, homes, businesses and properties are protected. I have to apologize. I'm done with what can I do? I have to leave a little bit early, but we'll support the vote if we when it comes to full council. So thank you. Thank you, officer, if you're going to speak. I'm Councilor Dave up the Grove from the Fifth Council District, which includes this area right here. And I'm chair of the council's budget committee. My name is Larry Gothard, and I represent the inner city communities of Seattle, which include the central area and the Valley, Rainier Beach and Skyway and to the north Mt. Lake University District calling for Brian and Laura Herz. So it's a very diverse community. I've been representing it for a little more than 20 years now, and I like my colleagues. I'm very happy to be out here in Kent with you all tonight. Thank you. I'm Joe McDermott. I chair the county council. And represent District eight. Which includes parts of Berry Institute, Tukwila, Olive Fashion and Murray Islands and communities sort of northeast. From there, including West Seattle, First Hill. The swath of Capitol Hill. Okay. And I am Claudia Balducci. I am the chair of the committee of the Hall and the council's regional transit committee. I represent District six on the county council, which is mostly the east side of Lake Washington, includes Mercer Island and parts of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Woodinville, Bothell and all of the points communities. We are all very delighted to be here tonight. It's a beautiful night to be in camp, the third largest city in King County and home of the Shoah Center and the Kent Commons, which we all enjoy. The city sits, of course, here in the Kent Valley, which is the fourth largest center for manufacturing and distribution in the entire nation. And we're lucky to have some representatives here to welcome us. And I would call on Councilmember Up the Grove, who represents Kent on the County Council, to introduce our very special dignitary. Oh. I hope. I hope I don't know who all the dignitaries are, but I will is one of the tree. I'll introduce that very special and I'm excited. Thank you, Madam Chair, for for bringing the committee of the hall to the Fifth Council District. I appreciate the efforts to get out and get into South King County. So I want to thank you. Every day is a nice day in Kent. So listen to them. I'm not just saying that because the mayor is here. The you know, Kent is sort of a is is very typical of South King County and that we're kind of a poster child for the suburbanization of poverty. The suburbs are changing rapidly and Kent is doing a good job of keeping up with those changes. It's a diverse community and that is our strength, I think, in Kent. So whether you are coming in to watch a T-Birds game at the show, we're center or catching a movie and getting some to eat over at Kent Station or wandering through the historic downtown, visiting different ethnic restaurants and the shops. This is a vibrant and exciting community and it is led by our fearless mayor, Mayor Suzette Cook. Is she is this your third term, your rep? She is concluding her third term and has been has worked very, very hard on behalf of all of the people of Kent. And with her decision not to seek reelection, I think everyone is going to miss you. And we're very it's my pleasure to introduce the mayor of the city of Kent, the Honorable Suzette Cook. So. Thank you, Councilmember. I'll give you a hint. Cell phones away from the microphones. These are brand new microphones that we put into our council chambers just for you tonight anyway, so you can hear hearing. So, yes, thank you very much for the introduction, Dave. Clearly, the city of Kent, as some of you will recognize, having lived in the area for many years, you've seen the huge transformation we've made. Kent is now the 10th most diverse city in the United States, a population of 127,138 different languages spoken by the families in this community. As a city, we welcome and we embrace everybody that resides and starts a business here in Kent and working with them to add quality to their lives. In fact, that was from interviews with the community that our branding came about and it was two individuals who came into town and did spent one day just interviewing people from all walks of life in different groups and came up with the brand that kept bringing the world home. Yes. And so you have your little Trotsky, I think you call it, with some of the facts about Kent on those pads of paper. I get to live my dream as mayor of the city. And that dream was actually placed with me as director of the senior center back in the seventies. I didn't know. The how it would come to fruition. But thanks to many of you that I have worked with over the years many times in different capacities and what you serve now, we all find that we are after the same thing when it. Comes to. Adding value to people's lives. That truly is the mantra of someone in service to others. I think your topic for tonight on education will be fascinating to find out how we as a larger countywide community can do that in adding value to people's lives. So I'm looking forward to the discussion. I know there are some members here in the audience that I hope have signed up to to speak after you've had your presentations on this topic, because we are so ripe with both the need and the creativity that is here on people working together. So we want to be part of the solution. We're very thankful that you've come here for the discussion. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much and to all of the city council for hosting us here tonight. I do want to acknowledge there was at least one councilmember here. It was Councilmember Les Thomas. There he is. Anybody else from this report? I and of course, we we noted former state representative Marcy Maxwell is here. So welcome and to all of you. We have four items on the agenda tonight, all related to the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account, which is a whole mouthful. But it is a it is a fund that it will be coming to the counties that starting in about 2019 that will serve the purpose of funding educational programs. It's something that we have not done a lot of at King County. So tonight, we're just starting with a an educational meeting for ourselves to start to think about what that's going to look like. We're going to be bouncing around the agenda a bit tonight. We're first going to take up a staff briefing on what the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account is and what it does. That's agenda item number five. Then we're going to go to our panel discussion, which is agenda item number seven, where we will have experts in early learning community and technical colleges and disadvantaged use to describe some of the needs they see in the population. We had a speaker for K through 12, but unfortunately Superintendent Watch from the school district did not attend due to an unexpected family engagement. We do. We have also invited former state representative Justin Farrell to offer her insight onto the legislative intent behind the creation of the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account. She will be joining us as soon as she can from an event in Seattle. So her item will we will jump to that one as soon as we can. And then finally, we're going to hear from the public, your public comment. I have a number of people signed up to speak and then we will take up our motion 2017 0231, which directs council staff to work with the county executive and his staff to develop a process for planning to manage these significant funds that are coming to us. That's the plan for tonight. And with that, unless there's any comments by members, we will move right on into agenda item number five, which is an initial introduction to the newly formed Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account. I think we are going to have a number of conversations about this, but we're going to kick this off tonight with Jeff, mom of our council staff, who will provide us a briefing on the state law that created the account and on the motion that we may take up hopefully later this evening. So welcome, Jeff. Look forward to your briefing. Thank you, Madam Chair. Go ahead. For the record, Jeff. Council staff. And so tonight's briefing on the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account, you'll find it on pages three and four of your packet. The Washington state legislature created the account in 2015 when it passed the state's transportation revenue package, and the account is to be funded by a sales tax offset fee of 3.25% and all sound transit three construction projects. So transit three projects are exempt from sales tax and the offset fee is equal to about half of the state sales tax. So transit will pay this quarterly, this fee quarterly. That's not me. I left my cell phone in the car until the until they they pay a total of $518 million initially. You expecting that to happen in 2035? It's also important to note that these that these funds are subject to appropriation by the legislature so they don't automatically come to the county. But in whatever budget vehicle, the legislature has the appropriate the funds and from now until presumably 2035 and then I included a chart on page four of your packet. This is a this is the preliminary estimates of how when the funds will start flowing into which counties. And you know as any as any forecast this will be inaccurate. But I wanted to show how lumpy the distributions are. You'll see that early on. It's in the early years, it's less than $10 million a year that will be coming to King County. And in some years, it's as much as 44 million. So it's really it's a it's a volatile source. It's based on sound transit's construction schedule. So if there's any delays or issues with this schedule, then the the funding amounts change. And, you know, that's based on logistical issues and also the economics behind the revenue streams. So the use of the funds state the state law is fairly broad regarding the use of the funds. It says that counties may use the funds for educational services to improve education outcomes in early learning in K-12 and higher education, including but not limited to for youths that are low income, homeless or in foster care or other vulnerable populations. So those are all voluntary, are all allowable uses. It's not those aren't exclusive uses, but it's basically the legislature giving examples of things that they wish the funds to be spent on. There is no appropriation for the of these funds in the current state 17, 18 or 1719 biennial budget. And we are doing some more legal analysis to see, you know, if these funds can be spent on capital and operating or that those types of examples, the work is still very preliminary. So that's the the the account in a nutshell and happy to answer any questions. Any questions for staff about how this customer benefit manager. This one definitely will come down to King County, because I was concerned that you said there's nothing in the current state. Second, 2017 2019 budget that indicates this money is available. It's for education. Why is it going to come to King County and how much potentially is the amount that might be available for educational purposes? In total, Councilmember Gossett, it is estimated that King County will receive over the next 17 years $315 million for educational purposes. The funds are the 580 million that is total is split among the counties based on the population that in the county that lives within the sound transit service area. So 61% of the sound transit district lives within King County. So King County will receive 61% of the funds over the that. It is $517 million. 518 518 million total. For the three county area. Correct. And we have the potential of receiving 60% of that. And are they specific as to what we can use it for in terms of education? Because I'm trying to figure out, is it primarily for poor and disadvantaged youth or what? The way I read the state law is that it's very broad, is for educational services to improve educational outcomes. And then the law goes on to say, including but not limited to specific populations, foster youth, low income youth in others. Finally, you know, you just mentioned that that to answer the first part of your question about why it's not in the 1719 budget, I presume because the if you look at the chart on page four, the funding amount is is in it. Well, significant to my family, but it's insignificant in in if you look at the the overall amount, it's a little bit over $360,000 might wind up in the account. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any other questions? I understand, Madam Chair, if I may, this was not your first staff report. This is your second staff report. But you didn't get hazed for your first one. So consider yourself. Hays Jaffe did a great job. Thank you. That's the same thing as I understand it. Put it on the right. I can do better than that. But do you have anything council. Member have to give? I am a lot. Yeah. Okay. I think the only thing I would add, just following up on Councilmember Goss, it's the question. And the answer is, is that just to be very clear, as it says on the chart, these are estimated projects, distribution. These are projections we're projecting based on when sound transit spends money by implementing the transportation projects in 83. If those are, as you said, delayed for any reason in S2, we had a retrenchment where the number of projects was cut back. That would have if that had happened with this, we would see different numbers. So we can't really we can't plan on something. I think that relies on these being the exact numbers, but it does give you in order a sense of magnitude and of how it ramps up kind of gradually and then becomes a very significant resource in outer years, like in the late 2020s and and on. Yes. So it's an estimate. It's also true that if certain transit were to speed up implementation of its program, when it would come in sooner. That that is. Possible. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure we were considering. The full range of options. I admire your optimism. Thank you. I share it in some sense, but we like to keep expectations down. Okay. So. Okay. You wanted to talk a little bit, Jeff, I gather, about the motion as well. Or do you wanna do that when when you have it in front of us? I prefer to do that when you have a attorney. Thank you. I will. In the in the along the vein of of hazing. Jeff wrote me some really nice chair remarks here that now say thank you, Jeff, for your. Excellent staff are. Just happy to be here today. So if there are no more questions for Jeff, let's move on. Thank you for that report. Okay. As I said, unfortunately, we have to move around just a little bit because of some of the schedules. But we now will go to our panel and I want to invite them to come down at this time. I'm really excited to hear from this panel of experts about the educational needs in King County at all levels. Although, as I said, unfortunately, our K through 12 expert has not come. So I want to invite Dan Puffer, the CEO of Child Care Resources, Dr. Amy Morrison, Goings, president of Lake Washington Institute of Technology, and Mr. Kendrick Glover, executive director of Glover Empowering Mentoring Program to come on down, have a seat at the front table here wherever you feel comfortable. And we're going to, I gather, ask you to give just about five or so minutes apiece of whatever it is that you would like to share with us about the needs of educational the educational needs of young people in King County that we might be thinking about as we start to plan this program. I'll just go ahead and call on this. Patrick first. Feel free. I said, sorry, Dr. Puffer, please go ahead. Introduce yourself in any way you like and share with you what you're here to talk to us about. And then we may have some questions. Okay. Thank you. So my name is Diane Puffer, and I'm the CEO of Child Care Resources. Child care resources serves two counties, King and Pierce County. Before today's presentation, I'll stay focused on the King County perspective, although I'm really excited to see that this runs across Pierce, King and Snohomish and that there may be some options for thinking more broadly about those three counties together. CCR Child Care Resources works with families. We help about 18,000 families consider their child care options. We also work with caregivers who are informal caregivers, aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas around caring for their young, the young children in their care. And we also work with child care providers across the two counties. So CCR hears the challenges around the early learning space from three very different perspectives parents, caregivers and providers. And we believe that early learning is the foundation for a strong educational system and is where it all starts. Many times I hear people talk about education. They start at kindergarten and we believe that it starts at birth. CCR is also committed to equity, that every child deserves a great start, and we are very focused on addressing racism within the space of the early learning space. So the things that I'd like to talk about are things that I hear about really regularly. And the first one is that high quality, early learning is out of reach for many families. They can't afford it. And that's because personnel costs and facility costs, the two biggest drivers of childcare costs and the early learning costs of eating out are those two things. So very quickly after personnel comes facilities. And that's why I'm going to focus a lot of my comments today around the need for. The ladies in the work that we that you are considering. Washington ranks about third in the nation for the least affordable child care for infants, the seventh least affordable care for a four year old child. If you live in King County, you know that it costs about 30% more to have your child cared for in a child care setting than it would cost and say, Yeah, come on . In addition, our state pre-K program, ICAP serves just under 4000 children in King County, with an estimated additional 3200 meeting care. Now, that's particularly interesting when you consider that access to those programs is 110% of poverty, which in King County doesn't go very far when you consider it's $12.85 an hour for a family of four to be eligible. The number of children in King County that are served with working connections, child care subsidies is about 10,000, with an additional 4700 who are unserved and need need access to subsidy. So we know that there is a huge need for more high quality early learning programs and there are growing efforts to fund these kind of program operations. What's missing within that is that the whole concept of licensable facilities that are ready for kids. So the state has made a commitment to serve all eligible children in the camp and by 2022, 23, when you look at the chart that we were just looking at, there's sort of a sweet confluence there of a need for facilities if we're going to make that goal. On how. However, there's also wide acknowledgment there's a growing facility shortage because when programs frequently I've heard stories of programs getting funded and then because they can't find a space or a facility that's licensable, they end up returning the funds to the state even though they are eligible, they have the eligible children in that catchment area, but there's nowhere to for them to place their program. So right now there are a wide range of external pressures that are playing into the lack of facilities. And I'd just like to mention them to you because I think they're important. Real estate is getting more and more expensive in our county. I have heard multiple stories from providers who do not get there. They have a lease in a space that's licensable. They've outfitted it and they find out that their lease is no longer going to be continued when it comes up because they can get a higher market rate rent from another. Another person on reduction in the K-3 class size statewide means that there's less space in school buildings. So they're moving early, learning out into the community where there is very little space. Head Start is increasing the number of hours, as is equal to the a six hour a day, which requires that those programs that previously may have operated in an unlicensed space staff to seek a licensable space, and therefore they're set out from where they previously were. These are all good things because we want kids to have more time, you know, with in a learning environment and similarly best start's for kids you're the on your own initiative is trying to place planned learning groups in the communities around the county and they're having trouble finding space as well. So all of these things can make the challenge of finding space more and more difficult. And early learning providers are good at caring for kids. They're not good at finding buildings and funding buildings and doing all the things that you have to do to get a facility in place. So we also in addition to that, one last thing is we see a potential for a drop in providers in the coming year because in 2015, the Early START Act was passed by our state legislature, which provides funding to increase the quality of care for our earliest learners. This is all really great because it's ensuring a great experience for our kids and they've even made it even more compelling by saying we're not going to put any public dollars into programs that don't rate well on the quality rating and improvement system scale that we've put in place. And so these kids is so come 2019, every child must be in a highly rated program, which means, again, that in order to do that, we need to have enough high quality programs located across all the communities where particularly low income and vulnerable children are living their lives. So it's really a balancing act at the end of the day on how do we get, you know, how do we move towards a situation where there's enough early learning spaces for those families that need it, that we can find facilities that are licensable and able to provide that, you know, the high quality space that is needed and that is at a low enough cost that they don't drive up the cost for families. So. They can access the care. All of those things come together. And as we think about as you think about really where you want to put your energies early, learning, I think, is a space that really could use a taxation funding stream to really start to support it. K-12 Higher Ed have these kind of funding streams to support them. Early learning really does not. And so I think there's a compelling case here to say if we want to address some of the challenges that our kids are facing in the K-12 system, doing something earlier makes a lot of sense. I think research shows that children who have had early learning experiences are more likely to succeed in school. And so I feel like there's a really great opportunity here to address the needs. This funding is is going to flow as it flows, which we talked about. But at the end of the day, choosing to put that into facilities and some of the start up fixtures that are required to get licensable will be an amazing opportunity for the county, the council to consider, and I would invite you to do so. Thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And before we move on, is there any any particular questions or comments at this point on this effort? Councilmember Esther. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I don't mean this in a snarky way. You mentioned that early learning doesn't have to have a dedicated funding source. Isn't that what best starts for kids? Largely did was dedicate 50% of the funding for early childhood. Their most recent dedicated funding source from the county. At best starts for kids funds assistance. It is not funding the formal care system in any way at all. So it's not funding it. It's not funding child care. It's really funding more broad based programing in the early learning space. It's really not funding what is sort of the economic engine as support of a child care program. You figure this discussion will help point a direction for where we want more information to come back to us about detailing. So we're going to hear obviously from you all your experiences, but we need to look at the the wider context and then what funding does exist for those needs already and what does not. And I agree with you, I think we need to look to see what best starts is doing and not duplicate that. Yeah. And best parts is really quite focused on the operations side, not the facility side, just to put a finer point on it. Thank you. All right. With that, I'm going to call next on Mr. Kendrick Glover. Thank you so much for being here with us today. And please go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us what the needs are in your part of the world for educational services. Okay. My part of the world is pretty small, but I will do the best I can first. Good evening and welcome to the City of King, which I call home, which is where I work, live and play. So thank you guys for coming out. And thank you, Doctor, for that detailed presentation. I learned a lot about early learning. Not focused in that area, but I can appreciate your comments, so thank you for that. My scope of work falls in education realm of K-12 and higher education. Currently, I serve as an adjunct faculty member for Local University City University in the College of Education, where we focus on preparing those incoming mind to be school counselors. And my background is in education. I was a school counselor here in the Kent School District for three academic school years. My role, I served as a credit deficient counselor, and what that meant is that throughout a young person's high school career, they had failed one or more classes, which considered them off track for graduation. And my first year as an off track counselor, my caseload was 325 students out of a student body class of about 2100. And there were two of us that was credit deficient counselors in his caseload. My counterpart, his caseload was also over 300. So that's over 600 kids that were credit deficient. And what we saw is when we did the research is that in their transition year, from middle school to high school, a lot of our young people did not take the opportunity to take their ninth grade year seriously, and they failed one or more classes which then carried over into their sophomore year and they failed another class and inches the pattern discontinued to when they came to their senior year of high school, they were not on track for graduation. And then we had to make those awful phone calls to parents to let them know that their kids wouldn't graduate. So when I was asked to come and sit on this panel, all those things arrived to me because I heard about this funding and what can we do? What type of recommendations do we have? From the community in the sense of what could be done in our education system. As our great Mayor Cook alluded to in the city of Kent, we have a representation of over 130 languages, and in our school district we have over 28,000 students. And as a member of as a associate of the Kent School District, as an executive director of governance, power Mentoring, we are a mentor, an organization that is in the Kent School District in several schools doing in-school mentoring and also afterschool mentoring. And what we see is that our young people, it's not that they don't take education seriously, it's just that I don't think education takes them seriously, which means they don't get an opportunity to really be innovative in the classroom. So what I would like to see is more innovativeness come to this funding source. Actually, one of my recommendations would be to focus more on the training of those teachers in our school buildings and in our classrooms and doing some more cultural relevant training because as we said, there's over 130 languages spoken in our district alone. So just imagine the districts that are surrounding us and our road map region, as we call it, for those young people who don't get an opportunity to be taught by people that look like them, that have some of the same upbringings as them. Not to say that our teachers are not doing a great job, but if my research serves me correctly for our for our students of color, they're at a 1 to 2, sometimes even 1 to 3 ratio when it comes to graduation among their peers. So I don't think we can consider it as a success. And we don't need to look at the young person and say that they're failing themselves. We need to look at the system and say, what is the system not doing? Not that they're doing anything wrong, but what could they do more to give our young people an opportunity to really gain the success that we all desire for them to have? I would also recommend that funds come to our districts where they need the most help. When you have classroom sizes of over 30 kids in a classroom. I don't think there is a real opportunity for everyone to learn and ask the questions that they need to ask. So we should look at opportunities to fund more teacher support in the classroom. If we can't get teachers, maybe teacher aides, maybe some more professional assistance in the classrooms and things like that. And lastly, I would say just taking the opportunities to really, truly do an assessment of some of our formalized education curriculum. Our curriculum needs a revamp. It needs an opportunity to take a breather for a while and something new come in. And for our young people to be at the table as well, to really speak to some of the things, some of the challenges that they see. I love to be invited to panel discussions and I love to be invited to meetings talking about young people, but I rarely see them there. So that's a disappointment for me as well. I would encourage you guys when you start inviting people out to talk about how to spend this money and some recommendations and to not only look at educators and community based organizations and other organizations that are doing this work, but really look at parents and young people because those are the are those are the minds in the bodies that are truly being affected by what we recommend. So thank you. Thank you. That was very, very helpful. And your perspective is is invaluable to us. And I just wanted to ask a quick follow up question. Did you say that in your experience at the K through 12 that over half of the kids who were in the school were not on track to graduate? No. What I said was for two counselors in my first year as a credit deficient counselor in the U.S. school district, there was over 600. Yes. Well, you don't consider ninth grade. So we're we're leaving out a whole class. We're just talking about 10th through 12th graders. So over 600 of those young people were created deficient, meaning they failed one or more classes, their native title. And so they were at risk of not graduating due to try to assist them to get back on track. Exactly. So there was a plan put in place by the building principal to go after some lab funding to bring additional counselor support in the building, to work with that population of students that need that additional support and help by giving them extra classes, setting them up with tutoring, academic support, outside referrals, things like that, to make sure that they had an opportunity to not only catch up but also succeed and graduate on time. Thank you. And to your point about including students and young people and their parents, I think that is an excellent an excellent point. And as what we're doing here tonight is just introducing ourselves to the. I again, hopefully adopting a piece of legislation in motion that will tell our staff to develop the process. That's, I think, very timely for them to hear as well that we should be including the young people that we're serving as well. Thank you. Thank you. Now the question comes from the member. We can move to two questions. Have you done any work in matching the learning style of the child with the teaching style of the teacher to make sure that auditoriums are being taught by auditory and kinesthetic and also visuals? Well, in the case of a limited teacher. Well, thank you. Thank you for the educational perspective. In my program, we do teach to seven different learning styles to our young people to try to give you an opportunity to be advanced in the classroom, because that's not what they're learning in the actual school building, which is why I spoke to the curriculum needs a revamp. But we have not done an assessment on that. That would be something that could definitely be a benefit to how this these funds are being spent. But I don't think and from my perspective, I don't think teachers have an opportunity to really take a breather on learning the learning styles of each individual student. Because as I mentioned earlier, that most of our classrooms are 27, 28, 30 kids plus in our buildings. She's here in the school district alone. So I can't speak for anyone else, but I know what I see in this school district, and I would love to see some funds come to kind of alleviate some of that pressure that are put on teachers through these strenuous evaluation processes and things like that. I you teach in the 7 minutes that we did today, like making sure that the teachers are aware as far as the kids, especially at the younger grades, is really important. And then do you have any vocational. Industrial. Training to. Help the kids to have other outlets for learning? Well, we don't but we we we leverage our community resources and we connect them. We trade in apprenticeship programs for. Our young people. That's perfect. Thank you. Councilmember up the Grove. Is Minister Kendrick. You spoke. What's your suggestion to focused on the funding kind of directly to the K-12 system, yet you spoke to your role as a school counselor, but you also obviously work outside the school system with kids. There's a lot of flexibility in the state law around this funding and says educational services to improve educational outcomes. So it doesn't necessarily have to go to the public educational institution. Maybe you could speak not to put too much in the spot. Speak to what types of services and programs you've seen outside the K-12 system that have improved the outcomes for the kids that you work with? Well, for for us, for the young people that I work with, what I see work is a peer support that one on one additional help, having young people the opportunity to ask those detailed questions that they cannot access in the classroom because the teacher didn't have time to answer the question or they had to push through that said classroom instruction, which oftentimes make it hard for a young person to really learn and adapt to what is being taught to them. So if there's an opportunity for the funds to be distributed outside of the traditional educational system, I would definitely encourage you, you all as a council to think about funding opportunity programs in the communities that has a more high impact on these young people after the school day ends, because that's when they're kind of at their highest peak of learning. From my perspective is an afternoon, early evening time. So. Yeah. Me too. Okay. Thank you very much. I really appreciate your presentation and taking time out tonight to be with us. And now I'll turn to our final panel member tonight and then Dr. Amy Morrison going is president at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology. Please go ahead and introduce yourself and present what you would like us to know about your part of the educational world. Well, good evening. Thank you, Councilmember Balducci, for the invitation to be here. And thank you to the members of the council. I've had the opportunity to work with many of you on the council and in the legislature and have had the opportunity to have you up to the college. So I'm pleased to be here this evening as I was listening to my colleagues up here. I think certainly the theme of tonight is how we all, at our various different positions and organizations are trying to bridge inequities across the P 14 continuum. And I don't think that the coincidence as lost in that that was really what 83 was intended to do. And that was to bridge some inequities around the region to accessing good jobs for those regions of our communities, which they have not had those opportunities. So those in equities, as you have heard, are certainly playing out in early learning K-12 and at the community and technical college level, which I wanted to chat about with you this evening. I do want to just make of underscore something at the this. I want to underscore that I'm not here to and I know this is not what you want us to do, but to pit one kind of educational sector versus another. At Lake Washington Tech, we have an early learning center. We prepare early childhood educators not only for early learning centers, but at the K-12 level as well. This is really something that is a continuum. I'm a graduate of Head Start of public schools and public higher education institutions. So really my role here this evening is to just shine a bright spotlight on some of the inequities and challenges currently facing the community and technical college system and some of the opportunities that I think this funding could present going forward. So as you know, Lake Washington Tech is a proud member of Washington State's 34 community and technical college system. Since we're talking about the city three region. And I just want to note as a good educator, I did provide a handout so I couldn't resist. So some of those points are some of the points I'm going to make tonight are included in the handout. But the city region in particular, including Snohomish King and Pierce Counties, there are 17 community and technical colleges serving over 100,000 full time equivalent students annually. My good colleague, Dr. Kevin McCarthy, the president of Renton Technical College, is here this evening. And Dr. Malcolm Brophy from the Seattle Colleges is also here this evening. So I wanted to recognize them as well. So really, I think the inequity that I want to talk about and how it relates to the community technical college system is this burgeoning skills gap that we have in Washington state most acutely in King County. And the challenge that I think we see is that, as we know from the Washington Roundtable report, which I've cited in the hand out today, statewide, 31% of our high school graduates are going on by age 26 to obtain some postsecondary credential in order to bridge the skills gap in the next five years of 740,000 job openings in our state. We need to more than double that number. So we have a lot of work to do. I thought it was interesting today, if you haven't seen in the news, Georgetown University released what they're calling their good jobs study. And Washington State is the 12th fastest growing state in the country around producing good jobs, livable wages that don't require a baccalaureate degree, but require some form of postsecondary education. Now, this is not causation, but I think it's more than a coincidence that while the skills gap was growing in our state, our state, due to the recession , was disinvesting in public higher education most acutely the community technical colleges. So, for example, in the past ten years, with the slight exception of this session, which I'll talk about in a moment, our system lost over $100 million out of our operating budget at Lake Washington Tech alone. That was over 40% of our operating budget in the last ten years. That meant laying off employees, closing programs, restricting services to students. We made some strides. And by some strides, I mean we weren't cut this legislative session. But all of those gains are small gains that we made in the operating budget or undermined by the inability for the legislature to pass the capital budget. So we're not moving forward like we'd like to. So I think we have lost some ground in this state in preparing our young people to access these good paying jobs and sustaining the gains that we're making in K-12 and early learning. I think, especially as this legislation calls out, community and technical colleges prepare young people, as well as returning adults for these good paying jobs that don't necessarily require a baccalaureate degree. At Lake Washington Tech, a quarter of our students are basic skills English as a second language version, I think we have 60% of our students are first generation college graduates. At Rent and Tech. Kevin was telling me a third of their students are basic skills, English as a second language learner. So these are the students by which we want to provide a pathway to prosperity. I know that you asked me to talk about the needs as I see them in this region. But I just want to let you know as you go forward with your planning. There are programs in our state that we know are working in getting students quickly and efficiently to completing their credentials and moving on to meaningful work. Many of you know about the opportunity grant program in the state legislature. We've seen upwards of an 84% completion rate, and that comes with helping students with good advising, good mentoring, getting them removing the barriers as they come and getting them through to graduation. Many of you know about Cell Seattle College's 13th year program, and they've seen great success in paying for the first year of college for their feeder high schools, and they are exceeding the national average. 60% of those students that come through South Seattle's first year program are first generation students, college students and 43% of them complete, which exceeds the national average. So I just appreciate the opportunity to talk tonight with you about the skills gap and how the community technical colleges in King County and certainly in Pearson's the whole mission are poised to help you bridge that gap. So thank you. Thank you, Dr. Williams. I appreciate that. There's such a continued continuity across this whole table from having that really good early start without which you can't succeed, to making it through K through 12 and and then having a connection to a good and meaningful work in your life. I mean, that that's a successful passage through to adulthood and we need all of the above. So thank you. Any questions for Dr. Goins or any of the panelists? Councilmember Gossett. Dr. Gordon. Yeah. Please go ahead. Thank you. It was interesting to me, as you spoke at the beginning about the gap and providing training to those who finish high school, haven't gone to college, but if they were able to go to junior college, they could get some decent skills to fill what you identified as about 740,000 job openings for people to have these kinds of junior college or technical college skills. My question to you is, do you guys have any statistics on how well the African-American and Latino populations of the communities that you serve at the state technical colleges serve are getting the opportunity or are they disproportionately like in most other categories, left out? So I just want to clarify one point before I answer that. So. Of the 740,000 predicted job openings in the next five years in our state. Two thirds of those require some form of post-secondary education. Two thirds. So not necessarily a baccalaureate degree. Right. But somewhere in between a meaningful credential. Okay. I will say that it is of great concern to us at the higher education, certainly the community technical college level, much like it is perhaps at the K-12 level that our students of color are not completing or persisting at the same rates as our white students. Those are equity gaps that all of our colleges are working diligently to try to close, mine included. So my hope is, is that and one of our challenges is in part resourcing our students student to advisor ratios are 800 students to one advisor. So that is not meaningful advising, navigating support. That meaningful advising support comes through programs like the Opportunity Grant Program that were there really is that wraparound support, but there are gaps for our students of color to complete. And we're hoping to look at resources beyond the legislature to help us bridge those gaps. It's a conversation that I have nearly daily on our campus, and I'm not alone in our system. It is the issue of our. Time to bridge those gaps, to try to provide pathways to opportunities for all of our students. Thank you. Amy. Okay. Give me other questions or comments before we wrap up this portion. I think Council Member Diversity Chair. Thank you to each of the presentations. As we embark on this undertaking of what to do with this money if we see it, I'm struck by a couple of thoughts. One, this is what I might call kind of one time money, even though the stream is maybe for 15 years. I think we and we have one time money. We need to be careful about funding programs. With that, it seems to me it might be a more appropriate kind of be a capital oriented type program, although this funding stream is long. And conceivably, if the philosophy continued in the next four, were there one, you could see it renewed. But that's a long ways off. But it's something I think we should think about, too. This is an it's an interesting area that, frankly, the county doesn't have a lot of direct expertize and knowledge in. And this is traditionally a state role and a local school board and board of trustees role at the technical colleges. So educational outcomes are something that I think the county has traditionally been engaged in on the supportive periphery, if you will. And I can see that with each of you. We have funded Kendrick Glover's mentoring program because we've taken an interest in helping folks succeed at the Lake Washington Technical College to help train our Metro Diesel mechanics with our program there. And with that starts for kids us course we're up the road pointed out we are in fact funding kind of parent educating roles and other early home you know, home visits and nursing home visits and similar kind of training programs. So we touch each of your organizations and functions in a way that is kind of supportive from kind of a health and human services tradition. Right. This is a little bit of a different flavor. And I'm kind of reflecting on what the best way for us to proceed is to make sure that we achieve the objectives that were set forth by then State Representative Farrell in her and her work. But it's many of you who are in the legislature know this issue better than me, and I think the state has more infrastructure than the county has. But I'm kind of trying to grapple with what is the right place for the county and what's the best approach on these funds. But I just thought I would share a few reflections from other panelists before we lost them. This reflects, I think, much of what our challenge is ahead of us. And thank you for those comments and the other council member Caldwell's. Thank you, Madam Chair. We don't know what's going to happen in the future. We know that we have this opportunity before us with this new program. But we also have a lot of uncertainty about what might be coming down from the federal government. And. What the impact could be on families that you all serve. Students and. Families. Children. What would be your top priority in terms of advice to us, if you could each just say, you know, I know there are many, but what is one recommendation you have for us in terms of what our focus might be? Would you, like, work our way back? Okay. On Thursday. Before I answer that, if I could just comment on Councilmember Dombrovskis comment. I don't think it's surprising that ten years after the recession, when we have a legislative structure that does not have dedicated funding for early learning or higher education, that we're in the situation right now where both silos, if you will, along the P14 continuum are looking to diversify beyond the state as far as funding streams. So I appreciate being here. To me, it's not surprising in in many other states, regional counties do have a role in funding the community and technical colleges. So I'd be happy to provide you information on that if it's helpful in the future. And all of you. In advance. Or whatever. Yeah. So my top priority would be for all King County High School graduates to have their first year at their local community or technical college paid for. I think building on the model of South Seattle College, I think that that would be the furthest reaching, most impactful opportunity for all of our students in King County and allow them after a year to have a meaningful credential, if not be further along in their educational pathway toward that meaningful credential. I'm hearing that over the next decade that there was a potential 700 plus thousand job opportunities coming to our region, which means that there are going to be increasing amount of families moving into our region. My number one priority or recommendation from a K-through-12 setting, again, would be having our staff and personnel training from a cultural event standpoint, because as those families move in, we have to and I encourage you once again to have training in place so that our our teachers and our educators can understand the perspective of our young people that are moving into our communities. I heard a principal the other day. She spoke at this teacher thing. And she the the teachers were speaking to the eald population of students and said she gets frustrated when the students don't understand the English language. Well, this principal, to her credit, she she stated, I think that our population of students is the smartest people in our building. And she said the reason why is she looked around the room. She said, raise your hand in this room if you speak more than one language. And she said, if you go into your little classroom and you ask the same question, every student in their classroom will raise their hand. So it's not that we are students don't understand us, is that we don't understand our students. So that training is very important. So that will be my number one recommendation. Thank you. It's always hard when you get asked for one thing. I think all of us struggle with that. And I suppose what I would say is that I really would like I would like you to consider the importance of ensuring that all families have access to high across the whole county, have access to high quality, early learning child , you know, programing for their children that's in their community. I hear about a lot of people having to travel all over the place, but wouldn't it be great if if people could really, really start building a sense of community early on in their own in their own place? And so I would say that the thing that I would want to recommend is that as you think about this funding, are there ways to really impact communities by ensuring that there's early, high quality, early learning options in each of their communities? I think that would be make for a really amazing investment. Thank you. All right. With Catherine Lambert. And it gives me. Ask. If you look at the numbers for King County, they vacillate, they go up and they go down over the ten year period. And I was wondering, what if we set up a a low cost loan program. Where a student could borrow the money to go to school. And then pay it back. At a much reduced rate. So that even after the ten years is up, there would be a fund they could go on for for future generations. Would that be of something of interest or not? I think that there has been exploration of that fund in other states. I'm not sure of top of my head. I'm not sure that there's a state that does that successfully. When I spoke with Dr.. President orally at who's retiring from South Seattle about the 13th year program, what he reassured me was that it's not an expensive program when you look at the scale of who it reaches because it's last dollars in. So after students apply for federal financial aid, after they get Pell Grants and other funding, it's on average $2,000 per student for one year of community or technical college, which is a pretty darn good value. So I think there are lots of different opportunities out there and lots of different models across the country that we could look at. I've heard of the revolving loan, you know, for future generations. You pay, you get it, you pay it back. But I'm not sure of a state that does that successfully. I would I would just like to add, once again, if my research serves me correctly, that one of the top five debts in the nation is student loan debt. So I don't encourage students and particularly to go after student loans first. I encourage them to go after grants, opportunity for scholarships, even if it's a really low amount. But I know coming from our communities, in the communities that we serve, $2,000 is a lot of money to come up with for a student to or their family to be expected to contribute to their higher education. So I would like to see more opportunities for work study programs instead of loans or opportunity for student to work while they are going to school to help pay off some of their debt. So looking at opportunities like that versus the loans, because I mean, I'm over my head in student loan debt right now and I consider myself having a fairly decent job. But yeah, those student loans, it can, it can be a barrier. Let's just say that, no. That's not a real time we are. But I'd like to move on after this if everybody else is okay with that. Thank you. After you. Okay. Because I have two ones, a very short answer question. And so to what is I'm curious what it would cost to. I liked that idea that of the first year of community college or technical college, have you ever priced that out? Well, certainly South Seattle has. So I would recommend that the council have an opportunity to speak with Gary Earley and his staff about the funding. And they, I think, have approached it in a very sophisticated way, which includes wraparound services, a mandatory orientation camp, they call it, with Dr. Growth. He could speak to this better than I could and then think setting it up as a last dollar in program. So that wasn't my main question. I was just curious. To. Number that the other one of the needs that I've seen, I guess this might be, don't you agree or maybe you could speak to it is with or actually I'm interested in it. To what degree you've seen there's a need. You know, the cost of living has been going up particularly housing and a lot of folks who are working, particularly in the service industry, you can have a full time job, but you can't pay your rent with it. And that ability to get from that service level job into something that you can actually provide for yourself or, God forbid, a family on. And I've seen some cool partnerships with community and technical colleges. You know, the Port of Seattle has programs, Airport University, that's a partnership with community college. What they do on, you know, job programs at the worksite after work, the programs that make it easier for folks to get that next credential that gets them an up that wage ladder. To what degree is the community college system been identifying needs in that area and can you speak to opportunities if that was an area of interest at all? Mm hmm. Can I just go back the concern that you had about affordable housing and that access? I just it's on my mind because we had an excellent nursing candidate who we offered a full time nursing position to. She could not find a place within an extensive commuting distance to relocate to. So she turned us down incredibly painful. So it's our students and our faculty who are masters and doctoral credentialed who can. Can afford to live around our colleges in many parts of the region. I mean, certainly in the Seattle colleges I know are facing this impact. Colleges on the east side. So this affordability of housing is is very much an issue. But I'll just say briefly, the customized training, working with employers to do contract based training for their employees is very much an important part of that community and technical college mission. All of our colleges do that work in many different sectors with many different employers. And it's very valuable because it keeps employees where they're at and keeps them moving up the ladder and keeps them with their employers, which employers appreciate. Did you have something specific or would you like to say? Yes, I agree. That is. Part of our. Diversity. The question was, was my identifying an area of interest? Okay. So you're against that. Of course. And you always like to hear. Yes, I agree. So any opportunity to say that? Well, I just want to once again, thank you all for giving us your time, your expertize and your insight tonight. We are just at the beginning of this road, but we really look forward to walking down it and to finding ways that we can use this new resource to support the great work that you all do. Thank you. Thank you for being here tonight. Okay. With apologies to everyone, we're going to jump around on the agenda even a little bit differently than I originally said we would, because we're going to lose some of our colleagues here who have other other obligations tonight. So I would like to at this time go to agenda item number eight and invite our council initiatives director, Jeff Moen, back to walk us through the proposed motion. This is our action item for tonight. It's a motion directing council staff to prepare a report that will help us to to engage in a public process and determine how to use these proceeds. So it's really the very beginning of this process. And we're going to want to hear from the public about what you think as we start on this road. But the the technical motion before us tonight is directing staff to start down the road. So, Jeff, if you would, walk us through the motion and then we can take our action. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to be able to frame my understanding of the presentation we were about to get. Will we be asking our central staff for a report, or would be asking them for an excellent report? Only an. Excellent. Okay. Adequacy is is not is not acceptable. So adequacy is inadequate. Please, your excellent report. So tonight we are. For the record, Jeff Martin, council staff before us is motion propose motion in 2017 to 2031, which would direct the legislative staff to produce a report about the EPA is now in taxpayer accountability account. Specifically, the motion directs legislative staff to work with the executive and his staff to identify and clarify the legislative intent of the encounter. Identify all of the allowable uses for the account, outline strategies that King County can use to identify any unmet funding needs that the count could address. And this all of this for this work is due to the council by October 1st. And if upon receiving the count, the Council would then have the information it needs to proceed in figuring out how to distribute the funds. That's the staff report and happy to take any questions. Thank you. Questions on the report or should it? Councilmember McDermott, would you be willing to put this before us? Proposed motion 2017 0231. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move adopt. I never give a do pass recommendation to motion 2017 231. And I believe there is an amendment at least one customer domestic. Are you prepared to to speak to that. Chair a move Amendment one be happy to speak briefly to it. Amendment One has been moved and supports. Councilmember DEMBOSKY Thank you, Madam Chair. This would insert language that says staff shall also consider existing King County policies, including the Youth Action Plan, when developing the report. So it kind of builds on my earlier remarks about to the extent we have existing policies and knowledge that we're asking the central staff to consider those, it doesn't mean that they are. The exclusive guidance for this was worded very carefully. They're just they consider those and see how they might apply. Or give guidance. A lot of good work and study went into those adopted plans and policies and we should certainly consider them. I think this. Makes good sense. Any other comments on the amendment? All those in favor please signify by saying I any oppose the amendment carries unanimously. Comments or questions on the main item are the other amendments. Other amendments first seen on Casper. Thank you. A question for staff on lines 27 and 28. There's a recital that says, whereas, to the greatest extent practicable, the expenditures of the county must follow the requirements of the soundtracks of sub area equity policy. And I just wondered if that was something that is in this motion or is that in the state statute. That's in state law? Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council member of the group. Thank you. That your comments are in order. Yes, I think now's the time. I appreciate this, even though it's a fairly modest motion. The reason it's important is because I think it it really sends an important signal that we as the council intend to engage in developing this this important piece of policy and budgetary work at the end of the day. There's nine of us who have to get our heads together and get our interests together. And it's important that we do this, that we consult extensively with the executive, we consult with the different educational groups and stakeholders. But it's important to me that this not be a process. You hear rumors of the colleges have a plan, the early learning folks have a plan, the K-12 people have a plan. This coalition has a plan. This isn't going to be successful if folks outside privately go develop a plan and come sense and just say, here, go take this. I think it's something where we need to engage with all of those stakeholders and be engaged in developing those ideas because there's a sure, you know, if you went just as you asked a question of the panelists, what's your top priority? If you had asked that question to this group of nine, you probably get nine answers that are different, most likely. And so the work we have to come together and reconcile the priorities of our districts are our priorities. And what we're hearing from the folks that we're accountable to, I think, is important. And I think what this motion does is set up that process to ensure we have good, robust public engagement, stakeholder engagement and collaboration with the executive branch as well. But I appreciate the motion because it it gets us engaged early, and I think that's important. Thank you. Council member of the group, Kathleen McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, agree that this is a good beginning to our planning work, but I want to make sure that we're also setting realistic expectations. Going into that, I spent a decade on the education committees in the legislature, in the House and Senate, and in previous to that, concurrent with the first couple of years of that work, I spent four years as a budget analyst with the Seattle School District. I can assure you that the $315 million dispersed throughout King County over 17 years isn't going to answer any of the quite all of the questions that we can identify, address all of the needs. And it's not going to necessarily address or solve any single issue we might all agree on. But but the task in front of us is to survey, understand that the options in the course before us and then deciding which course to take. And I think this is a good way to inform all of us and come up with a common understanding for what those choices and what those courses might be. You can. I'll say a word. This is what we have before us is essentially a plan to plan. And it's the sort of thing that we do that I think sometimes people look at and say, what is government actually doing? But because it is totally new, because it's an area, as has been pointed out by Councilman Taberski, that is not something we have a lot of experience in as a government. And because it is despite the fact that we clearly will not be able to, with this amount of money, solve all educational needs within our communities, even within any one particular sector. It's a significant amount of money, and we should be thoughtful about what impact we want to make with it. And I think we need to be thoughtful as a body together about what impact we want to make with it. And so I think deliberately, for once, we have some time. It's really two years at least before any significant amount of money starts to come in the door. So let's use that time productively and figure out what what we can best do. So let's learn first, then act. And I think that way we'll see that it's a smoother process and potentially more meaningful process. And I look forward to going through it with you all. Any last comments? I'm going to call for a vote. I think this is the roll call part. Marco, would you please call the roll as well? The last. Time. Councilmember Dunn Councilmember Garcia I was member Kohl was Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember of The Grove by Councilmember Vaughn. Right back. Madam Chair. Hi. Madam Chair. The bonus eight eyes, no no's. Councilmember Diane Excuse. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. And now, before we lose everybody, I know people have to go. I don't see Representative Ferrell. So I'm going to move now to public comment. We do value your comments and especially here at the beginning of this the beginning of this study and learning what we need to do. I really look forward to hearing from the folks who have come to tell us what they have to say. Each person will have about 2 minutes to speak and I believe that will. I don't have a timer in front of me, so I'm going to play it kind of by ear. So please try to time yourself. And if it seems like you're going much over 2 minutes, I'll I'll probably interrupt and ask you to wrap up . And then we have five people who have signed up to speak out. First call on Tony Toll, followed by Kelsey Denton. Welcome, Tony. I don't know if it's is it easier to use this here? Thank you Chair. But did she members of council. My name is Tony Joe. I work at home site. We're a nonprofit community development corporation in southeast Seattle. So why am I here? Well, we actually working on a project at Othello Dexter Station, and we've been doing a year and a half engagement. We meet with the community every month, talk about some of their priorities. And interestingly enough, early learning classrooms has become a major priority because there is a lack of physical availability of facilities that didn't meet the requirements. A lot of the they've increased the standards. And if you look at it actually, we look at rebirth of Maya's plaza. There's a burning, burning facility there. If you look at the Hirabayashi Project in the IDE side, there is a Denise Lou is doing a project there and the Mercy housing project in Sandpoint actually also has early going in it. So we actually have been asked by providers to do six classrooms, early learning classrooms. They will be multilingual and multicultural because it is the nature of who's in the community. So there's a real need for that. The second thing is that actually capital use of capital funds, you get leverage because we also have housing. There is an extra transit station. It's going to be mixed use. We have retail space. We have an office building for jobs. And so there's a lot of mix of different types of financing. And so you're really optimizing the money that that you put in. And early learning classrooms can be everywhere in the county because you're not building like a big school, you're building classrooms so it can be spread around. And if you leverage other uses that are in the facility located close to transit or transportation or housing and job centers, you're really optimizing the use of the little bit of dollar to maximum use. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming out, Tony. Kelsey Denton, followed by Ginger Kwan. Welcome and thank you for coming. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Kelsey Denton, as you mentioned. And last summer at this time, you found me a hop skip from here over at Penn Station teaching classes for Green River College. I'm a tenured faculty member there this summer. You would normally find me at home in North Bend, learning how to be a mom with my son who's six months old. Welcoming Iowa in January was joyous. But finding a place to care. For Eli when I returned to work full time at Green River in September, has been and is shattering. I started looking for care early, thinking surely I would find a spot that fit our budget. Given over a year of lead time. The search for child care proved to be as difficult as beans discussed tonight. And I put my name on a waitlist. For childcare at the Green River Childcare Center at 14 weeks pregnant and never got a place. So after over a year of searching, we did. Find a place for Eli. We had to negotiate for part time care because full time care would have been more than our mortgage payment. My husband and I will work our schedules so that we can put him in part time. Because that's what he can afford. And we're very lucky that and grateful that our jobs allow us that flexibility. But not all families can do that. Just last week. I had to plead to keep Eli's spot in his. Child care center because they've had so many requests in the weeks since agreeing to take us for part time care for people that want and are able to pay for full time care. Having a newborn is stressful and fun. But stressful. And I never imagined that. Finding and affording child care would be the. Part of caring for him that has most regularly moved me to tears. As a parent. I urge King County to add value. As I mentioned at the beginning tonight by Mayor Cook. Add value. To this county by funding additional. Facilities so that families like mine, families of the students that I teach, can have better access to affordable, high quality child care. Thank you. Thank you. Ginger Quan, followed by my kindness. Welcome. Good evening. Okay, here's to my son, Michael Cohen. And I think he's a very famous school. He graduated from school, currently is working, has two part time jobs. And I have to say, I'm a proud mom. Immigrant. Come to this country, learn how to navigate to this special education system. And earlier, when our panel was talking about all kinds of things, I need it. And I agree with that. And I just want to make sure that we as we point forward, we actually think about the invisible populations that actually are living among all of us. So in our school district, about 13% of our students among the 100th, so is about 13% of the students have a special education program. And looking at my son, many of of people, if you don't know him, you will consider he has no future, but he has a bright future. He has a meaningful life. And that was because as a parent myself, I was supported earlier by other parents to get to know how to navigate a school system. As parents are empowered, as parents are engaged, a lot of things we are able to support the family better than the school will be able to support our students because we all know in know school that have a great the parent engagement program they have a better student outcomes and that is really a key not just only focus on student but also focus on the people who are supporting the students. So, you know, we talk about a student's drop out from the school. If parents are there, chances are they don't drop out from the school. But students with disabilities are 2 to 3 times more likely to drop out from a school compared with all other students. And early learning also shows that students of color, and particularly from the refugee immigrant population and students with disabilities are more likely to be expelled from school. And so for those preschoolers who are spill out of from school, if they experience 2 to 3 times, guess what? The dropout rate from the school statistics shows that. So these are very important piece that we have to have to remember. When a students with disabilities drop out from school, they get to jail, very likely. In fact, in the jail system, juvenile justice system, if among 70% of those population, they can identify at least one of them identify the disabilities among the 70% of the population. So I want to make this point to to ensure that whatever we are planning forward, the invisible population live among us will be the very important factor that we all have to think about. So we don't have to pay for it because he is making money. But if we don't pay it now, we pay later. Thank you. Okay. Mike Heinisch followed by Mirror. Roger Munoz. Councilmember Mike Heinisch Youth and Family Services. Thanks for coming to Kent again. I'll say that. And I just want to acknowledge I'm a constituent of the group over here. Always been a proud to be a member of South County Kern in the fifth District. I also think it's worth acknowledging that Mary Suzette Cook one more time, she said, is your third term here. She's been nothing but supportive of children and youth and their needs in this community, including Craig in the last year, a youth coordinator position full time with the city. So thank you Mayor Cook definitely from all of us. I everything for said tonight for the panelists by the comments in front of me. It's the life for me. Ginger's son. Finally. Thank you, Ginger. I also want to acknowledge and let you know that when we work closely with each one of the agencies you've heard from tonight already and we'll hear from later in this process with, I guess I'd say, one exception. Excuse me, Dr. Malik Washington. We don't know if she's worked directly with her colleagues sitting next to him, next to her written tech, definitely, as well as Green River Valley Community College. We all work together closely. I want to speak quickly about some of our work because it's nice to talk to you about our work as opposed to other things most recently, but our work, we have 409 Head Start kneecap spots for family services. And by the way, we're one block away. Come over, visit some time ago tonight if you want to. We have 449 slots across six sites. Our family center can list in church down here in the valley. Holy Spirit, Catholic Church in the Valley. Catholic Community Church up in the Panther Lake community and then two in kind of sites at Kent School District, School Builders, Sunrise Elementary and Judges Creek Elementary. We service about 500 families a year at our Head Start and care programs for three and four year old, very low income, very high need families. But that number only only equals 35% of those children, three and four year olds who are eligible in the school district based on need 35%. We've moved that up actually, with the expansion that the has provided recently, but it's still 35%. And this spring we were offered 60 additional seats. We can't take those seats. We can't that outside excuse me. Slots. We can't take those sites. We can't fly space, we can't find facilities. We were. Then Yazdi came back and said, What, about 40? We couldn't take 40. So about 60 kids, maybe a little more than that in Kent next year don't have we don't have the capacity to serve who otherwise we wouldn't currently going into next year school year here in July we do recruitment during the summer we have 123 kids on a waiting list. We're already with our 23 kids who are waiting right now. So the three and four year olds who are very high risk. Priority is for what's what's in the budget, what's in the legislation, the RTW, the priority is homelessness, foster care, disability and the whole language other than English. Quickly, all the families we serve last year, about 412 of them and that number is slightly smaller last year. This last year, I mean 2016 17 to 2015, 16, because it kept switched to folded and we moved to 40. So it reduced the number. But for 12 families, 69% were children of color, 28% homeless, 19% children in foster care or kinship care. And about roughly one in every ten children in King County is living in kinship care. 1% are going to refugee 3% or disability or delayed. 64% are dual waiting do language learners. A couple of years ago we had a class. The question about you all came up earlier. A couple of years ago we had a class started the year 18 children in the classroom. Only one person that class was spoke English that was teacher that started the school year outcomes and we are unique. These are outcomes that are reportable except for Head Start sites that are running an adequate program. Our outcomes started the school year 20 1617. 50, 59% of children were on target to not be ready for school at the end of the school year. Across all domains, we measure social and the 3 hours and others 95% were ready to go to kindergarten and drinking a little bit further. Math, stem math. Start of the school year 51.9% were not looking good. End of the school year meeting or exceeding expectations 89.6% reach how education gets these kids ready for school facilities are one of the means. I can also speak later in your process to after school, but we do some of that as well. But my focus is I'm just showing you that there's need. And as I said, I agree with everything we said tonight. In addition. Thank you. Thank you very much. Last person signed up to speak is Maria munoz or Munoz. I apologize. I'm not sure which one. Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. I work with the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and here in Kent we have our Latino Education and Research Center. Our program is called Central Hindu. And we we work with the Kent School District on a key indicator of student success, which is family and community engagement. And certainly the role that we play. We are a bridge into resources in that community. And for parents, you know, back into the community, I heard someone this, this evening asking for strategies and and so forth. You know, and one of the one. Of the things for education in this arena is what they called a dual capacity model of family engagement in the school district. And what that means is really is about building relationships across, you know, between educators and families and also building the capacity of both. And so the the kids are in school for, you know, part of the day. And obviously, they they are they live in community call family. So community based organizations like ours really work with families to bring them into the school and engage them in the process. I will take a detour just to highlight that as a representative of the Latino community, when we look at numbers and demographics, I'll just take the example of the Kent Elementary School here in Kent, and 54% are Latino or Spanish speaking, and 54% is a lot. So we do have a very diverse community and there were 54% represents probably around 200 are English speakers, white and then 200, you know, are so Latino and then, you know, everybody else. So it's a it's a big challenge that we are facing. We have a lot of gang activity, predominantly by Latinos. We're kind of, you know, trying to to really address that with prevention work that has to do a lot with. Again. Family and community engagement. We work a lot with, you know, culture specific strategies to really engage the family. And we know. That as a council member of the group mentioned the Suburban Serba survey. I can't say that word. Yes, of poverty has a lot. Of us here, you know, really struggling. And so I'm just kind of wanted to highlight that. So thank you. Thank you very much for being here. That is the end of the signup sheet. Is there anybody else who would like to speak to the committee before we close public comment? Anyone. All right. Seeing none. We have one item that we did not get to, and I believe I saw Representative Ferrell arrive. Please come on down. Representative Justin Farrell is a former state representative from the 46th District. And we invited her here tonight because she was the creator, if you will, of the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account. And I would love to hear from her tonight about the intent in creating this funding source and maybe whatever you want to share about its its direction, because we're just at the beginning of a study process and we think it's a really good time to touch in with what was intended as we then start to think about how we might implement it going forward. So welcome. Former Representative Ferrell. We really thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule tonight to be here with us. Well, thank you so much. You can hear me at this level. Okay, good. Well, thank you so much for having this work session, for allowing me to come speak. I don't know if I need to say things like, for the record, I'm Justin Ferrell On the Ledge, a legislative committee. So I guess I don't need to say that is legislative. They've said it's. Okay so I said okay, good to know that's good. So I think that I'd like to highlight just a few things as you're embarking upon a community process to figure out what to do with this money. As you know, it came about as a result of a compromise, kind of one of those odd things that happened in Olympia. But the real, I think, core piece of this is that the supporters of this money really wanted it to be spent on at risk youth homelessness, recognizing that the amount of money could really potentially be transformative. You know, when we talk about social services and funding for these programs, we're not usually talking about the hundreds of millions of dollars. And so this is a real opportunity, I think, to do some really innovative things. There are some challenges, of course, with how this money flows, given that it's related to construction. So one thing that I do hope you're able to look into is whether this is something that you can bond against. To the extent you're looking at facilities, for example, with early learning, there are other things that I have been interested in. For example, supports for homeless students. We know I'll just share a little story about someone from my district in northeast Seattle. There was a woman that a young woman that I met who was at Mary's place and took a cab ride every single day to graduate with her high school class in Tacoma. And that, of course, is a federal requirement that homeless students can go to their school of origin. And I think it would be really interesting to make sure that we have fully funded McKinney. Vento supports we have a federal mandate, but we don't fund those things. So as you're looking at what you would like to do with this money, I think that might be something that's worth exploring as well. So with that, you know, I'm happy to answer some questions. But again, the real focus was this came about as a compromise to plug a hole in the general fund. My thinking, of course, was this is Puget Sound region, taxpayer money. We should be able to keep that here. But the focus for plugging the hole in the general fund was concerned that we were going to lose education funding. So that was why the focus was on education and the amendment. And of course it was written flexibly so that you could have the leeway to really figure out what would be the most transformative use of this money. So again, thank you for inviting me to. Thank you for coming. I remember sitting next to you at a forum and hearing you talk about the genesis of the fund. It's it's quite an interesting just story of legislative sausage making, not not for tonight, but over beers and time, perhaps. And these questions are coming up. The girl. Hi there. Do you support the whole agenda for housing? You know. As a matter of fact. You know, I don't get in trouble for things. I can be. Yes. Yes. So you. Oh, I. You sort of answered this. And there's always when you see the language, including but not limited to. Yes. And a list of items to be funded, it legally doesn't mean anything. But obviously the legislature put that in there for some reason when they said that funding including but not limited to youth that are low income, homeless, foster care, vulnerable. Is that your recall? If we were to try to surmise the intent, is it that that was a signal to the counties that that's a population you'd like us to look at? That is exactly right. I mean, we listed with with a great deal of purpose those particular populations, because, again, the thought was that if we're, you know, vote, you know, the thought was the context for all this was the McCleary, you know, decision and needing to fund education if there was a shortfall that was coming because we were removing sales tax from construction projects on highways, the thought was, well, then let's make sure that we're funding. Education supports. But let's also be really focused on the kids who we think need the supports the most. So that was why that list was there. It was intentional. Yes. Councilmember Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. Earlier today at the Carnegie Council, we were discussing about the same things. I mean, I did ask some of our staff what was the legislation trying to do in relation to what I thought was primarily transit, public transit, money for sound transit three. And they said similar to what you said, while they're discussing that the critical ness of trying to figure out creatively how to fund education was passed there now. But what is different then, when I heard earlier that you've said the I didn't know that originally the hope was that the much of the money or significant part of it could be used for homeless students, low income youth, foster care. You know, because I represent the inner city communities of Seattle. And education and poverty are very critical and challenging issues. So how did it come out, in your opinion? How do you think it could come to be that the money that is presented as pretty broad, what you use for the money. When there was some original expectation that it be more targeted. Yes. And so I'll just back up a little bit with the original compromise. And I think what was really problematic for me so initially and this is again in the broader transportation package, there had been a negotiation around the sales tax being removed from construction projects and that would create a $518 million hole in the general fund . That's why this amount is specified. And the compromise was that when the taxpayers of the Puget Sound passed Sound Transit three, $518 million would be taken off the top to plug that hole in the general fund. And so when that compromise was laid out, I really felt like that was something that I could not advocate with my constituents, that they would raise their taxes, and a big chunk of that money would go to the state and not be accounted for. House Democrats wanted to have some money, though, to plug that hole in the general fund because there was a deep concern around supports, especially for the most vulnerable. So that was why this particular compromise was created, in part to accommodate the desire to not have to pay sales tax on construction projects and accommodate the concern of House Democrats that supports for the most vulnerable would be the things that would be cut at the state level. So the thought was, well, then let's create an account for this money to fund supports for kids who are really in vulnerable populations. And so the intent is very, very specific to supporting homeless, low income, vulnerable youth. Okay. Thank you very much. For the comments, your questions. Yeah. All right. Well, we've had a full night here. I think we are all now a little more oriented. I have to say that this account has been one of the best kept secrets and now no longer. And we look forward to spending some time really thinking about what the policy direction is and engaging with you as well. Thank you again for coming down there. I know that you've got lots of things to do not in Kent. So we'll we'll let you get back to that. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time very much. With that, there are no further matters to come before the committee this evening. I want to once again thank our staff people for their great work getting us through this tonight and to everybody who came out and to the city of Kent for being our gracious host. The next meeting of the committee of the whole will be back in Seattle at our courthouse location on August 30th. With that, this committee meeting is adjourned.	A MOTION directing legislative department staff to prepare a report, in consultation with all councilmembers and the executive branch that provides strategies for how King County can engage stakeholders in a public process to determine how to use proceeds from Sound Transit 3 in the Puget Sound taxpayer accountability account.
king_e34364db-ccd2-46a4-94eb-9df1bbb20b57	Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the March 7th, 2018 meeting of the Committee of the whole. I would call the meeting to order. Today the committee will be discussing an ordinance that would make governance changes to for culture. King County's cultural development authority. A motion that would create a task force charged with reviewing all aspects of the operations and oversight of four culture and an appointment to the position of Deputy Director of Elections. With that, I'm going to ask the Court to please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garza here. Councilmember Kowalski, Councilmember Lambert here. Councilmember McDermott. Here. Council member of the Grove. Councilmember Von Right there. Madam Chair. Here. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you very much. Just a quick comment on public comment. I see a lot of people here interested in the four cultures discussion today. And at the February 21st meeting, we will all recall that we had extensive public comment and a really large turnout. There were people in the gallery, people in a side room. And so today, as I announced at that time, we're going to dispense with public comment because we need to take a probably a decent amount of time here today for the committee to deliberate and take votes and move forward on this legislation. So we're not going to have public comment at this committee meeting today. We do, however, have minutes from the February 21st meeting. Councilmember Lambert, welcome of approval. Thank you, Manager. I'd like to move approval of the minutes of February 21st, 2018. As written minutes are before us. Any questions? Comments, changes. Seeing none. All those in favor please signify by saying i. I. Anybody opposed. The minutes are approved. So this brings us to proposed ordinance number 2018 0086. As I said at the outset, this item would make changes to the governance for for culture King County's cultural development authority . As I just noted, we had extensive public comment at our last meeting. And today we're going to take up both in this ordinance and a motion on a similar related topic. So I'm going to call on Staff Mary Bourguignon and Wendy Sue, who to brief both the ordinance and the motion up front, if you would, before we go into debate and deliberation. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Mary Bergeron from the council staff. And I want to first acknowledge our colleague Leah Crinkle, Sofie, who took the lead on the analysis as well as the drafting of the various pieces of legislation and is not able to be here today. So I am filling in for her. I will start with a very quick overview of the ordinance, since you had an extensive briefing at your last meeting. The proposed ordinance 2018 0086 would, as you noted, make a number of changes to the oversight of fort culture. Those can be summarized in three specific areas. First, the for culture budget. The ordinance would require that the Council accept by motion four cultures board adopted budget prior to transferring funding to for culture in the next fiscal year. And the ordinance requires that for culture transmit the budget directly to the Council for the Council's review. Next, in terms of the four culture board appointment process, the proposed ordinance would change the composition of the board establishing nine positions that would be appointed by county council member by district, and then six appointments made by the county executive . In addition to the five ex-officio members as exist currently, the ordinance would also remove the requirements for a specific balance of expertize on the board. And then third, the for Culture Executive Director. The proposed ordinance would provide for the County Executive to appoint and the Council to confirm the four culture executive director recommended by the for Culture Board. The ordinance would also provide for the county to remove the executive director by ordinance. So that's a brief overview. Madam Chair, I think captures the main points in the proposed ordinance. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Thank you. There was some language in the the different kinds of expertizes that said business was an expertize. Is that language in or out at this point? There is general language in the ordinance about wanting to have, you know, various sort of interest in ability in arts and culture. But there were some specific call outs for different types of expertize that have been removed in the ordinance. And just a preview. Spoiler alert. I have an amendment to put those back in. Oh, that would be wonderful. I think business is a pretty important one to have. Okay, great. Thank you. So, could you tell me what it is? Sure. It's Page. 29 of your packet. And we are if you look at line 64 and you'll notice that what it says is, oh, sorry, no, this is the public art advisory committee, not the board. Hang on, I'm an I'm council member. I can get back to you on that. I'm going to need to get to the appropriate amendment and I'll be able to find it more quickly. Oh, there's only. About 20 of them, so I can't imagine. Thank you. It's just now I'm almost I am I am here. So the language that was removed from the in the proposed ordinance reads At least one director shall have expertize in arts. At least one director shall have expertize in public art. At least one director shall have expertize and heritage. At least one director shall have expertize in historic preservation and at least one director shall be from the business community. So that expertize language was stricken from the proposed ordinance in favor of the more geographic focus of having nine members appointed by Council member by district. Q Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions about the ordinance before I ask staff to brief the motion? Councilmember TOMASKY Thank you, Madam Chair. Question on point on the last item with respect to the ordinance that removed those a column minimum expertize requirements, did the ordinance does the ordinance replace them or call for that expertize to be otherwise available to for culture? So for culture has a number of advisory committees and the proposed ordinance would retain those advisory committees and retain the expertize that is recommended for those advisory committees. See. So it moves the requirements over to the technical advisory committees to have each of those specialties correct. Okay. And has staff done any analysis on whether there's any change as a result of the available expertize, as a result of where that where those folks sit on a technical advisory committee versus the board? So I think. Mr. DEMBOSKY, two weeks ago in the panel discussion board members presented for cultures perspective that this would be a change in the composition of the board. Right. What the ordinance would do would is focus more on a geographic distribution for the board. Okay. I heard that they were removed. I heard that testimony. I didn't hear the part about the expertize being retained in the technical advisory board. So that actually is helpful to me. Yes. So there are four advisory committees to four culture and those each have a specific focus. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments at this time? All right. Let's move on to briefing the motion, please. Thank you. Wendy Sue, who counsel, staff. And the next item on the agenda is proposed motion 2018 0155, which would establish a cultural development task force. Under the proposed motion, the County Executive in Council, in coordination with for culture, would convene a task force composed of local elected, local elected officials, representatives from Fort Culture, and then also representatives from local, regional and statewide arts, cultural and heritage organizations. The task force would be charged with leading a review of cultural infrastructure across the county. They would also look at the accessibility of arts, cultural and heritage programing, as well as the structure and practices. Of fort culture. The task force would be comprised of at least 14 members, including at least two from the King County Council, the executive or the executive designee, two representatives from Fort Culture and representatives from arts, culture and heritage organizations, including at least nine from small organizations. The county would provide funding to support an independent consultant that would be selected by the Task Force and the Office of Equity and Social Justice would also provide additional staff support to the task force. The task force would be charged with preparing a report containing recommendations to the county to promote geographic and social equity in the allocation of funding, to support the development of cultural infrastructure being developed around King County and also to improve the accessibility of programing. The report would be transmitted under this motion. It's requested to come to the Council by April 1st, 2019, and that's a high level description of what the motion would set forth. And I'm happy to answer any questions. I think Councilmember Caldwell's maybe you can say a few words about the motion since it's your proposal and it's new. Thank you, Madam Chair. And as everybody here knows, they did want this motion on to the at the council meeting on Monday, which is normally not something I would do. However, I in from a lot of discussions that were going on last week among council members, among staff and council members with staff I had really hoped to have today offered a striking amendment and there was confusion about that, whether it would be something that we could do procedurally or not. So I went ahead and had staff draft this and some motion. And it had been too late to introduce it by last Thursday morning. So that's the reason why after this is the motion. I would like to say, though, that the idea of a task force really came from my colleague, council member Dombroski, and I thought it was a brilliant idea and I really applauded him for contemplating that and talking with people in his community. I know he's worked very hard to engage individuals and organizations in his community, and where I had some heartburn about that was more on the timing of it, and that was in effect to delay implementation initially of the idea of the ordinance going into effect. And after that, the task was to report its recommendations. As it turns out now, that delayed implementation is not in there. And for his amendment, if I'm saying this correctly, so to me it's the cart before the horse to follow an amendment on to the either the underlying ordinance as it was introduced or on the striking amendment that we have before us. I believe very strongly that to have things really work, really work, there should be collaboration and an engagement of those in the community who are artists, who work in culture, heritage, and to be able to get their input and then go ahead with an ordinance. And I'm afraid that if we go ahead with an ordinance now, then we would lose all of that opportunity for increasing access to the arts. And that is why I would like my motion to go forward in lieu of the ordinance so we could do it in the right order. And I would like to say something that it's been on my mind for a long time, and I think it's really important to state we had a, I thought, a terrific public comment period two weeks ago that demonstrated the care, the emotion, the passion that is felt among our arts, cultural heritage, communities. But some people, I think, unfortunately, took a very aggressive approach. And I believe that some of my colleagues took umbrage with that. I believe strongly and I will say it over and over again, I know that every one of my colleagues is a supporter of the arts and our cultural and heritage efforts to expand into all communities of our county. I know that is an absolute certainty, and what demonstrates that is many of my colleagues want to have more in their own neighborhoods, in their communities, and that's part of the reasoning behind introducing and sponsoring the ordinance. Given that, I think we need to step back and say, okay, some people may say that our culture is not broken, so why try to fix it? I'm probably more in that direction. If we had a continuum, some people are saying it is broken, we need to fix it. My district doesn't get enough awards. Underrepresented communities do not have enough outreach to them. The process isn't a good one. Well, if that is the belief, then we need to work together to come up with the best solution so everybody can buy into this. And every every area of our counts as a county will have the opportunities and the actual access to the arts, culture and heritage programs that we also want to be part of. And Councilmember Gossett, in my taskforce, my motion, I do include on page four, line 85, if I may read, Madam Chair, one of the recommendations that this task force would be charged with would be to promote geographic and. Social equity and the allocation of funding, including strategies to promote the submission of award applications. Because I have heard loudly and clearly from Council member Goss, who so superbly represents the underserved communities in our county, that many artists do not apply for for cultural works , even if there's outreach about the awards possibility and solicitation of applications. But they don't submit applications. And that is a very important part of what our culture should be doing more of. I know they do it, but they should be doing a lot more of that. I don't want to belabor this, but I think this is the proper order to take. Work together collaboratively, make recommendations and then. Then we go on to having an ordinance, a proposed ordinance that would deal with what the real solutions can be. So please, let's not jump the cart before the horse. And, Madam Chair, I'm not sure how you want to deal with this. I also have a striking amendment that would I be able to do this as well. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. So I just want to say, as a process matter, I recognize that the motion is after the ordinance on the agenda. I thought it was appropriate to have it briefed so people understood what was before us. And to give Councilmember Caldwell's an opportunity to explain the rationale, because she is offering a path that is different than the ordinance. And if there was interest on the council in pursuing that path, we really can only take that opportunity before we vote on the ordinance. After we vote on the ordinance, it's kind of moot. So that's why we've discussed it in this order. Is there anybody else who'd like to comment? I will comment. I believe that Councilmember Caldwell's is correct. There have been a number of things presented in our meetings and in public discussion about the rationale behind the ordinance. And I think the best of them and the ones that bring us all together that we all agree on are the need to do a better job of pushing arts and cultural organizing opportunities out into different geographic parts of the county, and especially to underserved communities, neighborhoods, groups of people. I don't think there's a one of us in this room or on this dais that doesn't think that that's a priority. We talked about it at length during the debate about the Cultural Access Washington proposal last year, and it was universally agreed that we need to do more of that and with those more resources, that would have made it easier to do more of that. Now we're dealing with the resources that we have. But but there's a desire, clearly, for that to become a more concrete effort, for that to become a more urgent effort. And I think that that is the best rationale I have heard for us at the council talking about for a culture now. And I think that Councilmember Caldwell's motion goes directly at that issue. It asks us, as elected officials representing our constituents to get together with the arts and cultural and heritage community and work on exactly these issues, and then come back with a proposal that attracts them directly. So I think it makes good sense. I would support it if I don't see anybody else here who would support it. However, then I think it would be time to move into talking about the ordinance. And so I'm looking around to see if anybody else wants to say anything. Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know that I alone provide critical mass, but I want to offer some thoughts as well. And that is that the sponsors of the original ordinance before us today have said that some of their work is to address transparency and involvement across the county, but also that there isn't a particular problem that the ordinance is trying to address. Well, if there isn't a particular problem the ordinance is trying to address, then I think a community wide conversation with the council well-represented in the task force along with for culture other arts advocates, including regional around the county and local small arts organizations across the county, in each of our districts is the way to put together a conversation about what improvements could we make? I'm not about to argue that Fort Culture is a perfect organization, but I do believe it is a very good one. And if there are ways we can improve it, let's have that broad community conversation about a mutual agreement, about where those opportunities are and then enact them. And so I really do believe that Councilmember Caldwell's motion is the way to start the conversation and then have a group private come before the full council. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I my preference would be the the ordinance that's listed on the agenda. And while I don't question my colleague's motives, I believe she's sincere. There is to be a joke in Olympia that if you want to kill a bill, turn into a study or a task force. I don't believe that's her intent in this case, but I also believe it can be an unintended consequence of it. Also, I would note, I believe one of our colleagues, Councilperson Belsky, has an amendment that would do an evaluation and continued work after implementing some changes in the underlying ordinance. So there's a path forward that is not, as I know it's not in the order or doesn't achieve the same effect, but it does provide for some engagement, an analysis of the impact. And for those reasons, my preference would be to move forward with the ordinance. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. I concur with Councilman of the Grove, and I wanted to ask you, why did you make a distinction between accepting this and going forward with the other amendments to the original ordinance? Audie. I think if we adopted that, that would mean that we wouldn't go forward. That essentially my understanding of the intent of the motion is that it would be to take a step back from the proposal that's in front of us that is represented by the ordinance and convene this group of people, work through issues and recommendations and bring those recommendations back as. A different ordinance based on whatever the recommendations would be as opposed to going forward with this ordinance. Council member of the Grove is correct. There's another amendment coming to the ordinance that would do this differently. That would it would add on top of the governance changes a task force to look at something. So but Councilmember Cole Wells, you want to speak to that question because I answered for you. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I would like to speak to this without coming across as being defensive. But but I also was in the legislature. And, yes, there was a strategy that was used occasionally, even frequently, times, to really forestall anything from happening by setting up a task force. The federal government does that with commissioner, and I would like everybody to know totally. That is not my intention with this task force. And I know council member to go was not referring to me as someone who would do that, but he still said it right here. And I want to make it clear I had this task force motion drafted so that it would be very specific to get at the underlying issues that are in the ordinance that is before us and in the striking amendment. I just cannot believe that we really would be going ahead with this ordinance that would have some very dramatic effects on our artistic, cultural heritage community in our county without having. A collaboration to bring about real recommendations. And that's my intent. Not to just forestall something. Not to do something symbolically. My preference, Madam Chair. Yes. Is that we would adopt this motion, give it a do pass recommendations, send it to the full council without going ahead with the ordinance. I think that's the proper thing to do. And I, I really would like it if my colleagues would just think about this and what we could do if we were to go ahead with this motion, if we do not have the support here. I understand that. I just hope that people don't get so vested in this ordinance that I think would have actually the unintended consequences that were referred to by another colleague of mine. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. I am sensing that the will of the body is to move to the ordinance at this time. And if. Unless I hear objections, I've heard three objections, but I have not heard more than three objections. And so understanding that I think we should go on with our agenda. We have lots to discuss about this ordinance and let's do that now. So I will start by calling on Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move the proposed ordinance to 18 0086 advance to full council with a do pass recommendation. And there is a striking amendment. Councilmember the. Thank you, Madam Chair. And move that striking amendment s one point to be adopted. Okay. Now, you didn't brief the striker when you briefed the ordinance, so maybe now would be time to brief the. Strike guide and overview so the striking amendment can be found on page 81 of your packet, and it would make a number of changes from the proposed ordinance. First, in terms of the budget, it would stipulate that the pop culture budget be transmitted to the executive 125 days before the end of the fiscal year, rather than being transmitted directly to the council. In that way, the For Culture Budget could then be transmitted to the Council by the Executive along with the Council's normal budget work in the fall. It would then defer the requirement for culture, budget review and acceptance to begin in 2020 rather than on the effective date of the proposed ordinance. It would allow transfers of funds to for culture to continue in the next fiscal year if the Council did not act on the motion by November 30th. Transfers would only discontinue if the Council rejected the for culture budget by motion by November 30th so that this would have an affirmative requirement of the Council to act. Next, the striking amendment would make a number of changes to the for culture Boyd Board appointment process. In would provide for a process for notification and input from the for culture governance nominating committee on board vacancies and require that the current for culture process for nominating vacancies in the board occur only by request of the executive or council member making the appointment. And I do have I know that the whole process for appointments and nominations has been confusing. We do have a fairly detailed matrix on the different iterations of this. If we have many more questions on that that we can distribute. Finally, I will note that the striking amendment would make changes to the provisions related to the Executive Director by eliminating the ability of the county to remove the four culture executive director. Okay. I think the proper way to do this is to entertain amendments to the striker and then have discussion about the whole thing. However, it looks after we've gone through that process in the way I'm going to proceed with this as I'm going to take up each one in order on your matrix, we have six plus a title amendment which may or may not be relevant when we get to it. The title amendment is required if the striking amendment passes without amendment pending on other amendments, there may need to be more changes to the title at form. So that will hopefully be the least of our problems today. And then and I will ask staff to brief each one and then ask the proponent to make a motion and speak to it, and then we'll have to be served. So amendment number one, if I can ask staff to brief that one and then I'll call on Councilmember Dombroski. Okay. This means members, this amendment would establish a task force as part of the ordinance. It would be similar to what Councilmember Colwell proposed. There are a few differences and I would just point those out on page two of the packet. The task force membership differs from what was in the motion that we discussed in Councilmember Dumbbell Ski's amendment. The task force would be staffed by an independent consultant and that consultant would be funded both by the county and the Cultural Development Authority with the Office of Equity and Social Justice and Counsel providing technical assistance to the Task Force. The task force would similarly be providing a report on the governance and social equity practices for culture and make recommendations around those particular issues. Under Councilmember Dombroski approach, the report would be required by February 1st, 2019, and I would note that it would not delay implementation of the governance practices, and instead it inserts language such that if the Council were to approve the report by motion acknowledging receipt no later than April 1st, 2019. So about two months after the report in motion would come to the council, then the budget review process provisions would essentially kick in in 2019 as opposed to 2020, which is what's included in Striker as 1.2. Okay. I want to actually allow the proponents to speak first and then maybe it's actually actually this is going to be just a flow. But let me give Councilmember Dombroski the opportunity to speak. First thing about chair. I move adoption of Amendment one and would like to speak to it. Please go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Amendment one is less my amendment and more of the communities amendment. And it it it is not perfect in terms of its timing. I agree, frankly, with Councilmember Carl Wells. I had occasion to refer to another piece of work this body did that was related to our Immigrant and Refugee Commission, which we stood up a week or so ago. And the process with that started over two and a half years ago in the community with a request for some additional work in the county around that. And I was interested in just proceeding to have a commission and get going and my staff and the community said, no, really, we need to have more of a process to develop what that commission should look like. And so we had a task force and they did two years of work and and had a number of meetings around the county with our King County Office of Equity and Social Justice, and came forth with a recommendation which was ultimately adopted by the Council and stood up. And it had that at that time I thought that was a very good process here. You know, we were going a little bit different and it is in a more of a traditional role where council has got a set of policy solutions that are aimed at addressing a number of of perceived issues. I, I think that it's good enough, but I don't know that it's perfect. And so my notion here is that I think we can benefit and have even further refinements, improvement by having more listening. And if one thing has become clear to me from all of the input I've received on this from the community and my confab and collab session at the Sandpoint Arts and Cultural Center and additional meetings with community members here and elsewhere, is that I think more dialog is necessary around arts, culture and heritage funding in the county. I don't think that if this legislation passes that it's the end of this process, but maybe rather the beginning. And I also reflect on the Prop one debate, the access for all debate and the issues that came out around that, around equitable funding, countywide and governance and that kind of dollars. And those were real challenges that we addressed here. So this this amendment would say, rather than this being the end of this discussion, this legislation ought to carry that it's maybe more of the beginning and that we ought to look through an equity lens. And that's the core of this and the frame in which we approach it, an equity lens at how far culture is doing with respect to its mission, and then have a series of dialogs and discussions around the county. This task, it would be overseen by a task force and staffed by an independent consultant, jointly funded by the county and for culture. And so we'd have to ask for our culture's help on that. They get to decide it would bring in a representative from the council, from the executive, from for culture, also from COA Cultural Access Washington, which I think is an important entity here, but then have mostly in the task force small and diverse arts, culture and heritage representatives throughout the county. We'd ask for that report back to us with recommendations with respect to how far culture is doing its governance and and really broader issues about how we can really support and improve our funding and support for arts, culture and heritage in the county. This amendment was drafted in close consultation and work with some community members and the in the arts and theater community. It has been reviewed by an independent equity consultant. We took every single suggestion made and put it in here and it's been a multi-week process. So I've shared it with each of you real time as it's been developed and calling Councilmember Caldwell's last last week in terms of the concepts as soon as it was ready, we've we've shared it with you and, you know, that's, that's that's what it does. I just remain convinced that we need more dialog on, on this topic doesn't mean that the solutions here today aren't something that should be done, but we need more dialog and then I'm personally open to continue to have further changes in a go forward basis depending on what this work comes back to and on. So I would ask for your support. Okay. There was a question from Councilmember Caldwell's and then Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do have a question of either Wendy or Councilmember DEMBOSKY directly or a councilmember up the grove. And that is. I had heard councilman. Up to Grove in an earlier comment that this amendment would serve as an evaluation. And I wasn't clear on that. It looks the language looks very similar to my task force motion's language, which is to look ahead and collaborate with the community and come up with recommendations rather than an evaluation of either what's being done with the ordinance. I'm just not sure. Maybe maybe Councilmember Grove could answer that. Who would like. This? I'll take a stab at it. And then, Wendy can I would turn your attention, Councilmember Caldwell's to line 57 on page three, which in the paragraph outlines the task force report contents and it says it shall include its assessment, its task force and evaluation of four cultures, governance, structure, processes and practices, including but not limited to its grant award process through equity and social justice. Lance should say an acronym such as using the Community Stakeholder Process. In this section, the results of its assessment evaluation to make recommendation to for cultures, practices, governance and oversight structure to promote geographic, social, racial equity. So it does include an evaluation of what we have and it may come back with an but a grade or it may say, hey, pretty good, but you could refine and improve. And I think it would benefit. My my intention is that it benefit everybody in this community to understand where we stand and how we might be better. Thank you very much for that clarification. It's a little different than the language in my task force motion, but I think we're trying to get at the same thing. It's just mind would do is be forward instead of perhaps having to unwrap some of what's already been placed in our codes, which can be a much more difficult process item. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is making it easier for them. Excuse me. Sorry. 1/2, Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Councilmember Dombroski, for talking with your colleagues and me in particular last week as this idea was coming together and being crafted, I was I need to say, I was more interested in the idea of it conceptually might have included the delay in when the overall ordinance was put into effect, because that way I believe the task force would better be able to inform future work of the Council and how one culture might respond to the recommendations from the task force if in fact the ordinance itself goes into effect in the same time frame. Meanwhile, the task force is asked for ideas. It's I'm concerned that we're presupposing what the outcome is and not investing as much value in the task force's work as we might otherwise do. And so in its in its form before us today, I don't know that I'll be able to support it. I think Councilmember McDermott and I agree it is imperfect, but it seems to me that the underlying ordinance and its three core changes, and that would be confirmation of the executive director approval of basically now a part of the budget after this work is done, and the third being the geographic change of the board appointment process. Those are just three things. And frankly, this is a more comprehensive, open ended assessment. So I it's a broad we we would be open to and presumably receive a broader set of recommendations. So I understand where you're at, but my sense was of the body that there was the will to proceed with these three basic reforms or some shape of them. And I didn't want to have that be the end of the conversation. I didn't think there would be I didn't sense there was support to put a stop to the underlying ordinance. So that's why it's worded that way. Okay. Other comments or questions? I have a comment. I think I'm going to be a little repetitive and preface pretty much all my comments today with the statement that I really do believe that everybody on this council is intent upon reaching a similar goal of expanding access to cultural opportunities in multiple ways. But I do think that some of the steps that we are proposing to get there, either, in my opinion, missed the mark in that they don't actually get us there, or they could be actually concerning. And and I'm I'm going to speak just to the language of this section either we've been talking about. The amendment says that will convene a task force, it says. Generally, the types of people to be on the task force and their work is to assess and evaluate. Quote four cultures, governance, structure, processes and practices including but not limited to grant award processes. And it says that how they will do that is through an equity and social justice lens. So this. I have two serious concerns with the way this is written. And I don't believe this is the intent, but I'm concerned that this is the result. My concern my first concern is it says that we need to look at the governance structure and processes and practices through an equity and social justice lens. So we're going to make changes to the governance and some of the processes and practices. Now, without having a discussion through an equity and social justice lens, we're just going to make those changes because we know they're right. And then we're going to go back and see whether there are changes that should be made and apply our equity and social justice lens. It's just it's backwards in my mind. But more importantly, the concern all along that I have heard loud and clear from the arts advocacy community is that they want to join in this work of looking at more equitable ways to support arts, culture and heritage in communities. And their concern with this ordinance is that it's really just a power grab that's going to allow a like log rolling, that it's going to allow a combination of five or more council members to decide how money gets moved around. And I have defended that to some extent and said I don't think that that's the intent nor what's really going to happen. But now this amendment would actually get us into grant processes. It gets us into talking about how the grant process has happened. I think it takes us a step further towards exactly what the community is afraid of. I don't know that that was what was intended. In fact, I'm fairly sure it wasn't. But this also kind of just feels like, okay, you all, we don't really you don't care for what we're doing. We heard that. So we're going to give you some more homework on top of it. We're gonna do it anyway and we're going to give you some homework to do. I just don't. It's too much to me in this order and I can't support this, although I could certainly support something like this if it was developed in a collaborative way with the folks who are going to have to implement it. So I'm going to vote no on this amendment, but that's not because I don't think that it could be made to work. I just think that this the way this is written doesn't work. And it, in fact, triggers some of the things that I think are the things people most are most concerned about. So I'm going to vote no on the amendment and no one else, anyone else. Councilmember Kowalski. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a question. Are we taking up each amendment one at a time and then vote on yes, one. This one as before as it's been moved and it is before us for. Then, Madam Chair. Yes. And I move on to Rule 18 be for the committee to withdraw from consideration. That's one too, so that I may move strike three for deliberation and action. Okay. You like me to explain what. Rules I would, and then I'm going to need some parliamentary help because I did not know I. Robert's rules would be here today. Thank you. Okay. Yes, please. Do you want to read? Do you want? Sure. Lawyer. Lawyers. We got them. We got lawyers. Yeah. We don't need the guns and the money. Yet, but. It's coming. Please. For the record, Kendall Moore. Under your rule 18 B, after a motion has been stated by the chair and read by the clerk, the. Motion can then be withdrawn by the consent. Of the committee as long as it is done before any. Decision or. Amendment has been made. So the timing of the councilmembers motion is appropriate to take up before there's any vote on amendment the Demovsky amendment to S 1.2. So is the motion to remove consideration of the amendment to the striker or the striker itself? I believe that the. Motion. Is to the striker itself so that it can. Be withdrawn and then as three be considered. If S three it fails. Then you can go back to Striker 1.2. Is this a debatable motion? It seems like one of those non debatable motions, but I'm not 100% sure. It is it. We don't want that. No, it is not listed under Rule. 17 as a motion to be. Decided without debate. Okay. So that means there can be debate. Councilmember Caldwell's, we want to speak to your motion. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Do I have to move? Oh, no. You made a motion. Just. I made a motion. I do not want to get to this point, but as it was not determined by my colleagues to go ahead with my motion to create a task force, I decided to go ahead with this motion. But again, I cannot stress enough how important it is that we work with the community and we come up with recommendations before we implement a new law in our code. That just does not make sense to me as the order that we would customarily do things. We need to have that dialog. If we're talking about transparency and we're talking about accountability, why have a task force that is something and come back to us with recommendations after we've already created a new ordinance? It just doesn't flow. It's not it's not workable. And therefore, I do have a striking amendment, striking Amendment three that would create a task force in code instead of through a motion. This is what makes sense. This is where everybody can be pleased with what we're doing. We can have a meaningful, significant working together of all of the different players, and that will have the opportunity for real success and to get to resolutions and solutions, which is what we all want. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any other comments? Council member of the group. Thank you, Mr.. Madam Chair, I was unaware this motion was coming, so I didn't care to discuss it, but I. I think at this point there is support for the process that we've embarked upon, which is consideration of an ordinance, a strike amendment that we're into and amending that. And I think to take an unusual step of stopping our debate on that, it, I don't think makes sense. I think we've had an opportunity here for voices. I think the making of the motion has allowed a an argument to be made that needs to be made and heard. But I would encourage people to vote no on this so we can continue to do our work. Thank you. I'll make a comment as well. I feel like I need to explain my vote on this. I agree in substance with Councilmember Caldwell's 100%. I think that that is absolutely. Right. She has outlined the path that I wish had been taken, but it wasn't. And we're here and we have got a majority and in fact, a supermajority of this body that is supportive of this ordinance. And I'm committed to trying to make it the best it can be and to go forward from here. I don't I'm not a I'm not a sponsor or even a supporter of this path. But sometimes you have to make the best with what you possibly can achieve. And that I feel like that's more important than trying to go sideways into a vote that I know will fail. And so I'm just not I'm not going to vote yes on this. And it's not because I'm not with you, Councilman Raquel Welch in spirit, but I think the procedural side trip is going to be unnecessarily divisive, and I just don't think we should take it. Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms.. Moore, may I ask you a question? We currently have before us striking Amendment 1.2 and if an amendment to it, if we were to follow our normal procedure, take up the amendments to it, then take it up perhaps as amended. If it were to fail, we would then be able to take up an S3. That's correct. Okay. So this motion before us at the moment is not the only way we might consider s three if ifs. S 1.2 as amended does not pass, then yes, you may take up a subsequent strike. Thank you. That's a really good point. Thank you for pointing that. Out there about. Okay. Question from Councilmember Gossett, can you you might not want to walk away. Thank you, Madam Chair. What do we do? I mean, I support changes to the budget review and acceptance process as well as board notification and input. Our process for vacant for future vacant positions. But I still want us to go forward with having the ability to be involved in the process of hiring and firing the executive director . So I went out to vote no. Well, what you have just described is an option that is not in front of us today to keep those two processes that you like and and or to keep the process that you like and change the two that you don't like. That that is looking down my list of amendments. That is not a combination that will be in front of us. At least it doesn't seem likely to be in front of us today. And then so whatever comes out of this process of amending the striker, I think it's going to be up to every individual council member to decide whether the balance we ultimately strike is something that we can support or not support. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. So let me make sure that I understood the answer you just gave. So if we voted no on S1, then we could have the same thing happen that we just had happen, that we could end up with S3 at both S1 and as three get no votes, then we go back to the underlying ordinance. So, yes, although I understand that procedurally, they're actually that we're actually going to be there's a striker that makes some maybe technical changes or just a striker that it's like a substitute ordinance, but it is exactly the same as the underlying. There is a striker that has been prepared. S2 That is exactly the same as the underlying ordinance. With one difference it adds a line numbers to the attachments so that when you make amendments, we can easily describe where they are. And where is that on a list? You do not have that in front of you, but will should the need arise. Okay, so how do we get to the need to arise to that? If one thing breaking amendment fails, then councilmembers can choose to either amend the underlying ordinance which would be presented to you as a striker as to or to move forward with Councilmember Caldwell's amendment, which is striker S3, which, as she noted, would delete everything in the ordinance and replace it with a requirement for a task force. So just so I'm clear, because this is as clear as mud. So I want to make sure as clear made as to. As we got to where I want as well to. What? Okay, so s 1.2 goes down. Then we have the opportunity to look behind door number two or door number three. Door number three would be why Councilmember Caldwell suggested door number two. Is the original. The original. So we would get back to all the points that we had thought about originally. So. Right, is that right? That's my yes. Okay. So there is an option to get to the original by going to eschew it as 1.2 goes. And I would note you could just adopt the underlying ordinance with no changes if you wish to amend the underlying ordinance. And we had received a number of requests to do so for the purposes of being able to describe and identify excuse me, where any changes were to the two attachments to the ordinance. We created a striking amendment that had line numbers just just for procedural ease. I know it's confusing, but it's hard when you've got a 54 page packet and you're trying to make line amendments in it. Can I just clarify, please? Okay. So for clarification purposes, to make life easier, because this is a little complicated, we could vote down if we chose to one, point to three and go back to the underlining underline underlying. And then if we felt at council that. It needed. Some minor. Adjustment for the amendments. We could do that at council. Certainly that would make life much easier because then it would be exactly like what we do normally. So I just put that out as a way of simplifying the unsayable. Thank you. Okay. Councilmember Caldwell's to close. Thank you, Madam Chair, to this. I have no illusion that my motion will be adopted, but I do want to make sure everybody knows this was not made capriciously. It is totally within the rules of our council proceedings, as I mentioned, that it is under rule 18 B, so it was proper to do and I do. I would love it if you all supported it, even though I don't think that will happen. Thank you. Okay. With that, I'll call for a vote on the pending motion. Does everybody understand the pending motion? Yes. All right. All those in favor please signify by saying I. All those opposed. No. Okay. The motion does not carry. And I believe that was since that was kind of an intervening motion. Now we are back to the pending motion, which is Amendment One to striker one point to. Are there any further comments on Amendment one? Councilmember De Bousquet, would you like to say anything before we vote? Just just to close. And I think there are good points on both sides, and that in an ideal world, we would perhaps, on an issue this complex, have a broader look and do this process leading up to it. But where we are, where we are and and I think some of the base reforms and the reason I co-sponsor this are necessary. My district has been without a voice for two years. The for culture folks say that they've had since there were 23 clean audits. It's not true. The state auditor had a cygnet had a a a internal controls weakness which taking the other represented a significant deficiency in 2009. That's why I support the budget approval for financial accountability and oversight. I think that these light touches, if you will, are important and necessary. But again, and why I'm ready to move forward with them today. I don't like the higher fire. I think that the underlying striker that changes that is good. But I do also think that this topic and I give credit to the Arts and Culture and Heritage Committee for coming forward needs more discussion. And I'll say this. I've heard from folks in my community who are too afraid to come into this chamber and raise a different you're shaking head to share their differing view because of the nature of the testimony that's been that's been given and they have a different view about for culture. But I've reached out to my office so and I'll say this, a lot of them look a little bit different than than than the voices we've heard from in terms of diversity. And I'm I care about those voices and those artists and those organizations, and they're not they're not able to be here. So I think we do need some reform. I also think we need some more discussion. And I think that this process has shown that. And I think that the debate around Prop one last year and its results have shown that. And that's why I'm offering this. I also think, by the way, I didn't say this that it sisters in with a process that has been recently commenced by for culture and I give them credit for it to reach out. I think they've heard the message that more dialog is necessary and they have commenced. I understand a listening process and this would marry up with that. At least that's the intention and have a more comprehensive approach. So I ask for members support. Okay. With that, I will call for a vote on Amendment one to the striker. All those in favor please signify by saying I opposed no. Can we do that one more time with hands? All those in favor, please raise your hand and signify by saying I all those opposed. No, no. The motion carries 5 to 4. Okay. This brings us to number number amendment two and I'll ask staff to please brief Amendment two. Sure. Amendment number two, excuse me, which is being offered by Councilmember Balducci, would add language to a section of code that describes the county's policies regarding cultural programs and that new language would read. King County recognizes that meeting its goals for regional distribution of cultural activities requires regional planning, outreach to cities and communities throughout the county and a regional investment strategy. So again, this would make changes to an existing code section to add language. Regional policy goals. He's got a complaint. Okay. Thank you. And since I'm the sponsor, I'll speak to it really briefly. The key language change is it's a very brief one. It's on page two of the amendment. It lines 29 to 31. And all it does is state the that the whereas is or the factual finding type language in this ordinance is framed differently than I'm used to seeing. It says King County recognizes, as opposed to other framings that I'm used to seeing. So this one follows that framing and says King County recognizes that meeting its goals for regional distribution of cultural activities requires regional planning, outreach to cities and communities throughout the county and a regional investment strategy. And I believe what this does is just sets a it's non-binding, goal oriented language that sets our goal to to do that broader regional outreach that we've been talking about since the access for all, at least at this council, since we've been talking to the council about the access for all. I know that the board has been talking about it as well. So I think it's simple. I don't think it adds much other than to make explicit the policy that many of us have been talking about. And I would ask for your support. Councilmember of the. Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that amendment to be adopted. Oh, and oh, thank everything. Mr.. The girl. At in discussions. That. I've had with the for culture board leadership. I think that clearly articulates a vision that I've heard from both the agency and from colleagues on this dais. So I think it captures a common vision. Well. I appreciate your support both for the amendment and the process. I don't know if that makes me a bad chair or a bad member or both, but there you go. It's before us. Any other. I would just. Be in your vice chair to. It. Thank you. Anyone else on this one? Okay. All those in favor of amendment to please signify by saying i i any opposed the motion carries. And that brings us to Amendment three. Amendment three would simply require that six votes would be necessary in order to reject the foreclosure. By my Motion. Councilmember. Madam Chair, to move adoption of Amendment three. Showing us how it's done. Would you like to speak to Mr. McDermott? Thank you, Madam Chair. If the Council is going to take control of the foreign culture budget, then we're going to need to have a compelling reason to deny the approval of that budget. If there's truly a troubling and compelling reason to reject the budget a problem with it, then that would easily be a90 vote up here on this council. And this amendment would ensure that the council wouldn't be accused of trying to steer money to our own districts or politicize the funding of foreign culture or the grant process, as some are concerned this ordinance might be doing. And so to protect the integrity of the budget in the process, I ask for support in a supermajority of six votes to approve to disapprove the full culture budget. Okay. Any questions or comments? Councilmember Gossett I wanted to ask Councilman Mike what happened to the adherence to the old reliable American rule of majority rule? Councilmember Gossett When something spots in our rules, we require a supermajority for particular actions. And this is one where some members of the public are concerned that by needing to approve for culture the Public Development Authority's budget, that we are in some sort of a power grab and this offers them a very direct assurance that's not the case. And as I said, if there's a problem with the budget, there's an audit finding this comes from a democracy raises or a concern, then there should be an easy nine o vote. And this offers the public assurance with a by requiring a nine and a six vote supermajority. Okay. Councilman Bloomberg. Thank you. I ever heard that term power grab and it's very disconcerting to me. My job is to represent the citizens of the county and not just any one particular category in any one particular budget. We have sat down and made 17 budgets since I've been here and we've worked together collaboratively, and I think 16 of the 17 have been unanimous. So I don't see where there would be any problem as using the same that we use for regular budgets to do this. I think that taking any budget. Whether. It's this one or any other one and saying, oh, you're special, you need seven or you even more special, you need eight or you're worse, but you need nine. I just don't think that's right. We we do the budget 16, 17 years. It's been unanimous. And I don't think that that is. Necessary for any budget. To be able to get special privileges. So I wouldn't be earning no on this. Okay. Any other forms of cancer, preventive medicine, anything. That I'm sure just to help me get some context on this is is there anyone, lawyers or staff that could give us some examples of what else in our counsel processes or ordinances that might require a six vote majority or super supermajority? I will note that an emergency ordinance requires the supermajority and then takes effect immediately. I will defer to legal counsel for any additional examples. Vetoes of or overrides of the County Executive vetoes also requires will. I remember that. Of the article I. Cannot. See, and I did actually look at this specific and there are other examples that the higher the other example that I. Found, particularly. In the code, is with regard. To a transportation section. In for a title for a 29 that requires. Six affirmative votes in order to accept. A report. So it would and that was by ordinance. So so I wasn't able to find another one with regard. To. Motions in the code in. Our rules. In the council rules. There are provisions that require six votes by motion with regard to regional committees. Yeah. Not a license. Okay. And that's both that's both ordinances. And I. Stand, if I might. Madam Chair, is more on the regional committees. You're referring, I think, to our kind of override procedures, is that right? We, the County Council, wanted to take a different position than one of the regional committees. Yeah, that's right. Okay. No water policy. I'm getting nods from colleagues. So it's six affirmative votes to adopt a motion dealing with countywide policies after referred to the regional committee and fired when they failed to act. When the regional committee failed to act within the required time or that, as you say, as. When you are going to be when the council is going. To be adopting something different than the. Regional committee adopted. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. Comes from rapporteur. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have sort of a strange process as it is right now, either an annual or depending on how we're doing our budget biennial basis. This Council votes to appropriate funds to for culture. Right now it can be very modest for certain elements their programing. Soon we will be administering and transferring hotel motel tax dollars again where we were. A simple majority of this body can vote right now to not transfer that funding. I think it sets up a bit of an odd scenario. If we were got to a point for some reason where a majority of this body was unhappy transferring those funds for whatever reason. I don't see that scenario. But if that were to happen, the funds could be withheld by a majority vote today. And regardless of the outcome of this amendment, this amendment speaks to whether or not this process of going the budget up or down and the triggering of that would require a supermajority or regular majority. And I just think it would be kind of odd to have this scenario where if you had half of the council got to a point where they were uncomfortable providing the public funds and then but if five, but not six. And so this doesn't trigger it. But then you when it comes time to appropriate your a it's a a simple majority. So I, I think it's an issue worth exploring how this this process works a little bit more. But I think this sets up a little bit of a weird, a weird scenario. And so I'm I think today I'm going to vote no and. I'll say a few words before turning to Councilmember McDermott to close on this amendment. I agree. It's a little unusual. I think the example of the regional committee override is actually an an example that's on point. If we don't like something that comes out of the charter based regional committees that are are, you know, a city county committees, this council can override what they're doing by a vote of supermajority vote. So there is some precedent. It is also a little bit odd. And perhaps the oddest thing about it is, given the timelines that we typically have when we take our budgets, a simple majority of the council, even with this ordinance in place, could change the ordinance back to a majority vote and then have a majority vote to deny the budget. So, I mean, it's just it's it provides some protection, but not a ton of protection. However, I'm going to vote in favor just because I think with with because we're making changes in a direction that is causing concern about council, uh , using our, our split vote power to drive money to certain places. Since that's the concern. And I think this provides some level of comfort to people who have that concern. On that basis, I will vote for the amendment. Councilmember Lambert and then Councilmember Mike. Thank you very much. And your example and from in my mind has a dichotomy in the fact that the Regional Policy Committee, the Regional Water Committee, is all made up of elected officials, people who people can. Unelect if they don't. Like that choice. This is the first time I can think of where a body that is getting that authority, who is not made up of unelected elected people. And I am very concerned that elected people need to be making the decisions so they're accountable to the people. So that difference for me is huge. If if all the people were elected as a separate body, then I would have no problems. But being that these are not elected people getting the duties, but without the responsibilities of having to go to the elected people with. This is what they did. I think that's not okay. So no thank you, Councilman McDermott, to close on this amendment. Thank you, Councilman. Councilmember Balducci, Councilmember Lambert, the Fort Culture Board is a public development authority, and we're not trading in this ordinance. The Fort Culture Public Development Authority like we do every other public development authority. They have budget authority. We're setting this one aside and treating it very separately. So when addressing whether elected officials make those decisions and other public development authorities, in fact, they do not. Council member at the group speaks to the majority vote being able to stop the transfer of hotel motel tax funds today to the foreign culture accounts. And that's very true. But what would change under this ordinance is the requirement that the Council approve the budget, adding that one more authority or power, if you will, in this council. And that's why I think it's important to address and add a supermajority, six votes to reject the budget because of that change from what we currently do. It won't be now perfectly analogous to what we're doing today. And as Councilmember Lambert addressed, I share your concern that people would think this was a power grab. And when people think there's a power grab involved, it is serious and concerning. And I think that this amendment is one way to offer the entire public across King County. That is not what this is about. In fact, this is about making sure that if there is a significant problem in the budget, this council steps up and stops it. I would ask for your support. Okay. With that, I think we're ready to vote on amendment number three. All those in favor please signify by saying I opposed. No. I'm not sure I heard the vote on that. Whether we'll do it by hands again. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say I. I am opposed. Nay, the amendment carries. All right. We're doing well on amendments. Let's move on to amendment number four. And this is another one regarding the budget process. And I'll ask staff to please go ahead and brief it. Thank you. Amendment four is also, as we mentioned, related to the budget process. This particular amendment would essentially set forth criteria under which the council could reject the for culture budget. The Council would have to find that the budget would result in a deficiency or we're not sure that the purpose of the Authority's programs could reasonably accomplished . And then there would be three specific criteria that would, one of which would have to be present in order for the Council to reject the budget. And those are shown at the bottom of page one, in top of page two. But briefly, if projected revenues for the following fiscal year were less than budgeted expenditures, if the revenues were at least 15% less than in the current year, but there was not a commensurate reduction in expenditures and vice versa. And then if the Cultural Development Authority has not complied with requirements that are specified in the county code related to for culture reporting. So those three, one of those three criteria would have to be in existence in order for the council to reject. And then afterwards the Council would or this amendment would set forth a process by which the Council or representatives of the council would meet with representatives of poor culture within 15 days of the Council rejecting the budget. Within 15 days of that meeting, the Four Culture Board would transmit a revised budget, and then within 15 days the Council would either need to reject the budget again by motion, or if they did not take such action within 15 days, then the transfer of funds would continue. Okay. Does that cover it? Okay. Council Member Coel's, would you like to put this before a statement? Thank you, Madam Chair. I move the amendment number four. And if you're. A council member done right there. I'd like you to reconsider the motion. We have a motion pending. Can you hold off until we finish the motion that's pending, and then we'll get to you. I want to make sure that my place in line with you on what I believe would. Feel like it. We have a motion. We have a motion before us. If I may, Kendal Moore, the council members motion. Is a motion to reconsider the last. Amendment. So I think it's appropriate that you take. His motion to reconsider. He was on the prevailing side for I believe it was amendment number three. Before you take up. Amendment number four. Well, a member for is on the table already, just got moved. But I have to be. It has not been acted on. No, I'm asking staff just one time if it's the will of the count of the chair and there's no objection, then you can continue with number four. But it was just to preserve the council members motion for reconsideration. Reconsideration of Amendment three. Can we see? Back after we do for you. Go back to three without him losing his opportunity to make a difference in the will of the. If there's no objection to that. And it's the will of the. Okay, hold on. Hold on, hold on. We're discussing. Okay. Right now, we have a point of order about whether we're taking up for first and then a motion to reconsider on three or something else. Council Member McDermott to discuss the point of order. Thank you, Ms.. Moore. After a. Afternoon, Mr. Brewer. We're trading up the lawyers here now. We have our senior attorney. With a new motion already before the committee. Is it still appropriate to move for reconsideration of a previous motion that's been adopted? Yes, it is. And I think. If I may follow up on the prior advice, the in generally it's preferred to take motions for reconsideration as soon as you can in relation to the thing that's being reconsidered. However, under your rules, the only real final deadline is prior to passage of the ordinance. So you could roll it back later. Consider around Rick Perry's being prudent by moving it now to make sure what happened earlier. But in answer to the chair's question, you probably could go ahead, finish consideration of four and go and then move to reconsider three. Since it doesn't amend the prior one itself. Okay. So if if the motion on amendments three to be for reconsideration is not precluded, which is what I hear you saying. Yes, then just as a matter of logic and flow, it would make more sense to take that up first. Yes, I don't see that there's an alternative, so let's do that. Okay. Let's move on right there. Would you just state your motion one more time so we may. Okay, let's just clean up the record here a second. We have a motion pending on Amendment four. Councilmember Cole Wells, will you. Would you withdraw that motion just for the moment? I'd be glad to withdraw that. Thank you very much. And Councilmember Bond right there. Would you restate your motion for reconsideration, please? For the record, having voted on in majority sided on the previous motion, I quote, I ask for a reconsideration of the vote. Okay. Motion for reconsideration is on the table. You speak to a. Point of inquiry. Point of inquiry? Yes. Can somebody walk me, refresh my memory on what votes would would come before us as a revote to reconsider that, then I vote on the revote in the motion itself. Yes. There are two votes in this process. Yes. Yes, that is correct. You first vote on whether to reconsider. If that passes, that puts you in the position of the previously. The amendment. Should still be before. You. Okay. Is there any particular vote requirements on the reconsideration of the record. Of those present? Actually, I don't believe that my motion is debatable. Is reconsideration, I believe may not be debatable. Oops. Why do I think this is a point of inquiry which are actually is a point of order? We're asking for process. We are really working out the rules so that. We. Don't have to go back and read them again overnight. Know, usually you just all do this by consent. I guess that speaks well to the general run of this behavior. Yeah. You have. Three lawyers who you want to get. That done. Don't move your bags. Until you get my picture. That is an expensive billable hour right there. It is not listed as one of the motions. That's non debatable. So that being the case, we have a motion to reconsider in front of us. Council member Von right there. Do you want to speak to it or shall I just. Councilmember McDermott wanted to say something. No. All right. Not seeing any comments or questions. All those in favor of reconsidering Amendment three please signify by saying I. I opposed no. Division. As opposed division calls for a roll call. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. No, it's not fair for him. Okay. All those in favor of the motion to reconsider Amendment three. Please say I and raise your hands. All right. Opposed. No reconsideration is approved. Is there a motion upon reconsideration? So moot. What are you moving? What are you moving? The original. I'm. I'm changing everything. Before. Oh, I see. So somebody needs to move Amendment three again. Yeah, and we're going to vote on it. Again, and then I'm going to vote no. Okay. I think we gather, but thank you. He's making it clear. But Councilmember Bowen right there, you have not heard my silver tongued argument this time. Give him a. Chance. He let him talk. Madam Chair, I move. Adoption of Amendment three. Okay. Amendment three is before us again. Is there any further comment? Madam Chair, I would I would stand by my earlier comments and again point out that if an if, as we require for the first time the authority to approve the for culture budget, not simply the transfer of funds, but approve their budget new authority. And there is concern in the public about a power grab. This is our opportunity to offer firm commitment to the public. That is not the case. If there is a concern about the budget, it should in fact be one of those nine no budget votes. Councilmember Lambert speaks of a supermajority of six votes would not be a high hurdle for a flawed budget. And so I would ask members to join me in supporting Amendment three. Okay. Councilmember one right there. Thank you. Councilmember McDermott. All right. Any further comments or questions? All those in favor of Amendment three please signify by saying I and raising your hands. I know, I know. And they are in favor of. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I keep. Raise your hands and keep them up. One, two, three, four. All those opposed. Councilmember Colwell So you're voting no on the amendment bring down. Yeah. Okay. If the amendment fails on a vote of 5 to 4. So let's correct the record for debate. No. It fails 5 to 4. Yeah. Five opposed. Thank you. All right. So this brings us back to Amendment four, which has already been briefed. Councilmember Colwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. I once again move the amendment for. OC amendment pause before us to speak to it. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, I have full confidence that this strike or some variation of it, were to go to the full council and be approved. That it's I full confidence that all members of our Budget Committee and all members of our council will be very prudent in terms of how they would vote on a budget submitted by Ford culture and that there would not be any game plan. We don't know about the future. However, none of us would want any mischief to take place with the vote on a very important measure that not only means a great deal to the staff of Fort Culture, but also to the arts advocacy community across our country , across our county. So this amendment simply places some parameters around what would need to occur. And as Wendy brought out, one of the three criteria would need to be present in order for us to vote to disapprove the budget that was submitted. Certainly, if there were deficiencies in the Ford culture proceedings, then I would be very much concerned with that and likely vote against their budget. I if there were instances in which there were unexplained fluctuations in the revenues or any expenses or failure to submit financial documents as required, then I think that that would be very compelling to vote against the budget and have Ford culture take it up again. But I do believe that having these private parameters in place, the criteria as well as the process for what happens if the Council were to deny the Ford Council budget is very important to include, and therefore I ask for your support of this amendment. Okay. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask Councilman Cowell's what is the reason for this special treatment of for culture? Because the cultural programs in this county were on the county directly for 37 years. And it's been about. Two years that has not been on our jurisdiction. Plus, we have six independent agencies that we vote on and we don't they none of them can come back and say, please take another vote. We have no information, so why would we do it for a culture? So I'm going to interject here just for a quick second. I think it's funny. Just let me interject for a moment, please. Just privilege of the chair. It's fine to ask, I think, each other questions about the meaning. But if you're basically making an argument, pro or con, against the amendment, I don't think that council members need to answer to other council members directly. You basically you're making an argument to say, I don't see the reason why we need this. Councilmember Caldwell's, when it comes around to her time again, can certainly speak to that if she chooses. But I just I don't want to get into that because I think that that way we end up debating each other, which is not the purpose of. And I apologize. Councilmember Gossett, I appreciate your. So you just want us to ask the question. Or make your statement? I mean, if I were if I were Councilmember Caldwell's lawyer, which I'm not, I would object and say that that was a leading question. It could be framed as an argument. I just would. You're welcome to make right. Which everyone here is welcome to make if you're interested in hearing her rationale in more detail. I think you've made that clear. And she it's up to her. She has the the right to decide whether any of us would have the right to decide whether we want to to make particular arguments or not. So let's go round and let everybody state their case. And then Councilmember Caldwell's will have an opportunity to close and hopefully she will speak to that, I'm sure. Councilmember Dunn, I'm sorry. Could Councilmember Gosset repeat his question? I missed it. Okay. I think that is a question that is an informational question. If you will yield to the question, will you yield to the question, Councilmember Garcia, what was your can you can you state your question one more time for Councilmember Dombroski? My question to Cousin Nicole well, sir, was why do we need to impose further parameters around the acceptance or rejection of the for culture budget? Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank Councilmember Garcia. Thank you. Okay, Councilmember Lamberts in waiting. Thank you. I have a question of staff. So online 48, the projected revenues are at least 15% less than the current year. So that's the criteria that they couldn't get less than 15%. So isn't that similar to supplementation? I'm. I'm sorry, could you. Repeat your question? Yes. Online 48 on page three. Of the amendment. The projected revenues are at least 15% less than the current year. That's one of the effects of this. So as I read that, it looks to me like it either is supplementation or is the reverse of supplementation. Madam Chair. Yes, one of them promotion. Can we please be clear that the you're not you're citing from the effect statement and not the actual amendment itself? I think staff could have pointed that out to look at. Yeah, but let's proceed. I'm hoping that they jive. I am. I do, too. Yes. So I'm not too worried about that one because they should be driving. Otherwise, I had two big problems. Yeah, go ahead. Councilmember Lambert. So the actual lines in the amendment that I think you're referring to are 13 and 14 on peak one where projected revenues are less than budgeted expenditures. I, I don't believe that this relates to supplementation, which is something that which is a state law that restricts certain county property tax levies, as well as the sales tax. But it would be a situation where, you know, you're you would be looking at a budget where the expenditures were greater than the revenues. So I've written out or assisted in writing about 24 budgets. So let's just say the fact that we were in Olympia about six or seven days ago complaining that we're the only county in the state that. The. The state is holding over us, the supplementation issues, and we are present in that. And now we are asking somebody, we are allowing in this the same thing to happen. So it's just it's just jointed here. On one hand, we're saying to the state, don't do this to us. And on the other hand, we're saying, but we will allow for culture to do this to us. So to me. It's a little schizophrenic. And the other thing is that I'm feeling a little resentful about the word game playing power grabs. You know, those are names. Somebody could say, you're a martian. It doesn't make me a martian. It doesn't make me a power grabber or that I'm playing games. And I think it's really sad that we are allowing anybody or any group to. I guess the word I would use is impugn the motives for those of us that been in the legislature. So anyway, I will not be voting for this. Thank you. The other kinds of questions that council member McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. The first time around, my arguments on the last amendment were successful. So I will try them again here. And that is to point out, the full culture is a public development authority. Public development authorities have authority over their own budget. Sure we transfer the revenue to fort culture as is stipulated. But they have the authority over their own budget for the first time. We are assuming the authority over approving or disapproving their budget. If we are going to do so and treat this public development authority in a special way, unlike the other public development authorities across this county that serve the people of King County, then I think it is appropriate to have be very specific about on what accounts we would disapprove their budget in this amendment. Steps in to do that and I think it's very important that if we're going to treat foreign culture differently, especially uniquely than we do any other public development authority in their budget, then I think it is imperative upon us to be very clear about by what measurement we will hold them. This amendment does that. Please vote yes. Thank you for their comments. Councilor Tomasky. I'm going to vote no on this because it it it specifies a limited number of bases. But frankly, if I if there were concerns heard from the community otherwise that the budget was inequitable, didn't meet our equity and social justice objectives that are shared by our culture, continued the pattern of of. Deficit funding to the extreme. I'm not sure where the 15% comes from. I mean, this just this these criteria, even if you agreed with the notion that there should be criteria, which I think takes away all of the kind of judgment that folks send us here to try and exercise, and we always get it right. But I think more often what we do I from watching this on today and seeing it for the first time, I couldn't say without. You have to reflect that these are all the criteria. Even if the argument is that there should be some criteria and these are the only criteria. Not not not not a flaw, but a ceiling. So I just based on those concerns, I can't support this one. Thank you. And I'll speak and then give Councilmember Caldwell an opportunity to close on this amendment. I have to say, and I this is where you get to see the legislate, the sausage being made, because although I am a council member who doesn't believe that we need the approval authority over the budget at all that's being contemplated in this ordinance. If we are going to adopt legislation that says the Council has budget authority, then these kind of restrictions don't make a lot of sense to me. If 15% is some kind of a threshold, is 14.9%, just not good enough. But 15% is it just it strikes me as odd. I don't see budget authority being constrained this way in any other scenario that I can think of. And I've lived through too many experiences where we've had decision making constraints, say, on hiring or firing of a high level manager of some kind, and found that with all the good intentions, the restrictions that were written years before didn't give us the flexibility to do something that made a total sense in the moment when we got to making the decision. And so I'm just concerned that this kind of thing could come back to be a real problem, even though I don't support us actually having this new power of voting over the budget in a way that's different than we have, just generally because we have power over the funding stream. So I'm going to vote no on this amendment. But it's it's not because I disagree with the concept of limiting. And I will say that because over my objection, the task force is going to potentially be a thing. I would say if this all goes forward, that we ask the task force to take a look at what makes sense in terms of budget approval or disapproval, those criteria, because I think those folks would be better positioned to advise and make referrals after they've completed their work if that happens. So I'm going to be a no on this amendment. Councilor McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think you and Councilmember Dombroski make a really good point, and that is this amendment, although I supporting it, and think that some parameters on why we might reject the budget once we have the authority to approve a public development authority's budget for the first time is inexact. I'm choosing to support it. You both have made arguments about what's not included, and I'm not certain that it's the exact right criteria. I have to say, I think that's why the task force to study and reflect before we take the blunt action of the ordinance before us is a good idea. Okay. Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a very emotionally wrought situation that we're in right now. But I do need to clarify a couple of things, at least from my perspective. It was said that the use of the term game playing was very offensive and I'm not sure the good council member heard me say that. I am confident there would not be any. Here you have heard it. Okay, well, that was my reference and I'm sorry if I misheard you, but it it's not my intention that we would have any game playing. And I have not cast aspersions on anybody's motives here, and I would not do that. Secondly, a comment was made that this is the first time that individuals had seen this amendment. Well, we were all sent out the packet last night electronically. I have not seen the other amendments, just as no one had seen this amendment of mind before that packet was sent out. So I do just want to make sure that it's understood that this was not something that magically appeared and was kept from anybody, but really more to them to the amendment itself. I hear what people are saying and I can see both sides of it. We don't want to place unreasonable, unreasonable restrictions on our ability to vote for or against a budget that's been submitted. I can't think of all the potential in the universe of restrictions to put in here, but we put in three criteria, one of which could result in a legitimate vote against endorsing supporting the budget that's been submitted . I'm more comfortable with having some parameters here because this is an action that will have very serious consequence for a public development authority, which we're not imposing on other ones. And I think that we need to take that seriously. And that's why I'm comfortable with including these parameters of the if the will of this body is to not do that, I think it's going to make it more willy nilly in a sense. You know, somebody could just say, well, I don't like this budget because of this one little thing. And that would be something that could just emerge. And it would have profound it could have profound impacts. So I'm asking you to support this. But this amendment. And that's it. Thank you. Okay. Motion in favor of Amendment four is before us for a vote. All those in favor please signify by saying I. I oppose. No motion does not carry in the opinion of the chair. Okay. That brings us to amendment number five and I'll ask Jeff to please brief Amendment number five. Sure. Amendment number of amendment number five is proposed by Councilmember Bell Dutchie and it would reinstate the expertize requirements for the board of directors, as we had discussed earlier, the professional requirements for the board that exist currently but would be removed by the proposed ordinance and would continue to be removed by the striking amendment would be that the board would include one expert in arts, one expert in public art, one expert in heritage, one expert in historic preservation, and one person from business. I will note two things about this amendment. The first is that the combination of the professional requirements and the geographic requirements could prove could produce additional challenges in finding people who are qualified, who both live in the district and have the needed expertize. I will note, however, that the striking amendment that is before you sets up what I would describe as a somewhat iterative process in which the OR Culture Governance Nominating Committee would notify for the district appointed positions, would notify the relevant council member prior to a vacancy , and provide information about the board composition, as well as recommendations about helpful attributes, which could, if this amendment passes, include the type of professional expertize that would be needed. That's councilmember. SAMBERG If you could put that before us and then I'll speak to it, then we can have questions in the world. And be great. I will be a ventriloquist. Thank you. I would like to put your amendment before us. Amendment number five. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. And I'll just speak to it briefly. The intent here is really just to retain a requirement that has existed since the Foreign Culture Board was adopted, was created to have expertize in at least four seats arts, public art, heritage and historic preservation. This is a 15 seat board, and it will require some coordination and work among the executive appointees and the district appointees, and probably a little bit of keeping more than one person in each of these categories around so that we can balance over time while inserting while strengthening the geographic representation as the ordinance anticipates. I think it will require some work. We will have to cooperate together with the executive and with the nominating committee and the and the for culture board to maintain this. But I think it is a incredibly valuable level of expertize, and I would hate to lose it. So I'm going to ask that we retain this language by putting it into the Stryker. Thank you for your consideration. Councilmember Lambert, followed by Councilmember Garcia. Thank you. I think it's a really good idea because it brings in lots of different perspectives. And I'm really glad to see that the business person is there because this is a big budget and it's nice to have somebody with. The business. Aspect bringing it to the table. My concern is that it might need a little bit of tweaking in that, you know, if if I'm going to put somebody forward, hopefully they'll be called this time and that person doesn't have one of those specialties. Then they might be able to say, Well, we don't want that person. So I'm wondering if it should come from the at large appointees, because then there's more discretion if it came from the at large appointees, because there is. A department like that. There is five At-Large appointees. So anyway, I just throw that out as an idea. Thank you. Mentioned Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. I I'd like to reinforce a little bit about what Mary said that we should at least think about, and that is that we have nine individual appointments. And right now these four appointments are being requested that we consider and are nine appointments. And I know the situation is going to arrive where the board recommends someone with a particular expertize, but it's not the one that the County Council member had in mind. It doesn't mean that the person that the county council person has in mind does not have experience and judging art and culture. Shares. And. The. Preservation needs of particular communities. It just means that he or she district is not already considered an expert in those four areas. I think it's burdensome to require. I don't like. That there are work and having these four, but I think it's very appropriate for when we do get input from the board of our culture that the input that we get will say we really thank you, we really like for you excuse me to exclude someone or consider someone who we've helped identify that lives in your district and has really excellent preservation experience. I think that's sufficient. I don't want it just this prescribed, so therefore I will be voting against the amendment. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr.. As member Lambert has a question. Thank you. Well, I just went out, Councilmember Goss, that I was listening to you and you convinced me I'm going to be changing. I have. Influence. And you always do. And I'm going to be changing to it now. I did have an idea of how to change it so I could remain a yes. And that would be to have been what I was hoping was a friendly amendment to say at least one director from the at large positions shall have expertize. But without that, I don't feel comfortable. I think that it could be a. Really good whereas whereas. We'd like that to happen. But I think that the problem you suggests could happen will happen. And so in that case, I've changed. My mind a. Know. Thank you. Up. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think Councilor Lambert suggested a path forward that also is attractive to me. I if I think whether this passes or not, I think we ought to talk about this issue more between now and full council and. I really considered that idea that country Lambert mentioned as one way to get at it. I don't have real strong feelings. I think that one of the purposes of the technical advisory committees is to bring the technical expertize. On the other hand, I think there's value in making sure you have different points recommended. I believe the underlying audience. And. Staff may have to remind me, did we actually enhance the requirements to ship move these specific requirements to the technical advisory committees? Or were they already there? They were already there, but they are strengthened. In your proposed ordinance, sir. Okay. So it would not be as if there was not input in those technical areas. That being said, I, I think I think the changes were made. The underlying ordinance in part to not create such a puzzle of assembling, of combining the geographic and the skill based. And I think there is a path there ought to be a way to do both. And I don't know that this hits the mark, but I think there's a lot of logic to the idea of saying, okay, the At-Large positions will be. You know, sort of expertize based and the the council positions would be geographic based. So regards to happens today I think we ought to keep working on this. So thank you for that. And I just want to make a quick statement before we carry on here. I should have said this in my opening, and I apologize for breaking it up this way. I think that there underlying this amendment for me and part of why I'm proposing it in this way and why I didn't consider having the executive appoint these folks for the five or six At-Large appointments. Why I didn't propose that and why I don't consider it a friendly amendment is because I believe that we as the council member, even in a future where we would have geographic only appointments that we make as council members, have a shared responsibility to continue to create a balanced board. I think that to say that there's going to be geographic seats and then maybe expertize seats sets up a sense of a split potentially on the board where we're sending people who are from our districts who are just there to look out for. Am I getting as much money as I should and or into the places I want to see it go? Or are we thinking broadly about what we're doing to the arts and culture ecosystem together in a balanced way with expertize across the board? Yes, it is a little more complicated, but I've seen it done in places before. This is a big county with a lot of people with a lot of expertize. I believe the way the ordinance is written, for example, if I was able to appoint somebody from District six, I could appoint somebody who lived or worked in District six. That is a pretty wide swath of people that I would have to choose from. Councilmember I just want to make a clarification. Your amendment number six, which is coming up, would have the live or work requirement with the the striking amendment as drafted currently would have to be someone who resides in the deceased or resides then your amendment that is coming up next would change it. Time for work. Well, let me amend my statement to say in hopes that at some point before the end, we allow the council members enough flexibility to select somebody who lives or works in their district, which would, I hope, seem non-controversial, especially if we have a say, then we should be able to do this. And it keeps the council engaged in making sure that the board as a whole has a broader point of view and a localized point of view, as opposed to just strictly a localized point of view. I think that's healthier. I think it's a better functioning board if we do it that way. So that's why I proposed this this way. I understand if people feel differently, but that's why I proposed it. Councilmember Carlos. Thank you, Madam Chair. I support this amendment. Currently, the process for fort culture, I think, is actually very positive. One where there's an effort, a very strong effort to achieve a balance of for a new council member excuse me, a board member to be appointed and confirmed. There is a nominating committee that reaches out to me currently to the council member where there is a vacancy on the board. And there also is a determination of what skill set is needed in a new vacancy for appointment that would complement the skill sets that are in existing board members, also addressing geographic distribution and ethnic and economic and so forth. A whole lot of factors go into this. All the meetings of the nominating committee are open to the public. They're totally transparent. Now, if we were to adopt this, and I hope we do not, we are going to lose some of that balance. I don't think it would be lost completely, but it would be more difficult because there would be more of a vacuum of looking at the whole context. We will lose some of the holistic efforts that go into selecting board members, and that's a real concern to me. And there's also the situation that can happen and has happened where somebody who is on the board of per culture moves away. I had no concerns. I had no board member representing. In the fourth council district. I do now. There is one, but that individual had moved from another council district and now shows up on mine. Then Councilmember Gossett has three members of the board from his district. But we have to look at it as a whole, and I believe that this amendment would be very helpful to go more toward that direction. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember and Incumbent Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. For culture, we talk about it, but visually in writing, it is not two words a full hour. It's the word. It's the number four. That four represents art, public art, historic preservation and heritage. Those are the four areas of expertize we're talking about that are currently required on the For Culture Board. Let's be really clear about what we're doing by not adopting this amendment. We are standing for a for a culture board that doesn't have expertize in the four areas for culture addresses, oversees and directs on our behalf, please vote to include expertize in the four areas for culture overseas on the four culture board. Okay. All right. I think we've debated this one fairly thoroughly, and I don't have any need to add anything. So I will call for a vote on amendment number five. All those in favor please signify by saying I opposed. Oh, me being in a chair. Okay. All those in favor please signify by saying I and raise your hand. You got four eyes. All those are signifying. All those voting. No. Please raise your hands. That's five. The motion fails on a 5 to 4 vote. Okay. This brings us to amendment number six. And I think everybody will be very pleased to know that after a debate on some very simple amendments, now we have a really complicated amendment. Yes, let's go. I will. This is the hardest one. This is an amendment offered by council members Balducci and Caldwell's that would make a number of changes to the board composition and appointment process. Can I just also say that it's also the last one, at least on this sheet. So just for those watching at home, if we make it through with this striker, there's not a lot more amendments that we're aware of. So just in case you're trying to figure out how much longer we're going to go, you know, well, that's there's lot I'm not promising anything. If a striker fails, then we're in a different position. But so we're getting close to the end of this segment, I guess I should say. Please go ahead. So I will say council member. There is a detailed matrix that describes all the many iterations of the board composition and appointment process. I'm hesitant to distribute it at 1140 in the morning, so I'm going to try to quickly talk through it and hope that I will make sense. First of all, board membership. The way the striking amendment is written, there would be 15 board directors with nine of them appointed by district, by individual council members, and the remainder the remaining six appointed by the county executive in Amendment six to the striker. The positions one through nine would be council district specific but broad in that the director must live or work in the Council district. So that would would be a little bit broader than what is now that they must reside in the district next. In terms of the role of the nominating committee in the striking amendment, the nominating committee may nominate one candidate for each open position and send to the full board after they have solicited input for the positions one through nine from the relevant appointing council member in Council in the Councilmembers Amendment six to the striker, the nominating committee would again be required to solicit recommendations from the relevant County Council Member for positions one through nine or from the County Executive for positions ten through 15. In addition, would be required for positions one through nine to invite the relevant County Council member to attend the meeting or meetings when the district has that specific position is discussed . And then the nominating committee would recommend two or more candidates for each open position and send to the full board. The four culture board would then recommend two or more candidates to the executive for each position within six months of a vacancy occurring four vacancies in the Council district specific positions. These recommendations would also be sent to the relevant County Council member for those County Council Member positions. The Council Member, instead of appointing that position, would have 30 days to forward on a name, either from the board's recommendations to the executive or to reject the board's recommendation and ask the board to start over with a new slate of candidates. The executive, similarly for positions ten through 15, could reject all recommendations from the board or choose to appoint one of the board's recommendations and would appoint would make the formal appointment for all 15 directors. The County Council would then confirm all 15 directors. So it's a little complicated. I hope I've described it accurately. Can I just ask one question, since this is a time before us yet, but it's I'm a co-sponsor to this one. My understanding of the districts specific ones, at least the intent was that the the nominating committee would do their job, the for culture board to do their job. And they would recommend the names to the council member, not to the executive and the council member, just to the councilmembers. Is that not what it says? We went back and forth with this language. Yes. Yesterday, I think it I'm sorry. I think yeah. It's to the council member and then the council member has 30 days. To move some one or more on Virgin. Active takes action if the council member does not take action within 30 days. Okay, that's that's all I wanted to confirm where where we landed on that particular issue. Thank you very. Much. My matrix had not caught up. Okay, we have questions on this one and I'm going to entertain questions before we have a motion councilmember of the girl was waiting and then Councilmember Lambert. And then two quick questions. One, would you verify that the and maybe staff is doing this right now that the underlying striker, what the limitations are on who a councilmember can appoint I think. Okay so in the striker in section 5.2 of Attachment A, which is the For Culture Charter, it notes that director. Shelby, residents of King County and Shelby chosen to reflect the geographic and cultural diversity of the county. I would need to go back. And so then the positions one through nine and I may have been misstating this was my understanding of the intent. The appointed positions have to represent the Council district. I had interpreted that to mean reside and that may not have been your intent council member of the group. So I realized I have I misspoke. I don't think it's important. It was it was meant to be more flexible. So I wanted to clarify that. And then another and this is wading into debate because it may be a leading question. Forgive me, an I'll keep it brief. Nonetheless, as I understand the process designed here, this does give the for culture board the ability to reject it. If there's someone that the county council member wants to appoint from their district, there is a mechanism here where they would that person would still have to be approved by the For Culture Board and existing for Culture Board members. It would be an iterative process. The For Culture Board could make a recommendation. The County Council member could then choose to reject the entire slate and ask the for culture board to start over the for culture. So can they reject our name? I think that they could choose not to recommend the name from the county council member. Okay. The mayor weighed in on this factual question. As this exists and as many people have said earlier today, this is by no means a perfect process. This was an attempt to balance out and include roles for the nominating committee, the for culture, the for culture board, the council member for each individual district, and then the council as a whole who confirms and it does as I see it, and intentionally so allow each party to have a real a real point in the decision process. So, yes, in your scenario, there could be those frustrating situations where the board is just not sending forward the person that you wish they would, but you also have this ability to send them back and say, let's do work again. And I think the entire process is intended to be set up to drive some advance collaboration to avoid those. I mean, it sets up motivation anyway. Then somebody down to my left had a question. Were you done council member of the girl with your questions. Okay, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. So just to clarify what you just said and this is like amazing. You can keep all this in your head, so thank you. Yeah. So would it be that that you have to turn the whole slate back or just the nomination. For your. District that you didn't particularly want? Just going to try to find the exact language here. What it what it specifically says is that the relevant county council members shall have 30 days to either one recommend one or more candidates to the county executive for appointment for the board position or to request the board recommend two or more different candidates. And if the County Council member does not take any action, then the County Executive shall appoint a director from those candidates recommended by the board. Okay, so but if if we didn't like the person for some reason that they put forward, then we could say, No, that's not okay with us. Pick a different person. You could say to the board, the slate that you have sent is not acceptable. Please start over is the way that the. Okay, so that's the word I would have to have. I would then have power over everybody not getting their way, which I don't think would go over very well. Correct. That is, I know my peers I can. So that may be what it says in the in the but that is not what is intended for you. Typically these happen vacancy by vacancy. And so you're taking up like let me just use my own district. District six has a vacancy and the nominating committee comes up with two names. The four culture board forwards those two names. To me, I get to say whether those two names, one of them goes forward to the executive, two of them go through the executive or all of them go back to the board. Those are my options, the way we intended not. I get to say whether District three or District nine go by i, i now we do. Have and I may have misunderstood Councilmember Lambert's question. Council members would not weigh in on each other's districts. Each council member would be would be in charge of the nominations or the recommendations for their own district. So the word. Slate is what threw me. I apologize. Okay. So I meant that the number two or more for that position, that would be. Oh, okay. Okay. I was thinking a slate of all. Of us, your ability would be to say to the board. None of those candidates. The two or more meet my needs. Please start over. Now, here's my last question. And I was told it might be more complicated than I think it is. So online 22 position. For works for District four. But online the next online 24 position five works for District eight. That could later on be confusing. So I'm wondering if it would be a friendly technical amendment that at some point when this is drawn, I realized it was the existing law. But that doesn't mean we have to keep it that way. Everything else is position one is district one. Position two is district two. Position three is district three. So I. Know when position three. Is missing. That's my job to take care of. So on here I would have to remember the position seven was mine, which would be a list. So here. Here is the challenge. Councilmember and Leah was the one who originally drafted this with Mr. of The Grove. This was very complex because you are dealing with a board that is already in existence and already has positions. And so short of essentially vacating the board and starting over, the best option that staff could come up with was to say, identify the board positions that had someone from existing districts already in them and then continue that district representation in that position. It is confusing. We could certainly try to find another way. We we did this was one I will say that had quite a bit of study and work with legal counsel to try to figure out the best way to sort of reorient the board moving forward. We know that. It's at the risk of unduly lengthening the medium to councilmember positions. Have numbers. Yes. Are they the same as the district numbers? Anyway. It seems like something we could work on after today, but it's I don't know that it has any substantive meaning. It's no. Substantive. It's just that it makes it confusing for going forward. And I see what your dilemma is. Let's think about it later. Let me ask the four culture board members here by show of hands. Do any of you know what number position you hold? I am seeing no hands for the record, so I don't think it has any substantive meaning. But we could talk about it after. All right, Councilmember Dombroski, we're doing questions. It hasn't been moved yet. If this amendment were to hang, could somebody live in Snohomish County, Pierce County, kill Test County, other county, so long as they worked in the district and be appointed? There is a different section in the Fort Culture Charter that requires board member board directors to be residents of King County. And that would remain unchanged. That would remain unchanged. Anchor gossip. Oh, thank you, Madam Chair. I think that this amendment will be too cumbersome, too complex, and not likely to work. Mr. Arthur Grove had an in the original ordinance that for culture board would be able to recommend people to each of us for consideration when we have a board appoint to their work. And that's open in our district. I don't know what happened to that for us to move to something this complex. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Because Councilman Coles, at this point, would you put the motion before? It is not before us yet. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move amendment number five. Thank you. It's a moment. I'm sorry. Do you mean I'm going to. I'm going to hear that as Amendment six. Okay. Did you want to speak to me? Very cute. As the co-sponsor of this amendment, I had had a lot of discussions last week with colleagues and staff that what I wanted to get at would be to codify the really the process that occurs presently, but to make it even stronger. And if we are going to have appointments by council members to our own district, basically, I think it's important to note that the process that has existed so far on codify but based on custom, is that the nominating committee, again, look at the whole picture, look very holistically in terms of skillsets needed, but also to determine that that all parts of the county are being represented geographically, so socio economically, ethnically and so forth. And I thought they were doing a pretty good job, very transparent, very, very deliberate. And when I was contacted about a possible vacancy in my district, I provided a name of someone I thought would really work well. Ultimately, he was not selected. However, I want to make sure that we can. We go along with what is recognized as the need for geographic distribution, and that appears to be having an appointment by District Council member. In doing so, though, I think that there is a process that could be undertaken similar to what our culture does now, but be enhanced. And I think this amendment embodies that. But to say that any council member can appoint anybody in consultation with for culture I think opens up the potential may not be the reality hopefully, but the potential for having members support somebody appointment in turn appointing agreeing to appoint the one that I want. And I think that would reduce transparency. This amendment will not only reflect a process that will be transparent, but also serve the needs of what we want to have a balance with skill sets, geographical representation, ethnic representation and so forth. So to me, it's it's a really essential amendment. And I ask for your support. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Councilmember Dombroski. Thing. Madam Chair, I'm not going to able to support this. I think it is overly. Cumbersome. And the process that Councilor Caldwell's has described, with all due respect, has not been my experience. And I want to take this moment to correct the record that was made at the last committee of the whole hearing by the For Culture Board member who said, We reached out to your office and your staff, Mr. Maskey by email and otherwise. And I sat next to her and I said, I don't believe that occurred. I received your broadcast email to the community. I then had a lunch with the executive to say, I'd like to be involved, but when asked to say, Show us where you reached out otherwise to my staff and me, they couldn't because they didn't. And I don't think it's fair to my staff to have their commitment to their work publicly and incorrectly impugned. And so I wanted to take the moment to correct the record. I think as the ordinance itself exists, it calls for a consultative process. I intend, if this carries, to engage in that in a serious way and to take seriously the input and recommendations of the Recruiting and Appointment Committee for Culture. I think I'm interested in a balanced board that brings the talent and resources with respect to expertize to it, but. I think that we need to we need to have a little more flexibility than than would result if this event were to carry. And finally, I note that the full council must confirm every one of these nine appointees. So if there were some serious problem, if the foreign culture folks said, hey, this, this person is no good, it's really bad, I think that could be a problem here at the fall for council. So I think there is that safety check as well. But based on the experience I've had, I think that I would like to be involved in this process. I want to do it in consultation with the board. I think that we can do it without the strictures that this amendment would impose. Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. I see the existing independence of foreign culture as a very good thing. I'm passionate about our public art, historic preservation, cultural activities throughout my district and frankly, across the county as well. I serve as a board member of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, whether it's general interest of mine or particular interest as a member of the Board of the Washington Trust. I take an active role in promoting projects and giving that input to, for culture, their board members in their process. That's my input. That's my process. That's the current process. I'm concerned by the ordinance and the striking amendment before us in that. Then it has each councilmember a point one person from their own choosing. Losing that oversight, that public transparency and that selection process. And this amendment takes a step toward more reflection and interaction about who that will be, more transparency. It does not go back to the underlying existing foreclosure process, but it is a step closer to it rather than individual council members being able to make their own appointment to the OR Culture Board to represent their own interests. I would ask for support for the amendment. Thank you. Councilmember Councilmember Lambert had a question. Yes, thank you. I hope that as an elected official that I'm not here for my own interest. I have 234,000 people whose interests I'm supposed to be representing. So I know this conversation. It's there's several different ways that this. This. We've talked about. So I need clarification. What does the underlying bill S1 and State one. S 1.2. What does that say about how we appoint somebody? Briefly, because I know there's ten different. Ways in the striking amendment council member, the nine board directors who are district specific are appointed by individual council members. There is a nomination process that the for culture board and nominating committee would engage in, but the appointment is made by the council member. The executive appoints the remaining six At-Large positions. All 15 positions are confirmed by the Council. So let me just make sure I understand this so I, I could get. Currently, I get names from whatever board it is and I can look over those, interview those people, see that many times I know them. So it's just like, great, that person is super and it goes or I never met this person, so I need to have coffee with them and get to know them. So then it goes through the process. Is. Is it just that. Seems different. It's a. Little bit more. Like what you're referring to is, is your confirmation process where the executive has made an appointment and has submitted a motion of confirmation to you and you're trying to determine whether to approve that confirmation. In the striking amendment, you would actually be making an appointment to the position that represents your district. You could do that either from someone who had been nominated by the board or the language says or other qualified candidates. Then after that appointment is made, the full council would confirm by motion. Okay, so. So in my mind I get the. Best of both. Worlds. They can give me suggestions which is helpful to me. Or I could go find somebody else if I didn't like that to suggest those are three suggestions, but either way I have a hand in collaboration with them. But I make the final. Decision that would make the appointment in for the positions one through nine in the striking amendment the executive would not play a role in. A council would make those appointments and then the council would confirm. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. It help me a lot. Thank you. Councilmember McDermott has a question for you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I actually wanted to make a clarification, and that is as we talk about previous appointments in previous work in the Foreign Culture Board, there haven't been vacancies from districts because we haven't had district seats to date. There may people, the members of the Culture Board obviously live around the county and live in various districts, but there aren't currently district seats. So it's there may not be someone serving from a particular district, but I don't know that it's accurate to say there is a vacancy from a particular district because there is not a district seat at this point in time. That's a fundamental change would be making if this ordinance was adopted. It seemingly in any form today in that there would now be seats by each district. Was that a question? No. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I got a little lost there. All right. I think we're ready to vote on this one. Just to close. This is my final substantive amendment. I've offered two substantive amendments and one policy amendment to this Stryker. I have really appreciated the efforts of the chair to try to soften the underlying ordinance through the Stryker. I get that this one is possibly not 100% of the way there in terms of the process, maybe could be made less cumbersome. But what I'm asking my colleagues, if you are willing to support this amendment, is to send a signal that we intend to allow the nominating committee, the for culture board, the council members from each district, some level of balanced decision making that that causes us to work together, as opposed to a position where the councilmembers just picking and we have a nominating committee and a board process where they go through potentially a lot of labor and effort to find good people. And then we just pick whoever we want anyway. That doesn't strike me as the right balance, the right relationship between the council members and for culture. So I'm going to ask my colleagues to please consider voting yes on this with the understanding that I will be very open between now and final passage to work on any aspects of it that seem too complex or cumbersome to try to streamline it. But I will also say that I'm disappointed that the substantive amendment that I offered before couldn't be acceptable. And so if this one goes down, I'm going to have a real struggle with how I support putting the ordinance together at the end. I just need to lay that out there. All right. All those in favor please signify by saying I, i. Any opposed? No. Okay. The motion fails that I think we now come to final passage on Stryker 1.2 discussion on the Stryker as amended, pointing out that the amendments are to add the task force and significant workload and a nonbinding statement of policy that we're going to work on regionalization. So basically the underlying motion is before us, which removes the ability to fire the executive director, set some process and timing around developing of the budget review process, including a timeline for us to act on the budget or it goes through. And let's see, I think that's then there's other there's other minor amendments and any if there's no. Councilmember Gossett Thank you, Madam Chair. May I ask a question of Councilmember of the Grove or if. You will yield to a question? Here's what it is. Okay. That's the right answer. To the Remove Council ability to fire executive director. When you developed the original ordinance, being able to fire the executive director was in there. Why did you decide to take it up? Thank you, Councilor Gossett. Following the introduction of the original ordinance, I spoke with colleagues on this body who had concerns about the ordinance. I met on a number of occasions with the leadership of the Fort Culture Board, consulted with the county executive and listened to public testimony. And as a result, I felt it was important to me as elected official to respond to what I heard, offer to compromise from my views and seek a path forward that could receive broader support than the underlying ordinance. And so that is why. Broader support than sticks. The question was, were you seeking broader support than six councilmembers? No, I was seeking to find a public policy that I thought had broader general support from. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will be voting no on the striking amendment, as I prefer the underlying bill that had been worked on. So I'll be voting no. And that's why I didn't have any amendments striking today. However, if the speaker does pass, I'll have some amendments at full council. You know, the question of the council having the ability to move the executive director, it's difficult to get everybody to agree on anything up here, as you probably noticed. And when we do, it's because there's some good reason for it. And I don't see that there would be that problem unless there was not good communication and there have been problems. And so that says, as I said earlier, that there has been some lack of communication and that goes on two sides. And on final passage at the end, I'll have some comments. But given that we are the fiduciary agents of tax dollars, as our budget chair said earlier, we have to authorize the money going into there. And in doing so, we are giving up some of my fiduciary abilities. And and it's going to people who are not really elected by the citizens. So I do get comments from people saying this happened or that happened or why did so much money go here or there? And I think it's good for us to be more involved in knowing we will not repeat. We will not be getting at the granular level of saying this grant or that grant it be talking about buckets of money that are going out in the four categories, but we won't be going into the grant level. And I know. That there was a lot of. Concern about that, but that was kind of a straw man that was never going to happen, or at least not at this point wasn't going to happen. So I think that keeping our fiduciary responsibilities is important. I don't think we'll ever have to exercise those. I think that would be sad if we had to. We have lots of groups that bring us forth like conservation futures that bring us things for us to improve. And and we do and we do a really good job of collaborating and working on that. And most of the time we say yes because we feel very strongly that a good job has been done. So I support the underlying ordinance that is not the striker, the underlying ordinance. And so I'll be voting no on the striker. Thank you. Other comments? Councilmember Colwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. The question for staff, because the last amendment failed with the provision that an individual who can be appointed or I assume retained, if the individual moves his or her residence, that individual would still be eligible to represent that district if he or she were employed in that district. And I'm assuming the way the intent was in an and a capacity that has to do with our culture, etc.. So that would no longer be in there. And the only requirement would be for residents. Is that correct? Councilmember I had earlier spoken about living in one of the nine districts. I misspoke. The actual word in the striking amendment is representing you. So there is no language about live or work that was in Amendment six. The word in the striking amendment is representing. And I will look through the charter to see if there is a provision if somebody moves. I don't believe that there is there are provisions that board members can be removed for Nonattendance But I don't believe there are provisions for board members to be removed if they move. But let me just double check. Thank you. I'm going to fill the silence by reminding us that we also confirmed in response to a question that there is a residence requirement that board members reside within King County. I think everybody's got that in. So I'll note that there is a provision in the striking amendment in the charter that the county may, by ordinance, remove any board director or directors. And there is not that I can see anything that relates to people moving out of their district. That is certainly something we could add. Okay. Did that answer the question? Yes. All right. Any other comments? Council member of the group. Would you care to speak to close Stryker US 1.2. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I spoke to it in answering Councilor Gossage question that it was my attempt to listen and respond. I know it doesn't go as far as everyone wants, but I think it strikes a good compromise and a good balance and a good path forward by making some changes that will make this, I think, even more workable and have broader support. So I encourage your support for the striking amendment. Okay. With that, I'm going to call for a vote. All those in favor of Striker s 1.2 as amended. Please signify by saying I am opposed. No, no division those saying I please raise your hands. Five eyes others opposed. No, the motion carries all right. Because that striker carried the other strikers don't pertain and we move to final passage and this is to refer the or. There's a title amendment title amendment one. And the title amendment is good to go. Let me that it will need to be amended at full council. But it would be good to get this title amendment done. And then we we have just one amendment to your policy language. We would have to add in. Councilmember after provision of title amendment one, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. Remove a title T one, be. Adopted t one is before us with the acknowledgment that it will have to be amended further. All those in favor please signify by saying i i any opposed the title amendment at least carries without objection. Yes. Okay. So this brings us to the underlying ordinance. Any comments on the underlying ordinance as amended? Councilmember Paragraph. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the members of diligence and debate today. This ordinance represents good government. It is responsible, measured and fair. It ensures an appropriate role for elected officials directly accountable to the voters in the management of public funds. It makes modest changes to our processes we as a council use to oversee an entity which we created and for which we administer 100% of the funding. It completely maintains and protects the independence of the grant selection process. In other words, it does not put us directly or indirectly in the business of selecting which individual arts and cultural programs or projects get funded. I think comparing this to other PDAs is like comparing apples to oranges. The relevant comparison is how do other local governments fund arts and culture? And let me be clear, under this proposal, King County arts and culture funding will still remain much more independent and much more removed from elected officials than any other local government in our region. Take the city of Seattle, for example. The Seattle mayor can hire and fire the director of their Office of Arts and Culture. Every member of their commission is appointed by elected officials, and the City Council approves their budget. Under our proposal, the County Council will simply confirm the executive director nominees selected by the For Culture Board. I think this will result in greater support for and buy in from the County Council and that's a great thing. Under our proposal, the County Council will approve or reject the budget. But unlike Seattle and most other local governments, King County will not have the ability to amend the budget for arts and culture. No pork barrel politics. The budget is a very basic, high level document that includes things like revenue assumptions, financial plans and staffing levels. The budget does not identify which projects or programs are to be funded. That grantmaking process only takes place after the budget is approved and the funds have been transferred. Only then will the agency begin their work of reviewing and distributing grants using the exact same process as has always been used in the past. The County Council will not be involved. The process for reviewing and selecting grant recipients does not change under this proposal. Finally, the changes to the board appointment process, which give greater flexibility to the county executive and a more direct role for county council members are common for local governments. We, however, retain in the striker a formal role for the for Culture Board Nominating Committee to help recruit and recommend individuals to the executive and make general recommendations to council members. This change will help ensure the alignment of the general priorities of the Board with the priorities of the County Council and in turn, the citizens we represent. Specifically, this closer connection between the people through their elected representatives and the Board will be beneficial as we hopefully consider making major new investments in arts and culture in the years ahead. The pathway to greater council and public support for new revenue to manage. Simply expand arts and cultural funding in our region will require greater integration and coordination. Taken together, these changes will strengthen political and public support for arts and cultural funding and provide an appropriate role for elected officials while preserving the independence of the grant selection process. Now I want to finish by sharing some of my philosophy that shaped my thinking on this issue. The most important and most powerful person in a democracy is the citizen. When you remove the elected representatives of the people from having any authority, you have removed the people from having any authority. Elected officials. Not appointed board members. Not hired staff members. Elected officials are the only people in a democracy over whom the citizens have power. We answer to voters we stand for election where the points of accountability in a democratic government. And I've always seen arts and culture as a populist democratic endeavor. It's why I believe that governments have a responsibility to invest public dollars in arts and heritage. It's not because of just the benefits to our economy or the benefits to our quality of life. It's because they represent vehicles for free expression of the people through which social change and enlightenment occurs. It's often said that art doesn't just mirror changes in society. It has the power to drive those changes. And to ensure this continues, the people need to be part of the process. And in a democracy, the way we do that is through the people selecting their representatives at the ballot box. If we, the council, wanted to select what art projects get funded, we could do that. But we're not. We're preserving the independence of the grant making process. If we wanted to dismantle or get rid of for culture, bring it back in house. We could do that. But we are not. We are simply providing a very modest and responsible role for the elected officials who are accountable to the voters. And I encourage your support. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We can't have outburst from the audience or the day as everybody does. This is the time for the council members to speak. Okay. Who is who is not? If we have I'm sorry. If we have outburst, I'm going to have to ask people to leave. So let's just. I understand this is very emotional. I feel I think everybody up here is feeling it. So thank you for your professionalism. I really do appreciate it. Oh, that's okay, then. I think that's I think that's best. Thank you. All right. Now, I'm sorry. We need people to let the elected officials have their opportunity to speak, whether you like it or don't like it. That's how this works. I'm sorry. Council member of the Grove. Okay. Anybody else like to say a few words? Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair, that we have an ordinance before us today that the sponsors have said isn't. This isn't in response to a problem. And so I have trouble understanding exactly why we have it before us today. I spoke, um, a fair amount this morning about comparisons to other public development authorities, PDAs, and their level of independence . The analogy of how other jurisdictions handle their arts heritage preservation programs, I believe, are advisory. And that's the fundamental difference between for culture and, for instance, the city of Seattle in who makes up the board and how that and how they're appointed. The other public development authorities across King County, the Pacific Hospital, the Washington State Convention Center, Safeco Field, CenturyLink, others don't have the same level of oversight. This is unique and unnecessary and in my opinion, inappropriate and particularly troubling to me in this ordinance is the loss of expertize in the four areas that for a culture overseas, we currently in current operation require expertize in public art, art, historic preservation and heritage. The four areas that for a culture overseas directs and enhances for our communities across King County. A vote for this ordinance removes the requirement for expertize in the Board of Foreign Culture for these four areas. I find that exceptional. I find that I find that exceptionally disappointing and I cannot support this ordinance. Councilmember Cole. Wells Thank you, Madam Chair. This time I would like to thank our staff who have just worked incredibly for quite a while, even over the weekend, to get our amendments ready and very appreciative, I'm sure, by everybody here. I'd also like to thank Councilmember Upton Road for his willingness to meet with individuals, to hear their perspectives, to consider other lines of thought in having his striking amendment drafted. And I appreciate everything that he's had to say. I was really tempted to vote for the striking amendment if it had included the amendments that we brought forward. And I think they were really critical ones. Now I will be voting against the striking amendment. Unfortunately, I think it's a lot better than the underlying proposed ordinance. But to me, we're making a very grievous mistake in going forward with this. I think that I don't even think I believe strongly that for culture has been a model of transparency, openness, accountability, responsiveness. I'm not sure what happened with Councilmember Dombroski because I have heard directly when there is an appointment open and in my district and I certainly have been responsive to that. I don't understand that that message that I guess is what she said. But this is a very problematic proposal that is going to the County Council, and I am hopeful that we can continue to address those areas in which we may be imposing some very deleterious, quote, unintended consequences and effects not only on this agency, but in terms of what we want to come out of this. And I'll say we more generically, but I don't want this to go forward, period. But if it does, I want it to do so in a way, in a manner that will not be harmful. And I very much fear that it will be harmful not only for the agency itself, but more importantly for what it reflects and who it represents. It's not solely the artist and those in the cultural heritage, etc., community. But it's also reflective of our communities to further diversity. Geographic Yes, that's critical. And I want to codify what the practice has been and even strengthen that that was voted down. And it's also reflective of our in a sense, our constituencies. I am very blessed. No one would think otherwise. Representing the fourth Council District, where we have the large institutions, we have the small galleries, we have a plethora of fabulous arts, culture organizations. But I want that to be available all across the county. I don't believe this is the best way to effect that. Not just change, but a continuation of what the Ford Culture Board has worked very hard to achieve more outreach in some communities so that they will have more applications submitted. That's really critical. And an amendment address that that was turned down. But please, really, let's all take a step back and think this through before it comes up for a council vote. I think this is better than the underlying ordinance, but it's not where I think we need to get to to make this a win win situation . But I still think my taskforce is the best approach to do that. But with that, Miss Madam Chair, I will be voting no. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is really been hard because everybody actually wants the same thing. Everybody loves art. And, you know, frequently when we feel pressured by any group and this week has been an exciting group because we've been pressured by several groups, unfortunately, none of them been the taxpayers. And so when when we have to balance and I guess maybe because I've helped raise six kids, I've learned about how you have to balance for everybody to sort of get along. But I was here when the PTA was formed and I know why it was formed. I know how it was formed. I was in those room when it happened. It it worked well when it was in house, but there were some recessions, there were other problems, and we were made some promises. And so we went along with it. Sessions Over the promises for no fault of anybody's were things that happened that nobody anticipated on both sides. So I'm not nuts. Anything bad about anybody. But some of the promises for reasons beyond everybody's control didn't happen. So, you know, that happened. It's out there. I served on the board for a while. I loved serving on the board. It was a great board, professional people, people excited about the arts. You can't have too many people around you that are excited. About art because. They're usually very happy people and like unity. So it bothers me that we're at this place, bothers me that people would say that anybody up here would appoint somebody that didn't have artistic talents or artistic interest. I did have a curator from New York that had moved into my district and came to me and said, You know , I'm really lonely here. I would really, really like to get involved. And I said, Well, you know, maybe we can find a border commission. What are you interested in this as well? You know, I was the curator of museum in New York and I'm like, oh, my gosh. So I put her name forward and said she was a curator. And so I think she's pretty talented. But then when I called to see why, you know, she'd gotten the appointment and why her name hadn't come through my office, and they said, Oh, she wasn't qualified. And I'm like, What do you mean she wasn't qualified? Well, when we interviewed her, she wasn't really qualified. So I called her and said, How was that interview? Did you feel like things didn't go well in the interview? She said, Nobody called me, so that was a problem for me. So then I have been on a number of taskforces where departments are getting the 1% for the 1% for the arts, for their department and for various reasons because of what the duties of the. Department. Were there very specific ideas. About what they needed. In art? And one of the specifications was not be sharp, which I thought was a particularly. Reasonable request. And the comments that they got back were pretty much we know this better than you do. And I was like, well, actually you don't, because these people over here, this is the art that's going to be in their office on a regular basis, and that's not helpful. So. You know, I'm sorry that I'm right. So I think that the communication issue is a problem and it's something that needs to be solved. The people who are going to be living with the art every day need to have more input than they've had in the past. You know, there was an issue where we got international news for a piece of art that was not appropriate. So there have been things and I'm hoping that as we go forward, there will be better communications because we all want the same thing. We all want good art. Thank you. Thank you. In other comments, Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. There's been a lot of stuff going on here in details, some of which are detail, some of which aren't. But I appreciate the work that people have been putting in and Catherine to Boesky said committee that will look at these issues in little bit more detail with the consultation of floriculture in and sports. I just want to take a moment. I'm going to support this legislation. I think it's necessary and I think it's good to drive. I don't think it's necessarily the system is broken. I don't actually think foreclosures do a very good job. But I do think it creates greater accountability. And so there's always room for improvement in any agency, and I think we can create improvement here. I just want to take a moment to thank those for culture, for their tireless work over the years. We have a wonderful community, a great arts community, something to be very proud of. The supporters and organizations of that group need to be thanked. Thank you for being here for your activism. It's hard not to take this as a snub before culture, but I don't see it that way. I see it's taking a good organization and making it better, and so I'm going to support it. Thank you all for your work. Thank you. Before I call for the vote, I'll just say a few words. I'm not going to add a whole lot. I have a lot of thoughts and and a very serious level of concern. But I'm going to reserve lengthier comment for final passage when we get to the full council, because I continue to hold some hope that between now and then, perhaps the those of us who feel strongly that we're sending the wrong message and those of us who feel strongly that we're sending the right message with this ordinance can maybe find slightly more middle ground. And I would like to see us get to a place where there could be a90 vote as opposed to a 6 to 3 vote, as was alluded to earlier. I think that because you can doesn't mean you should. And when we say that we're trying to achieve a certain result with what we're doing, then we ought to be really mindful that our methods, how we go about things, what we do, actually drives towards the goal we say we're trying to achieve. Because I don't feel that that has been the case with this process or with this result on this ordinance. So I will be voting no today just for purposes of the folks following who may be following along, who don't watch our processes. Very often this vote that we're about to take will be to move this ordinance as amended with the do pass recommendation to the full council, where it will be taken up at a later date. So with that, I will call for the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Hi. Councilmember Colwell No. Councilmember Lambert. Council Member. McDermott. No. Council member of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne Bauer. Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the vote has six eyes. Three. Nos by your vote. Ordinance number 2018 0086, as amended, is passed out of committee with a do pass recommendation. We will move it to full council without expediting and it will be on the regular agenda. All right. Thank you very much. We have gone way over, but council members, council members, if a quorum of us could stay, we have one poor gentleman who's been waiting for his confirmation for hours. Let's bring him in. Thank you. And before we do that, though, I'm sorry. I am I am totally forgetting my script here, but I need to, just as you all are standing up and moving on, I need to say thank you to staff Mary Bergen on Wendy Sue, who led critical Zoghbi who wasn't able to see this all the way through because she's home, hopefully having a very healthy baby. And Kendall Moore, our attorney and Bruce from the Coder Advisors Office, I know you all worked so, so, so, so hard to help us walk through all of the changes and get us through this today. Thank you very, very much. We all appreciate your work. All right. We're moving on to motion, not motion. We're moving on to there is a King County code, so motion 2018 0087. The next one and this is our final item today as council members will recall, the position of deputy director of the Department of Elections is a position that is designated as requiring council confirmation in the code. I thank you, my colleagues who have stayed. We are going to hear from Julie Wise and our staff about Mr. Nathan Valladares, who has been and you'll tell me if I've not heard your name, who's been proposed for the position. He's been working here for a little while already and he's up for confirmation. And I will just quickly ask Heidi Poppycock from council staff for a brief report. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I think he summed it up very well, what I was going to say. Okay. I want to turn it over to Director White. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for having us this afternoon. I have known and worked with Nathan Valadares for just about 12 years before I appointed him. My deputy, Nate, was our operations manager at King County Elections. He's been a steadfast fixture at elections. And truly, Nate is really the epitome of professional public servant. He's acquired experience in all aspects of election administration since 2006, has supported King County elections and conducting more than 50 successful elections, including three presidential elections. And he's also a Washington state certified election administrator. He's a longtime shoreline resident where he and his wife live, a robust and busy life with their two young daughters. Nathan out there has been a rock for me since I've taken office in 2016. I've come to rely on him. It's my pleasure to introduce to you all today, Nathan Balderas. Thank you so much and welcome, Mr. Balderas, who I now know is pronounced Balderas. Thank you. Anything you'd like to share with the committee? Well, I know. We just finished. A long debate, so I will make my comments brief. But thank you for the record. Eight Others Deputy Director Designee for the Department of Elections. I believe my paramount duty as an election administrator in King County is to ensure the security of our elections. And so that's one of the top topics that we care about. I'm also excited about continuing our work, removing barriers to voting. When Julie took office in 2016, she quickly prioritized voter access, increasing voter access as a priority. And I'm excited to continue that work with her. Lastly, I'm excited to balance the day to day operations of our department with while simultaneously looking at the future of elections, what our election is going to look like in five, ten and 15 years in King County as technology changes, as our society changes. What will our the voters of tomorrow expect and demand? So those are the types of challenges I look forward to working with Julie in the elections tomorrow. Very good. Be happy to answer any questions. Councilmember Gossett almost always has really good questions for the candidates, so I'm going to call on him first. Thank you very much for our return. I had the opportunity to meet individually with Nathan, so I know from talking to him almost an hour that he is extremely experienced. That is education and and technical training for elections. Work is the pur. And then the last thing I liked about him is that he's a that those two things usually don't go with being a people person, but he's a people person. My staff and I really enjoyed just talking to him there, the ease within which he spoke with us. And I'm sure that when people call the elections office and they're pushed up to his office because they're upset because somebody lost their down ballot, he's going to be able to hammer them for that. So for all those reasons, I think we're getting a really excellent deputy director for our elections office. Thank you, madam. Thank you, Mr. Kemp. That's high praise. Usually he grills the people sitting in your seat, so you're lucky you got that offline. Any other comments or questions? I will add my welcome. Elections is, of course, one of the most important functions of King County government that we provide fair, open, transparent elections that are accurate. And it's been a real challenge for us in the past. And I know that our former elections director and our current elections director have been working very, very diligently over years to make sure that our systems are what they need to be. I read over your experience. It's very impressive. We're really lucky to have you here. So thank you for. I'm going to King County and working in this role. I will say that if you're going to be King County in a King County elections, you need to get used to me repeating my Battlestar Galactica thing. So if you're going to work on technology, recall the lessons of Battlestar Galactica. Why was Battlestar Galactica the ship that survived the attack of the Cylons? Because it wasn't connected to the network. They got. They got hacked. So let's make sure that our our system is safe from hacking anyway. All right, before we lose our quorum, I think we should just go ahead and accept a motion if someone would make it to confirm, to recommend confirmation of Mr. Nathan Valladares with a do pass recommendation to the full council. And I'm sure he will have a do pass recommendation. The motion 2018 87. It has been moved. Any comments? All those in favor please signify by saying I do need a roll call. I'm sorry. We need a roll call. Roll call. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Gossett Oh, Councilmember Commonwealth. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember von Richter. Madam Chair. AI Madam Chair, the. Vote is seven. Nice. Two Nos. Two. Excuse me. Thank you. The motion passes unanimously and we will. Let's expedite that and put it on consent so you don't need to come. We'll take our final vote on consent. And congratulations. Welcome formally and we look forward to working with you. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. With that, that brings us to the end of our agenda. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, March 21st, when we anticipate discussing an additional and, I believe, final gender neutral code ordinance, the E911 one strategic plan, our federal legislative agenda, and a briefing about the county's priorities. With that, we are adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE related to the cultural development authority; identifying responsibilities of the county council; amending Ordinance 14482, Section 34, and K.C.C. 2.46.180, Ordinance 8300, Section 3 as amended, and K.C.C. 2.48.030, Ordinance 14482, Section 38, and K.C.C. 2.48.065, Ordinance 14482, Section 39, and K.C.C. 2.48.075, Ordinance 14482, Section 40, and K.C.C. 2.48.085, Ordinance 14482, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.49.020, Ordinance 14482, Section 7, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.49.060, Ordinance 14482, Section 9, and K.C.C. 2.49.080, Ordinance 14482, Section 11, and K.C.C. 2.49.110, Ordinance 14482, Section 17, and K.C.C. 2.49.160, Ordinance 14482, Section 18, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.49.170, Ordinance 14482, Section 19, and K.C.C. 2.49.180, Ordinance 14440, Section 3, and K.C.C. 2.49.200, Ordinance 14482, Section 58, as amended, and K.C.C. 4.40.015 and Ordinance 17527, Section 57, as amended, and K.C.C. 4.40.110, adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 2.49, decodifying K.C.C. 2.49.070 and repealing Ordinance 14482, Section 10, and K.C.C. 2.49.090.
king_f46766be-c926-46d1-8721-59bf630cc01a	This is Councilmember Jean Cole Wells, chair of the committee of the whole. And I welcome everybody to the June 15th, 2022 meeting of the Committee of the Whole. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the King County Courthouse is on the unceded ancestral lands of the dumbest people, past and present, and we honor with gratitude the land itself and the de Armas tribe. We will begin today's meeting with Harborview Medical Center's annual report to the Committee of the Whole. Following that, we will have a slight reorder of the agenda. We will discuss and take possible action on an ordinance that would propose an amendment to the King County Charter to move elections for certain county offices from odd numbered to even numbered years before taking possible action on the executive's reappointment of Anita Condo while as public defender. And we are doing that because I do want to make sure that we get in the acts possible action on the ordinance having to do with elections and then give plenty of time to the reappointment, consideration and likely action on public defender Anita Condor was a reappointment and we will now go ahead and call the roll. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Chair Cole. Whilst Councilmember Bell DG. Your Council member Demovsky. Dear Council Member done here. Council Member McDermott. European. Council Member Perry here. Council Member of the Grove. Here. Council Councilmember one right there. Air Council members all I. Here. Jericho was. Here. You do have a corn. Thank you. Clark and I would like to say and that some in the public who may be with us or on our Zoom call may not know that we have started our hybrid meetings. This is the second committee meeting in our hybrid mode. Individuals are able now to come to the courthouse, enter through the Fourth Avenue entrance and be able to participate in our meetings here in our chamber, which is on the 10th floor of the courtroom courthouse. And so, Mr. Vice Chair, would you attend right now? Councilmember Perry and I are the only ones here. Our colleagues are on with us over Zoom. Council member Dunn, would you please move to approve the minutes of June 1st? Councilmember Perry, would you like to do that? I'd like to move the minutes of June 1st. KEY Thank you for that motion. Unless any questions. All in favor indicate by saying i. I. Any polls say nay kay. The minutes have been approved. We will now turn to public comment. And this is where it's a little tricky because we may have people here in the chamber who wish to get public comment and also those who wish to do so remotely. And our clerk do we have anyone in person or on the line wishing to provide public comment? Charcoal Wells. We have nobody that has signed up in person, but we do have eight people online. Thank you. So there are eight people apparently who are wishing to get public comment through Zoom, but nobody in the chamber at this time. So with that, I have a few remarks to make to make sure everybody is on the same page in terms of our expectations for giving public comment. Public comment, first of all, must be related to items on today's meeting agenda and not be used for the purpose of assisting to campaign for election of any person to any office, or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition. It must also not include obscene speech. If the Speaker fails to abide by these restrictions or is otherwise disruptive to our meeting, I will rule the Speaker out of order and have that speaker removed from the meeting or that that person's Microsoft microphone turned off. You will have 2 minutes to speak and we'll hear a timer go off. If you can finish your thought, please wrap up your comments when you hear that timer. If you go much past 2 minutes, you may be muted. We will begin by calling on people and the clerk will call on those who have indicated we will appreciate. If you wait for the clerk to call on you, please, she will call either your name or the last three digits of your phone number. And when you are called, you'll be asked to unmute your line. Please do so or press six of you dialed in on a cell phone. Please start by saying your name and spelling it so we can capture it accurately for the record. And will I, Curt, please go ahead and begin calling names and numbers. Thank you. Chair Cole's the first person is Andrew Villeneuve. Please go ahead. Good morning, council members. For the record, my name is Andrew Villeneuve and I'm the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, which is a501c for nonprofit, working to raise everyone's quality of life through insightful research and imaginative advocacy. NPO Thanks you for considering Ordinance 22 zero 180, which would move 12 county level offices that are currently being elected in odd years to even numbered years. As you can see from the sample ballots prepared by our elections division that are in today's packet, the change we're proposing to the King County Charter would have a small effect on ballot layout, but no more than three items per vote are added to an even your ballot, while having a huge and beneficial effect on participation rates. The data is clear and compelling. Even your elections simply draw a lot more voters than odd years do. That isn't just true for high profile races, either down ballot items and even numbered years receive better response rates than top of the ticket items in odd years. We know because we've examined the response rates in all King County elections going back to 2014. You can see the data plotted in a really cool chart. By the way, if you go to even years talk, we already elect our King County Prosecuting Attorney and superior court judges in even numbered years, aligning our elections for executive assessor, elections director and councilmember in even numbered years will simplify our elections and result in a larger , more diverse electorate. Picking King County's next leaders. Again, we can see from looking at recent elections that a difference of one year means hundreds of thousands more voters being involved. For example, 572,911 votes were cast last year for executive. That was 216,302 fewer votes than the number who had voted for prosecuting attorney three years prior. When there are fewer voters on the rolls. Or we could look at the seven charter amendments that were. For voters in 2020, each of those got over 1.1 million votes for and against in a presidential year, and that's more than double the number of votes or executive Keywood collectively got last year. So our research suggests that voters would prefer even higher elections for important local offices. And we urge you to move this amendment forward for the voter's consideration. Thank you. Thank you. The next. Person is. Aguada Pacheco Flores. If you like to speak from. There you go. No, I'm inclined. I wouldn't like to say. I'm just here for. To listen in. Thank you. Excuse me. The next person is Heather Kelly. Good morning. My name is Heather Kelly, and I'm the president of the League of Women Voters of Seattle, King County. I'm here to express our support for the passage of Ordinance 20 2018. Before you to move elections for county offices from odd numbered years to even number of years. The league is all about voting, as you know, and we assist many citizens in registering to vote. But ensuring that people actually follow through and exercise their right is a greater challenge. The data comparing voter turnout in odd versus even years in King County shows that the timing of elections can have a profound impact not only on the number, but in even more importantly, on the diversity of people casting their votes. The league is first and foremost an organization focused on defending democracy, so the more people that participate in elections, the stronger the democracy. And experts project an increase in voter turnout of at least 40% if this changes realized. But democracy also has to work for everybody voter turnout and even yours voters turning out in even years. We know that they're younger and more diverse than than an odd number of years. And the turnout of younger voters between the ages of 18 and 24 specifically would grow 18% in odd years to 50% and even years since . We know that's the age bracket that typically has the lowest voter turnout. We can't afford to pass up this easy opportunity to engage them. The league recognizes this change may make it more expensive for some candidates to run for office. And yeah, that's a problem in its own right. And we're committing to it. We're committed to addressing it. But minimizing voter turnout isn't the solution to that problem. Rejecting this ordinance on that basis would communicate that only certain voters are worth candidates investment. And surely that's the wrong message to send. The league only takes stands on issues supported by our public policy positions, which are crafted through careful research and due diligence. In this instance, we found the arguments and evidence supporting ordinance 22 to 2182. Be compelling and we ask you to vote yes. Thank you. Please go ahead. Good morning. My name is Denise Guerrero, and I manage membership and policy for Washington Community Alliance. And thank you for the opportunity to testify for the ordinance that moves civic order races to even years. My organization and I are in support of moving to even year elections because currently we have seen the odd year elections are significantly higher, yielding a significantly turnout that is older, whiter and richer than those and even. As a result, election results reflect only a small group of voters and is not representative of the community as a whole. Research has shown that there is significantly higher turnout in even years than odd, and there is a large response in down ballot votes than in our years as well. We have the opportunity to increase in numbers. Try voter turnout and making County Council more representative of all our constituents. Urge you to support the move to even your elections. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Jim Sanders. Jim Sanders. If you'd like to speak, please come meet yourself and go ahead. Okay. I'll move on to Jud Ahmed. Go ahead, please. Hello. Thank you, committee for giving me the opportunity to speak today on the ordinance and the apology to. I did the wrong button. I was here just to witness. And thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you, Mr. Smith. Go ahead, Judy. Sorry. Oh, it's no problem. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on the ordinance. Moving specific OD year elections to even years. My name is Jud Ahmed. I am a civic engagement organizer at the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, and I am our person for all community based organizing regarding getting out the vote. So this ordinance is particular to the work that I do and reflects the concerns that the communities I serve have directed towards me when it comes to educating folks about voting and the opportunities to do so. And even in odd years, many of the communities that I work with recognize that with mail in voting and the opportunities to vote in Washington, that they want to turn out for both odd and even year elections. But to do so requires a lot of time and effort. Despite how accessible our voting system currently is, being able to go to vote centers, being able to do the research, being able to take the time to vote and participate in our elections. It's something that I think we should recognize the value that our community puts into that by meeting them where they are at and moving more elections to even in years. It's just common sense that if we see more communities of color and younger folks and folks that are traditionally underrepresented in our electoral system participating in even years , we should meet them where they are at, rather than keeping systems that may provide barriers and inequities in who's able to participate in our democracy. Thank you for giving me the time to speak today, and I hope the Council considers my testimony and their decision on this ordinance. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next person is nice. John Thune. Excuse me. I think we lost that person. Where are they? Oh. Nation. Few, if you'd like to speak. Go ahead. I'll never be. Oh. Okay. I'm moving on to. You can barely hear me. Oh, yeah. Nice. That doesn't mean you hear me. Nation food. We can. Can't. We cannot hear you in the chambers. Can you speak up, please? Can you hear me now? A teeny bit better, but hardly call back on my phone. I just got back. Okay. Chair, I'll say we can hear her better, I think, remotely than you can hear her in chambers. So maybe you should have her call back by phone and try again. We think we might have heard her say that. So hopefully she's doing that right now. Okay. And in the meantime, I'm moving on to Shoshana Keeler's and my apologies. Hi. Can everyone hear me this morning? Yes, we can hear you fine. In the chambers. I hope they can zoom. Okay. Wonderful. Good morning, Councilwoman. You think I have something in my throat? Good morning, Chair Caldwell and members of the King County Council. I'm here during his public comment section to support Anita Cantwell's nomination to be the head public defender of King County Department of Public Defense. I know that there is going to be hearing a little bit later during this meeting, but I wanted to just highlight a couple of reasons why she is an excellent candidate. I implore you to begin and I'm anxious to hear your comments, but could you spell your last name? It's not showing up completely on her screen. Of course. Well, my last name is Qui Ho keh0e. Thank you. Oh, it it's hyphenated and hyphen h s. And I'm sorry to interrupt. Oh, no problem. No problem. Thank you. I'm sorry. I should have introduced myself where I'm from. I'm from the. I work with the Washington State Office of Public Defense in Olympia. I'm a managing attorney. Oversee the public defense representation of individuals facing civil commitment. Through that. I work directly with King County PD, with their attorneys and some of their support staff. I am also a member of the Public Defense. Advisory Board, King County Public Defense Advisory Board. I'm fairly new, but I have been around for several months now and I've had the pleasure of. Interacting with. Anita a number of. Times on. Challenging issues regarding public defense. As well. As delivering public defender services during the pandemic. Our at our advisory board, we submitted a letter and there are a number of highlights in there as to why this Kandola is an excellent candidate to be renominated. She has increased. The morale and. The trust with the attorneys and the support staff through the pandemic, one of the most challenging times where attorneys support had to show up. Before the vaccinations were out and had to interact with clients. Who. Were in the jails. And who were also. Dealing with this extremely challenging time. She has worked tirelessly to address all issues. She has very strong communication skills. She has built a state of the art extensive training program for her public defenders, and she has elevated public defense in King County in a way that we haven't seen, to the point where she can be up there with the prosecutor and other heads of cabinets and. Excuse me, Miss Kehoe. Ellen, I'm sorry to interrupt. We gave you a little extra time because they didn't arrived. But could you please just sum up because you're well over the time allotted? Thank you. Yep. Yep. I'll just be really fast. The Washington State Supreme Court called back in June four, 2020. The legal community must recognize that we all share responsibility for the ongoing injustice of racial discrimination, that we are capable of taking steps to address it, if only we had the courage and the will. That is what I need to do. All has done for. Public defense in King County. Thank you very much. Thank you. And we did receive the letter from the Public Defense Advisory Board. Appreciate receiving that. Thank you. Who is next? Thank you. We're going to try Nation Fu again. Go ahead, please. Hi. Can you hear me now? Oh, we sure can. Thank you. Okay, great. Something I don't know is that work with my computer. Good morning, counsel. My name is. 19 and I am speaking today on behalf of Share the Cities. I'm a volunteer community educator. I'm speaking today in support. Of the proposal to move. Certain elections to even numbered years. Share the cities advocates for equitable cities with a focus. On housing and land use. Policy in the Puget Sound region. We work to bring communities into the policy and decision. Making process in order to shift the balance of power in these spaces to those who have been historically underrepresented. Recently, we recently. We presented to eight. Local high school history classes on land use policy in Seattle, educating students on how to participate in the upcoming comprehensive plan. And we are inspired. By how engaged, curious and informed they were. We're in a moment where young people are fighting to be heard. For reproductive rights, gun safety and climate protections, where many working families. Are struggling to put food on. The table and find affordable childcare. And we know that good policy. Is where systemic and sustainable. Change starts to address these issues. One crucial way to make sure these communities are represented is to hold elections when they vote. Research has shown that elected officials are more likely to hold views aligned with their constituents when they're elected and. On cycle races. The disappointing turnout in odd year. Elections leads to worse policy outcomes for our communities. Sure, the citizens in particular. Following the King County. Equitable Development Initiative and once champions elected to make sure that new the new program. Flourishes over the next decade. We urge you to support the move. To even your elections. Thanks for your time. Thank you. The next person is Louis France. Oh, I'm sorry. I must have missed something. Did you call Louis France? Yes, I sure did. Would you like to? I am so sorry. Yes. Yes. Oh, great. I would like to speak. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Louis France. I am a member of the Public Defense Advisory Board and I worked for DPD after it was instituted, as well as one of the process of public defense agencies. And I also had the opportunity to work with Ms.. Campbell, both at DPD and through my work on the Public Defense Advisory Board. And I'm here to speak to the Council today in support of Ms.. Canter Walls appointment to reappointment as Director of the Department of Public Defense. First, I want to thank the Council for the opportunity to speak to you on this issue. Miss Kandel is skilled, talented and organized. She has shown to be both a good administrator and a good communicator. She's had the opportunity to work well with all the staff at DPD, and it is my understanding she has also received the support of SEIU, which is evidence of the quality of her work. She has worked hard with everyone in DPD to manage the extremely difficult caseload that the attorneys there deal with and the staff there deals with. She has worked to provide better services to clients, and she's worked to improve the justice system to look at approaches other than incarceration. She has worked tirelessly on behalf of the client and the staff of DPD. I think the previous four years as director of the department events have established her skill set, her talent for organizational skills. She is an excellent director of the Department of Public Defense, and I would urge you to confirm her reappointment. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. The next person is listed as St Jay at Seattle U edu. Can you please provide us your full name before you begin? Professor John Straight, ACR 80. Great. Thank you. Go ahead. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of Anita Kandahar's reappointment as director. I have been asked by our chair whose letter you have all received supporting her reappointment to express his apologies, because here I am flicked and may not be able to join this meeting. I am currently a member of the Public Defender Advisory Board and I have been a member and previous co-chair for two terms of that board since its creation. I have worked advisor to every director and Acting Director since the County took over the public defender's services and I have served as an ethics adviser on legal ethics to the board and to various directors and acting directors. I'm a former public defender, pro tem judge, criminal law professor, and a now an emeritus professor from Seattle University School of Law. First, I wish to indicate to the to the chair and the board, the commissioners that the council members pardon me that all of the PDA, a B board, the advisory board fully agree with Chairman Kearney's letter. Secondly, I would second the comments of the two previous speakers in support of Ms. Kandahar. And lastly, I want to call attention specifically to the having worked with every single person who served in an acting or actual director capacity for the Office of Public Defense. Or is or the most successful best director that we have ever had. And that includes some who did well before, as well as some who did not. So I want to particularly call attention to, given my background as a law professor and a long time interest in improving the delivery of legal services to the poor, and specifically criminal defense that Ms.. Kandahar has been extraordinarily successful with her creation of her training programs and supplementation of them. And for the first time in all of my experience on the board, there has been. Professor, excuse me for interrupting, but you're well past your 2 minutes, so if you could please sum up. Thank you. Yes. Only a fellow very, very strongly supported her reappointment. Secondly, the previous comments that were made by other board members. And thank the Council for the opportunity to speak. Thank you, Chair Coble. So I believe I've called everyone on the line. Okay. We do have one person. That has signed up. Thank you very much. So I do see I believe we have one person here in the chamber to speak. And was there anybody else? Before we take him, is there anybody on the line who still would like to speak who is with us by Zoom? Okay with that? We do have one individual. I would you please go to the microphone? I think it's Mr. Zimmerman. Yeah. And Mr. Zimmerman, I do not think you were present when I was reading the instructions about staying to the agenda and not being disruptive. I believe you've heard those instructions before, though, and will comply with them. Thank you. No, I'm a very good boy, a small boy and a good boy. Did you speak closer to the microphone, please? I don't know. Microphone. Not working from yesterday, months before. It's never worked. It's working. It's working. Super. Z acquired my dirty Nazi fascist, my bandit and psychopath. My name Alex Timmerman. Ex conviction. Three times you get in county court. Three times criminal. So two years ago you prosecute me for interruption in this council chamber with misdemeanor in judge nice black men a little bit surprised. Me too. Yeah, I'll point me out. Probably I told you so before I come to staff to use public attorney office and people from public attorney. I know all attorney croak without exception. Yeah, I've same status. What? This little used car dealer is okay with me. But what is I have inside this very unique? I speak with Candela try, speak. Nothing happened I try speak with three manager and I think happened I try speak with an attorney. You know what? There's been nothing happen. I think this are very interesting clients. Oh, Mafia controlling, but this nice, beautiful girl. You know what this mean? Condit era. You know what this mean is this come together betray point what is absolutely in danger call come from same basket like a salad it's a prosecutor judge in public attorney you all say mafia you all same critical. So four months later you dismiss prosecutor dismiss this case in before one case what is like you spend like that when you finally hundred $20,000 so prosecute me for couple thousand you guys very interesting guys did call my future you see you go good are you. No 1/2 more. Kay Clark Daly is there. Can you tell if anybody else is wanting to speak with us? No. Chair Cole. Well, everybody has had the opportunity to speak, it looks like. Okay. Thank you very much. And say no further requests. We will close public comment and we will now go to number five on our agenda, which is harbor views, annual report to the committee of the whole. And it looks like we are being joined remotely by summer clay wino Wally, who is the CEO of Harborview Medical Center , Stephanie Fain, Board of Trustees. And I believe that Stephanie is president of the board or seat or chair. I think it's the president and Leslie Harper, Miles, the capital bond program director for Harbor View. I welcome you all. I believe you have a PowerPoint presentation for us and it's also in our packet. We really appreciate that and we do have other items on our agenda. So I envision it'd be great if we could take about 30 to 40 minutes for this presentation, give or take a little bit. And summary Do you prefer that people ask you questions during the presentation or wait till the end? Either way is fine. CHAIR Okay, well, we'll try not to interrupt unless one of my colleagues has a burning question and it just cannot wait till the end. So with that, thank you very much and please proceed. Thank you very much. Chair Cole Wells And thank you to all the councilmembers for inviting us here today to speak like a chair, Coldwell said. I am I am accompanied by two close working relationships one Leslie Harper Miles, the program administrator for the Bond, a very close partner in our work on executing the 2028 bond program that you will hear later about. And Stephanie Fain, our incredible board president that I work very closely with and I'm very. Appreciative for her commitment to Harborview. I also have Amanda Kerby on here, who is a very loyal staff member to Harborview and will be helping us with our slides today. So thank you to Amanda. Go ahead and go to the next slide. Amanda. So I want to start out today to kind of take us back to where we were last year at this time when we came to present our update on Harborview. So we are another year into this pandemic. We've made significant progress in our fight with this pandemic. We continue to focus on our mission. We continue to focus on serving our vulnerable population. And we continue to focus on dismantling health care disparity across our region, and in particular with the most vulnerable in King County. I would be remiss to say, though, that this has been a long year and a hard year, and we're going to talk a little bit about all the things we've been working on. But I always want to start with a thank you to our partners, first and foremost, a thank you to every single faculty, staff member and leader within the walls of Harborview. An incredible commitment to the mission, incredible commitment to our patients, and incredible commitment to move this institution through the most challenging times in health care history. I next want to say a very special thank you to our labor partners, SEIU 1199 Northwest, SEIU 925 and WFC all have been incredible partners throughout this pandemic, and I appreciate all the support, conversations, negotiations and partnerships so that we continue to experience and navigate together. So I really want to thank each and every one of them. King County Council. I thank you to everyone of you for your continued support and commitment to the health care of King County and to Harborview as an institution whose job is to serve that health care. To the King County executive. Absolutely the unwavering support that he offers, Harborview and offers the community, particularly from a health disparity standpoint. Every one of our King County residents incredible commitment, which continues to be demonstrated even after the 2020 bond. And we look forward to delivering on what we offer and what the King County residents have have provided us with in order to develop and continue to have an institution that goes on for generations to follow. And then our H.M.S. Board of Trustees. Led by Stephanie Fein, who is here. We have an incredible board of trustees that are very dedicated to the mission of Harvard, of Harborview, and the financial viability of Harborview. And I appreciate all of the council members and your appointees that you do through the trustees. So thank you. Next slide. So the agenda the agenda today, we're going to start out, as we always do at Harborview with a discussion around our commitment to the mission. Then we're going to talk about health care and how the landscape has changed and how that is following how that falls out at Harborview in perhaps a different way. Isn't it seen in other aspects of health care, particularly around our census challenges? We're going to have a financial update, but then at the end we're going to move to our go forward plan at heart review. So despite all the challenges that health care is facing, what is Harborview doing in order to mitigate and transform ourselves for the future, despite the obstacles we're facing? Next slide. So we start every every meeting at Harborview with our mission, our mission to serving the most vulnerable of King County, our mission to providing the level one trauma care that we provide not only to King County, but to the state and to the four city region. And then our mission to being that disaster preparedness institution that was so crucial during during things like the pandemic. Our role in continuing to be there for others beyond well beyond just the region that we live in. Our mission continues to inspire us. Our mission continues to be that northern guiding star that we all look to, that we all strive for. And I would be remiss to say if I did not mention the incredible work at the staff and providers have done over the past couple of years and particularly over the last year, to keep that mission in the forefront of everything they're doing, despite of the obstacles they face, particularly around the health disparity work that we're so focused on around testing, COVID testing, COVID vaccinations that we talked about last year. And now as we move into this new year, really looking at the future of the pandemic and working on COVID therapeutics and making sure that the health disparities that are already becoming very apparent within the distribution and availability of COVID therapeutics are mitigated by Harborview, and that we are working on ways to ensure that all of our communities, particularly our most vulnerable and our communities of color, have the same and equal access to those therapeutics as everyone else does within the region. Next slide. Okay. First topic that is are incredibly important. And as I sit here with you today, I have leaders in really important meetings talking about capacity challenges and challenges as today is a particularly difficult day at Harborview. One of the things that we have experienced at Harborview that is not unlike other aspects of health care, not only in the city, in the county, in the state, region and nationally. Is capacity challenges. A very big influx of what we call our census are how many patients are in the hospital at any given time. However, there is a difference at Harborview around the proportional amount of impact that capacity and census has had on the Harborview functioning. So if we go back to pre-pandemic levels, Harborview always functioned at high levels. And you've heard us talk about that in the past, that we were always well above or at our actual capacity of the amount of beds we had in the house. However, as a as the pandemic hit, we saw a very big decline in that sense, right? As things shut down and people didn't seek health care for a while, volumes, volumes decreased and that happened across the country. However, what we've seen in health care since that time and what you hear about is this continued up where upwards rising need of health care and that impact to the hospitals. The reason why I point out the impact and you can see the great impact you see even on this on this graph is that that the proportional impact to Harborview is well beyond what you see in other hospitals. And there's a few very key reasons for that that we're going to talk about today. But Harborview has moved from a census of around 420 patients in-house at any given time with the length of stay, meaning how long they stay on average in the hospital around eight days to anywhere from a census of 470 patients to a day like today, where it's closer to 520 patients. So well above where we're used to functioning with a length of stay closer to 11 to an 11 a half days. That is the highest length of stay in the country that I know of. You can imagine the credit and the incredible impact that has on efficiency, on the staff stress levels and the provider stress levels. However, we're going to talk about all the things we're doing at Harborview to address these challenges and how partnering with you and other individuals at the state level is going to be incredibly important as we move forward into mitigating this current situation. Next slide. One of the things to know is that if you're running a hospital and you would build it at a good, efficient level, you would have function at about 75% to 80% capacity, which would give you an ability to flex up in times of high demand or in times of things like a pandemic. Harborview functions right now around 114 to 120 22% capacity. If we were going to function more at a level around that 75 to 80%, we'd have bed numbers into the 600 to 6 fifties. So I kind of want to set that framework for everybody that the world has changed since the pandemic. Harborview has changed since the pandemic. And we have to think differently about what our community needs Harborview to be. The demand of the vulnerable population for health care is high, and we as Harborview, need to figure out how we're going to how we're going to turn and maneuver in order to ensure that we can continue to deliver on that mission. I want to give you a day in the life of Harborview. So this was a snapshot of just one day. Our care management director gave this to me and he said, you know, today we have 495 patients in our summer. Of those 495 patients, we actually have 413 licensed beds. And that means that since the 1980s, Harborview, under the structure of the state and federal rules, operates out of 413 licensed bed number. Those license beds are important because that's how you how we have oversight of who we can build for under federal rules. You have to have an ability to build for patients under a license bed mandate. Of those 413 beds and of those 495 patients on this given day. 164. Those patients didn't need to be in a hospital. They certainly didn't need the expert quaternary care of Harborview Medical Center, but they actually didn't need to be in any hospital. Their medical needs were done. They were taken care of. But there was no there is no place for them to go after a hospital stay. So what we term in the health care world is and post-acute care so skilled nursing facilities long term care facility at adult family homes all of that infrastructure that needs to be built and maintained for efficient throughput. A continuum of care for health care is not adequate at this point. So 164 patients were injured in Harborview that day, not meeting the medical care, but unfortunately being in beds that were needed for those other individuals who also needed more desperately Harborview Critical Care Services, in addition to those 164 patients, because of this continuing problem that Harborview has had since even before the pandemic, which has now been exacerbated by the pandemic. We have got into relationships with skilled nursing facilities ourselves and have placed an additional 85 patients in nursing homes where Harborview is paying an enhanced rate above and beyond what our managed Medicaid programs and our state Medicaid programs pay for. This allows these facilities who aren't able to afford, given the levels that the managed Medicaid plans and the other insurance plans play them in. It gives them an ability with an enhanced rate to actually take these patients into their beds. We also then provide very needed. Social work and physician and nursing support to help supplement this is all occurring at the cost of Harborview. Right. So this isn't part of the infrastructure of our health care continuum in the state. It's something we've had to supplement because Harborview is at a point where we can't afford to have them in our beds. As of last year, when we when we looked at this last, about $7.2 million of Harborview operating budget goes to paying for these 85 beds per year. Now, that is worth paying for, unfortunately, because if we don't move these patients into these skilled nursing facilities and long term care beds, we continue to have them within the walls of Harborview. And that's just not sustainable if we're going to continue to be able to fulfill our mission. Next slide. Okay. Actually, go back one. My apologies. I want to end this capacity challenge by saying we have had several visits lately that have helped us kind of navigate and begin to tell this story around the capacity challenges that our review is facing. We've had visitors, visitors from the Department of Health that I've toured to see the impacts on Harborview and the impacts on patient care and throughput. We have also had the president of the American Central Hospital come out and try to look at from a national perspective what he's seeing and how this can help feed information to our state and to others to help inform perhaps better ways to look at post-acute care, what other states are doing it differently, and what capacity could be different to help individual hospitals and safety net hospitals like Harborview. I will talk a little bit more about this at the end when I talk about our going forward plan. But capacity challenges are not only difficult from a perspective of just movement, but if you look at the next slide, it is completely Amanda, the next slide. Thank you. It is completely impacting our ability to recruit and retain staff. So as we all know, there is a great resignation right now. We are not like any other hospital in the country, in the region, in the state or the county. In fact, we are better off than most of those. I have counted my lucky stars on many days as I hear and talk to other CEOs and the impacts they're seeing from the loss of health care workers and the shortage of nurses in the pipeline within our state. We actually rank 45th of the states in our in our numbers of nurses that are ready and and being trained to go into the pipeline that workforce. So we are not set up in a very good situation in that perspective. However, we have taken staff recruitment and retention incredibly serious. It is the most important thing we can do right now. Recruitment efforts have gone from, you know, something that we did as a second tier because Harborview was always that place that was able to recruit very easily pre-pandemic, pre the stress of health care being a place where others start to think, is this really where I want to have a career? Right. So recruitment efforts are underway. We are revamping how we how we have accessible jobs. We are revamping our look from an equity perspective of how we're ensuring we have diverse applicants and diverse recruitment efforts. We are looking at how we provide incentives for recruitment, how we provide incentives and pay that is more in alignment as best we can with the industry to ensure we're able to maintain our workforce. From a retention perspective, we have put an incredible amount of work into ensuring that we are tying ourselves to our staff. We are out there with them and we are ensuring that they are receiving the benefits they need, the mental health, the benefits, the wellness and the support that they need to continue this hard work. And this is hard work. We also have to think about our leaders, our leaders at Health at Harborview and our providers at Harborview. It's a long haul through this pandemic, and we have to ensure that we're taking care of everyone. And that is something we take very seriously and explain. Okay. I'm going to move to a financial update now. We've talked about kind of the impact of the census and capacity challenges of Harborview and all of health care is facing. We're talking about that. We've talked about the great resignation and how Harborview in particular is pivoting to ensure that we maintain a very robust workforce and and maintain the safety of our institution, which we are doing a very good job at. However, being able to ensure that we have a stable workforce, a workforce that is robust enough to provide the type of care we provide as much as a very costly, quite near a level critical care facility takes a toll. Labor costs are very high. I think everybody recognizes that and they continue to become higher. We need to be able to compete in a very competitive health care market. The entire market in the country is competitive, but we are in a very competitive health care market from a labor cost and expense standpoint. Our length of stay and capacity challenges have a huge financial impact because our length of stay is so high and we have so many patients in-house that don't require the unique experience of Harborview, that don't require anymore medical care. We are actually down about a thousand admissions from last year. Patients are staying so long that we're not able to get those those patients that so need our services. And that not only impacts our ability, our access for our mission population, it also impacts our financial health. The way health care is paid is on every admission discharge. So if you're not able to turn over those beds to the next level of care that needs. Harborview, you aren't receiving you aren't receiving payment. In fact, when we have the challenges around the length of stay, what we find is going back to that one day in time where I had 164 patients that didn't need to be in house today, I would guess it's higher of those patients were receiving about $200 a day from the managed Medicaid plans. If they were to go into a skilled nursing facility, the payment would be more around 380 to 400. You can see that the way the cost and payment is flowing and there's no incentive necessarily to move these patients into the next level of care, $200 a day in a generic care setting where you have labor costs and expenses and inflation overall as high as it is, is not sustainable. Future costs with associate with associated with inflation supplies, expenses are also concerning and something we're monitoring very closely. And then as part of our exciting 2020 bond measure, we are now starting to work with the county and look at what are those impacts of building new buildings and having these new services, what are the operational expenses and the depreciation expenses that will come along with that great gift that we as good stewards of of Harborview Financial assets need to figure out how to ensure we absorb. We need to figure out how to ensure we have a a viability plan for the financial stability of Harborview. Next slide. Okay. So I presented a lot of challenges. I also presented how dedicated and continued our commitment is, how our Northern Star remains serving the most vulnerable of King County, continuing to combat health disparity in our region, and continuing to be there as the level one trauma center and the Incident Command Disaster Preparedness Center for the state. We continue to function as the Washington Medical Coordination Center that has level loaded the entire state to ensure that we are maintaining adequate access at all hospitals. That function is run out of Harborview Medical Center. But what are we going to do? What is Harborview leadership? What is you'd have medicine leadership and what is the board of trustees working so closely with us on, along with the county in order to ensure we're we're maintaining viability? So, first of all, we continue to focus on serving our mission, improving staff quality and retention. How are we doing this? We're focusing on strategic planning, particularly clinical strategic planning that really looks at how best to utilize our resources to ensure we are providing them to our most critically needed individuals within our primary care footprint and our behavioral health footprint. That is incredibly important to us. We have very unique skills, really strong wraparound services, and we need to be able to continue to be there from a behavioral health perspective and a primary care perspective for those most complex individuals within King County. We are working on clinical strategy to ensure we have the right resources and we have right size them and we are triaging them towards those that need us the most. We are also looking at capacity projects with our partners from the county. We are currently in the middle of a construction project where we are moving two floors of clinics to our our ninth in Jefferson building, which frees up two floors within our mailing building for 40 single inpatient rooms. This is not part of the Bond project. This is actually being paid for by 75 million of Harborview is operating budget or cash. This is incredibly important. 42 single patient rooms doesn't seem like a lot to other hospitals. It's an incredibly large to Harborview. We also are considering and working with our county partners on could we provide some additional O.R. support and expansion in our ninth in Jefferson Building to free up our Meno are not only to provide more access to our inpatients, who often have delayed ability to move through our system because we're so full in our own hours, but also to provide some more financial viability from some of our most strategic service lines, like orthopedics, trauma, neurosciences, neurosurgery, spine surgery that can help bring in some more dedicated revenue that then goes back to the underserved. That helps us continue to provide that mission. We're engaging with external partners to improve our care. We're working with partnerships outside of Harborview. We're working with the community. We're saying, how best can we serve you, particularly through the COVID pandemic? We continue to learn and partner with things like our seas to see how do we best get out to that public that needs us, who may be hesitant to come into health care facilities? How do we ensure that we aren't perpetuating the health care disparities that are so prevalent in the United States? We're strengthening Harborview Harvey's partnerships with other trauma centers. We are the level one trauma center that is actually being challenged right now, and that is something we are taking incredibly seriously. I will talk about that in a little bit more in a minute. But ensuring that we are providing support as part of the entire trauma system of the state of Washington. We are there for education. We are there for support and and references and kind of being on a being able to be called 24 seven for questions is very important as a function of a level one. So we can help those other trauma centers in the middle of the state or the east side of the state that don't have the resources and don't have the type of physician support and expertize that we have. We are also resourcing strategic programs. So we are really looking at how much does it cost to ensure that we can continue to provide the mission. And on that cost. What do we need to ensure that we are expanding from a strategic service line perspective? How do we need to grow our neurosurgery footprint in order to serve our behavioral health population or our very vulnerable primary care population? What do we need to grow within our spine surgery footprint? What facilities do we need? Like these areas that we can expand in order to derive revenue that then can be put back into ensuring health disparities are continued to be tackled by Harborview. And then lastly, we have to drive to levels of efficiency to better levels of efficiency. We have to look at length of stay from an internal perspective. What can we, as Harborview, drive differently, do differently, not work harder, work smarter to ensure that we are maximizing our own throughput? These imperatives are something that the board has worked with us on and it has given us as our framework moving forward into the next fiscal year. So something I will be reporting back to the board on my progress and as the other executive leaders progress. Next slide. Look, strategic initiatives. I'm going to end today by talking about four select strategic initiatives that Harborview is working on as part of our board directives and as part of our partnership with entities, with UDV medicine and with the county. First of all, are difficult to discharge. We continue to work with our state partners to work with the health care authority, to work with DHS, to work with the governor's office, on telling the Harborview story, on setting the you know, setting the framework for what's occurring, what the impact have, what the impact is happening because of the lack of post-acute care infrastructure, because of this advocacy and because of our continued voice at these tables, often the voice at the table being the spokesperson for this. Throughout the last year, we have made some improvements to funding from the state for post-acute care services and things like that. But it will not be enough because Harborview continues to serve the most complicated and those will be the hardest to place. So we need to continue our advocacy at the state legislative level for more support for post-acute care services in that continuum of health care that's often forgotten. We also have to have advocacy to ensure that our insurance partners and our Medicaid managed care partners provide the types of payment to our post-acute care providers that allows them to take on the more complicated of the Medicaid populations. They have to be able to support themselves, and they need to have payments that will allow them to support themselves as long term care facilities, adult family homes or skilled nursing facilities. We are also working with the state on a certificate of need application. So as I mentioned earlier, Harborview has had 413 licensed beds since the 1980s. If you think about what's happened to King County since the 1980s, population has grown immensely and the vulnerable population has grown immensely. So Harbor View's mission is a much bigger catchment of who we need to be able to serve. Right now, we are currently asking for about 100 beds that we can designate as licensed beds. These are not new. These are beds. We've we're already using capacity that we have expanded because of the pandemic and because of the census challenges we are facing. We're asking the state to recognize these beds to ensure when the public health emergency ends, we have the ability to continue to collect payment from federal payers for those licensed beds and for that vulnerable care we're providing. We are working incredibly closely with the state on the trauma rulemaking. I spoke a little bit about this last year and this continues to be an issue we are looking at as the state is looking at rethinking how they designate level one, level two, level three trauma centers. Harborview has maintained the sole level one trauma status for many, many years. That is not only important from a financial perspective, it does provide about a third of Harborview is operating revenue a year with a level one degradation. If we did have more than one level one occur in the state, those finances would be eroded because of that. However, more importantly, the reason why Harborview is in the top 10% of all trauma centers in the country from a quality outcome perspective is because our surgeons are critical care providers, our nurses, our therapists, they see the most significant injuries and they see a lot of them. And repetition require repetition and experience produces better outcomes. You start to erode the numbers per surgeon, perhaps the most complex pelvic surgeries they do. The outcome will not be as good and the quality will not be as good. We are at the state level reminding them that the level one trauma status we have and the state of Washington being in the top 10% of trauma outcomes is because of this framework and because of the because of the experience our surgeons and our providers and our staff have every day. We also need to make sure that Harborview Senses is preserved for that role and doesn't continue to be preserved for skilled nursing facility type functions that we're currently experiencing. Lastly, today, I want to touch on a a proposal that has come across to all of your guests, I believe, this morning through an email that was sent to you. That was a letter from me personally. Harborview and UW Medicine would like to ask for approval and consideration from all of you to look at. Harbor view subleasing some space as part of an arrangement to become a long term care pharmacy and to hold a long term care pharmacy license. This would be something different than Harborview has had in the past. Harborview obviously has a pharmacy license that licenses, but we don't hold a long term care pharmacy license. We have always been in partnership with a very key partner named Kelly Ross, who has a very similar mission and population to us. They share very key patients with us, particularly our HIV population, through our Madison Clinic. Kelly Ross started as one of the providers for Bailey Bunkhouse and also our unstable or homeless patients through our DSC partnerships. Kelly Ross has been impacted just like many health care safety net hospitals by federal changes and state changes to 340 B pricing . This is a way for safety net institutions to receive reduced pricing on pharmaceuticals. They are incredibly expensive to be dispensed to the vulnerable population we purchased at a lower price and then the insurance pays at the full price. That money then comes back in and needs to be reused to serve further vulnerable populations, something that Harborview does incredibly well. As many of you know, this has been challenged at the federal level and it has impacted the ability to continue these relationships, particularly with Kelly Ross. Kelly Ross has experienced some very significant impact to their own functioning, and we have concerns around the ability to continue to provide these pharmaceuticals to these long term care patients that so need these these drugs, particularly at our hubs in place and at another DTC location. What we are asking for today is that the county council looks to to allow Harborview to lease two spaces to operate long term pharmacy services, long term care pharmacy services on Eastlake Avenue and in Hobson Place, where Harborview is already operating a primary primary care clinic. This would support Harvard's mission population, including, as I said earlier, our Madison Clinic, HIV population, and many of those unstable or unstable, unhoused or homeless patients that we share with DTC. You'd have Madison acknowledges that these two locations should be covered under the terms of the HSA agreement. We, as you have medicine, look forward to renewing good faith negotiations on issues related to the use of space for Harborview and if necessary, to amend the Hospital Services Agreement to reflect any such use agreements. I wanted to bring this topic forward and see if any of you had any questions around this particular initiative, as it not only serves a very important function from a quality of care and a function to our vulnerable population, but also as a way for Harborview to continue to help meet our financial bottom line. I'm going to pause there and see if anybody has any questions. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. CEO Wally and I appreciate this very fine presentation that you provided. I think I suggest that you advance one slide which has to do with the license sale to pharmacy. Oh, my apologies. Thank you. I looked ahead. And do we have any questions at this point? And what's been covered? Yes. Councilmember McDermott, please go right ahead. Thank you, Chair Colwell, and thank you. Salmon to Harborview. Following the work you continue to do in the community and serving as the community's hospital. We benefit from the partnership you have and we have with you dove medicine. But on this particular point, you were just making about leases in the hospital services agreement. Leases for the pharmacy some place and such will serve a long term value. But I think there's a as you speak to I think there is a long term value to having a procedure in place and understanding about how to handle long term leases rather than one off legislation with the county council each time that might be happening. And so would I don't know that I really have a question I want to underscore. The point you were making that you're ready to earnestly reengage in negotiations and conversation with the county about a proper procedure for long term leases, including possible amending the HSA. And I just want to. As one council member and to publicly speak up and acknowledge my commitment to doing that in support for the county to engage with you just as strongly in having a long term understanding about how to do this best. You absolutely have my commitment and that of senior leadership that you have medicine to bring you in good faith negotiations around this leasing conversation and possibly amending the HSA because of it. So absolutely. Thank you. Thank you much. Appreciate it. And thank you for the question. Councilmember McDermott, are there any other questions that I should before we go? I have a question is are we going to hear from Stephanie Fein and Leslie Harper, my ass, as well? Yes. Yes. We were going to pivot Chair Caldwell's from this presentation and any questions you have for me straight into an update for Leslie Harper and Miles and then to Stephanie and Stephanie will close today. Okay. Thank you. Before we go ahead, Councilmember Dombroski has a question that I would like to emphasize that we are really short on time now. So I'm hoping to wrap up the present, the remaining presentations and any questions and discussion in the next 15 minutes max. Zach, what I after. Dombrowski Thank you. There's almost there's almost an implication that there's a lawyer and a politician who's been given a mic. Yes, I'm sorry. But this is an important. It is a very important topic. And I would like to try so that we are able to bring back Harborview for an additional view that's in discussion. First, a thought. Thank you very much for the presentation. It's very interesting. And obviously, Harborview is one of the pride and joys of King County. And Councilman McDermott and I were really proud to work over the last a few years leading up to that bond measure and summer, you talked about partnerships. One of the kind of dialogs, if not an understanding during the work leading up to the $1.74 billion bond measure was the importance to King County of Harbor View's ongoing annual $5, $5 million commitment to our public health department. And I see that there's a significant emphasis in your recent correspondence and your presentation today on costs and the challenges that you face. And I understand those are real. It's my hope that the medical center will continue to treat that $5 million as a not a cost, but a partnership investment, because it really does help our health department out. I believe it leads to a lot of preventative work. So folks are not showing up at the expensive care in the emergency department and elsewhere and we just really value that. It has been invaluable in terms of having a stable and financially healthy public health department here in King County. And I think I want to take a moment to emphasize the importance of that to me and the history of that. The other question I have for you is related to abortion care and reproductive health care. The United States Supreme Court, I think, as we all know, is going to be ruling soon on the Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization case. And because of a leaked opinion, there's great speculation that it will sharply curtail the access to abortion care for women around the country. And there is an expectation that because of Washington or protective laws that we could see folks coming here. I know that the abortion services provided directly by Harbor View are somewhat limited, except there is more care for complex cases which I think we could see Chair Caldwell's a surge in those as states really eliminate access to to the service and this care across the spectrum. I'm wondering if there is work going on at Harborview. This is my question to prepare for this for folks here in Washington. But maybe even more importantly, who might come to Washington seeking this care? What strategies you're deploying, what communications you're preparing to be able to respond to what I think is going to be, frankly, a significant crisis. Thank you for the for the question, Councilmember. I'll address the first one. First around, the 5 million for the hospital services agreement, that is definitely a decision. And both at the board of trustees for Harborview takes in late fall, early winter. So we will follow that process for sure. Secondly, around your questions around abortion, one of the benefits that Harbor View has of being part of the UW medicine system is. The. Systematic way that we approach service line robust care. So we have a very robust women's health service line as part of UTEP Medicine, of which Harborview holds a women's clinic that is very focused on vulnerable populations and immigrant populations. And that's really our area of specialty of which we do provide abortion care. However, this type of approach is something we will take as a system and really look at what is our capacity for this care and where best to serve individuals, particularly if those needs continued, if those needs are surge from other states, or if we start to see more access issues. Currently we don't have access issues, but that would be something we would look at as a system in that Harborview would be at the table discussing and really ensuring that we didn't have any equity, health disparity issues around any of those choices or any of those decisions around access to care. Thank you very much. And if I think we or our Board of Health still serve as an alternate could be helpful in doing some preparatory work. I would be interested and I know a number of my colleagues would. Thank you. Chair. Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully that was quick enough. Thank you very much. I think it was a very germane and important question. Are there any other questions, Councilmember Sala, you had indicated? Do you have would. Thank you, Chair Caldwell's and thank you so much for your leadership. Can you talk to us about the mechanisms by which harbor view or medicine are able to advocate for better policies upstream? I know that as a state funded entity, you probably have limitations on how you can advocate for specific, you know, ballot measures or specific pending legislation. But as a general matter, are you able to take these issues to the state and to other levels of government and say, hey, you're really screwing us over here? Because when you say things like we have the highest length of stay in the country, that's not surprising at all. That seems like a policy decision because we also have the lowest number of housing units per capita anywhere in the country. So it makes complete sense. It's obvious it's a policy decision, but to what extent and how are you able to communicate this? Because you're dealing with the consequences of policy failure upstream in your voice as harbor view is very important and compelling. But how are you able to take the problems that you're experiencing and say we need better policies upstream? You know, that's a really good question, Councilmember, and something that our government relations director and senior leadership is working very closely with me on. You are correct that Harvard, whose voice is incredibly important and significant at the state policy level for these conversations. I have been in many, many conversations, whether it's through our own advocacy or whether it's being part of the Washington State Hospital Association efforts. We have been at the table over the last nine months, and I have been the voice of this complex problem. I see our role as describing the impact to health care and to the patients and to the community of Washington state. Painting the story, bringing the policymakers here, which is what we've done, touring them, letting them see the impact of the policies or lack of policies on the ability to to produce and deliver on ensuring good health care for the citizens of Washington. So I see Harborview as role and my own personal role as being that that individual who's out there telling the story and ensuring that we don't stay silent and stay quiet and endure the problem, but that we are out there sharing what the impact is and what the consequences to the decisions or lack of decisions that are. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions, Councilmember Baldridge? Thank you. I had the opportunity to hear this part of this briefing at our case, an NGO. Anyway, we did it recently in a different committee, so it's been really good to have an in-depth update on what's going on at Harborview. They're such a critically important institution and partner to King County within our county. And so I always appreciate the time and effort that goes into bringing us up to speed on some of the many very important things that are happening at Harborview, sort of relevant to County Council business. And mindful of the comments in question from Councilmember McDermott, we do have this letter that we received this morning asking us to consider approving this new pharmacy arrangement. And we'll have to work through our intergovernmental affairs folks to figure out what the process is that we can use in order to respond, because it does kind of ask us for a decision and decisions have to happen in open public meetings when this body makes them. So we'll all we'll follow up on that. But I do want to just share that this issue of managing leash leases has implications, obviously, for you of medicine and your ability to to provide services, but also for the county. And I think it's going to be very important for us to take you up on your your really constructive approach of reopening a good faith negotiation so that we're all clear about who does what and what are the procedures. So that so that frees you all up to do what you need to do while making sure that we're also looking out for the interest of the county at the same time. So thank you very much and to you and to Madeleine Grant for working with our staff on that love letter and for the work to come . We really I'm confident well, we'll come to some good place that enables this because we've had such a longstanding, fruitful and successful partnership between Harborview and King County that I know that. I know. I know that we'll get there on this. It's a bump in the road, it seems to me. But thank you for for addressing it with us. Thank you so much for your support. Important words from our council chair. Okay. Are there any other questions of my colleagues? Okay. With that? And again, because we are running very short on time, we do have a proposed ordinance to take up for action. And we also have the reappointment of our director of the Department of Public Defense. And I don't want to shortchange that at all. I am feeling very confident we will be having our main meeting continue until noon. I just want to give a warning to my colleagues on that. And and I'm wondering if I oh, let me put it this way, Summer. How long do you anticipate do you anticipate the remaining two presentations to take? I would say 10 minutes total. Mm hmm. Okay. Let's go ahead with that. And Leslie Harper, miles from the capital bond program as director, will go first. And lastly, I think we really will be wanting to have you back again so we can explore what's going on with planning and construction, etc., with the approval by the voters of the bond. But if you could give us a very, very brief overview. Please go right ahead. Yes, thank you, Councilmember. I will be very brief. I'd like to thank you. For inviting me to this. Meeting. And I also like to thank Summer and Stephanie for including me in their presentation. We have formed a really strong partnership with Harborview as we move forward with the bond program. So that said, I'm going to move very quickly to the next slide. That's just going to remind everybody of project goals that we have on the bond program. It's really to establish a new tower to meet some of the needs for a capacity that some are talked about earlier. The hallmark of the new tower will be 360 new single patient rooms, expanded emergency department, observation unit and operating labs. In addition to that, our goals will be to expand behavioral health services on the campus, and we'll be expanding hospital space around a renovation in backfill areas. We're also going to renovate Harborview Hall, targeted for respite beds, but we're considering other options as well. And the center tower is slated for renovation under. Band as well as Pioneer Square. And at the end, we we hope to demolish the East Clinic. Next slide, please. We are here. Basically the past 24 to 24 months since the bonds were passed. And we've been focused on establishing the foundation elements. To support the multiple. Phases of design and construction that are expected to extend over the next 8 to 10 years. We spent all of last year basically hiring staff and establishing our structure, creating partnerships, getting our legal framework and legislative approvals through the Council. And so this year we are working on a project phasing, really evaluating. Where all. How the projects are going to come together and how the financing will be aligned with that project effort. Next slide, please. Our key milestones for 2022, as I said, are phasing and sequencing plans that prioritize the various projects based on hospital needs and construction, logistics, operational impacts, regulatory approvals and staff and community impacts. We're also developing project delivery plans and financial plans that coordinate with the design and construction phasing. We are developing pre-designed elements that address infrastructure upgrades and address sustainability goals. And we're developing space programs in alignment with Harborview in preparation for our design phase. We're developing interim parking strategies. As you may know, when we tear down the V Park garage, we'll lose about 350 parking stalls. So we're developing strategies with Harborview on how to replace those or those defined freeways and places where people can park or expanding our public transportation access. We're also convening project stakeholder groups and conducting community engagement and small business outreach. And finally, we're working with the City of Seattle on regulatory requirements, primarily the major institutions masterplan, which. Governs all the. Work on the hospital, will be a big focus of ours this year. Next slide. So we actually do present a report to the council twice a year in December and June. So one will be coming this June. And if there's any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I listed our website. I as I said, I'm the Harborview Pilot program director and I look forward to coming to talk to you again and giving you a more detailed information. Thank you very much. I appreciate your doing this so expeditiously. And I believe this constitutes the June required report and the next time we hear from you officially will be in December, is that correct? Well, we actually submit a written report. We believe we're receiving a written report from from the executive office by the end of June. Thank you very much. And we'll work with you on having you back at another time so we can get more in-depth information. And I'm sure there are many questions that we will have for you. Thank you for speaking with us today. And next, let's hear in conclusion from Stephanie Fain from the board. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you for having me. My name is Stephanie. Thane, and I am in my second year as president of the board of Trustees. The board has been very busy since my last report to the committee, but I will try to keep my update brief in light of the time. As you heard from summer, the board has been doing heavy lifting this year by working with Harborview and its leadership to evaluate Harborview programs so that we can ensure that Harborview is able to embrace all of the opportunities raised by the passage of the 2020 bond. While maintaining. Financial. Viability and. Effectively serving our mission population. The Board is also exploring potential ways of engaging philanthropy to support clinical programs. We've put together a fundraising plan leadership work group, which includes Harborview trustees and leadership, as well as medicine advancement, to provide guidance in the planning and implementation of strategies to elevate fundraising outcomes for Harborview and create an effective, comprehensive plan to build the level of institutional participation and culture necessary for sustainable success in philanthropy. Finally, the Board will be holding its first retreat in three years to focus on board assessment. Trustee, self. Assessment and succession planning issues. That retreat is scheduled for next month. Among other things, we hope. To develop a list. Of. Skill sets for future board members that will be useful for you to consider as you look to appoint new trustees. Please feel free to reach out to your appointed board members or to me directly any time if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you again for your ongoing support, a part of you. Thank you very much. President Fain and I have already had a meeting with the individual board member for my district. I really appreciated that and I think that's happening with all of our council members and their respective board members. I really appreciate you all being here today. Harborview is a crown jewel of King County, and so it's widely respected across the country, from what I understand. And we're very fortunate indeed to have you of in the county with us. So unless certainly burning questions, I'd like to move on now and we will look forward to having another presentation on the bond and at a later date. Okay. With that, we will now move to agenda item number seven. The staff report begins on page 38, and this is a proposed ordinance on a King County charter change to move elections for certain county offices from odd number two, even number years. We did have a briefing on this already at our June 1st meeting, and we have Sherri Su from our central staff to provide the second briefing , an abbreviated briefing. And I was glad to see you with us today, Sherri. We also have from the county Department of Elections Julie Wise and Kendall Hudson, who were with us at our last briefing. And they will be available to answer questions as well with that. Go right ahead, please. Thank you, Chair Colwell and good morning, council members. Sherri, through a council staff and the materials begin on page 38 of your packet proposed ordinance 2020 20180 would place on the November 2022 ballot a charter amendment proposal to move elections for county executive, county assessor, county elections director and county council members from odd to even years. This proposed ordinance was briefed in committee on June 1st, so in the interest of time, I will skip the background and just focus on those areas where there were questions in the previous meeting and present the new information. I'm also happy to answer any questions on the staff report. I'll just begin with a quick reminder of the proposed changes, and this is on page 42 and table two. For the county executive and council members from districts one, three, five, seven and nine. These are most recently elected in 2021 for a four year term, ending 2025 under the proposed charter amendment. The next term would change to a three year term, and after that terms would be four years for the county assessor, elections director and council members from districts two, four, six and eight. These are most recently elected in 2019 for a four year term ending 2023 under the proposed charter amendment. The next term would be a three year term, and after that terms would again be four years. Moving on to the cost considerations on page 43. From an operational perspective, election staff indicate that moving county officer elections from odd to even years would not directly result in operational changes or cost to the department. And moving on now to the the discussion of the allocation of election costs among the county, state and local jurisdictions at a high level elections department administers elections and then divides up that cost proportionally to the state, the county and local jurisdictions that appear on a given ballot. We looked at the potential fiscal impact if past county officer elections had been held in even years instead of odd years. This is shown in table four on page 45. The summary of this whole table is that since 29, since 2009, there are three instances where the county cost would have decreased. Two instances where the county cost would have increased, and in most cases there would be no impact. We did go through this in detail at the last briefing, so I'll skip that. But if there are any questions, I'm happy to walk through it again. I'm jumping now to the potential policy considerations on page 46. The first one listed here is voter turnout. The chart on page 46 summarizes voter turnout for general elections in the county over the last 20 years. Since 2010, the county's average voter turnout rate is 77% and even years and 47% in odd years. If past trends hold moving county officer elections from odd to even. Errors will likely result in higher voter turnout for these elections. Whether council wants to increase voter turnout for the election of these county officers is a policy decision for the council. There was a question in the previous briefing about how this change might impact turnout for local jurisdictions in odd years based on turnout in other counties. Data does not suggest that holding county officer elections in even years instead of odd years would impact on year turnout. On page 48, Table five compares the voter turnout in the seven home rural charter counties during 2021. So three of these counties elected county officers that year. Four of these counties did not elect county officers that year. And based on this data, there is no clear trend distinguishing voter turnout between these two groups. The second path exaggeration is the number of races on the ballot. Moving these county officer elections to even years would increase the number of races on even your ballots and reduce the number on odd year ballots. In terms of the specific number of races that would be moved, the number of ballot items could increase or decrease by two or three. In the previous briefing, there was a request for some sample ballots, and election staff have put together some sample ballots that show possibilities of what past ballots would have looked like with county officer elections held in even years instead of odd years. So there are four years of ballots 2018, 20, 19, 2020 and 2021. Just to orient you to those materials for each year there. There are original and revised ballots, and there are both primary and general elections. These sample ballots assume that the 2019 county officer elections were instead held the year before in 2018, and they assume that the 2021 county officer elections were instead held in 2020. There are multiple versions of each ballot and just to show different examples and the sample ballots also show the order of ballot races. There is also a question about what response rates for county officer races might look like in even years. So the staff report now includes Pierce County's response rate during a recent even year elections. This is on page 49. Pierce County is the home rule Charter County and Neighbor County that holds county officer elections in even years. If King County moved county officer elections to even years, then Pierce and King County would have similar ballot sequences. So Pierce County offers one example of how response rates are at the top of the ballot and may compare with response rates for a county officer. Elections in 2020. The first county item was a referendum with a response rate of 82%. The turnout for a county officer positions was 82% for county executive, 82% for a county assessor, and 85, 80, 81 and 76% for a county council position in 2018, which is a non-presidential election year. The first county wide item was an initiative with a turnout of 66%, and turnout for county council positions was 67, 60 and 77%. The third party consideration listed on the staff report is alignment with federal and state elections. Moving county officer elections to even years would align the election schedule of these county officers with federal and state elections. And whether council desires to do this is a policy decision for the Council just to close timing. This is our second briefing in this committee to place this potential charter amendment on the November ballot. The last regular council meeting to adopt as a non-emergency would be July 19th. I'm happy to take your questions at this time. And we. We have election staff joining us as well. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the very thorough presentation. And I'm wondering if there are any questions of our staff here or of Julie Wise, Director, Wise of Department of Elections or Chief of Staff? Hudson from the Department of Elections. But I have a quick question. Go right ahead. Councilmember Dan. Quick. So the way the election sequence is lined up, will you, the county executive, be up on presidential years or in the mid term you. Thank you for the question. Let me just double check that really quick. The county executive, is there current and term ends in 2025? The next term under the proposed election cycle, under the proposed amendment that would end in 2028 and would be aligned with the presidential election. Actually, the county executive would be aligned with the presidential election and the four council seats with a presidential election, and then the odd year boundaries would be midterms. So. Right. Yes, that's correct. Thank you. Thank you. And I actually would like to turn to Councilmember Bell duty at this point. And we again, we still have our elections officials with us. But I'd like to give Councilmember Bell, did she, the lead sponsor, an opportunity to speak on this? Thank you, Chair Carl Wells. I'd be happy to make a motion since this is our second briefing. If you think that is timely. That's fine. I would move that. We move proposed ordinance 2020 20810 to the full council with a DE Pass recommendation. Thank you. So that motion has been made. And would you like to speak to at this time, or do you have any questions of election staff? I'd be happy to speak to it. I'll try to make it really brief. I'm encouraging your support today to move this item forward so that we can stick to the timelines, to put this on the ballot and ask the voters to have their say about whether they want to move our county elected officials to even year elections . Colleagues, you know, we have been a leader in making elections accurate, fair and accessible to as many voters as possible. We are rightly proud here of our county's leadership on making voting accessible to all with successful vote by mail elections for many years before it became statewide, widely available ballot boxes which we funded in communities throughout King County so people can drop off their ballots easily. We've funded initiatives to educate and involve many more new voters, and we led the way on prepaid postage for ballots, which, again, all of these initiatives were supported by this council and have expanded access to voting. We understand that access to voting is critically important. Our government is the most representative and is to say the most democratic. When the people elected to represent the voters are sent by as many of the people as we represent as possible. And as we've heard, the. Data shows that voter turnout during even. Year elections is dramatically higher than outyear elections, meaning many more voters will have a voice in who represents them in these key offices that we that we occupy. You heard some of the numbers. I won't repeat them, but I will say that by moving to even year elections, I just want to stress what we heard from some of this really compelling testimony earlier today. Not just a higher number of voters would participate, but an electorate that is far more representative of our public at large, including more people of color, more and younger voters, more renters, more people of lower income and with less wealth. The flip side of that is currently these positions are elected very disproportionately by, you know, a very. Limited demographic that is. Dominated by wealthy, older voters. Those voters get to have a say, but everybody should have a say. We should have all of our voters, as many of them as possible, engaged in selecting their representatives. I think I'll just close by saying we've been briefed, we've had an opportunity to have questions answered. There's still more time today and a final council if there are further questions. But let's send this to the voters this year so that they can have their say. And if they agree that this is a very important and simple fix that will really expand access to voting, then we can be moving towards those years when it will actually be implemented. Because as you heard, the proposal is we get our first even year elections like three years out from next year. So let's get this going. I urge your support. Thank you, Chairman Wilson. Thank you. Council Member Baldacci. At this point, we still have our election officials with us. We are short on time. But I would like to hear if any of our council members have further questions or comments. At the Grove. Councilmember at the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. And this was probably explained, and I just just missed it. But could staff explain one more time how we transition to that odd year? What does it mean? This is a selfish question, perhaps as someone who's in office. The next time, for example, I'm up on the ballot. Using just me as an example is an odd numbered year. I assume nothing changes about the current term in District five. Is the next person elected for three years or for five years? Is it three? Three? Okay. Sir, I'm I'm happy to clarify that. So nothing changes with the current term and then the next term would be three years instead of four. And that would move every move to the even schedule. Thanks. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Councilmember Campbell. Thanks. The corollary to that is for seats that are up in 2023. Are they going to be three year terms? Yes. So this change would be happening to all the positions. Some of those would happen in 2023. Some would happen in 2025, depending on when that position is up. The next term would be three for all of these, and then after that, they would all be four years again. Got you. And in the last briefing we had, which was the first briefing, I had asked about the impact of the costs to run these campaigns. Was staff able to make any estimates because of the the need to talk to more voters, which is a good thing, what the cost might be to run for county executive elections director, assessor County Council. We did not look into the question of campaign costs. That would be more of a political question. I think. We. Would, director wise, like to comment on that. I don't know if she or others would know that in terms of projection in the future. Go right ahead. Thank you for joining us. Good morning. Councilmembers. I think Councilmember Dombroski for the question. I, too, would pretend to know the answer to that question. I know that in talking about this initiative. That there's been conversations around the impacts to running campaigns. But I think that's a little bit outside of my purview, to be honest with you. Thank you. I think. Know. Just I this is my biggest. I really love the increased turnout and the greater diversity of the electorate. It's more representative of the county, so more people are participating. But having done some work in this space, the the ability to run with I'm looking at a colleague here I think in the race are indeed three. It may have cost over $350,000 on one side or another. And it's just over $650,000 spent just by the campaigns alone, independent expenditures. And I don't think that's purely political. I think that's the policy there, particularly when we look at public financing, which is county used to have. And so who gets to reasonably be on the ballot, which is one of the goals of this, to have a more have a representative council. So often politics, sadly, in America is driven by money. And when we are and I think elections and even yours, it's fair to say, because where we would be or people running would be talking to more voters, it would cost more. And that can be a barrier. So I'm I've been interested in kind of a package of explaining a package of reforms, democracy reforms, including public financing, the interest in ranked choice voting shift to even year elections would be part of that. I, i, I really appreciate where this proposal is coming from and the goal that it would have, which is an important one of having more people participate. But I do think there are collateral issues that are that arise, the big one being the dollars. And I mean what I county executives raised cost $3 million $4 million that could in a presidential year when you're trying to buy TV, that's a real issue that I think we haven't talked about and I have asked and and dialog on. But that's a concern for me. Thank you, Councilmember DEMBOSKY. And I could look at it from another perspective that there's only so much money out there, and it may be that it would not cause more, given that there are a lot more, there would be a lot more campaigns going on, but we don't know. That, of course, could come out during the campaign for on this ballot measure very quickly. Council Member Perry. And then I'd like to turn to a councilmember done. And then Councilmember Bell, did she do close? Thank you. I really love competition and want to be the best district. I believe steel sharpens steel. And I believe competing for space in imaginative, innovative and interesting ways to have a vote is is what we're based on. And if that results in more people participating, then that to me is a win all the way around. And it's a huge and important and very positive challenge to each of us. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the bill being brought up for consideration. I just want to let folks, I really strongly oppose this particular piece of legislation. Just because there's a higher percentage of people filling in the oval, does it mean that there's a more informed electorate? When you buried King County Council and Council executive races, the second largest government, the state of Washington, underneath the presidential race, the United States Senate race, ten congressional races, seven statewide races and others. What you do is you lose sight of the local issues that impact people the most instead of the federal issues. And the passion for the federal elections. Gobble up all the time. People need to be talking about Seattle. What is the highest homeless population per capita of any city in the United States, or the dramatic, historic rise in murders and shootings in and around King County and transportation and traffic and land use problems? That's not the kind of thing they are focused on. When presidents are running and US senators are running and congresspeople and governors are, these issues will be buried and seldom talked about unless federal candidates decide to talk about it. And so just because more bubbles are being filled in doesn't mean you have a more educated electorate on local issues. The odd year elections historically have always given us a chance to focus on local issues, given a chance for the editorial boards to focus on local issues, to talk about the things that matter, most of them very well. And so varying these in under these major federal races is a mistake. Also, those of you I ran for attorney general back in 2012 against our good friend Bob Ferguson. And I will tell you, the media is incredibly expensive when you've got a presidential race buying up all the time, even a Senate race buying up all the time, and congressional races, seven statewide risks, including the governor and the attorney general. And so there will be in the literally the price of getting ads out is far more expensive because there are less time slots available for that. And so what this will mean is it is an incumbent protection policy for incumbent members of the King County Council and an incumbent county executive. Nobody who has limited name ideas that get known in any significant way. If if we have a situation where these races are buried underneath the federal races. And so I would strongly encourage people to understand the cost factor. It will be impossible for some local town council members to go after a well-known community councilmember or county executive. So that's a big it's an incumbent protection plan. It's an education plan on local issues. And there are a lot of other reasons why this is bad. I guess I would say if it isn't broken, don't fix it. You might say, well, we get more of increased participation. Remember, we spent a lot of money the taxpayers have on putting ballot boxes all throughout the community. But you have a voter education program printing a ballot. And just about every language we can, we now pay for the ballots sent. We even now pay for the return postage. It's not fair to put those individuals who are trying to study local issues at a disadvantage themselves, because all these issues are now buried under the presidential presence. So I think it's a significant mistake in this county to go in the direction of having your elections buried under these big federal issues. I also think you're going to dramatically hurt the media, the media around here as a small business, those local publications, those local papers, those local TV and radio stations, the bigger newspapers, they all receive substantial revenue in those off years. For candidates running for office by county council, race alone is over $800,000. You know, a lot of that went to local media. They want they want the street drought those off years that I also think is insensitive to that small business said I'm going to oppose this. I hope we can do something different. I appreciate the intense spirit which you brought up, but I think it's a mistake to totally hide local issues and protect incumbents. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilman. Every time I would like to turn this over to Councilmember Bell, do try to close, but I would like to say one thing. Just make sure everybody knows. Not every voter at all has to follow ten congressional races, either it would be one and so forth. And so anyway. And I think that the county races would be above the judicial races, at least we heard that last week. Jenny is shaking her head. Yes. With that. Councilmember Bell, do try to close. Thank you so much. Chair Caldwell's I will say that since. Since surfacing this proposal, the the case for doing it has been extraordinarily compelling. It's based on data, it's based on research. It's based on what we know about what. Works to get more voters participating in selecting their elected representatives. The opposing arguments have been almost entirely based on partizanship, based on the idea that one side or the other would be disadvantaged by more people voting. And I have to say, if more people voting is bad for your for your candidacy, then, you know, the voters should have a say. The voters the voters should get to pick who they want to represent them. And suppression is never the right approach to winning to winning an election. The other group of opposition arguments have come from campaign insiders, people who are concerned about what does this mean for me running a campaign or people who in other ways make their money or or get their offices out of running campaigns? Campaigns will adjust. We will figure it out. We will figure out how to get our message out to voters. I sit here as somebody who was elected having been outspent. When you count independent expenditures and direct candidate funding by almost 3 to 1, and I was able to win because I did what campaigns do. I adjusted. I campaigned as will others with a lot of other with a lot of volunteers, with phone calling, with the old fashioned methods. And we still were able, with the money that we raised, to do a fair amount of media. I am not concerned that campaigns will not get their votes out when I get their messages out. I'm sorry, and I'll say what I said before. I think that we overestimate what most voters do in an odd number of years in order to learn about the issues. I think people read their newspapers, look at their voters guides. They might collect some of those mailers that pile up on the kitchen table. And when the time comes, they pull out whatever their favorite information sources are. And they look at the ballot and they ask friends and family and they fill in the ballots and they fill in the boxes, the little the little bubbles, as you said. And they do it based on the information that is available to them from their their preferred sources of information. And people will still do that in even numbered years. I don't think you will see a tremendous drop off in the level of education or knowledge of the voters from odd years to even years. So. I haven't heard any compelling arguments not to do this. I don't know why we didn't do it before. And I just want to end by saying we are by far not going to be like on the cutting edge as counties go. Most counties in Washington state. Elect their elect their. County council members, executives and other county officers in even years. Pierce County does it to the south and they're just fine and we're just fine. And so I really encourage us to move this forward to the council and then at council to move it forward to the voters to make the appointments. Thank you, colleagues. Thank you very much. Council member Dale, did she with the clerk? Please call the roll. Thank you. Chair Powell's Council Member Bell Duty II. Council Member DEMBOSKY, I. Council Member Dunn. No. Council Member. McDermott. All right. Councilmember Perry, i. Council member of the grove. I. Councilmember upon Jack Bauer. Council members only. I. No. Thank you. Charcoals. I The boat is seven eyes, two nose. Those being council members. Dunn and Von Right Bower. Thank you. And with our vote, we have approved proposed ordinance 2022 zero one's eight zero. And we will send this ordinance with the due pass recommendation for the consent agenda. No, we cannot send it to the consent agenda to the regular agenda for the June 28th Council meeting. Our next item is proposed motion 2020 20174 approving the executive's reappointment of Anita Khandelwal as county public defender in the staff report begins on page 23, Jenny Champion G. Battista will be providing a very short, abbreviated report because this is the second time that she will be doing so. We do have with us our, I believe, our appointee, a deputy excuse me, Department of Public Defense Director Anita Condor. Well, we also have members from the executive staff, I believe Deputy Executive April Putney would like to speak. We also have Chief of Staff Shannon Braddock and Meena Shima, the director of Council Relations. And I don't know if I've missed anybody else. And I first of all, I'd like to apologize. We never know how many people are going to be up in public comments. So that that went on for quite a lengthy period of time. And I would like to have as much time as we need for this very important appointment. We unfortunately were not able to schedule this at our last meeting on June 1st. We had reshuffled our schedule from May 18th when we first had Director Condo well before us. And we just we get really pushed up against the wall in this committee. But with that, I'd appreciate if director condo wall and whoever is coming with her to the rostrum, to the desk near the witness table. And I. Please go right ahead. Jenny Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair. And members of the committee. Jenny Giambattista Counsel Staff. This item begins on page 26 of the packet. The motion would confirm the reappointment of director Condo Wahl as King County public defender. There is a technical amendment on page 28 of your packet, and the technical amendment simply adds an expiration date for the public defender's term. And that is done for clarity and consistency with the King County Code. Madam Chair, that concludes my staff report. I'm happy to answer any questions the committee may have. Thank you so much. And are there any questions? I do not see any. And I would like to say we did receive a letter of a very a letter, a very strong support from the members of the pub, the Public Defense Advisory Board. And that has been distributed to all of our consul committee members. So with that, I'm not sure which order you would like to go in. I will leave that up to you all. And and welcome. Thank you for being with us. Good chair calls. Would you like to remove your mask? You cannot. You cannot. Which can certainly do so. So you can better hear me. April Putney, deputy executive for the county. I want to thank you for taking the time today to hear this confirmation. Strongly urge you to vote yes and to re appoint a director con dual. And I am also appreciative that it's clear that the Council is saving the best item for last today. So I appreciate that. As you know, the Department of Public Defense was created by charter amendments in 2013. So I also appreciated the opportunity to listen to the Council discuss another charter amendment today. That charter amendment, passed by voters in 2013 really enshrined the department's role, as well as the defender, the public defender's role itself as two primary areas, providing legal defense to any person charged with a crime who is unable to afford an attorney, as well as empowering the office to be responsible for fostering and promoting system improvements, efficiencies , access to justice and equity in the criminal justice system. I think that that is a great description of the role of DPD, the work that Anita has been doing since she has been our director since 2018. And I know that the council and public more broadly is probably most aware of the work that Director Cardwell has been doing and her department has been doing in the sort of advocacy advocacy space or in their legal victories. I also want to sit here and let you know that she is one of our strongest directors that we have leading our departments who's really working on a daily basis to really engage in workforce planning, working through issues within her department of some 400 employees. And we strongly commend her to you today. Thank you very much. Deputy Executive Patni. And greetings, Director Cardwell. Welcome here. And I would like to say right at the start, again, I apologize that we've had to delay this. So for one of our meetings and appreciate that you have an exceptionally strong background and experience, eminently qualified for this position. We'd like to hear from you. This will be the second time that you've spoken before us, and we will have some questions for you as well. Thank you. Please go right ahead. Thank you so much, Councilmember Wells, and to all the council members for allowing me to be here today. I want to very briefly just echo the deputy executive comments on the charter. I think in creating the charter in the way that you did and enshrining the principles from the American Bar Association, you really set a very solid foundation on which from which the department benefits. And I think the department is in so many ways flourishing and thriving, even as they're incredibly challenged by the pandemic, by by recruitment challenges and some of the challenges facing all of the executive departments right now. I want to briefly reflect on the past few years and first year that I'm deeply inspired by the individuals who choose to work at DPD and by the clients that we serve. Our staff choose to and have the privilege of standing with our clients in the face of a system that often fails to see their humanity. And they do so with great skill and with great care, and they've done so through a raging pandemic. And while the courts and prosecutors have appeared in remote settings in order to ensure their own safety, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients. We appear in the jail courtrooms with our clients. In fact, I do that work now. I do it monthly, previously weekly, both to ensure that the environment was safe for our staff and also to show to our staff that I would not ask them to take risks with themselves, that I would not take myself. Again, I'm very fortunate to get to work alongside the staff who care so much for their clients. Given the challenges in recruiting, our staff are both stressed and stressed and even then they continue to provide a very high quality of representation to our clients. In the face of the pandemic. We've also had to be really creative in how we provide representation. And I want to provide a few examples where we've managed to find ways of doing things differently that are responsive to the pandemic, but also actually have increased the quality of our representation. So for example, we obtained a grant from the Commerce Department to provide cell phones to our clients so that they could remain in better communication with us and we could remind them of court dates. We could help help them make decisions about their cases. We then worked with the aged so that DJT was able to put the phones on our clients properties. Those people were being released from jail. They were walking out of the jail with a cell phone in hand, and that cell phone enabled them again to connect with us and to make sure that their cases were proceeding. I'm really grateful to the RJD for their collaboration on that. On that issue, there's often challenges like that, that collaboration, I think, particularly generous. We've worked with the prosecuting attorney's office to find ways of completing paperwork electronically and finding ways to keep our clients out of the courthouse and courtrooms when their presence was not critical to a specific hearing in juvenile court. We worked with the prosecutor and other partners to quash many outstanding juvenile court warrants. We strengthen the screen and release protocols in order to help keep the population of the detention center down again, thereby keeping staff and the young people safer. Turning away from the pandemic for a moment, I'm incredibly proud of the work we did after the Supreme Court's decision on State V Blake, which vacated drug or which held the drug possession statute unconstitutional. We promptly identified individuals who are in prison, who are clients of King County, who are in prison on King County cases, and who would be eligible for release. We quickly assigned them lawyers and our lawyers expeditiously got them released from prison. And we we did that work very quickly, efficiently. And it was it was intense work. And I'm really grateful to our lawyers who were able to get our clients out of prison and able to start their lives again. I think I could spend a fair amount of time sort of waxing eloquent on the excellent work of the Department of the last few years. But I know that counsel has questions for me, so I will pause there and take any questions. Thank you very much for providing us those remarks. Director While and as I mentioned, I believe that our last meeting with you, I don't know how you sleep at night with all that you've got to manage and take care of. And you admitted that you don't. And I said I don't either. You really and 400 employees an enormous responsibility. So I really appreciate all that you've been doing. And I'm going to ask a couple of questions and I'd like to turn it over to my colleagues to see if we have any other questions. First of all, we know that there's an enormous backlog of cases waiting to be resolved and taken to trial. What do you think are the best ways to address this backlog backlog without overloading individual case loads? It's a really challenging question that I think DPD and the prosecuting attorney's office and also the court are all struggling with. So if I if it had an easy answer, I think we would all know it already. One easy answer would be recruit, right? We should all be hiring more and in order to help move these cases. But the labor market is not friendly to recruitment and I think transparently, as a practical matter, this is a moment for us to think about whether there are whether there are alternative responses to some of the cases that are in the system that are clogging the clogging the court system, see if we can pull them out, see if there are other ways to make victims whole, see if there are other forms of accountability that are not court based, because it's hard to imagine how we're going to push all of these cases through. Given the challenges of the labor market. And we've heard that in some other offices and departments, too, that that turnover and inadequate levels of staff and are very much interfering with how the department can function properly. And in this case, so importantly, I represent the poor and indigent clients. Have you? But I've also heard that with COVID there there's been an issue with the drain on institutional knowledge. And I, as I understand, with the defender's office, that can be really important that you've got more experienced attorneys, less experienced attorneys, which ones can go to represent their clients and at trial. And so when you get new hires and we hope that there won't be a problem. At some point, what are what are your efforts to address that? Institutional traps inadequacy. So transparently, historically, we have been unwilling to let new attorneys try felony cases until they've done sometimes 8 to 10 misdemeanor cases first. And in this new world where recruiting is hard and there are so many cases, we're trying to be more open minded about how else we can get client health, we can get attorneys trained up . It's one of the things that we're looking at more is a model that that used in other public defender offices of trying cases and for assigning a new attorney, an attorney who doesn't have those 8 to 10 misdemeanor trials under their belt, but still going to trial on a felony case under the supervision of an experienced attorney . But to try to get them the experience that way, because it is so much harder to get those 8 to 10 misdemeanor trials. Now, this is something that PDS, which is Washington, D.C., is a public defender's office does. And that office is one that has a national reputation. And so, you know, we look we look around at other offices that that have strong reputations to see if there are practices we can learn from. And so this is something that is new to DPD because we traditionally have had the luxury of of having attorneys have many misdemeanor trial opportunities. But times have changed, conflicts have changed, and we have to change. Thank you. And I'll take one last question. I may have another one later, but an executive deputy executive Putney related to us the length, some of the language in the charge from the charter about the responsibilities of the Department of Public Defense, including that it shall also foster and promote system improvements, efficiencies, access to justice and equity in the criminal justice system. I think that's critically important, and I applaud that language. There's a perception that I have heard for a long time and I have had, too, that there are there's a large contingency in the department who wish to engage in system reform. And I've even heard to to throw out our criminal justice system. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. You know, I think it's public defense, but we are both in the system, but also that the most effective critics of it, we see the harm that it does to our clients. And and so when we partner with community routinely to find alternatives, to find better responses to harms that are happening in our community. For, for example, we partnered with community organizations to work on the My Chance on Let's Get an ordinance which this council passed, which guarantees that any young person who encounters law enforcement and and is asked to waive a constitutional right and be connected with a public defender so that they understand what their rights are in that situation and can make an informed decision. And that that ordinance is one where King County led in the state, then passed a very similar ordinance, I think a year or two later. I think because our work is so grounded in the experience of our clients, we are uniquely positioned to see the ways in which the system is not working for them and positioned in ways to help articulate better alternatives that both are going to meet the needs of harm parties and also meet the needs of our clients. That said, that's a very small portion of what the job is. And I think deputy executive alluded to this, you know, sort of prime primary projects for us right now are the acquisition of a new case management system. And that's something that we are working to try to get collaboration with the jail and the prosecuting attorney's office and DOJ so that we're all sharing data to the extent possible and not having sort of duplicative data entry across the county and wasting taxpayer dollars on having and undoing that sort of sort of duplicative work. So I think it's easy to get lost and like it or it's easy to I think the media picks up on very specific things that the department does. But I mean, I can tell you as I sit here that I think 90, 98 to 99% of my time is spent trying to think about recruitment. How do we train up our lawyers? How do we have a department where our staff feel as supported as they can feel, even though their case loads are too big and the work carries a lot of secondary trauma and requires a lot of emotional labor. We actually partnered with the resources department to have a counselor in-house at DPD twice a week to try to help to make it easier for our staff to to to have a resource to help people cope with the stress of the job. So I think it's it's there is absolutely the independence and decision to to do advocacy work. But I really think it's important to to recognize that my work and the work of of the management team at DPD is really focused on trying to manage the department to the best of our ability and to make sure that we are able to recruit and retain staff and to to support them. Thank you very much for your response. And I'd like to turn the this over now to my colleagues on the committee to see if anybody has a question of you or any comment. Council member, McDermott. Do you know the question? You're not muted. No, ma'am. I'm sorry. No, ma'am. Chair Coel's. I'll ask Council Member Bill Duty. I'm just sort of being mindful. Of the time. I'd love to make sure that we get to a motion to move this forward to the full council today. And I can hold my questions and comments for when we are at full council. I mean, I have some, but oh. We are 4 minutes from the extended. End of the meeting and I wanted to just offer to procedurally move it forward and continue this conversation, awkward as it is in in chunks, if that makes sense. Or we can just keep going. I defer to your leadership. Thank you very much, Councilman Rebel, did she I do want to let everybody know we are going to go into executive session for a few minutes. But I would like to and we can make the motion it's council members, allies as the sponsor. If you'd like to go ahead and make that motion, that would be fine. So I will chair Golden State. Thank you. So the motion has been made and we do have one amendment to take up. But Jenny, should we do that now? What would be the best? You may. Madam Chair, you may move the amendment if you'd like. It's a it's a again, it's a technical amendment just specifying the date for the expiration of the term. Okay. And it's on page 28 of your packet. Thank you. So council members on how would you like to move that amendment some. Thank you. And I will now like to hear from other members if they have any questions or comments. Let's hold off on the amendment, please. Okay. Any comments or questions council members are. Hello. I'd like to speak to close whenever we're ready for that. Thank you. We are going to go to executive session before we vote. So this would not be too close. Great Uncle Dustin. Okay. Well. Councilmember Darren. Colwell. Yeah. So if you if you. Want to just continue on, I'll. Go ahead and make my comments and ask my question. Thank you. Director Condo all. For being in before us. Again today. And. For. Everything that you described. And I know you have done, especially during the COVID period, such a difficult period to lead any organization through and especially one that is as hands on and important as the Department of Public Defense. So you're to be commended and appreciated for your work during this time especially. I think it'll probably be a lifetime achievement that we all look back on later on down the road. So my question is kind of a broad one, and I don't want to invite. A long. Answer, even though it sounds like it's doing so just because I feel the pressure of the clock here today. But if reconfirmed and having four more years of a term, what do you see as your. Top priorities for the department going forward from here. For four years? And what are some of the the things you might. Be planning to. Do if, if, if able to? So this is going to be a super exciting topic, a new case management system for our department. I think getting that system implemented is critical to both us providing a higher quality representation because we have a case management that is functional rather than one that is sort of a barrier to to our staff and that takes up a lot of staff time for data entry, one that allows us to pull data from the jail and from the prosecuting attorney's office, better integrations throughout the criminal legal system so that we're able to get our work done more efficiently. I really think that the case management system has the opportunity to create space for just a higher quality of practice. And I think another major challenge coming down the pike is that the American Bar Association is slated to release new caseload standards in August and thinking carefully and deliberately about how those caseload standards get implemented, it's something that all of us, I think the executive office and Council, we will all have to come together to to figure out. But so I think those are two of the biggest sort of areas of focus. Looking forward. Thank you. I empathize completely with how exciting it would be to get a new case management system. The analogy. Was something I worked on. When I was in a director role myself, and it's so important. So I am going to address the elephant in the room perhaps, and that is you are currently a plaintiff in a lawsuit against King County. I don't want to talk about the lawsuit itself. I want to talk about the ways in which we use county resources to effect change. I have appreciated very much the way you have focused on system change. You've come to me and other councilmembers a number of times over the first four years of your directorship and proposed some very sensible, very doable things that have made our system fairer and more accessible and some things that were tougher to think about doing, but also well pitched at making our system work better, as you said. And it really was it hit with me that as actors in the system, defenders are often. In a really great. Position to see where the problems are and to critique and help reform and change the system. However, it does bring concern here when we're spending not just some, but a lot of taxpayer dollars on suing each other and defending lawsuits from each other. And so I would hope and I guess I want to make this a statement, not a question, because it's very awkward to talk about in the in the posture that we're in right now. But I would hope that we wouldn't do a lot of that in the future, that we would find ways to as part of this system as Department of Public Defense, not an outside agency providing public defense work within our roles to to push to continue to push change and use the funding that is appropriated from this body to the executive branch for the purposes it's been appropriated for. I thank you. I want to stop talking now because there's not a lot of time and we're over time already. But I wanted to make sure that that was out because I know it's in people's heads. Thank you. If I could just respond to that. You go right. Ahead. I think thank you for for your comments. Cancel my apology. And I think I know how the council knows. Right. That litigation is not something that the department would undertake. Lightly and that we would work with other criminal legal system entities to try to solve a problem before we landed in litigation. And the particular issue that we are trying to address is that the practice in our courts was that someone would appear for an appearance in district court and the district court judge would set that bail. The prosecutor was unhappy with that bail. They would then go to Superior Court and seek a higher bail. Our clients would pay the initial bail and bail out only to get arrested a few days later. And we thought this implicated both the due process and violated potentially violated court rules. We brought the issue to the court. The court actually made some voluntary changes to the rules that address some of our concerns, but not all of them. But even after implementing that rule, the court, at least in several instances that we know of, continue to increase bail without notice to our clients or to their attorneys, which was the key issue. So we met with the court. We tried to work with the court. The court passed a court rule. It didn't address all the issues, and it's not been properly implemented and transparently. This is an issue that we need a lasting change on. This particular process is not one that seems to exist in other places in Washington state. It seems to be a problem here in King County that needed fixing. And again, we try to work first collaboratively to have very direct conversations about what our concerns were, what the changes needed to be. And then when we couldn't come to agreement. Right. What when there wasn't another option, then litigation was the appropriate option. And I think it's also worth noting that that sort of in Washington case law, public defenders have had the ability to do this, to litigate. And again, it's not my chosen method of doing trying to affect system change at all. It's a it's for me, a place of last resort. But and I think we tried to to work it out in a different fashion. I thank you. For that candid and thoughtful response. I really I appreciate that we have some differences of opinion, but a lot of what you say makes a lot of sense to me as well. And I appreciate the approach. To try to solve problems. First. Thank you. And thank you to both Councilmember Bell do Chair and Director Condor. Well, I was going to ask a similar question and I'd like to follow up on the some you just mentioned that this was reasonable. I to paraphrase, it was a measure of last resort, but in fact, it wasn't a measure of last resort on your part . And just so people understand this, you had filed a lawsuit against the county superior court, individual judges, the prosecutor, and that following a ruling against your suit on the basis of your being a department director and as such an official of the county, and this is specified very clearly in county code that you are unable to sue the county. And your motion for summary judgment was dismissed on May 3rd. That then the past week on June 2nd, you filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court. And that I find interesting, if nothing else, I'm very concerned about the costs to the taxpayers for all of this when we are trying to staff up public defenders in your department, in the King County Jail and the sheriff's office and the Prosecutors Association Office, we have people who are experiencing homelessness all throughout the county. We are doing our best to provide very needed and essential services. But here, after your emotions was ruled against by the Superior Court, bringing in a judge from Pierce County to advise the court's order, denied your motion for summary judgment, maintaining one that you lacked the capacity to sue as Department of Public Defense Director because neither DPD nor the DPI director are separate legal entities from King County. Secondly, you lacked standing to seek relief. Thirdly, no justifiable controversy between the parties and relief would be unwarranted and for you are not entitled to injunctive relief against the defendants. I, for one, appreciate what you were trying to do, I think is a very noble cause. And but to me, if we need to make systemic change, we can do that at the legislative level or through an ordinance to go to the voters for approval, not to expand. I have no idea the amount of money that will be expended. More now to take this to the Supreme Court. So I'd like to hear your response. Thank you. So just to be clear, when I said litigation is the measure of last resort, what I meant was that we had tried to work with the courts and the prosecutor's office on getting this practice changed. I thought I heard you feeling that that was not true. And I just want to make sure that I was clear on that, that. But once you are, I think litigation is a complicated thing and the process is complicated. I can assure you that there are no caseload carrying attorneys whose work is impacted by this litigation at all. And we are. I prioritize my resources to manage the department and to serve our individual clients and where there are systemic issues that are impacting numerous clients. I also feel I'm obligated to use resources to try to to address those issues. I appreciate that counsel does not agree with my approach on this particular issue. All I can say is that, again, litigation is a place of last resort for me in trying to achieve change, and that this was done carefully and deliberately. And and also, again, if I see these in terms of resource use, it is the time of the management team. It is not the time of carefully carrying attorneys, and it is not done at the expense of managing the department, which is my key priority. Thank you for that response. And do you understand that we do have a county code that does restrict county officials to sue the county? I understand the county code. There's also case law that points in different directions. And I think that this is why it's an issue that's best left for for a higher court to decide. And it will offer clarity going forward about what abilities public defenders like myself and other public defenders throughout the state have. Okay, that's fair statement. I appreciate your providing that position, that viewpoint to you, to us. We will now go into. Oh, certainly, Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Director Cantwell, thank you for being here. Thank you for your willingness to serve. I think you're a double Yale degree. I got that right. I am. Maybe the. Highest educated department director we have here at the county in one of the toughest jobs. We've had some and I appreciate our chair's interest in this issue, but it raises a very fundamental and important issue for me. And bringing back some memories as a brand new council member in 2013 comes recall was when as a result of some litigation maybe ironically by our public defenders who said we treated them as employees in one degree, telling them what to do, but not in the other degree, paying them for it and giving them the benefits they won down in Pierce County. And we decided that the resolution was to bring them in-house. And what the department would look like and how it would be structured became a big issue. And Councilmember Patterson at the time was leading the effort to structure this. And I was an eager beaver new council member, wanted to jump in and probably didn't know a whole lot what I was doing. But some of the words we put together I think are relevant here and we have mentioned a key one, and that is that the in addition to providing that Sixth Amendment defense in courtroom defense , which Anita, I have to say, it's pretty cool that you've been going into the courtroom as a woman, as a department director, to be there firsthand representing clients and keeping close to your to your core mission. But we did add the language in our county constitution, the charter that the Department of Defense and also. FOSTER and promote. FOSTER and promote system improvements, efficiencies, access to justice and equity in the criminal justice system. As I understand this litigation, it involves a court rule and constitutional concerns about it. It's not something that we could, with all due respect, sex with a county ordinance or a change in state law. It is exclusively within the province of the court. And that the state Supreme Court is the one that ultimately approves our criminal rules of procedure, which are at issue here. And in this case, it seems to me that perhaps the only way, absent agreement was to litigate a resolution there. And in fact, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that when you brought these concerns forward, the court recognized that its rule was problematic and changed it on paper, and that, as you said, director general was helpful, but perhaps not ultimately satisfactory. And I think there is an issue perhaps of first impression about standing and what not you. We've created a very unique department here in terms of structure. How you get appointed requires three names be sent over by an independent board, the Public Defenders Advisory Board. The executive sends one over to us. You have a guaranteed term of four years coterminous with the prosecutor. You can only be removed for cause. We put those in there in 2013. Those safeguards, because we knew that this person would sometimes take unpopular positions for folks who have been left out, marginalized, and are often excluded from the powers in our society. And those are those facing criminal charges. And I know Chair Wells is a longtime ally of the ACLU and champion of civil rights. And you know that we put another important piece of language in the charter, and it hasn't been mentioned yet. And I want to mention it because I think it's relevant here. Elected officials shall not interfere with the exercise of these duties by the department. However, the enactment of appropriation ordinances does not constitute interference. That language was added because and I wrote it because we knew sometimes you would, in the exercise of your duties, be called upon to take unpopular positions and do unpopular things. And it was a reminder that those of us who go chase and votes and want to be popular with voters. Sometimes those don't match up with constitutional protections, which you are vested exclusively in this county with protecting from the defense side. The prosecutor does this well. If we don't want you to have the power to bring a lawsuit, I think under this language, we could write a budget that perhaps says that we might have to litigate that. But but this notion of us not interfering with the exercise of your duties is important. And I think it's fair for us to ask questions. And by the way, we're eight years, nine years, nine years into this language. So maybe it's a little hidden and stale, but it's an important moment and reflection and inflection point here today. And I want to say that I think that you're acting, from my view, within your authority. You are carrying out the vision here. We want a competitive adversary system that our courts are there to arbitrate those. And I might not always agree with you. You brought some policy proposals to me. I said, Nope, not doing that, Anita, but you're doing that work. And and I think it's I think it's appropriate. And I think we should be careful. We should be careful about trying to engage on that level, given the vision of the of the charter here. I don't have the personal knowledge, experience or understanding of the issue you're litigating to make a judgment on it. I just don't. But I do think that your department should be able to litigate systemically on court rules, on laws, on constitutional issues for the interest of your clients. So I've joined as a co-sponsor for your confirmation here today. I think we should approve you expeditiously. And I think that the concerns are appropriate to explore and to ask you about and even have a difference of view. Some members may say, I don't want you litigating, but we can run a budget amendment with an expenditure restriction under this charter language. But I don't think I don't think under our charter language, we should be interfering with the exercise of your duties in this regard. And I think we should be careful about that. Thank you. Chair calls. Thank you. Councilmember Barsky. And in response and because the time is really late, one of our members, I think two of our members have had to leave. They're not on the Zoom call. And another one is going to have to be I think we will dispense with the executive session. I think we've been exploring this enough. We do have a council meeting at which we can ask further questions, and I'd like to clarify that I have no intention to interfere with the duties of whoever is in the position. That's not why I brought forward this concern. I do think, though, that having a superior court decision, as I understand it, with the assistance of a Pierce County judge in this case, given the complexity and the conflict inherent here has merit, and this lawsuit was taken against the county, which is clearly in opposition to what is in our King County code. So I'm not bringing this up as a matter of disagreeing with the director's way she runs her department. From what I can tell, that's been exemplary in a very, very trying time. But I do take pause when there is the lawsuit filed by the director, which supposedly our King County code means something. And when the ruling was against her, now she's filed it to the state Supreme Court. And this brings up one matter I have as well of concern, and that is the rush on this. The director's term is up through the end of this year and we're being asked to rush, to expedite. We've got to do this right away. And here we have a matter before the Supreme Court, which I think has relevance. I do like a deputy executive. Putney It looks like you want to make a comment. Charcoal. Wells Thank you. I wanted to just speak to the timing of the issue. And I and I think really it comes down to the process. The Council member, Dombrowski, laid out, unlike other department directors, if there is going to be a vacancy for this position, then it involves a separate board convening, coming up with a list of individuals and bringing, you know, three of those names forward to the executive and then sending somebody to you. And so recognizing that that will take time for that process to move forward, we're want that's why we wanted to send this confirmation a reconfirmation to you sooner rather than later so that we would know if there was time needed. I am certainly hoping that that is not a not a thing that we're going to all have to find out together. I think it's wholly appropriate for for you, for the council members, for the county as a whole to be having these conversations as as you've indicated. I certainly imagine the your role in the last couple of years as budget chair overseeing overseeing eight budgets during the pandemic is probably also sort of impacting sort of where your team. Well I stopped counting apparently out three so impacting sort of where how you're thinking about it. I will say any time the our defenders and prosecutors and courts are are in motion. The county is is footing all avenues of that bill at all times. So I don't think that it's it's particularly unique there. But I do think it's a it is super legitimate conversation to be having around the issue from our perspective. This as as director condo well said litigation is her last resort when seeking seeking to resolve issues. And I think as Councilmember Dombrowski sort of illustrated, this is a sort of unique space and that there are some questions where a higher court maybe does need to provide that clarity as to what what is the ruling matter? Because our charter is also clear on the independence of the department. So I think there's a question of code versus charter versus court in this conversation and a space where the the Supreme Court may or may make the right sense to be the ultimate decider there. Thank you very much, Deputy Executive Patni, for your remarks. And I listened carefully and I can't disagree with all of it, but I do think it's important that as an elected county council member representing 252,000 constituents and looking at our 2.3 or so million residents of this county, that we pay attention to our county code. And the Superior Court did that and ruled in rejecting the directors litigation. And I pay attention to that. I pay attention to the appeal to the state Supreme Court. And even so, I like what what the director is doing. But that will along with the timing, no one brought this forward to us about this lawsuit or the appeal. I stumbled upon it solely, otherwise we wouldn't have even know, and I would have thought that it would have been appropriate to bring this up to the Council, but nobody did so with that. And we will go ahead with our action unless council members are hello would like to make we first of all we will vote on the amendment. The amendment has been moved it's technical it's to change the date of the term to match with the prosecuting attorneys team. Is that correct, Jenny? Yes, Madam Chair. It simply adds the expiration date. Okay. Thank you. Are there any comments on this amendment? Okay. All in favor indicate by saying I, I any oppose say no. The amendment is. Adopted. Now, council members. Hello. Would you like to make any closing remarks on the motion before us as amended? Yes. Charcoal Wells. Thank you for the time. I want to echo something that we heard in public comment. Somebody said that Director Kendall Wahl is the best director that we've ever had and I haven't been around long enough to confirm that statement. But I can say, as somebody who's been chair of law and justice since 2020, that the director has been absolutely an exceptional director and a great partner to me as chair of law and justice. And that's for two main reasons. She is very great at both the systems improvement side of the job and also the nuts and bolts operations and management side of the job. She's a zealous advocate, both at the individual and systemic level, but she's also doing the boring stuff like improving computer systems like we heard before. And so for those reasons, I think I urge everyone's support and reconfirmation of the director. She's provided a high level of service to our clients during the pandemic. She's partnered with Community to advance really great shared goals like the Youth Right to Counsel. She's prompt to promptly getting clients who are in prison on bleak cases released and just generally doing a really great job and very responsive to to what we need from her. And so I just wanted to make those comments and urge everyone's yes vote. Thank you very much, Councilmember Saleh. And I think I can still do this. Please correct me if I'm wrong and that I would like to let you know I will be voting no. It has nothing to do with the directors. Exemplary qualifications are hers. That standard of work as department director. But it has to do with her having filed this lawsuit and appealing it to the Supreme Court and the cost to the taxpayers and not having to disclose that and as well as the rush in doing this, especially before knowing the outcome of the Supreme Court decision . With that, will the clerk please call the roll? Thank you. Chair Calls. Councilmember Bellucci II. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember McDermott, I Councilmember Perry, spy council member of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne right there. No. Council members only. I. Charcoal wells? No. The vote is five eyes, two nose, those being charcoal wells. And Councilmember one right there. And. Two excused. Okay. With our vote, we have approved, given a do pass recommendation to proposed ordinance 2022 zero 174 as amended. We will send this motion with the do pass recommendation to the June 28th Council meeting. Council members there were two council members who did not vote on this were excused. Were there any other votes on the earlier ordinance? All votes were received on the previous order. So any council member who still wishes to vote on this confirmation of Director Condor, well, I believe has till 5:00 today. Is that correct? To send in the vote to the clerk's office. Okay. And with that, our next meeting of the committee of the whole will be on July six, at which we will hear our every other meeting report that is loved by Dwight Davie, our budget director, about what's going on with COVID in our county. And also, we will have before us on the agenda legislation from Council Member July having to do with extreme weather conditions and providing emergency shelter. And lastly, we will begin a discussion, a two part discussion along with our meeting on July 20th on our state and county's response and to gun violence and prevention efforts that are underway. With that, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.	AN ORDINANCE proposing an amendment to the King County Charter to move elections for certain county offices from odd-numbered to even-numbered years; amending Sections 640, 647 and 650.20 of the King County Charter and repealing Sections 650.40.15, 650.40.25 and 660 of the King County Charter; and submitting the same to the voters of the county for their ratification or rejection at the November 8, 2022, general election.
king_d2db73f6-15bc-4fdc-b5c0-9acfcffed4e4	Ends Day, July six, 2016. The Committee of the whole. The meeting will now come to order. Clerk Will you please call for the roll call? Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member Bell. Duty Council Member Dombrowski. Council Member Done. Council Member Gossett. Yeah. Council Member. Cole Wells. Council Member McDermott. Council member of the Room. Council Member Van Power. Madam Chair. Here. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right, with that, I'd like to call for the approval of the minutes. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you. Move approval of the June 29th meeting minutes. Thank you. All those in favor of the move as written. Please say I, the nays. Please say nay. The minutes are approved as written. Thank you very much. We'll now begin on our briefings. But prior to doing that, we have rules about conduct in the chambers. I'm sure you're aware of them since you've been read them over 800 times. Please be seated to leave the chambers. Please be seated or leave the chambers. We want to speak like everybody. Please be seated. Please be seated or leave the chambers. Okay. Clerk, would you please call for security? Okay. We'll be at recess for a moment for his shenanigans, as usual. And so we're back in session and we will rule the two of you out of order. You're being disruptive. So would you please leave the chambers? Your order, and we're going to go back into recess. Go back. Okay, we're back in session again. We have our usual cohorts. All right. Now we are going to have a meeting began briefing 2016, briefing 139. This is a briefing on the Children and Family Justice Center project. And it has been an adventure and a wild ride going to these meetings. So, Catherine, would you brief us on the fun we've been having on this? Please begin. Thank you. Catherine Cortez, Central staff. I last briefed this committee in January of this year, and I will focus on developments since that time with the Children and Family Justice Center Capital Project, including the status of permitting of the project labor agreement, the status of budget and design. And two decisions regarding components the prospective two additional floors for a Unified Family Court and the Alder Academy. Beginning with permitting the design builder for this project submitted an application for a master use permit to the City of Seattle's Permitting Department on September 1st of 2015, when the Committee of the Homeless previously briefed the project schedule anticipated based on this submittal that the master use permit would be issued within the next few weeks. Subsequently, the City of Seattle has issued two rounds of correction notices. The process for the city of Seattle requires the applicant to formally submit responses to each round of corrections. Most recently, the Permitting Department issued a correction notice related assuring an excavation on June eight, and the county is still awaiting potential corrections on other aspects of the permits. The design builder responses to these notices would initiate an additional review period once the corrections have been resolved and the Seattle Permitting Department director issues a master use permit decision. The schedule allows for an appeal to the to the Seattle hearing examiner within 14 days, which is their standard allowable time. And then if the director's decision is appealed, the hearing examiner would have 90 days to issue a decision. That means that it's likely no sooner that the county could issue a notice to proceed for construction dependent on this master use permit until November or December of this year. Some site work could begin prior to the master use permit, such as the relocation of a sewer line. That sewer relocation work permit is anticipated in September. However. And now I'll move to the project labor agreement that the project labor agreement or play is also a necessary precursor to be able to begin in construction, including the sewer, sewer relocation. Executive staff agreed in the second quarter of 2016 to provide project funding to support a third party play administrator in order to be able to for the design builder as their responsibility to obtain a project labor agreement executed by labor union representatives. The Design Builder negotiated with intelligent partnerships to provide this third party administrator and negotiated a mutually acceptable scope of work at a price of $1.35 million for the course of construction. This should allow negotiations to begin between the design builder and labor union representatives, which, once they wrap up, would allow that the play would be could be anticipated, likely no sooner than the end of this month or August. As part of the authorization of the design build contract, the Council authorized required the Executive to submit quarterly reports on project workforce status, specifically the design builder's progress toward achieving the required apprenticeship, hiring percentages and goals for small contractors and suppliers. Utilization. The first of these reports is required prior to the issuance of the notice to proceed for construction and executive staff have indicated that they anticipate transmitting this report in the near future. Moving on to project budget and design status. The design build contract authorized for execution by the executive had included a guaranteed maximum price of 154 million from the design builder. In February 2015, FMG set the baseline cost estimate at $212 million for the project equal to the Capital Project Appropriations adopted by Council to cover both the contract and the county costs associated with this project . In May of this year, the County Auditor's Office Capital Project Oversight Section published their annual report on the CFTC. It includes various information about project status and budget and timeline. But one item that it discusses is that in that FMD received a cost estimate from the design builder in February of 2016 based on complete design development plans , which exceeded that guaranteed maximum price by 10 million. Since then, facilities management division staff have been working with the design builder to identify opportunities for cost savings through value engineering to reduce the budget to within that guaranteed maximum price. The county is not obligated to pay the $10 million increase over the guaranteed maximum price in the cost estimates. Nor is the county obligated to authorize design changes to reduce the budget. The design builder's budget to the guaranteed maximum price. Some of these design decisions could affect the value of surplus land anticipated to be available for county disposition at the completion of construction and additionally, some may incur additional operating and maintenance costs for the county in future. Among these changes that have been brought forward are changes to the parking garage, its configuration materials and having a shallower foundation and are related to the heating and cooling plant. Pursuing a lower cost and simpler option. So can I stop you there? I think what you just said is really important. So if you could just repeat the last two parts over again, because I wanna make sure everybody heard that. The Tell Me If I were getting to the right pieces in 2016, the design build are based on complete design development plans submitted a estimated budget which exceeded their guaranteed maximum price by 10 million. The county is not obligated to pay that 10 million or to agree to changes that would bring that budget within that cost. However, the county staff have been working with the design builder to look at value engineering options that would bring the budget within that price. Okay. So the other part that went on after that, where you're talking about how we are looking at the 10 million and that some of those may have other ramifications. And I think that's the part that's really important right now, is that the ramifications and they're one that I'm most concerned about is the parking garage. I had hoped as a member of the committee that that parking garage would be a revenue stabilizer for us, that we would be able to rent out parking to people from the university, people going to restaurants, a block up, people from yes. Our tiers and that that would be a revenue generator for us. But the configuration was changed, which I didn't like the configuration change. And now we're saying we're not going to go so deep in the ground. And so then we would end up hitting height restrictions. So I think these are really huge decisions and have lots ramifications. So I want people to be aware of of that happening. Go ahead. I'm sorry. So moving on from the budget and design, I wanted to briefly update the committee related to two components. The first being an alternate that would have included building the shell and core of two additional floors atop two floors of the facility towers a unified family court. The executive had sought to have such a change be included in the Seattle, a change to be included in the Seattle Comprehensive Plan update docket in order to allow the additional height that would allow these two floors in 2016. But the final docket for that year did not include that change. This year, the Oversight Committee for the Children and Family Justice Center voted to not seek such an amendment from Seattle again in 2016 and not to authorize the design builder to proceed with the design of the shell of the top two floors at this time. The other component that I wanted to update on is the Alder Academy. And this is a designated space for a school operated by Seattle Public Schools, which provides an array of educational and transitional services to youth. Not the same as the mandated, state mandated school for youth in detention, but an another school that would be potentially on the side of the children and a family justice center. The design builder submittal to the city for the master use permit did include the possibility of including this space, the Alder Academy in the final project in the first quarter of 2016. The design builder provided an offer to complete design and construction of the Alder Academy space within the Children and Family Justice Center at a price of $2.9 million. The Executive Oversight Committee voted to accept this offer prior to its expiration on April 1st, and the executive staff have stated that they anticipate transmitting a request to council for appropriation for this purpose. Question Mr. Memorable Duty. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify, you said 2.9 million. Is that just for designers that for design and construction design and construct? Thank you. Yes. The council member also and I think. The I'm just backing up here. So it sounds like Ms.. Cortez and again, this is a case of we're a guaranteed maximum price contract is not a guaranteed price. Maximum. How? How just backing up, how do we get a $10 million budget from the contractor who bid $10 million less? How does that how does that happen? Why? What's the I mean, just ask the basic. I, I would defer to staff in facilities management division to speak specifically to the contract. But my understanding is that while this is a guaranteed maximum price, they intend to work with the county to find ways to reduce their cost estimates on the project as they've detailed them out in order to continue to meet project guidelines. But to be able to find ways to save as they've priced out the details to be a higher cost than what they had guaranteed. Okay. But they we sent out a big argument with with design specs. They bid it there were competitors well, rather than one competitor at one point. But they were drew, I think. But how did they just get to get this is this sounds a little bait and switches to me that to put it bluntly $10 million budget over the guaranteed maximum price. I don't understand. I honestly I don't understand. And I think anybody watching this would wonder how is this happening? So I think that's an excellent. And maybe if I can, Madam Chair, why are we working with them? Why isn't the answer? You promised to build it at this price. Build it. So let's have the Colonel come on up and see if he can be helpful. And also, Councilmember Gossett has a question. Now that I say can't be joined at the table. But I think two great minds thinking alike. Colonel, welcome. And I apologize if that's a simplistic question, but no. It's not that simplistic. It's very real. It's very important. I can't remember. Madam Chair. Tony Wright, director of Facilities Management Division. And it's not a simplistic question. It is frequently asked during design build projects, especially of this magnitude. We establish design specifications and parameters. And the as the design build process is more a collaborative process than perhaps a design bid build process. That's where we would have all of the plans and specifications created by either ourselves or third party. And then with those specific specifications, the builder would bid against those plans and specifications we would hold them to them. And that is that is a that is a one of the methods of delivery. Another method of delivery is a design build process where we have broader parameters that are established and the design builder presents a proposal within that. The reason a collaborative approach I have found to be more useful in my experience doing design build projects is that although I am and the county is capable of holding the contractor firmly to his price, the design build process is has more potential where he could incur savings that still meet the letter of the parameters but not might not create the best building for us. So we look at value engineering options and stuff to allow this this contractor to get. To the appropriate spot. We have not agreed to all of these and the contractor himself has a contingency built in. And we have indicated to the contractor we expect him to spend all of his contingency before we sacrifice quality on this project. But having done our a little over, probably a little over one and a half billion dollars with a design build construction, I found that starting with a collaborative process and working through as much as possible, actually benefits the tenant with a much higher quality building. And thank you very much. All right. That's very helpful. Here's my thinking on this. We promised the taxpayers who voted to approve a levy as a price, but then a $210 million project cap. Now the revenue and we put a levy on on their property to pay for it and the receipts are coming in a little bit higher here. And I do not want and I don't want to send a signal that there's any appetite for this contractor to be looking at those excess revenues to fund additional project cost. My view is they did it. We promised a number to the taxpayers. We had to do everything in our power to stick to that number. So I also feel a little bit as a legislator here, like we're being slow, walked in to a real sticky problem and we at the executive's request appropriated all $210 million. I think it was the entire appropriation. You asked for that a couple of years ago. We gave it all to you. And in doing so, we kind of released our power of the purse and the ability to manage this project. Not that we're the managers. We're getting briefing after briefing after briefing on it. And I don't think there's really much decision making authority on this project left here at the council. I mean, we have some authority over disposing of excess land and any excess levy proceeds. But with respect to the project itself, it's kind of out of our hands. We did what the executive asked and that was appropriate, all the money. So I guess I'm wondering what and this is a bigger picture. You don't have to answer this now, but what do you, if anything, asking this council to do on a go forward basis? And if this is if these are just informational briefings, that's great. But we sure seem to be getting a lot of them. So let me answer that first before you answer that. There are two of us on the committee, and I was so excited about being on this committee because I really wanted this thing. What committee? Yeah, I wanted the 730 meetings, but I, I really wanted us to have a building that was respectful of the courts, of the people that come here, of families, of the programs we were going to have. It was so exciting. And then things started to happen that weren't exciting things with the City of Seattle, things with requirements that the city put on us that I didn't expect and I don't think anybody else expected. And so lots of things have been happening. And I agree it's death by a thousand names. And so I think all of us should know the good, the bad, the ugly, so that as you direct me and Councilmember McDermott to say things at these meetings that you know the weight of what's going on here. And so that's why I want these meetings, because there's a lot happening and and everybody should know what's happening. Councilmember Garcia, do you have any comment on that? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I don't think that Councilmember Dombrovskis question is being directly responded to, because to me it's simply that and the contractor for our Children and Family Justice Center has indicated a reason that his overall costs are going to be 10 million more than his bear. And then in listening to Katherine and Karen. All right, there's no way that I've been able to ascertain simply why is it 10 million over here and why would we at all entertain trying to help him get the price down? And if that is usual and a custom way of doing this kind of project, why is that happening on this project? We kind of remind that I went out to the University of Washington and listened to kick on executive Costa, who's the chair of Sound Transit. Brag about Sound Transit one and sound transit to come in and weigh in the budget indeed the multibillion dollar contract. And he said we say 45 million to. 27 million there. What is the problem with this contract and why is it $10 million over? I have no understanding of that as of now in terms of response we received. It shouldn't be that hard. So. Colonel. Right. So I'd like to clarify one point. The contractor says their price, their their costs are $10 million high. The county has not agreed to pay $10 million more. They're just telling us that we've agreed to pay them $154 million. That's what they're getting subject to any change orders which are approved during our normal process. So the fact that with the design that they came in, in one case they came in and one of their HVAC required heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Engineering requirements was set up and it far exceeded what we thought was needed or appropriate for the building. And it was very expensive. That was an item where we worked with collaboratively, where we got to a an appropriate heating system that was less complex and more capable and we got a large drop. But this iterative process, as we go through the various stages of design, they'll come in, they'll say, we think it's going to cost us much. Well, they would like us to just give them another $10 million. That's not what we do. We go in, look to see why their bids there. We compare to see whether or not there are circumstances that where we think that it can be adjusted. Occasionally we will we will look at things and say this. This will work as an option. It may provide a slightly less performance, but we think it's appropriate given the circumstances. That's the collaborative part. The collaborative part is not writing them a check for $10 million. It's working through the specifics for this. So I'm sorry if I was unclear before Councilmember it, but we're not paying 160 for 454 million to of it. But can we get something that shows this was their bid? 154 and now they're telling us it's more like they're not going to cost 10 million more. And what areas of the end can we get something more? I, I could get that information to council staff or if you'd like, I could come back and brief you on the specifics on how some of those elements. But that's kind of a highly technical. No, it's it's it's well, it's it's technical as I could make it really highly technical, but it doesn't really need to be. It's a series of events. But what it is, what I would say council member is it's a it's more of a continuum. It's kind of a constant discussion about different things. So I could bring you a snapshot, show you what's there, or I could show you the history of some of the things that we have developed as we've gone through moving towards design documents. That would be helpful. So and I would invite you to come in on Tuesday morning because that's what we do. And I I'm sorry, Wednesday morning, Wednesday. Morning at 730. That Wednesday morning, 730, we'd be happy to have you because that is what we do. And I can't make it. We'll wait for they come back here. Thank you, ma'am. So but we do do that every week that we go over where it is. What are the prices, what's looking what are some of the issues with, you know, the timing being put off a bit because of a variety of different things? What does that mean in the water table? Are we going to have to pump we have to pump it 3.5 million more. If we don't have to pump that, we need to pay that. So we go through all these fund details. And so at the ribbon cutting, I'm going to be so happy this year. Yes. We have never been following this discussion with interest from down here. But one thing I didn't hear responded to was the role of the council completely. And I think it's important that we understand that the way this oversight committee over the project was set up, that every group that's represented on the committee has a vote in decisions. And I imagine that some day there may be at least an advisory vote to the executive. And I imagine that some day there may be a discussion about whether or not to exceed the maximum agreed construction cost. So it's important that Councilmember Lambert, as our primary representative, hear our positions on these things so she can represent them when, when and if that happens. So I just I don't know, that was clear to everybody. And I wanted to make sure. And she said. I used to sit there as a representative of the executive branch in the past. To make demands on it. But we get one vote I think chose the alternate that correct. Me to go. We we have to vote I think I'm going to vote. And I was I didn't mention that you were in a former capacity part of this. It was Wednesday morning and we truly missed you. And feel free to come back just for the fun and. Yes. Thank you for the invitation. All right. So I know Wednesday morning some of them getting up. I'm going to be appreciated. So there are a number of issues that I think, you know, we also didn't help this project because we wanted a lot of things. And who is the way. You and me and everybody sitting on the dais? And one of those is the project labor agreement. We put in $1,000,000 towards that and then there was another 900,000 towards what was the 900,000? That was what I believe you're referring to, the appropriation ordinance, 17973. That's the one of which 1 million was reserved for costs to support a third party administrator, whether a contract to our county staff to support the project labor agreement. Sorry, 955,000 was reserved for that, and then 1 million reserved for activities related to developing an economic opportunity and empowerment plan and to support the achievement of the goals related to project labor diversity and so and small contracting on the within the project labor agreement and the project labor agreement has not been finalized yet, but we've been working on it for how many months? Working on is a difficult thing to quantify. And here it is the responsibility of the design builder to obtain an executed project labor agreement prior to the beginning of construction. I imagine that they have been thinking about it and they have reached out to labor union representatives, but they have not begun negotiations on that. So still. Yeah, still. That's what they wanted you to know. Still. So, you know, some of the requirements that we have put in as a council where we feel strongly and good about it, we need to know that it's taken for a number of reasons, which would take 2 hours and I won't get into all of that . But the Reader's Digest version is that it's taken a lot more time and we start there yet. And so, you know, time is money. So there are issues that have been part of this. The other thing is the city of Seattle has required things for us to get the license that we need, the permits that have been expensive, time consuming, and caused us to have a variety of employees to administer some of their requests that none of us expected. And then there were agreements that were made that were unmade. So it's been it's been challenging. And everybody has their hair almost. So anyway, let's go on and talk about what else is going on here. Councilmember Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. I feel a need to respond to you. Like, did we have a commitment in this government that we've had, I think, five or six years to equity in social justice in terms of every project and public policy arena that we work at. And in that context, we felt that we that we needed to have a system or a strategy for ensuring that folks that live in the adjacent neighborhoods to the facility would have opportunities to work there. A priority are opportunities. And we've always said that we want to do better in terms of affirmative action, in terms of our construction projects. And we see those contextually as part of our commitment to equity and social justice. So it's not just like something that all of us sitting up here say, Oh, at this and I don't know, it would be helpful for me to how can I right indicate whether or not the million dollars we put in for a priority hiring or a 900,000 sure equity in social justice, our reasons for the overrun are the reasons for that 10 million. Well, one, I don't think that those are directly connected. There was a period of confusion where the contractor thought that the EEO, E.P. that was funded with the $1 million and I believe you've been briefed on they thought that that was a change order and they got quite concerned about that. We've clarified that, but I don't believe that that's a connection with the cost increase. The increase that I would say would be most specific is that, as Ms.. Cortez briefed you, the cost is 1.3 million and change, and the amount allocated was 955,000. That's an increase that's based on a better understanding of the scope at the time that it was allocated. I don't believe we had anything better than a rough order of magnitude cost for this third party administrator. And as we dug into it, it turned out to be more expensive than initially anticipated. So the 955,000 that was appropriated for that is being met, the additional amount is being met from contingency, and that was approved by the Oversight Committee. But it's not part of the 10 million. It is not part of the ten. Right. All right. But it is part of the contingency that could be used for the structure. So there's only so many dollars and we have to kind of make it all work. So you're correct in what you said, but the point is that all of these things cost money and might be perfectly fine. But I need you to know that it costs 400,000 more than we thought. And then there's some other things that have happened along the way. So it's it may be a good thing. We still need to know that it costs more money so that we keep that in mind as we go forward on other projects. And I think we've had some lessons learned about it that I think are going to be important in the end to. Okay. Anything else you want to be first on? I just quickly would wrap up my statements about the Alder Academy to say that my understanding from executive staff is that Seattle Public Schools staff were invited to participate in design discussions for the Alder Academy space beginning last week, and that the director of the Facilities Management Division continues to seek an agreement with the school district for design, construction and occupancy with space for Alder Academy. But no such agreement has yet been reached and is an appointment time for the two of you to get together. The we have been exchanging some emails, substantive emails, as opposed to just responding back and forth. But and there's a couple of elements of terms which I would prefer to discuss in executive session since a property action negotiation prior, rather than discussing those terms in this forum. Madam Chair. Okay, that sounds good. All right. So more to come on that issue, too. And that is an issue that we may need to take up at the legislature, that this be required as part of a of a building for schools so that they have the most I can't remember my teaching days what's the right, most appropriate learning environment, which is required by law. So I think that's another thing we need to flag for our legislative days. Okay. Any other questions from anybody? As I said, Wednesday mornings are exciting. Worth getting up for, for sure. So thank you for all your hard work. We have had a separate I think it was $6 million was the separate price tag we got for the upper two floors. It doesn't look at this point that we are going to be in this first part building the two upper floors, which is sad because that's where the services were going to be allocated. And so eventually those two floors hopefully will be built, but it won't be at a $6 million price because we have not been able to get that into our permit. So anyway, on that happy news, we will close our briefing. Thank you for being here with us. Okay. We'll move into briefing number five. This one is briefing 120. This is the director for culture presenting the annual reports. And so welcome to this program. John, if you'd like to begin to talk to us about this. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, I'm Mary Berg, and I'm from the council staff. As council members know for culture or the Cultural Development Authority is a public development authority and is King County's arts and culture organization. The county code requires that for culture come to the council twice a year, once to report on the year prior through the form of an annual report, and then once to report on its plans for the year ahead in the form of a budget presentation. So Jim Kelly is here with the first of those two reports. You should have a copy of the annual report in your packet starting at page 13. And Jim also has a PowerPoint to present. And with that, I will turn it over to him. Thank you, Mary. Good morning, Madam Chair. Members of the council. Oops. Excuse me. Yes? Where, where. Where's the report, Mary? So you will find the report on it starts on page 17 of your committee packets. That's the annual report. And then the presentation that Mr. Kelly is about to present is also in your packet, sir, and that begins on page. Let's see here. Just paging back on page 40, it looks like 41 is where the presentation begins. If you want to follow along on paper rather than on screen. I'd like to follow along on paper as well. That's great. Wonderful. So, page 41. Thank you. Where? Where do we see the numbers? I can read numbers as well. Yeah. You can. Yeah. That's 36. Yeah. All right. I'm ready. Okay, President. Great. Good morning, Madam Chair. Members of the council. I'm Jim Kelly, executive director for Culture, your arts, heritage, preservation and Public Art Agency. And I'm here, as Mary says, for my first of two annual reports. And what I thought I'd I'd start with some budget information. It is already July. This is the budget that the board adopted in January. But nevertheless, I thought it would be informative for you to see how we actually put our programs together financially. So what you're seeing on this slide is new revenues that came in in 2016, you see lodging taxes at 2.8 million, what is it to almost $3 million? And those really represent lodging taxes that were collected in November and December of 2015. They get transferred to us early in 2016, but after calendar year 2015, we get no more lodging taxes until 2021. So those are revenues that I, as I say, represent revenues that came in at the very tail end of 2015 . Then you see the annual public art allocation, which is a reflection in the county's capital budget, seem investment earnings from our corpus fund balances that do earn slight returns. And then the King County Art Collection, which the property of King County is, you provide about 250,000 a year for stewardship. And then we get miscellaneous revenue, everything from grants to, for example, you recently sold the Auburn Post Office. We got 10% of the sale proceeds so that other miscellaneous revenue represents items like that. So new revenues of $4.1 million. So that's the revenue picture. Now we're looking at the expense picture and you'll see something very strange. We have $13 million in expenditures in 2016. I'm going to talk about that in the next slide a little bit. How do we spend 13 million with revenues of 4 million? What you'll see is a major balance transfer from our fund balances in lodging taxes. You'll see the expenditures for the public art program, which are about four times what you saw as the revenues. And that's because most public art expenditures come off our balance sheet. Money is transferred to us the year you approve the capital project, but we might not actually do the public art for two, three, four years, depending on the nature of the project. So most of the expenditures we have from public art come from the balance sheet. You also see the million dollars in debt service that we'll have for the building, for a culture program, which I'll speak about in a second, another million dollars for our equity and social justice initiative that we're going to be doing pretty much as soon as this presentation is over, we're ready to launch, but I'll talk to you about that. Then we have some bond payments on bonds that were issued in the past. Bottom line, we're going to spend about $13.2 million again on that revenue of 44,000,001. So this next slide sort of shows you how we put that 13 million together and you'll see is an $8 million transfer in the lodging tax special account to our programs. If you actually look at this slide, everything from the green down to the very light blue at the bottom represents this $4.1 million. So this $4.1 million is on the section of this pie that is the green to the very light blue at the bottom. Everything else you see is transfers from fund balances. So it's the transfers that allow us to make the expenditures to meet our budget goals. And this will continue in this way for the next five years. The only difference is in the next five years, we won't see a single dollar of lodging tax revenues. There's no more revenue coming in in any year from something that was collected the previous year until 2021. So until 2021. Other than percent for art annual revenue. Stewardship money. Some miscellaneous revenue. We're essentially living off fund balances. And we explain to everybody why that is then, that you knew that that was going to happen. That's why you prepared for it, correct? We knew as early as 2007 that the lodging tax, which was set to expire at the end of 2012 and was setting up an endowment to support cultural programs in the future. We recognized the endowment would never be large enough to support the community that has grown up over the last 20 years. So in 2011, the state passed an act of the legislature that authorized us the use of lodging taxes again beginning in 2021. It allowed the conversion of an unexpended all endowment. The only expenditures coming from the interest income. It allowed that to be transferred into a special account that we could expend. So we're essentially taking what was built as an endowment and spending it down over a five year period till we get to the new revenues in 2021. Thank you for asking that. We have a member. Yes, I had a question building for our culture. I didn't know you were going to. Have we already. Done? Oh, no, I'm sorry. It looks like I skipped that slide. I'm here right. Now. I'd like to know about that. Sure. Yes. And so we I wanted to give you an update on it. As you know, it's $28 million plus project. Yeah. So far we have expended. I have an update for you that says 7.3 million of the bond proceeds have been paid to recipients. That is now up to 8.7, almost 8.8. So 8.8 of that $28 million has actually flowed out of our coffers and the county's coffers into the grant recipients. It is being expended as we speak. There's an additional $10 million that's under contract. Our agreement with King County is that as we contract with grant recipients, King County transfers the money to us. So they've transferred an additional 10 million, 300,000 for contracts that have already been signed. And then we have another 10.8 million to be collected from King County. I think we only have we have 79 contracts signed. Seven are fully paid. We have 14 that are unsigned, but some of them have been sent. They just haven't been returned. So I think in terms of progress toward getting this money out to grant recipients, I think it's been pretty good so far. We've had a great relationship with the Budget Office. The transfers have been happening timely and we are extending the funds. This does not include the $1 million for the equity initiative, which I'll talk about in a second. And I also wanted to point out that about a year from now, when I come to do my next report or the second next report, at that point, I think we'll know which program, which programs, which projects are not going forward. And then the council will have a decision to make about what to do with those funds. The clock doesn't start over. We have three years from the time the bonds are sold for the times to be up for the bonds to be expended. And when I come back to you in a year or be a year and a half into that process, and I think we'll have an idea of which projects are unlikely to go forward or fully expend their reward, in which case you will have an opportunity to reprogram those dollars for other projects or to diffuse the bonds . In other words, take whatever balances remain and buy down the debt. I venture to guess that you will find worthy recipients for those additional funds. That those funds have to go to capital projects as they did. Yes, they do, sir, because these are bond funded and bonds typically are issued to support capital projects, not operating expenses. And on that, when when when will we be seeing some of these projects come to fruition? Well, I I'm happy to say that about a month and a half ago, shortly after you guys approved all of this, I went to the grand opening of the Bastion Center for the Arts, which got $2 million through this program. And there's a project that is actually open, operating as we speak. So you will see them at different stages. Some projects like the Bash on Center for the Arts are now complete. Other projects are still underway. I would be happy to keep you abreast of which projects are coming on line as they do so. And then, as you know, many years ago, we had a project that we funded. That didn't turn out to be what we what we thought we were buying and ended up getting international news. That wasn't pleasant. How do we what. Was that one? That was the Christmas tree ornament to the White House. It was 2008. Yeah, well, it still makes me unhappy. And so how do we make sure that that debacle never happens again? Are we monitoring that when we buy X, we actually get X? Well, I think there's very little relationship between that particular situation and what we're doing today. That was a very unusual situation that I don't necessarily need to go into in detail to recount today. You know, please don't. But I this is a straight award for capital projects. This is pretty straightforward in terms of what we support. You approved all the projects. You approved 98 grants into initiatives and they are going as planned. Everybody that got an award is doing the very project that they applied for funds for. So I don't think you're going to see a situation like that arise in a program like this. Okay, great. I'm glad to hear that. I think that when I'm here, Councilmember Gossett. I wanted to ask Jim and look in that chair what you said earlier about the 2015 and 2016 overall budget, budget for for culture. Why would this tape and not be in it? Okay. I understand. That's very good. Very good question. Thank you for asking that. I meant to point out that what you saw for our budget did not include the Building for Culture program. And that's because typically any nonprofit, any corporation separates their operating budget from their capital budget. What I was showing you is an operating budget, what we expend day to day to support our programs. A capital budget is typically outside of any organization, whether it's a nonprofit or for profit. Their capital programs are outside of their general operating budget. It's a separate ledger. When I was executive director Camp, the Central Motivation Program, I had to show the board my capital as well as my operating budget and them. But they were separate budgets. I imagine they were two different budgets. They were legitimate budgets that you had to manage, but they weren't intermingled. Now they want to intervene. But when we told the board of directors what we got and everything at 6,000,002 and a half million, it was capital, we included that. We then leave that out. For audit purposes. We separate capital from operating. And then report on that separately. So I wanted to make sure I brought you up to date on where we were with the building for a culture. So this is my report about the capital piece of that. But it's a we just separate capital from because we don't always do capital building for culture when these funds are expended. We might not do this again for about five years. So at that point we'll be presenting solely our operating budget to you and we do our presentation. Thank you. But thanks for asking that. I meant to point out that what you were seeing in these slides did not include building for a culture, hence giving rise to your question. Councilmember Garcia and Ranking. Member Damascus question back. Me up on this is just I want to add a little levity to this situation. You've got on the slide Bob's Quality Meats, which is down in Columbia City. And to be honest, when I first saw this one coming through, I was a little bit skeptical until you learned that that's actually in an historic district that does not build the building is historic itself had suffered a fire. But I was reminded yesterday about how we can impact community and what you do. And invariably a buddy of mine has taken his daughter on a camping trip to show land. And here's his text, guys. Full Bob's butcher run with all the proteins, beautiful chicken, lovely fresh ribeye steaks, snappy dogs, homemade and homemade home smoked salami to be stolen by a bear. Provolone, bacon, sausages, farm fresh eggs. We will not starve. Well, you know, he lives down there and Bob's calling me. It's needed some help and making sure they were able to reopen after that fire. And they're in a historic structure. And I think it was a $200,000 grant, if memory serves correctly. But it matters now. I know Reagan likes owns meats or condos. So closer to his travels. But, you know, it's kind of a fun thing, but a similar thing. But this culture is impactful to people's daily lives. It's not just necessarily for, you know, an arts community thing. It really it really impacts folks. And I was reminded Kels will remember you talked about asked about projects, we gave a little bit of money, $20,000 to the Shrine Veteran's Recognition Memorial that opened on Armed Forces Day a few weeks ago. Three or 400 people from that community came to dedicate this memorial, which wouldn't have happened, frankly, I think are would in very difficult to get done without that money. It was not a large grant in the overall schemes, but it was very important to that project and the sense of community created there. You just it's irreplaceable. So those are just a couple of little examples of kind of on the ground impact to people's kind of daily lives. I thought I would mention here I. Should have Councilmember Dombrowski be a co-presenter with me because I forgot about those two completed projects. And I think it's and commendation to you, Councilmember Tim Bousquet, for supporting the Veterans Memorial up in Shoreline. That was very much an issue that I know was important to you. And I'm glad you mentioned Bob's quality meats, because sometimes people think that the only kinds of entities you can support are nonprofits. And Bob's Quality Meats has been in the family for 80 years. They are in a historic building. It is a landmark. It is worthy of grant funding to make sure we sustain the structures that are important to our community. And Bob's reopened as a result of that grant. For a while, they had had to close down and not only a loss to Bob and his family, but to the community. And now they're back in business. So thanks for highlighting that. I think I want to go camping with your friend. You get a menu, right? Yeah, that's. What I'm thinking. Next slide is just our annual report and I just wanted to show you where we're going to click on this link real quick. We used to publish an annual report, hard copy. It used to cost us about $30,000 a year to both publish it and then mail it. And then I you know, I hate to say it, but we end up with boxes of annual reports that would ultimately be disposed. So a number of years ago, we decided we weren't going to do an annual report in a hard copy to save the costs. But we tried to recreate the idea of reading an annual report with this electronic version. And as you click through it, it looks like a book and you can zero in on the pages, so you can actually see the letters large enough to read and it reads like a book. The only thing is it doesn't arrive in your mailbox and it doesn't cost us a dollar to send to you. So I just wanted you to see that it's online for culture, dawg. If anybody is interested in seeing our annual report listed in the annual report is every grant we gave in the year 2015, and then it's very end of the report. There's your pie charts, which are my favorite part of everybody's annual report, where the money come from and where did it go? So that's all part of the annual report and we'll click out of that. That probably wasn't worth the effort to go to the to the website, but there we are. So now I wanted to bring you up to date on other program activity, and I'm going to zip through this pretty quickly. Now, individual artists and group artists projects, we've gotten those behind us already. We had 303 applications for it from individual artists. We had 97 applications from group artist individuals. About 77 of those 303 applicants were funded. They requested something over $2.2 million. Unfortunately, we only had $440,000 and change to award. But nevertheless, those are some terrific projects that you'll be seeing over the next year. Groups, once again, we got the highest number of applications we'd ever gotten before. About 40% of the award recipients are first time award recipients, and that really demonstrates our outreach to new communities and some changes we did in the program, which basically say that if you received a grant the previous year, you have to sit out a year. It was an effort to consciously reach out and include more people. Heritage Projects had its award process already. We had 71 applications. We're funding about half of them. They requested a total of I don't have that data, unfortunately, but you can bet that it was twice what we had available. And I want to highlight two projects, mostly for Councilmember Dunn, because I don't often talk about District nine in this, but this is a project that was actually done by a group called Tall First Cinema, which has a home in District Night, and they did a documentary about the dual image tribe and what they got a grant for this year was $10,000 to do an education booklet to accompany that. And we did another grant in District nine, the city of Newcastle. Newcastle Historical Society applied for funding to do interpretive signs. Newcastle does have history that they want to highlight to their residents and visitors. So District nine got a couple of awards for the Duwamish Project and for the Heritage Interpretive Signs, and. I want to thank you for that, by the. Way, the Duwamish Project. I've heard of it, but the documentary. Where do we, where do we. Get a copy. Of that? Or I will be happy to get you a copy. You can probably get it online and I will send you the information. But if not, we'll get you a desk because it's always fun to watch these documentaries about our community. And it was produced by a company in your district. You know, the city of Newcastle, believe it or not, was the second largest city in King County for a period of time behind Seattle in the. Coal days, the late 1800s. In fact, there's a cemetery up there, which we should talk about. For next year that has. A gravestone. So people were. Born in the 1700s is a married extraordinary and they're all Eastern European Polish nature. German names. Exactly. Russian names. That's who came to mind here in the 1880s. So it's an interesting glimpse into history. Yeah. Thanks for sharing. Okay. Okay. So Skip now in preservation special projects, we got 20 applications, ten awards. We awarded about 80 $500. These included things like, just so you understand, the nature of preservation special projects. Part of it was the transforming the Auburn's historic post office into the new Auburn Arts and Cultural Center city of Bothell, which has their own landmark program, is doing a survey and doing new nominations is a cost to actually nominating historic properties. The city of Issaquah is doing a Historic Properties inventory. One of the first steps to preserving your historic infrastructure is identifying what do you have that needs preserving. So city this school got a grant to do that survey and those are the kinds of things we typically fund with preservation projects. Councilmember Garza has a question. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I wanted to tell Jen that also during the 1880s, the largest migration of African-Americans came to Washington state up in Roslyn, Washington, about 183. They came as strikebreakers, but most of them stayed and started homesteads and got active in the union there as a result of that. So it wasn't all Eastern Europeans. That's correct. As a matter of fact, in Rosalyn, if any of you ever go up to Rosalind, they have a historic cemetery. And the interesting thing about the cemetery is it's segregated by, you know, Lithuanian, German, African-American. And the community restored that cemetery about five years ago with a lot of sweat and love, not much money. And it's a beautiful cemetery that's really an homage to the people that you're right. That settled not only King County but eastern Washington, though I suppose Rosalyn is more central. But it's an interesting history that you can see of any community through its historic cemeteries. I was just there two weeks ago with my girlfriend. So Vanessa mentioned that you're Michael. Yeah, it is. Go ahead. Okay. Cultural equipment, that's deadline y is on May 18th. We haven't gone to panel yet. We got a total of 182 applications. We have about $250,000 to award. And I will give you an update of that after the board approves those recommendations. We haven't gone to a panel yet. Then I wanted to talk to you about two of the initiatives that came to the building. What is cultural equipment. Cultural? So it's any cultural organization needs equipment to to do their work. So equipment could be a theater company that needs a new dimmer board or lighting equipment. It could be any organization that needs a new computer or copy machine. It's fixed assets. Okay. Thank you. And that's you know, I'm glad you brought that up again, because it's very important when we think of capital projects, we tend to think of bricks and mortar, which are obviously very important. But and also another kind of capital investment is what you spend on the things you need to do your work. And that's a program that we fund. And there's two initiatives that we are funding with the building for culture money. One is the Preservation Action Fund. We'll do a presentation to the council probably in the next two or three weeks. I know the executive is getting ready to transmit that motion to you for the Preservation Action Fund. It's not a grant program. It is a action fund that would allow the proactive purchase, restoration and selling of historic buildings. And we'll give you more detail on that when we do our presentation. And the second one is community, not communities. We named this community for culture. That's our equity program. It is currently residing in the post office. They're looking to make sure it complies with all state, federal, local laws, and we're ready to launch that. It's a grant program. I've had numerous conversations with Council member Gossett and his staff about this. We're ready to launch. It's a grant of up to $25,000. To be eligible, you have to be an organization with a budget of $100,000 or less. So a small organization, one paid staff or fewer. One of the things we'd love to do with this program is infuse some cash into small organizations. So it will allow them not only to increase programing, maybe add staff to do their work. The application deadline is going to be ongoing. There's no apply by March 24th. Any time you feel an urge to apply for these funding funds, you can do so. All you have to do is write us a letter. Tell us who you are. What do you want to do with the money, how much you need? And we will review that letter, sit down with you, and work out a scope of services. Any letter that comes ten days before the panel review will be considered. So it's as simple as we could make a process to access funds for small organizations that are struggling to serve their communities. And we're looking forward to that. Councilmember Gossett thank you very much, Madam Chair. Joan, but you do have fellowships down here. Yes. Maximum 10,000 for individual artists only. Correct. Can we the people apply for those now, too? Yes. Correct. So what we thought we'd do initially, the first round will do organizations, the second round, three months later we'll do individuals and organizations. So what is a fellowship? How is it different than a grant? A grant is typically something that we give in exchange for a public service. So every grant that we give for a project, the grant recipient is required to do a public performance or some public presentation. In fact, we don't really legally use the word grant. We do awards because we're actually purchasing services. Not just giving grant fellowships are somewhat different because fellowships are designed to encourage an artist to explore their own mediums, their own disciplines, or to branch out into other areas. And what it does is it recognizes your work as an artist and it says, we want to help you create new work, but we don't want to put you to a deadline and say you have to do this. We want to support you as an artist to explore knowing that the investment we're going to make is going to come back to serve King County residents. So the fellowship will be available to individual artists beginning after the first round. So it's not my question. I've been are they the individual awards are available now. You said yes, but then you said three months later. So so first run around. They can't apply right now. They can apply, but we won't really consider them until after we do our this is a pilot program. We're getting this started. So we thought we'd start with organizations, then branch out into individuals. No reason other than trying to get our feet wet with the organization approach. No, I'm very excited about this program. I'm glad somebody that worked with you to get it started. No. That would be that would be council member. Gosh, that could be. So that they can't get a one page description and understand about just writing what. You want. So this is the application and deadline. So it's an ongoing deadline. Other words, there's no deadline. Any time you go to the website, you find it will promote it. We haven't promoted it yet. If you want to take a crack at one of these grants, either it's an organization or individual. Just follow the guidelines. It's a one page letter of interest. Can I get it? Because a lot of homies don't go to the computer to look for applications. Where can one get it? Excuse me, sir. Good question. I'm sorry. I don't have a computer. How was the first part of the course. In that conversation? But how would they know to call? Oh, we're doing our return. Well, I don't like the term. Just trying to establish connection with the community. Yeah, because I mean, a lot of groups have called my office, so I'm-I have them start calling you right away. I think that sounds like a splendid idea. Yeah, that's a very good question. I think that Miss Jackson. All right. It's not in our interest to create a program that people can't find and can't access. So any help you can give us to steer people our way would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, sir. Okay. And just wanted to quickly update that I've gone way too long. I did get bumped on June 24/14, though. So just to bring you up to date on poetry, on the busses, artists up and Creative Justice, three of our favorite sort of initiative programs floating around the busses is on the march again and application deadline this September. We're currently doing poetry workshops throughout the community. Good news is this year we got some additional partners that like the idea of poetry on busses and light rail. So we have sound transit. Who's joined us? City of Office, City Office of Arts and Culture has supported this program as well, and also Seattle Public Utilities because of the theme in poetry this year. It's your body of water and Seattle Public Utilities does water management. And I think they saw the opportunity to educate people about the importance of water management through this particular theme. So if you have an idea in mind and I know some council members on this days are in fact poets, if you have an idea of something related to your body of water, please submit a poem. Artists Up continues. It's our collaborative project with Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and Artist Trust to reach artists of very specific communities. This year we're focusing on ALANA artists, which are Asian, Latino, African-American and Native American communities. And this has been very successful in getting new artists to apply to our programs and to the Artists Trust and City Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Programs as well. And then finally, creative justice, though I wasn't able to present to you last time, I did leave some of those brochures behind. Creative Justice continues into year two. We've gotten some unexpected awards. We got two grants, Anonymous from the Seattle Foundation, one for $10,000 and one for $3,000. The $3,000 grant was specifically to buy materials. The participants could make art. And you can see some of the stats on the impact on kids that are enmeshed in the regional justice system. I was I'm very pleased to be following the presentation on the Family and Juvenile Justice Center. I was curious to hear how that was going as well. But you can see the stats in this. We had 48 artists in year one, another 48 artists in year two that will be working with 31 artists. Last year had charges dropped, ten charges against participants were reduced, 1300 hours of community service were counted as a result of participation in this program. And we think it's the kind of thing that came out of this juvenile justice center, a program that funded by our our public art allocation that has a long term impact. And the only regret I have this about this program is we have funds to serve about 48 youth a year. So in two years we'll have impacted 96 youth. And, you know, it's sort of sad when your impact is limited by your ability to invest in an outcome, but that's the reality. And then finally. Councilmember Gossett had a question. Okay. My question is on the I didn't know he said that council members can submit their poetry because I'm a poet and I didn't even know it. You know. That's a poem right there. Okay. Thank you. That's all I. Wanted. He. He made a challenge last year to me. A bet. You can't write a poem that will be accepted. So that's how come I did? They did. All right. So double down, double or nothing this year. Thank you. And I just want to leave you with something else. We're working on that I wanted to make sure you're aware of. Over the last couple of years, you have unanimously supported a resolution supporting the idea of cultural Access Washington, which was in the state legislature. It did pass the legislature very late in the 2015 extended session. And we are now looking at a ballot initiative that will probably be in November of 2017. That will be your call. But King County Council will play a critical role in development of this program. You're going to agree to put it on the ballot in either November or August of 2017. Your call, you're going to approve the program which defines how the funds are are actually spent, and you're also going to craft the ballot language. So that's what's looming ahead for you in. Supportive Cultural Access Washington, which I'm sure you'll hear more of over the next several months. November 17 is a year and a half away. Year and a half sounds like a long time to me, but in support of a public ballot initiative, as I understand it, a year and a half is not very long at all. So there will be a lot of work being done over the next year to hand you a program that you can get behind and feel very enthusiastic about putting on the ballot. And that's the end of my program. And that was a surprise to me. How big a ballot measure you're talking about? 2.1%. 1.1% sales tax increase. I was in sales. Talking about how much money can that bring in. The 10th of a cent in sales tax and King County generates about $55 million. Yeah. That's what we've been thinking, Jim. So that's the same ballot that the executives are looking at, a $1.3 billion acquisition that's going. To be 16, that's November 16. Sound Transit three. No, no, no, that's true. But in November 17, he's talking about doing a $1.3 billion land acquisition, not transportation and. Land acquisition for what? Or land all around King County for parks. So that could be a very busy ballot. And I'm hoping that we will have on that ballot money for the King County roads that can't really stand to much longer without any money. So could be a very interesting. Well, I'm not an expert on ballot initiatives, and I think the council will assign different initiatives to the appropriate ballot. Right. Well, that will be fun. We'll have lots of entertainment that year. Okay. Thank you very much. And thank you for all your hard work. Thank you. And the beauty. And as I look up every day when I'm in here and I look at that beautiful bannister up there, I think about how lucky we are that we have something beautiful up there that we can enjoy every day. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you. Members of the. Council, thank you very much. And thank you for all your work in Sky Commercial. So it's a very exciting project. Okay, so now we're going to move on to discussion and action on the next topic, which has to do with the gender neutral language in the King County Code. And so we'll take item six, six and seven together through Jim separately. I would suggest together. Okay. That's what I'm thinking too. Okay, good. So six and seven together. So that is proposed ordinance 2016 0311 and 03181 being an ordinance and one being a motion. So, Mr. Wagner, will you take them away? Thank you, Madam Chair. Nick Wagner, council staff. The staff report on these two pieces of legislation begins on page 57 of your materials, both proposed ordinance 2016 0311 and proposed motion 2016 0318 would help make the wording of the King County Charter and the King County Code gender neutral. And by gender neutral I mean wording. That does not imply that certain roles are suited exclusively or primarily to a particular gender. For example, the term fireman could be interpreted as implying that firefighters are normally men, whereas the term firefighter is free of that implication. The goal of making language gender neutral is not new, as shown by the excerpt from the 2003 edition of the Chicago Manual of Style that is quoted at the top of page 58 of your materials. Three years earlier, this Council had adopted what is now Section 1.03.120. A of the King County Code, which is quoted in the middle of page 58 and which requires the use of gender neutral, gender neutral language in the code that excuse me, that provision, however, is prospective only it does not affect the gender specific language that is already in the code or in the charter unless that language happens to be amended for other reasons. As a result, the transition to gender or gender neutral language in the code and the charter has been slow, as noted in proposed motion 2016 0318 the proposed ordinance and motion that is before you would address that problem, the ordinance would place on the November ballot a charter amendment making the charter language gender neutral. The ordinance, which is attachment one that pages 61 to 76 of your materials, is 16 pages long. There is also a technical amendment, Amendment One, which is attachment to a page 77 of your materials. Since the county code is much longer than the charter, making it gender neutral is a larger project in its original form. Proposed Motion 26. 0318. Would direct the Council Clark to develop a plan and timeline for the project. There is a proposed amendment, Amendment One, which is the attachment for page 83. However, that amendment has been superseded by Amendment two, which has been distributed to this morning, I believe, and which directs the Clerk of the Council to develop options for the Council to consider and provides guidance for developing those options. And my understanding is that the sponsor that Amendment two is considered a friendly amendment by the original sponsor of proposed Motion 2016 0318. In particular, Amendment two specifies that one of the options must be performing the work within existing staff resources. There's also a title amendment T one, which also was distributed this morning, which would conform the title to the motion as amended by Amendment two. And that concludes my staff report. Unless there are any questions. I don't have any questions, but I know we have an expert on board on this topic. So is there anybody like to make any comments on this? Councilmember Ko Well, since you're the expert, you want to comment? Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know that I'm an expert on this, but I do. I am experienced. Well, hopefully your experience makes you next expert. Sometimes that goes hand in hand. Not always. However, I'd like to give a little bit of background here in a couple of ways. First of all, I think it was in mid-January when other the other new council member, Claudia Balducci and I and our staff were receiving an orientation right here in our chambers on our charter and codes and many other things. And both Councilmember Bill Dutchie and I and our staff, both our staff, all of our staff had noticed when we were looking over materials that the charter had contains gender specific language. And what really caught my eye, and I believe the others, was that council members are referred to as councilmen or councilman throughout the charter. So we were very interested and we talked about it later and I talked to the various people here and we kind of put on our radar that this would be something that would be worthy of change. But we were just getting used to becoming council members too, so it all got delayed a bit. But I would like to back up to the year 2007 and in this year I had an experience that I had in which I had no idea what was going to be happening. As it all played out for many, many years that I had been approached by one of the city and Seattle Councilmember with a female firefighter who worked at that time, had worked for ten years as a Seattle firefighter, but she was referred to as the fire man in everything. And she thought after ten years of serving her community in a very, very high risk capacity, that she should not have to be called the council fireman any longer. And so they requested that I introduce legislation in the state Senate. And as we started looking into this and found that at the federal level, occupational and professional terms had been changed in the federal codes quite some time before that. And we looked into it and ended up I introduced legislation and you have a copy on a peer if you want to take a look. 2007. Which was an Gore's Senate bill eventually 5063. The bill report enacted is very short. Might take a look at it, but it specifically says that the code revised are in consultation with the statute. Law Committee must develop and implement a plan to correct gender specific references. Then the code making annual recommendations to the Legislature with completion by June 30th, 2015. So that started the whole process. We actually finished two years earlier. Each bill. During every legislative session during that time was like this that I and it was the 1983 that state they required that all statutes be written in gender neutral terms, just as was the case as Nick presented. And I think you said, Nick, that was 2000. That's right. Prospectively, but not retroactively. So a number of us thought that this would be something worthwhile to have completed, both in the charter, which involves a charter amendment. So we'd go before the voters next November. And in our code, having experienced this for so long, I do have one thing that I think is really important to bring out , and that is that in no way does any change require that our residents and our citizens speak in non gender specific language. They can still call people fire men if they want. There's nothing to do with what our citizens, our residents do. It's more what is reflected in our codes and this sense retroactively from before, nothing. Secondly, nothing would change the meaning of the codes, the substance. It's strictly the use of terms that are gender specific, changing to gender neutral. I have to say, Nick, I think you did a great job of making the changes in the charter for the proposed ordinance and ballot measure. Really good job on that. Thank you. It was a group effort, I should mention. And secondly, I if it's all right, I would like to have a code revise or I come by to ask him something specifically. Bruce Ritson if that's all right, Madam Chair. Certainly. Thank you, Bruce. When when you and and Nora. So Clare and Nick talked about this initially you contacted Kyle Bass and the legislative code advisor who worked with me all these years and got information from him. And I'm interested in the just you're giving a brief summary of what came out of those conversations for our work ahead if we do adopt it. Hi, I'm Bruce Ritson, the code advisor. Yes, I spoke a bit with Kyle Thiessen and some of his staff, specifically the attorneys who worked on the project. I think one of the things that we came up that would be different from us is that they have an interim time when they can work on projects that it's kind of a downtime for the legislature in the summer. And they dedicated about ten people to this project, two attorneys, but other staff members to the project. And they came, they had limitations. They had to work with specifically size limitations. So they worked up to about a 500 page per year limit. But even within that limit, they were able to complete the project two years earlier. As you mentioned. I think the one thing that comes to mind is that some of the things seem easier than they might be. Just on the surface of it, there were some things where they ran into words that either had some kind of limitations on changing them. For instance, something might have a federal term that is close to that that also been applied to them. And so they had to work out some things with different interest groups and experts. That was more than they were anticipating. I think the other thing to keep in mind is that they kept it extremely limited to just changing gender neutral terms. So it wasn't any other kind of clean up going on there with the language. So that that's the kind of thing I ran into. They were very helpful. They gave me their word list of what they used and other reference materials that they used and found helpful. The other thing that they pointed out is that in retrospect, they thought that maybe some other approaches may have been taken. For instance, instead of changing things like him, him to him or her, to actually cite the actor rather than introducing the him or her issue. So hopefully we'll be able. Get even a more improved product from that effort. The other thing is there's still some times when something sneaks up on them that they hadn't realized for whatever reason. Very occasionally. But that happens as well. Thank you very much, Bruce. And with that, I recommend both of these to you. And I think that it's important to note we do very serious work here at the council and we represent our constituents. This may seem as though it's not as important substantively compared to other work that we do, but I do believe that it is important and it's very symbolic, too, in terms of eliminating biases that we have in our code and in our codes and in our charter that I think can be handled. And I think it's the 21st century. I mean, this is something we should do. Well, thank you. So I have one question. Council members, this is your history with this. I might ask you to put it, for instance, here, that we use the Chicago Manual of Style. Have we as a council ever approved that or do we know? Madam Chair, that is simply a reference work that I cited as an example of a recognized authority that supports the use of gender, gender neutral language. Okay. Because I know that we use a style that everybody uses and the state level and there's some parts of that style like making King County the capital. I mean, little C's on county and and some kinds of rivers with little others that. As you said not too long ago, forget everything you learn in English, which is tough since I'm a former English teacher. So that bothers me. Why? Why are we doing that? Because I don't think that's what's being taught in college or in elementary schools. So it's it's jarring to read it when it's written like that. It is based on the approach that was taken by the state of minimal minimizing things like capitalization. It is a rather standard approach to take to writing, though. Mean it's not unusual. And in fact, some of many of the style manuals follow a similar kind of style. But we do have some specific rules that we selected. But it's you have to select one way or another. And we have gone in certain directions for making the choices. But it's also the approach is very much like the state took, and it's very similar to other states and other municipalities and how they approach it as well . Yeah. At some point I think we need to make a decision here. And I understand why there were typecasting days where you had to get the little other tool and, you know, whatever. But since it's all computerized, I don't see any problem with capitalizing words. And I'd be interested in knowing, does the University of Washington teach, you know, capitalize anything anymore? You know, when the universities are teaching, you don't capitalize anything that I'd be more comfortable saying. I swallow it. But until then, I really don't like it. So I just won't put that on the record that I think we at some point need to be looking to see how we want our charter to look. So people think that we're at least literate and so we don't drive old English teachers crazy, including me. Okay, so enough on that. The amendment that is here is for the other one. So let's take them separate for the book as well as an amendment. So Councilmember, were you put 2011 and 1216 03111 before us. Are you referring to me? Yes. Yes, I was. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I moved proposed ordinance 2016 0311. Thank you very much. And I believe we do have one technical amendment. Yes, there's a technical amendment. Amendment one on page 77 of your materials. Okay. It simply supplies a word that was inadvertently omitted. Okay. That's a really tough one. Councilmember, you put the amendment number one before us under the adoption of the amendment. All right. I think there's there's a reason for that one, for sure. So all those in favor of adding the word properly, please say I, I as opposed nay. All right. So now we go to the underlying motion as a motion or ordinance. This is an it's a motion underlying ordinance. This is a motion proposed motion. 2016 0318. No, I'm looking at 311131. Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse. So that's an ordinance, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So the underlying ordinance as amended, is before us. This is the charter amendment. Are those in favor, please? Sorry. Going to take comments or debate on this. Oh, so I didn't see anybody than I thought I would comment that and the second one. But it's long as I'm speaking, I can say very, very briefly that it was one of those interesting moments at the beginning, you know, of the first week here as a council member to be reading documents that referred to me as councilman. I want to I think there's probably but not not a not a coincidence that in the year when you have two new council members, both of us women, that this comes up. But if this trend continues, I want to assure my diminishing number of male council members that we're not proposing to change the council woman. We just want to make it, say, council member so you can all be included as well. Thank you. You're more gentle nature. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm glad to hear that. All right. Well, I'm glad to have two more council members who happen to be women on board. So with that, yes. Council member. Betty, I first of all, I would have no problem being called council woman. We're in a new era here. But I just wanted to take a moment to thank, actually, both council members, Cole, Wells and Vale duty for taking up this issue. And just straight back or just harking back to a little bit of history, it's appropriate that Council member Cole Wells is the prime sponsor of this charter amendment. She represents District four on the Council and District four elected the first woman to the new King County Council, Bernice Stern. That was in 1968, after the voters approved the Charter amendment, creating this Council on changing from a three member commissioner form of government. Renee Stern's campaign theme was, quote, We need a woman on the new nine man, King County Council. So today, that anachronism and hope is being fixed. And and that's, I think, all for the good. And I think it's very appropriate that the councilmember from District four has taken the lead on it, given the history here. Thank you for that bit of history. And I'm sure Bernice is looking down with a smile. Councilmember Robinson. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Councilmember Dombroski, for that little bit of history lesson for us. I'd also like to thank Councilmember Lambert because she was very involved with this effort as well and very supportive and has made really good suggestions as well as on the motion that will come up right after this. And I really appreciate all the support. We have six sponsors on this proposed ordinance, which I very much appreciate. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So now we are ready for the clerk to call the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Belge. Councilmember, dumbass. Councilmember Done. All right. Councilmember Garcia by Councilmember Carlos I Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember Up The Grove Councilmember by Mike Bauer. Madam Chair, I am chair with seven Eisner notes and council members McDermott and Broderick are excused. Excellent. So on this, the next question will be next week. Do we need something that will say who? Right. The pros and the cons statements for this? Yes. Assuming the council takes final action in support of the amendment, that would be the next step. Okay, that's what I thought. So if you could start preparing that and I'm assuming Councilmember Caldwell's that you would want to be one of the names. So anybody else interested in, you know, being a pro on this, let us know. And so we'll be ready to do that or didn't see any calls here, but anybody who's interested can do that. All right. So now we're at the motion sheet, thousand 60318 and this is going into the code and we've been briefed and we've been briefed on the amendment. And so amendment number one has been pulled because it was improved in amendment number two. So I want to say something to you. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Gossett. Madam Chair, we forgot to ask you whether you wanted to expedite this and whether you want it on consent. Well, I don't think so, because I think everybody want to speak to it. So expediting, okay. Expedite, but not on consent. Thank you for asking that. Okay, so let's put this before us. Councilmember Caldwell's, will you put 20 60318 before us? Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I proposed motion 2016 0318 before us. Thank you. And Councilmember Bell, did you would you move your amendment? Amendment two. Thank you. Would you like to speak to it at all? I would think. Okay. And thank you for joining me on this amendment. The motion, it's also asks for a a report or workplan from our county clerk that explains how we're going to go through this process of amending the entirety of the King County Code, which has been reported that if it was printed out, which it isn't any longer, about 6000 pages. So it's a it's a body of work. And what the amendment would do is ask that the clerk, when she provides us the draft workplan for approval, include options. I wanted us to be mindful of the fact that we're going into a year when we're going to have county functions really pressed for for funding in our budget. We have a budget shortfall coming up. And so as we go forward with this work, I just wanted to be thoughtful about the fact that we should do it in a way that is the least impactful to staff workload, both in the council side of the government and in the executive branch and in the other place. We might need to look for help, but also mindful of the costs so that we minimize the cost. It's an important thing to do, but it can be done over time and that I think we should do that in a way that both gets it done and is thoughtful and mindful of our budget constraints as a county so that the purpose of the amendment as offered and I can answer any questions if anybody has any . Thank you. I thank you for that amendment. And I and I agree with everything you said it's important to do, but we need to keep it in balance with everything else that's important to do in the county. So all those in favor of Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do support this amendment and I appreciate councilman respected she and Lambert bringing it forward. Everything in here, I believe, was implied, but I think it's really helpful to have it specified. So thank you. Thank you for a collaboration on all of this. And so all those in favor of amendment number two, please say those opposed nay, the amendment is approved and now we have the underlying major motion. Yes, there's a title amendment because of the passage of amendment. Okay, I may move amendment one. Do we have that someplace? It's in the packet that was handed out with amendment to it. It just changes the title to say Develop Options for how to apply gender neutral references. Okay. Great. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. Although I am in favor of the title amendment, please say I. I as opposed name the title amendment and thank you for catching that. All right. Thank you. All right. Now we urge the underlying motion. And so any final comment? Okay. Others could please consider that. Thank you, madam chair. Councilmember Chai councilmember number five councilmember Dan all Councilmember Johnson. AAM councilmember for well I Councilmember McDermott councilmember of the world I don't remember fun writer. Madam chair I know those councilmembers McDermott and Don are excused. Excellent. So that is let's do the same thing with expedite so the be at the same time but not I'm concerned. Okay. I don't see any other business. Is there any other business to come before the body at this time? With that, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Don't forget to.	A MOTION directing the clerk of the council to develop options for how to apply gender-neutral references throughout the King County Code.
king_7f48ad76-87a2-4bdf-8653-8da5ead48ddb	Welcome to the January 17th, 2018 meeting of the Committee of the Whole. Thank you for your patience. When we get a little bit of a late start here today. Today, the committee will be discussing an appointment to the Harborview Medical Center Board of Trustees, an ordinance to establish a King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission, an ordinance approving two agreements with the Joint Labor Management Insurance Committee related to accountable health networks, healthy incentives and health plan designs and motions, and acknowledging two solid ways reports. So with that, I'll ask the clerk to go ahead and call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski here. Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett. Here. Councilmember Caldwell's. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne Rank. Power, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you very much. The committee of the whole offers the public the opportunity to make comments on items on today's agenda. Each person will have 2 minutes to speak. Public comment must address an item on today's agenda and may not be used for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office. And if the speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, they will be ruled out of order. So I don't have a sign in sheet. Looks like there's nobody signed up. Is there anybody here who would like to speak to the committee this morning? Anybody here who would like to speak to the committee this morning, seeing none will move on to approval of the minutes. And I'll ask Councilmember McDermott for a motion to approve our December six meeting minutes. Madam Chair, I would love the Council to join me in approving the council meeting minutes of December 6th. It has been enthusiastically moved and is before us. Any comments or changes? All those in favor of approving the minutes please signify by saying i, i any opposed? All right, so this brings us to motion number 2017 0507, a motion to appoint Cheryl Whitney, who I think we all know from our time here at King County to the Harborview Medical Center Board of Trustees to fill the remainder of a four year term. Cheryl's from District six, my district. I'm delighted she's agreed to serve on the Harborview board. She's here with us today, along with Patrick Gallagher of our council staff, who will present the item. Please go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council members, for the record, Patrick Homemaker Council staff. As you noted in your introduction, Ms.. Whitney has been appointed to the Harborview Medical Center Board of Trustees by the county executive. She will be serving out the remainder of a four year term that runs through the middle of July 2020. So it's got about three and a half years, about three years left in the Harborview Medical Center board is comprised of 13 members, nine of them appointed by districts, and four at large by the county, the county executive, the board as the representatives of King County at Harborview Medical Center and oversees its operations, including the selection of the executive director. The since 2011, Ms.. Whitney has been co-owner of Whitney Jennings, a Mercer Island based full service management consultancy. And prior to that, Ms.. JENNINGS Ah, excuse me. Mr. Whitney served as a consultant to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those are her more recent positions. And as you noted in your introduction, Madam Chair, she has a long history of almost 20 years with King County, and her final position at King County was as deputy county executive, so that I would conclude my remarks. Madam Chair, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Also with us today is Jennifer Yu, who serves as a staff at Harborview and is the staffer who's coordinates the board appointments. Very good. Thank you. Mr. Hamacher, I want to ask a question. Then I'll call on Councilmember Gossett. I just want to ask Miss Whitney if you would take a moment just to tell us about yourself and your interest in serving on the board. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the council I sat in, probably not this chair, but one like it. And for my confirmation as a department head here and a King County. And I'll be honest with you that I think I feel as nervous now as I did as I did on that day. There's something about public service. It never fails to be weighty, and I think that's as it should be. So I cannot tell you what an honor it is to be sitting here and to be considered for this position. I fully understand that a board position with Harborview is big and this institution is a jewel in this region and means so, so much so. I I'm I'm I'm honored throughout my career at the county, as Pat mentioned, I spent almost 20 years here at King County. Throughout my career, I had the opportunity to be up at Harbor View on many, many, many occasions. And I have watched the staff there perform at. Miracles. But as impressive as the life saving work that I have watched them do is the grace and the dignity that they treat each individual that is in front of them. And the grace that they show is so incredible and so powerful that the opportunity to have the opportunity to be a part of that culture is an incredible opportunity and honor and one that I really look forward to. I was asked to say a little bit about myself in terms of my history and how that might be of use to the board. And I would say that I a number of things, but what I hope is that my understanding of the leadership here at King County, of the systems here at King County, that so many of the faces have changed, those systems remain. And whether it's jail health or public health, human services and their daily interactions with Harborview, I hope that my my understanding of those organizations and those agencies is useful. I will say that I, I got my beginnings at King County in the Budget Office. So I know a great deal about the difficulty of balancing a budget for this institution. I hope my understanding of that work is useful here. I at one point served as the deputy director of what used to be executive administration, the general government department that housed the facilities management function. So I hope that that role will also be useful as the board is looking at potential facilities issues on into the future. And the very last thing I would say is that I was honored to be a part of the original work, King County's original work on equity and social justice. I'm incredibly proud of where that work has has gone. But that is a lens that I know from speaking with the staff at Harborview is critical to them. So I hope that I bring that perspective to the work each day. So thank you so, so very much and thank you for being willing to serve. Councilmember Gossett And then Councilmember one right there. Thank you. My first question, Madam Chair, is for Patrick. And I wanted to know, is she a District Six appointee or one of four at large? She's a she is an appointee representing District six. Okay. Thank you. I know. I can. Help her. She she sat on somebody's knee when she was three and she was already impressively articulate person, even as a little girl. I went to college with her uncle, so I'm really looking forward to this. But I have now I have a question for you. I put my professional hat back on. It was nice to hear what you said about the staff in general at Harborview, from your observations. But what if it were brought to your attention as a new board member that some low income patients of one of Harvey's clinics came to? The board or the board found out that there are allegations that they're being abused or misused are not treated adequately. I want to know how you would handle that kind of situation. And thank you for the for the question for the important question. And you will note in my comments that because I have I have seen firsthand and under very difficult circumstances the incredible grace of the staff at Harborview that I would find it I would find it shocking. But as someone who has been a part of the management structure of this organization with 13,000 employees, and knowing that there isn't perfection that that takes place every day, you do have to step in and you do have to step in seriously and raise issues. And when you when you hear them and you have to do it immediately. So I would have no I would have no hesitation about raising it with Paul and with the staff. And in fact, I would see that as my obligation. I'm sorry that Paul Hayes is the executive director at the hospital. My apologies. To. Councilmember Gordon right there. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I want to thank Councilmember Garcia for clarifying where he began his remarks. In this era of getting nervous, everybody is is a long term relationship and friendship. Cheryl, first of all, congratulations and thank you for your willingness to serve. Those of us who have worked with you in the past and know the skills you're bringing. And I want to thank Councilmember Claudia Baldacci for recommending you for this confirmation. I share with you my belief that our review is one of the one of the gems of King County, who truly has produced a service that across the board, blue collar, white collar, no car is happening. A hospital that has received and served so many people, and those of us who have had relatives or friends who have gone there, have always, in my case, received nothing but positive feedback by the people who work there, because a hospital alone is not what makes it work. It's the people who work there and the service they provide and the quality of service and care. And I agree with you, I've heard nothing but positive feedback as you look at the budget, which something that you've had a keen background with with Executive Sims, as you look at the problems, the financial problems, what are some of your personal and professional concerns about the place of medicine and general and specifically as it relates to Harborview? So thank you. I have as because I haven't yet attended a board meeting. I'm not I'm not deeply ensconced in the the on the details of of harbor of his budget. But certainly as as a resident of this county, of this state, as a citizen of the U.S., when you look at the overall issues that frame and Medicaid and the health care structure in general, we're in a period of flux and it's it's unknown what's going to happen with that. So I'm I go in with a very clear eye as to the importance of and of health insurance and whether or not the fragile population that Harborview serves will continue to have access to health care and what that means in terms of reimbursements and just the bottom line for the hospital. So that is one of the things that I will be I'd been watching it before and having this honor to be sitting on this board. It's something that I've been extremely passionate about. And so I am I'm deeply, deeply concerned and interested in that you might see in my. Resumé that I'm also a board member at DSC Downtown Emergency Services Center and at DSC. We are on we are working on issues of behavioral health, particularly on that and how that interfaces with primary care and the funding and of of both of those systems. So I have a very a very keen eye for that and will be we'll be watching and to see how how I can be useful and where we proceed as a country in addition to to what's happening here in the region. Well, again, I think the only constant in this world is change. And we see the change every hour and day and the needs by which health care. I sat on our board for 12 years. The Franciscan Health System, which is a nonprofit, takes in St George, St Clair, St Francis, St Anthony's. I wish I was looking for fire insurance, but at the end of the day, we looked at change. And and my concern again is about mergers and how we try to figure out ways to make the hospital financially secure it. We're we were a nonprofit, obviously a Franciscan health system, but you're a nonprofit. And again, unfortunately, nonprofits can end up in debt and then collapse. And right now, I look at the some of the challenges facing UW medicine in general. And our review in particular. And I'm worried. So I think it's really important that someone with your background understands as much as we may want to serve as many and as often and as much, we may collapse the system in the process. So it's very important to bring your judicial and balanced view to understand there is a price to be paid and a financial accountability in the long run. So I agree. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I can't remember Up the Grove, followed by Councilmember Lambert and Councilmember Dan Belsky. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks for your willingness to serve. As you well know, Harborview has a unique mission, at least in this state, in terms of that public mission. And there's a special relationship between the county and medicine, and we value them as a partner. But there are times where the values and priorities may differ between the senior staff at UGA Medicine and the Board of Regents versus the County Council and the county executive. And we've tried to spell out in our agreement certain values and sometimes we interpret those differently and we see it most notably around employee relations sometimes. And I think often a majority of this body and the county executive view part of that public mission as setting the example for how we treat employees. And often we've seen you dub medicine in the in the desire to save costs really kind of do that hard nosed business model. Bottom line, how do you navigate that? Where do you see your responsibility as a board member when there is sort of a little bit of a difference in approach and values between You Dove Medicine and King County over issues like particular employee relations or compensation and contracts and things like that. And it's a challenge, right? I mean, it's a it's a big deal. It's a challenge. But this is in my mind, this is public service. And the the the varying points of view, the bottom line and the care that we want everyone to receive. All of these things require a balance. And I have and after the 20 years of battle scars here, I, I just I don't have fear about this issue of I'm trying to because because I believe that that everyone is trying to get to the best possible place as it relates to providing excuse me, providing services to the community. So knowing that we have our eyes on the prize of how we're trying to move forward and trying to then be able to reconcile and and work through tough issues. And I, I think that's I think that's the job of the board. Right? I think that's I think that that's our responsibility to hear where all the concerns are and then to set to set to set a course. So I'm in the end on the hypothetical of, you know, what may come about. And I'm I'm I'm not afraid of that and have spent 20 years of my county government career doing precisely that, listening to to the various concerns, understanding the financial impacts. And but I'll say about the employees that they are the miracle. I mean, they they are what is what is making that that place move. And so their their concerns and their ability to do a good job has to be a North Star for for the organization. And I and I hope I hope that to be the case because, in fact, they're the ones when you when you talk to anyone who has had an interaction up at Harborview, it's how they were treated, the expertize that was brought to their room and that and the dignity that they were shown. All of that is critical so that the employees as far as I felt this way when I worked at King County, I'll bring that attitude to to this board that the that the Louisa are central to this as a Lambert thank you to you and your expertize and it gets to the adage if you want something done, ask a busy person. So thank you for being able to do that. And everybody said what I wanted to say, so I'll just say ditto. On the idea of interfacing the DC population with the Harborview population and also 1811 House and. Now those facilities have one another mutually to make sure that people are treated with respect and also on a path to changing their lives. And also the the contract that we have that's wonderful with your job and making sure that their financial viability going forward doesn't negatively impact us. And having that really clear conversations, that may not be easy. And I know for your experiences here and sitting in conversations I watched, I know you can have those conversations quite well. So thank you for being willing to say, Hey, customer. TOMASKY Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for bringing this nominee forward. She touched on her experience in the Budget Office, which at the time was done on the fourth floor of this building. If I ask you, you're dating me. But yes. Oh, I'm dating myself. I'm dating myself. I worked across the hall. I mean. Yes, in executive. Walks, the executive. Office because it was there, too. Absolutely. But Cheryl, I think you touched on this in the response that comes up, the gross inquiry. I think one of the most powerful tools you will have as a board member, an independent board member representing the best interest of the hospital. Its mission is its budget approval for the hospital. Right. And your budget experience and your expertize there, I think will be a very powerful and that plays into, I think, a lot of the issues that we care about with respect to how we look to Harborview to serve its mission population. Yeah. And in the course of our negotiations with the updated contract with the University of Washington, which I encourage you to read and a motion surrounding it, we updated that mission, keeping it central tenants, but emphasizing them to make sure we reminded the hospital that we're there to serve that mission population is those who are uninsured, immigrant and refugee communities, you know, traditionally underserved populations. And even with the Affordable Care Act, I think, as you know, there's still five or so percent, maybe more of the population who are not covered by insurance because of the exclusions in that. And I'm I'm hopeful that we as a community working in partnership with Harvey and you that medicine can look at filling that gap which would be consistent with our reviews mission and would be interested in working with you on that. Great. With respect to the budget, I'm not sure I have some questions here. We just want to get well dialog. Now, one of the things that we did with the Harborview Agreement with University of Washington was for the first time ever, strike a deal where you don't mess and pays about. I think that we're only $5 million a year into our public health fund now. They can do that in cash or trade. So far it's been cash, but those dollars have been life saving for our public health department that's been cut there. And I want to call that provision to your attention. There's there's a that's a challenge is the budget is tight in the medicine world and, you know, medicine and and I ask that you watch that and be continue to be supportive of that because it's you talked about keeping our eye on the north star of serving the population it well it's two different entities public health and you're missing they are serving that same part. Of the country. Because we were up the grove talked a little bit about employee relations and labor and there are some provisions in the contract new that address labor relations. And unfortunately, from my perspective, it's continued to be an ongoing struggle. And I was very pleased to hear your response to concern about the groans about your commitment to the workers, because they are the health care is not the building. That's right. It's not the machines necessarily. But but it's them. And I hope that you'll carry that philosophy forward. And absolutely. And remember that as a trustee, you're, of course, there for the for the community. Like my question getting to it is I noticed in your publications that you've got extensive experience and work on issues surrounding equity and social justice and leveling the playing field. Yes. And you are no doubt aware of the major demographic shifts where our review at one time was in the epicenter of probably the community that was least served in terms of access to quality health care. But geographically, now, many of those patients live far away right now, you know, is a terrific partner and maybe helping solve the challenges that creates because of their clinic footprint throughout the county. And I wondered if you've got thinking or ideas about how we could take Harborview and its wonderful partnership with you, that medicine to it to address disparities countywide, particularly as they become more geographically spread and. Great. Great question. Great issue. And I so I'll be honest with you, that that my. My uninformed kind of knee jerk reaction to that would be to talk about that footprint of clinics that are that are spread throughout the region, that that's absolutely critical and you're absolutely spot on that the how the population and that we see the. They call it the in academia the suburbanization of poverty that it is that that we need to think so differently about these issues. I talked about my work at DSC, where we're working with this chronic homeless, mentally ill population and its work has been centered in in Seattle, but that we have been talking as a board about how are we supportive to those communities that are that are seeing the same issues that are taking place around around the county. So this is on top of mind and deep and heart for me as an issue. And very, very I'm very clear that that the city of Seattle itself is not the sole epicenter and that that these issues are are around the region. So I, I carry that issue with me in my lens about service provision. And I hope to, to understand this more thoroughly and what is actually happening on the ground, because I know a couple docs that work out in the surrounding the surrounding communities. I know that those services are taking place, but I would but it's something they need to know a lot more about and what access looks like for people. Who are at the heart of. Of harbor views, service population. I want to give Councilmember Gossett the last word here. I thank you. One final question. I appreciate that, Madam Chair. And this is I kind of follow up on what Councilmember Dombroski was asking, you know, about staff relations. While you were one or Ansell's top deputies, he was successful in getting a couple of policy changes through the King County Council, one of which had to do with contracting out. So we actually passed some policies and that for these workforces, King County has a policy of not allowing those services to be contracted out. So hypothetically speaking, if a situation arose where the University of Washington has day to day managers at the hospital say, well, we need to save money. So these workers at Harborview or that are served by Harborview, we don't have to, you know, contract that out because we've got to save money. Just I mean, you can vote the way you want to vote for. What would you take into consideration and taking that kind of vote should you be confirmed today? And I would be I would be thinking about precisely the issues that we thought about here when we were talking about not wanting to degrade our service level for for a bottom line. What we one of the things that I feel very proud of King County government for is working with employees, working with labor in order to solve heart problems and the the unions and what we you know, we have many here at King County are not and are not naive about what about the financial position. So I don't come at this thinking it's an it's an us versus them or it's that black and white. I my tendency because my experience is that working with employees and working with labor, that you actually get to some good, you get to some good answers. And that translates into a bottom line as it did here when we worked on health care issues. And that actually worked and in pocket actual real life savings, not glossy and not just happy talk, but real life savings. So my my inclination is to try to be working in partnership and to see where we can actually achieve that, you know, what's real, that you need to balance the budget. But at the same time, being able to work with the people who know that work in order to be able to come up with solutions. I've seen it. We've all seen it. We we have done that here. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And I really. Appreciate your being here and answering all our questions. I think we're all i, i although this is one of the longer interviews we've done, I think everybody's very excited to, to have your expertize and deep experience and obviously carrying on on the board. So at this point, I would entertain a motion to approve proposed motion number 2017 0507 appointing Cheryl Whitney to the Harborview Medical Center Board of Trustees with a do pass recommendation. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to make that motion. I'd like to propose motion. 2017 0507 the do pass recommendation. Thank you. And moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? All right, all those in favor please signify by saying I. I opposed. All right. I thought we had broken. Oh, I'm sorry. Is that a roll call vote? Let's call the roll. Thank you. Thank you. Council member and Staff Council Member. Dombrowski Council Member. Dunn Council Member. Gossett I Council Member. Commonwealth Council Member. Lambert High Council Member. McDermott High Council Member of the Grove. Council Member. Von Richter. I. Madam Chair, I. Madam Chair, the vote is seven is no nos. Council members Dunn and Caldwell's excused. Thank you. By your vote. You have passed the motion and thank you again for your service. This can go on concerns and most people want to revisit and invite Miss Whitney back again. All right. Well, let's put it on consent and on regular order. And this will come before the council in two weeks. Thank you so much. I know it's a it's going to be very exciting to work with you. All right. Our next item is ordinance number 2017 0481, which would establish a King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission. This was a follow up to a recommendation by the King County Immigrant and Refugee Task Force. And today we're just receiving a briefing. And here to brief us are council staff members Andrew Kim and Mike Reid. Welcome. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mike reads as deputy counsel. I'm here, as you indicated, with Andrew Kim, and we will provide a brief bit of background on this. This ordinance actually starts on page 17 of your packets. So as you've indicated, Madam Chair, that the discussions on this this topic began in 2015 when the council was presented with information about the increasing numbers of new arrivals from throughout the world that were settling in King County. Demographic and sensitive information confirmed that there had been a significant increase in the immigrant refugee population. Council discussions at that time centered on means to address the challenges faced by these populations, as well as means of assuring access to county services for these populations. The concept of a commission had been suggested as a means to address these concerns. The parameters, however, of such a commission were uncertain, particularly regarding representation on a such a commission. So the the council at that time in 2015 established a task force on immigrant refugees to make recommendations about the shape and character of such a commission. Again, addressing representation and addressing structure, addressing its purpose and the duties of such a commission. That task force began meeting in October of 2015 and continued this meeting through through June of 2016. I'd held meetings throughout the county and it hosted input from a significant number of members of the immigrant Mexican community to get their their ideas about the shape and character of such a commission. A final report was developed and issued in July of 2016. That report actually is in your packets, I believe, on page 39 of the packet. That became the basis for the development of the measures before you today and which resulted from discussions between the executive and the and council staff for its formulation. Andrew will take it from here. Thank you, Mike. Good morning, Madam Chair. And Council Members, Andrew Kim, a council central staff. I'll continue the briefing by summarizing key provisions of the proposed ordinance. This can be found on page 19 of your staff report. Section three outlines the purpose of the Commission. The two primary responsibility of the Commission are one to act as a central point of contact, communication and coordination of all stakeholders serving and engaging immigrant and refugee residents. The the task force states that this responsibility would fill a significant gap, since no organization or group plays a central role. The task force also states that this will help to take a regional approach to complex issues that stretch across multiple municipalities. And the second responsibility, primary responsibility, is focus on. Focusing on understanding and addressing challenges faced by immigrant and refugee communities living in suburban cities and unincorporated areas of the county. The task force states that this responsibility would help alleviate the lack of county resources invested in suburban and incorporated communities, which disproportionately impact the immigrant and refugee communities . Going to page 20, Section four outlines the criteria of the 17 member board where 13 are voting members and four are non-voting members. I won't list each criteria here, but you can find the criteria of the voting members on page 20. The four non-voting members are to be community leaders that are actively engaged with local government, business or philanthropy, philanthropic organizations to raise the visibility and capacity of the Commission. Section five outlines the joint effort between the Council and executive in conducting outreach to solicit candidates. It also directs that the list of candidates for appointment would be finalized by a Joint Committee of Executive and council representatives and past commissioners. Section six requires the Commission to produce an annual report to the Council and to make the annual report. Related briefly and related briefings available to the community. Section seven requires the Commission to convene at least monthly with four Commission meetings to be held in suburban cities or unincorporated areas and to hold at least one large community briefing each year. Section eight requires that an employee from the Office of Equity and Social Justice and one Council employee staff the work of the Commission. And lastly, Section nine requires the executive to reimburse Commission members for travel expenses and or parking fees for attending meetings, starting on the bottom of page 21 Staff Writer. Some additional analysis the proposed ordinance incorporates, as Mike said, most of the recommendations from the Immigrant and Refugee Task Force report. However, it does not incorporate all the recommendations. Some of the key differences include. Number one, the task force recommended providing an honorarium or stipend to commissioners. However, this is not included in the proposed ordinance. Another difference is that the task force recommended three staffing options where they strongly recommended an option to establish an office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. The proposed ordinance shows the lowest cost staffing option of of providing one FTE to support the work of the Commission. And lastly, the task force provided no recommendation on age as a factor for Commission membership. But the proposed ordinance includes a requirement that members should represent a range of age groups, including persons representing youth issues. Lastly, the annual cost to support the work of the Commission is estimated to be approximately $147,000. The breakdown of that cost is listed on page 23. Madam Chair, that concludes our staff report. And and we have several members of the Immigrant and Refugee Task Force joining us today and as well as executive staff from the Office of Equity and Social Justice. Okay. Thank you for that briefing. I understand, Councilmember Garcia, your office has been working on this. Would you like to say a few words or begin the discussion? Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I have some questions for our staff, but I'm also going to have some questions for the folks that he mentioned that are present. First of its staff, why does it say that this commission will only deal with issues relative to immigrant and refugee folks who reside in unincorporated Kane County or the suburbs? The reason I ask that is that I represent a district that's 90% okay in Seattle, and I've had bukele meetings. I mean, I've had many meetings in South Asia with Eritreans, Ethiopian Somalis, Thai Vietnamese and on the recent killing and and not dealing with refugee problems in the city of Seattle. What's the thinking? Yes, Councilmember, let me clarify that. So the work of the commission doesn't exclude the work that they would do for the entire county, but it does and includes the city of Seattle and other areas of King County. But what it does do is that it calls out the commission to focus on issues concerning immigrant refugees that live in the suburban and unincorporated areas. So rather than is not limiting their work to those communities, but it's asking them to make that a focus of their work. And I might I might briefly add that you may recall that that over the course of the work, the task force, there was input from members of the community, noting that historically the focus had been on immigrant refugee communities within within urban areas or within the cities themselves or within the city, Seattle in particular. But that there was an increasing concern about the limited access and limited resources that were available to immigrants and refugees who lived in suburban cities or in the unincorporated area, which tended not to receive the same degree of attention. So this was an attempt to highlight and focus on the the that concern. Okay. And Andrew or Mike, originally somebody said that they thought the commissioners should get paid 20 that idea come from. So the concept of the honorarium or stipend was recommended by the task force. So in the task force report which is attached to to your staff report, they they recommended that that the the commission members be compensated for their work because many of the commissioners are often overworked and asked to serve on many other committees. So that was the task force's recommendation. But it's not included as as part of this proposed ordinance. It's not a part of it. See, because I've been involved in I think I've been a county council member for 24 years and we've set up a lot of I mean, I was the sponsor of the Civil Rights Commission back in 96, and my co-sponsor was Kent Pullen. So we wanted bipartisan support. And then I've been involved in sort of a lot of task force and advisory groups and never have we had as part of the mandate to pay people for the advice that they give us. So my fear was that if we set a precedent here, we'd have them all coming back, say, we're overworked and we're giving our service like watch all because that wasn't paid time. So I'm kind of happy that wasn't included in the final document. Thank you, Manager. Thank you, Mr. Bassett. Any other councilmember up the grove? Thank you, Madam Chair. And this may be a question for the sponsor, unless staff has some context. Well, one one super quick, easy question. And then the one I was saying, one is the assumption and I didn't look at the fiscal note. Are there funding sources other than general fund available? Were that 147 likely come out of general fund? It would most likely be coming out of the general fund. A majority of that cost is its personnel cost. And the executive staff have noted that that 0.5 FTE that was staff that commission is that there's an existing employee in the Office of Equity Social Justice. So we wouldn't be adding additional funds, but it would be kind of existing expenses, right. At least from the executive side on the council side, that that has yet to be determined. But yeah, which was my question. And this I don't know if it's more appropriate for the sponsor or to see if you to take a stab at it. In terms of the rationale for having part of the staffing come from the county council staff, it's a little bit different. We the Women's Commission, the Civil Rights Commission, or many of our other county task forces. Art. We have staff here that will support our work on those, but we don't have dedicated staff, that is, to staff the commission and wondering what the thinking was in terms of why. Why for this particular commission, we would have the legislative branch provide part of the staff support. And so against I just kind of want to understand it. Yeah. So when, when, when, when we were drafting the proposed ordinance with members of the different council offices because the immigrant and refugee work was more of a collaborative approach, even the task force, I think, I believe, was staffed by a council staff member and an executive staff member. I believe they wanted to take that collaborative approach to the commission as well. So which is the reason for that? I I'm going to add to that because you said maybe the sponsor might want to say something about this. I support the idea of the commission having on staff and that would be half from the executive and a half from us. But my rationale is more political than anything else. With half the staff, the half time staff person being a part of our staff, the I think that the accountability of that person to the priority issues relative to immigrant and refugee populations in King County that are now almost 19% of the total, we'd have more of a say compared to where they are leaving the staff support and the staff are all in the executive. That was my thinking. Thank you. Any other comments or questions. This is not actually a we can take action today if we're prepared to, but it was on for a first briefing today. So it's the looking around to see the will of the body. Then we will want to just do it. I'm seeing some desire to do it. Councilmember Garcia, would you be willing to put proposed ordinance number 2017 0.1 before us? But of course, I don't care. I refuse. Yasmin, it is commendable. I would like to propose that the King County Council adopt ordinance number 2017. That's 0481, establishing an immigrant and refugee commission here in King County. It's been moved by the do pass recommendation. Any other comments or discussion before we move to a vote? I will say just one thing. I want to appreciate the members of the commission who worked so hard and on a volunteer basis to to make these recommendations that were now starting to move forward with, thank you for your work. I see a lot of friendly faces out there and thank you Martires also for being along with us. I look forward to seeing this body come together and I'm excited about the work that we'll be able to do with this kind of support from the community. All right. Councilmember Tomasky, the. Thing that I'm sure just very briefly, I appreciate the action here by the committee today. I want to also thank the members of the task force. A couple of years ago, when my office was working with Councilmember Gossage to kick start this initiative, I said, why don't we just form the commission? Let's just let's just cut to the chase. Why don't we just have one? And my staffer, Christina Logsdon, who's put a lot of work into this, said, well, you'll get a better product if you work with the community. And I think that today's legislation bears that out, that the task force process and the deliberative approach that they've taken in conjunction with the executive's office has led to a thoughtful proposal, I think, before us today that will stand the test of time. And so I just want to take a moment to thank the task force for their thoughtful work and thank my staffer, Christina Logsdon, for her work on this and commitment to these issues. And just one final thought on the compensation experience that you had. Some some words on. My understanding of this issue is, frankly, it's again and again we go and we turn to leaders in the community for their expertize and advice, who often face additional challenges and hurdles in just kind of getting through the day, to put it bluntly. And this notion of of kind of going to the well for free, I think, to some degree comes from a real privilege, the attitude that some of us have more time and resources to be able to do that. And I think we should think about in the future whether or not we are taking that privileged viewpoint and not reflecting on what we're asking folks to do for free. And it can be a burden and a barrier to service and therefore impede the work that we want and the results we want from organizing from groups like this. So I'm open on that question and I don't think it has to apply universally, but in a particular case, particularly on immigrant refugee community commission, immigrant Refugee Commission, that might be staffed by folks who faced more challenges in our community and we're service without compensation is a higher barrier, but something I think we should look at . So I'm I'm. Okay. I don't have any problem with looking at it. I think that those who advise on juvenile and adult criminal justice issues could make a case that they're providing invaluable services that or they aren't getting paid. I also think that people who are advising us on, you know, any emergency setting up an effective emergency services strategy in King County could make a case and they would bring up Katrina in not having adequate means of reaching out to the poor and disadvantaged. And they're often invisible. So so many groups that we have set up advisory boards and commissions for over the years that would make the case for that. But I definitely do not mind having that discussion with you and other members of the county council and the community as we move forward. Again, thank you. Thank you. Well. My sense is that the. Decision is not made by this action today. It's just not in it. It's a silent as to this issue. And so it remains sort of an open issue, I believe. That's correct. Okay. I will add my $0.02 that I think it's important that we, at a minimum, give people food when they come to these meetings. It just everything goes better when you feed people a second. Yeah. As a member of the group. Thank you, Madam Chair. The discussion made me want to weigh in as well. I think as a matter of philosophy, I agree wholeheartedly. The challenges, as Councilmember Gossett mentioned, this is an are only condition. And are we in a position to be able to afford to do that? And how do we do it equitably among our different volunteer agencies and do it? And which leads me into my my budget grump comment on budget terrorism. I love this work. I'm excited to support it. Obviously, I think we need to watch moving forward for bureaucratic creep and make sure that this is lean, mean and focused on delivering the services. You know, there are some staffing models proposed that were significantly more costly and more robust than other task forces. There's a recommendation to look at opening a new office. I think we need to recognize that we're taking this progressive and exciting step forward in a budget landscape where we continue to have our ability of revenue to grow beyond 1% plus new construction and have other pressures, you know, whether it's underfunded public defense system, a 500 felony case backlog in the courts, you name it. So I think one of our challenges will be to make this as effective and deliver the results that we need for this community while also being able to fund the direct services that benefit immigrants and refugees as well. So that's my my budget grump were a word of caution about some of it. But that being said, this is a long time coming and it's, I think is going to be an important tool, particularly for the folks I represent in South King County. In our discussion with the Harborview appointee, we talked a little bit about the suburbanization of poverty and the shifting demographics. And in these small suburban communities down south, you don't have the centralized government like you have in Seattle. You don't have cities that have the professional staff and expertize to do the kinds of community engagement and service delivery that's needed. At the same time, we have probably the most diverse population and in particular the largest concentrations of immigrant and refugee populations. So having the county take a step forward to centralize and streamline and improve our work to serve that population, particularly with the you know, I obviously don't object to the line that Councilmember Gossett was exploring serving the whole county, but having a little bit of a focus on those suburban and unincorporated areas, I think isn't necessarily a bad thing. And so I'm really excited about this and appreciate Councilmember Gossett, bring it. Forward. Okay. Any other questions? Comments? I'll ask the court to please Calderon. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Garcia. Hi. Councilmember Cornwell's Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne Ricardo. Madam Chair. Hi, Madam Chair. The voters are nice. No noes. Councilmember Caldwell's excused. Thank you very much. By your vote, proposed ordinance number 2017 0481 will move to the full council with a do pass recommendation. I think we will not put this one on consent. Councilmember Gossett So this is an opportunity to speak to it. Okay, very good. All right. Thank you very much. Staff. We will move on to proposed ordinance number 2017 0475. This item would approve and adopt two memoranda of agreement with the Joint Labor Management Insurance Committee, which represents benefits eligible employees represented by labor organizations except transit operators and sheriff's deputies. Understand, we have an updated fiscal note that will be passed around, hopefully from what was included in the packet. Is that correct? That is correct. Thank you. And here to welcome our guests and give us a briefing is council staff Heidi. Papa Chuck. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. How do you provide our council staff? And also to my right is Bob Railton of the King County Office of Labor Relations. To his right is Denise Cobden from Professional and Technical Employees Local 17 Union. And to her right is Kari Schaefer from the King County's Human Resources Division. The staff report begins on page 99 of your packet. Madam Chair, as you mentioned, proposed ordinance 2017 0475 would approve to joint labor management insurance. Or JL am I c memorandum of Agreement or. Emojis. The first emoji would adopt an accountable health network or a H, and there's going to be a lot of acronyms in this presentation benefit plan designed for 2018 and 2019. The second emoji would adopt the Health Maintenance Organization or HMO and preferred provider organization or PPO plan designs for 2019, and replace the Health Incentives Program with a health and well-being program tomorrow. To provide some background on the J.L. and Missy. It consists of labor and county management representatives that collectively bargain ensure benefits for county employees except those that are part of the Amalgamated Transit Union, the Kane County Police Officers Guild, the Puget Sound Police Managers Association representing captains and the Technical Employees Association representing employees in the transit division. They share benefits in most union contracts and for now represented employees are negotiated by this committee. In November 2016, Council adopted Ordinance 18405, which approved the employee regarding insured benefits. And this meeting I recall that the benefits agreement between king county and the I c unions that prescribed medical, dental vision and life insurance benefits for del amici eligible employees for 2017 and 2018. There are three benefit agreement conditions described on page 100 of your packet that relates to proposed ordinance 2017 0475. The first condition describes the health and welfare plans the insured benefits plan provisions for JL Mis-C eligible employees during the term of the benefits agreement are described in tables one and two on pages 100 and 101. The plan provisions in these two tables are tied to the county's Healthy Incentives program, which requires county employees to complete a wellness assessment and an individual action plan such as like Weightwatchers or to work out for six weeks prior to July 31st each year in order to achieve the goal level of the benefit plan for the following year. The goal level benefit plan has the lowest out-of-pocket costs to achieve the silver or silver level benefit plan. Employees are required to complete the wellness assessment or the Individual Action Plan prior to July 31st each year. If an employee does not complete the wellness assessment in the Individual Action Plan by the deadline, they would maintain the bronze level benefit plan, which has the highest out-of-pocket costs. All county employees start at the bronze level benefit plan. The employee's spouse or domestic partner would also have to complete the same requirements in order to achieve the gold, silver or bronze level benefit plan. The second condition describes the G, the J.L. and Mike's ability to negotiate and implement modifications to ensure benefits for JL am i c eligible employees during the term of the benefits agreement? The third condition describes that the deal and MRE will add supplemental plan options beyond the HMO plan and that PPO plan for the 2018 benefit year in 2017. Council approved motion 14877, which acknowledged the receipt of the executive's budget proviso response report on accountable health networks or in the report can be found on page 119 of your packet. In addition, the third condition describes that the JL and Massie agrees to negotiate changes to the Healthy Incentives Program to be effective for the 2018 benefit year. In accordance with the Benefits Agreement, the first proposed J.L. and Missy Millard would adopt an eight, eight and a plan for the 2018 benefit year, according to executive staff. And an 18 is a form of value based purchasing. It brings together physicians, hospitals and other partners into focus networks for the amount of money the network receives for treating a population of patients is based in part on the quality of care that they deliver and the patient satisfaction satisfaction with the care they experience. Executive staff offer the age and plan in the open enrollment period for benefits in 2018. The proposed ordering, which was transmitted to the Council on November 1st, 2017, would approve the HRA and plan designs for 2018 and 2019. Table three on page 103 illustrates the 2018 and 2019 King Cares. Select a H and plan design that was agreed to by the JL and Missy. According to Executive staff, eligible employees will be able to select one of the four eight. Available in the Puget Sound region, Eastside Health Network, the Everett Clinic, Multi Care Connected Care and University of Washington Medicine. The proposed ordinance would also authorize the following provisions as an incentive to the select HMO plan option. The annual deductible for 2018 and 2019 will be $0 for per single, only with a maximum of $400 per family . Beginning in 2020, the annual deductible rates will be $200 per single, only with a maximum of $600 per family. And also in the event that at least 15% of eligible employees elect the plan option during the fall 2018 open enrollment. The LMC will negotiate additional short term and or long term disability plans to be implemented no earlier than 2020. Should the JL and Missy reach an agreement on one end or both? Disability plan options? The county did not offer an HMO plan benefit plan option for its employees in the past. Attachment three on page 135 of your packet illustrates the 2018 benefit plan designs offer to eligible employees, which includes the term plan design, according to executive staff over 500 JL and may see eligible employees enrolled in the new Plan Kane Care Select for the 2018 benefit year. It was assumed by the county's benefit benefits consultant Mercer, that the shift in enrollment from Kane Care Taking Care Select will be approximately 5%, which equated to $110,000 in cost savings for 2018 and 2019 combined, according to the executive's fiscal new executive staff state that the and Missy achieved a 6% shift enrollment for 2018 cost savings could reach as high as 1.8 million if 25% of employees move from Comcare to Comcare select, which is the HMO plan. Executive staff also indicate that there were no Smart Care Connect, which is the HMO enrollees that shifted to Comcare select during the open enrollment period. Also in accordance with the JL and Missy Benefits Agreement, the second proposed JL and Missy Molly would replace the Healthy Incentives Program with a health and well-being program. The proposed ordinance would also adopt the 2019 benefit plan designs for the HMO in the PPO plans to reflect the alarm to reflect the elimination of the Healthy Incentives Program . According to Executive staff, under the Health and Well-Being Program, starting in 2018, eligible employees and their spouse or domestic partner will no longer be required to complete the process steps of the Healthy Incentives Program to determine their benefit color level. Can you can you say that again, as I think that's some new magic there? Yeah. Yeah. So under the Health and Wellbeing Health and Wellbeing program, starting in 2018, eligible employees and their spouse or domestic partner will no longer be required to complete the process steps of the Healthy Incentives Program that in order to determine your benefit level by color, the gold, silver and bronze. That's a below forms with all of the tax, all of that, the business about how we're climbing stairs and running blocks, correct? You mean the way the ridiculously arduous and paperwork and necessary paperwork that everyone that's an employee can create, as I was referring to. So that is correct. All right. That was to the negotiators on that. Thank you to the gentleman. So we're going to tell us how it is determined. Yeah, okay. Okay, good. Can I ask people to please ask to be recognized? Thank you. We're just so excited about that. And then chair, I. I try to bring it in written. Thank you. So table for on page 104 of your packet illustrates the proposed plan designs for 2019. The plan designs are the same as the goal level plan designs for the HMO and PPO plans and 2018 shown in Attachment three on page 135 of your packet. According to executive staff, no significant cost savings are expected to be realized due to the discontinuation of the Healthy Incentives Program. Executive staff also indicate that the cost savings will be utilized to implement the Health and Well-Being Program. Council staff requested additional information on the count, the costs associated with the shift of employees to the goal plan who would have been in the silver and bronze plans and 2019 executive staff has provided council staff with a revised fiscal note, which is on the dice. I believe you have that to reflect this impact. The costs would increase approximately $600,000 to implement this proposed deal, and I am aware that concludes my staff report. Madam Chair, we are happy. To answer questions at the start. There will be some questions. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. Is there any way that all 13,000 of our staff are going to learn about or have already begun to learn about all this alphabet soup you just shared with us? And will there be anybody that I can check with to see if they have a sense that the staff understood all this? So the union's who? So as far as what they eat and benefit plan that was offered in the open enrollment process for 2017 and offered it will be available for the 2018 benefit year, in my understanding. Executive staff did provide some outreach and marketing materials for employees to kind of advise them of the new the additional plan. And as far as the 2019 changes for the healthy incentives, I will defer to executive staff on to to discuss the kind of outreach and educational steps to inform employees. Okay. So I'm going to offer an opinion and have before I have one more question for her. And Councilmember Gossett. Bob Railton, Labor Relations Manager. Office of Labor Relations. Kerry Schaefer actually is very much part of the communication process where we educate employees about the various planning choices that's available to them coming into open enrollment, as well as when employees first begin their employment with King County and they have an opportunity to select the plans. We do have a very, very extensive outreach and communication plan designed to help educate employees, both in terms of the plan options that are available to them, but the various sort of decisions that they'll need to consider as they determine which plan option is best for them and their family. Any more additional information term specifics? I'd have to turn to Carrie Schaefer. Carrie, do you think that we have a system where staff will generally become relatively educated on this new system or at least read health care reforms? Yes, Councilman. Again. I don't know if it's on. Okay. It's okay. Yes. Councilmember Garza, we have actually been educating employees over the past year. And you are hearing everything all at once. They've been hearing the story as it unrolls. So before open enrollment, we explained to employees what the new accountable health care, the King Care Select option was and what kinds of how they could make a decision whether or not that was a good plan for them, because it's not the best plan for everybody. It's a it's a good plan for some people, but not necessarily everyone. So there was a lot of education before open enrollment that showed people how to think about their plans. So that was the first piece. Then after open enrollment was done, we explained that that people in 2018 will no longer have to do the wellness assessment in individual action plan because in 19 it's sort of gold for all. Everybody will be at the gold level. So that's the second part of the communication. And that happened in December. And there was a video and it's it's been widely watched. And so people people have that part. And then starting this in February and going forward, we will explain the new kinds of activities people can do to be healthy. It's not tied to the level of plan you have, but it's a whole different way of doing wellness activities. So it's spread out over, over many months without trying to tell everybody all this and all of these things with all these acronyms all at the same time. So how would our health care and health advisory staff know whether or not this new direction that we're going is going to bear fruit? Like, how am I going to how are you going to know whether that says cancel out? The girl doesn't have to fill out the forms if he's still running and walking and exercising like he had been doing. How would. It work? We're not trying to keep track of what every single person does. We're looking at things that we can offer in the workplace that help people be healthy. And so. They too, have different ways that people can participate. But it doesn't. You're not going to have to fill out forms. It's not going to be tracking each person. It's going to be looking at what happens in larger workgroups and and measuring things like people's confidence that they understand the health plan, their confidence that they know, that they know things that they can do. You know, just in the more of a survey, not not a whole lot of individual tracking. Okay. So, Chuck, I never knew that I was there to start off, historically speaking and have started off with Ron's coverage, because I know. You did when you do those actions in order to get to the higher levels, easier to complete those actions. Yeah, but I know some people have been I go from day one, I'm not supposed to know that. Oh. Is it possible offensively or no. Well, when we put the the healthy incentives program in place, depending on how you wanted to view it, you were either going to stay at the gold by doing those things, which is what the unions were explaining to their members. Or technically it was a bronze plan and you earned your way up. The result was the same. If you did the individual action plan and you did the wellness assessment, then you got gold. So you could either say you stayed at that level because you did those things or you worked your way up from bronze because you did those things. All right. Thank you. So I wouldn't have been here. Is it fair to say that the rationale here is that the executive branch believes that the use of the Affordable Care Network will provide better health outcomes at a lower cost than the use of the incentives program. Is that am I hearing that, Cory? Because I didn't get a real rationale for why to essentially back away from incentives and not use incentives anymore. Council Member Baldacci That is correct. The the cost of health care, of not getting the right health care at the right time, either getting too much or too little or going to a place that's more expensive without delivering better quality is a much bigger impact on our cost and actually our health outcomes. We certainly want to support people to do healthy things, to do what they can to control the the health situation that they have. And we want to continue to support that. But the real truth is that the cost of services and the quality of services has a much bigger impact on on our budget and on how healthy our people are than than the lifestyle activities. Thank you. And I guess if I may, I'm just going to follow up in Oakland Councilmember Lambert, the fiscal note that was handed out was pretty. It seems to show slight savings in 2018 and then a $500,000 approximate increase in 2019. Can somebody put that in some context for me compared to what our costs have been and how much of a percentage increase that is and what's driving that? Councilmember Bell Michelle, I'll try to answer those questions for you. The cost savings were as a result of the shift of employees from the PPO to the Select Plan and the anticipated costs. And it was based upon a projection of a 5% shift. We actually had a 6% shift, but we wouldn't have known that at the time we were preparing the fiscal note. And with respect to gold for all in 2019, Mercer, who is a supports the county in its in its benefits administration had estimated that it would result in an additional cost of $600,000 to the overall benefits budget , which is about $240 million per year. So the offset is obviously enjoyed by the region. And again, when I say the $600,000 increase in terms of the cost of the benefits, that is a projection that is really subject to really what the plan utilization will be by all members of the jail am. I said so. So that number is just the best that Mercer can put on it, just anticipating the utilization of those that had been at the silver and bronze level previously. So I'm doing some quick math up here. Never a good idea, but going with the numbers that you just shared, 240 million total health care costs to the county. That's our budget. For health care. That isn't necessarily our costs to health care, that is our funding. What has our costs been most recent number that we have? I do not have the most recent number of the costs for you. Councilmember We can get that for you. I'm trying to get at the curve. And so in the past, we've seen year over year health care increases in the double digits, 10% plus percent increases in health care. And and the county's been actively working to bend that curve downward while encouraging better health for employees for a while now. And this seems to me to be the next evolution of that, but I'm just trying to get at how we're doing. So that would be really good to know coming forward. We have we. Can give you detailed numbers on that. We've actually gone from double digits to an average of around four and a half percent per year, which is which is doing better than the national average. Very good. So that that's all I really need. I mean, that sort of basic information is helpful. And then in our projections for the protected fund reserve, which is the bucket and where the money goes into or comes out of, depend upon whether or not our costs are higher or lower. But then, then our budget is looking pretty good now. And I understand that one employee or one employee is dependent with a really particularly nasty form of cancer, can change the picture in, you know, in one year all by themselves because it can get very expensive. And that's expected that we will cover those sorts of, you know, situation. So final question, is this a process and approvals? So this comes to us now here we are in January, but these plans were offered for open enrollment last year. What happens if we don't approve this? Councilmember Bell Duchin that's a very fair question. And in terms of of that, I think when I sit here now, you know, in terms of having this discussion in January, one would have perhaps had two different agreements for each of the two changes, one in terms of age and the other one in terms of the health incentives and the plan design. Because the gym I see as as you know, is authorized to bargain and implement plans for 2008. And with respect to these but at the time we were bargaining that we were hopeful that we would have gotten everything in front of you before open enrollment. And we signed off on this in August or left my office in September and in a blink of time. Here it is in January. So so really what's here is in terms of looking at the continuation of these benefits in the 2019 benefit plan year. Keeping in mind to Councilmember Bell duty that the GMAC as well as Total COB are continuing to be empowered to bargain changes the plan design. So in April we'll be looking at, you know, our projections for 2009 ten and beyond and making decisions of whether or not the plan designs that are before you now should be modified . In addition, we're in total comp bargaining this year for successor benefits plan, which also may modify these as well. So the one thing about looking at this is looking at the continuation of these particular plans beyond 2008 ten and recognizing that logistics being what they are. It wasn't a ideal situation. Yeah, and I get that it's complicated and not neat. And the end of the year is challenging for a number of reasons. But I would just ask that we take the Council's approval of these things as something other than just a rubber stamp. I would appreciate that is. Ed Yeah, because I still. Didn't hear answer you as to what would happen if we're not okay yet today. I think they would have to go back to the bargaining table and who knows what it would be a mess, I think, is what it would be. Certainly, Madam Chair, I would I would think that for 2018, based upon the benefits agreement, we'd be fine. But we certainly would have to take a look at 2019. That's the part that I'm not getting. So there's a benefits of like, did we and you'll have to forgive me for not knowing this, but did we pre-approve pre authorize the job of my C to decide within certain parameters or decide period and therefore whatever you guys come up with is okay, council approval notwithstanding. Madam Chair, under the benefits agreement, it does talk about the fact that we are empowered to negotiate the modifications to insured benefits and implement those agreements, and that these for the age and any third plan option for 2018 and to be implemented on January 1st of 2018. That was an agreement that previously was approved by the council that authorized what's happening here today. Yes, ma'am. Answer for 2018 2019. Like I said, had we thought about this in terms of the timing of how long it take to get before you, it would have probably logistically been better for the executive branch as well as to generally say union says. Well else to have had four agreements before you to recognize in the decisions we made for 2018 and to recognize in the negotiated agreements for 2019 as it was, we have them combined in 18 and 19 under single agreements for each of the provisions. So I think the answer to my question, Councilmember Gossett, would be that it would be a bit logistically and administratively challenging to pull the two apart and do whatever we do for 2019. But let's hope that that's not necessary. Okay. Councilmember Lamberts in waiting. Thank you. Just a couple of quick things. So you mentioned a minute ago that you were going to have healthy outcomes by work groups. And I think health is kind of an individualized thing. So I am concerned about that. I don't want to let up on the idea that we all need to be doing things to take good care of ourselves. And I know that I'm that I think it was like five or six years ago when we first started the plan where you had information on how to do exercises properly. I thought that was really good information. It's been years since people really were that specific with me on that. And I think, you know, I think that's a really good thing that we could share with our employees to encourage them to exercise, but also to do it correctly. So I hope that we don't give away completely. I agree with the other council members I hate and making those forms that all the time. But it did I did learn a lot on some of the years, but not all of them. I'm really thankful that you have other plans besides the PPO and the HMO so that people have an option if they choose not to have that particular kind of plan. We did a couple of years ago, and I think it was the group you just mentioned that Mercer, that they were looking at each of the hospitals and a surgery in each hospital cost and made comparisons across the different hospitals and just have some numbers. This hospital has this survival rate and this hospital has that. And will we be seeing any more of that information? Because I think it's important for consumers to know how the hospitals are rating. Councilmember Lambert, that work was actually done by the Washington Health Alliance. That's right. Which which was an organization that the county helped start on. They do have public reports and we can certainly give you information about where to find it. It is public. It's public a by provider groups, individual, you know, clinics. So there's the community checkup report that shows the quality and outcomes for four clinics. There's a hospital report that shows variation and quality and cost. There's a new report that's going to be coming out that shows common things that the medical societies have agreed don't need to be done and how much cost they add. So it's things like giving antibiotics for for bacterial infections and certain kinds of knee surgeries that don't don't really help people. And that report will be coming out soon. And those are publicly posted on the Washington Health Alliance website. And we can certainly give you the the the website information for that. I think it also we should talk to public health about having a link from their website because when people go to look for health information, they might go to public health and be able to see that their work. One of the things I mean one of the things I'm concerned about and it's happened several times in the last seven years, but as we change the pharmaceuticals, that they will say this is the formularies that we will pay for and these are the ones we want. And then the next year it's different. And so if somebody is on a drug that's working for them and having to change and then change back, it's not good. And I think I've talked to somebody in your office about this. So I think we need to be aware of that. And, you know, maybe having I think there's appeal process or something that your doctor can write and say, no, they don't want them changing to this drug. But I think trying to keep it a little bit more stable would be helpful. And then in this plan, you know, we were supposed to be one of the early providers for the Affordable Care Act and all that. Is this connected to that at all, even tangentially? Councilmember Lambert Yes. This is one of the kind of health care innovations that was supported by the Affordable Care Act, because that the Affordable Care Act comes with what's called the triple aim, which is to get better population health at lower cost with better patients. Satisfaction. And so the Accountable Health Network idea is very specifically designed to achieve those three things, so that that is very much in line with the Affordable Care Act. So I know the employer that was in charge of getting us on that early adopters is no longer with us. So are we going to we're not going to be an early adopter. Are we still going to be a mid adopter? Or when are we going to be adopting? And is this part of that or is this something separate? I'm not certain I understand your question because we certainly. It's mental health and physical health being combined. Yes, yes. Yes. And so it's happening at two levels. We're doing it in the employee plan. But far more important, that's what's happening in the health department and community health, where they're working with the accountable, you know, accountable communities of health. There's so many acronyms now. But yes, we are we are a mirror doctor in that there were two two counties that have a different kind of structure that were the the the test cases. And then we're in the next the the next wave and right on where we thought we were going to be. Health Department can speak more eloquently to that piece. Sure. I think that would be good for us to know because other counties, because we were going to be an early adopter. Other counties were saying things like King County figured out first because they're bigger than us and we'll just go in the tailwind behind them. And so other counties are calling me and saying, how far are you? And I don't really know. I mean, the affordable and the accountable communities of health. Yes. And when we're going to be fully adopted and and what have we learned along the way, which I went to one symposium from a county, and their lessons learned were pretty interesting. So it might be good for us to know those things and maybe a briefing at some point on that would be interesting. Okay. I mean, it would be interesting to know what our experiences anyway. Right, for our own purposes. So that'll be great. Before we close this out, I just want to make sure, Ms.. KOPPLIN, that you have an opportunity to say something if you choose. Don't feel pressured. But if you've done as the the the courtesy. Thank you. Of of coming in being here this morning. So anything you'd like to add to what we've talked about today? Well, I would like to thank the council for their consideration on this. I'm really proud of our Joint Labor Management Insurance Committee. I feel like this is an example of where labor and management can come together, sit down, work through problems, and come up with some really good outcomes. I'm also very proud of our employees because I will note that this year they did not increase the employer contribution for the insurance contributions. They they took basically a 0% increase. And our our PSR is still doing very well, which I think speaks well to our employees and how well versed they are in health care and how this process has basically been a success in an arena where health care costs are often rising significantly. So I wanted to acknowledge that and acknowledge my colleagues and, you know, encourage the council to really take the recommendations of the Joint Labor Management Insurance Committee seriously, because we work really hard together on this. And all of our decisions are very. Well-thought out and discussed at length. So. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you all for for coming in, working us through this. This is before us for potential action today if we're prepared to move forward. It is proposed. Audience Member 2017 2047572. That please come from a member. Madam Chair, I'm happy to put before you propose ordinance 2017 zero four I'm sorry 0475 with a do pass recommendation and the other comments or questions, Council Member McDermott, followed by Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, Ms. Palaszczuk. Your staff report analysis section ends with staff analysis is ongoing. Can you speak to what work is continuing? Absolutely. Councilmember McDermott, that was based on the fiscal note that was provided to you today. There was addition information that council staff requested and that information has been provided. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Tomasky, thank you. Just right above it and returning to our opening colloquy here. The staff report notes that the human resource vision doesn't believe that there will be significant cost savings. Did there's a discontinuous discontinuation? Just I can't even speak of the healthy incentives program, the ending of the paperwork. I just want to note that it may be hard to capture, but with 13,000 plus employees and their family members having to fill out those forms, that takes them away from their work. It takes them away from their families. It's a small thing, but but it adds up. And I think there is an undocumented savings, but savings there. And so I just want to commend you. You articulated it so well when you said, you know, if you're stuck down on that gold or bronze or silver level, the costs are higher to get in to see a professional. It's a barrier there. People may not go. So I think your shift in thinking on that is great. I really want to endorse it from a practicality perspective, from a reasonable perspective, and from a health care perspective, I think you're headed in the right direction. So thank you for your work on that. And Denise, thank you for our work working so hard on behalf of our representative employees. I really agree with everything you said that we have great partners there. Councilmember Dunn, followed by Councilmember Jamaica. Anyone from the insurance carrier here today? No, sir. Okay. So just labor and staff. Okay. I appreciate it and I appreciate all your work. So I'm not going to wrap you into this. But I called the local or the government direct relations director four times last year. Four times they were going to call back. Yeah. Which is kind of reflective of the level of service I think we get from this insurance carrier. So on my desk is a ordinance which I've shown to several members up here that would go in a different direction with our insurance carrier as a county. So at some point I'd sure like to have a conversation with somebody from some regions. They want to give me a call back. I'd be grateful. If not, then I'll just move the legislation. Council Member Doug, we'll follow up with your office to get more information on that so we can take your time and I'd be grateful . Thank you. I think it's important that people are responsive and especially the tens of millions of dollars. And I also have other concerns which I can get into later. But thank you. I'm grateful. Thanks for being here. Councilmember Lambert would like to comment on that topic as he goes is going to say that are on the phone with me and and they were answering my calls but yeah they are so anyway. Okay, maybe you got the wrong phone number. Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. You've certainly heard some clearly interest, frustration, maybe even on occasion disillusionment with the health incentives program. And I'm not I think there is some value in the concept, but as I expressed to several people in the executive branch over the last year, I have some grave concerns about the current implementation of that program in mind was much more specific to record keeping and whether we were seen if somebody could enter data in the right timeframe versus if they're actually engaging in activities to improve their health. In my conversations with the executive branch, I learned that a bigger concern driving some of their work to reform it is that healthy incentives had those who were reaching gold didn't reflect our in our workforce in its entirety, that there were ESG implications in who was reaching gold and who wasn't in that concert. That concerns me even more so than the frustration of filling out forms. I think there's actually value, as frustrated as it may be in taking that health and assessment. But I want one that. Helps our employees achieve their health goals and have better outcomes. So I'm not looking to chuck such a program, but I need one that actually is helping our entire workforce achieve better outcomes, not just segments of our workforce. I also need one that is outcome driven, not input driven. Do you check the rate box to input the data on the right time frame? Thank you. Well, just to wrap it up and then we'll we'll be ready to take action. I think that's what I heard is the direction and the idea of looking at the outcomes and looking at them in a population level as opposed to an individual level. I heard that pretty clearly from the presentation is the hope for this new direction? And Councilmember Lambert reminded me, but I think it's fair to point out, as much as we've all come to hate the poor, unloved incentives program, it won awards back in the day when it was first put in place. And it did a lot of good, I have to tell you. It did. It was not a bad thing for me to have personally to have a reminder at the beginning of each year to be thinking about my health. It made me go get my checkups. It made it made me do things that, while they are indeed a hassle, are probably important to to health. And look at me here. I'm dripping. I'm a drippy, feverish mess. And I you know, if we had had our incentives program in place this year, maybe I wouldn't be. So let's just put it that way anyway. Okay. Yeah, I think we're done with comments and we're ready to move to a vote rolls marker to call the roll. Please repeat before you do. Do we not have a motion? I might know people in motion. We do? Yes. You need one? Yes. Another? Not that out of it. I recall the motion. Okay. Please go ahead and call the wrong. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn, I. Councilmember Gossett. I. Council member. Coles. Council member lambert, I. Councilmember McDermott All right. Councilmember up the grove. Councilmember one right there. Madam Chair. Madam Chair. On the vote, a seminar is no nos. Council members. Cole Wilson one mike there excused by your vote you have moved proposed ordinance number 2017 0475 with a do pass recommendation. I think we really. No not at this one quite a bit. So we'll put it on consent if I don't see any objections. Not seeing any objections, it will be on consent. Thank you very much, everyone. All right. We have two final items. Maybe we can get through them relatively expeditiously. Both are about solid waste. So I'm not I'm going to skip my introduction and just call on our staff. Mary and John and Terre Rose to walk us through both of these items, and we'll take them up one at a time. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the committee. For the record, I'm here, Rose. And with me is Mary Bergeron of Council Staff Proposed Motion 2018 0062 would acknowledge receipt of a report on garbage collection in unincorporated areas in response to a budget proviso requirement. The materials for this item begin on page 141 of your packet. The Council adopted a budget proviso as a part of the 2017 2018 biennial budget requiring the executive to conduct a public outreach process, prepare additional analysis on recycling rates, and provide a report to council prior to advancing any proposal to reduce garbage collection frequency from every week to every other week in the unincorporated area, the proviso is written such that if garbage collection frequency was not planned to be reduced, the report to council could say this and no further analysis or reporting was required. On November 15th, 2017, the executive transmitted a letter to the Council stating that reduced garbage collection will not be pursued from every week to every other week in unincorporated areas of the county, from the state through the end of 2018. And the executive's letter, as transmitted, satisfies the terms of the proviso the Council will have the opportunity to set longer term policy direction regarding garbage collection and recycling rates within the context of the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, which is anticipated to be transmitted later this year. That concludes my staff report, and I'm happy to take any questions. Okay. I'm sorry. Could you say your last sentence again? There's a little. Sure, sure. I was just mentioning that the Council will have a property opportunity to set longer term policy direction concerning garbage collection and recycling rates within the context of the comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, which is anticipated this year. Okay. So this is just I need to get up to where we're at. We are item eight Web page area of 141 141. And the motion is on page 147. That's what I'm looking for. It's a so the motion is to acknowledge receipt of the report. That's what we are being asked to do today. Is there comments or questions about this item? Councilmember two. Thanks. So the report that has come back to us that we are accepting now says that it won't we won't go to every other week garbage collection for the duration of what period. The letter filed with the clerk is from the date. So November 15, 2017 through the end of 2018. Through the end of the year. Okay. But after that, and there hasn't been any commitment one way or the other in terms of from solid waste on the issue. Correct. Okay. Just want to make sure we have all the facts. I have some comments. We're just accepting report and I know some comments. Are just or something you report. So if you have comments, now would be the time. Okay. So just real quick. So again, this accepts the proviso I sponsored and it essentially requires the division to either do significant outreach if they are going to go from one week to two weeks or to delay the policy until after the current by any. And so the division is acknowledged and I think it's great that they're not pursuing every other week garbage collection policy through the current year. But I just want my colleagues to know that when I was first elected to the council, illegal dumping was a huge issue in my district and it continues to be a huge issue in my district. Rates at the transfer stations, combined with growth, have just created a situation where all the people are going out to the unincorporated areas and dumping their trash or washers and dryers or even cars in some extreme situations. So as part of that response, I sponsored legislation that created a voucher program to help low income residents clear dumping grounds. And in the first year, over half the vouchers had been awarded, which just goes to show the extent of the problem. Also, I represent a lot of neighborhoods that are, you know, very unhappy with frequent odors coming from the facilities that we have out there. Of course, in my district, the landfill material composting is out there. There's a lot of odors coming from those facilities as well. And so switching every other we garbage collection is probably going to drive up the collection of work organics which are sent to my district for processing and increase the smell. And with the current rate that the folks have been contacting my office about odors, I'm not comfortable with a every other week policy change going forward until there's a plan to really address the odor concerns. You have no idea how many thousands of emails I get because of the odor related problems down there in that quadrant of the county. So I had a chance to survey my constituents with my newsletter here just last year, and I wanted to get a sense of how they felt about this issue. And and well over half of the residents surveyed said they would be unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with this policy change. And you can understand why. I mean, it's you know, that, you know, you've got situations like, for example, you've got all kinds of critters out there in the unincorporated areas, especially rural King County. And if you're leaving your garbage out for two weeks as opposed to one week, there's a greater opportunity for critters to get in there. There's smell issue, there's rodents and sanitation related issues. And and it's just it's just one of these things that and it's also, you know, even if the containers increased slightly, you still got an issue. You know, we're going to charge them the same amount for the same, but we can charge them the same amount for half the volume being reduced from their house for or from their home. Right, if they're only coming every other week. So those problems that I really have and so I just don't think this is a place to experiment and we'll be very dogged in pursuing that. Continuing on beyond the by any means. I know all the waste understands and appreciates. I just wanted to get that information out. Thank you. Yes. And I would urge we accept the report. Okay. You can simply thank you. Well, I just want to say I agree completely with the previous speaker that we are per capita. We have lots and lots of families out there. And because there's more families with more people in the house that you are going to have more garbage than. You know, averaging a, you know, one or two person household. And as he said, garbage shows up elsewhere. And it has gotten, in some cases, so extreme that we've had to hire a helicopter to come in and bring large items out that have shown up in all kinds of crazy places, which is not safe for other people and just makes it an eyesore. So I think, Councilmember, one of the things that your people need to know that the current garbage plan would take the at the height of garbage piled councilmember, the height of garbage piled up now can go up to 780 feet above sea level. But the proposal is it would go to 800 and I think 20 feet above sea level. So that they're complaining now just wait unless we change our plan. But the plans before us, we'll have an opportunity to talk about that. The other thing is that because of the garbage issues, we do have beer cans available and I think it's $4.99 more a month if you want a beer, garbage can. So for those people out there that are having problems with the bears, you can under our contract ask for a beer, garbage can. Thank you. Thank you. All right. If there's no additional commentary, I would accept a motion to approve motion number 2018 0062 of the do pass recommendation. Gladly. Madam Chair, would we propose motion number 20180062 with a do pass recommendation? But we would also ask that it be removed from the consent agenda very well. Any other comments or questions? I'll ask her to please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Gossett. I. Council Member Cole Wells. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. All right. Councilmember Staff members. Councilmember one right there. Madam Chair, I. Madam Chair, the vote of Seven Eyes, No No's, council members Cole Wilson and one. Right. They were excused. All right. By your vote. You have. We have passed proposed motion number 2018 0062 of the do pass recommendation. That is to accept the report and it will not be able to consent calendar. So I'll move on to the last item on our agenda today, which is proposed motion number 2017 0505. It's another solid waste motion, this one accepting a report regarding system tonnage because the county Cedar Hills Land Regional Landfill is nearing its capacity. As we all have discussed here many times, it's important to carefully monitor the tonnage that we're disposing and study options for long term waste disposal. As part of that effort, the Council adopted a proviso, you will recall, in the 2017 2018 budget that required two reports from the Solid Waste Division. The first, which we will hear about today, is on 2017 system tonnage. The second is due in June on long term options for the landfill. So once again, we have with us Mary Bergeron and Tara Rose to help us with a briefing. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mary Bergen on from the council staff, for the record, and you have introduced the council's rationale for this proviso. As you noted, this system tonnage report from 2017 is the first of two reports that will be required on this topic. And if you will move ahead to page 155 in your packet, I will share the results of the analysis that the division did to prepare this report. What they did because this report was due on December 1st of last year, this report provides actual tonnage figures from January through August and then estimates for the remainder of the year. And when you see the second report, which is coming in June, you'll see actuals for the entire year. I will note first that in preparing to do this report, the Solid Waste Division had prepared tonnage estimates through the year 2036 and they had presented those to you back. At the same time, you adopted these provisos when you were adopting the solid waste rate. These and if you look on page 156, you can see a table that outlines what the projections were for each year. And if you look at the shaded row 2017, you'll see that the division was estimating about 851,000 tons last year. They had estimated, if you look, a little bit of a decrease from the year before because of the reopening of the city of Seattle's North Transfer Station and Recycling Center, which they estimated would take some of the load off the county stations. If you then jump to the bottom of page 157 and look at the actual results that the solid waste division has transmitted, you will note that tonnage, in fact increased 10% above those projections. So 932,000 tons rather than the 851,000 that were projected. This has implications for the landfill capacity estimates that this additional 81,000 tons will shorten the landfill life by about a month. And moving on to the next page. Also has operational impacts because this additional tonnage was about 230 more tonnes of waste per day that were transported to the landfill than had been estimated. That resulted in about 3700 additional roundtrips between the transfer stations and the landfills last year. The division has noted that they have been addressing these operational impacts through overtime to date, but may be coming back to the Council for additional appropriation or possibly even FTE authority. And finally, I'll note that this additional tonnage resulted in about $11 million in additional revenue above and beyond what had been forecasted for last year. And the division notes in that case that they recognized they don't have appropriation authority to use that additional revenue and expect they may be coming to the Council through one of the supplemental budget ordinances. I will close by noting that the additional unanticipated tonnage for last year will be addressed in more detail. In the second of the two provides a report to the one that will be coming to in June that will also include more information about the landfill. And I think this does provide a good segue way for the Council to your upcoming discussions and deliberations on the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, a draft plan of which was released last week. And the executive's recommended plan is anticipated to come to the council probably mid this year. So this kind of sets, I think, the ground for what you will be looking at. And with that, Madam Chair, that concludes my staff report. Okay. Thank you very much. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Thank you. So help me on these charts. So special waste is going to go from 1500 to 2500 in approximately 20 years. What is changing that? That is going to be so substantially the same that that's going to happen because it increased population. So I think we've got staff from the division here and I think they might be best to answer that question. I had been focusing mostly on the total column and focusing mostly on 2017 things. That was the topic of this report. And talk about that when we meet next. And the same thing in the next column, going from 1300 and 13,500 in yard waste down to 16. But, you know, lots of people are doing rock gardens and other kinds of gardens so that there aren't as many yard ways. So we'll add that to our list next time we talk. All right. Thank you. Okay. So one of thing, please. Anything is I. I just saw and something that was written that that a clean wood is no longer going to be accepted at the house and transfer station. And I didn't know that was happening until it apparently happened. So I'd like to talk about how that happened, and I'm not really happy about it. So thank you. Okay. I don't know if we do have executive staff here. I don't know if they want to come forward and say a few words before we go ahead and accept the report. But yeah, only if you want to get in and you're not required. If you have a question that we'd like to. Hear enough. I do have one question, and that is when this projection comes in a significant marginal but significant amount higher, this actual annual tonnage comes in at this level higher. And it says that that would that would mean the capacity of the Cedar Hills landfill be reached about one month sooner. Does that assume that the rest of the projection comes in as previously projected, or do we now reset the rest of the projection and say even if things increase at a rate similar to what we assumed before, but now we're up to 932, we're starting with a different base. Is that how you get to one month? I mean, I know that this is we're prejudging the question of the next report, but it seems to me that that seems odd that that much of a change to the curve would result in such a small impact to the life of the landfill. The Please Make Morehead King County Solid Waste Strategy Communications and Performance Manager. This provider was very specifically focused on 2017. And so the one month change in the landfill. Life is based on the change in tonnage for 719 2017 only. And it's the second proviso that speaks to the broader change in the overall projection. Manage and so forth. Okay. Once again before us, today is just the motion to accept the report, and that's motion number 2017 0505. If there's no further discussion, I would entertain a motion. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to propose a proposed motion 2017 0505 with a do pass recommendation. All right, it's been moved. Any comments or questions saying nonetheless the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Council Member. Cole Wells. Council Member. Member. High Council Member McDermott. High Council member of the Grove Council. Member of one right bar. Madam Chair. Hi, Madam Chair. The vote is six eyes. No nos. All right, by your vote, we have approved proposed motion number 2017, dash 0505 with a do pass recommendation. This one also, I think should be on the regular course along with the other one. And that brings us to the end of our agenda today. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, February 7th, when we anticipate continuing our work on the King County Code, changes to make it before gender neutral, and receiving a briefing about the Hearst Supreme Court decision and for cultures budget and.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Sheryl Whitney, who resides in council district six, to the Harborview Medical Center board of trustees, as the district six representative.
king_23d518ef-bac9-427a-aacb-210da5e285fc	Thank you all for being here. I we'll start with a roll call. Marco in Las Vegas. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Balaji, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garza. Here. Councilmember Colwell here. Councilmember Lambert here. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne, right there. Mr. Chair. You're. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. All right. Thank you for that. Do we have anybody that wanted to offer public comment that didn't have a chance to sign up? Now's your chance to do that. I don't see anybody will close public comment. Turn to our vice chair customer recalls for item for the meeting minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move adoption of the November 15, 2018 meeting. Minutes are very good. All in favor say I I any oppose those are approved and our consent agenda item five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten. Would you put that before us? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move I adoption of our consent agenda proposed motion number 2018 0545. Proposed ordinance number 2018 0546. Proposed Ordinance number 2018 0554. And Proposed Motion number 20 20564. Proposed Ordinance number 2018 0575 and proposed ordinance number 2018 0574. All right. Those are before us. All the roll on passage. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Baldwin, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett. I. Councilmember Cole. Well, I. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember phone right there. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is five advised. No nos that carries will expedite those to Monday and put them on the consent agenda. Turning now to item 11. Item 11 is a motion to confirm the county executive's appointment of Leonardo Flor as a director of the Department of Community and Human Services. Is Leo here yet? He is here. There he is. Okay. Thank you for being here. Leo, we've got a brief introductory staff report from Miranda Luskin. And when we invite you to come forward at any time. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Miranda Luskin to the Council Central staff. The materials for this item begin on page 113 of your packet. The proposed motion before you would confirm the executive's appointment of Leo Flor as director of the Department of Community and Human Services. By way of very brief background, the King County Department of Community and Human Services manages a wide range of programs and services to assist the county's most vulnerable residents and strengthen its communities. The Department is also responsible for providing leadership and coordination to the regional efforts to address homelessness through all home, as well as oversight and management of the revenues from the Veterans, Seniors and Human Services. Levy the best rates for kids levy and the mental illness and drug dependency sales tax. Moreover, as a primary Regional Services Department, teachers plays a strong role in the coordination of the region's human services infrastructure. The DCH DCH has director oversees the Department's operations, planning and budgeting. As members are aware, executive appointment of the DCH as director is subject to council confirmation per county code. So approval of the proposed motion before you would fulfill this code requirement. Of note as described in the executive transmittal letter, Mr. Floor was the successful candidate from a nationwide recruitment for the new director of DHS. His work experience, which is described in further detail in his resumé, includes serving as the DCH, US Veterans and Human Services Levee Renewal Manager and then as director of the DC Jazz Community Services Division. Additionally, Mr. Floor served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an officer in the U.S. Army. As a late breaking update. The background check has been completed and that paperwork will be transmitted shortly. A copy of Mr. Flores resume and completed questionnaire are included in your pocket materials, starting on page 119. Mr. Chair, that concludes my staff report. Thank you very much, Miranda. Leo, would you like to say a few words? And I will ask members who have questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Look for the red light there, and it's sometimes hidden. There you go. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Leo Flor from the Department of Community and Human Services. And first, just to acknowledge and thank the Executive and the Council for the honor of consideration to perform a role on a team that does some of, I think, our region's most critical work, serving some of the residents in our region that have the least access to opportunity. And so it's just an honor and a privilege to be able to work with the team that I know does fantastic work within the Department of Community and Human Services and in a region that has really strong support for this type of work to support our residents. Excellent. Thank you very much for your willingness to serve council members on the panel. Do you have questions? Comments? Councilmember Lambert, then Councilmember Gossett and Councilmember Cole Wells. Thank you. I just want to say that I am very excited to have this opportunity to vote for Leo today, and I'm very thankful for the leadership he's already shown during his previous position, but also during the transition time. I have seen him in his previous position and do community participation meetings and did a fabulous job on that. And there are many, many people with many ideas at these community participation meetings and he was able to make sure everybody was heard and then recapped so that people knew that they were heard. And that was great. Seeing him have the ability to keep lots of items, programs, systems in his mind. As you said, this is a very large agency with lots and lots of things happening. But in addition to those things, he's innovative. And when ideas come up and ways to serve people, they are different because we have to look at more innovative ways of getting to people in various different parts of this county and with different needs. He's open to innovation. He motivates his employees and encourages them. He's well-organized, and for all those reasons and more, he's a pleasure to work with. So I'm looking forward to having you permanently in this position. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember Gossett, good morning. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Leo. What specifically was your job at the Northwest Justice Project during the nearly two and a half year period you worked there. I can't hear you. Thank you, Councilmember. It was not at my job at Northwest Justice Project. After nine years, I was a staff attorney and Equal Justice Works fellow. So I represented incarcerated or justice involved veterans providing free civil legal assistance either in place within a jail or prison or for folks who were actually defendants within our local treatment courts here . So the King County Mental Health Court has a veterans court component and also the Seattle Veterans Treatment Court. And the substance of that work primarily was going to veterans who did not have access in their criminal process to civil assistance. The actual types of cases tended to be public benefits, debt relief, and then housing stability cases. And the idea that animated all of that, which is something that I look forward to carrying forward into this work, is that the systems that we often operate as silos actually work better for the people within them when we figure out ways to connect and combine them. And so in that case, it was the ability to go into a prison, for example, and help with benefits access so that as a veteran was going to be released into the community, they didn't have this 30 day or in some cases 30 month lapse where their benefits were not on and they weren't able to fully reintegrate into their communities. So advocate legal advocacy as well as broader kinds of access and advocacy for veterans that are incarcerated or face an incarceration. And the primary duty certainly was representation of individual clients. Northwest Justice Project as a Legal Services Corporation funded entity actually has limitations against advocacy, in particular word, but certainly an ability to help, educate and help the broader system understand the role of legal aid for those particular clients. Okay. The number of programs. Ours and your department are very broad. Many of them are complex, and it's hundreds of millions of dollars. So I would like to ask you, what is your perspective on evaluations, particularly performance evaluations, where your aim is to ascertain how effective a program is and how well people were served and whether or not people are better off. In terms of your prioritization of your duties, where does that leave in terms of importance? Thank you, Councilmember. So first, my brief response. Evaluation is critical, and performance management and management are critical. We do distinguish between the two, but both of those have a role to play in the way that we design, implement and then refine, importantly, the programs. As you mention, Councilmember, there is both a large amount in terms of the amount of resources for which DHS is responsible. There's also a tremendous variety, and a lot of those sources are actually sources that are subject either to regular approval by some sort of other government or granting entity or the public itself. And so to answer the question in another way, Councilmember, I think our ability to understand where we are succeeding, to understand where we need to do better, and then to actually demonstrate how we are doing better is critical to making sure that both other entities that might provide funding and then the public continues to have confidence in that. Confidence grows in our ability to handle what is what is objectively a large amount of resource. And really all of that goes to what I think is a sort of core principle of a government, which is that we must be credible when we say that we are doing something well, I think that we must be credible when we say that we need to fix something. I think we must be credible when we say, you know, that this is why we believe a particular resource is warranted for a particular project of the faith of the public, I think is important. The third part that I would add in terms of evaluation and performance measurement, this is a place where I think we can move further towards is that we have very often evaluated in the context of how we, the government, might see ourselves. But I think embedded within your question, Councilmember, is the idea that the government often is not even the primary audience for the services that a department like DHS provides. In fact, I think that's the residents that we serve. And so one of the exciting things that has taken hold within the department and I look forward to moving further towards is this idea that we can ask the people we serve very directly how they think we are doing. We have some guidance within the recently passed budget that will allow us a formal opportunity to do that. But this idea of engaging the community, not just as we plan, but as we evaluate and then refine our programs, I think is something that is an important sort of state of the art approach within Human Services, and I look forward to implementing that. And then the chair my last question, at this time, at least earlier and 2018, I think the beginning of the year, we had the our audit staff do an audit of the evaluation activities of be ask that starts for kids. And that's one concern that we have is that the audit findings, whether they be internal or external audits, go to the person in your position and the person at the head of public health rather than directly to the executive and the legislative branch. I don't know if that has changed or not, but I would like to know what your position is in terms of where either internal final reports or external final reports for audit, who are the first to be submitted to? Thank you, Councilmember. I'm not familiar with the protocols of the auditor in terms of who has entitlement. The first notice, what I can say from the department's perspective is that any audit finding is one public information into a really clearly articulated opportunity for us to do something better. And I don't think that there's any profit in in hiding or concealing that. And this gets to the idea of credibility, again, I think, for DHS to continuing to grow into further credibility as a as a government entity, folks need to know and have confidence in the fact that we share the good news and the bad news and then a plan to do so. Something about the bad news. That's our duty as public servants. I don't know the answer to your specific question, council member Ed. The auditors protocol. That's certainly how I would approach it, though, is that we share these opportunities to improve and that we do something about them. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Leo, first of all, congratulations on the appointment. Reviewing your background materials. You really are a superb candidate for this position. And I echo what Councilmember Lambert said in her remarks, which I thought were very poignant and very well stated. Some might say that you were only having been working with Department of Community Human Services for two shy of three years, that it's really been a meteoric rise for you in the department. That in looking back at your background and I believe you might, you've always struck me as being very modest in what you present for yourself . But I note that when you completed your military service, which was in combat, it's where a platoon leader second and first lieutenant ending an eight year career, I believe, as the captain in the U.S. Army. Much of that in the combat zones, I'm sure taught you a lot about leadership. But then when you came back, really left the military, you went on to get a law degree at the University of Washington, where Gates public service law scholar, a trained mediator and commencement speaker, which I think says a lot. But then you went on and two years later received a master's through the Department of Urban Planning and Design. So it seems like you're able to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. And then as Councilmember Gossett brought out work for the Northwest Justice Project for three years, two and a half years, and now it's Department of Community and Human Services. I think you have an exceptional background and my experience and working with you for almost three years is she really take on the challenges and you perform them in exemplary ways and I think you again would make an outstanding director of the department. My question though is what motivated you to go into working with DC H.S.? I think you had a whole lot of opportunities most likely to take on many different challenges. But what led you to this public service now different from what you had done in the military? Thank you. Councilmember One is. We have a lot of work to do for people in our community, and I think that that's all of our responsibility. And that is just an ethos of of service, frankly, that I take no credit for myself. I you know, I derive that from my my parents. I'm lucky to have a spouse who shares my value of public service. But King County is a special place. In particular, we have the scope in terms of population and resources. We have the size to make a difference. We have the values as a community to invest in this type of support for our residents and continue to do better. And that's not a confluence of opportunity, frankly, to do good work that exists in most parts of this country or this world, I think. And so there's very much a sense of the unique opportunity within King County to net to knit all of those factors together and I think really lead in our ability to do better. I have a fundamental belief that government has a role to play in improving the lives of residents, and this is just a special place to do that. So I had some exposure as a legal aid attorney to the levy, as a levy funded organization at Northwest Justice Project, and began to saw the potential to see the potential there. And then when the opportunity to work with the better institution, Human Services Levy, which I think is a perfect embodiment of this combination of scale, public buy in and sort of focused assistance for residents who really do merit it. That was an opportunity in that and that worked out and I couldn't be happier with the choice. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Belushi. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You just said something that made me think of one of the things that I found to be outstanding about your service on that Seniors and Human Service. And the interactions we've had is this concept of continually striving to do better and to do more. It's something, you know, just this past weekend, we were celebrating the service of deputy executive Fred Jarrett on his retirement. And it's something that he really beat the drum for throughout King County. When I was in the executive branch about the idea that we want to strive for excellence, we want to provide excellent service, I think we do in many ways provide excellent service. But you also have to be willing to be open to self-criticism and critique and to continually improve and not feel that that's a problem, that that's actually an opportunity and something that we and I think that you've been body bad in a lot of ways in what you do. So I wonder if you would talk a little bit about your theory of change or excellence or how do you how do you how do you take what you have seemingly kind of naturally and imbue it in an organization that you're going to now be charged with bringing along with you? Thank you, Councilmember. I do think just leadership generally. I mean, the most potent tool any leader has is example. And so the first thing, if you want an organization that's willing to hear honestly and critically how it can be better, you have to do that yourself. And a thing that I think is not always the stereotype of the military, but you learn very quickly in the military is that the stakes and the relationships are such that there's no time for pretense of self-importance. You really do have to open yourself up and be vulnerable in a way to not only saying, yes, I'm in charge in a formal way, but also we're going to do this together because we can only do this together. And your faith in me is actually dependent upon my ability to show you that I'm going to listen to what you have to say. So so I think example is the most powerful tool that that I have as a member of the DHS team in in sort of cultivating that ethos that you described. The other piece is when we do actually receive as an organization criticism, we have this critical moment where we either do what we said we would do in terms of receiving that and then converting it into a plan to do better or we fail to do that. And one of my jobs is to really be on alert and to seek out those opportunities to receive frank and candid criticism and not go directly into self defense mode, but to really say, you know, thank you, we are going to take that and identify from what you just said, what we can do better, and then come back to you with a plan. And I think the difference between those two reactions not that we don't also accentuate where we have succeeded and make sure that our employees understand that we we have faith in what they do. But the sequence of the message is really important. And I think that the first reaction for public servants should always be, I'm hearing you to understand what you're saying. I'm not hearing to respond to you. And even if that means it's going to take a little bit of time for me to come back to you with what I intend or what we intend to do to do differently and do better. I just need to make sure that you feel heard and so that it's a little squishy in some ways. But I think it's sort of fundamentally important. I think it's I think it's one of the most important things that the leader brings. I mean, knowledge of your subject matter is important. And the ability to manage people and be diligent and be responsive is all critical. But that fundamental orientation towards the job, I think, is you can't substitute for it. And and I want to just echo your point. Sometimes criticism is founded in a misunderstanding of the facts, right? Sometimes people are complaining because they don't understand or they have wrong information. But that's still something that you have to respond to. That's still something that that still tells you that there's a challenge in the organization that needs to be responded to, which is that there's wrong information out there and how do you deal with that? And so I think that orientation of I'm taking this on board in sincerity and then finding out what's happening and doing what what's indicated to address it is, is it's really it's a great success factor. And I think you have it. And I appreciate the way you have always approached us as council members with your work in the past, and I know that you'll bring that to this job. So congratulations. I'm really pleased to see this kind of forward thinking. Council Member Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Floor, I want to underscore some of the conversation that Councilmember Balducci just had with you about leadership and. Use this as examples. My work with you. Your work with me that I have seen you respond to my questions and those of my colleagues hearing the question and the intent behind it and not responding with defensiveness for you personally for the department in ways that. And I'm projects that had a lot of attention a lot of emotion at the time. And I've seen you respond coolly and to the question that either was asked or was intended and clarify the intent and give really strong answers and have appreciated that ability and leadership. And leadership by example. And you and I spoke up in my office last week when we had the chance to visit. I look forward to working with you in some instances when the department is maybe hamstrung or confined by the council or by other forces in or outside of the county to be able to provide the service that we need to people, vulnerable people in our communities without obstruction. And to the degree that I and the Council can work with you to remove those obstructions and be more effective. Please give us every opportunity to do so. I passionately want to work with you to do that. Like a council member. Hey. Anybody else? Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. They are a proud, pragmatic business here. What do you see as the major challenges for the department in the coming year? Thank you, Councilmember. I do think that one of the the large scale challenges, opportunities that that DHS has before it. I think a good metaphor to borrow from transit is this last mile issue. Particularly in King County, we do have robust human services systems. We have, you know, certainly not enough, but also large investments in many systems, including affordable housing, homelessness, crisis, behavioral health services for veterans, services for seniors, services for youth. But the way that those large systems connect and combine for particular people, I think in some ways is the art of management that DHS really has an opportunity to continue to get better at. And so what I mean by that is a specific example to have somebody within shelter, but then to be able in a way that is responsive to them as a customer, make a vet to make available behavioral health services, employment services opportunities to move into permanent supportive housing and to combine those in a way that the person can actually realistically and meaningfully encounter those services. That is a last mile challenge or opportunity that we have before us and sort of a responsibility, I think, that we really have in making these large systems and investments with which we've been entrusted work for specific people. And embedded within that is that the access that different folks inside of our community have differs. And so there is certainly a equity in social justice. And I think important to be very clear about this, a race and ethnicity component to those abilities to access services that we should just be very clear eyed about, because I think that's going to understand the problem is the first step in being able to formulate a good solution. So I think those are two intertwined challenges that we have. And then the third, which also entwines, and that is that we do have considerable resources in King County and many of the resources are specific to particular purposes. So we do have special purpose revenue through the mid BSC, Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy, federal funds document, recording fees and all of those very appropriately are specified in purpose, either just to purpose, to time or to population or to combinations of those. And so our challenge is to take those diverse resources, but then knit them together in a way that is still meaningfully accessible. So again, it's this last mile issue for the particular people that we need to serve and then to be again clear eyed about who those particular people are. Councilmember Coe Wells And thank you, Leo, for your detailed answers to the committee's general questionnaire. Maybe by way of conclusion, I noticed on your curriculum vitae that you have your basic parachutist badge, meaning you jumped out of airplanes. And I wondered if there were any lessons learned in that training that you expect to apply for this job. It's. That's a good question. And, Mr. Chair, I think the one perhaps obvious, but when you get it wrong, you really get it wrong. Lesson that you learn with parachutes is that you better be ready before you jump out of the plane. If your parachute or your alternate chute are not secured, if you have not correctly hooked up to your static line, if you are not moving in concert with the person in front of you or behind you, the minute you put your knees in the breeze, as they say, and jet wash, it's bad things happen. And I think there is a completely applicable principle to that. One thing that might not be immediately clear to airborne operation that we're getting into something interesting about airborne operations in the Army is that that is not one parachutist leaving the plane. That is a plane full of people who have rehearsed and planned in intricate detail the way that they must all move together as an organism in order to successfully get everybody out of the plane to land on a DC and then accomplish the mission. And I think that's a perfect analogy for the level of preparation, but also the level of teamwork that we within DHS but then with our partners across the community, must strive for in order to be successful on some pretty difficult missions. Mr. Chair, I think we think if we did, I think we have the title of Leo's memoir, Knees in the Breeze. We did not practice that. It was spontaneous. I see. A new department director's award in the form of a little parachute, perhaps so little. Thank you for your great questions and service to the community in the county. Councilmember COLAs, would you be willing to put up? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the confirmation of the appointment of Will Floor as director of the King County Department of Community and Human Services. It's been moved and seconded that we move proposed motion 2018 0538 to confirm the appointment. Any final comments or questions? See any last market to call the role on that? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell City. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote is ADA is no nos. Okay. We've given a unanimous do pass recommendation, will expedite that to Monday. And should we put that on consent or do folks. I think we put on consent. If someone wants to say a few more nice things about it, we can pull it off. Thank you very much. I look forward to working with you. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay. We'll turn now to item 12, which is the second appointment on today's agenda with respect to department directors. And that is the appointment of John Taylor as the first ever director of the Department of Local Services. And we're joined by Aaron Osnes from our central staff to give a brief overview of this new department and position and by the nominee to face a similar grilling. Thanks for being here, John. Good morning. Aaron Osnos, council staff. The staff report for this item begins on page 127 of your packet. John Taylor's appointment to the Department of Vocal Services is the subject of this proposed motion. As the Chair mentioned, the Department Local Services will be a brand new department starting January 1st, 2019. It will be comprised of the former Department of Permitting and Environmental Review as the Permitting Division as well as the Roads Division and the Community Service Area Program. Mr. Taylor's resume and the questionnaire is in the packet, and that's all I'm going to say. All right. Terrific. Thank you very much, Aaron. John, would you like to say a few opening words? Yeah, but first I should turn that on. First off, I just like to thank the council and the executive for the opportunity to be here to be considered. I'd really like to just take a minute to acknowledge the work of Fred Jarrett, Deputy County executive Fred Jarrett and Harold Taniguchi, who did an enormous amount of work over a year to sort of frame out what this department would look like. I think they deserve an enormous amount of credit for getting us to this point. I'm very excited to take over. And then as a final point of privilege, I would just like to say it's kind of difficult to follow the floor. Yes. All right. Thank you very much, John. Let's turn to members questions and comments and start with one of our key leaders on this issue, Councilmember Lambert. Mr. Chair, well, this is a day that I am very excited about that we were at a point person and department for the local services of this county. And I know our executive has worked really hard the last couple of years to make our regional government follow in the line of his theme, the best run regional government . And we've won awards nationally and now we have the opportunity to be launching the second half of our responsibilities to be also the best run local government. And the executive. And I have spoken about the idea that the same theme is one he wants here, and that is that to be the best friend, local government. And as Mr. Taylor just said, this is not an easy thing to have come. We've been talking about it for a decade and a half. And so I appreciate the work that Fred Jarrett did in laying out what are the services that we provide to the local government and how are they delivered and work quality? And we will continue to do that work. And then once Fred was finished with that work, although as you said earlier, Fred will be retiring, but hopefully not to too far away because of the expertize that he can help us with from his buying and lean experience. And also Harold Taniguchi, who has done an amazing job getting us through and doing some transitioning from the Department of Transportation, which will be one of the main components of this new unit. And Harold did a wonderful job, and I thank him very much for that work and our dinners where we discussed many, many, many topics. And then now we have done and I am very excited, John, I think with his background and his experience will be perfect for this job is known to the community. He has done good work and a lot. Part of what goes on in the anti-corporate area does deal with some of the work that he has done in the past. So he's already developed relationships. And, you know, it's no surprise that the local people are not very trusting of the government and they've already developed a relationship. So when we talked about the fact that it could be John early on, they were very excited because they knew him and they have developed trust. And yesterday there was a meeting talking about what are the goals of this unit and developing trust from our citizens and building the relationship is really important and I think John has a great running start with that is very thorough. When he says he's going to get something done, he gets it done and you can rely upon that is great teamwork. Did a great job last week on a radio show we did together. So he's out in the community, being out in the community and I think knows what it is because he has developed these relationships, what is lacking and what can we do better as a government? And his goals for helping to lead us into being the best run local government, I think are actually going to get us there. And he is wonderful and working with his team and motivating them. And there was a meeting yesterday and one of the things that I noted was everybody had a smile during the meeting. They were excited about what they were doing and participating and having excited employees to serve our people is really important. So I am overjoyed that we are here today, that this will launch January one and that I think he's ready with knees in the breeze to jump off into making this happen. And I'm very thankful to all the support from the executive branch and making this come together. And I think we've got the right person for the job. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert, co-sponsor of the motion and Councilmember Dutton. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Appreciate you bringing this forward. John, thanks for your willingness to serve. Appreciate it very much. I spent much of yesterday out in the field, out in my district. And as you know, I've got about 70,000 residents who live in unincorporated King County. And so they don't have a city council or mayor to represent them. They've got me and they've got the executive in terms of the legislative and executive functions. So it really does require an awful lot of work from the county to make sure that their services and there are two are properly attended to. I just wanted to say a couple words. First, to thank the executive for initiating this department. When I first ran back in the day for this office, I talked about a Department of Unincorporated Area Affairs is what I called it at the time, and I'm really glad to see it come to fruition. It was something that, you know, was based on the premise that, you know, we could be a more efficient the better would be better customer service if we were to unify a variety of functions. And I'm really glad to see that it got done. And so I want to thank Fred Jarrett for his involvement in this and moving it forward and then Harold taking that on and shepherding it over the last year. And it hasn't it hasn't been easy as he thought about how to bring all these functions, some of them unrelated together into one agency. And I guess that's the challenge, right? I mean, you know, when I was I worked in the legislative executive judicial branches of government and local, state and federal governments and various levels. And you always have this challenge of sort of I like to call it bureaucratic pushback. And that is, you know, sort of getting the agency more or less in line with the priorities of the civilian government, that is, the elected officials. And while, you know, clearly these all of these organizations that are within your department, you know, have statutory roles to play and have to follow, for example, the county code and in some cases enforce it. It's easy to forget. When you're in those departments that this government is paid for by the taxpayers and it is here to assist the taxpayers. And so the basic idea that all of us, when we go out to represent folks and help them, we are a customer service agency first, not a dictatorial group . And and I think one of the challenges, you know, you're going to have is just to continue to remind folks that that is what our role and responsibilities are. That's what the public expects. That's what the elected leadership expect. And so I'm really glad that you're doing this job, and I'm really eager to support you. I love your your combination of both private sector and public sector experience, because I think that it's really important to see that. And it brings a different approach that not not all folks bring who have who are serving government roles. So just remember that even a strong supporter of the creation of this department, I'm cautiously optimistic in terms of whether it's going to work well and really, I think will come down to personalities and your ability to sort of manage the bureaucracy and relate and remember that, you know, there's a whole bunch of different government functions out there working to try and accomplish the same goal and that we're not communicating very well. And there's need to just hyper communicate. All the things that are going on are important too. So but I'm committed to helping you succeed in helping your department succeed. So whatever you can do to call on myself or my office, please let us know. Hey, John. Feel free to respond if you want. Or you can just take the vote and your call. You got the. Vote. You don't need to speak. If I. If I might, I wouldn't mind responding to that for 1/2. I think you put your finger on probably the biggest challenge of standing up this department, of getting this department to be up and running and be meaningful. And and it needs to be meaningful going both ways. It needs to be meaningful to the people who are partnering with us from within King County's government. As a director, I will have direct line control if I'm confirmed over the Road Services Division and the Department of Planning Environmental Review, which will become the permitting division. We will have what are called service partnership agreements with a bunch of other parts of the county that will draft with them for have been developed and will be finalized probably within the next week or two. And then we'll move forward with many, many more with many, many other parts of the county. The conversation I've been having with the folks who are within the Dallas director's office is there needs to be a value proposition for those departments to enter into these agreements and remain in these agreements over the long haul. What's in it for them? I think there's a lot of it in it for them. If we do a good job of engaging with the community and helping them navigate the community because the community isn't monolithic, just like government isn't monolithic, the community isn't monolithic. Fall city is very different from White Center is very different from Skyway is very different from his federal way. And each of those different communities have different needs and we can be a conduit to help departments understand what those different needs are. If we structure ourselves properly, if we craft the right agreements. I was remiss in my interview introductory remarks not to introduce my new deputy who started yesterday. Her name is Danielle de Klerk. She's right there. And Danielle comes to this position with an enormous amount of private sector experience working on lean and metrics and performance management, and is also just a wonderful person who will be really, I believe, adept at working with departments to craft agreements that help them do a better job and are measuring the right things in terms of performance. Because that's a lot of what this department is about is measuring performance and how we're serving the community. Not only so it's transparent to the community, but I think if you look at my questionnaire, the other big challenge we face as a department and as a unit of government in unincorporated King County is there is a structural financial problem that exists out there that we need to develop data to solve. We need to be able to make a case to decision makers that there is a structural inequity that needs to be addressed over the long haul, or else we will not be able to maintain our road system in seven years. So I'm I'm acutely aware of it and I really, really appreciate the offer of assistance. Councilmember. Thanks for that. And by the way, welcome. Look forward to working with you. I'm sure officers will interface all at the future. Yeah, I mean, on that point, thanks for your response. I totally agree. Like, for example, the unincorporated Area Roads Fund, right. We have through Annexations reduced the overall population of unincorporated King County, the group that pays into that unincorporated roads levy and only the group. And we've also matched the maximized our statutory ability under state law so that now with annexations and incorporations that far just goes down. And unless the state gives us additional tools to fix the problem, the roads are going to become. Further in disrepair over time. And this is one of the great challenges. I think I put it on the top five lifts along with the structural budget gap that faces county government. We will have to really, I think. Engage. In partnership with your office in some legislative acrobatics, so to speak, to get to a place where the legislature will give us the tools we need locally to try and solve that problem. And I will tell you, my friend, if you can help us solve that problem, you will put a monument on a park somewhere. John Taylor, look good. Look really good. But year. I took this. Job here, and that's it. But that's that's a huge one. And that is a huge one. And let's, let's, let's work on that together. And hopefully with the work of my colleagues, find some solutions to that problem because it isn't a Republican or Democrat issue, it's a mobility issue, an economy issue, jobs issue, family, family welfare issue . So let's let's work for it. I'm excited for you, John. I look forward to working with you. I'm excited as well. But I would say that Leo's metaphor of jumping out of a plane spoke to me as I waited. My turn up here. Was a jump out of. Oh. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I'm struggling with the microphone this morning. Yeah. I want to echo a few things first and say thank you to the executive and to Deputy County executive Jared and to Harold, who was also retiring at the end of an era here at King County, because this was a pretty bold vision . I mean, this is a there's no guarantees here that this approach would be a success and it's going to set up expectations in the community, but it's the right thing to do. I really appreciated the deliberate approach of building out the plan, doing a lot of detailed inquiry and research before making a proposal, and then but yet sticking with the commitment to deliver this department by the beginning of 2019, which is exactly what we're doing. So congratulations and thank you to the executive branch for that's a promise made, a promise kept. So that's I'm really pleased with that. You know, your challenge, you've outlined it. It's you know, I come I look at what you're doing from the eyes of somebody who's been a city elected official. So we provide all the basic services in the city. We respond to constituents needs and requests. We have got all four prongs of the funding structure in place, you know, with multiple tax sources and fee sources and utility taxes and many of the things that you won't have. And it's still a pretty compact thing, although there are distinct neighborhoods and distinct needs and has tends to have some geographical, you know, coherence to it . And so yeah, following up on the airborne metaphor may be hard to go after. Leo, but you're the profile and courage sitting right there because you're starting with something completely new that's never been done before. And with this incredibly diverse set of constituent constituent interests that you have to model and the, you know, sort of routine tension in government between being a service provider first and foremost, but also a regulatory body. And that's that's a line that has to be walked as well. So I want to give you a little bit more of an opportunity to talk about as you enter into this, what are the sort of like leadership principles that you bring that you are going to try to view your agency with to try to meet these very significant challenges, but but also make the best of the opportunity to maybe do something really special here. Thanks for that and thanks for the opportunity. I mean, I think the your metaphor is the metaphor I've been using a lot. When I go out and talk about this, what we really want to do is create a city government for the 250,000 people who live in unincorporated King County. That is not what they have right now. And in fact, in many cases, I was at a meeting last night talking about an issue and it engaged King County and engaged Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and engage the sheriff's office and engaged one other federal agency. And it engaged Water and Lands Resources Division. So it we have a diffuse set of services that we're delivering out there and that we somehow need to knit into a whole that's coherent for the people who live out there. Because just as I said before, the community isn't monolithic to the public, to the community, government is monolithic. The people who live in the unincorporated, during my experience, don't make distinctions between those units of government. So I think that one of the things we're trying to build is a really robust coordination shop within the director's office that is going to be flexible, is going to be listening to the community, but is also going to be talking to all of these different government agencies. And the way that we're talking to the people within the King County Executive Branch and some of the separately elected who will have to enter into service partnership agreements with is trying to approach that in a really thoughtful and open way. As I said, the Service Partnership Agreements won't work if there isn't a value proposition for the people who are entering. And if they just view them as something that is an annoyance and that we're gathering data that we then go out to the community with and sort of use to make them feel uncomfortable and that they're not serving the community well. That isn't going to work very well. So there needs to be a value proposition for the people who are entering into those agreements, and we need to be communicating with them in a really clear and coherent way and be viewed as a partner. That's kind of why I took this job. That's what I want to bring to it, sort of just generally, I take a moment to talk about my approach to leadership leading an organization that's a large organization, not by by no means the largest organization within this county, no by no means the largest department. But about 485 people. All told, the first thing I would just like to say is I'm really lucky. I'm taking over two great departments and we have amazing employees and I've been lucky to have worked in the private sector quite a bit, and I've worked in government at a number of different levels of government from state government down to cities. And I would say that. King. The county has some of the best employees I have ever worked with. That was true in water and lands. That's true for the road services division. If really dedicated employees, there were people out last night in the middle of the night putting down salt on highways and roads in this county because we had fog and really cold temperatures. So you've got a 24 seven roads division that is out there working for people all the time. No one ever even sees them because most of the time they're working in the middle of the night. So people don't get into accidents. They just say, you know, one of the biggest assets we have is our employees and we have great employees and King County, in terms of how I approach running this department. There's sort of three things you need to create a vision. You need to give people the tools to do the work. And then you need to hold people accountable and you hold people accountable through metrics in terms of the vision. We're right now building, I think, a really strong vision for what we want to do. Councilmember Lambert sat in on a meeting yesterday with communication staff from across the county, some government relations and community relations staff. Some of your staff were there. We invited all of the staff from all of the unincorporated area council offices because we want to partner with you as we move forward on this and are trying to lay out a really ambitious vision for what this department means. And I think we're we're we're being successful in doing that. We'll be rolling it out after the first of the year. In terms of the resources, I want to thank the council because you funded pretty much everything that was in the executive's proposed budget to stand up this department. And if you hadn't done that, it would have made this much more challenging. And so I just want to I want to thank you and I want to thank the executive for being very thoughtful about and and Fred and Harold and how they framed out the budget and in terms of holding people accountable. That's why Danielle is here. Danielle is going to be the person who builds the metric systems that we're going to be using for the service partnership agreements and for the two departments, the two divisions that are part of this department. And we'll be coming back to you and will be reporting out on how we're making progress on the targets that we've set for delivering services in the unincorporated area and how we're doing in teasing apart some of those big regional services where it's not clear what's in the unincorporated area and what's in the rest of the county . Thank you. And just a closing comment I was noting on the website the other day, the District three, Councilmember Lambert's district and District nine Councilmember Megan Dunn's district take up two pages on the website to look at a map of the entire district. And so I don't want to compare in any way, but in my district, I've got two precincts that are unincorporated King County. They happen to both be on the floor of the sammamish agricultural valley population in the low three digits, if that. But those people deserve a local government as well and deserve to have access to all the services that anybody who lives inside the city, which is the rest of my constituents do. So I'm really supportive of your of your mission. And I want to add my voice to my colleagues that we're going to work to be supportive of making this a success as well. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Belushi, over Councilmember Gossett, Councilmember Coles and Councilor McDermott. Thank you, Mr. Chair. When you mentioned that there are 250,000 people in unincorporated King County, were you including those that live and how they urbanize areas like Skyway and White Center? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. The there's well, I've been told that there is a historic challenge between serving those who live in urban King County versus a rural, unincorporated King County, urban, unincorporated or unincorporated. And I think for 15 or 20 years, I've been telling you and I'm the sole member to represent Skyway now. I said, Well, our policy is that there is no way that King County could possibly, given our resource base, provide all the urban services that you all in this highly urbanized community need fire, police, roads, economic development. So we encourage you to vote to either an accent to Seattle, Renton or somewhere else. So I kind of see a disconnect and telling all the people in unincorporated area that you deserve a high level of services and we're going to provide it because we're not able to provide it. My question to you is, do you see that dichotomy or have you thought about it? Or do you think we as the new director of a department that we have in our city now today are just with those who live in unincorporated King County, said we review our attitude and perspective and policy relates to the urban unincorporated folks. What are your thoughts? I think that we do a an equally not great job of serving everyone who's in unincorporated King County. I think that we serve people, but we serve them in a very diffuse and not well coordinated way. And I think the goal of this is to serve everybody, both urban and rural, in a more coordinated way. Just generally to your question, there absolutely is a dichotomy between the rural area and the urban unincorporated area, and the needs are very, very different. And I think that your point is a good one, which is it would be disingenuous if we go out to the community and say that the creation of the Department of Local Services is going to solve all of your problems, and suddenly there's going to be sheriff's deputies and all kinds of services for people in the urban, unincorporated area. And I think that's the intent. But the intent is to do a much better job of identifying the needs and trying to match whatever resources we have with the needs in the community. A big part of the conversation yesterday and your staff participated in that meeting was to talk about how we conduct outreach to the urban unincorporated area. Because being candid, I don't think we have done a very good job through the community service area program of really reaching the larger community. We get very comfortable talking to a couple of groups and that's who we talk to. And I think we need to broaden that net and we need to be listening to a lot more of the community and identifying needs in a much more thoughtful way. The Department of Local Services isn't really a service provider. We don't have sheriffs, we don't have firetrucks, we don't have EMS. We're really a conduit for information to people who do have those things. And my hope is that if we do a really good job of acting as that conduit, we can help the sheriff's office or other separately elected to think about how they serve that community and hopefully bring more resources to the table. The other thing that I would point out to your council councilmember is you funded an economic development position in this budget, and that economic development position is going to be focused really on the urban unincorporated areas, which are primarily Skyway and West Hill, I mean, Skyway and Wade Center, but also falsity, because we can really change the fortunes of those areas if we have a cohesive plan for how we're going to approach them. So if you marry the sub area planners that you authorized in this budget and we develop community plans that reflect what the community wants and we. Bringing economic development resources to bear. In a thoughtful way, we can change what those communities look like and we can increase the tax base. And those won't deliver services in and of themselves. But economic development changes how communities feel and they make them better for the people that live there. Absolutely. I've seen that play out in the number of different positions I've held in my career. And finally, Mr. Chair, I have one other question that kind of related to economic development. When you were introduced earlier, it said that Mr. Taylor also has private sector policy experience. And I want to do you to articulate what that experience is or half bad. And then you, during the course of your presentation, introduce to us Danielle, your deputy. And you said that she has a lot of private sector experience. So I'm trying to figure out what it's going to be, their relationship. And you just mentioned economic development. What is the relationship between the private sector and what you're going to be trying to do and the Department of Local Services? What's the intersectionality between those two? Let me just start answering that question by making a quick observation, which is, I don't think that private sector experience in government gives you magical powers or is somehow, you know, a panacea for all problems. The private sector is the private sector. Government is government. There are very different entities. There are skill sets that you pick up when you work in the private sector that are transferable to government and can actually improve service. But it isn't you know, they have very different missions. I mean, businesses exist to make profit. Government exists to provide services to people. So very, very different missions. But there are skill sets that people bring over that can actually help us do a better job of delivering services to residents. So my private sector background is I spent about four years working for a start up solid waste company called Clean Scapes. It's kind of a unique animal in the solid waste industry. It was started by a guy named Chris Martin who had a little graffiti removal operation in Pioneer Square, and he did not like how Pioneer Square looked. So he championed something called dumpster free alleys, where he would pick up all the garbage in plastic bags and aggregate them in a dumpster. And in doing that, he got a little bit of solid waste experience. And the city of Seattle was unhappy with their solid waste collection contractor for half of the city, and they put the entire city out for bid. And Chris assembled a team of people, of which I was one of them. And I was at that time a consultant, a public affairs consultant, and did a lot of work with the Seattle City Council and the city government while we were working on that bid to figure out what kind of services the city wanted to see. And Clean Ships was successful in winning the solid waste contract for half of the city of Seattle, which is a fairly huge accomplishment when you're considering it. Before that, they had zero solid waste experience anyway. Also worked for Thanks Councilmember just also worked for as a private consultant and finally I had was my own consultant hung out a shingle for a little while and did an economic development strategy on Internet startups for the city of Seattle. Danielle's background I don't know it verbatim. She worked with me clean skates. She also worked for Boston Consulting, which is one of the premier sort of business efficiency consulting enterprises in the world. And and I think the skill sets we both bring are sort of very rigorous thought around metrics and how you measure performance. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Coles. And then Councilmember Lambert to wrap up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, congratulations, John, on your appointment. Although I do not have any unincorporated land in my district, I do recognize the compelling need for establishing this new department and think it very likely could be very helpful to our residents across the county who are living in unincorporated areas. And I also in listening to your testimony today, I am very impressed with you and also with your background. You bring to this new position. And I'm very eager to go home and tell my husband about you. I'm sure he will think you are extraordinary as he also was a graduate of Hobart College. And give him my number. All right. Councilmember Lambert, to conclude. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So a couple of comments I want to make. First of all, this is a bold vision, but it's the right vision. And in your comments, you said that it would be like sitting at the city hall. Imagine any of your cities and your citizens not having a city hall where they know they can go to get help. Government's big and it's hard to navigate. And if you didn't have a city hall, you wouldn't really know how to make the services happen for you. And so it's really important. And I think I think it's vital to keeping this county unified and people feeling like they are treated fairly like everybody else. The Service Partnership Agreements are going to be really important that in each of the CSA zones there's seven, right? And in each of the zones across the county, that's a very large county, people have different needs. And being able to say to the people, what are your needs? And then trying to tailor the services that we offer. It's sort of like going in to a group and saying, okay, you're all going to get a new outfit and it's all going to be size 16. Well, for some people, that'll be great. For other people, that won't be great. So looking to see, you know, what is the size of the services and what is the different services that people need in each area is going to be very important. And then for the providers in our different agencies to know that they really are making what people want. And you know, the intent is for the basic services to be covered. And currently the CSA is meet only once a year. So. The rural areas have some unique problems in that. Some are urban and some are below the urban areas. We have tried to annex now for more than a decade, actually probably closer to 20 years. The ones that remain are ones that the cities either don't want or that there are aspects about those areas that aren't in good enough condition for the cities to take on because there are costs. And so we need to know what those are so we can prepare the 5% of the unincorporated area that could be annexed so that the cities will take them. There is about 6% of the land in King County that can never by law be annexed. There will always be our local government and I think they like everybody else. But 5 to 6%. And right now, the county unincorporated area, both urban and rural, is 11.25% of this county. So when over one in ten people, one in 11 people in this county have no city hall, and yet they, like everybody else, have to navigate government. And for those that will always be part of us, we need to make sure that the 3% of the revenue that is generated in the unincorporated area is not enough. So the challenge before us is, as Councilmember Dunn said earlier and Dwight Daley said two weeks ago, in year seven, there will be $0 for road capital budget. That cannot happen. No city can function with $0 in any category that is important, like road capital construction. So looking at what are we going to do? And we don't have a whole lot of time anymore because we know the cliff is coming in seven years. So we have to figure out how are we going to be sustainable. And that is why the economic development person is going to be so important. And then we as accounts are going to have to make really hard decisions and how we're going to deal with that. And so I'm really excited that we're going to have a team of experts who are going to help us with that. And I'm very excited that we were we are launching the new government unit. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert is the prime sponsor. Would you like to put the motion before us? I would love to do that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I like to move proposed ordinance and some of the papers in front of me. What is the ordinance? Number six? It's a motion, and it's. Right here at the bottom. I'd like to be a proponent of the ordinance number. No, no, I don't have anything to be sorry. Yes, it is preferment. I'm sorry. Proposed motion 2018 0558 with a do pass recommendation. All right, call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell, Dutchie. Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett. Hi. Councilmember Colwell. Hi. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Right, Mr. Chair, the vote is eight A's, no no's. All right. We've given you the items to pass. Recommendation will expedite that, put it on consent. Congratulations, John. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Looking forward to working with you and Harold. You know, boy, thank you for being here. And we'll look forward to celebrating your long service with King County. And I know you've got a party coming up. What's the date of that Thursday and what time? 430. So if you're able to join Harold at his party at 430. So we appreciate your your service and thanks for your. Our last item on the agenda today is our legislative agenda for the 2019 state legislature. We're joined by Mac Nicholson to give us an overview. April Putney is also here, our partner on these issues. April, I don't how do you want to handle this magazine? We're going to co-present with you or just your hand? Mr. Chair, thank you. I had asked April to be here. Should you have questions for her? She's absolutely at your discretion. Welcome to join us. I would also note that we have Dave Foster, one of our contract lobbyists in the in the room as well. Okay, great. So just to orient members, we have a draft agenda that's been circulated and then we've got a kind of a revised working version here that I think is labeled draft December 3rd. Is that kind of the latest correction? December 3rd is kind of the base level, if you will. It's something that every council member has seen or emailed or handed it to every council member. The the chart is all the feedback. And whether that's new additions or suggested new additions or suggested edits to items that were in the December 3rd draft. I also emailed and haven't handed it to you a December 4th draft that incorporates every single one of these changes. Should you want to see that or should a pass or we need to distribute that as well. All right. Why don't you give us an overview, then we'll have a little dialog and we may need to take a brief recess here, depending on members views on dialog. But our goal, I think, will be to try and advance something out of the committee today to Monday, because just we have our lunch breakfast and we going to have some stamp of direction from the colleagues going into Monday mornings lunch, breakfast, even lunch ahead of the council meeting. Is that what you're envisioning? Mr. McDermott? Very much so. All right. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mack That was some council staff. So the draft legislative agenda, we kind of it's very similar in scope and nature to years pass. There are a number of long term issues that we're still working on, including the 1% issue, not supplant language funding around foundational public health. Behavioral health. Funding. There are some new in on the back side what was just discussed quite a bit, the kind of county, regional and local roads funding going forward, seeking new tools for that, new tools and resources around housing and affordable housing and tackling the homelessness and then issues on criminal justice, public safety. There are some new items this year that have been suggested be put on one, dealing with a homestead exemption for property tax, one on the age, prohibiting the sale of tobacco and vapor products to persons under the age of 21. There is a piece or a couple of pieces around housing, including there is ongoing discussion around state sales tax credit for local governments, which is essentially gives local governments binding authority to use state sales tax for affordable housing. We expect that that will be an issue in the legislative session and working with City Partners on that, a bullet that really kind of gets at supporting recommendations of the regional, regional, affordable housing task force from one table that have been ongoing this year. There is a piece on public records, transparency and consistency across all level of governments which really kind of gets at the legislature's been going through this public records process and wanting to be sure that exemptions for legislative bodies stay consistent and the same across different levels cultural access, program flexibility and all payers clean database that will help are aimed at delivering a better functioning government and transparency for health care costs. There is a piece on allowing local jurisdictions to use traffic camera enforcement of transit only lanes. This was something that was expressed by a member and the exact ideas as issues they would like to work on. So I'm happy to kind of in there. Those are really kind of the newer. All right ads. So it's a good overview. Let's open up for dialog and questions and we'll start with Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Where is the one on a formative action that the state is already working on? So that would be on on this sheet as a suggested addition of this based document sheet? Yes, correct. The fourth one down would be the repeal of our 200 as a as an item to add to the list. Okay. And where is the one that asks that we continue to work on that this disproportionality in criminal justice? It is right above it in the third box there. Okay. Because the state has major responsibilities for this issue. And then how did you say we're going to make this as we're going to discuss all of these and then decide how we want to do with it? I would defer to the chair and the members as to how they want to. I'm sorry. What additional item. How do you plan to deal with the new. Well, the way we've got it is as a is is Mac has prepared a single revised attachment that's draft December four. That's how it's labeled. And that reflects all of the changes and the red line here from December three. So I think the easiest thing, depending on where we go here, if if members had concerns about some of the revisions, I think we should to move forward. It'd be my suggestion, but I'm open to feedback that we would move to attach the draft December for. Janda, which is the latest version. If somebody wanted to have a change in wording, I would suggest we consider that was the moral amendments. If we can get it done simply here or move it forward with the expectation, they'll be refined Monday with with written amendments. Does that word, Councilmember McDermott, trying to just be practical? I might suggest that we actually start with the December 3rd so that we can be additive rather than subtracting additions and or the suggestions that have come in since the first draft went out. And I might suggest that without debate, but with what briefing? We ask Mack to run down that list. Just that we're all clear. But with the proposed changes to the December 3rd version are in there and then might have some conversation, Mr. Nicholson to do pass up both the third and fourth versions. Yeah, no. No. We passed the, the third version and this although it appears in the fourth version, some of you might have thought that was in binders or or separate emails printed. I thought. The chair for. I don't know how I had four here was in my pile of papers. I thought you walked it down the dais, but we didn't have it. With version three. But I'm happy to pass out version four because I do have extra copies, if you will. Probably a good idea. So everyone can all along. Yeah. All right. And and just to be very clear, the versions we're referring to in the upper right hand corner, it says draft December three is the December three version. It doesn't say version three. And then December 4th. Got. I guess it's probably. 24. And the in both versions and the list of edits were emailed out to members about 530 last night. That's fine. Yeah. I mean Cathy is they're willing reading her email after five are you read it. Okay. Okay. So Councilman McDermott has suggested that we actually stick with the base work on the base document December 3rd and then go through these proposed line items. And maybe we can do that on a very expedited basis. But if we have a motion to amend the third to reflect the line items, what I would suggest is we any member who would want to to flag one of these on the chart could pull it and it would be deemed not included for now. So at work, I'm trying to get a way to get the bulk of the consensus items attached, and then we can continue to remind the customer about Dutchy. I just didn't quite follow the procedure. Are we starting from the December 3rd and amending? Are we starting from December 4th and removing? Well, I had suggested the ladder. Councilman McDermott suggested the prior. And I'm going to go with our chair on on on it. So starting with the December 3rd, look at the red line chart here have Mack give us the highlight of those. Any member that wants to pull an item could just let me know. And then we would seek a motion to to attach anything that wasn't a flag that wasn't flagged and that. Okay, got a working session here. Yes. Councilmember Lambert. After reading this and then yes, I was reading late. I don't remember on here. If it talks about public defense, should we mention public defense on here? Councilmember Lambert has a question about public defense. I confess to not having seen that if it's there. Yes, well, there's. A bullet that kind of stinks is up with once X is the last bullet on public safety. The first part I draw adequate resources to and it's criminal justice services including state funding for indigent defense. And this. Is. The very bottom bullet on the back of the draft. 332 for. December 3rd. It's a reading of number 41. All right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So just to be clear, we're going to work from the December 3rd version. We're looking now at possible changes that are based on feedback from members to the December 3rd version. The possible changes are summarized on the red line chart. Correct. All right, Mac, let's start with the first one there. The first one concerns, just adding specifically calling out the Eastside Rail corridor as part of that bullet on asking the state to increase investments to speed up local and regional transit and connect based on pedestrian trails. All right. Any concerns by any member on that? Looks good, seeing no concerns and the executives giving a nod as well. All right. I'll look to you, April, as well. All right. Denver to preserve existing managed lines, programs, any you want to hit on this one? Sure. And I would defer to councilmember duty on this, but would really allow access, total revenue from from tolling to be used or reinvested in transit on the corridor. Okay. And coverage and you want to speak to that briefly. Okay. So the origin of this idea goes back a few years to the Advisory Committee on Tolling and Transit for the Alaskan Way Viaduct project. King County was well represented on that project. Songjiang was the representative from the executive branch. I don't recall it. The legislative branch had a direct representative. I was there as a representative on the state side from PSR, but it was a pretty broad group of folks from business, local communities, sort of think tanks and government, the goal of which was to figure out how to deal with the fact that the Alaskan Way Viaduct was going to be told. But unlike a bridge, it had numerous alternate routes that people could choose to take to avoid the toll. And so how are we going to keep the toll from causing chaos on the streets of downtown Seattle, which in turn gums up the regional transportation system? One of the recommendations at the end of a lengthy study and discussion among that group was that when we when the state implements tolls, that they should, after paying for the things that are required, after paying for the cars to collect the tolls, the roadway itself, that on whatever improvements have been done, maintenance ongoing into the future after paying for all of the things that tolls paid for, any excess revenue could be used to cover transit service in that quarter to pay for it. It's a it's a it would be a making it an eligible expense. It doesn't say it must be spent on transit. It doesn't set any levels or criteria. It just would make transit service an eligible recipient of toll moneys, excess toll revenues. I think this is going to be very important places like the four or five corridor, possibly 520. So it's direction. It seems very important for the state to move in and it's going to require a lift because they're not inclined to do this in the legislature or at least haven't been to date. So that was my and by the way, that was what was intended by this language to begin with. It just wasn't written exactly the way the recommendation had come out from from the city. And now it is. So that's what the editor does. Thank you for letting me explain it. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember will do duty. Any concerns on this, Councilmember Lambert? Do you like it? Yeah, I'd like. Goal here is if you have a concern, we can have a little dialog, but let's flag it and work through a resolution on these items toward Monday. But go ahead. So I just want to ask a question. Sure. So. Service on the quarter. And I think it's a good idea to take the tolls and deal with that specific corridor. But I'm wondering if the way that it's written that it reduces the flexibility if the word transit was taken out and it just that reinvested in service in the corridor. It could be any transportation issue because eventually with the lack of roads, money that we're getting, the transit may need to go on a road that needs some work. And by not having that as an option. And. It removes the flexibility. And that's what I'm worried about here. That's removing flexibility. So that's my concern. Yeah. So I want to be mindful of the chair's desire to get through all of this and maybe we can hold a debate on this one. But this increases flexibility. It increases flexibility. It doesn't decrease flexibility. Currently, the tools by based on and I don't recall the citation, but there was a law passed and when Representative Clyburn was the chair of the House Transportation Committee that keeps toll revenues to be spent in the corridor where they're raised and they can be used to upgrade the roads, they can be used to maintain the roads. They can be used to do any number of things on the road that's already exists. This expands that definition to include the possibility of also funding transit service in addition to all the things you mentioned and other things besides. So it actually is meant to increase flexibility. If on that corridor, the best thing we could do to increase throughput and make it easier for people to travel quickly and reliably is to provide more and better bus service. It would at least be an option by law. Right now we can't even have the discussion and of course, the discussions around where money goes and how much of it goes, where are still going to be very keenly and hotly discussed in the legislature that they would never give up or say that they would tie their hands to fund these sorts of things. But this would at least make it legally. If this change were made in the legislature, this would at least make it legally possible for excess toll revenue to be used for transit service. Where that made sense. If it didn't make sense, if the road was crumbling, then they should use the money on roads as they can today. And this would not change that at all. This issue can I respond. Super briefly otherwise where I can, I'm doing. Super briefly. I got that. I'm also good at time. If that were added in addition to whatever that code is, I think that would be perfect so that the legislature would be aware that this is an addition and subtraction. So just adding what Claudia said, a councilmember about what she said I think would make it perfect. Thank you. Okay, so shall we? Well, sounds like we're going to leave it on with potential for additional refinement. We will not remove it. Is that. Is that right? I'm happy to work with Councilmember Lambert on any additional words that would make sure that we capture that. All right. So for today's purposes, since we're going to be additive one and two, I'm numbering this are staying in. No one's asking to remove them. But we understand there could be further refinement. Is that is that okay? Okay. Item three and I've asked April two to join us. So we get real time since this is a joint legislative agenda between for King County that we make sure we have the exact branch at the table. Number three would add an item asking that the state reduce disproportionality in the adult and juvenile criminal justice systems. Okay. Any concerns? That's good. Item four. Item four would ask the state repeal I 200 and restore the fair treatment of underserved groups in public employment, education and contracting. Okay. I've had a member request the opportunity to have additional work on this and so do not include it today. I'm not included today. That means that. We would remove it from the additive items and we will see what in there may need to be a separate amendment. Monday. Never come Monday. Morning. Mr. Chairman. I understand that I didn't. Yeah, I understand that. Okay. Councilmember Gossett, can I understand what you're saying there? Can we park this item and work through the remaining ones and come back to it here on how you would like to proceed? Okay. We're going to come back to that one. All right. Item five, option we have two options. Item five, you see two options. One was emailed and the second one was with further refinement of language with councilmember as of this morning relating to us putting efforts for salmon recovery. And councilman recalls, do you prefer option to. Him as chair? I prefer option to. Any objection to option two within bucket five. Question Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'm sure it's probably fine, but I haven't I don't know what those recommendations are. As we've been talking here, I've been scrolling on the screen to see what it is I'm blessing by voting for this. I don't know if you've had a chance to review it. Is there anything that would be inconsistent with county. Policies or that's unusually? But from my kind of read on it, no. A lot of the recommendations are directed at asking the state to do things to itself and having their own sort of agencies take care of of stuff. And some of it, you know, relates to dam overspill for more kind of the ability of fish to get downstream, dealing with the closeness with which boats, whale watching boats can get to orca is kind of having buffers, those sorts of things. And there are a couple of of recommendations around reducing toxins and water, stormwater runoff and wastewater. Okay. But there are 36 different recommendations and some are aimed at the federal government, some aimed at the state, and then some would have some some local impact. Okay. I mean, I trust the people who convened to make the recommendations based on looking at who's on the list. But. Mr. Chair. Yeah, hold on. I want to make sure I don't want to take it off. I just wanted to have a little discussion, make sure that that we. Did have an understanding of what we're. Embracing. Okay. Kind of a way to handle that. Okay. Councilmember Lambert had a question or comment. Governor, do want to hear from Governor Caldwell's first or. Whatever she prefers. Let's see if she's got it. So my recommendation is that we include in there included to including in addressing the recommendations. Well, more flexibility. Okay. All right. I'm saying nods. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Mm hmm. I think Councilmember up the ground by a good point. None of the research that and so it is the task force that they did has been written up in the Seattle Times several times. So it's not like they won't be looking at that. So I'm not sure that that subordinate clause is even necessary if we took it out. Support efforts for salmon and orca recovery as well as improvement of water quality and reduction of toxins and wastewater effluent. I think that gets where we want. They'll do that anyway because it's their own task force. So I kind of like the idea of not addressing recommendations. They're saying, I like the recommendations if I haven't read them. So I think just taking that clause out, we get to where we want to get to. And to be clear, Mr. Chair, I support including the language. That Councilman Paul Wells recommended. A minute ago. So I, I think having addressing at least addresses my concern. Here's what I'm hearing on the side of my if I can reflect, maybe I'm hearing that there is some interest in having something in our legislative agenda related to the southern resident population of orca whale recovery. And we're close on the language, but between now and Monday, perhaps a little more refining could be done. So consistent with how we handled the toll revenue one, I would suggest we include option two and bucket five with the understanding that there'll be a little further refining between now and Monday. Does that work for folks who have weighed in on this? I'm saying I think I'm not. Is that a nod, Councilmember Lambert? You're okay with that? Okay. All right. So option two on bucket five, turning to bucket six or. This one adds language, specifically asking for additional resources to combat the opioid crisis. Any concerns on this one thing? None will include that item seven. The next one asks that. Let's say you clarify and affirm that the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Funds can be used to construct facilities. Okay, I'll get on this one. I'll double thumbs up. All right. Seven's good showing. 288 as. That the state. Support, county based or other regional health coverage programs. This new approach to providing comprehensive health coverage to uninsured individuals across Washington state. Okay. Well. I need some health care. Yeah, I did not. There any concerns on the side, Mr. Chair? Yes, Councilmember. I think that needs a fiscal note. You know, we're doing a lot to try to expand health care for the uninsured as much as possible, but that is a huge, huge price tag. And if we wanted to say that we support the state providing more and putting it down to us, but I don't know that we can put that on the backs of the county taxpayers. They're overtaxed as it is. Would would you be open if we added the flexibility rather than keeping it strictly focused on county or regional or Edwards words or state? Yes. Level. The state has the money to get. To really the and the intent to find a way to fill the gap we get with that. Yeah that. Could you run that. Just add rather than being limited to county or regional, you could add the concept of a statewide cap filling health care program. Any concerns? No. All right. Eight as revised for final state, I. Would add a sheriff deputy training to the request that the state ad academy classes for correction officers would be correction officers and sheriff's deputies. Okay. Any concerns on that? Nine, actually. Item ten, I have a stabilized foundational public health. Right. And that's largely a technical one just to make sure that we're referring to foundational public health, which is how it has been discussed and and the request from. All right. To health to the governor. Item 11. Similar there, the hen and EPD programs were listed. This just spells them out. So the you don't have that. Yes. So this was an issue that I brought up too. I like the idea of having hen 18 and then saying it so you can put the Hennen and the APD back in again. Okay. By the agent, by the disabled so that you have both because it's confusing to always know when APD is, because there's lots of Abdi's in government and we need to know which APD is we're talking about. So thank you. All right. Well, could the acronym acronyms there? So I have now there's 11 items, one through all 11 excepting four. We have got some little work to do on four would be included with some slight revisions and or further work toward Monday. But the concepts I think there's consensus, April, is that you're okay with that from the exact side. Okay. I'd like to take a brief recess here for some dialog. Councilmember Dunn. Yes. Chair Appreciate that. I just want to say this and having done this a few times, just to remind members that this is a in my my view of this is that this should be a good government document that achieves consensus. And by doing that, we can enable our lobbying team to go down there and use our relationships with both caucuses to get things accomplished for the taxpayers of King County. I don't believe that this is a document for the personal priorities, political priorities of individual members. I'm seeing a little of that here. And I think the more appropriate form for that, in my view, is to run this run a separate motion at council, not related to this. So I just want to remind folks, if this continues to go on the direction I see it going right now, I'm not going to support it . I don't know where my colleagues are, but you're going to lose 21 members of the state Senate and a whole bunch of House members, because I'm going to write a letter and I just think we need to work together. So I would caution members, in terms of using this document for the personal priorities, I don't want to handicap our lobbying team, so let's work together. And with that said before the recess. Okay, we'll be in a brief recess here for about 5 minutes and then we'll reconvene and see if we can get done a spine tone and revise this. Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Mr. Chair, of the committee. The whole give it to pass recommendation to motion 2018 541. All right. And for the amendment. I would move adoption of Amendment one, which actually attaches attachment eight, the legislative agenda itself to the motion adopting the legislative agenda. Wonderful Amendment eight are Amendment one with Attachment eight reflects the work session that we have had here in committee today. All in favor, say I. All right. Any oppose that is adopted unanimously. Turning now to the underlying motion. I think we have had a discussion. Councilman McDermott, would you like to just give us a quick preview of Monday morning where this is going to be presented? Thank you, Mr. Chair. The overall legislative agenda we're attaching it would move to full council on Monday, lays out our top priorities and other items we want to be able to speak to during the legislative session in Olympia come January. And the reason why it's important to be doing this now is not only that the legislative session begins on the second Monday of January, but also that we are having our annual occasion to visit with legislators and talk about our priorities. And Monday morning, with a legislative breakfast with legislators. So having this moved through committee with a recommendation and B pending for council is important to be able to have that document to share and let the legislature know where we are in developing our agenda and share that this draft with them. Very good. And on the item that was worked on there. Where did that language end end up. It's on the back of your your item, Councilmember Gazette. Yep. It's, it's the very last bullet on the second side. Oh, good. I've got it. Just above the gray box. Thank you. Notes right now. Thank you very. Much. All right. All right. That comes from course. Okay. Any final comments? Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank our legislative team for their hard work on it. Putting pulling this together and. Well, it is one of the challenges we have, I think we experienced today is how do you take a diverse body and find a consensus document? And for me, this very much is a consensus document. I strongly agree with all the top priorities listed. It doesn't necessarily mean every single item in there is something that I individually embraced. For example, I'm not a fan of traffic enforcement, light cameras, for example, but it's it's a local option and it's something that I know a majority of this body wants. But I just wanted to note that there is like one item tucked in there that doesn't necessarily reflect one of my personal priorities, but it is something that is a priority. There is a consensus. Generally of this body, and at the end of the day, I think what really the key is that that gray box at the top of the document, the top priority, that's where our legislative team focuses their time and their energy largely. And I think we've hit the hit the right themes around fiscal flexibility so that we have adequate and fair. Revenue sources to. Meet the needs of the people of King County. And I'm proud to support the agenda. Very good. And Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I did what I just heard from the previous councilmember about great teamwork and also his can. As I do have. Also in traffic cameras, a minister shows what good government can do with everybody working together. So I think this is very well done. I have one question for staff. What is the name and their count that has been underfunded at the state level for the last couple of years that municipalities can borrow from for major public works? Just one. Okay. Did we say anything at all about the public works trust fund in here? No. There's nothing on the agenda about SJOBERG. So, Mr. Chair, I think that the Public Works Trust Fund under new government might be something that we want to talk about because we've been talking about it for years. And the idea of them taking away an opportunity for low cost borrowing, especially for the littler cities, but also for us, is really important. So anyway, I just want to throw out that that might be something we'd like to add that they fund the public work trust fund. Okay. Thank you. Other members. Councilmember done. Great. Thanks. Appreciate the chance to have a recess, Mr. Chair. And I think we had a good conversation on a variety of fronts on the issue and appreciate members. You know, it's funny, these these documents you pass through a Democratic body, every word matters a little bit, sometimes just tweaking a word or two. We can still we can get to a place where we can achieve consensus, which I appreciate. Thank you for doing that. I am I don't is there's always things in these documents because there's so many issues coming forward that you have concerns with. For example, I, I don't like the alignment of the toll lanes on four or five personally, and I know that a huge percentage of the population agrees with me. But that said, I'm going to support the language in here and we're going to drive this forward. And I do care about the revenue and I do care about local control of our our various transit times as well. So I'm going to support this. But everybody working together, frankly, disappointed we're not going to fight over something on Monday, but we got it done. More or less urgent support. Thank you. Just for myself, but for another option. I agree with the councilmember up the grove. I actually don't know if there's a consensus on the traffic camera enforcement at all lanes, but it's a it's a local option. And and we haven't had time, or at least I haven't with respect to the property tax abatement bollards. And there are a couple of those on here. I confess to not knowing the specifics of the proposals there, but the general notion of some relief for our property tax payers I'm supportive of, and I think that there's enough flexibility in this language to be able to work on and craft solutions in the legislative session that will give some appropriate relief to to homeowners in particular. So I think that's that's good. With that, given the time, Councilmember calls for our physical comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm going to support this, and I really appreciate working with Councilmember Lambert on the language for the salmon and orca recovery. Very good. Thank you both. Okay. It's as amended before and we'll call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Dutchie. Councilmember Dunn I Councilmember Garcia. Hi. Councilmember Cornwall Council Member. Member Hi. Councilmember McDermott. Hi. Council member of the Grove City. Councilmember One right there, Mr. Chair, by Mr. Chair, the bonus ADA is no no's. Okay? We've got a unanimous recommendation on our lunch agenda, and we're counting on you to to get everything passed with our contract lobbyists behind you there. And April, thank you for being here. We really appreciate it and and luck. We'll see you Monday morning. All right. With that, thank you all for your extra time.	A MOTION relating to the Harborview leadership group, confirming the executive's appointment of members to the Harborview leadership group in accordance with Motion 15183.
king_511d1173-2452-45c2-9673-0bd33299b2ad	Good morning, everyone. I am calling to order the King County Council Committee of the whole special meeting for this Monday, June 12th, 2017. Welcome, everyone. I'll ask our council staff to please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Gossett. Here. Councilmember Caldwell here. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember after. Councilmember McDermott. Councilman Rapid Growth Councilmember. Going right, Bauer. Madam Chair here. And we have a quorum. Okay, so we'll move on to our next item, which is public comment. We have a sign in sheet for public comment. I'm going to ask everybody to please follow the rules today and speak to an item on the agenda. And without doing all those things that I don't I don't seem to have a piece of paper here, but that we say, don't do that. That's plenty of notice. Right. Our lawyers would totally, totally defend that. Anyway, first person signed up to speak is Mr. Zimmerman, who should be very familiar with our rules. Welcome, Mr. Zimmerman. Hi, my three double. If you're my name, I like Zimmerman am only president of stand up America. Not exactly today. Election voters we have here. Anybody see for the last 30 here? It's a pure fake. A pure fabrication is good year by year, year by year. For example, I give you classic example right now, console Dabrowski, go for the election alone here from beginning to come from back door. But right now alone. So what's happening is a situation where nobody will vote for him. He will become so 100% vote against him. He will be caught. So again, guys, what is you did ever a German Nazi or Soviet communist done. Did you know what this election is supposed to be elect is supposed. To be choice, but you build a fascism. What is more. Dangerous than German, Nazi or Soviet communist? It is. It's absorbed by the situation. How this happen. It's happened for one particular reason. Because they are mentally sick people. They generate idiot. In America, in Seattle, in king country, build. A fascism. It's can be doing only mentally sick people because that's exactly what this happened. And I talk about this for many time and I have very simple proposition for disease. You and you change a little bit rules because it's no more dangerous in fascism. What is I know you know what? There's been fascism as we have before. It's kind of a common sense sometimes. Yes, absolutely. Don't have common sense in America. So my proposition, very simple, open bathroom in city hall, for example. So every week people can come in token and they'll be honest election for everybody, not only for few. People. Who choice and by Democratic Party. What is exactly control Seattle a control country right now it's a big problem. What has to be cut right now. And I speak right now to everybody. Listen to me. Stand up, America against this dirty fascist. But this record for the third. Right. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. Next on the sign up sheet is Chris McLean. Okay. And Monty Anderson. Oh, I see you wrote. No, you just signing in. I've never seen that before. Thank you for doing something new. Okay, Mr. Anderson, you're up. Good morning. Well, good morning, council members. Thank you very much for taking the time to to hear what the building trades have to say. Once again, we're here again to support the convention center. We all understand the convention center. I think we all can agree that's an important project for King County. I once again, I want to tell you guys how much I appreciate the time you're putting into this and the importance that you're given this on your schedule, because this sale of like everything in construction, we plan ahead. We plan ahead along in advance. And when. We have we have. Mega projects like this and we go to our apprenticeship programs and we we do special training for some of the stuff that's going on in these projects. And we bring people in. There's a common sense belief that we're going to do the right thing and move forward with projects. And that's why we're a little spooked on this one, because to hold up a project like this, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of man hours for local people to come to work here in our city. So once again, I want to just thank everybody on the council for your guys intelligence on this. And hopefully we can get this done and move to the next phase. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's the end of the signup sheet here today. I just want to check if there's anybody else who had wanted to speak to the committee this morning. Before we move on, seeing none, we will go to approval of the minutes of our June seven, 2017 meeting call on Council Councilmember Lambert for an emotion, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move for the minutes. June seven, 2017. As written, it's been moved that we approve the minutes. Any comments changes saying none. All those in favor please signify by saying i i any opposed. The motion passes unanimously. And that brings us to our briefing number 2017 that b0123 council members you are as you are aware, we have a very important decision at our council meeting this afternoon to fill a vacancy in the 46th legislative district. Will be speaking to the candidates this morning and this afternoon. I expect we will be taking up the legislation to actually make the appointment. I want to thank all the candidates for being here today and for going through the process that you just went through. It's like a speed campaign. And and I know you all did a very a lot of work. And I want to thank the CEOs and the legislative district, the local legislative district for their work as well. This was a really fast appointment process that you all went through in order to make sure we have a full slate of legislators at this important time in Olympia. And we appreciate your work very much in that regard. So yes, before we move on, I will call on Council Member Cole Wells. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to have recognized one of our state representatives who is here, Representative Jerry Polat from the 46th District. Welcome and thank you for coming this morning, please. Thank you, Councilmember. Yes, thank you. All right. So we'll begin with a brief staff report and then go into the interviews and we have our staff, John Ricci, here for a report. Good morning and welcome. Good morning, Madam Chair. John Recio staff to King County Council. I will be very brief because it's not me you're here to listen to as part of your responsibility as the King County Council. When there is a vacancy in the state legislature later you have a period of time per the Constitution to appoint a replacement to that vacancy. Miss Farrell vacated her seat effective June 1st, for the 46th District House of Representatives at the state. The appointment process calls for the same political party as the legislator or partizan county elected official, and that the county party will forward three names. The county party has gone through its process in the legislative district using the there are picos. There were 90 pinkos voting credentialed for the day, and they have forwarded to you three names Javier Valdez, Melissa Taylor and Nigel Herbig. And while there is no requirement for there to be an order, the party does request that you consider them in that order. And that is up to you. As as you look at that, the final note I will make is that while the voting is all the the actual voting is in the staff report, after this is complete and after an appointment is done. The individual who. Whom you will appoint is actually will be up for potential reelection. That seat will be up in 2018. In the staff report on page eight, there is an error I left in 2016 and that it should be 2018. Other than that, I am happy to answer questions and I will leave it to you. And we have staff available to escort the candidates as you go through your process. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Any questions about the briefing so far, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. Did you mean 2017? No, Councilmember. It is actually 2018 that they will be up again. It is not 2017. The next regular election. Will be in even years. It's so it's 28 November of 2018. Okay. I know, but I thought you had said 2016. My staff report actually has a 2016 notation in it. It should have been 28. Okay. Thank you. I'm just correcting that on page eight. Thank you. Okay. So here's how we will proceed. We will interview one candidate at a time. We're going to interview the candidates in alphabetical order by last name, which means that we will start with Nigel Herbig. I'm going to ask our staff to escort the other candidates to the Blue Room. The reason for this is so that each candidate has. We're going to ask them all the same questions. And we want them all to have a clean opportunity to answer the questions without hearing each other's answers. And then when we're done with that, we will we will be done today. There'll be no deliberation in this meeting. We will do our deliberation this afternoon at council at our full council meeting. Okay. So, Mr. Fischer, if you would please invite Mr. Herbig to the table and see our other two candidates to the Blue Room. Welcome. Mr. Herbig. How are you today? I'm doing quite well. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so we'll start with an introduction, introductory remarks, then we have three planned questions and then closing remarks. The introduction and closing remarks will well, a lot you 3 minutes. I think that that's when this needs to go that way. And each question you'll be allowed to 2 minutes to respond. Okay. All right. So why don't you please go ahead and describe your background and why you would like to serve in the 46th District in the state House. Well, first, thank you very much for having me here, Madam Chair. Council members, it's a great honor to sit here. My name is Nigel Herbig. I serve on the Canmore City Council and I have for the last line up for reelection this year. For so for a term, for the last five sessions, I've also worked with reps in the Farrell in the state legislature. I am an elected official who has delivered on my campaign promises. When I ran for Kenmore City Council, I ran to build sidewalks. I ran to increase government transparency. And I ran to increase access to our waterfront. Since I have been elected, we have built over three miles of new sidewalk in Kenmore. We have added a camera to our council chamber so that folks can watch our meetings live. And last November, we passed our first ever bond measure, which is going to fund more access to our waterfront. So I'm somebody who has who has delivered on my campaign promises. I originally got involved in politics back in the Howard Dean campaign. Since then, I've worked for environmental groups like Washington conservation voters, labor groups, various elected officials and candidates. And of course, most recently for Representative Farrell. I also know how the legislature works. Having done it, having worked five sessions for Farrell, I'm familiar with the stakeholders. I'm familiar with many of the members. They've seen my work represent Farrell since my work, and she has endorsed me for this for this appointment. If appointed, I would work on the big issues like everybody else. I work on issues like fully funding our schools and fixing our backwards revenue system. I also want to focus on three other things. I really want to focus on transportation for too long. Washington for too long was not has been focusing on how to move cars instead of how to move people and goods. And as all of you know, especially here in Kent County, cars aren't moving during during peak. We need to give people alternatives. And I think the state needs to be a partner with our counties and with our local Miss Polities and moving folks. I also want to focus on the environment. It's embarrassing that Washington State hasn't joined Oregon, British Columbia and California with putting a price on carbon. And I would also like to address the issue of setting out when we incarcerate somebody. I want to make sure that when they're released, they're set up to to succeed when they get out of prison. For. For too long, we've said people we send people to prison. We isolate them from their families, their support networks when they get out and make it hard for them to find a place to live or to vote or to get a job. And then we wonder why recidivism is so high. We are letting people down when we lock them up and set them up for failure like that. I've earned the trust of local leaders that I've worked with, both Republicans and Democrats. I'm endorsed by the mayors of Lake Forest Park and Ken Moore, who are both Republicans. I'm also endorsed by many of the Democratic leaders on the Ken Moore and Lake Forest Park City councils, as well as members of the legislature in the First District. And of course, I represent Farrell. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you. For a first question, I'm going to call on Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, Madam Chair. And if I might, just a point of personal privilege representing the most of the 46, along with Councilmember Gossett, who represents a good portion of it as well. And Councilmember Cornwell's, I don't know if you have a little bit of the 46 or not, just a touch up there west of 85 at Northgate , right. But also represent Kim where I've had the opportunity to work with Councilmember Herbig and everything he just said is 1,000% true. He has not just, you know, led on those issues in Kenmore, but he has been the leader in ensuring that they brought cameras to the chambers, that the bond measure, the first ever in the city of cameras history was put together smartly and passed. And he's a real advocate for pedestrian safety and bicycle safety and transit. And he delivers on the rhetoric. It's not just opinions, it's results. And it's really Kenmore is lucky to have him, and we're lucky to have him as a rising leader in the North End. And his recommendation by the 46th District BCOs is evidence of that. So thank you, Nigel, for all that you're doing, and it's great to see you. Thank you. I have a question. We've got three questions to ask you. And as you know, having worked in local government over at the city, Seattle and Canmore, of course, and working on the legislature, we adopt a a legislative agenda for state and for federal issues. Are there are you are question is, are you familiar with that legislative agenda and what priorities are you are you willing to support? And then are there any you oppose? Yes, I am familiar with the King County legislative agenda. I think a particular import on there and maybe this is just my local elected viewpoint speaking here, but I think the 1% I've seen firsthand how the 1% property tax cap has affected cities. Cities have a lot more flexibility, though, with how we deal with revenue. I know it affects the county in a much more in a much bigger way because of your limited your limited revenue sources. So that's something that I would I would definitely advocate for. I think the work that the county does on public health is very important. And I think it's a shame that the state has capped funding at the same level since 1999. My understanding is that's led to essentially a 40% decrease in buying power in public health. And and we need to we need to bump that up and make sure that the state is a real partner with dealing with things like the TB outbreak that we had just last week, I think. I'm trying to think what else out there. I mean, the top two is pretty good. I'll leave it at that. I know you got some wind. Thank you. Thank you. Our second of three questions will be asked by Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. And this is a chance to to perhaps continue singing the same tune for a moment. King County spends three quarters of our general fund money on criminal justice and public safety. However, each year, our capacity to provide those services decreases. And that's because. The rate of inflation. To provide the same level of service as year to year grows at a slower rate, at a faster rate than our revenue as capped at 1%. What are your thoughts on ensuring counties have the revenue tools needed to provide an effective justice system, keep the public safe, and provide the other services such as public health? You spoke to well, again, coming from a city council, I firmly believe that the services are really affect people's lives on a day to day basis, come from the local level. Cities and counties most directly impact the day to day life of all of our citizens. And the state needs to get out of the way of of our local municipalities and allow us to find funding sources that work for us, find revenue sources that work for us and and to innovate. Too often the state likes to get in the way and tell Seattle, no, you can't have a safe injection site or tell King County. No, you can't use that that revenue system, that revenue stream. So we do need to get rid of the 1%. That's the obvious part. But I think that we need to give cities and counties more flexibility with how they approach revenue and get away from just the sales tax and property tax. I don't know what the answers are at a state level. I'd like to see a progressive income tax and use that to buy down the state's used part of that, to buy down the state's portion of the of the sales and property tax because both of those are getting too high with ten one in Seattle right now it's for the sales tax is getting ridiculous. We want to protect, of course, the local side of that. But we need to get people other options in other ways, too, to raise revenue and to respond to issues locally, because the state is not the best arbiter of what works at the county level or at the city level . And cities need to have the flexibility to really react and and to and to do what their citizens elected them to do. Thank you. Third and final prepared question from Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a series of very, very sharp things that you have to deal with as a state representative. And so I'd like to know, what are your priorities as it relates to ability to work across party lines and your opinion? Secondly, does race, manner and development, public policy? And lastly, this class matter? Every single Monday, when I go to the Canmore City Council, I have to negotiate with Republicans to pass bills. When I first got elected, I was the only identifiable Democrat on the council. That's changed a little bit, but I still have to work with some very conservative folks on my on my council. And and I've made progress. Actually, tonight, we're having our second or third discussion about paid family leave, which is an issue that never would have come to the forefront without my leadership, but is something that I believe I'll be able to get buy in from some very conservative members of my council. Yes, I think representation and I think and I think class and I think race and class do matter quite a bit. We need to I mean, for too long, the history of America is one that has tied up in race and tied up in our failure around the issue. And we absolutely need to be doing more. And that's why I want to focus. That's why personally I wanted to do work around prison reentry for folks. That's one small area, but it's an area where we've had a the war on Drugs has put a whole generation of folks into our prison system and set them up for failure when they get out. We need to do better around that. I also think class is important too. We need to a kind of a pet issue of mine is I would really like to tackle the predatory payday lending and check cashing schemes. I think for too long, you know, for a lot of folks, access to traditional banking is an issue among the poor. And and we haven't done anything to really open that up. So instead, they end up having to pay a percentage of their income just to access their earnings, their meager earnings. And that's not that's not helping anybody. So I'd like to look at ways that we can bank the poor, whether through a public bank or whether that's through community or credit union and community banks or credit unions. I'm not sure. But I really want to explore that issue with groups like Washington Citizen Action Network, Poverty Action and other stakeholders. Because I think the access to a debit card, the access to a checking account is really essential to operating in society. Thank you. Okay. And that brings us to closing remarks. You have 3 minutes, up to 3 minutes to share whatever you'd like to share as your final words to us today. Please go ahead. Well, I appreciate that. I'm going to use about 3 minutes. I appreciate all of your time today, this morning. In closing, I think it's important that there be more people in the legislature who have experience at the local level. I think you guys are all too aware that the state legislature, when it comes to balancing the budget, loves to take revenue from us. They take money from liquor revenue share. They may take money from the Public Works Trust Fund. And then you and I are left holding the bag, trying to figure out how we balance that, you know, how we rebalance our budget without the revenues we're counting on or how we pay for a piece of infrastructure without access to the loan that we were counting on. Local government matters. Local government is what affects everybody's life every single day. The work that happens at King County with Metro, with public safety, with public health is is essential to everybody. And what happens at the city is very at the city level is also very important. So I think I think we need more people in Olympia with that local experience who can take that perspective and protect our local municipalities from the greedy fingers of Olympia when it comes to balanced budget balancing time, because we need do a better job of delivering services directly for poor constituents. So in closing, thank you very much. I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you, Mr. Herbig. And thank you for your service as a city councilmember and for being willing to serve in this role as a state representative. All right. I'm going to put us into recess just real briefly while we switch to the next candidate will be in recess for a moment. Melissa Taylor, welcome and thank you for being here this morning. We are going to have an opening and closing statement 3 minutes up to 3 minutes apiece and in between three questions, up to 2 minutes apiece. So why don't you at this point go ahead and make your opening statement. And again, thank you for being willing to to serve. Good morning. Thank you all. Before I start talking about myself, I want to take a moment to support Javier Valdez. This was a fast and strong campaign with a really strong candidates. And in the midst of all of that, he won the first ballot with nearly 40% of the vote and the second ballot with nearly 60%. Every door that I went to knock, Javier had been to first. He knocked both every door twice if he didn't get them the first time. As I talked to people, it was clear that he has built deep relationships throughout our district over many years. People spoke of his leadership. They spoke of his ability to work with others, of his perseverance and his humility. I am looking forward to working with him as my state representative. Now I am here in the number two spot, in large part because I ran on some very critical issues. Our state has the most regressive tax system in the entire country and it is crushing lower and middle classes. We have got to start thinking about what it means that the poorest in our communities are paying taxes at a rate seven times that of the wealthiest 1%. There is no more room to squeeze at the bottom of our society. We are also ranked 49th in the nation in terms of tax transparency. Sales taxes and property taxes, by their nature are less transparent and our system is particularly convoluted. I was pulled into politics because of my daughter when she entered public schools. I was appalled at the state of our education funding. I have been to Olympia many times testifying with the legislature about education funding, but it became clear to me I'm an engineer, I'm a systems thinker, that it's not just our public schools that are suffering because of our regressive tax system. It's our public transportation, it's our affordable housing, it's the public works assistance account. Everything in our state is struggling because of the way we have structured our tax system, and if we do not actively work to change it, we are not going to be the kind of state that reflects our values. I have worked with parents and legislators and activists across the state. This is not just a Seattle issue, but the fact that property taxes are becoming a Seattle issue is something that we really need to consider. People are being forced out of their homes. I've been in the homes of seniors who are on the best Social Security level, paying 17% of your income when you're on base. Social Security hurts. It means people choose to go without medication. It means people choose to go without food. And that is not reflective of who we are as a state and timing. All right. Thank you for that. And now the first question will be asked by Councilmember Dombroski. And thank you, Madam Chair. And if I might take a moment to just commend Melissa for her terrific many campaign. And you can see why the precinct committee's officers and by the way, there were 90 folks, but a lot of 103 that showed up. So this was not a small sampling. There were 90 folks who showed up to vote that Saturday for about a three hour process. But Melissa has been a longtime resident of north of north Seattle and very active in education reform, as you can tell. That's one of the areas, interestingly, that we don't spend a lot of time here on at King County, Melissa, but we do adopt a legislative agenda every year. And I don't know if you've heard it. You've got it right there. Your hot hands. Bingo. We're wondering if there are priorities that you already support and if there are any on there that you might oppose. And if you might talk about that. I'm sorry. I have been in front of this council. I'm speaking about Oleo, which is related to public safety. I am the co-chair of the Social Justice Committee for the League of Women Voters. And so I have been very active in working on both juvenile justice issues, as well as police accountability, speaking both in this body and with the Seattle City Council, as well as I am speaking with the school board about ethnic studies, which I think plays into it. So as we think about public safety, I think about how do we have fewer people in our criminal justice system? I know that it's very important to invest in the full infrastructure and many of the things that I support are here. Mental health, very important in terms of addressing who is in our criminal justice system and making sure that they get adequate mental health support during those processes. It's funny because you've got regional and local road projects here. When I was campaigning, I heard a lot about culverts and Lake Forest Park, and I had the opportunity to learn that our state is underfunding culverts as well, repairing culverts to meet our treaty obligations to our tribes. So I would say everything on here reflects my values in terms of making sure that we are mutually investing in our communities. And I will go back to our tax system that many of these things are going to be very difficult to accomplish unless we fix our tax system. There's simply not enough money in our state budget on there. There was an analysis done that says that if we had Idaho's tax code, I believe the specific figure I was talking to Rueben Carlile about was we would have an additional $10 billion. And I just think about what that would do for the priorities of this county and the counties across the state. So, again, I fully support this, and I think that in order to address them, we need to address our tax code. Thank you for that. Second question comes from Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. Now, I wanted to zero in to part of that tax code in revenue formula and equations. King County spends three quarters of our general fund on public safety and criminal justice. However, each year, our ability to provide those services is eroded by the fact that inflation outpaces inflation. To provide the same services year to year is outpaced by our revenue that is capped at 1%. Can you can you speak to your thoughts on ensuring counties have the revenue tools needed to provide the public safety, criminal justice, public health and all the other services that our constituents, our residents have come to expect? Sure. I Representative Linton has a bill in the House passed out of the House Finance Committee that would reform that tax cap. The other thing that I would make all of you aware of is that in my conversations about this, what I hear again, this goes back to tax transparency is that people don't actually even understand that 1% cap. They think that should be a 1% cap on their own homes. And then when they don't see that, they get confused. And that undermines their faith in our tax system. On what it is I'm and I have explained to people but you know that's small is that it is actually a 1% cap on the total revenue that the county is able to raise, which means that people's tax rates are actually falling because we as we have more people come in. And so I think there is an opportunity to do better communication with tax payers about how that's working in so that they can support the bill that's currently in the House. Thank you. Okay. Third question from Councilmember Gossett. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'd like to first thank you for the very sportsmanlike and gracious remarks you made about the top vote getter for this position. The question that I have, because you've already talked about what you thought of our priorities for the state legislature now and as we move into next year. But I'd like to ask you, what would be if you were appointing your priorities as a representative in the House of Representative in the House of Representatives? And does being able to work across party lines play any role in that for you? Yes, thank you for that. So this is not going to shock anybody here. I would want to work on tax reform in addition to tax reform. Education funding is a clear priority for me. The other areas that I focused on as I was running my campaign and where I have experience doing advocacy work are around health care . I have been working on the health care system. Specifically, I would like to see Washington take steps towards a single payer system. I actually think we as a state would have far more money available to us if we had a single payer system. My husband is actually from Australia. In Australia they have far more money available to them because they are spending, I think it's 5% left less of their GDP on health care. And so I think there are immediate things that we could be doing to lower our health care costs and improve the access for people across the state . So starting to implement ways to contain the costs so that we don't end up in a situation like Vermont where they passed single payer and then couldn't fund it, but really containing the costs and increasing access in a stepwise fashion. And then also criminal justice reform. So I our state senator David product, I sponsored a bill around addressing police accountability. I strongly support his work on have supported and do support his work on that. The Baker bill also incarcerates many of our kids for truancy and runaway, which is not the way that we should be addressing that with our children. That it just I as a advocate for children a it deeply offends me that we are locking kids up when what they need is help. Thank you. Okay. That brings us to the end of the prepared questions. And you can now have up to 3 minutes to tell us anything else you would like to as part of your closing remarks. So I think the one other thing that I prepared for that we did not ask and therefore I'm just going to share some thoughts is as we consider the opioid crisis in our communities. I would encourage you to look at the Portugal model. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001. In doing so, they radically dropped the amount of criminalization and addiction they treated as a public health crisis, not a criminal crisis. And I think that as we consider how we move forward, how we consider addressing budget challenges, they save money in their justice system. They save money in their health care system, and they save lives. So as we think about the people in our communities who are dying, I would strongly encourage you to take a look. The Cato Institute wrote an in-depth report on how they went about it. They did it in a way that despite their UN policies around drug trafficking, drug trafficking is still a crime. But drug possession became an administrative offense and their results are so strong over the last six years that the UN has now declared it to be best practices. I think that we it would really behoove us to take a look at that and consider implementing it here. The other thing that I would look at is affordable housing. And so I think that is a area that, again, I heard repeatedly while I was going from door to door and calling the CEOs, this is affordable housing for our most vulnerable. So for those who are currently unsheltered and I talked to a mother whose 32 year old son is currently living in a van in Ballard. He does not have the capacity to go access service as and so what she wanted me to tell you is that we need to do a better job of outreaching, of taking the services to where people are for the ones who are not able to effectuate that on their own. And this, again, comes back to addressing the mental health crisis that we have. There are not enough beds in the adult family homes for the people who need them. And so that base level of affordable housing is also then you move up to the next level. There are not enough regular working, family accessible homes in Seattle. People are being driven out. Our teachers. Our police officers. What kind of community do we want? And if we want a community where everybody is truly welcome and able to live and we have an integrated society, we really need to take a look at every level of the affordable housing crisis that we have right now and address it. And with that, I actually I have 10 seconds, and I would like to thank you for your time and for the work you do in our county. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Taylor. And thank you for your your incredible timing. Very well done. All right. That brings us to our next candidate. And I'm going to once again put us into recess just briefly while we switch seats. All right. We'll come out of recess for our final candidate, Javier Valdez. Welcome. Good morning. And thank you for being here this morning again. Thank you for having me. We will have you will have up to 3 minutes for an introductory statement and a closing remarks at the end. In between that, three questions and up to 2 minutes per question. You see the timer here. Okay. Please go ahead and give us your opening statement, Mr. Valdez. Great. Good morning, Council members. Thank you for having me here today and listening to all of us give our presentations. My name is David Valdez, and I'm asking you to send me to Olympia later on this afternoon. I know several of you through my decades work either in the Latino community or through my work in a Democratic Party. But I first wanted to start you to tell you a little bit more about my personal story, because I really don't think you really quite all know that. And I really don't talk about it very much. But I was born and raised in Moses Lake. I am the proud son and grandson of farmworkers and laborers. My pop did not get past elementary school and my mom did not get past junior high school. But I am a product of public education. I would not be here for publication. Public Education K through 12 and attending the University of Washington relying on Pell Grants, need grants, student loans, work study to get me through college and then later getting on to get my master's degree in public administration. I am a public servant. I have worked for the city of Seattle for just over 20, 21 years now, most of them at Seattle City Light. But the last two years working out of Seattle Mayor Ed Murray at Murray's office. Been involved in the Hispanic Latino community here ever since I moved to Seattle. Extensive work when I was in college at the University of Washington and then also through my work back in the nineties at the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Hispanic Fair, but very involved in race and social justice organizations here. Again, pretty much my entire career here in Seattle. I'm also proud that to be very active in my Democratic Party, both at the local, county and state level. I chaired the 43rd District for six years. I chaired the 46th District for a period of time, about ten and 27 and 28. I've been a member of the King County Democratic Party Executive Board for 24 years now, going and a member of the State Democratic Party Executive Board since 2003. And I thank you for having me here, and I look forward answering your questions. Thank you. The first question will come from Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you, Madam Chair. If I might, just before I ask it, Kaavya talked a little bit about his history, and mine with him goes back this June 25 years when I walked into a warehouse in South Park for then candidate for State Senate Marguerite Apprentice, and there was Javier stuffing envelopes. And I was home from Georgetown. I had a Georgetown T-shirt on and there was a big basketball fan. And those were the John Thompson days. Right. And I knew nothing about basketball and he knew everything about it. And we decided to focus on a political dialog. And he's still dribbling circles around me on that topic. So it doesn't work like that. If you hear you're a better player and knowledge on that stuff, you can talk to him a little bit more about it, but heavier at some point. It's just very great to see you here today, and I thank you for your years of service and your personal story, I think would bring a lot to this time in the legislature. But the county has a lot of interest in Olympia, and we adopt, I think, as you know, having years of experience in local government, a legislative agenda. I wondered if you've had a chance to review that and are there priorities that you would support and anything you might oppose? Yes, thank you for that question, Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Actually, I reviewed this last night as I knew I was going to come before you. And I want to thank you for your Web team, for making sure those documents are available publicly for us to read. And as my notes part of me as I read my notes, I know you have really five priorities on your legislative agenda. One is for more homeless and affordable housing assistance. You're asking for, I think, 200 to 1000000, $200 million request from the state legislature to increase the housing trust fund to go to programs here, right here at King County. I think your biggest number one item that you're requesting is to reduce the 1% cap on property taxes. I think 75% of your general funds goes to pays for a dedicated amount of services. So you're kind of locked into that. But removing that 1% cap, I think, would help not only King County, but all local counties throughout the state and trying to find a solution to bring more revenue, you know, into your budget. Local public health services, I know is key. Your asked your legislative agenda ask for $54 million to provide more assistance here at the county. And I think you're asking for $6 million and for central health programs as well. A couple of other things, of course, transportation, more funding for local roads and infrastructure. And just also funding for better communities, especially like so there's more equity here across for all residents and citizens. One of things I did pick up on was that, you know, for funds for voting access and I want to commend King County for their ambassador program that they have going on with the King County elections. Hopefully, they can mirror that of someone at the State Department if I'm Senator Olympia. Okay. Thank you very much. The second question is from Council member McDermott. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Valdes. A pleasure to see you. Good morning. You've already really hit on the content to my question, but I'll ask it and I give you a chance to expand perhaps. And that is that indeed King County spends three quarters of our general fund on public safety and criminal justice and our ability to provide services, those services and in the other quarter of our general fund is diminished each year because the cost of providing the same services year to year, it increases with inflation at a higher rate than the 1% cap on our revenue growth allows. What are your thoughts to ensuring that counties have the revenue tools needed to provide effective criminal justice, public safety, public health, those other services? That the very good question. I think we need, obviously a majority of legislators who would agree to provide you with better funding alternatives than you currently have right now. You know, the way I look at this is that cities, counties need help from our legislators in Olympia. But the tax structure, in my opinion, needs some reforming. I applaud the House Democratic version of their budget, which would look at perhaps raising some some some new capital gains revenue and giving those to local governments to, again, provide and supplement revenue that you need here at the county to provide the services that we've talked about. Also looking at loopholes, tax loopholes that are currently on the books. There are 694 tax loopholes currently. I think it's about $106 billion of revenue that we lose. And I fully would favor I look at at sunsetting those on the legislature to look at them to see if there's any that we may not need to renew any more and then therefore could provide additional revenue not only for here, but King County, but for all, again, are all our cities and counties throughout the state. But it takes a will of the legislature. We have a split government in Olympia, and that's obviously why we're still in a special session. And as they try to figure this out and my job is in there to go and try to help with some of that and find solutions that help all the county. And of course, my job is to also work with all of you. Yes, I may be. If I am selected out to be, I would be with the 40th branch representing the 46th District. But the way I look at it in the way I've always operated is that we're all a team and unless we operate a team , we aren't going to get anywhere. Thank you. And the third question will come from Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. First thing I'd like to indicate to you is that no one here cannot date persons that are running against you. Made it crystal clear to us how the voting came out at the meeting that you got nearly 40% of the vote on the first ballot where all the candidates involved and then when they reduced it to two persons, you overwhelmingly won the votes of Patheos and your district to represent them. And finally, the person said, you really, really worked hard by going out to the because as a former grassroots community organizer myself, I appreciated all those efforts you made to secure this job and be the top vote getter in your district. But we are the last question, and we'd really like to know a little bit more about your priorities without us imposing on you and requesting your feelings about our priority. So what do you think about working across the aisle with Republicans and have you had any experience in that regard? And what are your feelings about whether or not class and race matters in this society and anything else that's a concern of yours that you want opportunity to work on? Thank you. Okay. I'll answer. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett, for that thoughtful question. I'll answer the first question in terms of how do I would work across the aisle? Well, you know, I was I said earlier, I was born and raised in Moses Lake and Isham Washington, but I came to school, University of Washington, and I and I stayed here. But I do my best to keep tabs on what goes on in my hometown of Moses Lake and my hometown county of Grand County. I try to read the newspaper every day online, and I still visit my mom once a month in the spring, summer and fall. So I'm hoping that my background and where I'm from, I am able to build some collegial relationships with by Eastern Washington legislators that, you know, I'm sure I'm not probably going to agree with them at times. And they may have proposals that either I fundamentally disagree with or my district does. But I'm hoping that I can build some trust there because we're all, again, not only from where I come from, but we're also again, I, I try to operate as a team. And again, if you aren't if you don't operate as a team, you're not going to succeed. And I also would like to use the example of when we formed a union, when I was an employee at Seattle City Light, I was a president for the first several years, and it was tough getting that union started and being the president. But our first thing we had to do was negotiate and bargain a contract. And I, I must admit, it was very eye opening for me to on the very first day of the bargaining. When you're across executives, you think your friends and you think you're great colleagues, but it's a different dynamic as soon as you're across the table bargaining a contract. But it's a lot of give and take. And you stick to your principles. There are things you just can't compromise, but there's a lot of give and take in order to get the job done and to get that contract signed. In terms of my two priorities on race and social justice, I think is what you mentioned about I. As I campaigned with and talked to our precinct committee officers, there was two things that I said I really want to focus on for 2018. If I'm selected, you know, I'm going to vote obviously with my on my progressive values, on transportation, on health care, on choice. I, you know, all across the aisle on that. But two things I want to work for. I'm sorry you're going to have your closing statement. But just to be fair to the other candidates, your time ran out on that question. So we're going to pause you right there. And I am going to say that's the end of the questions. Got it. But now you have up to 3 minutes to make a closing statement, which you may use however you please, including to complete your answer to the previous question. And I apologize to Councilmember Barghouti. I was not now focused on Councilmember Gossett. I wasn't looking. At. That's right. That's my job. To your passionate. I get a little passionate. So thank you for allowing me to wrap up my last couple of minutes. The two things I want to focus on for 2018, it's a short session, so I know that it's going to be difficult to pass major legislation, but I want to start the ball rolling. One is I want to be the one to effectively and it may take me a while. I'm not going to say I can do it in one year is two. I want to introduce a bill to be that championed to repeal initiative 200. Someone myself who has worked in the women of minority business community in my jobs over these last 15 years. They got tested later in the mayor's office, seeing women minority contractors struggle day in and day out just to get an. Eternity for a contract and to face just outright discrimination are many, many projects. It's something that really means a lot to me. I mean, I was I campaigned against that. And August Cosmo got that. You were out there in 1998 campaigning just as much as we were. And I want to see that initiative finally be removed from our wall. Enough damage has been done. It may not take me a year. It may take me several years. It took then they represented in the state Senator Anne Murray over a dozen years to pass gay marriage. So it takes time. I understand that. The other issue I really want to focus on is looking at our Democratic Party, trying to convert and using a presidential primary to select Howard Dean getting allocated for our presidential nominee. I'm a long time caucus fan, but I do believe the public is ready and is demanding now that our Democratic Party that I have been a part of finally move to this kind of system. And I want to leverage my relationships with state party leadership and then myself and legislature to hopefully convince us to get to get to that place in 2020. Outside of that, I want to thank you for the time you've given given to me here today and Mark and Melissa and Nigel and I ask for your consideration here this afternoon. Thank you very much, Mr. Valdes. I appreciate your willingness and along with the other candidates to participate in this process. That will be the end of our engagement with this appointment in this committee. We will take up the remainder of the deliberation and decision. We will take the remainder of the process, which will be the deliberation and decision at 130 at our full council meeting. I do want to just take a moment to thank he was here briefly, but I don't know if he's still here. Our King County Democratic chair, Billy Stober, who stopped in because they they have a laboring or on this process and making it happen was so important because of the point we are at in the legislative session that we desperately need somebody down there to make sure all the seats are full. I also want to acknowledge our King County, our statewide Democratic chair, Tina, publicly asking for being here today and for your support of this process as well. It was a very clean, transparent, easy to understand process with a lot of participation from the local district. They gave us a clear recommendation. And and I just it means a lot to our process to be able to say that about your process. So thank you for that. And we will take this up again this afternoon at 130. I'm going to ask my colleagues if we can have a brief five minute recess between this agenda item and the next agenda item, just to make sure that we've got everything lined up for the next agenda item. There's a lot of last minute stuff. Oh, okay. Let's make it a 15 minute recess. We'll be in recess until about 5 to 11. Thank you. All right. I will call the meeting back into session. We are ready to start on agenda item number six, which is briefing number of 20 $17 009 for the sale of convention police station. This would office action would authorize the executive to sell convention PlayStation to the Washington State Convention Center for construction of a convention center addition. As council members are aware, this item was also included our committee of the whole last week I felt that we were close enough to being able to make some decisions that I wanted to add it to today's agenda, partially because there's not another committee of the hall meeting for a few weeks after this one. Since our next regularly scheduled committee, the whole meeting will be the time for our labor summit, our annual labor summit. On Friday I sent out proposed chair striking amendment. I am aware that there are other amendments, both public and not yet public. I have a revised agenda today, a revised amendment, I should say today that is asked to and I'd like to ask staff to go ahead and distribute that. Now, while they do that. It's it's at your places. Thank you. We were we were working and imagine that. So wait, you told me to say it distributed. Then you went ahead and distributed. It's like a Scottie move right there. I couldn't. We need 3 hours cup. It's done now. Yeah. The only substantive change between as to and the in the striking amendment that was distributed on Friday morning is a change that delays action on the PSC agreement. That's an agreement to move some electrical and communications equipment on the site that's necessary for metro and sound transit operations. The original striking amendment said that we would cap the cost at $17 million to make that move. But because it's early days and and the number is hard to nail down, there's a process approach now that would allow that to come back for a decision at a later time. This is consistent with the proposal that Councilmember Dombrowski sent out on Friday. Thought that was a good approach. So I asked staff to incorporate it into the chair Stryker so I hope are prepared to work through these items today, see if we can't reach a decision on a package that we can forward to full council. I would ask Council Member Cole Wells, who's the lead sponsor, to move the item before the committee. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move the chair striking amendment to proposed ordinance 217 zero. I think we actually have to move the underlying item first. I was so anxious. Think so. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move proposed ordinance 2017 009 for it. All right. And then would you be also willing to put the chair's directive, which is amendment as to before us for discussion? Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Some of the chairs striking amendment as to the proposed ordinance 2017 0094. Okay, that's before us in accordance with council rules 1683 With the item now before the committee, I would ask that all amendments be distributed to each member. If there are additional amendments and ask council members who have amendments they may wish to offer related to this item to provide those to our committee assistant at this time. In Councilmember, the amendments that we are aware of is there, as we know are made public. Is council striking amendment as to which you was just moved by councilmember caldwell's? There is a Councilmember Lambert amendment to insert a price cap on the TPS. Yes, there is a Councilmember Gossett amendment to increase the affordable housing contribution and require that that that affordable housing be built on the site of the project. And there is a Councilmember DEMBOSKY amendment adjusting the timeline for a vacation of the CPS site. And I would also add, Madam Chair, that because we prepared your speaking notes before we checked in with you this morning, there's one other change in your striking amendment also that adjust when the county would leave the CPS site. Do you want to speak to that? Yeah, let me speak to that a little bit. I thought that would be a standalone amendment, but it's an abstract. Okay. So the then let me just describe the change that was is now in situ. So there's a second change in as that makes it different than the striking amendment proposal afforded on Friday. And that is regarding the date by which the county must vacate and sound transit must vacate the convention place tunnel station for busses. The I think as we all are aware at some points in a. At this point, that is September of 2019. Busses are going to have to come out of the tunnel anyway because of the expansion of light rail. This language would state our our I don't know if preference is the correct word, but our policy that September of 2019 is the date that busses should come out of the tunnel unless the Convention Center expansion project has their permit by July of 2018. And unless they make a statement to us by September of 2018 that they are ready to start construction. If they do those two things, then they can start construction in March in a way, or they can be constructing in March in a way that causes the busses to have to leave the tunnel earlier. The thinking behind this is that there's a balance here between allowing this large and impactful public project to move forward, but not having us vacate the the convention police station and have it be empty, sit empty for a period of time when it could be used for a little longer for the benefit of the traveling public . Did I capture that accurately without speaking those disciplines? All right. So that's the striker that's before us. Do we have a perfecting order for the amendments? Yes, ma'am. Beginning on page 133, in your packet, we've got the other amendments laid out in order with the sponsors listed for each sold. Go Councilmember Gossage, then Dombrowski, then Lambert. And that matches the order of the purchase and sale agreement. Web page again, please. 133 133 Okay. So with that, unless there's some preliminary discussion, Councilmember Dabrowski, thank you. Preliminary because just procedurally, I want to make sure I understand where we are with respect to amendments. And Pat, I think you can help. I had prepared working all last week with the various stakeholders, basically a striking amendment to the underlying ordinance that was that was approved by Metro Transit, the Convention Center Authority, outside counsel of the Gay Councils Council assault. And you've prepared, but we have another striking member from the chair here and then you've got some one off amendment. So I'm wondering does to a in in that you've got for me here incorporate all of the agreed changes in the kind of omnibus amendment that I prepared last week. Staff believe that the substantive difference between the two purchase and sale agreements at this point is the exit date for the station, and that is what is incorporated in Amendment two. And I was the other documents, the other the two striking amendments yours, which staff have not released yet because it's been confidential to this point. And Councilmember Bell, ducks are substantively the same on all key terms except for the vacation date of the station. And so that's what is an amendment to. So let me ask you this. The purchase and sale agreement that's on my omnibus amendment, which you're welcome to release the details summary of which was shared for me with all colleagues as soon as we got concurrence by everybody, including the exact office. But you've said they're substantively the same have the as the convention center. Their lawyers and our lawyers reviewed and consented and agreed to the proposed purchase and sale agreement on the Baldacci amendment. I don't know what the maker of that amendment has shared outside of the county, and so that would be a question best directed to her. Okay. So let me direct this question that you then you say that the purchase and sale agreements on the two are substantively the same. I mean, this is a $200 million and sale agreement that we spent a lot of time working with lawyers on last week to get the language precisely correct. And by lawyers, I mean with all the parties, have the lawyers on the Baldacci strike in their conserved contract concurred and participated in its drafting? I mean, their clients are going to have to sign it, right? Are we just is this a one side proposal? I don't know who the who the chair has shared her striker with. All right. I'm happy to speak to that. I have shared the proposal with the Essex office and they reviewed it. I have had a conversation, a verbal conversation with representatives of the project, but they have not had a chance to review it. However, this is a committee and if we take action today on the concept, if we agree that this is the right concept, then we have some time between now and the final vote at the Council to have legal review and a. Address any issues that may have been introduced. I'm not aware of any sitting here today. And thank you, Madam Chair, if I might follow up, please. So we've got some issues around the legal nature of the document. But the other difference you mentioned Pad, that you thought the vacation of the tunnel was the big thing. We had spent a fair bit of time last week again with the Essex Office and Metro Transit and the Convention Center, and lawyers for the county and the courts are working on the transit power substation agreement that TPS has and trying to figure out whether we could figure that out now and the cap issue and all that . And we had some eventually landed on some specific language there where the parties would continue to go work that presented to the council for a potential override. And is that now where do we stand on that? Between the two version. The council and the chair striking amendment has the same allowance for that agreement to be moved to after closing and continue to be worked on. And the Council has the same kind of conceptual review and ability to object to the agreement. Yours does have additional language that was worked out between the attorneys for the parties on indemnification and a it's not really a binding date, but a a go goal target date that was added at the convention center attorney's request. That is not in the chair. Striker Okay, very good. And so Madam Chair, there's some differences just that arise from the way we've come here to today between the two approaches, and I'm happy to proceed. As you wish. I'm trying to get this deal done. I've been for it from the beginning, and I've worked very hard since the Budget Committee to try and bring folks who have to sign this document together in rooms to work out the details. And details on this are important because of the complexity of it. And so I think on principle, there is for most issues, consensus, although I'm satisfied with a minimum date of March 19 for the vacation, the tunnel and you are, I think, have a preference here for September of 19, but that may be the substantive policy difference. But there are some technical differences. And so I don't know, Councilman Baldacci, if you have a set of amendments, say that there was the will of the body to go with the more advanced document that has concurrence by all the parties. If you have a set of policy amendments to that omnibus amendment, that could advance your policy objectives of a September 19 departure. But I think that might be another way to approach it. I calendar Bousquet. I want to acknowledge the hard work and the detailed work that you have done. There may very well be a couple or even more than a couple of technical items that are in the document that you've been working on that are not in the document I've been working on. But. Those things weren't. Haven't been. At least not vetted by. By me and in my office. And so what I would like to try to do today, I mean, we have options. We have we have quite a few options here in front of us today. One is we work through the action on the table in front of us. And if we get to an agreement in principle, because the amendments that we have, other than some of the language in yours, it are much more policy level and much less technical level. If we can get to a decision on the policy and there are technical changes that need to happen between committee and council to make sure we are affecting the policy in a way that is implementable, if you will, then we can take that up at the council meeting. Alternatively, you know, this is a special meeting. We've been going for a while. We could take some time. We could wait until the next council meeting, which will be in early July. I would I think on balance, the I would rather proceed and get to the policy level discussion, see where we all are, and then decide what to do about the technical, assuming we can get past the policy. That would be my preference today. I think it comes from, well, duty. I guess I'll just say this and I think after budget we should pass this up to the full council was referred to this committee. You and Casmir Caldwell's and I had convened a working group of members of staff to see if we can get to an agreed amendment. It became clear last week that there was not an agreement among the three of us on a key policy issue, and that was the vacation date of the tunnel. I was very pleased that we were able to get that kick from September of 18 to March of 19 plus perhaps later, depending on the project's construction schedule. We worked very hard with the proponents to negotiate that, but your office indicated that that your preference was a September minimum 19 departure, and Councilmember Caldwell's was trying to find those. I couldn't tell, she agreed, but was willing to work on things. So that's what prompted me to proceed to see if I could get. And with all due respect, they're much more than technical amendments. But to get an actual deal with all of the stakeholders of approved that they would sign that the buyer would actually sign and there are protections in there for Metro with respect to the TPS and the comp facility as they go about the site. And I'm happy to talk to those. So I'm having trouble understanding why we would not why we would continue to ask folks to come and spend time, resources, energy on perfecting a purchase and sale agreement that has been perfected, that addresses all those issues and instead advance one that's incomplete, that's been not negotiated, that's not had the consent of the parties that the buyer we don't know if they'll sign it over basically the departure date policy question. And I think that's really the main difference here that needs to be resolved. So maybe you will advance through yours. You have expressed a strong desire to advance a chair striking amendment and and staff has prepared this. But I don't think it gets what I'm hearing is it doesn't address the practical reality of a purchase and sale agreement which isn't ready to go. And I would then suggest to my colleagues, if there is interest that that is there and it's ready and I'm happy to talk to it at the right time if we if we can get to it. So again, I'm trying to get this done. I think that this project, by continuing to experience delay, puts it at risk. And I don't want to do that. Thank you. I, I don't know that we need to have further discussion on that topic right now other than to say I think we're all trying to get this done in a way that works for the various stakeholders, including the transit riders of King County, who we serve, including some of the labor representatives who are still working through issues from there and the hotel motel workers. I mean, there are stakeholders who have not been at the table. And so let's just see how far we get. Let's just go and see how far we get. And when we when we we hit a point where there's a relatively firmed up policy decision here, then we can talk about whether there are additional things we need to take up before council. And I will certainly follow the will of the body with regard to what we want to do next. So with this action in front of us there, the First Amendment that has been offered is from Councilmember Gossett. It's Amendment one, a Councilmember Gossett. Would you like to put that into the window to put that before us? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to draw folks attention to Amendment One. Located on page 133. I've been thinking about and wrestling with this. Concept of how do we improve equity and social justice, particularly as it relates to the lower income workers that are working in hotels and motels and the downtown area, as well as the ones that will be working and the expanded part of hotels and motels to deal with the hopefully, hopefully increased number of folks that will be attending conventions as they are. Some of the basics. The essence of that. America. Help me with this. The specific aspects. But the basics are the amendment are located in effect statement at the bottom. This increases the affordable housing requirement from 5 to $10 million and required that affordable housing be constructed on the side of the project. About whether we estimate the number of units the 5 million would have purchased. I think it's I think it's hard at this point to determine that. I think it's a rough rule of thumb for affordable housing units is typically around 300,000 a piece. But I think you've summarized the key differences in the amendment. Remember, the deal came over with essentially a buyer option. They could either contribute 5 million to the county for affordable housing programs or build the affordable housing on site. This amendment would say that that number is now 10 million and the buyer option has gone away. So that would need to be built on site. All right. And but we don't have a total number of expected units for the apartment building part. I don't I don't know that the project does not yet have permits from the city, so they don't know yet how many apartments can be built on the site. So. Thank you, Madam Chair. That is my amendment. Okay. Amendment one is before us. Did you have. Did you want to speak to it further? Councilmembers. I want to hear the responses from members. Okay. Councilmember Coldwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question for Councilmember Gossett, and it is have you discussed this amendment informally or formally with the purchasers. Particularly people that are going to who build it? Well, the purchaser or the representative, I believe, Mr. Matt Griffin, about the thoughts, as long as we're trying to be inclusive and determine what all the parties think about striking amendments and amendments. I'm just curious, have you spoken with them? No. I haven't spoken. I'm not real clear on who the developer partner is. Mr. Griffin. I'm sorry. No, I haven't spoken to them. I just think that this is a reasonable price to have to pay, given our commitment to equity and social justice, and that the previous time I was not minimally reasonable to me. Thank you. Mr.. That's please. Thank you. So there are actually two major parts to this amendment. So we could find some of us might agree with one part, but not agree with the second part, which may be challenging. Have a quick follow up question with Pat. Pat. I think I asked you kind of a similar question before, but has because I am new here. Is it normative to require construction of affordable housing on site as compared to having the the the other option that we had originally? I think that. We do so few deals where we actually have a piece of county land being sold and then essentially immediately developed again. I don't think there is a normal we have done it both ways. The Kingdom North Lot, for example, there were requirements that it be built on the site and other other deals. We've required a contribution. So, you know, this one having an option of either one for the buyer as originally proposed. Is consistent with the various directions the county has gone before. They didn't quite answer your question, but I don't think I don't think there is a clear answer to it. We've done it both ways before. And I think that's this is not outside of the norm from that perspective. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. First of all, my understanding is that there is expected to be a discussion with the city of Seattle as part of either their permitting process or their Ali vacation, road vacation or both, and that there's a likelihood of a requirement for affordable housing that comes out of that process. Is that correct? So where we are currently as part of this deal, the developers offered King County the $5 million payment that was proposed as part of the permitting actions and the community benefit process at the city. They have offered 9 million as part of two different programs, so 4,000,001 and five and the other. And every time I try to figure out which is which, I get them backwards. So 9 million total to the city, 5 million to the county. But neither deal actually is done yet. And so that number may move. Right. And just for reference, the sales price is about 144 million. It's 160. But they're paying 20 million cash at close. And 140 million is where that numbers is. Your head is being financed. Got it. So that's if you're talking about approximately 14 million out of that that amount. I just want to remind us that the executive's proposal included a buyer option to pay cash or build on site. And Councilmember Lambert, among others, questioned that about what would get us the affordable housing built soonest. Do we have a sense of that? I think certainly building on site would be the latest or the or certainly later than cash to close because a cash a close option would result in a check being written to the county later this year or whenever the closing occurs. That would then be used for county affordable housing programs building on onsite. Real realistically, the the apartment or condo building that's being built wouldn't be opened before 2021. So you're still talking quite a bit down the road before that housing would be built on site. Okay. And I want to I want to acknowledge Councilmember Dombrowski for the concept of requiring cash at closing because of the idea that that would accelerate the opportunity to provide $5 million worth of affordable housing as quickly as possible. Okay. Any other comments or questions about this amendment right here? Councilmember Garza to close. Thank you very much, Chair. An additional concept that influenced my mind was listening to the representatives of Unite here and some of the people who have represented inner city communities on this project, and others where people have a difficult time grasping and understanding the commitment to affordable housing when it's not tied more specifically to the actual project . I would tie it to the actual projects. Then we have what Mayor Arroyo used to call almost a guaranteed habit, scattered site and low income housing in various neighborhoods. Now, I've just given the money to the city or the county. The only place where low income housing can be built is when low income developers are developing. Yeah, and it seems to be mostly low income community. That's all right. But I like the idea. I love the, you know, the working poor living in units in the same buildings with moderate and market rate housing falls. That adds more to the enriching social experience that occurs in the buildings. And I don't see how we can get there unless we start as the government requiring that it be on site and trying to facilitate that occurring. So I think any consideration that is given to my No. One. Hey, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Garza. Okay. I'm prepared to call for a vote on amendment. What is each one? A all those in favor. Please signify by saying I. I opposed. No, I think I'm going to have to call for a show of hands. All those opposed. Please signify by saying, I am raising your hands. You say that you support that. I heard those of those who are in favor of the amendment. Did I say opposed? It's been a long day already. All those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying I and raising your hands. Okay. And those opposed? No. Okay. The amendment does not carry. The next item is where I am right now. One item to a council member. Ambassador. Thank you. I think I'll withhold this amendment at this time. And because I just think it's going to make more sense to offer my combined omnibus amendment and I will probably speak against adoption of the chair Stryker because it does not it just hasn't been negotiated with the parties. And I think there's a more efficient way to go the alternative way. And I'll ask Pat if this makes sense, because you've prepared this and I'm really not sure mechanically how you've set it up. Pat Would it be possible to offer two way which relates to the timing of the departure from the tunnel? Right. As I understand, yes. What it also and say that regardless of how that carries or is a I said to adopt and would then be possible to offer an oral amendment to substitute my purchase and sale agreement form as the attachment to the Belushi's striking amendment to get it to get in other words, get a current purchase and sale agreement or more up to date purchase agreement that has all the material terms negotiated attached. I would have to defer to legal counsel on that. The item that is before the committee right now is a striking amendment with an attachment. I don't know if a right oral amendment to replace the attachments would be in order or not. I just don't know the procedural ruling on that. But okay, so procedural there's that issue. But, but just mechanically, because we've got a very basic kind of ordinance, if you will, with the language that references that attachment. The attachments seem to be kind of stand alone documents and trying to just mechanically you're. Asking for a legal conclusion. I just don't know the answer to it, because an amendment is. Kendall, the thing and I don't know if you can split that amendment into two things or not. I just don't know. So what you have Kendall Mora, deputy legal counsel, what you have before you now is S-1. And as part of this to excuse me as to and as incorporated in as to is the purchase and sale agreement to which all of your amendments are now running or actually to the attachment. So I, I would conclude that offering a, an amendment to replace attachment a at this juncture, it would be out of order because you are you have to deal with your S-1, which includes the attachment. And that S-1 is. To. You as to attach attaches attachment which to the purchase agreement which. Is incorporated into the Stryker. It's part I mean, it's what you are dealing with now is ask one and it's attachment ex S-1. I'm sorry, I keep saying that as to what to call it the belt dutchie Stryker. Right, easier. So what you're saying is an amendment, but we're offering amendments to the Balducci Stryker. This would just be another amendment to it which would say substitute in a different attachment. But your amendment to replace attachment a yes would now be, I would conclude out of order because it wasn't handed out at the beginning of this. No. Well, we have handed it out. I asked that thing out and it was handed out. But is then. That amendment is a striking amendment though. It is not. It is part of it. So I think I think I think what I'm hearing from legal counsel, that's. Out of order because of the procedural. Rule. Let me ma'am is. Yeah. I'm just saying I'm trying to we have 318 to a three. Right. What I'm trying to do is not mess it up by offering to a which is change the personnel agreement. If, if we could get your if we could get your. Eyes to. You see what I'm saying? It would be cleaner if you're willing to, if you will, perfect or complete the Stryker with the striking amendment that's currently in front of us mine with whatever substantive policy amendments there are that might include yours, which is different language around the dates, it might not include yours, but then when it comes to actually maybe swapping out the purchase and sale agreement, which is what this is all really about, is adopting the purchase and sale agreement, maybe we could do that as a separate thing at the end after we've it just might be less confusing that way. And I think that's what you started to say. And yeah, I was told by my staff that staff had prepared any amendments necessary to advance kind of my package on yours. But now. I'm saying that that actually didn't occur. So what I think I'll do my share is not before the fair. This all happened between Friday and this morning. So now I have a mic and maybe I think I will probably just argue against adopting the striker and then if it fails, advance my S-3 because that would be the consolidated document. That might be a cleaner way to go if that works for you. I mean, if if if your amendment carries if you're striking minimum carries, then mine probably won't. Right? I don't I don't think can I think if the chair's striking amendment carries, I don't think you can offer a revised striking amendment. Is that correct. That's correct. Because all the decisions will have been made with regard to the bout dutchie the purchase. And so yeah. But we will have, as I said, at least a couple of weeks between now and the council meeting. If there are items that you feel were not picked up that are important to try to merge them and then we can take up additional action. I guess it. Seems goofy to me, but I mean there's a lot of items, but I think I will I will not offer mine and we will see if yours has adequate votes and then I'll offer. If it does, then we're done. And if it doesn't, all offer mine. Okay. All right. Thank you. So we'll move on to Amendment three A, which is Councilmember Lamberts. Thank you. That Chair, in looking at this important project, I had a feeling that there were many items that were taking and reducing the amount of our net proceeds from the sale. And one of them, I felt we needed to have some kind of oversight over. And that is if you look on the effect statement on page 137, it says that it adds a sentence that obligates them to pay for all costs for the TPC work above 70 million unless the county approves a higher amount. I think we've we've talked about that the price. And my concern is that the price would escalate so much and we would have no input in that. So I think as being notified and being able to have some say on that is very important and not be a blank check because I believe that there could be instances where that might be exceeded and we should know about that. So it's just to make sure that we have oversight. Okay. Okay. Amendment three A is before us. Any questions or comments? Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. I wanted to ask Patrick and I thought that the Common Council already had the ability to approve a significant price increase. Or is this different than that? I think to be fair, we are trying to thread a very fine needle in this case because what has changed in the striking amendment is the movement of this TPS agreement to, more likely than not, post-closing. And also you have an opportunity that's in this amendment for the Council to review, and if they don't like it, reject the TPS agreement. And this this language, I think is a policy statement. But because this has to be reviewed by the Council later on anyway, I it's it's a bit odd in the in trying to get it in just but but from a policy statement perspective I think it works. But because the agreement already has to come back and the council already has a 30 day review and opportunity to reject, I think that's what makes it a little unique. Okay. Comments. Other comments for questions. I had. A couple of. Comments. Yeah. Come from an and I think there might be some more before you close. Councilmember DEMBOSKY I think that I'm chair so this issue, the TPI SRS that is the transit power substation memorandum of understanding is one of two major follow on agreements beyond the purchase and sale agreement. I will be candid and say I didn't realize the complexity of it until after several hours of meetings last week with the executive branch, with the Deputy General Manager, Victor Bass of Metro Transit, with the county's lawyer, Matt Hanna from Cairncross and help him and with that central staff. And it is an integral piece of making sure that this works smoothly. It has two components. There's a communications facility and a power facility which are covered by this agreement, both of which are important in operating our bus system in the tunnel and our light rail system. And this is what it comes down to. It is a life safety issue. This equipment, power and communications are essential for safely operating the tunnel, both in light rail and busses. There's a complexity to this in that the there's some issues around who would be obligated to pay the cost of moving certain of this equipment, sound transit or King County. And there are also some advantages to having some of those things worked out later. That's just the highlights of the complexity around this issue and the amendment that I have, the personnel agreement that resulted from extensive hours of discussions, including on this particular topic I tried to achieve, and I'm not sure that Councilmember Lambert's amendment were well-intentioned , achieves the goal in the in the best way. Her amendment sets a firm dollar cap of $17 million on it. And I think in doing so, she's trying to protect the benefit of the bargain, which is a principle I think everybody here agrees to. Now, interestingly, if the number had come over to us at 22 million, I think we'd be trying to protect the benefit of the bargain and saying 22 million. We at least I don't have the level of granularity to know what if it's 17 million or 22 million and who should pay and what's right. So what I think the better approach is, given the complexity of this, while still trying to achieve Councilmember Lambert's objective, which I share with you, to protect the better, a bargain is to keep the council involved with the process that is set up to, say, continue negotiations. Mr. Executive, with all the parties Sound Transit, the Convention Center and Metro Transit, continue those negotiations. And then once you think you've got a deal, report back to us at the council and give us adequate time. If we don't like it to reject it. And that's the structure that is in. I think my I know it's in my mind abundantly. I think it may have made its way into law. So I think the hard cap in this case is, is a is a well-intentioned idea to preserve in a bit of a bargain, but it's a blunt instrument to blunt, I think , for the complexity of this. And and again, the complexity of this particular issue didn't become apparent to me until last last week. Councilmember Lambert. So for that reason, I'm not going to support it, but I know that the intention behind it is good. I'll add my own comments. I, I agree that I think all of us have our eye on the ball of not of creating some certainty that the benefit of the sales price not be, you know, frittered away and additional costs that we'd have no control over. I think that the language that I frankly cribbed from Councilmember Dombroski gives this body a veto. It gives us an opportunity to say in the future, we don't like that price that you came back with. And so no. And forces, you know, to go back to the table. And with that, we can achieve the same goal. And it's even slightly more flexible, I think, because there's nothing that says that even a slight overage could, could, could trigger that. We have to be thoughtful and we have to act in good faith, of course, at that time. But we have we still have some control over what's happening with that that cost that we don't really know exactly today what it will be at the point in the future when it is incurred. So I agree with the intent in both cases, but I have incorporated the procedural approach for a reason and B, I think that meets our our needs. So I'm going to I'm going to vote against the amendment, but I definitely support the motivation behind the amendment. Any other comments before Councilmember Lambert? Councilmember Lambert, go ahead. Thank you. Well, as you said, this happened over the weekend and this was written before over the weekend. So I think it signals our intent. I am excited about the project and what it can do. I would like to see the affordable housing be part of it because then I know for sure it will get done. And that is. My concern that there's affordable housing get done. I am not feeling like I always have confidence that when affordable housing is being done for this or that, it it is the quality or the quantity that we had originally thought. So if it's in the building, I know that it's not going to be of lesser quality. But when you look at the price and you look at the comps per square foot and maybe this is part of my closing statement, but it was in the it was in the middle. It wasn't at the very top. And that concerned me. The desirability of this property is very, very high. So for that reason, it should be at the top. The length of this contract is longer than I have seen in some contracts, which is favorable, and that's fine with me too. But that also should put us up towards the top. The size of the down payment is smaller than I would have liked, which should put us up more to the top. So. Oh, and then I see these other costs that we don't really know what this is going to be and we really don't know what that's going to be. And you just know that we hadn't seen the language over the weekend when we wrote this, but it keeps lowering the price per square footage. And one of the things I'm going to want to know when we get this done is what what did it ultimately come out to be as the cost the square footage ? Because I wasn't really pleased where it was when it started. And if it keeps getting lower, then I'm really going to be less pleased with that. And in addition, during the time of this construction, if the current trends in real estate properties cost continue to escalate at the same rate, then it's even a lower rate of what we have offered here. So I'm trying to look out for the taxpayers and I think in the way you put this together, bringing it back to the council again. So we continue to do that. I just hope that we don't feel as we have in some projects, Oh, this is so much into it or that so much has been done already that will just go along with it. I'm not ready to go along with it. As we go on it. It means that the taxpayers are not getting the full value of what that property was worth. So I'm going to withdraw this in light of the fact that you have put it in your striker and be ready to vote on final passes. Okay. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. That concludes the submitted amendments, which brings us to a final vote on Amendment S two as amended. Are there any comments or questions at this time, Councilmember? Do you think that you're just procedurally at somewhat awkward here and that I guess I'm asking Mike. I'm having a little difficulty in being able to present the differences that I would offer in SE three, and I think that's the choice before council a fully prepared negotiated agreement that the lawyers have looked back, that Metro Transit is looked at, that the exact office is looked at and the buyer has looked at and agreed to, but which folks have not been able have been briefed on it fully. And I want to make sure that folks know that that's here. It's in front of you. It's S three. And I'll do my best to highlight some of the things. One, well, anyway, and I guess maybe I'm asking procedurally, you would like to have an up or down vote on yours first. Is that is that right? That's what was before us. And so that's the next step. But if you would like to take your time now to explain the differences, I think that would be the now would be the time. Okay. I guess I appreciate the opportunity to do that. I would I would ask maybe Mr. Hanna, our counsel, who has had a chance to look at mine if he would be available for for four questions or an overview or. Pat, do you have anything that you would like to add? I would think that Mr. Hanna giving legal advice would need to be an executive session, which I think can be done. I can hit the highlights of what was in your amendment, I think in open session without. Before we do that, I have a question, if you don't mind. Councilmember Caldwell's has a question. Thank you, Madam Chair. I had requested that a side by side comparison be developed between Mr. between Councilmember Dombrovskis and Council and the chair approaches. And I know there was one change in the Chair's approach in terms what's reflected in striking amendment as to I think though that what went out on Friday or Saturday may not have gotten to all council members relatively. I, I don't believe it did council member I believe it went to you because at the time that the the other striking amendment wasn't available yet. So I provided it to Mr. Dombrowski. The chair striker has since changed to that document. That document would not. Be relevant. That. I perhaps by the time we get to the full council meeting. It could have a side by side, certainly. And regardless of what happens here, it's just helpful for me anyway. And I think it could be helpful for others. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for. Thank you. Councilmember Domanski, you had the floor and thank you for allowing the question. But can you please give a brief summary assurances? Sure. I think and actually we tried to do a similar so if you take the two amendments at the top of the page is actually same format. I think from my perspective, both you, Madam Chair, and customary Taberski talked about the difference in the date. Customary Dombrovskis would be March 30th of 2019 unless the permits were not issued by the City of Seattle by June 30th of 2018. And yours, Madam Chair, would be September of 2019. Almost the opposite. Unless by June of by the end of June or July one of 2018, the city has issued permits. And then later that year, the project provides notice to the county that they will be ready to take over the site in March. So that's certainly a difference. The other major difference that I would say is through that work with legal counsel on the TPS US agreement itself, while both agreements have to come back to the council and the Council has a similar review and rejection period. Councilmember Dombrovskis includes more protections for the equipment that is on the site, which is a big deal. And what's changed there, because both amendments move that approval of that agreement, most likely to a post-closing scenario. That means after the deal closes, after we've transferred the property to them, the the power substation and communications equipment will still be on site. So Councilmember Dombrovskis purchasing sale agreement adds additional protections for the county to make sure that we have continued operations of the site undisturbed and puts I'm not sure what I would call a target date in there for when the parties should reach agreement, although that agreement still has to come back to the council. So I think from the staff perspective and one other change, although maybe this doesn't rise to the level of major change, but I pointed out, just to be fair, both amendments say the same thing for how the proceeds shall be used first for costs from the sale, then for routes or services impacted by the early closure. Then for the long term Metro connects. As you're aware, if we do transfer the tunnel earlier than planned, the county will avoid a couple of years, one, maybe two years of debt service depending on when it transfers. Councilmember Dombrovskis amendment also says the debt service payments that are avoided go into that pot as well for allocation and that could be three, three and a half to 4 million to 8 million depending on whether it's one or two years debt service payments, it's probably going to be one. So in that 3 to $4 million range, I think unless Mr. Dombrowski thinks something else, I think those are the major differences between the two documents. And if I missed something, I'm sorry. And I think that was a good summary. I think in addition and this is important with respect to affordable housing, I have added language agreed upon with the purchaser in the recital section on page one, page seven of my amendment. But page one of the purchase agreement that reflects the commitment by the Convention Center to the Seattle Affordable Housing Piece of the $9 million that is not in the chair striking purchase and sale agreement. And I thought that was important, given the interest in affordable housing to be able to kind of cement that public commitment in the purchase and sale agreement as a as a floor. And that's on lines 19 through 26 of my purchase and sale agreement on artwork. Pat, is there any difference on the artwork language? No, proper, proper. I'm using decommissioning because I can never say of the other word. Proper decommissioning of the artwork is a condition of closing in both agreements. Okay. I think also on that note, I'm sorry to jump back to you on the TPS. There's another thing that we negotiated and agreed upon was the, you know, suspension provision. And this is on page seven of line 738 of my purchase agreement. And that is if the demolition work on the project's critical path is suspended by the buyer for a period of three days or more, then our termination date may be extended by like period. In other words, what I'm trying to do here is here's my main goal keep the tunnel for our operations as long as we can , but not interfere with the project's construction. So when they're ready to go. They would have it. And if they suspend their work and we could continue to use it, that clause lets us keep using it. And that's been my main thrust here while trying to build an objective test, which, frankly, Pat, you suggested the hard date of June 30th as the permit date and and then the service changed thereafter. So there's a number of other language provisions in here, I guess, colleagues. Boils down to two things. One, my strike amendment is the result of a lot of work of all the parties that have to sign it, and they're advising the council. The Chair Stryker doesn't reflect that work. And importantly, and I think it's a big win, frankly, for our operations, we pushed the date to March of 1904 coming out of the tunnel. Cast member Belushi's has a September 19 date and I don't know whether that's agreed upon or workable mind. Could go back to to to two 2019 if the convention center doesn't have their permits and I have additional flexibility in there to get us as long as we possibly can without interfering in the project. So we're trying trying to advance a sale. I took a lesson from Councilman McDermott when we were doing the Bellevue site, when finally we could we figured, one, you couldn't negotiate with nine council members. And he went into the room with council duty and negotiated and brought back a recommendation. And we tried to do this with three council members, but it became apparent that there was a difference in policy. And that's why I was available. I attended all of the meetings and and continue to attend them. And and the policy is around that vacation date. And I don't want it to interfere with the project. We've made some very good progress in here. We've capped at $4 million the ramp cost. That was an open item before, but we've got a hard cap on that to protect the benefit of the bargain. And Councilmember Gossett, with respect to housing, please know, in addition to the language in my purchase and sale agreement that makes the developer commit to that promise over at the city of Seattle, we do have a preference for workforce housing. Both of the amendments are the same in this regard and a priority for 30 to 50% AMI on the lower end. And I think that's good and that's the same across both. So I think I would ask I think it's it's fair to ask the lawyers if there's anything we've missed here that Mr. Hannah would add. I think it'd be important for colleagues to hear it, given the amount of work you put in on last week. Mr. Hanna. Do you want to come forward and add anything? Mr. Hanna is the special your lawyer. He says he'll introduce himself a. Special deputy prosecuting attorney and other outside counsel working for the prosecuting attorney's office advising King County on that. He's our lawyer, but our lawyers. All right. Welcome, Mr. Hanna. Thanks. Morning. I had a chance to review the amendments in the last hour. So from my very brief review, I would say the only other difference is with respect to the threshold that the convention center would have to meet in order for the timeline to either be extended to September 2019 and Councilmember Dombrovskis version or for the exit date to be rolled back from September to March. And Councilmember Vale teaches for a version in council member duties version. There is a threshold that needs to be met. The language, I believe, is take control of the site, that the notice to the county would be that the convention center would need to, quote, take control of the site, which means continued operation of the site as a transit base would impair the construction of the project. The threshold that is in Councilmember Dombrowski, his version. Bear with me just one moment. Would be that the permits necessary to commence construction, which are contingent contingent upon the issuance of a master use permit and demolition and construction on the site for the project has not begun by by June 30th. So in one case. Councilmember Dombrowski, the threshold that must be met is that permits are issued and that the convention centers mobilize the state site and begun construction. Councilmember Belushi adds Notice that the convention center needs to take control of the site. So a slightly different description of the threshold and each version. That's the only other substantive difference that I was able to identify in my very brief review here in the last hour. Well, we appreciate your your on the spot legal work. And there's a question from Council Lambert. Thank you. So I've had the privilege of working with the city. Is that the I'm trying to get a new P for our out of street facility, which has been a nightmare. So I want to make sure that if they treat the convention center as charmingly as they've treated the county, that this may be built in the years 75, 92. So what do you mean when you say take can ask me how I really feel. What do you mean? You say take control in order to be able to to work in this space. You have to have a grading permit, assuring permit part of that, and you require that there's a variety of permits. So does the language take control? Also assume that. You have those permits in hand? Councilmember Lambert, I'll mention right off the bat that I candidly was not involved in the development, the language around taking control of the site. And and so I don't want to interpret the intention that was behind the use of that language. But if I read the language that's proposed in the in the agreement, it states that this is simply notice from the convention center that the convention center will need to take control of the site. So I think there's a built in assumption that permits have been issued and that there are other ways ready. Right. So there's a two part test that looks like in Councilmember Belushi's version. The permits are, in fact, issued in the same way that it is in Councilmember Dombrovskis version and that we received this notification that they're prepared to take control of the site. So again, they have the permits and are otherwise ready to proceed. They have acted customarily. Did the both amendments treat Seattle permitting in essentially the same way and that they June 30th or July one is the target date? One of them says it's September unless they meet this threshold. One of them says it's March, unless they don't meet this threshold. So if Seattle, as you put it, treats this project the way they treated the CFTC, you will be beyond that June 30th date and I'm not even sure which year, and that's the reality of it. But that is not a substantive difference between the two documents. The subsequent notification is the difference. Okay. I think that that's. Really an important part, and I'm really glad to see that it's got that second part test. And I would say it's not only the year I would be talking about what century after having dealt with that. So make me go to Wednesday morning meetings for four years to talk about something. It makes me a little testy. So thank you. Okay. Councilmember Gosset. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. My question is for Councilwoman Ranking Biles, because I'm trying to figure out what happened, because to me, these two documents look like plans that we got. The only difference is, as they are Stryker and the other ones they have. DEMBOSKY Stryker, and you talked about the meeting with all the parties that took place that led to your being bought off on by all the parties. And my question is, were the other two council members on the subcommittee of three invited to that negotiating session? And if they weren't, why not? Customer recalls that they were. We were working together, including doing the recommendations up until, I think Thursday or Friday. I did not invite them to the Thursday or was at the Friday meeting meant for me because at that point all of the points which had been agreed upon is there are a lot of similarities were done, but there was a fundamental difference in opinion on the vacation of the tunnel date. And Councilman Belushi wants September of 19. In a way, Councilmember Caldwell said, I agree with Claudia, quote unquote in the meeting. And I said, Well, I just don't agree. And so then I continued to work with the parties to try and get something that reflected the March date. Now I kezman remember Caldwell's is certainly capable of speaking for herself, and I want to say that she has been open to trying finding a resolution throughout, but that those two things, when it became clear to me that cars were real douchey, who wasn't there but her chief of staff was said that she wants to use this trigger period for coming out of the tunnel to make and basically a September date. Or it could even be be worse, to be honest with you, under the prior language. But that fundamental difference in direction caused me to say, well, I don't agree, I want to be out in March or as soon after is as we need to be to let the work commence. And so that's why I advanced this work. And you are by yourself to all the other partners? Yes, I did so. But that's the only choice. They had to advance the deal. I did not want to negotiate with myself on a complex deal. I thought, in fact, I'm the only one that has invited repeatedly the purchaser to come into the room. And that was with Councilman Belushi and Caldwell's a week ago or more to try and get this done. And so I think it's been inclusive until there was a fundamental disagreement on the policy, and then I continued to advance the measure. So I've tried to put together a deal that will actually be signed that the buyers willing to sign, that the executive supports that works for Metro. And that's what I've done before with with the alternative. And so they're not twins, but they're closed because there's mostly agreement, but there's some big differences. And on a deal of this nature, I don't think you can sit in a room on the 12th floor and write words and then pass it in legislation and expect the other side to sign it. I think you got to bring them into the room, hear that their concerns are listened to. Our own lawyers who I brought into the room to work the deal and put it together and bring in the deputy county executive to get their input. And Victor observed, So I've done the best I can. I want to move this project forward. My alternative is ready to go. It will be signed. It protects Metro. Very importantly, that TPS language that I have in there protecting our equipment is not in the Baldacci amendment. Not in there. And that's an important piece of language for a life safety system. I'm not saying it can't be fixed. We're kind of in a procedural wrangle here, but I've tried to move this ball in a responsible way from a governing perspective. And there is a fundamental difference in policy between Councilmember Bell, Dutchie and me. She wants the floor of September 19, a year later than they first wanted in 18. I got working with them six more months March and it could be later. But I do not want to cause a delay on this project and put it at risk. And that's been the thrust of my work. And that's why the convention center has agreed to it and Metro has agreed to it and the executive has agreed to it, and our lawyers have blessed it. I want to call on Councilmember Caldwell's and then move to a vote, because we're already well past the end of the meeting time, if we could. Councilmember Caldwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. I feel compelled to speak on this, and I think this disagreement could have been avoided. And we were agreeing on a lot of things in a meeting that Councilmember Dombroski. I requested our attendance last Wednesday with very little noticed and unfortunately the chair of this committee, she was not able to attend. I it was not a convenient time for me to meet either, but I went there and at one point I did say that I would like to say I agree with Councilmember Bell. Do try to stay in the tunnel for the better sense as long as we could, but without disrupting putting the deal together. That's a very different comment than saying that there was a total impasse and there was a fundamental difference in opinion. I am the sponsor of this legislation. The site is in my district and I believe as such that I was certainly to be considered one of the parties who should have been consulted with continuing work to bring everything together. I also believe strongly that Councilmember Bell Banducci expressed, as Harris has expressed, a very similar if not the same view as I had expressed at this one meeting. I was not informed of a follow up meeting. I was not invited to attend, nor was my staff. And if that had happened, I believe we would be here today with an agreed upon striking amendment that everybody could be supportive. And I think we really are in a very unfortunate position at this point. And I'm not appreciative of the procedure in terms of how we got here, rather the process. Ready to go with that. I think there is time to reach agreement, whether we postpone this to a later meeting or we go ahead and take a vote, which I am fine with on Striking Amendment two, sponsored by Councilmember Belge. Then we can have time to perfected before we get to our council meeting, which I believe would be on the 26th. Is that correct? Yes. But I felt the need to say this. I don't like to get in. You know, he I said you said this type of thing. And I think we blew an opportunity to all work on this together. But I'm going to let you know, I want everybody to hear this when I'm the sponsor of legislation and especially when it's in my district, I want to be consulted. Absolutely. And I don't want it to be said later that I had expressed a fundamental difference. So why consult with me any more? That's not appreciated. Thank you. Okay. I think we're ready to move to vote. I just want to say a few brief comments in closing on the substance of the amendment that's before us. I think what this amendment fundamentally does, if it passes, is it sets a policy direction that says on the question of removing busses from the tunnel, that that will happen in September of 2019, which is the same date that sound transit is scheduled today to remove busses from the tunnel anyway because of the expansion of light rail. Unless the the convention center project proponents by July 1st, 2018 have their permits in hand and by September 30th, 2018, give us notice that they're ready to take over the site in a way that they need the busses gone. The point of this is that the busses can be removed from the tunnel earlier. They can be removed from the tunnel by March of 2019 under this language. But what we don't want to see happen is the busses be removed from the tunnel and then the site sits there for months unused when it could be being used for the benefit of the traveling public. That is the big picture policy direction that we will be adopting. The changes that were described that are in Amendment S-3, that's not before us. There are some things and they are a number of things that might be I might support these ultimately, but I just hadn't seen them until today and hadn't had a chance to look at them. Those things that I had seen before today that I agreed with, that Councilmember Dombrowski proposed. I have tried to include in the Stryker because I think there are some good, good innovations in here that that that make it possible. We will have to have legal review of this before we take final action on all sides to make sure that it is implementable. But I believe it sets a course that we then can implement. Final comment I want to say is there's an issue that is kind of in the room but not in the documents, and that is the request that we have had from representatives of hotel motel workers to make sure that their interests are being considered as part of this sale. I understand there's some discussions going on right now outside of our process to try to address those. And I think it's important that we allow those to go on and not and not rush through this in a way that that forecloses that discussion. With that, I'm just going to go ahead now and call for a vote on an amendment as to as amended. Is this a voice vote? But what is this. We can do either? Okay. Would you like a voice vote on it or wrong? Ah, okay. Do you care, Councilmember? Domestic violence to voice vote. All those in favor of amendment as to as amendment please signify by saying I. I opposed. No. Okay. The motion carries our electorate. Okay. I have been asked for division. Okay. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett, I. Councilmember Crowell's I. Councilmember Lambert I. Councilmember McDermott, High Councilmember of the Grove, Councilmember Yvonne Wright. Bauer No, Madam Chair. Hi, Madam Chair. The vote is 652 nos. Councilmembers Dombrowski and Councilmember If I'm right, they're voting no. And Councilmember Dunn excused. Okay, so at this point now. We still have some more work to do, but this is prepared to move to council in the normal course. Of the reproduction strike. Oh, I am so sorry. We have the final passage. Any words on final passage? Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to start where you left off. One of the things I've thought a lot about during this discussion is who are the stakeholders? Is it just those who signed the agreements, or are there more people impacted? Obviously, with a proposal like this, the benefits are widespread, but there also can be adverse impacts, as is often the case. And so when I think about stakeholders, I also think about the obviously the transit riders, not just the transit agency. And I think that the approach in this Stryker is one that that I'm supportive of. But I also wanted to echo your comments. It is my understanding, too, that the men and women who work in the hotel industry and their representatives have met recently with the Washington State Convention Center to talk about how these costs and benefits are shared and ways in which the costs and benefits can be distributed in more equitable ways. And I don't know what the answer is. We do know that one of the largest economic beneficiaries is the hotel industry, and that's generally speaking, that's a good thing. But we also have employees who work in many of these hotels in Seattle who have been struggling, not only struggling economically, but struggling with their relationships with their employers. And I'm I think the Washington State Convention Center would be wise to engage more specifically in those conversations, both before we take full action, but also, I think as this hits the city of Seattle, I think that it's important to keep a broad view on this. You know, I support this because I believe that overall the economic benefits are a positive for our region. But I do think that those are important discussions that the convention center should take seriously and engage in specifics as as we continue to move through the process. And so I appreciate your comments, Madam Chair. I wanted to reiterate those. Thank you. Other comments? Okay. I think Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm hopeful that this will get into a form that eventually can be signed. I'll be voting no today, obviously. I think it'll it'll advance. I think there's generally consensus about the terms, but we're we're, in my view, risking a multi hundred million dollar project by continuing to impose a delay. Ironically, the language on your take control words compared to the language that was in mind could mean that the convention center boots us out of the tunnel sooner because my language required that they actually start work on the site. Your language has them take control and then we're gone. But that is what it is. And and I think that we'll eventually get it get it done. And I think this is a good public project. Sometimes people forget that the public the convention center is a public institution created by the King County Council, and that we confirm every member of the board of directors. And one of the people sitting on the board is the secretary of the King County Labor Council. And I was very pleased and proud to push the convention center behind the scene to get to a project labor agreement with the building and construction trades, because I think this is a good project for generations of jobs and we'll build that up. So I hope that we can get it done and I think that we've made some improvements here. But I hope that folks, as they negotiate, will actually quit negotiating with themselves and reach out to folks that have to sign the agreement and get something that's workable. And I trust that will occur. The executive will veto it and the party won't sign it. So more work to do. And I commend you and enjoy working with the folks who are on the other side. They're good folks who are smart folks who are trying to do the right thing. Okay. I think we're ready to vote. The the very last word I will give as the as the proponent of this, if if the maker of the motion will indulge me, is that I think we have all been trying very, very hard to balance a variety of public benefits. There are opportunities here. There are also impacts here. We all are attempting to do our best to represent the people that we are sent here to represent and to get the best deal possible for the residents of King County while supporting a project that can do a great deal of good for the residents of King County. And to the extent we have hit that balance today, I am pleased to the extent we need to do more to strike the right balance. I am open and with that I would urge your support and I think we're ready to call for a vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett. Hi. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. All right. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Bond right now. Madam Chair, I tried to go to seven days. Councilmember DEMBOSKY voting no and Councilmember Dunn excused. Okay, that counts. Mr. Hamacher. Just a very quick announcement, Madam Chair, just for everyone's recognition on the schedule, you have an advertised public hearing for this item scheduled for a week from today on the 19th. That's a state law requirement. The convention center proponents, however, have asked that the council delay this action until the 26th, so you'll see a advertised public hearing for the 19th. That's because we had to publish and get that out to the public. But if this is on a regular calendar, it would be up at council on the 26th. Does that mean that we will move the public hearing to the 26th so that a year can both happen on the same day? Or will we hold the public hearing on the 15th? I think you should hold the public hearing on the 19th. And if the chair desires, though, he can keep the public hearing open until the 26th if he wants, or he can close it on that day. We will leave that in the chairs. Good hands. Okay. Thanks you, everyone. This meeting is now.	AN ORDINANCE authorizing the conveyance of the surplus property located at 906 Pine Street, Seattle, Washington, in council district four.
king_40c424cd-108e-4a23-b8e3-4bfe4e0f8c98	Everybody to the March 2nd, 2022 remote meeting of the Committee of the whole. I am the Chair of the committee. Councilmember Jean Cole. Well, once again, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the King County Courthouse, where we would usually be meeting in some the unceded ancestral land of the Duwamish people past and present, and we honor with gratitude the land itself and the. During this time, we will begin today's meeting with a briefing on the executive's COVID response from Dwight David, director of the King Kong Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. After that, we will take possible action on a motion requesting the executive establish an equitable development initiative Ross referred to as an EEG and an implementation plan for it. We will be briefed, I believe, by Aaron Parsons and Wendy Sue and council staff on the motion, as well as some amendments that have been received. And I hesitated there because so much of our staff witnessed legislation. Jenny Note was not able to be with us today. With that, Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Eric Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Council member McDermott era council member Barry here. Council member up there. You're. Council member, Van Driver. Here. Council members. Hello there. Madam Chair. Yeah, you do have a quorum. Thank you very much, Madam Kirk and council member McDermott. But Ukraine's moved to approve the minutes of our February 16. Thank you, Madam Chair. We move the February 16th meeting minutes be approved as presented. Okay. Thank you very much. All in favor indicate posting on. I can't say no. Thank you. The minutes have been adopted. We will now turn to public comment. And Madam Kirk, do you have anyone on the line wishing to provide public comment and a few comments? Know how many that would be helpful? Yes, we do. Madam Chair, it looks like we have six people so far. Six people? Yes. Thank you very much. Public comment for all those of you who are with this must be related to items on today's meeting agenda and not be used for the purpose of assisting campaigns for election any person to any of this or or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot composition. It must also not include obscene speech for this question and public comment. Please do not use the mandarins function. Everyone will be called on as committee clerk will call the names and numbers and when your name or last three digit of your phone number is called, you will be asked to unmute your line and please do so or press does. Six. If you are dialed in by a cell phone, please start by saying and spelling your name so we can capture it, as I say for the record, so you will have 2 minutes to speak and will hear a timer go off when you have reached the two minute time period. You can finish your thought, but please wrap up your comments to allow the next person to speak and wait. Start Madam Cartier in full? Well, yes. Is it just me that didn't hear about 90% of that, or was that broken up for others as well? It was clear here. There's some paper wrestling here, wrestling going on, but not not breaking up. Okay. I'm going to leave and come back. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Perry, I'm not I'm clear. Please go ahead and begin calling names and numbers for public comment. Thank you, Madam Chair. The first person is Caesar Garcia. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Cesar Garcia and I live in District one and I am a co-founder of the Lake City Collective Community based organization. I am also a certified pot interpreter. Right. Great. So I. I work out of the same building where you work. I'm here to express my full support to the creation of the King County. By being part of the. Myself being part of the NBA Advisory Board. I would like to say that we all, all of us need to trust community. Having an interim advisory board in King County will ensure that all your districts are heard, and those communities who are behind in the county will get the resources that they need to get ahead in life. Community work is hard. Work is 24 seven. An equitable development is a tool to allow those who are working to be to serve better districts. Before our group received capacity building funds from the Eddie Grant are basically took our office classroom and myriad meeting room where the park benches are little blue park. Having a space has allowed us not only to have a roof, but also to work on issues that we ever thought it would be possible, including improving the park that give us the space to serve our community. Think. Think of equitable development as an extension of your government and a government office that will be open for for all these communities seven days a week. Please support the creation of the King County area. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Clifford Carson. Yes. Hello, round chair. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. And I. My name is Clifford Carson. I am a resident of District five and I am also with the site representing the Sightline Institute today. And I would like to speak in full support of the King County. E.D., I and I will be brief because I think that the many other community members have been leading and really providing the insight to make sure this process is as equitable as possible, that the King, a King County Equitable Development Initiative, would bring much needed dollars to projects all over the county that are going to help strengthen communities, families, individuals that are being really affected by our rampant inequality right now that we see not just here in King County, but throughout the country. And I, while being a resident District five, you know, can speak to especially after running for office in this past election, you know, speak to some of the stories of inequity that I heard when it came to tenants, when it came to issues like food security, so and so forth. But I also want to speak to my time as resident of District two and with the Watts So Community Association and noting how many conversations I had with people where we envision a better skyway, and that one of the biggest obstacles to doing that was getting the kind of funds needed and getting the kind of institutional support needed in order to stimulate the kind of demand that we see today, particularly with the investments that have been made by this Council. So I asked this council to let the community, and particularly a in an interim, you know, advisory board made up of community members, lead the process, lead this process, and to work with them in order. To make sure those voices that I've heard. That many people on this council have heard get the kind of resources that our community needs. So so many of our neighbors can. Realize the kind of opportunities that. King County is beautiful for. Doing this for. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is and we all know one. Hoping you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Eliana Horn. Interdependent law policy and a resident of District two. And I'm here to urge the Council to pass. They can count on any emotion. An emotion to a20467. I've had the privilege of working with Bipoc led organizations and communities who have the knowledge, experience and vision to ward off displacement and address the root issues of this housing crisis, and who envision a King County where bipoc communities thrive or culture is preserved and encouraged, and where the threats of displacement do not feel around the corner. These organizations have the vision and knowledge, and what they need is the support of the county and the financial resources to make their vision a reality. And this vision is to support the thriving of bipoc communities and permanent solutions. The Equitable Development Initiative is a step to make the vision of these communities possible, and those closest to the problem are the ones that know the solutions. Which is why it is imperative that the E.D. program is co-designed and led by bipoc and marginalized communities who have been affected by displacement. I urge the Council to pass this motion. Thank you. The next person is Gregory Davis. All right. Thank you very much. Good morning to everyone. Gregory Davis here. I live in District two and also work in District two. And I'm calling on behalf of the E.D. program, particularly the proposed motion 2020 10467. I also serve so this to two points I want to make. One is is the value of co-design. I serve on the City of Seattle Equitable Development Initiative and I've seen the assist that this body has been able to provide to the staff of the city. It's really been immeasurable and they will often say that I think that's a value that will also exist within the county as a result of this initiative and having this co-design occur through this project. Because, you know, after all, those closest to the problem are the ones that know the solutions. So that's why we're advocating for the co-design and it be led by black and indigenous people of color and marginalized communities have been affected by displacement. I think the other point I want to make is about community pride. Our organization, Rainier Beach Action Coalition, did receive Equitable Development Initiative funds to purchase property across from the Rainier Beach Light Rail Station. And I left the meeting this morning with our staff. That includes young adults between the ages of 2020 and 24. And we were talking about the development and you can see the pride in their voices, the twinkle in their eye as they were able to contribute to the development and what it would look like on behalf of the Rainier Beach neighborhood. So I think that's something that you want to be a part of as a council going forward, as part of part of your legacy. So, of course, can't can't lead without asking you again to just give my regards to your aides and also want to be able to make sure how often it happens. Give Councilmember Zachary his props, inspire his rock. Love you, bro. Keep up the good work. Thank you. The next person is Howard French. Hey. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hey. Good morning, Madam Chair and council members, thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. My name is Howard Green, which I am the research director at Puget Sound Stage. History reveals to me one essential truth about land in the United States black, indigenous and people of color. Communities get pushed out of neighborhoods, pushed around regions, and pushed down into poverty so that others can benefit or profit from land they once occupied. Some of it is intended. Some of it is outright racism. All of it is systemic. And it's what we are asking you today to help change by creating a community led Eddy. Getting land permanently into the collective hands of impacted communities is a real and powerful strategy to both help communities end the cycle of displacement and to build future resilience. But it's not typical land use policy, and it needs to be done differently. To that end, we ask you to ensure the following in the final motion. So first, impacted communities with lived experiences of displacement are in the driver's seat in designing effective program. To that end, we trust that we can work with the executive can make that happen. Second, areas of the county facing the longest and or the most harm from being pushed out or being pushed down should be prioritized. We can clearly design and. We can get this done without putting communities against each other. Third, the way to get investment to all corners of the county or displacement is taking place is to help us eventually find progressive, new progressive revenue sources that will put land permanently in the hands of both urban and rural communities. We deeply appreciate the time and thoughtfulness you have all given to this community proposal for an idea program. We hope you can trust in doing things a little differently in setting up this transformational program. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Jeannie Williams. Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. My name is Jimmy Williams and I am a long time resident of Skyway, and I also am here today from West Hill Community Association and Unincorporated Skyway West Area. I wanted to say today come to you today to say that I have a. Full support of the. King County community led FBI initiative that's going on here. And I would ask that. This council. Would consider definitely pushing it forward to make sure. To get. The hands, you know, this funding in the hands of an advisory group. And the. Community who knows kind of. Everything that. That. That the community goes through in order to push. Equitable development forward. It is very much needed. Another thing that I would like to address today while I have a couple minutes is just I am from specifically the unincorporated King County area. And one of the reasons. Behind us even coming up with this initiative was that it felt like an unfair playing ground. The Seattle area, who is very, very. Impactful throughout the Seattle communities. The unincorporated areas. Did not have an opportunity to apply. For those. And with that, we felt like if we had a county wide one where unincorporated areas like Skyway and White Center had an opportunity to to apply, that would help those underinvested in communities. I wanted to speak a little bit. To the amendments. That have gone on and that they. And that. We don't continue to invest in those areas and make that playing field. And even so, thank you very much for listening to me today and given some time to. Just listen to this motion. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is continuing that. Hi there. This is actually Brady Nordstrom. Apologies for the for the mix up there but that's Brady Y Nordstrom. I'm calling in today on behalf of Future Ys. We strongly support the King County Equitable Development Initiative Motion and we thank King County Council for your ongoing work to move this motion forward. Many people have covered a lot of the things and we concur. But just a couple of brief comments here that we should build on the success of the model in Seattle, and some of these elements at a high level include a selection process that results in a truly community led advisory board with representation from those with lived experience of displacement. They can co-design the program, and the use of funds should be worked out by a representative community work group as well. Again, as many have said, there are those impacted by displacement and disparities can and should be trusted to identify and steward the solutions to the issues that they're facing. So thank you again for the chance to speak. We hope that we hope that will move this forward. And I suppose I suppose that's it. So thank. You again. Thank you. The next person is Kayla Jackson. Hello. A council member. Good morning. My name is Kelly Jackson, program manager at Puget Sound Stage and also a resident of District four. And I work in District two. I've been organizing with Bipoc led community organizations who have these beautiful visions for their communities. Many of what you've heard in the in the past few meetings whose vision, such as culturally appropriate housing and cultural centers, stable commercial spaces for family owned businesses and more bipoc and marginalized groups have been historically and continue to be underinvested in which has prevented many of these visions from becoming a reality. But now it's time to invest in these visions so that communities who are at risk of further harm from displacement can better stabilize and be in control of their own destinies. And so I just want to I know that we've heard a lot in the past few weeks from our coalition and our many community organizations. I just want to highlight that at its core idea is an acknowledgment that all communities and families have a right to self-determination. And this King County, E.D., is one step to addressing these injustices that these previous and current injustices with equitable investments in community driven development projects. And we know that the price of land continues to rise and the time is now to support bipoc communities to steward and drive their own development projects. I just want to highlight what other folks have said as well, that communities closest to the problem have the best solutions on how to stabilize their communities, which is why this vision really centers on a community advisory board to co-design the program. Thank you for your time and thank you for your continued work on this initiative. Thank you. The next person is Maria Guadalupe de Ramirez. Good morning, councilmembers. I am Maria Guadalupe Ramirez and I live and work in District eight and I work in South Park, part of Seattle, that straddles both the city of Seattle and unincorporated King County, North Highline and the Boulevard Park area. And specifically what this legislation before you any a commentary or a statement of our dissatisfaction with the status quo? This legislation is a strategy to eliminate the impact of institutional racism. We've had the luxury now of privilege, really, as bipoc community, to look at our communities through the lens of a developer. And we don't like what we see for the future. I look at Boulevard Park. I walk around there. I talk to the community. And they're nervous. There's a lot of housing instability. That area is ripe for redevelopment. What we see is having those communities still there in the next ten, 20 years. What are the strategies that we can take? How can we work synergistically together, both as ethnic communities, as in government and the private sector? What can we. Do to. Ensure that families have decent, clean and safe housing? And having the community there at the table speaking is a big part of it. So I really thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. And I just want to pass along the comments that my colleagues here and friends have made on the urgency and the importance of letting the community be there to address solutions and work together and create new pathways and new models for us to have a future here in the city of Seattle and in King County. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. The next person is Giordano's two. Very. Good morning. My name is Giordano's Ferry and I'm with the Multicultural Community Coalition and I live in District five. I also serve on Seattle's Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board. We have been helping to lead the effort to lead the effort in the establishment of a King County EDC, having directly benefited from Seattle's FDI and our anti displacement efforts of marginalized communities through the support of Seattle's EDA. My organization was successful in acquiring a building that has anchored eight East African small businesses that were at real risk of being displaced. We made this purchase in May of 2021 as part of our disaster gentrification efforts. For we have seen the growing development pressures in the Rainier Valley that are displacing our small businesses, cultural anchors and residents due to the increasing price of land. Especially now with COVID 19. As in our case, an equitable development initiative puts power back into the hands of our communities by being able to own and control land in addition to our small business support efforts. We will also have an opportunity to anchor several small community based organizations serving immigrant, refugee and people of color, communities and cultural centers, as well as the development of a cultural innovation center, which is akin to a multicultural community center. As such, we know firsthand that a King County EDC will help slow displacement by putting land and buildings in the hands of Bipoc communities and allow us to drive development in the neighborhoods that we have helped build, shape , or where we live now. A King County Idea. I will help our communities develop projects that are profoundly affordable and that meet many needs at once, like affordable housing, cultural spaces, child care, recreation and education. We need all of these things to thrive and to anchor our communities. Our communities know that we need to be resilient and overcome our challenges. It is very important to have communities most impacted by displacement at the table to design the program and make it happen. As you have repeatedly heard here today and with that, we ask that you support our community led efforts in advocating for King County II by supporting the motion. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have called everyone on the line. Madam Chair, your muted. Actually I'm having some challenges technologically, but they are going to very much matter. And if there's anyone on the line would like to provide public comment and it's not have the opportunity to do so, please use the raise one function or press star nine of your child by phone. Madam Cook No raised hands. I'm sorry. Did you say there was no. I'm sorry, ma'am. Chair, there are no hands that are raised. Okay. Of saying no further request, we will now close public comment and move to item number five on a budget and an agenda . And I'm very pleased to welcome Dwight Bagley, director of the Office of Government Strategy and Budget, whom we all know and who will provide us in briefing on the executive's response to COVID. Welcome, Dwight. And go right ahead. Good morning, council members. For the record, Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Thank you for having me for our monthly update. I think it'll be relatively brief today. I only have five items, but as always, I'm happy to discuss anything else that you have questions. So as has become our tradition, let me start with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Until yesterday, we were concerned because the public health emergency at the national level was set to expire on April 16th. And when that happens, the eligibility for FEMA reimbursement for some of our costs also goes away. But fortunately, yesterday, the president extended the emergency until July 1st. And so our ability to collect FEMA reimbursement for the eligible expenses would also presumably go until July 1st. I do think if the pandemic continues to wane, as we all hope it does, it's unlikely it will be extended past July 1st. But we also are not planning on operating many of the programs and facilities that we've set up in response to COVID past the end of June. So I think that timing actually seems to work out pretty well. So just a little bit of good news that changed what I was going to present here as of yesterday. So let me pause there and see if there's anything with questions. But any questions? Then questions from time. Okay. Go right ahead. Okay. So item two and I've spoken already with Councilmember McDermott about this. We will be transmitting the ninth COVID Supplemental Appropriations Ordinance, affectionately known as COVID nine, next Thursday to the council. We're almost done with that. We're still working on some of the very final details of it. I can tell you that it is going to be an almost entirely technical exercise. The executive is not proposing any new policy initiatives. As you know, all of the federal money has already been appropriated. We do have some areas where we're going to suggest using general fund resources instead of federal resources, because those programs turned out to not be eligible for federal funding. It's a relatively small amount. We were concerned back in December that we would have to look at either much larger general fund contributions or actually canceling some appropriations entirely. But when the new rules came out that I talked with you about last month, it made a lot more things eligible. So the amount of general fund that we're going to ask you to appropriate in lieu of federal money is is a much smaller amount than we had originally thought we might have to do. So unlike most of the ones that you did last year, COVID 19, I think should be very straightforward. And it is, at least as we transmit it, essentially just a technical exercise of moving some funds around and making some corrections. So let me pause there and see if there's questions about that. And Christians. Okay. Let's go on to number three. Okay. Now, number three is complex and not yet specific, but I do want to share this with you because at some point we'll be communicating with you about this. And there may need to be legislation. There may not need to be legislation. So when the American Rescue Plan Act was passed not quite a year ago, one of the things that was included as an allowable use of federal funding was the ability to replace lost revenue that was due to the recession caused by the pandemic. However, the way the federal government originally laid out the rules on how you calculate lost revenue led to the conclusion that the county hadn't lost any revenue. And just to give you an example, they didn't differentiate between revenue sources. So when one of our levy led lifts was renewed at a higher amount, they treated that increase as if it could have been spent on anything. And that covered up the losses in general fund and some other kinds of sales tax revenue. So we originally didn't think we could do any revenue replacement at the end of the year. When they put out the final rules, they changed the calculation. And now it appears we need to update this with the new revenue forecast that came out yesterday. It now appears that there is a significant amount of revenue loss that we could claim against the federal money from the ARPA legislation. And an early estimate of that was actually over $100 million. Now, what I want to make sure everyone understands is this isn't any new money. But it does mean that we can convert some federal money into general fund money. And that eliminates a lot of the limitations and the reporting requirements that federal money has. So again, I want to make sure everyone understands this is not like suddenly we have additional funds. What it means is we have more flexible funds and will be able, particularly with some of our community groups, to reduce dramatically the amount of reporting and compliance checking that they're going to have to do. So once we validate how much revenue loss we can claim, we'll look at the various programs that you have appropriated and identify ones where we think this additional flexibility will benefit our communities, our community groups, by not having to do so much accounting, so much record keeping. And then we will propose to you which ones we are going to essentially make general fund supported instead of federal support. And I my sense is we're not going to need to legislate anything at this point. But I do want to make sure the council is aware of what we are recommending to do. So it's a it's a it's good news because it creates some flexibility and reduces some burden on our community. Organizations, particularly the smaller ones, don't have the experience of complying with all the federal reporting requirements. So we pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Obviously, we have to through the details of it yet, but I do think it is good news for a lot of the organizations that are looking at do I really have to do all that work? And now I will be able to say to someone, No, you don't. Do you have any sense date on when you will be able to provide that information? So we need to update the nation now that the new revenue forecast is out. And that's something that is done by the Finance and Business Operations Division or but they should be able to do that in the next couple of weeks. And so then once we have that number, we'll take a look at all the programs you have appropriated. And it could be ones that we make money because we could still eliminate some of these reporting requirements after the fact. So we'll go through that list and then make a recommendation. My guess is we're talking about a month from now that we would have that recommended list of programs. It's obviously, I think, what we want to do quickly so that we can tell groups, hey, we thought you were going to have to fill out all these forms and now you're not. Great. I thank you, Councilmember Dombroski. I think Manager Dwight on that topic. Appreciate the update with the reduction in kind of compliance hoops, if you will also apply to the competitive bidding rules that the federal money typically required. And would have. But unfortunately, almost all of our programs that you've appropriated are already in or through that process. So if it were if we still have some and we have one large appropriation that we haven't started appropriately started selecting yet, IBM would vastly simplify that procurement process. I think you got a concern. Two. It's a small one. The concern isn't small, but the program is small. I and I think the last government budget put some money in there. I think it was only like 150,000 total because it was going to buy was for mental health care supports for kids. And in my district, in the Seattle shoreline and North Shore school districts that we parceled it out like 50 K a pop to community organizations that had on the ground relationships and services in those area. You know, $50,000 per per organization. It's hard to run a, you know, an RFP here. It's a lot of process for a little bit of money. And it's been delayed. And I'm concerned about the struggles of our young people and getting those supports into the community. And so if there is a chance, I just ask that we're going to do this. And I asked for a meeting yesterday with Leo. I'd like to find a way to get those funds out to the organizations that need the help that are struggling to take care of our young folks who are trying to crawl out of this out of the basement, if you will, in a healthy way. So if you could have someone call me on that to see if we might be able to expedite, I would really appreciate it. There may be other members that had similar type of appropriations in that in that lower dollar amount where the process is holding up delivery of the of the dollars. And we may not be getting the value out of the process that we normally would given the small size. Yeah, that's great, counselor. I will follow up on that one. And if other council members have similar ones that they want us to look at, please just email me directly and we'll put those on the list and do this. Do the same analysis. Appreciate it. Thank you, too, I think, Madam Chair. Any other questions? Okay. Great. All right. Item item four on the list is my usual monthly update on the sector of our economy. That was hurt the most by the paper, which is the hospitality, hotel and restaurant sector. And not surprisingly, because of Armageddon and just the seasonality, January was a terrible month for that sector. So hotel occupancy averaged 42% in the county in January, as has been the pattern Sea-Tac held up the most. And downtown Seattle was by far the worst, only about 30% occupancy throughout the month of January. So that was very, very bad news. The good news is that everything looking forward now seems very positive. So a lot of surveys have been done of people in United States and their interest in travel. And not surprisingly, there is a huge pent up demand for travel. And so it looks like, you know, very favorable prospects are moving forward. Just to give you a couple specific examples. Sea-Tac Airport is now projecting that by the latter part of this year, they'll be back to 95% of their peak utilization. So, you know, we were down they were like a 20% in the lowest parts of the pandemic. If any of you have flown recently, it has definitely picked up. It's still not where it was before the pandemic. But they're when they're doing their forecast, they're thinking they'll be back pretty much to where they were before the pandemic by the end of the year. The other interesting thing is the Port of Seattle has put out their preliminary cruise ship schedule for the upcoming season, and they have at this point 296 sailings, which I believe is the highest they have ever had. And there will be 14 different vessels cruising out of the Port of Seattle, which is up from 11 in the last year before the pandemic. So from a if you're for those who are interested in cruising, they're going to be lots of opportunities this summer. And that again, that was an industry that essentially was totally shut down here during the pandemic. So that's that's very good news. Right. Is that in the studio a bit volatile. I mean, if there were another variant and crisis that came along, it seems like that might change. Absolutely. Yeah. So, I mean, all of the things predicated on the pandemic continuing to wane, I mean, even if it becomes endemic and we just live with it, that's probably okay. But you're right, if we get another variant that maybe is more resistant to some of the vaccines, then, you know, all bets are off. And so that's what I had on our hospitality sector. Is there any. Other. I have a question, and maybe it's not directly related to the hospitality industry, but what about conventions? Are we seeing them booked more now? Very slowly. And I don't have the information of me. I didn't look at that earlier this week. Both the number of conventions and the projected attendance is rebounding very slowly. And so, yes, it is improving, but it is not improving quickly. I think. Questions. Support. All right, last item, as always. Let me give you a sales tax update. So this is going to remind everyone that's two months lag. So this is the revenue we received in late February, which was collected by merchants in December. So this includes, you know, the holiday shopping season. It also includes the snow week. So both, you know, good times and bad times. And I'm going to this is going to get very confusing because I'm going to use two different time periods, but I will be very clear about which one we're using at which time. So we've been comparing 2021 to 2019, so pre-pandemic. So you just get a sense of the real change over a two year period. And we continue to see essentially the same pattern. Now we've seen for many, many months, the total sales tax was up 9.3% from two years before. So that's, you know, very good growth. As usual, there were the same big winners. Electronics was up 26%. Building materials was up 16%. The online shopping was up 14% and the big box retailers were up 12%. So the same big winners as has been and there are two really hard hit sectors continue to be restaurants, which were down 17% and hotels which are down 72%. So both of those are improving from where they were earlier in 2021, but they're still way below where they were before the pandemic. Now, the other set of information I thought I would share on sales tax, and this is where I'm going to confuse you with the dates, because the information I had was only able to compare 2021 to 2020, not to 2019. So this is the one year change from 2020 to 2021 in December, and it's by geography. And the point I'm going to make here is that this recovery of our economy is uneven geographically, not surprising for anyone. But I was actually struck by how much different it was. So Bellevue on the east side was 15% higher in their taxable sales in 2021 than in 2020. Seattle was up 10%. In the South End, organ implants only up 4% each. So as we have been seeing, there is a geographic difference in the recovery with Seattle and most of the East Side doing better and the South County cities not doing as well. One exception in South County is SeaTac. The city of SeaTac, their taxable sales were up 46% December 2020 to December 2021, and that's entirely about the hotels there with higher occupancy and higher rates. And for those of you that represent parts of the unincorporated area, the unincorporated area sales were up a lot to up 15%. And a very large portion that of course, is online sales. We don't have much retail base in the Inc. area, but when people order from home and have it delivered, it is attributed to the unincorporated area. So that was another strong segment. So just to summarize this, I mean, we're seeing the same patterns. It's good that our sales tax revenue is recovering and, you know, very beneficial, especially for Metro, not through housing for the mental illness and drug dependency fine. And for the general fund. And we still see real differences by economic sector and geographic area. And so that's what I have. But I'm happy to answer questions. So I have one with regard to the hotels and the restaurants. Are this measuring the ones that are still in business centers? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I have information on where the percentage of hotels and restaurants that have closed. Let me see if I can get that. There are very few hotels that have closed. Mm hmm. But restaurants, definitely. And I don't have that off on my head, and I. I'll talk to Dave Reich and see what information might be available. So the figures I'm giving you are for the that economic sector. All restaurants today versus all restaurants two years ago. And you're obviously right, there are fewer today than there were. And would be interesting to be able to get the information, the data on geographical locations to. The Grove. Councilmember. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thanks, Dwight. My question is on the expenditure side. We've obviously been in a period nationally, if not globally, of relatively high inflation. And I'm wondering to what degree we're seeing that in costs in county agencies. And also, if I recall, there's been periods of time where health care inflation was growing much faster than regular inflation. And given how much were in the health care business. I'm wondering if we're seeing those trends and to what degree that's going to impact the development of the budget in terms of being able to maintain current services but with higher expenses. Course, will have to go on health care. My recollection is that health care inflation has actually not been a big issue. But I will check on that and I'll email you with the actual information on inflation, generally how it's affecting county government. Let me give you a couple of examples where it very, very obviously is the biggest one is construction. So our capital projects, as they're going out to procure both labor and materials, are seeing very high rates of construction inflation 10% a year or more. A lot of it is, you know, just materials are in tight supply because the supply chain issues, you know, there's a lot of construction activity. So labor is able to, you know, charge higher wages. So that's probably the area we're seeing the biggest effect right now. And so as we're looking at the next budget for capital programs, I'm actually just talking to wastewater yesterday about this. I'm trying to figure out how we factor that in is going to be a challenge. The other area that is very obvious is fuel for metro. Fuel prices have gone up a lot. It is one of their largest categories of cost. So that is an obvious effect on Metro and a little bit less on some other parts of county government. The big issue, of course, for most of county government is a lot of our funds are about 80% labor. So the you know, the real question will be as as labor contracts come open and are settled, you know, what is the impact on our labor costs of this higher inflation? And that's going to be the for for many finds. That's really going to be the biggest issue. We haven't seen it yet because the contracts are either in place or negotiations have not finished. So from our kind of actual spending, we haven't seen any impact at all. But certainly looking forward, we might. Thanks. Tom. Are there any other questions? Now. Well, thank you very much, Dwight. And as always, you're very informative for us. And I think the caseload for the caucus council is meeting next week, so that's the first person from that. And if you want to come any time earlier than once a month or more frequently, please let us know. Okay. Happy to do that. And thank you, as always, for the opportunity to be here. Okay. Thank you. I write with that to our last item on the agenda is what we but we already mentioned and that is the FDI legislation. A motion introduced by Councilmember Dombroski, along with council members and me requesting the executive to establish a town wide, equitable development initiative with a priority on unincorporated area communities. And we've already been briefed on this twice the last two meetings. And we do have a new striking amendment that she was sent last night. And we have a central step, and I'm not sure that's an honest answer, Wendy, who we're going to turn to or Andy, but we will have a short briefing on this item, as well as the striking amendment before us and several line amendments. So with that, whoever our staff has been briefed is pleased. Please read it. And we do have Karen, Gil and I believe Kelly Rider with us as well from the executive branch. All right. Good morning. And all the council staff, Wendy Sue, who is also here to correct me if I get anything wrong. Sorry for the second string staff today. Jenny is out sick, so we're going to do our best. But we might have to refer to our notes a little bit more than she would have to. And I do also apologize. There are some errors in the document that were sent out as well as pointed out to you and as we'll become clear in a little bit. So the staff report is in the main packet. I'm not going to go through it. If there's questions, I probably can't answer them. But I will go through that packet which you were emailed by said at 612 7617, something like that. There is a striking amendment S-4 in the packet as mentioned in the packet, the amendment packet on page ten, there's a comparison matrix that compares the underlying motion to S-4 and the differences are shown with a highlight on that language and summary. And before you go on, I'm not sure if everybody is familiar with how it got to us. This is the S-4. We had S-1 that was presented to us earlier, and then as two and as three, I believe were being worked on by council members dombroski and up the group. But as for this represents a collaborative work and agreement. Is that correct? Anyway, I just wanted to point that out. Go right ahead. So escort would refine the scope of the initiative. Previously, the motion stated that the initiative is county wide in scope but should prioritize. Unincorporated area communities under arrest for the initiate would still be county wide in scope, but the planning group would make recommendations on how to prioritize unincorporated area communities. As for also the appointments to the planning workgroup, whereas the underlying motion is silent on appointments. Appointments are to be done by the executive in consultation with the Council through an open application process and consideration should be given to individuals with experience or expertize. Next S4 would include language stating that any new focus and framework principles of the motion would not apply to the Best Start's capital grants program. The Work Group and Executive are requested to recommend how the initiative, if adopted and implemented, would be informed and made collaborative with the Capital Grants Program. Escort would revise the requirement five, which is regarding identification of new and existing funding sources that could support anti displacement efforts, including community driven play space or cultural investments. Esper would revise the requirement to say that the. Executives should identify potential funding options for the initiate. A score would also revise a plan requirement to propose strategies to coordinate across county agencies and programs by removing language from the underlying to remove the specific references to BSA and the zero program score would revise the language regarding recommendations for a permanent advisory board. The underlying language specified determining policy and funding decisions as well as membership of Bipoc leadership. Do you have a graphic representation including unincorporated Kane County? Or would revise the requirement to state of the board, which should be a compromise of 13 representatives for select by the Executive and one by each council member or each council district. The escort also says that the appointment should emphasize emphasize bipoc community and those impacted by displacement pressure. And finally, as for revises the deadline for phase one, the phase one report from June 30th to August 31st of 2022. Let me I can go into we can answer questions now on the striker maybe, or I can go to the line amendments. Yes. Please let us sit there and questions from our council members. Apparently not. So go right ahead. I'm the one and only. I'm sorry, Madam Chair. Oh, I'm sorry again, Sue. I'm not sure who raised her. McDermott. Okay. No, I mean, earlier, Councilmember Perry also has a question about her council member, McDermott. Thank you. I'm just not too quick on the draw because I'm catching up to here for this morning. And was calling up the doc once when we were already. And so I'm playing catch up. Speak to me review for me again the the advisory committee make up in from the original language instructor for. Let me pull it up. But maybe one of the sponsors wants to speak to the attorney. We have a councilmember Dombroski. I can try on that, Madam Chair. Customer McDermott Thank you. Recall that there are kind of two groups envisioned by the motion. The first is the planning work group, and this Stryker for amendment accepts recommendations from a number of council members with the goal of getting that group formed so it can make recommendations fairly expeditiously. There's an interest in the community to, you know, get this program launched perhaps in time for some work later this year in the budget. So with respect to the work group, this I'm getting some feedback and maybe on your sharing that's okay. Maybe or maybe not there. But the work group would be appointed by the executive in consultation with the Council. There would be a lived experience and expertize requirements and it would be an open application process. Councilmember Perry So there's that. And again, the goal there is to have experience, have an open process and get it up and running relatively quickly in consultation with members on the permanent work group. It is recommended in the Stryker that we have a 13 member group for by the executive, nine selected by the Council, one each member. The appointment should emphasize Black, Indigenous and people of color and those most impacted by displacement pressures. There would be a compensation for their work. So we've gone, we've looked at a whole bunch of different models. My personal view is there isn't necessarily a white answer, just is that where members want to be on that, that's what the striking amendment recommends. I think the rationale for that comes from McDermott, if I can. It wasn't the prime promoter of this country. We're up the if he wants to speak to but the nature is of the of the legislation is that it's county wide in scope. But there are certain folks we want to make sure who are doing our work. And those are the folks with experience and impact from the bill that we're trying to address. So that proposed structure tries to to it to achieve a panel ultimately that that responds to those goals. My proposal earlier on in a prior striking amendment, I've lost track of which number it was, was to let the workgroup come to us with a recommendation on how the permanent group should look. Consistent with the philosophy of co-creation and empowering the community. You've been in this business a long time. Legislation is a is a compromise exercise. And so this is a compromise, Stryker, that puts together recommendations from a number of folks. That's how we got here. There are some thoughts on I hope that's helpful. Councilmember Tomasky It is, if I may ask, though. When? We talk about consulting with community and and involving community in the in the appointments to the advisory board has community had a chance to review this and what are their what are their thoughts and comments? I didn't hear testimony about Streicher for at all. I wouldn't speak on behalf of community. I although I think it's fair to say they probably would prefer to have a stronger voice in proposing to us. What the permanent panel would look like is my sense, to quote our chair, and this isn't even an ordinance. But those things. What do you think? Like anything we break with an ordinance we can fix with an ordinance, right? So I would say this is today's proposal. We're a long way from a permanent one. And there's always, as we just did with our I keep in mind, our public defense advisory board, you know, we set that up a few years ago. We've had some experience with it. We recently changed how we appoint members to that same on the Public Safety Advisory Committee. So I don't know that that's my long qualified answer to your direct question comes from McDermott. Thank you. And just to respond to that as well, this is the third time we've met this measure. And there have been a lot of there's been a lot of work in between the three movements. And I commend Councilmember Dombroski and Councilmember Up the Grove in particular, because they had them the most disagreement. I believe when we started off this process. And so we've had a lot of meetings and working with staff and trying to refine the proposal as we've gone along. My intention is to have this on tape is to have action taken on this measure today. We can either do it with recommendation or without a recommendation to the Council, but that's where I am right now and I think we've come up with a good place. There are some amendments to the striking amendment and of course there would be opportunity for further ones at the council meeting. Councilmember Giovanni thisCountry would like to know to Councilmember McDermott's question and then we'll go to council member parents. Question. Thank you, Madam Chair. No, I think it's important to note we have two different work groups, and as Councilor Dombrowski noted, one of them remains the same with executive appointees so that it can be done quicker. The other one is a mix of executive appointees and council member appointees. And in both cases, they're encouraged to work with the community and follow many of the same guidelines. So it fundamentally is a difference in whether it's the executive or the council that appoints certain positions. And because there's more time to set up that advisory committee, I thought it was appropriate. And I actually felt strongly that if we're going to get to a point where we find new money and we're going to delegate the authority to appropriate significant funds to some appointees, then we ought to those of us who are the budgetary branch of government, I think it makes sense to have a direct say in helping select the community members, you know, using our judgment and trying to support the criteria established in here. I think we end up with something that is more directly accountable to the community and sort of it comes around the definition of community. You know, I really view my role as representing everyone in the community center, my work and communities of color and immigrant and refugee communities, and certainly intend to should this pass. And as a councilmember, get to have a direct say in suggesting someone tend to follow the criteria spelled out in here. But I think folks in the community have to go through a very formal process to select nine people to be their voice and vote. And I think if we're going to delegate that, I think it makes sense for us to play a role in that. Otherwise, we risk our constituents and our community broadly defined, not having as directly a voice in the policymaking. So that was previous work. That was kind of my thinking on why I brought some different ideas forward. I think the council member of the government, just as a reminder, this is a two step process and we have a working group, an advisory working group or I'm sorry, planning work group that will take part in making recommendations to the executive and to the Council for determining the comp, determining who will serve on the advisory board , which would be the permanent. Group. Community group. Okay with that, Councilmember Perry. You're still muted. So. There. Oh, we still can't hear you. And you hear me now? Yes. Well, that's interesting. Okay. So I just had a couple of questions before talking about the amendments. I feel very strongly about the power of community and the respect of giving the power to the community in these situations. We got here because we haven't done that as well as we could. And so this is an attempt to do that outside of the controls in our hands, so, so overtly. I'm wondering if this prioritizes unincorporated Phil or no. Aaron. I didn't understand from the striker. Can I. Wonder if I answer. That? I'm sure. Yes. And this has been a continuing issue. And there are some of that is at least a couple of amendments that they are concerned about this. This is kind of one of the ultimate parody. Thanks so much for the question. I think it's a good one because one of the key issues we've been trying to work through and there's a lot of different views on this. You will recall that the original motion as introduced and a language I would call it fairly strong language that would prioritize our unincorporated area communities, even though the initiative is county wide in scope. This striker. The language that I have suggested here is that get in line two on the comparison. I'm using the chart a line to but it's paragraph a three in this shall be countywide in scope. And that's because to a large degree, the challenges we're trying to address here are countywide, but they are more concentrated in certain areas. And I think this tries to strike that balance in addition to acknowledging and standing up our obligation as a government with local responsibility to the unincorporated. So the language here says the planning worker was requested to make recommendations to the executive council regarding how to prioritize the initiatives work in unincorporated area communities, particularly historically marginalized communities consistent with King James responsibility as an unincorporated local government accountable. Rizal I was trying to honor by keeping that word in there something I think that you cared about the prioritization of unincorporated communities. And I, I that's that's that's is that's where we are on it trying to hold that notion that we are the local government. We do have responsibilities. Ask our workgroup in the spirit of co-creation, to talk to us about how we should prioritize. I think there may be amendments on this language. I can't recall to to modify that. But Councilmember, as all I was is an original sponsor, that was an important part of his work. He can speak for himself, but I hope that I'll get a shared reminder. And so I was trying to be true to and honor that for him as a co-sponsor. And it's a little softening. It's a little broadening from the original language. But that's that's that's where this Stryker. Thank you, counsel, and maybe even more of a response. Councilmember Perry. I would. Right now we're we're asking questions of staff or other council members, and then we'll go on to know about that. The other question I have was whether the permanent group also had an open application process. That wasn't clear to me if that was removed or not or added. It's not in the language in S4. Thank you. This could be included in the recommendations. Okay. Are there any other questions now of staff or of our sponsors, council members online? Thank you. Chair Caldwell. The unincorporated priority. So maybe it's just the understanding question. But when we say we're asking the advisory committee or or is the planning group trying to remember which one it was? Plan planning the plan of what? We ask the planning group to determine how to how to prioritize unincorporated King County. When I read that, that sounds like we are not directing them to prioritize on an Inc. King County. It almost sounds like it's asking whether to prioritize unincorporated King County. But maybe it's just a semantics question. When we say how to prioritize unincorporated King County, are we saying, yes, it is a principle of this motion to prioritize unincorporated King County. Now tell us how to do it. Or is it saying. Whether to prioritize at all. I think I'm just not understanding the the reading of it public. Councilmember. Madam Chair, may I respond to that. As. The word I chose? Councilmembers on Hawaii is the phrase I chose is how to prioritize, not whether and to do it consistent with our responsibility as a local government in the unincorporated area. I think whether to to to prioritize has an entirely different meaning. How presumes that we want to and we're asking them how to do it. Okay. So that's I think that's the point that I'm trying to clarify. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, when you say how to prioritize, does that already presume that we want them to prioritize? I guess it's just the English language question for me. I don't know. The answer is yes. Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions as for a staff or other council members? Okay. And would you please go ahead now and brief us on the line amendments. Sure the line amendments in the packet. Certainly looking at the PDF files Amendment ten by Councilmember Perry would revise the Planning Workgroup and Permanent Advisory Board composition to have equal geographic representation and adds consideration for individuals with lived experiences and expertize relevant to the initiative. Are there any questions there? Dombrowski. Huntsman of Denver in the starting line. So could you just help us understand what the process would be and how it would be different under this amendment if adopted versus the structure for. The Hummingbird Group under the Stryker is appointed by the executive in consultation with the Council of that remains. I'm sorry. On the previous question in S4, it does say there's an open application process for the planning worker. Correct. But the S4 says. It should be. The planning group is comprised of community membership emphasizing bipoc leadership and broad geographic representation and the. The Amendment Ten says that the executive strives to appoint an individual from each council district who is from the Bipoc community and has lived experience expertize relevant to the initiative or issues leading to displacement . So this amendment only pertains to the first group, the planning workgroup? Yes. Okay. Right? Yes. Yeah. But does it include consultation with the council? Yes. Yes, it does. Okay. But I just want to clarify. Madam Chairman. Yes, go ahead. Thank you. So the summary says, yeah, the summary of the amendment says revises the planning workgroup and the permanent advisory board composition. So I think it's it's related to both. Is that right? The language doesn't actually change the permanent advisory board. Okay. That is a that's amendment five. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Skipping number line amendment 24. I mean, I'm sorry, Councilmember McDermott. And on something. Thank you, Madam Chair. The. I'm sorry. Maybe I was reading the wrong one. I was reading the summary, and then I go find the page itself and I'm not seeing the same thing. The summary is wrong. So the text is right. The summary is wrong. The summary order. Thank you. Summary on the amendment tracker or the summary on the page. Who's fighting, by the way? Yeah. Sorry, the tracker was wrong. The summary on the tracker is wrong. Don't look at the tracker. Okay. And count towards the top on Amendment ten, where it says Planning Workgroup and Advisory Group. If the actual language only applies an amendment to the Planning Work Group as the effect statement that accurately says. And then. I'm sorry, I'm not sure what I'm trying to ask a question about. Amendment 20 oh 20 oh oh. I'm sorry. We've been taken. I'm sorry. You're right. We're I'm ten. We're doing great. So the information, the summary on page one out of just six pages is incorrect. On amendment number ten, in that it includes the composite composition of the permanent advisory board and that is not included in the actual amendment. You might look at the summary that is on page 14, the effect statement, and that pertains to what is an amendment number ten. I'm reading the actual text of the amendment on page ten now, not the effect statement. And then amendment number ten is on page 14. Yes. Okay. So with this in front of me, please remind me how many members are part of the planning work group. As remote. Under the striking amendment, the size of the planning workgroup is not set forth. Amendment ten, as I read it, would have the executive strive to appoint an individual from each council district. So that gives you some. It doesn't require it, but there's a striving. Got the right customer. Very. So I think. That's going to be a big challenge. May I speak to the Madam Chair? Me chair calls me to speak to them. Of course. So it's intention. Thank you. Circle Wells. The intention of this is to recognize that this is a county wide focus as opposed to Seattle. This intends to be EDA for King County. So the intention is that there is representation from the Bipoc community, lived experience expertize in these areas from each of the nine districts, and that that would be done in consultation with the count, with the Council, with that exact and and that that part holds the intention of the community itself representing the full breadth of the county for decisions that the workgroup is making about the toward the permanent group. So in the inception of this together that we have as many representatives from a representative from each district. But in the initial setup of this feels that it is in keeping with the. Intention of of of keeping the power in the work group and that the voice is throughout the county. And then the emphasis is whatever that workgroup determines to be the best emphasis given their priorities. Having vague language. Vaguer language runs the risk of defaulting to what we've always done. Frankly, Councilmember Karen. Councilmember McDermott, did you have anything else? Thank you. Councilmembers thoroughly. Thank you. Charcoal wells. Can somebody remind me how this amendment compares to what's originally in the motion around the Planning Workgroup Planning Workgroup originally has the executive appointing everyone in the planning workgroup. Is that right? And this one says the executive has to appoint one person from each district. Strike two. Yes. Strikes to. The. But the underlying and as for talk about having geographic representation, including unincorporated in Canada. So this just strengthens that language to strive to make it specific. And yeah, I'm going to be a no on this amendment just because I don't think it needs to be that strict around one for one for each council district think there's a way to get geographic representation and making sure that we're having equitable representation in areas from areas that are at high displacement risk. And I just don't think it needs to be that coordinated for 1 to 1 representation from each council district. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Belgium. Thank you. I think I answered my own question. I was having a hard time, along with others, tracking what each amendment actually did. And I think it's I think I'm just I'm repeating something you already talked about, which is that the summaries in the chart don't seem to match the actual, but the summaries on the individual amendments seem correct. Yeah. It's not as you sort of. Thank you. That's why I suggested you look at page 14 for Amendment number ten. Okay. Are there any other questions to staff or new in a House? An amendment number ten. And we will, of course, have time for the sponsors of the amendments, including the striking amendment to to give back comments. But this is more just questions on what the amendments entail. Okay. Let's because. It has to do with the advisory board. And let's skip to amendment number 25. Okay. Amendment 25 the links on page 16 of the PDF Packet. It revises the plan requirement regarding recommendations for the Permanent Advisory Board. To include the recommendation would include for compensation, duties and responsibilities, job application process, appointee selection process compensation and other considerations, and should account for the county wide scope of the initiative that considers appointing representation from bipoc communities with experience or expertize. And as far as I can tell, Aaron, there's no discrepancy between what is in the effects on page 16 and what is in the list of the amendments on page one. Excellent. One last thing. I have to apologize, but that's okay. Are there any questions of Aaron on this amendment? DEMBOSKY Councilmember DEMBOSKY, thank you. I'll set this up with a quasi statement. As I understand the effect of this. It would take out the ability of each council member to make one of the nine council district appointments and achieve that goal with them with a deferring to the planning workgroup to tell us how to do that. Right. And in group, yeah, they would give the planning group more power in. There. Recommending how the permanent advisory board should be staff. Members that should have it. Would it still require that their recommendation include a way to have representation from each council district, as I'm kind of reading on lines eight nine. Yes, occupation should account for the county wide scope, including representation from each council district, from bipoc communities without experience or expertize. And these are recommendations that would be made. That's true. And that's the case for Oscar as well. Okay. Any other questions. So staff. Council member, Perry. Thank you chair call. Well, so this this is was there an open application process for the permanent work group or does this establish that? That's correct. This. Your limit what is correct during the process? Yes. Your your amendment adds the open application process, which is not called out in the in the striker. For the. Advisory group. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions customers want? Aaron. First of all, sorry to keep putting you in the hot seat with all your questions, but can you remind me in the original legislation, I know we had included overall priority for unincorporated King County, but in terms of the planning groups and the permanent advisory board, were there. Was there anything spelled out in there with respect to unincorporated King County? The underlying motion references geographic representation, including unincorporated King County. And look at these 13 of the pdf, you can see the Aboriginal language. Okay. It's line 18. Yeah. Okay. And so the this amendment no longer references unincorporated King County. Is that right? That is correct. Okay. So this amendment. Councilmember Perry. Charcoal. Well, all right. Thank you, Taco Bell. Thank you. It was intending to so very that that didn't happen. I thought that it was already referencing unincorporated King County and that this was tightening other areas. But the assumption was that it would that unincorporated King County was already referenced in the permanent work group. But that is not the case of that area. That's right. Well, that's unfortunate. From. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski. I was just going to say, there's there's always time for refinement between today and two weeks from today or three weeks plus. But. Are there any other questions? None of. Okay. And again, we're holding our comments and efforts and persuasions until after we go through just the staff briefing and what is actually in the amendment. So not let's now go to amendment number 20, which I have sponsored. Okay. Amendment 20, which is on page 15 of the media. This is from Councilor Wells. And it would mark what's about the scope of the initiative and require that the planning group, it changes it from how to prioritize the initiatives work in the unincorporated area communities to setting a rules on the extent to which the initiatives work will focus on these two. Thank you. And are there any questions to bear on this amendment? Councilmember Salam. Thank you. Charcoal Wells. I don't think I understood what the amendment does. You can repeat that there may be charcoal wells. If you could speak to the intent to maybe that would hurt. And I would put a to and if I don't have the wording quite radically. And we can of course suggest that. But first of all, this amendment recognizes something you brought up councilmember satellite earlier, and that is semantics. And in each of the previous two meetings of the committee, we discussed this issue of what does priorities mean, what does prioritization mean? And we best KIRN and Kelly about this. But to me that's been a confusing term. And so this amendment keeping in line with what you referenced so it's a how to not of whether or not there is any special consideration for unincorporated areas of the county. But this amendment, instead of saying how to prioritize the initiative is work and unincorporated and you know these would ask the working group, the planning and work group to come back with recommendations on the setting of goals and the extent to which the initiatives work will focus on these communities. So instead of saying prioritize it, saying to what extent will this focus on unincorporated income, I think that makes a lot more sense. It's still a recommendation to the executive and to the council, but I think gives more leeway to the planning workgroup to come back with a statement, a recommendation. So what should we do in terms of making sure that unincorporated King County has the focus? And it's a little looser language, but I think prioritizing is a term that just is not clear at all. So it's semantics. Thank you. You're welcome. Are there any other questions of staff and this amendment? And again, it's found on page 15. Councilmember Sally. Turquoise. Will we be able to ask about prior amendments or are you only looking for Amendment 20 questions right now? Oh, well, this right now is for amendment number two, certainly. But first, let's see if there are any other questions on amendment number one. Okay. Councilman Masala, you have a question on another amendment. Yup. Thank you. Going back to Striker S-4, there is a portion that says the unincorporated focus and framework principles of the motion would not apply to the best starts for Kids Capital Grants Program. I'm fully on board with the unincorporated focus, not applying to the BSC, and I'm actually going to propose likely a verbal amendment later on that would just have a simple amendment that says the unincorporated focus will not apply to the BSC Capital Grants Program. But I had a question about that. And here it says Unincorporated focus and framework principles of the motion would not apply to the BSA councilmembers. I'm sorry to interrupt, but which page are you looking at? Oh, sorry. I'm just looking at the. The striker. Sorry. The amendment summary list no less, which I think I was told not to look at your. Guidance on page one. Yeah, it was on on page one. If you look at age 11, you can see the language there at the top of the page as well. Perfect. Okay. So. Page 11. In focus or framework. Principles adopted by this motion shall not apply to best starts for Kids Capital Grants Program. So again, I'm on board with the unincorporated focus not dictating how BSC is distributed. But can somebody speak to any new focus or framework principles? I'm assuming that concept is not related to just unincorporated, but I'm reading it as saying none of the frameworks or principles in this entire motion will go on to determine how the scale is dispersed. Is that an accurate reading? To be. Able to help on. This. Yeah. All right, then. And give me just a minute here. In the best starts for kids Levy, we included a capital grants program. The capital grants program is delineated what its goals are, how it will be distributed is delineated in the best outcomes for kids implementation plan. And it's actually quite specific, customizable in terms of its goals and the types of projects that are prioritized are all set forth there. And of course that went through the Regional Policy Committee and of course the levy was approved by the voters. So at the very end of the work of the Best Arts for Kids Implementation Plan section there, it says if the county adoption EDI, it may inform and collaborate. Those are kind of the two words with this capital grants program. So in this motion, which is not adopting an idea, it asks the executive to propose one. This motion does include some framework principles to be consistent with the language that is in the Best Start's for Kids Capital Grant Implementation Plan. It went through the whole council process, Regional Policy Committee process. What the language and score does is say, Hey, you can't use this motion. And the framework principles enumerated here to guide the best decade capital grants program is over there. In that implantation plan, we said it has to be an EDI, not a preliminary motion, but we asked the work group to look at that language over there in the best capital grants and tell us how this initiative, if adopted, would inform number one. That's the language again we're picking up and how it would collaborate with those two things. So we are trying to in this language, I am trying to not add new layers or new requirements to the be a state capital grants program, but be true to the signal it sent. If we do and EDI to do the two things, inform and collaborate. This language is carefully crafted to do those things importantly. They became capital grants program. I think the language is, if you look at it, those moneys will be distributed through escape capital. It is not a funding mechanism for the for this new FDI initiative. They they are envisioned to work together in in information, in informing and collaborating. But one main thrust or thrust of this idea initiative is to get permanent, sustainable, adequate funding for it. And we asked them to do that. So that's a it's a complicated area. It's taken a lot of work to kind of basically look at the language and to to get to this position here. And that's kind of the best I can explain it. Thank you. I guess going back to a semantics question again, which is how can best capital grants program be informed by and made collaboratively with a county EBI program while simultaneously rejecting any new framework or framework principles that come from that TBI program? Good question. And I didn't explain it. Well, clearly, this language says any new focus or framework principles adopted by this motion, and this motion doesn't establish any program. So there are some framework principles up in the motion. What we're saying is, hey, don't, don't apply these over to be okay. But if we go proceed and adopt the E.D. program, it may have some principles, it may have some frameworks. And those should, quote, inform the break up of that program, because that's what we asked that it do over in the back half of that program. Gotcha. So once the executive. Branch does what we're asking them to do, which is implement an EDI program, then that EDI, I would go on to inform and be made collaboratively with the BSC funds. But you're saying at this preliminary stage as just a motion asking the executive branch to create one? At this stage, any principles or frameworks that we're implementing at this stage should not. Fine. The best. Is that right? That is correct. With the slight modification that it may require council approval to ultimately establish the idea. But the timing is exactly right, Councilmember Sala. Are there any other questions? And the amendments. I would like to point out one thing and look at page one, which is the tracker chart. And for us for the second part or a dash of them, it's incorrect. And it's actually the running, which is actually my reflex, my amendment amendment number 20. So that just write that up. Cancel it out doing that. That's. Is that correct? Yes, it is. Yes. Okay. Don't use the tracker. Right. Okay. Are there any other questions? Aaron. I would like to hear from either or both Con Gil or Charlie Ryder and start having questions when I see that Mr. Hashimi is on with us as well. If anybody has some questions of them and then we'll give the opportunity if they were want to ask questions and comments. Any of our council members or committee members have questions of them. Councilmember Thomas councilor was all. I had his hand up first. I'll follow. Him. Oh, I'm sorry. I went to the next. House on the screen. It's all good. Rod, please feel free if you want to. Now you. Jump in. I to me. All right. But I have kind of a complicated question for Karen Baena, but hopefully not putting you too much on the spot. But one of the big concerns that I have with an FBI motion that removes an explicit priority for unincorporated King County, is that an edict without an explicit priority for unincorporated King County? Or maybe a soft and one could disrupt all of the great work our executive branch has been doing lately in unincorporated King County. You know, it feels like there's been a lot of momentum in the past couple of years to actually do the great work we need to do around and tie displacement measures in the neighborhoods where we have land use and zoning power in neighborhoods that have been disinvested from for a long time. And so we have sub area plans going in places like White Center and Skyway. We have this suite of anti displacement initiatives coming from DHS at the moment. We have made some investments in the past couple of years, so feels like there is really a lot of momentum around keeping these neighborhoods, these communities intact in the places where we have land use and zoning authority in areas that have been disinvested from for a long time. Do you think current that if we put forward a motion and any motion that softens or removes unincorporated priorities, does that threaten any of the work and investments that we've been doing around unincorporated areas, anti displacement efforts? Thanks. Thanks. Councilmember Gringo from the Executive Office. I don't believe so. Councilmember Kelly, I don't know if you want to add anything on that from. The amputation side, but I don't believe so. Sure. Thank you. Kelly Rider, government relations manager for the Department of Community and Human Services. It certainly would not threaten our goals of implementing our commitments to stay way west on our line. I think the one tension that the department will continue to face is that this equitable development initiative effort is being stood up prior to funding for the program, which means that our staff does not have a dedicated team that can be committed to implementing this authentic community engagement work, as well as the work to develop and devise a program and funding model. And so the tensions of our staff's timelines and commitments is the one piece that we will be tracking closely and how to make sure that we are meeting the Department's many commitments to many different priorities. We'll continue to be a challenge that we want to talk with community and council about to be able to achieve all of the things that we have set out to do, including commitments to unincorporated Canyon. Thank you both. And 2 minutes, I'm sure this minute her anything she would like to add. No. Nothing else for me. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Who just spoke? Dombrowski. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you. In the form of a colloquy to make a legislative record with respect to intent in response to council members. On the last question, Councilman Brazile, I view this as additive to the overall word and and offering additional support to the unincorporated communities. Frankly, it's why I've kind of held on to that prioritized word. I knew it was important to you. And even if that doesn't stay in, if Councilmember Cole Wells's amendment were to be moved in, adopted. I still think, given the language regarding our responsibility as a local government, that this will continue to be additive no matter the form it comes out of here. And so, Kelly, thank you for those comments. I think that was a gentle way of saying our $50,000 that our office requested in the budget for a consultant to help do this work with community may need a little juicing. And we can we can work on on that in the event that that this proceeds. Very much as a member here in Boston, i would like to echo that. I totally agree with what Councilmember Dombroski about the language being added to the whole purpose of this. One of the main purpose of the evening is to have funds and go to the unincorporated parts of the county. And that is why I saw Guyana's response to the shelter, to the motion, and also our foot in this amendment, number ten. I think it will just give us a little more clarity, but it's all within the lines of having having focus on the unincorporated parts of the county. Is there anything else, Councilmember Perry? Go to her. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Jericho. Well, they appreciate that regard to the funding of it again, 60, 62. Can you help me understand, is it the intention that this EDA be funded through previously designated or previously designated funds within the King County budget, or that these funds come from outside of King County private, public, private partnership? Or where do we see these funds potentially coming from? And would you like to respond to that? Or should we have Councilmember Dombroski as the lead sponsor do that? I think the motion calls for the executive to make recommendations on the funding. You know, line 14 from the chart. We've simplified the language in Stryker for to say, identified potential funding options for the initiative that could be county money passed through money from the feds or state level money or public private partnership money. My goal there was to take the handcuffs off, explore all options. Very good. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions of anybody I can or minor or Kelly, do you want to make comments about what we are discussing now in the way of S-4 and the amendments? Can I see your immediate? Sure. Thank you, Madam Chair. Colonel Gill, again from the exact office. Are this all. Workable from an implementation perspective? The only. Thing we'd add is that we'll be. Well in the March final. Passage, so the current August 31st. Timeline is likely going to be extremely challenging. So we'll just keep communicating with counsel as. We get closer to that date. And may need to request an extension and make sure. We get this important work with community done right. So I just wanted to throw that plug in there. Thank you. Thank you. Do you see anything problematic outside of that date and then ask for and or the amendment line amendments. Not from an implementation for effective councilmember? No. Okay. I'm telling you, you're going to need to come up with that. Is there any other question? And then we'll get into comments. I would appreciate having a motion made to move Cuoco's motion 2020 10467 consolidate the basket. And move adoption with a do pass recommendation of 20 1046702. Thank you. And would you like to make a motion to move striking amendment? Yes or yes, ma'am. Move S-4. Yes, ma'am. I just feels like I better say that at this. Point in my life that I. Not I'm not to get busted. Okay. Thank you. And we would well, I guess we'll go right to the line amendments unless you want to have been stolen. Let me just set a few mugs out, Madam Chair, start by saying how much kind of fun this is. Frankly, from a legislator's perspective, to see all of our colleagues engaged with seriousness and sobriety, reflection and deep, you know, focus on the words here in this legislation and the goals that we're trying to achieve. And and kind of the importance of this. Let me start big picture, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the First Amendment, the Bill of Rights talks about a fundamental right being the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances, the right to petition our government for the redress of grievances. This legislation got started because community members came forward to petition the government to say, Hey, King County, we've got a grievance. For a long time, folks without power, without money, haven't been at the table adequately. And some stuff going on in our community and we fear more things are coming with respect to displacement, limited opportunities and lack of affordable housing that we're very concerned about as this region grows in wealth and grows in population. And we've seen it happen in other communities and we'd like some tools from the county to help combat it. I thought that in public testimony, Maria Guadalupe Biggs from the Boulevard Park neighborhood said it pretty well. Councilor McDermott, I think one of your constituents when she said we've looked at our community from the developer's perspective and we don't like what we see coming, that they have their own ideas about what they want to see in our community, in international law. Councilmember Cole Wells And you're a somewhat of an expert on international and human rights law. There is the principle of self-determination. This legislation to me at its core is about King County partnering with community that has come forward to empower them. To make in their own way with self-determination principles, a map and a vision for what they want their community to be, to how they want it to grow. And so one of the principles is co-creation here. And you heard another presenter in the testimony talking about doing things a little a little differently and granting power to community . And that's the big picture thrust of this. We've seen some examples at our Seattle partners where they have a done this work and are standing it up with some good results, early results with folks being able to buy buildings and keep community organizations in place. We heard from Ceasar Garcia, who runs the Lake City Collective up in my district about what it meant for them as a very small Latino community group representing a growing and diverse Lake City population, to have a little help from the city of Seattle to get a space. And I've been there multiple times and seen the power of that space to collect and gather people and to be a center for conversation and visioning, for improving a little ballpark, for hosting vaccine events or getting books out to little kids so they can read to distributing masks and the growing economic opportunity. This legislation is brought forward in that spirit to partner with, but more importantly, to empower community. With self-determination principles and some money to achieve that vision, hopefully. How do we get there? Well, these are serious conversations. And if you have a serious program, it takes some time and some work. One of things I learned when we were working on establishing the Immigrant and Refugee Commission from my chief of staff, Christina Logsdon, who's worked really hard on this, was I don't always get to decide. I don't always get to do what I want to do. I said, why can't we just establish the commission so that. That's how it works? Ask the committee to tell you what to ask the community, to tell you what they want in a commission. And we did a two step process there. We had a workgroup. The workgroup came forward with recommendations. Today, we have a very strong King County Immigrant Refugee Commission that's helping us work through policy areas there. This legislation follows a similar process. The community has come to us with a need. We're trying to respond in our response. We're asking them to help us build a system and build a structure and build an initiative that is responsive to their needs. So we have this workgroup. We want to get it going. We want to have a broad participation. We want to have equal opportunity for folks to apply. We want to have them have experience and expertize. I think this legislation in its current form, or maybe even as modified, gets there, we give them some money. It's already in our budget. We may need a little more. Kelly, thanks for letting us know about that. But there's some money for consulting to do that. And we ask them to come back with some recommendations on what a permanent, equitable development initiative might look like, what its principles would be, how it would be funded, and where it would do its work. I really, really like seeing everybody participating here to get them to bring forward their ideas and bring forward their suggestions. One of the reasons this has taken some time is because there is a lot of interest and there's a lot of different perspectives. And I think on the whole, that's good. And so I thank you all. I hope we can advance this. I don't think there's necessarily right or wrong answers to a lot of the questions. But I think the big picture to keep in mind is that this is an important obligation that I think King County putting on our equity and social justice lens here to this work. We have an obligation, I feel, to be responsive when we've been petitioned for a redress of grievances from redlining to institutional racism to structural racism, to frankly, you know, just a lot of power differentials that have that have accumulated with some adverse results. This is not a solution or a tonic to all of that, but it is a piece of the response. It is a piece of the response. And I'm optimistic and hopeful that we'll be able to advance it in one form or another and some good work will come out of it. So I think the folks who came to us, they've worked very hard with great intention and I thank my colleagues for their hard work on it. Councilman Raquel Wells As Chair of this committee, I thank you for doing what you always do so well, bringing us all together, making us me, making this work through the issues in the legislative process and seeing if we can advance it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Dombroski. So the motion has been made to move the striking amendment. And we heard Councilmember Dombroski is, I think, willing extending comments about what was the mother's intent behind this suspension and what it can accomplish. We do have three amendments to this striking amendment. Councilmember Cleary, would you like to move your amendment number ten? Thank you. I love Amendment number ten. Thank you. Councilmember Perry, would you like to speak to it? Thank you, Chair Colwell and committee members and all participants. I am interested in doing whatever is possible in our end to the extent that we have that opportunity to build the community voice collectively. And to that extent, I would encourage everybody to consider the opportunity to have an open process where everybody participates in each district throughout King County, not just a wide geographic. If we are left to their own devices, we are not as apt to find a current course that is comfortable for us. And so having an opportunity to have being spelled out as councilmember. So I mentioned really emphasizing unincorporated can have an effect in how we think and emphasizing somebody from each district, from our bipoc and communities have lived experience or expertize in this area that there is a really strong advantage to that collective powerful conversation in this conversation, in this work group. And so to have the opportunity for everybody to feel like they are their voices is will be considered as part of this workgroup and that they have the same opportunity as all districts. And then together they form the priority of where they are looking. The emphasis is not intended to to distribute the focus, but to consolidate the community power of this. By having broad representation defined as representatives from each of our districts. I hope that that will be something that will be considered by by the folks here today. And and that it is in keeping with building that strong, powerful community throughout King County and starting this work group together toward the permanent work group. Thank you very much. Councilmember Pare, are there any comments concerning this amendment? Now I'm all in favor of amendment number ten, please. So I. I suppose so. Learn it. You may. The amendment has not been adopted. Want to? I'd like to have a motion to move. Amendment number 25. Councilmember up the growth. I'm sorry. I'm not seeing amendment. I see Amendment 25 as Perry. Okay. You're right. I skipped that. One. Maybe less, and it would. Be happy to move that as a courtesy for you, Madam Chair, I move adoption of Amendment 22. Council member up to go, and I am offering this amendment in the spirit of making sure that there are efforts among the planning worker to communicate to the Executive and to the Council and importance of ensuring that the unincorporated area is included in terms of the goals of the initiative. So this is a matter of semantics. And as I mentioned earlier, I think the term priority means prioritization is an not one. It is for me and everyone I've spoken with said the same thing. How is that translated? How is that implemented? This still gives the opportunity for the planning and work group to provide the input, setting goals and also the extent of which the initiatives work will focus on unincorporated areas of the country. I am a sponsor of the legislation that is the decree in support of it. So this is really is so a minor way to try to perfect the language. So with that, are there any other comments on this amendment? Consumer attention. It's a question, not a comment. There's been a lot of really good discussion here today. And I just want to be clear that I am focused on this point in this moment when we're about to vote. So could staff remind us what the current version of lines 63 through 67 saying that has been replaced by this language. I just don't have my documents up to like where I can quickly go to this case, which is that there is a strengthening script from the striker, from the striker or from the underlying. What we would adopt if we didn't adopt this amendment. So the striker striker presumably presuming the striker is going to be adopted. But yeah, let's start there. The striker says that the planning group is requested to make recommendations executive and council regarding how to prioritize the initiative's work in unincorporated area community. I got it. Thank you. That's super helpful. Thank you, Manager. And. Are there any other questions or comments? Customers are like. Thank you, charcoal wells. I really appreciate the desire for more clarity. I'm going to be a no on this amendment just because personally I feel like prioritized is a little bit stronger than the extent to which we focus on an area. I do agree that there is room for interpretation on the word prioritize and hopefully the planning group will come back and let us know what that means or how they want to implement it. But just because of the word prioritized, in my view, feels stronger than extent to which we focus. I'm going to be a no at this time. And to actually cut some of this. Hello. Are there any other questions or comments about the Grove councilmember to go? Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, there's I know these are all very similar amendments. I think I'm more comfortable with this one. And ideally for the same reason my friend is doesn't like it probably. And that I've always thought one of the concerns with the word prioritize is that by definition it's one over the other. And so it sort of can be read as prioritizing other areas and setting goals for achieving our responsibilities in unincorporated areas through this initiative strikes me as a way that is more positive without being negative towards the others, if that makes sense. And so I also, you know, and I'll be candid, I've been upfront, my preference is the whole thing be targeted based on need, not geography. But I think this is an elegant attempt at trying to find a path forward. And so I thank you for the time it took to bring it forward and I support it. Thank you, Councilmember. Any other comments? With that all in favor of amendment number 20 and so on. All right. Any oppose? Say my name. I'm not certain. Division. We'll have a division. Madam Chair. Madam Kirk, would you please call the roll for this amendment? Yes, Madam Chair. Doesn't anybody know? Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Oh, no. Councilmember Dunn. I. Councilman McDermott. Now. Councilmember Perry No. You can sum up the growth. I can't remember Brundibar. I. Councilmember Sala. I know. I'm sure you have final three i's price and you has failed. I would like to ask now for council member third to move amendment number 25. Back to move on amendment number 25. Thank you, Chair. Cobra, certainly the amendment has been very good to get to speak to it. Thank you, Chair. This amendment is important to me because I want to encourage in this conversation as much. Power for the group is possible. So again, all of King County represented means the opportunity in the permanent work group to have somebody from each of our districts in the conversation and that it be an open process. Right now we do not have an open application process in the permanent workgroup, and that is very important. And in terms of funding as well. I have been elected as 30 years as an executive and fundraiser, raising $50 million. And I am aware of opportunities and how some of these come forward. And in this case, if you have people from each district that are from our bipoc communities are impacted communities bringing this powerful conversation together across King County, there's more opportunity for investment in the private public partnership, and there's more opportunity to consider supporting these initiatives from people that are within this district. Even though the focus may be a different area than that particular district. They're supporting the folks that are involved in that conversation, in that initiative. And I think it raises that awareness. It raises the opportunity for more people who want to support this great work. And there are many who do to feel invested from different areas that they may not be directly. You know, if they are more removed from from areas, they may not be as committed if they don't have folks in their own district involved in that as well. So for that reason and others, I encourage our good folks here today to vote for this amendment. Thank you, Councilmember Perry. Per other comments, Councilmember Girls. Thank you, Madam Chair. And it's never fun to speak against a friend's idea. The fundamental difference I see between this and the underlying striker is whether the executive will select the appointees or whether it's a mix of executive and council member appointees. And I think. Every step we take to. You know, let me rephrase that in the positive. I think, number one, if we're going to delegates and I'm going along here with delegating to appointees, potentially our budget authority, I think it ought to be us, not the executive who. Decides who we're going to delegate that to. And the reason being is. I think any time you have appointees versus elected officials, it is less democratic and less accountable. And you shut out members of the community. I think by having council members rather than the executive make some of the appointments, we make sure that we don't have a group that thinks alike, looks like, and instead we can truly reflect the diversity of ideas and thinking. And I think most importantly, it can build confidence in that process for us to do what I think we're all interested in doing, which is further empowering a diverse group of people, of different people, you know, coming up with a different group of people to make those funding decisions. So at the end of the day, I think I don't know about each of you, but when I have an opening where I have a responsibility to nominate or appoint someone, I often do public promotion in my district. There's nothing that keeps any of us from having an open and transparent process to solicit nominees. I know I'll work my butt off to find the the try to find that perfect person who brings that right mix of experience and background. And and I, I guess I trust us. I trust myself. I trust others. Not I don't trust Dallas, I don't trust our county executive. But I think we get a a truly more diverse group that's more reflective of all the community when we when we allow ourselves rather than the executive to make some of the appointments to the board. So I encourage a no vote. McDermott Council member, I think. McDermott And then I saw that earlier and then Belgian government had come to agreement. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question from his audience, if I may. In and that is. Coming from the remarks we just heard is it does would this either in the advisory group or in the permanent ongoing work group? I may have my totals wrong. Cede the Council's appropriation authority to another group or with decisions, always come back to the Council for us to adopt, appropriate or enact. Well, as you know, this is a motion. So it doesn't have the it doesn't have any legal force and certainly does not delegate any authority to foreign corporations which still are required to be done through appropriation ordinances. Thank you. I just need to emphasize that we aren't ceding our budgetary authority, our operational authority to another entity that continues to reside here in the council and to urge members not to understand. That's what's before us today. And you may have to make some of those decisions when I'm back here. Council members done a lot. Thank you to our callers in terms of just broader context for full transparency. Councilmember DEMBOSKY has convinced me on every element of S-4 from unincorporated priority to the BSA framework, all of it except my one hang up is on how much power or how we empower these the community members to form what the planning group and the advisory group. That's my one hang up. So I'm looking to see if this amendment does that give more power to the community groups to make decisions? How is it relatively to the striker? Which one provides more power for that for those groups? So I guess that's is that a clear enough question? I'm trying to just compare what the Stryker says to what this new amendment from Councilmember Perry does with the lens toward are we empowering impacted groups to make decisions like board composition and other recommendations? Go ahead. Would you want me to respond that? I'm sure. I think that's fine. And I guess we were. All like, thank you. I think the answer is maybe next. The developed we. I, I took a substantial portion of Councilmember Perry's requested and suggested language with respect to kind of the qualifications of of the of the board in terms of emphasizing black indigenous people of color and those most impacted by displacement pressures. I think that was your language because. Well, Gary, really good and appreciated and that's in there. I certainly if we needed to add a open process, you know, that I would be supportive of. I. It's the legislation is a compromise certain members feel very strongly customer is actually about having a council voice and I understand that in terms of standing this up and I actually think it will build more institutional support for the initiative and robust funding for it to then let it let empower the community to go do its work . It's somewhat counterintuitive by having, in my view, some voice from our council here established at this stage and making sure that the panel has the voice of the legislative branch and the executive branch. So as the striking member, this is now before us, the executive would have four members council would have nine one per district for a total of 13 council member. Perry's amendment is less specific and does not ensure council members power, if you will, to appoint a person to understand it. It just says that there's let me let me get it correct here, that the workgroup is asked to recommend how to form it, including representation from each district. So two, in one way council members I like this amendment at the early stages empowers the community to self-determine and make a recommendation to us about what they want the permanent group to look like. It gives them that agency, if you will. The striking amendment makes the decision. And says we're going to have a 13 member permanent panel with a four. We could end up at the same place if Councilmember Berry's amendments adopted and the workgroup comes back and says, yes, set it up that way. One way or another, I think we are going to have to decide one way or another. We as a council will legislatively decide what the permanent panel looks like. And move this forward with broad support? Or do we defer it? This was a compromise. From my perspective, I had I had earlier thought we should ask the worker to make a recommendation, but I see that this has some merit as well. And I would like to remind everybody that, again, we have two groups. We know that. But the first is the planning work work. And the second one, the permanent one is the advisory board where we've all been using different terms. So I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. And this and this amendment addresses the permanent or not the title. Exactly. I'm sorry if I'm stuck on that, but. Okay. Council Member I'm not sure who is next though. We've had, I think councilmember about due to what's next and then we'll go to Councilmember McDermott. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. So I've been pretty quiet, but I've been listening closely to the public comment and all of this discussion. And as I said at the previous meetings, part of the reason that I'm sort of taking a listening role here is that I don't have any expectation that this effort will immediately appear in my district. And so I'm intentionally letting those who have more of a stake take the lead, which I think is kind of a model for what the community is talking about they want. They're asking us to let those who have more of a stake and have ideas about how to, you know, advocate for their state, take the lead. But I think that if I will say I'm hearing everybody trying to seize this opportunity to build investment and power in areas of our county that are underinvested in, that have been challenged by economic forces, especially this placement. It is something that's come up in our affordable housing. Mark over and over again. Around issues of displacement. This has been a successful model in other governments. I have no doubt that it will be a successful model here and I'm happy to launch it. I think that when this ultimately stands up and when it is ultimately a success, I hope it provides a template that will show up in my district at some point in the future, and I know that there's hope with that. And so I'm very happy to support it. I generally think that when we're starting new programs like this, flexibility is a watchword. So to be as as as light of a touch in terms of directing what the outcome of the advice and recommendations of these bodies are would be, I think, good. And so balancing these two these two principles that I brought into this one is I really want to respect the folks who have taken the laboring or the closest to it. And so I'm going to support the Stryker. I hope that we will say, if not require that if the advisory group that's doing the planning, the first group has any recommendations for something they think they would like to see changed. After adoption. I hope they will feel free to tell us those things. I don't think we have to tell them to tell us. I think they can just tell us. They can say, you know, you said 30 members. We think that's too small, too big, you know. And so I just want to lay on the record that I think we should verbally, if not legislatively, empower the advisory group to come back with any recommendations they think will make this a success. And so I support the compromise position that was worked out and a lot of labor, as I understand, by the sponsor co-sponsors. And so I'm going to support that. I'm not going to support this. But that's not to say I think that ultimately the permanent body could look different. It could. So I just felt like it was important to say something rather than sit here quietly, the whole thing. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Council member about ditching Council Member McDermott. Nothing. Nothing. Okay. Is there any other. I think the chair. Of the group. Some member of the gallery here. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to clarify for our budget chair. I, i my intent was not to imply that we were delegating something here. The point I was making is that I think we're going to get to a point where we may want to, if we find money somewhere appropriate, some money to this entity. And I think at that point, my point I was making was having some good, broad based confidence in the entity that's doing that. So I didn't want you to think that I was implying that this motion delegates into appropriation at all. I think you're absolutely correct in your assessment. And I was clumsy in how I how I made my argument there. My thought was that when the time comes, I have a hunch this body will want to appropriate to this purpose. And so how once that appropriation is made, how the moneys divide divided up, what that process looks like, who is at the table, I think becomes important. So that was I just wanted to clarify the point I was making there. Thank you. Any response, Councilmember McDermott? Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to make a comment on amendment number 25? All in favor of the amendment. Amendment and the based on. I. And others in opposition say, no, no, the amendment is not adopted. With that we have before us striking amendment S-4 and before we have a roll call vote, is there anybody who would like to make any comment? Madam. Councilmember McDermott. Thank you, Madam Chair. You heard me at the beginning of the meeting, remarked that, you know, be flustered for a minute, need to find my place because I didn't realize there wasn't a striking amendment for until after the meeting had started. But because we've had a thorough conversation through it, I've been able to follow the changes in four that we have before us now as amended with comparison to as three. As two. And the underlying legislation itself. And I have to say that I would have preferred as to and it's because of the question I asked earlier in our discussion of ask for the striking amendment now before us about the voice of community and how we've heard from the community. I prefer the stronger involvement of the community as I see in announced for I'm sorry in as to that is not before us. I had anticipated supporting not today but in this vote for striking amendment. As for as amended, I will be a no vote because I want to uphold the value of hearing from community directly and that voice. Thank you. Thank you. And Council Member McDermott, there was an email sent out with Striking Amendment four and the amendments last evening that I had sent. I think Wendy had sent out an email earlier with my recommendation that we could. My determination that people could still send in amendments. That was earlier in the afternoon. I think we had given until 3 p.m. yesterday. Madam Chair, I don't. I received the email after six last night. I'm not questioning that. It was senator that I had it. I personally just didn't have a chance to review it. And in fact, I wasn't aware of of having received it until the meeting. But but I did receive it last night. Yes. I just didn't have a chance to review it or wasn't even aware of it. I can relate to that as in other circumstances. Council members. Hello. Thank you, Chair. Well, first of all, I just want to thank your new chair, Cole Wells, Councilmember Dombroski and Up the Grove for coming together and finding a compromise striker. I'm pretty astounded that you all were able to land where you did in terms of all coming because people were really far apart. And I also especially want to thank Councilmember Dombrowski, because you articulated a lot of these really complex and nuanced differences very clearly, clearly enough for me to understand and for the most part, support. Like I mentioned before, I got there with you on the unincorporated piece, I got there with you on the Vsco piece. The only hang up that I have, as I mentioned before, is taking power away from the community groups and the planning group to make decisions around a future advisory board composition and around some other decisions. I completely appreciate Councilmember Up the road's philosophical position about, you know, where the elected officials we shouldn't actually. Let me not mischaracterize your position Councilmember of the Grove. But I get where you're coming from. At the same time, I think in some limited, controlled environments, it is okay and beneficial for us to cede power. You know, we have going on right now the participatory budgeting group, and that group fully gets to make decisions around a specific, discrete pot of money that will go and fund really important capital projects in our unincorporated areas. And I think that's important because these types of. But. When we're able to cede power like that, we can cede power to groups of people who don't have power, who are far this removed or furthest removed from power, who who understand the issues that they are going through, who understand their communities intimately, and who should be able to, you know, be empowered to make those decisions. And so for that reason, I'm going to vote no on this striking amendment, because I think it. Takes power away from these planning groups, from these community groups of people who represent communities most at risk for displacement. And I would be willing, though, in the interim, if the striker were to fail, which it's not seeming like it will, if it does, to support everything else in the striker and then work through something that reverts that power back to those planning groups. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmembers. Who are anybody else who would like to make a comment? Councilmember Pare. Thank you. Well, I think I'm particularly sensitive to this right now because I I'm hoping that I can keep my staff because we're working very, very hard. Everything's very busy right now, and I'm aware of it. And so I'm thinking of an initial conversation that happened when I first came in to the the council where we were giving our staff just a procedural comment, giving our staff time, you know, that we would have amendments end by Thursday of the week before, so they'd have time. And in this particular thing, because of all of the activity, we have had an incredibly undue impact on the collective staff schedule because of how we have chosen to handle this in this time frame. So I'm just checking on what we agreed to do with the intention of that and then what's actually happened in this space . That coupled with not really understanding how much notice public needs, when we do have a final striker like this, is it okay that it goes out the day before? Is there an intention that you have more time to have more breathing space for consideration, for full consideration and comments from the community? I just that's just a comment. I'm not sure about the procedural about the processes here. And it feels like we were trying to do one thing. And then we've gotten into a space where we've actually had an undue impact on staff. And it's been a pretty remarkable way these last couple of days. And and then also not being able because of that to provide timing. But I don't know what the standard of timing is that we are striving for in this. So I just want to make that statement. Thank you. That's the reason I get that is a very important question. And it's, I think, been awkward for me as chair under our council rules that we adopted a couple of months ago, I believe. And last month, we had set the various established timeframes to get directions to staff for preparation and then couldn't striking amendments, but with an exception for the chair of the given committee to change that time frame. And as much as I do not like to do that, I thought it was necessary. On the one hand, we have this time frame, as Gil reminded us of, for when the work should be completed by the executive. But the requirements of this motion, on the other hand, there's been a lot of controversy and issues with this particular proposed motion. I sent out an email last Friday giving a more latitude because I did not want to lose the efforts that were underway by the sponsors and especially Councilmember Grove, who had a different view. And for me, it's better to try to come up with a consensus that that means a more striking amendment. But under the rules of the Council, we couldn't do that. So with the authority I have as chair, I sent out an email Friday to relax those time requirements, to give them more time to work on this. And then, as it turns out, the efforts were really making progress underway. And that's why staff on my behalf sent out the email yesterday afternoon saying there would still be time opportunity for members to submit amendments. But I think it was 3:00 yesterday. Council Chair Bell did she did the super brief. I don't want to expand this meeting any more than I have to. I think this is a discussion well worth having in a different forum when we're not like having, you know, a vote right in front of us. But it's been an evolution from not having really much structure to having probably too much structure where we really ran into some very serious conundrums over the last year or so and to now this new flexibility that's been granted to chairs. This is, I think, the first time we've really used it, but it's just it's just a moment for us to sort of think about how and when do we use it. And there's a little bit of just councilmember to councilmember discipline, like setting our own deadlines and and sticking to them that we need to commit to. But thank you. Thank you for bringing it up and thank you for this conversation. And Councilmember Coles, thank you, as always, for being the pioneer. Seems wherever you go, you get the big the big workload. So thank you. All right. Well, again, it's been an interesting one, but I think it's been very fruitful and productive. And I'm so. Been on your staff? Councilmember Perry I think it's happened with many of our staffs as well. But we have a time crunch and we also have the process going forward. And I did announce that my intention was to take action on this today. This would go if we approve the strike and then going to do recommendation to the proposed motion as a as amended would go to the full council, I believe, on February, March 16. Is that correct? March 15, Council meeting. Yes, March 15. With that, are there any other comments. In Dombrowski. Very enthusiastic about this proposed motion that I signed on as a co-sponsor. I would have liked to have gotten totally there by today, but I would like to go ahead with the vote. Councilmember Dombroski. Unless someone else has wished just to make closing remarks, I oral vote on the striking amendment. Well, I want to check in here given what I've heard and see where we're at. I, with respect to Councilman McDermott and Czar Allies remarks is as was noted by Charles McDermott, I had announced too, which really gave more authority to the recommend, you know, to the planning workgroup on the final structure. But I will say I'm not ready to proceed today in support of this. If on the final vote as amended councilmembers online McDermott are not supportive and I would table right now so I heard them addressing the Stryker. And I'm a little confused because Councilmember Perry had an amendment that would have undone the the nine plus four, which. Wasn't supported by my two colleagues there. It would have been part of the group. So I'm I want to understand where my colleagues are if, say, the striker is if they're willing to share adopted. Are they interested in proceeding here? I you know the starter and have everything I like in it isn't isn't what I wrote that was more pretend to ask too but in the effort to kind of move this forward. Compromises are there and I get that my colleagues don't like a couple of those compromise. They want to vote no. But big picture, I'm interested. Does this thing more work here? Should we be done with this? Are we going to move it forward? Help me understand where people are. Big picture, if you're willing. A legitimate question whether either council member Zara McDermott or both like to comment. It looks like council members are voting. I would be supportive of working between now and full council to propose something that looks like conceptually what I want to see in terms of giving the planning group more authority. And to Councilmember McDermott. Without committing my vote at full council, I would. If S4 were adopted, I believe I would be a no vote today to encourage the work that to move closer to S2 as I spoke to earlier. So I believe I will be a vote of no one asked for. I believe I will also be an know. I'm final passage in committee today, hoping that between now in full council we would do that work. If it helps my. Concern. And now I'm going to mix up which amendment I'm in. Seating people, own committees. Whether. I want to make sure we have a broad complement of skills and abilities in voices that. I don't believe we always get it when nine council members make appointments because then I look for the best person to bring the voice I'm interested in. We each do that and we don't have an eye to the overall set of talents, voices and perspectives then come to the table. And so that's why today and in many occasions I might balk at. It counts member making appointments, if that's helpful. And if not, have just further muddied the waters. To go ahead companies. And I would like to remind people it's 1212. Just to clarify my position, I would be a no on us for a yes on final passage and then work on an amendment before full council that gives more authority to the planning group. And. To council members who are and council members. I'm going to turn to Europe because we could have changed this amended to the final passage to without recommendation. It's another option. You are the lead sponsor and I'm looking to you as to what you prefer. Well, that's helpful. And based on customers, it's expression of support for moving it forward today with a dubious recommendation, with the understanding you may or other to bring forward some fine tuning, which again, just for the record, that's kind of where I was. But it's we're making some legislation and sausage here. I felt that those issues were important, should not rise to the level of stifling and stopping this important work. And and and to me, I see a number of models that work with respect to, you know, panels and boards. And I don't think there is one right answer. So I think, you know, we can have a reasonable disagreement on that. But I I'm heartened to hear that that that their support to move this forward today, even if there's some, you know, disagreement on the specific make up. So, Madam Chair, I'll rest on my opening remarks on this floor about the right to petition your government guaranteed by the United States Constitution, our First Amendment, the human rights principle of self-determination. And I think on the whole, this legislation is a local exemplification of of those principles of empowerment and redress through our to our system of government. And I hope members will support it today and move the initiative forward. Thank you, Councilmember Maskey. And there are a number of members who have not weighed in on this at all. But at this point, unless there are any other comments anybody wishes to make. We have a striking amendment as support for us all in favor indicate by saying I. Any pros say. No? No. It appears that the striking amendment has been adopted. With that, madam, could you please call the roll and proposed motion 2020 10467 as amended. Thank you, Madam Chair. A I council member. DEMBOSKY, I. As a member. Done? No. Anthony McDermott. No. Councilmember Barry. Councilmember Barry. All right now. I'm sorry. I can't hear that phone. No. Did you hear that? Yes. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Sorry about that. Councilmember at the ranch. I don't remember. Van de Boer. No. Councilmember SA. Hello. I. Madam Chair, I avoided five eyes or not in my shoes. Thank you. With the vote we have has given a cast recommendation to proposed motion 2020 10467. And we'll send this motion to the March 15, 2022 council meeting, where we likely will have amendments offered, and that includes the action items on our agenda . And Madam Chair, I believe there were all members voted. This was the only vote. So that is correct, Madam Chair. That's right. So with that, there is no further action on our agenda. There is no other item on our agenda. I thank you all for participating in today's meeting. And we are adjourned.	A MOTION requesting the executive establish an equitable development initiative and prepare an implementation plan.
king_a1e74905-e15f-43fb-a120-37ce30a3a95b	To welcome everybody to the May 18, 2022 remote meeting of the committee of the whole I am the Chair. Jean Carl Wells. Before we begin our meeting, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that the King County Courthouse, where we would usually be meeting, is on the unceded ancestral lands of the two Amish people, past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the two Amish tribe. We will begin today's meeting with a briefing on the executive's COVID response from Dwight David, director of the King County Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Following that, we will discuss two motions. The first motion is to confirm the executive's reappointment of Anita Condor as public defender. The second motion would be to confirm the executive's appointment of Patty Cole Tendo as county sheriff. We will take action on the sheriff appointment and through confirmation is urgent. We will hold action on that of the public defenders and said it's not urgent as their current position remains to the end of the year. And now would you please call the rock? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dolce. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember Perry here. As a member of the Royal. Council member Van de Boer. I. Council member, Caroline. Here. Madam Chair. Here. Eldridge is here. Okay. So we will record that councilmember. But there she is here. We do have a format, I'm sure. Thank you very much. Okay. I would now, as a vice-chair, Councilmember Dunn, to make a motion to approve the minutes from the April 16, 2022 meeting. So move, manager. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Are there any comments? All in favor indicate by on i. I. I. Any personal traveling minutes have been adopted. We will now turn the public comment. Madam Kirk, do we have anyone on the line wishing to provide public comment? And a password can provide an estimate the number of those wishing to make a comment. Madam Chair, we do not have anybody here. Okay, well, I will dispense with reading the instructions because of that. And we will go to number five on our agenda, which, as I just mentioned, is a monthly executive's COVID briefing with Dwight David , director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Good morning to all. The Learning Council member. Director Delivery and please proceed. I always look forward to your briefing. I always look forward to doing this. It's right here. Okay, good. Thank you. So good morning. For the record, Dwight Dave, lead director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. I have seven items to cover with you this morning. They're all relatively familiar, I think. And so, as usual, let's start with our current work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. So FEMA. Just to update you. We have submitted to FEMA over $78 million of request for reimbursement for 2020 alone. And there are still more costs than we are documenting in a few agencies. So that amount will ultimately go up. Just to remind council members from the last time we talked about this, FEMA has committed to a more flexible and more efficient process of review than they have historically used. We still don't know when we would be getting payment for any of those. It remains possible we will not get any payments this year. So we're hoping for that, but we have no commitment for that. I think some councilmembers are aware what we are doing since all of these bills have been paid. We are using an inner fund loan from the county's cash pool to support various agencies such as Public Health and DHS, who have expended the funds and are awaiting federal reimbursement. And so we likely will have to continue to grow those in or fund loans in order to basically keep the cash flow working. That isn't really a problem. The county has about $8 billion of cash. So even if we get into a couple hundred million, it's not a real meaningful issue. It just it is something that is a challenge and will probably be a challenge for some of our smaller jurisdictions because of the slowness of federal reimbursement. And in addition to that, so far for 2021, we have estimated that we have $27 million of additional eligible expenditures for FEMA reimbursement, and that is a very preliminary figure and likely will also go up. So we're now well above $100 million that we will be submitting or have submitted to FEMA for reimbursement. And so let me just pause there. Is there a kind of outstanding practice and see if anyone has questions about that? I think you are going to dove the other questions. Okay. Go right ahead. Okay. Second item, council members will likely remember that you added $500,000 for the Office of Emergency Management to provide grants to businesses that were adversely affected by some of the facilities the county had to locate to respond to the pandemic. And just to give you an update, so far, OEM has identified 51 businesses that have met that test, have provided appropriate documentation, and it's a total of about $452,000 that will be allocated to those businesses. So the contracts have been issued with the money has not yet been transferred. You appropriated $500,000 for this. It may be that ultimately OEM identifies more eligible businesses than funding is available. If that happens, we will let you know and it may be that you would want to increase that amount if that's the situation we're in. And I think we have enough flexibility to do that. If need be, it will legislative action. So I just wanted to put that as kind of a marker for you to be aware that might be something you would want to look at later on in the year. I do I do have a question which covered budget was that included in I. Believe that was in eight. Eight. Okay. Thank you. So it's not that long of a weight comparatively? No. I mean, and obviously, these businesses had to, you know, provide appropriate documentation. So it I'm sure if you were a small business, it would feel like a long time. But, you know, frankly, compared to some of our other programs, it's gone pretty efficiently. As I recall, we perhaps was another funding that we had included in an earlier covered budget. Yes, this was the second version of that. The council approved. Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions? Please go right. Out. Okay. So the third topic, I just want to follow up with some of the status reports on COVID seven or COVID eight grant programs that I know have been of particular interest to the council. We have information about lots of others that we can spend the entire morning going over them if if you wanted to. So let me just focus on the ones I've identified. And then if there's questions about others, I'll follow up individually with council members. So starting with the about $18 million of arts and culture, we have entered into 88 contracts with entities who had financial losses because of the pandemic. The payments of those contracts will start going out at the end of this month. It has unfortunately taken longer to get through the whole payment process than we had hoped. Our finance and business operations division is simply overwhelmed right now with both contracts and accounts payable transactions. But almost all of the entities that were identified who qualified have signed their contracts and will be getting paid here in the next couple of weeks. Similarly, we have done 144 contracts for events and festivals that were adversely affected by the pandemic. You might recall that was a $2 million appropriation. So those amounts are pretty small. I will simply say that I really appreciate the fact that we've gone to electric electronic document signatures because I've had to sign every one of those contracts and that something like 230 contracts that I don't know if I could write any more or if I had to sign them by hand. So it works really efficiently to do them electronically. And then the final one I'm going to mention and obviously there might be others you have questions about. We are really ramping up the jobs and housing program, particularly the jobs portion. And this, I'll just remind everyone, was a program where we are identifying homeless individuals who want to work. We started with the premise that we would have a county job for them, and we have done that to some extent. We also then moved on to working with nonprofit partners to identify additional jobs, and those contracts with nonprofits are also in the process of being signed. Several of them already have been. They're going to create about 300 jobs through those contracts and with the county jobs. I really want to thank some of the agencies who have stepped up. Just last week, we were onboarding 35 more homeless people in the county employment, including places like elections, human resources, water and land resources and additional positions in parks. So I really want to thank our agencies who have their own human resources challenges right now, filling positions, devoting the effort to identify qualified homeless people for their work and getting them onto the payroll. So I that program is ramping up really fast. And I'll pause there and see if there's any questions about those or other programs. And I have a question to add, and that is a request to have you dinner by which covered budgets these items are and as you go along. Oh, okay. If you recall, I should know that by heart we both. But there were so many council members. I believe these were all in seven. I will confirm that and get back to you. Thank you. Any questions were great. The Holocaust. Oh, I'm sorry. Council member, sir. Thank you. Chair Wells. Dwight, may you. In the past, you've shared with us sales tax revenues. Do you think you can share that? Any updated figures with us? That's item six. Oh, okay. Thanks again. I know it's your favorite. So it is my favorite. Yeah. Thanks. Okay, Counselor. Other questions for director dietary. Okay. Please proceed. All right. So fourth item on the list, an update on the tourism industry. And things are now looking really, really positive. This is because we're doing this in the second committee of the hall instead of the first. This information is a little out of date. So it is now about a month old. And so just the circumstances have changed for the better since this data. But this data was actually pretty good. So in mid-April, our across the county hotel occupancy was about 65%. It was pretty consistent across the county, downtown Seattle was 65%, SeaTac was 71%. The one part of the county is still seeing significant reductions. The east side is still only at 52%, but they're recovering the slowest. I mentioned to you the last time we met that there was a large convention that was coming into town. And just to show the impact of a large convention when that convention was here in early April. I of the hotels that are around the convention center, their occupancy was 95%. Which we haven't seen anything like that since the pandemic began. So the convention business is coming back. The last figures I saw there were 22 additional conventions in downtown Seattle this year. So it's not back. To. Normal, but it's picking back up pretty quickly. Just to give you a sense of the overall impact of the pandemic. The Seattle Convention Center had 98 conventions that were canceled during the pandemic. And so that just to give you a sense of of essentially being shut down for almost 18 months, there were 98 conventions that were booked that did not actually come here. The convention center working hard to rebooked like national events that were canceled. And they're doing they've got a lot of them rebooked. Whether they'll get them all, I think is an open question. But it does look like that that segment of the industry is improving. A couple other things to note on this. If any of you have flown recently here is back in mid-April, Sea-Tac was at 92% of its passenger volume from the same period before COVID. So the airports are busy again. And then I guess, final thing to note, those of us that live near the cruise ships, the cruise ships are definitely back. I see lots of people pushing suitcases up and down the streets around each of the cruise terminals. So I don't have any data yet on occupancy, but clearly a lot of people are back to cruising. So the tourism industry is not back to normal, but is obviously recovering far more than any previous time that we've discussed. So let me pause there and see if there's questions about that. Thank you. I have a couple. One is, with regard to the cruise ships, has there been any indication of the impact, the recent news on some of the cruise ships, not just here, but there have been at least one year where there's been a surge in COVID onboard. So what I have read and and again, they don't advertise a lot in numbers. So getting actual data is a challenge. But everything I have read suggests that people have just gotten to the point of they're going to accept that risk. They really want to take vacations. They want to travel. And if that means there's a chance they're going to get COVID, it means there's a chance they're going to get it. One of the things we're seeing in society in general is with these new crime variants, particularly if you're vaccinated, you may get it, but you're not going to get very sick in the vast majority of cases. And I think a lot of people are just saying that's worth it to me. I'm going to take that chance. So everything I've seen in the kind of literature suggests that even though a few ships have had problems, it doesn't seem to have had much effect on the volume of their traffic. And that probably would be similar to what's going on with the airports as well. Exactly. Yeah. Anything you can comment on with regard to Alaskans having to cancel so many flights and having pilots strike? I mean, I guess what all I would say is that it doesn't seem to have had a material impact on at least SeaTac travel. Obviously, people are probably booking on other flights or in other areas. So it doesn't mean that in and of itself it doesn't seem to have had that much impact on our economy, let's put it that way. Oh, thank you. But any questions from my colleagues? DEMBOSKY. Councilmember got itchy and then dombroski. Oh, sure. Thanks. I'm curious about the observation about sales tax not rebounding on the East Side and wonder if you have any insight into where that's lagging. Is it retail? Basically, it's customer. Maybe I misspoke. It wasn't sales tax, it was hotel occupancy. Okay. Sorry, sorry. The last information I had on geographic distribution of sales tax, the east side was doing fine. Thank you. I misheard. I appreciate that. Thank you. Councilmember Dombroski. Thanks. Charcoal wells. This is maybe less of a question, more of a comment and a reminder about some of the good work we did early in the pandemic to invest a few million dollars and the convention visitors bureau visit Seattle. That a very bleak time and help them keep staff and go out and chase those conventions that we're now seeing to fill up the hotel rooms, to generate the lodging tax, to send money to for culture and the housing and and sales tax to run our transit system. So I'm proud of the work this council and the executive did here to make an investment that I think is going to reap big rewards. Thank you. Councilmember Baskin, I'd like to especially call out your work on that. This is early in the pandemic and it's so depressing. And we decided as a council under councilmember to mask and train, to invest in our arts and culture and art and tourism. And then, as you mentioned, this is Seattle, but also Southside Seattle whenever the tourism is called there. And I think it was a little risky, but I think it really did pay off. So I'm very pleased with what we are seeing now. What a relief as compared to two years ago. Following up on that, though, Dwight, you've any news, any update on the convention center expansion? I do not. Okay. I'm I. But I can certainly ask and see what the status is. They were affected by the concrete delivery issues. And so that was one project like Sound Transit, that was pushed back considerably by that. But let me see if I can get an update on their current opening schedule. Okay. Thank you. I imagine that's. Good. Yeah. I might have a little fresh news that I picked up at lunch yesterday from some of the folks there. And that is I understood their senior leadership correctly, that they expect to be doing some soft events this fall in the in the new one, which I think they're calling Hilltop. They've got Arch. And I think. Maybe I've got that wrong, but they're naming it and then maybe the first early official convention right after the first of the year. So there's. Summit. Summit, thank you. Not Hilltop Summit. Next like Arch and Summit Duolingo. Terrific. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Okay, great. Please remember you have her hand up. Oh, I'm sorry. Who did I miss? Councilmember Perry. Oh, which is not showing up for me out there. Councilor, I'm so sorry. I can't see your hand. That's quite all right. Thank you. Chair calls as as usual. Director, timely. Thank you for your wonderful reports. I always enjoy them. And I. You might. And I apologize if I missed this, but I am particularly fond of the arts industry and and opportunities there. And I've seen so many requests for galas and such like that all of a sudden. And I'm just wondering if you have any news about the the challenges there, the opportunities there, what the industry is looking like and the temperature of that at this point. So cause I. Don't have a lot of information, what I have seen is that. It's pretty variable. Some of the larger organizations who were able to access things like the Federal Paycheck Protection Program, some of them that have, you know, fairly large donor bases, got a lot of private support in addition to that. And so their their finances actually are not back then between what we've done, what the state did with federal government, did with private donors, did those institutions got through it reasonably well? Their audiences have not recovered. So ticket sales are still significantly below pre-pandemic, but financially they've done probably better than anyone expected. What I've seen is a lot of smaller organizations are not in that place. They don't have the same donor bases. They have less experience with, you know, federal programs. And so either didn't qualify or weren't able. They work through all the paperwork. And so I think in many cases, those smaller organizations are the ones that are most in need of some of the financial support that we're in the process right now putting out. Are they to have seen their audiences shrink? And some of them, I don't think, have actually even reopened yet. So, for example, the Science Center is not reopen for public events yet. So I think the answer is if there's not one consistent circumstance, the different organizations are in different places. And I I'll be frank, I suspect there are some that will might actually survive. Okay. Thank you very much. Any further questions? Okay. Okay. Please go ahead. Item. Item five. And this this is just. I find this absolutely remarkable. The March unemployment rate in King County. Was two and a half percent. I mean, and that is below what is called, you know, frictional unemployment, which is people changing jobs. And so it is not a surprise, as all of you know, that we're struggling to hire people everywhere in the government because there basically aren't people who need jobs. You know, I'm sure there are still folks who are underemployed. Absolutely. There's huge differences between, you know, different income groups, different racial groups and so on. But the unemployment rate is extremely low. I just as a contrast, a year ago, it's 5%. So we've seen our unemployment rate have in the last year. Nothing really else to say about that other than just that is just a remarkably low number. Thank you. What are the areas if you know them right now of most need in the county? Four in the county. Well, there's there's three I'd say two that are above everything else. And then there are many, many other. So I'm obviously we are looking for sheriff deputies and we're looking for corrections on both of those are areas that a lot of people are eligible to retire. They decided to retire. They both are long lead times to get people appropriately trained and certified, especially in the sheriff's office. So when you hear from Patty Tindall later this morning, she definitely is going to talk about need to work hard on recruitment and retention of deputies, but we're seeing it everywhere in the government. So Metro is struggling to hire operators. Anita, who's going to be with us later this morning, is struggling to hire attorneys. KCET is struggling to hire people who have technology skills. We're having a hard time hiring accountants and accounting technicians. It literally is everywhere in the government that we when we have openings, we either don't get applicants at all or we don't get people who have the right qualifications. I it it is certainly in my whole career in government, this is the hardest I've ever seen it to fill positions across the whole organization. And what about in the county general outside of government? Oh, there are many, many thousands of tech jobs that are open. Probably almost any operator of a bar and restaurant will tell you that they are struggling to hire staff, that they they could actually expand their service if they could hire people. And a lot of people have just decided that's not an industry they want to work in anymore. I've heard challenges, as, you know, hotel occupancy ramps up, hiring all the folks who need to rent a hotel or are challenging. I saw, believe it or not, an ad from Boeing this week come join our team. Despite the fact they've shrunk so much there, they're now trying to find people to work at Boeing. It's across the board, I think pretty much in the private sector. I know health care, which is a really big industry, they make they're looking for everybody technicians, doctors, nurses, assistants, specialists or our daughter works in that industry and probably gets two or three unsolicited offers every month. So it's pretty much everywhere that people are looking for employee. Any other questions? In a coma. Already. You're talking to her? A restaurant tour in your district. Councilmember Cole Wells runs an Italian restaurant there, he said. I went to have lunch, but it was a meta cousin in town. It was closed for lunch. Had to go across the street where he was. And I said, Borrow your item for lunch. He said, We probably will not return to opening for lunch. You know, just they don't have the staffing. And I drove by a McDonald's. They had a big banner out front now hiring 14 and 15 year olds. I mean, they're reaching deep. So do I. The the evidence is certainly out there to match what you're saying. And I was surprised to see that the McDonald's near me sit back in Seattle Center is gone completely. Now, that may be for a different reason. I don't know. Okay. Anyone else? Okay, great. Let's go to number six. Okay. I am six and this should be really brief. Just I think everyone is aware of housing prices have done. But just another indicator of that. I think you all know that we collect the real estate excise tax in the unincorporated area, which is almost entirely residential. And in March, the average sale price of a home in the unincorporated area that sold was 26% higher than the prior year. And you've seen some of the property assessment figures that have been released by the assessor's office consistent with that. So we're seeing very rapid increases in housing prices, you know, even in the more distant parts of the unincorporated areas. Which are going to have factors regarding her property values and taxation. Is the know if the sales in the unincorporated area of the county are still escalating or leveling off or whether. They're leveling off. And so actually the volume of sales was down very slightly compared to the prior year. Price increase was so big that it still meant our lives. The excise tax was much higher than a year ago. And I can just tell you in my neighborhood, when I walk around, you know, twice a day, if a house is on the market for more than a week, it's tells you they something's wrong with that house. And there's I saw one yesterday that when I walked by two days before was not for sale. And when I walked by yesterday, it was not ready for sale. It was sold. It's only in some parts. The sales activity is still really strong. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Let's go on to your last one. Okay, last item. So I've saved the sales tax for last because so many of you really like it. So just again, we're doing comparisons to pre-COVID, which now means we have to go back three years. So what I'm going to give you are the February sales tax activity again. Remember, it takes two months to get the money. So this is money we got in April, but it represents February activity and we're comparing it to February of 2019 because February of 2020 was the first month that was really affected by COVID. So in that three year period, our total sales tax is up 26%. Now some of that is just inflation. We have to acknowledge now that inflation that is meaningful are maybe only worth half of that. But the other is real growth. So the incomes and economic activity are still really strong and people are buying a lot of stuff that's subject to the sales tax. The usual categories are the ones that have grown the most. So building materials is up 56% compared to three years before. Electronics is up 50% compared to three years before. The big box stores that, you know, a lot of people shifted to during the pandemic. They're up 47%. The what's called non store, which essentially is you buy it on the Internet, it's delivered to you is up 42%. So those segments and there are others as well that are also really strong, but those segments continue to be where we see the really strong growth. Now, one really good piece of information in that February data is for the first time we've now seen growth in restaurants and bars compared to three years ago, only 4%. And a lot of that is backed up by all of that, if not more than all of it by inflation. But we are finally seeing a real recovery in that sector. And did not try to avoid confusing you. But if we look at that sector, restaurants and bars in February of 2022 compared to the prior year. So February of 2021, they're up 57%. So the last year has finally seen a meaningful recovery in our restaurant sector. And then the only sector that is below where it was three years ago continues to be lodging. So hotels and motels in February of 2022 is still 38% below where it was in February of 2019. So that is the one segment of our economy that is still not anywhere close to where it was before the pandemic. But even for the hotels, this last year has been great. So their sales compared to February of 2021, were up 161%. So not anywhere back to where they were, but way better than a year ago. And two years before, we were essentially headed toward zero activity in that segment. So so every part of our economy continues to do really well. But we haven't really yet seen the effect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I think it will be very interesting to see what March looks like and whether that's changed anything. And so we'll have that information actually probably in about six or seven days. And so if depending on when we come back, all I'll be able to share that with you next month. And that's what I had for this morning. Thank you very much. And I will open this up for questions for our number seven or anything else that he'd like to ask director, dietary counselor, etc.. Thank you, charcoal. I do it. Maybe I just blacked out and missed it. But in the past, you've given more sectors. You have that information. I have that right here. Are you curious about something? I just. I'm just. I don't know why I find this so interesting, but if you're able to share those, that would be great. Well, I'm the one. Let's just kind of say one of the ones that we seem to get routinely is use the new auto or car sales. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So let's look at that. So, yeah, auto sales. And again, we're comparing 2022 to 2019, up 35%. And I don't have the breakdown between new and used. I can get that if people are curious. Another one that I actually I'm very surprised at is furniture and home furnishings. Maybe this shouldn't be surprising. So many people still are working from home. It's up 43% from three years ago. Play with that. When will that include both big box stores as well as the no. So the big box are in their own category. These are art stores that that is their sales in their way, home furnishings, furniture. So they are the ones that are multi product would not be in there. Let's see some. Others. So things that there's a whole aggregate of what you might think of as kind of hobby and entertainment. So bookstores, sporting goods, stores, things like that. That's up 43% over the last three years. Construction, interestingly, is actually down. And I'm sorry, not that we're looking at construction construction's up 22% in three years. It actually is a little lower than it was a year ago. Not much, but a little bit. So we're we're probably coming the point. We're seeing construction top end. Now, again, that was affected to some extent by the concrete strike. So maybe some are now anomalies in that number as well. So those are some other examples. How about the big box stores? Big, big box were 47%. And how about compared to 2021 for big box stores? Third question, 9% up. Look. And that's. Pretty close to the rate of inflation. So it probably means there was not a lot of growth in volume. In the last year in that same. Thank you. Any other questions? Dwight. A little different of a question, but in our COVID 19 budget that the council approved yesterday, I recall there was one provision where we are changing the funding source for our unmet needs category of funds appropriated and to the general fund. And I think a lot of the grantees are going to be very pleased because that's been going on for quite a while. And I get asked repeatedly by my awarding grantees, you know, when this is going to come in. So what is your expectation for a timeline for the grantees to see the funds? So there are three different factors here and moving it to the general fund fixed two of them. So since it was originally appropriated as federal money, an organization would have to qualify under the federal rules and that had the chance of excluding some organizations. That also meant there was a long process to see if they qualify. That now is removed because it's general fund. You don't have to go through that. The second benefit of moving it to General Fund was at the back end, the reporting requirements. So we always require agencies to document, you know, our agencies. Organizations document how they spent the money, make sure we're spending compliance with their contract. But the federal rules are very onerous. And so, particularly for smaller groups, shifting it over to general fund will relieve a whole lot of burden on the back end. The third requirement, which is not fixed by moving it to general fund, is there still has to be an RFP to identify qualified organizations in each of the categories for the unmet needs grants, and that is done through DHS and their contracting staff. And they are only able to do a couple of contracts per district court order. And that's been you know, now we've removed the constraints. That constraint remains. So. Maybe to provide you with a hint. If in some cases council members know which organizations they think the money should be sent to, as you do through your regular budget process. If you named those organizations in legislation, it could speed up the process for those that have not yet had an RFP. So some of them are already done. So contracts are issued. Some are still in process and DC just has this information for every district because each of you chose a different mix of is that a small number or a large number of organizations? And so for those that are still maybe fairly far away from getting through all of the contracting processes, that might be something you would want to consider. So I thought that we had included the names, but maybe we did not. And not in this case because you weren't allowed to under the federal rules. So but we had provided information we all did to D.C. just as well. The rationale for it being a sole source one or very likely. So how how are we informed now of where we are with all of our designated. So what I to take the middle person out of this what I'd encourage you to do is reach out if you're interested to Kelly, writer in D.C. at Jazz and ask for an update on the unmet needs grants in your district. I've seen a summary that has numbers, but I don't know which contracts are already done, which ones are in process, which ones have not yet started. Kelly can get you that information. And rich coded budget system. I'm thinking six or seven. It was seven, if I remember correctly. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Mm hmm. Any other questions? I think a lot of us have concerns on this. Yes. Yeah. I mean, any. Each of your districts is a whole different place, depending on how many different programs you had identified originally. Yeah. And I remember at the time we were asked to keep the numbers small. Fewer because of. Grants, larger amounts because of this challenge. Yes, both the federal qualification challenge, which now is removed, but also the requirement to go through an RFP, you know, evaluate proposals and so on. So that that that's why we were trying to minimize the number, because it just it takes a lot of work to do each of these contracts. But. Go to my colleagues. Any other questions? Okay. Well, great. Thank you ever so much. This briefing in Seoul is especially informative for me. Very appreciated. And I think that's the case for my colleagues as well. And we didn't have you at an earlier meeting because the meeting was canceled. So this is not your usual time of providing the briefing, but I wanted to make sure that we got one in for this matter. So I thank you for being flexible and that may be needed again. Okay. Thank you. And I. Think I'm here to introduce your. Next. You are. Individuals. When you're. Ready, just stay on the line then. And our next item on our agenda is to share this. Madam Chair. Basically, it's having somebody talking in the background. Yes, Madam Chair. Sorry. CTV needs a few minutes. They're having some technical difficulties. Okay. So we'll just. Let's take a five minute recess. Thank you. We will start again at about 1024. Thank you. So we will now go on to item six on our agenda, which is proposed motion 2020 20174, and that is to approve the executive's reappointment of a Nixon dual as county public defender. Jenny Giambattista will be briefing her staff report begins on page ten. But we do have with us Dwight Diaby, director of PSP, who already indicated that he will be introducing that kind of wall. And we also have Beena Hashimi, the director of Council Relations with the Executive Office, and we have a public defender and Condi well here as well, who will be speaking now. Let's go ahead first with Director Dyer, please. Introduction. Yes. Thank you. Council Member So again, for the record, White Bagley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget and on behalf of Executive Constantine, I wanted to provide a very brief introduction for Anita Kan to all who he is renominating to be our public defender. Anita is very highly qualified for the work. She's spent most of her professional career as a public defender. As you all know, she is in her first term and the executive is proposing to renominate her. Her background is that she has both an undergraduate degree and a law degree from Yale, which I've learned is a source of many public defenders across the United States. And I want to just take a quick moment to offer some personal reflections on my work with the needs of the last four years. She has one of the hardest jobs in county government. It is challenging in the best. That's because about 90% of the people in our judicial system are indigent and are represented by public defenders. So it's a very large job. It's a very complex job. The people who do this work are very dedicated and very committed, but also sometimes somewhat challenging to manage. So it is a very complex job that she has to do in normal circumstances. In the last two years, as the judicial system has experienced the pandemic, the work of our public defenders and their staff has gotten much, much more challenging with restrictions on in-person meetings with how the courts have operated in different ways. So they've had to adapt to a totally unexpected and totally new way of delivering their services. And as we were speaking earlier this morning, it also in the face of very significant challenges in finding qualified staff to do this very important work. So I am very proud of how Anita has done her work here in the last four years, particularly during the pandemic. The executive was very pleased that she was willing to be renominated because she has done such good work. So it is my privilege to put in front of you the executive's request to renominate Anita Khandelwal as our public defender. Thank you very much, director guy. And before we go on, are there any questions? And Betty has Director Diary. Okay. Well, first of all, I would like to turn it over to Jenny Giambattista to provide any additional information that is included in her staff report. Then we'll have questions and then we will welcome Public Defender and then Control to make a statement and follow up with questions to her directly. Jenny James, please go right ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. Members of the committee, Jenny Giambattista Counsel Staff. The materials for this item begin on page ten. The proposed motion would confirm the reappointment of Anita Condo, while as director of the Department of Defense effective January 1st, 2023. Mr. Divya Authorized Director, condo sales experience. And then some of the specific details are included in the staff report. I would note that per county code, the term of the public defender is to end at the same time as the county prosecutor. Ms. Condo Walls Current term expires December 31st, 2022. The county code specifically authorizes the executive to reappoint the public defender for an additional four year term, subject to confirmation by the county council, staff have prepared a technical amendment to insert the end date for the public defender's term for clarity and consistency with the county code. Madam Chair, that concludes my staff report. Thank you very much to our staff and share the truth to. Are there any questions? DEMBOSKY Councilmember DEMBOSKY, thank you. This is just the kind of refresh my understanding about the process here. We have a public defense advisory board, the DAB when we set up this in the charter a few years ago to have an independent public defender, and they were involved in kind of selecting three candidates to send to the executive and the executive, you know , then choose and send over to the council. And then we did a little tune up to that, I think, recently. The Council did. And I can you just help me understand is when we're renominating and we are here, does the P deb play a role in that process or or not or how did that work, Jenny? Councilmember Dan, there's no specific process requirements set out in code for the reappointment, so I would defer to Mr. Diabaly to talk about any consultation that the Executive did with the Public Defense Advisory Board. Super. I need to follow up on that because I wasn't involved in it, but I think there was a process and I will reach out right now and maybe try to get you an answer here in the next few minutes. Anita may know. She probably does. Know. A let me just I think it's just what I do know is that Gail Stone spoke with Chris Carney, who was or at least is my understanding, who was the president of the board. He submitted a letter in support of my renomination, which you may or may not have, or I could forward to Jenny. He sent it to me this morning. But so I know that that that conversations between Gail and Chris occurred and that Gail Stone announced the executive decision to reappoint at a meeting itself. And members had an opportunity to react then or to send Gail any comments or feedback later. Hey. Thank you for providing the information to us on that. And are there any further questions? Now that you say about it. Thank you. I don't know if this is coming. So if it is, please just put a pin in what I'm about to say. But I would love to give this kind wall the opportunity to share what she considers. I mean, this is a moment, right? So accomplishments of her term, if that's the right word for it and anything she'd like to share, you know, as we consider reappointment. But thank you. And yes, that's coming up. I was going to have her speak about her tenure as public defender and and be able to have the opportunity to answer questions that we might provide to her. Are there any questions? More of Jenny Giambattista or Dwight Dudley? Can I just do a quick follow up to Councilor Muskie? And I just heard from Gail Stone that she did meet with the PTA of members. They fully supported the renomination. And apparently at least one of them tried to come here for testimony today and couldn't get in. So. Yeah, unfortunately. But yes, Gail confirmed that he was fully supportive of the renomination. Thank you. That's very helpful information. Okay. With that public defender, come the role. Welcome to our committee of the hall meeting. And first off, congratulations on your nomination for reappointment. And you've been here for three years. It's quite a lot. It's it's hard for me to believe that four years have gone by since we initially confirmed your appointment as public defender of Richland County. But we'd love to hear from you. And you already heard a request by Councilmember Banducci. And I'd like to provide you this opportunity to speak with us about your tenure over the last four years as councilmember, double duty as to what you believe your major accomplishments have been, and then we'll pepper you perhaps with some questions. And well, thank you and thank you for the kind words and thank you, council members for the opportunity to be here today and to speak with you. I think. The last four years have been incredibly challenging. When I first started this job. We were facing an influx of filings and trying to figure out how to how to staff to those cases. And then there was the pandemic, and we had to pivot and to try to figure out how to make sure that people were continuing to be booked into the jail or getting services that they are entitled to. And and I am most grateful and proud for to be able to support the amazing work of our staff in in helping ensure that our clients are getting high quality services, even as the world around us has been falling apart and so shaken up. But our attorneys and our staff showed up every day for our clients. They've shown up to court in snowstorms, and we have stood next to our clients in courtrooms where judges and prosecutors have chosen to be remote. But we know the importance of standing shoulder to shoulder with our clients, and we keep doing that. And so I think I'm most proud of and grateful for really the amazing work of the people in this department who, as Dwight said, are very, very committed, very committed to their clients. And they inspire me to want to keep going. You know, I share that commitment. I think a couple of other sort of highlights to share is I think we've we've partnered effectively with community in a variety of different ways. One of them would be in the passage of the Merchants Gittens Youth Rights Ordinance. That was an ordinance that the Council passed a few years ago that guarantees that young people, before they're asked to waive any contractual rights, talk to a lawyer first and that that law is now a statewide law. So we piloted here in King County. We were leaders here, and the state saw the amazing work that we had done here and what an important equity issue this was. And so now that it's a statewide and I think we've also just in terms of recruiting, recruiting is very challenging and we hire a new class of fresh law grads every year. And in the last two years have I have been able to hire classes where at least 50% of the people either identified as Bipoc or have lived experience, which I think is really, really important given the racial disproportionality in the criminal legal system. Having having attorneys that have some shared experiences with those of our clients is critically important. So I'm really. Really pleased that the reputation of our department has become one that we are able to recruit nationally and from law schools all over the country. And we have developed a name for ourselves to offer our commitment to our clients, for our commitment to partnering with community, for training new attorneys to do good work. I think our practice is really headed in the right direction and of course that is because of the many amazing people that work at DPD. I will pause there. Thank you very much for that opening statement. Public Defender Condor. Well, before we go on, do you have a preference for how we address? I don't. I'm fine. If you want to call me anytime I like. Whatever. Whatever works for you might not be okay. Thank you. Okay. I see Councilmember Perry has a question. You're muted. Thank you and nice to see you again. This is actually just some of my own education out of Congress. I have a question around some things that sitting with me lately and it may not be your area that you focus on to to support, but there is a concern around you know, certainly we know that the that there's a majority of folks that are in our jail who are experiencing behavioral health issues. And when folks enter it, there is a very long lag between when they enter and if they have meds with them or prescriptions with them. It's five days before they actually are given any of those. And then there are behaviors that that are impacting them, withdrawal, all that kind of stuff. Do you have any information about that or should I be talking to somebody else about that? Do you have any statistics around that are efforts around that are focused on that in terms of how we are caring for well, for the folks that are in that situation? You know, I think that's the question that's best directed towards digital health. Obviously, we have a lot of concerns about our clients coming into the jail and not being able to access what they need right away. But, you know, I don't have information. I have you know, I hear stories here, anecdotes. I don't have something that I feel comfortable offering up to here, as here are the facts on the ground. I think this is also about disability rights. Washington may have been looking into and so they would be another great organization to contact. They work. They have access to deep access to sort of jail records. And they work with the jail a lot. And so I encourage you to contact them. Thank you very much. Okay. I don't see anybody else wishing to ask a question. I have a couple, so I'll go ahead and please anybody else who does come up with the question. Just let us know. Anita, you were you had quite the preparation and background for being nominated four years ago and quite telling ground since then that you were, as I recall, deputy director of public defense as well as policy director, and we would see you quite frequently either in committees during the council before you was from the position of director. But since I've been confirmed four years ago, what have you understood to be the balance between managing the department and serving as a public policy advocate? You know, transparently. I think, you know, with the challenges of the last four years between the the case filings and then the pandemic and then the backlog and a lot of my energy has been has been focused on managing right on trying to make sure that we have attorneys who can safely show up to the court and to the jail and and do the poor work of public defense and represent their clients. This is not to say that it's not also been engaged in in policy advocacy. And I think managing the department involves advocating for policies that address issues that I have seen in the course of managing the department. Right. So like we a lot of our policy work is driven by our attorneys. We'll flag this is an issue I'm seeing. You should try to do something about that and I will take that information. I think it is my job as a good manager to take with it, to take what they know and to bring it forward, to try to effectuate policy change. So I think probably I will acknowledge, I think in the last few years you've seen less of me at counsel because the internal because it's incredibly challenging time that we've all been going through. But I really do think that advocate for our clients in the public policy arena is very much part of management's organization. Well, of taking the things that the people who who work on the ground level our line staff to take the truths that they learn in that practice and to elevate them and bring them to council to try to effectuate change. Thank you. And following up on that and given that we've brought out the highest needs for staff and are with the Department of Public Defense and with corrections officials, officers, and we know that there's been a huge backlog of cases waiting to be resolved. You've got a lot of new you've got a lot of openings. And you have, as I understand it, quite a lot of newer defenders and less experienced. And this is the same, I believe, in the prosecutor's office as well, which can complicate getting truth resolved. But how do you how do you deal with all of that and transparently? It is a struggle. I think public defense is unique. And so we're one of the ways in which we are different from the prosecuting attorney office is that while the prosecutor may have internal policies about how they want to stuff serious cases, we have external rules. We have court rules that say you can't handle a case of a certain seriousness unless you have this prior trial experience. So you have to have a certain number of trials before you. If you're a defender, you have to have a certain number of trials, a certain amount of experience before you can handle those more serious cases. So this is not so unlike the right where I think they may be making an internal policy choice which is theirs to make. This is not an internal choice by me, that there are clear requirements for what our attorney, what experience an attorney needs to have had before they handle a serious class, a case. And I asked other kinds of cases. And so. You know, in terms of what are we doing? I mean, she I would acknowledge a lot of the sort of like the day to day. A delegate to my desk director. But I spent a lot of time looking at caseload and doing caseload analysis and trying to trying to figure out, you know, from the cases that are being filed where we can find different cases, I mean, transparently, I don't know that court pro or I are going to suddenly develop a crop of experienced attorneys that are going to be able to move cases quickly. And I think this is also an opportunity for us to be continue to think about partnering with community and developing as many alternatives as possible, because this system is both. It's expensive and it's incredibly backlogged. And the labor market is a it's a real challenge for both, I think, and for me right now. And I don't have any you know, we're trying to do creative things like have new attorneys, co-counsel with more serious cases so they can start to get that experience that would allow them to go ahead and handle some of this more serious cases on their own. But this is a it's a slow process. And, you know, at core, we have clients who are facing significant infringements on their liberty if they're convicted. And we need to do the best job we can for that and and be transparent. If we don't have the staff to do that, to say we're not going to be able to do a job for this person, we need to figure out a different solution. But that's and I don't have any easy answers. It is a thing that occupies much of my time trying to figure out how we how we make sure that we have. Attorneys who can do good work. And also we're not burning out our attorneys. The other problem is that we have a pool of attorneys who can carry these classic cases. But asking an attorney to do trial after trial after trial on a serious case, it takes a significant although sort of emotionally and physically, it's exhausting to be in trial week after week after week, and then we end up losing those people, which only sets us back further. Right. And so trying to find that balance of, yes, we need to assign you a lot of serious cases. You have the right level of experience. And also, we feel that you're carrying this incredibly heavy load and we've got to find ways to support you so that into taking some time for yourself so that you don't want to leave and you want to keep doing the excellent work that you're doing. And these are these are hard challenges. Anita, do you sleep at night? No, I'm not even going to lie. No. And I often don't either. Wake up in the middle of the night thinking, how am I going to do this or that or whatever? But I imagine it must be extremely challenging for you and so much, so many challenges on your plate. So I appreciate as much as I can what we're going through. Are there any other questions? The. Hello. Council members are here. And since you mentioned. That alliance, the sponsor of the motion. Since you mentioned insomnia, I thought I'd step in here. Thank you, Chair. Coel's. I just wanted to speak to Anita's re-appointment. Should I do that now, or should I wait until questions are ready? Yeah. I think we'll be interested in hearing your thoughts. I did announce at the beginning that we're not going to take action on this motion today, and there's no urgency. Defender under Wall's term expires next December 31st. So I do intend, of course, to have this I have another briefing and action brought up, but not today. So please go right ahead. Thank you. I just wanted to speak as chair of Law and justice. I wanted to say that Director Kendall and her team have been super responsive to me as Chair LG, HHS and to our constituents. I think they've provided a very high level of service and provided access to justice through just unbelievable circumstances. You know, there is the pandemic. There are the workforce issues that have permeated so many of our departments and through the historic movements for justice that happened in 2020. I feel that under her leadership, the Department of Defense was very responsive through things like partnering with the community on shared goals like the My Chance Dunlap Gideon's Ordinance and ensuring that youth have a right to counsel. I also think that they have been really great about making sure that clients who are in jail over because of Blake cases are being released, according to the Supreme Court's decision that they have. I believe correct me if I'm wrong on that one, Supreme Court cases as well, which is really great in terms of making sure that all of our communities have access to justice. As the director mentioned, they've hired really diverse classes of attorneys and done so during a workforce crisis. I will call it 50% people of color for four new attorney classes for the past two years. I know they've gotten grant funding for really important things that clients need, like cell phones. So I just think on a consistent basis, under her leadership, the Department of Defense has delivered justice to our constituents. And I would urge everyone's support and reappointing director general. Thank you very much. Councilmember Sala, Councilmember Bell, did she you had asked some questions at the beginning. And so anything more that you would like to hear? No. I was glad to just make sure that we had an opportunity to hear from the director herself. And also, you know, this is an unusual process. I'll just say in that we do confirmation of appointments, but not a ton or any confirmations of appointments. So normally for an appointment, you get this very thick packet with all kinds of information. But we don't need that here because we know it's kind of while we know her work, we know her background. So, no, I don't. Thank you for asking your questions. Thank you. Councilmember Sala. Thank you. Chair Caldwell's. Of course, I will always respect the chair's wishes on on when to take action. But I would note that, you know, just for continuity of justice, access that we provide for our constituents and for just making sure someone's employment doesn't hang in the balance and provide any unnecessary anxiety on a human level unless we're hearing, you know, any more concerns or any more substantive discussion that people want to have on this topic. And if anybody says that, of course, I would gladly defer and I do defer to you as chair. I would note that it takes 10 seconds to take action. And so I would love to see if there is room to take action today. Thank you, Councilmembers. I'll be glad to respond to your question as chair, and I prefer that we wait until another meeting. I've had requests from some of our members, too, that they would like to have more opportunity to share from Public Defender Condor. So I'm going to respect their requests. And keep in mind that Defender Cantwell's term is not up for another seven and a half months, so it's six months to six and a half months. So we have quite a bit of time before that. So I'm not going to prolong this by any means, but I would appreciate that. Consider asking a thank you to our cohorts. And I just for the record, I'm not one of the members. If there are more than one that asks for more time, I fully expect and hopefully to be able to vote to confirm Anita for another term. I think you've built a brand new organization and out of four external contractors, you know, it's really something that what you've done and I hear positive feedback from you and I also think you've been a strong voice for your clients individually and collectively and for the system, the criminal legal system, and for reforms, which was a vision that we set out in the charter language that the voters approved, somewhat unique, not just to go into court every day on a case by case basis, but also be an advocate as a leader of the Department for Reform to the criminal, legal or justice system. I just want to make one request. I didn't get a chance to see. Mr. Carney's letter, which he writes on, is he's the chair of the Biodefense Space Board, and he notes that he's writing it on in his individual capacity. I do think there's value in respecting the advisory boards we've set up. And if they do have a chance to meet between now and our next meeting on this, I would just I would like to have their formal position as an advisor to the Council on the Executive on this. Their real role is in the original hiring, I know that, but they are close to the department. There are experts there and it would be great to hear their collective position on this critical appointment. Thank you very much for that suggestion, Councilmember Domanski. And I would certainly like to have their participation that our next the next time we take this appointment reappointment. Are there any other questions for defender? Well, and these are for any Dwight or anybody else. Thank you so much for being with us today. And we will be in touch and look forward to our next meeting. With that, we will now move to something that is urgent. Number seven on that large and as proposed motion 20 20191, which is to confirm the executive's appointment of Paddy Cole Tindal as county sheriff. And the staff report begins on page 25 with Bowman will be briefing us. We do have with us again Director Debrief and PSP and Arena Hashimi from Director who's director Council Relations from Executive Office. We also have Melody Garcia, Public Safety Advisory Committee member, and Katie Cole Tindal, who is the appointee and is currently serving the interim share. Director Di Bain has requested that she be able to introduce the interim sheriff. And so we will follow the same process. Go right ahead, Dwight. Thank you, Councilmember. So it is a great privilege for me to have the opportunity to introduce Executive Konstantinos, a nominee for King County Sheriff Patty Cole Tindal. I've been here at the county for a little over 12 years, and I worked with Patty that entire time. She worked when I started the director of the Office of Labor Relations. Many of you know that she later also took on the role of the director of the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight. She subsequently then went to work as one of the senior staff in the sheriff's office. Most recently was the undersheriff and then has been the acting sheriff while we went through a national search. I had the privilege of participating in that national search, and we had some very strong candidates. And at the end of the day, council member executive Constantine felt that Patty's somewhat unique approach to the work, her very diverse background and her experience in the sheriff's office meant that she was the best candidate. And I have to say personally, I agree just a little bit about her professional background. She has a bachelor's degree from Central Washington University, a master's degree from Troy State, has worked in a variety of law enforcement related positions throughout her career before she came into the Office of Labor Relations. Perry has a very strong familiarity with the sheriff's office. I think you'll find in the pack a strong support from many of the employees in their bargaining units in the sheriff's office. Also, we had extensive involvement of our contract cities and other contract partners. And you should have some information in the packet about their support for her nomination. So I have to say it's been a great experience for me personally, working with Patty throughout her career since I've been here in the county. I will also add that my observation in, you know, roughly four and a half months that she has been the interim sheriff is she has moved forward some very thoughtful and perhaps long overdue initiatives that are the kind of thing that I think all of us expect from our sheriff's office. So with no further ado, I would put in front of you the nomination of Patty Tindall as King County sheriff. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the introduction and I'd like to welcome the sheriff called Tendo. We are going to go ahead with the staff report before we turn to you for your remarks and Q and I just wanted to welcome you and congratulate you on the nomination for confirmation. So with that, we will turn to Nick Bowman from our central staff to provide the briefing on this item. And we will also hear from Melody Garcia from the Public Safety Advisory Committee. Go right ahead, Nick. Good morning, Councilmembers. For the record, Nick Bowman, Council Central Staff Proposed Motion 2020 2019. That one would conform to confirm the executive's appointment of Patti Tindal as the Chief Officer of the Department of Public Safety. Also known as County Sheriff. The King County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement services for unincorporated King County and several governmental agencies, including full service policing to 12 contracted cities. In addition to providing patrol services. KSO delivers numerous specialty law enforcement services, including an air support unit, Marine Unit, SWAT, major crimes investigations, bomb disposal, major accident response and arson investigations. KSO also performs other functions such as emergency 911 call receiving and dispatching service and court orders related to civil court filings, issuing concealed weapons permits and sex offender registration. The Sheriff's Office 2021 2022 biennial budget is approximately 409 million, with 1177 fees, including 782 commissioned officers and 395 professional staff. For a bit of background, from 1852 to 1969, the King County sheriff was an elected position that operated more or less independently. In 1969, the voter approved home rule charter went into effect, which made many elected officials, including the sheriff, appointed positions subordinate to the executive as an appointed position. The sheriff became subject to the selection process set out in Section 340 of the charter. In 1996, the King County Council adopted proposed Ordinance 9575 five, which submitted to the voters a charter amendment to establish the county sheriff as a nonpartisan elected official with a four year term. In November of 1996, the voters approved this charter amendment, returning the sheriff to an elected position. Fast forward about 25 years. In July 2020, the King County Council adopted Ordinance 19139. We submitted to the voters a charter amendment reestablishing the sheriff as an appointed position. And in November of 2020, the voters approved Charter Amendment 25, returning the county sheriff to an appointed position with a requirement for the consideration of community stakeholder input during the selection, appointment and confirmation process, which was to be prescribed by ordinance to fulfill the Charter's obligation for community stakeholder input in the selection, appointment and confirmation of a new sheriff. The Council adopted ordinance 19249 and established the Public Safety Advisory Committee, otherwise known as Peace Act. The Peace Act consists of 13 individuals from various stakeholder communities representing the geographic, ethnic and economic diversity of Ccso service area and those with expertize in law enforcement reform. The committee was charged with two distinct bodies of work first to engage with and receive input from stakeholder communities to provide guidance to the Council and the Executive in this selection, appointment and confirmation process for appointing a new sheriff. And second, to solicit input on the value stakeholder community's hold for how law enforcement services should be provided and the way the county can improve the delivery of those services. The ordinance further required the Peace Act to deliver a report to the Executive and Council detailing the Committee's efforts to fulfill its responsibilities to interview candidates for sheriff identified by the Executive, and to attend a meeting of the Committee of the whole to provide its input on the sheriff appointee selected by the Executive. The SEC met a total of 21 times from March 2021 until its delivery of its final report on September 30th, 2021. The report provided recommendations for the qualities and expertize the new sheriff should possess, including a law enforcement background and track record of making decisions with community as a focus. Strong leadership and commitment to lasting change and have a history of collaboration and partnerships. A record of success with elected officials, other jurisdictions and unions. And knowledge of bipoc and LGBTQ plus issues. On April 13th 13th, 2022, after a nationwide search for qualified candidates, members of the Peace Corps met with three finalists chosen by the Executive for the Position of Sheriff for impression interviews. Each finalist candidate was given approximately 45 minutes to answer the panel's questions and talk about their vision for Casey herself. The feedback representatives delivered their impressions of the sheriff's candidate to the executive on April 20th, 2022. Michael Tindall, who has been serving as acting sheriff since January of this year, was then announced as the executive's appointee for sheriff on May 3rd, 2022. Acting Sheriff Colton Doyle has over 30 years of experience in public service for law enforcement, the labor relations and human resources. Acting Sheriff Court Tuttle started her career in law, first in law enforcement in 1991 as a special agent for the Washington State Gambling Commission, a position for which she completed the state's Basic Law Enforcement Academy or earlier chief in working for King County government in 1998 as an investigator in the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention and later as assistant director in the Department's Community Corrections Division. In 2010, Acting Sheriff Cultural became the county's director of Labor Relations, as she also served as interim director of the county's Office of Law Enforcement Oversight in 2014. In 2015, the acting sheriff serves as the Chief of Technical Service Division for the Sheriff's Office, where she worked for almost five years before becoming undersheriff in 2020. She was then appointed acting sheriff in November 2021 and has served in that role since January 2022. Her full resumé is included in the confirmation packet under attachment five. While Acting Sheriff Cole Tindall was at one time a certified peace officer. That certification has since lapsed. According to the executive, upon confirmation by the council, acting sheriff Coach End will complete Boyer to be recertified as a commissioned officer within one year for appointment. The Academy is currently 19 weeks long and she will attend at no later than January 2023 to meet the certification requirement. While at the Academy, an acting sheriff from Ccso leadership team will be appointed now in accordance with King County Code 216 110. The executive has requested confirmation of Patti Call Tindall as the Chief Officer of the Department of Public Safety, who may also be referred to as the county sheriff. Staff has not identified any issues with the proposed appointment. And furthermore, once the Peace Act members in attendance today deliver their impressions of the appointee, the process for which the acting sheriff general was elected and appointed will be in compliance with King County Charter Section 350, 2040 and Ordinance 19 249. That concludes my staff report. However, there are some amendments which I can brief now or wait until later to discuss. Please go write prescribing. Amendment one on page 32 of your packet would align the appointment motion with the language in charter section 340. The appointment provisions of the Charter as well as Charter Section 350 2040, making the sheriff position an appointed one and the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Public Safety. And then there is a title amendment which would simply align the title with the changes made by Amendment one. And that concludes my support. Thank you very much. Now, before we go on to hear from apparently three Peace Committee members who are with us, are there any questions of Nick? Cenac You did such a great job. No, I think. Reporter No questions. That's always the hope. Okay. We, as I mentioned, we do have three members from the Public Safety Advisory Committee. Those are Melody Garcia from Giddings and Livio de la Cruz. I hope I did not mispronounce today, but we very much like to hear from you. Just one reminder. It's 11 I seven. The committee is due to be adjourned at 1130, but we can go a little bit longer. So who would like to speak first? I think I can go. This is Melody Garcia pointed to his work as Melody. Garcia, good to see everyone. No, I'm going to I'm going to let Livio and Frank do most of the talking. But I just wanted to say, I am I'm really excited to have sheriff got involved and especially as a woman of color myself. Really excited for the partnership and the opportunity to work with yourself. Thank you so much. Thank. Play with one or the other two. Like to go hurt. I see. Livia. I can go next. Please just. Say so. I'm going to divide my thoughts into two things. First, you talk about shared content of a candidacy, why it's so compelling. Then my second bucket of thoughts are kind of bigger picture like How did this process go? I figured the council would like to hear our thoughts because this is kind of a unique approach. So first, introduce yourself. The director. Oh, yes. I'm Olivia Dela Cruz. I'm one of the members of the Public Safety Advisory Committee. And specifically, I was one of the members appointed due to my experience with activism and police policy and all that stuff. And so the you kind of I feel like you all know the pitch of why behind Catena's candidacy. Like it's a pretty compelling pitch, like the unorthodox background, the mix of public service, and that's outside of the sheriff's office and also inside the sheriff's office. And on top of that, there's just a lot of like strong core, fundamental leadership skills. It's like promoting steady direction, refreshing vision, strong communication skills, strong relationship building like this, the core stuff that you really need to be in any leadership position. And but the, the, the, the, the background is particularly compelling because at one point the piece I did consider the question of what if we had a sheriff who was not a cop, basically, like what if they did not come from that background? And after weighing like the pluses of that would be, well, we could potentially get a more refreshing leadership approach and more willingness to question practices that have led to tension between police and community before. But on the other hand, it would undermine their ability to lead the department effectively to build the kind of reputation and credibility within the department. And so Cortinas kind of this almost appears to be like the best of both worlds, in my opinion. And yeah, and Cotillard was also at most of the meetings. And so while many of our recommendations in our report are kind of simplified, like she she actually understands it and much more, which is exciting for us. And just to remind the committee members that the one of our core representation recommendations was the idea that the sheriff's office cannot and should not be the end all, be all for public safety. It's really a larger responsibility shared by all of the departments, all of the pieces of government. And for that reason, whenever anything goes down, any big concerns about safety come up. We need to all collectively learn not to reflexively bang on the door of the sheriff for all of them. We need to kind of all come together and evaluate the issue holistically. And that means funding it holistically as well. And so Sheriff Cotillo and that vision and is on board, it's pretty helpful for us. So the next set of thoughts I have is about the process. And you already heard an overview of the process that was followed. One of the biggest recommendations, the piece I made was that we have community involvement as early as possible in the recruiting process. And in this case, we were able to get a community rep in the first round interviews, which is remarkable. I'm I'm honestly, I want to I want someone to fact check, like, is this the first time this region that something like that has happened for the first round of bids for a law enforcement agency later? I'm curious about that. But it's very big. And one of the main concerns historically has been like, well, it needs to be confidential because you need to maintain a confidentiality of these candidates who are not quite announced to everyone that they are applying for a new job. And we were able to do that. We got a confidentiality agreement. We did that. So the piece that actually selected me to be that rep on those first round interviews, it's my understanding that there are two hiring panels, two individual panels of people, and I was on one of the panels and I recommend that it improve them for reasons that I'll explain upcoming. I do think it would have been strong if there was community rep in both home panels. So another. Then the next step. After the first round interview, the finalists were selected and a piece of work had an opportunity to meet with the three finalists and have what we call impression interviews in which informed the they were opinions of it. And I tried my best of the one person who actually met all the candidates already to not interview. The with everyone's formation of opinions during these interviews and to it was kind of it was interesting to see that most of our opinions aligned anyway. So then so that that that's pretty good pretty successful. I don't have much insight into how the public forms feedback fed into the internal process for evaluating the final point. But I just have a few more thoughts. Which is it really? I was really amazed by the quality of the candidates that were attracted by this process. It is a sign that the process was working successfully, that we attracted so many good quality candidates particularly, and I have to disclose that the SEC ultimately did recommend in favor of though, and also in favor of Mr. Kimball a bit. And Mr. Kim was kind of the top choice by the piece. However, the fact that Kim was someone like Kim on made it that far in the process is is positive. It's what we'd expect. I also have to disclose that the third finalist or the piece, I felt like they did not meet the requirements and should have probably been filtered out earlier in the process. And so that is a bit of a weakness in the process. And how did this happen? Maybe there probably and this is just my opinion, not the piece, because I met all the other candidates. I do feel like there are multiple other candidates are more qualified than the one here. Yes. And that's the end of my piece, actually. Thank you. Thank you very much for your perspective as one member of the Public Service Advisory Committee. I do have thank goodness you're with us as well. If you would like to make remarks. Here. Apparently it's not here. She was here, but I think he had to leave. Oh, that's too bad. Okay. Thank you very much for speaking with us, both of you. Melody Garcia and Olivia de la Cruz. We will now turn to our sheriff, interim sheriff, coal tingle. And first of all, I'd like to find out how you would like to be spoken to. Identified. You're married? Yeah. My first name is fine. Okay. Thank you, Patty. And to give you the opportunity now to speak to us, to tell us about your printer and what you bring to the position, although, of course, we know you've got a tremendous background and did a great job of providing that to us. But we may have some questions for you, but I'd like to give you this opportunity to tell us more about yourself and. Go right ahead. Thank you very much. I appreciate being able to speak before you council. And I just want to say I am very honored and privileged to have been the nominee, the executive's nominee for the permanent appointed sheriff. As Livio described, there was an extensive process that I went through and the other candidates, and I'm just thrilled that I was chosen. Let me talk a little bit about myself and my philosophy and what the work we've been doing here at the sheriff's office. So Nick explained my career, so I'm not going to go over that again. But I will say that I am a nontraditional law enforcement executive. We all know I've had some time in law enforcement, but then time outside. And I think that's what gives me a unique perspective and a different lens. I'm able to translate from inside the agency to outside and from outside to the agency. And also that my working with the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, the fact that I oversaw that office, which is oversight into this very agency. So giving me also a unique perspective into the sheriff's office, how it operates, the issues that it faces. So in my almost six and a half years here at the sheriff's office in various leadership capacities, has also, I think, uniquely prepared me to be the leader of this agency going forward. I am excited to kind of do some different things that we started in the beginning of the year. One is our engagement with community in a way that I think the Sheriff's Office has not done previously. So we are just starting that work. But I see this as a wonderful opportunity to engage with the community so that they can help us create the co-creation of the law enforcement agency that they want for King County and with the specific communities, because their needs are different. As we know, we have contract cities. We also police in urban unincorporated areas. So we have to transit contracts. We police for the Michael Shoot tribe as well as the King County International Airport. So our you know, we have 2300 square miles that we are responsible for. And so I just feel like this is a great time at this space and time to lead this agency and move things forward. The other thing I want to say is I have been working diligently, along with my leadership team, to create a workplace that our current employees want to be part of going forward because they are the key to our recruitment issues is retention. While we are working to staff up, we need to retain our good and qualified well-experienced officers that we have. So any opportunity that I can work with you council in addition to the executive on how we can create incentives potentially for those that are almost at retirement age to stay while we staff up will be appreciated. So we do have a large number of vacancies, I will say that. But we are working hard, like I said, to create a positive workplace that people want to be part of going forward. I'll kind of end it there because I know time is short and I don't want to and I know there will be questions. Thank you very much for speaking with us. And I think there will be some questions. I don't want to shortchange your time. Our previous agenda item went a little bit longer, but I hope that most of us, all of us can stay here for a few minutes beyond the 1130 timeframe because we do plan on taking action today. Okay. With that, are there any questions? Council member Perry. Thank you. I think I don't know if it's a secret that I'm such a big fan, but one of the reasons I am a great fan of interview currently interim, the sheriff called Jindal's eye right until until the vote. Is that the correct title? Yes. Yes. Okay. Interim sheriff called, though. One of the reasons I am such a big fan is that she's a Girl Scout, once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout and has worked on women's leadership from very early ages. And I have such a great respect for engaging women in leadership, engaging our girls and junior girls, junior Girl Scouts in leadership. And and just a shining example, because it does take a great deal more to be a leader in your position, in this position, than it takes someone who identifies as male or someone who identifies or who is wise. And. And I really appreciate that the just the the all things being equal, your your incredible leadership in this space and you being brought to this position visually, as well as the amazing leadership that you bring to the table. So I'm very excited about this. Thank you very much. I appreciate those kind words. Thank you. Are there any questions from any of my colleagues? Councilmember Sarai. Thank you. Charcoal Wells. Thank you so much for being here. Interim sheriff called Tindall. Could you speak a little bit to your vision for alternative crisis response mental health responders? You know, there's a large movement right now to make sure that our response systems create more good and are more tailored to people who are in behavioral health crisis. I know part of our movement for making the sheriff an appointed position and creating Charter Amendment six as well was just to integrate the sheriff's services more closely with our public health systems. And now you will sit on a board, leadership board with the executive, Constantine's other department heads, where you will be more in close touch with DHS and Public Health and all of our other public health systems. Can you speak a little bit to your vision for how we respond to people who are in need from a mental health perspective, from an addiction perspective? What is the future of public safety look like in your in your view. Your council members? I mean, so the way that I view that in my philosophy is we need to make sure that we are bringing the proper resource to whatever the issue is. And we all know that sometimes we don't need somebody with a gun and a badge to address what is not a crime. So I'm proud to say the King County Sheriff's Office has already started to engage in that work. We already have a program called Radar, where we have a mental health professional riding with a law enforcement officer so that when they get that call, the right person is there that can provide immediate service to the person in crisis . So if it is somebody who is experiencing homelessness or a mental health issue, we've got that person right there and we can tap them into the appropriate resource. So I do think I believe that law enforcement needs to have a seat at the table with community, with social service agencies, with our partners in King County government to create and address issues systems where we can help those who need it and bring them out, connect them with the resources that they need so that they can get their basic needs met. And I believe that will then allow us and law enforcement to respond to the calls that we should be responding to. But more importantly, folks are getting the help that they need. But I see this as a societal issues. So it's not just law enforcement, but we need to be key in Interpol, because what happens is the 911 calls call comes in and then we get dispatch. So, you know, we need to find out what is the source. Why did somebody maybe if they stole something to eat, it's because they were hungry. You know, they were trying to provide for their family. We also have other programs where we have a lead, which is law enforcement assisted diversion, where low level crimes deputies have the ability to divert people to resources rather than have them enter the criminal justice system. So we already are engaged in some of these activities, but I see us in the beginning stages and there's so much more work ahead. And so I am ready to lead this agency to work with community, work with the council, other department excuse me, executive branch agencies to really address this issue holistically here in King County. Thank you so much. Thank you, both of you. Are there any other questions from colleagues? Councilmember Dombroski? Thank you. Chair Wells and Sheriff Tyndall, congratulations on your well-deserved and well earned nomination. I look forward to voting yes. Following on from personalized comments, I do think it's a big opportunity and a big challenge that's coming with the rollout of, I think, nine, eight, eight, the new non-police number, which our state legislature has set up. And now they've made the vision. But you're going to have to implement to some degree. And how do we choose that through our our call centers and that and I, I know that the practice with our navigator, it will be helpful to build on that. Just by way of opening remarks, I want to reflect that there was a big question about whether we would ever be here today when the Council put a charter amendment before the voters and the voters did something quite unusual on that is they gave up power that they held and they entrusted us, the executive and council, with this decision who should be the sheriff of the county. And I'm very, very pleased to say that I think the executive, our public safety advisory committee and hopefully this council are taking that trust that's been granted to us and performing and delivering with a tremendous person. And that's you and me. I think it's worth reminding folks that when you were appointed interim sheriff, you said you would not pursue the job and you didn't pursue it until you were asked to pursue it by a number of folks here at the council, I think, including myself, that also in your front line, your your deputies and people within the department and in the community, I need you to know that our deputies stop me when I'm coming into the courthouse and are supportive of what you're doing and appreciative of what you're doing and are grateful for the way you have come in and are leading this department by caring for them, by having meetings with them, by communicating with them, by supporting them. And we see that here at the council and your leadership and your engagement and your commitment is making a difference. I think we want to see you and your department succeed. Frankly, we we have a never obligation to the voters entrusted us with that. And so I'm excited for your leadership. I am inspired by you. I've now got to work along side you in different capacities here in nine years. And I want to share just two things with folks about why I'll be voting. Yes, probably. And there's a lot of reasons, but one is your independence, you know, in different capacities. I think back to your work as the Labor Relations Director and you present to council and sometimes I'd have a tough question to for you a little dialog and you did not hesitate to stand up and push back and say, this is why we're doing this and this is where we're at and disagree with somebody in power. And I think that that is essential in this role as the chief of our law enforcement department, our sheriff, that you have that trait, have that ability and will use it. And I. Respect that. And the second thing was a recent observation. Our law enforcement officers are charged to run toward danger and put themselves at risk. And some may wonder, well, sure, Tyndall hasn't been a patrol officer. She has some law enforcement background. But what are her instincts in that regard? Okay. At a recent press conference here in the courthouse, it was interrupted by somebody who was angry, who came charging in, who disrupted the event and was threatening and angry. There were a number of electeds there and you were there. He then left the room and you went after him. You went into the danger. I observed that, and I also observed that you went alone. That said All I need to know about your instincts for this role. In addition to everything I've seen from you here in my time with the Council, I'm very proud that you're willing to serve in this capacity, and I hope you'll let us know what we can do to support you as you undertake this important role. Thank you so much for your willingness to do it. Thank you very much. Thank you both. Councilmember Bowdich, followed by Councilmember Penny. You're muted. Council member. Council member. Terry had her hand up before me. I saw your hand. No, no, no. You are going to hear. I want to try to chair the meeting. Thank you. But so I just want to again state my support and for this this appointment. And a lot of the reasons why you're you're the right person with the right experience have been said already. I think what I'll say your content is that. The challenge that you are accepting here is to build an approach to public safety that creates trust between the communities that we serve and law enforcement professionals, and builds a more robust and nuanced. Response. To crises. We have for a very long time, maybe going back to deinstitutionalization and in the seventies relied increasingly on people, as you say, with a gun and a badge to respond to all kinds of crises. And, you know, as somebody who has worked alongside folks in uniform for a number of years myself, they know that they're not always the right answer and they're put in a very difficult position. In addition, we have to still yet address the the racial component and disparities in public safety and how we approach public safety and how different communities feel either. Either protected, you know, or persecuted. And and we are building that mutual support among all of the professions that it takes and the public. That's really the challenge, because nobody we cannot succeed at what we want to do. We cannot have a safe, welcoming, equitable county if people don't feel supported by their law enforcement and if law enforcement isn't supported by their community. And so building that bridge, I think, is really where your challenge sits. And I also think that you are the perfect person to be on that bridge, helping to build it. So congratulations. And we will, of course, have lots more opportunity to work through these challenges together. And I look forward to doing that. Thank you. Thank you both. Councilmember Perry. Thank you. One thing that I am really encouraged by is experiencing interim share of call Tindal. Your willingness to work on behavioral health issues which are very, very close to my heart. So and it's a national crisis and a statewide crisis and we absolutely can do better. And so in the efforts of that, we're working on in District three to bring the police chiefs together, the fire chiefs together, and the sheriffs together. You representing? I am very encouraged by our recent meeting to look at radar as a co responder model, mobile integrated health model, looking at no wrong door in response as well, so that everybody can participate in ways that are meaningful to them. And while we figure out the lanes of fire and police and we figure out the gaps and the overlaps, and we identify the statistics and identify what's needed with all of these incredible efforts going on throughout these ten cities and unincorporated area. So and I'm very excited about Major Pingree and his promotion and working together with him as a representative for the unincorporated areas. So I just want to recognize that you were right on board right away in an area that is sometimes King County and cities can be a little middle school. You're not the boss army. And sometimes police and fire can do that. You're not the boss of me thing. So you just really stepped up in that terrific leadership and everybody willing to work together for the betterment of our family, our loved ones, our friends, our community members that really need to stay in each of our communities . So thank you for your leadership on that. And I feel very excited about the hands that we're in going forward. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I do have a question and I am the sponsor of the motion, so I am very supportive. But as we all know, you're in a very, very tough position. And assuming that either claimant is confirmed, I think there will be continued attention on a lot of the high profile, very high profile officer involved shootings that have occurred within the King County Sheriff's Office. And now we're getting an inquest. Back after a long pause to hear about your thoughts on the inquest process and also how you will handle officer involved shooting investigations going forward if there are many more. Thank you. Question button. Yes, well, the first one on inquest, I'm supportive. I actually believe I mean, it is the public's opportunity to learn the facts related to an incident where officers used force in somebody's life, then did so. I think that's key. Right. We need to be able to provide that information to the public so the inquest process is happening and I support that. Now, to your question about officer involved shootings, where and how we would investigate? I think you're all aware of the state law reforms which now prohibit law enforcement agencies from doing their own investigations. So we are subject to state law, which means an independent investigative team would conduct any officer involved shooting. So we had a recent shooting the day after I was named as deputies nominee. The next day, our SWAT team during the execution of a mission. A step was dead. So the Valley Independent investigative team was at the South End. It depends on where the event happens, depends on who investigates. So in this case, that team investigated, which means by state law, I don't have any control over the investigation. Or as of January one of this year, I don't even get a briefing by that investigative team because they the rule makers, the lawmakers wanted a true independent investigation. I have minimal information. So I do think that's important for me to come out as the sheriff, as I did in this one, to say, you know, we had this event. This is what my people were doing. The subject is dead. None of our people were injured. But they're this other investigative team is doing the criminal investigation because any time somebody loses their life in resort, it's considered a homicide. I mean, even if it was in the execution of official duties. So it is investigated. So what I can do is what's called an administrative review, which is an administrative review into the events. But that is not something that we we have to keep that separate from the criminal so we cannot like contaminate because otherwise, if there were an issue of any conclusions by the independent team that charges should be filed, that we have interfered, then it could, you know, impact. So I don't really get to do much with with those types of shootings. So except to cooperate and stay in my lane. Thank you very much for your response. Are there any other questions? And I'm sure of culture. I'd like to now move on to take action. So I am a big gun supporter. Sorry. Thanks. The inner circle turned out great to see you. Thanks. I appreciate there's been a lot of the dialog back and forth on important issues. I look forward to supporting your your nomination appointment. My question is, you know, there's been a surging crime problem with gun violence here in the community. More than 460 shootings last year and the murder rate is way, way up. What is your sort of. Two or three things that you are sort of planning on doing to to really take on that issue and try and reduce crime. Sort of the center, I think, centerpiece and arguably the. Most important part. Of your job, I would say. What is your basic strategy on that? So thank you for that question because you are right. That is that's the bread and butter of what we do is reduce crime and the fear of crime. And so Key is partnering with other law enforcement agencies for insurance. And we have our I already do that working with the other chiefs around the area. But I think also something that's important is working with community because often they are aware and know where the issues are in their communities. And so we need to work with them to help identify what those are and what are potential solutions to those issues. The third thing is we need to use data right where these things happening. What are the indicators around what is happening? So I think all of those things that's kind of simplistic, short answer, but there's so much more and I know there are supports being created, which I think is very great, that that's an opportunity for our best and brightest to get together, to try to figure out how to do it. But this is really a societal issue, and I appreciate that. It's it's not just on law enforcement, right? There's a lot of different components to it, a lot of different players. But we need to be front and center and involved. And that does also speak to officer presence. And with a 113 Commission vacancies, it's a little more difficult to have the type of presence and the patrolling in the communities which could deter potential crime. So we are working hard to staff up, but those are some of the things I will be working on with my leadership team and in the community and with with you, the Council on the Executive as well. Thank you for that response. I appreciate that. And, you know, my my job is to help you succeed at yours. And whatever I can do, perhaps this council can do to get those hundred and 13 individuals hired in the office staffed up with you, come up with creative ways or thoughtful approaches to try and do that, perhaps best practices being used across the country right now. So we've got a good, robust, highly functioning sheriff's office. Thank you very much. I thank you, Councilmember Dunn. And I believe we will now go on to take action on the proposed motion. 2020 20191 I'd like to hear more from our interim share, but we are way past adjournment. Time for the meeting. So with that, Councilmember Dunn, would you please move this action? Because I am the sponsor of the motion. Very well. I would move to approve Protocol Tindal as our sheriff and director of the department, as has been briefed and provide present to the council. Thank you very much. Councilmember Dunn and Nick Bellman, would you please just remind us very briefly about Amendment one? Yes. Amendment One would outline the language of the proposed motion with that charter, section 340, as well as charter section 350, 2040. We just because we haven't done this appointment in a long time, we wanted to make sure we got the language exactly right. Thank you very much. Are there any questions about amendment number one? Okay. Consider it done. Google Amendment one. Amendment has been moved. Any comments? All in favor indicate by saying i. I, i i in. Person of the amendment has been adopted. We now have the title amendment counselor. We can. Move to 1. To 1. A title amendment one has to move to any comments. Questions on paper indicate by saying I, I, I say no to the amendment has been adopted. Is there any further discussion on proposed motion 2020 20191 as amended? Come back and ask. If it's okay with you. I'd like to have my name added as a co-sponsor to the motion and encourage my colleagues to join in the show of unanimity by doing the same if they're so inclined. Okay. Now add me. At me to. Damond City Council member. But did she? I think Councilmember Perry and Councilmember Cycle. I also feel like things that irk Councilmember Van right there as well. Okay. Very good. Thank you. And I will just say I am enthusiastically supporting the confirmation of the nomination of sheriff. And I'm sure Cole turned out to be unacceptable, sheriff. And since the time is right, we will go ahead and have a group called The Roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember by the Chin by Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I. As a member done by Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember Perry. I don't remember up to the councilmember, but by about one. I council member starline. I. Madam Chair, on the borders. I know North and West Council member MacDermid. Excuse me. Okay. Thank you all with a vote. We have approved proposed motion 2020 20191 as amended. And if there are no concerns with placing this on the consent calendar, we will expedite this motion with the due course recommendation for the consent agenda to the May 24th Council meeting. That's next Tuesday because there is some urgency here. We want to have our confirmed sheriff in place. Any comments? Okay. Very good. That concludes the agenda items on our agenda. I apologize for going past our usual time, but we did accomplish quite a bit. And I want to make sure before we adjourn that there were no technical difficulties interfering with council members from voting. Doesn't appear to be the case. So with that, we are adjourned. And our next meeting of the committee of the whole will be on June 1st. Thank you all. Those of you who participated in today's migliaccio.	A MOTION confirming the appointment of Patti Cole-Tindall as the chief officer of the department of public safety.
king_45ffd9f0-2429-446a-949e-1dbb11c7bb16	You're ready. That I can be ready. I'm going to. I'm calling the meeting of the Committee of the Hall for the King County Council for October 6th, 2020 to order live from my basement. Jim Carrey has nothing on the King County Council, I will assure you of that. As we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We think these caretakers of the lands have lived here and continued to live here since time immemorial. It also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. In light of our public health emergency, the governor has issued an emergency order suspending the session of the Open Public Meetings Act. That requires that we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. This order has been extended by the leadership of the State Senate and the House of Representatives. So we will proceed today with what is becoming a usual feature, a virtual meeting of the county council committee to hold this afternoon. And we have a full agenda. We'll start with two briefings, first from executive staff, from the county's COVID 19 response, and then from the King County Library System's executive director, Lisa Rosenbloom, on how the library has changed its operations during the pandemic. Following these briefings, we had four items for discussion in possible action two ordinances related to a proposed sales tax sales and use tax, the proceeds of which would be used for housing and related services in motion. That would improve the Metro Safety Plan, which is an FTA Federal Transit Transit Administration requirement. And lastly, an ordinance revising the appointment process for the District and committee or redistricting committee, which redraws the County Council district boundaries every ten years. Two housekeeping notes as we get started. To help us manage the meeting, I'd like to ask the public, as well as executive and council staff, please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. Additionally, if you're connecting to the meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment, please connect to the meeting through the Zoom application. If you are connecting to the meeting without using Zoom, there may be a trouble or issues in meeting you so we can hear you offering public testimony. With that introduction, I'd ask the court to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Balducci and Councilmember Dombroski. Era Council member run here. Council Member Cole Wells Council Member Now you're. Councilmember up the ground here. Councilmember if I'm right there. Here. Council members on life here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Vice-Chair Dunn I'd entertain a motion to improve the minutes of our September 8th, 2020 meeting. Councilmember one Mike Bauer, would you fill in for a motion to approve the minutes. Which would gladly do that and move approval of the previous members of the previous meeting. Thank you. The minutes from September 8th are before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes. Please say I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The minutes were approved. I now turn to public comment. Madam Clerk, I understand there are people on the line for public comment. Yes, Your Honor. Mr. Chair. Great. Thank you. Having a entirely remote meeting is still somewhat unusual for the County Council. I want to make sure that everyone who was called in understands the procedures and rules for public comment today. First, some ground rules. As usual, public comment must be related to items on today's meeting agenda and must not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person to any office, or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. It also must not include obscene speech if a speaker refuses to abide by these restrictions. They may be ruled out of order and may be required to exit the virtual meeting. L Describe the process that will use to facilitate public testimony as all members of the public joined the meeting. There were automatically muted. We can see your names or the last three digits of your telephone numbers. For a committee report. Call the names or numbers. When your name or the last three digits of your phone number are called, staff will add your line. Please make sure you also unmute your line, your phone, if you have muted yourself as a courtesy, a reminder that if you're calling in from a cell phone, we recommend that you use the Zoom application as there is a delay that we may not be able to unmute you or have moved on given the delay to the next person. By the time you are here and acknowledge before you begin your testimony, please wait to be acknowledged to be sure that we can hear you, perhaps by saying your name and then pausing will confirm that we can hear you and we ask you say and spell your name so we can have it accurate for the record. You will have 2 minutes to speak. You'll hear a timer go off when you've reached your 2 minutes. You can certainly finish your thought. Please wrap up your comments to allow the next person to speak. If you've got much past your 2 minutes, you may be muted if you're listening on the TV or streaming. Please turn that function off when you're off in public testimony. Otherwise, we will hear feedback on the line. And though I don't expect any concerns, if you were disruptive during the meeting with our staff to hang up the call and have you leave the meeting. With that. I believe that is all of the instructions, Madam Clerk. Oh, I'm sorry. After you've offered your public testimony, if you could provide to make it easier for me to manage the call. If you can follow the remainder of the meeting. Watching on cable television. KC TV, King County Television, Channel 22. Or stream it online. These you can stream online. You can find the link on the King County Council's website. WW W dot King County dot gov backslash counsel. And then click on the ever popular watch live button. Madam Clerk, with that, I'd ask you to please call people for public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is Aida Sanchez Viera. If you go ahead and unmute yourself and you can speak. Hi. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. My name is either Sanchez Vela, a Ida. And my. My name is written right there on the screen. I live in saddle way and I am a member of Saltwater Church, which is one of the 23 member institutions of the Sound Alliance. Throughout our listening sessions, homelessness and mental health are at the top of the issues that our members care about. And that's why I am here in support of the proposed tax to fund permanent supportive housing for those who have been homeless for so long. I want to encourage you to take advantage of this window of opportunity of lower prices. I want to communicate that the Sound Alliance has members living in communities in South King County who welcome the idea of bringing permanent supportive housing to support homeless people living among us. A place for people to live with dignity is fundamental to enter into a path for healing. We also want our cities to participate and make sure this program will be successful. Permanent Supportive. Supportive housing generates great outcomes for recipients and the whole community community where we live. And like Gustavo, my high schooler son said, you cannot contribute to society if you don't have a home. So please make this happen. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Alicia. Go ahead. You are meeting. I. Can you hear me? Yes, we can go here. Great. Good afternoon. My name is Alicia Glen. Well, that's a l i cia j l e and w e l l. I'm with the Coalition Ending Gender Based Violence. I'm speaking today from our coalitions collective experience of working to prevent and respond to domestic and sexual violence in Seattle and King County. We urge you to pass the help through housing legislation, the wise investment that could make a significant difference in the lives of nearly half the people who are now chronically homeless. In our region, trauma is a major predictor of chronic homelessness in all populations, and domestic and sexual victimization is the number one cause of homelessness for women and children. These dynamics are compounded for communities of color from layers of racial oppression and discrimination. Amplify the risks and impacts of abuse and homelessness. When we talk about how to house those who've been marginalized in our region, we are talking about survivors. We know what works to end chronic homelessness, building safe, permanent, supportive housing. And we need a fast, powerful approach to make it truly effective. It's crucial that this effort is regional in focus, and that the revenues are used to house people at or below 30% area median income. Please adopt this proposal to maximize the impact of this tax and bring our unhoused neighbors into safe, healthy homes as quickly as possible. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Andrea Carnes from Plymouth. Please unmute yourself and go ahead. I am Andrea Carnes at Plymouth Housing and I'm also a resident of Kenmore. And I want to say that it's important to not only be speaking from Seattle, but speaking across the whole county, that this is a regional thing that we need to address. We have to address our neighbors living in all of these communities. And so I'm really excited to see this proposal because I think that for the first time, we're looking at this in a much more cohesive, collective way to take advantage of the current situation for buying up hotels and some of the opportunities that have arisen out of a very horrible epidemic that we could really advantage our brothers and sisters that are living on the streets that we need to care for and provide this resource. So I appreciate that. I appreciate that this resource is being targeted at people who are below 30%. AMI And I want to really emphasize that point, because I think that we need to look at who are our numbers coming from in terms of people on the streets and really focus our efforts in that direction. And I also want to share that as an employee of Plymouth Housing, that we know that permanent supportive housing works . We know that this is not only the most economical way to serve people in this in this region that are facing this long standing homelessness. But also it's the most humane way. And so we really need to respond with supportive services, and this is an excellent way to do that. So I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Brady Nordstrom. Go ahead and unmute yourself and you can proceed. Everybody. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Great. So I'm going to send my name out. It's PR, a DUI, and a Nordstrom and R.D. Strome. So, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I'm west Seattle for everyone, and I've been a resident of both Kent and Seattle. So Seattle for everyone. If you're unfamiliar, we're a broad housing coalition that represents a wide range of organizations and neighbors. This includes nonprofit housing developers, for profit housing developers, labor, business, environmental groups, urbanists, etc.. And so we unite under a shared belief that everyone, regardless of their income level or background, deserves access to a safe, stable and affordable home. So I would urge you to pass Ordinance 2020 0337. The health through housing sales tax, especially a.S.A.P, but especially before October 15th, we believe that this is a truly historic opportunity to make a meaningful investment in our region. So let me explain briefly why we are coming out to support this. So first of all, it's a regional approach. The housing crisis and homelessness are systemic problems that transcends single municipalities. So it follows then that to achieve meaningful solutions, our region should act in concert. Also, this proposal targets that 30% AMI and below. And despite having the deepest need, which is demonstrated, this requires the highest level of subsidy typically to build for. So pooling resources to meet this need is a smart step towards housing for everyone and a healthier King County. Also, it's urgent. So we continue to face a staggering unmet human need for shelter and stability. And so these 2000 projected units of permanent supportive housing can make real progress. And also, we shouldn't wait and lose this rare strategic opportunity in real estate by targeting this pandemic impacted single room properties, stable time and money. So also permanent supportive housing is not only humane, but evidence based. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. The next person is from the Coalition on Homelessness. Pleased to meet yourself. And if you give us your name that degree. Thank you very much. My name is Alison Azinger. is0neisinger. I'm not able to rename myself. I greet you King County Council members, and I'll be brief. I want to just thank you very much for taking this up with alacrity. As we have been saying to our members and partners in the community, even in the midst of great uncertainty and deep economic crisis. We have the opportunity to do something big and important that will dramatically change the trajectory of homelessness in this region. I, of course, am urging you to take swift action to enact this modest sales tax and to ensure that it is dedicated wholly and regionally to the supportive housing that is, the housing with the as needed supports and behavioral health services that. Chronically homeless people need. And that, we know works extremely well, as you've heard from others. I think, you know, as I do, that a number of suburban cities within King County took action last night to enact this option at the micro level. And the reason that I find that truly troubling is because if we want to continue speaking about taking a regional approach to homelessness, then we have to stop talking about it and we have to start doing it. Reducing the amount against which it's possible to bond is actually reducing the number of people whom we house. And it is honestly on my heart and mind every night that we are leaving thousands of people outside in the middle of a pandemic as the rain and cold weather are setting in. Whereas if you take action now, we have the opportunity to bond against this entire sales tax measure, raise $400 million, take smart, swift action by buildings that are vacant because of the economic crisis and bring 2000 people home. Thanks very much. Thank you. The next person is Jesse Rollins. Go ahead and unmute yourself and you can speak. Over there. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Gray. Dear King County Council members, my name is Jesse Rollins, and I'm the public policy manager at the Public Defender Association. I'm here today to communicate my immense appreciation for the collective and individual leadership of this legislative body. I also want to urge each of you to continue exerting moral leadership, especially within a regional response to homelessness. As regional leaders, our regional response does require unwavering support for the sales tax proposal to create permanent housing opportunities for those most vulnerable in the region. The dispersal of resources among many deserving groups is why we never really make a discernible dent and homelessness, which is why this hyper focused proposal is necessary for actually addressing the regional crisis of homelessness. By supporting this tax proposal. Public officials can continue governing with legitimacy and public support. Thanks for your leadership. And we certainly hope that all cities in the future in the region can follow this body data. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Carina O'Malley. Go ahead, please. Hello? My name is Carina O'Malley. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Please proceed. K.R. I and a o apostrophe email l e y. I live in Kirkland. I run a safe parking program here, which is a place where women and families live in their cars. And I am specifically speaking today about a woman who's on SSI. She's disabled so she can't work. She has to live on $783 a month, which is about 10% of King County. AMI and her back is being ruined living in this car. But that is the only affordable option in King County for her. Year after year, she has lived in her car waiting for something like this. She was feeling hopeless. She scrambles every day for a shower, for a place to cook her food. And you can end her. Wait. She can pay about $240 a month in rent and you can find her a place to live. We know how powerful we are when we work together. King County and the East Side partnered powerfully to create Kirkland Place for Families and Women, which is right now operating 24/7, serving families and women in Kirkland with the support and participation of the neighborhood and surrounding communities. I'm so grateful that King County is looking to leverage the authority given by HB 1590 to make a difference in the lives of folks experiencing homelessness with the housing and supports they need. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next person is Lindsey Graham. Go ahead, please. Thank you. Lindsey grabbed Ally and DCI Grady, and I'm the legislative director for SEIU Health Care 1199 Northwest. Here to join in all of these wonderful colleagues in asking you to support this package, I'm coming to you from the border of West Seattle and White Center. So specific thanks to Councilmember McDermott for sponsoring this measure. But I've cared about chronic homelessness in our county since I was six years old. I used to go with my grandparents who volunteered every day at the Cat Food Bank. And since since I was a young child, I've known that this is a problem in our county, whether it's rural, suburban, urban, unincorporated or incorporated. This is a regional problem. And from my entire life we have not been able to address it. But this is probably one of the most exciting and real proposals on the table. And I thank the executive for bringing it forward. I thank all my colleagues for being here today, asking you to support it. And I just want to join in them and ask this council to take this step and make sure that it is truly a regional plan, that it is dedicated to the folks with the most need. 0 to 30 am i. And that we don't dilute it. We can continue addressing additional needs after this package. But we have to take this hopefully once in a lifetime opportunity and turn it into something that can allow us to actually house the chronically unhoused in our region. So thank you for your time. Thank you. The next person is Mary Jo Shannon. Go ahead and unmute yourself and then you can speak. Hi. This is Mary Jo Shannon. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. So I am Emma. Why capital Joe and then. SAGAL And then Owen. I'm the president of the board of St Vincent de Paul Society of Seattle, Kane County. And I am here in support of this proposal, 1/10 of 1% tax to fund housing for chronically homeless people in King County. Our base of 1100 volunteers working out of 50 conferences across the county are in touch with their neighbors, struggling to pay rent, utilities and having access to food for their families annually. We visit and help 16,000 people, and since the beginning of the coronavirus, we've had a significant increase in calls for people needing help with rent, especially in South King County. We have a program in South King County Center Renda that serves more than 1100 households across the county, probably in across the Latino community with legal, educational and family support services. And we've seen more and more of those families dealing with housing insecure issues. In our food bank in Georgetown has been overrun with families and dealing with issues around housing. So we're more than aware of the need. One of the things that we are see most attractive about this opportunity is the quickness in which it could happen. New construction takes so long. This enables would enable us to house people so much sooner. Places for people to live in dignity is immensely important to finding a path to healing. We're very pleased to hear the planning for the use of this text and case management and wraparound services for the places where people will be living. We also believe the housing opportunities belong to those who have the least resources. So on behalf of our board, our council, our staff and 1100 vincentian volunteers to. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Matt Galvin. Go ahead, please. Hey, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Great. My name is Matt Galvin. It's made Jld and I am the owner of Coyote Pizza in McLean, a bakery and also a board member of the Third Door Coalition. And I'm speaking to you on behalf of the helping their health through housing and urging you to pass this ordinance. Our work, the third door identified as we need to build 6500 units to meet the needs of those that are chronically homeless in King County. And we believe it's a regional problem. And we do know that permanent supportive housing does work. And with wraparound services, it is the humane way to provide services and support to those most in need. And as you all know, those suffering from homelessness typically suffer from more than one disability. And chronic homelessness disproportionately affects those people of color. And I encourage you to focus this revenue on individuals below 30%. AMI And I think it's important, just as a business owner, I'd also like to share that I believe that you are really heroic ordinance here is an opportunity for our region to recover from the pandemic economically and really put the proper humane face on on our region. So I appreciate your time and I encourage you to support this ordinance. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next person is Melissa Grant. Go ahead and unmute yourself and then you can speak. Melissa Grant, would you like to speak? I'll move on to Michael Matt Miller. Go ahead, please. Good afternoon. My name is Michael Matt Miller. Am I c l m82? Am I lcr? And Sean McDermott, members of the Council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you on behalf of Microsoft in regards for our support for ordinance 20200311. We want to thank the council members, especially Councilmember McDermott, for putting forward an innovative approach to an important community issue that is concerning Microsoft for some time, and that is the challenge of providing affordable housing options for all members of our community. Microsoft has committed $750 million to create and maintain affordable housing in King County. These investments can be part of the solution, and we will continue to do our part. But the lack of affordable housing options and the persistent and growing challenges associated with homelessness are community wide problems that demand community wide solutions. These problems predated the current coronavirus pandemic and the economic disruptions that it caused. But the impacts of COVID 19 on this issue make the resolution under consideration even more timely. First, the data are clear if people are healthier when they have stable housing. Unfortunately, the second impact is that the economic disruptions caused by social distancing are putting even more people at risk of becoming homeless. And that risk is having a disparate impact on people of color in our community. But finally, there is a third more positive aspect. The same economic disruptions may create opportunities for affordably acquiring properties that otherwise might not have been available and repurposing them to shelter vulnerable community members. The measure before you is designed to house an additional 2000 King County residents who otherwise are experiencing or at risk of experiencing chronic homelessness by October 2022. But more than just housing, it proposes the sort of holistic response strategy that we know is crucial in attacking chronic homelessness. It's not just about putting a roof over a person's head, but instead surrounding them with support services to address employment, mental health, addictions and other factors that could be driving their homelessness. Microsoft believes that our community must strive to become one place to live, which is why we support this resolution. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Naomi. See? Go ahead and unmute yourself and you can speak. Hi. My name is Naomi. See, I'm speaking on behalf of the Low Income Housing Institute and also as a student of the University of Washington, I would like to express my support and our support for the implementation of House Bill 1590 across Seattle and King County. We have identified properties that can quickly and cost effectively, provide emergency shelter in the short term and permanent housing in the long term. As many of us have had the privilege of witnessing housing and dignified shelter transform people as affordable housing providers, we are more than ready to meet the available funding with projects that serve our communities. Just this year, there are dozens of projects that have been brought forward by community based organizations and nonprofit housing developers that will go unfunded because there's only 40 million available in the NOVA. While for profit companies can absorb the cost of delayed funding, failing to secure financing can ruin a project wasting the work of dedicated community organizations and nonprofits across King County. We know that housing is central to economic mobility, educational attainment and health and well-being. So I'm beyond excited that our region is taking this important step to set a precedent. Looks like. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Robin Kurek. Please go here. Hi. This is Robin Clark, our obe. inc0rak. I am the CEO with the Multi Service Center. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and like the others before me, I am speaking in support of health through housing. Homelessness, as we know, is a huge issue in our area. And given what we're seeing lately with the pandemic, my fear is that this will unfortunately only get worse. This this resolution gives us an opportunity to help our communities thrive and improve health for all. And we must have a focus on housing and a focus on equity, because we know that people of color experience homelessness at disproportionate rates, and we know that communities of color are being hardest hit by the pandemic. I can tell you from my experience at the Multi Service Center, we opened up the William J. Wood Veterans House a few years ago, which is permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans and their families. And one of the things that happened, many of the people that came to live there had been homeless for many years and had significant health issues. And one of the things that we noticed was as a result of having permanent supportive housing just within a number of a few months, their health issues improved dramatically, and we saw significant decreases in the number of emergency room visits. So we know that housing helps. We know that housing works. So I would ask you to strongly consider this resolution to help the communities that we live in, work in and play and thrive. And I've also asked you to ensure that the revenues are used primarily to house those who are 30% or below of the am-I. Thank you again for all that you do and for your consideration. Thank you. The next person is Shannon McCann. These go hand. Hi. Thank you. My name is Shannon McCann. I'm a middle school special education teacher and a proud member of the Federal Way Education Association. We're also a member of the Sound Alliance, which is united for the common good. And I'm also here in support of health through housing, our 1700 members. Educators across federal way are very driven to support housing solutions. And I think we all know that it's extremely difficult to learn without a stable place to live. And remote learning has been very difficult for everyone, but specifically for those who haven't got stable housing. We're in a pandemic and I just wanted to lift up as I start that we were in a crisis before we even got into this pandemic. And so I really applaud the Council for this creative, timely and life effort. The best way to help folks without housing is to find them housing. And so I just want to really thank you for the time and attention of the council and staff for putting this puzzle together. I also want to lift up that we are all closer to experiencing homelessness than we are to being a millionaire or a billionaire. So it could just take a car accident or COVID or being a veteran. And that's where all of us come in to use our privilege, however we can, to serve others. As educators, we work day and night for our kids to have a bright future. As a special education teacher, though, I am gravely concerned for outcomes for those of us who have disabilities. Without social services in place, our folks with disabilities can truly face hardships and higher likelihood of homelessness. I'm here to stand for a brighter future. I'm also here to advocate for a more anti-racist future in college. One of my professors who had actually experienced homelessness told us that it is a full time job to be in poverty and it's hard to navigate appointments. Getting to those appointments, finding a safe place to put your things, accessing services and support as well as navigating any hope behavior impacts. This proposal of health and housing will be a life size lifesaving measure for those of us who need it the most. And it is the right thing to do. It is the right time to do it. And I thank you for your courage to make it happen. Thank you. The next person is Steve Dashiell. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Steve Dashiell. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. So I'm the executive director, Southwest Youth and Family Services. And today I'm representing the King County Alliance for Human Services. And I'm also a resident of Redmond. And I'm speaking today to urge you to support the executive's proposal to pass the health through housing element of this proposed budget, which is critical to a county wide. Salud King County Alliance for Human Services includes a wide variety of human services organizations supporting residents of cities across the county with a wide variety of issues. Although we support residents with many different types of needs, different income levels and different housing and homelessness issues, we also stand together in support of health through housing as a priority solution to the homelessness crisis. We have collectively identified as a community for use of this new revenue opportunity. The King County Alliance's urges you to take the long view and courageously stand in unity with others across the county to address the biggest problem facing the region, the problem that we know how to solve and that we finally have an available resources solve. Homelessness is only poised to grow as the pandemic continues. Congregate shelters have become unsafe and COVID and the moratorium on evictions will eventually come to an end. So this is an absolutely. Critical time to act. We've been as the alliance, we've been urging city councils across King County to now implement the sales tax in order to allow King County to take the lead on this regional crisis. Let's work to end homelessness together. Thank you. Thank you. The next person on the line is well, Thomas Byrne. Go ahead, please, in a minute or so. Hi, this is. Hi. This is real close, friend. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi, my name is Photosphere and I'm in Union Stanford. Solid ground. Solid ground. As an anti-poverty community action area agency, we run a variety of programs that serve King County residents, including including those that are currently experiencing or have experienced homelessness. I'm making public comment today to urge you to support the Health Through Housing Initiative. This represents the best available option to our community to make the kind of transformational commitment to solving the homelessness crisis. We all know that permanent supportive housing is the most impactful way to serve those in need, and a coordinated regional approach is the only option. We need to ensure that this revenue is being used to house and serve people at or below 30% area median income. This represents many of the folks currently experiencing or at risk of experiencing chronic homelessness. The county needs to show bold leadership and make a commitment to those living in the most vulnerable situations. Further, the county needs to act fast. A quick approach will allow us to begin serving people as soon as possible, doubly important in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that is resulting in more housing instability. Thank you for supporting the health of through housing initiative and your ongoing leadership. Thank you. The next person, the last three digits of your phone number is 263. Please go ahead. Can you give us your name? Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Michael Ramos and Mr. ADL of our AM OS. I'm the executive director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle. The Church Council organizes congregations and people of faith throughout King County to build local, sustainable and equitable communities. We have work to address the human tragedy of homelessness in our county for 40 years. I urge your strong support for ordinances to 0200337 and 338. Chronic homelessness, especially in light of the pandemic, constitutes a life and death crisis for people without housing. County leaders are rightly identified homelessness as an emergency. Several years ago, the opportunity to apply the sales and use tax of 1/10 of 1% to serve up to 20 individuals at or below 30% of AMI finally ramps up a proportionate response to a regional challenge. The combination of supportive housing and permanently exiting homelessness is a recipe for thriving that works. Imagine addressing the triple threat of pandemic economic dislocation and homelessness and racial and ethnic disproportionality through one action by the county. These ordinances will be essential toward meeting the goals of the Affordable Housing Committee, the Regional Homelessness Authority and Pandemic and Racist Racism. Community Advisory Group on each of which I am privileged to serve on behalf of the County in service of the common good. Thank you for your prompt attention for neighbors experiencing homelessness. Thank you. Thank you. The next person has the last three digits of four, five, eight. You're going to meet yourself and go ahead and speak. Area Code 206 and last three digits, 458. Go ahead. There you go. Go ahead. Oh. This is David Moser. The idea. Owner. Or council. Member of the Hills Kim County District two, currently calling from Renton. And I'm also a longtime behavioral. Health worker. Receiving clinical attention. On the region. I'm also a member of the Dole. Coalition made up of smooth people for business leaders. Throughout. The region. Who understand the common sense truth that the way to end homelessness is the way to end the homelessness that is impacting their. Businesses is through providing. Permanent supportive. Housing to the more than 6500 chronically. Homeless adults in our region. I urge you to pass the Help to Housing. Ordinance in full and with urgency and. Also maintain its. Focus on housing. Those who are at west of. The. Variability in income and maintain its focus on. Coordinated. Approach. That we all know we. Need. We are currently a county that every night. And every day times over 6500 of our. Chronically homeless laborers who by definition are. Too sick or. Disabled to work. To just somehow. Pull themselves up. By that literally. Don't. Exist. We tell them to our collective. Inaction. That we care more about allowing wealthy. People to accumulate. Wealth than we do about their basic human. Rights to a warm place to stay. It's not due to a lack of economic. Resources in this region. It is due to a lack of political will and a lack of moral leadership. This is arguably the greatest opportunity. You have ever had to provide that. Moral leadership. That will have a huge immediate. Impact on the region. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe I call on everybody on the line. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Ms.. Daly And to make sure that we haven't missed anyone, though, seemed to go exceptionally well today. I'm going to ask the court to unmute everyone. At which time I will ask if you are on the line and wish to offer public testimony and have not had the opportunity to do so, that you speak up and we will take your names and go in order and make sure we hear from everybody. So maybe chaotic for a moment, but Ms.. Daley, if you would, unmute everyone right now. Okay. Mr. Chair, everybody is now unmuted. Thank you. Is there anyone on the line who would like to offer public testimony and hasn't had the opportunity to do so? I'm hearing no one. Anyone who would like to offer public testimony and hasn't had the opportunity to do so. All right, Madam Coach, if you re mute or close the public hearing. Everybody is now muted, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms.. Daly. And with that, we are have closed the public hearing and will move to our first briefing on the county's response to the COVID 19 pandemic. This is becoming a usual event in the Acao agenda, but continues to be because it continues to be very informative and helps keep us all current. On the county's overall response to the global pandemic. Joining us today, as usual is Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. And Dwight, we welcome you and look forward to the information you have to share. Great. Thank you. For the record, Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. And I'll try to keep this fairly brief, because I know you have a very full agenda. I had three things that I thought would be useful updates for the council about the county's COVID response. First of all, update on FEMA and what money we are getting and what we are expecting. Second, quick update on some of the grant programs that you all have funded through before omnibus appropriation ordinances that you have passed. And then finally, a very high level preview of the fifth COVID omnibus supplemental, which we will transmit next week. And I'll actually spend some time later this week with Councilwoman Raquel Wells going through that in more detail. It's actually fairly complex, but I wanted to get just a little bit out there for you to start thinking about . So going back to the first topic. I got an update this morning from Brandon McCluskey, who is the director of our Office of Emergency Management. And if you didn't know, I just want to take a moment to say how outstanding of a job Brandon and his team have done through this whole COVID situation. I mean, it has been genuinely remarkable the amount of work they've done and call man very confident where they've done it. Brandon's up there, kind of, just to give you a sense, is where we are in submitting requests to the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA for reimbursement. And we have filed three different reimbursement requests. And just so you understand, the long time lag. Most of them only cover the period up to the beginning of June. So there's much, much more to be done still in seeking FEMA reimbursement. The best news I got this morning when I heard from Brandon was we actually have received money. And the idea that you get your money within the same year you apply for it is quite unusual for those who have been on the council for a long time, particularly with weather related emergencies, it's often two or three years before you get any actual money. But we did receive already $2.7 million associated with some of our purchases of materials like personal protective equipment. We've also submitted a request for the funding for the congregate sheltering that we've been doing. So this is our isolation and quarantine facilities. And we have also submitted a request for a lot of the food security and similar programs that you all have authorized. And Brandon's best guess of what we have submitted so far is that we ultimately from these requests will receive about $75 million, assuming that everything that we have submitted is approved and the kind of appropriate percentages are funded. Recall that FEMA typically only funds 75% of the cost. So one of the things when you get the October COVID omnibus is we have to be reserving money to match this FEMA money because we're going to end up with a share of either 12 and a half percent if the state comes through, as they traditionally do, or 25% to cover the costs that FEMA doesn't cover. So generally, I thought that was really good news. I will just finish this section by noting that we do not know when the COVID emergency will expire. What FEMA has done, which is unusual, is they have extended the emergency, but they have not extended it to a date certain. And so my best guess is that that might be January, it might be March. And then depending on how COVID progresses, it could even be longer than that. So there's still a lot of uncertainty about how long our eligibility period for FEMA reimbursement will last. So with that, I will pause and see if there are questions about FEMA. I was up the Grove, can't remember up the Grove, followed by Councilmember Balducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks, Dwight. How does this get reconciled in the end? And specifically, if if we determine that there are things that we. Paid for. With Cares Act funds that now may be reimbursed by FEMA. Can we spend that money. On something. Else? In essence, what if this is reimbursing us for something we've already spent? Now we have this money. Do we have flexibility on how to spend it? The short answer to that is yes. It is going to be very, very complicated. We have, as you know, appropriated more money from the CARES Act for things that we know are not FEMA eligible. So that category is real clear. We have also. Appropriated. Money for things that may be FEMA eligible. And one of the reasons that when you get the October covered omnibus, you'll see that we're asking you to appropriate, in essence, more money than what I actually have, is to give us the flexibility to do exactly what you just said. So that if FEMA money comes through for something we hadn't counted on. We will have appropriation authority to to buy some stuff that otherwise we would have had to use that money for FEMA covered costs. And so I'll just give you an example. We're going to have a request in this October COBRA omnibus for something on the order of $16 billion of purchases of things like personal protective equipment and maybe some other materials that we will stockpile. And that's a purchase we can make late in December. So we'll wait to see what our situation is late in the year. If it looks like we're going to have a significant amount of unspent cares act money. Then we will go ahead and make those purchases because we'll be able to do it this year. And that will allow us to use as much of the CARES Act money. As we can. We have budget staff, we have accounting staff, we have lawyers, we have a consulting firm. Everybody is really trying to keep all this straight and make it as optimal as we can to get the money spent. So if you're interested in getting into the details of that, I would actually probably suggest we set up a separate briefing with you or any other council member who wants to do it, because the whole thing is is quite elaborate. But we are very much trying to do exactly what you just said. Thank you. I don't think I needed a deeper briefing. I just imagine there's things we'll hear from FEMA on after the end of the year. Yes. At which point it's too late to spend the cares money if we. You know, let's say we've purchased something with CARES Act funds this year. And then in February, we learned that FEMA will cover the costs of that. Aren't there requirements? The CARES Act funds be expended by December 31st. So are we just sort of out of luck? No. So I'm going to skip ahead a little bit to what I had in my third topic. So one of the things that we have done is we have identified in the general fund salary related costs and in some cases benefit related costs of existing general fund staff who have been reassigned to work on COVID response. And our estimate of that amount of money is a little in excess of $65 million. So we are going to charge the CARES Act $65 million for that staffing. Which will add that $65 million to the fund balance in the general fund at the end of this year. So in essence, we will have Converted Cares Act money into general fund money, some of that general fund money we have counted on to balance the 2122 budget. But others of that will be flexible money that we'll be able to use for costs of turn out or not allowable under the CARES Act or for costs that we need to match FEMA. So we've in essence, used our general fund as the place to have that flexibility around either FEMA reimbursement we hadn't expected or around FEMA costs or CARES ACT costs and ultimately turned out to be not authorized. And so we're frankly putting some risk on the general fund that we think we've worked our way through the nuances of that in a way that we think that risk is, frankly, pretty low. And so that's how we're trying to minimize the problem you're describing of using CARES Act for something this year that already becomes reimbursable by FEMA is by using a lot of the CARES Act to cover general fund based costs in order to provide that flexibility. And I know that sounds really complicated. When we transmit the October ordinance, we'll spend a lot of time with your staff kind of working through how exactly we do that. No, it's creative. I like it. Thanks. There's some really smart people working on this for us. So, yeah, it is really creative. And, you know, we've checked with all the lawyers and with the experts and it's clearly allowable under the CARES Act. Thank you, Councilmember Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think you answered my question, but maybe a follow up. If we hear a lot of concern from various people about whether we're going to be able to get out all of the CARES Act funding. And in this I'm not going to call it a shell game in this swap n swap out sort of thing that we're talking about. I guess a common if there's anything that would require policy changes in how we how we appropriated the CARES Act funding that would enable us to expend money rather than lose that, I hope you will wave a flag in our direction. Yes, we will do that. And we also one of the things you will see is there's at least one area that was a council initiative, which was digital equity grants, where we got way more good requests than we had money for. So we're actually going to come back to you and ask for some additional appropriation for that. And because we've already run the RFP process will be able to get that money out the door quickly if you approve it. Very good. Thank you. Questions from other colleagues. Council Member Col Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank you for this report and I was still on track for your chance. The executive is transmitting the COVID budget next Thursday, I believe, along with 80. Pork omnibus. Correct? Yes. Both of them will be to you next week. The fourth omnibus is very straightforward and simple. We really put the filter on that. We're not going to send over anything that's complicated and the only things we're proposing are really absolutely necessary. And we for my colleagues, the plan right now and it sounds daunting in a way, but especially given what Dwight has said, that it will be a pretty straightforward fourth omnibus. We are planning on taking that up the last ten days of our final deliberations on the 2020 122 biennium. So the plan is that both the supplemental for this biennium and the biennial budget, the next biennium will be will have action by the Council on November 17. If all works out well. But the big. Culvert. I believe we will be taking up for council deliberation and action in the first part of December. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President, you go ahead and proceed. Okay, great. And we've already kind of covered some of this stuff in advance, so it should go reasonably quickly. So the second thing I wanted to share was just a couple of status updates on getting the grant money out the door. And generally you can assume that the earlier you appropriated it, the more successful we have been about getting the money out the door. So just as an example, I mean what I documented. Here. Of the grants to cities that were done for economic development, we ended up with 33 cities who wanted the money and we disbursed the money to 30 of those 33. So virtually all of them are done. Another program that you did was the money for Chambers of Commerce and similar business organizations, and we have entered into agreements with almost all of those groups, and about half of them have received their funds. And I probably in a typical day get three more of those to disperse the money to. So those are getting out the door pretty quickly. Similarly with the arts and culture, the live music, some of the ones that were earlier on, those have gone out not to everybody, but most of the entities that have received it. Obviously, some of the ones you have done more recently are still in that process of RFP contracts and so on. I'm pretty optimistic that just about every one of those is going to be able to be done by the end of the year. I suspect we will have a little bit of underspend in some areas. Writing deals is small business grants. The second round is a lot better than the first round, but there might still be a little bit of money left there as an example. So and in most cases, very good progress on getting the money out the door. I will note that one fairly large allocation, which was the tourism related allocation, we are still working with those two organizations to come up with a final proposal. So that's one that's a little further behind, I think, than we would have hoped. I'm happy to answer any other questions or I just we have so many of these programs a lot of may would need to follow up to get details. Colleagues. Council Member Co Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to get a clarification from you. You mentioned that at the very end, toward the very end, about most of the other ground should be able to get out to the recipients by the end of the year. Now, what does that mean in terms of their being able to utilize the funds? Is it just okay that we got the money out or do they still need to use the funds by December 30th? So it it varies. Some some of the some of the groups are in a federal category where they have to spend it and we reimburse them. And so in that case, when we reimburse them, everything has already been spent and that there's no issue there. In some other cases, we are able to, in essence, pay them in advance. And as long as we have gotten the money out the door, even if they spend it over, let's say January, it's still going to be okay. And we work through each of those with the lawyers to make sure that we are in a place where we've complied with all the requirements about whether the money is just out of our hands or has actually already been fully expense. Can you get us a list of those? So the difference is like I think the seniors center do they need to spend the funds or a food bank by the end of the year or can they carry over some of that in January? I will specifically ask about one. Thank you. Okay. That's number. DEMBOSKY Did you have a question? Ah, well, yeah, I wasn't going to ask. But real quickly, since you called me, Mr. Chair, thank you so much for having these updates. The great Dwight. Thank you. We put in the last couple supplemental, I think the chair included in her striking amendment, $500,000 for restaurant industry support. And I know you had asked our office if if there was an association that would make sense for us to go to. But I thought I'd check in. Are you do you still need some help with that particular slug of funding or is that advancing how it is advancing out? And then, in fact, I think I don't have it in front of me. I think we have figures about how much has already been spent. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank. Ms. CHAIR. Thank you. Mr.. GREGORY All right. And so then the last one is just a preview that we've kind of already done of the upcoming COVID October supplemental appropriation ordinance. And I'm just going to kind of give you a sense of the. The kind of the biggest parts of it, and then the kind of the complexities that you're going to have to work through. So I already mentioned one of the ideas is going to be to have this what you might think of as a contingent appropriation to make purchases at the end of the year to use up as much of the money as we can. So you'll see that number. I think at the moment it's 16 million. We're still working with OEM to analyze that, but you'll see that as one significant appropriation in this ordinance. A second thing we've already talked about then is the idea of using the general fund and covering some of the personnel costs this year and then having money in the general fund. That is the flexible funding in the next biennium to help us pay for things like the FEMA match and any an allowable costs that are identified after the fact. And so you'll see a significant amount of money there. There's also much smaller amounts where we are reimbursing some other funds for costs they've incurred for staffing and other things. So we have some money for the solid waste division. We have some money for capacity, we have some money for public health, all of which are kind of the same nature of these were incremental costs they faced or staff that were reallocated that we're now going to charge to the CARES Act. And then the final big category or a few new or continued programs. And the the biggest ones by far are in public health. And I believe we're going to have something probably on the order I'm looking through here at the moment. Probably something in excess of $6 million for continued public health programs like contact tracing, the high volume testing that we're going to do. And so you'll see it will be very similar to the ones you've seen already that are direct program related appropriations to public health and a few other departments as well. And so those are the big components of it. We actually have a five page memo that we're working on that explains how all this stuff fits together, because you're going to have to look at this and how it balances to the general fund that you have in front of you. And we think we've got it all worked out, but it's going to actually be good to have you and your staff go through our work and make sure that we get all the math right. And so that's kind of a high level overview of that and gets more calls. I know it's an additional challenge, but you may actually end up being able to do this one at the same time as the other two budgets, partly because they relate to each other so much. And we kind of, if you want to change one, you might need to change the other. So at least we need to have a conversation about that. Mr. Chair, may I come in? Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Dwight. And Mr. Chair, I am just trying to vision this, and I'm sure my colleagues are two of three striking amendments, three factions, one of which is the biennial budget all at the same time. So just making that comment in my colleagues, we will work it out as smoothly as we can. I think we've had a good routine. We're used to it, but still three at the same time. I would only say if we've done our job right on the force regular omnibus, you shouldn't need to do a striking amendment. Okay. But I, I there's no way to avoid tipping. I accept that. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Daly. That's it for me. Anything else? Any other questions for Dwight? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting of the hall. And we look forward to seeing you at the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee. In the morning. Thank you. That brings us to item six on our agenda, a briefing from the King County Library System, executive director Lisa Rosenblum and finance director Nicholas Lee. They'll update us on how the library system has changed its operations during the pandemic to continue serving the public. The line is yours. I don't know what order you wish to speak in addresses, but the line is yours. Thank you, Chair McDermott and Council members. And for the record, I am Lisa Rosenblum, executive director of the King County Library System. Nicholas is joining me, but I will be speaking today. So thank you for inviting us. I wanted to give you an update on the US pandemic response and our service innovations. For the record, we've never been closed. We have not actually. We haven't allowed in building used, but we've been a vital player for the last six seven months, starting in March 13th, in response to COVID 19 and the governor's orders, we did have to close our buildings to the public, but we immediately pivoted. We created a phased reopening plan that I think you have in front of you that emphasize the safety of the staff and also of the patrons. And it's very much based on what the governor has indicated we need to do, but also our local health officials, officials. And I also got together a collaborative of all the Puget Sound Library directors. So we were talking immediately and discussing how we could possibly open up our buildings and our collections to the public. So from March to about June, we maintained all of our phone chat and email services. We've had 26,000 transactions through August with people calling us up with typical questions How do I download an e-book? How do I renew an item? Of course, we suspend purchasing of books and other materials, and we were we redirected a lot of monies, 350 K in two months just to digital resources, because we knew that people couldn't check out physical materials, but we knew that we had a job out out there to educate people on the vast digital resources that we had. In order to do that, we really had to beef up what I would say is already a pretty big collection and as a result we had an 84% increase in digital downloads as compared to 2019 and a 436% increase in new electric library cards. So what we offered actually prior to COVID, but it really got to be a very popular service, was if you didn't have a library card, you could online apply for a library card, an E card, and you just had to live in King County. And we saw a huge wave of people discovering resources and staff have and continue to present over 1200 online programs. And that includes your traditional storytimes author interviews, hands on science activities and support for parents as teachers. In June, however, we reached a new milestone in our Safe Start reopening, and that was the ability to open up our bookshops and take items back and also to offer curbside service, which I know many of you are familiar with. We've had. The curbside. We've offered curbside in 41 of our 50 libraries, but I think it's pretty it's going very, very well. It's very, very popular. And I know that our public, who enjoys a digital experience with the library, really has also missed the books, particularly children. And so we're proud to be able to offer that. And as of today, we've been offering surprise book bags. Our mobile services has three large contactless visits to child care locations, bringing books to children, curbside drop off and pick up materials. So we're trying to reach those children that are are in daycare to help them and get books in the hands of children. We've also offered additional services to really reflect the current environment we're in, and we know that people are hurting out there and we know somewhere there's a lot of financial assistance programs offered and gets very confusing to our patrons. So we've offered financial assistance service in English and Spanish to connect residents with COVID related funding for emergency businesses and education. We also know that some people how many people have lost their jobs. So we're offering your next job service that provides endeavor, individualized job search assistance. And this is in partnership with our colleagues at Seattle Public Library. We know that it's really difficult for parents right now. Our K through 12 kids, they're not able to go to school. We have parents home. So we're offering remote learning resources to support students in their virtual return to school. And what's really helped us is our student E! Cards, which, again, all school districts in King County as well as Bellevue College, have access to our digital student cards where they can do research, they can check out databases and do homework. And we offer tutor assistance online for our for our our students. Coming this fall. We have received some CARES Act funds and we're boosting y fy at all of the libraries. We for drive thru options. Now, we never stopped wi fi, but some of the signals and some of our libraries were not as robust as we would like. It would require you to get out of your vehicle, walk up close to the close to the building. And while that's okay, we're trying to boost those signals so that you can be further on it out in the parking lot and be able to get access to wi fi, which we know is so important. You know, we have families that, you know, that have two or three kids and at school at the same time. And the wi fi is being really strained. So we're hoping that they will also take advantage of that and maybe just get in the car and pick up some of the signals next to the library. I have something exciting to to offer. It's a new service. We are about to install exterior lockers and it will expand material pickup options. So similar to the Amazon locker where you can pick up your packages. These are exterior lockers, 24 seven access where somebody can request. A. Book, be sent to a locker and they can come up to the book for contactless pick up at morning, noon evening. Whether we're open or not, we're also have enhanced our study zone. Plus, it's a virtual homework help site and we'll launch that through Zoom. And we have tutors there. We have breakout rooms, we offer ESL talk time tech tutors and more. So we're really trying to help our school children learning remotely and their parents, too. I want to bring up a couple of partnerships that we've established, and I think the one I'm most proud of is the one that we've partnered with King King County with Mass Distribution Project. We took our many, many trucks that we normally move books around in July, and we distributed 3.5 million PPE masks to 650 community based organizations. Basically what we did is we picked up the PPE, we brought them to sites, our libraries all across King County, and then the nonprofits could come by and pick them up. We also added ballot drop boxes at Black Diamond and Covington. The total in King County is now 22, and we're offering online programing and supporting that National Register to Vote Day. And we're also distributing voting handouts at our curbside service. Finally we did what we could with the census. We had a census complete count committee, and we pivoted to social media and tried to really push out, filling out the census, similar to the other organizations that we've worked with throughout the county. So I thought at this time we'd be talking about our levy. And of course, immediately in April we knew we could not go to the voters for a levee level left. So we did all that. We had planned to run it in August. Obviously, due to economic uncertainty, we do not know when we'll be able to come back to the voters. So in response to that, we have placed a hiring freeze. We've implemented that, done all the things that most of you most of you have done. We've stopped our travel and conferences. We've cut back the way we could. And we're continuing to look at our budget because we can no longer. Run as a run the library as if we were going to pass a levy LED lift. We're currently collecting $0.32 per 1000 assessed value. And so we're really going to have to take a hard look next year. You know, you talk about running different budgets. So we have the COVID budget, we have the post COVID budget, and we have the no levy budget. So we're running a lot of scenarios now as we present our budget to our board of trustees in October and an offer a public hearing on our budget in November. Also, some other items I want to talk about really quickly. We have not stopped moving forward. We know pre-COVID we had hired some a consultant to do a DIY organizational assessment. We knew we had work to do with diversity, equity and inclusion. We got the report back a number of weeks ago and we've made some changes in our organization in response to our DIY needs. We have a commitment and the pandemic continued to raise some stresses in our organization too. So I recently offered Adobe and she's accepted. Domenica Myers will begin as our director, our first ever director of Diversity Equity Inclusion, and she will lead a new approach, a new department to better align our internal and external efforts. So that includes concludes my presentation to you over Zoom and I'm here to answer any questions that the Council may have. Thank you, Ms.. Rosenbloom. I'm taken with your adaptability, particularly lockers, to allow people to have contactless pick up and in fact, even extending service from what they could do in a library to 24 hours a day pick up. And appreciate again that a library today is so much more than books that it is information. And therefore, I want to commend you also for recognizing and stepping up your Wi-Fi to reach further outside the brick and mortar building at a time when the building is closed and people need that access to the information highway even more so. Thank you very much. And it occurs to me as I'm listening to your presentation, looking at my background, that if Councilmember Dombrovskis and so many other people on Zoom these days, that maybe we need to put less importance on what books are on the bookshelf behind us and have our library card sitting behind us. I can't remember through. Thank you, Mr. Cherry. At that last point, we need to tell. My husband is a book addiction. I thank you, Mr. Chair. Hi, Lisa. I like you. Mr. Chair, I just wanted to say a few words of appreciation for how much the services you've provided have meant during the shutdown. I've heard from friends with kids and families how valuable the online resources became when you were now taking care of your kids at home or you weren't before and doing some of your homeschooling. And I appreciate I had fun recording a read along of a little kids book. Thanks for including me. But even things like I talked about last year, the tend to try summer reading challenge that I'm I'm a little behind on this year but I'm plowing through it. I had the chance to take advantage of both at the Des Moines Library and the Burian library of book pick up and drop offs. And you have the most amazing staff and everything went smoothly and efficiently. And as the chair pointed out a minute ago, the cool progressive things you're doing as an organization during this pandemic is is admirable. And I know I've said it before, but when people get confused and think that I have something to do with the King County Library system because King County is in the name, I never correct them. I like your good work to rub off on us. So thank you. Thank you. Other colleagues. I just. Remember Belushi. Thank you. I don't want I don't want to extend this, but I was just listening and thinking every year when we get this report. It's a reminder because we already know this, how unique and critical of a role our libraries play in our communities for so many people in so many ways. And this year it just comes home even more as we deal with not just COVID, but a census and all these important things that people have to do. And frankly, the buildings themselves are arrested for people. They're a place to come inside out of the cold or to just get a little serenity in their busy days. And I miss I miss being in the libraries. I really, really do. But everything you're doing is still so much more important this year than it even is most years. And we just want to thank you and your team for the services that you provide to all the fans of King County. Thank you. And, you know, we want to be open we want to open our doors to the public, but we're going to do it in a safe way, both for our staff and the public. We will be open once we get to phase three, where I'm hearing on the grapevine that we might be have a phase 2.5 , we will definitely open. We know that there's are many people who love books, but there's a whole bunch of people, particularly in South County, that need access to computers and wi fi and in building. And we're coming up with scenarios now that will allow that to happen in a safe way, a limited use, limited time in the library, but at least the ability to come inside, get on the Internet and do the work at some of our some of our folks need to do in our libraries. Jeff. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I do want to thank you for all you've done and really good recommendations on what to do reading. But I really appreciate how you have stepped in in so many different ways, from mass delivery to more technology, helping people to have more resources for doing schooling that they didn't expect they were going to have to do. And I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you on the board and just thank you so much. Thank you. We have an amazing staff. They really had to pivot right away within two weeks to go from an in-person environment to doing Storytimes online. And I think they've done a great job. But again, we really want to be open to all of this. We miss you. We have beautiful buildings. We miss the public. But anybody else like to offer a prize to the King County Library System? Seen at this time. Lisa, thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. For your continued good work for the people of King County. Truly admire and appreciate it. Thank you. That takes us to the next two items on the agenda that we'll take up together as they both relate to a proposed sales and use tax to be used for housing and associated services. April Sanders is here from the Council Central South to provide the staff report for these items. Ms.. Sanders, the line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, April Sanders Council policy staff and item seven begins on page 13 in your packet and the Post Ordinance 2020 0337 would impose a 1/10 of a percent sales tax for housing and related services. Proceeds from the tax will be deposited into the health through Housing Fund, which would be created through proposed ordinance 2020 0319, which I'll brief later on, starting with a bit of background information. During the 2020 legislative session, the Legislature passed House Bill 1590, which amended provisions for the housing sales tax. Previously, the sales tax was required to go to the ballot for authorization from voters before an actual. The House bill, 59, provided the option for the tax to be council. Manic counties were given until September 20th 30th of 2020 to impose the tax countywide. After that, the cities could impose the tax in the county with no tax after one or more of the cities have already done so. The county must provide a credit to those cities for the full amount collected within their jurisdiction. At the time of this statute that I wrote the staff report. No cities had enacted the tax, however. Last night, at least four cities passed legislation imposing the housing sales tax within their jurisdiction, which will have revenue impacts should the Council pass a similar tax. State statute specifies the activities and services for which the tax may be used. Table one on page 14 provides an overview of spending allocation requirements. At least 60% of proceeds must go to the following three purposes. One Constructing affordable housing. Two, constructing mental, mental and behavioral health related facilities. And three, funding operations and maintenance of new affordable housing and facilities where housing related programs are provided or newly constructed evaluation and treatment centers. All remaining funds must be used for operation delivery or evaluation of mental and behavioral health treatment programs and services or housing related services. Additionally, the state statute requires that only the following population groups with at or below 60% area median income for King County may be provided affordable housing and facilities providing housing related programs generated using this tax revenue. Persons with behavioral health disabilities, veterans, homeless or those at risk of being homeless. Families with children accompanied homeless, unaccompanied homeless youth or young adults. Persons with disabilities and domestic violence survivors. Counties imposing the tax must consult with cities when siting facilities within jurisdictional boundaries, and the county must spend at least 30% of revenue collected within any city, with a population over 60,000 within that jurisdiction. Currently, the following cities have populations over 60,000. Seattle, Bellevue, Kent, Renton, Federal Way, Kirkland, Auburn, Redmond and Sydney image. Lastly, the state statute allows for counties to issue general obligation or revenue bonds and pledge up to 50% of the moneys collected for bond repayment. Bonded revenue may finance provision or construction of affordable housing facilities where housing related programs are provided or evaluation and treatment centers. Now, moving on to the proposed ordinance in front of you, it would impose a housing sales tax named the health through housing tax. Many of the provisions in the state code are reiterated in the proposed ordinance, so I'll not review those that I have discussed previously, but that it would prioritize those whose income does not exceed 30% ami of King County and who are in the population groups I described previously. Additionally, proceeds will be allocated with the objective of reducing racial and ethnic disproportionality among those experiencing chronic homelessness. The specification of 30% AMI and the objectives that I just mentioned are set forth in the proposed ordinance for the not required by state statute. The proposed ordinance would also provide the county with the authority to issue bonds and use up to 50% of the moneys collected for a repayment of those bonds. The executive has indicated through the biennial budget proposal an intent to develop a bond package for 400 million over the next biennium. Moving on to some timing considerations. State law requires that a local sales and use tax change may take effect no sooner than 75 days after the Department of Revenue receives notice of those changes. Executive staff indicate that final passage by council is sufficient to notify the department. Additionally, collection can only begin on the first day of January, April or July of any given year. Table two on page 16 reveals various scenarios for council passage. If Council passes legislation by October 17. Collections could begin in January of 2021. Alternatively, if council passes legislation by January 15th, collections would be in an April. I included revenue estimates for each collection date, but I would note that these estimates assume county action before any cities impose the tax. So it's slightly outdated as of last night. I want to touch briefly on the executive's proposal for these funds in the biennial budget, though these would not be decided in this legislation but rather in budget deliberations. The executive proposes the following distribution with the health or housing allocation across various appropriation units behavioral health at 8.7 million housing and community development with 446.7 million. That's the bonded revenue, plus an additional 46,000,000.7 million. The Healthier Housing Fund 96.7 million. And the Debt Service Fund 36.9 million. Not up for discussion today, but relevant to the conversation is proposed ordinance 2020 0338, which would require the executive to transmit a proposed initial health through housing implementation plan by next June 30th for approval by Council . This proposed ordinance details specific items to be included in the plan and is a mandatory tool for all that has been referred to both the Committee of the Whole and Regional Policy Committee. That brings me to the end of the week on this item. Mr. Chair, I'm happy to jump right into briefing 0319 or I can take a pause for this item and brief that that after the fact. And there are amendments. Why don't you go ahead and brief? 319. I think that'll be quick and won't add any questions. Perfect. So item eight begins on page 19 of your packet and its proposed ordinance 2020 0319, which would establish the health through housing fund and add a new chapter to King County Code. Chapter four A to codify the fund creation is ordinance only needs to be adopted if the Council adopts legislation to impose the housing sales tax . The Department of Community and Human Services would serve as the manager of the fund and proceeds would be spent in accordance with the authorizing state statute. Additional direction on allocations of these moneys would be through proposed ordinance on 33037 imposing the sales tax as well as proposed ordinance 2020 0338 directing the creation of the implementation plan and Loeffler floor and Mark Brooke are both on the line to take questions. Thank you, April, for briefing both ordinances 2023, three, eight and 319 colleagues. Other questions about the briefing. You be. Seeing no questions. I call on Councilmember Balducci to move adoption of 338. 0337 Mr. Chair. 337. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, of adoption of Proposed Ordinance 2020 337 with a good pass recommendation. Thank you, Councilmember Bell. She has moved adoption of Ordinance 2020 337 with a deposit recommendation. Thank you, Councilmember, for making that motion. I'll ask if there are any amendments, I guess, before we move to speeches on the ordinance as introduced. Councilmember Lambert. You. So far. And I asked this before, but I asked if there's any chance that this will go on for ten years, 20 years, 30 years. And what would be the cost to each citizen? Average cost that 60%. Median income, 80%. 100% median income. So we know what this costs, the people who will be paying for it. Sure. So this is an ongoing tax council member. So there's not a sunset date in it. And as far as the expected cost for each individual and it vary greatly, I can try to ask the wife about possible per per individual costs. And then I'd follow up with you offline. That would be great. Thank you. Dombrowski. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I distributed two possible amendments for the purpose of surfacing them, but I am just by way of background. Maybe Kendall Moore would need to advise on this, but the ordinance here makes a couple of appall, I think makes at least it makes two policy calls. One is under the state statute, I think these funds are restricted to 0 to 60% ammo. We we're deciding here today to limit it to 0 to 30. I want to say I support going into that space. Our regional affordable housing plan said we should use public resources to fill the 0 to 50% niche as much as possible because that's that's where there's, you know, the deepest need. And we thought we could do the most good. And I think there's 44,000 units of need there. We're going even deeper here with the 0 to 30. So I'm not objecting at all to the to the policy. I just you know, we have a regional policy committee. And to the extent this is a making a regional policy, it may be the safer place since we're going to be asking bond counsel to issue an opinion letter on this, to issue 400 plus million dollars of debt would be to make sure we're being very true to our our processes with respect to referral to the regional committee. So I had an amendment that would read the intent was, although I don't think it's quite there was to make sure we're just true to the statute in the in the ordinance that adopts the tax and we don't have any problem. I don't from a policy perspective, I will say again, I think that it's right with respect to the Executive's proposal to prioritize the 0 to 3. I know there's some issues around that, but that's where I am on that. The other amendment I, I want to again, I think it's probably more appropriate over in the implementation plan, but the statute has this 60,000 city population provision where it says in those cities the county will spend not we don't turn the money over to the cities, but the county will spend 30% of the funds raised in those jurisdictions, in those jurisdictions. I think maybe all of us except Councilman Rocco Health and Councilmember Rizal, I have cities in whole or in part that are under that. The North End is a collection of cities less than 60,000. And they, in my discussions with them, want to be a regional team player and everything and have looked at adopting the tax like some cities are doing, that they would rather partner with the county but have some return on the money raised in their cities to help house folks and provide housing in the communities. So my my Second Amendment let me it's the First Amendment, but maybe I'll call it the second councilmember. Lambert You might like that better. Councilmember Dunn two Anyway, sorry. The amendment would say, hey, if it's, if cities want to or more want to get together such that their population would exceed 60,000 to for the purposes of partnering to provide these services and housing in the community that we would spend that 30% we treat them like a 60,000 population city. And I, I think, you know, one, it's kind of a regional distribution of fairness. Issue two, there's needs. Countywide three, I think it will force us to not, frankly, go provide all of this housing in a very few communities. And we'll kind of share the share the benefits and the burdens, if you will. So I don't know that any cities would would do it. It doesn't dilute the county's big picture spending in any way or anything else, but it says, hey, let's let's provide resources. County, county wide. I think it probably needs some more discussion and dialog. So I don't intend to offer it today. And again, I'm not sure this is even the right vehicle under our rules, but I want to service it with you all, let you know because this is moving so quickly and you're seeing that by cities adopting some of the tax locally. But maybe there's an opportunity to strengthen the regional partnership here, but giving a little more another path for some of our smaller cities to come together and be participants. So I want to surface those to you today. I will say, well, I have the floor, so maybe I can just speak once, Mr. Chair, that I'm very supportive of this initiative I introduced in 2017, the 10th of a penny sales tax under the statute when it took the voters approval, it wasn't just council magic then. So I really do. Even though this is a regressive tax, I think that it's the right thing to do and we adopted it then. We have been collecting revenues for three years and be well on our way. But. It. It really could if if it works out, if we were able to bring on 2000 units, make a real dent in the 4500 to 6500, depending on which number you look at after the third door coalition's identified need. And I like, I like the acquisition notion. I know we have to go down to Olympia and get a change there. At least I think we do because it shrinks the time from four or five years to design and permit and construct the unit down to something a lot less. The costs are lower. They could be half as much as the $450,000 a unit that we pay for permanent supportive housing today. So I like the notion a lot have been pushing all year to use Cares Act money to acquire hotels. So I think that could be good in my district. I want to say, you know, these aren't easy. We are supporting the city of shoreline and they can get a housing authority to acquire a care facility with a little over 60 rooms to bring on shelter service, but in a permanent and supportive way with Lake City Partners . So I'm pretty excited about this because I think it can make a big dent in it. But I'm going to ask my colleagues to take a look. Even if you don't have a lot of little cities, you might have a smaller city that would like to partner with one of your bigger cities and do that. So I wanted to service that. I appreciate you giving me the chance to do that today, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to supporting this legislation. Thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski. And as the sponsor of this legislation before us today, I share your excitement for the opportunity it presents to us. It truly gives us the opportunity to address chronic homelessness, people experiencing chronic homelessness, and move them into not only housing, but supportive housing in ways that we don't have the resources identified elsewhere to do. And I agree that the sales tax is not a progressive tax form. But the most regressive thing about the conversation we're having today is 4500 to over 6000 people living in chronic homelessness on the streets of our communities throughout King County. That's the most regressive thing we will consider all day. And the progressive response is to move them into housing with the support they need to be successful in doing that. The plan brought before us from the executive and as introduced, would allow us to bond against the sales tax for about $400 million in the first year and be able to take care, take advantage of market conditions to buy single room occupancy style housing, be it motels or nursing homes. Given the current market conditions offered for sale and particularly affordable and gives us the ability to strike fast, to move fast with a sense of urgency and nimbleness that we have lacked, frankly, in our response to chronic homelessness. Since the emergency for Homelessness was declared in November 2015 by the then mayor of Seattle and the county executive. This gives us the opportunity to respond and invest. And in one count of those who are chronically homelessness, there's a particular need, I think, to cite and be aware of the disproportionality that we'd be addressing because of that population. Fully 23% are Native American or Alaska Natives, and 12% are black or African American. The disproportionality within homelessness in general, but particularly within this chronic homelessness population, is critical, and this is a key opportunity for us to have a coordinated response and address moving people into home housing in which they can be successful . Other discussion questions. Debate. Colleagues. Councilmember Dombrowski. I'll just jump in I think because some folks may be looking at in the executive prepared a helpful infographic summarizing the proposal and I just want to know they did not I think by accident missed in these authorized populations veterans. But your legislation as introduced, Mr. Chair, does include all of the groups in the statute, including veterans. Very much. Very much so, yes. Having no further discussion. I asked the clerk to please call the roll. And. Q Mr. Chair, Councilmember Pelosi, I. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Councilmember done. Councilmember Caldwell's. Councilmember Lambert No. Councilmember Autograph. Councilmember one right there. I. Council members online. By. Mr. Chair. I count council member Dundas and I. Mr. Chair, the vote is eight eyes. Council member Lambert wants no. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 337, and we will expedite that to full council a week from today. That takes us to. Ms.. Sanders is it pardon me? 0319 Which is the fun creation ordinance. In ordinance 2020 319. Councilmember Belushi. A move adoption of the Duke's recommendation. Council Member LDC has moved adoption of Motion Ordinance 2020 319 with the Duke Pass recommendation. This creates the fund both through housing. Seen no discussion. Wait, can we have a clarification? These two are coming fast. Mr. Chair, I just want to. Hear a summarization of what this one is. Of course, Ms.. Sanders. Or so this proposed ordinance would create the health through housing funds. That's where the money would be deposited or after collections of the sales tax. So you'll see the healthier housing fund in the proposed biennial budget. And this it actually adds it to code as a fund. Further questions. Madam Clerk, if you please, call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember. Thank you. I. Councilmember Domanski. I. Councilmember Dunn. I. Council member Coles. Councilmember Lambert. Council member of the girl. I. Councilmember Vaughn. Mike, there were five. Council members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 990 now. By. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 319. We'll send it to full council, will expedite it to next week's agenda. And given we have the previous motion, we will not put this one on consent. Pardon me. Council member Belushi. You're a mute councilmember. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I ask the court to send me on as a co-sponsor on both of those last few ordinances. Please. Me too. I will do that for both of you. Thank you. Thank you both. That takes us to item. Nine and my Mr. you can add DEMBOSKY on the tax one. Well, they. The chair will happily pause for anybody else. All right. The next item for discussion in possible action is a motion that would improve the Metro Safety Plan structure. I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I would like to be added on to the 20319. To define the creation. Yes. And on that one. I'm sorry. Oh, 337. Miss Stedman. I have that added Council member Caldwell's 203 37 So here's what if you don't mind me just reiterating what I have, please do. Okay, three seven. I have council members. DEMBOSKY saw her line folded. She and Caldwell signing on. 403198 have council members song I don't do Chee. That's all I happen. Hopefully there were no additions. And I see no other movement. I apologize, Mr. Chair. I believe I was a co-sponsor of both of those originally. Is that correct? Can I confirm that the declare. That you are a co-sponsor for 0337 council member of the Grove. You are not currently a co-sponsor for 0319. I'll feel free to add my name. What the heck. Thanks. I won't do that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again. My pleasure. Member. All right. Now we'll. Our next item is discussion and possible action on a motion that would approve the Metro's safety plan in accordance with the Federal Transit Administration regulations. Mary Bergen on council staff is here to provide the South report. The line is yours. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. For the record, I'm Mary Bergen. And from the council staff and the materials for this item begin on page 41 of your packet. As you noted, proposed motion 2020 0299 would approve Metro's public transportation agency's safety plan prior to being submitted to the Federal Transit Administration or FTA, which is required by the end of this year. This is Metro's first agency safety plan because it's in response to a new requirement by the FTA from a rule that the FTA issued in 2018. Council approval is required because the Council serves as Metro's board of directors. And by your approval, you'd essentially be certifying regulatory compliance that this plan meets the FTA requirements. So what I'd like to do is very quickly just run through what those requirements are and certify that staff has reviewed this and determined it to be in compliance and then present a technical amendment for your consideration. So moving on to page 43, I'll note that not all of Metro services are covered in this plan. First, water taxi service is not because the water taxi safety is regulated by the Coast Guard, not the FTA. And in addition, the services that Metro operates for sound transit and the City of Seattle are not covered because those agencies are responsible for the agency's safety plans for those. Although I will note that Metro has collaborated with both of those agencies and uses its safety plan and the information contained in it for all of the services and operates not just those that it's responsible to report on. The agency's safety plan required by the FTA includes seven categories. And if you'll jump to page 47, I'll just note briefly what is required in each of those categories. So category one is basic information about the agency, including its name, its address, the types of services it operates, and the types of FTA funding it receives. On page 48, Category two is information about the development of the agency's safety plan, how it is to be approved. Again, this council's approval is one part of that process, and then how it will be updated, because the FTA requires that Metro evaluate its safety plan each year and then update it whenever there are significant changes, such as new fleet, new types of services. Category three can be found on page 49, and that is Metro's reiteration of the safety performance targets it keeps for fatalities, injuries, safety events and system reliability. These targets are all set by the federal government, and then Metro has a way that it tracks how its service matches up for each of these. And then that is described in the agency safety plan. Category four towards the bottom of page 49 is Metro Safety Management Policy, which includes a reiteration of Metro's written statement, as well as the processes that Metro has put in place both to train employees on safety protocols, and then the reporting program that Metro has in place for employees to report safety problems. Category five at the bottom of page 50 is the safety risk management component, which is the processes Metro uses to identify and mitigate risks. Category six Safety Assurance can be found on page 51, and this includes how investigations of safety incidents are conducted, as well as activities to monitor the agency's operations, to identify any risks that may be ineffective, inappropriate or were not implemented. So this is sort of how Metro deals with issues and assures continued safety operations. And then finally, Category seven, which you'll see on page 52 towards the bottom of that page in safety promotion. And that is Metro's training program for its employees at all levels, as well as the processes Metro has in place to communicate safety protocols to employees with the plan, the FTA requires that Metro also develop a three phase implementation plan, and Metro describes that in its agency. Safety plan going through how it will over a three year period, implement each of the components required in this plan. And then the plan goes on to describe in somewhat more detail the council oversight. And I'll note again that your consideration of this motion is really just for the purposes of regulatory compliance with the FTA requirement. There are other opportunities currently underway for the Council to weigh in on safety policy, most notably in Metro Strategic Plan, which will be is be in the process of being updated and which is anticipated to be transmitted to the Council for Review mid-next year. I will close by noting that there is a technical amendment, Amendment One, which you can find on page one nine of your packet that would add several pieces of non substantive information that are required for the FTA, but we're just inadvertently omitted when the document was transmitted. And those include Metro Street address the names in addition to the titles of the general manager and Managing Director of Safety and Security. Since there is a signature page that they need to sign a statement on the signature page that just verifies and reiterates that by signing the document, the Metro officials verify that the agency safety plan addresses all the applicable requirements and then a listing in the introduction to the document of the FTA funding types Metro receives. That is the end of my report. I'm happy to take any questions. And we have four Beaconsfield from Metro, who is the managing director of Safety Security, also on the line with us today. Are there questions? Seeing none and seeing the council member Lambert's video as I'm council member Lambert would you would you be kind enough to move adoption of a motion 2020 299. I would be happy to. I'd like to move on year nine, 20, 22, 99 when they do pass recommendation. Thank you very much. Council Member We have motion 2020 299 before us with a amendment. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dombrowski would move adoption of the Amendment one on page 109. Further discussion. All those in favor of Amendment One, please signify by saying I. I oppose nay. The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Discussion on motion 2020 299 as amended. Quick eye for me. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Do we know what the cost of doing this will be? And are the feds sending us any money to do this work? Councilmember That is a great question, and I would defer to Rebecca Feldt from Metro. Thank you. I don't really need an answer. I just want to make the point. Here's another unfunded mandate, and we have to figure out the money for it when we have other issues. So it's great work. I think we could probably be a lot less verbose than some of their requirements and we'd be happy to do it . Especially if they pay for it. Councilmember Lambert, can I address your concern? Sure. Okay. This is replacing a preexisting mandate from the FTA. This is just the latest method of managing safety on our system. So it's nothing it's nothing new. It's just. Well, it is new, but it's it's nothing new to absorb. Great news. Thank you. You're welcome. Further discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Hi. Councilmember. Done by Councilmember Coles, I. Council member lambert ireland. Council member of the GRA. I can remember running my car. I. Council members online. Why? Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 990 on. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to a motion 2020 299. We will expedite that to full council next Tuesday and place it on consent. It takes us to item ten. Our final agenda item for today is a motion that would revise the appointment process for the District and Committee, which redraws the County Council district boundaries every ten years informed by the annual the decimal census. Patrick Hamacher, the director of Council Initiatives, is here to provide this report. Mr. Hamacher, the screen is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and council members. Good afternoon. Patrick Hamacher, Council Staff. The materials for this item are at the end of your packet and they begin on page 163. The county charter, as you noted in. Your introduction. Requires that the district for the offices of County Council member be redrawn every ten years. The next time they need to be redrawn is by the end of 2021. So coming up prior to 2008 and the passage of Initiative 26, the office was actually a partizan office. So council members would run as as a representative of their political parties. Council Initiative 26 made the offices nonpartizan. However, the code has never been updated to remove the partizan references from the code section pertaining to redistricting and actually calls for PARTIZAN appointments to the District and Commission to fully understand what the district doing process requires. You actually need to reference state law, the county charter and county code. And so just by way of background, a quickly go through that state law and the charter. And now on the bottom of page one, 63 state law and the charter both require require a district due process every ten years. RTW 29 876 actually lays out criteria that any district team process must meet and the highlights of those districts district requirements are laid out on the bottom there. I'll go over them very quickly. The population in each district must be as equal as possible. Districts must be as compact as possible. Districts must be geographic. Must be a geographical contiguous area. Population data cannot be used to favor or disfavor one racial group. Population data must be not used to favor or disfavor one political party. And to the extent possible, districts should use existing natural boundaries and preserve existing communities of related and mutual interest. So those are the criteria laid out in state law. And largely what that does in Washington state is prevent some of the kind of crazy, crazily drawn, gerrymandered districts that you might see, particularly with congressional districts and other states. The district can process also has criteria laid out in the county charter. So I've now moved on to page 164. On the top of the page there, Section 650 of the county charter lays out the criteria of the district being process, and it requires a district in committee to be appointed every ten years. The next one, as we noted, coming up at the beginning of 2021. The council under this process appoints four members, and those four members appoint the fifth member who serves as chair of the district being committee. The committee also needs to select what the charter calls a district master. In this case, think of it as a person or firm that actually is responsible for drawing the maps and coming up with coming up with a district to report which which approves the new districts. And the work must be complete by December 31st of the year, the committee begins. So in this case, it would need to be completed by December 31st of next year. Finally, the part that is covered by this ordinance, Section 122 of the King County Code places additional criteria on the membership and the appointment process for the district in committee. There are two key provisions there. Each council member may nominate someone from the council members political party and the county council shall appoint two Republican and two Democratic nominees to the committee. So those two provisions are essentially the bulk of what's in Section 122 of the code, and both would be changed by the proposed ordinance as before the before the committee now just four years. And because it's a relatively straightforward matter, I've actually included towards the bottom of page 164, I've included how each section would look as affected by this ordinance. And so the first section would be amended to add a little bit of process around the appointment process, and it would include new language that it would see by December 1st, December 1st of the December preceding a district in committee process. So that's a little clunky, but it's because of how it's drawn. So it would be this December by written notice to the chair of the council. Each council member may nominate a person to serve on the district committee. So what gets removed there is of the council members political party and that the chair of the council show cause to be introduced or introduce a motion for consideration and action by the Council that appoints the District Committee as described in the next section. So that would be the process where the Council would appoint the four members that are the council appointees. Those four members would then go on to appoint the remaining member. The moving to now, page 165, the second section of KCC 122 would be amended to remove, as it's shown there, the requirement that two appointees from each of the Democratic and Republican Party parties be nominated and instead replace that language with language cover that states. In appointing the members of the committee, the Council should consider equity and attempt to represent the demographic, geographic and political diversity of the county, and also that appointees to the committee should have a history of civic or community engagement and have the necessary background and skill to actively participate in the district due process. So those are the bulk of the changes. Those are all of the changes actually that would be made by this ordinance. And it would bring the. Remaining section or the King County Code in compliance with the Charter as it was amended by Initiative 26. So taken together in the last section of this staff report, I just want to cover what the new process for districting would look like if this ordinance were passed. So step one, by December of this year, each of the County Council members may nominate by, in writing to the chair of the council, someone to serve on the committee. The Council chair would then introduce or caused to be introduced a motion appointing four four members of the committee. The charter lays out that those members must be appointed by the end of January of next year. So sometime between December and the end of January, you would need to appoint the four members. Those four members will then vote to pick the fifth member of the District Committee who would serve as chair. By April, the committee, the district committee should appoint the district master. And by the if for some reason the District Committee can't appoint the District Master by April one. The Council is then charged with selecting someone by the end of May. Hopefully that wouldn't come into play, but it's at least in the code structure, a section of the charter. And then by December 31, the District D.M. submits a plan to the committee. The committee must then adopt the plan with or without amendment within 15 days. So technically, this process could trickle over into the very early part of 2022 if the district master does not submit the plan until the very end of 2021, and that once the plan is approved by the committee and submitted to the clerk, the those become the new council districts. So in terms of the election schedule, these would probably not be the council districts until the 2023 council elections, unless somehow the district committee completed its work incredibly quickly, in other words, before the open enrollment or the registration period for the 2021 elections. Which seems incredibly unlikely considering the work they would have to do. That concludes my staff report. Mr. Chair. Leonard Cohen from our legal counsel, it makes sense from the prosecutor's office, did a lot of help in helping to prepare this ordinance. So I just want to recognize their work as well, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Hamacher. Questions, colleagues. Councilmember Balducci for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, of adoption of proposed ordinance number 2020 DASH 0298 with a do pass recommendation. Councilmember Bell Duties Moved Adoption of Motion 2020 298 with the due pass recommendation. Discussion. Let me speak to it. Councilmember Banducci. Mr. Harker covered this really pretty well, but just for the purposes of those following law, this comes forward because we do every ten years adopt district boundaries for the districts within the Kane County Council. And ten years ago our charter had been changed to remove reference to these positions as being partizan, Democrat or Republican. But it wasn't fully implemented yet. Half of the council had switched over to nonpartisan, but there were still members on the council who were nominally Democrats and Republicans. And so the last charter commissioner and chair of the last District Commission retained this language around appointing two Democrats and two Republicans. But we are fully nonpartisan now, as is the rest of all of the elected officials in acting, as are the rest of all the elected officials in King County. So this proposal thinks our ordinance and our process with our charter, and because the only requirements to be appointed in the ordinance prior to this change were that two of them be Democrats and two of them be Republicans. We have added some some language that is flexible enough that we can select people who are good and who bring a variety of backgrounds, experience, etc.. But, you know, also tell us a little bit about qualifications. So I urge your support and will be as we get through budget and all the other budgets that Councilmember Caldwell's was laying out today, we will also be starting to stand up our redistricting committees. Thank you. See no further questions. And would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. Hi. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Hi. Councilmember Dunn. I. Councilmember calls I council member Lambert high council member of the growth I. Councilmember one right there. I. Councilman Rizal. I. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote is 19 zero noes. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to motion 2020 298. We will expedite that to full council next Tuesday and put it on consent. That concludes the action items in today's agenda. I want to make sure that we haven't lost any votes due to technical difficulties. Madam Clerk, do you have all votes recorded? Yes, Mr. Chair. All votes have been recorded. All right, with all votes recorded and knowing of no other business to come before the council, I want to thank everyone who has participated in today's council meeting and we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.	AN ORDINANCE establishing the health through housing fund; and adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 4A.200.
king_bc796b1a-0d31-4c89-a74e-0e1aa431a2fa	Second, 2020 is horror. And as we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we are the traditional lands of the Puget Sound as peoples past and present. I want to thank the caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enriched our community. Today in our meeting, what we'll have over what's become our usual update. From executive staff and the county's pandemic response. And following that briefing, we'll discuss an ordinance that would provide protections for tenants during this pandemic. It is possible that we will need to go into executive session to discuss this item. Following on the ordinance, Tenant Protections will discuss a motion calling for a retrospective analysis of the county's response to the pandemic and to a motion calling for updates to the county's emergency manager. If there's time, we'll have another session at the end of the meeting as well. In light of the public health emergency, the governor has issued an emergency order suspending the section of the Meetings Act. It requires that we have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. This order has been extended by the of the state house and Senate. And to further housekeeping notes as we get started. First, for those wishing to provide public comment in today's meeting, please be aware that we're taking public comment. Following the press briefing on our agenda, please do stay on the line to help us manage the meeting and the public, as well as executives and council staff to please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak or present. With that, I would ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilmember other Councilmember Dombrowski ere councilmember ere. Councilmember Cole was here. Councilmember Lambert and. Council member of the Grove. Your. Councilmember Vaughn. Right there. Here. Council members online. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, all members are present. Thank you. Before we proceed with the agenda, I'd like to make a point of personal privilege to meet weekly. Since the emergency declaration was made a week ago last night, George Floyd was murdered by police officers in Minneapolis. Mr. Floyd. Now for the African-American man was handcuffed and face down on the ground as an officer knelt on his neck for over 8 minutes, pleading to breathe. Other officers were present as well. Watching the video makes me ill. The horrible truth is that this is one of many incidences of brutality and murder of African Americans in our country. And King County is not immune to this. Charlene Lyles by chance, Dunlap, Giddens and Indigenous and other people of color have similar experiences. Rene Davis I mean, what I. The last week has witnessed impassioned and emotional protests of police brutality against African-Americans and people of color and of racial oppression in America. Even when these protests make me uncomfortable, it must recognize that they are in response not only to an unjust murder last week, but to over 400 years of systemic racism and of African-Americans into indigenous peoples and people of color in injustices that occurred today in systemic and personal way needed to make me feel just as uncomfortable. In fact, they need. They need to make me feel ill as well. That is the work ahead of us as a community, as a council and as a country to address 400 years of legacy and recognize the boulder that last week as people have protested and didn't to join them and support their work. Thank you. Cowell's. Council member Col Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and appreciate your point of personal privilege in making this statement. I am certain that we all were feeling pretty ill when we saw the footage of the murder of George Floyd last week, and more than, you know, the anguished outrage. I immediately thought of what I would be feeling like as the mother of one of my sons or daughter being in the place of George Floyd. And it seems unrealistic in many ways because I'm a white woman. We can think about these situations occurring and have occurred over 400 years. While I do not condone violence or looting or just any type of destruction, vandalism. I've been extremely troubled all week, as I have been whenever we've had other incidents that have been similar. And I'd like to draw to the attention of individuals, and I'm sure most of you know about this, but coincidentally, May 31st and June 1st month, the 99th anniversary of what's been known as the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Originally, historically, what's known as the Tulsa Race Riots. But in fact, over 300 black citizens were murdered over those two day period in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with roughly 1200 homes being burned, 35 blocks burned. And this was a prosperous community. It was also known as the Black Wall Street, very prosperous, successful businesses owned by black citizens. And yet, I grew up not even knowing about that was something that was not in the history that I was taught in my recently. It is being taught, and I think it's very appropriate, Mr. Chair, to recognize that as one of the more horrible times in our nation's history, along with many others, obviously, that it's coincidental that it was the same dates that we were having of issues of the demonstrations that got out of hand on the part of some people . I thought I but that's my my add to your moment. Mr. Chair, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Now, did she. Ever remember Belushi? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like you. Like Council Member Coles and you know so many people. This past weekend, I just sat glued to my television screen watching the events unfold in my district in the city of Bellevue and in neighboring Seattle and across the nation. I was really proud of a lot of what I saw. I saw a large group of young people come out, mostly young people come out to to protest and demand change and justice after the death of Mr. Floyd in Minnesota. You know, it is just a yet another example. He named quite a few and there are others, which is a name of how far we still have to go to combat racism and racial violence in our country. I was really glad to see our Bellevue police chief, Steve Mylett, kneel with the protesters and express the support of every member of the Bellevue Police Force for their cause. Because I believe that kind of acknowledgment, that kind of listening and joining in is going to be key to how we chart a path forward and start to heal and start to fix the problems that have been endemic to our nation since its founding. Really, I want to say that we saw a lot of looting and criminal activity, and I was saddened that that pulled focus from what I believe was the real message that I think that I want to encourage all of us and everybody watching us to continue to focus on. And that is the pursuit of racial justice. The road ahead of us will be challenging. We haven't figured out how to fix this in all the time that we have been a nation, but we need to engage with it now. We need to make things better. And we legislators are in a position to to make change. And I want to just state my commitment to this body and to the people we represent to work together with you all, to do what we can to to start to make things better and to make our black, indigenous and people of color, neighbors and residents feel that they have the safety, the health, the opportunities that they deserve as full members of our community. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilmember. Dombrowski. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am trying to do more listening now than talking, but I want to just say two things here. One, I want to commend the racial equity team at Nathan Hale High School in my district. They led a protest for racial equity and against police brutality of some 2000 people, all socially distanced. I want to add down Lake City way and through the northeast part of Seattle, and it was a beautiful site and tribute and gave me in these really tough times when I'm having a hard time finding some reason for hope and optimism. And that is that the next generation, the younger generation, will make more progress in achieving what we and those ahead of us have been unable to accomplish. And I really appreciate that. I also think it's worth noting at this time that King County and our government and our functions play a key role in many of the policy areas that need to be addressed to bring actual impactful change to some of the racist structures and functions of government that can lead to the tragic situation that happened in Minneapolis. I voiced concern and I've been working on it, frankly, since I got here about the need with our own sheriff's office for independent investigatory oversight of use of force incidents. We do not have it today. We approved another contract this year without it. President Obama himself, in his message, highlighted the importance and the need for independent civilian oversight with investigatory powers of these kind of things. That's just fundamental to any profession, whether to be a doctor, a lawyer or a teacher. And I hope that we can pursue that work the seriousness of purpose and accomplish it. I do believe the public wants it. And I just wanted to not let this opportunity go by to raise it as a continuing concern. I appreciated the. Listening and learning and the opportunity to reflect. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski. Can council members also? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much to my colleagues for these powerful statements. And I hope that we will translate powerful statements and translate these national sentiments that we're experiencing into concrete policy reforms. Oftentimes, we continue to go through that through these cycles of outrage and protest because we, as elected officials, are not effectively chained, creating the changes that our communities are asking for. So over the next couple of months, while once our Law and Justice Committee is brought back after the governor's restrictions on what kind of legislation we can hear are lifted, I would love to call on my colleagues to join me in concrete policy solutions to these problems. Demilitarizing the police. Meaning that we take an accounting of what military equipment is coming in from the federal government and making sure those equipment are not on the streets of a city during these times. Restricting permissible use of force by police. Increasing accountability and transparency in police union contracts. Giving subpoena and other investigative powers to oversight boards. And redirecting police department budgets to community based alternatives. These are all things that community has been asking for for a long time, and we play a role in whether these solutions are implemented or not . So hopefully we we can all come together and pass solutions like this. I understand that not everything is in within our was within our jurisdiction, but we can all do our part to advance and support concrete policy solutions. And I hope all of my colleagues will join our efforts through the Law and Justice Committee and do it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilmember. Up. The girl comes number up to go. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Always hesitate to speak after so many eloquent colleagues have spoken so well. I'm proud of my community in South King County. The opportunity I had to stand with community members and in several locations on several days, speaking up against police brutality and racism and supporting our neighbors. And as I listened to community members, particularly African-American community members, what I hear isn't just anger at the murder of George Floyd, but what I hear is a lot of pent up frustration, not only with the repeated incidents of racist killings by police agencies around the country, but a greater frustration with the institutional racism throughout the criminal justice system, but also a sense that the political system isn't working for them, the people who are in power or able to pull the levers of power, and that there are a lot of forgotten Americans. And it's really caused me to do a lot of reflection about. You know, the way in which we've failed, the way in which I've failed, the way in which the nine of us have failed. You know, I've been on this council six years. Seven. Yeah, seven now in an office a long time. And why is it these problems keep coming up? And what is it I've been able to do or not been able to do to contribute to solutions? And I think we need to think bigger and we need to be bolder. We probably need to take more political risks and not always take the path of least resistance, because these are difficult problems. But and the solutions that have been identified by previous speakers are all ones that I strongly support. And I have a hunch most of these have majority support of this council. It's just figuring out how to get there. And I realize. You know, when you start talking to someone who's not part of the inside game like we are, who are one of the elected officials, we start when they say, how come you have independent oversight of the police? And we start talking about, well, you know, there's binding arbitration and and, you know, we the contracts are only up for renewal this many years. And we get. It actually sounds silly trying to explain that to other people. At the end of the day, they look to us to have the leadership to move these big things. And so I think we probably need to think more strategically together as a group, whether it's around police accountability or whether it's around issues relating to economic inequality. Tackling the issues of institutional racism, our criminal justice system about how do we do those big things we control. We really control two things the county budget and county ordinances. That's our specific power. But we also have voices and platforms and the ability to shape responses at the state level and throughout the region. And so, you know, my heart aches for a lot of people who are feeling trauma right now because of everything that's happening. You know, I want my constituents to know that I do believe black lives matter and that I stand with them and proud to be part of a county council that's recommitting ourselves to hopefully making some progress in addressing some of these systemic issues and look forward to working with my colleagues to do that. Thank you accounts number of. I'd entertain a motion to approve the minutes from our May 19th meeting of the Committee of the Hall. One of the minutes and approval of the minutes has been moved scene to discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes please signify by saying I my. Okay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That brings us to item four of today's agenda. The first item is we we are joined by Rachel Smith, the deputy county executive, and Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. Here to give us an update on the county's response to the COVID 19 pandemic. And Ms.. Smith and Mr. Daley. The line is yours. Wonderful. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today. I'm going to kick us off and then I will turn it over to PSP director Dave Lee. I did just want to say, and before I jump into my update, I wanted to thank all of you for your remarks that you just made and thank you for your leadership. And just simply add, as it relates to our employees. We know we must do more to address racial injustice and to protect and support our black colleagues and their families. And as you said, this is the time for action and accountability. And we need to do the hard and. Uncomfortable work to. Truly disrupt business. As usual, to. Show up the way that we want to and to share power. And just wanted to acknowledge that on behalf of our employees as well. Thank you. So I will ask also for your sort of indulgence and forgiveness as I move into my update today. There's a lot happening in real time as we are going to have this discussion. So I'm going to kind of walk through information I have now when I have a dialog and a conversation and we'll try to answer as many questions as I can. And then anything that we don't get resolved in this discussion will also continue to work through very urgently for the rest of the day. So on Friday, as you all know, the governor announced the next steps for the state moving out of the stay home, stay healthy order. And that included the ability for all counties. To. Do the next phase, phase two in the four phases that have been articulated by the State Department of Health and the governor's office, or a modified Phase one, which they referred to as phase 1.5, I think you all know and we're participants in the discussion about the executive also announcing that he intends to submit for this modified phase one. And so I want to sort of quickly walk through three things here. The first is kind of the status of the numbers and the public health. The second is the process for submittal and approval. And then the third, I really kind of want to go through the key points from what is in the application, including clarifications and outstanding questions and really have that be a discussion. So, so before I do that, I also want to thank you all for sort of the engagement that we have had thus far. This has been really fast moving and I know there have been a lot of conversations, but those who. Have. Shared thoughts and suggestions, questions, guidance on general approach that has been much appreciated and I hope you will see sort of reflected in the discussion here. So starting with numbers, when we last joined you, Director Hays walked through a number of the kind of numbers and dashboards which included the key indicators dashboard. So the latest dashboard that we have added to the public health repertoire data that goes through all of the key indicators. And that is really what we have been laser like focused on from a public health perspective. The status of that where we sit today, the COVID 19. So there's three sets of metrics, the COVID 19 activity metrics and the hospital readiness metrics. So those two are currently showing green on that dashboard that is showing that the county is safe to move out of. Phase one set of metrics around testing still show strong room for improvement. So based on this sort of combination of metrics, the local health officer is requesting this modified phase one. So that's sort of basing us in the numbers there. I want to do it right out of the gate, kind of acknowledge that our case count number so that 25 per 100,000 that folks have been really looking at. We are now currently at this moment meeting that standard that the state sent a state set which is up from ten, 100,000 that we had contemplated as the metric earlier. But that being said, those numbers are very uneven. They are up, they are down. We look at them. And while the trend is going in the right direction, we wonder, are they holding in place or are we starting to see further upward trend or a downward trend? So that's really what public health is wrestling with and looking at. When they. Look at those cases that keeps count numbers. Additionally, what is not on that key indicators, the critical numbers that public watching closely our case contacts which currently we do not feel we are quite adequate in our ability to do case contacts in outbreaks in high risk facilities. In the last four weeks, King County has investigated, I believe, 30 outbreaks in the county. And the state is looking at a rate I think we're well above that when there's a lot of factors related to that. But that is just another key number that we're watching and looking closely at. I will say that these uncertainties as we watch this data, they're going to remain even as we move into two and phase three. I think the key point to make here is that we have to proceed exceptionally cautiously in this moment as it is our first relaxing of social distancing after coming off the stay home, stay healthy order. So it will be important to sort of worry about these these fluctuations over the entirety of our reopening. But it is especially critical right now that. We pay close attention. As we relax. Second thing is around the process, so we got the paperwork for submitting the application on Sunday. Our team has been working furiously to understand all the requirements and get together sort of the basic information, the data, much of which the application is based on. We will hope to have that done very soon. I'll flag that one element that is a bit time consuming that we've been working on is the getting a letter or an email from all 28 of our King County hospitals stating that they will comply with the Department of Health's PPE, Conservation Tiers and protocols should that become necessary . So we need to get that affirmative statement from them. So we have been working on that once, so we'll have those materials together. The state is typically taken 24 to 72 hours to review the variance applications. So we expect to have that same, same timeline for ourselves. So if you kind of put all that together and gave us a little bit into the crystal ball, we would anticipate, anticipate, estimate that businesses should be able to open starting this Friday. And that is, of course, provided that the businesses can meet the state's already published guidance. So the things that they need to comply with that has already been part of the overall guidance. The other thing that I'll say is that, you know, Secretary, we spend also in terms of process has stated that, you know, due to the limitations on the Board of Health, that Chair McDermott can speak to, that the county executive and the Board of Health Chair would sign and submit the application. And that we we cannot propose any additions or modifications or modified activities that the local health officer has not approved. I realize that was a number of negatives strung together there. But essentially what? Because the Board of Health isn't meeting right now, the health officer would need to approve those things. And then finally on process, I would just also flag as a reminder, assuming that our numbers hold and continue to trend in the direction. And then, of course, along with the appropriate health and public interest and policy considerations, we would plan to move to phase two in no longer than two weeks. So that's kind of the forward looking time horizon that we would be on. So finally moving to the third piece here. So what I'm going to walk through right now is all of the activity areas and specifically the limits and requirements. I'm going to flag that these are or these are the activities that essentially Dr. Duchin is recommending that also fit into the state's framework that they put forward in the 1.5 phase as we go through this. I definitely want to hear feedback or thoughts, have questions. I'm going to flag a few things where we are still seeking questions and clarifications. So I do want that to be a discussion as we go through it. So the first is outdoor recreation. So this category, we would presume all activities here would operate subject to phase two guidance. So the existing these types, number two, fitness. So all outdoor activities would be able to operate subject to phase two guidance which limits the you just one mom. Talk about that, which limits the occupants to no more than five people outside of a household. This is excluding the instructor. And then here's one of this first points that I want to flag, which is indoor fitness videos may operate subject to guidance, but it would be limited to one on one activity. So again, we our interpretation, looking at what we have gotten from the state and in discussion with Dr. Duchin is that indoor would be able to operate subject to phase two, but only in one on one activity. So I kind of a personal trainer as a back to. The third category is gatherings. This would be only allowed outdoors with five or fewer people outside the household. Next is additional construction, and then the following one is manufacturing operations. Both of those would just be all those activities would be able to operate subject to the phase two type. So essentially moved to phase two. The next category is real estate. I want to flag again. Our interpretation here is residential and commercial. This would allow for all activities to operate. Objective is to guidance with the exception that at no time a building's occupancy occupancy be higher than 25% and indoor services would be limited to 30 minutes . Next would be in-home and domestic services. Those would proceed as outlined in the Phase two guidance. Next would be in-store retail. This would allow all non-essential retail activities to operate subject to phase two guidance, with the exception that at no time near buildings occupancy is higher than 15%. And again, indoor service is limited to 3030 minutes. Next would be personal services. This would allow for all activities to operate subject to phase two guidance, with the exception that at no time may the number of clients served be more than 25% of the number capable of being served at any one time or one person, if it is a single fed chair. Sort of activity video. Kind of. Next would be professional services here. All activities would be able to operate subject to phase two guidance, with the exception that at no time may buildings occupancy be higher than 25% and indoor services would be limited to 30 minutes. Photography. All activities are subject to phase two guidance at grooming. All activities are subject to guidance, with the exception that at no time may a building's occupancy be higher than 25%. And then on restaurants. Sort of some thinking, sort of thoughts and changes here. So this would allow for all outdoor dining activities to operate. Subject to this guidance, with the exception that outdoor seating is limited to only 50%. Additional. Or new outdoor seating would be allowed subject to public health guidance and city permitting. So this is one of those places that we're having sort of an interpretation and a question and an assumption that, you know, obviously the city and the jurisdiction in question would have the land use authority there. The other thing that we would propose here is that all indoor dining services, they operate subject to based on guidance, with the exception that at no time may the number of clients serve be more than 25% of the tables, provided that the tables can be six feet away. So this is a sort of question modification that we are proposing as well here in restaurants. Realized there was a ton of information. So what I want to do is also to say that essentially, certainly and this is I'm a layperson, so this is not sort of the public health frame here, but essentially. We looked at what was in phase two. We have looked at the governors guidance, which is which was basically a one dial back on each of those things. So in some cases, if the occupancy was allowed to be 50%, this would what's now being allowed is 25%, etc.. So there's sort of like dials on time, dials on occupancy. And and so what what Dr. Duchin is recommending is, is sort of in each of those with what is phase two slightly dialed back. I do want to also emphasize again, Dr. Duchin has not finalized this. So so things could change. But that's why we wanted to have the conversation with you as well, get your feedback at the same time that the public health folks are still doing that work. So I want to stop there. Mr. Chair, I realize that was a lot of information and opened it up to questions, discussion or further guidance or direction from the councilmembers. Thank you, Rachel. If you covered it, I apologize. I missed it. Harrison Barbour's great question as those fall into the category of personal services. So as a reminder, that would be those would be able to operate as described in phase two, with the exception that you can't have more than 25% of the number capable of being served at any one time. And that makes sense. So I want to reason the language here is a little bit different than 25% occupancy is because it is not tied just directly to the fire codes occupancy. It is also it is tied to the number of clients that can be served at any one time. And again, all of this really based in that social distancing, keeping number of people in at any one time limited or if it is a single bed theater studio, there would only be one person allowed at a time. But answer your question. Yes. Councilmember Melky Oh thank you very much, Mr. Chair and Deputy Executive Smith. I just want to thank you for your tremendous leadership during those last few months. You really we're lucky to have you there and I really appreciate all that you're doing. And most of it I know we're not even seeing, but you've just done a tremendous job. And this is, I think, the latest example that I really appreciate your thorough and detailed explanation and this and that and the nuance and specificity with what you're going through this process. I appreciate you bringing it forward today to the council to share it with us. I hope that the all members were able to take a look at the written applications that it's going to. And I know it's very dynamic and you're working on it, but it would be I think we'd like to see it and give any final suggestions as you go forward. I appreciate it. I had reached out with some some concerns or questions, which I think you answered mostly today. And I just wanted to confirm that, that the commercial and residential and phase two with respect to real estate services are treated the same, and you're proposing that you're in 1.5. Yes, Councilmember. And in fact, we I was very glad that you did flag this, because we also realize that there was not clarity there. So we have we have affirmatively stated that in our application to be very clear. And if there is any if there is a concern from the state, they would respond to your flag about the lack of clarity there, as noted. And we have no patience and don't. Really appreciate that. And I think it's just going to be important for a lot of tenants who are struggling, going and need help from their commercial brokers, small tenants to renegotiate leases and things like that, to make sure that there's clarity that those services are available. And then on the on the small the indoor fitness, it sounded like with respect to those, I call them smaller studios, not the big gyms, but the smaller studios. If someone's doing a one on one, almost like a yoga studio, but they're doing a one on one, even physical therapy type stuff that that can be done indoors under your proposed modification here if we get state approval. That is absolutely accurate. Again, thank you for flagging that. And that is, again, one of those places where we are affirmatively stating that is our interpretation from the public health officer and from the policy makers. So, yes, assuming. You're. There, you're up. Appreciate your clarification and proposal on restaurants with respect to the new outdoor seating. That's great. And then one other this is a very provincial thing because I happen to have a big one in my district at Max and part, but we do have a large indoor tennis facility there. And the operator has reached out. And I just we're wondering whether or not either that that kind of use and there are a number of these around the county would be appropriate to include in in phase 1.5 or because there could be a number of things like that, whether some flexibility and delegation to Dr. Duchin on a case by case basis, you know, could be built into this proposal to look at things because it's hard to capture every operation, obviously. Thank you so much. Thank you. And just a note on that. Yeah, we are still kind of working through that because you're right in these large facilities, but that are indoor, not outdoor. What is that occupancy look like? And we are you know, again, we are going to be using best judgment to interpret that is once we get the application approved , that is our understanding with the state that they support our ability to do that kind of interpretation. And we undoubtedly are going to have some unanticipated situations that we're going to need to address. So we're also working through how exactly we're going to do that. I think, as you all know, we have we've kind of stood up a number of different ways to be providing support to the community, whether it's through gatherings or businesses, things like that. So we're really trying to get organized on that right now. So we know there will be incoming in terms of people asking what about this, what about that? And so doing our best. To. Organize ourselves to be pushing guidance out, being able to provide technical assistance to the extent that we can. So so we're we're gearing up for that as we speak. And I'll be happy to come back and talk a little bit more about it, I think probably in about a week. I am Mr. Chair number. Councilmember Leppert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We just knew that we, the executive, was going on, but I didn't have to take that down to shorthand. That was best. I have a couple of things. When? When will you announce and how will you announce when it is time to move on? Because people are saying we don't know how we will get the information. So my first question is, how will you announce that? Great question. So in the release that we sent out on Friday, we put that two week bookmark out there not released. And so we we tried to sort of signal that's at least the time horizon that we're working on. But what I think we're going to try to do on those key indicators, that dashboard, I think we're going to be trying to put some interpretation out regularly, like through the Public Health blog and things like that, so that people can be able to see that and say, okay, we understand that because X, Y and Z are happening. We are moving closer to that two week target. And and I think beyond that, you know, we're going to be doing essentially kind of daily checks of looking at where the numbers are landing and how the uptick in activity is impacting them. But if we go in the same trend, and I guess I would also say we can anticipate the activity that needs to happen to get approval for phase two. So we can now be, you know, whereas whereas in this last situation, we sort of had been presented with the opportunity and the direction from the public health officer to move into this modified want phase one. So now we're kind of quickly jumping to get the paperwork done here.We I think can do the opposite. We know we're going to assuming our numbers will be able to move phase two within this two week window so we can anticipate getting our materials together so that we can move as quickly as possible and hopefully have a little more lead time for businesses to be out, which I think Councilmember your probably is in the back of your mind there that we want to be able to to let them know so that they can do the preparations they need to fully move to phase two. Or three modifications. Modification number one, your hair can only be done for 30 minutes after being in quarantine for these months. It's going to take a lot longer than 30 minutes to do my hair. So I think that if you can go outside for 5 minutes and then come back in again, I don't know if they had that. When I read something earlier, the pets didn't have the 30 minute requirement, and I love my room better than me. So I think, you know, the target is you don't want to be in the same room more than 30 minutes, so go outside for 5 minutes and then come back in again so that you can get your hair done all the way would be very helpful. Councilmember, can I stop and give you good news right now, please? That 30 minutes has been removed so you, all of your services, we can all get our manes done for as long as it takes, which may be a little while. And as sort of a little bit of background to how that public health discussion went. Obviously what you just stated is right, wanting to limit the amount of interaction at the same time going back multiple times for multiple services doesn't really change. Or, you know, and I'm not a public health professional here, but doesn't that just increases the number of of interactions? So that has been removed. So good thinking and we're there. All right. So I hope that they may sometime next to I think that the 15% in the retail store is too small. The bulk stores can have hundreds of people in them and they keep an inventory of how many people are in the little stores, especially those that have less than ten employees. That is way too small. And for the most part, some of those are in areas that haven't had huge COVID outbreak. So how are we going to get equity between a good in some places in the county, like the box store that I went to to get batteries the other day, you know, there were many, many of us in the store. We just had to walk in six feet apart and they knew our number. Why can't that be done the same? So you can have more people and the littler stores that are just barely hanging on. Well, thank you for that question as well, Councilmember. And I don't know that I'm going to have a completely satisfactory answer. I mean, there is. There's a. There's frankly a couple of challenging overlays here. So, you know, the essential businesses that were described in the Stayhome stay healthy order obviously have remained open this entire time and they've been open with modifications from the get go and with further modifications as as we have progressed in terms of like, for example, King County's face coverings directive . And so but but, you know, fundamentally, those, you know, those essential services as defined by the state have have remained in that state defined sort of operations status. I think what we are doing our best to do here is bring, at least for what, for this second phase or phase 1.5. What is going to reopen is going to reopen with parity to the best of our ability in terms of the occupancy percentage. But we are not in a place right now where we can change the operating environment for the essential services. The larger box stores, as you stated, and we are recommending Dr. Duchin is recommending the maximum allowable percentage of opening based in the 1.5. But I hear you loud and clear on that challenge, and it's a discussion that we're having often in how to bring bring enough safe economic activity to small business, be it restaurants or small shops to to keep them going as we move into four year. And then the last part is that my mayors are willing to take on siting which businesses and how they open so that they can open as quickly as possible under the oversight of their mayors. So if you have a mayor that is willing to partner and I know several that are so that we can get this moving as fast as possible, that would be great. So thank you very much. It will make you do. Thank you. I would ask so if. And encourage and hope would be a strong partner. In unincorporated King County. About working with restaurants seeking to increase their outdoor seating. Outstanding. Let that that is a wonderful suggestion and thought and let's take it up. Great. Other colleagues, council members are asking. Mr. Chair, I was just applauding your suggestion. Wonderful. See you in Leeds Center. Up the grove, councilmember. Up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hi, Rachel. My question, and I'm always hesitant to wade into this because I, at the end of the day, want to trust our public health experts to make these decisions. But at the same time, we as council members end up in sort of a spokesperson role. We're out there answering questions and defending the decisions of the public health department. And so you may have addressed this, but to what degree? Can we deviate from the the State Department of Public Health orders and the the governors and ah, since most of this follows their guidance, do we have the flexibility to take different approaches? And for example, I'm I'm struggling with the salons. I'm the counselor at Lamberts point. I'm very there's some advantages to being a dude with short hair. It's never taken me a half hour to get a haircut. But we can tell a council member, I know the the 15% feels very arbitrary, like a gut level. Particularly if the stations in a salon. Are eight. Feet apart already. Let's say you have a small salon with four stations. There are each eight feet apart. They're socially distanced and then but 15%. Okay, you can only operate one chair as opposed to a or health based social distance mask type of guidance. And so do we have flexibility? In areas like that. Apart from the questions that are good or bad ideas, are we even able to do that? And then secondly, I want to pass along a concern directly for my constituents since I have you. It's a salon owner who actually is recommending that salons wait to 50% because at least in her salon, there is no financial model that works that would allow them to not lose money at 15%. Yet she feels compelled to open or she will lose her clients to other locations, and yet it is costlier to her to do that than to remain closed because of the expenses incurred. And so I want to pass that suggestion along. Maybe a way to phrase that question is, given how fast this is moving, have there been opportunities to consult with some of these industries, particularly in the salons? Have you heard that anyone else raised that that issue about better to wait. And then do we have flexibility at all on things like 15% versus social distancing? Yeah, great. Great questions and all completely aligned with all the discussions that have been happening, both at the health at the health level and at the community level, as you just reflected. I think, you know, as it relates to indoor activity. Well, to try to answer your question specifically of do we have flexibility? I would say the answer is no in terms of we can not we would likely not get approved to do a like something between the modified 1.5 requirements that have been listed by the governor and the Department of Health. And is to. And so so you know, we are we are in that space. I would say from the public health perspective. The reason because this I mean, to your point, it is it is both science and it's judgments sort of health judgment about, you know, moving, moving in some measured way to increased amounts of activity. And so as phase two has been very clearly defined by the state and the governor's office, the activities that you see here are about half way to that. And so, you know, that really has and the frame and the thinking, I think, from both the sort of policy and the public health perspective to your to your larger , larger question of sort of like, does it make sense? I mean, we have heard some of the same things from business owners that like, it's frankly, it's just not going to pencil for them. And so I think that is why we are trying to and to Councilmember Lamberts point trying to signal and we will do as much of this as quickly as we can. The full phase two is going to sort of trigger in the next two weeks, again, assuming the numbers continue to look good, so that we can so that we can be moving everybody into that direction as quickly as possible. I know that's not a real satisfying answer, and I know that that the realities of getting into the black for these businesses can feel disconnected from some of this some of the time. And that is a frustration that we deeply appreciate. But I think I think it is fair to say that right now we are we are pushing to the limits of what the health officer feels comfortable with at this exact moment in time and what the state has said they will contemplate. When we submit our application, we're sort of right up against that wall. That was helpful. Thank you. Cole Wells. Councilmember Carlos. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Rachel, my question is a little different. If we are granted the waiver with the application submitted and the numbers start rising, the number of positive cases and the number of fatalities, what would it take then to go in? What would go into a decision about closing the whole county down or going back to the first phase versus perhaps through tracing, determining perhaps like nail salons seem to be where there's too much contact. And I just wondering what. Absolutely. So there is you know, as a reminder, the local health officer maintains his authority to put forward local health orders that is more strict than the rest of the state has. So. Obviously the governor has authority over the entire state in terms of shutting things down, as he did with the stay home, stay healthy order. If King County were to become in a dramatically different situation in terms of increasing cases, local health officer could say either we need to go back to a blanketed order of shutting things back down to the level that they have been or he could. To your point, if we're seeing an outbreak in a particular industry, you could put forward a directive or an order to manage that situation and allow the others to maintain whatever phase they are in. I will also say that just as an aside, the state has also stated that they they would step in potentially to a county who might be seeing a major increase in numbers, but is not doing what the State Department of Health would think needs to be done from a public health perspective. So if you had some somebody have some county have numbers, go through the roof, the Department of Health secretary could come in and say, you need to dial back up, I guess, your social distancing measures. I would say in our case, the doctor, Wolf, hear the state and Dr. Duchin are in lockstep on all things. That would never be a situation that I think would would transpire here in King County under any circumstances. So it has to follow. Could it also be determined that one part of the county is having the hotspots and not the others? So, for example, Seattle were to have that happen in a keep up, keep consistent with the current I'm facing for the rest of the county. Yeah, it's a great it's a really great question because I mean, so I guess to answer it specifically, yes, the health officer would have the he has the authority to do that. So the short answer, yes. I would say one of the one of the things and this emerges any time you're having like. Like a. Teacher situation like this pandemic is, you know, we're still reminded of how people move and travel, how this a simpler economy, particularly in this region. And people, you know, live in Tacoma and work in Bellevue and then they come to Seattle for activities. And so we are we are wrestling and counseling, really. We said this as well, sort of wrestling with this this artificial jurisdictional reality that we have. And and in this case, it's really just been centered around the fact that this is our local health jurisdiction, you know, is for us county wide. And so. But but the the differences. And how the disease has manifested across the county is real. And so to the extent that we begin to move forward, we see. It is. Use the scalpel instead of the hammer to manage the disease. You can bet that Dr. Duchin will want to do that. But I think we will have to sort of take into consideration all of that, you know, get all the metrics that we're looking at exactly what is transpiring. I mean, I'll also just add the one thing that Dr. Duchin is is also talking about I think he might have mentioned this in the last briefing that she had with all of you is, you know, to date, the places that we have had, the most concern is in homeless situations, long term care facility situations, detention situations, although luckily we've not had a lot of activity activity there. But, you know, Dr. Duchin, if he was here, would say employment situations is going to be the next place where we have to manage through outbreaks. So one of the other things that we're also going to be working with some of the large employers who have a lot of care, a lot of real estate, how can they help? How can they how can they help public health be able to identify and be able to do some of that case? Contact tracing that you mentioned to, you know, it is is certainly within their financial interest to be keeping the disease manage in their own facilities. So we're going to have those discussions with them. And just lastly, you mentioned about the whole county that people move around a lot and to me issue with our. Metro transit. To when people are not wearing masks or face coverings. Yeah. Sorry. I can't remember Belushi. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two questions and a request. I will go very quickly. The first question is about going back to the metrics that you talked about and you mentioned, Rachel, that we want to see improvement in some areas, including that we're testing enough, that we're testing quickly enough, that when you have enough contact tracing , can you share a little bit more about how we're progressing? Because this is looking forward to phase two. And I actually think that phase 1.5 has caused a lot of work. It's good. It's good that we have the ability to start to test in the sense of seeing things open and seeing how it goes in a in a limited way safely allows some economic activity. But it's also caused a lot of questions and confusion and as you alluded to, sort of took our our focus away from moving towards phase two, which is, I think, where we ultimately want to be when we're ready for it. So can you talk a little bit about what it will take for us to get ready to have that full application for phase two and do it safely? Absolutely. So in the end and thank you again for the question that the testing space is one where we are doing a lot of work right now. And so, you know, Virgin has we're working with all the other apps and docs, has been able to articulate kind of the number of. Tests. That we would need based on the number of cases that we are seeing. And that is an important sort of public health requirement to need and kind of what this testing is looking at. But the executive is also directed us to really go above and beyond that, to really figure out how we can have a more robust testing regimen across the county so that when we have council or others point, you know, a small outbreak, when we have a situation that we want to like quickly be able to get in and understand and move and get people isolated and quarantine. We can we have the testing capacity to do that. I will acknowledge and thank the city of Seattle, who has procured some of their own tests and is going to set up some more testing sites for people to proactively go get tested. But I think, you know, what we ultimately want to be able to do is not not just to have an individual think to themselves that they proactively want to go get tested. But in fact, to be able to say, oh, an outbreak emerged in this business or area or activity, we are going to proactively go in and say, hey, can we test you? So we're working on, you know, getting the materials, the test kits for that. We have the lab capacity and then figuring out how we would deploy that. And I'm really glad you brought that up, because one of the ways that we're sort of thinking about it is when you look at that metrics sheet, there's the COVID cases, there's the testing, and then there's the hospital readiness. And so we're thinking about it like what tools are in our Army tool case to go and actually do battle in each of those areas. And, you know, like so face coverings, for example, that is a way to go push on the case contact burden to push it down. Hospital readiness. Now, making sure we have enough peak eat is a way to manage that. So testing, we want to approach in that same way and we're really just starting to kind of get our arms around thinking about it, not just as the number of. Test kits. Need via the number of cases we have, but just a much more robust testing. And the other two that I mentioned that you also talked about were the case contacting. So I think Patty talked last time about the pilot that we're doing right now in case contacting. We are currently about to we are able to do about 40 cases. I guess a day with the. Unit is I believe it's a day and that is like hovering right around where we are right now. But the thing is, we need to be able that we need to be able to do enough case contact tracing so that when we see a spike for some reason, we can get it there and do it. We are we are in partnership with the state right now. And so what we can't do, they are doing, but we really need that to be robustly a King County operation so that we can be nimble, be flexible and get in quickly. And then the third one was around the high risk facility outbreaks. And that's a challenge, obviously, because these are very vulnerable populations. But again, I think our management of those has been going in the right direction. We had several days where we didn't have any deaths in the homelessness community. We I think I think you all know we in long term care facilities. Again, it's a hole in the system. But I think we have all identified that there are gaps for sure terms of how we as a community and I don't just mean King County, I mean local jurisdictions, I mean the area agency on aging, I mean DSH of the state which licenses long term care facilities. We saw a vacuum there when there was a public health crisis. And so we're getting our arms around that now, which is a good thing. But we need to really think about the ongoing infrastructure to support those facilities so that we don't continue to have outbreaks there that really. Cause. Disease to spread in our community in a way that we have otherwise gotten our arms around. So I guess, as I mentioned, to be quick and I thank you for the detailed answer, but I just a comment and maybe we can follow up later. It seems to me that in these areas where we need more capacity in order to continue to advance, part of our problem has been that we do not have the ability, we don't have control over the availability of testing kits, etc., or we don't have enough. Contact tracers. And that's just. And so at some point, I'd like to find out how much of this is now within our capability versus how much we're still sort of a wing and a prayer and cross fingers. Right. But let's move on, because I you've been here you've been on the spot for a very long time. My second question is, I also have been receiving the what about I like the way you put that. And just to second, some of my colleagues, I also heard from tennis centers and private recreational facilities as to whether they will be able to open on the same footing as those fitness centers. You know, if you can have somebody in a in a fitness center on an elliptical trainer, why can't you have two people standing 90 feet above each other on a tennis court? And I'm not asking you to answer these. I'm just putting them into the last year I've been hearing from folks who care about swimming. And I don't know if there are special epidemiological concerns because of the water, but beach clubs, swimming clubs, and I think we all have been hearing from our hairdressers because they're missing us probably almost as much as we are missing them. So all of that has been has come to me as well, the idea that if I'm going to lose unemployment because I'm a sole contractor, wouldn't it be better for me to wait to phase two? I just hope that we can try to get to those. What about questions at some point? Because they mean a lot to the people who are asking them. And then my final question is actually more of a request, and that is when you have the application for phase 1.5 altogether and you share it with the council members as has been requested, I would love to join the Board of Health Chair and the Executive in signing on as the Chair on behalf of the councils that we're sending a unified message from all of us, including the Council, that we are very ready to move forward and to start, you know, help safely in a healthy way , opening up our economy here. So thank you for considering that. And it's an outstanding idea and I think makes a ton of sense and is very one King County as we are. So thank you for that offer and consider it accepted. Thank you for that. See, no further questions for Miss Smith. Mr. Chan, one quick one real quick. Do you have a list of South County, North County, East County, West County where the testing sites are. That is on the public health website and where that is. You could say that. I've been asked that a lot. And also, you just said that 28 hospitals have to send in an email. Could we get like three or four hospitals and then tell the state that within the next couple of days so it doesn't slow the process down? So. Councilmember, I am so pleased to be able to give you good news. So, one, we have that list. So we will send it to you and get it out. And actually, while we were sitting here, I just got the notice that I believe we have all of them. We have received all of them. So that's been the team has been working really hard and obviously they are wonderful partners and I think understand. That. How urgent everybody feels about getting this done. So big thank you to all of them. And I think we are we are good. With that. Thank you, Mrs. Smith. Mr. Devlin. That afternoon. For the record, wait. Only the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. It's I guess it's always a pleasure to be here. I wish I had better news most of the time than I usually have, certainly given the interests of time. Let me cover five things here. I think the first one will probably be the most time consuming. So most of you are probably aware that we got the updated revenue forecast from our Office of Economic. On Friday, Council member Col Wells, Councilor Lambert and I will be meeting as the Forecast Council on Thursday to adopt that. I will draw attention to four things that are either in the forecast or implicit in the forecast. The first one is national forecasters are predicting that in the second quarter of this year, the national gross domestic product will decline by something between 30 and 40%. So if anyone has any doubts about the severity of the impact, a 30 to 40% decline in GDP is like totally unprecedented. I just saw earlier today a report from the Congressional Research Service that they don't expect the impacts of COVID and the economic recession to be fully gone for a decade. So we're in for some very, very serious times. Second point I'll make on the revenue forecast, the sales tax forecast came in a little bit lower than had earlier been guessed at. Not a lot. But the worst news, I think, in their sales tax forecast is the recovery is slower. So while that goes down a little bit more in 2020 and 2021, there's actually a significantly lower amount of sales tax revenue in 2022, which means we're coming out of the recession more slowly and means that future budgets are even more adversely affected. I was talking to Rob Gannon today at Metro and the impact over ten years on their budget is something like another $250 million of revenue loss. So that's going to be very significant as we prepare the next budget. A third thing in the revenue forecast I would mention is the lodging tax, which I think you all know starting in 2021, that revenue accrues to the county and you have set some policies about how that would be allocated. There are very significant declines in the lodging tax forecast. In 2021, about 13 million less than had been planned in 2020 to about 10 million less. The forecast suggests that will take about five years before we get back to 2019 levels of lodging tax. So that has some very serious consequences on the programs that would be funded from that revenue source. And then finally, one that I admit I had not expected. There is a significant hit to the emergency medical services property tax levy. Interestingly, not so much in 2021, but in subsequent years. And for 2022 to 2025, that cumulative total is about $46 million. And the reason for that is the way that ballot measure was written. It has a maximum tax rate written into it. And because assessed value is growing more slowly than expected, that levy is projected to hit that tax rate and therefore not collect as much revenue has been planned. Now, the good news is the folks in the Emergency Medical Service Program believe that because of the reserves that have been set up and some other factors, they actually think that that's manageable for the county and for the entities that get revenue from us. But many of you will recall that the city of Seattle gets a direct allocation of that property tax, and the reserves that we have set up do not support them. So it is likely that that will be a further revenue hit for the city of Seattle. And Dave, right from a we've reached out to them yesterday to make sure they were aware of that potential problem. There's obviously lots more information in the revenue forecast, but I thought those were four things that I would call to your attention. And as usual, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have at this point. Colleagues. A pair of accounts now run throughout. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hi, Dwight. I think this is repetitive from a question last week, but with the updated numbers. Any additional thought to beginning to make adjustments in the middle of this year beyond perhaps just the middle fund? Or is this all are we really going to it? Will that will the meat of this be addressed in are in the recommendations coming for next year's budget? Yeah. So I think for most funds, the meat of it is going to be in the 2021, 2022 budget certainly for the mid funds as any goal of you know, we're looking at making reductions sooner. Metro is looking at making reductions as soon as their September service change. And so those are the two funds that are most dependent on the sales tax and therefore actually are the ones that are going sooner. Many of the departments have, you know, maybe what you could call an informal hiring freeze, where many positions are being held vacant. Some of the other departments are looking at ways they can save money. This year is kind of a down payment on their future budget cuts. So while we're not formally running a mid-year budget process for most of our funds, in effect, many of them are actually doing it. It's like cancer in Brazil. Hello. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And thank you so much, Dwight, as well. Right before the world fell apart, you and I were talking about how to get marginalized communities, to have more of a say on the budgeting process, to set their priorities. And we had plans of holding community townhalls and workshops to help people know how they can advocate for themselves in the budgeting process. Now, obviously, the whole playbook is out of the window and we have to rethink how we set priorities. Are there still ways for people out in the community to have a say in the budgeting process? Is there a way for us to have a participatory budgeting process? I know during the COVID omnibus budgeting period, the timelines have been very short. And, you know, it's mostly been council members having us weighing in on the executive's budget. But could you speak a little bit to what opportunities we have, what we could do to make sure people have a say? Because those communities that we were talking about before, their concerns are more important now than ever rather than less. Thank you. So let me give you two answers. Councilmember, what's a process answer and what's the policy answer? So the process answer is obviously in the near term, we can't convene any kind of large community meeting in the way that we had discussed. I think, frankly, for the entire course of the summer, while the executive's developing the proposed budget, that's not going to be possible. But what we can do is we can try to find virtual ways to do that. And I would be happy to work with you or with any of your colleagues to set up virtual meetings in whatever way works with a particular constituency or particular district to provide for that kind of input. I think, as you said, it's more important now than ever. The policy thing I would note, and this is really I'm kind of speaking on behalf of the executive here, is, you know, the events of the last week or maybe perhaps a little longer of clearly me show the need for us to redouble our efforts toward racial justice, towards having a budget that reflects our priorities towards things that will fundamentally change how we can deliver services in this county. So despite the serious lack of money, I think we have to think of new ways that we're going to do things differently and provide some resource to support those communities. And I would welcome, you know, over the next two months, let's say, any input that any of you have about how we can do that. As we've communicated with departments about changes to their budgets, we have encouraged them to think in different ways and not just assume we have to continue every process. We've always had it just do less of that. Let's do some things that we don't like. Let's stop doing some things. Let's do some things completely differently. And maybe there's a way to free up some resources to address some long unaddressed needs. So, I mean, there's a long answer to your question, but I do want to point out both to or to all of you, the willingness of my office and certainly myself to participate in any way with your communities that we can in the budget development process. Thank you so much. I will be in touch to appreciate your right. That's number one. I'm sorry. Councilmember Dunn is next. And then Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, I'm getting some mixed signals from those of my friends in the real estate business concerned about some of the long term effects. Is your analysis and projections still thinking that the real estate market is going to be relatively unscathed? And if not, do you have some concerns? A levy suppression in years one, two and three? Yeah. Customer. I think there's two different answers to your question. So clearly the commercial real estate market is not going to be nearly as strong as it has been in recent years with all the changes in how people are working with the changes in the hospitality industry. There clearly is going to be a downturn in commercial real estate. I think it's obvious there is the forecast that came out on Friday assume that commercial property values will decline for a while on the residential side so far. Interestingly, prices have held up pretty well. Sales are down a little bit, but nothing like we saw in the Great Recession. So the assessed value forecast is actually still reasonably positive and the probability of levy proration is still pretty low. I actually have one of my staff doing a math which he sent me, which I haven't had time to look at, frankly, in the last few days to try to identify where that might be a possibility. And as you know, it typically occurs in small areas of the Snoqualmie Valley, some of the areas outside of Enumclaw, the Bastion Island area. So we're updating that. But generally, we don't see a big issue so far with Levy proration. Yeah. Keep me posted is as I'm worried. I guess I'm more worried about it than perhaps others. But that issue, if it does rear its head, especially with the straight commercial side combined with an EMS levy shortfall or maximized reserves, and how those two might combine to create a more significant problem. We'll do. Thank you, sir. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, thanks for this update. Always helpful. Since we last met, the executive issued or declared a budget emergency. I guess I'll call on. And I wonder if you could talk to us a little bit about what powers that places in the executive branch, what the implications are, and maybe what you see the next steps under that declaration being and how council should or will or will not be involved. That's great. You have given me a perfect lead to the second thing I think more this afternoon. So a declaration of budget emergency is required under the county code before executive leaders and I'll define that in a minute. Can do things like furlough employees, change office hours, change days of operation and things like that. The executive declares such an emergency, which he did last Friday, and then the council has to ratify that declaration. So we have transmitted an ordinance that I believe will be on your agenda next Tuesday for the Council to ratify that proclamation of budget emergency. Once that occurs, the power to do these kind of things accrues to whoever the in essence, the executive is a various agency. So for all the true executive departments, the county executive is given that power for the separately elected officials. So the assessors, the courts, the prosecutor's office, the elections director and the sheriff, they have that power within their own agencies. And for the council agencies, the council chair would have that power. So that's what it does. And the council will clearly have a role in deciding whether to go ahead with that proclamation. Thank you, Dwight. And echoing council members are allies. Points which you affirmed, I think. I'd like to give some special attention to making sure that we look out for communities that are often left out, left behind. And as we undertake these presumably cuts. Right. And some draconian cuts and that the emergency powers, they don't eliminate or substantially reduce our transparency and visibility on the decision making and the work we've done to bring forward disadvantaged communities and organizations and residents. One last thing I should note is that the emergency declaration does not override labor contracts. So anything that would be done with represented employees would still require bargaining. Great. Just a final thought on that. And I just would like to surface this idea really advanced. But with respect to our employees, I think some tough times are coming there and we're probably going to have a smaller workforce this time next year than we do today. And we have a history in the county of really generous employee giving and we have a formal employee giving program. And I wonder if we could talk and look about setting up an account to help our own family members, our own county family members who may lose jobs and have special needs to where we could have an account in our employee giving program to support those needs. That's a camera. That's an idea that I certainly have not heard before, although probably somebody else has already thought of it. Let me make sure I pass that on to the employee giving people. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Council member Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Why? Also, with regard to what council members are alive that I spoke about and I just wanted to bring up that before pre-COVID, I had met with all of my colleagues on the Council on this Budget Chair and finding out what their preferences would be in terms of the process for our biennial budget work. And I've had those discussions with you as well. In fact, for the third upcoming the third COVID budget, emergency supplemental budget, we had the second one three weeks ago go through the council. But we have been able to provide to you through a motion and other materials that we did that last week, the council meeting, the public policy priorities of our members and provided you with categories and so forth. And I can tell that we are going to continue doing that for each COVID budget. We've talked about that, but also for the biennial budget. And when I talked with individuals before COVID struck, we had talked about having town halls that could be individual members holding them in their districts, or we could have them throughout the county as the council. And we also had talked about having panels on significant policy issues that we had agreed upon and have those during the summer rather than wait till the budget is transmitted late September. And I would like to work with you all to be sure that we provide as much as much of our priorities as possible. Now, one of the things I've communicated to all of my colleagues last Friday in an email was that we will be getting to the executive by the end of June our major policy priorities and principles for the biennial budget coming up in the fall. I would like to hear from you, Dwight, on how that would work best for you. Is that something that the executive is still interested in? Our participation in developing the budget and so forth. Yes. So I think not only are we still interested, I think it's fair to say we are more interested as the situation becomes more dire than a number of places around the budget that we're going to have to look for significant changes and reductions and such is growing. And so the sooner that we can have thoughts from council members about services that we should prioritize, services that maybe we need to rank or discontinue, entirely ways that we might organize to be more efficient. But all of that will be very, very valuable. And please don't confine yourselves just to the general fund. You know, we're going to have effects in public health. We're going to have effects in human services. We clearly have major effects in Metro. We have effects on smaller programs like Historic Preservation. I didn't mention it, but, you know, the Youth Sports Grant program is funded entirely by the rental car tax, which is going to be down by 50%. So the ability to do the kind of programs we've done historically there will not exist. So think about what all your priorities are, not just general fund and any ideas that you can share. And we are welcome. Did we welcome that information in whatever form is convenient, whether it's councilmember, it's just at the end of the day, you and I talking about it, it's sending me a long email. Whether it's a formal motion, any of that kind of input would be most helpful. Thank you. And our Code of Leadership team meets this Thursday, so I will be discussing that with them to of course, reaching out to all council members. Thank you. Thank you. Further questions for Mr. Daley. I've got three more things. Please go ahead. Okay. So Councilor Marco Wells gave me a little lead into this one. So we are still planning to transmit the third COVID supplemental appropriations ordinance on June 11th. This one's fairly comprehensive, but has quite a bit of proposed funding for public health, significant continuations and expansion of testing and contact tracing. We have a series of technology investments, particularly in the court system, to help the courts recover. We are responding to some of the ideas you had in your motion. We're trying to work through the details right now of a food security proposal, for example, which, if memory serves, was the highest priority on the council's list. So we are basically done with decision making. We're doing all the detailed work to get that over to you on June 11. I do want to bring up one thing that I mentioned before that is in there but is different than everything else. So we've talked about the impact on the permitting fund in the Department of Local Services, and the executive will be proposing $1 million of general fund to backfill part of the revenue loss and permitting. And we think that with that money and with using some permitting staff to support upcoming work of other departments, we can probably maintain that staff for the rest of this year and be prepared if, as we hope we see, some resurgence in permitting activity in the unincorporated area. I just want to make sure you understand that there is no possibility today of using federal money to backfill for that. So we should expect that there's either a general fund grant or a general fund loan. And I just wanted to call attention to that one because it will be different and it will really be calling on you to make a policy choice that at least in my ten years, we have never done before. The rest of it should all seem fairly familiar. It's all likely supported by federal funds in various ways. DEMBOSKY Councilmember. Oh, thank you, Mr. White, on that. Is that it? Will that be the ordinance that appropriates out the 262 million CARES Act funding? So the way we're doing it is we are asking for appropriations of funds in various baselines or whether it's public health under the general fund or the permitting fund. And we are, in most cases, a little agnostic yet about where to backfill is coming from. Our goal is to maximize how much FEMA reimbursement we get before we tap the CARES Act fund. So implicitly, in most cases, we will be able to tell you whether we think it's FEMA eligible, in which case probably 25% is coming from the CARES Act money or in some cases we will be reasonably confident it is not FEMA eligible, in which case it's probably all coming from the CARES Act money. There are a few other things in there that are separate grants, particularly for public health, that do not come from FEMA and do not come from CARES Act. So we won't know for certain about how much of the Cares Act money we're using, but we have a pretty good sense of which ones we think are FEMA eligible and which ones we don't. Okay, that's helpful. So so say the council member had an idea within one of the priorities, say food security and I'll just services that came out of a conversation I had this week with a frontline food bank volunteer, Councilman Rizal. In your district in the Central District, she reached out to perhaps do an investment, which we haven't done in our FreshBooks program here in the county. The conservation district funds that set up average too expensive, but it would put it basically it's it's like a snap the local voucher in people's hands to buy fresh food on their own that's culturally appropriate and might be a might be a program we could invest in with it's consistent with our food security priority in response to the common deal to work on that kind of an idea. Will there be time to do that with colleagues and the executive, or are those things going to be fully fleshed out in your proposal? So your specific example, one of the things that we are looking at, let's assume that that's one of our proposals, then we're aligned . If for whatever reason we decide to go in a different direction with food, it's always something that the council could certainly amend, either redirect some money we're proposing or add money. That's a case where we know it is not FEMA eligible, but it is definitely cares act eligible. The schedule that you use to review and adopt the supplemental is of course up to you. And so we need action, you know, reasonably quickly because we need the appropriation authority. But if the council wanted to add another week for your consideration, that's not a problem really for the executive. Thank you. Member Council Member LAMBERT. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on the permitting issue, I know that there are at least four months behind in their caseload, so acting up could help us to get the revenue. So I think that's really important. And I know that there are some large enterprises that have been waiting, so I'm glad that we can keep that in the pipeline. I think you might want to check with our EG department and just what the previous speaker said. I think that they are working on something very similar as a pilot project right now with our Sonoma County. So you might want to ask them what they're doing on that pilot project because they've been doing it for about a month and a half. And so they may need because we're partnered with Snohomish County. I don't know if we need to buy our own license or what happens if the pilot existing. So I might want to ask them and see if they can let you know on that, that it may be easier to get done than we thought, but it may have a price tag. And then secondly, the school lunch money program is supposed to end June 15th, but we want it, of course, to go until September. And last night, I spoke with Congresswoman DelBene, and she said that that is being taken care of and the Heroes Act, and that they didn't think until this week that the CARES Act is going to make it to the Senate. She believes now that there is action coming in the Senate. So that part might be something we can watch to see about getting more food for the kids through October through that. So those are two good. It's as good as I had not heard that latter point particularly. Thank you. You're welcome. Mr. Dudley, anything further? Yeah. So two other quick things. I think these are very quick. So on Friday, as I had let you know ahead of time, we did transmit to almost all agencies that get general fund resources, a request that they identify 5% budget reductions for 2021 and a further 5% for 2022. So essentially seven and a half percent reductions in their straight general fund appropriation. So in cases where an agency has grant money or other funding sources, we withdrew that from the calculation. So we're really only focused on the true general fund resources that they receive. We also for agencies that don't really have any control over their inputs, we acknowledged that and said, we're only asking you to identify cuts on things that essentially are optional and so they have smaller targets as a result. There are lots of other things we're working on centrally in addition to that. So those targets alone don't fill the whole gap. But unfortunately, as the news continues to get worse, I think it's going to be more and more likely that we have to take most, if not all, of those seven and a half percent reductions in the proposed budget. Thank you, Councilmember Coe Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, you were going to or the executive was going to transmit the biennial third supplemental omnibus budget last Friday, and that's been delayed. Do you have an update on when that will be coming over? And my colleagues, we do not need to act on that right away. We're looking for July into August. Yeah. There were a couple of things that we wanted to run by the executive in more detail. And so my current understanding, it's either going to be transmitted to you this week or more likely next week. Further questions are the. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Comment. We as a branch are of course, not exempt from this budget situation that the county finds ourselves in. And so I've been working with our Chief of staff and our administrator to come up with some I guess what ifs is what I would call them, what it would look like if we would take on a level of cuts similar to what White is talking about. So we have to start having some discussions among ourselves about what we're going to propose for the legislative branch budget. I just wanted you to know that we had begun looking at that. We're going to talk to you all and to to our staff about it through our own internal process. But that we've begun having just internal conversations, we will have to make some hard decisions as well. So it's going to be a hard year all the way around, I believe. And but we're all we're all in it together. So I'll just say I appreciate the fact that the council is having those conversations. It does send an important signal to the rest of the government. All right. The very last thing I thought I would share and this is just another indicator that we are now operating in a very different world than we were three or four months ago. You might recall early on in these briefings, I gave you an update when we got our excess liability insurance renewed and our premium went up and our coverage went down. But we thought we did actually pretty well. We kept a fairly high degree of coverage. We ended up with 67 and a half million dollars of insurance, and we paid $3.8 million to get that. Our friends across the street at the city of Seattle, their insurance renewal was yesterday and they encountered a much more difficult market. And so the city of Seattle now has only $35 million of insurance, and they paid $7 million to get it. So a 20% premium on your insurance is a pretty high premium. So that just gives us a signal that that world has changed a lot. Probably is going to continue to be that way for a while. Our property insurance, not our liability insurance, but our property insurance expires at the end of this month and renews on July 1st. The folks in risk management are working hard on that. I suspect we will see a significant increase in premium and perhaps less coverage than we've had historically. So I just wanted to give you a heads up that that part of the whole financial system is also under incredible stress. John. Has never done. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, you're to be commended for moving so quickly on purchasing it. Liability insurance. And that is a significant concern downstream for for us in terms of the budget impact. Is there any discussion at all in Olympia as far as you know, about any kind of limitation of liability to local governments at this time ? So, first of all, let me say that I have nothing to do with insurance other than sitting on the committee that approves it. So the congratulations belong to our Office of Risk Management, Jennifer Hills and Allison Frey, who are the leads for that? And they they truly are outstanding. Jennifer has actually received national awards as the outstanding public sector risk manager. So they have saved this county literally tens of millions of dollars over the years through their great work. So good credit for what they've done. Councilmember, I am aware of discussions going. I suspect there are because certainly the state also has liabilities, but I have not been tracking that to see what potential legislation might be being considered. Thank you. Further questions, Mr. Lively. Thank you very much. Mr. Dave, we welcome your briefing as always. And without remove to public comment, madam quote We have anyone on the line wishing to provide public comment. Yes, we do, Mr. Chair. I assumed as much. I'm having an entirely remote meeting is unusual. There'll be something more usual for the County Council. I do want to be sure that everyone who is called in understands rules for public comment and how the process will be managed. First, our standard ground rules. Public comments must be related to items on today's meeting agenda and must not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or acquisition of any ballot measures. It also must not include obscene speech that the Speaker fails to abide by these restrictions and a rule. The Speaker Order and require the Speaker to access the virtual meeting. Now will describe the process itself as members of the public. During the meeting they were automatically muted. We can see your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Our committee will call the names and numbers you name or last. Three digits of your phone number is called. Staff will unmute your line, make sure you have also unmuted your phone if you have muted as a courtesy during the meeting. Before you begin your testimony, please wait to be acknowledged so we can be sure we can hear you and start by saying and spelling your name. So we captured accurately. For the record, if you wish your video to be turned on for your public comment, please request that before beginning. You have 2 minutes to speak and when you'll hear a timer go off at the end of 2 minutes, we'll ask you to wrap up your thought and allow the next person to see if you're listening on the TV or streaming. Please turn that person off when you're offering testimony or we'll hear feedback with that. Madam Clerk. And once you have finished your testimony and invite you to monitor the rest of the meeting by watching King County TV Channel 22 or streaming online at W, WW King County Account Access Council and clicking on the watch us live, but without removing the public comment and allow the clerk to begin calling names numbers. I think in this chair, the first caller on the line is Brogan Thompson. Go ahead, please. Mr. Thompson, you are unmuted. Okay. Can you hear me all right? Yes, we can. Please proceed. Okay. And, yeah, you can put my video on if you want, but my name's Brogan Thompson. That's br0 G.A.. Last name. th0msen and. I just got a comment on the eviction ban and it seems like it's going to include some tenants that might not comply with some of the other rules in my lease agreement rather than just the COVID related payments. I have a couple issues with some tenants and I'd rather not have some of the you know, if they damage the place or if they smoke, it's a nonsmoking building, for instance. And it looks like, according to my sources, that it's a little hard to read all that all the text of your proposal , that it looks like the eviction ban, they won't be able to give ten day notices or anything like that for some of the other rules besides rent paying. Basically, the ban, I think, is a good idea in most cases, but I don't think it should cover those other rules that I wrote. You know, it's a four plex, very small, small thing, but sometimes we have some problems. So anyway, I was hoping that could get edited out or an amendment or something, if that's really the case. It's hard to hard for me to track exactly what what it's going to apply. So that's that's about all I had to say. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. The next caller on the line is diner brought to you. Go ahead and is brought sharing your muted. Hi. My name is Dina Braccio. That's D I and a H. Last name is eracci0. Um, I guess I'm, I'm calling about, um, some proposed legislation. To. Provide. Protections for tenants. Sort of beyond the scope. Of the immediate eviction moratoriums and that. Specifically like giving folks long a, a good amount of time to repay. Like their lost rent. And I just really want. To encourage the. Council that any legislation like that will need to. Have some form of a just cause provision. To prevent a circumnavigation of that by terminating a tenancy without. Cause and therefore like bypassing any. Of the paper vacate orders. And I would also. Just like to add to and say, as my support for. Provisions of the proposed eviction. Ban that do include ten day notices, and that. Because often. We have we have seen. That. Those have been given. Out to tenants. As as pretends for. For either the nonpayment of. Rent or. For. Legitimate disagreements or attempts to enforce their rights as tenants. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Braccio. The next caller on the line is Eleanor Bruck. Go ahead, Miss Brooke, you are unmuted. That's. Yes. Back. And for some reason, I'm not allowed to and I can. Okay. Can you hear me now? Oh, great. Thank you. Yeah, I'm sorry. I did not know it's such a short notice, so I wasn't prepared for that. But anyway, what I'm trying to say that I'm kind of radiating and I was expecting the Sister June to become the date eligible and make us eligible to have a go after the tenants who are not paying their bills. And I am on the same boat with them. You know, they are suffering from the virus and they lost two jobs. So, so same thing with me. I'm leaving the triplex that the owner occupied my son live in one unit. I live in the other units in the I. We have a rental van rental and those people stopped paying and they very happy because they can not be and they are not responsible for anything. And I am getting small, kind of a Social Security and pension and it's it's my investment. I'm so surprised that city council, which you never put in your money to mine, this man can manage my investment and force me to accept people live free here. This is not not fair. So you only one side this you think that those ten, all of them will all have different stories? This is my investment. I work very hard. I have to pay taxes. There has to be insurances. I have to maintain the building. I'm responsible and liable for somebody who will follow up next to my building and I have to deal with it. And that's and that's not they leave a city, a friend. They don't have to worry about it. You give them so, so many rights and only the owners have responsibilities. You actually are getting salaries because we pay taxes. You using public money for the salaries and property for us. You stop getting paid or get some might then us to live with one of you is a just a human. You know, I ran away from Soviet Union hoping that this. Are you still listening or not? I kind of okay. You know, I run away over 50 years from Soviet Union because of the communism, socialism, but putting us all down as people, as human, we have no rights. I'm fine. They came to the United States free country. I work very hard. I were paid jobs to save my money. I finish up college in school. And I was working all my life and I saved something for my golden years. I had this surgery in October. I had a heart infection almost three months. I have a problem with my health. So I'm over 70. I can't talk. I do not really want to pay for somebody who surrounds. Can you help me to pay my taxes? Can you help me to pay my insurances? Can you see all my obligations and just let me live free until you will decide that this memorandum is finished? No, you're not. You're trying to just force me to accept people. Young people live in one of their units. They don't see. They smoke dope every day. News broke. I'm sorry. Your time is up. Can you please wrap up? Okay. I'm telling you all you have to do. Not one, but one side. I'm a small owner and owner actually occupied my family leave from this building. Only renting one apartment. It's my golden years. I saved this money for to supplement my Social Security and my income. And now I have to pay for it for somebody who you see in other store have lots of positions available. People don't often apply because they see their homes and getting money from government constantly and they just keeping their money for themself and enjoying life while I'm suffering. I have to buy my insulin. I have to buy other medications. Of course, a lot of money, everything. Go to the doctor. I'm an emergency. In and out. Who's going to help me? This. I want you to listen. And me as a senior, as a citizen, as a person equal to my friend in this book. Miss Brooke, we appreciate your testimony, but I am going to ask you to conclude so I can hear it from other people who want to testify. I want to also say that this is unfair business discrimination. You discriminating me and you're putting my teammates ahead of me. I'm sorry for you. So thank you. Thank you for your testimony. I appreciate it. We're glad to have been able to hear your testimony. Miss Daly. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our next caller. And please forgive me. This is how you show up on my screen. It's so. Let's see. Um, f l i c i in a in g you are a muted. You are muted on my end, but it looks like you are still muted yourself. So if you want to unmute and speak, that would be great. It appears that she is still muted on Zoom. I am not able to. I neither. I think she has or he has to do it. But why don't we move on and I'll try to come back to that person. So the next caller on the line is Kelly Price. Please go ahead. You are muted. Over. Once again, I'm trying to unmute and. Kelly Price. There we go. Sorry. Had to fight with the unmute button. My name is Kelly Price. K e l l e y p. R i c. I own one rental home and I am very concerned that you guys are extend are considering extending allowing tenants to stay without paying rent. We had a tenant we have a tenant in a house in the house and he's been a pretty poor tenant kind of all along because he doesn't pay his rent on time. He has to pay the utilities and then we get the bills. He doesn't take good care of the house. And then his lease was up at the end of March and we were going to have him out. You know, your lease is up by by and then this thing hit and you guys said we couldn't do it , take him out. And he's sitting there and he's he's still working at least part time. We know that there's. Lots of resources. For tenants probably on unemployment. He's he's doing okay, but he's not making the least bit of effort to pay even a partial rent. He's not responding to our attempts to contact him. And I feel like if you continue this through September, you're writing him a check out of my checkbook. And I really you're not giving any kind of relief to homeowners. We've worked all our lives, as. The previous lady said. To afford to have a single rental property. And it's part of our retirement fund. And, you know, we're not giving us a break on the taxes. The mortgage holder is not, you know. Saying, oh, you don't have to pay your mortgage. I really feel like that. You know, you're you're going too far. And and it's I actually it's getting close to being a violation of the taking of private property. And I think that pretty much covers it. Thinking this price for your comments. The next caller on the line is Kurt Krieger. Mr. Krueger, can you unmute yourself, please, and go ahead. Okay? Yes. Good afternoon. I'm Kurt Krieger. That's q r t t r e a g e r. I'm speaking to you from Bellevue, Washington. First to the whole council, thank you for tackling the very important issue of renter protections. We certainly are all in unchartered territory in these last few months. I'm speaking as a King County resident, a King County landlord, as well as an advisor to other local landlords. While the intention of this legislation is very well intended, the actual effects will result in far different incomes than intended. You will actually be hurting the very renters you are trying to protect first. Most landlords I know are selling any property that they have. If and when it becomes empty, particularly single family houses, the end result is fewer and fewer rental units, tenants having fewer choices and the resulting increase in housing costs due to scarcity. I can speak directly to this as I know of multiple King County and a few not only the homeless county units in the last few months be sold under those circumstances. Second, I also do not see how allowing and even encouraging tenants to fall behind is in their best interests. Most residents will be unaffected. They will pay their rent or work out arrangements without being forced to. Matter of fact, several landlords I know proactively reduce rent to a level that covers the cost before any law made them do it. It's actually the tenants on the edge, the ones you're trying to protect that will be hurt the most. A better solution is to immediately prioritize rental housing assistance, funding, funding that helps those you say you're trying to protect. Also, as addressed by a few of the previous speakers, tenant rules violation evictions need to be addressed. Rules violations burden neighbors and even creates safety issues. If we're not able to remove dangerous tenants from the from the property, any restriction must be crafted with stakeholder input. To put the entire burden on landlords and other residents who do not pay their rent is unfair. Do not forget the foreclosure crisis and what happened back then. Many landlords are like you and I. They've lost jobs. They've lost businesses. They're like the lady previous to me. That's her only house. Look at me. I am suggesting the following. Vote no today and or delay this legislation. And still until stakeholders, including the RH or other landlords like myself, can be included. Immediately seek funding and establish a rental assistance funding program to help those in need with rental assistance. Set your minimum rent reduction to no more than 25%. An example, maximum rent is 75% of the actual run. That would go a long way to helping. Owners continue to pay their mortgage short in the time to repay to no more than four months from the time they modify or begin paying their rent. That's sufficient time for them to make long term plans, depending on whatever their personal circumstances dictate. Also passed legislation that will allow any landlord who can show impact from reduced rents to delay property tax payments on the little bit of relief we got through June. Mr. Kreuger, your 2 minutes cleared, if I can ask you to wrap up. Okay. Yeah, I'm in my last paragraph. Please. Softly crucifying writing stakeholders into the process, not create a bigger one for the very people you say you're trying to help. But one council member member said at the beginning of the meeting, As a council, you must come up with strategic solutions, not just take the easy path. Thank you. Lambert. Captain Lambert, we're in public testimony. And I'd just like to ask for a copy of his comments. Mr. Carter, if you can email a copy of your comments to Councilmember Lambert, she would appreciate it. Ms.. Daley. Yes, I will. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next caller on the line is Isaac. Organist, if you are unmuted, please go ahead. Hello. Thank you very much, counsel. Thank you. First and foremost, for recognize the severity of the situation and the Black Lives Matter movement is very important. So I appreciate that. My name is Isaac Ernest. I'm an organizer here in Seattle and King County. I'm a renter as well. And I'm a member of the Latino community, and I'm also a child of immigrants. So I've seen how my community, especially undocumented folks, have been severely impacted by this pandemic. People have lost their jobs. And if they're undocumented, they can't cannot access state or federal support. And folks are behind on rent evictions, as we know, evictions. And they're one cause of homelessness. And with this pandemic affecting black and brown people more, not ensuring folks the stability of their homes during this pandemic and sending them to the streets would be sending them to their deaths. All of COVID cases, and all out of all the COVID cases in Washington, 39% of them are from Latinx folks, even though we make up 13% of the state population. I've had conversation with people in Kirkland, Issaquah, Redmond worrying about what will happen once the moratorium ends. Council If this ordinance doesn't include both non possess law and good cause protections, you might as well not do anything. Don't just pass something to say, you pass something. If you want to ensure folks can stay housed from apartments. To manufactured homes. You need to include both of these things. One without the other will not protect tenants from no cause. Evictions, not necessary without good cause will not protect tenants from no cause. Evictions go cause without non possesses already means landlords will have folks are not paying rent when we know they couldn't. Again, a lot of these issues have existed before the pandemic. COVID just exacerbated everything. It is high time for our elected officials who have said themselves and this caller that these problems that existed before, while they've been in office, they finally create tangible changes. And again, no cause is a smart thing to do. It will allow allow for landlords and to evict tenants for poppy damages and etc. and other things like that. It has been implemented in other cities in the state. So again, please pass passes to ensure that it's including but not necessary and good protections. Thank you, Mr. Organist. Our next caller on the line is Susan Smith. I've tried to unmute you. Please unmute yourself and go ahead. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Please proceed. My name is Susan Smith, Sarasin and I teach and I'm a landlord. And I agree with what all the other landlords have been saying to me. This is like commandeering my property and deciding and telling me what I can and can't do with it. It seems unconstitutional to me. It's the same as saying to a farmer, right now we have people that can afford your produce. You need to bring your produce to the grocery store, and if they can't pay, just give them the produce. And in a couple months they'll be able to pay you. Maybe that's exactly what you're saying to me. And I understand that as the state you feel for these people and you want to help them then. But you're saying basically coming up to me, a stranger and saying, we feel bad for these tenants. You give them free rent for now. So what the state needs to do is you need to pay their rent, you need to set up a system and if they can't pay it, then you pay their landlord. You don't come to an individual and say, give away your property for free. And if you're right, your your rights being suggested, it is very unclear on the paying back that it's I'm already confused. It already doesn't make sense. I've had tenants that haven't paid April. I tried to set up a plan with them, but then it comes May and they can't pay me. So the whole payment plan is already null and void and now comes to June. They can't pay June. Well, they say they can't pay like they have a young you don't as they've said, 65%. I think people are making more money than they were making before on unemployment. So there needs to be some. Sort of verification to. That. They're not getting unemployment when they say they can't pay. I have likewise, my insurance says they'll help only if I'm not getting a tax credit subsidy. There needs to be something like that. People can't just say they can't pay. I'll say you're setting these people up to get to fail. So when all of a sudden they do need to pay, they have three months of payment or four months. How are they ever going to pay the rent that they can probably barely pay? Plus pay their four months or five months catch up? They won't be able to, and then they will be this big mess. Man, that's the time of your 2 minutes. If I could ask you to please conclude and take. One last thing. What's going to happen? Landlords are going to sell their properties. You know who's going to buy it? Big corporations. And then do you think that they're going to their rents are going to be even more and create more homelessness? So you're not helping the system and it's unfair to landlords. Engineer Smith. Next caller on the line is Corey Brewer. Go ahead, Mr. Brewer. Hey, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Corey Brewer, CEO, our wide breed, our general manager, Windermere Property Management. We represent over a thousand single family landlords in King County. I'd like to echo several things said by the landlords who have called in so far today. First priority, I think, should be some type of rental assistance program for people who are struggling to meet their everyday expenses, including rent. If that can be achieved, then all the other things we're talking about kind of go away. So that should be priority number one. We've heard from a lot of small mom and pop landlords who are the primary clientele that we represent. I think there is a major misconception out there about who a landlord is. They're not all these huge corporations. There are a lot of everyday, hardworking people who happen to own a rental property and that serves as potentially their primary source of income. And it's important not to forget that. I have a huge problem with what I see going on here. The attempt at a solution is a blanket policy, and blanket policy does not work. You have got to create targeted solutions aimed at helping the people that actually need the help. There are absolutely lots of people out there who desperately need help, and I think we can all agree on that. Any form of leniency on someone's lease obligations should be predicated on them being able to demonstrate a COVID 19 related hardship. And that all speaks to someone's ability to pay rent. That does not speak to someone's ability to follow the rules in their lease. And that part needs to be written out completely that that shouldn't even be part of the discussion today. If someone is breaking the rules of their lease, they should not get a free pass. And fortunately, you know, we at least with our clients, we don't run into a whole lot of that. But when we do, it's a huge problem. And ultimately, the homeowner that I should say, not the landlord, not the homeowner, the housing provider, because that's what they are. The housing provider is the one end up holding the back and the more of these types of rules that get passed that are completely one sided. It's true landlords are selling and it's true when they sell their properties. They are either purchased primarily the single family world that I'm working in. They are purchased by someone who is going to live in it themselves. So there is one less unit of housing rental housing inventory available that drives up the price of the remaining housing stock. And it is a very unique it's a very unique property type that we represent here with the single family. Housing world as opposed to conclude. Sure. As opposed to the two these large corporations that do own thousands of apartment units and can absorb financial losses like this a little bit more easily. This I understand what was done as the initial knee jerk reaction to COVID 19 response, and perhaps some of that is warranted. But now that there's been a couple of months to really think about this and what are we going to do? It seems like nothing has changed from the initial rollout. If I can be more targeted and. Thank you, Mr. Brewer. And our next caller on the line is Edmond with her. Go ahead. And as to whether you are muted. Thank you. Council members, this is on Twitter from the King County Bar Association. I'm asking you to support 2020 or 191 and it Straker amendment and certainly just some of the comments have been made earlier to the issue about whether this would bar any type of enforcement of a lease violation. And that's not true. The striker very clearly states that as well, and the original ones had some Ms. Miss writing about what it was actually should have been said it was referring to nonpayment of rent has basically been barred under this gentleman's already implemented these types of protections that are very similar to it national poll that were just released today so that there was 89% support for a moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus outbreak because there's an increasing need right now to be able to have some protection. The language in the actual striker itself, in the actual original bill is already narrowly, narrowly tailored to help those who have been impacted by COVID, not just any tenant. So just doesn't tell any tenant who can still pay the rent that you can get a free pass. It's protecting tenants who've been impacted by COVID in order to save those most vulnerable to the coronavirus before a lot of people out of their jobs. We cannot also now evict them from their homes. On the issue of rental assistance, we are very much in support it. We run one of the biggest programs of the United Way that provides rental assistance. We have $5 million in King County for the month of April, but within 48 hours, we were not able to help the people who applied for it. And in fact, we got 7000 applications in 48 hours, but we're only able to help 2000 of them. We currently just don't have the funding at the state level or the county level or any other level for the federal government to provide that type of assistance. And the next point I just want to really emphasize about what this council said at the beginning of the meeting. Housing is a racialized issue, racist, defined as public health crisis, racist defined the criminal justice system as we've seen recently in races to find the housing crisis. People of color are going to be the ones who are impacted if you do not pass this type of legislation, they relate disproportionately on rental housing in King County. They're also experiencing unemployment over twice the rate at which white residents are, by not providing these type of protections, are ultimately sending a lot of people of color in our communities of color, making them feel displacement. At this point, I really suggest that you pass this legislation and really make sure that you show that you care about also the people who've been impacted by this virus at this point. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Water. The next person on the line has the last three digits of their phone number as 562. Go ahead. You are unmuted. It looks like that person dropped off the line. So the next person on the line has the last three digits as 160. Go ahead. You are unmuted. Can you please state your name? Last three digits, 160. Area Code 714. If you'd like to speak, you are unmuted. Mr. Chair, I am going to go back to one last guest to see if I can bring them up first. Palacio Perhaps, yes. M.G. Yes. The person on the line with f e l, i, c, e and g if you would. And yourself you can speak. It doesn't appear. That they are meeting, Mr. Chair. And with that I believe I'd call everyone on the line and we go from a number by six to is back five six to is back. I have a muted 562. If you'd like to speak up here, can you please give us your name? We dropped off again. I think they maybe do not want to speak, Mr. Chair. I think that's everyone. Is it possible that unmute everybody so I can confirm there's nobody else on the line who'd like to speak? I have unmuted everyone. Mr. Chair. Thank you. Everyone who's unmuted? Is there anyone on this call who would like to offer public testimony? It hasn't had the chance to do so. I'm hearing no one. Thank you. Ms.. Daly, we will close public testimony. Last year. Well, I'm sorry. I mean, I knew that everybody and I couldn't hear you, so. And I'm unmuted now. I see. Can I get a nod or affirmation that somebody can hear me? Great. Thank you. Our next ordinance is acronym is ordinance 2020 191, which would provide tenant protections during the COVID 19 pandemic. My colleagues and members of the public are listening that we may need to go into executive session to discuss this item. Miss Sanders from our central staff is here to provide a staff briefing. Ms.. Sanders. All right. Thank you. For the record, April Sanders, counsel, central staff. The materials for this item begin on page 11 of your packet ordinance 2020 0191 and one provide tenant protections for prudential and small commercial tenants. And to this background, Governor Inslee signed Emergency Proclamation 2019 on March 18, which prohibited residential landlords from serving unlawful detainer actions , issuing a 20 day notice for unlawful detainer or initiating judicial action, seeking a writ of restitution for nonpayment of rent resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic. Governor Inslee subsequently extended that proclamation, adding additional residential protections and extending certain protections to commercial tenants. A list of the protections granted an extension can be found on page 12 of your packet. The extended proclamation expires this Thursday, June four. Subsequently, the city of Seattle passed a series of three ordinances making nonpayment nonpayment of rent due to COVID 19, a defense to eviction and providing for a payment plan. Options for residential and small commercial tenancies. Moving onto legislation in front of you, the proposed ordinance would create those tenant protections, modeled largely off of the city of Seattle's ordinances that I referenced previously, but amended to fit our administrative structure. The protections in the proposed ordinance would be available through September 1st, 2020, which marks six months for me from executive Constantine's Proclamation of Emergency on March 1st. Starting off with residential tenant protections. The ordinance would provide residential tenants with a defense to eviction if an unlawful detainer action were based on the tenant's failure to pay rent due . If the failure to pay were because of circumstances occurring as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic. These circumstances include the tenant's illness, loss or reduction of income, loss of employment, reduction in uncompensated, uncompensated hours of work, business or office closure. A need to miss work to care for a family member or child where that care is uncompensated or other similar loss of income due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the defense to eviction would be available to residential tenants if the eviction were initiated because of unpaid rent that was due before or by September 1st, 2020. Additionally, the proposed ordinance would allow a tenant who fails to pay rent due before or by September 1st, 2020, to pay the overdue rent in installments. If the tenant requests a written installment repayment plan, it would be negotiated between the landlord and the tenant. However, the repayment plan could not require the tenant to pay more than one third of overdue rent each month unless agreed to by the tenant. And all rental debt accumulated must be paid by September 1st of 2021. The landlord would not be allowed to charge late fees, interest or other charges. It would be an additional defense to eviction if a landlord refused the request to enter into a payment plan. Moving on to protections for small commercial tenancies, the provisions model the repayment plan I just outlined for residential tenancies. For the purpose of this ordinance, small commercial tenant would be defined as a business entity that is owned and operated independently from all other businesses and has 50 or fewer employees. Per establishment has either been forced to close to due to an emergency order issued by Governor Inslee or has gross receipts from the previous calendar month that are less than 70% of gross receipts from a same month in 2019. Additionally, it can either be a general sales and service business with ten or. More. Establishments in operation anywhere in the world, nor an entertainment business with five or more establishments anywhere in the world. That concludes my briefing on the underlying ordinance. Mr. Chair, there are amendments, a striking amendment and an amendment to the striker, and we have Gina Kim and Darren Carnell from the jail here to answer questions as well. Council member, W.T. Currie. How are you suggest we proceed? Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I would ask if we could treat this as a briefing for the moment. Have April read the amendments, have discussion and questions and answers. And then I would like to at that point consider what my motion would be. We have we have heard a few issues about the concept here, and some of them have been addressed in amendments. Some of them may be worthy of addressing in future amendments. And I would just like to think about how we proceed after I hear some of the Q&A from the members. So I would ask if you would allow the senators to complete their briefing, and then I'd like to say a few words about the ordinance. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms.. Sanders. Sure. So striking amendment S1 to the in the amendment packet the mark sent out, I believe today the primary change would change the sunset date of the provisions essentially from September 1st of 2020, which marks six months exactly as proclamation 2/1 of 2021, which marks one year from the executive's emergency proclamation. So the protections would be. Available to tenants. If the eviction were initiated because of unpaid rent that was due before or by March 1st, 2021. Additional technical corrections recommended by the panel and revise are reflected throughout the striking amendment, mostly where changes to change the some language in the CRL or most of that administrative structure. And then Amendment one to us, one would add a section providing the same protections offered to residential tenants to tenants of mobile and manufactured home parks. This includes COVID 19 as a defense to eviction and requiring a repayment plan if requested by the tenant. And that concludes the amendments. Mr. Chair, may I ask the question. As number one duty? Thank you. This year we have an additional amendment from one of the members as well. No, we do not. Okay, thank you. And if that's okay, I'll just go ahead and say a few words. Then I want to speak as the sponsor of this ordinance to the the concept and what we're trying to do. As has been correctly stated in brief, there is a statewide eviction moratorium that was meant to keep many thousands of households from suddenly losing their homes due to the really dramatic economic impact of COVID 19. However, at some point, that eviction moratorium is going to end, and at that point, we will be faced with truly a public policy crisis, a lot of individual crises. And I don't want to downplay the impact to individual families here because it won't. But for every person and family that does that will potentially lose their home. It is a huge challenge and a very critical moment. But as a public policy matter, it is a massive challenge for us as a government, for our constituents to have a large number of people suddenly lose their home. I would remind us that we are currently living under four emergency declarations that are specific to our county a homelessness emergency declaration, an epidemic emergency death declaration and economic emergency declaration. And now the issue of the protesting and some of the issues going on in the streets. So the last thing we need is a tremendous number of people to suddenly all lose their homes for them and for our entire community. The intent here was really rather modest, though it is, and it may not be the last word on policy around evictions, but when the eviction moratorium ends, what this is attempting to do is provide a kind of a glide path. So instead of suddenly owing all the money that was unpaid during the emergency due to people who have lost their incomes due to this due to COVID, it gives them some time and gives them the ability to negotiate a payment plan to pay off the arrearages as they're starting to, you know, sort of hopefully rebound and get income flowing again. And it gives a defense, not an eviction moratorium, not even for nonpayment of rent. Is this an eviction moratorium? What it does is it gives somebody whose landlord is looking to evict them the ability to say in court in an eviction proceeding, I couldn't pay because I lost my income due to COVID. And the judge can take that information and weigh it in making a decision. That's what this does. It's really quite modest, actually, and it's meant to keep people in their homes and start paying the back rent in a in a relatively quick way. So I know it's not perfect. And I have to say that there are questions that have been raised that we have not addressed yet, because we're moving relatively quickly since this has gone public. We've been working on it for a while, since it's gone public and smooth pretty quickly. For example, the comment about the No Cause eviction issue is it's a very good one. It's a very good point that if you can evict someone, if you can't fix someone because they haven't paid their rent due to COVID and they have a payment plan, if you also have the ability to evict them for no reason at all, that's just that is a loophole that the entire the entire protection fits inside of. I also have heard that we need clarity of heard from the Rental Housing Association on behalf of landlords, that the payment plan language has some lack of clarity in it. And there's a little confusion. And as I look at it, I see that they have a point and it would make sense to make sure that we're being very clear about what the payment plan does and doesn't do. So I would like to have a little time, whether between now and full council or now at another committee meeting to work on that a little bit more. I want to say that a few more things. The comments about we should provide rental assistance agreed. We should provide rental assistance. Rental assistance assistance in and of itself is not going to solve the problem. I think we're going to need a multi-pronged approach. And when we talk about the CARES funding that we have for community supports, I'm certainly going to be advocating in favor of rental assistance programs to help people stay in their homes and pay their rent. I heard the issue about not being able to enforce rules of conduct, and I will admit that in the first draft of this and it as as initially as we introduced it, the ordinance did have some language that one could read and think that that it did that that it removed the ability for landlords. To evict people because of behavior or other violations of their contracts. That was not the intent of this ordinance, and we removed that language in the striking amendment. So I think that we've done a balanced job here. I know there will be questions and comments from colleagues, but I want to commend this approach to everybody. I'm going to be listening carefully to what the members have to say. And, Mr. Chair, if with your indulgence at the end would call on me, I will at that time make a motion to be determined between now and then. Thank you. Politics can be rough. The rough? Oh, well, thank you, Mr. Chair. There was a lot of testimony and. Well, a lot of what I heard in testimony didn't match up with what I heard in our staff report for what this does. So I'm going to try being a non attorney here, April, to try to repeat back in sort of layman's terms. And one thing, I don't think you were clear on that. I think we know, but the public might is we might correct that we only have jurisdiction over properties in unincorporated areas. So this would only apply to rental properties in unincorporated King County, not in any city. Correct. That's what I thought. And then. And and forgive me, I haven't dove into this that I'm sort of stating the obvious here to help communicator, but also to get my head around it. Is it correct? What concern about duty said that we're not extending any prohibition on evictions. We're simply giving that if someone is evicted and they go to court, that they have the chance to argue and demonstrate to a judge that their failure to pay was due to COVID. And if that's the case, there's an option for there need to be a repayment plan. Okay. Okay. That doesn't sound as scary to me as I also happen to be a landlord and not an unincorporated. But. I'm interested in learning a little bit more about the details and mechanics as cancer buildup, she said. But I kind of want to repeat that back and remember to make sure I understood it. Given there was so much testimony about. Things unrelated to. Payment to you, no ability to pay. But if this is focused on if you're looking for feedback cuts, we're about to see if this is unincorporated areas. It doesn't extend the moratorium and is simply a defense in court. If you're being evicted and you can demonstrate due to COVID and you have to pay the money back, but it's on a conservative payment plan. I'm I think that sounds eminently reasonable. And to clarify, there are two defenses to eviction to pay because of nonpayment of rent and if a tenant requested and a landlord refused to provide a repayment plan. So both are defensive to eviction. Thanks to my example, I use the hallway. Council members. Hello. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have similar questions to Councilmember Up the Grove, and they're just clarifying questions. Does anything in this ordinance say that tenants can live for free in their homes? No. Councilmember does anything in this ordinance. Forgive or cancel back rent payments? No. It still be on. Does anything in this ordinance or the amendment say that landlords cannot evict, quote unquote, bad tenants if they have a good cause for doing so? No. If they have a another reason for eviction, it would still be allowed. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I felt like. I personally was just very confused by the public comments from the landlords and I hope that the clarifications that we're providing right now are helpful moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member. Lambert. Council member Lambert. Thank you. So a couple of questions. You know, this says you can go to court. Our courts are backed up months and months. So and going to court is expensive. So especially if you have to wait months and months to get in. So then that means it's only longer that the person living in your property. So sending more work to the courts right now, I don't know. That's a good idea. You we need to have some arbitrators or and come in and handle this work. And specifically, I listen to what the people said about checking on whether or not the people had gotten unemployment and any other income. I think that some fine verification would be important if somebody is getting unemployment and as you that it's been supplemented with $600 extra week of I know that standing it should have been at least paying something. And then the comment that's already made about this is putting these problems on the back of individual citizens. As council member said, he's a current landlord. I am a recovering landlord, never to be one again because I got left with a tenant who had been a long term benefit and still promised that they would pay me back when they were no longer ill. The bill came to $10,000 at that point and then they went into bankruptcy and therefore I never got that money back. So I think we need to deal with some issues about can they just go in and file bankruptcy? And then in my case and like in my case, you just don't get your money back ever. So I think we need to look at what we're doing to small landlords and giving them a few more protections than what I see here. I I've read this and I can understand why a person who is is reading these would say it's confusing because it it was even confusing to me and I read this all the time. So. So I think if we're going to do some rewriting in the next couple of weeks, I think it's a really good idea. I think going back and trying to make it have more clarity and less Bigley's and more clarity so the average person can understand it might also be helpful. Thank you. Councilor calls. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we all led some very carefully to all of those who provided public comment and was confirmed. The issue that was brought up by council member of the group about this covering only the unincorporated areas of the county. But I do think it's really critically important to understand the plight that the smaller landlords, the mom and pop landlords can be in. If there were not precautions for them, then I have been working with my colleagues and my co-sponsors. I'd like to file amendments for this, but also for the possibility of using Cogan. Excuse me, cars funding in our next COVID omnibus emergency budget. So this is something that I just want to confirm that we are listening to. We understand the situation that has been brought out, and I hopeful that we can reach some agreement on addressing those important issues as well. Thank you. You know, Tasmanian devils. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the sponsors for bringing this forward. And I appreciated some of the clarifying comments as well and as well as the testimony. One thing that I am looking at here with respect to the defense, to an eviction and the residential portion are the enumerated reasons, including an illness or uncompensated care. And one thing I would be interested in exploring is whether or not we could add a materiality component to that. In other words, there could be, as a result of the enumerated factors, a de minimis reduction in income. And as written, it doesn't ask the court in considering the defense to an eviction, to look at whether or not the enumerated factor was a material or or proximate cause of the inability to pay the rent, if that makes sense to use on legal terms. And I I'm reluctant to set a percentage. I know in the repayment program there's a 30% number. You could set a percentage, but maybe it should be up to the judge considering all of the factors to address that. And but I think we could give some guidance to the court and tighten that up a little bit to say that the enumerated causes there had to lead to the inability to pay pay the rent. I would also be interested in. Exploring whether or not the defense or the court should also consider the hardship that might result on the landlord and the equities there. I think it's very hard in developing a law or policy of general applicability to account for all situations. But you could have a landlord that might be imminently facing foreclosure if the rent doesn't come in, and she could demonstrate that that would be a problem that I would hate to create by trying to solve a real public policy crisis with respect to housing. But I think if we empowered a court looking at these to balance the equities and way the equities, I would I'd be interested in that. I'm a little bit interested in the math with respect to the repayment deadline of September 2021 and the 30% maximum factor. And I just I can't I have a process at all. But I wonder if there's a a scenario where so much rent, acute accrued accrues is due and owing, but the limit on the monthly repayment results in a situation that there's no way to repay at all by September 2021. And how that works, I think Customer Rather is smiling. She's probably solved that now. I'm looking at April because she had pointed this out earlier. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. And then finally and I'm just looking through it, there are some exemptions for certain industries, entertainment at a certain size for a while. And I just wonder what the what what's going on there, the rationale behind that in the commercial section. Appreciate it. Thank you. And Councilmember, just a note for the repayment plan and it's clarified a bit in a striker, those concerned about that, she noted there she is pursuing other other clarifications, but it's one third of the total rent due. So you could only pay you can only require the tenant to pay one third of the total rent due per month, the overdue rent. So not one third of a month's payment, if that makes sense. I think I understand what you're saying. You're saying there's no mathematical way he wouldn't be able to recover the the payments within the time frame in the ordinary? Hypothetically, at most, it would take three months, if you like. Oh, I got it. Yes. Thank you. And it had some of the quotes there. But then I just thought from a legal perspective, and I know we may have an expression on this, I do wonder about the contract clause where we're eliminating white T's and things like that, and whether we can impose those sort of contractual rewrites by ordinance on the on private parties. I would suggest that. If we're doing that, if we're going to require that folks in the private sector, perhaps we ought to apply the same rules to ourselves in the collection of property taxes. Where I think we are, at least to date, aren't waving interest in and late charges when people can't pay their property tax bill. So I. Think we should. We should at least think about that, particularly where we might do something here, where a property owner needs to pay their property taxes, maybe can't can't get in a paying tenant because we would again, may be accruing, but collection of the debts a different thing. Can't replace a tenant with a paying tenant because of the eviction moratorium and then leads to a default either on mortgage or property taxes and accrued interest in county there. That's that's something we have to think about. That's number one. Councilmember Dunn. Reagan. You're muted. You're not here, you. There appear to be unmuted now. Joe, can you? Yes, we can hear you now. So the AT&T ad. Reagan. We just lost you. I'm assuming Councilmember Dunn is going to call back in re reconnect. Is there another question in the meantime? Councilman Brown is confirming that he's getting in, that he's reconnecting. But I'd be happy to take a question in the meantime. All right, we'll pause for a number done to reconnect. It's below. Yes. Currently the hall is pausing for a moment. Councilmember Dunn has a question. And I had technical difficulties and was reconnecting to the meeting and I'm meeting him. Can you hear me? Yes. Thanks. Can't remember. Down the hall is yours. Thank you. And I apologize that I had some technical challenges there. And I don't want to go into an executive session to prolong this meeting, but has there been an analysis done on the aspect of regulatory takings and or tortious interference with contractual relations that someone can talk me through at another time with respect to this piece of legislation, if it were to pass. Ms.. Sanders, you're on mute. Sorry about that. We can either do that in executive session or I can schedule a meeting where we're done. Darren and Gina to go through that analysis. I that's fine. Fine with me. Unless other members want to do an executive session, I don't think there's any need to prolong it. And then the other question may be to the maker of the motion is, did you. Consider if they're the idea of maybe providing some kind of taxable incentives of some kind for those landlords to engage in these kinds of payment plans to deal with things like interest, late fees. And it's a devised program that might help ease the burden on those that have to delay the income issues. Mr. Shearer, for me. As a member of our duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's no motion, but as the sponsor of the ordinance, I will. I'll answer that. I think the magnitude of this problem is so large that we probably need to use all tools to hand. And I will certainly support and have already advocated for rental assistance approaches and would absolutely support other programs to help small landlords that are in financial distress to continue to be able to provide housing. But I don't think that's an or I think it's an and so that that was my thinking in terms of proposing this. And I don't know if you were on at the beginning, but I, I as I've been thinking about what this what this ordinance is meant to do, it's meant to provide a transitional period, kind of a landing glide path from folks who have been unable to pay their rent and have been accruing back rent during the eviction moratorium, which will end on one day. I mean, one day it will end. And to try to allow some ability for them to not be all or and mass immediately evicted, but rather to work out a payment plan. And I do think we have a role as a government in helping to provide financial support into this problem as well, in whatever way makes sense . So I support that. But I think it's an and modern more. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. Thank you. Dombrowski. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you. Following up on that last colloquy there between councilman well, duty and done and the timing, this would run through, I think, September 1st. Would there be any expectation to extend the protections afforded here if things continue to get worse? Given this, the intention here, the thrust by this is as a transitional piece of legislation. I worry we get to say August or September. What's the rationale for not continuing to extend the eviction moratorium and then the impact that might have on those who own property and have obligations to pay? Mr. Chair, I'll jump in if that's all right. So just a reminder for everyone that the more of the eviction moratorium comes from the state so we don't control whether it will be extended or not. It will be the governor's decision whether to extend or not. In fact, it might expire before we complete this legislation. And if it is extended for a long period of time, we might have to come back and have that discussion. I would note that the Stryker would extend the protection period already from September one to March one, 2021, in recognition of the fact that this has already we're into the fourth month now since we really started. Oh, we're almost into the fourth month since the Governor's proclamation. And and given the phased ramp up period, this is likely to be economic impacts are likely to go on for quite some time. And I guess I then I'll just fall back on one of my cliche responses and paraphrase myself, anything you can make with an ordinance, you can change with an ordinance so we can always come back in and change it if necessary. How that answers your question, Councilmember. Does I appreciate your noting that it would extend the defense. When I say moratorium, I mean the defense to the eviction process outlined in this ordinance, at least I do in that case. So it would take it to March of next year. I see. I appreciate your optimism about being able to change things with an ordinance that are that are put in place where. But people need a plan. And people need to understand how the lingo of the legal landscape and I think some consistency and stability in our laws is appropriate. So again, I would feel more comfortable with some materiality requirements, particularly given the contemplated timeframe for these new defenses, which I think have merit at their core. I want to say that I think there is merit here, but some some some balancing of the. Impacts to the other side of the equation. I think it could be helpful. Lambert. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. The bouncing equation. Great to my heart as a former math teacher, so thank you for balancing the equation. I liked what I heard earlier from the start of the Senator Carl Wells, but Councilmember Cole Wells about using some cares money for this. And I think if we're going to do this, we need to have some balance so that we're not seeing what's a social problem on the backs of individual citizens. And I think that there needs to be some more clarity on what was said earlier about some of the factual rewrites. So I think this is something that maybe we should go into executive session about and maybe we need a little more time on. Councilmember Lambert has had a request to go to the executive session to discuss issues appropriate for executive session. Yes, but I thought we should do that at the end of the meeting. Are we planning on taking action on this today? The sponsor has said that any marketing might be dependent on the conversation we've had in council today. Okay. And Dave, tell me logistically how that works. When we're doing it remotely, we have you know, we have get a number of we have to go on and then come back again. How does executive session work? Yes. Yes, that that is how it works. We have a separate scope for them. If we have an if we have an executive session. So. Okay. That's that's a lot of work getting in and out of that, and that slows things down for everybody. Councilmember Lambert Getting the job done is what's important as well is what's important here. Good attitude. Yes. I think we should go in and really talk about some of these things that I have some concerns. Okay. I want to be clear. That will be an executive session to discuss with legal counsel litigation or potential litigation for the county is or is likely to become a party where public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal and financial consequence to the county. The committee will be in executive session for approximately. I'm going to start with 15 minutes until about 415. I'm asking KTVT to please post the viral meeting to that effect, and I'm asking all the council members and county employees directly necessary for the discussion to join the executive session by Skype at this time. Thank you. I can have a contract with the U dub and they would be requested to conduct a retrospective analysis, the focus of which would be the effectiveness of actions taken by King County leaders and public health Seattle King County to limit the spread of the virus. The study is intended to be conducted with participation by public health and organizations that were directly that are directly involved in the COVID 19 response in King County. Examples of such organizations include the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and Gates Foundation. Motion Request The Executive transmit a report to council based on the retrospective analysis and have it filed by June 30th of 2021. And that concludes my remarks. Happy to answer any questions. And we also have Karen Gill available for questions as well. Questions for Ms.. Porter. Cancer Council member, Don. As the sponsor. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, thanks for the briefing. This is coming up a little more quickly than I was ready for in terms of full consideration. And so like the prior item, I'm going to ask that we have a little more time to discuss this. There is some overlap with the what the internal auditor's office may be doing, but I think there's a lot of success stories that can be told and what we did and also a lot of lessons learned relative to our early and midway responses to the pandemic. This was designed to be a long term study. As you as you heard, the reporting deadline is more than a year away. And so I wanted to have a briefing. I wanted to have people have a chance to ask questions. And I'd like to go back and talk with the relevant players to make sure there's not overlap before we actually take a vote, if the chair would allow it. Happy to have conversation questions today. And if there's no emotion, there's no motion. Questions. Well, what is it? I would ask. What is the time frame for when the motion proposes to begin its study and look back? Is it upon enactment or is it. Once a vaccine is developed? At what point when Washington State hits phase four, is there a trigger for when we look back? I can answer that. I'm going to go ahead now. All right. The motion is not specific about when the retrospective analysis would begin. It indicates that the analysis should begin far enough time in the future that experts are able to effectively analyze the pandemic response. Thank you. Clearly, if this thing drags on for three years, then it's a different it's a it's a different time frame. Part of the reason for the genesis of this is I want to make sure that we are all all of all of the various agencies involved taking copious notes and collecting data so that we can really properly study this and have some empirical data. It's been 100 years since the last pandemic really hit the United States, but it could be ten years or five years or 20 years. And the ability to collect data and learn a lot of information is useful not only in the short term, but it's also useful in the long term. So I'd certainly be open to suggestions, but I don't intend at this time to make a motion. Appreciate the chair very much putting it on the agenda as quickly as as he did and would look forward to working with my colleagues a little more and also specifically the executive branch of government. And hearing no more questions will advanced eight in 2020 183, which asks the Office of Emergency Management and Public Health to update all of the county's emergency management plans to address the risks of pandemics. Jake Tracy will revisit the motion. Mr. TRACY. The letter goes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jake Treacy Council Staff The Materials. For Proposed Motion. 2020 10183 begin on page 33 of your packet. I will keep this brief given the time. The proposed. Motion. Would request that the Office of Emergency Management will update all relevance of emergency management and disaster recovery plans and documents to address pandemics and with lessons learned from the COVID 19 pandemic and would request that public health Seattle and King County create a pandemic response plan. So a little bit on their pandemic response plan. There's an existing pandemic influenza response plan that public health authored and was adopted by audience in 2006. The plan describes actions that various entities would take during each of the four pandemic phases identified by the World Health Organization in a variety of scenarios and actions, including social distancing, isolation of cases, canceling of large social gatherings, a lot of things that probably some of my right now so that pandemic influenza response plan because their COVID 19 symptoms and transmission method are similar to influenza has elicited a similar response. But other pandemics in the future could have different symptoms, different modes of transmission. And so this proposed motion would ask OEM to come up with an overall pandemic response plan to respond to pandemics in general, not just pandemic influenza. There's some specifics about what the plan would entail. There is also a striking amendment that makes some changes. I will note that the striking amendment as a date makes the due date for this response plan, pushes it back to September 1st, 2022, with a status report and briefing to the Council on September 1st, 2021, or before. And the Executive has also requested some further changes. But I'll pause there for any questions. Colleagues. Amber Council member. Welcome. Thank you. Two quick things. Does this include and I didn't see it. I didn't see a stockpile inventory. I think we probably should know what our inventory is and going forward so we can evaluate, you know, what we have and what we might want to have now that we've had a pandemic. And secondly, the role of zone leaders. I will tell you that the cities in my area are very upset that the zone leaders are being done away with. And that is the huge, hugely important, because that's who knew what kinds of emergencies there were to help people prepare and to supervise and an ongoing basis. So I would like to know if they are going to get rid of the zone leaders, which I think is a public policy question. What is going to be replacing those zone leaders? Councilmember Lambert, on that first question, the motion does call out that the pandemic response plan would have identification of critical infrastructure or resources that are currently lacking that would be required in order to respond to pandemic and the barriers to acquiring or developing that infrastructure or resources and recommendations on how to fill those gaps. So that answers your first question, I believe. The second one, I would have to defer to executive staff who I believe that we have on the line in terms of the zone leaders. Thank you very much for. I believe we have Brendan McCluskey on the line from Ohio. Megan. Afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me okay? Yes, Premier. Hi. Good afternoon. Yeah, I'm the. The second council member. There are no plans to get rid of the zone coordinator positions. We agree it's a very important position to have there as an advocate and a link from us to the cities. And we absolutely. Are going to be continuing that program. Councilmember Lambert, you're on mute. Thank you. Do you want me to be the one to tell him, or do you want to be the one to tell him? Because one of us is going to make him really happy. So he's going to come up with his life. Yeah. Thank you. They're both aware that they are that the program is being. Continued. And they weren't yesterday. So. Okay. Thank you. So. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you. I'd like to put this before us and move motion number. What is that, Joe? 20. Five 2020 0183 2020 0183 Before us for consideration and speak to it. Councilmember Douglas moved adoption of moves we give a do pass recommendation to rush in 2020 183. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you. It's been almost 15 years since we did a pandemic planning document. Obviously, we're in the throes of one right now. We're learning an enormous amount and plans that should not be lost on us. And so, you know, in this particular scenario, as you know, the you know, the Department of Public Health Department of Health office is front and center. But they're being buttressed, I think, in a lot of different ways by our Department of Emergency Management. And this would call on the executive branch of government through that department to redo our plan, to improve our plan. Amount of time. But I think it's important right now that we start that process so that we are ready to move more quickly in modern times. In case this happens again, my great fear is that we get through through this, you know, a year or two later. Before us, and we need to be ready. And I know I work very closely with the executive branch of government, and I believe we have their support and would recommend this for your consideration. Further discussion. So I just want to clarify that there is a striking amendment and a title amendment. Councilmember done. Move one. Striking amendment. Ask what is before us on Councilmember Bell duty. I had a question, but I don't want to interrupt the middle of briefing the striking amendment. I can wait. Jake, why don't you talk about the striking amendment first and then we can do questions? Sure. So the striking amendment makes a couple of changes. The one I mentioned, it pushes the due date from September 1st, 2021 to September 1st, 2022. In the initial legislation, there was a requirement that the public health come up with different specific plans for different types of pandemics that might come about in this plan. It's just one overall pandemic response plan rather than individual plans for different types of pandemics and requests that public health update their other relevant planning documents, not just that pandemic response plan. And it updates some references to the existing plans that OEM has as offered. And so as I mentioned earlier as well, the executive has requested some. Additional changes. Passed that that doesn't keep you from taking action today, though. Questions on the Second Amendment. Kerry. None of us in favor of adopting striking amendment one. Please signify by saying i. I. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. So amendment is adopted. We have ordinance 2020 180 3t1. Two, one. Yeah. Move t one. Mr. Chair. Title. Amendment one is before us. See? No discussion. All those in favor. Please say I ii oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. T one is adopted. We have both in 2020 183, as amended before us council member Belushi. Yeah, this is a question I know it's a motion and motions are nonbinding, but assuming that the executive branch took up this very sensible path, what what resources will they or will they need to do it? I will defer to. Executive staff on that. Yeah. Thanks. That's my this is Brendan McClusky again from Emergency Management. The work will be added in 2 hours and I believe Public Health's work plans and reflected in our budget requests to the executive. As you heard earlier, we are being asked the general fund cuts and we're working with PSP now and to see how that will factor into our budget request for the next biennium, 2021 to 2022. So I don't think it's the answer to make, but thank you for that answer. I don't think the answer changes the fact that it is a sensible thing for us to have all our plans up to date, but it's just something that we need to keep our eye on going forward, that the organizations we need to do this have the resources to do the work. And this is probably beyond the bounds of zoom etiquette. But I just want to comment that the maker of the motion looks like he's sitting in a truck that has turned upside down. It's very pretty close, Claudia. Pretty close. The best I got here. Thank you, Claudia, for that. Yeah. I don't want to be sensitive to cost. There's a lot of in-house work that I know the Department of Emergency Management can do. And so I just think we have to do this. I mean, if we don't do our pandemic update, our pandemic planning document based on this, I think it's a big mistake that would cost us downstream. I'm sensitive to cost. And then my hope is that delaying that turnaround time for really 24 months gives us the best way to defray that cost and get it. Hopefully we can get it done as much as we can within the absorption of the existing personnel structure. So I'd urge your support. Seeing no further discussion of middle class, would you please call the role? And Mr. Ferrer, Councilmember Bellucci, I. Councilmember Bell, did she? But I don't remember. Dombrowski. Councilmember Dombrowski About time. Councilmember Done. By. Councilmember done. Councilmember Coles, I. Councilmember Caldwell supports I. Council Member Lambert I. Council Member Lambert. Bullseye. Council member of the Council. I. Council member of the group votes on Council Member Von Richthofen. I. Councilmember one right. There are votes. Councilmember Sanllehi. I. Council members on my line. Both I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. You have nine eyes there on us. Thank you. But you don't to give me a do pass recommendation to must in 2020 183. Do we want to remain prudent concerned, given that we may have additional amendments in full council? Do we want to expedite? No, we will not accept. We'll send a full council on regular course of action. Now. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that's appropriate. Great. Next item would be to offer reconsideration for anyone who missed a vote. Madam Clerk, I believe anyone who has lost a vote. Is that correct? That's correct, Mr. Chair. Right. That takes us to item ten in other business executive session. The committee does need to discuss another matter in executive session. The grounds for executive session under RTW 4231 ten are to discuss with legal counsel litigation or potential litigation towards the accounting is or is likely to become a party. When general knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the county committee will be in executive session for approximately 20 minutes until approximately 505. I'm asking KGTV to please post the viral meeting to that effect and for the public's information. I do not anticipate further business surveillance after the executive session. I expect only to return to adjourn the meeting regardless. At the end of executive session, I will return to the Falls Council, meet a committee of the whole meeting and adjourned the meeting. I'm asking council members and any county employees directly necessary for the discussion to please join the executive session escape at this time. Thank you. I believe it's fair for me to then call them the committee to hold me back to order. And having completed our executive session and having no further business to come before us, we are adjourned. I want to thank everybody for their cooperation and good work through the committee. Thank you, Ms.. Daley. Ms.. Steadman. Ms.. Calderon, for all of your work in making this so successful. Thank you and good.	AN ORDINANCE relating to residential and commercial tenant protections during the COVID-19 pandemic; and declaring an emergency.
king_ca76a4ba-99ec-4103-b041-2963af56b9de	The December 1st, 2020 remote meeting of the Committee of the Whole, which is our last meeting of the year. As we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Sound as peoples past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here to greatly enrich our community. In light of the public health emergency, Governor Inslee is issued an emergency order suspending the sections of the Open Public Meetings Act that requires a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. This one has been extended by leadership of the State Senate and House of Representatives. Today, we'll start today's meeting with a briefing as has become become our habit from executive staff on the county's COVID 19 response, which will then be followed by a consent agenda that would confirm appointments to various boards and commissions and authorize the executive to accept property and easement donations for conservation and other purposes. As members will recall, the Council held off on confirming appointments at the beginning of the pandemic while figuring out the logistics of remote meetings and focusing on pandemic response. Instead, we're now working to clear the backlog. The last item on today's agenda is a discussion and possible action on the state legislative agenda. Two housekeeping notes as we get started. To help us manage the meeting, like to ask the public, as well as the executive and council staff to please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. Additionally, if you're connecting to the meeting via cell phone and wish to provide public comment, we do encourage you to please connect through the Zoom application. If you're connecting to the meeting without using the zoom out, we may not be able to unmute you so you can speak. With that, madam Claude could ask you to please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bellucci. Here. Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember, come. Here. Councilmember Cole was there. Councilmember Lambert, councilmember up the ground here. Councilmember Vaughn right down here. Council members only. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Well, now turn to. I'm sorry. Councilmember Dunn, I call on you to make a motion to approve the minutes of our number. November 3rd meeting. Minutes of November 3rd, 2020. The minutes are before us. Senior discussing all those in favor of approving the minutes from November 3rd, 2020. Please signify by saying I. I am opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That takes this item for today's agenda. Public comment. Madam, do we have any one on the line wishing to provide public comment today? And Mr. Chair, there is one person on the line that could be possibly be someone for a public comment. Can I unmute him and ask? By all means. Thank you. Is that Mr. Shalal, perhaps? No, it's Daniel Corkery. Okay. Mr. Kirkby, I have unmuted you on your my end. If you want to meet your self and let us know if you wish to provide public comment, we'd appreciate it. Oh. And my zoom screen is still muted. Right. If he is, I am unmuted. I'm on my end and done what I can. And he is he is still muted on his end. So he knew he needs to do it on his. And now. I see. So it doesn't appear he's unmuted himself. So I'm not sure if you would like that. Oh, there he. Daniel. I think he just left the meeting. He may be leaving and reconnecting, actually. Or I scared him off. I don't know. I don't. With all due respect, I don't find you to be very scary. Okay. I'm going to suggest, then, that we. Advance Item five, the COVID briefing from the executive branch. And if we'll check back after the briefing to see if anybody wishes to provide public comment. Meanwhile, if there's anybody I'm connecting via Zoom app or phone and is unable to unmute or indicate that they wish to testify, I'd ask you to give me a text. Text 2066619753. Again, that's 2066619753. If you wish to provide public comment and are only able to indicate so in the Zoom application and present without will move on to the executive COVID 19 response briefing and come back to double check for public comment to that conclusion. And therefore, word item six a briefing from Dwight Dave Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr. Bagley, the line is yours. Great. Thank you very much. Jerry McDermott. I appreciate the opportunity to be here again this afternoon. For the record, Dwight Dave Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. I have five things on my list today that I thought I would cover. A couple of them are good news and one of them is pretty bad news, and then a couple others are just too general interest. So let me start with some good news. I thought you would be interested in getting an update on how much of some of the grant program spending that you have authorized has actually been spent. And I have some of it with me. You may have questions about other things that we'll follow up on later. If you do so, starting kind of chronologically, you approved money for various business groups like Chambers of Commerce early on in the pandemic to support particularly small business response. And by about a week ago, about 75% of that money had actually been spent by those organizations. And it looks, given the pace of spending, that we're going to get very, very close to 100%. So that's going very well. A second group you did early on was money to cities. That was also to support their business communities. And ultimately 33 of the cities took the money. Five of the smaller ones ultimately decided it just wasn't enough to make a difference in their communities. And of that money, about 70% has already been spent. And again, our expectation is that we'll get to 100% and are very close to 100% by the end of the year. A third group that provided funding for some of the science nonprofits in King County, and they've actually done the best. They're at 85% spend and again, almost certainly going to get to 100%. A fourth group were live music venues and they are now at 80% of the money spent. And again, the expectation being will get to very close to 100%. And a fifth group in the digital equity category is through two separate appropriations. You provided $1.5 million to the Puget Sound Educational Services District that they are then working with individual school districts to support remote learning. And they've advised us that they expect by December 30th they've spent every single penny of that money, which is great. A sixth group, the Department of Local Services, you provided funds for them to support small businesses in the unincorporated area, and it looks like about 90% of that money will ultimately be spent. There's some of them that were awarded grants that still haven't taken them up. And it seems unlikely in one month that all of them will take the money and get it spent, but it will come close probably around 90% in that category. And then the final one I put on my list, but obviously there are others as well is you provided quite a bit of money in various forms for the courts to go to, at least in part, video operations. And you might actually remember that we started that before COVID with money from the Criminal Justice Incentive Reserve. But then obviously COVID created the need for vastly more work in the courts to do a video. And it looks like we're going to get that money almost completely spent. And many of the courts are experiencing, you know, really interesting outcomes because of doing things by video. I was talking to Judge Rogers at Spirit Court about a month ago. They have moved their jury selection process to. Totally. Video They don't start calling people in to the courthouses and they report that everyone in the process, but particularly the jurors, really love doing it this way. So this is the example of something that they're not going to ever go back to the old way they may have experienced and the potential jurors have experienced the opportunity to do it by video. So they're going to keep doing that. You also may remember that 1201 courtroom on in the courthouse, which none of us have seen for a while, was a very big problem and it is way too crowded. Fire access is limited. So it was something that we were looking at having to put many millions of dollars into to remodel through different thinking. During COVID, it occurred to people in FMD, the age A.D. and the court, that if they used probable one only for defendants and their counsel and the judge and the prosecutors and everybody else was in a different courtroom. You eliminated that crowding. So they are in the process now of remodeling a courtroom on the ninth floor of the courthouse, which is going to be where the judge and the court staff and the DGA staff and the prosecutor, they will all be there and the defendant and his or her counsel will be on the 12th floor and the whole thing will then operate through video. And that solved the problem. It was, you know, for a few hundred thousand dollars of investment, we've avoided millions of dollars of capital just by having a different way of thinking. So I hate to say that any good thing came of COVID, but perhaps a little bit of different thinking did come out and we found some fascinating solutions to a very long standing problem. So I'm going to stop at that point and see if there are questions. I'll let you. Sorry. Manage navigating to my mute button. Cast member bell duty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. One comment, one question. I think it also saves the it takes off the pressure. The trouble one was placing on our own offices to the ones desire to expand took the form of them, casting jealous eyes on a lot of our space. So it sounds like that maybe will not be an issue any longer, which is very interesting. The question is this. You said why when you talked about digital equity, that there were two types of investments. And then I think you reported out about one of them. Any news on the other? What I meant to say is you provided two separate appropriations in Buffalo says for the Puget Sound Educational Services District. Let me look here. There was also money provided to nonprofit organizations for digital equity. And let me just see if I can quickly. A follow up either way. Thank you. Status of that. I've got a very long spreadsheet here. I or get close. Yeah. Of that money. So the money is going out to other organizations, nonprofits. All of the contracts have been. Done. And it looks like the forecast is in about. 95. Or 98% spending by the end of the year. So that'll be going very well. Really good. Thank you. Anyone else. Everett Councilmember Lambert. Laidre. I wanted to know sort of related to all this flooding on the first floor. Is that all being taken care of? And will they all be able to go back into the first floor and then also on the expansion of the quarter that feature from years ago? Will that be able to be expanded as we go forward? Yeah. So let me answer your second question first. So through the money that you have appropriated every court room in the county, so district court, superior court, juvenile court, family court, all of those courtrooms are going to be video capable, including the ability to handle evidence remotely. So you don't have to pass evidence back and forth between the parties. And so all that isn't going to be done by the end of December because some of the equipment is on backorder. But probably in the first quarter, we will have gone to every courtroom being able to do that. So your vision from very long ago has finally come true. It took some unusual circumstances, but quite remarkably the case. On your question about the first floor and the flooding, I believe all of that clean up is done. I will actually confirm that with FMD at a meeting on Thursday. I believe it's all done and the sheriff's office folks have either moved back in or could move back in. When we get through with COVID, there is going to be a bill for that. There's going to be substantial that we don't currently have an appropriation for. So something you're going to see next year will be an appropriation for whatever the final costs of that are going to be, which is certainly going to be into the many hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. That's good for us to know that's coming. And it's unfortunate that I don't really know exactly what happened other than that there was a pipe, but I don't know more than that. Just. But it's good for us to know that that's coming in. And thank you for being there years ago at the very first part of the future unveiling. Thank you. Seeing no others. Mr. Lively. Okay. So item two, another bit of good news. Couple of things on FEMA. So I've been reporting that FEMA has been approving or expenditures, particularly on our isolation and quarantine facilities that were established early on. We now actually have received $22 million, not just a commitment for but we actually have the cash. So that's a sign that that process continues to work pretty efficiently. And, you know, for those of you that have been involved with FEMA in the past, the idea that we're getting money roughly six months after the time we spent it is unheard of. So compliments to them for being that quick. And again, I really want to call attention to the great work that our Office of Emergency Management is doing in processing those requests and working effectively with the federal government. The other thing is, is that we've heard a lot of rumors that the new administration, when they take office, will extend the COVID emergency longer, which means, again, that additional FEMA support will be available to us next year. And that's just a rumor. I can't count on it until it actually happens, but it is a bit of good news that that source of funding will probably be available to us past the end of this year. And I believe the current expiration is at some date in January. And if that gets extended, that will be very helpful. And that's what FEMA. Thank you. Third point. Okay, third point, this is probably the worst news. So and you will remember that recently when you approved the 2122 biennial budget, you included funding to operate many of the public health services for three months next year, but not all . And we were counting on some additional money the state said they would give us. And last week we decided that that was about $15 million and it would be not quite enough to continue everything public health is doing for three months, but it wasn't far from it. Unfortunately, we learned yesterday that 12 of that 15 is not going to be available because it is federal money that also has to be spent before December 30th. So it's at this point in time we only have 3 million instead of 15. The state, to their credit, is working very hard to see if they have some ways to come up with additional funding. But if we only had 3 million, there's going to have to be some very difficult choices made about what public health programs we continue for COVID response and for how long. Obviously, there's a tradeoff there. You can do more if you do it for a shorter period of time. You can do less and do it for a longer period of time. And so public health is working on that right now. But I really did want to give you all a heads up that absent new federal money or the state finding some resources very early next year, we're going to have to look at ramping down some of the good work that we've been doing for COVID response and public health. We're also looking at their fund balance that they expect to have at the end of this year. It may be that the county has some of our own resources that we could devote to this. That, of course, just means that you have cuts in public health further out in time. But we're also working on that. And at some point later in the month, we'll be able to give you an update on what all that situation looks like. But that was unfortunate because, you know, we were expecting 15 and now learned just yesterday that it might only be three. Mr. Dave Leigh, are those expenses that we anticipated, the 15 million things that if federal support were to be acted on in the early in the new administration, could be used for those same purposes or would they be for any reason limited to state resources? And much of what we have been doing in this area has been paid for with federal funding this year. So if we got additional federal money next year and it was generally under the same rules as we've been using this year, we would be able to continue probably all of those public health programs. Thank you. Anyone else? Joe Councilmember done. Councilmember Doug. Thanks, Dwight. Obviously, you know, of all the things we should be doing right now. It's hard to argue there's. Anything more important than providing the resources for our public health department and clinics to operate. Properly. Is there any residual money? Left from coal with supplemental hours that run into the exact same problem that's going to be spent by the end of the year. Or is there a way to turn around. And do another supplemental at the beginning of next year or late this year to make something happen, to shore up some of the shortcomings. In it? That's a great question. Let me give you a couple of answers. So the the federal money that we have has to be spent this year. And so even if we try to reprioritize that, we wouldn't be able to use it in January. So unfortunately, that doesn't work. And that's the same problem that the state ran into is for some set of reasons, they thought they might have the ability to extend it past the end of the year and have now come to the conclusion they can't either. So that's that approach. Whether it's done at the state level or the local level doesn't work. And so the one option that we are exploring, in addition to, you know, hoping we get more federal money or looking at using public health fund balance, is there may be some costs in public health that have been borne this year by, let's say, the general fund that could be charged instead to federal money this year, which would then create, in essence, some flexibility in general fund money in public health for January of 2021. It's probably not a lot, but even a few million dollars at the margin would make a difference. So that's another thing we're looking at that wouldn't essence give us the opportunity to buy a little bit of time next year? I'm hoping for additional resources. Thanks for the response. I just you know, I'm pleased to hear the new administration talking about extending the emergency funding for coal, but it just doesn't seem to make sense to have this, you know, incredible. Investment by the federal. Government and governments at all levels. And then right in the middle of the height of the pandemic to just stop it, we've got to follow through on that strategy, for the strategy to work and allow us to get. Through the heaviest parts. Of the pandemic. So I hope that we see the federal government on all sides of the political spectrum move forward with that, because we are really where the rubber meets the road. And I look forward to working with your office in helping to get that money out if it does become available. Great. Thank you. All right. It seems like he may have survived delivering the worst news. Yeah. So. Item four, Councilmember Dan sort of led into this. Right now, I think as we all know, our caseloads are at their all time high. And I think many folks are very worried about what's going to happen probably starting this weekend and into next week when we're 10 to 14 days past Thanksgiving. And if, you know, as we've heard, a lot of people decided to get together with larger groups than they normally have been in the last few months, the chance of the caseload going up even higher is is obviously there. And so while, you know, we are at the peak or maybe not the ultimate people were higher than we've been. And it's starting to show up in large parts of the system. And the one I wanted to make sure you were aware of is for quite some time now in our isolation and quarantine facilities, we've only been operating in Issaquah and the North Seattle, Aurora location. Yesterday we had to reopen in Kent and we're at the highest point now. Having people in isolation and quarantine facilities that we have been we think will be okay with just those three facilities. But I wanted to make sure you were aware we had reopened, and I believe there was good conversations with city officials about our need to do that. So that's just kind of really a point of information. One of the things that's quite different now than it was earlier in the year is we have whole family groups who are either positive and don't have a place to be or need to isolate from other people. And so we in many of our motel rooms, we have multiple people from the same family staying there. And so the actual number of people who are in our isolation quarantine facilities is noticeably higher than the number of rooms we're using because we have multiple people in some of the rooms. Obviously, those numbers change every day and we're trying to make sure we have enough capacity. But I did want you to know that for the first time now in quite some time, we're back to operating three facilities for that purpose. There are questions. All your is. Okay. Well, the very last thing I just wanted to mention is if you have any thoughts of people to be sympathetic to right now, I rarely would say this, but be sympathetic to accountants in in the county employed accountants because in December, we are going to have a lot of COVID related accounting work that we're going to have to do to make sure that we get the federal money spent as much as we can to make sure that we have all the documentation we need. We have a lot of moving pieces here, and so there are a lot of folks in the prosecutor's office, the attorneys who are working there are people in the finance and business operations division, people in many of the operating departments, accounting, staff, budget staff, fiscal staff, people in my office who are going to be really busy in December and they always are because of year end accounting close. But now they're going to be doubling or tripling, busy managing all the close out of the COVID related money. So they're just a group I want to just call attention to. They're pretty invisible. Usually we just take them for granted. They do their jobs really well, but they're going to be extremely busy and extremely important to us here in this month of December. So I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of that. And with that I don't have anything else, but I'm happy to answer questions if you have them. Dwight, thank you very much for pointing out the work accountants will be doing in the next month, and while their work is maybe intense in the next month, it underscores the level of work and investment that so many people in the county and far beyond have invested over the last going on ten months now. But our public response to the pandemic and our kudos to everyone who has stepped up and taken on the public health crisis, whether they're nurses and emergency room staff to accountants and budget people. An amazing amount of intricate work has been done this year and people have stepped up and provided for our community. We're appreciative of all of it. Questions. On these five points for others, for Mr. Knightley. Dwight, we thank you and thank you. And I just want to say, it's really been, I think, a good opportunity that you've given me to come to these committees of the hall and give you updates on this. I think it's a very effective way to have communication and dialog. And sadly, we're not going to be done with this at the end of this month. And but and so if this continues to be of interest to you and works for you, I would be happy to continue to do it next year. We appreciate it. Thank you for coming to our last meeting of the year. And we'll look forward to continuing such conversations as we continue responding to the pandemic. Great. And so if I don't get an opportunity to virtually see some of you before the end of the year, I do want to thank you. It's been an amazingly productive year under the circumstances for my office working with your team, although, you know there are eight budgets that we did, which is unimaginable that we did all that. And so I just want to extend my thanks for all nine of you council members for your dedication and the work we've done together. And I also want to take the opportunity that not many of your staff are on call right now. But for those who are and for all the others who are not of truly outstanding staff work this year. And I and I really appreciate the collegiality and the cooperation between the executive staff and the council staff that has gotten us through some very difficult challenges. So if I don't have the opportunity to speak with some of you, I hope you get some rest, take some time off, enjoy your holidays because it's going to be a really busy 20, 21. Thank you very much. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. But I can't remember Damascus. You waving or. I was waving goodbye to delay. All right, well, so long. Not goodbye. See you later. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. All right. Madam Clerk, let's do a double check. Is there anyone? I have received new text messages. Is there anyone in the room now who would like to give public comment? No, there is not, Mr. Chair. All right, then we will dispense with public comment today, and that takes us to today's consent agenda. This will confirm appointments to various boards and commissions and authorize the executive to accept property and easement donations for conservation and other purposes. Staff have alerted me that agenda item number 12, which concerns a property donation in Woodinville, needs a technical and title amendment. So we will remove item 12 Motion 2020 301 from the consent agenda. With that, Madam Clerk, do you need to read them into the record? That would be your choice, Mr. Chair. Then we're going to decline to read them into the record. The consent agenda would be items six through 11 and 13. On today's agenda, I would call for a motion councilmember. Done. So move, Mr. Chair. The consent agenda is before us. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Council Member. Banducci I. Council member Dombrowski, I. I. Councilmember calls on Councilman Bloomberg. I'm also a member of the girl. Council member Optical. Gotcha. Councilmember Bond right there. I. Council members. All I. I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero now. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a recommendation and sent to full council the consent agenda items six through 11 and 12 a.m. on today's agenda. That takes us to item 12. Which is motion 2023 or one. Andy Macklowe of Castle Central Staff is here to beat the motion and amendments. The amendments being why it was not part of the council agenda. Andy, the floor is yours. Mr. Chair, we need to make Andy a co-host that's happening right now. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Andy McQuillan from Council Central Staff. Materials for this item begin on page 77 of the packet compose motion 20 2003. One would authorize the King County executive to accept a donation of 2.41 acres of property adjacent to the Upper Bear Creek natural area for fish and wildlife habitat conservation purposes. As you noted, there is one technical amendment that begins on it that is on page 89 of your packet, and it would amend the motion to update the assessed value using the most recent appraisal and would correct the type of real estate agreement referenced in the motion. There is also a title amendment on page 90 that conforms the title to the motion. This concludes my remarks. Thank you. Questions. A devout cast member? Dombrowski I think that showed this is maybe technical in nature, but I believe that the title references land west of Wooden Vale, Washington, and the Upper Bear Creek area, in my mind is east of, you know, Washington. So maybe by the time we get to final council action that might want to be changed west of Woodinville would be Bothell. And I think this is east and unincorporated King County. Thank you. Okay. Great. For the discussion questions. Councilmember Dunn. I'd entertain a motion. So move, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Dunn has moved adoption of motion to move to give it to passed recommendation the motion 2023 or one which puts amendment one the technical amendment that has been reached before in order. Councilmember Dunn move amendment one. Thank you. Amendment One is before us saying no discussion. All those in favor of adopting Amendment One please signify by saying I am opposed. Nay. The ayes have it. Councilmember Dunn for the title Amendment two one. Sorry. Move t1. T1 is before us. All those in favor please signify by saying I. I oppose nay. The ayes have it. The title amendment is adopted. That brings us to Motion 2020 301 as it has amended. See? No discussion. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Oh, Mr. Chair, I mean, excuse me, Councilmember Dombrowski. And this is on final passage. Yes. I just think it's worth noting that we have a private property owner here who out of the apparently the goodness of her heart is donating over two acres of land, maybe, you know, assisted over $17,000 to King County to preserve it in open space in perpetuity. And that's a pretty generous gift to the public. And I thought we should take a moment to at least publicly acknowledge and appreciate that version's generosity and thoughtfulness for future generations as we adopt this legislation accepting the donation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci, I. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember de. I again. I think you've done both sides. Councilmember Coles, I. Council member I. Something. As a member of the. And from improv improvising right there. I. Council members online. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero now. Thank you. But by your vote, we've committed to pass recommendation to Motion 2020 301. And with members concerned by your objection, all of what have been the consent agenda item six through 13 inclusive will be expedited to full council a week from today and placed on the consent agenda. See. No, no. Objection. So ordered. I'm not mistaken. That takes us to item 14, our final agenda item today, a discussion and possible action on the Council's state legislative agenda. Staff emailed the proposed amendment to attach to the legislative agenda the document, the actual agenda itself and to the motion. Prior to the meeting by email, Mr. Nicholson, the council's director of Government Relations, will brief us on the proposed legislative agenda. Mr. Nicholson. The line is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee, Mac Nicholson here. I will also point out today that we have seen the Jackson from the executive's office, along with Dave Foster and Mike Shaw from the state lobby team. The draft agenda was emailed shortly before the meeting at 1255. Hopefully to the top of your inbox if you haven't had a chance to pull it up. We developed this after meeting with member offices input from the executive on taking into consideration the discussion in this committee at Cal earlier in November. It's always a threading the needle exercise to try and incorporate the priorities from all the council members and the executive and arrange them in an agenda that's traditionally adopted in a unanimous fashion by this body. I've already seen some feedback from a couple of members on the draft, so we know there's more work to do, and I appreciate the feedback from from members. We also try to make sure we line up our legislative agenda with what we believe the Legislature will be focusing on in the upcoming session. What we do know about the 2120, the 2021 section is that it will be a very unique session. The House and Senate are planning on conducting all or most of their work virtually. We know the legislative building will be accessible only to members and their staff. We know committees are going to meet less frequently and members of the House have been encouraged to limit their bill introductions to seven bills. There was some guidance that went out to House members that sort of further explained that they'd like to see members only introduce bills that are urgently needed and important to pass during the 2021 session. But they were some further guidance about what those issued would likely what issues would likely be considered urgent. So we know at least some of the priorities that we would expect to see in the House. Unsurprisingly, now they'll be tackling the same issues that this council spent the next the previous nine months tackling. You know, they're going to be working on the COVID pandemic, economic recovery, balancing the budget, racial equity and climate. So the draft agenda that we sent around on Monday and again before this meeting includes a mix of general and specific requests and encourages legislative members to take bold action. There's about there are five general categories on the legislative agenda, and within those general categories are some general asks and some more specific asks. Those five general categories, as you can see, if you have that in front of you, are pandemic response. Rebuild the economy, dismantle systemic racism, protect the environment, fix the tax structure. Within those, there are some further specifics that I can highlight quickly. Within the pandemic response, the task is that the Legislature prioritized budget and policy decisions that provide resources for COVID 19 response, foundational public health services, child care, housing, behavioral health, and other safety net programs to provide culturally responsive COVID 19 testing, treatment, and access to safety net programs for our Black, Indigenous and people of color communities. And to provide local governments with maximum flexibility within their limited revenue streams to address local priorities and eliminate barriers to governing efficiently, efficiently. This would where we would see action around the nonce language. That's been a constant priority for us around some flexibility about other revenue streams for local governments and the OPM waiver addressing that so that we are relying on monthly renewals by the legislature and governor's office on the rebuilding the economy. I encourage the Legislature to be mindful of the economic impact borne by women in our bipoc populations in the workforce, and that policies to provide economic recovery, to lift all residents up, to leverage borrowing rates, to create jobs through large scale investments in infrastructure across a broad range of sectors, including affordable housing, broadband, transit, clean energy, other public infrastructure to invest in workforce development programs and to ensure quality, affordable childcare available for all residents who need it. Under under the systemic racism part, dismantling systemic racism encouraged legislators to commit to becoming an anti-racist government by beginning an effort to shift resources and reliance from systems that cause harm to upstream programs aligned with racial and social justice. To apply an equity analysis to budget decisions that they will be making in 2021 to build a more fair and just legal system through law enforcement reforms and targeted investments in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by existing criminal , criminal legal systems. We know that there will be a lot of discussion and development of policy around police reform in the upcoming session. There was a work session yesterday in the House Public Safety Committee. There are a number of potential pieces of legislation discussed so that expect there will be quite a bit of work in that area going forward. Protecting the environment. Peace without the legislature to take meaningful action to combat climate change and transform the state's approach to protecting clean water and healthy habitat. And then on the tax structure, the ask would be to allow local governments real rival options to fund the services. This is where we see the 1% cap lift and potential discussion of new revenue sources for the state. So that's the agenda at a high level. A quick fashion and happy to try and answer any questions that you all have. And the members are. Hello. Thanks so much, Mac. Really appreciate you. Does this document. Serve as just a high level guiding principles for you and our other lobbyists when you're at the. Capitol? Or is there something that provides. More specifics as well? For example, I notice under the fix our tax structure, I don't see any specific proposals. Yes. I think think your customers are light up. The answer is, is both. We use this as a guiding when we interact. There will be a lot of legislation on stuff that that council members have an interest in. And this will help us guide our efforts in those advocacy programs. And then also there are some some specifics called out in this that also give a specific general direction to work with members on on introducing legislation and not kind of waiting for others to take the lead, if that makes sense. Okay. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out. Do we do we have somewhere. Where we do document specific more. Specific proposals? I also understand it's difficult because not all nine council members don't agree on what the specific proposals are. But I'm just trying to figure out where, you know, how to how are we how do you take this document and operationalize it when it's a pretty high level? Sure. So with this document, well, we'll take it. And as we see pieces of legislation introduced or discussions around pieces of legislation or potential development legislation, knowing that we have some direction generally to engage and also knowing specifically which members are more interested in a particular item than not. And that will make sure that we loop a council members into discussions as early as we can. And when it comes to specific pieces of legislation, let's say a piece of progressive like the employer tax, if that were to come forward. In the past, we've had briefings at caucuses to discuss legislation and where members stand on it. So we make sure that we reach out to council members to get their input on specific pieces of legislation that that fall under these general categories of what you see on the agenda. Okay. Thank you, Mac. Councilmember Wells Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you. MACK It looks really good to me. I have a couple of things, a couple questions. One. It's it would be I think would be helpful to include in the economic recovery categories, something on individuals with disabilities having real challenges. Secondly, I noted that even though it's in the motion, it does not appear in this handout, which is regarding changing the arbitrary cap on property tax revenue to include population growth and inflation. So that for a number of years this is this not included because just of the enormous challenges that we have facing us. And this doesn't seem like the one that would be able to bear fruit or what. I would defer to you all on the privatization of that. It's certainly something that we've kept our foot on the gas as much as possible, and we expect to see some discussion in the upcoming session. That's something that we certainly can't call out as a specific within tax structure. It's certainly something that we contemplated, including as we as we have discussions with members. I think just trying to keep an agenda to one page, we sort of tried to sacrifice, maybe calling out some specific things, but we can certainly rework it and add a specific piece, if that's what you'd like to see on it. Thank you. Share. That's what I remember. Thank you. So thank you, Mark. I like how it's laid out with the bullets. Some people can see the themes. I think that's really nice. And I won't go over everything that was in my email last night, but I was a little surprised. And when I saw the section on rebuilding our economy and it talks about affordable housing, broadband, transit, green energy and other public infrastructure and the word crowd just not in there at all. And I realized it could fall into the category of other public infrastructure. But there's a lot of other public infrastructure that needs to be taken care of. And I think roads is so important that we need to be calling it out. We have a $40 billion asset that it's not about the money to be properly taken care of. And if you don't even mention it, I think that is really a very sad commentary. So I would like to see the word roads added right next to the word transit. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Banducci. Thank you. And I have a few thoughts as well. But just responding briefly to Councilmember Lambert's suggestion, can we call out rural roads that what you're talking about? Yeah. I think it's just our jurisdiction, not roads, generally speaking. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. No, thank you. I know that's what you usually mean, but I wanted to confirm. So I also like the I like the focus of a document like this. I like the idea that we are calling out the top issues and being tactical about making sure that those match with the types of legislation that we're likely to see in this. Somewhat restricted session, at least they seem to be attempting to restrict it. We'll see how that actually goes. And but I have I have had the same the same thoughts that others have expressed. And I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I think one of the things that we used to do and other jurisdictions that I've been in is you have kind of the long list and then you have the top priorities for the session. So we could capture an ongoing way. It doesn't have to be a closed document, a longer list of the specific bills that were supporting the specific proposals we want to see. And, you know, I always think of these things as being a folder with pockets. And so in the pocket folder that you in theory, could hand to a legislature someday, you can have both of these things in there. But the one they're going to look at is the short one with the fewer words. Right. So I think that may be one way to get at the desire to make sure that we are being clear when there are pieces of legislation that we support, that we are giving that very direct instruction. And on that note, it was brought to my attention today that we have previously and I don't recall if we took a position on DNR, but we've discussed the idea of the whatever we're calling now, commercial Cultural Access Washington. There's a movement to try to make that counsel manic authority. I don't recall whether we took a position on it or not, but certainly the regional and even statewide arts and cultural organizations are interested in that. And it takes on kind of both a renewed urgency due to the crushing nature of the pandemic recession on that business, but also kind of a that becomes a tougher call to to decide to raise taxes during that time. So I want to propose that we consider supporting a move to make that council manic. I don't know how people are going to feel about it, but I was asked that today. And the the last thing I want to ask when you're done is if you could talk a little bit after our discussion is complete about how you get from several of us lobbed several different ideas at you to presenting them to us in a way that we can make final decisions. Thanks. And I would encourage us to worded unincorporated roads, not rural roads. I know council members and I would not want to leave our Skyway or North High Line. In what sounds like. We knew that's what you meant. Of course, further discussion. Mr. Chair. It's a number of calls. I'm going to request a really kinky, any minor type of thing and then sort of like a nerve picking. But I would appreciate it if you would have child care be two words. That's the way it is. And the AP style and in Webster's Dictionary. How's that? Great. Thank you. That was easy enough. Thank you. Dr. Colwell is in the building. Something I'm happy to try to address a customer about the just part in question on how we take what we learn from our members and try to condense it into one document. It's so we try to set up meetings with every member and and go over kind of priorities, issues that that have risen to the top of your mind on things that you would all like to see some action on. There's always a lot of overlap or sort of commonality in themes. While there might be specific ways that it's phrased by certain council members, we do see a lot of overlap on, especially this year. On what you all have been struggling with and what I would like to see some state assistance on. So it's helpful to have those sort of bigger themes. But there are certainly some instances where there's daylight between council members and the executive's office on particular issues. So try to just acknowledge that there's an interest and try to word it in a way that we can get to a unanimous support. And sometimes that means generalizing a little bit or taking a step up in focus rather than on a specific piece of legislation that might not have the support of everybody. And really, that's just the wordsmithing attempt that we try to go through. Thank you, Mark. Our members. Our members come, won't we? We have the motion before us with members. Be comfortable attaching the legislative priority document that we've worked from today and moving it with recommendation to full council. The scene was the town council member. Lambert think you and me reading this one section to protect our environment. I think we need a couple extra words. It talks about the fires that we've had and it talks about its impact on on. On warming and such, but it doesn't talk about the impact on people. And so I think we need to add something about that. We need to look at forest practices, improving our forest practices so that we aren't vulnerable to these kinds of horrific wildfires. We did a good job of describing the horrific but we didn't, I don't think, delineate a sentence about forest practices that would reduce the forest fires . So if we can add that protecting the environment, I think that would be really important because we do need to change our forest practices that have allowed things to get out of control. Since Member of the Globe. We don't hear you council up the growth. They still don't hear you. Well thought for a moment while he reconnects. And Mr. Chair, this is Sharon. Yes. Oh, yes. You're council member at the Grove was having the same audio problems. He actually had to reboot his computer. So it might take just a little bit before he's back online with us. Thank you. And there he is in the waiting room. In admitted. Up the grove. Up the grove. We hear you now. Welcome. Thank you. I disconnected and reconnected. Sorry for the technical issues. I just was going to urge some caution with how we were the last point made. If you add something, sometimes those issues related to the nature of the forest practice is can be very controversial. And there often are divisions and different schools of thought over whether or not certain practices are the trade off between ecological impacts versus fire safety. And it's a. It's just an area that is the devil's in the details and it can be politically sensitive and contentious area. And I wouldn't want us to come with a sweeping statement coming down on one side of that. So we're going to. Urge some caution on that one. Thank you. So with perhaps some wordsmithing there and the conversation we've had, I'm hearing no concern or objection to moving the attach the legislative priority document we've been discussing, attaching it to the motion and moving it out of committee with recommendation to full council today. And therefore, Councilmember Dunn, I would entertain a motion to approve to give it to pass recommendation to 2020 399. You know what, Mr. Chair? Can I have somebody else make that motion? I think I'm going to sit out on this particular, but I'm going to vote no until I have a better chance to understand a couple items in there so it may be more appropriate for someone else. Of course. Council member Balducci. For the. Council member. Belushi's moved approval of motion 2020 399 and the I would entertain Amendment one. Madam Clucas Amendment one in our package. How do I best describe Amendment One, which by function is attaching the legislative legislative priorities document and then speaking to to the actual motion that just says the document is attached. I believe that Mac was going to not show the members. Yeah, so I think we sent that out just moments ago. The amendment, really the motion is blank. It says legislative agenda. Agenda is attached as attachment A, but there is no attachment in the underlying motion. So the amendment adds the legislative agenda as attachment and basically it staples it together. And in 205, Simon has emailed us Amendment one, which admittedly Outlook is still scanning to make sure that he hasn't sent me malicious malware. Chair Member Banducci. Given that we we know that there's more work to be done on this and we're basically just taking it out for that further work, I would move Amendment one. Councilmember Bill Duke has moved Amendment one, attaching the legislative priority document and all the discussion. Seeing none of those in favor. Please say I. I oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. We have motion 20, 23, 99, as amended before us. Councilmember Balducci. I want to ask a question possibly for vice chair done since this isn't done yet. And we heard a number of different potential changes, not all of which will meet with full council approval and the document will change. Would it make more sense to move this without recommendation at this point, just to keep it moving? But it would be more reflective of where we're really at and perhaps not require speeches and split votes at this time. Yeah, I would support a without recommendation at this time. Yes. I would like to make that change to the original motion, then make it to be moved without recommendation in its name. We will note the motion is and advance in motion 2020 399 to full council without recommendation. On final passage of further discussion. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member Bellucci. I Council Member Dombrowski. Council Member Dunn. I. Council Member Cornwall. Council member. Council member of the Growth. I council member one neither. I. Council members online. All right. Mr. Chair. I. Mr. Chair, the vote is nine. Eyes are on us. Thank you. By your vote, we have advanced more than 2023, 99 to 4 council. Without recommendation and without objection, we will expedite it to our council meeting one week from today. And. No objection. So we will expedite into full council next week. And Madam Court, we got every everyone was recorded as having voted on all items in today's meeting, correct? Yes, they are, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, this is our last meeting of the year. I want to thank everyone for sometimes bearing with us in learning how to run virtual meetings, sometimes going quite late, as in a virtual world. We were running legislation through a limited number of committees, and so members, and particularly our staff, have really committed and dedicated themselves to making it all of us successful and doing that to make us successful on behalf and for the people of the county. And I want to thank everyone for their commitment and dedication in doing this. And if I may, I would particularly single out Sharon Maka and Tara for their staff leadership in making this year such a success. As I said in the beginning of the meeting, I didn't find them scary. In fact, I found them quite helpful throughout all of the work this year. And much appreciation comes a number of I write down You wish I had it. I wish I make sure. I just want to add a. Footnote. Of appreciation to one of our staff. Who is retired this past. Month, Diane Coppinger. Those of us who have been around the council for a. Number of years have great appreciation for what. She has taken on many, many times to help individually. Our districts and the council as a whole. And I wish her nothing but the best in her retirement. And I want to publicly express my appreciation to her and to the work. That she and her colleagues have done to keep this ship. Afloat. Thank you. Grove Councilmember up the Grove Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to piggyback on what conservative on Rick Bauer just said. I have enjoyed getting to know Diane when I was a part time staffer here a number of years ago. The kindness she extended to me, the helpfulness. When I had questions, the ability to poke my head in her office, not knowing who else to ask. And she's always been someone that I've had a lot of respect for, and I'm happy for her in her retirement. One or two, which will. Okay. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I wanted to say the same thing about Diane. She has been here even. From the very beginning, it seems. And she had vital information in her head when he wanted to know something because they dance. Do you remember sex on set? Oh, yes. Here's the answer. And then later, she's bringing the documentation. But she knew it right off so you could go get working on what you're working on and then have the paperwork to follow up because she she knew what was going on. And I really appreciate the hard work and the teamwork. The other thing is that I hope she has lots of good times with her grandkids and when she first joined the club with me and the Grandma Club, we had lots of opportunities to share baby pictures, which we enjoyed a lot. So I do wish her lots of good luck and I want to thank you for the steady hand pat on this committee. In the beginning, when we had no idea how this was all going to work and the meetings were long and tiring and it was a good, steady hand. And I appreciated that we all worked together to make it through this year. And as the legislators talk to me about what is it like, I can tell it's much easier to be nine months into knowing how to do it, and it is to be on day one. So thank you. Thank you. And as we've all done and we learn it as we as we go through things and improve our works, we go. Same for me. I neglected a few moments ago to recognize the work of Angelica Calderon as well, who has been a mastermind in making sure that our meetings run smoothly. In particular, we're managing participants and members of the public and people getting access to the meeting in all of her work. I want to recognize Angelica as well with that. Well, it's the last meeting of the committee, the whole. I look forward to joining you each the next two Tuesdays for council and committees and other work as well. But thank you so much. This meeting is adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Esther Mi Young Kim, who resides in council district one, to the King County immigrant and refugee commission.
king_37a806bd-9cff-47c2-b5a2-2b6c50fae8fc	Good morning. I'm I'm king county council member Joe McDermott am calling the council's committee of the hall to order. I have the honor of acting as chair today and I want to welcome everyone to the first meeting of the committee, the hall in the New Year and a particularly warm welcome to Council Member Cole Wells and Council member unveiled the chief for joining us this year. Welcome. Today is a special meeting of the Committee of the Hall to fill one and possibly two vacancies in seats representing the 36th Legislative District. And since the 2016 session of the Washington State Legislature begins this coming Monday, January 11th, there will also be a special meeting of the full council this afternoon at 130 to take final action on the legislation that would be reported out of committee at this meeting. We will begin with approval of the minutes of our last two meetings for November 4th and November 18th. Council Member Van Rector, might I ask you to make that motion? Thank you. Chair Move approval of the minutes of November four and November 18, 2015. The minutes are before a scene of discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay motion. Kerry's minutes are adopted. That brings us to item four on our agenda. This is proposed motion 1215 535, which would fill a vacancy in the state and the vacant position of state senator in the 36th Legislative District. The vacancy is due, of course, to the election of our colleague, Council Member Cole Wells, now representing Council District four. Councilmember Gossett. Might you put the motion itself before us? Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time, I would like to propose that we adopt motion number 2015 0535. 2015 0535 is before us. I thought the since the state senator is a partizan partizan position and since Senator Caldwell's is a Democrat, the state constitution requires us to choose from among three nominees recommended by the King County Democratic Central Committee. Three nominees have been recommended for consideration, and I believe that two of them are with us this morning. The nominees, in alphabetical order by last name are Liz Campbell, Rubin, Carlisle and David Kaplan. Mr. Kaplan on the phone. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kaplan. And for your information, everyone else is Mr. Kaplan is joining us by phone. And, Mr. Kaplan, you are already part of the audio system. So anything you say that is make two mikes throughout the chamber. Mr. Kaplan has informed us that he's out of state, attending a business meeting this week and therefore is unable to join us in person. But he is joining us by telephone today and will speak to his candidacy or his interest as well. And we'll begin with a brief staff report. Nick Wagoner of our central staff is staffing the issue. Good morning, Mr. Wagner. Happy New Year. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The only thing that I would add to what you've already covered is that in accordance with the state constitution, the King County Democratic Central Committee has nominated Mr. Carlisle, Ms.. Campbell and Mr. Kaplan for the Council's consideration, and they are listed in the committee's email to the Council in order of preference based on the vote of the precinct committee officers. And that vote was 172 votes for Mr. Carlisle, nine votes for Ms. Campbell and four votes for Mr. Kaplan. Written information on all three nominees is included in the meeting packets that were distributed to council members in advance of the meeting. That's all I was going to questions of. Mr. Wagner. All right. Committee members have had an opportunity to review the recommendation of the King County Democratic Central Committee, together with the written materials that but and we have found that a key part of the process is an opportunity to interview the three nominees. I'll start by inviting Ms.. Campbell, Mr. Carlisle and Mr. Kaplan to make opening statements of no more than 2 minutes each, then to answer questions from council members and of Ms.. Campbell. You're welcome to join us at the table now as well, please. I think it would be first of best if we hear from the opening statements of each nominee and then have a chance to have questions and dialog to assist nominees and timing of their opening remarks and the answers to questions we have in front of me a light that will be green for the first 90 seconds, then yellow for 30 seconds left. And when the red light comes on, we'd suggest your time is up. My notes also suggest that you don't have to use all of your allotted time. Well, we'll go in alphabetical order by last name, starting with Ms.. Campbell. Bruce Campbell. Good morning. Good morning, Joe. How are you? I'm well, thank you for having me here. So I want to say first that I was very honored. It was actually Representative Carlyle. And I talked and and he asked me if I would like to put my name forward, if I were to be nominated by the present coordinating officers to join him up here. And I'm I'm very grateful for that opportunity. And I, I agreed to do that. And several police and coordinating officers volunteered to to nominate me for the special appointment. And there were there were two in particular who I had go ahead and do the nominating. And the second being, because they represent most of what I do within the Democratic Party organization, I think, and that's what I was the most proud of. And so that was that very young man who's African-American, who I've been mentoring and and who has become a precinct coordinating officer as as part of his process, becoming really politically engaged and working working with the party and a woman whose background is somewhat similar to mine and needed to leave a marriage and is is now a single mom. And being PCO is is quite an opportunity for her. For the most part, I, I tend to be very, very active recruiting people in empowering people and mentoring people within the community. I tend to represent a. Place of being liaison between the fine grain of what happens in a community and how it reflects upon the legislation that that is borne of it. And I get along pretty well, actually, with Representative Carlisle, and he knows that he and I talk a lot sometimes, and that is because there does sometimes exist a disconnect between the 30,000 foot level of legislation and how it plays out on the street. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Carlisle. Good morning. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And me, thank my good friends Liz Campbell and Dave Kaplan for their citizen engagement in this process has been very meaningful. I'm really honored to be with you today. I want to start by expressing my deepest thanks to Council member Wells, who is just not only beloved in our community, but really is a wonderful successor to our good friend Larry Phillips and just really is as a wonderful voice to this council. I'm also pleased that Councilmember Banducci is first meeting as well. So thank you so much. I've had the great honor of representing our district in the legislature for seven years. I've served as chair of the Finance Committee. It's been a great honor. I've learned a great deal and grown a great deal and been very instrumental in working on some of the largest issues around public education, around higher education, around tax policy and writing budgets, environmental policy, and many other issues. And it's been an extraordinary opportunity to engage with my community. I live on Queen Anne with my wife Wendy, who is a physician at Ballard, Swedish, and my four children who attend public schools in our our city. And I've just really enjoyed connecting on a very deep level with the citizen activists of our community. And serving in the legislature as a citizen legislator is, I think, incredibly powerful relative to keeping people grounded in real issues affecting real life. So it's been a great honor to serve in the House. It is an incredible honor to succeed. Council Member Cole Wells and I very much appreciate your support and I appreciate this great honor. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Caplan. Yes, it is indeed an honor and a privilege to participate in this process. I do apologize for not being there in person. I am at the Consumer Electronics Show down here in Las Vegas. I live in the world of technology. And of course, this is my primary trade show. Every year at this time. So I really had no choice but to be here rather than there. I am one of the few Democrats in the 36th District who's not running for Congress. And and and I'm delighted that Reuben is one of the others. I think it's very clear that the will of the voting precinct committee officers in our district are aligned behind Reuben Carlisle, and I look forward to hearing the announcement of his appointment to the Senate. And I think that's all I need to say this morning. But again, thank you so much. And I think Blaine was let go. I'm having blanking on the name, but whoever reached out to me and set this up so that they could be on the phone with you this morning, I do want to say thank you. Mr. Wagner. We like Mr. Wagner to me. Because he's a nice guy. All right. I want to thank you. I want to thank all three of you for stepping up and being part of the process. I myself was at one point appointed to the Senate from to a vacancy in the state Senate as a House member and came before this very council in this process. So I find this to be vital and informative on both sides and would open it up to questions from my colleagues for any one or all of the nominees. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question for all three of the nominees, and it's a question that I often ask prospective candidates for public service as legislators here in our state, whether it be at the county or the state level. And we're supposed to use these times to get a deeper sense of the ideals and ideology that guide prospective candidates. I mean, this is not a question about disproportionality within the criminal justice system. In Washington state, nearly 19% of all the men and women. Who are incarcerated in our state prisons are black and and our total population is only 3%. That's pretty significant disproportionality nationally. The figure is 2.3 million. And all the jails in the country and about 45% or 900,000 are African-Americans. So what do you think are the causes and what at least at the state level can be done? They get more? Or what do you think if anything needs to be done to address this problem? Are we staff. Sabbatical? Whatever order you deserve? Yeah. Okay. So I'm really glad that we're opening with that question that that's exactly, I think the key. In in Washington state really exists in racial disparity. And nowhere is it more obvious than in the criminal justice system. It does exist in every system in the state, but it's just easier to see in the criminal justice system. And there are some things that we that we have been doing. And I think we're going in the right direction. And I want to continue. And one of them is I voted to legalizing marijuana. We had a situation in the state of Washington where 59% of the arrests and convictions, jail time families decimated for cannabis were African-American . In a situation where you've got 7% of the population, 59% of the arrests were African-American, primarily male. Clearly, this was part of a racist system. This was a set up. And we're trying to reduce that harm. We're trying to reduce that disparity at the state level by recognizing that when we have state level laws, that implementation means an impact that has that much racial disparity. Then we can go ahead and say that law is racist and change it. We can say that that that's something we're going to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. The issue I would say that I have in the past, in all of the years that I've served in the legislature, I've been the prime sponsor in the House of Legislation to replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. And the two things that drive me to that position are, one, my own personal religious conviction. And two, is a deep acknowledgment of the systemic reality of disproportionality in our criminal justice system. And as I've studied that issue and learned more and more about it in terms of the death penalty throughout the throughout the entire criminal justice system, the implications are extraordinary and profound. And so I have led on that issue in large part because of the disproportionality. I think the one ray of hope is that I think that there's an extraordinary movement toward a tipping point of public attention from the presidency on down that is really bringing this issue to the fore. And, of course, your many years of service have led in King County on this. But I think we're at a place where there's a consensus among the parties that and others that we really need to step up to sort of not only rethink our entire infrastructure, but the wraparound services around parole and other sides of that. So I think that that your attention and many others have really changed that. I think the state is behind the county and some other organization institutions in its thinking, but there's definitely been a profound change the last few years, and I think we are now reaching a point where there's some bipartisan consensus to really address some of the core issues. Thank you. Oh, no, that third person. Mr. Caplan. Oh, well, of course, I agree with what's been said by Mr. Campbell and Mr. Carlisle. The only thing that I think I could add is that, you know, having grown up on Mercer Island, having made some mistakes in my younger days, I know what it's like to get in a jam in our people, give you a second chance and and not mess up your life. And I know that that's because I lived on the island. My dad knew the police chief, you know, all the things that go into being a by product of privilege and frankly, wealth. And I think we're way past due for sentencing reform, particularly in the context of nonviolent crimes, and particularly in the context of what happens to people of color in all states and I think throughout the country. And I think it's shocking that we even have to have this conversation in a progressive state like Washington. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, welcome. Good to see you. First of all, I'd like to thank the Democratic Party for doing the process fully, legally and completely. It is refreshing to see that we are actually abiding by the law and how this process works. So thank you. And the process that we're doing now represents all the citizens, whether they be Democrat or Republican or independent. And I really want you to know that I appreciate it for all of the citizens that you have fully complied with, that the process is supposed to work. So that being said, good job. Thank you for being here and being willing to serve. And that's really important. And David, thank you for taking the effort to be here by phone. And you're welcome. You don't need to return my phone call. This is it. That's great. So good to meet you. So here's my question. King County is the economic engine of the state, and yet we get treated sometime in Olympia as the dog to kick. Or. Whatever. Maybe a bad analogy, but sometimes we're not well-liked out in Olympia. I'm sure you might have heard that as remember once or twice. And yet we're the economic engine. We're trying to be forward thinking. We're going to be able to do really great things that the tone we're winning awards nationally, and yet we are stymied because of things that happen by some of the decisions we're having. About 6000 new residents in this county per month, but we are getting continual reductions in funding formulas that used to be 60, 40, 60 coming to our court doing the work. 42 The state got flipped the other way. 4068 We still have to do the same amount of work. That is difficult. When they say they changed the definition of an unfunded mandate so that as long as they get more money than the year before it. An independent mandate that could be a penny. And yet we now have whatever 50 new duties to do. How are you and Olympia going to help us as the county is supposed to carry out what you want us to do? That's what we want to do. More and more, less money is coming here with more jobs to do. What are you going to do to help us as a county? I'm happy to take you first and thank you, Councilmember. I would say I really appreciate the issues and I put a sort of a lot of work into this. First of all, in my role as chair of the Finance Committee in the House, I committed an entire year of work to look at local, city and county finance options relative to local options. Local authority. Look at the property tax base. Look at the 1% limit. And look at the revenue sources, both from a revenue share, from transportation and other categories all the way through the new source of revenue associated with marijuana. But the the deeper undertone of the growth in costs that you have and the limited revenue, given that tax base, I think really opens the important policy question around how can we strengthen our partnership with other parts of the state to acknowledge that the 1% limit is incredibly structurally difficult for counties? Cities have a portion of you know, of course, and of course, counties are sort of stuck in that middle ground. So I think there's a very legitimate challenge associated with when we look at the 1% overall constitutional limit of property taxes. How could we rethink that? My central position has been and this is popular in some areas and quite unpopular in others, my central position has been most of the taxing authority has migrated to special purpose districts and my position has been that the county should be the central entity that controls most of that taxing authority in partnership with the entities that want to utilize that. But if you look, for example, just for the sake of the conversation at the King County Library system and many other systems that have their own revenue sources, I would make an argument that the county is sort of the fiduciary governing entity that probably makes more sense for those special purpose districts to have some stronger line of authority. So in my previous or my role as finance chair, I've spent a lot of time on that issue. I think revenue sharing is important. We're up to about $575 million in revenue share from all the different sources, much as some of that goes to the counties, but a lot goes to the city. So I think the reconsideration of the balance between cities and the counties and state is the work on a financial side that the legislature has got to do better. And I think we have not been successful in this area. So you may make a follow up on that quickly. Sure. Thank you. So I think that your idea is important, and especially when it comes to the junior taxing districts deciding how much more taxing authority they want to take. We have no authority to say in in one case recently, one of the junior district, one of $0.07. But by them taking the $0.07, it kicked off other junior taxing districts to get zero. And we have no ability to say these junior taxing districts, which included a hospital, a fire district and a cemetery district would get nothing. And we have no authority to stop that. So that's something that I think falls right in line with that. And the other problem is that the formula for unincorporated roads was devised 25 years ago. At that time, they devised a report that was 600 and I think 38 pages telling what needed to be done 25 years later . That is still not done. And we are still using the broken formula that they knew was broken 25 years ago as a temporary placeholder. So if you could help us with that, we would be very happy. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Caplan. Well, first of all, I want to apologize because I'm on a cell phone and there's been a little bit of static on the line. But if I heard correctly, the question is about tax reform in general or specific to the locality. I'm not clear. Specifically to King County being able to have enough of the revenue we give to the state back to us so we can actually do the job. Well, all I can say, in addition to what's already been said, is that our view I'm one of those people who pays being attacked every quarter, whether I'm profitable or not. I'm one of those people who watch as my property taxes go up every year because as I think grew and pointed out, I'm constantly being asked to vote for good things that we need. And, you know, I do believe that the county has a very specific transportation issues that need to be funded and. I'm not quite certain what else to say. We're way past due for tax reform in this state and way past due for some spending reform in this state. And I know that Rubin will take a leadership position on those issues. This coming year. My turn now, please. Okay. All right. So. So it's a it's a good question. King County is the economic engine of the state. It's it's the county that produces the most wealth. And that and that wealth is spread throughout the state. And that's part of being a donor state. We're kind of a donor county in terms of Washington state, a lot of times where. Where the tension comes is between the city of Seattle and and the county. I guess I'm thinking specifically of things like lead expansion and, you know, that's that's a major cost saver in the end . And then to have their biggest about who's going to put up the money for for just a little program expansion into King County and through the sheriff's office for training things like that seems silly to me as a citizen. I'm wondering if the legislative delegation from the district can. Very specifically, you asked what what one could do from this seat and beyond. Legislatively, there is always the option of acting as liaison, acting as negotiator. And I think that the county system and and those who are in executive positions in the city could, in fact, sit down with the state delegation, and we could talk about how the balance works and how the balance looks in the end. Places where there are overlap. Seemed to me to be low hanging fruit where we could move maybe $0.02 back. And as you said, $0.07 matters. So that's that's I think one way to just get a little bit of of revenues shift the tiniest bit of just kind of staunching the bleeding for the county and and beyond that. Yeah. Maybe there needs to be a shift in the burden in creating the taxes in the first place. Maybe cities need to stand up and say, okay, we're going to go ahead and do a B.A. tax and be the bad guy because somebody does, in fact, have to pay. We have to pay in. And then we all get everybody drives on those roads and we all know that they need to be improved. However, from the state Rivlin, I'm going to ask you. It seems to me. That there are some transportation packages that go through the state that involve new highway money. And it seems to me that taking out an old, bad, unincorporated King County Road and putting in a new road that works could count if just maybe one or two sentences was added. And I know that you are really good at adding sentences. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell's. New question. Yes. I have a follow up question to what we've been discussing about the county being the economic driver of this state. And in fact, King County is home to about 40% of the state's jobs and produces nearly 50% of the state's economic activity. And we know this again, it's been very difficult for some legislators from the rest of the state and their constituencies to seem to accept that. And oftentimes, as I know personally, from having been in Olympia for a long time, initiatives that benefit or would benefit King County gets stalled in the state legislature. So we know that. But how will you go about dealing with that in the legislature and working with legislators from other areas of the state to be able to convince them that the county's initiatives are important to them besides our constituencies here? Did I get. To do this one? Sure. Okay. So. So I don't think that I'm going to suddenly come up with a really great, brilliant new answer that you haven't already tried. Oh, but I. I can mention the things that I think worked the best. And I think that the first one, the most obvious one, is trading. What do you want? Here's what I want. And. And I would like to trade with you. I will support you. You support me. That's how it works. Because we're all here together. And the second is one that, you know, this is going to sound somewhat juvenile. I call it field trips. I am I am really a big proponent of you. Take me to your county and show me show me what it is. I will I will go there. I will spend time there. And I'll start helping you in a very personal way. And I will start sending what I have. We have resources here that we can use there. And it's not just dollars and vice versa. I want field trips for for folks from other counties that might be further east in Washington to come here to King County and see what it is that we're doing here. We do an awful lot and we share an awful lot. And I'm not completely sure that all the all the counties know really what's involved in governing and running King County. And I would like to share that with them. And I would like them to understand we're in this together. And I think that sometimes that falls apart. And my biggest two things are always trading and sharing represented. This question of, of course, is goes to the core of a lot of the challenges in in Olympia. I've been a an activist on the issue of opening up the data. And I do that because I think transparency of how the money flows in our state on the tax side and then on the spending side is actually transformational. Interesting. So I've had the Office of Financial Management for the last number of years develop the data in one place that puts out where the money comes from and then where it goes. So the whole concept of there being eight counties in our state that are net contributors of of dollars and there are 31 that are net recipients. That gets politicized a bit and it gets seen as a sort of a poke in the eye one way. But the data itself is actually very powerful and it shows how the money flows. I've had some incredibly thoughtful and enriching conversations with with Republican colleagues in the cafeteria and others really going through the data and talking about how the money flows to Benton County or to Iowa or wherever. And there's actually a spark of really sincere and authentic interest in that conversation. And so, for example, the rural sales tax credit about 28 or so million dollars per buy, all we're really doing with that particular program is lowering the amount of the state sales tax in rural counties. Well, the conversation I've had with colleagues has been, well, what if we took those dollars and applied them very directly in terms of spending into rural economic development, very targeted, very real, and not just sort of evaporate into state government and to a person, they've all said, you know, that actually would really make a really valuable difference if you think about spending those types of dollars. So I've really had a good time bringing that table and that data to the table. And now the Office of Financial Management has institutionalized that. And they they release that data every year because of those requests that I did. And of course, you see graphs and charts that come out from different newspapers and things, but it is interesting and I think it's really helped change the conversation a lot. Mr. Kaplan. What can I add to what has already been said? Advocacy, transparency, clarity and a little bit of compromise. Some of what's been going on in state government, it seems like through the years there's been an effort to keep it secret from state citizens. And I think when we understand things holistically, we come up with better answers. And it's one of the reasons that I think we have and will be a great senator, because those are the things that he has made a priority in his role as our state legislator. Thank you. Further questions. Council member Belushi. Yeah. I just want to add my thanks to all of you for participating in this process and the local district and the King County Dems. It looks like it was a very thorough process and very well done, very collaborative and has resulted in some excellent candidates. So I'm really pleased to have this be my first meeting to be having this discussion with you all. As you all know, and I probably don't need to quote it to you, but I will. The the state constitution says that the paramount duty of the state is to make ample provision for the education of all children within its borders without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste or sex. And this will be the big issue when you arrive in your new role. So I'd love to just hear you talk a little bit about where you see this issue going, how we're going to meet that obligation. And, you know, coming from a place of meeting the obligation to everyone without breaking the things that are already working. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that topic. Thanks. So I appreciate the question, of course, very much. At McCleary and our state's paramount duty goes to the core of of the work in the next year or two. And of course on the reality is, is that we have reached a point where our ability for the state to assume the compensation of our state's teachers and ensure that local levies are not being required to fund that base level of salary, that that or that salary is extremely expensive. And we've gradually slipped, of course, now to a point where Seattle and other many other districts in in King County have a very high local levy rate. The core value proposition, of course, of local levies is supposed to be wraparound services and enhancements and modifications relative to sort of customized learning at the local level. We have a huge structural problem, and the fact of the matter is that the work of the governor and the legislature recently to try to come to some degree of consensus of the elements of a grand bargain is struggling, and it's struggling because of the elements of a grand bargain incorporate levy issues. And the issue of equity is very important to that. So I think it's fair to say that this is job one. It's fair to say that we have to have a very serious recognition of the need for compromise of the elements of a grand bargain. But I also think we have to acknowledge that it is simply unsustainable to think that we're going to put an overwhelming majority of our effort into lowering local levies. Meeting the spirit and the essence of McCleary without additional resources that would compensate for those districts that would see a reduction in local levy, but no commensurate increase in salary in in education funding. So there are the elements of a grand bargain. Issues around levy reform are very important to King County because of the fact that most of the local levies have reached, you know, 25, 28, 32%. So we are not going to get to a place where we can lower local levies to 15 or 20% without substantial new state resources, so that it becomes a very legitimate policy conversation around what the options are for that. And I've been knee deep in this issue, worked very hard in the House, and I very much think that this is the work that we have to do in the Senate and onward. Okay. So so I come from a place or a mindset or a background or something that I always thought that when the state Supreme Court said to do something, that you did it. And I was kind of shocked. I was really shocked that the legislature and really part of the legislature would turn to the Supreme Court and say, no, make me. I was I was I took a lot of of nerve, I think. And here we are, the whole state kind of held hostage by that moment. And I'm not really impressed with with how the back and forth as has gone. And I'm thankful for the leadership that we've had in the 36th District. Our delegation. Senator Cole Wells. Representative Carlisle. And then when Representative Todd time came in, I have has held very fast on McCleary being our paramount duty to fulfill the catch in your question was without breaking anything. And I just had a call the other night from a colleague who's whose work is primarily on the human services part of childhood and who had been lobbied to to please give over and make her primary focus be funding McCleary no matter what. And she had to say not if you're going to take it out of here. And I think that that is really important because there are some things that we are not going to take that money out of cuts, hit human services first and then education. So we're not going to take more money from Human Services for in order to fulfill. McCleary The thing that I have looked at as the most attractive has been capital gains tax to go ahead with capital gains and to make sure that McCleary is fully funded. Yes, it is our paramount duty and that is going to be the first thing. Last legislative session was called the three M's and one of those M's was McCleary. It was mental health, marijuana and McCleary, and we didn't quite finish any of them. But McCleary really is the outstanding it's it's the elephant in your room. And I know that we're going to send Raven back and he is going to close some more loopholes and he is going to find some more money. And we, I hope, are going to do what the state Supreme Court tells us to do and fully fund McCleary without breaking anything else. Because if I have to go another legislature legislative session saying we didn't meet our obligation with McCleary, but at least we did not break anything else, then that is what I live with. Mr. Kaplan. Oh, I would just add that know, going back to one of the earlier questions, when you spend revenue wisely, you don't need to ask for as much upside. And if we had sentencing reform, if we had, you know, a different path for young people and nonviolent offenders, I think we'd free up significant amount of cash. But we cannot take the money that we need to fund education from the very things that create the safety net and the infrastructure that allows us to move forward as a state with compassion and with a rational game plan. So, yeah, we need more revenue. I agree with Liz that the capital gains tax would probably be the most palatable at this moment in time. But I do think there are areas where we're spending money unnecessarily and we could redirect some funds. Thank you. Thank you for the questions. Seeing none. We have the motion before us and we would need a amendment to address line 11 in the motion. Is there Amendment Council member Carl Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to make an oral amendment to include the name. Please. So we mentioned. So this is my first time. You're doing great. To include Marilyn Carlyle as an appointee to the state Senate. Thank you. An amendment has been made to add the name Reuben Carlisle to the blank online 11 in the motion before us, appointing Representative Carlisle to the State Senate discussion on the amendment. Councilmember Lambert, did we. Move that ordinance to start with? We did. Okay. There's back this. Councilmember up the grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this where we comment on the. The selection? This is final. Please be boring. This is adding represent Carlisle's name to the blank. I would like to speak in favor of the motion. I had the chance to. Serve for a number of years with Carlisle in the State House. And the good thing, I think the public is well served when the senators are House trained. Oh. I never thought I. Was going to share. I never told this before. An old dear friend, Senator Ken Jacobson, once said he knew I was a basketball guy and he was talking about the difference between the House and the Senate. And he said the House is like college basketball. The coach calls the shots. You have this big team mentality. And he said the Senate's like the NBA. No one tells Kobe Bryant what to do. And I think Rubin may be a good fit there in that he not. Only was excellent team player, but he's also, I think, stood out for being an independent thinker, for being someone who is willing to question, not hesitate to. Bring independent analysis and question assumptions. Whether it was the state data center. Whether it's tax policy, you name it. He's been willing to stand up not only for his constituents, but for the people, the state. Of Washington, and bring. Intelligent, independent analysis to the questions before them. And the Senate. Is very fortunate, and I wish you well. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate you all coming up through this process. That can be daunting running the Pico Gantlet to get to here. It's almost as tough as that actual campaign sometimes, but I suspect you didn't have any problem coming through. And I wanted to show some bipartisan support for your appointment. You've you've always struck me as somebody who's got your heart in the right place. And, boy, you know, you're speaking my language when you're talking about special purpose district reform, and you get all of these different districts are raising their own taxes and not paying attention to what's happening on the $5.90 cap. And we saw it here a few years ago in the Library District, maxed out statutory authority and suppressed the flood district. And so we had to run around paying fire districts not to levy their rates. And so that's something we got to keep our eye on. And the answer's fairly simple, but it takes an enormous amount of political courage to make those reforms because you're messing with special purpose district funding. But keep up the good work. We look forward to partnering with you here at the local level to help you as we fight those and other battles. So I wish you the very best and I want to commend others for their participation as well. And you got a good audience to get some of your. Views out as well here. So anyway, I look forward to voting for you and working with you in the future. Thanks. And my apologies to the maker of the motion for not calling on her first council member, Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a very meaningful vote that I'll be taking, given that I have so much admiration for Representative soon to be Senator Robin Carlisle, as well as Liz Campbell and David Caplan. I don't know if you're all aware that we had over 200 PCOS participate in, I believe at the actual meeting at which and votes took place, there were 197 and something on that order. 92, one, 92 and we had, I believe, the highest number of PCOS in the state and the highest number of registered voters and voter turnout in the state. So what this amounts to is that we have a very active district and they get involved, they get engaged. And I am really thrilled with the caliber of the three contenders for this seat. Really outstanding. And the other reason that this is very meaningful to me, of course, is that I'm voting on my successor. And we, of course, don't lay any claim to having a lifetime important seat in the Senate or the House or county council. But I was on this I was in the legislature for a long time and just had just been completing now my 21st year in the state Senate. So that's significant for me and I don't let go lightly. I think, frankly, that I have resigned it and that there was a lot of emotion involved with that. But I think that I know that Reuben will be outstanding in the role as state senator for our 36th legislative district, and I have no doubt about that. I just wish I could peek into the caucus meeting that that that rule. And you will do terrifically and God bless the Senate in what would be very good hands. So thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And kind of any councilman down there to. Yeah, because I'm just kind of adding to what you said in relationship to Drew and his margin of victory. The percentage is as wide as my margin of victory when I run for office. With him and what he's been able to accomplish in his district. I look forward to support you. But I want to add that Liz and David are extremely accomplished and safe and we have our way to continue their their involvement in their district as well as broader politics, because we can use their talents to really. All right, Senator. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciated Gene Caldwell's comment about lifetime tenures with how the Senate and perhaps the county council. But I may agree with two of the three I. Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah. I had the privilege of being in the state senate for 20 years, and I say this unabashedly. The 36th District, House and Senate has always been one of the best represented districts in the state legislature. I say that without question. It's always had a vigorous group, whether Republican or Democrat, believe it or not, there were some Republicans at one time, and I told my colleagues the only Republicans left safe in Seattle are those in the Woodland Park Zoo. Elk. And I'm sorry. There's. Thank God I had a chance to meet ruined through a phone call he made to me because he wanted to hire somebody who had worked in my office. And we had a great conversation. And he was fortunate enough to hire that person and that person was fortunate to be a mentee of yours, and you did a great job with them. He's now in the private sector, working hard for his community in the 36th District, and that was Matt Gausman. And so anyway, I join with my colleagues. It's been a great conversation we've had today and I look forward to working with you as you represent this district in the state legislature. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to compliment all three of you on how qualified you are and your passion for good public policy and caring about our citizens. So thank you for that. I agree with Councilmember at The Grove that having senators or House change is a very good thing. I think it helps us ensure that that the debate between the Rotunda are not too far away. Remember, once we actually had a line across the rotunda and we all held hands, so it was clear that that is a passable space. So I think that's really important. And I want to say that I appreciate the transparency that you've brought to the legislative process and especially to finances. I think it's not that we don't as a county, want to help other parts of the state, but not to our citizens budget. And it's gotten in place now where I believe has come to our citizens detriment. And there are some ways of compromising that certain things are in better shape in different parts of the county. Keep moratorium on taking our money and our for instance roads get to look at good is quality based on some standards and the rest of the state and then we can go back to a different formula. But I think we really need to look at how much more we can share before it hurts us so badly. So I really appreciate your open communications and I look forward to it continuing as a senator and I know you have all of our cell phone numbers and I'm happy to receive calls up to 138. And please know that you're working hard. Thank you. She was telling me to AM just 20 minutes ago. Well. For the comments on the amendment hearing and others in favor of the amendment, please say I opposed nay motion that the amendment is adopted. The motion, as amended, is before US. Councilmember Dombrowski. Technical amendment on line for the correct the name of Senator Jim Caldwell's to strike the I and replace it with me. Oh yeah we will the I believe the clerk will take care of that for us. Indeed. Very good. Thank you. Further discussion. I'm final passage. If the clerk would please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Counselor. Double duty by Councilmember Dombroski by Councilmember Dunn. I remember Gossett. I always thought well, I was never remember either one more of the girl councilmember by my count. Hi, Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. Votes no nice, no notes, and then excused. Thank you. By your vote we've given a do pass recommendation to motion 2015 535 and we will expedite that to the full the special meeting of the full council at 130 today. Do they have to come back? They're welcome. They're welcome to be here for that. They're not required to be a council member. Lambert I just want to be sure that they take with them our agenda so that their, their first assignment is with and I think you that very much. Yeah. All right. They all. Thank you, Mr. Kaplan. We appreciate your participation, and you're welcome to hang up. Thank you. At any point you wish. Thank you. All right. And that takes us to item five on the agenda. Proposed Motion 2015. 534 Will there be an opportunity to please brief remarks before this afternoon, or is that the appropriate time? And is. Thank you. Well, it's legal. I understand. You're. Trying to learn the committee. Are we today? Our next item is Motion 2015 534, which is the motion filling the anticipated vacancy in the state representative seat in the 36th legislative district. And Counsel, if we can begin with the motion, Councilmember Gossett would be willing to make the motion. Yes, Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to move at this time that we adopt proposed motion on a 2015 0534. And this is a motion making an appointment to fill the vacancy in the position of State Representative for the 36th District. Thank you. The motion is before us and it is referral to the full council would be on the assumption that the full council will take its final action this afternoon to appoint Representative Carlisle to fill the Senate seat and represented Carlisle has indeed resigned the Senate seat. With that said, again, since it is a partizan position and Representative Carlisle is a Democrat, the state constitution requires us to choose from among three nominees recommended by the King County Democratic Central Committee. Three nominees have been recommended for our consideration, and they are again in alphabetical order by last name Newell Frame, Jeff Manson. And so. Right. Senator Barneveld, once again, we'll start with each I invite each one of the three of you to join us at the presentation table. And we'll again start with a two minute introduction from each one of the nominees and then proceed with questions from the council. And so to continue the order. Good morning and Miss Frame. Yes. Good. My floor is yours. Well, good morning, members of the King County Council. Honorable members. My name is Noel Frame, and it would be the honor of my life to be the next state representative from the 36th District. I am seeking this position because I want to tackle the biggest challenge facing our state fully funding our public schools. I grew up in battleground in southwest Washington and experienced firsthand how underfunded classrooms can impede a quality education. Knowing that students today are experiencing what I experienced two decades ago is my motivation to wanting to be a leader on education funding. I believe that to fully fund our schools, we need comprehensive tax reform. And I believe for that to happen, it's going to require a robust statewide conversation with voters. And as that is the reason I think that you should appoint me today. I am a communication specialist and an organizer at my core. I've been involved in statewide civic engagement work for 15 years. I worked in the nonprofit, private and public sectors, and I offer the experience and perspective of bridging the divide that will be so critical to reaching consensus around school funding and tax reform issues. I have lived in the 36th District for more than a decade now, but my house, my first home just two years ago and ran a full campaign for this position in 2012. I came out of that campaign stronger, more confident, and even more tenacious than I was before. But that passion and that resilience certainly did not start with my campaign. I grew up the child of two restaurant workers who are here with us today. We are a family of very hard workers. But for too many people today, working hard still isn't enough to pay the bills. In the Legislature, I will work to strengthen economic security for our middle class and those in poverty. I also come from a family with a long history of mental illness and all of its related challenges like addiction. As a consequence, I served as a foster parent to two of my younger cousins. Mental health issues were not managed properly as that has a devastating impact. And I want to work on mental health issues. My name is Noelle Frame and I ask for your vote. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Manson. All right. Good morning. Thank you. It's an honor to be here and in particular, to be part of one of the first official items of of business that my council member, Jeanie Caldwell's. So I've been working to make the world a better place since I was ten years old and helped found the Earth Club at my elementary school. And since then, I've tried to use every moment to maximize my own impact for social justice, economic justice and environmental justice. It's what led me to law school and to being a legal aid attorney. And for the last six years, I've served this state as an administrative law judge, where I've seen how state laws and state budgets affect the most vulnerable in our society at the ground level. Meanwhile, I've also served as the chair of the 36th District Democrats, where I have worked to inspire people to change public policy through grassroots organizing and citizen activism. So last year I threw my hat in the ring because I was ready to fuze those two roles together, taking my deep policy expertize as a judicial officer and my organizing skills to the Democratic Party and serve the 36th District as a progressive champion in Olympia. And I'm glad I ran because it was such an incredibly enriching civic experience. We have an engaged group of 216 CEOs, 192 of whom participated in this process. And they represent every neighborhood, every conceivable profession, and reflect the demographic diversity of our district. And a substantial portion of these CEOs took the role very seriously. A good portion of them took the time to meet with each of the five candidates for at least an hour at least once, and then followed up with questions by email and by phone. They pored over our questionnaires and websites, attended several formal candidate events, including a two hour long moderated forum. So it was truly one of the most comprehensive and intimate vetting process as we could have had to choose the three nominees here today. I'm honored to have been the the second choice of the CEOs, and I accept their first choice as the right choice. And so I encourage you to appoint my friend, though I'll frame today, but I'm happy to answer your questions about my qualifications and my background. Thank you. Thank you so much. It is wonderful. Good morning, council members. It's an honor to be here today. I'd like to start by thanking my husband, Joel merkel and my family for their support during this appointment process. You may know that I'm a public sector attorney, but I'm also a wife and a mother to a spirited 16 month old daughter, a community activist and a proud progressive Democrat. I've spent the last ten years as a public servant working on behalf of the people of this state, currently as a public sector litigator, fighting for the rights of Washington workers. As a mother and education advocate, I've become increasingly concerned with our state's chronic underfunding of education, particularly public education. I thought appointment to the state house, in part because I believe we can and should do better for Washington students. It was an honor to participate in the appointment process and engage in meaningful conversations with CEOs about how to tackle the enormously consequential challenges facing our district and the state. The key messages I heard over and over again is that we need effective leadership, more effective leadership to champion and reform our regressive and unfair tax structure and increase revenue for vital social services to fully fund education in accordance with McCleary and create an excellent public education system for all our children and to protect our environment for future generations. I would not have thought this appointment if I did not believe I was uniquely qualified to tackle these challenges. I remain excited about the possibility of serving the people of the 36th District and using my legislative experience, skills and relationships to champion students, our most vulnerable and our environment and Olympia. While my desire to serve the people of the 36th District has not changed, I do support the nomination process and know our friend's nomination and I think it was a fair process. Thank you for the opportunity to present to you today, and I would welcome any questions that you have. Thank you to each of you. Questions from Councilmembers Councilmember Gossett. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I have a question for you three also related to economic and racial disproportionality. Recently, it was mentioned in the Seattle Times that Seattle is now one of the most expensive cities to live in, in terms of the cost of housing and the Seattle Times reporter Mr. Eugene Ball. The article not too long ago and he said that the average black household family income has now gone down to the ninth past in the United States, $25,700 a year. And when compared to white annual income, it's just $70,200 a year, he said. That's a tremendous economic gap. Do you think that that's something we should be concerned about? And if so, is there anything that state legislators can do about the cost and availability of housing for our most dominant families around the state type place? Thank you. Yeah, affordable housing costs in general is obviously it's a crisis here in the city and in our 36th district. And much of what we can do at the state level, we can do things like continue to invest in the housing trust fund so we can have more affordable housing available here in Seattle. I look forward to working with the city as they advocate for their housing affordability and livability agenda action items to again continue to add affordable housing and working class housing stock here in the state. But I want to go back, I think, to the racial disproportionality question, because I think so much of that goes back to our educational system. We know that. The opportunity gap, often referred to as the achievement gap, is a problem here. Last I checked, the opportunity gap was not decreasing but increasing in Washington state. So much of what we need to do is invest in our public school system and always, always bring a racial equity lens to that work. So much of what we can do to address racial disparities in education is early interventions. And I just want to say we should be so proud with King County, with the Best Arts for Kids Levy as a huge investment in early learning and early interventions for families that will no doubt have a strong impact on families of color and low income families to help try to level the playing field. Investments in early learning is one of the best places that we can start to level the playing field of that opportunity gap and later those economic opportunities available to folks. So I think the focus I bring on fixing the tax structure, working on K-12 and hopefully early learning as well will be will help address some of the challenges that you've addressed. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. So I agree with what Noel said. I think looking at the affordable housing, you can look at both the expense side and the revenue side, if you will, of an individual family. On the expense side, I think investing in more low income housing is something the state can do, can also allow municipalities to reasonably regulate their own rents, which I know Seattle has been interested in doing. I don't think we'd be following some New York City style rent control, but putting some reasonable limits on rent increases as a way to immediately limit the affordability issue. And then on the revenue side, on the individual family sort of income side, I think housing can become more affordable if people have more disposable income. And I think raising the minimum wage, I'm glad Seattle started that and got that ball rolling. I think we can do that around the state. I support raising the minimum wage statewide, nationwide. In fact, I also think if we reformed our tax structure to be less regressive, it would also end up with lower income families, would have more money with which to to pay for housing. I think of Seattle is currently in affordability crisis. I'm very much a proponent of housing first and I think we need to drastically expand the availability of affordable housing, particularly to communities of color, low income communities and vulnerable populations. I think part of this on the state level is going to be an increased investment in the affordable housing trust fund. I also think, particularly to your point, there's things that we can do to regulate and prohibit employment and housing discrimination, which still occurs. And there's some legislative solutions that have been proposed, particularly to address housing discrimination. And I think that's extremely important in terms of addressing the problem. I would agree with Noel that I think it starts, you know, in terms of expanding access to not just early learning for children, but in addressing the opportunity and achievement gap. I think we absolutely need to do everything that we can to address the opportunity of achievement gap, including reforming school discipline in schools, implementing the restorative justice model and ending the school to prison pipeline. I think that's extremely important in addressing this problem. So I think we need to expand first and foremost the amount of affordable housing. I also think that it's important to look, you know, at investing in Washington workers. One way to do that is to increase the minimum wage. And I'm a proponent of increasing the minimum wage. And in fact, I'll fight as a litigator for the rights of workers and every day. Thank you for the questions. See none. Councilmember one right there. I'm going to have to wait till she makes your motion. Okay. Councilmember Caldwell's to make a motion. Let's see if I can get this right. The time I believe we first need to open an oral amendment right. We have. We've already moved the motion itself, and so we need an oral amendment. So with that, Mr. Chair, I propose number 20 201505341. I offer an oral amendment on line five to add Reuben Carlisle No, no. Yes, sir. I was wondering. But there are, there are two things here. Correct? Correct. You and ignore ignore the peanut gallery. Just keep going. Online. 12 to add the name of Noel Friend. Thank you. There's an oral amendment to add the name of Reuben Carlisle to line five and Noel frame to line 12 of page 45 of our packet two motion 2015 534 and I will do better this time to speak to the motion, wrote Council member Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a delight for me and a privilege to be able to speak to this amendment to add both Reuben Carlisle's name, as I read it, resigning from being representative for the 36th District and to add Noel Frame's name to be appointed as state representative. I've known them both for many, many years, and just as I stated earlier, when we took up the matter of the State Senate appointment, rather than Carlisle will make an outstanding state senator and I believe the same for Noel Frame to become an outstanding state representative as this is my district. I can also say that I will be very proud to have them representing me. I will be their constituent to the State Senate and the State House and they're both really superb Senate. Though I would like to say that Jeff Manson and Sarah Reed involved are also superb. And I wish we had three state representative, I mean, actually for Gail Thomas and I would love it if all three of you could be in the State House and perhaps in the future you will be able to assume such positions or similar ones that with that I'm delighted and I would like us to go ahead and make the appointment. Thank you. The amendment has been moved and seconded. Council Member one Rick Barrow. Thank you, Mr. Chair. When this first came before us during the holidays, I received some calls from some folks who thought, you know, maybe he had some strong feelings about some of the candidates and I had never had a chance to meet anyone. Well, I had a chance to meet one, but one of the candidates that were selected, but I did not know the other two. And Councilmember Larry Gossett encouraged me to meet with Noel. And I did that. And I got to tell you, it wasn't really enervating experience. You have a long resumé here of civic involvement and passion for issues and compassion for your neighbors. And she and I talked about where some of this began because I've been involved in my community in the Qantas Club. And while you may look at it on her résumé of all these great activities, I looked at the fact that when she was a teenager, she was the leader, the governor of Key Club. Now, a lot of people don't understand that, but that is as tough as you can get to get to be a teenager to be at that. She was flying to Alaska, flying to the East Coast as a teenager to work on behalf of programs that serve communities and especially those who have students in need. Qantas is about service and you know, some people suggested again during the holidays, jump the line, go to somebody else. No, I'm sure glad that I had the chance to meet with her, talk with her, listen to her. And I understand why Larry Gossett is such a big fan of hers. She is a person who has compassion about her neighbors and. Passionate. About her district, and she brings her incredible work ethic, which really impressed me. So I'm very happy to join my colleagues in supporting this. Good luck. Thank you very much. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to just say the same thing as the previous speaker, but elaborate on just one other part. And the idea that she spent the time to do this process in not only being here and meeting with Beth, but also coming to our meeting where we were talking as a council with the electeds about what it is that we are seeing our issues and be there to really hear us. The people that are trying to do what the people in your job are telling us to do. But it's difficult when we start getting our hands tied behind our back and our money to do it. So I really appreciate it. Not only that you were there, but I was watching you because I didn't know at that point who you were exactly. And you were really assimilating that information. And I really appreciated that fact. You were listening, and I thank you for that. The other thing is that in our meeting, I got to find out that we share similar passions. And as councilmember right there said, you know, this is not the thing that started last week with you. The fact that you were, I think, 25 and raising two teenagers, we share in common being a foster mom at 21. I know what that looks like and it takes dedication and hard work. And I appreciate that you have lived what you believe. I thank you. I look forward to working with you. Thank you. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Even though we're a nonpartisan body, I'm going to be briefly partizan here and say that I am proud that the Democratic Party has such a deep bench of talent here, and I'm speaking in favor of the motion. But I also had the chance to get to know Sarah over the years and impressed with her, and your presentation was great. Jeff We're friends and. Common and. We're lucky to have three people who have this kind of energy and. And, and smarts. I've known Noelle probably 15 years or so, and I was thinking about what it is I like about her. And it was. One of the things that. Cathy alluded to. One of the coolest things about Noelle is the work you did as a foster mom at a young age. I couldn't have done that. It's a it's a labor of love. And you did that while balancing a professional, difficult professional career. When I think about what I know about you, it's as a champion of education, largely someone willing to fight, even when unpopular, for the values you believe in that are supported by your district. I just think you'll do a great job and I'm really excited for you. Thank you for the discussion. All those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying I am opposed. Nay, the amendment is adopted. We have the motion as amended before us discussion and final passage. If the clerk would please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Well, Duty Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn, High Customer Resources Chi member Caldwell. I'm Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember of the girl. But Councilman, run right there. Hi, Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. There was no noise, no notes, and then excused. Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation two motion 2015 534 and we will expedite that to this afternoon's full council meeting. Councilmember Gossett. Yeah, I just like a point of personal privilege. I'd like to thank Noelle's mother and dad for being willing to share her with all of our community. Well, thank you. And as we have said, there will be a special meeting of the county council at 130 to act on these recommendations from the committee of the hall. And since this is a special meeting, there is nothing else on our agenda. And we will adjourn and I will see everyone at 130 for the full council meeting.	A MOTION making an appointment to fill the vacancy in the position of state senator for the 36th legislative district.
king_3e70aa9a-fba2-450f-9200-46b7f4d2b3a6	And I would call to order the community, the hall meeting for November 30, 2021. And as we start today, I'd like to begin by acknowledging that from the traditional lands of the Puget Sound as peoples past and present. We thank these caretakers of the lands. We've lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who brought their cultural ways of life here greatly enrich our community. As we all know, in light of the public health emergency, the governor has issued an emergency order suspending the section of the Open Public Buildings Act requires. We have a physical space for the public to watch our meetings. We are conducting this meeting on the Zoom today and have several items on today's agenda. Our regular briefing from ESD director Dwight Danbury on COVID response in judicial appointments, appointments to the Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force. And lastly, a briefing on the proposed health through housing implementation plan. A couple housekeeping notes I ask the public as well as staff, executive and council to please keep your video off until just before you plan to present to in order to make it easier to manage the Zoom meeting. And if you are, I'm here to provide public comment today and you are connected via cell phone if at all possible. I would encourage you to please connect via the Zoom application. It eliminates some technical issues in always being able to successfully unmute people and eliminate the possibility of a slight delay. So I would urge people to, if at all possible, connect with the Zoom app rather than simply the phone connection. With that said, Madam, would you please call the role? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Banducci. Councilmember Dombrowski. Good morning. I'm here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember Caldwell Area Council. Councilmember Lambert Earp. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Bong right down here. Council members only. Mr. Chair. Dear Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Ah, Mr. Vice Chair Dunn. I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of our October 20th meeting. So move, Mr. Chair. Thank you. The minutes of our October 20th meeting are before us. All those who see no discussion, all those in favor of approving the minutes, please signify by saying i, i those opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. I will now turn to public comment. Let me make sure that everyone who is called in to participate in public comment understands how the process will be managed. Public comment should be related to item on today's meeting agenda and should not be used for purposes of assisting campaign selection of any person in the office or for the promotion of opposition to the ballot proposition. It should not include obscene speech, and if the speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, I will rule them out of order and they may be removed from the virtual meeting to ensure the ability to meet yourself again. If please connect using the Zoom application on your computer or cell phone, if at all possible. If you're listening on TV or streaming the meeting, please turn off that function while offering testimony so we don't have feedback on the line. And for this portion of public comment, please do not use the phrase hand function. The court will call on everyone in the room to offer public testimony so everyone will be called on and using the raised hand feature. Was you out of order? Making it harder to track. Making sure that we have called on everyone and. We will when your name is called. If you would, please. I'm sorry if I stuck my script and didn't try to ad lib, this would work better. Our committee called When You Connected. We can only see the either the name on your zoom screen or the last three digits of your phone number. As the clock goes through and calls people to ask for testimony. They will call either your name or the last three digits of your phone number. When that happens, please, I'm your line if you haven't already. If you've made it yourself as a courtesy and to do that by phone, it's done by pressing star six. Before you begin, you just. You could start by just stating your name and pausing so we can confirm that we hear you and the audio connection works. And then if you begin by saying and spelling your name, so we have it accurate. For the record, you'll have 2 minutes to speak. You'll hear a timer go off when you hear the timer go off and you can certainly complete your thought. But please do wrap up so we can hear from the next person. And in the unlikely event anyone is disruptive to a meeting, they may be removed from the Zoom meeting. We would ask you to hang up if possible, after you provide your comment and try the meeting. The TV Channel 22 or the online stream on. You can find the online stream on the council's website, which of course is W WW dot King County dot gov. That's also when you scroll down and click on the ever popular Watch US Live button. If you are here to observe the meeting, don't have public comment. The court will call your name. You can simply say, pass. Don't be intimidated and want to welcome everyone and ask the police to begin calling people for the comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is Adam Hasson. Hi. My name is Adam Hasson. Okay. So I am the director of Real Estate for Salmons Land Company and a board member of the Alliance for Pioneer Square. And the Pioneers were via our Santos owned real estate and Pioneer Square for over 70 years. And like you, we are well aware of the ups and downs of the neighborhood. Historically, the neighborhood. Has always been a place where. People seek assistance and shelter, and that will never change. In the northeast corner of the neighborhood, overlapping the King County campus, there are multiple housing and service providers such as the Bright Line Building, Saint Charles. D.C. Union, Gospel Mission and more. We understand the county will be adding another building with the Canton Lofts. We support the county's health through housing program. And applaud the county wide approach. To solving homelessness. But since there is such a concentration of. Services and low income housing in Times Square already, we need your help. We ask that King County amend the healthy housing plan to include a supporting goal to develop a pioneer square specific sub area plan and establish the strategic goals in collaboration with the Pioneer Square neighborhood. Fire Square is a neighborhood on the brink. We could see a recovery from the pandemic and a return of office workers, residents, tourists and new retail businesses enjoying our historic neighborhood. Or we could see the streets go further down the hall of drug trafficking, shootings, assaults, shoplifting and more. Square is also home to the King County government campus, where the public is invited to engage in government, join juries, get married, seek justice. We need this to be a safe place for all. If we add more services to the neighborhood without any framework, framework or understanding of the impacts, we risk seeing the neighborhood declines further. We believe this amendment will help restore. The balance and provide an opportunity for the county. To work with the Alliance for Pioneer Square. And ensure a safe and healthy neighborhood for the homeless community and for everyone who visits a neighborhood. And encourage your support. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Lisa Howard. Thank you. My name is Lisa Howard. L i s a h w e r d. I'm the Executive Director of the Alliance preparing for the first half. We'd like to thank you for your bold and swift action to address the homelessness crisis at a regional level through the host of Housing Initiative. I am here today to propose an amendment to the draft and healthier housing plan implementation plans and for the Pioneer Square specific strategic approach to the health care housing investment. We are very proud that until recently, an expert has been with the Regional Center for Homeless Service and a thriving and vibrant neighborhood. In the last 20 months, we went from a neighborhood that could provide a superb prosperity and service to all of our residents, business and visitors to a neighborhood on the edge of collapse. We are committed to doing our part, but we need help from local government, both the city and the county to get there. And your spa has been trying to communicate and problem solving since the eighties and having the same conversation again and again over time. I believe strongly that this is a moment where we can effectively dig in and address the systemic challenges that are specific to the Peninsula district. Vibrant communities can exist when they work for all members of the community. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is listed as M.C. Nicola, Wyoming. Can you please provide your name? Yes. It's it's mathematically, I'm trying to get my video on. Does it work? Okay. Great. I got to see. Okay. Thank you. Mathematically, that's MTA, our E.R. and I work for Warehouse. I serve as warehouses. Public affairs manager in Washington State. Thank you for your consideration of our company's comments today. As you may know, Weyerhaeuser is a forest landowner and wood products manufacturer. We have been sustainably managing working forests our state for 120 years. Our founders, visionary environmental stewardship and strong commitments to reforestation underlie many of the values that Washingtonians hold dear to this day. In 2016, our company relocated its corporate headquarters to Pioneer Square. The building that in the Tree Fort embodies our innovative culture and naturalist roots. However, the area has become unsafe for our employees warehouse. There has been and remains a staunch advocate for affordable housing. We have supported several approaches at the city, county and state level for that imperative mission. One of our company's goals as part of our company's three by 30 initiative is that by 2030, they envision a world where sustainable wood products are providing abundant creative opportunities for ensuring everyone has access to quality, affordable, sustainably built housing. The Health Care Housing implementation plan is a key element in this initiative. But our community in Pioneer Square cannot go it alone. We support the amendment proposed by the Alliance for Pioneer Square, imploring the Council to include a Pioneer Square specific element that will recognize both the regional nature of the unsheltered and answer it with an eye toward equity and fairness, both for serve and unserved populations. We appreciate the very sincere efforts of our health care, housing and King County Council partners to craft an affordable housing strategy that works in perpetuity for both beneficiaries and affiliates of the program. We remain committed to active collaboration as this plan moves forward and are confident that the implementation team can find a solution that makes minimal, meaningful change in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. Thank you for your time and sorry about my video. Thank you. The next person is Angela Picasso. Good morning. My name is Angie Botafogo. B as in boy. A gta zeo. Lots of teasing these. I am here to testify and provide comment on the health through housing implementation plan. But you're hearing a briefing on today. I'm a Pioneer Square business owner, former resident and advocate for the neighborhood. And I want to echo the sentiments you've already heard to date about Pioneer Square, where a vibrant neighborhood, or at least we were. We're struggling right now and we're looking for some help and support. I think it's amazing that King County has taken the action that it has, the bold action that it has to address, the homelessness crisis we have in the region. We need action. And this is definitely a show of leadership on the part of the council and the executive office. Pioneer Square wants to make sure that it's shaping its destiny, that it's part of where we're going next. And with the county's investments, we want to make sure that we are a part of the solution in companionship and in collaboration with the county. And so this is what we're hoping to be a continuation of an ongoing conversation together on how we can inform or influence the health through housing implementation plan, and look at Pioneer Square and its unique conditions and its unique environment as something that can be worked on together with the county. So I just want to echo those sentiments. So thank you again and really appreciate the leadership and the ongoing partnership you all are providing. Thank you. The next person is Kathleen Johnson. Hello. My name is Kathleen Johnson. I am the executive director at Historic South Downtown. Historic South Downtown is a state created agency that seeks to help mitigate the impact of large scale, publicly funded initiatives in the area of Pioneer Square and the Chinatown International District. I speak today in support of the House for Housing Program. We we are very impressed, as others have said, about this bold action, concrete steps that have been taken to provide new units of housing at a time of desperate need. We do ask that there will be an amendment to help develop a pioneer, square, specific strategic strategy to help this neighborhood, which really is on the brink to manage the concentration of. Sorry, I have a puppy here. Sir, is the concentration of supportive housing for very low income and homeless homeless individuals with a desire to return to the thriving neighborhood. It's a delicate balance. Many community members have dedicated their lives to making sure that it stays balanced. The pandemic has really affected this neighborhood more so than many others, and I think this is the best that can be seen when you walk or drive around the neighborhood. We ask that you would partner with us as we seek to recover and and go forward. Thank you. Kathleen, I wish you support. I wish you luck getting the support of all of the people on the council. Sorry, your work on that. Thank you. The next person is Doug Mann. Please go ahead. Hi. Hi. My name is Doug Mann. I am the current property manager for the Gerald Kaplan Resource and name. So be a man. We are a community of 50 apartments that are a see also a significant investment that the city, state and county have invested in, in artists, live, work, housing. That contributes to the vibrancy and the well-being of L.A. Square. I also am echoing the thoughts and endorsements of the Alliance for Clean Square that we need any kind of square centric addition to the legislation so that the concentration of services that have been historically located in place where it can be managed and addressed, particularly during this time of ultimate crisis because of the pandemic. I would also hope that there would be more of an emphasis on creating more artists live, work, housing, so that the vibrancy and creative community can benefit from what the city, state and county resources have to offer. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I believe I've called everyone on the line. Thank you, Madam Clerk. To be sure he will call everybody. I will ask if you are on the line and wish to offer public comments and didn't get the chance to. Would you you please use the raise hand feature in Zoom or if you are joined by phone type star nine into your phone, we will watch to make sure we haven't missed anybody. Brings him to a in Zoom or Star nine. So we know we have missed you if you would like to offer public testimony. Now I'm not seeing anyone raise hand or star nine. Are you? I am not either, Mr.. Thank you. Then I will rearrange my screens for a moment here and we will close public comment. That takes us to item five on today's agenda. On the first business idea, if you will, and that is a briefing from Dwight David, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr. David, good morning. Welcome to yours. Good morning. Thank you. Council members, can you hear me okay? We can. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. So for the record, Dwight de Leon, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, and it's a pleasure for me to be here to speak to you about the county's COVID response and some related items. I have five items today, most of which will be familiar to you, but all our kind of updating what we have talked about in the past. So let me start with our friends at FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and I've got three things to share about that. First of all, just to give you a sense of how much paperwork it takes, it is now taking us approximately one year for our agencies to pull together all the necessary documentation of what we have spent on FEMA eligible pandemic response. So in talking with our Office of Emergency Management yesterday, they noted that our various applications for funding for 2020 so last year will mostly be submitted in January of 2022. So it will take us almost or maybe even a little bit more than a year to get all that documentation together. So it is a very big chore to do this. Obviously it's worth it because there's tens of millions of dollars that we're going to get for it. But I just want to make sure you all are aware of how complicated these federal requirements are and how much work it takes. Second thing to share. You may recall that you provided some funding to the Office of Emergency Management for Businesses that are near county pandemic response facility. So our isolation and quarantine facilities and our shelter, the intensification, hotels are you did the same thing in 2020. You provided money for that in 2021. And O&M is going to start accepting applications from those businesses on about November 15. So a little less than two weeks from now. So if any of you have been contacted by businesses that feel like they have been adversely impacted, please let them know to be on the lookout for that announcement from our Office of Emergency Management. And finally, just to remind everyone at this point, the federally declared emergency expires on December 31st. FEMA has been clear that they will provide everyone with at least 60 days notice if that emergency is really going to expire and now within that 60 days. So the current rumor mill is that there will be an extension of the emergency till the end of March. There is another rumor that it's likely even to go another three months till the end of June. But at this point it seems pretty unlikely it will go any further than that. So I'm just for big picture thinking for you all. What we are currently doing is planning on managing the county's critical COVID responses. So things in public health, things in DC, IHS and extending them through the end of June on a planning basis. Let's hope we don't have to actually do that, but we're trying to make sure that we are planning for that and we're making sure that we have sufficient resources to do that. And I think at this point we probably do. We may have to trim back in a few areas, but generally I think we're going to be okay. So just as you are thinking ahead in the next year, our current thinking is the emergency will go at least till the end of March, if not till the end of June. We're planning our resources with that in mind, at some point it's going to turn out that I think COVID is just with us as a long term chronic condition. It won't be regarded as a federal emergency anymore, and we may have some challenging choices about what we do with our own resources if we feel like some of these programs need to be continued longer. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about the whole FEMA and emergency management related set of topics. Colleagues. We got people figured out after a year and a half of pandemic control questions for do I. I think like you, we have all figured out now, like, excellent. But we'll look forward to sending you some of the paperwork to track for us so we can always use the help. Okay. Let me move on to item two. And this is actually going to be an invitation for you to ask me to get further information on some of the programs. But I'm just going to give you a couple of examples of status of some of the programs that you approve funding for earlier in the year. And then if there's others that you were interested in, I will just make a list and get it to you. I don't have it all in front of me. So let me start with the $20 million for arts and cultural organizations that you approved and recall that it was essentially for two different purposes. One was any incremental pandemic response costs that they faced in order to be able to reopen. And secondly, and we expected to be more significantly, it turned out that was right is for lost revenue because they've had to cancel performances, reduced attendance, whatever that might be to cope with the pandemic. So for that $20 million, the application period is closed. We received 109 applications seeking a total of $54 million, so substantially more than is available. Now, those applications have not all been reviewed at this point. So it's very, very possible that some will be ineligible or some of the amounts are too large. But I think it's a safe bet that ultimately all of that nearly $20 million will be allocated because the the need for it was so much greater than we expected. A second program. I'll just give you a quick update on. There was a program that the executive proposed that you approved that combined finding housing for people who are homeless, particularly people in shelters with getting them employment opportunities. And as I've mentioned before, we started with county agencies and we're up to several dozen homeless people who have now gotten work with county agencies such as Parks and Regional Animal Services. Other agencies are in the queue as we're finding more people and identifying job opportunities. We also went out with a request for proposals for nonprofit organizations, particularly those that regularly work with employment opportunities for homeless people. And those applications are coming in this week and we'll be reviewing them starting next week. And the expectation is that will be a second channel where we'll be able to place some people who are homeless in jobs for at least a few months. So that program, both French's, is well underway at this point. And I can give you an update once we have gone through those applications from nonprofit organizations. So those are just two examples of programs that you approved that are now actually in at the point where they're either serving, people are starting to make funding available for other organizations or if there are others that you would like to get a status report on, either mention it to me now or send me an email and I'll happily track those down and get that back to you. So let me pause at that point and see if there are questions or requests. Mr. Chair. As a member of coal wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to I regarding the $20 million PSP Arts and Culture Grants. Given that there are way more applicants for way more money than can be covered, are you looking more at reducing amounts and trying to cover a greater amount of organizations or on a competitive basis, selecting out the top applicants needs and not just x x amount for. Each of. Those. So, Councilmember, the first step is going to be to try to make sure that the organizations that are applied are eligible and do some validation, particularly around the projections of lost revenue. I will tell you that about half of the total is a very small number of organizations. And so those are going to be particularly critical that we look at to make sure that we understand whether those figures are right, whether they're, you know, projections that we need to test over time and so on. So I will I will tell you that my bias and this is maybe something we need to have conversation about is to fund as many as we can. And if that requires reducing some of the larger requests fairly significantly, that feels like a more equitable approach to me and I think is consistent with some of the discussion we had when you were considering this about the importance of making sure it's spread to a lot of bipoc organizations who have applied that has geographic balance. So I think that's where I'm interpreting the policy direction from the executive and council. But it might be something that when we have a little more information about who's eligible and what do we think the dollar amount is, would be good maybe to have a conversation about that. Thank you. I agree with you. Other costumes. Issues by his task group to investigate. We're doing. Okay. Thank you. And again, please, if something comes to mind you over the next few days, feel free to email me on. We'll track that down. So the third topic I wanted to cover was continue to give you an update on the convention and lodging industry or that that is the thing that has been hit hardest of all of the sectors of our economy. As always, we're looking at things like hotel occupancy and October occupancy. And I have the very last few days, but as of about a week ago was averaging 57% across the county. And then, you know, the fall is always a slow season, but that's that's still well below what we would see normally. Interestingly, the one new trend is that the geographic area of the county with the highest occupancy is now the the hotels around Seattle Center and South Lake Union. And that has to do with the opening of climate plans, arena and all the events that have been out there here in the last few weeks. And so that really spiked up the occupancy in that part of the county. The other piece of information I thought I would share, the cruise season, the abbreviated cruise season has finished. Everything I have heard is that it went really well. There were essentially no COVID related incidents, and many cruises have very large attendance. And what we're seeing in folks who are doing forecasting for this sector is they are forecasting that next season, the 2022. Would be even more than 2019, which was our all time record. So if that comes to pass, that will mean that that segment of the economy has essentially fully recovered in two years and that, you know , so that's pretty good news. And then finally on the convention front, there are a small number of conventions that are being held. A lot of the larger ones are still, you know, everywhere in the country, hesitant to have their conventions. And so the folks who are marketing both the Seattle and the Bellevue convention centers are continuing, of course, to try to attract events and bring conventions back, but canceled. So no real new news on that front. Other than that, the work continues and the expectation is that, you know, maybe six months from now we'll start trending back to something more normal. The conventions that have occurred have had something averaging around 60% of the similar conventions, pre-pandemic attendance. So just give you a sense of, you know, people's willingness to come to a convention. A lot are, but there's still some that would have come in the past that they're still hesitant to do so. So let me stop on that one and see if there's any questions on the hospitality segment. I'm saying no questions. Mm hmm. Okay, so forth. As always, when we do this once a month, we have another month of sales tax results. And so this is for the month of August. The revenue is received in October, but the economic activity was in August. And again, just because, you know, last year was such a weird year, we're doing the comparisons to two years ago. So every one of these percentage changes I give you is August 2021 compared to August 2019. And as usual, there were some industry segments that were way, way up. And this list will be familiar to those of you that have been on the conversation before. Electronics was number one. They were up 46% from two years ago. Online retailers were up 44%. The big box stores were up 32% and building materials was up 22%. And I would just say in my own neighborhood, if it seems like everyone either has a new roof, a new fence, new appliances, a new fax system or something, because like every other house has as trucks parked in front of it every day that I walk by. So that segment is still booming. The only two sectors that were meaningfully down were the two that have been consistently in restaurants were down 15%, which is showing some recovery. That's a lot better than it had been. And the hotels segment is still down 41% from two years ago. And that's a combination of occupancy being down. But even more so, the amount they can collect per room per night is substantially lower than it was two years ago. So that that combination of why their sales tax base for the hotel segment is down 41%. So overall, that's good news. You know, compared to our revenue forecast that was adopted in August, that is more optimistic. So if that continues, when we get our next revenue forecast in March, it should be looking a little better than we had previously assumed. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about revenue. Mr. Chairman. Council Member Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, are you going to get into any specifics of the lodging tax? Instead. We got a little bit of good news on that. Yeah. So and thank you for the question. So you will recall that starting at the middle of the pandemic, the 2% lodging tax, which for many decades had been diverted by the state to various stadium debt service. That money reverted to the county and you had had a long policy process within the constraints of state law about allocating that between tourism, arts and culture and workforce housing. And then, of course, the revenue has been much, much less than had been projected. And so that has been problematic. The lodging sector is improving faster than is assumed in the last revenue forecast. So there is a little more money there. Still nowhere near what was originally assumed. I haven't actually had my staff update that, but if there is interest in that, I am happy to have them do that. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay. So the very last thing I just want I'm looking ahead, the COVID nine, the ninth COVID supplemental, where we look at state and federal funds. We on the executive side are tentatively looking at transmitting it probably late in the first quarter. That will obviously be subject to your decisions about how you're going to organize next year. And then conversations with the appropriate chair about the timing of it. But that would be kind of our expectation. What we will sort of have available for that, the amount is still very much up in the air, but we're going to likely have some programs that have finished and have not spend all the money that was appropriated. We are certainly going to have some programs that, once the final rules came out from the feds, turned out to be ineligible for federal money. We didn't know that at the time you made the appropriations. But as the Treasury has come up with rules, there are some programs that are clearly not going to be eligible. So that money will be available again. And then there were we're doing a lot of work to optimize how much we are able to charge to FEMA . That means that either cares, act or American Rescue Plan Act, federal money then is freed up because we're able to allocate those to FEMA instead of what we had assumed in those previous appropriations. So there will be some amount of federal money and potentially some amount of state money that will be available now for re appropriation in COVID nine. And again, I have no sense of how much that is. It's certainly not 100 million. It's certainly more than 5 million. And, you know, that's a real broad range. And I will know a lot more in a few months when we get to the year end. But the plan then would be to bring that back with proposals for you by probably in March with then you do have action in April or May. And so I just wanted to lay out that likely schedule so you can just as you start doing work, planning for next year, that is our current expectation. And that was the last item I had on my list. Councilmember McDermott But I'm happy to answer any other questions that people might have. As we all know, one day this moment will fill questions on anything he knows anything about. So this presentation today or as he's made the mistake of saying in the past, anything else? This is your chance to ask Amber. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Yes, he's a brave man. I have two questions. Fool. Oh. So two questions on the housing for the homeless. How much money went into that? And will we be paying the salaries for it to the nonprofits, or will the nonprofits be taking and covering those costs? Councilman. I don't remember the appropriation amount for that program. I will get it for you. The plan with the nonprofits is to give them money to pay the salaries of the individuals that they would hire. These are typically programs that work with private businesses or other employers to provide staff who then that that business or employer pays for. So our expectation is that we will be using the county's federal money to pay for those. There is a third phase that we're not sure what we're going to do, but if we have more people looking for work than we have jobs either within the county or with the nonprofits, we may approach some for profit employers to see if they are interested. And in that case, we would expect that the for profit employer would pay the salary. But for the nonprofits, we're expecting that the county will provide the money for the salary. So I know that two of my chambers are coordinating to try to find workers. So and at one point I heard 56,000 jobs. So at least the first 56,000 we should be able to take care of pretty quickly. So if we want, we can coordinate on that. The second question I have is that we haven't really talked about it for a long time, but I've been reading the emails from the Corrections Guild on their concerns about overtime and the exacerbation of a longtime overtime issue, but also the fact that they now have 60 vacancies. What are we doing to help them to deal with the overtime issues and their scheduling issues? Councilmember That is a very significant concern that John Diaz at the agency are taking very, very seriously. So let me give you a just a few of the things that are under way. One is they are obviously actively trying to recruit and hire. And you might remember that you had previously authorized some hiring bonuses and referral bonuses for corrections officers. Those are are back in place. So that will help with the hiring process. Secondly, we have learned from the State Criminal Justice Training Commission that the there is an option to have people be hired and start working in sort of safer aspects of being a corrections officer before they go to the academy for up to six months. And so that would give us the ability to get people on faster and then phase them into the academy over a period of time. The IG is also looking at whether they can, depending on kind of the status of COVID, can they optimize their staffing a little better? Their john would tell you that, in his words, they're operating as inefficiently as they possibly can because of COVID. They've spread everybody out. And so now with more vaccinations and such and more testing, they're looking at, can they operate a little more efficiently and therefore need a smaller number of staff on each ship. So they are working on that. And then finally, before you in the mid biannual budget proposal, we have proposed funding for a best practices study that if you approved, what we want to do is hire a consultant to look at other large metropolitan jails and give us ideas about how we can staff more effectively. Might be, you know, different shifts, it might be different approaches to hospital guarding, might be different approaches to court detail. You know, we've done a lot of staffing studies of our own, but we haven't, at least in my 11 and a half years, looked at what is done elsewhere in the country to see if there's some for ideas. It may turn out that we're doing as well as anybody, but it would be good to know if there's something somehow we haven't considered. So assuming you approve that funding, we will be doing that work in about the next six months. That that'll be great. I know that the Bills has some of their own ideas that haven't been accepted, so it would be good to see some of their ideas also in the interim. Thank you. Other questions. Thank you so much. All right. Good to be here. Thank you all. And here in need are two or four weeks. Well, thank you so much. That takes us to the next item on the agenda, which is to consider making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the Southeast District of King County District Court for the appointments in front of us today. The Council advertised the vacancy and accepted applications through October 4th, 2021. We think the application for one eligible candidate during the application period. Members should have received the application materials by email on Monday. These materials are sent again around this morning. We will begin today's proceedings with a brief staff report on the proposed motion marathon in the Council South Bay after the Americans report. The committee will interview the candidate and if there's interest among the council members during the executive session to evaluate the qualifications of the candidate. We would if we go into executive session, we would then resume this Zoom meeting to take up actual debate and consideration of the legislation. Are there any questions on how this will work of either members or candidates before we get started? Here in Mountain Monument. The land is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Erika Neumann, Counsel. Central Staff. The item for Proposed Motion 2020 10417. Begin on page nine of your packet. The applicant the applicant packet includes a judicial ratings which start on page 14 as well. No district court is a county court of limited jurisdiction and is responsible for traffic infractions and misdemeanor criminal offenses. The court handles approximately 250,000 filings annually throughout the four divisions, which consist of the north, south, east and West Division. The proposed motion is to fill position of one and the Southeast elected district that was made vacant by the departure of Judge Jason Waitress. Under state law, the King County Council, as a legislative authority, is directed to fill district court vacancies. As you mentioned, there is one applicant to be interviewed and the selected candidate will fill the remainder of the reporter's term, which ends in January of 2023. In its current form, proposed motion 2020 10417 has a blank for the name of the person claiming a verbal meaning that will be needed to insert the name. Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks. Thank you so much, investor, for the questions. But again, there are questions from staff of staff. We'll proceed with the interview. Seeing no questions. I expect the interview to take roughly 20 minutes and we'll ask Kennedy to provide opening and closing remarks is to be limited to 2 minutes. You'll hear a timer go off, not in the 2 minutes. And members should have received a preferred set of suggested interview questions by email yesterday and again this morning. I'd encourage members to open that email if you don't already have an opening preview in accordance with past practice, I'd ask members to volunteer to read this, to ask the prepared interview questions without. Mr. Gilbert, I want to welcome you and thank you for your interest in serving the people of King County as a member of the district court bench. And thank you so much for joining us today. Can you do the whole we look forward to this conversation. I appreciate the time. It's already taken to complete the application materials. I know that's no small task. I look forward to the chance to be able to visit and get to know you and how you might serve on the bench in this conversation. So with that, I would ask you to say your opening opening remarks. Good morning, everyone, and thank you so very much for this opportunity to be evaluated by this committee today. It is my hope that through this interview you'll get to know me as a person as well, see all the skills and the attributes I can bring to the bench if appointed. So a little bit about me. I am a product of chain migration and have longstanding roots here in America and in King County, Washington. My great grandfather immigrated from the Philippines and settled here in Seattle in 1924, and as an Asian man, he suffered discrimination and segregation. Yet he persevered. He remained hopeful that his family would still live a better life despite all that he had been through. And fast forward 50 years later, two generations as well. And I was graduating from federal high school. And after college and graduating law school, I returned home to South King County with my husband and son in 2004, where I have lived ever since. And I am forever grateful for my family and all their sacrifices that they have given me, as well as all the opportunities that I've received working at the King County Prosecutor's Office that have led me to sit before you all today. I am seeking a judicial appointment because I have demonstrated commitment to public service and the experiences I have acquired through the years that will benefit the bench. And I believe that the court has the ability to change lives. It can be a place where victim voices can be heard and offenders can be held accountable. It can also be a place where anyone can have equal access to the process in both the civil and criminal realm and be treated fairly and where needs are met. And simply put, I want to be a part of that. In being a King County prosecuting attorney for the last 15 years has been an invaluable preparation for me to do this work. I've been able to participate in the traditional criminal prosecution model, but I've also had the ability to have cases go through the therapeutic and alternative to traditional prosecution. For example, I've partnered with the Courts and Department of Public Defense in community courts and have developed diversion programs wave justice a criminal justice system altogether. These experiences have inspired me to seek an appointment to help grow these alternatives and therapeutic programs and to ensure that those that do come in contact with the courts are treated with compassion, patience and respect so that disproportionality does not result, but rather justice that reflects equity and fairness. Thank you again and I look forward to answering all your questions. Thank you so much, Howard. First question. Councilmember Bell, did you? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you so much for being here and putting yourself out for this opportunity. It's really great to have strong candidates. We appreciate all the effort you put into it. The question is, would you please describe an ideal district court judge? Well, an ideal district court judge, I think, is one that is compassionate, one that listens and one that is able to incorporate all of the knowledge through the legal and the legal system, as well as concepts of equity and social justice to inform their decisions. I think it's important for that ideal candidate to have those things because it is only through that knowledge and that experience that just outcomes can be made and that equitable outcomes can be made. And frankly, all of the different types of people that come before the court, particularly in district court. Right. I mean, there are it's your everyday folks, your your cousins, your aunts, your pastors, all of those people that are seeking to have their needs fulfilled need to be heard and have to be in front of someone who is willing to listen, to be compassionate, and also willing to make decisions that are based on fairness and in equity. So that would be my hope if I were appointed that I would fulfill those those characteristics. And Q. Thank you so much, colleagues. Question to. Councilmember McDermott. Yes. Thank you so much. Please describe your efforts to implement anti-racist equity and social justice practices in the legal system. And a second part, if I might. What is one change do you think the district court can take to move the institution in this direction? Sure. So this thread your efforts to implement an anti-racist equity and social justice practices in the legal system. And one change you think this report could make the institution in that direction. Thank you. Well, as a prosecutor and what I'm doing now is that I, I, I am the chair of the district court unit for the prosecutor's office. And so I am the introductory unit for all the newest and youngest attorneys that come through our doors. And so part of my function, and in fact, a very important part of my function is teaching them how to pursue justice and how to come to just resolutions, cases that they handle. And one of the things that is part of the training module and something that I take extremely seriously is encouraging and promoting and teaching each of them, you know, equity and social justice concept concepts. And that's through their training, that's through close, but also having one on one conversations about all of the cases that they are seeking to resolve and asking them about. Tell me more about who is coming before you and who is this individual that's in charge. Tell me about their background to the extent that you can. And in that way, when we're talking about a person as a whole, we're able to. Look at them, not just with the incident that has come before us, but also what may have brought them to this to the criminal justice system. And in doing so, we're also having to take into consideration the history of who we are as prosecutors, the authority that we have. And the we're making these decisions, particularly as it relates to communities of color and how disproportionality has, I guess. Resulted at times because of our lack of awareness. And so I think in for us and for prosecutors specifically, it is super important that we learn these concepts so that when we do make decisions that they are based in equity and knowledge and so that we can be proactively anti-racist in doing so, knowing that our decisions have such great impacts on individuals. So that's one thing. The other thing, Councilmember McDermott, is what can the courts do to do to change that? Well, I think just as prosecutors and I have made collective decisions and learning all of these concepts, so must each of the judges. Just because we are we put on a robe doesn't include somehow that that institutional knowledge or that historical knowledge. We all have to learn how our power and position has affected communities of color. And when we learn those things, I think we're able to make more compassionate and more reasonable and, frankly, more equitable decisions. And if each and every one of us are committed to learning these concepts and learning how our power and decisions can affect communities of color, particularly then I think we will we will over time become less, less, less racist. And, you know, and and we'll have results that are much more equitable and fair to all of those that come before us. Thank you very much. Question three. I have a volunteer question for somebody to be willing to ask. Question three. I can ask both of you like. Go ahead, please. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. You're welcome. Okay. Are there any aspects of this role where you feel the need to grow in your knowledge or understanding in an area of the law, policies, procedures, courtroom management or otherwise? How do you approach mastering important and familiar issues like this? Thank you. And that's actually a great question. Obviously, as you've seen in my material, my focus and my experience has primarily been in the criminal realm. So I'm really looking forward to learning the civil parts and the civil practice in district court because it's a big one, you know, through small claims and even in infractions, which I have some experience in. But certainly all of the more civil aspects are the things that I'm interested in learning and excited to learn, actually. So for me, I think just as I have been as curious and voracious in learning the criminal aspect, I must do so for the civil part in order to be a well-balanced and effective judge, because you can't do one, just one end. And so in that regard, my hope is to reach out to my colleagues on a district court bench who have that experience, who understand the civil the civil practice, learn from them, seek out mentorship, and do my own homework. I think that's important because I had to do a lot of it as I was coming up through the ranks in the criminal and the criminal section. But beyond that, even now, as I have prepared for this for this process, I reached out to former and current district court judges who are doing the work to tell me , like, well, how do I do this? Or What is this all about? And it has really piqued my interest. And ultimately what it has done is it has helped me seek out my own education. So I would read the landlord tenant law, which I know I'll probably do a lot of, you know, I'm going to seek out information on more and attend more hearings between now and the time that, if I'm lucky enough to be appointed, to serve, to watch more anti-harassment hearings, name changes, weddings, all of those wonderful things that I think people seek out on a day to day basis and that I can be a part of. So that's my hope, and I hope that answers your question. Councilmember Lambert, thank you very much. I ask an excellent volume of cases facing the district court judge is significant, as you know. How do you approach managing multiple high priority matters in front of you at the same time? Well, you know, I think. Thinking about what is to come. And based on COVID, the backlog of the civil cases that are going to be our launching over us is a huge, huge obstacle and a big concern. And first of all, I just want to commend the Council for appropriating funds for the district court to hire commissioners . I think we need more, you know, and the more we have, I think the more we can do. But to specifically answer your questions, I think having to prioritize and manage all of these things at the same time is a huge, huge undertaking. And we have to obviously prioritize those who are in most need, you know, or where rights are being so infringed in the moment that we must we must act. So learning how to triage you, you prioritize those with the highest need is going to be learning how to do it, I think, will be a matter of what is the current court culture and what is the capacity. And learning those two things simultaneously will be the best way for me to manage. You know, constantly. I'm doing that with with all of the three locations that I that I manage currently in district court. And so, you know, not to be reactive, but certainly you got to go where the fire is at and you have to solve those problems. And then once you're able to to deal with those big issues or immediate issues, then you're able to strategically plan and be thoughtful and about how you're going to attack long term. And by doing those two things, I think we'll be able as a bench to tackle all of those massive priorities that are coming between civil and criminal. Thank you. I'll ask the next one. Thank you. Council members. Hello. Thank you so much. What lessons from operating during the pandemic, if any, should the district court carry into the future? And how should they be addressed or implemented? Well, many of the concerns that have come up during COVID time has to do with access, access to justice, access to the courts safely, but also recognizing that, you know, the work doesn't stop and we have to come up with a plan. And so one of the things that I've been very excited about and again commend the Council for in the Technology with Eckhart and moving into the future with CMS for District Court has been a game changer allowing for for people to appear by Zoom for those who have the means to do it has been incredible to keep the work flowing. But I think one of the challenges to those things as these things advanced technologically is that we also have to, again, be mindful of the fact that those many of those who are seeking that access to justice are of the most marginalized communities and may not have the same kind of access to that technology as others who are more affluent. And so moving that forward and as I think we move into the future, I think that the district court and the King County Council should think of innovative ways we can provide more access to justice through the technology. Perhaps, you know, an example of that could be what if we had publicly access computer stations, even if it means being in public libraries or other community spaces where folks who don't have access to the technology but want to resolve their their cases or want to appear before the court to get a protection order, have the ability to have access for free. It wouldn't cost as much overall versus potentially people not coming to court, having to be booked into jail on a warrant and having to be assessed, you know, a public defender and prosecution. Like, these are ways that we can use the technology to our advantage, but also keep the cases flowing and folks not being potentially incarcerated for failing to appear for their hearings. So it's my hope that with all of the wonderful things that we've been able to accomplish during COVID, that we be mindful of the fact that we don't live in communities of color or marginalized people behind. Thank you so much. And I ask the final question as well, which is what about the district court? Interests you the most? This is an easy one. You know, actually, since I've been working in district court for five years, it has it has become more and more interesting to me. You'd think it would be the opposite. Like it'd be like, get me out of here. Like this is, you know. But in reality, no. You know, what I have come to find is that the district court is one of the common people. It's the everyday people that have basic, basic needs that need to be met. And for many of these is their first time being in contact with the criminal justice system, or for that or for that matter, in the civil realm, for infractions, for, you know, name changes, anti-harassment and those things. And these are the folks that I see every day. And because of that, it's caused me to be so much more interested in the outcomes. It causes me to be more interested in that in the process and looking towards ways in which we can improve that access to justice or that process so that their everyday person can feel like, I trust the system, I trust the people that I'm working. When I look to the bench, I know that my needs will be met and that the people who are helping me navigate through this, what could be the most important thing in their lives at the moment, that they are being taken care of and being there, being the thought of as human beings, because it's the felony courts and all of those things which are very important and frankly, with very serious crimes. The vast majority of the community that we serve come through district court. And I believe that it's my calling really, to serve those people and to make sure that their needs are met. So, you know, that's why I want to stay. That's why I have thrived in district court as as in the prosecutor's office and why I've applied. Thank you. You bet. Thank you so much. Are there any additional questions from colleagues before closing comments? See none. I've been very keen to share your closing remarks with us. Okay. Well, I want to thank this committee again and would like to leave the committee with these last thoughts. I believe I'd be a positive addition to the King County District Court bench. I say that not only because I've been a prosecutor in the courts for many years, but for the last five I have solely practiced in district court. I'm consistently supervising and managing up to 30 attorneys and students and a dozen staff in our three main courts in the area, making sure that all the calendars are covered. The newest of attorneys are learning how to seek justice and do the right thing in each and every case. My understanding of equity and social justice is infused into the work that I do and what I teach. I know how the courts work. I know the clerks. I know the attorneys. I know the workload issues. And I know how to work with the stakeholders in order to manage a smooth running court. These years in District Court have prepared me to do the work. And yes, to be honest, becoming a judge I know will be a transition and with many things to learn. But that transition would not be such a departure that I know I could not do it successfully. I am passionate about serving this court and being the kind of judge this committee would want to see on the bench. I would strive to serve with the highest level of ethics and seek to treat all that come before me with compassion and dignity. I promise to always remain curious and be willing to admit what I don't know and seek advice and help from others to ensure that it sound, equitable and reasonable decisions. All of these things that I aspire to do will hopefully result in the community's trust. And like I mentioned in my opening, a place that can change lives in a positive way. Thank you again for all of your time and your consideration for my appointment. Thank you and thank you again for sharing your vision, your intent and serving on the council we on the bench and what you would bring to the people of King County if you were to serve on the court. We want to thank you for spending time with us today. And colleagues, would you like a few minutes in executive session? No. I'd be prepared to move. Wonderful. Then I would be. I would entertain a motion regarding motion 2021 for 17. So move, Mr. Chair. In motion. I believe what Councilmember Ismail I just did was motion 2021 for 17 before us and we would need an amendment. A verbal amendment to the motion. Mr. Chair, I would like to add a verbal amendment, including Leah Taguba's name, into into the motion. The motion before it is too late to give a name to motion 2021 for 17. Any discussion? All those in favor of the verbal learning. Councilmember Balaji. I'm sorry. It's the amendment. I'll hold off. But others in favor of the amendment please signify by saying i. I. I. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. Motion 2021 417 as amended. Final passage, Councilmember Balaji. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn't mean to jump to the front of the line. I just wanted to make sure somebody said something. This has been obviously a very important opportunity to get to meet you and hear from you virtually, at least about the your your qualifications to sort of see your passion and your heart. But based on the application materials, to borrow a phrase from our friends at the Bar Association, we obviously have an an applicant here who is exceptionally well qualified for this position. And I'm happy to not waste any time and get her started as soon as we can because we know they need help their district court. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I wanted to thank Mr. Gruber for her willingness to serve. Your application materials were outstanding. I think I've sat in on about 50 of these views on my time on the council from building she has as well. Thank you for the table of contents on the materials. It was very helpful and I wanted to say that Judge Casey, for we just Casey's letter was particularly helpful to me, particularly where he remarked about your treatment of court staff and the clerks and those that really make the courtroom work. I always think that that is a terrific indicator of the quality of a lawyer, but also the humanity of a person when the court staff recognizes you and appreciate you for how you treat them. And also, I don't think hurts to get a good decision from a judge when you're good to the bailiff and clerk. But that tells me a lot about you. And the interview today was one of the very best I've seen. I don't think you're going to stay on the district court bench for very long, and we look forward to watching you grow in your service and appreciate your willingness to do this part of it. Happy to support it. And I. So the discussion. Madam, could you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Buttigieg, I. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Cole once. I'm Councilmember Lambert. I council of the girl I. Councilmember one regular. I. Council members online. I. Mr. Chair. I. Mr. Chair, the vote is 18 seven as Councilmember Dunning excused. Thank you. By our vote we have voted to a point. We are on to the district court bench. We will move the motion 2021 for 17 to full council. With without objection, we will put it on consent and perhaps expedite as well. An update to Tuesday's full council meeting will be on the consent agenda. Mr. Gupta, thank you so much and congratulations. Thank you also very much. I am overwhelmed. Thank you. Congratulations. One more step to becoming an official judge. Thank you so very much. And our next four items are appointments to the county's gender identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force. Sam Porter of Council Staff is here to provide a staff report. Then we'll hear from potential appointees whose partner you please provide a boost. Certainly. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Policy Staff. Can you hear me okay? We can read the documents for the next four items. Begin on page 17 of your packet. Proposed motions 2020 10357358359 and three six out would confirm the following people to the Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force. Fred Swanson representing Gay City. Katherine West representing Legal Voice. Dennis Worsham representing Public Health Seattle in King County and Alghabra representing Seattle Counseling Service. These appointments would last through the expiration of the task force, which is 60 days after the reporting provisions outlined in the enabling legislation are completed. This task force was established through machine 15162 in June of 2018 in response to the Washington State Board of Health ruling allowing for a third option for designation on birth certificates to indicate a gender other than male or female. The six primary objectives of the task force are listed on page 17 of your packet and include reviewing the Board of Health ruling and determining changes that the county may need to make in response and consulting with county departments and community groups to assess county administrative processes, including but not limited to forms, questionnaires and interviews that include requests for information relating to gender identity and sexual orientation, and identifying administrative processes that could be modified to increase gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion. Table one on page 18 of your packet shows the current roster of Task Force membership with the organization stated in motion 15162 identified in bold. The group has been meeting in accordance with the initial framework adopted through motion 15603 and as is anticipated to complete their work in the middle of next year. We have three of the four appointees on the call today. I don't see Dennis Worsham. I believe he was unable to join and that concludes my remarks. I absolutely see, Mr. Washington. I think we have a full complement of great, great Americans here. And in fact, I will rotate through the appointees and ask Mr. Washington to introduce himself and tell us speak to his interest in the task force. Good morning, Dennis. All right. Good morning. Good morning, Councilmember. Yeah. Thank you so much. For the opportunity to be considered to. Serve on the gender identity and the Sexual Orientation Inclusion Task Force. You know, I often report to this group in my role in public health and certainly through the cover of Time, you've gotten to know me in in one form or the other. Part of about this, as important to me is as a gay man really came to the service of public health really during the AIDS epidemic. In the crisis is what really drew me to public service to begin with. And as a person who was coming out of coming out at the time in college in the late eighties, early nineties, of course, we were just in one of our most dark times as a community in the number of people who were dying from HIV at that time. As you remember during that time, for those who were around, is that there was just a lot of discrimination, homophobic rhetoric, acts of violence that just really were pretty horrific in hindsight. And but we've really come a long way since the eighties and nineties. And I think in particular, the thing that draws me to this task force is making sure that we're creating the space and environment as a county and as a county government that really allows people to be who they are, that to live fully in their authentic ways, and that we're providing the services and programs that really allow them to thrive. Although as a gay man, I feel like so much has changed since the eighties, the nineties I do see. With colleagues. And friends within the community, really from our trans and non-binary community in particular, where we still really have a lot of work to do as a county and we have a lot of work to do in some of our programs and services with our declaration really as racism, as a public health crisis. I also see the intersectionality being a really an important piece where people who are from our bipoc community, who are also trans or non-binary or have a sexual orientation other than heterosexual, it's oftentimes more difficult for them to be in a space where they feel welcome and safe. And so if there's anything I can do by serving on this task force, both as a gay man and bringing my own lived experience and to the table as well as as really serving in our public health role and as a part of our government services to better serving our public in particular, these are folks, whether it's gender identity or sexual orientation, to improve our services in the county, certainly want to be a part of that and bring my voice that table. And so thank you for considering me. And if there's any questions, I'm happy happy to answer them. Let's go ahead and hear from all of the nominees and then take questions. I would ask Al Jazeera to offer insights and your interest in serving on the task force? Not. Everyone I know get and would love to request closed captioning for accessibility purposes if possible. Also, we'll move forward with describing myself for people who might not be able to see very well. I am wearing a gray button up, short sleeve, platinum blond hair, some black background porcelain and just want to make sure I get that out there for folks who may not be able to see well again. Anyway, I totally echo Dennis and what he said regarding a lot of intersectionality and a lot of the things that are changing and the community, the LGBTQ community, and how this reflects in the inclusivity of policies that the county has. I think it does quite a bit already, and I think there are also a lot of gaps that are pretty evident. Just given the new way that we're navigating queerness and what it means to be gender nonconforming in various spaces. And so my interest to serve on this task force, I think, is to be more inclusive in a lot of policies and to be inclusive and mindful of the way that we take up space, both as part of the LGBTQ community and ally community that we have here, hoping to build a pretty good partnership there. And I'm also very interested in making sure that we have a sustainable approach after the task force ends. I think that's probably one of the one of the most important things to think about, because task forces are important. I think it gives people space to strategize ways to be inclusive and how to be a good ally as well. And I think it's important to think about sustainability and and how the work continue even after the task force ends appearance. Is your question. Happy to answer anything else as well. Thank you so much. Ms.. West, can you tell us about yourself, your interest in the task force? Hello, council members. My name is Catherine West. I am an attorney with legal voice and I use she her pronouns. I will follow Elle's lead by describing myself. I am a white, cisgender woman. I am in my home with a wooden door behind me and a blue and white curtain. I grew up as a working class in a working class family. Although I acknowledge that I have had tremendous privilege as a white person moving through society, I am. I've had the privilege of working on gender equity issues with a legal voice for two years. And most recently, I worked with a coalition of trans and non-binary individuals to draft and move forward legislation in the Washington state legislature that later was named the Gender Affirming Treatment Act. And we were so proud that the legislature passed those protections in in one legislative session. And so now folks who are gender expansive have the same or hopefully better access to health care than they had prior to that legislation and prior to joining Legal Voice, I was a staff member, a staff attorney at Northwest Justice Project, where I represented low income Washingtonians in a variety of civil legal matters, but including name changes in district court, as well as seeking gender affirming health care, either paid for by Medicaid or their private insurance, and a variety of other types of issues that uniquely impact gender expansive people, including school policies, harassment, discrimination. And so it's just such a privilege to be considered for the gender identity and sexual orientation task force, because it's so important that the county and society consider how to hold and include gender expansive people and make sure that they feel welcome and seen and accepted. And sometimes those are small things that need to change or for people to be educated about. And other times they're they're a lot bigger. And so it's nice to be able to think through both the smaller kind of movement building strategies, as well as maybe proposing some, some larger changes. I'm happy to answer any questions at the end. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I was wondering if you could speak to your interest and experience. Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you so much for the opportunity. So I'm Fred Swanson. I see him pronouns and I'm here representing not only myself but also Gay City, Seattle's LGBTQ Center, where I've been the executive director for 20 years and a week, which is a little overwhelming. But for for those who don't know, the city has been operating as Seattle's LGBTQ center since 2012, and we run the resource and referral line for the City of Seattle and are also part of the King County Connect to Community Referral Network, where we connect LGBTQ people to and, you know, to do the things that they need to live happy and healthy lives and often refer to other organizations like Legal Voice and like Seattle Counseling Services. So we heard from just a minute ago, I'm also a parent, so I was a foster parent for six years and am raising three children and Darian in South King County and have kids in elementary, middle and high school and Dorian. And so I think I also bring the perspective of a parent of two of those kids are are on the LGBTQ spectrum. So not only do I have that perspective myself, but also the perspective of the kids that we're raising. I was particularly, I guess, bothered or alarmed by the recent COVID 19 school report that came out from OSP about the the young people that were most impacted by COVID. And it wasn't surprising. But you know what, what really came out of that report and there's some really great presentations that have been done by you done about this report, but is that LGBTQ young people particularly were we're hit hard and we know that the health disparities experienced by LGBTQ community and community members are severe. And so I think what I want to bring to this task force is a perspective not only as, you know, somebody who runs an organization that is really here to connect queer and trans people to the resources that they need and really looking at how do we achieve health equity by addressing social determinants of health and looking at the barriers that exist between folks and healthy lives. And what are the ways that we can help break those barriers down, but also the perspective of a parent who's really invested. And of course, my own children and other children being able to thrive and looking at ways that school systems can and the county can really help to create environments where young people are able to thrive and be who they are and you and live happy, healthy lives. So I think those are a couple of the reasons that I'm involved and I'm really honored to be a part of this group and to work with, you know, other really smart people and to look at what we can do to address, you know, the beauty of a King County wide task force like this is a really looking at the systems across the county, and that's oftentimes where you can make the most impact as opposed to just in your little corner of the community. So thanks very much for the opportunity. Thank you, Fred. I remember meeting the guy who moved here to become the executive director of the city some 20 years ago. Getting to know him and appreciate your service. Over now, two decades, colleagues are going questions for the nominees before us. I'd entertain one motion to to approve motions 2021 357 358 359 and 367. Mr. Chair. We have before us a pass recommendation promotions 2021, three, 57, 58, 59 and 60 discussion. I want to offer that. On my own behalf, having served 20, 20 years in office and having been an openly gay man for that entire time, but actually not having been out all that long before he first ran for the legislature. I really appreciate. The evolution of what kinds of issues and work we confront. When I first joined the legislature, it was a new privilege. Some would have thought at the time to be able in the membership booklet to list my partner to include the name of my partner. Ten years ago, just over ten years ago when I joined the King County Council was the first time that we were formally recognized as a Council Pride Month and declared June as LGBTQ Pride Month. The kind of work we've been able to do in time really has moved forward very quickly. And today we are appointing members to a gender inclusion and sexual orientation task force with the broad support of all of my colleagues on the County Council, and doing so to further understand and make sure the county is engaged and responsive to people regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. So the budget before us today is real and important as each one of the four nominees is spoken to. And I'm profound to me that we are able to do this work with such broad, supportive colleagues and identify and recognize the need to do it for all of the people in King County. Further discussion. Councilmember Dombroski Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for sharing those personal and heartfelt remarks. You know, I've had a lot of privilege in my life of giving a fairly straightforward and simple existence with respect to my identity. And it's been a learning process for me to really open up and be reflective and be made more aware of issues around one's identity. I was very proud and I'm very proud to date of sponsored the legislation that created this task force in partnership with my colleagues. And it's heartwarming to see the candidates coming forward who want to continue serving and help us as a county government, make sure that our policies and our practices are inclusive of everybody and respect everybody's individual humanity, that we as a government meet folks where they are and respect who they are, and that our policies are cognizant of that and don't just reflect one person's or majorities person's perspective. So I want to thank the candidates today for their willingness to serve. Dennis I don't know how you have time, but thank you for all that you're doing. And Mr. Chair, it's a it's a heartwarming time here today to see these candidates come forward. And I'm very, very hopeful to see their work and then take action as a government on their recommendation. So appreciate you scheduling the hearing today and doing it in such a terrific way. Hello. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. You as well, Councilmember Dombroski. And for our guests who are here, we all know and see that our members of the LGBTQ plus communities are overrepresented in homelessness and suicide in youth not doing well in schools or at home. And so the work that you all are doing to keep all of our communities safe is is acknowledged and appreciated. I just wanted to say that thank you so much for doing that. People are really struggling out here and you are elevating these issues and making sure that our governments take the proper actions to keep everyone safe and thriving in King County. There's nothing more valuable. And so we all commit to you, to working with you, to listening to you, to make this a safe place for everyone. So I just wanted to express that gratitude and commitment. And remember Belushi. Thank you. I will just echo what my colleagues have said already about our support and the importance of us thinking about the ways in which we engage with and support and serve the community of people that we serve. So that we're being intentional about, you know, meeting our needs and hearing voices. I think in the past, we kind of took for granted that if we did something good, it kind of universally supported everybody. And we've learned a lot since since since I started in this work about how that doesn't actually work. And we have to be more intentional and more focused in how we reach out to people. I do want to thank the nominees for shining a light on the issue of accessibility of our meetings. Thank you for doing that. And I wanted to share that. Although we do not have Zoom captioning, we do have captioning on our KC TV feed and we probably should work that into the beginning of our meetings so that we let people know that that is one way to get more accessibility of our meetings, but always more work to do there. And I just wanted to note and thank you for lifting up that, that important function of government. Further discussion. Madam. I'd ask you to please call the role on all four motions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Hi. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Council councilmember again. Councilmember one Councilmember Lambert, I don't remember a photograph. I don't remember one. I thought. I. Council members. Hello. Hi. Mr. Chair. Ah. Mr. Chair, the vote is 8 hours. Your notes. Council member. Dan, excuse. Me. Thank you. By your. By your vote. We've given a do pass recommendation to merchants 2021, three, 57, 58, 59 and 60. We will expedite these to a full council on Tuesday, and in my objection, place them on the consent agenda. Very well. Thank you so much. I expect that we will confirm in full council your appointments on Tuesday. And please feel free to reach out to us during your work and we look forward to the product of your work. And I'm taking that up as well to deliver for the people of the county. Thank you so much. Today is a briefing on the proposed health housing implementation plan. The ordinance was duly referred to the Regional Policy Committee and the committee of the whole. Jordan is still in the original Policy Committee currently. So today's item is a briefing only if passed by the Regional Policy Committee will take up the legislation of a future council meeting. It's my understanding that it is scheduled for next Wednesday. RBC April Sanders, Sam Porter and I'm sorry, Sue. I'm from council staff. We're here to provide the staff report. Please proceed. Good morning. April Sanders Council policy staff. I'm joined by today by my colleagues Dan Porter and Sherri Su. The proposed ordinance is 2020 10330 and it begins on page 32 of your packet. It would adopt the initial health through housing implementation plan to govern the expenditure of healthier housing sales and use tax proceeds. Healthy housing sales tax was adopted by the County Council after action in the Regional Policy Committee and Committee of the Hall in October 2020. State statute specifies the activities and services for which the tax may be used. At least 60% of proceeds must be used for constructing affordable housing, constructing mental and behavioral health related facilities, and funding operations and maintenance of new, affordable housing and facilities where housing related programs are provided or newly constructed evaluation and treatment centers. Remaining funds can be used for operation delivery or evaluation of mental and behavioral health treatment programs and services or housing related services. Before King County took action. Eight county jurisdiction or jurisdictions had adopted the tax, according to state law. The county must provide a credit to those cities for the full amount collected within each jurisdiction based on the legal projections from 2016 to 2019. Revenue generated within these eight jurisdictions constitute 26% of total county wide revenue collections. Counties are required to consult with cities when siting facilities within jurisdictional boundaries. Additionally, the county must spend at least 30% of revenue collected within any city, with a population of over 60,000 within that jurisdiction. Ordinance 19179, which established the sales tax, prioritize individuals whose income does not exceed 30% am-I. Additionally, the proceeds are required to be allocated with the objective of reducing racial and ethnic disproportionality. Among those experiencing chronic homelessness and subsequent ordinance was adopted in January 2021, requiring the Executive to develop and transmit this implementation plan by June 30th, 2021 . That ordinance required the plan to include goals, strategies, performance measures, reporting requirements, a process for siting health or housing funded, affordable housing and behavioral health facilities, and a detailed annual spending plan for the first eight years of the tax and further required certain goals to be included in the plan, which are the creation and ongoing operation of 1600 affordable housing units. An annual reduction of racial and ethnic demographic disproportionality among persons experiencing chronic homelessness in King County. And the creation and operation of a mobile behavioral health intervention program with access for its clients to be created, operated or otherwise funded by proceeds. Council staff has reviewed the proposed plan to confirm inclusion of all components required in that ordinance. Now, moving to legislation in front of you, the proposed initial implementation plan would direct spending between 2022 and 2028. If you'd like to follow along in the packet, the plan begins on page 59. Eligibility requirements laid out in the plan are based on state law and county code. According to the plan, individuals or households must have an income at or below 30%, AMI must be experiencing or at risk of chronic homelessness and must have a household member or members in one or more priority groups. In 2021, 320.2 million was generated in revenue, including 260 million in bond proceeds. 264.3 million of that was extended on capital financing and improvements of health through housing sites. King County has either closed or entered into purchase and sale agreements on nine locations totaling 859 units of housing. DHHS has also negotiated an agreement or is negotiating an agreement with the City of Seattle to fund the ongoing operation of 350 permanent supportive units. And with that, I'll pass it to my colleague Sam Porter to discuss goals, revenue and several of the proposed strategies. Thank you, April. Sam Porter, Council Central Staff. I'm now on page 31 of today's package. As April mentioned, the proposed implementation plan goals well and outcomes are goals are outcomes the plan is designed to accomplish. The paramount goal is to create and operate 1600 units of affordable housing with housing related services for eligible households. In order to achieve this, the Executive intends to acquire and operate 1185 units and provide health through housing operations. Only funding for 445 permanent supportive units acquired with Non-Healthcare housing money. The remaining supporting goals of the implementation plan are to annually reduce racial and ethnic disproportionality among persons experiencing chronic homelessness in King County to create and operate a mobile behavioral health intervention program to increase health through housing Resident Health by providing health care system enrollment and access ondemand to integrated health care to convert through rehabilitation into permanent supportive housing. By December 31st of 2028, at least 50% of health care housing units that enter the portfolio as emergency housing supporting warfighters to increase the number of organizations who can operate emergency supportive or other affordable housing, who also specialize in serving a demographically overrepresented population or community among King County's chronically homeless population. Supporting Goal six is to establish and maintain an online, publicly reviewable dashboard of data. And the last supporting goal is to publish an in-depth evaluation of the initiative's effectiveness by December 31st of 2026. Moving on to revenues, table three of the staff report on page 45 of your packet shows revenues and expenditures broken down by year. Revenue projections are based on the July 2021 forecast, and table three shows a total of 320.2 million in revenue in 2021, which includes 260 million in bonded revenue this year. This is lower than the 400 400 million embodied revenue appropriated by council in a 2122 biennial budget. The plan proposes to band 60 million in 2020, but 30% of the costs associated with converting emergency supportive housing units within the portfolio to permanent supportive housing. Moving on to expenditures and strategies. Strategy. One is capital financing and improvement for health through housing sites. This is to acquire and improve healthier housing sites and allow for rehabilitation and repair of housing units for residents. Facilities purchased using healthy housing revenue may qualify immediately as permanent supportive housing if certain amenities are available in units such as kitchenette. If these amenities are not available upon purchase, the property may be used as emergency housing and converted into permanent supportive housing in the future. Total expenditures for this strategy from 2021 to 2028 are anticipated to be approximately $333.7 million, with about 80% of that expended in 2021 due primarily to property acquisition. Strategy two is emergency and permanent supportive housing operations. This would provide for the operations of units including staffing, property management, case management and health care coordination for residents and street outreach for potential residents under strategy to the Executive. Plans to fund 445 operations only units. These units are created by other jurisdictions or programs not using health through housing money. According to the implementation plan, the 350 of these units would be in the city of Seattle, and the remaining 95 would be outside of Seattle in a building funded by King County. But again, using not health care, housing, moneys. The implementation plan also includes three objectives intended to annually reduce racial ethnic disproportionality among persons experiencing chronic homelessness. These include pro equity components of an inclusive request for qualification process designed to qualify a broad range of service agencies. Subregional outreach teams in Northeast and South King County and a provider capacity building collaborative. On. Estimated expenditures under strategy two are anticipated to increase over time with the opening of properties in late 2021 and full ramp up anticipated to occur in 2022 to 2023, according to the plan. Allocations for this strategy are modeled on the assumption that units will have an average cost of 25,000 per unit in 2022 excuse me, an increasing approximately 3% per year thereafter. According to the plan, the executive can make substantive changes to the funding allocations in the plan and notify the Council regarding the scope and rationale for the change. If Council does not pass a motion rejecting the change within 30 days of the executive's transmittal, the executive can proceed with the changes as described in the notification letter as seen in Table three. Strategy to total expenditures through 2028 are anticipated to be 309.5 million, and this includes a reserve of 3 million with an annual increase of 500,000 each year between 2022 and 2024 and $200,000 each year thereafter. And Strategy three is behavioral health services outside of healthcare has insights and can encode requires that at least nine but no more than 13% of revenues must be spent on behavioral health services that are not part of supportive services provided within affordable housing or behavioral health facilities supported by proceeds. The Executive's expenditure plan states that 13% of revenue is dedicated for behavioral health services from 2022 to 2028 in accordance with King County Code. The implementation plan divides this strategy into two sub strategies. Some strategy three A is a mobile behavioral health team, which was requested through ordinance 19236 and included in supporting Goal two and sub strategy three B, which is behavioral health services ineligible for Medicaid funding. While the implementation plan dedicates 13% of revenue toward behavioral health services, does not dedicate funding to the mobile behavioral health team, according to Ordinance 19236. The mobile behavioral health team is intended to provide an alternative to the use of one enforcement to respond to behavioral health crises for residents of healthier housing locations. Currently, there are three temporary non-health through housing funded mobile behavioral health teams in operation. According to executive staff, the department intends to stand up a mobile behavioral health program in 2024 and serve clients through 2028 at end of the implementation plan. If the Behavioral Health Fund's Non-Medicated line of business improves annual health or housing sales, tax receipts increased to the point where less than 13% of health or housing revenues are needed to sustain current programs. As of right now, that 13% is supposed to be transferred from the Healthy Housing Fund to the Behavioral Health Fund. According to 2020 one quarter two financial monitoring. While the Behavioral Health Fund is considered at risk, the health of the fund has improved and now projects in ending and designated fund balance of almost 24 million at the end of this biennium. According to executive staff, the 8.2 million allocated for Strategy three in 2122 is planned to be transferred to help fund pay for specific programs in alignment with some strategy three B with transfers of up to 13% annually continuing after 2022. Executive staff stated that this amount in 2122 will fill the 8.7 million gap in the behavioral health fund, previously funded through state non Medicaid funding that was identified during the current biennial budget process. And on page 43 of your packet, there's a list of services that would be paid for with this 8.7 million transfer to behavioral health . And that concludes my remarks on my items. I'll pass it back to you, April. You say a strategy for is the capacity building collaborative. This strategy would build the capacity of contracted agencies who represent communities disproportionately experiencing chronic homelessness. According to the plan, the Capacity Building Collaborative is intended to increase the capacity of existing housing nonprofits to meet the needs of bipoc individuals who are overrepresented in the population of people experiencing homelessness and allow community based organizations to grow in their ability to operate. Supportive housing activities under this strategy could include training communities of practice and funding and promoting partnerships between participating organizations. DHS would initiate this strategy by March of 2022. The annual expenditure plan designates an average of approximately $460,000 annually, or a total of $3.7 million over the life of the Plan for Capacity Building Strategy five is evaluation. This strategy would evaluate implementation and assess the effectiveness of health through housing initiatives. This strategy is intended to accomplish supporting goals six to develop a dashboard and supporting goals seven to deliver an in-depth evaluation by the end of 2026. Activities under this strategy could include collecting and analyzing data, conducting in-depth evaluations, and using data to measure the equity effectiveness and efficiency of these strategies. Annual Expenditure Plan allocates a total of $5.5 million between 2021 and 2028 to cover the costs of staff and data infrastructure to support ongoing performance measurement, evaluation and reporting. This amount includes estimated costs for contracted evaluators and data collection. This is in alignment with King County Code, which limits evaluation costs to 1.5% of revenue after bonding and behavioral health expenditures. Lastly, Strategy six is future acquisition of additional properties. The plan would not allocate any money to Strategy six, as the executive does not intend to acquire or construct any new properties between 2022 and 2028, the plan states. If the executive determines a need for additional acquisitions or construction, he will send a letter to the council. Unless the council passes a motion rejecting the acquisition or construction within 30 days, the executive would be able to proceed pending budget authority. According to the plan, Strategy six would be unfunded but may receive future allocations if Strategy two has its substantive under expenditure. With that, I'll turn it over to Sherri soon to discuss performance measurement communications and the advisory committee. Thanks April very few council essential staff and I'm going to pick up with the evaluation and performance measurement section, which is on page 46 of your packet. According to the plan, the Executive intends to implement a results based accountability approach to assess healthier housing strategies using population indicators, performance measurement and in-depth evaluation. Population level measures would identify needs, set a baseline and monitor trends of chronic homelessness in King County and racial ethnic disproportionality among the population of chronically homeless households. Performance measurements would be taken regularly on program outcomes. To answer the question of How did we do? How well do we do it? And Is anyone better off? In that evaluation, activities led according to the plan, complement performance measurement to deepen learnings and offer an evaluation of the initiative by December 31st, 2026 for population indicator changes executive staff. That is the Seattle King County Homeless Management Information System. To set baseline data, they would track the annualized count of households experiencing chronic homelessness and point in time estimates of those currently receiving services and experiencing chronic homelessness. To determine how chronic homelessness is changing in the county. According to the plan, demographic data in the information system would allow the county to assess whether healthier housing programs and services are reducing racial ethnic disproportionality across the county's chronically homeless population for performance measures. This would be developed in collaboration with program staff providers in the advisory committee and they would be presented publicly through an online dashboard. The performance metrics would be redefined periodically in consultation with the committee, and draft performance measures are in Figure 17 in Appendix A, which is on page 118 of your package. Supporting Goal seven of the plan is to produce an in-depth evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the initiative. By December 31st, 2026. In the question time frame methodology and data collection strategies would be finalized by March 2022. The next section of the report is on the Advisory Committee, and I'll come back to this at the end when I discuss proposed code changes. For now, I'm jumping to the Communication and Partnership Plan, which is on page 48 of your pocket. So the Communication and Partnership Plan would lay out communication and outreach protocols that the county would use to work with cities and other partners. And this is organized in four categories. First is informing jurisdictions across King County about health care, housing implementation, progress. This would primarily be through the advisory committee meetings, informational updates and annual presentation to the County Council, as well as the Arts Board, the Fair Board and city councils of cities with populations above 60,000. The second is siting of new health care housing sites. This plan assumes that acquisition to accomplish the paramount goal of 1600 units would be complete by the end of 2021. And the plan states that if additional properties are purchased, they see each athlete follow noticing and fighting process requirements as outlined in Strategy six. In that strategy state that a city must agree for a site to be acquired within that city. The third category is leasing of an operating space DC Trust with partner with host jurisdictions on leasing and operating specifics, including jointly selecting operators and service providers. And the state would also have a code of conduct agreement which is referred to in the plan as a good neighbor commitment. The fourth category is ongoing management of healthier housing sites, so operators and providers would be required to work with these and host jurisdictions on challenges. This would commit to at least annual meetings between DC to the host jurisdiction and site contractors, as well as annual city council briefings for host jurisdictions. And moving on now to propose code changes and I'll brief information on the advisory committee here. This is at the bottom of page 48. The proposed ordinance would add a new section to King County Code establishing the Health Care Housing Advisory Committee. The committee would advise the Executive and Council on matters affecting the initiative, advise DCH on implementation of the initiative review performance data and report annually to the. Council and community on expenditures, accomplishments and the effectiveness of the initiative. The proposed new section of code would establish the requirement for committee membership appointments and reporting and or reporting would include information on allocation by jurisdiction of sales and use tax proceeds. Beginning in 2023, the committee would send an electronic letter to the Executive and Council by June 15th, notifying that annual reporting through a website update is available and more information about the online dashboard is on page 47. In terms of membership, the committee would comprise of 12 to 16 members appointed by the executive, and the proposed code outlines their categories and the proposed implementation plan further refine the membership criteria to provide for the next membership count. So persons who have experienced experienced homelessness would be at least one third of members, persons representative of racial and ethnic communities that are demographically disproportionately represented among persons experiencing chronic homelessness in King County would be at least half of members, residents of cities with populations greater than 60,000, and the unincorporated areas would be at least two members, prioritizing residents of cities with populations greater than 60,000, but did not separately impose the city level sales tax authority and representatives from other county, city and subregional boards, commissions and committees would be at least two members. The appointment process would be that the executive would provide notice to the Council with the name, biography and term of each proposed member. And under the proposed ordinance, no council confirmation would be required and instead Council would be able to adopt a motion requesting changes to the proposed appointments within 30 days of receipt of the executive notice . Otherwise, the executive would be able to proceed with the appointment executive and establish initial terms of appointment. And after the initial term, subsequent terms would be four years. The executive would convene the committee by March 31st, 2022, and then once a quarter after that, after reviewing the proposed plan to confirm inclusion for all components required in Ordinance 19236 and for compliance with Ordinance 19179. Council staff have not found any missing component that were not included in the transmitted plan, nor any issues of noncompliance with the ordinance. Imposing DFL tax in Appendix C of the plan. Revise the requirement in detail and I'll end by directing your attention to the amendment schedule that is on page 15. The proposed ordinance 2020 10330 was introduced on September seven, 2021 and received a mandatory dual referral to the Committee of the Hall and the Regional Policy Committee. The Committee of the Hall Chair McDermott and Regional Policy Committee Chair Avon Lake Borough provided direction to committee members by email on September ten, stating that the deadline for committee members to provide direction to council staff on amendment concepts would be those laid out in Council Vote 16 and detailed on the schedule and on page 15. With that, we are happy to answer questions and we also have will for Mario Williams and Kelly Reiter from the Executive Office here to answer questions. I want to thank my partner, Sue Ann Sanders for the presentation this morning on the third briefing on the implementation plan of health through housing. And. Open it up to questions from colleagues. Let me begin. Can you you referenced the amendment schedule. Can you confirm that the scheduling is to take up this legislation in the Regional Policy Committee this coming Wednesday week from today? You're on mute. Yes. I can confirm that this is scheduled to be taken up in Regional Policy Committee next Wednesday. Thank you. And so given the amendment schedule, I would encourage any members of the County Council to come and given the mandatory job referral. I would encourage county council members, whether they are members of the RTC or not, to contemplate amendments and contemplate their presentation and adoption their consideration at the APEC meeting. As amendments introduced and adopted at the next town meeting where we take up this legislation with the State Re referral to RTC. I'm hearing no questions from my colleagues. And so we will look forward to taking this legislation up after the Regional Policy Committee has referred to us. And with that, are there any votes we might be able to secure before adjourning today? Mr. Chair, council member does miss all of the votes. I do not see him in the meeting. I don't see him connected to the meeting moment either. So given the technical issues of meeting virtually his as a rule state, he has the ability to vote by email through the rest of the day. And I want to thank everyone for their participation today. And we are.	A MOTION making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the south division, southeast electoral district, judge position number one of the King County district court.
king_4b293336-5da9-4d74-a271-cdd756c0c87e	Calling to order the Tuesday, June 30 meeting. The Committee of the Hall and King County Council member John McDermott, seven, is chairing the committee this year. And as we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We want to thank the caretakers of these lands who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community. In the light of our public health emergency, Governor Inslee has issued an emergency order suspending sections of the Public Meetings Act that would require that we have a physical place for the public to watch our meetings. This order has been extended by the leadership of the State Senate and state House of Representatives. Today, we will have a briefing from Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy on the county's COVID 19 response. Then we will take up a motion for an assessment of the best targets for kids Levy, which expires next year. This was duly referred to the Regional Policy Committee, but due to the time needed for the Department of Community and Human Services to perform the assessment, the committee and this committee and the Council anticipate needing to take action before receiving formal input from the Regional Policy Committee. As such, it's my intent that we'll take action on that motion today and expedite it to next week's council meeting. We will also take up three ordinances that would place measures on the November ballot to amend the county charter. The charter amendments are related to the to the disposition of county property for affordable housing, removal of the term citizen to be replaced with public or resident in the charter and anti-discrimination provisions in the charter. It's my hope that we will take action in all three of those ordinances today as well. For each of the charter amendments, as we did two weeks ago at our last meeting, we were here first from council staff and then from members of the Charter Review Commission who have made me who have recommended these charter amendments to us. To how? And as we begin, I'd also like to ask you to help us managed meeting. I'd ask the public as well as executives and council staff to please keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. I do encourage members to have their video on any time they're ready. And with that, Madam Court, I'd ask you to please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Ritchie. You're council member DEMBOSKY here. Council member. Done. Councilmember Coleman once there. Councilmember Lambert. Council member up to go here. Councilmember Bond. Right there. Here. Coulson a high. Dear Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a qualm. Council members Dun and Lambert are currently excused. Councilmember. Dan, are you present? I see a phone connection that appears to be Councilmember Dion, Councilmember Dunn. You're unmuted on Zoom and we cannot hear you if you're speaking. I would I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes to have a motion to approve the minutes of our June 16th meeting. Some of. Move by councilmember voting rights are. Thank you. The minutes of before us see no discussion. All those in favor of approving the moves. Please say i. I. I oppose any. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. Well, now we turn to. Having an entirely remote meeting is still somewhat unusual for the King County Council. And I want to make sure that everyone who was called in to participate understands how public comment will work in the process and how the process itself will be managed. First, outstanding ground rules. Public comment must be related items on today's meeting agenda and not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure. It also must not include obscene speech. The speaker fails to abide by these rules. They may be ruled out of order and may be asked to leave or be removed from the virtual meeting on. They'll describe the process as members of the public. During the meeting, they were automatically muted. You can see either your name in Zoom or the last three digits of your telephone number. Our committee will call the names and numbers, and when your name or the last three digits of your phone number are called, staff will unmute your line. Please make sure you unmute your phone or computer if you have muted yourself as a courtesy as well. Before you begin your testimony, maybe you sit. If you can see your name implies, we will confirm that we can hear you, that the audio is audio is working. And then if you would begin your testimony by spelling your name so we can make sure we have an accurate record of who has testified today. I'm your 2 minutes to speak. You hear a timer go off when you've reached 2 minutes, you can certainly finish your thought. But I would ask you to wrap up your comments when you hear the timer to allow the next person the opportunity to speak. If you go much past your 2 minutes, I'll interrupt and perhaps even read to you. If you are listening to the meeting on cable or web services, I would ask you to mute the audio and you are testifying so we don't have feedback and otherwise expect to have a problem. Free call when you're done with your testimony. I might suggest that you hang up and continue watching and monitoring the meeting. I mean, if there is an incoming television channel 22 or streaming online, the online link is at WW W dot King County dot gov backslash counsel and then click on the watch us live button. And with that I'll turn it over to the clerk to manage to call people for public testimony again. Please remember to say your name and pause. We can confirm, you can hear you, we can hear you. And then spell your first and last name. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first line we. Have right now. Is on vanilla. Go ahead, please. You are muted. Amazonia. Yes. Go ahead, please. Thank you. Good afternoon, Council Chairman. Members of the council. My name is Antonia and a boat. And I live and I'm with Enterprise Community Partners. We are a national nonprofit that improves people's lives by making well-designed homes affordable. By bringing together the nationwide know how policy, leadership, partners, donors and investors to multiply the impact of. Local affordable housing development. Then here today to ask you to support the King County that would remove restriction. On surplus. Property and allow for the property for less than fair market value when used for affordable housing. Now more than ever, we can't afford not to invest in housing. If the past few months have shown us anything, it's that affordable housing is not only our moral and social responsibility, but a critical strategy to safeguard the health of individuals and the public. And it is a part of the solution to reducing racial inequities. Critics say that in light of impending budget deficits, but this is not the time to forgo potential revenue from the sale of public assets. However, selling off public assets as a revenue tool is a long term solution. Public assets should remain in the interest of serving the public good and utilizing surplus lands and discounting them to catalyze the development of affordable housing is a winning strategy that will pay dividends years down the line. As noted in your memo and community partners for several years leveraging these opportunities to transfer publicly owned surplus properties, its affordable housing and early learning. Through our Hope and Help initiative will help to build on our local. Successes in the region by capitalizing the opportunities for increased affordable housing. These opportunities are especially important for supportive housing, but require greater resources and funding to create opportunities for moving land as a barrier and accelerate planning for more things. I urge the King County Committee of the Hall today only and urgently and vote to approve the Charter amendment on the ballot for the November general election. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, Mr. Chair. I believe that is all of the callers on the line. For public comment. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I'm just to be sure we've got everybody. Can I ask you to unmute everyone? And in doing so, I will then ask anyone who wants to offer for public testimony on the line to identify themselves. And I apologize for that may be chaotic for a moment, but it would be a price worth paying if we get testimony from anybody on the line. Some people. Mr. Chair, I've just to muted everyone. Thank you. Is there anyone on the line who would like to offer public testimony and hasn't had the opportunity? Hearing, no one hearing. No one will close the public hearing. Councilmember Dunn. Mr. Chair. Great. Glad to have you work and confirm your presence. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Who again renewed and more and public testimony. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now you're muted, Mr. Chair. Sorry. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Now, that takes us item five on today's agenda. This is a briefing from Dwight David Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, recounting to update us on our COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr. Dave Lee, the line is yours. Good afternoon, Council Members. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to give you a little briefing on what's going on with COVID and related financial issues. So for the record, Dwight Dave Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, and I had six things on my list today. I think they'll actually go pretty quickly, but they I think all will be of interest. So the first one is we just received our June sales tax payment. And as I think you all know, sales tax has lagged by two months. So June, sales taxes are really for what merchants sold in April. And as you probably remember, April was the kind of first four months with the COVID shutdown, and that was the month where basically construction most construction projects were asked to be shut down. And so, not surprisingly, the sales tax base was way lower in April 2020 than it was in April 2019. In fact, about 32% lower. And just to give you some highlights or lowlights. Construction was down about 37%, which suggests that there were some construction projects that continued when they weren't supposed to have continued. Auto dealers in parts were down 64%. Most auto dealerships were closed in that time period. Hotels and motels were down 96% from the prior year and restaurants were down 71%. As you might remember, many of the restaurants had not yet opened in ways they've now been doing with takeout and things like that. There were, of course, a few good areas, so not surprisingly, online sales were up about 8% as people shifted away from bricks and mortar stores and were ordering more things online. So that gives you a sense of those impacts. Now, the good news in all of that, despite a 32% decline, that is less than we had assumed in the revenue forecast. So Mr. Ricky Reich at our Office of Economic and Financial Analysis will be doing an update on Thursday of the sales tax forecast. And so it will be a little bit better than the revenue forecast that was adopted by the Forecast Council earlier this month. So a glimmering of at least a little bit of good news. So I'll pause there in case any questions about this item. Colleagues. Mr. Daley. Okay. Thank you. So, item two on the list. I thought I would give you an update on some of the grant programs that the council has approved in recent COVID supplementals. And I'm going to go through several of them. I don't have complete details on all of them, but I'll share what I have with you. So in the Department of Local Services, you might remember that we set aside some money for them to do small business assistance. As of this morning, they had received 86 requests for technical assistance and they had received 163 applications for cash assistance to small businesses in the unincorporated area of the county. Those applications are open until July 10th. So for those of you that have unincorporated areas in your districts, if you could continue to try to publicize the availability of those funds, that would be helpful. The Department of Local Services has done a lot outreach. They've literally gone door to door in the business districts, in the unincorporated area, and so we expect to get more applications. But as of this morning, that was the number that they had received. A second program, the city economic development assistance that was set aside and was basically done proportional to population. So far, three of the very small cities and towns in King County have said they aren't going to participate. It just didn't seem like it was worthwhile for them. We have not heard back from seven of the cities and all the others. We are actively in the process of signing a contract to have them distribute funds. So a lot of that probably in the next two weeks will actually be going out to those cities. We're also working. You might also remember there were grant programs for business organizations like Chambers of Commerce. They were both $5,000 grants and $25,000 grants. The applications for those are being received. A lot of questions still coming in from some of them about how they can use the funds. And so that is also well underway. The arts, science, education, music venues and art organization grants that are going to be available from my office PSB are the application is complete and will start accepting applications next week. And then finally related to that, there were some grant programs that were to be administered by for culture. My staff is meeting with Fort Culture this week and we expect that we will actually transfer those funds to Fort Culture probably either next week or early the following week so they can start making grants. So there is a lot of money then that's going to go out the door here in July as we get those applications , make selections and start getting that money out into communities. So that is, I think, all going pretty well. I do want to note none of the folks involved in those grants are organizations that have ever really done grants before. So we've got a lot of people learning on the fly about how to do this. And it's been a challenging time, but people have really stepped up to make sure that we get that money out into our communities. So let me pause there to see if there are any questions on that one. Colleagues object. Mr. Duggleby I would just recommend to not you, but to all of my colleagues that you're going. Garcia has some great social media out there. You can promote to businesses that are in corporate King County if you're looking for an easy way to communicate that message. Sure. Mr. Garcia's videos on Councilmember Banducci, followed by Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask again about the chambers, the the the grants that are being directed through chambers of commerce. Can you say one more time the status of that? Because those are the ones where I I've received some questions in there. Sort of like when. Will we receive? And I didn't really hear I didn't follow fully what was going on there. So there's been a lot of conversation from some of those organizations asking about sort of like allowable uses and so on. So as we resolve those and get formal applications from those organizations, the money will be going out the door in the next couple of weeks. Let me see if I can get you some more information about the specifics of that, and I'll just email it to you. Thank you. As a member. DOMBROWSKI Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, thank you for the update. Offline, could you let members who have one of those seven cities or more of the centers in their district who have not connected on the city, pass through grants? Let us know so we can make sure it's intentional and not unintentional. Great. We're happy to do that. Thank you. Colleagues. APPLAUSE for Mr. Donnelly to finish his note. Okay. Thank you. That's the third thing. You might remember that early on in the COVID response, we had lengthy discussions about the county using some of its Federal Cares Act funds to support cities with their efforts. So we worked with the Sound Cities Association to put together a form where we would get reports from cities about what they would spend , what they had spent in various categories, so that we were then able, probably in the fall, to decide whether we needed to use some of our county money to support their expenditures. We've gotten, frankly, very little interest in that. There's been very little response from cities and fire districts and sort of. Councilman Dombrowski, to your question, the only ones we have heard from to this point are the cities of Bellevue, Berrien Lake, Forest Park, Melton and Redmond. And we've also heard from Woodinville Fire and rescue. The total that has been reported to us is about four and a half million dollars, of which 4 million is the city of Bellevue, and about 450,000 is the city of Redmond, and the rest are all quite small. So my impression, and it really is only an impression, is that the cities are focused on using the money they received directly from the state and are spending that first and at this point are not really focused on getting money from the county. That could change, but we really aren't hearing a lot from cities to, you know, report these expenditures and give us a chance to consider them. So I wanted to let you know that I don't think there's anything wrong at this point, but I at least expected more response, given how much the Sound Cities Association was interested in that. So let me pause there to see if there's any thoughts on that issue. Colleagues. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight Just a thought, not a question. But as the U.S. House of Representatives passed an additional bill, as you know, that included, I think, more dollars for first responders, state, local or local city governments. And I know that's not been passed by the United States Senate. But I did see today in congressional testimony by the administration that there is an interest in doing something additional. So that could we may know before the fall whether or not there'll be additional federal resources there. But I appreciate the update, and I'm still interested in making sure that we're getting those CARES dollars out to those that have had added costs to the extent that it doesn't come from the federal government. Mm hmm. Yeah. And doesn't mean it must be. I think what I read today was the Senate was hoping to have a bill by the end of July. And at least in general, I think the tone of it is more flexible money than was in the CARES Act, including the opportunity to replace lost revenue. It will be real important for at least on the executive side, if that's going to happen, for us to get that information before by mid-August as the executive prepares his proposed budget. And then obviously for you at the council, you'll probably need that information by no later than the beginning of November. So I'm to whatever extent we can encourage the Congress to proceed expeditiously. It will make the budgeting process a lot simpler. Mr. Geithner, if you can figure out how to influence Congress one way, you will be a wise, wise man. I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot of good ideas. I will defer to the legislative branch to work on that issue. Okay. All right. Next thing. Just to remind everyone, budgets are due from Tony agencies along with their business plans on Thursday. As of yesterday, we had not received any. So nobody's going to be early or not very early, but I also expect that we will get everything on time. So starting next week, the budget team will start going through those and trying to figure out what we've got, what we don't have. It's going to be, you know, unless we get significant amounts of federal money, as I've said, it's going to be a very challenging budget process. We have a very long list of ideas. The executive is actively working on ideas around his agenda, around the anti-racism agenda. So it's going to be a very complex budget process and it's going to be a complex process for you in the fall. I just wanted to make sure that I reminded you that those budgets are coming in on Thursday. Fifth point. Mr. Daley, when you speak when you speak of budgets and Congress, I would point out and timeliness of deadlines, I would point out that as a high school senior, I was part of a group hearing from then U.S. Senator Slade Gordon. One of the questions we had for the senator was, why do you guys always wait till the last minute to pass through budget? You know, we thought we were going to get, you know, really hold his feet to the fire. But he looked at us and asked us how many of us over turned in our assignments early and all of a sudden I understood. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank you for this update so far. And I just wanted to let you know, we had discussed providing our members budget priorities for the Biennial, and you had asked us to get those in by today. And I'm letting you know that we're just about to shift the send button on that list. And I appreciate all of my colleagues for getting their budget priorities on to me. Thank you. That's great. That will be very helpful. Thank you for coordinating that. All right. Okay. First thing. Just a quick update. I receive a report every Monday from our Treasury section that reviews our investments to make sure we don't have any impaired investments. And so far, despite all the economic turmoil, we have not had any. As of Monday, we had $8 billion of cash in the county's cash pool, of which about $3.3 billion was the county's own money. And the rest is money that we invest on behalf of districts and other organizations within King County as their treasurer. So so far, our investment performance has been fine and we haven't had any things that come in on time. So I just want to make sure that, you know, we are on top of that and obviously that information is always available to anyone if they're interested. Thank you. The last thing I was going to mention and this very quickly this afternoon, I think starting in about one minute, is the oral argument about initiative 976 of the state Supreme Court. As you all will remember, that initiative potentially has adverse effects on Metro and to a lesser extent on the roads. Division in Department of Local Services obviously has lots of other effects on other governments around the state. So, you know, King County and coalition will be arguing against the initiative. The state will be defending the initiative. There are other interveners in the case who will be speaking. So if you get done with your council meeting early or council committee of the whole meeting early and once or may, legal entertainment, you can tune into the state Supreme Court. Always better than illegal entertainment. Yes. Yes. And that's all I had. But I'm happy to answer questions if folks have them. Councilmember Combs. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank you again. And I understand you will be transmitting or the executive will be transmitting COVID for budget on August 13th. And I'm wondering if you can give us some preview of what you believe will be in that announcement. We have not started the process of getting requests from departments. We will we decided to wait until next week to start requesting that because everyone's focused on their 2122 biennial budget. So I really don't have much of a preview at this point because we haven't really heard from any of our departments about what they're going to be looking for. I would expect that we will have continued appropriations for some of the facilities that we have set up. So the isolation and quarantine facilities and things like that, just kind of as a side note, it's not really directly financially related. But the Department of Community and Human Services, along with public health and along the facilities management, are recommended to the executive yesterday that we. Down from three isolation and quarantine facilities to two. Then we would keep actively using an executive agreed with that recommendation. So those two would be the Aurora facility in Seattle and the Issaquah facility. We would take the campus motel and put it into what they're calling warm status, where it would still be available but would not be staffed. And if we had a big upsurge in people needing to be isolated in about 72 hours, we could be staff that facility. And as finally because right now the need is not there but it's also these are very expensive to operate. So I would expect that we will continue to include operating costs for some of those facilities in the next covered omnibus. But beyond that, I don't at this point have a sense of what we're going to be considering. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. And just to let you know, throughout the budget and Fiscal Management Committee will be taking up the third omnibus for this current biennium on July 15. And we're looking at hopefully as a an action at the council, the full council, and a vote on that on July 21st. Excellent. That's very helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues. You may have exhausted our questions, Mr. Diaghilev. That's fine. I'll be around extra if you have more. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dwight, thanks for the updates. I think they're very helpful. This is a general question, and that is, how are you and your staff doing? It's been quite a run from March now to the end of June with some unprecedented challenges. How from kind of an employee care perspective, are things going? Customer, my real. I appreciate that question. I think it's fair to say that almost all of my team has pretty much adjusted to this kind of work from home. We've worked through all the technical bugs and ads, so most of the time the meetings worked fine. I'd say for maybe half of my team, they actually prefer teleworking, and we're certainly going to continue doing much more teleworking in the future, even once we're done with COVID than we've ever done in the past. So. So that's an interesting change. I think the stress levels have been quite high for many people, I think particularly for people who have had kids at home because schools have been closed. I'd say as a group, that's the group that's had the hardest time. The budget folks were really strongly encouraged to take time off here in June. So as I think many of you know, I was on vacation last week. I only did email once a day, so I was more disciplined than I usually am. A lot of the folks in the budget team are off this week, which is good if people need some time to recharge. Some of the other teams are really they completely redeploy. So their performance and strategy team is almost exclusively supporting the Mac and doing a lot of community engagement work. That was really not their job description, but they're smart people who are flexible and available to do that. So they've had kind of a different experience, which is they're not doing their regular jobs. They're doing something else that's really exciting, but it's also very exhausting. And so they're starting to see a little bit of slowdown in that which is which is helpful. So yeah, I'd say generally we're doing okay for the budget team, particularly the next two and a half months are going to be really challenging. This is the I've been doing this since 1987 and unless we get a significant amount of federal money, this is going to be the hardest budget I've ever done. And that's Samsung. So I, I appreciate your your thought and your support. We're trying to take care of each other. We've come up with some meetings and other forms to communicate, support each other. But it's really appreciate the cooperation we've gotten from the council and council staff and that makes things a whole lot easier when we have opportunities to do this stuff together. Just thank you very much to you and your team. And it's appreciated and it's not gone unnoticed and it's something that we can do on the ledge side. I know that we stand ready to cooperate and make things go as smoothly as possible with this upcoming tough work. Thank you. Done. It's never done. Thank you. Dwight thanks for appearing and thanks for all your hard work and appreciate your rallying your staff. I'm a little bit concerned about some of the comments about, you know, dramatically expanding the work from home provisions, particularly DARPA announcing sort of without a whole lot of input from the council that 800 employees would work permanently from home. And my question is, I'm worried that we might just be trying to balance its budget on the backs of shutting down our facilities. The challenge is there with sending folks to work from home are that, you know, do we have any standards that have been set for performance? How do we measure employees that are working from home to make sure that they are, in fact, putting in the full work day? How do we make up for the collaborative nature of working in an office, not just with our coworkers, but with other departments? Have we thought about that? How many employees we can no longer need because the facilities don't need to be advantaged? There's a lot packed into that and the precedent setting for the remainder of the county employees to just say, hey, you can work from home worries me. Dwight. And here's the thing. We are not Amazon. You know, we don't we don't have the luxury of getting rid of employees who are not as effective as they could be, like the private sector, the union contracts and the protections that are state law for public employees make it very, very difficult, nearly impossible to fire somebody. So you got folks who don't ever have to come back to work and folks that can't be fired. I'm very much worried that the public is not going to be satisfied with a whole host of hundreds, if not thousands of employees just summarily working from home. How do you respond to that? So, Councilman, there's a lot of thoughts there. Let me try to give you a few responses. So first, we've had teleworking agreements for decades, certainly not as widespread as we are doing today by any means. But this is not really new and there have always been accountability provisions written into those about people getting their work done and so on. And so the scale has changed, but the actual issue I don't think has changed much at all. Secondly, in the NRP, as you referenced, they actually did a lot of outreach with their employees to see what their preferences were. And so we will have employees who are going to want to continue to come in to work every day. We're going to have others who are going to want to do it occasionally. And then I fear that is probably talking about doing it like once a month. And there's a lot of benefits to that in terms of space savings, in terms of environmental implications. And so I agree with you that at some level it's an experiment. But I think as long as we maintain good management practices to make sure the work is getting done, whether it's done in the office or whether it's done from home, I'm I'm not yet worried about it. And actually, frankly, in my office, where everyone has been teleworking since the beginning of March, productivity is actually higher than it used to be. I frankly think people are working more hours because they're not commuting. The working together was a challenge at the beginning, but as we've gotten more comfortable with Zoom and Skype and other tools like that, I've seen that improve as well. So I think we're working hard there. And the final thing I'll respond to. Our goal right now, and we're not absolutely sure we can do this, but our goal is to consolidate our office workers into King Street Center and the Chinook building, obviously still the courthouse and the Black River building in Renton. And then to shut down the administration building and maybe the yes, we're building, we have to move community corrections if we do that. So that one's a little more problematic. The administrative building, as you all know, is 50 years old. It has been very badly maintained. It still has asbestos. It has a huge list of deferred maintenance, tens of millions of dollars that we would have to do in the near future. And so by law, if we can manage to close and mothball that building, we will save the county tens of millions of dollars of maintenance money and several million dollars a year of operating costs. And so, you know, you're going to have fewer janitorial staff. You're going to have fewer maintenance staff. You're going to have fewer security staff. You're going to have no minimal utility bills. So there is really hard dollar money that we can save if we closed down one or two of our buildings. And we may not be able to realize that in the next biennium because they're going to be some transition costs, obviously, with this. But once we do it, then the savings is very substantial from there out. So that was a very long answer to your your thoughts council member but I hope that gave you a little bit of a picture of what we're thinking. I have a big smile on my face because I think it's a good answer to a tough question. However, I disagree with a number of your assertions there. However, I guess I think the most important thing to think about the way through this process is this. I appreciate that. It saves maybe the county money and I appreciate it. Certainly better for our workforce, but the driving force needs to be are we still delivering the same level of services to the county taxpayers? And I will, at least as Councilmember before I can support anything that has wholesale changes from town on occasional once a week work from home to you don't have to come back to the office for a long period of time, if ever. Before we go to that plan, I need to see how how these various agencies that you are envisioning can work from home are able to support the taxpayers, need some of these agencies. You know, your department, of course, you know, you are you are internally facing largely and working with the various governmental units and bodies and legislature. But the parks and other groups, they're designed to serve a constituency frequently and with regular contact with them. And so I just think we are moving very, very quickly on on something that is could have substantial consequences with the core of our mission, which is providing services, taxpayers moving forward. So I hope that I'm included in that dialog. So Councilmember, I appreciate that that set of thoughts because we need you and your colleagues to hold us accountable to deliver those services to our public, whether they're taxpayers or ratepayers. And our expectation is that, if anything, the quality and quantity of service is going to go up, not go down. But that's where legislative oversight is critical so that you can make sure we are doing that. I was a member of. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was reluctant to wade in, but it went on long enough. I gave up and I have to. One of the things that we that we have heard and, you know, I've worked in government for a while, is that that government should be more nimble, that we should be more responsive, that we should operate more like a private sector business. I think one of the things that we've been talking about a lot and I think is important, there is an opportunity here. There's a lot of tragedy with COVID and there's a lot of challenges with COVID, but there's also an opportunity it has opened up. In my experience, I've never seen anything like it government to suddenly being willing to do things differently. And in March we were talking about whether we could do video meetings by July. And here we've been doing them for months, right? I mean, so we can do more than we think we can. And I'm personally I'm interested to embrace what could be transformative change in a number of ways, including how we deliver services. That doesn't mean we take our eye off the ball. We need to care, but we need to care now how we're delivering services. We needed to care pre-COVID, how we were delivering services. And we will need to care post-COVID, how we're delivering services. But I think it's an exciting time, an exciting idea about maybe doing things in a way that is more effective, potentially more efficient, more humane for our workforce and deliver better services. And that's the goals that I would like us to keep our eye on as we move forward. So sorry. Councilmember Dunn, I just had to say a few words because you did get your points. And so those are mine. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Other questions in conversation with Mr. Bagley. I want to thank you very much for joining us today and for the regular COVID update. We'll look forward to our next installment. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. This takes us to item six proposed motion 2020 200, which would call for an assessment of the best starts for kids Levy. I noted that the outset that the timing constraints for the Department of Community and Human Services to complete its work that we are requesting and we will take action on this item today, even if in conversation we realize that we don't have final amendments in place. With that, Mr. Williams and Mr. Maslin asking the line, Is yours? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hillary Williams, Council Policy Staff. The staff report with this item begins on page 11 of your agenda packet. I propose moves in 2020. 200 would request a report from the Executive to inform Council deliberations on possible renewal of the best charge for kids. Levy. As you all know, Best Start for Kids is a levy funded, prevention oriented regional plan that is aimed at supporting the healthy development of children and youth, family and communities across King County. The motion asks the executive to transmit a report that assesses the effectiveness of current levy strategies and programs and meeting the goals of the levy. And that analyzes and makes recommendations on various policy considerations, including how a renewed levy would benefit the entire region while targeting resources to those most in need. This report would be due by September 30th, 2020, and I will now provide a little bit of background on the specifics of the levy. In November 2015, King County voters approved the current best start for Kids Levy, which is a six year property tax levied at a rate of 14.14. Cents per $1,000 of assessed value in 2016, with an increase of up to 3% for each of the five subsequent years of the levy. As you stated earlier, Mr. Chair, this levy is up at the end of next year, and based on recent revenue forecast, the levy is anticipated to generate a total of approximately $404.5 million in revenues over the life of Levy. The Bank Levy Ordinance, which is ordinance 18088, directed that out of the first year levy proceeds, $19 million be set aside to fund the Youth and Family Homelessness Prevention Initiative, as well as the amounts that were necessary to pay for election costs related to the lift. All remaining levy proceeds are to be disbursed as follows 50% for the invest early allocation, which focuses on children and families ages 0 to 5, where they are to support healthy child development and family well-being. 35% for the sustained sustained to gain allocation, which focuses on supporting positive development for children and young adults ages 5 to 24 as they progressed into into adulthood, and then 10% for the Communities Married Matters allocation, which focuses on strategies to create safe and healthy communities. Building on a partnership between the county and the Seattle Foundation on Communities of Opportunity, which is based on the latest research regarding the impact of placed on individual and population health and wellbeing outcomes . This includes local community supports and building their own capacity to create positive change. And finally, there's a 5% allocation for the outcomes focused and data driven part of the levy. And this supports evaluation, data collection and improving the delivery of services and programs under the. Let's quickly talk about levy oversight. The BSC levy is overseen by the Children and Youth Advisory Board, which carries dual responsibilities, ties to the best stance for kids Levy and the Youth Action Plan, as well as the communities of Opportunity Best for Kids Advisory Board. Which is the advisory body for the communities of opportunity portion of the network. These groups play an integral role in monitoring progress of service and program implementation, while partnering with the county to ensure that these investments are consistent with levy requirements are effective and transparent to the public. I am now going to cover the analysis section of the staff report, which begins at the bottom of page 14 of your packet. Again, this motion would request the report from the Executive to inform Council of possible renewal of the best stance for food levy. More specifically, the motion ask that the Executive transmit this report to be developed in consultation with stakeholders. That includes one an assessment of the effectiveness of the current strategies and program in achieving the current levy funding goals, including in an analysis of the impact of investments in advancing equity and social justice and changing systems and policies of racial and other forms of oppression to. An analysis and recommendations on the following potential changes to the levees three Primary Goals and existing and existing strategies and whether a Renew Levee should incorporate any new goals in our strategy. How a renewed levee would align and coordinate with children and family. Strategic Task Force Recommendations. The Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy. The Mental Illness and drug dependency on the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account as well as other funding streams. How a renew levee would benefit the entire region while targeting resources to those most in need. And final point there is that the assessment report would look at whether a renewed levee should retain or revise the current oversight structure or the representation of the Children Youth Advisory Board. And finally, the member should have received a recent email that I sent out with an attached conceptual, conceptual, striking amendment. I'd like to note that staff is currently working with Council member about Dempsey's office to finalize a striking amendment to be offered at next week's council meeting. I will now go over the conceptual strike if there are any questions at this point. I sense for Mr. Telhami before moving before the addressing the concept of a thinker comes number validity. I wanted to say a word. Please. Okay. Thank you. The artillery and is doing a great job with the briefing. I just wanted to give a brief little bit of additional background, if I could. I wanted to thank Department of Community and Human Services. They initiated this request for the motion to do an assessment because it is always a good first step to look back at how the Levy programs have performed. To help us then develop a base of information to create a program with changes as needed to to be more effective going forward. Assuming we ask the voters to continue this program, which I am assuming that we will. I will have a few more words to say after the next part, but I wanted to just briefly share that in developing this striking amendment, we did reach out to all of the council officers and we got feedback from a number of them. We tried to include I think we include all we include all but just one request. And I hope that that one was minor and not in not too upsetting to the member who asked for it. And we're still working a little bit on language just to make sure that we're really clear. And I'm having one additional conversation with DHS on this. Now, there's a really clear understanding of exactly what the report will contain so that it sets us off on a really good path to be talking about potential changes to the program going forward. I just wanted to set that context. And then because of the timing, I'll say this in the middle, but I'll say it again at the end. If members here today hearing this, looking at it, think, I really wish we would also ask about something else. Please, please, please bring that up today so that we can make any final changes within the next 24 hours, because we do have a three day weekend coming up and this is up for a final vote at next week's council meeting. So thank you for letting me jump in there and just add a little bit to what has already been a very thorough staff report. And I look forward to hearing the conceptual strike or briefing. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I am currently on the conceptual striker document. It is a list of about seven things to go through briefly. Mr. Williams, if I may, just to direct members. Mr. Williams was not kidding when he said he had recently sent this. It was after the meeting started on 20:05 p.m. today. Met email from all members from Hilary Williams with the attachment he's working through now. Is there. So I would just start with number one and go down the list. So the first thing that the amendment would do is add language directly to direct the executive to develop the assessment report in consultation with the Regional Policy Committee. Two. It would provide more specificity about what information is being requested to be included in the assessment regarding the goals, strategies and programs in the first years of the escape. It would also require the report to include an analysis of levy proceeds used to fund technical assistance and capacity building. The amendment would require the report to include the rationale for any unspent or reallocated levy funds. Iraq's language ban directs the executive to explore goals and strategies that could be incorporated in an increased or expanded level. The ads efforts focused on equality and social justice, including racial justice, to the list of new or revised goals or strategies that should be considered in a new, increased or expanded level. And finally, the amendment would require that the analysis of investments by geographic area includes zip code level data of person served. So that's currently what we're working on and refining at the moment. And. Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks for this item. Thank you, colleagues. Councilmember Lambert, you're unmuted. There you place. Councilmember Lambert, we can hear you. You don't seem to me. You don't seem to be muted. Now you're muted. Now you're not. Councilmember Lambert, could your device be muted? You're unmuted on. Zoom. No. Can some Mr. Chair sentiment be that I my volume is down on my laptop. Maybe she could check that. Oh. Councilor and Council Member Lambert. I don't know if it would help if you logged out like back in. I mean, now you have your colleagues offering I.T. support. None of us, right? Professionals catch our attention and will help recall your involvement. Council Member Demovsky. Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of thoughts to share here. I wondered. I recall that we built in some reporting out and results kind of language in the original ordinance that was adopted by the voters in the levy. And I think it would be worthwhile to circle back and look at that language when we were advocating for it in the community, including particularly, I recall, before the Municipal League, they were particularly interested in how we would demonstrate the efficacy of the investments. And it can be kind of hard on some of these macro community investments to show the needles to move. But there has been some reporting during the course of the levee with the with the annual report that's done that. So I think the reporting on it has been been pretty good. I would hope that we could include a reference, as we did in the original legislation, to the goals set forth in the adopted policy by the county for youth and young adults and the Youth Action Plan, and making sure that that continues to be a guiding light. My office has had some early discussions with our youth Czarina, as I call her, who I see is on the line Sheila campus Danny about eventually updating that to reflect and a ten year anniversary the basis of where we ought to be on policy there. And I think that's a good idea. But I think it's good to have a policy document that guides us. And I would also be interested in one of the things that I was pretty happy to work on was making sure we included a bucket of money, which I think is 35% for youth and young adult investments. We had to invest early, right, and then sustain the game was the language when the concept was first advanced. It was really an early childhood program and we broadened the investments and I think those have been, in my observation, very well received. I do think that the investing early from a. Science standpoint is good and you get great results there. But I know that those dollars that have supported young people during critical years of development and growth and formation have just been really critical to a lot of organizations. And I hope that we can continue those investments in a renewed level. So there's some some thoughts in terms of the reporting out. Do we have a put in the form of a question that maybe we would like analyze? Do we have the right balance in the bucket? 5035. And then the balance for measurement and administration. Thank you. And you. This is. Here comes my plumber. I have had computer problems for the last half hour, so thank you to the kids for your. Assistance. In dealing with this. Luckily, I have the computers in my house, so they're running back and forth to figure out how to get it on. Anyway, I have two questions on this on the best for Kids. One of the things I noticed in there is it talked about second and fourth graders, but it didn't say anything about my grade as being a pivotal year. Fourth grade is the year that your teachers are most likely to be able to predict who is going to be getting into trouble in later lives, which is an unfortunate thing. But ninth grade is when you can tell whether somebody is probably going to drop out of school or not. So there was a study done a couple of years ago by. Dr.. Gentry reinvesting in youth, and that report was very well done, had some superintendents or fabulous on the committee, and I think that's a report that we should make available to the people doing this research. And then the second thing is, when we started the search for kids, if I remember correctly, there were. Several boards that were huge. Could you tell. Me how many boards would be support boards and how many members to those boards at. This point? Councilmember Leppert The only boards that I am aware of are the ones that I mentioned during my staff report. And those are the. Once again, the Children and Youth Advisory Board and the. Communities of opportunity based on expertize advisory board. I would have to defer to executive staff on the line or any other of the boards that are that that may be applied here. If she ever heard. Good afternoon, Councilman. Councilmember Lambert, we do have the two governing groups with. The Children Youth. Advisory Board is up to 40 members. I believe we're somewhere around 34, 35 at this point. We've greatly increased our membership of youth on that board. And as all of the members come before you all to confirm, you've seen the caliber of candidates we have. But right now, it is about 35 or 36, and I'm not sure how many are on the committees of Opportunity Board, but those are the two. That function right now. In point. Of 40. It's pretty, pretty big. So. Oh that I was just concerned about. Well we have to have those meetings. We better to do them. Other than actually, yes, it is a big board. They operate by subcommittee a lot. So a lot of the. Work gets done in smaller groups and then they report and tackled larger issues. A large group. Alex. Dombrowski. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, sir, for the second round. Sheila, great to see you. With the September deadline, I know we are leading up to kind of a renewal program, but when you have enough time to do a thorough report given the to kind of put a deadline in here, how does that schedule work for the department? Thank you so much for that question. We certainly have lots and lots of things that we are managing. I think that a September 30th deadline is one that we can make. Mostly because we've started to do the dig in part of this and working with all of our staff on how is your strategy going? What's been happening with it? So we've started that deep work. What we're going to be needing to do in the next couple of months is all the writing and the analyzing of all of that. But the work has started to be able to produce the report. Councilmember Balducci. Thank you. I've been listening to the comments with an ear to. What. Might be added to a striking amendment that we will work up for next Tuesday. And I heard some good ideas about things to focus on as we're building the program. And I heard Councilmember Lambert say that it would be a good idea to make sure that the folks working on the report were familiar with the Reinvesting in Youth study, which I think if it's in English, probably they are, but we will make sure that that's easy to do. I actually I would just want to check with my colleagues. I heard one suggestion that I would interpret as a change for the Stryker, and that is to make sure we ask the question as part of the analysis whether the balance is right between the different buckets or a large, you know, high level programmatic divisions in BSC. So if anybody thinks I missed something, please say so, because that's that's what I will take back as a potential add to the Stryker. And we will work up a final version as quickly as we can. Councilmember Balducci. I did not hear them speaking. So we will expect they will forever hold their peace. I don't expect that. But I think I've done the best job I can collecting one additional thing for the conceptual striker list, and then we'll work on making sure that's all in language. We've got a pretty good draft underway. Miranda and Tillery have been working on it, but we'll finish it up quickly and circulate it. Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you. Councilmember Valdes, you're the prime sponsor on this piece of legislation. Would it be your wish that we move it out without recommendation of all council that we hold in committee and expect to relieve committee of our counsel next week? I do not have a strong. Preference, but I suppose it would show commitment to move without without recommendation, I mean, and at least the commitment of getting it to council. So that would be fine with me. And I would I would so move. Councilmember She has moved. We move our motion 2020 202 for council without recommendation and again highlighting our discussion today about a striking amendment that would be prepared and offered to council next week. Councilman Romanski This is a procedural question, Mr. Chairman. I'm a little confused on the explanation regarding the relationship of the Regional Policy Committee. Was this a non-mandatory referral or or how is it that we're just not getting their input? It was another mandatory dual referral. There was not a corridor for all. Correct. But that's all I needed to understand. Thank you. And then in the council member building, as you just mentioned, I also understand that in the timeline for the report, there's a as you already asked the department to make sure they have time to do it, not to delay the formal request for the report. Councilmember Bell, anything further? Briefly. And I may be speaking for Councilmember Von Right, but a little bit here. But as chair of the IPC, I understand that he did put out a request to members of the IPC about tell them to if they had any input upfront that they should feel free to share that. And I actually did receive one piece of feedback from a member of the IPC, and I included that in the Striker Amendment list. I think that. Yeah. You know, again, it's a motion. It's a request for a report. Not a not an ordinance requiring a report. And if anything comes out, we have an RPG meeting coming up this week. If anything comes out of that, that is important. I will certainly join my colleagues in asking TCHC to make sure that they look at things that are important to our city partners, and I believe that they will be open to doing that if they can. So it's it's a sort of a mushy answer, but but we will do our very best to make sure we include feedback from the PC in our requests around this report. I thank you as chair and customer about the chamber, as I was truly just unsure of the process or the procedural posture of it. And I obviously when we go to advance the ordinance to put it on the ballot next year, that would be also the dual mandatory through our if it's on their work plan. So I'm hearing no more discussion. We have more than 20, 20, 200 artists advancing to full council without recommendation. So someone else seemed to be recognized. No. No. Ask the court to please call the. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Barghouti, I Council member BANDUCCI. But I. Council Member Dombrowski, i. Councilmember Dombrowski, outside councilmember dunn. By. Councilmember dunn, go to councilman caldwell's i. Councilmember Caldwell spoke to councilmember lambert. Councilmember lambert gonzales. I am up the ground. I councilmember of the ground but i councilmember of honor. I council member upon break thereabouts i council members on life. I council members all my votes i. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is 19 to announce. By your vote we have moved advanced motion 2020 202 for Council without recommendation we will expedite. So it is on the agenda for next Tuesday's council meeting. Thank you, everyone. That brings us to item seven proposed ordinance 2020 203, which would place on the November ballot a charter amendment to allow the county to sell some properties for less than fair market value, provide for affordable housing. Mary Brennan from the council's policy staff will present a staff report and then we'll hear from Charter Review Commissioner Michael Harrison. Some colleagues please note that each of the charter after each charter amendment staff and there are presentation slides from the Charter Review Commission members in the meeting packet without Mary. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, this is Mary Burge, and I'm from the council staff. And the materials for this item begin on page 23 of the committee packet. As you noted, Mr. Chair, proposed ordinance 2020 0203 would propose an amendment to the Charter to allow the transfer, sale or lease of county metropolitan functions surplus property at less than fair market value for affordable housing. As you noted, this is one of the 11 charter amendments recommended by the King County Charter Review Commission. And just for timing. If you wish to place this charter amendment on the November 3rd ballot, the last regular council meeting date for adoption is July 21st. So moving on, just to provide some context on this issue, if you'll jump ahead to page 25 of the staff report, because of the importance and need for affordable housing in the county, the King County Code has a process for dedicating county owned surplus property for housing. In fact, it requires that if a county agency declares property surplus, the agency must first determine whether that property is needed for a different county agency, for essential government services, and if not, whether it is suitable for affordable housing. If that property is suitable for affordable housing, then the code allows that it can be leased or sold for less than fair market value. That said, as a number of restrictions on properties that cannot be used in this way either because they're not suitable for affordable housing, because they're outside the urban growth area or not zoned residential or have other issues, or because of the funding source that was used to purchase the property, or specifically for properties that are called out in section 2310 ten of the King County May Charter. And if you'll turn to page 26 of the staff report, that section of the charter deals with functions. Properties that are owned by what are called metropolitan functions of the county. Those functions are defined in state law. And you'll see a list on the top of page 26 of the packet as being a number of services that can provide for populous areas of the state a way of obtaining essential services. Those include any of the following of water pollution abatement, water supply, public transportation, garbage disposal, parks and parkways and metropolitan comprehensive planning. Now, the two we typically think of in King County as being metropolitan functions are those that were once part of the independent municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, which was created by King County voters in 1958. Voters created that entity to manage wastewater treatment. And then in 1972, added public transit. The independent municipality of Metropolitan Seattle functioned until 1994, when its functions were assumed into King County under a state law that allows for metropolitan functions to be operated by county governments. In anticipation of King County, Samsung's assumption of these functions. In 1992, King County voters approved a charter amendment that did a number of things. First, it expanded what was then a nine member, King County Council, into a 13 member Metropolitan King County Council. It created the three regional committees, regional policy, transit and Water Quality, and it added a section to the charter. The section 2230, 1010 that I mentioned earlier and that you can see cited on page 26 of the staff report that specifically notes that metropolitan functions that are performed by the county must be operated as distinct functional units , and specifically that any revenues or property received for those functions cannot be used for any other purpose. But for that function. What that means specifically is that properties owned for the use of metropolitan functions operated by the county cannot follow the code provisions for being transferred or sold or leased for less than fair market value for affordable housing. That then takes us to 2018, an action by the state led by the state legislature, which will see described on page 27 of the packet. During the 2018 state legislative session, the Legislature passed a bill to promote the use of surplus public property for affordable housing. And while it had a number of exclusions of types of properties that could not be used in this way, it did specifically allow for the transfer or sale at less than fair market value for properties held by enterprise funds regardless of the primary purpose or function of the agency holding the property. Following the passage of this law last year, the Charter Review Commission proposed that that relevant section of the charter be amended to add in the ability to transfer, sell or lease these enterprise fund metropolitan function properties if surplus to be used for affordable housing. You can see at the bottom of page 27 the relevant charter section again and then at the top of page 28. In underlined the sentence that the Charter Review Commission has recommended be added, which would state to the extent not otherwise prohibited by law. This section shall not preclude the county from leasing, selling or conveying the properties at less than fair market value for affordable housing purposes. So if the Council were to adopt this ordinance and place this charter amendment before the voters, what it would do is not require, but rather allow that properties owned by agencies operating metropolitan functions could make that property available for less than fair market value for affordable housing. Now, what would that mean? You'll see starting on page 28 of the staff report, a number of potential implications, many of which were discussed by the Charter Review Commission during the course of their work last year. First, the notion that some of these properties may have been designed for or purchased for capital projects or to, if not actually be used for capital projects to have the proceeds fund capital projects, which could have implications next that there would obviously need to be careful inter-governmental accounting to account for any transfer or sale of a metropolitan function piece of property. Third, the notion of best use of funds. The committee asked whether it is always the best use of funds to sell a piece of county property at less than the fair market value, rather than to simply sell the property for fair market value and use the funds to develop affordable housing elsewhere. Presumably a question that could be resolved on a case by case basis. Next, restrictions on use and resale, with the committee noting that if you were to sell any of these properties, you would want to make sure of the long term affordability of the property. Some things that King County's Housing and Homelessness Community Development Division has developed for their other property transfers and affordable housing programs. Next issue, noted, is the cyclical nature of the housing market, with the Charter Review Commission noting that in some cases when the housing market is not roaring ahead as it has been these last several years, it may be that there are other tools or even just the market itself that would be sufficient to provide affordable housing. And so this tool may not always be necessary. Next, the Commission pointed out that there are other housing investment options that the county has in its capacity as a regional government, including zoning, other developer incentives and other forms of funding that would be in addition to making surplus property available. And then finally, the Charter Review Commission just raised the caveat that they did not see it as being appropriate, that the county would ever be in a situation of purchasing property simply to then sell it for less than fair market value for housing. So again, these were all issues raised by the commission during their deliberations. All issues that were this charter amendment to be adopted by voters the Council would want to consider in some way, potentially by amendments to the section of code that deals with the surplus of county owned property. I'll conclude by noting that it is impossible at this point to estimate what the potential fiscal impact from this could be, as this is something you'd have to consider on a property by property basis. Looking at. First, if a property is available and suitable for affordable housing, then if it has any other restrictions on its use or surplus. For instance, if it was purchased through the use of a levy by ratepayer funds or with federal grant funds, that would preclude its transfer for a less than fair market value. And then finally, what would be the difference between what would be fair market value at that point and what the property would be transferred for? So this is something that would really have to be done in the future on a case by case basis, typically in the way that the council makes property surplus decisions. Now finally, I'll note that there is a technical amendment on page three of the First Amendment packet that you were sent out this morning simply makes a couple of wording changes to make sure that the title and the body of the ordinance have the same words in them, but nothing substantive. And then again, just a reminder that if you wish to move forward in November, the last regular council meeting date for adoption would be July 21st. That concludes my report. As the Chair noted, there is a member of the Charter Review Commission here to make a presentation which begins on page 35 of your packet. Thank you, Mr. Burton. See, no urgent questions will go to the member of the Charter Review Commission. Mr.. Help me. I'm sorry, Mr. Holsten. Some. Michael Hirsh. Hansen Michael Hirsh. Jonathan, welcome. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for inviting me, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mrs. Bourguignon, for your presentation. I think you should include clarifying all the details that the Commission considered over its term and why the Commission believes that this is an important change to make in the King County Charter. I have very little to add that you have all the details before you. I'm happy to take any questions, if you have any, but I would encourage you to place this matter on the ballot this coming November. It is very. Appropriate. Even more appropriate now in our present time than when the commission considered this last year. So I don't want to take any more of your valuable time and any questions that you might have for new women's bourguignon would be appreciated. Thank you very much for joining us today, and thank you, more importantly, for your work on the Charter Review Commission for over a year. We appreciate the work you and your colleagues did in bringing all of the recommendations to us. And you're joining us to speak to this one today. Welcome. Questions of staff for our commissioner. Member Council member LAMBERT Thank you. So. You know, because I've been used to they have to keep each enterprise whole. How will an enterprise who had on their books an asset was worth, say, $10 Million and now it's going to be given away. How will that enterprise be made whole? Because a lot of our enterprises are doing better than the general fund, but that may not always be true. And then one of the things that concerns me is that I think we should, if we do go forward with this, that we should look at tracking whether the property was acquired by eminent domain or as a staging area. Because I am concerned that some of our projects, if we say we need a staging area of five acres, that maybe we only needed three, we would say five, and then we would have that as surplus property. And it's a concern I'm already concerned about. So this would only make that a bigger concern. So if we do go forward, those are. Two things I think we would need to put in the enabling legislation so that we don't end up with that. So my question is, how do we keep the enterprise accounts as much as they possibly can be without it being moved at less than market value? Thank you, council members. So as as I noted, these were issues that the Charter Review Commission considered last year and are issues that would not necessarily need to be in this charter amendment legislation, but rather through a future amendment to the King County Code. In terms of the processes that are used to surplus property, clearly you would have to ensure that there are very careful accounting measures taken so that if enterprise fund properties are surplus for less than fair market values, that is clearly accounted for. And as you noted, council member clearly there would need to be oversight of good business practices so that the county is not in the situation of purchasing properties it does not need for another purpose. That said, we do have a fairly extensive section in the King County Code right now for all non enterprise function agencies that surplus property. And so it may be that if this were to be approved by voters, you could address those issues through the code as part of that section. Okay. Thank you for that. How does the enterprise made whole? Would that be the general fund? How would that happen? Council Member It would essentially take the loss of that delta and I see that Patrick Hamacher is available, who staff the Charter Review Commission. If he wanted to add anything but essentially the Enterprise Fund would have to eat that difference between what they could get and what they are getting. That's exactly that's all I was going to add as well. Mary, Mary, hit it right on the head. The price. You're you're right council member Lambert that you've always learned that. And that has always been true. Prior to that 2018 state law changed. So what what is now allowable is that the Enterprise Fund could take a loss on the difference between the value of the land and what and transferring it to whatever they got out of it for if it's being used for the affordable housing purposes. So you're not you're not wrong to remember it that way. It's that the state law has changed. So. It the enterprise zone enterprise, the opportunity to tell the council, you know, I realize this is surface property, but we can't. Afford to eat. X number of millions of dollars. You know, all of these transactions would have to come before the council for approval. Well, I guess there are some very tiny ones that don't have to come to the council for approval, but those aren't going to be the ones you're talking about. Anything with any meaningful dollars would. Still, as Mary is noted for the Title four, provisions have to come to the Council for approval. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are you ready for a motion? I would be, yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move. Adoption of proposed ordinance 2020 203. Councilmember Dombroski did we give a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 203? Councilmember Dombrowski. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have a whole lot to add beyond Mary, Vernon's Comprehensive and Excellent Staff Report and the remarks of Commissioner Hirsh Johnson from the Charter Review Commission. My recollection is that this was one of the early action items that they brought last year before us. Maybe not. But in any event, is a high priority. The Regional Affordable Housing Task Force, as you all know, identified a number of strategies to respond to the affordable housing crisis facing residents of our region. And one of the strategies or maybe it's a tactic, but whatever it is, is to look at available public lands to see whether or not they can be put to use. And a number of inventories have been done on those lands, like many solutions that maybe sound easy. I think those inventories have shown that a lot of public property simply just isn't suitable because it's too small or it's incorrectly zoned or in the wrong locations. But there are a number of parcels that often are owned by the county government that could be put to use to support the response to the affordable housing crisis facing the region. Some of those are, in fact owned by the kinds of funds that Mary identified, what we might traditionally call their funds. This charter amendment would be the next step in an initiative started by then Speaker Chopp in the Legislature, which I think followed some meetings with many of us at the council he had IS as he began to work more closely with the county in identifying actual sites to build projects. Some of those that became clear really couldn't be freed up in at a below market rate. He helped pass that law, led the effort to pass the law in Olympia to bring us to this point today. The Charter Review Commission, I think correctly has phrased the language. It's is not a mandate as simply as the releasing of the fines, the chains that prevent us from making the decision to sell a piece of property in the wastewater treatment division or the solid waste division, for example, at less than fair market value. I agree with the Commission and Mary and Councilmember Lammers point that some additional policy work will probably need to be done in an implementing ordinance later or motion that says, you know, in what cases and under what terms and conditions we would want to pursue this. And it may be a case by case basis. It may be, Councilmember Lambert, that a division could afford to turn over a piece of property with no compensation. Or maybe they want half the fair market value. The way this is written is it doesn't preclude any any of those options. So I think it's a good step and allows us some flexibility if the voters approve it, to be able to put some property that we have to use for this important public function. We're doing some of that on a short term basis. Just by way of example, Councilmember Cole Wells knows this well and she may want to speak to it in her district down on Elliott. The wastewater treatment division owns a a parcel where we have placed on a temporary basis modular housing. And the reason it's temporary and the reason we haven't been able to. One reason we have to move forward on a permanent basis is this very issue of of the Enterprise Fund and the Accountancy Act and the requirement that properties acquired for use by a utility be be used for the utility. So I think, for example, this would allow us to on that parcel and other similarly situated to have more flexibility to bring them on line for housing. So I encourage members support and I'll offer the technical amendment when you're ready, Mr. Chair. That's not my double duty. I just a question and so. I. Thinking similarly there we worked on a been working on a project here on the east side to create not affordable housing. But while some affordable housing and a shelter on a piece of property that's owned by the Solid Waste Division, and I have been told repeatedly that that property can't be reduced in price. It has to go for fair market value because it's owned by the utility. Does this change remove that impediment? I didn't think it did. I thought it had to do with state law. So, Councilmember, I think we'd have to look at the the way the property was purchased. This the change in state law allows enterprise funds to take a loss on these properties for affordable housing, and changing the charter would remove our prohibition. But if there are other impediments such as that the property was purchased using funding that cannot be dedicated in that way, for instance, you know, ratepayer funds or a federal grant for parkland with conservation futures tax dollars, there may be other impediments that would prevent it. So it would really be on a property by property basis. But this charter change amendment would remove the Enterprise Fund impediment. Okay. I believe in this situation. It would have to do with repair funds being involved. So it does not change the legal requirements with regard to. And that, by the way, I'm totally in favor of this proposal. And you can only do what you can do with the county charter. And I would be in favor of us trying to find ways for a government to be able to surplus properties even if they had been purchased with ratepayer funds. But I'm just trying to confirm what this actually does. This does not change the rules with regard to purchase properties purchased with ratepayer funds. This would not this would simply say that if the property is held in an enterprise fund and there are no other impediments, while it could not be used in this way today, it would be able to be in the future. But if there are other impediments or legal issues, then it would not be able to be so today because of the language immediately preceding this charter amendment. Enterprise funds wouldn't be able to discount properties, but with this change they would. That is correct. Without other amendment the correct answer. Councilmember Dombrowski. I thank you, Mr. Chair. A move adoption of Amendment One, which is the technical amendment previously described. Councilmember Damascus approved adoption of Amendment One, saying no discussion. All those in favor, please say i. I. I oppose nay. The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted for the discussion. Of no further discussion, Councilmember Wells. Just be ready to vote, Mr. Chair. Okay, fair enough. And then I ask you to please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member Value Chain. I Council Member Blue Chip Outside Council. American Masking. I remember DEMBOSKY about to become. A. Council member done or to iron council member Caldwell's high member Caldwell spoke. Council Member Lambert High Ranking Member Lambert Goldstein Council Member of the Grove High Council Member of the Girl Scouts I Council Member Von Richthofen. I. Council member of one night bar votes i council members all my. High. Council members all I. Votes I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. Votes I. The vote is 980. Knows by your vote we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 203 will expedite that to full council next Tuesday. Takes us to item nine proposed ordinance 2020 204, which would place on the November ballot amendments to carry charter the would change the term citizen to public or resident. Brenda Luskin from the council's policy staff will provide a report and then we'll hear from Charter Review Commission members Toby Nickson and Linda Miranda. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Members of the Committee for the Record, Randall Askern and Council staff. The materials for this item, item number eight begin on page 39 of your committee meeting packet. As noted by the chair, this item, if approved, would submit a charter amendment proposition to the voters to update terminology and change references from citizen to either public or resident where applicable in the King County Charter. As a quick note of background, the word citizen currently appears in four areas of the charter in its preamble in Section 260, in Section 630 and in Section 800. Again, the proposed ordinance, if approved, would place on the November general election ballot a proposed charter amendment that would replace references to citizen to either public or resident. In the preamble in sections 260 and 800 of the County Charter. The proposed ordinance itself, which is consistent with the recommendation of the Charter Review Commission, shows the specific changes that the proposed Charter amendment would make in the charter language, and a copy of the proposed ordinance is in your packet on pages 43 to 46. Of note, the proposed ordinance and amendment would not make changes to Section 630 of the Charter, which relates to all elected officeholder qualifications. And just for context on this, as stated in the 2018 19 Charter Review Commission's report to this Council, as quoted, there is one reference to citizenship that will remain in the Charter if this amendment is passed. Currently, state law requires citizenship to hold elective office in the state unless state law changes. The Commission does not recommend removing this sentence. Similarly, for the last item in order to place this potential charter change amendment on the November ballot, the last regular council meeting date for adoption of this item would be July the 21st , as the deadline for elections to receive an effective ordinance is August the fourth. There there are amendments for this item, Amendment one and a corresponding title amendment Amendment One, which is located on page five of the committee's amendment packet and would make technical corrections and clarifications regarding the ballot title and the election date in which the proposed amendment would appear on the ballot. And then title the corresponding title of amendment, which then page seven of the amendment packet would simply conform the title of the ordinance to the changes made by Amendment One. As noted by the Chair, we are joined by members of the Charter Review Commission, including Linda Larson and Toby Nixon, who are on the line and will also speak to this item. Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks. Thank you, Mr. Tusk and Ms.. Larson. Mr. Nixon. I'm going to go first. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the Council. It's good to be with you again, albeit virtually. For the record, I am Toby Nickson, member of the Charter Review Commission and of the King and of the Kirkland City Council. Each Council member. Thank you for this opportunity to address you today. Commissioner Larson and I will be presenting the proposed Charter amendment on revising use of the word citizen in the charter. I will first talk about what the proposed amendment does, and then Commissioner Larson will talk about why early in the charter review process, I carefully reviewed the entire charter and among other things, were surprised to see the word citizen used in several places where it didn't seem necessary and this amendment would change all but one of those instances to a more inclusive term. In the preamble, it changes the phrase enable effective citizen participation to enable effective public participation. In Section 260, it changes the name of the Office of Citizen Complaints to the Office of Public Complaints in two places and also changes citizen of the county to member of the public with regard to when the subpoena power of the office may be used. And finally, in Section 800, it changes the makeup of the Charter Review Commission itself from being citizens to being residents, which really is a substantive change. It does not change, as noted, the one instance of citizen in the charter where it refers to holding elected office, which under state law does require you to be a registered voter , which requires you to be a citizen. And this is a very simple charter amendment. I suspect there might be some. Controversy about it, but nevertheless, it's the right thing to do. And I believe it will be supported by the people of King County. I urge you to support placing it on the ballot this November. And I also want to thank Councilmember Adam Baffsky and Councilmember Caldwell's for sponsoring the ordinance. And to you all for hearing it. Now, I'll hand off to Commissioner Larson to explain why the commission made this recommendation. Thank you. I'm Linda Larson. I'm a member of a charter review commission and a lawyer and a partner at Norseman LLP in Seattle. As part of our initial work, the Commission looked at the changing demographics of King County. We learned that King County has grown by almost 300,000 people since 2010, and over three quarters of the population growth in that last decade has been people of color. And over half of our total population growth has been from people born outside of the you know, outside of the United States. One in four residents of King County over the age of five speaks a language other than English at home. So having a charter that was inclusive for all King County residents was very much top of mind as the commission went about its work. The citizenship of a person. And what that means in terms of access to government and government services has become highly politicized, as Toby just mentioned. However, the commission is not aware of any situations where the county denies access to government or services to individuals based on their citizenship. And we believe that the Charter should reflect this policy and this practice. Many agencies and protections exist to prevent discrimination based on citizenship. The 50 year old language in the charter does not reflect either the current demographics of. The county and is needed and. Is needlessly politically charged. It's also unwelcoming to new residents who we very much welcome to our community. The Commission strongly concurred with existing county policies that make access to government and government services. Available to all. Residents of King County. And we believe that the proposed amendment is both necessary and equitable to make sure. That. The words of this 50 year old document reflect the current reality. And I actually I agree with Toby that the majority of voters are going to want to adopt this amendment, and we hope very much that you will put it before them in November. Thank you to you both. Colleagues. Questions of staff or our commissioners. Three None. Council Member Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm very proud to move adoption of Ordinance 2020 DASH tool for. Council member Damascus moved adoption of Ordinance 2022 for Councilmember Dombrowski. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Socrates said, I am a citizen of the world and my nationality is goodwill. This recommendation brought forward by the Charter Review Commission represents the best of goodwill and the welcoming spirit that we exhibit here in King County. Like many of you, I have had the privilege in elected office to attend swearing in ceremony for new citizens in Seattle down in Boston. And I think they are the most uplifting and heartwarming of public ceremonies that I am proud to have been able to attend an and entrepreneur. Wells often attended the one at the Seattle Center and speaks very fondly of it. And at those ceremonies I realized the privilege I had of being born here and being given citizenship. And I'm very proud to be an American citizen and to have all the rights and obligations that come with that. We have over 500,000 people. As Commissioner Larsson mentioned in some of her statistics, but in addition to the ones she mentioned, over 500,000 people living in King County, more than one in five were foreign born. And while many choose to become citizens, many aren't. But we in King County do not discriminate in our service provision or in our rights and duties as a government to be responsive to those living here based on their citizenship. And so this this this charter amendment really, I think, clarifies and corrects, perhaps an unintended use of the term from 50 years ago, because it is used in a number of contexts in the charter where clearly it doesn't apply. And Commissioner Nixon, you correctly pointed those out. Should somebody be precluded from making a complaint to the Office of Citizens complaint because of their nationality or their lack of citizenship or their citizenship? No, I don't think so. And so this change would would clarify that it does leave intact, obviously, the citizenship requirement around voting, but I think it is a step in the right direction. The wonderful thing about our charter is it's a lot easier to mend than some of the founding documents of our country where they had phrases like all men are created equal and how often do we wish that that was not as exclusive today as it sounds and and in many cases has been? So I think this is a great amendment. I think it's consistent with recent work done by our three female members of the council, Councilor Carlos Baldacci and Lambert, to remove gender, a language that was exclusive a couple of years ago. The community that residents of our county that voted for that overwhelmingly, I think appreciated it. And for those reasons and that the reasons articulated by the commissioners, I really think this is the right thing to do and I hope it will go forward. I'll say this as a proud American citizen, it does not diminish in any way all of what it means to be a citizen of this country. Instead, it means that we are more welcoming here in King County and not excluding folks based on some language put in our charter over 50 years ago. So thank you very much. And when you're ready, Mr. Charter comments, I'll move the amendments. Councilmember Carl Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to join you in supporting this Charter Review Amendment, and I'd like to say that what is so one of the most amazing things about our country is our embracing of our equity and social justice principles, using that as a lens in evaluating everything that we do. And I am particularly gratified that the King County Strategic Plan, which was first adopted in 2010, brings out a guiding principle of our government of being equitable and fair and focusing on equity means that our people have full and equal access to opportunities that enable them to attain a folk potential. And I think that actually brings in another concept of equality and fair and just meaning. The county serves all residents by promoting fairness and opportunity and eliminating inequities through actions to reach equity and social justice. Foundational practices are applied, and that's what this measure is about. Every resident of our county deserves to have equal treatment. Every resident of our county deserves to be able to obtain their full potential. So I commend this to you and support this amendment. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion at this time. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move Amendment One technical amendment previously described. Councilmember Dombroski moves adoption of Amend one, which is on page five of our amendment packet. See no discussion of this. Please say I, I may. The ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Councilmember Dombrowski moved the title amendment. Mr. Chair. Title moment to you one as before. I see no discussion others in favor. Please say I. I opposed nay. The ayes have it. The title amendment is adopted. Any further discuss, debate and conclusion. Councilmember Dvorsky. I just want to close by thanking our two commissioners who are here today, and in particular Councilmember Nixon, who jumped right in on the Charter Review Commission work. Councilmember Balducci made a very wise recommendation there in getting on the Charter Review Commission, but for catching this language and thinking about it critically, as he does on some of the issues and bringing it forward to today and hopefully to adoption in November. Thank you, Councilmember Nixon. And thank you, colleagues. Thank you, Madam Court, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member. Baluchi I Council member body Chief Council member Dombrowski. I thank the member Dombrowski about I Council Member Done. By. Item member Dan Goldstein Council Member Caldwell's High Council Member Caldwell Sports Ion Council Member Lambert I Council Member Lambert voted for Article II Council Member of the group I Council member von right there. I council member gone make the votes I council members all my. High. Council members are the line votes. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. But I the vote is 19 zero noes a vote. We have given a passed recommendation to ordinance 2022 or four as amended. Are we comfortable putting this on consent at full council? We will expedite to next week. Are we putting it on consent? Yes, gentlemen. Yes, I hear. Yes. So, yes, we will put it on consent next week. And colleagues have your attention about consent. Would we be also comfortable putting the previous item ordinance 2022 or three regarding housing consent as well? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes. So we will put forth the ordinance we just adopted to a floor and the previous one, two or three consent, and both are expedited to full council. That takes us to the last item in our agenda, proposed ordinance 2020 207 which replacement of member ballot a charter amendment to the anti-discrimination provisions of the charter. The proposal would seek to prohibit discrimination in county employment or contracting on the basis of being a family caregiver or on the basis of military or veteran status. Andrew Kim will give us a staff report on the proposed charter amendment and then we'll hear from Charter Review Commission member Marcos Martinez. Mr. Kim. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And you can with council essential staff. The staff report for this item begins on page 51 of your agenda packet. As you mentioned, Mr. Chair, the audience were pleased to file a proposal on the next general election to amend Section 840 of that. All right. I'm doing a zoom call or a Zoom hearing. Councilor, by working your mute, please. There we go. So this would place a ballot proposal to amend King County Charter to prohibit discrimination in employment or compensation of county officers or employees, and also prohibit the county from contracting with any parties that discriminate on the basis of family, caregiver and military status or status. As a veteran who was honorably discharged or who was discharged solely as a result of the person's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. If I can direct members to page 52, I'm on top of page 52. So the last time the session 840 on Anti-Discrimination was amended was in 2008, where the council voted for adopting an ordinance to place a ballot proposal to add disability, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression as additional protected classes. And that ballot proposal was adopted with 71% of the vote on November 4th, 2008. I'm moving forward to page 54. The section called Protected Classes. Just for background, a protected class refers to a group of people with a common characteristic who are legally protected from discrimination on the basis of that characteristic. The protected classes have been inconsistently applied throughout King County Code, and these and this include inconsistencies between the county charter and the county's nondiscrimination ordinances, which is throughout King County code. These inconsistencies have been a result of both council policy choices and from inconsistently updating the King County code when set, when legislation is taken up related related to protect the classes. Table one on the bottom of page 54 and beginning on page 55 provides a list of protected classes that are included in federal, state and county laws. I would direct you to the last I'm sorry, the row that the rightmost column to move to two rightmost columns of the table comparing the King County Charter and King County Code. So on page 54, the list of protected classes are fairly consistent together with King County, China and King County Code. But if you go to page 55, you'll see that some of the protected classes are included in King County Code, whereas some of those protected classes are not applied in King County Charter. Just wanted to provide that that comparison between the charter and the King County Code and to the members. Moving along to page 56 as as is similar to the other proposed ordinances. This is also one of the 11 charter amendments recommended by the Charter Review Commission and deferred to one of the members to provide their thoughts on that. On the bottom of page 36, we talk about the family caregiver protected class. So as shown in table one. State law includes families with children as a protected class, and familial status is a protected class under federal law. However, neither are protected classes in the county charter nor in King County Code. The county's nondiscrimination ordinance is related to fair housing, and public accommodations include parental status as a protected class. However, the term family caregiver is not an explicitly designated protected class under federal, state and county laws, according to an advocacy group that promotes equality for family caregivers. They state that a few states and over 60 local jurisdictions currently offer protection for caregivers under their employment discrimination laws. One example is New York City, which explicitly designates the family caregiver as a protected class under their human rights law. In addition, the EEOC issued guidance in 2007 explaining the circumstances under which discrimination against workers with caregiving responsibilities may constitute discrimination. Military and Veterans Status Protected Class. So, as also shown in Table one, honorably discharged veteran or military status is designated as a protected class under federal and state law. However, the protected class is only included in the county's nondiscrimination ordinance related to county employment discrimination. Under Chapter three, that 12 by way of background. Don't Ask, Don't Tell was a federal policy between 1994 and 2011, which prohibited prohibited any LGBTQ person from disclosing their sexual orientation or from speaking about any relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes while serving in the United States Armed Forces. The policy stated that any LGBTQ service member disclose their sexual orientation conduct be other than honorably discharged. According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. More than 13,000 service members were discharged under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. But as as members are aware, in 2011, this policy was repealed by the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act in 2010 of 2010, and thus allowing LGBTQ persons to serve openly in the United States Armed Forces. The Military.com article, Military.com article in 2016 states that approximately 8% or about 1000 individuals of those discharged under the Don't Ask , Don't Tell policy have applied to upgrade their discharge status. Based on preliminary analysis by council staff, there is currently no US governmental jurisdiction that have explicitly designated veteran who was discharged solely as a result of a person's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression as a protected class. However, just recently, in November 2019, the State of New York adopted law to restore benefits for those LGBTQ veterans. And the state of Rhode Island recently adopted law to upgrade discharge status for those LGBTQ veterans that were other than honorably discharged to honorable to permit them from receiving veterans assistance. Similar to the other proposed ordinances that were spoken today, the ballot timeline is similar in that we've inquired executive staff on event, but due to the timing, we we didn't have time to incorporate their feedback into the staff report and they are here at the meeting. If members have any questions. And lastly, Mr. Chair, there is a striking amendment S1 entitling them to one which makes them technical corrections. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you, colleagues. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move! Move! Adoption of the ordinance. Thank you. However, I jumped the gun and I want to back up and invite Mr. Martinez to present. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to the rest of the council members for including these proposed amendments on the agenda today. Thank you, Andrew Kim, for your presentation. Just to very briefly kind of underscore and share with you some of our thinking. You know, the family caregiver proposal is an idea that is very timely, especially now we are seeing so many demographic changes in our society. One of the advocacy groups, a group called Caring Across Generations, shares with us these very quick statistics. So every day, 10,000 people in our country turn 65 years old. It's estimated that 70% of people over 65 will require long term care for for an average of three years. And importantly, 80% of that care will be provided by family members. And so that's really kind of the key there, is that a lot of the care that our elders are receiving is provided by family members. And so that's really kind of the key point here that our families are providing care. And so it's important for for our families, this is really changing the nature of work. You know, and we're seeing this so much right now in the during this pandemic, you know, the blurring of work and home life. It's been it's been discussed in this very set, in this very meeting. And so, you know, this having this this this kind of antidiscrimination protection for people who are home caregivers is really important. And then the I think that the the protections for veterans is is something that, you know, we've seen these protections for years and years now. And so having this codified in the King County Charter makes perfect sense. There's been a great deal of progress made in this area. Unfortunately, under the current administration, we've actually seen some of the we've seen, for instance, transgender individuals. We've seen some steps backward, backwards in that against that community. And so one of the amendments that provides the protections for the transgender community. And so, you know, those are some of the important points, I think, with regard to these proposed amendments. So thank you for your attention. Thank you, colleagues. Councilmember Dombrowski. Okay. Thank you. And just for good measure, again, I'll move. Adoption of the ordinance. Thank you. Councilmember Dombrowski approved adoption of Ordinance 2020 207. Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you very much. I think the staff has done a good job and the commissioner an excellent job and explaining what this would do and the reasons for it. And just speaking briefly on my behalf as the sponsor of it, you know, we talk often of the charter as being the Constitution for our government. And the Constitution is the right place to enshrine protections for individuals, including those often quite the subject of discrimination by society at large. We protect the rights of minorities in our foundational documents, and this charter amendment would do that in these two important areas. The first, the family caregiver classification. And I think that the articulation of the reasons, therefore, by the Commissioner are really compelling with a growing, aging population. You know, many, if not all of us on this council have dealt personally with those issues of aging parents and shared those experiences with each other. We do offer some the federal federal government offers some protection in the FMLA, right. For folks to take leave in a protected way from your job to take care of folks. This is along those lines. With respect to the veterans protection, the story of Gretta or Kamehameha comes to mind a colonel in the Washington National Guard who served very capably and heroically for many years now. She was after disclosing her status as gay, honorably discharged. But many who served like her were dishonorably discharged. And there has been over the decades of limit on receiving public benefits and assistance for veterans to those who are honorably discharged. I think it's widely acknowledged that that policy of excluding folks who want to serve this country because of their orientation or status or identity is wrong. And that we have made some positive strides in that direction, that correcting that this charter amendment would add protections in our veterans programs and elsewhere in the government for those who were discharged, perhaps even quote unquote, dishonorably because of their status, sexual orientation or identity. We at this county have a tremendous history, probably the best in the country of any county for supporting our veterans with our state mandated program. It's been around a long time, but also our local veterans, seniors and human services levy. And I think this is a sends a positive message, but also makes a real change to to eliminate, frankly, what is a discriminatory restriction? A discriminatory restriction when we denied benefits or rights to those who served our country honorably and ably and bravely, but may have been discharged because of a discriminatory reason that to a large degree, the U.S. military has eradicated. So I commend these changes for for your consideration and hope that we can advance them to the voters. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Your council member. Would you remove adoption restriction amendment as such moved from striking amendment one has before us see no discussion of those in favor of Second Amendment S1 Please signify by saying I. I don't oppose. No, the ayes have it. Councilmember did ask you to one so moved. Councilmember DEMBOSKY has moved. Adoption of title amendment times wants those in favor. Please say I, i, i. I don't know. The ayes have it. However amendment is adopted. We have before US Ordinance 2020 207 as amended. Discussion. Further discussion, I shouldn't say. Seen no further discussion. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Belushi I Council member Belushi. Both I. Council Member Dombrowski. I. Council Member Dombrowski both I. Council Member Dunn. I council member done votes. I Council Member Coles. I Council Member Caldwell Spokes II Council Member Lambert. I Council Member Lambert. Voted Council member after girl. I Council member of the group. I council member upon my staff. I council member gone make the proposal. I council members online. I also members on high votes. I Mr. Chair. Hi Mr. Chair. Votes I The vote is 19 zero no's. Thank you. By your vote we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 207 as amended objection to including this on consent as well. No objection. Sharing them include this on consent as well. Madam Clerk, I believe all members were recorded as having voted on all items today. Is that correct? That's correct, Mr. Chair. Then we have no need of a reconsideration moment on the Council's agenda, and therefore I'd like to thank everyone who's here to participate in today's meeting. Most importantly, I'd like to thank the staff who made it all work so flawlessly and with no other business to come before us. The committee as a whole is adjourned. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.	A MOTION requesting the executive to prepare an assessment report to inform council deliberations regarding possible renewal of the best starts for kids levy.
king_4cdd29b8-7d73-451e-818a-bc89355ae518	Order. The King County meeting of Committee of the Hall for Monday, August 28, 2017. This is a special meeting and we have a number of items today. Welcome, everyone. I'll ask the court to please call the room. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garzon. Councilmember Caldwell's. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Madam Chair. Here, Madam Chair, you do not have a quorum. Okay, so we will skip over approval of the minutes. Just use this the wrong copy. Thank you. So that brings us to public comment. Is there anybody here for public comments? Going once, going twice, seeing none. We will move on to item. Public comment because. I don't believe we need a motion, but it is closed and we are on to briefing number 2017 be 0165. An update on the Gender Neutral Code. As my colleagues will remember, the county charter last year was changed by the voters to remove gender specific terms like councilman. One of the things I have observed in our offices upstairs is that there's a hallway and if you walk down the hallway, there's pictures on either side of historical councils going even back before Councilmember Von Right there was on the council. And and judging from this incomplete record, there have always been women on the King County Council ever since the formation of the King of King County Council. Yet we have a code that is not in keeping with that and has gender terms that seem to suggest that only men can perform certain positions. So high time to do this fix. But it's very complicated and we really appreciate the work that the staff have been doing to bring us up to date. We're here. We have Erin Osnes here to provide a briefing. And would you please introduce our newest member? Good afternoon, Aaron Osnes, council staff. Also with me is Sam Porter, our newest analyst, and Bruce Sorensen is also in the audience if you have questions. Sam Porter. Sam Porter, welcome. In the staff report for this item begins on page 11 of your packet. She called one. Okay. Today's briefing will cover what has been done so far and the upcoming schedule for this code update. As the Chair mentioned, there was a charter amendment passed last year to make the charter itself gender neutral. At the same time as that charter amendment was approved, the Council passed a motion directing the Clerk of the Council to draft and propose amendments to the code itself to make it gender neutral. The clerk's office and policy staff have gone through titles one, two, three, four and four A to modify the language where today it says he or she or him or his or her or some variation of that. The proposed code amendments would name the actor such as employee or council member. These are the most common changes in the code that we have identified. There are also some one time or rarely used gender specific terms, such as manpower, that would be proposed to be changed to be gender neutral or gender less. Looking at the schedule on page 13 of your packet, one thing I'll note is that finding these terms requires several sets of eyes in the code. It starts with Russell Pepple in the clerk's office, our code advisor, Bruce Ritson, and then Sam Porter reads every word of the code, and then I do a spot check. Once the proposed amendments are drafted, there will be legal review and outreach to impacted departments looking at the schedule. The code titles have been grouped into three different timelines. The first group, which includes the first five titles of the code, would be coming to committee this committee in November with potential adoption by the full council by the end of this year. The second group includes the county's development regulations. Some changes to these sections of code may require a 30 day public notice, and the potential adoption date of February 2018 reflects the worst case scenario for those that set. The third group includes the remainder of the code and shows potential adoption by the full council again in February of next year. Title six includes the business license section of the code. It's listed separately at the bottom of this chart because there potentially could be some special noticing or special legal issues with some of the changes in that title. So that may get wrapped up into another grouping or may be adopted by the end of April as a worst case scenario. That concludes my remarks. We can take any questions that you have. Thank you very much, council members. Any questions or comments about this work? It's, as I said, detailed and require some more decision making than you might think. But it will come to us in chunks over time. I mean, that's the main decision in front of us is whether to take it up in chunks over time and keep it moving along or do it all at once sometime next year. Yeah, it just seems to make good sense. Council Member Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd just like to give appreciation to you all and others who have been working on this. Just keep in mind it took six years for this to all be done with The O.C. ws in the Legislature, and it does take time. I think it's important. And we three were sponsors of the legislation, and I appreciate that all that's being done and the need to take it up and Groupon's thank you thank you Councilmember Caldwell's and I guess on behalf of the whole council welcome Sam. We're really glad to have you on board and to have you working on this project and others. So there's usually somebody who tries to ask kind of a silly question at this point, but I kind of unprepared. So you're off the hook. Welcome. We look forward to working with you. All right. Thank you very much. We'll move on to agenda item number six. Actually, I think we need to hold off on agenda item number six. We don't have a quorum. I'm sorry to keep you waiting, but if we could just maybe go through one more from here. We have five. Now, where's before? We've lost Councilmember one right there. But the question for the clerk, does this item confirming the executive's appointment to the King County Cultural Development Authority require a council vote? It's not a final vote here. We can move it forward with that recommendation. What we know we could do, as I just said, is a signature. Oh, and we have Councilmember Tomasky on the phone. I've forgotten. So we have five. Okay. Well, sorry. We're going to move to item number six, confirming the appointment of Gregory Beans to the King County for Culture Cultural Development Authority. Please come on up and set the table. The light in front of you is the white button and that'll turn on your microphone. But first I'll call on Leah crackles OPR Council staff to give a report. Good afternoon council members and is critical Darby Council Staff. The materials for this item begin on page 15 of your packet and this is a motion that would confirm Gregory Beames to the For Culture Board for a three year term expiring December 31st, 2019. I'm going to provide some brief background on the for culture board and the appointment process, and then I'll provide an introduction for Mr. Beames and the King County Council created for Culture King County's Cultural or Cultural Public Development Authority in 2002 in order to support, advocate for and preserve the cultural resources of the region in a manner that fosters excellence, vitality and diversity for culture is funded through a portion of the lodging tax revenues collected in King County. In addition for culture administers King County's public arts program, the 1%. For Art Program. And manages the King County Public Art. Collection. For culture is governed governed by a 15 member board of directors who are nominated by the King County Executive and confirmed by the King County Council. The composition of the For Culture Board is established by the For Culture Charter. The Charter requires that the Board of directors have a demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of cultural resources and be active and experienced in community and civic issues and concerns and have the available ability to evaluate the needs of cultural constituencies in the region as a whole, represent a range of talent, experiences, backgrounds and viewpoints, and be sought from a range of cultural, civic and business professions. Are residents of King County and reflect the geographic and cultural diversity of the county and have no more than six directors from any one municipal municipality. In addition, the board must include one of each of the following a director with expertize in the arts, a director with expertize in public art, a director with expertize in heritage, a director with expertize in his historic preservation, and a director from the business community. A board member served for terms of three years and may serve up to two consecutive full terms. In addition to the 15 board members, four culture has five ex-officio board members, which include one member of the executive staff and three county council members and four culture executive director. The Culture Board has a governance nominating committee that includes the ex-officio board members designated by the county executive and the County Council. And that committee is responsible for nominating candidates for appointment to the Board of directors after seeking community recommendations, the for culture board votes on the nominations made by the committee, and then those nominations are forwarded to the county executive who is responsible for appointing four culture board members. And then the County Council is responsible for confirming that board member members may serve, may begin serving upon confirmation by the Council or 30 days after their appointment, subject to subsequent council confirmation or rejection. And unless there are questions about the for culture board or appointment process, I'll next introduce Mr. Bean. Councilmember Gossett Thank you, Madam Chair. A few days ago we had a I think it was a law and justice committee meeting in. Sponsored quite a few members to the board for culture. And then one of the members of the Common Council said I'd are three or four or five members, all from your district and on board , all from District two. And I didn't really know the answer. So we had a little discussion about distribution of board members. And we also had challenges to that concept that it needs to be removed from every district. So it's hard and it's probably coincidental that two, three, four people from the same district are on the board. There can be up to six from one municipality, but it doesn't specify within which council districts. And so you couldn't have more than six from the city of Seattle, which your council district has and there aren't. But you could have a number from that council district of the nominating committee. And the executive and the council find that there are qualified members to serve. Okay. Thank you. And it was my understanding, Councilmember, is that the way as as Leah said, that the way the charter sets this up is that there was a desire that the board have diversity, not all from the city of Seattle. And so the definition is no more than six from any one city, and that we have six from the city of Seattle on the board now. And the other nine or however many, I don't know how many vacancies there are today are from other places. So but it's a good question and worth addressing. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. Since I'm one of the two districts that has nobody on this committee, that is very disconcerting to me. And I agree. We talked yesterday about the idea that isn't district wide, but it seems to me that there's 15 people that every district should have at least one person. So so the part here on page 15 is there no more than six directors, meaning one municipality that is in King County code or is that in the charter? That is in the four culture charter, which was initially adopted by the King County Council and could be amended, but it. Can't be amended. Yes. So I would like us to talk about taking that number from six down to four so we can talk about that. Who's on the governing nominating committee? Some of your colleagues sitting next to you. On the. OC are fired by the charter. Could be on the nominating committee. No, but you're done. What could be? It's like you're saying are. On it. According to the charter. That's what it should be. And he says You are. I'm on the nominating committee. By virtue of being. This is you only have 1/2. Okay. Trying to maintain control of the meeting here for a second. Mr. Kelly, why don't you come up, turn on the microphone, introduce yourself for the record, and then you can please proceed to address the councilmembers question. Thank you. Good afternoon. Members of the Council. I'm Jim Kelly, executive director for Culture. The fourth culture charter requires the three members of the King County Council serve as ex-officio members of the Four Culture Board. Currently, that is council members Baldacci, Gossett and Cole Wells. By virtue of your being ex-officio members of our board, you are on the board nominating committee. The board nominating committee includes all three ex-officio members from the council, the ex-officio member of the appointed by the executive, which is Jennifer Meissner and four members of the For Culture Board. And the charter also calls that the nominating committee be chaired by the four culture vice president. So vice president, three other board members, county council members, executive and myself serve as the nominating committee. Does it say in there that you're on the nominating. Committee because I'm an ex-officio member of the board? Yes. The executive director is a ex-officio member of the board. Okay. When when are these meetings going to. We've had we've already had one. We've had our first meeting already. You have been invited to that meeting and you will be invited to others if you can't attend. That doesn't mean you can't send a nomination over to us. Oh, but is this process going on now? Yes, because we have two openings that will occur on the board at the end of 2017. We have one board member who's completing two terms at the end of 2017, and we have a second board member who is moving in her fifth year of board service out of Kane County. So those two positions are open. Well, I would definitely like to know when the next meeting is. I didn't know that the charter calls for us to automatically be on a nominating committee, and I want to be a little more responsive to that request in the future. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bassett. Councilmember Caldwell's. Okay, Madam Chair, I'm not wanting to be circumspect or the opposite of that, but I. I also had not known that I was a member by accepting the exhibition status of the nominating committee. But I did receive an email three weeks ago or so alerting me to the meeting and that if I could not attend, that I could submit recommendations for or nomination. So I did do that. I submitted one person's name and so I would think the others got that to me. But we get so much email and we get so. We tend to seek your staff because it. Makes. You believe that you have time to open all our emails between you and you. But I do it faithfully here. You do their councilmember member. So I have in the past when I was an expedition member, put in names and so I'm very concerned just one district, we are the two that have nobody. And I just don't think that. That's right. Well, I totally agree. I have not a problem with that. One of our board members was actually appointed to the board as a resident of District one, and then she and her husband moved to District four. I'm sorry we couldn't control that. So I would hope that that and I will do something on my part to send out an email asking for people in my district this expertize. But if you could look for people in my district also that you have regular contact with, that would be wonderful because I really do believe that we have discussions around here about things like is a barn art or is it not? And, you know, it's very important, as you know, and people love it. So we need to have somebody at the table that has that part of the county in mind. Right. Okay. Councilmember, I'd also add that I recently saw their For Culture newsletter, their e-newsletter that goes out and the call for board members did specifically say they were looking for people from districts one and three. Excellent. I forgot to mention that. They say that you. I'm so glad. Well, thank you. Very good. Thanks, Councilmember. Go. Wells Madam Chair. Tim So what she just said about having had been a member from District one, but she and her husband moved to District Court, otherwise I would have not had any. That's here. You've got Kirsten. Powers. I just have one. And that apparently was she was appointed to justice. Right. So it was accurate when we reported that we have a restriction that no more than six board members can come from any one city. And it so happens the two board members who were leaving are not Seattleites. So those open up to positions. If the council wants to consider reducing that number to four, that's entirely up to you. That is a charter revision that you would have to do by motion or ordinance. Okay. Like so, we have had a robust discussion about the structure of the board. We are here to appoint Mr. Beames. So welcome, Mr. Muzaffar. Thank you for being with us. Now you can sort of see the sausage being made here and how we how we engage with these issues. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested. In you want me to go first introduction. What are you going to share? Okay, my notes here say ask him to introduce himself. So I'm just going to give his bio and then. Very good. Okay. So Mr. Bean lives in Kirkland in District six. He's a coordinating partner at Ernst and Young and has 25 years experience providing audit services to public and private companies in a variety of technology and media fields. He's also a member of Ernst and Young Global Coordinating Partner Network and oversees Ernst and Young's Pacific Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year awards program. Additionally, he's a board member for the Washington Technology Industry Association, where he serves as the finance chair and he has bachelor's degrees in finance and accounting from Central Washington University and is currently pursuing his master in fine arts degree. From the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Okay. Thank you. Now, if there's anything else you would like to tell us about yourself and and about your interest in serving on the Fort Culture Board, please welcome. And thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I would say I actually completed my master's degree here this past December, and so I was fortunate enough to now have that in the bank and can spend time with my family again. Congratulations. Thank you. The other thing I would tell the committee is I serve on various other nonprofit organization boards here in the community. I've joined the photographic center, Northwest Board. I'm actually the board chair for this year. It's an arts education organization located on Capitol Hill that provides classes as well as certification in photography. And then I also am a board member and the Treasurer for an organization called Apprenticeship. It's developing an apprenticeship program that's taking people that are non software engineers and moving them into software engineer field. It's a one year apprenticeship program. It's focused primarily on minorities, women and veterans. And so over 50% of the participants have to be in that pool. We're actually at 80% at this point. It's a Washington based program, but it's also going to be rolled out nationally, and we're in the process of doing that as well. All right. Good. So my understanding is that you have been serving on the Fort Culture Board already for a period of time. So can you tell us a little bit about your experience, what you've learned, and maybe what some of your interests are going forward? Yeah, so I have been fortunate to serve on the Finance Committee for a little over a year now, and you're not required to be a board member in order to serve on the Finance Committee. And then beginning this year, I began attending the board meetings as well. And so I've really enjoyed my experience thus far with for culture. It's a very rigorous process was one of the things that impacted me initially in terms of the applicants for grants, both at the arts level, the individual artist as well as the organizational level. And I've been impressed both with the committees that go through that initial process, the other board members that then review, ask questions and approve that, as well as the staff people and their involvement just in making sure to do diligence around that and their involvement in the arts community. So it's an organization that I've been extremely impressed with and it's one that I'm excited to be able to participate in. Thank you. CASTMembers. Any other questions for Mr. James? Customer Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the things I hear a lot from people in the community about for a culture or entity, that this was a expand culture around our county is that they don't pay enough attention to cultural relevancy. What does that mean to you? In in terms of the different art for different cultures, or how do you mean that? And what I was asking you, what do you think it means? Cultural relevancy. So I would take that to mean that is the in the culture within which somebody sees themselves and is the artwork relevant to that particular culture as opposed to a general culture or somebody else's cultural background? Okay. Thank you. All right. At this time, yes. I called Councilmember Lambert to move this action item. Put it before us. Thank you. I'd like to propose motion 2017 0046 with a do pass recommendation. Okay. It's moved and is before us. Any other comments on this action? Or if not, I will. This is a roll call vote. Well, please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Hi. Councilmember Dunn. Hi. Councilmember Garcia. Hi. Councilmember Colwell. Hi. Councilmember Lambert. Hi. Councilmember McDermott. All right. Councilmember off the ground. Councilmember one right there. Madam Chair, I. Madam Chair, in the bonus, eight eyes, no no's and councilmember phone right there. Excuse. All right, with that, we have a do pass recommendation to the full council. And I haven't I don't think we've done a lot of these out of this committee. Does that typically go on a consent agenda? Yes. All right. We might as well expedite it because he's been serving for a while already. So no need for you to come to the full council meeting. It'll be a perfunctory consent agenda item, and we look forward to formally appointing you to the board and your continued active participation. Thank you so much for serving here. All right. And that will move us on to briefing item number seven, which is on the future of the regional solid waste system. It sounds almost philosophical. What is the future of the regional solid waste system? So we know there's a lot of study and planning that's been going on for a while, and I look forward to hearing the current status. I will say, since we're talking about our districts today, that I'm very pleased that the city of Bellevue and the Points communities along the east side of Lake Washington have recently announced their interest in remaining part of the county's solid waste system beyond 2028 that had been in question when their current contracts expire . Are all other regional partners have extended contracts to 2040 and with this decision then we have more tonnage and more service needs in the future. So in particular, we're talking about what to do with the demand management pilot and not moving forward with that while looking toward a new northeast transfer station. So these are recent developments and we're here to get a briefing on them and to have discussion. There's no action in front of us today. Correct. And I want to call on Tara Rose. Welcome. And please go ahead and give me a briefing. Thank you, Madam Chair. And members of the committee again, for the record, I'm Tara Rose. And with me is Mary Bergin on council staff. As the chair noted, today's briefing concerns the future of the regional solid waste system, and it will focus on the policy issues the county and its regional partners will face should the city of Bellevue decide to remain in the system until 2040. The materials for this briefing begin on page 21 of your packet. As you'll recall, the King County Solid Waste Division currently operates a number of transfer stations distributed around the county at which waste is consolidated and then transported to the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill. All cities and King County, with the exception of Seattle and Milton, currently have interlocal agreements or ILS in place that govern their participation in the regional waste disposal system. As the Chair noted, 32 cities have agreed to participate in the system through 2040 and five cities, Bellevue and four of the points communities have retained their original agreements in effect through June 2028. Policy decisions made by King County and its regional partners over the last several years have been based on a future in which these cities leave the system in 2028. However, again, as the chair noted, Bellevue has recently indicated interest in extending their participation. Moving ahead, I won't. Moving ahead, I will now turn to pages 22 and 23 and describe these recent developments with Bellevue. In July 2017, the city of Bellevue and King County cosigned a letter which is attachment one in your packet that states Bellevue's intent to sign the same extended ILA already signed by 32 cities but subject to two conditions. The first condition is that the county will not move forward with the demand management pilot and will instead agree to implement other approaches to providing capacity in the northeast area of the county. And that includes beginning the siting process for a new northeast transfer station. You'll recall that the division recommended that the hotel transfer station located in Kirkland be temporarily closed during the pilot. The letter notes that if Bellevue extends its system participation, the projected system tonnage and customer transactions would be substantially higher than currently planned. The letter goes on to state that this change in condition would lead the division to pursue termination of the demand management pilot, as it would no longer be considered a viable option for meeting transfer needs in the Northeast service area. The second condition outlined in the letter is that the Victoria Recycling and Transfer Station will not be identified as an alternative to a new Northeast transfer station and that the county will agree that it will not expand the Victoria station using by developing the escape property. The Eastgate property, owned by the division, is located adjacent to the Victoria station and was used as a staging area during the station's construction. The adopted 2017 2018 biennial budget anticipated that this property would go through the surplus process and that the proceeds from the sale, estimated at $8 million, would go toward funding future solid waste capital projects. In order for Bellevue to sign the extended ilay, the Bellevue City Council must vote to authorize the city manager to sign the agreement. The King County Council does not need to act to authorize the county executive to execute this agreement as authority has already been granted under a previous previous ordinance. As previously noted, should Bellevue decide to extend participation in the system, the division indicates that this extension would increase projections for overall system tonnage, as well as the number of transactions at the factory station. Historically, Bellevue has generated approximately 8% of the waste managed by the system. Policy decisions made by King County as its and its regional partners have been based on the five cities leaving the system in 2028. And as a reminder of some of these decisions or quickly provide an overview. If you're following along in your packet, I'm now on page 24. In 2007, the Council accepted and approved the 26 Solid Waste Transfer and Waste Management Plan, which made recommendations for replacing and modernizing the Aging Transfer Network, much of which had been built in the 1960s. Among other things, the 26 transfer plan recommended constructing a new transfer station in the northeast area of the county at a site to be determined, and then closing the Houlton transfer station in Kirkland when replacement capacity became available. Through this new station at the time of the council's approval of the 26 plan, the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill was expected to close in 2016 and waste volumes were projected to significantly increase. The council then appropriated funds in the 2008 annual budget towards planning for a new Northeast transfer station and subsequent budgets included additional funding for these planning efforts in 2013. However, given the substantial decline in projected system tonnage following the recession, as well as the possibility of the city of Bellevue and the four points communities leaving the system , the council directed the Solid Waste Division to work with stakeholders to complete a review of the 26 transfer plan. And this review was determine if changes were needed to ensure that the transfer system is sized and configured appropriately to meet both current and anticipated needs. This work resulted in the 2014 Transfer Plan Review Report, which identified and evaluated operational changes that could maximize the use of the existing assets and preclude the need for a new Northeast transfer station. The council then asked the division to complete further work to identify specific strategies to manage transactions at transfer stations, which culminated in the transfer plan review. Part two. The Transfer Plan Part Review Part two noted that there were several options for managing transactional demand, and based on this finding, the division recommended not building a new Northeast transfer station at that time, but to keep it as a potential option in the future. Furthermore, the division also recommended further development and testing of the demand management strategies. The King County Auditor's Office reviewed the findings in the Transfer Plan Review Part two, and in a 2015 letter to the Council affirmed that the division reasonably concluded that there were cost effective alternatives to a new northeast station and recommended that these strategies be tested. The letter also noted that there was significant risk associated with building a new transfer station as it was obligate the county to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build and operate a facility that may not be needed. The letter went on to suggest that although the forecast at that time appeared reasonably reliable, the division had overestimated long range tonnage in its past forecasts. Moving ahead to page 25 following the transfer plan review Part two in the auditor's findings, the Council appropriated approximately $2 million for the demand management pilot in the 2017 and 2018 biennial budget and also included the two provisos listed on 25. Given that these were relatively recent, I won't go over them in detail unless requested, but I will provide a short overview of what the division had included in the Demand Management Pilot Implementation Plan. That is a mouthful. As you'll recall, the pilot included the suspension of Commercial and South Hall Garbage Services at the Houghton Transfer Station, additional staffing at the Victoria and Shoreline Transfer stations, extended hours at factory air and peak hour pricing at Victoria to incentivize the use of these extended hours. The plan also indicated a start date of mid 2018 to allow time to address concerns raised by the advisory committee. Advisory committee members annihilate cities, the Metropolitan Solid Waste Management Advisory Committee, which advises the county on solid waste policy and planning issues. Issued an advisory note in April of this year expressly expressing concerns about the proposed demand management pilot. This is attachment to in your pocket. And these concerns included traffic impacts, regional inequities created for residents in the northeast area of the county, impacts on cities, contracts with private haulers and host city permitting challenges. The advisory note also reflected the opinions on the demand management pilot of the city representatives on the committee, which are outlined in table one of your packet. I'll now turn to page 27 and describe the next steps for council consideration. The executive recently transmitted proposed ordinance 2017 0323, which would reallocate approximately 2 million from the solid waste operating budget, where it would have been used for demand management and instead relegates to the Solid Waste Capital Program where it is proposed to be used to resume the planning and fighting process for a new northeast station. The proposed ordinance is structured such that the reallocation of funds would happen only if the Council acts on the proposed ordinance and Bellevue signs the extended ilay by October 31st of 2017. This ordinance has been introduced and referred to the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee. If Bellevue chooses not to extend its participation in the system, division staff have indicated they would plan to continue with the demand management pilot, which would require council approval of legislation establishing both peak pricing at the Victoria station, as well as authorizing the temporary closure of the Houlton transfer station. If Bellevue does agree to extend participation and if the council approves the proposed ordinance reallocating the demand management funds division staff would stop work on the demand management pilot and would embark on a siting process for a new Northeast transfer station. Subsequent council approval would for a new transfer station would be needed to provide additional budget appropriation for things like planning, siting, environmental review, evaluation of project delivery methodology and land acquisition, as well as consideration of host city in our local agreements. This concludes my remarks and I'd be happy to take any questions. We also have solid waste division staff on hand. Thank you. Very thorough report. I see we have some questions. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. Earlier in your remarks, you said that Bellevue and for other, I guess smaller entities said that they will rejoin the system or expand their involvement in the system. If we discontinue demand management almost totally, the context in which I've ever heard the term demand management is when a government or some other entity is doing something that enhances their ability to manage all the things they're responsible for, or more effectively somehow to rejoin on condition that did not do that? Or am I missing something? The demand management refers to strategies to manage demand at transfer station, so self hall customers and commercial customers so that the queuing process is slower in it as a way to not have to build a new Northeast transfer station. So what does that what would that have to do with discontinuing the demand management project? Or did I hear you right? So on page 27 of your packet, there's a tape on table one. It outlines the city opinions on the demand management. And you'll note that Bellevue is listed as one that believes that the siting process should begin immediately. And they also point out that if it's going to continue, it will need significant mitigation, mitigation and greater level of environmental review. And so, you know, based on that, I would not want to speak for Bellevue, but would suggest that they believe that mitigation and additional environmental review would be necessary before proceeding with demand management. Add to the question, Councilmember Houck. I think that I think that the question I have listening to Councilmember Gossett is I guess I understand why the city of Bellevue would not like the demand management to proceed, but why would the county agree that demand management and what's in it for us, I guess, is the question sitting here . That would be a better question for the division to answer. If you are interested in calling them up, that. Would be great. Yeah. Why don't you come on down and introduce yourselves for the record and and share what your perspective is on the need for demand management in the benefits of it and why we would not go forward with that. Thank you. For the record, my name is Pat McLaughlin, and it's my pleasure to serve as King County's Solid Waste Division director. And I'm joined by Meg Moorhead, our strategy communications and performance manager. And I understand, Councilmember Gosset, your question. The way I would try and answer it most directly is we came up with a number of strategies to consider because the conditions in our planning had changed dramatically. This work started in 2014 and we were wrestling with a significant drop in tonnage the prospects of five cities leaving our system and we didn't want to overbuild our transfer network and we were challenged with identifying strategies that might allow us to still serve the communities without overbuilding the system. And we called these strategies demand management, a way of managing demand, primarily transactional demand in our systems. So as you point out, managing demand is a smart thing to do and we need to continue to do that. We happen to use demand management as a title for a series of strategies. The reason that that becomes problematic is this series of strategies was designed to serve 32 cities. What Bellevue and four point cities have said is they want to extend. They're interested in extending their participation. That means that we would continue to have 37 cities in our regional system, and we did not design alternative strategies that are capable of supporting a 37 city system. So what Bellevue has indicated is that they they are interested in staying in the system, but not if we are going to implement strategies that are really only capable of serving 37 cities. The problem. I'm sorry. 32. Thank you, sir. So some of the expressed concerns with the man management are that they introduce regional inequities by forcing a different level of service for the northeast part of the county, then the rest of the regional system. Asking those members of the system to have a more distant access to transfer services, more limited access, and quite honestly, more expensive access during those peak hours of service. The advantage for the county to consider this opportunity is that by retaining our regional system with 37 cities and our unincorporated area, we're sharing costs and we're sharing risks and we're keeping this regional system intact and not allowing it to fracture. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for your remarks, too, because they helped us to hone in on the problem. Listening to. Our. Director, I'm able to better understand what about you? Appears to have mentioned four points. That is that they would like for us to not just continue doing demand management, but then do it based on if they join and maintain, we're able to maintain 37 city operation, then we need to broaden the challenges and complexities of our demand management system, not discontinue demand management as I had thought they meant. Okay. Thank you, Councilmember. Yes, as member of the group, followed by Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Madam Chair. One quick, really easy question, followed by a larger one to the quick one is if said this by Mr.. I apologize. What do we know about the timing of final action by Bellevue? And then the larger one is I wondering whether it's Taro or Pat or whoever does if we're to make the decision to move the money. And I know that's not in this ordinance. It's the one the Budget Committee will be taking up. I think it's related to today's discussion. If the decision is made to reallocate the funding for the management study into planning for the Northeast Station, does this reflect essentially the policy direction the Council is the default barring no council action that assuming appropriations, that's the direction we're going? Or are there council touch points? Are there decision points yet at the county council level to say yay or nay on the northeast station? Or is that what our planning documents call for in assuming appropriations? That's where we're going. To take that question. So the first question, Bellevue has not acted, to my knowledge, but they have until October 31st that at least that's how it's structured in the proposed ordinance in front of the IFM. Any intel from anyone. I guess I would ask the division if they may have a they have this in front of their council the last Monday in September. Okay. And they're looking to how this body is acting on the legislation before it to see about their assurances about moving from demand management to Northeast Station. If we were to do the same thing, that would be a problem to wait for them to act. Okay. And then on your second question, there will be opportunities for council involvement, primarily in terms of appropriations as well as considering the in our local agreements with the host city that where the new North Station would be located in. That is your question? I think so. So the decision point is our appropriations and then voting on the inter local agreements. And I don't really think the question, I'm just trying to understand if that's what I heard. This is borrowing, this is the plan. But short of other action, this is the direction then that we're kind of. In order to implement this direction, those would be the steps to take. Yes, but we have a decision point. You know, at some point we'll have a final comment that I'll. It. Is the start down as with any large projects, when we start to invest in the planning and the kind of like investing in the design, at some point it becomes a fait accompli. To me, it becomes more difficult to reverse course if we have made significant capital investments or direct investments upfront, one would think, and I'm not again, don't read into a side. Yeah, my gut read as it makes sense and it's the right thing to do. But I just want to kind of understand what if we should be prepared for. Needing to. Analyze that more? And then the it may have been said, I apologize if I missed it, but the the other thing that's going to be coming up is the solid waste, long range plan that and that's another place where we will have those kinds of discussions about whether when how many these big cost capital items are going to be part of that plan. Okay. Thank you. And I like where Councilmember of the Grove said about having a it's lots of touch points because this is a very expensive project and I personally don't know that it's necessary. And and the tonnage need is going to be really important to show that we really do need that kind of tonnage . And I really appreciate the fact that you mentioned that it will impact, you know, impact my husband. Okay. That's that's really clear. But a lot of other people in my district besides my husband has already started complaining because he'll have to drive further. It'll cost more and it will have less access. So that's not a winning formula. So even in my own house, it's not going over very well. And so I'm not expecting it to be any better, anybody else's house. So I'm very concerned about that and I just don't think it's fair to be impacting one part of the county so adversely. And so I just wanted to point that out. Okay. Any other comments or questions? Council members? Want to make sure Councilwoman Dombroski has a chance to participate if he chooses. I appreciate that. I've been listening carefully. A number of have one question, if I may. Please go ahead. Thank you. One of the issues when Bellevue elected not to sign the extension three years ago was, if I recall, a concern by them about the terms of the inter local agreement for contingent liability, closure of liability for the cleanup. I wanted to make sure get an understanding if they are now agreeing to the same terms as all the other cities that signed on. And just kind of just making sure that everybody's playing by the same rules. Yeah. That is correct. They would sign if they choose to sign the extended ILA. It is the same term signed by the 32 cities actually. Thank you. And then one other question on that. I guess related to the Bellevue issue, it's probably for parents how they want to know that you can answer this. But we spend a lot of effort, energy and money around this demand management thing, which was triggered because of the five cities election not to extend beyond 2020. And I just like to know how much all the other ratepayers have spent in the last couple of years on this undertaking. That may now be ICE. And I guess it just causes the question in my mind, is that fair to impose that burden on the hospitals, the retailers that were signed up to extend? You don't have to answer that now, but it's just a question on my mind. I really do hope Bellevue and the points that have come back I were stronger together so that for heat but I really do. Think we're going to make solid waste great again council member. Bipartisan revitalized party. Anyway I hope they'll come back. It's a more efficient system, but it's a challenge up in that northeast part of the county for our stations by the end. Bergen, I think, has some ideas that might be helpful. Continue to highlight that. Thanks for letting me participate remotely. Thank you. And I think we heard you faded a moment in the middle there, but I think we heard you say that those are topics that can be discussed at a future date. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other comments or questions? This is just a briefing. No action today. And so what is the next step? Can you just remind us what is the very next steps so we know what to expect after today. In terms. Of the moving forward with the L.A.. V, the proposed ordinance in front of BFM, as well as watching the Bellevue City Council. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate all of you being here today. It's a very positive development and it will be interesting to work through the significant details around it. Madam Chair, if I might. Remember. That audience, I believe, is scheduled for the next meeting. Very good. Look forward to it. All right. That brings us to agenda item number eight, which is another solid waste item. When the county opted to build the new station in Victoria, in Bellevue, it's another Bellevue, solid waste issue. In fact, council will recall that specific goals were set for hiring minorities and women. Use of women and minority apprentices and use of minority and women owned businesses. Now that the project is either complete or very, very, very near to completion, we have before us the final report on how that went, which will inform the committee, how well we did meeting the targets that are set. So remaining here to brief us again this terre Rose, please take it away again. For the record, Terre Rose Council staff as the chair described proposed motion 2017 0288 would acknowledge the receipt of the final Victoria Recycling and Transfer Station Workforce Diversity Report. The materials for this item begin on page 33 of your packet. In 2014, the Council approved ordinance 17830, which authorized the executive to execute a contract to replace the 1960s era Victoria transfer station with one that was larger and more modern. This ordinance also required, as the Chair noted, some reporting on data related to minority and women participation in the construction project. The first area relates to minority owned and women owned businesses participating as subcontractors. The second area concerns minority and women in the project workforce, and then the third related to hours worked by many minority and women apprentices. Additionally, these reports were to include a narrative description of efforts to meet the goals established by the ordinance. Reason for any shortfalls as well as recommendations for minority and women participation in future transfer station replacement projects. In order for the Solid Waste Division to meet the June 30th deadline required by the ordinance, the report uses data through March 31st of this year, and that's when the station was 90% complete. Overall, the final report demonstrates progress in most categories relative to the interim report that was transmitted two years ago. The project exceeded the goal established by ordinance for minority of. Just hours. Ours and the project also met or exceeded the self established goals for women and minorities in the project workforce. However, the project fell short of the goals for minority owned and women owned businesses participating as subcontractors, as well as the goal for women apprentices. The report notes that the project performed better than the national average for women apprentices and identified two challenges related to meeting the goal. The first being just the high level of construction in the region seeking to use apprenticeship labor and then the second that women represent only 6% of the local construction workforce. Before I move on to the recommendations, would it be helpful to go into more detail about each of these goals and the project's performance? We have the report before us and I think people can read it unless there's a desire to have you read the details to us. Why don't you move on to the next segment? I will continue with the recommendations in the report. So this final report does provide a series of recommendations on how to promote participation of women and minorities in future transportation projects for minority and women owned businesses. The recommendations mainly relate to effective outreach strategies, communication about contracting opportunities, and also structuring, structuring subcontract packages into increments that might be favor more favorable to small businesses to promote minority and women in the contractor workforce. The report notes the importance of supporting apprenticeship programs for women and minorities as a way to build up that workforce for the future. And the recommendations for women and minority apprentices include but are not limited to making apprenticeship hiring goals a priority on all county capital improvement projects, working with unions to commit specific percentages of construction slots to targeted demographic groups and developing a mentorship program. The final report also suggests that King County perform a comprehensive examination of the challenges encountered by women apprentices to help identify barriers and best practices. And as the Chair noted, the Council may wish to consider incorporating participation, goals and relevant recommendations in future transfer transportation replacement projects. I will note that there is a technical amendment on page 63 of your packet. Amendment one deletes the transmitted report and inserts an updated report dated August 11th, 2017. The August 11th report corrects an inverted calculation error in table three of the transmitted report and the associated references. That concludes my staff report and happy to take any questions. Thank you very much for that report. And I'll call on Councilmember Garcia to ask a question. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Terry, you mentioned the kind of things that we that the report says we plan to do to help minorities and women, potential contractors or workers, be better prepared or more competitive for securing work with the county. But I didn't hear anything about what we're going to do to make contractors and King County government itself better at figuring out ways that we can incentivize or become aware ourselves so that we are more successful at utilizing and involving minority and women. Do you care to comment on that? I think that's probably an answer that's larger than what's contained in this report. And so I. Would suggest. That perhaps the business development and contract compliance staff here might be able to answer that if the council member would like to call. Customers or somebody here to speak. Correct. Oh, please call me. Welcome. Thank you for sitting through the whole meeting. It's going to pay off now. When we invite you. Maybe. Welcome. Please introduce yourself for the record. Thank you. I'm standing and working my way. Way. You're not. Alone. I'm Sandy Hanks. I work in the Department of Executive Services and the Finance and Business Operations Division, and I manage the Business Development and Contract Compliance Section. Did you know if you heard my question. I Councilmember Garcia, could you repeat the question for me? Our staff indicated that we've had some challenges involving minority owned and women owned businesses in our or to the extent that we have established goals to successfully involve them and then lay and then our staff laid out two or three things that women could do to be more competitive and some things that minority prospective contractors could do . But one of the problems around our larger society is that we never challenge, lay out changes that the employer or the larger contractors are utilizing. These smaller businesses can do to be more receptive and encouraging to minority and women businesses because they still have that same stereotypic, stereotypical view of what women and minorities might be able to do if we do give them a chance to work and make that really difficult no matter what minority and women undo in terms of improving themselves. So my question was, do we lay out things that are aimed at challenging the powers that be to change so they're more successful in reaching our affirmative action or inclusion kinds of strategies? Okay. Thank thank you for that. So there are two different approaches that we're using to meet the goals that were used to meet the goals in this report. One was for the participation of minority owned and women owned businesses as subcontractors and suppliers in the project. And as you heard, we had a 10% goal for minority owned businesses and a 6% goal for women owned businesses. And we fell just slightly short of those hiring goals. But what we did as a strategy was to set a requirement for the private contractor to use small businesses. We can be very directive in our outreach. And so we have the King County has a local small business program that is race and gender neutral. We set a goal of 25%, which is fairly high for participation rates. We believe that we can meet it. We want to set something that's reasonable and achievable, and we assisted the prime contractor in doing that in terms of identifying businesses, prospective businesses for our outreach, looking at the availability of those small businesses in the marketplace based on the scope of work and the trades and crafts involved. And I'm pleased to say on this project, the county exceeded that 25% goal for small businesses. We achieved 28. We had hiring goals for minority owned businesses, and we fell about a percent short. We tried to be very broad in our outreach to minority owned businesses, and we have taken extra steps to put potential small contractors who are minority owned and women owned in front of all potential prospective bidders for our projects ways in which we do that. We last year, for example, we hosted 45 or participated in, hosted in or participated in more than 45 outreach events that were designed to put prime contractors in direct contact with businesses, small businesses, minority owned businesses and women owned businesses indicated that they had an interest in doing business with King County. So we're always trying to forge those partnerships and relationships that provide that access for those firms. Okay. Can you show on page 28? I mean, 35, 35. The chart. So we have a 10% minority business. And then what is the percent of dollars paid to firms was 3.2 versus 7.1. Me is related to time frame. So the figures because the project was not complete at the time that this report was produced. Two methods of showing participation for minority businesses and women owned businesses was included in both the interim report and the final report, both for which are shown in the table. The actual column represents the percentage of dollars paid for the interim report as of 2015 and for the final report as of March 30th. And that's relative to the amount paid to the prime contractor in that same period. And then the final column in table one is that is. The. Awarded subcontracts. So that's what they expect to pay over the whole duration of the project. Oh, okay. That prime contractor and the count is back there that it will get up to 8%. All right. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Gosset. Okay. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I just like to make a comment that on the conclusions page, on page 62, that you had exceeded three of the goals. So that's pretty exciting. And I'm really glad to see that you've got those specific goals as wonderful. You've been to 45 events and that the apprentices goal, you went over by 3.2%, which is great. So I think what I've seen in the last couple of years is greater flexibility and more practicality in how we help the contractors and to meet these goals. But there's two things that I think we need to be careful of, and that is, number one, the paperwork. So when you look at this report you're having in here, just keeping all this data. Well, it looks lovely. And charts, you know, when you're trying to build a building, you have to keep all this data. It costs time and money and employees. And until I started working on that little project that you and I work on every week. I had no idea the voluminous ness of this, and it was huge. But it right up to the word voluminous after seeing what that is. So I think we need to be a little bit careful in how much paperwork is required and how many employees are required to do that, because that takes away from, you know, the function of building the building or whatever the task is. The other thing is that I think sometimes we think things will work on paper that don't work in practicality, and we have to be honest about that. And the example I'm thinking of is when you and I both know where we put a 17% goal in contractors that I'll do, 21% of them don't make me do those paperwork. We said we're not going to do it. You have to do it our way. And then it went downhill from there. So I think we need to be a little bit more flexible. And I know that this is not going to make everybody happy. But the idea that we pick certain areas where we have to get employees and that that's a requirement created a lot of havoc for everybody. And if we had just said that's our preferred area, but everybody inside a much larger area would qualify, I think it would have made things a lot simpler. So I'm really going to be looking at lessons that I have learned from being on that committee, that what really works and how can we do it with as least angst, paperwork and confusion as possible? So thank you. We certainly put that before you, conservative given other comments you made. And I thought, okay. Please go ahead, Councilman. I wanted to respond to what Councilor Lambert said, because I'd like to caution her about saying that we should push for these admirable social justice goals because of the burden of the kind of paperwork required to document that we're actually trying to get better. I think that we're better off by not allowing those who have historically been able to just do the work, not document who they're using, but almost always use the same people who are never, ever. Women are people of color and a society that has a long history of structural racism and implicit bias. There might be a medium where we cut down on paperwork, but we still got to keep the goal that these kinds of folks man involved and included. Thank you, Senator. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett, I believe Councilmember Lambert also has a comment. I know that you've noticed that I'm a woman, so I do care about women being able to get contracts and be able to succeed. Those are what I said at all. What I said was, there's paperwork and then there's paperwork. We need to be very careful that we don't require truckloads of paperwork. Paperwork is fine, but if it's really been onerous, we need to be a little bit careful of that. Okay. Would you like a motion? I think we're ready to move forward. Yes, please. Okay. I'd like to propose motion 2017 0288 with a do pass recommendation. Okay. The motion is before us, and there is an amendment. Amendment number one. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move amendment number one. This is updating the report, the correct calculation error that was in table three and associated references in the narrative, executive summary and conclusion. Okay. I just want to confirm for the record, before calling for a vote on the amendment, that that correction is something that the executive branch agrees is correct. It's not our correction. It's your correction. Okay. Thank you. All right. All those in favor of Amendment One, please signify by saying i, i, i. Any opposed Amendment one carries the motion as amended is now before us. Any final comments or questions, councilor, about please go ahead. Councilmember Dombroski. Thank you. I've been listening to the discussion and read the report on two things. One, my memory me said to me that I believe this was an amendment that I had offered around the time of the commencement of construction of the factory transfer station. And I'm really pleased to see that it accomplished two goals, one, which was to encourage additional outreach and work for small contractors and suppliers and apprentices, including women apprentices on the project. And two, to kind of shine a light on this so we can keep doing better. And today's report is really good. And those were stretch goals and most of them were met or exceeded. I want to thank Sandy Eddington, the Executive Branch Homicide Division, for their good work on this. And thank you, Councilman Debusk. I was just going to say in my comments that I think there's a tremendous value in this kind of transparency around what we're doing, even though we may fall a little short on some of our targets and be ahead on other targets, it just helps to focus attention and keep us always trying to bring more people into this contracting fold. So thank you so much for this work. And I think it's it's very encouraging. All right. With that, I would call for a vote on the motion to recommend approval. And we voted on the amendment, didn't it? Yeah. Yes. Sorry, I missed it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilmember Dombrowski. Hi. Councilmember Dunn II. Councilmember Gossett, I. Council member, Cornwall High Council member. Member. High Council member McDermott. High Council member at the Grove Council member Yvonne right there. Madam Chair, I. Madam Chair, the vote of seven ayes, no nos. Council members of the Gerben von Mike Bauer. Excused. All right, by your vote, we have approved the motion as amended for recommendation to the full council. I believe I can also go on consent and we've come to the end of our agenda. But I'd like to circle back and approve the minutes from the beginning. So, Councilmember Lambert, would you be willing to put those before you? I'd like to move the minutes of both July 19th and July 26, 2018, 2017. As written, it's been moved to approve the minutes. Any comments or corrections? All those in favor of do we do that just by a voice vote? Thank you. I guess I don't know if I've forgotten how to do this, but all those in favor please signify by saying I opposed the motion. The minutes are approved. This brings us to the end of today's agenda. Before we adjourn, I just wanted to quickly announce that I reserve time on on our on our October 4th committee of the whole agenda to discuss the King County strategic plan, including possible updates to the current code for developing the plan. And I want to encourage anyone who has ideas about this to please let me know or reach out to the committee staff so that we can make sure that we're incorporated. There will be a proposal being put together to be at that, to be introduced prior to that meeting. And and I'd like to make sure that if there are strong feelings about strategic planning in the process for strategic planning, that we collect those and reflect them. And I'm happy to have individual conversations with anybody who wants to know more. All right. Any other items for the good of the order seen on the next meeting of this committee will be September six, when we anticipate discussing and potentially approving the new route. Will leadership, fellowship and hearing briefings on. For Culture Annual Report and on the regional maritime industry and competitive total compensation for employees. With that, we are adjourned.	A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Gregory Beams, who resides in council district six, to the King County cultural development authority (4Culture).
king_136aa608-2f46-47a2-8703-9d679c29036f	Everybody up to the February 2nd, 2022 remote meeting of the committee of the whole I'm the new chair. Councilmember Jean Caldwell from the very beginning. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the King County Courthouse, where we would usually be meeting this on the unceded ancestral lands of the Duwamish people past and present, and we honor with gratitude the land itself as well as the damaged time. We will begin today with a briefing on the county's COVID response and recovery from Dwight David, director of the King Kong Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. After that, we will take possible action on the appointment of Erina Santillan to the Fort Culture Board and conclude our meeting with a briefing on the motion requesting the Executive to establish an equitable development initiative known as CGI and an implementation plan. Jenny Now on our council staff will provide a briefing on the motion as well as amendments that have been received. At this point in time, I am not planning on bringing this motion to action rather than having a full discussion and also like to acknowledge the terrific work that Councilmember McDermott did in providing leadership and sharing this committee over the last two years. When we had a lot going on, especially at the beginning of two years ago with the start of the pandemic. And she led us through a really very challenging time, especially over the first few months of 2022, 2020, when we suspended committee meetings other than committee of the hall. So thank you, Councilmember Jenner. I'll keep with that. Madam President, you once called the roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Banducci here. And so. Member DEMBOSKY. Era. Council member Dan. And so McDermott. Here. Perry. Here. And some of them are. Here. And some of them have Andre Bauer. Here. The members, Caroline. Here. Madam Chair. And here you do have a man, Jim. Thank you. Next, I will call on vice chair of the committee council member Dunne to move approval of the minutes from my last meeting. I guess I'm not. He's not in the meeting at the moment. Okay. Council member McDermott, would you please just. Remove adoption of the minutes. Of the motion for me? All in favor indicate by saying i. I, i. Anyone opposed saying no? The minutes have been adopted. We will now turn to public comment. And Madam Kirk, do we have anyone on the line wishing to provide public comment? And if so, can you provide an estimated number of individuals waiting to give that comment? NEM Chair It looks like we have about 16 here at ten. Okay, well we will proceed with public comment and just so everybody who no knows who is on the line today to give comment. It must be related to items on today's meeting agenda only and not be used for the purpose of assisting any campaign for election or any person campaigning for any office or for the promotion of their opposition to any ballot composition. It must also not include any obscene speech, and if the speaker fails to abide by any of these restrictions, I will rule the Speaker out of order and have the Speaker removed from the virtual meeting. For this portion of public comment. Please do not use the hand raised function. Everybody will be called on i committee will call the names and numbers and when your name or the last three digits of your phone number is called, you will be asked to on your line, please do so. Or Press Star six. If you dial down on the cell phone, please start by saying and spelling your name so that we can capture that accurately. For the record, then you will have 2 minutes only to speak, and if you hear a timer go off that indicates you have reached the end of your 10 minutes, you can finish your thought. Please wrap up your comments right after that. I'm not impressed. Please go ahead and begin calling names and numbers for public comment. And I appreciate everybody who has signed up to speak. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. The first person is Abdi Yousef. Please go ahead and mute yourself. Good evening. Good morning, council members. My name is of. The use of. I am president of the council. Member of the district. I live and work in Seattle and I'm calling on behalf of Occupy on Equal Initiative Day and Grand Institute. Action to Dramatize Action is a coalition of community based organizations, faith based. Organizations. Based in Seattle. I'm calling to encourage council members to establish and I and I strongly support a motion a motion about 2021 policies proposed by council members and the key satellite. And Paul Wells and I will encourage you all to vote no on the three amendments proposed by my council member. I support this initiative because I have seen the difference in Seattle. Seattle. I asked them how it empowers and how these communities develop and own community centers and how they control the city as a provider to so many communities. Personally, a member of the ACL Advisory Council and I see the difference. It needs this initiative we. Make sure to get to Tony and I will hear encourage you of support. They set out our. Different mix of how we composed communities, how it makes a difference, and the difference between Seattle and Seattle. A chunk of the Japanese public, it's on our back. So many examples in Seattle can take a look. But we need that community. This community. I'll talk. Oh, thank you. Thank you. The next person is Clifford Carson. Yes. Hello. Sorry about that. Good morning, council members. My name is Cliff Coughlan. I live in District five, which is a member of the Grose District, and I'm calling on the stat line, which supports the King County II motion. And I would say that we definitely strongly support the King County EEO motion proposed by councilmembers Taberski Zoller Hay and Cole Wells. And we are standing with the community that is voicing opposition to the three amendments the striker proposed by Councilmember of the Grove. As we know that the City of Seattle, through their Indian motions, provided funding and opportunities for bipoc communities to lead their own development project projects. And we've seen this pay off in dividends and new small businesses and expanded opportunities for those who have been hit hardest by the economic crises that we've seen in the last like in the last decade or so. Particularly for myself, who I live in Kent now, but previously lived in Skyway. I see the opportunity there. I see the opportunities that for a neighborhood like Skyway and for many other underrepresented communities, that idea or an equitable development initiative can play. But more importantly, how this does not preclude community led development from happening elsewhere. And this is why, in order to do all that needs to be community led in design, because those who are most impacted experiencing displacement need to be trusted with the solutions and more importantly, low income bipoc in our marginalized communities. In King County faced an ongoing public health crisis from displacement, and they're losing businesses. And especially as we build back from the COVID 19 pandemic, we need to we need to reinforce our support for small businesses, for tenants, for people that are facing these crises. So very much for your time. And I again encourage you to support the motion and oppose the amendments. Thank you. The next person is CRC Seattle. Please unmute yourself and provide your full name. Good morning. Council members my name is Syria source from from refugees community and I am here also on behalf of Graham Street Coalition. I encourage Council members to support establishing an e d i. I strongly support the King County Idea motion, and I do believe that it will be a model that has brought success, especially in the City of Seattle. CRC has been a recipient of the idea and it has brought it has prevented displacement within the communities and it can serve as a great model for the county. So I urge all to support this effort. Thank you. The next person is Elena Perez. Please go ahead. Thank you. My name is Elena Perez. I am with Puget Sound Sage, and I'm actually here to read into the record a statement on behalf of a coalition partner that was unable to be here today. My name is Jeannie Williams, and I live in and work in District two, and I'm writing on behalf of the West Hale Community Association, which serves the Skyway West Hill community. Apologies for not being able to attend today's session, but here is my following statement. I strongly support proposed proposed motion 2020 1-046 to establish King County FTI and prepare an implementation plan. This ADA motion is important for my community because Skyway West Hill has been consistently underinvested in and has limited funding opportunities and no local government like a mayor or city council to advocate for us. We believe our communities most impacted by displacement can help solve this problem if we have the resources we need to create our own solutions. We need a King County EDC so that we don't lose affordable communities to gentrification forever. In addition, I also wanted to address amendments being presented by Council member of the Grove. I have sent a detailed version in writing to the council that maps out in detail each amendment, but I feel all three amendments and the Stryker amendment should be rejected. Thank you, council members. Thank you. The next person is Eliana Horn. Hi, everyone. My name is Eliana Hahn. I'm a resident of District two and I'm calling in support of the King County Global Development Initiative and asking the Council to vote no on the three amendments a striker proposed by a council member. The Grove, as you all know, displacement is out of IS is has been skyrocketing for years and has only increased due to the COVID 19 pandemic and communities of color. Black, indigenous and people of color communities as well as immigrant communities are being impacted at a unimaginable rate. And communities, these communities know how to build, literally build the missions that they to for for this crisis. And the initiative would go a long way in supporting them in making that happen. So I ask the council to ask the residents. I. You and the next person is far better than anybody else. Have a hard time hearing the last person. Is it just me? I did, too, but I couldn't hear her. I really couldn't. So I wonder if I can get her testimony in writing. I'll be helpful. Thank you. And make sure you might make sure your volume is turned up higher to memory. Well, thank you. You know, I and I did have the same problems on my end I could barely hear. Yeah, I do, too. And I ended up turning my volume up higher. Okay. Can we capture her written testimony or her verbal one? I believe this is being recorded and the video won't be available after the meeting. So to watch and it means Horn would please send written comments she can send it to. Would you like her to send it to you, Madam Chair? And then you can form it to anybody. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And we're ending up with a further the. From Mobile Online. If you just want to meet yourself, then go. Oh, thank you so much. I would like just first of all, to thank this council for giving us an opportunity to speak. And I live in District five, and I think that, of course, I haven't really completely understand how the media would stoke how we prevent organization from not giving us a chance to access other funding, because all the funding we have all gone already. So being reduced daily and we are very at risk of really seeing our community moved out of District five. That's why, of course, I think we need to reconsider and making sure that the District five district Des Moines also is included. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Gregory Davis. Thank you very much and good morning, council members. My name is Gregory Davis and I live in District two and I'm calling on behalf of Rainier Beach neighborhood and I. I strongly, strongly, strongly support the King County. Itii Motion Proposed 2020 1046 proposed by Councilmembers Dombroski Haley and calls. I've been told I'm the unofficial mayor of Raynor Beach, so each of my strong needs is work about 5000 people. Before I begin, I just want to say and ask you to thank your aides for the work that they do. I know that they put in lots of hours to support you in being active at best and our county at its best. So please do that, if you will. I was told by a friend, a smart one, in fact. And and you can ask council member my how smart they are that that the whole the committee of the whole was taking up this issue of the E.D. II. And I exhaled. I exhaled fear. I exhaled trepidation, because we've been holding our breath for this opportunity. You know, the opportunities. Our people have been talking to you about them. And I have to tell you, it works. You know, I serve on the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board in Seattle and from Lake City to Rainier Beach. It is impacting people over 700,000 Seattleites. So you're pursuing this and supporting it? Well well, in fact in fact, I'm sure at least one 1.2 million people in King County. I want to channel, you know, the season of Black History Month and and say you can't be a history maker in terms of black history in King County . Here's your chance. And so I just want to encourage you strongly appreciate the time you spend and the work you do on behalf of the county. And you be well today. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Howard Greenidge. Please go ahead. Howard, if you'd like to speak, please. And there you go. I'm not getting public comment this morning. Okay. Thank you. The next person is Kate Brunet. Hi there. This is actually Brady Nordstrom. Sorry about the the name difference there. So thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning. I'm calling in today on behalf of Future Wise Future, which is a nonprofit organization focusing on land use policies and. Practices. Across the state to encourage healthy, equitable and opportunity rich communities. Personally, I live in district to work in District eight and grew up in District five. We strongly support the King County Equitable Development Initiative motion, and the ongoing period of rapid growth in King County has brought prosperity resources to the region, but it's also brought unintended consequences that have fallen unevenly on King County residents by increasing housing costs, displacement and community destabilization. Equitable land. Use is. About so much more than zoning, infrastructure, conservation, etc. It's also about providing the foundation for resilient, empowered communities. So our regional response to growth should empower impacted communities by providing them with the ownership and control over solutions and resources. Communities can and. Should be trusted to steward context appropriate solutions. So we urge you to expand a. Successful. Community driven, equitable development initiative model across King County. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Kayla Jackson. Hi. My name is Kayla Jackson. I'm program manager at Puget Sound Stage. And Stage is deeply invested in solutions to displacement. That center community ownership and stewardship of land and stage has been helping to convene the countywide coalition of Bipoc led, community based organizations who have been working over the past year to create a vision for long term stability of our neighborhoods. In the face of displacement, the vision is to have all the infrastructure in place for bipoc communities to lead their own development. And it King County EDC is just one piece of this vision. The Coalition today is asking for King County to build on the success of the Seattle CDI program by Seattle establishing a King County EDC, which would invest vitally needed funds in the community led land stewardship projects, and this diverse coalition of over 40 Bipoc led community based organizations, some of which you've heard from today, have been working for over six months with both the executives, office and councilmembers to craft this motion. A key aspect of this motion that I want to highlight is that the program will also be co-designed with and led by bipoc and marginalized communities closest to the problem of displacement, and who are also the best experts on what we need to thrive in place and how a development should benefit our communities. Please support this motion that is aligned in line with our vision of a community driven EDC program and also asking you to please reject the accounting, bring up the gross three amendments and striker that are counter to the Coalition's vision. Thank you. Thank you. The next person is Kojo. If you'd like to unmute yourself and provide your full name, that would be great. Kojo. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Yeah, thank you very much. So my name is Jill and I'm from the African community and also calling in in support of the motion and urging all council members to support this motion. Regarding the King County, Eddie I to help. Bring about. Community development. In all marginalized communities that we have in King County and not forgetting as well, you know. Unincorporated areas of King County. To be also factored into into these initiatives. To help ensure that this whole initiative is continued and that every district as well benefiting. Most importantly, you know where bipoc communities are. Most of my community members are in District five and we are looking forward to ensure that this initiative also includes them. And see the development that is required in manage by community members. So I do urge all of you. To support this motion. And as school rejects the amendment from. Council member Dave, of the growth. To ensure that. Community members are the forefront of this initiative to make things work. As a community, members know best. So I do appreciate all the work you are doing for all county. Citizens. And I encourage you to continue to do this work. With vigor and with strength. To the benefit of everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Laura Lowe. Good morning, County Council members. My name is Laura Long, speaking on behalf of Share the city's action fund where speaking up and strong support for the for King County to establish an E.D. I ask you to please vote no on the three amendments and striker proposed by councilmember up to Grove. As you are well aware, those who are most impacted by the housing emergency and the pandemic are struggling a lot. We do appreciate the ways that you and the King County executive have taken actions to address the overlapping emergencies. But what we have here in front of us is a chance to make lasting, transformational change. Policies like this start to make up harms to public health and mental health and historical oppression and generational trauma and wealth gaps that you all here in study after study, black King County residents need help and hope. Communities of color, immigrant communities and others that benefit from it. I need that too. The increasing price of land is an additional stress on communities. This makes a difference, and Seattle has made such a tremendous difference in the types of conversations that people have, the types of transformational land acquisition and other things that people are able do . Community centers with gentrification and so many people being pushed out from friends and family, having to leave their home communities and cultural centers. This starts to make back up for some of those things that have happened. Really, really. We need the communities who are experiencing displacement to be the ones who should be trusted with the solutions. And EDA says, We trust you and please. What can we do to help you? We know that you have the solutions. I also encourage everyone, if you haven't yet, who's listening to this to read Puget Sound Stages, Disaster, gentrification, gentrification, research. It's really powerful. And thank you again. I could go on. I've written comments as well. Again, please support King County, Eli, and please vote no on the three amendments in Stryker proposed by Councilmember up to grow. Thank you for the time. Thank you. The next person is Maria Guadalupe Ramirez. Good morning. Council members, I am Maria Guadalupe Ramirez and I live in District eight. I'm calling on behalf of the organization that I lead the damaged, failing Affordable Housing Coalition. We advocate for folks living in the Duwamish Valley, and we see the disparity just crossing the street, looking at Boulevard Park and White Center. The difference between the communities and the power base that we're building in the city of Seattle that we need so desperately in the rest of King County. I look at Boulevard Park and I see a lot of apartment buildings that are occupied by many people of color, especially Latinos, for they've been living there for 15, 20, 25 years, and they come to us. We did a survey recently and there's fear there. We don't know what's going to happen when they sell our apartment building. We want to buy our building. And how can we as people compete against developers? What EPA has done for us in South Park area has allowed us to build our capacity so we can look at purchasing some buildings and preserving them affordably. The government can't solve the whole problem, but we need the capacity to be out there looking at alternative models of ownership. How can we save some housing and preserve it instead of investing millions and millions to develop new housing that maybe doesn't fit the community? Maybe a two or 300 unit building doesn't work in boulevard parts. Maybe this collection of buildings does. And so that's what we want to look at. We want to have the capacity to be able, as a community, look at what we're dealing with, and we have solutions in mind. Some may not work, but some are very good, and it's time to look. In many fields, we're looking at alternative ways. When you change the way you look at things, things change. And with ADA, we be able to address gentrification and displacement in a real way by involve people who are suffering from it. So thank you very much, all of you. And I opposed the amendments and the striker and I ask that you support the ADA legislation. Thank you. Thank you. The next person. And so I suppose. Good morning. My name is pronounced Sealy, so I apologize. That's okay. That's all right. I do that a lot. Good morning, House members. My name is Sealy Savills. And as many of you know, I live in White Center and I'm the executive director of the White Center CTA. I am here to strongly encourage all of you to support the FDA motion that is being proposed by Councilmembers Angela Lasky and Cole Wells. And thank you for this work. Displacement of black and brown communities, not just a threat to communities in Seattle anymore. As you know, communities like White Center Highlight SeaTac, Tukwila are being gentrified as people are being priced out of Seattle. In turn, we're being priced out of our own neighborhoods. The most important strategy to stay prosperity in place is for community to lead the work of development, not just watch while developers decide who gets to live here and what land it's used for. We need more than affordable housing. A Communities have to be anchored by locally owned small businesses, social services, cultural centers and the White Center. CAA can and is building projects that bring all of that together. Equitable development cannot be done just through affordable housing finance. We need to fund all the pieces. The Project in White Center currently being built is a great case study for what is possible when the community is centered with the right support. If we could imagine across the county, projects like ours, stabilizing bipoc neighborhoods, putting ownership permanently in the hands of community liberates all of us. I strongly urge King County Council to adopt this motion, as it has been co-written with the EDA Coalition. The motion centers community decision making in all stages of the program and gets us over the finish line as soon as possible. This is how we lean into equity. Thank you all for your work. Thank you. The next person at Giordano's two. Very. Good morning. My name is Donna Ferry, and I'm with the Multicultural Community Coalition, and I live in District five. I serve on the CIO Governance Board and Seattle's Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board. My organization's project, which is rooted in the anti displacement of refugee, immigrant and people of color communities in the Rainier Valley is one of the five demonstration projects for Seattle's CDI. We have been helping to lead the effort in the establishment of the King County EDC because we have seen firsthand how support from an EDA program can successfully allow marginalized cultural communities to ward off displacement from neighborhoods they have helped build and shape. For many of our Bipoc neighborhoods have experienced multiple waves of gentrification and displacement, and we have watched our neighbors and communities get pushed out multiple times with the increasing price of land and the extreme vulnerabilities created by the current pandemic. The time is now for all of us across King County to work together to put land and opportunities in the hands of communities with the greatest need. We want to build on the success of the Seattle EDC by allowing community to co-design a program that will support and funding community owned and urban development projects throughout the county , including and unincorporated areas that have been historically underinvested in by the county. Our communities need resources to develop their own culturally responsive and intergenerational solutions to meet their housing, small business, childcare, cultural center and social services needs. They which are all the vital services that help communities to prosper in place. We urge your support in establishing a King County EDC through the proposed motion. And we ask that you reject Councilmember of the Golf Stryker as it undermines our vision and efforts, as well as his three amendments. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe I've called everybody that's on the line. Also, I'd like to note that you and the committee assistance just received written comment from Eliana Horn, who is difficult to hear. Would you like us to take care of forwarding that to all the committee members? So very much. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you, madam. Does anyone else on the line? He does wish to provide public comment and has not had that opportunity. Please use the reins and function at this time. Or press star nine if you have joined by phone. I do not see anybody doing that and apparently not. And with that, we will close public comment. We will now move on to item number five on our budget, on our agenda, which is a briefing on the executive code. Good response and recovery. And this will be provided by Dwight Dudley, Director, Office of the Performance Strategy and Budget. And I plan on continuing this briefing likely once a month. And it was started by Council member McDermott chaired committee of the whole at that time. Welcome during the meeting and thank you for feedback. For the record, Dwight, I believe the Director of Office of Strategy and Budget. Happy New Year to those council members that I haven't spoken to this year, which is some of you I've spoken with many of you already. So as we have been doing here for quite some time, I thought I would give you an update on various aspects of the county's response to COVID. Some of the financial issues that are out there right now. And then happy to follow up if you have questions on other things that I'm not briefing on this morning. So I actually have seven items. They're all, I think, relatively straightforward and quick. But we'll start with number one and Councilman Caldwell's, if we want to maintain the tradition of all pause after each one, and that's it for questions, if that's your preference and it seems to work pretty well. So. All right. So let me start with number one and kind of traditionally, we start with our friends at the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA. What's happened since we last talked in 2021, all of our county's 2020 FEMA eligible spending now has been documented, and that's submitted to the state and ultimately to the federal government. And we are well underway with the 2021 process. So we are that's going faster than it did before to get this documentation are filed with the state and ultimately with the feds. I need to caution everyone that the current expectation is it may take a year or more before we hear back from the state and the federal government about whether they approve all the money we have spent. And then beyond that, it will likely take even longer to actually get money. So just to kind of. Preview. A. Probably very significant challenge we're going to have as we put together the 2023, 2024 biennial budget is we're going to have many, many tens of millions of dollars that we are expecting to get from FEMA, that we won't know whether we really or not. And that's going to create a huge uncertainty as we prepare the next biennial budget. Don't have to kind of figure out what we're going to do about that sitting here today. But I want to warn you that if it really does take that long, you are probably going to be adopting a budget with the expectation that FEMA's going to be sending us 40, 50, $60 million that we don't know whether we'll really get. And just to remember, this is all money that has already been spent. So we don't have a choice about the spending. It's already out the door, in some cases almost two years ago. So just to be aware of that, it also is probably going to have an effect on the county's cash position in many of our funds eventually. Right now, we have the benefit of all of the additional federal money that came in from ARPA, and we'll get another portion of that here in the spring. So I don't think it's a cash issue this year, but it might become a cash issue in 2023. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about seem. I'm sure. Yes. I like her. Can you say can tell me what's the magnitude of the uncertainty? I don't yet know what the 2021 spending is. But if I had to guess between 2020 and 2021, we're probably looking at something on the order of £50 million. And obviously that would be a little bit here in 2022, which is now a separate project. But assuming that Armageddon fades and we don't have something beyond that, that kind of FEMA liability isn't going to grow much more. Thank you. How much of that is General Fund Dwight of the 50 million? At the end of the day, I think it's all general fund. I mean, it's been spent in various departments, has been spent in public health. It's been spent in DCH as it's been spent in FMD. There might be some ability in the public health space that we would use other public health funds. But as a sort of an approximation, I think we have to expect that the vast majority of it is a general fund risk, not a risk to any other fund. Okay. And I appreciate that members would check with me before you speak, because several people have indicated that once council member Perry. Thank you. So that question. So we have already learning all this. We have already spent this money. So we have to, in essence, pay attention to the funding in not having that money going forward. And the gaps that we would then be creating in 23 and 24 is budget of $50 million across the board. That's exactly right, COUNCILMEMBER. So let me just give you a couple examples. One that seems highly certain to get paid is we spent a lot of money, particularly in 2020, on personal protective equipment. So masks and other things like that. That's money that we've already spent. All of those products were purchased. They've all been used. They're all gone at this point. And we're expecting the federal government to reimburse as 100% for that. If they were not to do so, then we would be basically on the hook for whatever we'd already spent. But they don't reimburse the the more challenging ones are around the non congregate shelter where we have done things like the isolation and quarantine facilities which we think are pretty safe, that the shelter, the intensification which is a more marginal, whether it will get funded again, all of these things, all the money has been spent, the people who did the services have been paid, the rent for the hotels has been paid. And if we don't ultimately get reimbursed by the federal government, then that liability falls on the count. Thank you. Dwight, I have a question just to clarify at the very end of your comments on this, this first item, you actually mentioned that there would not be an effect on the cash on hand inflow for. This year. But then you said that there will be for 2022 and I'm just make sure I heard that writer if you meant 2023, I heard it. But I should have said 2023. Okay. Just because of the ARPA funding coming in and that obviously we don't you know, we're we're spending more slowly than we receive that money because they paying it in two segments, one of which we already got our cash position is fine this year if we get through spending that money, let's say in the next year and we haven't received the FEMA reimbursement, then we might start to have a cash situation for the general fund. That will probably be as problematic. Now, we, you know, we have lots of cash, so we have the ability to do it to fund loans. And I'm not worried about essentially running out of cash. It just would be a question of the general fund would be taking on a liability to pay interest on a cash deficit while we're waiting for the federal government to send us money. Absolutely. Are there any other questions on this item? Okay. Do I you got this last thing on FEMA, just to know the current emergency has been extended through mid-April. And just to remind folks and customer, Perry, this is new for you. The president decided long ago that the federal government is to pay 100% reimbursement for eligible expenses. Typically, they only pay 75%. So the emergency being extended through April is good news for anything that ultimately is eligible, and it's entirely possible they will extend it further. But as of now, the female eligibility window is to the middle of April. So folks are aware. All right. Second idea, I thought I would share an update on the eviction prevention and Rental Assistance Program, that EP RAMP as the acronym is. So between the 2020 version and the 2021 version, this address has now allocated as set out to landlords and tenants $219 million, and they have about $78 million left of the existing appropriation, and that they project is sufficient to cover things that they would process through the end of March. And at that point, the money we have today would be exhausted. They are seeking additional state and federal money. There's a very good prospect of getting about $55 million more from the state. So far, there hasn't been really any prospect across the country of getting additional money from the federal government. So it looks like they'll be able to run the program past the end of March. But probably if that's all that comes, then it would be exhausted at some point. Let's say in May. And there would still be people who would have been eligible for funding that we will not have money to fund at that point. Just to give you a couple of examples, typically nothing of the money that was sent out in 2021 and in January of 2022, they have served 14,920 different households and the average amount is a little over $11,000. So the batting average is higher than DC just had been expecting, but probably not too surprising given what many have done in the last couple of years. So that's the status of that program at the moment. It would be great if we get some additional state money. But D.C. just, I think is expecting that when the money runs out, they're still going to be eligible people in the queue that we will not be able to support. So let me pause there and see if there are questions about Emperor. Why is there still is the king is still based to some extent on the lottery or the. Yes, sir. Well, yes, there is. So it isn't. One of the reasons we wanted to talk about this is at some point we're going to want to say we're not going to accept any more applications because we already have people in the in the queue that we have made. That decision hasn't been made yet. But one of reasons I wanted to share this information is that we will be coming to that point eventually. I'm saying we aren't going to accept more applications than we know we won't have money for. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Go right ahead. Number three. Okay. Number three. So I've been giving you an update on the lodging industry and tourism industry every time Armageddon has been a problem in that industry. So, for example, in King County, the hotel occupancy in the first half of December was actually quite high. One weekend was 80%. But then as people reacted to all the crime and canceled trips, we had some conventions cancel. The occupancy has gone down very substantially since then. And so in December, across the entire county, the hotel occupancy was 51%. And as usual, the highest location was SeaTac. Downtown Seattle was next. And just as a way of comparison, we're a little bit behind Vancouver in hotel occupancy on the West Coast, a little bit ahead of San Francisco and way ahead of Portland. Portland has been hit hardest of all the West Coast cities in terms of its tourism industry and convention industry. So right now, that's as it has been. That is the sector of our economy in King County that is doing the worst. And it has, you know, very significant recovery over most of 2021 and then all the crime centered, plunging way back down again. So that's what I had to do. I was the 51% there early December and it came. Down to average for the month. Average for the month, and. It was higher in the early part of the month and much lower latter part of the month. And. All right. Item four, you will probably remember back in the college seven appropriation that you did early in 2021. One of the programs was a jobs and housing program. And this was frankly an experiment to see if we could identify homeless individuals and connect them with either county jobs or jobs that we kind of facilitated and also then get them into housing. And it's been a challenge to implement this because all of the homeless providers are so busy just doing their basic work and then all the concerns about coding and so on. But the program is now ramping up fairly significantly and it's just I'd give you a quick update. There are 26 homeless individuals who've been hired for county jobs. Those are currently only in two places, parks by far the largest and regional animal services. We have another, let's see, 38 jobs that are in process and three different actually four different organizations Emergency Management, Human Resources, the Office of Equity and Social Justice and Elections as opportunities for these individuals. And we are also in the process of a contracting with some nonprofit organizations that also provide jobs for homeless individuals. And it looks like something around 200 job openings will be available through those once we finish the contracting process. So it took a while to get started, but it looks like there are a lot of opportunities there. I'll just say, frankly, it's really gratifying. Some of the letters we get from individuals who have been helped through this program are really wonderful to read and the staff who have been involved with this in places like parks, you know. So yeah, it's something very new for us and they need support and so on. But it's really rewarding to see people who have been homeless in some cases for years now really have opportunities and moving into housing and moving into stable employment as has been great. So thank you just for providing that. I think it's a a program where evaluate really carefully just to see if there are some lessons we can learn from it. But so far it took a while the ignoring, but it's it's moving pretty well at this point. And quite how likely are those who are able to obtain jobs and get into seen. The housing has been the hardest part of the individuals that we've hired so far. Only eight of them have moved into housing and probably not a surprise to anyone. The availability of transitional housing and permanent supportive housing is pretty limited. So that has been the harder part. The identifying the jobs has been easier than identifying the housing. Folks don't miss any other questions. Is he, Councilmember Dombrowski, hand up. Or Mr. Creek arriving here. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm practicing my best kindergarten lessons now. Oh, Dwight, thanks for that update. I think you probably saw the article in the Seattle Times a couple of days ago about kind of promises made and delivery on the promises with respect to housing in the in the houseless individual space. And one of the programs that I identified was our work in the Health Through Housing Initiative, which I think is really a tremendous program. I've seen more action in terms of acquiring units at a very quick pace than anything I've seen. But it noted that we aren't getting them operational, and I sense that one of the challenges has been staffing with our our nonprofit partners to run those reinvent ourselves. And I wondered I had this program in mind. I knew we were focusing on some of our county operations in the parks and and whatnot. But is there an opportunity to bring those dollars in partnership with private providers to help operate the housing that we brought on through health, through housing, and get folks housed and help them run the place as well. And I know we also want to bring in wraparound services, and that's maybe more advanced in terms of training and educational set of folks. But are we looking at that? And do you think there might be some opportunity to look at that? I'm not aware that we are looking at that. I think that's a very interesting idea. Let me check with the staff who are running the program and see if that's part of their thinking. It's possible, and I don't know for sure that one or more of the nonprofits we're looking to work at or work with will be doing exactly what you describe. But if not, I think it's a great opportunity because DHS does say that the limitation they have right now is not the rooms, it's the staffing for those for those buildings. So let me follow up on that. I'll get back to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Sir. And Dwight. One place to look might be with Catholic Community Services. They've had an outstanding model, I know of Theologian Low in on the west side of Queens and Alan Roy. And people are required to either be working or to be helping out in some way a facility. That Catholic Community Services is one of the organizations that has been involved with this program from the very beginning and identifying potential candidates for it. So yeah, we are already working with them, but perhaps not in the way that Councilmember Dombrowski was suggesting. So let me follow up and just see if either they or another potential provider could could help with that. I'm sure I'm concerned about teaching any kind of chair on the topic of health or housing. Just listening to this discussion, I think that the idea of making sure we're putting these significant resources to use is really, really good one. I was pleased to see that we were able to use two of the hotels to help help house Afghan refugees. I thought that was a really nice pivot and being part of that support for those people was really good thing for the county to do. And also, there's been a tremendous amount of work that's gone on to working with the community and with our jurisdictions where the hotels that we purchased existed. Just last night I was at a Redmond City Council meeting where they adopted their second set of regulations that provide the basis for authorizing the shelter, housing opportunity and among many other things, within their city. And so I just want to be really cautious that in looking for ways to make sure that our resources are being put to use, we don't permanently or commit them permanently or long term to some other kind of use because there's just been so much invested in making the permanent supportive housing model happen. So just on a note of caution, as we look for ways to balance that empty buildings not being used versus what the future is that we want to see there. Thank you. There's anybody else who wishes to ask a question on this item. Oh, go right ahead, Dwight, with the. Okay, item five. You also may recall that you appropriated $500,000 for small business assistance for businesses who were potentially affected either by our isolation quarantine facilities or by the the intensified shelters. The Office of Emergency Management is running that program. They report that as of the end of January, they have received about 700 applications for that. Not all will be eligible. The first round of this we did about a year ago. It turned out a relatively small percentage of those that applied actually could demonstrate an impact on their business. The maximum award is $10,000. And so our guests, and it is only a guess, is that we probably will use that entire $500,000. And I will report back to you if after the eligibility process is completed, if we have more eligible than the 500,000 we will fund, because it might be something the executive and the council would want to consider. And in the COVID nine ordinance that's coming up, then the amount would be, I'm sure, quite modest, but it may be something that you would like to adjust. So I just wanted to give you an update on that because I know for some councilmembers that was an important priority. Any questions? Okay. Let's go on to number six. Okay. Number six. And I would prefer not to get as detail here because it gets really complicated really quickly. But I think all of you are aware that the federal eligibility rules for the ARPA money, that 2021 money were not available originally and then have been evolving over time. And in some cases, I'll be frank, are quite permissive and in other cases are very rigid. It got a surprise late in December when they put out the final year which replaced what they call the interim final rules. And the final rules were actually significantly more, let's say, generous or permissive than anything we had seen before that. So as the eligibility reviews were being done last year by lawyers and consultants, there were quite a few of the programs that the Executive proposed, the council appropriated that appeared not to be eligible for federal funding. That, when we got the final rule, suddenly appeared to be eligible for this federal funding. So what we thought would be a significant, you know, problem and challenge looks to be much less of one. So what we're trying to do is finish those reviews before we transmit the ninth covered appropriation ordinance. So if there are any programs that you appropriated using federal money that turn out to be ineligible, we will let you know about that. And then also, you know, entertain the opportunity of do you want to look at other ways to fund these things or something similar that might qualify? We originally thought that would be a pretty significant part of COVID nine, and now it appears like it might not be part of it at all. So just, you know, a little bit of positive news from the federal government about ultimately them being more flexible than we had feared they would be. Are there any questions? I come from a good parent. Thank you. Cheers. So how will we find out? Cause I know a lot of the cities, the ten cities that I'm working with, this is top of mind for each of the mayors when I meet with them. How can we have more indication of how that funding can be used and have the ability to share that good information with our cities? I don't know about all the cities. Many of the cities are working through their national organizations to essentially rely on them for decisions about what's eligible and what's not eligible. That seems to have been working for many of the cities and King County pretty effectively. I will say, you know, for good or for ill, the county has been more conservative and more careful than many of the cities in terms of really evaluating each of these programs before we ultimately provide funding to it. I think some of the cities have taken the attitude, let's get the money out. Worry about compliance later. We haven't done that. But I think if any of your cities has some specific questions that we could be helpful with, you know, feel free to solicit that. And I can pass it on to, you know, our staff who are working on this and see what, you know, their knowledge of a particular program and its eligibility would be. That would be very helpful. I'd appreciate it because they're they are holding. There are a number that are holding back and there's just concern around this. I'd be I'd love to be able to provide some information in that way. So, Councilmember, it's probably best if you can solicit from, you know, whichever city and we don't know whether such and such is eligible. And just e-mail that to me and I'll pass it on to appropriate people and we'll get back to you. There may be some things that a city is considering doing that we haven't even thought about doing and therefore might not really have any expertize. But we are doing a pretty wide range of things. And so it's more likely than not that most of the things the city would consider are things we've also already looked like a looked at. Thank you very much. And so Member McDermott, did you want to speak? Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just going to. Councilmember. We can't hear you. About now. Yes. I did change which member funds to move using. I wanted to note that this what might be permissible and that the council has already appropriated to the larger questions of rental assistance that Mr. Davey addressed earlier. For all things that I expect we'll be tracking carefully in the Budget Fiscal Management Committee throughout the year to support the county's work in making sure that the strongest investments are made and delivered for supporting people through the pandemic and building back and supporting people as we come out of the pandemic stronger than before. Definitely. I have a question, Dwight, and thank you, Councilmember Dwight. Did any of our funding allocation sections with unmet needs grants fall into this? Was some perhaps were deemed as ineligible and now are deemed as eligible. So. We never got to the place of finally determining something was ineligible and essentially saying We're going to free up the money because we were waiting for these final rules. There were a lot of programs that were to the point of, you know, we didn't think they were eligible, but we had made a final decision. And now many, you know, as they said, all or virtually all of those programs now do appear to be eligible. So, no, we have not said no to anybody yet. That's good news about the fortunate. Okay. Any other questions? And we'll go on to number seven. Your phone number seven. And I always say I try to have good news at the end. So we just got our November sales tax results. And Councilman Perry, just for your benefit. Sales tax, we get two months after it's actually collected by merchants. So what the merchants collect in November, they send to the state in December and then the state figures out who gets one portion of it and we get a report and the cash usually around the 25th of that subsequent month. So it would have been January 25th. And so in November, the same patterns of economic activity that we've been seeing now for many months continue. And again, just recall that when I'm giving you these numbers, we're comparing 2021 to 2019. So we're comparing to the pre-COVID situation because obviously 2020 when we were in COVID was bad. And so we're really looking at kind of how much is the economy recovered from COVID, you know, by comparing to before we ran it. And so that when I didn't write down I mean, this year, what was the overall sales tax? It was. Up 14% from November of 2019. So, you know, very, very good growth. The same kind of pattern of winners and losers existed. So some of the the biggest increases were in the segment that we can affectionately call the big box retailers. That segment was up 37%. So they continue to attract a lot of customers to their activities. One of the new ones that was much higher that I don't have a really good theory about is that there's an aggregation of everything from like sporting goods stores through bookstores, hobby stores. They were up 37%. So apparently as we got into the fall and it got really dark as people decided they wanted to have hobbies again. Customer I think your customer very raising her hand. Go back to her. So. Thank you, Chair Cole. So did you just say that the big box stores were up 37% and that those included the ones you mentioned afterwards or were the ones you mentioned afterwards, also up 37%, also. Up 37%, just coincidentally. Wow. Thank you. Another segment again, what we've consistently seen, this is online sales that then are delivered up 31%. Councilman Perry, just for your information, since you have a lot of the unincorporated area we've seen, especially that happening in the unincorporated areas of people who used to, you know, drive to shop are now shopping from home. And so that's been an interesting trend that in your district and Councilmember Dunn's district particularly. And that was up by how much? That's up 31% countywide. We don't have a ready ability to desegregate that geographically. But when we what we've seen is that probably in, you know, more exurban and rural areas, it's probably up something like 50% from two years ago. And it may be more in December's sales tax summer because of overcrowding. Right. And then when we get into January with the snowstorm, you'll see that again. Yeah. Yeah. December day, we're going to be weird. I just because of all the and because of the snowstorm. So we'll see how that plays out. Another segment that was up a lot we've seen this consistently is building materials. That was up 21%. It's all remodeling and then fences and so on. So it's that has been consistently high. The two really big negative segments are the same ones. They've been hotels are down 39% from two years ago. And November was a pretty good month for the hotels here. So even for a relatively good month, they're way below where they were in restaurants were down 13%. But I thought an interesting thing about restaurants is in November of 2021, the restaurants were 72% higher than one year before the November of 2020. So it's hard to remember now, at least it is for me. You know how bad it was in November of 2020 when we still didn't have a vaccine. And New York, basically all the restaurants were closed or doing takeout only. And so well, they're still below where they were before the pandemic. They've recovered a lot in the last year. And so I think that's a that's a good sign. And so that's the information I want to share with you about sales. Thanks to Councilmember Perry. Thank you, Chair Wells. So just just for curiosity's sake, is there anything that delineates the arts, community, theater and progress? Because of course, it generally is the first to go in the last to come back. But in relation to hotels, restaurants and such. I'm just very curious about that because it's close to my heart. Yeah, that that that's a great question, Councilmember. It's not a very large portion of the sales tax because many of those things are not subject to sales tax. And the way the federal government organizes that, they they combine arts and entertainment and recreation. So things like a tennis club or a ski resort category, that segment, compared to two years ago, was down 20%. But we know that especially outdoor recreation, especially in our area, has just gone off the charts. So it's yeah, it's hard to delineate. Yeah. Thank you very much. And just again, by comparison to one year ago, so comparing November 20, 21 to November 2020, that segment was 100% higher. So their sales tax revenue and therefore their total revenue was double if premier 2021 what it was a year before, again for obvious reasons that many of those organizations weren't open at all. I think you. Are there any other questions of dawn? I don't see any threat. Thank you. Oh, I didn't ask. Oh, I didn't see the hand. I see you escalating. That does. Thank you, Jamie. Dwight, this is on the topic it didn't cover. But again, the Seattle Times had an article again this week about our our peer transit agency, Sound Transit, and their loss of fare revenue due to reduced ridership. And I, you know, we pre-pandemic were depending on the month 400,000. I think Oregon's a weak link average were down into the 100. Oh, we are now 36,070 thousand, maybe less than 50. The metro dashboard is terrific, but three months behind, that's been going on for quite a while. And I know now we're talking about slowing the scaling up of service delivery just because the demand isn't there. I think three quarters of our downtown Seattle office buildings remain empty as professional workers that can work from home. And looking at trends around the country for major transit organizations, that seems to be have some stickiness to it, if you will. Like this, we may have a new reality. And I wonder if you, from the financial perspective, what you can tell us in terms of you're keeping an eye on our metro fund, one of our biggest funds, the impact from reduced ridership and any ideas looking forward about, well, what we're thinking we're seeing there and maybe what we may need to do to address it so we don't have a ticking. I don't want to use too much hyperbole here, but a ticking time bomb, it could creep up on us, you know. So customer, maybe three different responses to that. So you're absolutely right because ridership is down so much fare revenue is way down. So it's something like 70% below pre-pandemic levels. And so you might recall we have a policy that fair market recovery should be 25 to 30% of our our total revenue even before the pandemic. And except a little bit below 25% now, it's probably like 10% at the we're actually going to have a conversation with you at some point this year about whether we need to continue to suspend that policy, whether we need to change the policy, because obviously we're not going to get to that anytime soon. The second point I would make that frankly almost completely offsets the fare issue is between the sales tax, which is now higher than we thought it would be when we were doing forecasts two years ago. So the sales tax revenue, which is by far the largest revenue source for Metro, is higher than we thought and is therefore kind of wiping out that fare loss was the fact we got over $600 million from the Federal government for Metro that basically can pay for any kind of service that they're providing. It's a it's a very flexible source of money. Metro's finances are actually significantly better today than they were before the pandemic, as bizarre as that might seem. So from a, you know, revenue perspective, from a financial perspective, I don't have any concerns about Metro any time in the near future. And I guess the third point I would make is, you know, I've spent a lot of time with Terry White and others. You know, we maybe naively thought that everybody would reopen. We'd come back to something pretty similar. We've had back all the service that we've cut during the pandemic and world now in a place of saying, we don't know what's going to happen, but we know that isn't going to happen, that you're going to see, you know, whether it's permanent is at least can be for a long time that the service demands, particularly the peaks, are going to be meaningfully different than they were prior to the pandemic. And and particularly, I think we're going to see that in downtown Seattle, downtown Bellevue, the University of Washington, which is the other big hub as they get back to online or in-person classes, they'll probably be back to pretty much what they were before. But at least the two downtowns, I think we're going to see a real change in the demand that will lead us to have to think about, you know, how do we provide service? And we you know, many of those peak routes were really crowded. And so maybe we say, yeah, we're going to provide that service and we'll just have a better experience for the riders. Or maybe that suggests we need to have more all day service and less peak services. All kinds of questions about that that we're starting to ponder, but it's something for the Council to start thinking about as well, because it is going to be different. That's super helpful. Maybe there's an opportunity here for a big pivot like we've done of pandemic pivots in many other people's areas. And and look at can we get off of the fare box revenue altogether and seek alternative funding methods? And I do agree with you that this could prompt a big. Conversation and perhaps change in our service. Even accelerating that pivot to the all day frequent network and delivering back to the light rail finds it all come together pretty nicely. Thank you. Well, when you start over in the trade committee each year. We are running behind schedule. Now, I do see that councilmember ability to spend. We ask a question, I ask a short but just super brief as we can. Thank you, Madam Chair, on that. Earlier in your report, we've talked a lot in these briefings about the rental relief funding that came to us through the feds. And some of the early ramp up is setting up a system in order to be able to process a large number of requests for rent relief. I'm hearing now that that money is drying up. And so I find myself thinking, are there since we've got all this investment now in the system? And since we know that people are still challenged with being able to meet the rent because of COVID economic impacts, I just want to brainstorm a little bit and we don't have to do it right here, right now, but about where we could find additional funding to try to keep that support going for a period of time , we have the ability to process that now. It seems like if we could just bring some more funding into the system, maybe through any relief funding that comes back to us because it wasn't expended or I don't know. I would love to think with you and the executive and the rest of the Council about ways to continue to support people in that kind of need for some longer period of time. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any response to? No, that's exactly right. And if the current nine appropriation will be a good time for you all to think about that, the state legislative session will have ended at about the same time, we'll know what we have gotten from the state. If anything, I think we also have a little better intelligence about whether the federal government will do more, which I don't think they will. And so that will actually give you the opportunity to say, here's when we think the money's going to run out. Here's a sense of what the unmet need is. It just I would caution that it's these are large numbers. And within our own existing revenue constraints, finding a meaningful amount of money is going to be really hard unless there we revisit some of the money that appropriated from the federal government but has not yet been spent. Well, thank you. And I don't know, it was funny. They were not sharing budget movies or animation and glad that council member Democrats don't. So thank you. Do I think it's obvious. Enjoyed talking with you and I have more questions I could ask and I'm sure that's the case with other members. And maybe we'll have to do a special informal meeting just with Dwight, one of you. And me to do so. Thank you very much for your time. You. Okay. Our next agenda item is the appointment of a Lena Santillan to the Fort Culture Board for a three year term representing Council District four. I made the appointment and the staff report begins on page six. We are happy will brief us. We do have E Kennedy, the appointee with us and we also have Claire Michel from the fourth culture coming who is support culture, government and Community Relations Manager. So go right ahead, Leah, and you can talk to us outside the fireplace right afterwards. Thank you. Thank you. Council members. Good morning. My name is Leah Crackles. I'll be council staff. This item before you, as the chair said, is a motion to confirm the appointment of Elina Sundin to the Fort Culture Board of Directors for a three year term expired, expiring on December 31st, 2024. And I'll provide some brief background and introduce Mr. some at the end and then turn it over to the chair for any questions the council members may wish to ask the appointee. And as a reminder for culture, is King County's cultural development authority responsible for administering King County's arts and heritage programs and for culture is governed by a 15 member board of directors who are to have a are required to have a demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of cultural resources, the active and experienced in community and civic issues and concerns, and have the ability to evaluate the needs of cultural constituencies in the region. Board Position number four, which you are considering today, is to be appointed by the Council member representing Council District four, which of course is Chair Caldwell's. As she said, Mr. Santiago resides in Council District four and his professional experience includes works for Seattle Arts and Culture, for Anti-Racism and for Katie XP. And his current community experience includes serving on the city at Seattle Community Police Commission and the King County Equity Cabinet. And the Racism is a Public Health Crisis Committee and the Seattle Works Board. The appointment of Mr. Sunshine to the Board Culture Board appears to be consistent with the policies and process governing for culture appointments. And that concludes my staff report. Thank you very much, Leon, and greetings and welcome, Mr. Santillan. And do you prefer being referred to the Senate or as Mr. Santillan? ALEX Fine. Councilmember Thank you. And I've had the opportunity to meet Aruna and commend this nomination. Confirmation, rather, appointment confirmation to the committee of the whole. I'm very excited about joining the Fort Culture Board. And I think, Alina, you were at this month's meeting. Is this your first one? Is that correct? Yes, ma'am, that's correct. So we welcome you and we'd love to hear from you about your wanting to be appointed. Why are you why you chose to be on the board? Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to talk with you. I hope that my permanent. Top dog. Will be quiet while I share a little bit about why I've been excited to join the culture board. I've been in the arts and culture nonprofit sector for more than a decade now. And, you know, I'm sure over the past couple of years, we've seen a lot of change and conversation around how we're making all of our spaces, government, our built environment, arts and culture, health care. How are you bringing an anti-racism lens to that work? How are we talking. About equity and intersectional way? That is not just for some people, but is actually for every single person, especially those that have been historically and presently under invited into our spaces. And I think that my kind of passion in wanting to join the. Culture. Board is, is bringing my perspective, bringing the skills that I've built over time around. How do we make culture change that is lasting? How can we make, you know, when we are giving messages of solidarity with communities that have been harmed, how do we make that solidarity actionable? How do we live out our values, especially with the intersection of funding? Right. We've had a lot of conversation well, I've heard a lot of conversation today about the experiences of our community members, Jackson County, whether that is like struggling to pay rent, but then they're struggling to say, hey, I'm doing my best and I found a job, but I can't I don't have access to. Housing. And and where I'm bringing hopefully skillset. And passion. And perspective is bringing those conversations that we're having today. Largely. Throughout. The culture board. Obviously within that. Race and culture sector. But really about our work. How do we make this work last? So we make sure we are bringing our our. Lived perspectives. At the table, that those who don't have a seat at the table like these. Have a lot of. Privilege in being able to be here today. Are we make sure that we're elevating the voices of those that don't. So I'm excited to and honored to be nominated and to to be serving in this role. And I just thank you all for the opportunity. I look forward to working with everyone. Thank you, Ilene. A very much and uncertain. My colleagues on the committee can see why I was so enthusiastic about making this appointment. I had three recommendations and I did not hesitate with making the decision to select two coming. Are there any questions that. Come to more of a comment than a question. I'm very happy to support this nomination, and I really thank you for your perspective and for listening to us and working that into how you think about our. And my comment is, I feel like in the arts and culture and, and heritage space, there is such an opportunity to bridge the historical and present gaps that we see between and among people. That leads to the kind of inequitable outcomes we see. And that can seem really intractable in a political space. Like we're not trying to convince people of something. We're trying to share our experiences in a really, really immediate way that gets past the mental processing. And so I just have a lot of hope when I hear people who want to help build our public art space further in these ways, because I think that is a huge part of how we move forward from where we are today. My comment my second comment, Madam Chair, is I just want to take this moment to make a bit of a pitch to you, my colleagues. We have three ex-officio seats on the floor. Culture Board Council member Coles is in one of them. Council Member Perry will be a new member in another one. We had two members who were on the board last year who will have termed out there are there is a three year term limit, although you can cycle back on after a break. And so I just want to make sure that members are aware we do have one seat that we could still fill as an ex-officio member. And if you're interested in it, please do contact me. Thank you. I imagine. Thank you. And I appreciate your you're making that effort. Are there any other questions that. We do have with this Claire Michaud from Fort Culture. Claire, do you wish to make any comments? No, I. I think Alina said it all. Thank you very much. I think it's very obvious how much Alan is going to be contributing to the Fort Culture Board. Very excited to be working with Galena and of course, the current board. Okay, good, good. I spent hours watching the proposed motion. 2020 1069 travel. I've never done this to a council member than as vice chair. Oh, thank you. My vice chair of this fantastic committee this year. It's so good to know. Oh. Oh, good. I'm glad to have some leadership responsibilities. I'd be happy to move the motion out of that sneak bias in the word feature. Email Council Member Don. Feature. Email and the agenda where you're listed at the top tier and I'm here you are. You did a really good job though. Vice-Chair as well. Thank you. Thank you all. And our commission has been made. Any discussion? Okay. Could you please support the bill? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Ritchie, I. As a member of the. High. Council member done. By. Anthony McDermott. I. I'm in a very I. As a member of the group. I. As a member and I by way. I. As a member, sir. Hello. Hi. Madam Chair. But is my. iPhone also no. Excuse? Thank you. With our vote, we have approved the motion 2020 10469 and scheduling of send this motion with the deep recommendation to be placed on the consent calendar at the February 15, 2022 Council meeting. And congratulations to Lina, since we will be taking this up on the consent calendar. You do not have to be in attendance. Of course we welcome you to be there, but there won't be any discussion at that time. Thank you for your service. Next, coming up, do you want to say anything? Just gratitude. I'm so excited to work with all of you and excited to get to work. Thank you so much. Okay. And we're I'm very excited to work with you. Okay. With that, we will go on to our last agenda item number seven, which is a proposed motion 2020 10467 requesting the executive to establish an equitable development initiative or II and prepare an implementation plan with a priority on unincorporated area communities. Now, we heard a lot about this motion during public comment today, and I did mention that we are going to have a discussion on it, a staff briefing, an opportunity to have a briefing on the amendments that have been submitted by the council members that the Grove and Dombroski. We will not take this up for action today. There have been requests to hold that so we can see if there's anything else that we need to do on it before taking action. So it likely will be on the next committee agenda. The motion, as I mentioned, does pertain to our having an implementation plan over two phases which we were here about. And equitable development initiatives generally provide investment programs and policies that take into account past policy decisions, as well as historic inequities and current conditions to prove access to opportunities for the most affected communities and to allocate resources to communities at risk from displacement. Jenny know from my central staff will provide the briefing on this item as well as the amendments. We also have with us woman, seconded staff, current girl and copywriter. So if you have any questions for them, they will be available with that. Jenny Thank you. Chair Goals China Central Staff. The materials for this item begin on page 14 of your packet. Oppose Motion 2020 10467 would request executive to establish a wide a global development initiative, also known as CDI, with a priority on unincorporated area communities. The motion also requests that the executive prepare an implementation plan in two phases. This developed in conjunction with the planning workgroup. Equitable development can be defined in a number of ways. The city of Seattle, whose program this motion is modeled after, defines equitable development as public and private investments, programs and policies. In neighborhoods to meet the needs of marginalized people. Enter these disparities, taking into account past history and current conditions so that quality of life outcomes, such as access to quality education, living wage, employment on the environment, affordable housing and transportation are equally distributed for people currently living and working here, as well as for many people living in the City of Seattle establishes a global development initiative and 2016 Page 15 of your packet includes information on Seattle's CDI program, including background in context of the development of the program. In summary, Seattle's EDI program is primarily primarily known for its fund, which awards money to community organizations, organizations to fund projects, site acquisition and capacity building in high displacement risk communities. The FBI distributed $49 million in 2017 in the area also includes equity indicator monitoring, which evaluates displacement risk within the city, as well as incorporating equal development principles into city work and planning. Turning to the proposed motion for a hear, this motion would request the executive to create a King County EBI and to prepare an implementation plan in two phases. The motion identifies that the idea should be countywide in scope in prioritizing urban areas or excuse me, urban area communities, particularly historically in marginalized communities. The motion states ideas should be guided by a framework with the following principles one Advancing Economic Mobility and opportunity for residents. Preventing Residential, commercial and cultural displacement, building upon and protecting local cultural assets and communities. Supporting organizational capacity building, promoting transportation mobility and connectivity and enabling equitable access for all communities. Further, the motion identifies a set of principles that would guide development of a framework including well, excuse me, the motion identifies that phase one of the implementation plan should include a developed idea for more consistent with the principles I just mentioned. Information on how the initiative would guide the best starts capital program. Recommendations for county and community structure, capacity and resources to implement the program in this first phase would be due June 30, 2022. Phase two would include objectives and strategies to reduce disparities. Utilize data of displacement, risk and other metrics to determine programs and policies, including metrics for monitoring and evaluating outcomes. Describing partnerships with outside agencies such as community based organizations or regional partners. Identify funding sources that could be leveraged. Propose strategies to coordinate across county agencies and programs. Identify community outreach and collaboration. Utilize the community direct action level of engagement. Propose next steps in a timeline and recommendations for a permanent advisory board. In the second phase would be dated June 30th, 2023. The motion requests that all work done under these two phases be completed in partnership with the planning workgroup, emphasizing black, indigenous and people of color, leadership and geographic requisite representation that includes unincorporated county. There are some amendments to this proposed motion, and Madam Chair, that completes my staff report. But I'm happy to accept the amendments, if you wish. Thank you very much. Good job. Turning a reminder that we do have Kelly Rider and Karen Gill here with us today. We have questions for them before Jenny does and two of the amendments. And by the way, you all should have received the packet, I think it was this morning or maybe last yesterday from staff with regard with the amendments in the packet. Does anybody have a question at this point for Jenny? Okay. I'm sorry. Just to clarify, this idea of sport is expressly for county wide, but it's got a priority on certain communities. All right. Okay. Any questions? I'm sure. Yes. Councilmember Belding, I'm going to have some comments and a number of questions, but I kind of just wanted to wait until after we briefed the whole amendments and everything. If that's all right with you, I can do it. When you. When do you think best? No, that's fine. If you have a question of Charlie pertaining to what she went over. No, not this time. Thank you. Councilmember at the end. We cannot hear you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would ask Staff what it means that we're going to prioritize funding in the unincorporated areas. What does it mean to prioritize? And you want to check that? Sure. Actually, I would defer to the sponsor to get an answer to what he means by prioritizing this lead sponsor. And this is Councilmember Dombroski was to comment on that. Well, thank you. I'm sure. Would you. Can I make a few opening remarks first? Whatever you would like, there is a question for. I'd like to just set the table a little bit, and I'd be happy to answer that, because that's an issue that we should have a good dialog about. So thank you for hearing this. A motion before us today just by way of background. This idea and proposal came from folks who are interested in seeing this kind of work done on a more countywide basis. And they came forward in the context of our best efforts for Kids Capital Grant program, which was added, you'll recall, and I came to the Council and the Regional Policy Committee and as defined in terms of its implementation in the plan over there. And they were interested in maybe looking at those dollars to start an equitable development mission at the county. And I, I thought that, frankly, that was too small. We have a a big county, and that's a limited set of funds. And the vision there had kind of gotten started on a different path. And so I encouraged folks to take a more holistic approach and develop a standalone initiative that would develop an equitable development initiative countywide and look at sustainable effect, effective and adequate funding for the initiative that wouldn't just be limited to that one bucket. So that was kind of the genesis of it. This really has been in terms of its formation, community led. And I, I think it's really important work. I think for years the county, frankly, we've dialed back our economic development work. It's been a small function, frankly, squeezed by the general fund. But in more recent years, it's popped up in different spaces, communities of opportunity and some of our other work around the county. This would be, I think, a holistic approach that would recognize the true that the impacts of the tremendous economic growth here in the county that has not been equally shared. And in fact it has had some adverse consequences to a lot of our at risk communities in terms of gentrification and loss of historic communities as people have been pushed out by big money. To put it in plain English. And the question is, is there a role for King County to come in as a partner, as a partner with communities to ensure that they are not displaced and to run with that, that's a defensive notion. But put a ladder down, put many ladders down to help folks climb the ladder of economic opportunity that's here in King County. That may have disadvantages, too, and barriers to those economic opportunities. And you do that with the principles laid out here. Now, I said this is community led and it is on this question of prioritizing certain communities. I will tell you, I had hoped and my vision was, well, you do it countywide and maybe we don't have that prioritization. But this was a this was a policy compromise. And this was a space where I had to listen to those who had more experience and are more directly affected. And that was a priority for them and for a couple of, I think, of the co-sponsors. So I think there's a reasonable debate there. But in this work and this work in particular, the equitable development notion and the centering communities and those most impacted, I deferred because I thought that their voices were more informed, the impacts were more direct. And frankly, it spoke to me a little bit when I first came to the county. We had an actual policy and practice with respect to our urban unincorporated areas that were within prior years potential annexation for cities of disinvested. So, Councilmember Rizal, I take Skyway, West Hill. You know this. Our policy was don't invest in a community center, don't invest in parks, don't invest in the roads. We wanted to. I'm going to be real blunt here. We but the county policy was essentially just to walk away and encourage by doing so, those communities to annex to in that case, the city or revenue. Well, I didn't like that. And we began to turn the tide on that. We put $1,000,000 into the park there and we realized, I think, that that was wrong. But that history shows why an initiative like this is important. And you heard in the testimony there has been an underinvestment in our urban unincorporated communities, some of it by actual design. And I think to some degree, we see the error of our ways there in which we should be making those investments in partnership with the community. So that's a little background on it. Madam Chair, I think that the county with our. Equitable and just principles that are our philosophy and how we do business as codified in our own code is the right place to do this from a regional perspective. There is this notion that, well, some local jurisdictions like the city of Seattle have their own, and so maybe we shouldn't engage in that space. I don't know that we should have bright line rules. Some communities, even though Incorporated, may have more needs. I think we are a regional government and we can work in partnership with community in our cities to make these investments when they're most needed. I think that the language with respect to prioritization is flexible enough that would allow the work to go forward and come back with more specificity. But that's some background, and I think that this is a tremendous opportunity for the county to engage in a in a serious undertaking, a partnership with Communities and Central, those voices most impacted and partner with them. So looking forward to the dialog and working with colleagues to get this into acceptable form. Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you. I appreciate your comments. We've obviously dealt with issues relating to what does prioritization mean. I remember that in our cultural access legislation discussion and there have been many others relating to coded budgets. Our concern about the. Was your question answered? So I have comments on the topic, but I don't know if you want them now or with. I don't know how you want to structure things. I think it might be helpful for Ken to brief us on the amendments. Councilmember DEMBOSKY also has an amendment. Councilmember Sarai has a question based on what his own work was presented by staff. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to add one more point to Councilmember up the Grove's question. I think Councilmember Taberski touched on everything that I would touch on, especially with respect to motive. I've spoken to many times at this Council about the historical disinvestment in Skyway, and there are special obligations unincorporated King County as its as their only local government. So I'll spare you all the spiel there. But in terms of not just motivation, but mechanics, how do you what does priority mean? I think a lot of that would be figuring out at the executive branch. You know, we get a high level directive and then the executive branch kind of puts the rubber to the road and figures out how we do prioritization. But it could look like a system of giving more points to urban, unincorporated or unincorporated high displacement areas that present a project. It could look like more intentional outreach in those neighborhoods to make sure that they apply for these kinds of funds. But more than happy to listen to the thoughts and concerns. Because I completely hear Councilmember up the group's concern around making sure that. There are cities and neighborhoods that are unincorporated areas that also have very high needs and have high displacement risks. And this motion should not exclude them, should not, you know, should not make it harder for them to apply or make it less likely that they'll qualify. So if my intention is that we put intentional emphasis and priority in the neighborhoods where both there's a high displacement risk and King County is the local government because of our special obligation to those areas. But it is not to exclude those neighborhoods that are in incorporated cities that are high displacement risk. Going. To. Councilmember McDaniel, did you hear something? Go and see them meeting. So I'm wondering. Okay. Is there any other question of general or the sponsor? And by the way, as was mentioned, councilmembers online and some sponsors and sponsors, I believe in this legislation. Okay. At this point, Jenny, I'd like you to give us all of the amendments. And again, you can look at what was sent out to us with the actual chart and the amendments and the amendments themselves. Or look at the staff notes on page starting 17. And I don't think not all the amendments were done at that time going here. Ten So we as chair goals measure the amendments are in the additional packet that was sent to you yesterday around 430. There is one SCHRAGER and five amendments that I will go through. Striker S-1, beginning on page two of the additional packet, would revise the two phase implementation plan to a single seat feasibility analysis with additional work from an advisory committee. Page two No, excuse me. Page eight of your supplemental packet shows the comparison table. The well lays out the similarities and differences between the motion and the striker and will quickly walk you through that to orient you to the differences between the two. In summary, S-1 changes the scope of the Equitable Development Initiative that will be changed to reduce disparities and achieve equal outcomes for more marginalized populations. The initiative would be county wide in scope and designed to reduce disparities in communities that are at highest risk of displacement based on race indicators in in areas where there aren't other ideas in place, as one would require the development of a feasibility analysis similar to the concept of phase one in the motion that would be developed by the executive, but without expanding worker when compared to the underlying motion, the striker would not require a developed framework. It would rely on what's on in the motion. Information on basic capital grants and nor would it require recommendations of next steps for County H community structure customer resource needs. The striker would ask the committee to make recommendations on potential policy and programmatic changes to reduce displacement and to create and preserve community stability, as well as make recommendations on a capital grant program through the incorporation of displacement, risk data and metrics to determine project eligibility. MRA. The striker would also require an analysis during the feasibility report stage that looks at current county efforts to prevent displacement. In an analysis of risk indicators, the striker would remove a requirement regarding describing potential partnerships as well as coordination across county agencies. It would maintain a report requirement to identify funding sources and identify a community outreach process, including outreach to potential applicants. The striker removes requirement about using the community direct action level of engagement that's currently in the underlying motion. The striker modifies the advisory group. The underlying motion discusses composition, emphasizing Bipoc leadership and geographic representation. The striker leaves the makeup to the executive and to each councilmember, where the executive chooses three representatives in the council member offices choose one each. And lastly, the striker would change the report requirement to December 31st, 2022, with no requirement for a second phase. Thank you, Kenny. Are there any questions? And I'm not sure. Councilmember The Grove, this is your strike S-1 amendment. Would you rather that we go through all the amendments first and then speak to them? Because I know there's some duplicity with your individual line amendments and the strip. I would love the opportunity to speak to it. It lays the foundation. Also, since we're getting tight on time for all of them, I think. That. I'm. You know, growing up here in South King County, I really watched my community grow and change a great deal. And you walk down the streets in any of the cities in South King County and look around. You see people of different ages, different races from different ethnicities and income levels, and that diversity is our strength. And one of the cool parts about being an elected official, the part I love the most is the ability to immerse ourselves in the community and build those authentic relationships and communities of color and immigrant and refugee communities. And I'm. Very, very proud. Of Concerned and Boesky for bringing this forward. You know, as you know, this is an issue that's been near and dear to my heart. You know, we've been working together as a council on you know, we saw some high profile commercial displacement in 2019 about Tugwell and SeaTac that garnered a lot of attention. We see this wave of gentrification coming out of Seattle into South King County and now beyond, and it's devastating to a community to see the loss of community, character and cohesion. And, you know, and these are tough issues to tackle. We know some of it is due to blatant racist policies we have in the past, whether it's redlining or access to capital being denied to black and brown communities. We also see it just in the systemic racism around how decisions are made. And it's heartbreaking when you see not just economic displacement, what that means culturally for different communities. And so I want us to make increased investments in community based and community led strategies aimed at reducing residential and commercial displacement. I want us to make sure that we're reviewing, with support of the community, all of our policies to find those solutions where we need to change our land use laws. And so I sat down to read the legislation. I'll be candid. I did struggle to understand, having read it multiple times, exactly what each of the steps mean. I think the language used, I think the the definitions I think there's a lot of information that's vague. I'm interested in us making sure we understand in concrete terms specifically what is it we are looking for in here and trying to spell it out? So I took a stab in a striker based on the multiple meetings I've had with the there's a coalition working on this and based on a lot of conversations I've had in the community, the folks in the coalition who drafted this obviously hate it. I'm not wedded to it or the language, but I wanted to. Try to bring what I saw as language that cut to the chase. And specifically, I figured, you know, it's not my job to try to. Clean up per se, or try to add those definitions. But there are three concerns and they're flagged in the amendments and to save. Speaking on each of the amendments, I'll just speak to a now, the number one concern for me is this. This doesn't this motion doesn't generate any money. So we're setting up an expectation we're going to fund and it's likely going to come from existing sources because we don't have the ability to raise taxes without going to the public. And there are some obvious areas it specifically references the best starts for kids capital funds right now. Well, it may 5 million this year, $8 million a year going forward. Those are pretty much the only capital funds we have for non housing. So if we want to build community centers, we want to do create mental health facilities for kids. This is our shot we've got is $8 million a year in capital funds right now. Without this, it's targeted at Bipoc communities. It's targeted where the need is. All of these good metrics, adding a new layer on top of it, saying it will now be prioritized in unincorporated areas, I think is a step back for South King County and step back for an area where I think we're seeing the greatest displacement, a community where we have the largest black population, we have the largest levels of diversity, the largest levels of poverty is now being deprioritized and putting if we put those best starts through kids capital dollars, through that displacement lens is defined here. Another potential source of funding for it would be the housing development funds, obviously. And we have, you know, a lot of good work that's being done now. I'm not sure how it's going to be integrated, but we know we based on community input, we now have a program funded through housing, the equitable, community driven, affordable housing development that is funds affordable housing development to mitigate displacement measures, ensure marginalized communities have access. It supports the creation of affordable housing developed by and in collaboration with communities facing displacement. Communities historically experience policies that limit opportunities for people of color, projects led by impacted communities conceived and created through an inclusive community engagement process driven by a place based, community based organization. You know, we put 5 million specifically into Skyway last year to support equitable, community driven development aimed at preventing displacement right now, with the exception of the dollars we've targeted into the unincorporated areas specifically. The whole county has equal ability to compete for those dollars. And I really appreciate it. Councilmember Xilai's comments about not wanting to make it projects in other impacted areas less competitive. But I'm not sure how you can say we prioritize one community. But we don't want that to mean it's harder for the other communities to do that. You prioritize what it means. The others are deprioritized on lower priority, and I just don't think that makes sense to do to the most some of the most impacted communities. And so that's my concern. The other two things I flagging the amendments. One, there's some language that's very vague and confusing to me and says this committee will have the authority to establish policy and budgets. I don't I know they can't create ordinances. This be the first time all of our other boards bring us recommendations or else it's an RFP panel where we've set the policy. So if we're going to give a board the ability to establish policies and budgets. They were charter doesn't allow them to amend the RC ws. I mean, these are county ordinances. Most of the policies, not all our land use related state law really dictates the growth management land use policy update process. So I don't think a group of executive appointees, I don't think we can delegate land use policy making to them legally under the Growth Management Act. Besides whether or not it's a good idea. And with budgets, I'm not sure what the scope is. It says they will have the authority to establish policy on equitable development. I don't know what the range. What does that mean? What policies have we delegated? There. There's just some real. Strange language there, and we're really good about listening to our boards and commissions. When the Conservation Futures Fund's brings us their funding recommendations, we rarely touch that. So I think we have language in there that's a problem. It's well-intentioned. We can tell people, Yeah, you get to establish this, but legally I just don't know how we do that. So we give executive appointees the authority to change our growth management laws or to change county ordinances, which is how we establish policy. So I think that needs some clarity. I would suggest my amendment would say have them recommend or we define the scope of their policies around the grant program. Are we going to let them set the criteria and that kind of thing? And then the other is the composition. We fought for months and this council with best starts for kids and BSA tussle over making sure we had an equal voice in appointing those who are making the funding recommendations. And here we just delegated all the executive. We replace our decision making authority and we delegate that to the executive to appoint a group of people to do that. And I think it makes sense if we want to ensure that the ideological diversity and the true geographic diversity is reflected. I think having council members nominate folks from our district, along with the county executive, ensures that more democratic process where everyone's values and everyone's community is represented. And so those were my amendments and suggestions and concerns. I appreciate you. Let me share. I look forward to work with everyone and open to all kinds of ideas. Thank you very much. Councilmember at the Grove. We are running short on time. I think we can go a little bit more. However, we haven't been briefed on all of the amendments. Maybe that can come next time around. I know that Councilmember Bell, did she want to speak? Is this a good time for you? Yeah, I'd love to. Thank you, Madam Chair. So. I'm glad we're having this public airing of this proposal because it's been it's been around for a little while. And I want to thank the community members who came to meet with me. I came to meet with me virtually and and have offered to to to talk at any opportunity. I mean, they've been very active, very diligent and very available. So that that's been helpful as we review this. I think I want to start with principles and the principle here that for a lot of reasons, good reasons and bad reasons. Aspects of unincorporated King County have been underinvested in. I mean, I think we can start with that premise. The good reason, by the way, is it's not a good reason, but not our not our decision reason is we don't have the same taxing authorities as a city does. We don't have the same ability to raise funds in all the ways that cities can. And so we have more limited sources of funding for this local government purpose. I think we should also start with first principles that we it is undeniable that the outcomes in our unincorporated areas where we have underinvested are inequitable, that we see and we see all the all the challenges of underinvestment. And like Councilmember Ismail, I am not going to try to list them all today. I've been pleased to watch this county in the time I've been with the county really evolve in how we work with our communities, especially our underserved communities. We've come up with new ways to really bring community voices, voices of black, indigenous and people of color to the table, voices of all kinds of underserved folks in that areas, and then really taken that partnership and made it into policy. Some good examples recently are the update to our mobility and transit plans really have centered equity in a way that we really didn't explicitly do before. And there are others. Community of opportunities and Best Start for Kids is an example of this evolution. And this kind of a proposal would be a further step in that evolution. And for that reason I find the idea extraordinarily promising and attractive, and I'm very supportive of walking down the road like this. This action that we're asked to support sets up a process to send a plan that we then will adopt at some point . So, you know, that speaks to me. I love the plan. The plan, and I'm not even joking about that. I think that when you're doing something totally brand new, it behooves us to be very cautious and thoughtful and make sure we're thinking about all the things that we're doing, the consequences, the unintended consequences, make sure it's a success. So I think that this in many ways comes as a a welcome proposal, in a thoughtful proposal. The questions. Oh, and I also want to say my first personal involvement with the Seattle idea was when their director at the time and she may well still be there. Director Obama I'm going to mispronounce name Marjorie. I believe Canary came and spoke to our affordable housing task force where several of us served on and spoke about their anti displacement efforts. And I was very impressed by some of the good work they had done and some of the proposals that they were building at the time. This was a few years ago. So I know that we can we can merge this kind of a community partnership, effort and investment with our highest priority, things that we want to see done as a policymaking body. And we can make progress before we get to the final vote. I know we're just talking here today. I want to make sure that whatever we do has enough public involvement and transparency. The proposal to date has been in the development stage, and I know development stages happens in desks and board rooms and that's all okay. But when we get to the debating and adopting stage, that needs to come out into public. So I'm very glad that we started that today and I think we need to continue with that. I, I, I've been listening carefully to council member of the Grove and I feel also that as we send this over to the Executive , when we do for the development of Phase one and phase two, we should make sure, I think that we stay involved enough and that we are watching closely enough and giving input as a body so that whatever comes back to us is something that we can adopt without a lot of drama, so that we work through the stuff in a way that is that is healthy, that takes into account all of the interests, and that comes back is set up to succeed. And one of the big questions I have is what expectations are being set up about how much money is going to be put into this and where it's going to come from? Because that's important. And it's. Hard. We had a big debate. It was at least 18 months ago. So I can I can forgive as people have forgotten. But we had a big debate about that Best Start's for Kids Capital Grants program on what it would be used for. It started as a proposal, at least in part, from a council member from the city of Boston who says on a regional policy committee, we had a big dream about creating a youth activity center out in unincorporated East King County in the Sammamish Valley area. And it's that's where the debate started. Where it ended was with a broader set of expectations, with the language that has been quoted by Councilmember Danowski earlier about this community driven, equitable process. But I think that there are expectations out in the world, including with our partners at the Regional Policy Committee, about what's going to happen with that particular bucket of money. So we need to deal with our partners, all of them the advocates we heard here today, the people who supported the levy, the voters who voted for the levy, and make sure that we're meeting all of the things we said we were going to do with that funding bucket. And maybe we look for other funding opportunities. I'm just there's a lot to be worked through here. I'm very happy to move to the next step and start working on it. But I do think we have to think carefully about how we do it so that we don't create expectations we cannot meet. Thank you, Manager. Thank you for those thoughtful comments and suggestions. And we do. And Councilmember Dombroski. One moment, please. And I do want to get to you. Of course. I'm just wondering if Kern, Gil and Kelly Rider would like to make any comments or have any questions addressed to them. And Councilman Dombroski, would you rather speak first before they do that? Well, I think I can just be on point for the flow. Okay. This is on a precise this is terrific dialog. I appreciate comes from the Grove and comes from about his comments on that. I was a little bit vague on the best words for Kids Capital Grants program. I do have an amendment that we worked on with the Executive Office and it may need further clarification, but I think that the parameters for that grant are set and it was and it went through our Regional Policy Committee. It's in the implementation plan and we can't collaterally change it with this and we shouldn't. That's my view. So we did clarify that we should, because you're right, because that program is designed. Commitments were made. Understandings were agreed to. And and frankly, that's where it was kind of the genesis of this, where I said, well, hey, folks in the community that are interested in this, let's let's do a standalone where you get real dedicated. We look for funding. I don't know what it is. Got some ideas. We have opportunities, but let's do a wholesale look rather than just give me a little, little bit of an already existing program. Why don't we do this with some some some heft, you know, and maybe it starts small, maybe it grows, maybe it gets big. I don't know. But I think that would be that's one of the reasons I think I'm interested in this process. And one of their one of their items of work is how much should we fund it and how should it be funded. So yeah, let me be really clear where I am on that. On the Bill State Capital Grants program I believe in particularly we need to be respectful of our process that that went through, including with our regional partners. That that said and frankly, if we tried to undo it, this goes over to our P.S., I think so we don't want do that. So thanks for letting me clarify on that. Madam Chair. Certainly. And would you like to have Jenni go over your amendment, which is I don't think. We need to at this time. They're pretty self-explanatory. We can keep working on them. So I asked of Kern or Tully would like to make any comment. I see Kern here with this. Kern. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Coming up with the exact opposite. Nothing much to add. I can say from an implementation perspective, we're comfortable with both approaches and then concerned, asking for working with us to make some slight adjustments to his introduced version to make it more implementable and feasible. So since they are both implementable, I defer to council on the approach and I look forward to the partnership work. Thank you. Have anything to add, Kern, about this issue on what does priority or prioritization really mean and how is that determined? Yeah, I mean, I think with the language as is our interpretation. As for the community led workgroup to decide the priorities and on this council defines a more clear I don't know Kelly if you have anything to add to that. Yeah. Community and Human Services. If I understand counsel's intent correctly, and so far as I have understood the motion and the but we have received from stakeholders, our expectation would be to take this broad direction through the community directly and work with that work group to identify what it looks like for us to prioritize certain geographic regions as we develop that framework for the program. And either one of you want to comment on the idea that no community in the county would be disqualified. Indeed, just so they would be up to the group. Maybe that was in another legislation and it's a hard one. It is always a challenge to take on prioritization of limited funding, and we continue to do it with our funding streams. And I would expect that this program would be no different. My expectation would be you would develop priorities with the community. We would develop a framework for how funds could be released and wouldn't necessarily see the community orienting around know this community as in and this community is out, but without further council direction in the motion it would have a broad conversation with community that would be bringing it back to the council. Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you. And thank you, Curran and Kelly, for being here. I'm wondering if you could share how you see this potentially integrating with the $25 million Bipoc Economic Resiliency Fund we funded last year, the 10 million for community led displacement planning and Skyway we funded and as well as the work that's underway on the sub area planning , displacement, how are those going? Do you have community led or community engagement on those and kind of what's the status and how does this support duplicate fit? You know, talk a little bit about, if you could, those efforts already under underway and how we could integrate this most effectively. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Remember, as you referenced last year, the exact proposed and council allocated 25 million in federal funding to be allocated through a community led process to invest in economic opportunities and recovery from COVID for our bipoc communities. Last, just to give an update on that last August, the exact name, two additional chairs to the Community led Oversight Committee. And since last year, the co-chairs and a group of community ambassadors and amplifiers have been meeting nearly weekly to establish a community process for that work. Earlier this month, the group and by committee members to take part in this committee, which will lead in allocating the funds and longer term action to make permanent to help the vision for the county's continued committed to the anti-racism work. There have been more than 200 community members that have expressed interest in joining that effort, which has been dubbed the Gathering Collaborative. And this week the co-chairs, ambassadors and amplifiers are hosting two informational sessions to better inform community members about the work. And so through these conversations with community in these sessions will be able to determine which community members will will be joining this collaborative. So the goal is to form and on board members by early spring for for that work. About the unincorporated areas specific work, both the summary plan, the anti displacement policy work and the I think was it 10 million we did for this community based budgeting is that skyway or urban unincorporated that we call it kind of what the status of that those funds are because I know and I just placer it was a . One of the concepts that led to that. Yeah. You want to take that one on since we're close to that? Yeah. I can take on the $5 million that was allocated for Skyway, as well as our anti displacement, where the $10 million fund, I believe, operates outside of DC. Just in terms of the investments in Skyway, we have been working very closely with the Skyway community. We just released that RFP here in the last couple of weeks and are excited to get that funding out into the community. In addition, the anti displacement work, I would say that was based off a relatively similar model, but a much smaller geographic scope continues to work on the implementation phase and figuring out how we can make sure that we implement the very specific community programs and planning aspects. I would imagine that something like the Equitable Development Initiative, which has a much broader geographic scope, would have some amount of alignment around investing in outcomes that complement our affordable housing investments that you see across the traditionally prioritized type of dollars for. But I. We are very focused, I would say, for us in making sure that the very detailed work of implementing the anti displacement efforts in Skyway, West and North Highline continue apace while stacking this equitable development initiative with a broader geographic lens on top and making sure that we can continue our focus in these unincorporated areas at risk of significant displacement right now, while thinking about how we broaden our investments for this community. That's. I don't know if that gets to the core question. A clarifying question to with that, if we give the executive's appointees the. Ability to establish policy versus recommend policy. How does that work mechanically with like the sub area work you're doing? Would the direction come from them for the comp plan updates? Where else? What what does that mean in your mind if we if we delegate the establishment of the policy to that appointed group? Yeah, it's a big question, Councilmember. And very much since we are in the initial phases of this, I think we're going to go through a lot of growth phases of trying to figure out what each of these things mean. In our work in DC, just with the community across our other initiatives, what we have found is that the most important thing is that everyone is aligned in what these words mean to make sure that nobody gets surprised later down the line when decision making painful is actually somewhere else. So what I'm seeing in the language as of right now is the phrase determining policy and funding decisions. I hear you very clearly. I would say with our other funding decisions, those all sit directly with Director Leo for and he makes those decisions. Our advisory committees traditionally advise. I will say at the same time we do attempt to defer strongly to community when we engage them in review processes. And so I think it's going to be a point that we want to work closely with the work group on understanding what it means when we say decision making, what it means when we make a recommendation around this. And it will be a point that we want to make sure we have shared ownership of the decision on so that everybody can feel comfortable. I can't tell you right now where exactly we'll sit. Okay. I just want to be clear. Is it like agency policies or land use policies? And and I just think that the most when you look at which policies impact development the most, apart from budget, the most of the rest and the most impactful other than spending are land use decisions. And so I'm trying to understand what it means to. Have someone else step, you know, establish those as opposed to bring us recommendations. And what just from a mechanical standpoint and in a legal standpoint, what can we delegate? What do elected officials have to do? What does the government have to do? And that kind of thing? So, I mean, I'll quit talking. I know we're we're time. Thank you very much. This has been a tremendous discussion, very thought provoking and I believe very helpful to all of us. Certainly to me, I am a sponsor of the legislation. I do not represent any of the unincorporated King County area. But I think that this is really an important issue that we address and see where we can go forward with that. I still have some questions. I think some of you others do as well. And I believe that we will be able to address this more thoroughly, hopefully at our next meeting, which will be on February 616 . This committee and council member and I appreciate that, Terry and Kern during this, I thank Jennifer for all the staff work. I encourage you all to look over the amendments that were emailed to us late yesterday afternoon. There may be more or maybe fewer when we next meet. And Councilmember Jim Baskins, anything we would like to say in closing? Very well. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do want to thank all my colleagues for taking a hard look at this and for really a good dialog today. And I think that I want to express my openness to continue to work, to refine language, to get to. Yes. And just to refresh, because I think it went over quickly in the staff report. But the language that centered that was the base of a lot of our discussion here was this on line 56. So the initiative shall that's commanded tary for us lawyers being county wide in scope but should prioritize unincorporated communities comma particularly historically marginalized unincorporated area community. So there's a shall and a should and a filter there. We can work on that. Let's let's think about that. Is that really what we want to do? But there is some work to do there and I look forward to working with you all on it. Thank you. Councilmember Peskin. I'm going to do a little bit of research. I mentioned that. I know. And there is that cultural access with again, language and prioritization that I think the results are one or more of our budget. So the last two years that is perhaps a different approach was, as I recall, more along the lines of this shirt. I don't remember this show shared, but that will prioritize communities and organizations and unrest under historically underrepresented communities but not be limited to those. So I think we can look at some potential options to include include here are but I also want to thank those individuals who spoke in public comment to come in today. I found them very compelling and obviously with a lot of thought and strong feelings and ready to get to work. So thank you all and empty on our staff. I believe that we do not miss any votes. We only had one item at a fraction and that was on the for culture confirmation vote. And I believe all members voted on that set. Correct, Madam Chair? So with that, unless there's any other business to bring up. We are turn. Do we get the votes? Do we get all the votes? Yes. We just had one vote on that. I eager to be your vice chair, by the way. I'm glad you are. Thank you. The crowd to being with you a lot now. All right.	A MOTION confirming the appointment of Alina Santillan to the King County cultural development authority (4Culture) board.
king_c752d510-e796-4625-bd5a-98d05a977371	I would like to bring to order the special meeting of the Committee of the Hall for June 29th, 2016. And the Kirk, will you please call for the vote and call for the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Bertucci. Councilmember Dombrowski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garza. Councilmember Cowles. Councilmember McDermott. Here. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne. Right back here. Madam Chair? Yeah, Madam Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Councilmember McDermott, we put the minutes of June 15 before us. Move it. The adoption of the minutes to the June 15th meeting of the Committee of the whole. Thank you. Are those in favor of the minutes as written? Please say by those approved and those opposed? Nay, they are approved as written minus one. Okay. Oh, all right. So they're not subject subject to signature, then. All agree that I can. Change your vote. Go ahead. And I'll change by vote. To approve the minutes. All right. Well, we thought you were going to approve them, but since you approve, a immense. Great. Okay. Thank you. The minutes have been approved as written. Okay. So it takes us up to our first briefing. Briefing. 2016 briefing 136 and this is quite an honor. And so we are going to get to meet the Harborview chief medical services officer and their CFO. Mr. Hamacher, would you begin the introduction? Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Patrick Hamacher, Counsel Staff. This begins on page seven in your packets, and this briefing will provide an opportunity for Cynthia Hecker and Jaclyn Cabe to introduce themselves to the council and make a brief presentation and answer any questions you might have. Miss Hickory, Miss Carter prominent roles in the management of Utah Medicine and also by the operation of Harborview Hospital. And just by way of a very quick background, Harborview Medical Center was founded in 1877 as a six bed King County Hospital in South Seattle. In 1931, it moved to its present location overlooking Puget Sound. It now consists of 413 inpatient beds, seven primary care clinics, 49 specialty clinics and other specialized services. In 2014, Harborview had just under 65,000 emergency department visits and just under a quarter of a million clinic visits. Harborview was originally owned and operated by the county. In 1967, the county and the Board of Regents of the University of Washington entered into a contract under which the county would retain ownership of the hospital. But the day to day management and operations would be performed by the University of Washington through its medical department. That arrangement exists to this day. The most recent management agreement was entered into just this year in February. At the same time of the new agreement, the two longtime employees, Johnny Spiesel and Lori Mitchell, left their roles at the University of Washington and were replaced by Ms.. Hecker and Ms.. Keep. Their brief bios are included in your packet. They do have a short PowerPoint presentation, so I'm going to stop talking and allow them to do so, and I will be here for any assistance you need. But at this point, I would turn it over to Ms.. Hacker. Inescapable. Great. Thank you very much, and thank you for having us here today. I'm Cindy Hecker. I'm the interim chief health system officer for UW Medicine. I've been with UW Medicine for the past 35 years. 30 of those years at Harborview Medical Center started as a nurse. I graduated from the University of Washington School of Nursing and went directly clinically to work at Harborview and have been very pleased and proud to have had my clinical career and a large portion of my leadership career at Harborview. The last 13 years at Harborview, I was the chief nursing officer and ran inpatient operations. So I'm very familiar with that organization as as I said, very proud of the care that it delivers to our region. Following Harborview, I worked centrally in as we integrated the two community hospitals, Northwest Hospital and Valley Medical Center into our health system. I was asked to help with that and then became the executive director CEO of Northwest Hospital. For the last three years. When Jenny Spears moved to her position at UCLA, I was asked to fill in and take on this role. So I'm very pleased to meet all of you today. I just wanted to briefly give you a overview. I think many of you are familiar with UW Medicine, but this is an opportunity to just refresh where we are today. Harborview Medical Center. You're very familiar with our level one trauma and safety net hospital delivering out state. Ending care to Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho, along with our local King County area. Northwest hospitals, they said came in to in 2010, came into the UW medicine system. It is a community based hospital that delivers what we call secondary or acute care to the community that it serves around that area. Valley Medical Center, the SAT to the south of us was the other community hospital, a tax district hospital. Came under UW Medicine's umbrella in 2011. Then we had the other academic medical center, UW Medical Center, whose primary catchment area is also the Wyoming region, delivering high end, very high end critical care to certain services such as transplant, neonatology, cancer and cardiology. We have 11 UW neighborhood clinics that span the I-5 corridor all the way up north. We just partnered with Skagit Valley Hospital and have a new UW neighborhood clinic up there. And then we also partnered with Olympia over this last year and have a new clinic in that location. So really spanning that of as far north as Skagit and as far south as Olympia with our 11 clinics. UW physicians are our practice group that operates functions at really they are present at all of our institutions, but primarily they're the two academic centers is where they practice. And then we have the School of Medicine and we have our airlift aeromedical provider air medical system of airlift northwest. So our mission across UW medicine is to improve the health of the public. We feel that we do that by delivering excellence in health care, research and education. We aspire to be the health system of choice for patients and work diligently on that mission and vision. And we are also centered. We try to develop a choice for researchers and an education program for health care professionals of the future. We feel that by being the health care organization that focuses on all three of these areas research, clinical care and education, we are creating a healthier future and improving health and reducing health disparities in our region and around the world. So a little bit of history. I always like to throw this history slide in. Also, as Patrick alluded to early on Harborview days, really UW Medicine's history started in the forties where the UW School of Medicine, the UW School of Dentistry, came together and then worked throughout the forties and fifties to establish UW Medical Center. And then in 1969 was the first signing with King County to operate Harborview Medical Center. In the seventies, it was an era and the early eighties and late eighties where we established Airlift Northwest in 1980 to the neighborhood clinics, which I talked about. The 11 neighborhood clinics started in 1996, and then in 1998 we affiliated and became actually a member of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Now, they were into the 2008 to 2016. We, as I alluded to, Northwest Hospital, we expanded into the community realm of practice with joining of Northwest Hospital and Valley Medical Center. We spent a significant amount of time in 2010 launching our UW Medicine's Patients, our first initiative to maximize our quality service workforce and our financial viability. And in 2014, we established the Are Accountable Care Network. Boeing was our first contract, and now we're into the 2015 16 years where we're trying to transition from a fee for service business to a risk sharing business. So long history, but a very successful history for UW Medicine. I'm going to turn it over to my colleague. Jackie came to introduce herself. Good morning. I'm very happy to be here this morning because it. Like us, are great. I'm happy to be here this morning. My name is Jackie Cabe and I am relatively new to UW Medicine. I have spent over 25 years in the public accounting world, focused exclusively on health care clients. And I've worked with many clients health systems providers, standalone medical groups, health insurers as well. As of July 1st, I will have been with UW Medicine for four months and I'm delighted to be part of the team really working to support the wonderful work that's being done in the areas of clinical care. Teaching as well as our research. What I thought I would do is just share a few highlights with you this morning with respect to Harborview. You all are very aware of the amazing care that is delivered by our team at Harborview. What you'll see reflected on this slide is just an example of how busy our our team really is at Harborview continuing to deliver that care to our patient population. We have ADD minutes of about 15.5 thousand year to date. Through May our patient days, you'll see over 131,000, almost 132,000. We continue to stay very busy. If you think about our occupancy at the medical center and case mix, if you're not familiar, that's an indicator of this. The kinds of patients that we see and the care that we deliver being higher acuity. So a 2.2 is a high case mix for the patients that we serve. If you think about a community hospital, that's more like a 1.2 to a 1.4. Just to give you a perspective on that, we continue to see very active EDI with our 54, almost 55,000 ID visits through May. And then I think it's important to continue to focus on the payer mix, the patients that we serve. Our mission population about 34, almost 35% of our patients are Medicaid patients, almost 30%, Medicare and about 32, almost 33 for commercial. I also thought it might be useful to just quickly share with you at a high level our outlook for 2017 and from an overall budget perspective, we continue to stay focused on making sure that we have the capacity to serve our patients. So we continue focusing on capacity management. We always will stay focused on our expense management, and we continue to look at revenue cycle and optimization from a revenue cycle perspective. And then there has been a continued effort to move towards single patient rooms for our Harborview patients. On an overall basis, you'll see our annualized results for 2016 at about 4.6, so a total margin of 0.5%. That is our target margin for FY 17 as well. So hopefully that gives you a high level appreciation of the business of our medical center as well as our outlook for fiscal 17. Thank you. We care about both of those. So thank you very much. And I didn't realize that your reach I knew for trauma it was any place in five states, right. Where you have more states than five for trauma. No, it's a. Level one trauma center serving Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. So but I didn't realize that your clinics went from Skagit to Olympia. So that's really interesting to know. And congratulations on that. Does anybody have any questions, Councilmember? All right. So to make a. Comment, mine is more of a comment than a question. As a as a former patient, I think taxpayers elected official, I think our partnership with the University of Washington has been one that has been an enormously successful one. And I want to thank all the people from the nurses who you meet at the hospital to the administrators, the doctors, the staff, everybody there. It's just been incredible. I've had friends of mine who have been patient. I have benefited from service as well. And I just we've had we went to a little bit of a struggle the last couple of years dealing with some issues. But I think in the end, I think we're all the stronger for it. And and I hope our relationship, our special bond is is going to continue to adhere to the principles that we've maintained. And I think that I think the people of this region have benefited by that relationship. And I know that as a King County elected official, I think that we benefited from the University of Washington's leadership, from Dr. Paul Ramsey on down. I don't think I've ever met a person who has. As inelastic of schedule as Dr. Ramsey. I don't know how. I think there's two or three Dr. Ramsey's out there because he seems to be involved in so many projects and so many areas of interest in health care and the University of Washington and indeed with our region . I also want to congratulate you on your recent appointment. I think it takes effect on July 1st of Christian Gore. You think she's going to do a great job with you and we're very proud of her. She used to work here at the King County Council before she went on to the University of Washington. And and she is going to be a great addition to, I think, Dr. Ramsey's efforts, both federally and locally, to maintain the values that he has put in place at the University of Washington and extend its reach. Those of us in shock, King County appreciate Valley Medical's involvement. The University of Washington has, I think, brought stability and credibility to an already great hospital and made it even greater as a service area. And I want to extend my personal appreciation as somebody from that region for the University of Washington's taking on a very tough situation, a very challenging situation in terms of the administrative structure and making it work now, not only for the hospital, but quite frankly, for South King County and really are the beneficiaries of it. Manager, I want to thank you for letting us have this presentation today and also to give us a chance to recognize one of the great institutions of our region, the University of Washington Medical Center, in Harbor View in particular. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for doing that. And we do think of Harborview as one of the jewels of this community, and we are very appreciative of getting to meet you and we look forward to working with you. Councilmember Dombrowski, thank. You very much. And it's nice to meet both of you. Thank you for being here and welcome aboard. I want to take a moment to engage in a little dialog with you here. We are partners with the University of Washington School of Medicine, and you've done medicine and delivering health care to our mission population. And we use our hospital, Harborview Hospital, in partnership with you to do that. As you no doubt know, we just entered into a new operating agreement. Late last year, the county and its general fund is looking at a $50 million deficit. And one of the very, very significant operations funded by our general fund is our health department. And one of the things that we worked on for a couple of years to looking ahead to help mitigate that and protect our health department, was that operating agreement and particularly the provision for a $5 million payment, either I call it in trade or cash to the county. And I don't know if you're able to talk today how we're doing with respect to the dialog to look at it. And I think there's been a very intense dialog and discussion with you that medicine to look at whether or not there are certain services that you that medicine could pick up. Because as we head toward this fall where we do our budget work in this year, we're looking and counting on a net $5 million either in cash or trade, to help us address the budget deficit we're facing and to protect public health and the services we deliver to our population. I'm very aware of the contract agreement and the $5 million, and there is an active group that's been meeting up to date. They've had four successful meetings that have representatives from Harborview Medical Center, from Public Health and from the executive's office in order to really flesh out all the opportunities that may be out there. They've done a gap analysis and determining what is kind of identifying what is kind of low hanging fruit are things that they can accomplish quickly that would fall within the parameters of the agreement. There are also things that are much more complex and they're putting work plans around those. So we get reports on a regular basis from the president of the board laying Lewis out of Harborview on the the committee and how things are moving along. So from our perspective, we feel that there's very good dialog and there's opportunities that have been identified and they're continuing to identify more. So our intent has to be able to continue to work through this, to be able to, you know, oblige the obligation that we have in the contract. So from my perspective and I meet with the executive director of Harborview, Paul Hayes, on a regular basis, in fact, we meet once a month and then I meet once a week with the executive directors. And this is a talking. All at the time that those meetings are wonderful. I really appreciate the hard work on that. I know we don't necessarily expect to be able to do everything this year with respect to the increased services, if you will. But you feel we're on track with respect to the commitments in the contract? Yes, they do. Yes, they. Do. Thank you so much for your work on that. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for your work on the negotiating on that contract. And also to Mr. Hamacher sitting next to you and Rachelle Calabrese, who is no longer with us, but she worked on that also. So thank you very much. Thank you for Mr. Hamrick. Just to close, Madam Chair, just a brief reminder to you and the committee members, three weeks from today, the board president and Mr. Hayes and Ms.. Hecker and Ms.. Cabe and also our representatives from the Labor Committee at Harborview will be back again for the presentation of the Harborview Board Annual Report before this committee. On the more from the Board's perspective and from the various perspectives the last year and how it looks going forward at the hospital. So that'll be July 20th for three weeks from today. Okay, good. And I know you on that special day will be thinking of us. I will be thinking of you as I move boxes. Yes. You got a new house. Okay. So thank you very much for being here. That's for having look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you. All right. We're going on to our next item. We have a quorum with us still. So that's item number five, proposed ordinance 2014, interestingly enough, oh 3 to 0. And this is a ordinance relating to bringing better technology to our chambers. We had a briefing on this before. So this one, Mr. Wagner, if you would, reverse the amendments so we'll know what the amendments before us. All right? Yes, Madam Chair, for the record, Nick Wagner, council staff, the staff report on this legislation begins on page 13 of your materials. This ordinance, as you said, addresses the issue of when council members are permitted to attend council meetings by telephone or other electronic means, which I will refer to as remote attendance. Two weeks ago, on June 15th, as you pointed out, the committee considered three possible amendments to the ordinance. As a result of that discussion, there is a new amendment, Amendment four, for the committee to consider, and that amendment is that pages 27 to 32 of your materials, the first three amendments, one through three, are no longer being considered. There is also in your materials a red line showing the changes that amendment or would make in the original ordinance. And that red line is that pages 33 to 38 of your materials, the staff report focuses on Amendment four, since it is proposed by the sponsor of the original ordinance. The current county code provisions governing remote attendance were reviewed on June 15 and they are summarized in the background section of the staff report on pages 14 and 15. The changes that the proposed ordinance would make, if amended, if Amendment four is approved, are described on pages 15 to 17. First, the ordinance would allow a council member each calendar year to remotely attend without a showing of cause up to five meetings of each council, standing committee and five meetings of the full council. Second, the ordinance would allow remote attendance at additional for council and standing committee meetings on the basis of quote good cause unquote, which is defined to include the following five categories. First, an emergency as defined in the county code section 12.50 2.010. And that is an emergency in the nature of a public emergency, not a personal emergency. Second, special council meetings held during the council's summer or winter recess. Third, situations where it would be, quote, difficult, unquote, for the member to attend the meeting in person due to the member's attendance at a meeting of an outside committee to which the member has been assigned. Under the Council's organizational rules. Fourth, urgent circumstances as defined in the ordinance, subject to approval by a majority of the members present at the meeting and last other circumstances constituting good cause again subject to approval by a majority of the members present at the meeting. The third change that the ordinance would make is in the definition of urgent circumstances, and that change is is shown in the red lining on page 16 of your materials. Briefly, the ground of inclement weather would justify remote attendance if it made it difficult for the member to attend the meeting. It would not need to be so severe that travel to the meeting would pose an immediate life, health or safety risk to the member, which is the current standard. The second category of urgent circumstances is a member or family member's medically related issue or other urgent need for attendance, which would justify remote attendance if it made it difficult for the member to attend the meeting. But it would not need to be an emergency and the member would not need to be unable to attend in person. In addition, the definition of family member is broadened to match the class of family members whose death would allow a county employee to take bereavement leave. And it is made clear that the death of a family member would fall within this ground for remote attendance. The fourth proposed change that Amendment four would make is to require a member attending remotely to have the member's voice be audible so that the public can hear the discussion and voting process. And finally, the ordinance would add the following notice provision to facilitate connection to the broadcasting system. Requests for participation by telephone or other electronic means should be made half an hour in advance of the meeting when possible. And that concludes my staff report summarizing Amendment four. I'd be happy to answer any questions. I think you need to go on to do five and five a. Okay. Okay. Well, there there is an Amendment five, which I believe Councilmember Dombrowski intends to propose. And I think copies of it were circulated informally yesterday. But here are additional copies for members this morning. So just. Madam Chair. Just a second before we get started. So is Amendment five supersedes or we vote on four and and five to amend it? Or is five? What we need to supersede for. Amendment five is a anticipated proposed amendment to Amendment four. Okay. So we still vote on four, but then the friendly amendment for five would be added to it. Well, since amendment five is an amendment to Amendment four, it would need to be voted on before you vote on Amendment four. And then if it's adopted, then you would vote on Amendment four as amended by Amendment five. Okay. I just have four and then there's five. A So after we go through five, then we'll go five. A Well, what you were referring to as five A is depends on Amendment five being divided into two parts. I don't know whether that. Okay. That remains to be seen. So for the moment, I'm what I will do is describe what Amendment five in its current form would do to Amendment four. Okay. So. So it's up there. Council member dombroski has a question or comment. He'd like to make a number five. Well, I guess what I just wanted to say preliminarily was and thanks for your work on it and distributing it was I wanted to share it with members and get their views. I'm not dead set on offering it, but I it expresses kind of more closely where I'm at to the extent there are going to be any changes in this part of our operating procedure. So I offer it for consideration before actually offering it. Okay. I am I'm good with it being a friendly amendment. I think that, you know, there are some good things like changing the word difficult to safe. So I think that you did a nice job on that. The only part as we we'll hear is that I have one reason for being remote, that if you're out doing county business, for instance, a member of Naco, which is our National Association of Counties, or Wasatch, which is our statewide or any other time, if you were asked by the executive to go speak at something so you're actually doing county business. It seems to me that if you're out doing official county business that you shouldn't be marked, be not able to take some time away from that to listen in and provide your input remotely. So that's the only thing different from what's in five. So that's where I will have an amendment. We can vote on that. But otherwise, I think you did an awesome job on number five. So would you go ahead and explain number five? Sure. So what Amendment five would do is, first of all, reduced to a total of five of five, the number of times per calendar year that a council member may attend by telephone or other electronic means, either a full council meeting or a meeting of a standing council committee. So Amendment four would allow five times per entity, five times for the full council, five times for each standing committee that a member is a member of. This would reduce it to a total of five for all of those five per year. Second, the Amendment five would eliminate from the circumstances constituting good cause for attending remotely. Two things. First, difficulty for the member to attend the meeting in person due to the member's attendance of a meeting of an outside committee that the member has been assigned to under the Council's organizational rules that would no longer be a constitute good cause. And second other circumstances constituting a good cause. Both of those would be removed from the grounds, constituting a good cause for attending remotely. The third change that Amendment five would make is to limit the inclement weather that is deemed to constitute urgent circumstances, justifying remote attendance to inclement weather that makes it unsafe rather than merely difficult for the member to attend the meeting. And last Amendment five would provide for the meeting chair to rule initially on a member's request to attend remotely because of urgent circumstances, subject to appeal to the members present at the meeting. And the chair's ruling could be reversed only by an affirmative vote of at least two thirds of the members present at the meeting. And that those are the key elements of Amendment five. Okay. So if we were to divide this question so that we could talk about whether or not being gone for a county business someplace else, where would that be? Divide it out. The provision having to do with outside committees is line six of Amendment five. Okay, so I have never done this before on dividing emotions, so I'd like to move that. We divide the motion and take line number six out so that we are able to discuss that. And then then we have the amendment. Do you want to talk about. Okay. Yes, Mr. Chair, there. I think that's inappropriate. The chair cannot make a recommendation, him or herself, he or she has the right. To overrule or the chair could give the gavel to the vice chair or or another member of the committee, as I understand. So would you be willing to do that or are you not willing to do that? Can I say something? Absolutely sure. So I don't think a motion to divide is debatable. And so before it's made, I want to make a comment. All right. So that's great. So if I just everyone's on the same page, I think what you're interested in, Councilmember LAMB. It is adding as an additional reason for a for cause in, if you will, participation in outside committee. And my amendment would not permit that. And that's something I'm not supportive of. I think that we should move very carefully in this direction and that this should be our first priority in a number of outside committees. Allow you to dial in to them. So I would be opposing the motion to divide if it were offered, but I would be happy to temporarily chair the committee if you want to make that motion. Thank you, sir. Chair, if I could request clarification, I don't recall whether either amendment or Amendment five has been moved yet. They have not. Yeah, they have not. I do remember that. All right. So, council member Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I would like to ask a question unrelated to this amendment. Just more background. Thank you, Nick. I think last time when you had your initial briefing was mentioned about what some other jurisdictions do. I think you mentioned Seattle. Could you just review that? Yes, there is. Information in. In the materials. There is a table. And this is in attachment six to the staff report. Page 43 is that the incidents pages 43 through 47 or 46 of your materials? And what it contains is a comparison of the remote attendance rules of King County with several other jurisdictions the Seattle City Council, Bellevue City Council, PSR Sea Sound Transit Board. Snohomish County Council, Pierce County Council, Spokane County Commissioners Court, Noma County and NACO Executive Committee. So the effort there is to compare their rules on remote attendance with King County's. Thank you very much. So as you can see, those surrounding counties, they many of them have no limitation at all. So hours being five is more than conservative. It is baby step. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. I was trying to do the math on the total number of cow council committee meetings we have. I think we figured it's around eight per week. If you add KHOW and council and budget and tree and law and justice and geo health, healthy services and employment in the math with the recess has taken in that about. That's about 400 meetings a year and I'm talking necessarily not asking the question, but it's about 400 meetings a year. And so the five is just about 1.25% of the total meetings. Well, what do you think? It would be about almost exactly 1% if we made it four. But I just wanted to make the point of the sheer number of meetings and to put it in perspective. Thanks. Thank you. Councilmember. Council Member Lambert, would you like to put the ordinance before us? 2014 032. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to move proposed ordinance 2014 zero 3 to 0. All right, that's before us. And Council member Gosar. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it was back in 1956 when I was a little boy, I had a bike and at first my two friends I could beat on and in races with my back against them. But then I started to lose and I thought that wasn't a bike. And I went to my dad and I said, You got to get my bike this part because it's not working well. He checked it over. Nothing was wrong with it. So he said, Sandy, you can't ask us to waste money on getting something fixed that's not broke. Why are you doing this? And I wasn't able to answer. I have that for some reason. That same feeling here. What is broken about our process of voting that requires that it needs fixing? Over the last seven years, we've had 26 members on the county council, people that are going nuts now and those who have served and we have not had one. Our regular meeting on a monday where we failed to achieve a quorum of five people so that we could take up issues and vote on what I think five year period. There was only one car or committee of the whole meeting where we did not have five. At the beginning of the meeting with 10 minutes later a member came and we had five. I fail to see anything that's broken as it relates to our voting because we always allow for three meetings but real serious emergencies at our regular county council meetings. Nothing has vote broken in my estimation, so I can't support any of the proposals to fix something that's not broken. I don't see the practicality or the need for it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Other questions or comments. Councilor Lambert, would you like to speak to your ordinance? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, first of all, I think that when you look at the attachments, how many other counties and government bodies are using technology for whatever reason when you're behind other counties and being able to do that? And it's not just a matter of everybody being present for a quorum. What is the matter is that everybody's district be represented, even if you are not here physically, that you have something that's going on, including an emergency where you're stuck home because of a storm or whatever. It's much easier if you represent someplace close by, but if you represent someplace far away, then it is much more difficult because there is more flooding and snow. Right now, as Councilmember Gossett said, we are allowed to do it three times for council meetings, but no time for committee meetings. And we have some very important things happening in committee meetings that should you have to be gone for whatever reason or something comes up in your life that you are away. I think it's important to be able to also call into a committee meeting so that your voice and your vote for your constituents constituents is there. I do not see it as a bad thing to not be here. If you are, for instance, doing the county's work in some other place, or whether you're taking and dealing with an issue in your own district that you need to be someplace else too. This is a very large county, and as you may know, almost half of it in landmass is mine. And so there have been many times when I have been far away and having to drive back in again for a meeting. So things do come up. We're talking about five, which is less than 1% of the meetings, which you had to have the ability to use electronic communications. I do not think this is overly burdensome, and I think it's an important tool that should we have an emergency or an opportunity to do something that we believe is also important, like dealing with emergencies or speaking at a national conference that we've been asked to speak at, that we have the ability, though, even though our bodies might be in D.C. or Olympia, that our voice can still be here communicating and representing our citizens. So with that, I'd like to put the motion 2014 0320 before us and move amendment number four. The Amendment four is before us. I think number four is the basis I am planning a number five, which will be the, I hope, friendly amendment. But it underlies what we've been talking about, basically talking about for three years. So I think it's time that we go ahead and come into the 21st century. And so with that, I would like to put number four before us. For is before us. Let's turn to amendments two four right before we vote on four. Jim, we need a little guidance here on parliamentary procedure. Amendment four has been moved. There was an amendment to Amendment four. Would you like me. To should that be or should the amendment be offered? Well, this is an innovative way to talk. You're not disrupting the meeting. I'm going to put us into recess and ask you. Let's go into recess. All right, let's go into recess. This is. Thank you, Marco. We're back on the record. Mr. Brewer, the question is a parliamentary one Amendment four has been offered. There is an amendment to Amendment four, label five. Do we need to vote first on four before turning to five or do we need to vote on. No, you would. You would vote if I understand the facts. Mr. Chair. An amendment has been offered and now someone is seeking to amend that amendment. Yes. First vote on that. On whether to amend the amendment. Thank you for deciding to. Vote on the. Amendment. It's all right. Thank you very much. Councilmember Lambert, do you have a further motion? Yes, I would like to divide and we have to put number five before us first, right? Yes. Okay. I'd like to move amendment number five. It was written by a colleague after much thought. And I think it's a good amendment. And so I'd like for it to be a friendly amendment to number four. By amendment five is before us. And I'd also like to move. If. I can add. One thing at a time. Yeah. But I think we have to debate. Do we have to divide it before we vote on a. Motion to divide amendment question divide the question on five your state, your motion. This is a non debatable motion. I'd like to move that. We debate the motion and take our item six line six, which is the item that would discuss whether or not you are on county business someplace else. I mean, if we take this out, then you would be able to go to county business someplace else and phone in appropriately. Or if we leave this in, then you would not be able to do so if you're on county business. Okay. All in favor of dividing the question, say. I, I. Any oppose say no. No. The nos have it. The question will not be divided. We'll turn to a vote on Amendment five. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm someone needs to explain to me what Amendment five would do to four if we voted yes. All right. We can ask that. Would you prefer staff to do that matter? All right. Yours that I don't give a shot at it because that was as best I can in the nick can fill in. But Amendment five, in essence, would change this legislation to provide for a total of five council meetings or committee meetings per year participation electronically. It would reduce the number or the types of four cause participations by phone to those articulated and set forth in the amendment. And that includes whether that makes it unsafe to travel here. The current standard requires a threat of imminent danger, and I felt that that was frankly walking up too close to the line for a member . Imminent danger is very close to, you know, peril. Unsafe seemed to me to be a more appropriate standard and would provide further that if you had an ill family member, an immediate family member as defined in the code, that that would be justification procedurally deleted. Your family member would be left. It would be put in there. Yes, I would. Yes, it would be in there. It's a little broader in terms of describing the family members than the current code, and I think that's more appropriate and reflective of its contemporary design. It adds grandchildren, says our grandmother. It puts the determine on with respect to those four causing participation requests that benefits the authority to decide that in the chair of the council or the committee subject to an appeal. If the member doesn't like the decision and the appeal would require a two thirds vote. So it keeps it this frankly dramatically narrows the original proposal. My view is that we should proceed carefully here if this is adopted. I'll be watching very carefully the next six months as we head toward reorg as to whether or not this is working and how it's working. The five was chosen, frankly, for some of us who are parents to take a spring break, which doesn't always coincide with our work here, but still be able to participate. The five would allow, I think most members who are want to participate in a council meeting as well as their committee meetings that we the opportunity to do that. In that sense, I think it's a little bit of a family friendly change, but also I think it's trying to strike a balance to ensure that we continue to be here face to face and participate in the good debates and dialog on a face to face basis, which I personally think is very, very valuable. Prioritizes that the work here of this council is job one and the committees here is job one. I know we all do a lot of outside committees, no more than Councilmember Lambert, of course, who does the most. It's I understand our interests there, but that's the nature of of this. And you could add anything that I might have missed. Just I think you touched on it. But two things specifically, the justification of attendance at an outside meeting would be eliminated from Amendment four and then the general other circumstances constituting good cause that category would be taken out. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Wagner. Does that help, Mr. Gossett? Yeah, but his last point. What did you say about outside attending outside committee B. Amendment Amendment four would allow as a reason for attending remotely the member's difficulty in being here for a committee or council meeting because the member of the member's attendance at an outside committee that the member has been assigned to under the council's organizational rules, that exception would be removed by Amendment five. All right. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you. Other members have questions to Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have a question. I have a comment. And are we in final? We're debating Amendment five. Yes. Yes. So I have wrestled with this a great deal. And I can see the positives and some of the drawbacks on each perspective, each side here. But I really think. That it's. Councilmember Dunn brought out we're talking about five medium senator, 400 roughly a year. This is a very small number. And I believe strongly that all nine members here and future members who replace us at some point, I want to be here and they work very hard for their constituents and they don't treat this willy nilly in terms of taking it seriously to be here to participate and vote. But things do come up and we are all professionals. We're involved with associations. We have times when we're ill that make it very could make it difficult potentially to be here at every single meeting. But when people take the the opportunity to call in and participate, which I've done a couple of times, even though I haven't been able to vote and this is on a committee meeting and a council meeting. I can't vote, but I'm participating the whole time, even though I'm somewhere else that a professional association which I may have been chairing. So I think this is an adult thing to do. When we look within the context of our other local jurisdictions, counties and cities, for example, we really stand out from the norm. And I think and I am going to support the striking amendment. I think we need to be adults here and give credit to our colleagues that they are not all doing are doing something because they're not taking their job seriously. We all do that. So I strongly support the striking amendment. Thank you. Madam Chair. Just for clarification, the the the amendments are not technically striking amendments. Amendment four would replace all of the operative language. The original ordinance, Amendment five would modify certain provisions of Amendment four. So I will just correct clarify in my remarks to amendment number five. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so no further debate. Oh, I'm sorry, Councilman Belushi. Thank you. Just really briefly, I think Councilmember Coles has put it very well. To me, this is about expanding participation, especially in a body like this, where we represent districts. Any time one of us is not able to participate in a meeting, our district is not represented in that meeting. And so I think to allow some additional flexibility to participate is is really important to the people we represent. It's also not at all uncommon for bodies like ours to have call in rules and make that possible. But I think, on the other hand, we have to acknowledge that it really does impact the quality of the discussion and debate when we have people on the phone and we wouldn't want to see it on a regular basis just for those occasions when when it's really necessary. So I think that this strikes a nice balance. I appreciate the amendment. I'll support it and I'll support it at the end of my motion as well. Thank you. Councilmember Belushi, any further comment on five? All right. All in favor of five. Say I. Any opposed? No. Five carries turning to Amendment four as amended. And is this get us to final passage? I think it just gets us to that with. Government after amendment we got to vote on because amend and you get the underlying right. So this is frankly a fairly procedural vote at this point, all in favor of Amendment four as amended by Amendment five, say i. I. Any opposed? No. Okay. Amendment five carries Amendment four as amended by five carries. Now, turning to the underlying legislation. Are there further comments on it as amended? Councilmember Dunn. I'm going to support this ordinance, and I think I would have preferred the number would be more like for about a 1%. We're all but four or five. I think it's I think that's and I think folks know I've been battling the flu this week. I'm just coming back. And it was really tricky situation. Monday, I was sick as a dog and really sick. But this Annenberg nonpartisan issue was up and I was the fifth vote and I sure would have loved to call it. But I drove down here and actually actually driven down here. And I came in here and I voted and I went back home and was still sick. But, you know, that's an example. Then what would happen is what the majority and will of this council was, which was to make prosecutor non partizan would have very likely been thwarted by the access situation. So, you know, I've had situations with the ice storm of 29 where trees were down. I was living out in rural, unincorporated King County by Maple Valley. There's no way to get in, you know, just you can't do it. So there are these and it was dangerous to for that matter. So the circumstances here were fair. Again, it's one point roughly 1.25% of the meetings. I know the members abuse it, so I'm going to support it. Thank you for the passage. Oh, okay. I have returned the chair to Councilmember Lambert, having completed our procedural issues. And thank you for doing a good job and getting through this. It's for the listening audience. This was a complicated one and there were lots of changes even this morning. So, so and final passage. There's nobody else that wants to speak. I agree with the idea that being face to face is is always optimal, but then life happens and so not good. And so this acknowledges life like Councilmember Dunn, who brought his flu or sick, whatever it was. We appreciate that you did that. But it was if you had been driving himself, he didn't look like he was in any condition to be driving. So we appreciated you doing that and bringing a driver. I have come here in the snow this badly and not been pleased that I was driving here when I knew it wasn't safe. This will allow us and I serve on 11 internal committees. So for me that'll be 528 different committees in a year. So, Councilmember Dunn, the 1% would work for me. So you got your 1% and I appreciate all the comments that been made. And with that, I think we can have the clerk call for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett, now Councilmember I. Councilmember McDermott. By. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember Yvonne right there. Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the vote is Six Eyes Council Member Gossett no council members of the Grove and one right. They were excused. Okay, so we can have some choices here. Do we want to expedite and put it on consent or do we want to discuss this all over again? I'm good with whatever anybody wants. Madam Chair. I wouldn't expedited. I don't see a need to expedite it. And with dissenting votes, I wouldn't put it on consent either. Okay, then we will go in their normal procedures. Right. Madam Chair, I just want to note that calling it the 1% ordinance almost cost it a vote by me. More than one vote. Oh, that's funny. Yes, we are dealing with that in Olympia. We don't need to deal with it here. All right. Okay. Now we are doing pretty well and we will go on to our next our next order of business. And that would be, I think, what I'm going to do. I'm going to skip if it's okay. Do you mind being the last? And I would bring up our our last item, which will now be the one before last, which is our chaplains. And we are this is proposed ordinance 2016 0293. For those of you that are online, just, just yesterday we did a a motion motion a motion because we had the problem that this is trying to solve. So yesterday we had the problem and today we're having the solution. So how's that for Speedy? Are you going to. Oh, I'll just talk about it really quick. So basically various denominations, faith based denominations, donate materials such as Bibles or Korans or any kind of literature or newspapers so that people that are incarcerated will have. Access to them, which I believe is required by law that we make that available. So I have here a list of all of the different groups that donate to that. And currently, our law, which was in 1979, is that. 82. 72, so that the dollar amount could only not exceed $2,000. And as we know, inflation has happened since 1972. So this would make us able to do that up to the dollar amount of $15,000. And I think that that's more appropriate at this time. So, Mr. Curry, would you take it away? Thank you, Madam Chair. And Clifford Curry of Council staff, you pretty much give them my staff report. So just a couple of quick notes. Is that as the as the Chair noted, the code requirements that require council approval of donations of $2,000 or more has been in place since 1972. However, the Council has acted in other areas to provide exemptions to certain agencies, recognizing that the $2,000 limit is very low. For example, you've increased the limit for animal and animal services, public health and for parks and recreation, giving them exemptions of up to $50,000 to receive donations. This particular ordinance would extend an exemption for having council approval for a donation for religious materials and texts, educational materials and books. Are those donations going to the Inmate Welfare Fund? The Inmate Welfare Fund provides services religious, educational and recreational services to inmates, both in the county's adult and juvenile detention facilities. It's paid for currently with phone call revenues and revenues from vending machines. By expanding the amount of donation that could be received by the department, that department does not have to look at the cost of going through the motion process. And any donation of materials means that the inmate welfare fund doesn't need to spend money to provide those materials, and as a consequence, it benefits the inmates, both with the donation and by reducing the pressure on the actual inmate welfare fund. And. Madam Chair, that concludes my staff report. Director Hayes is here to answer questions. Mr. Hayes, welcome back. It's been 24 hours. So is there anything that you'd like to add to this? No, just that this kind of helps us streamline things so we don't have to come back to council to get approval for a donation of more than $2,000. Last year there was only two donations, more than that. And then we realized that we the ordinance had limited us. So that's one reason why we're here yesterday. And hopefully this will help us in the future to streamline and and accept these donations from the generosity of the communities. And I know we have two chaplains or one chaplain with us, three chaplains for chaplain chaplains. And if any one of you want to say anything at the microphone, you'd be more than welcome to do that. They brought this to me because they said it was slowing down, getting literature to the people and they just wanted to speed it up. And so I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't come to talk to us about that. And we thank you for your service and making sure that whatever the faith base is, that everybody's religious use can be observed. So thank you. Any questions is Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilor, I remember you mostly characterizing this as religious donations. When I listen to Cliff and read the ordinance, we're making more flexible the donation or contribution of religious materials and tax, as well as other educational materials and books to the inmate welfare fund. So if I want to give ten copies of Malcolm X Speech Speech or the Autobiography of Malcolm X to the jail, it would appear to me that I can do it. It is provision, am I correct or not? That is correct. Mr.. COUTTS Okay, so it's not just religious contributions. All right, I want to make sure that. It also would allow computers and the director and I are are figuring out we haven't gotten there yet, but figuring out how to get some computers at some point because there's some really good opportunities that are for free to help inmates if we could just get the computers in there. So and just just to fully answer your question, Mr. Dyson, this was intended after discussions with the department to ensure that, again, the donated materials tend to be religious materials, which for obvious reasons can be very expensive. And the other area where there is a significant need for inmates and a benefit from receiving donations are educational materials used for literacy, GED, etc., etc. Those kinds of donations are very beneficial, both the inmate to the inmates and to the inmate welfare fund by the county not having to purchase those materials. All right. Thank you. So thank you. And we will keep working on how we're going to get those computers. So but that's for another day. Any other questions on this one? Okay. And we have our previous director that thinks it's fine, too, so that's great. All right. Is this before us? I don't remember. Is mine. So would you put it before us? Councilmember Garcia, did you want to move it now? Okay. All right. Be happy to move adoption with a do pass recommendation of proposed ordinance 2000 60293. Thank you very much. No further comments. Please call for the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Baldacci. Councilmember Dombroski. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. I. Councilmember Caldwell's. Councilmember McDermott. High Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Madam Chair, I. Madam chair, the vote is six. Is council members done up the grove in Brunswick Borough? Excuse. Thank you very much. So seems that would be fine to put this on the consent agenda. And do you have some backlog things that you need to be processing or this can be in the regular time. Regular time. Okay. So consent agenda, regular time. And thank you very much and thank you to all the chaplains. We so appreciate you. Thank you. This now takes us to our last item of business. And this is something and believe it or not, it's been on my mind since 2006. Getting back from Germany and the German government telling me that we had a problem. So today we're going to hear about that. So that is 2006 briefing 137 and we have Mike and Mike with us. So which Mike is going to start? Hey, Mike, read with you. Please begin. I'll start out. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the most closed your landfill maintenance issue. And you're aware that the county currently has responsibility for management and maintenance of seven closed landfills throughout the county. The council staff became aware of an issue during consideration of the 2015 2016 budget process that had to do with the status of these these landfills. That is that we had noticed a number of evaluation and rehabilitation projects, capital projects that were associated with a number of these seven, seven closed landfills and two key pieces. One was that most of these projects were for landfills that were. Either at or. Nearing or past their post closure, minimum maintenance periods. And secondly, that the projects were funded through the city budget as opposed to through the post closure maintenance budgets. And it raised a number of questions that that the budget panel discussed at that time. First, did this suggest that there was a continuing line of expenditure for projects that were assumed to be approaching a defined endpoint? And secondly, could the post. The Landfill Maintenance Fund handle the cost for these continuing expenditures. And so the the panel approved a proviso and Michael dealt with a series of items related to these landfills. First required a report that would describe the status of these landfills in terms of their environmental system stability. Secondly, describing the actions that would be required to be taken in order to bring them to a condition of stability. Third, the timeline that during over which it can be expected that they would achieve stability as well as when they can be expected to complete their their maintenance and management profile. And fourthly, a financial plan that would describe the costs associated with with the various actions that would be required. And finally, the lessons learned that could be applied to the region's existing open landfills, heated hills landfill. So today we've got a briefing for your PowerPoint briefing that that my cousin is going to lead us through. But we're also joined by Kim Kiernan, the the assistant director of the Solid Waste Division. Mike. Thank you. This issue has come up in the past when we had a great conversation. There was a look at how much money was set aside for landfill closure. And it was a rather unusual conversation in that the King County Council actually added to the rate that was recommended by the county executive. I think that's the first time I could ever remember that happening. We added a dollar a ton and it was attributed to this specific issue, the closure of landfills. We've talked historically about a 30 year maintenance horizon under federal and state law that you have to once you close the landfill, then you're responsible for taking a number of actions to maintain that landfill for 30 years. I think the current information is that 30 years, which we always thought was a ceiling, is actually more like a floor. It's a minimum of 30 years, but it could be longer. You have to wait until those facilities are stable and that determination of stability is in the hands of the Health Department and the Washington Department of Ecology. In terms of a context of how big of a deal this is. I wanted to talk about that, and I've seen a theme here today that people have talked about the history of these programs. These landfills are distributed throughout the month of May, that forward run throughout King County. As Mike noted there, seven of these things and they go all the way from the northeast in Duval, all the way down to the Southwest at the Puyallup Kid corner. And then there's also one in Bagshot, and they're scattered over geographic King County. But at the time that those landfills were operating, there was no regional entity to operate those landfills. They were done by local jurisdictions. Oftentimes cities or towns or they were kind of ad hoc types of operations back in 1958 when the voters approved the Metro program. There were actually six choices that the Metro Council had or that the voters could have picked in terms of services they accepted to, which was sewer and transit, which are still with us today as service packages. They could have included also comprehensive land use planning, water supply, the provision of regional solid waste as a metro power, and then also metropolitan parks. Well, they didn't go with those. And so in 1958, looking around, saying that these were problems, these landfills, King County and King County Public Health was actually the operating entity for maintaining these old landfills. And so they would inspect them and from time to time would advise King County roads or other local jurisdictions, hey, put put some dirt on that or build some drainage or what have you. It wasn't until 1984 that the Solid Waste Division was created in county government as an enterprise fund. This specific function is kind of a big deal when we're talking about closed landfills. And I would just want to give you a perspective. Your your most recent published Kaffir, I think is 2014 is available, shows this as $101.2 million liability. So the southern coast landfills and then Cedar Hills as the additional landfill represents a hundred over $100 million commitment, an obligation that the county is recognizing that they'll have to spend money to close to date through December 31, 2014. There's 47 and a half million dollars in the landfill reserve account and there's $8.4 million in the landfill closure account itself. And it wasn't in. 1995 that. Okay. We don't have a computer. Okay, that's fine, because we can just talk our way through this. That's all right. Yeah. And you have the handouts in front of you. So we had a technical glitch. There is no PowerPoint today. You'll get me. Sorry. They've got it in front of us. Look at your face instead. So. Yeah, I'm sorry. And I'm 59 right now. 69 in your folder. That's a scary thought. In. I'll call your attention then to slide four, which has a map in front of you of King County. And you see those red triangles. Those are the sites. And there's a blue triangle for bash on blue triangle like I put on there, because it is the only one that's that's really in that 30 year horizon. Fashion was was closed relatively recently. You can see there that Puyallup corner, Holton Duvall, many of those repos, some a substantial period of time ago ranging from the mid 1960s through the early 1990s and then bash on closed in 2002. So the county has put transfer stations on some of the old landfill sites and you'll see that as kind of a theme to a site bash on Holton and Enumclaw. I believe they have we still have transfer stations operating in those areas on an ongoing basis to maintain the seven closed facilities, the old landfills the county expends on average over the last several years about $1.3 million a year. And that work includes maintaining the cap on top of it to make sure that if there's any cracks or breaks in the cap, that those are patched. Because the idea and the strategy behind that closure is to keep the material dry inside and encapsulated, and that helps control the generation of gas and obviously the leachate that which is rainwater or surface water or groundwater that flows through the waste. And so the idea is to to minimize those environmental impacts. So they generally are used for monitoring permits and other maintenance kinds of activities in the packet that you have in front of you. The way we've structured the presentation is we have an aerial view of each of the closed landfills. There's a rough approximation of what the outline is for the property, and then we have a description of the current closure. So for example, in the next slide you see Duval Landfill consists of 13 acres and it was closed in 1981. Now we also have a handout that you should have in front of you that that looks like this document. Because when we start talking about a sanitary landfill as opposed to a landfill, most of these are landfills. Sanitary landfill has some specific design engineering features, including a bottom liner, a top liner that's impervious and sheds rainwater, a series of wells to collect the leachate, also to test the groundwater and surface waters around the landfill to make sure that they're not contaminated and then gas recovery systems. So you see on the first on the first page, in the lower graphic, you can see what those types of features are in kind of a blow up detail . And like it's probably worth noting on the upper portion of that same graphic, you'll see a basically a well, a gas that's labeled gas recovery system at these these landfills. There are no capture facilities for the most part. But at the at the City Hills Landfill, you're aware that there is a basically a a process in a facility to capture a gas and process it for. For. Productive use. So and I should note that that that gas from landfills in particular from Cedar Hills could be considered a major landfill gas issue. So, yes, Mike noted that it is a it's a substantial greenhouse gas, what landfills are. And they have been identified as such by the Department of Ecology. And I think the Cedar Hills landfill is one of the larger generators in King County. And wasn't it on the list by the governor as one of the topics? Yes. So I think that's important. And then the landfill and I don't remember the exact number, but their CO2 is so much worse than than what? The primary gas from the landfill. Is mapping. And it's about 21 times more potent per unit volume of gas generated than an equivalent volume of carbon dioxide. So methane is it's it's a nasty greenhouse gas contributor. It's one to be of concern. So let me make sure I got that right. Methane is 21 times more potent than CO2. From from an environmental damage standpoint. Basically, the greenhouse gas issue. So, you know, I've seen that number 21, 22, you know, right in that area. So that's that's a pretty powerful information. So could you before we go on through each of these, could you define what a passive leachate collection system is as opposed to any other leachate collection system? And then also, when you're talking about flaring, do we you know, I thought originally when I first started talking about this 2006, I thought that because we had the gas recapture at Cedar Hills, that we weren't flaring until I went down there one day. And so we were flaring. So and I know we had a period of a couple of years where we were having troubles getting the gas on the grid. And so now we aren't having that problem, I don't think. I'll take a couple of these and then I'll defer to Kevin Kiernan, who we were fortunate to have with us today. And we've noted Kevin is in his waning days, so we don't have this opportunity many more times. Ray Hoffman from Seattle Utilities and Kevin have helped shape the future of their respective jurisdictions and move us forward in new technologies and better environmental controls and is slated to retire at the end of this year. On the flip side of the diagram that I was just mentioning, it does talk about the production of landfill gas and I'd call your attention to the graphic. Most specifically, there are different models depending on what part of the country you're in. And interestingly enough, in the Northwest it's warm enough and wet enough where for a unit of garbage it will generate a substantially higher volume of methane gas. So it's not until you there are a number of gases like initially when you have the open base of the landfill, it'll vent any of the organic gases and it'll generate aerobic gases. So it's bacteria that thrive on air and you'll get a lot of emissions of nitrogen and that type of thing. You put dirt over the face. It starts to be it uses up the oxygen in there. And that's usually called the third phase of landfill. By the time you get to that, it's anaerobic and that's when methane generation starts to take off. And that's one of the primary things that happen. It used to be a theory that that once you had a closed landfill, 20 years later, no more methane, it would be pretty much done. I think more recent studies have demonstrated that it's actually it gets it works on a half life, kind of like a radioactive material that you don't get. You substantially reduce the volume of the gas being generated after 20 or 30 years, but you still have gas being generated for some period of time longer. That's the problem that this provides. A report is addressing to the council is that we thought we would be done in and be able to walk away from some of these old landfill sites and that they would be considered stable. But because some of them are still having water issues that what that groundwater or surface waters from time to time will get into the waste. There are still anaerobic activities and there's still methane being generated because there's still enough fuel or material in the landfill for that to generate. So you still have leachate issues, although at a much lower level and some gas issues. So that's that's what the cure is that you're going to see as a theme going all the rest of the way through these slides is that those are the things that we have to control. Okay. Interrupt you for a second and two things. One, in this chart, we don't show because they're not ours, Seattle's landfills. And I think we should note that they also have closed landfills that are doing the same problem and they are right on the water. So that is a serious problem that sometimes has got to be addressed. When you look at the chart on the back that you were just talking about, even in 2003, we're anticipating having still about 20. EMS or EMS. It's 10,000 cubic feet of gas. Okay. Generated from the closed landfills. Now, obviously, in 2008, when we were at our peak, you know, that was far worse. But we're still going to be doing this. It'd be interesting to know, you know, what that is like. Do Erekat and Kane County together generate that? You know what what comparisons can we have to what that is? Because I think just looking on the chart, it goes, oh, you know, went from 100 down to 20. That's great. But what else in our environment equals that 20? If I may, this chart is not representative of King County's emission. Okay. Mike indicated it's a model example from other data of what might be. So we shouldn't go and translate this and take either these gas generation numbers or these dates and assume they apply to the King County circumstance we. Have when applying to King County. We have done significant work around what is happening, and they're different for each of the landfills cause they're significantly different. Mm hmm. So can we get those at some point? Sure. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Mike. The point of the graph is to demonstrate that, as Kevin notes, these are these are models that are used by the Environmental Protection Agency and by the industry itself. And you you have to accommodate for the if you have dry conditions, you would generate relatively less gas because you have less water getting in it. And that's kind of the point. As my pointed out, we have an active system at Cedar Hills is a mitigation measure. That's a really important one. We have a partnership with several private entities and such that Puget Sound Energy recovers and markets the gas that's coming out of that landfill, the natural gas, they think it has the equivalent hitting value of 24,000 homes. So it's not being buried into the atmosphere. It is actually being consumed as a heating product as is. That's true of most of the other gas services throughout the county. And to clarify, an active system versus a passive system is referring only to the landfill gas system. It's not referring completed system. And only Cedar Falls has a passive system. Active systems have pumps and blowers that draw the gas out. Passive systems allow the gas to vent. Cedar Falls, a very small landfill, has very little gas. It is vented through a bio berm in which there is biological activity which degrades the methane and the measured emissions are negligible. So passive inactive simply refers to whether or not there's energy applied to it. Thank you. So it's difficult without the PowerPoint to go through each of the individual landfills. But again, the presentation identifies the size and a current condition. There are several facilities that have now had a beneficial use applied to them. For example, the county partnered with the city of Kirkland and their ball fields on the Houghton Landfill, and I think the Puyallup Market Corner facility is over. Hobart The Hobart landfill has a Lake Sawyer Hawks Airplane Club. So there are people that that can use that. And I think that's one of the recommendations that the division has made in the proviso response is that they would look for revenue opportunities moving forward to see if there could be other beneficial uses for different communities for some of these sites. Unless there's questions on some of the individual of the seven sites. I think what we can jump to is the conclusions then and the key findings that came out of the report. That would be really good, I think and I think it's important to look at each one of these because they do have some very interesting things in what each one is. And then the full report also is excellent. So go ahead. Okay. So the report identifies what the adopted county policy is for the maintenance of the closed landfills, and it recognizes that the county has made a commitment. And the chair noted that there are other landfills that were operated by other entities that they still have custodial responsibility for. So the city of Seattle can't highlands, for example, the city of Seattle is not part of the King County system, and they retain and maintain the custodial responsibility for the maintenance of that facility. Yes, sir. Just when I thought there was more than one in Seattle. There are several in there, including some at the old University of Washington site and so on. But I think they have another two regular municipal landfills. And then there were several smaller informal facilities. These these landfills, I think that both Seattle and King County have applied the best engineering practices as possible. It's kind of like putting up a really nice steel roof on an old house, and you do what you can on the top to encapsulate it and put the best available technology. But there's no promises that the pipes are picking and that the substrate doesn't have contamination issues and so on. So both, you know, the county tries to monitor that and control it as best as possible with retrofits as practicable. But we don't have any oversight of it overshadows whether they're leaking or not. And especially since they don't have linings. There really isn't great ways to monitor the bindings leaking, especially if there's no money. Both both Seattle and King County are spending substantial and appropriate sums of money to mitigate these closed landfills. And again, it's one of those things, as the as the industry matured and as I pointed out the outset of my remarks, there really wasn't a regional entity to deal with this issue. You know, we've talked about Harborview. And Mr. Hamacher in his remarks, talked about the late 1800s recognition of public health and the provision of that with a small six bed facility. King County Solid Waste wasn't created as an enterprise fund until 1984. Certainly there was garbage between that grade of time and and the creation of that. But there was a lot of discussion about who would be the appropriate entity and what engineering principles should be applied. So yeah, it is it is there is inconsistency between how careful people were 50 years ago maintaining these facilities and the practices that are in place today at Cedar Hills, to be sure. So there are additional findings that have been recommended and recommendations that were made by the executive. There are studies underway at Vassar on Cedar Falls, Hobart and Enumclaw to determine what additional actions could be needed to get those facilities to be in a stable state that the Department of Ecology and the Seattle King County Health Department would agree with as stable so that the closure process could conclude. My understanding is that there's not there's not any landfills that have ever reached that level in the state of Washington. I don't think the Department of Ecology has signed off on any of that, to my knowledge. There's one in the east that's close. We are close with Enumclaw and Pierce County is close with another one that's a subject of considerable discussion among us statewide. So not quite there, but but working toward it. In the additional findings section of the presentation, we talk about Cedar Falls improvements. They're already in the adopted present budget of $2.2 million. Enumclaw has improvement slated at just under $1,000,000. Hobart at also under $1,000,000. And Marsh on improvements in the adopted current budget of about $2.3 million. It's estimated that the other three landfills, Duval, Halton and Park Corner, would have about four and a half million dollars in challenges for you to look at in the upcoming biennial budget. So and in the rate process that's going to ensue in the next month or two and then subsequently in the next budget. Those are decisions you'll be making to deal with some of the mitigation on those issues as well. So in order to make that determination, I think we're going to really need to know for each one of these what is the proportion of gas that is escaping? Because if the half life is down to very, very little, that's one thing. But if we're having problems in any particular one, and it would depend on whether they're lying to their own mind. And it's kind of disconcerting to me because in 2006, the German government when I was there on the trip with Kevin, they made it very clear that we were not going to be able to close these stable at 30 years, even though that was the American law and that they had landfills, active landfills that they were monitoring. Monitoring. One example was that 84 years and one was over 100 years old. And so I think as we do whatever we're going to do to deal with these, knowing what issues we're dealing with and for how long, we might guesstimate, we would need to continue to monitor. And whatever we monitor, I think is going to be really, really important. And I think that point starting to look at what are the technologies that may help us. And my personal hope is that eventually we will exhume some of this stuff and that it won't be laying in the ground for our grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren to do it. Because I really don't want mine coming back and saying, Grandma, what were you thinking? Because I think we need to take care of it differently. But okay, do we have that data of what amount of gas we think is escaping from each one? I think that's part of what the studies that I've mentioned, that's the intent, is to identify the quantities of leachate and the volumes of gas to be mitigated. So to identify how much and where that stuff is being generated. And again, these were not these were not constructed as a current modern landfill has been where you have structured cells and you have regular grids of collection pipes. A lot of times this was a ravine and stuff was poured into the ravine and kind of back down. And every once in a while somebody threw dirt on it. And so this stuff comes out where this stuff wants to come out. It's it's a little bit harder to control. And short of the solution suggested by the chair, I suppose it would be very difficult to completely eliminate the material. The strategy has been instead to fully encapsulate it and let the residual material degenerate to the point where that's not it's not a problem anymore. I think we have some facilities that are close to that, that that there is not enough fuel in there, enough material to generate anymore and decompose that they're they're close to being in a stable circumstance. And if I may interject, all of these sites have landfill gas collection systems in place. In each of these sites, the quantities of gas generated are so low, they no longer support a continuous flare. There's very little gasoline generated. And in fact, we looked at whether it was appropriate to supplement that gas. As Mike indicated, methane is very bad from a greenhouse gas standpoint. Okay. If we have to supplement it to burn it, what would the impact be in that actually be more carbon dioxide released without to add so much fuel? So we're talking about very small quantities of gas that are collected, are controlled, and there's monitoring around the perimeter of those sites to verify that. Thank you. So just in time, the technology's working. Yeah. We're closing out here. But it is important to note that, again, part of this question, and I at the outset the remarks talked about the unusual decision the council made some four years ago to add a dollar to the solid waste rate because of the need to have funds set aside for this post closure landfill facilities. And so that was a theme of the proviso, and that has been something that's been very well addressed by the executive response, which notes that the effective per ton rate would be a dollar 79, a dollar, $72.52 and $2.41 equivalent for the years 2017 through 2020. And mindful of the fact that you'll be facing the first of those to very soon with the rate decision. I think there is a proposal for a rate on its way to you for the two year period, 2017 2018, which I would anticipate would be hit here within a week or two. So I don't remember in my head what the current per ton rate is after the rate increase. $143 a ton. Our current rate is $20.17 per ton. That's before taxes. Okay. I'm going to is currently reviewing the proposal and you'll see something soon. We've been talking with our advisory committees about approximately $140 a ton, but that's still an executive review. Okay. So but with taxes, what would 127 team be? I don't have that number off the top of my head. Okay. Very easily. We can get it free very easily. I just hate to give. Okay. So it's pretty close to what I was thinking. It was so. Okay, good. Thank you. Go ahead. And that the current rate works out to a minimum fee of like $22 and minimum, you know. So what the typical load is for somebody bringing material to the transfer station. Very seldom does somebody come in, but the whole load. With that. We did have one more issue that I would like to bring to your attention. Actually, two issues. We'll take the second 1/1. Solid waste is really an important part of emergency preparedness. I know that that's an issue area of the chair and a constant concern that we are ready to deal with whatever comes our way . And in fact, emergency preparedness has been one of the factors driving the decision for the infrastructure of the land of the transfer stations. The old 1960s vintage stations that are being replaced, besides being smaller, are built to a very low standard under FEMA guidelines that the occupants of the structure are supposed to be able to survive a major earthquake of back end and be able to leave the facility alive. But yet the facility itself could be rendered and wrecked by the earthquake. So the new standards for the new facilities are that they would be operational within a day. And we talked about the fact that the council think it was 2009. There were a number of flood events where the transfer system was an important part of helping the King County clean up. And I think that there were three separate votes that here that the council took on waiving fees and setting aside areas for the simulation , those materials, so that they could be processed and moved through the system. The last thing I wanted to flag your attention is there was a recommendation in the audit report in 2011. There was a performance audit for solid waste. King County does an excellent job in managing the investment in its investment for the investments, property taxes, sales taxes and so on. And the taxes collected property taxes for school districts, cities and so forth. However, the need to manage that has to balance being able to be liquid and being very conservative. So you don't lose the money and you can get the money very quickly versus trying to get some some reasonable rate of return. And toward that end, I think they give it to about a 220 to 240 day cycle that that's where you would match. That's the maximum time you hang onto the money before it would be called on by a city or a or the King County for running the sheriff's office or what have you. And so that's how that spirit, while the county does an excellent job on that, and it has been noted in a number of the bond prospectuses as that's one of the reasons for the county's excellent bond rating, is because of its management and fiduciary skill in this investment fund. It's not the right tool for the for the job of having a very long term investment, such as a lamp post closure landfill reserve account, where you're not going to need the money for 50 years. So having an investment that's that's going to maximize and 250 days really doesn't help you earn the interest income and and doesn't give you the opportunities that you would get over a much longer term. So that was something that was noted by the auditor. They noted that it would have a substantial value. We've calculated it in anticipation of the meeting today. That would be if if the policy had been in effect from the audit forward over the long period of time that the funds would accrue and build, you could have made another three and a half million dollars if these funds were handled in a special way by having these long term investment opportunities. So we worked with Mr. Hammer, who it's fortunate as the leader of the committee, and he was very, very helpful, kind of ran that ground and found that there the policy is under development and it's not moving as quickly, frankly, as I would like to see it happen. But it is something hopefully that will happen sometime this year so that that that opportunity can be provided by the Executive Finance Committee and it can be seized by the Solid Waste Division and some few other funds that have these long term horizons for investments because it's real money. And if you don't have these investment opportunities, then what you'll have to do is you'll have to increase the rates in subsequent years. So you'll have to have bigger, bigger rate increases to offset that lost opportunity. So you're just flagging it. It may be something that you would ask your auditor to come back on or keep in conversation with with Mr. Hamacher. And we'll certainly be following up with the division staff over there over the coming months, because we would really like to see the opportunity made available. So can we pull that out separately and just take care of that right away and then wait for the longer process to happen? Yeah, they've actually done an excellent job and did a great job running it down. There's a 78 page prospectus of policies. This is not something because King County is very conservative as it should be, managing its money in the money of others. And so they put a good bit of time and thought into what would be an appropriate way to advance. I think it's like a seven page draft policy. So apparently they're they're getting close to having this thing done. And again, from my perspective, it's been four years, but maybe it takes a long time to do some of these things. I just like to see it and wanted to flag it for your attention that as you're going into a conversation, you want to have that in the back of your mind, because this is the second time that this issue has come up in front of you, first time where we had to add a dollar to the rate and hammered that point earlier. And then this time where you asked, how stable are these landfills in the Department of Ecology and and the public health department changed their perspective on this. And we've learned that not not a change, but where we thought it was a ceiling, we wouldn't have to do this maintenance for more than 30 years. It's more like it's a floor and it's at least. 30 years. And then and then whatever it's going to take to be stable, which is which means more money. And then there are some specific costs that have been identified by the division in this fine report. And finally, my last thing is I would like to thank the executive for and the agency for their help putting this stuff together . And also note that the sponsor is very timely. I think this thing hit the council ping pong back here before the council was fully engaged in the beginning of the year. So they were very, very, very prompt in their response. Thank you. I appreciate all the hard work. So I will talk to the budget chair and his vice chair. That would be me about looking to see if we could speed this up a little bit, because I think every dollar is going to matter always. So that's good. This is disconcerting for me in that, as you know, when I came back from Germany on the tour to look at a variety of different ways that garbage is handled in other parts of the world, I collected a lot of information, including this, that 30 years was not going to be the ceiling. And I was pretty much told that's not right. And today we're finding out it is right. So that bothers me, that during that ten year period, you know, we weren't doing things that I had hoped we would be doing. So I'm glad to see that this report says that. And but it motivates me to do is go back and get my notes from my trip to Germany in thousand and six and find out what other things we should be learning. So with no other business, this meeting is adjourned.	AN ORDINANCE relating to telephone or electronic attendance at council and standing committee meetings; and amending Ordinance 11683, Section 15, as amended, and K.C.C. 1.24.145.
king_c58734f7-fff4-4716-844d-e443a23ad9a8	I think meeting the Kangaroo Council's committee of the whole will turn right to a public comment and open that up. Is there anybody that signed up to offer public comment? I don't see anybody will. Oh, Kasich. Yes. Go ahead and come forward. Sorry, I didn't see. No. Come on, Nick. Mercy. Mercy fully became this hero for people called the shameful sink list of people known as Merciful Mercy that rules are shown to kids in saltines in 30. Reciprocation of Plasma 8510 Mercy Middle English from Angela for Florence miracle from mean do they fail and let them sit? Mercy from little Latin three. Please. The paid weeks from at sea, sick in the mail. Sardines is three times the difference. Three for Lawrence, Kansas. The kindnesses in the fight of is it is likely the chances social indeed to contain this. The goal is to be thought of as a minister for God, a place in viruses. Religions include crystalline Judaism and the Islam provided acts of mercy as components of religious beliefs is also imposed through arrest action such as a can even of animals in the course of as a psych and the workers of mercy in the social and the legal in the coalition. This might seem why that he felt opposed to compensating be fair answer. But. Oh, thank you. Thank you. KASICH Is there anybody else that wanted to offer testimony? All right. I don't see anyone will close that item and wondered if Governor McDermott might put our consent agenda before us. Mr. Chairman of adoption, the consent agenda and the minutes, if I can combine them all into one motion. I think we'll just go with that. Okay. Yeah. And they clinical call the roll on. Yeah. Including the minutes. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member. Banducci Council Member. Dunn Council Member. Gosford Council Member. Cornwall Council Member. Lambeth Council Member. McDermott. High Council Member of the Growth Council. Member upon Recorder. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote is four eyes, no knowns, five excused. All right, so just signature. We've given a do pass recommendation to the consent agenda and approved the minutes without signature. And we will now turn to we're still waiting for some members to join us. We've got those items out of the way, but we've got four remaining items, three of briefing on our CFT properties, which we get every year and all members have a great interest in that. So I want to make sure we get a little more attendance before we start that. And then the other three items are all important matters that I think we want to have a couple more members for. So why don't we recess for 5 minutes or until we get a couple more members here? So committee will be in recess for a few minutes. Good morning. We're back after a short recess. We've got a couple more members and before us we've got Leah Crackles. I'll be welcome back as our committee leads stuff through to see Leah and Terri Lavender and Mark Johnson, who are co-chairs of the Conservation Features Citizen Oversight Committee. This is our annual presentation following months and months of committee site visits and work to present their present to present their recommendations to the Council, which we then see later in the budget process with respect to the funding decision. So I have that right terrier. If I messed that up a little bit, you're giving me a little bit of luck. Okay. So, Leah, you want to would you like to introduce this and then we'll turn it over? Sure. I will very briefly introduce and then get to the good stuff. So good morning. Council members Leah crackles Oppie Council staff. The two representatives from the Conservation Future Citizen Oversight Committee who are here with us today are Terry Lavender, who is the chair of the committee, and Mark Johnson, who's the vice chair of the committee. And I think you all know that. I gave you a promotion there, Mike or Mark. He was here last week. Oh, okay. Was okay. So why you get demoted and what happened? I don't think anybody actually knows what my truthfully. Okay. Show up and talk to the. Chair in waiting guys. Anyway, they will be presenting recommendations from the committee, the Conservation Future Tax and the Parks Levy, allocations for open space projects for 2019. And you know, each year the King County Conservation Futures, they're just an oversight committee, prepares these recommendations for both the CFP funds and the parks levy, open space acquisition funds for project allocations. As the chair reference, they do extensive research and background of site visits to make these recommendations, and these recommendations are then submitted to the Council on the Executive, and the Executive determines how to incorporate them into the proposed proposed budget for the following year. So you will be seeing these projects in the biennial budget that the County Executive will be presenting next week, and Terry and Mark will be giving you the preview now and then. How do I turn on the slides? She's got we've got new technology. We're all learning how to use it here. Okay. Thank you. It's always a privilege to be here and present the Conservation Future Committee recommendations for acquisition funding for both the Conservation Futures Fund and the Parks Levy. Before you gives you a sort of a summary of the applications, 40 projects, about $32 million in requests and $20 million available funding. And then she. She covered our process and it hasn't changed much. We've seen we visited every site, talked to every applicant, asked clarifying questions, and then put together their recommendation package before you. In the interest of time, we're only going to go through in detail about half the projects. The ones we're not going to cover are ones that you've seen before and are asking for additional money or you've seen the scope. But at the end, if there's one you're curious about, please feel free to ask. So you have a handout that looks like this. And so it's the ones highlighted in yellow that we'll be covering today with slides and detail. And I'm on page 96 of our packet for this slide here. Okay. Shortly after then we've got a roll up budget and then we get into the pictures. Okay. For colleagues. All right. Yeah. And Mark is going to present the projects to you. All right. As you know, CFT provides funding for both cities within King County as well as the county itself. And we start with the suburban cities. Des Moines submitted an application for the Ben Gaskin property, which is on a bluff overlooking the mouth of Des Moines Creek. It is it connects to an existing city park, Overlook Park. It has beautiful views. Even though this is a cloudy day, it has beautiful views of the south and the islands and unclear days, the Olympic mountains. It also has some historic significance as a landmark in Des Moines. And there was a lot of community support for acquiring this property is in addition to existing open space. Can I ask you a question? I'm just my recollection is that the CFO money's far kind of passive open space for active. So how will this will this be used for part of this parcel or what will happen is that. The structure will not be at least was not a part so far of the acquisition. There are some issues that have to do with Native American middens and materials on the property. So until that's resolved, the house will remain outside of the park, but the surrounding open space will be used for passive recreation. And this is also at the terminus of the Lake two sound trail. So picnicking, viewing, walking. The second project is East High. Lobos Watershed Conservation. This is part of the warehouse or campus that, as you know, is being sold. And there's a strong public effort and community effort to acquire some of the more important open space portions of the property. And this is a multiyear application that targets the properties on the west side of North Lake. As you can see, much of the east side of the lake is already developed, but on the west side it's almost completely undeveloped and offers some real opportunities for passive recreation views, etc. So the committee again recommended a partial funding in a multi-year project here. Upper Mill Creek Canyon is a Kent submittal. And as you can see, it's an addition to an existing 100 acres or so of Upper Mill Creek Canyon, natural area and Trail. This would provide a trailhead at the South End. And like many of our projects, it's in addition to an existing open space that kind of helps bring it to a critical mass that makes it most available for the public and for wildlife conservation. That's a close up of the parcel in question this year. And walking along the trail of the creek is to the right there, the east side rail corridor, Northeast Eighth Street Project doesn't look like wild wilderness, but CFT is used, as you know, for trails. And this is an important connector for the entire East Side rail corridor to allow pedestrians and bicycles to use the trail and not be interfering with rail or with motor vehicle transportation. So although this is a small project in a densely urban area, it's very important to acquire this additional land so that the separation between the trail and the other uses can be accomplished. Turning to the city of Seattle, they always submit several projects, largely targeting underserved areas where there aren't sufficient green spaces and small city parks. The Aurora Licht and Springs project is located north of Green Lake. As you can see from the aerial, it's a mostly vacant parcel. There is a small home on it that will be removed. It's a rapidly developing area not only by single family homes, but multi-family. And so there's pressure on the city to try to try to acquire this before development gobbles it up. And again, as you can see, a fairly good sized city parcel and would be quite nice for passive recreation and use by families. And the other parcel you saw on the aerial view is already under construction, you can see. Yeah, that's true. It looks as though there's a big empty one to the west. But not empty. That one now has multi-family development on it. So. Councilmember Caldwell. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Johnson or any of you, have you worked with the Lectern Springs Community Group? It's called Lovers Ala. It's my son in law. Oh, I mean, he's the one who invited you to present. He said you were wonderful. I did meet with the group last week. And so you have worked with them in identifying. We don't work directly with the community groups but but Seattle Parks does not. And, and then they included in the application the fact that the group supported this acquisition. Okay. And sometimes members of local groups do show up just to help when we make the site visits. But of course, we keep a certain distance from groups because we're supposed to be evaluating the project based on this. That makes sense. And just to highlight what she brought out, this area does not have a viable community in many parks for children. I mean, my understanding is a lot of the kids in that area have to play in the alleys off of Aurora. So I really am pleased to see this included. Thank you. Thank you. You bet. College Street Ravine is in West Seattle. And again, it's another addition to an existing Duwamish head greenbelt, once again trying to create a critical mass and connectivity so that this entire greenbelt can be conserved. And when you're in it, it doesn't feel like you're in the middle of an urban area. And that's the point. The Duwamish Waterway Park is a little unusual. It is actually currently owned by and has been owned for a long time by King County, but managed and operated by the city of Seattle. So this project provides for the acquisition by the City of Seattle of the fee, so that the ownership and management can be consistent. The park is a once again sort of an underserved area and quite a beautiful spot. Sea Lion showed up during our site visit. We always get extra points when wildlife appears the warmest river habitat corridor from the air. This aerial doesn't look like much, but it's actually quite an impressive property that sits both on the warmest river and also the Green River trail. You can see the trail kind of coming up from the bottom of the photograph and moving off to the left. And this property would provide an important not only a connection to the trail, access to the river, but also kind of a rest area where bicyclists and pedestrians could stop, presumably, and picnic and so on. The owner of the property was quite interested in public ownership and has really worked pretty hard to try to see that funds are available for this acquisition. And it's directly across from Duwamish Hill Preserve. So there's the opportunity to have both sides of the river protected and the views from both sides protected. And opportunities for peace and river restoration. Turning now to King County, the first one is the Moss Lake Natural Area addition. You may recall some ten, 20 years ago when the county purchased the very large Snoqualmie Forest from warehouses at the Snoqualmie Tree Farm, that was about 90,000 acres, and it was simply a conservation easement acquisition rather than fee. But at the time of that conservation easement, there was a strong expression of support for acquiring, in theory, certain key parcels within that large area that were more appropriate for a long term conservation and not for timber management. So the Moss Lake Edition initially called for acquisition of the Red Square area about a section about 640 acres. The owner subsequently has asked to sell a larger ownership that would include not only that, 640 acres, but the property in yellow as well for a total of nearly 1500 acres. And this would really provide an important connection between the existing Moss Lake natural area, a land owned by the City of Seattle, Watershed, Mark Worth, State Forest, etc.. Fortunately, the prices is quite low because the development rights have already been acquired, so one would be able to get this for only a little over $1,000 an acre, we suspect. So we expect it to come back to us next year for the larger acquisition of 1500 acres. And for this year, we just recommended some feasibility and appraisal money, sort of startup money to get the thing moving. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Thank you. Most people don't realize that this entire acreage is larger than the city of Seattle and it is in my district. And I have spent time recently out there looking at a number of things. You know, when this was purchased, it was purchased to help with our air sequestration and also to have active timber in this county. So I'm concerned about what these 1500 acres are. They are on a slope. Why would we not want to continue the purpose we bought this for, which was forestry? There could be some small amount of forestry that would go forward, but also creek runs through it. There are bogs and wetlands and other natural areas and this would constitute only about 2% of the overall Snoqualmie Tree farm. So taking most of this out of timber management would not have a major impact on the the timber revenue and and the existing operation of the tree farm. So my one concern with this is that King County is not a very good steward of the lands that they own yet noxious weeds. We are taking care of it to the quality that Campbell is taking care of it and other private landowners are taking care of their properties. So we get a lot of complaints and I think it probably better rather than to get another 1500 acres, which ends up with more maintenance costs for the county which we can't afford. So obviously we don't do the. Quality work that we should be doing to leave it in the hand of Campbell. So I have some concerns since we already own the business. It's not going anywhere on this acquisition. Thank you. Would the acquisition take it out of timber production and thus maybe, perhaps add additional circles of protection around the watershed? You can see a good portion of it isn't in timber now. It's natural bogs and wetlands, a very huge portion of it. And there's also increased recreation in this area. And so there was a lot of community support that we heard. There's I mean, King County can leave portions of it that are appropriate in timber. I don't think that King County manages a lot of timberland like the raging river forest, and that's the state now, but the several of them. But yeah, I don't think there's a plan yet. Yeah. It's also possible that the state Mark Worth Forest could come into long term management of the portions adjacent to that state forest. I don't think those decisions have been made yet, but there's interest both in the owner and in the county in acquiring the field. The next, you pull your microphone up a little closer, sir. Councilmember Lambros, I. Think you said that there's a recreation in that area. Is it part of the area on the on the forest that requires a permit to go on? It does. Look, I'm getting a yes. So. Yeah, getting the permit was very interesting. I had a very interesting experience if they got the permit last time, ended up getting to by accident. So when you say it's a recreation area, most people think when it's a recreation area that you can just show up and go there. But getting the permit to get to go there and then, you know, some of the outlines instructions were interesting. So it kind of paints a picture that it's a little more open than it is. I was surprised at the process. So anyway. Thank you. Thank you. Your next project is Raging Raging River Natural Area. And this is one that the committee did not support funding for this year. Not because we didn't like the property, because we did. It's a beautiful spot. But the concerns have to do with the cost of the property. It's about 56 acres and the price tag was estimated. The total price tag was estimated at $9 million, which for a rural forested parcel is close to $200,000 an acre. And pushing a little further into that, a lot of that value was hypothetical value of sand, gravel and rock that might be mined there. So there were uncertainties as to whether, in fact, it will be a mine. And the cost was also, as I say, very discouraging. And so this year, at least, we felt there were just too many questions to go forward with a $9 million acquisition even staged over several years. So this one might be back. But for now, the committee voted not to fund it. The next thing. I think you're in that one. Is that the one that's between president and varsity? Yes. Yes. Okay. So that is a very important connection. And they're bike trails through there. They're very steep. And there's a lot of issues happening along there where this acquisition probably could have been one of the most helpful acquisitions in all of my area. So I hope that it does come back. Thank you. The next is the Snoqualmie Valley Trail North. And as you can see from the slide, this involved the very northernmost piece of the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in King County and takes the trail right to the Snohomish County border. There was talk about putting the trail right next to the river. But as you can see, because of weather considerations, that's really not practical. And so this property is available and would at a minimum, bring the trail to the Snowmass County border. And there's a there's real interest and a possibility that Snohomish County could then acquire properties and allow the trail to continue well into Snohomish County. Here's a structure that's currently on where the trail would be that may be taken down as a part of development of this portion of the of the trail. So this one has kind of a strange history. The county bought the right away, the railroad right away when the railroad closed. But all the easements and the right away. And then in the interim, this barn was built over that right away. And that was went to court and the judge allowed the building to remain and granted an easement along the river which can't really be built on. And so this is an opportunity to go back and correct that with a willing landowner at this point. So kind of an interesting history. Councilmember Lambert, so I'm sorry. This is already also my district. And, you know, taking any barn down is sad to me. You know, people go through the barn. Why why wouldn't we be able to leave and let people just walk through it so they could see the barn? There's no decision made on how the trails there'll be a development process and community input. But you said that should probably be taken down. It may be, but if it isn't, there would be reinforcement. I think it's in a condition where it conceivably could have a liability issue at this point and it's. Not being used. Yeah, I know it's not that people love barns and everyone that comes down is part of the history of the area that we live and reinforcing the bones is a really good idea and adding the charm. What more excitement to be on a trail than to be able to spend some picnic time when it's raining in a barn. Okay, so I would like to just not take the barn down. And our our recommendation for funding doesn't make any recommendations to take down the barn or leave it. That would be made by King County staff in consultation with with the council. Next is the Three Forks Natural Area Edition. As the name suggests, the Three Forks natural area is the location where the Three Forks, the north, south and middle fork of the Snoqualmie come together. It has rich habitat value. It is also a place that's very popular for recreation, particularly in the summer. A lot of tubing and rafting and picnicking and so on. This particular property, though, is owned privately, although the portion of it that is south of the road is used extensively by the public without permission, and the owner asked has asked the county to acquire it. It's a natural addition to the existing public ownership. And so we recommended for funding of this project. Okay. Where are we? Cemetery. Pond. Again, in addition to an existing natural area that contains wetlands and open ponds, some waterfowl habitat. And once again, adding critical mass to an existing protected area. You. We went too fast there. We're going too fast. All right. Terri just told me to speed up. So we got time. You know, whenever she tells me, I do. But Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife. Well, I'm sorry. You're still going. Try to understand the. The cemetery pond over there. Where is that? Okay. You see the green? Oh, it's near Renton. It's not far from. The. City limits. Right. And the area in green is already a natural area. But this project would. Oh, okay. That's out there by the do it ice skating rink across the street. Probably in stages. Probably wouldn't all be funded in this cycle. And there was a council motion put forward by Councilmember Dunn to support this acquisition. Got it. There's also opportunity for restoration of the pond and the wetlands, which are some of it is going forward, but the acquisition of the additional properties would make that more. So it's just the read on there. It's just the red triangle. Well, that's for the first phase. Okay. But those additional parcels we're also talking to, you know, the county is also talking to the owners of those parcels. Some, as you can see, King County Road, right of ways also fit in there. So by acquiring those, some of the properties would come naturally. Yeah, because they're all right. Thank you. Okay. Cougar Mountain, Regional Wildlife, Land Park. This is an important addition and a large addition to one of the most popular parks in the King County system. It consists of about 108 acres in the southwest edge of the existing park. It's owned by a family that consists of about 20 members, all of whom had to agree to the sale. And so we were quite pleased to see them out at the site with us and urging the county to attempt to acquire this property. It's the property in red there and this is one of the largest additions to the park in in quite some time, notwithstanding the fact it was pouring rain. We were out there. We were very impressed by this this addition. So Councilmember Dunn on the dirt bike and. That was one of the family members. Yeah. All right. Molasses Creek is a. Oh, we're on Cougar Mountain. Oh, yeah. On the other side. We've had some visits from folks working on kind of the ice properties there. Did that make it into this cycle or. We wouldn't? It's not into this cycle, but it's, you know, in the offing. Okay. We wouldn't be surprised to see some additional applications along those lines coming in. Okay. Yeah. Molasses Creek was a request to acquire some properties that included wetlands. As you can see, this is a very densely developed and subdivided area. Our recommendation on this particular project was to this year to simply acquire the Northern or the Northwest Parcel up there in the upper left. We weren't certain, we weren't convinced yet that there was a risk of development of the Southern property because it appeared to be mostly wet already. But that may come back to us as a second phase of this project next year. The Urban Green Spaces Project doesn't identify as a single project, but but rather many in unincorporated portions of the county that are nonetheless densely developed, such as North, High Line, Skyway, etc. And it's similar to some of the City of Seattle program to identify underserved areas, work with local community groups to acquire and develop green spaces and neighborhood parks. So again, this is an arc will be an opportunistic kind of project that will identify priority projects and come back to us for additional funding. We expect Black Diamond Natural Area is an addition to an existing Black Diamond Open space, but it's also adjacent to a very rapidly developing addition to the City of Black Diamond. And so it's felt that it's very important that outside of those that newly established urban growth area, that the the residents have an opportunity for recreational and natural area access. So this would provide that and it's very heavily involved in existing use of trails both for pedestrians, mountain bikes, and there's a possibility of equestrian use as well. And I'd like to point out that that little triangle wedge that comes up from the bottom and is adjacent to the red area identified is where the big box stores are going to go as Black Diamond continues to develop. So it's going to be an extremely developed area and a welcome place for recreation. There's just a. Picture showing some of the existing trail network, so it makes sense for this to come into public ownership. Kaby Lake is one of these projects that can be a real delight to the members. But most of us have never heard of Kaby Lake until a year ago when we were brought out there. This is the second phase, but it's very close to the City of Black Diamond, and yet I'd never heard of it, much less been there. But it's a beautiful, mostly undeveloped lake. Only really one family that has structures on the lake and they own most of it. So this is a multi-year acquisition project to acquire virtually all of the land surrounding the lake and make it a real resource for people in the area as well as wildlife, of course. Turning to bash on on the middle farm has been a project that has been known about or a property and salivated about by conservation industries for a long time. But the opportunity has not been there until recently. And although a portion of the original Misty Middle Farm was sold for development on the right side of this slide, about 280 acres is available potentially for acquisition. And this is a high priority both for the county and for the bash on a murray Island land trust. The property consists of a wide variety of landscapes forests, pasture rivers, wetlands. It's also the site of of the sheepdog competition on Basilan, which I understand is a pretty big deal over there and a lot of community support for this project. What is the community's view on the airstrip? It didn't come up. And it's not part of the portion that we were looking at all this time. So runs right down the middle on that slide on. So it does. I think so. I don't know I off. No that's not. It. I don't think so. That's not it. There there's a whole lot more of misty farms south of what you're looking at. Okay. This represents probably less than half of the total acreage, but close to half. It is off on. But it is a big, great potential. Town Councilmember Lambert. So the interesting to know on the cost per acre on this one, because when we bought the development right a couple of years ago, The Tudors, it was the most expensive per acre in the county at that point. So I would be interested in knowing what the cost per acre is on that. Okay. Yeah. And I've forgotten the money that was recommended this year. 200,000 was really more feasibility just to show the owner that the county is real and is committed. But the cost would be certainly in the millions. This is not a not a cheap. Well the develop the development rights on the portion we're looking at have been removed as you say so and so part of this money is to do the feasibility, to look at to do appraisals, to understand what that amount will be. And they're also working with PC Farmland Trust, PCC Farmland Trust and another number of other entities to see how that. So, you know, I think when when you're talking about the acquisition, it'd be good for us to know that this is a feasibility study that could lead to millions of dollars. And, you know, because some of them in here, you've said work could lead to millions of dollars. We're going to do it and this one could lead to millions of dollars. We are going to do it. So, you know, there must be more. Okay. Looking at both. Okay. Thank you. All right. Pioneer point is shoreline along the south shore of Maury Island. It's a multi-year project. We've, I think, brought it to you before. The county, together with the local land trust and other interests, have been systematically acquiring parcels along this drift cell, removing some armor and structures and preserving its natural amenities. This year's application calls for the acquisition of another five parcels or so, and this is quite a successful story of really protecting beautiful Puget Sound shoreline that doesn't exist in too many places in South Puget Sound in this. It's such a long stretch. And this is also a critical area for young Chinook to feed. It's the drip cells here that most of the Chinook, the river in Puget Sound visit this spot at one time or another. And they've been really successful in getting state and other dollars as well, not just King County dollars. Finally, we. Save the whales. Yeah. Yes. Finally, we have recommendations for funding of farmland, TDRS transfer of development rates in several areas in the South Indian M Kline, the Green River Valley. And again, this is opportunistic. So there are many owners of ag lands that have expressed an interest in participating in this program and to some extent in the these specific acquisitions will turn on who's available and what money is available at any given moment. But there are a number of targets in South King County as well as the Lower Green River Valley. This particular one is identified along the the highway. There are 167. Snoqualmie Valley as well. A number of properties that are would be appropriate for acquisition of development rights to have them continue with egg production and finally and bash on and marry the same kind of program underway to preserve and expand the areas of agricultural production in that portion of the county. So. That is it. It's very helpful. Councilmember Lambert So. On by 86 and it was helpful to see the slide numbers up there. It's hard to follow that up there. 86 which is page 180 in the packet. So on the page 86 in that presentation, the green sections, those are non-farm TDR easements. So tell me about what that actually is. I am I believe that they're not TDR. I believe that they're state owned. No. Angry that someone from the. Department wants. You to come forward. We need you to come forward. Ingrid Lundin, conservation features coordinator at the AARP. It's slow down. Let's get you on the record. Great. Ingrid Lundin, conservation features coordinator at the AARP. So these are a variety of lands just east of Carnation. Is the trigger easement on the Girl Scout camp there. Very good, I believe to the to the west of Carnation is Ames Lake Forest adjacent to McDonald Park. So there are a variety of easements in that area. And I think some of the Snoqualmie Forest easements show up on that map as well. So I was surprised when I signed my farm to the easements because I hadn't seen that on a chart before. And so one of the things the membership is different from every other one of my city. So Sammamish likes this, but as you see, incarnation and the same thing in other parts of the county, as you see more and more area going around the city limits. So it encircles the city. They have concerns about that because eventually they're going to have to deal with, you know, maybe 100 years from now or maybe 200 years from now, 8500 years from now, it cuts down on their flexibility of where they're going to put people in the future. Sammamish likes the idea, but many other cities have a growing concern as more and more around their city limits or around their areas is getting set off in perpetuity, which is a very long time, hence forever. So anyway, I just wanted to point that out that I knew about the other two and environments months because we work on that all the time. But the non-farm TDR I hadn't seen presented like that before, but seeing that in addition to the farmland, it really does show how Carnation is being squeezed. And we've been talking about that as a council on some property acquisition just last week and that the city is saying that they need more housing starts. So as we do this, we need to make sure that we're cognizant of what each of the cities need. So thank you for explaining that. So is Paul Parks. Lovely? What's Paul in these parts like? There's a small portion of the parks levy that is for acquisition. As you know, conservation futures only pays for 50% of any acquisition. And so every jurisdiction has to find a match somewhere. And that's primarily what King County uses as maps. So that will change with respect to our equity areas under the new Land Conservation Initiative, right? Where we can we can waive the match. You can and we don't have any of those yet in this cycle. We do not. But we expect to see them come in in the next in the 2019 round that we're just getting ready to do for 2020 money. We expect to see some equity applications and you are correct, they do not require match. Have you had a chance to look at that? Just what's been termed a strong proposal for the parks levy, which will be on the ballot next year with respect to conservation work? And do you have any thoughts on that? If you have. The Conservation Futures Committee meets this afternoon and receives that presentation. So okay on from from the Parks Department as to what they're looking at for the levy. So we we do not know yet. Good. Okay. Well, I think we'll look forward to hearing your voice and views on that, given that it'll be at least a six year decision and we've got this critical time. So make sure you let us know what you need and other council members with questions or comments. Do you have anything got anything to wrap up? Thank you for your work on this and for your presentation. We'll look forward to seeing these items in the budget. Councilmember Lambert. Miranda Baldwin I just had a question on page 183 and talked about what the funding recommendations include, and there's a word in there that concerns me. And it's the last sentence in the third paragraph, the unincorporated area projects, projects, projects, salmon, wildlife, habitat, natural areas, forest and farm resources. And here's the word passive recreation opportunities for residents from throughout the county, the King County. So, you know, I have a lot of passive recreation in my area and I have huge numbers of children who we are trying to make sure not only children, but adults are not and, you know, are having areas where they can actually recreate. So why do we put in the word passive? Why don't we just say recreational opportunities, passive or active, so that we can hit two goals at the same time? The funding source. Is authorized by the state and restricted to passive recreation, but no active recreation. While an important goal as well would require a different funding source. But we also have input to the state being able to say let's change that word. And I think that with the issues that we're having in public health, with people being overweight, I think that we need to go back to them and talk about taking that word out so that we can have the option. I think we need both, you know, maybe not take that word out, but say and active. So we have options because I'm really concerned that some areas that I would like to see lots of kids playing on because it was funded with certain kinds of money they can't play on. And I want all my kids to be able to play in lots of places. So and and, you know, they can they just can't play in organized sports kind of thing. They can have a pick up soccer game. They can have they can use the play the area in many ways it's just not it's restricted to no organized sport. So to use. As a. Team building, walking. Running, biking, yeah, etc. on trails is an active kind of an active recreation that is allowed under the guidelines. And I'd also be happy to meet with you if it would be helpful to go over some of your questions on some of the other projects. Yeah, I would like that because then you can project that was the most important to me. Did not get funded. So. Okay. That's unfortunate. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And with respect to that project, you know, that's unique. And given the demands of the owner with respect to the alleged value of the mine, as I understand it, and you articulated that. So I just want to thank you. And if you would express our appreciation to the committee members for their work on the ground. It's a lot of work, hundreds of hours, I know, to look at all of these and tough, tough decisions. So we the process we have, I think, benefits us along with your expertize and your independence with respect to trying to find , find and fund the most important properties. Given a number of factors. So we appreciate it. All right. We'll turn now to our last three items on the agenda today. The first is proposed ordinance 2018 0263, which adopts the King County 2018 to 2021 Equal Employment Opportunity Affirmative Action Plan. This is a somewhat regular item, I believe, on our committee agenda. But what is not regular is the presentation from it's a hard body, our council central staff. I believe that this is your first presentation to the council. Am I wrong? Or if I missed it. It's my. Second. Oh, so. Okay, so she's already been welcomed in the official way. Okay. My councilman, Councilmember Balaji, would you like to take the lead and what I'm doing. Here, I am really, really terrible at hazing people. Yeah, I'll try to think of some really unfortunate and impossible questions as we go. All right. And all members are on notice. Okay. Shall I go? Yeah. Mr. Chair, sorry about the council central staff, for the record, and the materials for your staff report can be found on. Better. You're a different man. I just moved over. Wow. I didn't know I had that kind of hazing. My unintentional. Just playing with the buttons up here. Well, what else does this new stuff do? Sorry, that was entirely my fault, and I'd intentional. Okay. Materials for the staff report can be found on page 185 of your packet. Proposed Ordinance 2018 0263 would adopt the 2018 to 2021 King County Equal Employment Opportunity Affirmative Action Plan for Executive Departments. So the county is required to develop and implement an affirmative action plan pursuant to King County Code and Federal funding requirements. And the county must prepare that plan with several key components. They are summarized in your staff report pages 187 through 89 189 One component is to provide a detailed quantitative analysis to evaluate whether women and people of color are being employed at a rate to be expected, given their availability in the labor force and according to federal requirements. In instances where women and people of color are not being employed at that rate, placement goals must be established and detailed action plans must also be developed to address areas where underrepresentation exists. So the 2018 2021 plan includes the required information related to county workforce statistics, placement goals, implementation plans by department. A summary of the results of the Prior Affirmative Action Plan from 2014 to 2017. The plan is transmitted did not include some salary data that was required by the King County Code. So there is an amendment on page 287 of your materials that attaches that required salary data to the plan. And that concludes my staff report. Susan Eddy and Denise Pruitt from the Department of Human Resources are in the audience. Should you have any questions about the plan? Okay, Sahar, thank you very much. Co Wells, did you have a question of executive staff? Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. And Councilmember Garcia does as well, Denise. Well, you're welcome to join us and to introduce your colleague. Oh, good morning. Denise Pruitt for HRT. Susan Eddy for HRT. Apologize. Have a little bit of a call. Council Councilmember Call Wells. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a very dense and thorough report. And I noticed in the executive statement that there would be including in here, identifying and addressing barriers to employment and retention. And I just glancing through this, it seems to pop up. But I wonder if there's any statement in here that really in one place that addresses the barriers. And I have to admit, I was the strong opponent of initiative 200, spoke against it, including at a forum with Ward Connerly, the University of California regent who brought it here. And it was one of the more interesting times I've had. And I, I from what I understand, there has been a drop in the number of contracts awarded to minority and women owned businesses. And I think that the TI has been doing a great job to do what it can to ensure that there's recruiting going on, to make sure that there's representation of women and ethnic minorities and lower income individuals and individuals with disabilities and so forth. But it's still a, I think, vexing challenge that we have. So I'd just like to hear a little bit more about some of these barriers that the council, the county has been trying to address. Certainly. So that's an excellent question. And that's one of the points of having the plan. The plan sets the standard for the entirety of the county and rolls down into departments. I don't believe that there is a specific countywide comment about removing the barriers, but within the plan, under the individual action plans that provide for each department , they specifically drill down into that. So it is difficult with I 200 to be able to recruit in a way that would have a significant immediate impact to those numbers that you're seeing. They do use different things like building up community partnerships, working with women organizations, women focused organizations, and in particular different strategies. So things like micro recruiting are focused recruiting where they target in with certain communities and advertise strictly with those. So while it's not covered as a universal strategy for the county as a whole, the departments are all aware of that and implement the strategies in a way to try and boost those numbers. Thank you very much. And I'm going to read through the whole report very carefully. But can you just give us an idea of some of the strategies employed, played and what you see is still needing to be done? Oh, certainly. So the biggest area where you'll see an impact, where we are not representative of the population specifically in regards to women in employment would be in trades positions. You'll notice the Department of Transportation, which holds the most employees, also has the largest deficit in that area. It requires creative plans in order to address that. For instance, mechanic trades positions. There are over 300 mechanics in transit specifically, and there are no women in transit. So several years ago, they actually worked on a plan that was in partnership with a community organization known as the Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Employment Opportunities for Women, the union that represented those employees, which was Amalgamated Transit Union 587 and they developed a several tiered plan that was around recruiting, retaining and and keeping these employees that they brought on. So part of that was building those partnerships, setting up the first ever pre apprenticeship that was focused on mechanics. They went out to the a new facility in Renton. They conducted three classes per year with their all female students who are interested in trades positions about how to gain employment with King County. They set up tours to bring these women on board to demonstrate the trades positions and specifically the mechanic position through their pre apprenticeship program . They partnered with Lake Washington and Seattle College. Both had heavy duty diesel trades positions and they worked with them to send them apprentice, not apprentices, but apprentices and interns that would come in experience work in the county at a blue collar trades level. And then through that, tracking those candidates, keeping track of them, and using their apprenticeship program to target and source females in particular while remaining within the constraints of a 200. So it's not a perfect solution, and it does take a lot of work. This is a program that's been going on for a decade now, and with any pipeline program, you invest a lot in the beginning and you have to have upkeep and maintain it and you'll see maybe results in three, five, ten years because you just have to build those relationships. You. Thank you very much. That was really an excellent short summary of what some of the challenges have been and what the county is working to do to get past those. And I'm sorry, I have to ask your name again. It's Susan. Eddy. Susan. Susan, just excellent job on that. My one suggestion is that in the executive summary of the report that some of that could be included, maybe not specifically, but more generally what the county is doing, because again, it's a very lengthy report and that would be really helpful, certainly maybe next year. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Goss. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a follow up to Councilman Raquel Wells's question, her line of questioning. That was a good assessment as to what it is we're doing. But I didn't hear whether or not at this point, particularly in the construction area, do we have any women, apprentices and construction workers on staff and what percentage are they? Somebody said it was a0a few years ago, but what is it now? There are still zero female mechanics. They have been successful in bringing in women, more women into what we call feeder positions. So this would be utility service workers or equipment service workers that are then getting experience that allows them to internally promote up through the ranks into the mechanic or the technician position. So they have had success increasing the numbers in those feeder pipeline positions. They've also successfully had one female intern that has come into the county, and as soon as she is eligible for employment, they have been tracking her and recruiting her. One of the other issues to bear within the trades positions is trade. School enrollment is actually down across the country and if you look at the percentages for our local schools, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 to 5% of the individuals enrolled in those trade schools for those particular programs are female. So we also have a source problem and how we're pulling folks through. And that's, of course, required recruiters to go deeper, go into high schools, talk to high school students about careers in the trades. And we see on page one on 85, if you can join me there, it's that the code of federal regulations requires it's construction contractors who meet specific criteria to develop and implement a written affirmative action program pursuant to certain federal contracting requirement. What's difficult for me is somebody was mentioning a few minutes ago that there wherever that we have federal funds, we do have to have an affirmative action program that's measurable. And we do have to report or answer to the federal government as to how well we've been doing in terms of, oh, in a affirmative action plan. So my question is, what percentage of our programs or what percentage of the overall work is paid for by federal funds? So I can have some sense of where it's required that we try to meet affirmative action goals. So I'm not aware of the percentage of federal funds that are attached to these departments, but we can probably research it and get it back to you. Yeah, that would be helpful because Eddie Rye is a community black community activist and he's everywhere he runs. And he said, well, it's down to 2% or one and a half percent. Last time I saw him, he said less than one third of 1%. The actual contracts, construction contracts that. Are. Given out by the county are given to black contractors. But I don't know if it's only one third or 1%. How can I find out what percentage of all our construction contracts go to black contractors, either as primes or subs? Oh, yes. Speak. House member Goss said. That may be in another report, which I think we could get you. This is more on the employee side rather than the contractor side. Yes. I mean, I don't have information in this report about how contracts are awarded, but I believe that information is still available. But it's it's not through our office. We'd have to talk to our financial officer, too. They're the ones that handle the federal, all of the contracting. And so we we were all just hand on the employment portion. Correct. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to know I can't find it, so maybe you could tell me the page number on page 189. It says that the EEO plan reports the executive had a total of 434 goal setting areas. And where would I find all 434? And how do you monitor 434 goals? Certainly. So if you wanted a list of all of the Gosling areas, I could send those to you. Those aren't all encapsulate individually here the way the goal setting areas work is they work off of the EEO categories of employment. So those are things like technicians, officials and administrators, professionals, paraprofessionals, and within that each of the protected class groups. So women and persons of color. So you basically take the one number and you multiply it by the other number and you look where we are represented in those EEO categories in the departments, in the county. And then you the math comes out to a 434 so that that number can go up or it can decrease dependent upon the labor force within the county. And in fact, it will change again as new departments are reorganized and formed in 2019 because it changes the availability of the internal labor pool. So that's kind of the math of where that number comes from. Thank you. That was very interesting. Thank you. Thank you. So moved to put this before some. But for example, on page 347 of our materials, it looks at the Public Defense Department and you've got a chart there which basically a page 347 of the materials. Would that be one of the one of the goals that you're identifying there? And you've got you go department by department, division by division where we short what are our goals and how are we going to address it? So that basically all works. That's how it works. And you'll only see in these charts where we are underrepresented in the areas where we're fully represented. It does not show up in the charts. Got councilmember calls. Would you be willing to put ordinance 2018 0263 and the amendment before the committee? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that proposed ordinance 2018 0263 be given into pass recommendation and that would be to adopt the 2018 through 21 King County Equal Employment Opportunity Affirmative Action Plan. Thank you. And you are a co-sponsor of this amendment. One attaches additional attachments to the report that are required. Would you be willing to offer that? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move adoption of Amendment one. Okay. All in favor of Amendment one. Say I. I. Any oppose. Amendment ones approved. Turning to the underlying ordinance as amended, are there any comments on final passage? Councilmember Gossett Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a very bad report, so I wanted to know after I get a chance to read through it, who do I call? And about specific questions that I have about ELC. I think so hard could help you connect with the right folks on the executive side. Okay. I'll meet with her first. All right. And to the extent there are questions you can't get resolved within ten days, I suspect that a courtesy delay might be appropriate to give you more time. Is there any rush on on this, any deadline we're trying to meet? Well, this is the plan that starts in 2018. And so we do get out to the departments what their goals are. This is a change over from the last plan. So the goals have shifted and change for other departments. And in order for them to do their action plans, they need the information to track and to just kind of set that baseline as they move to improve their numbers and under-represented categories. You said two starts in 2018. Do you mean that or. 2018. 2018, 2018? This is relatively typical for the EEOC plan. It usually starts in the year and then gets adopted in the middle of the year. Okay. They've got the information, I assume, in their hands. Yes. They've provided responses for how they're going to go about this. But this is also information that the EEO, a committee, uses as they plan their work as well. All right, Counsel. Thank you, Mr.. I support this and I'm pleased to be a sponsor of that with the understanding that the county is constrained by state law under Initiative 200. And there is I understand there will be legislation in the 2019 Legislature to amend Initiative 200. The efforts have been made many, many years since Initiative 200 was approved by the voters. But I hope that at some point that will happen and so that we can really do what I think we should do. And I know that the county and would like as well. Thank you for all your work. Thank you. Councilmember Garcia and I've been contacted about whether or not the King County Council would be willing to go on record. Councilman Caldwell's in support of the efforts being made to challenge the impact that I do know is having. So I'll follow up with information on that later. Very good article, Colorado. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Duchin. Councilmember Dunn II. Councilmember Garson. II. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember Von Right there. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the vote is nine eyes, no no's. Okay. They've given a do pass recommendation to that item that will be in the regular calendar. Can we put that on consent? One, I'm not. I would like. To speak to our regular calendar, regular order. Thank you very much for your presentation. We'll turn to item 13 today, which is legislation which would, I guess, formalize a long standing celebration practice here that we have at the county in partnership with the public to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Our namesake, Andrew Kim is going to present on it. This is offered by Councilmember Gossett and myself. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Andrew Kilmer, Council Central Staff. The staff report for this item begins on page 475 of your agenda. Get the ordinance before you. As you mentioned, Mr. Chair, would establish an annual gathering celebrating the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Since the adoption of Motion 6461 in 1986 to change the namesake of the county to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The county. And celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King on an annual basis. And since 2004, the celebration has traditionally been have taken place at large venues. The proposed ordinance before you today would formalize this annual gathering. Since 2004, the annual gatherings have been coordinated by the Department of Executive Services with assistance from an inner branch team composed of representatives from county branches, departments, agencies and offices. However, in 2017, the Office of SGA, the Equity and Social Justice, assumed the coordination of the gathering due to some personnel changes. For 2018, the Executive modify the format of the public gathering to a conversation café, which explored issues of race, equity and justice in small groups of figures that was open to county employees. The proposed ordinance would require the Office of SGA in collaboration with an inner branch team to plan and convene the annual gathering. It would also require the gathering to be held in the second week of January, be open to all county employees and the public, and be held in a county venue that would accommodate all the attendees , the USDA and in collaboration with the inner branch team with widely publicized the gathering. And lastly, the proposed ordinance would authorize the use of county's general fund to fund the annual gathering. The Office of ESG Staff stated that the cost of the gathering would, as required by the proposed ordinance, would cost approximately $20,000 each year. And the Office of ESG Staff affirmed that they would be able to take up the work as required by the proposed ordinance and state that they have already begun planning for the 2019 Annual Gathering in collaboration with some representatives from the different branches, departments and offices. Lastly, Mr. Chair, staff has prepared Amendment One, which has been distributed to members to modify the statement of facts, to clarify the history of the gathering, and require the Office of ESG to invite, rather than convene representatives from the various offices and require the representatives to. Receive ideas and feedback from the community on the planning of the annual gathering. That concludes my remarks, Mr. Chair. We also have in the audience Matthias Whalen, director of the Office of ESG Advisor. And Andrew, thank you for your work on this legislation. Turn it over before I do. Councilmember Garcia just one. But I just I just want to say this historically has been one of my favorite things to do here at the county. The celebration has been inspiring and uplifting historically with musical presentations and awards to kids from around the county for essays and really also educational to remind us and to educate us, or at least me, about the work of Dr. King and to keep current and keep expanding my mind anyway, on issues related to civil rights, equity and social justice work. And this process that we are proposing be established would be to ensure that a broad representation of county employees continue to be involved in the planning and execution of the event. That it reflects kind of a broad perspective, that it involves the community, not that we are cementing any one particular type of celebration, but that we are cementing a process to empower folks to ensure that we get a celebration, an event that is meaningful and and helpful to help us achieve our goals and missions here. At least that's my in my interest on working on this. And then if I could just work with those, I'd like to offer Councilmember Garza an opportunity as a as a sponsor. And then to you. And I thank you, Michel. I wanted first to thank you as the co-chair, for your articulation of the reasons for this ordinance. I would only add that last year, the perception and I want to use the word perception because I don't know what the objective facts were. Many out there on the county staff there on the MLK committee and then other mostly African-American staff from all around the county. So it appears to us that they're watering down and making the celebration only available to employees of King County. We liked it when all the middle schools in Seattle were involved, were and had kids writing essays. We liked it when at least they and other people in the community were invited to the event, and we had it at venues that were larger than what we would need if we'd only laminate things there. So and then people brought up other issues relative to the celebration. So we thought that it would be wise and helpful that we could go back and talk to the staff here in the broader community and tell them that we've kind of institutionalize having this event and keeping it as broad as we can. And I thought that was good. But I also wanted to say that I thought that the criticisms that the executive staff that have overseen this effort had received were also valid, that it seems kind of state it needs to be more creative in terms of speakers and cultural events and other kinds of speakers. We need to be more creative than just sending a letter to middle schools asking how to sponsor our contacts. We need some staff or volunteers that really work the issue of having the community involved in our countywide celebration of our Namesake's birthday because of the historical importance, but the potential political importance of having Martin Luther King and his life and his teachings and his example available to us and carrying on and developing public policy in implementing those policies and bringing all people together and and what he called the beloved community. So that is the rationale and reason and B, behind. Then an ordinance form that we celebrate in this manner. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett, Consumer Council. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I strongly support this proposed ordinance and would like my I would like to add my name as the sponsor. And I have a question for Andrew. It might be better from me to I'm not sure. The next item on our agenda is to create the legislative branch, equity and Social Justice team, and would that automatically then be part of the Inter Branch ESG team? I'm not sure how that little word. To. You would, and automatically the members of the ESG team wouldn't automatically be part of the coordination of the MLK annual gathering. It would be some of the members can may represent the legislative branch to be part of that team, but there's no requirement in the proposed ordinance that they would be. Would that be something we could amend this to do? I would. I mean, I don't know how this all works. Maybe, Mathias, you could give some response to that. As it comes up. You are definitely open to either amending this legislation to include the ESG legislative team members or the motion that would be before you. The next item to have those members be part of the MLK Gathering Celebration Coordinating Committee. Okay, terrific. Thank you, Andrew. Hi. Good morning. In terms of the the celebration that we're doing right now for 29. Tea Partiers, would you like to give us your name? Yes. All right. Dr. Matthias, balance around the director of the Office of Equity and Social Justice. Right. So, I mean, the process that we have done is historically there has been a MLK committee that has put the celebrations together. So we went back and asked those participants of whether they wanted to continue to be part of the committee. Al Sanders from Council, for example, continues to be in that committee and a number of other from the executive branch and some of the separate like that. Agencies too are part of that. And in addition, in the spring, as I was creating the committee, I made a call into the Inter Branch team for other representatives. So we have about half of the current participants are from the previous committee and we have some new participation as well. May I continue? Sure. I think committees. So is the inner branch team informal in terms of its composition and or is it not formal? It's it's by by or the the the 2010 ordinance that we consulted about this ordinance really lays out that we should have an entire branch team that should be appointed by or represented by directors or appointees. So all department heads and agency heads appoint people to that team. Sometimes we have chiefs of staff, sometimes we have background, social justice managers. And that position for council, the regular representation is from Carmel Ennis, from central staff, and then we have from Council of regards the office, we have regular participation but also the the there's a special representative and then others can attend as well. And Carmella's an official representative. Yes. In the past it's also been Michael Reid was has been a part of it and some other central staff. I should I mean, I would think it's not Carmella who's official, but her position would hold that. Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure what what what was forwarded to me from counsel was that it was Kamala MLA who was going to be there or her position. Yes, exactly. Who's the represent. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. And then we'll take this item up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, first of all, I think that the idea of being inclusive is really important and maybe a county wide email going out to every employee saying, are you interested? Because we don't always know people's interests or their backgrounds or what. And when I first came here, I, I tried to get on the committee and the first year I didn't get accepted. In the second year, I thought waiting, I guess accepted last year to be on it. So maybe if they knew I wrote a book about Martin Luther King, they would, you know, think that that might be a good thing for me to be on the committee. So I wrote that I'd written a book and I didn't get on the committee. And the next year I had a copy of the cover of the book to say it actually exists and I just don't get on the committee. So I think for some. People. Maybe there was a feeling that they that only certain people could be on the committee. And so it didn't feel inclusive to me when I first got here. So anyway, I think having because we don't know what people's backgrounds are, we don't know that they were friends with Martin Luther King or they're his children, his grandchildren, or they lived next door, you know, whatever. We have no idea. And so we put it out to every Kent County employee and let them right into you. You might find a broader base of people who would really like to be involved. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert I Vice-Chair is helping me run the committee here. Councilmember Gossett Can we ask him to put it before us as the lead sponsor and then Councilmember Cole's do you want to offer the amendment there? Okay. Councilmember Garcia, would you like to offer this legislation, this ordinance? Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time, I accept their privilege of putting forth and recommending to the members of the committee of the hall that we adopt and move to the County Council as a whole. Proposed Ordinance 2018 0381 related to establishing an annual gathering celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move adoption of amendment number one. All right, thank you. And Amendment One is the refinements articulated by Andrew earlier with respect to the findings of fact and the operative section language about inviting all in favor of Amendment one, say i ii any opposed and one carries no turning to comments on final passage and councilmember calls as initiate a cosigner sheet here. If other members would like to sign on, it's available. Just let us know. Councilmember Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just I'm very supportive of this and of course I'm voting for it. But I would like to talk with Andrew and or materials about whether we could come up with an amendment, if appropriate, is addressed. Addressing what I brought up already about council, he has changed to a legislative body ESG team that we could prepare that for the full council if we go ahead. Okay. Thank you. And Councilmember Gossett and. I thank the very appropriate materials, because I think that our ESG team is different than the Martin Luther King Committee that put on this event of the separate entity. Yeah. So I think that's very wise that we do the research and figure out how they either state separate and how they work or if it's necessary or helpful there. I wanted to ask Jay members also on the other committee that that ought to be good. Thank you. Mr.. Thank you. All right. Anything else? Want to thank Councilmember Coles and Councilman Baldacci for signing on as co-sponsors and markup when you call the roll on this item as amended. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell. Duchin. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Carson. Hi. Councilmember Colwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. All right. Council member of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Right, Mr. Chair, the vote is nine eyes, no no's. All right. We've given a do pass recommendation of that. Given that the legislation calls for that second week of January, why don't we expedite it? Since there may be an amendment, we won't put it on consent, but let's bring it up as soon as we can. Diaz, thank you for being here, for your work on this important celebration. And all the other work you're doing in this office is great. Thank you. And I think the upcoming celebration will not disappoint. So thank you. Very good. Thank you. We have some singing. We have some spoken word. All right. Yeah. All right. And, like some music as well. Yeah. Sounds good. Okay. Was anybody there for the pickle speech? Does anyone remember the pickle speech? Speaking of spoken word, very good. Recommend you go back on KQED and watch it. Excellent Speaker. All right. Our final item today is propose motion 2018 0282 offered by Council Chair McDermott, Councilmember Garcia and Councilmember Cole Wells. This legislation would create the Legislative Branch Equity and Social Justice team and adopt its mission statement. And Andrew Kim is going to present the basics on this as well. Thank you. Mr.. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, Andrew, can we counsel send your staff the staff report for this item begins on page 45 of your packet by way of background. In 2012, a legislative branch, equity and social justice team was convened consisting of representatives from all legislative branch agencies, council member offices and Legislative Central Staff to provide input on the annual legislative branch ESG Work Plan. The ESG Work Plan was a vehicle that was introduced through the Council adopted ESG ordinance in 2010. Since 2012, with the exception of the current biennium, the Council has adopted either an annual or by a biennial legislative branch, ESG or plan by motion. Attachment two to the staff report on page 496 includes a copy of the 2015 2016 Legislative Branch ESG Work Plan. Since convening in 2012, the Legislative Branch ESG team has broadened its scope of work by facilitating lunch learners lunch and learns, providing a safe venue for legislative branch employees to discuss and engage in conversations related to ESG . Being a liaison to the county's ESG Inter Branch team and leading the efforts to take action on the commitments that were identified in the work plan. Since its first meeting, the team has not had any funding for its activities. However, for 2018, the team received a $6,800 grant from the Office of ESG to fund ESG related training and learning events such as the recent ESG Professional Development Training Session and the sexual harassment training session. The proposed motion before you would establish the legislative branch ESG team that would include representatives from all legislative branch independent agencies, the Flood Control District Council member offices and legislative central staff. The motion would also adopt the team's mission statement to establish the team's organizational structure and identify its scope of work that includes drafting a work plan. The. The proposed motion would also ensure a safe environment for all team members to fully participate in all our team activities without repercussion or concern of impacting their primary legislative branch responsibilities. And that concludes my remarks, Mr. Chair. All right. Very good. Councilman, who would like to start off the presentation from the dais on this item? No. One Council member, McDermott, would like to put it before us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Of Adoption of 2018 to 8222. You are the prime on it, and would you like to speak briefly to it beyond Andrew's remarks? Yeah, I'm Andrew. Some of the legislation itself, we've had a historic ESG group within the legislative branch, and I think this is a very good step in codifying, putting into code practice and the work that we know is ongoing. Very good. Other remarks, Councilmember Gossett and Councilman Raquel Wells. Thank you. Ms.. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Adding on to Councilmember Mike Darling is that I think that this ordinance or allow us encourage us facilitators are doing a better job of developing clear goals for our legislative branch, equity and social justice team. And also it having a potential a plan, even a more effective role in a larger King County government ESG team, because they're going to be asked to be a little more clear and crisp on what it is that we see. Equity and social justice efforts being in relationship to development of legislative policy are government wide policies that move forward. Our commitment to making considerations around equity and social justice and the development of all major public policies in our government. So I look forward to us paying that kind of paying better attention and giving better focus and guidelines for the development of this team. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Councilmember Cole Wells. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I strongly support this. I'm really pleased with all that's been going on way before I arrived here, and I've enjoyed the events that have been sponsored by our legislative team. But I'm just curious, Andrew, maybe you can help. You mentioned a grant. Would there are there budget implications for this legislation if it were to be approved? There are no direct budget implications. The Office of the Council appropriated funds to the Office of Equity and Social Justice, and they've had those funds available for other departments and agencies to apply to advance some ESG related topics. And the the legislative branch applied or the ESG team, the current ESG team applied for that grant and received that grant just for this year. Just so just for this year. But the next biennium, would we need to apply for another grant depending on what happens in the budget? Or would we be able to just include something in the budget? There's been any discussion on that there? There hasn't been any discussion. The Office of ESG. May we initiate such a grant program again for next biennium? We would have to see the their budget proposal to see if those funds are included in the executive proposed. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you. I thought that was a good question by way of example. And the guy that runs this professor at the University of California at Berkeley, John Power, has done really excellent writing on equity and social justice and how to make it work and various governments across the country. We would like to try to get the authorization from the County Council to bring him up as a speaker. So that by itself probably costs five or $7,000. So it's the only source for that the SJ office offices of the County Government as a whole budget or can we use some county funds to bring special speakers just for our legislative staff? Councilman. So there's currently no budget in place for the GSA team. But should the council want such a speaker to come for the next biennium? You're definitely open to include a line item in the Council's or the legislative branch as budget two to be used for the term by Mr. Powell. I thank you. Marco. How do we call the rule on this one? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bertucci. Councilmember done. Councilmember Gossett II. Councilmember Caldwell, Councilmember Lambert. Hi. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember of the girl. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. Right, Mr. Chair, the vote is nine eyes, no nos. Okay. Why don't we expedite that and have it on the regular calendar since it kind of goes with the other one? All right, colleagues, that's all I have for today. I know you're disappointed and a little bit overly market. Do you think that our motion approving the minutes, despite the lack of a quorum since no quorum call was made, is appropriate, will stand. Yes, Mr. Cherri. All right. Very good reminder to you all that because the committee stand down, are meetings moved to Monday morning? The next meeting is scheduled for October 1st, preliminarily at 9:30 a.m. here in chambers on Monday. That's on Monday, yeah. Depending on the volume of the agenda and what your schedules are, we may look at adjusting start time, but my chief of staff is saying maybe that's possible, maybe not earlier, not earlier. We will do our best to be as efficient as possible on these Monday meetings. Thank you.	AN ORDINANCE relating to the establishment of an annual gathering celebrating the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and adding a new chapter to K.C.C. Title 2.

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